‘Pivot to China’ – Mahathir of Malaysia

THE Malaysian newspaper ‘Malaysiakini’ headline this last August 31, 2022: “Citing US ‘provocation’ Dr M calls on Asean to pivot towards China.”

It is a powerful call that should reverberate not only across Asean but also throughout the world. It is a courageous statement from the usually reticent Asean and Asian countries too polite to tell the Americans and Western Powers that Asean wants peace and not provocations.

I hope that this call of Mahathir may shake up some U.S. policy makers, legislators and military high brass that their strategy of tension on Taiwan and militarization of the South China Sea is backfiring on them and alienating Asean nations, although I won’t bet that the West can ever change its battle fatigue colors and camouflage approach to all issues of international import. The West’s colonialist and imperialist hegemony mindset can’t shed its arrogance.

By saying what he said through the Financial Times, a Western global publication, Mahathir really intended to shake up the West as well as Asean and Asian capitals and populations to the threat of war the Americans are now seriously posing to the region.

His additional message is to stop the American provocations by now clearly siding with China on the One China policy and openly tell the Americans that “We will not be with you in the provocations for war!”

We should shout it out even more emphatically in the language of street protests, “Yankee Go Home!” In Pilipino we could add, “Tama na, Sobra Na, Alis Na” (Enough, Too much, Get Out”, and it is really about time that the all the peoples of Asean be drilled in this slogan because the U.S. of A. is really not only threatening but actually already building up to the next war in Asian to destroy Asian’s Rise and restore Western hegemony over the region.

In a war planning exercise by the U.S. think tank Center of National Security (CNS) reported first in Philippine media by Dr. Dan Steinbock of the Difference Group, the U.S. under the Biden-Blinken foreign policy guidance is shifting away from priority on the Ukraine War towards Asia.

We have been following the debate in U.S. Deep State circles who have now apparently achieved consensus to refocus its war-making from Ukraine to the Taiwan Straits to destabilize the region.

The U.S. goal in Ukraine was to not only maim Russian society and economy but also do the same to its E.U. allies, particularly Germany and France which could bolt from NATO if they strengthened beyond a point.

But weak leaders also ensconced by the Americans in Germany (particularly the Greens) and France could not resist the US-NATO impositions and really implement the Minsk Agreement with Russia and stop the NATO expansion.

The E.U. is in a declining trend with U.K. now slipping to sixth place behind India in the world economic rankings. German industry desperately trying to stay ahead of the U.S. economic obstructionism by investing heavily in China to ensure its continuing viability while its home in Europe is being destroyed by U.S. machinations that invited Russian retaliation in weaponizing now its gas and energy fuel exports to the E.U.

In the CNS war planning for war in the Taiwan Straits, the expected response of China to a Taiwan war would be conventional and nuclear retaliation consisting of major missile targeting including six sites in Japan, a major hit on Hawaii, several targets in Guam, and a major hit in Northern Luzon, while the U.S. forces will strike three major targets in China across Taiwan. China is not shown to strike Taiwan, leaving it safe, implying that China would not hurt its brother on that island.

PBBM is on state visits to Indonesia and Singapore from September 4 to 7, will the Mahathir call to Asean be discussed?

I see no reason why that can’t be raised as the Taiwan Straits tensions and its impact of Asean will certainly be a serious common concern of the three state leaders in their two separate meetings.

We should note that the main common ground for Asean talks on the Taiwan provocations of the US is the Philippines, can they support the Philippines in taking a Mahathir stance?

No other Asean state will be directly affected by a conflict in the Taiwan Straits but the Philippines, and only the Philippines that will be hit by the retaliatory response of China to aggression around Taiwan.

Governor Manuel Mamba of the Philippines’ Cagayan northern Province already raised his fears about the US-AFP Balikatan exercises held early 2022 with live-fire drills around his province and its waters – and its impact on the economy of the region.

We all should heed his concern.