RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16485/china-threatens-dumping-treasuries

China’s Communist Party publicly talking about an American default is… essentially a declaration of intent to destroy the American economy. Washington should fight back.

No amount of persuading, cajoling or badgering has worked to convince China to accept agreements and norms.

Trump can hasten the departure of businesses from Chinese soil with tariffs and administrative measures restricting international commerce. The loss of access to the U.S. market would shake China. Last year, China’s merchandise trade surplus against America amounted to 81.8% of its overall merchandise trade surplus, showing extreme dependence on the American market…. Trump can also order American companies to end their technical cooperation agreements with Chinese entities, prohibit portfolio investments in Chinese markets, and end all sales of tech products.

China may not recover from such actions. Case in point: There is now talk that Huawei Technologies, which six months ago looked as if it would take over the world’s 5G networks, may go out of business because it is having difficulty buying chips to install in equipment

Many Americans have been intimidated, saying Washington cannot oppose China because it owns Treasury debt. That is a hollow threat… The net result of China carrying through on its threat is to leave U.S. Treasury obligations in the hands of countries far more friendly to the United States.

On September 3, the Global Times, the Communist Party tabloid, reported that Beijing was “likely” to sell some or all of its U.S. Treasury holdings.

More important, the paper suggested the United States might for the first time ever default on its debt obligations.

China is certainly trying to destabilize the United States, and it looks as if it’s about to declare total economic war on America.

Beijing has tipped its hand. The question for the Trump administration, therefore, is whether America should strike first.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/09/prague-mayor-zdenek-hrib-stands-for-freedom/

Vaclav Havel was the leading dissident in Communist Czechoslovakia, and the first president after the Fall of the Wall. All over the world, he became a byword for freedom, democracy, and human rights. There is still a Havel tradition in the Czech Republic, even if it is not the dominant one.

Havelians, if you will, traveled to Taiwan last week, in a show of support for that brave, beleaguered democracy. Communist China was very unhappy. The trip was a “despicable act,” said a Chinese foreign-ministry spokesman. The foreign minister himself, Wang Yi, said that the delegation’s leader — Milos Vystrcil, president of the Czech senate — would “pay a heavy price.”

A second foreign-ministry spokesman, however, pointed out that the Czech government had “distanced” itself from Vystrcil and his delegation. They did not “represent the government’s policy,” said the spokesman — and he was absolutely right.

The Czech president, Milos Zeman, is a warm supporter of the Chinese government, and of the Russian government as well. This shows the split in Czech society (and Europe more broadly). I will have more to say about Zeman, Xi Jinping, and Vladimir Putin in due course.

Zeman said that the senate president had engaged in a “childish provocation.” He further said that the senate president would be excluded from any further foreign-policy briefings by the government.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/seoul-cracks-down-on-dissent-against-north-korea-11599693108?mod=opinion_lead_pos9

South Korea is the second-greatest threat to human rights on the Korean Peninsula. President Moon Jae-in ordered a crackdown in July on activists protesting North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un’s crimes against humanity. South Korea’s national police have undertaken politically driven audits of more than 100 human-rights organizations, and the president is pushing for new laws to criminalize speech.

Mr. Moon has staked his legacy on improving relations with Pyongyang, but in practice that’s meant taking cues from its vicious dictatorship. On June 4, Kim Jong Un’s sister Kim Yo Jong denounced South Koreans who use balloons to send leaflets across the demilitarized zone. Calling them “human scum” and “mongrel dogs,” Ms. Kim demanded that Seoul “make a law to stop the farce.” Hours later, Seoul said it would ban the leaflet campaigns. Police raided activists’ offices, and the Unification Ministry, which oversees relations with North Korea, revoked the operating licenses of two organizations.

Mr. Moon has also used Korea’s illiberal “criminal defamation” law, under which truth is no defense. He has filed at least 10 defamation lawsuits, personally or through surrogates, against opponents during his political career, including three in April 2017, the month before he was elected and took office. Since then, lawmakers from his party have demanded that Google Korea take down political commentaries they deem “fake news” and used tax probes to target opponents. Police have even investigated campus posters parodying Mr. Moon’s policies.