Guest post by Quoth the Raven from his blog on SubStack:
For months I have been saying that Russia’s move into Ukraine – and the failed attempt at sanctions by the the West in response – would likely embolden China in its quest to take Taiwan.
And China shows no signs of proving me wrong.
At the opening ceremony of the ruling Communist Party of China’s 20th National Congress this weekend Chinese President Xi Jinping came right out with it, stating that China reserves the option of “taking all measures necessary” against anyone who tries to interfere with their eventual plans for taking Taiwan.
According to CNBC, Xi said:
“We will continue to strive for peaceful reunification with the greatest sincerity and the utmost effort. But, we will never promise to renounce the use of force. And we reserve the option of taking all measures necessary.”
“This is directed solely at interference by outside forces and a few separatists seeking Taiwan independence.”
In other words, he’s speaking to the West and, more specifically, the U.S.
The comments are meaningful because they continue to show a China that appears undaunted and undeterred by the U.S.’s stance on Taiwan.
In fact, these statements – which, in my opinion, move the country’s stated agenda further toward reality – came just hours after Politico reported that the country was “stonewalling” President Biden over a planned face-to-face meeting that was supposed to happy with Xi Jinping in November.
Chinese government officials are stonewalling U.S. efforts to solidify a long-planned face-to-face meeting between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G-20 meeting in Bali next month. Beijing won’t engage with U.S. officials trying to draft an agenda for the meeting, according to a person familiar with the planning — a move that could prevent it from happening at all.
In other words, OPEC just got done snubbing Biden, and now China is joining the party. Politico continued:
The much-anticipated meeting has been seen as an opportunity for Biden and Xi — leveraging a personal relationship forged during Biden’s tenure as vice president — to drain some rancor from a U.S.-China relationship that has descended into bitter bilateral acrimony over Taiwan, trade and human rights.
But recent U.S. actions on those same issues — from President Biden’s recent pledge of a U.S. military defense of Taiwan if China were to invade, to export controls on semiconductors needed for next-generation weapons systems — are angering China to the point where it is considering backing out.
I’m trying to be non-partisan about this but the combination of this headline coming just days after OPEC publicly humiliated President Biden has me thinking that our country no longer has the leverage on a global scale the one we once had.
Sure, we have strength we can draw upon from our numerous allies, but it almost appears as though China and Russia are gaining a very good understanding that the “Empire” may not have any clothes.
And certainly Russia has already called this bluff by disregarding Western sanctions over the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Now, it looks as though China strengthening its alliance with Russia over the last decade has hardly been a coincidence.
In fact, I have kept a close eye on how Russia, China and the BRIC nations are, in my opinion, gearing up to challenge the West economically.
“The issue of creating an international reserve currency based on a basket of currencies of our countries is being worked out,” Vladimir Putin said at the BRICS business forum this past summer.
It is my belief that a new Cold War could be on its way – but this time it would be a World Cold War. In other words, it won’t just be the U.S. versus Russia, it’ll be the West versus the BRIC nations.
Though I think military action would be limited, I have been predicting for the last year that such a cold war would, instead, play out economically and through means of cyberwarfare.
Since the beginning of the year, I have been writing about the possibility of Russia and China challenging the US dollar’s global reserve status.
Guest post by Quoth the Raven from his blog on SubStack.