SPEECH IN MARYLAND
LaRouche: A New Pacific
Relationship Emerges
Lyndon LaRouche addressed the Global Summit for China's Peaceful Unification, held at the University of Maryland conference center in Rockville, Md., on Nov. 17. The conference, attended by some 300 leaders from 34 organizations, representing 32 countries, was sponsored by the National Association for China's Peaceful Unification (NACPU). Here is an edited transcript of his speech.
As you know, this is a time of great troubles in the world. The world financial-monetary system is in the process of disintegrating. And until and unless certain changes are made, that disintegration will continue, in a fairly short period. If we change our ways, which circumstances will force us to do if we wish to survive, there will be a great positive change in the relations of the world.
For all of what we know of civilization, civilizations are dominated by great imperial forces which have dominated the land area from the sea. There was a change which came with Abraham Lincoln's election and development, in the development of the transcontinental railroad system in the United States. This corresponded to a thrust from the United States to opening channels to countries in Asia, across the Pacific, and from opposing imperial forces in the Pacific.
Now, the time has come to bring that into realization. Recently, in Russia, there were meetings on the subject of a new railway system for the world, which involved an agreement to develop a tunnel from northern Siberia, across the Bering Strait, into North America. This tunnel would be a railway tunnel, which would implicitly link the entire world together, except for Australia, by railway systems.
These railway systems, which would be either railway or magnetic levitation, would now unite the land-masses, efficiently, for economic development internally. This coincides with a recent development, which many of us have wished for, in settlement between the relations between the two parts of Korea. Because the reunification of Korea, in functional terms, economic terms, means that the population will be changed there, and the most key thing is a railway system. As most of you know, the railway system of Korea, before division was like a yoke: It ran up from the South, and it divided Korea into two parts [along what is now the DMZ]; one line went to China, one line went to Russia, of the same system.
Those lines are now being reunified, which means there will be a fundamental change. Because this will coincide with the development which is in progress now, supposed to be completed in a first phase by 2017, ten years from now: this tunnel. This tunnel will be connected with the railway systems, or magnetic levitation systems, throughout Eurasia, into North America, and down through Europe into Africa. What this means is, that as we know, we have about 1.4 billion people in China, and the development is not sufficient to meet the needs, yet. We need to open new routes for that development: This includes raw materials. There are abundant raw materials available in northern Asia, in Russia, and adjoining countries. This will require a great development, this will require railway systems. Therefore, by such means, by railway development, or magnetic levitation, we will be able to integrate the development of the internal parts of Asia, by this process. Because we will be able to bring together sufficient raw materials to support the kind of development process needed. We see this clearly there.
Japan-China Relations
Now, the relations with China and Japan have not been good, since about 1894, when the British started a war against China, which went on until 1945, off and on. But now, Japan is in a situation, where its vital interests demand that it cooperate with China, to offer them aid, to help with the economic development of Korea. This will go partly through Korea, and we know that Korea and the Japanese are not always friendly, but they have a common interest. And these countries are not always friendly to China, but they now have a vital common interest in cooperation. Russia has a vital interest in cooperation.
So therefore, we are bringing together now, hopefully, the leading nations of Asia, with some countries of Europe and beyond, to realize that their survival and benefit for the future depends upon cooperation, through economic development and through trade. And the key is the development of these new kinds of systems, which will link the entire world: You will be able be to go by train, or by magnetic levitation, to any point in Europe, the Americas, and Africa, by rail systems, high-speed rail systems. This is especially important for high-value products, for freight. You can move cheap products by sea, but it's slow. But since the products are cheap and the bulk is large, you can move by sea. High-grade products, high-technology products, sophisticated products, must move faster. They must move by land-area: They move by high-speed freight systems. That, and passenger systems—that's the kind of world we're entering.
So, if we are saying, those of us in all the world, that we are going to unite around this kind of vision for the future, we can not have globalization. Because with globalization, you do not develop cultures. And the culture of people is old, and the ideas in the culture are deeply rooted, in the history of the language, and in the history of the people. Therefore, national cultures are crucial. But the national cultures need not be divided by the cultures; they can be united by cooperation and projects of development.
And the time has come, now, to move in that direction. My concern is to take a government of the United States, which I don't think is worth much, right now, and to try to find in the coming election process, or the run-up to that and in the present crisis, to make people aware through the great crisis they face, in the United States and Europe and elsewhere, that they have to change: Not only do they have to change away from what they've been doing as mistakes, but they must change in the direction of things that will work, things that are solutions for the future.
Unfortunately, today, most people in the United States and Europe have very short memories. They can't think much beyond five or ten years—very short term. We have to come to a time where they think in long terms: The development of this railway system, or the tunnel system, is over ten years, and it's already being started. It will mean a new railway system from the Trans-Siberian Railroad up to the area of the Bering Strait, which is an area through which there are many raw materials under the ground. It will therefore be an area of development, to develop those raw materials. These kinds of changes are on the way. But we have to think in terms of two or three generations ahead. We have to think ahead to the remainder of this century, the present century. Because it's 25 years to develop an adult these days, in modern culture; that's a generation. Most of the products we think of, involve a 50-year investment, the development of infrastructure and things like that. And the benefit we will reach for humanity will come a hundred years from now, four generations. And we must think in terms of long-term development of peoples, culture, and infrastructure over a hundred years to come. And we must have that kind of discussion among leaders and leading circles of nations, so that we can adopt a policy, a common understanding among different peoples of a common interest.
Thank you, very much.
