by Pepe Escobar (cross-posted with the Asia Times by special agreement with the author)
The Chinese constitutional amendment allowing Xi Jinping the possibility of further presidential terms — staying in power long enough to bring “national rejuvenation” combined with the Russian election re-confirming Vladimir Putin in the presidency have assured consistency and continuity for the Russia-China strategic partnership way into the next decade.
This will facilitate the interaction between the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Eurasia Economic Union (EEAU); policy coordination inside the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BRICS and the G-20; and the overall drive towards Eurasia integration.
The strengthening of what should be viewed as the Putin-Xi era could not but render Western liberals – and neoliberals – absolutely livid.
Capitalist interests have always believed their own propaganda narrative, which directly links capitalist expansion with the inevitable spread of democracy.
Critical thinking is, at last, debunking it as a grand illusion.
What in fact happened since the early 1980s was that Western turbo-capitalism avidly profited from a variation of neo-slave labor in China’s Special Economic Zones (SEZs). Compound it with the proverbial hubris of Western elites betting that China — regarded at best as a source of cheap labor as well as an enfeebled Russia during the 1990s would never accumulate enough know-how to challenge the West, geoeconomically and geopolitically.
The historical record is implacable, showing there’s no connection whatsoever between “free” trade – usually freer for those with extra economic heft and political liberalization. For instance, the Prussian monarchy lowered trade barriers and that led to the creation of the Zollverein in 1834. And the Third Reich between 1933 and 1938 offered a heady mix of hardcore capitalism and totalitarianism.
China’s system, where a (Marxist) party controls the state for the purposes of national cohesion certainly does not qualify as a liberal democracy. Dissenter Minxin Pei, the author of China’s Trapped Transition, already knew 12 years ago that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would never go the Western liberal democracy way (Pei did understand Little Helmsman Deng Xiaoping’s commands to the letter).
He got it right that China has “no interest in becoming a member of the [Western] club. They want the economic benefits from the Western liberal order but reject its political values and fear its security alliances. Now they are in a strong enough position attempting to build their own clubhouse.”
What Pei got wrong is that the CCP would smother China’s economic growth (“The prospect of a Japanese-like stagnation is real.”) Xi Jinping and his new dream team need enough time to successfully tweak the Chinese economic model.
Away from childish 24/7 demonization, the fact is Russia today is a democracy, albeit imperfect. And it’s important to analyze how a young democracy can be manipulated. The third chapter of new book Manifest-Destiny: Democracy as Cognitive Dissonance details the rape of Russia; how Boris Yeltsin’s “free market reforms” facilitated by the “Harvard boys” allowed a small coterie of billionaire oligarchs — Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Boris Berezovsky and Roman Abramovich among them — to take over an economy suffering from shock therapy.
Between 1991 and 1997 Russian GDP collapsed by a whopping 83% while investment into the economy fell by 92%.
The case of Khodorkovsky is emblematic. Through Yukos, he owned key Siberian oil fields and was about to sell them all to Western corporate interests back in 2003 when Putin went after him. There’s no question this was avidly studied by the Beijing leadership. Control of key national resources is the ultimate red line.
For Putin as well as Xi, the supreme arbiter is the national state, not a bunch of oligarchs like it’s become a norm across the liberal and neoliberal West. On a BRICS level, compare it with the current usurper installed in the Brazilian presidency, who’s doing his best to hand over most of the pre-salt oil reserves as well as aviation giant Embraer to foreign interests.
When in doubt, ask Confucius
It has become a ritual for guardians of the Western establishment to weep hard about the “fading liberal world order.” At least some admit it is “neither liberal nor worldwide nor orderly.”
Lesser guardians may be more realistic, noting how Western politicians have been completely bypassed by popular anger in myriad latitudes, yet still believing it’s possible to “rebuild democracy’s moral foundations.”
It’s not — not under the predominant neoliberal creed, the post-mod TINA (there is no alternative). The guardians, left and right, cannot possibly understand the rise of populism — because those under the populist influence clearly see how the myths of “rule of law” and “national sovereignty” are fast dissolving in the mud. The guardians at best mourn, nostalgically, “the loss of elite influence.”
China, Russia, Iran and Turkey — all implicated in Eurasia integration — may all rank as authoritarian systems at different levels. And cases can be made that, with the exception of China they still underperform economically compared to their true potential.
Yet one thing they value most of all is national sovereignty amid a multipolar system. That’s their conceptual counterpoint to the il(liberal) world (dis)order. That’s their answer to TINA.
As for “the loss of elite influence,” that’s code for a self-described coterie of the wealthy and powerful claiming a fuzzy democracy moral high ground which only unmasks their deep fear as the Western unipolar moment dissolves sooner rather than later.
All these contradictions are in sharp relief when we look at the European Union. The EU, since the Maastricht treaty, has been steered into becoming what Angela Merkel herself defined as Bundesrepublik Europa — the Federal Republic of Europe.
Anyone familiar with Brussels knows how those waves of tax-free Eurocrats milk an ultra-centralized and bureaucratically Kafkaesque regulation system as they remain completely out of touch with normal, real-life Europeans.
The EU’s notion of promoting “economic integration” including heavy doses of austerity could not be more anti-democratic.
Add to it scandals at top state level that do nothing but corrode the belief in the primacy of the Western liberal democracy model. The latest involves the real possibility that Colonel Gaddafi probably financed the 2007 Sarkozy presidential campaign in France; an outstandingly murky affair featuring the politics of energy, the politics of water, and the proverbial major weapons contracts through which Western liberal democracies discard any moral high ground.
Now compare it with Xi Jinping as hexin lingdao (the nucleus of the leadership) a sort of primus inter pares in a Sinified version of Plato’s Republic. Greek-Roman-Enlightenment political theory is not the only game in town anymore. Yet not a chance the hubristic West will start listening to Confucius.
Democracy has morphed into a vast manipulation which is why it is touted by capitalists as the preferred governance solution for a society.
The election manipulation experts are recruited worldwide out of Washington, where the professionals reside, along with the alphabet agencies and NGO’s that the likes of Victoria Nuland bring with her to the orgy of public asset stripping, debt infused military purchases and general chaos.
so for those who see themselves as custodians of a 1,000 years of tradition, assets and borders – enlightened National Fascism is the only solution for protection.
Combine that with the destruction of any protections for ‘democracy’ that might have existed.
In the US, one obscenity is the association with spending money on politics as being a form of free speech. Actually, superior to any actual free speech, because its relatively easy now to get punished for what one says. But god forbid that any billionaire be hindered in their quest to buy an election.
Also in the US, the system seems to make voter-registration as difficult as possible, while making fraud as easy as possible. The elites want small voter turnout. Its easier to fake things that way. But, then we are just supposed to sit back and wait for the news to tell us that the computers say Candidat A is the winner. There were interesting stories ouf of Ohio in 2004, when there was a recount. The idea was to pick three precincts in a district at random and check them. Signs were seen in the rooms with the vote counting computers where the voting machine vendor companies were telling the districts exactly which three precincts should be ‘randomly’ recounted. In other words, they left three precincts as honest in case of a recount. This was also the election where some counties reported Bush as getting the votes of well over 100% of the registered voters, and no one batted an eye.
And of course, the way the media blacks out some candidates and promotes others leads to very unfair results. Candidates not favored by the corporate media have no real chance to talk to large numbers of voters.
Gerrymandering districts so that they permanently belong to one party is another nice trick. This is why at least 90% or more of the Congress is certain to return unless they do something really, really stupid.
I can’t think of a real democracy these days. A democracy being a government where the power resides in the hands of the people. Perhaps Venezuela? Whereever a real democracy might try to exist, the one thing for sure is that the United States will hate, despise and attack that government.
Correct. As another example of real democracy that was attacked and destroyed, look at Brazil – the elected preident was removed, without doing any wrong – this has been demonstrated in many occasions -, in a coup d’etat made in the USA. Now, the corrupt politicians in power have given basically ALL our assets away to foreign corporations.
The problem with the people who constantly attack ‘democracy’ is that they then usually end with some statement supporting national fascism or some other horror.
“democracy” is the int’l financial [D]elites/PTB’s (Psychopaths That Bugger) covert “two wolves and a sheep voting for what will be served for dinner”
Q: “Will the Putin-Xi era supersede the Western liberal (dis)order?”
A: No. Not without a lot of bloodshed.
The way of thinking behind this article is too nuanced. The game afoot is that US must dominate the world or be answerable to its creditors. All usurers rent their money with the goal of taking interest first and ultimately full possession of an asset, the life of the debtor or both. This has happened to the west since 1971 and the end of sound money. The last phases; in 1996/7 and the repeal of the Glass Stegal act, Zionist bankers laid the policy foundation for the 2000 debt crash, and with 2008 sovereign and bank collapse took full control of their debtor’s asset – the US state and foreign departments and their people. Military meatheads follow instructions. The entire US shit show we watch unfold is now exclusively about bankers bulldozing the world into a political shape that forever obediently pays interest on their debt. Into that breach steps the Jewish anti-Christ.
So, again, “Will the Putin-Xi era supersede the Western liberal (dis)order?” No-one should think that the US will let go of its ability to live at the expense of the world, or the Jews let up on their Godless dream of forcing a man-made ‘messiah’ onto humanity without setting fire to the world first. These are both interwoven must-no-lose policy’s.
Will they supersede? For this to happen, the queen must be taken and the king cornered. If we were to skip through time and find they did indeed supersede, it will be because America is dead. Be careful what you wish for.
the political west, has just gone full retard mode now,can it surpass the multipolar geopolitics favoured by the ‘new boys in town”,evil putin and king xi?..watch for things to go thud in the night.Rub your eyes as a new brave world erupt into view.
proper gander
Your comment is basically correct. However, the Anglo-Zionists have so far caused bloodshed in smaller, weaker countries, and even there they payed a price. When it comes to Russia and China, what are Anglo-Zionists going to do ? Launch a sneak attack against both countries, hoping it will succeed ? Well, they could, but the results would be horrendous. Yes, they will probably induce Poroshenko to attack the Donbass, but again the results would be horrendous, both for Poroshenko and the Anglo-Zionists. The Russians in the Donbass have openly stated that they are expecting the attack and that they are prepared for it, while Poroshenko is ruling over a country where 60 % of the population now lives in poverty (UN figures). You don’t launch an attack in such a situation, especially since civilians in Ukraine are openly stating that they don’t want any more war. Any foolish attack on the Donbass could well see a breakup of Ukraine.
As for the US, Dr.Jim Willie has stated that the US is preparing the introduction of a new, domestic dollar, since the current one cannot last too long, as it’s printed backed by nothing. The fact that China has officially introduced the petro-yuan will speed up the introduction of this new domestic dollar. Will Washington launch a new, wider war ? Only if it is insane.
Stanley Kubrik captured the mindset perfectly in Dr. Strangelove. When the actor George C. Scott plays a demented USAF general who says:
General “Buck” Turgidson: “Mr. President, I’m not saying we wouldn’t get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops. Uh, depending on the breaks. ”
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057012/quotes
That’s been the mindset of the US military since the 1950’s. Except America was smaller then. Today they’d probably be tickled pink if the could say “no more than 50 to 100 million killed.”
I couldn’t agree more, Proper.
The breezy hubris of Brzezinski’s 1997 Grand Chessboard never in a million years anticipated the ruinous trespass of Neoconism (Brzezinski, a Rockefeller man, was always contemptuous of the Rothschild Israel-first naivete of Perle et al). Project Clean Break (1995) usurped the Pax Americana project and what should have been the latter’s easy sprint to another few decades of hegemony. There was no existential threat pressing against Israel. ME balkanization served territorial expansion and control. What a catastrophe. Iran is now perched atop the Golan Heights! Iraq is in the Iranian orbit. Could things have turned out worse for the West?
The ‘petro’ part of the petrodollar (shackled to the saline-tainted Ghawar field) was to have been superseded by a subjugated Eurasian resource basket of inestimable value. Politicians don’t initiate anything. They take their cues from powerful interests. The manic yammering of Western pols on practically any anti-Russian pretense is the barometer of just how teetering the western banking edifice has become. They’re grabbing bits of string and lint to patch a casus belli together.
What the Russian Atlanticist faction failed to deliver to the West peaceably, the West must now take by force.
The front-running leverage of the bankers must be nearing its terminus. Listen to the ravings of their harpies.
Its amazing how few people on the internet know the meaning of the phrase “petroldollar.”
It refers to a US policy of trying to get oil money recycled back into the American economy. In other words, Petroldollars are the dollars that the Saudis spend in America on property, weapons, vacations, yachts, etc. The danger foreseen at that time was that when US money started flowing out to OPEC it would create the big trade imbalances that Trump complains about today. The answer then was to sweet-talk the Saudis and others into returning many of those dollars into the US economy. That’s what the new-word petroldollars refers to, the money coming back to the US from the oil countries.
One more thing, Proper.
Geopolitical analysis, by itself, fails to calibrate the momentous spiritual forces animating this conflict. As you note and as I have belabored up here repeatedly, there is no realpolitik calculation that will avert this clash, no matter how incommensurate the clash appears in mere geopolitical terms. North America and Europe/Russia are, sad to say, more hindrance than asset to Pax Judaica. On the contrary, the wholesale destruction of the developed world is a necessary step towards a smaller world re-centered around the cradle of civilization with Jerusalem as world capitol. History begins and ends in the biblical lands.
I agree with Proper Gander
I never had time with Putin’s game of engaging the west. I always saw that as a losing and dangerous game the Russians could now win..would not win. Had Russia accepted the west for what it is, Russia would have made haste to secure Syria in its entirety, Accept in the Russians of the Ukraine who pettioned for re-entry into Russia, eliminate all possibility of subversion in the Stans…making itself impervious to western pressure and destabilization
Putin wasted a lot of time, lives and resources while giving the Americans a chance to grab a part of Syria from where all manner of evil will arise
I could never understand Putin. what in heavens name was he after. I still dont understand Russian policy, what motives Putin. there is one and only one relationship the Russians can have the Empire..surrender! that’s it. Putin has the one choice: do like Gorbachev and Yeltsin and give Russia to the American/Zionists.
if Putin was never prepared to compromise Russia in totality, is not prepared to do so now, never will… then the only alternative was a fight with the Americans..the one that’s developing as we speak…the fight that Putin should have been readying for from the start.
that is what Paul Craig Roberts has been screaming about for years now, warning about Putin’s gross mistake
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-03-25/paul-craig-roberts-washington-has-declared-hegemony-or-war
this is exactly how I saw the situation from the start. from along time ago..that there would arise powers that would have to fight the west. the existence of the west itself, in its particular nature and activity in the world ensured that
well..at last Putin can no longer dodge the truth. He must move with speed and alacrity to ensure that he can take out the Americans/Israel period, to ensure that under no circumstance they survive. Putin must not back an inch now. Crazy, zombie Theresa May has given Russia an ultimatum…he should give the English and the Americans one in return..by Assad Syria order the English/Americans out of Syria of face attack, through the UN. they are both there illegally.
Russia should also make sure that Syria has all anti aircraft defenses..and to beef up Turkey too if they are in agreement..written agreement… on the Syrian, Russian, Iranian side as the fight develops.
if the fight is to be avoided then the Americans must back down..or alternative political forces in the USA/west rise and upend Trump, the neo cons and the AIPAC power. to seek resolution and relationship with the zio/americans is insane. they are insane. there is nothing to resolve. resolution with them, or for the means giving up yourself to them..your surrender. only that would make them happy and that is not possible. so get ready for war.
the Russians never had a choice. Puin was dead wrong
I couldnt agree more with Ben Sampson…and with Paul Craig Roberts. I have been one of those clamoring from more than 6 years already that Putin should have never fooled himself about his Western “partners” and taken a leaf out of Nikita’s book (Cuban Crisis of October 1962) and simply declared that Syria was under the Russian nuclear umbrella and that he was not to tolerate any foreign aggression against this country. And the same later with Ukraine. Some people have suggested that Ukraine 2014 was the punishment from Washington for Russia’s defense of Syria but I am one who think the opposite: the weakness shown by Putin regarding to Syria made Washington think that they could get away toppling Yanukovich which was exactly what happened. PCR has been right all the way, Putin weakness and compliance has cost Russia inmense strategic losses in Europe and hundreds of thousands of lives in Syria have been lost for it, including many of her best military men.
@ Sampson and bart
Putin needed time. Acknowledging what he was facing – the absolute certainty of the intentions of the west towards Russia and the world – he bought time and prepared for this moment.
If you are faced with a belligerent sharp shooter who throws one gun on the floor and challenges you to pick it up, what will happen? When you bend down, you get shot in the back of the neck, and the shooter claims self defense. The US has thrown many such tempting provocations in front of Russia.
Putin and Xi did not bend down. Putin has kept his hands in his pockets, talked calmly while secretly, rapidly and with extreme dexterity reassembling and loading the hidden disassembled gun in his pocket. That gun is the Russian people, their faith, their self-respect, his military and their armaments.
My guess is that, at a time of his choosing, he will shoot through the lining of his pocket an unsuspecting thug. I trust him.
Ah, its nice to see someone with some sense after a string of nonsense.
First off, Putin was making an offer to the west. We can be partners. It was an offer, and one the west declined. But that doesn’t mean that Putin was wrong in making the offer.
Second, Putin needed time to build the relationship, deals and infrastructure for trade with China. Only an idiot would have arbitrarily cut off trade with the west before they had too. That probably would have crashed the Russian economy as Putin inherited it from Yeltsin. Putin’s had enough trouble straightening out the mess he inherited as it is.
If the west had accepted Putin’s offer, then Russia could have enjoyed their historic trade with the west and watched in grow while at the same time building trade with China. Putin was not wrong to make the offer. And the fact that he’s developed trade with China at the same time and thus given Russia an alternative shows that Putin is not the naive fool that internet commenters like to somehow claim that he is.
Ukraine had two purposes.
1. Cancel Sochi Olympics in the media. The later UK WADA madness shows this topic was important for the West
2. Afghanistan 2.0, remember all the provocations like Lugansk bombing, Odessa Massacre, Mariupol V-Day massacre. Russia should mar Olympics with war on Ukraine and stuck in it like Brother Rabbit. Then the West would skin Syria and Russia would have no resources to save it.
I remember hysteria our “opposition” threw in autumn 2015. They demanded immediate divorce with Syria ( which was fighting ) and affair with “adequate Ukraine” ( which was and is not, Donbass being an exception )
W.r.t. Syria, by late binding Putin ensured few things
1. Russia had free hands during 2011-2015.09
That means both Sochi Olympics and….
2. ….Ukraine. Russia had time to assess real status of Ukraine and measure her involvement. Then it had time to turn the situation into strategic quagmire without sharp changes possible.
3. Upper hand in Syria. There are at least three forces eager to assert their goals and modus operandi: Syrian elites, Iran and Russia. In September 2015 it was clear Iran+Syria combo underperforms. When Russia came and turned the tides, it was in position to dictate its approach to strategy. “you had you way men, it did not work. If you accept our help, start with accepting our guidance”
4. Heavier point driven home in Syria. Curing flue and curing cancer showcase different levels of medic competence. By september 2015 everyone was saying Assad is done within weeks. By pulling him back from the cliff edge Russia spectacularly demonstrated how much her help may matter. Yes, kind of Holywoodness. But this gas station needed a little showing off.
5. More of modern armament modeles. War is the best shooting range. So, if the ticket is purchased it makes sense to build a diverse deck when finally coming to test them all.
For example, an alternative approach to precision bombing, one cheaper and hence harder to sell than traditional guided bombs.
Wow, good “stuff” here. Anybody aware/monitoring Joel Skousen’s analysis?
The West never had true democracy. It only pretended it did. What it did have was controlled democracy, exporting liberal capitalism to other parts of the world. Russia under Yeltsin is proof what the intention of this liberal capitalism was, while Ukraine under Poroshenko is living proof, the country being plundered on a daily basis, with the UN openly stating that 60 % of Ukrainians live in poverty.
Trump has today stated that he is expelling 60 Russian diplomats and closing down the Russian Consulate in Seattle. The EU is going along, with 14 EU countries also expelling Russian diplomats, but in far lesser numbers. Interesting situation. I hope Trump and Washington have understood this. EU expulsions are basically symbolic, as the EU is under pressure. This symbolism should be a warning to both London and Washington, as Continental Europe, led by Germany, is looking towards Russia and China. It’s only a matter of time before Germany joins the Eurasian Economic Union. London and Washington should also bear in mind that China has officially introduced the petro-yuan.
Will the Putin-XI era supersede the Western liberal (dis)order ? The answer is YES. Russia and China are offering fair trade based on respect for the sovereign status of nations, while London and Washington are offering liberal capitalism based on plundering. A new era is indeed coming, and no pathetic false flag attacks like the one in England can prevent this.
We should stop talking about this BRICS thing. Brazil has been subverted, and India is against the rapid development of China, and its OBR initiative
New Delhi just hosted a major conference called ‘ China the Disruptor ” where are the neo-cons, Netanyahu (whom Modi called a ‘friend’), Austrailian military heads, Indian and U.S. warmongers were present too.
Plus India see’s the CPEC (China -Pakistan Economic Corridor, a 50 billion dollar project ) as a direct threat.
Its high time China and Russia ignore India, which has nothing to offer them anyways. India is a basket case of a country with over 900 million living in abject poverty, while it spends enormous amounts on the military. Even revamping old bases right on Chinas border. India is a lackey vassal of the U.S./West/Israel axis.
While China, since the 80’s has lifted 800 million out of poverty, building mega metropolises, and an infrastructure that’s the envy on the west.
So, what do China and Russia, Iran et al gain from allowing India into Eurasian integration? Nothing at all. India is being used by the west, Israel to subvert the Eurasian alliances.
Agree, but this is largely limited to the current government. It’s the reason they were installed after a massive disinformation and multi pronged targeted campaign against the previous government who weren’t anti-US but were pro sovereignty. Ironically the more vigorous nationalists now in power are the ones who care naught for the nation’s sovereignty or culture.
Interesting, but history says that China has been the one always collaborating with the West, not India.
China has in fact fought a war with USSR / Russia while India never fought a war against the USSR / Russia.
In 1969 the Sino-Soviet border conflict erupted briefly over some islands between Soviet and Chinese territory. The dispute could have escalated into nuclear war and the border dispute was only really resolved in the 1990’s. (China got most of the islands by the way).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Soviet_border_conflict
“Both sides understood that the People’s Liberation Army was militarily inferior to the Soviet Army as far as equipment was concerned. However, the Chinese adopted an asymmetric deterrence strategy that threatened a large-scale conventional “People’s War” in response to a Soviet counterforce first-strike.”
Taking advantage of this further chasm in the Sino Soviet split, Kissinger visited China in 1971 and thus begun the US China entente cordiale whereby the US would transfer masses of technology and equipment and goods production to China to uplift China from a poor agricultural nation to the second biggest economy in the world.
India has only recently gotten a little “friendly” with the West, previously India was 100% in the Russian camp. The West always supported India’s arch enemy Pakistan, and with both Pakistan and China in the Western camp its natural for India to view China in the same light as it views Pakistan, that is, with enormous suspicion.
I don’t think India is suspicious of China because it sees it as a Western supported force. Indians fear China. They fear them after the war of 62, and they fear their rapid economic rise, they also fear Chinese claims over Indian territories. They feel impotent against the Chinese UNSC seat.and resent the support they provide to Pakistan including in its terror activities.
In this fear, and with growing Western influence, they have allowed themselves to go the Western route, even as Pakistan is moving away from the West and closer to China. Which is ironic because it was the West who created Pakistan and fostered trouble over Kashmir. And the West who gave Pakistan the nuclear bomb. All of which had forced the officially non aligned country more into the Soviet/Russian orbit. How things change.
Agreed, India does fear China. But China does also fear India. Why else do so many Chinese and pro-Chinese commentators always put in remarks about India when the discussion is not about India, not just on this web site but on many websites out there. Its not just for distraction purposes.
China is definitely nervous about India, after all, India is the only other country out there with a similar number of people. Plus India never went through the 1 child per family phase, so no gaps in India’s age pyramid. China always has to consider their billion population nuclear neighbor when making plans.
China basically cannot go to war with the US, because if India steps in to assist the US then China is in a bit of a fix. Likewise, if China goes to war with India the US will happily supply India with whatever India needs to drain and stalemate China for decades (the only thing the US does produce is weapons). So India’s mere existence means that India curb’s China’s free reign quite a bit. And all the while, Russia just sits there “never as strong as she looks; nor as weak as she looks”.
Russia would be reluctant to go to war with India, because unlike China, India has paid for ALL her Russian weaponry, and also, unlike China, India has never attacked Russia.
Q: “Will the Putin-Xi era supersede the Western liberal (dis)order?”
A: Well, it’s either that or the complete end of Life on planet Earth, with or without all-out nuclear war. The West’s neoliberal rot and self-destruction is irreversible. What appeared just 30 years ago to be an invincible, unstoppable, ideologically hard-core monolith has utterly disintegrated, being accompanied by the most atrocious decay. The swamp of lies and imbecilities promoted by the MSM, the false-flag terrorist hoaxes, and the 100% laughable elections — once supposed to be the West’s ultimate proof positive of “popular power”, I kid you not — now escape a steadily dwindling number of people. The Western Elites themselves have long since lost faith in any “steady progress”; they are utterly decadent, post-modern, and violently insane. Add to this also the stiffening resolve and resistance from more able and morally superior adversaries. Extinction of Life itself remains their only capable wet-dream.
Re: “For Putin as well as Xi, the supreme arbiter is the national state” Westphalian Nation-State 101
Hi Pepe thanks for the article – always hopeful.
I wish that China was more into saving endangered species though – they need to put wildlife corridors on the railways –
to say nothing of the Yulin Dog Meat Festival and the illegal rhino horn trade and the poor African elephants kidnapped as babies and now living alone in dirty zoos all over China.
Pathetic. Especially the wildlife corridors over the railways – the animals – elephants etc – will never survive these fast trains…I mean as a species…trains are already a huge problem for wildlife – the big animals for sure.
The popular massification, sooner than later, will come, I will not see it. I am anti-warmonger obviously, I hate the capitalist system, I like to enjoy life to the fullest, apart from being a Marxist, and hate yaquinismo. I remember, when in the West, they criticized Chinese politics, of birth control, and I was delirious with people. Countries over villages like China and India, have to look, that the World, is young, to fall into overpopulation, China, will not meet, in fact, is not fulfilling. Spain, was a country closed to Chinese emigration during the Frankish dictatorship, and we saw the evolution of Chinese emigration from the night to appear, at the same time that products arrived massively and well below the GDP, I in particular , was a manufacturer of glasses, and the factories were closed, as soon as we entered the EC, I, among others, ruined me. I have been a supporter of birth control for many years, an enemy of the wars. I know we have to believe in Chinese politics, but when the time comes, nobody will back down and, sure, there will be problems. How will they be resolved …? Vfg