Asia Times Column Highlights Schiller 2016 Berlin Conference

A column by George Koo in the Asia Times of March 13, recommends to the Trump Administration, a presentation given by Daisuke Kotegawa at the June 2016 Berlin Conference of the Schiller Institute on the New Silk Road. Mr. Koo has worked as scientist and engineer at the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and is an entrepreneur, one of the “Committee of 100” of prominent Chinese Americans.

Kotegawa’s “lesson” which Koo is recommending to Trump, was that Japanese investment of billions in new infrastructure in China decades ago, has today become wealth for Japan in the form of Chinese tourists and other investments in Japan’s economy now, because China has prospered. Similarly, China’s “win-win” policy now is that its investments of this kind will “blow back” to it, because other countries will prosper from those investments.

Citing the huge infrastructure deficits just reported by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and Trump’s intentions in this area, Koo writes, “This is where China comes in. It has  gone from being a recipient of soft loans and foreign assistance to becoming the world’s largest investor, partner and builder of infrastructure projects. The Chinese have taken their Silk Road initiative around the world, and countries are eager to work with China because it has developed a reputation producing quality results on schedule and at low cost — and with attractive financing terms.

“All the Trump administration needs to do is be willing to take a different approach to bilateral relations with China, a new look based on what’s in the national interest of the United States.”

The Committee of 100 has taken an active role in promoting the Belt and Road Initiative within the United States, including conferences in New York and San Francisco at which LaRouche PAC has been very active.

Daisuke Kotegawa – Canon Institute Japan, former representative of Japan to the IMF addressing June 2016 Schiller Institute conference, Berlin, Germany.