‘Get Out!’ People In Taiwan Protest Pelosi’s Visit Amid China’s Missile Drill

Countercurrents | August 03, 2022

Tuesday’s protest in Taiwan. Photo: Fan Lingzhi/Global Times

Civic groups, politicians, and business and industry representatives on the island of Taiwan on Tuesday protested against U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit, amid China’s missile drill.

Protest

Media reports said:

The Taipei-based Chinese Patriotic Concentric Association took to the street at a site near the Grand Hyatt hotel in the Xinyi district, where Pelosi was planned to stay. The crowd ranged from a few hundred to about 1,000 people from various civic groups.

Gu Xijun, the vice president of the above group, told the Global Times that the protests and boycotts “will accompany Pelosi wherever she appears in Taiwan.”

Zhang Xiuye, another Taiwan resident who has participated in the rally, told the Global Times that U.S. politicians constantly create cross-Straits tensions and use Taiwan as their ATM.

The Real Global Agenda Pushing for War with China

Cynthia Chung

The Saker Blog | August 02, 2022

“We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow.”

• Henry John Temple, aka Lord Palmerston (Britain’s Prime Minister from 1855-1858, 1859-1865), oversaw Britain’s First Opium War (1839-1842) as Head of Britain’s Foreign Office and the Second Opium War (1856-1860) as Britain’s Prime Minister against China.

Snow is Now Black

Bertrand Russell discussed in his book “The Impact of Science on Society” (1952) that the subject which “will be of most importance politically is mass psychology,” that is, the lens in which an individual views “reality” and “truth.” Russell is very clear, such “convictions” are not generated by the individual themselves but rather are to be shaped by the State.

Of course, individuals are not encouraged to think about an absolute truth or reality, rather they are encouraged to think on a much smaller scale, on individual “facts,” for this is much easier to control and shape and also limits “problematic” thinking such as the ponderance on purpose and intention.

Russell, in his “Impact of Science on Society,” goes on to talk about how one could program a society to think snow is black rather than white:

Historian Eric Zuesse: How CNN lies about Taiwan

Cultivated ambiguity to cover a treacherous policy toward China

The Greanville Post | August 01, 2022

On the morning of 1 August 2022 when U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi — third-in-line for the U.S. Presidency after only Vice President Kamala Harris — was starting her trip through Asia in order to whip up a war between China and America over Taiwan and other issues, CNN headlined on its home page, “What does Taiwan think about the possibility of a visit by Nancy Pelosi?”, and that article opened:

On the morning of 1 August 2022 when U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi — third-in-line for the U.S. Presidency after only Vice President Kamala Harris — was starting her trip through Asia in order to whip up a war between China and America over Taiwan and other issues, CNN headlined on its home page, “What does Taiwan think about the possibility of a visit by Nancy Pelosi?”, and that article opened:

Reports that US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is planning a visit to Taiwan have sparked tense exchanges between the United States and China — and growing speculation over how Beijing might react.

While Pelosi — a forthright critic of Beijing — has so far declined to confirm the reports, she has said it is important for the US to show support for Taiwan, and lawmakers on both sides of Washington’s political divide have urged her to go. China, meanwhile, has lashed out at the idea, vowing to take “resolute and forceful measures” if any trip goes ahead.

Far less vocal, however, has been the island at the center of the controversy.

There has been no statement in favor of, or against, Pelosi’s potential trip from Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen or her office — though Premier Su Tseng-chang said on Wednesday that Taipei was “very grateful to Speaker Pelosi for her strong support and kindness towards Taiwan over the years” and that the island welcomes any friendly guests from overseas.

Analysts say the relative silence is because Taiwan, a democratic self-governed island of 24 million people that China’s ruling Communist Party claims as part of its territory, despite never having controlled it, finds itself in an awkward spot.

Taiwan, they point out, depends on US arms to defend itself against the possibility that China could invade and forcefully take it over — so it does not want to be seen as discouraging support from one of the US’ most powerful politicians.

Ukraine war is losing its sparkle. Where’s the Lady with the Lamp?

M. K. Bhadrakumar

Indian Punchline | August 02, 2022

Cargo ship Razoni carrying 26000 tonnes of maize sailing from Odessa Port toward Bosphorus, Aug 1, 2022 

The Russian Defence Ministry announced yesterday that at around 9.20 a.m. Moscow time, Razoni, ship flying the flag of Sierra Leone, left Odessa port in Ukraine as part of the recent grain deal. Razoni is carrying a cargo of maize to Istanbul port. 

The MOD said the “control of the humanitarian operation for the departure of the first ship carrying agricultural products was planned with the active participation of Russian officers who are part of the Joint Coordination Centre in Istanbul.” 

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said yesterday, “this is a good and important first step” that the first ship with 26-, 27,000 tons of grain sailed out of Odessa.

Proletarian China: A Century of Chinese Labour

Made in China Journal | December 01, 2021

In 2021, the Chinese Communist Party celebrated a century of existence. Since its humble beginnings in the Marxist groups of the Republican era to its current global ambitions, one thing has not changed for the Party: its claim to represent the vanguard of the Chinese working class. History, however, tells a more complex story. Spanning from the night classes for workers organised by student activists in Beijing in the 1910s to the labour struggles during the 1920s and 1930s; from the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution to the social convulsions of the reform era to China’s global reach today, Proletarian China reconstructs the contentious history of labour in China from the late imperial era. Each chapter revolves around a specific historical event, making the volume a mosaic of different voices, perspectives, and interpretations of what being a worker meant, and how it was experienced, in China over the past century.

The book, co-edited by Ivan Franceschini and Christian Sorace, is available for purchase from Verso Books or for free download from our website.

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The Caribbean’s Rapprochement with Venezuela Tests U.S. Hegemony

The Caribbean’s economic difficulties and the ongoing energy crisis have pushed these countries closer to autocratic Venezuela’s sphere of influence

Leonardo Di Bonaventura-Altuve

National Interest | July 23, 2022

On July 5, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), which comprises twelve Anglophone Caribbean states plus Haiti and Suriname, held its forty-third Heads of Government Meeting, the community’s principal political organ. The meeting’s agenda focused on the recurring energy and food crises faced by these small states due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Specifically on the energy front, a unified CARICOM collectively asked for help from authoritarian Venezuela through PetroCaribe, a geo-economic tool created in 2005 by the late President Hugo Chávez to buy CARICOM’s loyalty by financing participants’ oil imports and increasing intra-bloc trade and investment. In exchange, the highly democratic CARICOM ignored Venezuela’s descent into authoritarianism and shielded the regime from condemnation in multilateral organizations like the Organization of American States (OAS).

After the 2014 global oil price slump, chronic fiscal mismanagement, and U.S. sanctions, the ability of President Nicolás Maduro to buy CARICOM’s support virtually disappeared. However, given CARICOM’s current urgency for cheap oil and leveling off in Venezuela’s oil production, PetroCaribe is likely to return from the dead. The re-marriage of CARICOM and Venezuela will likely hurt democracy prospects in the South American nation and, critically, continue to show the United States’ hegemonic decline in the hemisphere.

UK Rail Strikes

@marxandmakeup

GRWM while we discuss the rail strikes! 🚂 #grwm #getreadywithme #lipstick #makeup #eyeslipsface #fyp #politics #travel #train #rail #railstrike #learnontiktok @tradesunioncongress @RMTunion

♬ Vibes – Julius Waldeck