Danger of war in East Asia is ignored in the debate despite Beijing’s growing aggressiveness

The showdown debate between the presidents has proven one thing for sure: the next election does not depend on the escalating confrontation between the forces of freedom and those of communism in East Asia.

Unless it breaks out along the long Indo-Pacific border that stretches from South Korea through Taiwan to the Philippines.

All of these states are on the front line of the Indo-Pacific and are embroiled in conflicts with communist China or its proxy North Korea.

Washington is determined to defend them all against serious threats, including the nuclear weapons that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is pursuing with the support of communist President Xi Jinping.

Their fearsome names were mentioned as Trump warned, “We are very, very close to World War III” and said that neither Kim, Xi nor President Putin “respect” or “fear” Biden.

Biden then said, referring to notes between Trump and Kim after their summit in Singapore in June 2018: “The ones he befriends, from Kim Jong-un, to whom he sends love letters, to Putin and so on, they don’t want to mess with us.”

The specter of nuclear war flashed briefly when Biden asked whether Trump would “start the nuclear war” that Putin “keeps talking about” if Washington does not support its NATO allies. Neither said a word about the greater danger of Kim resorting to nuclear weapons against South Korea and Japan.

While the American aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt As they dock in the South Korean port of Busan and South Korean and Japanese aircraft conduct war games off the coast, both candidates seem unaware of the danger of conflict between China, Russia and North Korea on the one hand and America, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines on the other – as well as the island democracy of Taiwan.

Nor did they express any concern about Kim and Putin signing a pact promising to fight for each other if a real war breaks out. Perhaps the rhetoric is too heavy to take seriously when it says North Korea is dropping crap from balloons in a battle of K-pop and K-poop while South Korea is broadcasting loud music to North Korean soldiers just above the North-South border.

Even more dangerous, however, is that “advances in North Korea’s missile technology and the expansion of its nuclear force mean that the country poses a serious threat to the homelands of the United States and our allies in the Indo-Pacific region,” writes deterrence analyst Jennifer Bradley for the National Defense University Press.

Following the debate, no one would have guessed that “the prospect of a forced unification of China with Taiwan has dominated security analyses in recent years,” as Ms. Bradley wrote, or that “China’s ambitions extend much further” – to “the establishment of its own sphere of influence.”

In a poisonous atmosphere where a spark could ignite war, tensions are highest in the South China Sea, where Chinese ships have rammed Filipino vessels and are reclaiming rights to shoals and islets that belong to the Chinese.

“The Chinese actions are certainly destabilizing the region,” said outgoing commander of the American forces in the Pacific, Admiral John Aqualino, in an interview with PBS. “They endanger Philippine coast guardsmen, sailors and fishermen who operate in their exclusive economic zone with the full rights of the Philippines” – and “could well pose a challenge to the United States.”

“The security environment has changed dramatically,” said Admiral Aquilino. The communist Chinese have not only “expanded their military capabilities,” he warned, “they have now reached a dangerous acceleration” – but not enough for a presidential debate.