Author: Alicia

A summary of the excellent seminar in Lyon on October 19th, co-organized by the Schiller Institute and the Club China EMLyon FOREVER, an association of alumni from the Lyon Ecole de Management (EM), a prestigious national business school which also runs a campus in Shanghai, below. The list of speakers included Alain Galliano, vice-president in charge of international relations of the Lyon Metropole, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, president of the Schiller Institute, Professor Shi Ze from the CIIS in China, Christine Bierre, editor in chief of Nouvelle Solidarité, the newspaper of Solidarité & Progrès, and Jean Christophe Vautrin, president of the Club China EM Lyon FOREVER.

This seminar was part of a double pronged offensive of the Schiller Institute to get European countries, France and Germany in particular, to join China’s New Silk Roads project. For this aim, conferences were organized at two highly symbolic cities: Essen, nearby Duisburg, in Germany, and Lyon in France. Duisburg, the largest internal port in Europe, is the first stop of the train coming three times a week from Wuhan, China; Lyon is the terminus, as it was on the ancient Silk Road. This train transports silica for tires, electronic equipment, LED lamps, and sports apparel from China. It returns loaded with wines, cosmetics and foods. The arrival of the train is, a small miracle, covering a distance of 11,300 kms, crossing six countries, changing locomotives eight times, undergoing three transshipments!

When the train arrived in Lyon for the first time, in April, if was received by Mr. Galliano, officially in charge of the train. Unfortunately because of urgent professional obligations, he was unable to attend to our conference, but his endorsement contributed to making the event a success.

WHAT WOULD CHARLES DE GAULLE DO TODAY?

Moderator Odile Mojon handed the podium over to Helga Zepp-LaRouche for the keynote, which from the beginning put the challenge to the French at the right level: “What would Charles de Gaulle do today, to safeguard and protect the French people from the unprecedented dangers in the world today, namely the twin threats of potential nuclear confrontation between the United States and Russia on the one side, and the immediate possibility of a meltdown of the transatlantic financial system?”

Since these dangers are the result of human politics, she said, they can be overcome by choosing an entirely different political course. Zepp-LaRouche presented LaRouche’s four cardinal principles to solve those problems, and then proceeded to describe “the unprecedented strategic realignment among nations, which has created completely new options for world politics.”

China’s breathtaking economic development, condensing in 40 years what other industrialized nations did in 200 years, and becoming a world leader in fast trains systems, digitization of the industry and electronics. After lifting 700 million out of poverty China just issued a white paper calling for the world to overcome poverty by 2020.

China’s New Silk Road is not only transport and exchange of goods, she said, but exchange of scientific knowledge, technologies and culture for the transformation of the nations involved. The type of cooperation it has developed among the 70 participating countries includes a “comprehensive plan for scientific cooperation, joint labs, technology transfer centers, Science & Technology parks, and exchange programs in China for training for 150 000 S & T personnel and 5000 students. At the G20 summit, president Xi Jinping called for “an innovation based strategy,” based on “scientific and technological development.”

She went through the breathtaking series of summits, (G20, Vladivostok, ASEAN) which, in less than six weeks, concluded with an enormous amount of economic deals, and listed all the financial institutions created to finance those projects. This has created a situation where “the center of world politics has shifted very clearly to Asia.”

After attacking the “Thucydides trap” mentality dominating the West’s oligarchic elites, she came back to de Gaulle, a patriot and a world citizen: “I am certain he would passionately embrace the idea of overcoming poverty through the global extension of the New Silk Road into a World Land-Bridge.”  She cited his wonderful speech to the German youth, of 1962, talking about that “obscure force” which causes material things to undergo rapid transformations and of scientific discoveries which improve continuously the physical conditions of man. A progress that becomes a common good, and contributes to the fostering of the beautiful, the just and the good.”

Helga noted the “deep affinity” between this European humanist tradition and the notion of continuous self-perfection of man developed by Confucianism. What is our common aim today, she asked? Join hands to industrialize Africa, through extension of the Silk Road, and make sure that all children of the planet have access to universal education.

THE SILK ROAD IS NOT A SOLO FOR CHINA

Professor Shi Ze explained further what the aim of the Silk Road is, and how it applies to Europe, to Germany and France. And, during the discussion period he stressed several times, that this project for Europe is no longer just a concept, but that this concept is now on a realization phase. Europeans, he indicated, should not hesitate too long because the offer will not remain open forever…

Shi Ze explained that this project is not simply a copy of the old Silk Road. It takes what was positive of the old Silk Road, but to apply it to the world today as a strategy for cooperation and peace. China wants to write a new chapter of its opening to the world. The Silk Road is both “opening” and “inclusion,” “sovereignty and mutual interest.” The cultural concept is that of harmony in multiplicity.

We want to correct some errors of comprehension concerning the Silk Road project. This is not a “going it alone” project of China’s, but the creation by China of an open platform which, through the mobility of its capital, will serve the world. It is not the idea of moving out to the rest of the world, but a combination of moving out and moving in. It is also not a geographical strategy, not a belt in the ordinary sense of that word, but an inclusive international development platform.

Since Aug. 1st, 2014, twenty container trains have come to Europe from interior China. In comparison to maritime trade, the trip is reduced by 15 days, which reduces costs and frees capital for a better utilization.

Professor Shi Ze expressed the wish that the Juncker Plan of EU315 billion could be connected to the New Silk Road project. The aim is to renovate, between Europe and China, the railway networks, airports, roads, maritime ports, oil and gas pipelines, electricity, and telecommunications.

The role of China has changed in recent times, said Professor Shi Ze. China is no longer just a commercial power, but an investor state. This creates an enormous potential for cooperation between China and Europe. The United Kingdom, France, Germany, and others, desire a financial collaboration with China. There are already 700 billion yuan in swaps between the Europeans and the Chinese.

De Gaulle and the Sino-French Partnership

In France, Professor Shi Ze stressed the closeness of the partnership to France, due to the fact that de Gaulle opened diplomatic relations with China, 10 years before the other advanced countries.

He stated over and over again, China’s interest in making joint investments with France, such as its contract with Great Britain for two nuclear power stations at Hinkley Point. He stressed over and over again, the China’s interest in making joint investments in Africa, on infrastructure, energy, transports, as called for by a joint statement signed in 2015.

At the Schiller conference in Essen, Oct. 21, he stressed that Germany has become China’s main trading partner in Europe. In 2015, the volume of exchanges reached EU163 billion and since 2010, and 1,700 Chinese companies have opened in Germany.

The strong points of cooperation are foreign exchanges and manufacturing. To connect Chinese efficiency with German quality, to harmonize the Made in China and the Made in Germany, is the objective of the Silk Road policy. Building roads and pipelines, agriculture, along the entire Silk Road, will create opportunities for the German companies.

From both France and Germany, China wants to take advantage of their long experience in urbanization: 75% of the European population lives in urban centers; in China only 52.6%.

CHINA’S SILK ROAD: OPPORTUNITIES FOR FRANCE

Christine Bierre went through the status of today’s France-China policies, and proposed, in the spirit of Leibniz’s grand Eurasian design of the 17th century, the important future areas of collaboration between both countries.

Paradoxically, she said, Hollande’s policies towards China, seem much better than those towards France. Meetings between high-level officials of both countries have established a close coordination between both states. A privileged ally of China since 1964, thanks to de Gaulle, France is already on a win-win alliance sharing with China some of its high technologies in exchange for “accompanying” China’s strong development.

Airbus commercial jets are being assembled already in China. As for nuclear power, after 30 years of close cooperation, China and France have enlarged cooperation to the entire nuclear cycle. In June 30th 2015,  both countries signed a statement calling for joint construction of nuclear power stations in third countries, in the model of the Hinkley Point agreement.

A strong collaboration has developed also in the struggle against air, water and soil pollution which the Chinese have made into a priority. The two French water giants, Veolia and Suez, are particularly engaged in the domain of fighting “toxic waste.”

Future Collaboration

It is future collaborations, however, that interest us the most, said Christine Bierre, who outlined four priorities:

1) Space. France must get back into space exploration, with the Moon and Mars as objectives, and manned spaceflight. Highly interesting on September 15th, a “Cardiospace” mission was deployed out of the Chinese orbital module Tiangong 2, aimed at studying the adaptation of the human cardiovascular system to microgravity and the impact on astronauts’ bodies as they come back to Earth.

2) 4th generation of nuclear power and fusion. France should adopt the Chinese system of exploring all the options of the “nuclear of the future”: fusion, breeder and pebble bed reactors, thorium molten salt fast reactors (MSFR), hybrid fission/fusion reactors. On the most promising prospect of thorium (MSFR), there should be increased cooperation between the Chinese team and a French team in Grenoble CNRS-LPSC who are pioneering on this question. On fusion the existing collaboration between French and Chinese teams at the Cadarache center and at Heifei, (Tore-Supra West and East), in the context of ITER, should be strengthened.

3) Joint Franco-Chinese projects in Africa. A joint statement signed between France and China on June 30th, 2015 organizes such joint projects in third countries, notable Africa and Asia. Emphases is put on “great projects … whose impact on the country or the region will be major, among which infrastructures, energy, support for jointly produced aircraft, urban and long course railways, agriculture and health matters.” China who wants to invest in French speaking Africa, is pressuring France who is familiar with that part of the world, to do it together. China contributes the financing, France and Europe, the technologies and the third parties formulate the demands. Negotiations are under way for the organization of a three way conference in Dakar this year, and the creation of an investment fund.

4) Finally there is the great project of modernizing the “train of the Silk Road” which arrives 3 times a week from Wuhan, but which presently has to cross six countries with different rail systems, do three transshipments and changes locomotives eight times.  The urgency is to improve it, this freight train should be modernized, and have its own independent rail. This is the type of great project which would need a full cooperation between France, Germany, Europe and China, which only a Europe of fatherlands and of projects, renewing with a strong industrial policy, can finance.

A Grand Mission for France

Beyond this or that project, where France stands to gain the most in its relations to China, is in finding its own “dream”! The alliance with China must lead France to rediscover its own ideal and voluntarism to make real this metaphor of Li Keqiang in a speech in Toulouse, on July 2, 2015. When our two great nations work together, that will unleash not only a synergy of “one plus one are more than two,” but an energy comparable to that of “nuclear fusion,” which, of course is aimed at civil goals and for the cause of peace”!

A summary of the excellent seminar in Lyon on October 19th, co-organized by the Schiller Institute and the Club China EMLyon FOREVER, an association of alumni from the Lyon Ecole de Management (EM), a prestigious national business school which also runs a campus in Shanghai, below. The list of speakers included Alain Galliano, vice-president in charge of international relations of the Lyon Metropole, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, president of the Schiller Institute, Professor Shi Ze from the CIIS in China, Christine Bierre, editor in chief of Nouvelle Solidarité, the newspaper of Solidarité & Progrès, and Jean Christophe Vautrin, president of the Club China EM Lyon FOREVER.

This seminar was part of a double pronged offensive of the Schiller Institute to get European countries, France and Germany in particular, to join China’s New Silk Roads project. For this aim, conferences were organized at two highly symbolic cities: Essen, nearby Duisburg, in Germany, and Lyon in France. Duisburg, the largest internal port in Europe, is the first stop of the train coming three times a week from Wuhan, China; Lyon is the terminus, as it was on the ancient Silk Road. This train transports silica for tires, electronic equipment, LED lamps, and sports apparel from China. It returns loaded with wines, cosmetics and foods. The arrival of the train is, a small miracle, covering a distance of 11,300 kms, crossing six countries, changing locomotives eight times, undergoing three transshipments!

When the train arrived in Lyon for the first time, in April, if was received by Mr. Galliano, officially in charge of the train. Unfortunately because of urgent professional obligations, he was unable to attend to our conference, but his endorsement contributed to making the event a success.

WHAT WOULD CHARLES DE GAULLE DO TODAY?

Moderator Odile Mojon handed the podium over to Helga Zepp-LaRouche for the keynote, which from the beginning put the challenge to the French at the right level: “What would Charles de Gaulle do today, to safeguard and protect the French people from the unprecedented dangers in the world today, namely the twin threats of potential nuclear confrontation between the United States and Russia on the one side, and the immediate possibility of a meltdown of the transatlantic financial system?”

Since these dangers are the result of human politics, she said, they can be overcome by choosing an entirely different political course. Zepp-LaRouche presented LaRouche’s four cardinal principles to solve those problems, and then proceeded to describe “the unprecedented strategic realignment among nations, which has created completely new options for world politics.”

China’s breathtaking economic development, condensing in 40 years what other industrialized nations did in 200 years, and becoming a world leader in fast trains systems, digitization of the industry and electronics. After lifting 700 million out of poverty China just issued a white paper calling for the world to overcome poverty by 2020.

China’s New Silk Road is not only transport and exchange of goods, she said, but exchange of scientific knowledge, technologies and culture for the transformation of the nations involved. The type of cooperation it has developed among the 70 participating countries includes a “comprehensive plan for scientific cooperation, joint labs, technology transfer centers, Science & Technology parks, and exchange programs in China for training for 150 000 S & T personnel and 5000 students. At the G20 summit, president Xi Jinping called for “an innovation based strategy,” based on “scientific and technological development.”

She went through the breathtaking series of summits, (G20, Vladivostok, ASEAN) which, in less than six weeks, concluded with an enormous amount of economic deals, and listed all the financial institutions created to finance those projects. This has created a situation where “the center of world politics has shifted very clearly to Asia.”

After attacking the “Thucydides trap” mentality dominating the West’s oligarchic elites, she came back to de Gaulle, a patriot and a world citizen: “I am certain he would passionately embrace the idea of overcoming poverty through the global extension of the New Silk Road into a World Land-Bridge.”  She cited his wonderful speech to the German youth, of 1962, talking about that “obscure force” which causes material things to undergo rapid transformations and of scientific discoveries which improve continuously the physical conditions of man. A progress that becomes a common good, and contributes to the fostering of the beautiful, the just and the good.”

Helga noted the “deep affinity” between this European humanist tradition and the notion of continuous self-perfection of man developed by Confucianism. What is our common aim today, she asked? Join hands to industrialize Africa, through extension of the Silk Road, and make sure that all children of the planet have access to universal education.

THE SILK ROAD IS NOT A SOLO FOR CHINA

Professor Shi Ze explained further what the aim of the Silk Road is, and how it applies to Europe, to Germany and France. And, during the discussion period he stressed several times, that this project for Europe is no longer just a concept, but that this concept is now on a realization phase. Europeans, he indicated, should not hesitate too long because the offer will not remain open forever…

Shi Ze explained that this project is not simply a copy of the old Silk Road. It takes what was positive of the old Silk Road, but to apply it to the world today as a strategy for cooperation and peace. China wants to write a new chapter of its opening to the world. The Silk Road is both “opening” and “inclusion,” “sovereignty and mutual interest.” The cultural concept is that of harmony in multiplicity.

We want to correct some errors of comprehension concerning the Silk Road project. This is not a “going it alone” project of China’s, but the creation by China of an open platform which, through the mobility of its capital, will serve the world. It is not the idea of moving out to the rest of the world, but a combination of moving out and moving in. It is also not a geographical strategy, not a belt in the ordinary sense of that word, but an inclusive international development platform.

Since Aug. 1st, 2014, twenty container trains have come to Europe from interior China. In comparison to maritime trade, the trip is reduced by 15 days, which reduces costs and frees capital for a better utilization.

Professor Shi Ze expressed the wish that the Juncker Plan of EU315 billion could be connected to the New Silk Road project. The aim is to renovate, between Europe and China, the railway networks, airports, roads, maritime ports, oil and gas pipelines, electricity, and telecommunications.

The role of China has changed in recent times, said Professor Shi Ze. China is no longer just a commercial power, but an investor state. This creates an enormous potential for cooperation between China and Europe. The United Kingdom, France, Germany, and others, desire a financial collaboration with China. There are already 700 billion yuan in swaps between the Europeans and the Chinese.

De Gaulle and the Sino-French Partnership

In France, Professor Shi Ze stressed the closeness of the partnership to France, due to the fact that de Gaulle opened diplomatic relations with China, 10 years before the other advanced countries.

He stated over and over again, China’s interest in making joint investments with France, such as its contract with Great Britain for two nuclear power stations at Hinkley Point. He stressed over and over again, the China’s interest in making joint investments in Africa, on infrastructure, energy, transports, as called for by a joint statement signed in 2015.

At the Schiller conference in Essen, Oct. 21, he stressed that Germany has become China’s main trading partner in Europe. In 2015, the volume of exchanges reached EU163 billion and since 2010, and 1,700 Chinese companies have opened in Germany.

The strong points of cooperation are foreign exchanges and manufacturing. To connect Chinese efficiency with German quality, to harmonize the Made in China and the Made in Germany, is the objective of the Silk Road policy. Building roads and pipelines, agriculture, along the entire Silk Road, will create opportunities for the German companies.

From both France and Germany, China wants to take advantage of their long experience in urbanization: 75% of the European population lives in urban centers; in China only 52.6%.

CHINA’S SILK ROAD: OPPORTUNITIES FOR FRANCE

Christine Bierre went through the status of today’s France-China policies, and proposed, in the spirit of Leibniz’s grand Eurasian design of the 17th century, the important future areas of collaboration between both countries.

Paradoxically, she said, Hollande’s policies towards China, seem much better than those towards France. Meetings between high-level officials of both countries have established a close coordination between both states. A privileged ally of China since 1964, thanks to de Gaulle, France is already on a win-win alliance sharing with China some of its high technologies in exchange for “accompanying” China’s strong development.

Airbus commercial jets are being assembled already in China. As for nuclear power, after 30 years of close cooperation, China and France have enlarged cooperation to the entire nuclear cycle. In June 30th 2015,  both countries signed a statement calling for joint construction of nuclear power stations in third countries, in the model of the Hinkley Point agreement.

A strong collaboration has developed also in the struggle against air, water and soil pollution which the Chinese have made into a priority. The two French water giants, Veolia and Suez, are particularly engaged in the domain of fighting “toxic waste.”

Future Collaboration

It is future collaborations, however, that interest us the most, said Christine Bierre, who outlined four priorities:

1) Space. France must get back into space exploration, with the Moon and Mars as objectives, and manned spaceflight. Highly interesting on September 15th, a “Cardiospace” mission was deployed out of the Chinese orbital module Tiangong 2, aimed at studying the adaptation of the human cardiovascular system to microgravity and the impact on astronauts’ bodies as they come back to Earth.

2) 4th generation of nuclear power and fusion. France should adopt the Chinese system of exploring all the options of the “nuclear of the future”: fusion, breeder and pebble bed reactors, thorium molten salt fast reactors (MSFR), hybrid fission/fusion reactors. On the most promising prospect of thorium (MSFR), there should be increased cooperation between the Chinese team and a French team in Grenoble CNRS-LPSC who are pioneering on this question. On fusion the existing collaboration between French and Chinese teams at the Cadarache center and at Heifei, (Tore-Supra West and East), in the context of ITER, should be strengthened.

3) Joint Franco-Chinese projects in Africa. A joint statement signed between France and China on June 30th, 2015 organizes such joint projects in third countries, notable Africa and Asia. Emphases is put on “great projects … whose impact on the country or the region will be major, among which infrastructures, energy, support for jointly produced aircraft, urban and long course railways, agriculture and health matters.” China who wants to invest in French speaking Africa, is pressuring France who is familiar with that part of the world, to do it together. China contributes the financing, France and Europe, the technologies and the third parties formulate the demands. Negotiations are under way for the organization of a three way conference in Dakar this year, and the creation of an investment fund.

4) Finally there is the great project of modernizing the “train of the Silk Road” which arrives 3 times a week from Wuhan, but which presently has to cross six countries with different rail systems, do three transshipments and changes locomotives eight times.  The urgency is to improve it, this freight train should be modernized, and have its own independent rail. This is the type of great project which would need a full cooperation between France, Germany, Europe and China, which only a Europe of fatherlands and of projects, renewing with a strong industrial policy, can finance.

A Grand Mission for France

Beyond this or that project, where France stands to gain the most in its relations to China, is in finding its own “dream”! The alliance with China must lead France to rediscover its own ideal and voluntarism to make real this metaphor of Li Keqiang in a speech in Toulouse, on July 2, 2015. When our two great nations work together, that will unleash not only a synergy of “one plus one are more than two,” but an energy comparable to that of “nuclear fusion,” which, of course is aimed at civil goals and for the cause of peace”!

Lyndon LaRouche posed intelligence questions this weekend to the following general effect.

Obama probably would like to destroy everything.  But perhaps at the same time, he does not think that he has the power, or his advisors suggest that he does not have the power to make an open move.  Or, is he doing a surprise attack by going at a point of attack which other people are not likely to foresee? Those are the issues.  A possible, crucial demonstration of action.

Only one thing is really clear on this matter.  The point is, if they’re trying to pretend not to start a war,—because Obama and the British, in particular, are aware of their military weakness,— and therefore, are they going with a special kind of operation, hoping they can pull a stunt which they could not pull in terms of a normal way of getting into warfare? That’s what the issue is.

What we need to know, is what is the determining feature of action which is significant.  Obviously, Putin has some grasp on this, but Putin is not just going to do that, because what I know of Putin, is that he will simply do the thing which throws the enemy off balance, in the quickest and most efficient way. Because otherwise, he does not want a general warfare.  He wants, if anything, a solution, which means some degree of surrender.

We have to get to the characteristic which suggests that either Obama’s ready to go, or he’s cowardly. Unless you can determine those things, you don’t have a strategic insight.  You have to find out the nature of the condition: are they actually doing things which indicate that they’re moving to potential warfare, or are they just making noises?—because that’s the problem.  And this involves the general idea of traps, military traps.

Part of it is in the inside: Hillary is still the agent for Obama.  The question is, to what degree and in what form is such a potential in place?  What is or is not acting, or seems not to be acting when it might be acting: that’s what you have to look for. And you want to pull something down, and you want to pull something down based on a good economic principle. Because only if you can get economic control among nations, can you control the situation.

Let’s look it from that standpoint.  Obama’s in a tough situation on his side.  But he’s still acting.  The British system and so forth are still doing these things; they have not quit.  Now, if they have not quit, that means they have not surrendered.  If they have not surrendered, then the war is on.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s address to Oct. 19 conference in Lyon, France, sponsored by the Schiller Institute and the Club China EM Lyon Forever.

Let me start with an obvious question: What would Charles de Gaulle do today, to safeguard the French nation and to protect the French people from the unprecedented dangers of the world today, looking at the twin threats of getting drawn into potential nuclear confrontation between the United States and Russia on the one side, and the immediate possibility of a meltdown of the transatlantic financial system, which would throw much of the world into an economic chaos, that in all likelihood also would end up in a global war as well?

Is it one second before, or already after twelve, when German foreign minister Steinmeier says he no longer can exclude a direct military confrontation between the United States and Russia, when American Vice President Biden announces a cyber attack on Russia for the supposed Russian intervention in the American election campaign, which Konstantin Kosachov, head of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs called the greatest threat since the Cuban missile crises, given Bidens position, and when the spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova accuses Washington of pursuing a policy of scorched earth concerning U.S.-Russian relations? And when, at the Seventh Xiangshan Forum in Beijing, Russian and Chinese military leaders warn that the Obama administration is far advanced in preparing its forces for a first-strike nuclear war against both nations based on the Prompt Global Strike Doctrine and the deployment of anti- ballistic missile systems along both the Russian and Chinese borders, to “deliver a surprise nuclear- missile strike in any region of the world without punishment,” and that Russia and China would be forced to take appropriate countermeasures?

The fact that  Chancellor Merkel has invited President Putin, who did not come to Paris today as scheduled, for a Minsk II meeting today to Berlin, is sign of hope.

The crisis is heated up by the threatening collapse of the financial sector of the transatlantic world. Deutsche Bank with EU42 trillion of outstanding derivative contracts,— a sum 12 times the GDP of the German economy on an annual basis,— for which almost all the TBTF banks are counterparties, is only the riskiest bank, but in the case of a crash, all big and even the middle-sized banks are dramatically undercapitalized. It is ironic, that of all things, it is the fine by the U.S. Department of Justice for the criminal manipulations of the U.S. real estate market, which contributed to the crisis of 2007/8, which could now be the straw that breaks the camel’s back in terms of its insolvency. The presently-discussed partial takeover of Deutsche Bank by some of the leading DAX- firms, without the write down of the derivatives would not change anything in the fact that the whole banking system is finished.

A formerly leading banker told me recently, that if the storm breaks loose, those who earned their life’s earnings through productive work, will be the big losers, and if the dams break despite all efforts by the governments to contain the situation, we will experience a different Europe, a breakdown of law and order, and ungovernability within the EU, in short: a continent in revolution.

Since we are dealing with the named dangers as the result of human policies, it is absolutely possible to overcome them by choosing an entirely different political course. Franklin D, Roosevelt overcame the financial crisis and depression in 1933 with the Glass-Steagall banking separation law, which ended the casino economy at that time; by the launching of the Pecora Commission which put the criminal activities of Wall Street before the courts; and by returning to the credit policy of the first Secretary of the Treasury of the U.S., Alexander Hamilton.

Lyndon LaRouche has proposed in that tradition four fundamental laws, which would lead the U.S. economy out of the present crisis and re-establish its lost productivity. Apart from the re- introduction of Glass Steagall, they involve the creation of a National Bank in the spirit of Hamilton, an international credit system in the same tradition, as well as a science driver program for the world economy, as would be possible with a crash program for fusion technology and international cooperation for space- science and space travel.

If the responsible leaders of the transatlantic region can be won over in the short term, to put the welfare of the people before the geopolitical interest of the financial oligarchy, the world can be brought suddenly away from the abyss.  Because, although largely unnoticed by the mass media, in the last three years there has been an unprecedented strategic realignment among nations, which has created completely new options for world politics.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has created a completely new perspective on the agenda over the past three years with the “New Silk Road,” “One Belt One Road” economic initiative, which has meanwhile created an enormous dynamic of economic cooperation among more than 70 countries.

 China has itself created in the past 40 years an economic miracle,- -interestingly on the basis of the same economic principles on which the German economic miracle was based,— in which it has condensed an economic development for which the industrialized nations needed 200 years. China was able to establish itself in several categories as a world market leader, such as fast train systems, digitalization of industry and electronics, alternative energies, etc. During that period it lifted 800 million of people out of poverty, and has just called upon the world in a new White Paper, to overcome extreme poverty for the whole world by 2020.

With the construction of the New Silk Road, China is offering all cooperating nations the export of the China model on the basis of “win-win-cooperation,” with the same focus on innovation and economic growth which China emphasized  in its leadership at the G20 summit in Hangzhou. China has offered the states along the economic belt a comprehensive plan for scientific cooperation, joint labs, research centers, tech-transfer centers, science and technology parks, and an exchange program for over 150,000 science and technology personnel from those countries for training in China with more than 5,000 young scientists, with the specific aim of uplifting their productivity. At the G20, China pledged to share the benefits of innovation especially with the developing countries, so as not to delay their overcoming their underdevelopment.

The project of the New Silk Road is the largest infrastructure and industrialization program that ever existed on the planet. Seventy nations—and that number is growing—which represent 4.4 billion people, and already represent 43% of the world economy. The investments  planned and already made, are in the scope of $1.4 trillion (in today’s buying power).

The perspective of the New Silk Road and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, is a development strategy designed for the next 30-40 years. As the ancient Silk Road, a name given it only later by the German geologist Ferdinand von Richthofen, it is not just one continuous trade route between Eurasia and Africa, but it is a synonym for the unification and transformation of the different landlocked regions and nations connected by sea-route. It is not only transport and exchange of goods, but more importantly the exchange of scientific knowledge, technologies and culture.

Between President Xi Jinping and President Putin, the basis was laid for the economic integration  of the New Silk Road and the Eurasian Economic Union. At the Economic Forum in Vladivostok at the beginning of September, in which Japanese Prime Minister Abe and the South Korean President Park participated with large business delegations, the integration of the Eurasian economic space was advanced  decisively, although almost not noticed in the western world.

The immediately-following G20 summit organized by China in Hangzhou, demonstrated to the whole world that China has developed the most progressive model for a new orientation of the world economy based on innovation and economic growth, as well as the reaffirmation of international relations based on the UN Charter, and respect for sovereignty and for different social models, which is in stark contrast to concepts such as R2P and so-called “humanitarian interventions,” whose consequences we can see the today in Southwest Asia and Northern Africa.

President Xi was direct at the G20: “The old model is no longer sustainable. We now need an innovation-based strategy. We will be the avant-garde in science and technology and do basic research, to overcome those scientific and technical problems which are hampering economic and industrial development. We will speed up the application of science and development, and sponsor strategic and rising branches of industry, in order to bring industries up to a medium to high level in the value-chain.”

At their summit in Laos which followed immediately, all the ASEAN states supported the Chinese position in the conflict around the South China Sea, and emphasized in their common declaration, that China’s development represents an important chance for the region, and that they explicitly support China’s peaceful development. The just-concluded summit of the BRICS states, demonstrated that the strategic alliance of Russia, China and India is the core of Asian integration, putting common interests above remaining tensions.

This rapid sequence of fora and summits within only six weeks, in which an enormous number of economic deals has been concluded, highlighted not only the extreme tempo of the strategic realignment in international relations; it also makes clear in an unmistakable fashion that the center of world politics has shifted very clearly to Asia.

The first pilot train came only five years ago from China to Europe. By now, 20 cargo trains are arriving per week from the economic centers of China,— such as Shenyang, Lianyungang, Harbin, Yiwu, Wuhan, Chengdu and Chongqing ,—to major cities of Europe, such as Duisburg, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Lyon, and Madrid.

The eastern and central European states have long recognized the advantages of Chinese investments in exactly those infrastructure projects and transport corridors, which in part had been decided at the 1994 Crete conference of the EU transport ministers, but which were never realized due to the austerity policy of the Troika. The modernization of the harbor of Piraeus; the construction of railway lines from Greece via Serbia, Hungary and beyond; and the connection of the Oder-Elbe-Danube Canal to the European waterway network are underway. The governments of Greece, Serbia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Italy, Portugal and Switzerland have long recognized that the road to the future lies in cooperation with China in Building the New Silk Road.

At the same time, a completely parallel banking system has been created, which is entirely devoted to investments in infrastructure, projects of the real economy and innovation. This includes the AIIB, where despite significant pressure from Washington, about 70 countries joined immediately as founding members,— even close U.S. allies such as Great Britain, Germany, France, Japan, Australia and Canada.  Other institutions of the new system include the New Development Bank, the Maritime Silk Road Fund, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Bank, and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement, which is devoted to countering speculative attacks. All these abstain from the casino economy.

All the cities and regions which are involved in exchange of goods along these new trade routes, recognize clearly the advantages of cooperation for both sides. What therefore should hold back Europe, from fully taking up China’s offer for “win-win cooperation” to extend the New Silk Road to East and Central Europe, the Balkans, Southern Europe, and before all else, to reconstruct the war-torn Middle East and to engage in the urgently necessary industrialization of Africa, and thus realize the only policy which can prevent an even more horrible devolution of the refugee crisis?

The answer is obvious. The U.S. administration and Great Britain insist on the idea of a unipolar world, which in this form has already ceased to exist. The transatlantic word is about to crash with full speed into the Thucydides trap, as former U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Martin Dempsey has warned repeatedly. And Europe has up to now been caught in the old paradigm, adjusting to the Washington consensus without many questions.

A report released on the 12th of September by the Said Business School of Oxford University, is symptomatic of the efforts, obviously as futile as they are desperate, by the proponents of the decaying neoliberal monetarist school, to try to discredit the enormous success of the New Silk Road policy. The report argues ridiculously, that its enormous investment in infrastructure, $10.8 trillion over the last decade alone, is a cause for the impending collapse of the Chinese economy and a threat to the entire world economy! This typical view, shared by the philosophy of high-risk and high-profit investment banking, that investments in infrastructure do not produce high yields of return, has been correctly mocked by Chinese officials, who have stated: “We assess risk differently than western agencies, because we look at the potential for the development of a country. They look backward, we look forward.”

The history of the industrialization of every country on the planet is the plain proof, that the development of infrastructure is the conditio sine qua non for the transformation into modern economies. The return on the individual projects cannot be measured in terms of the projects’ direct profit generation, such as for example the toll for private highways, but only in terms of the increase of the productivity of the entire nation or continent, caused by the improved connectivity of industry, agriculture, the mobility of individuals, etc. The more developed and dense the infrastructural development of a country is, including in infrastructure power, water, communication, education, healthcare, etc., the higher the productivity of the economy, the living standard, the longevity of the people. Naturally the Oxford researchers cannot help but let the cat out of the bag: They warn other developing countries such as Pakistan, Nigeria or Brazil, not to take China as the model for their development!

Equally wrong and guided by geopolitical motifs, is the argument that China is simply trying to replace Anglo-American imperialism with its own Chinese version. These  assertions are nothing but projections of the mindset of those themselves who make the argument. The reality is, that on top of the 2,500 year old tradition of Confucianism, there is a profound renaissance of Confucianism occurring, which puts forward the ideal of individual lifelong self-perfection, and that of a harmonious development of all nations, which absolutely corresponds to China’s Win-Win policy of the New Silk Road as in the mutual interest of everybody participating in it, and to the idea of sharing the fruits of innovation and scientific and technological progress, especially with the developing countries.

There is a much deeper affinity between Confucianism and the European humanist tradition, than almost anybody is aware of today. The problem is, that we in Europe have moved away from out most noble traditions, such as the Italian Renaissance, the French Ecole Polytechnique, the German classical period and the optimistic image of man associated with them. We have allowed them to be replaced with the depravity of present day popular culture, dominated by ugliness, violence, pornography and shallowness.

To come back to the question posed in the beginning, what would Charles de Gaulle do today? I am certain he would passionately embrace the idea of finally overcoming poverty and underdevelopment through the global extension of the New Silk Road to become a World Land Bridge, and that in the new paradigm there will not be a contradiction between being a patriot of your own nation and a world citizen, concerned with the well- being of the entire human species.

Let me remind you of the extraordinary speech de Gaulle gave in his address to the German youth on the 9th of September 1962 in Ludwigsburg, where he talked about that dark power, which on the basis of an unknown law, causes the material things of life to undergo ever more rapid transformations, wherein the totality of scientific discoveries causes a continuous improvement of the physical conditions of life. He said: “The wonderful perspective which presents itself to you, should not be limited to a few chosen ones among those who are today of your age , but should become accessible to all our companions. You should drive for progress to become a common good, so that it contributes to the fostering of the beautiful, the just and the good. [This should be true] everywhere, and especially in our countries, which represent our civilization and therefore can contribute to the billions living in the developing countries, to conquer hunger, misery and ignorance and to achieve their full human dignity.”

What we in the European nations have to do, is to define in de Gaulle’s spirit our true self interest, which is to use the rich scientific and cultural tradition of 2,500 years of European history, to join with the hopeful perspective that the New Silk Road represents, and work together to bring mankind into an entirely new paradigm, which proceeds from the notion that the one humanity is of a higher order than all of its diversities. We must agree on the common aims of mankind, because we are indeed what Xi Jinping calls a “community of shared destiny.” A “community of shared future of mankind.”

What are these common aims? We should join hands to industrialize Africa through the extension of the New Silk Road, so that the millions now being tortured by poverty and war, no longer feel the need to take the risk of dying  of dehydration in the desert or drowning in the Mediterranean. We should fulfil our moral obligation to reconstruct the war-torn countries of the Middle East.

We should make sure that all children on the planet have access to universal education,  so that the limitless creative potential of the human species can be set free.  We can and must make new scientific revolutions  concerning the principles of life, the creativity of the human mind as a physical power in the universe, and the lawfulness governing our universe at large. Let’s assume the world outlook of our astronauts, cosmonauts ant taikonauts, looking down from space on our small, fragile blue planet, and looking out into the far reaches of our Solar system, Galaxy and Universe. Because space exploration and research have an unbelievable power to cause man to ask questions he never asked before, and to discover principles which we today don’t even know how to ask the right questions about. Let us become truly human and we will conquer all challenges and begin a new era of mankind.

On Sunday, China echoed what Lyndon LaRouche has been saying for months — that Obama is so exposed and isolated internationally that he is finished politically, but even more dangerous as a result, since his only option (other than resigning) is to launch a war on Russia and China, a war that would certainly mean the nuclear extermination of much of the human race.

China Daily, a primary voice of the Chinese leadership, editorialized Sunday on the “freedom of navigation” provocation on Friday, in which Obama and Defense Secretary Ash Carter sent a guided-missile destroyer through Chinese waters, unannounced, near China’s Xisha (Paracel) islands in the South China Sea. The editorial notes that the Philippines, under their courageous new President Duterte, has rejected the Obama war policy in favor of cooperation in development with China. By deploying the destroyer, the editorial continues, breaching both Chinese and international law, Obama is “telling the world that it can tolerate neither a tranquil South China Sea, nor a peaceful and stable Asia-Pacific. Since it cannot find a puppet troublemaker any longer, the exasperated Washington has to create a disturbance by itself.”

While China focuses on the strategic failures of Obama’s war policy, the economic collapse created by Obama’s failed policy of propping up Wall Street, rather than building the real economy, is the second prong of Obama’s irreversible political doom, and that of his clone Hillary Clinton. The administration is frantically trying to put off the crash of the western financial system until after the election, by ignoring the demise of Deutsche Bank, the unraveling of the Italian banking system, the impact of the Brexit vote, and the “contagion” these and other crisis spots have on the Wall Street and London banks. More ominously, Obama is driving to start a a war before he leaves office, or even before election day Nov. 9 — over Syria, Ukraine, or perhaps Korea, any one of which would mean war with Russia and China.

The target is not the mythical “aggression” by Russia or China, but precisely the opposite — the development process already set in motion by China and Russia, which is directly bringing nations across the developing sector into cooperation in China’s win-win Silk Road development, and is even reaching into Europe, offering the European nations an alternative to NATO’s wars and the disintegration of their economies. To further that process, the Schiller Institute this past week held two conferences, one in Essen, Germany, and one in Lyon, France. The purpose of the two conferences, enunciated by Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche, is to bring Germany and France back to the De Gaulle-Adenauer tradition, through cooperation with Russia and China. Essen and Lyon are key European points on China’s Silk Road rail lines, now serving to expand East-West trade and cooperation. The conferences featured speakers from China, the Mideast, and across Europe, including representatives of institutions from industry, science and engineering, on the urgency of global cooperation to restore the European and world economy. Chinese songs and Schubert Lieder, both sung by a Chinese bel canto singer, and both accompanied by classical Chinese instruments, set the tone for the sharing of culture through the Silk Road process.

The same process is taking place in Manhattan, through Lyndon LaRouche’s Manhattan Project, bringing nations together to confront together the world-historic task facing the human race today — either cooperation to build the world and crush the terrorist scourge, or descent into global war under the would-be new imperial lords of the Earth. Obama and his British controllers are weak and exposed — it is time to push them out.

Join the mobilization

On Sunday, China echoed what Lyndon LaRouche has been saying for months — that Obama is so exposed and isolated internationally that he is finished politically, but even more dangerous as a result, since his only option (other than resigning) is to launch a war on Russia and China, a war that would certainly mean the nuclear extermination of much of the human race.

China Daily, a primary voice of the Chinese leadership, editorialized Sunday on the “freedom of navigation” provocation on Friday, in which Obama and Defense Secretary Ash Carter sent a guided-missile destroyer through Chinese waters, unannounced, near China’s Xisha (Paracel) islands in the South China Sea. The editorial notes that the Philippines, under their courageous new President Duterte, has rejected the Obama war policy in favor of cooperation in development with China. By deploying the destroyer, the editorial continues, breaching both Chinese and international law, Obama is “telling the world that it can tolerate neither a tranquil South China Sea, nor a peaceful and stable Asia-Pacific. Since it cannot find a puppet troublemaker any longer, the exasperated Washington has to create a disturbance by itself.”

While China focuses on the strategic failures of Obama’s war policy, the economic collapse created by Obama’s failed policy of propping up Wall Street, rather than building the real economy, is the second prong of Obama’s irreversible political doom, and that of his clone Hillary Clinton. The administration is frantically trying to put off the crash of the western financial system until after the election, by ignoring the demise of Deutsche Bank, the unraveling of the Italian banking system, the impact of the Brexit vote, and the “contagion” these and other crisis spots have on the Wall Street and London banks. More ominously, Obama is driving to start a a war before he leaves office, or even before election day Nov. 9 — over Syria, Ukraine, or perhaps Korea, any one of which would mean war with Russia and China.

The target is not the mythical “aggression” by Russia or China, but precisely the opposite — the development process already set in motion by China and Russia, which is directly bringing nations across the developing sector into cooperation in China’s win-win Silk Road development, and is even reaching into Europe, offering the European nations an alternative to NATO’s wars and the disintegration of their economies. To further that process, the Schiller Institute this past week held two conferences, one in Essen, Germany, and one in Lyon, France. The purpose of the two conferences, enunciated by Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche, is to bring Germany and France back to the De Gaulle-Adenauer tradition, through cooperation with Russia and China. Essen and Lyon are key European points on China’s Silk Road rail lines, now serving to expand East-West trade and cooperation. The conferences featured speakers from China, the Mideast, and across Europe, including representatives of institutions from industry, science and engineering, on the urgency of global cooperation to restore the European and world economy. Chinese songs and Schubert Lieder, both sung by a Chinese bel canto singer, and both accompanied by classical Chinese instruments, set the tone for the sharing of culture through the Silk Road process.

The same process is taking place in Manhattan, through Lyndon LaRouche’s Manhattan Project, bringing nations together to confront together the world-historic task facing the human race today — either cooperation to build the world and crush the terrorist scourge, or descent into global war under the would-be new imperial lords of the Earth. Obama and his British controllers are weak and exposed — it is time to push them out.

Join the mobilization

The Schiller Institute, on Friday, October 21, convened an all-day symposium in Essen, Germany on Prospects for Germany in the New Silk Road. The event, attended by over 120 participants from the scientific, industrial and diplomatic communities, featured speakers from Germany, France, China and Ethiopia, all focused on the opportunities for economic and scientific progress, based on participation in the One Belt, One Road program, initiated by China’s President Xi Jinping, and based on decades of effort by the Schiller Institute to promote a “new paradigm” of relations among nation-states throughout the globe, based on the common aims of mankind, including advances in all frontier areas of science.

The conference was keynoted by Schiller Institute founder and President Helga Zepp-LaRouche, who focused on the urgent need for Germany to become fully engaged in the One Belt, One Road projects that have already transformed the economic and political landscape of Eurasia. She emphasized that the benefits for Germany and Europe would extend beyond the obvious economic advances, and would go a long way to defeating the drive for war against Russia and China that has recently reached a danger point, beyond anything seen since the time of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

President and founder of the Schiller Institute, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, delivering her keynote address.

Zepp-LaRouche’s presentation featured a detailed review of the progress on implementation of the New Silk Road and the Maritime Silk Road, the two cornerstones of the OBOR project.

A number of other prestigious figures from the diplomatic and scientific community also spoke during the panel sessions. The speakers included two Chinese officials, including Zhang Junhui, representing the Chinese Ambassador to Germany; and Professor Shi Ze of the Chinese Institute for International Studies, who is also the director of the Chinese Center for Shanghai Cooperation Organization Studies. M.M. Haile, the Consul General of Ethiopia in Frankfurt spoke, as well as French Presidential candidate Jacques Cheminade of the Solidarity and Progress Party. A number of prominent German scientists and industrialists also spoke during the panels, including Prof. Dr. Reinhold Meisinger, professor of mechanical engineering at Nuremburg University and a leading world expert on maglev high-speed transportation; Willi Pusch, who is a leading proponent of a Bonn-Rhine Meinz tunnel project; Dieter Ameling, former President of the German Steel Federation and the Chairman of the Steel Institute VDEh; and Prof. Dr. Reinhart Poprawe of the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology in Frankfurt.

The conference, which was also attended by American economist and statesman Lyndon LaRouche, was animated by a profound sense of optimism about the future prospects for Germany and Eurasia if the Federal Republic is fully integrated into the One Belt, One Road vision. During the panel with Prof. Dr. Poprawe, an extensive dialogue was conducted on the relationship between classical music and culture and the promotion of scientific discovery and innovation.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has completed a dramatic revolution in his nation’s role in the world during his current visit to China. In very clear language, he has renounced the Philippines’ previous subservience to Washington, established a new relationship with China and Xi Jinping’s Silk Road process, and put in place extensive cooperation with China, and potentially also Russia, in both economic and strategic matters.

Speaking at the Philippine-China Trade and Investment Forum in the Great Hall of the people in Beijing, Duterte said:

“America has lost now. I’ve realigned myself in your ideological flow, and maybe I will also go to Russia to talk to Putin and tell him that there are three of us against the world —China, Philippines, and Russia. It’s the only way.

“With that, in this venue, your honors, in this venue, I announce my separation from the United States. Not only military, not in social, but in economics also…. I have separated from them. So I will be dependent on you for a long time. But do not worry. We will also help as you help us.”

Speaking to a Filipino audience in Beijing (there are over 300,000 Filipinos working in China), Duterte said about the U.S.:

“Goodbye, my friend. Your stay in my country was for your benefit. We were fed with lies about China. We grew up with the Red Scare. We kept a distance from China. They characterized communism as an oppression of their people. Now I said, this has to stop because you have been abusing the courtesy of my country.”

“I will not go to America anymore,” he said. “I will just be insulted there.” He noted that Americans “enter the Philippines visa-free,” while Filipinos have great difficulty getting a visa to the U.S. “Why don’t we make it even? Well, there will always be a time for reckoning,” he added.

On the war on drugs, Duterte said of Obama’s attacks on the people being killed in the process: “What is that compared to the shattered nations of the Middle East? Those which they bombed? At least here, it’s the criminals, drug addicts, drug lords who are being killed. Over there, they would bomb a hospital, a nursery. We pale in comparison with their atrocities.”