enhanced_deficit
03-24-2020, 12:01 AM
It's redstate, so exercise caution while consuming this info:
It’s No Coincidence that Italy and Iran Have Been So Hard-Hit by the Wuhan Virus
March 19, 2020 by Elizabeth Vaughn
https://media.townhall.com/townhall/reu/ha/2020/76/dc9a922c-d3e3-46a6-ac0d-be735e8ea8d3.jpg
In this photo released by China’s Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping talks by video with patients and medical workers at the Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei Province, Tuesday, March 10, 2020. China’s president visited the center of the global virus outbreak Tuesday as Italy began a sweeping nationwide travel ban and people worldwide braced for the possibility of recession. For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. (Xie Huanchi/Xinhua via AP)
Bucking the advice of the EU and the US, Italy’s prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, signed onto China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This strategy was adopted by China in 2013 for the purpose of increasing their geopolitical power. It involved partnering with a particular country to develop an infrastructure project within their borders. The participating countries are forced to finance the work through Chinese banks, use Chinese construction companies who send Chinese workers and materials to complete the project.
The Federalist’s Helen Raleigh, herself from China, explains that for Beijing, the BRI “provides new markets and consistent demand for China’s goods and services, creates employment opportunities for Chinese workers, and gives China access to strategically important locations and natural resources. Beijing’s real objective is to leverage its newly gained financial power to greatly expand its geopolitical influence as well as its economic and military footing from Asia to Europe and Africa.”
...
Long before the Wuhan virus came along, the Iranian economy was in dire straights. At the time Iran shot down a U.S. drone in June 2019, it was clear that the U.S. sanctions imposed in November 2018 had crippled its economy. Following the enactment of a new round of retaliatory sanctions last year against Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top government officials, one Iranian compared the nation’s level of economic pain to feeling one’s “bones breaking.” In other words, the sanctions were eliciting the desired effect.
According to U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates, “Iran’s oil net export revenue totaled $55 billion in 2017,” the last full year before Trump pulled out of Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Iran nuclear deal.
Reuters reported last week that Iran’s crude oil exports in June have fallen to 300,000 barrels per day (bpd). In Aril 2018, the month before Trump exited the Iran nuclear deal, Iran’s oil exports averaged 2.5 million bpd.
redstate.com/elizabeth-vaughn/2020/03/19/its-no-coincidence-that-italy-and-iran-have-been-so-hard-hit-by-the-wuhan-virus/
It’s No Coincidence that Italy and Iran Have Been So Hard-Hit by the Wuhan Virus
March 19, 2020 by Elizabeth Vaughn
https://media.townhall.com/townhall/reu/ha/2020/76/dc9a922c-d3e3-46a6-ac0d-be735e8ea8d3.jpg
In this photo released by China’s Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping talks by video with patients and medical workers at the Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei Province, Tuesday, March 10, 2020. China’s president visited the center of the global virus outbreak Tuesday as Italy began a sweeping nationwide travel ban and people worldwide braced for the possibility of recession. For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. (Xie Huanchi/Xinhua via AP)
Bucking the advice of the EU and the US, Italy’s prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, signed onto China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This strategy was adopted by China in 2013 for the purpose of increasing their geopolitical power. It involved partnering with a particular country to develop an infrastructure project within their borders. The participating countries are forced to finance the work through Chinese banks, use Chinese construction companies who send Chinese workers and materials to complete the project.
The Federalist’s Helen Raleigh, herself from China, explains that for Beijing, the BRI “provides new markets and consistent demand for China’s goods and services, creates employment opportunities for Chinese workers, and gives China access to strategically important locations and natural resources. Beijing’s real objective is to leverage its newly gained financial power to greatly expand its geopolitical influence as well as its economic and military footing from Asia to Europe and Africa.”
...
Long before the Wuhan virus came along, the Iranian economy was in dire straights. At the time Iran shot down a U.S. drone in June 2019, it was clear that the U.S. sanctions imposed in November 2018 had crippled its economy. Following the enactment of a new round of retaliatory sanctions last year against Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top government officials, one Iranian compared the nation’s level of economic pain to feeling one’s “bones breaking.” In other words, the sanctions were eliciting the desired effect.
According to U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates, “Iran’s oil net export revenue totaled $55 billion in 2017,” the last full year before Trump pulled out of Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Iran nuclear deal.
Reuters reported last week that Iran’s crude oil exports in June have fallen to 300,000 barrels per day (bpd). In Aril 2018, the month before Trump exited the Iran nuclear deal, Iran’s oil exports averaged 2.5 million bpd.
redstate.com/elizabeth-vaughn/2020/03/19/its-no-coincidence-that-italy-and-iran-have-been-so-hard-hit-by-the-wuhan-virus/