In the time of the Shah, the world criticized the Shah for being “pro-US”. One of the most common phrases I used to hear was, “US claps its hands, and the Shah jumps”. It sickened me, to be compared to a poodle.
We all know the successful campaign, the left wing radicals and Shi’ite politicians used, to topple the Shah, using a variety of slogans, all based on his so called pro-western “capitalist” policies.
So you would think, that all those “radical chics”, who sit in coffee shops in Paris, would be just as aggressive now.
Surely they would have been able to topple this regime, just as easily as they got rid of the Shah, now that China has taken the place of US.
Wikipedia: China, Iran Relations
The question is, why is it that we are not hearing questions, about the horrible deals the Chinese authorities are doing with the Shi’ite politicians?
What makes China any different, to US and UK powers, who ripped off the Iranian nation, but were eventually stopped?
Why aren’t the Chinese stopped?
The answer is found by looking at the power of the media. The media has enormous power in the West. But it has no power in China. The media can remove leaders in the West.
No journalist, can sit in front of an Ayatollah, and ask why they are dealing exclusively with China. Counter to what you think, the vain Ayatollah, will not say that it is because of sanctions, as that would be a sign of weakness.
No journalist can sit in front of a Chinese premier, and ask why are you dealing with such a horrible regime in Iran, because his regime is just as bad.
But Obama can ask the Chinese. So why doesn’t he, now that he is going there this week? What would happen if he did stop China dealings with the Ayatollahs and smart Iranians took over?
Let us look at the world economy from an Iranian’s perspective. Let us ask a poor fisherman in the Persian Gulf, doing what he has always done for thousands of years. What would he say?
He would say, “Ali agha, aval in ingelisi ha o amrikahiha amadano naftemoonro moft bordan” (Mr Ali, At first it was the English and Americans who came and bought our oil for peanuts). Alan nobat chinihast (and now is the Chinese’s turn).
Hamashoonam aslaheh dadan be adamashoon too iran ke ma ro khafeh konanad (and they gave weapons to their men in Iran to shut us up).
And of course he is absolutely right. But there is one very important factor that has remained constant, from a hundred years ago. The US consumer and its suppliers. For a long time the cheap energy of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, all came from Iran. We were pumping 6 million barrels per day in the 70’s. It fuelled the most amazing economic growth the world saw after World War II.
But then Nixon went to China, and factories were moved from all over the world to China. Then Carter turned Iran into a pariah state, with only one customer for its oil – China. Suddenly Iran was fueling the next economic miracle in the world, namely US and EU factories in China.
So to me China is a means to an end. It has been abused by the US, just like Iran. Ask anyone in China, and they will tell you, that they all play lip service to Intel, Wal-Mart and Apple, who supply the US consumer. US jobs are being lost.
Let’s go live now. We are in a pub in the UK, and we smart Iranians are having a shouting match, as you do, in these heated discussions. As I am the loudest and most opioniated, I have worn everyone down, and they have all given up and say, “kheyli khob baba, pas akharesh chi misheh” (ok baba, so what’s going to happen in the end).
I say, “well, imagine a regime in Iran that wanted to supply gas to EU from Iran and make all that area from Eastern Europe to Caspian, the next place for all the factories to go to, and leave China; working under civilized working conditions and clean energy. It would isolate Russia and strengthen EU and Western Asia. It would be the new Seleucid Empire reuniting Europeans and Iranians like never before.
The centre of world trade, would return to where it has always been – right in the middle of the world. Any trade from the main continents, would have to go through Iran. The labour force will come from Africa and India, and the cheap clean energy will come from huge gas fields in the Iranian plateau, to make and sell to the wealthy in EU and America, that will have a billion people.
And it is not only me who is thinking of this. The Shi’ite politicians are thinking this as well. But it means loosening the Chinese Knot on Iran, which no one is interested in doing.
