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World’s Economic Centre Of Gravity Is Returning To Asia

In October 2023, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) published its annual Trade and Development Report. Nothing in the report came as a major surprise. The growth of the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) continues to decline with no sign of a rebound. Following a modest post-pandemic recovery of 6.1% in 2021, economic growth in 2023 fell to 2.4%, below pre-pandemic levels, and is projected to remain at 2.5% in 2024. The global economy, UNCTAD says, is ‘flying at “stall speed”’, with all conventional indicators showing that most of the world is experiencing a recession.

Contrasting Strategies Of The United States And China

In the latest salvo preparing the US for confrontation with China, Nicholas Burns flat out said, “I don’t feel optimistic about the future of US-China relations.” Burns should know. He is Washington’s ambassador to Beijing. The US stance on bilateral relations with China, according to Burns, is one of “strategic competition in the coming decades… vying for global power as well as regional power.” Indeed, the US is preparing for war with China. High-ranking US Airforce General Mike Minihan foresees war as early as 2025. This contrasts with the Chinese approach of cooperation for mutual benefit to solve the most pressing global problems.

Ajamu Baraka: Report Back From Peace Delegation To China

On the issue of Chinese diplomacy, it is important to note that the Chinese approach is a significant departure from the crisis oriented, zero-sum diplomacy that is characteristic of diplomacy emanating from the West. This was a particularly important element that we addressed in our discussions with members of Chinese People’s Association for Peace and Disarmament, various specialists on China and in a meeting with representatives from the Chinese Communist Party. What is clear is that on the issue of diplomacy there is a fundamental divergence in core values. The principles articulated by President Xi Jinping reflected an approach to diplomacy.

95% Of Trade Between China And Russia No Longer Done In US Currency

On a recent visit to China, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov stated that this year the use of the Russian ruble and Chinese yuan in trade between the two countries has already reached 95%. At the same time, from January to October, 68% of all Russian trade was carried out in the two countries’ currencies, according to Russian Minister of Economic Development Maksim Reshetnikov. The yuan has also been used by Russia in commercial transactions with Mongolia, the Philippines, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Japan, Tajikistan, and Singapore.

BRICS+ And The Future Of The International Order

The emergence and rise of new poles of power to the detriment of existing ones is nothing new in history. Since the 18th century, there have been countless examples of transitions in international hegemony. This accelerated with the emergence of industrial capitalism in England, which was more advanced than the Portuguese and Spanish commercial capitalism that for centuries had dominated much of the world, especially Latin America. Even the capitalist dynamic inaugurated by England has characteristics that are not unfamiliar to economic historians with great theoretical and conceptual rigor.

New Zealand Leaning To Controversial AUKUS Alliance

Concerns are rising for peace and sovereignty in the Pacific after strong signals from New Zealand’s new government that it wants to swiftly join the U.S.-led military alliance AUKUS. If New Zealand does join the U.S.-led military bloc it would effectively compromise the country’s long-held anti-nuclear policy, Marco De Jong, historian and co-director of the New Zealand foreign policy group Te Kuaka, told Consortium News. He said the decision would put an end to what is left of the nation’s independent foreign policy, as well as its image as an “honest broker” in a region already divided by increasing militarization.

Activists Detail Frontline Struggles Against US Militarism In Asia

With the US President Joe Biden waging an all-out economic war against China and aggressively pursuing new forms of collective security alliances to reinforce the military encirclement of China, the Asia-Pacific region has once again become a hotspot in Washington’s new Cold War. From the expansion of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (US, Japan, India, and Australia) to include South Korea, New Zealand, and Vietnam in 2021, the launch of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework in May 2022, the participation of Asian heads of state in NATO meetings in 2022 and 2023, and the cementing of the Japan-Korea-US trilateral alliance at Camp David this August, Biden’s Indo-Pacific Strategy has been dead set on forging a new anti-China Cold War bloc across the region.

Why Activists Shut Down The 2023 APEC Summit In San Francisco

From Nov. 11-17, leaders from 20 nations across the Pacific Rim gathered in San Francisco for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit. An activist coalition known as No to APEC greeted the visiting world leaders with a countersummit decrying APEC as a forum to advance the interests of transnational corporations at the expense of workers and the environment. While the Biden administration worked to construct a new free trade regime in the Pacific exclusive of China, known as the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), grassroots organizations in the No to APEC Coalition advanced an alternate vision of international cooperation and development in opposition to the corporate, pro-war agenda pushed by the US and allied governments at APEC.

Gaza Divides The World, Again

My award for courageous elocution of the week goes hands-down to Samuel Moncada, Venezuela’s ambassador to the United Nations, who addressed the General Assembly last Tuesday on the topic of Israel and its barbaric attacks on the Palestinians of Gaza. His remarks, which Consortium News reproduced, were appropriately lengthy. Here I draw from his introductory paragraphs: The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela robustly condemns the Israeli aggression against the civilian population in the occupied Palestinian territories. This is an operation of mass expulsion of an entire people in order to annex their territory by the occupying power. It’s a new cycle of expansionist terror, of so much that has been suffered by the Palestinian people over 75 years of occupation….

Iranian, Russian, Chinese Forces To Hold Joint Naval Exercise

Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Shahram Irani told the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran News Network (IRINN) television news channel on Friday evening that Iranian, Chinese and Russian forces will jointly practice exercises during the 2024 Marine Security Belt naval war game. He added that delegates from Pakistan, Brazil, Oman, India, South Africa and a number of the Caspian Sea littoral states have also been invited to participate in the drills as observers. Iranian naval forces and their Chinese and Russian counterparts have held several military drills in recent years to improve the security of international maritime trade, counter piracy and maritime terrorism, exchange information in naval rescue and relief operations, and exchange operational and tactical experiences.

NATO/West Or Global Majority?

Political economists Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson discuss the fracturing international order between the NATO/West bloc and the Global Majority, analyzing Israel, Gaza, Ukraine, Russia, Argentina, and Europe.

Trilateral Missile Defense System A Step Towards Asian NATO

The United States, Japan, and South Korea will fully operationalize a missile warning system “by the end of December.” While justified as a means to counter North Korea’s missile launches, more worrisome, it escalates tensions in the region with China through the “NATOification” of all three countries, agreed upon in the “Spirit of Camp David” agreement. The agreement was hailed as a “new era of trilateral partnership” during the August 18 press conference following a meeting between the heads of state of all three countries. Western media echoed the sentiment, calling it “historic” and “unprecedented.” China, listed in the agreement as a regional concern, accused the United States of creating a “mini NATO in Asia.”

China Brands Biden ‘Irresponsible’ For Calling President Xi Jinping ‘Dictator’

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning called US President Joe Biden “irresponsible” after he referred to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping as a “dictator.” During a press briefing, Mao specified that Biden’s statement is “absolutely wrong” and an “irresponsible political manipulation.” “This statement is absolutely wrong and constitutes an irresponsible political manipulation. China firmly opposes it,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman emphasized. The official’s statement came after Biden reiterated that he has not changed his opinion that Xi Jinping is a dictator. Biden made this statement to the press after the two leaders had held direct talks within the framework of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum Leaders Summit, held in San Francisco.

War Looks Just As War Looks: Dismal And Ugly

It is impossible to look away from what the Israeli government is doing to Palestinians not only in Gaza, but also in the West Bank. Waves of Israeli aircraft pummel Gaza, destroying communications networks and thereby preventing families from reaching each other, journalists from reporting on the destruction, and Palestinian authorities and United Nations agencies from providing humanitarian assistance. This violence has spurred on protests across the world, with the planet’s billions outraged by the asymmetrical destruction of the Palestinian people. If the Israeli government claims that it is conducting a form of ‘politicide’ – excising organised Palestinian forces from Gaza – the world sees Israeli aircrafts and tanks as conducting nothing but a genocide, displacing and massacring Palestine refugees in Gaza, 81% of whose residents were expelled from, or are the descendants of those who were expelled from, what was declared Israel in 1948.

Assange’s Freedom May Be Pivotal In Australia’s Support For US

The stakes are high as Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arrives in Washington, D.C., today to meet with President Joe Biden. The U.S. government hopes to obtain Australia’s support for its cold war initiatives against China. Australia is one of the United States’ closest allies. Australia, the U.S. and the U.K. comprise “AUKUS,” a trilateral “security” alliance in the Indo-Pacific. This is a crucial issue for Australia as well. Before Albanese left for the United States, he told parliament that the AUKUS transfer of U.S. and British nuclear submarine technology to Australia was critical to the future of the alliance.
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