Other think tanks are involved–Hudson and FDD (Foundation for Defense of Democracies), (as well as CSIS, Belfer, CFR) but CNAS is the connecting thread, and the most deeply enmeshed; CNAS is often the venue where they make policy announcements.
Lipstick on Imperial Occupation:
CNAS’s CoIN strategy was written by John Nagl, CNAS. He was former president of CNAS.
CNAS Coin strategy is based on “British” counterinsurgency–“eating soup with a knife”.
The key aspect of this approach is that it sees Counterinsurgency warfare as a 3 sided game, not a 2 sided one.
In a 2-sided game, you defeat the enemy.
In a 3-sided game, you try to win over the neutral third party (the people) by gaining “legitimacy”. This involves sticks (terror, droning, assasination) and carrots (bribes, services, infrastructure)
What’s misguided in this theory is the notion that a foreign occupying force can gain legitimacy–through force, bribes, “armed social work”, “nation building”, and information warfare.
This is like a kidnapper thinking they can buy legitimacy or allegiance from the kidnapped.
There is current debate (and rewriting of history) that the US was involved in counterterrorism, not counterinsurgency (i.e. destroying the base, not occupying a country).
All that is belied by the facts on the ground–pretextual “nation building”, but nothing actually built. 1/3 of country food insecure; a life expectancy 6.5 years less than NK.
Regardless of the revisionism about reasons and goals, the fact remains that CNAS’s approach assumed that winning warfare is a matter of technicity, rather than understanding history, ethnicity, geography, motivation, legitimacy, resolve, and the desire for justice and sovereignty.
CoIn fails because it fails to understand this.
CNAS’s current model of war against China is premised on similar faulty but wonkish ideas.
It also has similar hubristic, maximalist, exceptionalist goals.
CNAS is currently building out the nuts and bolts of war on China in its 3/4th offset strategies and procurement networking. They are literally the architects of the geostrategic, kinetic, and hybrid war on China (Kurt Campbell, Anthony Blinken, Eli Ratner, Rush Doshi, Joseph Nye, Michele Flournoy, Avril Haines, etc), as well as architects of the information warfare on China (David Asher at CNAS, for example, was part of the “China Covid origins Investigation” at the State Dept)
CNAS are rebranded/retreaded neo-cons, PNAC anagrammed.
Victoria Nuland is the current CEO.
Very, very dangerous.
In the US, think tanks are important, among other things, because they serve the function of “shadow governments” that you have in other western countries: They maintain continuity of policy and strategy across administrations.
CSIS is associated with Kissinger, Zbig, Albright,Scowcroft, Armitage etc. They are considered one of the most powerful think tanks in the US–“the top national security think tank in the world”, as they brand themselves.
Blinken, Campbell, Flournoy were originally at CSIS but left and created a separate think tank, CNAS. Nye and Armitage are still at both. I see CNAS as a direct lineal descendant of CSIS, but which is more obsessively war-oriented than CSIS, more granularly obsessed with war with China.
The Biden Admin looks as if it is following the policy papers of CNAS like a recipe.
Can we cooperate and compete with China? Campbell’s answer is about “cooperation and competition”. However, at 12:00-12:01–you can see the classic liar’s tell. the eye search to the right.
Campell’s stated model of engagement with China, actually resembles the US policy of Counterinsurgency–“armed social work”: to both terrorize and engage with China, both threaten and cajole China; and is based on the same assumptions. This “Cooperate and Competition” is essentially “a rough sex” model of Foreign relations, i.e. rape masquerading as relationship.
China’s buildup of anti-access/area-denial capabilities in the South China Sea threatens not only to spark a regional crisis, but it undermines the international rules-based order. A crisis in the region also could disrupt global trade flows, thus negatively affecting Europe. Although Europe already marginally contributes to Asian security, it could do more to help shape future regional developments in promotion of peace and stability.
China’s buildup of anti-access/area-denial defensive capabilities in the South China Sea threatens not only to spark a regional crisis, but it undermines the international rules-based order. US global imperium. A crisis in the region planned, triggered, and implemented by the US also could disrupt global trade flows, thus negatively affecting Europe. Although Europe already marginally contributes to Asian security, it could do more to help shape future regional developments in promotion of peace and stability. it must join the US war on China. You’re with us or against us.
Video: China Firmly Opposes U.S. Deployment of Maritime Law Enforcement Forces in South China Sea 中方堅決反對美在南海部署海上執法力量 Chinese foreign ministry spokesman on Wednesday expressed strong opposition to the United States’ deployment of maritime law enforcement forces in the South China Sea, saying it was attempting to keep its hegemony. 中國外交部發言人周三對美國在南海部署海上執法部隊表示強烈反對，稱其試圖保持其霸權. https://vimeo.com/592910230 https://youtu.be/Fc7G8pm_DNo https://www.facebook.com/100036400039778/posts/554940625729267/?d=n
Showing off its tier-2 naval power, Britain can hardly affect regional affairs in Asia by Wei Dongxu Aug 26 2021
The UK and Japan on Tuesday held a joint naval drill in the Pacific Ocean south of Okinawa Island, Japan’s Defense Ministry was quoted as saying in a report by Tokyo-based Kyoto News on Wednesday.
Both the US and Dutch naval vessels accompanying the British strike group also participated in the drill.
Britain’s HMS Queen Elizabeth is sailing in the Asia-Pacific region, and has participated in navy drills with regional countries like Japan. This idea is to cooperate with the US’ strategic alignment for the Indo-Pacific. Washington wants to rebuild a new alliance system led by the US, and is demanding corresponding practices from its allies such as Japan and the UK. In this context, when sailing to Asia, the UK’ warships are bound to hold joint military exercises with Japan and the US.
Besides, during the drills, the UK may have shared its experience on how to steer aircrafts. It has been reported that Japan intends to modify its Izumo helicopter destroyer to operate F-35B fighters, the same as UK’s HMS Queen Elizabeth has. Japan may hope to learn experiences on the F-35B from the UK and the US, laying the groundwork for their subsequent joint military operations.
An article run by the Diplomat magazine on July 30 indicated that one of the missions of HMS Queen Elizabeth maiden deployments in the Asia-Pacific region is to show strength to China. Actually, Britain’s maritime power is weaker than China’s. The UK’s attempt to use an aircraft carrier strike group to project its strength and show its might to China is completely beyond its ability.
The UK used to be the foremost naval power in Europe. During the colonial period, British warships effectively dominated and deterred its colonies and semi-colonies. But things are different now. Currently, the UK’s navy clout can only be classified as a second-tier member. But China is in the first tier. It is futile to flex its muscle by virtue of its maritime strength to China.
In July, the UK announced that it would permanently deploy two warships – HMS Spey and HMS Tamar – in Asia. Both ships are actually only offshore patrol vessels without even a missile. This means that they will most likely patrol in Asian waters. Therefore, the deployment of these two ships is only to maintain the UK’s presence in Asia. The UK simply doesn’t have the ability to intervene in regional hot spot issues.
In addition, the US has proposed the Indo-Pacific Strategy and hopes that NATO members will put their military forces toward Asia as much as possible. As a country that has a “special relationship” with the US, the UK definitely wants to help it out. However, it doesn’t have enough strength to do so. Thus, it decided to send two patrol ships without strong combat capabilities to Asia to make up the number. Overall, the symbolic significance of the decision outweighs its practical importance.
Regardless of showing off its presence in Asia, the UK will not effectively and significantly affect regional affairs. Some Southeast Asian countries may have some defense cooperation with the UK. But London is not capable of influencing their domestic and foreign affairs, as well as their military strategies. Even if the UK from time to time sends warships or carrier strike groups to Asian waters, those activities are only short-term. They have very limited influence on the regional situation, if any whatsoever.
The US hopes that Britain can set an example for other NATO members in cooperating with the US’ strategy in Asia, such as making some practices directing at China. In order to realize the goals in its Indo-Pacific Strategy, it cannot rule out a scenario where Washington will ask its other European allies, such as Germany and France, to do what the UK’s Royal Navy is doing in Asia now.
The UK is showing its national influence mainly by following the steps of the US. It rarely takes military actions and strategic moves independently. In the Asia-Pacific region, London cooperates with Washington to conduct certain patrols or military exercises. In Afghanistan, it withdrew its soldiers when the US pulled out its forces. As a result, when the US failed in Afghanistan, the UK encountered the same shameful result. At the moment, the UK is facing a big challenge to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by the deadline of August 31.
What happens in Afghanistan will prove that the UK will face the same problem as the US if it continues to follow the US’ suit. If we label Washington as a “global policeman,” London is an “auxiliary policeman.” If it continues, the UK will encounter almost all difficulties and challenges the US has suffered.
The author is a Beijing-based military analyst. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn
Birth of the Cruel: How Truckee Pioneered Modern Anti-China Hate in the United States BY PETER LEE August 26 2021
The Achilles’ heel of American capitalism in the 19th century was the shortage of sufficient manpower at hand to transform eager capital and vast raw materials into profitable infrastructure, products, and commodities, let alone rescue snowbound emigrants.
In the 1860s, the labor shortage was a matter of desperation to the capitalists known as the Big Four, who were striving to drive the Central Pacific line through the unforgiving terrain of the Sierras, so it could reach the basin land of Nevada and Utah and slap down track (and claim land grants) in competition with the Union Pacific railroad racing over the Midwest flatlands.
As usual, California was short of labor, at least white labor.
So the Central Pacific made the decision to Go Chinese!, recruiting local Chinese and also immigrants from Guangdong province via labor contractors. At peak construction season somewhere around 16,000 Chinese, the vast majority of the workforce, toiled for the Central Pacific in the Sierras.
The brief, relatively happy episode of the history of the Chinese in Truckee and the Sierras is told in the book “Ghosts of Gold Mountain”, written by what must be reflexively stated is the “good” Gordon Chang, Gordon H. Chang of Stanford University.
Chang’s book is a supremely inspiring account of the stupendous achievements of the “Railroad Chinese” in constructing the Central Pacific railroad tracks, tunnels, and snow sheds through the Sierra Nevadas to reach Truckee. The Chinese railroad men displayed a mastery of excavation, the explosives technology needed to tackle the iron-hard Sierra granite, and sophisticated masonry skills, all of which they subsequently applied to railroad projects throughout North America.
If you want to keep score of fatalities by race, the Donner Party lost 39 people; an estimated 1600 Chinese railroad workers died in the Central Pacific project in avalanches (including at least 19 in once incident), industrial accidents, and occasionally by murder during the work above Truckee. Estimates of California Native Americans murdered by whites in the 19th century–in addition to Luis and Salvador, who were shot and eaten by the Forlorn Hope party– range from 4,500 up to 100,000.
The railroad Chinese and their supporting community—virtually all men since immigration by Chinese women wasn’t allowed–created a vibrant community of over a thousand in Truckee during the construction of the railroad and for a time afterward.
Chang writes that by 1870 30% of Truckee’s population and 45% of its workforce, including 4 of its 5 doctors, were Chinese. Whole streets had only Chinese signage, and Chinese were found throughout the commercial and industrial trades.
But by the 1870s, the railroad was completed and Chinese laborers lost the protection they had enjoyed thanks to employment by the Central Pacific Railroad. And a crippling national recession had swung the pendulum away from labor shortage to labor oversupply.
In the US West, anti-Chinese hostility became the default.
In 1879, California amended its state constitution with the notorious Article XIX, which forbade any California state corporation to “employ directly or indirectly, in any capacity, any Chinese or Mongolian.”
The full text is in the transcript.
SECTION 1. The Legislature shall prescribe all necessary regulations for the protection of the State, and the counties, cities, and towns thereof, from the burdens and evils arising from the presence of aliens who are or may become vagrants, paupers, mendicants, criminals, or invalids afflicted with contagious or infectious diseases, and from aliens otherwise dangerous or detrimental to the well-being or peace of the State, and to impose conditions upon which persons may reside in the State, and to provide the means and mode of their removals from the State, upon failure ore refusal to comply with such conditions; provided, that nothing contained in this section shall be construed to impair or limit the power of the legislature to pass such police laws or other regulations as it may deem necessary.
SEC. 2. No corporation now existing or hereafter formed under the laws of this State, shall, after the adoption of this Constitution, employ directly or indirectly, in any capacity, any Chinese or Mongolian. The Legislature shall pass such laws as may be necessary to enforce this provision.
SEC. 3. No Chinese shall be employed on any State, county, municipal, or other public work, except in punishment for crime.
SEC. 4. The presence of foreigners ineligible to become citizens of the United States is declared to be dangerous to the well-being of the State, and the Legislature shall discourage their immigration by all the means within its power. Asiatic coolieism is a form of human slavery, and is forever prohibited in this State, and all contracts for coolie labor shall be void. All companies or corporations, whether formed in this country or any foreign country, for the importation of such labor, shall be subject to such penalties as the Legislature may prescribe. The Legislature shall delegate all necessary power to the incorporated cities and towns of this State for the removal of Chinese without the limits of such cities and towns, or for their location within prescribed portions of those limits, and it shall also provide the necessary legislation to prohibit the introduction into this State of Chinese after the adoption of this Constitution. This section shall be enforced by appropriate legislation.
And in 1882 the California congressional delegation was key to getting the US Congress to pass the notorious Chinese Exclusion Act—which prevented Chinese immigrants from coming to live and work in the United States until the Second World War.
The TED talk takeaway is that the state and federal governments did some nasty stuff that prevented Chinese from coming to the US to pursue their New Gold Mountain bliss, so sorry for denying the Celestials full access to the American dream, congressional apology here, please pay attention to the disclaimer of any financial responsibility.*
*Nothing in this resolution may be construed or relied on to authorize or support any claim, including but not limited to constitutionally based claims, claims for monetary compensation or claims for equitable relief against the United States or any other party, or serve as a settlement of any claim against the United States.
What is conveniently forgotten is that Chinese already in the Western United States were forced to live through the American nightmare, a systematic regional pogrom that bookended the exclusion movement, tore them out of their communities and American society, and reduced many Chinatowns to ashes. Truckee was in the middle of it. Oh yeah.
Not just in the middle, actually. In the lead.
In fact, you might say that modern U.S. Chinahawking—the unholy alliance of state, capital, media, and populism known as the “all of society” anti-China strategy—was pioneered in Truckee over 140 years ago.
The unhappy story is told in Dr. Jean Pfaelzer’s essential 2007 book Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans.
The visionary impresario of the Truckee campaign—you might call him the combined Goebbels, Trump, and Josh Hawley of the anti-China effort– was local big shot, lawyer, and media baron Charles F. McGlashan.
In the 1870s, Truckee had already dipped its beak into anti-Chinese bigotry with the formation of the Caucasian League, a violent, heavy-drinking secret society dedicated to driving Chinese out of the woodcutting business via a campaign of persuasion that looked a lot like intimidation and terror.
In 1878 “somebody” set fire to a woodcutter’s cabin on Trout Creek in Truckee and shot at the Chinese rushing out to escape and get water to fight the flames, killing one. Anti-Chinese violence was new and novel enough that the case created a statewide scandal and the case went to trial.
Charles McGlashan represented the seven defendants, orchestrated fifty alibis and, to white Truckee’s delight, obtained acquittal or dismissal of charges for all the defendants. As each defendant was cleared, the town joyously fired a cannon in celebration.
And in May 1878, Truckee’s Chinatown burned…maybe because of arson? Then, just in case that message was excessively ambiguous, several Chinatown structures were blown up.
And to make sure that Chinese sheltering in the ruins and hoping to rebuild got the message to move, a 601 Club was formed—“601” as in Six feet under, Zero trial, One bullet—to emphasize white hostility to the continued presence of Chinese in the heart of Truckee.
The local newspaper, owned by none other than Charles F. McGlashan, opined that “The site heretofore occupied by Chinatown is the most desirable in town. If owned by white persons it would soon be covered by desirable residences, and possibly business houses…”
By a funny coincidence, Chinatown stood just below the Truckee Heights, where Charles McGlashan built his imposing residence and was perhaps revolted by the spectacle of the Chinese slum beneath his doorstep.
The endgame of old Truckee Chinatown occurred on November 9, 1878, when 500 members and sympathizers of the Caucasian League rampaged through what was left of Chinatown and tore it all down. In the words of Jean Pfaelzer, “the mob destroyed all houses owned by Chinese and warned white landlords to expect to see their own houses “even as the houses of the heathens.”
The Chinese were driven to a new location literally on the other side of the Central Pacific tracks and on the other bank of the Truckee River.
McGlashan’s prediction of post-Chinese urban renewal in downtown Truckee was borne out. The heart of old Chinatown—Front Street, now renamed Donner Pass Road–is today the bistro and retail studded main thoroughfare of the quaint town of Truckee.
John Moody—the operator of the Truckee Hotel, who had testified for the defense in the Trout Creek outrage and whose name now graces Truckee’s finest and most fashionable eatery (where Paul McCartney dined and sat in with the local musical talent)—homesteaded the road passing the Old Truckee Chinatown “for the good of the town” so no Chinese could return. McGlashan, I think, was impressed and inspired by the energy of the anti-Chinese movement, while realizing that its populist, well, violent, white lumpen character alienated moderate opinion and also spooked anxious capitalists.
McGlashan’s solution was to create and lead a cross-class movement that would intimidate and co-opt the business interests that valued and protected Chinese labor—and protect and privilege the business interests that spurned it, while dodging the moral and legal onus of mob violence for the town fathers. As Pfaelzer relates it, in1885 McGlashan attended an anti-Chinese meeting and observed:
“the wealthy classes were…hardly represented…[and so he] Devised a plan to drive the Chinese from our midst…lawfully”…. McGlashan’s plan was to “turn attention from the Chinese to their employers” and impose leadership from “the better class of citizens.”
McGlashan’s vision of an “all of Truckee” anti-China campaign bore fruit in a town resolution that declared:
Resolved: that not only the laboring man, but the entire community, demand that all individuals, companies, and corporations should discharge any and all Chinamen in their employ by January 1, 1886.
With the growing success of the discharge campaign, there was still the matter of driving out the unemployed and lingering Chinese residents, and intimidating the employers who were still holding out.
On New Year’s Eve, a triumphal procession was held in Truckee, passing in front of the Truckee Hotel. It included a drawing of a rooster declaring “When the Cock Crows, the Chinaman Goes”.
The boycott movement reached its climax in the early weeks of 1886. In Pfaelzer’s words:
Truckee’s anti-Chinese movement began to target every industry in town. On January 2 a Committee of Five visited every cigar dealer in town and urged them to buy only “white” cigars…the Committee on Wood Contracts announced that an “uncontrollable current of feeling” in the town “has given rise to apprehension that the masses might join in an uprising that would provide disastrous in its consequences to life and property.” Could the “safety and security of the community…be maintained…while the pitiful cry for bread by the children of white workingmen is continually being mocked by the resounding axes of 500 well-fed well paid Chinamen?”
To make sure that the anti-China campaign would be pushed to its conclusion, McGlashan declared that after the deadline the citizens of Truckee would “refuse to be responsible” for the safety of the Chinese. The braid of a local Chinese doctor was cut off and hung from a sign along Front Street (today’s Donner Pass Road).
For fans of fists in the air transracial labor solidarity, the takeaway was not inspiring. The Knights of Labor heartily endorsed McGlashan’s strategy (though the Wobblies did not!) and, to great local white celebration, shipped in white laborers to take the place of the Chinese.
On the capitalist side, financial warfare was deployed: banks established liens on Chinese businesses and called in loans, forcing merchants to go bankrupt. Lawfare continued with a McGlashan-driven campaign to prosecute Chinese woodcutters for “stealing wood from government land.”
Per Pfaelzer: By the end of February, ten weeks after McGlashan had launched the Truckee method, between six hundred and one thousand Chinese people had left the Truckee River basin…Because the [few Chinese who remained] were no longer permitted to enter stores in the town, they arranged for butchers to drop packets of meat for them at fixed stops along the track. Sensing that their community would soon disappear, the Chinese went to their cemetery, digging in the snow to offer food to the departing spirits and exhume their bones to prepare them for their return to China.
McGlashan served as delegate to the San Jose State Convention of the Anti-Chinese League, where he was acclaimed as the “Hero of Truckee.” The convention endorsed his strategy—known as the “Truckee Method”–and issued a boycott petition targeting businesses and individuals that might be inclined to protect the Chinese:
We, the undersigned, hereby declare that we are in favor of the adoption of all lawful means for the exclusion of Chinese from the Pacific Coast; and we hereby pledge that we will not employ Chinamen, directly or indirectly, or purchase the produces of Chinese labor.
Six hundred people from the Truckee area signed their names to the petition and returned it in person to the offices of the Truckee Republican. [187]
McGlashan escalated the culture wars and crossed the gender and age divide in the pages of the Truckee Republican: Let our mothers, wives, and sisters draw their skirts as they pass them on the street. Let them teach their little ones to abhor the Chinaman or his upholder. Let the little fingers be pointed at them, and the first words that fall from their baby lips be “Shame on you, China lover.”
Pfaelzer describes the denouement. Soon vigilantes began to extort any remaining cash and merchandise from the desperate and hungry Chinese who tried to guard their stores and houses. The boycott leaders urged the townfolk to “starve them out,” counting on poverty and destitution rather than violence to “cleanse” Truckee. Over the weekend of February 16, men from…nearby towns…joined Truckee’s night marches. Five bonfires burned in the small town square, and more than four hundred men joined a march several blocks long, appearing, one observer noted like a “huge serpent of flame.” The banner of the Truckee Hose and Engine Company, ORGANIZED TO PROTECT WHITE MEN’S PROPERTY, flew alongside canvas banners proclaiming the slogan OUR NEXT GOVERNOR C.F. MCGLASHAN, WHITE LABOR’S CHAMPION.
Day by day, carloads of Chinese left Truckee… On June 17, 1886 Truckee’s Chinatown burned to the ground for the last time. McGlashan’s paper exulted that “dirty, filthy Chinatown has been cleansed and purged of its disease breeding nastiness”. It was all over for Truckee’s Chinatown.
By 1900, the official Chinese population of Truckee was…two.
Today, a brick building on the south side of the Truckee River, which served as a Chinese pharmacy and is now a home furnishings business, is the only physical remnant of Truckee’s flourishing Chinatown.
McGlashan’s effort resonated far beyond Truckee. His innovative approach united populists and elites, white labor and capital, and downplayed vigilante violence in favor of economic warfare (albeit with a deniable side order of coercion, intimidation, and arson).
It was recognized as “the Truckee method” and adopted by the San Jose Non-Partisan Anti-Chinese Convention as a state-wide template.
As related by Pfaelzer, Truckee could “rejoice” in “leading the efforts of the entire coast” in “getting rid of the accursed blot upon California.” The Truckee Republican cheered that the Chinese “day is ended in the Sierra. Every burning torch will be a warning that they will not fail to heed, that they must go.” Inspired by Truckee’s example and McGlashan’s media promotion, the California towns of Shingle Springs, Georgetown, Germantown, Ukiah, Sonoma, St. Helena, Orland, San Bueanaventura (now Ventura), Marysville, Merced, Aptos, Visalia, Gridley, Pence, Yreka, Arbuckle, Napa, Petaluma, and Vina formed anti-Chinese organizations, drafting bylaws and announcing deadlines for the cutoff of employment and economic relations with Chinese.
So that’s Truckee: built on a solid foundation of exploitation, murder, greed, robbery, cannibalism, stolen Native American land, and anti-Chinese bigotry and ethnic cleansing.
Ethnic cleansing of the Chinese is not just a matter of a historical wrong; it was integral to the formation of present day white California’s urban and rural demographics, property ownership, and business and personal wealth.
With the current push for Critical Race Theory examinations of America’s past injustices and their current manifestations, I will be interested to see if and how the story of the statewide anti-Chinese pogrom makes it into California’s public school curriculum.
And for that matter, perhaps today’s China hawks will experience a sense of recognition and shame that their “all of society” anti-PRC policies rely on 19th century anti-Chinese bigotry repackaged for a modern, uninformed, and susceptible American audience.
Until then… I propose that Donner Lake be renamed Luis and Salvador Lake, to commemorate the Miwok Indians who struggled there in the rescue party, only to be shot and eaten; that McGlashan Point be renamed Ah Ling Point to commemorate the Chinese woodcutter whose murderers McGlashan got off; and Moody’s Restaurant at the very least should put a bottomless cocktail on its menu constructed of cream and vodka over ice, spiced with Mr. Lee’s Chinese bitters—yes, readers, Mr. Lee’s Chinese bitters is a real thing– and ignited to evoke the aura of Truckee’s burning Chinatown. Call the drink “White Oblivion”
Peter Lee is creator of the Patreon Peter Lee’s China Threat Report.
Video: The difference between US’s “money democracy” verses China’s “people democracy”. The movie “Wolf Warrior II” starring Wu Jing, an invisible evacuation of overseas Chinese, has a Chinese passport at the end. The following words are typed next to the passport: “No matter what dangers you may encounter overseas, please remember, your There is a strong motherland behind it.” China State Dept 24/7 Emergecy Number: +86 (10) 1230 8, +86 (10) 5991 3991 美國的“金錢民主”與中國的“人民民主”的區別. 屈穎妍：一幕看不見的撤僑 吳京主演的電影《戰狼II》，結尾畫面是一本中國護照，護照旁邊打出以下幾句話：「無論你在海外遇到了怎樣的危險，請你記住，你的背後有一個強大的祖國。」
Harris’ Vietnam visit ‘wrong time, wrong target, negative effect’ by Wang Qi Aug 25 2021
US Vice President Kamala Harris delivers remarks during the official launch of the CDC Southeast Asia Regional Office in Hanoi on August 25, 2021.
US Vice President Kamala Harris, while meeting Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Wednesday, accused China of bullying in the South China Sea, the second time in two days that she had attacked Beijing during her visit to Singapore and Vietnam.
In a land that witnessed the “Saigon moment” in 1975, Harris, the first US vice president to visit Vietnam, talked up the “China threat” and the US commitment to its allies, even as the US is experiencing a debacle in Afghanistan withdrawal, a scene all too familiar to Vietnam.
Experts say the current neutrality of Singapore and Vietnam shows both countries are wary of Harris’ visit and the role of the US in the region. Harris’ lobbying, amid the US’ abandonment of its Afghan allies, also shows the decline of US domination and its increasing desire to sow discord in the Asia-Pacific, they said.
During her visit, Harris also embraced elevating the relationship with Vietnam from a comprehensive partnership to a strategic partnership. She also expressed support for offering COVID-19 vaccines and a Coast Guard cutter to Vietnam, to help defend its security interests in the South China Sea, AP reported.
Harris’ remarks came after Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that developing Vietnam-China relations is a strategic choice and a top priority of Vietnam’s foreign policy, during his meeting with Chinese Ambassador to Vietnam Xiong Bo on Tuesday.
Chinh stressed during the meeting with Ambassador Xiong the importance of the communication between Vietnam and China, noting that the two countries will deepen inter-Party, foreign affairs, national defense, and public security cooperation, and guard against the “peaceful evolution” of hostile forces and attempts to sow discord between the two countries, according to the Chinese Embassy in Vietnam.
Harris’ visit, at the wrong time and to the wrong target, can only have a negative effect, Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations of the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
Although Harris’ Asia tour was determined before the US’ fiasco in Afghan, which showed people the tragedy of being a partner of Washington, it once again showed how keen the US is to create divisive rivalries in the Asia-Pacific, said Li.
Unlike the equality and mutual benefit advocated by China, the essence of US diplomacy is to make allies sacrifice for the US, not the other way around. Singapore and Vietnam are clear about that, Li said.
Harris’ tour also came on the heels of PLA’s vaccine aid to Vietnamese military on Monday. Chinh expressed Vietnam’s gratitude to China, emphasizing that Vietnam opposes politicizing either the pandemic or the virus origins-tracing issue.
Both Harris’ visit and that of US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in July were made at the invitation of Vietnam, which sparked suspicion that Hanoi is leaning toward Washington, given the dispute between China and Vietnam over the South China Sea.
The Vietnamese do not want China-Vietnam relations to be damaged by advancing ties with US, although Vietnam also needs to draw the US to its interests in the South China Sea, Zhuang Guotu, head of Xiamen University’s Southeast Asian Studies Center, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
“The meeting between Chinh and Xiong showed that China-Vietnam relations are stable… despite Vietnam being one of the countries most likely to be wooed by the US in the Asia-Pacific,” said Zhuang.
“Hanoi is clear about its special relationship with Beijing (socialism system and neighboring countries) and cannot give up its economic and trade ties with China,” Chen Xiangmiao, an assistant research fellow at the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
In 2020, China-Vietnam trade reached $192.28 billion, up 18.7 percent year-on-year. China’s exports to Vietnam reached $113.81 billion and its imports from Vietnam reached $78.47 billion, year-on-year growth of 16.3 percent and 22.4 percent, respectively, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed.
Despite the desire of the US and Vietnam to promote security cooperation, Vietnam will take a pragmatic approach, stressing the importance of relations with China and the ruling position of the Communist Party of Vietnam as its primary interest, Chen said.
Analysts said it is pathetic that the US is showing its commitment to Asian partners after the fiasco in Afghanistan. Such painful memories are likely to deepen: At the height of the epidemic in Vietnam, Harris did not bring vaccines shots like China did, but only lip service or perhaps an exchange of interests at most.
Since Southeast Asian countries are close to China geographically, the US may ask them to provide information to promote the accountability of the virus origins in China, tarnish China’s reputation and increase China’s diplomatic costs, Chen said.
The US may also continue to hype the absurd idea that Chinese vaccines are ineffective and engage in vaccine diplomacy by offering vaccines to Asia-Pacific countries in exchange for negative views on Chinese vaccines, Chen said. “This is alarming.”
Victory of pro-establishment candidates at HK Law Society council election ‘a wake-up call’ for those hijacking professional groups: ex-chief 香港律師會理事會選舉中建制派候選人的勝利為那些劫持專業團體的人“敲響了警鐘” by Chen Qingqing Aug 25 2021
The victory of five candidates who support the pro-establishment camp at the Hong Kong Law Society’s council election serves as a wake-up call for those who still have the illusion about using professional groups to provoke radical anti-government movements and advocate for so-called freedom as well as democratic values but with the true intention of instigating secessionism, the former president of the Law Society told the Global Times.
In an exclusive interview with the Global Times on Wednesday, solicitor Junius Ho Kwan-yiu said he felt reassured after seeing that candidates who support the pro-establishment camp gained more votes than those who are leaning to the pro-opposition camp. “The latest election attracted a lot of attention. If those candidates who are in favor of the opposition camp had won, the group might have been controlled by the opposition camp,” he said.
Five candidates including Careen Wong and Jimmy Chan, who support the pro-establishment camp, won the election, local news site TVB News reported on Tuesday.
Among the candidates, four are considered as coming from the pro-opposition camp including Jonathan Ross, who recently announced he was withdrawing his name as candidate “for safety concerns,” as well as Selma Masood, Henry Wheare and Denis Brock.
These so-called pro-opposition candidates have been engaging in politics, Ho said, noting that in recent years they have been whitewashing the violence.
“During the black-clad riots in 2019, some ignored the facts that the radical protests vandalized public property and violated the law, vowing to stand with them as a way of tolerating secessionism and ‘Hong Kong independence,'” Ho said, noting that the result of the election is a direct warning to those who still have the illusion of turning the Law Society into a political group.
Days ahead of the council election of the largest legal body in Hong Kong, Carrie Lam, chief executive of the HKSAR government, warned the Law Society not to let politics override its professionalism, otherwise the government would consider ending cooperation with it.
By excluding those candidates who are considered potential troublemakers, the Law Society is expected to play bigger role in enhancing the legal exchanges between the mainland and Hong Kong in the future, Ho said, noting that such cooperation could set a good example for further exchanges between the mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and the island of Taiwan.
Johnson Choi Biz 