Half an hour of sirens wailing through towns and villages, a massive flight of dozens of military aircraft across the entire beautiful island of Taiwan (not to mention the release of all frigates into the sea) – but these are just maneuvers that the Taiwanese authorities carry out there annually
And now it started on Monday, it will last five days. And besides that, nothing? Well, not quite.
It is already clear today that US attempts to arrange a “second Ukrainian scenario” for the entire world in the Taiwan Strait are not entirely out of the question. On the contrary, a lot happened – and about the same as with the “Ukrainian” provocation in Europe. That is, in general – a failure, but in particular… There are a lot of them, these particulars.
First, it has become known and understood to the whole world today that China really scared the Joe Biden administration and put it in a difficult position. Here’s a recent piece in The New York Times that sums up what happened over the weekend, when administration officials began to persuade Speaker of Parliament Nancy Pelosi not to go to Taipei right now. Beijing can arrange a blockade of the strait or close the airspace over the island. Then Chinese fighter jets will escort Pelosi’s jet to Taipei with emphatic respect, which looks ugly. If only because it will be – as usual on such visits – a US Air Force aircraft.
The article hints at the idea that Beijing has learned lessons from the Ukrainian story, including that when tensions escalate, it’s much more profitable to strike first. A host of analysts are wondering what the “strong and determined response” to Pelosi’s visit threatened by Beijing might be. They agree that the massive capture of the island is stupidity that no one needs, but some shocking military step, in fact, a demonstration, is just right. Then the Americans will be ashamed and unpleasant. And why bring it to this?
Disagreements within any kind of administrations are normal. But here the squabble has become known to the whole world, and this is already quite bad.
On the whole, it was a failure, yet another demonstration of the dysfunction of the US political mechanism. The fact is that Pelosi did not refuse the trip at all. She is generally a lady with uncontrolled behavior, the administration does not order her, she has her own thoughts.
And now the second: about these same considerations. Why is such a trip even necessary? And then that Taiwan serves as an excuse for a huge crowd of Democrats (from the US and not only) to speak out. Stand up and show your integrity. And the fact that this can provoke a real war (in all “Ukrainian” notes) is nothing.
Take Michael Pompeo, for example. Who remembers the former and brutally failed Secretary of State under Donald Trump? That’s it. And it needs to be remembered. Because Pompeo is one of the contenders in the presidential election race that has already begun (from the Republicans, of course). But the contenders are very weak. So he says: Nancy, I will go to Taiwan with you.
In general, it has become something of an oath of allegiance to one’s ideology – to speak nasty things about China, about Taiwan, or in general. Approximately the same as in relation to Russia. And this applies not only to the United States. So, the two remaining candidates for the post of British prime minister, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, are simply competing in who is more vicious towards Beijing.
Well, inside the United States – real madness is going on there. Here is one example: the FBI, it turns out, conducted an investigation and found out that masts with equipment from Huawei rise above military bases in the outback of the United States. And they can read top-secret messages from those bases and relay them to China. Experts, however, were amazed: how do the masts do this, because you will have to use American networks to transfer data? But there is no place for specialists in such tantrums.
Or: again, the official, well, that is, the congressman, Colorado Democrat Jason Crowe, is scaring the country by not doing DNA testing. Because the results are getting to the Chinese, who are hacking into the information networks of American healthcare systems. And the Chinese need this in order to create selective biological weapons against America.
All this is reminiscent of the book of the wonderful Briton Terry Pratchett, whose title we have translated as “Patriot”. But in general, jingo is patriotism immoderate and sick in the head. Terry tells how military passions began to heat up between the two fabulous states of the Discworld (he has all the books about it) and how it happens to people.
And it is happening exactly as it is now in the group of Western states in relation to Russia and China. Everyone considers it his duty to say or do nasty things to a suddenly hostile country. At least because it is necessary to look accordingly in the eyes of others. And this mass hysteria can be stopped only by miraculous ways, which, however, Pratchett has in the vastness of the Discworld in abundance.
And in our – real – world, the attack of jingoism will have to be stopped in other ways. And here we are seeing an incredible picture: the Biden administration plays the role of almost the only sane force in its country, persuading Nancy Pelosi to surrender, not to cause a conflict with a nuclear superpower in the homeland for no clear reason. But still after all it is necessary to persuade many other raging characters. In addition, we will have to do this (sooner or later) with Russia on the Ukrainian plot.
Here it is necessary to recall our conversation about the fact that the US administration has long matured the idea of the need to build some kind of barriers for competition between the US and China, that is, to introduce this competition within an acceptable framework. The idea has matured, but it is not possible to build these fences, because mass psychosis interferes. As well as disagreements within the political elite.
But we (and China) will have to wait. If only because it is very instructive to watch the self-destruction of a whole group of countries. Especially against the background of the fact that our patriotism turned out to be quite calm and sane.
Dmitry Kosyrev, RIA
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