US vs China, the looming war (World War III?)

As far back as June of 2005, Robert D Kaplan wrote in the Atlantic ("How We Would Fight China") , "The Middle East is just a blip. The American military contest with China in the Pacific will define the twenty-first century. And China will be a more formidable adversary than Russia ever was"

For whom some might consider a mouthpiece for the Washington establishment (the Atlantic monthly has close ties to Foreign Affairs magazine, the publication of the Council on Foreign Relations), these are warring words.

More recently, on November 8, 2010, China apparently launched a missile 30 miles off the coast of California. The fire and smoke from the missile were captured by Los Angeles news cameras. US military spokesman at the time said there had been no US launches, and Pentagon officials said whatever it was it was not a direct threat. Unofficial sources said it may have been an airline contrail, but that is highly suspect. All in all, the event was swept under the carpet--as have many of the more recent issues surrounding what is now being called a "Cold War" with China.

Understandably, neither side wants to inflame the population of the other with sentiments of war. Henry Kissinger wrote an article of the Washington Post dated January 14, 2011 "Avoiding a U.S.-China cold war" in which he states all the reasons China and the US have to cooperate with one another. He wrote of his experience with Chinese citizens not in government who want no war at all and a few within the government who don't want it either. He said, quite rightly, that the only reason the Chinese government is on a war footing of late is that they see the US adopting a containment policy toward their growth and ambitions for the future. The US is seen in China as trying to stifle China's rivalry for the top spot as global superpower.

And once again we are thrust into the so-called "Great Game" of international power politics that, quite frankly, should have ended in the 19th century or with WWII at the latest. Now President Obama is moving PACOM (the US military's Pacific Command) into setting up a permanent military base in Australia. A move the Chinese government has not tolerated quietly.

Published just today on UPI.com, China has warned the US against "flexing its muscles" in the Asia-Pacific region. In an editorial Friday, China's official news agency Xinhua said: ""While boosting its military presence in the Asia-Pacific, the United States should abstain from flexing its muscles, as this won't help solve regional disputes...the U.S. role, if fulfilled with a positive attitude and free from a Cold War-style zero-sum mentality, will not only be conducive to regional stability and prosperity, but be good for China, which needs a peaceful environment to continue its economic development."

The US is also concerned about the transparency of China's new military developments. New and inexplicable military structures have been found within China such as the one seen in the Google Earth image below:

And the Chinese military has stated quite openly their readiness for war with the US. More recently, Major General Zhang Zhaozhong commented that, “China will not hesitate to protect Iran even with a third world war," in the event of some sort of US-Israeli military assault on Iran.

More in the coming days on this looming conflict....