Once upon a time, former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping suggested
that Asia’s Pacific powers and wannabes should “put aside differences
and jointly develop resources.” That was, of course, when China itself
was still something of a wannabe and no one was talking about it
becoming the world’s largest economy. Now, it’s the rising power on planet Earth, achieving a more-than-century-old dream of returning to national greatness -- as well as an eye-blistering, health-endangering level of industrial and car pollution that has its own name, “airpocalypse.”
Problem is the idea of regional cooperation turns out to have been the
real dream and now, it seems, everyone in the Pacific basin has woken
up.
“Jointly develop”? What an ephemeral thought at a time when the urge
to power up ever more cars and factories (sending yet more pollution,
not to speak of greenhouse gases, into Asian and planetary skies) has
merged with advances in drilling technology for “extreme energy.”
Together, they have made a series of previously unremarkable islets in
the Pacific -- which just happen to have prospective oil and natural
gas reserves under them -- look too valuable to resist claiming. So
China, Japan, and various other Asian countries are insisting those
bits of land are theirs and theirs alone. Toss in that hideous
imponderable national pride and, as TomDispatch regular
Michael Klare points out today, you have the potential for one of the
dumber, more destructive face-offs in recent history. With its usual
fabulous timing, the U.S., already heavily garrisoning parts of Asia,
has jumped in with both feet, only exacerbating tensions in the region, while promising to bring more of its own weaponry to bear, and sell more of that weaponry to its allies.
