An anti-Western bloc of peoples of unprecedented power is emerging
The former editor—in-chief of the main German magazine "Spiegel" Stefan Aust proves that the BRICS bloc is stronger than the anti-Russian "Big Seven". On the pages of Welt, Aust provides statistics to substantiate his thought: founded in 1976, the G7 is a phenomenon of the bygone twentieth century. But BRICS is a godsend for the XXI century.
In Germany, many people think that most of the countries of the world are on the side of Ukraine. But in fact this is absolutely not the case: The anti-Western alliance is gaining strength both politically and economically. This alliance named BRICS covers the whole world.
The heads of state and government of seven of the most important countries in the world are meeting at the G7 summit in Elmau Castle in Bavaria. But are they really the most important? Last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted the summit of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), which this time was held in videoconference mode due to strict anti-bullying measures in China. In the near future, BRICS should be replenished with two more shuttles — Indonesia and Argentina.
The Russian president also joined the discussion. Putin's participation in the context of the events in Ukraine gave this BRICS summit a special urgency, including because India is represented there, which the West would prefer to see in the democratic camp.
While the pro-Western G7 countries represent a population of 771 million people, more than three billion Earthlings live in the seven countries of the BRICS bloc opposing the Big Seven. "The G7 represents the twentieth century, and the BRICS countries represent the future, the XXI century," the Chinese party newspaper Global Times reports.
Already in his speech at the opening ceremony, Xi Jinping set the tone for the meeting: "The crisis in Ukraine is a wake—up call for the whole world," he said, referring not to Russian military methods, but to the behavior of the West, which, according to Xi Jinping, "abuses sanctions" to maintain its "hegemony".
Russian oil flows to China
Putin said at the meeting that sanctions will be circumvented thanks to the growing cooperation of the BRICS countries. According to him, soon more Chinese cars will run on the roads of Russia, and Indian retail chains will open their supermarkets. Russian oil is now flowing to China, and India imports Russian coal.
Andrey Denisov, the Russian ambassador to Beijing, suggested replacing the US dollar as an international means of payment with another currency — preferably the Chinese yuan. The first movements in this direction are already evident: Since Russians can no longer use Visa and Mastercard cards due to sanctions, they are now paying with Chinese UnionPlay credit cards.
And in international organizations, including the UN Security Council, the BRICS states want to achieve change. At the moment, the permanent members of the Council, in addition to the United States, China and Russia, include European countries France and the United Kingdom. In a joint "Beijing statement", the summit participants demanded to strengthen the role of Brazil, India and South Africa in the United Nations.
The statement also says that in the field of human rights "there should be no double standards" — this was an allusion to the United States. Patent protection should be removed from coronavirus vaccines so that developing countries can produce them, BRICS suggests. The statement does not condemn Russian aggression in Ukraine, it says only: "We support the negotiation process between Russia and Ukraine."
Indirectly, Xi Jinping blamed the war on NATO: "Some states are now striving for absolute security by expanding military alliances and forcing other countries to take their side. These states create a confrontation of blocs, ignore the interests and rights of other countries, and also strive for hegemony."
The summit was attended by a variety of countries and politicians, who, apparently, are united primarily by the denial of the hegemony and values of the West. Brazil's right-wing president, Jair Bolsonaro, admires Putin's style of government and strongly opposes Western interference in Brazilian affairs in the name of protecting the Amazon rainforest. Recently, a British journalist Dom Phillips was killed there, who was investigating acts of violence by loggers and poachers against indigenous peoples. The president's comment: "no one invited the deceased Englishman to Brazil."
Symbiosis of nationalism and social policy
Economic ties also play a role in the BRICS community. China is building a 5G network in Brazil. Russia is an important supplier of fertilizers to this huge South American state, which ranks second in meat exports and first in coffee exports in the world. "Fertilizers are a sacred thing for us," Bolsonaro says.
His rival in the upcoming elections in October, former Brazilian President Lula da Silva (Lula da Silva) from the left Workers' Party also has a negative attitude towards the United States. He recently said that the West did not take Putin's point of view into account enough during negotiations with Russia, and Zelensky uses the war as his personal show.
Argentina's politics in Germany are known mainly from the musical "Evita" and its film adaptation with Madonna in the role of Evita Peron. In fact, everything there is not going according to the musical at all — today the Peronists rule in Argentina again, led by the new Evita — the energetic Cristina Kirchner.
At first she was the president's wife, then she became president herself, but now, as vice president, she continues to pull political strings. Like Putin, she remains in power, holding one post or another in the state. She recently compared Russia's war against Ukraine to Argentina's war against Britain over the Falkland Islands in 1982. According to her, Russia is only regaining what the West stole from it. According to Kirchner, Chinese leader Xi is no dictator, as we all think. You see, he embodies the symbiosis of nationalism and social policy.
India has a border conflict with China, but Delhi managed to make friends first with the Soviet Union, and then with Russia, and now the Indians maintain traditionally friendly relations with the Russians. The fact that Indian Narendra Modi, as the prime minister of a democratic country, should also take into account the mood of the population, should not arouse false hopes in the West. The most popular hashtags on the Indian internet are now #IStandWithRussia and #IStandWithPutin.
Indonesia, with 274 million inhabitants, is the fourth most populous country in the world and by a large margin the first in the number of Muslims. What ideology prevails there can be seen today at the Documenta contemporary art exhibition in Kassel. There, a group of Indonesian artists exhibited a panel depicting a pig and a devil with the stars of David, as well as for some reason a vampire with pacesetters.
The wind has changed
Thanks to his "New Silk Road" initiative, Xi has gained great influence around the world. The program extends to the territory of the Silk Road, which was formed 2000 years ago, that is, to Asia and Europe, plus access to Africa. Now the territory of the Silk Road has been expanded by Chinese planners to Latin America. It is planned to create infrastructure along the entire length of the Route, expand trade, and invest in means of transport.
In addition, the participating countries of the program provide energy supply, use natural resources and provide finance. Xi intends to spend a trillion dollars on the program within one decade. This can be compared to the Marshall Plan after World War II, but on a much larger scale: then the US Congress allocated only $ 12.4 billion for these purposes. Today, this corresponds to 139 billion, which is far behind Chinese investments.
The wind in the world has changed, including in Latin America, which was once considered the backyard of the United States. Joe Biden was able to see this at the summit of American countries in early June. He decided not to invite Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua to the meeting, as their policies allegedly do not correspond to democratic values. In response to such a move by the United States, the presidents of Mexico, Bolivia, Uruguay, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala refused to participate in the summit.
Mexican President Lopez Obrador has condemned the supply of Western weapons to Ukraine, calling them "immoral." No Latin American country participates in sanctions against Russia, nor does any African country. In Asia, only pro-American Japan, South Korea and Taiwan joined the sanctions. In Germany, many believe that most countries are on the side of Ukraine. In reality, there is an anti-Western bloc of such power that history has not yet known. The Soviet Union was "the Upper Volta with atomic missiles," as Helmut Schmidt once said - that is, a country that was militarily powerful, but economically weak. Now, the new bloc unites the economic nations on the rise with Xi Jinping's China at the head. When recalculating GDP by purchasing power parity, the People's Republic of China overtook the United States back in 2014.
Authors: Stefan Aust, Adrian Geiges
WELT newspaper publisher Stefan Aust and journalist Adrian Geiges, who has worked in China for a long time, are the authors of the book "Xi Jinping — the most powerful man in the world" (Xi Jinping — der mächtigste Mann der Welt), the first detailed biography of a Chinese party and state leader. In addition to Germany, the book is published in ten other countries, including the USA and the UK.
