Why Are These Anti-Russian And Anti-Chinese Narratives So Similar?

October 29, 2020

After more than four years of Russiagate we finally learn (paywalled original) where the Steele dossier allegations about nefarious relations between Trump and Russia came from:

A Wall Street Journal investigation provides an answer: a 40-year-old Russian public-relations executive named Olga Galkina fed notes to a friend and former schoolmate who worked for Mr. Steele. The Journal relied on interviews, law-enforcement records, declassified documents and the identification of Ms. Galkina by a former top U.S. national security official.

In 2016, Ms. Galkina was working in Cyprus at an affiliate of XBT Holding SA, a web-services company best known for its Webzilla internet hosting unit. XBT is owned by Russian internet entrepreneur Aleksej Gubarev.

That summer, she received a request from an employee of Mr. Steele to help unearth potentially compromising information on then-presidential candidate Donald Trump ’s links to Russia, according to people familiar with the matter. Ms. Galkina was friends with the employee, Igor Danchenko, since their school days in Perm, a Russian provincial city near the Ural mountains.

Ms. Galkina often came drunk to work and eventually got fired by her company. She took revenge by alleging that the company and its owner Gubarev were involved in the alleged hacking of the Democratic National Committee. A bunch of other false allegations in the dossier were equally based on Ms. Galkina's fantasies.

Mark Ames @MarkAmesExiled – 18:39 UTC · Oct 28, 2020

So the Steele Dossier that kicked off 4 years of Russiagate hysteria among the US ruling class was cooked up by two Russian alcoholics from Perm. “Gogolesque” does not begin to describe the grotesque credulity & stupidity of the American elites.

The tales in the dossier were real disinformation from Russians but not 'Russian disinformation' of the American Newspeak variant.

The FBI, and others involved, knew very early on that the Steele dossier was a bunch of lies. But the issue was kept in the public eyes by continues leaks of additional nonsense. All this was to press Trump to take more and more anti-Russian measures which he did with unprecedented generosity. The accusations about a Trump-Russia connection were the 'Russia bad' narrative that pressed and allowed Trump to continue the anti-Russian policies of the Obama/Biden administration.

A similar string of continuous policies from the Obama/Biden administration's 'Pivot to Asia' and throughout the four years of Trump is the anti-China campaign.

We now hear a lot about Hunter and Joe Biden's corrupt deals with Chinese entities. These accusations come with more evidence and are far more plausible than the stupid Steele dossier claims. Their importance is again twofold. They will be used to press a potential President Joe Biden to act against China but they will primarily be used to intensify a public anti-China narrative that creates public support for such policies.

As Caitlin Johnstone points out:

I don’t know how or at what level, but we are being played. A narrative is being aggressively rammed down our throats about China in exactly the same way it was being aggressively rammed down our throats about Russia four years ago; two unabsorbed nations the US government has long had plans to attack and undermine.

Russiagate was never really about Trump. It was never about his campaign staff meeting with Russians, it was never about a pee tape, it was never about an investigation into any kind of hidden loyalties to the Kremlin. Russiagate was about narrative managing the United States into a new cold war with Russia with the ultimate target being its far more powerful ally China, and ensuring that Trump played along with that agenda.
…
If Biden gets in we can expect the same thing: a president who advances escalations against both Russia and China while being accused of the other party of being soft on China. Both parties will have their foot on the gas toward brinkmanship with a nuclear-armed nation, with no one’s foot anywhere near the brakes.

It is thus assured that the verbal attacks on China, the search for new anti-China allies like the Hindu-fascist India and the dangerous weaponizing of Taiwan will all continue under a Biden administration.

Posted by b on October 29, 2020 at 15:30 UTC | Permalink

Comments

We’ll assume this post’s title is a rhetorical question. But if not, well a ‘war economy’, in which the USA has been mired for 80 some years, needs fear/threat/enemies to perpetuate its existence. This is the time when Oceania is in battle against both Eurasia and Eastasia. But no worries, WWIII is bad for business and when it comes down to it the profit motive will beat out ideology every time.

Posted by: gottlieb | Oct 29 2020 15:44 utc | 1

I disagree with the notion that a cloud is being arranged over a Biden Presidency.
IMO what is being arranged is a strengthened Trump Presidency. A quiet transition from “people’s hero” to “Glorious Leader”.
I predict that Trump wins the election by a landslide. Including winning the popular vote.
A strong, popular leader is instrumental to USA/Empire’s Cold War against Russia/China. Especially if this Cold War turns hot.
!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Oct 29 2020 15:46 utc | 2

I don’t lump China with Russia, the internal/external conditions of those two countries are so vastly different.
We should never have considered Russia a threat after it ceded it’s vast network of satellite countries. It has a stable population in a vastly under utilized landmass.
China on the other hand is still in a territorial acquisition spree; it’s over-populated and it’s landmass is over-utilized.

Posted by: S Brennan | Oct 29 2020 15:50 utc | 3

National Endowment for Democracy narrative managers setting up shop in Taiwan (maybe replacing their moribund Hong Kong offices).
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4040275
This allegedly in response to the “increasingly aggressive campaign by the Chinese Communist Party to violate the global rules-based order.”
Is it “liberal rules-based order” in the West and “global rules-based order” in the provinces?

Posted by: jayc | Oct 29 2020 15:54 utc | 4

thanks b… the usa is a nation that can’t seem to change its basic stance which is one of demanding it rules the world, telling everyone else on the planet what to do and how to behave… that seems to be the extent of usa foreign policy… perhaps this is more wall st and the military industrial complex demanding it, then ordinary americans… either way, the result is the same, chasing after money via war and preparation for war.. protecting the supremacy of the us$ is an important part of it too.. i would like to think rationally analyzing it as you’re trying to do would help… but frankly i think the usa is beyond help at this point…

Posted by: james | Oct 29 2020 16:00 utc | 5

““Gogolesque” does not begin to describe the grotesque credulity & stupidity of the American elites.”
Not at all. The “elites” know what’s going on; it’s being done for their benefit, after all. It’s the “normals” who are being sheared of the little wool left on our backs. Just one more true grand larceny before the whole thing falls apart. And for this we need a real enemy. From the great Antiwar.com:
https://news.antiwar.com/2020/10/28/raytheon-ceo-the-idea-that-biden-would-cut-defense-spending-is-ridiculous/

Posted by: Caliman | Oct 29 2020 16:04 utc | 6

There are two difference between China-gate and Russia-gate here.
1. The China allegations about the Bidens are as true as the Ukraine ones are or the Russia ones are or the MBNA ones were or many other Biden allegations are.
Trump’s Russia-gate stories are only a small part of a mass black PR attempt on Russia going on over more than a decade. See the daft reporting on the Socchi games, the daft sports drugs campaign, the Skripals, MH17, the whole thing.
2. Russia-gate was in no ones special interest except the MIC and Nato (threatened with the competing idea of a European defence force which has been an active but low key proposal for the same period).
China-gate is in the interest of pretty much the whole of the US economy. Unless you believe that the US has the diplomatic skills to live in parallel with a superior economy, you have to accept that preventing China from gaining superiority is the only feasibly US policy.
Russia-gates were always unnecessary. China-gates make perfect sense.

Posted by: Michael Droy | Oct 29 2020 16:06 utc | 7

It’s like living in a “B” movie. Probably many of the same sorts of people behind it too. The lack of imagination and knowledge in these propaganda narratives tells you a lot about the mediocrities behind them. In considering these US foreign policy excesses, real and imagined, I keep thinking at some point reality is going to raise its ugly head and Washington will collapse in a puddle of spite. I expect the next adminstration to be overwhelmed by its domestic problems, along with quite a few other countries. I look at what is going on in Western societies today and I think of the movie Brazil.

Posted by: Bemildred | Oct 29 2020 16:10 utc | 8

I think this stuff will matter more if Trump wins than if Biden wins. (I’m thinking 3:2 odds in favor of Biden, by the way).
If Biden wins, Republicans will make a lot of noise, but that’s about it. Without a huge majority of Congress, they can’t do even what little token effects Democrats had to “stop Trump”. Then, whenever Harris takes over, she can just distance herself from the whole thing.
If Trump wins, however, the flag humpers in the administration will have the ammunition they need in the fight over Russiagate. Not to shut it down, but to take control of it for their own political ends, and perhaps take down someone famous in the media and intimidate the rest – in a replay of the post-9/11 Bush era (not that it ever stopped). So you can thank Democrats for handing them the setup to do all that, not to mention for nominating Biden, if that is the path we take.
More realistically, Trump still loses, but Dems might fail to get an effective majority in the Senate (something like a 51-49 majority might not be enough in practice, because the most conservative Democrats in the Senate vote Republican half the time.). Again it makes no difference for foreign policy, but it could really change how the country responds to economic hardship, now baked in due to the virus.

Posted by: ptb | Oct 29 2020 16:17 utc | 9

The MIC needs a Cold War to boost military expenditure. The bigger the boogeyman the more money will be spent the more profits will be generated.
They don’t want a hot war as all those profits are meaningless if you are reduced to ashes.
The last thing the MIC can afford is for peace and goodwill amongst nations to break out. There is absolutely no profit in that.
Eisenhower warned against the rise of the MIC for this very reason. If war is profitable then to keep generating more profits you need to keep on generating more wars.

Posted by: Down South | Oct 29 2020 16:28 utc | 10

Don’t worry about the gibbering globetrotting genocidal Gujarati gangster government of Narendrabhai Damodardasbhai Modi in India. Its staggering incompetence is so extreme that nobody has anything to fear from it… except Indians. As the economy continues to implode, unemployment soars, the population explodes, global warming ravages the land, and disaffection grows exponentially, the Gujarati genocidaire only cares about further enriching his corporate owners Mukeshbhai Dhirubhai Ambani and Gautambhai Shantilalbhai Adani, who are Gujaratis just like him. A total coincidence, of course!

Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Oct 29 2020 16:37 utc | 11

A strong, popular leader is instrumental to USA/Empire’s Cold War against Russia/China. Especially if this Cold War turns hot.

Jackrabbit @ 2
This made me chuckle. US is not a country to produce one of those, even during their “golden” years of WW2. If there happens to be one in the making, they usually quietly or not so quietly dispose of them (see JFK).

Posted by: Abe | Oct 29 2020 16:50 utc | 12

I disagree with b on using the Biden’s corrupt deal with China to leverage an anti-China stance in a potential Biden-admin.
I chalk it up to b not fully grasping how horrifically corrupt are not only the Dim estab but also those that in the population that could vote him in.
Check any anti-Trump news outlet for a whisper about the Biden’s dealings with the Chinese. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Nary a whistle. No reporting.
They are trying to bury this story. For b to say that these same outlet will somehow flip and fall-in-line with the anti-Chinese stance, it is an interesting stretch.
More likely Biden and the Dims will continue to shrug their shoulders, claim there is nothing there, there, and end the protectionist policy of Trump re: China.
You can keep selling stuff to Taiwan, but the insidious creep of the CCP into Hong Kong indicates that the CCP is willing to take the long road and game without a hot-conflict.
Although I admit it is difficult to predict what will go on with Taiwan ina Biden admin, I am fairly certain that Biden will do what he said and end the protectionist policies of Trump.
Which is a shame, because I can get behind this American-first economic policy while still believing that Taiwan is probably still at the mercy of China’s greater ambitions.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Oct 29 2020 16:55 utc | 13

Trump proposed to ally with Russia against China. MAGA clearly implies the US was, is weakening, one way out (classical) is to ally (perhaps only lightly) with one of the other two strong powers. This was total anathema to part of the PTB, mostly represented (officially) by Dems. An all-out attack on Trump thus took place (before he was elected, because all was known) as a stooge for Russia, etc. Russia 3x, Russiagate, all of it clumsily made-up rubbish.
Surely now with Hunter’s lap-top and the exposé of Biden-China ties (pay to play at the highest level, potentially billions, not minor corruption chicken-sh*t..) it is possible to grasp that one faction of what some call the Deep State is more pro-China…i.e. the aspirations towards that type of society (I leave that aspect aside ..) and the opportunities for money extraction / deals – see tech etc. / also sales (MIC, etc.) favor China. The noise about Chinese incursions (Tibet, sea.. etc.), Chinese human-rights violations (Uighurs, etc.), and the OBOR initiative have always been somewhat glancing…more pro-forma than anything else..
It was the ‘Dem’ faction of the duopoly, Obiman + Biden who ‘did’ Ukraine, an anti-Russian move (on the face of it. Perhaps it was just an extraction scheme, Mafia style. Of course they had the keen involvement of Germany and support from France.)
I have boiled down complex issues to just one “narrative arc”, a simplification if you will, I am aware there is much more to it all…
Question. There is a well-know board on which sit, amongst many others:
Mary T. Barra (CEO Gen. Mot.)
Carlos Ghosn (Renault etc.)
H. Kruger (BMW)
Elon Musk
Henry Paulson
Lloyd Blankfein
Laurence Fink (Blackrock)
M. L. Corbat (Citigroup)
Tim Cook
Michael Dell (Dell co.)
S. Nadella (Microsoft)
answer:
https://www.sem.tsinghua.edu.cn/en/aboutsem/advMem.html
Here is the Board of Trustees of Moscow University, Lavrov in first place:
https://english.mgimo.ru/basic-facts/board-of-trustees
I believe such minor examples are quite telling.
Yes the elites know what is going on. (Caliman 6)

Posted by: Noirette | Oct 29 2020 17:11 utc | 14

IMO, the current Imperial policy goals of the Outlaw US Empire will continue regardless who wins. IMO, the ultimate question is if the Empire has enough power to continue on its current track. As most know, I see a drowning empire trying to disrupt the rapid rise of two strategically bound nations and those allied with them. China just finished planning and publishing its 14th 5-year plan. This Global Times editorial is supremely confidant for good reason:
“The fifth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee is leading the country forward. China has the capital and ability to do so. In this turbulent world, the meeting has provided a practical and significant guide for our direction, goal and tactics. Despite the many problems, China’s political philosophy can constantly generate positive energy to solve the problems, instead of letting the problems crush positive energy.
“At the moment, China is facing the most problems and challenges. However, the country is also the most confident now. Other countries have posed many difficulties, but they provide reference and proof that we are doing better. As the world suffers from shrinking demand and negative growth, we are demanding real and comprehensive growth to realize new achievements in six areas. The country is self-driven.” [My Emphasis]
It’s been announced that “The 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) will hold a press conference Friday to introduce the guiding principles of its fifth plenary session.”
Here are two important articles related to China’s next phase that demand reading, “China sets ‘pragmatic’ targets through 2035; and “CPC vows to grasp opportunities amid major strategic [development] period”. I intend to use these and other items in a follow up to the article I wrote in anticipation of China’s new phase while recapping the one just concluded.
As for Russia’s direction, that was very clearly mapped out by Putin and Lavrov’s recent Valdai Club speeches and Q & A sessions and other interviews over the past ten days or so. Compared to the drowning Outlaw US Empire, China and Russia combine to offer the world two not so different examples that are clearly superior to Neoliberal Parasitism. And the longstanding Imperial edict of the Outlaw US Empire saying no threat of a better example can be allowed to exist forms the basis for the confrontation. However, it’s no longer just China and Russia that provide such threats as a majority of the world’s nations want to join Win-Win and scupper Zero-sum. So the already joined contest between two differing ideological blocs will escalate until the drowning Outlaw US Empire finds it no longer possess the power to dominate outside its borders, but will still have its domestic populace to exploit until they too revolt.

Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 29 2020 17:16 utc | 15

The similarities are there, except that Trump’s investigation had not one document of compromat even after 3 years, whilst Biden’s already has many from day 1.
Yes, the deepstate attacks Russia from the left, and China from the right, but this does not imply that members of the body politic are not subservient to either side, ever.
Only that Trump was never a Russian stooge, nor did they ever hold compromising documents over him, whilst Biden seems the Cleon of the modern age, that his business partners say he is. Is this compromat? Maybe, but at the very least this is graft. And that should be enough to send him into the gutter.

Posted by: Ilya G Poimandres | Oct 29 2020 17:27 utc | 16

This is a good report as is usually the case here at MoA. Yet, there is nothing really new in this at all other than the details of how the Western empire goes about enforcing its will on the world.
Sense August 6, 1945 the Imperial policy has been “Global full spectrum domination.” and to that end it was determined that Russia and China were to be considered one enemy and must be attacked simultaneously.
In the 75 years sense that date when the Western empire declared the world belonged to it and it alone to rule the Western empire has slaughtered innocent people across the globe tens of millions of them, additionally in the last 20 years alone the Western empire has displaced over 37 million people, kicked them out of their homes destroyed their towns and communities. For 75 years non stop slaughter of innocent people.
Western Liberal Democracy and indeed Western civilization itself is an utter and contemptible failure irredeemable in any form which we might recognize as “democracy’

Posted by: Babyl-on | Oct 29 2020 17:32 utc | 17

“China on the other hand is still in a territorial acquisition spree; it’s over-populated and it’s landmass is over-utilized…” S Brennan@3
Could you, perhaps, tell us the name of any territory acquired by China in the last 300 years? To describe China as being on a “territorial acquisition spree” you will have to produce some evidence.

Posted by: bevin | Oct 29 2020 17:39 utc | 18

re @17
Try 200 years: the mid C18th was indeed a period in which China expanded westwards. Since about 1780 however China was subjected to an uninterrupted series of imperialist landgrabs.

Posted by: bevin | Oct 29 2020 17:54 utc | 19

On an slightly off-topic but relevant sidebar regarding the ongoing stupidity of the neo-cons and the Merchants of Death, shortly after Putin’s remarks regarding tending the planet earlier this week, (which in IMHO is huge coming from one so dependent on oil and gas production), the Guardian posted an article on October 27 on the new methane eruptions in the Laptev Sea in the Arctic. These are the type of eruptions forecast by Natalia Shakova in 2013, that she predicted could end in extinction. My hunch is that these two events are related.
There are some band-aids to partially remedy methane eruptions involving the increasing the albedo of the Arctic as ice continues it’s decline and the water heats up from non-reflected sunlight. (See Peter Wadham’s “Farewell to Ice” for the math). One such remedy currently in favor is Marine Cloud Brightening. The total cost of such a project may be sizable, due to it’s scale.
My question to our neo-con friends: How are we supposed to develop a coordinated effort to save human civilization when we are busy making enemies to more than 50% of the same?
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/oct/27/sleeping-giant-arctic-methane-deposits-starting-to-release-scientists-find

Posted by: Michael | Oct 29 2020 17:56 utc | 20

@ Posted by: NemesisCalling | Oct 29 2020 16:55 utc | 12
Oh, you’re still talking like you’re in control of your country? How cute.
–//–
I had already warned here that the NY Post was clearly an anti-China fake news tabloid. Their aim was to make the China (Hong Kong) connection with the Bidens viralize – not the Ukrainian ties one. We can deduce that by the fact the HK-ties leak came first (the day before) and Hong Kong becomes “China” in their headlines (the Hongkonger mogul has distant ties with a Mainland corporation, but the link is indirect).
But, alas, the USA’s pressure on the propaganda front is a sign of weakness, not strength. The keyword here is: escalation. Can the West escalate from a propaganda warfare to a conventional warfare? During WWII, it was self-evident: the American elites produced anti-Nazi propaganda but the means to wage war in Europe were already there. That’s not the case with China, or, for that matter, Russia today.
The same thing can be told about Europe: their anti-China propaganda can only serve to save their governments’ asses on their failure in dealing with the pandemic, but not to really retaliate against China. You honestly don’t expect Western Europeans to conscript en masse to go to war against China, do you?
Propaganda warfare can only do so much. After that point, either it materializes into kinetic warfare or it backfires on the government that initiated it in the form of demoralization (crisis of legitimacy, crisis of sovereignty). Soft power has not feet: it only projects your hegemony as long as it is on a very solid pedestal made of economic prosperity and military might – otherwise, it is just a legless cripple begging for money on the streets of London and New York.

Posted by: vk | Oct 29 2020 18:10 utc | 21

I seriously doubt this impacts a Biden presidency simply because it will soon morph into the Harris presidency. The India vs China might be the play here. I know she grew up in Canada, her dad comes from a wealthy Jamaican family, and her Indian mother raised her. So what exactly are her allegiances is anyone guess. Mine is political donors. As for the deep state, if their same old stick works, why change it up?

Posted by: Old and Grumpy | Oct 29 2020 18:15 utc | 22

Abe @Oct29 16:50 #11

This made me chuckle.

My thesis is testable to some degree. A Trump landslide (as I’m predicting) will indicate that my thesis has merit.
Do you have a counter-prediction? Are you expecting a Biden win?
!!

Posted by: Jackrabbit | Oct 29 2020 18:16 utc | 23

@ Posted by: bevin | Oct 29 2020 17:54 utc | 18
If you want to go back 200+ years in the past, then China is not the only expansionist menace. You have the USA itself (expansion to the West), France, UK, Germany, Belgium, Japan, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Poland, Russia…

Posted by: vk | Oct 29 2020 18:17 utc | 24

Slightly related:
Glenn Greenwald wrote a piece critical of Joe Biden. The Intercept rejected to publish it (thereby breaking its contract with GG). Greenwald finally leaves:
My Resignation From The Intercept
The same trends of repression, censorship and ideological homogeneity plaguing the national press generally have engulfed the media outlet I co-founded, culminating in censorship of my own articles.

Posted by: b | Oct 29 2020 18:18 utc | 25

Why do media corporations put out remake after remake of popular movies? Is it because they lack imagination, or is it that audiences prefer the familiar.
They use the same war propaganda time after time because the audience falls for it more easily if they’ve heard it before.
I agree with Michael, however, that we are in dire planetary straits at this point.
Apparently, our ruling overlords are putting in a Hail Mary plan to slow down the destruction of the ecosystem. I don’t believe that it is the virus that made them screech the brakes on the global economy back in March. They have a plan to reset and scale back consumption.
We all knew it couldn’t last forever, anyway, right?

Posted by: wagelaborer | Oct 29 2020 18:22 utc | 26

I’m not so sure about the overall conclusions, instead I’m sidetracked by the attempt to whitewash Russiagate. I guess they finally figured out they had to come up with some kind of lame excuse to brush it off.
“It wasn’t me! It was some crazy drunk Russian woman from Perm! She was angry!”
Well that explains everything. They must have been so scared 😀
Because that’s what people do when they get fired isn’t it? Instead of getting a new job (or drinking a bit more, or sliding down the slippery slope of society) they make up and tell stories about politicians in other countries. Not to blackmail anyone, oh no, only to try to tarnish the reputation of the old boss to get revenge. Stuff like this is why watching soap operas (including “Friends”) is bad for you 🙂
“We need a scapegoat but we don’t have any good ones available right now, however someone we know has an aunt in Perm who will do anything for money”
It still doesn’t make sense but now instead of a problem that doesn’t make sense they have a solution that doesn’t make sense. They probably threw a party to celebrate how smart they were.

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Oct 29 2020 18:23 utc | 27

“A narrative is being aggressively rammed down our throats about China”: I usually respect Caitlin’s work a lot but how does this jive with the MSM and Techno-platforms desperate attempts to block all circulation of anything to do with the Biden corruption scandals? Digging deeper into these issues is toxic not just for Biden, but for a significant segment of the neoliberal elite.
The economic elites need time to decouple their profits from China before any real head-to-head battle commences, Biden (or Kamala) will bark a lot but bite much less given the probable wealth-vaporization of increased hostilities with China.
P.S. the number of COVID cases in Sweden is exploding, so to quote one of my favourite movie reviewers (The Critical Drinker) can the Sweden trolls please “just go away now”.

Posted by: Roger | Oct 29 2020 18:25 utc | 28

Noirette | Oct 29 2020 17:11 utc | 13
Interesting 1st list, I noticed Zuckerberg at the bottom. Seems they have all sides covered, even censorship and social intercommunication.
——-
I also notice that “the usual regime change bis”, does not exclude a shooting war in China. Who will fight the Chinese ? Why, all those submissive EU and US “covided” people will now be slimmed down, the infirm and feeble eliminated, and have virtually no other alternative to hunger, movement restrictions and boredom – than joining an army. Dissent is followed by an indefinite internement camp until they change their minds.
Those that consider themselves part of “The Ultimate Cats Whiskers” cannot pretend that they have any part of Chinese ancestory in their makeup. Physically impossible, or rather the physical differences cannot be hidden easily. So the only way for the “Evilites” to gain control is by elimination or submission of all alternative groups. (In this case it would entail ethnic cleansing or brainwashing of the leadership).
I think both the Russian and the Chinese have come to the same conclusion, that there is a war of survival over the long term going on. A shooting war is – for the Chinese, just another skirmish in a multi-generational effort. Something that has been devalorised for the EU masses, but not for the “Evilites”. (The powerful “first” families and tribes are already in control since many generations.)
I think that the US is trying to use it’s numerical advantage (Nukes() while the window of “opportunity” is still there. All the while changing the nature of their explosives to cut down on fallout. As an aside – in all those questions of “START2” and arms control, nobody questions why the 400 -+? nukes that Israel has are not included.
.

Posted by: Stonebird | Oct 29 2020 18:29 utc | 29

@bevin | Oct 29 2020 17:54 utc | 18
If Brennan means Taiwan, it has 4 times the population density of China. And of course HK is much higher.
Perhaps he is accusing China of some kind of neo-colonial hegemony over neighboring countries (although they are mostly already hegemonized by the USA).

Posted by: Keith McClary | Oct 29 2020 18:31 utc | 30

@26 roger
Yes, I agree.
b seems to think that selling arms to Taiwan somehow will outcompete all the western traitors begging to do business in China. This is a yuge slice of the pie when it comes to economic outward policy and is likely to outweigh the needs of the MIC in Taiwan.
Biden has said he will drop the protectionist policy re: int’l trade.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Oct 29 2020 18:31 utc | 31

bevin @17 – your response is right on. China has not (akin to Iran) been bounding around even its region grabbing “territory” or insisting on its dominance. I think the Brennan @3 is confusing Japan (and the US-UK) with China.
james @ 5 – YEP.
On NPR (only MSM I have contact with and that reluctantly – but hey, have to have an idea about what the latest, ongoing Newspeak the general pop is being fed, albeit that I yell at the radio [my late husband is surely happy he doesn’t have to hear that] frequently)I’ve heard all but zilch about “China gate” (the emails etc making clear that the Bidens were knee deep in more $$$-shit). But the Russia did it theme never ever ends.
So too the now constant threnody (!) of Chinese (govt) “Agression” – in the, guess what, South China Sea. Ummm – isn’t that in China’s Back Yard? And what of the USA warships/military bases/missiles/military aircraft and on and on in that very region???? And there was I thinking that the atlas shows that the USA is thousands of miles (land or nautical, matters not) from the South China Sea. What of US Aggression there? Why is it STILL occupying Japan (Okinawa, actually)?? South Korea???
An small and interesting piece on Chinese investment yesterday (I think…time has no meaning now) in Colombia. A Metro (underground/subway) is being built in Bogota by the Chinese. The Colombians have, apparently wanted such for a long time…but no one (least of all the Yanks) has wanted to help them achieve this aim (less petroleum sold?). Until now.
But as one might guess from the deeply USian NPR (and deeply entwined with the Blue Faces of the Janus party) propaganda machine, any such Chinese investment in any country – and in the US Monroe Doctrine backyard – is decidedly dodgy. Colombians will be – they say – up to their eyeballs in debt..to the Chinese. Ummm – as if the World Bank and IMF are any better, indeed one might posit that they are worse.
Frankly, the west – all of it but most particularly the US/UK/FR and IS (not west but derivatively yes) – need to mind their own business; stop interfering in other countries societies, cultures, governments; stop killing, destroying, dominating other peoples in other countries. Just stop. And then defund their “MIC” top to bottom and use the funds to take care of their own peoples, societies.

Posted by: Anne | Oct 29 2020 18:39 utc | 32

Jackrabbit @ 22
I don’t argue popularity, but strength. Trump is a weakling, both as a person and as a president IMO.
US presidential system won’t allow true leaders but puppets (or easily manipulated persons), it is all I’m saying. Do we need more than last 4 years of Trump’s reign as a proof?

Posted by: Abe | Oct 29 2020 18:39 utc | 33

Old and Grumpy – You are right on. Biden is not the intended president: Harris is and for all of the even wrong-er reasons. (Were that possible.)

Posted by: Anne | Oct 29 2020 18:44 utc | 34

vk @23 – It would seem that you have misread bevin. He does not say (write) that China has been busy gobbling up – or trying to – the countries around it. Actually history points to quite other, as bevin hinted at. It is China that was invaded, controlled – drug cartel-wise by the Brits – also invaded and controlled by the US, French and Japanese (all brutally).

Posted by: Anne | Oct 29 2020 18:48 utc | 35

Because the U.S. public is close to brain dead We can’t detect obvious lies no matter how brazen.
Let’s suppose I told you something was absolutely true and I literally started out by saying, ‘Once upon a time there was an evil stepmother …’. Or I told you about about a villainous neighbor while literally playing a sad song on a violin.
I do not consider myself a genius, in fact I was a neocon but good God, I could just tell I was being lied to just by the pattern of the stories. I didn’t know what the truth was but I knew they were lying.
A doozy with FOX promoting genocide against Iran
FOX news does a story about the terrorist attack in France and in the very next segment without any commercial breaks they interview a Congressman about Iran. Now they did not say Iran was responsible but clearly this was a puppet show to make just that association. In addition to the standard blood libel, the Congressman talked about a tweet the Ayatollah made in 2014, so it was not as if there even was any newsworthy item to discuss about Iran. It was just to frame them for something they did not do.

Posted by: Christian J. Chuba | Oct 29 2020 18:48 utc | 36

“It is thus assured that the verbal attacks on China, the search for new anti-China allies like the Hindu-fascist India and the dangerous weaponizing of Taiwan will all continue under a Biden administration.”
Can this now be taken as an admission that in the medium term Tronald’s foreign policy is just as warmongering as that of the representatives of the other Janus face of the u.s. one-party system?

Posted by: pnyx | Oct 29 2020 19:15 utc | 37

@Posted by: Noirette | Oct 29 2020 17:11 utc | 13
MGIMO, if I am not wrong, is not Moscow University, which is more or less public one, but the school of IR and Government.
Thanks for bringing in to my attention the “Board of Trustees”, since I would had never taken the trouble to look for.
I found myself at certain point valuing that it would be interesting studying at MGIMO, by its international recognized quality/prestige ( no need to know Russian since they teach in English, having franchises over there, one in Marbella, Spain, without going further…) but without knowing anything about this “board of trustees”, I somehow had the hunch that, as happens in any country, IR & government studies are reserved “only” for very well connected people, or at least fellows of the most influyent think tanks or elite´s juniors…
Taking into account the board of trustees of the Chinese university, I fear we must conclude that all that people intermitently posting ( and labeled as trolls, and, consequently, banned with time, sooner or later ) here and at other blogs, who state that China and Russia are in cahoots with the US to keep the status quo alive, and that all these frictions are all but theater, could end being right…after all…since they are all those businesmen and bankers, and CEOs of hedge funds who dictate any country foreign policy.
At least we can conclude they are allied to keep financial capitalism alive
Anyway, cpaitalist allies does not imply they can not turn against each other ans seeing the board of MGIMO is totally Russian, it could sign at that Russia could be the main target of the decaying empire to seize assets…
The last Gogolesque situation on charge of reactionary forces in Spain also points at that. Yesterday, on direction by a Spabish judge, a team of Spanish Civil Guard detained three Catalan businesmen on the grounds of conspiring with Russia to advance Catalan independence, bring in 10-000 Russian troops into Catlaan soil, and trun catalonia into another Switzerland…
One, really, exhausted out of 7 months already of work olverload without prospects of bettemrent and with increasing lay out of staff due sick leave, does not know what to think…
Al these people what they want is tunring us majaras, out of pure exploitation and ridiculous fantastic narratives with which to justify their increasing authoritarian “rules based order” wit hwhich they think avoiding a popular totally justified upsrising, especially when they lockdown us into a curfew, in which what mainly is allowed is go to work in overcrowded public transport, while they go dinner the next day with another 150 elite guys, many without masks, in an event organized by the 4th power, the press….Only the so demonized by the same press Unidas Podemos, a mild left wing party in the coalition of government in Spain was absent…
As we talk about Russia, I inform you that “Dimitir”, apart from a Russian name is an unkown, out of unused, unconjugated verb amongst Spanish elites…
Still, it is happening way too few…the people has proved being beyond goodness, owning Job like patience and definietley not devserving such ruling elites…
But there you have last Charlie Hebdo willing provocation… which unleashed another wave of terror in France… with which they will try to suffocate increasing popular discontent…and more to come as people is let to its own, evicted, bankrupted and may be even ill too…
Notice how the thugs running amok in Nice were of Turkish leaning…( how is that, when there is a lockdown in France? ),and since I guess we all agree in this forum Turkey commands the NATO proxy army to be used anywhere, it will not be only me who suspect that all these rifi-rafe amongst NATO members has a strategic significance…After all stirring up things amongst religions, precisely now, contribute to dispel rage from hunger, los of job, and for simply feeling scammed by tha authorities management of this pnever ending pandemic which in its second wave kills way less than in the previous one, only the helath systems are overwhelmed due that there is an overload of work unasumaible by a decimated staff by sick leaves not covered on the alibi that there are no people to hire… I fear it is only for that that we are again locked down…As a proof the fact that they who curtail our rights go dinning in groups of 150 and have no fear of being infected…
At certain point, the people will say enough is enough…only to find that, as happens in the knives of jihadist thugs, are they who are going to die…in the streets…this tiem in the millions…
Where to flee whne the fat lady sings or the proverbial shit hit the fan?
One would have thought that to Russia…or China…but, in the end, where one is better than at home?

Posted by: H.Schmatz | Oct 29 2020 19:28 utc | 38

wagelaborer @24: “Why do media corporations put out remake after remake of popular movies?”
Because the brainwashing goes stale. The narrative changes.
Movies become static cultural artifacts that reflect the assumptions and narratives of the period in which they were created. This eventually can come into conflict with the narrative du jour. For example, older western (cowboy) movies tended to feature honorable “white hat” good guys who would never preemptively attack anyone or bully weaker opponents. Being that it has become difficult to conceal the fact that the United States bullies and preemptively attacks others around the world, particularly since America’s war against Vietnam, this model of honor has to be redefined to justify behavior that Americans would previously consider appalling. The problem is that some of the cultural artifacts from bygone years have become iconic and are still available to the public. It would be difficult to erase them from American history. Since they showcase a definition of honor that the United States can no longer meet, or have other currently inconvenient narrative features, replacements must be produced to displace the uncomfortable narratives of yesteryear and reinforce the brainwashing of today. Thus another reason behind the boring and endless march or remakes other than just lack of imagination and fear of taking financial risks, though those last two do play a part.

Posted by: William Gruff | Oct 29 2020 19:39 utc | 39

FWIW Glenn Greenwald resigns from The Intercept
He writes
“ The final, precipitating cause is that The Intercept’s editors, in violation of my contractual right of editorial freedom, censored an article I wrote this week, refusing to publish it unless I remove all sections critical of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, the candidate vehemently supported by all New-York-based Intercept editors involved in this effort at suppression.”
https://greenwald.substack.com/p/my-resignation-from-the-intercept

Posted by: DG | Oct 29 2020 19:51 utc | 40

@ 30 anne … right on to you as well…. i am surprised at how non objective national news outlets and etc – npr radio – are…. one would think they could entertain a modicum of objectivity, but as you point out – it is not possible it seems.. you have to cheer for team usa at every moment and forget about any objectivity or neutrality.. i guess you get turfed from the gig if you show any impartiality! i thought it was interesting to see glenn greenwald quiting the intercept finally today or yesterday… i guess the intercept is yet another voice that has been given over to goose stepping the official narrative….
i learned a new word from you today – threnody… i know this as a dirge, so that was a new one on me!
@ 17 bevin…. thanks for challenging that load of b.s from @ 3 s. brennan… i am curious if s. brennan comes back to answer…

Posted by: james | Oct 29 2020 19:53 utc | 41

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