U.S. MOVING TO MANAGE CHINA

Japanese peace activists protest U.S. deployment of Aegis destroyers (outfitted with Theatre Missile Defense systems) the last Sunday of every month. The U.S. is now in the process of deploying 10 Aegis destroyers (built at Bath Iron Works in Maine) at the huge Yokosuka navy base. The ships will be used to surround and provoke China.

Because China's economic growth will challenge the U.S.'s status as world "big dog," the Pentagon is now moving to double military operations in the Asian-Pacific region. This military encirclement of China, with Aegis destroyers along the Chinese coast based in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan and new U.S. bases in Central Asia (Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, and others), will provoke a new arms race with China. China today has 20 nuclear missiles capable of hitting the west coast of the U.S. The U.S. nuclear arsenal now has about 7,500 nuclear weapons. Is China likely to attack the U.S. with 20 nuclear missiles? Is China likely to want to go to war with the U.S. at the very time that virtually every product in U.S. stores is made in China?

Why then does the U.S. feel it necessary to militarily encircle China? Could it be about oil? Could it be that a growing economy in China will need more of the world's declining supplies of oil (peak oil)? Could it be that if the U.S. controls the oil in the Middle East (which is not used in great quantity by the U.S. but is relied on by the emerging markets in the Asian-Pacific) then it holds the keys to the Chinese economic engine? Roughly 80% of China's energy imports pass through the waters adjacent to Taiwan. Could it be that by dramatically expanding U.S. naval operations near Taiwan (supposed to protect them from China) that the U.S. is making a military move to check-mate China's ability to move oil to their expanding economy?

If a new arms race ensues with China who benefits? Would it be the military industrial complex? Would it be the oil corporations?

We've got to learn to watch the left hand as well as the right hand. The U.S. multi-national corporate shell game is underway. Watch what the U.S. is doing in the Asian-Pacific region. Our friends in the Japanese peace movement are trying to alert us to the dangers of the U.S. military build-up in their region. They are warning the U.S. not to drag the once fascist (and imperialist) Japan back into the great power game. Time to pay attention.