As a progressive socialist country whose economic rise is helping to put an end to 500 years of Western imperialism, or as a capitalist-imperial rival to the U.S.? The Biden administration has disappointed many of its supporters by adopting policies and rhetoric with regards to the People’s Republic of China...
If U.S. leaders were really interested in Americans security, they would upgrade public health and housing rather than upgrading the military and thereby encouraging a dangerous arms race with China. Everyone who abhors war, detests imperialism, and favors cooperation between nations on global warming, poverty reduction, protection of biodiversity,...
A recent Pentagon conference on psychological warfare noted that the forces of indoctrination “cannot wait until a crisis begins.” A high-ranking chief at the Department of Defense suggested a model for propaganda, in no way new: “Look at marketing…What makes people drink Coke, what makes people drink Pepsi?” In...
West projecting its own image onto China when labeling it imperialist According to many Western commentators—from the center-left to the far-right—China is the major threat to democracy, climate, peace and sovereignty in the 21st century. It is an issue where Donald Trump and Joe Biden are completely aligned. On the...
Of course, police brutality against peaceful protesters in China and elsewhere is reprehensible and condemnable. When it happens in China, it is particularly heinous—at least from the point of view of Western mainstream media and politicians who are particularly concerned about human rights in China. Only exceptionally does a Western...
We begin today’s show with a remembrance of whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, who passed on June 16 at the age of 92...Then, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken ended his recent trip to China with a 35-minute meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on June 19th. Blinken had also met with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and top diplomat Wang Yi over the weekend. ...
Allegations and accusations that China is trapping Africa into unsustainable debt agreements have dominated the conversation around Africa-China relations in Western media, but what does the data tell us? The reality is that China is canceling 23 loans to African countries amid this 'Debt Trap' debate. We look at the international implications of this claim, what debt trap diplomacy is, and who owns most of Africa's external debts. Featuring Sri Lanka, the African Development Bank, and the “secret” lenders they don’t tell us about, with Mikaela Nhondo Erskog researcher at TriContinental Institute for Social Research and one of the hosts of the new podcast The Crane, an African China podcast by the Dongsheng Collective. Plus: We discuss Mikhail Gorbachev’s legacy, what to make of Biden’s student loan debt moves, Lindsey Graham’s threats of “riots in the streets” if Trump is prosecuted, and more...
Western media described recent protests in China as “mark[ing] a new awakening” and represent a significant challenge to Xi Jinping and the Communist Party of China. After years of leading the world in addressing COVID-19, the Chinese government is indeed relaxing some of the lockdown regulations, but the situation is far more nuanced than the media is reporting.
In the last decade xenophobic tropes intended to stoke fear and loathing of Chinese have accelerated ominously in the American mainstream media as many public officials of both parties label China as our “adversary” or even our “enemy.” This last formulation is deep cause for growing alarm, especially because many...
In 1989, the American public was flooded with iconic images of brave Chinese students standing up to Chinese Communist tanks in Tiananmen Square—students who were then brutally slaughtered by the Chinese military. Or so we were led to believe. But a startling new book reveals that the American public may...