LEGCO candidates in HK no longer under threat by NED foreign agents completed the democratic election in peace on 12-19-21 香港立法會候選人不再受美國民主基金會的外國和香港特工威脅在12-19-21和平完成民主選舉
My thoughts and Opinions on the US Bill (Forced Labour Prevention Bill) recently passed re Xinjiang Uyghur forced Labour. 我對美國最近通過的關於新疆維吾爾族強迫勞動的法案（Forced Labour Prevention Bill）的看法和意見.
Video: The SECRET history of Australia, a vassal state of US in 7 min! 在7分鐘內告訴你澳大利亞的秘密歷史，美國的附庸國. 澳大利亞如果敢和中國友好, 美國將災難性地毀了你.
Western media like to pretend that they’re the shining beacon of freedom but in reality they censor almost all information that exposes empire and its domination of the globe through diplomatic/monetary coercion. 西方媒體喜歡假裝他們是自由的燈塔，但實際上他們審查了幾乎所有通過外交/貨幣脅迫暴露帝國及其對全球統治的信息。
International tribunal at The Hague has found Australia, UK, US were complicit in facilitating the 1965 mass killings in Indonesia, crimes against humanity. 海牙國際法庭裁定，澳大利亞、英國、美國是 1965 年印度尼西亞大屠殺的同謀，這是危害人類罪。
By Indonesia correspondent Samantha Hawley
Key points: 1) 500,000 Indonesians killed in anti-communist purge at height of Cold War Report found Australia continued to back army despite knowing about the killings 2) President Joko Widodo has refused to apologise for historic murders An estimated half a million people perished in what was one of the worst massacres of the 20th Century. The killings were triggered by a failed coup that led to the deaths of six army generals, followed by the mass targeting of communists.
The International People’s Tribunal at The Hague has now ruled that Indonesia committed crimes against humanity, but the finding is non-binding and carries no legal weight.
The judges found allegations of “cruel and unspeakable murders” and the “unjustifiable imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of people without trial” was well founded.
“It has also been demonstrated that sexual violence, particularly against women, was systematic and routine, especially during the period 1965 to 1967,” the report said.
The judges found Indonesia responsible for the crimes and called for the current administration to apologise and to institute investigations and prosecutions of those perpetrators who are still alive.
“Furthermore, the archives should be opened and the real truth on these crimes against humanity should be established,” the judges said.
The tribunal’s report found Australia, the US and the UK complicit by using propaganda to manipulate international opinion in favour of the Indonesian army.
The report said Australia and the UK, ” … shared the US aim of seeking to bring about the overthrow of president Sukarno.”
“They continued with this policy even after it had become abundantly clear that killings were taking place on a mass and indiscriminate basis. On balance, this appears to justify the charge of complicity,” the report said.
The report detailed horrifying details of rape and torture, including accused communists being forced to drink soldiers’ urine, while in other cases victims’ ears were cut off and they were forced to consume them.
According to the report, other acts of torture included, burning body parts, electric shocks, water torture, pulling out of fingernails and tying victims inside a sack with snakes.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has said he will not apologise for the historic atrocity, but the report argued it was his duty to do so.
Some of my friends, colleagues and relatives were dead before retirement, at the same token many so scared of COVID19 were dead due to reasons other than the pandemic, think positive, be happy, enjoy life everyday. 我的一些朋友、同事和親戚在退休前就去世了，同樣，許多害怕新冠病毒的人因疫情以外的原因而死去，積極思考，快樂生活，享受每一天.
US elites’ hate speech toward China shows degeneration of values, the elites and mainstream media in the US like Fox News are returning to barbarism. This is the US’ misfortune. 美國精英對中國的仇恨言論顯示出價值觀的墮落，美國精英和福克斯新聞等主流媒體正在回歸野蠻。 這是美國的不幸。by Li Haidong Dec 19 2021
Putin and Xi plot their SWIFT escape – Russia and China’s announcement of an independent financial trading platform will free nations under US sanctions from western intrusion into their commercial activities 普京和習近平策劃了他們的 SWIFT 逃生計劃 俄羅斯和中國宣佈建立獨立的金融貿易平台，將使受美國製裁的國家免於西方對其商業活動的干涉
Vladimir Putin got straight to the point. At the opening of his one hour and fourteen minute video conversation with Xi Jinping on 15 December, he described Russia-China relations as “an example of genuine inter-state cooperation in the 21st century.”
Their myriad levels of cooperation have been known for years now – from trade, oil and gas, finance, aerospace and the fight against Covid-19, to the progressive interconnection of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU).
But now the stage was set for the announcement of a serious counter-move in their carefully coordinated ballet opposing the relentless Hybrid War/Cold War 2.0 combo deployed by Empire.
As Assistant to the President for Foreign Policy Yuri Ushakov succinctly explained, Putin and Xi agreed to create an “independent financial structure for trade operations that could not be influenced by other countries.”
Diplomatic sources, off the record, confirmed the structure may be announced by a joint summit before the end of 2022.
This is a stunning game-changer in more ways than one. It had been extensively discussed in previous bilaterals and in preparations for BRICS summits – mostly centered on increasing the share of yuan and rubles in Russia-China settlements, bypassing the US dollar, and opening new stock market options for Russian and Chinese investors.
Now we’ve come to the crunch. And the catalyzing event was none other than US hawks floating the – financially nuclear – idea of expelling Russia from SWIFT, the messaging network used by 11,000+ banks in over 200 countries, as well as financial institutions, for rapid money transfers worldwide.
Cutting off Russia from SWIFT would be part of a harsh new sanctions package developed in response to an ‘invasion’ of Ukraine that will never happen – mainly because the only ones praying for it are professional NATO warmongers.
Profiting from a strategic blunder
Once again, an American strategic blunder offers the Russia-China self-described “comprehensive strategic partnership” the chance to advance their coordination.
Ushakov put it very diplomatically: it’s time to bypass a SWIFT mechanism “influenced by third countries” to form “an independent financial structure.”
That amounts to a serious game-changer for the entire Global South – as scores of nations yearn to be released from a de facto US dollar dictatorship, complete with recurring Fed quantitative easing circus packages.
Russia and China have been experimenting with their alternative payment systems for quite a while now: the Russian SPFS (System for Transfer of Financial Messages) and the Chinese CIPS (Cross Border Interbank Payment System).
It won’t be easy, as the most powerful Chinese banks are deep into SWIFT and have expressed their reservations about SPFS. Yet, they will have to inevitably integrate prior to the launch of the new mechanism, possibly in late 2022.
Once the most important Russian and Chinese banks – from Sberbank to the Bank of China – adopt the system, the path opens for other banks across Eurasia and the Global South to join in.
In the long run, SWIFT, prone to non-stop American political interference, will be increasingly marginalized, or restricted to Atlanticist latitudes.
Bypassing the US dollar, on trade and all sorts of financial settlements, is an absolutely central plank of the ever-evolving Russia-China notion of a multipolar world.
The road will be long, of course, especially when it comes to offering a solid counterpoint to the US-controlled global financial system, a maze that includes the humongous investment houses of the BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street variety, with their interlocking shareholding of virtually every major multinational company.
Yet a SWIFT escape will rapidly gain momentum, because it is inextricably linked to a series of developments that Putin-Xi touched upon in their conversation, the most important of which are:
The progressive interconnection of BRI and EAEU, offering expanding roles to the BRICS-run New Development Bank (NDB) as well as the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
The increasing geopolitical and geo-economic reach of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), especially after the admission of Iran in October.
And crucially, the upcoming Chinese presidency of the BRICS in 2022.
China in 2022 will invest deeply in BRICS+. This expanded BRICS club will be linked to a development process that includes:
The consolidation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) – a massive East Asia trade deal uniting China, the ASEAN 10 and Japan, and South Korea, as well as Australia and New Zealand.
The African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA).
And the memoranda of understanding signed between the EAEU and MERCOSUR and between the EAEU and ASEAN.
Anchoring West Asia
Yaroslav Lissovolik, one of the world’s leading experts on BRICS+, argues that it’s now time for BRICS+ 2.0, operating in a system that opens “the possibility for bilateral and plurilateral agreements to complement the core network of regional alliances formed by BRICS countries and their respective regional neighbors.”
So if we’re talking about a major qualitative jump in terms of economic development across the Global South, the question is inevitable. What about West Asia?
All these interconnections, plus an escape from SWIFT, will certainly profit the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), arguably the flagship BRI project, to which Beijing plans to annex Afghanistan.
CPEC will be progressively connected to the future Iran-China corridor via Afghanistan, part of the 20 year Iran-China strategic deal in which BRI projects will be prominently featured. Iran and China already trade in yuan and rials, so settlements between Iran and China in a non-SWIFT mechanism will be a given.
What happened to Iran is a classic example of SWIFT becoming hostage of imperial political manipulation. Iranian banks were expelled from SWIFT in 2012, because of pressure from the usual suspects. In 2016, access was restored as part of the JCPOA, clinched in 2015. Yet in 2018, under the Trump administration, Iran was once again cut off from SWIFT.
None of that will ever happen with Iran joining the new Russia-China mechanism.
And that leads us to the interconnection of China’s BRI expansion in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. The reconstruction of Syria may be largely financed via the non-SWIFT mechanism. Same for China buying Iraqi energy. Same for the reconstruction of a Yemen possibly hosting a Chinese-owned port, part of the “string of pearls.”
Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and Israel may remain in the US financial sphere of influence, or lack thereof. And even if there is no BRICS nation anchoring West Asia, and no regional integration economic agreement on the horizon, the role of the economic integrator is bound to be eventually played by China.
China will play a similar role to Brazil anchoring MERCOSUR, Russia anchoring the EAEU and South Africa anchoring the SADC/SACU.
Both BRI and the EAEU will get a tremendous boost by bypassing SWIFT. You simply can’t go multipolar if you trade using (devalued) imperial legal tender.
BRI, EAEU and those interlocking economic development agreements, combined with digital technology, will be integrating billions of people in the Global South.
Think of a possible, auspicious future spelling out cheap telecom delivering financial services and world market access, in a non-dollar environment, to all those who have been so far cut off from a truly globalized economy.
The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of The Cradle.
Johnson Choi Biz 