Obama’s ‘Asia Pivot’ Architect Declares Belt and Road a Tool of Chinese Military Dominance

Sept. 9, 2020 (EIRNS)—-The Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) has issued a report titled “How China Is Weaponizing the Belt and Road Initiative.” Its primary author, ASPI Vice President Danny Russel, was the key architect of Obama’s imperial “Pivot to Asia,” which launched the anti-China military build-up, which is now being extended under Pompeo and Esper, to drive President Donald Trump into conflict—perhaps war—with China.

Beyond the lie that the many ports being built by China in Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean and Africa are in fact aimed at military domination of the Indo-Pacific, the report actually is an open admission that the intent of U.S. intelligence (for which ASPI is an asset) is to stop the rise of China altogether, and in particular to stop the development of the underdeveloped nations. In a video by Russel describing the report, he says the ports in many cases “don’t make commercial sense” (an idiotic statement), but he admits that they are not fortified as military bases. “So what is the rationale?” he asks. His answer: to “increase leverage and influence.” The BRI is “widening an ecosystem of commercial, technological, diplomatic, informational and military connectivity.” Horror of horrors!

This is of no real benefit for the countries which are developing these ports, he goes on, even though they are always accompanied by new cities and industrial parks—but they simply serve to put the nations under Chinese control. “Where does this lead? Weaponizing the BRI for upending the international rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific.”

Could it be any clearer that the “rules-based order” so beloved by the British Empire crowd is the “rule” that there be no development, no ports, no industry, no progress?