On Tuesday, the U.S. State Department formally deemed a military coup in Myanmar and will suspend aid, but with little to no impact on the military. On Monday, President Trump‘s chief defense attorney in the impeachment case said the impeachment was politically weaponized and unveiled a three-defense strategy.
The Biden administration is ambivalent about huawei, and Republicans are calling for a hold on the confirmation of the U.S. Commerce Secretary.
Congresswoman Greene supports election fraud theory, but party boss McConnell calls her a “tumor”; see how Greene responds.
It’s been two weeks since Biden took office, but his attitude toward the Chinese Communist Party is still ambiguous! But the Chinese Communist Party seems to be sitting on the fence, constantly releasing wind, scholar Cheng Xiaonong believes that the two parties have formed a consensus, tension between the two countries is unlikely to ease.
According to an opinion article in the U.S. media, the Chinese Communist Party has enemies on all sides, and the weak dare to move against Taiwan, the United States armed Taiwan against the Chinese Communist Party is better than sending U.S. troops to war.
The U.S. State Department officially identified a military coup in Myanmar and will suspend aid, but the impact on the military is limited
The U.S. State Department said on the 2nd, after careful evaluation, decided to formally identify the Myanmar military’s seizure of power as a military coup and suspend some of its assistance.
The State Department held a telephone briefing on the situation in Burma this morning. An unnamed official said in a background manner that after carefully reviewing the relevant evidence, the State Department assessed that Wongsan Suu Kyi and Win Myint were deposed in a “military coup” on January 1.
The official noted that this determination will initiate specific restrictions on foreign aid to the Burmese government, and that the U.S. will also take a broad look at current aid programs to ensure they are in line with recent events. But the official stressed that the U.S. will continue programs that directly benefit the Burmese people, including humanitarian assistance and democracy support programs for needy groups such as the Rohingya.
According to the Congressional Research Service, since 1986, the annual State Department, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act has required the U.S. to cut off foreign aid to any government whose legitimately elected leaders have been deposed by military coup or order.
According to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), U.S. aid to Burma in 2019 is estimated at $216.36 million, compared to the $184.58 million in aid notified last year.
However, State Department officials admitted that the amount of U.S. foreign aid to the Burmese government is “very small, close to zero,” with the vast majority of aid going through civil society groups.
State Department officials did not say much about what kind of sanctions the U.S. might impose, except to emphasize that the U.S. would look at all current aid programs to Burma. “We will be guided by the longstanding U.S. commitment to the people of Burma and their desire for democracy, peace, justice and development.
The Trump Administration in 2019 imposed sanctions on four Burmese military officers, including Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing, because of the Burmese military’s atrocities against the Rohingya people.
In a tweet, Ho Ching-chain, a U.S.-based scholar, wrote that the Burmese army coup was actually found to be a legal action in accordance with the Burmese Constitution. According to Myanmar’s 2008 Constitution, the Tatmadaw is not bound by the civilian government, but is an independent military group outside the political ecology of the country, and is the “guardian of the state” and “guardian of the Constitution. -This constitution was drawn up under the direction of Senior General Than Shwe.
Therefore, if the UN and the US are to intervene and get Burma to comply, they must first find a way to amend the constitution.
Congresswoman Greene Supports Election Fraud Theory, Party Elder Calls It “Toxic”
The U.S. Republican Party’s federal congresswoman Greene strongly supports former President Trump’s election fraud theory and other remarks, but U.S. Senate Republican leader McConnell 1 criticized Greene as a “cancer” of the Republican Party brand.
McConnell (Mitch McConnell) warned in a statement to The Hill that Georgia’s newly elected Congresswoman Greene’s embrace of “crazy lies and conspiracy theories” is a “cancer on the Republican Party,” and that the Republican Party is already seriously divided on the path forward in the post-Trump era.
McConnell said Green’s words were “relevant to the challenges facing the American Family, or to the challenges facing the American family. but not about the substantive debate over the strength of our party.”
Greene was quick to respond to McConnell’s claim.
In a tweet, she wrote: “The real cancer of the Republican Party is weak Republicans who know only how to fail gracefully. That’s why we are losing our country.”
Trump lawyers open up three defense strategies, criticize impeachment being politically weaponized
In the upcoming Senate trial, former President Trump’s chief debate attorney David Schoen said he believes Democrats are using the impeachment process as a “weapon” against Trump to try to stop him from running for office again.
“This is politically weaponizing the impeachment process,” Schoen said in an interview with Fox on Monday (Feb. 1), “and I think it’s the most ill-advised legislative action I’ve ever seen in my Life. It’s tearing this country apart at a Time when we don’t need things like this.”
Photo: President Donald Trump (R-Texas) speaks to supporters at Joint Base Andrews before boarding Air Force One on Jan. 20, 2021.
Scone said first of all, impeaching a former president is an unconstitutional act. Second, the rioters initially planned to storm the Capitol just days before Trump’s speech, and a Senate conviction of Trump would set a precedent that could severely limit future political speech. Third, Trump has consistently taken a stand in condemning violence.
On Jan. 13, the Democratic-controlled House voted 232-197 to pass a single article of impeachment against Trump, accusing the president of inciting a “rebellion” that led to the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol.
But Scone noted that Trump’s speech at the rally on Jan. 6 was protected by the First Amendment. He said, “Aside from the fact that the process (of impeachment) is completely unconstitutional, it’s a very, very dangerous path as far as the First Amendment is concerned, and any passionate political speaker would be at risk, and it goes against what we believe in for this country.”
Scone said Democratic lawmakers have repeatedly called for the president’s impeachment since the beginning of Trump’s presidency, and the trial is their latest attempt to target Trump and to implement their agenda of preventing him from running for president again.
“This is just undemocratic,” Scone said. “Can you imagine what a slap in the face this is to more than 75 million voters?”
He added that “fair-minded people would not support using the impeachment process and then trying to bar someone from running for office again.”
Because of Huawei, Republicans call for hold on confirmation of U.S. commerce secretary
On the eve of the U.S. Senate’s upcoming vote on whether to confirm President Biden’s nominee for Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, more than 20 Republican House members have called for a hold on her confirmation until she clarifies her position on Huawei.
Photo: Raimondo, the Rhode Island governor nominated by Biden for commerce secretary.
The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee is expected to vote on Raimondo’s appointment on Tuesday (Feb. 2). House Foreign Affairs Committee Republican leader Michael McCaul (R-Texas) joined 20 House members in asking the Senate to suspend confirmation of Raimondo’s appointment until the Biden Administration clarifies its export control policies.
Rhode Island Gov. Raimondo said last week during her nomination confirmation hearing that she will take a firm stand against China. She said the U.S. will take a “whole-of-government” approach and push back hard against Beijing‘s unfair trade practices. But she declined to elaborate on whether she would keep Chinese telecoms giant Huawei on the Commerce Department’s list of entities.
Xi Jinping Can’t Wait for New U.S.-China Encounter to Begin
Economist Cheng Xiaonong wrote in Apple Daily on Feb. 2 that there has been a recent spate of news about U.S.-China relations. Will the tensions between Trump and the Chinese Communist Party ease after Biden takes office? This is a question of global concern, and the Chinese Communist Party is even more anxious. However, U.S.-China relations are not a one-man show for the United States alone, and the CCP’s conflicting diplomatic and military postures have greatly reduced the likelihood of a de-escalation.
Before Biden’s inauguration, U.S.-China relations had in fact entered a cold war, but it was not Trump who initiated this cold war, but the CCP. In the first half of last year, the Chinese Communist Party issued three consecutive nuclear threats to the United States, comparable to the Cuban missile crisis caused by the Soviet Union’s placement of nuclear missiles in Cuba in 1962.
At the beginning of last year, the Chinese naval fleet forced the U.S. military base at Midway Island and, under the pretext of exercises, declared that it could attack Pearl Harbor with nuclear missiles; in March last year, the Communist Party announced that it had occupied the entire South China Sea and reached the coast of Indonesia and the Philippines as a “launching position” for strategic nuclear submarines against the U.S.; in June last year, the Communist Party announced that it had completed the BeiDou navigation system, which could achieve precise nuclear missile strikes against the entire U.S. territory.
Thirty years after the end of the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, the U.S. once again encountered a blatant nuclear threat from another Red power, so Trump began a full-scale counterattack in the military, espionage, economic and political fields in July last year, and the U.S. and China thus entered a Cold War.
Biden succeeded, and the Chinese Communist Party is eager to improve U.S.-China relations economically and diplomatically. The Chinese Communist Party had three demands, one of which was to remove tariffs and resume large-scale exports to the U.S.; the second was to remove financial controls and resume the operation of Chinese companies to make money in the U.S.; and the third was to remove technology controls and restore its “freedom” to steal intellectual property. After Biden came to power, he only suspended the discussion on restricting investment in Chinese military and industrial enterprises, but otherwise “Chuan rules and worship follow”.
The Chinese Communist Party seems to be impatient, first letting the Wall Street Journal leak that Beijing intends to send Yang Jiechi to visit the United States; then on January 26, its mouthpiece Dovetail News published an article with the title “Xi Jinping Leaves Little Time for Biden”, urging Biden to make an early decision; then on January 29, Wang Qishan shouted at Biden, and his Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng called on the United States to adjust its strategy toward China and “set things right. The US media: Arming Taiwan against the Chinese Communist Party
U.S. Media: Arming Taiwan against the Chinese Communist Party is better than sending U.S. troops to war
The Federalist, a conservative media outlet, said in an article on Tuesday (Feb. 2) that President Biden should not make empty promises to bleed Americans in response to the Chinese Communist threat to Taiwan. Instead, a better strategy would be to arm Taiwan to deter and defend against an invasion by the Chinese Communist Party.
Pictured is the U.S. warship Antietam
A translation from Voice of Hope Radio reads
According to intelligence sources, the Chinese Communist Party conducted an exercise on January 23 to simulate an attack and sink the USS Roosevelt aircraft carrier. But it was barely reported in the mainstream media.
So far, the Biden administration has rhetorically indicated it will continue the coherence of the Trump (Trump) era. Both foreign policies are consistent on the point that the Chinese Communist Party is the greatest threat facing the United States.
Taiwan has faced two recent incursions by Chinese Communist Party warplanes. The first time there were four J-16 fighters, six H-6 bombers and an anti-submarine plane. The second time the total number of aircraft was even greater, with a total of 15 aircraft.
But these Chinese Communist incursions were merely tests, meant to test the U.S. response without causing war. It was a low-key tactic played to perfection by the communist state.
To detect Taiwan’s air defense, India’s command and control on the Himalayan border, and Japan’s radar on the Diaoyu Islands, the CCP continues this strategy. Beijing cannot be unaware that a single miscalculation could lead to the outbreak of conflict. And Beijing is not yet strong enough to take on three enemies in three directions at once. But the CCP is counting on the other side to be equally cautious.
China, by contrast, is a great power surrounded by great powers. India is a nuclear power with a population of more than 1 billion, the world’s fourth-largest gross domestic product and a powerful navy. After the United States, Japan has the most powerful navy in Asia. In any conflict, Australia and Vietnam would be on the side of the United States and provide material security.
Even the weakest country, Taiwan has a population of over 24 million, a strong economy and a well-trained military. The Chinese Communist Party has an adversarial relationship with all of these powers, and a war with any of them would give the other powers an advantage over China.
Someone in Beijing must have done this calculation, or we would have already seen the CCP invasion.
A better strategy to stop the CCP would be to arm Taiwan with A2AD weapons, rather than an empty promise to engage U.S. troops in war.
The U.S. did not send troops to defend Georgia and Ukraine (rightly so due to lack of strategic interest), and is unlikely to get Americans killed in a war with the CCP.
As Ben Friedman and Eugene Gholz point out in a recent paper, “defensive defense” is a better strategy for protecting vulnerable allies in Asia, i.e., providing manpower from Asian allies in the event of armed conflict.
As Napoleon once said, it is prudent not to interrupt the enemy if he makes a mistake. Allowing the Chinese Communist Party to overextend itself and bleed in an insurgency after the invasion of Taiwan is a better strategy than any unrealistic false hopes and promises.
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