By Herman Tiu Laurel

 

The global struggle to bring to completion the historic shift from the Uni-polar, Western-centric world to the new multi-polar global “Community of Shared Future for Mankind” continues while Trump travels to China this week in a performative role as transactional leader of the West to shake hands with the major power of the multi-polar global community – China. Meanwhile the U.S. prods its vassal states, Japan and the Philippines, to escalate tensions in the Asean-China backyard with escalatory Balikatan military drills and provocative arms transfers.

            The “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” approach to all its geopolitical maneuverings is well known to the Global Majority now. The U.S. actual geopolitical overall strategy is the Mr. Hyde “murderous criminal” assaults in direct or proxy wars against smaller nations to maintain its hegemony, while it conducts “talks” like the rational Dr. Jekyll with major hegemony-opposing powers – but proves itself “agreement-incapable” (as Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov says) as it has shown in the Alaska talks with Putin, and several rounds of trade compromises with China.

Trump talks while “allies” militarize.

            Japan’s escalating militarization is a case in point, raising its defense budget from 1% of GDP to 2% (a real 2026 increase to $58-billion from $ 52.9-billion in 2024) and to 3.5% going forward, pushing the revision of the “Peace Constitution” Art. 9 that  “renounces war as a sovereign right, prohibits the threat or use of force to settle international disputes, and pledges not to maintain land, sea, or air forces,” start exportation of lethal weapons, deploys offensive missiles close to China and discusses owning nuke weapons – all under U.S. prodding.

            Despite the complete collapse of the three-years old “assertive transparency” psyops strategy of “provoke and cry ‘bully’” introduced by American infiltrator Raymond Powell into the Philippine defense and security South China Sea strategy, the U.S. and its Filipino and Japanese proxies are escalating the “militarization” of the regional situation by hyping the “largest ever” 17,000 troops US-Japan-PH Balikatan military exercise, deployment and firing of HIMARS missiles, and presence of air, land and sea Japanese military representation in the Philippines.

Allied war economies.

            At the same time the U.S. is pushing Japan to shift to a war economy, ramping up warship construction and lethal weapons exports to ironically “save its economy” but ultimately totally destroying its self when war does ensue. It is the same U.S. strategy to Western Europe since 2022, provoke the Ukraine War, sabotage Russia-Germany North Stream pipeline, monopolize Europe for expensive U.S. oil and leave de-industrialized Europe to turn to a war economy to employ workers in the war industry and justify higher taxes.

            These developments have all been predicted in Marxist socio-economic-political analysis, the last stage of capitalism is the imperialist wars to wipe out competition while quelling popular unrest with fascism. We’re seeing this in America, using force and violence to constrict the flow of global oil and trade, and pushing global conflict. But socialist China aims to render the American “paper tiger” completely toothless by cornering it into its own Continent and accept the multi-polar world and the “Community of Shared Future for Mankind.”

Senate tectonic shift.

            In the Philippines, the latest tectonic shift in the Senate is a rumbling of the Philippine political volcano that is part of the revolt against the current government’s “pivot to the U.S.” installing the “independent” political leadership and imminent re-institution of the “independent foreign policy,” “equi-distancing” from superpowers – the first step to the resumption of the pursuit of economic development and socially-oriented governance towards regional peace and cooperation and forever world peace and common prosperity. ###

   

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