China Scholar Warns of US Drive for War on China

“The core objective of the US strategy is, in US President Barack Obama’s own words, ‘Don’t do stupid shit.’ But the past over 10 years have been fraught with stupid decisions made by the US.”

So says Zhao Minghao, a fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China, writing in the Global Times Tuesday. (Chongyang Institute co-sponsored with EIR the Chinese-language version of EIR’s report The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge.

Zhao reviews the destruction brought on by the Bush and Obama policies in Iraq, Libya, and Syria, creating the scourge of ISIS. He then writes: “But what’s more worrying is that Washington is likely to catastrophically make the South China Sea the eye of the storm in the Asia-Pacific region. Its ‘freedom of navigation’ operations carried out frequently near Chinese islands and reefs as well as the recent ‘unintended’ flyover by two B-52 bombers are considered serious military provocations by Beijing…. Despite being non-claimants in the South China Sea disputes, close US allies such as Australia and Japan also attempt to be part of the dangerous power game.

“Many people worry that a military conflict is likely to happen between China and the US with the US intensifying its military actions against China in the South China Sea…. The Pentagon at present seemingly believes that Beijing will remain restrained no matter how provocative it is.

“The US overestimates its chance of winning a possible armed conflict with China. China has highly accurate long-range anti-ship cruise missiles. Besides, it has the advantage of fighting a war at its own door while the US navy has to travel a long distance.”