Thursday,
November 28, 2013
My good friends, while we in
Ghana are engrossed in arguments concerning bread and butter, happenings in
other parts of the world suggest something ominous that we must not gloss over.
If not resolved amicably, this conflict has the potential to cause catastrophe
worldwide.
Our own conflict with the Ivory
Coast concerning the Cape Three Points oilfields is worth our trouble; but how
many of us even consider it as worth our bother while we engage in this
bread-and-butter politics?
At the global level, China,
Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan are locked in an ownership struggle over islands known as Senkaku in Japan and
Diaoyu in China. Claiming to be the only superpower in the world, the US
has already inserted itself into this conflict.
Unfolding right in front of our
eyes is the tension that will likely destabilize global politics and threaten
world peace unless sound minds resolve the crisis.
China’s strong economic
performance (outdoing Japan to become the world’s second strongest economy, and
threatening to dislodge the US by 2015 to take the first position) is not a
welcome development for those who can hardly believe the strides being made by
the country that has been disparaged for centuries on the basis of its
communist status.
While the West and Far East
(including Japan) maintained their anti-China rhetoric and expended resources
supporting forces challenging communism, China quietly stepped up its game to
acquire all that it needs to stand on its feet to be reckoned with as an
economic and military giant.
Today, China’s rise to power has
virtually silenced its critics and sent terrible shivers down their spine.
Talk about advancements in the
sphere of space exploration, and China pops up. Bring up military capabilities,
and China rears its head. Its ability to build gargantuan naval fleets and carriers
is worrisome to its critics.
Its penetration into fertile
grounds on the globe (especially Africa) is a scourge to the US and its allies,
apparently because of the threat that it poses to their economic and
geopolitical interests.
Let’s take the petroleum sector,
for instance. It is common knowledge that China has seized that sector in
Africa (where the US gets one-fifth of its crude oil supplies) and Canada
(where the US gets one-eighth of its crude oil supplies). And China is eyeing
other sectors to the chagrin of the US and its allies.
China’s penetration into those
spheres doesn’t come with political domination, which throws overboard the European
colonialist enterprise. At least, for now, China is not occupying any territory
into which it has extended its economic interests; it hasn’t given any slight
hint yet of dominating those territories in the near future, which is why it is
received with open arms wherever it goes.
Certainly, the rise of China dims
the light of its loud-mouthed critics whose operations always leave behind ugly
traces because they have no permanent friend anywhere but interests everywhere
to exploit, damn the consequences. And where they face resistance, they deploy
military cunning and inject military hardware into the system as they knock
heads together and exploit. China’s penetration lacks that militaristic facet.
China has registered itself on
the global scene as a better alternative. It remains to be seen whether this
trend will change for the worse; but for now, China is super confident in its
own capabilities and can boast of soaking up the shortfalls recorded in the US
economy (in the trillions…!!). Only a lame-brain will attempt under-rating
China’s capabilities.
That explains why China’s current
take on its newly declared air defence zone in the East China Sea (a zone that includes a groups of islands
known as Diaoyu in Chinese and Senkaku by Japan) is provoking so much
disquiet in the US, Japan, South Korea, and elsewhere. The vast zone, announced last week,
covers territory claimed by China, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.
Japan
controls the islands, which have been the focus of a bitter and long-running
dispute between Japan and China. The zone also covers a submerged rock
that South Korea says forms part of its territory.
China
says the establishment of the zone was “completely justified and legitimate”,
but it has been widely condemned. China has said all planes transiting
the zone must file flight plans and identify themselves, or face “defensive
emergency measures” (according to the BBC news: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-25144465).
Here
is the scenario: China has taken its claim over the disputed territory a notch
higher by declaring it a defence zone. Immediate reaction from Japan was
vitriolic, but Japan didn’t do anything practical to firm up its resistance.
Only the usual rhetoric.
But
the US tested China’s resolve, setting the stage for a further flexing of
muscles. The US called the Chinese move a “destabilising attempt to
alter the status quo in the region” and immediately went into action to fly two
unarmed B-52 bombers through the zone unannounced on Tuesday (as stated by the
BBC).
Provocative
as this action by the US might be, China didn’t take any action, even though it
revealed that it knew about the presence of the US aircraft in that zone and
monitored its flight paths. But the US’ action might be considered as testing
the waters in support of its allies (Japan and South Korea).
Consequently,
South Korea also flew one
of its military planes in the zone on Tuesday.
Then, on Thursday, Japan said its aircraft
had conducted routine “surveillance activity” over the East China Sea zone, but
did not specify when.
They did so only
after the US’ action had set the stage for them. Could the US be inviting China
to a dangerous game or simply testing the waters to reassure its allies that it
is capable of defending their interests?
China itself has
sent warplanes to the zone in the wake of these “intrusions” but hasn’t
indicated whether it will shoot down any aircraft violating that airspace.
We can see danger mounting
already. If China goes beyond monitoring the movements of these aircraft to
downing any, the situation will explode into something unimaginable. Gradually,
this conflict is becoming a time-bomb to be handled with maximum care.
With so much accomplished in
almost all spheres of human endeavour, China now feels strong enough to
bulldoze its way through the global sphere. Is this rise of China into global
prominence a curse? Who knows what else China will soon lay claim to? Are we
nearing that point of a major global catastrophe on account of China’s rise to
power and head-butting manouevres? Indeed, money talks!!
I shall return…
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E-mail:
mjbokor@yahoo.com
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