The coming of the new G8 points to the inevitable advent of BRICS +, one of the key themes to be discussed in the upcoming BRICS summit in China.
By Pepe Escobar, posted with the author’s permission and widely cross-posted
The speaker of the Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, may have created the defining acronym for the emerging multipolar world: “the new G8”.
As Volodin noted, “the United States has created conditions with its own hands so that countries wishing to build an equal dialogue and mutually beneficial relations will actually form a ‘new G8’ together with Russia.”
This non Russia-sanctioning G8, he added, is 24.4% ahead of the old one, which is in fact the G7, in terms of GDP in purchasing power parity (PPP), as G7 economies are on the verge of collapsing and the U.S. registers record inflation.
The power of the acronym was confirmed by one of the researchers on Europe at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Sergei Fedorov: three BRICS members (Brazil, China and India) alongside Russia, plus Indonesia, Iran, Turkey and Mexico, all non adherents to the all-out Western economic war against Russia, will soon dominate global markets.
Fedorov stressed the power of the new G8 in population as well as economically: “If the West, which restricted all international organizations, follows its own policies, and pressures everyone, then why are these organizations necessary? Russia does not follow these rules.”
The new G8, instead, “does not impose anything on anyone, but tries to find common solutions.”
The coming of the new G8 points to the inevitable advent of BRICS +, one of the key themes to be discussed in the upcoming BRICS summit in China. Argentina is very much interested in becoming part of the extended BRICS and those (informal) members of the new G8 – Indonesia, Iran, Turkey, Mexico – are all likely candidates.
The intersection of the new G8 and BRICS + will lead Beijing to turbo-charge what has already been conceptualized as the Three Rings strategy by Cheng Yawen, from the Institute of International Relations and Public Affairs at the Shanghai International Studies University.
Cheng argues that since the beginning of the 2018 U.S.-China trade war the Empire of Lies and its vassals have aimed to “decouple”; thus the Middle Kingdom should strategically downgrade its relations with the West and promote a new international system based on South-South cooperation.
Looks like if it walks and talks like the new G8, that’s because it’s the real deal.
The revolution reaches the “global countryside”
Cheng stresses how “the center-periphery hierarchy of the West has been perpetuated as an implicit rule” in international relations; and how China and Russia, “because of their strict capital controls, are the last two obstacles to further U.S. control of the global periphery”.
So how would the Three Rings – in fact a new global system – be deployed?
The first ring “is China’s neighboring countries in East Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East; the second ring is the vast number of developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America; and the third ring extends to the traditional industrialized countries, mainly Europe and the United States.”
The basis for building the Three Rings is deeper Global South integration. Cheng notes how “between 1980-2021, the economic volume of developing countries rose from 21 to 42.2 percent of the world’s total output.”
And yet “current trade flows and mutual investments of developing countries are still heavily dependent on the financial and monetary institutions/networks controlled by the West. In order to break their dependence on the West and further enhance economic and political autonomy, a broader financial and monetary cooperation, and new sets of instruments among developing countries should be constructed”.
This is a veiled reference to the current discussions inside the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU), with Chinese participation, designing an alternative financial-monetary system not only for Eurasia but for the Global South – bypassing possible American attempts to enforce a sort of Bretton Woods 3.0.
Cheng uses a Maoist metaphor to illustrate his point – referring to ‘the revolutionary path of ‘encircling the cities from the countryside’”. What is needed now, he argues, is for China and the Global South to “overcome the West’s preventive measures and cooperate with the ‘global countryside’ – the peripheral countries – in the same way.”
So what seems to be in the horizon, as conceptualized by Chinese academia, is a “new G8/BRICS+” interaction as the revolutionary vanguard of the emerging multipolar world, designed to expand to the whole Global South.
That of course will mean a deepened internationalization of Chinese geopolitical and geoeconomic power, including its currency. Cheng qualifies the creation of a “three ring “ international system as essential to “break through the [American] siege”.
It’s more than evident that the Empire won’t take that lying down.
The siege will continue. Enter the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), spun as yet another proverbial “effort” to – what else – contain China, but this time all the way from Northeast Asia to Southeast Asia, with Oceania thrown in as a bonus.
The American spin on IPEF is heavy on “economic engagement”: fog of (hybrid) war disguising the real intent to divert as much trade as possible from China – which produces virtually everything – to the U.S. – which produces very little.
The Americans give away the game by heavily focusing their strategy on 7 of the 10 ASEAN nations – as part of yet another desperate dash to control the American-denominated “Indo-Pacific”. Their logic: ASEAN after all needs a “stable partner”; the American economy is “comparatively stable”; thus ASEAN must subject itself to American geopolitical aims.
IPEF, under the cover of trade and economics, plays the same old tune, with the U.S. going after China from three different angles.
– The South China Sea, instrumentalizing ASEAN.
– The Yellow and East China Seas, instrumentalizing Japan and South Korea to prevent direct Chinese access to the Pacific.
– The larger “Indo-Pacific” (that’s were India as a member of the Quad comes in).
It’s all labeled as a sweet apple pie of “stronger and more resilient Indo-Pacific with diversified trade.”
BRI corridors are back
Beijing is hardly losing any sleep thinking about IPEF: after all most of its multiple trade connections across ASEAN are rock solid. Taiwan though is a completely different story.
At the annual Shangri-La dialogue this past weekend in Singapore, Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe went straight to the point, actually defining Beijing’s vision for an East Asia order (not “rules-based”, of course).
Taiwan independence is a “dead end”, said General Wei, as he asserted Beijing’s peaceful aims while vigorously slamming assorted U.S. “threats against China”. At any attempt at interference, “we will fight at all costs, and we will fight to the very end”. Wei also handily dismissed the U.S. drive to “hijack” Indo-Pacific nations, without even mentioning IPEF.
China at it stands is firmly concentrated on stabilizing its western borders – which will allow it to devote more time to the South China Sea and the “Indo-Pacific” further on down the road.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi went on a crucial trip to Kazakhstan – a full member of both BRI and the EAEU – where he met President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and all his counterparts from the Central Asian “stans” in a summit in Nur-Sultan. The group – billed as C+C5 – discussed everything from security, energy and transportation to Afghanistan and vaccines.
In sum, this was all about developing much-needed corridors of BRI/ New Silk Roads – in sharp contrast to the proverbial Western lamentations about BRI reaching a dead end.
Two BRI-to-the-bone projects will go on overdrive: the China-Central Asia Gas Pipeline Line D, and the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway. Both have been years in the making, but now have become absolutely essential, and will be the flagship BRI projects in the Central Asian corridor.
The China-Central Asia Gas Pipeline Line D will link Turkmenistan’s gas fields to Xinjiang via Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. That was the main theme of the discussions when Turkmen President Berdimuhamedow visited Beijing for the Winter Olympics.
The 523 km China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway for its part will crucially link the two Central Asian “stans” to the China-Europe freight rail network, via the existing rail networks in Turkmenistan.
Considering the current incandescent geopolitical scenario in Ukraine, this is a bombshell in itself, because it will enable freight from China to travel via Iran or via Caspian ports, bypassing sanctioned Russia. No hard feelings, in terms of the Russia-China strategic partnership: just business.
The Kyrgyz, predictably, were ecstatic. Construction begins next year. According to Kyrgyz President Zhaparov, “there will be jobs. Our economy will boom.”
Talk about China acting decisively in its “first ring”, in Central Asia. Don’t expect anything of such geoeconomic breadth and scope being “offered” by IPEF anywhere in ASEAN.
Thank Pepe Escobar for the link , full of info to ponder on!
Building the “New Three Rings”: China’s choice in the face of possible complete decoupling
https://readchina.info/en-US/articles/586615452688449537
Throughout history, Empires never last.
Now no one trusts the American Empire any longer,
especially given the Empire’s Achilles’s heel: Apartheid Israel.
You can’t rebuild the “obsolete OLD Covenant” (as per Paul, Heb: 8:13)
to impede the NEW and not expect consequences.
http://biblicisminstitute.wordpress.com/2014/08/05/israel-the-scourge-of-empires/
Pepe runs the magic again. A “Maoist” approach to the political economy of global governance?
This sounds like matter and anti-matter — two universes.
But if matter meats anti-matter, there’s an explosion.
The problem with Finance is that it is the consequence from the wheelings and dealing of the oldest profession in the world…
America’s leaders and representatives in the International Venue are so pompous and frankly putrid with their spewing of lies upon lies have become to disgusting to even listen to what they have to say.
The world has had enough and is ready to cast the Colonialist West aside once and for all time.
The Vibe is spreading like Wild Fire across the Globe.
Colonialist Corporate Media will not be able to stop it, they don’t have the capacity to do it.
Yes, the “leaders” of the “West” are insufferable, no argument there.
Yet..
What makes anyone think that the Chinese Communists, who ruthlessly murder and dissappear their own countrymen, will be any kinder or gentler than the Khazar Mafia Banksters that run the West?
What makes you think the Chinese Communists will set you free?
This celebration of the coming Chinese dominace is meerly swaping one set of chains for another.
Eu nunca vi um governante ianqui franqueando vacina anti-covid19 aos americanos, nem mesmo tirando milhões de cidadãos da pobreza e do desemprego… Pelo contrário, é fato histórico que ianquis lançaram 2 bombas atômicas em Hiroshima e Nagazaki, mataram covardemente milhões: na Coréia,no Vietnam, na Indonésia, no Laos, no Camboja, na Nicarágua, em Cuba, em Angola, no Sudão, no Iraque, na Síria, na Líbia, no Afeganistão, em Granada, no Panamá, na Guatemala, etc…etc… além de conspirarem e depuserem governos eleitos pelo mundo afora, e matar de fome e demais enfermidades populações civis com sanções e boicotes. Ianqui nem é gente!
I have never seen a Yankee ruler giving the Americans an anti-covid19 vaccine, not even lifting millions of citizens out of poverty and unemployment… in Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, Nicaragua, Cuba, Angola, Sudan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, Grenada, Panama, Guatemala, etc…etc… in addition to of conspiring and overthrowing elected governments around the world, and starving and killing civilian populations with sanctions and boycotts. Yankee isn’t even people!
From my opinion its time to put US aside and see what happens in multipolar world. Of course nobody can give assurances that everything will be fine and rosy. But the fact is that the current “order” has been devastating to all others except the so called west (the colonizers). It is true at least to some extent that there is repression and bad things also in China, Russia and so on but how much of this information we get from media or what is teached to us in school is actually true. It is difficult to trust to anything these days, especially after relentless propaganda and all the lies about covid and Ukraine war. In all this chaos, i trust more to china and russia because they are not meddling around the world in the same way as US and its allies. I gladly give a chance to new multipolar world. The one provided by US is not for me.
I completely agree with you. There’s no way we could compare Russia and China with this little bully boy. I was a kid living in Tehran when the USSR was a major superpower. I don’t remember hearing even once that the USSR had ever threatened to bomb Tehran even though the former Shah regime was a 100% western stooge always working against CCCP interests. The same goes with China. On the other hand there’s the US that has been talking about bombing Iran for over 40 years since the 1979 Revolution.
American Refugee,
Where is the ruthless murder? Name one please, or many. The average Chinese street cop does not even carry a weapon. Where you come from, school teachers now carry weapons. Who is the brutal and ruthless here?
It is an amazing thing that the Americans keep thinking it is about them. The Chinese are not a bit interested in ‘setting you free’, or messing with you in any way whatsoever. You’re going to have to do that all for yourself as well as manufacture your own chains and your own chainsaws.
The average American’s knowledge about China is completely lacking and they fill up that lack with rumors.
How many military bases does China have across the world?. How many countries did they color revolutionize? How many did they run ops on to change leadership? How many did they lie to in terms of commerce? How many did they push odious debt on? How many did they declare Trade War on? How many times are they testing ‘so-called’ freedom of navigation with war ships on the other side of the world? and the list of questions continues of course.
The anti-China propaganda is as effective as the anti-Russian propaganda. I’ve not seen the Chinese come up with ‘weapons of mass destruction’ and go to war. I’ve not seen them cry about ‘incubator babies’. In fact, they have not made war for many years. They have not even attacked anyone but fought fiercely when they were attacked.
What about the one child policy from 1971 to 1991 where in every village, government employees forced abortions on women, dragging them out of their houses etc. And the babies born were left in marketplaces hoping they would be saved. I would NEVER think any of that was better than what we have today. And whatabout Completely shutting down Shanghai for a virus that poses almost no threat?
Linda, China has a zero covid strategy. They have the absolute right to have their own strategy. In fact, I feel much safer with their strategy and that is what we followed. China is concerned about bioweapons and they have the right to be, as both their crops and their animals have been attacked with bioweapons in the last years. It is too long to write down here.
About the one child policy – I am not fully up to date with the history there, but have written to my correspondents as it will make a good article. But I bet you did not know that not one of the 57 or 58 Chinese ethnic groups were subject to that policy. I know there are issues there that I have not studied and do not understand.
Abandonment of babies? I suggest you look at what is happening around you. Dragging out of houses? you’re going to need to give me source material for this.
I’ve said so many times, if you look at China through western eyes, you will never get it.
In general I recommend Godfree Roberts’ book – Why China Leads the World.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08Q9PN8SV?ref_=pe_3052080_276849420%20ASIN%20:%20B08Q9PN8SV
That one I specifically like, as it takes the historical and brings it through to decision being taken today.
And then, any of Jeff Brown’s books here: https://chinarising.puntopress.com/books-social-media-links/
Americans specifically are propagandized on China and with their tendency to measure everyone by their own standards, they struggle to get outside of the view that they are superior and exceptional. They are also used to being made to believe that everyone else is the enemy.
On the blog, I’ve written a lot about China. Search for Here Comes China on the search bar on the right. I usually have a topical and sometimes historical informational at the end of each post.
Linda Amick,
There’s no point comparing apples and oranges. China is a 5000 years plus melting pot which has always minded her own business since day one. The Yangtze River basin has been inhibited for several thousand years feeding millions if not billions of people all these years. There’s a unique Chinese culture and social values that has no similarities with those in the west. On the other hand we have this juvenile bully with 300-400 years total history called the US, that is used to live off others and which somehow thinks of himself as being a full-time law enforcer like remember when kids play police game and that frankly makes it quite entertaining for the rest of the world to watch.
Covid omicron poses almost no threat. Well, it kills some, not many. It makes some too sick to do their jobs safely; enough to close down places, for lack of competent teams. It makes all living plague spreaders: I’m ok but you won’t show up tomorrow.
Estimated 1,000,000 americans have died of covid.
About 5,200 Chinese have died of covid: about 190 times LESS.
america’s population is, I forget, somewhat less than 400,000,000.
China’s population is around 1,400,000,000: about 3.5 times MORE.
China can name and address almost every one who caught even a mild case.
america can not even count their cases, because states’ policies vary,
and testing is almost non-existent … not to mention a dire threat to freedom.
If you don’t have exception medical insurance, you can’t get tested anyway
and you certainly can’t get treatment. And you must go work anyway,
even if you are a petty criminal, because no social safety net.
It is interesting that you mention Shanghai. Local government decided to relax “Dynamic Zero” policy: mass testing and quarantine of positives. Because, world finance, world shipping, important world industry … greed. Covid omicron escaped control.
“poses almost no threat” to what? Old people die from omicon. (Lucky for you, I didn’t.) People get too sick to go to work. People healthy but afraid to go work with sick people. Food supplies chaotic, because truckers too sick to drive; and receivers afraid to accept deliveries. The rest of the country isolates Shanghai. Even freedom-loving american ports isolate Shanghai.
Doctors and nurses and police and other essential services showed up for work; and learned to tolerate biohazard suits; and got barracked at the work-site. And got tested every day. Ad hoc logistic services were setup. People coped. Almost all people survived.
Some people, who thought Shanghai was too important, will get unfavourable reports in their annual reviews, some may be demoted, some fired, a few go to jail.
And what about all those babies who were not aborted. What are they going to do when mommy is too sick for 3 or 4 days to take care of them?
I’m intrigued by this exchange. I fully agree with you amarynth that China is a sovereign country that can do whatever they want with their internal domestic policy.
However, that doesn’t answer the provacative challenge put out there by American Refugee. For the rest of the world, the world outside the PRC, the people comcom claims are “ready to cast the Colonialist West aside”, what precisely makes them think the Chinese elites will “set you free” as AR put it?
That is a question for AR.
Amarynth never promised to set anybody free.
The “Chinese elites” are adamant that other “sovereign countr[ies] that can do whatever they want
with their internal domestic polic[ies], and that China will not interfere.
China will not set anyone free, who is not Chinese.
AR’s challenge, and yours, is not “provocative”.
It is a red herring.
citizen8, why should China be responsible to set you free? China is not interested in setting others free. China has a business proposal: BRI. You like it? join us. You don’t like it? fine we go away.
You yourself are solely responsible for setting yourself free.
I get what you want to convey.
At the same time i see some very avoidable kinks in Chinas policies with respect to BRI in at least one example.
I have been watching travelogues of Pakistan over last one year. A few things stood out with respect to Chinas BRI activities.
China built roads and power infrastructure and part of the port in Gwadar and is in the process of building industrial zones at various places along the road connecting Gwadar in Arabian Sea to the Karakoram pass on the China-Pakistan Himalayan border.
Couple of cultural issues. every where along on the road on rest areas and scenic look out points you have very Chinese Pagoda style ( tacky and our of place too) structures can be seen.
These stick out like a sore thumb in Pakistan especially these are built by loans not gifts or handouts. Nothing like forcing cultural landmarks alien to the region to remind locals daily that they dont have sovereignty on design decisions that they pay through their taxes.
Chinese workers work in many areas building infrastructure import every day goods labelled in chinese these include products containing pork . many conflicts have arisen when local pakistanis in attempt to sample foreign fare find out after ingesting that what they ate had pork products. That Pakistan doesnt have upper hand in even labelling in local language products sold in their jurisdiction does not bode well .
Finally the power plants and their tariffs have become a sore point in Pakistan. Apparently the then Sharrif govt was not just corroupt but also inefficient they got bulldozed by Chinese companies backed by the Chinese Govt into signing very exploitative power purchase agreements. Last govt of Imran Khan discovered to their horror that the tariffs were so high that the Chinese Companies recovered their investments in Thermal power plants in just 3 short years. Typical ROI in such projects is 20-30;years.
A bankrupt Pakistani govt cant afford to pay such exorbitant tariffs asked multiple times for Chinese govt to intervene to get more reasonable Tariffs agreed upon but was rebuffed multiple times.
Such experiences are watched closely around the world. It looks like the Chinese govt is hell bent on getting negative experiences on its BRI initiative with multiple projects in multiple countries facing same problems and the Chinese govt refusing to learn from its experiences.
Contrast this to Russias discounts on energy deals with the global south. Russias moves in Afghanistan and other countries to attempt to find a way to ease the grain crisis of these desparate countries will find a resonance in the hearts and minds of people multiple countries. .
In an attempt to throw shade on the Chinese, you made the Pakistanis sound as if they’re a bunch of idiots. And I know they are not.
Show me the agreements and I can comment on it. Without them, this is just a listing of gossip. Design should be looked at during contracting time. Labeling is usually dealt with at contracting time. Where are the pakistani contractors and contract negotiators? Who are the buyers and the food distributors that let through pork products? Where are your customs that are supposed to be vigilant to local custom? We have a lot of imported food and we have two labels .. the original and another one in our local language. Who is doing the deals? Who creates the specs?
So, you blame the Chinese for bad contracting on Pakistani side. Goodness. Did you push arms behind backs?
The Pakistani’s ate something that they did not know what it was and found out it was pork. Well, I am highly allergic to a certain seafood. That is why I don’t eat strange seafood, unless I am very sure what it is.
Where I live, we have a Mosque – it incidentally is quite tacky as well. When I go by it, I don’t think they’re trying to culturally change the landscape. I just think it is a Mosque for people to practice their religion.
” Chinese Communists, who ruthlessly murder and dissappear their own countrymen” that is straight from CIA text book! You are leaving on the opposite part of the world, and you seem to know everytihng about china, communists and not a iota about your country and it’s leaders! Who was more brutal, USA dealing with people that originaly dwelled in your country, slaves imported from Africa, immigrants from Asia, the other parts of american continents!
The communist label tacked onto China (which far too many are more than willing to suck up) is a western concoction designed to cast China as something it’s really not, for China is capitalist to the bone seeing the U.S. is the same way. As far as disappearing people, that of course is some more western propaganda for demonizing someone we regard as a foe is the first in the western playbook to be played. The Cold War saw endless demonizing of Russia, which lasted for years. You still hear from certain people that Russia is communist which of course they are not, but it fixes that old line in people’s mind that that old boggy man is still out there to get you and lol only capitalism can save you the twin sister to that which we hate communism.
Totally agree! Does Pepe ever ask the people of Tibet how much fun rule by China is? He seems obsessed with China’s takeover of the world, a surveillance state with millions of unhappy single men and a social credit score system to boot. The Chinese with their traditional medicines are at the core of the looming extinction of the world’s iconic animals. The one’s I see in So. CA nearly everyday rarely smile, rarely say hello and seem to me alien colonizers who care nothing of their host. While they appear to be a peaceable people, they are resource-starved and they will use their monetary leverage to acquire them wherever they may be. Sure they build up infrastructure in exchange and their hosts may even prosper. But at the end of the day their forests, energy and mineral resources will be extracted to the last cord/ounce. Tibet is the model, let Pepe move there or to Beijing where he can luxuriate in the fresh air. The west is degenerate and heading off a cliff for sure but Chinese global ascendancy is not the answer.
Your information is old, hackneyed and long time not valid any longer.
At the end of this, I wrote a long piece about Tibet. It is thriving and the serfs are not any longer being beaten to death. It is the last part of the post.
/here-comes-china-xi-jinpings-speech-major-geo-political-events-joint-naval-patrol-shangri-la-was-a-novel/
Beijing? Blue skies in Beijing because of a massive engineering program. Even Bloomberg comments on that.
https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1536950790593449984
” forests, energy and mineral resources will be extracted to the last cord/ounce” – All I can say is that you have no idea of the work in China to replant forests, their energy profile is mixed and their mineral resources are carefully controlled. Somewhere I wrote about the massive reforestation and even control of forests where TCM can be handcrafted. These people maintain their traditions, even though they are a modern country, with currently 0 poverty – and on the way to what they call Moderate Prosperity for the average Chinese citizen.
So, you are offsides on Tibet, one Blue Skies in Beijing and on maintenance of natural resources. Perhaps you are offsides on more and you talk on things you don’t know about.
You could not explain the social credit system to me because you don’t know what it is.
you know NOTHING about what Tibetans think about China and Chinese Communist Party. They consider Chairman Mao as a Saint!! just as sacred as La Ma!! It was Chairman Mao liberated Millions of Tibetans from Serfs to Free people!!!
More vile lies. The truth is… China liberated Tibet, recaptured it from the Brits and Indians. China liberated millions of the most destitute serfs on Earth, and gave them freedom of movement and language, and gave them education, medicine, food, clothings, housings, sanitation, protection from marauding tribes in the now Indian regions. People in Tibet are now educated, literate, well fed, population expanding, with 2x the life expectancy of that of the Tibetan theocracy.
According to Pepe’s formula, 88% of the world’s population are not concerned with an alien Corporate Media.. The remaining 12% can opt out if they want, with so many alternative news sources available..
I think you misunderstood something. Or read something Pepe did not write.
Looks like MACRITIBS might be a good acronym for the new group?
You hear it here first ;oD
Doesn’t this railway route compliment the North-South Transport Corridor, Russia-Azerbaijan-Iran (who share the longest border with Turkmenistan)-India?
The Russia – Azerbaijan – Iran is just one of those very crucial corridors. There’s also Russia – Caspian Sea – Iran as well as Russia – Central Asia – Iran corridors that are very important . As you said these routes compliment China – Russia corridor. When they become operational for sure the US would have to quit its current financier job and start looking for another one, this time may be in the transgender industry.
Internationalization of the Chinese currency? When? How? The CNY/USD peg is one of the bedrocks of the global order.
This is one of the key analytical challenges for big claims like this. No one really knows what the CCP leadership wants behind the scenes. In some ways their public actions seem quite aligned with elites in the Anglo-American world.
citizen8,
…you are absolutely right. Think The Chinese are playing too much dirty politics here. It seems Beijing has prepared a huge container filled with salt-water and put all the countries of the so-called zone B in it so they stay fresh just in case needed in the future if relations with the US$ doesn’t yield enough profits. It’s been taking the Chinese forever to introduce a common currency and an integrated financial system for the countries of the BRICS, SCO, EAEU. Frankly how hard could that be for a country that boasts constructing 1000KM railroad, bridges and tunnels in less than one year? The Chinese strategy is quiet similar to what’s happened in the case of Iran some years ago. The Chinese national oil co. was in charge of developing Azadegan/Yadavaran oil fields in Iran. They spend decades at the sites doing absolutely nothing while spending millions of US dollars here and there (bribes included) just pretending they’re working on the project knowing full well that they will never complete those projects because they have already made deals with US, SA, Iraq, Kuwait to receive their oil. So basically they got the projects in Iran because they wanted their development stopped or delayed. Anyway, hope I am wrong and soon we can witness better coordination amongst the Zone B countries.
Indeed, it makes you wonder. Meanwhile they spread their social credit system over the country truly limiting the personal liberties and the already quite limited constitutional rights of their citizens in a manner that I consider unacceptable. Neither do I see China do any efforts to change the currency system based on debt to something avoiding the current unimaginable usury and enrichment of the 0.0001%.
The Chinese Wirtschaftswunder seems another experiment of the banksters in charge with as usual some seemingly very good to pull the wool over our eyes and some highly undesirable that we’ll realize when too late.
The questions in your first paragraph are extremely important and I haven’t seem anywhere a plausible explanation on how the dollar replacement will work.
All nations have billions of dollars in their reserves that will basically become worthless – how will they pay their debts or do trade with worthless money? Will China exchange dollars for Yuan, in a new version of Bretton Woods (Gold for Dollar)? As the largest Trading nation on the planet, are they prepared for a huge downfall on the global demand for their products?
Bretton Woods happened in a very specific condition, where there was no relevant resistance against It – after all, a World War had just ended and most of the world had no choice but to accept it. Also, the trade involved two things that had value: Gold and dollar – now the trade will involve tons of worthless painted paper…
In regular conditions (i.e. no World War) it will take years, if not decades, for countries to accumulate the current level of dollar reserves in CNY and resume trade and debt payments.
Of course I’m no economist, therefore I would like to hear more about the mechanics of dollar replacement.
CCP is irrelevant in China.
Chinese political activity mostly (but not completely) is expressed CPC, the Communist Party of China.
But then again such statements come from individual members or the Stan countries.
Tokayev on the question of whether Kazakhstan will help Russia because of the sanctions:
“Sanctions are sanctions, we should not violate them”.
Russia recently saved Kazakhstan from chaos in the country. Now Kazakhstan is “thanking”.
Furthermore, Kyrgyzstan has been sitting with a US military. Stan states fall down at the first gust of wind. Russia definitely needs to go ahead and severely damage the EU so that even the people realize what idiots they elected as leaders.
Willi,
…the Stan countries as well as other zone B countries are helping Russia as much as they can but avoid making it public. Most likely because so many of them hold their national assets + high ranking personal accounts held up somewhere in western bank accounts. Naturally they afraid the Bank freezes their possessions. This is why they say who controls money controls nations and who controls food controls people. The whole idea is to break this mafia system.
China and co need to be careful. The UN will be putting its hands up to be the controller of the global financial system, just like they tried to take the internet.
The most useless organisation on the planet.
Robot, I disagree.
The UN is the center of the international laws based order.
The USA and Collective West could not bent it sufficiently to their will.
So they started the rules based international order.
We are in the midst of a clash of civilizations between the the two.
If the UN was “The most useless organization on the planet”.
Then why would we need the rules based international order to oppose it?
Money is confused,
and WE,
are all caught in the crossfire.
Store what you are able to and just hope
that it was not needed
“No hard feelings Russia, it’s just business” – just like refusing to allow Russian banks to use the Union Pay system, and decreasing Chinese investments in the country.
Some strategic partnership that is! Don’t the Chinese realise that they’re next in line for “regime change”?
The Chinese public is understanding how things are going:
For those who know Chinese. When donations come to the channel, I will have time to translate this into English. In the meantime, this is how: In the Chinese segment of social networks, this video with an appeal to Zelensky by Ukrainian prisoners has become popular: the video has gained more than 800 million views.
“Waiting for the same condemnation of the American military and the puppet regime from Taiwanese prisoners of war,” said one of the Chinese users in the comments. https://t.me/denazi_UA/12767
China is playing games with the westerners. Taiwan could easily get into a sea cauldron where all trade pathes be cut with exception of China homeland. And the US/GB/CA/AU could do nothing against it if Russia supports with long range precision weapons (if Chinas own would not suffice).
I guess this is only theatre we are presented here (like in “bread and games”) to increase fear and anxiety of people and to keep us all away from building up our own society. Forget the digital and pharma agenda crap, we are all analog people and live in an analog world. No need for digital nonsense and vaccines against colds.
You are right, Bonbon. Cheng Yawen is a must read. And reread.
People, if you are pressed for time, skip Escobar, skip the rest of the comments. Even mine!
Read Cheng.
NATO Blues you noted, “The West is degenerate and heading off a cliff, but Chinese global ascendency is not the answer”. This is a loaded statement. For one which other nation or nations have ascended, and to where. What is the description of those nations that have ascended and why should China not be one. What are the criteria, who sets it up and gives approval. There is a notion posited by your statement that the empires past e.g British, French and the current one in free fall, have all put upon themselves to pursue. It stinks of racism and superiority complex. That China should not, well who then meets these lofty high ideals. I m curious as to what princliples gave you the testicular fortitude make such a declaration. That last statement opens such a window into your attitude and perspective of the rest of the world.
Citizen8
I think others have put up adequate responses. I will just chip in a little one. There is a saying, actions speak louder than words. For the past century alone if you look at the actions of the Americastan, past great nations like GB, France, Spain, Italy and their contributions through relationships and alliances vs China and her relationships and alliances you would note that the latter’s was less turbulent than the former. So your endorsed question of how sure are we, at this particular juncture, the one thing we can be absolutely sure off is we are sick and tired of the status quo, the West, the empire, Europe, whatever. Their machinations have wreaked havoc across the entire globe from Africa, Asia, the Americas, old Europe. Its in their DNA, its their modus operandi. For all those you benefit and flourish in such environment I m sure they would have all sorts if uncertainties, for the rest don’t so much; its a welcomed cataclysm.
I’ve read this thread through a couple times now and don’t actually see a response or counter argument to the possibility that Beijing is more integrated with DC than separated from it.
You talk about actions speaking louder than words. I agree. China essentially pegs its currency to the US dollar (both yuan and HK dollar). China allows Larry Fink, for example (head of BlackRock) to both visit the country and invest dollars in China. (If you’re not familiar with the minutiae of the international financial system, BlackRock is one of a small handful of massive firms which control assets under management – investments in corporate equities – and thus lots of proxy votes and access to executive leadership of the big publicly traded firms across Zone A and much of Zone B, too.) China engages in spying and business deals and so forth for insider access and leverage akin to a Western power. Chinese entities engage in joint biological research, even sharing grants jointly with Western entities funded from the US government. And so on.
Escobar almost as an aside posits this idea about China internationalizing their power. But there’s almost no discussion about what that actually means, when it would happen, or how it would be done. China hasn’t said any words – never mind taken any actions – that would lead to meaningful internationalization of their currency like a substantial appreciation of the yuan against the dollar or issuing widespread arrest warrants for the various and sundry Western war criminals and financial fraudsters flying around the globe or mechanisms that would make global capital comfortable with property rights in China to switch from Western countries as the place to park their personal assets.
Never mind what’s possible, does China even want the burden of the international reserve currency? If not, if China would prefer a hard standard based on something other than its own national fiat currency (like a gold standard, for example) how exactly would that help ‘Africa, Asia, or the Americas’? Most of the official gold reserves in the world are claimed by the empire (NATO, Five Eyes, Japan, etc.), RF, and PRC. India has a decent aggregate reserve but per capita it’s much smaller than the other major powers.
For a bit of context, Belgium, a European country of about 12 million, has more official gold reserves than Egypt (African nation of over 100 million) and Indonesia (Asian nation of well over 200 million) combined. Now maybe the imperial claims don’t match reality? Maybe Fort Knox and the City of London are actually full of Tungsten? Or just hot air? Sure. But going back to actions, China to date hasn’t acted to challenge the claims in that realm. Could China secretly have more than their official reserves? Of course. Yet, similarly, China has not acted to make such a claim. And at any rate, a larger Chinese stockpile would be good for Beijing. It wouldn’t be much use to Bangladesh (Asia) or Burkina Faso (Africa).
This is the analytical thicket to explore. What, exactly, does internationalization mean? And what effects would it actually have?
I must add that Lula might win october’s election in Brazil. This will rocket BRICS(+) actions. Spectacular situation to the global south
“No hard feelings, it’s just business”. I can’t help but wonder how Moscow feels about it’s former Soviet republic’s natural resources being sent to China, instead of Russia. So Russia is to be bypassed altogether {doesn’t even get a piece of the action in any of this. This will only weaken Russia’s position in relation to it’s neighboring “stans”. Like my father used to say: “He who writes the checks, calls the shots”. In ten years time {or less} the whole lot of them {Russia included} will be mere vassal states of China. Some “union of co-operation”.
Pepe at it again :-) Great stuff! As a European (Norwegian) I wonder if the Europeans will wake up to the sad fact that as US vassal states, our best interests are not even considered by Washington, and our politicians are all too willing to sell us out. Here in Norway we have a new Quisling, jens stoltenberg, nato gs, and he is, like the first Quisling, selling us out to the evil empire with US military bases here. That very much to our detriment.
Thankfully the world has China and Russia as countermeasure to the evil empire, and the US lies and propaganda become steadily more transparent. But sadly, too few see it, and our MSM is still just reporting what Washington wants us to hear. So Thanks Pepe and the rest. And in particular the hard hitting Caitlin Johnstone, Brian Berletic, Jimmy Dore, Jackson Hinkle, Max Blumenthal, and all the rest :-) Very good to have reports and insights that are not created inside the Washington echo chamber!
The US President is a grifter beholden to the neo-cons who put him into office. The money flows to the clique via the Ukraine. And they are quite happy to destroy the USA as they line their own pockets and play right along with Soros/Davos globalist crowd who are also out to destroy America. They are opposed by other USA elites. Powell raising interest rates was the first salvo with more to come. How does this end? Not well for the EU globalist trash. The guillotines and pitchforks will come out this winter.
No doubt Putin is aware of the games at play and taking advantage of the situation.
The inclusion of Mexico in the G8 is wishful thinking, since the Mexican political, economic, and military elites are subservient to Washington. Even López Obrador has insisted during his administration that the Americas must unite to confront Chinese economic power. López Obrador has proposed creating a Union of all the countries of America, in the style of the European Union to avoid the economic hegemony of China. Mexico’s position regarding not sanctioning Russia or not attending the Summit of the Americas is only negotiating strategies before the United States, since dozens of US energy companies have sued Mexico for billions of dollars before panels of arbitration of the free trade agreement between both countries and Canada, and Mexico has lost and will continue to lose those arbitrations, for which it is now being forced to give concessions to US companies in the energy field, in exchange for not complying with the decisions of those panels. López Obrador is very weak and needs to present himself to his leftist bases in Mexico as if he were facing the United States, but in reality, this is not the case. Not to mention the opposition parties that as a whole are pro-United States. So, that Mexico is going to be part of a G8 is a dream.
Valeu Pepe, conhecendo melhor este novo mundo de oportunidades para todos!
Parabéns
*Daqui de Floripa, from Brazil
machine translation
Thanks Pepe, getting to know better this new world of opportunities for everyone!
Congratulations