Bevin Chu: US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman is lucky. Future US diplomats may be required to kowtow if they wish to meet with Chinese officials. 美國副國務卿溫迪謝爾曼是幸運的。 未來的美國外交官如果希望與中國官員會面，可能需要磕頭.

NB: For those few who don’t recognize a joke when they see one, this was merely a joke. But again, even though it is a joke, no one can say never say never. 對於那些看到笑話不認識的少數人來說，這只是一個笑話。 但再說一次，即使這是一個笑話，也沒有人可以肯定地說永遠不會發生.

Political connected company will get most of the infrastructure contracts with a portion of the money kicked back to elected officials at the City, State and Federal levels through legalized corruption. It will be mirrored behind how infrastructure projects being handled in Hawaii and California, expect 300% cost overruns and 3x exceeding projected completion date. 與政治有關的公司將獲得大部分合同，其中一部分資金通過合法化腐敗返還給市、州和聯邦各級民選官員。 它將反映在夏威夷和加利福尼亞處理基礎設施項目的方式，預計成本超支 300%，超出預計完工日期 3 倍.

New York Times: A bipartisan group of senators spoke after a procedural vote on their infrastructure agreement on Wednesday. by T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times

Happy Infrastructure Week!

What became a punchline among political reporters during the Trump administration — when many a week was called “infrastructure week” by the White House, which was rhetorically committed to funding roads and bridges out of the federal purse — moved a step closer to reality yesterday, when the Senate voted to take up a $1 trillion infrastructure bill.

What exactly is and isn’t in the infrastructure bill? The Upshot has you covered.

But also important are the terms under which it was hashed out and by which it will pass into law, if it does pass into law. For this bill is bipartisan, shaped by a core gang of senators, five Democrats and five Republicans, who were backed by six more Republican senators as well as by the Biden White House. Not for nothing is it known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework.

Yesterday’s vote over whether to proceed to debating the bill had the support of two-thirds of the Senate: all 50 Democrats and independents, plus 17 Republicans — including Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, who has famously said his goal was to deny President Biden and, before him, President Barack Obama any significant legislative victories.

The House of Representatives, where Democrats hold a slim majority, still must go along with it. A separate, decidedly partisan $3.5 trillion Democratic spending bill looms as a complication. But all in all, the infrastructure plan has come further than many had expected. Here is what political scientists who study legislative compromise (and the lack thereof) have to tell us about how this happened.

Wang Yi: We bear responsibility to teach U.S. to treat others equally. Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that China and the international community as a whole bear the responsibility to teach the U.S. a lesson if it hasn’t learned to treat other countries equally. 王毅：我們有責任教美國平等對待他人. 中國國務委員兼外長王毅表示，如果美國沒有學會平等對待其他國家，中國和整個國際社會都有責任給美國一個教訓.

Stop interfering in China’s internal affairs. The Chinese don’t buy this crabs from US. US is not qualified to speak condescendingly to the Chinese. 停止干涉中國內政. 中國人不吃這一套. 美國沒有資格居高臨下和中國人說話.

US-China relations: Beijing lays down red lines for first time in Sherman meeting by Sarah Zheng 25 July 2021

China has for the first time given the US a list of red lines and remedial action it must take to repair relations, including lifting sanctions and dropping its extradition request for Huawei financial chief Meng Wanzhou.

Chinese foreign vice-minister Xie Feng told US deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman on Monday morning that US-China relations had reached a “stalemate” and faced “serious consequences”, according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement.

“The foundational reason is that some people in the US are treating China as an ‘imagined enemy’,” it quoted Xie as saying.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

After the meeting, Xie said China gave two lists to the US – one with one remedial action for Washington to take towards China, and the other a series of Beijing’s key concerns.

Items on the remedial list include lifting the visa restrictions on Communist Party members, their families, and Chinese students; lifting the sanctions imposed on Chinese leaders, government officials and agencies; removing restrictions on Confucius Institutes and Chinese companies; cancelling rulings determining Chinese media as foreign agents; and dropping its request to extradite Meng from Canada.

China promises US a ‘tutorial’ in treating countries equally

Items on the list of concerns include addressing unfair treatment of Chinese citizens in the United States, harassment of the Chinese embassy and its consulates, the rise of anti-Asian and anti-Chinese sentiment, and violence against Chinese citizens.

Xie said the Chinese side also “expressed its strong dissatisfaction towards the wrong remarks and actions of the US” in relation to investigations into the origins of Covid-19, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and the South China Sea.

“We urge the United States not to underestimate the strong determination, firm will and strong ability of the 1.4 billion Chinese people to safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests,” state news agency Xinhua quoted him as saying.

Before the meeting on Monday, both sides were wrangling for the upper hand, with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi saying China would give the US a “tutorial” on how to treat other nations equally. A senior US official said Sherman would engage China from a position of “strength and solidarity”.

Sherman is expected to meet Wang in Tianjin, an hour from the capital Beijing, on Monday afternoon.

Xie also slammed the US government for engaging in “all-encompassing containment of China” to restrict the country’s development and to continue US hegemony.

He said some had sought to demonise China to distract from domestic problems in the US, likening the conflict between the two countries to the “Pearl Harbour moment” or the “Sputnik moment” – turning points for the US against Japan in World War II and the Soviet Union in the Cold War.

“The US side talks about China at every turn, and it seems as if it is unable to speak or do anything if it does not involve China,” he was quoted as saying. “We urge the US side to change its incorrect thinking and very dangerous policy towards China.”

Xie added that China was willing to engage the US as equals and to “seek common ground while reserving differences” and he urged the US to choose the path of “mutual respect, fair competition, and peaceful coexistence”.

The meeting follows Sherman’s trip last week to Japan, South Korea and Mongolia, where she sought to highlight Washington’s commitment to its partners in the region to “advance a free and open Indo-Pacific, and uphold and strengthen the rules-based international order”.

What Wendy Sherman’s China visit tells foreign investors in Hong Kong.

The Tianjin stop was originally left off her itinerary while China and the US were negotiating the details. Sherman was originally seeking a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s inner circle.

Expectations are not high for any breakthrough developments, but observers say that dialogue itself is critical, as tensions have continued to intensify since the acrimonious meeting in March between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and China’s most senior foreign policy official Yang Jiechi.

The meeting also comes on the heels of the US and its allies – including the European Union, Australia, Britain, New Zealand and Japan – warning China about its “malicious cyber activities”, as well as US sanctions on Hong Kong officials and reciprocal Chinese sanctions.

US officials have said they hope Sherman’s meetings in Tianjin will yield “frank and open discussion”, including progress towards “guardrails and parameters” to prevent sustained competition between the powers from turning into conflict.

There will be a focus on imposing costs for certain Chinese behaviours – including on issues involving Xinjiang and forced labour claims there – as well as areas for cooperation, such as on climate change , they said.

US is guilty of ‘three sins’ in its COVID-19 response and origin-tracing: Chinese FM spokesperson by Global Times Jul 29 2021

The US is guilty of “three sins” in its COVID-19 response and origin-tracing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Thursday, responding to media about China’s comment on the disappointing and irresponsible pandemic response from the US, which has the world’s highest number of infections and deaths from COVID-19.

First, the US has allowed the virus to spread unchecked, Zhao said at a regular press conference on Thursday.

A global leader in medical technology, the US has let political manipulation override epidemic control, leading to the infection of some 35 million Americans and the loss of lives of more than 610,000, Zhao said.

The US has failed to exercise effective outbound travel control measures and many countries have reported imported cases from the US, said Zhao. The US has also sped up the repatriation of tens of thousands of illegal immigrants infected with COVID-19 which exacerbated the pandemic situation in many Latin American countries, he added.

Second, the US has hidden the truth from the world, Zhao said.

Research by the University of Washington suggests that the number of COVID-19 infections and deaths in the US could be as high as 65 million and 900,000 respectively, far higher than official statistics, he mentioned.

While the timeline of early cases in the US has been constantly dialed forward, and Fort Detrick is shrouded with suspicion, the US still mentions nothing about whether it plans to invite the WHO to Fort Detrick and other biological labs. “Is this the ‘transparent and responsible’ attitude that the US has been preaching?” Zhao asked.

Third, the US has been practicing terrorism under the pretext of tracing the origins of the pandemic, said Zhao.

Ever since the previous US administration coined the term “Chinese virus,” the US has not stopped trying to sell stories that stigmatize China, Zhao said. The US attempts to link the origins of the virus with China or other Asian countries, which has caused rising anti-Asian sentiment in the US and other countries in the West, he said.

The US also plays dirty tricks on the scientific community, stifling the righteous voice of scientists, subjecting many outspoken scientists to verbal abuse and threat of physical assaults, Zhao said, adding that “some media compare such behaviors of the US with acts of terrorism.”

These three sins are just the tip of the iceberg of the political manipulation conducted by the US, according to Zhao.

“COVID-19 needs to be traced to its source, and so does the political virus, which needs to be thoroughly dealt with as some take advantage of the pandemic to shift the blame and blatantly engage in discrimination and coercion.” Zhao noted.

Afghan Taliban’s China visit underscores importance of China’s role: expert by GT staff reporters Jul 28 2021

China could play the role as a better mediator between the Afghan government and the Taliban for its smooth and high-level communication with both sides whose peace talks may be stuck in stalemate for a long time, analysts said in response to an Afghan Taliban delegation’s trip in Tianjin on Wednesday and its reiteration of a previous promise of never allowing any force to use the Afghan territory to endanger China.

China reiterated that the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) is a UN-designated terrorist group and hopes that the Afghan Taliban will make a clear break with all terrorist organizations including ETIM, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said while meeting with a Taliban delegation from Afghanistan in Tianjin on Wednesday.

The meeting came after a Taliban delegation visited Moscow at the beginning of July. Analysts said instead of visiting other regional countries, the Taliban chose to first visit Russia and China, which shows it has recognized the two countries’ previous efforts in promoting the peace process in Afghanistan and eyed a bigger role for them in future reconstruction of the war-torn country.

As an important military and political force in Afghanistan, the Afghan Taliban is expected to play an important role in the peaceful reconciliation process in Afghanistan. We hope that the Afghan Taliban will put national interests first, hold high the banner of peace talks, establish the goal of peace, build a positive image and pursue an inclusive policy, Wang said during the meeting.

Wang noted that as Afghanistan’s largest neighbor, China has always respected Afghanistan’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. The hasty withdrawal of US and NATO troops from Afghanistan marked the failure of US policy in Afghanistan and it is an opportunity for the Afghan people to stabilize and develop their country.

The situation in Afghanistan has entered a crucial period after the US pulled out most of its forces and peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government are in stalemate, with both parties seeking a breakthrough. Against this backdrop, the Taliban delegation visited China to elaborate its stance and to win support from China, Wang Jiang, a distinguished research fellow at the Institute for Frontier Region of China, Zhejiang Normal University, told the Global Times.

In a previous exclusive interview with the Global Times, Afghan Ambassador to China Javid Ahmad Qaem expressed deep distrust toward the Taliban. “The sincerity of the Taliban for peace talks leaves a very big question mark upon them,” Qaem said, adding that the biggest challenge to the political settlement is the Taliban itself.

Wang Jiang noted that the members of the Taliban delegation to China showed their sincerity and goodwill to help China further understand them, for example the representative from religious commission may explain the Taliban’s changes on religious polices.

The delegation was led by Taliban political commission representative Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar with representatives from the religious commission and publicity commission alongside, according to the release from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Baradar said on Wednesday the Afghan Taliban has full sincerity in realizing peace in the country and is willing to work with every party to build a political system that is widely accepted by Afghanistan people and will protect human rights and the interests of women and children.

Before the visit to China, a Taliban delegation visited Moscow on July 8, meeting Kremlin envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov who expressed concerns about the escalation and tensions in northern Afghanistan. Kabulov also urged the Taliban “to prevent them from spreading beyond the country’s borders,” AP reported.

“After returning to the Afghan mainstream politics since US-led troops withdrawal, the Afghan Taliban chose to first visit Russia and China instead of other countries – two powers that have no sharp conflicts of interests with it. It shows the Taliban attaches great importance to developing ties with the two major countries, and it believes in their influence in helping to rebuild Afghanistan,” Li Wei, an expert on national security and anti-terrorism at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times.

Li said that Russia, which has learned lessons from history, hopes to keep good ties with parties in Afghanistan, and China, with its consistent stance on Afghanistan being governed by Afghans, has maintained good connections with different forces in Afghanistan.

China has always been willing to promote the peace process in Afghanistan, for example, using multilateral mechanism to encourage peace talks and offering to host intra-Afghanistan talks for the Taliban and the government in China, Li said, noting that China could play as a better coordinator as it has smooth and high-level communication with leaders of the Afghan government and the Taliban.

Sultan Baheen, former Afghan ambassador to China, told the Global Times that in the eyes of all Afghans, including the Taliban, China is the most trusted and confident friend and could play a bigger role as a mediator than any other country to promote peace in Afghanistan.

Reiterate promise

When meeting with the Taliban delegation in Tianjin, Wang Yi stressed that ETIM is an international terrorist organization listed by the UN Security Council, which poses a direct threat to China’s national security and territorial integrity. Cracking down on ETIM is the shared responsibility of the international community.

This is not the first time Wang Yi has expressed this stance. During a joint press conference with Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin following their talks in Dushanbe on July 13, Wang said the Taliban should realize the responsibilities it bears for the nation and make a clean break with all terrorist forces.

Baradar of the Taliban delegation said the Afghan Taliban will never allow any force to use the Afghan territory to endanger China.

Previously, in an interview with This Week in Asia, Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen said the organization sees China as a “friend” to Afghanistan. The Taliban would no longer allow Uygur separatists, some of whom had previously sought refuge in Afghanistan, to enter the country. The Taliban would also prevent al-Qaeda or any other terrorist groups from operating there.

In 2002, the UN Security Council’s 1267 Committee imposed sanctions against ETIM. In 2003, China recognized and declared it as a terrorist organization. The group has been responsible for hundreds of terrorist attacks since it was founded. It was also found as the black hand behind many terror attacks in Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. For example, the bomb and knife attack at Urumqi railway station on April 30 in 2014 and attacks in Kashi on July 30, 31 in 2011.

However, former US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, announced on October 20, 2020 the revocation of a previous decision that designated ETIM as a terrorist organization, a move that experts on anti-terrorism criticized as “whitewashing” terror groups related to China’s Xinjiang which will backfire on the US.

Analysts said that the Taliban is fragmented as many of its senior leaders are not in Afghanistan, thus some branches of the Taliban in Afghanistan have taken in members of ETIM. However, no matter who forms the Afghan government, they know clearly that continuing anti-terrorism is Afghanistan’s international responsibility as well as the significant foundation of future China-Afghanistan relations.

China and regional countries worry that changes to the situation in Afghanistan may squeeze the room of extremist terrorism groups including ETIM in Afghanistan, and force them to flee to other neighboring countries. With the Afghan Taliban’s return to the mainstream, one key for it to win China’s trust is to reach consensus on anti-terrorism with China and taking concrete actions, Wang Jiang said.

Video: Updated: China Will Be A World Leader After The Pandemic. 更新：大流行後中國將成為世界領袖.
https://vimeo.com/580562543
https://youtu.be/2kBgAmSwRG8
https://www.facebook.com/100036400039778/posts/537480647475265/?d=n
When China shares its vaccines with other countries, the mainstream media in the west criticize China again for its vaccine diplomacy, but they neither criticize their own governments for overbooking vaccines, nor shed tears at the wretched people in developing countries. The good thing is more and more developing countries are welcoming this kind of vaccine diplomacy, especially when they cannot compete with the wealthy nations to get those overpriced west vaccines.

English Video with Chinese Subtitles: China Chat: The Making of A New Tibet. 美国专家来到西藏, 真相大白了！

In this episode, host Miao Xiaojuan continues the conversation with two American guests on Tibet. Together they have met locals who are willing to discuss just about everything, and learned about the region’s overall development.
https://vimeo.com/580537040
https://youtu.be/YtwLGWQlLGI
https://www.facebook.com/100036400039778/posts/537481160808547/?d=n
“被中国媒体邀请到西藏，你们可有顾虑?” “外媒报道的和你们亲眼所见的西藏，有何不同?” “因为分享西藏见闻而遭受网络暴力，有没有感到困扰？”

西藏和平解放70周年之际 “中国说”邀请了两位美国嘉宾一同踏上雪域高原在马不停蹄的一周里去寺庙、学校、企业和百姓家中寻找宗教、文化、经济和社会的真相向海外还原一个真实的西藏.

20年前来过西藏的企业家雷小山（Shaun Rein）没想到这里已然大变样网速快、公路好、藏语标识随处可见人们健康、自由、阳光. 他想去哪儿就能去哪儿中国媒体也远比外媒客观开放.

第一次进藏的经济学家戴维·布莱尔（David Blair）惊叹于这里的美景舍不得离开、恨不得搬来更惊叹于偏远之地竟充满活力. 小村庄里都有“创客中心”有梦想的未来不可估量.

原来这里没有压迫人们生活如常又积极向上. 两位嘉宾不禁向外喊话. 西藏没有哪一种文化在灭绝也没有哪一个民族在消亡. 那些散布谣言的美国媒体与政客早该停止抹黑中国的勾当.

Ambassador Qin Gang, the new Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China to the United States of America, arrived in the United States on July 28, 2021 to assume office. Upon arrival, Ambassador Qin was greeted by DCM of the Chinese Embassy Li Kexin, Consul General in New York Huang Ping and other Chinese diplomats in the U.S. Ambassador Qin is the eleventh Chinese Ambassador to the United States. Prior to his ambassadorship, he was Vice Foreign Minister of China. His predecessor, Ambassador Cui Tiankai, completed his tenure and returned to China on June 23.

Video: Reporters from BBC, CNN, Voice of Germany & etc stationed in China continue to do bias and fake news reporting to demonize Chinese and China. Behind them is a long list of foreign born Chinese Journalists backing their AngloSaxon colleagues to promote fake news against China. 駐中國的BBC, CNN, 德國之音等等的記者繼續用偏見和虛假新聞報導妖魔化中國. 他們身後還有一長串外國出生的中國人記者, 支持他們的西人(盎格魯撒克遜)同事宣傳針對中國的假新聞, 作為漢奸走狗的國外華人收錢來妖魔化自已的祖國.

详解德国之声记者在河南郑州被市民包围事件的来龙去脉，绿衣女子原来是她
https://youtu.be/pgeUWrRD920

United States is not a country United. US promote Freedom, Democracy, Human Rights and Rules of Laws to the world is for show only as it is not being applied at home. US must made China enemy of the State to Unite the country, how sad! otherwise the country will fall apart. 美國不是一個像中國一個團結的國家. 美國向世界宣揚自由、民主、人權和法治只是為了做秀，因為它在國內並沒有得到應用。 美國必須以中國為敵才能讓美國團結, 如此的悲哀, 否則國家將分崩離析.

Huff Post: Capitol Police Officers describe racism, pain, trauma of Capitol riot. OFFICERS THOUGHT THEY WOULDN’T SURVIVE CAPITOL RIOT. 國會警察描述了國會騷亂的種族主義、痛苦和創傷。 官員們認為他們無法在國會大廈騷亂中倖存下來。

What the US Capitol Police went through was child play to deal with a single day horrors compared to US NED/CIA backed rioters and terrorists attacked on Hong Kong Police in 2019 for one full year. 與美國民主基金會和美國中情局支持的香港暴徒和恐怖分子在 2019 年天天襲擊香港警察整整一年相比，美國國會警察經歷的是兒童遊戲來應對祇是一天的恐怖事件.

Tuesday marked the first meeting of the House select committee charged with investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, with hours of emotional testimony about the mob of angry Donald Trump supporters that stormed the building and terrorized its occupants. Four law enforcement officers delivered intense and emotional testimony about the abuse they sustained that day and the trauma they still live with. Read the biggest takeaways here.