BRICS BRICS is a grouping of Brazil, Russia, India and China formed in 2009 – to which South Africa was joined in 2010 to make this grouping come to be termed BRICS. Together, these five countries contain 42% of the world's population … seeking a similar figure in terms of the world's wealth – basically in competition with the G7 bloc of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Great Britain and America – this latter group containing only 10% of the world's population but over half of the world's wealth. The European Union (EU) serves also as something of an associate G7 member … making the group essentially the economic (and somewhat political) voice of the "West." It is the understood goal of BRICS to replace the West as the dominating force in world affairs, politically, economically, socially and culturally. It is a curious matter for them to hold the goal of mutual global dominance by 2050 – given the often-bitter rivalry between India and China … and occasionally China and Russia. But having the West as a mutual opponent serves to keep such unity in place ... at least to some extent. One of the items they wanted to put in place was a New Development Bank – to rival the West-dominated and long-standing International Monetary Fund (IMF). The purpose was to steady their own fluctuating currency markets and create reserves for their own economic development. However, China already takes care of itself in this matter – but offered to take the lead in funding the bank … in order to take the lead in BRICS itself. The goal was also to attract more countries to their side of the East-West competition … by being able to extend development monies to these other countries – something that China was already very busy doing. Indeed, as of the beginning of 2024, Iran, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates joined BRICS – making it what … BRICSIESEAU? Some 35 other countries have also indicated a desire to join the organization. This does not bode well for the dollar-dependent Western industrial world … which is of course the purpose of the BRICS venture in the first place. From Deng to Xi All of this is in keeping with China's express goal of making itself the sole global superpower by the middle of the 21st century. Tragically, Deng Xiaoping's effort to shape Chinese leadership into a collective matter in order to prevent any further Mao-like concentration of power in a single hand did not outlast Deng's stepping down from Chinese leadership at the end of the 1980s. Behind him came Jiang Zemin, who began the process of acquiring full power as China's leader. He began his move to power in 1989 by taking position as the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party … as well as the vital Central Military Commission – Deng's only formal office. Then in 1993, he took office as the country's president as well – thus holding personally the reins to both party and civil government. Thus when he stepped down from his various offices in 2002-2005 (the last to leave being the Central Military Commission) such autocratic power had once again become the style of Chinese leadership. This understanding of the Chinese leader's role was then passed on to the younger Hu Jintao, who also came to soon hold all three positions – until he stepped down from those various offices in 2012 and 2013. And he would be followed – in all three vital offices – by the very ambitious Xi Jinping. Xi was actually groomed for that position all the way back in 2007-2008, when Hu made him China's second in command in both the party and civil governments. Xi’s social-economic policy Once in full power in 2013, Xi tightened his grip over Chinese life even more than his predecessors. He interned into rather Mao-like "reeducation" (concentration) camps some one million Turkic-Muslim Uyghurs in the Xinjiang province … in order to make way for the takeover of the region by Han ("true") Chinese. He tightened censorship of the Chinese" wired" (internet) generation – and took up much of Mao's style to develop a "cult of personality" … the usual way of gaining popularity as the people's "tyrant" (the leader who does the thinking for the people). Thus he also made himself the leader of the National Security Commission … responsible for maintaining Chinese "law and order" – thus full control of Chinese society at all levels of its existence. But his ambition was not only to lock down China under his grip … but to bring the world under that same grip. And he would first use the growing power of the Chinese economy and its highly disciplined (and obedient) workforce to begin the process … before moving to more ambitious diplomatic and then military means. Actually, the economic move was made well before Xi arrived on the scene … starting out with the West's encouragement of China to go down the international corporate trade route … but allowing the Chinese exemptions to the IMF's currency regulation requirements. In other words, the Chinese were able to print enough currency (renminbi or yuan) that it would make Chinese products incredibly cheaper than goods produced in the West. The government was even allowed to subsidize Chinese industry in its covering production costs to ensure that Chinese products not only sold well abroad, but would be able to corner the market for a number of goods. As a consequence, the Chinese economy began to show such growth since 1990, that it doubled the value of the Chinese economy every seven years! Chinese profitability became so great that the Chinese government made itself available to America to help cover its rapidly mounting national debt – considered at first to be a very generous act … until it began to dawn on Americans that China was actually purchasing economic leverage on American government operations in a very subtle way. In fact, everything that China did was very subtle … sort of like the ancient Chinese board game of "Go" – the object of which is to be able to place stones on the 19x19-block checkerboard so as to surround and confine the opponent. This is why the Chinese agreed to form the close economic relationship of BRICS in 2009-2010. Thus the Chinese not only put themselves in a position at home to dominate the market, under Xi's new leadership, they then also began to "assist" other countries here and there – with their 2013 Belt and Road initiative (also known as China's "New Silk Road" Initiative) – by using their huge dollar reserves to invest and take leadership in various sectors of the economies of these largely Third World countries (but also most of the countries of East Europe) … especially in the realm of the mining and production of very strategic raw materials.2 And they were playing the same games with not only America's position abroad but also with that of America's European allies. Of course complaints were made to China at the point that it was clear that Chinese benefits first extended to China – when it was struggling to get moving down the industrial road – no longer were fair now that China was the world's second largest national economy (after America). And the American and European economies and rising unemployment in their workforces were clearly taking a hit from the Chinese economic policy.3 But Obama quickly learned that the Chinese would not budge from their pivotal position – when Obama's negotiators came back empty-handed from talks with the Chinese. Why should China give up anything … when America and the West had nothing to offer in exchange? Xi takes charge of the South China Sea Actually, Chinese ambitions in the South China Sea – which extends south from China, passing the Philippines in the East and Vietnam in the West and reaching all the way south to Malaysia and Indonesia – had already begun (cautiously) even before Xi arrived on the scene. Even Jiang, back in 2000, commented about the necessity of a great power to possess a strong maritime presence … and by 2006 was using "law enforcement ships" to police the South China Sea. Then Hu's 2008 comment about the country's need for self-defense was followed up the next year with the publication of the nine-dash lines map, claiming historic rights to the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) which reached down and across the South China Sea … to just a few miles off the shores of the other countries surrounding that sea. The Philippines and Japan had already come to strong disagreement with China over China's territorial claims – and the way they were handled in the matter of oil exploration and fishing rights in those waters – when in 2009 Malaysia and Vietnam submitted to the U.N. their own claims to those waters. And in 2010, Obama stated (via his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton) that America had a very strong interest in seeing the "open access to Asia's maritime commons" (the open high seas) maintained – at a time at which Chinese-Americans relations were reaching a very low point. Then in 2011, the Spratly Islands to the West of the Philippines became a hot issue when Chinese naval ships forced a Philippine ship to leave the area … at a time when the Vietnamese were growing increasingly irate at the harassment by Chinese ships of Vietnamese ships doing exploratory work in what it claimed were Vietnam's offshore oil fields. The following year (2012), Obama announced a "Pivot to Asia" strategy, attempting to shift American foreign policy away from the Middle East (a disaster at that point) and direct it more to East Asia. This pleased Australia, Vietnam, Japan, Korea, etc. It upset even more Xi – who read this as an American effort to impose itself into what China considered the region that it was supposed to "lead" (willingly or not on the part of its neighbors). However, Obama indicated that this new policy was as much directed to the bettering of American-Chinese relations as it was with the relations with its other Asian "partners." Xi did not buy this explanation at all. That was also the year that China launched its first aircraft carrier. In 2013, the Philippines challenged China before the U.N. Permanent Court of Arbitration for violating the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). But China simply refused to submit itself to arbitration – claiming that the U.N.-appointed tribunal lacked jurisdiction in the matter. Thus a 2016 verdict in favor of the Philippines was simply ignored by China. While all this was going on, China began to dredge some reefs in the Spratly Islands, creating an island – on which they could then build an airstrip and naval and military facilities … clearly to put muscle behind their territorial claim to the entire South China Sea. By 2016, work there was completed. And what was Obama's response in his Pivot to Asia? As Xi expected, Obama was a man of words – and little else. Why hadn't Obama ordered the dredging of his own island … to put some kind of muscle behind the rightful claim that this was "high seas" – vital to the economies of all surrounding nations – and not the exclusive territorial possession of China?  Thus like the game of Go, this was a big China win – and an equally big loss by America and the West … from which there would be no opportunity for a comeback. 2The number of countries brought into this Chinese game would come soon to be more than 150 countries … with 75 percent of the world's population and over half of the world's production capacity. 3Obama's Democratic Party would also be hit hard by these sad economic developments in the 2010 Congressional elections – which led to a Republican takeover of the House – and a gain of seven seats in the Senate (though not yet a Republican majority) … as well as large Republican gains in the states' and cities' elections. The world stood in shock as Xi Jinping’s China begins to press forward most forcefully its territorial claim to the waters (and islands) of the South China Sea … ignoring all current standards concerning the neutrality of the high seas. The area is of vital importance to the commerce and economy of many nations that surround the South China Sea. To enforce these territorial claims, the Chinese in 2015 begin to dredge the waters surrounding a number of coral reefs located in the South China Sea … to fill them in with land so as to construct airfield and naval bases on these newly man-made islands.  The world watches in horror ... but does nothing.  This includes the world's major superpower, America – or its President Obama – to stop this territorial grab. IRAN Although very conservative Muslims had taken control of Iran with the fall of the Shah in 1979, there remained in Iran a large portion of the population that was quite "modern" and pro-West … even though supportive of the country's new Islamic Republic. Tragically, during the first years of the new Islamic Republic under presidency of the Muslim cleric Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (1981-1989) – and the overall direction of the country by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini – the treatment of such pro-Westerners was quite harsh … with thousands (the actual figure unknown) of Iranians being killed by the decisions of the revolutionary courts, controlled by the Revolutionary Guards. When Khomeini died in 1989, Khamenei took his position as Supreme Leader – although the country actually moved to a more "modernist" position with Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani becoming Iran's president. Then in 1997 Rafsanjani was followed in office by the cleric Mohammad Khatami – who basically continued Iran's democratic reforms … irritating the Islamic conservatives in the process. And in 2005, with Rafsanjani eligible to run again as president, he found himself up against the arch-conservative Tehran mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The elections that year went strongly in favor of Ahmadinejad – 61.7 percent to Rafsanjani's 35.9 percent. Thus it was that Iran turned back to being again a very militant Shi'ite Muslim Republic ... very hostile to the West – and America in particular. When elections took place then in 2009, Iran exploded into violence when Ayatollah Khamenei came out strongly for Ahmadinejad – who again won with a resounding 62.6 percent of the vote against the centrist Mir Hossein Mousavi with 33.7 percent – and some 14 million unused ballots were discovered (along with other voting irregularities). Anti-Ahmadinejad protesters took to the streets (the Green Movement), only to be opposed by Ahmadinejad supporters – and the situation turned very ugly. Interestingly, America and the West stood with the protesters in their view of the integrity of the election, whereas Asian (including China), African, and Latin American countries supported Ahmadinejad. In any case, Ahmadinejad was soon able to bring things back under control … and continue to move the country down the very conservative Shi'ite Muslim road. But there was another issue that drew the West into great concern about developments in Iran. Ahmadinejad had been pressing forward the matter of nuclear development in Iran – finding the U.N. in opposition because this development violated a number of international agreements. Ahmadinejad protested that Iran's nuclear development was strictly for low-level atomic energy production … not for military purposes. But with Iran sitting on top of one of the world's largest oil and gas reserves, the need for nuclear energy made little economic sense. Furthermore, it was known that Iran was working hard to develop its missile technology. America and the West were very unhappy. But there was little they could do. Then with the election in 2013 of the cleric – but a modernist reformer – Hassan Rouhani as Iranian president, Iran moved to improve relations with the West. The huge issue that had to be dealt with was Iran's nuclear program. Negotiations between Iran and the U.N. Security Council members, plus Germany, thus got underway over this matter … resulting in the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Under this plan, Iran agreed to undo much of its nuclear program and allow inspectors to inspect its nuclear sites to confirm that they were in conformity with the agreement – Iran in return having its oil markets again open to the West and having banking assets abroad that had been previously seized now released in stages. Obama and his secretary of state Kerry assured America that this was the best way to keep Iran (at least for the foreseeable future) from developing nuclear weapons. Others however, and most notably Israel, were very unconvinced that Iran would not find some way to continue weapons development out of sight of the inspectors. And the Iranian further development of its missile technology was of enormous concern to Israel – especially given the many statements that Iran liked to make about bringing the West to its knees. But JCPOA would be accepted by Washington – at least as long as Obama remained as America's president.  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, Superme Leader of Iran Iranian government supporters calling for the execution of Mousavi and Karroubi - February 2011 Iran will not respond to international questions about the whereabouts of Mousavi, left, and Karroubi Mohammad Khatami A photo (Dec. 8, 2011) by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards showing a U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel drone that Tehran says its forces downed US Secretary of State John Kerry shaking hands with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, agreeing to begin talks concerning an Iran nuclear deal  – Geneva, January 14, 2015 Obama announces agreement on the deal – July 14, 2015 Go on to the next section:  Issues Elsewhere   Miles H. Hodges