THIRD WORLD WAR

The world had seen two wars that encompassed the entire globe from the early 1900 to mid 1900 leading to various changes both geographically and politically and in terms of power structure.  The war that was fought against the ambitions of Hitler in the mid 1900 saw birth of new nations carved out of the existing nations and emergence of two nations stronger than others leading to bi-polarization of the nations along their ideologies.  This also gave way to a third block of nations that did not want to get identified with either of the camps and stand neutral for their own reasons.

Presently, the comity of nations is waging a war and not an unseen enemy but a known and trusted industrial outpost of the world for close to three decades. Yes. The world is fighting a war that is unleashed on the world by China in various forms, first in the form of a virus that encompassed the entire world with about half the population locked down, about 2.8 million population in about 200 countries infected with the virus let loose from that country and about 200,000 deaths the world over.  The entire world is facing one of the toughest challenges of balancing between the spread of the virus that kills many and the economic damages that it has wrecked on the nations thanks to the lock down imposed in many countries to contain the spread of virus.  

The economic damage that has caused the prices of industries and listed companies to nose dive is a dessert for China who  is picking up these listed companies like apples in an orchard at throw away prices. The country is sitting on a huge pile of cash that it has accumulated in the last three to four decades when the late leader Deng Xiaoping who ruled China for a little under a decade and a half from 1978. He is responsible for opening up China for the capitalist ideas of setting up manufacturing units in many cities that have come to rival the best in the world.  He offered an economic package to many multi national companies that was very difficult to refuse.  It was like the famous dialogue from the cult film God Father where the protagonist said that he would offer something that the other would not be able to refuse.

When the entire world is facing shortage of medicine, vaccine that is yet to be developed, tested and introduced, medical supplies like testing kits, PPE, masks, ventilators, etc, China is ever ready to supply to those who need them despite being sub-standard.  This is one way of delaying the cure of the disease and increase the numbers of infected and deceased in every country.  Though the political decisions taken in a few countries may be the reason for the spread of the virus like a wild fire in those countries, the absence of proper medicine, testing kits, faulty PPE, masks and other medical supplies cannot be ruled out in the increasing number of deceased. China had taken the entire world for a big royal ride over this spread of the virus.

As if these economic and health attacks are not enough, China is now embarking on its aggressive military actions in South China Sea where it has already claimed two islands, Paracell and Spratly and renamed them as its own districts.  These islands are one of the disputed territories among a group of nations in the South China Sea.  It is also flexing its muscles by sending its warships into South China Sea near Taiwan who, it had not recognized as a separate nation and has been claiming as a separate district of China all along. Even in the east China Sea, China is now aggressively posing near the Senkaku island which is a disputed territory between Japan and China.

Many countries, states in USA have been talking of filing or already filed suits for reparations from China for the economic losses unleashed by this virus from China. Though this may be dismissed by the Chinese regime as nothing but a poser it cannot be refuted that China had made these once strong economies into a vulnerable and tottering ones in the aftermath of the spread of the virus from China.  When the reporters started questioning the China's stand on all these issues, instead of a normal passive reply, now the Chinese diplomats have become very aggressive in ticking off the media from other countries.  This diplomatic fight is seen in the way China's spokesman Zhao Lijian or the other foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang react to questions and their aggressive nature in dealing with the media which was not the case about a year back.  It is reported that even Chinese envoys posted abroad have become highly aggressive when dealing with local media.

The proliferation of fake news that emerge from China as if they emanate from other countries is another art of war on the psychology of the unsuspecting people around the world.  It is aided equally strongly and ably by its friends in these difficult times, Pakistan, the ever ready associate and Russia the other communist regime.  The fake news that are coming out of these three countries are making the lives of many unsuspecting population of the other countries difficult and at times very stressful.

As if the above forms of war on nations are not enough, the Chinese administration has been lending to weaker economies which are worse off. When the countries are not in a position to pay off such loans, China is embarking on acquiring some assets including specific geographies of such countries that have taken loans from China.  Humpanthota port in Srilanka, a few areas like Aksai Chin in POK and Gwadr port Baluchistan and a few countries in Africa and far east and South Asia are examples of this expansionist avenues of China.This also has aggravated the situation globally with many smaller nations finding it very difficult to sustain its sovereignty in such an attack on themselves.  China has also invested heavily in all the global organization like UNO, UNICEF, UNHCR, WHO, IMF and IBRD etc. This has come to bear fruits in difficult times to China.  WHO went out of the way to support China in its fight against the present pandemic and praised China's efforts.  In case of a global outrage against China, there is no guarantee these global organizations will stand against China.

All these point to one thing that the present leadership of China is practicing what the Chinese author Sun Tzu wrote in his Art of War in the 5th century BCE. Chinese present leadership has wrecked an enormous economic disaster on other nations, supply poor quality medical equipment, taken an aggressive stance in south and east China seas, unleashed a diplomatic onslaught on the foreign media and is ever ready to expand this into a global war.  What Deng Xiaoping did in 1980s for emergence of China from the shadows of communism to be the global base of manufacturing for the world, the present premier of China Xi Jinping is doing to unseat the only super power in the world and shuffle the power structure in the post virus world.  With that in mind, China has now embarked on a very dangerous trend to put all nations into a war-mode not necessarily against the unseen enemy but against itself.  Will the world see one more nuclear attack and a war with WMDs is a question that will be uppermost in most of the diplomatic circles. What will be outcome of such a physical war if and when it comes is any one's guess.