Xi Jinping Is Ready To Play a Constructive Role in the Next Round of Trump-Kim Talks

U.S.-China Trade Talks Progressed as Tough Issues Were Addressed

Pompeo Tells Egyptians, ‘The Age of Self-Inflicted American Shame Is Over’

Di Maio Raises Glass-Steagall in Context of Italian Bank Carige Crisis

Syrian Official Confirms Government Discussions with the Kurds

China’s Science and Technology Ministry Lays Out Plans for 2019

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EDITORIAL

The End of All Empires?

Jan. 10 (EIRNS)—Major strategic actions by Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, followed by President Donald Trump’s most recent orders to end the “forever wars” initiated by his predecessors, are setting the stage for finally ending a quarter-millennium’s bloody reign of the Anglo-Dutch Empire over mankind. This has been the latest and what must be the last example of a long history of imperial rule. At the same time that Queen Elizabeth was boasting of her personal rule over one in every three human beings in her Christmas message, President Trump was advocating that Syria and Afghanistan sovereignly negotiate the establishment of peace in their countries with the support of their neighbors, including Russia, and of the United States. As Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Institute Chairman, has said, this is the road toward replacing British-managed wars in South and Southwest Asia with the model of the Peace of Westphalia.

Look back for a moment, on a blatant statement of Anglo-Dutch imperialism. On March 6, 1946, the day after Winston Churchill made his infamous “Iron Curtain” speech, Randolph Churchill proclaimed to American writer Walter Lippmann, “We’ll show you. You don’t understand the British Empire. Just let me tell you this. We dragged you into two wars, and we’ll drag you into the third.”

Back to the present, and the break with this evil outlook. In East Asia, China’s President Xi Jinping is pulling out all the stops to ensure the success of the forthcoming summit of President Trump with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, which will begin to wind up another big British control and trigger-point. And the most recent U.S.-China trade negotiations in Beijing were characterized by both sides as a qualified success, inasmuch as every single vital issue is now on the table for discussion—giving hope that a final agreement can be reached before March 1.

The geometry Lyndon LaRouche has long fought for, of a Four-Power agreement between the U.S., Russia, China and India, for a New Bretton Woods world credit system, is clearly coming within immediate reach. And who ever understood through the decades that this was even possible? Who fought for it all this time but Lyndon LaRouche and a few around him? Now the New Silk Road or Eurasian Land-Bridge, which LaRouche proposed as part of his New Bretton Woods drive, has long become reality. What is urgent is for the New Bretton Woods agreement to begin to take shape.

None of this achievement and potential for more progress would have happened but for LaRouche’s initiatives. One essential element of this process has been LaRouche’s exposure of the British Empire control over the mind. This must be understood.

We are seeing one aspect of that ‘empire over the mind’ in the problem President Trump is forced to confront at the U.S. southern border as well as elsewhere: Dope, Inc., or what Lyndon LaRouche always calls “Britain’s Opium War against the World.” This indeed requires border security, but much more, since the cartel will find another entry-point whenever one is blocked. Lyndon LaRouche’s famous declaration of War on Drugs in Mexico City in 1985, vividly brings to mind how an alliance of the Four Powers today, which are also the leading space powers, can uniquely win such a war. [https://larouchepub.com/eiw/public/1985/eirv12n13-19850402/ eirv12n13-19850402_036-a_proposed_strategic_operation_a-lar.pdf]

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

Xi Jinping Is Ready To Play a Constructive Role in the Next Round of Trump-Kim Talks

Jan. 10 (EIRNS)—China’s President Xi Jinping, following his meeting with the North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un in Beijing this week, has expressed his support for Kim’s fresh statement committing his country’s denuclearization, saying China was ready to play a “positive” and “constructive” role in the process, hoping that Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump can find some common ground.

Chairman Kim said, after his talks with Xi, that, “The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea will continue sticking to the stance of denuclearization and resolving the Korean Peninsula issue through dialogue and consultation,” according to Xinhua coverage. Kim continued, “At the same time, Pyongyang will make efforts for the second summit between D.P.R.K. and U.S. leaders to achieve results that will be welcomed by the international community.”

In addition, the Korean Central News Agency reported that the Chinese President has accepted an offer to visit Pyongyang after meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Beijing, however, has yet to confirm the trip.

U.S.-China Trade Talks Progressed as Tough Issues Were Addressed

Jan. 10 (EIRNS)—Following perhaps the most comprehensive Jan. 7-9 trade negotiations held at Beijing between the United States and China, optimism has been expressed by both sides. Today Asia Timesreported that there has been some indication of Chinese moves to address concerns regarding forced technology transfer, including recently proposed legislation that would bar local governments from forcing foreign firms to transfer technology or illegally restricting market access. On the meeting, the U.S. Trade Representative’s office released a statement Jan. 9 that “the talks also focused on China’s pledge to purchase a substantial amount of agricultural, energy, manufactured goods, and other products and services from the United States.”

The USTR statement referred to the Trump-Xi Dec. 1 meeting in Buenos Aires where a decision was made to engage in 90 days of negotiations with a view to achieving needed structural changes in China with respect to forced technology transfer, intellectual property protection, non-tariff barriers, cyber intrusions and cyber theft of trade secrets for commercial purposes, services, and agriculture.

A positive note has also emanated from Beijing where Commerce Ministry spokesperson Gao Feng told a press briefing, “The Chinese side also believes that the implementation mechanism is important.” On Jan. 9 Reuters reported China’s Commerce Ministry calling the trade talks “extensive, deep and thorough,” and saying they provided a “foundation for the resolution of each other’s concerns.”

What is evident is that while some difficult issues have not been resolved, both sides have shown readiness to address those.

People’s Daily, in an unsigned report on the meeting, said its reading that the trade talks meant progress is based upon three indicators: “The first noticeable detail is that the two-day vice-ministerial-level trade talks were extended by half a day. …The second detail worth noting is that Chinese Vice Premier, Liu He, unexpectedly appeared at the venue. …The third detail which shows progress is that the negotiations were candid, in-depth and practical.”

Pompeo Tells Egyptians, ‘The Age of Self-Inflicted American Shame Is Over’

Jan. 10 (EIRNS)—U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Egypt after his stops at Iraq and Jordan, and met today with the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Cairo. “The Secretary reiterated the United States’ commitment to the strategic partnership with Egypt and in its fight against our common security threats, including terrorism and the Iranian regime’s malign influence,” the U.S. State Department readout said.

Beside meeting the Egyptian President, Pompeo spoke at the American University in Cairo, the very place where Barack Obama, in 2009 spoke of a new beginning with Muslim and Arab countries. Without mentioning Obama by name, Pompeo, however, made that identification clear when he said: “It was here, in this city, another American stood before you and told you that radical Islamist terrorism does not stem from ideology. He told you that 9/11 led my country to abandon its ideals, particularly in the Middle East, he said. He told you that the United States and the Muslim world needed, quote, ‘a new beginning.’ The results of these misjudgments have been dire….

“Our eagerness to address only Muslims, not nations, ignored the rich diversity of the Middle East, and frayed old bonds. It undermined the concept of the nation-state, the building block of international stability,” he said. “And our desire for peace at any cost led us to strike a deal with Iran, our common enemy.”

Promising the audience that the Trump Administration was ushering in a new era of U.S. foreign policy, he said “the age of self-inflicted American shame is over, and so are the policies that produced so much needless suffering. Now comes the real new beginning.” The transcript is posted to the State Department website.

THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

Leading Chinese, Other Firms Attended the One Belt, One Road Event in Istanbul

Jan. 10 (EIRNS)—Businesses representing 70 brands, which are driving the Chinese economy with a sales volume of $500 billion in the past year and with a market capitalization over $1 trillion, met together at an event in Istanbul titled, “One Belt, One Road—We Shape the Future Together,” hosted by the Yunus Emre Institute (YEE) on Jan. 8. The leading firms included China’s largest airline, Air China; the world’s largest dairy producer, Yili; the largest Chinese social media platform, Yidian; the world’s leading computer company, Lenovo; China’s luxury car brand, Infinity; the world’s second-largest computer company, HP; and the world’s largest chip manufacturer, Qualcomm Wireless Communication, reported Turkey’s Daily Sabahtoday.

The conference was organized by the YEE’s newly founded Academic and Scientific Cooperation Project of Turkey, which operates under the auspices of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey.

Added to the economic significance of the event, the conference promoted improved Turkish-Chinese cultural, academic and scientific interactions, and strengthening of the two nations’ capacity for economic, commercial and technological cooperation.

COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM

Di Maio Raises Glass-Steagall in Context of Italian Bank Carige Crisis

Jan. 10 (EIRNS)—Italian Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio raised the issue of bank separation (Glass-Steagall) in a ten-point explanation of the government decision to pre-empt a bail-in resolution for the Savings Bank of Genoa (Carige). Point 9 of the statement, which was published on Di Maio’s Facebook page, said: “We will fight in Europe to reform the system of banking supervision and we will implement a separation between commercial and investment banks.”

The weak point of this statement is that changing European law in favor of Glass-Steagall is more difficult than straightening out a dog’s legs.

The Italian government decision on Carige has provoked angry reactions from pro-EU circles. Exemplary of this faction, the German daily Handelsblatt complained in a commentary Jan. 8 that “actually, Euro states had agreed after the financial crisis that troubled banks should be resolved instead of bailing them out with taxpayers’ money. Shareholders, creditors and wealthy depositors should then take the losses.” Instead, “Rome is again helping a credit institution instead of resolving it.”

Back to the real world, Italy’s Minister

for European Affairs Paolo Savona wrote an op-ed in the daily Il Sole 24 Ore making a general point, and blasting the EU economic and monetary policy as the real cause of the banking crisis. “No bank can stand a long period of economic crisis without a deterioration of its loans and a loss of perspectives for growth and profitability.” Savona calls the ECB “solution,” i.e. demanding a capital increase and cost cutting from banks, “unrealistic.”“Without real growth driven by real investments we risk systemic crises,” Savona wrote. If a campaign against government debt is carried out in “this precarious state of the environment in which banks are currently operating in Europe … [it] undermines depositors’ confidence in what they consider to be their financial wealth and negative effects are conveyed also to the sector of bank deposits.“Without a fiscal policy at the EU level to boost real growth, interventions by member states in support of banks and depositors are just running after the problem caused by non-[existing] structural solutions.” A real banking union needs a lender of last resort and a single deposit insurance fund, but Savona complains that so far, he has found no will to tackle the problem among his colleagues in the EU. German Industry’s Illusions about the Future of the ‘European Model’ Jan. 10 (EIRNS)—There is a new position paper put out by the German industry association BDI which on the one hand states commitment to continue cooperation with China, but on the other hand criticizes China’s state-sector economy as distorting the global markets and creating an “overcapacity of steel” internationally (despite the fact there is no overcapacity, but there is a lack of construction projects). “Europe” must make sure to build up its own industrial champions within the free market system, as opposed to China’s state-backed giants that penetrate the global economy, the position paper states. It says further that, “Europe” must partner up with other liberal-market countries to pursue “common interests” against China. The paper also views the “16+1” format for cooperation by Europe’s eastern nations with China as not compliant with the EU market rules.Seen together with the BDI’s traditional endorsement of the European Banking Union, the European integration process in general, and its opposition to banking separation, the “Europe” addressed here is doomed. The liberal free market does not function—in contrast to the Chinese way, which does. China Expert Geraci Shows Foolishness of Talk about ‘Chinese Economic Downturn’ Jan. 10 (EIRNS)—A 6.5% growth forecast for the Chinese economy this year means a larger increase in value than the 6.8% of last year, Italian Undersecretary for Economic Development Michele Geraci stressed in an interview with Sky TG24 Jan. 5. Polemicizing against those who talk about a downturn in the Chinese economy, Geraci said: “Today we are speaking about the Chinese economy which is slowing down, as if there were a recession. In reality, the rate of growth will go from 6.8-6.9% to 6.5% and maybe 6.2% next year, which are very high rates of growth in any case. Therefore, be careful in saying that the Chinese economy is in a downturn, because, to the contrary, it’s growing.“Furthermore, in absolute terms this year’s 6.5% is worth more than the 6.8% of last year, because if we look at the value, every year China grows an average of 1-1.5 trillion, almost as much as Italy’s entire GDP. Every year, China grows in absolute terms as much as the entire GDP of a medium-size European country. This because, while the growth rate physiologically decreases, it’s starting from a higher basis.”Geraci also downplays the “trade war” narrative pushed by free-traders to explain some bad economic data, such as the drop in Apple’s sales in China. Apple’s sales declined in China due to the growth of domestic producers, whose products are as good or even better than Apple’s, Geraci suggested. Also, social media in China are expressing anger over the Western attack on Huawei, leading to an undeclared boycott on Western competition, including Apple.And it is not true that raising tariffs increases the trade deficit by increasing the cost of imports, (as some crazy free-traders claim): The EU has higher import tariffs than the United States and has balanced trade; the U.S.A. with its lower tariffs has a huge deficit.Before joining the government in June, Geraci was a professor of finance, China economy expert, investment banker and electronic engineer.  He has been a columnist for China Daily, Caixin business magazine, and Il Sole 24 Ore. STRATEGIC WAR DANGER Syrian Official Confirms Government Discussions with the Kurds Jan. 10 (EIRNS)—For the first time, a government official in Damascus has confirmed the discussions ongoing with the Kurds. Reuters reports that Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad expressed optimism about the eventual outcome of the talks, which are being mediated by Russia, in remarks to reporters in Damascus, yesterday. “I feel that we must always be optimistic. The past experiences were not encouraging. But now matters are reaching their conclusion,” he said. He expressed approval of recent statements by Kurdish groups affirming they are indeed part of the Syrian state and nation, saying “the conditions” were favorable for them to return to the state. “Therefore I am always optimistic … we encourage these political groups to be sincere in dialogue that is happening now between the Syrian state and these groups, taking into account that there is no alternative to that.” Reuters adds that, last week, a top Kurdish politician told them that the Kurdish groups had presented a “road map” for a deal with Damascus during recent meetings at the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow. Al Masdar News, citing a source in Damascus, reported that the Kurdish group, the Syrian Democratic Council has recently intensified their talks with the government in a bid to resolve their disputes and seek a peaceful settlement. According to the source, the SDC is working with Damascus to prevent a Turkish military invasion in the northern part of the country, while also making strides to end the political deadlock between the two entities. The source said that the Syrian Democratic Council is seeking political autonomy in their areas, but they do not want to separate from the state. In turn, the Syrian government has rejected the idea of federalization but is reportedly open to the idea of joint control of the SDC-held area until the war is over. France Will Stay in Syria Until ‘Political Solution’ Is Reached, Says Le Drian Jan. 10 (EIRNS)—French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told CNews Television this week that French troops will be withdrawn from Syria as soon as “a political solution” is reached, Sputnik reported. “There is our [military] presence in Iraq, and we have a scanty presence in Syria,” he said. The responsibility for a political solution belongs to Russia, he went on, to make sure that Assad does not pursue a military solution and “to avoid the use of chemical weapons.”Le Drian’s remarks follow statements by Minister for European Affairs Nathalie Loiseau to the same TV network on Dec. 20, that France will maintain “for now” its participation in the anti-Daesh/ISIS coalition in Syria. As Taliban Cancel U.S. Talks, Envoy Khalilzad Starts Visit to India, China, Pakistan, Afghanistan Jan. 10 (EIRNS)—The same day (Jan. 8), the Taliban representatives called off their meeting with the United States, scheduled for Jan. 9-10 in Doha, Qatar, citing “disagreement on agenda,” the U.S. special envoy on Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad began a two-week diplomatic tour that will take him to India, China, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Khalilzad, who arrived in New Delhi yesterday evening, will be briefing and consulting New Delhi on the ongoing Afghan peace talks in his first visit to India in this capacity, the Hindustan Times reported. This will be his first visit after he was appointed U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan reconciliation by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in September 2018. He has been to the region twice since, but skipped India both times, causing some anxiety in New Delhi.The State Department said in a general announcement on Jan. 8 that “the special envoy is heading an interagency delegation and will meet with senior government officials in each country to facilitate an intra-Afghan political settlement.” SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE China’s Science and Technology Ministry Lays Out Plans for 2019 Jan. 10 (EIRNS)—At the National Science and Technology Work Conference in Beijing today, Wang Zhigang, the Minister of Science and Technology, laid out a 10-point plan for the development of science and innovation in the coming year. First, strengthen long-term strategic planning, form a systemic layout for medium- and long-term scientific and technological innovation; second, speed up key core technology research, seek the commanding heights in strategically contested areas; third, continue to strengthen basic research and its applications; fourth, optimize the construction of innovation bases and build national strategic scientific and technological strength; fifth, strengthen the integration in depth of science and technology with the economy and society, and strongly support and lead in high-quality development; sixth, accelerate the construction of a highly efficient national innovation system; seventh, strengthen the coordination of the regional pattern of innovation, foster innovation growth points, growth poles, and growth belts; eighth, stimulate the creative activity of researchers and accelerate the cultivation of high-level talents; ninth, deepen innovation and open cooperation: raise the level of scientific and technological innovation to a higher platform; tenth, vigorously promote the scientific spirit and culture of innovation, and create a good innovation ecology.Wang stated that the major technological breakthroughs of the past year had been landing Chang’e-4 on the far side of the Moon; the completion of the BeiDou-3 satellite system; the creation of a single chromosome eukaryotic cell. In quantum computing, China succeeded in achieving a 3-qubit logic gate; and it built and put into operation its first Spallation Neutron Source. Wang said that the proportion of R&D expenditure is expected to be 2.15% of total GDP. The total number of R&D personnel is expected to reach 4.18 million, ranking first in the world. The number of invention patent applications and authorizations ranked first in the world. The contribution rate of scientific and technological progress is expected to exceed 58.5%, and the country’s comprehensive innovation capability ranks 17th in the world.Earlier this week President Xi Jinping awarded leading scientists for their efforts. The two scientists that were particularly highlighted in the ceremony had made major breakthroughs in advanced radar technology and on underground nuclear bunkers and underground tunneling. While both of these technologies have major civilian applications, the two scientists had made the breakthroughs in defense technology. Reach us at eirdailyalert@larouchepub.com or call 1-571-293-0935