Please watch the video above. It is is a unique discussion on Alexander’s Hamilton’s contributions to economic progress through examiningthe policies of China, Africa, and the U.S.
September 3, 2026
China believes it is better to contribute to the development of African nations, to not have their populations suffer in poverty, but rather experience a continuous rising standard of living. The West does not!
Contrary to constant maligning of China by the West, accusing it of conducting a new form of colonialism against the people of Africa, China has been an indispensable partner for development. There is not and never has been a “debt-trap “ policy to seize mineral resources of African nations. Any American official repeating this defamation is either an ignorant fool or a liar. The West dominated the African continent for decades, while China has only recently in this century, expanded its involvement with the nations of Africa. The creation by China, of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2003, has established a unique political, economic cooperative relationship with African nations.
As Alexander Hamilton understood, and his followers of his school of economic thought, which became known as the American System of Political Economy knew, the key to the growth of a nation, and its economy, is to increase the productive powers of labor. This requires a growth in manufacturing, it requires massive investments in infrastructure, and it requires nurturing the creativity of the population to discover new scientific principles, from which new technologies are derived. With the application of new technological advancements, the economy is able to leap, if you will, to a higher level of productivity, generating greater economic output.
This is what should be understood by Western officials. There are people in China who think this way. Presently, we don’t have people in the West, and the United States in particular, who refuse to comprehend these essential elements of economic growth. The Western political-financial elites are mired in a monetarist world dominated by making money, which they foolishly believe is wealth. They lack any understanding of what the requirements are to actually develop an economy physically, nor the necessity to promote a culture that fosters the creative potential of its people. They don’t understand the difference between making a so called profit from monetary speculation, the stock market, or manipulating the market, as opposed to increasing the profitability of the physical economy. China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is attacked by the United States and the West, who fail to comprehend that the BRI is a modern day extension of Hamilton’s economic principles.
China has proved, beyond any question, that their investments in science and technology, infrastructure, and manufacturing in particular, have transformed their economy, their society. With the proven reality of this success, China can lead the Global South on a pathway of real economic development
The African continent is projected to have the largest population in the world-approximately 2.5 billion people by 2050. That’s not a burden. It is a resource of new creative minds, which are the real source of value for any economy, more valuable than minerals or artificial intelligence.
I believe watching this video will help you understand these principles that I have outlined above.
Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for 35 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, consultant on Africa, and an analyst of global strategic relations. Mr. Freeman strongly believes that economic development is an essential human right. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com, also publishes on: lawrencefreeman.substack.com, “Freeman’s Africa and the World, and on X@lkfreemansafrica
Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who is on an official visit to China, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, April 14, 2026. (China Daily)
May 11, 2026
President Xi Jinping is widely reported to have told Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez that the international order is crumbling into disarray, during their meeting last month in Beijing. Both leaders have condemned President Trump’s unprovoked war against the nation of Iran and rejected the desperate pleas by President Trump for support of his reckless military actions. Their discussion on April 14, at the Great Hall of the People, acknowledged the conditions of the world are fraught with danger, and pledged increased cooperation between the two nations. Keep in mind that President Trump was to meet President Xi for a summit on March 31, before he postponed it due to his self-imposed quagmire in Iran. That summit has been rescheduled for May 14-15, which appears will occur.
President Xi’s description of the crumbling and disarray of the Western orchestrated rules-based international order goes beyond previous statements by the Chinese President, regarding the failure of Western policies. The Chinese translation of this phrase reveals that President Xi’s remarks were more perceptive and discerning than one might think. The literal translation is an idiom: the rites have crumbled and the music is ruined, which conveys moral decay.
This astute observation is absolutely correct. The decadence of the West, with its moral, cultural, and economic rot is there for all to witness, if they desire. One has to look no further than the contorted responses by western leaders for their involvement with the morally depraved Jeffrey Epstein. Or what passes for political (un)thinking in the United States. It is absolutely clear to any astute and honest thinker that survival of humanity requires an escape from the rules-based morally decayed order to a more advanced set of principles (not rules) guiding relations among nations.
China will undoubtedly be a leading nation in creating a new paradigm. U.S. officials and poorly informed Americans have little to no understanding of China’s history, culture, or the thinking propelling their unparalleled economic growth over the last forty-five years. The U.S. government and its citizens have been conditioned to think of “politics” in terms of what provides immediate gratification in the seconds, hours, or days ahead. By contrast, the Chinese think of what policies today, will result in benefits to society, decades, and centuries into the future. For example, President Trump is obsessed in securing supply chains for critical and rare earth minerals, with China controlling the refinement of 90% of these resources. Should China be accused of nefariously controlling these precious resources needed for computer chips, AI, and military munitions, because they understood their importance a generation before the West? Should we discriminate against China because they are smarter than us?
Society’s culture should emphasize nurturing a child’s creative potential to discover the laws of the universe. (Courtesy of communityplaythings.com)
The clearest evidence for the indictment of the crumbling and disarray of the Western orchestrated rules-based order is their lack of vision for the future of humanity. Their gross failure to recognize that human creativity, the uniquely human creative imagination, is the single most powerful resource in our universe. Not money, not power, not military might, not the glitz and glitter of opulent wealth: but the human mind housed inside the human body. A nation should not be governed on a “business model.” It should be led by a statesman, who is guided by a vision for the advancement of humankind.
Thus, the physical development of human beings and the nurturing of their creative powers should become the principle of a new paradigm replacing the morally and culturally doomed rules-based order.
The U.S. Economy Is Bankrupt
The U.S. federal debt has surpassed 100% of GDP, marking a significant fiscal milestone. As of March 31, the debt reached $31.265 trillion, slightly exceeding the GDP of $31.216 trillion. It is now official, the U.S. owes more in federal debt than our GDP, which itself is terribly flawed, because it does not accurately measure the real physical wealth of an economy. We should also acknowledge that total U.S. federal and private debt exceeds $100 trillion, once we include consumer credit debt, mortgage debt, school debt, state debt, and corporate debt. And all of this debt exists within a financial system loaded with two quadrillion dollars of speculative derivatives.
The U.S. economy exists on increasing amounts of debt that will never, ever be repaid. Without this almost tenfold increase of debt during the last quarter of a century, the U.S. economy would not exist in its present state. It would not be able to pursue its goal of dictating policy to the rest of the world as the super hegemon. The U.S. economy exists on a mountains of debt at the expense of an increasing number of Americans struggling to survive.
While all categories of U.S. debt have been growing exponentially, the goods producing sector, i.e., productive component of the U.S. economy, has been shrinking since the end of World War II. Simultaneously, employment has increased in the service sector, which employs five times as many workers. This trajectory, which has existed for generations is destroying the U.S. economy and is one of the primary causes of economic suffering by the vast majority of Americans. Service sector jobs do not produce wealth, they consume wealth
Manufacturing jobs are the most essential category of employment for every economy. The manufacturing sector, which produces the physical wealth of the economy, is the pillar that sustains real economic growth and provides for the material standard of living of citizens. Not only has the U.S. employment in the manufacturing sector collapsed precipitously in this century, from 17.32 million in 2,000 to 12.69 million today, but in the last 16 months, the U.S. has lost upwards of an additional 100,000 manufacturing jobs.
For 100 years, the US led the world in manufacturing. Then, in 2010, China surpassed the U.S. And the lead has kept increasing.
The most resounding indictment confirming the crumbling and disarray of the rules-based order is the failure of the U.S. to continue the cultural and economically uplifting determination to explore space, led by President John Kennedy. While I am happy to see the success of the Artemis 2 mission in April 2026, the last moon landing mission was Apollo 17 in 1972. That was over a half-century ago, and astronauts may not land again on the moon for several more years. During this same period, U.S. culture has suffered greatly, absent a true leader over the last fifty-four years, who would lift the minds of the population upwards towards the stars.
The proposed White House budget for NASA in 2026 represents a 24% cut. This would be the lowest amount of money for NASA since 1961, when President launched his “Man on the Moon” program.
Humankind was created to colonize space, and in the process master the laws of the universe. A robust space program emphasizes the importance of nurturing human creativity, by focusing the minds of our citizens on the discovery of new physical principles, which govern the universe. Our young adults and children have been denied the excitement of watching human beings land on an object in space, 250,000 miles from earth.
The collapse of our space program from over 4% of the U.S. budget to approximately .5%, is criminal, and beyond economic stupidity. It demonstrates the utter lack of any understanding of physical economics. Investments in space explorations upgrade scientific research, and lead to new technologies and materials that propel an economy forward. It is estimated that there was a fourteen cent returned to the economy for every one cent spent on Kennedy’s space program, producing a giant leap in productivity.
President John F Kennedy visits Cape Canaveral, Fla. on Nov. 16, 1963. (Courtesy of stateline.org)
The source of wealth is the creative human mind. Over thousands of years, humans have contributed to the development of our planet through our creative-noetic intervention into the universe. All so-called natural resources are made useful by human discoveries and deployed to benefit the propagation of the human race. There is no independent source of wealth. New technologies, discoveries, the by-products of space exploration, are the drivers of a successful economy.
Continuous scientific discovery is responsible for producing robust economic growth, unlike stock trading or monetary gains from speculative financial bubbles. By its practice over recent decades, the U.S. and the rules-based order, have condemned themselves to crumbling and disarray, as President Xi has stated.
Read below my earlier posts related to this topic:
Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 35 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, consultant on Africa, and an analyst of global strategic relations. Mr. Freeman strongly believes that economic development is an essential human right. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com, also publishes on: lawrencefreeman.substack.com, “Freeman’s Africa and the World, and on X@lkfreemansafrica
Jacques Cheminade at the December 2025 youth conference points to an Ife head and a passport mask. Schiller Institute
February 7, 2026
Below is a presentation to a youth conference on the rich history of Africa, by Jacques Chiminade, a respected political personality in France. (Excepted from EIR magazine, Feb 6, 2026))
The African Continent and the Future of the World
When the conditions of the present lead to a high-risk future, and the threatened annihilation of humanity if nothing is done to change our way of thinking and acting, then human inspiration must come from the beautiful achievements of the past. In the long arc of our human history, in those moments when man’s creative free will and commitment to the future—to natural law—prevail, we can build the basis for increases in the potential relative population-density. This potential for humanity to increase comes from those contributions from the past. It’s like in a chorus, when the contribution of various voices—various singing, cross-voices—creates the beautiful unity of the composition.
Those moments of achievement have taken place in practically all parts of the world during portions of human history. It did not reach a durable level for the whole of humanity, because the various contributions were relatively isolated. The creative thinking was located in one part of our Earth and could not spread everywhere through a continuous process of ongoing organizing. Therefore, it collapsed. It could not then be based on a durable self-perception necessarily rooted in the perfecting of the other, on organizing, on universality.
Now I come to Africa, which is our topic here. First, Europe—and in general the West—have to get rid of colonialism forever, neocolonialism, and geopolitics as well, to respond to the challenge of the oneness of humanity. It demands that we propose to the people of the African continent the most advanced means for development, leaving it up to their free will to accept or refuse them. I am nonetheless convinced that they are going to accept them, because they are fully committed to a better order. They are committed to becoming a type of new China with African characteristics.
Now, racist ignoramuses like [former French President] Nicolas Sarkozy and his advisors here in France say that Africa has not been part of human history until now, and needs to be helped to enter human history. To this crazy statement, we can reply that Africa has belonged the whole time to human history. Most of our ancestors in Europe, and the United States as well, come out of Africa. According to experts in genetics—it’s the only thing that I would accept from them—our ancestors were originally all Black, and our skin only adapted to the cold weather of Europe.
Renowned Senegalese historian Cheikh Anta Diop (1923-1986) as a university student in Paris.
Cheikh Anta Diop, the great African historian, has shown us that Egyptian dynasties come from Africa, and in particular those from the upper region of the Nile, in the Meroë region.
The Ife Civilization
Now, I want to show you the civilization of the Ife region, which covered the present states of Nigeria, Benin, Togo, and [surrounding areas]—it’s part of the great Yoruba civilization. I have here on my desk—and introduce you to—one of the most famous heads that you can admire for its beauty. This is it here. It’s a copy from the British Museum. And more deeply, the Ife started its development many centuries before Christ, in the Neolithic age, and there is a lot of archaeological material on that.
The Ife then blossomed between the 9th and the 14th Centuries of our era, were affected by a terrible Black Death plague during the 14th Century—the same as in Europe—and managed to recover from it during the 15th, and in particular the 16th to the 19th Century, before being destroyed by colonial looting.
These heads of the Ife culture are heads of kings, queens, and also close collaborators of the kings and queens. There was even a famous woman queen of Ife: Luwo Gbagida. Not only men were kings; women also. Ooni meant king or queen. And it was derived from art, from the word for art.
These heads are not things in themselves for the sake of art. They are the product of a whole advanced civilization which at some points was more advanced than Europe.
Closeup of the Ife head replica on Mr. Cheminade’s desk
The heads are made either of terra cotta, bronze, or brass. The heads are from the Middle Ages—the first ones between the 8th and 9th Centuries—more advanced than in Europe.
The city of Ife, according to archaeological evidence, had probably about 100,000 inhabitants—more than any city in Europe at those times. And the heads in bronze or brass were made with a lost-wax casting process, which required an extreme refinement to master such a process. It was only mastered many years later in Europe to mold bells for the churches—which is easier to do than to produce a beautiful head.
The Ife culture produced all kinds of goods for the population, but needed copper, and also zinc and lead, both to produce the heads and to manufacture. The heads are made of 70-77% copper, 16.5% zinc, and 11.3% lead. So they have a very refined composition.
Copper came from continental Europe, Byzantium, Morocco through the Niger River, and also Timbuktu on the camel’s back.
Timbuktu, by the way, has still today—in the historical families of the city—the most precious manuscript books from a Muslim African tradition. Ahmed Baba of Timbuktu was one of the respected thinkers of the 16th Century and also known in certain parts of Europe.
Ife was involved in heavy trans-Saharan trade, connecting Eastern and Western Africa, the Indian Ocean, and also the Mediterranean.
An example of a passport mask, from the Dan people of Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire
Supreme Creative Power
But there is more to it—and it’s the most interesting part for us and for our knowledge of history, theology, philosophical theology. The Ife believed in a supreme divinity, Olodumare, generator of the potential creative power in the universe—not so far, in a less accomplished form, from Cusa’s Posse Ipsum: God being the all-possibility itself, or the power to be.
Olodumare created man in the following way: He asked the artist divinity—called Obatala—to mold in agile form the first human being with a potential to create Ona or art. Hence, Ooni art, representing the kings and queens as an expression of the most perfected man or woman—and not idols. The beautiful face here on my desk represents that [artistic] accomplishment of man.
With the mental and physical looting of the colonialists, showing how they think, Leo Frobenius, the German ethnologist and archaeologist who discovered, by chance, Ife heads in 1910—before dying, just before dying—assigned them to some Greek colony in Africa. They were so beautiful that he thought they could not be genuinely African.
Well, the truth is that they are genuinely African—the most advanced form of art, not only in Africa but at a world level. There are human heads with influences of Asian and Egyptian cultures, because there is one humanity beyond diversity.
And there we have, I think, one of the most beautiful expressions which gives hope for our future.
Abolish the Colonialist Spirit
The infamous Berlin Conference (Nov 1884 -Feb 1885) where Europe carved up Africa
Let me conclude: Let’s get rid forever of the colonialist spirit. Let’s get rid of neocolonialism and geopolitics. Let’s get rid of all the consequences of the Berlin Treaty of 1885 and the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, which shared the looting of Africa by all European countries.
Let’s then integrate ourselves in the long arc of humanity by our knowledge of the African input to the history of humanity.
I would have liked to tell you about so many African cultures: the Nok, the Igbo, the Edo, Oyo, Zulu, Xhosa—[South African leader Nelson] Mandela was, by the way, from a Xhosa culture—and the great kingdom of Benin culture, with Benin City on the Benin River, which according to enthusiastic experts—they may have exaggerated a bit, but they saw it like that—had walls four times longer than the Great Wall of China, and employing 100 times more materials and more workers than the Egyptian pyramid of Cheops.
The city was looted and destroyed by the British expedition of 1897 on behalf of free trade, and propagating at the same time the slander of an African gratuitous barbarity which “stinks of death.”
So, our commitment today as citizens from Western states should be to give the African countries the means for development: a new architecture for peace through shared security and common development—sharing the task with China, Russia, Turkey, India, and others which are active in Africa—sharing in a reverse spirit of the 19th-Century Treaty of Berlin.
Not pickaxes and shovels, but nuclear energy for all.
You, the youth—we, the youth—have this crucial task for world peace before us. Much more than that: We can only succeed if we learn from Africa—if we learn to learn from the best of African history.
I have hope. I have here also on my desk what’s called a “passport mask” from Western African civilizations—to honor the ancestors and identify and protect the travelers. Yes, Africa was not an area of fixed ethnic entities. It was a continent of exchanges and traveling.
Well, we young travelers of the future of peace: Let’s go there with the identity of one humanity beyond all borders. Thank you.
Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 35 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, consultant on Africa, and an analyst of global strategic relations. Mr. Freeman strongly believes that economic development is an essential human right. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com, also publishes on: lawrencefreeman.substack.com, “Freeman’s Africa and the World, and on X@lkfreemansafrica
Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney is credited with publicly proclaiming the final expiration of the rules-based international order. His so called alternative, wrongly acclaimed by the West, might be called rules-based order with a “democratic face,” since it still adheres to the axioms of the old discredited international system minus President Trump.
Column: While “rules-based order” has failed, China’s GGI provides a new vision
Source: Xinhua-January 30, 2026
This photo taken on Aug. 12, 2024 shows the Drum Tower seen from the Jingshan Hill on the Beijing Central Axis on a sunny day in Beijing, capital of China. (Xinhua/Li Xin)
Humanity desperately needs, nay, demands a new paradigm for global governance, which prioritizes economic development, free from wars, regime change and dictates, says a U.S. political-economic analyst for Africa.
Below please review my article published by Xinhua. english.news.cn
by Lawrence Freeman
It should be more than obvious by now that “the rules-based international order” created by the West has failed. Its demise, which has been accelerating in recent years, sounded its death knell at last week’s Davos conference.
This year, 2026, will continue to be turbulent and fraught with the peril of more wars. As the death agony of the international order, which has been controlling relations between nations through its military and economic might, unfolds, civilization is given the opportunity to create a new system founded on the principles of economic development.
“The rules-based order” was established under the control of the political-financial elites of the West that dominated the rest of the world for decades. It may appear to some that it was the actions of the current U.S. president, Donald Trump, that caused its demise. However, that would be inaccurate. President Trump may have accelerated the final stage of the collapse of the rules-based order, but it was always doomed to fail because of its underlying diseased ideology.
“RULES-BASED ORDER” WAS DOOMED
The fatal flaw of “the rules-based order” is its axiomatic belief that people and nations are merely manipulated players in a zero-sum game of victims and victors. Contrary to this false belief, our universe is governed by the human species, uniquely endowed with creativity. We were not created to be ruled by the mighty and the powerful, but by the power of reason. We are human beings, not animals to be culled and controlled. We are not fixed in our behavior, nor is the universe in which we exist. The physical world is not a zero-sum game board of winners and losers, but a developing and expanding universe that is continuously transformed through human creative intervention.
With the inevitable demise of “the rules-based order,” what will come next? This is not an academic question to be leisurely pondered. No, this is a call to arms for all of us to act in creating a new “international order” which corresponds to our unique human quality of creativity.
Unlike the oligarchical formation of “the rules-based order” after World War II, when a large number of nations were still under colonial rule, the new international system must represent the interests of the Global South, the majority of the world’s population.
CHINA’S CONTRIBUTION
Chinese President Xi Jinping unveiled the Global Governance Initiative (GGI) in his address to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on Sept. 1, 2025. He called for a more just and equitable global governance system, echoing the efforts by the developing nations in the 1970s to establish a “New International Economic Order.” Significantly, President Xi introduced a new concept not previously explicitly discussed by world leaders: that the goal of this new governance should be to advance toward a community with a shared future for humanity. This is true because all human beings are universally alike in our most fundamental inborn quality: creative mentation.
This concept represents a fundamental leap in the understanding that all nations have a common self-interest that should guide domestic and foreign policy. As a physical economist, I understand that policy should mean improving the physical standard of living and nurturing the creativity of the population of every nation.
President Xi also said that China is committed to the well-being of all humanity, rejects dividing the world into opposing blocs, and essentially discards outdated notions such as Western centrism.
CHINA’S COMMITMENT
China’s Global Development Initiative (GDI) states unequivocally in the opening sentence of its concept paper: Development is the eternal pursuit of human society. The GDI also emphasizes the eradication of poverty, sustainable development of agriculture and food security, and most importantly, improving industrial production capacity and manufacturing. Economic development is a core pillar of China’s concept of global governance.
There is no clearer demonstration of China’s commitment to the development of all nations than the success of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), introduced by President Xi in the fall of 2013.
In 2025, the BRI achieved new records of economic activity totaling 213.5 billion U.S. dollars, according to a report by the Green Finance and Development Center at Fudan University. It had 128.4 billion dollars in construction contracts, an increase of 81 percent over 2024, and recorded 85.2 billion dollars in investments, an increase of 62 percent. Oil and gas engagements reached 71.5 billion dollars.
Africa was the top region of economic activity for BRI engagement at 61.2 billion dollars, an increase of some 283 percent, with Nigeria at 24.6 billion dollars in construction contracts. Since its inception in 2013, the BRI has had cumulative economic activity of 1.399 trillion dollars in 150 countries around the world, according to the report.
It is indisputable that China, through advancing fundamental principles of economic development, has alleviated the suffering of millions of people in the Global South, where BRI trading partners are concentrated. All Western nations combined have not achieved this level of success in such a short period of time.
Many accept the outlook that we live in a world governed by strength, force and power, according to Stephen Miller, President Trump’s special advisor. That is categorically false. Homo sapiens developed over thousands of years by creative reason, not by force, or survival of the fittest.
Humanity desperately needs, nay, demands a new paradigm for global governance, which prioritizes economic development, free from wars, regime change and dictates. Let the GGI provide the framework for such an enlightened discussion.
Editor’s note: Lawrence Freeman is a U.S. political-economic analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for 35 years.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Xinhua News Agency.■
Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 35 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, consultant on Africa, and an analyst of global strategic relations. Mr. Freeman strongly believes that economic development is an essential human right. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com, also publishes on: lawrencefreeman.substack.com, “Freeman’s Africa and the World, and on X@lkfreemansafrica
Watch my 45 minute discussion on Sunday Politics on Trust TV, Nigeria. Unpacking President Trump’s continuing threats against Nigeria. January 11, 2026
January 13, 2026
In a lengthy interview with the New York Times on January 9, 2026, President Trump threatened more missile attacks on Nigeria. His continued attempt to intimidate Nigeria is based on his false claim that the Nigerian government is allowing genocide against Christians living in Nigeria. This course of action, essentially terrorizing Nigerians with his whimsical threats, is dangerous to all Nigerians, including Christians, as well as to the entire continent of Africa.
After declaring Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern on October 31, President Trump proceeded to threaten to cut one billion USD of aid, and militarily intervene into Nigeria with guns blazing. President Trump claimed this was necessary to save our great Christian population around the world.
To the complete surprise of the people of Nigeria and their government, on Christmas Day, 2025, the U.S. military fired sixteen Tomahawk missiles into the Bauni Forest in the State of Sokoto, northwest Nigeria. The alleged target was the Lakurawa group, a lower level militia that claims affiliation with the Islamic State. This military attack on Nigeria by the so called U.S. Department of War, was a failure, actually impotent, despite claims by the Trump administration that the operation was a complete success that killed multitudes of ISIS fighters.
The concentration of leaders of ISIS is in northeast Nigeria, in Borno State, not in the northwest state of Sokoto.
Four of the sixteen Tomahawk missiles did not explode-a 25% failure rate.
Some of the unexploded missiles were found hundreds of miles from the target.
There is no evidence that any high-level ISIS targets were killed by the missile attack, or even how many.
Yet, President Trump foolishly threatened another missile attack on Nigeria January 9.
Trump’s Motivation
What does President Trump not know about Nigeria? Everything!
He like many American Presidents, knows nothing about African nations. He has no understanding of the complex dynamics of Nigeria, and he doesn’t care about the welfare of 240 million Nigerians. His crusade to save the Christians in Nigeria from genocide is identical to his false campaign to protect white farmers from South African genocide. President Trump is not concerned with Africans, white or black, Christian or Muslim. These are domestically manufactured issues to appease his MAGA white-evangelical base in the U.S.
Consider the fact that Nigeria: has vast reserves of oil and the largest reserves of gas in the world; for the first time in its existence, it is refining and exporting large quantities of its own processed oil; is a partner member nation of the BRICS; has close economic ties with China, with over 20 billion USD invested in Nigeria by China last year.
It is estimated that Nigeria has 37.28 billion barrels of oil and 210.54 trillion cubic feet of gas.
Trump’s Prejudice vs Development
American leaders, both Democratic and Republican, unfortunately have the same unthinking deficiency as President Trump. They all fail to understand that it is in the genuine national self-interest of the U.S., for Nigeria to achieve successful economic growth. American presidents, such as John Kennedy and Franklin Roosevelt, knew the importance of promoting economic development as a fundamental principle of foreign policy. That concept has been forgotten, nay, completely vanished from American lexicon. Presently, the U.S. is bereft of leaders, who comprehend, that raising the standard of living of every Nigerian, indeed all Africans, is a benefit to America’s economy and security.
Unfortunately, President Trump has a deep-seated prejudice regarding the advancement of our civilization. His special advisor, Stephen Miller, put it this way: We live in a world that is governed by force…governed by power…These are the iron laws of the world. This is blatantly untrue. It could never be true. Yet, it is through this perverted lens that President Trump views Nigeria, and Africa. All true statesmen know that civilization is governed by human creativity. The real criminality is President Trump’s betrayal of America’s principles in favor of Thomas Hobbes’ bestial belief of humankind.
Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 35 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, consultant on Africa, and an analyst of global strategic relations. Mr. Freeman strongly believes that economic development is an essential human right. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com, also publishes on: lawrencefreeman.substack.com, “Freeman’s Africa and the World, and on X@lkfreemansafrica
Lawrence Freeman addressing the Kuliang Forum, sponsored by People’s Daily, at the Bank of China in New York, on November 25, 2025. Read: China Daily-Kuliang Forum
November 28, 2025
Lawrence Freeman’s keynote presentation:
I thank the Kuliang Forum, Bank of China, and People’s Daily for the opportunity to address you on this important strategic issue. A positive political and economic relationship between China and the United States will help shape the future of our planet.
The world in the last ten years, has undergone significant transformations. We have irrefutably entered a multipolar world and there is no going back. China has massively advanced its economy, lifting over 700 million of its population out of poverty. The BRICS has expanded to ten member nations with ten additional trading partners. The Global South is emerging, creating a new political dynamic in the world. However, the current period that we are living in is fraught with perils. There is a potential of new and more lethal wars, and another financial crisis is on the horizon. How the nations of the world navigate through these troubled times will in large part be determined by the relationship between the two economic super-powers: China and the United States.
Trade Between China and the United States was approximately $600 billion in 2024, which represented almost 2% of world trade, estimated at $33 trillion. The United States is China’s biggest trading partner, and China is the fourth biggest trading partner of the United States, measured in US dollars. China hawks in the United States, who are calling for decoupling between these two economies are clinically insane. The United States could not survive such a separation from the Chinese economy. In this century, China’s manufacturing sector has surged to approximately 30% of world production, while that of the United States has shrunk.
China’s ambassador to the United States, Xie Feng, keynoted the morning session of the Kuilang Forum
The political institutions of the United States, the Congress, and the White House, both Democrat and Republican, are obsessed with the belief that China will invade Taiwan in 2027. The United States Defense/War Department is preparing for various scenarios in which the United States will militarily intervene to defend Taiwan from China.
We should be clear: there is no objective justification for such a level of hostility by the United States against China. This enmity by the United Sates is driven by the diseased ideology of the political and financial elites of the West; the so called, rules-based international order. Their view of the world is contaminated by the perverted belief that the world is fixed, and that survival depends on remaining on top as the number one hegemon, with all other nations forced to a lower level of existence. Thus, the foreign policy of the followers of this “zero-sum” mentality is to thwart the development of other nations they perceive as threatening their hegemony, through manipulation, containment, brinkmanship, and if necessary, war.
The good news for civilization is that the world is not fixed. The physical universe is continuously evolving, and as a result of the uniquely human power of creative reason, humankind is constantly developing.
Speaking in Russia in 2013, Chinese president, Xi Jinping, articulated a superior conception of the world: a community with a shared future for mankind. All human beings are universally alike because we all possess the power of creativity. The interest of every nation is the same: to promote the material well-being of its society, and to nurture the power of creativity in its citizens. Therefore, there is a natural harmony between nations. It is in the self-interest of each nation to design a foreign policy that benefits the prosperity of other nations. The 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, which ended the devastating religious wars of Europe, stipulated that nations understand: the benefit of the other is a benefit to thyself.
Ma Hongwei, Deputy Editor-in-Chief, People’s Daily, speaking at the Kuliang Forum.
The collaboration of China and the United States in driving economic growth worldwide will have consequential benefits to the future of civilization. With over 700 million people worldwide living in extreme poverty on our planet, the need for the expansion of physical wealth produced is glaring. To improve the living conditions for both developed and underdeveloped nations will require more than a drastic reform of the current financial system. It will necessitate a new financial architecture, anchored to the creation of a new paradigm committed to real physical economic growth, not monetary profits.
The African continent has approximately 500 million people suffering from extreme poverty. It is the largest number of any continent, and it is increasing yearly. By 2050, Africa’s population is projected to increase to 2.4 billion, one-fourth of the projected world population of 9.6 billion. Unless poverty is eliminated, peace and stability on the continent will not be secured. This means that the rest of the world will not be free from instability. To outflank the zero-sum mindset of the United States, I propose that China and the United States initiate a joint mission to assist African nations in eliminating poverty and ending hunger. Such a commitment by the two largest economies would bond them together through a common objective. It would be a gift for the future of humanity; a noble legacy for each nation. This endeavor, which is entirely feasible, would enhance a long term durable collaboration and friendship between China and the United States.
I hope my presentation will stimulate discussion on this topic.
Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for 35 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, consultant on Africa, and an analyst of global strategic relations. Mr. Freeman strongly believes that economic development is an essential human right. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com, also publishes on: lawrencefreeman.substack.com, “Freeman’s Africa and the World, and on X@lkfreemansafrica
Watch above, my heard hitting, provocative discussion with Rasheed Muhammad, and learn the secret to all domestic, economic, and foreign policies, which the rules-based international order stubbornly rejects at their own peril, October 16, 2025
October 31, 2025
The planet is undergoing massive change–the political and economic tectonic plates are shifting. As we go through this incredible phase change across our planet, Africa is in a position to help determine its own direction and how it will cooperate with other nations. The western centered rules-based international order is no longer the dominant determinant force in the world. Its power and control are weakening. The emergence of the Global South, which represents the overwhelming majority of the world’s population, resources, and number of nations, is on the rise. In many ways, the leader of the Global South is the BRICS, and China in particular.
This creates an opportunity for Africa to develop its full potential, which will require massive investments in infrastructure, particularly energy and rail. Africa needs at least one thousand gigawatts of additional energy, and an additional 100,000 kilometers of rail lines. Despite what some people think, we will not achieve democracy or so-called good governance, without an improvement in the standard of living of the majority of the population of African nations. This requires an increase in the production of physical goods to satisfy the material needs of a population projected to reach 2.5 billion by 2050. All the hundreds of billions of dollars spent fighting violent extremism has not worked.
President Franklin Roosevelt had intended the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development-the World Bank, to lend capital to the developing sector, to assist in building up their economies. After his death, the Bretton Woods system rejected Roosevelt’s outlook, with the Western financial institutions refusing to provide the necessary credit for economic growth.
Therefore, we need a new paradigm. A paradigm that understands that the most important aspect of our global economy is the improvement in the material standard of living of the world’s population. This will require a new credit system, a new financial architecture dedicated to bringing about economic growth and development. The West has done nothing to reduce the poverty level in the world. China has, by lifting over seven hundred million people out of poverty. Either out of ignorance or intention, the so called advanced sector has allowed world poverty to reach almost seven hundred million people—a crime against humanity. The extreme poverty level in Africa is approaching five hundred million people, which is immoral!
As a result, in our multipolar world, with the emergence of the Global South, we may come into a new phase where we will have two systems operating at the same time. The failed rules-based international order and Bretton Woods will compete against a new system, one based on development and led by the Global South and the BRICS. Andsupported by the majority of nations. During this process, the rules-based international order with its zero-sum ideology has to be weakened to the point that nations will no longer be treated like pawns on a chess board. The ideology of the rule-based international order is extreme. Their belief structure, that only the strongest should dictate policy according to their rules is actually evil. It is against the natural ordering of the world.
The essence of foreign and domestic policy must be the elevation of human life. Human beings are the only species uniquely endowed with the power of creativity. If policies are not promoting the development of the material existence of human beings, which is the prerequisite for the nurturing of his or her creative powers; it is the wrong policy and will fail. It is only the human species bequeathed with the power of the creative imagination that is in harmony with the development of our planet.
Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for 35 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, consultant on Africa, and an analyst of global strategic relations. Mr. Freeman strongly believes that economic development is an essential human right. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com, also publishes on: lawrencefreeman.substack.com, “Freeman’s Africa and the World, and on X@lfreemansafrica
October 1, 2025–celebrating the 65th anniversary of Nigeria’s liberation from British colonialism
Below are edited remarks by Lawrence Freeman, addressing the second day of “2nd International Railway Conference and Expo 2025.” More posts will be published on this website highlighting presentations on railway development in Nigeria, by Ministers of Transportation, Petroleum Resources, the Vice President of Nigeria, and others.
Welcome ladies and gentlemen. All protocols observed.
I want to thank the Ministry of Transportation for this opportunity to speak to you today on this critical topic.
I. Let me introduce myself
I am not new to Nigeria. I first arrived in Africa at the Lagos airport in June 1994, at the invitation of a friend of mine from Kaduna. Over the last 31 years I have been here many times, maybe 15 or 16 visits. I spoke at the Second Economic Summit in Abuja in 1995. I met Professor Sam Aluko, a great economist. I also became acquainted with then General Buhari, who was head of the Petroleum Trust Fund under General Abacha. For several decades I advocated a program to transform Nigeria and a substantial portion of Africa with a great water infrastructure project called, Transaqua. It would transport water via a 2,400 kilometer canal from the Congo River to recharge Lake Chad. In the course of this I met the Executive Director of the Lake Chad Basin Commission, Engineer Sanusi Abdullahi, and we collaborated with the former minister of water and resources, Suleiman Adamu. I discussed this proposal with President Buhari several times, which he supported. We organized a conference in Abuja in 2018, a three day International Conference to Save lake Chad, and plans were made to implement this recharging of the shrinking lake. Unfortunately, it never happened, but as you can see, I have a long personal history with Nigeria.
This conference on railway development for Nigeria is of extreme importance. Railways and electricity are the two essential categories of hard infrastructure necessary for economic growth. Investment in railways for Nigeria is imperative. Africa needs an additional 100,000 kilometers of rail lines connecting all the major cities, ports, and manufacturing centers across the continent. The nations of Africa also require over 1,000 gigawatts of additional electricity to power their industrial economies. These two categories of infrastructure are not optional. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will not reach its full potential without massive investments in these two essential categories of hard infrastructure.
Lawrence Freeman addressing the 2nd International Railway Conference. Abuja, Nigeria, September 15-16. 2025
III. Infrastructure and Physical Economy
What do I mean by physical economy? Let us look at the economy independent of monetary values. Let us look at the physical economy as a living, willfully expanding dynamic process, which serves to increase the standard of living of the population. In physical economy we are measuring physical inputs and outputs of physical goods, per capita and per square kilometer. How do we make sure that the output in physical wealth is greater than the input? By increasing the productive powers of our workforce. We measure the effects of the “increasing powers of labor” of our economy by the improvement of the material quality of life of our citizens. This will also result in extending the longevity of life, and the ability to expand the number of people sustained by that society while simultaneously improving their standard of living.
Infrastructure is an intervention into the environment. It is an intervention to alter-improve nature for the benefit of humankind. We do not measure the success of infrastructure merely on the basis of immediate financial return of that particular investment. But more importantly we measure the effects of infrastructure on the profitability of the entire economy.
Infrastructure properly understood is a precondition for the successful continuous economic growth from the present into the future. Infrastructure transmits value through the technological inherent design of the infrastructure itself. Whole economies rest on an integrated infrastructure platform. That is: water, rail, roads, energy, etc., make up a platform which is the foundation of an economy. Therefore, the quality and density of infrastructure determine the productivity of the economy. Every worker and every farmer become more productive by the density of infrastructure in the surrounding economy. .
For example. The completion of the proposed multiple East-West and North-South railroads connecting Africa, which was earlier discussed by Rowland Ataguba, would have a transformative effect on the entire continent; all the nations in Africa would benefit. Another example to look at is the recently inaugurated Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which I recently visited in May of this year, and is now complete. It has the capacity to generate 5,150 megawatts of power and actually prevent flooding and severe drought on the Nile. It benefits not just the Horn of Africa, but the nations of the Nile Basin, and East Africa as well.
The proposal of building 4,000 kilometers of High Speed Rail in Nigeria, which was discussed yesterday at this conference, would also be transformative by introducing an advanced technology of transportation into the economy. These types of physical infrastructure interventions on the African continent typify what is required.
Lawrence Freeman with the Minister of Transportation, Sen. Said Ahmed Alkail, host of the conference
IV. Density of Rail
In physical economy we examine rail density: the total kilometers (kms) of rail lines divided by the land area involved, measured in square kilometers (km2). For historical reasons I compare Nigeria with the United Kingdom, which is behind other European nations in infrastructure.
Nigeria has 3,798 kms of rail lines across a land area of 932,768 km2, yielding a real density of only 4.1 kms of rail per 1,000 km2 of land. The United Kingdom has 16,430 kms of rail lines across a land area 244,376 km2, yielding a rail density of 67 kms of rail per 1,000 km2 of land. As you can see, rail density per area in the United Kingdom is 15 times greater than Nigeria. The African Union estimates that rail density in Africa is only 2.5 kms per 1,000 km2. While globally, the average is 23 kms per 1,000 km2, rail density in some nations of Europe have five times that average.
Now let us examine another key measurement in physical economy; rail density per capita. That is the length of rail lines divided by the number of people inhabiting that land area.
Here we divide the same 3,789 kms of rail lines by the Nigerian population of approximately 237 million people. The per capita rail density in Nigeria is .016 kms rail lines per person. When we look at the United Kingdom with 16,430 kms of rail lines divided by their population of 66.3 million people, their per capita rail density is .24 kms per person. Rail density per capita in the United Kingdom is 15 times greater than Nigeria.
Proposal to build in Nigeria 4,000 kilometers of High Speed Rail-(215 miles per hour).
V. Density of Electricity
We will now examine another essential area of infrastructure from the standpoint of physical economy.
Per capita consumption of electricity is measured in kilowatt hours, with a kilowatt equal to 1,000 watts. The average Nigerian has 142 kWh-142,000 watts of electricity available during the entire year, which is less than 20 watts of electricity per hour, per person. The United Kingdom generates 4,135 kWh per capita, which is 472 watts per person. The discrepancy with the United States is even greater, with the United States generating 12,747 kWh per capita, which yields 1,455 watts per person every hour of the year.
Examining density of electricity per area, Nigeria generates .015megawatts (million watts) per 1,000 km2 of land area, compared to .67 megawatts per 1,000 km2 of area for the United Kingdom–44 times greater.
Artist rendition of the newly inaugurated, Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam
VI. Reality and Optimism
It is estimated that worldwide, 692 million people live in extreme poverty–less than $2.15 per day. In sub-Saharan Africa it is estimated that 464 million people live in extreme poverty. It is reported that Nigeria has 129 million people living in extreme poverty, which is 19% of the world total.
However, the good news is that humankind has already proven that it knows how to eliminate extreme poverty. China has lifted over 700 million people out of poverty. How did they do this? By having a focused policy of building infrastructure and expanding the manufacturing sector. This is a great accomplishment coming from an agrarian based economy that was severely underdeveloped two generations ago. Therefore, I can say with confidence that we can eliminate poverty in Africa, if we apply today, known methods of physical economics.
There is a scientific basis for optimism in Nigeria and Africa. This is based on my understanding of this secret of true economic wealth. All economic value springs from the mind of human beings. It is not the wealth under the ground. It is not physical labor. Scientific discoveries of the physical processes of the universe lead to advancements in technology which is the basis for scientifically driven economic progress. The source of all discoveries is the human creative mind. Therefore, it is not a curse to have a large expansion of population in the African continent, projected to be 2.5 billion by 2050, with Nigeria over 400 million. It can potentially be a blessing, provided we make the right economic policy decisions today.
All these new potentially creative minds can make discoveries, which lead to an advancement of civilization. To make that possible we have to provide a rising material standard of living so that these youth have the quality of life, and the leisure time to concentrate on developing their uniquely human creative spirit. This is the secret to all real economic wealth and the secret to understanding physical economy.
With the rise of the global South and the expansion of the BRICS that has 10 members, including South Africa, Egypt, and Ethiopia, and 10 partners including Nigeria, Uganda, and Algeria, there is a new dynamic for Africa and the world. The majority of the world living in the Global South has an opportunity to create a new paradigm, one that is not based on exploitation, dominance, or mere monetary values, but one committed to the advancement of the material conditions of life for all human beings on this planet. This is the future I see, which all of us can work together to create.
Thank you very much for listening to me today. I hope I provided some useful ideas that will advance infrastructure led growth and a prosperous Nigeria.
Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for 35 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, consultant on Africa, and an analyst of global strategic relations. Mr. Freeman strongly believes that economic development is an essential human right. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com, also publishes on: lawrencefreeman.substack.com, “Freeman’s Africa and the World, and on X@lkfreemansafrica
China, a leading nation in the BRICS and the Global South, has chosen in practice, not to follow insanity of the West led campaign for deindustrialization. The same political-financial elites endangering the world with their diseased rules-based-order, which insists, by force, if necessary, that the United States must remain the dominant hegemon of the world, are also behind the myth of anthropogenic climate change. Their intentionally misleading assumption, that the industrialization of our civilization, which has led to phenomenal rates of economic growth for humankind, is threatening our planet today. Economic progress, the cause of society’s ability to support billions of people, is now alleged to be criminal. This is a direct assault on what makes the human species, human: our creativity. Humans are the only species endowed with a creative imagination. We homo-sapiens-sapiens are the only living species endowed with ability to discover new scientific principles embedded in the physical universe, which generate technological revolutions. This is properly understood as human progress. No animal, not even our charmingly cute panda bears, possess this quality.
Reject Zero-Growthism
At the core, the so called environmentalist ideology is a hatred of human beings. The foundation of this anti-human perverted view stems from three false axioms: 1) Our planet is a collection of fixed resources. This is not even remotely true, proven by the economies of today utilizing resources, critical minerals, that we previously did not know existed; 2) There is no growth in our universe; 3) Humankind, in its greedy behavior of using up our planet’s “fixed resources” is driving civilization towards its eventual doom. These axioms parallel the pseudo-scientific theory, which stipulates that physical universe, driven by an irreversible entropic process, will culminate in a final state incapable of further development. According to the second law of thermo-dynamics, through the inexorable degeneration-disorganization of energy, our universe will wind-down, until reaching the ultimate state of disorder, deprived of usable energy. This zero-growth belief is the bedrock from which all the dogma postulated by the green-environmentalist movement emanates.
Neither zero-growth ideologies, nor entropy, govern our universe, especially the creative powers of the human mind. The history of the progress of civilization debunks these allegations. The physical universe is anti-entropic, organized to respond to human-noetic interventions by advancing to the next higher plateau of development. The physical universe and the human species were created to generate continuous development, overcoming all so called limits to growth.
Civilization has never had a resource shortage. We advanced from a wood based energy economy, to the exploitation of coal as a new resource, then oil and gas, to uranium based fission energy (still underutilized) to the potential of a fusion powered economy. This long wave of attaining higher levels of energy thruput and energy flux-density, through scientific discovery, and inventing new technologies for new resources, is what we know as: human progress.
Anti-Human Axiom
We humans are transformers of the earth, contrary to the notion that the behavior of human society will harm the planet, as well as the less noxious view that humans are simply caretakers of the earth. In the words of the great German Philosopher, Gottfried Leibniz, there is a pre-established harmony between the noetic powers of the human mind and the physical universe in which we exist. There is no pristine or equilibrium state of nature; only development or lack of development for the human species. To accentuate this concept beyond any misunderstanding: human beings, endowed with the principle of creativity, are in harmony with the developing physical universe.
(Courtesy of LinkedIn)
Parsons Thomas Malthus, patron of the East India Company, a branch of the British oligarchy, espoused the unscientific theory that populations grew at a geometric rate and agricultural production increased only arithmetically. Thus, the deviant insisted, it was necessary to reduce the growth rate of the population. He proposed implementing this downright silly-unproven nonsense, by targeting poor people. He wrote the following in his 1798 book, An Essay on the Principle of Population:
Instead of recommending cleanliness to the poor, we should encourage contrary habits. In our towns we should make the streets narrower, crowd more people into houses, and court the return of the plague.
Whether modern day zero-growthers admit it or not, they are hard core neo-Malthusians. They imbibe with gusto, the erroneous belief that people must be eliminated because human beings are incapable of producing resources for their existence. This baseless axiom forms the underpinning of green-environmentalism and deindustrialization today. In essence, denying scientific progress.
The World Wildlife Fund, now the Worldwide Fund for Nature, the granddaddy of the green-environmental movement, was imbued with neo-Malthusianism in its creation. It was founded in 1961 by Sir Julian Huxley, President of the Eugenics Society of Great Britain, Prince Bernhard, a former card carrying member of the Nazi Party, and Prince Phillip, who represented the highest echelon of the British Oligarchy. The now deceased Philip was known for his fanatical antihuman view. He is quoted in 1988, In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus to contribute something to solving overpopulation.
Contrary to the belief of the followers “woke culture” of today, that they initiated the movement for zero population growth, the roots of this anti-human view of society were created for them hundreds of years earlier. They fail to realize that they are just Malthus’ donkeys mindlessly braying his evil ideology.
Mathew Ehret exposes the diametrically opposed pro-progress outlook of China and the BRICS, to the deindustrialization policies of the West in his essay: China-BRICS Choose Development. (See excerpt below)
USA vs. China Energy Paradigms
In the USA, overall national energy production has not only stagnated, but has actually fallen from 26,545 Terawatt hours (TWh) in 2000 to 25,825 TWh in 2021, with an increased slide projected into the coming decades by those same forces who 1) sabotaged America’s advanced energy policies over the past decades and 2) wish to induce energy scarcity onto a frightened populous in order to justify a culling of humanity to “sustainable levels”.
In contrast, China has used this same 21-year interval very differently, increasing its annual energy use from 12,470 TWh in 2000 to 43,791 TWh in 2021.
The effects upon quality of life, per capita powers of labor, energy security, food production and educational opportunities have increased dramatically.
The one child limit (imposed by Kissinger and the Club of Rome 40 years ago) has been abolished, and average longevity, which was once led by the USA has been overtaken by China, which has lifted the average life expectancy from 44 years in 1963 to 77. 5 years today, and stands in stark contrast to the USA, whose average life expectance fell to only 76.1 years of age as of September 2022.
China’s purchasing power parity has also superseded that of the USA over the past few years.
(Courtesy of youtube.com)
How Smart Is Trump?
It is too early to know if President Trump will continue to attack China and the BRICS, becoming a stooge of the China bashing rules-based order. He has already threatened BRICS twice, an institution of over twenty nations, which is the point of the spear for the Global South.The BRICS bloc, (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Indonesia, and the UAE), has a total population of around 3.3 billion, over 40% of the global population. BRICS countries account for approximately 46% of global GDP.
President Trump foolishly slapped sanctions on China within his first two weeks in office, and recently made accusations against South Africa, a leading member of the BRICS. There is no inherent conflict between the genuine self-interest of nations. The conflict emanates from the ravenous desire by Western political-financial oligarchy for supremacy. There is no objective reason that all nations cannot collaborate in fulfilling the common aim of humankind: the peaceful development of all nations.
If President Trump is as smart as he proclaims to be, then he would understand that to make America great, we must make the World great.
Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for 35 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, and consultant on Africa. Mr. Freeman strongly believes that economic development is an essential human right. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com, and also publishing on: lawrencefreeman.substack.com, “Freeman’s Africa and the World
After attending three days of discussion at the 11thBeijing Xiangshan Forum, from September 12-14, and spending over a week in China, it is apparent to me that neither the people of China nor the government, desire confrontation with the United States. However, it is also evident that China has no intention of submitting to the doctrine of the West’s so called rules-based order, with its demented zero-sum game doctrine.
As someone who has attended hundreds of conferences in Washington DC over many years, this gathering in Beijing was unique. It was comprised of a diverse and inclusive list of speakers from all over the world, with a sizable number of Americans participating. There was a refreshing open exchange of ideas with opposing points views expressed.
Over 500 delegates, scholars, security experts, and thirty defense ministers, from over 100 countries, plus a large delegation from China, attended this three day conference, as reported: Xiangshan Forum Global Times. There were thirty-six separate sessions. In the four plenary sessions, twenty-four speakers, predominantly representing their nation’s defense establishment, addressed the conference attendees. The composition of presenters was heavily weighted to the nations of the Global South. This included a dozen nations from Africa and Asia, the ASEAN Institute for Peace and Reconciliation, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Of special note, plenary speakers from the Ministry of Defense for the Russian Federation, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the German Federal Ministry of Defense, addressed the conference. The Vice-President of the International Red Cross also delivered remarks.
Three most important and prominent themes of the conference were:
–China-U.S. relations
–China and the Global South commitment to development
–China’s challenge to Western domination through its “rules-based international order.”
Courtesy of chinadailyhk.com
China: Enemy or Competitor of U.S.?
In the first session on China-US relations the U.S. position was represented by John Richard Waters III, former Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. He was a key Coordinator for the U.S. Department of State for China and Taiwan for the administration of President Joe Biden, from 2021-2023. Although he repeatedly professed that he was not speaking for the Biden administration, he was the top American diplomat (former) at the conference and thoroughly knowledgeable about U.S. policy towards China and Taiwan.
Wu Xinbo, Professor, Dean of institute for International Studies, Fudan university, China, while also not a spokesperson for his government, articulated Chinese foreign policy in his exchange with Waters.
Rick Waters attempted to present a more reasonable view of U.S. attitude towards China then what one hears from President Biden and State Department on a weekly basis. Rick Waters espoused the position of the U.S. towards China as one of competition, and not always a zero-sum game. Wu Xinbo pointed out that the U.S. policy towards China is more than so called competition, but rather one of rivalry, with the U.S. treating China as an adversary. He said, if the U.S. policy towards China is not as an enemy, then it should “walk the walk” as opposed to “talk the talk.”
Wu Xinbu also accused the U.S. of being less sympathetic to China’s goal of reunification with Taiwan and that the U.S. uses the Taiwan issue to contain China.
As one who closely follows Washington’s strategy toward China, it is more than obvious that the U.S. does indeed see China as an enemy; a threat to the transatlantic political and military establishment. This hostile anti-China attitude is expressed by leaders of both the Republican and Democratic parties, and the majority of the Congress. One can find, on almost any given week, a seminar in Washington DC, or a written commentary, by one think-tank or another, predicting when and how China will attack Taiwan, and suggested military counter measures the U.S. should take, even preemptively. The primary justification for the gargantuan U.S. defense budget of almost one trillion dollars, is to contain China’s influence in the Asia-Pacific theater.
A zero sum game is one in which a participant wins at the expense of another. courtesy of phemex.com
The Disease of the “Zero-Sum” Mindset
The real grievance that the U.S. (and the West) has with China, is its insistence to chart its own independent course of development for its people, not willing to be subservient to Western domination. China correctly, does not accept the precepts of the so called rules-based international order. Rick Waters let the cat out of the bag, so to speak, when he explicitly accused China of trying to change the rules of the West’s rules-based order. To that extent he is correct. China’s actions have produced rage in the Western establishment for its refusal to submit to their ideologically driven system.
Germany’s representative from the Ministry of Defense, was dripping with Western arrogance towards China in his presentation during the plenary session. After criticizing China for not condemning Russia, he stated the obvious, that we live in a multi-polar world. He went on to insist, that this multi polar fact must be embeddedin an internationally accepted framework…the world needs rules based multipolarity.
Is it a crime for China to want to change the axioms of a structure created by the West, which is based on a false understanding of reality?
The following few paragraphs briefly explain the inherent flawed axioms embedded in their rules-based order.
The first thing to understand is that our universe and us humans in it, are not guided by rules, but rather, our ability to comprehend and act on the principles that govern our existence.
The most critically flawed axiom in the world view of those supporting the rules-based order geopolitical structure, is its fictitious view of a fixed universe. In their imagined world, the zero-sum mentality decrees that there are only winners or losers, victors or victims. This notion of “zero-sum,” stipulates that action must be taken to suppress China’s development, because it is perceived (wrongly) as a threatening hegemon to their existing rules-based order.
This warped outlook has three perilous epistemological defects. One, the actual physical universe in which the human race dwells, is not static. We do not exist in an unchanging world, where each nation is dependent for survival on acquiring a fixed, limited category of so called natural resources. Our universe is constantly advancing to higher levels of development. Two, all human beings are born with the potential for creativity, irrespective of nationality or ethnicity. We humans are uniquely endowed with the power to hypothesize previously unknown principles embedded in the universe. From this power of creative reason, not logic, these discoveries allow civilization to overcome any constraints. It is this inborn potential of creative mentation, which each of us possesses, that makes us exclusively human. Three, the physical universe is structured to respond fruitfully to human creative intervention. If we comprehend these three principles, we know unequivocally that there are no limits to the continuous advancement of our planet. There are no limits to growth!
All nations have the same common interest: satisfying the material needs of their citizens and nurturing their creativity. Thus, the anti-human, zero-sum game outlook should be abolished and replaced with the concept that humankind can act cooperatively for the benefit every nation and its people. This principle should form the corner stone of all foreign policy.
Courtesy of medium.com
The Global South Demands Development
China’s leadership in the emerging Global South, which has led to an irreversible multi-polar world, has caused consternation in the West, even as they publicly dismiss it.
The First Plenary Session was opened by remarks from China’s Minister of National Defense, Dong Jun, whose theme was, building a community with a shared future for mankind. He discussed the shared pursuit of development, cooperation, and win-win, over conflict, and the need to abandon the zero-sum outlook. He also spoke of promoting economic development to narrow the gap between rich and poor nations.
This theme, and the linking of peace to development, in collaboration with China, was echoed by several speakers in the four plenary sessions.
Beti Assomo Joseph, Cameroon’s Defense Minister, called for a new just equitable world economic system. He said in a separate interview with China Central Television (CCTV)
“You have a Global South, it means we also have a Global North. So, if we can work hand-in-hand for all humanity so that those who have power, economic, political, or diplomatic power, can work hand-in-hand with those who are not developed or who are poor, so that there could be human solidarity. We have that dream, and we are doing that with China.
The defense minister from the Republic of the Congo, Charles Richard Mondjo, was emphatic about the need for economic development when he told the conference, no peace no development. He said the Global South was not industrialized, its economies are based on agriculture and mining. There is inequality between the North and the South; the North should reduce these inequalities. Any effort to support the Global South is an effort to support peace.
Sri Lanka’s Secretary of Defense discussed the need for a new economic order and reforming the current economic system to shape a more peaceful world.
Courtesy yahoo.com
Ignoring China’s Transformation
As China celebrates on October 1, its 75th anniversary of the founding of New China by Mao Zedong, China’s accomplishments over three quarters of a century are quite remarkable.
The achievements over the last four decades, from the beginning of Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms in his “opening up” of China in 1978 are astonishing. The World Bank reports that China has lifted 770 million Chinese from poverty, with poverty defined as $2.15 income per day. This represents three quarters of the world’s reduction in poverty and is more than the 450 million Africans still living in poverty today.
Examining China’s demographic trend also reveals its successful transformation of economic conditions for its people. In 1960, average life expectancy in China was thirty-three years, in 1978 it almost doubled to sixty three years. Today, average life expectancy in China is seventy-eight years, comparable to U.S. levels.
Courtesy of thecooldown.com China intends to expand the current high-speed rail system to 70,000km, and increase its total length of track to 200,000km.Courtesy of www.theb1m.com.
Infrastructure, which drives economic growth and productivity, has been an essential component of China’s incredible transformation. During my stay in China, I chose to travel on their High Speed Rail (HSR) from Beijing to Shanghai/Pudong, rather than flying. It was a delightful journey. The HSR travelled at 215 miles per hour (345 kilometers-km) and covered the distance of 819 miles (1,318 km) in four-hours and thirty-seven minutes, on a smooth ride that arrived on time. Currently, China has 46,000 km (29,000 miles) of HSR, out of a total of 155 thousand km (96,312 miles) of rail. HSR represents almost thirty percent of China’s total rail system. The U.S. has no comparable rail system. Amtrak’s Acela train is the most advanced, but only travels a maximum speed of 150 miles per hour and there is only forty-nine miles of track that can even manage the Acela. The total rail network in the U.S. is 160,000 miles (260,000 km).
Think of the savings in time and increase in productivity if Americans could travel at the HSR speed of 215 mile per hour. For comparison, today, traveling to Chicago from Washington DC, a distance of 593 miles (956 km) by train will take almost eighteen hours.
Yes, China has a different political, economic, and social system than the U.S. Would it not be wise to investigate how China achieved all these economic successes? Might it not be possible to learn from China? Cannot the U.S. and China embark on a joint mission to eliminate poverty throughout the world, in service of the shared-common aims of humankind? I made this proposal in my presentation at the Beijing Xiangshan Forum. Freeman Speaks on China-Africa Strategy at Respected Beijing Xaingshan Forum
Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for 35 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, and consultant on Africa. Mr. Freeman strongly believes that economic development is an essential human right. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com, and also publishing on: lawrencefreeman.substack.com, “Freeman’s Africa and the World.”
