First of all, we note the great resurgence of the BRICS partnership of the major developing countries under the chairmanship of China this year. Previously, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi had introduced the idea of the “BRICS plus” which is to open BRICS to more developing countries after the over a decade long evolution and growth of the original five-member economic development partnership.

 

Iran and Argentina have applied to join hands with the original five, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and waiting in the wings are Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, UAE, Nigeria, Senegal and Thailand. But indicative of its future expansion are the memberships of the two financial pillars of the BRICS, the New Development Bank (formerly BRICS Bank) which has nine members states and its sister bank the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank AIIB) which has 105 going to 119 members.

 

The BRICS was conceived as a bod of major developing nations excluded from global decision- making processes which the G7 by default dominated After over a decade of evolution the BRICS has come out very strong, particularly with the leadership and resources of China and enhancement by the other major developing countries assertiveness in global affairs and growing global economic clout with a market of 3-billion and GDP of $23.5-trillion.

 

BRICS is the real unifier of the World serving as the beacon for the vast majority of the population of the world while its overall leadership represents the genuine view of the rest of the globe in world affairs. In the US/Ukraine conflict versus Russia the BRICS countries all stayed neutral and called for conflict resolution through talks and mediation, refusing to be drawn in by the US attempts at polarizing the world – a position that the vast majority of non-G& countries favor.

 

The significance of the BRICS plus growth and expansion is its signaling of the emergence of the New World Order according to the majority of the nations of the world, marking the end times of the Age of Western Imperialism and Colonialism, the end of the West’s power to divide-and-conquer smaller nations, the end of the Uni-Polar world and, finally, the rise of the Multi-Polar, global democratic political and economic order. We celebrate this historic change in first quarter of Mankind’s 21^st Century.

 

The U.S. escalating Taiwan provocations

 

In April a bunch of U.S. lawmakers visited Taiwan and purposely announced publicly their support for a self-governing island and issuing a warning to China then met with Taiwan puppet Tsai Ing-wen. They were six lawmakers, Sen. Robert Menendez spoke praising Taiwan’s “democracy” but in the fashion of “ambiguity” stressed that “We seek no conflict with China”. The delegation was led by Sen. Lindsey Graham and included Richard Burr, Robert Portman, Benjamin Sasse and Rep. Ronny Jackson.

 

In May another US delegation, this time of former senior US defense and security officials led by retired Navy admiral Mike Mullen visit Taiwan. Accompanied by former Deputy National Security Adviser Meghan O’Sullivan and former undersecretary of defense Michele Flournoy. Two former National Security Council senior directors for Asia, Mike Green and Evan Medeiros, also joined the trip which is intended to “demonstrate our continued robust support for Taiwan,” media was told.

 

Now comes the U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi signaling that she plans to visit Taiwan in August of this year, she was supposed to have visited with the April delegation of U.S. legislators but caught Covid. If Pelosi does visit it would be the first in 25-years after Speaker Newt Gingrich visit in 1997. Already, reacting to her aborted April Taiwan visit Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in April that a Pelosi visit would be a “malicious provocation”.

 

The U.S. Council of Foreign Relations have published in many articles and reports the following official position of the US on Taiwan and China’s sovereignty over it, to wit: the U.S. “acknowledges the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China” and that the PRC is the “sole legal government of China” (some U.S. officials have emphasized that the use of the word “acknowledge” implies that the United States doesn’t necessarily accept the Chinese position)”

 

How can an “acknowledgement” not be as the American dictionaries define “accept or admit the existence or truth of” or “(of a body of opinion) recognize the fact or importance or quality of” and not mean acceptance or recognition of China’s legitimate claim over Taiwan is beyond reason. But the reality is the U.S. wants to retain controlled of the Taiwan island to milk it for U.S. war industry profits exporting over $ 20-billion in just the 4 years of the Trump administration from 2017 to 2020.

 

Secondly, the U.S. uses Taiwan like Hong Kong prior to the 2021 routing of the separatist elements and Tibet in 1959 and until the recent visit of UNCHR High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet to Xinjiang that laid to rest the allegations of “human rights abuses” – the U.S. attempts to use Taiwan as an issue to destabilize the peaceful reunification of Taiwan to China and the Asia-Pacific region’s equanimity and stable environment for progress towards prosperity.

 

The Philippines should be more active in denouncing the hostile and aggressive interference of the U.S. in the region and in the affairs of countries, particularly China, in its continuing quest to reinvigorate its fading hegemony in Asia. China is the major factor in the region’s current stability and confident march to prosperity in the first half of the 21th Century, hence the Philippines and the rest of Asia must help in stopping U.S, interference.