Cailean Bochanan
2nd August, 2016
“Brexit means Brexit!” but what is Brexit? Well, now we know. It is the alignment of the UK with the policy which will dominate the next US presidency: the strategy of containment or isolation of China.
Posts Tagged ‘brexit agenda’
Once again on the meaning of Brexit
Posted by seumasach on August 2, 2016
Posted in brexit crisis, Containing China | Tagged: bankrupt Britain, brexit agenda, Chinese soft power, End of empire, the brexit disaster | Leave a Comment »
Is Britain’s Theresa May reversing David Cameron’s China policy?
Posted by seumasach on August 2, 2016
The coup in Brazil bringing into question both the BRICS and Mercosur, Brexit and the dismissal of Osborne, the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission report on human rights in China, the Hague ruling on the South China Seas, the weakening of Australia-China ties, the renewed protests in Hong Kong including demands for secession: all these point to the policy of “containment” of China as the dominant theme of US foreign policy under the next presidency. Detente with Russia should be viewed within this context.
2nd August, 2016
Prime Minister Therese May’s decision to delay approving a new nuclear power station partly funded by China at Hinkley Point may be an indication that she will soon be dismantling many of Cameron government’s policy plans. Hinkley Point being China’s first nuclear power project in the West, Beijing will lose its face if it is canceled.
Posted in brexit crisis, Containing China | Tagged: brexit agenda, China-UK comprehensive strategic partnership, osborne doctrine | Leave a Comment »
BRICS should prepare for ‘Braxit’: a Brazilian exit
Posted by seumasach on August 2, 2016
4th July, 2016
Will the new pro-American government in Brazil force a Braxit and bring down the BRICS wall? According to Oliver Stuenkel, Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) in Sao Paulo, “many Brazilian analysts believe it is time to leave” the BRICS
Posted in Containing China | Tagged: brexit agenda | Leave a Comment »
For Xi, a ‘China Dream’ of Military Power
Posted by seumasach on July 30, 2016
2010-2013 may be seen in retrospect to mark the beginning of a prolonged confrontation between China and the USA seeing both the coming to power of Xi, according to this article under the influence of the 2010 book “China Dream”, and the publication in 2011 of Clintons essay Asia’ Pacific Century. I had always tended to regard the famous “pivot to Asia” with some skepticism seeing it as merely a response to US failure in the Middle East. However, Brexit has made me rethink since it seems essentially to be a realignment of the UK with the USA with regard to China. Cameron called for the referendum on the EU in early 2013 but subsequently the UK appeared to be entering into an unprecedented strategic partnership with China. However, Cameron’s role in this was viewed with evident skepticism by the Chinese and it was George Osborne who took the leading role culminating in President Xi’s visit to London last year. Osborne is the main victim of post-Brexit vote machinations as well as the leave campaign’s neoconservative leaders who seemed to be under the illusion that victory would bring them to power. Power has instead fallen to May who has already put dampeners on the China partnership and brought the UK out of the sphere of influence of Chinese soft power. Not for the first time in its history Britain has abandoned its own national interest in deference to that of US imperialism.
13th March 2013
Soon after taking over as Communist Party and military chief, Xi Jinping launched a series of speeches referring to “The China Dream.”
Posted in brexit crisis, Uncategorized | Tagged: Asian pivot, brexit agenda, Clinton agenda, Obama agenda | Leave a Comment »
May concerned by “gung-ho approach to Chinese investment”
Posted by seumasach on July 30, 2016
In trying to assess the meaning of Brexit one thing is already absolutely clear: Brexit represents a rejection of the kind of top-level state-to-state engagement with China associated with George Osborne. The Comprehensive Strategic Partnership is over. Whether it may be revived later depends largely on whether article 50 is actually ever triggered. From a Chinese viewpoint such a shift would definitely correlate with a Clinton presidency according to a recent analysis in The Diplomat.
May had objections to Hinkley Point, says Cable
30th July, 2016
Theresa May had “objections” to a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point during the coalition, the then Business Secretary Sir Vince Cable has said.
Posted in British economy | Tagged: brexit agenda, China-UK comprehensive strategic partnership | Leave a Comment »
Assessing China’s post-Brexit globalisation strategy
Posted by seumasach on July 21, 2016
“In other words, despite its advantages in financial services and language, the UK’s ability to attract foreign investment is likely to be substituted by other EU countries. Once the UK loses its access to other EU markets after leaving the EU, it will also give away its advantage as a Chinese investment hub in Europe. In the same vein, as London loses part of its share of financial operations related to the EU, other cities such as Paris and Frankfurt should increase their capabilities as financial centres, with each probably specialising in different issues.”
This study confirms the obvious: that the UK will sacrifice a beneficial relationship with China by withdrawing from the EU. The irony is that, contrary to the claims of the Leave Campaign, we have lost strategic autonomy by voting “leave” and now appear to be acting in accordance with US interests. On the other hand, our engagement with China may not have been in good faith from the start, being only the other side of the coin of our anti-Russian foreign policy and our attempt to obstruct the emergence of a Washington-Moscow axis. In this case, Brexit could be seen as a salutary corrective although one which exposes the pre-existing fragility of the British economy.
19th July, 2016
Posted in British economy | Tagged: brexit, brexit agenda, China-UK comprehensive strategic partnership | Leave a Comment »
FBI arrests senior HSBC banker accused of rigging multibillion-dollar deal
Posted by seumasach on July 20, 2016
20th July, 2016
A senior HSBC banker has been arrested by the FBI as he attempted to board a transatlantic flight and charged him with fraudulently rigging a multibillion-dollar currency exchange deal.
Posted in British economy | Tagged: brexit agenda | Leave a Comment »
How May’s appointment as British PM will change UK-Russian relations
Posted by seumasach on July 15, 2016
“Speaking for myself, I have a particular reason to think well of Theresa May. She was a strong opponent of the setting up of the Public Inquiry into Litvinenko’s death, initially refusing permission for it until overruled by the High Court… When the Inquiry finally delivered its report — saying Putin and the Russian authorities ‘probably’ murdered Litvinenko — her response was notably unenthusiastic, suggesting that she continued to hold to her original view,” Mercouris underscores.
12th July, 2016
Posted in Global peace process | Tagged: brexit agenda, detente with Russia | Leave a Comment »
After Brexit: Obama back on track
Posted by seumasach on July 15, 2016
Cailean Bochanan
15th July, 2016
It looks like Brexit was Obama’s preferred option all along. In any case, both sides of the Atlantic have been suspiciously quick to catch on to the idea of a TTIP between the US and the UK after Britain has jumped from the back to the front of the cue. Obama has a new global role for us now that US-EU TTIP is dead in the water. It’s not exactly independence day but it’s not entirely bad news either.
Of course, a trade deal with the USA, between two de-industrialised debtor nations, offers little in itself. But there has to be more to it. Hopefully, it’s one step back in order to take several steps forward.
First of all, it’s about what we’re no longer doing. We are no longer America’s poodle in Europe pushing through a neo-liberal agenda, TTIP, a new cold war, NATO expansionism and aggression and acting as wrecker and saboteur of last resort in the process of European construction. Brexit is independence day for Europe. Rather than a domino effect as hoped by the neocons, now marginalized by Theresa May, we are seeing a wave of Euro- enthusiasm across Europe following Brexit and to follow there will be a swathe of Eurozone measures aimed at banking and fiscal union, control of borders and European security. We can also expect friendly overtures towards Russia, China and Iran.
Anglo-American diplomacy will also go into high gear with detente with Russia. The appearance of a sell-out will be countered by sabre-rattling in the South China Sea.
Ironically, Brexit, conceived by Little Englanders of the UKIP or IngSoc milieu, is the catalyst for global transformation. It pertains more to the wider world than to Britain itself.
Nevertheless, there must be something in it for us unless, amidst all the theatricality, we are to be given the role of real life proles in an Orwellian Oceania. One of most striking features of the new government is the ommission of Osborne not because he jumped the gun in his negotiations of a deal in Washington the other week, but because of his association with austerity. The government’s disavowal of austerity and declared intention of investing heavily in UK economy and infrastructure seems incompatible with the pound’s very vulnerable status. It only makes sense if some kind of global currency reset is imminent along with Chinese style real economy QE on a global scale. That appears to be a long shot but Brexit may have triggered a global transformation which astonish us all.
As for Britain’s relationship to all this: look for Brexit to be the mother of all mudge and fudge. At some point we can reintegrate ourselves into a Europe, or Eurasia, which will, in any case, no longer be the one we left.
Posted in Global peace process | Tagged: brexit agenda, global reset, Obama agenda | Leave a Comment »
David Davies: A Brexit economic strategy for Britain
Posted by seumasach on July 14, 2016
Here, then , is the plan. It is based on the usual humbug of Britain, the “great trading nation”, rather than the reality of Britain, the tax haven. Export-led growth is the policy embraced by Cameron after the 2008 crisis. Nothing happened. In order to have such a policy we would require massive investment in Britain’s depleted industrial base. For that, we require incoming investment. For incoming investment we require membership of the EU. China or India see investment in the UK as a gateway into the single market. Before recklessly throwing it all away we had already entered a strategic partnership with China which promised to achieve all these things. Significantly, Davies refers to “the deals which would most benefit us, such as those with Canada or the US.” Deals with other de-industrialised, debtor nations will do little for Britain’s export base. In reality, the political decision to align ourselves with the USA rather than Europe will do little for British industry or the British people. It will , however, be welcome in the City of London which will continue to receive incoming funds of dubious origin and in the areas of security and military- industrial complex.
David Davies(Secretary of State for Exiting the EU)
“So we need to shift our economy towards a more export-led growth strategy, based on higher productivity employment. Fortunately, this will prove eminently possible as a part of a Brexit-based economic strategy. Indeed, far from being the risky option that many have claimed, Brexit gives us many tools to deal with the very serious economic challenges that the country will face in the coming decades.”
Posted in British economy | Tagged: brexit agenda, David Davies(Secretary of State for Exiting the EU) | Leave a Comment »
Brexit clouds TTIP negotiations but may not scupper deal
Posted by seumasach on July 12, 2016
Third, with Britain’s vote to leave the EU, TTIP has just lost one of its greatest cheerleaders. French and German officials are increasingly expressing concerns about TTIP. Within three days of the Brexit vote, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls dismissed the possibility of a US-EU trade deal, stating TTIP was against ‘EU interests’. In addition, 59 per cent of Germans oppose TTIP – up from 51 per cent – according to the most recent Eurobarometer survey. Britain’s voice for further trade liberalization will be sorely missed by American negotiators eager to strike a deal.
Or is it like this? Despite British attempts to promote TTIP inside the EU, as “one of its greatest cheerleaders”, they, the Americans, have come up against a brick wall of European opposition at both institutional and street level. So they have given up on TTIP and no longer need the UK to play a role on their behalf inside Europe. So the UK has left the EU and now seeks a closer trade, investment and security relationship with the USA whilst using so-called negotiations over Brexit as the framework for a sustained anti-EU propaganda campaign aimed at creating a Brexit domino effect.
11th July, 2016
Posted in Battle for Europe | Tagged: brexit agenda, Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) | Leave a Comment »
In These New Times 