The title of this post is a quote from the Global Times editorial linked below, which was written on Jan 29 and updated on Feb 5.
I began to write this commentary on the situation on Feb 3 but since so much has happened in the intervening days it didn’t get finished. One reason why I am working on it again now is that a repeat of the “or else” warning was again delivered – this time by the Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister, Wang Yi, yesterday – Feb 22, in a phone call with US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken.
The boot is now on the other foot. And it is no longer a US foot (or a US boot). China is not given to making threats of any kind to others, so when one is issued and taken lightly, derisively, or ignored altogether, rather than seriously, followed by yet another warning some three weeks later (albeit a slightly more diplomatically worded one), you had better hope that somebody in the US has grown a brain in the meantime (doubtful as that may seem).
There may not be a third warning …and coming as it has, hot on the heels of the assertive Russian stand against tyranny yesterday, and with the Olympics now visible only from the rear-view mirror, it could be well expected that other action by China will be made instead.
The US, with all its domestic troubles about to more decisively impinge, and the more generally global issues we all must face, can well do without potential conflicts arising on both its flanks – eastern and western – at the same time. Its hegemonic reign now already in tatters, it would not survive intact from such a scene.
Is there a wise enough head in the US to understand that?
This is exactly the same story as has been the case with Russia. A non-US-aligned nation, fed up with aggressive US policies and endless goading, threats and ‘soft’ war, being in a position to now confront the situation on at least equal terms, issues warnings to the US to desist in its behaviour and grow up to act as an adult nation. Those warnings are either ridiculed, ignored or used against the offended nation. Eventually that nation has or will reach a point beyond which it will no longer tolerate US infantilism. It then has no choice but to act in its own defence. Is that not exactly what we have just witnessed in Europe? I think so. And just as in the case with Russia and the US, the US will be found to have no credible answer in response, other than all it can do in its final death throes to issue economic sanctions which hurt no-one but itself, its allies and the whole world in general. This has to end …and I think it is even now in the process of doing so.
First warning:
US society urgently needs to wipe out ignorance about the Taiwan question, one that concerns China’s core interests and the national feelings of the Chinese people. The extensive provocations by the US in the Taiwan Straits have accumulated enormous risks, but such a sensitive situation has not received enough attention in the US. US politicians and elites just play dumb, and under their misguidance, the American public either does not know the seriousness of the Taiwan question or cannot tell right from wrong. This contrast entails risks…
…The Taiwan Straits has remained peaceful and stable in the past 40 years. But now the US is smashing the guardrail and trying to break China’s bottom line with “salami-slicing” tactics to make “Taiwan independence” a more public topic. China will not sit still. Behind China’s warning is the strong will and powerful strength of the Chinese nation to safeguard the unity of the country, and the US must take note – or else, Washington’s strategic arrogance will only drag the US into more tense strategic unpreparedness.
Quote from GT article below
“US should not misjudge ‘rare warning’ from China on Taiwan question: Global Times editorial” – Global Times
Second warning:
There is competition and cooperation between China and the US. We cannot simply use competition to define bilateral relations, the senior Chinese diplomat noted. Some US officials have advocated a long-term and fierce competition with China, which is likely to evolve into a full-scale confrontation between the two countries.
Quote from GT article below
‘Chinese Foreign Minister calls on all parties on Ukraine issue to remain restrained, resolving disputes through peaceful means’ – Global Times – Published: Feb 22, 2022
Third warning, or ‘Third Time Unlucky’ for some:
Space reserved for a future reference.
TBA
Not Something Else 
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