Though better known for his brutal war on drugs at home, the Philippine leader's volatile, one-man diplomacy could up-end 70 years of U.S. dominance in East Asia.
Noted journalist John Pilger talks about China, Okinawa, and U.S. policy in Asia.
With the election of Takeshi Onaga as the new governor of Okinawa, the Okinawa people have once again expressed in clear terms their opposition to the attempts by the U.S. and Japan to turn their already militarized island into "the largest concentration of land, sea, and air military power in East Asia." Okinawa is key to the U.S. military's "Pivot to Asia", but 1.4 million Okinawans are continuing to demand the removal of all U.S. military bases there.
Vietnam is justified in protesting the Chinese oil rig in the South China Sea. China is right in countering the US military buildup in southeast Asia. Duncan McFarland, who was in Vietnam at the height of the dispute in early reports from Vietnam and China. His conclusion: The working class should resist divide-and-conquer.
Since 2007, activists have risked arrests, imprisonment, heavy fines and massive police force to resist the desecration caused as mega-corporations like Samsung and Daelim to build a base to accommodate U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines for their missions throughout Asia. The base fits the regional needs of the U.S. for a maritime military outpost that would enable it to continue developing its Asia Pivot strategy.
Washington has an eagerness to extricate itself militarily from more than a decade of war in the Greater Middle East and “pivot” its strategic focus and resources more toward the Asia/Pacific and its highly complex relationships with China and key U.S. allies there.
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