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Geopolitical Giants on the Move

Geopolitical Giants on the Move
folder_openVoices access_time7 years ago
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Darko Lazar

During election campaigns, politicians are known to say whatever it takes to secure votes. But once they get into office, usually half of what they promised is immediately written off as ‘campaign rhetoric'. These are the universal rules of the demagogic-democratic game.

Geopolitical Giants on the Move

Thus, inauguration speeches in the United States are often viewed as a good opportunity to get the pulse of the kinds of policies expected in the coming four years, as presidents begin to distance themselves from their so-called ‘promises'.

But Donald Trump's first speech as the American president was yet another break with tradition.

Further enraging those in the US and around the globe who were hoping to see Trump soften his rhetoric, the 45th American president stuck to his campaign line.

"For many decades, we have enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry, subsidized the armies of other countries while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military. We have defended other nations' borders while refusing to defend our own, and spent trillions and trillions of dollars overseas while America's infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay," Trump told the hundreds of thousands of onlookers in Washington during his inaugural address.

"But that is the past, and now we are looking only to the future... We will follow two simple rules: buy American and hire American. We will seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world, but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first," Trump added.

In short, America will serve Americans. However, this should not be misconstrued as Trump's adoption of geopolitical isolationism.

Based on a nationalist approach, the new US administration and its chief backers are promising a greater degree of domestic and global security. This is likely to be attained by targeting entities that truly do represent a threat to US national security interests, as opposed to those that threaten Mondialism and the self-declared rulers of the world.

Without mentioning any of the mantras of his predecessors, including NATO and the European Union, Trump vowed to form new alliances for the sake of eradicating terrorism "from the face of the Earth".

Naturally, Trump's first week in office has only added to the hysteria among advocates of Euro-Atlantic ‘brotherhood'. Even more importantly, Trump's opponents have gone to great lengths to try and demonize all statements and policies that prove he is in fact a nationalist and a pragmatist.

Some of these attacks against Trump have centered on claims that the new US president intends to destroy the order of global economic cooperation. This is incorrect.

Trump plans to redefine this order to best suit the average American. Vladimir Putin will do the same for the average Russian, and Xi Jinping for the average Chinese.

So what exactly is the problem here?

Simply put, there really isn't one. The actual problem involves spewing humanitarian fairytales, while the elites mercilessly gulp up entire nations - including their own - for the sake of maximizing profits.

So love him or hate him, Trump's plan to restructure the global order is a message that was received ‘loud and clear' around the world - especially in Beijing.

China's adaptability

Few countries in the world have benefited from globalization as much as China. Beijing successfully preserved its ability to project Chinese national strength within frameworks that the Euro-Atlantic elites had created for themselves.

While managing to shield its national sovereignty and cultural values, the Chinese played roulette with the Wall Street gang- a game that Beijing turned out to be surprisingly good at, despite being viewed as the ‘outsider'.

In fact, the Chinese were so good that they are not exactly keen on changing the rules - unless they absolutely have to.

The leadership in Beijing is wise enough to realize that the days of evading Washington's expansionism while selectively profiting from its economic policies are over. The Chinese Communist Party is also clever enough not to attempt a salvage operation for the unsalvageable.

In other words, the pragmatic Beijing acknowledges the unavoidable changes that accompanied the Trump administration into the White House. And in the spirit of nationalist-pragmatism, which Beijing advocates, the Chinese have already extended a white glove to the Trump crowd, urging the Americans to come to the negotiating table so that the bargaining can commence.

The "new model"

Despite their previous criticisms of the Chinese political system, much of the Euro-Atlantic establishment began to look to Beijing for salvation following the defeat of Hillary Clinton.

Given their aligned economic interests and Trump's hostile rhetoric directed at China, the western elites - especially the Europeans - hoped that Beijing would become the pillar of some sort of resistance to the new US administration.

Virtually overnight, the Chinese president, who is usually criticized by his western colleagues over Beijing's so-called ‘human rights record', became the leader of the ‘free world'.

"[Xi Jinping] swept into Davos as the champion of free trade and the unlikely guardian of the international order," The Telegraph reported.

President Xi's participation in this year's Davos economic forum was dubbed as "historic", while his closing speech was painted by the mainstream media as some sort of platform for opposing Trump.

But only those who do not understand China, its history and the pragmatism of its ruling elite, could have allowed themselves to hope for this sort of scenario.

As President Xi took the stage in Davos, the contents of his speech appeared to be exactly what the cardinals of the Euro-Atlantic system wanted to hear.

"We must remain committed to developing global free trade and investment, promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation through opening-up and say no to protectionism," the Chinese leader proclaimed.

The applause grew louder as talk turned to "global political cooperation... collective security," and of course, the environment.

But as Xi Jinping moved from the general to the concrete, the applause died down and the audience lost its fervor.

"We will strive to build new model of major country relations with the United States," the Chinese president said.

The "new model" is a direct reference to the restructuring of the global economic order designed to avert precisely the kind of tensions that the so-called western elites are hoping to foster.

Some of the guests in Davos were undoubtedly more disturbed by Xi Jinping's mention of a geopolitical triangle - a Sino-American strategic partnership working in cooperation with Moscow.

The message is clear: by accepting the new realities of a multi-polar world, the superpowers can begin to build global partnerships for promoting international peace and prosperity.

The message, delivered by Trump's advisor at Davos, suggests the new US administration plans to be equally reasonable.

"We want to have a phenomenal relationship with the Chinese," Anthony Scaramucci said.

"They have to reach now towards us and allow us to create this symmetry because the path to globalism for the world is through the American worker and the American middle class," Scaramucci added.

And while the Chinese may have preferred someone other than Trump as the 45th US president, Beijing will likely take comfort in the knowledge that the new administration is not interested in ‘colored revolutions,' ‘regime change' or sanctioning China for not allowing annual ‘pride parades'.

As all the players begin to reveal their cards, it is obvious that Trump is not reneging on his campaign promises. However, he remains open to compromise with other countries, especially those ruled by political establishments that have their nation's best interests at heart.

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