US moving towards war with China: Analyst

Thu Feb 18, 2016 10:22AM

This US Navy photo obtained February 1, 2016 shows the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur (DDG 54) as it conducts a live fire gunnery exercise on January 15, 2016 in the South China Sea. (AFP photo)

Press TV has interviewed Mike Billington, with the Asia desk at the Executive Intelligence Review in Leesburg, about US Secretary of State John Kerry expressing “serious concern” over China’s alleged militarization of the South China Sea.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: How do you feel about this latest warning, if I may call that, from John Kerry?

Billington: Well first of all I do not think this is what John Kerry really thinks. He often has to say what his boss, the idiot in the White House, has to say. Remember, Obama just spent the last couple of days out in California lecturing the Southeast Asian nations on how terrible China is, which almost none of them paid any attention to.

What’s been so-called discovered which is that they had some anti-SAM missiles, surface-to- air missiles on Woody Island. Keep in mind that this is the largest contested island in all of the South China Sea and it also is a very well-developed island. It is an island where they have a couple thousand people living, it has recently, early 2012, it was turned into a provincial city as part of Hainan Province with a responsibility of overseeing all of the islands claimed by China in the South China Sea.

So this is a substantial location and the idea that they would have some minimal kind of defense, a few anti-aircraft missile systems on that island is of course, as Yongxing [Woody Island] said, this is totally appropriate - a very minimal defensive kind of military protection.

The irony of course is that not only John Kerry but more importantly Admiral Harris, the head of the Pacific Command who responded by saying he was deeply concerned and that this shows severe militarization of the South China Sea. Now this is rather laughable if it were not so dangerous. You have, as I think you and your listeners know, the US is in the process of deploying the most advanced military forces in the world - air, sea and land forces - into the Philippines, including two bases on Palawan Island which juts out into the South China Sea.

Now this is serious militarization of the South China Sea and it is obviously not oriented towards protecting the Philippines or any such thing. It is part of the general provocation towards war with China.

The Chinese have in the last few days made very, very clear that they are aware that there is an attempt to move towards war not only in the South China Sea but also in Korea where the US is now deploying again the most massive, most advanced military forces that they have, which are the most advanced in the world - the F-22 Raptor jets, the THAAD missile systems. We are looking at a general move towards war with China and the Chinese are quite aware. You read the editorials in Global Times and Xinhua; you see that they recognize, like Russia does, that the move of NATO up to their border in Europe is a very serious existential threat, forcing them to respond militarily to defend their nation and ultimately the world.

So the key here as I have made as many times as I can on your programs, the key is that in fact China and Russia have called the bluff of Obama and the British. Putin in the Middle East has shown that the US is on the side of terrorism against national sovereignty, which we have known for years, but the Russians have proved it by carrying out a successful war on terror and the Chinese, through the BRICS, through the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), through the New Silk Road, have demonstrated that in fact bringing real development to the world is necessary and possible.

However, they are up against a Western financial system which is in a state of total collapse and therefore sees this move by the BRICS nations and especially China and Russia towards establishing a new paradigm for the world based on development, based on human progress, based on the idea of man in the image of God developing the world economy for the benefit of all mankind, that this in the view of the bankrupt financial oligarchs in London and New York must be stopped and this is the kind of thing being pushed through by their idiot President Obama in the White House which has brought the world to the brink of thermonuclear war.

This, I think in a very real sense, is a serious problem but it is one which we can resolve if we can get the American people to get out of their stupor and to remove this president long before the coming election, but now while the whole financial system is collapsing and while we are on the threat of nuclear war. This is the solution. It is there. We know what has to be done…