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Showing posts with label China. Show all posts
Showing posts with label China. Show all posts

‘Best New Year’s gift to Russia’: Putin boasts successful test of Avangard hypersonic glider

CGI showing deployment of an Avangard glider by Russian Defense Ministry

The Russian defense ministry has conducted the final successful test of the Avangard hypersonic glider before its entry into service, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced. The weapon will be deployed in 2019, he added.
Related: [Video] Russian Nukes: A Warning To Globalists
A hypersonic glider is a special type of a warhead, which can fly through the atmosphere at a high speed. This extends the range of a missile, potentially increases accuracy and makes defending against it harder through unexpected maneuvers. But prolonged controlled flight requires special protection of the glider from heat and shock produced at hypersonic speeds. China, the US and Russia are considered the most advanced nations in the relevant technologies, and Moscow claims it is winning the race with the Avangard project.

“The test was finished just now in a complete success,” Putin told the cabinet on Wednesday. “All its specifications were confirmed.”
The president said the first regiment armed with missiles carrying Avangard gliders will be deployed in Russia next year.
"It’s a big event for the armed forces, and probably for the entire country. Russia has a new kind of strategic weapons."
In a separate statement, the Kremlin said that the Avangard glider tested on Wednesday was fired from the Dombarovsky site in southern Russia and targeted the test range in Kura in the Kamchatka Peninsula. The glider performed vertical and horizontal maneuvers in flight and accurately hit its intended target at a range, the statement said.

Avangard is one of five advanced weapon systems, which Putin presented in March this year as Russia’s response to the development by the US of anti-ballistic missile systems. Washington insists that its global ABM shield is meant to protect it and its allies from states like Iran and North Korea. Moscow believes it to be deception and sees the American effort as an attempt to undermine Russia’s nuclear deterrence.
The glider allows attacking targets that would normally be protected from a traditional ballistic missile warhead. It can take a course around land sites and warships with anti-ballistic missile capabilities or rely on its speed and maneuverability to avoid interception.
The project remains highly classified and even the appearance of the glider was not shown to the public. The video of the test released by the defense ministry showed only the launch of the carrier vehicle, but not the deployment of the glider, it’s flight or the moment it hit the target. According to Moscow’s statements’ Avangard can travel at the speed of over 20 Mach and its composite material hull withstands temperatures of up to 2,000 Celsius. The weapon is believed to be impossible to counter by any ABM systems for decades to come.

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EUROPE SHOULD BECOME AN “EMPIRE” SAYS FRENCH FINANCE MINISTER

France’s finance minister has called on Europe to become an “empire” so that it can better compete with the United States and China.
Asserting that “it takes courage to stand in the way of the government” of Donald Trump, Bruno Le Maire told Handelsblatt newspaper that, “Europe should no longer be afraid of using its power and [become] an empire of peace.”
“I’m talking about a peaceful empire which is a constitutional state,” he added.
Le Maire’s statement follows French President Macron’s call for a “real European army” to counter Russian threats and reduce dependence on the U.S.
During yesterday’s Armistice centenary in Paris, Macron also urged world leaders to reject nationalism, claiming it represented a “betrayal of patriotism”.
Given the internal situation in France, it might be advisable for Le Maire and Macron to focus on their own country’s problems.
In an interview published last month, the country’s former Interior Minister warned that mass immigration could bring societal breakdown within five years.
“Communities in France are engaging in conflict with one another more and more and it’s becoming very violent,” said Gérard Collomb, agreeing with the interviewer that some form of societal breakdown like partition or secession was a major concern.
“How much time do we have before it’s too late?” the interviewer asked Collomb, to which he replied, “I don’t want to create fear, but I think there’s very little time left….It’s difficult to estimate, but I would say that within five years the situation could become irreversible. Yes, we have five, six years to avoid the worst.”
President Macron’s failure to deal with Islamic extremism and tensions caused by dislocated communities of migrants has contributed to his approval rating continuing to plummet.
poll published at the end of last month found that Macron’s approval had dropped a further 4 percentage points to just 26 per cent.

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Not finding itself on Iran exemption list, Europe vows to defy US sanctions

© Global Look Press / Christian Ohde

European countries have vowed to maintain “effective financial channels” and to keep trading with Tehran after the US announced that the EU is not among those spared from its sweeping sanctions against Iran.
European countries suddenly discovered that they were not on the list of the ‘lucky ones’ that their ally, the US, decided to exempt from the new wave of all-encompassing sanctions it plans to unleash on Iran. The sanctions, targeting Iran’s shipping, finance and energy sectors, which come into force on November 5, are also designed to punish those countries that dared to do business with the Islamic Republic in defiance of the US pressure.
Only eight nations were graciously granted exemptions by the US, according to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. However, Pompeo made it clear that the EU as a single entity is not on the list, sparking an angry reaction from the US’ western allies. Washington also specifically mentioned that it plans to target the special mechanism the EU has been creating to circumvent the restrictions, prompting its allies to fight back.
In response, the EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, together with the foreign and finance ministers of Germany, France and the UK, vowed to maintain “effective financial channels with Iran” and in particular to continue buying the Islamic Republic’s oil and gas.
They also said that despite Washington’s pressure the EU is still committed to establishing a “Special Purpose Vehicle” for Iran-EU trade. The European nations will seek to protect its companies engaged in “legitimate business with Iran,” the statement said, adding that the EU will cooperate with Russia and China in particular to achieve these goals.

Since its withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, the US has been pursuing a policy of “maximum pressure” on Tehran, vowing to bring its oil exports to ‘zero’, much to the dismay of the European countries, which praise the agreement as “a key element of the global nuclear non-proliferation architecture” and have re-affirmed their commitment to the deal.

Washington, meanwhile, seems to be ready to stop at nothing to force Tehran to bow to its wishes, with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin even threatening sanctions against the international service SWIFT, if it refuses to block Iran’s transactions.

Source: https://www.rt.com/news/443006-europe-iran-us-sanctions/
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China Secretly Placing Military Scientists in Western Universities – Report


 China is reportedly enrolling military scientists into western universities to gain intel on areas like “hypersonic missiles and navigation technology.”

The nation’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) came up with the moniker “Five Eyes countries” to denote the preferred targets for infiltration (America, U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand), according to a new report released by a think tank tied to Australia’s defense ministry.

“Dozens of PLA scientists have obscured their military affiliations to travel to Five Eyes countries and the European Union, including at least 17 to Australia, where they work in areas such as hypersonic missiles and navigation technology,” reads the official report. “Those countries don’t count China as a security ally but rather treat it as one of their main intelligence adversaries.”

Additionally, the groundbreaking report details how the PLA has inserted thousands worldwide over the past decade as “students or visiting scholars” while continuously augmenting their findings as peer-reviewed literature in “strategic and emerging technology sectors.”

“The PLA has sponsored more than 2,500 military scientists and engineers to study abroad and has developed relationships with researchers and institutions across the globe,” reports the think tank. “Those scientists work in strategic and emerging technology sectors such as quantum physics, signal processing, cryptography, navigation technology and autonomous vehicles.”

Moreover, a PLA outlet bluntly describes the intelligence campaign as “picking flowers in foreign lands to make honey in China.”

Correspondingly, China has pursued other continents for different reasons, specifically Africa, to such a degree that it has been accused of engaging in a “new colonialism” and even “debt trap” diplomacy due to the host countries becoming deeply indebted to Chinese lenders.

For example, in early September, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged $60 billion to African leaders with “no political strings attached” to expand China’s “Belt and Road” initiative (BRI) to build ports and other infrastructure.

BRI could prove to be lucrative for China as the infrastructure projects will be financed by loans from China’s state-owned banks while being built by Chinese contractors.

Alternatively, African leaders are historically keen to accept Chinese offers because they “come without demands for safeguards against corruption, waste, and environmental damage.”


Source: https://www.infowars.com/china-secretly-placing-military-scientists-in-western-universities-report/
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US Places 33 Alleged Russian Spies And Military Officials On Sanctions Blacklist

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has authorized the addition of 33 alleged Russian spies, defense and intelligence officials to the US sanctions list. The blacklisting took place following an executive order from President Trump authorizing Steven Mnuchin, in consultation with Pompeo, to employ all powers granted to the President "by IEEPA and certain CATSAA sections" for implementation of certain sanctions with respect to Russia.



A White House official said the new measures were aimed at "imposing costs on Russia in response to its malign activities."

Washington has also imposed new sanctions on a Chinese military unit over the purchase of Russian jets and missiles.The Chinese sanctions are to come into effect immediately.

Trump has been criticized by Congress for not using his legal powers to target Russia’s defense industry and gas export pipelines, and with the Mueller probe still continuing, Trump has been eager to show an "unfriendly" side to Putin in advance of the probe's release.

Unlike other occasions, which saw the ruble slide on any incremental sanctions or blacklist news, today the ruble - following the lead from the rest of the EM space - is trading stronger on the day, and is the third best performing currency of the week. Earlier in the day, the First Deputy Governor of the Russian Central Bank, Ksenia Yudaeva, said that even if FX drop, the central bank will stick to its recent promise of not engaging in FX purchases by the end of the year which is why the Ruble may have more upside to go, even as Russian stocks hit a new all time high.


Source: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-09-20/us-places-33-alleged-russian-spies-and-military-officials-sanctions-blacklist
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Taxing and Tracking the Independent Media: Censorship and Control


One of the most heinous things about taxes is that they support the very “organs” (to quote a Soviet-era term) of government that crush the people…even further. The taxes are weapons used by the authorities…and all authority comes from the barrel of a gun (to paraphrase Mao). The taxes are used to corral in the masses and keep them upon a continuous treadmill that sustains the system…the very system that exploits and enslaves the citizens.

The most heinous of all is the “death tax” of 50% to the government after you die. If you made a million in money and property at the end of your existence…paying taxes on it all the way…the original income taxes on the money you made, and then the interest income tax on what you made from your investments. You have property taxes on your house. You are (depending on your state) levied taxes on ad valorem, or state income taxes, or community (city, town) taxes. You are taxed on gifts you give to your children. You are taxed when you begin a business.

Many states have “ingenious” (mostly insidious) means of exploiting the populace and terming it a “tax,” per se.  Maryland has a great one they instituted a few years ago: the rainwater tax…to actually estimate the amount of rainfall off of a person’s roof/property, and place it under “management” of the state….yes, taxed on the amount of rain falling on you. Cigarette taxes, liquor taxes…the list is endless.

Related: [Video] Infowars Full Show - FBI Corruption, Kavanaugh Accuser To Testify, Free Alex Jones Rally On Saturday - Sept 19, 2018

Taxes never decrease: they may present the illusion of decreasing in one category, but they always rise, and rise with the prices of things. Go to this site. They’re not hiding anything, and they’ll come out and tell you what they’re going to take from you. The site is put out by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (the EIA), and the address is here: EIA.gov

You can find state-by-state fuel taxes (on average 28 cents per gallon), and the federal taxes of 18.3 cents per gallon…for a total of about 47 cents per gallon. Yeah, isn’t that grand?

Taxes (by their reporting and declaration) also give the government more control and information about how you live, what you do. Taxes are used now in an even more sinister manner, beginning with the EU (European Union).  Yes, all of those “happy” messages you see on your e-mails are harbingers of things to come. On 09/12/2018, Planet Free Will published an article entitled Catastrophic: EU Passes Copyright Directive Including Internet ‘Link Tax’ and ‘Upload Filter.” 

Here’s an excerpt:
“The European Parliament has passed a controversial copyright directive that contains provisions which force tech giants to install content filters and sets in place a potential tax on hyperlinking. The bill was passed in a final vote of 438 – 226 and will need to be implemented by individual EU member states.  …two key provisions: Articles 11 and 13, which [have been] dubbed the “link tax” and “upload filter.”  Article 11 is intended to give publishers and papers a way to make money when companies like Google link to their stories, allowing them to demand paid licenses. Article 13 requires certain platforms like YouTube and Facebook stop users sharing unlicensed copyrighted material.”
The bottom line on this: the government(s) would set in place bureaucratic agents to scan every page that is uploaded to a site…superficially to “protect the sacred copyrights,” but in reality, it is a way to accomplish monitoring and censorship of everything that passes across their scanners.

They have to institute stuff such as that to completely quell the independent media and stop any “non-certified, non-accredited (State-approved) journalists and news sites. In addition, they’ll levy taxes on it. Once again, the vicious cycle: pay your taxes or the Euro-Swat team comes in with MP-5’s, huffs, puffs, and blows down your house. Pay the taxes…and you’ll then fund their budgets for increased Draconian measures. Let’s not forget: ICANN (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) and the Obama giveaway of the Internet to the Chinese.

Measure after measure comes into play. Little by little, in the name of taxes and the protection of rights, governments are instituting even more intrusive measures into privacy and exploiting their populaces…generating more wealth and power for themselves and more control over the life of the average person. There is no more objective, grassroots reporting or news within the mainstream media. The only material that is not AP and State-approved comes from outlets of the independent media.

Keep this in mind: back in the days of the USSR, you would be either killed or sent to a Gulag for possessing either a Xerox/mimeograph machine or a typewriter. Do you know why that was? It was because they did not want any communication among the people in the form of underground newspapers, memos, letters, or any venue not under State control. We’re heading in that direction now. First the taxes, to force our  submission while simultaneously funding their oppression. Then the isolation and identification of non-State-approved reporters. Then the inevitable shutdowns, confiscations of computers and news media venues, arrests, and worse.

The best way to accomplish that is to overwhelm the people with laws and gendarmes/jackboots to enforce them.  History teaches us, and it repeats itself in one way, shape, or form. Nothing new under the sun, and the assault on freedom of the press is not just in the U.S., but is worldwide. Better plead the 5th Amendment, since you can’t use the 1st Amendment anymore. Keep these words in mind from the Declaration of Independence on abuse of power:
“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
Happening in Europe and coming to our shores soon: the complete destruction of the independent media, and the creation of “Pravda and Isvestia” News outlets controlled entirely by the State.

Source: http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/taxing-and-tracking-the-independent-media-censorship-and-control_09182018
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Trump To Make "China Trade Announcement" After Market Close

There will be no more delaying the announcement of the $200BN in China tariffs.

Moments ago, Trump said that the "China Trade Announcement" which likely refers to the $200BN in second round tariffs, will come after the market close, perhaps so that stocks - which arguably can no longer discount the future - won't be impacted?
  • TRUMP SAYS CHINA TRADE ANNOUNCEMENT COMING AFTER MARKET CLOSE
It is unclear if the tariffs will carry a 10% or 25% tax, although according to the latest reports it will be the former, and potentially increase if China still refuses to "fold" to Trump demands.
What happens next? First, visually this is what the trade war with China will look like after today:

As a reminder, the list of the first $50bn in tariffs contained 1,333 tariff lines of products. It was based on "extensive interagency economic analysis", and would "target products that benefit from China’s industrial plans", such as Made in China 2025, while "minimizing the impact on the U.S. economy". The second $200bn list share the same considerations on US economy and consumers, though China's industrial policy was no longer a focus. All finalized lists also took into account public comments received.

So far the US has carefully avoided consumer and China dependent products. As a result, the trade war so far has had little impact on US economy and consumers.
But this will change as the tariff list expands to by another 200bn.

Within the currently proposed 200bn list, about 78bn are consumer products (Figure 7). These include different types furniture (24bn), travel bags(2.2bn), vacuum cleaners (1.8bn), vinyl flooring(1.7bn), window/wall air conditioners (1.3bn), etc. Similarly, reliance on China increases sharply for the 200bn products in tariff pipeline. China import shares are above 20% for most of the products, and for about half of them, China's share are more than 50% (Figure 8).

Furthermore, many of the consumer products subject to tariff also happen to have very high China import share. China's import share is about 93% for air conditioners, 78% for vacuum cleaners, and 60-90% for various types of furniture. Therefore, we believe each dollar of tariff imposed on this 200bn list is a lot more painful for the US than one dollar of tariff imposed on the first 50bn list.
Not surprisingly, US domestic resistance on the latest $200bn list appeared stronger than before. The majority of the  industry representatives were against it during the six-day public hearing. Will the US be able to accommodate their complaints by exempting these products and finding other products to tariff instead?

In other words, while so far US consumers - and capital markets - have been spared from the tit-for-tat escalation, once Trump greenlights the next round of $200BN in tariffs, US purchasers of cheap Chinese imports will find them not so cheap anymore, hitting not only the pocket book of the US consumer, but also downstream corporations who will see their profit margins shrink rapidly, and which also explains the recent panic in various Fed and private sector surveys about the growing threat of ever greater tariffs.

* * *
Trump's action also means that trade talks with China scheduled for later this week will be canceled, and all eyes will be on how China retaliates. Recall that as the WSJ reported last night, Chinese officials involved in advising the leadership are proposing to step up the trade fight a notch by restricting China’s sales of materials, equipment and other parts key to U.S. manufacturers’ supply chain.

While the announcement is not news, as the market had plently of warnings, the Nasdaq has slumped to session lows with both the Dow and the S&P following lower:
Source: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-09-17/trump-make-china-trade-announcement-after-market-close
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[Video] Partitioning of Syria is drawing China into the theater of war


The law of unintended consequences has forced China’s hand in Syria.

As the battle for Idlib draws near, China is set to fight Al Qaeda trained Uyghur jihadists in Syria in order to help the Syrian government retake their territory, preventing those very jihadist terrorists from returning to Xinjiang province and sewing the seeds of partition in China.

The Duran’s Alex Christoforou and International Affairs and Security Analyst, from Moscow, Mark Sleboda discuss how the American plan to partition Syria has pressured China to take part in an already crowded and complicated conflict.


After Syria’s partition, will Xinjiang be destabilized?” Authored by Christina Lin via Asia Times…
The US policy of permanently balkanizing Syria appears to be a foregone conclusion, even as the Syrian Arab Army and Russian forces proceed with their last major counter-terrorism operation in Idlib.
According to Wolfgang Mühlberger, senior fellow for EU-Mideast relations at the Finnish Institute for International Affairs, “Idlib is the very Arab Kandahar with potentially more than 100,000 experienced, battle-hardened Sunni jihadi fighters hiding between the civilians.”
This high number is due to the amalgamation of all the militants from de-confliction zones or reconquered battle zones (e.g., Aleppo, Ghouta, Deraa, etc.) throughout Syria that have been shipped to Idlib over the past couple of years, as well as remnants of the Free Syrian Army.
However, despite Washington acknowledging that the governorate is an Al Qaeda safe haven for militants from over 100 countries, the tripartite powers of the UK, US and France are now asking Germany to join planned airstrikes against Syria – as soon as President Bashar al-Assad gives them the green light by using chemical weapons.
It is not entirely clear why the US believes the Syrian president would deliberately provoke western airstrikes on Syrian forces when they are on a winning streak in their war with the terrorists, but it does seem apparent that Washington intends to prevent Syria from regaining sovereignty over Idlib.
As discussed in a previous Asia Times article, RAND Corporation drew up a Syria partition plan wherein the US would occupy the northeast, Turkey the northwest, Russia and Iran the coastal area and large parts of the Syrian desert, and Israel and Jordan the southwest.
The US zone would contain oil fields where 90% of Syria’s pre-war oil production took place, while Israel would control the newly discovered oil reserves in the Golan Heights. Turkey’s control of Idlib as a safe haven for militants would put continued pressure on the Syrian government, and a balkanized Syria would be weak and less likely to provide a viable base for Iran and Hezbollah to attack Israel.
However, the partition of Idlib as a jihadi sanctuary has important implications for another actor – China. Back in August, there were reports that Beijing would participate in the Battle for Idlib due to the presence of Chinese Uyghur jihadi colonies. If Turkey controls Idlib, China fears Ankara and the West would exploit Uyghur militants as proxies to destabilize Xinjiang.

Idlib proxies to destabilize Xinjiang?

There are historical reasons for this concern, given that the CIA tried to destabilize Xinjiang and supported separatists in Tibet during the Cold War. As Israeli sinologist Yizhak Shichor pointed out, in the 1950s Washington tried to exploit Muslim grievances against China and the Soviet Union, by attempting to form a Middle Eastern Islamic pact to organize fifth columns in these countries.
Brian Fishman, a counter-terrorism expert at the New America Foundation, also noted that in the 1990s Osama Bin Laden accused the US and CIA of inciting conflict between Chinese and Muslims. After a series of 1997 bombings in Xinjiang that Beijing ascribes to Uyghur separatists, bin Laden blamed the CIA in an interview, saying, “The United States wants to incite conflict between China and the Muslims. The Muslims of Xinjiang are blamed for the bomb blasts in Beijing. But I think these explosions were sponsored by the American CIA.”
Interestingly at the time, Al Qaeda had its eyes on the West and largely ignored Uyghur separatism as a Chinese domestic issue. But as Fishman assessed, over time the transnational problem of al Qaeda and its allies, and the increasing prominence of Uyghurs in jihadi propaganda, meant that China could no longer avoid them.
Indeed, given that the 2016 bombing of the Chinese embassy in Kyrgyzstan was a joint operation between Al Nusra and its Uyghur affiliate Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP); the continual supply of advanced weaponry and tacit Western support for TIP due to its intermingling with the “rebel” opposition; professional military training by the private security company Malhama Tactical to improve TIP’s warfighting capabilities; and TIPs ultimate goal to attack China, James Dorsey at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore argued that Beijing mulling military intervention in Idlib underscores the gravity of this threat to China’s core interests.
Currently, China seems to be steering clear of direct military involvement and instead relies on Syria and Russia, but it would be concerned should Western powers block Damascus and Moscow’s campaign to reclaim Idlib and continue to partition a safe zone for Uyghur militants.
Moreover, as Jacob Zenn from the Jamestown Foundation pointed out, China is also concerned by “the prospect of re-shaping the borders in the Middle East that could lead to new conceptions of sovereignty and statehood – not only in the region but elsewhere throughout the Islamic world, including Central Asia and Xinjiang.’

Xinjiang at heart of Belt and Road Initiative

Now it appears that a Western united front is emerging to confront China on human rights issues, using various tools of media coverage, economic sanctions, political activism by NGOs and think tanks to internationalize the Uyghur issue in Xinjiang. 
Similar to Israel’s dilemma over the internationalization of the Palestinian issue, China is bracing itself for a destabilization campaign and possible call for secession and partition of the province from Chinese sovereignty.
This perception is due to US backing of the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress, which aspires to revert Xinjiang to an independent East Turkistan. The first president of the Congress was Erkin Alptekin, son of Isa Alptekin, who headed the short-lived First East Turkestan Republic in Kashgar (November 12, 1933 to February 6, 1934), and also served as an advisor to the CIA while working at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Munich.
The Alptekin family and Xinjiang secession enjoy strong support from Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who while being mayor of Istanbul in 1995, named a section of the Blue Mosque park after Isa Alptekin and built a memorial to commemorate Eastern Turkistani martyrs who lost their lives in the “struggle for independence.”
Given resource-rich Xinjiang is at the heart of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), destabilizing the province would not only spoil the plan for Eurasian integration and development, but also weaken China’s economy by cutting off its overland energy supply from Central Asia and the Middle East, hamper its market access, and keep Beijing bogged down in an ethnoreligious conflict.
While this may augment current Washington’s trade war against the Middle Kingdom and weaken the Pentagon’s “peer competitor,” by deliberately stoking Chinese fears about Xinjiang destabilization and increasing radicalization, thereby egging Beijing to clamp down on Uyghurs, is in effect exploiting the ethnic Uyghur’s plight for narrow geopolitical agenda.
And as Yizhack Shichor perceived, “Vocal criticism of China related to its Uyghur persecution comes primarily, in fact almost entirely from outside the Middle East, from Western non-Muslim countries…[which] may have little do to with loving the Uyghurs, and much more to do with opposing China.”
 Source: http://theduran.com/partitioning-of-syria-is-drawing-china-into-the-theater-of-war-video/
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India Diversifying Reserves Away From Dollar, Buying up Gold

As US threatens sanctions over S-400 purchase India's dollar holdings decline even as total reserves grow

The world's second biggest gold consumer continues to replenish its bullion reserves, a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) report shows. At the same time, New Delhi is slowly but surely reducing its share of US debt bonds.

The annual report from the Indian financial regulator reveals that the country followed other BRICS partners in adding physical gold to its foreign exchange reserves. The RBI reportedly bought 8.46 metric tons of gold during the last fiscal year ending in March.
As of the end of June, the country’s central bank held 566.23 metric tons of gold against 557.77 metric tons a year ago. The RBI purchased gold for the first time in nearly a decade. The regulator acquired 200 metric tons of the precious metal in 2009 shortly after the global financial crisis.

According to the RBI, India’s international reserves rose by five percent from June 2017 to June 2018 in comparison to the 6.3 percent growth seen in the same period in the previous year.
“Diversification of India's Foreign Currency Assets continued during the year with attention being ascribed to risk management, including cybersecurity risk. The gold portfolio has also been activated,” the report added.

Meanwhile, the country’s share of US sovereign debt saw a gradual decline from $157 billion in March to $148.9 billion by May, according to the latest US Treasury report.

Eliminating US sovereign bonds has recently become a trend among major holders. According to the latest statistics, Russia dumped 84 percent of its holdings during 2018, while Turkey’s share of US Treasuries fell by 42 percent during the first half of the current year.

At the same time, Japan and China, the biggest holders of the US papers also reduced their shares, albeit insignificantly.

Source: https://www.rt.com/business/437760-india-gold-reserves-us-treasuries/
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Next step in ditching US dollar? Putin and Xi Jinping meet in Eastern Economic Forum

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V0_bKa4jng
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The Yuan Brings About Pakistan’s Second Declaration of Independence

The Yuan Brings About Pakistan’s Second Declaration of Independence

By Adam Garrie

With Pakistan refusing to bend or break under US pressure, even as Washington is set to cut hundreds of millions in “aid” to Pakistan, many Pakistanis are asking themselves, “why didn’t we do this sooner”?

The answer is—in a word: CHINA.
When the US took the abrasive move to formally censure Pakistan under the guise that it harbours and abets terrorism and cut hundreds of millions in what the US calls “aid” but what in reality is US military investment, Pakistan said, “so be it” and said so boldly.

After losing over 100,000 Pakistanis in America’s ill-advised regional military operation in Afghanistan, a conflict which the US intentionally allowed to spill over Pakistan’s border, Pakistani elites and ordinary people have collectively had enough. Many have had enough for decades, not least PTI leader Imran Khan whose anti-American positions have been largely vindicated by recent events.

But while the uneven “alliance” between Washington and Islamabad has alienated Pakistanis for decades, even prior to the US invasion of Afghanistan, what has changed is that there is a new superpower with a colossal presence in the region--one that is willing to forge a thorough partnership with Pakistan and in doing so,  rendering any perceived advantages incurred from a US “alliance” more or less dispensable.

For years, China’s investment in Pakistan along the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has breathed new life into Pakistan’s economy. From the mountainous border in the north to the Panamax Gwadar Port on the Indian Ocean, China’s positive influence can be felt throughout Pakistan’s vast terrain.

The influx of Chinese experts, workers and high level diplomats in the country has proved that a revitalised Cold War era friendship is by the standards of 2017, one based on pragmatism, mutual respect and a win-win mentality that contrasts sharply with a US attitude of disdain towards Pakistan. This attitude is magnified even more deeply by Pakistan’s Saudi “ally” that has used and abused Pakistan for decades, in a cold exploitation of the country’s financial needs.

Pakistan’s refusal to follow Saudi and the UAE into Yemen and likewise, Pakistan’s refusal to take Saudi Arabia’s side in the ongoing dispute with Qatar, is as much a reflection of the confidence and renewed independence that a Chinese partnership has given Pakistan as it is a reflection of the increased professionalization of Pakistan’s “deep state” which is largely immune to the fluxuations of Parliamentary politics, while wise enough not to inhibit the peaceful exercise of Pakistan’s multi-party democracy.

Pakistan’s refusing to blindly follow Washington’s increasingly anti-Pakistan Afghan policies is a further result of the geo-political armour that China has allowed Pakistan to wear with pride, as it is symptomatic of a Pakistani “deep state” that is far more pragmatic and intelligent than it was 20 years ago.

But the most important development thus far, in Pakistan’s 21st century partnership with China is the agreement to conduct bilateral trade in the Yuan rather than the Dollar. This agreement was inevitable, but the fact that it was agreed just after Donald Trump’s insulting statements about Pakistan followed by the withdrawal of “aid”, sends both a pragmatic and symbolic message to the world. Pakistan is not for sale and nor will Pakistan refrain from taking action to build new partnerships out of fear that the US will be permanently lost as an “ally”.  Just as the US closed one door, Pakistan and China quietly and rapidly opened another much larger door.

The treat of US financial blackmail becomes limited in its scope when one realises that Pakistan’s most important long-term trading partner is a country that is not only powerful enough to resist the Dollar’s fading hegemonic grip on global trade, but that moreover, it is a country that owns the lion’s share of US debt. This country is of course, China.

The Dollar might still control much of the world, but with China controlling the Dollar, all the while readying the Yuan for its inevitable transition to a floating currency, it is China that now has the last word when it comes to the effectiveness of US financial blackmail as well as US sanctions.

In this sense, Pakistan’s agreement to trade with China exclusively in Yuan is like a second declaration of independence for Pakistan. Furthermore, the move will certainly inspire other nations to rethink their dependence on Dollar based institutions.

With the US also cutting Pakistan out of security/intelligence sharing agreements, it is high time for Pakistani leaders to admit a long standing reality. The US has never been Pakistan’s ally, it has merely been a two-faced benefactor whose investments in the country were never designed to increase Pakistan’s sovereignty, prestige or safety. In reality, they were designed to bring about the opposite.

By contrast, the Chinese model does not make demands on one’s foreign policy, security policy, wider partnerships or style of government. China demands only honesty and respect and rewards this with the same.

When promoting One Belt—One Road throughout the world, President Xi Jinping is always eager to point out that China’s global trading network is all about enhancing mutual strengths while supplementing areas of economic or production relation weakness. There are no strings attached in One Belt—One Road—the obvious implication being that in the US model of global trading mechanisms there are many strings attached.

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte stated that one of the reasons he prefers modernising the armed forces of Philippines using Russia and Chinese weapons, is because Russia and China do not make such sales conditional upon political demands. The same is true with wider trading partnerships with the great superpowers of the global “east”.

The US will surely amplify its anti-Pakistan rhetoric in the coming months and one shouldn’t be surprised if ultimately this leads to sanctions against a former “ally”.

But China has made Pakistan largely immune to Washington’s bullying techniques and thus serves as a model for the world that if one wants to make one’s own country “great again”—one must ditch the US as an indelible partner and embrace sovereignty with Chinese trading characteristics.

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There Are No “Overreactions” When Fighting Terror and Sedition


There Are No “Overreactions” When Fighting Terror and Sedition

A Russia Truth exclusive article by Adam Garrie

When it comes to securing one’s nation, protecting the people and fighting  terrorism organised by some of the most aggressive states in history—no “reaction” is too tough. There is in fact, no such thing as an overreaction in such situations. 

According to the latest reports from Sputnik, a reliable source which is in no way anti-Iranian, “protests” yesterday became even more charged, with some “protesters” shown attacking a facility belonging to Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. No one with a reasonable mind could believe that attacking the IRGC is an anyway related to any peaceful demonstration over domestic price increases. This was an act of terrorism, if not an act of war. 

If one thinks such words are “strong”, this if of course intentional. A nation can only quash sedition if it does so in such a way that it creates a lasting deterrent against all enemies, foreign and domestic, so that such fiends never attempt such foolish treachery ever again. 

One of the reasons that Chinese cities are among the safest in the world is because China takes all crimes deeply seriously. This is reflected in the sentences that Chinese courts enforce upon such ruthless criminals. Last year, a group of bandits from the United States who were jailed in China for theft, learnt rapidly, just how seriously China takes the criminal activities of lowlifes. 

The only reason they were released was due to the personal intervention of the US President who begged President Xi Jinping for clemency in order to save face. Even Trump later regretted his actions and publically expressed this on Twitter. 

Iran’s soft approach to sedition, as conveyed in President Rouhani’s speech yesterday, could be interpreted both as a sign of confidence in the unity and strength of the state, but it could equally be interpreted as a supremely naïve statement which overlooks the basic principles of how to stop sedition, not just in the immediate term but in the long term. 

In reality, if one’s security forces cracks down hard on a single seditious “protest”--enough for the nation not to be distracted by the event, but enough for would be traitors and foreign enemies to get the message—then such a state will increase the likelihood that such seditious acts or acts of war will never be attempted again in the long term future. This is the priceless value of a deterrent effect.
If one fights against thuggery, seditious mob tactics and against the presence of foreign agents seeking to ignite an insurgency on one’s soil, with the full force of military strength, the enemies will not attempt such methods again. Such an “overreaction” means that one will actually save national exhaustion, resources and ultimately lives in the medium and long term. 

When Brother Muammar Gaddafi learned that his nation was under attack from the terrorist proxies of foreign regimes, he spoke of the need to purify the nation, “street to street…house to house…”. 

 

Sadly, for Gaddafi, he had foolishly disarmed years before which subjected Libya to the onslaught of NATO weaponry that countries like the DPRK are protected from due to their nuclear deterrent.
Iran does not have the material problem of Libya, but it does have a problem of not speaking out forcefully against sedition before it has the chance to inspire the enemies of Iran to sink their teeth in. It is a problem that can and should be fixed.

Already, the US and “Israel” are salivating at the prospect of reinstalling the corrupt heir to the discredited Iranian throne—the Zionist fool Reza Pahlavi, who is cheering on the traitors from his mansion in Beverly Hills, USA.

Iran must put an end not just to the movements of the scoundrels in the street but to future generations of scoundrels, the ambitious of foreign agents and traitors and most importantly the wicked desires of the Zionist and American regimes. 

This is no time to be polite or passive, ultimately many innocent Iranians could become harmed if this blasé attitude continues for much longer.

The only way to do this is to crack down on sedition as China did in 1989.

As I previously wrote,
“During China in the 1980s, an increased number of so-called intellectuals went to academic institutions in the United States where they became seduced by and intentionally programmed by US government operatives keen to see a seditious revolt in the People’s Republic of China--one with the ultimate goal of bringing the regime in Chinese Taipei (aka Taiwan) back to power in Beijing.
Because a readymade regime in Chinese Taipei existed which salivated for power over all of China, the CIA and other aggressive actors did not need to go to the effort of forging a new regime or political model—they simply needed to create agitation among a class of elites in Beijing in order to try and bring down the People’s Republic of China.

Hu Yaobang became the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 1982 and by the middle of the decade, he became increasingly seduced by the liberal fantasies peddled by western “educated” academics.

His open flirtations with liberal social ideology proved too much to Deng and other social traditionalists and he was removed from power in favour of Zhao Ziyang in 1987. 

When Hu died in 1989, subversive western orchestrated “protests” among “students” and their academic masters began to foment with Tiananmen Square being a focal point. Rather than put a quick end to the numerically small displays, Zhao Ziyang instead offered sympathy to many of the “protesters”.

Zhao was in many ways one part traitor and one part naive. A man of great experience and with a deeply important political position such as Zhao should have been aware, as others including Deng were, that the “protests” were neither genuine nor spontaneous. He should have realised that the “protests” were an attempt to overthrow the very institutions of the state, paving the way for a pro-western regime. To deny this, as he did, was a sign of both carelessness and a dereliction of duty.
Part of Zhao however did likely feel for the fact that young useful idiots of a western plot essentially volunteered themselves to be on the front line of a proxy war. However, his interventions proved totally insufficient and even had the effect of encouraging the conspirators.

The western orchestrators of the “protests” coordinated them to coincide with the official state visit of Mikhail Gorbachev. A visit which heralded the reconciliation between the two great Communist superpowers, instead became an attempt by the west to embarrass both China and the USSR in the same place and at the same time.

Zhao was finally removed from power in 1989 as China sent out the People’s Liberation Army to cleanse the streets of the western agents and restore order.

The vast majority of the Chinese population was unaffected by the events of 1989, but the ruling elite realised that they needed to take precautions to avoid such western meddling in the future. 

China rapidly recovered because of the ultimately decisive action the government took in putting an end to the “protests” and as a result, China is the unshakable powerhouse that it is today.

Although Iran is smaller than China, the west and “Israel” remain frightened of the prospect of direct military confrontation. They are equally afraid to take on Iran in Syria or Iraq by engaging with the limited number of Iranian anti-terrorist military advisors in the Arab nations.

Because of this, the US and “Israel” have devised a plan to “counter Iran” the sparse details of which have been published in Zionist media.

Like clockwork, “protests” in Tehran and several other Iranian cities broke out simultaneous to the publication of reports on an anti-Iranian agreement made between the US regime and the Zionist entity. Allegedly, the protesters are agitating for economic reform and price controls, but anyone who is not totally naive can see the direct correlation between the reports from Zionist media and the western orchestrated protests in Iran.

This is not the first time the west has attempted to use “protesters” to attempt and destroy the Islamic Revolution. So-called Iranian liberals were mobilised by western and “Israeli” actors in 2011.
In reality these “liberals” are a combination of reactionary monarchists, counter-revolutionary hooligans and useful idiots taking orders from Iranians going back and forth between California and Iran, acting under the same kinds of orders as the Chinese “academics” of the 1980s who conspired against the People’s Republic of China.

It is an open secret that “Israel” pours millions into Iranian groups based primarily in the US whose goal is to destroy the Islamic Revolution and restore the pro-western monarchy whose obscenely gluttonous leaders remain in exile, primarily in the US.

As I write this piece, it has been confirmed that an al-Qaeda linked group of terrorists from Iranian Balochistan have blown up a major oil pipeline in western Iran. This is what happens when traitors are not dealt with—the terrorists rush in.

Iran cannot take any further chances. As China learned, a short but hard crackdown on sedition is necessary in order to avoid the total destruction of the state, its people and society.
Many Iranians will not want to hear this. Many wish to pretend that the protests will simply fizzle out due to their small size and seemingly innocent origins. This attitude however is ultimately one derived from fiction, one which puts the lives of every Iranian man, woman and child in danger.
Western backed so-called “colour revolutions” generally begin with an irritating whimper and end with a blood-soaked bang.

Like China, Iran has it within its power to easily crush the seditious radicals. If Iran is to avoid the fate of Libya and others, it must act swiftly and decisively. The Zionist regime is using the events in Tehran and elsewhere as a test to see how far they can push Iran. The government must not allow the enemy to gain an inch.

It is time for a 1989 Chinese style law and order operation in Iran”.

Since I wrote this, two days ago, the pressing need for such a crackdown is all the more important. Iranian leaders must channel the patriotic rhetoric of Gaddafi and the laser like precision of Chinese officials in 1989, who were fully aware that the happiness of future generations of the people depended on a rapid extinguishing of sedition’s dirty flame. 

Now is not the time to wait, nor is it the time to care what the west thinks. Iran must double down on cultivating its new friendships and let the west rot like a rotten fruit on a wilting branch.
It is time to end all sedition and send a clear message to the aggressors in Tel Aviv and Washington that “None shall pass”!
 
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