China is winning the economic competition against the United States, according to Ray Dalio, the founder of the world’s largest hedge-fund firm, Bridgewater Associates.
When asked by the BBC on Thursday whether China was beating the US, Dalio said: “Yes, it’s winning.”
“Their growth rate at a slow level is about twice the Western world’s growth rate at a fast level.”
Prominent US billionaire forecasts new economic world order — RT Business News
Video: American Democracy, Ameri-Crazy in song 美國民主, 智障才信, 讓我唱給你聽.
https://vimeo.com/655775552
https://youtu.be/G9ULAUL4rxA
https://www.facebook.com/100036400039778/posts/619678669255462/?d=n
SCMP: Forever mislead by western propaganda – No, it’s not about China, since you are likely to have already been bombarded with those stories on a daily if not hourly basis. by Alex Lo Dec 10 2021
The editorial selectivity of Western mainstream news and the political issues that Western politicians like to shout out to the world is truly astounding. Let’s consider some very bad things that are being done right under our noses. No, it’s not about China, since you are likely to have already been bombarded with those stories on a daily if not hourly basis.
Qatar will host the Fifa World Cup next year. In the past 10 years, more than 6,500 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have died, many likely having worked on projects tied to a massive infrastructure programme for the World Cup.
That’s according to The Guardian newspaper and FairSquare Projects, a labour rights group in the Gulf. The numbers do not include those seriously injured or maimed. There won’t be any call, though, for a boycott of the football matches in Doha.
Has the genocidal war in Yemen, led by the Saudis and supported by Washington, ended or at least died down? No, but most corporate Western media have stopped reporting on it.
According to a report released last month by the United Nations Development Programme, the death toll from Yemen’s war will reach 377,000 by the end of this year, 70 per cent of those killed will be children under the age of five.
In the past two months alone, 45,000 people have been displaced.
Up to 1.3 million people will die by 2030, and that 70 per cent of those deaths will be the result of indirect causes such as loss of livelihoods, rising food prices, and lack of basic services such as health care, if the conflict continues.
The number of those suffering malnutrition will surge to 9.2 million by 2030, and those living in extreme poverty will reach 22 million, or 65 per cent of the population.
Have you read any US news stories about the ongoing Israeli repression inflicted on the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories? No? That may be because 27 states in the United States have anti-boycott laws, executive orders and/or other deterrent state policies that punish businesses, organisations, or individuals that engage in or call for boycotts against Israel.
You literally can’t say something bad about the Israeli treatment of Palestinians in some US states.
What about the case of Abu Zubaydah? Who? Watch the latest HBO documentary, The Forever Prisoner. He really makes Peng Shuai a complete non-story. Three cheers for Western propaganda.
UN Commission on Human Rights was transformed into a gladiator arena in which governments threw daggers and insulted each other instead of trying to cooperate in good faith in order to solve global problems. 聯合國人權委員會變成了一個角斗場，各國政府互相投擲匕首和侮辱，而不是試圖真誠合作以解決全球問題.
DECEMBER 10, 2021
Peng Chun Chang and the Holistic Approach to Human Rights
BY ALFRED DE ZAYAS
73 years ago, in the early hours of 10 December 1948, the UN General Assembly was meeting at the Palais Chaillot in Paris. The previous night the Assembly had just adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and the meeting continued past midnight to adopt the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, an essential addendum to the UN Charter. This remarkable document which has been translated into 500 languages, reflects a universal commitment to human dignity and constitutes a Magna Carta for all humankind.
The principal drafters of the declaration were the American President of the UN Commission on Human Rights, Eleanor Roosevelt, the French legal expert René Cassin, the Lebanese diplomat Charles Malik and the Chinese philosopher and diplomat P.C. Chang (1892-1957). The document was a collaborative effort by representatives of all regions of the world, assisted by the logistical and substantive support of the UN Secretariat under the Canadian law professor John Humphrey.
It is extraordinary that the notable intellectual contribution of Malik and Chang has been largely overlooked by historians and the media, at least thus far, but recently a book was published by Swedish Professor Hans Ingvar Roth, P.C.Chang and the Universal Declaration, which is likely to change that perception. Indeed, it was Chang who more than anyone else infused philosophy into the document, in particular the global and cross-cultural perspective. Without a doubt, Chang deserves credit for the universality and religious ecumenism of the declaration, for its holistic approach to civil, cultural, economic, political, and social rights.
Born in Tianjin, Chang had a multifaceted life. He taught philosophy at Nankai University in Tianjin and became a renowned scholar of Chinese traditional drama and Peking opera. In the 1930’s he led the Chinese Classical Theatre on tour to North America and the Soviet Union, but following Japan’s invasion of China in 1937, Chang joined the resistance and eventually had to flee the country. He was crucial in promoting awareness in Europe and America of the Nanking genocide, whereas many as 300,000 Chinese were massacred by the Japanese.
In 1942 Chang became a full-time diplomat and served as China’s ambassador to Turkey, where he enthusiastically disseminated knowledge about Chinese history and culture, its silks and porcelains, its literature and philosophy. An expert on the political thought of Confucius (551-479 BC), he also promoted knowledge about the ethics of Meng-tse (Mencius, 372-289 BC) and stressed that diplomacy should advance virtue, its noblest goal being to “subdue people with goodness.” He enlightened many about the influence of Chinese philosophy on European thinkers including Voltaire and Diderot.
As Vice-President of the UN Commission on Human Rights, Chang inspired delegations by his Renaissance knowledge and modesty. He promoted ancient and up-to-date ideas of Chinese philosophers — not because they were Chinese, but because they were universally valid.
In the course of the 1950s, the holistic approach to human rights was abandoned by the Commission on Human Rights and the Universal Declaration was split into two categories of rights: on the one side the individualistic “business friendly” rights, on the other the social and cultural rights, requiring governmental investment in education, health, creation of jobs. Even worse, some Western pundits introduced the prejudicial concepts of rights of the first generation (civil and political), second generation (social and cultural) and third generation (peace, development, solidarity, and other collective rights). The “Western” approach to human rights was to prioritize the right to property and the right to expression over the rights to food, water, shelter, and health.
Soon governments discovered that they could instrumentalize human rights to advance geopolitical goals. The Commission on Human Rights was transformed into a gladiator arena in which governments threw daggers and insulted each other instead of trying to cooperate in good faith in order to solve global problems. The practice of “naming and shaming” became ubiquitous, country mandates were created to target particular states. In so doing the Commission used double standards, because some of the worst violators of human rights never became targets of “international fact-finding commissions”. Meanwhile, the weaponization of human rights was expanded to incorporate many “independent” non-governmental organizations, well financed by governments and corporations with a view to denounce and destabilize geopolitical rivals. In 2006 the Commission was replaced by the Human Rights Council, without, however, returning to the commitment to objectivity and international solidarity promoted by C.P.Chang. The hijacking of human rights became even more visible in 2021 when the European Centre for Law and Justice published a well-documented study on the openly political financing of UN Special Rapporteurs, an endemic problem that puts into question their objectivity and independence.
10 December 2021 is a propitious date to celebrate the spirit of the drafters of the Universal Declaration, to recognize that it was the common achievement of all nations and peoples, based on all philosophies and religions — from Confucius to Lao-Tse, Buddha, Moses, Aristotle, Jesus Christ, Mohammed, etc. As sisters and brothers who share this common planet Earth, let us rediscover the spirituality of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and honour the contribution of P.C. Chang to the development of a universal consciousness of human dignity. Indeed, human rights are not the exclusive domain of any region of the world – they are the common heritage of mankind.
Alfred de Zayas is a professor at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and served as a UN Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order 2012-18.
Zoom meeting: Prof. Anming Hu will talk about his own trial under the “China Initiative” and will be joined by two investigative reporters, Mara Hvistendahl and Jamie Satterfield who covered his trail. Prof. Margaret Lewis, author of “Criminalizing China” will moderate the webinar starting at 11am EST 8am SF on Saturday December 18th.
AASForum: The China Initiative and Professor Anming Hu’s Case
Dec 18, 2021 11:00 AM
Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Webinar ID 820 9079 5546
Zoom registration – https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_TKmMDydUSd69gU7VIMBDog
‘Diplomatic boycott’ of Beijing Winter Olympic Games exposes the US’ lies of ‘Uygur genocide’ by Andrew Korybko Dec 08 2021
Video: Going behind the scenes to discover the true meaning of US “Democracy” without the makeup 走進幕後，揭開美國“民主”沒有化妝的真諦, 嚇死你!
（轉）
美國和俄羅斯是一對“冤家對頭”，兩國不但在世界范圍內勾心斗角，在口頭上更是唇槍舌劍，近日俄羅斯美女發言人扎哈羅娃一番批評美國的言論，讓人讀后朗朗上口，大呼過癮，真是蛇打七寸，招招致命。
下面就是扎哈羅娃的精彩發言：
“必須記住，是誰向廣島和長崎平民扔下原子彈？🇺🇸
是誰向越南平民扔下凝固汽油彈？🇺🇸
是誰用貧鈾彈攻擊貝爾格萊德平民？🇺🇸
是誰在聯合國安理會上搖晃裝著洗衣粉的試管作偽証？🇺🇸
是誰絞死了薩達姆？🇺🇸
是誰在世界范圍內發起了數十次顏色革命？🇺🇸
這個國家🇺🇸創造了私營軍事公司並讓雇佣兵充斥全世界﹔
這個國家🇺🇸重新劃分了歐洲民主國家的政治格局﹔
這個國家🇺🇸背叛了阿富汗的盟友﹔
這個國家🇺🇸在拉美進行了長達數十年的“人道主義試驗”甚至將其視為自己后院﹔
這個國家🇺🇸經常破壞國家條約、退出戰略協議﹔
這個國家🇺🇸是一個戰爭販子和戰爭狂人！”
真是句句在理、句句直擊要害，句句都將美國🇺🇸人的虛偽、凶殘和無恥批得體無完膚！
美国悖逆历史潮流举办的所谓“民主峰会”招致国际社会一片批评之声，惨淡收场是必然的结果
美国举办的所谓“领导人民主峰会”毫无民主可言，完全按照打压他国、分裂世界的预定剧本上演。美方刻意安排畏罪潜逃的反中乱港分子登台抹黑香港、抹黑中国，给台湾民进党当局代表提供舞台发表所谓“国家声明”、挑战一个中国原则，并在世界人权日当天以“人权”为借口对中方发起新的制裁，荒谬至极。美方肆意挥舞所谓“民主”“人权”大棒，粗暴干涉中国内政，遏制打压中国，正是其将民主人权工具化、武器化的铁证。
在所谓“民主峰会”上，这些反中乱港分子、“台独”分子卖力表演，甘当美国的政治傀儡，只会将自己钉在历史的耻辱柱上。被香港警方通缉的犯罪嫌疑人罗冠聪罔顾事实、颠倒黑白，肆意攻击香港国安法，再度乞求外部势力干涉香港事务、抗衡中国。这种数典忘祖、背叛祖国的行径，必将遭到人民的唾弃和历史的审判。台湾民进党当局以所谓“国际空间得到提升”愚弄台湾民众，其代表在会上继续编织“台独”迷梦，公然迎合美方搞意识形态对抗中国的图谋，不以为耻、反以为荣。美台露骨的勾连挑衅行径让人们进一步看清，台湾当局企图“倚美谋独”，美方一些人有意搞“以台制华”，才是当前台海局势面临新一轮紧张的根源。
https://vimeo.com/655648381
https://youtu.be/EiX3Z40EOYc
https://www.facebook.com/100036400039778/posts/619305659292763/?d=n
Video: US “Summit for Democracy” is a Demonstration of America’s Global Dictatorship 美國“民主峰會”是美國全球獨裁統治的體現
https://vimeo.com/655590104
https://youtu.be/1vuhZDeTfKQ
https://www.facebook.com/100036400039778/posts/619129465977049/?d=n
Washington’s so-called “Summit for Democracy” is overtly a demonstration instead of unilateral US hegemony and a desperate bid to put a world back to sleep that is quickly waking up to years of US abuse on the global stage. 華盛頓所謂的“民主峰會”是公開的示威，而不是美國的單邊霸權，是讓世界重新陷入沉睡的絕望嘗試，而這個世界正在迅速意識到美國在全球舞台上多年的虐待行為.
If your nation wasn’t invited to the summit, that is a good thing. 如果你的國家沒有被邀請參加峰會，那是一件好事.
China Foreign Ministry Spokesperson’s Statement on the “Summit for Democracy” Held by the United States 2021-12-11
Recently, the United States held a so-called “Summit for Democracy”, drawing the ideological line and turning democracy into a tool and a weapon. It sought to thwart democracy under the pretext of democracy, incite division and confrontation, and divert attention from its internal problems. It attempted to preserve its hegemony over the world, and undermine the international system with the United Nations at its core and the international order underpinned by international law. This move by the United States goes against the trend of the times, and has been widely opposed by the international community.
I.The US is not a “beacon of democracy”, and the American-style democracy has deviated from the essence of democracy.
The American-style democracy is full of malaises. Problems like money politics, identity politics, partisanship, political polarization, social division, racial tension, and wealth gap are getting worse. The American-style democracy is a money-based game for the rich. Ninety-one per cent of congressional elections are won by candidates with greater financial support. It is “one person one vote” in name, but “rule of the minority elite” in reality. The general public are wooed when their votes are wanted but get ignored once the election is over. The check and balance has become “vetocracy”, with partisan interests put above national development. The flaws of such an electoral system are self-evident, including the rampant use of gerrymandering to manipulate the division of electoral districts that compromises fairness and justice. The dysfunction of the American-style democracy is a fact that cannot be covered up — the Capitol riot that shocked the world, the death of George Floyd that sparked mass protests, the tragic mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the harsh reality of the rich becoming richer and the poor poorer.
Is American democracy good? Let’s hear out the American people. Surveys show that 72 per cent of Americans believe that democracy in the United States has not been a good example for others to follow in recent years, and 81 per cent of Americans believe that there are grave domestic threats to the future of American democracy.
Does American democracy work? Let’s hear out the people of the world. Surveys show that 44 per cent of respondents across the world regard the United States as the biggest threat to global democracy. Even in US allies, most of the people there see American democracy as a “shattered, washed-up has-been”, and 52 per cent of respondents in the European Union believe the democratic system in the United States does not work.
II.A country’s path to democracy should be chosen independently by its own people, rather than imposed from outside.
As a common value of humanity, democracy is the right of people in all counries. It is not a prerogative of a small number of countries. Whether a country is democratic or not should be decided by its own people, not by a handful of finger-pointing outsiders. A country’s democratic system and its path to democracy should be chosen independently by its own people in light of their national reality. Nothing works better than the most suitable.
China promotes its democracy in accordance with its national conditions and realities. China’s democracy is people’s democracy. Its essence and core is that the people are the masters of the country. China practices whole-process people’s democracy under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. It combines electoral democracy with consultative democracy, and integrates all links of democracy, including democratic election, democratic consultation, democratic decision-making, democratic management, and democratic oversight. It covers economic, political, cultural, social, ecological and all other fields, so that the people’s wills are represented and their voices heard in every aspect of political and social life. Whole-process people’s democracy integrates process-oriented democracy with results-oriented democracy, procedural democracy with substantive democracy, direct democracy with indirect democracy, and people’s democracy with the will of the state. It covers all aspects of the democratic process and all sectors of society. It is the most broad-based, real and effective socialist democracy. China’s democracy has contributed to the country’s development and social progress, and delivered a happy life for the Chinese people. China has completed the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects. With the eradication of absolute poverty, the 1.4 billion Chinese people are now marching toward common prosperity. China has made the biggest advance in individual freedom in thousands of years, and the creativity of the hundreds of millions of Chinese people has been fully unleashed.
III.Stoking division and confrontation in the name of democracy is to backpedal in history, and will bring nothing but turmoil and disaster to the world.
For a long time, the United States has been imposing its political system and values on others, pushing for the so-called “democratic reforms”, abusing unilateral sanctions and inciting “color revolutions”, which have caused disastrous consequences. Democracy has become a “weapon of mass destruction” used by the United States to interfere in other countries’ affairs. As US media commented, if there is one country that is still seeking global hegemony, coercing other countries and defying rules in the 21st century, it must be the United States. Since 2001, the wars and military operations waged by the United States in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, caused millions of injuries, and displaced tens of millions of people. The fiasco in Afghanistan has shown that imposing American democracy on others simply does not work. Till this day, the United States is still trying to divide the world into “democratic” and “non-democratic” camps based on its criteria, and openly provoke division and confrontation. Such practices will only bring greater turmoil and disaster to the world, and face strong condemnation and opposition from the international community.
Facing the impact of COVID-19 and major changes unseen in a century, countries have become more interconnected and interdependent. The international community needs more than ever to strengthen solidarity and cooperation based on the norms governing international relations represented by the UN Charter. China stands ready to work with all countries to promote peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom, which are common values of humanity, and advance democracy in international relations. We should choose solidarity over division, dialogue over confrontation, and democracy over hegemony. We should firmly reject and oppose all forms of pseudo-democratic and anti-democratic practices and political manipulations under the cover of democracy, and make tireless efforts toward the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.
Huge accomplishments by Taiwan’s English Tsai – should make her Japanese ancestors sad / GT: Eight countries have severed ‘diplomatic ties’ with Taiwan during Tsai Ing-wen’s terms in office by Jin Jianyu and Xu Zihe Dec 10 2021
Johnson Choi Biz