Real recognition of dual nationality? China launches “Overseas Chinese Card”

Regrets gave up your Chinese Citizenship now face Asian Hates promoted by racists US Politicians? Real recognition of dual nationality? China launches “Overseas Chinese Card” 後悔放棄中國公民身份現在面臨種族主義美國政客宣揚的亞洲仇恨？真实承认双重国籍？ 中国开通“华裔卡”

1 年前 · 来自专栏 移民法则和生活方式
中国政府预备对原籍中国、已入籍海外国家的华人发放“华裔卡”，持卡者可享中国永久居留权及本土居民待遇。

华裔卡，即向因移民海外其他国家的祖籍国为中国者提供的一种身份证明。但，华裔卡不代表双重国籍。华裔卡虽不等同中国承认双重国籍，但被形容为“真实承认双重国籍”。

海外移民呼吁很久的双重国籍，貌似变相出台了?

双重国籍的那些事儿

大家都知道，中国是不承认双重国籍的，但是很多移民海外的同学们都有着中国情结~即便是因为在海外生活和居住方便而加入外国国籍，大部分海外华人都还是希望能够拥有中国国籍。

这不，好消息就来了。根据中国公安部新闻发布会表示，“华裔卡”将在中关村试点，“华裔卡”会把你加入他国国籍后失去的在中国的权利基本上都还给你了!!!

谁是海外华人

根据中国官方定义，海外华人的定义是已经取得外国公民身份的中国人，或父母亲是中国人的海外华人，不论双亲目前是或之前是中国公民。

而“华裔卡”的申请人的双亲只需一人是中国人，或祖父母和祖上是或者曾经是中国公民，且并没有规定多少代的海外华人后人设定限制。

那么，能不能这么简单理解，只要外籍人士，祖上是或曾经是中国公民，有中国血统就可以了？这个条件相当的宽泛啊！简直是太好了！

中国公安部解释，这个政策对所有海外华人有效，但是申请人必须提交相关文件证明他们的华人身份。这意味着申请人必须呈交中国政府发出的官方文件，证明其身份。

中国公安部出入境管理局局长曲云海说，新政的目的是鼓励更多海外华人“参与中国经济发展”，作为世界第二大经济体，中国已不再满足于国内13亿人的智慧，而是将目光投向全球，将全球人才揽于麾下。对于有志于在华发展事业的外籍人士尤其是海外华人，这绝对是个好消息。公安部表示将继续优化向外国人发出永久居留制度。

解开双重国籍困扰 吸引海外华裔人才

中国政府为吸引国际科技创新人才，将在有“中国硅谷”之称的中关村试点推行移民入籍及华裔卡等制度，持卡者可以享有在中国永久居住权等居民权利。对于原籍是中国的侨胞，将参考其他国家可享受的永久居留等形式的权利。

四项试点

1、试点移民入籍制度，使获得永久居住资格的人员入籍更加便利。

2、试点华裔卡制度，由于中国不承认双重国籍，对于原籍是中国的侨胞，将参考其他国家可享受永久居留等形式的权利。

3、试点外籍人员临时身份证制度，例如居住6个月以上能获得临时身份证，可享受在华便利服务。

4、试点境外高校学生到中关村实习。

华裔卡和中国绿卡与什么不同

■ 中华人民共和国不承认双重国籍，所以加入了外国国籍的华人是无法同时保留中国国籍的。此外中国绿卡设立标准过高、控制过严、发放数量极少的情况，无法吸引到大量外国高级人才，更不用说庞大的外籍华人人才的需求。

■ 边界不同。中国绿卡的边沿更广泛，面向全体外籍人士，而“华裔卡”主要针对外籍华人。

■ “华裔卡”规定的要求不同，申请门槛更低，设置更加灵活务实的申请条件，更符合广大外籍华人需求

■ “华裔卡”目前只有广东、北京、上海等地专门地区试点施行

■ “华裔卡”有时效设置

什么是“中国绿卡”？

想得到它比得到外国绿卡要难的多

中国绿卡与身份证外观基本一致，拿到中国绿卡的外国人，在中国居留期限将不受限制，出入中国国境不需再办签证，在投资、购房和入学等方面也享有与中国公民同样的权利。

想要拿到中国的绿卡必须满足两个条件其中的一个:

1、为我国建设做出过重大贡献，或者自身拥有十分出色的技能，是我国急需的人才。

2、在我国进行过较大数额的投资，且三年内没有任何不良记录。这两点恐怕没有多少人能满足，所以能得到中国绿卡的外国人一般都是在学术方面颇有造诣的人，而这样的恰恰是少之又少，也难怪有人说中国绿卡是世界上最难拿的卡。

在这之前，外籍人士想要在中国待着可不是一件容易的事，中国的绿卡是“全世界最难申请”的!

很多人都认为美国“绿卡”是世界上最难申请的，事实上，中国“绿卡”才是最难的。实行绿卡制度15年以来，中国绿卡发放不到 8000张，能得到中国绿卡的大多是世界一流的科学家，甚至诺贝尔奖得主不在少数。拿到中国绿卡的外籍人士还不足一万，而美国光在2013年的一年内就向全世界发出了99万张绿卡……

外国人在中国永久居留需通过一系列繁琐的相关规定，就算是只办工作签证，最快也需要3个星期至1个月，才能申请到1年居留许可。

华裔卡申请材料

1、有效期为6个月以上、有至少1张空白签证页的护照原件及复印件

2、填写并签署《外国人签证、居留许可申请表》

3、1张证件照片（温馨提示：新八项出入境便利措施提到，受理窗口可为申请人提供免费出入境证件照相服务）

4、持2015年1月1日后签发的护照，且年满16周岁的申请人，须同时提交前一本护照（无论其国籍）原件。

（1）外籍人士：如首次申请中国签证，须提供原中国护照原件及复印件；

（2）外籍人士曾经申请过中国签证：须提供原外国护照照片资料页及曾获得的中国签证复印件；

（3）外籍人士已更名者：如果新护照所记载的姓名与原护照不一致，须提供有关官方出具的更改姓名的证明文件。

华裔卡开通，

对于外籍华人来说是重大利好，

在两国之间来往通行、

生活居住都将变得更加便捷啦！

（本文由澳星传媒授权转载 http://ostar-group.com）

Video: What’s Behind the US Conflict with Russia (& also China)

Video: What’s Behind the US Conflict with Russia (& also China) 美國與俄羅斯（以及中國）衝突的背後是什麼

https://vimeo.com/681187541
https://www.facebook.com/100036400039778/posts/662319754991353/?d=n

The US finds itself in the middle of a crisis with Russia over Ukraine, thousands of miles from its own shores, and amidst a decades-long campaign to overthrow governments across Europe, up to Russia’s borders and eventually aspiring to overthrow Russia itself.

But this campaign in Europe is just part of a wider global campaign by the US to eliminate its competitors and exercise uncontested control over the world’s population, resources, and nations.

I explain the background of the US-Ukraine-Russia conflict, how it ties in to US provocations against China, and where in the Western media itself it admits to many of the points made by both Moscow and Beijing in protest to US foreign policy.

U.S. war on Russia: a stampede off a cliff By Sara Flounders

U.S. war on Russia: a stampede off a cliff By Sara Flounders – February 22, 2022

Bulletin: As of Feb. 22, Russia has recognized the two peoples’ republics in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic, established in 2014. Russia has said that it will send troops to protect the two republics if they come under further Ukraine/ NATO attack.

Washington and some European allies have announced economic sanctions against the two republics and/or against Russia. Working people worldwide must oppose U.S./NATO aggression and expansion, which are creating the danger of a massive war.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Creating a stampede is an ancient tactic. The earliest hunters knew that an entire herd could be stampeded off a cliff through the calculated use of smoke, noise and relentless drumming.

The European Union is being run off a cliff.

U.S. strategists, war planners, corporate media and politicians are unanimous in demanding that the European Union must prepare to impose the most extreme economic sanctions, especially the drastic step of blocking the new Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia.

Why are U.S. officials so focused on blocking the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia into Germany and other EU countries? Why is the trade in other essential energy supplies also being threatened?

Daily U.S. announcements of ominous information on Russian plans to invade Ukraine have dominated the media for two months. Breaking news headlines announce secret information that U.S. intelligence has of 150,000 Russian troops on the Ukrainian border.

There is another massive buildup of troops that the U.S. media barely mentions. It is being organized by the U.S. military.

The Ukrainian military now has a force of 150,000 troops, armed with modern U.S. weapons and trained by U.S. “advisers,” along with fascist mercenary and Special Ops units near the Russian border and the independent regions in Donbass, which they have been shelling.

Thousands of additional U.S. troops are arriving in the region. U.S.-commanded NATO bases in Poland and Romania are being expanded with advanced missile batteries, able to fire nuclear-capable missiles that can reach Russian cities within 30 minutes. For months U.S. and British naval operations have continued on the Black Sea off the Russian coast.

Lenin explained imperialist drive to war

To understand the imperialist drive toward war with Russia, it is helpful to review Lenin’s “Imperialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism,” written over 100 years ago and still so relevant.

Lenin wrote during World War I of the enormous economic pressure from monopoly capitalism’s need to control markets and colonies using military power of their home state; this pressure led inexorably toward war. Now, in late-stage capitalism, U.S. and EU imperialism’s fundamental clash is still over markets and grabbing every economic advantage.

Behind the threatened war with Russia is this struggle by the largest monopoly capitalists for control of European markets and resources.

Competing with German imperialism

U.S. imperialism, the dominant global power, is striving to maintain its economic position and its domination of global trade and finance.

Russia today is largely an exporter of raw materials and has an economy smaller than South Korea, Canada or Brazil. Washington manufactured the Ukraine crisis in an attempt to further isolate, weaken and divide Russia.

The crisis exposes the intensifying competition to dominate all of Europe, especially Germany, the largest economic power in Europe and the dominant force in the European Union. German imperialism is both a U.S. ally within NATO and a capitalist economic competitor of the U.S.

That Russia has provided a reliable energy source threatens U.S. economic domination of Europe. Washington perceives this trade as opening the door to further trade with Russia. Of even greater concern, it’s an opening to China’s Belt and Road trade and development initiatives.

China has already surpassed the U.S. as the largest trading partner of Germany and of the EU as a whole. And the EU is the largest investor in Russia.

NATO, a U.S.-commanded military alliance, exists to enforce Washington’s dominance within Europe and to intervene in other parts of the world. NATO was expanded to every country of Eastern Europe to lock in place capitalist restoration of the formerly socialist countries. The threatened expansion of NATO’s military machine to Ukraine, on the border of Russia, along with NATO naval operations in the Black Sea, are direct provocations of Russia.

Expanding EU trade with Russia and China threatens the very basis of NATO and the purpose of positioning hundreds of U.S. military bases in Europe.

Nord Stream 2

The 745-mile natural gas pipeline called Nord Stream 2, a joint German-Russian energy project, undercuts the ability of giant U.S. energy corporations to sell their far more expensive natural gas extracted through hydraulic fracturing or fracking.

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline is now complete. It was awaiting final certification by German regulators, which the German government is withholding. The pipeline, which transmits Russian natural gas under the Baltic Sea directly to Germany, also bypasses Ukrainian transit infrastructure.

Russia already provides around a third of Europe’s natural gas through other existing pipelines. While it is far cheaper, environmentally preferable and more direct to build pipelines from Russia to European customers than to export from North America, U.S. corporations are driven to offload liquefied natural gas (LNG) gas in Europe, Asia or elsewhere.

Both Democrat and Republican politicians are united in their determination to stop Nord Stream 2.

U.S. finance capital, its banks and its oil, gas and military corporations consider the pipeline a threat to U.S. control of Europe, which is why Washington has tried to sabotage the project at every turn.

The Trump administration launched sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 project. But to Washington’s frustration, the pipeline construction continued.

With the new pipeline now completed, the Biden administration is preparing more drastic measures.

The U.S. corporate media are totally unanimous in repeating relentless charges that Russia is the aggressor and must be stopped by sabotaging the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. According to this propaganda, nothing less will suffice.

Throughout Europe there has been a building spree of dozens of LNG terminals to accept fracked gas from North America into European markets.

Fracked gas and LNG

The advent of hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” has transformed the U.S. into an oil and gas superpower. The U.S. is the largest exporter of LNG in the world, surpassing Qatar in December 2021. The U.S. has surpassed Russia as the world’s largest gas producer.

Most U.S. gas is produced by fracking. Environmentalists have opposed fracking, because the extraction process poisons local groundwater quality and causes seismic events.

To store and transport natural gas extracted through fracking, it is chilled to minus 162 C (minus 260 F), which transforms it to liquefied natural gas, which is 1/600th of its volume in a gaseous state. The liquid is shipped in reinforced massive tankers called LNG carriers in large, onboard, supercooled (cryogenic) tanks to the special LNG terminals in Europe.

LNG needs to be transformed from its liquid state back to gas and then transported through pipes at high pressure.

The challenge for U.S.-based fossil fuel corporations is to secure markets. More natural gas is being produced than can be used domestically.

U.S. oil and gas giants, as well as all U.S. politicians, have pushed European countries to increase their capacity to receive LNG by framing it as an energy security issue. Shifting purchases to the U.S. will make all the European economies dependent on U.S. pricing.

Since the 2018 meeting of U.S. and EU Commission presidents, U.S. LNG exports into Europe increased by 2,240%. (tinyurl.com/yr9xwrne)

Most of the news on the role of Nord Stream 2 and the pressure to expand the sale of U.S. fracked gas is in the business news. (tinyurl.com/78h2yymt)

But a Feb. 15, 2022, New York Times article: “How a Ukraine Conflict Could Reshape Europe’s Reliance on Russia,” described the conflict with charts, maps of vast interconnected gas pipelines from Russia into eastern Europe, Germany and Italy. It also detailed the dozens of LNG terminals being hastily constructed. (tinyurl.com/8b9n4w62)

The threat that harsher sanctions will be imposed on Russia — including the inevitable blocking of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline — has boosted U.S. sales of LNG and filled European LNG terminals to capacity.

Washington is frantic to short-circuit any European plan to further integrate with Russia or China. Sanctioning Russia and disrupting its trade to Europe — trade that is advantageous to Europe and Russia — give U.S. imperialism financial and geopolitical advantage.

Little consultation with imperialist competitors

As they step up anti-Russian propaganda, President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland have included threats of drastic economic measures. These measures will reshape and impoverish Europe and put it firmly under U.S. market control and under U.S.-commanded NATO control.

On Feb. 7, President Biden, while standing next to the new chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz, said the U.S. would “bring an end” to the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline if Russia invades Ukraine.

When pressed for details on how he would keep that promise, given that the pipeline is not under U.S. control, Biden replied, “I promise you; we will be able to do it.”

German Chancellor Scholz, meanwhile, declined to take a firm stance on the fate of Nord Stream 2. Then on Feb. 20, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared that London and Washington will cut off Russian companies’ access to U.S. dollars and British pounds and freeze all transactions. But Germany, France, Hungary and even Ukraine have pushed back against such dire predictions.

U.S. 2014 coup in Ukraine

Every U.S. war and every imposition of U.S. economic sanctions have been accompanied by fabricated incidents, following months of propaganda.

After the U.S.-orchestrated coup in Ukraine in 2014 overturned the elected government in Kiev, the capital, workers in the heavily industrialized eastern Ukraine refused to recognize the new anti-Russian regime. Instead they seceded from the fascist coup government in Kiev.

The People’s Republic of Donetsk and the People’s Republic of Lugansk in the Donbass have twice withstood efforts by Ukrainian forces, including fascist elements, to defeat this breakaway region. The Kiev regime is intensifying shelling and missile attacks on the independent republics to provoke Russia to protect them.

Stop U.S. aggression!

The U.S. has tens of thousands of troops in Europe; it is putting troops on high alert and sending more. They are arming the Ukrainian military, andthey are expanding NATO bases and sending additional arms and missiles to other NATO countries in the region.Only months after the chaotic defeat of the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan, U.S. imperialism seems to be preparing for another and far more dangerous war.

U.S. imperialism needs endless wars to maintain the profits of its gigantic military industries.

U.S. imperialism needs a war threat to maintain its position in Europe.

U.S. imperialism needs a war threat to block expanding European trade with Russia and China.

As Lenin showed in “Imperialism,” the drive to war and the threat of war can easily explode into a conflagration that destroys a continent.

Working people in the U.S. and in the European Union, not to mention in Russia and Ukraine, have no interest in another imperialist war.

U.S. war propaganda must be met with determined opposition.

China has never lacked traitors

China has never lacked traitors. 中國從來不缺乏漢奸老狗. 你们觉得有米国华人如此针对一个十八岁的华裔少女合理吗？还真的是难以相信。一些华人网友认为假设谷爱凌被斯坦佛拒收是活该。原因是，他们不高兴她决定代表中国出战北京冬奥运会。美国的华人是怎样的定义？我觉得早期的华人后裔只可称为华裔，大部分都是思想已归化的”美国人”。其中一部分已经不承认华人血统，更有的比如Andrew Yang 公开表明羞为华人。近期华人移民从台湾，香港，越南……等地到美国的大部分是仇中的。还有包括从中国去的为了美国绿卡甘愿叁军。你说这么复杂一群是似而非的”群体”能代表什么？总之，人各有志，数典忘祖，卖族求荣，就当是他家的事吧！

我不確定谷爱凌自己是想代表中國還是通過她母親希望她代表中國的影響，或兩者兼而有之。在美國，美國高加索公民展示以色列或其他歐洲國家等國家並不罕見。歐股美國人攜帶2-3本護照+美國護照也並不稀奇。在涉及到中文之前，它從來沒有什麼大不了的。

仇視中國人的理由之一是中國不允許雙重國籍。所以顧愛玲肯定是放棄了美國護照！沒有任何一方出來證實任何事情。

美國和中國的法律制度存在很大差異。在美國是法理情。在中國是情理法。我認為每個國家都可以對法律作出例外規定。

討厭中國人的人也不喜歡在香港和澳門出生的人可以擁有隨心所欲的護照。並且他們有權憑著獨特的回鄉證自由前往中國。

愛你的祖國就像愛你的父母一樣，你可以找到一千個愛或恨的理由。我見過很多孩子，儘管他們的父母照顧他們，但他們討厭他們的父母。他們中的一些人有富有的父母希望他們的父母早日死去，以便他們能夠盡快獲得遺產。

Chinese to English via Google Translate

China has never lacked traitors. Do you think it is reasonable for American Chinese to target an 18-year-old Chinese girl? It’s really hard to believe. Some Chinese netizens think that it is right to assume that Gu Ailing is rejected by Stanford. The reason is that they were unhappy with her decision to represent China at the Beijing Winter Olympics. What is the definition of Chinese in America? I think the early Chinese descendants can only be called Chinese, and most of them are “Americans” who have been naturalized. Some of them no longer recognize Chinese ancestry, and others, such as Andrew Yang, have publicly stated that they are ashamed of being Chinese. Most of the recent Chinese immigrants from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, etc. to the United States are feuding. There are also those who went from China willing to join the army for the US green card. What do you mean by such a complex group of paradoxical “groups”? In short, everyone has their own aspirations, forgetting their ancestors, selling their family for glory, and it should be his family’s business!

@Michael Loh I am not sure Eileen Gu herself wanted to represent China or through the influence of her mother wanting her to represent China, or both. In US it is not unusual for US Caucasian Citizens to present countries like Israel or other European nations. It is also not unusual for the European stocks Americans carry 2-3 passports + US passports. It has never a big deal until when it comes to Chinese.

One of the Chinese Chinese-haters arguments is China allowed no dual-Citizenship. Therefore Eileen Gu must has given up her US Passports! No party has come out confirming anything.

There is a big difference between US and China legal systems. In US is 法理情. In China is 情理法. I think every country can make exceptions to the law.

The Chinese Chinese-haters also don’t like people born in HK and Macau could have as many passports as they wanted. And they have the rights to travel freely to China with the unique 回鄉証.

Loving your motherland just like loving your parents, you can find a 1000 reason to love or hate. I have seen so many kids despite their parents took care of them hated their parents. And some of them have rich parents wishing their parents to die early so they can get their inheritance ASAP.

Modification is not dismantling! It is not a promise not to target Chinese and Chinese Americans

Modification is not dismantling! It is not a promise not to target Chinese and Chinese Americans! It is foolish to equate a name change with dismantling. 改裝不是拆！ 不是承諾不針對華人和華裔美國人！ 將改名等同於拆除是愚蠢的. 「終止」用孑錯誤, 誤導!

Lipstick on a filthy pig. No amount of rebranding can change this monstrosity.

The US always rebrands/renames things when they are ashamed of them or when they are criticized.

School of the Americas–> Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC)

AirSea Battle–>Joint Access Maneuver in the Global Commons (JAM-GC)

Pivot to Asia–>Rebalance to Asia
OIL (Operation Iraq Liberation)–

Operation Iraq Freedom
Torture–>Enhanced Interrogation
etc. etc.

There is no dismantling. In Chinese we call it, sell dogs meat for lambs meat.

I don’t see any dismissal of all cases being filed, I don’t see an apology to all the scientists whose lives have been ruined, I don’t see ending the 2000 investigation of Chinese scientists. I don’t see releasing of those Chinese scientists who are sitting in jail for being coerced into pleading to procedural crimes that DOJ could not prove. . All I see is a name change.

AAJC can pat itself on the back. It can join the DOJ saying the China Initiative is being dismantled. I am shocked at how naive they are. But then they are all part of the propaganda perpetrated against China and Chinese scientists. That all Chinese people are spies.

It was Obama that began going after Chinese and Chinese American academics in the courtsin 2009 when a dramatic uptick was detected which continued into 2015 or 2016, as the report of the Committee of 100 released in 2016 showed.

Let us give pioneering credit where credit is due.

p.s. Not only is the China Initiative racist, but it is an attack on openness, transparency and “science itself” as those who wrote the letter defending Charles Lieber for researching with Chinese. Once again in the case of the China Initiative, the US invocation of those values is no more than flatulence of the mouth.

THIS SUNDAY: Events in D.C. and San Francisco to demand “Peace, Not War with China!

THIS SUNDAY: Events in D.C. and San Francisco to demand “Peace, Not War with China!” The ANSWER Coalition urges its supports to attend the following events hosted by Pivot to Peace:

Washington, D.C. Sunday, February 27 at 1:00 PM ET Lafayette Square (in front of the White House) RSVP Here https://www.eventbrite.com/e/rally-in-dc-honor-the-shanghai-communique-one-china-peace-not-war-tickets-267162840247

San Francisco, Calif. Sunday, February 27 at 1:00 PM PT San Francisco Public Library (100 Larkin Street) RSVP Here https://www.eventbrite.com/e/rally-in-sf-honor-the-shanghai-communique-one-china-peace-not-war-tickets-267161546377

Join us for demonstrations in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco on the 50th anniversary of the Shanghai Communique demanding peace, not war with China.

In February 1972, the US and China issued the Shanghai Communique at the end of Nixon’s path-breaking visit to the People’s Republic of China. As we mark the 50th anniversary of this historic breakthrough in the relationship between our countries it is a time to recall and reaffirm the guiding principles which were established in the bilateral statement agreed to by both sides.

The binding obligation of both the US and China is to “…conduct their relations on the principles of respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states, non-aggression against other states, non-interference in the internal affairs of other states, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence.”

Additionally, the US government declared that it “…acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China. The United States Government does not challenge that position. It reaffirms its interest in a peaceful settlement of the Taiwan question by the Chinese themselves.”

In recent years, the US government has moved rapidly to adopt an increasingly antagonistic posture towards China. As Americans who urge peace and cooperation than to promote war with China, we urge US politicians to respect and affirm the joint Shanghai Communique, withdraw US troops from Taiwan, cease provocations in the Taiwan Strait, and allow the question of Taiwan to be resolved by the Chinese people on both sides of the Strait themselves, without outside interference and manipulation.

NATO is the means of continuing colonial aggressions against African countries.

NATO and Africa: A Relationship of Colonial Violence and Structural White Supremacy – NATO is the means of continuing colonial aggressions against African countries. 北約與非洲：殖民暴力與結構性白人至上的關係 – 北約是對非洲國家進行持續殖民侵略的手段.
by Djibo Sobukwe 23 Feb 2022

Considering the public media attention and concern about possible expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), it is worth reminding people about NATO’s bloody history in Africa. NATO was founded in 1949 after WWII at a time when African countries were still under the yoke of colonialism. In fact most of the original founders of NATO had been Africa’s principal colonizers such as UK, France, Portugal, Belgium, Italy and the USA as lead NATO organizer and dominant partner. The organization was established as a collective defense against the Soviet Union with the requirement (Article 5) that any attack on one was considered an attack on all and therefore requiring a collective response.

Since NATO was founded with the purported purpose of halting possible Soviet aggression and stopping the spread of Communism it would seem to follow that after the collapse of the USSR in 1991 there would no longer be a need for NATO. Since then however, NATO has expanded from the founding twelve to at present thirty member states many of whom are eastern European countries, formerly Soviet republics and Warsaw Pact allies. Today, NATO has become a huge axel in the wheel of the military industrial complex controlled by US empire for the purpose of full spectrum dominance , driven by the ferocious appetites of corporate capital.

Colonial Africa as NATO Bases

Walter Rodney accurately describes the early foundation of colonial Africa’s relationship with NATO which continues today as he described in How Europe Underdeveloped Africa:

“Needless to say, in the 1950’s when most Africans were still colonial subjects, they had absolutely no control over the utilization of their soil for militaristic ends. Virtually the whole of North Africa was turned into a sphere of operations for NATO, with bases aimed at the Soviet Union. There could have easily developed a nuclear war without African peoples having any knowledge of the matter. The colonial powers actually held military conferences in African cities like Dakar and Nairobi in the early 1950’s, inviting the whites of South Africa and Rhodesia and the government of the USA. Time and time again, the evidence points to this cynical use of Africa to buttress capitalism economically and militarily, and therefore in effect forcing Africa to contribute to its own exploitation. [emphasis added] [1]

Kwame Nkrumah had already warned in his 1967 Challenge of the Congo that there were at least seventeen air bases, nine foreign naval bases, three rocket sites and an atomic testing range operated by NATO in in North Africa, in addition to military missions in about a dozen other African countries, not to mention the exploitation of raw materials for the production of nuclear weapons occurring in the mines of Congo, Angola, South Africa and Rhodesia.[2] Nkrumah called for the urgent need to counter the challenge of NATO in the strategy he outlined in his Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare which included the call for a military high command and an All African People’s Revolutionary Army (AAPRA).[3]

The example of Portugal, as one of the original members of NATO is worth exploring. The great freedom fighter of Africa, Amilcar Cabral, called Portugal “a rotten appendage of imperialism” he said, “Portugal is the most underdeveloped country in Western Europe. Portugal would never be able to launch three colonial wars in Africa without the help of NATO, the weapons of NATO, the planes of NATO the bombs- it would be impossible for them.” [4]

Cabral goes on to explain that the only reason Portugal was able to hold on to its colonies in Africa is because it had been a semi-colony of Britain since 1775 and Britain defended Portugal’s interest during the partition of Africa. Furthermore NATO, a creation of the US, uses Portugal and its colonies as part of the larger objective of domination of Africa and the world.[5] Portugal conducted a vicious war against its colonies in Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, Angola, and Mozambique much like the US did in Vietnam. In both cases, colonizing powers used the most modern weapons including napalm and cluster bombing campaigns killing thousands, against guerilla armies that refused to bow down. The Portuguese dictator Marcelo Caetano was forced to give up economic interests in Angola to some of the NATO powers in exchange for the NATO armaments and supplies used.[6] Yet, Portugal still lost the war against the heroic anti-colonial forces.

NATO’s Strategy of Neo-colonialism

Imperialism has always used its strategy of divide and rule. To enable the acceptance of the idea of a ‘benevolent’ NATO, the colonial powers knew that they had to convince and recruit a neo-colonial class of indigenous Africans who would do their bidding. This divide played itself out in the national liberation movements between those who were friendly to imperialist forces and those who wanted a real break from colonialism. Nkrumah explains in Neo-colonialism, The Last Stage of Imperialism, the wide array of methods employed by neocolonialism, ranging from economic, political, religious, ideological and cultural spheres. To do this, NATO works hand in hand with other mechanisms of imperialism like the CIA[7] which was instrumental in the coup against the Nkrumah government and the murder of Patrice Lumumba .

The settler colony of Azania/South Africa would be another example of a NATO outpost. From the beginning it was obviously on the side of the Western/ NATO powers since it was essentially a colony of Britain and therefore was a NATOsurrogate. In 1955 South Africa and Britain formulated the Simonstown agreements which contained provision for the naval surveillance and defense of the African continent from Cape to Cairo. In spite of a purported arms embargo, NATO countries and Israel also provided South Africa with the necessary technology to develop nuclear weapons.

NATO & AFRICOM

AFRICOM is actually a direct product of NATO via EUCOM, the US European command. EUCOM is a central part of NATO and originally also took responsibility for 42 African states. In 2004 NATO ended a five-year period of expansion; in 2007 the EUCOM commander proposed the creation of AFRICOM. James L. Jones Jr. explains how he came to make the proposal for AFRICOM from his position as commander of EUCOM as well as commander of operational forces of NATO.

The US/NATO role in the destruction of Libya in 2011 is important to highlight because it offers some important lessons. First, US imperialism and its western lackies do not accept any country that decides to be an independent force outside of its sphere of influence. Secondly, it also demonstrates how NATO can work hand in hand with other US/western dominated world structures like the UN. In 2011 the UN (resolution 1973) gave political authorization for a “no fly zone” and blockade of Libya purportedly to “protect” its citizens but which ultimately resulted in the destruction of Africa’s most prosperous country with the highest Human Development Index.

US led NATO forces launched a bombing campaign that killed thousands of civilians and caused tens of billions of property and infrastructure damage. This shows that although US-led NATO sometimes uses the UN for political cover, it has no problem illegally overstepping its UN mandate to commit its crimes against humanity and achieve its regime change goals. Even a few countries that abstained from the UN vote like China said they did so as not to offend the reactionary Arab League and the African Union which approved of the resolution. In this case indirect and direct cooperation between NATO, the UN, the AU, and the Arab League (which includes the GCC countries ) shows the expansive and deeply woven web of US and NATO reach.

The book The Illegal War on Libya edited by Cynthia McKinney, includes the chapter titled “NATO’s Libya War, A Nuremberg Level Crime” in which Stephen Ledman writes:

“The US-led NATO war on Libya will be remembered as one of history’s greatest crimes, violating the letter and spirit of international law and America’s Constitution. The Nuremberg Tribunal’s Chief Justice Robert Jackson (a Supreme Court justice) called Nazi war crimes ‘the supreme international crime against peace.’ Here are his November 21, 1945 opening remarks:

‘The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish have been so calculated, so malignant, and so devastating, that civilization cannot tolerate their being ignored, because it cannot survive their being repeated.’ “

Jackson called aggressive war “the greatest menace of our times.” International law defines crimes against peace as “planning, preparation, initiation, or waging of wars of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the foregoing.”

All US post-WWII wars fall under this definition. Since then, America [US] has waged direct and proxy premeditated, aggressive wars worldwide. It has killed millions in East and Central Asia, North and other parts of Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, as well as in Central and South America.[8]

Those mentioned here are but a small sampling of NATO/AFRICOM’s bloody works in Africa’s past. NATO continues to operate under guise the of “training” and “humanitarian” peacekeeping assistance. Jihadist terrorist violence on the continent has increased since the founding of AFRICOM and NATO’s destruction of Libya resulting in civilian casualties and instability which the west has used as pretext and justification for the continued need for AFRICOM. As the Black Alliance for Peace’s AFRICOM watch bulletin reported , since the founding of AFRICOM there has also been an increase in coups by AFRICOM trained soldiers.

Consistent with what Nkrumah, Rodney and others warned of in the 1960’s and 1970’s NATO continues today in the form of AFRICOM facilitating wars, instability, and the corporate pillage of Africa. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for example is continuously plundered for its strategic raw materials such as cobalt, tantalum, chromium, coltan, and uranium etc. These minerals are strategically important not only for electronic devices but also for the technologies that drive the military industrial complex. AFRICOM continues to rely on its neocolonial African proxies to fight wars on its behalf in the DRC and throughout Africa to achieve its objectives. With the rise of China, the US/NATO now seek to ensure full spectrum dominance that seeks to shut China or any other country out of the competition to control global capital.

End Notes:

[1] Rodney, Walter How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, p189

[2] Nkrumah, Kwame Challenge of the Congo p.xi

[3] Nkrumah, Kwame, Handbook of Revolutionary Warfare p56

[4] Cabral, Amilcar, Return to The Source p.82

[5] Ibid p.83

[6] Fogel, D, Africa in Struggle National Liberation and Proletarian Revolution p.230

[7] Nkrumah, Kwame, Neo-Colonialism The Last Stage of Imperialism p.247

[8] McKinney, Cynthia ed., The Illegal War on Libya p. 79

Djibo Sobukwe is on the Research and Political Education Team of the Black Alliance for Peace. He is also a former Central Committee member of the All African People’s Revolutionary Party who worked with Kwame Ture on the political Education Committee. He can be contacted at djibo1@gmail.com

What Is the Difference Between Kosovo & Donbass?

What Is the Difference Between Kosovo & Donbass? The U.S. has declared that Donbass is different. How it is different, nobody will say, because you are not supposed to ask, writes Vladimir Golstein.

The U.S. has declared that Donbass is different. How it is different, nobody will say, because you are not supposed to ask, writes Vladimir Golstein.

Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo, the largest U.S. military base in Europe, is called a smaller Guantanamo for housing terrorism suspects. ( KFOR, Task Force Falcon Public Affairs Office) By Vladimir Golstein

There once was a country called Yugoslavia. It was a multi-ethnic, multi-religious federalist country, rather prosperous by Socialist standards, and consisting of proud people who stood up to Adolph Hitler and even Joseph Stalin.

There were intermarriages, great food, and great films too. And then the West — once the Soviet Union began to collapse — decided that it was Yugoslavia’s time to collapse too. It would no longer be a country but the land of ancient Balkan hatreds. And they began to foment them and foment them, blaming one republic in particular: Serbia.

Serbian villains were blamed for slowing the rapid European integration of all the other republics, which began to declare their independence. This independence — Slovenia, Croatia and so on — was quickly embraced by the West. Germans were there first, trying out their new role as the masters of Europe, so all these republics were eventually recognized and then — since the population was mixed — civil strive began within each newly, independent republic.

Serbian minorities from every republic began to be harassed and kicked out. All this was condoned and supported by the West, which started a new narrative: great separatists, bad Serbians. [The Clinton administration, including then U.N. ambassador Madeleine Albright, gave a green light to Croatia to ethnically cleanse a quarter of a million Serbs from the Krajina region. Years later, angry Czechs in solidarity with Serbs, confronted Albright at a book signing in Prague. She called them “disgusting Serbs.”]

Kosovo

Those who remember, can recall wars, and bombing and propaganda campaigns. In 1999, NATO intervened militarily to help the largely ethnic Albanian Kosovo gain its independence from Serbia. The autonomous province of Kosovo had voted 99 percent in favor of independence in a 1991 referendum. Eight years later NATO was bombing Belgrade on its behalf.

The U.S. charged the Serbs with ethnic cleansing, but one study suggests the Kosovars fled Serbia en masse only after NATO started bombing. Today neither the Council of Europe, nor the United Nations recognizes Kosovo’s independence, though the United States does. The U.S. then built its largest and most expensive European military base in Kosovo.

I was invited during the NATO campaign to participate at a panel named “Kosovo and Moral Responsibility” organized by Yale Hillel with two other participants. One was the most respected Yale professor who demanded more bombs be directed at Serbia. She constantly made references to Munich and the appeasement of Hitler in regard to the Serbs.

When I muttered something about Serbian children found dead next to their teddy bears in a train falling from a bridge bombed on the order of Bill Clinton, I was accused of demagoguery by that famous professor, who began to rhapsodize about the beauties of Dubrovnik in Croatia, threatened by the evil Serbs.

Hashim Thaci, then U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Fatmir Sejdiu with the Declaration of Independence of Kosovo, May 21, 2009. (Office of Prime Minister of Kosovo)
Somehow, it became a moral responsibility of the West to wrest the ancient Serbian lands with its thirteen century Orthodox monasteries to give to Albanian gangsters from the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), who the U.S. once branded as terrorists and who became infamous for selling Serbian body parts to western buyers. Their leader was Hashim Thaci, pictured above with Joe Biden, who later became president of Kosovo.

Donbass

In 2014, after the U.S.-backed violent coup that overthrew Ukraine’s democratically-elected president, the coup regime outlawed the Russian language and neo-Nazi gangs began attacking Russian speakers, including burning dozens of people alive in a building in Odessa. Twelve days after that incident, the largely ethnic-Russian oblasts of Lugansk and Donetsk declared independence from Ukraine.

Like in Kosovo, both provinces held referendums that returned overwhelming majorities for independence. Kiev responded by launching a war against these Russian speakers who the regime called “terrorists.”

Well. Where was the United States, Germany and other progressive European countries, when Donbass declared their independence? Nowhere, of course, as these republics were immediately dismissed as separatists and Russia-backed guerrillas, in addition to terrorists. Where were the Yale professors wringing their wrists about moral responsibility toward the Donbass people? Where are the endless articles about Ukrainian atrocities, bombing of schools and hospitals, displacing millions of people? That’s right! Nowhere! Why?

Because Uncle Sam said so. He declared that this is different. How it is different, nobody will say, because you are not supposed to ask. It is different, end of story, and if you ask questions, you are a Russian stooge.

We can recognize Slovenia and Macedonia, but not Novorossia or Donetsk. It is different. One is supported by NATO, another by Russians. Don’t you see the difference? I don’t. Nor do the millions of others who remember what Germans, Americans, Brits or the French once did to their countries.

So yes, New York Times and The Guardian, Joe Biden and Boris Johnson. Start your campaign again. Declare the illegality of recognizing breakaway republics, denounce evil Russians hell bent on invasion and do your usual stuff by parading fake authorities who’ll pontificate on the Moral Responsibility of denying Donbass its safety and freedom. You ain’t fooling anyone who is not willing to be fooled.

Vice President Joe Biden at Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo, Thursday, May 21, 2009. (White House/David Lienemann)
Vladimir Golstein, a former associate professor at Yale University, is chair of the Department of Slavic Studies at Brown University and is a commentator on Russian affairs.