RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://www.settimananews.it/informazione-internazionale/you-say-taiwan-say-korea/

In theory, it is a peninsula, but actually, for all practical purposes, it is an island. South Korea is separated from the rest of the Asian continent by its intractable half-brother to the North, making any land contact with its neighbors impossible.

The gap between the reality (being an island) and the theoretical aspiration (being a peninsula) is compounded by being one of the world’s wealthiest and most dynamic locations, bordering one of the most backward and stagnant places globally, its northern half-brother.

This reality makes the Korean peninsula one of Asia’s most dangerous flash points for future strains.

Tempest on the South Korean Island

Tension is on the rise around China. Saber rattling has become frequent around Taiwan, the island de facto independent but, in theory, part of One China. Strategists’ risk assessments consider the possibility of a clash around Taiwan because the PLA might attempt to invade the island.

There are also risks of skirmishes that could get out of control in the contested waters of the South China Sea between China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. A fight that gets out of hand could also start in the high altitudes of the Himalayas between Chinese and Indian troops. Yet, the North Korean scenario could be the most significant jeopardy.

It is impossible to assess Chinese intentions on all these borders. However, a war in the Korean peninsula could be less risky and more advantageous to Beijing in the present situation.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19874/transformation-of-india-middle-east

“Since 1947… Pakistan has initiated three full-fledged wars with India…. In addition, Pakistan has consistently utilized cross-border terrorism in India as an official instrument of state policy, including the 26/11 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people…. Pakistan’s military and ISI spy agency also continues to support the Taliban, the Haqqani group, Lashkar-eTaiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, and other affiliated militant groups in Afghanistan to undermine U.S. military operations and maintain its strategic influence there.” — Hindu American Foundation, August 2019.

According to the Hindu American Foundation, “India is one of the few countries in the world where Baha’is and Jews have never faced religious persecution.”

India first faced Islamist violence, dating as far back as the 8th century to the time of the Muslim Mughal invasions and rule through the mid-19th century. Countless Hindus and other non-Muslims were murdered or forcibly converted to Islam.

“[Historian Mahomed] Ferishtha lists several occasions when… sultans in central India… (1347-1528) killed a hundred thousand Hindus, which they set as a minimum goal whenever they felt like “punishing” the Hindus…. Prof. K.S. Lal once estimated that the Indian population declined by 50 million under the Sultanate…. research into the magnitude of the damage Islam did to India is yet to start in earnest…” — Koenraad Elst, The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, September 2, 2011.

“Apart from actual killing, millions of Hindus disappeared by way of enslavement. After every conquest by a Muslim invader, slave markets in Bagdad and Samarkand were flooded with Hindus…. [O]ne cold night in the reign of Timur Lenk (1398-99), a hundred thousand Hindu slaves died [on the Hindu Kush, “Hindu-killer”] while on transport to Central Asia.” — Koenraad Elst, The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, September 2, 2011.

Islamist violence against Hindus and other non-Muslims who enjoy freedom of speech is an ongoing problem.

Ethnic cleansing against the indigenous Hindu people of Kashmir was one of the occurrences that drastically changed the demographic balance in the region. Starting in 1989, more than 350,000 Kashmiri Hindus were driven from their ancestral homeland in the Jammu and Kashmir region by a radical insurgency orchestrated and funded by Pakistan.

Where are the indigenous non-Muslim communities in what is today called the “Muslim world”? Where is their presence?

Today’s “Muslim world”, which used to be non-Muslim before Islamic invasions, conquests and massacres, is now demographically transformed. The indigenous non-Muslim communities there are now either dying minorities or extinct.

Today, the only religion that has freedom in Afghanistan is Islam.

Turkey, the site that used to be known as Anatolia for more than a thousand years, was the seat of the Christian Byzantine Empire. For centuries, Islamic invaders attacked Anatolia; in 1453, Muslim Turks from Central Asia captured Constantinople, now Istanbul. Today, Christians comprise only 0.1 percent of Turkey’s population.

Prior to the Islamic invasions, most of the entire Middle East and North Africa – countries such as Syria, Algeria, Egypt and Iraq — used to be majority-Christian. Today, indigenous Christians and other minorities — such as Assyrians, Yazidis and Alawites — in almost every majority-Muslim country where they remain, are severely persecuted.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19870/persecution-christians-india

“The viral video captures the harrowing ordeal endured by two Christian women…. [They] were paraded naked while a mob of men molested and beat them mercilessly…. [T]he younger woman, aged only 19, was brutally gang-raped by the enraged mob….” — Report, British Asian Christian Association, May 21, 2023.

“To add to the horror, four police officers reportedly stood by and watched as the frenzied attack unfolded, making no attempt to intervene.” — Report, British Asian Christian Association, May 21, 2023.

In the video, the [Hindu] Meitei tribal group can be heard shouting: “If you don’t take off your clothes, we’ll kill you.” — Report, British Asian Christian Association, May 21, 2023.

“In a disturbing twist, the survivors have alleged that the police officers may have actively participated in or facilitated the heinous attack. There are claims that the officers led the women directly to the mob of 800 to 1000 men” — Report, British Asian Christian Association, May 21, 2023.

Several Christians—including a young child—were burned alive by the Hindu tribesmen, according to Morning Star News.

Notably, both the Hindu government and the international press totally sideline the religious identity of both the attackers and the victims, and speak only of “sectarian clashes” between the Meitei (Hindu) and Kuki (Christian).

This is a familiar tactic—as when the Western media talk of Fulani herdsmen clashing with farmers in Nigeria. In reality, the Fulani are Muslims who are engaged in a genocidal jihad on the “farmers,” who are Christian.

It would appear that religion — specifically the rise of Hindu nationalism, which views ethnic Indians who are Christians as traitors — is, once again, the ultimate factor fueling clashes….

“Local police throughout India allow Hindu extremist mobs to attack hapless Christians without consequences.” — Archbishop Joseph D’Souza of the Anglican Good Shepherd Church of India and President of the All India Christian Council, stream.org, July 21, 2023.

“At this point it is obvious to state that Kuki Christians are under full scale attack by radicalized Hindu groups, and that the police are ignoring this injustice.” — thewire.in, July 20, 2023.

The growing persecution of Christians in India has even propelled that nation into being ranked the eleventh-worst country in the world to persecute Christians, according to the World Watch List.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19857/pakistan-christians-sweden-quran

Pakistani Christians find themselves crying silently for peace, understanding, and respect for their religious symbols — but their cries seem to be falling on deaf ears, both domestically and globally.

This hostility took a horrifying turn when extremist groups threatened to attack churches and Christians, declaring that no Christians would stay safe in Pakistan. These groups even asked other jihadist groups to direct their attacks towards Christians and their places of worship, despite local Christians having no involvement in the incident, and even when they vociferously condemned the Quran’s desecration and cannot be held responsible in any way.

The authorities seem unable to effectively guarantee the protection of religious minorities or their sacred symbols. This silence — real or perceived — often gets interpreted as tacit acceptance, potentially fuelling further acts of hostility.

This hostility took a horrifying turn when extremist groups threatened to attack churches and Christians, declaring that no Christians would stay safe in Pakistan. These groups even asked other jihadist groups to direct their attacks towards Christians and their places of worship, despite local Christians having no involvement in the incident, and even when they vociferously condemn the desecration of the Quran and cannot be held responsible in any way.

Indeed, it appears that being Christian instead of Muslim may be the real unforgivable offense in the present time.

What is worse is the lacklustre response from the Pakistani government towards these threats against its Christian minority.

The prime minister himself, instead of de-escalating the situation and calming the anger among Muslims, called for a nationwide protest and the observance of “Yume Taqdees” (Sanctity of the Quran).

The prime minister even failed to issue a statement in support of Christians who were helpfully condemning the desecration of the Holy Quran.

Christianity has been an integral part of Pakistan’s multi-religious society since its inception The Christian leadership supported Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s founding of Pakistan in 1947; he promised equal citizenship rights. Nevertheless, they often find themselves treated as second-class citizens, the target of discrimination, hostility, and violence…. there are dozens of such examples.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/alexei-navalny-gets-another-19-years-dfc7e4db?mod=opinion_lead_pos2

The world hardly needs another reminder of the true nature of Vladimir Putin’s Russian state, but last week brought one anyway: On Friday the opposition figure Alexei Navalny was sentenced to 19 years in prison on charges of extremism, after a trial that took place in the penal colony where he is already imprisoned.

Mr. Navalny, age 47, has galvanized protests and publicized criticisms of Mr. Putin’s personal wealth. In 2020 he survived a poisoning by what investigators later said was the Russian nerve agent Novichok. He was arrested in 2021, and his anti-corruption foundation was shut down as a purported “extremist” organization.

In comments posted to social media after the 19-year sentence came down, Mr. Navalny made clear that he has no illusions about what he’s up against. “The number doesn’t matter,” he said. “I understand very well that, like many political prisoners, I am serving a life sentence—where life is measured by the duration of my life or the life of this regime.” He added that Mr. Putin’s goal in persecuting him is to frighten and intimidate everyone else who might be tempted to resist: “You are being forced to surrender your Russia without a fight to a gang of traitors, thieves and scoundrels who have seized power.”

What a thing to say from the confines of a Russian prison. Bravery, Mr. Navalny has it. So does Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong, who could easily be living a billionaire’s life in exile instead of sitting in a prison cell, and so do countless others who defy autocratic regimes, as far away as Iran and Afghanistan, and as close to home as Cuba, only 90 miles off Florida.

The U.S. has its share of problems, but it remains, as much as ever, a beacon of freedom and democracy, and if Americans ever take that for granted, they should take a look around.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19858/prestige-biotech-china

There were on site at least 20 potentially infectious pathogens including those causing coronavirus, HIV, hepatitis, and herpes.

We know enough to be alarmed, however.

The lab was supposed to be producing COVID-19 and pregnancy tests, but the facility contained items inconsistent with that explanation. The seizures at the lab strongly suggest China’s regime is preparing to spread disease in America, undoubtedly in the months before a war.

In all probability, it is from locations like this one where China will “fire the first shot” in the next war.

General Chi Haotian, when he was China’s defense minister two decades ago, reportedly gave a secret speech advocating the extermination of Americans with disease. His plan was to clear out the hills, plains, and valleys of North America so that the Chinese people could settle in the vast spaces left uninhabited.

Since then, the mass murder of Americans has been a popular theme in Chinese society. The Communist Party, which tightly controls discourse in the People’s Republic of China, permits and even encourages incitement to kill Americans . “We are ahead of schedule in terms of overtaking the United States…. There will be no problem reaching this goal in 2027. The U.S. will not survive.” — LI Yi, prominent Chinese sociologist, October 2020.

Americans now have to assume that China’s Communist Party is executing a plan to exterminate Americans.

Will Americans, now warned, act to protect their society? After the discovery of the kamikaze lab near Fresno, they should act first and ask questions later.

Americans now have to assume that China’s Communist Party is executing a plan to exterminate Americans.

https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2023/07/hungary-and-the-future-of-western-conservatism/

At the centre of Europe lies Hungary, a country of 10 million souls with a long and proud history that can be traced back to the tenth century. Hungary is rapidly becoming the hub of intellectual conservatism in the West. This is in part due to the remarkable success of the stridently conservative Fidesz government, led by Viktor Orbán, which has been in power in Hungary since 2010.

One of Orbán’s leading advisers, and one of the most influential people in the conservative renaissance in Hungary, is Balázs Orbán (no relation; above). He is the political director for Prime Minister Orbán, a member of the Hungarian Parliament, and the chairman of the Mathias Corvinus Collegium in Budapest. He also chairs the advisory board of the National University of Public Service (Nemzeti Közszolgálati Egyetem). However, Balázs Orbán is more than a politician. He is the equivalent of a court scholar, if such a thing still exists in a modern-day parliamentary democracy. He has been a lecturer in law, has completed his Juris Doctor, and is working on his PhD at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. He has also recently published a book, The Hungarian Way of Strategy. For these reasons and more, Balázs Orbán is the ideal person to ask about Hungary’s history, the Fidesz government’s philosophy and success, and Hungary’s perspective on this fraught geopolitical moment. I spoke with Mr Orbán in his offices in Budapest, and the following is an edited version of our discussion.

SK: Hungary is simultaneously understood in the West as a leading light of conservative political action, and a totalitarian dictatorship. Having spent several months in Hungary myself, the former is obviously the truth. But plenty of people in the West believe the latter. What do you think underlies the division of opinion about Hungary?

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19854/racist-states

In some political circles in the West, there is a popular tendency to consider Israel a “racist ” or “apartheid” country.

Israel does indeed have a sizable Arab community… who enjoy rights and liberties that for most other minorities in other countries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia are still only a dream.

Unlike many other countries, especially in the area, Israel recognizes and respects the rights of all of these minorities. You are welcome to go to Israel and see for yourself. Most critics of Israel, however, would probably prefer not to be “confused by the facts.”

[Congresswoman Pramila] Jayapal, unfortunately, is also totally wrong about Palestinian Arabs’ not having a right to self-determination…. Some territory, according to the Oslo Accords, is still waiting to be negotiated, but for several years, the Palestinian leadership has seemed uninclined to come to the table. Israel has offered the Palestinians statehood—not just once, but on at least six separate occasions…. Each time, the Palestinian leadership has rejected all offers — perhaps because they were only for 97% and not 100% of everything demanded; perhaps out of fear of seeming a traitor; perhaps because there might be a greater preference for a “cause” than for a solution, unless the solution entails the elimination of Israel. Perhaps, also, there is the hope that the international community will simply hand the Palestinians a state, without the need for them to give anything on their end, or perhaps there is just a strong aversion to signing an “end of conflict” resolution. In any event, each time there was an offer, the Palestinians not only rejected it, but did not even propose a counteroffer.

Muslim Arabs in Israel hold senior positions in all walks of life: senior posts in the Israeli parliament (the Knesset); the medical profession; private industry, various government posts, and on the supreme court. There is also no legal obstacle for Israeli Arabs who wish to join the military or the police.

What about the rights of minorities of other nations in the region?

In Lebanon, Palestinian refugees , according to UNRWA, “are socially marginalized, have very limited civil, social, political, and economic rights, including restricted access to the Government of Lebanon’s public health, educational and social services and face significant restrictions on their right to work and right to own property.” UNRWA also reports that the Palestinians are still prevented from employment in 39 professions such as medicine, law, and engineering.

In Turkey, the Civil Servants Law of 1926 has made it virtually impossible for Christians and Jews to work as civil servants at state institutions. Consequently, thousands of non-Muslims lost their jobs. The law required that civil servants had to be “Turkish” – meaning that the government saw its non-Muslim citizens as “non-Turkish”…. As human-rights lawyer Orhan Kemal Cengiz noted, “Not even one single non-Muslim army officer, policeman or judge exists in Turkey. Non-Muslims are absent not only from the security and judiciary establishment but from the public sector altogether.

Turkey, a NATO member… appears perfectly comfortable — as does the rest of the international community –with its hostile 1974 invasion of Cyprus , where the Turks still occupy the north of the island and might be eyeing the south.

Perhaps, if Jayapal genuinely wants to help suffering people, she might focus on the more than 360 million Christians around the world who are being murdered and persecuted on a daily basis.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19833/china-arctic

This month, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reported that the Shanghai-based Polar Research Institute of China revealed that “China has completed the field testing and evaluation of an underwater listening device that will be deployed on a large scale in the Arctic Ocean.”

The innocuous-sounding report tells us that China intends to wage war against the United States and Canada from the Arctic.

Other than this buoy, the institute said, China had “never planted a listening device there.”

That assertion is not truthful. Last fall, the Canadian military, according to Canada’s Globe and Mail in February, removed buoys placed by China in Canadian waters in the Arctic.

“China is now covertly preparing the groundwork for militarization of the largely undefended northern territory and critical Arctic sea routes.” — Charles Burton of the Ottawa-based Macdonald-Laurier Institute, to Gatestone, July 2023.

All of this data is needed to listen for submarines, specifically American ones. China wants to track and destroy American subs from the top of the world before they can flood into Asian waters.

The U.S.’s generous “engagement” approach to China has resulted in China obtaining observer status in the Arctic Council although no Chinese territory is in or near the Arctic.

China already has two permanent research stations in the Arctic, one in Norway and the other in Iceland. That is two too many.

[F]or China the Arctic is primarily a military domain. In addition to the buoys they are leaving in the Arctic, the Chinese are surveilling the area by air. The spy balloon that flew over the lower 48 states this year initially crossed into Alaska and Western Canada.

China is not only pressing the United States and Canada from the north. In the other direction, China is establishing military bases in South America and the Caribbean and is infiltrating saboteurs across the border with Mexico. The Biden administration is allowing a hostile state to go hard against America from all sides. A menacing China is now everywhere in the Western Hemisphere.