Geopolitical Rumblings Leave U.S. Behind

March 20, 2023

Over the last month we have seen astonishing geopolitical developments.

In February China publicly lambasted U.S. hegemony, launched a global security initiative and offered a peace plan for Ukraine.

On March 10 China mediated an agreement which restored relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

On March 15 Moscow rolled out the red carpet for the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Yesterday al-Assad and his wife Asma arrived in the UAE for talks with Sheikh Mohammed

Also yesterday Iran and Iraq signed a security cooperation agreement that will stop the CIA sponsored Kurdish activities against Iran.

Also yesterday King Salman of Saudi Arabia invited the President of Iran to a visit in Riyadh.

For the last 30 years the U.S. considered the Middle East as its backyard. Twenty years ago it illegally invaded Iraq and caused 100,000nds of death and decades of chaos. Now China, by peaceful means, changed the balance in the Middle East within just one month.

Today China's President Xi arrived in Moscow for three days of talks with Russia's President Putin. An article by President Putin was published in the People's Daily while Russian media published a signed article by President Xi.

The U.S. is afraid that China's peace initiative for Ukraine will gain ground. It has openly come out against a cease-fire and peace talks. I had thought that was for Ukraine to decide?

It is likely that Putin will publicly endorse the Chinese peace plan while the U.S. is paranoid that peace might indeed happen. It may even want to sabotage the Saudi Iranian deal.

China's people are by the way the most happy in the world.

Xi and Putin are now running the multilateral global show. Biden and the hapless 'unilateral' people around him are left aside.

Posted by b on March 20, 2023 at 10:21 UTC | Permalink

Comments

AT @ 296
Your remarks are valuable to me and MOA.
It’s hard to grasp the concept of freedom from the shackles of the unipolar American rules based order.
So you gave me a chance to clarify and drive it home.
It’s the Urgency that I am aware of.
The time for consultation is long gone. And was ever doomed to failure regarding any meaningfully chainge in the UN.
Which proves my point.
And thanks for being on this blog we need good people like you here.
Judge us by the month here. It gets rought as you can see. But it’s important the world public win.
We are many they are few.
Genuine Mark2 comment.

Posted by: Mark2 | Mar 21 2023 12:01 utc | 301

LaxardalrNeil | Mar 20 2023 14:56 utc | 41
I received a gift, a book on China by a German author, Kai Strittmatter: ‘We have been harmonised: life in China’s surveillance state’. My first instinct is that this is one of many sinophobic books to be found in today’s bookstores, and I just wondered if you were familiar with this journalist?

Back when we were reading the Suedeutsche Zeitung (had subscribed to it for a while, then bought it once a week, then stopped because it got worse and worse, like all mainstream media in Germany), I considered Strittmatter’s articles to be among the best. He was first Auslandskorrespondent of the SZ in China, then in Turkey, then back in China. He wrote non-trivial commentary and even if I disagreed, I always found it interesting.
I’d still read an article by him if someone gave me an SZ. So I’d have a look into the book, there could be something useful beneath the nowadays necessary CCP bashing. You can tell us how it goes: I am certainly interested!

Posted by: Konami | Mar 21 2023 12:04 utc | 302

“the Financial Collapse of 1998 postponed by Greenspan Put to 2008 re-awakens and societal disintegration accelerates”
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Mar 20 2023 12:28 utc | 12
Greenspan, the needy house jester. When the bruise of American Financial/Monetary chicanery started on the path to full blown gangrene. Now the USA is entirely a Financial Mirage. Economies of Scale in the production of the USD propped up by debt, backed by a GDP of Government and Services. Reminiscent of Adolf’s (incorrect) description of early 20th century Britain as a nation of shopkeepers.
U.S. elites killed their golden goose – America’s productive class and businesses, for the Illusion of Wealth of Inflated Dollars. Money burn rate, indeed.

Posted by: kupkee | Mar 21 2023 12:09 utc | 303

USA would have a much more, better educated population than China, actually :
– 18% of the ‘population’ would have completed tertiary education in China, while 50% in USA.
– Most of the world’s best universities would be from USA. China’s best university, THU, wouldn’t even be better than NYU.
– Although this fell for some years now, USA’s average quality of higher education institutions would remain better than China.

Posted by: La Rirai | Mar 21 2023 13:19 utc | 304

Has anyone seen aristodemos post for a while…?
I’ve noticed him being gone for what seems at least a few weeks and he is an older guy (late 70s) by his own admission. I hope nothing health wise hasn’t happened.
That’s one of the downsides of this forum. Never know if people fall out because of ill health or death.

Posted by: DakotaRog | Mar 21 2023 13:21 utc | 305

USA would have a much more, better educated population than China, actually…
Posted by: La Rirai | Mar 21 2023 13:19 utc | 304
This WOULD be true if only we WOULD be able to live in an US-made make believe world.

Posted by: Pagan | Mar 21 2023 13:26 utc | 306

Slavyangrad:
Britain has officially announced that it will transfer shells with depleted uranium to Ukraine. These projectiles infect the area and can lead to cancer.
Previously, depleted uranium ammunition was used by United States and NATO troops during the bombing of Yugoslavia and the invasion of Iraq.
The Ukrainian armed forces use these weapons against the Russian speaking population of Ukraine

Posted by: depleted uranium | Mar 21 2023 13:34 utc | 307

Thanks Konami, and others. I like to think I am quite knowledgeable about 1 or 2 things, however on Chinese history I am very ignorant. I can only imagine how many trash books on this topic sit in western bookstores so it would be a real shame to start with any of them. I’ll give Mr Strittmatter a read – cheers.

Posted by: LaxardalrNeil | Mar 21 2023 13:43 utc | 308

Creeepee. Radio 4 lunchtime news interviews Ukraine’s Justice Minister, oozing oligarch threatening malice about compensation from Russia being taken from Russia ‘s stolen assets.
The world supports us not because we have nice folk music but because we’re part of international system of justice and human rights.
So sad he thinks he’s going to get $ 300 billion when there’s only $ 33 billion.
I suspect he knows country 404 won’t exist at the end of this war, but no problem, he will accept the money on behalf of a non-existent Ukraine, after the 10% cut for Biden.

Posted by: Giyane | Mar 21 2023 13:52 utc | 309

@karlof1 125
I’d be grateful for a reading recommendation from you or others at the bar on China’s view of its 20th century relations with Tibet.
Thanks.

Posted by: onceandfuture | Mar 21 2023 14:04 utc | 310

@ Depleted Uranium 307
Depleted uranium is a lot less dangerous than depleted , Cold War mentality, Bidenbrainium.

Posted by: Giyane | Mar 21 2023 14:07 utc | 311

@ DakotaRog | Mar 21 2023 13:21 utc | 305
Regretfully no, MIA.

Posted by: Outraged | Mar 21 2023 14:24 utc | 312

Posted by: depleted uranium | Mar 21 2023 13:34 utc | 307

Britain has officially announced that it will transfer shells with depleted uranium to Ukraine. These projectiles infect the area and can lead to cancer.

Just last week the US European Command denounced Russian pilots for downing a Reaper Drone in a “a reckless, environmentally unsound, and unprofessional manner.”
Can somebody explain to me why depleted uranium tank rounds are environmentally sound?

Posted by: MajorMike | Mar 21 2023 15:07 utc | 313

Giyane @309. What BST is that Ukrainian Minister spouting. Ukraine is part of the justice and human rights world. Now that is actually a psychotic statement so far removed from reality as to be dangerous.
What part of torturing POWs, cancelling Russian history and language, killing children and citizens by constant shelling of Schools, hospitals, residential areas etc. Arresting Priests and bulldozing monasteries and a lot more constitute either justicentre or human rights.

Posted by: Jo Dominich | Mar 21 2023 15:51 utc | 314

@ Norwegian | Mar 20 2023 15:52 utc | 48
Exactly what I was thinking.
May all geopoliticians burn in Hell.

Posted by: John Kennard | Mar 21 2023 15:56 utc | 315

onceandfuture @310–
You inquired about “a reading recommendation from you or others at the bar on China’s view of its 20th century relations with Tibet.” Here’s the link to the page providing the link to China’s White Paper on the topic, “Tibet Since 1951: Liberation, Development and Prosperity”. China’s White Paper Archive, all are Primary Sources. There you will find links to five (5) additional White Papers about Tibet. Do enjoy your browsing.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 21 2023 16:02 utc | 316

http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/70748
From the delegations meeting, Russia is ready to trade in Yuan with the rest of the world. That’s what I take as the main announcement.

Posted by: Paco | Mar 21 2023 16:04 utc | 317

It is important that national currencies are increasingly being used in mutual trade. This practice should be further encouraged, as well as the mutual presence of financial and banking structures in the markets of our countries should be expanded. As I have already said, two thirds of the trade turnover between our countries is carried out in rubles and yuan.
We support the use of Chinese yuan in settlements between the Russian Federation and the countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. I am sure that these forms of settlements will develop between Russian partners and their colleagues in third countries in – as I have already said – yuan.

Posted by: Paco | Mar 21 2023 16:07 utc | 318

If you are interested in learning more about depleted uranium, I recommend you read Paul Zimmerman’s A Primer in the Art of Deception: The Cult of Nuclearists, Uranium Weapons and Fraudulent Science
At this link there are individual chapters of this book in pdf files that can be downloaded for no charge.
Chapter 6: The Most Heinous Crime in History: The Betrayal of Mankind by the Radiation Protection Agencies; with an excerpt of Chapter 5: Radiation Safety in Its Infancy: 1895-1953; with Table of Contents and the bibliography for Chapter 6 (PDF, 859 KB).
Scam Number One (PDF, 122 KB)
The Corrupted Hiroshima Life Span Study (PDF, 173 KB)
Scam Number Thirty-Nine<>/A> (PDF, 91 KB)

Posted by: Perimetr | Mar 21 2023 16:16 utc | 319

thanks paco… interesting developments that might put a halt to the dominance of the us$ globally.. i hope so..

Posted by: james | Mar 21 2023 16:19 utc | 320

Posted by: Surferket | Mar 21 2023 2:21 utc | 212
i talk to kids in China. fatalism, nihilism, cynicism and despair are all rampant among kids.
maybe they ain’t in your social circle.
or maybe they’ve actually lost something from the virus.
how much visible morning of the mass dead was in your little club?
more likely you don’t care. or you are just full of crap.
as they say in “behavioral health care” in the US, “kids are resilient,” right? you kids turn that frown upside down right now. and bury your feelings beneath a big bowl of chocolate ice cream.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Mar 21 2023 16:23 utc | 321

Posted by: james | Mar 21 2023 16:19 utc | 320
Looks like it, but do not forget, we’ll be a lot poorer, in Canada and Europe it could have been otherwise but our bought and sold corrupt politicians insisted on taking a ride on the Titanic.

Posted by: Paco | Mar 21 2023 16:26 utc | 322

Posted by: MajorMike | Mar 21 2023 15:07 utc | 313
Just another chapter in the book titled “Western shitfuckery: a history from the 1800’s until now”
A couple quick thoughts on the DU story:
1. I thought that the losers in the West insisted that Ukraine/HATO would fight to recover every last bit of territory, including Crimea. Using DU rounds on your own country does not suggest they’re serious. They want to poison the ground and kill as many future residents of Donbass and Crimea as possible.
2. Russia could react by using tactical nukes on key concentrations of HATO mercs/advisors in Kiev. This may be what the losers want, though. An escalation that they can point to and demand direct attacks on Russian assets in the Black Sea and other areas, by HATO missiles.
2.

Posted by: Chris | Mar 21 2023 16:26 utc | 323

“social credit score’ software”
I’ve been informed by people who live there that this thing does not exist.
So I suggest you bugger off with your trolling because you’re coming across as just another anti-Chinese troll.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 21 2023 10:34 utc | 283
I’m not anti-Chinese. I’m anti any authoritarian government. People in the UK are already being monitored and admonished with “non-crime-hate-incident” black marks and fines for their online comments, even though the college of policing was told to desist by the Supreme court.
Posted by: GT Stroller | Mar 21 2023 10:57 utc | 290
There’s no such thing as ‘social credit score’ in China, and I’ve lived here for close to a decade. Your governments are doing major psyops on you by using China as a scapegoat so that you will think the world outside your little withering garden is worse (ie. Thatcher’s TINA method), thereby creating a mental prison over their populations to instil fear of the thought of escaping, while at the same time warming you up for their very own surveillance state system that benefits the top 1% parasites in your countries.

Posted by: bonks | Mar 21 2023 16:29 utc | 324

If the UK provides DU munition to Kiev we’ll consider that the west has been the first one using weapons with atomic components.
https://t.me/news_kremlin/1633

Posted by: Paco | Mar 21 2023 16:34 utc | 325

Posted by: Stephane | Mar 21 2023 9:02 utc | 263
let me clarify for you:
“a bunch of childish Schadenfreude is being vomited up about the current apparent demise (setbacks?) of the West, by commenters.”
was there something else unclear? when Joe walsh made the video, “life of illusion,” a lot of that garbage was being made right here in God’s own New World. the birds don’t give a shit.
lots of dead fish wash up.
which is more important: some Jap prick visiting a Nazi? or TEPCO dumping its water into the Pacific?
and aren’t these related?
but build more reactors, China! gonna need fuel for all those eco-friendly cars that will drive the future.
just when i thought american culture could not be any more horrible than it is:
welcome to the Louvin brothers!
There’s a Grave in the wave of the ocean
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtNv1ymhxVs

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Mar 21 2023 16:35 utc | 326

“Geopolitical Rumblings Leave U.S. Behind”
I wouldn’t want to be downwind of that…

Posted by: nazcalito | Mar 21 2023 16:35 utc | 327

The joint press statement is starting to be posted in Russian, I’ll check for the exact official translation of the previous post concerning DU munitions
http://www.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/70750

Posted by: Paco | Mar 21 2023 16:38 utc | 328

Didn’t Russia say that DU munitions are a red line that will mark the sender countries as war parties?
Seems that UK has decided to openly enter the war.

Posted by: Martina | Mar 21 2023 16:40 utc | 329

Here it is:
It seems that the West has really decided to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian – not in words, but in deeds. But I would like to note in this regard that if all this happens, Russia will have to react accordingly. I mean that the collective West is already beginning to use weapons with a nuclear component.
Похоже, что Запад действительно решил воевать с Россией до последнего украинца – уже не на словах, а на деле. Но хотел бы в этой связи отметить, что если всё это будет происходить, то соответствующим образом Россия вынуждена будет реагировать. Имею в виду, что коллективный Запад начинает применять уже оружие с ядерным компонентом.

Posted by: Paco | Mar 21 2023 16:42 utc | 330

A good day for the balance of powers in the world. I’m just going to repeat myself from yesterday.
The US is on record as wishing to carve up the Russian Federation and to cripple China.
Makes perfect pragmatic sense for a strategic alignment between Russia and China in order to be better able to stand up to, and if necessary fight, the US/NATO.
Thus far the US has only succeeded in crippling Europe, bombing key infrastructure of the German economy, losing the RoW, destroying what used to be known as Ukraine, losing its dominant role in the Middle East, accelerating dedollarization, and making both Russia and China stronger.
The neocons and the Federal Reserve are both in panic mode – this is highly dangerous for us all as bullies tend to lash out when losing before they run away when meeting an opponent who is not afraid of them. I’m worried about a nukie false flag … or a very significant assassination false flag …. further, the massive MIC production build up is not for Ukraine it is for China. Madness.
Posted by: Don Firineach | Mar 21 2023 2:55 utc | 220
I simply add an earlier comment on Turkey. Erdogan, whatever one thinks of him, is in danger of losing the upcoming election. Pretty sure the US are working to ensure he does lose. This creates uncertainty …. he has become very pivotal in the region …

Posted by: Don Firineach | Mar 21 2023 16:49 utc | 331

late to the party, have not read every comment. Still, am not seeing something very basic. Perhaps it is assumed by aall, should still be said.
US is totally and utterly dependent on China. There is no backup plan or possibility should China decline to supply US with hosts of staple products. Saw recently a claim that China supplies 97% of US antibiotics. Maybe that number was wrong, still a good indicator. And what pharma products do not come direct from China are from India using Chinese feedstocks. US doesnot provide that much in return. China would have a period of adjustment if US trade stopped, they would be fine. US would cease to exist.
Any US government with any grip on reality would be engaged in diplomacy with Russia and China. We are not engaged. We preach and threaten. No one abroad needs to endure that any longer.

Posted by: oldhippie | Mar 21 2023 16:59 utc | 332

Any US government with any grip on reality would be engaged in diplomacy with Russia and China. We are not engaged. We preach and threaten. No one abroad needs to endure that any longer.
Posted by: oldhippie | Mar 21 2023 16:59 utc | 332
Yes, it is like your thumb deciding it is going to attack your hand.

Posted by: Bemildred | Mar 21 2023 17:03 utc | 333

“…Most of the world’s best universities would be from USA. China’s best university, THU, wouldn’t even be better than NYU….” La Rirai@304
The quality of an education received can be evaluated in terms of its actual effects. Most of the neo-cons are highly educated products of Ivy League schools. They are genocidal idiots but they probably have ‘good’ degrees.
Most of the propaganda that has poisoned the world in the past eighty years was nursed, if not born, in places like Harvard, McGill, Oxford or The Sorbonne. The Holodomor nonsense, for example, which originated in Goebbels shop was perfected in Harvard.
Timothy Snider, whose ‘history’ is a defiance of archival evidence, is a Professor at Yale. His intellectual mentor, Robert Conquest, a discovery of the Foreign Office’s IRD, which churned out lies about the USSR for more than three decades, ended up at Stanford University.
The current Nazism of the OUN was systematised in Laval University, to the best of my recollection, by one of Reinhard Heydrich’s henchmen.
I suspect that every High School in China provides a better education for its students than any of the lights of western civilisation.
I recently overheard a Professor in a Connecticut Ivy League University’s Business School explaining to an acquaintance that his students paid $80,000 in tuition annually in order to learn the secrets of trading in property. It struck me that the size of the tuition alone, to say nothing of living expenses and lodging costs, should have told students all that they ever needed to know about the capitalist system.
The truth is that our universities have become finishing schools for ambitious whores, teaching them how to excite and delight their greedy and vicious patrons.

Posted by: bevin | Mar 21 2023 17:12 utc | 334

Paco @328–
Thanks for your comments. We’re handicapped by the slowness of the transcript postings as there are now two in progress. Meanwhile, in my searching while waiting I came across this Valdai Club paper I hadn’t seen before, “Russia-China Strategic Partnership in the Context of the Crisis in Europe”, that was published in September 2022.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 21 2023 17:12 utc | 335

Wokechoke | Mar 21 2023 11:47 utc | 297

The sanctimony over a poppy on here. …
…
Sympathy for the Chinese over the trade of Opium is absurd…ordinary Chinese opposed it so much by smoking huge quantities of it. Just like everyone else all over the world at the time.
The carve up of China later on by Europeans was a problem a few decades later but the Opium War narrative peddled by such simps is hilarious.

This, this, is the motherlode ! Peak Stupidity&Ignorance has been hit !

Posted by: Sarlat La Canède | Mar 21 2023 17:26 utc | 336

Ipsos does a survey about happiness and these countries win:
China, Saudi Arabia, Netherlands, India, Brazil. (from Passerby | Mar 20 2023 20:00 utc | 108.)
hmmm…who speaks in Saudi Arabia? immigrants? Shiites? LGBTQXYZ? gypsies? socialists? nice to know that House Harkonnen’s doing fine. NYT reports aristocratic women drive more. Surely that = happiness. (of course if they stop terrorizing Yemen and Iran, that’s a good thing.)
now we all know that google is a CIA front and global warming is a Soros/WEF/NOW (I mean NWO, same thing, right?) plot to get us all to eat soy or something, but google has some interesting things to say when searching, “most polluted cities in the world.”
hard to imagine Beijing (or Riyadh) stealing Disneyworld’s title for “happiest place in the world.” ditto India.
Netherlands is fully on board w/the NWO. I mean, the Nazification of Europe and WW3 with Russia. and its people are happy. fine. good for them.
Brazil’s gov’t might have collapsed in a Trumpian coup but in any case, no matter who’s in Brasilia or who signs the contracts, beef cows will destroy the Amazon. and Brazilians are happy. fine. good for them. don’t put down that Happy Meal!
what people learn from war is war. not peace. and so what if they are happy? “i can slaughter most of the herd, and the sheep won’t even notice until they are almost all dead.” (The Alchemist, P Coehlo).
more drilling in Alaska, anyone? threats against Mexico? maybe Erdogan can be building designer for the new China-Russia not NWO?
what people have done is they have found a new Leviathan, a new golden idol of Nabucco (from book of Daniel), into which, they think, they can compound their flesh, hide their mortality in a social body. The social body of their environment, esp in the US, is a nightmare, and fantasy is a huge temptation, the desire to find a new herd to hide within. sigh, the Achilles’ heel does not disappear because it, with the herd, hides behind an ever bigger exoskeleton (a car) than bronze-greaved Achilles could imagine, with humans now cyborgs who get prodigies, conduct augury, not from birds, but from twitter.
Russia, like us, any and all, has the right to defend itself from the human filth running the West. What a surprise the Japanese PM goes to pay homage to the Nazi Jew. Only in Rammstein’s “Amerikkka”!
But the floodwaters running thru Pajaro (USA) and Lima and NZ and AU and Sanliurfa don’t and won’t become any cleaner from any of the economic plans of Russia, China or anyone else. well, i won’t presume to speak for Cuba. We’ll see what Havana does with one of nature’s not so little surprises, the sargassum. I’d bet it’s something different than what Florida concocts.
out with the old Adam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpyLDDiwKiM
and in with the new
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oGGLpl18rs
yeah, i didn’t need anyone to tell me that the family values crowd doesn’t exactly give a fart of a thought to how KSA treats women. It’s a Periclean democracy there. I mean, it might as well be, because as both Pericles (Funeral Oration) and Paul (1 Corinthians) say, “let the women shut up.”
we’ve got uranium and bit coin and gold to mine!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKVmhaSY1X8

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Mar 21 2023 17:27 utc | 337

Sorry, I forgot “Peak Venal”, etc…
Sorry RSH, you were right, again.

Posted by: Sarlat La Canède | Mar 21 2023 17:28 utc | 338

Paco | Mar 21 2023 16:42 utc | 330
“will have to react accordingly” = “we’ll do nothing, as always”
Watch in a few day the usual propagandists of youtube, like Marty from Amerika: “it’s just a few tanks, not important what munition they use”.

Posted by: rk | Mar 21 2023 17:33 utc | 339

Brian Berletec: The Hidden Proxy War Washington Wages against China
East Turkistan Islamic Movement – Afghan/China border
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXh5fabezkI

Posted by: Don Firineach | Mar 21 2023 17:48 utc | 340

The official English copy of the report The State of Democracy in the United States: 2022 by Chinese MFA is available at:
https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/wjbxw/202303/t20230320_11044481.html

Posted by: LuRenJia | Mar 21 2023 17:56 utc | 341

The transcript providing the opening remarks for the public prior to the main meeting is now complete and contains links to the documents signed which I’ll also provide: Listing of all documents; “Joint Statement of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China on Deepening Relations of Comprehensive Partnership and Strategic Cooperation Entering a New Era”; and “Joint Statement by the President of the Russian Federation and the President of the People’s Republic of China on the Plan for the Development of Key Areas of Russian-Chinese Economic Cooperation until 2030”. Still unfinished is the transcript of the statements made to media after the meeting and prior to the state dinner. The longer of the joint statements is the first which builds on the 4 Feb 2022 Joint Declaration and is Paramount.
As opposed to the 4 Feb 2022 Joint Declaration, these will have a more immediate readership and reaction from RoW.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 21 2023 17:58 utc | 342

LIVE: Protests in Paris
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb7Fia00940

Posted by: Don Firineach | Mar 21 2023 18:06 utc | 343

Assistance required:
Who is this big lad who is always, and I mean nearly always, near Zelensky? Very prominent with the Japanese as I watch Al Jazeera …

Posted by: Don Firineach | Mar 21 2023 18:13 utc | 344

‘Ukraine is burning through a generation of men’ – MEP Clare Daly- speech from 15 Mar 2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhS_7tVv_XQ

Posted by: Don Firineach | Mar 21 2023 18:17 utc | 345

Summarized dot points:

Joint statement of Russia and China:
◾️ The Russian Federation positively assesses the position of China on Ukraine, and China positively assesses the readiness of the Russian Federation to launch negotiations;
◾️ Russia and China are concerned about the risks associated with the creation of AUKUS and their plans to build nuclear submarines;
◾️ Russia and China call on AUKUS to strictly fulfill its obligations to non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction;
◾️ Russia and China are planning to strengthen a comprehensive partnership in the energy sector;
◾️ The Russian Federation and China believe that in order to resolve the Ukrainian crisis, it is necessary to prevent bloc confrontation and incitement of conflict;
◾️ The Russian Federation and China are concerned about the military-biological activities of the United States, they demand clarification on this matter;
◾️ Russia and China will expand scientific exchanges to ensure the technological leadership of the two countries;
◾️ The Russian Federation and China urge to avoid the degradation of the crisis in Ukraine and its transition “to an uncontrollable phase”;
◾️ Russia and China oppose all unilateral sanctions imposed bypassing the UN Security Council;
◾️ Russia and China are pushing for the US to speed up the elimination of its stockpile of chemical weapons;
◾️ Russia and China will strengthen cooperation in agriculture to ensure food security;
◾️ The Russian Federation and China plan to promote mutual and global energy security;
Russia and China insist that NATO strictly observe the defensive nature of their organization and respect foreign sovereignty;
◾️ Russia and China oppose the formation of “closed exclusive bloc structures, bloc policies and opposing camps” in the Asia-Pacific region;
◾️ The Russian Federation and China will increase the scale and optimize the structure of trade, including through the development of electronic commerce;
◾️ Russia and China are going to increase the level of financial cooperation and strengthen cooperation in the financial markets;
◾️ The United States must take real action to address the legitimate concerns of the DPRK and create conditions for dialogue;
◾️ The Russian Federation and China are concerned about the intensification of US activities in the field of missile weapons and call for an end to undermining international security;
◾️ Russia and China are against attempts to use space for armed confrontation and will oppose such activity;
◾️ Russia and China will expand mutual access to agricultural products and strengthen investment cooperation in this area;
◾️ The Russian Federation and the PRC are aimed at cooperation in the field of mutually beneficial supply of basic goods and mineral resources;
◾️ The Russian Federation and China oppose the militarization of IT, they are for multilateral, equal and transparent global governance of the Internet.

Posted by: Outraged | Mar 21 2023 18:24 utc | 346

‘We’re accused of being Putin puppets’ – MEP Mick Wallace- speech from 15 Mar 2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMtOWJvmeQ0

Posted by: Don Firineach | Mar 21 2023 19:33 utc | 347

In the meantime, the collective West and other nations are in serious trouble with their citizens. France is extremely close to a genuine Revolution

Posted by: Jo Dominich | Mar 20 2023 20:00 utc | 111
Mwahahaha, that’s because you, westerners, are weaklings and spoiled brats.
In Russia Putin the Saviour set retirement age for men/women at 65/60 years.
While, according to Rosstat, life expectancy for men in Russia in 2021 was 65,5 years, hooray!

Posted by: r | Mar 21 2023 19:45 utc | 348

May have been already mentioned in this very long thread:
Press in AU are saying that this (https://happiness-report.s3.amazonaws.com/2023/WHR+23.pdf) is the world happiness report… Like I was planning on going through the IPSOS one today with a couple friends but the motherfucking non-news has already beaten me to the punch with some bullshit and now my friends won’t believe anything I say…
Oh and totally not unrelated but we now have ministers in parliament defending nazis at anti trans protests… normalising neo fascism is just how we roll?!?!?!

Posted by: Rae | Mar 21 2023 19:48 utc | 349

Holy Shit! Russia and China are solidifying their relationship in an AMAZING way.
Check out this one minute clip of the meeting!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_ijojorpyE

Posted by: Rufus Arrr | Mar 21 2023 22:10 utc | 350

@ Paco | Mar 21 2023 16:26 utc | 322
yes – i think you are right about that….
fwiw – a very good article today from indian punchline..

Free will trumps determinism in Gulf politics

Posted by: james | Mar 21 2023 22:20 utc | 351

I’ve posted translations of the Before and After Joint Statements–the Two Events–to the media and the two Joint Statements to my VK wall for those interested. Some of the press reports have little items not published by the Kremlin like Putin’s toast at the state dinner. Russian language media probably has more of the gossip, but I’ve yet to look. It appears there will be no Q&A with media, although we might get surprised tomorrow.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 21 2023 22:20 utc | 352

Well against the advice of RSH, Putin today said that the Chinese framework is a good basis for the negotiations but the west isn’t ready to talk.
Again, it’s a framework to start negotiations not the end. Putin makes it clear that it is the west in control. This combined with Russian rumblings that they won’t accept western direct involvement in the eventual negotiations (paired with US statements that China can’t be involved) sets this up for an interesting end point and may have signals for how Russia sees this ending. If Ukraine wants to end this, it will have to give up its relations with the west. Otherwise the grinding will continue until the political situation improves or the Ukrainian state collapses.
The ultimate humiliation for DC would be Zelensky turning on them. The second worst humiliation would be Zelensky being overthrown and the new leadership kicking the US out. You don’t bring the US down by marching to the Polish border; it will just send the Poles next. You bring the US down by stretching it and letting it collapse on itself.
Very clearly the new world order is founded this week. An alternative is being offered. Its value relative to the current is up for debate but it’s there. Other nations are choosing it right now. Xi will take a call from Zelensky (Poroshenko has already met with a Chinese ambassador). What scares DC more than anything is Xi making Zelensky (or Poroshenko, etc) an offer he can’t refuse and a Ukrainian taking it.
No, a Poroshenko lead Ukraine with a Chinese deal wouldn’t be rearmed by the US. Just the opposite. Besides, actual neutrality would be an obvious conduction.

Posted by: Lex | Mar 21 2023 22:24 utc | 353

Posted by: Rae | Mar 21 2023 19:48 utc | 349
The IPSOS report is a survey, asking people in differfnt countries whether they’re happy. The Gallup “World Happiness Report” is an index, composed of GDP, life expectancy, freedom, corruption, whether you’ve donated to a charity, etc.
The use of GDP to calculate “happiness” should ring a bell: these numbers are included to favor Western countries.

Posted by: Passerby | Mar 21 2023 22:25 utc | 354

@ Lex | Mar 21 2023 22:24 utc | 353 with the comment about potential futures for Ukraine and the rest of us…thanks.
I agree with your words
”
Very clearly the new world order is founded this week. An alternative is being offered. Its value relative to the current is up for debate but it’s there. Other nations are choosing it right now.
”
It is up to the West to nuke us all or abandon their position of a unipolar global finance cult led world.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 21 2023 22:41 utc | 355

@ Lex | Mar 21 2023 22:24 utc | 353
Well said. It’s a new world we live in, so we can relish the “nothingburger.”

Posted by: Don Bacon | Mar 21 2023 22:57 utc | 356

I am reading the China piece The State of Democracy in the United States 2022 and want to share my favorite section

II. American democracy in chronic ills
3. Money politics surged
“Make money your god, and it will plague you like the devil,” so admonished British playwright Henry Fielding. In the US, money is the breast milk of politics and elections increasingly morph into monologues of the wealthy, while the public call for democracy is made only “a jarring note”. With the devil of money lurking in every corner of American politics, fairness and justice is naturally strained.
The latest illustration is the 2022 midterm elections. The whole exercise has a price tag of more than US$16.7 billion — breaking the 2018 record of US$14 billion — as found by Reveal, an online platform tracking the flow of political donations in the country. This amount dwarfs the 2021 GDPs of more than 70 countries. Federal Senate races in some states such as Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Ohio sucked in more than US$100 million on average. Over 90% of those elected as lawmakers won by splurging funds. It was impossible to identify how much “dark money”, or funds from undisclosed sources, was involved.
American politics has increasingly revealed its nature as the “game of the rich”. US think tank the Brennan Center for Justice finds that the top 21 families making political donations contributed at least US$15 million each, totaling US$783 million, far more than the US$3.7 million of small donations. Billionaires provided 15.4% of federal election funds, and most of it went to super PACs that can accept unlimited donations.
The enormous bills did not bring effective national governance in return. They only stimulated pork barrel politics. An article on Lianhe Zaobao observes that the past few decades has witnessed a decay in Western democracy. Wealth is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few, making the poor poorer and the rich richer. Politics is controlled by the rich and politicians to serve their own interests. Despite a right to vote, the public does not have real sway over politics. This sense of powerlessness and loss of confidence in political parties and government has given rise to populism, and the problem remains unresolved.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 21 2023 23:41 utc | 357

“…British playwright Henry Fielding..”
Fielding was a great man. He is best known for his novels including Tom Jones and Joseph Andrews. Tom Jones was made into a marvelous movie in 1963 by Tony Richardson with a script by John Osborne.

Posted by: bevin | Mar 22 2023 1:05 utc | 358

reply to 318
Can someone explain why Putin so quickly recommended use of yuan for its foreign trade – rather than the ruble? Medvedev spoke of the ruble becoming a reserve currency, some years ago.

Posted by: Eighthman | Mar 22 2023 1:29 utc | 359

Eighthman #359–
Currently, due to the illegal sanctions regime, the ruble isn’t fully convertible while the yuan is. The key is greater use of yuan means less use of dollars.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 22 2023 1:38 utc | 360

Kwame Nkrumah would have been proud of this:
https://dissidentvoice.org/2023/03/african-scholar-only-china-can-deter-america-from-hegemony/
The Convenor of Ghana’s Socialist Movement explains why China-‘willy nilly’-has become the centre of humanity’s hopes.

Posted by: bevin | Mar 22 2023 1:39 utc | 361

reply to 360
I see that might make sense. A middleman tries to buy chips or whatever with rubles and can’t do it. OTOH, he shows up with yuan and there’s no problem.

Posted by: Eighthman | Mar 22 2023 2:34 utc | 362

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 22 2023 1:38 utc | 360
Thanks. That’s a good point. I found that announcement unexpected too. I took it mostly for ease, which I suppose this is after a fashion. The Yuan are also useful to Russia given that it will be spending in China as a partner. If Chinese-Russian trade is in rubles and yuan, then it shouldn’t create an economic imbalance in the relationship.
The relationship between the two nations is deeply complimentary and so has enormous potential. It appears the RoW sees the same thing.

Posted by: Lex | Mar 22 2023 2:42 utc | 363

In response to”
Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 22 2023 1:38 utc | 360
Thanks. That’s a good point. I found that announcement unexpected too. I took it mostly for ease, which I suppose this is after a fashion. The Yuan are also useful to Russia given that it will be spending in China as a partner. If Chinese-Russian trade is in rubles and yuan, then it shouldn’t create an economic imbalance in the relationship.
The relationship between the two nations is deeply complimentary and so has enormous potential. It appears the RoW sees the same thing.
Posted by: Lex | Mar 22 2023 2:42 utc | 363
”
On the Casino….thread I mentioned about discussions here in the past about international efforts to develop a breadbasket of currencies and commodities instead of a nation taking a Reserve Currency status. I think the goal is still the breadbasket approach but like Karl wrote, “Currently, due to the illegal sanctions regime, the ruble isn’t fully convertible while the yuan is. The key is greater use of yuan means less use of dollars.”
It is the less use of dollars, hence less need for foreign exchange reserves in US dollars and more in yuan or rouble that will ultimately end the US dollar position. The kicker is the conversion currently of the yuan to gold which is the beginning of the path back to money having intrinsic value like before 1971.
It will be interesting to see how long the investment markets will take to internalize the global geo-political shift underway?

Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 22 2023 3:19 utc | 364

psychohistorian @364–
Thanks for your reply. Did you catch my reference to what I saw as new–a gold stablecoin? Lots of info at the parent site when you poke around. If I could, I’d go long on the indexes for the Russian and Chinese markets in the appropriate currency. And I’d do the same in some other Euasian nations–Vietnam and Indonesia as starters.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 22 2023 3:39 utc | 365

Blinken demanded (again) Kiev ethnically cleanse ~10 million people from the Ukraine.
Reflect what Blinken means when he demands ‘no negotiations until Russians leave the Ukraine’

Posted by: Exile | Mar 22 2023 4:22 utc | 366

Washington rats are trumpeting the China virus slur again
Meanwhile,
war porn in Oz.
Just look at the headlines ,

China is prepping to attack USAss and its allies

Is that meant for five year old ?
Its surreal,
That China gate baton is now passed to Canada, after going its round in FUKUSA aka AUKUS.
looks like the entire garden is hallucinating…again.
The ptb seem to treat the people like morons, judging from the reaction , perhaps they had a point there.
Iraq redux.

But We’ve been lied to all these years

Fool me once shame on you.
How about 470 times ?
https://mronline.org/2022/09/16/u-s-launched-251-military-interventions-since-1991-and-469-since-1798/
https://mronline.org/2023/03/17/canadas-china-syndrome/
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/03/01/rhob-m01.html

Posted by: denk | Mar 22 2023 4:41 utc | 367

@ karlof1 | Mar 22 2023 3:39 utc | 365 with the link to the gold backed stablecoin posting
Thanks for that. The caravan keeps rolling along and the dogs are too scared shitless to bark.
I love me the smell of civilization war for the betterment of our species away from barbaric patriarchy brought to us by Pope Frank, King Chuck and the private finance cult.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 22 2023 5:13 utc | 368

I just posted an 8600 word analysis of publicly available information on the Russian economy and military spending. Part of the problem with the West taking Russia seriously is its supposed economic weakness. I used 90+ sources and the conclusion is that Russia is on track to militarily outspend the United States in 2023 and will probably win a prolonged war of attrition, despite Western consensus to the contrary. Part 1 is here: https://aaronlee.substack.com/p/one-trillion-dollars-in-2023-how

Posted by: Aaron Lee | Mar 22 2023 5:53 utc | 369

“social credit score’ software”

I’ve been informed by people who live there that this thing does not exist.
So I suggest you bugger off with your trolling because you’re coming across as just another anti-Chinese troll.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 21 2023 10:34 utc | 283
Ahaha, this guy’s literally saying his source is “trust me bro”
I guess official russian sources like Moscow State Institute of International Relations of the Russian Federation Ministry of Foreign Affairs just lie to us, depicting this system
https://tiec.mgimo.ru/2022/2022-05/china-social-credit-system-sharing-economy
And this system was discussed at International Neva Forum 2021 in Russia. By anti-Chinese trolls, I guess
https://spbvedomosti.ru/news/country_and_world/kitayskuyu-sistemu-sotsialnogo-kredita-obsudili-na-forume/
Woke americans, “Everyone I don’t like is a Russian troll”
Russian vatniks, “Everyone I don’t like is a Ukrainian troll or a Navalnist”
MoA cultists, “Everyone I don’t like is a three letter agency troll, anti-Chinese troll, anti-Russian troll, troll, troll, TROLL!!!!!”

Posted by: r | Mar 22 2023 10:33 utc | 370

No ‘r’ you are not accused of trolling but of tedious conformism, probably as evident in your private life as it is in your ‘politics’, and unthinking anti-communism.
Trolls get paid by the line by their state employers, people like you simply go along with power because you fear the consequences of offending it.
It’s not unlike the difference between A Washington Post ‘reporter’ and Julian Assange. We pay attention to Assange’s opinions because we know him to be honest and unafraid, we don’t waste our time on those who simply sing out of the songsheets the ruling class hands out.

Posted by: bevin | Mar 22 2023 12:11 utc | 371

There’s no such thing as ‘social credit score’ in China, and I’ve lived here for close to a decade.

Posted by: bonks | Mar 21 2023 16:29 utc | 324

After several barflies’ messages directed at you, which part of the word “f-off” don’t you understand? Pukimak!

Posted by: in_Oz | Mar 21 2023 11:54 utc | 298
So, I digged a little deeper, and wiki in different languages has links to official Chinese documents, like this one
http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/2014-06/27/content_8913.htm
Circular of the State Council on Printing and Distributing the Planning Outline for the Construction of a Social Credit System
So, who’s really trolling here with their “trust me bro, I/my bros live there” and “STFU, we don’t want to hear [your truths]”.

Posted by: r | Mar 22 2023 12:21 utc | 372

Talking of anti-China propaganda, of the crudest kind, Chris Black has an excellent article on the shameful part that Canada’s government (and political class) are playing.
Theirs is a campaign to build hatred against China in order to make the mentally derelict Joe Biden and his pathetic anti-communist acolytes like them better.
https://journal-neo.org/2023/03/22/canada-and-anti-china-propaganda/

Posted by: bevin | Mar 22 2023 13:22 utc | 373

wiki in different languages has links to official Chinese documents, like this one
http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/2014-06/27/content_8913.htm
Circular of the State Council on Printing and Distributing the Planning Outline for the Construction of a Social Credit System
So, who’s really trolling here with their “trust me bro, I/my bros live there” and “STFU, we don’t want to hear [your truths]”.
Posted by: r | Mar 22 2023 12:21 utc | 372
Thanks for the backup. Our own western govts are misusing technology to monitor and control opinions, behaviour, and CBDCs will soon control our spending; the ultimate loss of personal sovereignty. Anyone who thinks that a large one party state which regularly parades the tearful confessions of ‘criminals’ (aka dissidents) on live TV won’t be utilising the same technologies is deluding themselves in my opinion.
A plague on all their houses. It’s time to carefully invigilate our electoral processes and kick the would-be tyrants out of office while we still have the opportunity (China, sadly, is already a lost cause).

Posted by: GT Stroller | Mar 22 2023 13:38 utc | 374

karlof1 @316
Excellent, these sources are very helpful!

Posted by: Daryl Tress | Mar 22 2023 14:01 utc | 375

The more United States delay their recognizing that multipolar world is a reality, the more they will be in disadvantage when it reaches the time of forced acceptance. They are losing a unique opportunity to insert themselves in an advantageous point of view, but their greed doesn’t allow this kind of pragmatism. Actually, they are risking survival or becoming a third-world country very soon, only by their fault.
Take a visit to my substack dedicated to combat russophobia:
https://russians.substack.com/

Posted by: Anton P | Mar 22 2023 14:16 utc | 376

A social credit system is just a kinder gentler way of doing law enforcement. Here we just throw them in jail on any pretext. There they will have to miss a movie. Internet like and dislike buttons have the same function. I imagine the Chinese system will at least work well in the beginning.
The big shots and plutocrats don’t like social credit system because they will ALL have bad social credit scores, and so they will buy the system and rig it.

Posted by: Bemildred | Mar 22 2023 15:14 utc | 377

Posted by: Bemildred | Mar 22 2023 15:14 utc | 377
We’ve come from “there is no social credit system”, to “It’ll be a gentle and fluffy social credit system”.
This is progress of a sort. 😉
Welcome to the self policed parade
Welcome to the days you’ve made.
You’re welcome.

Posted by: GT Stroller | Mar 22 2023 15:41 utc | 378

All societies have social credit systems of one sort or another, or they don’t work very well. The more we live together, the more we have to have rules. What is “law and order” if not a call for more social discipline?
People like RSH here are anarchists, or libertarians. At least they know what they want. If you are not of that persuasion, then you wind up arguing about how to do social discipline, not whether to do it.
In any case we have it now, and non-conformism has always had a social price here, we are nothing if not herd animals, and the government views us largely in the same way a farmer views his cows.

Posted by: Bemildred | Mar 22 2023 15:57 utc | 379

the government views us largely in the same way a farmer views his cows.
Posted by: Bemildred | Mar 22 2023 15:57 utc | 379
That’s what worries me. 😉
I want my government to view us as their paymasters (which is what we are), who may decide to sack them all at the next election and put people with better ideas (and less tyrannical attitudes) into a new administration.
I don’t think thats the sort of democracy the CPC claims it wants for all mankind though…

Posted by: GT Stroller | Mar 22 2023 16:17 utc | 380

Nobody is really stopping us from throwing them out. They rig the elections, and having computers really, really helps, but there are still limits to what they can get away with. I don’t believe the 2016 election was honest, by any means, but I also do not believe Trump was welcome in Washington DC. I always try to vote against the incumbent, or if not that, some obvious non-politician. It’s not much,but it’s a plan.
Thank you for your comment.

Posted by: Bemildred | Mar 22 2023 18:58 utc | 381

Nobody is really stopping us from throwing them out. They rig the elections
Posted by: Bemildred | Mar 22 2023 18:58 utc | 381
Exactly. They’ve proven themselves frauds and liars. Sack Them All !!

Posted by: GT Stroller | Mar 22 2023 21:24 utc | 382

Perimetr | Mar 21 2023 16:16 utc | 319
Big thanks your references on radiation-dosage scams; a valuable education on just how we are being played. I urge readers to at least scan thru your links…it is very readable; not academic flim-flam.
A system used to evaluate dosage would be part of a larger system for applications of nuclear technology. Any system [less than perfect] that is devised by humans [even super humans] can be gamed…into a scam.
What is called “humanity” depends on systems for survival, so sadly it can be gamed. The history of humanity almost reads like a humongous scam in which we are trapped. How to get out of this very wobbly “humanity ” into something that gets progressively better…and better?
Curiously, “education” originally meant “to lead out”. So maybe do more actual education.., like real scientific method…or STEM…instead of gaming education into its current scam system that nurtures mis-understanding and no understanding and makes war, AKA end of history.
Again, thanks your links.

Posted by: chu teh | Mar 23 2023 1:29 utc | 383

They’ve proven themselves frauds and liars. Sack Them All !!
Posted by: GT Stroller | Mar 22 2023 21:24 utc | 382
—————–
NO shit, Sherlock !
YOu’ve been kept in the dark and fed BS all day long by your elected serial lying pos .
Which begs the question, why is there a seemingly inexhaustible supply of mushrooms who lapped it up with relish ???
Exhibit A
mushroom

They should make a start on these fine aspirations by ceasing the oppression, imprisonment and cultural genocide of Tibetans that they started 60+ years ago. In another 60 years we could start to take them seriously.

Posted by: denk | Mar 23 2023 1:37 utc | 384

Posted by: denk | Mar 23 2023 1:37 utc | 384
Elected pos politicians long ago allowed themselves to be bullied into silence about Tibet by the totalitarian one party state holding all the industrial aces. You’ve swallowed their complicity whole, and fallen in line with it.

Posted by: GT Stroller | Mar 23 2023 7:29 utc | 385

b: The U.S. is afraid that China’s peace initiative for Ukraine will gain ground. It has openly come out against a cease-fire and peace talks.
15 second video worth a watch:
Activist interrupts Secretary Blinken’s congressional hearing:
https://twitter.com/KanekoaTheGreat/status/1638758843256799233
“The American people don’t want to keep fueling a proxy war with Russia that could lead to World War III… If you don’t like the Chinese proposal, where is your peace proposal?”

Posted by: GT Stroller | Mar 23 2023 9:27 utc | 386

GT Stroller
Lie 1

They should make a start on these fine aspirations by ceasing the oppression, imprisonment and cultural genocide of Tibetans that they started 60+ years ago. In another 60 years we could start to take them seriously.

Lie 2

Elected pos politicians long ago allowed themselves to be bullied into silence about Tibet

Your CON-gress just passed the so called ‘Tibet bill’ in Dec 22
Lie 3

My pos were cowed by China holding all the industrial aces

Yeah,
So much so that , in addition to the Tibet smear , they had upped the ante by adding the so called ‘HK bill’ , ‘Xinjiang BIll’, ‘Chinese interference’, ‘Chinese virus’ ‘Threat of Chinese invasion’ …….bullcrap

Posted by: denk | Mar 23 2023 13:41 utc | 387

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