Opinions

COLD WAR SUPERIORITY COMPLEX

By any objective assessment, governments in the eastern half of Europe have dealt with the Covid-19 outbreak better than many in the west. Yet, because of deep-seated attitudes of superiority, few are giving credit where it’s due.

A NEW GLOBAL ORDER? HOW CORONA VIRUS WILL CHANGE THE WORLD FOREVER

Israeli soldiers wearing protective face masks amid concerns over the country’s coronavirus outbreak, stand next to graves of fallen soldiers on the eve of memorial Day in Kiryat Shaul Military Cemetery in Tel Aviv, Israel, Monday, April 27, 2020. This year the government had banned public memorial services at military cemeteries as part of its measures to help stop the spread of the virus. Israel marks the annual Memorial Day in remembrance of soldiers who died in the nation’s conflicts, beginning at dusk Monday until Tuesday evening. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

It is us, the people, and our true authentic voices – the ‘organic intellectuals’, not the celebrity philosophers – who have the right and the moral legitimacy to rise up to reclaim our democracy and redefine a new discourse on a global, not ethnocentric, form of justice.

Why the New Silk Roads are a ‘threat’ to US bloc

Under the cascading roar of the 24/7 news cycle cum Twitter eruptions, it’s easy for most of the West, especially the US, to forget the basics about the interaction of Eurasia with its western peninsula, Europe.

Asia and Europe have been trading goods and ideas since at least 3,500 BC. Historically, the flux may have suffered some occasional bumps – for instance, with the irruption of 5th-century nomad horsemen in the Eurasian plains. But it was essentially steady up to the end of the 15^th century. We can essentially describe it as a millennium-old axis – from Greece to Persia, from the Roman empire to China.

“THE COMING WAR ON CHINA” – WATCH JOHN PILGER’S POWERFULLY RELEVANT DOCUMENTARY

As we’ve been discussing for years now, the relentless quest of the US-centralized empire-like power alliance for total world domination has put it on a collision course with the surging economic powerhouse of China which refuses to be absorbed into the imperial blob. The empire’s continued existence depends upon its ability to undermine China before it grows too powerful or the empire grows too weak to stop its ascent, at which point global hegemony becomes impossible and we are living in a truly multipolar world.

DONALD TRUMP IS IGNITING A COLD WAR WITH CHINA TO WIN THE ELECTION

The level of Trump’s mendacity is far grosser than that used to sell the Iraq War by claiming that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Then too there were stories of secret laboratories developing biological weapons. Though Trump is purging US intelligence chiefs and replacing them with Trump loyalists, even they could not stomach his latest conspiracy theory. “The intelligence also concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the Covid-19 virus was not man-made or genetically modified,” said a statement from the office of the director of national intelligence, Richard Grenell.

CHINA FORGES AHEAD THROUGH CHAOS AND THREATS

For all practical purposes, the hysterical demonization of China across the Beltway has now overtaken the previous hysterics, the demonization of Russia.

What Beijing used to define as a “period of strategic opportunity” is over. There were rumblings in intel circles that the CCP leadership believed this strategic window of opportunity would last unimpeded until the key date, 2049 – when “national rejuvenation” should have been fully accomplished.

Forget it. Now the whole game is about hybrid warfare 2.0 deployed by the US to contain the emerging superpower, whatever it takes. And that implies that a plethora of Chinese plans are now being turbo-charged.

Spy vs spy as China eyes US-Oz sea defense moves

A Chinese naval vessel makes a port call in Australia in a file photo. Photo: AFP/EPA

SYDNEY – China has stepped up its surveillance of strategic sea routes in the western Pacific only weeks after Australia announced a major upgrade of its northern air defenses that will help the United States to project more force into the region, including in the South China Sea.

Japan could carry the day in a US-China conflict

When Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said last month that the Covid-19 pandemic was the biggest national crisis since World War II, it was widely overlooked that just weeks earlier his government passed by far the nation’s biggest defense budget since the end of that conflict

China: one country, two sessions, three threats

The annual meeting of the National People’s Congress. Photo: Xinhua

Made in China 2025; Belt and Road – the post-modern equivalent of the Ancient Silk Road; Huawei; China’s manufacturing pre-eminence; breakthroughs in the fight against Covid-19 – everything is a target. And yet, in parallel, nothing – from a remixed long telegram to stale ruminations on the Thucydides Trap – will derail a rejuvenated China from hitting its own targets.

BEIJING SEES TRUMP’S HAND AND WON’T FOLD

Everyone was expecting US President Donald Trump to go nuclear by de facto sanctioning China to death over Hong Kong. In an environment where Twitter and the President of the United States are now engaged in open warfare, the rule is that there are no rules anymore.

TRUMP’S CHINA POLICY AT A CUL-DE-SAC

This past week has been a catastrophic seven days that shook America. Some of the debris may have fallen on President Donald Trump. Most importantly, the Trump administration has lost the plot on China.