New Law Liberates Hong Kong From U.S. Interference
After the U.S. instigated riots in Hong Kong last year the central government of China saw a necessity to intervene. In sight of other anti-China measures the U.S. has taken the reputational costs of doing so had become less important.
Yesterday the Chinese parliament, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, added a national security law to the Basic Law that governs Hong Kong's special status. The law is designed to end foreign interference in Hong Kong.
The Basic Law already had an article which stated that Hong Kong's independent parliament, the Legislative Council or Legco, must create such a national security law on its own. But 23 years after Hong Kong again became ruled by China, Hong Kong's parliament had still not done so. The foreign instigated violent riots last year, which had paralyzed Hong Kong's economy, demonstrated that such a law is necessary. The central government finally acted and did what the Legco was supposed to do.
The new law, which was put into effect today, is banning secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with a foreign country or external elements to endanger national security. Its 66 articles also ban support in any form for such acts. The offenses are punishable in several degrees up to life in prison. The law includes guarantees for human rights and due legal process.
A mainland 'Office for Safeguarding National Security' will be set up in Hong Kong to take care that the law is followed. While regular cases against the law will be handled by a new national security department within the Hong Kong police, significant cases, like those including foreigners, can be taken over by the mainland office and can be prosecuted by mainland courts.
The law has some extraterritorial power. It does not matter where the crimes are committed:
Article 38 This Law shall apply to offences under this Law committed against the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region from outside the Region by a person who is not a permanent resident of the Region.
People who break the new law while in some other country can be arrested and charged as soon as they step onto Chinese grounds which evidently includes Hong Kong. Members of Congress should consider that when they enact laws in support of the rabble rouser in Hong Kong. A later casino vacation in Macao could otherwise end in a lengthy unplanned stay.
The full text of the law in English is available here. Its promulgation in Hong Kong and the original Chinese text are here.
The new law has already shown results. Several of the U.S. supported student organizations which led the 'pro democracy' clashes last year have shut down days before the law was put into force. 'Pro-democracy' lawmakers have moderated their tone:
The national security law is already having its desired effect, even before its enactment. So far as Beijing is concerned, it has achieved far more with much less than rolling in the tanks.Consider the recent statements of some leaders of the anti-government protest movement. They are either quitting or making U-turns.
...
Claudia Mo Man-ching (opposition legislator): “If we win more than 35 seats [a majority in the Legislative Council elections in September], we can all sit down and negotiate at a moderate pace.”Mo’s statement may be the least sensational but most significant, assuming she represents the views of other “moderates”.
Early this year, the big plan was to force Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to quit. To do so, they would have to win a majority, veto all government bills, including the annual budget, and force Lam to dissolve the Legco session and call for new elections. If Lam still couldn’t get the budget approved in the new Legco, she would have to resign under the Basic Law.
No one talks about the plan any more. Mo is ready to negotiate if she wins again in September.
Suddenly, everyone sounds so reasonable and moderate. I wonder why.
Not everyone will submit peacefully to the new rules. The rabble rouser Joshua Wong, Senator Marco Rubio's and Andrew Duncan's special friend, has set himself up as a martyr. He has called for demonstrations today which were not sanctioned by the police:
Joshua Wong 黃之鋒 @joshuawongcf - 7:52 UTC · Jul 1, 2020
We are on street to against national security law. We shall never surrender. Now is not the time to give up.
About a thousand students protested today against the law and the police arrested 370 of them. Some will be prosecuted under the new law. One policeman was stabbed when some demonstrators tried to free an arrested person.
The U.S. had financed some of the protester groups through the CIA aligned National Endowment for Democracy and the Open Technology Fund. If the U.S. wants to continue instigating unrest in Hong Kong it must now move those programs to the CIA and distribute the money secretly. The OTF funds for Hong Kong have already been frozen.
The British government has promised to give British passports to the 3 million Hong Kongers who were born while the city was still under British rule. One wonder what Brexiters think about such a potentially huge new inflow of people from abroad.
The U.S. Congress will do some huffing and puffing over the new law and Trump will issue some more sanctions but that will be likely it. The CIA's infrastructure to create another 'color revolution' in Hong Kong will not be easy to replace. The U.S. has lost its supremacy and its meddling in Hong Kong will no longer have any effect.
Hong Kong will continue to have its special administrative status and economic freedom. But British and U.S. influence in the city will now be severely diminished.
Posted by b on July 1, 2020 at 18:17 UTC | Permalink
next page »And not before time.
As I have said before, the Opium Wars are over. China has emerged victorious. The Anglo Zionists have been defeated.
Hopefully other nations will take note and follow suit.
zionist
Posted by: Hal Duell | Jul 1 2020 18:45 utc | 2
Cool. So when are the 'rehabilitation camps' opening then?
Posted by: Et Tu | Jul 1 2020 18:45 utc | 3
Does this mean Trump can be arrested next time he visits China since he is ultimately responsible for American interference in Hong Kong? I mean, like Harry Truman said about the presidency, "the buck stops here." I look forward to Xi and China arresting Trump next time he steps foot on any Chinese territory. Instead, China will do everything in its power to get Trump reelected and arrest a few peons with this latest law. Xi, show us what you're made of and use this law as pretext to place an arrest warrant on Donald Trump. You're not afraid of him, are you? Afterall, per your law, he is guilty as charged. So what are you waiting for? Arrest the orange dildo. Do us all a favor. Please. If you're man enough.
Posted by: 450.org | Jul 1 2020 18:52 utc | 4
It should be made clear that the US, and US lackeys such as the Eye-5 and G7 and EU at large et. al, were not and are not supporting democracy aspirations of the protesters/rioters. They are supporting China's incidental killings/hurting of some of these rioters so as to use the fact on the ground to demonize China in PR campaigns. Lives of these rioters are no more than lives of ants to the US (or Marco Rubio/Nancy Pelosi as you wish). On the other hand, the aspiration of the rioters are not democracy--they are not sophisticated enough to understand what democracy is. Their aspirations were, and still are, cash handouts from agitators funded by the US and cohorts, or better still, perhaps free passes to live or pursue higher education in Eye-5 countries.
It is some convoluted logic and present-day geopolitical reality. The west is in desperate mode to contain China's rise or to arrest their own declines. They are practically adopting Lucifer's tactics in their struggle to survive on top. Lives of the roaches in Hong Kong be damned.
Note that none of the roach supporter nations are offering immigration rights to any rioters outright, not even the evil Taiwan regime. But they are all dangling promises of vague asylum/refuge, in wordings that only roaches would be stupid enough to swallow. Heaven help these roaches, as some of them are not even thirteen years old yet.
Thank you, b, for this excellent post. You captured the HK situation clearly and concisely.
Posted by: Oriental Voice | Jul 1 2020 18:58 utc | 5
A fitting end to the city that was founded on the British opium trade.
Posted by: El Cid | Jul 1 2020 19:00 utc | 6
@ Posted by: Et Tu | Jul 1 2020 18:45 utc | 3
Those Hongkongers can't be fixed. It will be good ol' jail for them.
@VK
Have you seen the demographics of the american West Coast. More Christian? That's quite the pipe dream. Rome had the capabilities to enforce itself, doing that was a cake walk for its military. That's what one would expect from a regional power that has bested its adversaries, who were near equal to them. When was the last time the US won a war against another power of near-equal parity? Never. These comparisons to the Roman empire fall flat on their face when one takes into account the military triumphs of the Romans. What I see for amerikkka is balkanization.
Posted by: dimitrov | Jul 1 2020 19:06 utc | 8
According to CNN if you throw a gum wrapper on the street and it has the colors red, white, and blue on it this law allows the Chinese Govt. to throw you in prison for the rest of your life. I am only slightly exaggerating the way it was reported.
In all seriousness, it is totally irresponsible for a news organization to jump to the most extreme possible interpretation of a law and present it to someone as general info.
Posted by: Christian J. Chuba | Jul 1 2020 19:19 utc | 9
Funny how Hong Kong always manages to forget to tell the world that there are more than 400,000 young Filipino and Indonesian women working as "domestic helpers" but really "domestic slaves." On duty 160 hours per week. Earning less than $2 per hour, as 30% of their wages goes to the HK Chinese agency, who sold them to their masters.
Hong Kong has an underclass, and inflicts 1000 times more civil rights abuses on these young women (many sexually abused) than what China is doing to them.
Posted by: With Held | Jul 1 2020 19:41 utc | 10
Good piece. As has been done with ultranationalist Ukrainians and anti-Assad Syrians (including 'White Helmet' Al Qaeda families 'settled' here, not to mention one of the most militantly pro-Israel Zionist diasporas in the world, Canada will seek to solidify a virulently anti-China constituency to further attack imperial enemy number one China, just as it continues to demonize and attack Russia. That's what being a good little vassal means. As usual all of the parliamentary politicians are on board with this and unfortunately most of the citizenry.
Freeland Says Canadian in Hong Kong are 'very, very welcome' to come home
"The offers are being extended in light of China's planned national security law..."
Posted by: John Gilberts | Jul 1 2020 20:02 utc | 11
John Gilberts @ 11:
I doubt that many Canadian residents might be willing to return to Canada from HK if they happen to be working for Chinese-based companies. What's to stop Ottawa from arresting them the moment they set foot on Canadian soil and jailing them or keeping them under house arrest like Meng Wanzhou?
Some of those Canadians whom Chrystia Freeland would welcome back became Canadian residents under "wealthy investor" schemes that fast-tracked their visa or residency status if they transferred monies (often monies denied to Beijing by through evading tax - by being transferred into Hong Kong and then sent to offshore accounts in the Caribbean) to Canada and Quebec in particular. The monies sent to Canada was supposed to stimulate business and create jobs but usually ended up in property speculation in Vancouver instead. Is that what Freeland really wants, sitting in her nice electorate in Toronto on the other side of Canada?
Posted by: Jen | Jul 1 2020 20:24 utc | 12
O Canada, our home and native land for fascist diaspora. From SS Waffen Galician, to white helmut wahabbists, to Hong Kong umbrella wavers; we welcome right wing radicals of all colors, creeds and religions in the service of the empire. So very proud again today.
Posted by: sad canuck | Jul 1 2020 20:28 utc | 13
Imagine a humanitarian convoy of western ships in a Dunkirk type operation. The Queen liz exiting Hong Kong Harbour with potential refugees swimming without hope towards the safety of her decks. Lol
More than likely there will be a cash for status worked out for those with the moolah. Britain taking in 3 million is an obvious joke but they'll take in the rich older elites and their families. Canada may offer citizenship in its play for cash immigration scheme and there are plenty of empty properties in bc awaiting the rich hong kongers plan b.
Posted by: PleaseBeleafMe | Jul 1 2020 20:41 utc | 14
All theatre to ensure the management of human debt continues unabated
Posted by: Jezabeel | Jul 1 2020 20:42 utc | 15
The Time Magazine article linked above (re: OTF funding) is quite interesting. It concedes an extensive U.S. support network for the HK protesters, although trying to downplay it as "arms length".
"... the Chinese government has frequently claimed that “foreign forces” are behind the protests. Assistance so far, when it has come, has come from bodies at arm’s length from the U.S. government like the OTF and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), another non-profit predominantly funded by Congress, which spent about $643,000 on Hong Kong programs in 2019."
Most western press automatically reject claims of foreign interference in HK by framing it as simply an unreasonable assertion by Chinese authorities. It is also amusing to read US commentators working up outrage over the "extraterritoriality" of one section of the new law. And, while condemning the new law as the equivalent of a "putsch" (no dictionaries in that office apparently), an editorial in the conservative US publication National Review went so far as to claim the HK protest movement was "conspicuously peaceful".
The real purpose of the 2019 HK protests, to American conflict managers, was to ensure the re-election of Taiwan's current government. Next, as vk observes, will be a determined effort to get a pro-US government in place in the Philippines. Thereafter, the pressure on China can expand in the South China Sea.
Posted by: jayc | Jul 1 2020 20:44 utc | 16
@ Posted by: dimitrov | Jul 1 2020 19:06 utc | 8
My bet is that, if the USA is successful in crushing the Woke Revolt (whose epicenter is in the West Coast, its greatest symbol being the Seattle Autonomous Zone), then it will be with an army made of fundamentalist Chistians from the Deep South and the Midwest. This could lead to the Christianization of the US Army, which would then occupy (and recolonize) the West Coast over the corpse of the cosmopolitan "woke elite" from the past.
The Christianized West Coast would then link up with already fundamentalist Christian Australia, which would form the new main front of the American Empire. Since that scenario would imply a shrinking of the American Empire itself (as it would be the result of a civil war), that would make this new American Empire a "byzantine" one, in the sense it would be smaller, less developed, poorer, more unequal, more theatrical but still with universal delusions (to be channeled towards China).
But, of course, that's just a hypothesis that I think is the most probable outcome. The USA's future is still, technically, in the open for some other scenarios - all of them negative, though.
VK,
You misread Putin if you think he will reassert a dominant state ownership. Putin has nationalized a few strategic industries and disciplined a few oligarchs but has no plan or intention to move towards a Chinese-style market socialism. In fact, much of his economic and social policies have a decidedly neoliberal bent. As Tony Wood argues, Putin has reformed and consolidated the Yeltsin system. There is not as much of a break with Yeltsin as liberals -- or apparently leftists looking for any hope -- want to believe.
Posted by: Prof K | Jul 1 2020 20:50 utc | 18
@ Posted by: Prof K | Jul 1 2020 20:50 utc | 18
Yes, I agree with you. That's why I think Russia will ultimately fail.
In this sense, the Democrats are more sensible than the Republicans: its easier to attack Eurasia through Russia than through China. Of course that, in the long run, China would be a more rewarding scalp than Russia, but Russia is the easier target.
The American elites are undecided.
Will the American people ever achieve democratic control over their government? The CIA and this NED foment international trouble with impunity, backed by black budgets and all the evil genius money can buy. On the other hand, the protests in Hong Kong and Tienanmen Square were legitimate expressions of the universal desire for individual freedom from suffocation in oppressively collectivist communist culture. This article is written in a way that implies these protests would not occur without foreign interference, which is most likely the view of the CCP. Joshua Wong is maligned as a "rabble rouser", and even worse, a friend of Marco Rubio! Are you sure you're happy with this, b? Could you be throwing out the baby with the bathwater?
Posted by: jadan | Jul 1 2020 21:11 utc | 20
@20
Will the American people ever achieve democratic control over their government?
No, and any attempts to are merely Russian and Chinese fostered Color Revolutions. Blowback, in otherwords, but feckless nonsense nonetheless.
The same question can and should be applied to Russia and China.
Will the Russian people ever achieve democratic control over their government?
No, and any attempts to are merely Western fostered Color Revolutions. Blowback, in otherwords, but feckless nonsense nonetheless.
Will the Chinese people ever achieve democratic control over their government?
No, and any attempts to are merely Western fostered Color Revolutions. Blowback, in otherwords, but feckless nonsense nonetheless.
Posted by: 450.org | Jul 1 2020 21:20 utc | 21
As if this has something to do with anti-imperialism. China is determined to control everything on its borders, especially Xinjiang. Did you hear who Xi Jinping hired to train the men keeping the Uyghurs in line? None other than Erik Prince, Betsy DeVos's brother and the former head of Blackwater whose goons murdered 17 Iraqis. Intending to keep Muslims in line, I guess the Chinese "Communist" Party saw that as an asset when they hired him.
Posted by: Louis N Proyect | Jul 1 2020 21:31 utc | 22
In this sense, the Democrats are more sensible than the Republicans: its easier to attack Eurasia through Russia than through China.
Actually, at least according to the Obama Doctrine, it's easier to contain China via the whole and remainder of Asia hence his TPP. TPP was designed to extend neoliberal trade doctrine to all of Asia and to also contain China by leading the direction of that future trade. Then along came Donald Trump who did exactly what China wanted him to do — tear up the TPP. China is clever by allowing Russia to take all the blame (RussiaGate). It's clear China is using Russia as its foil considering China is the 15,000 pound elephant in the room and the only country with the ability to bring America to its knees economically. You hear that Vlad? Xi is using you and there's not a single thing you can do about it or will do about it. You simply have no leverage aside from your nukes. Russia's vast resources will soon enough be China's resources.
Fyi, I was never an advocate for, and in fact a critic of, the TPP, but for environmental reasons. The TPP suported endless growth and as you know by now, I hew to the fact that endless growth is murdering the living planet.
Posted by: 450.org | Jul 1 2020 21:40 utc | 23
@22
Wow, that's huge if true. I didn't know about this. Do you have a link? Erik Prince in bed, like Trump, with the CCP? Matches made in heaven, or hell, apparently. Don't think Trump isn't envious of what Xi is doing in Hong Kong. He'd like to do the same here in America and maybe he will if he gets a second term. At this point, there could be a true communist revolutionin Russia and/or China and the old Marxists would support Putin and or Xi in brutally suppressing it. Everything and everyone is ultimately corrupted.
Posted by: 450.org | Jul 1 2020 21:47 utc | 24
My niece lives in Hong Kong----
I will get her insight.
Posted by: Duncan Idaho | Jul 1 2020 22:02 utc | 25
"The British government has promised to give British passports to the 3 million Hong Kongers who were born while the city was still under British rule. One wonder what Brexiters think about such a potentially huge new inflow of people from abroad."
My first reaction was along the lines of "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood". What would a Brexiter think if a Brexiter could think. If Nigel Farage will not tell them what to think, and Boris will not tell them either... everything will be quiet and peaceful in the increasingly sunny and warm England.
But from the Hong Kong point of view, this promise was perhaps more sobering event than the new security law. Top 1% probably already has some secure places abroad, be it London, Vancouver or whatever. As we go step down on the economic ladder, we have folks with fat mortgages that are reasonable given low interest rates and gradually increasing real estate prices. If there is a rush for the exit, real estate prices will drop and their net value may become negative, surely to little to buy a dwelling in England. Job market in COVID-19 is rotten already, COVID-19 itself is not an enticement to load your belongings on a container ship and fly to England. After such sobering reflections, one has to plan for living in Hong Kong.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jul 1 2020 22:05 utc | 26
@22
You're correct, I looked it up. The CCP have turned to Erik prince to learn how to properly torture, terrorize and murder their own people. Can't the CCP do anything for themselves? They have to turn to America to learn how to torture, terrorize and murder their own people? How pathetic. And they have aspirations to replace America as the world leader? Good luck with that although I'm sure Trump & Prince will help the Chinese in that endeavor nonetheless as they have thus far. Who would have thought, the quintessential capitalists make the best communists and vice versa? Me, that's who. Capitalism and communism are Siamese Twins. I wonder if Erik Prince taught his pupils in Xinjiang how to sterilize the Muslim women? I wonder if cutting their clits off is part of the process? You know Prince would get off on that. Cutting the clits off Muslim women. Class act all the way.
Posted by: 450.org | Jul 1 2020 22:09 utc | 27
With Held @ 10:
Sounded like you are trolling with a nasty spin. Treatment of domestic helpers in HK is a legitimate issue for discussion, and indeed these servants are serving underpaid (in my opinion) and overworked. But you ignored (deliberately?) the factor of room and board, plus often healthcare provided for by their employers. A bed in HK costs at least $500USD a month, even in poor neighborhoods, and food is expensive. Most workers, after being in HK for a year or two, find additional sources of income. The maid who works for my sister and Mom gets about $1000USD/month, clear of any expenses, and she is happily in charge of grocery purchasing fund :-). She sends most of her earnings to Cebu, Philippine. I do feel sorry for her for having to live away from her family, only visiting once every two years for two weeks. My sister gives her maid one full month. This is not uncommon among people we know.
HK seems to be one of the more favored destination for domestic helpers in comparison to Taiwan, Singapore, the Middle East, etc. However, I understand their top choice today is mainland China, twice the paid and far better lodging conditions.
My suggestion to you is to stay away from topics you don't know much about, or that you don't know enough of the details. Else you tend to mislead and feed hearsay mongers.
Posted by: Oriental Voice | Jul 1 2020 22:09 utc | 28
Trump Indicates In A February 2018 Tweet It May Have Been China That Interfered In The 2016 Election On His Behalf
Posted by: 450.org | Jul 1 2020 21:40 utc | 23
The fools! Nobody can recognize the sinister hidden hand from Tuvalu. The first hint for Tuvalu involvement is their income from registering internet domains, giving them good access to anonymizing servers. Second hint is the fact that within their region, Tuvalu is the hotbed of anti-Semitism, they never joined the other countries in the region like Palau and Micronesia in opposing UN resolutions critical of Israel. Thus they have both motivation and opportunity to make a dastardly attack undermining the social tranquility in USA (sawing discord etc.) Finally, according to research, those attack did not cost a penny, some ads were purchased, some income from ad clicks was pocketed. Exactly a proper aggressive strategy for a poor country with 15,000 inhabitants (compare with the population and the wealth of China, would they bother with that stuff?).
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jul 1 2020 22:19 utc | 29
@27:
With over 5,000 years of history China knows all tricks of torture and need to learn from no one. You, on the other hand, have a thing or two to learn about lying.
Posted by: Oriental Voice | Jul 1 2020 22:20 utc | 30
@30
If they know all the tricks, why did they hire Erik Prince? A goodwill gesture? Please elaborate and worm your way out of this one with some 5,000-year-old tricks.
China Business Ventures Tied To Blackwater Founder Erik Prince Raise Questions
That's right. His company invested in a school just outside Beijing. It's built like a compound with high black walls, a castlelike gate. And inside, there's a variety of training facilities - a mock village for drills about hostage negotiations, gym facilities and courses in self-defense, that type of thing. And we toured the school, and they gave us a sense of the type of training they give, both for Chinese military and Chinese police. And they said they'd trained about a couple thousand personnel already and had plans for expansion.So what we found when we went to speak to them in May was that they had plans to build what they were calling a forward-operating base in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China's far northwest. This is an area that's really tightly controlled by the Chinese government - by Chinese security personnel, both military, intelligence and regular police. So we were immediately like - wow, the Chinese government's going to let you go out there and build a school? And they said, yep, there is a really - a strong need for expertise in anti-terror operations, in how to protect logistics and supply chains. And we have plans to open a school. It's under construction.
Next thing you know, we'll learn Pat Lang is also consulting the CCP. Nothing at this juncture would surprise me. There are not even a few good men. They're all bad. Rotten to the core. Through and through. Less than zero honor. It's all about the hustle.
Posted by: 450.org | Jul 1 2020 22:54 utc | 31
As long as Australia sings from the US hymn book, their future will follow the US decline. It is imperative the Australian government recognizes their future lies in Asia not the west. Tying the Australian brumbie to the back of the US chuckwagon will lead to Australian following the US over the coming cliff. An independent foreign policy would solve many of Australia's foreign policy blunders.
Posted by: Dick | Jul 1 2020 23:02 utc | 32
@vk
I agree that the BRI is the game-changer. US pressure, like that of British imperialism before it, comes from sea power. The occupation of South China Sea islands has drawn that out. China's manufacturing dominance depends on sea-lanes but lacks a 'royal navy' equivalent to enforce access to markets. China's gamble is that the BRI will create a Eurasian bloc that will render USN sea power redundant. China can therefore afford to put all its defence spending into missile technology in order to counter-act gunboat diplomacy (and thereby preventing the formation of a Hong Kong 2.0). It is not an easy task to attempt this through a central Asia and a sub-continent in fealty to the US. The China-India dispute is a test of China's capacity to control the 'pipeline' through this region. The full BRI will also take a lot of time and careful diplomacy (e.g. humanitarian and health BRIs etc). The window for the US to use its military advantage is closing. This is the context for my country's (Australia's) recent defence announcement, which is the most aggressive in my lifetime. It is, nevertheless, an odd strategy——Australia will buy state-of-the-art anti-ship missile tech: why? Ostensibly in the press it's reported that China's third aircraft-carrier is soon to come online. So, is it all-the-way with the BRI, and therefore an effort to nullify the importance of sea-power, or is China going to contest the US for control of the East Pacific? If the latter, then my government, in their stupidity, is offering up Australia as the proxy and forward base for a US-China hot/cold war (as it has been since 1942: "America's largest aircraft carrier"). What intrigues me is the strategic thinking behind sinking $270 billion into anti-ship missiles. Is the expectation that China's resource pipeline from Australia (coal + iron ore) needs to be secured by force? I foresee a Mexican stand-off for most of the next decade, but there are a lot of variables. I see Australia better advised by becoming one terminus of the BRI that connects through to Europe and Africa. But the history of our society and culture makes it almost certain this will never happen.
Posted by: Patroklos | Jul 1 2020 23:04 utc | 33
As if this has something to do with anti-imperialism. China is determined to control everything on its borders, especially Xinjiang.
Uyghurs ... Erik Prince ...
Louis N Proyect
I checked. Very unimpressive. The company apparently wishes to be global with presence in every major market, and they put a line in their official materials about their plans related to The New Silk Roads. Pencilled investments in Pakistan and China were put at 15 million dollars, which translates into an exploratory office or two (one in China, one in Pakistan). The services would include security and logistics.
How it relates to Chinese efforts to control the population in restive region? As an aside, USA has its own restive regions, like inner cities, and related programs, like teaching police to avoid chokeholds, with unintended effect that police is well informed about the issue and the troopers experiments how to benefit from the approaches that resemble choke holds a bit but not quite (this is what seems to happen in Minneapolis). China has a different combination of sticks and carrots, like more extensive use of vocational and linguistic training, levels of incarceration in restive regions (inner cities, Xinjiang) are probably similar (or lower in China according to their estimates). It seems that their budget is on imperial scale, like billions (or a bit under a billion? programs for a million people have to cost something).
It is extremely unlikely that Chinese would ask Eric Price how to organize vocational training (may be his sister if they are somewhat stupid), or their police. A combination "logistics, security" could give Blackwater and entry, expertise they have on organizing transport in difficult terrain, that could include robot vehicles moving ahead of manned trucks, drones, lightweight equipment for road repair etc. How much more can you do with 8 million budget (7 million in Pakistan)? Geopolitically, impact is zero, for a company, it can be an opportunity with growth potential.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Jul 1 2020 23:07 utc | 34
@33
China is going to contest control of the East China Sea as well as other bordering bodies of water. I have never seen such a rapid improvement in both numbers and quality of naval ships in such a short-time in the last 500 years, the Chinese are in a war-time production mode which tells me they think war is very likely.
Since the Anglo Empire loves to bomb civilians, this naval buildup, including the Spratly Islands and whatnot make good sense. It forces the conflict out to sea, where Chinese cities will be largely unharmed, and the massive loss of life to Anglo forces due to the nature of Naval Combat will either cause the Anglo Empire to back-off, or there will need to be a draft, which will further exacerbate social tensions to the point of possible societal breakdown.
The naval buildup also gives China the ability to reunify Taiwan or the Korean Peninsula if it need come to that.
The BRI is the biggest threat to AngloZionist hegemony they have ever faced, and it looks to me a losing battle, even though I expect the Empire to throw everything they can at the BRI and eventually break themselves in the process.
Australia is taking the stupid route here, but when have Australians ever been any less ignorant and xenophobic than Americans? Two peas from the same pod.
Posted by: Haassaan | Jul 1 2020 23:18 utc | 35
@35 Haassaan
Well I'm Australian and I don't count myself ignorant or xenophobic. I don't appreciate the slur. It is possible here to decry the actions of governments and even to critique national histories but generalisations like that are offensive. I might oppose our national policy but it's because I believe we're capable of much more. So, with all due respect, get stuffed.
Posted by: Patroklos | Jul 1 2020 23:43 utc | 36
450.org @ 24 and elsewhere:
Well, whose lying eyes are you going to believe?
From Reuters.com: Erik Prince had 'no knowledge' of training agreement in China's Xinjiang: spokesman
BEIJING (Reuters) - Former U.S. military contractor Erik Prince had “no knowledge or involvement” in a preliminary memorandum signed by a Hong Kong-listed company to build a training base in China’s far western region of Xinjiang, his spokesman said on Friday ...... “Any potential investment of this nature would require the knowledge and input of each FSG Board member and a formal Board resolution,” the spokesman said in an email ...
... A Hong Kong-based spokesman for FSG told Reuters on Friday that the statement was “published in error by a staff member in Beijing” and had been taken off FSG’s website.
The removed statement had said that FSG signed a deal with the Kashgar Caohu industrial park in Tumxuk city in southern Xinjiang to build a training centre.
The Tumxuk government did not answer a phone call seeking comment on Friday.
The statement did not provide details but said a signing ceremony in Beijing on Jan. 11 was attended by officials from Tumxuk city and CITIC Guoan Construction, owned by state-run conglomerate CITIC Group, which took a controlling stake in FSG last March.
A state media report had said FSG would invest 40 million yuan ($6 million) in the centre, which will have the capacity to train 8,000 people a year.
In a March 2018 stock exchange filing, FSG said that it intends to set up a “secured logistics business” in Pakistan and Xinjiang.
In May 2017, it acquired a 25 percent stake in a security training facility in Beijing, which it said was the largest such school in China and would allow FSG to provide “world-class training courses” to Chinese companies.
The news about FSG investing in a security training centre in Xinjiang was published in early February in 2019 and picked up by mainstream news media at about the same time. Since then, there seems to have been no more news about this investment.
The South China Moring Post article dated 10 February 2019 gives some more information:
... Then came word of the potential business in Xinjiang. Chinese media reported that FSG would invest in the training camp. An FSG spokesman said the company’s statement was published in error by a staff member in Beijing. The statement said Citic unit executives were in attendance, as well as the political commissar of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, an economic group with paramilitary functions that manages more than a dozen cities in Xinjiang.Prince said in a statement he had “no knowledge or involvement whatsoever with this preliminary memorandum regarding the company’s activity in Xinjiang. Any potential investment of this nature would require the knowledge and input of each FSG board member and a formal board resolution.”...
The Xinjiang camp would be for safety training of workers going abroad under the Belt and Road Initiative, Ko said. He did not say whether the company would move forward with the camp.
“It’s for overseas workers, not domestic,” he said. “That one I think is more Citic [Chinese state-run conglomerate].”
Posted by: Jen | Jul 1 2020 23:50 utc | 37
Piotr Berman@34 says: "I checked. Very unimpressive. The company apparently wishes to be global with presence in every major market, ..."
Exactly. The company is supposedly to be training security personnel to protect Chinese overseas investments and workers, especially in high risk environments. It has nothing, ZERO relationship with Uighur "torture" and the so-called "concentration camp".
Furthermore, US has passed a law that will punish any Chinese government officials, companies or anyone that assist, implement or support the actual Uighur programs. But we don't see Erik Prince in the target list of US government - that tells a lot.
You got to love those spin masters like 450.org@31, @27, Louis N Proyect@22 and NPR.
"A lie told once remains a lie but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth - by Joseph Goebbels". Looks like they just need to repeat that lie 996 more times.
Posted by: d dan | Jul 1 2020 23:52 utc | 38
thanks b... good i say!
@ 3 et tu quote "So when are the 'rehabilitation camps' opening then?" are you saying this with regard all the neo cons in the west? i don't believe they can be rehabilitated! it is worth a try though...
@ 34 Piotr Berman.. thanks piotr... coming from yuk yuk, it has slim to no chance of having any merit... reading the link @ 31 gives to npr - more bullshit looking propaganda to me... oh well...
Posted by: james | Jul 1 2020 23:52 utc | 39
yuk yuk is my nick name for Louis N Proyect here at moa... i can't kick using it..
Posted by: james | Jul 1 2020 23:55 utc | 40
Mostly sounds reasonable.
But a law applying to all people globally is a bit over the top.
B's analysis is a bit too lopsided at times.
However I found the post informative and rational overall.
Posted by: jared | Jul 2 2020 0:06 utc | 41
Patroklos 36
Everybody around me has been carried along by the anti china propaganda of the last few years. We have now committed to the attempted takedown of China. Like the Brits in WWII, the yanks will soon be booted out of the region and as we have sided with the yanks, we will be left to deal with the fallout.
Australians have no more foresight than the Italians when they sided with Hitler. If we did, we would be hanging politicians from bridges now rather than when we have lost.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 2 2020 0:08 utc | 42
@36
Fair enough...generalizations are lame. As an American I do not appreciate being generalized as ignorant or xenophobic either. My apologies. My wording should have been different.
I see no difference in the overall societal make up of USA, England, Canada and Australia, and their national policies reflect that. Australia and England elect the same type of politicians as we Americans elect.
I will say your insults are a tad classier...with all due respect, get stuffed...LMAO!
Posted by: Haassaan | Jul 2 2020 0:23 utc | 43
@ 450 org.
You haven’t a clue about Russian stoicism, have you?
Posted by: Beibdnn | Jul 2 2020 0:27 utc | 44
I expect to see the Trade Deal axed before the end of July. The choice of Rome as a model to emulate will prove to be the undoing of the Outlaw US Empire.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 2 2020 0:27 utc | 45
It is imperative the Australian government recognizes their future lies in Asia not the west.
Actually, what little future that may emerge, will be NZ, Canada, Argentina, and Chile.
Norway if it gets really lucky.
Oh, and Russia, of course.
Posted by: Duncan Idaho | Jul 2 2020 0:49 utc | 46
Haassaan | Jul 1 2020 23:18 utc | 35:
I have never seen such a rapid improvement in both numbers and quality of naval ships in such a short-time in the last 500 years, the Chinese are in a war-time production mode which tells me they think war is very likely.
Anyone that makes moves against the US Dollar supremacy should always expect war. Both Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein paid the ultimate price.
karlof1 | Jul 2 2020 0:27 utc | 45:
I don't believe there was any trade deal to begin with.
Posted by: Ian2 | Jul 2 2020 0:57 utc | 47
re: us covid
Testing resources are one again becoming limited.
[article in The Atlantic 2020.06.30]
In the beginning of May, the Trump Admin organized ($$$$) a big push for favored players in the diagnostic industry to do a big boost capacity in a roughly 3 month time frame. Not soon enough, it would seem.
Posted by: ptb | Jul 2 2020 1:30 utc | 48
George Soros says Hong Kong’s protests and Italy’s “sardines” are glimmers of hope
Xi’s hunger for power drove him to “abolished a carefully developed system of collective leadership” to become a dictator. Last year at Davos, Soros called Xi the world’s “most dangerous opponent” of open societies, highlighting in particular China’s social credit system.
Has Soros gone nuts? Xi Jinping is the best thing since the invention of sliced bread! Ask any Mainland Chinese there.
/SARC off
Posted by: Antonym | Jul 2 2020 1:41 utc | 49
b: "...Hong Kong will continue to have its special administrative status and economic freedom. But British and U.S. influence in the city will now be severely diminished."
Thanks very much, b. Certainly this would seem to be a sensible reaction with respect to rule of law on the part of the Chinese government, to the disruptive occurrences that we watched earlier. And surely Britain and the US have enough on their hands at present coping with their handling of pandemic issues plus 'economic freedom' in their respective states, rather than scheming to interfere in other countries. Perhaps the new law will be a chance for all countries to settle back and look after their own problems.
Here in the US, so many of us wish we had a government that was more disposed towards healing rifts and promoting the general welfare. It's hard to see how we get there, but China sets a good example keeping to the traditions and the trust her people have that their concerns will be properly addressed. A nation needs that security whatever the system followed therein.
Posted by: juliania | Jul 2 2020 1:50 utc | 50
Well, Xi might not be the best bread and most Chinese agree he has a terrible PR image, but all these mindless "fuck china" trolls in here are definitely lame and annoying.
Posted by: JW | Jul 2 2020 1:52 utc | 51
Haasan is right about BRI and the threat it poses.
If you go back and look at the strategic planning of US officials after WWII -- of Acheson in particular -- control of Eurasia is defined as the linchpin of world power. US strategy was to rebuild Germany as part of a US dominated Europe, rebuild Japanese manufacturing linked to regional resource chains in Asia, and roll back and destroy the Soviet Union. State Department planners were very aware that US preponderance rested on preventing the rimlands of Eurasia linking up across that supercontinent.
Posted by: Prof K | Jul 2 2020 2:03 utc | 52
@51 JW
Most Chinese seem to love Xi from what I can gather, so perhaps they don't think he has a "terrible PR image". Like you, I supply no links or other collateral for this claim, but at least our two claims are now equal.
Personally, I like the look of Xi, and I have never seen one frame of video or read one word of quotation that makes him appear less than completely dignified, as befits a national leader, or relatively humble, as befits a good man.
Posted by: Grieved | Jul 2 2020 2:08 utc | 53
@ haassan and PeterAU1
Thanks for the clarification. You are both right of course. We are following the Pied Piper into the abyss when China is buttering our toast. Dumb colonials all living it up in the ruins of the British Empire... and I retract my expletive. All good mate (although remember in Australia 'mate' is pronounced 'maaaaaayyyyte')
Posted by: Patroklos | Jul 2 2020 2:10 utc | 54
The Age of Sea Power is over. High-tech darts and arrows are now all the rage and they have circumglobal range. Oceania was based on Sea Power. Oceania will now perish having modeled itself on Rome. Those who thought they could make their own history forgot the read what came before. Those now in ascendance have read history, learned from it, and now implement its lessons.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 2 2020 2:13 utc | 55
Haassaan @ 43:
Australian insults are not that classy ... where Brits would say "Get stuffed!", we Australians say "Get nicked!"
One has to be born Australian though to understand how we use the word "nick" since we use it in all kinds of strange ways.
Posted by: Jen | Jul 2 2020 2:40 utc | 57
If you see the map of the BRI, you can clearly see that, if it is finished and Iran holds firm, it would completely bust open the USA's position in Asia.
The first arm of the "belt" (through Myanmar) would pin down Malaysia and Singapore, while the second one would castrate India while directly connecting with Iran. Iran will soon start to build a port beyond the Hormuz, which would then neutralize Saudi Arabia.
The Ladakh imbroglio isn't enough to pin down China because it is a narrow pass that leads to the desert, so India cannot cut it from Tibet from there. A large scale conflict is also not viable, because of the desertic and montainous terrain. Unless India is willing to go nuclear in the name of the USA, nothing is coming out of there.
Vietnam, a fellow socialist country, could be easily be absorbed to the Chinese sphere of influence through treaty. They aren't enemies, and have a brilliant future together as allies.
That leaves us with only Russia as the factor capable of turning the game on the USA's side. After Putin's death, this will be perfectly possible. In fact, China is clearly assuming this scenario ad the most likely, as the BRI completely ignores Russia and instead opts for a more "southern" route, through Italy, Duisburg and then Lisbon.
@Prof K | Jul 1 2020 20:50 utc | 18
In fact, much of his economic and social policies have a decidedly neoliberal bent. As Tony Wood argues, Putin has reformed and consolidated the Yeltsin system. There is not as much of a break with Yeltsin as liberals -- or apparently leftists looking for any hope -- want to believe.
You have no clue. This is typical a left-wing "Infantile Disorder" point of view based on zero understanding of Russia and neoliberalism as a social system. Not that I am a big specialist, but your level of ignorance and arrogance is really stunning.
Neoliberalism as a social system means internal colonization of population by financial oligarchy and resulting decline of the standard of living for lower 80% due to the redistribution of wealth up. It also means subservience to international financial capital and debt slavery for vassal countries (the group to which Russia in views of Washington belongs) .
The classic example is Ukraine where 80% of population are now live on the edge of abject poverty. Russia, although with great difficulties, follow a different path. This is indisputable.
The neoliberal resolution which happened under alcoholic Yeltsin was stopped or at least drastically slowed down by Putin. Some issues were even reversed. For example, the USA interference via NGO ended. Direct interference of the USA into internal affairs of Russia ( Russia was a USA colony under Yeltsin ) also diminished, although was not completely eliminated (and this is impossible in view of the USA position in the the hegemon of the neolibral "International" and owner of the world reserve currency.)
Those attempts to restore the sovereignty of Russia were clearly anti-neoliberal acts of Putin. After all the slogan of neoliberalism is "financial oligarchy of all countries unite" -- kind of perversion of Trotskyism (or. more correctly, "Trotskyism for the rich.")
In general, Yeltsin's model of neoliberalism in Russia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semibankirschina ) experienced serious setbacks under Putin's rule, although some of his measures were distinctly neoliberal.
Recent "Medvedev's" pension reform is one (which was partially a necessity due to the state of Russian finances at the time; although the form that was chosen -- in your face, without some type of carrot -- was really mediocre, like almost anything coming from Medvedev ); some botched attempt in privatization of electrical networks with Chubais at the helm is another -- later stopped, etc.
But in reality, considerable if not dominant political power now belongs to corporations, whether you want it or not. And that creates strong neoliberal fifth column within the country. That's a huge problem for Putin. The alternative is dictatorship which usually does not end well. So there is not much space for maneuvering anyway. You need to play the anti-neoliberal game very skillfully as you always have weak cards in hands, the point which people like VK never understand.
BTW, unlike classic neoliberals, Putin is a consistent proponent of indexation of income of lower strata of the population to inflation, which he even put in the constitution. Unlike Putin, classic neoliberals preach false narrative that "the rising tide lifts all boats."
All-in-all whenever possible, Putin often behaves more like a New Deal Capitalism adherent, than like a neoliberal. He sincerely is trying to provide a decent standard of living for lower 80% of the population. He preserves a large share of state capital in strategically important companies. Some of them are still state-owned (anathema for any neoliberal.)
But he operates in conditions where neoliberalism is the dominant system and when Russia is under constant, unrelenting pressure, and he needs to play by the rules.
Like any talented politician, he found some issues were he can safely deviate from neoliberal consensus without too hard sanctions. In other matters, he needs to give up to survive.
Posted by: likbez | Jul 2 2020 3:51 utc | 59
Posted by: vk | Jul 2 2020 2:46 utc | 58 "That leaves us with only Russia as the factor capable of turning the game on the USA's side. After Putin's death, this will be perfectly possible. In fact, China is clearly assuming this scenario ad the most likely, as the BRI completely ignores Russia and instead opts for a more "southern" route, through Italy, Duisburg and then Lisbon.
Although there are certainly Russian oligarchs and neoliberal Atlantic Integrationists who would be happy to turn Russia over to the US, I doubt that such an event will happen. The people and the military certainly would not wish it. While I am certain the US neocons would love to see Putin die, I think it is just as likely that his successor will take a much harder line against the US.
Posted by: Perimetr | Jul 2 2020 3:56 utc | 60
Thank you for the article . B
as usual the neocon trolls are busy posting and in MOA they are so obviously stand out like balls on a bulldog..
I saw sock puppetry of trolls using multiple names to support him posts.
B , please clean out the obvious trolls like 450.org and his sock puppet accounts who always post nonsense..
Posted by: milomilo | Jul 2 2020 4:17 utc | 61
Can't the CCP do anything for themselves? I'm sure Trump & Prince will help the Chinese. Who would have thought Capitalism and communism are Siamese Twins. by: 450.org @ 27 and 31
Trump d/n represent capitalism, he is monopolist using state power to own and control everything, same as Xi) hence at the nation state level total secret cooperation brings a deal for profits to the few, no other can survive, if they refuse to accept it).
<=The full text of the law in English is available here
https://www.scribd.com/document/467553047/Hong-Kong-national-security-law-full-text#from_embed
but I wonder can someone find a different link to the full security law text, this one requires a log in..
and that allows to id the person who downloads. it. ?thanks if possible.
Posted by: snake | Jul 2 2020 4:22 utc | 62
Posted by: Perimetr | Jul 2 2020 3:56 utc | 60
Agreed. I don't see Russia converting back to neoliberalism any time soon, and probably not ever. The only way the US might have to influence Russia again would be to knock off the Russia-bashing, do a 180 and start cooperating with Russia big time.
And to quote Percival Rose yet again: "That ain't gonna happen."
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Jul 2 2020 5:49 utc | 63
Posted by: snake | Jul 2 2020 4:22 utc | 62 can someone find a different link to the full security law text
Google is your friend...(well, no, it's not, but hey...)
In full: English translation of the Hong Kong national security law
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Jul 2 2020 5:53 utc | 64
"One wonder what Brexiters think about such a potentially huge new inflow of people from abroad."
Posted by: Keith McClary | Jul 2 2020 5:56 utc | 65
Looks like we will be importing some of the scum that floated to the surface in hong kong.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-02/australia-considering-offering-safe-haven-to-hong-kong-residents/12415482
"Australia is "actively considering" offering safe haven to Hong Kong residents to come to the country after controversial national security laws imposed by China came into effect, Prime Minister Scott Morrison says."
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 2 2020 6:49 utc | 67
I watched PBS NewsHour today to find out what 'everyone' is thinking, or pretending to think, about China's new HK Security Laws. Aside from the predictable tosh from US-UK pimps & vassals, PBS asked the CEO of the US-HK Business Council what impact the Council expects the legislation to have?
He thinks the effect will be very positive. He points out that Biz seeks a stable environment in which to flourish and the new laws will be welcomed by the Biz Community. PBS also interviewed an anonymous HK resident desperate to flee HK, but ruling out US or UK because of COVID, and Taiwan because it could be China's next target...
This is shaping up to be a good example of the US & UK teaming up to shoot themselves in the foot, in public. One of Xymphora's jokes about US Foreign policy, when the Cranks are in Panic Mode was...
"Let's do SOMETHING, even if it's stupid" but this time the Brits jumped off the cliff with them.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jul 2 2020 7:29 utc | 68
New Law Liberates Hong Kong From U.S. Interference
I don’t doubt that the US is interfering in Hong Kong but that doesn’t mean that the people of Hong Kong don’ have genuine grievances. As we have seen in other places they take advantage or exploit existing grievances to further their own ends. I saw the mass protest where some said the crowd was 2 million strong. Out of a population of 4 million that is a remarkable figure by any standard. You really think those 2 million took the streets simply because Uncle Sam said so ?????
China is an authoritarian country with the most pernicious form of social control on the planet. Who in their right mind would voluntarily choose to live in such a system ???? If you really value liberty China is the worst possible country to aspire to.
Posted by: Down South | Jul 2 2020 7:37 utc | 69
https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1193303.shtml
"China on Thursday announced that it will issue commemorative medals on the 70th anniversary of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army's participation in the Korean War (1950-53) against the US."
"Those who contributed to the war against the US, including medical personnel, railway and transportation personnel, interpreters, those involved in armistice negotiations, militias, workers, journalists, writers and photographers, as well as personnel who helped North Korea with its resumption of production and construction from the armistice in July 1953 to the withdrawal of all Volunteer Army troops in October 1958, are also eligible to receive the medals."
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 2 2020 7:41 utc | 70
Down South 69
Did you meet many people with those problems while you were in China?
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 2 2020 7:43 utc | 71
Oz's PM, Scum Mo, is a Christian Zionist and in politics to line his own pockets and those of his Liberal Party henchmen. That's what Oz's $270 Billion 'defense' budget is all about - bribes from US weapons makers. Christopher Pyne, ex-Oz Defense Minister, resigned from politics as soon as the ink was dry on the contract to buy umpteen flying pianos (F-35 fighter jets) from the US MiC.
The documentary movie The Shadow World makes a compelling case that bribery is ALWAYS involved in US weapons sales.
Anyhow, if Scum Mo doesn't STFU and stop toeing the Yankee anti-China line, there's a reasonable chance that China will stop buying Oz coal and start buying North Korean coal just to make AmeriKKKa look stupid and irrelevant. And Oz coal sales would become the collateral damage of Scum Mo's crankiness, mendacity and delusions of grandeur.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jul 2 2020 7:55 utc | 72
Hoarsewhisperer
We have crossed the line already, and I don't see anyone with any intentions of getting us back on the right side of the line. China is preparing for hot or cold war whichever comes. Australia has no autonomy in foreign policy. Our kids are going to see some tough times.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 2 2020 8:07 utc | 73
Peter AU1 71
I have personally seen the Chinese prisoners ithey use as forced labour in construction projects in Africa. It was in Lesotho around about the same time as the article below was written How are you as a domestic company supposed to compete with such business practices ?
I know this article is from 2010 but it shows what I am saying above is correct.
https://www.google.co.za/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/libertycentral/2010/jul/29/china-export-convict-labour
Posted by: Down South | Jul 2 2020 8:41 utc | 74
"China is an authoritarian country with the most pernicious form of social control on the planet."
When you put up shit like this, you need more than guardian claims to back up your crap. Go to china away from the international scene and try and find a policeman in the 'police state'
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 2 2020 9:28 utc | 75
Et Tu #3
Cool. So when are the 'rehabilitation camps' opening then?
Gitmo is still open. Has been for a long time and welcomes all comers.
There are many others.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jul 2 2020 9:56 utc | 76
Peter AU 1 75
China is an authoritarian country. It has a leader for life chosen by the Communist Party. A one party state. Not it’s citizens.
China’s social credit system is the most pernicious form of social control on the planet and it has been widely documented. You can call it “shit like this” as much as you like but it is the truth and it only exposes your own ignorance .
The point about the forced labour is that I have seen firsthand China's commitment to human rights.
The original point being 2 million people in Hong Kong did not take to the streets simply because Uncle Sam told them too. They’re trying their best not to fall under the authoritarian dictatorship you admire so much. They like their liberty and are willing to fight for it.
Posted by: Down South | Jul 2 2020 10:06 utc | 77
@ Down South | Jul 2 2020 8:41 utc | 74
You're quite a dumb troll. "Down under" (the land of Oz) was founded as a penal colony.
The USA still is for many of its inhabitants (note: skin color 'preferences' apply):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison-industrial_complex
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_labor_in_the_United_States
Posted by: Lurk | Jul 2 2020 10:06 utc | 78
450.org #31
On Eric Prince and the Blackwater training schools in China.
Do you really think the Chinese government are going to build the worlds greatest terrain based transportation network and not supply security on a significant level?
Do you actually find anything intimidating or illogical in China protecting its own and other countries investments in the One Belt One Road global trading grid?
Do you believe that the current maritime freight distribution system is not backed up by significant naval forces and highly trained commandos to protect against piracy at sea and in ports?
In a world where the UKUSA is exhibiting heightened mendacity and threats toward China, Russia, Iran Cuba, Venezuela etc, etc, do you propose those countries should cringe, retire, do nothing to protect their trade future?
With the UKUSA behaving like Somali pirates towards oil in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Venezuela etc etc are you seriously suggesting China should refrain from being prepared to secure its assets and the assets of its trading partners?
China seems to be securing the cooperation of its trading partners by supplying trade route protection. The current and future manifestations of ISIS will soon enough be attacking whatever OBOR routes they can get close to. You can bet that UKUSA will be supplying their transport and munitions.
Get real 450, we are now in a very dirty world and there are no prospects for UKUSA to be changing course and accepting a multilateral peaceful trade relationship.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jul 2 2020 10:19 utc | 79
Down South #77
The original point being 2 million people in Hong Kong did not take to the streets simply because Uncle Sam told them too. They’re trying their best not to fall under the authoritarian dictatorship you admire so much. They like their liberty and are willing to fight for it.
So do the Chagossians so lets have a level playing field when it comes to each liking their liberty free from vicious imperialism and perpetual economic sanctions.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jul 2 2020 10:27 utc | 80
Things freedom lovers like Down Under never bother to ask:
Is a forced choice of voting for neoliberal puppets democratic?
Is giving away trillions of public money to capitalists on a silver platter democratic?
Is state control of the media to lie about other countries democratic?
Are unelected intelligence agency thugs interfering in government affairs with impunity democratic?
Posted by: JW | Jul 2 2020 11:19 utc | 81
I see authoritarian China is persecuting an investigative journalist who wrote about war crimes.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-02/federal-police-seek-charges-abc-investigation-afghan-files-dpp/12415930
"The Afghan Files is factual and important reporting, which exposed allegations about Australian soldiers committing war crimes in Afghanistan. Its accuracy has never been challenged," Mr Anderson said in a statement.
And here the Chinese persecute one of their politicians for not hating Australia.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/nsw-mp-s-sydney-home-raided-as-asio-probes-china-links-20200626-p556f6.html
This ones a little older but here the Chinese are persecuting its citizens for exposing corruption.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/prosecution-of-witness-k-and-his-lawyer-is-a-disgraceful-act-of-revenge-20180701-p4zou5.html
And then there's Assange China won't do anything to protect or help one of is citizens that exposed US war crimes.
The list could go on and on.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 2 2020 11:30 utc | 82
Unreal. You simply have no credibility if you are providing apologia for Erik Prince (it's Erik, not Eric) and China's using his services. It's becoming clearer every day that Trump is more China's stooge in destroying America than he's Russia's stooge. Donald Trump and Erik Prince are traitors and should be tried and executed as such. They are in bed with the CCP who's goal is to see America collapse entirely as part of its global resource grab. It now makes me see COVID-19 in an entirely new light. 4,000 years of dirty tricks indeed. The CIA and FBI must know all of this. Bill Barr must know all of this, and yet they have done nothing which means, necessarily, they are complicit and owned lock, stock and two smoking barrels by China. What sort of deal did Xi offer them, what kind of immunity, if they stand down and let Donald Trump, the CCP stooge, destroy what is left of the once mighty, but now flailing, United States? Just as Putin is to have allegedly saved Russia from the American vulture capitalists picking the former Soviet carcass clean, will America have its own Putin to save America from the Chinese vulture capitalists picking the former United States of America's carcass clean after COVID-19 has laid it to waste? I see no such prospect in the pipeline. In ten years, America will fully be a Chinese vassal. It effectively is already but in ten years it will be acknowledged and codified into law. Donald Trump is President Xi for all intents and purposes.
Posted by: 450.org | Jul 2 2020 12:03 utc | 83
Note how the poster tries to sound radical while channeling current, up-to-the-minute Atlantic Council/State Department narratives. The pivot is on from demonizing Russia to targeting China!
You've gotta hand it to them for creativity, anyway.
Posted by: William Gruff | Jul 2 2020 12:18 utc | 84
China should be condemned for its forced labour.
Here China seems quite open and honest about it.
"Prison labour is legally required in America. Most convicted inmates either work for nothing or for pennies at menial tasks that seem unlikely to boost their job prospects. At the federal level, the Bureau of Prisons operates a programme known as Federal Prison Industries that pays inmates roughly $0.90 an hour to produce everything from mattresses, spectacles,road signs and body armour for other government agencies, earning $500m in sales in fiscal 2016. Prisoners have produced official seals for the Department of Defence and Department of State, a bureau spokesman confirmed. In many prisons, the hourly wage is less than the cost of a chocolate bar at the commissary, yet the waiting list remains long—the programme still pays much more than the $0.12-0.40 earned for an hour of kitchen work."
https://www.economist.com/united-states/2017/03/16/prison-labour-is-a-billion-dollar-industry-with-uncertain-returns-for-inmates
Prison labour looks to be todays talking points handed out by five-eyes to its troll factories.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-02/hair-weaves-chinese-uyghur-internment-camps-seized-us-xinjiang/12417176
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jul 2 2020 12:24 utc | 85
One wonders, is America under Chinese occupation, at least a soft version for now? I believe it is so. It's the only thing that makes sense. It fits. Donald Trump is the proof in the pudding. Dubya's invasion and occupation of Iraq was done on behalf of China according to cui bono. Applying that same logic, Trump's lack of an effective national response is also done on behalf of China as was his tearing up the TPP which was designed, in part, to contain China's imperialist ambitions.
The US Should Hope China “Wins” the Iraq War
Those now raising criticisms over the Iraq War because China is “winning” more of Iraq’s oil than the U.S. are equally misguided. To begin with, China isn’t winning Iraqi oil so much as the U.S. and Western oil companies have conceded it. This is because the U.S., some American lawmakers and pundits claims notwithstanding, bungled the Iraqi invasion and occupation from start to finish. Although the Iraq surge did improve the security situation enough to allow the U.S. to get out of the country, it failed to solve any of the political problems causing the Iraqi sectarian war in the first place.As such, Iraq’s future stability has always been an open question at best. Political tensions between and within Iraq’s different ethnic and sectarian groups have intensified since the U.S. withdrawal, and violence is now at a level not seen in many years. In this context, most Western oil companies have been pulling out of southern Iraq deeming it too risky to make the needed investments in Iraq’s oil infrastructure given the uncertain returns.
Fortunately, as is true across the globe, Chinese oil companies are far less risk-adverse than Western oil companies and, therefore, are seeking to fill the vacuum being left by the West’s departure.
This is entirely to the United States and its allies benefit. Were Chinese companies not so interested in Iraqi oil, it is almost certain that the huge potential of the Iraqi oil industry would continue to go unrealized. In that case, there would be less oil available on the open market and global oil prices would be a lot steeper. In fact, were it not for China’s involvement in Iraq the West wouldn’t have been able to enact sanctions on Iran’s oil exports without causing severe disruptions in the global economy.
Furthermore, while Iraq’s future hardly looks bright, it would be in far worse shape were it not for its rising oil revenues. Without China’s continued involvement, these oil revenues would by and large not exist. It’s by no means certain that Iraq will end up stable over the long term; if it does, however, China’s willingness to continue building up its oil industry will have played an important role.
Notably, although China opposed the U.S. invasion, it is now the country assuming all the risk in its future by investing heavily in its oil industry. If the political order in Iraq breaks down, many will blame the U.S. for having invaded in the first place. It will be the Chinese (largely state-owned) companies whose balance sheets are the most affected, however.
Let the American government, which is in effect the Chinese government at this point, prove me wrong and remove America's entire presence from the Middle East immediately. Let Russia and China put Chinese & Russian skin in the enforcement game. Per the article, China is obviously less risk averse because it is America taking all the risk up to this point. If China doesn't own America, let the American government prove it by forcing China to militarily enforce its own trade. Take the savings and revamp the nuclear arsenal as a failsafe Samson Option should China decide to come marching in as America contracts to a manageable North American sphere of influence once again.
Posted by: 450.org | Jul 2 2020 12:29 utc | 86
@86
I meant to say, "...Trump's lack of an effective national response to the COVID-19 pandemic...."
Posted by: 450.org | Jul 2 2020 12:35 utc | 87
One also wonders, considering the CCP's contracting with Erik Prince on how to terrorize, torture and murder Muslims, Prince's wheel house of course, is the CCP also soliciting Israel's services in this endeavor considering they are also experts in Muslim degradation, murder and genocide? China and Israel have become quite chummy within the past decade. There is nothing like uniting under a common cause and beating back Islam is as good a common cause as any.
Posted by: 450.org | Jul 2 2020 12:38 utc | 88
So if I see China for what it is, an authoritarian dictatorship, which it is, or I think that the people of Hong King have genuine grievances, which they do , even if it is being exploited by the US, I must therefore, be part of the CIA, State Department, Atlantic Council troll farm.
Beyond pathetic.
Posted by: Down South | Jul 2 2020 12:43 utc | 89
What a beautiful, budding relationship that's taken shape. A triangular arrangement. The Chinese, the Evangelicals (denoted by Erik Prince and Donald Trump) and Israel. Is it isosceles or equilateral?
It's noteworthy the article doesn't mention one obvious reason Israel and Israelis are suddenly in love with China. China's treatment of Muslims has much to do with it, I'm sure.
Fine. Let it be. But also let it be that China now carries Israel's water in the Middle East and uses its military, rather than the American military, to fail the remaining Middle East powers per the Yinon Plan. Have at it Xi & Co.. Please adopt Israel entirely so we Americans will be plagued with it and by it no longer.
How did China Win Over the Israeli People?
These results beg the question, why and how did China succeed in generating such favorable attitudes from the Israeli public? The result of the recent survey is all the more intriguing in that it shows an 11% increase in China’s favorability in Israel over the previous survey conducted in 2018. A possible answer to this question is China’s considerable financial investment and infrastructure building in Israel. This explanation is also the reason why the “Chinese issue” has received widespread media attention in Israel. The media spotlight on China in Israel, it is important to note, has not necessarily been positive, and sometimes has even bordered on Sinophobia.[1]Another possible answer could be the impression China’s transformation from a failed state to a superpower within a few decades has made on Israelis. But that does not seem to be an adequate answer either. Yet, this explanation too is wanting. After all, China’s emergence as a superpower and peer competitor of the United States, can also raise concerns among Israelis and thus as easily evoke negative as positive feelings toward China.
The explanation for how China is gaining a positive public opinion in Israel — unlike in the majority of Western countries — is due to the successful deployment of China’s “soft power” toward the Israeli public.[2] It is interesting to note that Lao Tzŭ, China’s great 6th century philosopher used the idea of ‘indirect’ and ‘soft’ influence.[3] He argued that a superior leader is not the one whose subjects do what they are command to do but the one whose subjects are persuaded to serve his purposes without necessarily even knowing of his existence. In what ways has China applied the lessons imparted by Lao Tzŭ in cultivating Isralei public opinion?
Posted by: 450.org | Jul 2 2020 12:58 utc | 90
Down South #77
The mocking bird is still alive we know it..it has a hard job to do these days and he is doing it well..but please stop this democracy thing because it's really out of time..The bird needs new arguments because you know the words democracy+freedom have been the gateway to conquest so far. Its' clear that the new epicenter of empire policy is the East Pacific and the huge propaganda machine is fully operational..it's getting boring however.
Posted by: LuBa | Jul 2 2020 13:11 utc | 91
You know you're in a very bad shape when the main line of accusation you have against your main geopolitical enemy is that it is becoming you.
Some people here are basically wishing Erik Prince was Chinese and that Israel was a province adjacent to Hubei...
--//--
@ Posted by: Down South | Jul 2 2020 12:43 utc | 89
By the content of your comments, you seem to be Chinese.
The problem with your line of argumentation is that it is too provincial: you try to sell a list of alleged atrocities committed by the CCP as if it had patented the concept.
Forced labor from convicts is a common practice in the Western countries. The USA Constitution authorizes slave labor for convicts. Many other Western Democracies enforce it under the term "community labor". Germany enforces forced labor on every 18-year-old male who refuses to serve in the Army.
Hong Kong itself has hundreds of thousands of Indonesian and Filipino slaves, who serve the liberal princelings who are protesting on the streets. They can afford to protest everyday because they don't need to work for a living - their papas are paying them fat allowances, plus a fancy home free of charge.
So, in a sense, yes, the "millions" (actually, some dozen thousands tops) are indeed protesting as masse de maneuvre. They were raised with Western ideology, so it is only natural that they grow up thinking that anything other than Western liberalism is essentially slavery. Their ideal vision of life are the campi of Massachusetts, which they equate to Western capitalism.
Thank you PeterAU1 @ 85, and also William Gruff @ 84, though I would disagree with any attribution of creativity in such posts. In fact, what has gone out the window for those of us forced to endure the oligarchical system which produces such mindless attacks here is precisely that - creativity. I've taken to reading threads from the bottom up, so that I can scroll over the repetitive stupidities that are such a waste of time. It does mean I am slow getting to the insightful posts, but it's worth it to me in the end. And in the end I get there.
I seized on your remark, Mr. Gruff, because creativity has vanished from the US scene today and that's a huge shame. Perhaps it has gone underground - I can't believe it has completely died. This used to be a really creative place. But once money is the be all and end all, that's what kills creativity.
I do think there's a vast reservoir of creativity though - where? "Blessed are the poor in spirit" says the beatitude. You can read that many different ways, but my thinking is that's where creativity is at; it's gestating in the poor. And that creativity, funnily enough, is feared by the wealthy because it threatens their omnipotence. So, the more they squelch it with inanities, kicking the can down the road, buying time for the next atrocious assault, the more it takes root, like bindweed. We oldies don't even have to instruct the youth on their lost 'back in the day' joys -- they feel it. And it will out eventually.
Humankind can't live without creativity.
Posted by: juliania | Jul 2 2020 13:44 utc | 93
I would guess that there are at least twice as many people living in raggedy tent pretention camps along San Francisco roadways as there are people living in China's luxury umbrella Hong Kong 'detention' areas. But Eric (Blackwater) Prince will never be sent to San Francisco.
Everything you know about Hong Kong is wrong.
Hong Kong is a tiny piece of land that, for a period of time, became the toll booth for goods made in slave labor factories in communist China and exported to the west. For a long time virtually everything stamped "made in Hong Kong" was really made on the mainland and trans-shipped through Hong Kong. Hong Kong has ports but almost no native industry. The rich used massive immigration to flood the labor market, and make sure that wages were driven down and the profits of shipping goods from China to the US mostly went to the rich. And jerks like Milton Friedman falsely claim that rapid population growth is what made Hong Kong a major manufacturing center, which is a total lie...
The problem now is that China no longer needs Hong Kong to ship goods to the west. Hong Kong still has ports, and the financial industry has strength, but zero resources and little real industry and a whole lot of people with no land. I admire the Hong Kongese, they are hard working and the place has very low crime, but increasingly for a non-billionaire living in Hong Kong is like living in a well-run medium security prison with an excellent health plan. And the government continues to import more people, without making any allowances or plans to increase the infrastructure... away from the glitzy malls and big banks, more and more people quite literally live in chicken coops. THAT is what is being protested, but the western media will never report that, because it might seem that a government forcing population growth just might have some downsides...
It's not about politics, it's about demographics, and class war.
Posted by: TG | Jul 2 2020 13:48 utc | 95
You've gotta hand it to them for creativity, anyway.
Posted by: William Gruff | Jul 2 2020 12:18 utc | 84
WG, the new trick for the bots to sound more human is, tugging at your heartstrings, like sharing family problems, as happened here recently.
Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | Jul 2 2020 13:58 utc | 96
450.org @Jul2 12:58 #90
China's treatment of Muslims has much to do with it ... China now carries Israel's water in the Middle East ...
What have you been smoking?
!!
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Jul 2 2020 14:04 utc | 97
Some here may find this interesting. If enough digging is done eventually ties between Guo Wengui and Steve Bannon show up. Plenty of links in the below post.
Opportunistic anti-Beijing Astroturfers perform near White House
Posted by: snow_watcher | Jul 2 2020 14:42 utc | 98
TG #95
Hong Kong actually was a major manufacturing center in the 1980s, huge multi-story factory buildings that I visited on many occasions. Of course as the mainland opened up, especially the SEZ in Shenzhen, work flooded into China and Hong Kong (and Taiwan) became “front offices” and ways to dodge taxes for work done in mainland factories, and HK became a higher income service economy.
I agree with your conclusion, though, the unaffordability of housing in particular, by far the worst in the world, and generally high cost of living in relation to wages, alongside opulent wealth, is the root cause of the unrest,
Posted by: Billb | Jul 2 2020 14:42 utc | 99
@William Gruff | Jul 2 2020 12:18 utc | 84
You've gotta hand it to them for creativity, anyway.
350.org + 100 is not terribly creative.
Posted by: Norwegian | Jul 2 2020 14:51 utc | 100
The comments to this entry are closed.
Fitting end to a fake, artificial city. Those pro-West Hongkongers were never anything more than a bunch of Pinnochios: wooden dolls that wanted to be real boys (i.e. Westerners).
They were never really close to toppling the CCP. Initially, they thought (I won't re-up the many links I put here in the past HK posts) they could do a traditional color revolution through economic strangulation. Now we know they were never even close: the Mainland sacrificed 6.5% of their own GDP to fight the pandemic without causing any hint of unrest.
Now, the USA is likely to try something in the Philippines and roll back the battle for the Pacific to the Australian front:
Australia defense spending hike aims at China
It's happening as I predicted some months ago: the USA is quickly degenerating, but will ultimately survive. However, it will survive in a "byzantine" form, i.e. in a much reduced form, albeit still with legitimate claims of being "universal". Europe is also withering and will lose geopolitical relevance as the center of the world will shift to the Pacific Ocean, and may fall to the Russian sphere of influence (provided Putin does the right thing and rebuild the USSR as soon as possible, including some aspects of its economic system with modernized variations).
In this "byzantine" form, I predict the USA will be a more West Coast oriented, more Christian, less science-loving, more irrational, and, most importantly, a much poorer and unequal Empire. It will still have some resemblances of the High Empire, but will clearly be a degenerated form of the real thing in the eyes of a foreign observer.
This byzantine period will last, I predict, until the European Peninsula is falls to Russia. If it falls to Russia in a Soviet context (i.e. a socialist Russia, fully integrated with China, with the BRI fully built and functioning), then we would have an Eurasian Empire that would be too much to the USA to overcome (save a nuclear fallout that wipes out all of civilization). If the Americans want to keep themselves as the world's empire, then it must stop a China-Russia integration and the finalization of the BRI at any cost - and I think that will be the the future POTUSes mission from now on, regardless of the party.
Posted by: vk | Jul 1 2020 18:44 utc | 1