#US 🇺🇸 Hegemony

[xtruss]

North Atlantic Terrorist Organization’s (NATO's) Bloody Legacy In 90 Seconds!

Today marks the 75th anniversary of a legal document that would forever alter the landscape of global politics. On August 24, 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty, commonly known as the Washington Treaty, was officially enacted following the completion of its ratification process.

The late 1990s and early 2000s turned out to be the bloodiest decades for the victims of NATO's aggression. The bloc’s attacks on Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya exemplify the alliance's disturbing pattern of impunity, which has resulted in countless people ending up displaced, wounded, or killed.

Originally conceived as a collective security alliance to counter the Soviet Union, NATO has since morphed into a tool to assert Western dominance worldwide.

What will the coming decades bring?

North Atlantic Terrorist Organization’s (NATO's) 75-Year Bloody Legacy: Today marks the 75th anniversary of a legal document that would forever alter the landscape of global politics. On August 24, 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty, commonly known as the Washington Treaty, was officially enacted following the completion. — Sputnik International, August 24, 2024

[2shebears]

Intro/Pinned 💞

hi jumblr, I'm ray/רחל and this is my sideblog for jewish stuff! I follow from my main blog with the initials f-a-c. on this blog i want to talk about things like tzniut and gender roles, israel/palestine, indigeneity, antisemitism, xtian hegemony, community, and observance! so you know, all the jewish things.

=about me=

🇹🇼🇺🇸

27/cis/pan/she/her/hers

i speak english & français, have studied latin, italian, and ancient greek, have tiny household amounts of mandarin, and am learning modern hebrew

married!!!

(almost) intellectual property attorney, aiming to become a cultural property attorney for indigenous peoples! i've participated in UN talks about indigenous rights ✨

wish me luck on the bar exam

based in NYC

reblogs with "read later" tags are NOT endorsements lol i have not read them yet

=faq=

what's your jewish frame of reference? nominally aligned with open/modern orthodoxy (YCT beis din) but really post-denominational. my husband has an askhi dad and a mizrachi mom so we follow a mix of minhagim leaning heavily ashki. my observance is personal and evolving, but rn I cover my hair sometimes (always at shul & on holidays), host kosher-style, and attend a non-affiliated conservative-ish shul. I light candles and unplug on shabbat & chagim, and categorically will not do legal work, but I don't abstain from most muskeh. I'm an artist so being able to create on my holiest days is really special, sorry hashem. strongly dislike taharas hamispacha but am compliant on a technicality. I have multiple tattoos and multiple piercings (not just classic lobes). I spell out God but might evolve on this one. actually might evolve on basically all of these. I am a jewish work in progress!

what's your israel frame of reference? husband's family is largely in israel, incl olim, sabras, mena refugees. my in-laws live in jerusalem. i have both israeli and palestinian friends and coworkers. I got bit really hard by a cat in tel aviv once and had to get a rabies vax course and every doctor at the israeli health ministry made fun of me for getting bit (fair)

are you a zionist? no in the sense that i'm in favor of palestinian statehood and self-determination; yes in the sense that I don't think the state of israel and its denizens should be wiped off the face of the earth as a prerequisite for the peace process; yes in the sense that I think israel is an actual state (one that is actively doing war crimes!) and I don't think it needs to be held to unique standards; no in the sense that i would generally be okay with a peace process that completely restructures or essentially ends the current state so long as it does not extinguish jewish self-determination in the region; yes in the sense that i am a jew who will argue with you ;)

you're into Indigenous rights, so how does that bear on i/p? i i literally have so much to say about this that I wrote my law schol capstone on it. Indigeneity is an extremely capacious and fuzzy designation. It doesn't solve land or statehood issues. both israeli jews and palestinian arabs tick MANY of the boxes of being Indigenous but don't map perfectly onto the anglo-settler states and their indigenous peoples, and that is okay and interesting and cool to talk about. finally the things happening now would be horrifying whether or not any party is Indigenous. i'll use the tag #i/p indigeneity on this going fwd!

you posted something wrong about (insert thing here). ok not a question but please tell me if I do. I try to be a diligent fact checker but some things on social media are developing and unstable stories. I welcome fact checks always.

[rauthschild]

🇺🇸The U.S. War Machine: Congress Sidelines Itself, the Empire Marches On (for now)

Buried beneath the grandiose slogan of “democracy”: the US hasn’t declared war since World War II. Congress, the body constitutionally mandated to oversee such vital decisions, has been relegated to a cheerleading squad while the executive branch wields unchecked power like an emperor commanding legions.

This is imperial fiat masquerading as consent of the governed. From Vietnam to Iraq, Libya to Syria, the U.S. war machine roars on, fueled not by congressional debate but by rubber-stamped resolutions, appropriations, and the all-too-familiar "Authorizations for Use of Military Force". These legal fig leaves allow the White House to bomb, invade, and occupy without a whisper of accountability.

Let’s be blunt: Congress sold its soul. Since World War II, it has surrendered its constitutional prerogative to declare war, instead passing vague resolutions that grant presidents a blank check to wage war wherever and whenever they see fit. The result? Endless wars with no rational objectives, no exit strategies, and no accountability.

And what happens to the trillions of dollars funneled into these wars? Enter the military-industrial complex, the world’s most sophisticated money-laundering operation. These wars are about enriching defense contractors, lobbyists, and Pentagon officials who shuffle through the revolving door between government and industry. From Lockheed Martin to Raytheon, the same corporations profiting off the carnage also fund think tanks and political campaigns to keep the war machine running.

While the bombs fall, contracts worth billions flow into the coffers of weapons manufacturers. A significant chunk is then laundered back into DC, disguised as campaign contributions or lucrative speaking gigs. The Pentagon’s own accounting is so opaque that $2 trillion in spending has been deemed "untraceable." And let’s not forget Ukraine or Israel, the MIC’s latest cash cow, where tens of billions in U.S. aid vanish into a black hole of corruption.

The wars of the 21st century don’t even bother with pretense. Forget declarations; the U.S. now engages in hybrid wars, proxy conflicts, economic strangulation through sanctions, and information warfare. Syria, Yemen, Venezuela, these are not declared wars, but they are wars nonetheless, waged in the shadows with the same deadly consequences. And behind every drone strike or sanction lies another bloated defense budget, another no-bid contract, another slush fund for the MIC.

The Declare War Clause was meant to check power, to ensure that the decision to spill blood was taken soberly and democratically. Instead, it has been sidelined by an empire that cannot stop expanding, an empire that feeds on forever wars. This is not about defending freedom, but controlling resources, securing markets, and maintaining hegemony at any cost.

And as BRICS rises, as the Global majority asserts its sovereignty, the Empire grows more desperate.

Its (losing) wars: kinetic, economic, and informational, are not signs of strength but of fragility, the thrashing of a system that cannot adapt to a multipolar world.

Who benefits from this endless bloodshed? Not the American people, saddled with $38 trillion in national debt and over $200 trillion in unfunded liabilities. The winners are the same cabal that profits whether the bombs drop or not: defense contractors, Wall Street speculators, and the political elite.

The MIC is not just about war but about money laundering on an imperial scale. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Cash cows. The conflict in Ukraine? A feeding frenzy for weapons dealers and their political masters.

This is not just America’s problem. The endless wars waged by the U.S. ripple out, destabilizing nations, wrecking economies, and displacing millions.

The Empire stumbles, but it won’t fall on its own. It’s time to push harder. The age of unaccountable wars and untraceable profits must end.

- Gerry Nolan

[kneedeepincynade]

The United States can not be trusted,they have only their imperial aims in mind and will never pursue a true bilateral relationship

The post is machine translated

Translation is at the bottom

The collective is on telegram

⚠️ WANG WENBIN: "GLI USA CONOSCONO MEGLIO DI QUALSIASI ALTRO PAESE IL SIGNIFICATO DI BULLISMO E COERCIZIONE" ⚠️

🇨🇳 Il Chad d'Oriente, il Compagno Wang Wenbin - Portavoce del Ministero degli Affari Esteri della Repubblica Popolare Cinese - ha ricordato agli imperialisti statunitensi che la Cina non scenderà mai a compromessi né farà concessioni sulla salvaguardia della Sovranità Nazionale e dell'Integrità Territoriale ⭐️

🇺🇸 Le tigri di carta americane, ben rappresentate dall'ipocrita Lloyd Austin, sono solite attaccare e diffamare la Cina per una presunta «aggressività», quando - in realtà - si tratta di rispondere al provocatorio avventurismo statunitense nel Mar Cinese Meridionale e - più precisamente - nello Stretto di Taiwan 😡

🐰 Non troverai aerei e navi Cinesi verso la Florida o la California, ma puoi trovare spesso aerei e navi USA e dei loro lacchè nel Mar Cinese Meridionale. Gli USA praticano una forma di «egemonia della navigazione» 😡

🇨🇳 Il Compagno Wang Wenbin ha osservato che le pratiche egemoniche degli USA sono la causa principale dell'elevato livello di rischio in Tema di Sicurezza nell'aria e nel mare:

💬 "Gli USA conoscono meglio di qualsiasi altro Paese il significato di «bullismo» e «coercizione» | Secondo i Rapporti, soltanto nel 2022 gli USA hanno dispiegato più di 800 aerei le attività di ricognizione ravvicinata della Cina" 😡

💬 "Nel 2022, l'Esercito USA ha anche inviato Gruppi d'Attacco di Portaerei nel Mar Cinese Meridionale. [...] Questi atti, ovvero fare affidamento sulla superiorità militare mostrare il proprio potere e violare la sovranità di altri Paesi, sono atti di bullismo e intimidazione" 😡

💬 "La risposta della Cina alle provocazioni militari USA in mare e in aria è legittima e lecita, e non ha niente a che vedere con il cosiddetto «bullismo», [...] Non c'è spazio per compromessi o concessioni, non c'è alcuna «prepotenza» o «intimidazione», ma solo Principi a cui la Cina si attiene" ⭐️

🤔 Generale Li Shangfu: "Perché gli incidenti con gli USA avvengono sempre nel Mar Cinese Meridionale?" 🌟

🇨🇳 丢掉幻想，准备斗争 🚩

🌸 Iscriviti 👉 @collettivoshaoshan

⚠️ WANG WENBIN: "THE USA KNOWS BETTER THAN ANY OTHER COUNTRY THE MEANING OF BULLYING AND COERCION" ⚠️

🇨🇳 Eastern Chad, Comrade Wang Wenbin - Spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China - reminded the US imperialists that China will never compromise or make concessions on safeguarding National Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity ⭐️

🇺🇸 The American paper tigers, well represented by the hypocrite Lloyd Austin, usually attack and defame China for alleged "aggression", when - in reality - it is a question of responding to the provocative US adventurism in the South China Sea and - more precisely - in the Taiwan Strait 😡

🐰 You won't find Chinese planes and ships heading to Florida or California, but you can often find US planes and ships and their lackeys in the South China Sea. The USA practices a form of «navigation hegemony» 😡

🇨🇳 Comrade Wang Wenbin noted that US hegemonic practices are the main cause of the high level of security risk in the air and sea:

💬 "The US knows the meaning of «bullying» and «coercion» better than any other country | According to Reports, in 2022 alone, the US deployed more than 800 aircraft for China's close reconnaissance activities" 😡

💬 "In 2022, the US Army also sent Carrier Strike Teams to the South China Sea. [...] These acts, that is, relying on military superiority to show one's power and violate the sovereignty of other countries, are bullying and intimidation" 😡

💬 "China's response to US military provocations at sea and in the air is legitimate and lawful, and has nothing to do with so-called "bullying", [...] There is no room for compromises or concessions, no there is no "bullying" or "intimidation", but only principles that China adheres to" ⭐️

🤔 General Li Shangfu: "Why do incidents with the US always happen in the South China Sea?" 🌟

🇨🇳 丢掉幻想，准备斗争 🚩

🌸 Subscribe 👉 @collettivoshaoshan

[diallokenyatta]

It's wild how the same BLK PPL who claim "Africans Sold US into Slavery" enthusiastically celebrate BLKs enlisted in US Military, BLK Capitalist hoarding resources, BLK Celebrity Owned Fashion Labels exploiting Sweat-Shop Labor, Black Politicians advancing US Imperialism, etc.🤩 #BlackExcellence I even see BLK PPL spreading Right-Wing lies about the so-called "Illinois Purge Law," & calling for the preservation of cash bail & Qualified Immunity!🐷 So, we can conclude that BLK PPL in the US who want to emphasize "Black Slave Traders," are not concerned with Justice & the Abolition of White Hegemony & Capitalist Exploitation. They emphasize it to justify their rejection of African Solidarity in favor of Integration with the White Staus Quo.🇺🇸 "I have one question for those Negroes who always bring up how 'we sold each other into Slavery;' that question is: what did we do with the money?" -Dr. John Henrik Clarke💰 Heed: #ChancellorWilliams 📖 Heed: #LeroneBennett 📖 #BlackHistory #AfricanHistory #Slavery #TraitorsPastAndPresent #Abolition #PanAfricanism #BlackSolidarity #ChattelSlavery #AfricanColonization #Decolonization #BroDiallo (at South Side, Chicago) https://www.instagram.com/p/CiqGmSoO3LC/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[xtruss]

Arab World Sees Crackdown on RT as Admission of Role Russian Media Plays 'Conveying Truth to People'

— Ilya Tsukanov | Saturday September 14, 2024

© Sputnik/Evgeny Biyatov

The State Department has leveled fresh accusations against RT, claiming the Russian broadcaster is linked to Russian intel and engaged in a global influence operation. Journalists from the Arab World told Sputnik about the real reasons for the crackdown.

"You've asked questions for months and months about the Global South, and why there's not more support for Ukraine in this part of the Middle East or that part of Latin America or this part of Africa," US State Department Global Engagement Center director James Rubin told reporters at a briefing in Washington on Friday as the US government rolled out fresh allegations and restrictions against the Russian foreign language broadcaster.

"One of the reasons why so much of the world has not been as fully supportive of Ukraine as you would think they would be...is because of the broad scope and reach of RT, where propaganda, disinformation and lies are spread to millions if not billions of people around the world," Rubin said, complaining about Russian media's global reach and ability to get alternative viewpoints across.

Secretary of State Blinken, President Biden and other officials will be "talking" with counterparts "in Latin America, in Africa, in Asia and are going to be working with their colleagues to try to show all of those countries that...to broadcast, with no restriction of control, RT and allow them free access to their countries," and "has had a deleterious effect on the views of the rest of the world about a war that should be an open-and-shut case," Rubin added.

'Shocking' Hypocrisy and Duplicitousness

“These events clearly show that the world has once again been deceived by [US] claims of supporting a free media. Blinken leading the campaign against RT is more shocking than it is surprising, especially since the US is making these accusations against a channel expressing the views of many people around the world, not just in Russia,” Palestinian-British Journalist Abdel Bari Atwan told Sputnik.

“The US has a regime closer to a dictatorship than a democracy, and the campaign against RT contradicts Washington’s false claims that it seeks different opinions and democracy, which Americans no longer have,” Atwan suggested.

The Biden administration is “projecting onto RT its own favorite method of using the media for insidious purposes,” Ibrahim Awad, vice president of Lebanon’s National Media Council, told Sputnik.

It’s stunning “that the foreign minister of a superpower has become involved in such a matter, but on the other hand, the US’s deceptive position and attempts to sit on two chairs at once is not surprising,” Awad said.

US Sanctions on Russian Media Reveal Fear, Insecurity of Dying Empire – Ex-CIA Analyst! Former US State Department official and retired CIA intelligence officer Larry Johnson spoke with Sputnik about the new sanctions against Russian media announced by Secretary of State Antony Blinken Friday.

“Freedom of speech in America is under assault,” said Johnson as the Biden administration announced its latest punitive measures against Rossiya Segodnya, the parent company of RT and Sputnik. “I'm waiting to see if they're going to come down and sanction me, for example, for daring to appear on RT and offer commentary. I'm not compensated for that in any form or fashion.”

“The only thing that can kill free speech is this kind of persecution,” said the former CIA analyst.

— Ex-US Defense Department Analyst Karen Kwiatkowski:

“This really is divorced from reality.”

“They are creating news and media coverage of something that very much fits into their narrative, which is an anti-Russian narrative which is related to the campaign.”

What this reflects is just… one more symptom of a dying empire where they have to go out and attack others.”

“The only thing that can kill free speech is this kind of persecution,” said the former CIA analyst.

“It's irrational. And again, I think it's a symptom of a weakness on the part of the United States. Weakness and fear. That's where this originates… the United States is acknowledging that what it can't handle is the truth.”

“We are not allowed to speak freely about American foreign policy,” Kwiatkowski warned. “We see it in terms of the demonstrations across the country in support of Gaza, trying to end that genocide. We are not allowed in this country to criticize the American neoconservative foreign policy. That is a done deal. We do not have freedom of speech in that area at all.”

Zombie ‘Russiagate’ Conspiracy Persists as US Stokes Fear, Hatred of Moscow! — John Miles

The narrative has proven to be a useful tool as the United States supports economic, diplomatic, and military aggression against Russia.

“Russiagate continues to survive like a science fiction monster, resilient to bullets,” writes former CIA analyst Ray McGovern in a piece on the website Consortium News, noting the longevity and usefulness of the conspiracy in continuing to stoke hostility towards Moscow among the American public.

The notion that Russia interfered in the 2016 US presidential election or played a role in hacking leaked Democratic Party emails has persisted even after sworn testimony from the cyber security firm CrowdStrike confirmed the lack of evidence for the claim.

“The mainstream media has been incredibly adept at suppressing all this stuff,” McGovern noted on Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program Wednesday. “No matter what we write in Consortium News or other outlets – it's on antiwar.com now, too – or however much you and I share this information, we're fighting an uphill battle.”

“Why is this important? Just to remind folks who might not reflect on this, Russia has been demonized to the point where Donald Trump has been blamed on the Russians – think what you will of that,” he continued.

“And all kinds of other things have been blamed on the Russians to the point where if these not very emotionally stable people in the White House decide to go after the Russians in Ukraine or even get involved against the Russians in Syria or elsewhere in the Middle East, most of the American people say, ‘oh yeah, those damn Russians, didn't they give us Donald Trump?’”

The ingrained hostility towards Russia from the American public – and from Democratic Party supporters, in particular – has served as a useful tool in justifying continued US involvement in Ukraine’s proxy war against the country.

Former CIA head James Clapper, who presided over the agency’s illegal surveillance of the Donald Trump campaign during the 2016 election, has been instrumental in perpetuating the narrative. Clapper has made his distrust of Moscow clear, appearing to suggest nefarious qualities are somehow hardcoded into the DNA of Russian people.

“[Clapper claimed] the historical practices of the Russians [make them] almost genetically driven to co-opt, penetrate, gain favor, whatever, which is a typical Russian technique,” McGovern recalled, calling him a “Russophobe extraordinaire.”

“I Was The CIA Director… We Lied, We Cheated, We Stole,” Declared Former CIA Director Mike Pompeo During a Candid Moment In 2019. “We Had Entire Training Courses.”

A gene for dishonesty has yet to be found. But if one exists, Pompeo’s comment suggests it is most likely to predominate among CIA officials like Clapper, who have been responsible for the overthrow of dozens of world leaders and the deaths of millions of civilians.

Truth Hurts

Nasser Abu Bakr, head of the Palestinian Union of Journalists, says Washington’s assault on RT is an “admission of the role the channel plays in conveying the truth to people.”

The US elite “only wants one version of the world – their version, which entails falsification, lies and propaganda, and they don’t want the world to see the truth, hence the attempts to restrict all free media spreading truth and justice,” Bakr said.

Algerian professor of media studies Hakim Bugrara says the US regularly “undermines the humanitarian and democratic values it claims to defend” when someone falls outside its orbit.

“Washington does not accept the existence of strong media contradicting its position, and the Americans are particularly worried about Russian media, which has enormous reach and distribution, despite all attempts to interfere with its broadcasts.” Russian journalists have broken through the information blockade with their content and diversity of opinions, and most importantly, offered the world “a different perspective on current events and their underlying causes,” Bugrara said.

US Recognizes Russian Media Play Important Role in Reporting Truth - Experts

On September 4, the United States imposed sanctions against the Rossiya Segodnya media group, RIA Novosti, RT, Sputnik, and Ruptly. The new measures also affected Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik's parent media group.

Commenting on the US accusations against RT, political scientist and international relations expert Ruhollah Modabber told Sputnik that the US recognizes that Russian media, especially RT and Sputnik, play an important role in reporting the truth and countering false Western propaganda.

"People around the world turn to Russian media for the truth. RT and Sputnik have attracted a large audience. Western information sources fail at the same time as they try to show another reality through censorship. The Russian media have once again defeated the hegemony of the US and Europe in the information space", Ruhollah Modabber said.

The US wants to achieve information "censorship" against Russia because it has "failed" in Ukraine, Chilean political scientist Ingrid Urgelles, PhD told Sputnik, commenting on Washington's introduction of new sanctions against Russian media.

"This is another of the many attempts by the US to censor platforms that broadcast a point of view that differs from the imperialist agenda they promote. In this case, it is the conflict in Ukraine, and because the US lost, it also lost [global] support. That is why they are resorting to such extraordinary measures to blame the media, which is quite absurd, because it is not just about RT, but about the form in which people receive information," Ingrid Urgelles said.

In her opinion, RT as a media outlet has "always shown the other side of the coin and criticized US colonialism in different parts of the world."

The editor-in-chief of Russia's Rossiya Segodnya international media group and the RT broadcaster, Margarita Simonyan, said on Friday that she felt she had made a difference with her work, commenting on the new US sanctions.

"The US Department of State says RT is one of the reasons why Ukraine does not have larger support in other countries. I haven't lived my life in vain. Seriously," Simonyan wrote on Telegram.

RT Editor-in-Chief Cites Channel's Success as Key Factor Behind US Sanctions! © Sputnik/Evgeny Biyatov/Go to the mediabank

VLADIVOSTOK (Sputnik) - The editor-in-chief of Russia’s Rossiya Segodnya* international media group and the RT broadcaster, Margarita Simonyan, called RT's success as one of two reasons for US sanctions against Russian media, along with the elections in the United States.

"Why did they do it now? For two reasons — firstly, the projects turned out to be incredibly successful: our audience has grown very significantly compared to what it was when we broadcast openly. Last year alone, our English-language projects had almost 14 billion views. This hurts them. This is more than our closest competitors BBC and CNN," Simonyan said on the air of Rossiya 1 broadcaster.

"Plus they have elections — this is a scenario they have already worked out: as soon as there are elections, they need to quickly distract everyone with Russia," she added.

Simonyan recalled earlier that after the start of the Russian special operation, a number of Western countries supporting Ukraine had restricted the work of the TV channel and media group, including revoking licenses.

"In these countries and, in particular, in the US, we began to work, how can I say, underground. Guerrilla warfare is a well-known, familiar, and beloved business for any person born in the Soviet Union, and raised on Soviet textbooks, and educated in a Soviet school. We organized a number of 'guerrilla' projects," the journalist said.

She also emphasized that the audience in other countries had even increased.

"In addition to what we, of course, have left, broadcasting has been strengthened in those countries that allow us to do this. This is Latin America, this is the Arab world, we have grown very well in Africa," Simonyan said.

On September 4, the US Department of the Treasury announced sanctions against Simonyan and her deputies Anton Anisimov and Elizaveta Brodskaia. Deputy Director of the RT English-Language Information Broadcasting Andrey Kiyashko, RT’s Digital Media Projects Manager Konstantin Kalashnikov and a number of other employees of the broadcaster were also added to the sanctions list.

The US State Department, in a parallel move, tightened the operating conditions for Rossiya Segodnya and its subsidiaries, designating them as "foreign missions." Under the Foreign Missions Act, they will be required to notify the department of all personnel working in the United States and disclose all real estate they own.

US authorities also announced restrictions on the issuance of visas to individuals they allege are "acting on behalf of Kremlin-supported media organizations." However, the Department of State refused to disclose the names of those subject to the new visa restrictions. Commenting on the new sanctions, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller claimed the measures did not target any particular individual Russian journalists, but rather the employees of the targeted companies who were involved in "covert activities."

Meanwhile, US authorities have charged Kalashnikov and another RT employee, Elena Afanasyeva, with money laundering conspiracy and violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

*Rossiya Segodnya is the parent media group of Sputnik News.

[xtruss]

Sports Hegemony

— Liu Rui | August 12, 2024

Illustration: Liu Rui/Global Times

[xtruss]

Hegemony Is Challenged From Olympic To Global Competition

— Ai Jun | August 11, 2024

Illustration: Liu Rui/Global Times

The Olympics is supposed to be a competition that transcends borders and cultures, and stands for equality and fairness. Although we could witness touching moments of friendship that rise above wins, losses and national boundaries, it is becoming increasingly clear that major power rivalries are encroaching upon the Games, largely driven by the anxieties of once-dominant countries.

Even top US scholars admit this. "In this Olympics, as in most other races in the world today, there are two - and only two - superpowers: China and the United States," wrote Graham Allison from the Harvard Kennedy School in The National Interest. He added that China's rise, from essentially nowhere to become the leading rival of the US in the Olympics, mirrors its rise in virtually every other dimension to become the defining geopolitical rival in the 21st century.

He made a point. Zheng Qinwen claimed China's first tennis singles gold medal in Olympic history; Pan Zhanle set a new world record as he stormed to victory in the men's 100-meter freestyle final; and the China swim team made history by ending the US dominance of the 4x100m medley relay to take gold. For some time, Western countries, especially the US, have displayed that they are on top in athleticism, technology and national strength in these sports. However, this is no longer the case.

Western countries, especially the US, are unwilling to see China's rise in sports, as well as in other aspects. This has led to an absurd scene in Olympic history: The US media continuously questions the integrity of Chinese swim athletes, despite them being proven clean after undergoing 200 drug tests in just 10 days. Meanwhile, they ignore the visibly purple faces of the US swim team. Why don't they question if US approach to competing in the Olympics is clean and justified?

Just as how the US suppresses China's leading high-tech company, Huawei, it is also doing the same in sports by weaponizing drug testing to hinder China's rise in swimming.

On one hand, there is no credible explanation as to why the faces of the US swim team turned so unbelievably purple. It is even more mysterious when the US Embassy in China posted color-adjusted photos to celebrate the team's success at the Paris Olympics.

On the other hand, even though the Chinese swim team underwent the most frequent testing, there is still skepticism about the cleanliness of their results. Some US media outlets have shown a certain hysteria, as if there must be loopholes in China's achievements, and they believe that they have not yet interfered with Chinese athletes strongly enough. This is the reality that Chinese athletes face in competitive sports, much like the challenges China faces during its rise.

Fortunately, in various competitions, the Paris Games have shown China's overall rapid rise in sports. Chinese athletes show that solid strength is the core and foundation of everything. In events invented and dominated by Europeans and Americans, under rules set by Westerners, and with deliberate stumbling blocks made by the US, Chinese young people steadily advance from adversity to success through their own efforts.

They distinguish themselves from previous generations by shedding traditional restraints, confidently embracing their achievements and courageously confronting injustice and prejudice.

Pan said, "to those who look down on us, we've taken them all down." Chinese butterfly queen Zhang Yufei asked, "Why are Chinese athletes questioned when they swim so fast? Why didn't anyone dare to question Phelps when he won?"

Today, their voices have been heard. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has issued a stern rebuke to the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), exposing a scheme that allowed US athletes who had committed doping violations to compete without sanctions for years.

The Paris Games comes to an end, but the game surrounding the global doping control mechanism may have only just begun. It is time for the US to clarify if it has utilized its national power to protect athletes who use drugs yet pretend to be innocent in global competition. We will see in future events whether testing frequencies will be fair across all countries, and if the double standards and shameless practices of USADA will be seriously addressed, especially in the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028.

The fairness of international competitive sports is under scrutiny, with rules allowing only a few countries to dominate increasingly challenged. This trend extends beyond sports to broader global competition. While more struggles are ahead, the confident, honest and open-minded Chinese youth who reject hegemony and prove themselves through their strength offer a hopeful perspective.

— The Author is a Reporter with the Global Times.

[xtruss]

Jeffrey Sachs. Photo: Courtesy of Sachs

China Is Not A Threat To The US, But To US Hegemony: US Scholar Jeffrey Sachs

— Global Times | May 22, 2024

China is not a threat to the US itself, but rather a threat to US hegemony, US scholar Jeffrey Sachs said in a recent interview with Chinese media. He described the US' reaction to China's rise as "neurotic," pointing to publications like Foreign Affairs magazine which constantly discuss how to maintain US superiority over China and spread paranoia about China.

"Basically, what's happening is that China poses a threat to US hegemony. It's not a threat to taking over the US, to you, or to me, but a threat to the claim that the US runs the world," Sachs pointed out.

Sachs emphasized that China is not trying to take over the US and the reason why China is deemed as a threat by the US is because China is showing that it does not run the world the way the US likes to think it does.

In the US nowadays, various versions of "China threat" theories are rampant, revealing a neurotic sense of anxiety about China-related issues among US media and elites. From weather balloons to Chinese corn factories, garlic and cranes, and the recent hype about the so-called overcapacity brought by Chinese electric vehicles, US elites seem fixated on anything that could be perceived as a "China threat" and use this to justify their crackdown on China. This only reveals their anxiety about China's rise and their fear of losing hegemony, analysts believe.

Illustration: Liu Rui/Global Times

Other foreign scholars have also expressed views similar to those of Sachs. "We should not underestimate just how important being No.1 is to America's sense of identity," wrote British scholar Martin Jacques in a column for the Global Times. Jacques argued that for sustaining US hegemony, rather than seeing China as a relatively benign partner, the US instead regards China as a threat to its global primacy and find ways to contain, weaken and undermine it.

"No one country should consider itself leader of the whole world, because we need a world that is diverse, multipolar, and governed not by decisions of one country or the primacy of one country but by international law, especially the UN Charter," said Sachs in a previous interview with the Global Times, urging the US to develop a cooperative relationship with China.

"Right now, we are on a dangerous course. American foreign policy toward China is misguided and a serious mistake," he warned, noting that US politicians have been on a campaign to discredit China and to build an alliance of nations against China, which is obviously a very misguided and dangerous idea.

Joseph Solis-Mullen, A Political Scientist and Economist at the Libertarian Institute, also told the Global Times that the US must learn how to live with and deal with large, powerful states that do not acquiesce to US security prerogatives. "It is up to Americans to start demanding new and better ones, ones geared toward cooperation and the prosperity of all, not attempted global hegemony," he added.

Stephen Roach, a Faculty Member at Yale University and Former Chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, refuted the increasingly rampant "Sinophobia" in the US in an article in the South China Morning Post on March 28. In the article, Roach said, "There is good reason to worry about an increasingly virulent strain of this phobia spinning out of control in the US."

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US’ Double Standards, Hypocrisy Undermine Prospects For Lasting Peace In Gaza

— By Professor Victor Gao | March 15, 2024

Illustration: Chen Xia/Global Times

While the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip continues to deteriorate as regional conflicts drag on, the US military dropped food and water on Tuesday into the region. On the same day, it was announced by the Pentagon that the US army ships were also moving to the Eastern Mediterranean to build a pier to bring aid to civilians in Gaza. However, the US government is pushing itself into a quagmire, demonstrating a high level of double standards and hypocrisy.

On the one hand, the US has become the main lifeline behind the Israeli military, providing a tremendous amount of equipment, ammunition, weapons of all kinds, military intelligence, as well as money. On the other hand, the US has taken some actions seemingly aimed at providing more humanitarian support to the Palestinian people, alleviating their agonies, pain and suffering.

However, even before the ink dries on the US' pronouncement, the US military has stated that constructing the pier may require up to 60 days. This means that there would be a waiting period of 60 days before the pier could even begin to operate and receive supplies from overseas.

Currently, a war is raging in Gaza, and innocent lives are being lost. How can we afford to wait another 60 days or so? The US government should take immediate action by enforcing a cease-fire while simultaneously expediting the construction of the temporary pier. I hope this can be completed in a shorter time frame. Subsequently, the international community should be called upon to rush supplies to Gaza to alleviate the pain and suffering of the Palestinian people.

The conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is not being contained solely between the two sides. Instead, it has the potential to escalate out of control. Yemen's Houthis are attacking ships bound for or departing from Israel. Moreover, the US and the UK are bombing sites inside Yemen. Other countries, including Iraq, Syria and Iran, are facing increasing crises and strategic bombings by Israeli or Western forces.

Therefore, this is a critical moment for the US to stand up and do the right thing, rather than being accused by future generations of failing to live up to their responsibilities. However, the US does not appear to demonstrate any genuine commitment or willingness to end this conflict. I don't think they really care that much about the civilian deaths in Gaza. They are not dedicating enough resources or attention to do the right thing.

The Gaza crisis seems to be rapidly becoming a pawn in the US' presidential election. Just look at how Donald Trump and Joe Biden talk about the crisis in Gaza and how to deal with the Israeli government or its defense forces. They probably do not want to solve the problem and the crisis immediately. They would prefer to gain more votes by playing electoral tactics, any way they can.

In the US general election up to early November, even though the Gaza crisis itself is one of the most significant and horrific human tragedies in history, attention will likely be focused more on domestic issues rather than international ones. However, the Gaza crisis will undoubtedly influence the election in several ways.

First, many Muslim Americans are expected to mobilize their efforts to urge people not to vote for Biden. They perceive Biden as having let down the US by failing to stand firm in defending peace and the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, as much as the US defends the legitimate rights of the Israeli people.

Second, they are frustrated by the complete failure of the US in helping end the tragedies in Gaza. They are dismayed by the fact that the US has repeatedly blocked resolutions in the United Nations Security Council calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. As a result, they will likely be mobilized. Political activists will attempt to hold Biden accountable for the US' failure to promote a cease-fire in the Israel-Palestine conflict, a failure that has been demonstrated to the entire world.

However, while the American people may be paying attention to the Ukraine crisis and the Gaza conflict, their main focus is on domestic issues, particularly the outcome of the presidential election. Unfortunately, news about civilian deaths, atrocities and indiscriminate killings may be overshadowed by headlines about domestic affairs. This will be a tragic chapter for both the Palestinian people and Israel, as it undermines the prospects for lasting peace in the region.

This is a critical moment for the US to do the right thing and prevent a real crisis of lasting instability, hatred and confrontation between the Palestinian people and the Israeli people. The US should treat the Palestinian people the same as they treat the Israeli people. If anyone attempts to prioritize the political rights of the Israeli people at the expense of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, they will ultimately fail to serve the fundamental interests of the Israelis, as this is not how lasting peace for Israel can be achieved.

— The Author is a Chair Professor at Soochow University and Vice President of the Center for China and Globalization.

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“War On Gaza: How ‘The War Criminal & The Genocidal US’ Is Buying Time For ‘The Illegal Regime of Apartheid And Terrorist Isra-hell's Genocide.’”

As the US ambassador to the UN recently made clear in a rare moment of honesty, Washington is fully committed to facilitating Israel's destruction of the Palestinians

— Ammiel Alcalay | 28 February 2024 | Middle East Eye

The War Criminal US President Genocidal Joe Biden on the South Lawn as he departs the White House on 20 February, 2024 (AFP)

There are times when it makes sense, for the sake of one’s mental health, to simply ignore the boilerplate platitudes of politicians and official representatives, and other times when strict attention must be paid.

In the case of the US, given the truly dismal level of its official discourse at this point, it has become harder to tell the difference.

As the president himself is unsure of whether Ukraine, Iraq, Mexico or Egypt might be in question on any given day, or on those very rare days when he actually takes a question or two from a mostly stenographic and domesticated press corps, it has become easier and easier to just stop paying attention and simply write all of it off as subterfuge and nonsense meant to add yet another layer to the iron wall protecting Israel’s genocidal actions.

And yet, there are those rare moments when one official or another actually says what they mean and reveals how policies intend to proceed.

Following discussion and the scathing response by Russia's UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, to last week's reprehensible and criminal US veto of the Algerian resolution for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the US's ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, offered a very brief press conference.

In conclusion, she stressed the importance of “direct diplomacy on the ground until we reach a final solution”. The thrust of this, of course, is that there could be no “immediate ceasefire��, since the delicacies of “direct diplomacy” might be disturbed.

In other words, let the horrors continue, come what may, and let the rest of the world be damned, as the US and its few remaining allies buy more time for Israel to achieve its purported goals.

Through the fog of propaganda, disinformation and all kinds of coercion (not to mention the huge UN veto stick wielded by the US), can there still be any doubt about what those goals actually are?

As the Overton window of what has become normalised continues to expand exponentially on the ground in Gaza, it would be difficult not to understand the intent of Thomas-Greenfield’s phrase, "final solution", and the whiplash sense of cognitive dissonance it was meant to inflict.

Unfathomable Cruelty

The Gaza weapons testing, population control and surveillance laboratory, open to global consumers since at least 2007 and the Israeli imposition of a total blockade on the Gaza Strip, has clearly moved into a new phase.

While there are instrumental political implications of great import in this "new phase”, there is, as well, a direct affront to our very sense of what it still might mean to be human in the digital age of immediate global communication and the almost full lockstep consolidation and docility of mainstream western media sources.

What are we to make of the US enabling of the relentless Israeli killing and destruction machine, along with the almost unfathomable daily cruelty accompanying it? Is it simply in order to kill and terrorise as many Palestinians as possible, particularly children and women?

Is it to destroy all existing institutions and structures? Roads, water systems, power stations, agricultural capacities, homes, schools, universities, hospitals, libraries, mosques, churches, bookstores, bakeries, pharmacies and even so-called designated “safe zones” to the point of making Gaza completely uninhabitable?

Or is it in order to take over and exploit the offshore gas fields that Palestinians have a right to benefit from but have never been given access to? Might there also be other messages directed at the world?

In the days immediately following Thomas-Greenfield’s delaying tactic of yet another US veto to a ceasefire resolution, and her “final solution” utterance, Israeli occupation forces built a road cutting northern Gaza off from the south, while bombing Unrwa facilities and a Doctors Without Borders staff shelter.

Food and medicine supplies continue to be blocked and stalled by Israeli occupation forces. Following one of the first recorded cases of an infant dying from starvation, 10,000 more children are in imminent danger of starving from malnutrition, and after them, of course, many more children and elderly are likely to follow.

Some half-a-million people are close to famine in northern Gaza, even as Israeli snipers strafe Palestinians desperately trying to reach the little aid that trickles in.

With a precise level of genocidal cruelty that becomes ever more evident, Israeli forces carried out precision strikes in Beit Lahia and Jabalia to destroy rescue and sanitation machinery and vehicles.

This has increased the chance of disease spreading in those areas, while forcing residents to search through the rubble for survivors or the bodies and body parts of loved ones with only their hands and basic tools, even further exhausting the already malnourished.

Cynical US Policy

At the same time, Egypt - inexplicably not yet having torn up its peace agreement with Israel - continues apace in building some vaguely referred to “area” in the Sinai Desert at the border with Rafah. Most recently, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released his first sufficiently vague post-assault “plan” for control of Gaza.

Meanwhile, many Israelis remain displaced, the economy has taken a serious hit, and - other than pure destruction and death - things are not going so well on the ground regarding Netanyahu’s purported “aims” of the assault: repatriating Israeli hostages and destroying Hamas.

How, at this point, can anyone doubt that mass expulsion is not only possible but plausible? And, as both occupation and settler marauders continue their deadly rampages throughout the West Bank and Jerusalem, can anyone still seriously doubt the possibility of the actual destruction of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, something constantly alluded to and even gleefully taught in some Israeli schools?

Clearly, the surround-sound blather spouted by various political figures is one of the prime means to contain our imagination, to refer to things only within certain parameters, making other things unthinkable, unimaginable, even as they stare us directly in the face.

On the broader geopolitical front, the continuing expansion of Nato as a means to maintain US hegemony in the face of Brics and the multi-polarity championed by the Russian-Chinese alliance has put the US into panic mode.

The Continuing Expansion Of North Atlantic Terrorist Organization (NATO) As A Means To Maintain War Criminal US’ Hegemony In The Face Of BRICS And The Multi-Polarity Championed By The Russian-Chinese Alliance Has Put The US Into Panic Mode

The utterly cynical US policy of paying for a proxy war in Ukraine as a means of effecting regime change in Russia has proven to be an utter failure, and seen so by more and more US taxpayers, asked to foot the massive bill, even as allegiance to this same war policy impoverishes Europe as well.

In the minds of neocon policymakers and the war-mongering uni-party alliance in Washington, this failure - and the geographic imperative to maintain control of certain shipping routes to assure US dominance - has almost made the opening of a new front in the Middle East inevitable, and it is the expendables, the Palestinians, who are being forced to pay the price.

Add to all this the fact that, following years of orchestrated cognitive dissonance in the US across a myriad range of issues - from purported Russian collusion, election fraud, Covid treatment, vaccination mandates, the summer of George Floyd, 6 January 2021, the war in Ukraine, the Twitter Files, to so many others - an ideal situation for those in power has been created.

Those once outraged at being censored or shadow-banned for views identified with the right are now all too ready to ban pro-Palestinian speech. And those now harassed, doxxed or even fired for airing their views can’t understand what all the fuss was about when Twitter banned President Donald Trump.

We now have an evenly divided population, at each other’s throats over almost every issue, with little or no ability left to stand on principle about anything. This can be seen most clearly in questions centred on free speech, and through the media and social media landscape, the very realms through which the atrocities taking place daily in Gaza are filtered or presented.

Information Saturation

We have moved far from the courageous revelations of Julian Assange, who is now appealing against a court ruling to extradite him to the US, where the same political and media class crying crocodile tears for recently deceased Russian dissident Alexei Navalny utter not a word in favour of Assange.

While the work of Assange, Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden and others involved the exposure of information held in secret from the citizenry, we are now at the stage of unending information saturation in which secrecy no longer seems to matter.

With almost everything out in the open and available, the task has become about verifying, rather than uncovering, reality. And in doing so, “narratives” are built.

Despite various forms of censorship and disinformation, we have never lived through such a genocidal attack in which so much information is not only readily available but can often be seen in real-time. How, then, as both consumers and producers of information, as well as political constituents, can we respond to the present situation?

From this perspective, it is hard not to see the prolongation of this agony delivered upon a particular people, the Palestinians, and its broadcasting of their most vulnerable moments, as some kind of further testing ground of the very category of the human and humans, and it also brings into sharp relief just how limited our political powers are, even in ostensibly representative democracies.

The significance of South Africa bringing the charge of genocide against Israel to the International Court of Justice, along with the ICJ’s initial findings, cannot be underestimated, but it remains only a tool that we must learn how to use in order to expand the grounds upon which we think and act in the world.

As we watch the core institutions in our societies rot and disintegrate from within, due to an inability to name what is happening in Gaza and the world, positions once deemed principled ring more than hollow.

With Every Minute That Passes, New Lessons In Cowardice And Cruelty Are Given By The Terrorist Isra-hellis And Their US Enablers

As mothers in Gaza can barely give birth or feed their babies, as fathers cannot protect their children, as doctors cannot heal, and as many cannot even retrieve the bodies of their loved ones for burial, we can only conclude that this poisonous cruelty is aimed at the very idea of being a child, a mother, a father, a healer, a mourner.

We are up against a regime that has taken direct aim at humanity. With every minute that passes, new lessons in cowardice and cruelty are given by the Israelis and their US enablers. At the same time, we must stand in humble awe of the resistance and humanity shown by the people of Gaza.

But in continuing to expose this genocide, we must ask more of ourselves. We must find ever more useful ways to resist and stay human in pursuit of a just political solution to one of the world’s most exposed and festering wounds, whose time for healing has long been evident.

— Ammiel Alcalay is a Poet, Novelist, Translator, Essayist, Critic, and a Scholar. He is author of more than 20 books including After Jews and Arabs, Memories of Our Future and the forthcoming CONTROLLED DEMOLITION: a work in four books. He is Distinguished Professor at Queens College, CUNY, and the CUNY Graduate Center in New York.

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Malaysian PM’s Remarks Reveal US’ Self-Entertaining Hegemonic Diplomacy

— Global Times | February 26, 2024

Illustration:Xia Qing/Global Times

In Simple and Clear-Cut Remarks, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim told the US, Europe and a wider range of the World that the baton of American Hegemony is Failing - Washington is increasingly incapable of dictating the choices of other Countries.

"Anwar Ibrahim questioned why Malaysia would 'pick a quarrel' with China, its largest trading partner, in response to US criticisms of his country's ties with Beijing," Financial Times (FT) reported on Sunday. "Why must I be tied to one interest? I don't buy into this strong prejudice against China, this China-phobia," he said in an interview with the FT. In the same piece, Anwar is quoted as saying, "We are a small country struggling to survive in a Complex World … I want to focus on what is best for us."

The FT was attempting to induce Anwar to toss out an answer that is expected by the West, such as, Malaysia is siding with the US, or at the very least, Malaysian relationship with the US is strong and not influenced by China. Clearly, Beyond the West's Soap Bubble, the World is Very Different. To be straightforward, it is a proof that more and more countries are not buying into the US hegemony any longer.

Southeast Asia is very close to China and is a key region in the US' "Indo-Pacific Strategy." However, the US faces the greatest difficulty in isolating China in the region. In 2000, US trade with ASEAN was more than three times that of China-ASEAN trade. By 2020, China's trade was almost double that of the US. And today, China has become the largest trading partner of almost all ASEAN countries. Larger economies of ASEAN, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, are not willing to take sides. All of them hope to leverage the contradictions between China and the US to maximize their own interests.

Against this backdrop, US "Indo-Pacific Strategy" is now being mentioned less frequently by Americans, as it is increasingly clear this strategy is not working, Shen Yi, a Professor at Fudan University, told the Global Times.

Ganging up with partners and allies is a vital means for the US to maintain its hegemony. Traditionally, the alpha of a gang is supposed to take the lead when charging forward, while others follow and benefit from it. Yet when it comes to the current US hegemony, Washington pushes others to the forefront, exploiting them while having little to offer.

When tensions between China and the Philippines are escalating in the South China Sea, Manila has been facing warnings of a rice crisis. Has the US done anything to show strong support to the Philippines in this regard? No trace can be found in news coverage.

Malaysia is one of the most "Neutral" countries in ASEAN. It has a bitter memory of colonial aggression and the harm caused by the power games during the Cold War, it is thus very averse to great power competition and unwilling to take sides, Chen Xiangmiao, director of the World Navy Research Center at the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, told the Global Times.

Chen added that Anwar is sober toward the consequences of taking sides, which would jeopardize the overall relationship and interests with one of the two major powers, and could lead ASEAN to becoming a vassal state. There are 11 members in the bloc, each country has a different level of relationship with China and the US. Hence the outcome of being coerced to take sides could also likely lead to growing divergences in the region and even the disintegration of ASEAN. From whatever perspective, Anwar embodies a highly pragmatic attitude, protecting the interests of his country and ASEAN, and his remarks represent the mainstream position of ASEAN.

The vast majority of countries make diplomatic decisions based on their own national interests. If the US wants other countries to change their diplomacy, it must show them reasons for gains and losses. In recent years, the US has not ceased putting pressure on ASEAN, Which is Firmly on the Path of Neutrality and Non-Alignment, hoping to bring ASEAN into Washington's camp. But what benefits can the US offer ASEAN?

Remember the US-ASEAN Special Summit in Washington, DC in 2022? Leaders of ASEAN went all the way to the US, to hear the US announce an investment of $150 million for all the ASEAN member countries combined. What a Chicken Feed. In December 2023, Japanese media outlet The Asahi Shimbun reported that Anwar said that when he visited the US, he was asked Why Malaysia is Tilting Toward China. He replied, "Because They're Investing More."

China is committed to common development. It focuses on Baking the Cake Bigger for Win-Win Cooperation and Mutual Prosperity. Yet the US is busy launching Anti-China and Anti-Russia Campaigns, dividing the world into different camps, disrupting international cooperation, and demanding obedience from other countries, when all others want a peaceful international environment to develop.

The US no longer has the capability to play a dominant global role, in addition, there's no global environment to allow it to do so. Its hegemonic mentality and approaches are outdated. That's why we have witnessed French President Emmanuel Macron openly urging Europe to reduce its dependence on the US; an HSBC executive slamming "Weak" UK for backing the US against China; Africa and Latin America emphasizing the rise of the Global South; India, Japan, and South Korea adjusting their distance from China, trying to please the US for their own interests while making sure their ties with China won't deteriorate rapidly to turn themselves into a pure US pawn; and most recently, Anwar's criticism of China-phobia.

Only the feet know if the shoes fit. The US has been persuading other countries that cooperating with China is not the right shoes, but other countries are telling the US now that the shoes fit comfortably, Shen said.

At the same time, the US is left alone, living in its own fantasy of hegemony, talking to itself.

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Wrong Perception

— Liu Rui | January 25, 2024

Illustration: Liu Rui/Global Times

Under Siege

— Liu Rui | January 24, 2024

Illustration: Liu Rui/Global Times

Shifting Dynamics: Asia Pacific Becomes New Hub of World Economy, Global Times! January 25, 2024

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'Nobody's Money Safe in the War Criminal, Hypocrite, Hegemonic Liar, Fake Democracy Preacher West' If Russia's Assets Used to Fund Ukraine - Journo

© Sputnik/Alexandr Demyanchuk/Go to the Mediabank

US Media Reported on Thursday that the Biden Administration was considering using the estimated $300 Billion in Russian Assets Frozen in Western Banks to fund the Kiev government. Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened “severe consequences” if the plan is put into action.

If the Biden administration gets away with illegally using seized Russian assets to fund Ukraine, that would “Basically Nuke the Entire Western Financial System," Journalist Nebojsa Malic told Sputnik.

“I'm not exaggerating. If they're allowed to do this, then nobody's money is safe in the West. Period. Full stop. End of story," said the Serbian-American journalist. "And any country outside of the G-7 or NATO would be certifiably insane to hold any of its foreign currency, or reserves, or any assets in the West where it's accessible to the US and its allies. Because it is, it would not be safe. They could make up any pretext to confiscate it.”

As the West struggles to scrape together new aid packages for Kiev, the Biden administration has turned its eye on Russia’s foreign exchange reserves that were frozen by Western nations after the start of the conflict in Ukraine.

According to unnamed American and European officials quoted by The New York Times, Washington, in coordination with the G7, is now, "taking another look at whether it could sidestep congressional approval" to use the estimated $300 billion in funds.

Venezuela had its assets seized by the US and its Latin American and European allies including Britain, Nebojsa Malic recalled. Washington claimed at the time that it was transferring them to Juan Guido, the opposition leader that it recognized as the head of a government-in-exile based in the US, going as far as to evict the Venezuelan diplomatic mission from its embassy.

The US and other western countries refused to recognise the results of the 2018 presidential election in Venezuela, in which Nicolas Maduro secured an overwhelming victory for another term.

In practical terms, the measures meant that the government in Caracas could not access its gold reserves. It had been a “creative interpretation of laws and regulations,” said the journalist. However now, in the case of Russian assets, “this is this unprecedented next step.”

“This would basically be: 'we're confiscating your assets because we say so... And what are you going to do about it?'," Malic said, but "unfortunately for them, the rest of the world can do something about it, which is to immediately, or gradually, or with all applicable alacrity, withdraw their consent from the US financial market.”

US Will Sacrifice the Dollar if It Hands Russian Assets to Ukraine! Saturday December 23, 2023, Ian DeMartino

Faced with a Congress that has refused to provide more aid to Ukraine, US media reported on Thursday that the US under President Joe Biden, is considering using the estimated $300 billion in Russian assets that are frozen in Western banks to fund the Kiev government.

The United States is willing to sacrifice the US Dollar in order to not appear to lose to Russia in Ukraine, despite the catastrophic consequences, Mark Sleboda, an analyst for security and international relations told Sputnik’s Final Countdown on Friday.

“Other countries will say, ‘well, the dollar is no longer a reliable global reserve currency’ if the US can just seize somebody's money, whenever [they] have geopolitical problems with them. That breaks the terms of the global financial and economic system that was set up by the US and the West starting all the way back with Bretton Woods in the 1960s,” Sleboda said, noting that by simply freezing the assets, the US already encouraged this process to begin, pointing to Saudi Arabia which has been looking for alternatives to the petrodollar.

“They're talking about $61 billion from the US for one year. So, even if not all of it is stolen - because that's what it would be, theft. Then that could fund the Kiev regime's economy, which is entirely dependent on the West to a tune of some 50 to $60 billion a year, plus their military expenses on top of that. So it is a considerable sum of money.”

“Boom, [Western assets in Russia are] gone. Russia already made that clear. If the US and other Western countries do that, they will seize every Western asset by companies, by private individuals. Anything they can seize in Russia, they will seize,” Sleboda explained. “And then we are in a whole new, I mean, the rules of the global economy that have existed certainly for the last 30 some years, but really, for the last 70 years could all come crashing down. And what starts with Russia could easily spread once you open this genie's bottle, it's hard to put it back in.”

The journalist pointed out that the greenback is only the world's reserve currency because people buy US securities and that the rest of the world was essentially “underwriting” the massive US debt, estimated at $32 trillion. “That's the only reason that inflation in the US appears to be milder than it actually is,” explained the pundit.

“If the world stopped underwriting the Federal Reserve, the Americans would have to actually face the consequences of this rampant money printing that the government has been doing for 50 years now,” Malic noted.

Any attempt to take these frozen Russian assets and give them to Ukraine in some way, shape or form would just be “economic suicide.”

“I don't think enough people in Washington and out of Washington truly appreciate how dire this is. It will hurt Russia a little bit, but it would be absolutely disastrous for the US,” Malic Warned.

The journalist underlined the damage the backfiring anti-Russia sanctions concocted by the West had done to Europe already.

“It completely wrecked German industry, which was the only industry remaining on the continent worth mentioning," Malic stressed. "Clearly the people who are masterminding this policy have no understanding of economics and they clearly don't have any respect for law of any kind. So why would we trust them to actually know what they're doing?”

There is very solid case that "open theft of assets would amount to an act of war," stated the journalist. He argued that the move may simply be a ruse to push Joe Biden’s huge supplementary funding bill through Congress.

The journalist said Washington had failed to think through the consequences of such actions. “They really need to realize that this is a stupid idea that will hurt the West far more than it would hurt Russia, that Moscow has already priced it in and calculated it into its policies, Malic said, adding:

“They want to try to help their own geopolitical interests and want to use Ukraine to bolster the American empire.”

— Svetlana Ekimenko, Sputnik International, Saturday December 23, 2023

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US ‘New Cold War’ Against China Is Self-Destructive

— By Jan Oberg | September 05, 2023

Illustration:Xia Qing/Global Times

Editor's Note:

The China-US bilateral relationship is one of the most important in the world. The trajectory of this relationship has attracted international attention. Still, the US is stepping up its efforts to suppress China on various fronts such as politics and diplomacy, economy, trade, technology, and military security, showing the true meaning of a cold war. The Global Times invites Chinese and foreign experts to expose the US' manipulation of the "new cold war" and reveal the damage it may potentially cause to the world.

A couple of years ago, The Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research, TFF, in Sweden, of which I am the director, published "Behind The Smokescreen. An Analysis of the West's Destructive China Cold War Agenda And Why It Must Stop."

Among several perspectives of the US/Western accusation industry, we looked into the medialized stories about genocide in Xinjiang, forced labor and Taiwan, and nine mainstream media manipulation methods that aim to manufacture a systematically negative image of China in the Western mind.

We found that a cold war occurs by influencing the "free" press - also the Western state press - through three main mechanisms: a) Fake or fabricated stories, b) Omission - for instance, of every positive aspect of China's developments, and c) Source Ignorance: using the same few sources spreading disinformation, from the US rippling through and being repeated ad nauseam and never checking the root empirical evidence or validity of the assertions, in short, FOSI.

Ultimately, this causes a decay of the crucial and critical role of mainstream media and their conversion toward tabloid banalizing black-and-white worldviews - "we good, them evil" - that promote confrontation and warfare, all operated by the Military-Industrial-Media-Academic Complex, MIMAC.

Tragically for democracy, mainstream media have become the leaders in promoting militarism, armament and legitimizing the empire and its wars. What are the elements of the cold war in all this?

First and foremost, the cold war is a psycho-political phenomenon. It dichotomizes our incredibly complex world into two: good versus evil. It seeks to preserve our superiority and keep others submissive and weaker. It promises war if its deterrence fails. And it precludes a world of equals, cooperation and mutual learning. If you are No. 1 in a system, you do not learn and listen; you teach, bribe and issue orders.

Cold wars may go well for the cold warrior when in ascendancy. In the "old" Cold War in Europe, two fundamentally Western systems - one based on Karl Marx, the other on Adam Smith, to put it crudely - competed while the US/NATO ascended after 1945. On all power scales, it was superior to the Soviet Union and its system. We know how it ended.

The winner then - foolishly - took it all: The US/NATO world did what it pleased within its exceptionalist "international rules-based order," not the UN Charter and other parts of international law. Catchwords: out-of-NATO-area military actions in violation of NATO's own Treaty - Yugoslavia - and regime change/resource/anti-terrorism wars on an assembly line basis; NATO's expansion against all promises given to the Soviet Union.

It all went so well and seemed so easy. Why listen to or empathize with others? Why focus on the changing world when "we" are the change-makers, God's own country par excellence? If we can get away with it, we do it. However, prudence, statesmanship and long-range thinking would have compelled global impact analyses instead of narcissist imperial self-aggrandizement.

The US Unilaterally Initiates New Cold War Against China! Illustration: Liu Xidan/Global Times

It went so well that the West overlooked the Rest: China's impressive socio-economic development based on an eclectic combination of Chinese concepts - that the West still doesn't understand - and imported Western elements; the establishment and maturation of organizations like BRICS, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and African and other regional organizations.

The West also did not sense the actual price that would be paid for its militarism: It's huge and growing burden on all civilian sectors, including technology and economy, and - in the wake of the history of colonialism and imperialism - the Rest becoming more and more nationally and collectively self-reliant - a concept developed about 50 years ago and ridiculed by the West.

And what was the result? Well, this is written the day after BRICS expanded with essential countries in Africa, the Middle East and South America - a huge step toward a multipolar and cooperative Rest saying: We can do without you, America and Europe! If you want to cooperate on new, reasonable terms, we are ready, but the days of your Western hegemony and universalization of Western values are coming to an end.

Such is global macro history: Empires have come and gone, and that of the US/NATO is the last: Nobody is so naive as to believe that it has a God-given right to be the ruler of the whole world and force others to accept its values.

The enormous world order changing before our very eyes is as predictable as it is inexorable. Only the ignorance - blinding intoxication - of power overlooks it. The West has run its race and become over-extended, insensitive to other cultures and ways of thinking, and unable to adapt to system changes but insisted on steering unilaterally. It's losing legitimacy in the eyes of others, relative economic and political strength and the creative ability to outline a better future world that the Rest feels attracted to: Classical decline indicators!

What I have said here is pure Gandhian thinking: You may harm others by using violence - physical, economic, military, structural, cultural and environmental - but, sooner rather than later, your violence boomerangs: It corrupts, debases, brutalizes and makes you more loathed than loved. A critical mass will develop.

In a deeper socio-cultural sense, the Christian Occident has never appropriately problematized those many types of violence upon which it built its relations with the Rest.

The West's cold war on China is about so much more than the issues that dominate daily news - chips, trade, Taiwan and the topics of the permanent accusation industry. It's about profound tectonic changes in humanity's way of developing - and about whether or not the West will join and contribute or become a de-developed periphery in the new world. And whether its empire will go down with a whimper or a bang, or adapt to macro history's unavoidable changes.

We know very little about humanity's future in the next 100 or so years. The safest philosophy will be for the Rest to, despite all, extend compassion and cooperation to the good forces of the West and abstain from tit-for-tat against its evil ones.

—The Author is the Director of the Sweden-based Think Tank Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research.

[xtruss]

Smearing BRICS As ‘Anti-US Camp’ Won’t Dent Its Increasing Appeal Around World

— Wang Yi | July 18, 2023

Illustration: Chen Xia/Global Times

At a time when the BRICS mechanism is becoming increasingly attractive, an article by VOA's Chinese site titled "Expansion and de-dollarization, will the BRICS turn into an anti-US camp?" claimed on Tuesday that "China hopes that the expansion of the BRICS should have the consideration of competing with the US," smearing the mechanism with sinister intensions.

By inciting confrontation with a zero-sum mentality, this VOA article attempts to portray the BRICS, an inclusive multilateral cooperation platform that promotes mutual benefit and win-win results, as an exclusive organization. It is also trying to drive a wedge among the countries of the BRICS cooperation mechanism. However, such smears that go against the facts cannot interfere with cooperation among the BRICS countries or undercut the attractiveness of the mechanism.

This round of smearing of the BRICS cooperation mechanism by the Western media has been going on for some time. For example, after the BRICS foreign ministers met in South Africa on June 1 and 2, the US Newsweek website published articles such as "BRICS is evolving from China-Russia dream to potential US nightmare" and "China's and Russia's growing BRICS bloc speeds decline of US influence."

Unlike the earlier despising and bad-mouthing of the BRICS, the US and Western media now show more worries and fears about the rapid expansion of the cooperation mechanism. This change fully reflects the indisputable fact that the BRICS mechanism has gained momentum.

Indeed, as a global governance platform built by large developing economies, it has continuously deepened practical cooperation and increasingly become a model of promoting South-South cooperation. The new vision of global governance advocated by the BRICS mechanism has increasing appeal. 19 new countries have formally or informally approached BRICS to express the interest in becoming members as it prepares to hold its annual summit in South Africa in August, according to media reports.

The economic influence of the BRICS countries is also becoming increasingly attractive to economies around the world amid risks. In 2022, BRICS countries accounted for more than 25.6 percent of global GDP, and the group is expected to contribute more than 50 percent by 2030. The huge market potential, abundant resources and regional cooperation have made the BRICS cooperation mechanism a strong magnet for global investors.

The reason why the cooperation mechanism attracts more and more countries is because this platform meets the needs of countries seeking stable economic development and cooperation against anti-globalization and protectionism and the risk spillovers from the economic policies of developed countries such as the US.

For instance, as for the BRICS' promotion of "de-dollarization" claimed by the American and Western media, all that the BRICS countries are doing is taking legitimate steps to protect their economies from common external shocks caused by the US dollar's hegemony.

In recent years, the US has abused the hegemony of the dollar, exacerbating the risks of the world economy. In this regard, many countries, even US allies, have responded to these risks by reducing their holdings of US debt, promoting bilateral currency agreements and diversifying their foreign exchange reserves.

Now, while economies across the world are hedging the risk of dollar hegemony, the BRICS cooperation mechanism effectively helps member countries deal with the risks brought about by the hegemony of the dollar and the irresponsible monetary policy of the US.

As the BRICS cooperation mechanism is further strengthened, slandering by Western media is expected to intensify. There may be more US and Western media and experts who accuse the BRICS of "wooing Southern countries against the US and the US dollar." Or they will resume rumor-mongering and division tactics to undercut the momentum of the expansion of BRICS.

However, the expansion of the BRICS has become an irresistible trend, which is not only conducive to the sustainable development of the BRICS mechanism but also in line with the interests of developing countries. Faced with the exclusive cliques formed by the US and the West to engage in camp confrontation, developing countries will voluntarily join the open, inclusive, cooperative and win-win BRICS mechanism. The noise made by the US and the West cannot reverse this trend.

— The author is a reporter with the Global Times.