From Information Clearing House
Seven years after being launched by President Xi Jinping, first in Astana and then in Jakarta, the New Silk Roads, or Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) increasingly drive the American plutocratic oligarchy completely nuts.
The relentless paranoia about the Chinese "threat" has much to do with the exit ramp offered by Beijing to a Global South permanently indebted to IMF/World Bank exploitation.
In the old order, politico-military elites were routinely bribed in exchange for unfettered corporate access to their nations' resources, coupled with go-go privatization schemes and outright austerity ("structural adjustment").
This went on for decades until BRI became the new game in town in terms of infrastructure building -- offering an alternative to the imperial footprint.
The Chinese model allows all manner of parallel taxes, sales, rents, leases -- and profits. This means extra sources of income for host governments -- with an important corollary: freedom from the hardcore neoliberal diktats of IMF/World Bank. This is what is at the heart of the notorious Chinese "win-win."
Moreover, BRI's overall strategic focus on infrastructure development not only across Eurasia but also Africa encompasses a major geopolitical game-changer. BRI is positioning vast swathes of the Global South to become completely independent from the Western-imposed debt trap. For scores of nations, this is a matter of national interest. In this sense BRI should be regarded as the ultimate post-colonialist mechanism.
BRI in fact bristles with Sun Tzu simplicity applied to geo-economics. Never interrupt the enemy when he's making a mistake -- in this case enslaving the Global South via perpetual debt. Then use his own weapons -- in this case financial "help" -- to destabilize his preeminence.
Hit the road with the Mongols
None of the above, of course, is bound to serenade the paranoid volcano, which will keep spitting out a 24/7 deluge of red alerts deriding BRI as "poorly defined, badly mismanaged and visibly failing." "Visibly," of course, only for the exceptionalists.
Predictably, the paranoid volcano feeds on a toxic mix of arrogance and crass ignorance of Chinese history and culture.
Xue Li, director of the Department of International Strategy at the Institute of World Economics and Politics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, has shown how "after the Belt and Road Initiative was proposed in 2013, China's diplomacy has changed from maintaining a low profile to becoming more proactive in global affairs. But the policy of 'partnership rather than alliance' has not changed, and it is unlikely to change in the future. The indisputable fact is that the system of alliance diplomacy preferred by Western countries is the choice of a few countries in the world, and most countries choose non-aligned diplomacy. Besides, the vast majority of them are developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America."
Atlanticists are desperate because the "system of alliance diplomacy" is on the wane. The overwhelming majority of the Global South is now being reconfigured as a newly energized Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) -- as if Beijing had found a way to revive the Spirit of Bandung in 1955.
Chinese scholars are fond of quoting a 13th century imperial handbook, according to which policy changes should be "beneficial for the people." If they only benefit corrupt officials, the result is luan ("chaos"). Thus the 21st century Chinese emphasis on pragmatic policy instead of ideology.
Rivaling informed parallels with the Tang and Ming dynasties, it's actually the Yuan dynasty that offers a fascinating introduction to the inner workings of BRI.
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