CHINA'S BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE
Connecting Countries Saving Millions of Lives
ANDRE VLTCHEK
PT. BADAK MERAH SEMESTA
Copyright 2020 ANDRE VLTCHEK
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Proofreader: Arthur Tewungwa
Cover photo: Andre Vltchek
Cover design: Rossie Indira
Layout: Rossie Indira
E-book edition, 2019
Published by PT. Badak Merah Semesta
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email: badak.merah.press@gmail.com
Contents
By the same author
Non-fiction:
"New Capital of Indonesia: Abandoning Destitute Jakarta, Moving to Plundered Borneo" (with Mira Lubis)
China and Ecological Civilization (with John B. Cobb, Jr.)
Revolutionary Optimism, Western Nihilism
The Great October Socialist Revolution: Impact on the World and the Birth of Internationalism
Exposing Lies of the Empire
Fighting Against Western Imperialism
On Western Terrorism: From Hiroshima to Drone Warfare (with Noam Chomsky)
The World Order and Revolution: Essays from the Resistance! (with Christopher Black & Peter Koenig)
Western Terror: From Potosi to Baghdad
Indonesia: Archipelago of Fear
Exile (with Pramoedya Ananta Toer & Rossie Indira)
Oceania Neocolonialism, Nukes & Bones
Fiction:
Aurora
Point of No Return
Nalezeny
Plays: Ghosts of Valparaiso and Conversations with James
Preface
US China Trade War? No Way! Only the Defeat of Turbo-Capitalism!
I t is very popular these days to talk and write about the trade war between the United States and China. But is there really one raging? Or is it, what we are witnessing, simply a clash of political and ideological systems: one being extremely successful and optimistic, the other depressing, full of dark cynicism and nihilism?
In the past, West used to produce almost everything. While colonizing the entire planet (one should just look at the map of the globe, between the two world wars), Europe and later the United States, Canada and Australia, kept plundering all the continents of natural resources, holding hundreds of millions of human beings in what could be easily described as forced labor, often bordering on slavery.
Under such conditions, it was very easy to be number one, to reign without competition, and to toss around huge amounts of cash, for the sole purpose of indoctrinating local and overseas subjects on topics such as the glory of capitalism, colonialism (open and hidden), and Western-style democracy.
It is essential to point out that in the recent past, the global Western dictatorship (and that included the economic structure) used to have absolutely no competition. Systems that were created to challenge it, were smashed with the most brutal, sadistic methods. One only needs to recall invasions from the West to the young Soviet Union, with the consequent genocide and famines. Or other genocides in Indochina, which was fighting its wars for independence, first against France, later against the United States.
Times changed. But Western tactics havent.
There are now many new systems, in numerous corners of the world. These systems, some Communist, others socialist or even populist, are ready to defend their citizens, and to use the natural resources to feed the people, and to educate, house and cure them.
No matter how popular these systems are at home, the West finds ways to demonize them, using its well-established propaganda machinery. First, to smear them and then, if they resist, to directly liquidate them.
As before, during the colonial era, no competition has been permitted. Disobedience is punishable by death.
Naturally, the Western system has not been built on excellence, hard work and creativity, only. It was constructed on fear, oppression and brutal force. For centuries, it has clearly been a monopoly .
Only the toughest countries, like Russia, China, Iran, North Korea or Cuba, have managed to survive, defending their own cultures, and advancing their philosophies.
To the West, China has proved to be an extremely tough adversary.
With its political, economic, and social system, it has managed to construct a forward-looking, optimistic and extraordinarily productive society. Its scientific research is now second to none. Its culture is thriving. Together with its closest ally, Russia, China excels in many essential fields.
That is precisely what irks, even horrifies the West.
For decades and centuries, Europe and the United States have not been ready to tolerate any major country, which would define its own set of rules and goals.
China refuses to accept the diktat from abroad. It now appears to be self-sufficient, ideologically, politically, economically and intellectually. And where it is not fully self-sufficient, it can rely on its friends and allies. Those allies are, increasingly, located outside the Western sphere.
Is China really competing with the West? Yes and no. And where yes, it is often not done consciously.
It is a giant; still the most populous nation on earth. It is building, determinedly, its socialist motherland (applying socialism with Chinese characteristics model). It is trying to construct a global system which has roots in the thousands of years of its history (even BRI Belt and Road Initiative, is often nicknamed the New Silk Road).
Its highly talented and hardworking, as well as increasingly educated population, is producing, at a higher pace and often at higher quality than the countries in Europe, or the United States. As it produces, it also, naturally, trades.
This is where the problem arises. The West, particularly the United States, is not used to a country that creates things for the sake and benefit of its citizens. For centuries, Asian, African and Latin American people were ordered what and how to produce, where and for how much to sell the produce. Or else!
Of course, the West has never consulted anyone. It has been producing what it (and its corporations) desired. It was forcing countries all over the world, to buy its products. If they refused, they got invaded, or their fragile governments (often semi-colonies, anyway) overthrown.
In the eyes of the West, the most terrible thing that China is doing is: it is producing what is good for China, and for its citizens.
That is, unforgiveable!
In the process, China competes. But fairly: it produces a lot, cheaply, and increasingly well. The same can be said about Russia.
These two countries are not competing maliciously. If they were to decide to, they could sink the US economy, or perhaps the economy of the entire West, within a week.
But they dont even think about it.
However, as said above, to just work hard, invent new and better products, advance scientific research, and use the gains to improve the lives of ordinary people (they will be no extreme poverty in China by the end of 2020) is seen as the arch-crime in London and Washington.
Why? Because the Chinese and Russian systems appear to be much better, or at least, simply better, than those which are reigning in the West and its colonies. And because they are working for the people, not for corporations or for the colonial powers.
