All posts filed under: China

‘Exorbitant Privilege’ Under Siege

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Frank Lee It was the French politician Valery Giscard D’Estaing who first coined the phrase ‘Exorbitant Privilege’ – a reference to the many advantages enjoyed by the US ownership and control of the world’s reserve currency. This was a situation dating back to the agreement reached in 1944 between the allied powers and established in Bretton Woods a town in New Hampshire; it was to become known as the Bretton Woods Agreement. During the conference key negotiators, most famously John Maynard Keynes for Britain, and Harry Dexter White chief US delegate, hammered out a blueprint for a new global and currency and trading system. Keynes was not entirely satisfied with the outcome and White mostly got his own way despite JMK’s misgivings about possible problems further down the road. But then the UK in the shape of Keynes, was also angling for a sizeable US loan in the not too distant future which circumscribed Keynes’ room for manoeuvre; and the loan of course came with strings – viz., the ending of British imperial preferential trading …

China must walk the talk and support Russia

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by Ghassan Kadi , The Saker, April 12, 2018 This article was written before the most recent missile attack on Syria, carried out by the US, France, and the UK.  Its argument retains relevance. When Chinese Defence Minister, General Wei Fenghe visited Moscow on the 4th of April 2018 and made his historic comment that he was in Moscow to give a message to America that China stands by Russia (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-04/chinas-new-defence-chief-visits-russia-to-send-a-message-to-us/9616216), he put China in a new and unprecedented global position, because China had never made such direct statements about the USA since the early days of Chairman Mao; and that was a long time ago, when China was not an industrial power and an aspiring global power, and long before the rift between the USSR and Mao’s China began. A lot has changed since, and neither Russia nor China are today what they used to be a few decades ago, and as they changed, matured and developed, their relationship vis-à-vis each other and the United States seem to have gone the full circle. Today’s …

A Brief Non-Explainer on Why China’s Infrastructure Projects grow while the US Crumbles

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by James Porteous A response to Why China Is Running Circles Around America at Truthdig.com Have you ever noticed that it is almost as though America cannot exist without the “us vs. them’ mantra? Every step forward, by anyone, anywhere, is deemed to be a step back for America. Every innovation, a threat. In the piece linked above we are led to believe that we are going to read an article that compares China’s real $1 trillion infrastructure projects to the CEO of America’s largely fabricated programs of kickbacks, tax-rebates and general money-making time-wasters. But before there is even any vague hope of that happening we have to wade through an endless discussion about China’s ‘secret’ funding sources and their “innovative form of quantitative easing.” Oh dear. It is not fair, you see. They are not playing by the same rules, you see. So, dear reader, in order to save you time and effort here is the main conclusion of this item: If China succeeds in rebuilding their country and the US fails, it will …

VIDEO: Echoes of WWI: China, the US, and the Next “Great” War

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In the early 20th century, the world’s dominant superpower looked warily on the rise of a competitor to its supremacy. The machinations of the British to contain the rise of Germany led inexorably to the First World War. Once again in the early 21st century, the world’s dominant superpower is looking warily on the rise of a competitor. Will the American Empire’s machinations to contain the rise of China lead to the Third World War? Or is the American/Chinese conflict another engineered conflict for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many? Join James Corbett as he presents “Echoes of World War I” to the Open Mind Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. Sources and show-notes can be found here.

Terror in Myanmar as US faces off against China

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by Sean Stinson China’s Belt and Road Initiative portends a monumental transformation of the global economic order; one which poses an existential threat to the Pax Americana which has existed since the end of the Cold War. Understanding this context is critical to making sense of the current hysteria gushing from the NGO-Industrial complex and being fuelled by Western liberal punditry. As I’ve argued previously, decisions taken by the Trump administration since January indicate a shift in US foreign policy. No longer concerned with waging petty wars on behalf of the Israel lobby and the billionaire class, attention has been focused acutely on Asia, and in particular China. Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon was quite forthright about this in his August 16 interview with American Prospect magazine in which he stated unequivocally “To me, the economic war with China is everything. We have to be maniacally focused on that. If we continue to lose it, we’re five years away, I think, 10 years at the most, of hitting an inflection point from which we’ll never …

China: World’s Leading Defender of Human Rights?

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by Kevin Kennedy, May 20, 2016, CanadianPatriot.org “Your question is full of prejudice against China and arrogance … I don’t know where that comes from. This is totally unacceptable,” Was part of the translated response of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, at a recent press conference with Canadian Foreign Minister Stephane Dion, when an iPolitics reporter audaciously asked why Canada is pursuing ties with a China which is ‘mistreating human rights advocates.’ CBC later released a scathing ‘analysis’ comparing President Xi to Chairman Mao, and citing Soros hit-squad Human Rights Watch saying, the regime “has unleashed an extraordinary assault on basic human rights and their defenders with a ferocity unseen in recent years …Senior Chinese leaders, perceiving a threat to their power, now explicitly reject the universality of human rights, characterizing these ideas as ‘foreign infiltration,’ and penalizing those who promote them.“ Many people complain about the ‘human rights record’ in China, and ask how someone can align with such an ‘undemocratic,’ ‘cruel and corrupt regime.’ Many of these people seem to have a prejudice and an unmalleable memory, which is either frozen, …

Sauron Rules in Washington

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by Paul Craig Roberts “The problem is that the world has listened to Americans for far too bloody long.” Dr. Julian Osborne, from the 2000 film version of Nevil Shute’s 1957 book, On the Beach A reader asked why neoconservatives push toward nuclear war when there can be no winners. If all die, what is the point? The answer is that the neoconservatives believe that the US can win at minimum and perhaps zero damage. Their insane plan is as follows: Washington will ring Russia and China with anti-ballistic missile bases in order to provide a shield against a retaliatory strike from Russia and China. Moreover, these US anti-ABM bases also can deploy nuclear attack missiles unknown to Russia and China, thus reducing the warning time to five minutes, leaving Washington’s victims little or no time in which to make a decision. The neoconservatives think that Washington’s first strike will so badly damage the Russian and Chinese retaliatory capabilities that both governments will surrender rather than launch a response. The Russian and Chinese leaderships would …

Beijing official: China ready to lead world if required

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Chinese bullet trains operating on the Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway.   RT reports: A senior Chinese Foreign Ministry official has hinted that Beijing may pick up the torch of global leadership if forced to do so by the withdrawal of other contenders for the role as Washington under Trump appears to become more immersed in domestic issues. “If anyone were to say China is playing a leadership role in the world, I would say it’s not China rushing to the front but rather the frontrunners have stepped back, leaving the place to China,” Zhang Jun, the director general of the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s international economics department, told reporters on Monday, according to Reuters. At the same time, he said that China would not shun the opportunity to lead the world if needed for the common good. “If China is required to play that leadership role, then China will assume its responsibilities,” the official added. Zhang’s comments came on the hills of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, in …

Why are these oligarchs so concerned about African “corruption”?

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Anton Du Plessis, of the ISS in South Africa, writes that “we” should no longer tolerate corruption in Africa undermining human rights.

Of course, when he says “we”, he doesn’t mean us. You and I – We don’t “tolerate” African corruption, for it is not in our power to do anything about such things. You know who does tolerate African corruption? Billionaires, oligarchs and corporate monopolies.

Greatest threat to peace? No contest: a response to Pepe Escobar

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by Philip Roddis In a Sputnik article last month (republished here) Pepe Escobar sets out a useful appraisal of the conflicting interests of China and the USA in the South China Sea. It’s a well informed piece and I recommend it wholeheartedly … … though not unconditionally. Escobar begins: The South China Sea is and will continue to be the ultimate geopolitical flashpoint of the young 21st century – way ahead of the Middle East or Russia’s western borderlands. Given that I agree with pretty much everything that follows this opener, am I nitpicking in my objection? You tell me. I travel frequently to Vietnam and agree that territorial rights in the South China Sea, the narrow context of Escobar’s piece – the broader context being Sino-American rivalry – are a sensitive issue for the reasons he sets out. These are as follows. One, western colonialism is responsible for a “currently incendiary battle” in the South China Sea. Two, the late 19th century creation of Asia’s nation states by colonial fiat overlaps with China’s ‘century …

The ultimate South China Sea “secret”

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by Pepe Escobar, Sputnik The South China Sea is and will continue to be the ultimate geopolitical flashpoint of the young 21st century – way ahead of the Middle East or Russia’s western borderlands.  No less than the future of Asia – as well as the East-West balance of power – is at stake. To understand the Big Picture, we need to go back to 1890 when Alfred Mahan, then president of the US Naval College, wrote the seminal The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783.  Mahan’s central thesis is that the US should go global in search of new markets, and protect these new trade routes through a network of naval bases. That is the embryo of the US Empire of Bases – which de facto started after the Spanish-American war, over a century ago, when the US graduated to Pacific power status by annexing the Philippines, Hawaii and Guam. Western — American and European — colonialism is strictly responsible for the current, incendiary sovereignty battle in the South China Sea.  It’s the West that came up with most land borders — and maritime borders — of these states. The roll call is quite impressive. …

The Encirclement of China is Well Underway: France Prepares to Lead EU Missions in the South China Sea

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by Asia-Pacific Research The naval encirclement of China is well underway. It was started over a decade ago by the United States with the re-militarization of Japan and the tightening of Washington’s military partnerships with countries like Australia and South Korea. The same is true about the missile shield being erected in South Korea, which targets China, Russia, and North Korea. The excerpts that will follow are taken from a 14 July 2016 article written by Yo-Jung Chen, a Japanese-educated naturalized French diplomat that immigrated to France from Taiwan. The retired French diplomat wrote the article in The Diplomat seeking to justify the deployment of the French military into the South China Sea. Coming from a retired French diplomat who was stationed in Asia, the article offers some interesting insights. Aside from his post as the deputy consul of the French Consulate-General in San Francisco, Yo-Jung’s Chinese background helped qualify him as the press attaché for the French Embassy in China and deputy consul at the French Embassy in Singapore. Yo-Jung Chen misleadingly identifies “Chinese aggression” as …

Russia and China Combine Efforts To Preserve World Peace

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by William Jones, for Executive Intelligence Review, July 2, 2016 July 2 — While the Obama Administration is rapidly pushing the world toward nuclear war in Europe and in Asia, the leaders of China and Russia have agreed to redouble their efforts — and their partnership — in order to offer to the world the possibility of a new directionality toward peace and development and away from the present path toward war. Immediately following the summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which is now in the process of adding India and Pakistan to its membership, and represents around half of the world’s population, the meeting in Beijing of the two presidents represents an absolutely ground-breaking development. The Joint Declaration issued by the two presidents takes aim at the underlying problem: the role adopted by the United States, during the successive presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, to act as the “Roman Legion” for the crisis-ridden and collapsing British trans-Atlantic London/Wall Street System, a role which has propelled the United States and the …

America’s & NATO’s Outrageous Behavior, Greatest Threat that Exists

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by Eric Zuesse On May 18th, two top people at NATO, one being its current Secretary General — the very top person — laid out in preliminary form the case for war against Russia, which presumably will be presented in more detail at the NATO Summit to be held in Poland on 8-9 July this year. As if that weren’t bad enough, there’s the matter reported by Bryan Cloughly at Strategic Culture, headlining on May 19th, “Surging Towards yet Another War”, where he pointed out that “The United States has no territorial rights of any sort in the South China Sea, which is 7,000 miles (11,000 kilometres) from its west coast. There is nothing in international law that justifies its unilateral military ‘challenge’ to China’s presence” there, in that area which is contested between five countries: China, Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei. The American government, which has no authority to speak for the entire world regarding international law — of which the U.S. itself has been perhaps the most frequent violator during the past 16 years — isn’t “policeman of the world,” …

American Aggression Against China: A World Crisis Looms

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by Christopher Black, via NEO The American aggression against China continued Tuesday May 10th with the invasion of Chinese waters just off the Spratly Islands by an American destroyer as China’s limited stock of patience continues to run out. By sending their ships into Chinese territorial waters on the bizarre claim that they are exercising “their right of innocent passage” and that, the “United States will fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows,” they are in fact claiming the right to go anywhere they want, anytime they want. They might as well claim the right to once again send gunboats up the Yangtze River bristling with guns and marines, for their passage through Chinese waters was not only illegal, because without permission; it was also certainly not “innocent” since the passage was meant to be a display of power and control, which is prohibited by the Law of the Sea Convention. The American claim of following international law is absurd because international law requires that a naval vessel of one county wishing to enter …

China: Preserving Sovereignty or Sliding into Western Sponsored ‘Color Revolutions’

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by Peter Koenig, originally for Asia-Pacific Research On April 28, the New York Times was blasting “Clampdown in China Restricts 7,000 Foreign Organizations”.  A perfect reason for demonizing China for infringing on the liberties of foreign NGOs – NGO’s that try to help and do good in China.  The ‘doing good’ is a concerted effort by foreign agents, including international and national organizations and NGOs that receive foreign training and funding to influence public opinion and eventually to cause civil unrest.  Imagine, foreign agents teaching and influencing students at Chinese universities with western interests of, for example, privatizing China’s public and social services; or directly interfering in sovereign state affairs, by for instance attempting to rig the Shanghai stock exchange. Let’s put this Chinese ‘clampdown’ in perspective.   infiltrate US territory under all sorts of philanthropic pretexts, but in reality to subvert the US population against their government?   Well, there is no need to speculate with the answer.  It’s very clear, they would simply be banned.  So, this is not even a game on equal …

World War III Has Begun

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by Paul Craig Roberts The Third World War is currently being fought. How long before it moves into its hot stage? Washington is currently conducting economic and propaganda warfare against four members of the five bloc group of countries known as BRICS—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Brazil and South Africa are being destabilized with fabricated political scandals. Both countries are rife with Washington-financed politicians and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). Washington concocts a scandal, sends its political agents into action demanding action against the government and its NGOs into the streets in protests. Washington tried this against China with the orchestrated Hong Kong “student protest.” Washington hoped that the protest would spread into China, but the scheme failed. Washington tried this against Russia with the orchestrated protests against Putin’s reelection and failed again. To destablilze Russia, Washington needs a firmer hold inside Russia. In order to gain a firmer hold, Washington worked with the New York mega-banks and the Saudis to drive down the oil price from over $100 per barrel to $30. This has …

A World War Has Begun: Break the Silence

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I have been filming in the Marshall Islands, which lie north of Australia, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Whenever I tell people where I have been, they ask, “Where is that?” If I offer a clue by referring to “Bikini”, they say, “You mean the swimsuit. Few seem aware that the bikini swimsuit was named to celebrate the nuclear explosions that destroyed Bikini island.

One Belt, One Road will benefit China – and the world

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by Justin Yifu Lin China’s principal global project is about more than short-term gain. Throughout 2015, a major focus of the international community has been China’s economic slowdown and the potential impact on the world economy. To boost the economy, the Chinese government has launched various initiatives in the past few years, the most important ones being the Silk Road Economic Belt and the Maritime Silk Road (Belt and Road). Aimed at promoting regional integration between China and other Asian, African and European countries covered by the initiative through improving infrastructure including ports, roads, railways and oil and gas pipelines, China’s One Belt, One Road initiative will enhance economic development in China and the other One Belt, One Road countries. With a vision to establish an “international community with shared interests, destiny and responsibility,” the One Belt, One Road initiative is also a Chinese effort to assume more international responsibility. China is now beyond doubt the world’s leader in terms of infrastructure building. Its economic development in the past three decades has been partly driven …

Zhang Weiwei on Al Jazeera: pushing Westerners to despise China

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by Otto Kolbl, reposted from Rainbowbuilders In December 2014, Zhang Weiwei took part in the Head to Head program on Al Jazeera. He certainly did his best to explain the recent development of China. However, there is in particular one fundamental question on which he could not come up with any convincing answer. This underperformance is not the result of his personal incompetence; it shows the failure of the whole Chinese academic system to come up with solid and credible information in a field which is crucial for understanding the development of China and all other developing countries: The question asked by Mehdi Hasan, the presenter of Head to Head, to Zhang Weiwei is fundamental: How can we justify a policy promoting economic growth if it is obvious that this policy will come at the cost of human lives? Zhang Weiwei’s answer is the perfect disaster for mutual understanding between the Western countries and China; he said “The cost is there, but still, it is manageable, as with the rise of other powers, but we …