A Tale of Two Anniversaries: Choose Wisely

10 year anniversary since the inauguration of the Belt and Road initiative started in 2013

EIR LEAD EDITORIAL FOR FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

Sept. 7, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)—Today is the tenth anniversary of the launching of China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI). On Sept. 7, 2013, President Xi Jinping presented what he the “Silk Road Economic Belt,” in a speech in Kazakhstan early in his presidency, entitled “Promote People-to-People Friendship and Create a Better Future.” It called for an “innovative cooperation mode” in building transportation corridors, to create(*typo correction edit by peacebuilder.net) a “greater space for development,” and to make “a grand cause benefitting people in regional countries along the route.” He called for creating a “new brilliance with a more open mind and a broader vision to expand regional cooperation.” More than talk, China had walked the walk in lifting 800 million Chinese out of extreme poverty (using methods easily recognizable by Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy). Now more than 150 countries are on board.

However, one country, rather ironically, celebrates today for a different reason. It is called “Military Intelligence Day” in Ukraine. There President Zelenskyy awarded the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, Kyrylo “Kill Any Russian Any Time Anywhere” Budanov, a promotion to lieutenant general. (His operation is famous for assassinating civilians.) But it was only 10 years ago that the President of Ukraine heard Xi’s announcement of the “Silk Road Initiative” and, within three months, was in Beijing signing contracts (initially for Chinese port development on the Black Sea). He would be violently deposed by Britain and the U.S. within the next three months. Ukraine is being chewed up; China, India, and Russia are signing contracts to develop Africa.

The Global Majority is on the move, especially after the BRICS summit in South Africa. Today, at the East Asia Summit, Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo challenged the leaders assembled to rise up as real leaders and look for solutions and cease undermining their neighbors; but a deaf U.S. Vice President could only cut an embarrassing figure, with geopolitical slogans. As Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov succinctly noted, such antics are tiresome. People want to work on real problems.

The G20 is to meet in India this weekend, and the U.S. National Security Advisor, in providing the narrative for success at the White House two days ago, appeared to be channeling the character of Lucy, in the “Peanuts” cartoon strip, where she always promises she’ll hold the football for the clueless Charlie Brown to kick it, and every time, she pulls it out from under him, leaving him to fall flat on his back. Sullivan’s version is to counter the Belt and Road Initiative with the promise that, this time, the West is going to “deliver” on development for the Global South, and that the good old World Bank and IMF, failures for over 70 years in a row, are the ticket!

There’s a different conference this weekend: Helga Zepp-LaRouche—who became known as the “Silk Road Lady,” from her presentations throughout Europe and Asia, and ultimately at China’s May 7-9, 1996 “International Symposium on Economic Development of the Regions along the New Euro-Asia Continental Bridge,” on a project to center energy, water, industrial and agricultural projects along the spine of such massive transportation projects—will convene a Schiller Institute conference, in her capacity as its founder and head, called “Let Us Join Hands with the Global Majority To Create a New Chapter in World History!” The opening panel at 9 a.m. EDT (13:00 UTC) is entitled: “The Strategic Situation After the Historic BRICS Summit.”