Soros' Attack on Xi Recognizes China's Threat to Speculators Like Himself - Prof

US billionaire financier George Soros's criticisms of Chinese President Xi Jinping as an enemy of open societies were "completely meaningless" and not worthy of a response, the Chinese foreign ministry has said. Speaking to Sputnik, Canadian scholar Dr. Michel Chossudovsky explained what it is about China that bothers people like Soros so much.

During his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland last week, Soros alleged that although China was not the only 'authoritarian regime' in the world, it was the richest, strongest and most technologically advanced one, making its leader President Xi Jinping "the most dangerous opponent" to open societies in the West.

Sputnik: Dr. Chossudovsky, how justified is the criticism of China's president by George Soros in your view?

Michel Chossudovsky: I think the whole thing is a red herring. This was a smear operation against President Xi. I would say that it is [part of] an onslaught of a number of initiatives which we might designate as 'Chinagate'. 

It's worth nothing that when he talks about authoritarian societies, he fails to mention the recent actions of the US president directed against Venezuela, declaring the speaker of the house as president of that republic. Within the Western world, we have quite a number of authoritarians who pretend to be democrats, including Macron in France, repressing the Yellow Vests, and of course Theresa May. 

In effect, I found the speech rather mediocre, because it doesn't really address some of the more important issues of the contemporary world, which is US hegemonic power waging wars, and [engaging] in regime change. 

But let's also understand that George Soros has a whole background in that regard, because he has promoted regime change through the so-called color revolutions.

Sputnik: Soros made a number of interesting arguments during his presentation at Davos. One of them was about artificial intelligence, and the idea that AI was undemocratic by its nature. How serious is the threat from AI? Does Soros have a point, or is it another claim alluding to his own personal agenda?

Michel Chossudovsky: Well again, artificial intelligence is an instrument, and it can be used by all sorts of people. George Soros has used artificial intelligence, combined with insider information, to speculate through his hedge fund on financial markets. This is a standard procedure, and it's very, very disgusting. 

So I think we have to put things into perspective. Certainly artificial intelligence is used in China. Artificial intelligence and a whole body of repressive apparatuses are used in the United States of America…

Sputnik: It's interesting that we've got George Soros talking last year about the possible threat posed by tech giants, and this year talking about China. It's almost as if he's in cahoots with the US administration. What's your take on these constant attacks on China?

Michel Chossudovsky: China is currently ahead in several key technologies…There's no question about their edge. And I think what the United States and its allies want to do is exclude China from playing a key role in global technology. We've seen the history with Huawei, the accusations pertaining to [tech] security, trade sanctions.

But ultimately, if you compare the West with China, the West is epitomized by people like George Soros, who make their money out of thin air. They don't necessarily contribute to the real economy. And that's true of a large number of financiers in the United States and in Western Europe, whereas a lot of the real economy has transferred, been relocated to China. China is developing its real economy to such an extent that it is overshadowing the hegemony of the United States, and I think that is ultimately the issue. And that's also what explains this campaign against China, particularly in the area of high technology. 

I should mention one thing: if we are to see the emergence of what we might call a 'Chinagate', it will be very different to the campaign currently ongoing against the Russian Federation, the so-called sanctioned regimes and so on. Why? Because the United States and the European Union have extremely fragile economies, to the extent that they depend on [goods] made in China. And if trade was in any way weaponized, it could create massive disturbances in the structure of trade throughout the Western world.

Dr. Chossudovsky is a Canadian author and professor emeritus of economics at the University of Ottawa. He is also the president of the Centre for Research on Globalisation, an independent think tank. Chossudovsky has is the author of multiple books on globalisation, the global economic crisis, America's war on terror, and other materials. The views expressed by Professor Chossudovsky are his own, and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.