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French President Macron’s recent visit to China, with a large delegation of businessmen in tow, culminated with Macron and Chinese President Xi Jinping signing a 51-point joint declaration. The agreement detailed France’s strategic partnership with China, without regard for the major ideological differences that separate them. This should not have surprised the U.S. since President Macron publicly stated that France sought “strategic autonomy” from the U.S. and even encouraged the E.U. to follow suit. But Macron’s actions were met with disappointment by naive Americans, who still expected French gratitude for saving the continent in WW1 and WW2. How ungrateful can an ally be, they wondered.
At about the same time, in the Middle East – three months after Xi’s visit to Riyadh – Chinese diplomats brokered a deal between Saudi Arabia and its sworn enemy, Iran. The leading Sunni Kingdom and its revolutionary Shiite enemy agreed to renew bilateral diplomatic ties, which were severed in 2016 after a mob attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran, following the execution of a prominent Shi’ah cleric in Riyadh.
These events demonstrated the rapidly declining status of the U.S. as a Superpower. According to Kenneth Abramowitz of the “Save the West” organization, one can make educated guesses as to why America’s supposed allies are now embracing Communist China.
1) France and Saudi Arabia seek trade concessions to penetrate the vast Chinese market.
2) Saudi Arabia hopes China will persuade Tehran to stop their proxies’ aggression against the Kingdom, especially the Houthis’ missile attacks from Yemen.
3) Defending Ukraine uses up NATO weapons inventories to such a massive extent that the E.U., NATO, and the U.S. would not have the resources to defend Taiwan when (not if) the Chinese attacked the independent island, which has never been part of the Communist People’s Republic of China.
4) Democracies are unwilling to spend sufficient resources to defend themselves.
5) Saudi Arabia no longer trusts America to protect the desert Kingdom. And while the Saudi military is better armed than Iran’s military, it is less experienced in ground warfare than the Iranians.
6) The pragmatic French prefer a rising Superpower over a declining one.
We are witnessing how gross and purposeful mismanagement has rapidly transformed the U.S. into a paper tiger. As a result, America’s sunny-weather allies are watching the gathering clouds of the Ukraine-Russia war that could pose existential threats to them all. Taiwan appears far away to them, and China’s enormously sized economy is seductive, while its growing military power is intimidating. France, Iran, and Saudi Arabia are increasingly dancing to China’s music.
Can you blame them?
And let’s not forget that China has also offered to negotiate a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians. While this may sound laughable as Israel would never agree to such talks with China as they know that this move is targeted towards disempowering American influence in the region, one has to pause and come to the realization that the brazenness of the Chinese government is growing at blinding speed.
Getting back to Taiwan for the moment, the essential ingredients for a recipe of disaster are coming together to produce an ominous “Perfect Storm” and could very well be the event that triggers World War III. China’s presence in the South China sea is the clearest evidence that their military aggression is expanding and an attack on the island nation does not seem so far off.
We should also not be shocked to hear at some point that North Korea may unless its nuclear rockets and warheads as they get the “green light” to move full steam ahead from China.
