My Take | Diplomacy in Beijing, war pact in San Diego – who’s the belligerent?

The symbolism and timing could not be more striking. After Beijing brokered a deal to help Iran and Saudi Arabia resume diplomatic relations, Washington hosted the leaders of Britain and Australia at the Point Loma Naval Base in San Diego to cement Aukus, a military accord between the three Anglo-American countries to deploy offensive capabilities across the Asia-Pacific. Australia is especially tasked to pay for the development of British-American-built nuclear-powered submarines to target China.

One deal involves an Asian country projecting its power for peace in a different region. The other has the Anglo-American West asserting dominance in the East, a region that fought long and hard to free themselves from the yoke of foreign powers. Just who is for peace and who is for war? Who is threatening the stability of the region?

Unable to tolerate a rival anywhere around the world that might challenge its dominance, the American overlord has unceremoniously turned its two English-speaking allies into vassal states. For Australia, it means committing its defence posture to military nuclear technology at an extraordinary cost to its society, just so it can take on its largest trading partner that has helped its economy boom for more than two decades.

For Britain, it looks like history is repeating itself for another debacle when it went “shoulder to shoulder” with the US to invade and occupy Iraq. This time, though, the reluctant adversary really has weapons of mass destruction, as in nuclear-armed. Isn’t security on the European continent much closer to home? There is a hot war going on there.

It’s a complete absurdity that Britain and Australia should redefine their national security in terms of Taiwan. That does not make it safer for their citizens, but much more dangerous. Perhaps Beijing should help Argentina regain the Falkland Islands, by force if necessary, and declare its national security interests in the Solomon Islands; how about the entire South Pacific? That, of course, would be an absurdity. And yet, when it’s the other way around, it’s all normal, a foregone conclusion!

The only reason the two vassal states are committing such obvious self-harm is because Taiwan is a beachhead in the economic war and naval encirclement being waged by the US against China.

There is the ingenious argument that the best way to prevent a war is to prepare for it. Interestingly, gun rights advocates in the US also say the only way to deter criminals is for law-abiding citizens to arm themselves. Well, the entire world knows how that has worked out for the country. So what we see is the internationalisation of America’s domestic gun violence. When an entire neighbourhood is flooded with guns, the outcome is fairly predictable.