On the evening of April 16, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin took the initiative to make a video call to Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun. This is also the first substantive meeting between the defense ministers of China and the United States in 18 months since Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. Previously, Austin wanted to have a dialogue with China's defense minister many times, but the Chinese side has ignored it because of the issue of the South China Sea in the Taiwan Sea. Now that China has taken the call, what does the United States want at a time when the situation in the South China Sea is so tense?
First of all, on April 15, the United States announced that it would deploy medium-range ballistic missiles in the north of Luzon Island in the Philippines, this medium-range system can be compatible with Tomahawk cruise missiles with a range of up to 1,600 kilometers, as well as wave-riding hypersonic missiles, and Luzon is only more than 600 kilometers away from Guangdong, China, which means that this system covers China's southern China, southeast, the Pearl River Delta, and even the Yangtze River Delta Shanghai and other developed coastal areas and military bases in China.
This deterrence has obvious implications, and it wants to support its allies in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait and destabilize the situation in the Asia-Pacific region. On the same day, China's top military officials met in Beijing with Rojo, member of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party and director of the Political Department of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces.
At this time, US public opinion exploded, because in mid-2023, the US media had frantically hyped that China would deploy a military base in Cuba, and some newspapers even exaggerated that they would deploy missiles or something in order to gain traffic. The last time there was such domestic concern about Cuba was more than 60 years ago, during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Director of the Political Department of the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba, Rojo
The United States has always regarded the Americas as its own territory, and the Caribbean Sea is its own backyard, but there is an "alternative" in the backyard of the United States, that is, Cuba, whose political system is completely opposite to that of the United States, and because of the colonization of the United States, it is a hardcore anti-American fighter. Florida of the United States is only more than 300 kilometers away from Cuba, and if the Soviet Union deploys high-power missiles in Cuba during the period when the United States and the Soviet Union were vying for hegemony, the United States would be in danger.
In 1962, the Soviet Union intended to deploy missiles in Cuba, but the United States resolutely opposed it, and even threatened war, and finally the Soviet Union retreated. This almost triggered World War III made the American people very worried, and then the United States began to impose sanctions on Cuba for 62 years.
No, after China's rapid rise, its strength surpassed that of the former Soviet Union. Now that it has become close to Cuba and wants to carry out military cooperation and construction, the United States certainly cannot bear it, for fear that China will follow the example of the Soviet Union. Of course, this is certainly what President Biden meant, and it is also a test of China's attitude and bottom line. After 18 months, the Chinese side is willing to talk to Austin on the phone, which actually means to question the United States.
Secretary of Defense Dong Jun and Austin exchanged views on a number of issues, stressing that the two countries should be based on equality and respect, do not conflict, cooperate pragmatically, and value peace, so as to truly bring about a steady improvement in bilateral relations. At the same time, on the Taiwan Strait issue and the South China Sea issue, Dong Jun stressed: The Taiwan issue is the core of China's core interests, and China's core interests must not be damaged. The Chinese People's Liberation Army will never let anything go wrong with all "Taiwan independence" separatist activities and external connivance and support.
This is also a red line that China has drawn for the United States. First, in early April, China and the United States had a high-level phone call to test China on issues related to China's core interests such as the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, and then sent Treasury Secretary Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to visit China in the hope that the two sides would communicate. However, during Yellen's visit to China, the United States did not forget to sanction China, and when Yellen sought China's help, she also threatened China not to allow aid to Russia, and also distorted the facts to point out that China had "overcapacity" and harmed the interests of the United States and the West.
In order to suppress China, in the past, on the grounds of environmental protection, the so-called carbon emissions were formulated in order to curb China's development, and now China's new energy field has surpassed Europe and the United States, and the United States accuses China of "overcapacity", which is really bandit logic.
Yellen did not bargain in China, and sanctioned 6 Chinese companies after returning home, and then Biden connected Japan and the Philippines to hold a summit of the three countries in Washington, and formulated to increase the efforts to contain China in the Asia-Pacific region, Fumio Kishida even shouted that China is a threat to peace and stability in Japan and the world, Biden also promised Japan that Japan would protect Japan with nuclear weapons, and emphasized the mutual defense treaty between the two countries, just to get the two vanguards out to make trouble.
Over the past half a month or so, the United States has made the Asia-Pacific region very unstable. The deployment of medium-range ballistic missile systems by the United States in the Philippines is quite a "South China Sea version of Cuban missiles", so China will have to counter the United States and knock the United States. That's why the Chinese defense secretary is willing to make a video call with the US defense minister.
China also has questioned the United States' intentions: What do you want to do with the deployment of intermediate-range ballistic missiles in the Philippines? Previously, the United States deployed THAAD in South Korea, and now it has deployed ballistic missiles in the Philippines that are sufficient to cover the entire south and southeast of China.
In fact, it seems that the United States has recently jumped to joy, united with Japan and the Philippines in the so-called trilateral summit, deployed medium-range systems in the Philippines, and China and Cuba carried out military cooperation, but these are all means of Sino-US games, far less tense, and there will be no saber-rattling situation in the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The main reason why the United States provokes China so much is that it is not strong and powerless, and it is very powerless on the issue of Ukraine and Israel, so on the Chinese side, it can only cover up its own shortcomings by uniting its allies to create hot issues around China and create a complicated situation, which is the embarrassment of the United States.
However, high-level exchanges between China and the United States are necessary, although our consistent position is that the Taiwan issue is China's own internal affair and does not allow external forces to interfere, and the South China Sea issue requires the US side to respect China's sovereignty and maritime interests. However, a stance is a standpoint, and when necessary, we should also grasp the strategic initiative, and we should be more cautious about the so-called commitments of the United States, listen to its words, and watch its deeds.
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