Thread by @GeringTuvia

"The original sin of the Russian-Ukrainian war and crisis was committed by the US" - economist Chen Wenling's keynote lecture at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) on February 19, 2022, titled "The Major Variables Expected to Drive Global Changes in 2022"
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As the former director of the State Council Research Office, Prof Chen is a decorated and well-respected public servant. She currently serves as a chief economist at the China Centre for International Economic Exchange (CCIEE), a Beijing based state-backed think tank.

A long excerpt from her transcript is below. It is staggering enough to quote in length, so please try to bear with me:

"To begin, the risk of war has increased significantly. As you can see, the likelihood of conflict in Syria, Ethiopia, Yemen, Russia, Ukraine, and other regions is increasing. And do you know what's strange about all of this?

"Consider the Russia-Ukraine crisis, in which Russia declared that it would not fight, Ukraine stated that it would not fight, and France, Germany, Russia, and Ukraine held eight-hour Normandy-style talks and concluded that no fighting would take place.

"Despite this, the US urged its citizens to evacuate, provided armaments to Ukraine, and a bevy of senior officials, from President Biden to Blinken and Sullivan, are all clinging to a narrative of impending war. What exactly is the US attempting to achieve by doing so?

"At this point, wouldn't it be better if they started a war in the Taiwan Strait? Of course, despite the fact that the US has always tried to start a conflict in the Taiwan Strait, I believe there are three reasons why it will not do so for the time being:

"To begin with, the economic relations between the United States and China are too close. Even a trade war and a pandemic were not enough to help the US achieve its goal of severing economic ties with China;

"now this outcome is out of the question because the US economy would be in serious problems and the US reconstruction of global supply chains is still years away.

"Second, Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC is far too vital to the US. TSMC had promised to establish six factories in the US, but none have yet been built, putting America's strategic plan well behind schedule.

"Third, because China is the only country capable of competing with the US in all respects, the US knows it has a slim chance of winning once a war erupts.
As a result, the US is focusing its efforts on provoking a conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

"The US, in my opinion, is attempting to kill four birds with one stone: first, to feed money to its war machine; the US military-industrial complex is made up of over 4,000 arms manufacturers who need to sell their products.

"Throughout its history, the US has only had 16 years without war, and has been fighting in the remaining 230 years, thus there are a lot of weapon suppliers in need of a fight.

"At the same time, the US wants to cause an energy crisis in Europe by shutting off Russian energy and capturing their market.

"Second, it wants to start World War III in Europe by using Ukraine as a pawn and surrounding Russia with NATO's full force. Furthermore, it seeks to align all of the above with its monetary policies in order to force global capital flows back to the US.

"This is analogous to the settings in which Hitler launched WWII. 3rd, it wants to strike RU to hedge against the strategic mutual trust that it built up w/ CN, and curb their fundamental global influence, by crushing them one by one and pulling the carpet from under their feet.

"Fourth, it seeks to sever Russia's ties with Europe, causing Russia and Europe to become completely alienated. Both NATO expansion and provocation of war, as they are doing now, are viable options for achieving this goal...

"The US is laying the framework for a global alliance system restructuring: it just convened a summit for democracies, it reconstructs supply networks based on ideology, and it launched the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, which is aimed squarely at China.

"The original sin of the Russian-Ukrainian war and crisis was also committed by the US. The United States is aiming to create schisms between China and other countries and regions.

"If the globe is divided into two systems and two camps, the world will be dismembered and the Cold War will resume. The animosity and confrontation between the two major powers threaten to disjoint economic globalization."
/End
Link: mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzUzOD…