As I write these lines, the US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi is apparently en route to Taiwan in what can only be described as a calculated, gratuitous provocation of China. The “normies” will surely protest that Pelosi has the right to visit other democratical nations, bla, bla, bla. For the record, Taiwan is part of China, not an independent nation – even according to the official US government position. But that nonsense is the same kind that was applied to Ukraine: she had the right to join any military alliance she wanted, it’s about freedom, democracy, our values, etc…

Western think tanks have been predicting a war with China war for many years now as though it were an inevitable outcome, a future set in stone. In September 2016, the Atlantic Council published a report predicting a world “marked by the breakdown of order, violent extremism and an era of perpetual war.” The designated enemies of course are Russia and China. Two years later, a bipartisan Congressional panel published a lengthy report “Providing for the Common Defense,” which argued that the USA needs to prepare for devastating wars against the two resurgent powers. Nowhere in this document is there any suggestion that such a war ought to be avoided, and apart for the brief four years of the Trump administration, the US leadership has consistently worked to build up tensions rather than diffuse them. Then, in February 2021 Admiral Charles Richard who heads US Strategic Command called on the nation’s military and civilian leaders to seek new ways to face threats by Russia and China, including the “real possibility” of nuclear conflict. Why? Because Moscow and Beijing have “begun to aggressively challenge international norms.”

One nation started 80% of all wars since 1946