Pence Vs. Xi at APEC — Trump decides to skip

Is accusing China of using debt as a weapon capitalist chutzpah on the part of Pence, when it's SOP under neoliberalism — "free markets, free trade, and free capital flows" — to put less powerful countries in debt to powerful countries to the degree that they need to go to the IMF for funding to meet debt obligations, the strings attached being giving up control of their institutional arrangements, fiscal policy and national sovereignty? 

I doubt Pence will fool anyone on this, but some countries will "go along to get along" with the US.

Reuters

China says no developing country will fall into debt trap by cooperating with China

For the Chinese idiom, see

Language Log
"China has no intention to touch the cheese of any country"
Victor Mair

See also

Yahoo!
APEC leaders divided after US, China spat
Ayee Macaraig, Andrew BEATTY | AFP

See also

The Week
Pence vows more trade war 'until China changes its ways'

Bonnie Kristian

See also

Sputnik International
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit Reveals Depth of US-China Division

See also

"We suggest a certain country matches its words with its deeds, rather than wag the finger at others," [Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying] said in the statement. "The country should treat all countries on an equal footing no matter big or small, respect other countries' right of following a development path that accords with their own national conditions and make real contributions to developing countries."
Ecns
China urges U.S. to stop wagging finger at others

Xinhua

See also

Full text of Xi's remarks at 26th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting

Ecns
Xi calls for inclusive, rule-based world economy at APEC meeting

Xinhua

Also

Zero Hedge
"It Will Be A Cold War": APEC Summit Ends In Unprecedented Chaos After Dramatic US-China Showdown

Tyler Durden

also

SouthFront
US-Chinese Trade War Is To Escalate Further As Both Sides Are Not Going To Make Concessions

also

Reuters
APEC fails to reach consensus as U.S.-China divide deepens

also

Sputnik International
APEC Participants Adopt Final Declaration Excluding Some Controversial Issues
Related

Eisenhower's worst nightmare has come true, as defense mega-contractors climb into the cockpit to ensure we stay overextended....

The dependence on the private sector in the Pentagon and the intelligence community had reached such a point that it raised a serious question about whether the workforce was now “obligated to shareholders rather than to the public interest,” as Priest and Arkin reported. And both Gates and Panetta acknowledged to them their concerns about that issue.

Powerfully reinforcing that privatization effect was the familiar revolving door between the Pentagon and arms contractors, which had begun turning with greater rapidity. A 2010 Boston Globe investigation showed that the percentage of three- and four-star generals who left the Pentagon to take jobs as consultants or executives with defense contractors, which was already at 45 percent in 1993, had climbed to 80 percent by 2005—an 83 percent increase in 12 years.... 

Longish historical article putting things in perspective.

The American Conservative
America’s Permanent-War Complex

Gareth Porter

See also

Did "we" get our money's worth? It all depends on the meaning of "we."

Military Times
Price tag of the ‘war on terror’ will top $6 trillion soon
Leo Shane III

Pepe Escobar — China’s Silky Road to Glory

China got what it wanted on all fronts.

1) Beijing had all 21 APEC member-nations endorsing the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) - the Chinese vision of an "all inclusive, all-win" trade deal capable of advancing Asia-Pacific cooperation - see South China Morning Post (paywall). The loser was the US-driven, corporate-redacted, fiercely opposed (especially by Japan and Malaysia) 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). [See also here.]

2) Beijing advanced its blueprint for "all-round connectivity" (in Xi's words) across Asia-Pacific - which implies a multi-pronged strategy. One of its key features is the implementation of the Beijing-based US$50 billion Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. That's China's response to Washington refusing to give it a more representative voice at the International Monetary Fund than the current, paltry 3.8% of votes (a smaller percentage than the 4.5% held by stagnated France).

3) Beijing and Moscow committed to a second gas mega-deal - this one through the Altai pipeline in Western Siberia - after the initial "Power of Siberia" mega-deal clinched last May.

4) Beijing announced the funneling of no less than US$40 billion to start building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

Predictably, once again, this vertiginous flurry of deals and investment had to converge towards the most spectacular, ambitious, wide-ranging plurinational infrastructure offensive ever attempted: the multiple New Silk Roads - that complex network of high-speed rail, pipelines, ports, fiber optic cables and state of the art telecom that China is already building across the Central Asian stans, linked to Russia, Iran, Turkey and the Indian Ocean, and branching out to Europe all the way to Venice, Rotterdam, Duisburg and Berlin.

Giving the West heartburn.

Now imagine the paralyzed terror of the Washington/Wall Street elites as they stare at Beijing interlinking Xi's "Asia-Pacific Dream"way beyond East Asia towards all-out, pan-Eurasia trade - with the center being, what else, the Middle Kingdom; a near future Eurasia as a massive Chinese Silk Belt with, in selected latitudes, a sort of development condominium with Russia.

Asia Times Online
China’s Silky Road to Glory
Pepe Escobar

Pepe Escobar — Beijing's Long Game: Shoot Out at the Free Trade Corral

China makes hay while the US is away.

Counterpunch

Beijing's Long Game — Shoot Out at the Free Trade Corral

Pepe Escobar