Speaking of China, John Pilger has a documentary on "The Coming War on China". He talks about what Obama's Pivot to Asia really was about.
Interview here:
Trump talking to the Taiwanese President is his attempt to gain some type of leverage over China.
China is moving rapidly to establishing it's One Belt, One Road program (OBOR). Apart from the economic dimensions there is a strategic one.
Once the OBOR is completed it does not have the capacity to move even half of China's current trade, but it will ensure that China can never be blockaded like Japan in 1941. Once it's built you have guaranteed Chinese victory in any war near China.
The US has only a few years were it is capable of causing mayhem towards China in East Asia. Which is why you're seeing this buildup in the South China Sea.
The end game is near and the Washington hawks know it, the only escape is to provoke a thermonuclear war, the Chinese currently even according to Russian experts will be toast in under 30 min with not much retaliatory capability to push back.
The missile defense shield encirclement of Russia, which are really nuclear missiles as one Russian expert put it, puts the doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction at risk, the US can get away with massive first strike and only risk some retaliatory strikes from sub-marines with much of Europe becoming cannon fodder. Interestingly enough, Trump and Mattis both seem to be AGAINST first strike policy.
What China is doing is unprecedented, by giving all the countries on route the silk-road tremendous investment, leverage as well as gigantic economic benefits and prosperity, rather then old school hegemony with robbery, enslavement and looting, you best be assured those countries will all be staunch allies due to the mutual benefits. Iran is at the heart of this project. The first foreign leader in Tehran after the international sanctions were lifted in January was Xi Jinping and for good reason. China was one of the reasons Iran survived the sanctions regime and China is imprinting itself more and more throughout Iran.
General Flynn's hawkish tone on Iran... as well as Mattis' past comments on Iran needing to be taken with a harder line... Along with Trump's strong rhetoric about Beijing's economic policies seems to set the stage for the US trying to put a black eye on both countries and perhaps even trying to sabotage aspects of the One Belt One Road project.
There's a problem though... the US has no foothold in Central Asia and Afghanistan is really the only gateway it has.
