Un article de Pepe Escobar. Version en russe ou en français au choix
Waiting for the end of the world, waiting for the end of the world
Dear Lord, I sincerely hope You’re coming
‘Cause You really started something
Elvis Costello , Waiting for the End of the World, 1977
Ce texte est le résumé en français d’un article de Pepe Escobar paru le 10 avril 2023
https://www.vedomosti.ru/opinion/columns/2023/04/10/970144-konets-sveta-dlya-gegemona
un tremblement de terre géopolitique aurait du secouer le monde lorsque Poutine et Xi Jinping à Moscou ont conjointement signé un document signalant la fin de la Pax Americana. Il s’agit en fait d’un partenariat stratégique entre deux superpuissances mondiales dotées d’une base industrielle massive, d’une abondance de ressources naturelles, avec la valeur ajoutée d’une industrie militaire russe hors pair.
De plus la Chine dispose de la plus grande parité de Pouvoir d’achat PPP (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parit%C3%A9_de_pouvoir_d’achat et est la plus grande exportatrice, tandis que la Russie dispose d’ne économie semblable à celle de l’Allemagne sans être obligée d’exporter pour survivre
De plus, elles envisagent d’utilier le yuan chinois pour remplacer le dollar comme monnaie de change internationale en Asie, en Afrique et en Amérique Latine
Les élites occidentales n’avaient rien vu venir de tout cela.
Cependant la nouvelle politique extérieure russe, annoncée par Poutine le 31 mars, ne considère pas la Russie comme une ennemie de l’Occident et ne cherche pas à s’en isoler. Le problème est qu’aucun esprit raisonnable ne se trouve à l’Ouest pour en discuter, mais plutôt une bande de hyènes. Ceci a conduit Lavrov à prévenir que des mesures symétriques et asymétriques pourraient être utilisées contre ceux engagés dans des actions hostiles contre Moscou. Il a parlé de « guerre hybride »contre la Russie.
Les exigences russes sont simples : réaliser une intégration de l’Eurasie, établir des liens plus étroits avec des pays globalement amis, la Chine et l’Inde, accroitre l’aide à l’Afriqe, coopérer davantage avec l’Amérique Latine et les Caraïbes, comme avec les pays islamiques, Turquie, Iran, Arabie saoudite, Syrie, Egypte – comme avec l’ASEAN, Association des Nations de l’Asie du sud-est.
Ceci conduit à mentionner le BOAO Forum pour l’Asie, lancé par la Chine en 2001, sur le modèle de Davos. Le Forum Boao pour l’Asie, rassemblant 25 pays asiatiques et l’Australie, est une organisation à but non lucratif qui organise des forums de haut niveau pour les dirigeants des gouvernements et des entreprises https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boao_Forum_for_Asia Boao est située dans la province chinoise d’Hainan et considéré comme un paradis touristique. Ban Ki-Moon, ancien secrétaire général de l’ONU, est le président du Forum.
NB. La suite de l’article de Pepe Escobar n’est pas traduite en Français ici. Le lecteur se référera à la version anglaise, reprise ci-dessous
The problem is these two initiatives are directly linked to the UN’s concept of peace and security and the extremely dodgy Agenda 2030 on “sustainable development” – which is not exactly about development and much less “sustainable”: it’s a Davos uber-corporate concoction. The UN for its part is basically a hostage of Washington’s whims. Beijing, for the moment, plays along.
Premier Li Qiang was more specific. Stressing the trademark concept of “community of shared future for mankind” as the basis for peace and development, he linked peaceful coexistence with the “Spirit of Bandung” – in direct continuity with the emergence of NAM in 1955: that should be the “Asian Way” of mutual respect and building consensus – in opposition to “the indiscriminate use of unilateral sanctions and long-reaching jurisdiction”, and the refusal of “a new Cold War”.
And that led Li Qiang to the emphasis on the Chinese drive to deepen the RCEP East Asian trade deal, and also advance the negotiations on the free trade agreement between China and ASEAN. And all that integrated with the new expansion of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), in contrast to trade protectionism.
So for the Chinese what matters, intertwined with business, is cultural interactions; inclusivity; mutual trust; and a stern refusal of “clash of civilizations” and ideological confrontation.
As much as Moscow easily subscribes to all of the above – and in fact practices it via diplomatic finesse – Washington is terrified by how compelling is this Chinese narrative for the whole Global South. After all, Exceptionalistan’s only offer in the market of ideas is unilateral domination; Divide an Rule; and “you’re with us or against us”. And in the latter case you will be sanctioned, harassed, bombed and/or regime-changed.
Is it 1848 all over again?
Meanwhile, in vassal territories, a possibility arises of a revival of 1848, when a big revolutionary wave hit all over Europe.
In 1848 these were liberal revolutions; today we have essentially popular anti-liberal (and anti-war) revolutions – from farmers in the Netherlands and Belgium to unreconstructed populists in Italy and Left and Right populists combined in France.
It may be too early to consider this a European Spring. Yet what’s certain in several latitudes is that average European citizens feel increasingly inclined to shed the yoke of Neoliberal Technocracy and its dictatorship of Capital and Surveillance. Not to mention NATO warmongering.
As virtually all European media is technocrat-controlled people won’t see this discussion in the MSM. Yet there’s a feeling in the air this may be heralding a Chinese-style end of a dynasty.
In the Chinese calendar this is how it always goes: their historical-societal clock always runs with periods of between 200 and 400 years per dynasty.
There are indeed intimations that Europe may be witnessing a rebirth.
The period of upheaval will be long and arduous – due to the hordes of anarco-liberals who are such useful idiots for the Western oligarchy – or it could all come to a head in a single day. The target is quite clear: the death of Neoliberal Technocracy.
That’s how the Xi-Putin view could make inroads across the collective West: show that this ersatz “modernity” (which incorporates rabid cancel culture) is essentially void compared to traditional, deeply rooted cultural values – be it Confucianism, Taoism or Eastern Orthodoxy. The Chinese and Russian concepts of civilization-state are much more appealing than they appear.
Well, the (cultural) revolution won’t be televised; but it may work its charms via countless Telegram channels. France, infatuated with rebellion throughout its history, may well be jump to the vanguard – again.
Yet nothing will change if the global financial casino is not subverted. Russia taught the world a lesson: it was preparing itself, in silence, for a long-term Total War. So much so that its calibrated counterpunch turned the Financial War upside down – completely destabilizing the casino. China, meanwhile, is re-balancing, and is on the way to be also prepared for Total War, hybrid and otherwise.
The inestimable Michael Hudson, fresh from his latest book, The Collapse of Antiquity, where he deftly analyzes the role of debt in Greece And Rome, the roots of Western civilization, succinctly explains our current state of play:
“America has pulled a color revolution at the top, in Germany, Holland, England, and France, essentially, where the foreign policy of Europe is not representing their own economic interests (…) America simply said, – We are committed to support a war of (what they call) democracy (by which they mean oligarchy, including the Nazism of Ukraine) against autocracy (…) Autocracy is any country strong enough to prevent the emergence of a creditor oligarchy, like China has prevented the creditor oligarchy.”
So “creditor oligarchy”, in fact, can be explained as the toxic intersection between globalist wet dreams of total control and militarized Full Spectrum Dominance.
The difference now is that Russia and China are showing to the Global South that what American strategists had in store for them – you’re going to “freeze in the dark” if you deviate from what we say – is no longer applicable. Most of the Global South is now in open geoeconomic revolt.
Globalist neoliberal totalitarianism of course won’t disappear under a sand storm. At least not yet. There’s still a maelstrom of toxicity ahead: suspension of constitutional rights; Orwellian propaganda; goon squads; censorship; cancel culture; ideological conformity; irrational curbs of freedom of movement; hatred and even persecution of – Slav – Untermenschen; segregation; criminalization of dissent; book burnings, show trials; fake arrest mandates by the kangaroo ICC; ISIS-style terror.
But the most important vector is that both China and Russia, each exhibiting their own complex particularities – and both dismissed by the West as unassimilable Others – are heavily invested in building workable economic models that are not connected, in several degrees, to the Western financial casino and/or supply chain networks. And that’s what’s driving the Exceptionalists berserk – even more berserk than they already are.
Pepe Escobar is a Eurasia-wide independent geopolitical analyst and author. His latest book is Raging Twenties (Nimble Books, 2021). Follow him on Telegram at @rocknrollgeopolitics
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