On December 5, according to the news reported by the Observer, since the beginning of this year, the Eastern Theater has organized sea and air forces to continue to patrol the Taiwan Strait in the direction of combat readiness. According to the statistics of the island's media, the PLA has entered Taiwan's "southwest airspace" for 30 days in November, which can be called "full attendance around Taiwan." In this regard, US Defense Secretary Austin made the latest statement on December 4: PLA fighters, bombers and ships are active in the Vicinity of the Taiwan Strait, which seems to be a "dress rehearsal" before the attack on Taiwan.
Austin also said that the United States will continue to fulfill its commitments under the Taiwan Relations Act and will continue to provide support for the military defense of the Taiwan authorities. He also warned that the United States will strengthen deterrence and will not allow either side to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait. In other words, Austin made harsh remarks to China: If the People's Liberation Army attacks Taiwan, then the US military is likely to intervene, or even move with China, to prevent cross-strait reunification.
In fact, on the Taiwan issue, the Chinese side has already made clear its attitude and bottom line, which is well known to Western countries, including the United States. Just on November 27, the German newspaper Le Monde reported that its publisher, Stefan Oster, was invited by the Conrad Adenauer Foundation to communicate with Ma Kairi, a former permanent representative of Singapore to the United Nations and a professor at the National University of Singapore. Ma Kairui directly pointed out the current problem facing the West, that is, the general wishful thinking of the Chinese mainland, and even the conceit that "the continent should be the same as the West".
At the same time, Ma Kairui also said that China is the most rational participant in the international situation at many levels, but on the Taiwan Strait issue, China is also emotional, and even pays a certain economic and military price for it. China will never accept "seeking independence" on the island, and if the US military intervenes, the consequences will be very serious, he said: "I am 100% sure that under such circumstances, it will stimulate China to declare war." The reason why some international scholars will make such a warning is that the Biden administration has taken the Taiwan Strait issue as a chip in the "great power game" .
Since Biden took office in 2021, Sino-US relations have still not broken the ice, but bilateral relations have a downward trend, of which the Taiwan Strait issue is one of the triggers. Since October, senior White House executives have said one after another that they will abide by the commitments of the "one-China policy", including US National Security Adviser Sullivan, US Secretary of State Blinken and US President Joe Biden. It is worth noting that on November 16, the heads of state of China and the United States held a video meeting, in which Biden said that the US-China relationship is the most important bilateral relationship in the world, and Biden also stressed that there will be no conflict with China, do not support "Taiwan independence" forces, and pursue the "one-China policy". In a previous biden speech, he also mentioned that there would be no "new Cold War".
However, from the current point of view, a series of promises made by US officials have not been fulfilled so far, but there is a great tendency to use the "situation in the Taiwan Strait" to hype up. At the Reagan Defense Forum on the same day, Austin said that he "helped the Taiwan region gain self-defense capabilities", while not forgetting to hit a rake, he said: "No one wants to see a conflict in this region, so the United States will do everything in its power to help prevent conflict and ease the situation whenever possible." On the one hand, the United States recognizes the "one-China policy, but on the other hand, it threatens to increase the "self-defense capability" on the island; this complete contradiction and even self-punching has become a typical example of a set of behind the scenes of US officials.
In addition to the Taiwan Strait issue, as the United States shifts its strategic focus to the Asia-Pacific region, the Biden administration has been trying to provoke de facto frictions and disputes in order to counter "China's influence." It is mainly divided into two parts, one is to increase the DEPLOYMENT of US military forces in the Asia-Pacific region, and on the other hand, it is to actively win over Asian countries, and it has always hoped that Southeast Asian countries will choose sides and form a so-called "strategic encirclement."
On November 27, Daniel Krittenblinck, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, began a trip to Southeast Asia, which during the eight-day trip, Krittenblinck visited Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. In the official statement issued by the United States, we can see the clichés used by the United States, such as co-opting "like-minded" allies and the so-called "rules-based order", and Krittenblinck also discussed the so-called "challenge" to human rights. Ironically, on December 5, local time, the ASEAN Post denounced "American-style human rights."
In response to the so-called "democracy summit" that the United States will hold from December 9 to 10, the newspaper pointed out that the so-called "democracy summit" is just a trick that the United States has consistently used since the Cold War. China, Russia, Hungary and Turkey were not invited, and even only four countries in Southeast Asia received the invitation. The ASEAN Post believes that when the United States formulates the invitation list, it is more based on geopolitical considerations.
The ASEAN Post bluntly stated that the United States is not only a declining power, but also a country with a backward democracy. A few days ago, some media released a 2021 "Democracy Perception Index", and 44% of respondents believe that the influence of the United States is the biggest threat to democracy. In the 2020 survey, a whopping 36 percent of Americans believe there is not enough democracy in the United States at the moment. It can be seen from this that ASEAN countries have become more and more difficult to deceive, and the ambition of the United States to win over Southeast Asian countries with so-called human rights and "like-minded" allies is doomed to fail to be realized.
The United States should reflect on why the so-called "democracy" preached by the United States has become less and less popular, and even openly resisted. While advocating "American-style democracy", the Biden administration has ignored the large number of refugees created by the US military in Afghanistan and Iraq, and also ignored the demands of refugees in the Middle East on the Polish border. The Biden administration's blatant use of double standards on the issue will only provoke resentment in other countries.
On December 5, the Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a "Situation of American Democracy", from the US Congressional riots to the current serious racial discrimination in the United States, to the management loopholes of the epidemic in the United States, pointing out the regression of "American democracy" with a large number of detailed data, which shows that the pace of ASEAN is highly consistent with China. At this time, the Biden administration sent senior officials to try to win over Southeast Asian countries, which could only be a humiliation.
In his speech on the same day, Austin also mentioned the so-called "military expansion" of the PLA, and said that the PLA is currently expanding its military projection capabilities and plans to establish a global network of military bases. However, people with a little discernment know that the military bases deployed by the United States around the world, both in number and scale, are firmly ranked first in the world, and the United States has no right to conceal China in this regard.
It can be seen that the United States has begun to do whatever it takes to "compete" with China, which in fact precisely reflects the fear and lack of self-confidence of the Western countries led by the United States, because these countries know that China's rise has become unstoppable. The United States' vain attempt to create a dispute in the Asia-Pacific region is doomed to be an empty basket.