Chinese ‘disinformation’ and US propaganda

By Joshua Cho

In Western media’s latest anti-China crusade, unsubstantiated allegations of a Chinese disinformation campaign – which the reports themselves admit have had little engagement on social media, and nonexistent impact offline – supposedly represent a very serious threat to the US.

Another case of China using sea to hide its submarines

2015 claim

ON September 13, the US Naval Institute’s Proceedings published a hair-raising account from its Malaysian correspondent of a submerged submarine “believed to be Chinese” off the coast of Japan.

“The Japanese Ministry of Defense detected a Chinese submarine operating in the contiguous zone of Japan’s southern islands, they announced in a Sept. 12 press release, and the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) air and naval units are maintaining surveillance on the submarine.”

Anti-China motion in the House of Commons: ‘Yellow Peril’ hysteria all over again

The House of Commons is addressing a motion that exudes hostility towards the People’s Republic of China. It is, again, the racist, colonialist approach which, at the turn of the 20th century, accused people from Asia of constituting a “Yellow Peril.” | PAULINE EASTON

This is a despicable racist and xenophobic image published by Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc., depicting Chinese Canadians as puppets who are secretly infiltrating Canadian society: “The UFWD (United Front Work Department) attempts to utilize Chinese diaspora groups for Beijing’s strategic policies, CSIS says.” Sam Cooper, April 30, 2020

The House of Commons is addressing a motion that exudes hostility towards the People’s Republic of China. The cartel parties are espousing the ill-advised cause of opposing alleged Chinese attempts to undermine Canada’s “democratic institutions.” In the name of “eliminating foreign interference in Canada’s political process” the resolution will criminalize Canadians and permanent residents of Chinese national origin and generally foment a hysterical racist anti-Chinese climate. It is, again, the racist, colonialist approach which, at the turn of the 20th century, accused people from Asia of constituting a “Yellow Peril.” A dictionary definition describes “Yellow Peril” as the power or alleged power of Asiatic peoples “to threaten or destroy the supremacy of White or Western civilization.”[1]

Coronavirus alarm blends Yellow Peril and Red Scare

Gothamist photo (1/31/20) of Asian Americans wearing surgical masks, illustrating a story about the absence of coronavirus (at that point) in New York City.

By JOSHUA CHO

As an Asian-American, I’m not surprised that there are numerous reports surfacing of racist and xenophobic responses arising in the US (and elsewhere) as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, where “coughing while Asian” is being compared to “driving while black.” In case there are any doubts that media coverage is being racialized, reports about new coronavirus updates in the US, particularly in areas like New York City, are using unrelated header images of East Asian people wearing face masks to drive the impression that Chinese people are unique carriers of disease, even when they aren’t Chinese.

What Canada is up to at the UN

The appointment of the tried and true point man of the Anglo-Canadian state, Bob Rae, as Canada’s Ambassador to the United Nations is for purposes of achieving nefarious aims.

By Steve Rutchinski and Philip Fernandez

Canada is up to no good at the United Nations where it is very active in promoting imperialist definitions of rights and cajoling countries to adopt those definitions of rights under threat of retaliation by imperialist financial, military and political institutions. Canada’s aim is to push through a restructuring in the field of  international relations in a manner which serves U.S. imperialist interests.

Halifax International Security Forum: Warmongering insecurity forum hatches plots against the peoples

Canadians are demanding that Canada get out of NATO and NORAD as the very basis for a new direction for foreign relations, and for an economy founded in self-reliance and public enterprise to guarantee the rights of all.

First of a series

The German Bundeswehr’s next area of operation

The German Government plans to increase military operations in the “Indo-Pacific” in the strategic competition with China.

Poster from anti-NATO rally in Munich, February 18, 2017

BERLIN/CANBERRA (german-foreign-policy.com) – The German government plans to send a frigate for patrol in the Indian Ocean and to deploy German naval officers on Australian warships, announced German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer on the occasion of her talks with her Australian counterpart. A training expedition of the frigate Hamburg to the Indian Ocean was originally planned for this year but had to be cancelled due to the pandemic.

Research notes: The militarized Atlantic – From Norfolk and Halifax to the Irish and Baltic seas

Work in progress by Tony Seed

A report conducted by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) – published in July – found that the two vessels came within 50-100 metres of each other during the horrific incident on November 6, 2018. The investigation revealed that it was the third time in four years that a submerged Royal Navy submarine had narrowly missed a calamitous collision with another vessel.

NATO setting sights on East Asia

The military bloc is assuming a stronger posture in relationship to China. US experts call for NATO operations in the Pacific | german-foreign-policy.com

Rimpac (Rim of the Pacific) to be held August 17-31 is the largest naval exercise in the world. Canadian navy is sending HMCS Winnipeg along with HMCS_NCSMRegina for its 27th participation.

BERLIN/WASHINGTON (June 19) – NATO should systematically expand its military exercises and operations into the Asia-Pacific region, an expert of Washington’s Atlantic Council think tank proposes in the intensifying debate on the posture the western war alliance should assume in relationship to the People’s Republic of China. China’s “presence in the Arctic, in Africa and in the Mediterranean” calls for a response, according to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

Why it’s wrong (and racist) to blame Covid-19 on Chinese ‘wet markets’

New York Times depiction (1/25/20) of a wet market in Shenzhen, which is 680 miles from Wuhan | Lam Yik Fei/New York Times

By JOSHUA CHO

What Chinese doctors learned about the prevention and detection of COVID-19 from their experience in Wuhan

We are posting an interview with Wang Zhou, MD by Salon.com. Dr. Wang is one of the authors of the Handbook of Prevention and Control of COVID-19, published in China on their experience dealing with COVID-19. The introduction to the interview explains that frontline doctors in China assembled a comprehensive guide of what they observed about COVID-19 in Wuhan.

China bolsters global effort to combat coronavirus

International Cooperation to Help Countries Cope

Chinese and Cuban doctors arrive in Italy to help treat COVID-19 pandemic.

Assistance to Italy and Other EU Countries

On March 12, a group of nine Chinese aid professionals arrived in Rome with tons of medical supplies, including 700 ventilators, monitors and defibrillators, as part of China’s efforts to help Italy contain the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Oppose attempts to render the population passive in the face of pandemic

A lot of media coverage and official statements in the U.S., as well as from certain quarters in Canada, are focused on bad-mouthing China as a dictatorship which violates human rights. This is intended to divert from the fundamental point that China is defending every life – the most essential human right. The relentless campaign against China in relation to the outbreak of the virus goes so far as to say that 5G platforms and cell phone systems are used “to spy” on people.

NATO Summit: Rearmament despite dissension

NATO increases operational readiness and targets China

BERLIN/BRUSSELS (german-policy-com) – In spite of fierce internal conflicts, NATO is enhancing its operational readiness, is preparing its next expansion and is setting its sights on China as a new “challenge.” These are the main results of the war alliance’s anniversary summit, which ended in London yesterday, with the participation of the heads of states and governments of the member countries. As early as next year, NATO will be able deploy 30 army, air force and naval units in a war within a 30 day maximum. At the London summit, North Macedonia, which is about to join the Alliance, was represented for the first time. In the future, NATO will extensively concern itself with China, however not exclusively confrontational, as Washington would have wanted. The conflict with Turkey did not escalate, even though the dissension between Ankara and various other allied states, by no means, had been resolved. In fact, the Turkish government has implicitly been given a blank check for its heavily criticized activities in the occupation of Northern Syria.

Aggressive trade agenda of the US shakes existing arrangements

The lead article of TML Weekly of June 15 by K C Adams, published on the website of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), focuses on the inter-imperialist collusion and contention of competing sections of the global financial oligarchy. In Canada, this is reflected in the conflicts surrounding the Canada US Mexico Trade Agreement (CUSMA). This collusion and contention posits the very grave danger of an inter-imperialist world war involving the militaries of the big powers.

Germany, Huawei and the economic war

BERLIN/BEIJING/WASHINGTON (german-foreign-policy.com) – Infineon is the first German company to be caught between the firing lines of the US economic war against China. Yesterday, the Trump administration began to enforce the implementation of its boycott against the Chinese Huawei telecommunication group that it had announced just last Wednesday. The US government seeks to ruin one of China’s major companies, Huawei, to prevent the continued rise of People’s Republic.

Europe’s ‘geopolitical identity’

MUNICH Feb. 18 (german-foreign-policy.com) – At the Munich Security Conference last weekend, the power struggle between Berlin and Washington openly escalated to an unprecedented level. US Vice President Mike Pence reiterated his ultimatum that Berlin and the EU immediately renounce their political and economic projects, which are not fully in accord with US policy, pertaining particularly to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and the Iran nuclear deal.

Five Eyes: The battle against Huawei

BERLIN/WASHINGTON/BEIJING (german-foreign-policy.com) – In the dispute over boycotting the Chinese Huawei corporation, the German government is considering joining a campaign of the “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing network, it was reported in Canada and Australia. According to the media, intelligence chiefs of the five English-speaking “Five Eyes” countries launched a boycott campaign last July under US leadership.

Germany: The battle over Huawei

BERLIN/WASHINGTON/BEIJING (german-foreign-policy.com) – Strong criticism is coming from Germany’s business community, as the German government prepares to exclude the Chinese company Huawei Technologies from the development of Germany’s 5G network. According to media reports, the government tender for the 5G will be formulated in such a way that Huawei cannot apply. This is based on allegations of espionage by US intelligence services, for which, not a single piece of evidence has been presented anywhere in the world.

Huawei: Legal issues involved in the Canada-US extradition treaty

To inform readers of the legal issues involved in the Canada-U.S. Extradition Treaty as they relate to the case of Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer, TML Weekly  reproduced below an article by Robert J. Currie, published in the Globe and Mail on December 9.

Huawei case: Trudeau Liberal’s mockery of the rule of law

(From a Facebook post of Dec. 13, revised Dec. 24) – Six people appeared in Halifax provincial court on Monday, December 10 to face charges of mischief and obstructing a peace officer, stemming from Sunday night’s protest at the Canada Post mail-processing plant on Almon Street in that city. The real reason they were arrested is that they were protesting the federal government’s criminalization of their rights.

Trips made by China-Europe freight trains surge in 2018

Austrians look at a new China-Europe freight train from Chengdu to Vienna at the Vienna South Freight Center in Vienna, Austria, on April 27, 2018.

China-Europe freight trains made 5,611 trips in the first 11 months of 2018, surging 72 per cent compared with the same period last year, according to a meeting held in southwest China’s Sichuan Province.

For your information: NAFTA becomes USMCA

The supranational oligopolies that control the economies of North America and seek global hegemony have tightened the screws of their domination over the peoples of the U.S., Mexico and Canada. The changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in becoming the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA) have both strengthened and loosened the rules of international trade on the continent to favour the most powerful oligarchs.

The transatlantic liquefied gas dispute

german-foreign-policy.com (September 28) – German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has once again reaffirmed that the German government insists on continuing with the highly controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Despite persistent pressure from Washington, there will be no interference in the construction of the pipeline – which has long since begun – reiterated Maas at this year’s annual UN General Assembly in New York.

International trade as a weapon of exploitation, chauvinism and war

Necessity for a new direction for international trade | K.C. ADAMS

In March, the U.S. government suddenly announced tariffs on $60 billion worth of Chinese exports to the U.S. and threatened even more. China has now retaliated with tariffs of its own against certain U.S. exports. Whatever the reasoning for these tariffs, the sudden imposition seriously disrupts the working lives of those involved in producing those goods in both China and the U.S. and those using the commodities either as a means of further production or articles of consumption. Modern industrial mass production cannot simply be turned on or off with the flick of a switch without causing widespread pain. This is no way to conduct economic relations among the peoples of the world.

Korea: Peace proposals advocated by China and Russia

Both China and Russia have made public proposals on how peace can be achieved on the Korean Peninsula. Both countries have a direct interest in making sure peace prevails as U.S. war exercises, and preparations to impose a naval blockade, not to mention the possible outbreak of a new Korean war, are all also aimed at them.

On the Beach 2017. ‘The war was over… Was it started by an accident or mistake. There was no victor… ’

The US submarine captain says, “We’ve all got to die one day, some sooner and some later. The trouble always has been that you’re never ready, because you don’t know when it’s coming. Well, now we do know and there’s nothing to be done about it.”

He says he will be dead by September. It will take about a week to die, though no one can be sure. Animals live the longest.

The war was over in a month. The United States, Russia and China were the protagonists. It is not clear if it was started by accident or mistake. There was no victor. The northern hemisphere is contaminated and lifeless now.

This day. The Chinese people have stood up!

The land force of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army marches through Tiananmen Square during the People’s Republic of China’s nation founding day parade on October 1, 1949.

For your information: Opening address by Mao Zedong at the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, September 21, 1949 (excerpts) –

… It is because we have defeated the reactionary Kuomintang government backed by U.S. imperialism that this great unity of the whole people has been achieved. In a little more than three years the heroic Chinese People’s Liberation Army, an army such as the world has seldom seen, crushed all the offensives launched by the several million troops of the U.S.-supported reactionary Kuomintang government and turned to the counter-offensive and the offensive. At present the field armies of the People’s Liberation Army, several million strong, have pushed the war to areas near Taiwan, Kwangtung, Kwangsi, Kweichow, Szechuan and Sinkiang, and the great majority of the Chinese people have won liberation. In a little more than three years the people of the whole country have closed their ranks, rallied to support the People’s Liberation Army, fought the enemy and won basic victory. And it is on this foundation that the present People’s Political Consultative Conference is convened. […]

China home to 60 per cent of world’s high-speed rail

Pictured is a high-speed train connecting Datong, Shanxi Province to Xi’an,Shaanxi Province during a trial run at Yongji North Station | people.cn

By Zhang Mengxu (People’s Daily)

Despite the continuous queries of foreign media on China’s high-speed railway cooperation with neighbouring countries, the nation’s improved technology has earned China-made equipment more global recognition. Data shows that China is now home to more than 60 per cent of the world’s high-speed railways (HSR).

New York Times deploys to Nepal

America’s disaster diplomacy, geo-strategic interests and “soft power”

“First comes the missionary, then the soldier,” was an old maxim borne out by the bitter experience of a century of bloody colonial conquest in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

By BILL VAN AUKEN

The missionaries are still at it, particularly in lands where souls can be bought most cheaply, but they hardly play the role allotted to them in the 19th century. A more modern version of this same epigram—better suited to the ongoing militarist drive by US imperialism for global domination—might substitute for missionary, “the man from the Times.”