World

China’s communists bash US democracy before Biden summit, says effort doomed to fail

China’s Communist Party took American democracy to task on Saturday, sharply criticizing a global democracy summit being hosted by President Joe Biden next week and extolling the virtues of its governing system.

Party officials questioned how a polarized country that botched its response to COVID-19 could lecture others, and said that efforts to force others to copy the Western democratic model are “doomed to fail.”
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Tian Peiyan, the deputy director of the party’s Policy Research Office, said the pandemic exposed defects in the American system. He blamed the high COVID-19 death toll in the US on political disputes and a divided government from the highest to the lowest levels.

“Such democracy brings not happiness but disaster to voters,” he said at a news conference to release a government report on what the Communist Party calls its form of democracy, which is firmly under party control.

Neither China nor Russia are among about 110 governments that have been invited to Biden’s two-day virtual “Summit for Democracy,” which starts Thursday. The participation of Taiwan, a self-governing democracy that China says should be under its rule, has further angered Beijing.

US-China relations remain strained despite a virtual summit between Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping last month. The US president has repeatedly framed differences with China in his broader call for the US and its allies to demonstrate that democracies can offer humanity a better path toward progress than autocracies.

The Communist Party has ruled China single-handedly since 1949. It says that various views are reflected through consultative bodies and residence committees, but silences most public criticism with censorship and sometimes arrest.

The party argues that strong central leadership is needed to maintain stability in a sprawling country that has been riven by division and war over the centuries.

“In such a large country with 56 ethnic groups and more than 1.4 billion people, if there is no party leadership, … and we uphold the so-called democracy of the West, it will be easy to mess things up and democracy will work the opposite way," Tian said.

The recent difficulties faced by some Western democracies have given Communist Party leaders more confidence in their system as they try to build China into a global power. State media often cite the chaos of the insurrection at the US Capitol after the last presidential election. The report issued Saturday said “today’s world is facing challenges of excessive democracy.”

Chinese officials frequently accuse the US and others of using democracy as a cover to try to suppress China’s rise, a charge echoed at the news conference by Xu Lin, the vice minister of the party’s publicity department.

“The US calls itself a ‘leader of democracy’ and organizes and manipulates the so-called Summit for Democracy," he said. “In fact, it cracks down and hampers countries with different social systems and development models in the name of democracy.”

Xu called it undemocratic for others to demand their form of democracy, saying they have a mixed track record themselves.
“Their domestic governance is messed up, but they point fingers at and criticize other democracies,” he said. "Is this the democracy theyadvertised?”

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World

Pro-Iranian forces in Syria warn they can respond to further US strikes

Pro-Iranian forces in Syria said in an online statement late Friday that they have a “long arm” to respond to further US strikes on their positions, after tit-for-tat strikes in Syria over the last 24 hours.

The statement, signed by the Iranian Advisory Committee in Syria, said US strikes had left several fighters dead and wounded, without specifying their nationality.

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“We have the capability to respond if our centers and forces in Syria are targeted,” the statement said.

Biden vows ‘forceful’ response to Iranian attacks on US troops in Middle East

World

US warns China’s promises often empty as Honduras wavers on Taiwan

China often makes promises in exchange for recognition that remain unfulfilled, the de facto US embassy in Taipei said on Saturday as Honduras moves ahead with ending its long-standing ties with Taiwan in favor of China.

The Honduran foreign minister travelled to China this week to open relations after President Xiomara Castro said her government would move to forge ties with Beijing, Honduras being one of only 14 countries to formally recognize Taiwan.

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At stake is China’s growing footprint in Central America, once a steadfast base for Taiwan and where the United States is worried about Beijing’s expanding influence in its backyard.

China views Taiwan as one of its provinces with no right to state-to-state ties, a view the democratically elected government in Taipei strongly disputes.

The American Institute in Taiwan said that while Honduras’ possible severing of ties with Taipei in favor of Beijing was a sovereign decision, China does not always follow through on its promises.

“It is important to note the PRC often makes promises in exchange for diplomatic recognition that ultimately remain unfulfilled,” a spokesperson said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.

“Regardless of Honduras’ decision, the United States will continue to deepen and expand our engagement with Taiwan in line with our longstanding one China policy,” the spokesperson added.

Taiwan is a reliable, likeminded, and democratic partner, and its partnerships globally provide “significant and sustainable benefits to the citizens of those countries”.

“We strongly encourage all countries to expand engagement with
Taiwan and to continue to stand on the side of democracy, good governance, transparency, and adherence to the rule of law.”

China’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but it has previously said its relations with Taiwan’s former diplomatic allies have brought them real benefits.

The Honduras drama is happening ahead of a high-profile visit by Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen to the United States and Central America next week. Tsai is expected to meet US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles at the end of the trip.

The United States also has no official ties with Taiwan but is the island’s most important international backer and arms supplier.

Neither China nor Honduras has announced they have established diplomatic relations.

Diplomatic sources in Taipei say this is a departure from previous practice whereby an announcement on severing ties with Taiwan in favour of China normally happens very fast, with Taipei getting only maybe a few hours notice beforehand.

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World

Biden says China ‘hasn’t yet’ delivered arms to Russia

US President Joe Biden on Friday said he believed China has not sent arms to Russia after President Vladimir Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine.

“I’ve been hearing now for the past three months (that) China is going to provide significant weapons to Russia… They haven’t yet. Doesn’t mean they won’t, but they haven’t yet,” he told a news conference during a visit to Canada.

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“I don’t take China lightly. I don’t take Russia lightly,” he added, while also suggesting that reports of their rapprochement had probably been “exaggerated.”

Conversely, Biden stressed the strong ties among Western democracies, saying “if anything’s happened, the West has coalesced significantly more.”

He pointed to US security alliances in the Pacific region such as the Quad which also includes Australia, India and Japan and as well as AUKUS with Australia and Britain.

During a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Moscow this week, Russia and Beijing for their part hailed “the special nature” of their relations.

But while China’s leader pledged a trade lifeline and some moral support, more conspicuous was that he did not commit to providing arms for Russia’s depleted forces in Ukraine, a move that would have invited Western sanctions on China.

There was also no long-term Chinese commitment to buy vast quantities of Russian gas that is no longer flowing to Europe.