The following is a collection of short articles on the British
destabilizations across Asia, encircling China with chaos. The articles cover Vietnam,
Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, and Myanmar. I will shortly send
out an accompanying article by Tanu Maitra on the Afghan/Pakistan crisis.
This will appear in the next EIR.
Mike Billington
____________________________________
British Operations Create Ring of Chaos Around China
by Michael Billington June 28, 2008
A glance at the map suggests that someone is trying
to overthrow the governments of many of China's neighbors
to the east, south, and west. Exactly so! Some nations,
like Vietnam, are under merciless economic attack from
abroad. In Thailand, South Korea and elsewhere, masses are
taking to the streets, demanding "throw the bastards out,"
often over local issues. The raging food and fuel crises
symptomatic of the exploded world financial system,
provide plenty of grounds for mass anger and outrage.
But who is it who wants to weaken or destroy these
governments? Would that help overcome the food and fuel
crises? Just the opposite: it would leave Asian
populations totally unprotected; they will be decimated.
Some of the grievances may be local, but the falling
dominoes game is global, and it's being played from
London.
London is trying to line up Europe and America for a
war against Eurasia, especially against Russia and China.
London's attempted overthrow of these Asian governments is
part of the war plan.
Lyndon LaRouche was asked recently to comment on the
fact that ``most of the neighbors of China, to the east
and south, are fighting, basically, extinction, fighting
day to day to exist as governments.'' LaRouche pointed to
the Anglo-Dutch oligarchy, which views Asia, where the
majority of the human race resides, as a primary target.
``If you are Prince Philip,'' LaRouche said, ``and
you are campaigning to reduce the world's population from
6.5 billion to 2 billion--and many people are out for a 1
billion target--then what the hell do you think is going
on? I mean, people who are sympathetic to the British
monarchy have to be really degenerates. You have Prince
Bernhard, who is now dead (we hope!), who married the
Dutch princess. His qualification was that he was a member
of the Nazi SS, and since he was marrying a Dutch
princess, he had to give up his membership in the SS. So,
he sent a letter of resignation from the SS personally to
Adolf Hitler, and signed it, {Heil Hitler}! What do you
expect from this guy?''
Identifying Al Gore as a lackey of the same British
policy, LaRouche continued, ``So, when you get rough on
these guys, as I do sometimes, and somebody comes up and
screams about, `you can't attack respectable people!' I
say, `I think your morality is defined by what you think
is respectable.' And turn it around that way. This is
what's lacking: People always make apologies for these
things.''
So, without apologies, here is a brief report on the
British operations to destroy the nation-states of Asia,
with China as the ultimate target. The following sections
cover: Vietnam; Thailand; Malaysia; Philippines; South
Korea; Myanmar; and Afghanistan/Pakistan.
1. Vietnam: Assault by Speculators
In a move which closely parallels the 1997 attack on
the Thai baht and other Asian currencies by George Soros
and his hedge fund cohorts, the British financial locusts
have launched an assault on the Vietnamese currency, the
dong, driving it down by 29% on the futures markets.
Vietnam Finance Minister Vu Van Ninh announced that the
government would defend the dong, while also trying to
slow the runaway inflation, now at 25%.
As in the 1997-98 so-called ``Asian crisis,'' the
speculators have more money than their targetted
governments; in this case, they plan to wait until Vietnam
runs out of foreign reserves defending the dong, then
collect a fortune on their futures contracts when the dong
collapses. Such a collapse could spark a ``run on the
bank'' across Asia, as in 1997--only this time the entire
world banking system is bankrupt and could explode from
such a spark.
Vietnam still has certain controls over its currency,
although these were loosened when the country joined the
World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2006. Speculators are
now working primarily with ``non-deliverable forward
futures'' in the currency derivatives market. At the
forefront of the locust horde is Morgan Stanley, which has
forecast (better to say, ``announced'') that the dong will
be devalued, with forward contracts betting on a 29% drop
over the year. The ``hit men'' from the rating agencies
have joined this criminal attack, with Standard & Poor's,
Moody's, and Fitch all lowering Vietnam's credit rating to
negative, thus further driving up borrowing costs. A
primary target is Vietnam's huge state-sector industries,
which the speculators want privatized so they can be
bought up on the cheap.
Vietnam's Central Bank has increased borrowing costs
three times this year, to 14%, the highest in Asia, trying
to squeeze out inflation. The stock market has collapsed
by 60% this year--the largest fall of any market in the
world.
The government has resisted lifting fuel subsidies,
retaining a safety net for its population and thus
preventing, so far, the kind of social explosion taking
place in other Asian nations. But this is a huge drain on
the budget and currency reserves. The trade deficit
tripled in the first five months of the year, from $4.25
billion one year ago, to $14.42 billion, further draining
reserves, and increasing Vietnam's vulnerability to the
locusts.
2. Thailand: Anarchy Looms
The same motley crew of anarchists who brought about
a military coup in Thailand in September 2006, against
highly popular Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, are at
it again against the newly elected government of Samak
Sundaravej. Under the leadership of Sondhi Limthongkul, a
publishing tycoon, and former Gen. Chamlong Srimuang, now
the head of a Buddhist cult, both professional anarchist
organizers who hide under the banner of ``democracy,''
about 25,000 demonstrators marched through police lines to
surround the Government House (the office of the Prime
Minister) on June 20, where they plan to stay until Samak
resigns. Similar demonstrations in 2006 (although much
larger) provided the cover for the military coup which
overthrew Thaksin. After two years of military rule, an
election in December brought supporters of Thaksin back
into power, under Prime Minister Samak.
The only complaint the demonstrators have against
Samak, is that he is too close to Thaksin, who is himself
officially out of politics while fighting scurrilous legal
charges. Wrapped in royal colors and claiming to support
the King, the mob was confronted by 8,000 police, but the
police were ordered not to use force to stop the illegal
demonstrations.
As in 2006, the demonstrators are mostly from the
urban middle class, but this time students are largely
absent--the youth apparently now recognize that the
``pro-democracy'' demonstrations are a cover for yet
another military coup. However, the anarchists enjoy the
full support of the Dow Jones (i.e., Rupert Murdoch) rag
in Bangkok, {The Nation}, as they did in 2006.
The labor unions and farmers have not joined the
demonstrations--the majority were strong supporters of
Thaksin's pro-growth policies and his general welfare
support for the poor, and believe Samak will continue
those policies. But the fuel and food price hikes are
provoking protests which could intersect the anti-Samak
demonstrations. Already fishermen in the South held a
public boat-burning, claiming that fuel costs made every
trip a losing venture. Truckers had a similar complaint
and threatened to protest with their trucks in Bangkok.
The government calmed the waters with fuel subsidies, but
this is clearly a temporary solution.
Rice farmers, too, threatened to set up camp in
Bangkok. Despite the huge rise in rice prices, the profits
went to the corporate exporters, and rice farmers got
little or nothing. The government placed a floor on the
price paid to farmers, and began issuing food stamps to
the poor--all necessary and humane, but as the
hyperinflation grows, such subsidies could prove
impossible to sustain.
Meanwhile, Chamlong can be expected to attempt a
repeat performance of his 1992 coup effort, when he
marched his followers into the military lines, provoking a
bloody confrontation which brought down the government.
Political analyst Thitinan Pongsudhirak of Chulalongkorn
University concurred with the government party's
assessment that the mob under Chamlong's direction is
``agitating for blood. They are going for broke every day
to bring down the government.''
The 1992 demonstrators were exposed at the time by
{EIR} to have been funded and trained by USAID, the Asia
Foundation, the AFL-CIO, and the National Endowment for
Democracy, all with U.S. government money and approval.
This operation set Thailand up for the assault by George
Soros and his fellow hedge fund thieves, leading to the
mass looting of Asia in the 1997-98 ``Asian crisis.''
The opposition party has taken advantage of the
crisis to hold a no-confidence debate in the Parliament,
although it has no chance of passing. Prime Minister Samak
has refused to back down from his electoral mandate, and
has warned that the those occupying the streets will have
to be removed. The government has thus far succeeded in
calming angry truckers and fishermen, who are being
crushed by fuel costs, with subsidies and pay raises, but
this has obvious limits.
3. Effort To Destroy Malaysia
Former Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia Anwar
Ibrahim, wholly owned by London and London's U.S. assets
Al Gore, Paul Wolfowitz, and George Soros, was deposed and
imprisoned in 1998, at the same time that then-Prime
Minister Mahathir Mohamad saved his nation from Soros and
his fellow speculators by imposing currency controls on
the Malaysian currency, the ringgit. After his release
from prison in 2004, Anwar was sponsored by Wolfowitz and
his cohorts, providing him several lucrative positions at
universities in Washington and Oxford, at the World Bank,
and at foundations in Washington and London. The warchest
thus accumulated is now being put to work, to buy his way
into becoming prime minister, the position he had been
denied by Dr. Mahathir in 1998.
While the global food crisis exploded over the past
year, Malaysia, which had allowed itself to be more than
50% dependent on food imports, was faced with both food
inflation and potential shortages. This, coupled with the
spiking fuel prices, provided a crisis environment for
Anwar to launch his attack on Malaysian sovereignty, on
behalf of his Western sponsors. He pasted together a
``strange-bedfellows'' opposition alliance, which cut into
the government's majority in Parliament during the recent
elections. Anwar began bragging that he would ``persuade''
MPs from the government party to defect, and that he would
soon be prime minister.
Although most Malays hold Anwar in contempt for his
subservience to the British financial oligarchs, the
population is being crushed by the hyperinflation caused
by those same oligarchs. To the extent the government
fails to rally the nation to fight those oligarchs, it
could further lose popular support.
Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi has implemented a
series of necessary measures to double food production,
and has initiated serious discussion on the develpment of
nuclear power. He also truthfully identified the
speculators as being behind the hyperinflation, noting
that ``If our own financial institutions were involved, I
have no doubt that we would have been subject to
vociferous criticism.'' He added that ``Each country faces
a different situation, but we should share recognition''
of the cause, and work internationally for a solution.
4. Philippines: New `People's Power' Scam?
The Philippines never recovered from the ``regime
change'' of 1986, which deposed President Ferdinand
Marcos, on orders of neocon godfather George Shultz and
his deputy Paul Wolfowitz. With that coup, the
Philippines' leading role in Southeast Asia was
systematically dismantled: The fully completed nuclear
power plant was put in mothballs (although the country had
to pay every cent of its construction cost); the Green
Revolution which had made the nation self-sufficient in
rice was dismantled, in favor of the globalization of
food; and industrialization was scrapped in favor of
process industries and the export of labor. The nation now
suffers the highest electricity costs in Asia, and is the
world's largest importer of rice. Hyperinflation is
driving the Philippines to the brink of catastrophe.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo owes her job to the
same crew who overthrew Marcos in 1986, and is herself
complicit in the current disaster. Nonetheless, she has
taken some steps to break from the globalization
dictatorship. She has expanded relations with China, and,
with Chinese help, made efforts to revive the Green
Revolution. That program stalled in 2004, but in the
desperate conditions of the current rice crisis, she is
attempting to get it started again.
Most importantly, the government is seriously moving
to reopen the mothballed nuclear plant. This would be both
a victory for the nation, and a symbol to all of Asia that
the anti-science, anti-production globalization process
unleashed in the 1980s can be reversed.
But the government is fragile. Desperate and hungry
people are lining up for hours every day in Manila to
obtain small amounts of subsidized rice, while food
shortages also threaten other areas of the country.
President Arroyo has been under threat of various coups
continuously since she took office in 2001, and has only
stayed in power through extra-legal means. Only an
extraordinary commitment to return to the economic vision
of the Marcos era can put the Philippines in a position to
weather the global storm, and to join other nations in
building a new world economic order.
5. South Korea Pushed to the Brink
South Korea is facing a series of revolts which
threaten to topple the newly elected government, despite
its overwhelming victory in the December Presidential
election and the April parliamentary election.
Demonstrations began soon after President Lee
Myung-bak travelled to the United States in April, aiming
to repair strained relations which developed during the
former administration of Roh Moo-hyun. As a concession to
Washington, Lee had agreed to lift restrictions on beef
imports from the U.S., which had been imposed during the
``mad-cow disease'' crisis in 2003.
The demonstrations expanded rapidly, driven by other
issues than beef imports: soaring food and fuel costs;
President Lee's perceived aloof CEO-style of governing (he
was once CEO of Hyundai); and historic anti-Americanism,
which has grown stronger during the Bush/Cheney years.
A strike of truckers in June nearly closed the ports,
just as the daily demonstrations peaked at several hundred
thousand. President Lee has since changed course
drastically, granting significant subsidies and pay raises
to the truckers and others affected by soaring fuel
prices, removing nearly all his top advisors, promising
cabinet changes, negotiating a comprimise agreement with
Washington on the beef issue, and apologizing to the
Korean people.
Seoul is also fighting a potentially existential
battle with the hedge funds that have moved into South
Korea since the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis. Efforts to
prevent the looting of national industries, and to stop
the intended British break-up of the huge {chaebol}
conglomerates which have made South Korea the 12th-largest
economy in the world, have had only partial success.
The immediate crisis has been contained, but tensions
remain high. The government hopes that new, strengthened
relations with its Asian neighbors, especially joint
development projects with Russia in the Russian Far East,
can revive the economy and restore the administration's
popular base of support. This is preceisely the Asian
alliance which the British wish to disrupt.
6. British War Plan for Myanmar
Cyclone Nargis, which laid waste to much of Myanmar's
rice production area in May, was immediately seized upon
by the British as an opportunity to implement their new
colonial scheme, known as a ``League of Democracies.'' The
argument: The UN is now worthless, since Russia and China
use their veto power to prevent military interventions
against nations that refuse British dictates; therefore, a
new ``coalition of the willing'' must take over, to effect
regime change where desired--militarily, if necessary.
A related concept to be tested in the planned
``humanitarian'' invasion of Myanmar was a concept called
``responsibility to protect,'' recently adopted by the UN
for countries deemed guilty of genocide against their own
people.
Myanmar's ruling junta had no difficulty recognizing
the intention, and refused to allow U.S. or European
military forces to deliver aid to cyclone victims,
insisting that all aid be turned over to the government
for distribution by the people of Myanmar themselves.
Two crucial actions stopped the British colonial
scheme. First, the United States--at least its military
leaders--rejected it absolutely. Pacific Command chief
Adm. Timothy Keating accepted the conditions laid down by
Myanmar, arranged for over 100 C-130 transport flights of
aid to be delivered to Yangon and turned over to the
military government, while the British and the French
military ships sat off-shore threatening to invade.
Second, the ten members of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which includes Myanmar,
accepted Myanmar's request to coordinate all foreign aid
for the cyclone victims and for reconstruction, thus
effectively telling the British they would have to deal
with all of ASEAN if they chose to invade.
The immediate threat has passed--the British have
shifted their focus to Zimbabwe. However, Myanmar remains
a favorite target of British subversion, in large part
because its geography makes it a strategic hub for India,
China, and its fellow Southeast Asian countries. As these
nations continue to participate in the development of
Myanmar, especially its regional transportation grids,
facilitating economic cooperation and expansion, the
British must be expected to escalate their plans for
destabiization.
7. Break-Up of Pakistan and Afghanistan
The long-standing British plan for the break-up of
Pakistan and Afghanistan has reached critical mass, as
reported elsewhere on this site. [see separate e-mail -
mob]