Welcome to shocked & awed 21st century geopolitics
With a Russia-China-Iran triple bitch slap on the hegemon, we now have a brand new geopolitical chessboard
by
March 23, 2021
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (L) meets Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) in Beijing, China on March 23, 2021. Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry/Handout/Anadolu Agency
It took 18 years after
for the hegemon to be mercilessly shocked and awed by a virtually simultaneous, diplomatic Russia-China one-two.
How this is a real game-changing moment cannot be emphasized enough; 21st century geopolitics will never be the same again.
Yet it was the hegemon who first crossed the diplomatic Rubicon. In the middle of a softball interview, the handlers behind the hologram Joe “I’ll do whatever you want me to do, Nance” Biden whispered in his earpiece that he should brand Russian President Vladimir Putin as a soulless “killer.”
Not even at the height of the Cold War had the superpowers resorted to ad hominem attacks. The result of such an astonishing blunder was to regiment virtually the whole Russian population behind Putin – because that was perceived as an attack against the Russian state.
Then came Putin’s cool, calm, collected – and quite diplomatic – response, which needs to be carefully pondered. These sharp-as-a-dagger words are arguably
five minutes in the history of post-truth international relations.
Combination of file pictures shows US President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photos: AFP / Jim Watson and Alexander Nemenov
In
, we forecast what could then take place in the US-China 2+2 summit at a shabby hotel in Anchorage, with cheap bowls of instant noodles thrown in as extra bonus.
China’s millennial diplomatic protocol establishes that discussions start around areas of common ground, which are then extolled as being more important than disagreements between negotiating parties. That’s at the heart of the concept of “no loss of face.” Only after establishing the common ground do the parties discuss their differences.
Yet it was totally predictable that a bunch of amateurish, tactless and clueless Americans would smash those basic diplomatic rules to show “strength” to their home crowd, distilling the proverbial litany on Taiwan, Hong Kong, South China Sea and the “genocide” of Uighurs.
Oh, dear. There was not a single State Department hack with minimal knowledge of East Asia to warn the amateurs you don’t mess with the formidable head of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CCP’s Central Committee, Yang Jiechi, with impunity.
Visibly startled, but controlling his exasperation, Yang Jiechi
And the rhetorical shots were heard around the whole Global South. They had to include a basic lesson in manners: “If you want to deal with us properly, let’s have some mutual respect and do things the right way.”
But what stood out was a stinging, concise
blending of history and politics:
The United States is not qualified to talk to China in a condescending manner. The Chinese people will not accept that. It must be based on mutual respect to deal with China, and history will prove that those who seek to strangle China will suffer in the end.
The Chinese delegation led by Yang Jiechi (center), director of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission Office, and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (second left) speak with their US counterparts at the opening session of US-China talks at the Captain Cook Hotel in Anchorage, Alaska on March 18, 2021. Photo: AFP / Frederic J Brown / Pool
And all that translated in real time by young, attractive and ultra-skilled Zhang Jing – who inevitably became an overnight superstar in China, reaping an astonishing 400 million plus hits on Weibo.
The incompetence of the “diplomatic” arm of the Biden-Harris administration beggars belief. Using a basic Sun Tzu maneuver, Yang Jiechi turned the tables and voiced the predominant sentiment of the overwhelming majority of the planet: Stuff your unilateral “rules-based order.” We, the nations of the world, privilege the UN charter and the primacy of international law.
So this is what the Russia-China one-two achieved almost instantaneously: From now on, the hegemon should be treated, all across the Global South, with at best disdain.
Inevitable historical process
Pre-Alaska, the Americans went on to Japan and South Korea for “consultations” – a charm offensive. That’s irrelevant. What matters is post-Alaska, starting with the crucial
meeting of foreign ministers in Guilin.
Lavrov, always unflappable, clarified in an
how the Russia-China strategic partnership sees the current US diplomatic train wreck:
As a matter of fact, they have largely lost the skill of classical diplomacy. Diplomacy is about relations between people, the ability to listen to each other, to hear one another and to strike a balance between competing interests. These are exactly the values that Russia and China are promoting in diplomacy.
The inevitable consequence is that Russia-China must “consolidate our independence,” Lavrov said.
The United States has declared limiting the advance of technology in Russia and China as its goal. So, we must reduce our exposure to sanctions by strengthening our technological independence and switching to settlements in national and international currencies other than the dollar. We need to move away from using Western-controlled international payment systems.
Lavrov pointed out that Russia-China have clearly identified how the “Western partners” are:
promoting their ideology-driven agenda aimed at preserving their dominance by holding back progress in other countries. Their policies run counter to the objective international developments and, as they used to say at some point, are on the wrong side of history. The historical process will come into its own, no matter what happens.
And then, at the joint press conference with Wang Yi in Guilin on Tuesday, Lavrov dropped a stunning but predictable bombshell:
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov meets Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (not seen) in Beijing on Tuesday. Photo: AFP / Russian Foreign Ministry / Handout / Anadolu Agency
“There are no relations with the European Union as an organization. The entire infrastructure of these relations has been destroyed by unilateral decisions made by Brussels.”
The door to reconciliation, though, is left open, “if and when Europeans deem fit to eliminate these anomalies in contacts with their largest neighbor.” Lavrov almost ruefully compared “no changes on the Western front” with a “very intensive agenda” in the East.
As a stark presentation of an inevitable “historical process,” it doesn’t get more crystal clear than that. And, predictably, it had taken no time at all for the “Western partners” to fall back into – what else? – their same old bag of sanctions tricks.
Here we go again: a US, UK, EU, Canada “alliance” issuing
because the People’s Republic of China in Blinken’s words “continues to commit genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang.”
The EU, UK, and Canada didn’t have the guts to extend the sanctions to a key player: Xinjiang party chief
who’s a Politburo member. The Chinese response would have been – economically – devastating.
Still, Beijing counterpunched with its own sanctions – targeting, crucially, Adrian Zenz, the German far-right evangelical nut posing as a “scholar” who produced the bulk of the
“proof” of a million Uighurs held in concentration camps.
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here it is, as additional reference.
