Established by major sea faring nations who coincidentally are former imperialists. But, like I said, these matters are not important, because the crux of the matters are not resolved even if these matters are.
China was imperialist in its own way. Just ask the Tibetans and the Vietnamese.
Or we can go as far back in history as we want. Imperialism, as you so aptly put it, "just was"..
But the US was a creation of imperialism, if you hadn't forgotten. We were a British colony at one time, just Hong Kong and Macau were. And we were colonized by persecuted individuals who fled the hegemony of the crown as well.
And additionally, when WWII ended and the US gained global status, it played the major role in forcing the colonial powers to divest their empires, with sole exception of the French. And that was only because we made a quid pro quo to get them to join NATO, which they then left.
Thus, much of the decolonization that took place after the end of the war may not have occurred has US allies been more powerful, and the US less so.
Btw, remember that the Chinese embassy was "targeted" solely because Serbian military transmissions were detected coming from that building. It seems that Milosevic's Chinese buddies (they were quite close) were directly involving and assisting them, thus technically making them a combatant.
But I would find it hard to believe that anyone in the US govt actually realized that that building was the Chinese embassy when they set the GPS coordinates on that JDAMS guided bomb. There would be unholy hell to pay here if it was uncovered that someone deliberately targeted the embassy.
And as for "making the rules" many other countries didn't get a chance to make them either. But if we're going to suddenly turn back hundreds of years of maritime precedent, it's going to result in some serious conflict.
But let's also be realistic here. The only parts of China that were ever colonized by "imperial west" were the coastal regions. And if the Chinese warlords had not been more interested in fighting amongst themselves for supremacy, they could have easily banded together to kick the Europeans out of their colonies anytime they desired.
I don't consider China to be nearly as exploited by the Europeans, as they have been by their own despotic rulers throughout the country's history.
And that is a tradition that continues to this day with the communists posing as "reformers".
Regards,
Ron |
