In 1969, the Soviet Union was planning a nuclear attack on China. The USSR only backed down when President Nixon’s administration warned Moscow that such a move would start World War Three since the US would bomb Russia in retaliation.
The United States, under President Nixon (1969-1974), clearly indicated that China’s interests were closely related to America’s.
Then in February 1972, President Richard Nixon went to China and changed the course of history. His motives may not have been meant to encourage China to become the economic powerhouse it is today. However, if it weren’t for Nixon, the odds say the Soviet Union would have bombed China with nuclear weapons and China would have retaliated.
Nixon’s trip to Beijing wasn’t to see if China would help get the US out of Vietnam. Instead, the trip was designed to put pressure on the USSR with a goal to make them agree to strategic arms limitations.
Trump’s trade war with China is reversing everything President Nixon achieved with China.
The Financial Times reports, “Chinese soldiers join Russia’s largest military exercise since cold war.”
“Russia’s biggest military exercise since the cold war, and its first to be conducted with a country not from the former Soviet bloc, is the strongest sign yet of the deepening strategic bond between Moscow and Beijing that has been prompted by Russia’s souring western relations and may herald a redrawing of the region’s geopolitics.”
The Washington Post reports, “Washington is fighting a trade war with China and imposing mounting sanctions on Russia. The Trump administration has reoriented the U.S. national security strategy toward “great-power competition” with Russia and China, describing both countries as seeking to “shape a world antithetical to U.S. values and interests.” …
“The Chinese right now are sending a clear signal that, one, they don’t see Russia as a threat, which already should be a concern to the United States,” said Michael Kofman, senior research scientist at CNA, a U.S.-funded research organization based in Arlington, Va. “They are increasingly wishing to signal that increasing confrontation with the United States will drive them toward greater balancing behavior with Russia.”
But it isn’t just China Trump is alienating.
Business Insider says, “Trump’s fight with Turkey is helping Russia and Iran” … Trump is strengthening alliances between countries that don’t have America or the West’s best interest’s at heart. By punishing Turkey with sanctions, he is only pushing the country closer to other nations who see the strategic importance of having Turkey on their side.”
My question is this: Is Trump doing what Putin wants him to do, to alienate the United States from China and the rest of the world so Russia can step in and replace the U.S.?
What’s more alarming is what CNN Money says, “Russia has rapidly sold off the vast majority of its stash of American debt.” … “Between March and May, Russia’s holdings of US Treasury bonds plummeted by $81 billion, representing 84% of its total US debt holdings.”
While Russia’s holdings of US debt are insignificant, China’s are not, and Asia Times asks, “Russia is dumping US Treasuries. Will China be next?”
The Council on Foreign Relations attempts to answer the previous question. But no matter what happens, the fact is that what Nixon built with China is being dismantled by Donald Trump and the winner will be Russia.
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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine, Crazy is Normal, Running with the Enemy, and The Redemption of Don Juan Casanova.
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