24 May 2017

USA AND CHINA: FIGHT FOR LEADERSHIP IN EURASIA


This week in China the forum "One belt, one way" was completed, in which 28 heads of Eurasian countries took part. One of the main guests of the forum was the Russian President Vladimir Putin. China has demonstrated that it seeks to become a new pole of power in the global arena and looks forward to an alliance with Russia. The US, in turn, is restoring relations with its allies. Donald Trump on May 19 for the first time will travel outside the country as president of the United States, visiting Israel and Saudi Arabia, NATO summits and the "Big Seven" summit.

The true meaning of the "One belt, one way" for China in economic expansion in Eurasia and in economic hegemony on the continent. At the same time, China is trying to expand its zone of influence by drawing into the project not only Russia or the Central Asian countries, but also US allies in Europe and the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and other countries of the Persian Gulf. Pakistan has already become de facto more controlled by China than by the United States.

The United States is concerned about China's activity. Moreover, China takes on globalist rhetoric and accuses the US of apostasy from the liberal ideals of the open market and free trade. The first foreign trip of Donald Trump is designed to restore the old system of relations with the allies and to reconcile plans for foreign policy objectives.

Russian participation in the Chinese project is connected both with the inertia of thinking in the style of "peripheral realism" and the desire to maximize the benefits of participation in a new hegemonic system, and with an objective weakness in the economic sense. Russia can play a serious role in global politics, but not at the expense of economic power, but primarily due to a combination of natural resources, military power (often on a Soviet basis) and strategic position in the Heartland of Eurasia. China misses a lot of these, which makes the alliance of the two countries the foundation of the new order in Eurasia.

Russia, which is pushed towards closer cooperation with China by the aggressive hysteria of the American establishment, is also interested in establishing relations with the US, seeking at least to use the "Trump factor" at least minimally, providing itself with more room for maneuver in relations with both the Chinese and the Americans. The fact that, despite this hysteria, the US president not only refuses to meet with representatives of Russia (Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov), but also takes risks, giving Russia important intelligence data, indicates that at least the president of the United States would like to cooperate with Russia and, if possible, to distance Moscow from Beijing.

However, the geopolitical logic of the thinking of neocons and the hawks close to them in the Republican Party and in the American ruling class as a whole will push the US foreign policy in a different direction - anti-Russian, despite the contradictions with China.

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