– “Colossal Defeat” For Obama As Australia Joins China’s Regional Bank (ZeroHedge, March 16, 2015):
Having attacked its “closest ally” UK for “constant accomodation” with China, we suspect President Obama will be greatly displeased at yet another close-ally’s decision to partner up with the Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). As The Australian reports, “make no mistake,” the decision by Australia’s Abbott government to sign on for negotiations to join China’s regional bank, foreshadowed by Tony Abbott at the weekend, “represents a colossal defeat for the Obama administration’s incompetent, distracted, ham-fisted diplomacy in Asia.”
As The Australian’s Greg Sheridan writes Op-Ed,
The decision by the Abbott government to sign on for negotiations to join China’s regional bank, foreshadowed by Tony Abbott at the weekend, represents another defeat for Barack Obama’s diplomacy in Asia.
The Abbott government is right to make this decision. It had well-founded concerns about the vague and unsatisfactory governance arrangements of the institution when Beijing first invited Canberra to join.
Those arrangements have improved since then and Australia is only signing on to negotiate terms of accession.
If the terms are no good, Australia will ultimately walk away.
Canberra’s move follows similar decisions by Britain, Singapore, India and New Zealand.
Make no mistake — all this represents a colossal defeat for the Obama administration’s incompetent, distracted, ham-fisted diplomacy in Asia.
The Obama administration didn’t want Australia to sign up for the China-led AIIB. The Abbott government rightly feels that it owes Obama nothing.
Obama went out of his way to embarrass the Prime Minister politically on climate change with a rogue speech at the G20 summit in Brisbane.
The speech had been billed as dealing with American leadership in Asia and instead was full of material designed to embarrass Abbott.
Since then, the Abbott government has felt absolutely zero subjective good will for Obama.
This is an outlook shared by many American allies.
It’s important to get all the distinctions right here.
The Abbott government operates foreign policy in Australia’s national interest.
That includes full fidelity to the American alliance and to supporting US strategic leadership.
But the Obama administration has neither the continuous presence, nor the tactical wherewithal nor the store of goodwill or personal relationships to carry Canberra, or other allies, on non-essential matters.
The Obama administration has tried to convince both its friends and allies not to join the China Bank.
This was probably a bad call in itself, but, as so often with the Obama administration, it was a bad call badly implemented.
The characteristically bad implementation has helped shred Obama’s diplomatic credibility.
The Chinese have been the US’s best friends in Asia, diplomatically. Their territorial aggressiveness in the East and South China Seas has driven Asia to embrace America’s security role more tightly than ever.
The American military are now the best American diplomats in Asia by far.
Such prestige as the US enjoys in Asia these days rests disproportionately on the shoulders of the US military.
Obama has neglected and mistreated allies and as a result Washington has much less influence than previously.
The saga of the China Bank is almost a textbook case of the failure of Obama’s foreign policy.
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As we have detailed recently, Australia is in trouble economically and its pivot to China makes perfect self-preservation sense… as Sheridan notes:
Obama treats allies shabbily and as a result he loses influence with them and then seems perpetually surprised at this outcome.
The Asian professionals in Washington regard the Obama administration as particularly ineffective in Asia.
The consensus is that the Obama White House is insular, isolated, inward-looking, focused on the President’s personal image and ineffective in foreign policy.
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De-dollarization continues… As Simon Black recently concluded, now we can see words are turning into action…
Britain and Australia might be too polite to tell the US straight up– “Look, you have $18.1 trillion in official debt, you have $42 trillion in unfunded liabilities, and you’re kind of a dick. I’m dumping you.”
So instead they’re going with the “it’s not you, it’s me” approach.
But to anyone paying attention, it’s pretty obvious where this trend is going.
It won’t be long before other western nations jump on the anti-dollar bandwagon with action and not just words.
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Bottom line: this isn’t theory or conjecture anymore. Every shred of objective evidence suggests that the dollar’s dominance is coming to an end.
It is another sign the west is sliding south, Obama is the current figurehead, nothing more…..a grave disappointment to the world. All the wealth is moving east; the establishment of BRICS was an obvious consequence to western bullying which replaced diplomacy after the fall of the USSR. Russia not only didn’t stay down, they found an adroit leader who has a clear idea of how the game of winning (Chess is an excellent model) is really played. Unlike Obama, Putin really is a master chess player, it is clear by all his actions.
Regardless of US propaganda that Russia is on their last legs, I suggest a visit to http://www.usdebtclock.org. Look at the debt to GDP of the US (now 100%) vs. Russia (debt to GDP of 33%). Every cent the US spends is now borrowed because every penny of income is already spent. It is madness, Lincoln’s fear the US would be vanquished by the Vandals Within has been proven.
We have fools in power, and all the key players are corporate bought and paid for before the people ever hear their names. It is a business, and the players are already given their marching orders. I wonder how long it will take for enough people to realize the corruption involved in running a candidate for office. It takes millions, money better spent on the nation……….
Obama is just another corporate candidate. His sweep to victory in 2008 was the most powerful mandate for change I have ever seen. The response……..status quo. He locked in a sweetheart deal for the insurance companies making it a law for citizens to buy insurance, and providing the IRS as a free collection agency; making them a permanent fixture in US medical care. Visiting a hospital today is a nightmare……horrible care is provided.
Since Hugo Chavez introduced the first electronic currency, the Sucre, for his association, the South American Trade Alliance in Spring of 2010, the world was changed forever. Member nations (12 tiny countries, including Cuba) for the first time in modern history were empowered to trade directly with each other using their own currency. The Sucre translated the value of each currency at the time of transaction, making it unnecessary & obsolete to convert to the dollar to complete the purchase. Powerful stuff, but they were so small, they flew under US radar. They saw what happened to countries that challenged US dollar domination, (Iraq). This was a quiet and peaceful way to achieve the same purpose without the destruction.
Russia and China watched closely. Seeing the success of the project, they adopted a similar program between each other in November, 2010…… trading with their own currencies, allowing an electronic currency to translate value. China went on to recruit Turkey, many other South American countries, along with Iran, India, Australia, Japan, the Netherlands and other middle eastern countries. Added Australia, Canada, and many other countries, too numerous to list now. For the first time the world has an alternative to US dollar domination and nearly 70% of the world are now moving their money east. The Sucre has made the idea of a world reserve currency obsolete, an incredible blow to US financial domination, and the US is powerless to stop it. Hubris.
In Spring of 2010, the dollar was used to complete international transactions in 100% of world trades. Today, it is down to 30%, and if the Euro goes with Australia, the dollar will be useless. That is a huge chunk out of US world domination. The dollar has nothing behind it but ink, and regardless of US propaganda, it is on shaky ground. It is the dollar teetering on a cliff, not Russia.
China lies about their debt level, just as they give false export numbers, claiming they earned far more than they did. Even when other countries challenges their numbers, they just insist on lying. As a result, they suffer credibility problems. They just don’t care because of the money they can earn MFG for BRICS nations. Looking at the other BRICS members, Brazil, India, and South Africa……all are earning money. The sanctions are the most foolish and internecine acts I have ever seen. Refusing to sell products to viable customers is beyond stupid…………I cannot find the words to express it.
When all the corporations moved MFG to China, in exchange for 25 years of slave labor, they agreed to give the Chinese government the blueprints for all their products. GE gave the Chinese all the technical directions to build power plants. Auto MFG gave them their trade secrets, and now China MFG identical vehicles under the guise of Cherry Motors. Carbon copies of Mercedes, Cadillac, Ford……….Talk about short term thinking. They can make anything from computers to appliances. It was the best deal China ever made.
I listen to the outright lies spewed by this government, and I honestly understand why other countries would find it reprehensible…………so does any American who find it insulting to be fed lies on a daily basis. The economy is better?…….I sure don’t see that when jobs vanish at the rate of a quarter million a week……..more Americans are sliding into the abyss and this president says how great everything is……..for the greedy gut money changers…….a few pockets of prosperity in weapons and biological areas………..but for most Americans, life is getting worse, not better.
Our once rich country has been gutted. The coup of 2000 which most Americans slept through has set its damages into place. All civil rights are gone along with most opportunity to earn a decent living……..
A defeat for Obama? Another defeat of the western economic model…..far more than just Obama. He will be fine, go on to write books, visit the fools who think he is great………his life is set. For the rest of us, not so rosy. We are losing the game.