Stor grund til optimisme:
Silkevejsånden smitter!
LaRouche PAC Internationale Webcast,
3. nov., 2017.

Vært Matthew Ogden: Det er den 3. nov., og jeg er Matthew Ogden på LaRouche PAC Internationale Webcast. Som man ser af titlen på aftenens udsendelse, så er temaet for vores udsendelse, »Stor grund til optimisme: Silkevejsånden smitter«. Vi har været i nedtælling til præsident Donald Trumps rejse til Asien. Air Force One har forladt Washington, D.C., og han er på vej til sit første stop på Hawaii, hvor han vil besøge Pearl Harbor; dernæst fortsætter han til Asien.

På skærmen her ser vi vores kalender. Her er Helga Zepp-LaRouches citat [Fig. 1]. Hun sagde, »Da Xi Jinping på den 19. Nationalkongres sagde, at Kina ønsker at gøre hele verden smuk frem til år 2050, for alle mennesker, så mener jeg, at dette absolut er opnåeligt. Vi bør alle gå med i denne bestræbelse. Silkevejsånden vokser, når man først kender den.« Det var et citat fra Helga Zepp-LaRouches webcast i går; Schiller instituttet har haft en række webcasts om temaet, »Silkevejsånden«. Denne optimistiske ånd, som Helga Zepp-LaRouche har reflekteret, både i det citat, I netop hørte, men også i løbet af de seneste par uger under vores nedtælling til præsident Trumps potentielt historiske rejse til Asien. Denne optimistiske ånd, Silkevejsånden, smitter virkelig. Vi udfordrer dig til, hen over de kommende par dage, at indfange denne optimistiske ånd, og til at hjælpe os i vore bestræbelser for, at USA skal tilslutte sig dette nye, fremvoksende paradigme, der vokser frem fra Kina.

Her følger resten af udskriftet på engelsk:

On the eve of President Trump’s Asia trip, we’re seeing
efforts from both President Xi Jinping and from President Trump
himself to try to set a very positive tone for this upcoming
summit between President Trump and President Xi.  At a speech at
Tsinghua University, which took place on Wednesday, President Xi
Jinping reiterated his commitment to “win-win” relations between
the United States and China.  He stated the following:  “China is
willing to work with the United States side to look far ahead and
to aim high; to establish a community of shared future for
mankind.”  So, that’s an image [Fig. 2] there obviously from
President Trump’s and President Xi’s last visit, which was them
sitting in the living room of the Mar-a-Lago resort down in
Florida during President Xi Jinping’s visit during the Spring of
this year.  But since that time, their relationship has continued
to be positive and has continued to develop.  That kind of
vision, what President Xi Jinping called working “with the United
States to look far ahead and to aim high”, this is the kind of
statecraft that indeed President Trump should engage in.  To have
an over-arching vision which is built on this idea that yes, over
the coming generation, China and the United States will be two of
the leading economies in the world.  Our task at this point is to
look far ahead into the future and to achieve some visions which
are, indeed, very high; and to establish a community of shared
future for all mankind.
Now obviously, that comes in the form of the United States
joining in with this “win-win” vision of cooperation which China
has built around the New Silk Road, the One Belt, One Road
Initiative.  So that was President Xi Jinping obviously trying to
set a very positive tone for this upcoming summit between him and
President Trump.
Now let’s take a look at what President Trump himself had to
say.  In an interview last night with Fox News, President Trump
went into a long discussion of what he expects from his upcoming
trip to Asia; especially with his upcoming trip to China.  Here
you can see a screen shot [Fig. 3] from that interview subtitled
“President Trump on US-Chinese relationship”.  Here’s what
President Trump had to say about his relationship with President
Xi Jinping [Fig. 4].  He said, “President Xi has been pretty
terrific.  I’ve become very, very close to President Xi of China.
I think a lot of good things are going to happen.  I think it’s a
very important trip.  I think this is one of the more important
trips that a President has made.”  So, that’s President Donald
Trump talking about his upcoming trip to China.  As you can see,
even he himself acknowledges the very historic importance of this
trip that he’s making to China.  So, on both sides you can see
both President Xi and President Trump are trying to set a very
positive tone for this upcoming summit that they’re going to be
having.
Now, what did President Trump say about his relationship
with President Xi Jinping?  He said it’s a very positive
relationship.  Now, he is sticking to that, despite all of the
efforts from the mainstream media otherwise in the United States
and in Europe and coming out of the geopolitical faction in Great
Britain, where they’re trying to say “Oh, we have to try to give
Xi Jinping a bad name, and we have to say that he’s actually a
dictator and a new Stalin and a new Mao.”  Well, in fact,
President Trump is acknowledging that President Xi Jinping has
done some very positive things; saying that he’s a terrific
person and that their relationship is very positive.  In fact,
this is the tone that you’re getting from the Chinese media as
we’re leading into this historic summit meeting.
Now if you were reading all of the US media, you would
definitely be getting a completely different picture.  But what
has the Chinese media been saying?  Well, let’s take a look at an
article that just came out yesterday in the People’s Daily
[Fig. 5].  It’s titled “Trump’s Visit to China to Yield
Significant Outcomes”.  The article begins by saying, “U.S.
President Donald Trump’s first state visit to China is an
historic opportunity to boost cooperation between the world’s two
largest economies, and a chance to tackle the problems that
dampen bilateral ties, said experts”¦.
“In addition to security, the two nations’ trade and
economic cooperation will also become a crucial topic during
Trump’s visit “[E]xperts believe that deepened mutual trust and
profound cooperation will benefit both nations in the long run.”
Then it goes on to quote a very significant person, Wang
Huiyao, who is the director of the Center for China and
Globalization, which is a leading think tank in Beijing.  He
said, “Bilateral cooperation in infrastructure will provide great
opportunities for both nations. Trump has rolled out plans to
upgrade America’s infrastructure, but his $1 trillion plan is as
elusive as ever. On the other hand, China has spent $11 trillion
on infrastructure in the past decade, accumulating rich
experience in building high speed rails, roads, and energy plants
and proving itself to be a strong partner.”  Then he went on to
say the following — the article says:
“Meanwhile, the U.S. can also help China’s Belt and Road
initiative, as the former has rich experience in economic
cooperation with countries along the Belt and Road.
“‘It would be a win-win solution for both nations if the
U.S. is willing to participate in the Belt and Road initiative
and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank,’ added Wang.”
So, that was an article in People’s Daily online.  As you
can see, the Chinese experts are saying look the opportunity is
there for Trump to use this visit to China to announce that he’s
joining the Belt and Road Initiative and joining the Asia
Infrastructure Investment Bank.  Of course, this has been the
theme that the LaRouche organization has had for the last several
weeks, as we’ve been carrying out our ongoing countdown to this
historic trip.  Now the Chinese are saying explicitly that Trump
has got the opportunity to announce that he is joining these
crucial initiatives.  Not only for the Chinese side, but saying
explicitly that this is the opportunity for Trump to use the
expertise and the financing that China is willing to provide to
follow through on his promise here in the United States for
trillions of dollars in infrastructure investment.  Take what
China has already accomplished with roads, high-speed rail, water
management, power projects, domestically within China and also
elsewhere, and bring that into the United States; and modernize
the infrastructure here in the United States with that
relationship.
Another Chinese media outlet has interviewed a US expert,
this is actually an establishment figure; a fellow named Joseph
Nye, who’s the former dean of the Kennedy School of Government at
Harvard University.  This is what he had to say.  This is an
article from XinhuaNet [Fig. 6].  “Interview:  Better
Understanding Between the United States and China Benefits Both
Says US Scholar”.  This is his quote:
“I don’t see any reason why the United States can’t have
cooperation with China on many of the types of projects which
will go into the One Belt, One Road.  The One Belt, One Road
should be able to produce global public goods.  I think it can.
Those public goods are good for China, and they’re good for the
United States; but they’re also good for other countries.  So in
terms of producing public goods or global public good, that’s
‘win-win’ for everyone.”
Again, that’s Joseph Nye, former dean of the Kennedy School
of Government from Harvard University.  As you can see, he’s
saying look this is an opportunity for “win-win”.  Not only would
they benefit China and the United States, but he said there are
also third party benefits.  The entire world could benefit from
this kind of “win-win” relationship between the United States and
China.  So, that’s very significant coming from an establishment
figure here in the United States — the former dean of the
Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
So indeed, you have a growing chorus of people who are
beginning to recognize exactly what time it is, and exactly what
the potential benefits would be for Trump to announce that the
United States is joining the Belt and Road Initiative coming out
of China.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche had a very significant appearance —
this was actually last week — but it hasn’t received yet the
coverage that it should, although there is an article that is
forthcoming in the Chinese-language press on this event.  But
Helga Zepp-LaRouche delivered a speech at an event in Paris on
October 24th which was jointly sponsored by the international
Schiller Institute and the Geopolitical Academy in Paris — the
Académie de Gépolitique de Paris.  Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s
speech was titled “Achieving a ‘Win-Win’ Cooperation with China”.
Now, I’m going to play a portion of her speech.  You’ll see that
it’s sort of broken up because there was a simultaneous
translation into French for the French-speaking audience; but
we’ve just selected out the portion of Helga Zepp-LaRouche
speaking English for our English-speaking audience here.  But
it’s a very important strategic overview going into President
Trump’s trip to Asia.  So, I’m going to play that speech for you
now.

HELGA ZEPP-LAROUCHE:  Ladies and Gentlemen, Excellencies,
Dear Guests:  I would like to approach the issue of the China
question from the standpoint that there is right now a complete
clash between what I would call the old paradigm and the new
paradigm, and that new paradigm has been very little understood
in the West.  I would like to start by talking about what just
happened, namely the 19th National Congress of the CPC and
especially the perspective outlined by President Xi Jinping for
the next 35 years.
First I want to say, I was in China for the first time in
1971 in the middle of the Cultural Revolution, and therefore, I
basically take credit of having the advantage of having seen
firsthand, the absolutely incredible development of the Chinese
miracle.  China has developed in the last 40 years in particular,
since Deng Xiaoping’s reforms, into the most incredible economic
transformation of any country on the planet.  It has uplifted in
the last 30 years, 700 million people out of poverty; it has now
a growing middle class of people who are economically doing very
well, and it has a perspective of eliminating all poverty by
2020, that is three years from now, of the remaining 42 million
poor people in the rural areas.
What Xi Jinping did first in his speech, was to take a
review of what has happened in the last five years since he
became General Secretary of the CPC, and that was essentially to
develop the inner and western regions of China, which also is
very difficult, because these are mostly deserts, and it’s very
difficult because this is a tremendous challenge.  But China has
done an incredible job in doing exactly that.
One year after Xi Jinping had become General Secretary, he
announced the New Silk Road, the Belt and Road Initiative in
Kazakhstan, and in the four years since this project has been put
on the agenda, again, the most breathtaking development has taken
place where now, about 70 countries are now actively
participating in this project.

By 2020, Xi announced that China should be a moderately
prosperous country; by 2035 China should be fully modernized, and
by 2050 it’s supposed to become a “strong, democratic, culturally
advanced, harmonious and beautiful nation.”  Xi emphasized that
in China’s development, they were adding miracle upon miracle and
basically would draw on the 5,000 years of China’s history, where
China contributed many advances to humankind, and also develop a
spirit of science, of innovation, and excellence for the future.
He mentioned 14 times in his speech that the aim of all of this
is that people would have a better and a happy life.  Now, I have
not heard that said from any Western politician since a very long
time.  It is in the Declaration of Independence that the “pursuit
of happiness” is an inalienable right of all people, but if I
look at the political processes in Europe or the United States,
“happiness” is not a subject of discussion as the purpose of
policies.
What China has done is to take the Chinese economic
miracle, and offer it through the Belt and Road Initiative to all
participating countries, and that has already transformed all of
Asia, much of Europe, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, Africa,
Latin America.  And at this Party Congress, there were many
leaders who said they will now take the inspiration of the
Chinese model for their own development.
While this is happening in China, you had a peak of
unprecedented attacks on China in the Western media.  Bloomberg,
Time magazine, the Wall Street Journal, you had a barrage of
articles accusing China that this is all just an attempt to gain
global power, to replace the Anglo-American imperialism with a
Chinese imperialism, that it’s a grab for raw materials; that Xi
Jinping would be like Stalin, like Mao Zedong, just nothing which
has not been said.
So, how come the countries that are participating with
China, 70 countries or maybe even more than 100, are all happy,
they’re all praising what China is doing, and how can it be that
there is such a complete difference in perception of what is
going on?  This is what I call the clash between the old paradigm
and the new paradigm, because what China is offering is a
cooperation on the basis of a “win-win cooperation” where
naturally China is pursuing its interests, but it is also at the
same time, giving the interest of the participating countries; so
it’s in a mutual benefit for both sides.
Let’s take it back a little bit:  When the Soviet Union
approached its last phase, in the United States the neo-cons
developed a concept which they called the Project for a New
American Century (PNAC), which was the idea that there should be
only a unipolar world, dominated by the Anglo-Americans.
When the Wall in Berlin came down, the organization around
my husband, Lyndon LaRouche, had an answer:  We proposed the
Productive Triangle economic development Paris-Berlin-Vienna,
which was the idea to transform the Comecon countries with
Western technologies through development corridors.  In 1991,
when the Soviet Union disintegrated, the Iron Curtain was no
longer there, and we proposed the Eurasian Land-Bridge, which was
the idea to connect the population and industrial centers of
Europe with those of Asia through development corridors, and we
called that in ’91 already, the Eurasian Land-Bridge, the New
Silk Road.
We campaigned for this over 26 years, but naturally, if you
go back to ’91, this was not in the interests of the Bush Sr.
administration; or Margaret Thatcher, who called the German
unification the “Fourth Reich”; or even Mitterrand who opposed
German reunification, so there were many geopolitical obstacles
to realize this plan at that time.
So the unipolar world forces pursued their policy which
consists of regime change of any country, any government which
would oppose the unipolar world, color revolution, such concepts
as “right to protect” (R2P), under the pretext of fighting for
human rights and democracy to conduct interventionist wars, which
has given us the mess in the Middle East and the refugee crisis.
This was what ensued over these decades.
That military-strategic policy was combined with an economic
side, which was essentially the lack of development caused by the
IMF conditionalities, which prevented explicitly Third World
development; a policy of the Troika in Europe which prescribed
brutal austerity to Southern European countries such as Greece,
Italy, Spain, Portugal.  And this led to the revolts against this
system which we have been watching for the past almost two years.
That revolt expressed itself in the Brexit, in the election
victory of President Trump and the loss of Hillary Clinton, in
the “no” to the referendum in Italy for the change in the
Constitution; in the recent developments, such as the election
victory of Kurz in Austria, Babic in the Czech Republic, the
eruption in Catalonia, so this is an ongoing revolt.
That policy is now leading to the danger of a new financial
crisis, much worse than 2008, because the causes of that crisis
had not been addressed.  To the contrary, through quantitative
easing, negative interest rates, an enormous amount of liquidity
was pumped into the system which manifests itself now in the form
of a much, much bigger indebtedness of governments, of firms, of
student debt, of car loans, and this is a bubble about to explode
again.
China is not unaware of what is the reaction of the Western
media towards the Chinese model, and I found it very interesting
that in the last days there is a completely new tone in the
Chinese media about this reaction of the West.  They say, with a
very new self-confidence, less diplomatic than the Chinese would
usually speak, that their model is superior to the Western model.
And they talk about the errors of Western conceptions about
China, that the West completely misses the true nature of the
Chinese development, that the West obviously does not want China
to succeed and predicting, that it will not succeed.  One article
says, that the West thinks the closer that China is to the West,
then they’re on the right path; if they are diverging it’s
dangerous; that China should consolidate the interests of the
West, and therefore China’s development is negative and
challenges the world order; and that China should not challenge
what they call “universal values,” but in reality these
“universal values” are just Western interests.  And then, in
several articles, they say, look at the chaos of the West, the
influence of the Western media is shrinking and China should no
longer care about Western prejudices.
So, I’m just touching upon these things, because it is my
firm belief that the New Silk Road dynamic is unstoppable,
because it is the much more attractive model of international
cooperation, and it will eventually also be put on the table in
all of Europe.  I think it would be in the fundamental interests
of European nations to cooperate with China and with Russia, in
the development of Africa:  This is the only human way to stop
and overcome the refugee crisis.  China has offered a “win-win
cooperation” to Mrs. Merkel, to Italy’s Gentiloni, to [former
French Prime Minister] Mr. Raffarin, when he was at the Belt and
Road Forum in Beijing in May, so the offer is on the table.  The
same goes for the reconstruction of the war-torn countries of the
Middle East, where, in the case of Syria, there is already an
emerging tripartite cooperation, where China provides the
infrastructure, Russia the energy, Iran the industrial parks, and
other countries are invited to cooperate in reconstructing Syria;
and also the same goes for Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, and other
countries of the region.
Contrary to what you read in most Western mainstream media,
the possibility that it would come to a good relationship between
Trump and Xi Jinping in the upcoming visit of President Trump to
Asia, where he will go to Vietnam, Philippines, South Korea,
Japan, and a state visit to China, are very good.
The whole Russia-gate against President Trump, the idea that
there was collusion between the Trump team and Russia, whereby
Putin would have helped Trump to win the election, is utter
nonsense, there’s no evidence for it, and it was designed
entirely by the intelligence services of Great Britain and the
Bush-Obama administrations, to prevent Trump from having a
positive relationship with Russia and China — and that is not
succeeding.
The United States is undergoing right now a tremendous
economic crisis, a total collapse of infrastructure due to a
non-investment for about 100 years; infrastructure in the United
States is collapsing.  The United States has 150 km fast train
system between New York and Boston, as compared to more than
20,000 km fast train system in China, and there is right now a
very concrete discussion that China would, together with the
Japan, invest in the infrastructure of the United States, and
this could be a subject in the upcoming Trump visit in China.

There are already many strategic realignments going on: I
only want to point to maybe the most obvious case, that of Japan.
Japan right now is seeking a very good relationship with Russia,
they are developing the Kuril Islands together economically.
Because of the strategic close relationship between Xi Jinping
and Putin, the relation between Japan and China is now improving.
I want to just say, that from the standpoint of universal
history, I think that mankind has reached the point where either
we move to a new paradigm of self-governance of relations among
nations, and stop thinking that war can be, in the age of
thermonuclear weapons, a means of conflict resolutions, if you
don’t want to risk eliminating ourselves as a species.
So we have to think about a new paradigm of cooperation, and
it is on the table.  So, I think that the kind of discussion we
need to have in Europe really needs to take on a completely
different shape and form.  I don’t even think multi-polarity is
what we want, because multi-polarity still has the idea of
geopolitical confrontation, that you have one group of countries
who has an interest against another group of countries; where I
think that the idea pronounced by President Xi Jinping of the
“community of a shared future of humanity,” where you start with
the one mankind first, and then you come to the national or
regional interest, is the way we have to think.
As a last comment, I think that the West can only find this
kind of cooperation if we develop or rediscover our best
traditions, like China has revived its Confucian tradition of
2,500 years, and the West has to revive its best Classical
traditions of all our  European cultures.  If we do that, I think
we are at the verge of a new era.

OGDEN:  So that was a speech that Helga Zepp-LaRouche
presented to a joint event in Paris on October 24th, sponsored by
the international Schiller Institute and the Academy of
Geopolitics in Paris.  As you can see, this is a wonderful
overview of exactly the kind of strategic situation that is now
presenting itself as President Trump is flying on his way to this
historic summit in China with President Xi Jinping.
Now, one more item that we need to conclude with, this is
just some breaking news on the so-called “Russia-gate” narrative,
which is now completely falling apart.  Last week on this
broadcast we reported that the news had come out that Hillary
Clinton and the DNC had been exposed as directly financing the
so-called “dodgy dossier” from Christopher Steele, the British
intelligence agent who had put together this so-called dossier on
President Trump.  Now it has come out that that was only the tip
of the iceberg.  What’s now being revealed is that the Democratic
nomination during the 2016 Presidential campaign was completely
rigged – 100 %; even more than we knew at the time.  The facts
have come out that expose the reality that the DNC, all the way
through the primaries, starting a year before the Presidential
primaries even occurred, was in fact nothing but a subsidiary of
the Clinton campaign.  100 % bought and paid for and controlled.
Donna Brazile, of all people, who is a long-time Democratic Party
figure and was the interim chairperson of the Democratic National
Committee, has just exposed in her forthcoming book; this is an
article that was in {Politico} which is quoting an excerpt from
her forthcoming book, but the article is titled “Inside Hillary
Clinton’s Takeover of the DNC”.  Donna Brazile reported that the
Democratic National Committee’s rigging of the party nomination
for Hillary Clinton against Bernie Sanders, also Joe Biden,
Martin O’Malley, and any other Democratic nominee who never had a
chance.  This rigging of the nomination process was far worse
than we even had known before; and far worse than was even
exposed by the DNC emails and the John Podesta emails that had
been published by WikiLeaks.  In fact, it turns out that the
Clinton campaign was in {total} control, a lockdown of the entire
DNC and total control of every aspect of the so-called “neutral”
Democratic National Committee, beginning all the way back in
August of 2015; almost a year before Clinton became the official
Democratic Party nominee.
Here’s how it worked.  Apparently, Obama had left the DNC
deeply in debt; over $24 million in debt after the 2012
Presidential campaign.  He was paying off that debt very slowly,
so under Donna Brazile’s predecessor, former DNC chairperson
Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, the DNC had signed a secret agreement
with the Clinton campaign which specified that in exchange for
sending money to the DNC, Hillary Clinton would control every
aspect of the Democratic National Committee’s operations — the
party’s finances, the party’s strategy, and all of the money that
was raised by the DNC.  Her campaign would have the right of
refusal of who would be the party communications director, and it
would have the right of final decision on all other staff that
was hired by the Democratic National Committee.  The DNC would
also be required to consult with the campaign about all other
staffing, budgeting, data, analytics, and even mailings that were
sent out by the Democratic National Committee.
So, as you can see, what this shows is that the DNC was
nothing but a bought-and-paid-for subsidiary, a completely
subservient part of the Clinton campaign; whereas it is supposed
to be a completely unbiased party organization which gives every
candidate a fair shake.  Additionally — and this is going to be
a much bigger story over the coming days — apparently the
Hillary Clinton campaign was using the DNC as a fundraising
clearinghouse to evade Federal Election Commission regulations;
virtually laundering campaign cash through the DNC, which was
then funneled into the Hillary Clinton for President campaign,
bypassing or evading FEC regulations.  Under FEC law — this is
the law that every candidate in the entire country is supposed to
follow — the Federal Election Commission says an individual US
citizen can only contribute a maximum of $2700 directly to a
Presidential campaign.  So if you wanted to contribute to the
Hillary Clinton for President-campaign, your max is $2700.  But
the limits for contributions are much higher for contributions to
state party organizations and to the party’s national committee.
So, therefore, any citizen, any individual who had maxed out
their $2700 contribution limit to the Hillary Clinton campaign,
could then turn around and write a check to the Hillary Clinton
Victory Fund, which would be an additional check for up to
$353,000; which represents $10,000 to each of the 32 state party
organization, plus $33,000 to the DNC.  So that money was then
deposited in the state party coffers first, but then was vacuumed
into the DNC and then directly to the Presidential campaign.
Apparently less than 1% of that money stayed in the state party
organizations.
Now this information, this bombshell, is coming directly
from Donna Brazile; this is not some sort of disinformation or
fake news that’s coming from some troll in St. Petersburg or
something.  This is contained within Donna Brazile’s own book
about the DNC.  As Elizabeth Warren said in response to a CNN
interview yesterday when she was asked “Was the DNC campaign, was
the Democratic nomination process completely rigged in favor of
Hillary Clinton?”  “Yes, it was.”  No other nominee even had a
chance, despite the fact that there was overwhelming support
within the Democratic base for anybody but Hillary.
What President Trump said in response to this news, in a
series of tweets that he put out over the last 24 hours, is the
following.  He said, “This is real collusion and dishonesty.
This is a major violation of campaign finance laws and money
laundering.  Where is our Justice Department?  Let’s go FBI and
Justice Department.”  Then he also said, “Bernie Sanders
supporters have every right to be apoplectic of the complete
theft of the Democratic primary by crooked Hillary.”
So, this is a bombshell.  This news will definitely develop
over the next few days, and this is going to be a major story as
President Trump leaves on his historic trip to Asia.  We have an
opportunity right now to organize the entire country to say
“Let’s abandon this entire Russia-gate false narrative.  Let’s
focus on the true story.”  Let’s take a look at the opportunities
that are ahead of us for our President as he takes this trip to
Asia, and what all Americans have in common.  We have crumbling
infrastructure, we have an opioid crisis which is unprecedented
in its proportions.  The stories about this are absolutely
unfathomable about how many deaths we’ve experienced over the
last year from opioid and heroin overdoses.  The statistics are
that we have had one September 11th every three weeks in terms of
the number of Americans that have died.  Or, over the past year,
more Americans have died from opioid and heroin overdoses than
died in the entirety of the Vietnam War.  This is the economic
reality that is confronting the American people; and this is the
kind of situation which could be resolved overnight by taking a
completely different turn towards a spirit of optimism which
Helga Zepp-LaRouche has characterized as the spirit of the New
Silk Road.

So, let me put on the screen one more time as we conclude
our webcast, the image of our calendar [Fig. 7].  We’ve been
counting down the days up to today over the course of the month
of October, as we approached the departure of President Trump for
his historic trip to Asia.  President Trump and President Xi
Jinping will be meeting on November 8th and November 9th, so this
is coming up next week.  This historic summit between President
Trump and President Xi Jinping could, indeed, be a
history-changing event.  So as the title webcast stated, “Great
Cause for Optimism:  The Silk Road Spirit Is Contagious”.  We
challenge you to catch the Silk Road spirit over the next few
days, and to do everything that you can to ensure that this
summit is indeed a watershed moment for the history of US-China
relations and the history of the entire human race.
Thank you very much for tuning in today, and please stay
tuned as we follow this important and historic trip that
President Trump is making to Asia as we approach this bilateral
summit on November 8th and 9th next week.

Thank you for tuning in, and stay tuned to larouchepac.com.