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Today, the dangers of military escalation are beyond description.
What is now happening in Ukraine has serious geopolitical implications. It could lead us into a World War III Scenario.
It is important that a peace process be initiated with a view to preventing escalation.
Global Research condemns Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The history of this war must be understood.
The bombing and shelling led by Ukraine’s Armed Forces directed against the people of Donbass started eight years ago, resulting in the destruction of residential areas and more than 10,000 civilian casualties.
A bilateral Peace Agreement is required.
US media circulated false reports over the weekend alleging that Russia requested military aid from China to support its ongoing special operation in Ukraine. A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in the US was quoted by CNN on Sunday as saying that “I’ve never heard of that” while another one for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the day after that these reports were “disinformation”. This fake news scandal erupted a day before US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi on Monday in Rome to discuss Ukraine and other issues of relevance.
Prior to this information warfare provocation, similarly false reports were propagated alleging that China either knew in advance of Russia’s plans to launch its special military operation in Ukraine and told Moscow to delay its commencement until after the Beijing Winter Olympics or that Beijing could have stopped the operation outright.
What all of this fake news has in common is that it’s a doomed attempt to draw China into the conflict and misportray it as taking sides instead of being neutral like it truly is. The US is obviously disturbed by China’s very pragmatic stance towards the latest events.
That’s why American officials have recently threatened Chinese companies with so-called “secondary sanctions” if they defy the US’ unilateral and illegally imposed primary ones. The zero-sum choice that Washington is attempting to force the People’s Republic to decide upon is whether Beijing sides with Moscow or against it. This, of course, is a false choice since a third option remains the most viable, which is for China to continue with its pragmatically neutral stance of calling on all sides to prioritize a political solution as soon as possible. It’s also sending humanitarian aid to Ukraine to help the people.
From a broader perspective, the grand strategic dynamics at play are becoming clearer by the day. The US unexpectedly decided to prioritize the “containment” of Russia over China despite prior indications strongly suggesting that it would continue attempting to “contain” the latter instead. The so-called “maximum pressure” campaign being waged against Russia includes unprecedentedly intense sanctions that are targeting literally every aspect of life, especially in the energy, financial, and technological spheres. These are intended to cripple Russia’s macroeconomic growth prospects and incite unrest.
Nevertheless, the US knows very well that Russia will not collapse as a result of this latest multidimensional hybrid war campaign against it. This is especially the case because it can depend on China for support as required, which is assured as a result of their reaffirmed strategic partnership pact from early last month that was agreed to during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s trip to China to attend the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics. That document specifically concerns “International Relations Entering a New Era and the Global Sustainable Development”.
America’s attempts to divide and rule Russia and China through fake news reports and illegal “secondary sanctions” pressure are doomed to fail, but it’s still important to draw attention to how these efforts risk manipulating the perceptions of the global public.
The average news consumer who isn’t keenly aware of the facts undergirding the rock-solid Chinese-Russian Strategic Partnership might be misled by those false claims that were cited in this piece into thinking that Beijing either conspired with Moscow ahead of the latter’s special military operation in Ukraine or is about to backstab it at the US’ behest. Both impressions are flat-out false, but misleading folks into thinking one or the other is true is the US’ goal.
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This article was originally published on OneWorld.
