(A uniquely insightful article – stating both
the problem AND the proposed solution!)
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.
The main reason China is still seen as a victim of American
aggression rather than a mutual purveyor of imperialism is the fact that the
boots of Chinese empire march much softer than the American version. 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. Its “developing nation” status allows
it to avoid the obnoxious “climate change” regulations that have hastened the
de-industrialization of the West and heralds the low living standards that have
already begun to make themselves manifest wherever climate hysteria takes hold.
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. What happens after that is a natural flow of events that will most
likely benefit the Chinese, as whoever is able to manage to get that spigot on
is likely to be the next one holding the seat of power.
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. Not all third world
countries see sovereignty as a willing trade for infrastructure crumbs,
however. In 2018, for instance, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad
canceled a number of Chinese-funded projects warning that “there is a new
version of Colonialism happening.”
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. But
the West’s exploitation of the third world does not make China’s exploitation
any less of a colonialist action.
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. To get an idea of how the Chinese “debt trap” works, examine the article
“How China Got Sri
Lanka To Cough Up A Port,” written by Maria Abi-Habib published in
the New York Times on June 25, 2018.” Habib writes,
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.
The case is one of the most vivid examples of China’s ambitious
use of loans and aid to gain influence around the world — and of its
willingness to play hardball to collect.
The debt deal also intensified some of the harshest accusations
about President Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative: that the
global investment and lending program amounts to a debt trap for vulnerable
countries around the world, fueling corruption and autocratic behavior in
struggling democracies.
It should be noted that a sizeable portion of Chinese money was
also funneled directly to the Sri Lankan President and his aides, ensuring that
he and his administration would be more willing to agree to the ridiculous
Chinese terms.
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.
OBOR Is
About Free Trade
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.
In an article entitled, “Revisiting China’s Neocolonialism,”
for the Japan Times website, Jean Marc F. Blanchard writes some of the most
common complaints from “clients/victims” of China’s expansionist strategy. He
writes,
First, they deride Beijing’s touted connectivity infrastructure,
like pipelines and ports, essentially as initiatives to send more resources to
China. They add that Chinese projects afford local countries a scant role and
that the debts associated with these projects are depleting national
treasuries.
Second, they stress that Chinese projects specifically and
investments more generally insufficiently use local suppliers and partners.
Third, they assert Chinese companies and projects contribute
little to job creation, partly because they use so many Chinese laborers.
Fourth, they assert that China is not sharing important technology. Fifth, they
contend that China is doing more harm than good regarding host country
industrialization because its cheap goods destroy local manufacturing.
For the more pejorative of the critics, China’s vaunted slogan
of “win-win” essentially means China wins twice.
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.
Admittedly, the American assertion that it can police the sea is questionable
at best, but it is also true that China has proclaimed ownership and
territorial rights over portions of the sea that not only do not belong to
Beijing but those that clearly belong to other countries. The fact that America
has engaged in aggressive posturing and behavior in Asia in no way should
diminish the fact that China has done the same and it is continuing to do so.
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, s, 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.
After the second World War, the United States was able to
rebuild a Europe that had been destroyed by years of war through what became
known as the Marshall Plan. The United
States should initiate a similar program, a Marshall Plan for the third world,
that sees American investment in clean water systems and infrastructure
development. This plan should not take the form of financial or monetary aid,
however, as the U.S. should prioritize its own economy and living standards and
because loans and cash tend to be swallowed up by the corrupt ruling classes.
This new plan should see equipment, material, and expertise (manufactured in
the U.S.) take the place of cash to skirt around the pitfalls of corruption.
Instead of exporting “democracy,” the U.S. should export freedom and
prosperity, the very thing populations trapped under the rule of
Communist/Socialist and unrestrained capitalist governments so desire. When
Eastern Europeans, oppressed by the tyranny of Communism, bolted their doors
and windows shut at night to listen to the radio broadcasts coming in illegally
from the West, it was not the American military they admired, it was the land
of freedom and economic opportunity.
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.
About
Brandon Turbeville
Brandon Turbeville is a geopolitical expert who writes for The
Organic Prepper and his own website, BrandonTurbeville.com He
is the author of ten books including, Codex Alimentarius — The End of Health
Freedom, 7 Real Conspiracies, The Road to Damascus: The Anglo-American
Assault on Syria, The Difference it Makes: 36 Reasons Why
Hillary Clinton Should Never Be President, and Resisting The Empire: The Plan To
Destroy Syria And How The Future Of The World Depends On The Outcome.
Turbeville has published over 1500 articles on a wide variety of subjects
including health, economics, government corruption, civil liberties though most
notably on geopolitics and the Syrian crisis. His website is BrandonTurbeville.com He is available for radio
and TV interviews. Please contact anticodex@yahoo.com
