Can China be accepted as peacemaker?

Hello, this is Darrell Castle with today’s Castle Report. This is Friday the 24^th day of March in the year of our Lord 2023. I will be talking about the state visit to Moscow of Chinese Premier Xi Jinping. It seems like an unlikely time for a state visit since his host Vladimir Putin has an international warrant through the ICC pending against him for war crimes, but nevertheless they met in Moscow.

A war-crime charge – for evacuating children?

Yes, the media is full of stories and reports that the Hague-based International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin. The reports are probably intended to add gravitas to what is otherwise a meaningless gesture and just more political theater. The warrant on its face is ridiculous because Putin is accused of war crimes for evacuating children from a war zone to safety in Russia.

I believe the United States did the same thing in Vietnam evacuating children and bringing them to the U.S. Many of those children later returned to their homeland. In Afghanistan the United States evacuated wounded children from the war zone when Russia spent its 10 years there. The children were treated for their wounds in the U.S. and later returned unless they desired to remain. In England, many British children were evacuated to Canada to avoid Nazi bombing of London during the blitz.

For those reasons and because no warrants have been forthcoming for the Nord Stream Pipeline bombing or for the invasion of Iraq and other countries I believe it’s a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

China leader visits Moscow

Nevertheless at the invitation of Vladimir Putin, Chinese leader Xi Jinping arrived in Moscow last Monday and stayed through Wednesday. A grand welcoming ceremony was held for Xi’s arrival with lots of praise heaped on Xi by Putin.

Mr. Putin wrote an article for the People’s Daily entitled “Russia and China-A Partnership Looking to the Future.” In that article he said, “We have high expectations for the upcoming talks. We have no doubt that they will give a powerful new impetus to the entire range of bilateral cooperation. It is also a great opportunity for me to see a good old friend with whom we have the warmest relationship.” He went on to add that there exists a special relationship in the Russian Chinese partnership which has always been built on mutual trust, and respect for each other’s sovereignty and interests.

From Xi’s standpoint he noted that China and Russia are friendly neighbors connected by shared mountains and rivers. The two countries according to Xi have consolidated and grown the bilateral relationship on the basis of no-alliance, no-confrontation and not targeting any third party, and they have set a fine example of developing a relationship featuring mutual respect and peaceful coexistence. There are some important code words in Xi’s statement if one takes a minute to decipher them.

China declares the US as its enemy

Both Russia and China understand that the United States is their chief rival and probable enemy in the upcoming World War that grows more likely by the day. Despite that realization there has been no announced mutual defense treaty. There has been no announced effort to include or recruit other like-minded countries into a military alliance. Iran would be an obvious choice especially since the Chinese brokered deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia effectively removed the Saudis from the sphere of U.S. control.

The Chinese recently issued a paper to help explain it entitled “US Hegemony and its Perils.” The paper takes the position that the US, since the end of the cold war, has overstepped its position as world leader. Since the US emerged from the two world wars and the cold war as world leader it has been unwilling to accept the sovereignty and equality of other nations. In pursuit of world hegemony, the US has been overriding truth with its power, and trampling justice to serve self-interest.

That’s a direct quote from the Chinese paper. But is there any truth in it? And if so what does that truth mean for China and Russia? On thing I know for an absolute certainty is that the American people do not want any of this. They just want to live peaceful lives and leave things a little better for their children than it has been for them.

Uncomfortable truths

Unfortunately there is at least some truth in the Chinese paper. This week marks the 20 anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. A war that killed perhaps a million civilians and destroyed that nation. The invasion based apparently on out right fabricated lies. Lies invented by the administration of George W. Bush, helped along by Senators such as Joe Biden and many others all aided and abetted by a compliant US media. This stroll down memory serves to remind us today that the ICC is nothing but a Kangaroo Court and a propaganda tool for Western leaders. Its warrant against Putin screams out to us that it’s for thee but not for me.

So the Chinese leader is starting to lay down some of the cards he has been holding in his hand. China is moving to portray itself as the international broker of world peace and savior of the world from the US led world order. The Iran-Saudi peace deal should not be underestimated. Long time enemies, their differences so intractable, are now friends. That can only mean one thing and that is that the Saudis are no longer standing in the way of the Chinese supplying nuclear technology to the Iranians so nuclear weapons soon to come to that region perhaps.

Petrodollars give way

The U.S. alliance with the Saudis has been a given since Kissinger worked out the Petrodollar deal with them in 1974. The alliance has been collapsing since the advent of the new Crown Prince MBS or Mohammad Bin Salmon and since the U.S. media painted Biden into the corner of making the Saudi assassination of a journalist his campaign issue. This deal means that Saudi Arabia is no longer a US ally and is solidly on China’s side. I would imagine that we will soon see the exit of US bases and the entry of Chinese troops to occupy them. I wonder if it means the end of the Iran-Saudi proxy war in Yemen.

The question then is who made this Iran-Saudi deal and the answer is obviously China. Xi is in Russia trying to make other deals possibly to include some resolution to the Ukrainian war. Once again, the answer is China, so China is now the one seeking diplomacy and a diplomatic solution to difficult problems. China is the one able to solve decades old intractable problems like the dispute between Iran and the Saudis. This makes the US and its entire approach to world problems look bad. But it also makes the Chinese and their approach just one more problem. And right now the US has only one method of problem solving.

China brings people together

China solves previously intractable problems by forming strong alliances uniting people under a common goal of mutual respect and global trade. The history of the US in the Islamic world over the last few decades has been one of keeping Shite and Sunni fighting each other and hating each other. No one is allowed to become dominant because the US switches sides and supplies the underdog with weapons. So, the US tactic is not diplomacy but violence and sanctions.

The US could never understand that its sanctions against Russia not only were not working but were counterproductive. Old friends like India refused to comply let alone nations like China. When force is your first and only tactic and force doesn’t work, you are in trouble. The Chinese under the leadership of Xi, counters the US strategy by doing the opposite. And it is becoming more and more appealing to others, especially those affected by sanctions.

Reinforce the rights of national identity and culture. That concept is not even practiced by the US in the US anymore. The US denigration of its own identity and culture, its heritage and history, coupled by its racial privilege propaganda has damaged or destroyed national unity. Mr. Xi sees all this and I imagine he shakes his head as does Mr. Putin. He also sees weakness and he attacks just as any good coach of a sports team would do. Watch film until you spot your opponent’s weakness, develop a plan, and attack.

Ignoring DEI

So, the Chinese plan of attack is one directed at what former US allies and victims of sanctions and other acts of force want relief from. Reinforce the rights of national identity and culture. The Chinese don’t care what other countries’ culture is and they especially don’t care about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The US simply insists that US allies and those paid by the US or defended by the US adopt the system of DEI, in other words the US insists that everyone deny objective truth as it does. The Chinese laugh at that and tell others all they care about is trade.

The Xi led diplomats are able to tell other countries that they will respect their national sovereignty and will base global cooperation on one thing only and that is universal prosperity and not the anti-instinctual goals of DEI. This coinciding with what is becoming a massive problem for the US and the West in general – the banking crises. Last week I said that this new crises is not 2008 all over again, but I am forced to consider a retraction of that statement. Western banks, once thought invincible because of the US dollar’s status as reserve currency, are apparently not invincible at all.

The US can no longer be a peacemaker

I hear that it would take $18 trillion to cover every deposit of all the banks in the US. That’s a lot of money. Furthermore, the inflation it would cause would be counter-productive because it would further the banking collapse. I don’t mean to get back into the banking crises on this report, but the point is that all the new enemies, Russia, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, even India, watch, wait, and sharpen their knives.

The result of all this is that now China, not the United States, is the global peace broker whether it deserves that position or not. Xi was in Russia this week to announce a strategic partnership between the two countries and to announce his 12-point plan for peace in Ukraine. So, the Chinese will present their peace plan which will of course be unacceptable to the United States. The US will then be forced to admit that it doesn’t want peace but wants the war to continue until Russia is bled dry and the Putin government collapses. You can see, then, how this position puts the US on the opposite side from China in world opinion. Only its captive media is supporting its position at home.

Peace or war?

While Xi is announcing his 12 point plan for peace in Ukraine, the US is announcing that it is going to speed up its delivery of Abrams tanks by sending older, refurbished models. From my office in Memphis a week or so ago a train passed heading west to the river with several tanks on it. Headed for Ukraine? Perhaps, but they were still painted in desert camouflage so I’m not sure. The US also announced that the training of Ukrainian soldiers being trained in Oklahoma to operate the new Patriot Missile systems is almost complete.

So Xi goes to Moscow as peacemaker and to shore up Putin’s world standing despite the ICC warrant out for him. Xi gets to show off his new found diplomatic swagger due to his Iran-Saudi deal. The US is left to hurl junior high school insults like Russia is China’s junior partner. The US renewed its warning to China not to supply lethal munitions to Russia but the Chinese said something on the order of:

You can arm the Ukrainians or anyone else you want but you lecture us on what we can do. And that is the problem we are fighting.

Conclusion

Finally, Folks, Dr. Strangelove was released in January 1964, so its been 59 years. But it seems just as real today as it was two years after the Cuban Missile Crisis. What was the point that director Stanley Kubrick was trying to make with his dark antiwar classic? It was at times hilarious just as times today sometimes make you laugh. But in Dr. Strangelove everybody in the movie was either stupid, insane or just plain psychopathic just like today.

At least that’s the way I see it.

Until next time folks,

This is Darrell Castle.

From CastleReport.us; appears by permission.