Posts
"Isolated"?
China Officially Offers Help To "Irreplaceable Strategic
Partner" Russia.
22
December, 2014
Just
a week ago we detailed how China was preparing to bailout Russia's
liquidity crisis via
the 150 billion yuan swap line the two nations agreed in October.
Today, as
Bloomberg reports, we
got confirmation as two
Chinese ministers offered support for Russia.
China will provide help if needed and is confident Russia can
overcome its economic difficulties, Foreign Minister Wang Yi was
cited as saying; and Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng said expanding a
currency swap between the two nations and making increased use of
yuan for bilateral trade would have the greatest impact in aiding
Russia. The Global Times (mouthpiece for the Communist Party) wrote in
an editorial this weekend,"Russia
is an irreplaceable strategic partner on the international stage."
Isolated?
A
week ago we noted the movements and tone from China suggested a
'bailout' was coming for Russia, and
it appears the market is starting to realize that Russia is not so
isolated...
It
seems CNBC and the mainstream media are oddly quiet about the 31%
surge in the value of the Ruble in the last 6 days...
Which
is not entirely surprising as, for those who have forgotten who the
BRICS are, aside from a droll acronym by a former Goldman banker,
here is a reminder of the countries that make up 3 billion in
population.
China will provide help if needed and is confident Russia can overcome its economic difficulties, Foreign Minister Wang Yi was cited as saying in Bangkok in a Dec. 20 report by Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV. Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng said expanding a currency swap between the two nations and making increased use of yuan for bilateral trade would have the greatest impact in aiding Russia, according to the broadcaster.
...
“Many Chinese people still view Russia as the big brother, and the two countries are strategically important to each other,” said Jin Canrong, Associate Dean of the School of International Studies at Renmin University in Beijing, referring to the Soviet Union’s backing of Communist China in its first years. “For the sake of national interests, China should deepen cooperation with Russia when such cooperation is in need.”
De-dollarization
continues...
China and Russia signed a three-year currency-swap line of 150 billion yuan ($24 billion) in October, an agreement that can be expanded with the consent of both parties. The People’s Bank of China published a chart detailing how such an agreement works in a microblog dated Dec. 19 and the official People’s Daily newspaper said today that the explanation was provided to address concerns the nation could suffer losses if Russia used the facility to obtain funds.
“As all we pay out and receive in return are renminbi, we don’t have to bear exchange-rate risks,” the PBOC said in the microblog, using an alternative name for the yuan. The swap amount can be adjusted to allow for changing circumstances and prevailing exchange rates, rather than pre-determined, are used, it said.
China is promoting the yuan as an alternative to the dollar for global trade and finance and the PBOC has signed currency-swap agreements with 28 other central banks to encourage this. The nation’s foreign-exchange reserves of $3.89 trillion are the world’s largest and compare with Russia’s $374 billion.
And
Russia is not so isolated after all...
“Russia is an irreplaceable strategic partner on the international stage,” according to an editorial today in the Global Times, a Beijing-based daily affiliated with the Communist Party. “China must take a proactive attitude in helping Russia walk out of the current crisis.”
*
* *
China
pledges to help Russia overcome economic hardships
RT,
22
December, 2014
China’s
foreign minister has pledged support to Russia as it faces an
economic downturn due to sanctions and a drop in oil prices. Boosting
trade in yuan is a solution proposed by Beijing’s commerce
minister.
“Russia
has the capability and the wisdom to overcome the existing hardship
in the economic situation,"
Foreign Minister Wang Yi told journalists, China Daily reported
Monday. “If the Russian side needs it, we will provide
necessary assistance within our capacity."
The
offer of help comes as Russians are still recovering from the shock
of the ruble’s worst crash in years last Tuesday, when it lost over
20 percent against the US dollar and the euro. The Russian currency
bounced back the next day, but it still has lost almost half of its
value since March.
At
his annual end-of-year press conference on Thursday, Vladimir Putin
acknowledged the ruble has been tumbling along with the price of oil,
and estimated that Western sanctions account for 25-30 percent of the
Russian economic crisis. However, the president’s economic forecast
is that the slump will not be a lasting one.
Chinese
Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng proposed on Saturday to expand the use
of the yuan in trade with Russia.
He
said the use of the Chinese currency has been increasing for several
years but western sanctions on Russia had made the trend more
prominent, Reuters cited Hong Kong’s Phoenix TV as saying.
Gao
said this year’s trade between China and Russia could reach $100
billion, approximately 10 percent growth compared to last year.
The
minister said he did not expect cooperation on energy and
manufacturing projects with Russia to be greatly affected by the
current crisis.
“Many
Chinese people still view Russia as the big brother, and the two
countries are strategically important to each other,”
Jin Canrong, Associate Dean of the School of International Studies at
Renmin University in Beijing, told Bloomberg. “For
the sake of national interests, China should deepen cooperation with
Russia when such cooperation is in need.”
China
has been increasingly seeking deals in its own currency to challenge
the US dollar’s dominance on the international market.
And
Beijing is not alone in attempts to counter the influence of
Western-based lending institutions and the US currency.
BRICS,
the group of emerging economies that comprises Brazil, Russia, India,
China and South Africa, accounting for one-fifth of global economic
output, has been pursuing the same goal. The five nationsagreed in
July to increase mutual trade in local currencies, and also to create
a BRICS Development Bank with investment equivalent to $100 billion
as an alternative to the Western-controlled World Bank.
Introduction by Larchmonter 445:
Saker asked me if I could provide an article regarding China and Russia. I told him that I thought the entwining of the two was far deeper and meaningful than 'deals' for commodities and weapons. He added that the two militaries had gone through highly unique, for the two nations, training and had scheduled more for next year to push their integration capabilities.
I felt that what I had learned studying China for over a dozen years, the relationship was qualitatively unique in international history, far from just a special partnership category. There was a bonding in process. Double Helix was, to my mind, an ideal metaphor. Thus, the article became a large presentation. But the two nations are two of the largest and the bonding in process is comprehensive. To give it light, it took length and some depth.
One other note, I could have added another 20-30 footnotes, but it is another purpose of the philosophy of the Vineyard, as Saker has expressed, for the visitors, readers, commenters and participants do research of their own, contribute material and facts dug up and shared. In other words, one voice does not make anything authoritative and final. I agree. In the spirit of Orthodox practice, challenge whatever you find in error or doubt.
I found it best to read in pdf on my iPad. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and remember to donate to the Saker. He uses most of 18 hours a day of nearly every day to make this blog work for you. The Vineyard is our megaphone and resource in the resistance to hegemony and the destruction of life and human values. Chip in with 'green ammo'
Larchmonter 445
Mediafire download directory:
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/fpid1fhd6nv59/China_Russia_Double_Helix
Vineyard
of the Saker White Paper: the China-Russia Double Helix
Dear
friends,
Today I sharing with you a document which I personally consider as absolutely crucial: an in-depth analysis of the China-Russia Strategic Alliance (RCSA) written by somebody who looks at it from the "Chinese side". I want to tell you a few words about how this document came into existence.
I was talking with Larchmonter 445 about the development in Russia when I realized that a lot of his arguments centered around the relationship between China and Russia and when I probed him further I realized that he knew a lot about it. Not only that, but he had come to the exact same conclusions about the RCSA as I had, but he came to the from the other, Chinese, side. That's when I asked him to write a short analysis of this topics, and Larchmonter 445 agreed. Except that is as a perfectionist workaholic and his short analysis ended up 25 pages long and with 39 footnotes! As a result, what I can now share with you is a comprehensive survey of all the officially known components of the RCSA (you can bet that there are many more which I kept secret!).
I find Larchmonter 445's image of a double helix particularly appropriate because what we are witnessing here is the birth of a new geopolitical "life form" so to speak, an informal alliance of two countries which goes much deeper than most regular alliances do: what we are seeing is the mutual agreement to establish a full-spectrum geostrategic symbiosis between two civilizational realms as both Russia and China are what used to be called 'empires' in the past but which today are what I call "civilizational realms": multi-ethnic, multi-national and multi-religious ex-empires whose influence extends beyond their current national borders and whose international strategic "weight" makes far more akin to continents then to countries.
Make no mistake, what we are seeing is something unprecedented in history and it is much more than just an "alliance". After all, an alliance can easily be broken and country A can decide to switch from an alliance with country B to an alliance with country C. In the case of the RCSA what we are seeing is something much more akin to the birth of Siamese twins: in a geopolitical tectonic shift, Russia and China have decided to be shared not just "at the hip", but with many "vital organs and systems" including energy and defense, of course, but also their economies and long term development policies. Each symbiont will keep its own head and brain, but they will share "torsos".
I would argue that this is by far the single most important political development since the end of WWII and probably the most important one in this century: it is hard to overstate the implications of what this means and Obama's famous "pivot" to Asia is completely dwarfed and, really, rendered utterly irrelevant by this new reality: typically, while the Obama roared and barked, Putin and Xi Jinping quietly, but profoundly, changed the planetary equilibrium. I wonder if somebody will dare tell the White House.
I urge you all to carefully read Larchmonter 445' White Paper and to keep it for future reference (in particular all the recent developments he lists). Since it was too long to post here, I have made it available for download from Mediafire in ZIP, ODT, DOCX and PDF file formats. You can find the link to the Mediafire directory right under Larchmonter 445's introductory remarks below.
A big THANK YOU to Larchmonter 445!
I hope that you will enjoy this great read.
Cheers,
The Saker
-------
Today I sharing with you a document which I personally consider as absolutely crucial: an in-depth analysis of the China-Russia Strategic Alliance (RCSA) written by somebody who looks at it from the "Chinese side". I want to tell you a few words about how this document came into existence.
I was talking with Larchmonter 445 about the development in Russia when I realized that a lot of his arguments centered around the relationship between China and Russia and when I probed him further I realized that he knew a lot about it. Not only that, but he had come to the exact same conclusions about the RCSA as I had, but he came to the from the other, Chinese, side. That's when I asked him to write a short analysis of this topics, and Larchmonter 445 agreed. Except that is as a perfectionist workaholic and his short analysis ended up 25 pages long and with 39 footnotes! As a result, what I can now share with you is a comprehensive survey of all the officially known components of the RCSA (you can bet that there are many more which I kept secret!).
I find Larchmonter 445's image of a double helix particularly appropriate because what we are witnessing here is the birth of a new geopolitical "life form" so to speak, an informal alliance of two countries which goes much deeper than most regular alliances do: what we are seeing is the mutual agreement to establish a full-spectrum geostrategic symbiosis between two civilizational realms as both Russia and China are what used to be called 'empires' in the past but which today are what I call "civilizational realms": multi-ethnic, multi-national and multi-religious ex-empires whose influence extends beyond their current national borders and whose international strategic "weight" makes far more akin to continents then to countries.
Make no mistake, what we are seeing is something unprecedented in history and it is much more than just an "alliance". After all, an alliance can easily be broken and country A can decide to switch from an alliance with country B to an alliance with country C. In the case of the RCSA what we are seeing is something much more akin to the birth of Siamese twins: in a geopolitical tectonic shift, Russia and China have decided to be shared not just "at the hip", but with many "vital organs and systems" including energy and defense, of course, but also their economies and long term development policies. Each symbiont will keep its own head and brain, but they will share "torsos".
I would argue that this is by far the single most important political development since the end of WWII and probably the most important one in this century: it is hard to overstate the implications of what this means and Obama's famous "pivot" to Asia is completely dwarfed and, really, rendered utterly irrelevant by this new reality: typically, while the Obama roared and barked, Putin and Xi Jinping quietly, but profoundly, changed the planetary equilibrium. I wonder if somebody will dare tell the White House.
I urge you all to carefully read Larchmonter 445' White Paper and to keep it for future reference (in particular all the recent developments he lists). Since it was too long to post here, I have made it available for download from Mediafire in ZIP, ODT, DOCX and PDF file formats. You can find the link to the Mediafire directory right under Larchmonter 445's introductory remarks below.
A big THANK YOU to Larchmonter 445!
I hope that you will enjoy this great read.
Cheers,
The Saker
-------
Introduction by Larchmonter 445:
Saker asked me if I could provide an article regarding China and Russia. I told him that I thought the entwining of the two was far deeper and meaningful than 'deals' for commodities and weapons. He added that the two militaries had gone through highly unique, for the two nations, training and had scheduled more for next year to push their integration capabilities.
I felt that what I had learned studying China for over a dozen years, the relationship was qualitatively unique in international history, far from just a special partnership category. There was a bonding in process. Double Helix was, to my mind, an ideal metaphor. Thus, the article became a large presentation. But the two nations are two of the largest and the bonding in process is comprehensive. To give it light, it took length and some depth.
One other note, I could have added another 20-30 footnotes, but it is another purpose of the philosophy of the Vineyard, as Saker has expressed, for the visitors, readers, commenters and participants do research of their own, contribute material and facts dug up and shared. In other words, one voice does not make anything authoritative and final. I agree. In the spirit of Orthodox practice, challenge whatever you find in error or doubt.
I found it best to read in pdf on my iPad. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and remember to donate to the Saker. He uses most of 18 hours a day of nearly every day to make this blog work for you. The Vineyard is our megaphone and resource in the resistance to hegemony and the destruction of life and human values. Chip in with 'green ammo'
Larchmonter 445
Mediafire download directory:
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/fpid1fhd6nv59/China_Russia_Double_Helix
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