Video: AUKUS: Australia-UK-US War Alliance Against China to benefit military industrial complex 澳英美對華戰爭聯盟使軍工綜合體受益Internatinal rules based order including UN rules of laws does NOT apply to US 包括聯合國法律規則在內的國際規則秩序不可以用於美國, 倡議者身家財產性命不保, 小國可以面對滅頂之災. In this video Brian Berletic and Daniel Dumbrill discuss the AUKUS (Australia-UK-US) alliance against China.
https://vimeo.com/609501302
https://youtu.be/sqsVA_8u_zc
https://www.facebook.com/100036400039778/posts/569813937575269/?d=n
Why Israel not crying foul and US always exaggerate things and cry like a baby? Israel inaugurates Chinese-run Haifa port terminal, in likely boost for economy. $1.7b terminal operated by state-owned Shanghai firm to handle large vessels of some 18,000 containers; Transportation Minister Michaeli says it will accelerate trade, lower prices. 為什麼以色列不哭，美國總是誇大其詞，哭得像個嬰兒？以色列開設了中國經營的海法港口碼頭，可能會提振經濟。由中國國有上海公司運營的 $1.7b 碼頭，可處理約 18,000 個集裝箱的大型船隻；交通部長米凱利表示，這將加速貿易，降低價格。
The Israeli Haifa Bay port Terminal co-constructed by ZPMC and SIPG was officially opened in the afternoon of September 1, Israeli local time. With a whistle, the red and white quay cranes successfully lifted the “first container” at the terminal under remote automatic operation, once again marked a significant and colorful “stroke” for the cooperation of the “Belt and Road Initiative”. The project marks that China’s advanced technology and management experience of “smart port” have been promoted to developed countries for the first time.
Haifa Bay port Terminal is Israel’s first new wharf over the past 60 years, and is a landmark project along the line of the “Belt and Road Initiative”. ZPMC provided 8 automatic quay cranes, 22 automatic rail-mounted gantry cranes, 2 reach stackers and yard systems for the project. At the same time, it provided a one-stop after-sales guarantee plan. Both parties agreed to jointly explore the Israeli port market for 25 years.
In order to ensure the scheduled delivery of equipment in the process of project construction, ZPMC adopted the method of “live commissioning” to provide the user with live broadcast of the commissioning and trial run of quay cranes, so as to “speed up” the manufacturing during the COVID-19 epidemic period. In the meantime, the machinery delivery team of the project overcame the influence of the international situation and COVID-19 epidemic, resolutely stuck to the equipment commissioning site, and made all-out efforts to “escort” the smooth opening of Haifa Bay port Terminal.
With its completion and operation, Haifa Bay port Terminal has opened a new gateway for Israel to the world. It will greatly improve the congestion situation of local ports, provide more efficient and convenient services for cargo circulation in Israel and its surrounding areas, and promote Shanghai Port to strengthen its business connection with various ports of the “Maritime Silk Road”, thus becoming an important trade channel for getting in and out of the European market.
Members and partners for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization by Shi Yue and Xu Zihe Sep 17 2021
New partners of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation:
-SCO launched procedures to admit Iran as a member state;
-Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia became dialogue partners Editor: Shi Yue/GT Graphic: Xu Zihe/GT
Highlights of SCO’s Anti-Terror Cooperation by Deng Zijun Sep 17 2021
GT Voice: Naïve Australia foots the bill for US gambit by Global Times Sep 16 2021
Australian taxpayers have every reason to demand an answer from the Morrison administration as to why ordinary Australians always end up paying for America’s cold war gambit.
The US, UK and Australia announced Wednesday the trio would form a new trilateral security system for “ensuring peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific.” As part of the security pact, known as AUKUS, the US and the UK have pledged to provide Australia with the technology and capability to deploy nuclear-powered submarines, according to media reports.
While the Biden administration officials claimed that the new security partnership is not specifically targeting China, almost all the Western media analyzed the move is a major step towards countering China’s growing clout in the region.
In response, the Chinese embassy in the US said Thursday that the three English-speaking countries should “shake off their cold war mentality and ideological prejudice.”
While we have never had any illusions about the Morrison government’s political inclination, it is still surprising to know that they could be so obedient and “selfless” in opening their own coffers to pay for and slavishly serve US interests.
Among all of the US allies, the decision Australia made to acquire submarine technology from the US is the clearest indication of Canberra’s support for Washington’s idea of an international system to contain China’s economic rise.
As an independent nation to become a pawn of the US, the stakes are just too high for Canberra. Australia could face the most dangerous consequence of being cannon fodder in the event of a military showdown in the region.
What’s even more ridiculous is that Australia also needs to foot the bill for playing the role of cannon fodder, and trashing its relationship with France, whose leaders must be annoyed to suddenly learn that its $90 billion submarine contract with Australia may be cancelled.
The contract Australia inked with French shipbuilder Naval Group in 2016 to build a new submarine fleet was considered one of the world’s most lucrative defense deals. Now with the new AUKUS security alliance, the money will eventually go to the US.
This is not the first time the US has thrown Morrison into an awkward position. For a time, Australia has been losing its Chinese market share to the US and other economies. While officials in Canberra have been accusing China of “economic coercion,” it is Canberra that decided to abandon the previously friendly relations with Beijing, by discriminating Chinese investment, ousting Chinese companies, and meddling China’s internal affairs.
The most pressing issue for the Australian economy now is to diversify its economic development by focusing on technology and advanced manufacturing so as to create more jobs. Typically, lucrative defense contracts for American contractors would not be part of such a plan. But as Canberra falls into a well-set US trap, its industrial transformation and development plans will suffer while defense lobbyists in Washington reap the rewards.
The US cold war gambit is a trap that will deprive its allies that are naïve enough to fall for the illusion of receiving economic dividends from the US, while also hoping to retrain the benefit that come from China’s development when it comes to economic and trade cooperation. There is no way for China to develop economic ties with a country that treats it as an enemy. There is no path to future prosperity for an Australia which chooses to isolate itself from the region’s largest economy.
Facebook Live 918 performance from San Jose, California on Saturday September 18 2021 7:00pm: 节目091621今日关注 “铭记历史 捍卫和平” 纪念“九一八”事变90周年音乐会即将举办！現場直播: 美國加州時間星期六, 九月十八日 下午七点. 次日九月十九日星期日 上午九点，旧金山Am1450，西雅图Am1540同步播出！https://www.facebook.com/groups/341100067474269/permalink/383261239924818/
US Government promote hated against Asian Americans score high points at California Orange County – hate crimes increased by 1,800%, US Pentagon secretly contact China General is part of their responsibility, AUKUS new China containment alliance excluded Canada – an obedient US’s vassal states hurts Trudeau feelings. 美國加州舊金山世界日報 World Journal Newspaper San Francisco, September 19 2021
Barack Obama considered Justin Trudeau a true friend and Canada a vassal states of America, following all instructions from US without missing a beat. 巴拉克·奧巴馬將賈斯汀·特魯多視為真正的朋友，將加拿大視為美國的附庸國，聽從美國的所有指示，不遺餘力🐶 .
JOHN KIRIAKOU: Treason! The perplexing overuse of the word “treason” is a testament to the vitriol with which Americans now conduct political discussions. September 16, 2021 By John Kiriakou Special to Consortium News
General Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has been in the news this week. The Washington Post reported that in the final months of the Trump Administration, Milley on two occasions phoned his Chinese counterpart to assure him that the U.S. military leadership would not allow President Donald Trump to launch a war with China.
The U.S. Intelligence Community had concluded that the Chinese feared that Trump would ignite a war in the South China Sea, and the Chinese began making defensive moves. Milley called Chinese General Li Zuecheng to assure him that “democracy was sloppy sometimes,” but that there would be no war with China. Milley also expressed his grave concerns about Trump’s mental state with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and with the other members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Within hours of the Post’s report, Trump accused Milley of “treason.” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said that Milley’s behavior was “treasonous.” Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) called Milley “treasonist” (sic). And a lineup of Fox News hosts echoed the sentiment. The casualness with which people are throwing around an accusation that, if prosecuted, can carry the death penalty, reminds me of Donald Trump three years ago.
Trump in 2018 accused an FBI agent who, during the 2016 campaign, had sent anti-Trump texts to his girlfriend, also an FBI agent, of “treason.” He told he The Wall Street Journal, “A man is tweeting [sic] to his lover that if Hillary loses, we’ll essentially do the insurance policy. This is the FBI we’re talking about – that is treason.”
Treason is arguably the gravest crime with which an American can be charged. And it’s being bandied about as punishment for a general making a phone call to his Chinese counterpart and for an FBI agent sending a text that the president didn’t like.
What the Constitution Says
Treason is one of only two crimes that are actually defined in the Constitution. Article III, Section 3 states clearly:
“Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.”
Treason can only technically be committed during wartime as only a Congressional declaration of war creates an “enemy.”
Milley obviously didn’t commit treason. But this isn’t just Republicans being their normal bombastic selves. “Treason” is a term that is used far too loosely these days. And it’s dangerous.
A couple of years ago I appeared in an obscure Spike TV documentary about whistleblowers. The reporters interviewed friends, supporters, and journalists. They each offered their views on the motivation of whistleblowers, what I had revealed about the CIA’s torture program, and the Obama administration’s use of the Espionage Act to curb national security whistleblowing.
The responses were what you might expect – whistleblowing is good, the public has a need to know, etc. But one of the people interviewed, Ronald Kessler, a has-been reporter for the hard right-wing newspaper The Washington Times, said pointedly that the discussion shouldn’t be about the concept of whistleblowing. It should be about my “treason” against the United States. The interviewer pressed him and he repeated, “Kiriakou is a traitor.”
I allowed myself a few days to cool off and, in the end, I just let it go. Nobody saw that documentary anyway, and Kessler was so unhinged that the handful of people who did see it didn’t take him seriously.
Few Cases in History
George Washington is believed to have slept at the Brandywine Mansion in Coatesville, Chester County, Pennsylvania on his return from putting down the Whiskey Rebellion. (Smallbones/Wikimedia Commons)
But that word “treason” has entered the American political vernacular. We see it all the time now, as if it’s somehow normal that traitors are allowed to commit their treason and continue to walk the streets and work in high-ranking positions in the government. In just the past two years there have been myriad examples.
Former Maricopa County, Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, himself a convicted criminal, said after a speech on the floor of the Senate by then-Arizona Republican senator Jeff Flake that Flake’s criticism of Trump was “a treason-type situation.”
Former White House counselor Steve Bannon told author Michael Wolff for his book Fire and Fury that Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian attorney during the campaign was “treasonous.” Should Trump Jr. get the death penalty for taking the meeting? You don’t have to like the Trumps to think not.
When whistleblower Chelsea Manning announced her short-lived candidacy for a U.S. Senate seat in Maryland in 2018, the conservative Washington Examiner called her an “entitled traitor” and breathlessly said, “Chelsea Manning, former soldier, nearly convicted of treason, announced over the weekend he [sic] is running for U.S. Senate from the state of Maryland.” Wow. Never mind that Manning was never charged with treason.
So who has committed treason in U.S. history? Not many people. There have been only 15 across the centuries. The first were Philip Vigol and John Mitchell, both sentenced to hang for their roles in the Whiskey Rebellion. They were pardoned by George Washington. Another was the great abolitionist John Brown, who was executed in 1859 for his attempt to organize armed resistance to slavery.
The most recent were five individuals who took up arms against the U.S. or who worked as propagandists against the U.S. during World War II. They included Axis Sally and Tokyo Rose.
This perplexing use of the word “treason” is a testament to the vitriol with which Americans now conduct political discussions. But talk of treason has to stop right now. The only logical next step is that somebody in a position of authority, a particularly authoritarian president (like Trump) or an attorney general, for example, takes it to a prosecution. And at that point the Constitution is dead.
John Kiriakou is a former CIA counterterrorism officer and a former senior investigator with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. John became the sixth whistleblower indicted by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act—a law designed to punish spies. He served 23 months in prison as a result of his attempts to oppose the Bush administration’s torture program.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
One country, two systems healthier than ever – To decide whether our constitutional arrangement is still intact, you need to look at the system in its totality, not just particular aspects of it. 香港一國兩制比以往任何時候都更健康 – 要確定我們的憲政安排是否仍然完好無損，您需要從整體上看待該制度，而不僅僅是它的特定方面. by Alex Lo 17 Sep, 2021
Critics, both foreign and domestic, like to claim that the old Hong Kong or the “real” Hong Kong is dead.
Usually, they mean local democracy is being undermined. But since real democratisation started only after the 1997 handover of sovereignty, the current situation can more accurately be described as a reversal to the old or colonial Hong Kong under the Brits.
Others claim that “one country, two systems” is dead. Again, they focus only on democratisation when this constitutional arrangement encompasses the entire economic, political, social and cultural aspects and practices of the city. As a friendly observer puts it to me in an email:
And of course, you can add that the city continues to be represented as a separate entity at international bodies such as the United Nations, and the world trade and world health organisations.
People can argue till kingdom come whether the latest electoral reforms imposed by the central government have breached the city’s constitutional Basic Law and the Sino-British Joint Declaration. But critics will have to explain why the new supervisory and monitoring roles – once monopolised by the anti-Chinese, violent and secession-prone opposition – will be compromised by being reassigned to the revamped Election Committee, more conventional political parties and labour unions, the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
The ignorant and the malicious usually claim they are just rubber stamps.
In reality, outside issues concerning national security, they will be much more proactive over livelihood issues such as housing, unlike the opposition.
To determine whether one country, two systems is still intact, you need to look at the totality of the arrangement, not just particular aspects of it.
It will function more smoothly than ever, thanks to Beijing’s intervention.
Alex Lo has been a Post columnist since 2012, covering major issues affecting Hong Kong and the rest of China. A journalist for 25 years, he has worked for various publications in Hong Kong and Toronto as a news reporter and editor. He has also lectured in journalism at the University of Hong Kong.
Johnson Choi Biz