EDITORIAL
United States Reaps from Trump’s China Visit, It Needs To Sow
Nov. 8 (EIRNS)—Reports on the first day of President Donald Trump’s visit to China are that papers are drawn for some $250 billion in trade and investment understandings, focused on agricultural sales and technology and energy infrastructure, which will be of considerable benefit to the United States. The President and his family were given a rare tour of all parts of the Forbidden City in Beijing, traditional opera performances, and a real sense of the history and culture of the great nation with which he is dealing.
President Xi Jinping’s concept of great power relations is that of mutual benefit and cooperation, and is being shown to President Trump during these days. President Trump should reciprocate. The United States should conduct its relations with other nations under such a concept as well, and in the best parts of its history, it has.
The President could be agreeing with China to joint projects of infrastructure and industrial development in other countries, as well as bringing such progress back into the United States. We await President Trump joining America to the Belt and Road Initiative, with its great projects of infrastructure and productivity across much of the world.
It is of note that coordination for bilateral meeting with Russian President Putin during the trip is now confirmed as well. President Trump can and should ride roughshod over the discredited “Russiagate” plot of British and U.S. intelligence agencies, and their legal assassin Robert Mueller.
It has been discredited in fact from the beginning—had the Trump team been “influenced” by or “colluded with” officials of many other major nations, no one would have said a word. But the intelligence chiefs used a false “dossier” to try to blackmail the President into a dangerous anti-Russia, anti-China “sole superpower” policy, and Mueller, who came out of that blackmail, should resign.
Instead, Trump can have a collaboration which would wind up the British- and Saudi-instigated wars and spread high-technology development.
The President, who campaigned about America’s broken-down infrastructure, appears now to have forgotten that the United States economy badly needs this as well. Only Wall Street wants lower taxes and higher corporate profits, to try to cover unpayable debt bubbles. The rest of America needs higher wages and greater productivity, from new infrastructure and a Glass-Steagall bank reorganization.
Accepting China’s offers to “benefit the other nation” calls for offering the same idea back. Join the Belt and Road Initiative. Forget the Wall Street markets, before they crash. Build the new infrastructure the United States desperately needs, and the rest of the world as well.
THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER
Zepp-LaRouche Addressed Diplomatic Seminar in Sana’a, Yemen
Nov. 8 (EIRNS)—Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Chairwoman of the Schiller Institute, addressed a seminar in Sana’a, the war-defying capital of Yemen on Nov. 7, via video message. The seminar, which was titled “From Sana’a to Beijing: The First Diplomatic Seminar” featured and was sponsored by Foreign Minister of Yemen Hisham Sharaf and hosted by the Institute of Diplomacy in Sana’a. The theme of the seminar was China’s Policy Paper on the Arab World, and how Yemen would join the Belt and Road Initiative. Fouad Al-Ghaffari, Chairman of the Yemeni Advisory Office for Coordination with the BRICS spoke at the seminar too, introducing Mrs. LaRouche as the “New Silk Road Lady.” The banner of the event featured a major map of the World Land-Bridge as designed by EIR.
Foreign Minister Sharaf reviewed the friendly and productive historical relations with China, including many infrastructure projects that China contributed to modern Yemen in the past decades before the outbreak of the Saudi war on Yemen in 2015. He expressed Yemen’s full readiness to join the Belt and Road Initiative and to protect the Maritime Silk Road at the Bab El-Mandab Strait and the Red Sea. He urged China to play a constructive role in the political solution for the war in Yemen. He also urged China not to take steps to that could lead to the further splitting of the country between south and north.
Sharaf was referring to the allegations of a recent contract signed between Chinese telecom giant Huawei and the government-in-exile, to build a mobile telephone system in areas of southern Yemen controlled by U.A.E.- and Saudi-backed armed groups. The Chinese government does not recognize the government in Sana’a, of which Foreign Minister Sharaf is a member, and instead recognizes the government of deposed President Abed-Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who is in exile in Saudi Arabia, and who has little or no control of matters in Yemen. China claims that it is following UN Security Council Resolutions.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry issued the China Arab World Policy Paper in January 2016, a few days ahead of the visit by President Xi Jinping to three key nations of the Southwest Asia: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. President Xi expressed during his visit the same points raised by the policy paper, which is the importance of settling the conflicts of the region through a spirit of cooperation and dialogue, and that China is ready to extend the policy of the New Silk Road to the region and help rebuild the economies devastated by wars and conflicts in recent years, and offering cooperation in infrastructure, nuclear power and agriculture to all the nations of the region.
Yemeni official news agency Saba and other newspapers covered the event.
Mrs. Zepp-LaRouche’s video statement is available on the Schiller Institute YouTube channel.
Infrastructure Projects ‘Could Transform U.S.-China Relations’
Nov. 8 (EIRNS)—David Firestein, a former U.S. diplomat, now inaugural executive director of the University of Texas at Austin’s China Public Policy Center, was interviewed Nov. 7 by Xinhua. Firestein said that he believed there is a great potential for U.S.-China cooperation in the field of infrastructure. “To me that is potentially an issue that could actually transform the U.S.-China relationship,” said Firestein. “The U.S. has a surplus of need and a deficit of capital. China has a surplus of capital and also substantial know-how in any sector in the infrastructure world.”
Firestein cited high-speed rail as an example, in which area China takes the lead. “There is a massive surplus of capital that could be brought to bear a very positive impact on U.S. infrastructure needs,” he elaborated.
Cooperation and collaboration in infrastructure is “a true win-win” that could “change the current U.S. narrative, which is [that] China is stealing our jobs, to a new narrative, which is [that] China is helping create jobs in the U.S.,” he said.
Firestein observed that there has been “a considerable consistency” in U.S. policy toward China since Donald Trump took office.
As President Xi Jinping welcomed and President Donald Trump to Beijing today, China Daily published an op-ed by Zhao Minghao, from the Charhar Institute, an independent think tank. In “Sino-U.S. Cooperation Leads to Prosperity,” Zhao advises the two leaders that China and the United States “should widen their cooperation beyond crisis management to focus on energy and infrastructure…. And U.S. companies should seriously consider the Atlantic Council’s appeal to take active part in the Belt and Road Initiative.”
Zhao states that the established international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank alone cannot meet the global population’s demand for infrastructure financing. Therefore, “China and the U.S. should consider a global partnership for development in order to boost growth in both countries as well as the rest of the world.”
Lavrov Confirms, Putin Ready for Meeting with Trump
Nov.8 (EIRNS)—Speaking on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Da Nang, Vietnam, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russian President Vladimir Putin is prepared to hold a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.
“We hear Donald Trump’s statements that he plans to hold this meeting with President Putin, and President Putin is ready for this. The Americans know about this. The protocol services are in contact, and when the leaders’ schedules are finally clear, you will be told about this,” Lavrov told reporters. He said that he himself might also meet with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. “Tillerson will arrive here only with President Trump, that’s why we will contact already during the summit directly,” Lavrov said.
On the discussions, Lavrov said, “These will include both bilateral ties, which should be mended thoroughly after the team of [previous U.S. President Barack] Obama worked hard to worsen them, and international relations, Syria, North Korea, and Ukraine.”
Commenting on prospects for U.S.-Russian relations, Lavrov said Trump’s political opponents are trying to prevent him from reaching agreements with Russia.
“President Trump is prevented from exercising his presidential powers, in particular, with regard to cooperation on cybersecurity with us. In Hamburg [at the G20 summit in July], the possibility of reviving cooperation on preventing cybercrime was indeed discussed. President Trump found this proposal to be very promising. However, the Congress immediately raised a hue and cry…. That’s why, of course, we can reach agreements, but, unfortunately, they immediately become elements of internal political struggle, internal political games with a view to making President Trump’s life and performance as difficult as possible,” Lavrov remarked.
Minister Lavrov said facts have revealed a domestic trace in the U.S. Democratic Party cyber attacks. “Well-known facts show that not a single Russian trace has been found in these cases so far,” he said. “The traces there are domestic: in particular, intervention and leaking information to competitors were revealed within the Democratic Party, in the U.S. Democratic National Committee.”
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
Helga Zepp-LaRouche Thursday Webcast on ‘Trump, Xi, and the Spirit of the New Silk Road’
Nov. 7 (EIRNS)—On Nov. 8, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet in Beijing, their second face-to-face meeting since their April 2017 summit in Mar-a-Lago, Florida. At that meeting, Trump expressed his pleasure at being introduced by Xi to what Helga Zepp-LaRouche calls the “Spirit of the New Silk Road.” The collaborative relationship which has developed between the two leaders is a cause for optimism, and should develop further with their meetings this week.
That is why the imperial financial oligarchy and their neocon mouthpieces, whose policies have put nations on the brink of World War III and financial bankruptcy, have been escalating wildly, to prevent this meeting from happening. This includes the deployment against Trump by the legal assassin Robert Mueller and his cohorts.
Do you believe that they will allow an honest report of the events in Beijing and, more broadly, on Trump’s trip to Asia, to reach you, through their Fake News media?
On Thursday, Helga Zepp-LaRouche will provide a full update on the events taking place in Asia and their strategic significance, and offer her insights on what potential has been created for the successful consolidation of a New Paradigm. As she has emphasized, knowing the truth will provide the inspiration for citizens to act to shape their own future.
The webcast be aired on Thursday, Nov. 9 at 12 Noon EST, on the Schiller Institute’s New Paradigm site.
Trump Ends South Korea Visit with Address to National Assembly
Nov. 8 (EIRNS)—Prior to his departure from the South Korean capital, President Donald Trump spoke before the South Korean National Assembly. While he lauded the alliance of the United States with South Korea over the last six decades, he painted a grim picture of the conditions of life in the D.P.R.K., strongly reasserting the United States’ determination to meet any open aggression with force. He spelled out that three aircraft carriers were deployed in the vicinity of the Korean Peninsula and an unspecified number of nuclear submarines were “appropriately positioned.”
The President did extend something of an olive branch to the D.P.R.K. if it were to eliminate its nuclear weapons.
“I also have come here to this peninsula to deliver a message directly to the leader of the North Korean dictatorship,” Trump said. “The weapons you are acquiring are not making you safer. They are putting your regime in grave danger. Every step you take down this dark path increases the peril you face. North Korea is not the paradise your grandfather envisioned. It is a hell that no person deserves. Yet, despite every crime you have committed against God and man, we are ready to offer, and we will do that—we will offer a path to a much better future. It begins with an end to the aggression of your regime, a stop to your development of ballistic missiles, and complete, verifiable, and total denuclearization.”
Republic of Korea Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon praised Trump’s speech in a meeting with leaders of overseas Koreans Nov. 8. “Today’s address by President Trump praised South Korea’s modern history in the most beautiful and easy language ever among foreign-language writings and expressions,” Lee said.
Ross Announces ‘Warm Up’ Trade Deals with China; Deals Could Ultimately Amount to $250 Billion
Nov. 8 (EIRNS)—The first round of trade deals sealed during President Trump’s trip to China were discussed today by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Chinese vice Premier Wang Yang. They were described as “warm up” trade deals, and are pegged as $9 billion.
During a meeting Ross reported said that papers are being prepared for understandings of some $250 billion in trade and investments, which will be announced during the visit.
Of the $9 billion, $2 billion will be for “food products,” including soy beans. Included in the rest, is money to go into American company, JD.com, and the purchase of natural gas, Bell helicopters, and “financial services.”
The much larger rumored package concentrates on agriculture and on energy infrastructure, according to Bloomberg News today. A $7 billion investment of China’s Sinopec oil/gas company in pipeline and storage infrastructure on the Texas Gulf Coast and in the U.S. Virgin Islands had already been reported several days ago. So had an agreement for a small ($5 billion) infrastructure fund between China Investment Corp. (a sovereign wealth fund) and Goldman Sachs. Another large deal was reported to involve General Electric and China Industrial and Commercial Bank—a major investor in infrastructure in China and on the Belt and Road.
Bloomberg reported that an agreement was being signed between Caterpillar and Shenhua Group Corp., which has large assets in coal, electric power and railroads; and another between General Electric and China Datang Group, which operates power plants.
Commerce Secretary Ross said that the deals or memoranda of understanding would have to go through the U.S. national security review process.
Democrats Win Some Elections without Trying
Nov. 8 (EIRNS)—Off-year elections in New Jersey and Virginia yesterday saw Democrats win the New Jersey governorship and virtually sweep Virginia, taking all three top statewide offices and switching 14 seats in the House of Delegates.
“Approval” polls taken shortly before Nov. 7 Election Day showed both the national parties with approval ratings well lower than that of President Trump, with the Republican Party at 27% and the Democratic Party at 36%. The GOP is virtually a zombie party at this point, obsessively pursuing “tax reform” legislation that no part of its own voter base takes any interest in—only its Wall Street puppeteers and the hyperindebted U.S. corporations. Even the small business associations oppose that legislation.
There is no demand for tax relief except for Wall Street wanting higher corporate profits to support a shuddering debt bubble. Americans are already taxed at low rates. What they need is for wages to rise, which comes through productivity and through stimulating new manufacturing capacities by building new infrastructure. When taxes were cut significantly in the 1984-86 period, for example, wages went into a ten-year significant decline.
This was all laid out for Senate Democrats in a briefing from economists on Nov. 1. In addition, very large demands for infrastructure investments are piling up from the hurricane-devastated states and territories: $35 billion from Texas, perhaps $100 billion from the Puerto Rico Control Board; more about to come from Florida.
But Congressional Democrats are attacking the GOP tax cuts by saying they should be given to the “middle class”; the latter do not want them. No Democrat is saying “We don’t need a tax cut, we need to build infrastructure.”
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
Leaked Diplomatic Cable Shows Israel Hewing to Saudi Line
Nov. 8 (EIRNS)—Yesterday, Barak Ravid, a prominent journalist for Israel’s Channel 10 TV, leaked a diplomatic cable from the Israeli Foreign Ministry to Israel’s diplomatic corps which instructs them to toe the Saudi line on the resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Nov. 4. According to Zero Hedge, which published what it said was a rough translation of the cable from the original Hebrew, it reveals the following:
- On Sunday, just after Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri’s shocking resignation made from the Saudi capital, Riyadh, Israel sent a cable to all of its embassies with the request that its diplomats do everything possible to ramp up diplomatic pressure against Hezbollah and Iran.
- The cable urged support for Saudi Arabia’s war against Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.
- The cable stressed that Iran was engaged in “regional subversion.”
- Israeli diplomats were urged to appeal to the “highest officials” within their host countries to attempt to expel Hezbollah from Lebanese government and politics.
The cable, Zero Hedge further reports, “constitutes the first formal evidence proving that the Saudis and Israelis are deliberately coordinating to escalate the situation in the Middle East.” Richard Silverstein, who calls his blog “Tikun Olam,” and is a critic of the Israeli national security state, wrote in a column posted by Middle East Eye News, that the cable “indicates that Israel and Saudi Arabia are developing the sort of ‘no-daylight’ relationship that Israeli leaders used to tout with their American counterparts.” Both Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Silverstein argues, are targeting Iran via the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon for reasons of their own political ambitions, and the have settled on Hezbollah because of both their failures in Syria and the Saudis’ failure in Yemen.
Saudi Blockade Worsening Yemen Humanitarian Disaster
Nov. 8 (EIRNS)—UN humanitarian officials made clear during a joint press conference yesterday that the Saudi blockade of all access to Yemen is rapidly intensifying an already dangerous humanitarian crisis in the country. Jens Laerke, spokesman for UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), reported that the blockade has already caused a 60% rise in the price of gasoline and doubled the price of cooking gas. According to the UN transcript, he told the media that OCHA was very concerned about the likely rapid negative impact of the Saudi closure of entry ports on the already dire humanitarian situation in the country, where 7 million people were fighting against famine-like conditions and were completely reliant on humanitarian aid to survive. If supplies came to a halt, food insecurity would deepen and the world would be confronted with an even greater humanitarian crisis. It was vital that food, fuel, and medical imports should continue to enter the country. Laerke said that OCHA would continue to push for the delivery of humanitarian supplies via any and all entry points.
Rupert Colville, spokesman for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), reported that total number of confirmed civilian casualties in Yemen stands at 14,168, including 5,295 people killed and 8,873 injured, though the actual numbers are likely to be far higher. According the latest news reports, the Saudi bombing campaign is continuing without letup.
Outside the UN, Robert Mardini, the Red Cross regional director for the Near and Middle East, said yesterday that shipments of insulin are blocked at the Saudi-Yemen border. He also said, according to the British Guardian, that he was also concerned at the “steadily growing” number of civilian casualties and the Saudi targeting of non-military infrastructure, such as water treatment plants and civilian airports. “Such actions are in violation of international humanitarian law,” Mardini stressed. A spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, Iolanda Jaquemet, reported that a shipment of chlorine tablets, vital to decontaminate drinking water in order to fight the cholera epidemic ravaging the country as a result of the bombing, was also blocked at the border. “There are currently no movements in and out of Yemen. Given how fragile the country is, and the way the conflict is being waged, any additional restrictions on imports can have catastrophic effect,” she said.
This man-made disaster, it should be recalled, was imposed on Yemen by the Saudi and British monarchies behind the 9/11 attacks on the U.S.
SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE
France Will Set a More ‘Realistic’ Schedule To Reduce Nuclear Power
Nov. 8 (EIRNS)—Concerned that the current target date of 2025 to reduce nuclear power’s share of France’s electricity production from 75% to 50%, is unrealistic, Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot said at a press conference in Paris yesterday that the target date will be revised.
Speaking in the city whose name is attached to the fraudulent UN climate accords, Hulot said proliferating natural gas-fired plants by shutting down nuclear plants quickly would increase emissions, endanger the security of the power supply, and put jobs at risk, Reuters reports.
When President Emmanuel Macron was elected last May, he said he would respect the 2025 target set by the previous government. Yesterday, Minister Hulot said, “We will reduce the share of nuclear in the mix as soon as possible.” The closer that day comes, the more obvious it will become that the so-called “climate accords” are aimed at genocidal population reduction, as this news service demonstrated in its September 2015 Special Report “Global Warming” Scare Is Population Reduction, Not Science.
