Did Trump leave the backdoor open?
Expansionist CCP Runs Amok in Pacific After U.S. Relocates Naval Assets to Mid-East
*A caveat: Please understand from the outset — because I know this criticism is coming — that what follows is not by any means apologism for neoconservative foreign policy in Asia or anywhere else, just an accounting of geopolitical facts on the ground (or, rather, in the water).
Ask any of China’s neighbors — except for its vassal states Laos. Cambodia and North Korea — and they’ll tell you that the CCP is a regional menace.
Obviously, the world and the United States itself would be better off without a global neoliberal empire on everyone’s neck. But it wouldn’t be any more utopian if the CCP steps into the vacuum and makes the entire Eastern Hemisphere its bitch.
Caveat established, China’s been going bananas on the high seas as the eyes of the world, and U.S. military assets, hone in on Iran.
Via CBS News (emphasis added):
“Over the past two years, tensions have escalated precariously in… the South China Sea — the waters off the western coast of the Philippines where an international tribunal ruled the Philippines has exclusive economic rights. But China claims almost all of the South China Sea, one of the world's most vital waterways through which trillions of dollars in goods flow each year. To assert its claims, China has been using tactics just short of war — leading to violent confrontations. The United States has a mutual defense treaty with the Philippines, which could mean American intervention. It's been called "the most dangerous conflict no one is talking about."”
The time has never been riper for the CCP to flex its muscle in what it sees as its backyard now that the United States has reassigned numerous assets to the Middle East in order to back up Israel in its bid to depose the Iranian regime.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2025-06-21/expansionist-ccp-runs-amok-pacific-after-us-relocates-naval-assets-mid-east