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In this mailing:
* Gordon G. Chang: China: What to Do About It?
* Amir Taheri: Debate in Iranian Circles


** China: What to Do About It? ([link removed])
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by Gordon G. Chang • March 21, 2021 at 5:00 am
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* Amendments to China's National Defense Law, effective the beginning of this year, take away sweeping powers from the State Council, which leads China's civilian government, and give it to the Communist Party's Central Military Commission. These powers include the power to mobilize all of society for war
* Everything they do, whether it is seemingly innocuous, such as measuring a mountain or putting a rover on Mars, is a means of claiming sovereignty, of enlarging the People's Republic. Now, of course, there are, in addition to these incursions, China's militant, hostile, belligerent acts.... The question is, what are we going to do about it?
* China will land a Rover, its Rover, on Mars in either May or June.... China's officials have been talking about moon and Mars as if they are sovereign Chinese territory -- part of the People's Republic.
* They look at near heavenly bodies the same way they do the South China Sea, something that should be theirs. This means that if they get there, China believes it has the right to exclude other nations.
* Today let's focus on three things that China is doing relating to genetics. First, China is collecting the world's DNA. Second, China is genetically engineering the Chinese to become a superhuman race, in other words, eugenics. Third, Chinese researchers are working on pathogens, new pathogens, artificial ones, to create the world's next pandemic.
* The story here is that we allowed the Chinese to plunder our society for data.
* This whole subject was brought to the attention of the American public by John Ratcliffe, then director of National Intelligence, when he wrote that China was trying to grow super‑soldiers. Ratcliffe mentioned that China is already conducting experiments on people in the People's Liberation Army to enhance their abilities, to create, as he called it, "biologically enhanced capabilities."
* The Chinese regime does not have ethics or morality. It is not restrained by law. It does not have a sense of restraint. The regime is trying to create the perfect communist. China has the ability and the will to do this, which means that the world has got to prevent this experimentation.
* China can become number one in two ways. It can enhance its own CNP ranking by becoming stronger, or it can decrease the CNP rankings of other countries. That's where pathogens come in. This notion of decreasing CNP of others meant that China had no inhibitions about spreading the coronavirus around the world.
* Now, China's ranking of CNP will increase dramatically, of course, if the next disease leaves the Chinese alone and sickens only foreigners.
* The spreading of the coronavirus is indeed an application of unrestricted warfare. Many analysts have said that biological warfare does not work. I can understand why they say that, but unfortunately we have just seen a disease kill about 2.4 million people as well as hobble societies across the world.
* COVID-19 is the ultimate proof that biological weapons work. If Chinese scientists actually succeed in developing viruses that attack only foreigners, China could end up as the only viable society in the world. This is communist China's weapon against the world and against the United States as well.
* [O]n January 20 -- just hours after taking the oath of office -- Biden issued an executive order that repealed President Trump's executive order of May 1st, 2020, preventing grid operators in the US from buying Chinese equipment. This means China is now free to sell sabotaged equipment to the US.
* [W]e should impose costs on China for spreading COVID‑19. Recently, we passed that grim milestone of more than 500,000 deaths. This pathogen is not finished with us yet. We have to impose these costs on China to convince Xi Jinping that he cannot spread the next disease beyond his borders.
* [W]e need to have the President of the United States impose costs on China for what it's doing in Hong Kong. President Trump started imposing costs but did not do enough. I hope that Biden, who ran on a campaign of trying to help the people of Hong Kong, will do so.
* Right now, the Chinese economy may be growing, but it did not grow at the 2.3 percent that Beijing announced for 2020. It is probably just a smidgen over zero, if it is zero.
* We are approaching a point where ‑‑ this will be critical ‑‑ where Biden will have to decide whether to run to the rescue of China's regime. We know that Nixon in 1972, George H.W. Bush in 1989, and Bill Clinton in 1999 rescued Chinese communism. I hope Biden does not do that a fourth time.
* [T]he Biden team -- and they have talked about this in public -- they say, "We will impose costs on China for those things which are unacceptable, we will criticize them on others, and we will cooperate where there are common interests." I don't think we can do that because I do not see that we have common interests with a country that's trying to overthrow our government. My message is: understand the fundamental nature, the hostility, and the maliciousness of China, and remember one other thing. That is, China deliberately released the disease that has killed more that 500,000 Americans. That alone means there can be no cooperation with China.
* We need to say this to France, to Germany, to everybody else, that this is a zero‑sum game. You either work with the US or we do not consider you to be our friend. I think Israel would choose the right side. I am not so sure about some of the other countries mentioned.... [T]his is something where American presidents have not communicated to our friends, allies, and partners how we feel about China. I say we should no longer support China's Communist regime.. We consider it to be an enemy, and we will act to protect ourselves in an appropriate fashion. Just tell Biden, in May 2019, People's Daily ran a piece that declared a "people's war on the US." That is all Biden should need to know.
* We know the Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and others are dying in these facilities. The only thing that separates the People's Republic of China and the Third Reich is that China has not gone to mass exterminations -- yet. This meets the definition of "genocide" in the Genocide Convention of 1948. If Biden needs another message, this is not just a policy choice for him. We are a party to that Genocide Convention, which requires signatories to "prevent and punish" acts of genocide.
* "What should Biden do?" One of the things Secretary Pompeo said that really unnerved the Chinese was talking about in‑person diplomacy, talking to the Chinese people directly. ....Biden needs to do the same thing. Not every solution is military. As a matter of fact, our solutions with China are not military. It really starts with talking to the Chinese people.

(Image source: iStock)

What does China really want?

Well, China really wants to rule planet Earth. It also wants to possess and rule the near portions of the solar system. No, I am not exaggerating. No nation in history has been this ambitious.

With regard to our planet, Xi Jinping wants the world to reject the current Westphalian international system, in place since 1648. In its place, he wants China's imperial-era system, where Chinese emperors believed they not only had the right to rule tianxia, all under heaven, but also the heavens compelled them to do so.

Xi has been grabbing territory from his neighbors. In just the past few months, the Chinese have been encroaching on India's Sikkim as well as Nepalese territory.

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** Debate in Iranian Circles ([link removed])
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by Amir Taheri • March 21, 2021 at 4:00 am
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* "Muslims do not want democracy. Anyone who says democratic republic is an enemy of Islam. All our miseries are caused by those who demand freedom. They want to build a Western society for Muslims in which you are free and independent but without a God, a prophet, or Imam. Without prayers and without martyrdom which is the highest goal for us." — Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, 1980.
* In other words, One God does not mean One Leader or one party or one policy. Such a claim would be a form of "sherk" or associating others with God's One-ness.
* Ayatollah Khamenei also misunderstands the concept of tawasi (recommendation or injunction). Contrary to what he imagines, it doesn't mean propaganda forced down people's throats by a totalitarian state. All it means is giving advice, offering alternative readings of issues, gently guiding fellow-believers toward the right path without sending General Soleimani with a machine-gun in one hand and a Samsonite full of dollars in the other.

Earlier this month when he set out for a visit to Iraq, Pope Francis could not have imagined that his excursion might trigger the law of unintended consequences. But in at least one instance it did just that. Pictured: Members of Iraq's security forces in Baghdad on March 4, 2021, on the eve of Pop Francis's first visit to Iraq. (Photo by Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images)

Earlier this month when he set out for a visit to Iraq, Pope Francis could not have imagined that his excursion might trigger the law of unintended consequences. But in at least one instance it did just that.

The Pope's brief tête-à-tête with Grand Ayatollah Ali-Mohammad Sistani in Najaf opened a wide-ranging debate about the nature and future of Shiite Islam. The fact that the Pope called on Sistani at the latter's home clearly irritated the Khomeinist circles in Tehran. Their irritation morphed into thinly disguised rage when the Vatican described Sistani as "spiritual leader of the Shiite community."

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