Empire of Clowns vs. Yellow Peril
Global South will be unimpressed by new B3W
infrastructure scheme funded by private Western
interests out for short-term profit
By Pepe Escobar
June 15, 2021 "Information
Clearing House" - - "Asia
Times" -
It requires major suspension of disbelief to
consider the G7, the self-described democracy’s most
exclusive club, as relevant to the
Raging Twenties. Real life dictates that even
accounting for the inbuilt structural inequality of
the current world system the G7’s economic output
barely registers as 30% of the global total.
Cornwall was at best an embarrassing spectacle –
complete with a mediocrity troupe impersonating
“leaders” posing for masked elbow bump photo ops
while on a private party with the 95-year-old Queen
of England, everyone was maskless and merrily
mingling about in an apotheosis of “shared values”
and “human rights”.
Quarantine on arrival, masks enforced 24/7 and
social distancing of course is only for the plebs.
The
G7 final communique is the proverbial ocean
littered with platitudes and promises. But it does
contain a few nuggets. Starting with ‘Build Back
Better’ – or B3 – showing up in the title. B3 is now
official code for both
The Great Reset and the New Green Deal.
Then there’s the Yellow Peril remixed, with the
“our values” shock troops “calling on China to
respect human rights and fundamental freedoms” with
a special emphasis on Xinjiang and Hong Kong.
The story behind it was confirmed to me by a EU
diplomatic source, a realist (yes, there are some in
Brussels).
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All hell broke loose inside the – exclusive – G7
room when the Anglo-American axis, backed by
spineless Canada, tried to ramrod the EU-3 plus
Japan into an explicit condemnation of China in the
final communiqué over the absolute bogus
concentration camp “evidence” in Xinjiang. In
contrast to politicized accusations of
“crimes against humanity”, the best analysis of
what’s really going on in Xinjiang has been
published by the
Qiao collective.
Germany, France and Italy – Japan was nearly
invisible – at least showed some spine. Internet was
shut off to the room during the really harsh
“dialogue”. Talk about realism – a true depiction of
“leaders” vociferating inside a bubble.
The dispute essentially pitted Biden – actually
his handlers – against Macron, who insisted that the
EU-3 would not be dragged into the logic of a Cold
War 2.0. That was something that Merkel and Mario
‘Goldman Sachs’ Draghi could easily agree upon.
In the end the divided G7 table chose to agree on
a Build Back Better World – or B3W – “initiative” to
counter-act the Chinese-driven Belt and Road
Initiative (BRI).
Reset or else
The White House, predictably, pre-empted the
final G7 communiqué. A statement later retracted
from their website,
replaced by the official communique, made sure
that, “the United States and our G7 partners remains
deeply concerned by the use of all forms of forced
labor in global supply chains, including
state-sponsored forced labor of vulnerable groups
and minorities and supply chains of the
agricultural, solar, and garment sectors – the main
supply chains of concern in Xinjiang.”
“Forced labor” is the new mantra handily
connecting the overlapping demonization of both
Xinjiang and BRI. Xinjiang is the crucial hub
connecting BRI to Central Asia and beyond. The new
“forced labor” mantra paves the way for B3W to enter
the arena as the “savior” human rights package.
Here we have a benign G7 “offering” the
developing world a vague infrastructure plan that
reflects their “values”, their “high standards” and
their way of business, in contrast to the Yellow
Peril’s trademark lack of transparency, horrible
labor and environmental practices, and coercion
methods.
Translation: after nearly 8 years since BRI, then
named OBOR (One Belt, One Road) was announced by
President Xi, and subsequently ignored and/or
demonized 24/7, the Global South is supposed to be
marveling at a vague “initiative” funded by private
Western interests whose priority is short-term
profit.
As if the Global South would fall for this
remixed IMF/World Bank-style debt abyss. As if the
“West” would have the vision, the appeal, the reach
and the funds to make this scheme a real
“alternative”.
There are zero details on how B3W will work, its
priorities and where capital is coming from. B3W
idealizers could do worse than learn from BRI
itself, via
Professor Wang Yiwei.
B3W has nothing to do with a trade/sustainable
development strategy geared for the Global South.
It’s an illusionist carrot dangling over those
foolish enough to buy the notion of a world divided
between “our values” and “autocracies”.
We’re back to the same old theme: armed with the
arrogance of ignorance, the “West” has no idea how
to understand Chinese values. Confirmation bias
applies. Hence China as a “threat to the West”.
We’re the builders of choice
More ominously, B3W is yet another arm of the
Great Reset.
To dig deeper into it, one could do worse than
examining
Building a Better World For All, by Mark Carney.
Carney is a uniquely positioned player: former
governor of the Bank of England, UN Special Envoy on
Climate Action and Finance, adviser to PM Boris
“Global Britain” Johnson and Canadian PM Justin
Trudeau, and a trustee of the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Translation: a major Great Reset, New Green Deal,
B3W ideologue.
His book – which should be read in tandem with
Herr Schwab’s opus on Covid-19 – preaches total
control on personal freedoms as well as a reset on
industry and corporate funding. Carney and Schwab
treat Covid-19 as the perfect “opportunity” for the
reset, whose benign, altruistic spin emphasizes a
mere “regulation” of climate, business and social
relations.
This Brave New Woke World brought to you by an
alliance of technocrats and bankers – from the WEF
and the UN to the handlers of hologram “Biden” –
until recently seemed to be on a roll. But signs in
the horizon reveal it’s far from a done deal.
Something uttered by B3W stalwart Tony Blair way
back in January is
quite an eye-opener: “It’s going to be a new
world altogether… The sooner we grasp that and start
to put in place the decisions [needed for a] deep
impact over the coming years the better.”
So here Blair, in a Freudian slip, not only gives
away the game (“deep impact over the coming years”,
“new world altogether”) but also reveals his
exasperation: the sheep are not being corralled as
fast as necessary.
Well, Tony knows there’s always
good old punishment: if you refuse the vaccine,
you should remain under lockdown.
BBW, incidentally, accounts for a heterodox
category of porn flics. B3W in the end may reveal
itself as no more than toxic social porn.
Pepe Escobar is
correspondent-at-large at
Asia Times.
His latest book is
2030. Follow him on
Facebook.-
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