بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
News Review 13/02/2021
After Two Hour China Phone Call, Biden says China will ‘Eat our Lunch’
Joe Biden this week had a lot to discuss with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his first phone call after becoming US President, which lasted two hours, a remarkably lengthy time for an American president. Biden talks about knowing him well from his time as Vice President under President Obama but much has happened since then; China has been one of America’s foremost challenges in this past decade.
From the time of China’s reopening to the world, initiated in Mao Zedong’s final years but properly established by his successor Deng Xiaoping, America had been following a consistent policy towards China, essential similar to its post-war treatment of its German and Japanese opponents, which was to connect China economically with the Unites States. Following this policy, Germany and Japan both became economic giants but established on an export model instead of indigenous requirements. China too became the factory of the world, making what others need but not what it requires itself. However, in Germany and Japan, this economic programme was accompanied by direct American military presence, as an occupying power, along with political control of the government, whereas in China, the political leadership remained intact and its military unfettered. Thus, it was only a matter of time before China realised the trap that America had set for it and turned its attention to its own indigenous economic needs including strategic industries and military production, while at the same time accelerating the build-up and modernisation of its armed forces and the projection of its power into the South China Sea and beyond, thus directly threatening American national security, which considers the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to be its private waters.
America realised the need to change its China policy by the early years of the 21st century but at that time had fallen into calamitous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, wars that America had foolishly thought it could easily win. Then came the revolutions of the Arab Spring that almost fully consumed the energies of the American foreign policy establishment, particularly the uprising in Syria that Kissinger described as having the potential to unravel the entire Westphalian nation-state system. Obama did undertake important steps to reposition America’s China policy, but it was Trump that radically changed the tone of US-Chinese relations, reversing decades of economic engagement by firing up a brutal trade war. But by the end of Trump’s term it became clear that a trade war would not be sufficient to block China’s ascendancy; moreover, the US economy has become fundamentally weakened by decades of dependency on Chinese production. Hence Biden’s discussion of massive domestic stimulus spending. Imploring US Senators the day after his call with China, Biden said, “If we don’t get moving they’re going to each our lunch”. Further, describing China, he said, “They’re investing billions of dollars dealing with a whole range of issues that relate to transportation, the environment and a whole range of other things. We just have to step up.”
There is much for aware Muslims to learn from these developments. America may well be the global superpower but it is deeply flawed as a result of the Capitalist ideology that it has embraced along with the rest of the Western world. Western prosperity is not built on the success of its Capitalist economic system, which has actually failed, but on the strength of its continued imperialistic foreign policy, which makes the West dependent on the exploitation of the resources and economies of others. China, too, is in the initial phase of implementing the Capitalist economic system; this initial phase brings phenomenal growth built on exploitation of the domestic workforce, which in China’s case is massive. But China is already exhausting its internal supply of cheap labour, and has begun efforts to exploit others in its region. This all stands in contrast to Islam, which builds a vigorous domestic economy through establishing just and productive economic relations between its people, and actively working for an equitable distribution of wealth within society. Furthermore, economic relations are supported by powerful social relations centred on the family that provide a sound basis for entrepreneurship and risk-taking, backed up by a solid safety net from the state. It was the implementation of Islam for over a thousand years by the Islamic Khilafah (Caliphate) State that brought peace, harmony and prosperity not only to Muslims but also to both the West and to China, which greatly benefited from their interconnectivity to the Muslim world, for example through the Silk Route passing through Muslim lands. Capitalism destroyed all that. But with Allah’s permission, the Muslim Ummah is now rising again and will soon re-establish the Islamic Khilafah State on the method of the Prophet (saw) that shall unify all Muslim lands, entering almost from its inception, the ranks of the great powers because of its size, strength, population, resources, geopolitical location and Islamic ideology.
US Military in the Middle East, Libya, Illegal Jewish entity
Incoming US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin is said to be “comfortable” with the US military presence across the Middle East, according to an article in Al-Monitor quoting his press secretary. Lloyd Austin is a retired military officer who under President Obama headed the US Central Command, responsible for US military operations in most of the Muslim world. His choice as Secretary of Defence points to the considerable remaining challenges for the Biden administration in managing America’s engagement with Muslim countries. America owns the most powerful military force on the planet but American strength is dramatically limited in Muslim countries because of its having to project power across oceans from the other side of the world. Additionally, the American disbelieving soldier is in reality no match for the sincere Muslim mujahid. This has led America to abandon the idea of deploying its own forces in Muslim lands and instead depend on building a type of local balance of power by driving Muslim countries against each other. Meanwhile the Muslim Ummah is as yet unaware of its full strength; not recognising that the weakness of Muslim governments is only because they are led by agent rulers that have sold themselves to the West.
The United States continues to make progress in Libya, after having introduced Turkey and Russia to the country, two countries that previously covertly cooperated in executing the American plan against the Syrian revolution. Libya’s new unitary governing team includes Abdul Hameed Dbeibah as prime minister, with family business links to Turkey, and who said last Saturday, “We will have great solidarity with the Turkish people and state. Turkey is our ally, friend and brother. Also, Turkey has big capabilities to support Libyans to reach their real targets. Turkey is a real partner for us.” America has been working for almost a decade to wrest Libya away from British control. The Arab Spring was a genuine expression of Islamic uprising but, without sincere, indigenous, capable leadership committed to Islam, the Arab Spring turned into yet another opportunity for Western powers to unseat each other’s agents and attempt to impose their own agents instead. The Muslim Ummah shall not be rid of the interference of the disbelieving imperialist Western powers until they depose its agent rulers and instead takes charge of their own affairs, pledging themselves once more to a Khalifa (Caliph) who shall be a sincere servant to the believers and owe loyalty to no one except Allah and His Messenger (saw).
Three weeks into his presidency and Joe Biden has still not called Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of the illegal Jewish entity, someone whom both Presidents Obama and Trump reached out to in their first two days in office. Nevertheless, Muslims should not be misled into thinking that Biden is in any way averse to the Zionist agenda. Biden has made clear that he will not reverse any of the policies undertaken by Trump in favour of the illegal entity. Biden is only expressing momentary American displeasure with Netanyahu personally, who attempted to use his personal relationship with the family of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, to gain additional benefits for the illegal entity. Netanyahu typifies the ‘spoilt child’ mentality of Jewish leaders in the illegal entity that America has long chosen to tolerate. As a solid member of the American establishment, Biden is fully committed to supporting this foreign illegal presence, which represents a second Crusader state in the heart of the Muslim world a millennium after the first was defeated by Muslim armies under the command of Salahuddin Ayyubi. But at that time, the Islamic Khilafah State existed and fully supported the liberation of Palestine, whereas today Muslim countries are in the hands of agent rulers that work to protect the foreign presence in Muslim lands, whether in Palestine, or Kashmir, or Afghanistan, or elsewhere. With Allah’s permission, Muslims shall soon overthrow these agents and re-establish the Islamic Khilafah State on the method of the Prophet (saw) that shall unify Muslim lands under a single leadership, liberate all occupied territories, restore the Islamic way of life, and carry the light of Islam to the entire world.