Connexion
Un agent du financier américain Jeffrey Epstein lui a proposé un choix d’environ 400 femmes ukrainiennes, précisant qu’il s’agissait pour
L’article Jeffrey Epstein avait reçu une proposition pour 400 Ukrainiennes de Kiev est apparu en premier sur STRATPOL.
Les dossiers Epstein concernent la moitié du monde : de l’élite des géants de la tech aux véritables maîtres du monde,
L’article Dossiers Epstein : L’ésotérisme au service du pouvoir ! est apparu en premier sur STRATPOL.
La France, autrefois mère des arts, des armes et des lois, ne rate jamais une occasion de montrer à quel
L’article Comment l’état français tente d’étouffer les ramifications de l’affaire Epstein est apparu en premier sur STRATPOL.
Au menu cette semaine: 00:00 Géopolitique profonde 14:10 Économie 20:15 Politico-diplomatique 27:20 Armement 26:21 Empire du mensonge 30:40 Considérations militaires
L’article Bulletin STRATPOL N°276: Epstein vs KGB, STARLINK, Abou Dabi. 06.02.2026 est apparu en premier sur STRATPOL.
L’analyste du renseignement Pietrobon prend la parole ! Epstein est de nouveau au centre de l’attention mondiale, et ce n’est pas
L’article « Quand on parle de pizza, de fromage et de hot-dogs dans les dossiers Epstein, on parle en réalité d’enfants et de bébés tués et maltraités.» est apparu en premier sur STRATPOL.
In a compelling lecture at GIBS, world-renowned economist Professor Jeffrey Sachs unpacked one of the most important geopolitical dynamics of our time: the rebalancing of global economic power from the North Atlantic to Asia – and the implications for Africa’s development trajectory.
Drawing on history, economics, and global strategy, Prof Sachs offered a clear, evidence-based narrative:
The 2015 Council on Foreign Relations report explicitly framed preventing China’s rise as essential to preserving US primacy.
Adam Smith’s 1776 insights on trade foreshadowed today’s global realignment — a shift the West now struggles to accept.
Asia’s growth is a structured continuum: Japan’s modernisation (1868) → the Asian Tigers → China’s reforms (1978) → India’s liberalisation (1991) → and today’s rapid advances in Central Asia and the Gulf.
China has accelerated this trajectory, adapting lessons from Japan and Singapore to build one of the world’s most technologically advanced economies in just four decades.
Prof Sachs also emphasised a critical point for Africa: globalisation isn’t collapsing – it is reorganising. With Africa projected to hold 25% of the world’s population by 2050 and up to 40% by 2100, the continent has a historic opportunity to shape the next era of global growth. Achieving sustained 8–10% annual growth, however, will require deep investment in education, digital infrastructure, and institutional capability.
This session was not simply a geopolitical conversation – it was a strategic masterclass that connected 1776, 1945, 1978, and 2025 in a powerful through-line. For leaders, policymakers, and anyone invested in Africa’s future, it is essential viewing.
(http://svr.gov.ru/)
The Press Bureau of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) reports (http://svr.gov.ru/smi/2025/10/anglichanka-snova-gadit.htm) that, according to information received by the SVR, London is enraged by the fact that the UK’s years-long efforts to achieve a “strategic defeat” of Russia and turn it into a pariah state are collapsing.
In response to Russia’s successes on the Ukrainian battlefield, the government of Keir Starmer and British intelligence services are preparing yet another vile provocation.
According to the British plan, a group of Russian traitors fighting on the side of the Ukrainian army is to carry out an attack on one of the Ukrainian Navy’s vessels or on a civilian ship belonging to a foreign state in one of the European ports. As of now, the group’s members have already arrived in the UK for sabotage training.
Once the group is “exposed”, British authorities will claim that it was acting under instructions from Moscow. London hopes that Europe’s Russophobia-obsessed establishment will unquestioningly accept the fabricated story of “malicious Kremlin agents” as justification for further arms deliveries to Ukraine and militarization of the so-called “united Europe” under the pretext of countering “Russian aggression”.
It is noteworthy that the Ukrainian militants are to be supplied with underwater equipment of Chinese manufacture. The equipment “seized” during the “investigation” is intended to be presented as “hard proof” of China’s alleged support for Russia’s so-called armed aggression against Ukraine.
Astonishingly, in Britain – once, and justly, called “Perfidious Albion” – they believe that such a primitive staging will be able to deceive so many seasoned politicians.
Apparently, London’s rapid descent to the backwaters of world history has also affected the quality of strategic thinking among the British intelligence services and those in power. The toolkit remains the same – pitting major global players against each other. But under today’s geopolitical conditions, it no longer works.
Tucker Carlson is not our normal reading or listening around here, but there was something really interesting in what is a sincere effort in his monologue to explain specific issues. He does a good job of explaining, or instead asking the questions, of the US relationship with Zionist-israel. But more interesting is this:
“A growing global bloc is uniting against America. Our future is in peril.”
This is an issue that the US Americans need to start understanding. This growing global bloc is not uniting against the US. It is uniting to prevent the US from uniting against the rest of the world. The US has a choice, but so far, we only see that they are not making a choice, except for the one of more war, more coercion, more exceptionalism, and desperate attempts at world rulership. That is what this ‘growing global bloc’ will no longer tolerate, and we will defend ourselves. It is a subtle focus change, but if no one gets it up north in the Big Babylon where the barbarians roam, there is little hope that this corner of the world will ever mature out of adolescence. It is such a US American habit, to immediately replace the inner fear with ‘it is the other guy’s fault’ … the other guy is uniting against us. It seems as if Tucker wants to leave the impression that if the US can rectify its relationship with Zionist-Israel, something will change for them. I have found no understanding that suggests the two entities are one, and that the problem is deeper than just correcting a relationship.
Sachs talks sense as usual.
The interview is here: https://tuckercarlson.com/speeding-toward-world-war-3
After listening to Tucker Carlson, some detox is necessary.
Sony Thăng
@nxt888
·
America could not erase Vietnam.
So it shattered Cambodia and Laos instead.
It could not erase Cuba.
So it strangled Nicaragua and El Salvador.
It could not erase Iran.
So it fed Iraq until both nations bled.
It could not erase Russia.
So it burned Ukraine and bled Europe.
It could not erase China.
So it armed Taiwan and set fire to its doorstep.
The empire’s logic is simple:
If it cannot kill you directly,
It will drown you in someone else’s war,
Or light the flames on your own border.
Professor Jeffrey Sachs discusses the escalating tariff war initiated by the Donald Trump administration against India. The discussion covers the 50% tariffs on Indian goods, including a 25% tariff tied to India’s oil purchases from Russia. Professor Sachs describes the US policies as self-destructive, stating, “He’s shooting America in the foot, my country.” He argues that these measures are uniting the BRICS countries and isolating the United States. Sachs advises India to highlight the absurdity of the penalty tariff, diversify its trade partnerships with regions like Southeast Asia and Africa, and to work on settling disputes and improving trade relations with China. The programme also addresses the immediate impact of these tariffs on Indian export sectors like textiles, gems, and jewelry.
In the latest episode of ‘Sanchez Effect,’ Pepe Escobar dissects the core beliefs driving European elites: a blend of Russophobia and war. He argues that these views have been shaped to align with Washington’s narrative for years, making deviation unlikely. He highlights how Brussels prioritizes its own interests rather than those of everyday Europeans.
Together with Rick, they also discuss the recent attacks on civilians in Gaza by Israel. Pepe labels Tel Aviv ‘a death cult’ – as the impunity and powerlessness imposed on the enclave leaves a stain on a collective consciousness.
Pepe starts at 16:30 minutes in.
Based on five months recently journeying across the country’s backwoods + 16 years living there.
Speech given to Samui Real, Thailand, 13 August 2025
Table of Contents
Short biography
Presentation
1-Introduction
2-Amir&Jeff’s Excellent China Adventure
3-Evelyne&Jeff’s Excellent China Adventures
4-The Chinese people continue to evolve
Now my observations…
5-Cleanliness
6-China is greener than the West
7-Infrastructure
8-Housing for hundreds of millions of masses
9-Urbanization has come full circle and back out again
10-Electricity
11-China’s farmers are more prosperous than many, if not most Westerners, by going back to collective production
12-The Chinese people are communist-socialist, dammit, and have been for 3,000 years
13-Mao is the Main Man with the Plan
14-Xi Jinping has adopted Mao Zedong’s playbook for the 21st century
15-Conclusion
Short biography
Jeff J. Brown is American born, raised in the state of Oklahoma, with an agricultural background. He lived and worked in the Middle East and Africa, 1980-1990, in livestock genetics and grain trade, where he learned fluent Arabic and French; then to China, 1990-1997 in grain trade, where he worked with Qingdao Brewery to make beer with US malting barley, helping the People’s Liberation Army with aquaculture and then installed, opened and managed McDonald’s first bakery on the Mainland. In 1990, he became a French citizen. After entrepreneurial adventures in France and the USA, the latter where he was forced into bankruptcy in 2008 during the subprime rape of the middle class, he returned to China as a teacher in international schools, 2010-2019. In 2024, he moved back to China in Taiwan Province.
Jeff wrote The China Trilogy, which includes 44 Days Backpacking in China, China Rising and the BIG Red Book on China (https://radiosinoland.com/2018/06/30/praise-for-the-china-trilogy-the-votes-are-in-it-r-o-c-k-s-what-are-you-waiting-for/ AND https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B00TX0TDDI/allbooks). His website is www.radiosinoland.com. He created the China Writers’ Group and founded Seek Truth From Facts Foundation (https://seektruthfromfacts.org). Jeff is a co-founder and the curator of the Bioweapon Truth Commission (https://bioweapontruth.com). He produced over 100 videos on China-Tech News Flash (http://chinatechnewsflash.com). Jeff is proud to be the China Desk Editor of The Greanville Post (https://greanvillepost.com). Jeff can be reached at je**@***********is.com.
Presentation
Folks, I’m going to be covering a lot of ground tonight, so to help you follow along, I’ve numbered each topic sequentially with a title. My whole presentation is about 40 minutes. I look forward to your questions thereafter. In the written presentation are many germane hyperlinks to excellent resources to learn more about China. They are listed inside the presentation text and for longer-term reference, they are collected together in a list by topic at the end. Interested in the real China? Read’em all!
1-Introduction
I would first like to thank Pat Kell and Doctor Eamon McKinney for inviting me on your program tonight. I am sincerely humbled and honored (https://www.samuireal.org/)
I am going to talk about China tonight. I have a unique perspective, because I lived and worked here 1990-1997, during what I call the Deng Xiaoping Wild East Buckaroo Days, then went back to France, then back to The United States, and then came back to China in 2010 and stayed here for another nine years, for a total of sixteen years. The interim stays on both sides of the Atlantic were very formative perspectives for my second round in China. Last year, I came back to China to live in Taiwan Province. At 71 years of age, I hope it’s my last move.
2-Amir&Jeff’s Excellent China Adventure
Fellow China Writer Group member Amir Khan and I just finished a three-week tour of China, where we concentrated on what are called Red Tours, which are extremely popular right now (https://radiosinoland.com/2025/07/27/amirjeffs-excellent-china-adventure-series-2025-hunan-jiangxi-fujian-and-shaanxi-provinces-red-tour-short-videos-captioned-photos-articles-and-commentary-the-real-chinese-people-you-don/). The Chinese people are gaining a growing awareness of their almost unfathomable communist revolution, civil war, and how China became liberated from the fascist Japanese, from fascist KMT and Chiang Kai-Shek, and from the Americans.
Just like after WWI, where the Allies’ still blood-soaked bayonets were turned on the Russian Revolution, the Americans’ still warm weapons were foisted on the Chinese communists, starting in 1945. A lot of people don’t know that after 1945, the United States dedicated 100,000 soldiers to China, not on the front lines, but with the full force of America’s air force, navy and army, in terms of bombings, transportation, matériel and weapons.
This is a tour that I’ve been wanting to take for many years, since 2018 to be exact (https://radiosinoland.com/2018/10/11/reflections-on-my-travels-to-proud-revolutionary-hunan-province-china-rising-radio-sinoland/) It is truly an amazing story. Amir quotes Nelson Mandela, who said it is a miracle that the Chinese Revolution succeeded, because it was so improbable. There were so many pitfalls, so many mistakes early on, and there was so much brute, genocidal force against the communists, between the Japanese, KMT, and Americans, it truly is a miracle that it became a reality. What I learned on this journey is that no matter how much firepower you use, how much violence you attack with, you cannot defeat a dream.
The dream of the Chinese people was to be liberated from foreign occupation, opium, and then starting in the 1870s, morphine and heroin that was being pumped into the population by Britain and the United States. The Chinese yearned for freedom from rape and plunder at the hands of the Judeo-West and occupying Japanese. In order to achieve that goal, thirty-six million four hundred thousand Chinese gave their lives, a staggering statistic that almost no one knows about.
Never forget that from Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping, China’s current rise – called rejuvenation by the Chinese – started in 1839, with the people’s humiliating loss against Britian in the first Opium War. Only in this context does Mao’s famous quip about China’s 200-year war make sense. It has been a long, hard climb, ongoing, and I’m looking forward to 2039 (https://radiosinoland.com/2019/05/05/may-4-1919-is-the-day-the-world-changed-forever-and-the-chinese-will-never-forget-china-rising-radio-sinoland-190504/).
Amir and I are doing a series on my website called, Amir&Jeff’s Excellent China Adventure (https://radiosinoland.com/2025/07/27/amirjeffs-excellent-china-adventure-series-2025-hunan-jiangxi-fujian-and-shaanxi-provinces-red-tour-short-videos-captioned-photos-articles-and-commentary-the-real-chinese-people-you-don/). We have done 20 posts so far, made up of short videos with transcripts, captioned photos, articles and commentary. I really encourage you to take a look at them. You will see a China that most foreigners don’t know, yet need to understand. There will probably be close to 100 posts, when the series is finished. Like the first book of The China Trilogy, 44 Days Backpacking in China, our series is a serious travelogue built on a geopolitical and socio-economic backbone, that takes a richly deserved, jaundiced view of the Judeo-West, going back 3,000 years.
3-Evelyne&Jeff’s Excellent China Adventures
The observations from Amir&Jeff’s Excellent China Adventure are supplemented by the fact that my partner, Evelyne and I have spent another four months over the last year and a half traveling around Mainland China. Taken together, my observations tonight will be based on traveling in the provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Anhui, Jiangxi, one day in Fujian, and then Shaanxi province up in the North.
All our travels involve spending lots and lots of time in third, fourth, fifth, and sixth-tier cities. It costs €56 to take a taxi in Paris to Charles de Gaulle Airport. Evelyne and I get electric taxis so cheap in China, only about €70 or €80 for a full day for the driver to chauffeur us round, driving the length of Guangdong Province, or getting 80-100 kilometers outside of whatever city we happen to be in, stopping and looking at villages and small towns, etcetera. Amir and I also had a chance to visit a small town, about 120 kilometers outside of Changsha, the latter where he teaches at Hunan Normal University.
Therefore, while I love the first-tier cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing and Guangzhou, all of my observations are based on one second-tier city, Shenzhen (where I lived for three years), and then all of the others are third, fourth, fifth, and sixth-tier cities, all the way down to small towns, with just tens of thousands of people, and on down to villages with thousands of souls.
4-The Chinese people continue to evolve
In order for you to understand what I am about to report on today’s China, you need some proper perspective (https://radiosinoland.com/2025/07/27/amirjeffs-excellent-china-adventure-13-a-critically-important-look-back-at-my-familys-life-in-1990s-china-to-fully-appreciate-what-you-are-living-vicariously-with-us/).
The good, the bad and the ugly
The Chinese people who you’re seeing during Amir&Jeff’s and Evelyne&Jeff’s Excellent China Adventures are not who my family and I experienced in the 1990s. In the 1990s, China was a street-level, mean, cruel, corrupt, mendacious, lying, cheating, swindling, capitalist concrete jungle. Unfortunately, in my first book, 44 Days Backpacking in China, I blamed this behavior on the Cultural Revolution, which is wrong (https://radiosinoland.com/2022/12/05/transcript-how-eating-at-a-cultural-revolution-themed-restaurant-in-the-boondocks-of-southwest-sichuan-changed-my-life-for-the-better-china-rising-radio-sinoland-221031/). I now realize that by any psychometric measurement, what would be considered psychotic behavior in 1980s-1990s China was not due to the Cultural Revolution. It was due to Deng Xiaoping’s Wild East Buckaroo Days of unchaining the dogs of capitalism onto the streets and into the halls of government, industry and the military (https://radiosinoland.com/2017/10/25/how-can-western-capitalism-beat-this-thats-the-rub-it-cant-china-rising-radio-sinoland-171022/).
Why did Tiananmen Square 1989 happen?
This shift to bare-knuckled capitalism created tremendously criminal, get-rich-quick, no-matter-what-it-takes behavior in the population. There was no corruption nor crime during the Cultural Revolution. That’s why there was Tiananmen Square in 1989. It was not because of phony illusions of Western “democracy” and all that. That was all Mossad-CIA-MI6’s contrived and managed color revolution.
The Chinese were upset about 1) nepotism, cronyism, corruption and violent criminality at the highest levels, down to local neighborhoods and small businesses, 2) inflation was almost 30% and 3) the markets were completely turned upside down, transitioning from Mao-Era’s planned and assured economy (https://radiosinoland.com/2024/01/03/the-mao-encyclopedia-for-dummies-updated-and-its-all-here-books-articles-movies-visuals-china-rising-radio-sinoland-240103/); therefore there were a lot of shortages everywhere. That was why the Tiananmen Square protests happened (https://radiosinoland.com/2024/06/04/this-webpage-has-by-far-the-biggest-and-best-library-of-articles-videos-podcasts-and-images-about-1989s-tiananmen-square-protests-something-for-everyone-china-rising-radio-sinoland-continually/).
Mea culpa
Unfortunately, I made this who’s-to-blame mistake in 44 Days, but it drove me to write my second book, China Rising, to get to the truth, because I knew there was something wrong about my analysis. I then brought everything full circle, expanded on it all, to write China Trilogy Book #3, BIG Red Book on China (https://radiosinoland.com/2018/06/30/praise-for-the-china-trilogy-the-votes-are-in-it-r-o-c-k-s-what-are-you-waiting-for/ AND https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B00TX0TDDI/allbooks).
Capitalism at its best
Thus, you are not seeing all the capitalist psychosis we lived with every day, when my family and I lived here 1990-1997. From top to bottom, Chinese society was doing what Judeo-capitalists do best (https://radiosinoland.com/2025/01/23/judaism/). The government was corrupt and criminal, so the people adopted the same corruption and crime. It was street-level war every day, just to get anything, to do anything, to go anywhere. However, strangely enough, it was very addictive, like a drug rush. It took a long time to deprogram from it all, when we moved to France (https://radiosinoland.com/2017/10/25/how-can-western-capitalism-beat-this-thats-the-rub-it-cant-china-rising-radio-sinoland-171022/).
Why did Deng do it?
Deng publicly stated that to reach communism, China could not wait 300 years to replicate the West’s industrialization, not to mention it took colonialism, imperialism, slavery and genocide to make the Industrial Revolution “succeed”. Thus, like Mao Zedong trusting the masses to fulfill the successful goals of the Cultural Revolution (https://radiosinoland.com/2024/01/03/the-mao-encyclopedia-for-dummies-updated-and-its-all-here-books-articles-movies-visuals-china-rising-radio-sinoland-240103/), Deng trusted the citizens to shrink 300 years of capitalism into 30.
It was harrowing, risky and as Tiananmen Square 1989 showed, came close to crashing the Chinese Revolution into a balkanized, Western resource whore (https://radiosinoland.com/2025/06/04/100s-of-1000s-of-people-including-researchers-journalists-and-authors-have-accessed-this-largest-single-source-covering-the-tiananmen-square-protests-join-the-club-new-entries-for-2025-radio-sin/). But it worked in the end. The citizens came through. A generation later and the Chinese are prosperous and harmonious again, back to their Communist-Socialist-Confucist-Daoist-Buddhist roots.
Chinese changes
So, our journeys just go to show you that people can evolve. The Chinese are continuing to evolve. They changed for the better and are not stopping. Why? It comes from leadership. Citizens emulate their governments. This is a very Confucist concept. Chinese leaders trust the people and the people truth their leaders in kind. If leaders practice the Golden Rule, then the people will emulate them. That is why Westerners are so lying, thieving, corrupt and criminal, because their Judean, plutocratic, authoritarian leaders have been kakocrats 98% of the time for the last 3,000 years.
Hu Jintao rights the collective ship
When Hu Jintao was elected president in 2002, he began to alleviate this mass capitalist psychosis. Why? The Chinese people, like we were, were exhausted, burned out, sick and tired of all the environmental filth, pollution and wanted back Mao-Era harmony, equality and justice. They were demanding changes for a better life. Tiananmen Square 1989 was just a clarion call. Hu heeded their cries, seeing that this train wreck was unsustainable. It worked. His administration brought back Mao’s universal healthcare and lots of other socialist legislation for the masses, so people were not literally dying on the streets like they do in the United States, because they can’t afford to go to the doctor, hospital or find a place to live (https://radiosinoland.com/2023/11/21/a-critique-of-the-recent-article-in-the-new-yorker-magazine-by-evan-osnos-chinas-age-of-malaise/).
Xi is using Mao’s playbook
Then, when Xi Jinping was elected president in 2012, ongoing, his administration was and is accelerating the Chinese people’s unbelievable transformation, harking back to the clean and lean glory days of the Mao Era, stomping out corruption at every level, cleaning up the environment and making the masses more and more prosperous (https://radiosinoland.com/2023/11/19/jeff-takes-james-for-a-walk-in-china-jb-west-and-jb-east-present-see-you-in-the-hague-64/ AND https://radiosinoland.com/2018/01/20/headlines-say-it-all-baba-beijings-vision-leads-its-citizens-into-the-21st-century-china-rising-radio-sinoland-180121/).
***
Now my observations…
5-Cleanliness
Think of China today as a Singapore the size of the United States, but a lot more fun and fascinating (https://radiosinoland.com/2023/08/31/new-donor-annette-asked-me-questions-to-which-i-replied-and-since-the-conversation-is-so-informative-i-am-sharing-it-with-you-china-rising-radio-sinoland-230831/).
Cleanliness at all levels, from showcase Shenzhen with 17 million souls, drilling down to the smallest villages is stunning: neat, clean, green and organized. Street sweepers are everywhere you turn, even weeding around sidewalk trees. Garbage is collected nightly. If cleanliness is next to godliness, then the Chinese are already in heaven.
Public bathrooms are now every 800m in 4th-5th-6th-tier agglomerations and public parks. They are so clean, you can eat off the floors. There are photos of the working janitors on the restroom walls – some in formal dress, their personal mobile phone numbers and a complaint line if you do not get satisfaction.
It’s the same system for the local cops on the beat everywhere you go. Accountability is universal. I ask you: do you have your local policeman’s personal mobile phone number, if you have a problem?
Why so many bathrooms? Because like my family in the 1990s, the Chinese were sick and tired of literal shitholes for bathrooms, if you were lucky to find one. They demanded change and the NPC passed laws, when we were in Beijing 2010-2016. Laws were also passed for garbage collection. We were all disgusted with mountains of fetid garbage everywhere we turned.
It takes a lot of money and muscle to keep a country the size of China so spanking clean. How can they afford it, you might ask? The answer is simple. China has so much fuck-you money, because they are not spending trillion of dollars/euros on genociding billions of Brown and Black people with bombs, drones and sanctions (https://radiosinoland.com/2025/05/10/why-is-the-west-addicted-to-forever-wars-radio-sinoland-250510/).
Interesting side note: the Beijing 2008 Olympics were a massive catalyst for many daily life improvements across the country. A billion Chinese were glued to their TVs for three weeks and saw all the nice amenities Beijing had for foreign visitors. Like Rosie the Riveter and Black soldiers who reentered civil society after WWII, demanding equal pay for good jobs, the Chinese wanted the same things that the capital had. And they got them.
Interesting factoid: guess who was handed the Olympic portfolio in 2007? Why none other than some guy you may have heard of – Xi Jinping.
6-China is greener than the West
Along with all this cleanliness comes greenness and environmental consciousness. Everywhere I explored, the land, waters and air are living an unimaginable renaissance. In the 90s, I was working in agriculture and every year, traveled thousands of kilometers across the provinces to conduct field surveys. I can tell you the environment was downright ugly and frighteningly polluted. Not anymore.
I don’t know if it’s still true, but for a number of years, China was reforesting one Ireland a year. That’s right, the land area of the country of Ireland planted with trees, year after year (https://radiosinoland.com/2018/01/29/60-seconds-over-sinoland-china-to-plant-an-ireland-of-forests-in-2018-china-rising-radio-sinoland-180129/)! Not to mention, you may have read or seen on YouTube, Baba Beijing is reclaiming thousands of square kilometers of sand dunes and desert, making them green again, like they were many thousands of years ago.
The most remarkable transformation I saw was on the Loess Plateau in Shaanxi Province. When we traveled there in the 90s, it looked like Mars, a barren, eroded moonscape. At least where I journeyed, it is all now covered with trees and shrubs. Simply amazing that all this has been re-greened, after centuries of neglect.
7-Infrastructure
When we lived here in the 90s, driving outside of Beijing was like driving off a flat earth. It was fun adventure, but harrowing. When we came back in 2010, there were good main arteries and some good secondary roads, but further out, it was like back in the 90s (https://radiosinoland.com/2020/04/06/guangzhou-and-shenzhen-have-a-new-interurban-commuter-train-along-with-their-highspeed-train-civilization-can-never-have-enough-infrastructure-china-tech-news-flash-58/).
These days, we expect world-class infrastructure in China’s first-tier cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing and Guangzhou – +20M) and second-tier cities (10-20M). What is so stunning is how now, like cleanliness, infrastructure is being drilled down to the smallest locales: great asphalt roads and good bridges are everywhere. Elevated 4-lane highways and train tracks crisscross the hinterlands. The smallest towns and villages don’t have metros and public buses, they have people-owned shuttle buses that cost next to nothing to get rural people to their prefectural/county seat and back, to run errands, see a doctor, take care of paperwork, or take high-speed/slow trains from there, since all prefectural capitals/county seats are served with 5,500 train stations, including 1,100 for high-speed trains. It’s phenomenal that what was once only found in the bigger cities is now accessible all across the boondocks.
Think about this, the USA has thousands of small towns that are boarded up and in Europe they are dying a slow death. Do I dare say it is Judeo-capitalism versus communism-socialism (https://radiosinoland.com/2021/09/24/the-usa-is-falling-apart-at-the-seams-and-nobody-seems-to-care-the-rest-of-eurangloland-is-hot-on-its-collapsing-heels-this-while-the-chinese-nation-is-a-speeding-infrastructure-and-technology-bulle/ AND https://radiosinoland.com/2022/10/20/chinas-infrastructure-and-development-prove-that-baba-beijing-governs-for-the-99s-properity-and-quality-of-life-people-like-you-and-me-china-rising-radio-sinoland-221020/).
8-Housing for hundreds of millions of masses
Another remarkable phenomenon that I saw everywhere we traveled is the millions and millions of subsidized, low-income housing, now even down to the smaller towns. Kilometer after kilometer of them, stretching out to the horizons. In the middle of bumfugg nowhere in Guangdong, Hunan or Jiangxi Provinces, for example, with an offramp from a 4-lane highway, or a slow train station stop, there are smallish concentrations of factories, sometimes just one big one, and the subsidized housing needed to keep the local community thriving. I’m sure they have the same shuttle bus system as the rurals do, for daily convenience.
China’s subsidized, low-income housing is not Hong Kong style shoe boxes and cyclone fence cages bolted to walls in near shanty towns. I’m speaking from experience, because my family and I lived in one in Beijing for four years and in Shenzhen for one year. These are 20-30-story apartment towers, of course with elevators, each with 75-105m2, 2-3 bedrooms, one full bath, big living room, full kitchen, terraces, with one of the latter serving as a utility room, served by 1-2 yuan-per-ride people-owned electric buses.
These apartment communities are the so-called ghost towns that the Judeo-West loves to bloviate about so much. Again, speaking from personal experience, our Beijing apartment was in one of them at the start and it was a growing community when we moved to Shenzhen four years later.
This is why China has 80%+ home ownership, including the rurals, and since they are subsidized by Baba Beijing, why 70 percent of them are paid off free and clear. I’d like to not have to send a mortgage check to the Judeo-City of London every month. How about you?
I’m not even going to ask a rhetorical question and just come out and say it – this high quality of life and visionary planning for the masses can only happen in a communist-socialist country (https://radiosinoland.com/2022/02/19/what-is-the-chinese-peoples-secret-ingredient-to-their-never-ending-success-its-staring-you-in-the-face-but-i-bet-you-cant-see-it-china-rising-radio-sinoland-220219/).
9-Urbanization has come full circle and back out again
As my observations have noted, China’s post-liberation urbanization concentrated on bringing hundreds of millions of rural citizens to first- and second-tier cities. Now, they are reversing gears and tempting people to go back to their 3rd-6th tier cities, by offering subsidized, low-income housing, high-speed/new-generation slow trains, cheap public buses in the agglomerations and manufacturing and services nearby for employment. A prime example of this is Xiong’an, the new, 22nd century city, built from the ground up, outside Beijing, to take pressure off the capital.
Urbanization will continue to reach its goal of 80% of the population, the same level the USA has. China became a majority urban country in 2011 and it is now at about 67% (the US became majority urban in 1915). Yes, there will be the super-cities of 50-100 million residents in the Pearl River and Changjiang River Deltas, the Beijing-Tianjin-Shijiazhuang and Chongqing-Chengdu complexes, but they will be balanced with high-quality urbanization in the lower-tier, train-connected cities (https://radiosinoland.com/2025/01/09/china-is-collapsing-how-do-i-know-because-the-wall-street-journal-says-so-and-theyre-the-experts-right-china-rising-radio-sinoland-250109/).
10-Electricity
I have never seen so many high-tension electricity pylons in all my life. It was dizzying (https://radiosinoland.com/2024/04/15/electricity-shmectricity-what-are-the-differences-between-chinas-and-americas-grids-why-does-it-matter-to-both-peoples-nine-graphs-and-charts-help-tell-the-story/). They crisscross and run parallel through isolated forests, mountains and along ridges, left, right, all the way out to the horizon. Like American wages since the 1970s, US electricity production has been flat for 20 years, stuck at 4TwH. China’s is already at 9.4TwH, 2.4 times more than America, and will increase to almost 14TwH by 2030, 3.5 times more than Uncle Slaughter. That’s in only five years. My observation is that much of this power is going to rural areas and 3rd-6th tier cities (https://radiosinoland.com/2022/11/27/personal-stories-of-being-a-china-state-grid-customer-the-worlds-biggest-electric-utility-china-rising-radio-sinoland-221127/).
Electricity production is the lifeblood of economic activity and productivity potential. Please convince me that We’re-Number-One-God-Bless-America has the world’s biggest economy (https://radiosinoland.com/2018/06/11/psst-dont-tell-anyone-but-china-has-the-worlds-biggest-economy-china-rising-radio-sinoland-180612/).
11-China’s farmers are more prosperous than many, if not most Westerners, by going back to collective production
You have probably been brainwashed by the Judeo-Big Lie Propaganda Machine that China’s farmers just loved Deng Xiaoping’ s neoliberal Household Responsibility System. It’s simply not true. The farmers to this day much prefer Mao-Era collective farming. Since 1978, they have weathered the storm of all the Deng-Era reforms and are very prosperous. Land taxes were abolished in the 2000s. Hamlets and villages look like picturesque postcards, straight out of rural France. Farmhouses are 150-300m2, 2-3 American stories tall (1-2 European stories), and electricity is wired in everywhere.
Most importantly, why all this prosperity? My observations are that many villages, if not most, have decided to informally go back to collective farming and implements, not individual plots. The average plot of farmland per rural family is less than 0.4ha (< one acre) or 3,900m2, or only 62m x 62m. Everywhere I went, I saw huge fields of corn, rice, sorghum (for distilling maotai), tobacco, fruit orchards, lotus and aquaculture ponds. They are clearly not being managed in 0.4ha plots. I also saw what looked like collective pig sties. I suspect they are also collectively rearing egg layers and broilers, although each family will usually keep a small home garden for fruit and vegetables.
It makes sense. Most of these hamlets are clan-based, meaning they each have their same family bloodlines going back centuries, all having the same last name, like Wang or Zhao. Go to the next valley and it’s the Li Clan; next valley over it’s the Chen’s and on and on. The farmers prefer to collectively farm, keeping it in the family. It’s more efficient and profitable.
It took a couple of generations to come full circle, but it looks like Mao’s vision won the day. So much so that Xi Jinping pushed to pass legislation to prevent all government officials and entities from trying to neoliberalize any farming community that is collectivized (https://radiosinoland.com/2018/09/08/xi-jinping-supports-collectivizing-rural-land-farmers-are-demanding-that-it-happen-china-rising-radio-sinoland-180908/).
12-The Chinese people are communist-socialist, dammit, and have been for 3,000 years
I have written so much about this topic, and really lived it, but I will give you some brief comments why the Chinese have always been communist (https://radiosinoland.com/2018/04/09/chinas-capitalism-is-first-and-foremost-communist-socialist-china-rising-radio-sinoland-180410/ AND http://radiosinoland.com/2016/10/18/so-called-communist-china-an-exclusive-article-for-the-all-china-review-16-10-17/ AND https://radiosinoland.com/2022/12/04/rebuttal-to-china-is-capitalist-the-religiosity-of-the-myth-of-chinese-capitalism-by-ron-leighton-dr-t-p-wilkinson-interviews-jeff-j-brown/). If you want to dig deeper, please read The China Trilogy.
In China, the people own FIRE. By that, I mean Finance, Insurance and Real Estate. The banks, stock and commodity markets, insurance companies and all land are owned by the people. No one can buy one square centimeter of dirt in China. Not Xi Jinping, not McDonald’s, not you or me. How many other countries can say this? The only ones I know of are communist-socialist. And to be blunt, they are the only ones that have been able to rid themselves of the Judean City of London and its humanity destroying usury and forever wars (https://radiosinoland.com/2025/05/10/why-is-the-west-addicted-to-forever-wars-radio-sinoland-250510/ AND https://radiosinoland.com/2024/04/13/baba-beijing-is-on-the-war-path-to-make-banks-finance-big-tech-and-social-media-serve-the-people-and-better-their-lives-the-west-not-china-rising-radio-sinoland-2404012/ AND https://radiosinoland.com/2022/08/03/transcript-a-run-on-chinese-banks-dont-believe-the-wests-big-lie-propaganda-machine-it-cant-happen-since-the-citizens-own-them-all-china-rising-radio-sinoland-220622/ AND https://radiosinoland.com/2022/06/23/a-run-on-chinese-banks-dont-believe-the-wests-big-lie-propaganda-machine-it-cant-happen-since-the-citizens-own-them-all-china-rising-radio-sinoland-220622/).
It’s funny, Westerners kind of-sort of begrudgingly accept that Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba and other countries are communist and have similar economic systems to China, but mention China and suddenly, it’s capitalist – it has to be, just look at how successful they are. But, that’s gross denial turning obvious logic on its head. The Chinese are so wildly successful – and very spoiled, truth be told, compared to us long-suffering Judeo-Westerners – IS because they are communist-socialist and have been for 3,000 years.
In 1980, Shenzhen was a sleepy fishing and sea salt town of 20,000 residents. I lived there 2016-2019. When I got there, it had 12-14 million inhabitants. It was growing so fast no one knew for sure. Since then, it officially hit 17,000,000 a couple of years ago. That means it added 3-5 million people in just a few years and nobody even noticed.
Let that sink in for a moment. No squalor, no slums, no shanty towns, no beggars, no homeless people, no street crime; spotless, beautiful, with people-centered infrastructure everywhere you turn. Millions and millions of subsidized, low-income housing for the masses out to the horizons, financed by people-owned banks, on people-owed ground and protected by people-owned insurance companies.
Now, try closing your eyes and imagine replicating that in the West. Go on… I don’t know about you, but I see horrific scenes from the movie Soylent Green and worse (https://radiosinoland.com/2017/10/25/how-can-western-capitalism-beat-this-thats-the-rub-it-cant-china-rising-radio-sinoland-171022/).
13-Mao is the Main Man with the Plan
Here is another anecdotal experience I have lived countess times across China.
We all know that Shenzhen is the town that Deng Xiaoping built. There is his big, striding statue atop Lotus Park, overlooking City Hall and just one of the city’s amazing skylines. Deng is of course front and center at the Shenzhen Museum.
I had lunch with an 82-year-old man, Mr. Ceng, whom I met in a small noodle restaurant (we are going to see each other again and meet his wife, when Evelyne and I go back to the Mainland in November). He moved to Shenzhen in 1993, from a small town in Guangdong and said he is thankful for Deng making Shenzhen what it is today. And he is right. Shenzhen is global dream city that the Judeo-West cannot even begin to imagine.
But, go on main street, go into all the mom-and-pop restaurants, small shops and businesses and you usually don’t see Deng’s portrait hanging on the wall. No, if there is a portrait, it is of Mao Zedong. You might see a portrait of Deng hanging in the Marriot Hotel or in the offices of Apple, but the working class and small entrepreneurs know it’s Mao Zedong who butters their noodles so to speak, without whose never-in-human-history accomplishments, Deng’s reforms and opening up wouldn’t have lasted 24 hours. I just say, “Long live Mao Zedong” and the people chime right back with, “No Mao Zedong, no New China”, meaning liberated and free (https://radiosinoland.com/2019/01/12/wildly-successful-mao-era-is-airbrushed-out-of-western-media-and-history-books-china-rising-radio-sinoland-190112/).
You all have been brainwashed to believe that Mao was a depraved, genocidal madman, who woke up every day, trying to figure out how he could kill another million of his citizens, while using his bloody claws to pick moss from his vampire fangs (https://radiosinoland.com/2024/01/03/the-mao-encyclopedia-for-dummies-updated-and-its-all-here-books-articles-movies-visuals-china-rising-radio-sinoland-240103/).
There are only two possibilities. Either you are right, and the Chinese people are stupid and brainwashed, or the Chinese know the truth. Hmm… It’s not really a tough choice. Do I go with the Judeo-Big Lie Propaganda Machine’s tsunami of Sinophobic vomit, or do I listen and learn from the Chinese people, who lived it and continue to live it?
14-Xi Jinping has adopted Mao Zedong’s playbook for the 21st century
Amir and I visited the Self-Sufficiency Museum in Nanniwan, south of Yan’an in Shaanxi Province. Mind you, I have visited scores of Chinese museums over the years. But, this time, as we were looking at all the displays, I had a fortuitous epiphany. It was like a hand came out of the wall and slapped me on the face: all of Mao’s language about the communist revolution, socialism and self-sufficiency (the latter which deeply influenced Korea’s Kim-Il-Sung, Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh, Cuba’s Fidel Castro and others), counteracted the US’s and Chiang Kai-Shek’s economic blockade against the communists – all this same language has been adopted by current president Xi Jinping. I can now see that what Xi has done is take Mao’s playbook, dust it off and adopt it to today’s realities and conditions, which helps explain Xi’s incredible successes. Now that I can see it, it’s uncanny, but true (https://radiosinoland.com/2022/12/20/timeless-transcript-buckle-up-world-you-are-entering-the-xi-era-44-days-radio-sinoland-2015-3-29/).
These days, in every museum, there are quotes by Mao and Xi. There is Mao Thought and now Xi Thought. Study Mao, study Xi. Mao is the core, Xi is the core. Rally around Mao, rally around Xi. They are like bookends to a glorious eight-decade string of successes, that have made the Chinese some of the most spoiled and prosperous people in the world. It subconsciously resonates with the Chinese people, like an atavistic umbilical cord connecting them to the Mao Era (https://radiosinoland.com/2023/11/21/a-critique-of-the-recent-article-in-the-new-yorker-magazine-by-evan-osnos-chinas-age-of-malaise/).
Their nicknames reveal as much. Mao is known as Mao Yeye (毛爷爷), which means (paternal) Grandfather Mao. Xi is known as Xi Dada (习大大), meaning Daddy Xi. Two avuncular generations spanning the breadth of post-liberation China, keeping a watchful and caring eye on their 1.4 billion citizens (http://radiosinoland.com/2015/04/04/western-demonization-xi-jinping-let-slime-begin-44-days-radio-sinoland-2015-3-20-2-2/).
15-Conclusion
If you have not visited China, go. Just go. You will see what I mean. I know Mandarin, but many Chinese are wanting to speak English. Phones are vocal translation machines now. Chinese train and hotel apps are available in English. You can get around. Just go. Most OECD citizens don’t even need visas anymore… By all means visit first and second-tier cities, but if you can, try to visit 3rd-tier cities like Hefei, Nanchang and Chaozhou. I promise you, you will be gob smacked.
Finally, never forget that the Chinese people have been unstoppable for 5,000 years, except for the unfortunate Judeo-Western, opiate-soaked Century of Humiliation, 1839-1949. Since then, they have regained their millennial communism-socialism, fused with their millennial Confucism-Daoism-Buddhism (https://radiosinoland.com/2018/03/20/china-tech-invention-innovation-technology-research-and-development-past-present-future-5000-years-of-progress-a-china-rising-radio-sinoland-living-document/). If this socio-economic and cultural civilization can be maintained, the Chinese Nation will endure for another 5,000 years, in the face of relentless Judeo-imperialism and capitalism, whose days are definitely numbered.
Thank you.
US Foreign Policy & the Global Crisis
On July 21, Professor Jeffrey Sachs visited the China Institute at Fudan University in Shanghai, China for an academic exchange and delivered a keynote speech. This video features the speech portion of the event, in which Professor Sachs offers a powerful analysis of the current global situation, warning that Washington’s confrontational policies are driving the world toward instability and conflict.
Transcript:
Zhang Weiwei:
Hello, everyone. Good afternoon. Hello, Professor Jeffrey Sachs. Welcome to Fudan University. Welcome to China Institute on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Institute, we will together explore a hugely important topic of the Israel-Iran Conflict and its Implications for the World. But to be honest, Professor Sachs, you are so popular among the audience here and beyond. You can talk on any subject you choose, which will be well received by the Chinese and global audience. It’s known to all that Professor Jeffrey Sachs is a well known economist, a geopolitical analyst, the Professor at Columbia University, and President of UN Sustainable Development Solution Network. The list goes on. But to my mind, many people here in the audience and beyond, Professor Sachs is first and foremost, an original thinker on many, on most pressing global issues and crises. He’s also an intellectual fighter with unwavering courage against injustice and evils, wherever they emerge. He’s also a loud, articulate and highly reasoned voice for our collective conscience in the interest of mankind. So with this kind of deep appreciation and respect, Jeff, the floor is yours.
Jeffrey Sachs:
Thank you so much for that very kind welcome and also for this wonderful invitation. And thanks to all of you for the chance to spend a couple of hours together to talk about the world situation. Indeed, while the title is about Israel and Iran, and therefore the Middle East crisis, I’d like to be a little bit more general than that, and to talk about geopolitics more generally. Geopolitics, the relations among especially the major powers, the United States, China, Russia, India, Europe, are at a very difficult and fraught time, and we’re in a crisis that is very serious. It’s a crisis because we’re living in the nuclear age. There are nine countries that we know of that have nuclear weapons. Maybe some others also do, but nine that we know of. Most of those nine are in conflict with at least one other country that has nuclear weapons in geopolitical or diplomatic terms, and in the case of the United States and Russia in open conflict in Ukraine, because that’s actually a war between the US and Russia and a very dangerous war.
My view is that we need to understand the global scene so that we avoid terrible, terrible mishaps. I often refer to the “doomsday clock” of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. This is a US publication that was started in 1947 after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was started by the atomic scientists who had their journal, and they wanted to tell the world this is very dangerous indeed. And the risks of this new age of nuclear weapons is unprecedented, because the power of destruction is something unlike any time before. So they started this clock, and then put the hands of the clock closer or farther from midnight. When the clock was started, it was 7 minutes from midnight. And the message to the world was we are close to destruction because of these new weapons. That was in 1947 when the US alone had the atomic bomb. But then in 1949, that monopoly was broken by the Soviet Union, which developed its atomic bomb. And then in the 1950s and 1960s by Britain, France, China. And then we know Israel sometime in the 1960s, though, never announced exactly. And then India, Pakistan, North Korea, and the clock has gone back and forth, depending on geopolitics. It went away from midnight at the end of the Cold War. In 1991, the Soviet Union ended. It seemed that there was no more threat, no more Cold War. The US and China were on good relations. The Soviet Union under Gorbachev, and then Russia under President Yeltsin said we just want good relations. We want to rebuild, we want decent relations. So the scientists put the hand of the doomsday clock 17 minutes from midnight. Every US presidency, since then, has experienced the clock coming closer to midnight. I don’t think that’s an accident. I think that is the mistake of American foreign policy, though the United States is the most secure country in world history in being able to avoid an invasion from outside, because we’re not afraid of Canada, we’re not afraid of being invaded by Mexico, though, there once was a war with Mexico in 1846, but they lost. So this is not a big threat. And we have two big oceans. So the US should be very calm. And the only threat that the US faces to its security at all is the possibility of a nuclear war, which should not be hard to avoid. You just have to be cooperative with other nuclear powers, but as I said, from 17 minutes to midnight, Bill Clinton came, it moved closer. George W Bush Jr. came, it moved closer to midnight. Barack Obama moved closer to midnight. Trump I moved closer to midnight, Biden closer to midnight. Now, it’s 89 seconds to midnight, so less than 1.5 minutes to midnight from 17.5 minutes.
What is going on, that every administration is moving the hands closer to midnight? Of course there are many impossible interpretations, but mine centers on the United States and centers on the western world more generally, by which I mean US, the European Union, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, if I could add those together because those are offshoots of Britain as well. And in my view, what is going on is a serious misunderstanding of global reality by the leadership of my country that has persisted now for more than 30 years.
You had a wonderful debate, Professor Zhang, with Francis Fukuyama, which I just had the chance to read from 14 years ago. As you told me, you’re right. You won the debate, but the ideas of Professor Fukuyama already back in the early 1990s was that the west had triumphed, and it was the end of history. And my basic understanding of the reality is something different. And that is, with the end of the Cold War, the world had triumphed in the sense that we had the chance to escape from nuclear war and from confrontation, and we had the chance for rapid economic development in all parts of the world, which China led and China exemplified.
From the 40 years, from 1980 ~ 2020, China experienced the fastest economic development in world history for a large country. And it showed what’s possible in our world today because of technology, education, infrastructure, how big in advance can be made. I watched this, by the way, with my own eyes personally, because my first visit to China was 1981, so China was not a rich country in 1981. China was very poor in 1981 because of the history of the previous 150 years. And over that 40 year period, which is the period of my professional life, China experienced this rapid development. My view is that’s what’s possible in all parts of the world. So while I completely hail China’s accomplishment and know that it draws on deep roots of China’s history and civilization, I do believe it’s something that all regions of the world can accomplish, maybe not at the same speed, maybe not with all the same success as China. But I do not write off any part of the world, Africa, or India, or South Asia, or Central Asia, or Latin America.
This idea that we could all live in peace, in mutual prosperity, with rapid economic development in poor countries, I think, is the reality of our world in its potential, but obviously not the reality of our world in its actuality.
So we need to understand the world as it could be, and then aim to achieve that world. Unfortunately, this was not the idea of the United States at the end of 1991, when Mr. Fukuyama, Professor Fukuyama declared the “end of history”, the idea was that the western world would lead the world from now onward, and especially the United States within the western world would lead the world onward. Whether other regions developed or not was of modest interest, but if they did develop, they needed to develop under the wing of the United States. In other words, what was important at the end of the Cold War was dominance, not cooperation or peace. This is why I think the world has remained and become more and more dangerous over the last 35 years.
So to my understanding, we have a mindset problem. And the mindset problem is that the western world dominated the world economy and world politics and finance for about 250 years, roughly from 1750 to roughly the year 2000. And during that period, the ideology in the western world explained that dominance as an inherent rightful feature of the world. It explained that dominance in a number of different ways, some very extreme, some a little bit less extreme, because there were theories of racial superiority, there were theories of social superiority, there were theories of cultural superiority, there were theories of religious superiority that this was a Christian world after all. But whichever theory one subscribed to, there were theories of genetic superiority, biological superiority, whichever view one took, the idea was deeply embedded in the stories, the beliefs, the institutions and the politics of the western world. And two countries dominated most of all, and most of the world’s problems today can be traced to them actually. One was Britain, and China had quite an interesting experience with Britain, starting from 1793 up through probably the end of World War II. The other has been the United States, which is a successor to Britain in both the western world and the Anglo Saxon world. So the British definitely had an arrogance of power, and they used that arrogance of power in China, in India, in Russia, in every part of the world, because the belief was that Britain was the empire on which the sun never set. This was the era of Pax Britannica, although it wasn’t so peaceful, but it was the era of British dominance. And the 19th century was really defined by British dominance internationally.
Europe experienced two disastrous civil wars in the first half of the 20th century, we call them World War I and World War II. But in Europe, they were really civil wars within European countries. At the end, Britain was no longer able to maintain a global empire, but the United States took over at that, and the US inherited the mindset and the institutions of British imperial rule. The main geopolitical institution of British imperial rule was to control the regimes of different parts of the world. So Britain mastered what we call regime change operation. If you don’t like a government, replace it. It’s a different kind of foreign policy from diplomacy. In diplomacy, if you don’t like a government, sit down and negotiate. If you’re British in the 19th century, you don’t like a government, threaten it, killed the person, the ruler, or overthrow it. And this was the main mode of British action. In the second half of the 20th century, the United States took over method of operation. Indeed, the British taught it to the Americans, I would say. In 1953, we did a joint venture together, the British and the Americans, the British MI Six, the spy agency, and the CIA to overthrow the government of Iran, which brings us to our current situation.
Iran had a functioning democratic government in 1953, led by Prime Minister Mosaddegh. He had a very radical idea, Mosaddegh’s idea in 1953 was that the oil that was under the ground actually belonged to the Iranians, while the British knew that it belonged to the British. When the Iranian Prime Minister democratically elected said this is our oil, it’s under our ground. The British government knew that it had to overthrow him, and it connected with the US government, and they made a secret operation to overthrow Mosaddegh and to install the Shah of Iran, the Pahlavi dynasty, and to make a police state under US control.
If you add up all such regime change operations by the United States between 1945 and 1989 at the end of the Cold War, one scholar, Lindsey A. O’Rourke, in an excellent book in 2017 called Covert Regime Change, and she was a student of John Mearsheimer at that time. She counted 64 covert regime change operations by the United States, mostly CIA led, and 6 overt regime change operations, meaning an open war to topple another government, so 70 regime change operations.
This is a very distinct kind of statecraft. It is the opposite of diplomacy. You don’t have to deal with the other side, you have to control it or overthrow it, kill it, assassinate the leader, make a coup, fix an election, buy an election, create unrest to topple a regime. This happened 64 times covertly. What is covert mean? Covert means that the US denied its role, even though it was obvious to the people there. So when these events occurred, they’re not really covert in the sense of who did this, everyone says the United States did it, but the United States said we didn’t have anything to do with it, that wasn’t us, that was a local unrest. So I mentioned all of this, because that kind of arrogant statecraft, which is imperial mentality, was the US mentality. From 1945 to 1991, it was justified to the American people as necessary because of the war against global communism. So that was the explanation that was given, especially against the Soviet Union, and the United States accused the Soviet Union of wanting to take over the world, and it used that as an explanation to try to take over the world, every other place. And very importantly, and interestingly, the United States rejected neutrality by any country and use the expression “if you are not with us, you are against us”. So the US also actively opposed neutrality.
This is also a very interesting, peculiar idea, because many countries said we don’t want to choose, we want to trade with the Soviet Union, we want to trade with the United States. We don’t have the big army. Don’t attack us, but we don’t want bad relations with either side. And the US said, no, that’s not good enough. You’re either with us or you’re against us. And very interestingly, for scholars here, and this is a room of scholars. If you read the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides, which has become famous again, because of Graham Allison’s book.
In the dialogue called the Melian dialogue, which is a dialogue between Athens and the leaders of Milos, a small island. The Melians said we want to be friends with Athens and we want to be friends with Sparta. The Athenian says, no, you are with us against them. And the Melians said no, but we want to be just neutral, just leave us alone. We like you, but we don’t want to be part of your empire. We don’t want to be part of their empire. And the Athenian says, no, if you do that, you will weaken our power in our realm. You will show to all of the allies of Athens that we are weak, so you must submit to us. Otherwise, we’ll have to kill you. Actually, in history apparently, in 416 B.C., the Melians said, no, we will be neutral. And the Athenians invaded, and they killed all the Melians men actually. What the Peloponnesian War really shows is that just 12 years later, Athens was defeated. So all that arrogance led to nothing but defeat. It even shows something more. Sparta, which won the war, disappeared from history also. So neither side won. In the end, the war exhausted both sides. And Greece was invaded by Macedonia in the next century. So both sides lost from this ongoing war, but the arrogance of Athens is the arrogance of the United States. By the way, Athens was a great democracy, and it had a great arrogance. It made a great self disaster by that arrogance. And by being a democracy, they elected a lot of stupid people that were very demagogic. And they told them, why don’t we invade Syracuse? Why don’t we continue the war? And they had no sense and they were defeated in the end.
I began much of my work during this period from 1989 onward. I was already working in Latin America, but then came the end of the Cold War. And just to say, I was an adviser to President Gorbachev, not personally, but through his chief economist. I was personally an advisor to President Yeltsin. I was personally an adviser to the President of Ukraine and to many of the other leaders. And I thought, well this is wonderful. The Cold War is over. We’re all now in a market economy worldwide. We can all share in prosperity. The poor countries can grow faster and close the income gap with the richer countries. And the richer countries should help the poor countries to catch up. And then we’ll have a safe, prosperous world. And I also believed and believe today as an economist, there’s enough to go around, because another theory of economics, the Malthusian theory is there’s not enough for everybody, so the fighting is inevitable. There will always be those who lose in the end, because there’s not enough for everybody in the world. We could discuss that, but I reject that on economic grounds. In other words, not out of moral theory, but out of practical theory, we could have everybody living in good life, as long as they’re using solar power, not if they’re using fossil fuel.
So as long as we make the right technological choices, then there’s enough to go around in the world for everybody in the world. That’s what I argued in the early 1990s, the United States, however, maintained and even intensified its imperial idea. Instead of viewing the end of the Cold War as the opportunity for a new world order that was balanced, fair, peaceful, the United States viewed the end of the Cold War as the opportunity for hegemony. And that’s very explicit. This became the ideology of the so called neoconservatives who dominated American politics from 1991, basically until today. The neoconservative idea is the world can only be safe if the US leads the world, because the US is a power for good, and so the US should set the rules, it should be the world policeman, it should determine what happens in each part of the world, and then things will be fine. This is a very arrogant position. It’s a very delusional idea, but it is really the idea that was espoused by government after government, starting in 1991. And I witnessed it close up. Because my argument, as an economist, was that we should help Russia to get back on its feet. We should help Africa to achieve development. We should make sure that poverty is overcome everywhere. And none of those ideas was accepted in the American political leadership, even by my own colleagues who were in positions of power temporarily.
They viewed such ideas as naive, and as contrary to American interests, America’s interest is to be Number One, not to be cooperative in an open world in which there is shared prosperity. So the ideology was, in my view, made even worse by the end of the Cold War. It turned out, by the way, and it’s relevant for China also, during the Cold War, all of the US rhetoric was we fight the Soviet Union because of world communism. That word, as you know, in the American scene is viewed as something completely shocking. When Russia became independent and declared that we are in a market economy, post communism, this is a another age. It made no difference to American politics. This is quite interesting. In practice, Russia was still an enemy even afterwards, because it wasn’t really communism or ideology. It was simply big powers. In this, John Mearsheimer is right about the American mentality, which is that the United States sees Russia as a threat, not because of any specific ideology, but because it is big. And the United States sees China as a threat, not because of anything that China does or is other than being big and successful. And therefore, China’s only offense is that it threatens American dominance. And that, I think, is a succinct description of the viewpoint of the American leadership.
Now, to come back to my view of economics, this is a terrible mistake, not only on a moral level, but on a practical level. The United States has 4 % of the world population, 335 million people. How could 4 % of the world dominate the world? It’s not possible, except if all the rest of the world were to remain poor, unsuccessful, backward, and so forth. There’s not only no moral reason for that, but there’s also no practical reason why that should be the case. So I long believe that poor countries can grow faster and catch up.
China is the greatest success story in history of that, but China follows a basic pattern that Japan followed previously, that Hong Kong, Singapore followed previously, because catching up is possible if the leadership is good, if the planning is good, if the strategy is good, there’s all this headroom for rapid economic growth possible. And China proved the case, once again, at a scale, unprecedented in history. So the US viewpoint about dominance makes no sense, not only not morally, and not practically in terms of security, because the world is not safe if the US is rich, and Russia is unstable with nuclear weapons. Why does that make the US secure? That makes the US more dangerous. But it’s also wrong economically, because Russia will catch up, China will catch up, Africa will catch up, and the United States will find out that being 4 % of the world population is just 4 %. It’s not enough to rule the world. The US will have to learn to be cooperative, and will have to learn that statecraft is more than overthrowing governments.
Here, I will come to the point about current politics. The US still does not understand this till today, and the wars that we see and the crises that we see are still crises of the old imperial mentality. So the war in Ukraine is a war that the US caused, not a war that Putin caused, but a war that the US caused by expanding the military alliance, NATO, eastward, and trying to set up a military base or bases in Ukraine and in the South Caucasus, especially the country Georgia. And the Russian government said, no, you can’t have military bases on our border, we don’t accept that, that’s a real security threat for us. The American position was, it’s none of your business, Russia, what we do. If Ukraine says, yes, we’re gonna put our missiles next to you. And President Putin said, no, you’re not, that’s dangerous for us. The United States said it’s none of your business. And so this is the essence of the Ukraine conflict, which is that the US said we can expand our military reach anywhere, the Russians said not on our border, and it finally came to war. Before it came to war, the government in Ukraine in 2010 was very clever. It said we want neutrality. Well, read Thucydides, the Americans did not accept Ukraine’s call for neutrality. What did the United States do to the president who wanted neutrality? It overthrew that president in February 2014. So the US made a coup together with Ukrainian forces, the US role was quite obvious, though it was denied. So we can call it a covert regime change operation. I happen to have been told by some of the participants, just how much the US played a role. And at a crucial moment, a phone call by the US diplomat Victoria Nuland was intercepted by the Russians and posted online. And that call said the next government should be so and so, which was the next government actually. So the US chose the next government. And where is Victoria Nuland today? She is my colleague at Columbia University. So this is the route to success, make a coup, and then you get to be a Columbia professor. So this is the Ukraine conflict.
President Trump came into office, saying, I wanna stop this war because it’s useless, and the Russians are winning on the battlefield. But interestingly, President Trump does not have the power or the logic to stop the war, because he can’t say publicly the obvious. He can’t say to the American people, NATO will not expand. If he says that, he’s declared, you’re a weakling, you’re a trader, you’re making a concession to President Putin, you’re giving up, you’re on the payroll of the Russians. And so the imperial logic still prevails, even if the individual as president might want to do something different, of course none of us can figure out Donald Trump’s mentality, not even Donald Trump. So we don’t know what he really, truly thinks, but what I know is that he seems to want to end the Ukraine war, but does not have the political strength as the individual leadership to end it, because all around him is the military industrial complex that says the US can go where it wants.
Then comes the Middle East conflict, second conflict. This is also an imperial conflict. It started of course, as so many conflicts do, with the British. And the conflict with Ukraine, by the way, started with the British, because in 1853, Britain went to war against Russia for exactly the same reason that the United States went to war against Russia in 2014. Britain said we need to weaken Russia in 1853, so the war in Ukraine is like the 19th century Crimean war. Almost the same actors, but the United States wasn’t involved in the first one, but Britain was involved in both of them. When it comes to the Middle East, this is also a crisis made by Britain. It comes from World War I, as you know, when the Ottoman Empire, which ruled the Middle East, was defeated by the Allied Powers: the US, France, and Britain, and Britain was the dominant imperial power of the age, especially in the Middle East. It ruled over Egypt, It ruled over Aden, which is Yemen today, because this was the route to Britain’s empire in India, the sea route. So Britain was very careful to control the whole sea lane from the Mediterranean to India. And India was the crown jewel of the British empire.
At the end of World War I, when the Turkish empire was defeated, Britain aim to control all of this territory. And it made many promises and many contradictory promises to other powers. Britain told the Arabs, you will control this region. Britain told the French, you will control this region. Britain told the Jews, you will control this region, and Britain, ultimately, wanted to control the region. So this was typical British, imperial deceit or duplicity. One of the outcomes was the Balfour Declaration, which Britain called for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in what was a province of the Ottoman Empire, and which was became known as Palestine after World War I, which was the ancient Roman name that was used for this territory also. So Britain took over Palestine under the League of Nations. And it said that this would be a Jewish homeland. This is a very complicated, weird story, because the Jewish faith had its main temple in this place 2,000 years earlier, but it had been banished from this place by the Roman Empire in the year 135 A.D., and now it was recreating this ancient state. The only problem was that 95 % of the population was Arabs who did not want a Jewish homeland in this territory. But Britain used its imperial power to force the in-migration of people of Jewish religion, especially from eastern Europe to claim part of British controlled Palestine. And a very long story that has led to 100 years of crisis, because there was the local population resisted the incoming of migrants from Europe especially, and then after the State of Israel was established, from other regions of the world, including the Middle East and South Asia. And the mentality of the Jewish state, which was established in 1948 by the United Nations, was our security depends on having no Arab state next to us that opposes us. So the idea of sharing the land, which was a UN idea, was actually rejected by both sides in a way. The Arabs said we’re the majority, we should rule. And the Jews said we’re the minority, we need to dominate, because otherwise we won’t be safe. And so this has led from 1948 until today to an unresolved war.
But remember, this was a state created by the British empire, and now backed by the US empire. So Israel could not survive without the US being the imperial power that enforces Israel’s power in the region. Because Israel has just 8 million people, the Arab world is about 400 million people. And Israel, therefore, depends on its security entirely on the United States. The United States has seen this as an imperial project that’s good for the United States, because if the US has control over the Middle East through Israel, that gives the US control effectively, militarily in the region. So the US has backed Israel for many decades during this period. It’s a very dangerous, ongoing conflict, because it is very unjust. And Israel needs to use more and more force in order to repress the aspirations of the Palestinian people, and the more force that Israel uses, the more resistance there is. And we’ve reached a point of violence that is unprecedented in modern times, Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza right now, which is one part of the Palestinian lands. And every day they’re slaughtering tens or hundreds of innocent people with open fire. And today there was another massacre. People came for food, and they were just shocked by the Israeli armed forces.
Iran, as you know, which is a long empire that has 5,000 years of history, backed the Palestinian cause, and it supported resistance to Israel, both the Hamas and Hezbollah, 2 groups, and in Yemen also, the Houthi Militants. And so Israel has always had the idea that we need to topple the Iranian regime. Instead of saying we need to settle the Palestinian crisis by giving a state of Palestine next door to a state of Israel, Israel has said we need to overthrow the Iranian government so that they don’t bother us. And Israel actually made a long list of governments that it wanted overthrown by the United States, because those governments were resisting Israel’s attempt to control the region. The list actually was made, literally made that we want seven governments overthrown, and that list was unveiled in 2001. One of our generals, General Wesley Clark talked about this in an amazing set of interviews. And the seven countries are Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, and Libya. So seven countries that were supporting the Palestinian cause. The Israeli government said to the Americans, you overthrow those seven governments. It’s not so easy. Those turned into seven major wars. We had the war in Lebanon for many years. We had a 15 year war in Syria, which is still going on, because the US tried to overthrow or did overthrow the Syrian government. We had the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003. We had the US bombing of Libya in 2011, which created a civil war in Libya. We had the US supporting an insurgency in Sudan to break Sudan into two countries, Sudan and South Sudan, both of which are in civil war now, and we have had the US supporting interventions in Somalia, which is an ongoing battleground as well. So the one that was missing, up until 2 weeks ago, or up until last month, was Iran, and the Israeli government was always begging the US, bomb Iran, bomb Iran, bomb Iran. And finally, Trump, who’s, again, not very smart, not very effective, not very capable of resisting these kinds of demands, said, okay, we’ll bomb Iran. The war, such as it was, lasted 12 days. Israel went in and assassinated dozens of people through its Mossad, the secret service or the spy agency, but basically it’s an assassination unit. And the idea was to create a regime change. But it failed. The government is intact, and the situation is more dangerous than ever. Because Iran is a country of 100 million people almost. It’s a major country. It has big missile systems, it has a real military capacity. It has an alliance with Russia, and it has friendship with other nuclear powers like Pakistan, even if it doesn’t have its own nuclear weapons, maybe Pakistan will give it nuclear weapons. Maybe Pakistan would defend Iran if there was a full fledged war with the Israel. So this is the second region where imperial mentality lasts until today. The US is unwilling to compromise on the imperial prerogatives.
So the final point that I want to raise and then close is the US-China confrontation and how dangerous it is. As I said, the US got along well with China from the 1970s to around 2010 in my estimation, because China was viewed by America as poor, lots of villages that grew rice, you could make components for our products, make our smartphones and so forth. But China wasn’t a threat. It was a good counterweight to the Soviet Union or to Russia. That was the attitude, not too much more, so not too much attention given and not too much concern. And ideology played no concern, because during the Cultural Revolution period, which was not exactly American ideology, this is when the relationship was formed between Mao and Nixon, then came the opening, and that was an opportunity for investment and trade. That’s fine. But ideology played no special role. Starting around 2010, the American leaders that were watching this and said, oh, China is getting awfully big and rather successful. And then I think two announcements by China really opened up American eyes. One was the Belt and Road Initiative, which was an economic, financial, infrastructure initiative that had suddenly 100 partner countries, and the US didn’t have anything like that.
And then the Made in China 2025 Program, which was a really brilliant initiative of China to identify ten major technology areas and set policies to make a major advance in these areas. This is one of the most successful industrial policies I know of in history, the Made in China 2025, because it really worked. It really produced the EV revolution. It really produced the digital revolution here. It really produced the renewable energy revolution, so it was very successful, but it terrified the Americans suddenly.
So starting around 2015, the whole view changed almost suddenly in the United States. The view went from economic partnership to the need to contain China, the need to do something to slow down China’s economic advance. All of this is quite dumb, in my view. You don’t get ahead in this world by stopping someone else. And there’s no reason to, you’re not going to be better off, you’re not going to be safe. It’s just a lose lose proposition, and it probably wouldn’t be successful in any event. It started under Obama, by the way, it didn’t start with Trump. It started definitely under Obama. And the Trans Pacific Partnership idea, which was the dumbest idea of trade policy that I know of, which was to make an Asian trade system without China. How can you do that? China is the main trade country for all of Asia, but the United States had the idea, we will make an Asian trade system without China. This is only in America could you have such delusions. In any event, it started with Obama, it continued with Trump, and it also implicates Taiwan issue of course.
This is the most dangerous flashpoint of all, maybe the most dangerous in the whole world, because the American politicians, because of this mindset, do not know how to stay out of China’s internal issues, rather than saying that’s not our problem. You settle this peacefully, but it’s not our issue. The United States is providing large flows of armaments to Taiwan, and the American political leaders are talking openly about defending Taiwan and militarily defending Taiwan. If China said we’re going to militarily defend the state of Missouri, we’re going to militarily defend Texas, or we’re going to militarily defend California. It would not play very well in the US, but the US, because of the imperial mentality, cannot put itself in China’s position or doesn’t care to, because the US can determine what should be done. Just to conclude, I view this issue as extremely dangerous. And peace actually depends on the good sense of the Taiwanese leaders, which is fragile. Because if a Taiwanese president were to declare independence, all hell could break out, because the United States would not necessarily have any responsibility. This is why the situation is so dangerous. And if Taiwan were smart, and my feeling is Taiwan could end up like Ukraine, destroyed in between two fighting giants. If Taiwan were smart, the first thing they should say is to the United States, don’t send us any weapons, please. We don’t want a fight here. We’ll handle our own diplomacy across the Taiwan straits. Please, quote, don’t defend us, because we don’t want to end up like Ukraine, caught between two giant powers.
I’ll conclude here for our discussion to say that the world really is dangerous right now, because of this mindset on the one hand, that I’ve described in the US, and at the same time, because of changing reality. I want to end on an optimistic note. If we can avoid conflict because of the technological revolution, we really could have a world of shared prosperity and other regions of the world that seem hopeless right now, like African countries, could really have 40 years of economic development if they would follow China’s road map for how to do this, they would end up as a high income continent alongside the rest of the world. So I’m actually basically optimistic. Worried, but optimistic. Thank you.
Prof. Jeffrey Sachs is a world-renowned economics professor, an advisor to political leaders around the world, a bestselling author, and a global leader in sustainable development. Prof. Sachs discusses the decline of diplomacy, rationality and self-preservation in the West. As Russia’s nuclear forces were attacked, Western political leaders and media reacted with glee.
[Ed Note: To describe this at the brink of nuclear war is an overstatement. The experts need to comment here, but nuclear war has precursors. One has to see something, for example nuclear silos opening. From the US side, nuclear infrastructure is old and we’ve seen the reports that as other infrastructure has deteriorated, so has the nuclear infrastructure. On Russia’s side the infrastructure is maintained and they have had excercises in Moscow with their civil population as to what to do. Then, I do not believe Russia intends anything of this nature, despite the nuclear war doctrine being updated. We are also not sure what Russia’s stockpile of Oreshniks are and this is a nuke killer weapon. The US is now factional and they warring against themselves. That some part of the factional structure knew of the attack on Russia’s airfields and nuclear bombers is almost a certainty. Currently Europe is no good, as they are preparing for war but does not have the wherewithall. It will take years to build up forces. The concept that Trump has lost control of his administration and the many tentacles is also almost a certainty yet, unless there is a Wag the Dog scenario, I believe in a crisis situation Trump will pick up the phone and call Putin because he will want to be just like Kennedy during the Cuban Nuclear Crisis. Bear in mind that during that crisis, the US stepped back, and removed their nuclear infrastructure in Turkey.
It is not a comfortable place to be, but the distance between where we are now and an all-out nuclear war, although alarming, is still off in the distance. That small nukes may be used tactically may be closer to a real scenario. This war in its many manifestations is still conventional in terms of weapons, in terms of economics it is a dog-eat-dog world and we’ve seldom seen such brutality as we see now.]
With Judge Napolitano.
Sachs: To make Gaza completely unlivable. That is genocide.
It is wonderful to have friends that can [select for]:’critical issues’. Thank You!
Make the Middle-East in Israel’s image. Overthrow every government that opposes Israel
We’ve all seen it rolling out. Now Jeffrey Sachs blows the whistle, loud and clear.
Renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs has launched a scathing critique of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, placing the blame squarely on Washington’s alliance with Israel’s far-right leadership. Speaking at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, Sachs claimed that American interference—encouraged by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—has devastated the region. He cited covert operations like the CIA’s Timber Sycamore as catalysts behind the Syrian civil war and accused Israel of pushing for armed conflict with Iran after having allegedly promoted six previous wars.
Quote: We should not allow this kind of criminality to be normal.
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