PROPAGANDA WARS FOR HEARTS & MINDS

“The United States deliberately misleads public opinion … in an attempt to confuse the international audience, . ." Tian Julin, a spokesperson for China’s defence ministry, said the US Indo-Pacific Command had distorted facts about the incident and that it was the US aircraft that had engaged in “dangerous maneuvers” against the Chinese jet.

Defence ministry says US distorted facts following a confrontation between a Chinese jet and a US plane over the South China Sea.

China’s defence ministry has accused the United States of violating international law and of “slander and hype” following a confrontation between a Chinese fighter jet and an American reconnaissance plane over the contested waters of the South China Sea.

The statement late on Saturday came days after the US military claimed that a Chinese J-11 fighter jet had come within 6 metres (20 feet) of a US RC-135 aircraft on December 21, forcing the latter to take evasive manoeuvres to avoid a collision.

But Tian Julin, a spokesperson for China’s defence ministry, said the US Indo-Pacific Command had distorted facts about the incident and that it was the US aircraft that had engaged in “dangerous maneuvers” against the Chinese jet.

Tian said the US aircraft was conducting intentional close-in reconnaissance on China’s southern coastline when the People’s Liberation Army sent fighter jets to track and monitor the plane.

Despite multiple warnings from the Chinese side, the US aircraft suddenly altered its flight stance in a “dangerous approach movement, which seriously compromised the flight safety of the Chinese military aircraft,” he said.

✓ The defence ministry also released a video of the incident, which it said showed the US aircraft manoeuvring towards the Chinese jet.

“The United States deliberately misleads public opinion … in an attempt to confuse the international audience,” Tian said.

“We solemnly request the US side to restrain the actions of frontline naval and air forces, strictly abide by related international laws and agreements, and prevent accidents in the sea and the air.”

China claims almost the entire South China Sea as its sovereign territory, but parts of it are contested by Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.

Trillions of dollars in trade flow every year through the waterway, which also contains rich fishing grounds and gas fields.

US military planes and ships routinely carry out surveillance operations and travel through the region, moves that China says are not good for peace.

Relations between the US and China have been tense, with friction rising between the world’s two largest economies over a range of issues, including Beijing’s human rights record and its claims over the self-ruled island of Taiwan.

Source Al Jazeera and news agencies

Russia’s president has broken years-long tradition, addressing the nation from a military HQ

"Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered his traditional New Year's Eve address on Saturday, speaking to the nation about the challenges the country has faced over the past year and the achievements it has made. The address venue differed drastically from the traditional Kremlin courtyard stand-up shots of the president, with Putin this year recording the annual message at the Southern Military District HQ. During his visit, he also met with top military brass and gave state awards to distinguished soldiers.

The unusually long address primarily revolved around the ongoing special military operation in Ukraine, the large-scale conflict which broke out late in February. The dramatic events have shown that Russia, "our multi-ethnic country has demonstrated its courage and dignity, as it always has during times of trouble," he said, praising the country’s military and common citizens alike.

"Russian soldiers, militia and volunteers are fighting for our homeland, for truth and justice, to ensure peace and security for Russia. All of them are heroes to us. Their burden is the heaviest today. With all of my heart, I wish a Happy New Year to all participants of the special military operation," the president said.

While the outgoing year has been "full of worries and anxiety" and many "tough, but necessary decisions" have been made, the country has made "critical steps towards achieving Russia’s full sovereignty and a vital consolidation of our society," the president said.

"This was a year of pivotal and fateful events that set the foundation of our common future and our true independence. This is what we are fighting for today. We are protecting our people in our historic lands, new constituent territories of the Russian Federation," the president stated, referring to the four formerly-Ukrainian regions, incorporated into Russia after September referendums.

Not only Russia but the whole world experienced a "significant change" over the past year, Putin said, adding that the efforts to harm Russia made by the collective West, which has been backing Ukraine in the ongoing conflict, have largely failed. The ongoing conflict has been "inspiring for other nations as they aspire to forge an equitable and multipolar world," the president noted.

"Russia has been living under sanctions since the events in Crimea in 2014. Yet this year, an all-out sanctions war has been declared against us. The masterminds behind it expected our industrial, financial and transportation sectors to collapse. This didn’t happen," Putin stressed."

The post-Cold War world had long been crumbling, and after this year, it’s finally gone

The year 2022 is coming to an end. It has been a year which has significant consequences for the future of global geopolitics, and will be remembered as such in the history books.

Specifically, it marked the closing of three decades of American unipolarity, which had begun with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and forced through a new multipolar world consisting of numerous competing great powers.

When the USSR fell in 1991, the US entered a period of unprecedented dominance whereby it finalized its position as the global hegemon. Its political, economic, and military power was unparalleled, and as such it had free rein to shape the global order to its liking. It is no surprise that in this period, the US did not pursue ‘great power competition’ but actively vested itself in scores of regime-change operations across every continent as it sought to implement what George H.W. Bush described as “the new world order.”

This included wars in Iraq, former Yugoslavia, Libya, Afghanistan, and Syria to name but a few. Likewise, it was able to use its undisputed power over institutions such as the United Nations to pile sanctions on smaller countries who defied its will, such as Iran and North Korea. Owing to the hubris of its Cold War victory in the belief in the inevitability of its ideology, or ‘the end of history’, the US during this period did not seek to counter states such as Russia or China precisely because it believed, at least initially, that these states were on a pre-determined path to westernization and liberalization. As such, the US actively promoted globalization through free trade and investment, perceiving them as a vehicle for its own values.

Fast forward to 2022, and the last remnants of these premature hopes have been swept away. Although long in the making, the past 12 months marked the ultimate consolidation of a new geopolitical era. Russia’s military operation in Ukraine proved to be a decisive turning point, which represented the final break from the world established by the fall of the USSR. The main catalyst of this shift was the US itself, which no longer liked what the globalization it was once championing, was now providing. That being the depletion of its hegemony through the resurgence of rival states which did not reform to its liking (Russia and China).

Seeing the rise of these countries, which had through America’s own approval integrated themselves within the global economy and prospered, but not adopted the American values as anticipated, the US veered back towards great power competition and began to provoke geopolitical conflict with a view to reasserting control over its wayward allies. This became extremely obvious in the foreign policy of the Biden administration, which sought to take an uncompromising approach to the expansion of NATO (igniting the conflict in Ukraine), while also aggressively accelerating attempts to contain China through the creation of new alliance systems such as AUKUS and escalating tensions over the Taiwan Strait.

These actions by America have changed the world. While the average Westerner, deceived by the mainstream media discourse, blames Putin, the reality is the US is the one that has actively dismantled the post-Cold War 1991 international order precisely because it believes it now comes at the expense of American power. Part of this is the effort to actively ‘roll back’ globalization. By creating geopolitical conflict, the US strives to reassert its military influence whilst forcing its allies to decouple from the targeted enemy country, even if that comes at a great expense to that ally’s economy. The US has sought to rip up energy markets with Russia, so European countries are forced to buy American gas instead. Likewise, it is bulldozing the entire semiconductor supply chain while forcibly rebuilding it around itself in a bid to isolate China. In doing so, it aims to destroy the integration of certain regions, such as Russia with Europe, China with Asia.

New book offers a vivid insider account of how Cold War Soviet and American efforts to ditch their nukes played out

The implications of these actions are huge. As the US tries to reclaim its hegemony, other countries are subsequently forced to increase their national capabilities and strategic autonomy to prevent themselves from being dominated. This has created new arms races, new technology races, and also the expansion of blocs alternate to the West, such as BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), and more. Whether the US likes it or not, this is the reality of the multipolarity it sought to prevent in the first place. The world now increasingly resembles what it looked like before 1914, or worse, before 1939, where there are not just two rival great powers, but a plethora of nations scrambling for influence. While the US strives to maintain its hegemony, it faces off against the challengers of China and Russia, but there are other rising powers too, including India and Indonesia.

As such, the year 2022 will stand as a definitive moment of change. The post-1991 world, although long fluttering, is finally gone. The new world is an increasingly uncertain arena of geopolitical conflict, making it less stable, less certain, and more divided than at any point since the end of the Second World War. This isn’t a new Cold War as such, it’s a new great game."

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

MesaZona > Table of Contents : Here's The Menu. Enjoy

01 January 2023