U.S. Sanctions Could Lead to 1 Billion People Starving and Social Upheavals

Liu Zhiqin, a noted Chinese economist at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, in an interview with CGTN’s Tian Wei on March 23, was asked to comment on the global economic effects of the U.S. sanctions regime on Russia. He noted that it “has already been estimated that the spread of COVID will lead to conditions of starvation for 200 million people. But with the effects of the sanctions regime that number will be 1 billion.” He made the point that this is the greatest violation of “human rights” in history.

In another intervention on the same program on March 25, Liu Zhiqin regretted the fact that sanctions have now become a standard practice in foreign policy for some western nations, although they mainly punish the people and not the relevant governments. The purpose, he believes, is to foment social unrest, so that the people will overthrow their government.

Other consequences of the sanctions against Russia were raised by the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, at the Doha Forum in Qatar on March 27. She warned that they could lead to civil unrest in the Middle East and elsewhere due to the high cost or inaccessibility of food imports. “When prices jump, and poor people cannot feed their families, they will be on the streets,” Georgieva said. “One thing we know about trouble in one place: It travels, it doesn’t stay there.” Pointing to the fact that Ukraine is a major wheat exporter, she called for a quick resolution of the war, to contribute to the stability of food prices.