Two weeks ago I discussed the baby steps that China and Russia are taking toward creating an alternative financial infrastructure to the SWIFT Network and the Washington Consensus (read: Wall Street Consensus). The steps may be small, but they’re all going in the same direction: away from a US/NATO-led world order and toward a world where there is a China/Russia-led alternative.
The latest example of this Chinese-led world order will be on display in Beijing in mid-May, when heads of state from 28 different nations convene the first Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. The forum comes amid a flurry of diplomatic activity between China and a bevy of countries along China’s proposed trillion-dollar “Silk Road Economic Belt” and “Maritime Silk Road” known as the “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI).
This diplomatic activity, much of which has been making headlines in recent weeks, includes:
- A pledge to deepen cooperation between Greece and China as part of the BRI.
- A commitment to strengthen ties between Egypt and China under the BRI framework.
- An offer to involve India in the BRI, starting with the BRI forum in Beijing next month.
- An agreement between Russia and China to “conjugate” their relationship in the BRI and in the Eurasian Economic Union.
- And even, incredibly, an invitation for the US to join the “symphony” of the BRI and the Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
And that’s just the headlines from April. You may not know it if you’re only consuming #fakenews from the western MSM propaganda outlets, but the American-led world order of the post-WWII era is being severely tested right now.
So it looks like freedom is on the march and the globalists are on the run. Right, gang? We’ve got this globalism thing licked! Bye-bye, American Empire and hello, peace, cooperation and stability!
…If only. Sadly, as I stressed last month, these new initiatives aren’t really steps away from globalism, they’re just steps toward the creation of a different global order. Globalization 2.0, if you will.
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