Mattis showing contempt to Asia.

In his opening address at the Shangri La Dialogue, US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis showed contempt and disrespect to the Asian leaders by lying that North Korea is a 'clear and present' danger to Asia. How could this man think that the Asians are fools and could not see the total irrelevance in his haste and gaffe to lead the Asian leaders by the nose to toe the American line? What threat do the North Koreans present to the rest of Asia, a hermit poor nation with barely 26m million people? Does Mattis think that the Asian leaders are so silly to believe in his lie?

The only threat the North Koreans present is to be able to launch a nuclear strike against the Americans should the Americans attack their country. And the Americans hate that. Once the North Koreans have enough nuclear warheads to strike the American homeland, the Americans would not be able to threaten the North Koreans anymore and would be unable to do a Saddam Hussein on them.

No Asian countries in their right mind would think of attacking the North Koreans. They have no reasons to do so and neither have the North Koreans any reason to want to attack another Asian country. I stand corrected here when Little USAs are concerned. They will treat the North Koreans as enemies when their American masters said so. Those that participated in the invasion of Iraq and the murder of Saddam Hussein have not shown any remorse or regret for killing the innocent Iraqis and turning that country into hell because of an American lie.

Oops, Japan is an exception. It invaded and colonised the Koreans and the Japanese are harbouring the same dream of ruling the Koreans once again. And should North Korea ever be a threat to any Asian country, it must be Japan, the country that colonised them and rule them like slaves.

The Americans as usual are using the Shangri La Dialogue to peddle their war agenda and picking on China on North Korea and the building of defensive structures in Chinese islands in the South China Sea issues. War, inciting war and provoking war are always on the Americans' top agenda. In 2015 alone, the Americans conducted 175 military exercises and war games, 15 more than in 2014. The numbers for 2016 are likely to be more.

While China is all about trade, economic progress and infrastructure developments, the Americans are all about military agreements, defence treaties, war games, selling of arms and threatening wars and engaging in wars. Countries that seek economic growth and trade are all marching to Beijing while countries that are aligned to the Americans are all preparing for war and wasting their limited financial resources in buying American weapons of war. The stark contrast in the motive and agenda of China and the USA does not need much effort to tell.

The Americans have been so used to set the agenda for the world, especially to the daft Asian countries and putting them on the defensive. The problems of North Korea and the South China Sea are hyped by the Americans as the Asian problems. It is about time China and the rest of the world, including Europe, set the agenda and demand the Americans to abide by international rules and laws. Europe has broken ranks with the Americans and have pledged to work with China instead in world matters.

To start with, the Americans are again behaving like a rogue nation, refusing to abide by the Paris Agreement on Climate Change to protect the world. It took hundreds of countries and several decades to hammer out an agreement to keep the temperature of the world safe but the Americans are walking away from the agreement in violation of the interests of the nations of the world. The Americans are saying that the rest of the world should abide by whatever rules and laws, but not the Americans. While the rest of the world are trying to reduce carbon emission and the temperature of earth, the Americans are saying that they can do as they like, continue to burn fossil fuel like they have been doing for several centuries at a rate no other country could compete. The Americans are the worst guzzlers of fossil fuels for several centuries, consuming more of the world's limited resources more than any other nations. Now they are going to do it alone, as they always do, and telling the world to be responsible and do the necessary to keep the world safe but not the Americans.

China, Europe and the rest of the world under the UN must start to get together to pressurise this rogue nation to follow the rules of law, of international norms and must not be allowed to get away scot free. There are other pressing issues that the rest of the world and China must pressurise the Americans like denuclearisation and nuclear disarmament, not just in Korea but the whole world. How can the Americans think they could amass the biggest and most lethal nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction while harping on what the North Koreans are doing that is a small fraction of what the Americans possessed? China and the rest of the world must also pressurise the Americans on limiting the sales of weapons all over the world that eventually ended up in the hands of ISIS and other terrorist groups. The Americans have been proclaiming that they are fighting ISIS but covertly have been training, feeding and arming ISIS and many terrorist groups around the world. What a neat formula, fighting and breeding terrorism at the same time and benefiting from it by selling arms and claiming to be the policeman of the world.

China and the rest of the world must also pressurise the rogue nation on free trade and not protectionism. China and the rest of the world must set the agenda for this irresponsible rogue nation to abide by instead of the rogue nation setting the agenda for the rest of the world in the interests of the evil Empire. The Americans should respect the rest of the world and not hold the world in disgust and in contempt. The real threat to the world, to world peace, the clear and present danger, is the USA.