Former US president Donald Trump was once again the target of an assassination attempt, marking the second such incident in two months.
How many more bullets are aimed at American political figures? This event has thrust the issue of escalating political violence in the US into the spotlight.
Politicians have resumed their customary performances in Washington: condemning violence and calling for unity. Yet, behind these lofty words lies a political system spiraling out of control, a beacon slowly dimming.
American media and analysts have offered various explanations: increasing social inequality, political polarization, the spread of fake news, and rampant gun ownership.
Some even provide historical context, suggesting that the political violence has always been part of American politics.
The evolution of America's democratic system to its current state is linked to early defects in this machine. However, it has self-repair capabilities, and the current problem is that this ability is weakening.
It can no longer keep pace with the global progress and development of democracy, nor can it adapt to the political and social developments within the US.
The flaws of this dual-party rivalry are becoming increasingly apparent over time.
The American electoral system is gradually becoming a money game. Whoever has the financial resources can manipulate election outcomes. Corporations and wealthy individuals easily influence policy directions through political donations.
In this process, the voices of ordinary citizens are feeling completely marginalized. This money-driven politics exacerbates social inequality and erodes public confidence in the political system.
The two-party system has devolved into a disingenuous performance. The Republicans and Democrats appear to be at odds, but in reality, they are engaged in a back-and-forth power play.
Their conflicts are not about solving problems but about winning elections. In this process, the true spirit of democracy is cast aside, ultimately deepening societal division and polarization.
Social media in the US has become a tool for spreading lies and hatred. In such an information environment, it is difficult for the public to make rational judgments, and extreme ideologies and conspiracy theories flourish.
The American judicial system has also been politicized. Supreme Court justices are no longer neutral arbiters but have become representatives of party interests. The law is no longer a symbol of justice but a weapon in political struggles. Critically, this machine can no longer solve these problems and instead becomes a creator of issues.
Even the shrewdest politicians cannot discern whether it is societal polarization that has caused party polarization or vice versa.
This touches upon a more fundamental problem: it is the system itself that perpetuates political violence. In other words, the machine's operating system is flawed, not just a few parts or components. It either produces defective outcomes or damages itself in the process.
Washington's politicians seem aware of the severity of the problem but are powerless. They continue to exploit the system for their political gain, attempting to divert attention by creating new adversaries.
America needs a political reform. It needs to redefine what true democracy is and establish a political system that genuinely represents the interests of all people. This inclusivity is crucial for rebuilding the public's confidence in politics.
Meanwhile, Washington's political elites should be careful in using the term "democracy" on the international stage, as it may further remind people to pay greater attention to the challenge they are facing domestically, and damage their reputation.
The bullets are flying, and the potential consequences are grave. Who will they ultimately hit? Let us wait and see.
Climate of fear: Anti-Asian hate crimes and harassment have risen to historic levels during the Covid-19 pandemic. — AFP
“IT’S wrong, it’s un-American and it must stop”, President Joe Biden called out the rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans during the pandemic on Thursday.
“Too often, we’ve turned against one another, ” the president said, denouncing the “vicious hate crimes against Asian Americans, who have been attacked, harassed, blamed and scapegoated.”
Biden noted that the attacks are happening despite the fact that “so many of them, our fellow Americans, ” are health care workers working on the front lines of the pandemic.
“And still, still, they are forced to live in fear for their lives, just walking down streets in America, ” he said.
Many on social media were quick to thank Biden for addressing the issue, saying that “words matter, ” and compared his rhetoric to that of former President Trump, who referred to Covid-19 as “China virus, ” among other derogatory terms.
Although this was not the first time Biden had highlighted it – in his first week in office Biden had issued a memo condemning racism against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders – this wave of violence had remained relatively low profile because it didn’t fit neatly into the standard narrative of race in America.
As Korean American writer Jay Caspian Kang put it in his article in The New York Times, many people don’t realise that Asian Americans comprise people of different ethnic backgrounds “who do not speak the same language and, in many cases, dislike one another.”
Then there is the perception of racial violence in the US as "simply black and white", he added: “What doesn’t exist now is a language to discuss what happens when the attackers caught on video happen to be black.”
There is also a problem of tracking these crimes, which are believed to be under-reported by victims wary of dealing with the police or contributing to the criminalisation of African Americans.
A new report published this week found that while hate crimes fell overall by 7% in 2020, Asian Americans experienced a 150% surge in attacks.
In July 2020, there were more than 2,100 anti-Asian American hate incidents that were directly related to the pandemic. According to Stop AAPI Hate, a tracker supported by Asian American advocacy groups, many of the incidents they tracked included a perpetrator using language similar to Trump’s.
Question of identity
Kiwi Wongpeng was stopping at a traffic light in suburban Cleveland when a man pulled up beside her and motioned for her to roll down the window.
“Get out of my country – that’s an order!” he shouted from his pickup. After a pause, he added: “I’ll kill you.”
It wasn’t her first brush with racism. But she had never heard something so direct and violent until last April, as cities around the country were shutting down amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
The man, she believed, must have mistaken her for Chinese and blamed her for the virus that was first detected in Wuhan, China.
“I’ve felt scared for not just myself, but my community and Asians all over this country, ” said Wongpeng, 34, whose family immigrated to the US from Thailand 20 years ago and runs a Thai restaurant.
Anti-Asian hate crimes climbed in 15 of the 16 cities in the past year, with New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Seattle and San Jose experiencing the most significant increases and their highest tallies in at least five years.
Chinese and Korean restaurants vandalised with anti-Asian epithets and stereotypes – “stop eating dogs, ” said the graffiti on a New York noodle shop. Elderly Asian Americans were shoved on the street in broad daylight. And a Burmese refugee and his children were attacked by a man with a knife.
Brian Levin, director of the Cal State center, described the growth in hatred as one of “historic significance for the nation.”
“Opinion polls, derisive online activity, harassment and crime data have converged to show a vast spread and increase in aggressive behavior toward Asian Americans, ” he said.
In New York, where the number of anti-Asian hate crimes jumped from three to 28, all but four were related to the coronavirus. Many of the 2020 incidents in New York – and across the country – occurred in the early days of the pandemic, when fears ran highest.
That February, an Asian American woman wearing a face mask in a Manhattan subway station was kicked and punched by a man who called her “diseased.”
In March, an Asian American man walking with his 10-year-old son was followed and hit over the head by a stranger who assailed him for not wearing a mask.
In April, an Asian American woman in the Bronx was attacked on a bus by a woman and three teenage girls who hit her with an umbrella and accused her of starting the pandemic.
“There’s no question about it: All Asians feel extra vulnerable because the attacks have definitely increased, ” said Don Lee, a community activist in Brooklyn. “The harassment, the pushing, the shoving.”
The most comprehensive national data on hate crimes comes from the FBI, which defines them as offenses “against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender or gender identity.”
The FBI, which relies on voluntary submissions from law enforcement agencies, is not expected to publish figures for 2020 until November. But all indications suggest it will prove to be a record year for hate crimes targeting Asians.
While most of what is known so far comes from major police departments that have released their own data, Levin said that some of the worst anti-Asian hate crimes occurred in smaller cities – including the attack on the Burmese refugee and his two sons.
Last March, 34-year-old Bawi Cung was grocery shopping at a Sam’s Club in Midland, Texas, when a man grabbed a knife from a nearby rack. Cung was slashed on his face, his 3-year-old was stabbed in the back, and his 6-year-old was stabbed in the face. A Sam’s Club employee intervened, tackling the suspect, 19-year-old Jose Gomez, who was indicted on hate crime and attempted murder charges and is awaiting trial.
“Gomez admitted, he confessed to trying to kill the family, ” said Midland Dist. Atty. Laura Nodolf.
“He thought that they brought the virus here and were trying to spread it” and that “all Asians must be from China.”
“Most people think hate crime, white sheets, white hats, going after someone who is of African descent, ” she said. “This is a whole new dynamic.”
The police department data do not include harassment, which has been vastly more common but is not considered criminal.
Stop AAPI Hate logged 1,990 anti-Asian harassment incidents and 246 assault cases in the 10 months after its launch in March 2020. The victims who Stop AAPI Hate tracked were largely Chinese Americans – 40% – and Korean Americans – 15%.
“That and victim statements tell us that people are likely targeting people who they believe are from China. Covid-19 did not start in Korea, but racists aren’t always accurate, ” stated Stop AAPI Hate.
Historical hatred
Anne Anlin Cheng, a professor of English and American studies at Princeton, believes there is a historical root to the anti-Asian violence spike in the past year.
“This recent onslaught of anti-Asian violence can partly be attributed to former president Trump, who spoke non-stop of the ‘Chinese virus’, but he could not have rallied the kind of hatred that he did without this country’s long history of systemic and cultural racism against people of Asian descent, ” she wrote in The New York Times.
She pointed out that Asian-Americans exist in “a weird but convenient lacuna in American politics and culture.”
If they register at all on the national consciousness, it is either as a foreign threat (the Yellow Peril, the Asian Tiger, the Spy, the Disease Vector) or as the domestic but ultimately disposable prism for deflecting or excusing racism against other minorities, she noted.
What many are not aware of is that our histories are more entangled than how we tell them, she said.
Few people know that many of the same families that amassed wealth through slavery also profited from the opium trade in China, she explained.
“Or that at least 17 Chinese residents were the targeted victims of one of the worst mass lynchings in American history in Los Angeles’ ‘Negro Alley’ in 1871; or that America’s immigration policy and ideas of citizenship were built on top of laws like the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred Chinese labourers from immigrating to the US for 10 years.”
Mari Cobb, a 26-year-old immunology and genomics research lab technician at the University of Chicago, said she has watched in dismay as hatred even hit her. Her mother is Japanese American, and her father is white, which she said is how people usually see her.
This January at a Taco Bell, she was refilling her cup at the soda dispenser when a man approached her.
“The Oriental touched the dispenser!” he yelled. “Stop her! She started this whole thing!”
The reference to Covid-19 was clear.
Cobb later shared her story on Instagram, and eventually it was featured on standagainsthatred.org, a testimonials site launched recently by the advocacy group Asian Americans Advancing Justice.
“Growing up, my mom told me this could happen, ” Cobb said. “But I think my white privilege has prevented me from experiencing a lot.”
In an era of growing activism against racism, she said that concern shouldn’t be limited to Black and Latino communities.
“There’s been an increase in more people trying to actively become anti-racist, and I think that’s great, but I also think you need to include Asian people in that conversation.” — Los Angeles Times/TNS/Agencies
Sanction on Pompeo and 27 anti-China hawks is most gratifying to the people: State Council's HK & Macao Office
Mike Pompeo Photo: AFP
Ten sanctioned US politicians from the Trump eraInfographic: GT
The sanction of US former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and the other 27 anti-China hawks is most gratifying to the people, the Hong Kong and Macao Office of the State Council said on Thursday, saying that the office firmly supports the move.
"It is known to all that Pompeo had wantonly interfered with Hong Kong affairs, maliciously slandered the 'one country, two systems' practice, crazily incited and made sanctions, and severely violated international laws and the norms of international relations. He had severely damaged the China-US ties, destroyed the prosperity and stability of the Hong Kong region and he deserves the sanction," read the release of the office.
Soon after Joe Biden took the oath and became the new US president on January 20, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced sanctions on 28 anti-China politicians in the US for "their selfish political interests, and prejudice and hatred against China, as well as showing no regard for the interests of the Chinese and American people."
The list includes Michael R. Pompeo, Peter K. Navarro, Robert C. O'Brien, David R. Stilwell, Matthew Pottinger, Alex M. Azar II, Keith J. Krach, and Kelly D. K. Craft of the Trump administration, as well as John R. Bolton and Stephen K. Bannon. These individuals and their immediate family members are prohibited from entering the mainland, Hong Kong and Macao of China. They, and any companies or institutions associated with them, are also restricted from doing business with China.
The Hong Kong and Macao office said in the Thursday release that during his years as the secretary of state, Pompeo "successfully" earned fame for his brazen cheating, lying and utter interference with other countries' affairs.
His lunatic political farces showed the international community just how the US hegemony oppresses and attacks China's development, exposing their hypocrisy, arrogance, selfishness and their maliciousness in boasting "democracy, freedom and human rights."
"Pompeo and others used their deeds to remind the international community to keep their eyes sharpened, and from this angle, he may have done one little good thing," read the release.
The Chinese people never believe evil can win. History has proven that any forces that want to interfere with China's internal affairs have failed and found themselves badly beaten. If someone still wants to take any chances in interfering with Hong Kong affairs or even inciting "color revolution" in the region, nothing but shameful failure will await them, according to the release.
The Taiwan Affairs Office of China's State Council and
the government of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Regions
lammed former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over bad behavior on the
Taiwan question and his smear against Xinjiang, as China announced
sanctions on 28 anti-China US politicians on Wednesday night, including
Pompeo.
Strong leaders club: Lee Kuan Yew was an admirer of Reagan and Nixon.— AP Photo/File
The zeitgeist of the world is infused by the character of the US leader. Biden will bring back the civility and generosity that the American spirit is associated with.
THE first American president to enter my personal consciousness was John F. Kennedy. It wasn’t his stirring rhetoric that reached me as a child in Singapore. It was the news of his assassination. The sense of loss was globally palpable. History has been kind to him.
He was succeeded by Lyndon Baines Johnson. As a child, I was puzzled. How could someone so ugly succeed someone who was so attractive? Indeed, he was boorish. Legend has it that he would summon his staff to meetings while sitting on his toilet seat, doing his business.
Still, history will be kind to him. His bold and massive civil rights legislation changed the course of US history. Which may explain why he has the most voluminous and still unfinished biography of any recent American president, in the four volumes by Robert Caro.
History has been unkind to Richard Nixon, his successor. Watergate killed him. The liberal media has not forgiven him. Yet there’s no doubt that he changed the course of human history. Without Nixon, Henry Kissinger could not have gone to China.
Lee Kuan Yew named Nixon as the greatest American president he had met, saying: “But for the misfortune of Watergate, I would say Richard Nixon. He had a realistic view of the world. He was a great analyst, realistic, but also a tactician to get things done.”
When Nixon stepped down, Lee lost a true friend in the White House, a major asset for the leader of a small country.
This partially explained the contempt Lee had for Jimmy Carter, whom he considered naive. In Tom Plate’s book, Giants Of Asia: Conversations With Lee Kuan Yew, Lee named Carter the worst president, saying of him: “Your job as a leader is to inspire and to galvanise, not to share your distraught thoughts. You make your people dispirited.”
Fortunately, Carter was succeeded by the two-term Ronald Reagan, another admirer of Lee. I was present when they met in the White House. Still, as a Singapore diplomat in Washington and New York during Reagan’s era, I experienced the condescension the liberal media displayed towards him. However, history has been very kind to Reagan, especially because of his spectacular victory over the Soviet Union.
Reagan was succeeded by another great friend and admirer of Lee, George H. W. Bush. I was present in a small room in St Petersburg, Russia, in the late 1990s, when Bush confirmed that the No 1 leader he admired in the world was Lee.
I reported this to him. Sadly, Bush became a one-term president, and his departure was another huge blow to Lee.
The point of these stories is a simple one. The selection of an American president has huge consequences for the world, including Singapore.
What Biden offers
Indeed, given the overwhelming power of America, especially in the media and communication dimensions, the zeitgeist of the world is infused by the character and personality of the American president.
Donald Trump’s narcissistic and self-absorbed personality has deprived the world of a major source of inspiration, especially after Barack Obama.
So what does the election of Joe Biden bring to the world? Will good times return? The short answer is yes and no.
Biden is a truly decent human being. He will bring back the civility and generosity that the American spirit is associated with.
However, Biden also knows that he is taking over a deeply divided country, as demonstrated by the huge numbers who voted for Trump even though he was defeated. His priority is to heal his country, not create a better world.
Nonetheless, Biden has at least three opportunities he can capitalise on to retain his positive glow.
First, he can bring back some boredom to the White House. Both America and the world have become exhausted by Trump’s tweets and in-your-face presence. Some calm and reticence by the Biden administration will help to return the world to a certain degree of normalcy.
Biden knows that he cannot do this alone. Fortunately, he has assembled a formidable transitional team of real American heavyweights. They share Biden’s distress over the divisions in the country. Repairing the wounds in American society and bringing back a happy America will be the main priority.
The second opportunity is geopolitical. Biden cannot reverse the US-China geopolitical contest, for reasons I have documented in my book, Has China Won? He would be persecuted if he is seen to be soft on China. Yet, even if he cannot reverse course on China, he can press the pause button on the contest.
Americans believe in common sense. Simple common sense would say that Americans should first deal with the pressing challenges of Covid-19 and economic slowdown, not to mention global warming.
All these problems would be better handled with some degree of cooperation with China. Just as Winston Churchill partnered an adversary, Joseph Stalin, to defeat Adolf Hitler, Biden can partner a competitor, China, to defeat Covid19. Both Nixon and Lee would have approved such a Machiavellian manoeuvre against a common foe.
The third opportunity lies in stopping America’s drift towards a plutocracy. One key reason why Trump was elected in 2016 was because of the “sea of despair” among the white working classes. This is because America is the only major developed economy where the average income of the bottom 50% has gone down. The anguish of these white working classes must be dealt with. Some redistribution must take place.
Reagan delegitimised taxes. Biden must re-legitimise them. And, if America’s many plutocrats are wise, they would support him.
In short, Biden can apply some gentle soothing balm on the many wounds generated by the Trump presidency. His greatest asset is his decency. Plain decency will bring a lot of healing to America. Trump may have been cruel to call him “Sleepy Joe”. Yet a “Sleepy Joe” and calm American presidency may be good for America and the world.
By KISHORE MAHBUBANI
Kishore Mahbubani is a distinguished fellow at the Asia Research
Institute, National University of Singapore, and the author of ‘Has The
West Lost It?’ and ‘Has China Won?’-ANN
US election result in balance on final day of campaign - BBC News
U.S. cities brace for unrest ahead of Election Day
Law enforcement, local, and state officials are anticipating unrest and violence following the presidential election -- regardless of who wins. Many cities nationwide are boarding up businesses, apartment buildings, and government offices in preparation. Security expert Roderick Jones joins CBSN's Elaine Quijano to discuss what Americans can expect.
Over 46 million people have been infected, with more than
1.2 million deaths. This has become a worldwide humanitarian crisis. To
end it, the world should at least have an objective knowledge of it and
unite against it. But the world has failed in both aspects due to the
US
Strong words are being hurled at each other but there is calibration in the cursing.
THERE’S this memorable anecdote in Mario Puzo’s crime classic, The Godfather, where the mafia don from New York sends his henchman to reason with a Hollywood mogul who is standing in the way of his godson getting a film role perfect for him in every way, except that he has alienated the studio big shot who now hates his guts.
Where words fail, more potent nudges are sometimes needed – in this case, a horse’s head placed in the studio chief’s bedroom while he is asleep, blood and reedy tendons included, did the trick. It persuaded the man that the favour requested, and declined, is serious business. And thus he yields, shouting invectives and threats at the actor and his Italian origins, the consigliere who had reached out to him with the initial contact on behalf of his boss, and the mafia.
But not a word against the Godfather, himself. Genius, writes Puzo, has its rewards.
There’s no special genius, and even less reward, in the acrimonious exchanges that are causing a tailspin in ties between the world’s two biggest military powers and economies.
If anything, it bespeaks dangerous brinkmanship as a once-overwhelmingly dominant hegemon confronts a resolute challenger now picking a cue or two from its own playbook on how to throw weight around.
Nevertheless, the curses the movie mogul held back from uttering came to mind as I checked around the region about the goings-on at the Asean Ministerial Meeting and related meetings with dialogue partners hosted earlier this month by Vietnam.
Perhaps the two warring sides were mildly cramped by the fact that the conference did not take place in a single hall but over video link. Even so, while both the United States and China did robustly put forth their positions, each seemed to be taking care to keep the attacks from getting too immoderate.
Indeed, the rare frisson, according to Asian diplomats privy to the talks, came when China’s Vice-Foreign Minister Luo Zhaohui, standing in for Foreign Minister Wang Yi, dropped an acid comment about “drunken elephants in the room”.
Faint light at the end of the dark tunnel of US-China ties? Maybe not. But then again, maybe.
Some cultures, particularly in Asia, teach their young that even insults have to be measured; if you spit up at a person high above you, the mucus falls back on yourself. If you do that to someone far below you, it is a waste of time to descend so low. Insults have to be exchanged between equals. But most important of all, never insult so completely that the door to a reconciliation is closed forever. Perhaps that’s what we are witnessing.
A real estate and casino mogul before he ran for his first elected office, which happened to be the US presidency, the New York-born and raised Donald Trump, whose most trusted counsel is close family, has ordered his administration to pile on his strategic adversary the most intense pressure seen in a halfcentury. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has enthusiastically fallen in line, as have his key deputies, including Max Pottinger. Other arms of US government such as the Pentagon have fallen in line as well.
In July, two aircraft carrier groups led by the USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan conducted war games in the South China Sea, joined by subsurface vessels and nuclear-armed bombers. Technology links built up over decades are being torn apart like the wanton act of a child and within the US, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is putting Chinese nationals and Americans of Chinese ethnicity under unprecedented scrutiny.
Trump’s long arm has even snatched Meng Wanzhou, the powerful daughter of the Huawei founder, one of China’s most respected tech tycoons.
Chinese diplomats and media have pushed back, and unfeelingly for a nation where the virus was first identified, sometimes suggesting that the US could learn a lesson or two from Beijing on how to control a pandemic. Also mocked at have been the racial tensions and the rioting that have scarred the US in the wake of the pandemic and the resultant economic hardship.
Nevertheless, through it all, most of the US vitriol has targeted the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), not the Chinese nation.
In a landmark speech in July at the Nixon Presidential Library, Pompeo declared that the “free world must triumph over this new tyranny”. At the Asean forum earlier this month, he underlined US “commitment to speak out in the face of the Chinese Communist Party’s escalating aggression and threats to sovereign nations”.
This week, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs David Stilwell began his testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by saying he was there to “discuss the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party to the US and the global order” in three geographical regions, before going on to say that “it is now clear to us, and to more and more countries around the world, that the CCP under general secretary Xi Jinping... seeks to disrupt and reshape the international environment around the narrow self-centred interests and authoritarian values of a single beneficiary, the Chinese Communist Party”.
Just as the US has tried to separate the CCP from the Chinese people, Trump and Xi have been careful to not throw barbs directly at each other.
Indeed, Trump has claimed to have a “tremendous relationship” with Xi and he has described Xi as a “man who truly loves his country” and is “extremely capable”. He has also stressed that the two will be friends “no matter what happens with our dispute on trade”, and he also has spoken of his liking and “great respect” for China. On the other side, Chinese anger seems to be largely directed at Pompeo, rather than his boss.
At a recent panel discussion I moderated for the FutureChina Global Forum, I asked Professor Randall Kroszner, former member of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System and who currently serves on the advisory board of the Paulson Institute, which works to promote US-China ties, whether he saw wiggle room for a patch-up after the election.
“Ultimately, there’s an understanding that major economic and military powers need to have connections, need to be able to talk and work with each other,” Prof Kroszner responded.
“There is a lot of manoeuvring and posturing that’s going on right now, but I don’t think anyone wants to burn any bridges. They want to make sure the bridges are still there, even if there are some blockades now.
“(That said) I don’t see those obstacles being removed right now.”
For now, of course, it does look as though things will get worse before they get better.
In July, the US shifted position on the South China Sea, proclaiming that it held as illegal all of China’s claims outside its territorial waters. This has emboldened some, Vietnam and the Philippines particularly, to be more assertive with China over the South China Sea dispute.
Still, some in Asean suspect a certain fakery in all this, a sense that a lot of the noise coming from the US is mere posturing. There are few illusions about China either.
Indeed, the lull in assertive Chinese behaviour in the South China Sea witnessed in the lead-up to the Asean ministerial meet and forums is generally seen as nothing more than temporary easing of pressure to get a “good meeting”.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein spoke for many when he said the South China Sea issue “must be managed and resolved in a rational manner” and Asean has to “look at all avenues, all approaches, to ensure our region is not complicated further by other powers”.
Indeed, some even think Trump is capable of doing a deal with Beijing the week after election day, should he win.
Already, the latest iteration of the TikTok deal is being called by some analysts as a watered-down version of what Trump originally sought to demand, something that had been on the table months ago, although it is not quite clear if China could live with it.
Likewise, it is not lost that China has held back on announcing its own blacklist of US firms – “unreliable entity list” as it is called, although its intentions were announced more than a year ago.
Beijing is said to be staying its hand to both not exacerbate tensions, as well as to wait for the US election results. While the document explaining the unreliable entity list is 1,500 characters long, the attached clarifications are double in length – suggesting much of this is shadow play.
If a deal needs to be made, the Pompeos and Pottingers can always be switched out and more moderate voices brought in; Trump does not shrink from letting people go. Indeed, given that he is said to harbour ambitions about a 2024 presidential run, it might even help Pompeo’s political career to be made a casualty of a rapprochement with China, so he can distance himself from the deal.
Still, it hardly needs to be said that Trump is capable of busting every code in the book, spoken or unspoken. With the election looming and his own standing in pre-election surveys not looking too promising, he let fly this week at the United Nations, returning to his “China virus” theme, boasting about three US-developed vaccines in Phase III trials, and the unprecedented rearmament of America under his watch. America’s weapons, he declared, “are at an advanced level, like we’ve never had before, like, frankly, we’ve never even thought of having before”.
Judging from Chinese media, Beijing read it for what it was; while made to a global audience, the speech was targeted at the domestic voting public. Nevertheless, it did not go without a response.
An editorial comment in the Global Times on Wednesday reminded Trump that the “hysterical attack on China violated the diplomatic etiquette a top leader is supposed to have”.
In short, never omit to leave that bit of margin for a future reconciliation.
by Ravi Velloor, is an associate editor at The Straits Times, a member of the Asia News Network (ANN) which is an alliance of 24 news media entities. The Asian Editors Circle is a series of commentaries by editors and contributors of ANN.
Trump's speech jeopardized the atmosphere of this UN
General Assembly, and threw the assembly's theme astray. His hysterical
attack on China violated the diplomatic etiquette a top leader is
supposed to have. This means Washington elites do not take the UN into
consideration and pay no heed to diplomacy.
Both Xi and Trump addressed the General Debate on Tuesday
with pre-recorded videos. Xi emphasized unity and cooperation, while
Trump mentioned China 12 times, making the country his most outstanding
stunt. Judging from such different performances, it is easy to tell
which side was more reliable. If the 21st century would finally become a
century of divisions, the US ruling elites shall be regarded as the
sinners of history.
As strong as the US is, it's not a country that serves
its people heart and soul. That's why the coronavirus is so ravaging in
the world's most developed country.
Foreign Minister Wang was furious and seriously warned the United States that 2 million troops are ready at any time?
1. At the press conference, a reporter asked Wang Yi, a spokesperson for the outreach ministry: US President Trump wanted to send his own investigator to China to investigate the epidemic-related situation. If China has deliberate responsibility for the spread of the virus, Need to bear the consequences, do you have any comments?
2. Wang Yi’s answer: The virus is the common enemy of all mankind and may appear at any time and anywhere. Like other countries, China has been attacked by the new coronavirus and is the victim, not the perpetrator, nor the virus. "accomplice".
At that time, H1N1 flu was first diagnosed in the United States and broke out in a large area, spreading to 214 countries and regions, resulting in the death of nearly 200,000 people. Has anyone asked the United States to compensate?
In the 1980s, AIDS was first discovered in the United States and quickly spread to the world, causing pain to many people and many families. Has anyone sought compensation from the United States?
The financial turmoil that occurred in the United States in 2008, Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, and eventually evolved into a global financial crisis. Does anyone demand compensation from the United States?
The United States must be clear that their enemy is a virus, not China.
3. Wang Yi went on to say: If Trump and Pompeo were not guilty of geriatric madness, then they should be clear that China is not the one that was allowed to be trampled on by the "eight-nation coalition", nor is China even Iraq. Venezuela, not Syria, is not where you want to come, what you want to check.
China is not guilty, but you are not qualified, nor are you qualified! In the early stage of the epidemic, we took the initiative to invite WHO and Chinese experts to conduct a joint inspection in the epidemic area, and put forward preliminary inspection results on the outbreak and spread of new coronavirus.
The investigation request made by Trump is purely unreasonable and is a manifestation of hegemony. They override the United States above international organizations and all humankind, and it seems that only they can be trusted. But is the United States really credible? Iraq and Venezuela are a lesson.
4. We have to warn Trump that if we want to calculate China's abacus, it is better to think about it. Because 1.4 billion people will not agree, China's 2 million army is not a decoration, but China's steel Great Wall. China's Dongfeng missiles are not used to rake, but to fight dog jackals.
China's nuclear submarines are not used to travel on the seabed, but to combat uninvited guests. Chinese nuclear weapons are not used to frighten anyone, but from self-defense. Anyone who wants to taste something, think about it, you tell me.
5. We want to warn Trump that if China wants compensation, it will count from the time when the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded China, until the cases that Wang Yi has just proposed are counted together. You have to compensate the old historical accounts of China and the world.
6. Now China is in a very good position in the world, the first to control the new coronary pneumonia, the first to enter the stage of economic recovery, and now it is to increase horsepower to export anti-epidemic materials to the world, China is catching up with the total economy The time to go beyond the United States is also greatly advanced. This is unacceptable to Trump. The United States has been dragged into the quagmire by Trump. At this time, Trump wants to make China and the world feel better. Harmfulness is indispensable, anti-Trumping indispensability is absolutely indispensable, and wicked people have their own harvest!
I hope that every Chinese can turn this article out so that our China becomes stronger and stronger and support all patriotic groups.
by Ravi Velloor, is an associate editor at The Straits Times, a member of the Asia News Network (ANN) which is an alliance of 24 news media entities. The Asian Editors Circle is a series of commentaries by editors and contributors of ANN.
