So far the Trump campaign appears to be trying to finesse foreign policy issues by simply advancing his claims that everything was great when he was president and that the things that have happened under the Zhou regime (that are harmful to US interests) never would have happened if he had remained in the White House.
U.S.-backed opposition leader Maria Corina Machado which lost the elections and tried to stage a coup d'état promising to re-establish the Venezuelan embassy in occupied Jerusalem
Sanctions hit Venezuelan particularly hard because the country had a severe case of “Dutch Disease”, where oil was the dominant commodity while other industries withered away, thus making the country heavily dependent on imports. The wealth acquired from exporting oil allowed Chavez to implement his socialist policies, but his hostility to private business prevented the development of any local industry. Most other products had to be imported, which the govt heavily regulated. Businesses also had to get their dollars from the govt by exchanging bolivars so that they could purchase items for import.
This was fine as long as the oil money was flowing, but it was a ticking economic time bomb. After Chavez died, the oil price tanked, and suddenly there were not enough dollars. The Madero regime then thought currency manipulation would stop the bleeding, but it only made the situation worse. The U.S. sanctions only exacerbated the situation, making it even harder for Venezuelans to acquire foreign goods.
Sometimes you’re a little off target. But this time - your first few paragraphs are so misleading that you’re effectively not even on the same target as the rest of us.
I say these things not from 2nd or 3rd hand accounts. You need to step back, take a deep breath, and consider amending this entire article.
This will probably come as a surprise to you, but my goal is not to be "on the same target as the rest of us." Based on subscription stats, I take it that regular readers are also uninterested in that--not that what I write is stat driven. I will certainly not be amending this article, and won't even be stepping back and/or taking a deep breath.
The significance of Venezuela is that color revolutions no longer work (Georgia is an example), everyone is in on the con. Obviously plan b seems to be open violence and military aggression.
What I find perhaps most troubling is that while Trump has consistently "trumpeted" his having kept us out of wars, he stocked his foreign policy team with people who wanted nothing so much as to go to war. Trump - as much as anyone - should know that personnel is policy. I would hope he has learned that by now and will thoroughly research the backgrounds of his next foreign policy team. The problem, of course, is that virtually the whole of the foreign policy establishment (government, think tanks, academia) is comprised of Neocons. Like Cassander, I have more faith in his motives than I do in his ability to be allowed to act in accordance with them.
For those interested, Scott Ritter just came out with a video in which he expresses views that pretty much mirror what Col. Davis says about Netanyahu and Israel. He is also quite negative in his view of the Abraham Accords (his comments in that regard start at the 12:00 mark):
Excellent piece. The only way that the polity called the USA could ever survive is removing itself from these foreign entanglements. Trump ain’t the guy to do it. He’s as Zionist as the rest.
Mark, you make a tantalising comment about "the campaign of lies about China’s Uyghur". This is the first time I've considered this matter as a hoax. I'm both an avid British reader of yours and a good acquaintance of a certain member of our House of Lords (a man of integrity who acts on conviction), the latter being a huge campaigner on pro-life and religious liberty issues, including the Uyghurs. I've also hosted a number of displaced Uyghurs once (before I had much interest in geopolitics or was terribly concerned about what exactly their plight was). It is thus hard (but not impossible) for me to swallow this. Are there any good sources/readings you can point to where I can dig a bit more into this without losing my sanity?
PS. Stefan, if possible, I think it would be ideal if you or the member of the House of Lords (or both?) could visit Xinjiang and meet a lot of Uyghurs, including several imams, and get their opinions directly (through a translator). I realize that, because of the relentless propaganda coming from the mainstream media, it may be difficult to believe that almost the exact opposite situation in Xinjiang is true, especially because the Chinese government did respond to the demos in Hong Kong in a clumsy and undemocratic way, so it might be valuable to examine the situation with your own eyes and ears. We seem to live in a world of intense and constant information warfare.
Yes, the Uyghur exploitation/oppression/genocide lie-complex is nothing but propaganda. You can find several good, objective articles analyzing this US-sponsored hoax if you go through articles on this subject published on the Gray Zone site. Many are 5-6 years old. You can also find some good videos made by US and Canadian indie journalists in China who took trips to Xinjiang and interviewed (in Chinese -- most Uyghurs are bilingual) many Uyghurs, including Uyghur imams and Uyghur cotton farm owners. If you'll give me some time, I could dig up and post some links for you.
The most basic fact is that US and Uyghur propagandists are deliberately mixing together two different kinds of Uyghurs. Traditionally, most Uyghurs in Xinjiang were and are Sufis, a peaceful, almost mystical sect of Islam. The small, limited group of Uyghurs who are under the surveillance of the Chinese police are a small minority of Wahhabist Muslims who are militant in their beliefs and actions and who want to overthrow Xinjiang as a province of China and establish a Sharia-law-based Islamic Republic in its place. On one video I heard one of these fundamentalist Wahhabist Uyghur militants tell a Canadian journalist that when Xinjiang is "liberated" all Han Chinese, ethnic Mongolians, and other "foreigners" will be expelled, and even traditional Uyghurs will be expelled if they refuse to give up their heretical traditional Islamic ways and become Wahhabists. Where did this Wahhabism come from? Well, it came from Saudi Arabia originally and was spread into central Asia, especially Afghanistan, by the Saudis and by the US, which originally helped create Wahhabist-influenced Al Qaeda in order to defeat the USSR in Afghanistan. Some of the Uyghurs in western Xinjiang had trading and other links to central Asia, and some of them were attracted to Wahhabism and to the political success of the Taliban, whom they hope to emulate by turning Xinjiang into a Sharia-law Republic. The US hopes to use this militant Wahhabist minority for its own purposes: to block China's Belt and Road program, which goes through Xinjiang; to injure the Chinese economy (Xinjiang is one of the world's great cotton-producing areas); and, eventually to overthrow the present government of China.
The biggest problem is that young Wahhabist Uyghurs several times in the 2000s carried out terrorist attacks in various cities in Xinjiang, declaring that they would liberate Xinjiang by force. In response, the Chinese police (including mainstream Xinjiang Uyghurs) began investigating and arresting anyone connected with the violent attacks or planning future attacks. The Chinese also set up a number of special short-time schools which were voluntary for some and involuntary for others. Students consist of Uighurs who have either asked to attend because they feel confused and Uyghurs who have been turned in by their friends neighbors, or parents, since the friends, neighbors or parents were disturbed by the Wahhabist talking points that their friend or child suddenly began using. As I understand it, the curriculum of such a school includes Civics, Chinese law, Uyghur and Han Chinese culture and language, and various job-training skill courses to help the students find good jobs after they graduate in 4-6 months. Voluntary students are said to go home on weekends. It should be stressed that the students who go to these schools are only a tiny fraction of the whole Uyghur population of Xinjiang.
Most Uyghurs seem, from all the documentaries I've seen, well integrated into Xinjiang society. They, like other minorities in China, receive a number of perks, such the right to have more children than Han Chinese (the Uyghur population has been growing steadily, despite propaganda to the contrary) and the right to have 50 points automatically added to their university entrance exam scores. Chinese entrance exams are very difficult, and 50 extra points will get some Uyghur students into elite universities, and no doubt there will be some Uyghur Chinese national leaders in the near future. Moreover, many Uyghurs are quite wealthy, and they are free to speak Uyghur whenever they want. Uyghur language and culture are also main subjects in public education in Xinjiang. Uyghur businessmen are said laugh when asked about alleged slave labor in the cotton fields and point out that there is a shortage of cotton pickers, and wages are high. Moreover, most cotton growers, many of them Uyghurs, are shifting to mechanized cotton-picking. Xinjiang is one of John Deere's biggest customer areas worldwide. I saw one documentary about a Uyghur cotton farmer whose cotton fields were completely automated. There was not a single slave to be seen! All the farmer and his son did was press a few buttons on his little electronic control panel. He claimed to be a typical Uyghur cotton farmer.
I can't touch on everything, but in closing let me say that there are thousands of mosques in Xinjiang and in China generally, and freedom of worship is guaranteed. I'll never forget one Uyghur imam in a documentary saying that "Everyone is very peaceful and devout here. The only trouble I ever experienced was when some young Uyghur toughs broke into my room in this mosque and demanded that I change it into a Wahhabist mosque. When I refused, they threatened me and smashed many things in the mosque before they left."
In summary, a large-scale hoax is being perpetrated by the Sinophobic US government and by the Uyghur Congress diaspora as well as by a German evangelical preacher who has written several mistake-filled articles about the Uyghurs based on misreadings of statistics published by the government of China. The hoax seems designed to trigger sanctions on China that will hurt the Chinese economy and bring about an ethnically "pure" Sharia-law Islamic Republic in place of the current province of Xinjiang.
Thank you, Dao Gen, this is really helpful. I was about to suggest to ask @Cassander for further info, but seems you've ticked this box.
Please do dig out those links if and when possible and post them here: would be very interested to see them.
As for your suggestion regarding visiting Xinjian, I would love to, but that's rather out of the picture on many fronts! And the politician in question is on China's blacklist, for his human rights advocacy... so he's out of the picture too, for a different reason!
I'm sorry to hear that. One of the indie journalists I mentioned still puts out a lot of videos, many of which deal with China.You might enjoy watching these if you are unable to make a visit. Please give me a week or so to look around and I'll give you a link to him.
Thanks for all that! We in America still tend to put too much faith in reporting by the MSM. It has become clear that much of the reporting on foreign lands is tendentious or even down right false, driven by Deep State control and agenda.
China is best understood as a civilization rather than a country, one so vast and diverse that strong central control has always been necessary. That has meant that throughout China's long civilizational history non-Confucian religions from abroad have also been regarded--rightly and wrongly--as subversive: Taoism, Buddhism, Muslim, Christian. The Chinese approach has been to suppress those that take on political dimensions foreign to Confucian ideas, especially loyalty to an ultimate authority outside the realm of Chinese civilization but also to try to integrate them into Chinese culture. Falun Gong is an example that follows in the tradition of dissident Chinese Buddhist influenced secret societies in some ways. This is also why Christians are persecuted.
It's important to bear in mind that this dynamic is at work in other civilizational areas--India, etc. Russia in some respects, too. The degree of toleration varies, sometimes greatly. This is typical of civilizational areas (Huntington). In the West the civic religion of Liberalism is also increasingly intolerant in its efforts to suppress traditional Christian belief and practice. What some are calling Neo-paganism in the West is more along the lines of a virulent gnostic ideology rather than a civilizational religion. Same goes for some forms of Islam, such as Wahabbism, as well as some types of "Christianity," such as the Zionist cults. Modern Rabbinic Judaism, IMO, falls also into that category.
These are all issues that I took up in the earlier years of Meaning and History. Cf. Archives.
Yes. Thanks for the explanation. This is what I was trying to say yesterday and would have said, except I knew you would come along and say it better. :-)
Don't go too fast, Mark! I believe I have read that Western anti-Chinese propaganda based on discrimination (or worse) of the Uighurs is exagerrated. I'll see what I can find.
A 2021 Chinese Government paper entitled "Respecting and Protecting the Rights of All Ethnic Groups in Xinjiang" states
"Currently, rumors, distortions, and complete fabrications are being spread by some foreign media and politicians. This is a calculated campaign to undermine the Chinese government’s enormous efforts to protect ethnic equality, and misrepresent the historic progress that has been made on human rights in the region. Their goals are to discredit China, interfere in China’s internal affairs, restrict China’s development, and destroy stability and prosperity in Xinjiang. This has aroused indignation among the people in Xinjiang and the rest of China, and is condemned by those in the international community who seek to uphold justice.
"Xinjiang is now a stable and orderly society, where the local ethnic groups live in mutual harmony and peace. It is experiencing an optimal period of development. Under the firm leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Xi Jinping at the core, Xinjiang has achieved moderate prosperity in all respects together with the rest of the country, and has embarked on a new journey of building China into a modern socialist country. This will better ensure ethnic equality, and all the people of Xinjiang will enjoy a happier and more prosperous life."
Is this yet another case of Western intelligence fomenting unrest and discord in order to embarass and undermine the government of a so-called 'adversary'. I can't say. But we have done it before.
Of course, I wouldn't put it past the Chinese Government to spin conditions in Xinjiang more favorably than the picture presented by Western media, but it does look like there may well be two sides to this coin.
The subject bears more research, but from what little I have read this afternoon, it appears that a minority group of extremist and separatist Uighurs have used violence and terrorism for political purposes and the Chinese Government has cracked down on them.
It also appears that large majorities of Uighurs in Xinjiang are happy and peaceful. They are well-integrated into the dominant Han culture but enjoy significant minority rights. Certainly, the economic data appears to show growing Uighur prosperity in recent years.
Some of our minorities in the US should be so fortunate.
IMHO Trump’s motives are pure and he is not corruptible. The forces in DC are the exact opposite. A leader is only as good as the information he has and many things have been withheld from him. Trump was under surveillance since before his election in 2016; when your adversary knows everything you are doing or trying to do and has unlimited resources to use against you, then you are at a serious disadvantage. A few days after the 2020 election was called for Zhou the envoy from Syria resigned and bragged he had hidden the number of troops we had in Syria to thwart Trump from withdrawing them. Isn’t that treason? I am sure he was rewarded handsomely as all other treasonous agents of the 3 letter agencies. We probably know less than half of the nefarious behavior within the corrupt bureaucracy to foil Trump
Would Trump have approved lethal aid to Ukraine if he knew about the bio labs; why did he not know about the Maiden Coup in 2014? He obviously needs better information.
Sorry, that Trump accomplished anything at all as president is beyond comprehension. If he does get elected for a third time and makes it into office hopefully he’ll get better advisors. Mark, you and your readers would be a great start 😉
I look forward to reading your defense of Trump, Mark.
In the meantime, I share your concerns that Trump is finessing his foreign policy intentions, leaving open the possibility that ‘politics’ will persuade him to continue the Ukraine and, especially, the Gaza projects in some way shape or form. I am also inclined to seriously discount Trump’s campaign puffery that these wars would never have started on his watch and that he will end them when he gets into office, presumably through the force of his Trumpian personality.
I don’t think that at this stage Vladimir Putin will be remotely impressed, either by the Trumpian personality or by whatever military threats Trump might insinuate. Putin, and Russia, are long and far past being bullied into somehow backing down to US aggression. And, FWIW, I think Trump well knows this. I hate to repeat here, again, my view that what any of our politicians (of either party) say to our gullible electorate in a campaign and what the truth really is are two entirely separate matters.
Having said all that, I would also like to assert, in Trump’s defense, that he was battling some pretty dark forces in his own Administration the first time around. I know Trump supplied Ukraine with hardware during his Presidency and he was persuaded to take out Iranian General Qasem Soleimani. Now we learn that John Bolton takes credit for the flood of Venezuelans into the US as a result of the Neocon sanctions imposed during Trump’s term in office.
This may all be true. But, Trump must have been fighting a daily battle with the Neocons to get them to back off on More War anywhere and everywhere in the world.
Consider:
Jim Jeffrey, a senior US diplomat and former Special Representative for Syria Engagement and Special Envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS in the Trump Administration has reportedly said that when Trump ordered troop withdrawals from Syria "shell games" were used to avoid telling Trump the true number of American troops who remained.
“We were always playing shell games to not make clear to our leadership how many troops we had there,” Jeffrey said. In effect, Trump’s subordinates disregarded direct orders and lied to him about troop numbers…and got away with it.
Mike Pompeo, Trump’s director of the CIA and Secretary of State admitted to an audience at Texas A&M University in 2019 that the CIA matter of factly trains employees to lie, cheat and steal: “When I was a cadet, what’s the cadet motto at West Point? You will not lie, cheat, or steal or tolerate those who do. I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole. We had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment,” Pompeo boasted. Apparently the audience laughed and celebrated the statement.
Do you think Pompeo ever lied to Trump?
Consider also Alexander Vindman’s testimony in the Trump impeachment case where he testified that “In the Spring of 2019, I became aware of outside influencers promoting a false narrative of Ukraine inconsistent with the consensus views of the interagency. This narrative was harmful to U.S. government policy. While my interagency colleagues and I were becoming increasingly optimistic on Ukraine’s prospects, this alternative narrative undermined U.S. government efforts to expand cooperation with Ukraine.” Of course, the false narrative Vindman was referring to was the policy perspective of Donald Trump, Vindman’s Commander-in-Chief.
I’m sure there are many more good examples of how Trump was undermined on the record, let alone good examples which have not seen the light of day. So I’m inclined to believe that Trump was often blocked and subverted during his first term. I’m more concerned that they will try to do the same in a second term (and succeed!) than I am concerned that Trump does not deep down in whatever conscience he still retains at this stage of the game want to reverse the self-destructive path of Endless War the Neocons have placed this country on.
Trump might start by choosing advisors more carefully, recognizing the common roots of both Neoconnery and Zionism. And using a 3 letter word for certain 3 letter agencies: OUT.
Yes, but don't forget how tough they made it for Trump to hire anyone after he won in 2016. I was general counsel of a company in 2016 on whose board a senior Romney adviser sat. I remember him telling me after Trump's election that any one who volunteered to serve in the Trump Administration would essentially be blackballed/cancelled from any future employment in the 'real' world.
I have a suggestion, a certain nation that I am very familiar with deserves to be sanctioned. That nation is none other than the Neocon's degenerate, Satanyahu worshipping, Empire of Lies / Clown World Confederation.
To anyone out there. If you want to help trump. Send him this. I doubt he will get it. I know I tried. But if you want change in DC. It will be trumps hiring manager who does it. Start...
Sir,
A quick note of advice. Before you take office again you will need a new hiring /appointment advisor. Why? Because the people who did this for you in your previous administration failed you. They gave you, Bob Barr, James Jeffrey, Gen John Kelly, John Bolton and other frustrating individuals. Their appointments weakened your ability to lead and obtain your national objectives. The very people you relied on where the ones obstructing your polices. How did this happen? Who was the person advising you on appointments and hiring?
In your next administration the most important person on your Team will not be your CoS or Secretary of Defense. It will be your appointment /hiring coordinator. The person who is`in-charge of filling your Cabinet and Plum Book positions. Because this person will be the Determiner of who is supporting you in government. An example is Mr. Jefferies. Who hired this disloyal man? How did that happen? He was disloyal to you and violated his oath to the President of the United States. This was a disgrace.
Your hiring coordinator needs to have your best interests at heart. He needs to hire and fill positions with individuals who are loyal to you and your policies. Otherwise, you will find yourself drowning in minutia and will-full inertia that will work to make you ineffective.
Did the your last administration hiring coordinator have a matrix or check sheet of the qualities of the individual you wanted to hire? Did that matrix include items such as common sense, past actions of a patriotic nature, the ability to demand results and loyalty to the American people and our great traditions? Or did it just a have a routine amalgamation of credentials: Harvard or Ivy League education, past experience in the DC environment or similar experience? In essence, a DC operative.
Do yourself a favor. Set up a permanent hiring/appointment office and give the manager a full staff and healthy budget. Make this section/ unit a permanent part of your administration, even if you have to finance it yourself. Have this office control all appointments and most important (once you assume office) have this office conduct follow-up meetings with all appointees to see what problems they are having and any push back they are getting. That way you can support the new appointees by ensuring their staff supports them.
All of this will make you stronger. You will create, develop and empower a force that will eventually bend the bureaucracy to your will.
Good Luck,
End
Worth a try if you want real change. Trump ,by himself will not do it.
I question how effective they have been against any country, including Venezuela and Cuba.
My guess on the Venezuela economic disaster is 90% internal issues and 10% sanctions.
Sanctions seem to actually help a government stay in power, since they can blame the U.S. for any economic issues.
Socialism which destroys economies by destroying the motivation to grow a business or even work hard, has more responsibility for the economic issues. Plus the corruption issue, where rule of law is less important than cronyism and family relations.
The pilgrims tried socialism and it was a disaster:
Imho - crony capitalism, oligarchies, central planning, corruption, and no rule of law are economic disasters, and I’m very aware of the impact on the US economy, especially in California
Sundance said that the sanctions were to isolate the US population, namely build walls around the country, to keep us in. Like the Berlin wall for East Germany. This is a lead up to digital currency and social credit scores.
Donald Trump about Venezuela:
"When I left, Venezuela was ready to collapse and we could have taken over, we could have had all that oil"
Two steps forward, one step back. He is his own worst enemy.
U.S.-backed opposition leader Maria Corina Machado which lost the elections and tried to stage a coup d'état promising to re-establish the Venezuelan embassy in occupied Jerusalem
Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor John Bolton:
‘January 6th wasn’t a coup, I should know, I’ve planned many coups…we tried in Venezuela’
Utterly clueless.
Sanctions hit Venezuelan particularly hard because the country had a severe case of “Dutch Disease”, where oil was the dominant commodity while other industries withered away, thus making the country heavily dependent on imports. The wealth acquired from exporting oil allowed Chavez to implement his socialist policies, but his hostility to private business prevented the development of any local industry. Most other products had to be imported, which the govt heavily regulated. Businesses also had to get their dollars from the govt by exchanging bolivars so that they could purchase items for import.
This was fine as long as the oil money was flowing, but it was a ticking economic time bomb. After Chavez died, the oil price tanked, and suddenly there were not enough dollars. The Madero regime then thought currency manipulation would stop the bleeding, but it only made the situation worse. The U.S. sanctions only exacerbated the situation, making it even harder for Venezuelans to acquire foreign goods.
Mark,
Sometimes you’re a little off target. But this time - your first few paragraphs are so misleading that you’re effectively not even on the same target as the rest of us.
I say these things not from 2nd or 3rd hand accounts. You need to step back, take a deep breath, and consider amending this entire article.
Later,
-BB
This will probably come as a surprise to you, but my goal is not to be "on the same target as the rest of us." Based on subscription stats, I take it that regular readers are also uninterested in that--not that what I write is stat driven. I will certainly not be amending this article, and won't even be stepping back and/or taking a deep breath.
The significance of Venezuela is that color revolutions no longer work (Georgia is an example), everyone is in on the con. Obviously plan b seems to be open violence and military aggression.
What I find perhaps most troubling is that while Trump has consistently "trumpeted" his having kept us out of wars, he stocked his foreign policy team with people who wanted nothing so much as to go to war. Trump - as much as anyone - should know that personnel is policy. I would hope he has learned that by now and will thoroughly research the backgrounds of his next foreign policy team. The problem, of course, is that virtually the whole of the foreign policy establishment (government, think tanks, academia) is comprised of Neocons. Like Cassander, I have more faith in his motives than I do in his ability to be allowed to act in accordance with them.
For those interested, Scott Ritter just came out with a video in which he expresses views that pretty much mirror what Col. Davis says about Netanyahu and Israel. He is also quite negative in his view of the Abraham Accords (his comments in that regard start at the 12:00 mark):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ICAHM6-ehg
Excellent piece. The only way that the polity called the USA could ever survive is removing itself from these foreign entanglements. Trump ain’t the guy to do it. He’s as Zionist as the rest.
Mark, you make a tantalising comment about "the campaign of lies about China’s Uyghur". This is the first time I've considered this matter as a hoax. I'm both an avid British reader of yours and a good acquaintance of a certain member of our House of Lords (a man of integrity who acts on conviction), the latter being a huge campaigner on pro-life and religious liberty issues, including the Uyghurs. I've also hosted a number of displaced Uyghurs once (before I had much interest in geopolitics or was terribly concerned about what exactly their plight was). It is thus hard (but not impossible) for me to swallow this. Are there any good sources/readings you can point to where I can dig a bit more into this without losing my sanity?
Thank you!
PS. Stefan, if possible, I think it would be ideal if you or the member of the House of Lords (or both?) could visit Xinjiang and meet a lot of Uyghurs, including several imams, and get their opinions directly (through a translator). I realize that, because of the relentless propaganda coming from the mainstream media, it may be difficult to believe that almost the exact opposite situation in Xinjiang is true, especially because the Chinese government did respond to the demos in Hong Kong in a clumsy and undemocratic way, so it might be valuable to examine the situation with your own eyes and ears. We seem to live in a world of intense and constant information warfare.
Yes, the Uyghur exploitation/oppression/genocide lie-complex is nothing but propaganda. You can find several good, objective articles analyzing this US-sponsored hoax if you go through articles on this subject published on the Gray Zone site. Many are 5-6 years old. You can also find some good videos made by US and Canadian indie journalists in China who took trips to Xinjiang and interviewed (in Chinese -- most Uyghurs are bilingual) many Uyghurs, including Uyghur imams and Uyghur cotton farm owners. If you'll give me some time, I could dig up and post some links for you.
The most basic fact is that US and Uyghur propagandists are deliberately mixing together two different kinds of Uyghurs. Traditionally, most Uyghurs in Xinjiang were and are Sufis, a peaceful, almost mystical sect of Islam. The small, limited group of Uyghurs who are under the surveillance of the Chinese police are a small minority of Wahhabist Muslims who are militant in their beliefs and actions and who want to overthrow Xinjiang as a province of China and establish a Sharia-law-based Islamic Republic in its place. On one video I heard one of these fundamentalist Wahhabist Uyghur militants tell a Canadian journalist that when Xinjiang is "liberated" all Han Chinese, ethnic Mongolians, and other "foreigners" will be expelled, and even traditional Uyghurs will be expelled if they refuse to give up their heretical traditional Islamic ways and become Wahhabists. Where did this Wahhabism come from? Well, it came from Saudi Arabia originally and was spread into central Asia, especially Afghanistan, by the Saudis and by the US, which originally helped create Wahhabist-influenced Al Qaeda in order to defeat the USSR in Afghanistan. Some of the Uyghurs in western Xinjiang had trading and other links to central Asia, and some of them were attracted to Wahhabism and to the political success of the Taliban, whom they hope to emulate by turning Xinjiang into a Sharia-law Republic. The US hopes to use this militant Wahhabist minority for its own purposes: to block China's Belt and Road program, which goes through Xinjiang; to injure the Chinese economy (Xinjiang is one of the world's great cotton-producing areas); and, eventually to overthrow the present government of China.
The biggest problem is that young Wahhabist Uyghurs several times in the 2000s carried out terrorist attacks in various cities in Xinjiang, declaring that they would liberate Xinjiang by force. In response, the Chinese police (including mainstream Xinjiang Uyghurs) began investigating and arresting anyone connected with the violent attacks or planning future attacks. The Chinese also set up a number of special short-time schools which were voluntary for some and involuntary for others. Students consist of Uighurs who have either asked to attend because they feel confused and Uyghurs who have been turned in by their friends neighbors, or parents, since the friends, neighbors or parents were disturbed by the Wahhabist talking points that their friend or child suddenly began using. As I understand it, the curriculum of such a school includes Civics, Chinese law, Uyghur and Han Chinese culture and language, and various job-training skill courses to help the students find good jobs after they graduate in 4-6 months. Voluntary students are said to go home on weekends. It should be stressed that the students who go to these schools are only a tiny fraction of the whole Uyghur population of Xinjiang.
Most Uyghurs seem, from all the documentaries I've seen, well integrated into Xinjiang society. They, like other minorities in China, receive a number of perks, such the right to have more children than Han Chinese (the Uyghur population has been growing steadily, despite propaganda to the contrary) and the right to have 50 points automatically added to their university entrance exam scores. Chinese entrance exams are very difficult, and 50 extra points will get some Uyghur students into elite universities, and no doubt there will be some Uyghur Chinese national leaders in the near future. Moreover, many Uyghurs are quite wealthy, and they are free to speak Uyghur whenever they want. Uyghur language and culture are also main subjects in public education in Xinjiang. Uyghur businessmen are said laugh when asked about alleged slave labor in the cotton fields and point out that there is a shortage of cotton pickers, and wages are high. Moreover, most cotton growers, many of them Uyghurs, are shifting to mechanized cotton-picking. Xinjiang is one of John Deere's biggest customer areas worldwide. I saw one documentary about a Uyghur cotton farmer whose cotton fields were completely automated. There was not a single slave to be seen! All the farmer and his son did was press a few buttons on his little electronic control panel. He claimed to be a typical Uyghur cotton farmer.
I can't touch on everything, but in closing let me say that there are thousands of mosques in Xinjiang and in China generally, and freedom of worship is guaranteed. I'll never forget one Uyghur imam in a documentary saying that "Everyone is very peaceful and devout here. The only trouble I ever experienced was when some young Uyghur toughs broke into my room in this mosque and demanded that I change it into a Wahhabist mosque. When I refused, they threatened me and smashed many things in the mosque before they left."
In summary, a large-scale hoax is being perpetrated by the Sinophobic US government and by the Uyghur Congress diaspora as well as by a German evangelical preacher who has written several mistake-filled articles about the Uyghurs based on misreadings of statistics published by the government of China. The hoax seems designed to trigger sanctions on China that will hurt the Chinese economy and bring about an ethnically "pure" Sharia-law Islamic Republic in place of the current province of Xinjiang.
Thank you, Dao Gen, this is really helpful. I was about to suggest to ask @Cassander for further info, but seems you've ticked this box.
Please do dig out those links if and when possible and post them here: would be very interested to see them.
As for your suggestion regarding visiting Xinjian, I would love to, but that's rather out of the picture on many fronts! And the politician in question is on China's blacklist, for his human rights advocacy... so he's out of the picture too, for a different reason!
I'm sorry to hear that. One of the indie journalists I mentioned still puts out a lot of videos, many of which deal with China.You might enjoy watching these if you are unable to make a visit. Please give me a week or so to look around and I'll give you a link to him.
Thanks for all that! We in America still tend to put too much faith in reporting by the MSM. It has become clear that much of the reporting on foreign lands is tendentious or even down right false, driven by Deep State control and agenda.
China is best understood as a civilization rather than a country, one so vast and diverse that strong central control has always been necessary. That has meant that throughout China's long civilizational history non-Confucian religions from abroad have also been regarded--rightly and wrongly--as subversive: Taoism, Buddhism, Muslim, Christian. The Chinese approach has been to suppress those that take on political dimensions foreign to Confucian ideas, especially loyalty to an ultimate authority outside the realm of Chinese civilization but also to try to integrate them into Chinese culture. Falun Gong is an example that follows in the tradition of dissident Chinese Buddhist influenced secret societies in some ways. This is also why Christians are persecuted.
It's important to bear in mind that this dynamic is at work in other civilizational areas--India, etc. Russia in some respects, too. The degree of toleration varies, sometimes greatly. This is typical of civilizational areas (Huntington). In the West the civic religion of Liberalism is also increasingly intolerant in its efforts to suppress traditional Christian belief and practice. What some are calling Neo-paganism in the West is more along the lines of a virulent gnostic ideology rather than a civilizational religion. Same goes for some forms of Islam, such as Wahabbism, as well as some types of "Christianity," such as the Zionist cults. Modern Rabbinic Judaism, IMO, falls also into that category.
These are all issues that I took up in the earlier years of Meaning and History. Cf. Archives.
Yes. Thanks for the explanation. This is what I was trying to say yesterday and would have said, except I knew you would come along and say it better. :-)
Stefan, thanks for challenging me on this. I believe I spoke in haste and ignorance. I'll edit that.
Don't go too fast, Mark! I believe I have read that Western anti-Chinese propaganda based on discrimination (or worse) of the Uighurs is exagerrated. I'll see what I can find.
I'm open to that, because I included that phrase based on something I, too, read--but couldn't put a finger on right away.
A 2021 Chinese Government paper entitled "Respecting and Protecting the Rights of All Ethnic Groups in Xinjiang" states
"Currently, rumors, distortions, and complete fabrications are being spread by some foreign media and politicians. This is a calculated campaign to undermine the Chinese government’s enormous efforts to protect ethnic equality, and misrepresent the historic progress that has been made on human rights in the region. Their goals are to discredit China, interfere in China’s internal affairs, restrict China’s development, and destroy stability and prosperity in Xinjiang. This has aroused indignation among the people in Xinjiang and the rest of China, and is condemned by those in the international community who seek to uphold justice.
"Xinjiang is now a stable and orderly society, where the local ethnic groups live in mutual harmony and peace. It is experiencing an optimal period of development. Under the firm leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Xi Jinping at the core, Xinjiang has achieved moderate prosperity in all respects together with the rest of the country, and has embarked on a new journey of building China into a modern socialist country. This will better ensure ethnic equality, and all the people of Xinjiang will enjoy a happier and more prosperous life."
https://english.www.gov.cn/archive/whitepaper/202107/14/content_WS60ee599bc6d0df57f98dcd8c.html
Is this yet another case of Western intelligence fomenting unrest and discord in order to embarass and undermine the government of a so-called 'adversary'. I can't say. But we have done it before.
Of course, I wouldn't put it past the Chinese Government to spin conditions in Xinjiang more favorably than the picture presented by Western media, but it does look like there may well be two sides to this coin.
The subject bears more research, but from what little I have read this afternoon, it appears that a minority group of extremist and separatist Uighurs have used violence and terrorism for political purposes and the Chinese Government has cracked down on them.
It also appears that large majorities of Uighurs in Xinjiang are happy and peaceful. They are well-integrated into the dominant Han culture but enjoy significant minority rights. Certainly, the economic data appears to show growing Uighur prosperity in recent years.
Some of our minorities in the US should be so fortunate.
Thanks for the link, Cassander. I'd just found that white paper earlier, before posting, but wanted more ammo than "just" a Chinese govt response.
Thanks. I found the source of my original statement:
https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1812163261682565342
https://pingthread.com/thread/1486542207456710656
Thanks Mark, the link is very helpful.
IMHO Trump’s motives are pure and he is not corruptible. The forces in DC are the exact opposite. A leader is only as good as the information he has and many things have been withheld from him. Trump was under surveillance since before his election in 2016; when your adversary knows everything you are doing or trying to do and has unlimited resources to use against you, then you are at a serious disadvantage. A few days after the 2020 election was called for Zhou the envoy from Syria resigned and bragged he had hidden the number of troops we had in Syria to thwart Trump from withdrawing them. Isn’t that treason? I am sure he was rewarded handsomely as all other treasonous agents of the 3 letter agencies. We probably know less than half of the nefarious behavior within the corrupt bureaucracy to foil Trump
Would Trump have approved lethal aid to Ukraine if he knew about the bio labs; why did he not know about the Maiden Coup in 2014? He obviously needs better information.
Sorry, that Trump accomplished anything at all as president is beyond comprehension. If he does get elected for a third time and makes it into office hopefully he’ll get better advisors. Mark, you and your readers would be a great start 😉
'I am sure he was rewarded handsomely as all other treasonous agents of the 3 letter agencies.'
The word agents starts with a 'b' and contains eight letters.
I look forward to reading your defense of Trump, Mark.
In the meantime, I share your concerns that Trump is finessing his foreign policy intentions, leaving open the possibility that ‘politics’ will persuade him to continue the Ukraine and, especially, the Gaza projects in some way shape or form. I am also inclined to seriously discount Trump’s campaign puffery that these wars would never have started on his watch and that he will end them when he gets into office, presumably through the force of his Trumpian personality.
I don’t think that at this stage Vladimir Putin will be remotely impressed, either by the Trumpian personality or by whatever military threats Trump might insinuate. Putin, and Russia, are long and far past being bullied into somehow backing down to US aggression. And, FWIW, I think Trump well knows this. I hate to repeat here, again, my view that what any of our politicians (of either party) say to our gullible electorate in a campaign and what the truth really is are two entirely separate matters.
Having said all that, I would also like to assert, in Trump’s defense, that he was battling some pretty dark forces in his own Administration the first time around. I know Trump supplied Ukraine with hardware during his Presidency and he was persuaded to take out Iranian General Qasem Soleimani. Now we learn that John Bolton takes credit for the flood of Venezuelans into the US as a result of the Neocon sanctions imposed during Trump’s term in office.
This may all be true. But, Trump must have been fighting a daily battle with the Neocons to get them to back off on More War anywhere and everywhere in the world.
Consider:
Jim Jeffrey, a senior US diplomat and former Special Representative for Syria Engagement and Special Envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS in the Trump Administration has reportedly said that when Trump ordered troop withdrawals from Syria "shell games" were used to avoid telling Trump the true number of American troops who remained.
“We were always playing shell games to not make clear to our leadership how many troops we had there,” Jeffrey said. In effect, Trump’s subordinates disregarded direct orders and lied to him about troop numbers…and got away with it.
Mike Pompeo, Trump’s director of the CIA and Secretary of State admitted to an audience at Texas A&M University in 2019 that the CIA matter of factly trains employees to lie, cheat and steal: “When I was a cadet, what’s the cadet motto at West Point? You will not lie, cheat, or steal or tolerate those who do. I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole. We had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment,” Pompeo boasted. Apparently the audience laughed and celebrated the statement.
Do you think Pompeo ever lied to Trump?
Consider also Alexander Vindman’s testimony in the Trump impeachment case where he testified that “In the Spring of 2019, I became aware of outside influencers promoting a false narrative of Ukraine inconsistent with the consensus views of the interagency. This narrative was harmful to U.S. government policy. While my interagency colleagues and I were becoming increasingly optimistic on Ukraine’s prospects, this alternative narrative undermined U.S. government efforts to expand cooperation with Ukraine.” Of course, the false narrative Vindman was referring to was the policy perspective of Donald Trump, Vindman’s Commander-in-Chief.
I’m sure there are many more good examples of how Trump was undermined on the record, let alone good examples which have not seen the light of day. So I’m inclined to believe that Trump was often blocked and subverted during his first term. I’m more concerned that they will try to do the same in a second term (and succeed!) than I am concerned that Trump does not deep down in whatever conscience he still retains at this stage of the game want to reverse the self-destructive path of Endless War the Neocons have placed this country on.
Have there been any reports about the effectiveness of the S-400 system against "the force of Trumpian personality?"
I guess we might well find out...
Trump might start by choosing advisors more carefully, recognizing the common roots of both Neoconnery and Zionism. And using a 3 letter word for certain 3 letter agencies: OUT.
Yes, but don't forget how tough they made it for Trump to hire anyone after he won in 2016. I was general counsel of a company in 2016 on whose board a senior Romney adviser sat. I remember him telling me after Trump's election that any one who volunteered to serve in the Trump Administration would essentially be blackballed/cancelled from any future employment in the 'real' world.
I have a suggestion, a certain nation that I am very familiar with deserves to be sanctioned. That nation is none other than the Neocon's degenerate, Satanyahu worshipping, Empire of Lies / Clown World Confederation.
USA-USA-USA !!!
Think we’ve been sanctioned for about 3.5 years by my watch.
To anyone out there. If you want to help trump. Send him this. I doubt he will get it. I know I tried. But if you want change in DC. It will be trumps hiring manager who does it. Start...
Sir,
A quick note of advice. Before you take office again you will need a new hiring /appointment advisor. Why? Because the people who did this for you in your previous administration failed you. They gave you, Bob Barr, James Jeffrey, Gen John Kelly, John Bolton and other frustrating individuals. Their appointments weakened your ability to lead and obtain your national objectives. The very people you relied on where the ones obstructing your polices. How did this happen? Who was the person advising you on appointments and hiring?
In your next administration the most important person on your Team will not be your CoS or Secretary of Defense. It will be your appointment /hiring coordinator. The person who is`in-charge of filling your Cabinet and Plum Book positions. Because this person will be the Determiner of who is supporting you in government. An example is Mr. Jefferies. Who hired this disloyal man? How did that happen? He was disloyal to you and violated his oath to the President of the United States. This was a disgrace.
Your hiring coordinator needs to have your best interests at heart. He needs to hire and fill positions with individuals who are loyal to you and your policies. Otherwise, you will find yourself drowning in minutia and will-full inertia that will work to make you ineffective.
Did the your last administration hiring coordinator have a matrix or check sheet of the qualities of the individual you wanted to hire? Did that matrix include items such as common sense, past actions of a patriotic nature, the ability to demand results and loyalty to the American people and our great traditions? Or did it just a have a routine amalgamation of credentials: Harvard or Ivy League education, past experience in the DC environment or similar experience? In essence, a DC operative.
Do yourself a favor. Set up a permanent hiring/appointment office and give the manager a full staff and healthy budget. Make this section/ unit a permanent part of your administration, even if you have to finance it yourself. Have this office control all appointments and most important (once you assume office) have this office conduct follow-up meetings with all appointees to see what problems they are having and any push back they are getting. That way you can support the new appointees by ensuring their staff supports them.
All of this will make you stronger. You will create, develop and empower a force that will eventually bend the bureaucracy to your will.
Good Luck,
End
Worth a try if you want real change. Trump ,by himself will not do it.
Sanctions seem to be more bark, than bite.
I question how effective they have been against any country, including Venezuela and Cuba.
My guess on the Venezuela economic disaster is 90% internal issues and 10% sanctions.
Sanctions seem to actually help a government stay in power, since they can blame the U.S. for any economic issues.
Socialism which destroys economies by destroying the motivation to grow a business or even work hard, has more responsibility for the economic issues. Plus the corruption issue, where rule of law is less important than cronyism and family relations.
The pilgrims tried socialism and it was a disaster:
https://reason.com/2022/11/23/the-pilgrims-dreamed-of-socialism-then-socialism-almost-killed-them/
Another view on Venezuela:
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/sanctions-did-not-destroy-venezuela-socialism-did
Imho - crony capitalism, oligarchies, central planning, corruption, and no rule of law are economic disasters, and I’m very aware of the impact on the US economy, especially in California
Sundance said that the sanctions were to isolate the US population, namely build walls around the country, to keep us in. Like the Berlin wall for East Germany. This is a lead up to digital currency and social credit scores.
Correct, Ray. The Maduro government wrecked an economy backed by some of the world's largest oil reserves, but they can blame it all on "El gringo".