{"id":224194,"date":"2022-11-21T12:01:29","date_gmt":"2022-11-21T12:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=224194"},"modified":"2022-11-22T03:45:16","modified_gmt":"2022-11-22T03:45:16","slug":"biden-travels-east-in-clouds-of-mistrust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/11\/biden-travels-east-in-clouds-of-mistrust\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden Travels East in Clouds of Mistrust"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with U.S. President Joe Biden in Bali, Indonesia, November 14, 2022.
[Source: english.news.cn]<\/p><\/div>\n

20 Nov 2022 – <\/em>U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping met for more than three hours at the G20 conference November 14 and 15 in Indonesia. They needed to discuss each other\u2019s \u201cred lines,\u201d Biden said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The meeting wasn\u2019t just about Taiwan, where U.S. war ships cross China\u2019s \u201cred lines\u201d constantly. China \u201cis the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order and\u2026 the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to advance that objective,\u201d Biden wrote in the new U.S. Defense Strategy<\/a> document issued in October. That document focused on China and Russia as key \u201cthreats\u201d to U.S. hegemony.<\/p>\n

Xi warned<\/a> at the 20th<\/sup> CPC congress last month that China is \u201cconfronted with<\/a> drastic changes in the international landscape, especially external attempts to blackmail, contain, blockade, and exert maximum pressure on China.\u201d But China is committed to deepening and expanding global partnerships, safeguarding the international system with the United Nations at its core and the international order underpinned by international law, and building a human community with a shared future, Xi said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Chinese and U.S. Presidents Xi and Biden met at the G20 conference in Indonesia, November 14, each accompanied by senior advisers. [Source: english.news.cn<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During the meeting, Biden spoke of what China calls the \u201cFive Noes,\u201d which he committed to at last year\u2019s summit: not to seek a new Cold War; not to try to change China\u2019s system; not to forge alliances against China; not to support \u201cTaiwan independence;\u201d and not to look for conflict with China. Biden added that the U.S. does not seek to halt China\u2019s economic development, or to contain China.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope the U.S. can implement President Biden\u2019s commitment instead of always saying one thing and doing another,\u201d commented the influential Chinese newspaper Global Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a November 13 leadup to the G20 conference, Global Times editorialized<\/a> that \u201cthe G20 was established due to global financial crises\u2026 When the U.S. was hit by a financial crisis, even with the G7, it couldn\u2019t handle it, so there was a real need for it to strengthen coordination and dialogue with emerging countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Global Times adds that \u201cthe G20 is also a symbol of the transformation from the West having the only say to common governance across the globe\u2026 G20 is not an expanded G7\u2026 While the latter is just a coterie of rich countries, the former is a sign of multipolarity. The G20 consists of the world\u2019s major developed economies and emerging markets, which together account for about 85 percent of the global economy\u2026\u201d It concludes that \u201cthe whole world is pinning their hope on G20 to be a catalyst of global economic recovery, especially for developing countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

The International Monetary Fund\u2019s research department director said last month that \u201ca wave of debt crises\u201d are coming in the Global South, and \u201cthe global economy is headed for stormy waters.\u201d The world faces a \u201cgeopolitical realignment\u201d that will be \u201cpermanent.\u201d He warned \u201cthe worst is yet to come,\u201d as the depreciation of most currencies against the dollar and rising interest rates make it hard for both governments and companies to service their dollar-denominated debt. The director, Pierre\u2011Olivier Gourinchas, made these comments in a\u00a0press briefing in October<\/a>, reported November 14 by Ben Norton of Multipolarista<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The members of the G20 are Argentina<\/a>, Australia, Brazil<\/a>, Canada<\/a>, China<\/a>, France<\/a>, Germany<\/a>, India<\/a>, Indonesia<\/a>, Italy<\/a>, Japan<\/a>, Republic of Korea<\/a>, Mexico<\/a>, Russia<\/a>, Saudi Arabia<\/a>, South Africa<\/a>, T\u00fcrkey<\/a>, the United Kingdom<\/a>, the United States<\/a>, and the European Union<\/a>. Several are also members of BRICS: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, hence BRICS. Argentina, Iran and Saudi Arabia are also candidates for BRICS membership.<\/p>\n

Together the BRICS countries comprise well over half the global population, and their combined GDP<\/a> of $25 Trillion is greater than that of the U.S. at $23 trillion. Saudi Arabia, Iran and Argentina\u2019s combined GDPs would add about $2.3 trillion. (If Saudi Arabia follows through with joining BRICS, and welcomes Xi in an upcoming visit<\/a>, it could be a game changer.) Other prospective BRICS candidates include Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey, adding their combined GDP of nearly $4 trillion. (The EU, Japan and South Korea have a combined GDP equal to that of the U.S.)<\/p>\n

Stops along the way<\/strong><\/h2>\n

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visited India<\/a> November 11, enroute to Indonesia for G20. She made it clear the U.S. goal with G20 was to try to reshape the global economic order so \u201callies depend on one another for the goods and services that power their economies.\u201d USAID is providing half a billion dollars to finance a U.S. solar manufacturer\u2019s new facility in southern India, specifically to \u201cmove away from China,\u201d which leads the world in solar technology. Yellen used the canard of \u201cforced labor\u201d in Xinjiang\u2014an evidence-free claim\u2014to smear China.<\/p>\n

India \u201cshows little interest in U.S. overtures,\u201d the Times report says. India refused to join the U.S. campaign against Russia over Ukraine. Its imports from Russia rose 430% since February, mainly due to oil and gas imports from Russia. \u201cThere is a layer of apprehension if not outright mistrust in Delhi,\u201d said Eswar Prasad, a former IMF official and professor of trade policy at Cornell University, according to the Times article.<\/p>\n

\"\"
[Source: qz.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Biden stopped in Cambodia enroute to Indonesia, to attend the East Asia Summit (EAS) there. EAS includes the 10 members of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO<\/a>) plus China, Russia, USA, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov represented Russia. He said<\/a> the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy ignores \u201cinclusive structures\u201d of regional cooperation and would lead to \u201cthe militarization of this region with an obvious focus on containing China, and containing Russian interests in the Asia-Pacific.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cU.S. better give up attempts to contain China by utilizing Southeast Asian countries,\u201d was the headline of a Global Times November 3 report<\/a> by top opinion writer Hu Xijin. It said: \u201cThe U.S. has always wished to build an anti-China united front in the South China Sea with Japan, Australia, and Southeast Asian countries.<\/p>\n

Among them, Vietnam is a key U.S. target to rope in. However, Vietnam is clearly aware that the U.S. wants to use it as a pawn, so Hanoi is vigilant while developing relations with the U.S.\u201d Hu wrote that during Vietnamese leader Nguyen Phu Trong\u2019s visit following the 20th<\/sup> CPC Congress, \u201cTrong reiterated that Vietnam will not allow any country to establish a military base in Vietnam, or join any military alliance, or use force against any country, or work with one country to oppose another.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Xi Jinping greets Vietnamese Communist Party general secretary Nguyen Phu Trong Oct. 31, 2022. Trong was Xi\u2019s first guest following the CPC\u2019s 20th<\/sup> party Congress. [Source: globaltimes.cn<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A New York Times report November 13<\/a> said \u201cASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] leaders at the EAS conference reiterated their strong ties with Beijing and issued a joint statement with China supporting the One China Policy, opposing independence for Taiwan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cChina and ASEAN are each other\u2019s largest trading partner,\u201d a Global Times November 12 report<\/a> said. Indonesia\u2019s Jakarta-Bandung high speed railway<\/a> approached 90 percent completion in October. It is \u201ca flagship project of China-Indonesia cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative,\u201d Global Times says. \u201cWhen fully completed, it will be the first high speed railway in Indonesia and the entire Southeast Asia. This month, the total quantity of freight transported by the China-Laos Railway had exceeded 10 million tons, with the cross-border cargo transportation value hitting $1.7 billion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSecurity issues\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Biden met in Cambodia with Japanese and South Korean leaders, focusing on \u201csecurity issues,\u201d a week after the U.S. and South Korea launched their largest ever combined military drills<\/a>, with hundreds of warplanes from both sides staging mock attacks 24 hours a day for most of a week, involving \u201cabout 240 warplanes conducting about 1,600 sorties,\u201d according to a U.S. Air Force statement.<\/p>\n

The exercises included the USS Ronald Reagan carrier group in the first U.S.-South Korea joint military training involving a US aircraft carrier<\/a> since 2017.<\/p>\n

\"South
U.S. and South Korean troops practice a beach landing. [Source: bbc.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The U.S. has nearly 30,000 troops stationed in South Korea, with another 50,000 in Japan, mainly in Okinawa, with nuclear missiles ready to launch. Anti-base protests are constant<\/a>. The U.S. is in a \u201cstate of permanent war<\/a> in Asia and the Pacific today,\u201d with 375,000 Indo-Pacific Command personnel scattered across hundreds of military bases in the west Pacific, according to Mark Tseng-Putterman, writing in Monthly Review<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

He refutes the concept of an \u201cinter-imperial rivalry\u201d between the U.S. and China, which gives false justification of the U.S. militarized posture as \u201c\u2019defensive\u2019 in the face of ostensible Chinese belligerence.\u201d He says this \u201clazy condemnation of \u2018inter-capitalist competition\u2019\u2026 obscures the centuries-long project of U.S. Pacific hegemony\u201d that is now being \u201creconsolidated, operationalized, and expanded\u201d in a hostile Cold War posture aimed at China.<\/p>\n

Germany and France seek to boost economic ties with China<\/strong><\/h2>\n

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz led a high-level business delegation to China<\/a> November 4, seeking to boost economic ties, in the midst of major economic difficulties caused by the loss of cheap energy from Russia. Xi told Scholz that as large nations with influence, China and Germany should work together during \u201ctimes of change and turmoil\u201d for the sake of world peace, according China Central TV (CCTV).<\/p>\n

Xi also met French President Macron at the G20. Macron said both France and China are committed to peace, development and economic prosperity in the world, Xinhua reported<\/a>. The French president added that amid a volatile international landscape, France hopes to continue working with China in the spirit of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit, increase high-level exchanges and dialogue, and deepen cooperation in areas such as trade, economy, aviation and civilian nuclear energy.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
Macron and Xi at G20. [Source: english.news.cn<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Scholz and Xi in Beijing Nov. 4. [Source: aljazeera.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n

Scholz heard heavy criticism from German Economy Minister Robert Habeck, and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who threatened to break up Germany\u2019s governing coalition over the Scholz visit. Germany\u2019s further right CDU party representative, Norbert Roettgen, said \u201cthe chancellor is pursuing a foreign policy which will lead to a loss of trust in Germany among our closest partners.\u201d (Which partners might those be?)<\/p>\n

Unforgettable Indonesia<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The G20\u2019s location in Indonesia recalls the 1955 Conference of Non-Aligned Countries, held in Bandung, Indonesia. The Bandung conference drew 29 non-aligned countries, led by Indonesia, India, Egypt and Yugoslavia. Today a majority of the world\u2019s countries are members of the UN\u2019s Non-Aligned Movement<\/a>\u2014essentially all<\/em> of Asia, Africa and Latin America. They\u2019re the ones who abstained or voted against the NATO countries\u2019 vote to condemn Russia this year.<\/p>\n

\"\"
[Source: thechinaproject.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

China\u2019s then-Foreign Minister Zhou Enlai was an invited observer to the Non-Aligned conference. He narrowly missed an assassination attempt<\/a> enroute to Bandung. The Taiwanese assassin was flown out of Hong Kong to Taiwan on a CIA-sponsored aircraft. The attempt took place in the wake of the first Taiwan Straits crisis of 1954-55<\/a>. This was just after the July 1953 armistice in Korea ended open warfare, but left tens of thousands of U.S. troops there. China recently celebrated its decisive role in stopping the U.S. assault in The Battle at Lake Changjin,<\/em> the most expensive film ever produced in China<\/a>. China remembers all this very well.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
[Source: wikipedia.org<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

In 1965, Ten years after the Bandung conference, the CIA engineered a coup d\u2019etat<\/em> in Indonesia, known as the \u201cIndonesian genocide<\/a>.\u201d An estimated one million people were killed in an effort to destroy the left<\/a> and popular movements in the country. Indonesia\u2019s President Sukarno, who convened the Bandung Conference, was overthrown; replaced by anticomunist General Suharto who ruled Indonesia with an iron fist until the mid 1990s.<\/p>\n

The incident is documented in The Jakarta Method<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> by Vincent Bevins. The book goes on to describe subsequent replications of the strategy of mass murder, against left-wing and reform movements in Latin America and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\"\"
[Source: youtube.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Biden at COP27 Climate Change Conference in Egypt<\/strong><\/h2>\n

President Biden touched down in Egypt to speak at the COP27 UN climate talks, on the weekend before continuing to Cambodia and Indonesia. A New York Times report November 12<\/a> said \u201che exhorted other nations to follow America\u2019s lead and increase their efforts to make swift and deep cuts to the pollution that is driving climate change.\u201d He highlighted the Inflation Reduction Act, passed earlier this year, which would impose fines of $1500 per ton of methane gas released into the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Methane is a greenhouse gas that \u201ctraps about 80 times as much heat as CO2<\/sub>\u201d (NYT 11\/12\/22). A proposed EPA regulation would cut emissions by 30% by 2030 and eliminate 36 million tons of methane emissions by 2035, Biden said. It raises a question: how much methane escaped from the North Sea when the Nordstream pipelines were destroyed? <\/em><\/p>\n

A Danish official said<\/a> Nord Stream gas leaks could emit a CO2<\/sub> equivalent<\/a> of 14.6 million tonnes (32 billion pounds), similar to a third of Denmark\u2019s total annual greenhouse gas emissions. Perhaps the EU should impose a $1500 per ton fine of $22 billion on the perpetrator\u2013widely assumed to be the US<\/a>. That would be about a third of the $66 billion the U.S. has so far approved in war aid to Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\"\"
[Source: youtube.com<\/a>]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The U.S. and its allies are blocking calls at COP27 for \u201closs and damage\u201d funding for countries in the Global South. Rich countries are concerned that it would lead to \u201cunlimited liability,\u201d and that determine how much it would cost is difficult. Estimates<\/a> of financial costs of weather events in low- and lower middle-income countries, <\/em>just for damages between 1998 and 2017, are over half a trillion dollars<\/em>. Assessing only the immediate damage, these figures do not include long term economic impacts, such as food insecurity or health disorders. It raises another question: how much is due for a century and a half of western industrialization, and six centuries of colonialism and slavery?<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a trust problem for the U.S. at all these global conferences. Power Shift Africa\u2019s founder Mohamed Adow said<\/a> at the climate conference in Egypt that \u201cJoe Biden comes to COP27 and makes new promises. He\u2019s like a salesman selling goods with endless small print.\u201d In India, Treasury Secretary Yellen found<\/a> \u201ca layer of apprehension if not outright mistrust.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Cambodia, \u201cASEAN leaders at the EAS conference reiterated<\/a> their strong ties with Beijing and issued a joint statement with China supporting the One China Policy, opposing independence for Taiwan.\u201d And in Indonesia, the U.S. finds the G20 to be \u201ca symbol of the transformation<\/a> from the West having the only say to common governance across the globe\u2026 G20 is not an expanded G7.\u201d Joe Biden and his team are finding a whole new world out there.<\/p>\n

___________________________________________-<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Dee Knight is a member of the DSA International Committee\u2019s Anti-War Subcommittee. He is the author of <\/em>My Whirlwind Lives: Navigating Decades of Storms, soon to be published by Guernica World Editions. Email: deeknight816@gmail.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original – covertactionmagazine.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

20 Nov 2022 – U.S. Joe Biden and Chinese Xi Jinping met for more than three hours at the G20 conference Nov 14-15 in Indonesia. China \u201cis the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order and\u2026 the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to advance that objective,\u201d Biden wrote in the U.S. Defense Strategy in Oct, a document focused on China and Russia as \u201cthreats\u201d to U.S. hegemony.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":224196,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[244,1225,2959,504,1148,70,1160],"class_list":["post-224194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-focus","tag-china","tag-g20","tag-indonesia","tag-international-relations","tag-taiwan","tag-usa","tag-world-order"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}