Current Affairs China and its treatment of minorities

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davek said:
What a mean spirited article this was from The New Statesman (below). It couldn't just be that the Chinese are helping Italy out like.

I dont get the anti-Chinese rants. It's the very worst elements of the old cold war and the yellow peril BS propaganda.



China’s new Silk Road
How Xi Jinping will use the political opportunity provided by the coronavirus crisis to exploit a divided EU.

Since the end of March, China has opened a new front in its global diplomacy. The Covid-19 virus originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, from where it rapidly spread around the world. Initial cover-ups about the extent of the virus by the People’s Republic of China and Beijing’s crackdown on whistleblowers played a role in the slow international reaction, and Donald Trump has dubbed Covid-19 the “Chinese virus”.

But now that indigenous coronavirus infections appear to have dropped in China and its economy shows signs of recovering, Xi Jinping is turning a propaganda disaster into a political opportunity by offering humanitarian aid to Italy, the hardest hit country in Europe, and to other European states from Spain to Serbia and even Ukraine. His vigorous pandemic diplomacy is a skilful piece of improvisation, seeking to reframe his country’s role in the corona affair at a time of Euro-Atlantic disunion. But it should also be understood in the larger context of Chinese foreign policy, as nothing less than the new “Health Silk Road”.

Italy is currently the epicentre of the pandemic in Europe. Its death toll from Covid-19 has overtaken China’s. Given the other EU states’ initial focus on themselves, Rome has felt abandoned. The sudden surge of generosity from far-distant China – in the form of tens of thousands of ventilators, masks, medicines and protective gear – has therefore come at a perfect time.

Not only is Italy desperate for such deliveries, it is also politically vulnerable. China’s state news agency Xinhua made no secret of Beijing’s real intentions, proclaiming: “When handshakes are no longer encouraged in Europe, China’s helping hand could make a difference” – a barbed allusion to the EU’s apparent lack of solidarity with Italy.

China’s generosity is, of course, calculated. And it fits into China’s long-term global Belt and Road Initiative, first unveiled in 2013. This vision of the future is rooted in China’s imperial past, evoking the ancient Silk Road that connected Asia and Europe from around 200 BC, indeed for some centuries linking the Middle Kingdom with the Roman empire. Xi’s grand design for the first half of this century – tying together Eurasian and African countries via land (Belt) and sea (Road) routes – reflects China’s long-term ambition for economic and political leadership.

In March 2019, when Italy became the first G7 country to officially join China’s “New Silk Road”, Rome was loudly criticised by the large EU states. They feared Beijing could drive a wedge between EU members. Twelve months on, these concerns have become more acute. On 16 March 2020 Xi assured Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte over the phone that “China is ready to work with Italy to contribute to international cooperation on epidemic control and to the building of a Health Silk Road”. That same week the Chinese leader made similar offers to several other leaders in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

When the coronavirus crisis is eventually over, European and global politics will have transformed. Can the bonds between Rome and Brussels be restored, or will the crisis precipitate a general weakening of the EU? Has Trump’s America First approach to Covid-19 further undermined Washington’s position as global leader? Will Italy look more to China, less to the EU and the US? Will that be true for other countries as well?

This is a grave moment for the EU. During the Balkans crisis in 1991 Jacques Poos, then president of the European Council, claimed that this was the “hour of Europe”. But this bold assertion came to nothing as the EU failed to enact a unified European foreign policy and prevent the bloody implosion of Yugoslavia.

This is also a crucial moment for the transatlantic community, because EU inertia and Trumpist isolationism have left a vacuum that China’s unilateral internationalism seeks to fill.

Europeans should not be surprised if the new Health Silk Road from China to Rome is named after Marco Polo. After returning from China around 700 years ago, the Venetian merchant’s travel notes were published as the Book of the Marvels of the World. It offered Europeans a first glimpse into the unknown: Asia. In this vein, Henry Kissinger in 1971 called his first secret diplomatic mission to the “other” – to communist China – “Polo 1”. Now the direction of travel has been reversed.

It has often been asked what the international system will look like after this severe global health crisis and the unprecedented global recession that is bound to follow. Will it be through China’s “Silk Roads” that Beijing will subtly try to remap the world? When China began its economic reform under Deng Xiaoping over four decades ago, his motto was: “Hide your strength, bide your time, never take the lead.” Xi feels that China’s time has come. He is now ready to seize every opportunity to pursue his grand design of rewriting the world order in Chinese characters.
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Hey everybody, Dave is on the sherry again. Engage with caution.
 
davek said:
If anyone thinks we're governed better than the Chinese are they need their heads feeling.

Take a look at the telly or out the window.
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Move to China if you’re so fond of them. And when you grumble about striping your basic voting rights, expect Ccp police to come knocking on your door in the middle of the night with imprisonment without trial.

Honestly are you pro China regime here? Make your stand clear to avoid misunderstanding.
 
Axlswhk said:
Move to China if you’re so fond of them. And when you grumble about striping your basic voting rights, expect Ccp police to come knocking on your door in the middle of the night with imprisonment without trial.

Honestly are you pro China regime here? Make your stand clear to avoid misunderstanding.
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Go and read what I said, not what you think I said.
 
Time to STFU about China. The only country out there showing a lead on the global stage.

It's aid to European nations and Africa is much appreciated.
 
Nice touch here From McDonalds in China:eek: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-52274326

China McDonald's apologises for Guangzhou ban on black people

  • 14 April 2020




Notice in McDonald's restaurant saying We've been informed that from now on black people are not allowed to enter the restaurant.
McDonald's said it closed the restaurant when it found out about the notice





McDonald's in China has apologised after a branch in the industrial city of Guangzhou barred black people from entering.
A video shared on social media showed a notice that read: “We’ve been informed that from now on black people are not allowed to enter the restaurant."
McDonald's said that when it found out about the notice it temporarily closed the restaurant.
Tensions have been running high between Africans and local people in the city.
Last week, hundreds of Africans in Guangzhou were evicted from hotels and apartments after online rumours that coronavirus was spreading among African people, community leaders told the BBC.
Guangzhou is a hub for African traders buying and selling goods and is home to one of China’s largest African communities.
The Guangdong provincial government has responded to concerns about discrimination by calling China and Africa good friends, partners and brothers.
It said it attached "great importance to some African countries' concerns and is working promptly to improve" its way of operating.
McDonald's also responded, saying the ban on black people was “not representative of our inclusive values”.
“Immediately upon learning of an unauthorised communication to our guests at a restaurant in Guangzhou, we immediately removed the communication and temporarily closed the restaurant.”
The restaurant added that it had conducted “diversity and inclusion” training in the branch.
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Many Africans feel less welcome
By Danny Vincent, BBC News, Hong Kong
Africans in Guangzhou say that they have been facing more than a week of discrimination.
Health workers have reportedly gone door-to-door testing Africans for coronavirus, many say regardless of whether they show any symptoms, have travelled, or have been in contact with Covid-19 patients.
Community leaders say that hundreds were forced out of their homes and hotel rooms and into quarantine. Video has emerged online of African people sleeping on the streets, in hotel lobbies, under bridges and outside police stations.
The video filmed inside McDonald's sparked anger both inside and outside China.
The African community in Guangzhou has been dwindling in recent years. There were once thought to be hundreds of thousands from the continent conducting business in the city, but today the number has fallen to just thousands.
Many feel that their communities have been the target of discriminatory measures. Restrictions to visas have made many I have spoken to feel less welcome. Some feel that the coronavirus is being used as an excuse to target businessmen who overstay their visas.
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