By Rich Kozlovich
Recently we saw where Russia's Putin, China's Xi, and India's Modi met at a Shanghai Cooperation Organization conference that drew:
"over 20 regional leaders and featured speeches that subtly rebuked US foreign policy. Xi urged members to reject "Cold War mentality" and "bloc confrontation," while Modi endorsed multilateralism and a larger global role for countries like India."
And then they all held hands and sang kumbaya declaring undying love and a feeling of "peace and stability between them" creating an alliance to stand against Trump's tariffs. Which made great press and great opportunities for lots and lots of CO2 being expelled by talking heads, but it's a load of horsepucky.
As for me, I just shook my head, rolled my eyes, and chuckled. China wants to end the Cold War mentality? Really? By whom? Certainly not China based on all their actions to date. And Modi wants the world to embrace multilateralism, whatever the heck that really means. I'm betting he defines that as meaning they want Russia, China, India and the U.S. to work together as "equals", allowing the three of them to rape America and share in the wealth equally, leaving America dying. At least they're consistent.
These three nation have hated each other for centuries. It's part of their foundational social paradigm, and for good reason as they're been at odds militarily for centuries.
Recently China and India were exchanging fire in the Himalayas. Why in the world would anyone go to war over mountains that have no economic value, yet China keeps provoking India over .... mountains! They don't care about owning mountains, they care about intimidating their neighbors. China has been playing the bully boy role throughout all of South East Asia, and is still doing so in the South China Sea demanding control of international waters and even attacking Philippine fishing vessels in what is clearly Philippine's waters.
- Deadly Incident at Sea Heightens China-Taiwan Tensions -Beijing is seizing on the death of two Chinese fishermen to exercise greater control around Taiwan's Kinmen islands, raising the risk of more dangerous encounters in the area.
- Chicoms overfish, leave trash all around South America's waters -- and it's worse than it looks - The United Nations says they've done a bang-up job depleting 90% of the world's fishing stocks with their illegal poaching. So much for China's lip service to the environment.
This must be what Xi means when he meant when at this conference he:
"...........unveiled the Global Governance Initiative, a five-point plan calling for adherence to international law, support for multilateralism, rejection of double standards and equal participation in global governance regardless of a country's size or power." Xi also proposed creating an SCO Universal Center for Countering Security Challenges and Threats and establishing an SCO Development Bank to deepen security and economic cooperation.
In short, he's saying I'm broke, and I need access to other people's money, and I'll be saying anything it takes to con others into this scheme so I can continue to exploit the nations around me. China's spending massive amounts of dollars they don't have on their military and their economy is heading down the tubes, especially after their years long real estate crash, that's not going away.
In April of last year the CCP implemented:
......more aggressive laws and policies that favor Chinese companies, especially its state-owned companies. Its new foreign relations and espionage laws, which went into effect last year, open the door to more protectionist meddling. As Michael House, a partner at Perkins Coie gently put it, “The current environment lends itself to more occasions where a regulator or someone in the government in China may choose to take action that is non-transparent.” The reality is the CCP can do whatever it wants. Just ask the folks at Bain & Co. and other US consultancies that China raided last year.
That was from an article at Mauldin Economics, and it confirms doing business with China is like taking a viper to bed.
China is a nightmare, not only for the world, but even worse for the Chinese people. These vile disgusting monsters are murdering people for their organs and persecuting anyone they deem "radical", such as the Falun Gong. We've known about this for over 2o years, and we're still playing patty cake over economic issues with them.
- China’s Children Scarred by CCP’s 25-Year Persecution of Falun Gong ‘The persecution really harms everyone, especially young children and teenagers,’ said a young Chinese man.
After their Third Plenary Session of the Communist Party's Central Committee ended in July of 2024 the conclusion was, Xi was in charge, he will decide what goes on economically, internationally, and domestically, and anyone who didn't like it was in deep trouble because no disharmony will be tolerated. "Days of balderdash, and untold pages of jabberwocky, just to say that." But it's not appreciated in China, especially among the young.
China's economy is smoke and mirrors. I've been saying that for years, in opposition to the conventional wisdom I might add, and everything being reported shows it's true.
- Geopolitical Futures reported that fear of U.S. secondary sanctions led several banks to stop accepting yuan payments from Russia. Why?
- While publicly China still welcomes Russian business, they're more concerned about American business and work to avoid sanctions. Why?
- Would America care if China sanctioned American business? There would be some in the commercial sector that would, but overall, America wouldn't care. Why?
The answers to all these "why" questions? We don't need them, they need us.
China's spending massive amounts of dollars on their military they don't have. Why? Xi's not going to attack America, Japan, Philippines, or even Taiwan for that matter, no matter how much sabre rattling Xi might do, but India and Russia are doable. Their economy is heading down the tubes, especially their real estate crash.
Russia's in deep economic trouble, and in no way can India replace their economic ties with the west with anything Russia can offer other than oil and gas, and any advantage that may bring will be offset with tariffs. But even if they get all the energy they can use in order to manufacture goods, where do they sell them? Neither Russia, China, India or any of the 20 nations at this summit can create their own internal markets large enough to stand alone.
I've said this often and it needs to be said more than often. There are six things an advanced industrialized nation must have in order to stand alone. It must be able to feed itself, fuel itself, defend itself, arm itself, create it's own internal market, and pay off it's national debt. The only advanced industrialized nation in the world capable of doing all six is the U.S.
If these nations decide they have alternatives to the West. Well good for them, let's see how well that works out.
China and Russia have decided they need a pipeline going through Mongolia which would deliver "50 billion cubic meters of Russian gas per year via Mongolia for 30 years", but all the energy in the world will not resurrect a failing economy if they can't sell their goods to someone.
U.S. imports from China are crashing and it's possible China's trade with Russia will soon surpass trade with America. Good, losers trading from losing positions doesn't make winners, but something I've been watching the last few years is China's interest in investments in Kazakhstan, a former Soviet Republic where Russian influence has waned since the Russo/Ukraine war started, and to the tune of billions of dollars and over 6000 Chinese backed companies operating in that nation. China and Belarus have recently developed a defense agreement. A defense agreement right on Russia's border? Imagine that! Does anyone think all this gives Putin a warm and fuzzy feeling all over?
As I stated before, Russia's in deep economic trouble, and Russia cannot in any way offset India's economic reliance on the West.
Nearly one third of Russian companies were unprofitable in the first half of 2025, the highest level since the pandemic..... the main drivers are a high key interest rate, rising costs and new tax rules. Coal mining, housing and utilities, transportation and scientific research companies were hit hardest.
Western sanctions have caused "17 coal-related enterprises to shut down due to Western sanctions and declining global prices"m and the "Ministry of Finance announced that it would hold auctions to attract 10 billion rubles ($124 million) in credit funds to cover the region's budget deficit and debt." Worse yet, this major energy supplier is running out "of AI-95 gasoline in several regions. Supplies have nearly vanished from Crimea and Trans-Baikal. Experts blamed supply disruptions and seasonal demand and said that if conditions persist, other regions may face shortages." This is more than seasonal demand issues.
Russia is fraught with supply chain issues with large numbers of companies saying they can't find supplies and no longer can access material from abroad due to sanctions and are trying to find material from Russian friendly nations. But what happens when they get sanctioned?
The foundation of the Russian economy is self destructing in order for Putin to continue his war with Ukraine, using up manpower and resources his nation needs to survive, and Russia's problems are metastasizing, as they've triggered a response they didn't anticipate with their aggression in Ukraine.
Poland launched its largest military exercise of the year, Iron Defender-25, involving about 30,000 Polish and allied troops and 600 pieces of equipment. The drills, which run through September, will span much of the country, with a focus on operations near the Russian and Belarusian borders and at sea. They coincide with Collective Security Treaty Organization maneuvers in Belarus and Russia. Poland said the aim is to test interoperability under full-scale combat conditions, incorporating lessons from the Russia-Ukraine war.
Let's be clear, Russia's falling apart internally, and is facing a coalition of fifty countries condemning Russia and Putin, and Europe has found alternatives to Russia energy supplies. Russia's running out of time. Considering the size of Russia's military, and how little progress they've made against Ukraine, Russia has lost this war. It's destroying their demographic pyramid, it's economy, and government stability, and the leadership knows it and fears the consequences of all that failure from an angry public. Even in Russia that happens as we saw when the Soviet Union collapsed. Russia's central bank says their economy is "in a dismal condition and its future outlook is bleak."
Putin is refusing to meet with Zelenskyy and demands.... demands mind you.... the right to "veto of any security guarantees or subsequent security assistance to Ukraine." All the while continuing to strike "civilian targets", and it seems clear anything he may have agreed to with Trump in Alaska was a lie.
As for Modi's multilateralism, he's blocked Azerbaijan's bid for full membership, citing its ties with Pakistan. Wait, isn't Pakistan an ally of Russia and China? Wasn't it one of China's missile air defense systems that shot down an India military jet? Remarkable, don't you think?
So much for ending the cold war mentality, bloc confrontations, adherence to international law, support for multilateralism, rejection of double standards and equal participation in global governance regardless of a country's size or power", and creating a kumbaya "multilateral" world. And as time goes by the number of inconsistencies, divergences and outrages will multiply significantly because that's who they all are, that's who they always have been, and that's who they always will be.
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