For almost a year, China has been pitching an idea to its neighbors in Asia: a big, internationally funded bank that would offer quick financing for badly needed transportation, telecommunications and energy projects in underdeveloped countries across the region.So, why in the world should US officials be opposed to giving money to such projects by the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank? Well, this ruling class newspaper thankfully supplies us with some legitimate reasons (sarcasm).
The United States Treasury Department has criticized the bank as a deliberate effort to undercut the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, international financial institutions established after World War II that are dominated by the United States and Japan....And:
Washington also sees the bank as a political tool for China to pull countries in Southeast Asia closer to its orbit, a soft-power play that promises economic benefits....And:
A senior Obama administration official said the Treasury Department had concluded that the new bank would fail to meet environmental standards, procurement requirements and other safeguards adopted by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, including protections intended to prevent the forced removal of vulnerable populations from their lands.So, let us leave these self-justifying propaganda statements from Empire spokesmen and focus on the real reasons. The control of money is a prime weapon that the Empire uses to extract wealth and power from the rest of the world and insuring its domination of the world. Thus we have privately owned "central banks" who control the creation of money, how that money is spent, and for whom it benefits. We have their "charitable" institutions funding NGOs and non-profits to insure that they at least do no threaten their rule, and ideally will aid in their subversion of other governments. Then they have their so-called "development banks" of the IMF, World Bank, etc. which serve Western capitalist's interests. Mathias Broeckers in his thoroughly documented book Conspiracies, Conspiracy Theories, and the Secrets of 9/11 writes:
Do you know what the World Bank does? Or the IMF ....? Both institutions claim they fight poverty and support the economies of developing countries with long-term financing. They do nothing of the kind. They use financing to get these countries under their control--and they support any government that will deliver, however corrupt, dictatorial or incompetent it may be.So, how do these organizations actually function? After presenting considerable evidence and illustrations, Broeckers summarizes how their control works and, by implication, for what purposes:
Step 1: Tie the granting of credits by the IMF and World Bank to maximum "privatization" of public property, bribe the responsible official and bring the key industries under control.
Step 2: Order budget cuts, austerity measures, dismantling of the social system as "consolidation measures" in order to keep up debt payments. A drastic drop in GNP, popular uprisings and capital flight are all part of it.
Step 3: When the economy is extensively destroyed and the country is no longer able to supply its own needs, take down all tariff barriers to foreign products and demand horrific prices and interest rates for all necessities of life, such as medicine.
Step 4: Install a militarized corporate government, which will run the business of the "colony" forthwith for profit and nip any eventual slave rebellions in the bud.(For an excellent illustration of this process that played out in Argentina in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, read this.)
Hence, it's clear that Empire directors do not want other institutions competing with them or interfering in this global scam.