US, China confrontation could blow into nuclear war: Journalist

An American activist and journalist in Washington says unless US President Barack Obama is removed from office, the world is likely to see a confrontation between China or Russia and the United States that can blow into a nuclear war.

“At this point, we have a situation in the Philippines, where there is a revolt against the US attempt to deploy massive military forces into the Philippines against their constitution, by the way,” Mike Billington, the Asia editor for the Executive Intelligence Review, told Press TV on Saturday.

“What happened this week is that members of the Philippine Senate went to the floor of the Senate, issued a resolution saying that this agreement that was signed between Obama and [Philippine President Benigno] Aquino is clearly a treaty and therefore must be endorsed by the Senate, contrary to what President Aquino and Obama had been saying, which is that it’s an agreement and doesn’t need to be endorsed by the Senate,” Billington added.

“So now the Senate will have to move on this and it’s very clear that they will reject it,” he stated, referring to the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement which was signed between the United States and the Philippines on April 28, 2014.

“There’s a theory that moves in the Philippines to denounce this as the reoccupation of the Philippines, and making very, very clear that this is not for the defense of the Philippines but rather a part of the offensive confrontation with China, which Obama along with his confrontation with Russia in the Middle East and in Europe, is widely and insanely pushing, for a confrontation which could become a nuclear war virtually overnight,” he noted.

“The Russians have made this very clear and the Chinese in a more diplomatic way but are making clear that they are not going to back down from the demand to capitulate to the world power of the US who has the right to bring in the regime change and impose their policies anywhere they want,” the analyst observed.

“And therefore unless Obama is stopped in this madness and removed from office, we’re likely to see a confrontation that can blow into a nuclear war,” Billington opined.

China has on different occasions asserted its sovereignty over the sea, with Chinese Vice Admiral Yuan Yubai, commander of the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) North Sea Fleet, insisting back in September that the South China Sea belongs to China.

However, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have overlapping claims over the South China Sea.

The US does not recognize China’s sovereignty in the disputed waters and has sent surveillance aircraft and warships to monitor Chinese activities.

The US flew two B-52 bombers last week very close to China's artificial islands in the South China Sea.

The flights came two weeks after the US Navy sent its USS Lassen, a guided-missile destroyer, within 12 nautical miles of the island, in what the Pentagon refers to as a "freedom of navigation" operation.

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