Counterpunch
Newsletter
Weekend
Edition January 4-6, 2013
What's the
Big Deal?
The Irrational, Racist Fear of China
by ANDRE
VLTCHEK
Iraq,
Afghanistan, Palestine, and Libya are in shambles, crushed by the heavy boots
of Western imperialism.
But we are
told to fear China.
The entire
nations of Indochina were bombed back to the stone age, because Western
demi-gods would not tolerate, and felt they did not have to, tolerate, what
some yellow un-people in Asia were really longing for. Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos
– millions of tons of bombs dropped on them from strategic B-52’s, from
dive-bombers, and from jet fighters. The falling bombs rained on the pristine
countryside, murdering children, women, and water buffalo – millions of people
perished. No apologies, no admission of guilt, and no compensation came from
the tyrant-nations.
Indonesia,
the leader of the non-aligned world, with a huge constitutional Communist
Party, was destroyed in the coup of 1965, through the alliance of Western
governments, Indonesian fascist military and the elites, as well as religious
bigots from the largest Muslim organization – NU. 2-3 million people died,
including those belonging to the Chinese minority. Teachers, artists, thinkers
– all killed or silenced. Here, imperialism created a submissive nation with
almost no intellectual base; unable even to analyze its own downfall.
But now we
are ordered to be conscious of China’s rise.
Latin
America: raped again and again, from Mexico to the Dominican Republic, from
Cuba to Granada, Panama, Haiti, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Chile. For
years, decades and centuries. Almost all the countries in Central and South
America, as well as the Caribbean, were ravaged at some point in history, by
the racist and outrageous implementation of the “Monroe Doctrine”.
The latest
coups against the progressive governments in Honduras and Paraguay were enacted
under the ‘soft leadership’ of the liberal West’s supreme leader and ‘upholder
of global democracy’ – President Barack Obama.
But it is
China that has to be deterred, we are told! Not us – not the West – but China.
In the
Middle East, entire kingdoms and emirates are bending over themselves,
competing with each other over who will become the most subservient
collaborator with Western business interests, who will place more US military
bases on its soil, who will kill, arrest or torture more people – the opponents
of global Western dictatorship.
But it is
China, naturally, which is unacceptably endangering the European and North
American’s inherited right, to reign over the world. Or to be precise, the
‘danger’ is shared among China, Russia and Latin America – three places that
managed to wrestle themselves from Western shackles, and to embark on their own
political, social, cultural and developmental paths. Whatever they are, but
their own!
But China is
the ‘worst’, because those Russkies and Latinos still look kind of
white, or at least most of them do. But to imagine that the world’s most
important country would be firmly placed in Asia would be unthinkable,
unacceptable, and truly sacrilegious.
In Africa,
which of course does not matter much, as it is, in the eyes of multi-nationals
and the Western governments, inhabited by the lowest breed of ‘un-people’ (to
borrow Orwell’s lexicon), entire enormous geographical areas and cultures had
been plundered, divided, debilitated, virtually canceled. Ridiculous borders
were erected, great people’s rulers like Patrice Lumumba of Congo,
assassinated. Murderous maniacs such as Paul Kagame and Museveni were groomed
in and by the West, armed and brought to power, then sent on various missions;
to plunder and police on behalf of Western interests.
Congo lost
some 10 million people during the reign of Belgian genocidal-king, Leopold II
(now the national hero of Belgium, celebrated by countless statues all over
Brussels). It is losing a similar amount of people now, as Washington and
London’s military darlings from Rwanda and Uganda are invading freely,
overthrowing governments and pillaging that vast and battered nation on their
doorsteps.
Somalia is
virtually no more – forcefully divided, and regularly invaded by Western allies
– Kenya and Ethiopia. Europeans are dumping toxic waste near its coast and then
appear to be outraged by the piracy – one more justification for the continuous
militarization of the entire region. The proud ‘African Cuba’ – Eritrea – is
being tortured by sanctions; while the country/military base called Djibouti
has been glorified and pampered, standing as a polluted, frustrated and
grotesque symbol of French and US militarism; of Western imperialism, in the
region that gave birth to the human race.
In West
Africa, in Algiers, in Angola and Namibia, in Congo and Somalia, and in dozens
of other countries of Africa, tens of millions of people have been slaughtered
by Western imperialists in the 20th and 21st Centuries. And the dreadful count
was not any better in the preceding eras, with a direct holocaust against
native populations, with genocides like the one performed by Germans in what is
now Namibia, with slavery, torture, rape and the absolute disrespect for
non-white human lives.
But would
such a legacy make Western nations humble, reflective, and apologetic? Would
there at least be some pathos of profound guilt that could give birth to hope
for global reconciliation? No – far from that! There is no remorse in London,
Paris, Berlin, Brussels and Washington, or in the French countryside, the US
Midwest or South. Or if there is some, it is concentrated in small, mainly
urban pockets, disconnected from the mainstream.
But it is
China, which is now blamed for ‘doing business with African dictators’! And it
is China whose guilt is being manufactured, inflated and implanted in the
brains of people all over the world, by the Western propaganda apparatus, and
by local media outlets, owned and ‘trained’ in the West.
For
instance, a mining accident in Zambia, whenever some Chinese company is
involved, the situation gets overblown to tremendous proportions. The result is
that dozens of people who died due to negligence are put on the same scale as
dozens of millions who perished because of savage Western imperialism, the
slave trade, colonialism and neo-colonialism.
The same
propaganda tactics are used all over the world. For instance, the Goethe
Institute in Jakarta, Indonesia, not long ago, arranged a photo exhibition of
Polish workers in Gdansk clashing with police, in the Solidarity days.
Few people died then. But the Goethe Institute arranges no exhibitions
commemorating the millions of Communists, atheists, intellectuals and Chinese
people who died in 1965 and later, in Indonesia! It is almost like saying: “You
see, those 3 million Indonesian lives had to be sacrificed, to prevent the
scenario in which 30 people were later killed in Poland.” Interesting logic.
But supported by mountains of cash, and it works!
In Oceania –
in Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia – the British, US, French, Spanish,
German and other colonial masters, smashed and then reshaped the complex
universe that used to belong to the proud people inhabiting tens of thousands
of islands, islets and atolls of the South Pacific.
The local
inhabitants were then pushed into slavery, effectively; their kingdoms, their
geopolitical entities were first divided into colonies, and then into
nation-states. Their leaders were killed, sidelined, threatened, and finally
corrupted and bought.
Western
nations fought battles over the islands, performed nuclear experiments on the
local people, and then invented a so called ‘strategic deterrence doctrine’,
making sure that no ‘enemy’ ships, no unsuitable ideas and anti-imperialist
ideology would enter this tremendous universe, encompassed by an endless mass
of water.
In the end,
huge military bases were constructed; US, British and French; all sorts of
toxic waste was dumped, and the pristine atolls like Kwajalein, were converted
into missile testing grounds.
Waste,
radiation, junk food; all led to countless medical emergencies, which became so
great that only climate change and the consequent rising level of the seawater,
could realistically be considered as a greater threat to the survival of the
people and states of Oceania.
I lived in
the South Pacific for more than 4 years, and I traveled and worked in all the
countries there, except in Niue and Nauru. I wrote about the struggle of the
islanders inhabiting the South Pacific in my non-fiction book Oceania.
Several
countries – Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia,
as well as the various islands and atolls now belonging to other states – are
rapidly becoming uninhabitable. The seawater is rolling over their low-lying
land, and the vegetation is dying.
The West,
which is responsible for most of the pollution, the carbon dioxide emission and
global warming, has been doing close to nothing to save these countries from
vanishing.
The foreign
aid the US, EU, Australia and New Zealand are donating, is often as damaging as
the poisonous gasses themselves. It is habitually being used to corrupt local
government officials; to fly them around the world, embedding the so called
‘per-diem mentality’. Tamed and corrupt, the local rulers don’t demand real
compensation and real solutions for their suffering countries. ‘Foreign aid’ is
also being used to pay for foreign experts to visit, to ‘analyze’ and to write
countless and mostly futile reports. All that, just in order to create the
perception that something is being done: and just to make sure that nothing
ever will!
The people
of Oceania do not want to be evacuated; most of them want to fight for the
survival of their islands. I talked to them: in Kiribati, Tuvalu, FSM, RMI and
elsewhere. But the West and local governments are insisting on idiotic
evacuation schemes, for many unsavory reasons.
At one
point, China began helping, in the spirit of internationalism; the way a
socialist country should. It rolled up its sleeves and started to construct
schools, hospitals, government buildings, roads, and stadiums, as well as
protective walls and other heavy infrastructure, designed to defend endangered
populated areas.
The West
immediately attacked all those efforts, injecting nihilism, dragging through
dirt everything pure and decent. The first stage of Western propaganda, the
same that has been used in Africa and elsewhere, consisted of the barrage of
negative messages that China does ‘nothing altruistically, ever’; it simply
follows its dark self-interests and designs.
‘Philosophical’
and propaganda punch lines are predictable and simple: “If we are shits, if our
culture sends us to plunder and enslave the world, then humanity should be
convinced that others have the same essence as we do. This way, what we are
doing would not be seen as extraordinary. We are all human, all the same!”
It is
rubbish, of course, and even people like Gustav Jung saw Western culture as
exceptionally aggressive, as some sort of pathology. But, as was proven many
times by Western propagandists like Joseph Goebbels and Rupert Murdoch, if
propaganda is repeated 1,000 times, and if we corrupt/pay enough people all
over the world to repeat what we tell them to, the rubbish converts itself to
shining diamonds of truth, and eventually to unchallengeable common wisdom.
But back to
China and Oceania:
When the blitzkrieg
of discrediting China failed to work, or at least it failed in the countries
benefiting from China’s assistance, the West invented a unique strategy: it
went to Taipei and began ‘encouraging’ Taiwan’ to get ‘involved’. The Taiwanese
were willing and ready, and began offering bribes to the leaders of Oceania, in
exchange for the recognition of Taiwan as an independent country. Once Taiwan
is ‘recognized’, something that even US or EU refuse to do, on most occasions
China (PRC) retaliates by breaking diplomatic relations.
And that
was, most definitely, the plan of the old sly colonial powers.
While
countries that stuck with China, like Samoa, got their protective seawalls,
stadiums and Parliament buildings constructed in solidarity and with socialist
optimism, countries like Kiribati, a place that could be easily described as
one of the true basket cases in Oceania, were flooded with Taiwan-inflicted
nihilism. Cash flowed in, but not to the people; into the deep pockets of the
government.
While entire
small countries in Oceania are near extinction, their leaders, mostly groomed
and trained in Australia and the US, are busy selling their UN votes: voting in
support of Israel’s occupation of Palestine, in support of US invasions all
over the world, or against the environmental resolutions that could have a
direct and positive effect on the plight of their countries!
“One day I
was besieged by an Israeli television crew”, I was told by a priest in the
capital of Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). “The Israeli public wanted to
know: who are these creatures that are constantly voting in support of Israel,
alongside the US and against the entire world?”
Well, the
same ones that welcome Taiwanese battleships, and their crews that play
national anthems on the beaches, and march all over the place like maniacs,
holding flags!
***
And, by the way, those who think that China cannot
act altruistically, should read Fidel Castro, and his powerful and grateful
words, describing how Cuba got rescued by the Chinese nation, following
Gorbachev’s fit of madness and Yeltsin’s Western-encouraged, glorified
alcoholic orgy, with the destruction of the USSR and several dreadful years of
unopposed plunder of the world by the Western Empire, as its aftermath.
***
When the Chinese media interviews me, I am often
asked the same question: “What can China do to appease the West”.
And my reply is always the same: “Nothing!”
Western propaganda is not looking for objective
ways to analyze China; it is not looking for China’s good-will. It is there, to
twist and to harm any country that insists on its own development model, on
serving its own people instead of submissively succumbing to the interests of
the West, and those of multinational companies.
The West
tries to destroy socialist China as it had been trying to destroy Vietnam,
during what is called in Asia, “The American War”. As it expended a tremendous
effort to ruin Moscow, right from the 1917 Revolution, till the very end. As it
tried to destroy all the countries that insisted on their own principles: Cuba,
Egypt, Indonesia, Chile, Nicaragua, Eritrea, and Iran before Shah, to name just
a few.
Some, like
North Korea, were first ravaged and then pushed to the extreme, forced to radicalize
and then ridiculed and paraded on television screens as some freak example of
Communist gaga-land.
What the West has in store for China is clear, and
it is not much different from its designs during the Opium War. The perfect
scenario would be a crippled, divided and submissive, West-admiring nation. The
best ruler would be some Chinese Yeltsin who would agree to commit treason,
break the country to pieces, open it to oligarchs and foreign interests, cancel
all social aspirations and bomb the Parliament full of the people’s
representatives that still believe in socialism.
Then we
could ‘do business with China’, and give it full ideological and propaganda
support.
***
My usual
advise to the Chinese media is: “Use numbers! Numbers are on your side.”
But it
appears that China’s propagandist team is no match to Western apparatchiks.
China is too timid, too soft, as actually almost
the entire world is, compared to the Western political and economic gangsters.
In a series
of deadly strokes, the West can bomb a country, poison its people with depleted
uranium, impose sanctions that kill hundreds of thousand of defenseless women
and children, then bomb the place once again, invade it, plunder it, and make
sure that its own companies will make billions in a reconstruction process that
actually shows no concrete results.
Such an
approach cannot be matched by anybody; neither by China nor by the Soviet
Union, which always made sure that its satellite states had higher standards of
living than Moscow!
***
If China
doesn’t do it, let me do it, in brief. Let’s use numbers and show to the world,
especially to those ‘concerned’ Western citizens, how China is really doing.
Let’s compare. And let’s do it on a per capita basis, the only fair way.
How many
people were murdered by the West beyond its boundaries, since WWII; in the Arab
World, in Asia Pacific, in Africa, Latin America, Oceania; actually almost
everywhere. I calculated, and my conservative estimate is between 50 and 60
million. Well over 200 million in indirect actions.
China – a
few thousand, during its punitive and erroneous invasion of Vietnam, after
Vietnam liberated Cambodia from Khmer Rouge. But that was the worst China ever
did! And it withdrew rapidly. And it never bombed Vietnam to the stone-age!
So if, let’s
say, the Chinese invasion took 10,000 lives, the West killed at least 5,000
times more people than China. Simple math, isn’t it?
How many
governments that the West overthrew, including those that were elected through
painstaking and enthusiastic democratic processes? I don’t have the patience to
go through all of them: Nicaragua, Chile, Brazil, Dominican Republic,
Indonesia, Iran, Zaire, Paraguay, and dozens of others. Basically, any
government that Western companies and politicians did not approve of, went up
in flames.
China: zero.
The West
really gave the world great lessons in democracy!
But let’s
continue our comparisons.
Who is
vetoing UN resolutions on Palestine and on other key international issues?
Who puts
itself out of the reach of international courts of justice, even threatening to
invade Netherlands in case its citizens are brought to the international court
in The Hague?
Who is the
greatest polluter, on a per capita basis? China does not even match the
Scandinavian nations, and it becomes the number two environmental threat, after
US, only if the absolute numbers are applied, a totally bizarre way to utilize
statistics. To use the same logic, one would conclude: ‘there are more people
smoking in France than in Monaco’.
Even the
former US Vice-President, Al Gore, hardly a China lover, wrote that China has
tougher environmental laws than US.
But let’s
return to defense, to that ‘threat’ which China is allegedly posing to the rest
of the world.
According to
the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI 2012 Yearbook),
The United Sates, with a population of 315 million, spends (officially)
approximately 711 billion dollars on military expenditure. Many analysts insist
that the number is really over 1 trillion dollars; others say that the amount
is even higher than that, but incalculable, because of a complex and
non-transparent interaction between the government and private sector. But let
us stick to official numbers and accept, for argument’s sake, the lowest
estimate of 711 billion dollars.
Close allies
of US are all great spenders as well; they all zealously shop for their nukes,
missiles and jet fighters: The UK with 63 million people spends 62.7 billion
dollars on ‘defense’. France with 65 million people spends 62.5 billion. Japan
with 126 million people, forks out 59.3 billion, although, officially it does
not even have an army. Two of the closest Western allies in the Middle East,
are even more radical:
Saudi Arabia
with 28 million people spends 48.2 billion dollars, and Israel with population
of only 8 million, spends 15 billion, proportionally similar amounts.
China, the
most populous country on earth, with 1,347 million people, spends 143 billion
dollars, approximately as much as UK and France combined, but with over 10 times
more people to defend!
On a per
capita basis, the US is spending over 21 times more on defense than China. UK
more than 9 times and Saudi Arabia more than 16 times!
And one has
to wonder: Who do France and the UK ‘defend’ themselves from? Could it be
Andorra, Monaco or Ireland? Or maybe that outlying bit of Europe, Iceland?
In contrast, China, which was attacked on several
occasions; which was occupied, colonized and plundered by Western powers,
notably by the UK and France (whose barbarity in ransacking Beijing was
legendary), now has hundreds of strategic bombers and nuclear missiles pointed
at its face, from the directions of Okinawa and Guam, from the US fleets in the
region, and from the bases in nearby former Soviet Central Asian Republics.
The US, in defiance of the constitution of the
Philippines, is conducting military exercises at the Clark base and other
military installations on the territory of its former colony. It has a
heavy military presence in South Korea, just a stone’s throw from China, and is
making overt and covert overtures towards Vietnam, trying to, bizarrely; lease
some its old bases, which were last used during the war. And it is no secret
that Mongolia is now one of the staunchest Western allies, with thousands of
kilometers of a long border with China.
What
justifies such contrasting military expenditures between the West and China?
The answer
is – nothing! Like in the case of the “Monroe Doctrine”, the West does not need
some silly justifications. Its presumption of racial and cultural superiority,
unpronounced but assumed, seems to suffice in silencing all internal skeptics
and critics.
The elites,
‘intellectuals’ and media in most of the world are trained and paid to kneel
and bow to that obvious but unchallenged farce.
What I am
doing here; asking all these questions, is not only unacceptable in Europe and
US, it is considered impolite!
And China, many times a victim of Western
aggressions, now finds itself on the defensive, accused of ‘flexing its
muscle’, despite its disproportionally low defense budget and almost no history
of invasions and imperialism.
***
China is
portrayed as a threat, when shoulder-to-shoulder it stands with most of the
progressive Latin American nations and with Russia, blocking UN resolutions
designed to open the door to the Western invasion of Syria.
In the eyes
of the Western regime, to try to prevent an invasion, amounts to a supreme
crime, almost akin to terrorism. Countries that are standing in its way become
vilified through the most vitriolic propaganda.
One has to
recall that the same rhetoric was used by Nazi Germany, during the war. Members
of any resistance, partisans, and opposing forces – were all called terrorists.
And who can forget those colorful insults reserved for the nations that were
about to be attacked! Or for the Soviet Union that faced Nazis, finally
defeating them!
According to
my investigations in the region, Western forces are training not only ‘Syrian
opposition’, but also Saudi and Qatari jihadists and mercenaries, in so called
‘refugee camps’ in Turkey, near Hatay, and at the US air force base in Adana.
But who will
forgive China, Russia and Latin America for trying to prevent yet another
Libya-style, horror scenario?
And then, there are those Spratly Islands; that tour
de force of Western propaganda!
The Spratly Islands could actually be the only
proof that China is ‘flexing its muscle’, or that it is ready to defend its
interests.
The Government of the Philippines, a former US
colony, is at the fore-front of harsh criticism directed at China.
I went to talk to Philippine academia, to top
scholars in Manila, and I managed to speak to several of them.
Opinions
were generally similar, summarized by Roland G. Simbulan, Senior Fellow and
Professor in Development Studies and Public Management at the University of the
Philippines, explained:
“Frankly speaking, those Spratly Islands are not so
significant to us. What’s happening is that our political elites are clearly
encouraged by the US to provoke China, and there is also a big influence of the
US military on our armed forces. I would say that the Philippine military is
very vulnerable to such type of ‘encouragement’. So the US is constantly
nurturing those confrontational attitudes. But to continue with this type of
approach could be disastrous to our country. Essentially we are very close to
China, geographically and otherwise.”
In Vietnam,
the US clearly exploits old rivalries, pitching two socialist states against
each other.
***
Then the
human rights issue.
Again, let’s
compare.
There are
more people in jail in US than in China. Not just more, but incomparably more.
According to
the International Centre for Prison Studies, the US has the highest
number of people in prisons, than anywhere in the world: 730 per 100,000 of
population! Out of 221 countries and territories from which data was collected,
China ranks 123th, with 121 prisoners per 100.000 of population. That’s six
times less than the US, and even less than Luxembourg (ranks 120th with 124
prisoners per 100,000 of population) or Australia (ranks 113th with 129
prisoners per 100,000 population).
It is a
known fact that in the US, many prisons are privatized and prisoners are
basically held as free or cheap labor. If it is not a violation of human
rights, to hold millions of people in jail, for minor offenses, just in order
to keep the coffers of private companies full, then what is?
The use of
torture is accepted and used by US interrogators all over the world.
China still
executes more people than the US, even on a per capita basis, which is
unfortunate, but the number of executions in China is decreasing, as is being
reduced, the number of crimes punishable by death.
But while
the death penalty in China is often mentioned in connection with human rights
violations, it is rarely stated that the US is applying extra-judicial
executions in several parts of the world, including Afghanistan and Pakistan,
where it uses so-called drones, to arbitrarily target terrorist suspects,
including women and children.
And what
about the main propaganda chip – Tibet? If we compare the situation there to
that in the territories ruled by the Western allies, like Indonesia and India,
we come to very uncomfortable conclusions.
Indian rule
over Kashmir can only be described as outright carnage; Indonesian rule over
Papua, with over 120,000 people killed (a very conservative estimate) is
nothing short of genocide.
But India
and Indonesia are never described as nations that should be deterred because of
the record of gross violations of human rights. Nor are the Western nations for
their endless crimes against humanity on all continents.
Are human
rights only for those at home? Are 50, 60 or even 200 million that West
murdered mostly in poor countries, not ‘human’?
*
To claim
that there is no racism in the way China is perceived would be ludicrous.
I have
friends, otherwise sensible and progressive men and women, who, when China is
mentioned, close their ears and begin to scream: “No, I never want to go there.
It is terrible!”
Communist,
socialist, or capitalist, the success of Asian nations is never taken lightly
in the West.
Who can ever
forget the sarcasm and ‘mistrust’ directed towards Japan when it bypassed,
economically and socially, most of the European nations. And until now, when
someone mentions that Singapore has many social indicators that are better than
those in Australia, he or she is immediately countered by derogatory outbursts,
directed at the tropical city state.
Both
Singapore and Japan are staunch Western allies and highly-developed market
economies integrated in the global capitalist system.
China is
different. It is developing its own model; it is clearing and creating its own
path through unknown territory. It is unwilling to follow orders from others.
It is too big, its culture too old.
In the past,
like Japan, China was closed, living in its own realm, never externally
aggressive, with no expansionist ambitions.
Westerners
arrived and forced it to open. What followed were bloodbaths and deceits,
confusion and a long period of national humiliation and stagnation.
Then came
the struggle for independence, and revolution. Not easy, not smooth, but China
once again grew, began rising to its feet, educating its people, housing and
healing the poor.
It went its
own way; a complex way of balancing between its own culture and global
conditions, between socialism and the capitalist reality that is dominating the
world.
It
experienced some setbacks but many more accomplishments. And it did not really
‘rise’; it just began regaining its rightful place in the world, the place that
was denied to it for so long, after years of plunder and debilitating invasions.
It is generally a benign nation inhabited by kind
hearted people. Almost all those that know China, agree on that.
But it is also an extremely determined and proud
nation. It is wise, and in search of harmony, always willing to compromise.
To try to
corner it, to provoke it, to attack it, would be insane, and almost suicidal.
This time China will not yield, not when essential issue are involved. There is
still the fresh memory there, of what happened when it did.
The West,
blinded by the fear that it could lose the privileges of the dictator, is doing
the unthinkable: sticking an iron rod into the dragon’s mouth. Here in Asia,
dragons are respected and loved – mythical creatures of great wisdom and power.
But dragons
can also be fierce when good-will is broken, and invaders are threatening to
ravage the nation.
***
China is
growing and trying to understand the world, to interact with it. Its people are
enthusiastic about what they see; they want to make friends.
The West is
acting in the most antagonistic way: once again triggering an arms race,
spreading the most vitriolic propaganda, corrupting entire nations in Asia and
Oceania into adopting an anti-Chinese stand.
Understandably,
the West did not sacrifice all those millions of people, all around the world,
just to abandon its dictatorial and exclusive grip on power. It did not destroy
dozens of freedom-seeking countries; it did not bomb tens of millions to
oblivion, just to back up now.
In the
future, confrontation cannot be excluded, and it is clear who will be at fault.
China will
not abandon its course. There will be no Chinese Yeltsin. By standing firm,
China is showing an example to the world.
As these words are being written, Latin America is
resisting and winning. Russia is resisting while searching for its own
direction. And others may join. Africa is dreaming about resisting, but still
does not dare; still too damaged. Arab countries dare, but have yet to decide
in which direction to place their dreams.
But
discontent with the boots crashing freedom is growing. And China is not the one
who is wearing them.
The
irrationality and racism of the West may backfire.
Andre Vltchek is a novelist, filmmaker and investigative
journalist. He covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. His book on
Western imperialism in the South Pacific – Oceania – is
published by Lulu. His provocative book about post-Suharto Indonesia and
market-fundamentalist model is called “Indonesia
– The Archipelago of Fear” (Pluto). After living for many years in Latin
America and Oceania, Vltchek presently resides and works in East Asia and
Africa. He can be reached through his website.
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