US war faction pushes Asia into chaos

China's leaders patiently continue to lay the truth on the table, while making clear that they will not sit idle while the situation continues to deteriorate. In a press conference on the sidelines of the National People's Congress in Beijing on 8 March, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that China is "trying to play a bigger role in existing international order and system", but that it will never seek hegemony— "China will never become another America. China has no intention to supersede or lead others", reported Xinhua.

He warned that the United States is interfering in the South China Sea in a dangerous and provocative way: "Freedom of navigation does not imply doing whatever you want. … Thanks to joint efforts made by China and other countries in the region, the South China Sea remains among the world's safest and freest sea lanes. Any attempts to disturb the South China Sea and destabilise Asia would not be allowed by China and most other countries in the region", he said. He warned the USA against "muddying the waters", which could "plunge Asia into chaos", adding that the "Philippines' stubbornness on the South China Sea dispute is the result of behind-the-scene instigation, political manoeuvring."

Wang Yi also intervened in the Korean Peninsula destabilisation, amid provocative manoeuvres in the region involving 17,000 US troops and 300,000 South Korean troops. The military exercises which began on 7 March include "rehearsals of surgical strikes on North Korea's main nuclear and missile facilities and decapitation raids by special forces targeting the North's leadership", according to the 7 March Washington Post.

"There is some sabre-rattling on the Korean Peninsula", Wang said, "and the situation is becoming a bit explosive. If the tensions worsen or get out of control, it would be a disaster for all parties."

"As the largest party and neighbour, China will not sit by and see a fundamental disruption of stability on the peninsula, and will not sit by and see unwarranted damage to China's security interests." He urged a two-track approach, combining the process of eliminating nuclear weapons with motion on a peace treaty.

Wang and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called for a peace process to commence, and condemned the planned US deployment of THAAD missiles (Terminal High Altitude Area Defence) in South Korea, after a meeting in Moscow on 10 March.

Wang said, "We stand firmly against the deployment of the THAAD missile defence system to South Korea under the pretext of the nuclear problem of the Korean Peninsula. We believe this to be directly damaging to Russian and Chinese strategic security. … Such plans go beyond the defence requirements in the region, violate the strategic balance and would lead to a new arms race."

Lavrov said, "The plans, which the US has been nursing together with the Republic of Korea, exceed any conceivable threats that may come from North Korea, even taking Pyongyang's current actions into account."

Executive Director of the Russian National Committee on BRICS research, Georgy Toloraya, who addressed the CEC's national conference in March 2015 and is an expert on North Korea, put out a warning regarding how Pyongyang may react to the current escalation. On 5 March on the website of a US-Korea Institute, 38 North, he said North Korea may respond to the new UN sanctions and the enormous US/South Korea military exercises with military action or cyber attacks, and may drop out of the UN. North Korea itself indicated in an official statement that it would consider a pre-emptive nuclear strike in retaliation, saying that the "undisguised nuclear war drills [are] aimed to infringe upon the sovereignty of the DPRK".

Toloraya also decried the sabotage of recent economic cooperation between Russia and North and South Korea, affecting in particular new rail links to the port of Rason in North Korea, through which Russian coal moves to South Korea. If the current trajectory continues, the entire New Silk Road development will be in jeopardy—no small part of the Anglo-American intention behind stirring up conflict in the region.