African ambassadors hail CPC achievements in benefiting China-Africa relations and people by Global Times Nov 25 2021
Three ambassadors from African countries to China on Thursday hailed the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s achievements reached over the past century and the benefits the Party has brought to China-Africa relations as well as the African people.
The 10th China Lecture: Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Communist Party of China over the Past Century, held by the China-Africa Institute, was held in Beijing on Thursday through online and offline channels. More than 90 people attended the forum, including African ambassadors and representatives to China from 21 countries, and scholars from both China and Africa.
Ghanaian Ambassador to China Winfred Nii Okai Hammond, Namibian Ambassador to China Elia George Kaiyamo and Zimbabwean Ambassador to China Martin Chedondo sent their congratulations on the CPC’s great achievements over the past 100 years.
The three ambassadors said that the CPC was established 100 years ago to save the working class, eliminate exploitation and realize the country’s unification. They said the CPC still pursues the development concept of putting people first, develops whole-process people’s democracy and realizes people’s all-round development and common prosperity.
The ambassadors agreed the Chinese economy has undergone tremendous changes and development, Chinese people have gained tangible benefits in economic development, and such an achievement would be impossible to achieve without socialism with Chinese characteristics.
The ambassadors said that through arduous work, the CPC and Chinese people have demonstrated that reform is an important way for China to reach its achievements today. Socialism with Chinese characteristics is the right path to achieve development and prosperity and China has responded effectively to the challenges of the times, and therefore the CPC is still a very important leading force, they said.
With the steady development of China-Africa relations, the scale of China-Africa economic and trade cooperation has been increasing and this has brought real benefits to African people, the ambassadors said.
The three ambassadors also expressed gratitude for the assistance China has provided to African countries and people. They hoped the CPC can continue to lead the Chinese people to greater achievements and that China-Africa friendly relations will reach a new level.
China released a landmark resolution on major achievements and historical experiences of the CPC at the sixth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee. Xin Xiangyang, Party secretary of the Academy of Marxism at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), gave a speech on the resolution during the forum.
During his speech, Xin highlighted the CPC’s important experience of putting people first, as said in the resolution: “We will remain committed to the Party’s fundamental purpose of wholeheartedly serving the people… Any attempt to divide the Communist Party of China from the Chinese people or to set the Chinese people against the Communist Party of China is bound to fail.”
Lin Jianhua, deputy director of the Academy of Marxism at CASS, said during the forum that the resolution embodies the whole Party’s consciousness to respect the laws of history and guides us to work hard to achieve a modern and powerful socialist country.
China issues white paper on China-Africa cooperation in new era by Global Times Nov 25 2021
China on Fri released a white paper, making an overall review on its cooperation, mutual support with Africa in the past years and offering a perspective on future cooperation. It stressed that China and Africa will always be a community of shared future.
‘US spy Mark Simon ordered the attack,’ says convicted attacker of former GT reporter in HK by Global Times Nov 25 2021
Hong Kong rioters tied Global Times reporter Fu Guohao to an airport trolley and beat him after falsely claiming he was a fake reporter.
The attack on former Global Times reporter Fu Guohao in 2019 was “ordered by US spy Mark Simon,” the convicted attacker told the Hong Kong High Court on Thursday.
Amy Pat Wai-fan and Lai Yun-long, attackers of then-Global Times reporter Fu Guohao at the Hong Kong International Airport in August 2019, were found guilty of rioting and other crimes, and were sentenced to 51 months and 63 months in prison, respectively, in January. Later, the two appealed the conviction to the Hong Kong High Court.
On Thursday, Lai withdrew his appeal, but shouted, “I was ordered to do it by US spy Mark Simon! I have wronged Fu Guohao! I apologize to the 1.4 billion Chinese people!”
Pat admitted to assault and forced detention, but wanted a lighter sentence. She told the appeal judge that she had simply followed others in committing the crime and that she had never thought about its seriousness, and regretted her actions.
After hearing the arguments, the judge rejected her appeal.
Mark Simon, a top aide of imprisoned Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, worked as a submarine analyst in the US Naval Intelligence from 1987 to 1991. He went to Hong Kong in 2000 and gained permanent residence there in 2008.
Simon was also chairman of the GOP’s branch in Hong Kong. During the 2008 US presidential election, he organized a campaign with the US Chamber of Commerce and wrote a letter to an American broadcasting company seeking sponsorship, in which he identified himself as the branch’s chairman.
Media reports also revealed that Lai’s interactions with US senior officials during the 2014 illegal Occupy Central movement and the social turmoil in the summer of 2019 were arranged by Simon.
Lai and Simon invested at least HK$13.7 million in a scheme aimed at forcing the government to accede to protesters’ demands, according to the court. Lai has been serving multiple jail terms for national security offenses, among other crimes.
Simon has left Hong Kong and is wanted by the Hong Kong police.
Biden’s real challenge not China but an antiwork generation by Ding Gang Nov 24 2021
When Washington set Beijing as the US’ “most serious competitor,” think tankers in the White House failed to anticipate that a domestic problem, lurking under the surface of US society, finally started to erupt.
Due to the epidemic, the challenge has come earlier and more fiercely. More and more young Americans do not want to become “captive” to their works. Their attitude toward job is completely different from that of their predecessors. An antiwork storm is coming.
Unfortunately, this storm occurred just when the $1 trillion infrastructure bill was about to be implemented. US President Joe Biden is facing a generation of young Americans who are rethinking the significance of work. In May, Business Insider published an article entitled, “The truth behind America’s labor shortage is we’re not ready to rethink work.”
Imported goods continue to flow into US ports and airports. However, the country, which does not lack highways, is now unable to deliver gifts for Christmas to homes due to lack of drivers and stevedores.
The US transportation industry is confronting its worst labor shortage in four years, with a shortage of around 60,000 drivers.
This is not only a problem of a certain industry. According to the US Department of Labor, 4.3 million people quit their jobs in August, leaving the number of open jobs at more than 10 million, slightly lower than the 11.1 million in July. And the number of people quitting in September reached 4.4 million in September. This is the highest number in 20 years.
The desire to obtain a higher-paid job is apparently not the only reason. Two years ago, while hiring truck drivers, Walmart offered them a salary of nearly $90,000 a year. A friend of mine who used to be a truck driver explained the “mystery” behind such a generous offer: Who from today’s young Americans wants to do this kind of hard work?
There are also many other reasons. Some people want better health insurance, and some older employees who had lost their jobs during the epidemic decided to retire early. Many people prefer a flexible work schedule and remote work. Some employees haven’t got used to the fixed work schedule after coming back to work after the epidemic.
In an article “Even with a dream job, you can be antiwork” published in the New York Times in October, the author Farhad Manjoo argued that “in its sudden rearrangement of daily life, the pandemic might have prompted many people to entertain a wonderfully un-American new possibility – that our society is entirely too obsessed with work, that employment is not the only avenue through which to derive meaning in life and that sometimes no job is better than a bad job.”
The young American generation’s view on work is obviously changing. While the older generation treats work as the foundation of life and family happiness, the new generation sees working for the paycheck as a “prison for the mind and soul” and such a mental prison must be broken.
The result of the change of the mindset is that on the one hand, there has appeared a labor shortage, but on the other, a large number of Americans are waiting for a job that is more suitable for them. According to a September survey by the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB), the largest small business association in the US, a record 51 percent of small business owners reported job openings they were unable to fill.
There is nothing wrong with pursuing the joy of work and seeking a “meaningful” job. However, when such an atmosphere is permeating the whole society, who is going to fulfill President Biden’s infrastructure plan? Will there be more young Americans who are willing to engage in boring, repetitive low-paid jobs in logistics, catering, manufacturing and other industries, or do heavy physical work?
The US antiwork movement constitutes a sharp contrast with the scene in China, where tens of thousands of Chinese workers are sticking to work in construction, transportation, epidemic prevention and manufacturing amid the COVID-19 epidemic.
The development of a country depends to a large extent on the work spirit of its people. Whether the goals of institutions and the government to boost the economy can be achieved also depends on people’s willingness to make efforts to this end. If there really is a competitive relationship between China and the US, what’s important next is how the young people of the two countries treat their jobs respectively.
Dear readers, do you really believe this US problem can be solved by making China a major competitor?
The author is a senior editor with People’s Daily, and currently a senior fellow with the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China. dinggang@globaltimes.com.cn. Follow him on Twitter @dinggangchina
Video: Karma comes back so fast hit US like a high speed train 報應來得真的那些快像高速列車一樣讓美國人民自食惡果 https://youtu.be/ScLvJrqbEEc https://vimeo.com/650094998 https://www.facebook.com/100036400039778/posts/610102486879747/?d=n Robberies? No, OK if $950 or less in California?! They Are Just 100% Off. Times Magazine: In June 2019, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi described the Hong Kong demonstrations as “a beautiful sight to behold.” Karma comes back so fast hit US like a high speed train 搶劫？ 不，在美國加州如果 950 美元以下就不是搶劫! 是叫做美國民主的100% 折扣. 時代雜誌：2019 年 6 月，美國眾議院議長南希佩洛西將香港的示威活動描述為“一道美麗的風景線”. 報應來得真的那些快像高速列車一樣讓美國人民自食惡果
Professor John V Walsh, MD, in San Francisco: To begin with – and let us not mince our words – the American people owe China a great debt of gratitude for the 1.2 trillions infrastructure bill.
On behalf of all Americans, I wish to thank China. Without you we could not have done it. For decades we have had potholed roads, lead laced drinking water, and the narrowest of broadband especially out in the countryside. Now that will change if only a tiny bit. And you China deserve the credit.
The Psecret Pspeech of Jen Psaki – White House press secretary offers thanks for Biden infrastructure bill – to China By JOHN WALSH NOVEMBER 23, 2021
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki reaffirmed Joe Biden’s stance that he was not an “old friend” of Xi Jinping before the summit between the two leaders last week. This was big news. And the media play it received was quite disturbing to Psaki, as it turns out.
Seeking to clarify matters, she wrote a statement to read to the press corps explaining her stance on China-US relations. She planned to read it to the press during Thanksgiving week.
Presidential advisers, however, put the kibosh on the statement – and reportedly tried to put the kibosh on Psaki herself after they saw her draft. From reliable sources, who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the situation, we have obtained portions of the statement, which has come to be known among Washington insiders as the PPP, Psaki’s Psecret Pspeech.
Here is the text of Psaki’s scuttled statement planned for delivery to the White House Press Corps.
Hello everyone.
Before we begin today’s press briefing, I wish to say once again that it is great to be back here with all of you after my bout with Covid-19. I learned a lot while thinking about things during my illness, and I will return to that.
But first I want to reflect on the events of the past week including the President’s meeting with President Xi of China and the signing of the infrastructure bill. And in part I will address my remarks directly to China.
To begin with – and let us not mince our words – the American people owe China a great debt of gratitude for the infrastructure bill. On behalf of all Americans, I wish to thank China. Without you we could not have done it. For decades we have had potholed roads, lead-laced drinking water, and the narrowest of broadband, especially out in the countryside. Now that will change, if only a tiny bit. And you, China, deserve the credit.
In fact The New York Times, mouthpiece of our foreign-policy Establishment, made that very point two days after the signing of the bill:
“President Biden on Tuesday began selling his $1 trillion infrastructure law, making the case that the money would do more than rebuild roads, bridges and railways. The law, he said, would help the United States regain its competitive edge against China.
“’We’re about to turn things around in a big way,’ Mr Biden said. ‘For example, because of this law, next year will be the first year in 20 years that American infrastructure will grow faster than China’s.’”
You see, China, getting some federal funds for things we need is an uphill battle. But when our politicians see things in terms of an enemy, they scurry about like industrious little beavers getting things done.
Now, China, I recognize that you begged to differ on the size of the infrastructure bill. Your daily, Global Times, which occupies the same niche in China as do The New York Times or WaPo in the US, labeled the bill “a feeble imitation of China.” That is true; you, China, spend about 5.1% of GDP on infrastructure and we spend 1.5%.
As a wordsmith myself, I would choose the word “puny” to describe the bill – at least compared with our whopping national0security budget. But hey, when you are starving, crumbs can look like a banquet. And without you, China, we would not even have the crumbs.
Next, China, I want to talk about another big problem we are facing: inflation. Without you, it would be far worse. Because you handled the Covid-19 pandemic so well, your economy kept plugging along and we Americans got a bigger supply of cheap goods, which of course helps to keep prices in line.
Unfortunately, our leaders, namely The Donald and now The Joe, are laying tariffs on your goods, making them more expensive for our own people. You give us a gift and we destroy it. You probably think us inscrutable or at least ungrateful – and I don’t blame you for one moment.
I could go on with this praise, but no one is perfect, China. There is one area where I must level a criticism, and it comes of my personal experience with Covid. And here I fault you for your propaganda performance – and I speak as part of the most expert propaganda team on the planet.
Quite frankly, you are lousy propagandists. You contained Covid with fewer than 5,000 deaths and fewer than 100,000 cases – total. And the “draconian” lockdowns after the initial 76-day lockdown in Wuhan were not so massive nor so widespread as we made them out to be.
I mean your public health achievement is awesome, and I reflected a lot on it as I was in quarantine with Covid, thankfully not very sick. But you let the news coverage be dominated by every trivial event including the inevitable missteps at the outbreak of a new pathogen for which the local officials were sacked.
(Good for you, China – we have many state governors who deserve punishment for their behavior during the pandemic – not the least of which is Mr Cuomo, who stuffed Covid patients into nursing homes.)
But if you were more effective at getting the word out, perhaps the American people would have risen up and demanded the same results that you got. Perhaps I would not have fallen ill and perhaps 760,000 Americans would still be alive. Honestly, China, you have to step up your information campaigns – a lot is at stake.
China, I also want to thank you for the event in Beijing at the very time of Xi-Biden confab, a refreshing change from the unrelenting hawk talk hereabouts. Again, let me quote The New York Times:
“Even as the two leaders met virtually, another meeting was taking place in Beijing, commemorating the American pilots known as the Flying Tigers who aided China during its war against Japan in 1941 and 1942.
“’The story of the Flying Tigers undergirds the profound friendship forged by the lives and blood of the Chinese and American people,’ Qin Gang, China’s ambassador to the United States, said during the event. Acknowledging the tensions in the relationship, he added that the two countries ‘should inherit the friendly friendship tempered by war.’”
Finally, I wish to conclude with the words of the late chief justice Earl Warren, “Everything I did in my life that was worthwhile, I caught hell for.”
OK. Questions?
John V Walsh, until recently a professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, has written on issues of peace and health care for Asia Times, EastBayTimes/Mercury News, LA Progressive, Antiwar.com, CounterPunch and others.
Video: Why is the US hollowing out Taiwan’s Chip Manufacturing and technology companies forced them to move to Arizona? Part of US exit Taiwan strategy. 美國為何將台灣的芯片製造和科技公司挖空強迫他們搬到亞利桑那州？ 是美國退出台灣戰略的一部分.
The US is moving chip manufacturing out of Taiwan with extreme expediency. This is more than mere decoupling and competition, this is tying off a limb that is about to be amputated – and bodes ill for not only mainland China, but Taiwan as well.
These daily videos (Monday to Friday) are published first for Platinum Sponsors and above first, then made public later on in the week. Thank you for your support and making this work possible!
Video: Very good substantive discussion by Jeffrey Sachs against US exceptionalism and the Case for Cooperation with China – Well worth the time.
Jeffrey Sachs on the US’s zero sum view of the world and why cooperation is necessary: Whether China & US should compete or cooperate Prisoner’s dilemma & need for communication; Global economic and technological trends Multipolarity necessary; US attachment to unipolarity: Is it possible to cooperate with China? Is it possible for China to cooperate with the US? US examples of non-cooperation: legislative obstruction of international treaties (17 unsigned; 38:00) US invasions and attacks vs. China’s peaceful rise: 39:00 US military presence around the world (41:20) US sanctions (42:00) The global scene: Hegemonic transition theory (Kindleberger); Balance of Power (Kissinger); Conflict theory (Allison); Global Cooperation theory (Sachs) Need for cooperation: risk of thermonuclear war; accidents, thucydides trap, environment; Doctrine of subsidiarity (solve problems at the lowest level possible; solve global issues at global level). Global development: poverty, environmental, inequality, demographic change, peace; SDG’s Q &A: Why US attempts to divide China are dangerous Q & A: How to stop demonization of China? The situation is dangerous, and self-fulfilling. This creates lose-lose policy (media; china is an enemy; diplomacy: china is revisionst) Frame China as an opportunity; academia & people-to-people connection creates “sinews of cooperation”, raise voices, be critical, not complacent, understand China’s historic perspective
From running secret prison for US to torturing refugees, Lithuania has untold dark history by GT staff reporters Nov 25 2021
The plight of refugees in Lithuania has recently drawn wide attention from the international community. At the Lithuanian border, military police used tear gas and military dogs to indiscriminately attack refugee children; the refugee detention centers in the country are crowded, dirty, bug-infested and unable to provide even basic necessities.
However, in order to hide the inhumane treatment of refugees from the international community, Lithuanian authorities forced the refugees to stage a fake video along the border, according to media reports.
From abusing women and children to helping the US run secret prisons, restricting minorities with discriminatory initiatives, and slaughtering Jews throughout its history, the Global Times found that Lithuania has a well-documented and disgraceful record in the field of human rights.
In order to please the US, Lithuania is willing to be a pawn in the attack against China, but its own hypocritical double standards and the resulting bad deeds in the field of human rights protection cannot be covered up and ignored, experts noted.
Shocking evil
On November 17, the Belarusian state television, Belteleradio, released a video showing Lithuanian soldiers violently evicting migrants from the border, kicking and beating refugees sleeping on the ground, releasing dogs to attack them. At that time, Lithuanian border guards deported 13 men who claimed to have been from Iraq and wanted to seek passage into Western Europe.
In order to reach Western European countries, thousands of refugees from the Middle East recently took a route through Belarus and tried to enter Lithuania, Poland, and other EU countries.
However, faced with record numbers of refugees and migrants, Lithuania has resorted to extreme repression tactics against them.
For example, according to Russian media outlet Sputnik News, the State Border Committee of Belarus on July 19 reported that they found 26 Iraqi citizens who had escaped from Lithuania. Among them were two children and a pregnant woman who needed an ambulance.
The committee then confirmed that refugees in Lithuania were subjected to interrogations, during which they were not given any water. Moreover, the migrants accused the officers of the State Border Guard Service at the Ministry of the Interior of Lithuania of physical assault and battery. They even showed “abrasions and bruises on various parts of their body” due to the violence experienced at the hands of authorities.
However, the Lithuanian Ministry of the Interior claimed that Lithuanian border guards have the right to use force against illegal immigrants. Baltnews cites Lithuanian Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite as saying that the use of “physical and psychological force” can guarantee the “obedience” of immigrants.
Spanish online media Las Republicas had previously reported on migrants expelled from Lithuania at gunpoint, who described how they were beaten, not fed, and forced to give false testimony against Belarusian border guards.
In addition to the brutal deportations, Lithuania’s refugee camps are widely criticized for their poor conditions and lack of even the most basic of human rights.
According to Al Jazeera, migrants who have entered Lithuania are being resettled throughout the country. A spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees noted, however, that the humanitarian conditions in many refugee reception centers are worrying, especially in terms of drinkable water, sanitation, and medical services.
In August, BelTA, the national news agency of Belarus, quoted a Spanish media source as saying that Lithuania has “created refugee camps in the style of concentration camps.”.
The camps, according to Las Republicas, are built in the middle of forested areas where people are exposed to inhumane conditions, including lack of food, being cut off from the outside world, diseases, harsh weather conditions, and humiliation. These refugees may even get shot if they attempt to escape.
On November 19, BelTA revealed that Lithuania had not only been violently driving away defenseless refugees, but also forced them to feature in “choreographed videos” along the border to conceal their inhumane treatment from the international community.
Meanwhile, following the example of the US, Lithuania recently began building Europe’s first border wall to keep out migrants from Belarus, Reuters reported
“Most of the people in this camp only want one thing, and that is to be able to live in the European Union.” German media outlet Deutsche Welle (DW) remarked, while noting that this group had become political footballs, to be kicked around by various European countries.
However, as opposed to refugees, there is a group of people who may wish they had never lived in Lithuania.
In October, a former CIA officer turned whistleblower against torture called for the release of a suspected terrorist he had captured nearly 20 years earlier. The US Supreme Court for the first time heard a case about a secret detention site and its first detainee, stateless Palestinian Abu Zubayda, who had been suspected to be a member of the Al Qaeda, had been held at black sites run by the CIA in Lithuania and Poland and had been subjected to waterboarding approximately 83 times at a secret site in July 2002.
The Global Times found that as early as May 2018, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) had ruled on the case of Abu Zubayda versus Lithuania for assisting the CIA in setting up secret prisons and torture. The ECHR found that there was sufficient circumstantial evidence to show that between February 2005 and March 2006, the Lithuanian government allowed the US to operate a secret prison for the detention of suspects identified by the US as being involved in terrorism.
In November 2019, Mustafa al-Hawsawi, a Saudi citizen previously held at Guantanamo Bay, filed a new lawsuit to the European court against Lithuania, claiming that he had been arbitrarily detained and tortured by the CIA at a secret jail in Lithuania, AFP reported.
According to a report released by the Rendition Project, a London-based research organization focus on the undertaking and publishing of original research into the CIA’s torture program, the CIA received approval from the local political leadership before building the black site in Lithuania, after which the CIA offered over one million dollars to its partners to “show appreciation” for their support.
“It turns out that one mistake follows another,” said former Lithuanian president Rolandas Paksas. After the ECHR’s judgments in 2018 May, Paksas admitted the collusion between the government of Lithuania and the CIA.
Countless oppressed groups
Lithuania’s human rights violations against vulnerable and minority groups, including ethnic minorities and women, have also long been a source of concern in the international community.
Observer, for example, noted that anti-Semitism has long been a problem in Lithuania. Lithuania has an inglorious history with its Jewish population. Jewish people have lived in the country for centuries. However, the entire Jewish population was almost wiped out under Nazi occupation. According to the US government, about 90 percent of Lithuania’s 250,000 Jews were slaughtered at the hands of Nazi invaders and complicit Lithuanians during World War II. By mid-2019, the size of Jewish community in Lithuania has dramatically reduced to only less than 4,000.
A report this year by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs shows that there has been an increase in manifestations of anti-Semitism in Lithuania. For instance, the Chairperson of the Jewish community in the country, Faina Kukliansky, has received threatening calls, letters, and swastikas among other offensive symbols which were brazenly displayed or depicted in front of Jewish buildings and synagogues.
At the same time, in a 2019 article published in the journal Baltic Region, the authors noted Lithuanian, Polish, and Russian minorities’ complaints about discrimination from the Lithuanian government with regard to a number of issues, including “the insufficient financing of minority educational and cultural institutions and Lithuanisation of Polish names.”
At a UN Human Rights Committee in July 2018, experts highlighted the Lithuanian civil society’s complaints about the discrimination of Polish and Russian minorities. “The legal requirement of the exclusive use of the Lithuanian language in all public communications and settings could have negative consequences for the preservation of minority languages,” they said.
At the meeting, held to review Lithuania’s implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, experts also inquired about the status of a Lithuania’s bill that would restrict access to abortion for women.
Lithuanian women’s abortion rights were reportedly largely hurt during the pandemic. During its nationwide COVID-19 lockdown between March and June, many local healthcare institutions didn’t provide abortion services.
Hypocritical human rights offenders
“This series of human rights crimes embodies Lithuanian white supremacy and racial puritanism,” said Liu Zuokui, a senior research fellow on European Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
In many cases, Lithuania displays a double standard of the understanding and implementation of so-called human rights. It claims to be a human rights defender, but the “human rights” they respect are in fact very limited in scope. Lithuania stands accused of exhibiting exclusionary behavior toward those who are foreign, from different ethnicities or races, or hold different sets of beliefs, Liu told the Global Times.
Liu noted that as a small country with a population of only 3 million, Lithuania historically had great ambitions for power. “When it broke away from the Soviet Union in 1990, it trumpeted its pursuit of democracy, human rights, and freedom, which was just a slogan to fight against the Soviet Union while seeking national independence.”
After Lithuania joined the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), it sought to better integrate with the West, which was reflected in its apparent alignment with the values of “human rights” and “democracy” espoused by the West, Liu said. “However, such Western values are hypocritical. They set different matrices of democracy to different objects according to their national interests,” he noted.
Lithuanian domestic public opinion in recent years has reflected a more pronounced anti-Russian and anti-communist attitude, and has moved closer to the US ideologically, Gong Jiong, vice president of the University of International Business and Economics Israel Campus commented to the Global Times.
From a geopolitical point of view, Lithuania, which is in close proximity to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, also has a stronger sense of insecurity and seeks to tie itself to the US, NATO, and the EU, Gong noted.
Meanwhile, the abuse of detainees and issues with refugees that persist in Lithuania are ultimately caused by the US-led Western world, observers pointed out. It was the US and its NATO forces that disastrously interfered with the Middle East in the name of “anti-terrorism” and ultimately led to the current chaos, they said.
“As President Putin said, the West is responsible for the refugee crisis at the Belarusian-Polish border,” said Song Quancheng, head of the Institute of Migration Studies at Shandong University. As the US-led NATO forces created the current humanitarian disaster which resulted in millions of homeless refugees, it should have taken responsibility and taken in the refugees, Song said.
“When overthrowing the legitimate regimes, they usually hold high the banner of humanitarianism; when the refugees really need their humanitarian aid, they just close the door on them,” Song told the Global Times.
In an August DW story, Lithuania was described as the EU’s border guard, while refugees have become footballs, bounced around from one corner to the next by European countries.
Gong pointed out that in order to please and cooperate with the US, Lithuania constantly criticizes China with the so-called human rights issues in an attempt to increase the power of the US bargaining chip, but the US and Lithuania ignore their own dark history of violating human rights. In the recent refugee crisis at the border, Lithuania’s treatment of refugees has been similar to, and in some cases worse than, the US’ violent expulsion of Mexican and Haitian migrants in Del Rio, Texas, in September.
“Some countries walk on a tight leash, while others don’t. Lithuania is among the first kind. It continues to turn a blind eye to the convention of human rights. You can look for arguments and excuses, but the fact remains. It shouldn’t be like that in an independent state,” said Paksas.
US cuts China’s skin, and its own nerves: Global Times editorial by Global Times Nov 25 2021
The US Department of Commerce on Wednesday blacklisted 27 entities from countries including China and Pakistan, citing national security and diplomatic concerns. Some of the entities were accused of assisting the Chinese military’s quantum computing efforts and acquiring or attempting “to acquire US-origin items in support of military applications.” Twelve of the 27 entities are based in China, including Hangzhou Zhongke Microelectronics, Hunan Goke Microelectronics, and Xi’an Aerospace Huaxun Technology.
This was the second time that the Biden administration took action against Chinese companies. In June, Biden signed an order banning US investment in 59 Chinese companies. Although the Biden administration has embraced detente with China, the technological “decoupling” started in the Trump era has been even further emphasized under Biden.
The allegation that those Chinese companies assist the Chinese military’s quantum computing was fabricated by Washington, whose real intent is to strike a blow to China’s technological progress and slow China’s pace in this sphere. They think cutting off the supply of chips and equipment to Chinese high-tech companies would work.
When supply chains are cut off, any company would encounter some difficulties. But all Chinese companies are backed by an industrial system of China that is much more sophisticated than the US’. The US brutally treating Chinese entities will stimulate this system of China to adjust and accelerate breaking through the stranglehold. Consequently, China will make even more technological progress, while US companies will gradually lose more markets.
The areas in which the US leads are shrinking. This is because technological and economic factors are moving around the world. Meanwhile, the US’ manufacturing industry has become much smaller compared with China. Thus, it is impossible for the US to maintain its systemic advantages. As the basic conditions that support innovation in China become more systematic and our ability to achieve key breakthroughs become stronger, it is an irreversible trend that the US will spur progress in China in the fields it attempts to choke China.
China’s need has greatly boosted the market return on US high-tech research and development (R&D), while strengthening the business approach to those R&Ds. It is a mutually beneficial relationship between China and the US. Washington is destroying such relations by expanding the number of high-tech companies as its targets. The Biden administration has pushed large federal spending programs, including the infusion of taxpayers’ money into cutting-edge technologies, which is strategically aligned with their “decoupling” with China. The US is moving toward a “planned economy” in which much of market-driven R&D will be driven by the government in the future.
It will eventually be seen that a technological “decoupling” between China and the US will shake and affect the US more than China. China is good at solving problems. Now it has a new problem to deal with, but it is generally familiar with what it needs to do. However, the US used to be the leader in technological innovation, but has decayed into a conservative guard of past achievements. It created opportunities in accordance with market rules, but has become dependent on state-backed investment and subsidies for international competition. The US has been pushing itself away from the country’s “founding doctrine.”
China has no worries strategically. The US has hurt its own nerves by cutting the skin of China. Big countries like China and the US can strive to achieve any goal, but what is hard is to ensure their path and remain synergistic with the development of their society while releasing endogenous power. As the US tries to decouple from China, nothing has changed with China but just some new urgent tasks. But the US has lost itself in anxiety. What happened this year has shown that the US supply chain mess is much worse than China’s, and the longer it takes, the more it will prove who has lost more.
Johnson Choi Biz 