“THE world is entering a decade of tumult as the pursuit of a more just world order clashes with the arbitrary hegemony of the collective West…” Russian President Vladimir Putin is quoted to say at the annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club held from October 24-27, 2022 in Moscow.
U.S. President Joe Biden earlier in the month had invoked “Armageddon” referring to the prospects of the Ukraine War turning into a grim nuclear scenario as the West and Russia exchange charges of raising the nuclear option and Ukraine is accused of plotting a “dirty nuke” false flag.
However, President Xi Jinping in his opening speech for the 20th CPC National Congress said, “China has always been committed to its foreign policy goals of upholding world peace and promoting common development, and it is dedicated to promoting human community with a shared future.”
A few weeks later, President Xi in a message to the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations said, China is “Willing to work with the US to give mutual respect, coexist peacefully… (and) find ways to get along in the new era”.
China’s peace victories in 2010s
US President Barak Obama had coaxed its client state Japan and the Philippines to create provocations, first the nationalization of the Diaoyu (Senkaku in Japanese) Islands from private Japanese possessors, and second, the Philippine arrest of Chinese fisherman with a naval ship leading to the ‘Scarborough Standoff’ in 2012.
US President Donald Trump then stepped up the offensive, launching the China trade war only to see the U.S. trade deficit with China minimally changed after 5 years. In 2018, the US’ “chips war” started with tariffs on Chinese microchips quickly escalating to massive sanctions, yet U.S. today backtracks on many of its restrictions.
Geopolitically, the U.S. started the QUAD to rope in India into the anti-China coalition, but by 2022 India has started backing out out due to US-Pakistan and Russian oil issues. In 2021 the AUKUS alliance was announced but economic crises may have already sunk the nuke sub deal before it starts.
Not to forget too China’s peaceful victory over the violent Hong Kong protesters funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) a front of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), as well as the triumph over Western slander of the human rights record of China in Xinjiang as the UN dismisses the “genocide” allegations recently.
China overcame all these without war.
The Philippines in the World Peace crusade
It should be clear to all enlightened observers of the global scene that there are forces practicing the geo-economic policy of “Forever Wars” for profit and for hegemony. To be a friend to these forces is to be an enemy of a mankind desiring for peace.
Aristotle stated that friendships are often based in utility, pleasure, and/or virtue. The first two are the most common… grounded in emotion. The latter, friendship, is based on shared virtue is the truest, because it relies on a mutual appreciation for what is held dear, and that today is peace for mankind.
The Philippines cannot declare it is a friend to all while it is arm-in-arm with the United States of America, staging military exercises at the tip of Cagayan Province of Northern Luzon aimed at intervening in a Taiwan conflict. Friendship to all is an oxymoron in such a case, as China and the rest of the world see it.
Instead of compliance with the West and the U.S. desire for tension and eventual war, the Philippines, if it wishes to be a true friend of the United States, should advice the U.S. to end its quest for more wars-for-profit and hegemony and join the Philippines and China in global disarmament and unity.
Ambassador Huang’s peace initiatives
China’s Ambassador to the Philippnes, HE Huang Xilian, is President Xi Jinping’s direct representative to the Philippines and he has been doing a yeoman’s job of carrying on the improvement of Philippines-China ties through the years since December 2019, at the time Covid -19 was discovered by Chinese scientists.
Ambassador Huang recently joined President PBBM in the groundbreaking ceremony for the Duterte-Xi initiated $350-million 4-km Davao-Samal Connector link bridge project, the latest in a string of China-donated or funded bridge projects such as Estrela-Pantaleon and Binondo-Intramuros bridges.
The significant Western economics magazine, ‘The Economist,’ recently published a major story entitled “The Chinese Century is Well Underway,” leaving little doubt that even the West recognizes the inevitable ascendance of China to the top of the economic pyramid of the world.
China is not crowing but constantly repeats that it “does not seek hegemony” and recently President Xi extended his hand of cooperation to the U.S. again saying:
“As major powers, strengthening communication and cooperation between China and the US will help to increase global stability and certainty, and promote world peace and development.” President Xi may possibly meet with Pres. Joe Biden on the sideline of the G20 meet in Indonesia. We’ll see.