China, Russia will by no means compromise on their security interests
Posted by seumasach on August 8, 2016
If Trump’s detente with Russia is aimed at driving a wedge between Russia and China it looks like a forlorn hope. As for isolating Russia and China that depends on checking both European and Asian integration, the former now rendered much more difficult by Brexit. The Chinese assessment that Washington’s “devoted efforts towards a global anti-missile shield also reveals an anxiety over its declining influence in the world” is accurate: it is no longer about US leadership but, rather, a retreat into safe space, albeit one as extended as possible. The main active thrust in US foreign policy is now to frustrate Chinese “soft power”, the spread of China’s enormously successful developmental model which the West cannot in any way match. For the moment this has been successful, shifting Argentina, Brazil, Britain and Australia out of the Chinese economic sphere of influence with Venezuela and South Africa next in line. It remains to be seen how long the US can prevail on these countries to abandon their economic interests for a “security” alliance with the USA. The UK’s equivocation about triggering Article 50 is symptomatic of this conflict of interests.
4th August, 2016
BEIJING, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) — Both China and Russia oppose the planned deployment of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system on the Korean Peninsula, which endangers their national security and challenges the region’s strategic balance.
In These New Times 
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