“Is the big war coming?”

ds. Is the corona pandemic being used to prepare the West for war against China 75 years after the end of the Second World War? Recently, there has been a growing number of voices that see China as a major threat to world peace.
The “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” headlined on 12 May 2020: “China’s power triggers growing fears”. The People’s Republic of China, it continued, was using its economic power to modernise its military and expand its political influence around the globe. The USA felt challenged, Europe seemed hesitant.
This is followed by two contributions from the “Strategy Trends” series of the “Center for Security Studies” at ETH Zurich.
In an article entitled “Is the big war coming? Between the USA and China the danger of an armed conflict is increasing – this obliges us to say goodbye to illusions” the authors openly discuss the question of whether a war between the two great powers is to be expected. The Asia-Pacific region is facing a decisive decade. “Already today, an American-dominated and a Chinese model of order collide there.” Instead of a precarious balancing act for the benefit of the global economy, a confrontational downward spiral driven by both sides has taken its place. The Corona crisis has reinforced this trend. This is not yet an immediate prelude to a hegemonic elimination struggle on a global scale. But the developments in the Asia-Pacific region would shape the character of international relations far beyond the region in the coming years. Europe would also be affected by this.
The second article, “Beijing deliberately ensnares Europe”, warns once again that China consistently uses crises to expand its global influence. It warns that the EU lacks a unified response to China’s strategy and calls on Ursula von der Leyen to translate her wish for the EU Commission to be a “geopolitical commission” into action.
Isn’t this how wars have always been prepared?    •