Month: February 2021

The media has chosen to ignore the rising tide of anti-Semitism within the Democratic Party. 

With the election of Raphael Warnock as a new senator from the state of Georgia, and the rising strength of the hard left within the Democratic leadership, the issue looms larger than ever. 

As noted in the PRnewswire “…his past record as a Pastor is replete with vitriolic anti-Israel allegations and conspiratorial accusations.” 

Warnock is, in fact, a prime example of the marriage between the the Democratic Party’s growing socialist wing and the traditional disdain socialist have for Jews. 

There is, of course, anti-Semitism within some elements of the far-right.  But it is a largely discredited element, reviled and rejected by GOP and conservative leaders. Leftist Democrats who embrace anti-Semitism, however, have extraordinary influence. 

Bruce Abramson and Jeff Ballabon, writing in Newsweek during the fall, asked “Why won’t Joe Biden repudiate anti-Semitic Democrats? Anti-Semitism has been on full display among Democratic leaders and left-wing protest groups alike in recent years. Leaders of the Women’s March, for example, proved so undeniably anti-Semitic that even former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz felt compelled to distance herself. Yet those same anti-Semites—Linda Sarsour and Tamika Mallory—were featured speakers at this summer’s Democratic convention. The Women’s March since recruited new leaders—who proved to be just as anti-Semitic.

The Jewish Journal reports that author Ruth Wisse..asks “Can Liberals Confront Anti-Semitism? Good people… have always been susceptible to the anti-Jewish left that speaks in the name of a higher morality. One sees liberals not just caving in the face of anti-Jewish aggression but degenerating into socialist and leftist illiberalism…it is certainly happening in America right now.” 

A 2019 incident illustrates the issue. Rep. Illhan Omar made an anti-Semitic comment, and some moved to condemn it, assuming the move would be a an easy one. However, as noted in the Associated Press,   “rank-and-file Democrats circled the wagons around freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar…forcing party leaders to retreat from plans to rebuke her by passing a resolution condemning anti-Semitism…the retreat from a resolution condemning anti-Semitism was an embarrassing misstep for Democratic leaders.”

Jonathon Marks, writing for Commentary magazine, notes that “Democrats… seem determined to hold on to those who do Jews harm.”

The bias against both Jewish individuals and the Jewish state has reached a level within the Democrat Party unprecedented within the modern era. Nation of Islam head Louis Farrakhan has compared Jews to termites, and his history of ties with former Democrat National Committee Deputy Chair (and current Minnesota Attorney General) Keith Ellison is undeniable.

But it doesn’t end there.

In New York State’s Hudson Valley, Democrat Rep. Antonio Delgado, has blasted Israel with false accusations.  He has not been rebuked by his party. 

Even the very Democrat-leaning New York Times  has noticed the trend. Catie Edmondson wrote in 2018, “A cluster of activist Democrats — most of them young, …has dared to breach what has been an almost inviolable orthodoxy in both political parties, strong support for Israel… They include Ilhan Omar …Rashida Tlaib, [and Rep.] Ocasio-Cortez.

The Times article failed to include former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, who ran as the Democrat candidate for governor in Florida. Gillum is a staunch supporter of groups that push the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. 

As has previously reported, it is not coincidental that the Democrat’s growing anti-Semitism has grown as the hard-left has increased its influence and power within the party. Chris Pandolfo, writing for the Conservative Review  notes that “As insurgent hard-Left socialists become the face and the ‘future’ of the Democratic Party, their connections to anti-Semitic organizations and attitudes are becoming more apparent…the rise of these socialist candidates, the radicalism and anti-Semitic tendencies of the far Left, ought to concern every American. The inroads democratic socialists are making within the Democratic Party and the mainstreaming of anti-Israel rhetoric and policies should be widely discussed by a mainstream media…But instead, the Left is given a pass by a left-wing media that believes the most anti-Semitic socialist is preferable to a conservative Republican.”

The Obama Administration opened the door to both hard-left policies and anti-Israel sentiments, dramatically replacing America’s support for both Israel and moderate Arab states with support for Iran and the Moslem Brotherhood.

Photo: Rep. Omar official site

The New York Analysis of Policy and Government concludes its excerpts from The Congressional-Executive Commission on China Report.

The Chinese government continued its hardline approach to exerting control over journalists and other independent voices. In 2019, China reportedly had detained the highest number of imprisoned journalists in the world. This past year, the Chinese government expelled New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post journalists from mainland China and Hong Kong while strengthening government and Party control of domestic media outlets. Hundreds of citizens have been penalized for sharing online information and concerns about the COVID–19 outbreak and have been accused of ‘‘rumor-mongering.’’ Authorities reportedly detained two Beijing-based legal scholars—prominent civil society advocate Xu Zhiyong and leading public intellectual Xu Zhangrun— in connection with their criticism of Xi Jinping.

Civil society played a critical role in the COVID–19 response, as citizens worked through civil society organizations and grassroots volunteer groups to assist the most vulnerable people impacted by the pandemic. The people of China continued to participate in diverse forms of collective organization for mutual and public interest, including popular protest, issue-based grassroots advocacy, and professionalized charities and social enterprises. In recent years, rights advocates working on a broad range of issues, from gender equality to labor to disability rights, have been targets of government repression and exclusion. For example, several rights advocates who gathered informally to discuss civil society developments in December 2019 were detained and charged with ‘‘inciting subversion of state power.’’ Meanwhile, organizations aligned with official priorities have become integral to providing public services.

Criminal law and police power continued to be used to punish government critics, rights advocates, religious believers, and ethnic minority groups. Various types of arbitrary detention, including some forms of extrajudicial detention, were used to deprive individuals of their liberty, contravening international human rights standards.

Five years after the July 2015 ‘‘709 Crackdown’’ on human rights lawyers and rights defenders, many of those Chinese lawyers and rights defenders are surveilled by public security authorities in what one leading expert has termed ‘‘non-release release.’’ Lawyers continued to face repression, intimidation, and punishment for attempting to protect human rights in China. Besides detention and imprisonment, the Chinese government used administrative measures, including disbarment, to target lawyers who express critical views or who advocate for clients whom the Chinese government has tried to suppress.

The Chinese government further intensified the campaign of ‘‘sinicization’’ to bring religion in China under closer official control and in line with officially sanctioned interpretations of Chinese culture, thereby curtailing religious freedom. The rights of religious believers continued to be violated, as churches, mosques, and temples were demolished; underground religious groups were targeted; surveillance was expanded; and religious leaders were detained and imprisoned. Wang Yi, the founder and pastor of the Early Rain Covenant Church, was sentenced to nine years in prison for ‘‘inciting subversion of state power,’’ despite the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention deeming his detention ‘‘arbitrary’’ according to international human rights standards.

The Chinese government has increasingly worked to suppress free speech outside China. Economic coercion, surveillance, intimidation, and censorship on China-based social media platforms were all employed to silence critics, punish foreign organizations for private speech of individual employees, and encourage self-censorship. Most visibly, the Chinese government retaliated against the National Basketball Association after Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey posted a tweet in October 2019 in support of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. The targets also included Chinese students studying abroad, Uyghurs living in the United States, and U.S. and international companies. Authorities even attempted to silence or otherwise intimidate individuals living in the U.S.—particularly Uyghurs—by coercing or threatening their family members living in China.

Women in China have faced even more difficult circumstances due to the disproportionate risks and burdens associated with the essential role they have played in the COVID–19 response. During the pandemic, domestic violence rose substantially, and experts predicted that already existing gender gaps in employment and well-being would be further exacerbated by the economic and social disruption caused by the outbreak. Women’s rights advocacy continues to face heavy repression, but the inclusion of anti-sexual harassment provisions in the Civil Code in May 2020 shows that their advocacy has had an impact.

Independent trade unions are banned in China. Labor rights advocates and citizen journalists continued to be targeted and detained for their work, including for documenting numerous workers’ strikes and subsequent crackdowns. The level of unemployment and labor unrest is significant, although the severity is difficult to ascertain due to censorship and government control of information.

Everyone deserves a government that respects their human rights, their culture, and their hopes and dreams for a better life for themselves and their families. As the Chinese government expands its global influence, the international community must be aware that intensifying authoritarianism in China is also a threat to internationally recognized human rights norms as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is essential that the U.S. Congress and the Administration work together to promote effective policies to support human rights and the rule of law in China.

Photo: China Defence Ministry

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China (Commission) was established by the U.S.-China Relations Act of 2000 (Public Law No. 106–286) as the People’s Republic of China (PRC) prepared to enter the World Trade Organization. The Commission’s 2020 Annual Report covers the period from July 1, 2019 to July 1, 2020. We provide this excerpt:

The Chinese government and Communist Party have taken unprecedented steps in the last year to extend their repressive policies through censorship, intimidation, and the detention of individuals and groups for exercising their fundamental human rights, especially in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) and Hong Kong.

 In recent years, the Commission has become increasingly concerned that the Chinese government and Party have expanded their human rights violations around the world, even reaching the American people. These efforts include threatening and intimidating critics, blocking social media content, pressuring publishers to censor their content in China, influencing academic institutions to the detriment of academic freedom, interfering in multilateral institutions, and pressuring U.S. and international companies to suppress practices that do not conform to the political narratives and demands of Chinese officials.

The Commission has contributed to bringing these issues to light with a series of hearings on the Chinese government’s ‘‘long arm of authoritarianism.’’

 In addition to the recommendations contained in this report, the Commission drafted, edited, and provided support for key legislative initiatives including the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, the PROTECT Hong Kong Act, the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act, the Tibetan Policy and Support Act, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, and many other House and Senate bills and resolutions related to China and human rights

Over the last year, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (Commission) found that the Chinese government and Communist Party have taken unprecedented steps to extend their repressive policies through censorship, intimidation, and the detention of people in China for exercising their fundamental human rights. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) where new evidence emerged that crimes against humanity—and possibly genocide—are occurring, and in Hong Kong, where the ‘‘one country, two systems’’ framework has been effectively dismantled.

These policies are in direct violation of China’s Constitution, which guarantees ‘‘freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration,’’ as well as ‘‘freedom of religious belief.’’ The actions of the Chinese government also contravene both the letter and the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; violate its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which the Chinese government has signed but not ratified; and violate the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, ratified in 2001. Further, the Chinese government has abandoned any pretense of adhering to the legally binding commitments it made to the international community when it signed the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration on the future of Hong Kong.

President and Party General Secretary Xi Jinping has tightened his grip over China’s one-party authoritarian system, and the Party has further absorbed key government functions while also enhancing its control over universities and businesses. Authorities promoted the official ideology of ‘‘Xi Jinping Thought’’ on social media and required Party members, government officials, journalists, and students to study it, making the ideology both pervasive, and for much of the country, mandatory.

In the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), it is now estimated that up to 1.8 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Hui, and others have been arbitrarily detained in a system of extrajudicial mass internment camps where they are subjected to forced labor, torture, and political indoctrination. In the last year, leaked Chinese government documents provided additional evidence that the mass internment camp system was organized at the direction of top Party officials and confirmed the prevalence of the use of coercive force and punishment for inmates.

Forced labor in the XUAR is widespread and systematic and exists within the mass internment camps and elsewhere throughout the region, as part of a targeted campaign of repression against Turkic and Muslim minorities. These facts are confirmed by the testimony of former camp detainees, satellite imagery, media reports, and leaked government documents. Many U.S., international, and Chinese companies are increasingly at risk of complicity in the exploitation of forced labor involving Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities.

In last year’s annual report, the Commission stated that the situation in the XUAR may constitute crimes against humanity as outlined in Article 7(1) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. In March 2020, the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum stated that there is a ‘‘reasonable basis to believe the government of China is committing crimes against humanity’’ in the XUAR.

Disturbing new evidence has also emerged of a systematic and widespread policy of forced sterilization and birth suppression of the Uyghur and other minority populations. Further, an official XUAR policy document from 2017 stated that nearly half a million middle and elementary school-age children in the XUAR were attending boarding schools, many of whom were involuntarily separated from their families. These trends suggest that the Chinese government is intentionally working to destroy Uyghur and other minority families, culture, and religious adherence, all of which should be considered when determining whether the Chinese government is responsible for perpetrating atrocity crimes—including genocide—against Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other Turkic and predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities in China.

In Hong Kong, the ‘‘one country, two systems” framework has been dismantled, severely undermining the rule of law and respect for human rights that the territory has long enjoyed. The political turmoil in Hong Kong over the past year is the result of the Hong Kong and Chinese governments’ refusal to address the legitimate demands of the Hong Kong people that excessive police violence against peaceful protesters be stopped and investigated. Authorities arrested pro-democracy leaders, prevented journalists from reporting, applied political pressure on the judiciary, and allowed the Hong Kong Police Force to grow increasingly abusive toward nonviolent protesters.

Instead of reducing tensions, the Chinese government bypassed Hong Kong’s Legislative Council to impose national security legislation that directly threatens Hong Kong residents’ right to due process, as well as their freedoms of expression and association. The legislation is clearly meant to target, intimidate, and silence Hong Kong’s robust civil society, including the many organizations that have advocated for human rights in mainland China from the relative safety of Hong Kong.

Despite these challenges, the spirit of democracy and human rights remains strong in Hong Kong. Hundreds of thousands gathered in Victoria Park to commemorate the 31st anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen protests, even though the Hong Kong Police Force refused to authorize the annual candlelight vigil.

Chinese officials continue to avoid transparency and accountability to the families of those killed, tortured, imprisoned, or exiled for their participation in the pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square and throughout China during the spring of 1989. The Tiananmen Mothers, a group in China composed of parents and family members of individuals killed, annually call for justice, truth, and accountability about the massacre.

In Tibet, the Chinese government continued—as it has for over a decade—to block dialogue with the Dalai Lama, his representatives, or the Central Tibetan Administration toward a negotiated agreement. Religious freedom continued to be severely curtailed as new measures have been implemented to manage and shape Tibetan Buddhism as part of the policy of ‘‘sinicizing religion.’’ Chinese officials continued to claim that they have the sole authority to select the next reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, in violation of the religious freedom of the Tibetan Buddhist community. In the Tibet Autonomous Region, new regulations on ‘‘ethnic unity’’ were passed this year that mandate acceptance and promotion of government ethnic and religious policy.

It has been 25 years since Gedun Choekyi Nyima, the 11th Panchen Lama, was abducted along with his parents and forcibly disappeared. Since then, they have not been seen or heard from by anyone outside China, and to this day they remain among the world’s longest detained political and religious prisoners. The members of the Commission continue to call for their immediate and unconditional release.

The outbreak of COVID–19 in Wuhan municipality, Hubei province, in late 2019 caused incalculable suffering for the people of China and presented a major challenge to the Chinese Communist Party’s leadership. The strategy employed by the Chinese government in response to the pandemic echoed its responses to other domestic and international challenges. Chinese officials used the heavy hand of repression, censorship, and secrecy to control the public narrative in a manner designed to preserve the political legitimacy of the Party. Attempts to minimize the severity of the outbreak by censoring vital information and silencing doctors exacerbated the spread of COVID–19 in China and around the world. Instead of providing a full and transparent accounting of the emergence of the novel coronavirus in China, the Chinese government pushed back against calls for an independent international investigation.

The Report concludes tomorrow.

Photo: President Xi china Defence Ministry

The U.S. General Accounting Office has released a study on a comparatively new and crucial area of defense: the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS.)  The EMS is essential for facilitating control in defense on air, land, sea, space, and cyber domains. the natural range of frequencies that  support various warfighting functions such as communications, navigation, and weapons usage.

 The pervasiveness of the EMS across almost all warfighting operations means that maintaining or achieving  EMS superiority against an adversary  is critical to battlefield success.  The Pentagon stresses that the EMS is essential for facilitating control within the  operational environment and impacts all domains—air, land, sea, space  and cyber—and portions of military operations.

According to DOD,  America needs to control the spectrum to support warfighting functions or it risks  losing control of the battlespace. Other military capabilities across  warfighting domains require use of the electromagnetic spectrum. These  include such things as signals intelligence on adversary transmissions,  information operations that affect adversary decision-making, and  command and control functions that link communications between U.S.  forces.

Very troubling studies by the Department of Defense (DOD) and others reveal that China and Russia are highly aware of the importance of EMS.  Both those nations have taken steps to improve their ability to threaten America’s ability to use and control this key area. China and Russia have invested decades in developing capabilities that could degrade DOD’s  operations and affect superiority in the EMS,cyberoperations, and other  elements of the information environment.

China in particular has made control of the EMS spectrum a key goal. The Report notes that “Drawing heavily on Chinese source documents, a 2018 RAND study  further characterized China’s strategic military approach as one that  emphasizes “comprehensive dominance” in traditional domains (air, land,  and sea) as well as space, cyber, psychological warfare, and the electromagnetic spectrum. The study notes that dominance across  domains is framed by a Chinese military theory that victory is predicated on  successfully waging ‘system destruction warfare’ to paralyze or destroy  an enemy’s systems. The theory further contends that integrated  combat forces should be used in system versus system operations that  feature information dominance, precision strikes, and joint operations,  according to the RAND study. “

America’s adversaries are more diligent in seeking EMS dominance.

“China is taking  steps to enhance its capabilities to use the EMS through strategic,  organizational, and training advances. Meanwhile, Russian electromagnetic warfare forces, described by the Defense Intelligence Agency as ‘world class,’ have demonstrated their effectiveness through successful real-world applications against U.S. and foreign militaries.”

To the rulers in Beijing, EMS dominance is real, practical, and current. The Report found that China’s words and actions indicate they have moved beyond the  theoretical to the practical.

 “In a 2019 report to Congress, DOD noted that  Chairman Xi Jinping has articulated a strategic vision to create a force  that dominates all networks, uses information operations to control a  conflict in its early stages, and that enables China’s ability to perform in  the electromagnetic spectrum as part of joint military operations.

 ^“The DOD report also recognized China’s strategic vision by noting that China emphasizes EW dominance by suppressing, degrading, disrupting, or  deceiving enemy electronic equipment. This includes targeting adversary  systems that operate in radio, radar, microwave, infrared, and optical  frequency ranges, as well as computer and information systems.”

China has taken specific steps toward the realization of their EMS strategic vision.

What’s at stake? The Pentagon warns that Without control of the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS)—the natural range of frequencies that  support various warfighting functions such as communications, navigation, and weapons usage—DOD risks losing control of the  battlefield. DOD conducts specific EMS operations (EMSO)—such as  electromagnetic warfare (EW)—but also relies on the EMS for many other  uses even as these operations have placed increasingly complex  demands on the spectrum. The U.S. military’s operations in all domains— air, land, sea, space, and cyber—depend on the ability to use and control  the EMS. However, technological advances could result in EMS dependent capabilities being among the first to be targeted in a conflict.  

Illustration: DoD

The economic implications of space are virtually unlimited. In December, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross addressed the Eighth meeting of the National Space Council. The New York Analysis of Policy and Government presents key portions of his remarks:

SpaceX executed its 100^th successful commercial Falcon 9 rocket launch, sending a crew and thousands of pounds of supplies and research gear aboard a Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station. I am reminded of a time not long ago when travel among the stars was merely a distant goal, before it was even a race among nations.

American business people continue creating new ways to make space more commercially accessible.

Such landmark accomplishments in the commercial space field come alongside record-breaking economic investment in space activities. Globally, another $4.9 billion was invested in space companies in Q3 alone. This not only marks the most productive quarter on record, but it also raises total 2020 investment to $17.5 billion in the overall industry. And the United States accounts for 62 percent of the industry’s cumulative investment. Morgan Stanley projects that the revenue generated by the global space industry may top $1 trillion by 2040.

The recent explosion in the industry here in the United States is owed in no small part to the efforts of the Trump Administration. The Administration’s pro-space agenda and the work of the National Space Council has already had significant impacts. NOAA has been able to remove red tape that previously surrounded remote sensing technology by shortening licensing timelines from 74 days to 28 days. This enables companies to sell data from satellites more easily and efficiently, helping commercial satellite operators stay competitive in a rapidly changing global marketplace.

The Commerce Department has also taken steps over the last year, at the behest of the Vice President, to identify new space missions and get them the necessary authorization to proceed. The goal here is to alleviate the administrative and regulatory burden on emerging companies and technologies, and we enthusiastically continue on in that mission.

Financial indicators and regulatory procedures aside, one simple way to observe the growth of [the U.S.] space industry is to look at the sheer number of satellites in orbit. This year alone, the number of active satellites in orbit is set to increase by more than 50 percent. The Satellite Industry Association estimates that up to 110,000 new satellites could be in orbit by 2030.

This is good news for projects like SpaceX’s Starlink as well as for smaller companies that can benefit from the growing accessibility of private satellites. But the increase in satellites has also created a unique set of challenges when it comes to managing orbital traffic. We are seeing more and more frequent near misses that could create unprecedented new debris. If two significant objects were to collide, they could create a shower of debris that may endanger the astronauts aboard the International Space Station, billions of U.S and allied investment in space, and the growth of space commerce.

Fortunately, there is no shortage of brilliant men and women who have made remarkable headway toward managing this problem. In 2018, the Trump Administration’s Space Policy Directive-3 provided a unique approach to the management of space traffic. The Commerce Department’s Office of Space Commerce and our interagency partners took on the mission laid forth by this initiative. I’m proud to report that we’re in the midst of finalizing a DOC-DOD MOU that will provide a detailed plan for the improvement of space situational awareness, and ultimately, space traffic management.

We have also drawn on existing NOAA resources to establish a new open architecture data repository. This system allows both private and government entities, including those of our allies, to share data, increasing all parties’ situational awareness amidst an increasingly crowded orbital environment. We continue to work with our allies and industry on the norms, standards and best practices that will inform new “rules of the road” in space.

We have also worked with private business and technology leaders from around the nation on this issue. In fact, just before Thanksgiving, the Office of Space Commerce hosted an industry day with over 250 companies participating to discuss our approach to the Open Architecture Data Repository. We will continue to work collaboratively with the public and private sector to tackle this challenge.

It is not the only one we face. China’s lunar landing last week underscores that we are not the only ones invested in the business of space, and that competition for American companies operating in this sector face real competition. Looking ahead, my Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis is set to publish innovative experimental statistics within the next two weeks that will help us further measure and understand the space sector.

The United States remains an incubator for greatness like no other, and I’m confident that we will retain our position as the premier hub for space-based exploration and business.

Photo: SpaceX launched its 21st commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station at 11:17 a.m. EST Dec. 6, 2020, from Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Credits: NASA Television