Daily Archives: August 24, 2020

2020-08-24: News Headlines

Richard D. Wolff (2020-08-24). Socialist or Capitalist: What is China's Model, Exactly? counterpunch.org Near the end of his life Lenin gave a speech that referred to the USSR as a transitional society. He explained that socialists had taken state power and could thereby take…

Pepe Escobar (2020-08-24). Everything going according to plan in China. thealtworld.com Let's start with the story of an incredibly disappearing summit. | Every August the Chinese Communist Party's leadership converges upon the town of Beidaihe, a seaside resort two hours away from Beijing, to discuss serious policies that then coalesce into key planning strategies to be approved at the CCP Central Committee plenary session in October. | The Beidaihe ritual was established by none other than the Great Helmsman. Mao Zedong couldn't help loving a town where Emperor Qin, unifier of China in the 3rd century BC, had kept a palace. | As 2020 is so far a notorious Year of Living Dangerously, there's no sur…

Yanis Iqbal (2020-08-24). USA's Militarization of Latin America. dissidentvoice.org Maj. Gen. Andrew Croft, the commander of 12th Air Force, wrote on 22 August: "I have seen an increasingly contested strategic space where Beijing and Moscow are aggressively investing time and resources in Latin America to support their authoritarian models of governance. The Air Force must reinforce the strength of our longstanding commitment to the …

sputniknews (2020-08-24). 'China Owns Joe Biden': Trump Warns Beijing Hatching Plan to Meddle in November Polls. sputniknews.com After the US Democratic Convention officially nominated former vice-president Joe Biden to take on Donald Trump in the November election, Trump is reportedly set to travel to Charlotte, North Carolina on Monday to attend in person as delegates to the Republican National Convention renominate him for US president.

yenisafak (2020-08-24). China supports TikTok's legal battle against US. yenisafak.com China Monday put its weight behind social media app TikTok's move to mount a legal case against the US government. | Addressing a news conference in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said: "US politicians' attempts to kill Chinese firms such as TikTok, WeChat, and Huawei by forcibly putting ideological labels on them under the guise of national security show they are full of lies and slander; their nature is to bully the market through deception." | Zhao, however, said the Chinese government supports the companies' "decisions to take up legal weapons in order to safeguard their legitimate ri…

Alan Macleod (2020-08-24). New Survey Highlights Effectiveness of Anti-China COVID Rhetoric. mintpressnews.com A

yenisafak (2020-08-24). Hong Kong documents man twice infected by COVID-19. yenisafak.com Researchers in Hong Kong Monday claimed to have proved that a man was infected by COVID-19 for a second time after having recovered from the illness. | It is the first such case documented by a team of researchers at the University of Hong Kong. The man, 33, an IT worker, recovered from coronavirus and later was released from hospital in April, according to rthk.com. However, he again tested positive for the virus when he returned from Spain the following month. | According to the university research team, the "genetic sequencing showed the virus strains contracted by him in April and August were clearly differen…

Anya Parampil (2020-08-24). US "left" aligns with State Department on China Cold War. thegrayzone.com Red Lines host Anya Parampil talks to Danny Haiphong, a Contributor at the Black Agenda Report, about why some US leftwing media outlets repeat State Department talking points when it comes to China. Danny also dispels some of the most common talking points, including "China is capitalist" and "China has imperialist ambitions".

_____ (2020-08-24). U.S. Govt-Funded Coda Story Smears American Journalists Who Undermine New Cold War Propaganda. strategic-culture.org With backing from the US government's regime-change arm, an Operation Mockingbird-style website called Coda Story is attacking American journalists who have punctured Washington's sensationalist narratives against China. | Ben NORTON | A shadowy neoconservative website called Coda Story has launched a smear campaign against American journalists who challenge new cold war propaganda. But what this publication has not disclosed is that it is funded by the US government, backed by the European Union, linked to the NATO war alliance, and part of a larger network of regime-change outfits that are bankrolled by Western…

Prof. Juan Cole (2020-08-24). Trump Walks Alone: Former US Allies Britain, France, Germany Join Russia and China in Forcefully Rejecting Trump Iran Sanctions. globalresearch.ca

RT (2020-08-24). 'Indoctrination': Republicans reveal plan to 'teach American exceptionalism' if Trump re-elected, critics slam idea's bankruptcy. rt.com President Donald Trump's second term agenda includes a list of 50 points covering a variety of topics, but the goal to "teach American exceptionalism" has his critics especially outraged. | In a bullet-point press release put out just before the Republican National Convention, where Trump will officially accept his party's nomination, education is actually the least focused with only two goals, compared to the many that accompany other areas like "Drain the Swamp" and "End Our Reliance on China." | The two points that will be the administration's objectives for education are: "provide school choice to every ch…

RT (2020-08-24). NASA researcher arrested by FBI for conspiracy & wire fraud over links to China. rt.com A Texas A&M University professor and NASA researcher has been charged with conspiracy and accused of collaborating with several Chinese entities, while his grant explicitly prohibited him from doing so. | Zhengdong Cheng, a professor in the College of Engineering at Texas A&M who also worked on projects for NASA, was arrested by the FBI over the weekend, the Department of Justice said Monday. | #HouNews #Breaking pic.twitter.com/PbdwaJ2SjI— FBI Houston (@FBIHouston) Stephen Lendman (2020-08-24). Growing US Isolation on the World Stage. globalresearch.ca Russia's Sergey Lavrov is right about hegemon USA, saying the following on Saturday: | The Trump regime's "intention is to do everything possible in order not to be bound by any international multilateral obligations," adding: | "When the US decides that China …

Dr. Chandra Muzaffar (2020-08-24). China and the Decline of US Power. globalresearch.ca Constant attacks by some US elites on China will, according to some observers, diminish and disappear once the US presidential election is over in November 2020. | This is unlikely to happen for at least two reasons. One, the issues that …

wionews (2020-08-24). President No More? US Moves to Ban Chinese Leader Xi Jinping's Title. globalresearch.ca US lawmakers have introduced a bill to change the way the federal government refers to the leader of China. | The 'Name the Enemy Act' would require that official US government documents instead refer to the head of state according to …

yenisafak (2020-08-24). China will step up technology innovation to drive growth, says President Xi. yenisafak.com China will step up technology innovation to drive high-quality growth through mobilising national resources and bringing in world class research teams, President Xi Jinping said on Monday, according to the state TV.China will further open up its economy and actively take part in reforming the global economic governance to push for a more equal and reasonable system of governance, Xi told a seminar of economists and scholars, China Central Television reported.

Tony Cartalucci (2020-08-23). Washington's Role in Thailand's "Student Protests", Destabilize Thailand, Undermine Thai-Chinese Relations. globalresearch.ca Virtually every aspect of "student protests" in Thailand are funded and backed by the US and aimed at destabilizing a key partner of China, reversing Thai-Chinese relations, and advancing Washington's Beijing containment policy. | Thailand is a key partner of China's …

Samir Amin (2020-08-23). Samir Amin: Marx and Living Marxism are More Relevant Today than Ever. mronline.org On 7 May 2018, Professor Samir Amin gave a lecture entitled "Marx and Living Marxism are More Relevant Today Than Ever" at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.

F. William Engdahl (2020-08-23). Towards a US-China War? The Creation of a Global Totalitarian System, A "One World Government"? globalresearch.ca The dominant dynamic defining world geopolitics is the appearance of a genuine irregular conflict between the 2 most formidable powers on the planet: China & the US. Only this time the aim is a universal totalitarian system. David Rockefeller called it a "one world government."

Richard Falk (2020-08-23). Nuclear Complacency and the Dangerous Drift Toward a New Cold War with China. zcomm.org For relations among states having nuclear weaponry, stability is achieved by relying on various forms of deterrence combined with the implementation of the nuclear apartheid regime…

sputniknews (2020-08-22). Photo: China's Final Type 055 Destroyer Spotted Preparing for Possible Launch. sputniknews.com New reports from Chinese social media platforms Weibo and WeChat reveal that Beijing's eighth and final Type 055 destroyer may be ready for launch soon, as the stealth guided-missile destroyer was spotted receiving a new paint job at a Dalian shipyard.

Anthony Cartalucci (2020-08-22). US Smears Those Questioning Latest Claims vs. China. thealtworld.com The Coda Story — a media front funded and created by and for the US government, its "Atlanticist" partners, and the corporate interests driving the vast majority of Western foreign policy — recently ran a smear against alternative media figures questioning the US-led "Uyghur-Xinjiang" narrative. | The smear is part of a wider campaign aimed at anyone questioning Washington's Uyghur-Xinjiang narrative and the US' attempt to use it to undermine China. | These smears follow a very specific playbook. Step one — deny there is a terrorism problem in Xinjiang, China. Step two — cite reports based ent…

Conn Hallinan (2020-08-22). China & the US: 21st Century's "Great Game" zcomm.org The U.S. has dominated the Pacific Ocean—sometimes called an "American lake"—since the end of World War II. Suddenly Americans have a competitor, although it is a rivalry that routinely gets overblown.

WSWS (2020-08-22). The Biden campaign and the attempt to "rescue" American hegemony. wsws.org The factions of the state backing the Biden campaign have set out to "reclaim America's place in the world" by "getting tough" with Russia and China.

_____ (2020-08-22). China and the U.S.: The 21st Century's 'Great Game'. strategic-culture.org Conn M. HALLINAN | From 1830 to 1895, the British and Russian empires schemed and plotted over control of Central and South Asia. At the heart of the "Great Game" was England's certainty that the Russians had designs on India. So wars were fought, borders drawn, and generations of young met death in desolate passes and lonely outposts. | In the end, it was all illusion. Russia never planned to challenge British rule in India and the bloody wars settled nothing, although the arbitrary borders and ethnic tensions stoked by colonialism's strategy of divide and conquer live on today. Thus China, India, Pakistan, Afgh…

RT (2020-08-21). US ready 'to block Russia & China' if they disregard Iran sanctions, Pompeo warns, as Washington pushes for UN 'snapback'. rt.com Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday that the United States is prepared to block Russia and China if they refuse to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran. | The statement came a day after Britain, France and Germany — who are still party to the Iranian nuclear agreement — joined Beijing and Moscow in Speaking to Fox News, Pompeo said Washington was disappointed its allies did not support the US effort to trigger a "snapback" of U…

RT (2020-08-21). Philippines mounts diplomatic protest over China's seizure of fishing equipment in ongoing row over disputed shoal. rt.com The Philippines foreign ministry has accused China's coastguard of illegally seizing fishing equipment near a disputed shoal in the South China Sea. The move has sparked a fresh row with Beijing. | Manila lodged a diplomatic protest on Friday over the "illegal confiscation" in May of floating devices used to catch fish. The ministry also "resolutely objected" to China issuing radio challenges to Philippines aircraft conducting maritime patrols in areas of the sea claimed by Manila, AFP reported. | Beijing said the coastguard's actions "are understandable" as they carried out law enforcement activities. China's…

Juan Cole (2020-08-21). Former US Allies Britain, France, Germany join Russia and China in Forcefully Rejecting Trump Iran Sanctions. commondreams.org The "Trump administration is perfectly capable of maintaining publicly that international UNSC sanctions on Iran have been restored even if no one goes along with Washington," writes Cole. (Photo: Brendan Smialowski / AFP) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/trump_alone.jpg

Conn Hallinan (2020-08-21). China and the US: the 21st Century's "Great Game" counterpunch.org From 1830 to 1895, the British and Russian empires schemed and plotted over control of Central and South Asia. At the heart of the "Great Game" was England's certainty that the Russians had designs on India. So wars were fought, borders drawn, and generations of young met death in desolate passes and lonely outposts. In

Peoples Dispatch (2020-08-21). How does China plan to counter US sanctions? peoplesdispatch.org In the second part of the conversation on the US tech war on China, Charles Xu from Qiao Collective talks about the short and medium-term strategy of Huawei and China in general to deal with the US sanctions.

_____ (2020-08-21). Whose Century Is It? Don't Ask Donald Trump. strategic-culture.org Dilip HIRO | For the Trump administration's senior officials, it's been open season on bashing China. If you need an example, think of the president's blame game about " When it comes to China, in fact, the ever more virulent criticism never seems to stop. | Between the end of June and the end of July, four members of his cabinet vied with each other in spewing anti-Ch…

Andrew Korybko (2020-08-20). The Geopolitics Of The Belarusian Crisis: Anti-Russian, Neutral To China, Pro-Polish. thealtworld.com The Belarusian Crisis is an American Hybrid War against Russian interests in support of Poland's US-backed regional ones related to the "Three Seas Initiative", which won't harm China's interests even in the worst-case scenario despite Beijing's plans for the Eurasian Land Bridge to transit through the Color Revolution-beleaguered former Soviet Republic since the People's Republic has already pioneered several complementary East-West corridors that it could rely on instead. | Geopolitical Basics | The "

Dilip Hiro (2020-08-20). Donald Trump is Losing His Tech War with China and Doesn't Even Know It. counterpunch.org For the Trump administration's senior officials, it's been open season on bashing China. If you need an example, think of the president's blame game about "the invisible Chinese virus" as it spreads wildly across the U.S. When it comes to China, in fact, the ever more virulent criticism never seems to stop. Between the end

Peoples Dispatch (2020-08-20). What's behind the US attack on China's tech sector. peoplesdispatch.org Charles Xu of the Qiao Collective talks about the context behind the US assault on China's technological sector, especially Huawei. He talks about the strategies of development deployed by China over the past few decades…

Mehr News Agency (2020-08-20). No right for US to request snapback of UN sanctions on Iran. en.mehrnews.com TEHRAN, Aug. 20 (MNA) — China says the US has no right to request snapback of UN sanctions on Iran after pulling out from the JCPOA.