PRESS RELEASE
China, Russia Warn Europe and U.S.: Your Anti-Nation-State Policies Are Coming Back To Haunt You
Oct. 23, 2017 (EIRNS)—As expected, the long-festering separatist drive of the Basque region of Spain has now been piled onto the Catalonia crisis. Inigo Urkullu, president of the Basque Autonomous Community, writing in the London Guardian today, called upon the European Union to move in to oversee negotiations on a new Spanish "plurinational" nation, in the name of "self-determination" and "democracy." Like the Catalan separatists, Urkullu swore allegiance to the supranational project of the dying EU paradigm.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had warned in his speech to the Valdai Forum last week, that "the situation in Spain clearly shows how fragile stability can be even in a prosperous and established state," pointing to the deliberate decision after the collapse of the Soviet Union to let "the genie of European internal division" out of the bottle as a driving force in today’s crisis.
"In the case of Catalonia, we saw the European Union and a number of other states unanimously condemn the supporters of independence.... [M]ore thought should have gone into this earlier. What, no one was aware of these centuries-old disagreements in Europe? They knew, did they not? However, at one time they basically welcomed the disintegration of a number of states in Europe, without hiding their joy on this matter,"
citing Kosovo, in particular. Putin warned that such double standards "pose serious danger to the stable development of Europe and other continents, and to the advancement of integration processes across the world."
Similarly, in an editorial statement today, China’s Global Times, which reflects official policy, pointed to the role of the West’s "democracy" double-standards in creating the Catalan separatist crisis, and calls on Europe to "wake up:"
"The West’s extravagant explanation over democracy, freedom and human rights over a long period of time is the fundamental reason this time, which provides the Catalan separatist movement a moral high ground it’s not supposed to have. Leaders requiring ‘democracy’ in Catalonia are more confident on the strength of their righteousness than those in the Spanish government who are preparing to file a lawsuit against them.
"There have been signs of the emergence of separatism in the West, but in prosperous old days, sufficient bread and butter helped dissolve the problem. However, the situation has changed. The Catalan independence movement is revealing a real danger....
"A state is still an effective and basic unit for human society and in maintaining world order. But during the decades after the Cold War, the West had destroyed some countries it does not like, supported almost every single anti-government activity in those nations and backed most of the separatist movements there, making people believe that democracy is above everything. Yet what happened in Catalonia may be a turning point.
"The Catalan independence movement sets off alarm bells for Europe to adjust. Europeans are addicted to their previous glory. But the continent is now facing various challenges. It’s time for them to wake up."
