August 2020

He says this about himself: “The real source of satisfaction and success in today’s global dynamic jungle is not to blur your spirit and ambitions solely by traditional points of view and conservative concepts. Instead, let your unbiased and unprejudiced observations, imagination and faith grasp the endless learning opportunities and develop your own humble presence & happiness in this new world.“ Gordon broke up from a successful business career in The Netherlands and lives in Beijing where he is the founder and CEO at Dumoco Natural Ingredients. About this, he says: “I am passionate about trying to promote a better China understanding in the ‘outside world’. That is why 5iZ has been born – to stimulate a more complete and wider perspective on China today. I’ve lived in China since 2009 and when people ask me how is life as an expat in China, I always emphasize that I am...

Originally published as an editorial at Transcend on August 10, 2020 Connecting dots is neither the trend of our times nor of day-to-day political decision-making. Over the years, time, space and intellectual focus has shrunk. It’s deplorable and dangerous for an increasingly complex world facing increasingly existential challenges. For instance, during the European refugee crisis the dots between wars and refugee movements were hardly ever made. The focus was on how to limit refugees getting into Europe but hardly ever on the wars from which they fled. Western wars are untouchables. The lack of connections between the dots of the Corona and security – human security in particular – would be another example. The present author would see the handling of the Corona pandemic as the most fundamental documentation of the fact that not a single government has practised security the right way: billions of taxpayers’ dollars have been spent...

Ola & Erni FriholtTFF Associerade & Fredsrörelsen på Orust 26:e augusti, 2020 I vår publikation från 2019 kommenterades broschyren ”Om krisen eller kriget kommer”, som sändes till de svenska hushållen hösten 2018 från Myndigheten för samhällsskydd och beredskap (MSB). Dess innehåll är chockerande ytligt. Vår kommentar utgick från den aktuella verkligheten och dess krav på dramatiska förändringar i samhällsutvecklingen. I föreliggande skrift ”Värdland. Del II av ”Krisen pågår – Vad gör vi?” behandlar vi det tekniskt utvecklade samhällets sårbarhet och omöjligheten att skydda det med militära medel. Alternativ finns. De kräver att vi genomskådar de rådande föreställningarna om militära hot mot Östersjöområdet. Dessa formas och propageras av egenintressen hos västvärldens maktgrupperingar och hindrar en fredlig utveckling såväl som välfärds-, miljö- och klimatinsatser. När detta skrevs var coronaepidemin ännu inte en europeisk angelägenhet. De insikter om säkerhet som nu uppstår stärker vår bild av vad säkerhetspolitik bör vara. Nu finns tillfälle...

Pepe Escobar August 26, 2020 Let’s start with the story of an incredibly disappearing summit. Every August, the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) converges to the town of Beidaihe, a seaside resort some two hours away from Beijing, to discuss serious policies that then coalesce into key planning strategies to be approved at the CCP Central Committee plenary session in October. The Beidaihe ritual was established by none other than Great Helmsman Mao, who loved the town where, not by accident, Emperor Qin, the unifier of China in the 3rd century B.C., kept a palace. 2020 being, so far, a notorious Year of Living Dangerously, it’s no surprise that in the end Beidaihe was nowhere to be seen. Yet Beidaihe’s invisibility does not mean it did not happen. Exhibit 1 was the fact that Premier Li Keqiang simply disappeared from public view for nearly two weeks – after...

Erni & Ola FriholtTFF Associerade och Fredsrörelsen på Orust 26:e augusti 2020 Obesvärat av coronatidens bromskrafter ökar historiens tåg farten. Vi märker i våra kupéer hur det förbisusande landskapet ändrar karaktär, med torra brandhärjade slätter och skogar, avlösta av slagregn och översvämningar under en blixtrande mörk himmel. I skrivande stund står en tredjedel av Bangladesh under vatten, ett land med 150 miljoner invånare. Människor på flykt söker skydd där de kan, här och där undsatta av stater som samarbetar för allas säkerhet. Samtidigt rapporterar den holländske journalisten Geert Mak om hatfyllda utfall från USAs ledande militärer, som pekar ut de skyldiga i Ryssland, Mellanöstern och allra mest Kina. Han talar om vikten av att hålla samman ett insiktsfullt, fredligt EU som motor i en utveckling i fred och samarbete. Vi sitter alla i historiens framrusande tåg, en del med gardinerna fördragna i hopp om att kunna stiga av i en...

August 24, 2020 Michael Wong Vice President of Veterans For Peace, Chapter 69 America vs. China: “A Clash of Civilizations” Hillary Clinton famously said, “’I don’t want my grandchildren to live in a world dominated by the Chinese.”   During his tenure, President Obama launched his “Pivot to Asia,” moving 60% of US naval power to bases surrounding China, developing the Trans Pacific Partnership treaty specifically to economically isolate China, making Air-Sea Battle the official US doctrine explicitly to contain China militarily, and announcing boldly that his aim was to contain China’s economic rise.  Not surprisingly, China reacted with alarm. The Cold War was long over, China’s economic rise was a peaceful one, it had no aggressive intentions towards the US or anyone, and prior to Obama’s “Pivot to Asia,” relations had been stable and tension low, China argued. Such arguments from China, however, were dismissed by US leaders.    Originally published at peacepivot.org...

Photo: U.S. President Richard Nixon and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai toast, Feb. 25, 1972. (White House/Wikimedia Commons) A rant by Mike Pompeo regarding what the U.S. should do with China led to a fruitful exchange between an old China, and an old Soviet hand, writes Ray McGovern. August 24. 2020 Ray McGovern Quick. Somebody tell Mike Pompeo. The secretary of state is not supposed to play the role of court jester — the laughing stock to the world. There was no sign that any of those listening to his “major China policy statement” last Thursday at the Nixon Library turned to their neighbor and said, “He’s kidding, right? Richard Nixon meant well but failed miserably to change China’s behavior? And now Pompeo is going to put them in their place?” Originally published at consortiumnews.com Yes, that was Pompeo’s message. The torch has now fallen to him and the free world. Here’s...

Iran’s foreign minister, Dr Mohamad Javad Zarif, says the United States has no right to abuse mechanisms enshrined in a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and six world powers to restore UN sanctions against the Islamic Republic after they were lifted under the accord. I had the pleasure to comment on this on Iran’s PressTV on August 21, 2020 – just click on this image: The points both the minister and I made were, a couple of days later, confirmed in a longer analysis published on OpinioJuris – “Pompeo’s Attempt to “Snapback” UN Security Council Sanctions on Iran—“Cut That Out!” by Larry D. Johnson who is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Law School and the former UN Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs. I find it amazing that the United States seems to believe that it could get away with such an unrealistic attempts at eating the cake and have it...

Dilip Hiro August 20, 2020 (Tomdispatch.com) – For the Trump administration’s senior officials, it’s been open season on bashing China. If you need an example, think of the president’s blame game about “the invisible Chinese virus” as it spreads wildly across the U.S. When it comes to China, in fact, the ever more virulent criticism never seems to stop. Between the end of June and the end of July, four members of his cabinet vied with each other in spewing anti-Chinese rhetoric. That particular spate of China bashing started when FBI Director Christopher Wray described Chinese President Xi Jinping as the successor to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. It was capped by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s clarion call to U.S. allies to note the “bankrupt” Marxist-Leninist ideology of China’s leader and the urge to “global hegemony” that goes with it, insisting that they would have to choose “between freedom and...

Here’s what a new President ought to do in the first two weeks to put the US on a fundamentally new course, not the least in terms of White House dignity and a new foreign policy Andrew Bacevich Assume Joe Biden wins the presidency. Assume as well that he genuinely intends to repair the damage our country has sustained since we declared ourselves history’s “Indispensable Nation,” compounded by the traumatic events of 2020 that demolished whatever remnants of that claim survived. Assume, that is, that this aging career politician and creature of the Washington establishment really intends to salvage something of value from all that has been lost. If he seriously intends to be more than a relic of pre-Trump liberal centrism, how exactly should President Biden go about making his mark?Here, free of charge, Joe, is an action plan that will get you from Election Night through your first...

Gregory Shupak August 20, 2020 Corporate media are laying the ideological groundwork for a new cold war with China, presenting the nation as a hostile power that needs to be kept in check. Mitt Romney (Washington Post,  4/23/20) says “Covid-19 has exposed China’s dishonesty for all to see.” The Washington Post (4/23/20) ran an article by Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, the second sentence of which said, “The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed that, to a great degree, our very health is in Chinese hands; from medicines to masks, we are at Beijing’s mercy.” America, in this conception, is under Chinese domination, a tyranny that’s evidently imposed not only by the Chinese government, but by Chinese people generally. Originally published by FAIR on May 15, 2020 here Details like the US having more than 21 times as many nuclear warheads as China, or the fact that it’s the US dollar and not...

Richard Baum August 19, 2020 What does China’s “One Country, Two Systems” policy mean? And how well did it work? If you’ve watched news coverage of public protests in Hong Kong, you’ll know “One Country, Two Systems” refers to how mainland China promised to govern Hong Kong after Great Britain gave up control there in 1997. It means communist oversight of a capitalist economy and culture. It also refers to China’s relationship with Taiwan. In this lecture from 2010, “China’s Lost Territories: Taiwan, Hong Kong,” by Richard Baum for The Great Courses Plus, examine the reunification of Hong Kong with China in 1997 and the system that granted domestic autonomy to Hong Kong under Chinese sovereignty. Then it tracks Taiwan’s transition to democracy, the turbulent movements for and against independence from China, and Beijing’s ongoing strategic efforts to reclaim the island. Originally found on The Great Courses Plus’s Youtube channel,...