by Mike Whitney • May 2, 2019 • 45 Comments
Your Geopolitical Quiz for the Day:
Two countries are embroiled in a ferocious rivalry. One country's meteoric growth has put it on a path to become the world's biggest economic superpower while the other country appears to be slipping into irreversible decline. Which country will lead the world into the future?
Country A builds factories and plants, it employees zillions of people who manufacture things, it launches massive infrastructure programs, paves millions of miles of highways and roads, opens new sea lanes, vastly expands its high-speed rail network, and pumps profits back into productive operations that turbo-charge its economy and bolster its stature among the nations of the world.
Country B has the finest military in the world, it has more than 800 bases scattered across the planet, and spends more on weapons systems and war-making than all the other nations combined. Country B has gutted its industrial core, hollowed out its factory base, allowed its vital infrastructure to crumble, outsourced millions of jobs, off-shored thousands of businesses, plunged the center of the country into permanent recession, delivered control of its economy to the Central Bank, and recycled 96 percent of its corporate and financial profits into a stock buyback scam that sucks critical capital out of the economy and into the pockets of corrupt Wall Street plutocrats whose voracious greed is pushing the world towards another catastrophic meltdown.
Which of these two countries is going to lead the world into the future? Which of these two countries offers a path to security and prosperity that doesn't involve black sites, extraordinary rendition, extrajudicial assassinations, color-coded revolutions, waterboarding, strategic disinformation, false-flag provocations, regime change and perennial war?
China's Belt and Road Initiative: A Tectonic Shift in the Geopolitical Balance of Power
Over the weekend, more than 5,000 delegates from across the world met in Beijing for The Second Belt and Road Forum For International Cooperation. The conference provided an opportunity for public and private investors to learn more about Xi Jinping's "signature infrastructure project" that is reshaping trade relations across Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa. According to journalist Pepe Escobar, "The BRI is now supported by no less than 126 states and territories, plus a host of international organizations” and will involve “six major connectivity corridors spanning Eurasia." The massive development project is "one of the largest infrastructure and investment projects in history, ….including 65% of the world's population and 40% of the global gross domestic product as of 2017." (Wikipedia) The improvements to road, rail and sea routes will vastly increase connectivity, lower shipping costs, boost productivity, and enhance widespread prosperity. The BRI is China's attempt to replace the crumbling post-WW2 "liberal" order with a system that respects the rights of sovereign nations, rejects unilateralism, and relies on market-based principles to effect a more equitable distribution of wealth. The Belt and Road Initiative is China's blueprint for a New World Order. It is the face of 21st century capitalism.
The prestigious event in Beijing was barely covered by the western media which sees the project as a looming threat to US plans to pivot to Asia and become the dominant player in the most prosperous and populous region in the world. Growing international support for the Chinese roadmap suggests that Washington’s hegemonic ambitions are likely to be short-circuited by an aggressive development agenda that eclipses anything the US is currently doing or plans to do in the foreseeable future.
The Chinese plan will funnel trillions of dollars into state of the art transportation projects that draw the continents closer together in a webbing of high-speed rail and energy pipelines (Russia). Far-flung locations in Central Asia will be modernized while standards of living will steadily rise. By creating an integrated economic space, in which low tariffs and the free flow of capital help to promote investment, the BRI initiative will produce the world's biggest free trade zone, a common market in which business is transacted in Chinese or EU currency. There will be no need to trade in USD's despite the dollar's historic role as the world's reserve currency. The shift in currencies will inevitably increase the flow of dollars back to the United States increasing the already-ginormous $22 trillion dollar National Debt while precipitating an excruciating period of adjustment.
Please go to The Unz Review to read the entire article.
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Source: The Jerusalem Post
China's Shandong province sets sights on Israeli innovation
"I know that Israel is very strong in green technology, so we feel that it would be beneficial to introduce Israeli technology into this sector."
By Eytan Halon | April 2, 2019
From left: Shandong Guohui Investment Co investment manager Zeng Fan, Cukierman & Co. Investment House CEO Haggai Ravid, Shandong Guohui Investment Co vice-general manager Wang Dongkai, Cukierman & Co. Investment House chairman Edouard Cukierman and Yang Xinbo, vice-director of International Economi. (photo credit: Courtesy)
A delegation of senior government and business leaders from China's coastal province of Shandong is touring Israel in search of innovative Israeli technology.
Home to 100 million residents and spanning 160,000 sq. km., industry and manufacturing-dominated Shandong boasts a gross domestic product of $1.1 trillion, the third largest in China.
On Sunday, the delegation, led by Wang Xuchao, vice director of Shandong's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC), met with more than a dozen Israeli hi-tech firms as the province aims to advance its industrial capabilities and increase its efficiency.
Greentech, water technology, renewable energy, life sciences and various aspects of the technology, media and telecom (TMT) sector are all areas of interest for the delegation, which was hosted by Cukierman & Co. Investment House in Tel Aviv.
"Shandong is a very strong province in many industries, including agriculture and manufacturing," Wang told The Jerusalem Post.
"But the major problem for Shandong is that the level of industry is relatively low compared to other provinces. That's why Shandong needs to learn from Israel, to introduce emerging industries and high-end technologies to the local market."
The desire to invest in Israeli technology and collaborate with Israeli partners follows the establishment of the Shandong-Israel Cooperation Program for Industrial R&D, a bilateral agreement signed by the governments of Shandong Province and the State of Israel in 2013.
"Both China and Shandong have been developing very fast in recent years, but are faced with the cost of environmental damage. So the government realizes that it should reduce carbon emissions and develop the new energy sector for a better future," said Wang.
Please go to The Jerusalem Post to read the entire article.
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Related:
Why are Chinese investments in Israeli hi-tech making Washington nervous?
China-Israel Technology
China's quest for tech chutzpah goes through Israel's Silicon Wadi
"With a little help from my friends...."
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