Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Eric Zuesse — Strategy of US Anti-Russia Sanctions Becomes Clearer


Cui bono? Following the money.
As that Reuters list makes even clearer than before, US economic sanctions against Russia are focused against mainly the following four categories of targets in Russia:
  1. Russian competitors to America’s largest international oil companies.…
  2. Russian competitors of Lockheed Martin and other international US weapons-firms...
  3. Russian banks that lend to those firms...
  4. Russian Government officials, and billionaires, who cooperate with Russia’s elected President, Vladimir Putin...
Neoliberal globalization masquerades as "spreading freedom and democracy," and "advancing human rights." But the reality is that economic liberalism as presently conceived as capitalism in incompatible with political liberalism conceived as democracy. The hidden agenda of globalization under liberal Western values is the establishment of a transnational corporate totalitarian order than supervenes over political liberalism as democracy conceived as government (rule) of, by and for the people, and the submersion of national sovereignty.

Strategic Culture Foundation
Strategy of US Anti-Russia Sanctions Becomes Clearer
Eric Zuesse

See also
Washington’s recent trade actions are aimed foursquare at China, not at the EU or other trade partners. However, the aim is not to reduce China exports to the US. The aim is a fundamental opening up of the Chinese economy to the Washington free market liberal reforms that China has steadfastly resisted. In a sense, it is a new version of the Anglo-American Opium Wars of the 1840s using other means to open China. China’s vision of its economic sovereignty is at direct odds with that of Washington. Because of this Xi Jinping is not about to cave in and Trump’s latest threats of escalation risk a major destabilization of the precarious global financial system.
There exist basically two contradictory visions of the Chinese future economy and this is what the Washington attacks are about. One is to force China to open its economy on terms dictated by the West, especially by US multinationals. The second vision is one put in place during the first term of Xi Jinping aiming to transform China’s huge economy into the world’s leading technology nation over the coming seven years, a tall order but one Beijing takes deadly serious. It is also integral to the vision behind Xi Jinping’s Belt Road Initiative.
Washington is determined to push China to adhere to a document it produced in 2013 together with the World Bank during the time Robert Zoellick headed it. The document, China 2030, calls for China to complete radical market reforms. It states, “It is imperative that China … develop a market-based system with sound foundations…while a vigorous private sector plays the more important role of driving growth.” The report, cosigned then by the Chinese Finance Ministry and State Council, further declared that “China’s strategy toward the world will need to be governed by a few key principles: open markets, fairness and equity, mutually beneficial cooperation, global inclusiveness and sustainable development.”
Referring to the current Washington strategy of imposing import tariffs on billions worth of Chinese products, Michael Pillsbury, a neo-conservative former Trump Transition adviser and China expert told the South China Morning Post, “The endgame is that China complete its deep reforms of its economy as laid out in the joint report,” referring to the World Bank Zoellick China 2030 report....
In the view of the Western liberal elite, there can be only one (unipolar) world order. The West sees itself as engage in a fight over imposing that order globally, using "leverage" where countries resist falling under the control of the transnational corporate elite. Russia and China are the chief advocates of multipolarism, so they are in the crosshairs of the West.

NEO
Trump China Trade War Has Deeper Agenda 
F. William Engdahl

3 comments:

Kaivey said...

So much for capitalism, if the Russians build better products then they deserve to win in the market, the same for the Chinese. I always knew the Western elite were fake capitalists.

Noah Way said...

You're confused. Capitalism isn't about building better products, it's about controlling everything from production to consumption and politics to economics with the single goal of maximizing profit for the ownership class.

Tom Hickey said...

They know they can only succeed consistently when the dice are loaded. This is what neoliberalism is about in the age of monopoly capital. Loading the game for the Western corporate elite through government capture based on corruption that has been legalized and normalized.