Sound The Trumpet : The Coming Conflict Between China and the U.S.

Must Listen

Must Read

What Art Thinks

Pre-Millennialism

Today's Headlines

Sorry... Not Available

Locally Contributed...

Audio

Video

Special Interest

Daily News

22333

“The Coming Conflict Between China and the U.S.”
by Prophecy New Watch
June 20th, 2014

Could China and the United States be heading towards a military confrontation? China’s aggression in the East and South China Seas, towards or close to U.S strategic interests and allies, suggests a deliberate Beijing engineered process of provocative military behavior towards the United States.

The Huffington Post,in an article written by Hugh White, weighed in on the question of exactly what China is up to: “Many people find it hard to understand why China is acting the way it is in the East and South China Seas. What does Beijing hope to achieve by alienating its neighbors and undermining regional stability?”

A commentary given by The Council on Foreign Relations ,in a recent presentation titled ‘China’s Maritime Disputes’ states that The East and South China Seas are the scene of escalating territorial disputes between China and its neighbors, including Japan, Vietnam, and the Philippines. The tensions, shaped by China's growing assertiveness, have fueled concerns over armed conflict and raised questions about Washington's security commitments in its strategic rebalance toward the Asia-Pacific region.

White suggests in his analysis that China is trying to build what President Xi Jinping calls "a new model of great power relations" under which Xi wants China to wield much more power and influence in Asia than it has for the past few centuries. The core strategy is to acquire this power and influence at the expense of America. White continues to summarize his view of other components of the Chinese plan:

• Weakening the relationships between the U.S and her East and South China Seas allies by undermining the confidence America's Asian friends have that America is able and willing to protect them from China's power. Beijing plans to press those friends and allies hard on issues in which America's own interests are not immediately engaged -like a string of maritime disputes in which the U.S. has no direct stake.

• By using direct armed pressure in these disputes, China makes its neighbors more eager for U.S. military support, and at the same time makes America less willing to give it, because of the clear risk of a direct U.S.-China clash. This reaction by the U.S is likely to weaken America's alliances and partnerships, undermine U.S. power in Asia, and enhance China's power. White gives the examples of China’s attempts to test U.S. willingness to support its allies over the Scarborough Shoals and Senkaku/Daioyu disputes.

• White argues that we can now expect China to further test U.S resolve by applying more pressure in the same places or elsewhere: "And that is what Beijing is doing today in the waters off Vietnam. It is calling Obama's bluff. Expect more pressure against Manila and Tokyo soon.”

According to White, China’s confidence reflects two key judgments by its leaders:

1.They believe that China's new anti-access/area denial capabilities can deny America a quick and easy victory in a maritime clash in the East Asian littoral waters, without provoking a full-scale war. This confidence is based on China's leader’s belief that their U.S. counterparts know that they can neither win nor limit such a war against China today.

2.Beijing believes the balance of resolve is on China's side and that Washington understands this imbalance of resolve. That makes the Chinese confident that U.S. leaders will not assume that China would back down first in a crisis.

On the other hand, Washington’s consensus is that Beijing is not really serious about challenging U.S. leadership in Asia because Beijing's leaders must know they would lose in a confrontation, and they do not care enough about expanding China's role in Asia to take that risk.

White concludes that both Washington and China are steadily upping the stakes in their rivalry as China's provocations of US friends and allies become more flagrant and America's commitments to support them become more categorical. Both nations believe they can do this with impunity because of the expectation that the other will back down to avoid a clash. White’s concern is simple but his conclusion stark: There is a disconcertingly high chance that they are both wrong.

So what outcome can be expected? Who will blink first in this game of “chicken” being played by two military mega powers? From a Bible Prophecy perspective, could it be that China will eventually come out on top? After all, many Bible scholars have concluded that the United States does not seem to feature as a major economic or military player in the end-time scenarios primarily described in the Books of Ezekiel, Daniel and Revelation.

China on the other hand, has a clear role to play as the leader of the “Kings of the East” referred to as coming against Israel in the last days – when the United States will apparently be either unable or unwilling to intervene.

It will be interesting to see how the developing U.S/China rivalries will eventually pan out in detail in the end, and to watch the ancient prophecies of the Bible being fulfilled.

Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13