by Ramin Mazaheri and cross-posted with PressTV
One thing about Western business media is that whenever any imperialism-opposing nation has a major success their subsequent understatement speaks volumes, as evidenced by an article in the oil trade press, The Iran-China Axis Is A Fast Growing Force In Oil Markets, at the website OilPrice. For trade journalists they are quite behind the trends of their industry: Iran and China are now a permanent force in the oil world, but far beyond that realm as well.
In reading OilPrice over the years I am not surprised: they have repeatedly reacted to the bilateral 25-year strategic agreement – which has just been fully signed – as though it was something which had not been in discussion for years; with total consternation as to why these two countries could want to ally with other; with an Iranophobia so enormous that their bias is rarely even barely concealed.
The outlook of their journalists is that of businessmen, and thus it’s the incredibly narrow and self-serving point of view of a specialist. It is unsurprising that – when compelled to formulate a political or moral viewpoint – OilPrice has a totally Cold War view of the world, which is typical in the West, and which explains why their headline calls it an “Iran-China Axis” instead of an “Alliance”. The use of such a term is typical Western media propaganda designed to conflate the right-wing Germans of the World War II era with modern Iran and China, even thought the latter are totally different from the former in political ideology, economic structure and social morality.
It’s a nonsensical and historically-nihilist conflation, but when examining OilPrice’s take on the Iran-China deal we are reminded that Western business media is quite content to sensationalise, to warmong and to create sustained market panic in order to increase the grip of militarism in the Western psyche and to continue the inequitable Western domination of the oil trade. OilPrice, specifically, also wants the price of oil to always increase.
Thus the article is full of many stupidities worthy of the idiocies of George W. Bush, the paranoia of J. Edgar Hoover, the anti-socialist hysteria of the Dulles brothers and the hypocritical phoniness of Barack Obama. Things of the lowest order of political analysis and knowledge abound, such as: “The first is they are both absolute dictatorships”, “the rogue Islamic country”, China’s Belt and Road Initiative is “a shield for China’s true intentions” and a “Trojan horse” for “military expansion”, etc.
(Of course, few international projects as transparently pragmatic and non-ideological as China’s BRI – if you accept China’s offer of mutually-beneficial cooperation there is no additional demand to also legislate acceptance of their “universal” values.)
But we benefit from knowing the oil trade’s viewpoint because while there are so very many financial shenanigans in the Western economy there is still a “real” economy, and oil is its lynchpin.
Oil is also the lynchpin of the US dollar’s global preeminence and overvaluation. Indeed, this article’s concluding paragraph is a reminder of those very fundamental – yet often forgotten – facts: “Finally, the introduction of a war premium to oil prices will cause a commensurate re-evaluation of oil equities in non-belligerent countries. The modern economy runs on petroleum products and derivatives, and will for many decades.”
The Great Financial Crisis and subsequent Great Recession proved that the Western economy is indeed incredibly vulnerable to many types of phonily-inflated equities, economic fundamentals-untethered financial products, sham derivatives concocted by high finance and more besides. However, the author is correct when he writes that paragraph because the Petrodollar – the forced sale of oil in dollars – is the most important and longest-running financial sham. It replaced the gold standard, after all.
But China and Iran’s unprecedented Petrodollar end run (and via a new joint China-Iranian bank) is just one part of why their bilateral agreement is such a huge deal. Not only does the pact upset the delicate balance of Western financial chicanery, but it permanently upsets longstanding Western geopolitical advantages, global geopolitical reality and especially the idea that the United States is the sole portal through which modern history can enter.
The US has fallen so very far since 1971 – now they are even behind China, and Iran just proved it
The bilateral deal’s importance can’t be understated for either side, and I have written about it for years. It’s as if – in the year 1545 – the Bolivian silver miners at Potosi struck a fair deal with the Spanish crown: Instead of getting enslaved, sham conversions and colonised Bolivia would still be an Incan cultural force today, with almost 500 additional years of illustrious history, learning and advancement. Thankfully, China is socialist – thus it is anti-imperialist and mindfully chooses cooperation over enslavement (either literally, through local puppets or through debt). Thankfully, Iran is not the shell-shocked Inca – they know who their enemies are, and also who works with enough goodwill to be welcomed.
For a more modern take, the deal is the equivalent of Richard Nixon’s “Opening of China” in 1971, except in a total role reversal: What is historically vital is no longer the position of the US, but the attitude of the superpower China.
Iran is often described as the last great “untapped market” – against all odds, expectations and supposed historical inevitabilities they chose the East as partners, not the West. That’s gigantic.
The deal will mark the “Opening of Iran” because it is not a mere “lifeline” to Iran – as it is often falsely described – but a guarantee of real prosperity, as it will be administered by Iran’s successful, revolutionary political structure. It is absolutely not more than just the achievement of stability, which Iran achieved entirely on its own starting in 1979, when the slogan was “Neither East nor West but the Islamic Republic”.
To quote from the OilPrice article:
“The New York Times is quoted as saying-
‘The partnership, detailed in an 18-page proposed agreement obtained by The New York Times, would vastly expand Chinese presence in banking, telecommunications, ports, railways, and dozens of other projects. In exchange, China would receive a regular — and, according to an Iranian official and an oil trader, heavily discounted — supply of Iranian oil over the next 25 years.’
And there you have it.”
And there you have it, indeed.
Oil-based cars and machines may be significantly phased out by greener technologies in 25 years or so, but Iran has made a superb bargain to sell as much oil as they can while they still can. The “heavy discount” is only about 4%, but I can see how – as a Western “oilfield veteran” – this OilPrice author expects everyone to scratch and claw for every penny he or she can grab. For Iranian bureaucrats, however, a longer-term economic view is required, as is less greed.
War – and sanctions (what used to be called “blockades” in English) are indeed war – certainly does force civilians and civil servants into more moral and more intelligent behaviors: self-sacrifice, unity, collective action, planning, determination, study, reflection, etc. The West’s sanctions have been perhaps praised in Iran nearly as often as they have been derided because Iran has had no choice but to build up its domestic capabilities – economic, intellectual, moral and natural – which naturally demanded a long-term commitment of domestic effort, political policies and acceptance of the national consensus.
But if the economic impact of illegal Western sanctions encouraged Iran’s leaders to make a 25-year oil bargain at only a 4% loss, then I say: take the money and run. If Washington, London, Paris and Tel Aviv fully had their way Donald Trump would have succeeded in forcing Iran to get 0% value from China – instead Tehran settled for 96% value over 25 years. If Iran doesn’t get yuan for every barrel that’s fine – China has technologies and skills which Iran can learn from, assimilate into future domestic projects and then likely export.
But this is what nobody seems to get about the indubitably socialist-inspired modern Iranian economy: Iran doesn’t do Western capitalism, i.e. it doesn’t sell out. Chinese companies will work alongside Iranian industries, all of which are state-owned and state-controlled to a degree which is unthinkable in the neoliberal West. China is not “buying” Iranian corporations – this is not $400 billion in “mergers” and “take-overs” – they are buying Iranian products or bartering for them via techniques Iran can learn from and projects which Iran needs to see built.
And there you have it: Iran secured money and intellectual investment for 25-years, and there is no danger of this investment being hijacked by foreign capital from any nation, which is how foreign investment works in Western neoliberalism. If the Iranian government can redistribute money downwards so effectively over four decades of hot and cold war, then surely they can do better in times of economic prosperity – this is the argument many Iranians have made over and over and over, and the West is fearfully aware of this rationale.
$16 billion per year in cash/goods/skills, and throw in a little thing called diplomatic unity, over 25 years – remember to compare that with what the West just offered: In 2019 France proposed a one-time $15 billion credit line. It was shot down by Washington, and of course Europe complied because neither want Iran to be prosperous or stable.
An incredibly ‘woke’ cooperation between 2 different ethnicities, cultures, regions & religions
Iran has proven to the world that America no longer has the ability to control the main global gate, and that is indeed a real achievement, but this achievement was equally fuelled by Western incompetence, cruelty, intolerance and greed. Iran and China have risen, thanks to their modern and revolutionary cultures and structures – of course – but just look at how far the West has fallen since 1971?
As for China it’s vital to remember that it was an oil embargo which pushed fascist Japan into war with the United States, but China now has a guaranteed source of oil stability. China, which imports 75% of its daily needs, is almost as oil-poor as Japan but now no matter what Western adventurism produces in the Straits of Hormuz Beijing can count on the certainty of enough oil supplies to get by.
Iranian oil is already serving as Beijing’s backup against Western imperialist immolation, as the OilPrice article relates in detail: “China is stockpiling oil at a pace unrivaled in the developed world.” Doing so is, “In a marked dichotomy with the U.S., China is building oil inventories by design.” China, in contrast to Western liberal democracy, actually has competent civil service motivated – not by “universal” values, perhaps – by actual values instead of personal greed.
And there you have it: good governance based on modern political ideas which value the individual citizen over the aristocrat’s dollars. That’s the reason why Iran and China rankle the West so much.
So how could the West possibly like the 25-year strategic pact – it’s a “permanent” sea change. It’s a “permanent” step up in class for both Iran and China, and via an incredibly unprecedented cooperation. “Our relations with Iran will not be affected by the current situation, but will be permanent and strategic,” said China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the signing.
But it’s not based on mere dollars – it’s a “pact” in a very broad cultural and political sense, and that’s both a shocking rejection of the Western model and the exciting proposal of something new for global humanity.
China and the USSR never cooperated as closely as this. Impressive Cuba, all alone in the New World, just can’t bring the heft which Iran brings to the table. North Korea is so beset upon and so war-scarred that they reject diplomatic ties like what Iran just accepted. You’d have to go back to the Eastern Bloc’s cooperation with Moscow to find something similar.
But what makes this cooperation so incredibly and excitingly “woke” is that it’s between two totally different cultures, religions and ethnicities. It’s truly a meeting of minds, as equals.We could truly go on and on about this aspect, and we should. We should also repeatedly point out that Western liberal democracy demands homogeneity via total submission to their hive mind, whereas socialist democracy protects, accepts and elevates differences and minorities in a consensus-based democracy.
It’s a meeting of two longtime empires whose modern political structures now explicitly forbid empire-building. But that’s a point which stresses the past and looks backward.
This is a meeting of two countries bravely and excitingly looking forward to this new century, whether it’s the 15th (less than two weeks ago the Iranian calendar reached the year 1400), or the 48th (it’s year 4719 in China).
It’s an incredible cooperation, and one so very long in the making.
Part 2 of this article examines how Western media responds to Sino-Iranian unity with hysterics at the prospects of reduced income from the Western imperialism machine. The article is titled: The Iran-China pact is a huge blow for Western imperialists who want war in Asia
Ramin Mazaheri is the chief correspondent in Paris for Press TV and has lived in France since 2009. He has been a daily newspaper reporter in the US, and has reported from Iran, Cuba, Egypt, Tunisia, South Korea and elsewhere. He is the author of ‘Socialism’s Ignored Success: Iranian Islamic Socialism’ as well as ‘I’ll Ruin Everything You Are: Ending Western Propaganda on Red China’, which is also available in simplified and traditional Chinese.
China does have oil and gas – lots of it, in Xinjiang and the South China sea. It is just not exploiting them in a big way. Just contented to use its USD earned from trade with the US to buy oil from the Arabs.
In a war, China can rely on its own oil and gas (and even own uranium) resources to power its military machine.
But as pointed out by Ramin, China is gradually winding down its reliance on carbon fuel. In 25 years’ time, China would likely have little to no demand for Iranian oil or even domestic oil.
Hello from Tehran. Yes you are right the Iran-China deal isn’t all about oil. By signing similar deals with countries around the world Beijing is telling the US and the West that she isn’t just a giant factory where western political/financial elite tells them what to make or not make. The recent Iran-China deal will end what the former US President Bush announced as the New World Order.
In 1971 Nixon sends Kissinger to China in order to establish a bilateral relationship. The aim, of course, was to bring China into the Western economic and political camp and separate it from the then Soviet Union, ie. from Russia, either then, or later on.
The Chinese play along. Not for a moment did they intend to fall for this divide and conquer strategy. Yes, they introduce economic reforms, reintroducing private enterprise. However, they never turned their back to Russia with the result that today China is doing business with both Russia and the West. What Nixon and Kissinger did was to inadvertently turn China into the chief economic power (if it isn’t already, then it’s on the way).
As things currently stand, China has no intention of abusing it’s power and turning to any imperial policies. It has introduced the Belt and Road Initiative, offering fair trade and industrial cooperation to any country which seeks it with full respect to the country’s sovereign status. This type of foreign policy might sound naive to Western eyes and ears, but it’s a wise policy. Everybody benefits from it and China avoids creating any imperial enemies.
Now compare that policy to that of Washington. Back in 1776, when the US was created, it ostensibly fought against colonialism. And what is Washington doing today ? It is fully implementing colonial policies of it’s former colonial masters, with some patents of it’s own, like creating the “Office of Interim President” and trying to place in power little traitors of the Guaido type. Worse, it wants the rest of the world to accept this. Even worse than this, it is creating political and military hot spots in the world, using proxies for war activities.
It is currently backing Ukraine for a military conflict against the Donbass, with Ukraine massing troops and equipment close to the line of separation. Washington analysts and think tanks have obviously come to the “bright” conclusion that 2021 is the perfect year to destabilize Russia, as in September we have Parliamentary elections in the country. Washington’s strategy is basically simple. It will drive Ukraine to war against the Donbass either this spring or summer, hoping Russia will directly intervene and thus be accused of “aggression”. With combat activities going on, Washington is hoping that a change of attitude will occur in Russia and that voters will elect pro-Western liberal stooges to the Parliament. Failing that, Western controlled NGO’s will then instigate demonstrations in the country against “electoral fraud” and ongoing war activities, hoping preconditions would be created for a color revolution which would introduce a pro-Western government that would split Russia away from China, not to mention opening Russia for some plundering by Western banks and corporations. Nothing of the sort will happen.
However, what is extremely dangerous is what might potentially happen between now and the end of September. A war in the Donbass could theoretically pitch NATO against Russia, especially now when the US Empire is looking into a collapse, not to mention a financial collapse of the US its self. A cornered rat is a dangerous rat. We shall see what the neocons decide to do via their puppet Joe Biden.
Leo:
Agreed with most of your analysis but STRONGLY disagree with your statement that Nixon and Kissinger inadvertently turn China into a chief economic power. Nixon and Kissinger did no such thing. USA never offered any economic/technological assistances to China during what people thought to be the ‘honeymoon’ period of 70’s-80’s. USA took advantage of China’s cheap labor and enriched its 1%, and sold China outdated industrial production tools at high prices because China has no other choice. What China could not afford, China developed on its own. The results are what you see today in China’s industrial production chain line up. Americans had no hands in it. American can’t even duplicate it today if they wanted to. Nixon and Kissinger made China? LOL!!!
The West is keen on painting itself as benevolent, resourceful, and generous. Assigning credit to itself for anything good in this world. Behind the facade they painted through their mighty MSM is actually a sneaky, cruel, and soulless beast that lies, cheats, robs, kills, and getting grossly fat and incompetent. Look at Kissinger’s obese poundage and sinister mumblings about both sides needing to compromise to keep world peace, you know what I mean. I suggest that China/Russia demand 100 Triilion USD from the USAstan to the world for the demages that it has caused the world from the Korean War, Vietnam War, Latin invasions of Nicaragua/Panama/Grenada/Cuba/Columbia, Yugoslavia War, Iragi War, Afghanistan War, Syrian War, Libyan War, and the dozen color revolutions it has roused that resulted in millions suffering broken homes and careers. Demand for these compensations, and see if Kissinger thinks America should compromise to keep world peace.
Oh, had I forgotten compensation for genocides on the great continent of America? That too!
It was China’s ascension to the WTO that turn China into a chief economic power.
https://www.brookings.edu/testimonies/issues-in-chinas-wto-accession/
You bought in the western pundit narrative too much. WTO was negotiated during Clinton years, Nixon/Kissinger had NOTHING to do with it. Besides, China was trading with the world at the time anyway, only uncertainty was tariff terms. With respect to Europe, tariff was negotiated country by country; with USA it was negotiated annually. That was the Most Favored Nation status years. USA was dangling its market as a bait to exploit China’s cheap labor product year by year. Entry into WTO merely removed the necessity of annual negotiations. In any case, Chinese low-tech commodity products were so price competitive that it’s arguable even without WTO accession China would have developed manufacturing and its exports just as quickly. WTO did expedited things, but China’s rise in those years was not dependent on it.
India, Indonesia, Malaysia, etc. etc. are all members of WTO, all with large population and cheap labor, how come WTO didn’t turn them into superpowers?
Don’t get brainwashed by NYT, FT, et al western MSM narratives. They are beating chest claiming credit of China’s development on behalf of the Empire. It’s like the comical claims of China stealing technologies and jobs, it’s simply western envy and BULLSHIT!
Whatever China has achieved til now is because of her people’s hard work and ingenuity. The US is clearly envious of Chinese people’s skills and knowledge.
Oriental Voice
The moment China got the chance to trade with the US, EU and others, it’s position of chief economic power was assured. Money creates money. What was China before Kissinger and Nixon payed it a visit and what is China today ? Yes, the 1 % in the US got richer. They also opened the door for China to do the same.
No, EU/USA did not ensure China’s economic power. China’s own diligence and resourcefulness did. Money does not create money. If it does countries like Saudi Kingdom and Brunei would have been super powers decades ago. USA/EU have absolutely nothing to do with China’s rise. In fact, right after the Tiananmen incidence both Europe and USA imposed sanctions on China, some of which remain (such as in weapons purchases) in place even today. Since 1989, both EU and the Five Eyes have been antagonists of China in big ways.
I don’t know why so many people consider the west, namely USA/EU, to be so god-like. It’s as though they waved their magic hands and boom, their favorite concubine China became rich and powerful. Without assistances from the west, there is no way in heaven or hell can any other nations develop and prosper? In my view, Europe was long spent after the second world war, weak and scared of the Polar Bear to its north and east. USA let success in the world war get to its head, became vain, lost its soul and intelligence in the 50’s and 60’s and started the down hill slide that is continuing today.
Since the Korean War, China proved that it’s more than an even match for the west. Since the passing of Yeltsin, Russia is also proving that Russia is a match of the west. In 20 years, it would be USA and EU begging China/Russia to let them in on space science research memberships.
Well said, “Oriental Voice”
In most of the recorded human history, China has been the most productive country in the world – producing the most food, most products than any others. This fact alone should give hint about the almost certainty of China’s rise as economic power – with or without the West’s interferences or the so-called “helps”.
But I won’t blame too much on the commenters in the Saker. They are much more knowledgeable than many of the dumb commenters I have seen in other web sites.
I don’t blame any of the commenters on Saker’s. I was merely contesting a prevailing meme of how Nixon/Kissinger’s geopolitical move gave China the wherewithal of economic progress. That meme was conjectured and promoted shamelessly by thinktanks of the west, and subsequently by the western press and politicians. Those thinktanks, about 99% of them, knows nothing–I mean NOTHING!. Brookings is one of them. If 5-Eyes thinktanks are worth their reputation, the west wouldn’t be in today’s sorry shape, would it? India followed the west’s playbook, how come these thinktanks are oh so quiet on India’s economic development? They are not pursuing academic advancement in the subject matters they deal with. They are merely playing Monday morning quarterback on global status quo, gave them a blah blah blah rationalization that assigns credits to the west, and earn their funding supports as typical of parasites they are. For the last 4 decades, I haven’t read any publications by Brookings, Rands, Hoovers, Heritage, or from Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Berkeley, Chicago et al that’s worth a crap. The sinking of the USA titanic is not without a reason.
I agree about commenters on Sakers. Great bunch. Rivals the bunch at Moon of Alabama.
Ramin
At this point does anybody outside of the west trust the analysis or opinions of the Anglo-Zionists
Recall they described the Germans of World War One as the second coming of Asiatic Huns set loose to once again, like Attila before, rob, pillage and plunder Europe while defiling its women
The art of projection was at is peak when the chosen supremacists decided to place the tag and goal of master race on Hitler and his Reich, while having plundered Africa, Asia, and America for the better part of two hundred years.
IN our current times, all things Iran, China and Russia are the definition of evil, now that the Palestinians and Iraq have been subdued.
The problems is they will not stop until the get what they want or are consumed in the fire of their own making.
Today China is heavily involved in really putting an end to poverty in China and in many ways it is expanding that endeavour to the many places where it has reached out to. Africa is a class-A example; Latin America etc. Contrary to that, now forgotten, “Make poverty history” launched by, I think, Oxfam Canada and regurgitated by dozens of countries, CHina’s activities in many of the countries with whom it relates to, are about building infrastructure, jobs, integration, industries, technologies and so on with the vision of aiding those countries out of their colonial imposition
It’s so good to see Ramin reporting on serious issues after his long furlough as drama critic at the U$ Theatre of the Absurd; and to read his optimistic report on a positive developments in the real world, after having completed his assignment to cover that over-long play, the historical-tragical-comical-farce POTU$A on the Potomac.
I liked this passage especially; Ramin and Islamic-Communism are back on form:
“about the indubitably socialist-inspired modern Iranian economy: Iran doesn’t do Western capitalism, i.e. it doesn’t sell out. Chinese companies will work alongside Iranian industries, all of which are state-owned and state-controlled. China is not “buying” Iranian corporations – this is not $400 billion in “mergers” and “take-overs” – they are buying Iranian products or bartering for them via techniques Iran can learn from and projects which Iran needs to see built.
Iran secured money and intellectual investment for 25-years, and there is no danger of this investment being hijacked by foreign capital from any nation, which is how foreign investment works in Western neoliberalism. If the Iranian government has been able redistribute money downwards during four decades of hot and cold war, they can do it even better in times of economic prosperity”
The Persians are some of the best scientist and engineers on the planet. Many come to the west to pursue advanced research and live an affluent western life. However, if the best brains of the universities of Tehran, Isfahan, Tabriz, Sharif, etc work with the brightest of China, watch out, that would be a powerhouse combination.
Excellent analysis – many thanks, Ramin. It is useful to have the full depth of this alliance described, truly a globally important event.
And do please keep talking about these two cultures as their minds (and socialist systems) meet – a fascinating topic, and you’re perfect for it.
History cleverly rewritten (Old Testament Style).
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-true-story-of-xi-jinping/ar-BB1fhaZY?ocid=msedgdhp
The recent acceleration of attacks on China & Russia (I am also referring to the Personal attack against Russian President – Vladimir Putin – made by the American Zionist Puppet – pretend President, Ukraine Biden), are dangerous, and opening the door for WAR. The Traitor author refers to the Opium War against China, while implying that the USA Government was an innocent bystander. The Tribe salesman wrote the above article, which is full of the usual lies, distortions, and omissions.
At the same time as the Opium Wars against China, the US Government was crushing the Philippine & Puerto Rican People’s Independence Movements, (which were the tragic aftermath of its Imperialist war against Spain -with the aim of seizing the remnants of Spain’s colonial Empire).
Below are 2 slightly less biased accounts of the IMPERIALIST conflicts against the Chinese Nation & its people. The US Government (and the French, and the Russian Monarchy, as well as a few others), went to WAR to help protect the British Empire’s ‘right’ to sell/market Opium to the Chinese people (against the wishes of the Chinese Government).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Opium-Wars
Durruti *I sometimes use my alias, Dr. Peter J. Antonsen
Excellent article Ramin.
While the MSM have either deliberately ignored or try to downplay the significance of this 25 Year Iran-China Agreement, we KNOW, that they KNOW, that this a huge deal, with geo-political implications that will reverberate for years to come.
What is happening and what they are afraid to admit is that, they are scared stiff about what this will mean for Iran.
If Iran under Trump”s “maximum pressure” was able to not only hold its own during the pandemic, but also developed vaccines locally, and did comparatively better than the US, UK and France – who had no sanctions hampering them – then surely after this, how can they stop Iran?
The Islamic Republic will continue to go from strength to strength, and to paraphrase the Supreme Leader, “they will not be able to do a damn thing about it”.
Selah