"Chinese President Hu Jintao and his U.S. counterpart, George W. Bush, on
Monday exchanged views on Sino-U.S. relations and other issues of common
concern in a telephone conversation, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said."
Xinhuanet (28 November 2006)
Was this an innocent phone conversation of the normal diplomatic sort or
was it something more? Something more, I suggest. Something a great deal more.
Xinhuanet (China News), the official news website of the Chinese
government, has the distinction of being about the most boring of all news
websites yet it often reveals interesting and significant news about
America (usually directly from Washington) -- almost as asides -- which
often the New York Times or the Washington Post don't rate as newsworthy at
all until much later.
Such would be the case of the recent telephone conversation in which
Darfur, Russia and other "common interests" were mentioned. All very vague,
one might think. However, one thing you can be pretty certain about is that
there was probably one item that was extremely important but, at present,
totally invisible to the likes of us.
In theory, America and China should be at loggerheads far more seriously
than ever America and the USSR were at the height of the Cold War. Why?
Because there are clearly not enough world-wide resources, particularly
fossil fuel resources, to satisfy both countries during the next 50 years.
During the last couple of years while Bush himself has been dominated by of
Iraq, President Hu has been visiting countries all over the world,
cementing diplomatic relationships and confirming huge resources
contracts. Some sort of accommodation between America and China will have
to be reached.
In reality, although some American business interests have been bitchy
about the way China has been trampling on US intellectual copyright (which
America did abundantly in the 1870-1920 era concerning European
inventions), there has been a great deal of quiet parlaying. When Robert
Zoellick was Deputy Secretary of State he was in and out of China, often
visiting for many days at a time. And who was recently appointed to be the
Financial Secretary? Hank Paulson. When he was a partner on Goldman Sachs
he made over 70 visits to China in the last few years. And why should
Paulson lose scores of millions of dollars' earning a year to become US
Financial Secretary if there were not come immensely greater prospect in view?
And, the most curious aspect of all, why didn't China protest vociferously
at America's invasion of Iraq? China registered its opposition at UN
Security Council in a formal way but raised nothing like the clamour you
would expect as America tried to lay its hands on the second largest oil
resources in the world. We might also infer that the reason why Cheney's
previous talk of bombing Iran has come to nought was because China is
negotiating huge gas contracts with Iran and well as large developmental
plans for the country.
There are other strange things going on. Saudi Arabia is building a
security barrier between it and Iraq. In Lebanon, Hezbollah has apparently
been training hundreds of Baghdad Shia militia. Israel is making rather
more imaginative proposals than usual towards the Palestinians. Iran is
actually talking to its erstwhile enemies, the Kurds. During the
Israel-Hezbollah conflict China sent a high-level diplomatic delegation to
Jerusalem. Are they still there? Probably. Diplomatically, China has been
very busy in Pakistan recently, a hot-bed of Sunni extremism.
In my view some sort of pan-Middle Eastern peace plan is being hatched
between America and China. I'm not suggesting that it will be imposed in
imperialist fashion but in my opinion it will be some sort of plan that
will insist that the Sunni-Shia millennia-old quarrel will be put to rest
because otherwise this will continue to queer the Middle East pitch for
hundreds more years. With Iraq being on the verge of breaking up into
pieces, then such a plan will have to be announced soon. If so, watch this
space in the New York Times and the Washington Post also.
Keith Hudson
Keith Hudson, Bath, England, <www.evolutionary-economics.org>
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.409 / Virus Database: 268.14.19/555 - Release Date: 27/11/2006
_______________________________________________
Futurework mailing list
[email protected]
http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
