Speaking yesterday Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian had this to say when queried about recent Chinese incursions into Taiwanese airspace. “The military activities carried out by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the Taiwan Strait are necessary actions to address the current security situation in the Taiwan Strait and to safeguard national sovereignty and security. They are a solemn response to external interference and provocations by ‘Taiwan independence’ forces.”
Wu then added, “We warn those “Taiwan independence” elements: those who play with fire will burn themselves, and “Taiwan independence” means war.”
China has never renounced its claim to Taiwan, nor has it ever ruled out the use of force to achieve reunification. Still, even for Beijing, such language is provocative. Why is China being so aggressive and why now?
Two words. Joe Biden.
You may choose to think Joe is just feckless. You may think worse, that he is bought and paid for by the Chinese. That’s up to you. What is undeniable is that he is the weakest President we have had since Jimmy Carter; he has assembled a foreign policy team of individuals with a track record for appeasement and that amongst the whole lot of them there is not a one who is prepared to stand up to the thugs and totalitarian regimes of our planet.
The newest addition to Xi Jinping’s Dream Team is Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who has been nominated to be the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. During her recent confirmation hearing before the Senate Ms. Thomas-Greenfield assured Senators she would take a tough line on China. That seems strikingly in contrast to her record and her prior activities.
In 2019, Ms. Thomas-Greenfield gave a speech at the Chinese-funded Confucius Institute on the campus of Savannah State University in Savannah, Georgia. The speech focused on China’s activities in Africa.
Confucius Institutes are run by the government of China. They operate around the world and, despite efforts to counter their work, are present on dozens of U.S. college campuses. They claim to teach Mandarin and educate Americans on Chinese culture. In fact, they are propaganda arms of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) focused on shaping foreign perceptions of China.
Per the teachings of the Confucius Institutes, there are no slave labor camps in China. There is no forced organ harvesting. Tibet belongs to China and always has. The Uighurs don’t exist.
Criticism of the Confucius Institutes in the United States has been intense in recent years. Many colleges have forced them off-campus. The CCP is in the process of rebranding the institutes in the hope one assumes they can do a better job of covering up their connections to the government in Beijing. None of that, apparently, bothered Ms. Thomas-Greenfield when she chose to travel to Savannah and participate in a Confucius Institute sponsored event.
It is not simply that Ms. Thomas-Greenfield chose to attend the event in question and speak, however. It is what she said that is equally as troubling.
China is a communist nation run by the Chinese Communist Party an entity every bit as brutal, undemocratic and corrupt as anything that ever existed in the old Soviet Union. It enslaves outright tens of millions of ethnic minorities and holds the remainder of the population in brutal subjugation. It does not represent any future any true American should ever desire.
And, yet none of that is anywhere in the speech given in Savannah. To the contrary, it is clear Ms. Thomas-Greenfield admires communist China and finds much in it that we and the rest of the world should emulate.
“The U.S. should be focused on building a strong partnership with Africa which is based on shared values of peace, prosperity, sustained economic growth and development, and a firm commitment to good governance, gender equity, and the rule of law. I see no reason why China cannot share in those values. In fact, China is in a unique position to spread these ideals given its strong footprint on the continent. All sides should work together to build sustainable growth for Africa and the world.”
“China’s engagement with the continent is not just economic, it is cultural. Each year, the list of Chinese universities offering scholarships for Africa’s brightest students grows. Across the continent, Chinese communities are springing up.”
“There is no doubt that China’s story of development from an impoverished country to a middle income, industrial powerhouse is attractive to African states who also seek to be better incorporated into the global economic system. China has definitely pushed that narrative and sought to be “Big Brother China” to the continent. As African states seek to learn from the China model, they have turned their gaze to Beijing.”
Linda Thomas-Greenfield
The real mission of the Chinese in Africa, of course, is to exploit the people and steal resources. Nothing Beijing does on the continent has anything to do with development or being a “Big Brother.” The Chinese Communist Party intends to steal everything that isn’t nailed down, make as much money as possible and move on. It deals with the most corrupt dictators on the continent, sells weapons to anyone who will buy them and cares not one whit about what the overall impact of this is on the hundreds of millions of Africans who suffer as a consequence.
Yet, Ms. Thomas-Greenfield stood before an audience on U.S. soil, praised the Chinese communist activities on the African continent and delivered remarks frankly more suited to a member of the Chinese foreign service than an American diplomat. This is the woman who Beijing Biden has nominated to speak for you and me at the United Nations.
And, it gets worse. In March the United States will take over as head of the United Nations Security Council meaning this woman will not only be speaking for but will be chairing the U.N.’s most powerful institution. Bad news for us. Great news for Beijing.
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