CHINA

PETER KOENIG—Dominating Eurasia is part of the self-declared Anglo-American hegemon’s objective – and it is a key reason for Washington’s relentless aggression against China and Russia. One of the strategies Washington applies is the thousands of years-old “divide to conquer” – separating Western Europe from Russia and China. For hundreds of years before the ascent of the Anglo-American empire, western European countries and territories were natural trading partners of Russia, as well as of China, the latter largely thanks to the old (2100-year-old) Silk Road.

FINIAN CUNNINGHAM—The fact that both American politicians have U-turned with regard to China in such nasty terms must leave the authorities in Beijing with a deep sense of distrust in either of the would-be presidents. Biden at one time waxed lyrical about his close relationship with Xi, but as his bid for the presidency heated up, Biden stuck the proverbial knife in the Chinese leader calling him a “thug”. For his part, Trump previously referred to Xi as a “dear friend” while dining him with “beautiful chocolate cake” at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, but his administration has since slammed the Chinese leader as “authoritarian”. Trump’s racist slurs over the pandemic being “Kung Flu” and “Chinese plague” must give President Xi pause for disgust with the falseness.

SERGE HALIMI—Barack Obama instigated a US foreign policy pivot to Asia and the Pacific. Trump typically formulates the new strategy with less elegance and subtlety (see Curbing China’s rise, in this issue). Trump views cooperation as a trap, a zero-sum game, so China’s economic growth automatically threatens that of the US, and vice versa: ‘We are winning against China,’ he said in August. ‘They had the worst year … in a half a century, and that’s because of me. And I’m not proud of that.’

Iversen discusses how China is maintaining the Chinese economy for the benefit of the Chinese rather than allowing all of its assets to be up for sale to the highest bidder from anywhere like the U.S. has done.

On Wednesday, Washington ordered China’s Houston consulate to close within 72 hours amid accusations that it had been used to orchestrate rampant intellectual property theft. TV news broadcasts showed local firefighters called to the scene after consular staff apparently began burning documents in the wake of the closure order.

The shuttering of the Houston consulate was among many subjects broached by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a stinging speech Thursday evening at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda, Calif.