[5 min read]
Politics, they say, make strange bedfellows.
This is a tale of a steamy affair between the People’s
Republic of China and The Russian Federation. An affair that invokes fear in
its purest form and suspicion in its darkest form in the bleeding hearts of
other East Asian Nations.
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| Asides ordering bomber aircraft into forbidden airspace to instill the fear of sweet hell into the hearts of some other nations, the Presidents of both nations do cute stuff too. You know, like cook together. Too much for our tiny hearts and teary eyes. China and Russia sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G. |
The convergence of these two love birds has no real
butterflies and endorphins involved, it is rather a classic and graphic
illustration of the agelong “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” doctrine.
A highly efficient fuel that has historically driven most political alignments
internationally for decades and maybe even centuries; case in point: the mutual
hatred of the British helped create the American-French partnership in wars
that resulted in both their independences in the 19th Century.
Unlike the Americans and the French centuries ago, this pair
(The Chinese and Russians) have no need surely for independence, what they do
share is a mutual dislike and deep-rooted suspicion for the nation the Iranians
affectionately call “The Great Satan” (In layman’s language; The United States).
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| The great Satan. The US. The common enemy that like Cupid, has fired arrows of love into Chinese and Russian hearts. |
Here’s what’s at stake.
East Asia (China, Japan, Mongolia, Taiwan, Hong Kong
and The Koreas), a sub-region of 1.6 billion people (accounting for
some 22% of the World population) and a home for tech giants like Huawei
(China), Samsung and LG (South Korea) and Sony, Toshiba, Canon, Nikon, Sharp et
cetera (all Japanese) is the keg of gunpowder that this Sino-Russian alliance
threatens to rock.
The sub-region always has been on the precipice of some
turmoil or the other, usually sub-lethal however. From Pyongyang’s insistence on being Nuclear-armed and
scaring everyone half to death, to persistent protests in Hong Kong (Officially called The Hong Kong Special
administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China) and personal
favorite, the disputed Island.
The said Island, known as Dokdo by the South
Koreans and Takeshima by the Japs has been claimed by both sides resulting in
decades of political unrest between both nations who just happen to be allies
of the United States.
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| The disputed Island: Dokdo in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan. The source of a brewing feud between two tech giant nations and worrying for the US. |
To make matters worse, Washington has been unsuccessful in
its resolution of the feud and sits helpless as two of its vital allies refuse to back down
thus threatening its own agenda and the influence it has so meticulously built for decades in the sub-region.
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| The American President has on occasion tried to broker some settlement between both President Moon Jae-in of South Korea (to his right) and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan (to his left). |
The Americans always have had a considerable interest in the
sub-region and have been willing to sit at a table with mortal enemies, North
Korea and China, to secure the safety of Japan and South Korea.
Problem is, the Chinese, with its staggering economic,
political and military strength have for long eyed that same influence in the
sub-region for keeps. This has put the Chinese and the Americans on a direct
collision course.
To help its chances for such a delicate undertaking and to ensure they weren't bringing a butter knife to a shotgun duel, the Chinese played a
simple card. Got into bed with the one nation that, apart from disliking the
Americans, is able and ever-willing to piss them off.
Step forward, Putin-land (or as your old-fashioned Geography
teacher calls it, Russia).
 |
| "You want to piss off the Yanks? Say no more". In this photo, they spot the same neck tie color. Donald Trump will be jealous. |
The alliance progressed at an almost break-neck speed. The
inability of the Americans to get their allies (Japan and South Korea) to
present a united front then created an opening. An opening so juicy, Xi Xingping
and Vladimir Putin dived into it head first.
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| Chinese and Russian forces have since been involved in joint military drills and the photo might suggest that they might in fact be in love. Oh how cute. |
23rd July, 2019, to make things Russian kind of
lively, during the Sino-Russian military exercises (war games), a Russian A-50
Military aircraft with two Chinese H-6 aircraft violated the airspace over the
disputed Island.
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| A Russian A-50 Aircraft violated the airspace over the disputed island to kickstart a rare pissing contest among four nations. |
South Korea responded first by scrambling jets and firing
more than 300 warning shots and flares at the intruders but get this, Japan
responded by calling out both Russia and South Korea for violating their own
airspace. A little bird tells me this was exactly the sort of reaction the
Russians wanted.
Not a mind reader or Nostradamus but I’m willing to bet that
Xi and Vladimir watched all of these go down laughing while they had downed
shots of Bloody Mary and Baijiu respectively.
Russia denied the events of course but like a wise old man
once said; “Never believe anything until Kremlin (Russian seat of government)
denies it”
With these two deeply calculating Presidents in a working
alliance, you can be rest assured this would unlikely be the last of the games
of Hegemony in East Asia. Worse still
is, for a wild card, both leaders have in recent times tried to seductively
recruit an erratic and largely unpredictable North Korea to their corner.
All of these developments scare Washington, Seoul and Tokyo silly.
They are losing and losing bad.
So while China and Russian currently sit in a tree
K-I-S-S-I-N-G, it’s not expected to be a forever arrangement. These guys are
not in front of a priest taking vows just yet (I mean even a divorce can undo
that in a jiffy). Even “The Big Three” (Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill and
Franklin Delano Roosevelt) after cooperatively dumping Adolf Hitler on the ash
heap of history still split up at some point.
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| (L-R; Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill). Despite collectively putting their common enemy Hitler and his Moustache out of existence, they proceeded to have nasty divorce. Like this photo suggests, Churchill in reality started the proceedings for the divorce. |
In that case, be rest-assured dear child that South Korea
will likely not be fire-balled into submission and the Samsung phone brand you
so vainly lust after will not be replaced by a Chinese Huawei brand that so
vainly lusts after you like every other thing “Made in China”.
We hope all of these remain sports for the amusement of a
few 60-something year olds and folks do not actually blow themselves sky high.
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| Kim Jong-Un (left) of North Korea is the good old fashioned fat kid with the ball that nobody really likes but must court so they can play his ball. His Nuclear-armed nation has become significant in the dynamics of this fierce contest for the control of East Asia. Here, he's with Xi Xingping of China. |
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| With Vladimir Putin of Russia |
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| ...And of course Donald Trump of the US. |
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