Mekong in the programs of the US Department of State
The new approach can be called "the conquest of Asia according to Biden". His famous "This is the end of the era of large military operations to rebuild other countries" in relation to Afghanistan does not mean at all, that in their claims to hegemony the United States calmed down. The convulsive exodus of Americans from Kabul is a trigger for a new US foreign policy. The US President's arguments about "great savings in manpower and resources" mean only that, that these "forces and means" will be used in a different way.
Kamala Harris's Asian trip revealed something about this: now the US will try to incite against China, as well as to Russia, any government, throw any conflict on these states, which will be fired up by the saved "forces and means", by renowned analyst Tony Cartalucci: "Washington began to try to recruit China's neighbors into several united fronts, using the well-known South China Sea controversy or baseless accusations of "human rights violations" in Xinjiang, China. However, few people know Washington's desire to use the Mekong River and the Chinese dams upstream. ".
This is really strange, that Washington is so concerned about the water resources of Southeast Asia thousands of miles from the Potomac. However, if you understand, that Americans don't care about people, living along the banks of the Mekong, riddles disappear: all that remains is, what Americans call "containment of China".
Southeast Asia's longest river, the Mekong, is half owned by China, and then flows into Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. This is where the US State Department unfolds..
State Department program Mekong-US Partnership and the Friends of the Mekong (MUSP) in the last 10 years cost America 4,3 trillion dollars. There is no answer to the question on the official website of the program, what was this colossal money spent on?. Health programs designated there, economic growth, maintaining peace and security, human rights, education, social services and humanitarian aid are all for those, who is ready to be mistaken. From under this fog, calculation quickly emerges, which Tony Cartalucci defines as "Blocking the influence of China, blocking economic cooperation with China, the creation of opposition political groups friendly to the United States and blocking the infrastructural development of the region ".
For example, program USAID Mekong Safeguards proclaims: “Mekong Safeguards provides legislators with, government bodies, for financiers and contractors information and tools for applying environmental, Social and Governance Standards for Infrastructure Development in the Mekong Subregion. It helps MUSP countries make decisions at the local level, increase the transparency of such infrastructure decisions and enhance the role of the private sector as a driving force for development ". Such "dust in the eyes" is 153 million dollars. These millions are received by the American creators of "information and tools", residents of the region do not receive anything. “For the United States, this is just one of many distant regions., where they look for opportunities to counter China's growing power ".
Hanoi
Take Vietnam: at 1997 year, its exports to China amounted to only 4,5 percent, and the import of Chinese goods - 9,5 percent. Today the Celestial Empire is the main Vietnamese trading partner: Hanoi sends there 21,45 percent of its exports (in the USA - 19,26) and gets 36,36 percentage of imports from there (from USA - 4,07). What Kamala Harris suggested during her visit to Hanoi? Join the US in attacks on Vietnam's top trading partner, questioning their economic and political ties with Beijing, with which Hanoi 1297 kilometers of common border.
Let's take other "assistance programs" from MUSP: 837 million dollars for "economic growth" includes a Vietnamese project for clean energy and the use of electric cars in exchange for Vietnam's refusal to build coal-fired power plants in cooperation with China. In return, the United States is ready to finance power plants on liquid natural gas, much more expensive and, of course, American.
And here's another - a program for the exchange of data on water consumption (Mekong Water Data Initiative), by which Washington provides information to program participants, leading to such decisions regarding water use projects, which are not feasible without the involvement of the United States, ES, Japan and the World Bank.
And the program "Series of Political Dialogues" (MUSP Track 1.5 Policy Dialogue Series) sponsors "civil society", paid by the US government, as well as the European Union and the United Kingdom to support US foreign policy goals in the region.
Floating market on the Mekong
There is also a Program to Assist Regional Health Systems in Detecting and Responding to Emerging Infectious Diseases. (Pathfinder Health Program). It allows you to solve emerging problems at the local level bypassing governments, across USAID. The goal is to take control of local communities along the banks of the Mekong, make them "Political cadres, who will voice protests to their government against cooperation with China ".
And this is only at first glance primitive. That's the way USA 20 years helped Afghanistan, prepared "color revolutions" in Europe, North Africa, Middle East…
The result of all this is, that those living along the Mekong will live in poverty, becoming dependent on Western funding. And at the same time, they will be ready to oppose cooperation with China, blaming him for all the local troubles. Thanks to control over the information space of Southeast Asia, Washington can manipulate public opinion, building it "for yourself".
Of 50 programs, offered MUSP and aimed at "Strengthening cooperation and solving common interests and common problems", none is in the interests of states on the banks of the Mekong. Americans nurture the fifth column of the Mekong.
Meanwhile, these days, the first freight train with goods from Vietnam arrived in Belgium along the New Silk Road - through China and Russia.. Beijing's One Belt, One Road initiative brings Hanoi from Hanoi to Liege. 23 container with textiles, leather and footwear "opened a window" to European markets, making the most important Vietnamese infrastructure project a reality.
The title photo: Chinese Mekong
Elena PUSTOVOYTOVA
