news

japanese nikkei asian review, september 2, original title: western hawks mistakenly try to portray china as a pacific conqueror some western analysts paint a picture that china is about to conquer the pacific. not to mention taiwan island, japan, the philippines, the south pacific islands, even australia - none of them are safe from chinese warships. however, china's history shows otherwise. from beijing's perspective, recovering taiwan is very different from disputes with japan or the philippines. unlike many western countries, china has no history of maritime empires. zheng he's voyages to the west did not lead to china establishing permanent colonies overseas, in stark contrast to the voyages of columbus and cook. although chinese immigrants have long settled in southeast asia, no chinese dynasty has ever attempted to conquer malaysia or indonesia. so-called western "realists" often ignore these cultural observations and just count bombers and warships. china is significantly increasing its military power, but even thucydides, the founder of "realism", emphasized the cultural differences between athens (a chaotic sea power) and sparta (a cautious land power) when explaining the peloponnesian war. some western analysts admit that the picture they paint does not match reality, and they settle for beijing building bases and projecting power overseas. but obviously, maintaining overseas bases to project power is what the united states has been doing for decades. in the final analysis, it is the united states that does not allow another america to appear. there is a chinese saying that "there can be no two tigers in one mountain." (author: william han) article on the website of the british "friends of socialist china" on august 28, original title: launching a global opposition to the new cold war in the rhetoric of the western media, china is an "aggressive" and "expansionist" country. what is the basis for this characterization? i would like to talk about some common themes. first is taiwan. the west accuses china of threatening to invade the island of taiwan. the funny thing is that china's position on the taiwan issue is completely consistent with international law and numerous un resolutions, not to mention various agreements between china and the united states. another accusation from the west is that china is expanding in the south china sea. in fact, such disputes are left over from our ancestors and are not easy to resolve. disputes involving china are more concerned because the united states tries to use the disputes to incite anti-china sentiment in southeast asia and discredit china as much as possible. china's position on these issues has not changed, but the western anti-china propaganda has escalated. then there is the issue of nuclear weapons. western media is full of alarmist reports about china's expansion of its nuclear arsenal. but china has less than 500 nuclear warheads, while the united states has more than 5,000. among all the nuclear powers, china is the only one that explicitly pursues a "no first use" policy. china wants to maintain nuclear deterrence because if it does not, the united states will not hesitate to provoke a war. yes, china has become the world's second largest economy. china has become a technological power and has successfully modernized. in the west, modernization is a violent process that relies on colonialism, slavery, war, plunder and domination. the same process made europe and north america rich and impoverished africa, asia, latin america, the caribbean and the pacific. seeing china's rise, some people think that china will follow the same aggressive trajectory as europe, the united states and japan. however, china's rise has been unusually peaceful. when britain and the united states were at china's current stage of development, they were engaged in endless wars of conquest and domination. china has adopted a completely different approach to international relations. china's economic rise has never been based on domination of other countries' land, labor, resources and markets. at the same time, we see that the united states and its allies are promoting a new cold war, escalating the containment and containment of china. but the vast majority of people in the world do not want war, whether cold or hot. what we need is global cooperation. (author carlos martinez, translated by qiao heng)▲