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Media’s Lab Leak Theorists See Spies, Not Scientists, As Arbiters Of Science

The Wall Street Journal (2/26/23) broke the news that classified documents show the US Energy Department believes Covid emerged from a lab leak in China, which sent shockwaves through the rest of the media. Such a statement by the Energy Department  “would be significant despite the fact that, as the report said, the agency made its updated judgment with ‘low confidence,’” according to the Guardian (2/26/23). “Low confidence” is a term intelligence agencies use to signify that “information’s credibility and/or plausibility is questionable, or that the information is too fragmented or poorly corroborated to make solid analytic inferences, or that we have significant concerns or problems with the sources.”

US Push To Strip China’s Developing Country Status

On March 28, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the "PRC Is Not a Developing Country Act" by a unanimous vote of 415-0 in yet another demonstration of the solid bipartisanship that exists in the United States when it comes to containing and isolating China. Under the terms of the bill, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken would be directed to seek the removal of China's status as a developing country from international organizations and institutions. The United Nations, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank all recognize China as a developing country for good reason. China's GDP per capita, while rising, is $12,700 or about five times smaller than the U.S.'s.

Protesters Gather As Kevin McCarthy Meets With Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-Wen

On April 5th at 10 am protesters from the Chinese community, Pivot to Peace, CODEPINK, the ANSWER Coalition and other communities gathered at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, CA  as U.S. Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy and other politicians met with Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-Wen. In the final stop of her Americas tour, Tsai’s meeting with McCarthy signals yet another provocation on U.S.-China relations. This comes just months after McCarthy’s predecessor, Nancy Pelosi deliberately violated the “One China Policy” agreed upon in the joint U.S.-China Shanghai Communique by visiting Taiwan.

House Speaker McCarthy Meets Taiwan’s President Tsai In California

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in California on Wednesday, marking the highest level meeting between US and Taiwanese officials since the previous House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, visited Taipei in August 2022. The meeting is historic and risks provoking a major Chinese response as it makes McCarthy the highest-level US official to host a Taiwanese leader on US soil since Washington severed diplomatic relations with Taipei in 1979 to open up with Beijing. China has warned strongly against the plans and launched a naval patrol in the Taiwan Strait ahead of the meeting. At this point, it’s not clear how far China’s military response will go.

How The Global South Has Risen In The Face Of US Sabotage

Ajamu Baraka is a former U.S. Green Party vice-presidential candidate, a longstanding political activist, and a spokesperson for the Black Alliance for Peace. He joins Lee Camp this week for an interview with “Behind the Headlines.” China’s rise, U.S. meddling worldwide, international resistance to Western domination, and much more are covered in the hour. “It would be unbelievable just a few years ago to see that the Chinese are able to broker an agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia, that countries in Latin America would actually openly criticize U.S. policies,” Baraka said, discussing signs that global power is shifting away from U.S. hegemony.

The Happiness Of Others

George Burchett, an excellent painter and publisher of the People’s Information Bureau from his home base in Hanoi, sent me an interesting item the other day. It was a piece by Alex Lo, the iconoclastic columnist at the South China Morning Post, under the headline, “Contrary to Western myth, the Chinese are a rather jolly bunch.” Lo cites two recent surveys indicating that, as his editors put it in the headline, Westerners have it all wrong when they assume, on the basis of official propaganda and incessant media reports, that the People’s Republic is a nation of 1.4 billion miserable, suffering, suppressed and repressed people under the authoritarian leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and the dictatorial Xi Jinping.

Tiktok On Trial: The Latest Front In The US Tech War On China

On March 23, CEO of TikTok Shou Zi Chew testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee addressing concerns over the popular social media app’s data collection practices and parent company ByteDance’s alleged links to the Chinese government. Though TikTok is a subsidiary of ByteDance, which is based in Beijing, it operates as an independent entity. Chew has maintained  the company has never shared user data with the Chinese government, and would refuse if pressed to do so. Still, the Congressional hearings amounted to nothing more than racist political theater, a McCarthyite witch trial, in which members of Congress who demonstrated little understanding of how basic social media algorithms—or even home Wi–Fi networks —work attempted to spuriously link Chew, who was born, raised, and currently lives in Singapore, to the Communist Party of China .

Chinese Currency Displaces Euro In Brazil’s Foreign Reserves

The Chinese currency, referred to as the yuan, surpassed the euro and became the second most important currency of Brazil’s foreign reserves in 2022, according to a report published this Friday by the Central Bank of the South American country. Until 2019, the yuan was virtually absent from Brazil’s foreign exchange reserves. However, by the end of 2022, the Chinese currency came to represent 5.37% of the holdings of the Brazilian Central Bank, surpassing the 4.74% share of the euro. In 2021 the share of the yuan constituted 4.99% and that of the euro 5.04%. Meanwhile, the US dollar continues to dominate, holding 80.42% of total foreign exchange reserves in Brazil’s Central Bank, which is currently being questioned by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Warmongers In Congress Use Tik-Tok To Justify Aggression Towards China

Last Thursday, a Congressional hearing took place where the TikTok CEO was grilled for five hours on the grounds of “security concerns.” This was days after the FBI and DOJ launched an investigation on the Chinese-owned American company. Isn’t it ironic that while the US government is putting TikTok under the magnifying glass, it’s turning a blind eye to its own surveillance programs on the American people? Ten years ago, Edward Snowden told the whole world the truth about the US global surveillance programs. If Congress cares about our digital privacy, it should first begin by investigating the surveillance policies of its own US agencies.

China’s Historical Destiny Is To Stand With The Third World

On 20 March 2023, China’s President Xi Jinping and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin spent over four hours in private conversation. According to official statements after the meeting, the two leaders talked about the increasing economic and strategic partnership between China and Russia – including building the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline – and the Chinese peace initiative for the war in Ukraine. Putin said that ‘many of the provisions of the peace plan put forward by China are consonant with Russian approaches and can be taken as the basis for a peaceful settlement when the West and Kiev are ready for it’.

Saudi Arabia Joins Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

The government of Saudi Arabia decided to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) as a dialogue partner on Wednesday, March 29, making it the third Arab country to do so after Egypt and Qatar. The decision to join the SCO was taken in a cabinet meeting headed by King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA). Saudi Arabia’s dialogue partner status can be converted into full membership of the group in the future. The SCO was established in 2001 with China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan as members. It is the successor of the Shanghai Five group. Later, India and Pakistan also became full members of the the political and strategic grouping, and Iran is set to join by the end of this year.

Yemenis Mark Eight Years Of Disastrous War Amid Hopes Of Peace

Thousands took to the streets across major Yemeni cities including Sanaa, Sa’ada, and Taiz on Sunday, March 26, to mark the eighth anniversary of the beginning of the Saudi-led aggression in the country. The protesters reiterated their demand for an end to the aggression and the lifting of the blockade on the country. The leaders of the Houthi movement have called these essential conditions for peace. The National Day of Resilience and Steadfastness, as March 26 is celebrated by the Yemenis, symbolizes their resolve amid the large-scale destruction caused by the Saudi-led coalition’s airstrikes and blockade.

Sergey Lavrov: Russian Diplomacy In A Changing World

We live at a time of historic geopolitical shifts. “The change of eras is a painful albeit natural and inevitable process. A future world arrangement is taking shape before our eyes,” President Vladimir Putin said. Today, the emerging multipolarity constitutes a key trend in international affairs, as I have noted on multiple occasions. New centres of power in Eurasia, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America have achieved impressive results in various areas, guided by their commitment to self-reliance, state sovereignty, and their unique cultural and civilisational identities. They have an independent foreign policy, which prioritises their core national interests.

China And Russia Pledge ‘Changes Not Seen In 100 Years’

China’s President Xi Jinping traveled to Russia to meet Vladimir Putin on March 20. While in Moscow, Xi said, “Right now there are changes the likes of which we haven’t seen for 100 years, and we are the ones driving these changes together”. Putin replied, “I agree”. The two leaders discussed plans to deepen economic integration. Both took aim at the hegemony of the US dollar, in particular. “It is important that our national currencies are increasingly used in bilateral trade”, Putin said on March 21. “We should continue promoting settlements in national currencies, and expand the reciprocal presence of financial and banking structures in our countries’ markets”.

Multipolarity Was Triggered By The 2003 US Invasion Of Iraq

On the night of 19-20 March, 2003, the US air force began bombing the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. The EU and NATO were deeply divided on whether to join the aggression: While newer NATO members from Central and Eastern Europe were in favor of the war, European heavyweights Paris and Berlin opposed it. The Iraq war also marked the onset of diplomatic coordination between Moscow and Beijing at the UN Security Council (UNSC). The two countries began in 2003 to apply similar voting patterns in the Council, first on Iraq, then on Libya in 2011, and over Syria in several key votes. That early Russia-China UN coordination has, 20 years later, transformed into a determined joint policy toward “guarding a new world order based on international law.”
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