Western officials say Russia is asking China for military help — denied by Beijing — in what is clearly an effort to build a case to include China in its economic war against Moscow, writes Joe Lauria.
Biden-Xi video summit on Friday. (White House)
By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News
The United States is setting up China as a second target of its intense economic war against Russia in what could have cataclysmic effects on the world economy, including the West.
The U.S. could not impose the most stringent sanctions on Moscow without the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and now the U.S. is trying to link China to the war.
Washington’s move to frame Beijing emerged Monday when unnamed U.S. officials told its allies that Russia had asked China for military aid in Ukraine. Reuters reported: “The message, sent in a diplomatic cable and delivered in person by intelligence officials, also said China was expected to deny those plans, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.” China indeed denied it.
Importantly, Reuters added: “The U.S. government offered no public evidence to back its assertions of China’s willingness to provide such aid to Russia.”
On that same day Jake Sullivan, the U.S. national security adviser, led a delegation to Rome to meet with Yang Jiechi, a member of the Chinese politburo. After the meeting, an unnamed senior U.S. official in Rome told reporters: “We have deep concerns about China’s alignment with Russia at this time, and the national security adviser was direct about those concerns and the potential implications and consequences of certain actions.”
The next day NATO Secretary-General Jen Stoltenberg remarked:
“China should join the rest of the world condemning strongly the brutal invasion of Ukraine by Russia. So China has an obligation as a member of the U.N. Security Council to actually support and uphold international law. And the Russian invasion of Ukraine is a blatant violation of international law so we call on [China] to clearly condemn the invasion and of course not support Russia. And we are closely monitoring any signs of support from China to Russia.”
The English-language, government-owned, Chinese newspaper Global Times accused Stoltenberg of trying to accuse China of being an “accomplice” with Russia in Ukraine and dismissed NATO as a “puppet” of the United States.
After these statements it seemed clear the U.S. was trying to lay the groundwork for a truly reckless idea: to tie China to the war so it could sanction it perhaps along the lines of what the West has already laid on Russia.
Then on Thursday U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spelled it out: “We believe China in particular has a responsibility to use its influence with President Putin and to defend the international rules and principles that it professes to support. Instead, it appears that China is moving in the opposite direction by refusing to condemn this aggression, while seeking to portray itself as a neutral arbiter.” He added: “We will not hesitate to impose costs.”
In retrospect, evidence that the U.S. is trying to open a second front in its economic war first surfaced just before Russia intervened in Ukraine’s civil war, when Blinken implored China to stop Russia from invading. It was portrayed in Western media as a desperate last chance at peace from a concerned United States.
Of course China rebuffed Blinken. It seemed like a ridiculous gambit at the time. But in hindsight it may well have been the first U.S. step in constructing a case for sanctions against China. It allows Washington to say China was given every opportunity to try to stop the invasion and failed to do so and therefore was somehow complicit.
Biden Threatens Xi
President Xi during his summit with Biden on Friday. (Chinese FM)
All this was preparation for President Joe Biden’s video-call on Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping, in which Biden warned Xi not to help Russia’s war effort in Ukraine or there would be “consequences” to pay.
Biden “detailed the implications and consequences” if Beijing were to give “material support to Russia” in the war, the White House said in a readout. While the White House didn’t spell out what those consequences would be, it said Biden went into detail about the severe sanctions the U.S. had imposed on Russia, including on its central bank and a number of imports, including oil. In other words, he read China the riot act. Biden was in essence threatening Xi with similar sanctions if China helped Russia.
Xi, however, warned Biden that the U.S. sanctions on Russia could trigger a worldwide economic crisis, apparently implying that the crisis would be far worse if the sanctions were extended to China. Commodities prices, especially in energy and food, have already soared.
China is the world’s second largest economy and its biggest exporter. The U.S. imported $506 billion in Chinese goods in 2021, according to the U.S. Census Department, an amount that would be extremely difficult for the U.S. to replace. China also owns $1.05 trillion in Treasury securities, the second most after Japan. It could not be easily cut off from the Western financial system as Russia has been.
Before the summit on Friday, Global Times wrote in an editorial: “The close relationship between China and Russia has been a thorn in the US’ side, especially against the backdrop of the ongoing Ukraine crisis. With the simmering of the situation, it couldn’t be any clearer that Washington is eager to exploit the Russia-Ukraine conflict to drive a wedge between Beijing and Moscow.”
The U.S. recognizes that its economic war against Russia could well fail because of the close and expanding economic and financial ties between Moscow and Beijing. But it is too late for the United States.
Since the invasion, China is buying more oil and other commodities from Russia, Beijing has allowed Russia to use its Union Pay banking system, replaced Russia’s use of SWIFT with China’s Interbank System (CIPS), and China and the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU), which Russia is a part of, are designing a new monetary and financial system that would bypass the U.S. dollar, threatening it as the world’s reserve currency.
Can you help me fight your friend so that I can concentrate on fighting you later?
— CGTN LIU Xin ?? (@LiuXininBeijing) March 19, 2022
The Global Times added: “It’s the US that should put out the fire it lit in Ukraine. Ridiculously, it is demanding Beijing to do this job at the cost of damaging China-Russia relations. This is unreasonable and insidious.”
Russia has committed only a fraction of its military capacity to Ukraine. Other than replacing ordnance, it’s not clear what military aid Russia would need from China.
Substitute War and Economic Catastrophe
The U.S. already has sanctions on China, as it had earlier on Russia. However, if the United States is seriously planning similar types of sanctions on Beijing that it has leveled on Moscow — against its major banks, against the central bank, removing it from SWIFT and cutting off key exports — the impact on the world economy — including on Europe and the United States — could be catastrophic.
The U.S. national security strategy for several years has been aimed at both Russia and China. Knowing it must avoid a direct military confrontation against either, given the potential consequences, the U.S. is turning to economic warfare to ultimately attempt to bring down both governments through popular uprisings. Washington wants to replace them with Western-friendly leaders who would open up their economies to Western exploitation — just like Boris Yeltsin did in the 1990s.
The United States is acting as though the whole world is the West and that this is the China of 30 years ago. In its bull-headed effort to impose its unilateral rule on the world, while its domestic social problems mount, the U.S. has not only driven Russia and China closer together than ever, but it has now brought in India, much of Latin America, Africa and the Middle East into a new bloc with economic power that exceeds the West. All of those regions have refused to sanction Russia and continue to trade with it.
The U.S. has turned the majority of the world’s population against it. And it is now threatening to blow up the world economy. Cutting off trade and finance to Russia has already boomeranged on Western countries, driving up prices, especially at the pump. Instead of prompting a popular uprising in Russia as a result of its sanctions, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s popularity has actually risen since the invasion.
Adding China as a target of its economic war could drive the populations of the U.S. and Europe against their own governments instead.
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and numerous other newspapers, including The Montreal Gazette and The Star of Johannesburg. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London, a financial reporter for Bloomberg News and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times. He can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @unjoe
Looks like the perfect “Get Fucked!” moment for China to invade Taiwan (and reclaim Formosa).
This couldn’t be a worse moment for that to happen, with the world already living on the edge of knife.
Paul Spencer:
“It’s evident by now that the RF went into Ukraine with a ‘soft’ military strategy in hopes that the Ukraine government would capitulate and save lives – and property.” Couldn’t agree more. Scott Ritter in his video comments and writings indicated that Russia would feel “conflicted” in its invasion of Ukraine, whose population it views as part of a Slavic brotherhood. He also warned, however, that if Ukraine resistance persisted, Russia would systematically set about “wrecking” the country.
Yes, as in wars past, it’s easy for a compliant media to fill young heads with heroic notions about fighting for their country. So it seems like every idiot with an inflated ego is given a rifle or an anti-tank weapon to go out and get themselves killed. Snipers in residential buildings inviting tank fire. Gangs of military “heroes” surrounded in residential areas who won’t let civilians leave because that would leave them exposed. And then we have to ask, who actually blew up the theatre in Mariupol? (Not necessarily saying it wasn’t Russians) It just becomes a confused mess. With so many Russian-speaking Ukrainians (80% – 30% are native speakers) it seems hard to believe the country is unsympathetic to the Russian view, particularly given that the Russia-leaning president had been “freely and fairly elected” in 2010 (as independently evaluated).
All these wars and military spendings will eventually take them down. In the case of the US, there was so much hesitations and lack of energy to put money into fixing infrastructures, getting university students out go the debt system,… Now, they are energized with the possibility to put Russia inside their realm, there is no money and effort to spare! The only diplomacy from the last 30 years is a show of strength (military and economically, financially rather), fomented coups and military invasions. Besides the human mental and economical costs on their “targets”, there is similar domestic costs back home. In a few words, the Western “Elites” are digging the graves of their countries.
Yes, the US Empire strategy now, having failed to out-compete China at its economic game, or Russia at it’s military game is now engaged in a desperate gamble to play dirty with global economic manipulation. It seems to me however, this is a loser’s game if Russia and China and their allies unite to defeat the sanctions and form their own closed economy. The US is fucked. Even if China sold a few billion of it’s trillions of US Treasury Notes it’s a disaster. Perhaps the masters of the universe think they can just “Freeze China’s US assets”? Still seems very precarious, definitely a desperate last-ditch move. They even appear to have been coaching Biden in not looking like an idiotic old fool (not very successfully).
Reading this is dire and another example of why other nations call us The Great Satan. But it occurred to me while reading this that maybe this would also affect the consumption of oil—if it becomes a limited commodity because of our behavior towards Russia, then maybe the prices will skyrocket and the only people who will get it is the military because, ya know… war. As Nancy Baloney is fond of pointing out. Americans are too spoiled and lazy to stand for that and most won’t be able to afford it at the pump anyway so maybe we’ll have real Revolution in the States. Well, I can always dream. But wouldn’t it be great if oil was the cause of oil’s demise and we could get on with trying to keep the planet from getting any hotter?
You miss the point. After the Extinction Rebellion, which said “Leave fossil fuels in the ground”, had been extinguished, a number of things happened. Hard to say what combination of these things did it but it does seem that after 40 years of science, a penny has dropped somewhere in the deep state within the core of the world’s foremost Capitalist machine. However, as is “The American Way”, always with an eye to “American Interests” and “Making the world safe for Capitalism”, the new approach was “Leave RUSSIAN fossil fuels in the ground” and pay three times as much for ours.
But likely to backfire if China buys all the cheap Russian energy. And then we ALL have a problem. A polarised world, each side needing to maximise its Fossil Fuel consumption to maintain a strong economy (and military) is NOT a smooth path to global cooperation to overcome Climate Change.
Yet ANOTHER “bright move” by the Deep State of the Empire has left us dead in the water.
Access to Consortium News from the EU without a proxy server now available again
A friend of mine who also misses watching RTAmerica which the power-mad U.S. dictatorship and their European puppet governments took off the air for “reporting the news” is worried that the situation in Ukraine will get worse and is stockpiling toilet paper, as in the initial “Covid-19 scare” of 2020 in case the ICBM’s are “exchanged” across the oceans.
A little humor for you all. (but still scary!)
Excellent report.
“[The U.S.] is now threatening to blow up the world economy.” I wonder which would/will rebound the quickest, finance capitalism or manufacturing capitalism.
It’s been about 50 years since CIA Poppy was the Chief Liaison to China, and about 45 since China joined global capitalism. So, it sounds like a win-win for big business — or should I say the multinational corporations.
A really good book on China is Nicholas kristoff’s and surely we’ve done book”China Wakes”.
Mr. Kristof took his charge as New York Times bureau chief in Beijing seriously to doggedly and daringly impinge himself into the seemier political side of China and the more impoverished large segment of Chinese society, revealing things that we should probably know in our relations with this behemoth. I am a friend of China, at least China’s people but do so with wide open eyes as to the nature of their totalitarian surveillance state.
The Renmin Daibiao Da Hui is about the Renmin (people) as much as Putin’s Russia United party is about diversity and democracy but at least Russia’s leaders do not use this kind of hokey pokey political sloganeering like China tends to.
If you can’t win an argument with facts, logic, and perspective, then use dogma in a loud voice! The Chinese are so good at it.
Funny how those who declared the US people “running dogs of capitalism” developed their own form of extreme crony capitalism at both local and national levels, with government corruption following the economic pattern
To give you Kristoff’s explanation of the system of Chinese government, you have local corrupt elites being run by the national corrupt elite. Period.
We know that the Carter administration deliberately de-stabilised Afghanistan in order to bring about the Soviet invasion of that country and we know that the George H.W. Bush administration encouraged Iraq to invade Kuwait.
It seems entirely plausible, therefore, to believe that a similar situation now exists in respect of Russia and the Ukraine. The sanctions against Russia could well be intended to help bring about regime change in that country.
Perhaps in the future, assuming we survive the crisis, someone will do a ‘Zbigniew Brzezinski’ and admit that a Russian invasion of the Ukraine was what they actually hoped to bring about in the first place. Time to take out a subscription to L’Obs (previously Le Nouvel Observateur).
Amorality and Realpolitik
“Inter arma enim silent l?g?s is a Latin phrase that literally means… For among arms, the laws are silent… but is more popularly rendered as in times of war, the law falls silent.”
When was America ever, NOT at war? From the aforementioned perspective then, for the U.S., there is no law that is not what we say it is, at any particular given moment.
Ergo, Russia’s intrusion, incursion, invasion, ‘special operation’ (call it what you will), into Ukraine’s internal affairs, IS illegal, and being that the U.S. sees itself as the unassailable hegemon sheepherder, the Western flock obeys – is coerced, to follow its lead into the “valley of death” abyss.
When individuals die, those who knew the person, tend to grieve the loss, unless the person was regarded as a monster. On the earthly plane, however, all persons who die are relieved of any and all of life’s encumbrances and obligations, to self, and others, whether they were saints or sinners. The person is, thereafter, extinct; but a memory to those who live on. And so, it goes!
Historically, the notion that ‘man’ procreates, in order to leave her/his legacy, is delusional from the get-go. If it is not delusional, then what it is, is self-serving ego. Altruism is an invention, a derivative figment of the intuitively creative, though at times delusional imagination of the powerful, and not necessarily substantively, of the deeper, more conscious, critically thinking aspects of mind.
Such is the blind-faith perceptual belief, in all matter’s human, of the notion of American exceptionalism: “The term carries the implication, whether or not specified, that the referent is superior in some way” … “We can do no wrong!”
Kind of like a “mass formation psychosis.” At present America is in an acute phase of this psychological affliction, with the resultant state of hypnosis in the present moment; owing to the successful domination of the communities’ mind by the highly effective implementation of the current propaganda narrative.
Fact or Fallacy
[America goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will recommend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standards of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force.]
—JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
Was he correct, or simply prescient?
Notes: en.wikipedia.org
Em:
“We can do no wrong!”
Sometime after passage of the Magna Carta in 1215, the King of England proposed to build a road across property owned by a noble. The noble objected to the loss of his land, and also argued that if the road was built, he deserved to be compensated. The King scoffed at this notion and invoked the law of the land, the well-established doctrine that “The King can do no wrong!” Much to the surprise of the King and his court, the barrister hired by the noble agreed.
It’s true that “The King can do no wrong,” he stated. Then he argued, in effect, that “To take this land without paying for it would be wrong. Ergo, it follows that the King can’t do it.”
As the U.S. becomes a whirling dervish pivoting first to Russia, then to Asia, all the while asserting that “We can do no wrong!” we shouldn’t be surprised if the world begins to pivot away from us.
Notwithstanding its purported plasticity — “the quality of being easily shaped or molded” historically, of the supposedly, ever evolving capacity of the human brain, a deeper consciousness, apparently, is not one of the realms of greater achievement.
Should have added, on the side of enlightenment growth!
Very well said as always.
The problem of peace in Ukraine is to defeat the propaganda of the tribal tyrants of the west, who represent only the self-interest of the MIC, the rich, and big business, who control government via bribes to political parties.
Tribalism is the ancient curse of humanity, originating in the social and economic dependencies of groups, whose members come to fear tribal leaders. the perfect opportunity for tribal tyrants, who demand power as defenders of the tribe, and accuse their opponents of disloyalty, by simply inventing threats from another tribe. All virtues are of the tribe, all wrongs due to others, and all who oppose the tyrant are tribal enemies. Soon no one dares to disagree. Tyrants demand spoils for supporters from domestic and foreign groups, so tribalism always leads to aggression.
Tribalism is present in all villages/states/nations, churches/religions, ethnicities, and professions. Groups that espouse fundamental values may have sincere leaders, but create tyrants who praise their lord and wave their flag but betray the group values. The tyrant must start conflicts to steal benefits for his supporters.
In severe conflicts of group interests, negotiation is merely a show for the tyrant. Without respectful debate of the issues, such conflicts cannot be resolved without mass suffering, which generally prolongs and exacerbates conflict. See CongressOfDebate dot com for details: suggestions and comments are appreciated.
Mr. Lauria has put his finger on the most important result of the US sanctions, the stated intention of which is to wreck the Russian economy and lead to regime change, and which have been extended to the Swift partial-cutoff and the seizure of the Russian’s Central Banks foreign reserves. Taken against the advice of the Fed and Treasury. these unprecedented actions, have put into motion the creation of an alternate financial -monetary system which will undermine the dollar’s status as the world reserve currency. The emerging system will include not just Russia, whose pivotal role in the world economy will be borne out in the months ahead, but the world largest economy, China, and the third largest, India, when measured by PPP. These three superpowers will present an alternative bloc based on the infrastructure- oriented Belt and Road Initiative, while the US and the American people will now have to deal with an economy forced to live within its own means, something it hasn’t done since the globalist project begun in the 1990’s. The response of the United States and the American people to the consequences of reckless these actions remains to be seen.
I agree with the conclusion. Washington is suicidal. Gonzalo Lira in his March 20th video explains it very simply: The US elites including the military are well educated and they can write nice academic dissertations but they have no judgment. And they have no judgment because they always do the same tricks again and again and they never really fail because they stay within their comfort zone. By never failing, they loose the capability to see reality and they are going to hit a wall.
The weakest link in many appliances is the $.02 rubber washer. On a cellphone it’s the special glue (secret sauce!) that attaches the power button to the device. When these parts give out, the system fails and must be replaced. The Chinese are well aware of this.
So before we mess with China, let’s make sure our refrigerator, microwave, coffee frother and all other appliances and electronics that our lives depend on are in top working condition.
Excellently written. Trying times for the masterminds that have thought themselves and our country (US) into a corner they cannot get out of. So far, Turkey has denied handing over S 400 Russian missile defense systems to Ukraine in exchange for F 35 jets and a strong financial hand up economically. UAE and Saudi sent UK Johnson home empty handed with no oil after ignoring Biden request to chat and the Prince of UAE publicly said, after meeting with President Assad of Syria, that the US should pull its troops from Syria, enough already. Now China has blatantly and publicly shamed the US Administration. America, with the exception of NATO puppets, are running out of friends that are quality. The fact that the US went to Maduro after trying to overthrow him clearly indicates that whomever is drafting the strategies for America, is putting the carriage before the horse in all aspects. My concern is whether that is being done on purpose for the intentional demise economically of the United States and its lawful and unlawful citizens.
The game was started, as usual, by neocons. The ultimate beneficiary is going to be the elephant in the room aka Israel. Israel was never happy with China for her $400 billion economic deal with Iran. Punishing China for that must be in Israel’s medium to long term planning. And as always, they will use American shoulder to fire their guns.
Firstly, it’s totally hypocritical of Washington to rely on the authority of the UNSC to enforce its will with respect to anything, considering how often it has totally flouted the results of votes in that chamber with respect to its own actions on war and peace or those of Israel. So, Washington’s claims that Russia’s aggressive actions in Ukraine are illegal while its own equally egregious acts are hunky dory is just a load of bunkum which no one need base their own actions and policies upon. China should simply counter with the same approach that Washington will pose: if you don’t like it, lump it. “International law” under the aegis of the UN is a boat that has sailed away long ago, mostly through the ill will and bad behaviour of the American state. Capice?
Aside from that trivial point, Washington is condemning and warning China for purportedly acting in exactly the same way as itself, although hardly as egregiously.
U.S. Deep State speaking through Biden sock puppet: “Oh, China, this war is between Russia and Ukraine. Therefore you cannot get involved by aiding Russia in any way. If you do, we will have to consider you combatants in the conflict and impose upon you all the same penalties as we level on Russia.
[Sotto voce] “Never mind that, aside from the UNSC fig leaf which we choose to honor or ignore as expedient, we are doing exactly what we condemn you for.”
“Heaven forbid, we are not combatants in this, otherwise Russia would be entitled to lob a few hypersonic missiles our way. We are a peaceful, peaceable, peace loving people. Peace is our gimmick, not yours or Russia’s!”
China (and much of the world) responds: “Except that you ARE combatants. You’ve been involved in the conflict since you provoked it back during the Maidan coup. You’ve been involved in the conflict with the arms, the cash, the encouragement/meddling and the military training you’ve been supplying the Ukrainian regime for the past eight years as it has ravaged the ethnic Russian separatists in the Donbas, as it has endlessly sued, slandered and impeded Moscow, cut off water and power to Crimea, and stolen gas from transit pipelines on its territory all on your suggestions. Then there has been all of the economic sanctions, impediments and theft from innocent private property owners and business transactions, such as the builders of a multi-billion dollar gas pipeline and now the owners of yachts, tankers, container ships, cargo, plus outright theft of bank accounts and national gold deposits amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars that you have blatantly pursued ad nauseum against Russia somehow across the entire globe with no legal jurisdiction to do so other than the application of naked threats like common gangsters! You’ve even meddled in professional sports and the Olympic games to discredit both Russia and China. And the last straw has been your heinous attempt to erase heroic figures, such as Yuri Gagarin, down the memory hole from history as if they never existed simply because they were of Russian birth. What shameless racists you “enlightened beings” in the beneficent West really are under your masquerades. To tell us Chinese that we cannot offer our help to achieve justice, stability and peace in this vortex of chaos that the United States has fomented is the epitome of hypocrisy and we will entertain no more of your fevered rantings.”
Xi personally to Biden: “There fixed it for you! See yourself out.”
“The U.S. already has sanctions on China, as it had earlier on Russia. However, if the United States is seriously planning similar types of sanctions on Beijing that it has leveled on Moscow — against its major banks, against the central bank, removing it from SWIFT and cutting off key exports — the impact on the world economy — including on Europe and the United States — could be catastrophic.”
This is a very interesting point and it is something I have been wondering about in regards to the hostility from the US towards China.
China has become integral to the health of the global economy, including the US, because of cheap labor and lax regulation. That has led to a large degree of de-industrialization and outsourcing. I don’t think the process is easily reversible and it would probably destroy the US/European economy to attempt to do so. But if that is the case then why do the US antagonize China?
It seems to me that the US should seek friendly relations with a a nation they are so economically dependent on. Why don’t they?
Brain power is lacking.
I realize that China and Russia are both authoritarian regimes, with abysmal human rights records. But I find myself rooting for them to give the United States (Empire of Lies) an economic butt kicking, even if it damages my personal finances in the process. Am I an evil person for thinking this way?
No Your are not.
Yep! That’s my answer too!
Hard no to feel this way. Though I will add, it has longed seemed to me that their abysmal human rights records, as real as they may be, are magnified by the fact that our government and press place every possible infraction under the microscope while our infractions worldwide (and in our own inner cities) are very selectively defined. “Collateral damage,” “enhanced interrogations,” the impact of sanctions on the poor around the world, 337,000+ bombs in last 20 years, prosecuting whistleblowers, “excessive force” in our police departments–these are every bit as much part of our abysmal human rights violations but somehow they escape becoming a real cumulative part of the record. In comparison, China and Russia look like moderates.
No, you are not evil for saying this in my opinion. The US and U.K. and to a lesser extent France, Germany etc are the bullies who refuse to face the reality of their delusional imperialism which they have brutally foisted on ME, Africa etc under the guise of a ludicrous attempt to bring their form of democracy (inverted totalitarianism). They then plunder said countries for their wealth and resources murdering merrily along the way. Such behaviour deserves to be harshly dealt with. This level of evil and hypocrisy must be addressed by the people of these countries. I would be perfectly happy to live on significantly less if we lived in a country where I could hold my head up high, where I wasn’t bedevilled by shame every time one of these selfish self seeking assholes opened their mouths.
I would say China is not as authoritarian as the current government of Canada has become. I live Canada and I have moved freely in China for nearly five monts talking with everyone. People think by themselves in China. What you are saying I think is a myth or a perception often repeated by the MSM: repeating something over and over does not make it a fact except in the book of Leo Strauss.
Agreed. I talked to three different people who have traveled extensively in China. Two for business and one for educational purposes and they said the same thing.
Ah, Leo Strauss! “The end justifies the means.”
Absolutely not – you are correct in your thinking. Most of us Americans are behind Russia and hate what our government is doing
to that country and to China! But it is a last gasp of a dying behemoth, which really should die. The world will be safer without it.
‘Am I evil for thinking that?’ How well do I relate to this question.
I’ll always have some self-doubts, but for some reason I’ve stopped caring about them, or about changing people’s minds. Ironically, letting that go has made me more confident and authentic. It’s a great place to be.
I just lay out my thoughts and wish others well in their efforts to find the truth, avoiding debates that trigger the fighting instinct. I find people do solicit my input more often now.
Be grateful that you still have that thing inside that knows.
And be grateful for Consortium News and all its contributors.
We know that empires grow more desperate as they lose power and control over others. Expect the U.S. to use more and more extreme economic threats, sanctions, and tactics as countries continue to ignore it in favor of other countries. The U.S. may even employ military force against weaker nations to force compliance. Of course, they U.S. has already tried that with not much success. The end is near for the U.S. global hegemony and not a minute too soon. If the U.S. has used a much lighter hand with other countries, U.S. could have ruled the world lightly. Will China be any different? I won’t be around to find out.
Tnx Joe CN
IMO “sanctions” weasltalk4 Asset Theft
So tnx4 ed myself as2 “UnionPay” int $ trans sys… Last checked of top10 world bank assets: Chinese 6-8… &as Yuan IMF/ other Asian recognised capable of defending self… As 4 DANGER in US poking stick in Tigers Eye… Primary: US$ recedes as means xchange!
The insanity of it all. This is just plain stupidity, delusions of grandeur, not just incompetence. We can imagine what a brutal hegemon the unleashed USA would be.
I can’t believe they can count on NATO to provide their continent as the battlefield and bring their own ropes for the USA to hang them on.
They are not on friendly terms with France and Germany, they know who stabbed them in the back, certainly not a partner, an ally. Germany is still an occupied nation, Biden made it plain when Scholz was his GUEST. Australia broke a big submarine contract with France joined by the US and UK. NATO soldiers were let hang to dry when the USA pulled out of Afghanistan. What happens behind closed door counts, not public pretense. They have no friends left other than the UK.
Brandon needs assisted living, and his handlers are as stupid, as they are obnoxious and insane. Western europe is already missing flour and cooking oil on their shop shelves. Next winter might get interesting.
“China should join the rest of the world condemning strongly the brutal invasion of Ukraine by Russia. So China has an obligation as a member of the U.N. Security Council to actually support and uphold international law.”
WHAT? At least he did not repeat “unprovoked”!!! To pretend the operation undertaken by Russia after 8 years of trying diplomacy , never helped by NATO members France and Germany which agreed to push the Ukie govt which refused to even start the talks, was brutal is wrong. Russia has kept to international law, which the USA tossed aside for its own “rules-based international (dis) order”, and the information already found about the planned Ukrainian army attack on the Donbass in February showed that the Russian invasion was just in time to stop this further violence which the Ukraine far-right has used for at least 8 years.
A recent IPCC report says we’re living on borrowed time, and only immediate, international efforts can reverse our climate death spiral. But no, our military-industrial geniuses act like we’re still in the 19th century, while effectively ignoring the fate the awaits all of us.
In fact, international cooperation to reverse climate change would offer an unprecedented economic stimulus, i.e., actually producing things that would benefit people and the planet, instead of Cruise missiles. But as usual, we need enemies, such as China, to justify our obscene ‘defense’ budget. Its as if these neo-cons have a software glitch that prevents them from seeing reality, but instead continues to drive their infantile urges to dominate the rest of the world. Maybe this notion of a Death Wish is not so absurd, after all.
We are deep in a paradigm shift to a multipolar world. As the United States bullies China and other countries to support its war against Russia in the Ukraine, it only reveals what lengths it will go to in order to retain the status quo of a unipolar world with the U.S. dominant. What is most interesting to me is the great lengths those in the U.S. will go to so that they can control the narrative. Shutting down Russia Times America, for example, firing all the journalists, both left wing and right wing who worked there in one fell swoop with no warning. Blocking access to Russian media for Americans who might want to hear the other side of the story. Democracies are based on freedom of speech. Do these efforts to control the media imply that the U.S. is changing from a democracy to a totalitarian state run by corporations and a corrupt government?
I know this may come as a shock Ms. K , but we are no longer a democracy nor a republic. To be fair, democracy does exists in lower level government, but there is a radical change in the federal bureaucracy. We don’t elect our potential leaders, the political parties do. As an example of the past: Henry Wallace, FDR’s last running mate, was immensely popular and came with proven leadership and talent. The Democratic Party instead decided on the safe Mr.Truman. Truman made a few serious mistakes that we are now living with. The recognition of the state of Israel was one such error. Every intelligence department including the redoubtable John Marshall railed against the decision. Low on cash in the 1948 race, he accepted $75,000 from Jewish interests to continue. Now, Israel is an apartheid state that we helped create and has become a very expensive pain in the ass. I often think how this country would be if that mistake were not made.
RS, Nicely said! And correct on Henry Wallace, who was sabotaged to be FDR’s running mate by the right-wing , anti-union and war-monger, Jimmy Byrnes. Wallace was a genuine humanitarian and even studied Buddhism before it became popular in the U.S. and probably would not have dropped two atomic bombs on Japanese civilians.
Initially Truman was against creating the state of Israel but his handlers convinced him he needed Jewish money for his presidential campaign, so he agreed.
It is a joy to read the many comments of the others who post their thoughts on Consortium News, as I’m sad to say, most folks that I talk to believe what they hear and read on the MSM, and are now “experts” on Russia and Putin. Very distressful.
Do these efforts to control the media CONFIRM that the U.S. is CHANGED from a democracy to a totalitarian state run by corporations and a corrupt government?
Fixed it for you.
And if that wasn’t rhetorical, then YES.
I said this elsewhere originally. I agree with what you’ve said for the most part but I think in the end, the US will blow up the West’s economies, not the whole world’s.
Upon further reflection, this mess can be best described in the six phases of a program
Phase one: Enthusiasm. “Cookies” Nuland in Maiden square
Phase two: Disillusionment. Oh, s–t. We’ve stepped into a country that’s really three countries and these guys really are Nazis
Phase three: Panic. Let Porky and the Comedian slaughter ’em all
Phase four: Search for the guilty. Somebody is responsible for this mess and we’re sure it’s not us.
Phase five: Punishment of the innocent. Russia stepped in to stop the slaughter. It must be their fault. Try to nuke their economy.
Phase six: Praise and honors for the non-participants. China’s not stupid. They’ll pick up the pieces and make money trading them back to the troublemakers.
Great comment. Very creative.
That’s some kind of crack diplomatic team you’ve assembled there, Joe Biden. A real “Hail Mary” bunch to move the goalposts away from our defunct and absolutely corrupt phantasmagorical (it’s done with smoke and mirrors) economic system’s tatters. It ain’t even running on fumes anymore, even the BS is out of steam.
Days of reckoning. I had a notion beginning a few years ago that the only way out for the ‘Masters of the Universe-Wizards of Wall Street and the Beltway’ would be some cheap-ass default aimed at China on its Treasuries held. And I don’t think for one second that the Chinese did not see this scenario developing a long, long time ago and have any number of options to play a strong defense in this craven game.
And the West’s elites with their offshore accounts, their super-yachts and far-flung bug-out mansions of course too were well ahead on their collective personal curve. ‘Stakeholders,’ they like to call themselves.
The problem for them and all of us is the game has become a crap shoot, our perennial ace-in-the-hole being our military might. Might being an operative word in thinking we ‘might’ yet presume to have military superiority over Russia and China together. From all I’m reading over the past five years or so, that just ain’t necessarily so. And in a big way. A standoff for the Ages. For all the marbles.
Our leadership have already let we peons know where and how we factor into this mess they’ve made. Same goes for innocent people all over the world. This Biden bunch are not nice people. They’ve more than proven it by resorting to again throwing their “Hail Nuland” in these last seconds.
Short and to the point…the US is on its way to biting off more than it can chew. Choke on it…
If the U.S. has a cunning plan, it’s way too cunning for me to understand. Even if the PTB think that this Ukraine event will be another Afghanistan for Russia, they are proven by events to be wrong. It’s evident by now that the RF went into Ukraine with a ‘soft’ military strategy in hopes that the Ukraine government would capitulate and save lives – and property. Now the Russians know that the UKR government is fully committed to the USUK plan of fighting to the last Ukrainian. And, guess what, the RF military has stepped up the stand-off pressure to disabuse the UKR forces of the notion that they could hide in their emplacements and batter the Donbass – let alone the Russian forces.
Paul Spencer:
“It’s evident by now that the RF went into Ukraine with a ‘soft’ military strategy in hopes that the Ukraine government would capitulate and save lives – and property.” Couldn’t agree more. Scott Ritter in his video comments and writings indicated that Russia would feel “conflicted” in its invasion of Ukraine, whose population it views as part of a Slavic brotherhood. He also warned, however, that if Ukraine resistance persisted, Russia would systematically set about “wrecking” the country.
The best outcome would be for the populations of the US and Europe to rise up against their own governments instead. It’s already overdue anyway.
My dad a world war II veteran (blinded) called the government a syndicate it is a more appropriate discussion and one less desirable to follow.
“discussion” description
I agree with you. This may be the opportunity for European, American and other countries’ citizens to wake up and vote for a multi-polar world based on cooperation, security and production, not on violence, fraud and wars.
That will only happen when the people of America and Europe freeze or starve, and that will take a few years.
Here, here!!!
“ Adding China as a target of its economic war could drive the populations of the U.S. and Europe against their own governments instead.”
Let’s hope so; it is about time.
Great minds think alike. ?
The people working tirelessly trying to bait the “Thucydides trap” clearly actively hate any semblance of global peace and should be ashamed of themselves (though many are likely sociopaths who lack such a conscience).
The likes of Israel, Turkey, China, India, South Africa, Brazil, and any other states possessing some degree of diplomatic cachet and non-aligned credibility with Russia, Ukraine, and the European Union/NATO should not be impeded in any effort on their part(s) to broker a negotiated settlement to this crisis, regardless of their own problematic policies in other arenas.