English LCCC Newsbulletin For
Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For May 02/2022
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2021/english.may02.22.htm
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Bible Quotations For today
If you endure pain when you do right and
suffer for it, you have God’s approval. For to this you have been called,
because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should
follow in his steps
First Letter of Peter 02,/18-25:”Slaves, accept the
authority of your masters with all deference, not only those who are kind and
gentle but also those who are harsh. For it is to your credit if, being aware of
God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. If you endure when you are beaten
for doing wrong, where is the credit in that? But if you endure when you do
right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. For to this you have been
called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that
you should follow in his steps. ‘He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in
his mouth.’ When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he
did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. He
himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we
might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were
going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian
of your souls.”
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials
published on May 01-02/2022
Dar Al-Fatwa declares Monday as first day of Fitr Feast
Al-Rahi marking the outset of the Marian month from Harissa: Tragedy of
Tripoli's sinking boat should not be a 'passing...
Aoun greets workers on Labor Day, calls for productive economy
Berri discusses relevant demands with heads of official primary, secondary,
vocational & technical educational institutions
Parliamentary Elections - Berri in a message to Lebanon's expatriates: Let your
vote on May 6 & 8 be for national constants, not for electoral promises
Bassil says FPM may boycott elections if freedom of movement not protected
Lebanese students in limbo after fleeing Ukraine war
Health Ministry: 89 new Corona cases, 1 death
Walid Jumblatt: Only disasters have resulted from Aoun's mandate, Nasrallah is
the one who decides the president
Al-Mortada on Labor Day: Despite all crises, we can only cling to the
authenticity of the Lebanese & their ability to overcome...
Al-Shami partakes in World Bank, International Monetary Fund meetings in
Washington, says 'failure to implement reforms will have...
"Foreign Ministry a den of clientelism & absolute corruption," deems Geagea
Al-Makari bestows 'Silver Order of Merit' upon late novelist Farshakh: We hope
for a better homeland despite all hardships of this stage
Titles For The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 01-02/2022
19th century Iraq church holds first Mass since Daesh defeat
Twenty civilians evacuated from besieged Mariupol plant
Ukraine FM asks China to be security guarantor
Pelosi backs Zelensky in 'fight for freedom' on Kyiv visit
Former Saudi intelligence chief calls for sanctioning Israel, criticizes Western
double standards on Russia
Six missiles fall near oil refinery in Iraq’s Irbil — statement
Suspected IS militants blow up gas pipeline in Egypt's Sinai
Turkish police hold dozens in May Day demonstrations
Titles For The Latest LCCC English
analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on May 01-02/2022
Time for action not words if Iran really wants to be a good neighbor/Dr.
Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/May 01/2022
Muslim Brotherhood’s influence in US should be confronted and defeated/Dalia
Al-Aqidi/Arab News/May 01/2022
Suicide is a risk for college students worldwide/Tala Jarjour/Arab News/May
01/2022
Macron must unite France or risk emboldening nationalists/Zaid M. Belbagi/Arab
News/May 01/2022
What To Do About China/Gordon G. Chang/Gatestone Institute/May 01/2022
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese &
Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on May 01-02/2022
Dar Al-Fatwa declares Monday as first day of Fitr Feast
NNA - Grand Mufti of the Republic, Sheikh Abdul Latif Derian, has announced in a
statement that "Sunday, May 1, is the day that completes the thirty-day period
of the blessed month of Ramadan," and therefore, "Monday, May 2, 2022 AD, is the
first day of Eid Al-Fitr.""As we congratulate Muslims on this blessed occasion,
we ask God Almighty to accept their fasting, prayers, good deeds and
supplications, and to bless all the Lebanese with goodness, security and
tranquility," the Mufti said.
Derian will perform the Eid Al-Fitr prayer and sermon at 6:35 on the morning of
Eid at the "Mohammad Al-Amine Mosque" in downtown Beirut, while apologizing for
not receiving well-wishers on the occasion.
Al-Rahi marking the outset of the Marian month from
Harissa: Tragedy of Tripoli's sinking boat should not be a 'passing...
NNA/May 01/2022
Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, presided this morning over
the feast Mass of "Our Lady of Lebanon" and the start of the Marian month in the
Basilica of "Our Lady of Lebanon" in Harissa. In his homily, the Patriarch
prayed to the Virgin Mary, the Lady of Lebanon, on her feast, "to protect our
homeland and our people, preserve it as the land of faith and prayer, and sow
peace in the hearts." "With the beginning of the Marian month, we raise our eyes
and our hearts to our Mother, the Virgin Mary, the Lady of Lebanon, and with the
Lebanese, we are looking for a new hope that prayers may bring to them, becoming
their main longing as recovery plans and reform projects remain useless in an
atmosphere of utmost hatred, and as the positive effect of parliamentary and
presidential elections remains limited unless accompanied by the spirit of
harmony and devotion, for no issue or crisis is resolved with grudges," the
Patriarch said. "With kindness we resolve any disagreement even if deep, while
with hatred we fail to resolve any disagreement even if superficial," al-Rahi
affirmed. Referring to the recent Tripoli boat tragic incident, the Patriarch
said: "Images of the sinking boat disaster off Tripoli's shores are still vivid
before our eyes, and the pain continues in our hearts as we see the death of
children, youth, mothers and fathers, and we prayed for the souls of the fallen
victims and for comfort and condolences to their families. It is not permissible
for this tragedy to be a mere passing event, as some people try to turn its page
just as they are trying to turn the page on the Beirut port blast and the
explosion of the village of Al-Tleil in Akkar and others...Therefore, we call on
the state to conduct a transparent and impartial investigation to determine
responsibilities and put an end to questions and suspicion, especially that we
are on the eve of parliamentary elections."On the awaited parliamentary
elections, al-Rahi confirmed that "with the people of good will, we are keen on
ensuring that the elections take place in a safe and democratic atmosphere."
He added: "Our priority is to stabilize Lebanon's entity and its national
security so that it can carry out the constitutional obligations without
surprises. We renew our call on the citizens to vote massively to regain the
initiative of self-determination from those who have tampered with their fate
and subjected Lebanon to collapse, its identity to fraud and its state
institutions and decisions to infringement."The Patriarch urged Lebanese
citizens to fulfill their voting rights and duties, stressing that "the
elections give every citizen the opportunity to translate the slogan that
democracy is the rule of the people by the people."
"It is the duty of the Lebanese to take advantage of this entitlement to tell
the world which Lebanon they desire, and to inform the countries that follow
Lebanese affairs that they reject every proposal for a settlement or bargaining
project that is inconsistent with the reality of Lebanon, and does not respect
the sacrifices made by the Lebanese people to preserve their independence,
civilization and existence," al-Rahi underscored. "It is clear that the majority
of the Lebanese adhere to a free, democratic and neutral Lebanon; a Lebanon of
national partnership and charter; a Lebanon of historical identity, justice and
equality; a Lebanon of one army and constitutional institutions," he went on,
underlining that the Lebanese want to "live, prosper and have a free economy."In
this context, the Patriarch emphasized that "sacrificing people's deposits in
banks is not an inevitable fate, for there are other scientific solutions
available that are capable of reconciling between addressing the state's debt
and its income on the one hand, and preserving depositors' funds on the other
hand." "Yes, there are solutions for depositors if we mix technical proposals
with creative ideas," al-Rahi reiterated, regretting that "most of the solutions
proposed to solve the economic and financial crisis are alternatives to the
original solution, because they are based on a narrow technical angle, ignoring
the political dimension and turning a blind eye to the fait accompli that led
the country to this collapse."
Aoun greets workers on Labor Day, calls for productive
economy
Naharnet/May 01/2022
President Michel Aoun on Sunday greeted Lebanese workers as the country marked
Labor Day, pledging that he will continue to work for “transforming Lebanon’s
economy from a rentier economy into a productive one.”“From the middle of the
difficult circumstances that we are suffering, I address an appreciation
salutation to every Lebanese worker,” Aoun said in a statement. “I pledge to the
Lebanese and to workers that I will continue to work to dispel the clouds of the
crises that resulted from years of accumulations, for which Lebanon’s workers
paid hefty prices,” the President added.
They can make “the biggest contribution in transforming Lebanon’s economy from a
rentier economy into a productive one that would keep our country’s sons in
their homeland and grant them a promising future,” Aoun went on to say.
Berri discusses relevant demands with heads of official
primary, secondary, vocational & technical educational institutions
NNA/May 01/2022
House Speaker, Nabih Berri, met today at his Mseileh residence with the heads of
official primary, secondary, vocational and technical educational institutions
in Lebanon, in the presence of members of the associations’ administrative
bodies, where discussions focused on the demands and rights of teachers and
measures to fortify the formal education sector and secure its continuity amidst
the prevailing economic and financial conditions. In this context, the Speaker
made contacts with the concerned ministers and financial authorities to secure
the legitimate rights of teachers as soon as possible. Berri also received today
a delegation from the town of Anqoun, which included a number of its scouting,
municipal, voluntary and youth dignitaries, during which the delegation renewed
the commitment of Anqoun, with all its figures, families, and political and
civil forces, to the constants of Imam Al-Sadr and his project of unity,
coexistence, and protection of civil peace.
Parliamentary Elections - Berri in a message to Lebanon's expatriates: Let your
vote on May 6 & 8 be for national constants, not for electoral promises
NNA/May 01/2022
In a message addressed to Lebanese expatriates who will head to polling stations
to cast their votes on May 6 & 8, House Speaker Nabih Berri called on them to
"demonstrate widest participation in this national event par excellence and the
most important in the history of Lebanon," and to "go to the polls free from
electoral discourse that is heavily charged with hateful sectarian incitement.”
He called on the Lebanese residing in Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia and the
United States to "vote massively" for the candidates of the "Amal and Loyalty"
lists in the South, Central and Western Bekaa, Baalbek, Hermel, Zahle, Beirut,
Southern Metn and Jbeil districts. "Let your vote on the sixth and eighth of May
be for national constants and not for electoral promises. Let your vote be for
unity and not fragmentation. Let your vote be for Lebanon in its Arab identity
and belonging; Lebanon that is committed to the best relations with its Arab
brothers, all the Arabs, from the ocean to the Gulf, and with its friends all
over the world," Berri said.
He added: "Let your vote be for those who believe in dialogue as a way to
approach all contentious issues under the constitution's rooftop and to protect
civil peace. Let your vote be for the independence and reform of the judiciary,
rendering it an authority above maliciousness and free from political
interference, an authority capable of realizing the truth and establishing the
rules of justice in accordance with the logic of the constitution and the law."He urged all members of the Lebanese Diaspora to vote for "an open and
transparent dialogue under the dome of Parliament to approve an economic
recovery plan that enshrines the full rights of all depositors as a sacred right
not to be neglected under any headlines.""Let your vote be for Lebanon as a civil state and the adoption of an electoral
law outside the sectarian restriction on the basis of proportionality in
accordance with expanded constituencies, and a senate in which all sects are
represented fairly, and for lowering the voting age to 18 years and establishing
a quota for women," the Speaker went on.
"Let your vote on the sixth and eighth of May be for establishing the ministries
of expatriates and planning," Berri emphasized.
"Let your vote be to preserve the headlines of Lebanon’s power, the army and the
people, and the resistance in order to curb Israel’s aggression and to invest
all of Lebanon’s wealth in the sea without any compromise on the sovereign
rights, and rejecting any form of normalization" he underlined, adding, "Let
your vote be for rejection of settlement and support for the return of the
displaced.”Berri asserted that all of the above headlines are at the core of the "Amal and
Loyalty" ballot lists, calling for the "trust and immeasurable loyalty" of the
Lebanese, concluding: "You are the hope, and always and forever with you lies
the utmost endeavour!"
Bassil says FPM may boycott elections if freedom of
movement not protected
Naharnet/May 01/2022
Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has lamented that a “problem”
happens whenever he wants to visit a certain region, warning that the FPM may
boycott the May 15 parliamentary elections if authorities do not protect freedom
of movement for him and the other FPM candidates. Bassil voiced his remarks at
an FPM rally in Akkar’s Rahbe, where he managed to arrive following hours of
tensions, clashes and unrest over his visit. “Is it acceptable during the period
of election that a problem happen whenever we want to visit a region? This
question is addressed to the government and its premier and ministers, topped by
the interior and defense ministers,” Bassil said. “Where are the equal
opportunities in elections if we cannot visit a region in which the FPM and its
allies can win three MPs?” he asked. “Today we are in Akkar, tomorrow we will be
in Aley, Chouf and Jezzine, and the day after tomorrow we will be in the Bekaa
and Beirut. We either be capable of movement along with all citizens, or else
authorities would be incapable of holding the elections, which would push us to
suspend our participation” in the polls, Bassil warned. He added: “We arrived
here due to security escorting, but how could heroic and unarmed people arrive
here if there are roadblocks and rocket attacks and if weapons are deployed on
the roads? How can people come to take part in elections if we don’t provide
them with security, especially after megacenters that would have allowed them to
vote where they are were rejected?”A clash broke out Saturday between protesters
and FPM supporters at the Rahbe intersection, leaving the FPM's official in the
area, Tony Assi, wounded. The army later clashed with protesters and managed to
reopen the road to Rahbe, where Bassil delivered his speech. The protests over
the visit had started overnight and continued into Saturday. In addition to the
clashes, the movements included the torching of Bassil posters and the blocking
of several roads.
Lebanese students in limbo after fleeing Ukraine war
Agence France Presse/May 01/2022
Lebanese university students who fled Ukraine are now struggling to complete
their education back home, facing a precarious future as an unprecedented
economic crisis crushes their country and their career prospects. "Even war is
better than being here," said 25-year-old Yasser Harb, who left Kyiv just two
days before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. The final-year medical
student is now back in a country where electricity is scarce, public services
are dysfunctional at best, the local currency has collapsed and living costs
have skyrocketed. He and fellow students are now battling to continue their
studies remotely, while others face interruptions amid obstacles to transferring
their enrolment. Beirut said in late March that around 1,000 students had
managed to leave Ukraine, long a destination for Lebanese seeking more
affordable universities. At least 340 of them have registered with Lebanon's
education ministry to continue their studies. But Education Minister Abbas
Halabi said none of those registered had joined a private university in Lebanon,
noting that most had arrived mid-semester. He acknowledged that students "whose
universities in Ukraine were bombed could not even recover their transcripts" to
proceed with re-enrolment back home.Bassam Badran, president of the country's
only public university, the Lebanese University, said returning students would
have to wait until the next academic year to enroll. "They will have to pass the
entrance examination at the start of the next school year," he said.
'No sense'
Since returning, Harb has been struggling to complete his degree online from his
family home in south Lebanon, as power cuts of up to 23 hours a day wreak havoc
with his internet connection and his studies. Even electricity from expensive
private generators can be unstable and rarely covers the gaps. "Slow internet
makes it hard to understand what our teachers are saying and affects our
grades," he told AFP, adding that he was thinking of returning to Ukraine once
flights resume. The capital Kyiv has managed to maintain electricity supply
despite the ongoing conflict, and public transport has remained functional, with
life steadily resuming a semblance of normalcy. "In Kyiv, at least I had all the
basic services," Harb said. Samer Dakdouk, a fifth-year medical student at
university in Kharkiv, is also struggling to adjust to studying from remote in
Lebanon. "Nothing is easy for us here," said the 23-year-old, who occasionally
interns at a hospital in Beirut. "Hospital positions are rare in Lebanon but
practice is crucial," he said. "Having an online medical degree makes no sense."
'Burden'
Lebanon's economic crisis has spurred an exodus, with many of the country's
educated youth, as well as medical professionals, among those flooding out. Its
higher education system, once a source of national pride, has also taken a
battering. According to the Arab Barometer survey published in April, nearly
half of Lebanon's population is looking to leave. Nathalie Deeb, 24, managed to
flee Ukraine for Germany and continue her medical studies remotely from there.
"I didn't go back to Lebanon because Germany offers more opportunities and I
don't want to burden my parents," she said. Since 2019, the Lebanese pound has
lost more than 90 percent of its value, and the monthly minimum wage -- once
equivalent to $450 -- is now worth about $25. Deeb said annual tuition fees at
her university in Kyiv were around $4,400 per year -- five times less than
re-enrolling at the average private Lebanese university. The faculty of medicine
at the public Lebanese University is saturated with applicants and only accepts
a select few. Deeb's father already had to sell their family home in Beirut and
move back to his native village in south Lebanon so he could afford to pay for
her studies in Ukraine. She said she was "lucky" to have been able to stay in
Europe instead of returning to Lebanon. "Those who went back regret it," she
said.
Health Ministry: 89 new Corona cases, 1 death
NNA/May 01/2022
In its daily report on the COVID-19 developments, the Ministry of Public Health
announced on Sunday the registration of 89 new Coronavirus infections, which
raised the cumulative number of confirmed cases to-date to 1,097,044.
The report added that one death was recorded during the past 24 hours.
Walid Jumblatt: Only disasters have resulted from Aoun's
mandate, Nasrallah is the one who decides the president
NN/May 01/2022
Progressive Socialist Party Chief, Walid Jumblatt, said that "the electoral
battle is never equal," adding that "in the end we are waging a political
battle." "Hezbollah is an armed party, yes, but we hope that this political
voice will have a balanced presence in the next parliament, in order to tell
Hezbollah and other groups of the axis of resistance, Syria and Iran, that
things cannot be managed in this way," he said. Speaking in an interview with
Al-Qabas newspaper, Jumblatt indicated, however, that he "always adopts dialogue
with Hezbollah, because there is no alternative to this dialogue."
As for his severe criticism against President Michel Aoun, Jumblatt said: "It
does not stem from personal reasons, but rather because of his disastrous
achievements," adding that "the mandate of Aoun has only resulted in disasters,
with his inability to remove symbols offensive to his reign and rectify his
mandate."
"The covenant is over. We can only wait in the hope that we will have an
acceptable president and that a new disaster will not come to us if he
[Aoun]renews the mandate of one of his entourage members," Jumblatt underlined.
Asked about his vision for the next president, he replied that he is not a
member of Parliament to vote, saying: "MP Taymour Jumblatt is the one who will
choose," stressing that "the important thing is for there to be a Lebanese
president, not a president who is a tool in the hands of the Syrians and the
Iranians."
In response to a question about Hezbollah's Secretary-General, Sayyed Hassan
Nasrallah as being the one who decides the president of the republic in Lebanon,
Jumblatt said: "Yes, the countries decide, and Hassan Nasrallah decides. The
presidency in Lebanon has always been the result of an international track, but
it is better for the Lebanese people to decide on their president."Referring to
the intimidations against him, he said: "Many times, attempts were made to
abolish Walid Jumblatt, long before May 7, 2008," adding, "They tried to abolish
the Jumblatt family in 1977 when they assassinated Kamal Jumblatt, but we
remained steadfast, and we will remain this time as well." Regarding the Syrian
regime's role in the electoral battle and Moscow's position, he considered that
"there is a Syrian role, certainly with Iran, but Moscow is far and receives all
people."Touching on the long-awaited parliamentary elections, Jumblatt believed
that "the democratic elections will happen despite the security events, and
there is no fear about the elections, as they will happen." "The tragedy of the
sinking boat in Tripoli is the result of the overwhelming despair that fills the
people of the North and the Lebanese in general...We talk about boats carrying
refugees to Cyprus and the West, and we forget the economic situation, the
collapse, and the unwillingness of some components to embark on reform,"
Jumblatt added regretfully.
Al-Mortada on Labor Day: Despite all crises, we can only cling to the
authenticity of the Lebanese & their ability to overcome...
NNA/May 01/2022
Minister of Culture, Judge Mohammad Wissam Al-Mortada, issued a statement today
marking the Labor Day occasion, in which he said: “Labor Day comes this year as
the prospects for work are blocked before citizens who seek immigration, even if
illegal, on dilapidated boats.""The Eid comes while the homeland is immersed in
its multiple economic, social and monetary crises," he added. "Despite this, we
have nothing but to cling to the authenticity of the Lebanese and their ability
to overcome all adversities and difficulties as they have done previously, and
therefore we say to the laborers, Happy Eid, and we hope that the next Eid will
surely bring goodness for the whole country," Mortada concluded.
Al-Shami partakes in World Bank, International
Monetary Fund meetings in Washington, says 'failure to implement reforms will
have...
NNA/May 01/2022
Deputy Prime Minister, Saadeh Al-Shami, participated in the spring meetings of
the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund last week in Washington. In a
statement by his media office on Sunday, it indicated that Minister Al-Shami
"held extensive meetings with the various departments of the International
Monetary Fund directly concerned with the agreement that took place at the staff
level between Lebanon and the Fund to complete the discussion on all matters
related to this program, including the technical assistance required for Lebanon
to carry out the prior commitments and measures agreed upon between both
parties." "During the meetings, the stakeholders showed great response and
readiness to provide all required assistance at the technical level in order to
reach a final agreement between Lebanon and the IMF," the statement added. "The
Deputy Prime Minister also held a meeting with the Director of the International
Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, who showed great interest in the Lebanese
situation and her willingness to help Lebanon out of its severe crisis," the
statement went on, adding that "the Fund Director emphasized that the
implementation of reforms in the required time is a very necessary matter, so
that the international community can help Lebanon."In this connection, Georgieva
tweeted: "I had a good meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister of Lebanon, Saadeh
Al-Shami, during which we discussed the economic program that would help Lebanon
out of its severe crisis. The timely implementation of the agreed reforms is
vital to obtaining much-needed funding from the international community.”
Minister Al-Shami also held meetings with the Executive Director of the
International Monetary Fund, Dr. Mahmoud Mohieddine, the Executive Director of
the World Bank, Dr. Mirza Hassan, and the Vice President of the World Bank for
the Middle East, Farid Belhaj. Talks focused on the issue of the loan allocated
to extracting gas from Egypt and the World Bank's program to support the general
budget, which is initially associated with the final agreement with the
International Monetary Fund. The Deputy Prime Minister also met with officials
in the US Treasury and the US State Department to explain the objectives of the
agreement with the International Monetary Fund and to request assistance
regarding extracting gas from Egypt and the need to give the required guarantee
as well as assistance from the international community to bridge the financing
gap. In this context, he also held a meeting with the European Union
Commissioner for the Middle East to explore the possibility of financial
assistance, as well as with the Director of the French Treasury, Emmanuel
Moulin, who expressed a serious willingness to help Lebanon mobilize the
necessary funding to bridge the financial gap for the next four years. In
conclusion of all his encounters, Al-Shami confirmed that he sensed “serious
interest from all those he met in helping Lebanon get out of the unprecedented
crisis it is experiencing, and that any assistance will be conditional on the
initiation of the implementation of the prior procedures agreed upon with the
International Monetary Fund and the approval of the Parliament Council on some
laws, most importantly the 2022 budget law, the Capital Control Law and the
required amendments to the Banking Secrecy Law, as well as the Banking
Restructuring Law, which the government seeks to refer to Parliament before the
upcoming elections."Al-Shami also stressed that "failing to implement these
reforms will have negative repercussions on the current situation, while
initiating said reforms will contribute to mitigating the negative repercussions
of the economic and financial situation on the people, giving hope for
advancement and recovery, alleviating the severity of the deep crisis and
opening the doors to a better future."
"Foreign Ministry a den of clientelism & absolute corruption,"
deems Geagea
NNA/May 01/2022
Lebanese Forces Party Chief, Samir Geagea, stressed that "the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs is seeking, by various means, to obstruct the election of
expatriates in order to reduce the voting rate by the method of distributing
them to polling stations in some countries and delaying the publishing of ballot
lists, despite the objection of the Lebanese communities to this and their
demand for correction and the adoption of the method applied in 2018.”He
denounced the Foreign Ministry's approach in this respect, considering it a "den
of clientelism and total corruption." Geagea's words came during an electoral
event organized by the Lebanese Forces Party's Jezzine branch, in the presence
of members of the "Our Unity in Sidon and Jezzine" vote list and various
partisans, supporters and mayors from the region. Touching on the ministerial
performance of the "Free Patriotic Movement" and the "Lebanese Forces" cabinet
members in some ministries, Geagea said: "There is no ministry that the LF took
on without leaving a positive impact through its ministers who acted as real
statesmen."
Geagea criticized FPM Chief, MP Gibran Bassil's speeches, considering that the
latter "seeks to incite people against each other instead of talking about
development and projects," while also indirectly slamming Bassil's alliances
"with those he previously blamed for obstructing his efforts and labelled them
as corrupt and thugs." Addressing the people of Jezzine, Geagea urged them to
"decide between standing still in our place, or even declining more and more, or
getting out of this darkness to start saving Lebanon." "Many do not like the
Lebanese Forces, and this is their right, but we call on them to vote for the
Lebanese Forces and their allies, not out of love for them, but for their own
actual interest, the interest of their children and their future, because the LF
Party has proven at all stages that it is able to save the country and rescue it
from this hell, and it shares this desire with the Lebanese," Geagea
underscored.
He stressed that the upcoming parliamentary elections are not ordinary
elections, but rather a "fateful stage during which the country can be saved
through large parliamentary blocs."
Al-Makari bestows 'Silver Order of Merit' upon late
novelist Farshakh: We hope for a better homeland despite all hardships of this
stage
NNA/May 01/2022
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, represented by Minister of
Information Ziad Al-Makari, patronized a ceremony honoring the late novelist and
media figure George Farshakh, organized by friends of the late following his
recent passing in Paris, at the Municipal Theater - Pierre Farshakh Hall, with a
crowd of officials, prominent figures and family members attending. In his word
of tribute, Minister Al-Makari recalled his years of friendship with the late
George Farshakh, as a novelist and person, with the love for the homeland and
their Zgharta roots bringing them closer together during their times of residing
in the French capital, Paris. "Zgharta brought us together in Paris, and I fully
remember our repeated meetings, and how we used to listen with admiration to him
talking about Zgharta, Ehden and Lebanon. The relationship developed at that
time, and we decided to organize a dinner for the people of Zgharta in Paris,
which later became an annual event," he said. "George was like a mayor for
Zgharta in Paris...always initialling his writings and texts as if he had
written them in two cities: the city of residence, Paris, and the city of the
heart, Zgharta," Al-Makari added. He paid tribute to the late's intellect and
writings about the history of Lebanon, saying, "George was not a mere historian,
nor a journalist, nor a novelist, but he was a visionary." "At a time when we
find ourselves at rock bottom, we must return to George's writings to restore
hope, for hope is a central theme in his writings," Al-Makari said, quoting one
of his excerpts on the subject where he distinguished between false hope and
real hope, the hope of real people. "George Farshakh migrated away from the
homeland, but he returned today to give us hope. Hope for a better homeland
despite all the hardships of the current stage," Al-Makari asserted.He concluded
by praying for his soul to rest in peace, adding, "It is a great honor for me to
bestow upon George Farshakh, in the name of the Lebanese Republic, the Lebanese
Silver Medal of Merit, and present it to his honorable family."During the
ceremony, a printed biography of the late novelist including his works and
writings was distributed to the attendees.
The Latest English LCCC
Miscellaneous Reports And News published on May 01-02/2022
19th century Iraq church holds first
Mass since Daesh defeat
AFP/May 02, 2022
MOSUL, Fallujah: Dozens of faithful celebrated Mass on Saturday at a Mosul
church in northern Iraq for the first time since it was restored after its
ransacking by Daesh terrorists. Daesh swept into Mosul and proclaimed it their
“capital” in 2014, in an onslaught that forced hundreds of thousands of
Christians in the northern Nineveh province to flee, some to Iraq’s nearby
Kurdistan region. The Iraqi army drove out the
jihadists three years later after months of grueling street fighting that
devastated the city. The Mar Tuma Syriac Catholic
church, which dates back to the 19th century, was used by the jihadists as a
prison or a court. Restoration work is ongoing and its marble floor has been
dismantled to be completely redone. In September 2021, a new bell was
inaugurated at the church during a ceremony attended by dozens of worshippers.
The 285-kg bell cast in Lebanon rang out on Saturday to cries of joy
before the Mass got underway. The service began with worshippers who packed the
church chanting hymns as an organist played. “This is the most beautiful church
in Iraq,” said Father Pios Affas, 82, the delighted parish priest.
Affas also paid tribute to those behind the restoration work which, he
said, had “brought the church back to its past glory, like the way it was 160
years ago.” Inside the church, ochre and grey marble
shone in the nave, where the altar and colonnaded arches were restored and new
stained glass installed. Jihadists had destroyed all Christian symbols,
including the holy cross, and parts of the church were damaged by fire and
shelling. Artisans worked diligently to “clean the scorched marble” and restore
it, Fraternity in Iraq, a French NGO that aids religious minorities, which
helped fund the restoration work said earlier this year.
Outbuildings and rooms on the first floor, where windows have been broken
and Daesh graffiti can be seen, are still due to be repaired. Mosul and the
surrounding plains of Nineveh were once home to one of the region’s oldest
Christian communities. Iraq’s Christian population has
shrunk to fewer than 400,000 from around 1.5 million before the US-led invasion
of 2003 that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein. Nineveh
province was left in ruins after three years of jihadist occupation which ended
in 2017 when Iraqi forces backed by US-led coalition airstrikes pushed them out.
Several monasteries and churches are being renovated but reconstruction is slow,
and the Christian population that has fled has not returned.
Meanwhile, two rockets targeting a base in western Iraq hosting US-led
coalition troops on Saturday crashed near the complex without causing casualties
or damage, security sources said. “Two rockets fell outside the Iraqi base of
Ain Al-Asad,” a security forces statement said, adding there were no “losses.”
The base, controlled by Iraq, is located in the desert in the western
Anbar province and hosts foreign troops from the coalition fighting the Daesh
group. A coalition official said there was “no impact
on the installation reported” and “no coalition personnel injuries reported.”
A previously unknown group calling itself “International Resistance”
claimed the attack on a pro-Iran channel of messaging app Telegram.
Rockets and drones frequently target the Ain Al-Asad base.
Twenty civilians evacuated from besieged
Mariupol plant
Agence France Presse/May 01/2022
At least 20 civilians including several children were able to leave a badly
battered steel plant in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol on Saturday in what
could be the start of a long-awaited, larger evacuation of the last holdout in
the Russian-held city. Earlier efforts at evacuations from the Azovstal steel
plant -- where local fighters say they and hundreds of civilians are still
sheltering in brutal conditions -- had been futile. Ukrainian fighters of the
Azov regiment, which has been defending the site, said 20 civilians had left,
possibly for the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, about 225 kilometers (140
miles) to the northwest. Russia's Tass news agency carried a similar report,
though putting the number of evacuees at 25. A United Nations-planned evacuation
had been planned, though it was unclear whether Saturday's evacuation was
U.N.-led and whether further evacuations were imminent. There were no immediate
details on the condition of the evacuees. Ukraine's President Zelensky said in a
video Saturday evening said Kyiv was "doing everything to ensure that the
evacuation mission from Mariupol is carried out".Fresh satellite imagery by
private US firm Maxar taken on Friday showed a devastated Mariupol, with almost
all of Azovstal destroyed. The apparent ceasefire in Mariupol took place as
Russian attacks continued unabated across Ukraine, most heavily in the fiercely
disputed eastern regions, but with attacks as far west as Odessa, on the Black
Sea coast. Odessa's regional governor Maxim Marchenko said a Russian missile
strike had destroyed the airport runway, as Moscow continues targeting
infrastructure and supply lines deep in the west of the country. There were no
victims from the airport strike near the historic city of one million people.
Near Bucha, the town near Kyiv that has become synonymous with allegations of
Russian war crimes, Ukrainian police on Saturday reported finding three bodies
shot in the head with their hands tied. The three bodies found in a pit were
"brutally killed" by Russian soldiers -- each shot in the head, the police said
in a statement. "The victims' hands were tied, cloths were covering their eyes
and some were gagged. There are traces of torture on the corpses," it said.
- Clearing debris -
In Mariupol, the Azov regiment said Saturday that it had been clearing the
debris of overnight shelling by Russia to rescue trapped civilians. From the
city's badly damaged port zone, AFP on Friday heard heavy shelling coming from
Azovstal during a media trip organized by the Russian army, with explosions only
seconds apart. "Twenty civilians, women and children... have been transferred to
a suitable place and we hope that they will be evacuated to Zaporizhzhia, on
territory controlled by Ukraine," said Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of
the Azov regiment. But Denis Pushilin, leader of the breakaway eastern region of
Donetsk, accused Ukrainian forces of "acting like outright terrorists" and
holding civilians hostage in the steel plant. On the front line in the east,
Russian troops have advanced slowly but steadily in some areas -- helped by
massive use of artillery -- but Ukrainian forces have also recaptured some
territory in recent days, particularly around the city of Kharkiv. One of the
areas taken back from Russian control was the village of Ruska Lozova, which
evacuees said had been occupied for two months. "It was two months of terrible
fear. Nothing else, a terrible and relentless fear," Natalia, a 28-year-old
evacuee from Ruska Lozova, told AFP after reaching Kharkiv."We were in the
basements without food for two months, we were eating what we had," said
Svyatoslav, 40, who did not want to give his full name, his eyes red with
fatigue.
Putin's 'depravity' -
Thousands of people have been killed and more than 13 million have been forced
to flee their homes since the Russian invasion of its pro-Western neighbor began
on February 24, according to the United Nations. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby
on Friday briefly choked with emotion as he described the destruction in Ukraine
and accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of "depravity". Ukrainian
prosecutors say they have pinpointed more than 8,000 war crimes carried out by
Moscow's troops and are investigating 10 Russian soldiers for suspected
atrocities in Bucha. Russia has denied any involvement in civilian deaths in
Bucha. Moscow officials confirmed on Friday that their forces carried out an air
strike on Kyiv a day earlier during a visit by UN chief Antonio Guterres, the
first such attack on the capital city in nearly two weeks. A journalist died in
the attack.
- 'Russia will not go unpunished' -
Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk meanwhile reported that 14
Ukrainians including a pregnant soldier had been freed in the latest prisoner
exchange with Russian forces. She did not say how many Russians had been
returned. Kyiv has admitted that Russian forces have captured a string of
villages in the Donbas region. "Even if there has been some advance by Russian
troops on the ground, it is not very fast," Russian military expert Alexander
Khramchikhin told AFP. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the
"special military operation... is proceeding strictly according to plan",
China's official Xinhua news agency reported. Russia has warned Western
countries against sending more military aid. "If the US and NATO are really
interested in resolving the Ukraine crisis, then first of all, they should wake
up and stop supplying the Kyiv regime with arms and ammunition," Lavrov said.
But more Western armaments are due to arrive in Ukraine, with US President Joe
Biden on Thursday seeking billions of dollars from Congress to boost supplies.
And a top Ukrainian military official Saturday said he had held talks with
chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff Mark Milley on the "difficult situation
in the east of our country, particularly in the Izium and Sieverodonetsk areas,
where the enemy has concentrated its maximum efforts and the most combat-ready
groups." "Despite the complexity of the situation, we provide defense, keep
occupied boundaries and positions," general Valery Zaluzhny said on Facebook.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday that his country would also
"intensify" military and humanitarian support.
And Ukraine's President Zelensky said he spoke with Macron and British Prime
Minister Boris Johnson "on defense support for Ukraine and other efforts
necessary to end the war". "I informed Boris about the current situation on the
battlefield in the areas of active clashes and in detail about the situation in
our east, in Mariupol, in the south of the country," he said. "All the leaders
of the free world know what Russia has done to Mariupol. And Russia will not go
unpunished for this." Zelensky was also reported Saturday to have met with a
spokesman for Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is trying to pave the
way for an Istanbul summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and
Zelensky. And with Sweden pondering a bid for NATO membership, defense officials
there said Saturday that a Russian reconnaissance plane had briefly violated the
northern country's airspace a day earlier.
Ukraine FM asks China to be security guarantor
Agence France Presse/May 01/2022
Ukraine's foreign minister has asked China to provide security guarantees for
Kyiv, in a lengthy interview containing some of the most direct criticisms of
Moscow recently published by Beijing's state media. Western powers and Ukraine
have repeatedly urged China to condemn Russia's invasion as it tries to maintain
a supposedly neutral stance, with the United States threatening consequences if
Beijing provides military or economic support to Moscow. "Ukraine is currently
studying the possibility of acquiring security guarantees from permanent members
of the U.N. Security Council, including China, and other major powers," Dmytro
Kuleba was quoted as saying by official news agency Xinhua Saturday. "We propose
that China becomes one of the guarantors of Ukraine's security, this is a sign
of our respect and trust in the People's Republic of China."
China in 2013 pledged to provide Ukraine with "security guarantees" if it is
ever invaded or threatened with nuclear attack, but appeared evasive on the same
issue in the wake of Russia's attack. In response to a question about the
guarantee last month, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman suggested that such
"security assurances have clear limitations on the content and are triggered
under specific conditions", in reference to a similar United Nations security
resolution on non-nuclear states. Chinese officials have often blamed US-led
NATO for provoking Moscow's invasion and accused Western countries of escalating
the conflict by sending weapons to Ukraine. Beijing's state media has also
repeatedly amplified Russian propaganda surrounding the war and largely avoided
attributing Ukrainian civilian deaths to Moscow's military aggression.
Kuleba has only had two calls with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi since the
invasion began on February 24, while Wang met Russian foreign minister Sergei
Lavrov in China last month and reiterated that cooperation between the two
countries has "no limits".
In the Xinhua interview, Kuleba also accused Russia of having "compromised"
Beijing's signature Belt and Road infrastructure initiative, warning that the
consequences of the global food security crisis would threaten China's economy.
"We also believe that this war is not in China's interests," he was quoted as
saying. His remarks directly referred to Russia's actions as an "invasion" -- a
term that Chinese officials and state media have sought to avoid. "The situation
is not escalating because of Ukraine, we are exercising our right to defend
ourselves," he said, in an apparent rebuff of Chinese warnings against other
states providing arms to Kyiv. Chinese President Xi Jinping has not yet spoken
publicly with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky. He called Russian
President Vladimir Putin the day after the February 24 invasion.
Pelosi backs Zelensky in 'fight for freedom' on Kyiv
visit
Agence France Presse/May 01/2022
U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi voiced support for Ukraine's "fight for
freedom" at a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky on a visit to Kyiv, U.S.
and Ukrainian officials said on Sunday. "We believe that we are visiting you to
say thank you for your fight for freedom... Our commitment is to be there for
you until the fight is done," Pelosi told Zelensky, according to a video from
the Ukrainian presidency. Zelensky tweeted: "Thank you to the United States for
helping protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our state." "The
U.S. is leading strong support for Ukraine in its fight against Russian
aggression," he said. The trip by a Congressional delegation had not been
previously announced. "Our delegation proudly delivered the message that
additional American support is on the way, as we work to transform President
Biden’s strong funding request into a legislative package," Pelosi's office said
in a statement. U.S. President Joe Biden last week proposed a huge $33-billion
(31-billion euro) package for arming and supporting Ukraine. Biden also outlined
proposed new laws to allow using luxury assets stripped from Russian oligarchs
to compensate Ukraine for the destruction wreaked by the invading Russians.
"When we return to the United States, we will do so further informed, deeply
inspired and ready to do what is needed to help the Ukrainian people as they
defend democracy for their nation and for the world," Pelosi's statement
continued. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Defense Secretary
Lloyd Austin visited Kyiv last month
Former Saudi intelligence chief calls for sanctioning
Israel, criticizes Western double standards on Russia
Arab News/May 01, 2022
JEDDAH: Former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki Al-Faisal called for
sanctions on Israel while criticizing Western states for their double standards
when it comes to Russian aggression on Ukraine and not with similar aggression
against Palestine. When asked whether or not the
international community should be imposing sanctions on Israel as it is with
Russia, Prince Turki responded “absolutely,” adding “I don’t see what the
difference is there between the two. “Aggression is
aggression, whether it is committed by Russia or by Israel, and yet there has
been no such effort to sanction Israel,” he said on the debut episode of the
latest season of “Frankly Speaking” with new host Katie Jensen.
Despite six Arab states normalizing ties with Israel, there has been no
change in its policies towards Palestinians, despite what was promised in
speeches and declarations. “There is no sign
whatsoever that appeasing Israel is going to change their attitude,” the prince
said. “The Palestinian people are still occupied, they are still being
imprisoned willy-nilly by the Israeli government. Attacks and assassinations of
Palestinian individuals take place almost on a daily basis.
“The stealing of Palestinian land by Israel continues despite the
assurances that Israel gave to the signatories of the peace (accord) between the
UAE and Israel,” he said. Globally, the Ukraine-Russia
conflict has exposed an international hypocrisy with regards to refugees as well
as sanctions, the former ambassador to the US explained.
“The way that sanctions have been placed on Russia for invading Ukraine,
but no sanctions for example have been placed on Israel when it invaded Arab
countries a few years back, and those are the double standards and the
injustices I think that have been taking place over the years,” he explained.
Since the conflict began, UN data shows that more than 11 million people
are believed to have been both internally displaced or have fled the country. As
the Ukrainian refugee crisis unfolded, media outlets including CBS, the BBC, NBC
News and even Al Jazeera English have laid bare a double standard in reporting
when compared to Arab and Afghan refugee movements.
“But this isn’t a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan that has
seen conflict raging for decades. This is a relatively civilized, relatively
European city where you wouldn’t expect that hope that it's going to happen,”
CBS senior foreign correspondent Charlie D’Agata said.
Al Jazeera English’s presenter also faced backlash online for stating that:
“What is compelling about these people is how they’re dressed; these are
prosperous, middle class people who obviously are not refugees.”And it goes on,
with NBC News correspondent Kelly Cobiella saying: “These are Christians, they
are white, they’re very similar to the people that live in Poland.”All this, and
more, has flung the conflict into a broader debate on international double
standards and hypocrisy when dealing with different regions.
The former intelligence chief also weighed in on the current relationship
between the US and the Gulf, namely Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which has seen
better days. “When you say that Saudi Arabia has not
budged on the issue of the oil problems that America is facing, basically
America itself is the reason for the state that they’re in because of their
energy policy,” he said. “Biden made it a policy of
the US government to cut all links to what are called the oil and gas industry
and he curtailed the oil production and gas production in the US and, as we
know, the US has been in the last few years the biggest producer of these two
energy sources,” he said.“We don’t want to be an instrument or a reason for
instability in the oil prices as we saw in the past. So that is why the Kingdom
and the other OPEC members and the OPEC+ members are sticking to the production
quotas that they have assigned themselves.”
Six missiles fall near oil refinery in Iraq’s Irbil —
statement
Reuters/May 01, 2022
IRBIL, Iraq: Six missiles landed near an oil refinery in Iraq’s northern city of
Irbil on Sunday, Kurdistan anti-terrorism authorities said in a statement.
The missiles were launched from Nineveh province and fell near the KAR
refinery, the authorities said without reporting any casualties or damage.
Three missiles also fell near the refinery on April 6, without causing any
casualties. Sources in the Kurdistan Regional Government told Reuters then that
the refinery is owned by Iraqi Kurdish businessman Baz Karim Barzanji, the CEO
of major domestic energy company the KAR Group.
In March, Iran attacked Irbil with a dozen ballistic missiles in an
unprecedented assault on the capital of the autonomous Iraqi Kurdish region that
appeared to target the United States and its allies. Only one person was hurt in
that attack.
Suspected IS militants blow up gas pipeline in
Egypt's Sinai
Associated Press/May 01/2022
Suspected Islamic State militants have blown up a natural gas pipeline in
Egypt's restive northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, causing a fire but no
casualties, security officials said. The officials said the suspected militants
planted explosives under a pipeline in the town of Bir al-Abd. The expulsion
sent thick flames of fire shooting into the sky, and authorities stopped the
flow of gas to extinguish the fire, according to eyewitnesses. The officials
spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak to
media and the eyewitnesses asked not to be named for fear of reprisal. No group
immediately claimed the attack which caused no human casualties. The Islamic
State group affiliate, which is centered in Northern Sinai, however, has claimed
previous attacks targeted gas pipelines between Egypt and both Jordan and
Israel. Egypt is battling an Islamic State-led insurgency in the Sinai that
intensified after the military overthrew an elected but divisive Islamist
president in 2013. The militants have carried out scores of attacks, mainly
targeting security forces and Christians.Saturday's attack comes as the
militants suffered heavy losses in recent months with Egyptian security forces,
aided by armed tribesmen, who intensified their efforts to eliminate the group.
Turkish police hold dozens in May Day demonstrations
AP/May 02, 2022
Protesters detained across Istanbul for ‘attempting to hold illegal rallies’
ISTANBUL: Turkish riot police detained dozens of protesters trying to reach
Istanbul’s main Taksim Square for May Day demonstrations against economic
hardship caused by raging inflation. The Istanbul governor’s office had allowed
May Day celebrations to be held in another district and deemed gatherings in all
other locations as unauthorised and illegal. A Reuters journalist saw riot
police brawling with and handcuffing protesters, images of which were shown on
television by domestic broadcasters. Police also
detained 30 people in central Besiktas and 22 others in Sisli districts, the
Demiroren News Agency reported. A statement from the Istanbul governor’s office
on Sunday said that 164 protesters had been detained across the city for
“attempting to hold illegal demonstrations.”Marches led by workers and unions
are held on May 1 every year as part of International Labor Day celebrations in
many countries. Turkey’s annual inflation rate is
expected to rise to 68 percent in April, driven higher by the Russia-Ukraine
conflict and rising commodity prices, receding only slightly by the end of the
year, a Reuters poll showed on Thursday. The soaring
inflation and the economic hardship it causes were cited in May Day statements
from several groups. “Our main theme this year had to
be cost of living,” the head of the Confederation of Turkish Labor Unions
(Turk-Is), Ergun Atalay, said as he placed a wreath in Taksim Square and
demanded that minimum wages be adjusted monthly to reflect rising prices.
“Inflation is announced at the beginning of each month. The inflation rate
should be added to wages every month,” he said.
Citizens and trade unions in cities around Europe were taking to the streets for
May Day marches, and to put out protest messages to their governments, notably
in France where the holiday to honor workers was being used as a rallying cry
against newly reelected President Emmanuel Macron. May Day is a time of high
emotion for participants and their causes, with police on the ready.
In Italy, after a two-year pandemic lull, an outdoor mega-concert was set
for Rome with rallies and protests in cities across the country. Besides work,
peace was an underlying theme with calls for an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Italy’s three main labor unions were focusing their main rally in the
hilltop town of Assisi, a frequent destination for peace protests. This year’s
slogan is “Working for peace.”“It’s a May Day of social and civil commitment for
peace and labor,” said the head of Italy’s CISL union, Daniela Fumarola. Other
protests were planned far and wide in Europe, including in Slovakia and the
Czech Republic, where students and others planned to rally in support of Ukraine
as Communists, anarchists and anti-EU groups held their own gatherings.
The Latest LCCC English analysis &
editorials from miscellaneous sources published on May 01-02/2022
Time for action not words if Iran really wants to
be a good neighbor
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/May 01/2022
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has been claiming that one of his
administration’s priorities is to improve ties with Tehran’s neighbors,
including the Gulf states. But such statements are only collections of words
unless they are followed by tangible actions.
Maj. Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, who is a high-ranking military adviser to Supreme
Leader Ali Khamenei and a former chief commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary
Guard Corps, has also suggested that Tehran’s foreign policy has entered a new
period that is anchored in improving relationships with other countries in the
region. In addition, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh last
week said: “Iran and Saudi Arabia, as two important countries in the region and
the Muslim world, can enter a new chapter of interaction and cooperation to
achieve regional peace, stability and development by adopting constructive and
dialogue-based approaches.”
But, as Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan pointed out last year,
the Kingdom will judge the Raisi administration by “the reality on the ground.”
Unfortunately, former Iranian presidents, including the so-called moderate
Hassan Rouhani, also made similar promises to improve ties with the Gulf states.
But ties between the Iranian regime and the Gulf states deteriorated under
Rouhani’s administration thanks to Tehran’s military adventurism and destructive
policies in the region.
Furthermore, Raisi’s administration has not yet made any changes to Iran’s
regional policies in spite of his claims that the country wants to improve ties
with other nations in the region.
When it comes to Yemen, the IRGC is still a key supporter and sponsor of the
Houthis and it has been stepping up its weapons supply to the group. The
sophisticated drones and missiles that the Houthis use to target Saudi Arabia
and the UAE most likely come from Iran, which has recognized the terror group as
the official government of Yemen. The Iranian government continues to smuggle
illicit weapons and technology into Yemen and these weapons are being deployed
for offensive purposes by the Houthis.
In Syria, the Raisi administration is still using the Arab nation as a proxy
battleground to score victories against Israel and to expand the Iranian
regime’s military stranglehold in the Levant. By exploiting the instability in
Syria, Iran’s IRGC and Quds Force now enjoy a military presence close to the
Israeli border. The IRGC has also established permanent military bases in Syria
and has significant control over some of the country’s airports.
Meanwhile, the IRGC under the Raisi administration continues to exploit Iraq as
a proxy battleground in order to achieve its revolutionary ideals and hegemonic
ambitions. Tehran’s Iraqi militias are also exploiting religion, using
sectarianism as a tool to gain power and further Iran’s parochial, religious and
political ambitions. The Iranian regime’s militias are also known for ratcheting
up the conflict by engaging in various crimes against civilians.
Raisi has not yet made any changes to Iran’s regional policies in spite of his
claims that the country wants to improve ties.
And when it comes to the Iranian regime’s nuclear program, Raisi has not shown
any signs that his government is going to halt or slow the advancement of its
nuclear activities, which have been a source of grave concern for other
countries in the region. While Iran’s nuclear breakout time (the amount of time
required to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a single nuclear weapon)
was estimated to be about a year under the Rouhani administration, it has
shortened to just a few weeks since Raisi took office last year.
If the president genuinely wants to improve relations with Iran’s neighbors, he
needs to address their concerns and this requires a major shift in Iran’s
foreign policy. It is important to point out that improved relationships between
Iran and its neighbors could have a significant impact on the region’s
geopolitical, economic and security landscapes. If the Iranian government
prioritized its relationships with Arab nations based on mutual respect and
economic and geopolitical interests, rather than ideological ones, and if the
theocratic establishment stopped supporting, arming and financing Shiite militia
groups and proxies across the region, it would bring significant benefits to
Tehran as well as the region.
In a nutshell, the Iranian regime must move beyond words by fundamentally
shifting its regional policies if it truly wants to improve its relations with
the Gulf states and other neighboring countries.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist.
Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh
Muslim Brotherhood’s influence in US should be confronted
and defeated
Dalia Al-Aqidi/Arab News/May 01/2022
After its miserable failure in the Middle East and the beginning of the end in
Turkey as Ankara seeks to mend its ties with Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood has
begun to cut its losses and turn to the West, taking advantage of its freedom of
religion and human rights laws.
In the US, several active Islamist organizations would be willing to welcome
Brotherhood members with open arms. Most of these entities promote Islamism, an
authoritarian concept that seeks to impose controversial laws in Western
democracies. Such doctrines are widely rejected by America’s vast majority,
including Muslims. However, that has not stopped US politicians from
participating in events organized by Islamist organizations.
The Muslim American Society, like several other such groups, knows how the
political game should be played in the Western world. Slogans of combating
racism, anti-discrimination and religious freedom get them closer to liberal
politicians, officials, decision-makers and progressive voters.
At a recent Ramadan event in Minnesota, two of the keynote speakers were
well-known Islamists. One was the imam of Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center,
Abdirahman Kariye, a son of refugees who came to the US from Somalia and who
studied under senior Islamist scholars from Egypt and Somalia. “Dar Al-Farooq
mosque has been a conduit for terrorism recruitment, with at least six
congregants leaving or attempting to join (Daesh) and Al-Shabaab, the Al-Qaeda
affiliate in Somalia,” said Benjamin Baird, deputy director of the Middle East
Forum’s Islamism in Politics project.
The other controversial speaker was Asad Zaman, who is executive director and
imam of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota. In March, when a bill was
presented by two Democratic members of the Minnesota House of Representatives to
form a new “task force on the consequences of Islamophobia and anti-Semitism,”
it proposed including anti-Semitic Islamist organizations as members, with Zaman
one of the nominees. “Zaman is not shy about his views on Jews and Islamism. His
Facebook account is replete with anti-Semitism, apologism for Hamas, and support
for convicted war criminals,” wrote Sam Westrop, director of Islamist Watch. In
one of his Facebook posts, the future member of the proposed task force on the
consequences of Islamophobia and anti-Semitism linked to a neo-Nazi Holocaust
denial website, which promotes viciously anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
Several political Islam organizations have close ties with the Muslim
Brotherhood, which is a dangerous group that is designated as a terrorist
organization in several countries in the Middle East, including Egypt, where it
was founded by Hassan Al-Banna in 1928. The Muslim American Society of
Minnesota’s Muslim Brotherhood pedigree is simply undeniable, and here is why
and how.
In 2004, the Chicago Tribune newspaper proved that the American chapter of the
Muslim Brotherhood operated under the name of the Muslim American Society, which
was incorporated in Illinois in 1993 after a contentious debate among
Brotherhood members. The incorporation papers showed that the director of the
society until 1994 was a prominent leader of the US Muslim Brotherhood named
Ahmed Elkadi, an Egyptian-born surgeon who moved to America in 1967.
But why is it alarming? In “Message of the Teachings,” Al-Banna flatly states
that violence is an acceptable means for spreading Islamic ideology: “Always
intend to… desire martyrdom. Prepare for it as much as you can.” In 2005, Daveed
Gartenstein-Ross of the Foundation of Defense of Democracies revealed that the
Muslim American Society’s adjunct members must read Sayyid Qutb’s “Milestones,”
which refutes claims that so-called jihad encompasses only defensive warfare. He
added that the society’s curriculum advocates the promotion of Islam through
violence.
Although the society portrays itself as an independent American organization
with no affiliation to the Brotherhood, a statement on its website describes the
terrorist group as a “grassroots Islamic movement for reform and revival.” The
statement stresses that most of Al-Banna’s writings could be categorized as
“foundational thought (e.g., balanced understanding of Islam, societal reform,
peaceful change, etc.).” The Muslim American Society sought to distance itself
from part of what he wrote, claiming that it does not apply to Muslims in
America. However, the Islamist organization claimed that it would continue to
include Al-Banna’s “applicable” writings in its “curricula, which aid our
efforts to move people to strive for God-consciousness, liberty, justice and
contribute to a virtuous and just American society.”
American politicians do not comprehend that the targets of Islamist activism are
secular Muslims who stand against the bigotry and threats of political Islamism.
For years, this community has been canceled, fought and accused of being
Islamophobic and anti-Arab by Islamist groups and their politicians.
There is no ready solution to the dilemma of political Islamism in the US as
long as we are afraid to call things by their correct names.
In a conversation with my friend, Sarah Idan, a former Miss Universe Iraq and
the founder of Humanity Forward, an interfaith nongovernmental organization, she
reiterated that groups like the Muslim American Society do not represent her as
a moderate Muslim. The Iraqi-American activist expressed concerns about the
organization’s affiliation with radical groups.
“Islamists’ interest in funding and endorsing anti-Semitic lawmakers like Ilhan
Omar and Rashida Tlaib demonstrates their goal (political Islam), the same issue
that caused us to flee to the West. If Americans understood the history and
complications of the Middle East, they would have been as alert and concerned as
we are, witnessing these groups adopting the same strategy they used to destroy
our homelands and communities,” Idan stressed. None of these organizations or
Islamist lawmakers represent thousands of American Muslims like myself and Idan.
However, there is no ready solution to the dilemma of political Islamism in the
US as long as we are afraid to call things by their correct names. Led by the
Muslim Brotherhood, these organizations bully anyone who stands against the
Islamist ideology and manipulate our system and government using the magical
term “Islamophobia.” We ought to remember that they are proud of being
anti-Semitic and anti-American and that they sympathize with radical groups, and
act accordingly.
*Dalia Al-Aqidi is a senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy. Twitter:
@DaliaAlAqidi
Suicide is a risk for college students worldwide
Tala Jarjour/Arab News/May 01/2022
Parents and educators have good reason to consider every age in a child’s
developmental process to be a crucial step on their journey toward adulthood.
And while specialists may argue about whether one stage is more crucial than
others, the fact that the final teenage years and early 20s can be a sensitive
time is little disputed. College is where many
life-forming activities take place; the same is true for decisions, friendships
and, at times, romantic relationships. For most individuals who go to
university, 18 to 22, or the college age years, are not only informative in the
education and professional training opportunities they usually offer, they are
also formative. Early adulthood can shape the kind of adult each person grows
into — at least for a good part of their future life. It is a stressful
transition.
Parents, educators and a fast-growing number of university and college
administrative staff work together to put the safety and health of students at
the top of their priorities. In a previous column, I mentioned the lengths to
which universities have been keen to go in order to protect their diverse
student population from the coronavirus pandemic and the health risks infection
presents, sometimes making serious sacrifices in other educational priorities
such as social exposure and cultural exchange. But unbeknownst to these keen
observers, a hidden risk to students’ lives lurks in dark corners of their
tightly monitored campuses. The new risk is suicide, and college health
professionals are crying for help.
According to a number of published academic studies on mental health, suicide is
the second-leading cause of death among university students in the US. In 2001,
of the college students who were polled for a study published by the American
Psychological Association, 52 percent reported experiencing depression and 9
percent declared that they had contemplated suicide during their college years.
While not all campuses make such information public, individual institutions
report high numbers. The Counseling and Psychological Services of the University
of Michigan offers on its website facts and statistics anyone concerned with the
health of college-age students should pay attention to. At the time of writing
these lines, it stated that, of the university’s students who have used the
service, 38 percent “have thought about or considered suicide.”
In other parts of the world, the story may be different but its moral remains
the same. In England and Wales, according to one interpretation of nationwide
statistics, 1,330 students die by suicide every year. As is the case in the US,
individual stories make it, painfully, to the media and become the subject of
ethical and legal debates. Whether parents object to the mental health care
their late young child had received, or whether they express appreciation for
the way in which a difficult story was handled by university and health services
staff, they all share one thing.
Parents who speak to the press do so in order to prevent such tragedies from
happening again. The problem, as the bereaved parent often laments, is the shame
and silent suffering they wish their child had not endured.
Despite mental health making strides in becoming a regular subject in public
debates, suicide remains a taboo.
Despite mental health making strides in becoming a regular subject in public
debates, suicide remains a taboo.
In the Arab world and much of the Middle East, where mental health is yet to be
acknowledged as an inherent part of healthcare for all individuals and
societies, many who suffer do not have the ability to inform a personal
confidant, let alone have the luxury of consulting a mental health professional.
They fear shame. In some institutions of higher education in the region, staff
members entrusted with student health, where they exist, may not have adequate
training to address the potential risk of suicide. For these and other reasons,
suicide can be the first sign of trouble anyone notices.
Suicide among university students is an alarming reality, and one that is yet to
receive the attention it necessitates. But there is good news. Of the many
worries a college student may encounter, this particular threat is preventable.
Yet, for suicide prevention to be possible and its risk to be minimized, experts
assert, a key strategy is to identify individuals who are disposed to suicidal
ideation and action. This begins with equipping university staff with the right
expertise to encourage students whose mental health is taking a toll to seek
help from specialists. Then they must make sure students find that help
available, and that it is adequate when they do.
*Tala Jarjour is the author of “Sense and Sadness: Syriac Chant in Aleppo.” She
is a visiting research fellow at King’s College London and associate fellow at
the Yale College.
Macron must unite France or risk emboldening nationalists
Zaid M. Belbagi/Arab News/May 01/2022
France is not a racist nation; it is an angry one. Last week’s election was
pitted as a struggle between liberalism and the risk of a major Western country
falling to the extreme right. Those congratulating Emmanuel Macron for his
defeat of Marine Le Pen and thereby saving France from fascism oversimplify the
very complicated political context in the country.
The far-right candidate won a staggering 41.5 percent of the vote in the second
round, with a great many more abstaining from voting altogether. French Muslims
and others from an immigrant background were left ruffled as parties on both
sides sought to blame them for the country’s problems. The coming five years
will feel very long indeed for Macron should he attempt to govern from above,
removed from the day-to-day issues of French citizens. Without a significant
shift in how the country is run, his victory as the only plausible candidate
this time around will only embolden nationalists next time.
Disgruntled voters, unhappy with the president and unimpressed with Le Pen,
surprised many as they voted in significant numbers for socialist veteran
Jean-Luc Melenchon in the first round. With Le Pen having successfully lampooned
Macron as the “president of the rich,” it was expected that the low-paid and
unemployed would vote for her in the second round. This was not the case,
however, and many voted for Macron simply to stop Le Pen.
Melenchon has since taunted Macron as only being president “by default,”
declaring him “the most poorly elected” modern president who, despite being the
first incumbent to win a second term since 2002, was victorious in an election
with the lowest turnout since 1969. Many on the left who voted for Macron will
now seek to oppose him in June’s legislative elections, perhaps angling for a
popular union of the left that could see Melenchon emerge as prime minister.
How far Macron is willing to accommodate differing political interests will be
central to how successful his second term will be. At his victory rally, he was
keen to state that “to all our compatriots who abstained from voting, their
silence and refusal to choose we must respond to,” and that he hoped to be
“president for everyone,” while vowing to act upon the anger and disagreement
expressed during the election campaign.
Aside from xenophobia, bread and butter issues have dominated the political
discourse and Macron will face opposition to his unfinished ambitious reform
program. Having yet to rein in France’s spiraling social spending, he now
intends to raise the retirement age to 65, whereas during the election both
radical-left and far-left candidates were united on reducing the legal
retirement age to 60. Forced to scale back his reforms in the face of the
“yellow vest” protesters, Macron knows all too well that his Jupiterian
imposition of changes to long-standing policies could be met with violence.
How far the president is willing to accommodate differing political interests
will be central to how successful his second term will be.
It is the demographic Le Pen appealed to that Macron will need on board if he is
to build a consensus for his reforms. Le Pen successfully widened her party’s
appeal beyond the south of the country and into the rustbelts of “forgotten
France,” where unemployment and crime rates are high. Whereas more than 80
percent of the capital’s voters supported Macron, elsewhere in the country Paris
has become a byword for an elitist, globalized system that is seen to put its
own interests above that of disaffected France.
In 2002, Le Pen’s father secured a mere 18 percent of the vote. She has more
than doubled that figure, reflecting how support for her policies has grown.
Macron may be lauded for defeating the far right, but to govern he now will need
to be inclusive. However, this inclusion must not come at the cost of targeting
France’s minorities. The fact that whether or not the Muslim headscarf would be
banned was a feature in this year’s elections is testimony to how worryingly
racist everyday political discourse in France has become.
Within hours of Macron’s win, as his supporters returned home, police opened
fire on a car crossing a main bridge in Paris that was driving at them at speed,
killing two of the occupants. Such incidents provide a fleeting insight into the
decades of disenfranchisement and unemployment that characterize the immigrant
experience in France, building resentment toward the state and the xenophobia
that was so publicly on display during the campaigning for the election.
There is no doubt that the French election carried a clear warning as to the
growth of the far right in the political mainstream. Macron, who spent the
second half of his first term clashing with French workers and the Muslim
community, will now need to overhaul his governing style or risk further social
upheaval and demonstrations. Having blocked Le Pen’s National Rally, Macron will
now need to simultaneously moderate his imperious governing style and focus less
on the Elysee and more on the serious challenges faced by the angry and
despondent elements within French society.
*Zaid M. Belbagi is a political commentator, and an adviser to private clients
between London and the GCC. Twitter: @Moulay_Zaid
What To Do About China
Gordon G. Chang/Gatestone Institute/May 01/2022
Since about 2018, Chinese officials have been talking about the moon and Mars as
sovereign Chinese territory, part of the People's Republic of China. This means
that China considers those heavenly bodies to be like the South China Sea. This
also means that China will exclude other nations from going to the moon and Mars
if they have the capability to do so. We do not have to speculate about that:
Chinese officials say this is what they are going to do.
[W]hen Biden says, "Oh, the Chinese just want to compete with us," he is wrong.
They do not want to "compete" within the international system. They do not even
want to change that system... They want to overthrow it altogether, period.
Is Xi Jinping really that bold... to start another war? ... First, China
considers the United States to be its enemy. Second the United States is no
longer deterring China. China feels it has a big green light to do whatever it
wants.
We Americans don't pay attention to propaganda... After all, these are just
words. At this particular time, these words... [suggest] to me that China is
laying the justification for a strike on the United States. We keep ignoring
what Beijing is saying. We kept ignoring what Osama bin Laden was saying.
We have to remember that the Chinese regime, unlike the Japanese, always warn
its adversaries about what it is going to do
The second reason war is coming is that America's deterrence of China is
breaking down.
Di's message was that with cash, China can do anything it wants, and that all
Americans would take cash. He mentioned two words in this regard: Hunter Biden.
In February, [Biden] had a two‑hour phone call with Xi Jinping. By Biden's own
admission, he didn't raise the issue of the origins of COVID‑19 even once. If
you are Xi Jinping, after you put down the receiver, your first thought is, "I
just got away with killing hundreds of thousands of Americans."
We have news that China is building something like 345 missile silos in three
locations: in Gansu, Xinjiang, and in Inner Mongolia. These silos are clearly
built to accommodate the DF‑41. The DF‑41 has a range of about 9,300 miles,
which means that it can reach any part of the United States. The DF‑41 carries
10 warheads. This means that China could, in about two years..., have a bigger
arsenal than ours. ...we have to assume the worst because Chinese leaders and
Chinese generals, on occasion, unprovoked, have made threats to nuke American
cities.
In July, 2021 China tested a hypersonic glide warhead, which circled the world.
This signals China intends to violate the Outer Space Treaty, to which China is
a party.
As of today, more than eight million people have died outside China. What
happened? No one imposed costs on China.
For at least a half‑decade, maybe a little bit longer, Chinese military
researchers have been openly writing about a new type of biological
warfare....They talk about a new type of biological warfare of "specific ethnic
genetic attacks." In other words, pathogens that will leave the Chinese immune
but sicken and kill everybody else, which means that the next disease from China
can be a civilization killer.
A lot of military analysts talk about how the first seconds of a war with China
are going to be fought in outer space. They are going to blind our satellites,
take them down, do all sorts of stuff. Those statements are wrong. The first day
of war against the United States occurs about six months earlier, when they
release pathogens in the United States. Then we are going to have that day in
space. The war starts here, with a pathogen ‑‑ a virus, a microbe, a bug of some
kind. That is where it begins.
The One‑China policy is something many people misunderstand. Probably because
Beijing uses propaganda to try to fuzzy up the issue.... China has a One‑China
principle: that Taiwan is part of the People's Republic of China, full stop. We
have a One‑China policy..., that the status of Taiwan is unresolved.... that the
resolution of the status of Taiwan must be with the consent of people on both
sides of the Strait.
We need a policy of "strategic clarity," where we tell China that we will defend
Taiwan. We also say we will extend a mutual defense treaty to Taiwan if it wants
it, and we will put American troops on the island as a tripwire.
We are Americans. We naturally assume that there are solutions, and good
solutions, to every problem. After three decades of truly misguided China
policy, there are no ... solutions that are "undangerous." ...The current trend
of policy is unsustainable. There will be no American republic if we continue to
do what we are currently doing and if we continue to allow China to do what it
does. I do not think that enforcing a trade deal will start World War III.
China has not met its obligations. As of a few months ago, China had met about
62% of its commitments..... We should be increasing the tariffs that President
Trump imposed under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. Remember, those
tariffs are meant to be a remedy for the theft of US intellectual property.
China has continued to steal US IP. As matter of fact, it has gotten worse...
I do not think that we should be trying to foster integration of Wall Street
into China's markets.... Do not take it from me, just look at their failure to
comply with very simple, easy‑to‑comply-with requirements. It was a mistake.
The best response would be if we hit them with everything at once because China
right now is weak. If we were going to pick the number one thing to do, I would
think trade.
China now has a debt crisis, so they are not going to invest their way out of
this crisis, which means the only way they can save their economy is net
exports. We should stop buying their stuff.
China has bought the political establishment in the Solomon Islands, except for
one brave man named David Suidani. Recently, somebody got the bright idea of
publishing all of the specific payments that Beijing has made to Solomon Islands
politicians.... We should be doing this with payments to American politicians,
we should be doing this across the board.
What bothers me is that, although their assumptions about China have
demonstrably been proven wrong, American policymakers still continue with the
same policies. There is, in some people's mind, an unbreakable view that we have
to cooperate with China.... This is what people learn in international relations
school when they go to Georgetown, and they become totally stupid.
Clearly, Nike and Apple and other companies are now, at this very moment, trying
to prevent Congress from enacting toughened rules on the importation of forced‑labor
products into our country.
Moreover, the Chinese regime is even more casualty‑averse than we are. Even if
Beijing thinks it can take Taiwan by force, it is probably not going to invade
because it knows an invasion would be unpopular with most people in China. It is
not going to risk hundreds of thousands of casualties that would result from an
invasion.
Unfortunately..., we taught the Chinese that they can without cost engage in
these dangerous maneuvers of intercepting our planes and our ships. That is the
problem: because as we have taught the Chinese to be more aggressive, they have
been.
[W]e should have made it clear to the Chinese leadership that they cannot kill
Americans without cost. Hundreds of thousands Americans have been killed by a
disease that China deliberately spread. From October 2020 to October 2021, more
than 105,000 Americans died from fentanyl -- which China has purposefully, as a
matter of state and Communist Party policy -- sold to Americans... we have to
change course.
I would close China's four remaining consulates. I would also strip the Chinese
embassy down to the ambassador and his personal staff. The thousands who are in
Washington, DC, they would be out.
I would also raise tariffs to 3,600%, or whatever. This is a good time to do it.
We have supply chain disruptions. We are not getting products from China anyway.
We can actually start to do this sort of stuff.
I would... just hammer those guys all the time verbally. People may think,
"Those are just words." For communists, words are really important, because they
are an insecure regime where propaganda is absolutely critical.
I would be going after the Communists on human rights, I would be going after
them on occupying the South China Sea, on Taiwan, unrelentingly -- because I
would want to show the world that the United States is no longer afraid of
China.... State Department people, they are frightened. We need to say to the
Chinese regime, like Dulles, "I'm not afraid of you. I'm going after you, and
I'm going to win."
Is Xi Jinping really that bold... to start another war? ... First, China
considers the United States to be its enemy. Second the United States is no
longer deterring China. China feels it has a big green light to do whatever it
wants. (Image source: iStock)
All the conditions for history's next great war are in place. Jim Holmes, the
Wiley Professor at the Naval War College, actually talks about this period as
being 1937.
1937 was the year in which if you were in Europe or America, you could sense the
trouble. If you were in Asia in 1937, you would be even more worried, because
that year saw Japan's second invasion of China that decade.
No matter where you lived, however, you could not be sure that the worst would
happen, that great armies and navies around the world would clash. There was
still hope that the situation could be managed. As we now know, the worst did
happen. In fact, what happened was worse than what anyone thought at the time.
We are now, thanks to China, back to 1937.
We will begin our discussion in Afghanistan. Beijing has had long‑standing
relations with the Afghan Taliban, going back before 9/11, and continuing
through that event.
After the US drove the Taliban from power and while it was conducting an
insurgency, China was selling the group arms, including anti‑aircraft missiles,
that were used to kill American and NATO forces.
China's support for killing Americans has continued to today. In December 2020,
Indian Intelligence was instrumental, in Afghanistan, in breaking up a ring of
Chinese spies and members of the Haqqani Network. The Trump administration
believed that the Chinese portion of that ring was actually paying cash for
killing Americans.
What can happen next? We should not be surprised if China gives the Taliban an
atomic weapon to be used against an American city. Would they be that vicious?
We have to remember that China purposefully, over the course of decades,
proliferated its nuclear weapons technology to Pakistan and then helped Pakistan
sell that Chinese technology around the world to regimes such as Iran's and
North Korea's.
Today, China supports the Taliban. We know this because China has kept open its
embassy in Kabul. China is also running interference for the Taliban in the
United Nations Security Council. It is urging countries to support that
insurgent group with aid. It looks as if the Taliban's main financial backers
these days are the Chinese.
Beijing is hoping to cash in on its relationship in Central Asia. Unfortunately,
there is a man named Biden, who is helping them.
In early August, Biden issued an executive order setting a goal that by 2030,
half of all American vehicles should be electric‑powered. To be
electric‑powered, we need rare earth minerals, we need lithium. As many people
have said, Afghanistan is the Saudi Arabia of rare earths and lithium.
If Beijing can mine this, it makes the United States even more dependent on
China. It certainly helps the Taliban immeasurably.
Unfortunately, Beijing has more than just Afghanistan in mind. The Chinese want
to take away our sovereignty, and that of other nations, and rule the world.
They actually even want to rule the near parts of the solar system. Yes, that
does sound far‑fetched, but, no, I'm not exaggerating. Chinese President Xi
Jinping would like to end the current international system.
On July 1, in a landmark speech, in connection with the centennial of China's
ruling organization, he said this: "The Communist Party of China and the Chinese
people, with their bravery and tenacity, solemnly proclaim to the world that the
Chinese people are not only good at taking down the old world, but also good in
building a new one."
By that, China's leader means ending the international system, the Westphalian
international system. It means he wants to impose China's imperial‑era notions
of governance, where Chinese emperors believed they not only had the Mandate of
Heaven over tianxia, or all under Heaven, but that Heaven actually compelled the
Chinese to rule the entire world.
Xi Jinping has been using tianxia themes for decades, and so have his
subordinates, including Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who in September 2017 wrote an
article in Study Times, the Central Party School's influential newspaper.
In that article, Wang Yi wrote that Xi Jinping's thought on diplomacy ‑‑ a
"thought" in Communist Party lingo is an important body of ideological work ‑‑
Wang Yi wrote that Xi Jinping's thought on diplomacy made innovations on and
transcended the traditional theories of Western international relations of the
past 300 years.
Take 2017, subtract 300 years, and you almost get to 1648, which means that Wang
Yi, with his time reference, was pointing to the Treaty of Westphalia of 1648,
which established the current system of sovereign states.
When Wang Yi writes that Xi Jinping wants to transcend that system, he is really
telling us that China's leader does not want sovereign states, or at least no
more of them than China. This means that when Biden says, "Oh, the Chinese just
want to compete with us," he is wrong. They do not want to "compete" within the
international system. They do not even want to change that system so it is more
to their liking. They want to overthrow it altogether, period.
China is also revolutionary with regard to the solar system. Since about 2018,
Chinese officials have been talking about the moon and Mars as sovereign Chinese
territory. In other words, as part of the People's Republic of China. This means
that China considers those heavenly bodies to be like the South China Sea:
theirs and theirs alone.
This also means that China will exclude other nations from going to the moon and
Mars if they have the capability to do so. We do not have to speculate about
that: Chinese officials say this is what they are going to do.
Let us return to April 2021. Beijing announced the name of its Mars rover. "We
are naming the Mars rover Zhurong," the Chinese said, "because Zhurong was the
god of fire in Chinese mythology, " How nice. Yes, Zhurong is the god of fire.
What Beijing did not tell us is that Zhurong is also the god of war—and the god
of the South China Sea.
Is Xi Jinping really that bold or that desperate to start another war? Two
points. First, China considers the United States to be its enemy. The second
point is that the United States is no longer deterring China. China feels it has
a big green light to do whatever it wants.
On the first point, about our enemy status, we have to go back to May 2019.
People's Daily, the most authoritative publication in China, actually carried a
piece that declared a "people's war" on the US. This was not just some isolated
thought.
On August 29th 2021, People's Daily came out with a landmark piece that accused
the United States of committing "barbaric" acts against China. Again, this was
during a month of hostile propaganda blasts from China.
On the August 29th, Global Times, which is controlled by People's Daily, came
right out and also said that the United States was an enemy or like an enemy.
We Americans don't pay attention to propaganda. The question is, should we be
concerned about what China is saying? After all, these are just words.
At this particular time, these words are significant. The strident
anti‑Americanism suggests to me that China is laying the justification for a
strike on the United States. We keep ignoring what Beijing is saying. We kept
ignoring what Osama bin Laden was saying.
We have to remember that the Chinese regime, unlike the Japanese, always warn
its adversaries about what it is going to do. Jim Lilley, our great ambassador
to Beijing during the Tiananmen Massacre, actually said that China always
telegraphs its punches. At this moment, China is telegraphing a punch.
That hostility, unfortunately, is not something we can do very much about. The
Chinese Communist regime inherently idealizes struggle, and it demands that
others show subservience to it.
The second reason war is coming is that America's deterrence of China is
breaking down. That is evident from what the Chinese are saying.
In March of 2021, China sent its top two diplomats, Yang Jiechi and Wang Yi, to
Anchorage to meet our top officials, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. Yang, in chilling words, said the US
could no longer talk to China "from a position of strength."
We saw the same theme during the fall of Kabul. China then was saying, "Look,
those Americans, they can't deal with the insurgent Taliban. How can they hope
to counter us magnificent Chinese?" Global Times actually came out with a piece
referring to Americans: "They can't win wars anymore."
We also saw propaganda at that same time directed at Taiwan. Global Times was
saying, again, in an editorial, an important signal of official Chinese
thinking, "When we decide to invade, Taiwan will fall within hours and the US
will not come to help."
It is probably no coincidence that this propaganda came at the time of
incursions into Taiwan's air-defense identification zone.
We need to be concerned with more than just the intensity and with the frequency
of these flights, however. We have to be concerned that China was sending H‑6K
bombers; they are nuclear‑capable.
Something is wrong. Global Times recently came out with an editorial with the
title, "Time to warn Taiwan secessionists and their fomenters: war is real."
Beijing is at this moment saying things heard before history's great conflicts.
The Chinese regime right now seems to be feeling incredibly arrogant. We heard
this on November 28th in 2020, when Di Dongsheng, an academic in Beijing, gave a
lecture live-streamed to China.
Di showed the arrogance of the Chinese elite. More importantly, he was showing
that the Chinese elite no longer wanted to hide how they felt. Di, for instance,
openly stated that China could determine outcomes at the highest levels of the
American political system.
Di's message was that with cash, China can do anything it wants, and that all
Americans would take cash. He mentioned two words in this regard: Hunter Biden.
Unfortunately, President Joe Biden is reinforcing this notion. China, for
instance, has so far killed nearly one million Americans with a disease that it
deliberately spread beyond its borders. Yet, what happened? Nothing.
We know that China was able to spread this disease with its close relationship
with the World Health Organization. President Trump, in July of 2020, took us
out of the WHO. What did Biden do? In his first hours in office, on January
20th, 2021, he put us back into the WHO.
In February, he had a two‑hour phone call with Xi Jinping. By Biden's own
admission, he didn't raise the issue of the origins of COVID‑19 even once. If
you are Xi Jinping, after you put down the receiver, your first thought is, "I
just got away with killing hundreds of thousands of Americans."
Then there's somebody named John Kerry. Our republic is not safe when John Kerry
carries a diplomatic passport, as he now does. He is willing to make almost any
deal to get China to sign an enhanced climate arrangement.
Kerry gave a revealing interview to David Westin of Bloomberg on September 22,
2021. Westin asked him, "What is the process by which one trades off climate
against human rights?" Climate against human rights?
Kerry came back and said, "Well, life is always full of tough choices in the
relationship between nations." Tough choices? We Americans need to ask, "What is
Kerry willing to give up to get his climate deal?"
Democracies tend to deal with each other in the way that Kerry says. If we are
nice to a democracy, that will lead to warm relations; warm relations will lead
to deals, long‑standing ties. Kerry thinks that the Chinese communists think
that way. Unfortunately, they do not.
We know this because Kerry's successor as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton,
in February 2009, said in public, "I'm not going to press the Chinese on human
rights because I've got bigger fish to fry." She then went to Beijing a day
after saying that and got no cooperation from the Chinese.
Even worse, just weeks after that, China felt so bold that it attacked an
unarmed US Navy reconnaissance vessel in the South China Sea. The attack was so
serious that it constituted an act of war. The Chinese simply do not think the
way that Kerry believes they do.
All of this, when you put it together, means that the risk of war is much higher
than we tend to think. Conflict with today's aggressor is going to be more
destructive than it was in the 1930s. We have news that China is building
something like 345 missile silos in three locations: in Gansu, Xinjiang, and in
Inner Mongolia.
These silos are clearly built to accommodate the DF‑41. The DF‑41 has a range of
about 9,300 miles, which means that it can reach any part of the United States.
The DF‑41 carries 10 warheads. This means that China could, in about two years,
as some experts think, have a bigger arsenal than ours.
China has built decoy silos before. We are not sure they are going to put all
345 missiles into these facilities, but we have to assume the worst because
Chinese leaders and Chinese generals, on occasion, unprovoked, have made threats
to nuke American cities.
This, of course, calls into question their official no‑first‑use policy, and
also a lot of other things. China will not talk to us about arms control. We
have to be concerned that China and Russia, which already are coordinating their
military activities, would gang up against us with their arsenals.
In July, 2021 China tested a hypersonic glide warhead, which circled the world.
This signals China intends to violate the Outer Space Treaty, to which China is
a party. It also shows that in hypersonic technology, which was developed by
Americans, China is now at least a decade ahead of us in fielding a weapon.
Why is China doing all this now? The country is coming apart at the seems. There
is, for instance, a debt crisis. Evergrande and other property developers have
started to default. It is more than just a crisis of companies. China is
basically now having its 2008.
Even more important than that, they have an economy that is stumbling and a food
crisis that is worsening year to year. They know their environment is exhausted.
Of course, they also are suffering from a continuing COVID‑19 epidemic.
To make matters worse, all of this is occurring while China is on the edge of
the steepest demographic decline in history in the absence of war or disease.
Two Chinese demographers recently stated that China's population will probably
halve in 45 years. If you run out those projections, it means that by the end of
the century, China will be about a third of its current size, basically about
the same number of people as the United States.
These developments are roiling the political system. Xi Jinping is being blamed
for these debacles. We know he has a low threshold of risk. Xi now has all the
incentive in the world to deflect popular and regime discontent by lashing out.
In 1966, Mao Zedong, the founder of the People's Republic, was sidelined in
Beijing. What did he do? He started the Cultural Revolution. He tried to use the
Chinese people against his political enemies. That created a decade of chaos.
Xi Jinping is trying to do the same thing with his "common prosperity" program.
The difference is that Mao did not have the means to plunge the world into war.
Xi, with his shiny new military, clearly does have that ability.
So here is a 1930s scenario to consider. The next time China starts a conflict,
whether accidentally or on purpose, we could see that China's friends -- Russia,
North Korea, Iran, Pakistan -- either in coordination with China or just taking
advantage of the situation, move against their enemies.
That would be Ukraine in the case of Russia, South Korea in the case of North
Korea, Israel in the case of Iran, India in the case of Pakistan, and Morocco in
the case of Algeria. We could see crises at both ends of the European landmass
and in Africa at the same time.
This is how world wars start.
Question: Why do you believe China attacked the world with coronavirus?
Chang: I believe that SARS‑CoV‑2, the pathogen that causes COVID‑19, is not
natural. There are, for example, unnatural arrangements of amino acids, like the
double‑CGG sequence, that do not occur in nature.
We do not have a hundred percent assurance on where this pathogen came from. We
do, however, have a hundred percent assurance on something else: that for about
five weeks, maybe even five months, Chinese leaders knew that this disease was
highly transmissible, from one human to the next, but they told the world that
it was not.
At the same time as they were locking down their own country ‑‑ Xi Jinping by
locking down was indicating that he thought this was an effective way of
stopping the disease -- he was pressuring other countries not to impose travel
restrictions and quarantines on arrivals from China. It was those arrivals from
China that turned what should have been an epidemic confined to the central part
of China, into a global pandemic. As of today, more than eight million people
have died outside China. What happened? No one imposed costs on China.
For at least a half‑decade, maybe a little bit longer, Chinese military
researchers have been openly writing about a new type of biological warfare.
This was, for instance, in the 2017 edition of "The Science of Military
Strategy," the authoritative publication of China's National Defense University.
They talk about a new type of biological warfare of "specific ethnic genetic
attacks." In other words, pathogens that will leave the Chinese immune but
sicken and kill everybody else, which means that the next disease from China can
be a civilization killer.
Remember, Xi Jinping must be thinking, "I just got away with killing eight
million people. Why wouldn't I unleash a biological attack on the United States?
Look what the virus has done not only to kill Americans but also to divide
American society."
A lot of military analysts talk about how the first seconds of a war with China
are going to be fought in outer space. They are going to blind our satellites,
take them down, do all sorts of stuff. Those statements are wrong.
The first day of war against the United States occurs about six months earlier,
when they release pathogens in the United States. Then we are going to have that
day in space. The war starts here, with a pathogen ‑‑ a virus, a microbe, a bug
of some kind. That is where it begins.
Question: You mentioned 1939. Taiwan is the Poland of today. We get mixed
signals: Biden invites the Taiwanese foreign minister to his inauguration, but
then we hear Ned Price, his State Department spokesman, say that America will
always respect the One‑China policy. Meaning, we're sidelining defending Taiwan?
Chang: The One‑China policy is something many people misunderstand. Probably
because Beijing uses propaganda to try to fuzzy up the issue. China has a
One‑China principle: that Taiwan is part of the People's Republic of China, full
stop.
We have a One‑China policy, which is different. We recognize Beijing as the
legitimate government of China. We also say that the status of Taiwan is
unresolved. Then, the third part of our One‑China policy is that the resolution
of the status of Taiwan must be with the consent of people on both sides of the
Strait. In other words, that is code for peace, a peaceful resolution.
Our policies are defined by the One‑China policy, the Three Communiques,
Reagan's Six Assurances, and the Taiwan Relations Act.
Our policy is difficult for someone named Joe Biden to articulate, because he
came back from a campaign trip to Michigan, and he was asked by a reporter about
Taiwan, and Biden said, "Don't worry about this. We got it covered. I had a
phone call with Xi Jinping and he agreed to abide by the Taiwan agreement."
In official US discourse, there is no such thing as a "Taiwan agreement." Some
reporter then asked Ned Price what did Biden mean by the Taiwan agreement. Ned
Price said, "The Taiwan agreement means the Three Communiques the Six
Assurances, the Taiwan Relations Act, and the One‑China policy."
Ned Price could not have been telling the truth because Xi Jinping did not agree
to America's position on Taiwan. That is clear. There is complete fuzziness or
outright lying in the Biden administration about this.
Biden's policies on Taiwan are not horrible, but they are also not appropriate
for this time. decades, we have had this policy of "strategic ambiguity," where
we do not tell either side what we would do in the face of imminent conflict.
That worked in a benign period. We are no longer in a benign period. We are in
one of the most dangerous periods in history.
We need a policy of "strategic clarity," where we tell China that we will defend
Taiwan. We also say we will extend a mutual defense treaty to Taiwan if it wants
it, and we will put American troops on the island as a tripwire.
Question: You think he is not saying that because he has no intention of
actually doing it, so in a way, he is telling the truth?
Chang: The mind of Biden is difficult to understand. We do not know what the
administration would do. We have never known, after Allen Dulles, what any
administration would do, with regard to Taiwan. We knew what Dulles would have
done. We have got to be really concerned because there are voices in the
administration that would give Taiwan, and give other parts of the world, to
China. It would probably start with John Kerry; that is only a guess.
Question: You mentioned earlier the growing Chinese economic problems. Would you
use taking action on the enormous trade deficits we run with China to contribute
to that problem?
Chang: Yes, we should absolutely do that. Go back to a day which, in my mind,
lives in infamy, which is January 15th, 2020, when President Trump signed the
Phase One trade deal, which I think was a mistake. In that Phase One trade deal,
it was very easy for China to comply, because there were specific targets that
China had to meet in buying US goods and services. This was "managed trade."
China has not met its obligations. As of a few months ago, China had met about
62% of its commitments. That means, they have dishonored this deal in a material
and significant way. If nothing else, China has failed to meet its Phase One
trade deal commitments.
We should be increasing the tariffs that President Trump imposed under Section
301 of the Trade Act of 1974. Remember, those tariffs are meant to be a remedy
for the theft of US intellectual property. China has continued to steal US IP.
As matter of fact, it has gotten worse: for instance, these Chinese anti‑lawsuit
injunctions, which they have started to institute.
We need to do something: China steals somewhere between $300 to $600 billion
worth of US intellectual property each year. That is a grievous wound on the US
economy, it is a grievous wound on our society in general. We need to do
something about it.
Question: As a follow‑up on that, Japan commenced World War II because of the
tariffs Roosevelt was strapping on oil imports into Japan, do you think that
might well have the same effect on China, where we do begin to impose stiffer
tariffs on American imports?
Chang: That is a really important question, to which nobody has an answer. I do
not think that China would start a war over tariffs. Let me answer this question
in a different way. We are Americans. We naturally assume that there are
solutions, and good solutions, to every problem. After three decades of truly
misguided China policy, there are no good solutions. There are no solutions that
are "undangerous."
Every solution, going forward, carries great risk. The current trend of policy
is unsustainable. There will be no American republic if we continue to do what
we are currently doing and if we continue to allow China to do what it does.
I do not think that enforcing a trade deal will start World War III. The point
is, we have no choice right now. First, I don't think the Chinese were ever
going to honor the Phase One agreement . This was not a deal where there were
some fuzzy requirements. This deal was very clear: China buys these amounts of
agricultural products by such and such date, China buys so many manufactured
products by such and such date. This was not rocket science. China purposefully
decided not to honor it.
There are also other issues regarding the trade deal do not think that we should
be trying to foster integration of Wall Street into China's markets, which is
what the Phase One deal also contemplated. Goldman Sachs ran away like a bandit
on that. There are lot of objections to it. I do not think we should be trading
with China, for a lot of reasons. The Phase One trade deal, in my mind, was a
great mistake. Do not take it from me, just look at their failure to comply with
very simple, easy‑to‑comply-with requirements. It was a mistake.
Question: Concerning cybersecurity, as we saw in the recent departure of a
Pentagon official, ringing the alarm on how we are completely vulnerable to
China's cyberattacks. From your perspective, what would an attack look like on
China that would hurt them? What particular institutions would be the most
vulnerable? Is it exposing their secrets? Is it something on their financial
system? Is it something on their medical system or critical infrastructure? What
does the best way look like to damage them?
Also, regarding what you mentioned about Afghanistan, we know that China has
been making inroads into Pakistan as a check on American hegemony in
relationships with India and Afghanistan.
Now that the Afghanistan domino is down, what do you see in the future for
Pakistan's nuclear capability, in conjunction with Chinese backing, to move ever
further westward towards Afghanistan, and endangering Middle East security?
Chang: Right now, India has been disheartened by what happened, because India
was one of the main backers of the Afghan government. What we did in New Delhi
was delegitimize our friends, so that now the pro‑Russian, the pro‑Chinese
elements in the Indian national security establishment are basically setting the
tone. This is terrible.
What has happened, though, in Pakistan itself, is not an unmitigated disaster
for us, because China has suffered blowback there. There is an Afghan Taliban,
and there is a Pakistani Taliban. They have diametrically‑opposed policies on
China. The Afghan Taliban is an ally of China; the Pakistani Taliban kill
Chinese.
They do that because they want to destabilize Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.
Beijing supports Islamabad. The calculation on part of the Pakistani Taliban is,
"We kill Chinese, we destabilize Islamabad, we then get to set up the caliphate
in Pakistan." What has happened is, with this incredible success of the Afghan
Taliban, that the Pakistani Taliban has been re‑energized -- not good news for
China.
China has something called the China‑Pakistan Economic Corridor, part of their
Belt and Road Initiative. Ultimately that is going to be something like $62
billion of investment into Pakistani roads, airports, electric power plants,
utilities, all the rest of it.
I am very happy that China is in Pakistan, because they are now dealing with a
situation that they have no solutions to. It's like Winston Churchill on Italy,
"It's now your turn."
We should never have had good relations with Pakistan. That was always a
short‑term compromise that, even in the short term, undermined American
interests. The point is that China is now having troubles in Pakistan because of
their success in Afghanistan.
Pakistan is important to China for a number of reasons. One of them is, they
want it as an outlet to the Indian Ocean that bypasses the Malacca Strait -- a
choke point that the US Navy ‑‑ in their view ‑‑ could easily close off, which
is correct.
They want to bypass that, but their port in Gwadar is a failure in many
respects. Gwadar is in Pakistan's Baluchistan. The Baluchs are one of the most
oppressed minorities on earth. They have now taken to violence against the
Chinese, and they have been effective. Pakistan is a failure for China.
The best response would be if we hit them with everything at once because China
right now is weak. If we were going to pick the number one thing to do, I would
think trade.
Trade is really what they need right now. Their economy is stalling. There are
three parts to the Chinese economy, as there are to all economies: consumption,
investment, and net exports. Their consumption right now is extremely weak from
indicators that we have. The question is can they invest?
China now has a debt crisis, so they are not going to invest their way out of
this crisis, which means the only way they can save their economy is net
exports. We should stop buying their stuff.
We have extraordinary supply chain disruptions right now. It should be pretty
easy for us to make the case that we must become self‑sufficient on a number of
items. Hit them on trade. Hit them on investment, publicize the bank account
details of Chinese leaders. All these things that we do, we do it all at the
same time. We can maybe get rid of these guys.
Question: In the Solomon Islands, they published China's under-the-table
payments to political figures. Should we do the same thing with China's leaders?
Chang: Yes. There is now a contest for the Solomon Islands, which includes
Guadalcanal. China has bought the political establishment in the Solomon
Islands, except for one brave man named David Suidani. Recently, somebody got
the bright idea of publishing all of the specific payments that Beijing has made
to Solomon Islands politicians. This was really good news. We should be doing
this with payments to American politicians, we should be doing this across the
board.
Why don't we publish their payments to politicians around the world? Let's
expose these guys, let's go after them. Let's root out Chinese influence,
because they are subverting our political system.
Similarly, we should also be publishing the bank account details of all these
Chinese leaders, because they are corrupt as hell.
Question: Could you comment, please, on what you think is the nature of the
personal relationships between Hunter Biden, his father, and Chinese financial
institutions. How has it, if at all, affected American foreign policy towards
China, and how will it affect that policy?
Chang: There are two things here. There are the financial ties. Hunter Biden has
connections with Chinese institutions, which you cannot explain in the absence
of corruption.
For instance, he has a relationship with Bohai Harvest Partners, BHR. China puts
a lot of money into the care of foreign investment managers. The two billion, or
whatever the number is, is not that large, but they only put money with people
who have a track record in managing investments. Hunter Biden only has a track
record of being the son of Joe Biden.
There are three investigations of Hunter Biden right now. There is the
Wilmington US Attorney's Office, the FBI -- I don't place very much hope in
either of these – but the third one might actually bear some fruit: the IRS
investigation of Hunter Biden.
Let us say, for the moment, that Biden is able to corrupt all three of these
investigations. Yet money always leaves a trail. We are going to find out one
way or another. Peter Schweizer, for instance, is working on a book on the Biden
cash. Eventually, we are going to know about that.
What worries me is not so much the money trail -- and of course, there's the art
sales, a subject in itself, because we will find out.
What worries me is that Hunter Biden, by his own admission, is a troubled
individual.
He has been to China a number of times. He has probably committed some
embarrassing act there, which means that the Ministry of State Security has
audio and video recordings of this. Those are the things that can be used for
blackmail. We Americans would never know about it, because blackmail does not
necessarily leave a trail. This is what we should be most concerned about.
Biden has now had two long phone calls with Xi Jinping. The February call, plus
also one a few months ago. We do not know what was said. I would be very worried
that when Xi Jinping wants to say something, there will be a phone call to Biden,
and it would be Xi doing the talking without note takers.
Question: Please tell us about the China desk over the 30 years, the influence
of the bureaucracy on politics; what can they affect?
Chang: I do not agree with our China policy establishment in Washington, in
general, and specifically the State Department and NSC.
This a complicated issue. First, there is this notion after the end of the Cold
War, that the nature of governments did not matter. You could trade with them,
you could strengthen them, and it would not have national security implications.
That was wrong for a number of reasons, as we are now seeing.
What bothers me is that, although their assumptions about China have
demonstrably been proven wrong, American policymakers still continue with the
same policies. There is, in some people's mind, an unbreakable view that we have
to cooperate with China.
You hear this from Blinken all the time: "We've got to cooperate where we can."
It is this formulation which is tired, and which has not produced the types of
policies that are necessary to defend our republic. That is the unfortunate
thing.
This is what people learn in international relations school when they go to
Georgetown, and they become totally stupid. We Americans should be upset because
we have a political class that is not defending us. They are not defending us
because they have these notions of China. George Kennan understood the nature of
the Soviet Union. I do not understand why we cannot understand the true nature
of the Chinese regime.
Part of it is because we have Wall Street, we have Walmart, and they carry
China's water. There are more of us than there are of them in this country. We
have to exercise our vote to make sure that we implement China policies that
actually protect us.
Policies that protect us are going to be drastic and they will be extreme, but
absolutely, we have now dug ourselves into such a hole after three decades of
truly misguided views on China, that I don't know what else to say. This is not
some partisan complaint. Liberals and conservatives, Republicans and Democrats,
all have truly misguided China policies.
I do not know what it takes to break this view, except maybe for the deaths of
American servicemen and women.
Question: Is the big obstacle American businesses which, in donations to Biden,
are the ones stopping decoupling of commerce, and saying, "Do not have war; we
would rather earn money"?
Chang: It is. You have, for instance, Nike. There are a number of different
companies, but Nike comes to mind right now, because they love to lecture us
about racism.
For years they were operating a factory in Qingdao, in the northeastern part of
China, that resembled a concentration camp. The laborers were Uighur and Kazakh
women, brought there on cattle cars and forced to work.
This factory, technically, was operated by a South Korean sub‑contractor, but
that contractor had a three‑decade relationship with Nike. Nike had to know what
was going on. This was forced labor, perhaps even slave labor.
Clearly, Nike and Apple and other companies are now, at this very moment, trying
to prevent Congress from enacting toughened rules on the importation of forced‑labor
products into our country.
One of the good things Trump did was, towards the end of his four years, he
started to vigorously enforce the statutes that are already on the books, about
products that are made with forced and slave labor. Biden, to his credit, has
continued tougher enforcement.
Right now, the big struggle is not the enforcement, but enhancing those rules.
Apple and all of these companies are now very much trying to prevent amendment
of those laws. It's business, but it's also immoral.
Question: It is not just big Wall Street firms. There are companies that print
the Bible. Most Bibles are now printed in China.
When President Trump imposed the tariffs, a lot of the Bible printers who
depended on China actually went to Trump and said, "You cannot put those tariffs
in because then the cost of Bibles will go up."
Chang: Most everyone lobbies for China. We have to take away their incentive to
do so.
Question: What are the chances that China's going to invade Taiwan?
Chang: There is no clear answer.
There are a number of factors that promote stability. One of them is that, for
China to invade Taiwan, Xi Jinping has to give some general or admiral basically
total control over the Chinese military. That makes this flag officer the most
powerful person in China. Xi is not about to do that.
Moreover, the Chinese regime is even more casualty‑adverse than we are. Even if
Beijing thinks it can take Taiwan by force, it is probably not going to invade
because it knows an invasion would be unpopular with most people in China. It is
not going to risk hundreds of thousands of casualties that would result from an
invasion.
The reason we have to be concerned is because it is not just a question of Xi
Jinping waking up one morning and saying, "I want to invade Taiwan." The danger
is the risk of accidental contact, in the skies or on the seas, around Taiwan.
We know that China has been engaging in hostile conduct, and this is not just
the incursions into Taiwan's air-defense identification zone. There are also
dangerous intercepts of the US Navy and the US Air Force in the global commons.
One of those accidents could spiral out of control.
We saw this on April 1st, 2001, with the EP‑3, where a Chinese jet clipped the
wing of that slow‑moving propeller plane of the US Navy. The only reason we got
through it was that George W. Bush, to his eternal shame, paid China a sum that
was essentially a ransom.
He allowed our crew to be held for 11 days. He allowed the Chinese to strip that
plane. This was wrong. This was the worst incident in US diplomatic history, but
Bush's craven response did get us through it. Unfortunately, by getting through
it we taught the Chinese that they can without cost engage in these dangerous
maneuvers of intercepting our planes and our ships.
That is the problem: because as we have taught the Chinese to be more
aggressive, they have been. One of these incidents will go wrong. The law of
averages says that. Then we have to really worry.
Question: You don't think Xi thinks, "Oh well, we can sacrifice a few million
Chinese"?
Chang: On the night of June 15th, 2020, there was a clash between Chinese and
Indian soldiers in Ladakh, in the Galwan Valley. That was a Chinese sneak attack
on Indian-controlled territory. That night, 20 Indian soldiers were killed.
China did not admit to any casualties. The Indians were saying that they killed
about 45 Chinese soldiers that night.
Remember, this was June 15th of 2020. It took until February of 2021 for China
to admit that four Chinese soldiers died. TASS, the Russian news agency,
recently issued a story reporting that 45 Chinese soldiers actually died that
night.
This incident shows you how risk‑averse and casualty‑averse the Chinese
Communist Party is. They are willing to intimidate, they are willing to do all
sorts of things. They are, however, loath to fight sustained engagements.
Remember, that the number one goal of Chinese foreign policy is not to take over
Taiwan. The number one goal of Chinese foreign policy is to preserve Communist
Party rule.
If the Communist Party feels that the Chinese people are not on board with an
invasion of Taiwan, they will not do it even if they think they will be
successful. Right now, the Chinese people are not in any mood for a full‑scale
invasion of Taiwan.
On the other hand, Xi Jinping has a very low threshold of risk.
He took a consensual political system where no Chinese leader got too much blame
or too much credit, because everybody shared in decisions, and Xi took power
from everybody, which means, he ended up with full accountability, which means
-- he is now fully responsible.
In 2017, when everything was going China's way, this was great for Xi Jinping
because he got all the credit. Now in 2021, where things are not going China's
way, he is getting all the blame.
The other thing, is that Xi has raised the cost of losing a political struggle
in China. In the Deng Xiaoping era, Deng reduced the cost of losing a struggle.
In the Maoist era, if you lost a struggle, you potentially lost your life. In
Deng's era, if you lost a struggle, you got a nice house, a comfortable life.
Xi Jinping has reversed that. Now the cost of losing a political struggle in
China is very high. So there is now a combination of these two developments. Xi
has full accountability. He knows that if he is thrown out of power, he loses
not just power. He loses his freedom, his assets, potentially his life.
If he has nothing to lose, however, it means that he can start a war, either
"accidentally" or on purpose. He could be thinking, "I'm dying anyway, so why
don't I just roll the dice and see if I can get out of this?"
That is the reason why this moment is so exceedingly risky. When you look at the
internal dynamics inside China right now, we are dealing with a system in
crisis.
Question: China has a conference coming up in a year or so. What does Chairman
Xi want to do to make sure he gets through that conference with triumph?
Chang: The Communist Party has recently been holding its National Congresses
once every five years. If the pattern follows -- and that is an if -- the 20th
National Congress of the Communist Party will be held either October or November
of next year.
This is an important Congress, more so than most of them because Xi Jinping is
looking for an unprecedented third term as general secretary of the Communist
Party.
If you go back six months ago, maybe a year, everyone was saying, "Oh, Xi
Jinping. No problem. He's president for life. He's going to get his third term.
He will get his fourth term. He will get his fifth term, as long as he lives.
This guy is there forever." Right now, that assumption is no longer valid. We do
not know what's going to happen because he is being blamed for everything.
Remember, as we get close to the 20th National Congress, Xi Jinping knows he has
to show "success." Showing "success" could very well mean killing some more
Indians or killing Americans or killing Japanese or something. We just don't
know what is going to happen.
Prior to the National Congress, there is the sixth plenum of the 19th Congress.
Who knows what is going to happen there. The Communist Party calendar, as you
point out, does dictate the way Xi Jinping interacts with the world.
Question: Going back to the wing-clip incident, what should Bush have done?
Chang: What Bush should have done is immediately demand the return of that
plane. What he should have done was to impose trade sanctions, investment
sanctions, whatever, to get our plane back.
We were fortunate, in the sense that our aviators were returned, but they were
returned in a way that has made relations with China worse, because we taught
the Chinese regime to be more aggressive and more belligerent. We created the
problems of today and of tomorrow.
I would have imposed sanction after sanction after sanction, and just demand
that they return the plane and the pilots. Remember, that at some point, it was
in China's interests to return our aviators. The costs would have been too high
for the Chinese to keep them. We did not use that leverage on them.
While we are on this topic, we should have made it clear to the Chinese
leadership that they cannot kill Americans without cost. Hundreds of thousands
Americans have been killed by a disease that China deliberately spread.
In one year, from 2020 to 2021, nearly 80,000 Americans died from fentanyl,
which China has purposefully, as a matter of state and Communist Party policy --
sold to Americans. China is killing us. We have to do something different. I'm
not saying that we have good solutions; we don't. But we have to change course.
Question: Biden is continuing this hostage thing with Huawei, returning the CFO
of Huawei in exchange for two Canadians. Have we taught the Chinese that they
can grab more hostages?
Chang: President Trump was right to seek the extradition of Meng Wanzhou, the
chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies. Biden, in a deal, released her.
She did not even have to plead guilty to any Federal crime. She signed a
statement, which I hope we'll be able to use against Huawei.
As soon as Meng was released, China released the "two Michaels," the two
Canadians who were grabbed within days of our seeking extradition of Meng
Wanzhou. In other words, the two Michaels were hostages.
We have taught China that any time that we try to enforce our own laws, they can
just grab Americans. They have grabbed Americans as hostages before, but this
case is high profile. They grabbed Americans, and then they grabbed Canadians,
and they got away with it. They are going to do it again.
We are creating the incentives for Beijing to act even more dangerously and
lawlessly and criminally in the future. This has to stop.
Question: On the off-chance that the current leader does not maintain his
position, what are your thoughts on the leaders that we should keep an eye on?
Chang: There is no one who stands out among the members of the Politburo
Standing Committee. That is purposeful. Xi Jinping has made sure that there is
nobody who can be considered a successor; that is the last thing he wants.
If there is a change in leadership, the new leader probably will come from Jiang
Zemin's Shanghai Gang faction. Jiang was China's leader before Hu Jintao, and Hu
came before Xi Jinping.
There is now a lot of factional infighting. Most of the reporting shows that
Jiang has been trying to unseat Xi Jinping because Xi has been putting Jiang's
allies in jail.
Remember, the Communist Party is not a monolith. It has a lot of factions.
Jiang's faction is not the only one. There is something called the Communist
Youth League of Hu Jintao. It could, therefore, be anybody.
Question: Double question: You did not talk about Hong Kong. Is Hong Kong lost
forever to the Chinese Communist Party? Second question, if you could, what are
the three policies that you would change right away?
Chang: Hong Kong is not lost forever. In Hong Kong, there is an insurgency. We
know from the history of insurgencies that they die away -- and they come back.
We have seen this in Hong Kong. The big protests in Hong Kong, remember, 2003,
2014, 2019. In those interim periods, everyone said, "Oh, the protest movement
is gone." It wasn't.
China has been very effective with its national security law, but there is still
resistance in Hong Kong. There is still a lot of fight there. It may not
manifest itself for quite some time, but this struggle is not over, especially
if the United States stands behind the people there. Biden, although he
campaigned on helping Hong Kong, has done nothing.
On the second question, I would close China's four remaining consulates. I would
also strip the Chinese embassy down to the ambassador and his personal staff.
The thousands who are in Washington, DC, they would be out.
I would also raise tariffs to 3,600%, or whatever. This is a good time to do it.
We have supply chain disruptions. We are not getting products from China anyway.
We can actually start to do this sort of stuff.
The third thing, I would do what Pompeo did, just hammer those guys all the time
verbally. People may think, "Those are just words." For communists, words are
really important, because they are an insecure regime where propaganda is
absolutely critical.
I would be going after the Communists on human rights, I would be going after
them on occupying the South China Sea, on Taiwan, unrelentingly -- because I
would want to show the world that the United States is no longer afraid of
China.
We have taught the world that we are afraid of dealing with the Chinese. State
Department people, they are frightened. We need to say to the Chinese regime,
like Dulles, "I'm not afraid of you. I'm going after you, and I'm going to win."
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