Month: July 2020

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Quick Analysis

Human Rights in China

The U,S, State Department has issued its report on human rights throughout the world. The New York Analysis of Policy and Government will review the segments covering China, Russia, and Venezuela. Today’s review covers China

The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is an authoritarian state in which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the paramount authority. CCP members hold almost all top government and security apparatus positions. Ultimate authority rests with the CCP Central Committee’s 25-member Political Bureau (Politburo) and its seven-member Standing Committee. Xi Jinping continued to hold the three most powerful positions as CCP general secretary, state president, and chairman of the Central Military Commission.

The main domestic security agencies include the Ministry of State Security, the Ministry of Public Security, and the People’s Armed Police. The People’s Armed Police continue to be under the dual authority of the Central Committee of the CCP and the Central Military Commission. The People’s Liberation Army is primarily responsible for external security but also has some domestic security responsibilities. Local jurisdictions also frequently use civilian municipal security forces, known as “urban management” officials, to enforce administrative measures. Civilian authorities maintained effective control of the security forces.

During the year the government continued its campaign of mass detention of members of Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang). Authorities were reported to have arbitrarily detained more than one million Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Muslims in extrajudicial internment camps designed to erase religious and ethnic identities. Chinese government officials justified the camps under the pretense of combating terrorism, separatism, and extremism. International media, human rights organizations, and former detainees reported security officials in the camps abused, tortured, and killed detainees. Government documents, as published by international media, corroborated the coercive nature of the campaign and its impact on members of Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang and abroad.

Significant human rights issues included: arbitrary or unlawful killings by the government; forced disappearances by the government; torture by the government; arbitrary detention by the government; harsh and life-threatening prison and detention conditions; political prisoners; arbitrary interference with privacy; substantial problems with the independence of the judiciary; physical attacks on and criminal prosecution of journalists, lawyers, writers, bloggers, dissidents, petitioners, and others as well as their family members; censorship and site blocking; interference with the rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of association, including overly restrictive laws that apply to foreign and domestic nongovernmental organizations (NGOs); severe restrictions of religious freedom; substantial restrictions on freedom of movement (for travel within the country and overseas); refoulement of asylum seekers to North Korea, where they have a well-founded fear of persecution; the inability of citizens to choose their government; corruption; a coercive birth-limitation policy that in some cases included forced sterilization or abortions; trafficking in persons; and severe restrictions on labor rights, including a ban on workers organizing or joining unions of their own choosing; and child labor.

Official repression of the freedoms of speech, religion, movement, association, and assembly of Tibetans in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and other Tibetan areas, and of predominantly Uighurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang, was more severe than in other areas of the country. Such repression, however, occurred throughout the country, as exemplified by the case of Pastor Wang Yi, the leader of the Early Rain Church, who was charged and convicted of “inciting subversion of state power” in an unannounced, closed-door trial with no defense lawyer present. Authorities sentenced him to nine years in prison.

The CCP continued to dominate the judiciary and controlled the appointment of all judges and in certain cases directly dictated the court’s ruling. Authorities harassed, detained, and arrested citizens who promoted independent efforts to combat abuses of power.

In the absence of reliable data, it was difficult to ascertain the full extent of impunity for the domestic security apparatus. Authorities often announced investigations following cases of reported killings by police. It remained unclear, however, whether these investigations resulted in findings of police malfeasance or disciplinary action.

here were numerous reports that the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings. In many instances few or no details were available.

In Xinjiang there were reports of custodial deaths related to detentions in the internment camps. In October Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported that “at least 150 people” died in a six-month period while detained at one of four internment camps in Kuchar (Chinese: Kuche), Aksu (Akesu) Prefecture.

In June 2018 Aytursun Eli died in Kashgar (Kashi), Xinjiang, while being questioned in official custody, according to a recorded interview, released during the year, which her mother gave to the official Xinjiang Women’s Federation. Authorities reportedly targeted the Uighur tour director at Hua An Tourism Company after she returned from a work trip to Dubai. Officials later said she died of a “medical condition” and prevented family members from examining the body.

Although legal reforms in recent years decreased the use of the death penalty and improved the review process, authorities executed some defendants in criminal proceedings following convictions that lacked due process and adequate channels for appeal. Official figures on executions were classified as a state secret. According to the U.S.-based Dui Hua Foundation, the number of executions stabilized after years of decline following the reform of the capital punishment system initiated in 2007. Dui Hua reported an increase in the number of executions for bosses of criminal gangs and individuals convicted of “terrorism” in Xinjiang likely offset the drop in the number of other executions.

B. DISAPPEARANCE

There were multiple reports authorities detained individuals and held them at undisclosed locations for extended periods.

The government conducted mass arbitrary detention of Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Muslims in Xinjiang. China Human Rights Defenders reported these detentions amounted to enforced disappearance, since families were often not provided information about the length or location of the detention.

After disappearing in November 2018 following a trip to Xinjiang to lead a photography workshop, award-winning documentary photographer Lu Guang appeared to have been released to his hometown in Zhejiang a “few months” before September, according to his wife. Although Lu was a legal resident of the United States, he was believed to be under “residential surveillance” and restricted from leaving China.

The Uyghur Human Rights Project published a report in January detailing the forced disappearance, imprisonment, and internment of 338 Uighur intellectuals. Many were prominent Uighur scholars and cultural icons. Sanubar Tursun, a singer, was reported disappeared. Qurban Mahmut, a magazine editor who encouraged works on Uighur culture and history, disappeared into an internment camp. Five intellectuals identified in the report died while interned in a camp or shortly after release. This included 40-year-old Mutellip Nurmehmet, who died nine days after his release from an internment camp. Media also reported that prominent Uighur writer Nurmuhammed Tohti suffered a heart attack during his 70-day detention in an internment camp and died shortly after being released. Camp doctors reportedly ignored his health conditions, and when authorities returned his body home on June 3, his legs were still chained.

According to a December 2019 report, Iminjan Seydin, a professor of Chinese history at the Xinjiang Islamic Institute and founder of the Imin Book Publishing Company who disappeared in May 2017, was tried in May 2019 in a closed-door hearing. A family member stated she learned of the trial months later, in September.

The exact whereabouts of Aikebaier Aisaiti, a Uighur journalist and entrepreneur, remained unknown. He was reportedly detained in Xinjiang in 2016 after participating in a program in the United States and subsequently sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.

Lawyer Wang Quanzhang was transferred in April from the Tianjin Detention Center to a prison in Linyi, Shandong, after his closed-session sentencing in January, which followed his December 2018 closed-court trial and conviction on charges of “subverting state power.” Wang had been held in incommunicado detention since 2015 when he was detained in the “709” nationwide roundup of more than 300 human rights lawyers and legal associates. He was first allowed to see his wife and son on June 28, after nearly four years of detention. His wife told media he appeared “lethargic” and was in poor physical and mental health. She continued to see him once a month, the maximum prison authorities allowed.

In February relatives of detained labor activist Fu Changguo, an employee at the labor organization Dagongzhe, reported they could no longer determine Fu’s whereabouts. Shenzhen’s Second Detention Center, which was previously believed to be in custody of Fu, informed the family in early February that Fu was not on their detainee list. Earlier, in December 2018, the Pingshan District Police Station denied his family’s application for bail, claiming Fu might “destroy or fabricate evidence, and disrupt or conspire to falsify witness statements.” Fu was among more than 50 individuals detained, disappeared, or placed under house arrest between July 2018 and January after being accused of participating in or aiding the labor movement against Shenzhen’s Jasic Technology, a manufacturer of industrial welding equipment (see section 7).

C. TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT

The law prohibits the physical abuse and mistreatment of detainees and forbids prison guards from coercing confessions, insulting prisoners’ dignity, and beating or encouraging others to beat prisoners. Amendments to the criminal procedure law exclude evidence obtained through illegal means, including coerced confessions, in certain categories of criminal cases. Enforcement of these legal protections continued to be lax.

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Numerous former prisoners and detainees reported they were beaten, raped, subjected to electric shock, forced to sit on stools for hours on end, hung by the wrists, deprived of sleep, force fed, forced to take medication against their will, and otherwise subjected to physical and psychological abuse. Although prison authorities abused ordinary prisoners, they reportedly singled out political and religious dissidents for particularly harsh treatment.

Chen Yunfei, who was released from prison in Sichuan in March, reported that during his four-year imprisonment for sweeping the tombs of victims of the 1989 Tiananmen demonstrations, prison guards forced him to maintain stress positions for extended periods of time and held him in solitary confinement in a dark room for several months. The guards also reportedly beat him and ordered other prisoners to beat him as well. After one such beating, Chen was hospitalized for 40 days. During his incarceration he was denied contact with family or friends.

According to China Human Rights Defenders, Fujian rights advocate lawyer Ji Sizun died on July 10 in the Zhangzhou Xiangcheng Intensive Care Unit (ICU) after his April 26 release from prison, where he was deprived of adequate medical care. During his imprisonment he suffered from strokes and various other diseases that resulted in his paralysis. Authorities allowed his family to visit him for the first time in the ICU on May 6. Ji was malnourished, intubated, unable to eat except through a tube, and could recognize only two of his three sisters. Four security guards were deployed at the ICU, which admitted only one visitor at a time for 15 minutes each. Individuals with knowledge of the case said authorities pressured Ji’s family to sign a power of attorney, empowering authorities to immediately cremate his body after death.

In September media outlets reported the custodial death of prodemocracy activist Wang Meiyu. Wang was detained in July after he held up a placard outside Hengyang Normal University in Hunan calling for Chairman Xi Jinping’s resignation and for democratic elections in the country. On September 23, police called Wang’s wife, Cao Shuxia, saying Wang had died suddenly in a military hospital in Hengyang, where he was detained. Cao said Wang’s body was “unrecognizable” when she went to identify it: He was bleeding from his eyes, mouth, ears and nose, and there were bruises on his face. His wife said Wang was a “healthy, normal man” when he was taken into custody. Police did not offer any explanation of the cause of death. Wang’s lawyers learned he was moved from a large cell with many other inmates to solitary confinement. Wang’s mother said she was offered compensation of 2.98 million yuan ($420,000). Wang and Cao lost their jobs due to his activism. Cao and her two children were reportedly under house arrest after his death.

Wu Gan, a Chinese blogger and human rights activist, received an eight-year prison sentence on a charge of “subverting state power” from a Tianjin court in 2017, after 952 days in preventive detention. On March 4, Wu’s father visited him in Fujian’s Qingliu Prison. According to Wu’s father, Wu reported sustaining multiple injuries while in police custody in Tianjin and Beijing, which resulted in a heart attack, chronic pain, and a paralyzed hand.

Members of the minority Uighur ethnic group reported systematic torture and other degrading treatment by law enforcement officers and officials working within the penal system and the internment camps. Survivors stated that authorities subjected individuals in custody to electric shock, waterboarding, beatings, rape, stress positions, injection of unknown substances, and cold cells (see section 6, National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities).

There was no direct evidence of an involuntary or prisoner-based organ transplant system. Nevertheless, some activists and organizations continued to accuse the government of involuntarily harvesting organs from prisoners of conscience, especially members of Falun Gong. The PRC government denied the claims, stating it had officially ended the long-standing practice of harvesting the organs of executed prisoners for use in transplants in 2015. One Australian National University study of PRC official statistics of organ donations said there was “highly compelling evidence” based on statistical forensics that the data was “falsified.” Furthermore, the research paper argued that the government’s organ transplant program involved donations from “nonvoluntary donors who are marked down as ‘citizen donors.’” In June the nongovernmental Independent Tribunal into Forced Organ Harvesting of Prisoners of Conscience in China released a report which found “direct and indirect evidence of forced organ harvesting” in China, citing “extraordinarily short waiting times” and “massive infrastructure development of facilities and medical personnel for organ transplant operations.” Some Xinjiang internment camp survivors reported healthy young men would be spared the physical abuse that other detainees suffered and given health screenings including DNA samples before disappearing, raising these survivors’ concerns that organ harvesting from detainees was taking place in the camps.

The treatment and abuse of detainees under the liuzhi detention system, which operates outside the judicial system but is a legal tool for the government to investigate corruption, featured custodial treatment such as extended solitary confinement, sleep deprivation, beatings, and forced standing or sitting in uncomfortable positions for hours and sometimes days, according to press reports (see section 4).

The law states psychiatric treatment and hospitalization should be “on a voluntary basis,” but the law also allows authorities and family members to commit persons to psychiatric facilities against their will and fails to provide meaningful legal protections for persons sent to psychiatric facilities. The law does not provide for the right to a lawyer and restricts a person’s right to communicate with those outside the psychiatric institution.

PRISON AND DETENTION CENTER CONDITIONS

Conditions in penal institutions for both political prisoners and criminal offenders were generally harsh and often life threatening or degrading.

Physical Conditions: Authorities regularly held prisoners and detainees in overcrowded conditions with poor sanitation. Food often was inadequate and of poor quality, and many detainees relied on supplemental food, medicines, and warm clothing provided by relatives when allowed to receive them. Prisoners often reported sleeping on the floor because there were no beds or bedding. In many cases provisions for sanitation, ventilation, heating, lighting, and access to potable water were inadequate.

Adequate, timely medical care for prisoners remained a serious problem, despite official assurances prisoners have the right to prompt medical treatment. Prison authorities at times withheld medical treatment from political prisoners.

Political prisoners were sometimes held with the general prison population and reported being beaten by other prisoners at the instigation of guards. Some reported being held in the same cells as death row inmates. In some cases authorities did not allow dissidents to receive supplemental food, medicine, and warm clothing from relatives.

Conditions in administrative detention facilities were similar to those in prisons. Deaths from beatings occurred in administrative detention facilities. Detainees reported beatings, sexual assaults, lack of proper food, and limited or no access to medical care.

In Xinjiang authorities expanded existing internment camps for Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and other Muslims. In some cases authorities used repurposed schools, factories, and prisons to hold detainees. According to Human Rights Watch, these camps focused on “military-style discipline and pervasive political indoctrination of the detainees.”

Administration: The law states letters from a prisoner to higher authorities of the prison or to the judicial organs shall be free from examination; it was unclear to what extent the law was implemented. While authorities occasionally investigated credible allegations of inhuman conditions, their results were not documented in a publicly accessible manner. Authorities denied many prisoners and detainees reasonable access to visitors and correspondence with family members. Some family members did not know the whereabouts of their relatives in custody. Authorities also prevented many prisoners and detainees from engaging in religious practices or gaining access to religious materials.

Independent Monitoring: Authorities considered information about prisons and various other types of administrative and extralegal detention facilities to be a state secret, and the government typically did not permit independent monitoring.

D. ARBITRARY ARREST OR DETENTION

Arbitrary arrest and detention remained serious problems. The law grants public security officers broad administrative detention powers and the ability to detain individuals for extended periods without formal arrest or criminal charges. Lawyers, human rights activists, journalists, religious leaders and adherents, and former political prisoners and their family members continued to be targeted for arbitrary detention or arrest.

The law provides for the right of any person to challenge the lawfulness of his or her arrest or detention in court, but the government generally did not observe this requirement.

In early April courts in Chengdu, Sichuan, tried and convicted four activists–Chen Bing, Fu Hailu, Zhang Junyong, and Luo Fuyu–who had been detained without trial since 2016. They were charged with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” after producing liquor with a label commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen demonstrations and sentenced to prison terms between three and three-and-one-half years. Three of the accused were forced to use court-appointed lawyers during the trial instead of lawyers they had retained themselves.

Pu Wenqing, mother of Sichuan-based activist Huang Qi, disappeared in December 2018, after plainclothes security personnel detained her at a Beijing train station. She had petitioned central authorities in October 2018 to release her detained son for health reasons and poor treatment within his detention center. At year’s end she remained under house arrest with no formal charges filed. In a related case, in July Beijing authorities also detained and arrested Zhang Baocheng, who had assisted and escorted the elderly Pu Wenqing around Beijing in 2018 as she sought to petition central authorities over her son’s detention. Beijing police on December 30 charged Zhang, a former member of the now-defunct New Citizens Movement that campaigned for democracy and government transparency, with “picking quarrels, promoting terrorism, extremism, and inciting terrorism.” At year’s end he was awaiting trial.

Photo: China border patrol (PLA photo)

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HAS THE US SUPREME COURT TURNED AGAINST PRESIDENT TRUMP? Part 2

In the second of this two-part series, Judge John Wilson (ret.) analyzes recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, and finds that the implications for the Trump Administration is not as negative as the media portrays.

According to CNN, the decision in the Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California case “is a blow to the Trump administration, as immigration reform has been a lynchpin of Trump’s agenda.”  Yet, “We do not decide whether DACA or its rescission are sound policies,” Roberts wrote in the majority opinion. “‘The wisdom’ of those decisions ‘is none of our concern.’ We address only whether the agency complied with the procedural requirement that it provide a reasoned explanation for its action.”

Logically, then, if the Trump Administration were to make a study of how to accommodate those who have come to rely upon the DACA program, and perhaps develop a gradual phase-out of the program, allowing those who already participate to be “grandfathered” in on the program, DHS would then be in compliance with their “procedural requirements,” and be free to rescind the program.

The narrow basis for Chief Justice Roberts’ ruling did not stop the media from finding a trend where none exists.  In particular, the recent decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia has been hailed as a “landmark ruling (that) will extend protections to millions of workers nationwide and is a defeat for the Trump administration.”  Yet, a review of this “landmark” shows that Bostock is in keeping with established precedent, and does not represent any “defeat” for President Trump or his policies.

In the majority opinion written by Trump appointee Neil Gorsuch, “an employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender violates Title VII (of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which) makes it “unlawful . . . for an employer to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual . . . because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” 42 U. S. C. §2000e–2(a)(1). The straightforward application of Title VII’s terms interpreted in accord with their ordinary public meaning at the time of their enactment resolves these cases… When an employer fires an employee for being homosexual or transgender, it necessarily intentionally discriminates against that individual in part because of sex.”

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This decision was based in particular on three Supreme Court precedents; “In Phillips v. Martin Marietta Corp., (2020), a company was held to have violated Title VII by refusing to hire women with young children…In Los Angeles Dept. of Water and Power v. Manhart, (1978), an employer’s policy of requiring women to make larger pension fund contributions than men because women tend to live longer was held to violate Title VII…And in Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc., (1998), a male plaintiff alleged a triable Title VII claim for sexual harassment by co-workers who were members of the same sex.” 

Thus, Bostock is just another in a line of cases going back more than 40 years, interpreting the language of Title VII to include discrimination against any and all variations of sexual orientation.  How such a ruling could be a “defeat” for the Trump Administration remains a mystery.  “They’ve ruled and we live with the decision,” Trump said. “We live with the decision of the Supreme Court.” 

For years, the media has tried to portray the Trump Administration as an enemy of gay rights.  However, going back to the 2015 decision Obergefell v. Hodges, in which the Supreme Court ruled that under the Fourteenth Amendment, states must recognize same sex marriages, according to the Daily Beast, “President-elect Donald Trump told Lesley Stahl of 60 Minutes that he has no plans to roll back same-sex marriage rights. Asked by Stahl if he personally supports marriage equality, Trump replied, ‘It’s irrelevant because it was already settled. It’s law. It was settled in the Supreme Court. I mean it’s done.’ He went to clarify that even if he were to appoint a judge who opposes marriage equality, the issue has been ‘settled’ and he’s ‘fine with that.’” 

Clearly, the wishful thinking of the media is not supported by a review of the actual rulings made by the US Supreme Court.  The most recent decisions are all based in precedent, and relatively long standing precedent at that.  President Trump may have many enemies, but there is no evidence to support a view that the Supreme Court is among those enemies.

Illustration: Pixabay

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HAS THE US SUPREME COURT TURNED AGAINST PRESIDENT TRUMP?

Judge John Wilson (ret.) analyzes recent recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, and finds that the implications for the Trump Administration is not as negative as the media portrays.

A recent series of decisions by the US Supreme Court has the main stream media convinced that the Justices of the Supreme Court, particularly Chief Justice John Roberts, have turned against the Trump Administration and returned to more liberal policies.  However, a review of these decisions reveals that the Court has honored its own precedents, and steadfastly refused to become embroiled in political issues.

Most recently, in the case of June Medical Services v. Russo, the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional a Louisiana law that required doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges in a local hospital.  Writing for the majority, Justice Stephen Bryer noted that this requirement can be impossible to fulfill – “some of the doctors’ applications were denied for reasons having nothing to do with their ability to perform abortions safely, and circumstantial evidence—including…evidence that showed the role that opposition to abortion plays in some hospitals’ decisions—that explained why other applications were denied despite the doctors’ good-faith efforts.”  On this basis, the Court found the Louisiana law to be “unconstitutional because (among other things) it imposed an undue burden on the right of…patients to obtain an abortion.” 

While much of the media has concentrated on Chief Justice Roberts joining the left wing of the Court to strike down the Louisiana law, what has been largely ignored is the role that prior Supreme Court precedent played in the June Medical Services decision.  As the Court stated, “Louisiana’s Act…is almost word-for-word identical to the Texas “admitting privileges” law at issue in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt,” which found that “‘[u]nnecessary health regulations that have the purpose or effect of presenting a substantial obstacle to a woman seeking an abortion impose an undue burden on the right’ ” and are therefore “constitutionally invalid.”  l

Whole Women’s Health v. Hellerstedt was decided in June of 2016, just prior to the election of Donald Trump, and was largely based on the ruling in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa v. Casey, which stated that  “a statute which, while furthering [a] valid state interest, has the effect of placing a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman’s choice cannot be considered a permissible means of serving its legitimate ends.”   

When was the Planned Parenthood case decided?  In 1992, under the administration of George H W Bush.  Thus, in the June Medical Services opinion, the US Supreme Court is following a precedent that has stood for almost 20 years, and dates back to a time when President Trump was still friends with Jeffrey Epstein. 

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Yet, these facts do not stop the media from claiming Chief Justice Roberts has “turned against” the Trump Administration.  

In Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California, the Court was called upon to decide whether or not the Trump Administration could end the “immigration relief program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which allows certain unauthorized aliens who arrived in the United States as children to apply for a two-year forbearance of removal.”  Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Roberts found that the Department’s rescission of this program was “arbitrary and capricious.”  “DHS has flexibility in addressing any reliance interests and could have considered various accommodations.” Chief Justice Roberts stated.  “While the agency was not required to pursue these accommodations, it was required to assess the existence and strength of any reliance interests, and weigh them against competing policy concerns. Its failure to do so was arbitrary and capricious.” 

In other words, because DHS did not take into account the reliance DACA recipients had placed in the program, their decision to end the program without such a review was unwarranted.

The Report Concludes Tomorrow

Photo: Judge John Wilson (ret.)

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Foreign Policy Update

IRAN

The latest impartial report from the United Nations Secretary-General on Iran indicates that the United States was correct all along when it comes to what types of weapons Iran uses to destabilize the Middle East and foment sectarian violence and terrorism across the region.

“Let’s never accept Iran’s usual violent behavior for fear of something far worse… Let’s never submit to extortion… Let’s uphold the mission of this body to address threats to international peace and security… Let’s continue the arms embargo on Iran,” said Secretary of State Michael Pompeo. He called on the Security Council to act to exert more, not less pressure on Tehran.

According to the UN report, the weapons used to attack Saudi Arabia in September 2019 were of Iranian origin. It noted that Iran intentionally misled the world by claiming that the Houthis were responsible for the attack last September.  The State Department noted that the report 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 these items were seized outside of Iran is indicative of an arms embargo violation by Iran,” it pointed out.

At a news briefing the Secretary said that the arms embargo is not a time-limited matter, but a  conditions-based matter. The US will only life the embargo when Iran acts consistently as a normal nation-state, he said. 

CHINA-HONG KONG

“The Chinese Communist Party’s decision to impose draconian national security legislation on Hong Kong destroys the territory’s autonomy and one of China’s greatest achievements” according to the State Department. Within the past few years, the Department noted in a press release, Beijing has also violated its agreements with the World Health Organization, the World Trade Organization, and the United Nations. 

Secretary Pompeo announced that “The United States will not stand idly by while China swallows Hong Kong into its authoritarian maw. Last week, we imposed visa restrictions on CCP officials responsible for undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy. We are ending defense and dual-use technology exports to the territory. Per President Trump’s instruction, we will eliminate policy exemptions that give Hong Kong different and special treatment, with few exceptions.”

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 SYRIA

At the fourth Brussels conference on Syria yesterday, the United States announced almost $700 million in humanitarian assistance to support Syrians inside the country and displaced abroad, bringing the US total funding to just over $11.3 billion since the conflict began more than nine years ago.

RUSSIA

There have been many media reports this week about Moscow offering a bounty for American military. According to Pompeo, this is nothing new and the US sees these types of threats daily around the globe. He added that “…the fact that the Russians are engaged in Afghanistan in a way that’s adverse to the United States is nothing new… Some members of Congress who are out there today suggesting that they are shocked and appalled by this, they saw the same intelligence that we saw.  So it would be interesting to ask them what they did when they saw whatever intelligence it is that they are referring to.  They would have had access to this information as well – not just the intelligence committees, by the way – even more broadly than that.”

Russian entities, he added, have been selling small arms that have put Americans at risk there for 10 years. Money flowing to Afghanistan to support the Taliban has been going on since US went to Afghanistan almost two decades ago. The Iranians continue to undermine Washington in Afghanistan. 

“This administration has taken seriously the threat from Russia.  I only wish we had not had so much to clean up from the previous administration’s work to allow Russia to get on the ground in Syria, make enormous gains, interfere in elections in the United States of America under the previous administration’s watch.  We’ve had a lot to clean up, and President Trump has been serious about responding to this in a way that protects America, keeps Americans safe, and every day working diligently to make sure that we keep our soldiers safe wherever any threat, whether that’s from Russia or otherwise, presents itself.,” Pompeo said.

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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China’s Hong Kong Takeover

The first arrests under the new National Security Law on Hong Kong commenced less than ten hours after it was signed by Chinese President Xi Jinping. The police immediately used pepper spray. They lobbed tear gas at peaceful protesters and they aimed water cannons at journalists covering the protests in Hong Kong. Several reporters were injured. The new draconian law, which curtails freedom of speech and assembly among other things, caught a 15-year old girl in its net simply for waving a flag calling for Hong Kong’s independence. It was only 90 minutes after the law was signed that she lost her right to free speech. That high school student is just one of the countless young people who could face life imprisonment. Many of the other 370 plus arrested on the first day also face horrific punishments. Beijing effectively is denuding Hong Kong of any opposition forces to its harsh rule without concern about what its citizens or other nation-states think.

The faces of the arrested are young, hopeful, and filled with a determination to stand up to repression by the Chinese Communist Party leadership in Beijing. One student dared to wear a simple white tee shirt embossed with the words “The FUTURE is so unpredictable.” She was detained like the hundreds of others who tried to run from police. Carrie Lam, nominal head of Hong Kong, held a press conference just 14 hours after the new law went into force. She stood boldly before the media and declared that the law “has perfected” the “one country, two systems” concept, and announced that a national security department already had been established inside the Hong Kong Police Department. This was well-planned in advance and is part of a longer-term strategy by Beijing. Is Taiwan next? Will the US step into the fray? No one knows the answer.

The new security law criminalizes individuals for acts it loosely labels as terrorism, collusion with foreigners, subversion, or secession. But it doesn’t stop there. The law decrees that any person, from any country, who commits an offense under the act can be imprisoned. A non-citizen outside China still is subject to it, according to the State Council in Beijing. Using this standard a foreign traveler transiting an international airport in Hong Kong, on his way to another country, could be taken prisoner and subjected to a life sentence for negative comments on his Twitter account concerning Hong Kong.

The excuse used by Beijing is that Hong Kong needs increased “public safety.” Article 48 of the law declares that Beijing can collect intelligence, coordinate with local authorities, and handle national security cases. It effectively ends Hong Kong’s autonomy. Already residents of Hong Kong are deactivating their social media accounts and quietly retreating. Organizations are removing their anti-government signs. Zero tolerance for dissent appears to be within Xi Jinping’s grasp.

Great Britain offered unlimited help to those with a British National (overseas) passport. The UK Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, told Parliament this week that the country is promising a path to citizenship for all of the “BN” passport holders to resettle in Great Britain. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared the law a “clear and serious” breach of rights. Taiwan opened an office to help those fleeing Hong Kong, too. US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo issued a statement calling it a “sad day for Hong Kong, and for freedom-loving people across China.” Over two dozen nation-states already have signed a document decrying the legislation and labeling it “interference” by Beijing.

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Zhang Xiaoming, deputy chief of Beijing’s State Council Office on Hong Kong and Macau Affairs, wore a bright red tie during his meeting with the press last Wednesday. No one knows better how to govern Hong Kong than the central government, he said. According to Zhang, Beijing is taking a hard line approach and that it’s a “turning point.” He deemed the law, which was not released for consultation prior to enactment, a case of “special circumstance.” In a dramatic statement before the media he declared that “Its power overrides the autonomy of the Hong Kong SAR…[and] this is reasonable and legitimate.”

In response to the measure Secretary Pompeo announced the United States will cease all exports of defense equipment and dual-use technology to Hong Kong. Washington will no longer offer Hong Kong special treatment when compared to the mainland. In Beijing, as one CCP official quipped, it is a very sharp sword hanging over a minority of people. This is a dark period for the people of Hong Kong. Hopefully, it at least serves as an enlightening one for those who believed the misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda put out by the Chinese Communist Party.

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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Human Rights in Russia

The U,S, State Department has issued its report on human rights throughout the world. The New York Analysis of Policy and Government has reviewed the segments covering China, Russia, and Venezuela. Today’s review covers Russia.

The Russian Federation has a highly centralized, authoritarian political system dominated by President Vladimir Putin. The bicameral Federal Assembly consists of a directly elected lower house (State Duma) and an appointed upper house (Federation Council), both of which lack independence from the executive. The 2016 State Duma elections and the 2018 presidential election were marked by accusations of government interference and manipulation of the electoral process, including the exclusion of meaningful opposition candidates.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Federal Security Service (FSB), the Investigative Committee, the Office of the Prosecutor General, and the National Guard are responsible for law enforcement. The FSB is responsible for state security, counterintelligence, and counterterrorism as well as for fighting organized crime and corruption. The national police force, under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, is responsible for combating all crime. The National Guard assists the FSB Border Guard Service in securing borders, administers gun control, combats terrorism and organized crime, protects public order, and guards important state facilities. The National Guard also participates in armed defense of the country’s territory in coordination with Ministry of Defense forces. Except in rare cases, security forces generally reported to civilian authorities. National-level civilian authorities, however, had, at best, limited control over security forces in the Republic of Chechnya, which were accountable only to the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov.

The country’s occupation and purported annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula continued to affect the human rights situation there significantly and negatively. The Russian government continued to arm, train, lead, and fight alongside Russia-led forces in eastern Ukraine. Credible observers attributed thousands of civilian deaths and injuries, as well as numerous abuses, to Russia-led forces in Ukraine’s Donbas region (see the Country Reports on Human RightsPractices for Ukraine). Authorities also conducted politically motivated arrests, detentions, and trials of Ukrainian citizens in Russia, many of whom claimed to have been tortured.

Significant human rights issues included: extrajudicial killings, including of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) persons in Chechnya by local government authorities; enforced disappearances; pervasive torture by government law enforcement personnel that sometimes resulted in death and occasionally involved sexual violence or punitive psychiatric incarceration; harsh and life-threatening conditions in prisons; arbitrary arrest and detention; political prisoners; severe arbitrary interference with privacy; severe suppression of freedom of expression and media, including the use of “antiextremism” and other laws to prosecute peaceful dissent; violence against journalists; blocking and filtering of internet content and banning of online anonymity; severe suppression of the right of peaceful assembly; severe suppression of freedom of association, including overly restrictive laws on “foreign agents” and “undesirable foreign organizations”; severe restrictions of religious freedom; refoulement of refugees; severe limits on participation in the political process, including restrictions on opposition candidates’ ability to seek public office and conduct political campaigns, and on the ability of civil society to monitor election processes; widespread corruption at all levels and in all branches of government; coerced abortion and sterilization; trafficking in persons; and crimes involving violence or threats of violence against persons with disabilities, LGBTI persons, and members of ethnic minorities.

The government failed to take adequate steps to prosecute or punish most officials who committed abuses, resulting in a climate of impunity.

Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom from:

A. ARBITRARY DEPRIVATION OF LIFE AND OTHER UNLAWFUL OR POLITICALLY MOTIVATED KILLINGS

There were numerous reports the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings.

Credible nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and independent media outlets published reports indicating that in December 2018-January 2019, local authorities in the Republic of Chechnya renewed a campaign of violence against individuals perceived to be members of the LGBTI community. According to the NGO Russian LGBT Network, local Chechen authorities illegally detained and tortured at least 40 individuals (see section 1.c.), including two who reportedly died in custody from torture. According to human rights organizations, as of year’s end, authorities failed to investigate the allegations or reports of extrajudicial killings and mass torture of LGBTI persons in Chechnya from 2017 and continued to deny that there were any LGBTI persons in Chechnya.

On May 24, Maksim Lapunov, a survivor of the 2017 “antigay purge” in Chechnya who came forward publicly and offered to cooperate with investigative bodies, filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), claiming that federal authorities failed to investigate his case properly.

On July 23, the human rights NGOs Memorial Human Rights Center and Committee against Torture, as well as the investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta, published new information about a summary execution of 27 men alleged to have taken place in 2017 at the A.A. Kadyrov patrol police unit headquarters in Grozny, Chechnya. According to the new information, at least 14 eyewitnesses, who were detained at the unit at the same time as the 27 victims but were tortured rather than killed, were able to corroborate that the victims were in police custody at the time of their alleged killings. Local authorities continued to deny that the 27 men were ever in custody and maintained that they left the country to join ISIS in Syria. The 14 witnesses described the involvement of several high-ranking Chechen officials, including unit head Aslan Iraskhanov, in the killings and subsequent cover-up. The NGOs detailed continuing pressure on the families of the 27 victims not to file police reports about the disappearance of their family members. On September 16, relatives of eight of the 27 victims filed a complaint with the ECHR.

There were reports that police beat or otherwise abused persons, in some cases resulting in their death. For example, according to press reports, on April 11, Moscow police officers severely beat Sulli Yunusilau, a 46-year-old man from Dagestan. Yunusilau died in a hospital a week later from his injuries. On April 24, authorities charged three officers with assault and abuse of authority. As of December the investigation continued; one suspect was under house arrest while the other two were in pretrial detention.

There were multiple reports that, in some prison colonies, authorities systematically tortured inmates (see section 1.c.), in some cases resulting in death or suicide. According to media reports, on March 12, Ayub Tuntuyev, a former bodyguard to former president of Chechnya Akhmad Kadyrov, was found dead in Penal Colony Number 6 (IK-6) in the Vladimir region. Since his placement in the colony, Tuntuyev had complained repeatedly about abuse by prison officials, including severe beatings and torture by electric shock. In 2016 he filed a complaint about the abuse with the ECHR. While prison authorities maintained that Tuntuyev committed suicide, his relatives reported that his body was bruised and that his lungs and kidneys had been removed; they told journalists that they did not believe he committed suicide. On March 25, the Investigative Committee concluded that there was no sign that Tuntuyev had been beaten and as of November there were no indications of any further investigation into the case.

Physical abuse and hazing, which in some cases resulted in death or suicide, continued to be a problem in the armed forces. On February 10, Stepan Tsymbal, a 19-year-old conscript, died at the Pogonovo military base in the Voronezh region. His family reported that his unit initially informed them that he had died naturally of a heart attack, although his arms and legs had been taped together and a plastic bag was wrapped around his head. According to the human rights organization Zona Prava, Tsymbal’s commanding officer beat him and accused him of stealing vodka on the day he died, threatening that Tsymbal would face consequences if the vodka did not reappear by the evening. Medical examiners concluded that Tsymbal committed suicide that night. His relatives cast doubt on these findings and insisted that investigators considered that his death was not self-inflicted. On March 19, the Investigative Committee charged Tsymbal’s commanding officer with “exceeding authority” and “incitement to suicide.”

On February 5, the deputy chairman of the Investigative Committee told the Kommersant newspaper that there were new developments in the investigation of the 2015 killing of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, but it was premature to make them public. Human rights activists and the Nemtsov family continued to believe that authorities were intentionally ignoring the question of who ordered and organized the killing and noted that these persons were still at large.

On August 23, in a case related to the 2011 death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in a Moscow pretrial detention center, the ECHR ruled that authorities had provided “manifestly inadequate” medical treatment that “unreasonably put his life in danger,” that Magnitsky had been abused by guards, and that he had been unjustly held for too long in pretrial detention.

There were reports that the government or its proxies committed, or attempted to commit, extrajudicial killings of its opponents in other countries. For example, on December 3, German federal prosecutors announced they had concluded that Russian intelligence was behind the August 23 killing in Berlin of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, an ethnic Chechen from Georgia. Khangoshvili had fled to Germany in 2016 and was fatally shot at point blank range in a park by a man who was arrested after fleeing the scene by bicycle; Khangoshvili had survived several earlier attempts on his life in other countries. The independent investigative news website Bellingcat identified the man arrested as Vadim Krasikov, who had reportedly committed a killing in Moscow with similar methods. Bellingcat pointed to multiple indications that the killer was acting with the support or at the direction of Russian authorities, including the fact that he was reportedly traveling on a passport issued by the Russian government under a pseudonym. On December 12, presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov admitted that Russia had made several requests to Germany to extradite Khangoshvili based on his purported involvement in terrorist acts.

The country played a significant military role in the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, where human rights organizations attributed thousands of civilian deaths and other abuses to Russia-led forces. Russian occupation authorities in Crimea also committed widespread abuses.

Since 2015 the country’s forces have conducted military operations, including airstrikes, in the conflict in Syria. According to human rights organizations, the country’s forces took actions, such as bombing urban areas that intentionally targeted civilian infrastructure .

The news website Caucasian Knot reported that violent confrontations with security forces resulted in at least 31 deaths in the North Caucasus during the first half of the year. Kabardino-Balkaria was the most affected region with 10 deaths in the first half of the year, followed by Dagestan, where nine persons were killed.

B. DISAPPEARANCE

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There were reports of disappearances by or on behalf of government authorities. Enforced disappearances for both political and financial reasons continued in the North Caucasus. According to the July 30 report of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, there were 849 outstanding cases of enforced or involuntary disappearances in the country.

There were reports that police committed enforced disappearances and abductions during the year. In one case according to press reports, on May 5, police in the village of Chulpanovo in the Republic of Tatarstan arrested a 47-year-old local resident, Idris Sadykov, purportedly on suspicion of robbing a grocery store. Police initially brought Sadykov to a police station, but later that evening police transported him to the home of the father of two police officers, Dinar and Lenar Gafiyatov, where he was held incommunicado for 20 days, severely beaten, abused, starved, and forced to engage in agricultural work. After his sister filed a missing persons complaint, Sadykov was dropped off on the side of a road and threatened that if he told anyone what had occurred, the officers would frame him for a crime that would lead to lengthy imprisonment. On July 11, the Investigative Committee of Tatarstan opened an investigation, but as of December no charges had been announced. As of September an internal police investigation into the officers’ conduct reportedly continued.

Security forces were allegedly complicit in the kidnapping and disappearance of individuals from Central Asia, whose forcible return was apparently sought by their governments.

There were continued reports of abductions related to alleged counterterrorism efforts in the North Caucasus. For example, Memorial reported in October that Ramzan Shaikhayev had disappeared on September 9 while visiting his ailing father in Argun, Chechnya, and that his whereabouts were unknown. Relatives stated that, while he was with his father, he got a call asking him to go outside; video footage showed him getting into a car and leaving. According to reports, police had previously illegally detained Shaikhayev and his wife in July. His wife was released after a week, and Shaikhayev was released after a month. Based on these and other prior interactions with police, Memorial concluded that there was a basis to believe that Shaikhayev had been abducted by Chechen security services and that they had targeted him as a suspected militant because of his long beard and devout Muslim beliefs.

There were reports Russia-led forces and Russian occupation authorities in Ukraine engaged in enforced disappearances .

C. TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT

Although the constitution prohibits such practices, numerous credible reports indicated law enforcement personnel engaged in torture, abuse, and violence to coerce confessions from suspects, and authorities only occasionally held officials accountable for such actions.

A Levada Center poll released in June indicated that one in 10 persons in the country had been subjected to what they perceived to be torture by law enforcement bodies.

There were reports of deaths as a result of torture .

Physical abuse of suspects by police officers was reportedly systemic and usually occurred within the first few days of arrest in pretrial detention facilities. Reports from human rights groups and former police officers indicated that police most often used electric shocks, suffocation, and stretching or applying pressure to joints and ligaments because those methods were considered less likely to leave visible marks. The problem was especially acute in the North Caucasus.

There were reports that security forces used torture as a form of punishment against detained opposition and human rights activists, journalists, and critics of government policies. For example, according to human rights groups, on July 12, in Nazran, Ingushetia, the FSB detained Rashid Maysigov, a reporter for the news website Fortanga, after raiding his home, where they allegedly found drugs and printed materials promoting Ingush separatism. Maysigov was reportedly tortured during interrogation, including by electric shock; he was also forced to confess to possessing drugs and questioned about his coverage of human rights violations, corruption, and the protest movement in Ingushetia. In November a district court in Magas, Ingushetia, extended his pretrial detention through January 7, 2020.

In several cities police reportedly subjected members of Jehovah’s Witnesses, a religious group the Supreme Court banned under antiextremism laws in 2017, to physical abuse and torture following their arrest. For example, on February 15, Investigative Committee officials in the city of Surgut reportedly subjected at least seven Jehovah’s Witnesses to torture involving beatings, stun guns, and suffocation at a police precinct.

There were multiple reports of the FSB using torture against young anarchists and antifascist activists who were allegedly involved in several “terrorism” and “extremism” cases. For example, on February 1, the FSB detained Moscow State University postgraduate mathematics student and reported anarchist Azat Miftakhov on suspicion of making an unexploded homemade bomb found in the Moscow region several weeks earlier. Miftakhov reported that during his detention, he was severely beaten, subjected to electric shock, threatened with rape, and denied access to a lawyer. Miftakhov attempted to commit suicide to end the abuse, leading to his hospitalization. On February 7, after Miftakhov’s initial period of detention expired, security officials briefly released him but then immediately detained him again in the courthouse, this time accusing him of attacking a local office of the United Russia party in January 2018. As of December he remained in pretrial detention; he did not admit guilt and claimed that security forces had fabricated the case against him. Memorial considered Miftakhov to be a political prisoner.

In the North Caucasus region, there were widespread reports that security forces abused and tortured both alleged militants and civilians in detention facilities.

According to human rights defenders, during the year police in Chechnya continued a campaign of unlawful detentions and torture of men presumed to be gay or bisexual. Media reports and human rights groups estimated that the number of victims during the year was as high as 50. In May, for example, the NGO Human Rights Watch released a report based on interviews with four men who were detained for periods of three and 20 days between December 2018 and February 2019 at the Grozny Internal Affairs Department compound, where law enforcement officials reportedly kicked them, beat them with sticks and pipes, denied them food and water, and tortured three of the four with electric shocks. One was reportedly raped with a stick. In an interview the four men described being held with many others subjected to the same treatment because of their real or perceived sexual orientation. According to the Russian LGBT Network, as of April 1, more than 150 LGBTI persons had fled Chechnya because of this campaign, the majority of whom had also left the country.

Reports by migrants, NGOs, and the press suggested a pattern of police officers and prison personnel carrying out beatings, arrests, and extortion of persons whom they believed to be Roma, Central Asian, African, or from the North Caucasus. In one case, on January 16, police in Magnitogorsk arrested Husniddin Zainabidinov, a labor migrant from Kyrgyzstan, on suspicion of involvement in a gas leak that led to an explosion in an apartment. According to lawyers from Memorial representing Zainabidinov, he was tortured to coerce a confession, including by electric shocks, severe beatings, and other abuse. According to press reports, police in Magnitogorsk had increased pressure on Central Asian labor migrants following the blast, including through raids, arrests, and increased document checks.

There were reports of rape and sexual abuse by government agents. For example, according to press reports, on August 27, two police officers in the city of Anapa in the Krasnodar region threatened a 17-year-old girl with arrest and administrative charges in order to force her to engage in sexual acts. Following an internal investigation, 11 police officers were fired, including the Anapa police chief. As of December authorities had not opened a criminal case.

There were reports of authorities detaining defendants for psychiatric evaluations to exert pressure on them or sending defendants for psychiatric treatment as punishment. Prosecutors and certified medical professionals may request suspects be placed in psychiatric clinics on an involuntary basis. For example, on April 8, authorities in the Perm region subjected opposition activists Aleksandr Shabarchin, Danil Vasiliyev, and Aleksandr Kotov to forced psychiatric evaluations, during which they were interrogated by doctors, according to their claims. The activists were on trial for “undermining public order” for placing a scarecrow with President Putin’s face and the words “war criminal” and “liar” in the center of downtown Perm, charges which carry up to a seven-year prison term. The activists claimed psychiatrists insisted that they reveal “who was paying them” for their actions, how they met each other, and other details about their organization. As of December the investigation continued.

On June 27, the investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta published a report about the use of punitive psychiatry in prisons. The article focused on the case of prisoner Zelimkhan Medov, who was serving a 17-year sentence for a 2004 attack on a military base. Medov alleged that in retaliation for filing complaints about abuses to which he was subjected in prison, he was sent for multiple lengthy punitive stints in prison psychiatric facilities between 2015 and 2018. During one of these periods, he was tied to a bed with restraints for six months and given daily injections of unnecessary psychotropic drugs until he agreed to sign a document to become an informant for the prison administration. As of December authorities had not opened an investigation into the allegations.

Nonlethal physical abuse and hazing continued in the armed forces. Activists reported such hazing was often tied to extortion schemes. For example, on April 25, military investigators opened an investigation into the Mikhailovskiy Military Artillery Academy in St. Petersburg after reports of severe hazing of recruits surfaced on social media. According to press reports, young soldiers were filmed being beaten and humiliated by their superiors.

There were reports Russia-led forces in Ukraine’s Donbas region and Russian occupation authorities in Crimea engaged in torture (see Country Reports on Human RightsPractices for Ukraine).

Photo: Russian tank (Russian ministry of Defence)

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Intellectual Disarmament of the West

Western Civilization has produced too many people, politicians, institutions, and organizations who are incapable of acknowledging international threats and responding appropriately to actual assaults.

Iranian officials frequently chant “Death to America.” They are seeking to develop the means to make good on that goal. Despite that, Barack Obama unnecessarily sent pallet loads of untraceable cash to them.

Russia has developed the world’s most powerful nuclear arsenal, but that former Commander in Chief substantially reduced the U.S. military, and sought to defund missile defense efforts.

There has never been greater damage done to the U.S. economy than that wrought by China’s malicious actions regarding COVID-19. Beijing has engaged in a massive arms buildup and pursues aggression throughout Asia. Progressives express little distress about it.

William Galston, writing in the Wall Street Journal, notes that “China’s economic rise has convinced autocrats around the world that their countries can prosper without opening the door to civil liberties and political competition. Russia has effectively used social media to weaken public confidence in democratic elections and boost support for its own brand of conservative authoritarianism.”

Thomas Wright, reports in the Atlantic: “For several years now, geopolitical competition between the major powers has been intensifying. Russia became much more aggressive in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. China grew more assertive in East Asia. What we did not know, until very recently, was that this competition would also directly and negatively impact the lives of citizens in Western democracies.”

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The response by the Left? Criticism of Trump. Progressives focus on citing America’s faults, not the danger from these belligerent powers.

The problem is deeper than internecine politics, a failure to recognize threats, or even an ignorance of history. Leftist politicians, bureaucrats, pundits and academicians have fundamentally and emotionally adopted an intellectual rejection of reality, and refuse to acknowledge that some foreign powers wholly reject the pacifist mindset and are moving to cripple democracies.

There are several reasons for this. Europeans were, far more than is commonly discussed, deeply scarred by the devastation of the two major clashes of the 20th century. The physical and psychological damage of the First World War, and the understandable desperation to avoid another such clash, restrained British and French politicians from taking timely action to stop Hitler. That psychosis was only reinforced by the horrors of WW2.

America was less damaged by those events, but its progressive  intellectual class is far more influenced by European sensibilities than the U.S. experience. Further, the residue of antiwar sentiment from the protest generation of the 1960s still dominates their outlook.

Within both America and Europe, there is a further and perhaps even more prevalent reason that external threats go unacknowledged by Progressives. The great wave of democracy that originated with the American Revolution has its detractors among those who continue to believe that the common person is too ignorant to rule nations.  That belief underlies the whole thrust of socialist movements, which advocate the empowering of central planning.

Many Leftists look at China, Russia, and other hierarchical states and, while condemning the excesses of those governments, nevertheless see a governance model they believe is similar to their own concepts. They do not fear that which seems kin to their beliefs.

Perhaps most importantly, many of those on the Left do not believe that western civilization is worth preserving, and therefore not worth protecting. They place no value on its most foundational concept, the inherent value of the individual.They focus on its past imperfections, some real, some exaggerated, some wholly made up, and reject its unprecedented and unmatched accomplishments. They ignore the far worse record of those who seek to assault the West.

It is a dangerous attitude that invites disaster.

Illustration: Pixbay