Photo credit to WSJ
Photo credit to Korea Times
This trip will change the geo political balance of the world and a stamp on the declining influence of the US in the Middle East. The world would not look back on this moment anymore and will charge into a new future with the rise of China and the rise of the Middle East Arab states led by a new Arab leader in Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, MBS.
Below reported in Al Jazeera. By Marwan Bishara
Washington won’t want to share its sphere of influence. But new Gulf leaders and Xi Jinping have other ideas.
Before President Xi Jinping has even set foot on Saudi soil, there’s already talk of “stepping on Washington’s toes” and of interfering in a “US sphere of influence”.Indeed, during his visit to Riyadh only five months ago, United States President Joe Biden told a summit of Arab leaders that the US “will not walk away” from the Middle East to leave “a vacuum to be filled by China, Russia or Iran”. Biden has also tried to assure allies that the humiliating US withdrawal from Afghanistan last year will actually free more resources for its long stay in the Gulf and wider region.
But that has not deterred Xi or his hosts from organising, in addition to a bilateral summit, separate summits with Arab states and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) during the Chinese president’s visit to Riyadh from December 7-9. To rub salt into the wound, they might even go the extra mile in making the summits appear more prestigious than those organised for Biden.
10 comments:
Will China and Saudi sign deal to price their oil trade in Yuan? That will spell the end of US' exorbitant privilege.
The term exorbitant privilege refers to the benefits the United States has due to its own currency being the international reserve currency. For example, the US would not face a balance of payments crisis, because their imports are purchased in their own currency. - Wiki
Signing an agreement would make it official only. They are already using the Yuan in their trades. China paying in Yuan for oil. Saudi Arabia paying in Yuan for weapons and infrastructure projects, no need to use US$.
The money is just a convenience for computation and calculation. It is more like a barter trade going on.
Same with China and Iran. China pays for oil from Iran with infrastructure development. That was, I understand, about US$400 billion worth of barter trade. Massive amount. Nothing to do with US$. Same with Russia. China gets the oil, food and essential minerals, Russia gets the infrastructure development. Also hundreds of US$ billions worth. But not in US$. Soon or already now, the Saudis and other Middle Eastern oil producers will be doing the same, all ditching the US$.
In the process, China, Russia and Iran did not talk about countering who and who openly. Not unlike some others that when any alliance is forged, the motive is to counter the influence of China or Russia. What China, Russia and Iran did was essentially business that no one can complain about. And the beauty was barter trade is possible even today, without using someone's fiat currency.
Now where are all those demands for US$ going to end up, having been ditched for all these bilateral trade? They had been printing and flooding the whole world for years, exporting their inflation, but now it is returning or staying inside the USA to haunt them.
China Xi is akin to the then reincarnation of Admiral Cheng Ho when he went 7 voyages to the West ( from China to SE Asia, India, Persia, Arabia & Africa). Xi belt road initiatives is jus going to make it big again. For UaSS they can't even link via BRI & some more wanto talk big about their treaties or currency. Many of today leaders have seen their the evil deeds of these white Americuns and r going wiser and wiser every day, the UaSS will one day live in isolation and be forgotten by the World if they wan to continue their hegemony.
When China meets another country, it is about trade, cooperation and joint projects to benefit both parties, negotiated fairly on equal terms to the best of both parties.
When the Americans meet another country, it is about threats, join my gang or be my enemy, be with us or against us. Have joint military exercises against China or some enemies, buy our weapons, we will send our soldiers and weapons into your country to protect you aka you will become our colony, our protectorate. Do as you are told or we will conduct regime change.
And, your country has human rights issues, no democracy, no freedom of expression....we will sanction you.
It is actually quite frightening to see how fast the American Empire is falling apart.
It is so surreal. American power, dominance just slipping away by the day. The dollar is going to collapse, the stock market is going to collapse, the economy is going to collapse, a nuclear war around the corner, Ukraine is like a bottomless pit, draining away everything the Americans have, money, military equipment, European allies, American confidence etc etc
Ukraine is not just draining away everything the USA have. It is taking away the USA's perceived power and prestige and destroying it's reputation and ability to exert dominance over Russia.
The sanctions have all backfired, when sanctions were supposed to be effective in bringing down opponents. Not only that, it is creating division among it's allies, and the only allies it now have are the G7 and Japan.
Yes, the falling apart of the USA is quite obvious and rapid, not seen in their short history is this more apparent.
The Americans have been so abusive and rash in their behaviour against their allies and the rest of the world when they realised that they were the last remaining super power, the one and only super power, after the collapse of the Soviet Uniom.
The bunch of lunatics in the White House, Clinton, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Obama, Bush, Pompeo, Trump, etc were all bragging about the American Empire. They became so aloof, cocky, and blatant in the use of their military might to hammer anyone that opposed them, conducted wars and regime change with impunity. They lost their heads and could not see their folly and arrogance.
As a result they lost the world's respect and grudging obedience. They became the evil Empire and still deluded that they could get away with it forever, unstoppable. No one is in a position to stand in their way. Be with us or against us.
It is too late to do anything now. They lost their plot and lost their way.
Watching the welcome they extended to Xi shows the importance the Saudis placed upon their relationship with China. The jets fly past, the gun salute, the welcoming party at the airport, all these must have made the USA greviously sore.
Will there be the same hitback that the USA did against Saddam Hussein and Gadaffi? You never know how nasty, vile and distasteful the USA can be. Sore losers are very dangerous.
As they always say, respect is earned, not demanded.
We never know how true it is when they say - Power corrupts. The more absolute the power, the bigger the corruption. That is the USA, with military and economic power that had been blatantly misused. That is their downfall.
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