The End of Western Dominance: Russia, China & BRICS
Larry Johnson, Pepe Escobar with Alexander Babakov, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma
In this gripping episode of Countercurrents, we dive deep into the shifting global order as China, Russia, and the BRICS nations rise to challenge Western dominance. From China’s technological revolution and AI advancements to Russia’s newfound sovereignty amidst global sanctions, our longtime friends Pepe Escobar and Alexander Babakov explore how these powerful forces are reshaping the future of geopolitics.
TIMELINE:
00:00 Silk Road 2.0: China’s Technological and Environmental Leap
10:00 Why Russia and China Are Natural Partners: Cultural Foundations
13:22 Quality Over Profit: China’s Alternative to Western Economics
18:38 China’s Tech Revolution: How Planning Defeats Sanctions
21:10 Russia’s New Development Path: Focus on Domestic Strength
28:12 Cotton Candy Economics: Why the US Model Fails
34:24 Why 40% of World GDP Won’t Accept Western Rules Anymore
37:23 Russia–China–Iran: Iran Protected, Not Alone
38:59 Why Europe No Longer Matters to Russia’s Growth
47:57 Will the US Invade Venezuela? Geopolitical Breakdown
54:10 Why the UN Security Council Is No Longer Effective
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To edify some folks on this thread who know my POV for many years, there was a period of seven years (2002-2009) during which I was heavily involved with actual business enterprise, investments, development inside China. Some were technology products, some where IT products, some were location-based entertainment projects. They… Read more »
Those were crazy times in the IT industry as a whole. I had good expriences with the Chinese on the more formal enterprise side but not the open source side. They wanted it all and they wanted it now.
Those were the $$$$$ days back then, focused on Deng’s dicta. Huge changes since XJP’s arrival in 2012, inaugurating different ethos, no longer constrained to “maintain a low profile”.
And you dealt with their merchants, the lowest “social strata” of all, utterly selfish… perhaps a misleading wide aperture??
Wrong, AHH. Highly educated, extraordinarily intelligent, cultured businessmen, though voraciously hungry. It was like they had been locked up for those 150 years of insults and damaged by the Colonial powers. They were sprinting for the gold. 2012 came out the ideological restraints. But with its parameters a deep corruption… Read more »
you’re lucky, overrepresented with exception.
It’s not my imagination.
The rule: for millennia, cultured Chinese held in contempt grasping merchants & moneylenders. They were publicly placed at social bottom, below the bureaucracy, intellectuals, farmers, peasants…
today, we see their wisdom given how uncultured businessmen & banksters destroy the Last Empire..
AHH, you could not have heard about the Silk roads or currently the Belt and Road Initiative· You are talking about a period before the Ming Dynasty. Since then, the rising influence of merchants would be result of years of shifting mindset towards the arts, crafts, and trade/commerce. Chinese society… Read more »
I’m a bit curious. I hope you wouldn’t mind me asking. Were you involved with China’s IT sector? I thought your field was medicine @amarynth
Oh .. yes, at a certain time. I studied initially psychology (industrial, i.e., in the workplace) and a second major was development – development of what they called at the time 3rd world countries, now called developing countries. I soon drifted into Information Technology as industry went that way, and… Read more »
it is not that ancient. I read it recently from one of china watchers on this or last site. Yes, I shouldn’t tarnish widely with brush. But attitudes born of several millennia will not go away easily. What is a couple hundreds years to a 5,000 year civilization? Most traditional… Read more »
AHH, the Ming Dynasty was 1,000 years ago. Despite early expansion, it was an inward-looking state with an emphasis on its agrarian base. But there was a gradual burgeoning of the commercial sector; important changes in the economy and social relations in the latter part of the dynasty; also a… Read more »
Excellent, Amarynth. China is a huge, deep matrix of cultures.
President Xi is trying to homogenize it under his Mass Line ideology. I’m not so sure that effort will last beyond his days. Mao’s didn’t.
The way I understand the Mass Line is that it is more a directive to the governance, and not so much the society. I may be wrong as I don’t know too much. It looks like the ultimate guidance or rules against the incessant corruption.
Larch you really do push the stereotypes about China regardless of your personal experience. Xi is not trying to “homogenise”, China celebrates their multicultural society, he is definitely trying to stamp out corruption in the Party and Economy. You are misinterpreting Mass Line : it means from the masses to… Read more »
This is a fair description from the Mao roots. There is a mass of papers out there.
https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Mass_line
It is a well known trope that Chinese socialism was built on capitalism. But it falls apart, as China has many more systems, some more ‘capitalistic’ than others.
State-Owned Enterprise (SOE)
Public-Private Partnership models
Private Companies
Local Government Initiatives
So, which one was built on capitalism?
China has demonstrated a unique ability to ignore neo-colonialism efforts. The Chinese leadership became aware that profit cannot be the goal of development. It is not profit that is the goal of development, but a new and better quality of life.
It may not be the Chinese Goal, but profits drove 40 years of entrepreneurialism and development which gave the central government the tools to build a new and better quality of life. The fact of the matter, ‘getting rich’ was the mantra during those 40 years. It was the best… Read more »
Socialism with Chinese Characteristics was built on Capitalism. I disagree. Any profit was ploughed back in the main but not always directly to a specific enterprise. How does one take 800 million out of poverty under capitalist rules. How do you avoid a real estate bubble under capitalist rules? It… Read more »
perhaps, as with “democracy“, which strictly serves Oligarchy in the Garden (M Twain: “If voting made any difference, they wouldn’t let us do it”) the issue is the definition of “capitalism“.
Both have a wholesome intent and spirit among the civilized….
The issue is the definition of capitalism. Well said AHH; Some people feel the need to define what they imagine to be “free market” productive enterprise as capitalism. And then deify it as an amazing celebration of individual liberty. But in that happy ideological dream forgetting the fact that there… Read more »
Larch I am shocked by your statement. You should know better, being a Sinophile. I recall reading (Jeff Brown? or Godfree Roberts) that it WAS a Chinese goal (not just on their five-year plans, but repeated messaging from the top) to focus on raising the entire nation. When they opened… Read more »
It is all very well to claim to have rejected all “ideologies,” usually meaning, socialism-communism and then believing one is gloriously free from all ideology. However if one has a background in business and then feels a need to insist on China’s rise from poverty being based on capitalism, then… Read more »
Snowy, ideology is of course always with us, but rolling into a value system is where it is at, not. Like if I come from Venus and ideologically believe Though shalt not Kill and you come from Mars and ideologically believe the same, is it not that we have a… Read more »
Amarynth: I am having a little difficulty grasping your intent here. Are you saying that ideology should not include a value system? I do not see them as separable. Capitalism has a value system and so does socialism or any other ideology for that matter. Is not ideology a world… Read more »
Snowy, no, what I am saying is that ideology is not very important to me. But values are. Nothing really more than that. Ideology for me would be say socialism, and that means (talking for myself), that I exclude all the others. Or christianity say. But a value would be… Read more »
Well it is fun to bounce around with you, mud or no. Your values I can easily share.
I detected an ideology in a commentator who had previously claimed to have freed himself from all ideology. I couldn’t resist pointing it out.
yes snowy i strongly agree we all have ideologies, without exception.
If we think otherwise, it means the value structure and belief system of the more dominant were imposed, reinforcing exclusivity.
the need for the spiritual and longing for the higher is as primal as hunger, thirst and the carnal
AHH, that all is true of course, but there is a level missing. We often read and see China on the macro level .. we seldom see the micro level, and only there can one see the difference in thinking. For example we don’t take a massive project and follow… Read more »
I suppose it comes down to language meaning as it often does. Is capitalism just agnostic commerce or does it entail an intrinsic ideology that profit is the end game no matter what? I think you could argue that China used capitalism to further its socialist goals, or you could… Read more »