Interpreting President Putin’s Insight About The Asia-Pacific

The Russian leader correctly pinpointed the US’ modus operandi when it comes to its attempted “deterrence” (“containment”) of China, which he strongly implied revolves around the dual military-strategic cores of AUKUS and the emerging US-Japan-Republic of Korea trilateral.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a detailed speech about International Relations on Friday ahead of his country’s incorporation of four former Ukrainian regions after their recent referenda. He touched upon many pertinent issues, both past and present, including those connected to the Asia-Pacific. The first reference on this subject concerned the era of classic European colonialism, during which time India was plundered and China was forced to open its ports to the opium trade.

These facts were shared to remind everyone about England, France, and other countries’ consistent history of subjugating people across the Global South, which the Russian leader said remains in effect today, albeit in a contemporary form. Shortly after, he drew attention to the US’ dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan, which he described as setting a precedent. About that island nation, President Putin then added that it, the Republic of Korea, Germany, and other countries are still occupied by the US.

Those first two Asia-Pacific states are also envisaged by America as playing another role as well. According to him, “Much is being done to create a Washington-Seoul-Tokyo military-political chain.” Considering that the preceding sentence in his speech was about “cobbl[ing] together new military alliances, such as AUKUS and the like”, it can be interpreted that he was implying that these two trilaterals are complementary in the military-strategic sense of advancing America’s hegemonic aims.

Almost immediately afterwards, President Putin thundered that “Western elites are presenting their neocolonialist plans with the same hypocrisy, claiming peaceful intentions, talking about some kind of deterrence. This evasive word migrates from one strategy to another but really only means one thing – undermining any and all sovereign centres of power. We have already heard about the deterrence of Russia, China and Iran.”

From context, it’s clear that the Russian leader believes that the two aforementioned American-led Asian trilaterals are intended to advance that declining unipolar hegemon’s planned “deterrence” (“containment”) of China. In other words, he foresees the US replicating the aggressive military-strategic policies that it’s already applying in Europe against Russia in the Asia-Pacific against China. This is being done to “undermin[e] any and all sovereign centres of power” as he also added in his speech.

Elsewhere in his address, President Putin declared that “Western countries have been saying for centuries that they bring freedom and democracy to other nations. Nothing could be further from the truth. Instead of bringing democracy they suppressed and exploited, and instead of giving freedom they enslaved and oppressed. The unipolar world is inherently anti-democratic and unfree; it is false and hypocritical through and through.”

He also later mentioned that “The truth has been drowned in an ocean of myths, illusions and fakes, using extremely aggressive propaganda, lying like Goebbels. The more unbelievable the lie, the quicker people will believe it – that is how they operate, according to this principle.” These observations are just as true when it comes to America’s attempted “deterrence” (“containment”) of China as it is vis a vis Russia. High-sounding rhetoric is spewed to disguise the most amoral power plays in history.

On that topic, it should also be said that President Putin harshly criticized the so-called “rules-based order”, which is nowadays commonly weaponized against China just as much as against Russia. In his words, “Where did that come from anyway? Who has ever seen these rules? Who agreed or approved them? Listen, this is just a lot of nonsense, utter deceit, double standards, or even triple standards! They must think we’re stupid.”

Despite the formidable challenges posed by the US to Russia and China – which he earlier described as a “hybrid war” that also includes sanctions on top of conventional aggression and information warfare – the Russian leader is confident that the emerging Multipolar World Order is irreversible. He lauded the rise of new power centres near the end of his speech and said that “They see in multipolarity an opportunity to strengthen their sovereignty”.

President Putin added that “[this] means gaining genuine freedom, historical prospects, and the right to their own independent, creative and distinctive forms of development, to a harmonious process.” This description undeniably applies to China, which shares precisely that outlook on International Relations as envisaged through its stated desire to peacefully assemble a community of shared future for mankind through mutually beneficial economic cooperation.

All told, his insight into the Asia-Pacific is intriguing. The Russian leader correctly pinpointed the US’ modus operandi when it comes to its attempted “deterrence” (“containment”) of China, which he strongly implied revolves around the dual military-strategic cores of AUKUS and the emerging US-Japan-Republic of Korea trilateral. He also exposed America’s “rules-based order” as nothing but a major lie that’s responsible for manipulating global perceptions about sovereign countries like Russia and China.

Even though Europe is on the other side of the Eastern Hemisphere than the Asia-Pacific, the military-strategic processes that the US set into motion in the former as part of its hegemonic plot to “deter” (“contain”) Russia are relevant in the latter when it comes to China. Just like Russia has successfully resisted the US’ unipolar hegemony, it therefore naturally follows that China will too, with these two major states serving as the dual engines of the emerging Multipolar World Order to liberate humanity.