EDITORIAL
Helga Zepp-LaRouche Briefs Americans: ‘The World Looks Much Different from China’
June 1 (EIRNS)—Schiller Institute founding President Helga Zepp-LaRouche just completed a major, two-week-long trip to China, which began with her attending the May 14-15 Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing. Immediately below are excerpts from the June 1 briefing she gave to American associates, which is also posted on the LaRouche PAC website.
“I just wanted to make sure that you get a first impression from me from my trip, because I think the worst mistake we could make would be to respond to the absolutely incredible psywar propaganda coming from the U.S. mainstream media and the neoliberal media in Europe…. It is very clear that people who are primarily relying on such media have a completely, totally, 100% wrong idea of what the reality is of what’s going on.” It is crucial, LaRouche said, “not to try to swim within the fishbowl of an artificially created environment, because, from my standpoint, the world looks very, very different.
“First of all … with the Belt and Road Forum, the world has dramatically consolidated the beginning of the new era, and I don’t think at all, that short of World War III, this is going to go away, because the majority of the world is moving in a completely liberated way. And first of all, this was the highest level conference I ever participated in. There were 28 heads of state, speaking one after the other, and obviously, the speech by Xi Jinping was absolutely outstanding, and whoever has time to listen to it, should really do it, because it was a very, very Confucian speech, which set the tone for the two-day conference in a very clear way. So, please listen to it when you have some time.
Mrs. LaRouche urged her associates to think about what the LaRouche organization, and its founder Lyndon LaRouche, in particular, have been fighting for, for almost half a century. In 1971, LaRouche recognized the significance of the dismantling of the Bretton Woods system, and the following 40 years were characterized by a multitude of his initiatives: LaRouche came back from the Iraq Ba’ath Party celebration in 1975, “when he proposed the IDB as an International Development Bank to foster a new world economic order.”
For one year, Mrs. LaRouche recalled, the LaRouche organization campaigned with this IDB proposal “which then basically became part of the Colombo, Sri Lanka resolution of the Non-Aligned Movement in ‘76.” Then, at the end of the 1970s, the LaRouche organization worked with Indira Gandhi on a 40-year development plan for India. “Already in ‘76, we published a whole book about the industrialization of Africa. We worked with Mexican President José López Portillo on ‘Operation Juárez.’ We put out a 50-year Pacific Basin development plan.” In 1975, LaRouche had already proposed the Oasis Plan. “And then naturally when the [Berlin] Wall came down and the Soviet Union disintegrated, we proposed the Productive Triangle and the Eurasian Land-Bridge.”
There were so many proposals! “And just think of the many, many activities…conferences all over five continents, all of this was on the level of ideas, on the level of program—but only after Xi Jinping put the New Silk Road on the agenda in 2013, and in the four-years of breathtaking developments of the One Belt, One Road initiative since, are these ideas becoming realized! And the genie is out of the bottle!”
There is discussion of the bioceanic railway and the tunnels and bridges connecting the Atlantic and Pacific around Latin America; railways now being opened up in Africa. “This is unprecedented!” Mrs. LaRouche said. “This was not done by the IMF or the World Bank. They suppressed it with the conditionalities. But with the AIIB, the New Development Bank, the New Silk Road Fund, the Maritime Silk Road Fund, the direct investment of the Chinese Exim Bank, the China state bank, all of these projects are now proceeding, and they have completely changed the attitude and the self-confidence of all participating countries.
She particularly emphasized that the way people in China look at President Trump is absolutely different than how the Western media portray him. “They are very positive about Trump, in the same way that people in Russia think that Trump is somebody you can absolutely have a decent relationship with, and that is reality.”
Forget about the media. “Forget these whores in the press who are really just prostitutes for the British Empire. Don’t pay any attention to what they say,” she warned.
“When Trump promised $1 trillion infrastructure investments, this was the right thing,” said Mrs. LaRouche, and stressing how correct LaRouche organization was in demanding the United States join the Silk Road. And that, she emphasized, “should be our focus, and nothing else. Everything else should be a subsumed aspect of that. This is the strategically important thing, and the fact that the head of the China Investment Corp. Ding Xuedong, said it’s not $1 trillion, but $8 trillion is what the United States needs, and is absolutely on the mark.”
The fact that CIC has now set up their offices in New York, advising Chinese investors how to invest in the United States, and vice versa, and the fact that the Chinese are invited to participate in this infrastructure conference in June, means that “all of this is absolutely going in the right direction,” Mrs. LaRouche said.
She also specified that in the Belt and Road Forum and in the many meetings she participated in afterwards, during the two weeks spent in Beijing, in Nanjing and Shanghai, “we were treated with the highest respect possible.” People are fully aware of Lyndon LaRouche’s significance as a theoretician of physical economy, and “his ideas are highly respected … people treated me as we should be treated, namely as people who have devoted their entire lives to the common good of humanity.” This stands in stark contrast to the treatment LaRouche and his associates normally get from the neoliberals in the trans-Atlantic region.
Mrs. LaRouche emphasized that the attacks on Donald Trump are intended to make it difficult for him to focus on the positive aspects, and there are many of these, including his working relationship with Russia and China, “which is strategically the most important…. Basically, he has to defend himself instead, and everybody thinks they have to spend all their time to defend themselves.” This is not unlike what happened to the LaRouche organization after 1986, when its offices were attacked by the FBI, and leading members, including founder Lyndon LaRouche, were carted off to jail.
“Up to that point, we were all positive…. And then after the attack came in ‘86, by the same apparatus which is going after Trump now, we had to spend all this money on lawyers and we had to defend ourselves … and that’s what they’re trying to do to Trump!”
People shouldn’t fall for this, Mrs. LaRouche warned. “The idea that we are losing is completely off! Mankind is on the winning track” and now is the time to mobilize the American population to create the kind of ferment so that the implementation of the infrastructure program as a first step is on the agenda, “and on everybody’s mind and nothing else.”
More broadly, Mrs. LaRouche said that even if Europe is still in the grip of the EU Commission, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel wants to be the leader of the free West, “forget it!” French President Emmanuel Macron just had a very excellent meeting with Putin, defining a cordial relationship with Russia! This wasn’t exactly what Merkel and Obama have been cooking up, when Obama addressed the church congress of the German Lutheran Church, but Merkel is actually pretty isolated. The enthusiasm for the Belt and Road from many quarters in Europe is palpable. All of the East Europeans who attended the Belt and Road summit in Beijing “were absolutely enthusiastic,” and despite Merkel, even German industry “is actually really getting it,” that their interest is to work on joint ventures in third countries together with China.
Mrs. LaRouche concluded by stating it is her “strong conviction that by the end of this year, it will look completely different, because the development perspective is so contagious,” and that all efforts by the British Empire to sabotage this will fail. So, she advised, “take the winning perspective, take the high ground, think strategically, and realize that what is happening in reality, in many, many development projects around the world, is what [the LaRouche] organization has been fighting for, for almost half a century … the worst thing we could do,” she said, is to look at the situation from inside the United States, “from within the box, when the whole world has moved out of the box decisively, with the Belt and Road Forum, which is not going to be stopped by anything.”
NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER
Russia’s SPIEF Opens: No Obama To Discourage American Companies’ Attendance
June 1 (EIRNS)—Today the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) opened, and will continue with presentations and discussions on scientific and technological breakthroughs and planned development projects, presented in panels through Saturday, June 3.
On May 31 Forbes magazine gives an indication of the high-level guest participants: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, UN Secretary General António Guterres, Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern, and the leadership of Russia.
Forbes correctly lays the blame squarely on Obama for the low attendance by U.S. corporations in recent years: “After several years of low attendance, during which the Obama administration actively discouraged U.S. businesses from participating in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Russia’s largest international business gala, this year sees the return of American companies in sufficient numbers to run a separate U.S.-Russia roundtable for the first time in the Forum’s history.”
The panel discussion topics pose immediate questions for mankind: space science, health, infrastructure, nuclear energy, the possibility of a European-Eurasian integration; healthcare, the Changing Economics of Transportation and Logistics; Russia-India; Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU)-Latin American cooperation; New Frontiers in Scientific Advancement; Building the Infrastructure for Eurasia’s Future; Russia-USA; Putting Long-Term Capital To Work for Infrastructure Development; Russia-Italy; A New Standard in Economic Cooperation; The Future Being Born Today: Integration and Infrastructure Projects in Eurasia; the BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Belt and Road Initiative, the EAEU,—all of which will shape the future.
Friday, at the most highly-attended President’s session, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Modi, and other heads of state and government will speak, with U.S. journalist Megyn Kelly, now with NBC News, moderating and interviewing President Putin. Putin is also scheduled to meet with over 40 heads of sovereign funds from 23 countries, which collectively manage $11.4 trillion, according to Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund. The Administration for the Leningrad Region, which surrounds the city of St. Petersburg, is set to sign 130 deals worth over $5 billion.
The U.S. Russia Business Council Roundtable will take place on June 2, in which senior executives from some of America’s leading corporations, including Boeing, Caterpillar, General Electric, and Philip Morris International will participate.
China’s Ambassador to Germany Details Chinese-German Cooperation Potential
June 1 (EIRNS)—On the eve of a forum of German businessmen in Berlin today, also attended by Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, China’s Ambassador to Germany Shi Mingde told Chinese media that “manufacturing industries of the two nations are highly complementary. China is a big manufacturing country, while Germany is a strong one. A new round of industrial revolution is speeding up, gaining momentum … which has brought an unprecedented opportunity for strategic cooperation,” reported China Daily.
Shi said there are 8,000 German companies operating in China with a total investment volume of more than €60 billion ($67 billion), while nearly 2,000 Chinese enterprises are operating in Germany. Those companies will provide key strength in advancing cooperation, he said. Two strong nations joining hands will have an effect far beyond their boundaries, Shi said.
He cited the potential for construction in all countries under the Belt and Road Initiative, referring to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, which aim to increase connections between Asia, Europe and other areas. He also mentioned the possibility for Beijing and Berlin to jointly influence the establishment of global standards for intelligent manufacturing. The forum during Li’s visit is expected to forge new, innovative ways to cooperate in fields such as smart manufacturing, electric vehicles and innovation by young people, he said.
Hubertus Troska, a member of Daimler AG’s board who is responsible for China, said the trends of connectivity, autonomous driving, sharing and electric mobility are revolutionizing the auto industry, “perhaps nowhere faster than in China.” In a written interview with China Daily, Troska said “In line with China’s economic development plan, we will meet both opportunities and challenges head-on with further innovations and upgraded manufacturing.”
Great Potential for Ibero-America, Caribbean in China’s Belt and Road Project
June 1 (EIRNS)—In an interview with the Cuban daily Granma, published May 31, Zhu Qingqiao, head of the Latin American/Caribbean Affairs Department of China’s Foreign Ministry, emphasized the inclusive nature of the Belt and Road project, which, he said, is open to all Ibero-American and Caribbean nations.
“We are working on articulating our development strategies and policies in order to promote greater connectivity” with the region, he said, noting that five Ibero-American nations have already joined the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), and that Argentina is in the process of joining. “While the nucleus of [Belt and Road], presented by China, but shared with the whole world, is concentrated in Asia, Europe and Africa,” Zhu explained, “through the AIIB everyone may participate and aspire to infrastructure plans, in Asia, or within their own borders.”
He especially emphasized the importance of cooperation in science and innovation, noting that China is willing to export to many nations advanced technology and productive capacity, “of which there is a surplus” in China, he pointed out. The location of many Chinese firms in Ibero-American nations will also “contribute to the promotion of industrialization and job creation,” he underscored. In this context, he stressed the importance of the China-CELAC Forum (CELAC is the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States), created in 2015 to promote economic cooperation, and to which China is currently offering a $35 billion financial package, $10 billion of which has already been approved for specific projects.
Zhu reported that President Xi Jinping has tasked him with building comprehensive, mutually beneficial associations with all the nations of the region. “Currently we possess broad possibilities for cooperation,” he said. “There are no geopolitical conflicts or historical disputes; rather we are united by a profound friendship…. We seek mutual understanding, but have to overcome the distance, and lack of knowledge” about each other, he said.
U.S. ECONOMIC & POLITICAL
Intelligence Committee Issues Subpoenas on ‘Russiagate’ and on ‘Unmasking’ Trump Officials
June 1 (EIRNS)—The House Intelligence Committee issued seven subpoenas yesterday, the Wall Street Journal’s Byron Tau and Shane Harris reported today. Four subpoenas were issued to probe allegations of Russian influence on Trump’s election, with two targetting Trump National Security Advisor nominee Michael Flynn and his businesses, and two more to Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen, and his businesses.
The other three subpoenas were issued to the National Security Agency (NSA), the CIA, and the FBI, demanding reasons for the “unmasking” of the names of Trump associates in unredacted classified reports distributed by the Obama Administration.
These are the first subpoenas issued in the “Russia probe” so far. The Democrats are pressing the probe of “Russiagate,” which is a separate probe from that of the Republicans, who are eagerly pursuing the “unmasking” of Trump supporters. Since the probes are considered separate matters, Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes (R-CA) signed all seven subpoenas, despite his recusal, the Journal reports. Republicans are eager to find out how names of Trump campaign officials became exposed in classified intelligence reports based on intelligence community intercepts, and how classified information about Trump was given to the media. The most recent subpoenas to the NSA, CIA, and FBI seek information on any requests made by former National Security Advisor Susan Rice, former CIA Director John Brennan and former United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power for names to be unmasked.
The Wall Street Journal devotes an editorial entirely to the former UN Ambassador, “Samantha Power Unmasked,” asking, “Why would a diplomat need to know the names of Trump officials?” Noting that Obama “made a large to-do about his reforms of U.S. surveillance programs to ‘protect the privacy’ of Americans,” the Journal says, “We may soon learn how that squares with his Administration’s unmasking of political opponents.”
The Journal reports that the Senate Intelligence Committee will soon hear testimony, possibly next week, from fired FBI Director James Comey about whether President Trump asked him to “back off” investigating “Russiagate.”
Will Israel’s Labor Party Enter the Government So That a Peace Can Be Negotiated?
June 1 (EIRNS)—At the time of President Trump’s Middle East trip last month, two leading Labor Party-linked Israeli journalists, Ephraim Sneh and Ben Caspit, made it unmistakably clear that President Trump was launching a serious and full-scale effort to get Israeli-Palestinian negotiations underway for a Mideast peace settlement. Caspit once interviewed Lyndon LaRouche, some years ago.
When he was informed of this on Thursday, May 25, EIR Founding Editor Lyndon LaRouche recalled his own work with Israel’s founders in the Labor Party, and said that if peace negotiations were to get anywhere, the Labor Party would have to be in a position of authority.
Sure enough, in a followup article, Caspit writes that moves are underway to remove the extreme right-wing parties from the Israeli ruling coalition, and to replace them with Labor Party and allied figures, so that the peace negotiations on which Trump is insisting become possible.
SCIENCE & INFRASTRUCTURE
Will More Nuclear Plants Be Threatened with Closure?
June 1 (EIRNS)—Talen Energy, based in Allentown, Pennsylvania, is weighing the shutdown of its Susquehanna nuclear power plant, which includes two reactors, and supplies about 1 million homes with electricity, utility analysts report. The company said on May 31 that the pressure on the utility is cheap shale gas, which makes it very difficult to sell nuclear-produced electricity on the state’s auction. Pennsylvania is one of the 25 states with a deregulated electricity “market,” where each supplier must “compete” against other producers. Also cited is the fact that it takes more than 1,000 people to run the two reactors, and 25 employees will operate a new gas generating plant (which is just a big boiler) being built near the nuclear plants. Currently, the state’s five nuclear plants provide nearly 37% of its power.
There is a nuclear energy caucus in the legislature, looking for ways to keep plants open, as has been done for plants in upper New York State and Illinois. It is opposed by the state’s gas lobby. Pennsylvania’s shale gas makes it the second largest gas-producing state, after Texas.
In January, Entergy announced that it would be shutting down its two reactors at Indian Point in New York. On top of a relentless, decades-long drive to shut down the plants for alleged safety reasons by the anti-nukes and politicians, Entergy cited the fact that low gas prices had driven down the price of electricity by 45%.
In February, First Energy announced that it would close or sell four nuclear reactors at three sites in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and get out of the “merchant” market, where it was losing money. The Nuclear Energy Institute estimates that are at least 15 operating plants that are in danger of being shut down for “economic” reasons.
After five consecutive years of financial losses, Exelon announced earlier this week that it would be closing the Three Mile Island nuclear plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 2019. For the past three years, it has not been able sell any power from the plant in the auction, and is losing millions of dollars every year.
New South Korean President Moon Jae-in Is Rabidly Anti-Nuclear, Begins Shutdown
June 1 (EIRNS)—Somewhat overlooked during the election campaign in South Korea is the fact that President Moon Jae-in is rabidly anti-nuclear. He has, within days of his election, begun the shutdown of several nuclear power plants that were under construction, and is moving to decommission plants as their official licenses expire, rather than the usual policy of extending permits when the plants are in good condition. He says he wants South Korea to be zero-nuclear power by 2060.
He is also committed to shutting down all coal-powered plants.
According to Rod Adams in Atomic Insights website on May 30, “Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) has directed Kepco Engineering & Construction to suspend detailed design work for two new Korean third-generation APR1400 units at the Shin Hanul nuclear generating station. Yesterday, BusinessKorea reported that KHNP had also suspended its land acquisition program for the proposed Cheonji Nuclear Power Plant after accumulating approximately 18% of the area needed, that there is pressure to stop building Kori units 5 & 6 after having completed 28% of their construction at a cost of at least 1.5 trillion won ($1.3 billion), and that Kori 1 and Wolsong 1 will both be shut down within months when their soon-to-expire operating licenses end.”
If followed through, this will be a disaster for Korea and the world. Although Moon is moving rapidly towards cooperation with both China and Russia, including discussions with Russia about participation in the development of the Russian Far East, South Korea’s highly advanced industrial and scientific capacities cannot survive on so-called “renewable” resources. South Korea has 25 reactors supplying one-third of its electricity, and is now a nuclear power plant exporter, building four plants in the U.A.E., one of which is finished. They are bidding on other plants around the world.
OTHER
Italian Military Analyst Urges West to Help Philippines President Duterte
June 1 (EIRNS) – Difesa Online Italian military analyst Giampiero Venturi warned in an article May 30 that ISIS is rising in the Philippines and threatens the entirety of Southeast Asia, “but Western media are attacking Duterte,” the Philippines President.
Islamic radicalism/insurgency has been endemic in the Philippines, centered on the island of Mindanao. But starting in 2013, there was a qualitative shift, with the Maute group that eventually joined ISIS. On May 23, the insurgency became “open war.” Five hundred militias took over the large city of Marawi, population 200,000, provoking a strong military reaction from Manila.
The government has four divisions deployed in Mindanao, plus special forces. “It is an immense effort, and over the last few days resulted in an attack flanked by air raids and helicopters,” Venturi wrote. Apparently, government forces liberated 80% of Marawi, discovering “executions of civilians and unspeakable violence by Islamist militias.”
Mindanao is strategic not just for the Philippines, but for Southeast Asia as a whole. Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand “are already hit by Islamist insurgency and risk becoming part of a continental integralist dynamic.” Foreign fighters are already in the Philippines, Venturi writes.
However, “the West seems to be worried about other things. Instead of putting the limelight on mass executions, violence, and the perspective of an Islamist advance, Western media prefer to focus on President Duterte’s strong statements and sheriff-like methods…. Duterte is even attacked because of the war on drugs, in which he has obtained huge results, albeit with violent methods.”
Venturi concludes that while there are some objectionable aspects to Duterte, he is facing alone “a challenge from radical Islam which concerns the West more than geography tells. As Far East Asia burns, the only Western contribution seems to be a campaign of systematic discrediting, whose practical utility in the contest against Islamic radicalism appears rather questionable at the very least.”
