Russians are chess masters and the Chinese have Go, while the U.S.of A has Monopoly. Simple really.

Posted by: Michael McPherson | Apr 6 2021 20:46 utc | 25

"Socialism versus capitalism? No, it is a long time since the U.S. was a capitalist economy; it’s hardly even a market economy today. It has become, more and more, a rentier economy ..."

"the U.S.of A has Monopoly" - like that, very apt! That simple analogy encompasses the American plutocracy's mindset of non-productive rent extraction, seeking to control every part of the world, and goal of winner-takes-all hegemony.

Posted by: Canadian Cents | Apr 6 2021 21:11 utc | 27

The U.S. will ignore the message from Anchorage. It is already testing China over Taiwan, and is preparing an escalation in Ukraine, to test Russia. 

Sun Tzu’s The Art of War (c. 500 BCE) advises that:

“To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands; yet the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself … Therefore the clever combatant imposes his will; and does not allow the enemy’s will to be imposed on him”.

This is the essence of the Chinese resistance economy – a strategy which has been fully unveiled in the wake of the Anchorage talks; talks that silenced any lingering thoughts in Beijing that America might somehow find some modus vivendi with Beijing in its headlong pursuit of primacy over China.

Although earlier there had been tantalising glimpses of déshabillé, the full reveal to China’s tough stance and rhetoric has only been permitted now – post-Anchorage – and the talks’ confirmation that the U.S. intends to block China’s ascent.

If it is assumed that this ‘resistance’ initiative constitutes some tit-for-tat ‘jab’ at Washington – through sinking Biden’s Iran ambitions, as revenge for America loudly crying ‘war crimes’ (‘genocide’ in Xingjian) – then we miss wholly its full import.

The scope of the Iran pact by far transcends trade and investment, as one commentator in the Chinese state media made plain:

“As it stands, this deal (the Iran pact) will totally upend the prevailing geopolitical landscape in the West Asian region that has for so long been subject to U.S. hegemony”.

So here is the essence to ‘a clever combatant moving to impose his will’ – there is no need for China or Russia or Iran to go to war to do this; they just implement ‘it’.

They can do ‘it’ – quite simply. They don’t need a revolution to do it, because they have no vested interest in fighting America.

What is ‘it’?

It is not just a trade and investment pact with Tehran; neither is it simply allies helping each other. The ‘resistance’ lies precisely with the way they’re trying to help each other.

It is a mode of economic development.

It represents the notion that any rent-yielding resource – banking, land, natural resources and natural infrastructure monopolies – should be in the public domain to provide basic needs to everybody – freely.

This new way of governance is one where any rent-yielding resource should be public domain, and given to the people for free.

The alternative way simply is to privatise these ‘public goods’ (as in the West), where they are provided at a financialized maximum cost – including interest rates, dividends, management fees, and corporate manipulations for financial gain.

‘It’ is then a truly different economic approach.

To give one example: 

New York’s Second Avenue Subway extension cost $6 billion, or $2 billion per mile – the most expensive urban mass transit ever built. 

The average cost of underground subway lines outside the U.S. is $350 million a mile, or a sixth of New York’s cost.

How does this ‘it’ change everything?

Well, just imagine for a moment: the biggest element in anyone’s budget today is housing at 40%, which simply reflects high house prices, based on a debt-fuelled market.

 Instead, imagine that proportion at 10% (as in China).

Suppose too, you have low-cost public education.

Well then, you are rid of education-led debt, and its interest cost.

Suppose you have public healthcare, and low priced transport infrastructure.

Then you would have the capacity to spend – It becomes a low-cost economy, and consequently it would grow.

Another example:

The cost of hiring R&D staff in China is a third to half the comparable cost in the U.S., so China’s tech spend is closer to $1 trillion a year (in terms of purchasing power parity), whereas the U.S. spends just 0.6% of GDP, or about $130 billion, on federal R&D.

At one level therefore, this ‘it’ is a strategic challenge to the western eco-system.

In one corner, the debt-driven, hyper-financialised, yet stagnant economies of Europe and the EU – in which strategic direction and economic ‘winners and losers’ are set by the Big Oligarchs, and in which the 60% struggle, and 0.1% thrive.

And, in the far corner, a very mixed economy in which the Party sets a strategic course for state enterprises, whilst others are encouraged to innovate, and to be entrepreneurial in the mold of a state-directed economy (albeit, with Taoist and Confucian characteristics).

Socialism versus capitalism?

No, it is a long time since the U.S. was a capitalist economy; it’s hardly even a market economy today.

It has become, more and more, a rentier economy since leaving the gold standard (in 1971).

This forced U.S. exit from the ‘gold window’ facilitated the U.S. via the resultant global demand for U.S. debt instruments, (Treasury bonds), to finance itself for free (from out of the entire world’s economic surplus).

To all my sisters and brothers I say drastic change is in the air as Nature is informing us on many levels of our standing on the precipice of annihilation (not in 30 years but currently), and the only hope for humanity is a quantum leap in consciousness. There is no time to waste. On the world stage, “Us versus Them” is becoming obsolete while “united we stand, divided we fall” increasingly will be forced upon us by momentous forces infinitely more powerful than our illusive technology and weapons that only threaten self destruction while delaying action to save us from our follies and foibles. If we are to survive as a species, we must all strive to develop a cooperative and holistic view of life encompassing all other beings and species, the ecosystem and its vulnerabilities, and the stability of the climate system. We must refrain from conflict resolved through violence, otherwise we are finished. Any discussion of geopolitics must be framed by that awareness.

Posted by: norecovery | Apr 7 2021 4:36 utc | 67

The Washington Consensus ensured additionally that the inflows of dollars to Wall Street from around the globe would never be subject capital controls, nor would states be able to create their own currency, but would have to borrow in dollars from the World Bank and the IMF.

And that essentially meant borrowing from the Pentagon and the State Department in U.S. dollars, who ultimately were the system ‘enforcers’, as Professor Hudson notes.

The shift in the U.S. financial system to being an entity that that prioritises ‘real’ assets, such as mortgages and real estate that offer a certain ‘rent’, rather than to invest directly in speculative business ventures, also means that debt jubilees are verboten. (The Greeks can recount the experience of what that entails, in grim detail).

The point is that – at the economic plane – the U.S., hyper-financialised sphere is fast shrinking, as China, Russia and much of the ‘World Island’ turn to trading in their own currencies (and do not buy U.S. Treasuries).

In a ‘war’ of economic systems, America therefore starts on the back foot.

Halford Mackinder argued a century ago that control of the ‘Heartland’, which stretched from the Volga to the Yangtze, would control the ‘World Island’, which was his term for all Europe, Asia and Africa.

Over a century later, Mackinder’s theory resonates as the two leading nations behind the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) transform this into a system of inter-relations from one Eurasian end to another.

It is not so new, of course.

It is simply the revival of the ancient trade-based economy of the Eurasian heartland, which finally was collapsed in the 17^th century.

Alastair Macleod notes that commentators usually fail to understand ‘why’ this flourishing in West Asia is happening:

“It is not due to military superiority, but down to simple economics. 

While the U.S. economy suffers a post-lockdown inflationary outcome and an existential crisis for the dollar – China’s economy will boom on the back of increasing domestic consumption … and increasing exports, the consequence of America’s stimulation of consumer demand and a soaring budget deficit”.

There, explicitly said, is Sun Tzu’s point!

“Opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself”.

There is in Washington (and to an extent in Europe too), a faction entertaining a pathological emotional desire for war with Russia, largely stemming from a conviction that the Tzars (and later Stalin), were anti-Semitic.

Their emotion is one of hatred and anger, yet it is they who largely are responsible for bringing Russia and China together.

This, and America’s proclivity to sanction the world, has given China and Russia their opportunity.

The underlying point however, is that – even for the EU – the Rimland periphery is less important than Mackinder’s World Island.

There was a time when British and then American primacy outweighed its importance – but this may no longer be true.

What is actualizing here is the greatest challenge yet mounted to American economic power and technological supremacy.

Yet this economic Realpolitik is but half the story to China and Russia’s launch of a ‘global resistance economy’. It has a parallel geo-political frame, too.

It is to this latter aspect, most probably, that the Chinese official referred when he said that the Iran deal would…

 “totally upend the prevailing geopolitical landscape in the West Asian region that has for so long been subject to U.S. hegemony”.

Note that he did not say that it would upend Iran’s relations with U.S. or Europe – he said the whole region. He implied too, that China’s initiatives would free West Asia from American hegemony.

How so?

In an interview last week, FM Wang Yi outlined Beijing’s approach to the West Asian region:

“The Middle East was a highland of brilliant civilizations in human history. Yet, due to protracted conflicts and turmoil in the more recent history, the region descended into a security lowland … For the region to emerge from chaos and enjoy stability, it must break free from the shadows of big-power geopolitical rivalry, and independently explore development paths suited to its regional realities. 

It must stay impervious to external pressure and interference, and follow an inclusive and reconciliatory approach to build a security architecture that accommodates the legitimate concerns of all sides … 

Against this backdrop, China wishes to propose a five-point initiative on achieving security and stability in the Middle East:

“Firstly, advocating mutual respect … 

Both sides should uphold the international norm of non-interference in others’ internal affairs.

 … it is particularly important for China and Arab states to stand together against slandering, defamation, interference and pressurizing in the name of human rights … [the EU should take note]

“Second, upholding equity and justice, opposing unilateralism, and defending international justice … 

China will encourage the Security Council to fully deliberate on the question of Palestine to reaffirm the two-state solution … 

We should uphold the UN-centred international system, as well as the international order underpinned by international law – and jointly promote a new type of international relations. We should share governance experience … and oppose arrogance and prejudice.

“Third, achieving non-proliferation … 

Parties need to … discuss and formulate the roadmap and timeframe for the United States and Iran to resume compliance with the JCPOA. 

The pressing task is for the U.S. to take substantive measures to lift its unilateral sanctions on Iran, and long-arm jurisdiction on third parties, and for Iran to resume reciprocal compliance with its nuclear commitments. 

At the same time, the international community should support efforts by regional countries in establishing a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction.

“Fourth, jointly fostering collective security … 

We propose holding in China a multilateral dialogue conference for regional security in the Gulf (Persian Gulf) …

“And fifthly, accelerating development cooperation …”.

Well, China has spectacularly made its entrance in the Middle East, and is challenging the U.S. with a resistance agenda.

FM Wang, when he met with Ali Larijani, special adviser to the Supreme Leader Khamenei, framed it all in a single sentence:

“Iran decides independently on its relations with other countries, and is not like some countries that change their position with one phone call”. 

This single comment encapsulates the new ‘wolf warrior’ ethos: states should stick with their autonomy and sovereignty. 

China is advocating a sovereigntist multilateralism to shake off “the western yoke”.

Wang did not confine this political message to Iran.

He had just said the same in Saudi Arabia, before arriving in Tehran.

It was well received in Riyadh.

In economic development terms, China earlier had linked Turkey and Pakistan into the ‘corridor’ plan – and now Iran.

How will the U.S. react?

Will There Be A Global Resistance Economy?

Wrong question, imo.

If China is nattering about it then it's a fact on the ground.
The question now is "What will the Totalitarian Capitalist do to nip it in the bud?"

One of the reasons advanced for the Iraq Fake War was that Saddam had declared his intention to side-step the US$ in conducting Iraq's oil transactions.

The trouble with China is that it plans ahead in 5-year & 10-year chunks so the idea of a GRE isn't something Xi dreamt up yesterday afternoon. 

If he's nattering about it; it means that all the physical and bureaucratic infrastructure is in place, and is probably already processing transactions.

I wondered why Scum Mo panicked by chopping CGTN off at the socks after hearing about China's 13th People's Congress in early March and assumed it was because his idea of a long-range plan is "Who are we going to screw tomorrow?" or "No, sorry, we're discussing the future and the meeting is Top Secret so you voters/shitkickers aren't invited!"

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Apr 6 2021 20:33 utc | 23

How will the USA react?

It will ignore the message from Anchorage.

It will likely press on.

It is already testing China over Taiwan, and is preparing an escalation in Ukraine, to test Russia.

For the EU, the Chinese entry into global politics is more problematic.

It was trying to leverage its own ‘strategic autonomy’ by erecting European values as the gateway to inclusion into its market and trade partnership.

China effectively is telling the world to reject any such hegemonic imposition of alien values and rights.

The EU is stranded in the midst.

Unlike the U.S., it is precluded from printing the money with which to resurrect its virus-blighted economy.

It desperately needs trade and investment.

Its biggest trading partner, and its tech well-spring, however, has just told the EU (as the U.S.), to give up on its moralising discourse.

At the same time, Europe’s ‘security partner’ has just demanded the opposite – that the EU strengthens it.

What’s to be done?

Sit back, and watch … (with fingers crossed that no one does something extremely stupid).

China, in turn, was definitely 3rd world when the Qing dynasty fell. 40 years of "capitalism" did nothing whatsoever to improve China's economy. And even at the beginning of Deng's "market" reforms, China was a very different place - economically and infrastructurally - than it was in 1949.

What Crooke writes about is exactly what Hudson has repeatedly spoken to: the original goal for economists was reform. Reform of economies away from the stranglehold of feudal/aristocratic rentiers towards economic goals that benefit everyone. The feudal/aristocratic interests have only been replaced by banksters - and thus the Russia/China/Iran response is as much defensive as it is reform. They're being attacked politically and economically by the bankster classes because all 3 of those nations have, in the recent past, booted out their oligarchs.

Russia booted out its aristocrats in 1917 then Putin brought the "privatization" oligarchs to heel 2000-2006.

China booted out its capitalist/warlord oligarchs in 1949, then booted out the socialist bureaucrats in the 1980s.

Iran booted out both its king and British American oil interests in 1979.

Is it any wonder these nations are hated and feared by the banksters worldwide? And their existence gleefully used to justify outrageous sums spent on "defense" by the MIC profiteers?

Posted by: c1ue | Apr 7 2021 16:56 utc | 91

Conclusions and some thoughts

What is going on now is historic. It’s not a matter of one nation fighting another. Instead an entire way of doing things is being up-ended. China has shown the way, and it is no wonder that the United States is blocking videos out of China, and news out of China, and whenever it discusses anything about China it is so darn negative.

Look at America today.

EVERYTHING is for profit. Everything. From drinking water, to getting arrested for having too much money inside your wallet. Even Adobe has changed from…

"Save PDF as..." 

to 

"Save PDF as long as you have a "membership" just pay this monthly fee...

For a fee, don’t you know.

People! This is all FUCKED UP!

China’s way of doing things is WORKING.

America is nearly 30 trillion dollars in debt. That’s an impossible number. If you mined all the gold on the entire planet, you would never have this kind of money.

How can this situation arise?

But creating debt out of “thin air”; out of nothing. And that has been the pyramid scheme for all these many, many decades. People who make nothing, and provides no services end up being fantastically engorged with wealth, while those who make and create things, and provide tangible services end up in poverty or as debt slaves.

It’s not a sustainable model.

In the mean time we must re-organize our societies and get rid of the parasites that try to end our world even before the next big asteroid. What China and Russia is doing is clearly the way forward.

I think however "capitalism" and "socialism" is 20th century vocabulary of limited relevance in the present situation. It is not "left" vs. "right" anymore (if it ever was).

Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 6 2021 20:43 utc | 24

China, a nation of meritocracy understands this.

And so you are seeing the result…

The wealthy oligarchy, sitting on top of their big imaginary fortunes are demanding that the world engage in a hot (probably nuclear) war rather than they succumb to the ultimate reality that is approaching “on the tracks”. Indeed it’s going to be one fuck of a “train wreck”.

Is the greater public ever going to get a clear view of the difference behind the "rules based order" of the West (we own the money system and make the rules) and the negotiated International law based order?

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 20 2021 17:05 utc | 4

And the rest of the world is starting to jump on the “bandwagon” and trade in their own currencies backed in solid tangible items. Those nations that will refuse to do so will see their piles of money evaporate in value. And thus a great economic explosion is looming in the future, and the ONLY means to prevent it is for the Untied States to nuke the fuck out of Asia.

We will see what will happen.

That is my take as well. Plus the message that China possesses an incredible sense of social solidarity and flexibility. The switches in production to meet emergency pandemic components from masks to complex ventilators to food distribution chains - that is an extraordinary tale of a great civilisation facing an immense stress test and emerging wiser and stronger.

Most interesting is the synchronicity between the small and large capitalist sector with the public sector. THAT is the economy that the west was deluded into abandoning and still detests and undermines with every ounce of its effort.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 7 2021 5:40 utc | 72

I for one welcome a world without all those psychopathic leeches charging fees and taxes and regulations on everything that you do. It was totally refreshing when I moved to China, and those who have never had this experience is in for an amazing ride!

Good for Iran; and China, Russia, and Asia will benefit as well.

My main fear is a wounded USA over reacting itself into a war...

A bully usually needs a good whupping to stop bullying; in the case of the US, it may bring out the worst, to avoid losing face on the world's stage.
...and yes; they're that sick, IMHO...

The positive in all this is that, I believe, both Russia and China know the US better than the US knows them...

Posted by: V | Apr 7 2021 6:06 utc | 76

The main objective of China’s Government is the rejuvenation of China.

In part demonstrably evidenced by the determined efforts made for the betterment and the well-being of its population.

Which is reflected in the credibility and high level of trust the Chinese people place in their government. 

These concepts don’t exist in the west. 

In the US, the “world’s model for everything”, a virus epidemic is seen through lenses of profiteering by large corporations.

With sick people not being humans in need of assistance but merely a new lucrative “market” – for those with money to pay. 

An American hospital is not a place for healing the sick but a kind of barnyard filled with cash cows to milk. 

This is one fundamental reason underlying America’s chaotic and hopeless approach to dealing with the epidemic.  

For some years now I've been looking for a decent currency to live my life with. We seem much closer now with the Digital Yuan. And as you say, if somehow it were banned by the world and refused exchange in other currencies (which seems impossible even to imagine), I'd be happy to cash it all in within China.

Bitcoin never became a currency - it may or may not end up highly priced at a collector's value but it seems improbable that it could settle enough to become a usable mainstream currency. It could be a wealthy person's trading counter, perhaps. But like all such tokens, it remains vulnerable to fads.

But I don't want to leave my last word with bitcoin. The last word, quite possibly for the entire world, may well rest with the Yuan.

Posted by: Grieved | Apr 7 2021 1:57 utc | 55

Socialism does not mean the government owns everything.

It means the government owns the things that everybody NEEDS to have work well. Those things you don't want some needy jerk exploiting to make themselves rich or powerful with. 

And those socialized things should be at nominal cost or free, to enable EVERYBODY to do their best in life. 

If you want your culture and society (as a whole) to do well, you have to enable them with all the necessities. 

You can have either "unproductive parasites" or you can have "a healthy body politic", not both.

Posted by: Bemildred | Apr 6 2021 20:32 utc | 22

To all the others who have read or are interested in the summation by Larry Romanoff over at the Saker called, Dealing With Demons.

It's a lengthy review of the coronavirus as it hit China and the world. It's basically a forensic report on 2020, with about 160 footnotes to media and authority sources - the piece itself is a reference to bookmark, and the stories linked are probably a world of fascination.

For those of us intensely following the situation, many of the facts and summaries presented are not new, but everyone will find something previously unknown in Romanoff's magisterial story.

And it is a story, immensely readable, merely long - so make coffee or pour a drink and find a quiet hour, and there in that mere one hour you will have the real story of 2020, and the true picture of China.

~~

One thing - I had originally heard the translation of Xi's rallying call to action as the virus being a "Devil", not a Demon. The obvious connection seemed compelling with the "foreign devils" that plundered China of old and that still at every opportunity now attempt to exploit it. Maybe it's a nothing, maybe it's everything, in China's response of total mobilization, as if under attack. Romanoff doesn't go there, although he may have in earlier reports of this pandemic that he has dealt with so well (he's had great articles on the pandemic at Unz).

~~

For me, the venality and mean-spiritedness of the US establishment becomes so clear that I have to correct a previous speculation I made recently. I wondered - here in these threads, I think - if the hardening of Chinese diplomatic language was somewhat calculated and aimed at preparing its own nation for military conflict with the US.

But I see now from Romanoff's report the extraordinary effort made by the Chinese people to help the US, in the spirit of goodness, even as the US media was being fed the lies to demonize China, and to turn the US populace into a majority population that hates China.

And the Chinese people are well aware of this. And now that the dust has settled for them, it is a clear picture for them to reflect on regarding the US and say, "fuck 'em - never again will we help those people."

So the real change came first, as the Chinese nation opened its heart to the US, and was trashed and slandered in return. 

And the Chinese diplomatic language is simply reflecting the overall feeling of 1.4 billion citizens of this planet who now understand with great finality that the US is beyond the pale.

Posted by: Grieved | Apr 7 2021 4:38 utc | 68