Yang Jiechi is a name that's not likely to be all that familiar to Australians. It should be.

He is the man who crafts China's image to the world. Yang is a former foreign minister and now one of Xi Jinping's inner circle, as Director of China's Foreign Affairs Leading Group.

Here's an insight into how he thinks. In 2010 he issued a warning to other Asian nations: "China is a big country and you are small countries. That is a fact."

Message: know your place.

This is a long way from the motto of former China leader, Deng Xiaoping: "Hide your capacities, bide your time."

The era of hide and bide is over.

China is by some measures the world's biggest economy. It has the world's largest standing army.

China is the world's leading manufacturer and exporter. 

It is the only nation that can plausibly challenge American global dominance.

This has some fearing Thucydides' trap. What is that? It is a lesson from the Peloponnesian War, when the Ancient Greek historian Thucydides said the fear of the rise of Athens made war with Sparta inevitable.

Since then it has become shorthand for how a rising power threatens an existing order.

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-30/chinese-military-asia-south-china-...

Meanwhile the US is trying create a few "incidents"...

Donald Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon has criticised Australia's approach to an aggressive China, labelling it weak and saving his most blunt assessment for former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. 

• Mr Bannon plans on taking his economic nationalist message to Australia before the next election
• He says Mr Trump confronting China was key to his successful appeal to voters
• He rejects the idea his ideology is racist, saying US workers are 'finally standing up for themselves'

"People are going to be held accountable in the next 10 or 20 years about 'what did you know about China?', 'how did you accommodate it?'" he said.

"They absolutely have to be confronted now. Turnbull has been way too much of an appeaser."

In an exclusive interview with Four Corners, Mr Bannon identified Australia as the "canary in the mineshaft" — a warning of the consequences of not standing up to China. 

"Australia can show you when good and decent people kind of play by the rules and the next thing they look around and many of the economic resources and economic assets of a country are owned by another country," he said.

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-03/steve-bannon-says-china-is-at-econ...

Samir Amin — Samir Amin (Arabic: سمير أمين‎) (3 September 1931 – 12 August 2018) — is [was] a convinced adherent of multipolarity: “Yes, I do want to see the construction of a multipolar world, and that obviously means the defeat of Washington’s hegemonic project for military control of the planet.”[3] In 2006, he designed the overthrow of what he described as the hegemonic world order:

Here I would make the first priority the construction of a Paris – Berlin – Moscow political and strategic alliance, extended if possible to Beijing and Delhi … to build military strength at a level required by the challenge of the United States... [E]ven the United State pales beside their traditional capacities in the military arena. The American challenge, and Washington’s criminal designs, make such a course necessary … The creation of a front against hegemonism is the number one priority today, as the creation of an anti-Nazi alliance was … yesterday … A rapprochement between the large portions of Eurasia (Europe, Russia, China and India) involving the rest of the Old World … is necessary and possible, and would put an end once and for all to Washington’s plans to extend the Monroe Doctrine to the entire planet. We must head in this direction … above all with determination.”[4]

The determination, however, is lacking:

The ‘European project’ is not going in the direction that is needed to bring Washington to its senses. Indeed, it remains a basically ‘non-European’ project, scarcely more than the European part of the American project … Russia, China and India are the three strategic opponents of Washington’s project... But they appear to believe that they can maneuver and avoid directly clashing with the United State[s].[5]

Hence, Europe must end its “Atlanticist option” and take the course of the “Eurasian rapprochement” with Russia, China, India and the rest of Asia and Africa. This “Eurasian rapprochement” is necessary for the head-on collision with the United States.[6]

Read more:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samir_Amin

Read also:

http://www.pravdareport.com/opinion/columnists/03-09-2018/141510-intervi...

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DUISBURG, Germany — In the 1950s, the relatively unknown city of Duisburg was on course to become a success story.

The city was a steel production center, and business was booming. Duisburg grew from about 400,000 people to nearly 600,000 by the 1970s. Stadiums, shopping malls and an ambitious concert hall were built for its increasingly affluent citizens.

“This used to be the richest city in Germany,” said Michael Suessmuth, a logistics-company manager and lifelong Duisburger, standing on the site of a former steel plant. “But then they failed to branch out.”

Now Duisburg is a symbol of postindustrial ruin. Steel prices dropped in the 1970s and 1980s, thanks to a global glut of production, and more than 100,000 jobs disappeared. Unemployment remains high to this day; the city’s biggest attraction is the iron skeleton of an abandoned steel-and-coal plant that was turned into a park; and, in the Marxloh district, criminal clans regularly produce national headlines.

But on the other side of the world, powerful people are convinced that the city’s glory days still lie ahead. Duisburg has emerged as a central hub in China’s ambitious Belt and Road initiative, a plan to create China-friendly economic hubs along crucial transport routes in more than 60 countries.

For that purpose, Duisburg is perfect: It boasts a massive inland port that connects roads and railway networks with the Rhine, Europe’s busiest river. The city hopes that becoming an integral part of China’s plans will persuade Chinese companies to invest broadly there, result in an expansion of the port and perhaps even lead to joint research initiatives.

“To Duisburg, being part of this project really is sort of a miracle that’s suddenly fallen down from heaven,” said Markus Taube, a professor of East Asian economic studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen.

Read more:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2018/09/01/will-chinese-investment-...

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China in a quiet manner has continued to boost its diplomatic presence abroad and form deep economic alliances with African nations. On September 3-4, Chinese President Xi Jinping welcomed nearly all the leaders of 55 African countries to the 2018 Beijing Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

By Tom McGregor, CCTV.com Panview commentator and editor, based in Beijing

If you've been paying attention to international current events, you may have not seen much media coverage over the ground-breaking summit that has set the stage for Beijing to play a much more significant role in geopolitical affairs and the globalized economy. The FOCAC is President Xi's response to the ensuing US-China trade war that has emerged with no bilateral agreement in sight at the moment.

...

Yes, the US stands as the world's largest economy. Its gross domestic product (GDP) was $19.39 trillion, as of Dec. 31, 2017, according to the World Bank. The US economy has also achieved higher-then-expected growth rates with the nation's 2nd quarter GDP growth rate hitting 4.2 percent.

China, the world's second-largest economy, had GDP totaling $12.3 trillion at the end of last year. The US is China's largest trading partner, importing over $505.47 billion in Chinese goods with a China-US trade surplus at over $375.57 billion, according to the US Census Bureau.

While China's trade surplus with the US has increased in recent months, the China-US trade wars will negatively impact Chinese exporters in the near future. Accordingly, Beijing will seek closer trade and investment ties with the European Union, United Kingdom and Russia, and the real opportunities for trade expansion will be found in the emerging markets: the Middle East, Central Asia, South and Southeast Asia, South America and Africa.

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201809051067779827-china-africa-us/

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From my 1960s recollections, There has been a chinese presence in Africa for a long time. 

A generalised SIMPLISTIC summary of activities would be:

The US were dumping "charity food" and other goods (cotton) subsidised in the USA.

The Indian stores were trading in cloths, locally produced food and spices.

The Europeans were colonialistic "administrators", and "exploited" resources, cheaply.

The Chinese sold utilitarian goods (pots, pans, brooms) mostly made in China.

The West (in general) was maintaining the tribal divisions and conflicts.

CIA and European "intelligence" agencies supported despots, tinpots and corrupt "officials".

The USSR tried to have a communist influence, counteracted by the above. 

The Arabs herded goats and made flat bread.

Islam peacefully coexisted with Christianity.

The locals were kept in poverty and/or educated in subservient roles.

The locals had their own trading system and had their own ancestral beliefs.

As is often demonstrated By Michael Portillo, transport of people and goods has been the key to the success of the "industrial revolution" in England, as it facilitated better commercial activities. I believe the Chinese know this and instead of "colonialism", they offer an improvement of trade and transport that benefits the general freedom of the "locals", up to now "kept in poverty by Christian and Islamic traditions". I know this is a very crude summary, but a full 500,000 words essay on this topic would come to similar conclusions. It's going to be a long journey for the Chinese, mind you, as corruption and favours cultivated by the West stay in the mind of some "officials". But the Chinese, as Steve Bannon says, work on the long game.

(Tit for tat)

China will levy tariffs on about $US60 billion ($83 billion) worth of American goods in retaliation for new US tariffs, as previously planned, but has reduced the volume of tariffs that it will collect on the products.

• Donald Trump says the US will impose 10 per cent tariffs on $US200 billion worth of Chinese imports
• China says it will retaliate with tariffs on about $US60 billion of US goods
• Mr Trump had warned China of further tariffs if it retaliated

The tariff rates will be levied at 5 and 10 per cent, instead of the previously proposed rates of 5, 10, 20 and 25 per cent, the Finance Ministry said on its website late on Tuesday.

China will impose a 10 per cent tariff on US products it previously designated for a rate of 20 and 25 per cent.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG), for example, was previously under the 25 per cent tariff category but now will be subject to a tariff of 10 per cent.

The tit-for-tat measures are the latest escalation in an increasingly protracted trade dispute between the world's two largest economies.

China earlier warned it would have no choice but to retaliate after US President Donald Trump announced he will impose 10 per cent tariffs on $US200 billion worth of Chinese imports.

China's Finance Ministry said its tariff increases were aimed at curbing "trade friction" and the "unilateralism and protectionism of the United States".

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-18/china-warns-retaliation-to-us-tariff-hikes

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Numerous major media outlets, from Reuters to The Intercept, have claimed that the United Nations has reports that the Chinese government is holding as many as 1 million Uighur Muslims in “internment camps.” But a close examination of these news stories, and of the evidence behind them — or the lack thereof — demonstrates that the extraordinary claim is simply not true.

A spokesperson from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) confirmed in a statement to the Grayzone that the allegation of Chinese “camps” was not made by the United Nations, but rather by a member of an independent committee that does not speak for the UN as a whole. That member happened to be the only American on the committee, and one with no background of scholarship or research on China.

Moreover, this accusation is based on the thinly sourced reports of a Chinese opposition group that receives funding from foreign governments and is closely tied to exiled pro-US activists. There have been numerous reports of discrimination against Uighur Muslims in China. However, information about camps containing one million prisoners has originated almost exclusively from media outlets and organizations funded and weaponized by the American government to turn up the heat on Beijing.

Read more:

https://off-guardian.org/2018/09/19/no-the-un-did-not-report-china-has-m...

China’s chief envoy in London accused “some big countries outside the region” of coming “all the way to the South China Sea to create trouble,” where China claims large expanses of sea and atolls.

Ambassador of China to the United Kingdom Liu Xiaoming told the annual Induction Programme for Commonwealth Diplomats organised by the Commonwealth Secretariat Wednesday that regional powers had made major strides toward resolving tensions in the South China Sea by themselves.

"Yet to everyone's confusion, some big countries outside the region did not seem to appreciate the peace and tranquillity in the South China Sea," Liu said. "They sent warships and aircraft all the way to the South China Sea to create trouble."

The ambassador brought attention to the efforts between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to settle regional disputes among themselves. Six nations claim at least some of the South China Sea: China, Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia. ASEAN membership largely overlaps with that list: Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

In February, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang told reporters that China and ASEAN had begun a "mechanism" through which "various sides will have a full and in-depth exchange of views" on implementing a Declaration of Conduct in the South China Sea "and advancing maritime practical cooperation and consultations on the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea."

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/asia/-US-South-China-Sea-Create-Trouble/

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...

The United States is blessed with many advantages: an open democratic society, the rule of law, abundant natural resources, a culture that has welcomed immigrants and spawned innovation, and the protection of two vast oceans. By contrast, China shares its borders with more countries—many of them unstable—than any other, is dependent on imported oil, and remains—at least on some levels—a closed society.

Yet the Chinese already rival the U.S. as a global power in parts of the world and may well overtake it as an economic power in the coming years. While China’s rise may yet be upended by internal problems, it is unlikely that it will jeopardize its ascent by pursuing the kind of interventionist foreign policy that the U.S. has pursued for much of the last 50 years.

China’s foreign policy, as demonstrated by the BRI, is rooted in realism, self-preservation, and a desire for influence and power. They are building railroads, pipelines, roads, factories, schools, and hospitals around the world. These are all things that the U.S. used to excel at. One need only remember the transformative Marshall Plan that rebuilt much of Western Europe, an investment that continues to pay dividends for the U.S. According to one analyst with access to China’s senior policymakers, the Chinese have conducted exhaustive studies of the Marshall Plan to understand how the U.S. used it to secure its own hegemonic empire following World War II.

In contrast, U.S. policymakers seem to pay little attention to the lessons of the past. The failed invasion of Iraq and the ongoing war in Afghanistan should be foremost in their minds. Instead, a Trumpian foreign policy looks increasingly short-sighted, scattershot, and reflective of the status quo.

Even if the U.S. lurches to the left in the coming election cycles, the Chinese have little to fear. Interventionism is likely to remain the default response of U.S. policymakers, regardless of which party occupies the White House. And, it may just be its Achilles heel.

As the world’s oldest continuous civilization, the Chinese can and do draw from a rich corpus of writings on strategy. Among these is the 6th century BC Chinese text, the Tao Te Ching, attributed to Lao-Tzu, which articulates a strategy that enables the weak to defeat the strong. A key component of this nuanced understanding is letting your enemy defeat himself, of using his own power against him. The Tao Te Ching describes this paradoxical understanding: “should you want to contain something you must deliberately let it expand.”

So the Chinese will bide their time, do what they can to avoid conflict, grapple with their internal problems, invest in their infrastructure and citizens, build external alliances, and wait for the U.S., through continued overreach, to weaken and—finally—exhaust itself. 

Michael Horton is a foreign policy analyst who has written for numerous publications, including Intelligence Review, West Point CTC Sentinel, The Economist, The National Interest, and The Christian Science Monitor.

Read more:

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/is-china-waiting-us-out/

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China is a unified multi-ethnic country. In the course of a civilization that dates back more than 5,000 years, the various ethnic groups of China have created a long history and a splendid culture. Since ancient times many ethnic groups have made their way to Xinjiang, and it has become their home and a place for cultural integration. Various ethnic cultures of Xinjiang have their roots in the fertile soil of Chinese civilization, advancing their own cultural development while enriching the overall culture of China.

Since the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, the Chinese government has attached great importance to documenting and protecting the excellent traditional ethnic cultures in Xinjiang, and ensuring that they are passed on to succeeding generations. It has promoted creative transformation and innovative development, encouraging these ethnic groups to learn spoken and written languages from each other, promoted communication and integration, respected their freedom of religious belief, and worked to develop their cultural undertakings and industries. The government has worked to modernize ethnic cultures, to strengthen cultural exchanges with foreign countries, and to enhance each group’s cultural confidence while engaging in exchanges with and mutual learning from others.

Since ancient times, Xinjiang has been home to various ethnic groups, where different ethnic cultures coexist. Through many years of communication and integration, these cultures thrive in the fertile soil of China’s civilization and are part of the Chinese culture.

Ethnic cultures make up an inseparable part of the Chinese culture. Since ancient times, China has been multicultural as a result of the diversity of its environment. Different ethnic cultures have communicated and integrated with each other, constituting a legacy shared by the Chinese nation that has brought into being a splendid Chinese culture.

As early as in the pre-Qin period (c. 2100-221 BC), Xinjiang was in close contact with the Central Plains. Archaeological excavations demonstrate that painted pottery-ware unearthed in Xinjiang shows the influence of the Yangshao Culture in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, while many articles made from Xinjiang’s Hetian jade were unearthed in the Shang-dynasty (c. 1600 BC-1046 BC) Tomb of Fu Hao in Anyang, Henan in central China. After the Western Han (206 BC-AD 25) united Xinjiang, Chinese became one of the official languages used in government documents of the Western Regions where Xinjiang is located. Agricultural production techniques, the system of etiquette, Chinese-language books, music, and dances of the Central Plains spread widely in the Western Regions. Musical instruments and music from the Western Regions were introduced to the Central Plains and exerted a great influence on local music. The treasure house of Chinese culture boasts elements of the Uygur Muqam, the Kazak Aytes art, the Kirgiz epic Manas, the Jangar epic of the Oirat Mongols, and many other great cultural works of various ethnic groups.

Different cultures have long coexisted in Xinjiang. China’s historical evolution has determined that various ethnic groups live together. They are economically interdependent and embrace each other’s cultures. The unique natural environment and geographical conditions in Xinjiang resulted in the development of refined oasis farming and grassland nomadism, and migrating ethnic groups with different lifestyles and working practices communicated with, complemented and integrated with each other, creating a dynamic coexistence of different cultures.

Around 20 different spoken and written languages have been identified in Xinjiang. The Sino-Tibetan, Altaic, and Indo-European languages still exist in Xinjiang today, and a traditional feature of Xinjiang culture is that different languages are used in daily life. It was common for different ethnic groups to borrow from and use each other’s languages. The Kizil Thousand-Buddha Caves, Bezkilik Grottoes, Beiting Ancient City Site, and some other Xinjiang sites that integrate multiple cultural factors from the Han, Huihu (an ancient name for modern Uygur), Tubo (an ancient name for modern Tibetan) and other ancient residents of Xinjiang are typical of the culture and art of ancient China.

Historically Xinjiang was the gateway and medium through which the Chinese civilization opened to the West. The Silk Road opened a new chapter in cultural exchanges and integration between East and West. China’s papermaking, sericulture, silk weaving, and other advanced technologies spread to the West via Xinjiang during the glory days of the Silk Road, exerting a far-reaching impact on world civilizations. Buddhism, Manichaeism and Nestorianism were introduced into Xinjiang through the Silk Road, and practiced together with primitive local religions. During Xinjiang’s long historical evolution, it has always been a place where many religions have coexisted. The cultural landscape of Xinjiang has long been characterized by coexistence and communication between different cultures.

There is a long history of different ethnic cultures communicating and integrating with each other. The Chinese culture is a bond that unites various ethnic groups, while in the course of daily life and work, the communication between and integration of different ethnic cultures has helped to form and develop the Chinese culture. Influenced by the culture of the Central Plains, Xinjiang learned and rapidly developed sericulture and silk weaving. The Huihu culture that originated in the Mobei (the area north of the vast deserts on the Mongolian Plateau) regime was deeply influenced by the nomadic culture of northern China, Central Plains culture, Buddhism and Manichaeism. In different stages of history, various ethnic groups learned from each other, resulting in the emergence of a number of statesmen, writers, artists, historians, agronomists, and translators who made further contribution to the development of the ethnic cultures of Xinjiang in the embrace of the Chinese culture. After the People’s Republic was founded in 1949, and under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the ethnic cultures of Xinjiang entered a new period of prosperity and development. Our Motherland Is a Garden, Xinjiang, a Good Place and other classic songs are heard around the country; Visitors on the Icy Mountain, Uncle Kurban Visits Beijing and other quality films have become widely known. They are elements of a cultural wealth that has been created by and is shared by all ethnic groups.

The ethnic groups of Xinjiang live together, study together, work together, and share happiness. They influence, assimilate and integrate with each other in language, diet, costume, music, dance, painting, architecture and other aspects of social life, culture and art. A common feature of these ethnic cultures is that all are interrelated.

Language, in both spoken and written forms, is an important carrier and a distinct symbol of culture. Xinjiang is a multilingual region, and historical experience shows that learning and using the commonly used standard Chinese as a spoken and written language has helped develop Xinjiang’s ethnic cultures. The Chinese government works hard to promote the use of the standard Chinese language, protects by law ethnic people’s freedom to use and develop their own languages, and advocates and encourages ethnic groups to learn spoken and written languages from each other, so as to promote language communication and ethnic unity among all Chinese people.

Promote standard Chinese by law. Learning and using standard Chinese helps different ethnic groups to communicate, develop and progress. When the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China was revised in 1982, the sentence “The state promotes the nationwide use of Putonghua (common speech based on Beijing pronunciation)” was added. On January 1, 2001, the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language took effect, clarifying the legitimate status of Putonghua and standardized Chinese characters as the standard Chinese language. The Educational Law of the People’s Republic of China (Revised in 2015) provides: “The standard spoken and written Chinese language shall be the basic language used by schools and other educational institutions in education and teaching …. Schools and other educational institutions dominated by ethnic minority students in ethnic autonomous areas shall, according to the actual circumstances, use the standard spoken and written Chinese language and the spoken and written languages of their respective ethnicities or the spoken and written language commonly used by the local ethnicities to implement bilingual education.” Regulations on the Work Concerning Spoken and Written Languages of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, revised in 2015, state the need to “promote the standard spoken and written Chinese language.” Ethnic people are enthusiastic about learning and using standard Chinese to adapt to economic and social development and increased communication.

We should strengthen education and teaching of standard Chinese. In the 1950s, in response to the call of the state, Xinjiang began Chinese courses for ethnic minority students at elementary and secondary schools. In 1984, Xinjiang proposed to strengthen Chinese teaching at ethnic minority schools to achieve the goal that students “master both standard Chinese and their own ethnic languages.” Currently, students at preschool institutions and elementary and secondary schools in Xinjiang have universal access to bilingual education, including teaching of standard Chinese and ethnic minority languages, ensuring that by 2020 all ethnic minority students will be able to master and use standard Chinese.

We should carry out various forms of training on the standard spoken and written Chinese language. In 2013, the “training program on the standard spoken and written Chinese language” was launched, a special program for ethnic minority youths participating in vocational or business training in counties or cities where people of ethnic minorities live in concentrated communities. In 2017, a program aimed to popularize standard Chinese by the year 2020 was launched.

Protect spoken and written ethnic minority languages in a scientific way. The Constitution of the People’s Republic of China and the Law on Regional Ethnic Autonomy both clearly prescribe that all ethnic groups have the freedom to use and develop their own spoken and written languages. Currently, 10 spoken and written languages are used among the various ethnic groups of Xinjiang. Ethnic minority languages are extensively used in such areas as judicature, administration, education, press and publishing, radio and television, internet, and public affairs. At important meetings such as those of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference documentation and simultaneous interpretation in Uygur, Kazak, Mongolian or other ethnic minority languages are provided. When performing official duties, Party and government organs of Xinjiang and lower-level autonomous prefectures and counties use at the same time standard Chinese and the languages of those ethnic minorities that exercise regional autonomy. All ethnic minorities have the right to use their own spoken and written languages in elections and judicial matters. Schools and other educational institutions where ethnic minority students are the majority highlight the study and use of ethnic minority languages in setting their curricula and in various entrance examinations. Xinjiang uses Chinese, Uygur, Kazak, Kirgiz and Mongolian languages for the annual national higher education entrance examination.

In 2015 the Chinese government organized and launched a program to protect the rich language resources of China, collecting and recording physical forms of linguistic data such as Chinese dialects, spoken and written languages of ethnic minorities, and oral language cultures. The largest of its kind in the world, this program has covered the whole country. Field surveys have been conducted in Xinjiang, covering more than 30 survey locations of ethnic minority languages, 10 locations of Chinese dialects, six locations of endangered languages, and two locations of language cultures. To date more than 80 percent of survey tasks in these locations have been completed, and some symbolic successes have been achieved.

Multilingual press and publication and radio and television are a major feature of Xinjiang. Xinjiang publishes newspapers, books, audio and video products, and e-publications in six spoken and written languages — Chinese, Uygur, Kazak, Kirgiz, Mongolian and Xibe. Xinjiang TV broadcasts in Chinese, Uygur, Kazak, and Kirgiz. Xinjiang People’s Broadcasting Station broadcasts in Chinese, Uygur, Kazak, Kirgiz, and Mongolian. Xinjiang Daily is printed in Chinese, Uygur, Kazak and Mongolian.

To enable ethnic minorities to share the achievements of the information age, the Chinese government has set national specifications of coded character set, keyboard, and type matrix for Mongolian, Tibetan, Uygur, Kazak, Kirgiz, and some other languages. It has studied and developed different typesetting systems and intelligent voice translation systems for several written ethnic minority languages. The government supports the orderly development of websites and emerging media in spoken and written ethnic minority languages, and works to improve information processing and application capabilities in ethnic minority languages. Xinjiang has set up the Ethnic Language Work Committee and ethnic minority language research institutes at different levels, which are responsible for scientific research into ethnic minority languages, and which work to make them more standardized and apply them in IT.

Encourage ethnic groups to learn spoken and written languages from each other. The Chinese government encourages different ethnic groups in ethnic autonomous areas to learn languages from each other, urging ethnic minorities to learn standard Chinese while encouraging Han residents to learn ethnic minority languages. It emphasizes that grassroots civil servants, newly recruited civil servants, and employees in the public service sector should know two or more languages and provides facilities for their learning. Xinjiang conducts special training courses for Han officials to learn ethnic minority languages. Since the 1950s, the state has offered majors in ethnic minority languages and literature (Uygur and Kazak) at colleges and universities in Xinjiang; most graduates of these majors work in the fields of administration, education, and research on ethnic minority languages. For many years, it has been a common practice that different ethnic groups of Xinjiang learn languages from each other. More and more people are becoming bilingual or multilingual, which promotes communication and integration among all the ethnic groups.

Since antiquity Xinjiang has seen the coexistence of a variety of religions, whose rich cultures have become part of traditional Chinese culture. China’s government is committed to protecting its citizens’ freedom of religious belief while respecting and protecting religious cultures.

Many religious cultures blend and coexist. Xinjiang has long been a region where multiple religions are practiced and their cultures have met and blended. Primitive religion and Shamanism were practiced in Xinjiang before Zoroastrianism, Buddhism and other faiths were introduced into the region from the 4th century BC onward. Gradually there came into being a network of coexisting religions. This network further evolved with the introduction of Taoism, Manichaeism, Nestorianism, and Islam. A coexistence of multiple religions, with one or two predominant, was a basic characteristic of Xinjiang’s religious history. During their lengthy coexistence and interaction, the religious cultures in the region learned from one another and adapted to China’s social development. At present, the major religions in Xinjiang are Islam, Buddhism, Protestant and Catholic Christianity, and Taoism. Certain Shamanistic and Zoroastrian elements can still be observed in local customs today. The remains of Buddha niches, lotus patterns, and lotus seat sculptures in Kashgar, Hami, and Ili testify to the once widespread influence of Buddhism in the region.

Religious texts are published and distributed in accordance with the law. The state has translated, published and distributed Islamic, Buddhist, Protestant, and other religious texts to meet the diverse demand of religious believers. The Koran and Irshad al-Sari li Sharh Sahih al-Bukhari have been published in Chinese, Uygur, Kazak and Kirgiz languages. The New Collection of al-Wa’z Speeches series have been compiled and published in both Chinese and Uygur languages. A website (www.xjmuslim.com) available in both Chinese and Uygur languages was set up for Xinjiang’s Muslim community. Ancient religious books, including Volume II of the Golden Light Sutra (Suvarnaprabhasa Sutra) and Maitrisimit Nom Bitig, have been published. Important scriptures such as the Koran, Bible, and Golden Light Sutra are available at stores specializing in selling religious publications.

Religious heritages are effectively protected. A total of 109 religious sites in Xinjiang, including Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar, Shengyou Lamasery in Zhaosu, and the Kizil Thousand-Buddha Caves have been designated as major cultural heritage sites under the protection of the autonomous region and the state. Among the 109 sites, 46 are key cultural heritage sites under the protection of the state and 63 are under the protection of the autonomous region. The central government has allocated special funds to renovate cultural heritage protection sites at the state and autonomous-region levels, including the Kizil Thousand-Buddha Caves, Bezkilik Grottoes, and Id Kah Mosque. Xinjiang has funded the repair of 28 religious venues, including the Emin Minaret in Turpan, Shengyou Lamasery in Zhaosu, and Red Temple (Taoist) in Urumqi. Elements of intangible cultural heritage relating to religion are also effectively protected and passed on.

Religions adapt to China’s realities. Adapting to local society is essential for the survival and development of any religion. With influence from such Chinese cultural traditions as being inclusive, seeking common ground while reserving differences, and pursuing harmony without uniformity, Buddhism and other foreign religions have all directed their efforts to localization after entering China. After Buddhism was introduced into Xinjiang, it has exerted a far-reaching influence on Xinjiang’s history and culture through proactive adaptation to local social norms and integration into the mainstream culture. Through extended fusion with local faiths and traditions, Islam gradually became part of Chinese culture and developed distinct regional and local ethnic features. The Catholic Church’s principles of independence and self-management of its religious affairs, and Protestantism’s compliance with the principles of self-propagation, self-governance, and self-support facilitated their adaptation to conditions in China. Xinjiang upholds the tradition of religious localization and provides guidance to religions on adaptation to China’s socialist system. Religious circles in Xinjiang are encouraged to promote social harmony and development as well as cultural progress with the aid of religious doctrines and rules, and elaborate on the doctrines and rules that contribute to China’s development and conform to China’s traditions.

Xinjiang is a region rich in cultural heritage. The central government and the local government of Xinjiang have made a continuous effort to strengthen the legal system for the protection of the region’s cultural heritage. The Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Cultural Relics and the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Intangible Cultural Heritage provide important legal protection for the diverse cultural heritage of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang.

Protection of cultural heritage yields results. Xinjiang has formed a cultural heritage protection network comprising 189 institutions at all levels. The region has completed three surveys on fixed national cultural relics and one on movable national cultural relics, forming a comprehensive database. By the end of 2017 Xinjiang had 9,542 cultural heritage sites, of which six were World Heritage sites, 113 were key national sites, and 558 were at the autonomous-region level. Xinjiang’s cultural heritage system contains 93 public museums, including two national first-grade museums — the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region Museum and the Turpan Museum, with a collection of 450,000 items.

Xinjiang has made great headway in protecting its historical and cultural cities, towns, villages and localities. The region now has five cities, three towns, four villages, and two localities that have been recognized as state-level historical and cultural divisions, as well as 17 traditional Chinese villages and 22 ethnic-minority villages with cultural significance. Over the years, the Chinese government has supported the repair and conservation of many cultural heritage sites, such as the Gaochang Ancient City Ruins, Beiting Ancient City Ruins, and new and old Huiyuan Ancient City, while rescuing and restoring more than 3,000 rare cultural relics.

Archeological findings attract wide attention. By the end of 2017 eight archeological programs, including the Niya Ruins in Minfeng County, Yingpan Cemetery in Yuli County, Xiaohe Cemetery in Ruoqiang County, 3rd-4th century brick graves in Kucha County, Dongheigou Ruins in Barkol County, and the Tongtiandong Cave in Jeminay County, had been listed among the National Top 10 Archeological Discoveries of the Year. The arm protector with the inscriptions of “Five stars appear in the East, sign of Chinese victory over the Qiang” and the silk quilt with inscriptions of “Marriages between princes and dukes bring prosperity to their posterity” unearthed from the Niya Ruins are national treasures.

Protection of ancient books has been strengthened. Xinjiang has set up a leading group and office in charge of the classification and publishing of the autonomous region’s ancient books, an ancient books preservation center, an ancient books restoration center, and a repository for ancient books and special collections of ethnic minorities. In 2011 the region’s Ancient Books Preservation Center started its first survey of ancient books, registering important and rare volumes and recording their content, physical condition, and preservation requirements. This was the first of several such surveys. By the end the 2017 the center had examined 14,980 books. Ancient books in its collection are written in 19 languages and 28 scripts, and fall into three language families: the Chinese language family (Chinese, Tangut, and Khitan scripts), the Aramaic family (more than 10 scripts, including the Kharosthi, Pahlavi, Manichaean, and Huihu scripts), and the Brahmi family (Sanskrit, Tocharian, Khotanese, and Tubo scripts). These books cover a wide range of subjects, including politics, the economy, society, religions, astronomy, mathematics, medicine, and the arts. Digitalization of ancient books and related work are further strengthened.

The Chinese government has supported the translation, editing and publishing into Chinese and Uygur languages of Kutadgu Bilig (Wisdom of Fortune and Joy) and A Comprehensive Turki Dictionary, two works of the Karahan Kingdom period in the 11th century. The government has also organized experts in ancient books to carry out research and provide expertise in this field, and helped to arrange exchanges between Chinese and foreign professionals, researchers, and administrators engaged in the preservation of ancient books. In 2011 the Ministry of Culture and the local government of Xinjiang co-hosted an exhibition, titled “Recovered Treasures from the Western Regions: Progress in Preserving Xinjiang’s Historical Literature and Ancient Books”. More than half of the ancient books displayed at the exhibition were the only copies extant. This achievement was acclaimed by the widest range of interested parties.

Intangible cultural heritage is effectively protected. Under the guiding principle of giving priority to both preservation and restoration, and pursuing sound utilization and development, the policy and legislation for protecting intangible cultural heritage have been strengthened. In 2008 the Regulations of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region on the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage were enacted. In 2010 the Regulations of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region on the Protection of Uygur Muqam Arts were promulgated and put into force. In addition, Xinjiang has introduced a number of rules for protecting its intangible cultural heritage, which provide institutional guarantees for rescuing and preserving this heritage in a coordinated and systematic manner.

In 1951 and 1954 the central government made recordings of the music of the Twelve Muqams to rescue the Muqam arts. Since the 1960s, firm funding and manpower support from the government has enabled the publication of works of folk literature, including the Kirgiz epic Manas and Mongolian epic Jangar. The Collection of Chinese Ethnic and Folk Dances (Xinjiang Volume), Collection of Chinese Folk Songs (Xinjiang Volume), and Collection of Chinese Folk Tales (Xinjiang Volume) have been compiled and published to introduce the folk music, dances, drama and other arts of the region.

The program for protecting and preserving Xinjiang’s intangible cultural heritage as part of the initiative to promote Chinese cultural traditions is well under way. By the end of 2017, to rescue and preserve its intangible cultural heritage, Xinjiang had completed the recording of intangible cultural items presented by 23 state-level representative trustees in the form of written texts, images, audios and videos. Furthermore, the region had established three state-level demonstration bases that produce Uygur musical instruments, carpets and Etles silk for the preservation of these intangible cultural items. In addition, the region had set up 91 autonomous-region level bases for preserving and handing down its intangible cultural heritage.

Uygur Muqam of Xinjiang and the Kirgiz epic Manas were registered on the “UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity”, and Uygur Meshrep on the “List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.” Xinjiang has 83 items on the national representative list of intangible cultural heritage and 294 items on the autonomous-region list, as well as 112 state-level representative trustees and 403 autonomous-region representative trustees of its intangible cultural heritage.

Folk cultures are respected and preserved. Xinjiang embraces cultural diversity and inclusiveness, and upholds mutual learning among cultures. The region fully respects and protects folk cultures, thus realizing the harmonious coexistence of different cultures and enabling the effective protection and preservation of the best traditions of all ethnic groups. All people in Xinjiang have the right to observe their own statutory festivals such as the Spring Festival, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Ramadan, and Corban. They celebrate the festivals in many forms, such as playing music, dancing, and holding traditional sports events. Among popular folk festivals are the Han people’s Lantern Festival, the Uygur’s Meshrep, the Kazak’s Aytes, the Kirgiz’s Kobuz Ballad Singing Fair, the Mongolian Nadam Fair, and the Hui people’s Hua’er Folk Song Festival. The local government promotes mutual respect for folkways among all ethnic groups while encouraging appropriate and healthy lifestyles, wedding and funeral practices, and customs and rituals.

The core of cultural development is to satisfy people’s cultural and intellectual needs. The Chinese government has given steady support to Xinjiang in its efforts to improve the quality of public cultural services, promote progress in literary and artistic creation and the press and publishing, strengthen the cultural industry, protect citizens’ cultural rights, and enrich the cultural life of all ethnic groups. The Law of the People’s Republic of China on Protection of Public Cultural Service, Law of the People’s Republic of China on Public Libraries, and Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Promotion of the Film Industry among others have served as important legal guarantee to protect the basic cultural needs of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang, provide them with public cultural services and promote the development of its cultural industry.

The quality of public cultural services is improving. In 1955, there were only 425 sports venues and one public library in Xinjiang. With the massive support of the central government, successive cultural projects have been launched in Xinjiang such as “conservation and renovation project of county-level cultural centers and libraries”, “cultural information sharing project” and “township cultural centers project.” By the end of 2017, Xinjiang had 112 public libraries, 173 museums and memorial halls, 57 art galleries, 119 cultural centers, 12,158 cultural stations, 302 radio and television stations (covering 97.1 percent and 97.4 percent of the population, respectively), and 29,600 sports venues, representing a comparatively complete public cultural service system at all levels.

Xinjiang has made efforts to ensure equal access to public cultural services for both urban and rural residents. Public cultural facilities such as cultural centers, libraries, museums and cultural stations are open to the public for free. The radio and television network covers almost every household. Movie projection is available in all administrative villages. Theatrical performances of various types are given in impoverished villages with the support of government funds. A reading campaign is encouraged by ensuring full coverage of rural libraries over all administrative villages. By the end of 2017, 13 sports meetings, eight traditional ethnic minority sports meetings, five games for senior citizens and six games for disabled people had been held in Xinjiang. Fitness projects for farmers and herdsmen cover all villages. Gym equipment of all sorts is available even in remote villages. Rich and interesting sports events and fitness activities are popular with people of all ethnic groups.

Literary, artistic creation, press and publishing are booming. A variety of brilliant works of literature and art created in Xinjiang demonstrate the glamour of Chinese culture. The following have all won national prizes such as the Best Works Award, Lu Xun Literary Prize, China Movie Awards, and the first prize in International Acrobatic Festival: 

Soldiers from the Snow Mountain (novel), 

Holy Mountain (poetry anthology), 

In Xinjiang (collection of prose writings), 

Western China: Literary Writing in Remote Provinces (collection of literary review), 

Praying on Plateau, Chinese Mourning Day on May 19th (oil painting), 

Braving the Storm (photography), 

Grand Bazaar (drama), 

Dance Steps in the Sun and Young Blood in Gobi Desert (dance drama), 

A Uygur Mother and Visitors on the Icy Mountain (musical), 

Hello, Advanti (musical and acrobatic drama), 

My Parents Stationing and Reclaiming Wasteland in Xinjiang (song), 

A Nuclear Scientist’s Story in the Desert (radio play), 

The Great River, Flower, Genuine Love, Life and Death in Lop Nor, Taklimakan’s Drumbeat (movie). 

Travel of Life (acrobatic show), 

Somersault on Balance Beam (acrobatic show).

In 2006, Xinjiang Radio, Film and Television Translation and Production Center was set up, establishing branches in 11 prefectures, Yining City, Shache, Kucha and Yutian counties. Currently, about 6,200 episodes of translated ethnic film and television programs are being produced every year. There were only two newspapers in Xinjiang before the founding of the People’s Republic of China. But by the end of 2017, Xinjiang had 126 newspapers, 223 periodicals, and publishes around 10,000 titles of books, audio and video products and electronic publications every year.

Strength in cultural, sports and ethnic medicine industries is growing. At present, Xinjiang has over 10,000 cultural companies covering press, publishing and distribution, radio, film and television, performances, entertainment, games, cultural tourism, arts and crafts, artwork, animation, cultural exhibitions, innovation design and digital cultural services. By the end of 2017, there were six model bases for cultural industries at national level, 109 at autonomous region level, 11 government-approved animation companies, 20 cultural industry parks, 12 national 5A tourist attractions and 17,000 tourist guides. The added value of the cultural and tourist industries is growing every year.

A group of professional sports clubs have been set up, with sports competitions and sports show flourishing. The Taklimakan Rally is a commercial success and China Basketball Association (CBA) in Xinjiang is doing well. The sports leisure market is maturing as demonstrated by the success of the China International Camping Congress, International Desert Cross Rally, Aydingkol Motorcycle Rally, and Sayram Bicycle Rally. Huge potential is also apparent in horseracing, winter sports and aviation sports.

Xinjiang has formed a complete industrial system of medicine and health covering Chinese medicine (including ethnic medicine), hospital-made preparations, foods (including health foods), medical equipment, and packaging for medicines. Among ethnic medicines, many Uygur medicines, Kazak medicines, and Mongolian medicines — boasting a long history and regarded as cultural treasures — have been categorized under national standards or included in national standardization research projects. The sales of ethnic medicines in Xinjiang’s pharmaceutical industry are increasing year by year, and ethnic medicine companies are expanding sales not only in domestic markets, but also in neighboring countries and regions as an effort to enter the international markets.

Internet culture develops rapidly. The rapid development of the internet in China has made it the new space for people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang to study, work and live, and a new platform to access public services. By the end of 2017, Xinjiang had 11,520 registered websites, 5.7 million fixed broadband subscribers, and 18.56 million mobile internet users. The subscribers on the official WeChat platform “Last Kilometer” extend across all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the central government and dozens of countries and regions. Over 30 internet cultural projects such as “making a good netizen”, “Etles Silk from Tianshan to the World” and “video programs on ethnic solidarity” launched more than 7,000 online cultural activities across Xinjiang. In 2017, online retail sales to Xinjiang consumers reached 56.91 billion yuan, an increase of 29.8 percent over 2016. The prosperity of Xinjiang’s internet culture helps to foster healthy social morals.

Xinjiang has been an important gateway for China’s civilization to open to the West, and has played a significant role in cultural communication and mutual learning between East and West. Supported by the central government, Xinjiang has created a framework of cultural exchanges with other countries in all sectors and at all levels.

Xinjiang participates in international cultural exchanges and cooperation in various forms. Xinjiang International Ethnic Dance Festival, Chinese and Foreign Culture Week of China-Eurasia Expo, and Publishing Expo have become branded cultural exchange projects of considerable international influence. Since 2009, Xinjiang has held seven China International Youth Arts festivals, inviting more than 2,330 young people representing 119 art troupes from Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan of Central Asia and Russia, Mongolia, Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Thailand, the Republic of Korea and Azerbaijan. From 2012 to 2017, Xinjiang has held seven seminars for directors of media from countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt, inviting directors of more than 100 media from 25 countries to Xinjiang on study, communication and visits.

In recent years, Xinjiang has been active in building the core area along the Silk Road Economic Belt, strengthening cultural and scientific and technological exchanges with countries along the Belt. In 2016, it hosted the scientific and technological cooperation forum of the Fifth China-Eurasia Expo, inviting 154 guests from more than 30 countries and international organizations. Xinjiang has built 12 state-level bases for international sci-tech cooperation, launching cooperation and exchanges with more than 30 countries and regions and 10 international organizations and research institutes in such fields as agriculture, resources and the environment, processing of agricultural products, astronomy, coal chemicals, bio-medicine, and energy.

It has steadily implemented the “Study-in-China” initiative, gradually increasing scholarships for outstanding students from countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt. Institutions of higher learning in Xinjiang engage in active international exchanges and cooperation, and their foreign students are growing in number and their teaching quality is much improved. From 1985 to 2017, colleges and universities of Xinjiang enrolled 50,000 foreign students.

With its particular strength in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), including Uygur and Kazak medicine, Xinjiang plans to establish Chinese-foreign institutions of traditional Chinese medicine and worked to establish a system of international medical services for TCM including ethnic minority medicine, attracting more and more patients from neighboring countries. From 2015 to 2017, five hospitals in Urumqi began to offer international medical services, accepting 17,000 foreign patients in total. Xinjiang has held a series of high-level sports events, attracting numerous international athletes and sports fans.

Xinjiang presents different ethnic cultures to foreign countries. Since the late 20th century, quality exhibitions of Xinjiang cultural relics, such as the “Exhibition of Ancient Silk Road Cultural Relics of Xinjiang” and “Secrets of the Silk Road — Exhibition of Xinjiang Cultural Relics”, have been held in Japan, the United States, Germany, the Republic of Korea, and some other countries. Some of Xinjiang’s intangible cultural heritage items have been presented in performances or exhibitions in the UN headquarters, the United Kingdom, Japan, France, and in those countries adjacent to Xinjiang. In recent years, cultural communication events such as “Experiencing Xinjiang — Cultural Exploration of Xinjiang, West China”, “Xinjiang Cultural Exchange Forum”, and “Xinjiang Culture Week” have been held in the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Malaysia, Brunei, and Laos. Xinjiang has also sent several delegations on behalf of China to attend the World Nomad Games on the shores of Lake Issyk-Kul, strengthening sports exchanges and cooperation with other member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

The Chinese culture was created, carried forward and developed by all ethnic groups of China, and is a bond of ethnic unity and national unification. Facts have proven that ethnic cultures of Xinjiang are components of the Chinese culture, which is always the emotional attachment and spiritual home for all ethnic people in Xinjiang, as well as the dynamic source for the development of ethnic cultures.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, pointed out: “Since its founding, the Communist Party of China has actively guided and promoted China’s advanced culture while keeping China’s fine traditional culture alive and strong. Today, we Chinese Communists and the Chinese people should and can shoulder our new cultural mission, make cultural creations through practice, and promote cultural advancement along with the progress of history.” Today, under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Xi Jinping as the core, the Chinese nation has marched into a new era and onto a new journey. On the stage of cultural exchanges and integration, people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang should and can shoulder their new cultural mission to create a new boom in cultural creations and make new developments along with cultural progress.

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Meanwhile in the West we see and ONLY REPORT on the troubles often stirred by "terrorists" in China which we glorify as "freedom fighters"...

The three Chinese men Li Yiwen, Sun Jongdae and Xie Sunming have spent months enduring torture, forced labor and brainwashing in the Xishanping prison camp. The traumatic experience starts to change their personalities. After spending 30 days in solitary confinement, hot-tempered Sun becomes emotionally detached. The rather apolitical Xie develops an incredible hatred toward the government. And patriotic Li loses his belief in the Communist Party. When the three men are finally released from the prison camp, they realize that their old lives are gone

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http://www.spiegel.de/international/prison-camps-in-china-three-eyewitne...

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On 13 November 2018, Western Governments launched, a campaign in the UN Council of Human Rights in support of Chinese Islamists, some of whom had been preventively interned in brain washing/mind-set adjusting camps.

2010 – 2011 saw the start of the Nato Operations aimed at putting the Muslim Brotherhood into power in all Arab States. The People’s China – just like some Western countries — facilitated the departure of its Islamists to the Middle East. China thought quite wrongly that this would have washed out all jihadi intoxicants from its system. Slowly, it understood that the remedy was worse than the evil. The Islamists that left to fight in Libya and Syria served as models for new recruits on their own soil. There then followed a number of attacks, in Muslim regions as well as others.

Up till now, Muslims living in Xijiang benefitted from a number of exceptions to the general law. For example, they were permitted to have several children whereas the Chinese were only authorized to have one.

In the past, the CIA backed the separatist aspirations of the “Ouigour” Chinese against the “Hans” Chinese. The CIA precedent for this position: the support it gave Chechen separatists against ethnic Russians. Today, the CIA supports the jihadists. This is a totally novel move but it is targeted at the same objective: weakening Beijing and Moscow.

After the 19th Congress of the Communist Party in October 2017, China incapable of absorbing Islam into its corpus, started to consider that jihadism cannot be dissociated from Islam itself. Several supporters of the Islamic policy have been arrested and forced to submit to brainwashing/re-education. How many? We can’t say: according to the sources, anything from 10 000 to 1 000 000.

The Communist Party has just requested all its members to take an oath that they will not practice the halal regime. Today, some Muslim traditions are prohibited by law.

A Turkish Speaking Chinese community of 18 000 persons of at least 5000 combatants, is currently set up in Idleb (Syria). It benefits from the support of the Secret Service of Turkey, a member of Nato. Syria and Russia have accepted not to attack them for now, fearing that a part of them will be repatriated. We also signal the arrival of a number of Chinese jihadists in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand but also in the Philippines, where it considered that the problem had been sorted out.

Translation 
Anoosha Boralessa

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http://www.voltairenet.org/article203975.html

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WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - President Donald Trump signed legislation designed to establish a multi-pronged strategy for advancing US interests in the Info-Pacific region, the White House said in a press release.

"The President signed into law… the ‘Asia Reassurance Initiative Act of 2018,’ which establishes a multifaceted US strategy to increase US security, economic interests, and values in the Indo-Pacific region," the release said on Monday.

The legislation, passed by Congress earlier this month, authorizes $1.5 billion including funding to counter China’s strategic influence worldwide and alleged attempts to undermine the international system, according to the text of the bill.

The law also says the US President should develop a diplomatic strategy that includes working with allies to conduct joint maritime training and freedom of navigation operations in the East and South China Seas.

READ MORE: Jaguar Land Rover Slashing 1000s of Jobs to Save Profits amid US-China Trade War

In a separate statement on Monday, however, Trump despite signing the act listed more than 20 provisions to which he took exception. Some of the provisions, Trump said, purport to dictate US foreign policy and restrict his authority to control personnel and materiel for the successful conduct of military operations including with respect to North Korea.

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https://sputniknews.com/us/201901011071136608-usa-china-trump-bill-influ...

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On June 4th the Chinese government issued a travel alert for Chinese tourists thinking of visiting the United States, a day after it issued a similar advisory to Chinese students thinking of studying in the US over concerns for their safety and security. Chinese in the US are reporting harassment and interrogations by US immigration authorities and many now have the impression they are not welcome in the US.

The Global Times, speaking on behalf of the government stated,

“The Chinese people find it difficult to accept the fact that they are being taken as thieves. The US boasts too much superiority and has been indulged by the world. Due to its short history, it lacks understanding of and respect for the rules of countries and laws of the market. The Americans of the early generations accumulated prosperity and prestige for the US, while the current US administration behaves like a wastrel generation by ruining the world’s respect for the US.”

It seems to me they are being generous to the US since the “early prosperity” of the US was built on the backs of slave labour, extermination of the indigenous peoples and theft of their lands, colonization and exploitation of other countries, including China, and two hundred years of continual warfare to secure the resources and markets of first the western hemisphere, then the world. Their “prestige” comes out of the barrel of a gun. The US economic and military aggression against those nations that refuse to obey American demands to serve their interests ever increases and never abates. A few days ago Mike Pompeo stated, with feigned innocence, that the US was willing to talk to Iran “without preconditions” when the real conditions Iran faces include an almost total embargo of its trade and threats of immediate attack by US forces, including nuclear attack. The Iranians quickly rejected this hypocrisy.

Read more:

https://journal-neo.org/2019/06/07/this-outlaw-power/

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On Tiananmen square anniversary:

70th Anniversary of the People’s Republic of China: the Erasure of History

by Manlio Dinucci

The People’s Republic of China is in no way a military threat to the rest of the world: it does not see itself as a conquering power, but as resilient. It is in this sense that the ceremonies of its 70th anniversary must be understood. It has recovered politically and economically from the aggression it suffered in the 19th century, but its culture today exerts no attraction over others.

Seventy years ago, on October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the birth of the People’s Republic of China from the Tien An Men gate. The anniversary is being celebrated today with a military parade in front of the historic gate in Beijing. From Europe to Japan and the United States, the mainstream media present it as an ostentation of forces by a threatening power. Virtually no one remembers the dramatic historical episodes that led to the birth of New China.

Thus disappeared China, reduced to a colonial and semi-colonial state, subdued, exploited and dismembered since the middle of the 19th century by the European powers (Great Britain, Germany, France, Belgium, Austria and Italy), by tsarist Russia, by Japan and by the United States. Thus, the bloody coup d’état carried out in 1927 by Chiang Kai-shek - later supported by the Anglo-United States - was erased, exterminating a large part of the Communist Party (born in 1921) and killing hundreds of thousands of workers and peasants. There is no mention of the Red Army’s "Long March", which, begun in 1934 as a disastrous retreat, was transformed by Mao Zedong into one of the greatest political and military achievements in history. We forget the war of aggression against China unleashed by Japan in 1937: Japanese troops occupy Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing, killing more than 300,000 civilians in the latter, while more than ten cities are attacked with biological weapons. The history of the anti-Japanese United Front, which the Communist Party forms with the Kuomintang: the Kuomintang troops, armed by the United States, on the one hand fight the Japanese invaders, on the other hand impose an embargo on the areas liberated by the Red Army and concentrate the Japanese offensive against them; the Communist Party, which went from 40,000 to 1.2 million members, guides the popular forces from 1937 to 1945 in a war that increasingly wears out the Japanese army. It is not recognized that, with its Resistance, which cost more than 35 million lives, China is a decisive contributor to Japan’s defeat, which, defeated in the Pacific by the United States and in Manchuria by the USSR, surrendered [to the United States] in 1945 after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. What happens immediately after Japan’s defeat is hidden: according to a plan decided in Washington, Chiang Kai-skek tries to repeat what he did in 1927, but his forces, armed and supported by the United States, find in front of them the People’s Liberation Army of about one million men and a militia of 2.5 million, backed by broad popular support. About 8 million Kuomintang soldiers are killed or captured and Chiang Kai-shek flee to Taiwan under US protection.

That, in an extreme synthesis, is the path that led to the birth of the People’s Republic of China 70 years ago. A story rarely or not at all covered in our school textbooks, which are marked by a restricted Eurocentric vision of the world, which is increasingly anachronistic. A history knowingly erased by politicians and opinion makers because it exposes the crimes of imperialism, putting the European powers, Japan and the United States in the dock: the "great democracies" of the West who proclaim themselves supreme judges with the right to establish, on the basis of their canons, which countries are democratic and which are not.

But we are no longer at the time of the "concessions" (urban areas under foreign administration) that these powers had imposed on China, when entrance to the Huangpu Park in Shanghai was "forbidden to dogs and Chinese people".

Manlio Dinucci

Translation 

Roger Lagassé

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Revisit the revolutions and civil wars: US, French, Russian... Revisit the wars of religions in Europe... Revisit the crusades...

This is a review of a new book on "crises" by Jared Diamond, Upheaval.

By ROBERT VERBRUGGEN • October 7, 2019

...

Those final chapters focused on the current day are the book’s weakest aspect; they are bland except when they antagonize the reader with bold—or downright laughable—assertions backed up with little evidence. 

...

What’s a reader to do, if not skip Upheaval entirely? The best option is to read the book selectively. Diamond’s first two case studies, that of Meiji Japan and that of Finland after World War II, are fascinating accounts of nations that were abruptly forced to deal with far stronger foes—and that got through it with a careful, if sometimes humiliating, application of realist foreign policy. Both countries did what was in their national interest, and operated on the assumption that other nations would do the same. As Finland’s President Urho Kekkonen once put it, the goal was “to reconcile the existence of our nation with the interests which dominate [our] geopolitical environment.”

On July 8, 1853, everything changed in Japan. The country was more or less isolated, with little foreign influence and little need for trade; it was led by a shogun and divided into feudal domains. But on that day, at the behest of President Millard Fillmore, Commodore Matthew Perry arrived with technologically advanced gunships and an offer one can’t refuse: Japan would open its ports to American use, or it would be attacked with overwhelming force, and the Japanese had until the following year to decide.

Perry’s return voyage arrived in February 1854, and Japan relented, knowing it could not win a war with the United States. It soon ended up opening its ports to the British, Dutch, and Russians, too—and starting in 1858 was forced into “unequal treaties” with these countries that relegated Japan to second-class status. (The most insulting detail was that foreigners on Japanese soil were not bound by Japanese laws, a concession these countries did not grant to Japan in return and did not require of each other.) But after a tumultuous period that included a wave of domestic assassinations, a coup, and a civil war, Japan set about developing itself so that it could stand up to the West.

Japan’s Meiji Restoration, which began with the aforementioned coup in 1868, is a striking illustration of how a country can bend to reality without fully breaking with its traditions. It was a crash course of modernization in which Japan borrowed the elements of other societies best suited for Japanese life: a British-style navy; a German-style army, constitution, and schools; some experimentation with other Western nations’ practices too. Yet other aspects of its culture remained the same: it kept its emperor and its strong religious traditions. And soon enough, Japan was able to build up its military and industrial capabilities, thereby gain better footing in negotiations with the West, and throw off the unequal treaties. No one wants to abandon a way of life under physical threat from abroad, but Japan avoided a war it was bound to lose by giving into demands it lacked the power to resist, and eventually restored its honor.

Finland’s experience is similar but even more harrowing. As World War II approached, Finland was a poor country that only recently had begun to take note of the USSR, with which it shared a long border to its east: a problematic geography, because the Soviets feared an attack by European powers via Finland. When in 1939 Stalin demanded Finnish territory (to push its border further away from Leningrad) and a naval base, the Finns resisted, suspecting the true goal was to take over Finland entirely. At the end of November that year, the USSR attacked.

The Finns held back the Soviets by taking advantage of their knowledge of the geography—hoping that allies would come to help eventually. That didn’t happen. After a renewed Soviet push in 1940, Finland gave in to harsher demands than it had rejected the year before. The following year, though, it was at war with the USSR once again, alongside the Nazis, whom it termed “co-belligerents” rather than “allies.” What followed was a series of victories and defeats that ended with more concessions to the USSR and a campaign in which Finns drove the once-useful Germans back out of their country. All told, the Finns lost 100,000, or about 5 percent of the male population.

The question was how to deal with the post-war reality, and Finland’s solution inspired the derisive term “Finlandization”: It bent over backwards to keep the USSR happy, being keenly aware that (A) it could not win a head-on war against the Soviets to stave off annexation, if it came to that, and (B) it also could not depend on other Western powers to help, if history was any guide. This approach allowed Finland to exist as a liberal democracy right next door to the Evil Empire.

But it involved swallowing a whole lot of pride. By way of a retroactive law, Finland prosecuted the leaders who’d been in charge during the war against the USSR. It paid “reparations” to the Soviets, which in Diamond’s words involved “individual Finns contributing their jewelry and gold wedding rings.” It agreed to import inferior Soviet goods. A Finnish publishing house backed off from its plans to publish The Gulag Archipelago. In 1971, the Finnish government chastised a newspaper for publishing a truth that offended the USSR (that the Soviets had occupied the Baltic Republics in 1939), but in general journalists needed no such chiding because they self-censored any criticism of the country’s eastern neighbor.

It is lost to history, of course, what would have happened had Finland taken a less pliant stance—whether other Western countries would have been more helpful in the context of the Cold War, whether the USSR would have risked military action with nuclear war hanging in the air. What’s undeniable is that Finland avoided a Soviet takeover, maintained its capitalist system, and preserved most of its liberalism as well. American readers will mostly be grateful that immensely powerful countries rarely have to consider such tradeoffs.

Upheaval is a bizarre jumble of anecdotes and ideas that fails to leave readers with a clear message. But at times it manages to tell stories that are worthy of careful reflection.  

Robert VerBruggen is a deputy managing editor of National Review.

Read more:

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/jared-diamonds-newest-b...

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“Anglo-Japanese plans to carve out at least eight new states of the large and unified China have been known for a long time. This would put the growing global factor China temporarily on hold. In the foreseeable future, we will be able to see on the well-known ‘hot spots’ in China, where there still will be played with fire […].” 

These days, when you perceive the massive pre-arrangement of the press for a Western confrontation with China, you will experience some kind of déjà vu. The old conflicts are brought to emerge in order to destabilise China. These are disturbing signs.

In connection with the war in Afghanistan and the deployment of the German Armed Forces, a former German Defence Minister blustered that “Germany will be defended at the Hindu Kush”, but now it is getting serious against China.
The guns of the press are positioned along the obvious lines of conflict by the headquarters in Washington. The Chinese province of Xingjiang and the Turkic peoples living there are brought into position against the central government in Beijing. The situation is downright prepared for a major conflict.

A conflict, by the way, whose skeleton has developed muscles for almost thirty years. With these is now being played because the Chinese mega-project of the “Silk Road” is visibly bringing Euro-Asian continent together. This will weaken permanently the American dominance of global trade routes and the business of sanctions for the destruction of states in peacetime. The events in Hong Kong show impressively that the corners and edges of China are being shaken forcefully.
Anglo-Japanese plans to carve out at least eight new states of the large and unified China have been known for a long time. This would put the growing global factor China temporarily on hold. In the foreseeable future, we will be able to see on the well-known “hot spots” in China, where there still will be played with fire and the greatest possible global involvement can be organised behind transparent rivalry manoeuvres.

In Xingjiang and in connection with the Uyghurs in particular, the basic global conflict between the United States and the “rest of the world” is becoming almost exemplary. Since the fighting decades ago on the Ussuri River between the then communist powers of the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China, the world has been aware of the sensitivity of this region. That is why particularly President Naserbayev, who has been President of Kazakhstan for many years, made an effort to develop a mechanism for conflict prevention between the states according to the model of the “Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe”.

By the way, with great success, as the current “Shanghai Cooperation Group” shows. To the east of Moscow, the states are participating because they prefer the laborious work for peace to any war. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union these concepts have been worked on, as I was able to experience at first hand as a participant in the preparatory conferences in Almaty. It should be prevented at all costs that the process of disintegration of the Soviet Union on Chinese territory could develop into a violent war. The border issues were settled and new autonomy rules created to prevent war in a dramatically complicated situation.

From day one, the United States was massively opposed to developing a mechanism for peaceful conflict resolution. The “Shanghai Group” conference project was sabotaged wherever possible. When the states on the ground nevertheless agreed, the United States left the conference project.

Since then, anyone who wants to can follow how the two rival concepts wrestle with each other. Since the construction of the “Three Gorges Dam” on the Yangtze River, the Chinese central government has been trying to change the basic demographic structure in Xingjiang in favour of the Chinese population.

In the past decade, German magazines have not been too sorry to write about CIA-led uprisings in this province. How the American-Chinese global conflict dominates the present time can be seen in the attacks from the United States against Chinese investments in Pakistan in connection with the Silk Road.

And we in Germany? Imperial Germany knew by its scientists and expeditions in this region what was going on there. Already at that time in rivalry with other powers. At the present time, it was a foreseeable strategic decision on the part of the United States to locate the world headquarters of the Uyghurs in Munich at the time the “Shanghai Group” was being prepared. The mechanisms that can be derived from this are well known from other conflicts that ended in war. •

(Translation Current Concerns)

Read more:

https://www.zeit-fragen.ch/en/numbers/2019/no-2627-12-december-2019/massive-press-preparation-for-a-western-confrontation-with-china.html

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How can the US lecture China on the rights of Muslims?

Andre Vltchek

In 2019, I wrote a long analysis about “the Uygur issue”; analysis which will be soon published as a book.

For some time, I have been warning the world that the West, and the United States in particular, are helping to radicalize the Uyghurs in Xinjiang Province and outside.

And not only that: I clearly mapped movement of the Uyghur radicals through some countries like Indonesia, towards Turkey, from where they are then injected into brutal war zones like Idlib in Syria. I worked in Idlib area, with the Syrian commanders, and I spoke at length with the Syrian internally displaced people; victims of the Uyghur genocidal attacks.

The majority of Uyghur people are Muslims. They have their own, ancient, specific culture and most of them are, of course, very decent human beings. Northwest China is their home.

The “problem” is that Urumqi, Xinjiang, are located on the main branch of BRI (The Belt and Road Initiative) – an extremely optimistic, internationalist project which is ready to connect billions of people on all continents. The BRI is infrastructural as well as cultural project, which will soon pull hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and under-development.

Washington is horrified that China is taking a lead in building a much brighter future for humanity. It is because, if China succeeds, it could be the end of Western imperialism and neo-colonialism, leading to real freedom and independence for dozens of until now suffering nations.

Therefore, Washington has decided to act, in order to preserve the status quo and its dominance over the world.

Step one: to antagonize, provoke and to smear China by all means, be it over Hong Kong, Taiwan, South China Sea or, above mentioned “Uygur Issue”.

Step two: to try to turn a part of China’s constitutionally-recognized national minority – Uyghurs – into “rebels”, or more precisely, terrorists.

Turkey, a member of NATO, offered the U.S. a helping hand. Uyghurs were flown with their families to Istanbul, with Turkish passports, through hubs in Southeast Asia. Then, their passports were confiscated in Istanbul. Many Uyghurs were recruited, trained, and then transported into war-torn Syria. Smaller group stayed in places like Indonesia, joining jihadi cadres there. When terrorist groups in Syria were almost thoroughly defeated, some Uyghurs were moved to Afghanistan, where I also used to work, and investigated.

Needless to say, Afghanistan has a short but important border with China.

Why all this complex operation?

The answer is simple: NATO/Washington/West hope that the hardened, well-trained Uyghur jihadi fighters will eventually return home to Xinjiang. There, they would start to fight for “independence”, and while doing that, they would sabotage the BRI.

This way, China would be injured, and its most powerful global project (BRI) would be disrupted.

The Chinese government is, naturally, alarmed. It is clear that the West has prepared brilliant trap: 

1. 1) If China does nothing, it will have to face extremely dangerous terrorist threat on its own territory (remember Soviet Union being dragged into Afghanistan, and mortally injured by Western trained, financed and supported Mujahedeen? West has long history of using Islam for its Machiavellian designs). 
2. 2) If China does something to protect itself, it will get attacked by the Western media and politicians. Precisely this is what is happening now.

Everything is ready, prepared.

On 12 September 2019, South China Morning Post, reported:

US Senate passes Uygur Human Rights Policy Act calling for sanctions on Chinese officials over Xinjiang camps

• Bill also urges Trump administration to prohibit export of goods and services to state agents in Chinese region where upwards of 1 million Uygurs are being held
• Beijing describes move as a ‘gross interference in China’s internal affairs’

Naturally, the so-called rights act to interfere in Xinjiang’s affairs is one great exercise in hypocrisy and intimidation.

Let us not forget that the United States is treating Muslim people with absolute spite. It even bans them from entering the country, if they happened to live in certain nations. It arbitrarily bombs them in Pakistan, Afghanistan and elsewhere, worrying nothing about the loss of civilian lives. It tortures Muslims, and it humiliates them at home and even in their own countries.

And frankly: by trying to trigger the Uyghur insurgency in China, Washington is clearly doing a great harm to the Uyghurs themselves, and actually to all people of Northwest China. It is not just wrong; the United States is committing crime against humanity.

*

China is a multi-national, multi-cultural country. The Muslim culture is part of PRC’s identity. I suggest anyone who doubts that, to travel to Xi’an, one of three ancient capital cities of China.

Xi’an is where the old great Silk Road originated (ancient BRI, one could argue). Until now it is proud of its tremendous Muslim monuments, as well as of wonderful Muslim food and music. Every year, tens of millions of Chinese visitors travel to Xi’an, to understand its legacy, and enjoy its culture. The city is loved and appreciated, mainly because of its vibrant Muslim identity.

It is thorough nonsense that China is ‘anti-Muslim’. Both China (and Russia) are much more tolerant towards Islam than the West. Historically, and currently.

The same nonsense is to claim that China is building “concentration camps” in Xinjiang.

China’s position is clear: what the West describes as camps, are “vocational training centers” where “trainees” can learn Chinese and gain job skills to stop them becoming victims of “terrorism and religious extremism”. 

A group of Muslim Indonesian leaders, which gained access to these so-called ‘camps’ in Xinjiang, recently told my colleague, that people who spend some time in these institutions can actually sleep at home, at night.

Hardly a Guantanamo Bay, frankly speaking.

The self-proclaimed “judge” – the United States – has hundreds of high-security prisons, scattered all over the country. It is well known fact that throwing often innocent people to jail is big (privatized) business there, already for long decades. 

Millions of people are locked in for nothing. How can a country with one of the greatest number of prisoners on earth (on per capita bases) dare to preach anyone about justice? It is actually a great mystery.

*

What is the true purpose of such acts?

The answer is easy to define: It is that the determined unwillingness of the U.S. to share influence on the world, with other, much more humanistic countries, such as China; it is its unwillingness to compete, on the basis of great ideas and goodwill.

The more nihilist the U.S. foreign policy becomes, the more it accuses others of ‘murder’.

The way things function is simple: Washington creates some terrible conflict, somewhere. When the victim-country tries to resolve the conflict, and so-to speak ‘extinguish fire’, it is accused of ‘violating rights’ and gets slammed by sanctions.

All this has to stop, at some point, soon. This policy of Washington turns millions of human lives into agony.

Read more:

https://off-guardian.org/2019/12/17/how-can-the-us-lecture-china-on-the-...

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Unfortunately, 99 per cent of the Western media has fallen for the US trick...

A diplomatic war of words has emerged between the American and Chinese embassies in Canberra, amid claims Beijing is harassing Uyghur minority people living in Australia.

• The US ambassador said Uyghurs were being "harassed by agents of a foreign power"
• He said fake Chinese police cars were being parked outside their homes
• China's foreign affairs ministry said the allegation was "laughable"

Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minorities have been subject to a wide-ranging security crackdown in China's far-western Xinjiang region, where it is believed more than a million people have been rounded up and put in detention camps.

In an interview with ABC News Breakfast last Thursday, US ambassador Arthur B Culvahouse Jr said China was monitoring and intimidating Uyghurs living in Australia, and that this involved the use of fake Chinese police cars.

"Uyghurs who are lawfully in Australia, who are raised in Australia, working, paying taxes in Australia, are being harassed by agents of a foreign power," he said.

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-18/us-and-china-clash-over-uyghur-ha...

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Arthur B Culvahouse Jr is a deceiving US agent....

The "Xinjiang papers", released on 16 November 2019 by the New York Times, have been spinned by the Western media as a plan to suppress Uyghur culture in China [1]. Written in Chinese, their interpretation may not be easily accessible to the Western world. In reality, China protects Uyghur culture, tolerates Muslim religion, while trying to stymie terrorist attacks and the separatist push coming from the World Uyghur Congress (WUC).

China has already published numerous studies [2] clarifying its policy.

The documents published by the New York Times attest to the determination of the Chinese government to use any means necessary to maintain civil peace. President Xi has called on the police to show "absolutely no mercy" towards terrorists. Indeed, the Chinese leader is up against a powerful organization, i.e. the World Uyghur Congress, which was created by the CIA during the Cold War, and which the US daily disingeniously portrays as being totally peaceful.

However, the World Uyghur Congress, based in Munich (Germany), has directly claimed responsibility for many deadly attacks in China. In addition, thousands of Uyghur combatants were sent to be trained in Syria with Turkey’s assistance. [3] More than 18,000 Uyghur jihadists are currently occupying the city of al-Zanbaki (Idlib governorate) where German and French NGOs provide them with food and health services.

Uyghur jihadists have garnered many supporters in Europe. Thus, lobbyists gathered in Brussels behind closed doors for a three-day seminar (7-9 December 2019), followed on 10 December by a conference in the European Parliament co-chaired by French MEP, Raphaël Glucksmann, and WUC president Dolkun Isa.

Read more:

https://www.voltairenet.org/article208556.html

[1] “‘Absolutely No Mercy’: Leaked Files Expose How China Organized Mass Detentions of Muslims”, Austin Ramzy and Chris Buckley, The New York Times, November 16, 2019

[2] “Human Rights in Xinjiang - Development and Progress”, 1 June 2017; “Cultural Protection and Development in Xinjiang”, 13 December 2018; “The Fight against Terrorism and Extremism and Human Rights Protection in Xinjiang”, Voltaire Network, 18 March 2019.

[3] “The CIA is using Turkey to pressure China”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Pete Kimberley, Voltaire Network, 19 February 2019.

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On the occasion of the 160th anniversary of the ransacking of the Summer Palace (October 18) and in order to better understand this large and complex country that is China, we are offering you today the continuation of our illustrated series devoted to cursed century of China (1839 to 1949), whose effects and memories still weigh heavily on the course of Chinese history.

Beyond the work of historical synthesis, we have pushed our research in order to be able to offer you numerous good quality period press archives.

For those who missed the first part, it's HERE.

In this second post, you will discover some fifty American press cartoons made between 1869 and 1905. Please click on the illustrations to enlarge them. Good reading !

See the images:

https://www.les-crises.fr/la-chine-et-le-siecle-de-la-honte-2-5-quand-la-presse-americaine-dessinait-la-chine-1869-1905/

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China's President Xi Jinping has warned that foreign powers will "get their heads bashed" if they attempt to bully or influence the country.

He delivered a defiant speech at an event marking the centenary of the ruling Communist Party on Thursday.

Mr Xi also said Beijing would not allow "sanctimonious preaching", in remarks widely seen as directed at the US.

It comes as China faces criticism over alleged human rights abuses and its crackdown in Hong Kong.

Relations between the US and China have worsened in recent times over trade, espionage and the pandemic. 

The issue of Taiwan is also a major source of tension. While democratic Taiwan sees itself as a sovereign state, Beijing views the island as a breakaway province.

The US, under its own laws, is required to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself should Beijing use force to take the island back. 

On Thursday Mr Xi said China maintains an "unshakeable commitment" to unification with Taiwan.

"No one should underestimate the resolve, the will and ability of the Chinese people to defend their national sovereignty and territorial integrity," he said.

Read more:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-57648236

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FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW ªªªªªªª•••••••¶¶¶¶¶¶¶!!!!!

There was an old woman on ABCTV news being frightened and upset by the Chinese "military display" on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the communist party in China. Yes the display was impressive. But it is played at home on Chinese soil.

Meanwhile the USA with far more firepower than the Chinese on a ratio of nearly 10 to one, (50 to one nukes) apart from the number of foot soldiers and some equiment (disused by the US), do not parade in such fashion. The USA display is not to be seen in such a mega-parade but to be felt in nearly 800 US bases around the world with the roaming US navy plus its nuclear armed bombers, the B52, of which there are usually a dozen flying around the planet — ready to drop something nasty. See: https://armedforces.eu/compare/country_USA_vs_China

To this we have the forces of NATO that multiply this American firepower three time over...

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FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW ÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅÅŒŒŒŒŒŒŒŒ∑∑∑∑∑∑∑∑!!!!!

Xi Jinping took centre stage this week to celebrate 100 years of the Communist Party of China, but there is another figure whose shadow looms over the nation.

Liang Qichao may not be as familiar to most of us as Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping or Xi himself, but Liang has been called the "godfather of Chinese nationalism" and is the voice that has whispered in the ears of China's leaders for the past century.

It is impossible to understand China today without going back to the fall of the Qing Empire in the early years of the 20th century, and a man whose writings triggered a dark night of the soul for the Chinese people.

The idea of modern China, the identity of Chinese people, can be traced directly to Liang and this tumultuous period of war, revolution, mass slaughter and political upheaval.

When Xi Jinping talked about "national rejuvenation", "sovereignty and territorial integrity", he was channelling Liang Qichao.

When he warned that no foreign force "will bully, oppress or subjugate us", he was echoing the words of Liang.

It was Liang Qichao who helped popularise the idea of "humiliation" that Xi now uses as a mantra to bind Chinese people to a militant identity that pits China against the world.

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-04/xi-jinping-china-look-back-liang-qichao-godfather-chinese-nation/100263254

See also:

https://iview.abc.net.au/video/NC2110H013S00

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assangex

By Grenville Cross

Although the United Kingdom traditionally regarded Hong Kong as a colony, this changed over time.

Given the stigma increasingly associated with colonialism, and the need to confront historical realities, the UK decided, in 1981, to rename British crown colonies as British dependent territories (BDTs).

In consequence, when Chris Patten arrived in Hong Kong in 1992, he assumed the governorship of what Britain considered a BDT, and this remained its status until July 1, 1997. This implied he was not just another colonial satrap, a point he emphasised by his refusal to don the governor’s traditional garb of white uniform and plumed hat. As a former Foreign Office minister, he would have been acutely aware of the harm that colonialism had caused to China, and he presumably welcomed the city’s progression to a BDT, even though some saw the change as cosmetic.

Indeed, as recently as April 27, 2021, Patten told the Oxford PPE Society that “nobody today would try to justify colonialism”. He explained to the students how, in the 19th century, China had been forced by Britain to buy opium from India with the silver that was then used to purchase its porcelain, silk and tea, and historically he was quite correct.

After the First Opium War (1839-42) between the UK and China concluded, with the latter’s defeat, humiliating terms were imposed on the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). This arose after Commissioner Lin Zexu, in light of the Chinese law that banned the importation and sale of opium, had seized opium stocks and ordered the destruction of opium at Humen, in Dongguan. Although he did this in circumstances where opiate addiction was rampant, causing sickness, poverty and immorality, the British demanded reparations. When this was not forthcoming, they used their latest military technology to pummel China into submission.

To capitalise on its victory, Britain forced China to sign the Treaty of Nanking in 1842, formally ceding already occupied territory. In Article III thereof, “His Majesty the Emperor of China cedes to Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain, etc, the Island of Hong Kong, to be possessed in perpetuity by Her Britannic Majesty, Her Heirs and Successors.” As if this was not bad enough, insult was then added to injury by Article IV, which required China “to pay the sum of Six Millions of Dollars as the value of Opium which was delivered up”, which meant Britain was to be compensated for Commissioner Lin’s attempt to protect his countrymen from the horrors of the opium trade.

Quite clearly, this treaty was obtained under duress, and was, therefore, not worth the paper it was written on. Hong Kong Island was stolen from China as a result of “gunboat diplomacy”, and it therefore lacked any legitimate status under international law, however it was dressed up. As any law student knows, if one party to a contract enters into it after being threatened by another, the courts treat it as a nullity. This reflects China’s own stance, given its free will was overborne, and it is hard to see how anybody can claim that coerced treaties ever affected Chinese sovereignty over Hong Kong, although people like Patten and his Hong Kong Watch lackey, the serial fantasist Benedict Rogers, have certainly tried.

In 1949, therefore, Zhou Enlai, who was simultaneously China’s first premier and foreign minister, ordered a review of the treaties entered into by previous Chinese governments. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs then established the Committee of Treaties (now the Department of Treaty and Law), and it examined the circumstances under which treaties had come about since the time of the Qing Dynasty. The committee concluded that, apart from certain clauses that required further consideration, none of the treaties could be fully recognised or were worth revising for application in modern China.

Over the years, the bilateral treaties that the UK, and other foreign powers, imposed on China in the 19th century became known, for obvious reasons, as “unequal treaties”. They were coercive or predatory in nature, and devoid of genuine consent. As the historian, Wang Dong, explained in 2005, China considered those treaties to be unequal “because they were not negotiated by nations treating each other as equal but were imposed on China after a war, and because they encroached on China’s sovereign rights”.

A key principle of international law has always been the equality of states, and a treaty obtained in defiance of this and without the necessary reciprocity is worthless. Indeed, after the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonisation was established in 1961, to promote self-governance among colonies, the UN General Assembly decided in 1966, by a vote of 99-5, that Hong Kong, like Macao, was outside its ambit. Although the Treaty of Nanking had ceded Hong Kong to Britain in perpetuity, the committee recognised that it still belonged to China, and that there was, therefore, no colony requiring of self-determination or independence.

This was after the committee had accepted the submission from China’s then-representative that “the settlement of the questions of Hong Kong and Macao is entirely within China’s sovereign right and does not fall under the ordinary category of ‘Colonial Territories’ ”, and this meant it was, therefore, none of its business.

This, of course, begs the question of why modern China, as sovereign, did not simply demand the immediate return of Hong Kong after 1949. Why, that is, did it wait until 1997, the date when the 99-year New Territories lease imposed on China by another unequal treaty, the Second Convention of Peking of 1898, expired? The answer undoubtedly lies in enlightened pragmatism, in the sense that China decided not to rush things, but to wait until the time was right. Even then, it took the view, with obvious prescience, that it would not simply take Hong Kong back unconditionally, as was its right. Its leaders, including Deng Xiaoping, decided instead to negotiate with Britain the terms of its return, and it did this, at least in part, to reassure the local population and the business world; hence the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984.

There is, of course, a world of difference between regarding a treaty as legally void, on the one hand, and accepting it de facto, on the other, and this is exactly what China did with Hong Kong. Its sovereignty notwithstanding, it recognised the reality of British administration, bided its time, and chose July 1, 1997, as the right day for the resumption of the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong. In the case of Macao, where there was no treaty date to provide guidance, the date of Dec 20, 1999, was chosen, given that was as good a date as any as the 20th century expired and the 21st century beckoned.

With his historical awareness, Patten presumably felt comforted in 1992 when he moved to a BDT rather than what had previously been viewed as a colony, not least because he would have been aware of the pain the “century of humiliation” had inflicted upon China and its people. If so, he is now singing from a different hymn sheet, for reasons that arouse suspicion. Indeed, his latest pronouncements show not only crass insensitivity, but also a love of mischief-making.

Writing in The Times, on June 26, 2022, Patten poured cold water on the notion that Hong Kong, when he arrived in 1992, was simply an “occupied territory”, which is a possible definition of a BDT. He insisted instead, despite Hong Kong having been classified as a BDT since 1983, that he “really was the governor of the colony of Hong Kong from 1992 to 1997”, apparently implying British sovereignty. Quite why he trotted out this old canard many years after Britain had distanced itself from colonial pretensions is anybody’s guess, although one reason may lie not a million miles away from the imminent release of his Hong Kong Diaries, on July 1.

Eager to drum up publicity, Patten is once again reverting to type, and showing himself to have been an old-fashioned colonialist all along. This, of course, sheds light on his ongoing provocations of Beijing in the run-up to 1997, when he behaved like the proverbial bull in a China shop, insulting the sovereign at every turn. Indeed, by now misrepresenting the past and seeking again to needle China, he reveals just how much he has in common with those of his forebears who abused it in the 19th century. If he feels this is a price worth paying to flog some books, then good luck to him. His prospective readers, however, will be hoping that his diaries are not as badly flawed as his latest pronouncements.

READ MORE:

https://johnmenadue.com/grenville-cross-the-hong-kong-diaries-patten-revives-colonialism-trying-to-attract-interest/

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FRREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW..................

With the addition of Japan, AUKUS ceases to be a device to supply nuclear powered submarines to Australia several decades in the future but a stark reminder of the oppressive powers that abused Chinese sovereignty in the 19th and 20th centuries.

It was Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles who first suggested that the inclusion of Japan in the AUKUS group was a natural ‘evolution’ of the pact. As such it was risible, if understandable; Marles is not the sharpest knife in the Cabinet drawer.

But when it was adopted by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese – and then the American president Joe Biden – there is cause for concern. With the addition of Japan, AUKUS ceases to be a device to supply nuclear powered submarines to Australia several decades in the future but a stark reminder of the oppressive powers that abused Chinese sovereignty in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Japan’s membership could hardly be more provocative to a country that suffered the indignity of Japanese control of its Taiwan province for 50 years from 1895 and its invasion of the mainland throughout the second world war.

The notorious Massacre of Nanking – where the atrocities included 200,000 murders and 20,000 rapes of the civilian population – was but one of hundreds of outrages visited upon the Chinese people. Succeeding Japanese Governments have apologised for their past atrocities, but the scars have yet to heal.

The Australian POWs in Changi and on the Thai-Burma railway had a taste of the cruelty of Imperial Japan, but the intervention of the first of our official Deputy Prime Ministers, John ‘Black Jack’ McEwen produced a new dimension to our relations with that country. McEwen was a very different figure from the pedestrian Marles. In the decade following the war he and his Departmental Secretary John Crawford, realised that Britain would no longer be our major trading partner and turned instead to Japan.

As it happened, I joined McEwen’s small staff as Press Secretary in 1967 – shortly before Harold Holt took his fateful swim – and heard many times of the struggle to pass the 1956 Japan trade agreement against a united Labor opposition. When we visited Tokyo in 1968, he was feted by the Japanese government as a national hero. His proudest boast, he responded, was that since signing the Agreement, neither side had cause to refer to its written articles.

This congenial relationship, added to the American ‘supervision’ of post war Japan, meant that our promise, ‘Lest we forget’ was filtered through a financial prism. The Japanese ‘economic miracle’ even brought protests in the 1980s that Japan was ‘buying Australia’.

Throughout that postwar period McEwen also maintained a lucrative wheat trade with Mao Zedong’s China despite his government’s warning of ‘the downward thrust of Chinese communism’ via the Vietnam War. However, the China redux of Xi Jinping on the one hand, and on the other a combination of the snide provocations from the zealot Scott Morrison, the militaristic ‘exceptionalism’ of the United States and the clownish cunning of Donald Trump, has produced a highly delicate diplomatic challenge.

To describe Japan’s introduction to the equation as a natural ‘evolution’ is inappropriate at best and ignorant at worst. And to accuse China of seeking to limit freedom of shipping through the South China Sea – the gateway to China’s trade with the world – would be laughable were it not made by the US Navy and its Australian sycophants.

It also makes a mockery of the sensible formula for peaceful coexistence articulated by both Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong, that ‘we will cooperate where we can, disagree where we must and engage in our national interest.’

https://johnmenadue.com/lest-we-forget-japan-joining-aukus-a-stark-reminder-of-chinas-century-of-humiliation/

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SEE ALSO: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731