Jan. 18, 2022 (EIRNS)\u2014Chinese President Xi Jinping\u2019s address to the World Economic Forum on Jan. 17 challenged every tenet espoused by that Malthusian nest. His message was blunt: we are in the midst of a world crisis in which no nation can survive, nor can any individual part of the crisis be resolved, unless humanity moves forward as a whole. Xi, through multiple Chinese metaphors, argued that nations must act together to implement a \u201cpeople-centered philosophy of economy,\u201d which places \u201cdevelopment and livelihoods front and center,\u201d if the kind of \u201chigh-quality development\u201d required to end the pandemic, poverty, and conflict is to be achieved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let Wall Street and the City of London scream \u201ccommunist propaganda!\u201d Americans who know their own history will take heart upon hearing that China\u2019s President lectured the financier parasites on how humanity can emerge from today\u2019s Dark Age by applying what are essentially the basic principles of Alexander Hamilton\u2019s American System of Economics, which America\u2019s fighting patriot, Lyndon LaRouche, advocated and advanced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The President argued: \u201c\u2018The wealth of a country is measured by the abundance of its people.\u2019 Thanks to considerable economic growth, the Chinese people are living much better lives. Nonetheless, we are soberly aware that to meet people\u2019s aspiration for an even better life, we still have much hard work to do in the long run. China has made it clear that we strive for more visible and substantive progress in the well-rounded development of individuals and the common prosperity of the entire population. We are working hard on all fronts to deliver this goal. The common prosperity we desire is not egalitarianism. To use an analogy, we will first make the pie bigger, and then divide it properly through reasonable institutional arrangements. As a rising tide lifts all boats, everyone will get a fair share from development, and development gains will benefit all our people in a more substantial and equitable way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Xi made four points. First, that cooperation is required to defeat the pandemic, which has proven protracted, with more variants and faster spreading than before, threatening people\u2019s health and the global economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Second, that coordination is required \u201cto turn the world economy from crisis to recovery\u2026. Major economies should see the world as one community, think in a more systematic way, increase policy transparency and information sharing, and coordinate the objectives, intensity and pace of fiscal and monetary policies, so as to prevent the world economy from plummeting again.\u201d Specifically, he warned, if the major economies \u201cslam on the brakes\u201d in monetary policy to fight inflation without developing \u201cnew drivers of economic growth,\u201d global financial stability will be shaken, and \u201cthe developing countries will bear the brunt of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Third: that global development requires overcoming the \u201cdevelopment divide.\u201d The number of poor people in the world \u201chas increased by over 100 million. Nearly 800 million people live in hunger. Difficulties are mounting in food security, education, employment, medicine, health and other areas important to people\u2019s livelihoods.\u201d Not only have some developing countries fallen back into poverty and instability due to the pandemic; many in developed countries are also living through a hard time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fourth: That no solution can be reached for any of these problems, without discarding the \u201cCold War mentality\u201d of dividing the world into blocs which polarize the world. \u201cHistory has proved time and again that confrontation does not solve problems; it only invites catastrophic consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Xi focused on the dynamics of the current crisis in his opening:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe world today is undergoing major changes unseen in a century. These changes, not limited to a particular moment, event, country or region, represent the profound and sweeping changes of our times. As changes of the times combine with the once-in-a-century pandemic, the world finds itself in a new period of turbulence and transformation. How to beat the pandemic and how to build the post-COVID world? These are major issues of common concern to people around the world. They are also major, urgent questions we must give answers to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs a Chinese saying goes, \u2018The momentum of the world either flourishes or declines; the state of the world either progresses or regresses.\u2019 The world is always developing through the movement of contradictions; without contradiction, nothing would exist. The history of humanity is a history of achieving growth by meeting various tests and of developing by overcoming various crises. We need to move forward by following the logic of historical progress, and develop by riding the tide of development of our times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNotwithstanding all vicissitudes, humanity will move on. We need to learn from comparing long history cycles, and see the change in things through the subtle and minute. We need to foster new opportunities amidst crises, open up new horizons on a shifting landscape, and pool great strength to go through difficulties and challenges\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n