RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16153/how-to-deal-with-china

China’s threats to punish Australia seem to be part of an increasingly bullying, aggressive approach by Chinese officials, not only toward Australia, but also toward India, and at least four other countries in the region: Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Japan, as well as islands in the Pacific.

The only real solution to China’s duplicity and aggression would be for Western nations — all 186 nations that were harmed by China’s lies during the Covid-19 pandemic — to cut all ties with China, to start a firm policy of “Made in America” or “Made Anywhere But China” to show a willing independence from a country that openly aspires to dominate the world.

China — perhaps hoping that everyone is sufficiently distracted by the virus the Chinese Communist Party unleashed on it, as well as by the “free gifts” from China that, in their trade-off for freedom, promise to be fatal — is clearly on the march. The world might remember that it would have been so much easier to stop Hitler before he crossed the Rhine.

China’s Communist Party leadership was not pleased to hear a call from Australia for a global inquiry into the origin of the Covid-19 virus and China’s possible role in it.

Australia further requested that the investigation be conducted outside the purview of the World Health Organization (WHO), which had had been spreading lies and disinformation about the transmissibility of the virus. China seems to have decided that Australia’s insistence on an independent study was a violation of the spirit of their bilateral relationship. Indeed, for the past three decades, the Australian economy has been buoyed by expanding commercial ties with China. This relationship has now soured, and China has been threatening Australia with economic warfare unless it reconsiders its inquisitive foreign policy.

Making good on its threat, China slapped an 80% tariff on Australian barley and has threatened to boycott Australian wine and beef. Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne has rejected any such attempts at economic coercion.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/06/voice-jihad-will-be-heard-loud-and-clear-terry-bishop/

On the same day senior Taliban leaders could be seen in a video celebrating dozens of “various martyrdom seeking groups” including suicide bombers, U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad was telling the U.S. State Department and reporters that he “[believes] we are in a more hopeful moment that validates our approach [regarding the Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan].” He was “optimistic that finally we are moving forward to the start of the intra-Afghan negotiations.”

Apparently, the Taliban defines negotiation quite differently than Khalilzad is willing to admit. Per his own words in the recent special briefing, he is clearly wrong — either by virtue of ignorance or misinformation — on the Taliban’s commitment to break ties with al-Qaeda (and a conglomerate of Deobandi-linked terrorist groups in the region, for that matter). What is more, he has also ignored their means for preparing for peace. After all, nothing says peace more than a group of martyrdom seekers and suicide bombers.

On June 1, 2020 — the same day of Khalilzad’s lofty statements about the organization — a near 35-minute video entitled “Victorious Force (1)” was released by the Taliban, highlighting some of their various methods for engaging in negotiation with the Afghan government that are fearfully ignored by a blinded special envoy. “We are in a good place,” he contends. However, the martyrdom groups participating in jihadi training at Al-Fateh Camp seem to say otherwise.

The video, which includes English subtitles, can be viewed in its entirety on Voice of Jihad, the official website of the Afghan Taliban. It was produced by Al-Hijra Studio, part of the Audio & Visual Sector of the Multimedia Department of the Commission for Cultural Affairs of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The short film begins with the recitation and English translation of the Quran, chapter 8, Surah al-Anfal (The Spoils of War), verse 60: “And prepare against them whatever you are capable of power and of steeds of war by which you may terrify the enemy of Allah and your enemy.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/europes-statues-and-limitations-11593040923?mod=opinion_lead_pos4

The U.S. isn’t alone in grappling with whom to commemorate in public monuments. Europe is having its own debates, and as in America the results are sometimes positive and just as often ridiculous.

In the positive column, there’s Belgium’s rethink of statues honoring King Leopold II, and Bristol’s removal of monuments to Edward Colston in the United Kingdom. Leopold’s personal rule of Belgian Congo was marked by brutality on an industrial scale, with mass amputations a favored means of controlling a population enslaved in service of Leopold’s rubber interests. Colston made his fortune in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

The problem in both places is that the statues have been attacked by mobs rather than removed by local governments after reasoned debate. That absence of reasonable discussion also explains the other mob targets.

Those include statues of Winston Churchill, one of which in London’s Parliament Square had to be boarded up to protect it. The role of Churchill’s government in exacerbating a Bengal famine that killed several million Indians in 1943 is worth debating. But Churchill’s leadership in defeating Nazi Germany counts for more to any rational mind.

Speaking of India, Gandhi isn’t immune. A move is afoot in addled corners of the left to remove statues of the leader of India’s independence movement due to racist remarks he made about Africans.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16148/end-china-tech-empire

China’s window of vulnerability… is only a few years at most. So this is the time for the world to act.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology talks about the country committing $1.4 trillion in the next five years.

China also is working on plundering Google, which has various operations in the People’s Republic including its AI China Center in Beijing and partnerships with the country’s two leading universities, Peking and Tsinghua. Yet the company has larger plans.

Google, which has refused to work with the Defense Department on artificial intelligence, is helping the Chinese military in that critical field. This situation is hideous. “The United States has to absolutely prohibit Google and other tech firms from doing business in China or with Chinese firms,” according to Brandon Weichert.

China’s market is losing its attractiveness. The economy is in distress, suffering from both the coronavirus epidemic and systemic weaknesses, such as excessive indebtedness, smothering state controls, and xenophobic hostility to foreign investment…. Now is the time to shut down Beijing’s massive, state-directed, and government-funded effort to dominate the world’s technologies.

“China,” some say, “is largely a land of rule-bound rote learners.” The Chinese try but rarely make breakthroughs on their own. Moreover, ruler Xi Jinping, who demands that his regime dominate the technologies of the world, is fast eliminating the one essential ingredient of innovation: freedom. Totalitarianism promotes obedience, a quality not particularly helpful for developing the technologies of tomorrow.

Yet despite everything, Xi’s China has still managed to become a technology leader in critical fields, such as quantum communications and 5G wireless communications. The Chinese, because of their success, are now racing to own the technologies of this century.

China also has weaknesses. Its economy is failing, and the regime, through especially provocative actions, is losing the support of the international community. The country’s window of vulnerability, however, is only a few years at most. So this is the time for the world to act.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16142/visible-muslim-women

“Muslim women are hampered in their development by difficult circumstances and a theory of coercion. … I could not tolerate that women can only pray in the back of mosques and are not properly recognized. I wanted to change this traditional picture, but the IGGÖ refused to question this, even institutionalized it.” — Fatma Akay-Türker, former spokeswoman for women’s affairs of the Islamic Faith Community, who resigned.
“I believe in democracy, freedom, questioning deadlocked theological structures and the equality of human beings. In a world dominated by men I fight for the right of women to speak out, against all forms of discrimination and the sexualization of women.” — Fatma Akay-Türker.
“Relevant passages [of the Koran] regarding women must be reinterpreted. But this was not accepted among the men [in the council]. The classical interpretation of the Koran cannot solve the problems of women….” — Fatma Akay-Türker.
In the meantime, a man has filled Akay-Türker’s position.

Fatma Akay-Türker, until June 16 spokeswoman for women’s affairs of the Islamic Faith Community of Austria (IGGÖ), has stepped down with a statement:

Resignation!!

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/while-america-promotes-freedom-and-human-rights-abroad-we-must-uphold-those-values-home

Iran is hosting an “I Can’t Breathe” international cartoon exhibition, with seventy-two pieces from twenty-seven countries, mocking America for its racial unrest and portraying its leaders and police as Nazis and Klan members.

In China, officials are blasting America for its racism while the People’s Daily, the communist party’s official newspaper, ran a cartoon of a crumbling Statue of Liberty and a White House soaked in blood and tear gas. In Moscow, Russian president Vladimir Putin said on state TV that “if this fight for natural rights, legal rights, turns into mayhem and rioting, I see nothing good for the [United States].”

The hypocrisy is breathtaking, for Tehran, Beijing, and Moscow are among the world’s leading human rights abusers, and they don’t even pretend to respect the freedoms that Americans take for granted.

Tehran is crushing pro-democracy demonstrations in increasingly harsh fashion, killing hundreds and arresting thousands as recently as November, while jailing and torturing journalists, human-rights lawyers, labor leaders, and other activists. Beijing is jailing lawyers, censoring the internet, holding Uighurs in concentration camps, and curtailing freedom in Hong Kong. The oligarchs, journalists, activists, and opposition leaders who challenge Putin often wind up jailed, attacked, or dead.

Nevertheless, the autocrats’ attacks on America remind us that due to the ideals we promote around the world – freedom, democracy, equality rights, pluralism-we pay a price abroad when we don’t live up to them at home. We invite attack from our autocratic adversaries, divert attention from their human rights horrors, and make ourselves a less effective advocate for human rights.

https://asiatimes.com/2020/06/us-research-scientists-under-fire-for-ties-to-china/

National Institutes of Health recently fired dozens of scientists, mostly Asian men, for having secret financial links to Beijing

Harvard Professor Charles Lieber was formally indicted this month on two counts of making false statements to federal authorities regarding his participation in China’s Thousand Talents program and his involvement with the Wuhan University of Technology.

His arrest in January made headlines, but Lieber proved to be only a harbinger of more than 300 similar cases. All are related to US government research contract conditions and requirements, and all are now in the process of public exposure.

Even more worrisome than the number, all of the cases including Lieber were uncovered by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), although Lieber held contracts from both NIH and the Department of Defense (DOD).

There is no record of similar impropriety uncovered by the DOD itself, or any broader investigation as yet by the Departments of Homeland Security, Energy, State, Education, or other federal government agencies.

But if the US government looked into all contracts across all agencies it is quite likely that the number of cases could easily reach the thousands. The national security ramifications are frightening.

Lieber, the principal investigator of the Lieber Research Group at Harvard, specialized in the highly sensitive area of nanoscience and was funded with more than $15 million in federal grants.

These grants require the disclosure of all sources of research support, potential financial conflicts of interest and all foreign collaboration.

According to the indictment, “Beginning in 2011, Lieber became a ‘Strategic Scientist’ at Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) in China. He later became a contractual participant in China’s Thousand Talents Plan from at least 2012 through 2015.”

In the first count of the indictment, Lieber is alleged to have told the Defense Department’s Criminal Investigative Service that “he was never asked to participate in the Thousand Talents Program” and that he “’wasn’t sure’ how China categorized him.”

The second count concerned his contracts with NIH. “Lieber allegedly caused Harvard to falsely tell NIH that Lieber ‘had no formal association with WUT’ after 2012, that ‘WUT continued to falsely exaggerate’ his involvement with WUT in subsequent years, and that Lieber is not and has never been a participant in China’s Thousand Talents Plan.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16143/will-iran-appeasement

Germany, Britain and France also appear to have turned a blind eye to a recent statement made by the IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi, who raised serious concerns about possible clandestine and undeclared nuclear sites in Iran.

Germany, Britain and France must put a stop to their mercenary appeasement policy and corrupt loyalty to the Iranian regime. It is the equivalent of enriching the Third Reich during WWII or Soviet Russia during the Cold War. It would have been so much less costly in life and treasure to stop Hitler before he crossed the Rhine. The more the EU kisses up to the ruling mullahs, the more it empowers their rogue, soon-to-be-nuclear regime.

The ruling mullahs of Iran are being handed yet another gift courtesy of the leaders of Europe. On June 19, 2020, Germany, Britain and France issued a statement that they will not support the United States’ plan to extend the United Nations arms embargo on the Iranian regime. The arms embargo is set to expire in October 2020. Germany, Britain, and France, known as E3, were members of Iran nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which, revealingly, Iran never signed.

The foreign ministers of these three European countries pointed out in a statement that “We firmly believe that any unilateral attempt to trigger UN sanctions snapback would have serious adverse consequences in the UN Security Council”. They added, “We would not support such a decision, which would be incompatible with our current efforts to preserve the JCPOA.”

Did Germany, Britain and France fail to read the latest report from the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which highlighted that Iran is violating all the restrictions of the JCPOA?

The European Union has refrained from criticizing the Iranian regime even though, as of May 20, 2020, it has increased its total stockpile of low-enriched uranium from 1,020.9 kilograms (1.1 tons) to 1,571.6 kilograms (1.73 tons). That is approximately eight times more than what the regime was allowed to maintain under the misbegotten JCPOA “nuclear deal.” According to the terms of the JCPOA, Iran had been permitted to keep a stockpile of 202.8 kilograms (447 pounds), and enrich uranium up to 3.67%. Iran is now enriching uranium up to the purity of 4.5% and possesses far more heavy water than permitted under the nuclear agreement.

The EU has remained silent about all that, as well as the dangerous fact that Tehran regime now has enough enriched uranium to refine and build a nuclear bomb if it desired to do so. Approximately 1000kg of uranium enriched at just 5% can be further refined to create one nuclear bomb. Moreover, according to the IAEA report, Iran is still not allowing the IAEA to inspect its sites.