US scare tactics cannot stop China’s rising power: Iosbaker

The United States is worried over the rising power of China in the world but Washington’s “scare tactics” cannot stop China’s rising role in world affairs, says an American anti-war activist.

As US President Barack Obama embarks on his eight-day four-nation visit to Asia on Tuesday, a Stars and Stripes report says US allies in the region, especially Japan and the Philippines, have expressed worries over China’s recent announcement that it would increase defense spending by 12.2 percent this year.

Nevertheless, Joe Iosbaker, a leader in the United National Antiwar Committee, says it is “absurd” that Washington and its allies express concerns over China’s defense spending and call Beijing an “aggressor.”

“It is absurd for the US or Japan to call China an aggressor in Asia. The recent increase in the Chinese defense budget is dwarfed by US military spending. The US spends more on war than the rest of the world combined,” said Iosbaker in a phone interview with Press TV on Tuesday.

“Further, China is not imperialist. They have no spying military bases while the US has their bases surrounding China. The US has engaged in wars that have killed many millions,” he added.

Obama’s Asia tour – which will include visits to Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, and Malaysia – will reportedly focus on reassuring Washington’s allies of the US government’s commitment to the “Asia pivot,” which has been seen by Beijing as a strategy to counter China’s increasing global influence.

“What’s really going on is the US is dealing with the rise of China as an economic and political power and the US wants to maintain the hegemony that they have had over the Pacific region,” Iosbaker said.

“But this kind of rhetoric accusing China of aggression is scare tactics which won’t work to stop China’s rising role in world affairs. It’s the US that is increasingly isolated because people around the world have experienced a century of the US empire and they are tired of it,” he concluded.