Zakharova likens US to Hollywood ax-wielding maniac
The world is tired of American “attacks” and is looking for new forms of interaction, such as BRICS, FM spokesperson has said

Many countries are seeking membership in BRICS because they are tired of the “hidden” and “sometimes open aggression” of the US and are looking for new forms of cooperation, Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said on Sunday.

Earlier this week, Moscow said that Türkiye had officially applied to join BRICS, becoming the first NATO state to seek membership in the non-Western economic alliance. Over 30 countries have so far applied to become part of the group, which currently incorporates ten, including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Commenting to TASS news agency on why various nations are willing to join BRICS, Zakharova said that “the world is tired of American attacks” and “is voting for a different form of relationship.”

Nations would like to keep building ties on the principles of international law, “but since Washington, like some kind of maniac from its own Hollywood movie, destroys everything with a lawn mower, a saw, or some kind of an ax, the world is forced to look for new forms of interaction,” she explained. And these forms are the likes of BRICS, but not NATO, according to the Russian diplomat.

On Wednesday, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov confirmed earlier media reports that Türkiye has officially applied to join BRICS and added that the group’s member states will consider the bid. According to the official, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has also accepted Moscow’s invitation to attend the BRICS summit next month in the Russian city of Kazan. Russia is currently chairing the organization.

BRICS was founded in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India, and China, with South Africa joining in 2011. The group expanded this year when Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates became full members.

https://www.rt.com/russia/603692-washington-acts-maniac-brics

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Lisa Visentin SMH

North Asia correspondent

SINGAPORE: No vote commands the attention of world leaders like the US presidential election. When millions of Americans line up to cast their vote on November 5, the Chinese Communist Party elite will be among those closely watching the verdict with the keenest of interest.

Whether voters send Kamala Harris or Donald Trump to the White House, their decision will shape the stability and security of the world for the next four years and beyond, pitting the commander of US power against the rising might of China and Xi Jinping’s global ambitions.

With two months until election day, the common view among Chinese scholars is that Beijing has no favourite in the race, with both candidates expected to maintain

the Washington consensus that Xi’s China represents the single greatest challenge to the US-led liberal international world order. ‘‘The general sense is that we will not see much difference in either a Harris administration or a second Trump administration,’’ said Professor Wu Xinbo, dean of Fudan University’s Institute of International Studies in Shanghai. Wu also serves on the policy advisory board of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

‘‘In the US, there is bipartisan consensus on China policy. It defines China as America’s primary strategic competitor.’’

This view has been echoed more colourfully by another Chinese scholar, Zhao Minghao, also from Fudan University, in a phrase that has featured on high rotation in Western media reporting in recent months.

‘‘Trump and Kamala Harris are two bowls of poison for Beijing,’’ Zhao told the UK’s Financial Times last month, having used the metaphor as far back as January when Joe Biden was still leading the Democratic ticket.

The future of the volatile USChina relationship has been a backseat issue in the presidential campaign so far, overshadowed by domestic debates such as the cost of living, LGBT rights and abortion. Foreign policy discussions have been dominated by the pressing crisis in Gaza and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

For her part, Harris has given Chinese officials little fresh content to scrutinise as they scour for any shades of difference that might exist between her and Biden. She has had little to say on China-related issues on the campaign trail beyond a line in her acceptance speech for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination last month, in which she vowed to ensure that ‘‘America, not China, wins the competition for the 21st century.’’

In her only major TV interview since being anointed Biden’s replacement, China did not feature at all on CNN’s list of questions.

Trump, by comparison, has repeatedly tapped a vein of workingclass resentment toward China. He mentioned China 14 times in his Republican nomination acceptance speech in July, where he blamed the world’s second-largest economy for destroying American auto jobs and revived his ‘‘China virus’’ epithet about the COVID pandemic.

On the policy front, he has said he would impose tariffs of 60 per cent or higher on all Chinese imports if he wins a second term. But he has also expressed admiration for Xi, calling him ‘‘a brilliant man’’ and a ‘‘fierce person’’ because ‘‘he controls 1.4 billion people with an iron fist’’.

Both candidates should have the opportunity to expand on their views when they face off in their first presidential debate on Tuesday (US time) in Philadelphia.

Wu said that while the Chinese leadership would be actively preparing for either outcome, his impression was that ‘‘there is more concern over Trump’’ due to the former president’s unpredictability and the extremely hawkish stance on China held by some of his key allies in the Republican Party.

‘‘Harris will be tough on China, to be sure, on the economic front, technology front, military front, and diplomatic front – but she will be more predictable than Donald Trump,’’ he said.

Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Stimson Center, a Washington-based think tank, said there was also a widely held expectation among analysts in both China and the US that the Harris administration would pick up where Biden left off.

In a move that surprised Chinese officials hoping for a recalibration after Trump’s departure from office in 2021, Biden maintained and even increased Trump-era tariffs on Chinese imports, including imposing a 100 per cent tariff on electric vehicles.

Biden also sanctioned Chinese companies aiding Russia’s war efforts and stepped up America’s regional alliances with countries such as Australia, Japan and the Philippines to counter China’s growing influence in the Indo-Pacific.

Wang Yiwei, director of Renmin University’s Institute of International Affairs in Beijing and a former Chinese diplomat, said Harris was still a largely unknown quantity on China-issues, and noted that she had never been to China. She did meet with Xi on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Bangkok in 2022.

‘‘We don’t know yet anything that she thinks [about China], but her personality is more soft [than Trump’s] and we expect more continuity of the Biden policy,’’ Wang said.

Trump’s isolationist approach to foreign policy has fuelled criticism from his rivals, who say he would weaken the US alliance system abroad, paving the way for China to strengthen its global influence and superpower status.

On Taiwan, for example, Trump has not matched Biden’s position that the US would defend the selfgoverned island in the face of Chinese aggression, and has instead complained that ‘‘Taiwan doesn’t give us anything’’, ‘‘should pay us for defence’’ and had stolen America’s chip industry.

This stands in stark contrast to the strong support for Taiwan among Republican hawks, including Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance, who has said: ‘‘The thing that we need to prevent more than anything is a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.’’

Some Chinese scholars are quick to dismiss the theory that Beijing is hoping Trump returns.

‘‘If Trump wins, yes, perhaps the US will face some domestic problems. But it doesn’t mean that China will benefit from that,’’ said Dr Sun Chenghao, a fellow at Tsinghua University.

Instead, he said it could further destabilise the US-China relationship because Trump could look to unite domestic opinion by channelling antipathy towards China.

Wu added: ‘‘He is very unpredictable and sometimes he does not care about the consequences of his actions. That is a big problem. These are two most important countries in the world – if you take a very reckless approach to this relationship that creates big risk, not only for the two countries, but also for the entire world.’’

SMH 09/09/2024

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WHILE CHINA WANTS PEACE, AMERICA WANTS WAR...