With a Russia-China-Iran triple bitch slap on the hegemon, we now have a brand new geopolitical chessboard
By Pepe Escobar posted with permission and first posted at Asia Times
It took 18 years after Shock and Awe unleashed on Iraq for the Hegemon to be mercilessly shocked and awed by a virtually simultaneous, diplomatic Russia-China one-two.
How this is a real game-changing moment cannot be emphasized enough; 21st century geopolitics will never be the same again.
Yet it was the Hegemon who first crossed the diplomatic Rubicon. The handlers behind hologram Joe “I’ll do whatever you want me to do, Nance” Biden had whispered in his earpiece to brand Russian President Vladimir Putin as a soulless “killer” in the middle of a softball interview.
Not even at the height of the Cold War the superpowers resorted to ad hominem attacks. The result of such an astonishing blunder was to regiment virtually the whole Russian population behind Putin – because that was perceived as an attack against the Russian state.
Then came Putin’s cool, calm, collected – and quite diplomatic – response, which needs to be carefully pondered. These sharp as a dagger words are arguably the most devastatingly powerful five minutes in the history of post-truth international relations.
In For Leviathan, it’s so cold in Alaska, we forecasted what could take place in the US-China 2+2 summit at a shabby hotel in Anchorage, with cheap bowls of instant noodles thrown in as extra bonus.
China’s millennial diplomatic protocol establishes that discussions start around common ground – which are then extolled as being more important than disagreements between negotiating parties. That’s at the heart of the concept of “no loss of face”. Only afterwards the parties discuss their differences.
Yet it was totally predictable that a bunch of amateurish, tactless and clueless Americans would smash those basic diplomatic rules to show “strength” to their home crowd, distilling the proverbial litany on Taiwan, Hong Kong, South China Sea, “genocide” of Uighurs.
Oh dear. There was not a single State Dept. hack with minimal knowledge of East Asia to warn the amateurs you don’t mess with the formidable head of the Foreign Affairs Commission at the CCP’s Central Committee, Yang Jiechi, with impunity.
Visibly startled, but controlling his exasperation, Yang Jiechi struck back. And the rhetorical shots were heard around the whole Global South.
They had to include a basic lesson in manners: “If you want to deal with us properly, let’s have some mutual respect and do things the right way”. But what stood out was a stinging, concise diagnostic blending history and politics:
The United States is not qualified to talk to China in a condescending manner. The Chinese people will not accept that. It must be based on mutual respect to deal with China, and history will prove that those who seek to strangle China will suffer in the end.
And all that translated in real time by young, attractive and ultra-skilled Zhang Jing – who inevitably became an overnight superstar in China, reaping an astonishing 400 million plus hits on Weibo.
The incompetence of the “diplomatic” arm of the Biden-Harris administration beggars belief. Using a basic Sun Tzu maneuver, Yang Jiechi turned the tables and voiced the predominant sentiment of the overwhelming majority of the planet. Stuff your unilateral “rules-based order”. We, the nations of the world, privilege the UN charter and the primacy of international law.
So this is what the Russia-China one-two achieved almost instantaneously: from now on, the Hegemon should be treated, all across the Global South with, at best, disdain.
An inevitable historical process
Pre-Alaska, the Americans went on a charming offensive in Japan and South Korea for “consultations”. That’s irrelevant. What matters is post-Alaska, and the crucial Sergey Lavrov-Wang Yi meeting of Foreign Ministers in Guilin.
Lavrov, always unflappable, clarified in an interview with Chinese media how the Russia-China strategic partnership sees the current US diplomatic train wreck:
As a matter of fact, they have largely lost the skill of classical diplomacy. Diplomacy is about relations between people, the ability to listen to each other, to hear one another and to strike a balance between competing interests. These are exactly the values that Russia and China are promoting in diplomacy.
The inevitable consequence is that Russia-China must “consolidate our independence: “The United States has declared limiting the advance of technology in Russia and China as its goal. So, we must reduce our exposure to sanctions by strengthening our technological independence and switching to settlements in national and international currencies other than the dollar. We need to move away from using Western-controlled international payment systems.”
Russia-China have clearly identified, as Lavrov pointed out, how the “Western partners” are “promoting their ideology-driven agenda aimed at preserving their dominance by holding back progress in other countries. Their policies run counter to the objective international developments and, as they used to say at some point, are on the wrong side of history. The historical process will come into its own, no matter what happens.”
As a stark presentation of an inevitable “historical process”, it doesn’t get more crystal clear than that. And predictably, it didn’t take time for the “Western partners” to fall back into – what else – their same old sanction bag of tricks.
Here we go again: a US, UK, EU, Canada “alliance” sanctioning selected Chinese officials because, in Blinken’s words, “the PRC [People’s Republic of China] continues to commit genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang.”
The EU, UK, and Canada didn’t have the guts to sanction a key player: Xinjiang party chief Chen Quanguo, who’s a Politburo member. The Chinese response would have been – economically – devastating.
Still, Beijing counterpunched with its own sanctions – targeting, crucially, the German far-right evangelical nut posing as “scholar” who produced the bulk of the completely debunked “proof” of a million Uighurs held in concentration camps.
Once again, the “Western partners” are impermeable to logic. Adding to the already appalling state of EU-Russia relations, Brussels chooses to also antagonize China based on a single fake dossier, playing right into the Hegemon’s not exactly secret Divide and Rule agenda.
Mission (nearly) accomplished: Brussels diplomats tell me the EU Parliament is all but set to refuse to ratify the China-EU trade deal painstakingly negotiated by Merkel and Macron. The consequences will be immense.
So Blinken will have reasons to be cheerful when he meets assorted eurocrats and NATO bureaucrats this week, ahead of the NATO summit.
One has to applaud the gall of the “Western partners”. It’s 18 years since Shock and Awe – the start of the bombing, invasion and destruction of Iraq. It’s 10 years since the start of the total destruction of Libya by NATO and its GCC minions, with Obama-Biden “leading from behind”. It’s 10 years since the start of the savage destruction of Syria by proxy – complete with jihadis disguised as “moderate rebels”.
Yet now the “Western partners” are so mortified by the plight of Muslims in Western China.
At least there are some cracks within the EU illusionist circus. Last week, the French Armed Forces Joint Reflection Circle (CRI) – in fact an independent think tank of former high officers – wrote a startling open letter to cardboard NATO secretary-general Stoltenberg de facto accusing him of behaving as an American stooge with the implementation of NATO 2030 plan. The French officers drew the correct conclusion: the US/NATO combo is the main cause of appalling relations with Russia.
These Ides of March
Meanwhile, sanctions hysteria advance like a runaway train. Biden-Harris has already threatened to impose extra sanctions on Chinese oil imports from Iran. And there’s more in the pipeline – on manufacturing, technology, 5G, supply chains, semiconductors.
And yet nobody is trembling in their boots. Right on cue with Russia-China, Iran has stepped up the game, with Ayatollah Khamenei issuing the guidelines for Tehran’s return to the JCPOA.
1. The US regime is in no position to make new demands or changes regarding the nuclear deal.
2. The US is weaker today than when the JCPOA was signed.
3. Iran is in a stronger position now. If anyone can impose new demands it’s Iran and not the US.
And with that we have a Russia-China-Iran triple bitch slap on the Hegemon.
In our latest conversation/interview, to be released soon in a video + transcript package, Michael Hudson – arguably the world’s top economist – hit the heart of the matter:
The fight against China, the fear of China is that you can’t do to China, what you did to Russia. America would love for there to be a Yeltsin figure in China to say, let’s just give all of the railroads that you’ve built, the high-speed rail, let’s give the wealth, let’s give all the factories to individuals and let the individuals run everything and, then we’ll lend them the money, or we’ll buy them out and then we can control them financially. And China’s not letting that happen. And Russia stopped that from happening. And the fury in the West is that somehow, the American financial system is unable to take over foreign resources, foreign agriculture. It is left only with military means of grabbing them as we are seeing in the near East. And you’re seeing in the Ukraine right now.
To be continued. As it stands, we should all make sure that the Ides of March – the 2021 version – have already configured a brand new geopolitical chessboard. The Russia-China Double Helix on high-speed rail has left the station – and there’s no turning back.
“Shock and Awe unleashed on Iraq”
Otherwise known as “Blitzkrieg” – they just didn’t want to be too closely associated with the Nazis. (Although whyever not, when they behave like them?)
I just love this; The consciousness raising potential of this global confrontation is immense. The polarity between “democracy” and “tyranny” on the level of mass perception is in the process of being totally reversed. Give it another year and so many will be driven to see things in a totally new light. One might call it a globalized form of qualitative dialectical transformation and reversal of polarity. Such being the engineering driver of human evolution. Pepe’s “Dao” is obviously working beneath the surface. For me it proves the wisdom of the great German philosopher Hegel. Despite everything “Reason” triumphs in history. The river of time is flowing exactly as it needs for the further evolution of humanity.
“Consciousness raising potential”? “Qualitative dialectical transformation”? The “Dao working below the surface”? The “river of time”? The “evolution of humanity”? These are dubious metaphysical concepts, and Hegel was a religious nut if you ask me. Your post reads like New Age woo-woo; an attempt to turn socialist dialectics into a religion. Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Lovecraft put these kind of delusions in their place, if you ask me. The universe is not evolving toward anything, doesn’t care about us, and humanity’s destiny is the void, as far as anyone can tell. I suspect the reason socialism fails so often is because it tends to become a religious ideology, whereas capitalism is tends to be more nihilistically creative and practical.
Evolution in human or other animals requires a subset of a population to be sequestered and submitted to unique stressors over a considerable period of time . Not happening , nor likely to happen .
You may be thinking of societal norms becoming ‘ better ‘ . Even were that the case such a change has no guaranteed permanence .
John; I like your formula for evolution. It has helped me think about what I was trying to get at. I thought your comment “Evolution in human or other animals requires a subset of a population to be sequestered and submitted to unique stressors over a considerable period of time” was actually a pretty good description of American history and the overall American reality.
Bernays did a good job of accomplishing the cultural sequestration, if I read Larry Romanoff accurately For me your evolutionary formula reads like an anthropological portrait of what happens to people living in America. And that is most certainly happening here. This web site is constantly speaking of very profound pressure the American people are constantly being ever more squeezed by.
Then I read about people here in America speaking metaphorically about facing a “Death Star.” Well it doesn’t take a great deal of imagination to connect those dots. So I go into a store in Vancouver WA here and I see a kids T shirt with the logo “The Struggle is Real” underneath a charming portrait of Yoda. Unique American stressors. Throughout their history Americans have displayed their appetite for evolution when they have been subject to sufficient stressors. A perfect example being Lincoln and the liberation of oppressed slaves. All that history primes the American psyche as a fertile backstop for the current build up of a sense of psychological need tor transformation, does it not?
Well we agree that nothing has permanence in the human world. No big surprise there. But that invalidates nothing as far as I can see. It would appear my exuberant enthusiasms have drawn a reaction. Well fair enough. Pepe’s essay triggered me alright.
@John sadler
“Evolution in human or other animals requires a subset of a population to be sequestered and submitted to unique stressors”
This is utter nihilistic rubbish !
Mutations occur radomly (although nothing is fully random in the universe, it cannot), and are ‘selected’ based first on the conservative principle of being not harmful, and second of being beneficial – exact in this order.
Because the stressors tend to occur in a rather short time period – what subjects of evolution gather, is potentiality for adaption by my above rule – automatically – AND it’s this reservoir which decides over success or failure, and is the reason for the very high resilience of living organism types (although typeification is a rather arbitrary business fundamentally).
What ‘stressors’ or ‘benefactors’ however can achieve is group differentiation – or in other words – expression of new specifities in behaviour or innner processes. The main driver obviously there are the benefitting factors because they are non – limiting.
Thus evolution for the most part relies on benefitting factors for it’s differentiation into maximal complementary forms for a given type set of environment – it’s quite a steady flow usually.
What you come up with is the basis of your ‘Weltanschaung’ thorough and incurable nihilism – and of course you will get what you’re asked for – the stressors (chanted into being by your nihilism) are everywhere and you are totally surrounded on all fronts – a kind of ‘Stalingrad’ thingy.
HDan; Of course I totally agree with you. We all evolve all the time, if we choose to do so. American culture is visibly evolving owing to positive influences, as with China, Russia and Iran and many many others. You are totally right to call out the nihilism. I was shocked at the nihilism of Black Eagle’s post and was tempted to ask him just what he had left for himself with all that denial of humanity’s higher side. It appears the enthusiasm of my original post upset a few denial frames. Such is life. For myself I just love the little saying that if you want proof of God just measure the man Putin and his role in our times. He is the living opposite of a “killer.”
You’ve mirrored some of my hopes about how rapidly the people of the world can change their mindset and bend their will to creative and fulfilling endevors.
Not everybody believes in this utter nonsense narrative of “Human Evolution” the brainless were ingrained with this absolutely fictions claim by an idiot who was akin to a retard in the kingdom of biology. There is not a single relevant proof of any living creature changing its basic structure to become another being, so cool down with your fake discussion and try and wake-up some of your intellect which was infused in you metaphysically (LOL, Now figure that???)
I can at least for at least one fourth of humanity (Muslims) and vast majority of other faiths and creeds who belive in the divine narrative in some shape or another keep your Human Evolution to yourself
SSA
Human spiritual evolution is a core ingredient of the “divine narrative”. The divine narrative is “progressive” which itself speaks of the progressive evolution of the human’s capacity for spiritual growth. For the protestant Christian the divine narrative is an act of unfoldment, hence it is evolutionary.
Properly understood the divine narrative and evolution need not be separate and mutually exclusive concepts. The common conception of a war between advocates of spirituality (intentional creation) and advocates of evolution is a false concept which posits alienation where their need be none. It is a straw argument set up by the Cartesian paradigm of the Western bourgeoisie who are driven by a need to combat the divine narrative with a false and exclusively materialistic concept of Darwinian evolution. The “evolution” that matters is the evolution that arises from within the divine narrative. This vision of evolution was propounded by the Germans long before Darwin. That I see as the real and only important value within the concept of evolution. And the fruits of that are visible all around us. I Agree. Forget Darwin. He admits to being discredited by his own logic. The Cambrian explosion completely did him in. Science suggests the Cambrian explosion has its origins in the divine intention; i.e; “narrative” for the creation of animal species. It is in the science. Science, the divine narrative and the conception of evolution are currently in a process of harmonic convergence. We simply need to get our established conceptual frames of reference out of the way of that convergence.
We muslims have known all along that the most evil of all civilisations in the entire history of Humanity is the modern western civilisation; For reasons that it was born on the very premise of separating the temporal from its Divine spiritual overlord; and so; the so called secular world was born along with modernity and modern thought.
The church was effectively removed from the christian human narrative of secularism. Anyway at this juncture in history when the west is on its deathbed as a civilisation it has now been effectively taken over by Jews narrative for the interest of Israel.
Now anyone familiar with scriptures, specially the Pentateuch (which Jews call the Torah) includes the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
These contain some of the oldest and most famous stories in the Bible, including those of Adam and Eve, Jacob and his brothers, and Moses, as well as some of the oldest codes of law known, including the Ten Commandments.
The above series of sacred scriptures finally culminating with the “Blessed Quran” as the final message to mankind from its creator the Lord God (In Arabic and even earlier times the proper name for GOD has always been ALLAH).
All the above stories are also in the Quran but with a different tone, muslims know that Pentateuch has been tampered with over thousands of years by the corrupt clergy and the money changers, and there was Divine need for final message before the last day. (For those of us who believe in resurrection and judgement)
Now, from detailed study of these sacred documents one can conclusively determine that its was the ” jew” who has always violated the divine covenant with the lord God from earliest sacred history, It is they who wanted to kill the Blessed Prophet Essa (Jesus) (Although we muslims believe that they killed him not and before the end time he will return to lead the fight against Anti-Christ, called “Dajjal” in arabic. The jew has always been the money changer, it is no surprise that our blessed prophet Essa “Jesus” upturned the money changers tables at the temple in Jerusalem when he was just a boy.
In the west and amongst the jews the Divine narrative has been long lost or tempered with; so claims to any spirituality is either Bogus or a mix of confusion, it is just not possible for a people whose raison d’être is horizontal in nature, to understand the vertical link of human condition.
A certain physical practise/Ritual is essential to stay connected to a higher source to compensate for our physical existence; we are sacred beings just passing through to our home where we were expelled from, we are celestial beings; there is no evolution involved in any manner what so ever, Unfortunately english is a poor language and lacks the metaphor to explain almost elliptic part of divine spiritual narrative, Fortunately the Quran in Arabic has still preserved the divine metaphor and elliptic speech; before going any further You would have to have knowledge of the Quran to continue, I invite you to read it. Lastly, I agree with you on the evolutionary process of spiritual growth in human beings and the Quran refers to that as “And those who we make them grow” . Otherwise any one who believes in our physical evolution based on that insane Darwin theory is doomed here on earth and on flight to heavens.
SSA
Thank you for your excellent response. I found it valuably educational and agree with practically everything you wrote. Your criticisms of the West and the Jew are essentially identical to my own. Your insight into the modern West being born from the separation of the divine from the temporal is the key to my criticism of what Socialists call the “bourgeois class.” Their atheism matches that of the Jew. Darwinism and materialism are insane, I quite agree. I find Marx helpful here.
You write that the Quran is the “final message” from divine Creator. In the tradition you honor that can certainly appear to be so. Perhaps the limit is to be found more in the form of that ancient tradition of discourse between man and creator. My experience is that the love of the Creator for humanity is not bound by any such limit. His love flows everlastingly and guidance and truth can always be found by those worthy. For myself, in the 1970’s and beyond I was blessed to have the opportunity to be initiated into what you describe as “a certain physical practice/Ritual is essential to stay connected to a higher source” This practice was bought to the West by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and I credit the participation of Western peoples in that practice as the primary factor in saving mankind from nuclear war. Meditation is now widespread in the West and it is critical to the salvation and spiritual ascension of humanity. I have also noticed that over this time there is a process of divine reclamation quietly working its way in various cultures of the world. This is also true in the West. So the Westerner is able to drink once again of the love of the Creator by opening to wisdom traditions brought to us by the ascended masters of Asia. That is the real secret history of modern America. But for now that spiritual awakening process must be hidden from the evil forces in the West that would attack it without mercy. The infernal bourgeoisie again! Hence it must fly under the radar. Because of that necessary ellipticism of practice it is easy for people to mistakenly conclude that there is no movement for spiritual ascension in the West that deserves any honor or credibility. Western culture is being subtly enriched but that ongoing process is subject to politically motivated denial, hence outside observers can be easily conditioned to completely overlook it.
However I am delighted to be able to report that this Western movement for spiritual ascension is now being dramatically reinforced by the evolution of science itself. Particularly the cosmological sciences wherein intentional design of creation is effectively proved. The logic of this is so profound egoists in the West must resort to an athleticism of denial to avoid the logical inference. SSA – I highly respect your learning and consider myself enriched by it. Thank You.
Thank you for your kind words, I am delighted that such thought as yours still exists in the west, almost unbelievable. However, I am happy for you and those like you in search of quenching their thirst for divine Love and spiritual awakening.
Know that when all is said and done it is LOVE that overwhelms the entire cosmos, even colliding galaxies are love unfolding, if one could but understand.
One of the greatest spiritual masters in Islamic tradition was Mohammad Ibn Arabi, a Spanish mystic during Islamic rule of Spain for 800 years. in one of his quotes he says…..
Do not praise your own faith exclusively so that you disbelieve all the rest. If you do this you will miss much good. Nay, you will miss the whole truth of the matter…….
So indeed it is as you say, the lord above loves every one of his creatures no one can be devoid of his mercy except those who don’t believe in him to begin with…..in that case he will say you didn’t believe in me or my mercy so I leave you to your devices in the world and when you reach me I may or may not forgive you.
“Whoever builds his faith exclusively on demonstrative proofs and deductive arguments, builds a faith on which it is impossible to rely. For he is affected by the negativities of constant objections. Certainty (al-yaqin) does not derive from the evidences of the mind but pours out from the depths of the heart.” Ibn Arabi
A superficial observation, perhaps, but it is interesting to contrast the early spring meeting of Sergey Lavrov and Wang Yi in the midst of the breathtaking karst landscape of sub-tropical Guilin with the rude US treatment of their guests in a shabby hotel (instant noodles) in the frozen Alaskan wasteland.
“… and there’s no turning back”.
Yes.
Western societies are atomized and are thus incapacitated; incapable to think straight any longer.
In the meanwhile Wang Yi stated a few days ago that China’s voting at the United Nations is a vote for the South ?
The West and North is barely 10% of the world population. The rest is 90%. If they don’t act fast countries like India risk very soon to be stranded on the wrong side of history…
India has to ditch Modi and all like him. They have bet their chips on the wrong color.
Superficial commentators see India as siding with the US (eg the Quad) when India is simply following its own interests to protect itself as what it sees as China’s threats in its near abroad. This hardly means that India is ditching the concept of multi-polarity it along with Russia, China, Iran, Turkey etc support.
Some proofs of this are:
A) India coolness in responding to US telling it not to purchase Russian weapons. There is every indication that India will go ahead with S-400 purchase and other Russian collaborations underway.
B) Lavrov recently (in Jan 2021) referred to India under Modi as a “very close, very special privileged partner” (see https://www.mid.ru/en/web/guest/foreign_policy/international_safety/conflicts/-/asset_publisher/xIEMTQ3OvzcA/content/id/4527635)
C) The Indian foreign minister Jaishankar, in response to a question regarding criticism by Western agencies of becoming “less free” or “autocratic” hit back hard (as much as the Chinese did), making no bones he was referring to the US as being hypocritical and being in no position to lecture India. This is a 3 min clip worth watching. It’s time to call out Western hypocrisy – well worth a listen https://mobile.twitter.com/BJP4India/status/1370934669533843457
Again, people should not confuse India’s wariness of China based on border disputes (shared with many of China’s neighbors like say Duterte’s Philippines and Vietnam) with inferring India is in the US camp. At a meta level, India is following what China and Russia are preaching: that countries should be free to interact with whoever without threats and have a multi-vector policy.
To divide the world then into US vs China is precisely the US way of thinking, and not China’s (or Russia or India) which these countries rebuke as a zero-sum game.
there are no serous people in the US State Department nor: DoD / DoJ / FBI / DoE / DoE / DoT / and the …..WH – all posers.
we are living the end of an empire of the house of cards built on a phony bankrupt mirage since the 1973 reserve currency was liberated from gold.
Alaska was the FU clowns moment -it’s the end of an era – !
@Ludwig
“Superficial commentators”?? Bum bum. As a matter of fact India is the British Empire’s crown jewel colony.
India is linked up to and rooted in the anglophile world in so many ways. I think this is what commentators see generally.
Just to mention India’s great enthusiasm into cricket :-D.
You dont see the same love for cricket in Russia and China nor Iran in the same way. Just to mention one characteristic :-D.
I’m going to assume that despite some weirdly placed smileys :), you’re essentially serious about what you said.
The issue that Escobar has been raising is countries that are standing up the US-led concept of a unipolar hegemonic order. There is a trend – especially on this blog – to assume that means one should therefore be pro-China (or pro-Russia) since it’s a power that’s standing up this concept. Actually that doesn’t follow at all.
India has always formally rejected the concept of “camps”. So during the Cold War when many nations were spilt between the US and Soviet camps, India was one of the leaders in the Non-Aligned Movement which formally eschewed both. This however did not preclude India from having very deep relations with the USSR, which last to this day with its successor state, Russia.
At the same time, India has enjoyed good relations with the UK and US both for economic as well cultural reasons given that the largest diaspora outside India (excluding migrant workers in the Gulf) lie in the Anglo world, and Indians have been very successful there in various spheres.
Indeed this model is how both Russia (whose largest diaspora outside the ex-USSR is in the US) and China would like to see the world: every country having the sovereign right to pursue its own relations without being forced into camps. For example, China is pursuing ties with Ukraine – investing in Ukraine and so on – even as Ukraine works against Russia. This does not contradict the essence of Chinese-Russian ties.
Some commentators are upset about India’s fight with China on the border issue which flared recently, as well as wariness in joining Chinese led economic blocs, because that plays into the US hands to contain China globally. But these commentators are falling into the same trap as during the Cold War that India avoided: viz either you’re in the US camp or the Chinese camp.
India’s position is that it believes in the multi-polar, multi-vector policy that Russia, China, Iran, Turkey promote in which sovereignty of the nation is held above bloc mentality. What this means is that India will work with various countries as it suits India, but not a single hegemon (whether that be the US, USSR or now China).
India under Modi has actually not only promoted ties with US but deepened ties with Russia, and till the border issue flared up, tried to deepen ties with China as well (with two well publicized informal multi-day summits between Modi and Xi, one in each country). India has also been an active member of the SCO (a Chinese-Russian originated non-Western aligned grouping). India also enjoys good ties with Iran (though these have been frayed as India under threat of US secondary sanctions and its weak economic position has curtailed trade with Iran).
Long story short: just because India uses the US to further some of its own interests should not be taken a signal that it backs US hegemony. It disagrees with this Western “rules based order” – as Indian Minister of External Affairs, Jaishankar vehemently stated (in the link above) – and in this regard supports the Russian/Chinese/Iranian position. Indeed China – via its English Govt aligned outlets like the Global Times – understands this, as does Russia.
India is playing both sides of the fence in the Unipolar West/USA vs Multipolar Eurasia war.
They will try to pretend that they are for the Multipolar side even as they move ever closer to the West/USA and their fake Rules-Based Order like the USA’s Quad-4 containment axis.
You could say that in terms of its geopolitical double game,
India = Turkey
And we all know how unreliable Turkey is….
That said, there is one nation in the world that India has professed its undying devotion and love to: Zionist Israel.
India once called Zionism racist. Today it moves to replicate it
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/whereas-india-once-called-zionism-racist-today-it-moves-replicate-it
“India and Israel’s Secret Love Affair”
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/india-israels-secret-love-affair-11831
Israel and India, a Match Made in the U.S., Develop Their Own Military Romance
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/israel-india-military-romance
Zionism and Hindutva …. Best Friends Forever!
Anonymous
Both China as well as Russia, not to mention US, have a wide ranging relationship with Israel.
In fact if I remember correctly the then USSR was amongst the first, if not the first, countries to recognize Israel.
Thank you Ludwig,
I couldn’t have expressed it better.
Every nation has a right to protect its interests 🙏
India is already on the wrong side of history; whats coming next is the Balkanisation of India and further expansion of Cino-Pakistan-Iran alliance territorially. There are almost 230 million muslims and 40 million Christians in India, there are 9 recognised insurgencies for independence within Indian federation and to top all that they have (Wall street lapdog) Modi as the prime minister, who has now ensured the Fascist nature of Hindu fundamentalism, It seems all minorities including Sikhs will start a separation movement in the not so distant future.
Yes, and why would one worry about an almost balkanized country, when one should be worrying about the impending Great Reset.
India has faced many all powerful leaders during its recent course of history, however, our civilizational strength has protected us from such demagogues.
There is no need of using tropes when all nations have aligned, one way or another, to face the coming disaster.
It’s unbelievable that some people as presumably educated at top schools as Blinken and his associates could be so Boorish. He’s like Samantha Powers with pants. He thinks his lies and psychological projection have some validity or moral authority.
Well, stern talk from China and Russia have been a long time coming.
I am a tad wary of posting anything from this blogger as he tends to come off fairly strident but I believe he has a point here. I have been aghast many times at the extreme arrogance, hubris, and hypocrisy of the “leaders” in us govt, with this admin, as with previous, the arrogance usually masks the incompetence.
However, with the current crop of neo cons, israel firsters, zionists, the arrogance is off the scale as is the level of incompetence. Witness the last “intell” document, i.e. russiagate, as to the “we assess” hysteria.
https://www.unz.com/estriker/whos-miseducating-americas-elites/
I was silently cheering after reviewing the chinese completely humbling the arrogant and incompetent blinkin and sullivan. They both were left fumbling, mumbling and stumbling.
well yes only a month ago every top us official in any position to speak about elections repeated they were fair and had no issues. bamm one month later and its all changed. ohh boy thats some goldfish memory
It is high time for the debt ridden ‘neoliberal’ system, based on greed, individualism and imposed virtual reality, to end.
The last phase of decline is always run by demented clowns.
What happens if the EU shit-cans the China trade deal? How viable is OBOR without the EU at its end?
What happens, Casey, is the EU crashes and burns without China trade and investment.
The EU is desperate to get trading with Iran. Hoping that would alleviate their dependence on China. They would be dead without China.
The reality is the US has been crushing EU to control it. The only future EU has is with China and Eurasia. If they can’t escape their vassalage, they will crumble into pieces.
They need Russian energy to go green and China trade and investment to grow and improve.
They have no centricity that solves their problem. And certainly, the US won’t help them.
They are whores to be used by Washington, like all allies and friends of DC.
Totally agree. The EU needs China more than China needs the EU.
The EU is sliding towards authoritarianism and thuggery (they are planning to confiscate the Astrazeneca vaccines from the Netherlands factory which have been ordered and paid for by other countries!)
This from the continent that brought the world the first rabies vaccine more than 100 years. It is a very sad what Europe has become. It’s quite depressing…. No wonder the Russians are in shock.
The EU doesn’t need China, it needs to break up into many pieces and cease to exist.
The EU is a failed Globalist Project, the same project that China arose from…
“How viable is OBOR without the EU at its end?”
Or: How viable is Germany without China/OBOR at its end?
Tsinghua Industrial Complex has made significant progress in the research of new accelerator light source “steady-state micro-bunching”
2-25-21
Wassa big deal, you ask? See that white column in the linked graphic embedded in the article that follows?
China’s ambitions threatened by US equipment ban
Sanctions block China’s access to latest generation of manufacturing equipment
3-3-21
And one more data point regarding Germany:
The ECB’s Financial Self-Destruction
3-21-21
Whither Germany?
Great summary by Pepe.
Lavrov struck at two weapons of the West, sanctions and finance.
Soon, the Russians and Chinese will nullify the impact of these and leave the Hegemon impotent, limp, with two dry sacks.
The US has played out the power game. It now has a deft, agile, clever opposition that is resisting every move the unipolar giant can muster.
This meeting between Lavrov and Wang Yi was set in one of the most beautiful, harmonious locales in China, Guilin. Carefully selected, as most everything the Chinese do, the location symbolizes the harmony of Russia-China working as a unity.
Truly, the Double Helix has exerted itself as a formidable challenger.
I go along with Pepe’s evaluation, but it will take some seriously dramatic steps for Russia & China to truly become independent of the US & the West. The first issue they are already resolving, & that is increasing their bilateral trade so they can reduce trade with the US (China) & the EU (Russia). The second crucial step is more difficult, but achievable, considering both Russia & China’s technological standing, & this is to develop completely independent computer systems that are either integrated bi-laterally, or are able to complement one another. This means developing indigenous computer hardware, software, physical infrastructure (fibre optic cables) & satellites for an independent Russian & Chinese internet. They can only be truly independent of SWIFT & the Western banking system if they do this, otherwise, they will be in some sense dependent. It is in anticipation of China moving in this direction that the US has gone after Huawei. But this is what is necessary, Russia & China need independent integrated computer systems, & technological independence more generally.
Excellent analysis as always. Rather than being mere shows of “domestic pandering” as many so-called analysts claim, Pepe correctly identifies that the last week was of critical importance for the geopolitics of the Global South.
Hologram’s first 100 days are the final hope for the Empire. Maybe, just maybe, Trump *was* the problem and things will be “back to normal” under establishment champion Biden–or so copes Washington and the Atlantic Order.
We are entering into the final third of the 100, and the lack of principled leadership from the new administration is undeniable. For the Empire, hope is gone. We are now one catalyzing event away from its irreversible dissolution. Lavrov sketched the landscape: it will certainly involve the definitive collapse of the global USD.
For the sake of the global economy, though, “please, let America not decline too quickly.” (Chinese diplomat to Brzezinski)
Where America goes domestically from here is a real question. With its credibility gone and foreign power rapidly eroding, the Union is weak. Individual states may increasingly take foreign policy into their own hands, as strong relations with China or Mexico outweighs deluded fealty to an outdated Constitution.
For the sake of the global economy, though, “please, let America not decline too quickly.” (Chinese diplomat to Brzezinski)
Where America goes domestically from here is a real question. With its credibility gone and foreign power rapidly eroding, the Union is weak. Individual states may increasingly take foreign policy into their own hands, as strong relations with China or Mexico outweighs deluded fealty to an outdated Constitution.
Excellent points. It’s all over but the dissolution now. Positively, it looks like Chinese and Russian leadership is acutely aware of all the issues and is seeking a soft landing of sorts for the end of the empire. Only five years ago talk of secession would get you labeled as a kook; now its openly considered seriously even on many main stream sites. At this point, I think it’s the American people themselves that have the most to worry about due to civil crackdowns and false flag operations (I see another mass shooting in the news today just north in Boulder CO allegedly carried out by a young man of Syrian descent, can you say casus belli?). The Beast ain’t quite dead yet, although it must certainly know at some level that the jig is up. In other words, it’s in the most dangerous stage of its existence of all.
The collapse of the USD will hurt the US and may destroy it. The value of a paper money is in its belief. People change their mind quickly in the Internet age. When all the US money goes back to the US, the inflation will collapse the country. Some communities will revert to barter as happened in history many times.
When the brown semi-solid nutritive mixture finally hits the rotating pitched leaf-shaped lobes of the hub, the EU will betray the U.S. The main players of the Western elite are stationed in Europe, in particular Switzerland, and part of their plan is to eliminate the U.S. faction of the Western elite. For those of us living in the Anglo-sphere, the dark times are very much closer than many think. As for the continental Europeans, the dark times won’t be much later as the remaining Western elites will quickly find the Eastern elites a tough nut to crack.
Jazon writes: “The main players of the Western elite are stationed in Europe, in particular Switzerland, and part of their plan is to eliminate the U.S. faction of the Western elite.”
Yours is an interesting perspective.
Living in the US, we have some of the most rapacious, conniving multi-billionaires thieves who will do anything/everything to maintain the US Hegemony. Think of the most brutal, manipulative Mafia figures in history and multiply that ferociousness by 200x.
At the same time, I truly hope you’re correct – that “the main players of the Western elite” are stationed in Europe, Switzerland.
My European friends do not see it that way. The exact copies in Europe of the fanatics from the US, show little discrepancy between themselves. (Mario Draghi is a perfect example. A former Goldman Sachs officer.) All we can hope is that there IS a DIFFERENCE, and because Europe has been around for several centuries, maybe some of that history will have worn off on those Europeans you note.
Rubicon.
There are two camps in the Western elite – those who are U.S.-centric and the globalists. Some of the “rapacious, conniving multi-billionaires thieves” in the U.S. are U.S.-centric while others are globalists. The globalists are the main players of the Western elite, and they want to eliminate the U.S.-centric ones. While the U.S. needs to be put down, the globalists are actually worse than the U.S.-centric faction.
Also, Mario Draghi is a messenger boy, not an elite, as is Macron and Merkel. The elite are Rothschild and other old European financial families.
Only Cesar could cross the Rubicon. And He did cross.
Cultures and civilizations are separated by history learned.
An amazing culture has crossed the Rubicon’s bridge
they go funny funky entertained
on a procession of cardboard
barking while pretending chanting
some ancient hymn. They didn’t know that
bridge
they crossed was built by the Chinese civilization
poor ignorant of themselves…
Lavrov:
My contention here is that, evidently, the Pindos never possessed any diplomatic skills whatsoever. Such skills are simply 100% incompatible with the predominant Pindo trait of total disgust, disinterest, and disdain with regard to the world’s peoples, cultures, and countries (bar Israel). Really, it’s like expecting a deaf-mute to excel as an opera singer.
As for the Euro-trash which, thankfully, Lavrov now has written off as the garbage it really is, there used to be a certain sophistication and intellectual wit pertaining to earlier generations of politicians and the intelligentsia. What we have today is a post-modern asylum. Lavrov’s perception of this lot is steadily progressing towards ever greater clarity. I think he’s beginning to arrive at my own conclusions as to what would be the appropriate way in dealing with the Euro-trash.
Respect!
Are the EU and Five Eyes playing a good cop/bad cop game respectively with China? The developments with the EU-China trade deal will provide further insights into this game.
Let’s see what happens with the Nord Stream 2 showdown between Germany and the United States. If the United States can force Germany to abandon an $11 billion project, it will show that the United States still has the power to shape Europe and define Germany’s destiny. Europe’s actions on Nord Stream 2 and China trade deal will reveal if it see its future with Eurasia or the Atlantic.
China became independent last year when it successfully launched its global navigational system, BeiDou. It strengthened its economic and military space infrastructure.
China, Russia… and other nations are de-dollarizing at an accelerated rate and have stopped buying UST-bonds. More non-$ contracts are being signed and US$ as the reserve currency is approaching a critical moment.
EU-China trade deal, Nord Stream 2, de-dollarization, new sanctions, and geopolitical hotspots (South China Sea, Syria, Ukraine…) will drive the future of multilateralism.
Great article by Pepe. The “liberals” in the Biden regime are so crazy in their belief in their moral superiority that they can not negotiate with Russia or China. They will have to disavow the State/CIA propaganda line or just try to lecture them about why they should unilaterally give in to the “Exceptional” people. They are either too gutless or too delusional to tell the truth about Skripal/Navalny, Ukraine/Crimea , Syria, and the fact that Russia did not interfere in the 2016 elections.
O mais interessante da carta do CRI está no final, em sua referência à politica do DeGaulle em relação à Otan.
Yandex translate. Mod:
The most interesting of the CRI letter is at the end, in its reference to DeGaulle’s policy towards Nato.
“Stuff your unilateral ‘rules based order’. We the nations of the world privilege the UN Charter and the primacy of international law.”
I know this is not the most exciting comeback but it’s the response that needs to be asserted over and again, here, there, and everywhere. The self referential arrogance of the US and it’s managed assets is invariably predicated upon this pseudo moralistic refrain: ‘rules based international order’ when the truth is the precise opposite: ‘rules violating global empire’. I think it’s needless to say that no such attempt at argument or reasoning will have the slightest effect on the Americans but that’s not the point. The point is that there really is a ‘rules based international order’, the UN, and this argument needs to make some noise in Japan, South Korea, Europe and everywhere else.
This argument is not going to turn the tide but what can be hoped for is to introduce a principled division within the ranks of leashed animals of the West. Divide et imperia. Many voices on the net are being raised to the effect that war is coming. Who knows? But against that day it is most advantageous to avoid having to struggle on two fronts. I think the Atlanticists understand this. They are perfectly willing to send European industry underwater if only to maintain their compliance as political/military assets (and they’ll do that with Japan and South Korea to). Accordingly industrialised Europe and East Asia needs to be worded up to the effect that their economic interests coincide with the real moral authority of the post war era. They do not have to take this ‘rules based international order’ talk lying down. Like America, Europe to is headed for a condition of stasis, a gridlock of forces, about evenly divided, preventing any real movement. The matter cannot be helped. But we can do what can be done to ensure that the Atlanticists are kept in check. As things stand the Euro neolib/cons assert the moral upper hand declaiming against populist nationalism with all the ducks of racism/sexism/homophobia/fascism lined up in a row. What’s needed is to seize the moral high ground against the cognitive dissonance inducing lies of the Euro political class. Politically this would entail a sort of red/brown alliance against the neolib/con centre. The centre holds the electorate in no small measure thanks to their arguments crouched in moral/universalistic terms. The right populists have already broken free. We need to encourage the left socialists to take a principled stand against the new Reich. Which they do anyway (Die Linke) but the UN argument is the one with the most leverage.
Last point. But to do this is to open a front against very powerful forces. We need to understand that Soros and Co. have essentially hijacked the entire left – everywhere – as a cheering section for this neoliberal and globalising ‘open society’ which is the strongest proponent of the above mentioned ‘rules based international order’. To assert the foundational principles of the UN, that is, state sovereignty and the right of each and all states to develop their internal forces as they see fit is anathema to neoliberals like Soros. Westphalian sovereignty is the kryptonite of the neoliberal left. We need to rub their noses in it at every opportunity.
The way forward for Russian and China must involve trains. If they can not figure it out I will be brief. Russia has energy. China has might and tech. Russia, supply the juice. China supply the arms and the Tech should be joint. There is nothing to stop them. This is not about international finance. Russia deal with China, China deal with Russia. Who else has to be involved? They can do it now. If they do not, they are to blame. High speed rail from Beijing to Moscow NOW!
Where are have you been? Russia has the tech and the juice.
FWIW Pepe, or anyone else. The meeting in Anchorage was held at the Hotel Captain Cook in Anchorage, which unless there is something more glitzy in Juneau, is the fanciest hotel in the entire state. Ak just doesn’t have the kind of hotel atmosphere more glamorous states may have.
And can “the fanciest hotel in the entire state” prepare something more fancy than Ramen noodles?
Are you so sure this will not end with US troops in Moscow and Beijing or Russian or Russian and Chinese troops in Washington? The US does make a fetish of military might. When there is nothing else left perhaps a good solid war will turn the trick?
Mr. Escobar has made a good case in the above article that this will go the whole nine yards. People with sense do not go to Alaska to lecture or push such a losing foreign policy. People such as these will believe their own propaganda in extremis even when they really know better. It would be best to assume they really want war if nothing else will serve.
If it comes down to war or admission of defeat these people will choose war and suffer the consequences. War is either the final defense of folly or the long term goal of the self-proclaimed clever. Defeating the US has a major hurdle to cross.
Agree. The US is nowhere near finished. There is a tough slog ahead for Russia, China and the “multipolarites.”
Anyone who thinks the US is going to be quickly, easily or painlessly defeated lives in a reality distortion chamber.
Heck, I’m still waiting for Russia to stop Israel from bombing Syria whenever it feels like it.
Sometimes words got to be backed up with actions.
James,
There will be no Russian troops in Washington or USA.
Keep reading this site and you will learn why.
In fact, go read some Saker analysis while here.
Many times has he explained Russia is about defence and limited force projection (as part of the defence strategy) in its “near abroad”.
Launching invasion forces is well outside its capabilities. And more importantly, beyond what it desires.
Don’t take my word for it. While,at the Sakers site, read some Saker.
Basically, don’t poke and provoke the Bear.
But just like a big brown bear…. annoy it enough, it’s gonna give you a mighty bloody swipe.
I cannot speak for all the Chinese nor the Chinese government. But any ordinary Chinese will reject the idea of stationing occupation troops in foreign lands, including Washington. The struggle with the US (and the West, including Japan) is against interference into our domestic politics. Chinese learn our history well – occupying a foreign country is costly and will cause a dynasty to decline.
I was done for schadenfreude once congress was overrun by a shaman. However, the US establishment keep putting their feet in their own shitsnares and voluntarily providing high farce for all the world to enjoy. They might consider shutting their mouths and listening to the Dao if they wish to avoid further own goals.
The short video I made called ‘tumour’ imagined the hegemon being disabled and finally succumbing to a malignant tumour caused by wall street greed, massive expenditure on war and education failure.
https://youtu.be/1WDHqTf7gl4
However I am now reconsidering the prognosis. Obviously China and Russia see the body as sufficiently weakened as to move it into the intensive care ward faster than I imagined possible. Of course they have more medical diagnostic skills than I have as I have difficulty understanding what causes the common cold.
The question is: will what happened in China with Lavrov and in Alaska with the Chinese take percedence on the death certificate over my original diagnosis?
The Anglo-Zionists rulers of the USA, need to be destroyed.
God willing after that happens, Chinese C̶o̶m̶m̶u̶n̶i̶s̶t̶ (fascist) Social Credit Score Globalism is not an option.
In Iran, most people, not govt, don’t trust Russia and China. The Iranian regime reveals in media that they are against western countries. However, they knew how the US and UK could change in the middle east. So, geopolitical change needs a long term plan with mutual benefits to remain strong. Russia and China are after the economy and military power, but Iran’s priority is an ideology, which Russia and China do not support. Israel remains the biggest challenge for Iran, which Russia and China prefer not to disclose!
“Iran is in a stronger position now. If anyone can impose new demands it’s Iran and not the US.”
This was the real nuclear power/weapon of Iran that they so much feared…
With ten out ten Biden official operatives being rabid Zionists what else could we expect from the so-called West? This will not be the first empire the zionists will bring down.
‘Then came Putin’s cool, calm, collected – and quite diplomatic – response, which needs to be carefully pondered. These sharp as a dagger words are arguably the most devastatingly powerful five minutes in the history of post-truth international relations.’
Vladimir Putin has clearly been enjoying Karaoke, singing ‘Killing you softly with my songs’……..
As we can see Biden achieved in a few week, what Trump effectively blocked, simply because of him being him:
“Mission (nearly) accomplished: Brussels diplomats tell me the EU Parliament is all but set to refuse to ratify the China-EU trade deal painstakingly negotiated by Merkel and Macron. The consequences will be immense.”
Without Trump, Europe and the EU will be in free fall very soon, it’s preplexing but in fact only logical. During Trump, the EU-US-Lackeys were forced to never ever praise anything Trump did, ever, and even less to do anything in the same direction.
So my predictions regarding Europe and Trump loosing, already two months in the go are already fully materializing.
Europe will be held in nearly total Lockdown for the remainder of the year and become the torched earth area the Empire needs in the periphery sucking out the last remaining blood.
Did anyone miss Putin’s congratulatory statement to Biden? “Putin also congratulated Biden on taking up his new role at the White House, the Kremlin said.” :)👊