"China
has long received this message. In its rise as the world’s biggest
trader and manufacturer, China has been encircled by 400 U.S. military
bases—a provocation described by a former Pentagon strategist as “a perfect noose.”
This is not Trump’s doing. In 2011, then-President Barack Obama flew to
Australia to declare, in an address to its Parliament, what became
known as the “pivot to Asia”: the biggest buildup of U.S. air and naval
forces in the Asia Pacific region since World War II. The target was
China. America had a new and entirely unnecessary enemy. Today,
low-draft U.S. warships, missiles, bombers and drones operate on China’s
doorstep.
In July, one of the biggest U.S.-led naval exercises
ever staged, the biennial Operation Talisman Sabre, will rehearse a
blockade of the sea lanes through which run China’s commercial
lifelines. Based on an air-sea battle plan for war with China, which
prescribes a preemptive “blinding” attack, this “war game” will be
played by Australia."
