Confronting…China

Fifty-three years ago, US President Nixon turned their China policy on its head by flying to China – with his Secretary of State Henry Kissinger – in a visit dubbed “the week that changed the world”!! And how the world has changed since then – but not the way Nixon and Kissinger thought it would!! The US had been locked in its Cold War with the USSR, and Communist China – painfully recovering from the disastrous excesses of Mao’s experiments like the “Great Leap Forward” – was seen as one of the latter’s poor relations!!
Its new leader Deng, however, had signalled he was gonna be “pragmatic” in his policies – his motto being: “It doesn’t matter whether the cat is black or white – once it catches the mouse!” Nixon – the archetypical rabid “anti-communist” – was the perfect leader to unleash Kissinger’s strategy of playing off the most populous country, China, against the USSR. The Chinese, after all, resented Russia’s condescending “big brother” assumptions about their relationship. While they were poor and underdeveloped, they insisted they were the “Middle ”Kingdom” – around which the rest of the world should revolve!!
Well, Nixon and Kissinger came and saw – but ironically, eventually were CONQUERED!! They accepted Communist China as the “real China” in the UN with a critical Security Council vote – while relegating Taiwan to its nebulous state. Most importantly, they used China’s cheap labour to manufacture their goods – but gutted their domestic industrial belt!!  And were surprised when – after two decades of feverish development – China started to close in on them in all spheres of national activity – industrially (of course!) but also militarily!!
While they obviously didn’t count on this outcome, they were to repeat this strategic mistake of underestimating other underdeveloped countries. Think Vietnam, Afghanistan, etc. Their strategy worked to the extent that the USSR fissioned and America was left as the lone superpower standing. But it’s gonna take a lot of finessing to maintain that ranking!! In its NATO-supported effort to contain Russia in Europe in the war in Ukraine, China’s stature has grown even larger through its support of its erstwhile “big brother” – which has now accepted ITS junior role!!
China has also used the dollars piled up from filling the shelves of Walmart – and wherever else America shops – to buy nations and influence their policies. Through its growing navy, it’s a formidable presence in its South Pacific environs – and in fact, in the entire Pacific! Its Belt and Road Initiative has hopped and linked continents from Asia to Europe to Africa and now South and Central America. Economically – and militarily?
But in Trump, the Chinese have met their match!! His willingness to break the minuet-like moves of the old world order has them stumped!!

…the rest
In its efforts to contain China, the US has had to deal with the rest of the world that has also been – inevitably – changing. Take, for instance, India – towards which Nixon is on record as being very dismissive, to say the least. In the early decades of the post-WWII Cold War, the US tilted towards India’s bête noir, Pakistan, and India tilted towards the USSR – even though it was supposed to be “non-aligned”. But in a world armed to the teeth, a country that wants to maintain its self-respect and territorial integrity, India had to buy its weapons from somewhere, no?
Anyhow, India rose to become the fourth largest economy in the world – with the concomitant ambitions. It is “frenemies” with China, with which they’ve clashed over their borders and are competing powers in the evolving dispensation – especially in Asia.
Trump has tried to draw India closer into the US’s circle – but his “tough love” in trade and tariffs has them flummoxed!!

…Mad Maduro
Well, another drug boat coming out of Venezuela and heading towards America has been deep-sixed by the US armada in the Caribbean!! This is now number five with 27 killed.
We don’t have a value on the drugs sunk!!