HELGA ZEPP-LAROUCHE ON TOUR
‘Silk Road Lady’ Brings
LaRouche Perspective to China
by William C. Jones
Sept. 8—Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, addressed a forum in Beijing on Sept. 5, on the topic “One Belt, One Road.” The event, sponsored by China Investment magazine, which is an arm of the National Development and Reform Commission, the main economic policy planning commission under the State Council of the Chinese government, was the first of what is intended to become an annual event bringing together researchers from many Chinese think-tanks tasked with the mission of developing a program for President Xi Jinping’s Silk Road Economic Belt.
Zepp-LaRouche’s presentation on the global strategic significance of China’s Silk Road program was introduced by Prof. Bao Shixiu, who stressed the role of Lyndon and Helga LaRouche in creating the New Silk Road idea. Her 10-minute speech gave a strategic focus to the discussion overall, and became a point of attention in the afternoon’s proceedings.
The conference came as the culmination of a nearly two-week visit to China by Zepp-LaRouche, during which she was a participant in an international conference on the New Silk Road at Lanzhou University, in a prime-time CCTV news analysis show on the subject of the defeat of fascism in Asia, an interview on Chinese Radio International on her campaign for the New Silk Road, as well as holding many private meetings.
Lanzhou University Conference
Zepp-LaRouche’s first public event was at Lanzhou University in Gansu province in northwest China. Lanzhou is the capital of the province, on the Yangtze River, and a transportation hub. The conference was held Aug. 25-26.
According to reports in Chinese media, 100 officials and experts attended from 21 countries, including China, India, Russia, Germany, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Under the title “One Belt, One Road,” the event was co-sponsored by Lanzhou University and the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation, and included a plenary session and three forums, on cultural exchange, regional cooperation, and cooperation among universities. Zepp-LaRouche spoke during the cultural exchange forum, on the topic “The Silk Road in the 21st Century Is the Cornerstone of Peace and Order.”
The conference was also addressed by China’s Deputy Education Minister, Du Yubo; the vice governor of Gansu Province, Xian Hui; the vice chairman of the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation, Qi Mingqiu; the president of Lanzhou University, Wang Cheng; a representative of the Department of International Economy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, Diao Junshu; the president of Russian Railways, Vladimir Yakunin; Russian Academy of Sciences bureau member Gennady Matishov; and many others.
According to China Daily, the focus of the conference was “the principle of ‘mutual negotiation, joint development and sharing’ ... to further deepen the cooperation between China and other countries along the Silk Road.” It also stressed “the great significance of promoting education exchange among countries along the Silk Road,” and to “drive the ‘One Belt and One Road’ construction through frequent education resource sharing, science and technology cooperation, and personnel communication at a higher level.”
Media Events
Zepp-LaRouche later travelled to Beijing, where she granted two interviews.
The first featured her as part of a panel on the show “Dialogue—Ideas Matter,” which aired live on Sept. 3, the day the Chinese government has designated as a national holiday to commemorate the World War II victory over fascism in Asia. She joined Tao Wenzhao, a Research Fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, in the studio, while Yoichi Shimatsu, the former editor of Japan Times Weekly, participated via satellite.
In response to a question about the Japanese government’s bellicose policies toward China, Zepp-LaRouche made the larger point that President Obama launched his “Asia pivot,” centered on a new military doctrine called Air-Sea Battle, which is a source of instability in the region. She cited Obama’s announcement in April 2014 that the U.S. was shifting from a policy of neutrality on territorial disputes between Japan and China toward a policy of backing Japan’s territorial claims.
Asked how the China-Japan relationship could be improved, Zepp-LaRouche addressed the question from the standpoint of her native Germany, which committed horrible crimes during the Second World War, but confessed to those crimes, and has now emerged as a trusted nation. She cited the continuing cover-up by Japan of the Nanking Massacre (1937), and called for the creation of a commission to conduct an honest and independent historical study, as a starting point for establishing trust. She cited Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s role in drafting the postwar Japanese peace constitution and noted Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s reinterpretation of that document, with the backing of Obama. She stressed that, in an age of thermonuclear weapons, conflicts cannot be solved by wars, and further, that this is not just a problem in the Pacific, but a global problem, noting that NATO is encircling Russia, and that we are, thus, on the verge of a potential catastrophe.
In the final exchange of the 22-minute broadcast, Zepp-LaRouche was asked about “Abenomics” (named for the Japanese prime minister), and the implications of the just-concluded summit in Tokyo between Abe and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. She observed that that is another dynamic that is driving the economic situation in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. She mentioned China’s New Silk Road project, the recently signed Russia-China strategic partnership, the BRICS summit in Brazil in July, and the follow-up meetings between the BRICS leaders and the heads of state of the rest of the South American countries, the Asian International Investment Bank (AIIB), and the New Development Bank (NDB).
She described all of these developments as very promising and contrasted them to Abenomics, which has drawn Japan even deeper into London-Wall Street financial system that is headed for a crash. She cited the failure of the United States, following the September 2008 crisis, to solve the problem of the too-big-to-fail banks, noting that they are 40% bigger today than they were before the 2008 blowout. She said that Japan is too closely linked to the London and Wall Street system to avoid the damage from a crash. She contrasted this to the system of project financing that is emerging as an alternative in many nations.
The other two guests shared some of Zepp-LaRouche’s criticisms of the Abe and Obama policies, particularly the right-wing, militarist turn in Japan since Abe came to power; but were more inclined to hope that a de-escalation of tensions would come about.
“Dialogue—Ideas Matter” reaches a large audience in China and has a subscribership of 80 million worldwide.
On the following day, Zepp-LaRouche was the guest on “News Plus,” a popular program of China’s worldwide China Radio International. The full transcript of that interview appears below.
The Silk Road Conference
On the final day of her visit, Zepp-LaRouche—who has been known for decades in China as the “Silk Road Lady”—attended the Beijing “One Belt, One Road” conference mentioned above. There were diplomats from a number of embassies in attendance, but the Schiller Institute seemed to be the only foreign think-tank there.
Following the introduction by Prof. Bao Shixiu, Zepp-LaRouche discussed the role of the Schiller Institute in elaborating the concept of the Eurasian Land-Bridge at the beginning of the 1990s, and presenting it in Beijing in 1996, at the “International Symposium on Economic Development of the Regions along the New Euro-Asia Continental Bridge.” While several economic crises intervened to interrupt what was meant to be a peace order for the 21st Century, she said, President Xi’s speech in Astana, Kazakstan last year created a new wave of optimism which has transformed the world.
She then elaborated the nature of the financial crisis, warning of a greater blowout ahead and listing the “Four Laws” developed by Lyndon LaRouche for getting the world out of the crisis and propelling it into the future: Glass-Steagall Act bank separation; a Hamiltonian National Bank; a Hamiltonian credit policy with investment aimed at building infrastructure on the basis of a long-term credit arrangements; and a space-based science-driver program for developing fusion energy and mining helium-3 on the Moon, as fuel for the fusion program. She then urged that the New Silk Road program be crafted in such a way that it pulls the world away from geopolitics and establishes a new paradigm based on the common interests of mankind.
Her speech immediately placed the whole question of the New Silk Road on a higher plane and. During the Q&A, and in the afternoon session, there was, however, a tendency to return to the “geopolitics” approach, with a number of further interventions by Zepp-LaRouche to bring things back on track. At one point, a somewhat disgruntled professor, who seemed to be quite happy with having China remain a largely agricultural country, reacted to what he thought she had said. Whether he misunderstood, or was simply “venting,” a number of the speakers praised the perspective she had raised.
There were a number of young people in attendance, one of whom got up at this point, saying that he had not intended to speak at all, but felt the need to do so at this point in order to underline the importance for China of what Zepp-LaRouche had just said.
At the banquet following the conference, many of the participants came up to her table to toast her contribution. And the conference organizers themselves were overjoyed with the event, which they felt had been transformed by Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s participation.
