Xi calls for SCO members to deeply engage in international cooperation on digital economy

President Xi Jinping sent a letter on Monday congratulating the China-Shanghai Cooperation Organization Forum on the Digital Economy Industry and Smart China Expo 2021, which both opened in Chongqing.

In the letter, Xi said that as the world is entering a period featuring the rapid development of the digital economy, new technologies, business patterns and platforms such as 5G, artificial intelligence and smart cities are booming and profoundly affecting global scientific innovation, industrial restructuring and socioeconomic development.

In recent years, China has been actively promoting digital industrialization and industrial digitization and has been pushing forward the deep integration of digital technologies with economic and social development, Xi said.

Since this year marks the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Xi also said that China stands ready to carry forward the Shanghai Spirit with all SCO members to deeply engage in international cooperation on the digital economy.

Digitization, networking and intelligence should provide more momentum for economic and social development, thus creating a new chapter for digital economy cooperation, Xi said.

SCO Secretary-General Vladimir Norov and dignitaries from participating countries took part in the opening ceremony and main forum online, during which they delivered speeches.

Norov praised China's openness in sharing its experience in developing the digital economy and called for more targeted cooperation among SCO countries in the fields of innovation, cross-border e-commerce, digital skills training, skills cultivation and e-learning.

According to the white paper "Digital Economy Development in China (2020)", which was published in July last year, China's digital economy in 2020 had reached 39 trillion yuan ($6 trillion), accounting for 38 percent of its GDP, effectively supporting the country's epidemic prevention and control efforts and economic development.

"The SCO region represents about half of the world's population. For the SCO, China's rich experience in the development of the digital economy and cross-border e-commerce is very valuable," Norov said.

A statement on the development of the digital economy was adopted at the 20th meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO in November.

 

Read more:

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202108/24/WS6124296ca310efa1bd66a984.html

 

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BY Mahboob A. Khawaja

America and NATO Lacked Sense of Rational Thinking, Practices and They Lied

 

 

For twenty long years, American led NATO occupied Afghanistan under the guise of peace, nation-building, democracy and strategic harmony.  Lacking wisdom and forbearance, America and NATO became swollen with pride and prejudice in their military power and fell into crass materialism, violence and planned destruction of Afghanistan and its political destiny. On August 16, President Biden in his speech clarified that it was not the aim of  “nation-building” or “democracy” to keep our forces in Afghanistan. He acknowledged that Afghan political leaders were responsible for the turmoil and continuing societal conflicts with massive corruption and illegitimacy of the political rule as they fled the country. American leadership and allied NATO countries blame the Taliban* for the prevalent chaos and insecurity across Afghanistan. The Western news media appears biased and unprepared to recognize the new Taliban* administration as a legitimate transformational entity for peace and stability in the region. The myth of Taliban* being an extreme “Islamist”, “militant” and sometimes a “terrorist” group is kept functional in all of the recent reporting. Do the Western news media ever describe the Bush’s invasion as “Christian Crusade” or “terrorist” occupation of Afghanistan? To revisit the formative history, the Western leaders deny any reference to the pathological lies and political deception engineered by George W. Bush when he invaded Afghanistan as part of the prolonged scheme of “war on terrorism.” 

 

Michel Meacher, former British Environment Minister under PM Blair (This War on Terrorism is Bogus) - provides reliable insight into the real reasons for the 'War on Terrorism'. He claims that the "war on terror" is flatly superficial:

“The 9/11 attacks gave the US an ideal pretext to use force to secure its global domination ... the so-called 'war on terrorism' is being used largely as bogus cover for achieving wider US strategic geopolitical objectives ... in fact, 9/11 offered an extremely convenient pretext to put the PNAC plan into action. The evidence again is quite clear that plans for military action against Afghanistan and Iraq were in hand well before 9/11.” 

According to David Corn (Is the President a Pathological Liar?  12/2003; and the Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception, 2003), Bush lied and misled the American masses about the real reasoning for the invasion of Afghanistan. Recall that it was Al-Qaeda* (the US sponsored and trained group) blamed by Bush for the 9/11 attack, not Taliban*. Afghanistan under Taliban government in 2003 had no military-political capacity to threaten America or its security in any rational context. When nations and leaders live in darkness - away from truth, they seem to lose any rational sense of direction and imagination. This happened to America and NATO under its control. No wonder, why America and NATO are fearful of the futuristic unthinkable consequences if truth is revealed to the global mankind.  They invaded Afghanistan without any justification, dismantled its culture and values and tortured innocent civilians and political enemies – the Bagram Airbase tells that all. 

The Talibs are the people of Afghanistan and are a political organization within the geo-political culture of Afghanistan. The Taliban* takeover of Afghanistan was politically motivated after some twenty years of struggle for power. If Talibs are dressed in their own national costumes, speak their own language and adhere to Islamic thoughts and values, it does not make them terrorist or Islamists. In all perceptive eyes and rational analysis, Taliban* is a political party, not a “terrorist” entity or an extremist “Islamists” as some Western media suggest to its public viewers.  If they were terrorist or extremists, why would America and NATO and others in international community engage them in peacemaking conferences and forging relationships over the decades?  In its pursuit of unbridled ambitions and global hegemonic power, America and its allies enjoin wrong thinking, wrong aims and do the wrong things as it happened in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen and elsewhere. 

Glenn Greenwald, a prominent American journalist and lawyer (The US Government Lied for Two Decades about Afghanistan, Information Clearing House: 8/16/2021) makes the startling remarks:

The pattern of lying was virtually identical throughout several administrations when it came to Afghanistan. In 2019, The Washington Post — obviously with a nod to the Pentagon Papers — published a report about secret documents it dubbed The Afghanistan Papers: A secret history of the war. Under the headline AT WAR WITH THE TRUTH, The Post summarized its findings:……Year after year, U.S. generals have said in public they are making steady progress on the central plank of their strategy: to train a robust Afghan army and national police force that can defend the country without foreign help.

In the Lessons Learned interviews, however, U.S. military trainers described the Afghan security forces as incompetent, unmotivated and rife with deserters. They also accused Afghan commanders of pocketing salaries — paid by U.S. taxpayers — for tens of thousands of “ghost soldiers.” None expressed confidence that the Afghan army and police could ever fend off, much less defeat, the Taliban* on their own.

Towards Making Peaceful Future of Afghanistan under Taliban*

Taliban* has just been in Kabul for two days, and one should not expect miracles out of a systematically and politically destroyed country under NATO and American occupation for 20 years. Surely, Taliban* governance would urgently need rethinking and planning for socio-economic and political change and stability across Afghanistan. They were alleged to have mistreated women, children and other minorities in the past. Taliban* would need people of new ideas, proactive vision and planned change to avert the dark imagery of the past. Under President Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, country was entrenched in mismanagement and corruption and democracy was just a ghost of the unknown. The chaos at Kabul airport is a glimpse what went wrong under the foreign occupation and exploitation. Taliban* appear to be in control of the whole of Afghanistan and will need planned efforts and a wide range of reconciliation efforts to settle-in for viable political governance. One cannot imagine law and order to come out of nowhere in a highly chaotic situation ordained by America and NATO’s absurdity and contradictions for a long time. 

Caitline Johnstone (Stop Believing that US Military Invasions had Noble Intentions, Information Clearing House: 8/16/2021) makes us believe that:  

If the US had a free press and was anything like a democracy, the government wouldn’t be getting away with squandering thousands of lives and trillions of dollars on a twenty-year war which accomplished literally nothing besides making assholes obscenely wealthy.

Thousands of human lives. Trillions of dollars. If western mass media were anything remotely resembling what they purport to be, they would be making sure the public understands how badly their government just f****d them. Instead it’s just “Oh no, those poor Afghan women.”… I am once again asking you to stop believing US military invasions have noble intentions.

War apologists talk about “doing nothing” like that’s somehow worse than creating mountains of human corpses for They had twenty years to build a stable nation in Afghanistan. Twenty years. If you believe that’s what they were really trying to do there, or that results would be any different if you gave them twenty more, you’re a fucking moron. 

America and its belligerent allies have caused havoc humanitarian, social, economic and political conditions in Afghanistan. The war and its consequences will not end with the US sudden withdrawal but will leave imprints for generations to come - the innocent men, women and children massacred and human habitats destroyed. Should America and its allies not be held accountable by the Afghan people for all the war damages?  Please see: America led-NATO forces in Afghanistan: Crimes against humanity call for accountability. Also see by Mahboob A. Khawaja - How the United States and Britain Lost the Bogus Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

• Would the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague initiate actions to hold the US-British and others NATO members responsible for the war damages and crimes against humanity in Afghanistan and Iraq?
• Who would patch the wounds of torture and cold blood murdered committed at Bagram prison and Guantanamo Bay?  
• Americans strategic psyche is desperate to be seen as a winner, not loser in Afghanistan. Would Taliban* allow the American–NATO military plans to disrupt the future of nation-rebuilding and political stability?
• If America’s egoism turns into cancer to consume both gimmicks, where would the wounds and warriors be buried with honor - would it be the bombed graveyards of Afghanistan or the new secret sites in America?  
• More often wars have ended on their own after exhaustion and unworthy cause with or without political dialogues to make the roadmaps for the future. Would peace and reconciliation with Taliban usher a new era for a different kind of future and co-existence to all concerned?

If mankind was looking towards ethical principles and some rational consideration to be in peace and harmony after the dreadful warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan and drone killings in Pakistan, it is utterly dismayed with the US politicians and policy makers. Time and again, they appear to be devoid of reason and any sense of humanity and accountability for their belligerent acts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Global politics is not a system of moral principles or intellectual and political values but often an absurd game – a cruel drama - a puppet show staged to appease the few bloody Draculas - a psychopath puzzle of few insane people who had nothing useful to contribute to the mankind except drudgery, deceit, lies and inborn deceptions - the net outcome of this Thinking was the bogus War on Terrorism.   It is unclear what is in-waiting for the US and NATO after shamefully leaving Afghanistan without any formal agreement or surrender to the new political realties in Kabul.

History is a weapon and tyranny is tyranny, noted late historian Howard Zinn. American intransigence in Afghanistan will not be a new exciting story in history books.

Читайте больше на https://english.pravda.ru/opinion/14214-afghanistan/

 

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Gus: I'd like to apologise for piling on shit on our friends the USA. Too many articles published on this site are exposing the failures of a US people who may not have understood how their leaders deceived them for many years. This is done good faith as we can hope that you, Americans, can see what wrong has been done — and avoid doing the same mistake again. You have been badly advised by your media and your successive leadership. It's time to stop thinking in terms of being exceptional and of being better than everyone else — while kicking other nations in the nuts, such as Russia and China, for not being what you want them to be. I've got news for you. They never will. And your behaviour only encourage their resentment towards you. So, start being kinder to other countries without pushing for regime change because you don't like their leaders or system.

Look, you appear hypocritical when you're not even demanding that a country such as Saudi Arabia (which is not country but a fiefdom), change its dreadful record on human rights, because a) it's not a socialist outfit and b) because you want their friendship to bash the other other guy Iran. Your leadership is thus perverse and you should know it. Ease up, man...

 

 

 

BY Vladimir Terekhov

 

In early August, the mutual maneuvering of the world’s leading powers in the Southeast Asian sub-region continues. Their main participants are the United States and China, who are increasingly drawn into a struggle for the minds and hearts of people living in Southeast Asia. For the dominant influence on individual countries and the regional Association of Southeast Asian Nations formed by China on the whole.

It should be noted that the original image of ASEAN does not correspond to the idea of an economic association of states, let alone a military-political one, bound by some joint commitments. For example, the EU, whose main area of activity is the organization of economic cooperation among the European countries of the Union. Yet, claiming to be the political representation of Europeans on the international scene.

Both of these components are also present in ASEAN but much less pronounced, even if in a “blurred” form. Suffice to say that intra-ASEAN trade cannot go beyond one-third of its total volume, despite ambitious decisions made in the past. In the EU, this figure is about 75%. ASEAN is not even close to having a bureaucratic machine of the magnitude housed in the EU capital Brussels.

This does not mean that this regional association and its ten member countries in Southeast Asia are of secondary importance in contemporary political processes. This is evidenced by the increasingly frequent visits to the region by statesmen of various levels from the world’s leading players. Touring the countries of Southeast Asia, their representatives more and more resemble a race against specific athletes. It’s time to open a new Olympic discipline, “Southeast Asian Road Running.” And there is a reason to “run” because the prize is, again, control of one of the key areas of the world’s gaming table.

Note that this regional association itself provides an abundance of competition venues. There are annual forums with each of the top players. There is the ASEAN+3 format, in which a trio of leading Asian countries represented by the PRC, Japan, and the Republic of Korea are the interlocutors of the association. Several ASEAN member countries share the common problem of using the waters of the Mekong, which is truly a river of life.

So each of the world’s significant “athletes” has a place to show their worth in response to the call from ASEAN: “Go ahead, gentlemen comrades.” And “they do go for it.” Both “gentlemen” and “comrades.”

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has just probed the prospects for relations with three important ASEAN members (Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines). Two days after his departure from the region, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken joined in the same direction. From August 2-6, he held as many as five videoconferences with colleagues from ASEAN, using most of the platforms offered by the association.

On the eve of these events, the State Department circulated an announcement which, first, once again confirmed the “central role” of ASEAN in the development of US relations with the countries of the region and, second, listed the main topics of the upcoming talks. These included the problems of combating the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change, ensuring freedom of the seas, and the workability of existing international acts in this area. Mentioned, of course, was “Burma” (an ASEAN member that has long been called Myanmar), where a military coup took place in early February of this year.

The Department of State’s announcement of the US-ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ videoconference agenda drew attention to the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) mentioned by Antony Blinken, a program sponsored by the US government and operating since 2013. This program is implemented in cooperation with Fulbright University Vietnam.

The Ho Chi Minh City-based university was established in 2016 with the support of the US and Vietnamese governments. It is so far the only institution of its kind among about 80 others operating under the so-called Fulbright program outside the United States. This once again demonstrates the special role that the US leadership assigns to Vietnam among the other ASEAN member countries.

On August 6, Antony Blinken attended the 28th ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) session, a ministerial-level platform where various aspects of strategic stability and security issues are discussed. The ARF, which has been in operation since 1994, is one of the most representative platforms created based on ASEAN. This forum is currently attended by 26 countries plus the EU foreign policy agency.

During his speech on this platform, Antony Blinken, among other things, voiced the entire set of claims to the main geopolitical opponent in Beijing, which has been established by now in Washington. Reference was made to “provocative behavior in the South China Sea, … human rights abuses in Tibet, Hong Kong, and Xinjiang.

As a novelty, the US Secretary of State expressed “deep concern over the rapid growth of China’s nuclear arsenal. Although a year earlier, the US Department of Defense had already spoken on this topic in its annual report to Congress on the topic of the PRC’s military buildup.

At the same forum, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who also confirmed the “central role of ASEAN” in the region, refrained (unlike his American colleague) from being too specific in designating the source of problems in Southeast Asia. But of course, there was no doubt what was meant when it spoke of “certain major powers outside the region” that try to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, promote new regional strategies or creating bloc confrontation through military threats. It was just as clear to whom the statement about the inadmissibility of the involvement of external players in the events unfolding in Myanmar was addressed.

Addressing the PRC+ASEAN platform, Wang Yi pointed to the signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) last November as a significant achievement in bilateral trade and economic relations. It is indeed an essential tool of China in implementing its own course in Southeast Asia and the entire Indo-Pacific region. The fact of participation in the RCEP is also a significant advantage for Beijing in competition with “extra-regional” Washington for influence on the situation in Southeast Asia.

The Chinese foreign minister also touched upon one of the most sensitive issues in its southern neighbors, caused by a set of problems arising from the territorial disputes in the South Caucasus. For almost two decades, the parties have worked to develop a binding document (Code of Conduct, CoC) regarding their “behavior” in the South China Sea that would prevent unnecessary incidents from occurring. According to Wang Yi, “consultation on the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC) has maintained momentum”. That’s good.

The videoconference at the aforementioned ASEAN+3 site was no less challenging. The problems in this political “quadrilateral” are mainly due to difficulties on all (let us stress this) sides of the “triangular” ASEAN partner. This, in particular, does not allow the long-standing project of creating a trilateral, with the participation of China, Japan, and South Korea, a Free Trade Zone to be implemented.

Although, judging by the contents of Wang Yi’s and Foreign Minister of Japan Toshimitsu Motegi’s speeches, the assessments of the situation in the region, as well as approaches to solving the emerging problems, are pretty similar. Naturally, both ministers avoided polemics on rather unpleasant aspects of bilateral relations. For example, those stemming from the disputes over the ownership of the Senkaku / Diaoyudao Islands, different attitudes towards the Taiwan issue, the evident and comprehensive competition in the same Southeast Asia.

On the whole, the author’s impression of the most general plan from the events just held with “central” ASEAN participation can be expressed in (almost) classic terms: “The South China Sea is restless.” This is evidenced by the increasing military activity in the South China Sea by both the United States and the PRC, which some of the European filibusters rush to join to. It is unclear why.

The only thing that can be said with certainty in this regard relates to another observation of the growing importance of this subregion at the present stage of the “Great World Game.” This, in particular, is evidenced by the increasingly intense races in the Southeast Asian region of the world’s top “athletes.”

 

Vladimir Terekhov, expert on the issues of the Asia-Pacific region, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

 

Read more: https://journal-neo.org/2021/08/25/the-struggle-for-influence-in-southeast-asia-continues/

 

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See also: 

cackling diplomacy...

 

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free assange, president biden...

 

Former U.S. Army Green Beret and Central Intelligence Agency liaison officer Jerry Torres appeared on the Sara Carter Show Monday to warn that the cutting edge weapons left behind and Biden’s failed evacuation has emboldened America’s enemies. 

First, Torres noted that the botched withdrawal not only affected hundreds of thousands in Afghanistan, but he also warned it is a direct national security concern for the United States.

 

Torres deployed to Afghanistan as an International Narcotics and Law Enforcement officer months after the U.S. first entered Afghanistan. He has contacts there in the country that he’s afraid are still stranded there. “There are American citizens or SIV (Special Immigrant Visa) holders that are way out in the areas that nobody’s really concentrating on, and they can’t get into Kabul,” Torres said. Specifically, he hasn’t heard from five linguists he worked with since the evacuations began and ended. Last he heard they were far from Kabul. 

Not only does Torres worry about the people left behind, but also the military weaponry. “Here’s the thing about that equipment, you know, the equipment are going to Chinese,” Torres told Carter. “The equipment is one thing, but the code behind it, the computer programming code behind that stuff, is what the Chinese and the Russians need to catch up with us.”

“But we see the Chinese government, the CCP extending its tentacles across the globe in a way that we have never seen before,” Carter said. “I mean, literally, I think our national security is at stake.”

 

Meanwhile, the Taliban utilized the rest of the weaponry left behind to fight the Panjshir province. The province is the last of the strongholds of the resistance effort. Over 64,000 machine guns, 350,000 assault rifles and 126,000 pistols fell to the hands of the Taliban.

 

Read more: https://saraacarter.com/retired-green-beret-says-cutting-edge-weapons-left-behind-in-afghanistan-are-blueprints-for-the-chinese/

 

GusNote:

In some area of weaponry, such as hypersonic vectors, lasers, etc, the Chinese and the Russians are way ahead of the US already... The Russian S300, S400 and S500 defence systems are far superior to the "star wars" US patriot system... That is why the Turks have bought S400 from Russia... But they have not been deployed yet. This is one weapon system that is designed NOT TO BE REVERSED ENGINEERED due to the radar and tracking system encryption self-destroying ability should one tries to even "look at them"... Only Russian engineers can do maintenance and update.

 

 

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