China Is Destroying Multilateralism; Trump Is Creating a New Order

by Gordon G. Chang  •  January 14, 2020 at 5:00 am

     

• If Wang Binyang is selected in March, she will be able to bend international rules to favor her country's assault on others' technology. In any event, her nomination reveals Beijing brazen ambition to dominate multilateral institutions.... Beijing's placement of officials inside multilaterals has greatly facilitated its malign activities.

• From its perch on the UN Security Council, for instance, Beijing has placed itself in a position to attack freedom and democracy. It was the force behind a just-passed, Russian-sponsored General Assembly resolution to create a new convention that, many fear, will be used to restrict online expression worldwide.

• "Why is the World Bank loaning money to China?" President Trump tweeted on December 6, "Can this be possible?"

• The institutions created after the Second World War, unfortunately, are not adapting well to this century. The ardent proponents of multilateralism have failed to protect global institutions. China has undermined them from the inside, and now those advocates are not dealing with Chinese predation but instead taking potshots at Trump's corrective efforts.

• Trump has cooperated with international organizations when he could and has worked to replace the others. As he moves forward, he is creating a more realistic and enduring international order.

From its perch on the UN Security Council, Beijing has placed itself in a position to attack freedom and democracy. It was the force behind a just-passed, Russian-sponsored General Assembly resolution to create a new convention that, many fear, will be used to restrict online expression worldwide. Pictured: Zhang Jun, Permanent Representative of China to the UN, speaks during a Security Council meeting on August 20, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images)

China, the world's leading cyberattacker and master intellectual property thief, in November nominated one of its nationals to head the UN's World Intellectual Property Organization. If Wang Binyang is selected in March, she will be able to bend international rules to favor her country's assault on others' technology. In any event, her nomination reveals Beijing's brazen ambition to dominate multilateral institutions.

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Turkey: Still among the World's Worst Jailers of Journalists

by Uzay Bulut  •  January 14, 2020 at 4:30 am

     

• "Scores of journalists remain behind bars or under travel bans as a consequence of an extended, politically motivated crackdown against the media." — "Turkey's Journalists in the Dock: The Judicial Silencing of the Fourth Estate", September 13, 2019.

• "A subsequent wide-ranging capture of the judiciary has progressively and severely damaged the rule of law and the public's right to access information..." — "Turkey's Journalists in the Dock: The Judicial Silencing of the Fourth Estate", September 13, 2019.

• "Pre-trial detention for hundreds of journalists has lasted for months and sometimes years before investigations are completed and the trials can begin." — "Turkey's Journalists in the Dock: The Judicial Silencing of the Fourth Estate", September 13, 2019.

Pictured: Turkish police arrest 69-year-old journalist Ahmet Altan (center) in Istanbul on November 12, 2019, just a few days after he was released from prison, having serving more than three years of a life sentence for allegedly spreading "subliminal messages announcing a military coup" on television in 2016. (Photo by Bulent Kilic/AFP via Getty Images)

According to the latest report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Turkey fell below its ranking as the world's worst jailer of journalists for the first time in four years -- dropping behind even China. That rating is not exactly indicative of an improvement in Ankara's stance towards the media. On the contrary, as CPJ revealed on December 11:

"[T]he fall to 47 journalists in jail from 68 [in 2018] reflects the successful efforts by the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to stamp out independent reporting and criticism by closing down more than 100 news outlets and lodging terror-related charges against many of their staff."

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You, Your Kid and Cannabis....

January 14, 2020 at 4:00 am

     

As legalized marijuana becomes epidemic across the country, Gatestone Institute will be posing serious questions throughout the coming year regarding its potential impact on road and occupational safety; its effect on children and our country's overall health, the role of states to protect society from its potential abuse and what lessons can be applied from the tragedy of driving "under the influence".