From Volume 37, Issue 44 of EIR Online, Updated Nov. 19, 2010
Asia News Digest

Obama's Remarks on Myanmar Irk India

Nov. 10 (EIRNS)—Addressing India's joint parliamentary session on Nov. 8 in New Delhi, U.S. President Barack Obama launched into an attack on Myanmar's military regime, attacking India in the process. That attack, and his comments about Iran, evoked sharp criticism from India's political and government quarters.

"When peaceful democratic movements are suppressed—as in Burma [Myanmar]—then, the democracies of the world cannot remain silent," Obama said in his 40-minute address, adding, "For, it is unacceptable to gun down peaceful protesters and incarcerate political prisoners decade after decade." He also called out India for not always speaking its mind, as it should, on "bankrupt regimes" like those in Myanmar. "If I can be frank," he went on, "India has often avoided these issues." Obama's comments on Myanmar came after the weekend national elections in the Southeast Asian nation, which, he had said, would "be anything but free and fair."

The statement was read clearly in New Delhi as a snub to India. A senior minister in the ruling UPA government said Obama's remarks on Myanmar were in fact a red herring, and that the real message was a cry for support on the U.S. position on Iran and its nuclear program. Some young Members of Parliament, who said the U.S. President should not have made this remark, elaborated, saying that India could not ignore its immediate neighbor, with which it shares a 1,500-km border. Coupled with facts like insurgency problems in the northeast, and the growing influence of China in Myanmar, India had to look after its strategic interests in the region, they said, adding that Myanmar was a strategically important country in the Southeast Asian region. Another Member of Parliament pointed out that Myanmar was not a problem. It is not on the dark side of the Moon, but a reality existing on India's borders.

Obama Plans To Backtrack on Troop Withdrawal from Afghanistan

Nov. 11 (EIRNS)—Today's New York Times pointed out that the Obama Administration is increasingly emphasizing the idea that the United States will have forces in Afghanistan until at least the end of 2014, a change in tone aimed at persuading the Afghans and the Taliban that there will be no significant American troop withdrawals next Summer. The White House is now in the process of reviewing the Afghan War situation, and will be coming out with the review-report next month.

It is evident that President Obama and his coterie are now listening closely to what London recommends on the issue. On Nov. 8, speaking before Britain's Foreign Affairs Committee, former British Ambassador to Kabul, Sherard Cowper-Coles, stated that the United States and NATO troops should stay in Afghanistan indefinitely, after handing over power to the Taliban through negotiations, the way the British Raj kept Afghanistan stable. The Times article also pointed out that last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who was addressing a security and diplomatic conference in Australia, all cited 2014, as the key date for handing over the defense of Afghanistan to the Afghans, themselves.

Listening to this likely shift in Obama's Afghan policy, Lyndon LaRouche pointed out that they have no money to transfer the troops. Crazier policies than this can be expected of this insane President, he noted.

Philippines Radio Hears LaRouche Webcast Message

Nov. 7 (EIRNS)—Mike Billington appeared on the Philippines LaRouche Society radio show hosted by Butch Valdes tonight, presenting the marching orders issued by Lyndon LaRouche in his historic Nov. 6 webcast (see http://www.larouchepac.com/webcasts/20101106.html).

One question asked, was why the American people, who know that FDR's policies worked, are not leaping at the opportunity to implement them again today? Billington discussed the long-term destruction of the American cultural tradition, beginning with Truman's toadying for the British, the Boomer generation's self-destruction in the 1960s, and the environmentalists' assault on the idea of progress, all orchestrated from London.

Chinese Official Warns of Inflation; Wants To Stem Speculation

Nov. 10 (EIRNS)—Zhou Wangjun, the deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, the chief planning body of the Chinese government, in an on-line interview today, warned of the increasing inflation risks for China. This, after it was reported that the consumer price index had reached 4.4%, with a whopping 10.1% year-on-year increase in the very sensitive food prices pushing everything upward.

Zhou pointed to a number of reasons for this situation. One, the excess liquidity in the system, aggravated by the recent QE2 decision by the Fed to flood the markets with dollars, which he said was a problem for the whole world. Two, there was a rise in vegetable prices, due to the severe weather conditions and drought in various parts of the world. Three, the rapid development and urbanization in China had reduced, relatively, the productive resources in rural areas and thus raised labor costs there.

Four, there was a dangerous speculation in commodities. The price rise in green beans, garlic, and cotton had led to rampant speculation on the commodities exchange, with particularly heavy trading on the cotton futures market on November 8 of more than 3 billion yuan in one day (!), far beyond what has ever happened before, Zhang said. Zhang also reported that there was considerable hoarding of commodities on expectations of further price rises.

China Leads Defense Against Obama's Hyperinflation at G20

Nov. 12 (EIRNS)—China's President Hu Jintao led the international resistance to the Obama government's hyperinflationary insanity at the G-20 summit in Seoul today. Hu Jintao demanded that nations now "take responsibility to both history and the future," and that those nations which issue reserve currencies—the United States—should adopt "responsible policies" to keep exchange rates stable. Hu was stating—very clearly—what has long been China's financial policy. What is new, is that many nations have recognized the extreme dangers posed by the Obama/Ben Bernanke QE2 insanity, and, as at the Copenhagen climate change debacle, Obama isolated himself in Seoul.

In his speech, Hu emphasized that the profound impact of the international financial crisis is still reverberating. "We must adopt an attitude responsible to history and the future, bear in mind the common interests of mankind, build on what we have already achieved and continue to work in concert for strong, sustainable and balanced growth of the world economy," Hu said. Specifically addressing the hyperinflationary insanity, he asserted that the "major reserve currency issuing economies should adopt responsible policies, maintain relative stability of exchange rates and help enhance the resilience of emerging market economies and developing countries against financial risks, thus easing and gradually removing the fundamental problems behind foreign exchange liquidity risks." China's authority on these issues, Hu noted, is that it has been able to bring over 200 million people out of absolute poverty during the past 30 years.

A "thorough analysis" of China's view of G20, by Seoul Xinhua editor Na Haejung published today, was sharply critical of both the "quantitative easing of the U.S. pumping more hot money into global financial markets and causing volatile moves in small-sized emerging markets," and attempts by South Korean officials to proclaim the summit a success. There was "heated debate" on exchange rates and trade imbalances, and on the attempts from Washington to enforce its agenda, Na wrote.

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