US 2023 provocation agenda

THINK A MINUTE

JHAN TIAFAU HURST starts, detours, and dead ends.

Remember, “No one ever got lost on a straight road.”

It’s actually quite easy to find the right road in life. For one thing, “If the truth is standing in your way, you know you’re headed in the wrong direction.”

It’s like going the wrong way on a one-way street: the person who turns around the soonest is the smartest and safest. There is nothing smart about being too stubborn and proud to admit we have made a mistake.

It makes no sense to ask

2 plus 2 to equal 5. Just like it makes no sense to ask God

Several news items from the US and Western media came off the press this past week, it gives an indication of the provocations the US is plotting again this 2023 to stir tension in the AsiaPacific region and provoke China and the countries of Asia and ASEAN.

The first news item is US Republican congressmen introducing a resolution calling for the US to recognize Taiwan as a sovereign, independent state and for the US to resume formal diplomatic ties with the island province of China.

This resolution blatantly violates the US “One China” policy -- that has been in place since 1972 and stated in the US-China Shanghai Communiqué of that year -- and crosses the supreme “red line” China has made crystal clear is not to be crossed by the US.

The second news from the US is the planned visit of new US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy which the reports say the Pentagon is now preparing security and other arrangements in anticipation of the possible stern responses from China reminiscent of the Taiwan “blockade” after the April 2022 Pelosi visit.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made her very provocative visit to Taiwan over the intense objections of China which resulted in a 5-day demonstration of China’s power by blockading Taiwan for five days as the US stood by helpless, and saw all direct talks with China cancelled.

Then the latest incendiary news over Taiwan is US Gen. Mike Minihan predicting that the US and China will “likely be at war over Taiwan in 2025” the sensationalized reports say, and his reasons? This is what Minihan said: “My gut tells me we will fight in 2025. Xi secured his third term and set his war council in October 2022. Taiwan’s presidential elections are in 2024 and will offer Xi a reason. United States’ presidential elections are in 2024 and will offer Xi a distracted America. Xi’s team, reason, and opportunity are all aligned for 2025,”... maybe he should take some constipation tablets soonest.

The reasoning of Gen.

Minihan is severely flawed. Xi Jinping has always said, “Resolving the Taiwan question is a matter for the Chinese, a matter that must be resolved by the Chinese. We will continue to strive for peaceful reunification with the greatest sincerity and the utmost effort...”

The goal of peaceful reunification is, in fact, closer today than it has ever been since 2016 when the secessionist-prone Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of Tsai Ingwen won the presidency. Because of the cynical Pelosi provocation, the proUnificaiton party KMT won big in Taiwan’s mid-term elections last November.

The mid-terms elections was a barometer for the all-important and crucial 2024 presidential elections which many believe is now wide open for a KMT victory, and would bring peaceful reunification ever closer. Gen. Minihan’s “gut feel” on Taiwan and the Taiwanese sentiment is totally erroneous, to say the least.

If the US is feeling too adventurous about creating a scene over Taiwan they should take heed from a Chinese expert quoted by the English publication of China Global Times, quoting US studies and research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing Dr. Lu Xiang that:

“China’s response against the US would be of higher intensity than that after then House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s provocative visit to Taiwan island in August 2022”, and I can’t imagine how serious that would be given that the last the US was left stupefied watching from the sidelines failing to intervene in the Taiwan blockade exercise by China. And the US can not

HOUSEHOLD spending in the Philippines is projected to expand by 5.5 percent this year, slower than the 8.2 percent growth forecast in 2022, the research arm of Fitch Ratings said.

In its report released Tuesday, Fitch Solutions said household income growth will support consumer expenditure in 2023, allowing Filipino households to spend despite the elevated inflation numbers.

“We expect household income growths to outpace consumer price inflation in 2023. This will ensure real income growth and greater potential for consumer spending,” Fitch Solutions said.

The report said its consumer spending forecast is in line with the Philippine economic growth, which is expected to ease from 7.4 percent in 2022 to 5.9 percent this year.

“The slowdown in growth was in line with expectations, but the pace of deceleration was more modest than predicted. Elevated energy prices and tightening monetary policy will result in further deceleration during the forecast period,” it added.

For the medium term, Fitch Solutions forecasted consumer spending to average 5.1 percent annually from 2024 to 2027.