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How Far Will the Trump Regime and Congress Push China?
By Stephen Lendman
Global Research, May 29, 2020

Url of this article:
https://www.globalresearch.ca/how-far-will-trump-regime-congress-push-china/5714443

The US is waging undeclared war on China by other means. 

Trump and congressional hardliners escalated things beyond where their predecessors went.

What’s going on is all about aiming to undermine China’s growing political, economic, financial, industrial, technological, and military development and prominence on the world stage.

It has nothing to do with a PRC military or other security threat. China is at peace with its neighbors and other nations.

On Thursday, Pompeo continued his war of words on China.

Falsely accusing Beijing of eroding Hong Kong’s liberties — a US specialty at home and abroad — he urged “decertification” of the city, saying:

“I can no longer certify that Hong Kong continues to warrant…deferential treatment under US law.”

He falsely claimed that China’s new national security law “contradicts the spirit (of) the one country, two systems framework.”

He ignored months of made-in-the-USA Hong Kong protests for months last year, featuring violence and vandalism.

Orchestrated by US dark forces, they began again, interfering in China’s internal affairs, a major breach of the UN Charter and other international law — how the US operates globally, by its own imperial rules.

Hours before a Friday news conference by Trump on China, it’s unclear if he’ll announce decertification.

Days earlier, he promised a strong response to China’s national security law, saying only that he’d talk “about it over the next couple of days.”

Separately, White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said Trump finds it “hard to see how Hong Kong can remain a financial hub if China takes over.”

She ignored the fact that the city is to China, its sovereign territory, what New York, New Haven, New Orleans, Newark, Newport, Newton, and other US cities are to America.

Trump’s national security advisor Robert O’Brien suggested new US sanctions on China may be imposed — a UN Charter breach when unilaterally by one nation on others, he failed to explain.

On Friday, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) quoted retired PLA military strategist/General Qiao Liang’s geopolitical advice.

Focus on Beijing’s main adversary (USA), he urged. All else externally is minor by comparison.

“When you are facing off a gang in a fight, you must first bring down the biggest guy and other opponents will be intimidated,” he stressed,” adding:

“We need to prioritize in the face of this formidable opponent. We should not distract ourselves by tackling weaker opponents for self-consolation.”

“Arm-wrestling with the US is the least wanted but most urgent business we have to do now.”

Both hawkish wings of its war party go all-out to control other countries by whatever it takes to achieve their objectives.

Qiao believes the US is heading for direct confrontation with China.

Actions already taken include trade and tariffs war, shutting tech giant Huawei out of the US market, banning tech sales to the company, wanting its CFO prosecuted in the US for doing her job, pushing to decouple both economies, falsely blaming China for COVID-19 outbreaks, demanding compensation, orchestrating Hong Kong violence, supporting separatists in Taiwan, Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong — along with wanting China’s development undermined.

Qiao urged Beijing to neutralize the US by becoming more self-reliant through further development of its domestic market, and reducing its reliance on raw material imports, especially from the US and West.

He called China’s national security law “inevitable and necessary.”

“It’s not just a local issue of Hong Kong but is also tied to the contest between China and the US.”

“Hong Kong is now the frontier of the contest…and a key battlefield for China to fend off US suppression,” he explained.

Separately, China’s Defense Minister Wei Fenghe stressed that “the Sino-US strategic confrontation has entered a period of high risk.”

According to US media reports, the Trump regime intends to expel up to 5,000 Chinese graduate students and researchers from the US.

Proposed congressional legislation calls for prohibiting issuance of visas to Chinese nationals wanting to study science and math in the US.

Cold War between both countries is escalating. If Trump, the GOP, and Dems push things too far, it could boil over into something hot.

What’s going on is one of many reasons why today is the most perilous time in US history.

Instead of stepping back from the brink, imperial policies of dominant hardliners in Washington risk global war by accident or design.

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Award-winning author Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected]. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)

His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Disclaimer: The contents of this article are of sole responsibility of the author(s). The Centre for Research on Globalization will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect statement in this article.