TRANSCRIPT

HARLEY SCHLANGER: Hello, I'm Harley Schlanger from the Schiller Institute, and I'd like to welcome you to this week's webcast with Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the founder and chairman of the Schiller Institute.

Obviously, the main topic for this week is going to be the recently-concluded trip of President Trump to China. This was quite spectacular, and as we've been reporting, it represents a decisive shift away from the old policy, the Obama policy of the Asia pivot, into a potential era of cooperation and peaceful development. It was clear from the first summit that took place in Mar-a-Lago that Trump and Xi Jinping — the President of China — have a very good relationship. It seemed to be developed further on this trip.

So, what are the results in your view, Helga, of this trip? And what are the broader strategic implications of what's going on, given the successful completion of this trip?

HELGA ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, I think it is the beginning of a new era of strategic relationships between the United States and China, as Xi Jinping has said. What they did in order to receive Trump and give him the best possible honors, the characterization was that this was a "state visit-plus" and President Xi Jinping even said that this was a "state visit-plus-plus." They rolled out the red carpet so to speak in a way that they have never done for any other foreign dignitary before since the existence of the People's Republic of China.

What they did was, they had a first day of introducing President Trump to the ancient culture of China. For that purpose, they closed down the Forbidden City for an entire day and then they had a gala dinner in one of the palaces. They showed him three different Beijing operas, they showed him the restoration of art, crafts, and similar things. Obviously, President Xi Jinping was the tour guide for all of this. Anybody who has ever read or listened to his speeches, knows that he is very well cultured in Chinese history but also in universal history; so this is really an incredible thing. And naturally there were other aspects, like trade deals for $253 billion. And when President Trump came back from the Asia trip, he said that he had deals for about $300 billion, but that would only be the beginning, and soon this figure would be three-fold.

But I think much more important, as much as the economic deals are important — I don't want to neglect that; but I think much more deeply was the deep human accord between these two Presidents. I'm going to do something which I normally don't do, but given the fact that the media has distorted what has happened at this visit so much — if they reported it at all — I want to read to you a quote of what President Trump said in commenting on this reception. He said, "Yesterday, we visited the Forbidden City, which stands as a proud symbol of China's rich culture and majestic spirit. Your nation is a testament to thousands of years of vibrant, living history, and today it was a tremendous honor to be greeted by the Chinese delegation right here at the Great Hall of the People. This moment in history presents both our nations with an incredible opportunity to advance peace and prosperity alongside other nations all around the world. In the words of a Chinese proverb, 'we must carry forward the cause, and forge ahead into the future.' I'm confident that we can realize this wonderful vision, a vision that will be so good and in fact so great for both China and the United States." And then he continued, "So we come from different places and faraway lands. There is much that binds the East and West. Both our countries were built by people of great courage, strong culture, and the desire to trek across the unknown into great danger that they overcame. The people of the United States have a very deep respect for the heritage of your country and the noble traditions of its people. Your ancient values bring past and future together into the present so beautifully. It is my hope that the proud spirits of the American and Chinese people will inspire our efforts to achieve a more just, secure, and peaceful world. A future worthy of the sacrifices of our ancestors and the dreams of our children."

This is not the picture of Trump you get from the media. As a matter of fact, I have never seen such an outrage and cynicism like that in the present time expressed against Trump. Well, before, naturally against my husband, and naturally similar treatment is being given to President Putin and President Xi. The FAZ, that's the German so-called neo-liberal daily, had an unbelievable comment on this; they actually had several comments. One saying that if Deng Xiaoping would have seen this state visit, he would have had tears of joy that finally China was treated as an equal partner, and how quickly Trump abandoned them all as a unipolar leading power to the upcoming one. Then another one where they said that, commenting on this fantastic cultural experience of Trump and his wife Melania, they said this is just pomp, this is just a gigantic Chinese deception game which was being played. If you would have gone to Hollywood or to Las Vegas, or to Disneyland, you could have said it's pomp. But anybody who has ever been in the Forbidden City, which was the palace of the Chinese Emperor since the 17th Century, you cannot but be impressed by the majestic architecture, the beauty of the construction, the furniture, the whole display of Chinese art. To call that "pomp" just shows you how absolutely ignorant these scribblers really are.

I think it's very important that our US view and business around the world are really — take a look at this yourself; do not go by what the media are reporting. Try to get the speeches, which are all archived; listen to them yourself. Go to Chinese TV, which naturally now in the United States, if you're reading Xinhua, you're already suspected to be exposed to foreign agents. This has already reached a degree of craziness that is really an appeal to the reason of people to not be fooled by that, and not fall into the trap of Cold War propaganda. The opposite is happening from what the media are saying. Please, our listeners and viewers — meaning you — take the time to inform yourself; build your own judgement. You don't have to believe us, but try to go to the sources and get the first opinion of what is really happening, not from the media.

SCHLANGER: And I think we probably should put a little bit more of this media coverage, just to cite two examples. The Washington Post has an op-ed saying that Trump's trip was not the total fiasco most people expected. And an unidentified Financial Times correspondent is quoted, "I have to think that in some ways, the Asian leaders are laughing behind his back, and certainly the Chinese are." Now, at the same time, in the United States, as you pointed out, there is an attack on Xinhua, the Chinese press service, saying that they probably should register as foreign agents. And Russia Today is now already being put under that form of sanction, that they have to register as foreign agents.

We've discussed this before, Helga, but the question keeps coming up. Why is the media doing this? What is it that they're so fearful about that there might be cooperation between the United States, Russia, and China? I want you to just review that again.

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I said this already, that Western people who have been subjected to a media which is just today, in an article today by Willy Wimmer, who was a State Secretary of the Defense Ministry in Germany in the Adenauer or Kohl period, in any case a long time ago; but he was after all, a Deputy Secretary of Defense. He said that the media are absolutely like Goebbels. That is true, if one considers that the British, at the end of the Second World War, studied the methods of Goebbels and they said you have to out-Goebbels Goebbels. They did a pretty good job of that by perfecting this method of complete propaganda; what Bertrand Russell said, that we have to make sure that the people believe the snow is black and that black is white. Once we have accomplished that, then we have done our job. That's exactly what they are doing. What is behind that is people cannot imagine being subjected to this kind of permanent bombardment with propaganda; but there are governments which are devoted to the common good of their people. I have made the point repeatedly that anybody who studies it, has to come the conclusion that a country which uplifts 700 million people out of poverty, and has a clear strategy to get everybody out of poverty until 2020, is devoted to the common good of the people. There is no point of debate. When China offered the Belt and Road Initiative, China is offering that kind of economic development model — the Chinese economic miracle — to other countries, which are obviously thinking that this is must more attractive than being suffering and specific for NATO or for some other manipulated reasons. So, the oligarchy, that is, the people who have been conducting geopolitics basically since the emergence of the British Empire at least, they have, after Truman took power in the United States and Churchill was there, they have designed the postwar order. While there were certain changes and interruptions with de Gaulle and with Kennedy and other leaders, there has been a continuity from that period. What you see right now in the United States is, on the one side a full-fledged McCarthyism; they have not noticed that the Soviet Union has disappeared, that Communism is no longer there, but that you now have Russia which is not communist. But they have basically kept the same methods of the Cold War in order to influence the opinions of the people against Russia, against China. After all, the effort to create a unipolar world after the Soviet Union disintegrated in '91, was what they did; with color revolutions, with regime change, which was all based on lies.

All of these things happened, but I want to come to another subject, which is the exhibition which is taking place in Berlin right now, portraying the history of the Congress for Cultural Freedom. This is an institution which was cultural warfare, financed by the CIA from 1950 to 1967. I did some studies about that some years ago, and it is the most unbelievable operation. At the height of this cultural warfare, they owned 120 magazines, they organized all concerts of musicians. They replaced Classical music with modern music; they promoted so-called "expressionist" modern art. They had professors on their payroll; students, journalists, trade unionists. They just penetrated every possible institution in order to promote their model of so-called "freedom," because people were attracted by the Soviet Union in the postwar period, and they wanted to absolutely ruin that. Most of these left-wing intellectuals didn't notice who was behind it, but if they noticed they were sworn to secrecy with the threat of having jail time of 20 years if they would reveal it. This is something people should really study, because this is not something which stopped in '67, but it continues to work into the present. There was a very revealing article in the FAZ which says that what is so upsetting about this exhibition is that is reveals that this CIA operation of the CCF was not to promote some reactionary outlook, but it brought to the fore exactly that left liberal paradigm which is now the politically correct view of the entire Western establishment. It is that paradigm which is now being challenged by Russia, by China, by Islam, by the populist parties of the West. I find this quite an admission to say that the present paradigm of political correctness is the result of a CIA operation. People have to really think about that, because that is really is what is behind the ferociousness of the attacks against Trump. That is why, for example, I would guess Nancy Pelosi is so absolutely anti-China; which is noted even by the Chinese now. They say that the entire success of Trump's Asia visit is being attacked for just political domestic fights. Which is obviously ridiculous, that you take a strategic relationship of such importance of the two most important countries, and make an inner political squabble about it.

But anyway, Harley, you have to say something on the CCF as well, because I think it's really important for our viewers that it really sinks in. Because this is why people are having such ridiculous views many times, and they aren't even aware of it.

SCHLANGER: I think this is very important, and it's something that you've talked about over the years repeatedly. One of the main intentions we had in marking this webcast was not just to bring out the truth against the filth of the fake news which is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but to raise this more profound question of the nature of man. Because the target of the Congress for Cultural Freedom is precisely this idea that man is driven by animal instincts. That therefore economy would be organized around greed and self-interest, and that what people should be focused on is their own immediate enjoyment and pleasure. This goes back of course, to Bentham and Adam Smith and the whole British empirical school; but the fact that this was imposed by the CIA — and there are many, many documents that verify this from, as you mentioned, the magazines, the reports, the journalists, and so on. There was a German editor not that long ago, who said that all German news was filtered through the CIA; that in a sense, the journalists were all on the payroll. So, it does continue.

Now this is something that the Schiller Institute was uniquely set up to combat. Not just the idea that when you tell the truth that will lead people into a new paradigm; but that people need to reflect on what is the actual nature of man. Are we just animals, are we just beasts and creatures of comfort?

Now, it's also worth noting that this same grouping, which is now attacking Trump and President Xi, President Putin, and others, was the group that targetted your husband, Lyndon LaRouche, and put him in prison in 1989 through the work of George Herbert Walker Bush and others. That he was deemed a threat to this system, and the person who oversaw that case against LaRouche, was none other than the amoral, legal assassin himself, Robert Mueller. I think it is important, and people can go to the Schiller Institute, go to larouchepac.com, and there's plenty of material on the Congress for Cultural Freedom. But this is quite significant.

Helga, my question for you is, that obviously these are also the same people who created the European Union and are now promoting this idea of destroying national sovereignty. I wonder if you'd like to just add to that?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: The whole idea of a united Europe, the idea of a Europe of the regions, going back to the Pan-European Union, the Kudenhove-Kalergi, these were people who were the same people who believed in race eugenics. They admired Hitler's race laws; this was the apparatus which basically helped to bring Hitler into power. The present form this takes is naturally because of the absolutely unjust economic policies of the Troika imposed on Europe, you have now a dissolution of Europe. You have the turning away of the East European countries, you have the separatism in Spain which is now spreading. There is actually the possibility that the EU is not going to last in its present form. There was this rather remarkable study of the Bundeswehr already in February of this year, which predicted in six different scenarios that the EU would cease to exist, and that in the worst case that most of the European member states would join a Russia bloc until the year 2040.

The EU in its present form as a supranational institution, has taken away more and more the sovereignty of its nation-states, and cannot survive. That is why we are warning also that we really have to pay attention that the next financial crash is about the happen. The EU has just eliminated again the possibility for the separation of the banks; they have just allowed again the use of the same kind of derivatives which really what was making the 2008 crisis so devastating. So, I think we need a new conception. We have said many times that we have to move a completely new set of international relations, where sovereignty is respected; where the different social systems are respected. We need to have a new paradigm where mankind is coming first, where the common aims of mankind are put before all differentiations into national interests. That is exactly where Europe has to be orienting to if it is supposed to survive.

SCHLANGER: I think if people listen clearly to the quote you read from President Trump in China, you see that kind of spirit reflected in what he said. It was a very interesting speech. Also, what he said in Vietnam, where he talked to the people of Vietnam about how we share the horrible effects of the Vietnam War, and that when we honor veterans, we honor them not for fighting but for reflecting a commitment to a principle of the nation. I think we're beginning to see this reflected in what the President is doing.

Now of course, in this context, we have all the new stories coming out trying to defend the Steele dossier, of course the Guardian of London is in the lead in this; it's been in the lead of this from the beginning. But for instance, in his discussion with the press after his brief meetings with President Putin, President Trump unloaded on Clapper and Comey and Brennan and others. Where do you think the Russia-gate thing stands right now with all the investigations and information that's coming out?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: If you listen to the media, at least in Europe, you would never find out about it, because you only would hear new allegations about supposed collusion of Trump's son and what-not. But the unfortunate thing is that there are several initiatives coming from the Congress and from the Senate, which put the spotlight exactly on the FBI, on the collusion with British Intelligence, on the question of what was the role of Hillary Clinton, why did the Obama administration co-finance the "dodgy dossier" of Christopher Steele? So, this comes from several Congressmen who have written an open letter to Attorney General Sessions to appoint a special investigator to investigate all of that. Then naturally, in the Senate, Senator Grassley is continuing to put the limelight on these questions, so I think it's a battle. It's not yet decided. I think there is a new barrage against Trump when he came back, there are several Congressmen who started an impeachment procedure against Trump, which I don't see has any chance of success at all. But it is just more mud being thrown, and judging from what President Trump said on the plane when he flew to Vietnam, he really was very clear which side committed the crimes; and I can only hope that his spirit which he was reinforced with on his trip to Asia will carry through and there will be an investigation of all of these people. So, I think it's much more hopeful than you would assume if you just listened to the media, because I think that there is a certain determination coming from many sides. It's coming from the Tea Party, it's coming from the Bernie Sanders' supporters. And we had just a very important event on Sunday in Manhattan, where Binney, Diane Roark, and Ray McGovern and Sean Stone, showed the movie "A Good American" which shows the work of William Binney, who after all was the fourth important post he occupied in the NSA and he resigned in protest when September 11th happened. He said that what was implemented then, went completely against the ethics of a patriotic intelligence person in the United States; so, he left the NSA. And he proved with forensic evidence that there was no hacking, and President Trump had asked Pompeo to meet with Binney, which did not prevent Pompeo from repeating the statement that it was Russian hacking. But I don't think this will hold up.

What is at stake is that the crimes of that apparatus could be exposed big-time, and I think that would really liberate the world at large, if this operation would finally be terminated.

SCHLANGER: One final point on that, was the interesting parallels between recent statements by President Trump and people like President Putin, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, is that they've identified these problems as coming not from the current Trump administration, but from Obama. There's this mythology that continues in the media that Obama solved the economic crisis, that he was actually much better at international relations. I don't know if you remember this Helga, but his last trip to China, in contrast to the greeting given to President Trump, when President Obama got off the plane for the G20 summit, they had no stairway to let him get down from the plane; so he was stuck for 20 minutes on Air Force One. So this idea of Obama the great hero, is one of the things that is going to have to be challenged.

Just finally, your sense that we now have moved into this new Europe. What do you expect in the weeks ahead with the Chinese initiatives and what will come out of Europe and the United States in reaction to these initiatives?

ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I think Europe is a very shattered condition. Maybe this Jamaica coalition can be formed in Germany; Jamaica according to its flag, the colors of the parties, that's why it's called the Jamaica coalition. But they have not come up with any important questions. They are discussing the most unimportant issues, and I think this is not going to be of any lasting significance. The other European countries are in disarray. At the same time, you have groundswell of industrialists and other groupings wanting to join the Silk Road. You have right now in Germany, in Hamburg, in Bremen, in Frankfurt, in Dusseldorf, in Stuttgart, in Munich, groupings either developing chamber of commerce, creating conferences or friendship societies. So, there is a groundswell where people recognize that there is a new paradigm developing, and they want to be part of it. Given the fact that you have Eastern Europe, Central Europe, the Balkans, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria and also from France, you have very important voices. For example, already at the Belt and Road Forum in May, Macron has sent Raffarin, the former prime minister, to attend; he had a very good speech. Now, another former French prime minister, Villepin, also came out and praised the 19th Special Congress of the Communist Party of China, saying that this was absolutely with the aspirations of Europe for peace, for cooperation, for a multi-polar world. So, what I'm saying is that while the EU fusses, and unfortunately Berlin is still putting its foot on the brake in respect to joining this new paradigm, there is a groundswell of more and more people who realize that that is really the way to go.

I would think that also the impact of the trip of Trump in the United States, has a similar effect. Because especially those states which are immediately affected by his economic and trade deals, such as West Virginia, Ohio, Alaska, and a couple of others — I think all together a total of 12 states have been affected positively by economic deals. I think the word will spread, and one of the purposes of this webcast is to bring people up to date, to point your attention to these developments, and to actually ask you to help. This webcast is meant to get people active; join the Schiller Institute; help us to spread the conception that a new relationship among nations is absolutely possible, and it's already becoming a reality. So, don't sit on the sidelines. Become active with us, because this is one of these periods which has a tremendous potential. Last week we already talked about the fall of the Wall and the great historical chance that represented. But I think if you look at the possibility that mankind can move to a completely new era where there is prosperity for everybody; peace among nations defines a new era of civilization. I have the absolute conviction that provided that there is not some great tragedy like a financial crash for which no solution is being implemented in time, or some other crisis being kicked off around some incident, some fake story, I think that the new world view, this idea that what the popular culture of the West has become, or the total culture where everything is allowed, no criteria, no standard, no morality; that that is something which will not last. It is a false belief, it's an ideology; it is a deviation of the true nature of man, and I think it will disappear in a similar way as scholasticism disappeared, because it was an inadequate idea associated with a certain period of history in Europe coming from the Middle Ages. And it vanished; today, you don't have scholastics, at least not in this old form. So, I'm confident that the chance to have a new renaissance, to have an uplifting of people where the best traditions of all cultures, of all nations and cultures of this planet are being revived; and out of that, a new renaissance can be created. I think that that is an absolutely realistic possibility. So, be happy and join us!

SCHLANGER: Well Helga, thank you for your optimism and your work in spreading the spirit of the New Silk Road. We'll see you next week.