Democrat July-August 2011 (Number 124)
Ring of fire around China
German foreign policy experts are predicting a massive arms buildup in East Asia and are not ruling out the possibility of US military aggression against China. According to a recent analysis provided at a symposium at the Federal College for Security Studies (BAKS) in Berlin, the United States is reinforcing its "military presence in the region" and is in the process - with the help of its allies - of laying a "preventive ring of fire" around the People's Republic of China. The symposium's participants, including high-ranking members of the German military, were sounding out which position the larger Asian nations would now take toward Beijing and if their respective military strategies include a confrontation with China as a possible or probable prospective scenario. The results constitute an interim balance sheet of western efforts to win allies against the Chinese rival. For years, Berlin, whose activities were not specifically handled at the BAKS' symposium, has been engaged in a massive arms buildup of the People's Republic of China's potential adversaries, including South Korea, which, occasionally over the past few years, has ranked the world's best customer of German war material. The German Bundeswehr has been supplementing the arms buildup of the respective countries with military cooperation programs.
For more see (German Foreign Correspondents 21.07.2011)