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- Tony Seed -
The U.S. imperialists and their allies, such as Canada, have been increasingly targeting China through the Halifax International Security Forum (HISF).
In a November 13 press release concerning the priorities at this year's forum (HFX2020), the HISF stated: "China's increasingly antagonistic foreign policy stance and what democracies can do about it will be a key topic at HFX2020. Taking part in those discussions will, amongst others, be the former chairperson of the Democratic Party of Hong Kong, Emily Lau; Ai Weiwei, human rights activist and artist; and Dolkun Isa, President of the World Uyghur Congress. China vs Democracy: The Greatest Game, a handbook outlining the collective approach that the world's democracies can take to counter Xi Jinping's global ambitions, will also be released at HFX2020."
A related development is the increasing arms sales to Taiwan (officially the Republic of China) to provoke China, seemingly in contravention of the one-China policy. Whether or not this signals an end to respect for the one-China policy, it certainly shows that attempts to replace arrangements entered into in the aftermath of World War II and the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) on the basis of which international relations have been conducted are being destroyed.
The anti-China initiative was originally announced November 22, 2019, two days after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a demand following a NATO Foreign Ministers' meeting in Brussels, that NATO countries cannot ignore the "fundamental differences and beliefs" between themselves and the Communist Party of China. In a press release issued at last year's forum, the HISF announced "a new year-long initiative focused on China" and HISF President Peter Van Praagh declared, "It's no longer a secret that Xi Jinping's China is working hard to make the world safe for authoritarianism. It is time for a comprehensive China strategy for the United States, Canada and their allies -- one that makes the world safe for democracy.
"Over the next 12 months, Halifax will consult with subject experts and thought leaders to get their input on what can be done to confront this growing threat to our freedom."
The HISF "consulted with over 250 experts from around the world, including cabinet secretaries from the Clinton, Bush, and Obama
administrations." In the end its "thought leaders" produced a bleak "handbook" and "a statement of principles," barren of principle, titled China vs. Democracy -- The Greatest Game: A Handbook for Democracies, a 101-page document available on the HISF website.[1] The handbook's Executive Summary resorts to discredited accusations that the PRC is to blame for the COVID-19 pandemic, using this to buttress its claims that China and its leadership pose an existential threat to "democracy" worldwide. The summary ends by threatening retaliation against China for its alleged misdeeds: "Now is the time to soberly rethink the democratic world's policy responses to the China challenge. Democracies must pursue a carefully considered yet robust push back -- push back that Xi's China has brought upon itself. The CCP [Chinese Communist Party] must recalibrate its global ambitions and back off from the ongoing assault on the world's democracies. "Neither the United States nor any other democracy is likely to successfully meet the challenge from the PRC by going it alone. The good news is that no country, including the United States, need go it alone.
"The effective deployment of U.S. power, wealth and technological prowess in conjunction with its vast array of global allies, will ensure that China's ambitions can be kept in check. While the United States remains the free world's natural leader, alliances and partnerships among democracies will be different than those of the twentieth century. Reimagining democratic alliances that are fit for the twenty-first century is the most urgent task of the day." The handbook does not mention Pompeo or his marching orders. Rather it says of its genesis: "This project began as a series of meetings hosted by Baroness Neville-Jones at the U.K. House of Lords in London in 2019. At one of those meetings, Baroness Neville-Jones, who has been a stalwart friend and supporter since HFX began in 2009, pointedly declared that there was no common strategy among the world's democracies with regard to China, and that there ought to be one. This handbook seeks to contribute toward building that common strategy." Neville-Jones has been a member of Bilderberg, Chairman, QinetiQ (UK privatized military research/services company); governor, BBC; Chairman, Information Assurance Advisory Council; Chairman, Joint Intelligence Committee; and Managing Director, NatWest Markets. The lead author of the handbook is Robin Shepherd, newly-appointed HISF Vice-President, and an experienced reactionary British journalist affiliated with the Henry Jackson Society in Britain, the McCain Institute in the U.S., and Just Journalism, an Israeli advocacy group. His book, A State Beyond the Pale: Europe's Problem with Israel, was so extreme in its promotion of Israeli state terrorism that he was reportedly fired by Chatham House, also known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs, where he was head of the Europe program. The "team of colleagues and collaborators" includes Paz Magat, who comes from a counter-revolutionary background -- her family fled the People Power Revolution in 1986 against the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines. She previously worked with the U.S. State Department and is in charge of the HISF NATO "Peace With Women Fellowship" organized to embroil women in aggression and war under the banner of "inclusion."
The handbook specifically credits amongst others: - Michael R. Auslin, of the Hoover Institution and HISF's Senior Advisor for Asia, "who provided general oversight." In 1959, former U.S. President Herbert Hoover said of the institute that bears his name, "The purpose of this institution must be, by its research and publications, to demonstrate the evils of the doctrines of Karl Marx." Auslin is a fellow at London's Policy Exchange, a conservative think tank which had close ties to David Cameron; and Vice Chairman of the Wilton Park USA Foundation, the U.S. arm of Wilton Park, an executive agency of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Auslin was formerly Director of Japan Studies with the conservative American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, which played a major role in manufacturing support for the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.
- Admiral Mike Rogers (retired), former Director of the U.S. National Security Agency and former Commander of U.S. Cyber Command; - John Mullen, former Assistant Director of the CIA for East Asia and the Pacific and former Associate Executive Assistant Director for the FBI, responsible for "counterterrorism, counterintelligence, WMD, and intelligence efforts worldwide";
- Ambassador Kenichiro Sasae, President of the Japan Institute of International Affairs; - Ambassador Hemant Singh, Director General of the Delhi Policy Group (DPG), and Brigadier Arun Sahgal (retired), DPG Senior Fellow for Strategic and Regional Security;
- Peter Hefele, Head of Department Asia and Pacific, and David Merkle, Desk Officer China, at Germany's Konrad Adenauer-Stiftung Foundation; and - Roland Paris, Trudeau's former senior foreign policy advisor.
In a November 17 tweet, the HISF declared: "Beijing has made a priority of installing its loyalists as leading figures in int'l organizations, from the @ITU to the @icao. HFX thanks @UNWatch & @HillelNeuer for their contribution to the Handbook for Democracies, and for keeping authoritarian regimes like China in check."
Neuer is a South African from Toronto. UN Watch is a minuscule Geneva-based agency which looks after Israel's interests; it is formally affiliated with the American Jewish Committee, a pro-Israeli political lobby organization based in New York. UN Watch is devoted to subverting the most fundamental principles of the UN Charter in the name of human rights and ensuring "balance" towards Israel which has been condemned by more than 20 human rights resolutions and more than 70 UN General Assembly resolutions. UN Watch has nothing to teach Canadians or the peoples of the world about democracy. It organized the so-called Libyan Human Rights letter of February 21, 2011 faking the case against Libya. It called for the UN Security Council (UNSC) to invoke the "Responsibility to Protect" and invade Libya. The letter was used by the UNSC, Obama and NATO as the pretext for unleashing the "no fly zones" as a cover for the savage aggression of the U.S.-NATO forces. This included bombing by warplanes and drone attacks which killed thousands of innocent people. A Canadian Forces general was installed as commander.
In the same vein as the handbook, the HISF also released its "China Principles," presented as some sort of pledge of allegiance to be sworn by those it deems part of the "democratic world." It reads as follows:
"The democratic world pledges to defend itself from the following practices that undermine its values and way of life:
"- ignoring China's attempts to interfere in democratic societies;
- submitting to, collaborating with, or participating in any censorship or self-censorship of ideas, writings, artistic endeavors, or statements related to the People's Republic of China;
- participating in any business or
technology-related practices or exchanges that aid and abet Chinese Communist Party oppression of its own people;
- neglecting to oppose attempts by the People's Republic of China to bring global governance of the internet and technological standards into alignment with its own authoritarian values and ambitions;
- supporting or engaging in any kind of punishment or sanction of anyone for engaging in criticism of China;
- failing to support democratically-minded people and governments across the world who face pressure or intimidation by the People's Republic of China;
- knowingly buying or trading in Chinese products or services made with forced labor, or that are the result of criminal activities like counterfeiting or intellectual property theft." On November 18, the Communications Security Establishment and its Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, whose chief Shelly Bruce participates in the HISF, released a hysterical report declaring China, Russia, Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea as "strategic threats to Canada" for cyber attacks, fake news, theft of intellectual property and so on. To justify its approach the Canadian Security Intelligence Service in a recent report desperately went so far as to paint Chinese Canadians as shock troops in China's alleged schemes. According to the xenophobic and racist theses akin to the Yellow Peril of the 19th century, Chinese Canadians are puppets of the Communist Party of China who are secretly infiltrating Canadian society. This follows explicit attempts to dub COVID-19 the "Wuhan virus" as if to blame China for the negligence of the public health system by the ruling circles in Canada. Besides the aim of fomenting aggression against China, such baseless accusations are to divert the people from looking at their own economic system, political process and the inhuman conditions forced on them, so that they do not take action to find new arrangements. Note
1. China vs Democracy: The Greatest Game, available here.
(TML Weekly Supplement, November 21, 2020 - No. 45)
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