Bannon's self-declared war is over

So the US-China trade deficit has been a product of US economic operations instead of China's faults as the White House would have people believe. US protectionist policies only pile up the deficit. Meanwhile, China's production lines link the world and everyone gains from the global production chains.

It seems Bannon does not take the global production chains seriously, but his belligerency was not limited to the economy alone. "We're going to war in the South China Sea in five to 10 years," he said in March 2016. "There's no doubt about that."

Again the ex-strategist got the facts upside down. Since the days before the birth of the US, the South China Sea had been calm and mostly peaceful until Washington "pivoted" its military to the West Pacific some years ago. Indeed, US warships have sailed close to Chinese isles in the South China Sea and conducted stealthy reconnaissance missions. It is the US military that has been challenging the interests of the Chinese in the region; it is the Chinese who have been conducting talks with nations involved in disputed isles and advocating cooperation to joint exploit the resources in the waters. If Chinese installations of some small isles in the South China Sea thousands of miles away from the US are taken as a threat, what should US aircraft carrier battle groups close to China's door be regarded as?

Both on the economy and on the South China Sea, Bannon is picking China to fit into his belief that the US is approaching the Fourth Turning, as was written by William Strauss and Neil Howe in their book of that title, which argued for "cycles of history telling about America's next rendezvous with destiny".

When taking video of David Kaiser for a movie, Bannon tried hard to get the historian to predict a coming war. Kaiser quoted Bannon as saying in a PBS "Frontline" video, "Look we have the American Revolution, we have the Civil War, that's bigger. Then we have WWII, that's even bigger. So what's the next one going to be like?"

However, such arguments for a bigger and bigger war are short-sighted. US history is short compared with that of other nations. If Bannon had broadened his sight further east to Asia or south to South America, he could have come to the right conclusion. Wars occur not because of a certain cycle but because of expansionist greed for capital and resources. Should Bannon be reminded that the US has been in a war every month for the past decade?

The same logic of searching for or even creating enemies made George W. Bush jump into Iraq War in 2003, having coerced the West into believing Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and leaving the region that in decades of chaos ever since.

Today, by projecting China into its target line, Bannon has been jeopardizing not only US interests but the fate of the West Pacific and even the whole of humanity.

By dumping Bannon, Trump has made a sharp turn toward the right track of win-win partnership for development championed by the United Nations and advanced by China. There lies the future.

The author is a commentator with China Daily. Contact the author at wen@chinadailyhk.com