Month: July 2020

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Quick Analysis

“I Spy” and Other Chinese Influence Operations

Chinese law requires all its citizens, including those living overseas, to spy for the regime when “requested” to do so. There is no option to decline. It threatens families at home and employs even more coercive measures overseas. Sometimes, the appeal is made by labeling the “request” an act of patriotism. Always, it is outside the internationally-accepted norms of public diplomacy. China’s corps of military-civilian spies, however, are only one tool among many in Beijing’s arsenal of weapons. Covid-19 finally is waking the world to this dark side of China.

Nations are growing more aware of the extent of China’s covert influence peddling and other espionage operations due to the regime’s increasingly aggressive behavior and blatantly false pandemic narrative. The West exposed the CCP’s futile attempt to deflect blame from its actions related to the pandemic. But that doesn’t mean influence peddling has stopped. It still is an instrument China uses quite effectively in its intelligence operations. By engaging overseas Chinese, or foreign individuals, it is able to extract praise for Beijing in exchange for money or favors. This is the case in Australia. It is a mixture of bribery and extortion. China uses it pervasively in many countries, not just Australia. The goal is to alter world opinion to favor China and the CCP leadership. China’s desperation to do so in light of the Covid-19 environment is obvious.

China also is using some of the accolades it purchases to reinforce the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party at home. It needs these foreign narratives praising China to convince the country’s domestic audience that the CCP remains the sole source of all that is good. The reality, however, is at odds with the false Covid-19 narratives. The world is starting to recognize and unify against China’s tactics.

An October 3, 1903, editorial in The Nation called for exposing Tammany Hall and the unscrupulous alliances surrounding it. “This, the most serious menace to the cause of good government, cannot be handled with kid gloves.” A century later the Covid-19 pandemic finally is persuading Americans to tear off the kid gloves when it comes to exposing China’s covert operations. Beijing makes Tammany Hall look pubescent in the level of sophistication and breadth of its bribery, extortion and overseas coercive operations.  

Before the pandemic one might have assumed praise for China simply was related to “public diplomacy” efforts by Beijing. There are, however, significant legal differences. China bribes, coerces, and threatens overseas Chinese and others to ensure they present the positive picture that President Xi Jinping and the CCP want the world to see. It is not real. From China’s perspective, it is painting a picture to help it achieve its end goals. Honest public diplomacy, in contrast, is about open and transparent government efforts to communicate with foreign audiences to build public support for strategic objectives by providing new information and perspectives.

China is a beautiful country but an extremely dangerous nation-state today. Everyone is familiar with tales of the celestial emperor, revered by non-Han peoples kowtowing before him and offering up treasures. China still views itself as the Middle Kingdom with President Xi Jinping playing the role of a modern day celestial emperor. He is demanding fealty from the world and attempting to dominate politically around the globe as did China’s early emperors. Militarily Xi seeks hegemon status. To accomplish his end goals Xi assumes an aggressive posture toward his own citizens. He consciously commits acts verging on genocide to subdue minority opposition to his harsh policies. The world watched as Tibet, the Uyghur minority, and now Hong Kong fell victim to his edicts.

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The west must become more wary of Xi Jinping, the CCP, and its ongoing influence-peddling. China is using it to regain what the Communist leadership sees as their lost right to rule, due to the Unequal Treaties imposed by the West over 100 years ago. China’s influence operations in Australia serve as a stark reminder and warning to the unsuspecting. Australia has a large overseas Chinese population, receives a large number of tourists, and invites in visiting university students who pay full tuition to attend its universities. Does this sound familiar to what is happening in the United States today?

Xi Jinping and the CCP leadership made the decision to try to strip the United States of its alliances. Australia was just one of its targets. Since Canberra has extensive trade relations with Beijing and there is a large Chinese diaspora, influence operations were part of the plan. The CCP paid legislators to change their vote on Australia’s position on the South China Sea, an extradition treaty with China, and on Covid-19 inquiries.  In the long run, however, China failed. Australia woke up and took action just as the US needs to do today.

It took Australia time to garner enough legislators willing to stand up to China and vote for Australian interests first. It was late 2018 when Australia finally passed a law prohibiting foreign donations to political campaigns. The important point is that Australia did stop China from funneling millions of dollars through businessmen and hundreds of community and patriotic organizations. China used an old Soviet Cold War era play book in its attempt to coopt Australia. The United States and other western nations can’t allow China to go unchecked any longer.

DARIA NOVAK served in the United States State Department during the Reagan Administration, and currently is on the Board of the American Analysis of News and Media Inc., which publishes usagovpolicy.com and the New York Analysis of Policy and Government.  Each Friday, she presents key updates on China.

Illustration: Pixabay

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Iran Arms Violate treaties

Substantial problems with Iran’s conventional and nuclear weapons moves continue to cause great concern. 

The Islamic Republic is using its arsenal of conventional weapons to destabilize the Middle East and foment sectarian violence and terrorism across the region, notes a United Nations report.

The weapons used to attack Saudi Arabia last September were of Iranian origin. Iran intentionally misled the world by claiming that the Houthis were responsible for the attack. According to the U.S. State Department, “This new finding by the UN Secretary-General underscores Iran’s connection to the brazen attack on Saudi Arabia.”

The United Nations has also concluded that arms and related materiel seized off the coast of Yemen in November 2019 and February 2020 were of Iranian origin. The fact that these items were seized outside of Iran is indicative of an arms embargo violation by that the Tehran regime.

The State Department has emphasized that Iran continues to defy the Security Council by providing arms to groups abroad in contravention of the arms embargo, including to proxy groups and terrorist organizations across the Middle East, such as in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, and Bahrain. These groups use Iranian weapons, training, and funding to destabilize the region and spread violence.

The United States wants the U.N. to extend the arms embargo, arguing that a failure to do so, according to the State Department, “will risk greater violence and instability in the region. With fewer arms restrictions, Iran will transfer even more weapons.”

Beyond being the root of many Middle East problems, it has become evident that Iran’s ballistic missile activity defies repeated calls by the U.N. Security Council.  Iran has also violated its commitments on ending nuclear weapons development.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is pressing the U.N. Security Council to expand its pressure on Tehran, and keep the arms restrictions on indefinitely.   The U.S. notes that “At no point in the last decade has Iran’s behavior shown it would be appropriate to lift the arms embargo…” Pompeo urged that a broader outlook is necessary. “Don’t just take it from me or the United States, listen to countries in the region, from Israel, the Gulf, countries in the Middle East who are most exposed to Iran’s predations are speaking with a single voice: extend the arms embargo.”

Tensions between Washington and Tehran are ratcheting up.  Israeli journalist Barak Ravid reports that Brian Hook, the State Department’s Special representative for Iran Policy, stated during an interview that a military option to prevent that nation from gaining nuclear weapons remains “on the table.”

Because of Iran’s repeated violations, the United States pulled out of the nuclear agreement in May 2018 and reimposed sanctions as part of what it calls a “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran. Washington has argued it can trigger a “snapback” mechanism on UN sanctions and the arms embargo because it was a signatory to the agreement in 2015 and Iran has since not fully complied with its commitments.

The United States has formally asked the 15-member Security Council to extend the UN embargo, which is set to be progressively eased beginning in October under UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which enshrined the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.

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Veto-wielding Russia and China have said they oppose the U.S. move and have questioned Washington’s right to use a disputed legal move to force a return of UN sanctions on Iran.

The U.S. Department of Defense provided this analysis of Iran’s military strength:

“The Iranian military largely relies on three core capabilities: first is ballistic missiles; the second are naval forces capable of threatening navigation in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz; and the third is unconventional capabilities including the use of partners and proxies abroad.  

“Iran’s ballistic missiles constitute a primary component of its strategic deterrent.  Lacking a modern air force, Iran has embraced ballistic missiles as a long-range strike capability to dissuade its adversaries from attacking Iran.  Iran also has the largest missile force in the Middle East, with substantial inventory of close-range ballistic missiles, short-range ballistic missiles and medium-range ballistic missiles that can strike targets throughout the region as far as 2,000 kilometers away.  Iran will deploy an increasing number of more accurate and lethal theater ballistic missiles, improve its existing missile inventory and also field new land attack cruise missiles.  Iran’s developments of its space launch vehicle program could also serve as the test bed for the development of intercontinental ballistic missile technologies.

“Secondly, Iran’s naval capabilities emphasize an anti-access area denial strategy.  Benefiting from Iran’s geostrategic position along the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s layered maritime capabilities emphasize asymmetric tactics using numerous platforms and weapons intended to overwhelm an adversary’s naval force.  The full range of these capabilities includes ship- and shore-launched anti-ship cruise missiles, small boats, naval mines, submarines, unmanned aerial vehicles, anti-ship ballistic missiles and air defenses.  

“Iran’s use of partners, proxies and unconventional warfare is central to its regional influence and deterrent strategy.  The IRGC Qods Force, Iran’s primary tool for unconventional operations, maintains a wide network of non-state partners, proxies and affiliates throughout the region.  Iran provides a range of financial, political, training and material support to groups which would include Hezbollah, Iraqi Shia militant groups, the Houthis in Yemen, some Palestinian groups, the Taliban and Bahraini Shia militants.

“Another point of concern to the United States and our allies is Iran’s rapid progress in advancing its UAV capabilities.  Iran sees these as versatile platforms for a variety of missions, including Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, or ISR, and air-to-ground strikes and has steadily expanded its UAV inventory.  Iran has deployed various armed and unarmed UAVs to Syria and Iraq for ISR and strike missions.

“Iran is also strengthening its integrated air defense systems through domestic production as well as foreign acquisition.  Iran is fielding more capable domestically developed surface to air missiles and radar systems, and in 2016, acquired the Russian SA-20C air defense system, which provided Iran with its first capability to defend itself against a modern Air Force.

“In the cyber domain, Tehran views cyberspace operations as a safe, low-cost method to collect information and retaliate against perceived threats, and Iran’s regime is continuing to improve its cyber capabilities.”

Photo: Shab-3 missile (Federation of  American Scientist)

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A City Imperiled, a Nation Endangered

New York’s descent is a microcosm of the challenges facing the entire nation.  Its’ repeated pattern of chaos under “progressive” rule, followed by revival when more rational administrations take hold, is an object lesson in how to, and how not to, govern effectively.

Bill de Blasio is an updated and even more radical version of another wholly failed leftist mayor, David Dinkins. In the early 1990’s, Dinkins served as the Big Apple’s chief executive.  He was soft on those who rioted, created disorder, and committed crime. He presided over record high taxes. He dwelled on that which disunited his constituents, including, especially, his use of the phrase “Gorgeous Mosaic,” denoting groups which retained their identity instead of becoming culturally united as Americans, as opposed to the use of the more familiar “Melting Pot”  which described the  molding of disparate groups into a united citizenry.

Dinkins was more interested in spending on social service programs as a way of fighting poverty, rather than in expanding job opportunities through business growth.

The result was disastrous. Urban experts began calling New York the “Ungovernable City.” Crime soared. Businesses were discouraged.

Rudolph Giuliani ended Dinkins’ hope for a second term, and immediately began replacing progressive policies with rational government. He emphasized tough crime fighting, holding city agencies accountable, and fiscal discipline. He worked to encourage job-creating businesses.

The results were stunning. The “ungovernable city” became known as “The World’s Capital.” Businesses began moving into, not out of, town. Crime levels dropped to almost unprecedented lows.

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The lesson has been wholly lost on de Blasio, who is even further to the left than Dinkins. He concentrates on progressive ideological issues rather than actual governing. As a left-wing extremist, (he cheered on the USSR when it put combat equipment in Latin America) he sees businesses as oppressors, and not instruments of prosperity. He ignores vital administrative duties and prefers concentrating on almost anything rather than his actual responsibilities. De Blasio’s administration has made incompetence into an art form. Just one example: close to a billion dollars meant for mental health issues have gone missing. Both he and his health commissioner, Dr. Oxiris Barbot, ignored the onset of the COVID crisis, and called President Trump racist and xenophobic for the emphasizing the problem. As a result, NYC became the international epicenter of the pandemic.

De Blasio’s schools chancellor, Richard Carranza, is an ideologue who views the COVID crisis not as a problem but as an opportunity to push education further to the left.  As noted in the New York Post: “…as tens of thousands of New Yorkers died around him, Carranza callously said: ‘Never waste a good crisis to transform a system. We see this as an opportunity to finally push and move and be very strategic in a very aggressive way what we know is the equity agenda for our kids.’”

Similar to the national Progressive trend, de Blasio has been at war with the NYPD since his initial candidacy. Time Magazine notes that New York’s current mayor has never been on friendly terms with New York’s finest. The strained relationship dates back to de Blasio’s campaign, when he pledged to reform the city’s stop-and-frisk practices, which the police credited for a decrease in crime.” Murders have soared, and New York has suffered more intense civil disorder than anytime since the 1960s.

The sharp drop in NYC’s fortunes and in its quality of life is directly due to the implementation of precisely the same policies that national progressives seek to enact nationwide. Having failed to learn from the consistent international failures of socialist regimes throughout the world, leftists have also chosen to ignore them when enacted within America’s own shores.

Photo:  NYC’s failed Mayor Bill de Blasio

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China’s Naval Threat to World Commerce

A lion’s share of world trade moves through Indo-Pacific waters increasingly threatened by China’s large navy. Indo-Pacific basin nations will represent two-thirds of the world’s economy in 10 years.

Clearly, if any nation establishes an armed stranglehold in the region, the consequences for the global economy will be dire. It is a source of deep concern that China appears to be doing exactly that.

In early July, China held threatening naval drills near the Paracel Islands. Both Vietnam and the Philippines protested.

China’s navy has a recent history of doing more than just practice drills. Several years ago, It invaded a portion of the Philippine’s offshore Exclusive Economic Zone, a move condemned by the World Court at the Hague.

U.S., Australia, and Japan have met to discuss the challenge. Australian Minister for Defense Linda Reynolds, Japanese Minister of Defense KONO Taro, and U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper convened a virtual trilateral defense ministerial meeting on July 7. They reaffirmed their joint commitment to enhance security, stability, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region, and expressed serious concern about recent incidents, including the continued militarization of disputed features, dangerous or coercive use of coast guard vessels and “maritime militia,” and efforts to disrupt other countries’ resource exploitation activities.  

The danger is evident. Beijing’s fleet has more major combatants than the U.S. navy. It has 537 ships (compared to America’s 290.) Those ships are manned by 240,000 personnel, including 15,000 marines and 26,000 members of its air wing.

While the U.S. Navy currently has more large vessels, China is moving to close that gap. Of particular note is its two aircraft carriers.

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In a recent statement, Navy Adm. Philip S. Davidson emphasized that The Indo-Pacific is the most significant region for America’s future, and it has become the nation’s highest-priority theater. He stressed that the Chinese Communist Party represents a profound danger to the world comunity.

“I think the greatest strategic challenge to the United States comes from the People’s Republic of China,” he said. Davidson also noted that Russia is a factor in the Indo-Pacific region, and North Korea continues to be a challenge.

While the rest of the world’s nations have desperately sought to cope with the China-originated COVID-19 pandemic, which spread through the negligence of the Beijing regime, Admiral Davidson emphasized that the Chinese Communist Party is “emboldened” by the results of the disaster.

“[The party] seeks to exploit this current global pandemic crisis, and they’re doing so with more assertive military behavior, malign diplomatic and information behavior throughout the Indo-Pacific and, really, across the globe,” he said, adding “Make no mistake, the party is actively seeking to supplant the established rules-based international order, trying to dictate new norms and behaviors to the international community —  one that they articulate as a new order with Chinese characteristics.”

China’s increasing naval power, and its significant presence across the globe, prompted a warning from the U.S. Naval Institute.  “China’s navy, which China has been steadily modernizing for more than 25 years, since the early to mid-1990s, has become a formidable military force within China’s near-seas region, and it is conducting a growing number of operations in more-distant waters, including the broader waters of the Western Pacific, the Indian Ocean, and waters around Europe. China’s navy is viewed as posing a major challenge to the U.S. Navy’s ability to achieve and maintain wartime control of blue-water ocean areas in the Western Pacific—the first such challenge the U.S. Navy has faced since the end of the Cold War—and forms a key element of a Chinese challenge to the long-standing status of the United States as the leading military power in the Western Pacific.”

Photo: China’s first home-built aircraft carrier leaves Dalian in Northeast China’s Liaoning province for sea trials on May 13, 2018. [Photo/Xinhua]

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The Threat to Free Speech is Real

Several years ago, in a Washington Times opinion piece, I wrote that major social media sites such as Twitter should be treated as public utilities.  Government should not be allowed to censor or control these outlets.  However, just as an airline, commuter rail, or a gas and electric company cannot discriminate against a particular class of customer, neither should internet-based giants.

Twitter’s bias against conservatives is beyond doubt.  Conservatives have received unfair treatment because of the views they express.  Those views have not advocated violence, racial bias, or any other unsavory perspectives.  They have, however, expressed factual viewpoints based on solid research, which generally means they do not dovetail with left-wing dogma.

The history of Leftist, Progressive, and Socialist theory and action has, to the contrary, been based on violent action and coercive policies.  This is necessary because, as the history of the last one hundred years or so indicates, that line of thinking has essentially produced negative results.  It is based on unsound economics and irrational thinking.  The populations subject to it tend to find out very quickly how bad it is, and rebel against it.  To quell that, violence and coercion are the response from governments and organizations that embrace those concepts. 

That happened in the United States under the Obama Administration. Both the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Justice engaged in partisan attacks against groups who opposed the most left-wing White House in American history. When the citizenry revolted and voted Obama’s party out of office, attempts were made to sabotage that exercise in democracy by levelling false claims and endless, baseless investigations against the people’s choice.

In an effort to regain power, leftist activists in the mainstream media, internet giants, and academia censor conservative and centrist expression. Non-leftist professors are virtually an endangered species on college campuses. Try researching any contentious issue on Google and non-Progressive results, when they appear at all, are buried under a virtual mountain of pro-leftist references. Social media sites continue to find new and imaginative ways to censor, ignore, or downplay opinions and facts that dissent from their failed worldview. 

That includes hiring staff and utilizing algorithms that discriminate against free expression. Non-Progressive Twitter employees clearly are made to feel ostracized and oppressed.  Pro-Progressive algorithms that are overtly biased towards are engaged almost exclusively.

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President Trump, who has been particularly targeted by these measures, has expressed outrage, culminating in his May 28 Executive Order which lays out the matter bluntly: “In a country that has long cherished the freedom of expression, we cannot allow a limited number of online platforms to hand pick the speech that Americans may access and convey on the internet.  This practice is fundamentally un-American and anti-democratic.”

The specific action of the Executive Order to remove the extra protections provided to social media giants from certain lawsuits, originally provided under the assumption that they would provide an open forum for all, is appropriate.

But it will not end the threat.  During the 21st Century, America has turned a dangerous corner.  The concepts enshrined in the U.S. Bill of Rights are under profound attack, by politicians, academics, and the left.  In 2012, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) urged “there ought to be limits” on First Amendment rights. At a Senate Rules Committee hearing, Schumer the senior senator from New York,  issued the stunning statement that ”The First Amendment is sacred, but the First Amendment is not absolute.” Barack Obama’s commissioners on the Federal Communications Commission sought to place federal monitors in newsrooms.

For far too long, Americans, who believe that their First Amendment rights are absolutely secure, have been complacent about the Left’s hard-driving and persistent assault on free speech. The danger is real, however, and action must be taken in response.

Illustration: Pixabay

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Foreign Policy Update

CHINA

A major development in US-China relations this week as the State Department orders the closing of the Chinese Consulate in Houston. It appears a lot more than diplomacy was going on in Texas. In an interview this week Secretary of State Pompeo said that everyone knows the rules for diplomats. “You’re only permitted to be there in a diplomatic status with the consent of the host nation… it’s not okay to use your diplomats to engage in industrial espionage, it’s not okay to steal intellectual property, it’s not okay to engage in those kind of behaviors.” The Chinese have many more diplomats in the US than there are American diplomats in China.

On Thursday, Pompeo gave a major speech at the Nixon Library in California defining the US-China relationship in terms of the new policy objectives of the Trump Administration. Pompeo said the closing of the Houston consulate is protect the American people. In 2015 President Trump began to talk about the China threat and the need to ensure that jobs which depend on American intellectual property aren’t lost to theft from Chinese diplomats. In retaliation the Chinese announced the closing of the American Consulate in Chengdu, China. The Secretary said that Washington had been ignoring China Communist Party activity inside the US for over 40 years and that it is time to secure the nation. According to Pompeo, “General Secretary Xi has clearly taken actions that are aggressive and broken promises that are central to how great power nations behave….” Pompeo added that the US wants good things for the Chinese.

GREENLAND

In Denmark to meet with the three foreign ministers – the foreign minister of Denmark, the foreign minister of Greenland, and the Faroe Islands, Pompeo pointed out that the US has an important relationship with the Kingdom of Denmark, and the “three of us together are working on making sure that we get national security right for everyone.” The US operates Thule Air Force Base in Greenland. Pompeo said the US wants “to make sure that the Arctic is peaceful and that activity in that region is handled in the appropriate way.” 

The Secretary is concerned about aggressive Chinese activity in the Arctic. He added: “ I think we’ve all been a little bit naive to watch not only the Russians but the Chinese interests there competing to become more and more aggressive.  We have a responsibility for our people to make sure that we respond in a way that is appropriate, to do everything we can to make sure that the environment there is taken care of, to make sure that this doesn’t become another place for battle.” 

NATO

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Questioned this week about NATO while in Europe, Secretary Pompeo commented that the US wants to ensure that the European nations pay their share of the cost.  He pointed out that the United States is an “enormous partner in the transatlantic alliance.”  And that the US remains the largest contributor to NATO.  The US continues to provide humanitarian assistance to countries all across the world, many of which are European, he added.  

SYRIA

On July 20 the Assad regime held so-called Parliamentary Elections in Syria. According to a statement released this week by the US State Department, “Bashar Al Assad is seeking to present this dubious election as a success against alleged Western plotting, but in reality it is simply another in a long line of Assad’s stage-managed, unfree votes in which the Syrian people have no real choice.”

Syria has not held free and fair elections since Assad’s Ba’ath party came to power. “We have seen credible reports of polling staff handing out ballots already filled in with Ba’ath party candidates. Reports of citizens being pressured to vote were common, and voter privacy was not guaranteed.  In addition, Syrians residing outside the country – comprising nearly one quarter of Syria’s pre-revolution population – were not permitted to vote. This disenfranchised population includes the more than 5 million refugees driven out of the country by the regime’s relentless war against its own citizens,” according to the State Department.

DARIA NOVAK served in the United States State Department during the Reagan Administration, and currently is on the Board of the American Analysis of News and Media Inc., which publishes usagovpolicy.com and the New York Analysis of Policy and Government.  Each Saturday, she presents key updates on U.S. foreign policy from the State Department.

Illustration: Pixabay

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Just Trade or Just War?

President Xi Jinping and the CCP leadership act aggressively at home toward the Chinese people. China’s foreign policy also is more aggressive abroad. In response, the West finds itself playing “whack-a-mole” in an attempt to contain the communist giant, although few leaders publicly will employ the word “contain.” Is it solely about competition in trade or does the reality of a rising Chinese state expose far  more nefarious underpinnings? Does it bely an evil end game being played out inside the current rules-based international order? Is China already conducting global war by other means? These are only a few of the questions leaders from around East Asia grappled with this week virtually at the East Asian Summit 2020 Senior Officials Meeting. 

There are no outward signs that China’s offensive geostrategic strategy is receding in amplitude or breadth, according to US officials. David Stillwell, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian Affairs, reassured meeting participants that Washington stands resolutely with its friends in South East Asia, including to uphold rule of law and oppose China’s unlawful effort to bully and steal the offshore resources of its neighbors. What that resistance means in realist politique terms remains vague.

Seventy-five years ago, Word War II ended with regime change and moves toward democratization in parts of Germany. That July leaders met at the Potsdam Conference and Churchill was defeated in his reelection bid. The Labor Party came to power in Great Britain. All were classic democratic moments. China’s opening to the west 40 years ago shows no such signs of an evolution in governance. Instead its leadership calls for global transformative change, not of its own repressive policies, but for an end to western-style democracy in every nation. Xi Jinping and the CCP leadership intend to dominate globally using a Chinese communist model to assure its own hegemonic rule. Last week China’s WTO Ambassador Zhang Xiangchen derisively called those in the US who denounce China’s end goal “headless chickens.” 

American safetyism, a term first coined by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff in “The Coddling of the American Mind,” describes a moral culture in which a people are unwilling to make trade-offs demanded by other practical and moral concerns. Rather than viewing safety as one concern among many, it becomes a sacred value. The United States and other free nations aided China’s rise to power while ignoring Beijing’s unwillingness to play by the norms established in the modern nation-state system. Failing to hold China and the CCP leadership accountable for its behavior over the last four decades, due in part to a fear of global conflagration, allowed China to accelerate its plans to dominate the world order. Today China is one of the five main challenges listed in the current US National Defense Strategy. Safetyism, and decades of a lack in political will power, has made the US and the West less secure. The world faces an uncertain future due to the intrinsic evil posed by China.

It no longer is possible to hide, ignore it, or wish it away. China effectively is at war with the West, incrementally dismembering parts of the international rules-based system. The authority to decide for war or peace is a sovereign right of governments, as is the decision on what is the appropriate type of war and how much to conduct. China made its decision. Now it is up to western world leaders to hold it accountable and determine the most effective means to fight China.  Typical definitions of “just war” include the concepts that it must be for a just cause, have good intention behind it, and be in proportion to the end that the war seeks to achieve. It moves us beyond the realism of Thucydides. Have we arrived at a point of an economic jus ad bellum with China? 

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If world leaders apply the principle of proportionality toward China’s actions in the South China Sea, the answer becomes clearer. Beijing has seized territory and illegally declared ownership. It has defied international court rulings. It is stealing technology and intellectual property and employing it in its quest for global domination of 5G communications networks and global supply chains. Across the world from Africa to the Arctic, China is making political inroads with promises of economic assistance and infrastructure development. 

The fallacy is that just war, and that is what China is conducting from its perspective, trumps unjust means. In the post-1990 period international organizations began codifying war as a duty when there is a responsibility to people in danger. All war is evil; some are necessary. The time has come for  legitimate authorities in the West to consider seriously if China’s aggressive actions are “just” about commercial trade and if the free world is willing to accept becoming collateral damage in the communist giant’s ongoing reshaping of the global landscape. 

DARIA NOVAK served in the United States State Department during the Reagan Administration, and currently is on the Board of the American Analysis of News and Media Inc., which publishes usagovpolicy.com and the New York Analysis of Policy and Government.  Each Friday, she presents key updates on China.

Photo: Main battle tanks attached to a tank detachment with a brigade under the PLA 76th Group Army rumble through cobbled path during a long-distance maneuver to a designated field in plateau area on July 14, 2020. (eng.chinamil.com.cn/Photo by Cao Xuguang)

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Communism Rebranded – the American Left Today Part 2

Part two of Judge John Wilson’s (ret.) study examing Marxist roots of left-wing thinking, written exclusively for the New York Analysis of Policy and Government.

 Basic to the concept of Marxism is the idea of perpetual struggle.  Living human beings have certain physical needs and desires – as such, we struggle against nature to satisfy those needs and wants.  “Becoming aware of their struggle against nature is what separates them from it, they find the conditions of their fulfillment, of the realization of their true stature. The dawning of consciousness is inseparable from struggle.”  On this basis, a Marxist does not believe there is a God – “human activity reveals that ‘for man, man is the supreme being.’ It is thus vain to speak of God…fully naturalized, humans are sufficient unto themselves.”

Yet, “living in a capitalist society…the individual is not truly free. He is an alienated being; he is not at home in his world…the more the worker produces the less he has to consume, and the more values he creates the more he devalues himself, because his product and his labour are estranged from him.”  This “alienation of the worker takes on its full dimension in that system of market production in which part of the value of the goods produced by the worker is taken away from him and transformed into surplus value, which the capitalist privately appropriates.”  

Thus, “In…capitalist society the individual is divided into political citizen and economic actor. This duality represents his political alienation, which is further intensified by the functioning of the bourgeois state…Marx came to see the state as the instrument through which the propertied class dominated other classes.” 

Marx focused on the production of “surplus value” by workers as his basis for believing that capitalism is a system that needed transformation.  “In the hands of the capitalist the labour power employed in the course of a day produces more than the value of the sustenance required by the worker and his family. The difference between the two values is appropriated by the capitalist.”  This fundamental unfairness “can only be resolved by a change from capitalism to a new system.”

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Based upon this framework, Marx believed that there was an inherent “class struggle” between workers and their capitalist “masters,” and that to achieve a new system, the workers, understanding their exploited nature, would rise up in rebellion.  “This revolution will be the prelude to the establishment of communism and the reign of liberty reconquered. ‘In the place of the old bourgeois society with its classes and its class antagonisms, there will be an association in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all.’” 

Having this basis understanding of Marxist thought, read again the statements and demands made by CHAZ and its supporters, and their calls for “the creation of restorative/transformative accountability programs as a replacement for imprisonment,” and to “overhaul our entire society, abolishing the disparities that make police necessary to maintain the prevailing order.”  Couple these demands with the proposed Ordinance of the Minneapolis City Council, which seeks to replace the Police Department with a “Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention Department” which will ” have responsibility for public safety services prioritizing a holistic, public health-oriented approach,” the Director of which “will have non-law enforcement experience in community safety services, including but not limited to public health and/or restorative justice approaches.”

Read again the statement of BLM regarding “liberation” and a “beautiful struggle,” and recall that one of the founders of BLM admits to being a “trained Marxist.” Having done so, then understand the true nature of those who seek to abolish our established order.

Illustration: Pixabay

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Communism Rebranded – the American Left Today

This article was written exclusively for the New York Analysis of Policy and Government by the distinguished retired judge, John H. Wilson.

It is an open secret that the radical movements of the day – including Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter (BLM), and Seattle’s “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” (aka CHAZ) – all have their basis in communist theory and practice.  BLM Activist Shaun King, states on Twitter that he “support(s) the communists & socialists standing against Trump and against bigotry & white supremacy.”  One of the founders of BLM, Patrisse Cullors, freely admits that she and her fellow organizers ” are trained Marxists. We are super-versed on, sort of, ideological theories,” and credits the Labor/Community Strategy Center with providing her with that training.  She describes the Center as “having  deep historical ties to the long history of anti-colonial, anti-imperialist, pro-communist resistance to the US empire.”  

The organizers of CHAZ have issued a series of demands on line.  These include, “replacement of the current criminal justice system (with) the creation of restorative/transformative accountability programs as a replacement for imprisonment,” “the funding previously used for Seattle Police be redirected into… Socialized Health and Medicine for the City of Seattle…Free public housing, because housing is a right, not a privilege (and) Naturalization services for immigrants to the United States living here undocumented. (We demand they be called “undocumented” because no person is illegal),” and “a decentralized election process to give the citizens of Seattle a greater ability to select candidates for public office such that we are not forced to choose at the poll between equally undesirable options.” 

Similar demands were made by “Occupy Wall Street,” who wanted a “guaranteed living wage income regardless of employment,” “free college education,” and “open borders migration. anyone can travel anywhere to work and live,”   while an anonymous poster at Crimethinc.com explains that “the proposal to abolish the police is not a proposal to defund a particular institution, but to overhaul our entire society, abolishing the disparities that make police necessary to maintain the prevailing order.”    

Meanwhile, Black Lives Matters states their “continued commitment to liberation” and “to co-creating alongside comrades, allies, and family a culture where each person feels seen, heard, and supported…”we intentionally build and nurture a beloved community that is bonded together through a beautiful struggle that is restorative…we disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and ‘villages’ that collectively care for one another…” 

Note in particular the words that have been highlighted above – do they sound familiar?   

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Karl Marx was a German philosopher of the 19th century.  “Marx declared that philosophy must become reality. One could no longer be content with interpreting the world; one must be concerned with transforming it, which meant transforming both the world itself and human consciousness of it.”  Based upon this view, Marx believed that “underlying everything (that is, all of our material world and reality) as the real basis of society is the economic structure. This structure includes (a) the ‘material forces of production,’ that is, the labour and means of production, and (b) the overall ‘relations of production,’ or the social and political arrangements that regulate production and distribution…above the economic structure rises the superstructure, consisting of legal and political ‘forms of social consciousness’ that correspond to the economic structure.” 

Marx also believed that “the political relations that individuals establish among themselves are dependent on material production, as are the legal relations,” and that eventually, some “individuals become conscious of the conflict within the economic structure between the material forces of production and the existing relations of production expressed in the legal property relations.” 

In other words, Marxism consists in understanding that you, as a physical being, have an obligation to transform both yourself and your world; that economic structure is the basis for that material world you live in; and that there is a conflict between the economic structure and the legal relationships that have been imposed on that economic structure.  It follows, then, that once you are aware of this conflict, you have an obligation to do something to transform those legal relationships.

The Report Concludes Tomorrow

Photo: Marx & Lenin (Pixabay)

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Senate Armed Services Committee Approves NDAA

The Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization act has been approved by the Senate Armed Forces Committee. It’s more than just a budget statement; it is an expression of national security strategy.  It will undergo changes as it winds its way through the legislation process. We present the Committee’s general description.

At no time in recent memory has it been more critical to have the personnel, equipment, training, and organization needed to signal to our potential enemies, as former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis put it, “you, militarily, cannot win it — so don’t even try.”

The FY21 NDAA rests on this simple foundation. A credible military deterrent, however, requires more than just having the most planes, ships, and tanks. It requires forces in the right places, at the right time, with the right equipment and capabilities. Posture and logistics are equally as important as fifth-generation aircraft and advanced weapons. Just as necessary to an asymmetric balance of power are our alliances and partnerships, which must be strengthened and solidified. The FY21 NDAA addresses each of these areas, using the National Defense Strategy Commission as a roadmap and building off the authorities and investments provided in both the FY19 and FY20 NDAA.

The FY21 NDAA boldly sets policy and prudently aligns resources to achieve irreversible momentum in implementation of the NDS and ensure that America is able to prevent and, if necessary, win the wars not just of today, but tomorrow as well. With so much at stake, predictable, on-time, and adequate funding remains vital to the success of our military forces, as military leaders have told the Committee time and time again.

 After years of sustained conflict, underfunding, and budgetary uncertainty, Congress focused on rebuilding the military in the past two NDAAs. Progress has been made, but the work is not yet done. The National Defense Strategy calls for annual increases of three to five percent above inflation each year, which the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019 did not provide for fiscal year 2021. This year’s NDAA focused heavily on prioritizing available resources to address the most worrying shortfalls and imminent threats. 

The FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act advances four priorities:

Supporting our troops, their families, and the civilian workforce

The committee’s top priority is, and always has been, supporting the more than 2.1 million men and women who bravely serve our nation in our Armed Forces. They, along with military families and the civilian workforce, are the backbone of America’s national security.

The FY 21 NDAA prioritizes their health and wellbeing — ensuring our troops have the resources, equipment, and training needed to succeed in their missions. The bill recognizes that family readiness strengthens our force overall, and advocates for military spouses and children. It also ensures previous reforms to the military privatized housing program and to the military health system are implemented to rigorous standards, and reemphasizes a focus on training to ensure our service members can conduct their missions safely. 

       Charting a Course for the National Defense Strategy Now and into the Future 

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The FY21 NDAA continues to reinforce and accelerate implementation of the NDS. In doing so, the bill shifts our focus even more to the Indo-Pacific, our priority theater. Critically, the bill establishes the Pacific Deterrence Initiative to enhance budgetary transparency and oversight, focus resources on capability gaps, reassures allies and partners, and restores the credibility of American deterrence in the region. The bill also emphasizes a combat-credible forward posture, making investments in posture, logistics, and intelligence capabilities, and preserves our nuclear deterrent by supporting our nuclear triad, command and control, and infrastructure. Strategic and steady support for our partners and allies provided for in the bill, including through security cooperation efforts, will strengthen the capabilities of our friends, and ensure the balance of power remains in our favor. 

Building a Modern, Innovative, and Lethal Force

Our national security rests on our ability to attain and maintain an asymmetric military advantage. Our supremacy in the seas, in the skies, in space, in cyberspace, and on land must be protected, and as we look to the future of warfare, joint capabilities that ensure the protection of the joint force are essential. The FY21 NDAA ensures the United States fields a force of the optimal size, structure, and strategy, capable of supporting the conflicts envisioned by the NDS. Unfortunately, in key technologies and capabilities, we’ve fallen behind our near-peer competitors. The FY21 NDAA accelerates innovation so we can compete effectively and regain our comparative advantage over China and Russia. 

Reshaping Pentagon Management to Maximize Performance, Accountability, and Lethality

For too long, the Pentagon has operated as a lethargic bureaucracy. Since the FY15 NDAA, Congress has implemented numerous reforms to make the Pentagon more efficient, responsive, and agile. This year, the NDAA prioritizes accountability, with flexibility, for the Department of Defense — setting up management structure and processes that better harness innovation, operate at the speed of relevance, and effectively steward taxpayer dollars. The FY21 NDAA improves the Pentagon’s budget process, adjusts hiring practices to recruit and retain top talent in critical fields like advanced technology, acquisition, health care, management, and more, strengthens the defense acquisition system, and reshapes the Defense Industrial Base as a more resilient, advanced National Security 

Innovation Base. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed and exacerbated supply chain deficiencies across the government, and the FY21 NDAA takes numerous steps to secure the supply chain — both from overreliance on foreign nations and from infiltration by our adversaries. 

Achieving the aims of the NDS is a long game, and the committee takes a long view. The FY21 NDAA sets us up for success in the long term, putting our nation on an irreversible, confident, and steady course to achieve a peaceful, free, and prosperous world — not only for us, but for our children and grandchildren. 

Photo: U.S. Army Pfc. Justin Vnenchak maintains security in his sector while fellow paratroopers and Afghan policemen search a compound in southern Ghazni province, Afghanistan, on April 8, 2012. Vnenchak is an infantryman assigned to the 82nd Airborne Divisionís 1st Brigade Combat Team.   DoD photo by Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod, U.S. Army.