US vice president beats war drums in Asia
By
Peter Symonds
20 November 2018
US Vice President Mike Pence used Asian summit meetings over the past week to set out an ultimatum to China that accelerates the drive to war. Either China bows to the demands of American imperialism and accepts a subservient, semi-colonial status, or it will confront the full force of US diplomatic, economic and ultimately military weight.
Speaking at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, Pence accused China of taking “advantage of the United States for many, many years” and declared “those days are over.” He bluntly warned that “the US will not change course until China changes its ways” and warned that the US could “more than double” the existing massive tariffs on Chinese goods.
Pence effectively ruled out any deal between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Argentina later this month. He told the Washington Post en route to Singapore that Xi had to come to the summit with “concrete proposals” not just on the US trade deficit with China, but across a broad range of issues—political and military as well as economic.
Pence insisted that China had to “change its ways” on alleged “intellectual property theft, forced technology transfer, restricted access to Chinese markets, disrespect for international rules and norms, efforts to limit freedom of navigation in international waters and Chinese Communist Party interference in the politics of Western countries.”
The vice president’s comments reprise the belligerent anti-China speech that he delivered in October that has set the tone of the Trump administration’s intensifying confrontation with China. In effect, Washington is insisting that Beijing abandon plans to develop…