Sept. 7—Today is the 10th anniversary of the launching of China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI). On Sept. 7, 2013, President Xi Jinping presented what was then called the “Silk Road Economic Belt,” in a speech he made early in his presidency, entitled “Promote People-to-People Friendship and Create a Better Future.” It called for an “innovative cooperation mode” in building transportation corridors, to great a “greater space for development,” and to make “a grand cause benefitting people in regional countries along the route.” He called for creating a “new brilliance with a more open mind and a broader vision to expand regional cooperation.” More than talk, China had walked the walk in lifting hundreds of millions of Chinese out of extreme poverty (using methods easily recognizable by Ben Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Abe Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy). Now more than 150 countries are on board.
However, one country, rather ironically, celebrates today for a different reason. It is called “Military Intelligence Day” in Ukraine. There President Zelensky awarded the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, Kyrylo “Kill Any Russian Any Time Any Where” Budanov, a promotion to lieutenant-general. (His operation is famous for assassinations of civilians.) But it was only ten years ago that the President of Ukraine heard Xi’s announcement of the “Silk Road Initiative” and, within three months, was in Beijing signing contracts (initially for Chinese port development on the Black Sea). He would be violently deposed within the next three months. Ukraine is being chewed up; China, India, and Russia are signing contracts to develop Africa.
The Global Majority is on the move, especially after the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. Today, at the East Asia Summit, Indonesia’s President Widodo challenged the leaders assembled to rise up as real leaders and look for solutions and cease undermining their neighbors; but a deaf US Vice President could only cut an embarrassing figure, with geopolitical slogans. As Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov succinctly noted, such antics are tiresome. People want to work on real problems.
The G20 is to meet this weekend, and the US Secretary of State, in providing the narrative for success at the White House two days ago, appeared to be channeling the character of Lucy, in the “Peanuts” cartoon strip, where she always promises she’ll hold the football for the clueless Charlie Brown to kick it, and every time, she fools him, leaving him flat on his back.
Blinken’s version is to counter the BRI with the promise that, this time, the West is going to “deliver” on development for the global south, and that the good old World Bank and IMF, failures for over 70 years in a row, are the ticket!
There’s a different conference this weekend. Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the woman known as “The Silk Road Lady” (from her presentations in China in 1997 on a project to center energy, water, industrial and agricultural projects along the spine of such massive transportation projects), will convene a conference, as the head of the Schiller Institute. It is called, “Join Hands with the Global Majority.” The opening session is entitled: “The Strategic Situation After the Historic BRICS Summit.”
Do you have something better to do Saturday?
