WHY THE WEST WANT REGIME CHANGE IN RUSSIA

Introduction


The following article is an good contribution in the understanding of why the Russian state under the leadership of Putin is such a target for attack, containment and ideally (for imperialism, that is) for regime change. 


The old Soviet Union was probably the most important state for the movements for independence against imperialism, along with the  People's Republic of China. The USSR funded, trained, educated many leading cadres of the anti-colonial and socialist movements across the world right until the last years of its existence in 1991.


The collapse of the Socialist Bloc and the related historic defeat of the world anti-imperialist revolution saw the west lose its head in celebrations, and we saw the rest of the 1990s as a victory march of the empire, with it expressing its world dominance with the concept of the 'New Word Order', and Iraq being crucified with the deaths of millions of Iraqi people and especially children, which in the words of yankee sec of state Albright said the deaths of millions of Iraqis was "worth it".

However, although the Socialist Bloc was smashed, in Russia the army and the intel services from the Soviet era maintained their control of the state, but the progressive socialist policies were lost with the defeat of the Communist Party. However, the CP of the Russian Federation led by Zyuganov remains the second biggest political party in Russia, and pushed for socialist policies and a more assertive anti-imperialist position that even Putin.


After the years under Russian president Yeltsin, the state assets of the old Soviet Union were all sold off with the resultant catastrophe in social conditions of the Russian masses.


Putin represents the more patriotic elements of the Russian elite, who believe in standing up against western hegemony, and in this position it has sucessfully fought off many aggressive moves of imperialism, most clearly illustrated in ostensibly defeating nato over the Georgian conflict in 2008, and turning off the gas to europe in Jan 2009, showing that it has the political will to confront and defeat empire in these battles.


The situation in Syria is also indicative of why imperialism wants the current Russian leadership smashed, it is well know throughout Syria and the wider world, that without Russian diplomatic and ultimately military support, Syria would now be subject to the war and trauma that befell Libya. All commentators state that Russia and China will not fall for the massive media and diplomatic swindle which was the lead up to the implementation of the "no fly zone" on Libya in early 2011. 


Anti-imperialists call for the Russian leadership to increase its current support for the struggle of the Global South against western hegemony, and although one would like to see the leadership of Russia going to a political movement such as the CPRF with its more militant anti-imperialist position and progressive socialist policies, we must at the same time support anti-imperialist unity within Russia. In this regard relations between Putin and Zyuganov and the CPRF look quite cordial despite their differences. Finally, it is fundamentally important for anti-imperialists that in the interests of our peoples and countries of the Global South that Russia and China continue to develop its assertiveness in relation to empire.

Without Russia and China, imperialism would be ravaging a lot more countries across the world that it is currently doing.

Without Russia and China Syria would be destroyed.

Sukant Chanda - Sons of Malcolm/Friends of China



Regime Change in the Russian Federation? 
Why Washington Wants ‘Finito’ with Vladimir Putin

By F. William Engdahl

[source]

Washington clearly wants ‘finito’ with Russia’s Putin as in basta! or as they said in Egypt last spring, Kefaya--enough!.  Hillary Clinton and friends have apparently decided Russia’s prospective next president, Vladimir Putin, is a major obstacle to their plans. Few however understand why. Russia today, in tandem with China and to a significant degree Iran, form the spine, however shaky, of the only effective global axis of resistance to a world dominated by one sole superpower.

On December 8 several days after election results for Russia’s parliamentary elections were announced, showing a sharp drop in popularity for Prime Minister Putin’s United Russia party, Putin accused the United States and specifically Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of fuelling the Russian opposition protesters and their election protests. Putin stated, “The (US) Secretary of State was quick to evaluate the elections, saying that they are unfair and unjust even before she received materials from the Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (the OSCE international election monitors-w.e.) observers.”[1]

Putin went on to claim that Clinton’s premature comments were the necessary signal to the waiting opposition groups that the US Government would back their protests. Clinton’s comments, the seasoned Russian intelligence pro stated, became a “signal for our activists who began active work with the US Department of State.” [2]

Major western media chose either to downplay the Putin statement or to focus almost entirely on the claims of an emerging Russian opposition movement. A little research shows that, if anything, Putin was downplaying the degree of brazen US Government interference into the political processes of  his country. In this case the country is not Tunisia or Yemen or even Egypt. It is the world’s second nuclear superpower, even if it might still be an economic lesser power. Hillary is playing with thermonuclear fire.
Democracy or something else?

No mistake, Putin is not a world champion practitioner of what most consider democracy. His announcement some months back that he and current President Medvedev had agreed to switch jobs after Russia’s March 4 Presidential vote struck even many Russians as crass power politics and backroom deal-making. That being said, what Washington is doing to interfere with that regime change is more than brazen and interventionist. The same Obama Administration which just signed into law measures effectively ripping to shreds the Bill of Rights of the US Constitution for American citizens[3] is posing as world supreme judge of others’ adherence to what they define as democracy.

Let’s examine closely Putin’s charge of US interference in the election process. If we look, we find openly stated in their August 2011 Annual Report that a Washington-based NGO with the innocuous name, National Endowment for Democracy (NED), is all over the place inside Russia.

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is financing an International Press Center in Moscow where some 80 international NGOs can hold press briefings on whatever they choose. They fund numerous “youth advocacy” and leadership workshops to “help youth engage in political activism.” In fact, officially they spent more than $2,783,000 in 2010 on dozens of such programs across Russia. Spending for 2011 won’t be published until later in 2012. [4]

The NED is also financing key parts of the Russian “independent” polling and election monitoring, a crucial part of being able to claim election fraud. They finance in part the Regional Civic Organization in Defense of Democratic Rights and Liberties “GOLOS.” According to the NED Annual Report the funds went “to carry out a detailed analysis of the autumn 2010 and spring 2011 election cycles in Russia, which will include press monitoring, monitoring of political agitation, activity of electoral commissions, and other aspects of the application of electoral legislation in the long-term run-up to the elections.”[5]

In September, 2011, a few weeks before the December elections the NED financed a Washington invitation-only conference featuring the Russian “independent” polling organization, the Levada Center. According to NED’s own website Levada, another recipient of NED money, [6] had done a series of opinion polls, a standard method used in the West to analyze the feelings of citizens. The polls profiled “the mood of the electorate in the run up to the Duma and presidential elections, perceptions of candidates and parties, and voter confidence in the system of ‘managed democracy’ that has been established over the last decade.”

One of the featured speakers at that Washington conference was Vladimir Kara-Murza, member of the federal council of Solidarnost (“Solidarity”), Russia’s democratic opposition movement. He is also “advisor to Duma opposition leader Boris Nemtsov” according to NED. Another speaker came from the right-wing neo-conservative Hudson Institute. [7]

Nemtsov, one of the most prominent figures of the Putin opposition today is also co-chairman of Solidarnost, a name curiously enough imitated from the Cold War days when the CIA financed the Polish Solidarnosc workers’ opposition of Lech Walesa. More on Nemtsov later.

And on December 15, 2011, again in Washington, just as the series of US-supported protests were being launched against Putin, led by Solidarnost and other organizations, the NED held another conference titled, Youth Activism in Russia: Can a New Generation Make a Difference? The featured speaker was Tamirlan Kurbanov, who according to the NED, “most recently served as a program officer at the Moscow office of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, where he was involved in developing and expanding the capacities of political and civic organizations; promoting citizen participation in public life, youth engagement in particular.” [8] The National Democratic Institute is an arm of the NED.


The Shady History of The National Endowment for Democracy (NED)

Helping youth engage in political activism is precisely what the same NED did in Egypt over the past several years in the lead up to the toppling of Mubarak. The same NED was instrumental by informed accounts in the US-backed “Color Revolutions” in 2003-2004 in Ukraine and Georgia that brought US-backed pro-NATO surrogates to power. The same NED has been active in promoting “human rights” in Myanmar, in Tibet, and China’s oil-rich Xinjiang province. [9]

As careful analysts of the 2004 Ukraine “Orange revolution” and the numerous other US-financed color revolutions discovered, control of polling and ability to dominate international media perceptions, especially major TV such as CNN or BBC is an essential component of the Washington destabilization agenda. The Levada Center would likely be in a crucial position in this regard to issue polls showing discontent with the regime.

By their description, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a “private, nonprofit foundation dedicated to the growth and strengthening of democratic institutions around the world. Each year, with funding from the US Congress, NED supports more than 1,000 projects of non-governmental groups abroad who are working for democratic goals in more than 90 countries.”[10]

It couldn’t sound more noble or high-minded. However, they prefer to leave out their own true history. In the early 1980’s CIA director Bill Casey convinced President Ronald Reagan to create a plausibly private NGO, the NED, to advance Washington’s global agenda via other means than direct CIA action. It was a part of the process of “privatizing” US intelligence to make their work more “effective.” Allen Weinstein, who helped draft the legislation establishing NED, said in a Washington Post interview in 1991, “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.”[11] Interesting. The majority of funds for NED come from US taxpayers through Congress. It is in every way, shape and form a US Government intelligence community asset.

The NED was created during the Reagan Administration to function as a de facto CIA, privatized so as to allow it more freedom of action. NED board members are typically drawn from the Pentagon and US intelligence community. It has included retired NATO General Wesley Clark, the man who led the US bombing of Serbia in 1999. Key figures linked to clandestine CIA actions who served on NED’s board have included Otto Reich, John Negroponte, Henry Cisneros and Elliot Abrams. The Chairman of the NED Board of Directors in 2008 was Vin Weber, founder of the ultraconservative organization, Empower America, and campaign fundraiser for George W. Bush. Current NED chairman is John Bohn, former CEO of the controversial Moody’s rating agency which played a nefarious role in the still-unraveling US mortgage securities collapse. As well today’s NED board includes neo-conservative Bush-era ambassador to Iraq and to Afghanistan, Afghan-American Zalmay Khalilzad.[12]
Putin’s well-rehearsed opposition

It’s also instructive to look at the leading opposition figures who seem to have stepped forward in Russia in recent days. The current opposition “poster boy” favorite of Russian youth and especially western media is Russian blogger Alexei Navalny whose blog is titled LiveJournal. Navalny has featured prominently as a quasi-martyr of the protest movement after spending 15 days in Putin’s jail for partaking in a banned protest. At a large protest rally on Christmas Day December 25 in Moscow, Navalny, perhaps intoxicated by seeing too many romantic Sergei Eisenstein films of the 1917 Russian Revolution, told the crowd, “I see enough people here to take the Kremlin and the White House (Russia’s Presidential home-w.e.) right now...”[13]

Western establishment media is infatuated with Navalny. England’s BBC  described Navalny as "arguably the only major opposition figure to emerge in Russia in the past five years," and US Time magazine called him "Russia's Erin Brockovich," a curious reference to the Hollywood film starring Julie Roberts as a researcher and legal activist. However, more relevant is the fact that Navalny went to the elite American East Coast Yale University, also home to the Bush family, where he was a “Yale World Fellow.” [14]

The charismatic Navalny however is also or has been on the payroll of Washington’s regime-destabilizing National Endowment for Democracy (NED). According to a posting on Navalny’s own blog, LiveJournal, he was supported in 2007-2008 by the NED. [15] [16]

Along with Navalny, key actors in the anti-Putin protest movement are centered around Solidarnost which was created in December 2008 by Boris Nemtsov, Vladimir Ryzhkov and others. Nemtsov is hardly one to protest corruption. According to Business Week Russia of September 23, 2007, Nemtsov introduced Russian banker Boris Brevnov to Gretchen Wilson, a US citizen and an employee of the International Finance Corporation, a financing arm of the World Bank. Wilson and Brevnov married. With the help of Nemtsov Wilson managed to privatize Balakhna Pulp and Paper mill at the giveaway price of just $7 million. The enterprise was sucked dry and then sold to the Wall Street-Swiss investment bank, CS First Boston bank. The annual turnover of the mill was reportedly $250 million. [17]

CS First Boston bank also paid for Nemtsov's trips to the very expensive Davos World Economic Forum. When Nemtsov became a member of the cabinet, his protégé Brevnov was appointed the chairman of the Unified Energy System of Russia JSC. Two years later in 2009 Boris Nemtsov, today’s “Mr anti-corruption,” used his influence reportedly to get Brevnov off the hook for charges of embezzling billions from assets of Unified Energy System. [18]

Nemtsov also took money from jailed Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky in 1999 when the latter was using his billions to try to buy the Russian parliament or Duma. In 2004 Nemtsov met with exiled billionaire oligarch Boris Berezovsky in a secret gathering with other exiled Russian tycoons. When Nemtsov was detailed by Russian authorities for allegations of foreign funding of his new political party, “For Russia without Lawlessness and Corruption,”  US Senators John McCain and Joe Liberman and Mike Hammer of the Obama National Security Council came to support of Nemtsov. [19]

Nemtsov’s close crony, Vladimir Ryzhkov of Solidarnost is also closely tied to the Swiss Davos circles, even founding a Siberian Davos. According to Russian press accounts from April 2005, Ryzhkov formed a Committee 2008 in 2003 to “draw” funds of the imprisoned Khodorkovsky along with soliciting funds from fugitive oligarchs such as Boris Berezovsky and western foundations such as the Soros Foundation. The stated aim of the effort was to rally “democratic” forces against Putin. On May 23, 2011 Ryzhkov, Nemtzov and several others filed to register a new Party of Peoples’ Freedom to ostensibly field a presidential candidate against Putin in 2012.[20]

Another prominent face in the recent anti-Putin rallies is former world chess champion turned right-wing politician, Garry Kasparov, another founder of Solidarnost. Kasparov was identified several years ago as being a board member of a Washington neo-conservative military think-tank. In April 2007, Kasparov admitted he was a board member of the National Security Advisory Council of Center for Security Policy, a "non-profit, non-partisan national security organization that specializes in identifying policies, actions, and resource needs that are vital to American security." Inside Russia Kasparov is more infamous for his earlier financial ties to Leonid Nevzlin, former Yukos vice-president and partner of Michael Khodorokvsky. Nevzlin fled to Israel on being charged in Russia on charges of murder and hiring contract killers to eliminate “objectionable people” while Yukos vice-president. [21]

In 2009 Kasparov and Boris Nemtsov met with no less than Barack Obama to discuss Russia’s opposition to Putin at the US President’s personal invitation at Washington’s Ritz Carlton Hotel. Nemtsov had called for Obama to meet with opposition forces in Russia: “If the White House agrees to Putin’s suggestion to speak only with pro-Putin organizations... this will mean that Putin has won, but not only that: Putin will become be assured that Obama is weak,” he said. During the same 2009 US trip Nemtsov was invited to speak at the New York Council on Foreign Relations, perhaps the most influential US foreign policy think-tank. Significantly, not only has the US State Department and US-backed political NGOs such as NED poured millions into building an anti-Putin coalition inside Russia. The President personally has intervened into the process.[22]

Ryzhkov, Nemtzov, Navalty and Putin’s former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin were all involved in organizing the December 25th Moscow Christmas anti-Putin rally which drew an estimated 120,000.[23]
Why Putin?

The salient question is why Putin at this point? We need not look far for the answer. 

Washington and especially Barack Obama’s Administration don’t give a hoot about whether Russia is democratic or not. Their concern is the obstacle to Washington’s plans for Full Spectrum Dominance of the planet that a Putin Presidency will represent. According to the Russian Constitution, the President of the Russian Federation head of state, supreme commander-in-chief and holder of the highest office in the Russian Federation. He will take direct control of defense and foreign policy.

We must ask what policy? Clearly strong countermeasures against the blatant NATO encirclement of Russia with Washington’s dangerous ballistic missile installations around Russia will be high on Putin’s agenda. Hillary Clinton’s “reset” will be in the dustbin if it is not already. We can also expect a more aggressive use of Russia’s energy card with pipeline diplomacy to deepen economic ties between European NATO members such as Germany, France and Italy, ultimately weakening the EU support for aggressive NATO measures against Russia. We can expect a deepening of Russia’s turn towards Eurasia, especially with China, Iran and perhaps India to firm up the shaky spine of resistance to Washington’s New World Order plans.

It will take more than a few demonstrations in sub-freezing weather in Moscow and St. Petersburg by a gaggle of corrupt or shady opposition figures such as Nemtsov or  Kasparov to derail Russia. What is clear is that Washington is pushing on all fronts—Iran and Syria, where Russia has a vital naval port, on China, now on Russia, and on the Eurozone countries led by Germany. It has the smell of an end-game attempt by a declining superpower.

The United States today is a de facto bankrupt nuclear superpower.  The reserve currency role of the dollar is being challenged as never since Bretton Woods in 1944. That role along with maintaining the United States as the world’s unchallenged military power have been the basis of the American Century hegemony since 1945.

Weakening the role of the dollar in international trade and ultimately as reserve currency, China is now settling trade with Japan in bilateral currencies, side-stepping the dollar. Russia is implementing similar steps with her major trade partners. The primary reason Washington launched a full-scale currency war against the Euro in late 2009 was to preempt a growing threat that China and others would turn away from the dollar to the Euro as reserve currency. That is no small matter. In effect Washington finances its foreign wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya and elsewhere through the fact that China and other trade surplus nations invest their surplus trade dollars in US government Treasury debt. Were that to shift significantly, US interest rates would rise substantially and the financial pressures on Washington would become immense.

Faced with growing erosion of her unchallenged global status as sole superpower, Washington appears now to be turning increasingly to raw military force to hold that. For that to succeed Russia must be neutralized along with China and Iran. This will be the prime agenda of whoever is next US President.  

F. William Engdahl is the author of A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order, He may be reached via his website at www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net

Notes

[1] Alexei Druzhinin, Putin says US encouraging Russian opposition, RIA Novosti, Moscow, December 8, 2011
[2] Ibid.
[3] Jonathan Turley, The NDAA's historic assault on American liberty, guardian.co.uk, 2 January 2012, accessed in http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/jan/02/ndaa-historic-assault-american-liberty.
[4] National Endowment for Democracy, Russia, from NED Annual Report 2010, Washington, DC, published in August 2011, accessed in http://www.ned.org/where-we-work/eurasia/russia.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] NED, Elections in Russia: Polling and Perspectives, September 14, 2011, accessed in http://ned.org/events/elections-in-russia-polling-and-perspectives.
[8] NED, Youth Activism in Russia: Can a New Generation Make a Difference?, December 15, 2011, accessed in http://ned.org/events/youth-activism-in-russia-can-a-new-generation-make-a-difference.
[9] F. William Engdahl, Full Spectrum Dominance: Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order, 2010, edition. Engdahl press. The book describes in detail the origins of the NED and various US-sponsored “human rights” NGOs and how they have been used to topple regimes not friendly to a larger USA geopolitical agenda.
[10] National Endowment for Democracy, About Us, accessed in www.ned.org.
[11] David Ignatius, Openness is the Secret to Democracy, Washington Post National Weekly Edition, 30 September-6 October,1991, 24-25.
[12] F. William Engdahl, Op. Cit., p.50.
[13] Yulia Ponomareva, Navalny and Kudrin boost giant opposition rally, RIA Novosti, Moscow, December 25, 2011.
[14] Yale University, Yale World Fellows: Alexey Navalny, 2010, accessed in http://www.yale.edu/worldfellows/fellows/navalny.html.
[15] Alexey Navalny, emails between Navalny and Conatser, accessed in Russian (English summary provided to the author by www.warandpeace.ru) on http://alansalbiev.livejournal.com/28124.html.
[16] Ibid.
[17] Business Week Russia, Boris Nemtsov: Co-chairman of Solidarnost political movement, Business Week Russia, September 23, 2007, accessed in http://www.rumafia.com/person.php?id=1648.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Ibid.
[20] Russian Mafia.ru, Vladimir Ryzhkov: Co-chairman of the Party of People's Freedom, accessed in http://www.rumafia.com/person.php?id=1713.
[21] Russian Mafia.ru, Garry Kasparov: The leader of United Civil Front, accessed in http://www.rumafia.com/person.php?id=1518.
[22] The OtherRussia, Obama Will Meet With Russian Opposition, July 3, 2009, accessed in http://www.theotherrussia.org/2009/07/03/obama-will-meet-with-russian-opposition/.
[23] Yulia Ponomareva, op. Cit.

CHINA DEVELOP GAME WHEREBY LIBERATION ARMY CAN BATTLE YANKS

About time our side developed their gaming to counter the neo-colonial violence in games like C.O.D - Sons of Malcolm/Friends of China

[source]

Recently, an office from China's Nanjing Military Region has finished developing a military game named Glorious Mission, which has China-owned property rights, jointly with Giant Interactive Group, Inc. (Wuxi).

Military games have been developed for years. They have formed a system and been put into use in education as well as training in some foreign armies. However, China's own development of military games is still in the primary steps.

Although some foreign military games have been used in some Chinese armies' daily training, they may not suit Chinese soldiers and even mislead them due to the different concepts of values and military thoughts.

The finished Glorious Mission with completely-independent China-owned property rights is not only full of Chinese characteristics but also brings China up to speed on military game development.

The Glorious Mission is set from a soldier's perspective and his barrack life. The game follows along as the soldier keeps promoting himself in training and finally qualifies to join a large-scale military exercise codenamed "Glorious Mission" and how he does in the military exercise.

The departments that invented the game are promoting the current game and looking forward to integrating more informationized and systematic concepts into it. And the promoted game software will be tried in some chosen armies.

By Wang Hanlu, People's Daily Online

SCOTLAND's INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT BUILDS CLOSER LINKS TO CHINA

Vice-Premier Li Keqiang meets visiting Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond in Beijing on Dec 5

Scottish Nationalists growing close relationship to Communist China is unsurprising for a political movement in Scotland which has control of the Scottish national Assembly, and one which seeks independence from the oldest colonial entity on the planet - the 'United Kingdom'. 


For any progressive nationalist movement in the world, developing good relations with the powerful nations of the Global South, especially China, is a necessity in a post-western-hegemonic world, as the west sees its finance-capitalist system descend into growing crises in the coming period. 


The Nepalese Maoists, who are now politically leading Nepal, are another example of a small nation that cannot do without good relations with China, this is especially interesting as the Nepalese Maoists had until in recent years a hostile and dogmatic attitude to China. 


Due to China's socialist state, China will continue to see development for its nation and people in a smoother trajectory than many other countries in the world, although there are definitely challenges that confront it, but like the recent Wukan case, China is able to traverse these challenges in the interest of people-centred development.


China will continue to be the most important component part of the rising Global South economically, politically and gradually militarily, and as a developing anti-imperialist country China is a sure partner for other nations wanting mutually beneficial relationship in economic development in a growing multi-polar world. 


Sons of Malcolm wishes the Scottish people the very best in their struggle for independence from English colonialism, and for developing South-South relations in the world, Scottish moves for closer ties with China again shows that the national struggles of the Scots, Welsh and Irish are part of the struggle of the Global South for independence and social justice.


Sukant Chanda - Sons of Malcolm/Friends of China






Leader sees China links key to Scotland's future



[source]

"My third visit to China as first minister was an important one," says Salmond, Scotland's first minister since 2007.

Salmond's Scottish National Party's landslide victory at the Scottish elections in May has made the prospect of a referendum on full independence a very real possibility. It is of little surprise that he should be looking to strengthen Scottish ties elsewhere at this time.

"While our relations with China have strengthened in recent years I realize that, like any friendship, we must show continuing commitment," Salmond says.

Salmond also spoke at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee in Beijing, a rare privilege for foreign politicians.

By laying the groundwork now, Salmond is ensuring that should Scotland split from the UK, the country will have established independent relations with global superpowers such as China upon which to build.


These benefits were just one of several areas Salmond discussed with Vice-Premier Li Keqiang, in hope that Scotland and China can forge closer ties. It is hoped that the meeting will pave the way not only for major Chinese investment in Scotland, but also for an expansion of Scottish technical expertise into China.

"I was very pleased to meet Vice-Premier Li Keqiang again, to discuss areas for further Sino-Scot collaboration in areas such as healthcare and infrastructure. I also had a very positive discussion about major infrastructure projects in Scotland with the China Investment Corporation, which we will welcome to Scotland next year."

Infrastructure was central to the discussions, with hopes of developing a direct air link between Scotland and China in the coming years as a way of increasing bilateral exchanges.

"I am looking forward to the arrival of a senior Chinese aviation industry delegation in 2012 to explore a direct air link," Salmond says. "Our entire delegation - 'Team Scotland' - was warmly welcomed by all of our hosts and I can promise our visitors from China a very warm Scottish welcome in the coming months and years."

Of course it is not inconceivable that Salmond might be welcoming these Chinese visitors not only as head of the Scottish government, but as head of an independent Scotland a few years down the line.

By laying the groundwork now, Salmond is ensuring that should Scotland split from the UK, the country will have established independent relations with global superpowers such as China upon which to build.

"As Vice-Premier Li Keqiang remarked when I welcomed him to Edinburgh Castle in January, Scotland is a land of invention. Of course, so too is the great nation of China and it is by working together in areas of common advantage, experience and innovation that our two nations can most effectively provide solutions to wider global challenges.

"Of course, with such challenges, come opportunities and I am determined that Scotland, working with China, seizes those opportunities."




[source]

Edinburgh's engagement with Beijing, spanning educational and economic links, pays off.

Back in 2006, the Scottish government released a paper setting out a plan of action to ensure that Scotland responded to China's emergence on the global stage by strengthening ties to the mutual benefit of both nations.

Entitled "Scotland's strategy for stronger engagement with China", the blueprint highlighted key areas, including educational, economic and cultural links, to build bilateral relationships.

"The rise of China is changing the world," wrote Tom McCabe, then a member of the Scottish parliament, in the foreword to the document. "How we, in Scotland, respond to the opportunities and challenges that flow from this will be critical for our country's future."

CHINA MILITARY GENERAL COMMENTS ON RISING WAR MOVES FROM uSA

Major General Luo Yuan

This is an interesting commentary from Major Gernal Luo Yuan of China's Peoples Liberation Army in the Liberation Army Daily. China clearly understands the military plans and strategies of imperialism, it has known ever since the revolution that led to the establishment of Communist China in 1949. 


Especially interesting is the comments regarding the u.s imperialist strategy in the Asia Pacific region to develop its military presence, and develop relations with countries on the basis of militarily containing and aggressing China. The usa and uk's rapproachment with Myanmar is indeed in line with their regional strategy of trying to bring certain nations closer to their hegemony in order to isolate China. Major Luo Yuan states in the article below: 


""We must be adept at maneuvering and use smart diplomacy, and the more friends we can make the better," he wrote.


"Some countries have been swindled by America, and now are walking alongside the United States out of their own interests, but in essence they don't fit together," said Luo. "They share the same bed but have different dreams.""


This is classic Chinese diplomatic strategy, the Chines realise that there is no real long term sense in any country building relations with imperialism due to imperialism economic and military decline historically, however the Chinese also realise that while imperialism is in historic decline, it is at the same time prepared to take humanity into war and trauma in a desperate attempt to maintain its domination.


Sukant Chandan - Sons of Malcolm/Friends of China






China top military paper warns U.S. aims to contain rise

[source]

The United States' new defense strategy focused on the Asia-Pacific region is directed at containing China's rise, the People's Liberation Army's newspaper said on Tuesday in Beijing's strongest warning yet against the new Pentagon stance.

The commentary in the Liberation Army Daily, however, also said China's sensible response to the U.S. military re-focus on Asia should be "vigilance" and smart diplomacy, not panic.

The United States is "laying out forces across the Asia-Pacific region in advance to contain the rise of China," said the commentary in the paper by Major General Luo Yuan.

Washington's assertions that the military re-focus announced last week is not directed at China are "simply making their real intent all the more obvious."

"Casting our eyes around we can see that the United States has been bolstering its five major military alliances in the Asia-Pacific region, and is adjusting the positioning of its five major military base clusters, while also seeking more entry rights for military bases around China," wrote Luo.

"Who can believe that you are not directing this at China? Isn't this the return of a Cold War mentality?"

Luo is well-known for his hawkish views, often published in popular Chinese newspapers and online. But the appearance of his commentary in the Liberation Army Daily, which is heavily vetted as the chief paper of the military, suggests that his latest comments enjoy some level of official endorsement.

On Monday, China's Ministry of Defense warned the United States to be "careful in its words and actions" after last week announcing the defense rethink that stresses responding to China's rise by shoring up U.S. alliances and bases across Asia.

The new U.S. strategy promises to boost strength in Asia in an attempt to counter China's growing ability to check U.S. power in the region, even as U.S. forces draw back elsewhere across the globe.

Under the new strategy, the United States will maintain large bases in Japan and South Korea and deploy U.S. Marines, navy ships and aircraft to Australia's Northern Territory.

The strategy also calls for countering potential attempts by China and Iran to block U.S. capabilities in areas like the South China Sea and the Strait of Hormuz.

China has sought to balance voicing its wariness about the U.S. moves with its desire for steady relations with Washington, especially as both sides grapple with domestic politics this year, when President Barack Obama faces a re-election fight and China's ruling Communist Party undergoes a leadership handover.


Luo warned against panic.

Instead, Beijing must do a better job at courting friends in the region, charming countries away from the United States' orbit, he wrote.

"In the face of this adjustment in the U.S. strategic focus, we must possess a sense of peril and maintain a high degree of vigilance, but there is no need to be alarmed about the expected," wrote Luo.

"We must be adept at maneuvering and use smart diplomacy, and the more friends we can make the better," he wrote.

"Some countries have been swindled by America, and now are walking alongside the United States out of their own interests, but in essence they don't fit together," said Luo. "They share the same bed but have different dreams."

CHINA TELLS USA WAR MACHINE TO "BE CAREFUL IN WORDS & ACTIONS" OVER WAR MOVES AGAINST IT

China warns US to be careful after Obama's defence strategy rethink

[source]

China's ministry of defence has warned the United States to be "careful in its words and actions" after it announced a defence rethink that stressed responding to China's rise by shoring up alliances and bases across Asia.

The statement from the ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng was Beijing's fullest reaction so far to the new US strategy unveiled last week. It echoed the mixture of wariness and outward restraint that has marked China's response to the Obama administration's "pivot" to Asia since late last year.

"We have noted that the United States issued this guide to its defence strategy, and we will closely observe the impact that US military strategic adjustment has on the Asia-Pacific region and on global security developments," Geng said in a statement issued on the ministry's website.

"The accusations levelled at China by the US side in this document are totally baseless.

"We hope that the United States will flow with the tide of the era, and deal with China and the Chinese military in an objective and rational way, will be careful in its words and actions, and do more that is beneficial to the development of relations between the two countries and their militaries."

The new US strategy promises to boost strength in Asia in an attempt to counter China's growing ability to check US power in the region, even as US forces draw back elsewhere across the globe.

Under the new strategy the US will maintain large bases in Japan and South Korea and deploy marines, navy ships and aircraft to Australia's Northern Territory.

The strategy calls for countering potential attempts by China and Iran to block US capabilities in areas such as the South China Sea and the Strait of Hormuz.

MAINSTREAM PRESS IN OVERDRIVE IN PUSHING WAR PROPAGANDA AGAINST CHINA & IRAN

There are now countless western mainstream media reports talking up war with China, and this one is just one example of that.

Isnt it time serious anti-imperialists in the west, people who will assertively believe in eace and respect with the nations of the Global South to now put the defence of China, and building positive relations with the Chinese people and leadership as some of the foremost anti-war strategies, along with the defence of Syria and Iran?
Sukant Chandan - Sons of Malcolm/Friends of China



U.S. Defense Strategy Plan Focuses on Thwarting China, Iran

[source]

The U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines must combine resources to thwart any efforts by countries such as China and Iran to block America’s access to the South China Sea, the Persian Gulf and other strategic regions, according to a draft of a Pentagon review.

...

The U.S. should be able to deter any emerging anti-access capabilities such as the diesel attack submarines being developed by China and the anti-ship ballistic missiles deployed by China and Iran, and if necessary, defeat them, said the administration official.

...

The review is expected to conclude that the U.S. no longer will engage in protracted large-scale stabilization operations, as it has in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it won’t have sufficient forces to fight two major conflicts at the same time, according to the official.


Rather, the U.S. will be able to fight in one major conflict and have the ability to deploy forces to deter another potential adversary from pursuing another major conflict, said the official.

...


“China sticks to the path of peaceful development and is always a force in maintaining regional and world peace,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a regular briefing in Beijing today in response to a question about the U.S. strategy. He said he had not seen the draft and that China and the U.S. must work together. “Cooperation is the only way,” he said.

While Chinese officials generally downplay offensive intentions, Iranians have threatened to use military force to block oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz in the event of an oil embargo or full conflict with the U.S. over its nuclear program.

...


The state-run Fars news agency yesterday cited the head of Iran’s army, Ataollah Salehi, as “warning” the U.S. not to return an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf. Pentagon spokesman George Little said the deployment of ships in the region “will continue as it has for decades.”

[end]

CHINA SEES YANKEE SEA POWER THREAT AND PREPARES ACCORDINGLY

[source]

Chinese President Hu Jintao on Tuesday urged the navy to prepare for military combat, amid growing regional tensions over maritime disputes and a US campaign to assert itself as a Pacific power.

The navy should "accelerate its transformation and modernisation in a sturdy way, and make extended preparations for military combat in order to make greater contributions to safeguard national security," he said.

Addressing the powerful Central Military Commission, Hu said: "Our work must closely encircle the main theme of national defence and military building."

His comments, which were posted in a statement on a government website, come as the United States and Beijing's neighbours have expressed concerns over its naval ambitions, particularly in the South China Sea.

Several Asian nations have competing claims over parts of the South China Sea, believed to encompass huge oil and gas reserves, while China claims it all. One-third of global seaborne trade passes through the region.

Vietnam and the Philippines have accused Chinese forces of increasing aggression there.

In a translation of Hu's comments, the official Xinhua news agency quoted the president as saying China's navy should "make extended preparations for warfare."

The Pentagon however downplayed Hu's speech, saying that Beijing had the right to develop its military, although it should do so transparently.

"They have a right to develop military capabilities and to plan, just as we do," said Pentagon spokesman George Little, but he added, "We have repeatedly called for transparency from the Chinese and that's part of the relationship we're continuing to build with the Chinese military."

"Nobody's looking for a scrap here," insisted another spokesman, Admiral John Kirby. "Certainly we wouldn't begrudge any other nation the opportunity, the right to develop naval forces to be ready.

"Our naval forces are ready and they'll stay ready."

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said: "We want to see stronger military-to-military ties with China and we want to see greater transparency. That helps answer questions we might have about Chinese intentions."

Hu's announcement comes in the wake of trips to Asia by several senior US officials, including President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

US undersecretary of defence Michelle Flournoy is due to meet in Beijing with her Chinese counterparts on Wednesday for military-to-military talks.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao last month warned against interference by "external forces" in regional territorial disputes including those in the South China Sea.

And China said late last month it would conduct naval exercises in the Pacific Ocean, after Obama, who has dubbed himself America's first Pacific president, said the US would deploy up to 2,500 Marines to Australia.

China's People's Liberation Army, the largest military in the world, is primarily a land force, but its navy is playing an increasingly important role as Beijing grows more assertive about its territorial claims.

Earlier this year, the Pentagon warned that Beijing was increasingly focused on its naval power and had invested in high-tech weaponry that would extend its reach in the Pacific and beyond.

China's first aircraft carrier began its second sea trial last week after undergoing refurbishments and testing, the government said.

The 300-metre (990-foot) ship, a refitted former Soviet carrier, underwent five days of trials in August that sparked international concern about China's widening naval reach.

Beijing only confirmed this year that it was revamping the old Soviet ship and has repeatedly insisted that the carrier poses no threat to its neighbours and will be used mainly for training and research purposes.

But the August sea trials were met with concern from regional powers including Japan and the United States, which called on Beijing to explain why it needs an aircraft carrier.

China, which publicly announced around 50 separate naval exercises in the seas off its coast over the past two years -- usually after the event -- says its military is only focused on defending the country's territory.

PRO-EMPIRE TYPES DISCUSS WAR WITH CHINA

CHINA STEPS UP THE THE CULTURAL BATTLE WITH EMPIRE

Good to see the Pres Hu Jintao addressing this issue, perhaps the most important issue in the war of liberation against imperialism and empire's machinations to conquer the minds of especially our young people. The only way the Global South, including China, can win our youth to our side is by developing a more effective cultural front of struggle than the empire's. 


Imperialism is using the internet and satellite channels such as Al-Jazeera as their vanguard in the attempt to colonise the minds of our youth, and they have been relatively successful doing this. We in the Global South will continue to lose this cultural battle if we do not develop effective cultural struggle to beat the empire, and go on the cultural offensive.

People should also remember, that historically Communist China has had a profound revolutionary cultural impact on the struggle of oppressed peoples in the 'west', especially the Black Liberation Movement, see HERE for more information on this.


Sukant Chandan - Sons of Malcolm/Friends of China




Chinese President Hu Jintao warns of cultural warfare from 

[source]

Chinese President Hu Jintao said the Party must meet the 'growing spiritual and cultural demands of the people'

The West is using cultural warfare to divide China, Chinese President Hu Jintao warned the Communist Party on Monday.

Mr Hu called on the 80 million-plus Party members to fight "hostile international powers" and meet the "cultural demands" of the people.

"Hostile international powers are strengthening their efforts to Westernise and divide us," Mr Hu wrote in the latest edition of Communist Party's magazine, Seeking the Truth.

"We must be aware of the seriousness and complexity of the struggles and take powerful measures to prevent and deal with them," he warned in his article.

Mr Hu was writing in the revolutionary magazine used by Chairman Mao to spread his ideology after it was launched in 1958.

"The international culture of the West is strong while we are weak," Mr Hu's article said. "Ideological and cultural fields are their [western forces'] main targets," Mr Hu wrote.

He also said the Party must meet the "growing spiritual and cultural demands of the people".

The call to arms against the West's perceived collective cultural genocidal policy follows recent Government orders to propaganda officials to push harder China's expensive global "soft power" drive.

The Communist Party is splashing out 45 billion yuan (£4 billion) to expand its overseas media, including a United States and UK edition of the state-run and heavily censored China Daily, the state news agency Xinhua, and China Central Television's (CCTV) multilingual news and culture programming.

Overseas Confucius Institutes have also sprung up to try and win over a sceptical international audience impressed by Beijing's economic success but wary of its harsh authoritarian governance.

Mr Hu's article is also part of general Party rhetoric aimed at countering the growing influence of the internet and increasing commercialism in China – all of which is leading to a more confident and louder public criticism of the government.

Spooked since the start of the Arab Spring uprisings a year ago, Beijing has been further tightening internet and media control in an attempt to "improve positive publicity" and guide public opinion.

Western-style TV programmes such as talent shows – which have proved a huge hit in China – have also been targeted in the crackdown.

In November, the country's media watchdog banned advertisements during television dramas.

However, Western tastes and themes, including festivals such as Christmas and Valentines' Day, are growing in popularity among the middle classes and young, And it's not just western ideology that threatens the Party's desire for strong red culture at home and abroad.

A walk down any main street in a first or second tier Chinese city reveals how China's internet-savvy youth are fast-becoming fashion conscious and are adopting the hairstyle, clothes and musical tastes of their cutting-edge peers – in neighbouring South Korea, Taiwan and Japan.


China's President Pushes Back Against Western Culture

[source]

BEIJING - President Hu Jintao of China has said that the West is trying to dominate China by spreading its culture and ideology and that China must strengthen its cultural production to defend against the assault, according to an essay in a Communist Party policy magazine published this week.

Mr. Hu's words signaled that a major policy initiative announced last October would continue well into 2012.

The essay, which was signed by Mr. Hu and based on a speech he gave in October, drew a sharp line between the cultures of the West and China and effectively said the two sides were engaged in an escalating culture war. It was published in Seeking Truth, a magazine founded by Mao Zedong as a platform for establishing Communist Party principles.

"We must clearly see that international hostile forces are intensifying the strategic plot of westernizing and dividing China, and ideological and cultural fields are the focal areas of their long-term infiltration," Mr. Hu said, according to a translation by Reuters.

"We should deeply understand the seriousness and complexity of the ideological struggle, always sound the alarms and remain vigilant and take forceful measures to be on guard and respond," he added.

Those measures, Mr. Hu said, should be centered on developing cultural products that can draw the interest of the Chinese and meet the "growing spiritual and cultural demands of the people."

Chinese leaders have long lamented the fact that Western expressions of popular culture and art seem to overshadow those from China. The top grossing films in China have been "Avatar" and "Transformers 3," and the music of Lady Gaga is as popular here as that of any that of any Chinese pop singer. In October, at the annual plenum of the party's Central Committee, where Mr. Hu gave his speech, officials discussed the need for bolstering the "cultural security" of China.

"The overall strength of Chinese culture and its international influence is not commensurate with China's international status," Mr. Hu said in his essay, according to another translation.

"The international culture of the West is strong while we are weak," he said.

Mr. Hu did not address the widespread assertion by Chinese artists and intellectuals that state censorship is what prevents artists and their works from reaching their full potential. Last week, Han Han, a novelist and China's most popular blogger, discussed the issue in an online essay called "On Freedom."

"The restriction on cultural activities makes it impossible for China to influence literature and cinema on a global basis or for us culturati to raise our heads up proud," Han Han wrote.

The publication of Mr. Hu's essay and other articles in Seeking Truth on bolstering China's cultural power signaled that this would be a central initiative in 2012, which is a transition year for the Chinese leadership as seven of the top nine party members step down from the Standing Committee of the Politburo. Mr. Hu appeared keen to enshrine the culture drive as a final defining moment of his decade-long tenure at China's helm.

The Central Committee meeting in October established the ideological foundation for a tightening of a cultural sphere that is only now beginning to unfold. Right after the meeting, officials announced a sweeping new policy to wipe scores of so-called entertainment shows off the air. That took effect on Sunday. Television stations have been racing to come up with new programs that will be deemed "socially responsible" by the censors.

Last month, officials in Beijing and other cities ordered Internet companies to ensure that people posting on microblogs, called Sina Weibo in Chinese, had registered their accounts using their real names, though they could still post under an alias. Officials have been putting pressure on executives and editors running the microblog platforms to self-censor, and many microblog users say the microblogs have been getting less interesting.

At the same time, China has been making a push to increase its cultural influence abroad, or its "soft power." The government has opened up Confucius Institutes around the world to aid foreigners in learning Chinese. The state is also lavishing financing on opening operations of large state-run news organizations, including Xinhua, the state news agency, and China Central Television in cities around the world. Officials from those organizations say they hope their version of the world events becomes as common as those from Western news organizations.

COMMUNIST CHINA SAYS VILLAGERS WERE RIGHT TO REBEL

How many times has one heard that there is no democracy in China, and the Chinese authorities clamp down on their people? These types of comments show that those making them either know nothing about China, or have a pro-empire regime-change agenda. Fact is that the Chinese masses are a very confident people, who are militant and ready to protest for their rights, but these protests, of which there are many in China, are not anti-Communist Party or anti-state, rather these protests contain people who are loyal to their ruling party and system, are in support of the Chinese revolution of 1948 which continues today, but are against localised corruption as in the case of this Wukan situation. Full respect goes to the Chinese authorities who have essentially endorsed the protests of the people of Wukan. China has many social contradictions as a result of the economic reforms of recent decades, reforms which have been historic in many achievements such as lifting over 300 million out of abject poverty, nevertheless the Chinese nation will continue to meet the challenges of socialist construction in the typically wise and successful Chinese way.

Finally, if the Chinese state and ruling party has essentially said the villagers of Wukan were right to rebel in this instance, one can imagine that this has given many millions of others in China the empowered status that they too can develop movements and protests against other corrupt officials and seek the support of the leadership of the Communist Party in so doing.


- Sukant Chandan, Sons of Malcolm/Friends of China


[source]

Residents of a south China village who tested the ruling Communist Party's control with more than a week of protests had "legitimate complaints" over a land grab that sparked the rebellion, state news agency Xinhua has said.

Ten days of protests over confiscated farmland and the death of a protest organizer in Wukan in booming Guangdong province earlier this month drew widespread attention as a rebuff to the stability-obsessed government.

The standoff ended after authorities offered concessions in a rare example of the government backing down to mobilised citizens.

The residents had "legitimate complaints against officials over wrongdoing concerning land use and financial management," Xinhua said in a report released late on Friday, citing a provincial investigation team.

"In terms of land use, the provincial investigators ... found that Lufeng Fengtian livestock company used more land than was officially approved," it cited investigator Yang Junbo, deputy head of Guangdong's Land and Resources Department, as saying.

Another company, Guangdong Yidazhou Group, "was in arrears with its land compensation to village residents," Yang added.

The village's former Communist Party boss, Xue Chang, also "embezzled money to buy a vehicle for personal use," Xinhua said.

The investigation continues, the report added, without providing further details.

This week, the government also annulled the result of an election for Wukan village head held in February "after finding several violations," and another vote would be organised soon, Xinhua said.

Villagers had denounced local officials as corrupt and heartless throughout their months-long wrangle, which erupted in rioting in September, but they ended up welcoming provincial party officials as brokers who finally stepped in to compromise.

Protests in China have become relatively common over corruption, pollution, wages, and land grabs that local-level officials justify in the name of development.

Chinese experts put the number of "mass incidents," as such protests are known, at about 90,000 a year in recent years.

The grip of Communist Party rule is not directly threatened by such bursts of unrest, but officials fear they could coalesce into broader, more organised challenges to their power.