The Chinese government is not happy about U.S. President Barack Obama’s decision to lift a decades-long arms trade embargo with Vietnam.
On Monday, the POTUS announced his decision, further ratcheting up tensions between China and the States over the territorial conflict in the South China Sea.
President Barack Obama lifts arms embargo on Vietnam, Reuters, May 23, 2016.
While Beijing claims it welcomes Vietnam’s pursuit of normal and friendly relations with any country, there’s a catch:
“So long as [renewed relations are] conducive to this region’s stability and development,” China warns U.S. officials and other countries involved in the South China Sea dispute.
“The Chinese people do not want to have war, so we will be opposed to the U.S. if it stirs up any conflict,” he said, reported Daily Mail UK last Friday. “Of course, if the Korean War or Vietnam War are replayed, then we will have to defend ourselves.”
Mainstream media largely reported on Monday that the president’s move should indeed be perceived as an indirect threat to China. The president stated that the United States and Vietnam have mutual concerns about maritime issues and the importance of maintaining freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.
President Obama also reminded the world that while Washington doesn’t take sides on the territorial dispute, it does support a diplomatic resolution based on “international norms” and “not based on who’s the bigger party and can throw around their weight a little bit more,” reported FOX News this morning
Of course Obama was referring to China throwing her weight around, and it is true that the Chinese have become more bellicose in the last year or two. But it is hard to see how selling weapons to our previous enemy helps to rein in China, and it certainly antagonizes U.S. citizens or troops who suffered through the war with Vietnam. And perhaps that is one of Obama’s objectives. He has shown himself to be a vindictive, small, and angry man who enjoys poking his finger in the eye of anyone he wants to antagonize or remind that he is not happy with them.
It is entirely possible that Obama, who will remember the Vietnam war and would have been angered by it and simply wants to outrage veterans and make a political statement about the war. That is certainly not beyond the pale, and would align with other petty things that he has done during his presidency. It also squanders any opportunity we had to influence human rights abuses that are commonly practiced by the communist regime in Vietnam. Obama, quite simply, is completely out of his league when it comes to international relations.
Source: moneymorning.com
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