Saturday, August 10, 2019

Traitors at the helm, the neocons’ and neoliberals’ China Derangement Syndrome




"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered.... I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.... The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."~ Thomas Jefferson

America is in a fiscal death spiral thanks to the traitors at the helm of the government fueled by the corrupt banking system.  The traitors in the U.S. House and Senate conspired in 2000 to overthrow the American form of government of, by, and for the people on behalf of the Federal Reserve Bank.  On December 12, 2000 five corrupt Republican Supreme Court Justices overturned the will of hundreds of millions of voters and installed George W. Bush as President of the United States. 

Three days later during a last minute lame duck session the U.S. Senate passed the Commodities Futures Modernization Act, deregulating the over the counter derivative trading, banking and insurance industries.  Wall Street had been trying to overturn the Glass-Steagall Act since the Great Depression when it was installed to protect the American people from Wall Street’s inherently risky gambles.  According to the Business Insider


Excerpt:

Speculation in OTC derivatives involves no connection to an underlying asset or to a real business risk, but the liabilities and risks they create are real. Under state gaming laws the speculative use of OTC derivatives, such as naked CDS (similar to naked shorts) and synthetic CDOs, was illegal in the US until state gaming laws were preempted by the federal government's Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 (CFMA).

Officially, roughly $604.6 trillion in OTC derivative contracts, more than ten times world GDP ($57.53 trillion), hang over the financial world like the sword of Damocles, but to the average investor the derivatives bubble is invisible. From the perspective of those outside the bubble, the explosion of OTC derivatives is a mania.

Anyone with a modicum of intelligence and basic understanding of banking could predict what the outcome would be, a complete collapse of the global banking system like we saw in 2008.  Senator Phil Gramm, one of the main sponsors of the CFMA left the Senate in December, 2002, after serving for 24 years in Congress and joined the Swiss based UBS Investment Bank as Vice Chairman.  His wife Wendy Gramm headed the presidential Task Force on Regulatory Relief in the Reagan administration.   Wendy also was chairwoman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission from 1988 until 1993. According to a NewYork Times article:

Excerpt:

In her final days with the commission she helped push through a ruling that exempted many energy futures contracts from regulation, a move that had been sought by Enron. Five weeks later, after resigning from the commission, Wendy Gramm was appointed to Enron's board of directors.

According to a report by Public Citizen, a watchdog group in Washington, ''Enron paid her between $915,000 and $1.85 million in salary, attendance fees, stock options and dividends from 1993 to 2001...''

Enron exploited the deregulation mania to the max, and the result has been economic ruin for thousands upon thousands of hard-working families. As Public Citizen put it, ''Enron developed mutually beneficial relationships with federal regulators and lawmakers to support policies that significantly curtailed government oversight of [its] operations…''

Enron’s employees’ retirement funds were in Enron stock and they were not allowed to cash out unless the Federal Trade Commission downgraded Enron’s stock by a certain percentage point basis.  Wendy Gramm and other board members cashed out just before Enron’s 2001 collapse leaving the workers holding the bag.  From Market Watch:

Excerpt:

Workers, retirees and shareholders of Enron complained Tuesday that they were left holding the bag when the company's "house of mirrors" crashed…

Vigil explained that employees' 401(k) contributions were matched dollar for dollar by Enron in company stock, with limits on swapping to more diversified investments. As the end came, employees were locked out of their accounts entirely…

"As the truth about Enron started to come to light -- and as the officers at the top cashed out -- we, the employees, had no choice but to ride the stock to the ground," Vigil said. He said employees' pensions lost an estimated $1 billion.

Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay and former Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling each sold shares in recent months for more than $60 million, while members of Enron's board sold shares worth more than $160 million.

Phil Gramm’s UBS tenure was much like his wife’s Enron tenure, very shady.  According to The NewYork Times: 

Excerpt:

In the wake of the UBS settlement with the United States government over bank secrecy and offshore tax evasion, some questions have been raised about whether former Senator Phil Gramm, the Texas Republican who is now a vice chairman at UBS, knew about the Swiss bank’s offshore activities and whether he blocked laws meant to prevent tax evasion.

Mr. Gramm has not been involved in the Internal Revenue Service‘s tax investigation of UBS. Still, Mr. Gramm is a controversial figure in the economic debate right now, since it was under his leadership as chairman of the powerful Senate Banking Committee from 1995 to 2003 that a bevy of laws were passed that deregulated many parts of the banking sector.

For example, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act allowed commercial banks, investment banks, securities firms and insurance companies to consolidate, creating behemoths like Citigroup that later became “too big to fail.” Mr. Gramm also pushed through the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which led to a proliferation of complicated derivatives that gummed up the Wall Street money machine, sending the economic crisis into overdrive…

The reason I bring up the case of the Gramm’s is that in the American government they are not the exception they are the rule.  Since that time America has been marauding across the globe overthrowing governments and robbing their treasuries and natural resources in order to forestall America’s impending financial collapse. 

The election of Donald Trump as President had thrown a wrench into the gears that have been grinding along since the installation of George W. Bush.  President Trump had campaigned on ending the regime change wars and building better relations with Russia, however Trump’s foreign policy has been hijacked by the Bolton, Pompeo and Abrams axis of evil.

China had been working in concert with Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa to form a New Development Bank that would be a competitor to the World Bank.  From Euromoney:

Excerpt:

NDB: The Brics bank takes shape

Over the last 12 months, the New Development Bank has gone from concept to fully fledged lender. It says it wants to be differentiated by its nimbleness and focus on sustainability. Where does it fit in a changing multilateral landscape?...

There is a certain cosiness to the 36th floor of the Brics Tower, where the executives of the New Development Bank reside, and it’s not just because it’s a grim and murky day in Shanghai. “The guy who just walked in is one of the vice-presidents; his office is next to mine,” says Leslie Maasdorp, CFO of New Development Bank and a vice-president himself. “The president’s office is there. There are two more VPs there,” he says, pointing. “On this floor is the entire credit committee.”

Being small, centralized and nimble is a key differentiator for NDB, says Maasdorp: “If there’s a project, we don’t have to wait for weeks to convene the investment committee. We call a meeting, assess the project, approve it and move on with our lives…

Brics acronym of 2001 referring to Brazil, Russia, India and China. Bric became a formal institution in 2010, with South Africa added later in the year. It was never entirely clear what it meant, other than an arbitrary and conveniently pronounceable aggregation of enormous emerging market economies…

 “The creation of the bank,” he says, “is an expression of the intent of emerging markets to take their rightful role in global governance.” Also, the five Brics nations illustrated the desperate need for infrastructure development in emerging markets.

“Also, given climate change – and we are absolutely persuaded that the world is undergoing fundamental changes – these banks have a public good objective to build infrastructure in a new kind of way,” Maasdorp says. “It’s not just about building roads or ports or power plants, but looking through the lens of what damage you are doing to the environment.”

 A Brics bank, it was decided, should be all about sustainable infrastructure, climate resilient and built with proper governance. It would also need to have a long-term view and a profound understanding of technological change.  “You cannot just build a road,” Maasdorp says. “You’ve got to configure what autonomous driving will mean in five, 10, 25 years for that road.  So we weren’t just created to be another bank for emerging markets.”

With those ambitions in mind, the bank set about the practical side of formation. The idea of a Brics bank was first mooted at the fourth Brics summit, in New Delhi in 2012. The finance ministers of the five constituent nations reported back with their ideas at the next summit in Durban the following year. During the next one, in Fortaleza in Brazil in 2014, an agreement was signed to establish what was now called the New Development Bank…

“This is a major commitment by these institutions,” Maasdorp says. “Each put in $2 billion, coming in instalments; we just received the fourth instalment and are more than halfway to the $10 billion.” This is another important distinction, he says. The ratio of paid-in capital to subscribed capital at the NDB – 20%, with $10 billion paid in and $50 billion subscribed – is the highest among multilateral banks.

“It’s a much higher proportion of equity, which demonstrates the strong commitment of our shareholders to the institution,” he says. In 2016 to 2017, the bank approved loans involving financial assistance of over $3.4 billion across green and renewable energy, transportation, water sanitation and irrigation…

He says he hopes “the likes of the UK, Germany, France will join.” (This is perhaps not a good moment to ask the US to participate in globalization.) Maasdorp says there is “very strong interest” for others to join, partly because of the sheer scale of their needs. “Whether it’s Vietnam, Turkey or Mexico, they have a massive need for funding.”

“There’s a sufficient number of projects out there, and not enough capital,” says Maasdorp. Then there is the China angle. China is now the headquarters of two multilaterals, first AIIB and now NDB. “There’s no question China is playing a bigger role in the multilateral system,” says Maasdorp. But while the bank talks of expansion, it still faces a challenge in getting things done in its founder countries.

There has been a heavy focus on China and India, and far less on South Africa. “There is definitely an intention to have a properly balanced portfolio among the five countries,” he says. “It’s not surprising that China and India would be disproportionate in the initial phase.” They have larger economies and China has a very clear infrastructure rollout programme mandated by the state, he says…

NDB has a target of $1.5 billion to $2 billion to be deployed in South Africa this year, which would be a fourfold increase on the $500 million committed in 2018. “What you are going to see now is a shift in momentum towards Brazil and South Africa,” says Maasdorp. These are not always easy places to do deals on the right terms, however.

Yes, the BRICS NDB Bank is one of the reasons the government of Brazil was overthrown and the far right, military dictatorship of Jair Bolsonaro was installed by the CIA, Elliott Abrams, John Bolton and Mike Pompeo.  That is why China is now on the hot seat.  From Economic Times of India:

Excerpt:

BRICS under new Brazilian President

New Brazilian government has started a radical reorientation of strategic partners, in line with the populist winds that have shaken much of the globe.

In 2019, Brazil takes the rotating presidency of the Brics group, the club created in 2006 that also includes Russia, India, China and South Africa. But you wouldn’t know that from declarations of the new government of president Jair Bolsonaro or from the list of priorities from his Foreign Minister, Ernesto Araújo. In the new administration, the Brics have become nearly invisible…

But it is clear that, in contrast to his predecessors, Bolsonaro’s foreign policy priorities lie elsewhere.   One likely explanation is that the Brics group became heavily associated with the leftwing governments of the Workers Party (PT), specially during the presidency of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2010). The club of emerging giants was an essential part of the South-South strategy which was a trade mark of his diplomacy…

Bolsonaro’s main ally is Donald Trump, followed by Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and the populist leaders of Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic. Italy’s Mateo Salvini is already considered a close friend. In Brazil’s neighborhood, he has formed solid partnerships with Chile and Colombia, also governed by conservatives.

That leaves the rest of the world in a limbo. Araújo, the new head of Itamaraty (the Foreign Ministry), has shocked the Brazilian diplomatic community by calling himself bluntly an antiglobalist.

The new government rejects multilateralism, the United Nations and global pacts. One of the first acts of the new government was to withdraw Brazil from the recently signed global pact on migration. There was also talk of Brazil following Trump’s example and leaving the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, though more pragmatic voices seem to have prevailed and the country is sticking to it for the moment.

So the new Brazilian diplomacy consists of few friends and limited goals, with no global ambitions. One of these goals is solving the crisis in Venezuela, and that, incidentally, is another factor to weaken the links with the Brics.

Bolsonaro has made it clear that toppling the government of President Nicolas Maduro is a priority, and for that he counts on political and maybe military support from the United States.

On the other hand, Venezuela’s dwindling number of friends include Russia and China, the two most powerful members of the Brics. Even the other two, India and South África, even if not staunch allies of Maduro, seem to have little stomach for regime change in Venezuela led by Trump, specially if it comes by with a military offensive.

In the last decades, Brazilian diplomacy has alternated between two poles: one, Atlanticist, privileges relations with the rich, Western world; the other, strongly embodied by President Lula, sees Brazil as a natural leader of the emerging world and emphasizes historical links with Latin America, Africa and the Middle East.

None of these traditions, however, has rejected the notion of a multipolar world in which Brazil is a balancing force. But Bolsonaro has come to change that moderating streak in Brazilian diplomacy. He has clearly taken sides against countries not formed in the Jewish-Cristian tradition, as Minister Araújo remarked in his inaugural speech in office. Ironically, a president that has promised to govern without ideological bias has made ideology a central part of his priorities.

The relationship with China exemplifies this abrupt change. In the last decade, the Chinese have become the most important trade partners of Brazil, and have been treated accordingly by all Brazilian presidents.

Bolsonaro, however, has followed Trump in his criticism of Chinese imperialism and appetite for buying companies and land. In the early stages of his campaign, the president travelled to Taiwan, a sure way to irritate Beijing. A visit by some congressmen of his party to China in January caused a storm within his political coalition, specially after criticism from Olavo de Carvalho, a Brazilian philosopher who lives in the US and is considered the intelectual guru of the president. Stepping on Red China was considered akin to treason…

Foreign relations have a way of acomodating themselves, as they are subject to multiple pressures. But it is already clear that under President Bolsonaro, diplomacy, as other areas in his government, will be very different from anything we have ever seen.

You bet your ass “diplomacy will be very different from anything we have ever seen.”  From G.Q.

Excerpt:

Brazil Lost 1,330 Square Miles of Rainforest in Just the Last Six Months

Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has set the logging industry free—single-handedly hastening climate change.

When Jair Bolsonaro became the president of Brazil late last year, it was a major victory for the country's far right, and a potentially monumental disaster for the Brazilian Amazon.

To back up a bit: It was a shock when Bolsonaro claimed victory, not because his win came from nowhere—he was leading in the polls. But because his rhetoric drew comparisons to fascism (Foreign Policy claimed his propaganda campaign took a "page straight from the Nazi playbook.") And the man originally expected to win the election, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, was jailed on corruption charges before the election.

It's since come out that Sergio Moro, the presiding judge, was secretly directing prosecutors on how to conduct their case, and Bolsonaro subsequently gave Moro the second most powerful position in the Brazilian government—raising some eyebrows about the legitimacy of the charges.

Bolsonaro started out as an army captain when Brazil was ruled by a military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985, and he's frequently praised the brutal regime that kidnapped, tortured, and executed suspected dissidents and communists.

He's vehemently anti-gay, saying that if he saw men kissing in public then he would assault them. He told a woman politician she was too ugly to rape. He's vowed to criminalize social movements including his political rivals, the Workers Party. And he now leads a country of almost 200 million people, the second biggest in the Americas after the U.S.

Brazil is home to one of the most valuable resources on the planet, the Amazon rainforest. For decades, preserving the rainforest had been one of the main points of the environmental movement, and for a short while Brazil's conservation efforts were surprisingly successful.

But Bolsonaro ran on a campaign that promised to free up as much of the Amazon as possible for logging and deforestation, which was an appealing promise to both Brazilian and international business interests that often butted head with environmentalists and conservation efforts. He vowed not only to put "an end to activism" in Brazil, but also swore that if he became president "not a centimeter more" of land would be protected for indigenous people.

Under Bolsonaro, the government has dramatically scaled back environmental enforcement efforts, including fines and the seizure of illegal equipment. In fact, a recent investigation by the New York Times found that over the last six months, enforcement actions by Brazil's environmental agency dropped by 20 percent compared to the year before Bolsonaro took the presidency, while deforestation of the Brazilian rain forest shot up by 39 percent. That means that so far this year, the Amazon lost 1,330 square miles of forest—an area the size Houston, Los Angeles, and Chicago combined.

This has been a huge boon for the logging industry. Ecologically though, it's a disaster. The whole process of deforestation releases a tremendous amount of carbon, and not just from the machinery for felling and processing trees or from the commercial farming and cattle raising that take the place of the forest.

The Amazon rainforest works as a massive carbon capture system, soaking up and storing carbon emissions that would otherwise clog the atmosphere and exacerbate climate change. As those trees are cut down, not only do they release carbon they've been storing for decades, but they no longer do the vital work of soaking up more than 2.4 billion tons of carbon per year.

The global environmental impact of the Amazon is so huge that the forest has long been called "the lungs of the world,". A recent study in the journal Science found that reforestation, planting up to 2 billion trees around the world, could absorb as much as two thirds of all man-made carbon emissions. Unfortunately, Brazil is doing the opposite, and the current government is openly hostile to both Brazilian and foreign environmentalists. Or, as Bolsonaro told one European reporter, "The Amazon is ours, not yours."

So the Bolton, Pompeo and Abrams axis of evil are using Brazil to try to destroy the BRICS especially China.  The axis of evil sees diplomacy as a sign of weakness.  They much prefer bombs rather than carrots.  Brazil along with Colombia, Honduras, Chile, and Guatemala are the reason America’s Southern border is being invaded by indigenous people fleeing persecution by the axis of evil’s dictators. 

While America has been destroying the world China has been building the world through their belt and road initiative.  China finds loans and infrastructure more effective than bombs and dictators.  China has been an apt pupil of the IMF.  For that China has incurred the traitors’ wrath.  From Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge:

Excerpt:

Bombs Vs Bridges: How Two Empires Are Competing For Their Version Of The New World Order

There is a crisis in the Western world. Both in terms of domestic affairs and foreign policy, Western nations are showing all signs of impending collapse. This is despite the fact that the flagship of the Western world, the United States, continues to expand its empire across the globe. At the same time, the world is witnessing the “rise of China,” an empire in its own right though no one seems to have any interest in calling it what it is.

The American empire has come to terms with itself to some extent. Through all the claims of support for “democracy” and “freedom,” the United States has transitioned to an authoritarian state at home and a rampaging military of conquest abroad.

Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Egypt, Somalia, Niger, Cameroon, Nigeria, Venezuela, Chad and Mali all serve as hot battles for the American military (in cooperation with other Western militaries, including Australia) in service of forcing governments into accepting the rule of private central banks, big biotechnology firms, pharmaceutical and industrial corporations and forcing those nations into providing raw materials for major industry centered in the Western world.

This says nothing of the American military bases in place across the globe. The US military posture of aggression coupled with threats of invasion against sovereign nations who are not compliant is well-known the world over and only the willfully blind do not see it.

But the US is definitely not alone in this.

China is also an empire and it is also marching across the globe attempting to expand its influence and control. However, most Westerners do not recognize it as such and even those anti-imperialist journalists in the alternative media find it difficult if not impossible to call China what it is; an expanding empire. Like the United States, China’s empire is one based on authoritarianism and control, though placing the collective in an even higher priority than its American competitor. Domestically, it has surpassed America in totalitarianism though the US is running as quickly as it can to the Marxist slaughterhouse.

While the US offers sticks, China offers carrots, albeit tainted ones. The US offers threats of overthrow and chaos, China offers roads and industry. The US offers bombs, China offers bridges.  Despite the manifestations, however, both countries are offering nothing more than empire in different packaging.

The Chinese Strategy

With the exception of its domestic oppression, China’s expansion of empire has been largely bloodless. It has focused on the maintenance of its status as a “developing nation” as well as benefiting from Free Trade globalism, the intentional de-industrialization of the West (particularly the United States) and the tyrannical repression of individual rights at home.

China’s slave labor industrial model [see here also] has made it the number one dumping spot for jobs that once provided high wages and high living standards to workers in America and, though raising some Chinese out of the poverty of rural areas, has simply moved them to the poverty of the city. With its excessively long hours, authoritarian work culture, extreme pollution, and low living standards, China has made the Chinese people into the collective Mao slaughtered so many to bring about, a mass able to be molded and adapted to serve the whims of the ruling class.

China has used the designation of “developing nation” to its greatest benefit, allowing it to skirt virtually all environmental regulations, turning the country into a toxic cesspit of pollution, chemical pools, and fake food…

Likewise, China has willingly acted as a depository for the Free Trade system, allowing it to soak up jobs and industry that should have remained in the West providing high wages and high living standards for Americans. Unfortunately, however, both the left and the right, as well as the well-meaning but uninformed middle have supported this transition under the name of Free Trade. But the result is not just the weakening of American economic might, it is the growth of China’s economic and, hence, political power.

Buying up US debt as well as manufacturing material that is essential for the US economy and national security has placed China in a position where attempts by the US to regain its industry puts America in a precarious position. If China sees its current status of economic powerhouse going by the wayside, it could decide to commit suicide by dumping the dollar.

If this happens, it is highly likely that the US will be plunged into an immediate financial crisis. This time, however, the US will not be equipped with the industrial infrastructure it had before NAFTA, GATT, and the various Chinese trade agreements to survive such a destructive decision. It is obvious that mutual destruction is the only thing holding China back from pushing the button but, if it is assured of its own destruction, why wouldn’t China push it?

It is this fact, as well as the US law that allows for foreign nations to donate to political candidates and a myriad of organizations of influence throughout the country that has essentially created a system in which China is able to act as perhaps the second busiest lobbying firm in Washington after AIPAC.

Together with buying up land inside the United States (land now owned by the Chinese government) including ports and industrial facilities, the US is slowly becoming more and more dependent on China than ever, weak attempts at tariffs notwithstanding. Even critical components of the American military, national security, and economic infrastructure have now been outsourced to China, demonstrating both how well the Chinese have played the game and how intelligent American “leaders” have spiked the football.

The current situation is not an accident, it is a necessary consequence of Free Trade that was known long ago and was, in fact, one reason this disastrous policy was introduced.

The Strategy Of Bridges

While the US bombs its way across the world, threatening to overthrow uncooperative governments at the slightest sign of resistance, China has chosen to play the long game, armed with centralized economic control and captured American industry at its command, by using its economic might and promised (often real) guarantees of economic growth to the third and “developing” world. What China offers is development, infrastructure, and economic growth but what it takes in return is influence and control over sovereign affairs.

Much like its position of holding America’s debt, China holds critical infrastructure and the purse strings of investment and growth. If one decides to balk at Chinese wishes, they will not face a color revolution or bombs, they will face having the financial spigot cut off…

One such example of the rapid expansion of Chinese influence in world affairs is the One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative. OBOR is a global “development initiative” launched publicly by the Chinese government in 152 countries and “international organizations” spanning the globe in Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and the Americas.

The “Belt” aspect of OBOR refers to overland routes as well as road and rail routes (aka “Silk Road Economic Belt”) and the “road” aspect involves the sea routes, the 21st Century “Maritime Silk Road.” Interestingly enough, the plan involves the improvement of infrastructure on land routes that equate to the old Silk Road. It is essentially the creation of a trading network controlled and owned by the Chinese government.

But the Chinese initiative is about much more than mere trade routes. It is a neo-colonial project that is using the carrots of trade and infrastructure held in front of the third world as bait, while the subservience of the recipient nations is what is paid in return...

China, of course, rejects such criticism and labels those who point out China’s “debt-trap diplomacy” as not being able to see beyond their own Western views of development as colonialism, while the Chinese have a pure, more equitable concept of it. Obviously, this is a fair response to critics from the Western world who have scarcely developed a third world country without also using it as a harvesting ground for labor or raw materials…

Djibouti is a perfect example of Chinese neo-colonialism

One may look at the case of Djibouti to see an example of Chinese neo-colonialism at work. In this small, financially disadvantaged, East Africa country, China has planted its foot via the creation of two new airports, a new port, and the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway. The very size of these projects, particularly when taken into consideration the size of Djibouti and the financial situation of the country, make China’s presence there absolutely immense.

And with such an immense presence comes immense influence and control. This is to say nothing of the fact that Djibouti is China’s first overseas military base. It thus stands as the first “pearl” in the string long desired by the Chinese government.  To be clear, Djibouti was in need of all the things China built. So why the controversy?

These projects were built and developed with Chinese investment and Chinese money but they were also funded via debt in the host countries like Djibouti. The question then becomes whether or not these countries will be able to service their debt to China and, when they inevitably cannot, what will happen?

China is simply engaging in the same practices as the International Monetary Fund, wherein target nations are promised and provided some degree of development, only to see the debt service far beyond anything they are able to repay. At that point, the IMF privatizes essential services, natural resources, and industry. This “payments in kind” model is precisely what China is betting on. In this case, China is simply stepping in to become the IMF and stepping in to suck up the resources and industry that will inevitably be sacrificed to “service” the debt.

China is going after other countries with “debt traps”

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, and Zambia have already suffered such consequences from China and Sri Lanka also has a story tell… Every time Sri Lanka’s president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, turned to his Chinese allies for loans and assistance with an ambitious port project, the answer was yes.  Yes, though feasibility studies said the port wouldn’t work. Yes, though other frequent lenders like India had refused. Yes, though Sri Lanka’s debt was ballooning rapidly under Mr. Rajapaksa.

Over years of construction and renegotiation with China Harbor Engineering Company, one of Beijing’s largest state-owned enterprises, the Hambantota Port Development Project distinguished itself mostly by failing, as predicted. With tens of thousands of ships passing by along one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, the port drew only 34 ships in 2012.

And then the port became China’s.

Mr. Rajapaksa was voted out of office in 2015, but Sri Lanka’s new government struggled to make payments on the debt he had taken on. Under heavy pressure and after months of negotiations with the Chinese, the government handed over the port and 15,000 acres of land around it for 99 years in December.  The transfer gave China control of territory just a few hundred miles off the shores of a rival, India, and a strategic foothold along a critical commercial and military waterway…

As far what lies ahead for Djibouti, ‘The debt with China increases exponentially. They are going to take this port, just like they did in Sri Lanka,’ Doualeh Egueh Ofleh, a deputy in the National Assembly with the opposition Movement for Democratic Renewal and Development told ISS Today.  This is what lies ahead for all the nations who take part in China’s OBOR initiative…

With China expected to invest around $1.3 trillion in infrastructure projects across the globe, it should be remembered that what China is promoting is not even a plan designed to protect the Chinese economy, it is a Free Trade network that will see China at the helm of the exploitation of workers, worker’s rights, and the environment.

OBOR is not about fighting against Free Trade with the cooperation of third world countries, it is about expanding exploitation to those countries with a Chinese flavor instead of the Western Anglo version.  That, in a nutshell, is what Free Trade is all about. Indeed, Free Trade and colonialism have always existed side by side. The two are virtually inseparable…

China’s Empire Uses Military Might Also

That China’s empire takes the form of economics and “debt trap” diplomacy should not discount the fact that it also intends to spread through military force. Most notable is Chinese aggression in the South China Sea… One need only look at the South China Sea to see a perfect example.

The South China Sea is perhaps the biggest and most important oceanic shipping and trade route in Asia. China, of course, has laid claim to the vast majority of the SCS. However, there are more countries than China in the South China Sea and closer to the Spratly Islands, which China also has laid claim to.

Known as the “9-Dash Line,” Chinese claims in the South China Seas encroach upon the territorial waters of Vietnam, the Phillippines, and Malaysia. So obviously overblown were the Chinese claims when the Phillippines took China to international court over its claims, the court ruled against China. Much like the empire across the ocean, China simply ignored the ruling and continued to act virtually as the sole owner of the South China Sea…

Partly in order to extend its “legitimate” claims to the sea and partly to expand its military footprint, China then began constructing man-made islands in the SCS for the purpose of deploying military forces to the islands. With the construction of the islands, China also likely believes it can argue its claims to even more of the South China Sea as a result of its placement on the islands it made as well as physically control the area where $5.3 trillion worth of trade takes place every year, $1.2 trillion of which belongs to the United States.

In addition to use as a trade route, the South China Sea also may contain around 11 billion barrels of oil and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. SCS is also one of the most important fishing zones in the world, an industry that China is the overwhelming leader in.

Add to the aggressive military posture in the South China Sea, China’s own policy that Taiwan will one day be brought to heel under the current Chinese government (aka the “One China Policy), and the threat of Chinese military action becomes very real. Indeed, China has become more aggressive both diplomatically and militarily in its stance toward Taiwan.

Which Is The More Successful Strategy?

Although both America and China are spreading their empire across the globe, the immediate short term methods of doing so seem completely opposite to one another. But in the race to expand empire, which one is winning?

America has pushed its empire across the world by using bombs, color revolutions, invasions, sanctions, and other forms of imperialist aggression for a hundred years, most notably in the last two decades. The continuing destruction of governments, countries, and cultures has made American imperialism clear to all its victims and to all the populations watching the American war machine march forward.

The US empire has unmasked itself before the world. There is no longer any doubt as to the fact that the American military and all the power of the American government is being used to impose the Western-financier system on the rest of the world.

Decades of watching their families being murdered, their culture and countries being destroyed has resulted not in the capitulation to the whims of America’s dictates but a deep-seated simmering hatred. It has also resulted in a growing resistance and ever-unified opposition to the spread of American influence. In many cases, it has resulted in the establishment of alliances of countries that otherwise would not have had common ground, based upon the common ground of a need for defense against the United States and NATO.

The Chinese empire has also been spreading for decades but the Chinese have been playing the long game and doing so in the most covert manner possible. While America’s bombs leave a bloody trail back to Washington, China’s bridges generally leave goodwill, increased investment, and, to some degree, economic growth within third world countries that desperately need it but are unable, for various reasons, to create it for themselves.

That is, these investments bring goodwill for a short time until Chinese tentacles begin to squeeze tighter and tighter both at the economic and social levels. The Chinese version of empire is no less insidious but, over the long haul, it may be just as effective. By using the carrot instead of the stick, China is luring away countries that may have been clients or targets of the United States. It is expanding its empire by the day and doing so without firing a single shot.

The American empire is overextended and showing signs of collapse. It has repeatedly shown that it cannot be trusted to live up to even the most minor agreements it has made with its “clients,” and the threat of expressing one ounce of sovereignty by its concubines results in bombs, blood, and upheaval. China is, of course, there to pick the low hanging fruit and to capitalize on the failures of American empire and the fears of falling under its orbit. America’s clients see bombs in their future. China’s clients see bridges.

As a result, American influence in the world is waning while China’s grows by the day. America, in many respects, is spreading China’s empire itself.

How Could The US Turn It Around?

If the United States wishes to maintain its influence on the world stage, it must abandon its desires for an empire and it must cease attempting to force systems of government upon sovereign nations, particularly the Anglo-financier system. If the United States does not wish to see its influence eroded and eliminated in the coming decades, it must focus on providing tangible improvement in the lives of the citizens of the countries it wishes to influence and it must do so through an open and honest channel, unlike the Chinese debt trap and unlike and most unlike the carpet bombing American version.

America has done everything in its power to squander the enormous good will many of the world’s people had in the past and still continue to have for it today. However, that need not be the case. America could once again establish good will for generations to come if it decides to influence the world by improving the living standards of its people. America’s legacy must cease to be war and destabilization and instead must become clean water, clean air, industry, infrastructure, and freedom…

But in order to usher in a Marshall Plan for the World, America must first rebuild itself. It must boldly proclaim an end to Free Trade. America must return to a country that protects its own economic interests and national prosperity by enacting tariffs on goods coming into the country that can reasonably be produced domestically and return to a state of high wages and high employment. A 15% tariff across the board, not used as negotiating technique or a political hammer, but as a means to protect and encourage growth inside the United States that provides high wage and high skill jobs to American workers.

The creation of infrastructure and higher living standards in the third world will do more to expand American influence than all the bombs its military can drop. It is a legacy that will engender good will for generations and will improve the lives of billions of people in the process.

Conclusion

The Western world has finally routed itself into a crisis not only of culture and values but of its very existence. Decades of imperialist wars designed to force third world countries into accepting the Anglo-financier system have drained America’s resources and have set the country into upheaval at home. The American empire is primed for collapse. Only by abandoning the concept of empire at all can the United States return to a state where it is the greatest engine for wealth and freedom the world has ever known.

Abandoning the neo-liberal policies of Free Trade would not only re-industrialize the United States, it would cut the knees out from under the competing empire quickly emerging across the ocean. The United States must focus on rebuilding domestically. If America wants to spread the principles of prosperity and freedom, doing so on the basis of respect, peace, and investment will win over the ideologies of Communism, Fascism, and Authoritarianism. Instead of dropping bombs, the U.S. should invest in building bridges. But more than bridges, America should be the symbol for clean drinking water, electricity, highways, airports, jobs, clean air, and a healthy environment the world over. If America wants to continue its influence across the globe, it has no other choice.

Fat chance the Bolton/Pompeo/Abrams axis of evil will abandon neo-liberal policies of Free Trade and carpet bombing and color revolutions for clean drinking water, electricity, highways, airports and jobs.  The only chance that would happen is if Trump exterminates the vermin who have invaded his administration.  But that isn’t going to happen, especially with the complete embargo they have placed on Venezuela for refusing to remove their elected government for an American dictatorship.  From Checkpoint Asia:

Excerpt:

The Chinese Ride to the Rescue of Venezuela’s Run-Down Oil Refineries
Sanctioned country is not able to cover its own gasoline needs

A Chinese contractor has agreed to shore up Venezuela’s derelict refining network to ease fuel shortages, potentially complicating the Trump administration’s push for regime change in the oil-rich country.  Wison Engineering Services Co., a Shanghai-based chemical engineering and construction company that is using China’s ‘Belt & Road’ infrastructure program to expand overseas, agreed last month to repair Venezuela’s main refineries in exchange for oil products including diesel, according to people with knowledge of the deal.

U.S. financial sanctions aimed at starving the current regime of revenue contributed to the decision to revive a domestic refining industry crippled by years of mismanagement and under-investment, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is confidential.

The deal mirrors the OPEC producer’s other arrangements with Russian and Chinese oil majors, under which payments are made in crude by Venezuela’s cash-strapped national oil company.

Wison’s repairs are expected to last six months to a year, according to another person. The Nicolas Maduro administration was having difficulties navigating the U.S. economic blockade even before the U.S. announced additional restrictions on Aug. 5. Last month state-controlled Petroleos de Venezuela SA was importing Russian gasoline through Malta to relieve shortages, a slow and expensive route to the Caribbean nation.

Irregular Supply

Irregular fuel supplies have crippled mobility in a country where shortages of food and basic medical supplies have already caused a health crisis and led to one of the largest mass migrations of recent times.  PDVSA, as the state producer is known, has been directing most available gasoline to Caracas, where Maduro is most vulnerable to mass protests.

The Trump administration was hoping to swiftly chase Maduro out of power earlier this year and has criticized China and Russia for supporting what it considers a criminal and repressive regime.  Wison didn’t respond to an email or fax seeking comment on the refinery contract. PDVSA didn’t respond to emails and calls seeking comment.

The Chinese company hasn’t completed a contract it won in 2012 to overhaul the Puerto la Cruz refinery. Wison’s revenue from Venezuela sank 72% last year as the nation’s economic crisis deepened, according to its an annual report.  China and Russia have an interest in preventing the complete collapse of Venezuela’s oil industry because it’s the only way to recoup the tens of billions of dollars in loans and investments they have made in the past decade.

Wison’s deal also underscores how the oil-hungry Asian nation remains committed to Venezuela as a strategic location for foreign investment.

Economic Blockade

Restoring fuel production, if it happens fast enough, would weaken the U.S. economic blockade and put Maduro in a stronger negotiating position as talks with the opposition drag on without any visible progress.  Despite Venezuelans’ widespread dissatisfaction with their government, divisions within the opposition are complicating the push toward a post-Maduro administration…

Venezuela’s refining industry, once a major supplier to the U.S. with 1.3 million barrels a day of capacity, has been in gradual decline due to theft, inadequate maintenance and a brain drain of qualified staff, and was hit by a series of major power outages this year.  In recent years, PDVSA hasn’t even been able to meet domestic gasoline demand that has historically been about 250,000 barrels a day…

American officials continue to project confidence about replacing Maduro with a pro-business administration despite the lack of progress.  China rejects “foreign interventions and unilateral sanctions” in Venezuela, and supports dialogue between the government and the opposition, its embassy in Caracas said in a statement on May 12.

The embassy didn’t immediately offer additional comments when contacted by the business news agency.  China wants “to be identified with a friendly socialist government, especially in the backyard of the U.S.,” said Schreiner Parker, Rystad Energy’s vice president for Latin America.  “They have no guarantee that a regime change will necessarily mean that they’re going to be repaid.”

You can be damn sure China won’t be repaid if the elected government of Nicolas Maduro is removed.  Not only will China not be repaid but the people of Venezuela will suffer immensely just like the people of Brazil have since their elected government was removed.  America is in a fiscal death spiral thanks to the traitors at the helm of the government fueled by the corrupt banking system.  This game of chicken with China is not going to end well for anyone especially America.  The traitors at the helm and their neoconservative and neoliberal enablers in congress’ China derangement syndrome will destroy what’s left of America.


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