China-USA Tensions Stoked, Amidst World Turmoil; Push Break-Out to a New Bretton Woods

The world is in dramatic turmoil; it is not clear when it will be settled. For certain, without the international network of LaRouche collaborators on the scene, it won’t be. The mobilization for bringing about a ‘New Bretton Woods’ of world development relations is critical; and essential to that, is the exposure and defeat of the British factor—the dying and dangerous monetarist, geopolitical system.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche, in discussions with associates in Europe today, described the situation in terms of two forces: the centrifugal force of the collapsing financial/geopolitical system in the West, near to blow-out; while, second, there is the unifying vector towards deliberate development and peaceful relations, expressed by the initiatives of the BRICS, and by the New Silk Road involving China, Russia, African nations, and others, and moving into South America. If problems in the United States and Europe are not solved, it is not clear which way the world will go.

There is a concerted campaign to ruin the United States-China relationship, and in any particular instance, the lines are often unclear in indicating who is immediately responsible. Among the latest expressions of the widening breach between the two nations is China’s cancellation of the planned trip of Defense Secretary James Mattis, to go to Beijing in mid-October for the bilateral Diplomatic and Security Dialogue session, begun in June 2017, in Washington, D.C.. The Chinese authorities informed the U.S. on Sept. 27 that there will be no Chinese official available for the meeting this year. Also over the weekend, yet another U.S. military provocation occurred when the U.S. Navy destroyer, the USS Decatur, sailed through the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, in a show of “freedom of navigation.”

The enemy British crowd is throwing everything into the fray, with or without precision. One worrisome turn of events involves U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad, former governor of Iowa and a longtime personal friend of President Xi Jinping, beginning with Xi’s first visit to Iowa in the 1980s. Yesterday Branstad had a guest column in the Des Moines Register criticizing China for taking retaliatory tariff actions against what Branstad called Trump’s “fair” use of tariffs against China, which are to “re-balance trade.” Branstad said China is “bullying” the U.S., and harming American workers, farmers, and businesses.

Branstad also denounced China for having run a paid insert, called “China Watch,” in the Sept. 23 issue of the Des Moines Register, criticizing the Trump tariff policy. President Trump, in his Sept. 25 press conference, called this “election interference by China,” implying that farm voters are being encouraged to vote for anti-Trump candidates. Branstad went further, saying the Chinese Communist Party, which controls the media in China, took advantage of the U.S. “free press” by running propaganda in Iowa.

The kicker in this Branstad deployment, is that the front page of the very China Watch issue Branstad and Trump call objectionable, features a photo/review of the new book on Xi’s love for Iowa, and his friends there, namely Branstad. (The book is, “Old Friends: The Xi Jinping-Iowa Story;” see review, EIR May 18, 2018 issue).

An immediate antidote to these maneuvers, and to the outright coup-operation aimed at the Trump Presidency and nation, is to get out the powerful briefing given by Barbara Boyd Sept. 29, to a Detroit LaRouchePAC town hall event, “Search and Destroy vs. Advice and Consent: A New Low in the War on Trump, But Also a Turning Point—Organize!” It is being specially prepared for circulation internationally, for example in Europe, where there is nearly nil insight into what the election of Trump stands for, in the way of prospects for change worldwide.