Overall, there seems to be nothing new or a change in Chinese political outlook as their mind set appears to be the same.  Zero covid syndrome, Hong Kong & Taiwan issues and politico-military forays into other regions were once again highlighted as national priorities. The exception to the usual proceedings has been a presentation on a non-armed confrontation at sub tactical level that took place at Galwan in June 2020. The presentation was part of CPCs achievements and later Xi also boasted high of this clash.

Inclusion of Qi Fabao, a junior officer who was injured in this clash as part of PLA delegates cannot be missed for its political significance. He has also been part of anti-India narrative in Chinese propaganda machinery since February 2021 wherein he was made one of the torch bearers in the winter Olympics.  Projection of Galwan episode at the highest political level has deeper connotations and one has to read in between the lines to assess Chinese intentions.

This confrontation was a pre meditated deliberate action by China in defiance of agreed protocol for disengagement on unsuspected Indian Commanding Officer and his small team. Despite being outnumbered, the Indian soldiers inflicted heavy casualties on Chinese troops which amounted to a military setback to them. China probably has not reconciled to the fact that their troops were found wanting in taking on Indian soldiers and could not achieve their intended objectives. China has been evasive on number of casualties suffered by them. It speaks volumes of their deceitful practices and utter disrespect to their own fallen soldiers in line of duty.

China is attempting to showcase a military setback as a triumphant achievement through false propaganda. It, obviously, has been done to invoke nationalist sentiments and justify actions of the top leadership, besides assuaging the angst of families of fallen soldiers. At the same time, China is trying to convey a sinister coercive message to India as part of psychological operations.  While such subversive misinformation may appeal to their internal constituency, there are few takers outside China.

The Chinese objective for moving into Eastern Ladakh is assessed to extend her territories through salami slices up to their perception of LAC. Occupation and consolidation of new areas of tactical advantages also seems to be part of their design. However, they were forced to make a partial retreat due to resolute Indian response and threat to vulnerable southern flank. China seems to have orchestrated the Galwan episode to achieve morale ascendency and deter India from executing any move that shows China on back foot. However, Chinese plans have not succeeded so far and only amounted to their loss of face. That is the reason of their consistent evasive conduct and attempts to go slow on process of disengagement in remainder areas.

President Xi Jinping has taken initiative in two major political investments, namely CPEC and complete the unfinished task left in Ladakh by Mao Tse Tung in 1962. The CPEC is not progressing as per planned lines, and China is stuck in Ladakh. Hence, it is a compulsion for Chinese President to take these projects to a logical conclusion lest national ambitions take a beating. Therefore, going back on Ladakh issue is not an option for the President Xi as it is a matter of personal prestige now. They are surely looking for an opportunity to attain position of strength by creating a situation which may be seen as a military victory before they de-escalate.

The composition of new standing committee speaks a lot on the ‘India obsession’ of President Xi. It has three personalities who have dealt with India closely. One has been associated with the foreign affairs and two Generals who have been commanders of Western Theatre Command responsible for operations against India. Out of these one had executed the Doklam intrusion in 2017 and the other one was the Commander till 2019 and probably involved in plans for Ladakh incursion. The President is reported to have used the word ‘security’ 91 times as against 55 times five years ago. It is reflective of his priorities and an indication of things to come during his third term.

Further, China has constructed additional airfields, heliports, roads, bridges, storage shelters and habitat for large number of troops in Aksai Chin close to LAC.  Looking at such facilities, China may well be working on a design to convert LAC into a LOC. Alternately, if China decides to disengage now due to some pressing reasons, they have logistics structures in place to come back again at time of their choosing.  China, therefore, is expected to maintain sufficient forces on permanent basis that would keep India on tender hook.  China would continue her efforts to break the Indian strategic patience by delaying tactics and coercive moves to create psychological stress. It may not happen, given the political will and military resolve displayed by India since China moved into Ladakh.

China is also well aware of Indian strategic leverages over maritime space that has the capability to impact Chinese economic lifeline. Moreover, India being part of QUAD further enhances the deterrence for China not to cross the red line on land borders and Oceanic spread. Accordingly, China seems to be keeping the ‘water warm but not boiling’ as of now waiting for a right moment to strike.

The Chinese hegemonic political conduct under Xi has impacted on her good will and credibility that has impacted her economy and concomitant loss of industrial production and jobs. Add to above, the execution of zero Covid policy has been rather harsh and has alienated the population against the ruling dispensation. In such an environment, the best way to divert the attention of the public is to rake up Taiwan and Ladakh issues to reposition himself as a strong leader. It, obviously, is a self-projection exercise intended to neutralize the criticism under cover of national calling.

Nomination of Xi for the third time is indicative of perpetuating his aggressive policies against India, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indo-Pacific and rest of the world. BRI, a brainchild of Xi would continue to get a boost for economic expansion of China. China would also work towards creating a cartel of Eurasian nations to counter balance the western world in geo political arena. At the same time, she is trying to be politically correct by talks of diplomacy to resolve the contentious issues including ‘one nation two systems’ option and similar middle path solutions. However, taking a cue from Russian intervention in Ukraine and reluctance of western powers to join the war directly, China may be bolder in her future military calculus.

Overall, there is a well calculated mix of hidden threats and play list of psychological warfare indicative of Chinese internal as well as external political assertions. What is consistent and unique in all the Chinese meets is talk of confrontation and jingoism with almost everyone around. This session is no exception to this precedence, reflective of Chinese self centered outlook with centrality of deceit, duplicity and cultural hubris in their political conduct.

It is ‘not an era of war’ was enunciated by Prime Minister Modi recently in context of Ukraine war. It holds good for enduring global peace and harmony. However, China is known to defy sensitivities of rest of the world and act differently.   Apropos, Chinese military adventurism cannot be ruled out in varied theatres of Chinese strategic concerns. Military overtures beyond gun boat diplomacy against Taiwan, or other areas in Indo-Pacific may invite US response, hence unlikely to be upgraded to next level. Also, India figures high in Chinese military matrix as it is the only sector where China has chosen to mobilize the troops since more than two years with a decisive purpose.

India, therefore, has to be prepared for inimical contingencies that may be created by China under Xi who nurtures ambitions of becoming the greatest Chinese leader, and also see the world at his feet. History is replete with political fantasies of dictatorial leaders and their irrational decisions to fulfill them. The events may turn all of a sudden defying all assessments, rationale and logic. It has happened earlier, hence need of utmost caution and operational readiness to defang the dragon.

Given the Indian political will, economic standing, military capabilities and strategic leverages, it may not be easy for China to achieve what they have in their minds. China appears to be unrealistic in their political calculus and continue to be on the wrong side of history with self-ordained legacy narratives.

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Pelosi may have unwittingly fired the first salvo of a conflagration, with the possibility of the US simultaneously at war with China and Russia. Her love for democracy, sympathy for Taiwan and hatred of China may have made her risk being shot down by a Chinese missile when she flew into Taiwan. Her daredevil approach enabled President Biden to pretend that he either did not know or that he did not stop her even though his military did not think “it was a good idea right now.” President Biden went to the extent of telling President Xi that he could not prevent the Speaker or anyone in the Congress from travelling anywhere.

Poised as he is to accept an unprecedented third term in office, President Xi was not ready to take any chances with the “Pelosi Terrorism” and launched a “flagrantly provocative” military drill, consisting of a first time shooting of missiles over Taipei, 66 Chinese Air Force planes and 14 Chinese ships close to Taiwan’s borders, suspension of military talks except at the level of Secretary of Defence or above and climate change negotiations.

Nancy Pelosi’s motivation was not simply to get a last hurrah before she surrendered her Speaker’s gavel after the elections in November. She has earned a place in history as the defender of democracy in Taiwan, whatever happens to Taiwan in the future. Perhaps unwittingly, she has revived the idea of a Hong Kong model solution to Taiwan, which has, of course, been rejected by all sides so far. Significantly, she did not plead for complete independence for Taiwan, only for democracy, though at one point she referred to Taiwan as a country, perhaps a slip of the tongue.

A democratic Taiwan as part of “One China” may be an alternative to a suicidal war. The Chinese have claimed that 160 countries have reiterated their support to One-China principle since Pelosi’s visit. But there are some more who do not support the notion. In fact, as Ambassador Kanwal Sibal has reminded us, the UN vote to replace the Republic of China with the People’s Republic of China at the horse shoe table as a permanent member was not unanimous. But the statistics may change if a formula is worked out, by which One-China may be a reality and not just a notion, once democracy is preserved and protected.

Ironically, the status quo of Taiwan suits everyone, with all options open. A prosperous nation of 23 million people, mostly Han Chinese, with a section of Taiwanese in favour of reunification is not a bad bargain for China. China is convinced that the Taiwanese people would be supportive of reunification, were it not for the “extremist propaganda” by the governing Progressive Democratic Party. The old Kuomintang Party is favourable to friendly ties with China including its claims over Indian territory in the east and the west. Only 64% of the Taiwanese people identify themselves as Taiwanese nationals now, a rise from 20% in 1994. A peaceful reunification cannot be ruled out in the circumstances. As for democracy, the concept is not anathema to China since it already claims that it is the largest democracy in the world! But China has so far rejected all proposals other than reunification.

The US should not be unhappy, with a relatively small financial commitment to protect the island. A Hong Kong model may not be adversarial to US interests, as long as China does not repeat their own tactics in Hong Kong to undo the delicate balance between two systems. A conflict with China and even a rupture in the relations with China can be extremely costly and there is no guarantee of success. The “strategic ambiguity” maintained by the US has descended to “strategic confusion” as a result of the Pelosi visit and keeping an equilibrium will be difficult without a ray of hope and the Hong Kong model may provide a form of relief politically. The US has no territorial ambition, and it has nothing to lose, in absolute terms, by allowing a “one state, two systems” formula.

Interestingly, the Pelosi visit and the consequent dangerous military operations around Taiwan did not cause any undue panic among the Taiwanese. Reports say that Taiwanese tourists went on conducted tours to the islands closer to the flight paths of the Chinese aircraft to have a good view and to take selfies with the planes roaring low in the sky. Perhaps, the Taiwanese were quite sure that there would be no attack in retaliation to the visit. Such a sense of comfort may be misplaced, but the absence of panic was a sign of an eerie confidence even in the face of the greatest threat to the Taiwanese themselves. The fact that the US had not committed to defend Taiwan militarily may have been another cause for comfort.

The Pelosi visit has not enhanced the security of the US, China and Taiwan. There has been a lack of clarity, discipline and coherence in US policy statements. China gained the advantage of being able to test their capabilities in the event of a forceful takeover of Taiwan. Taiwan may be slowly sliding into a situation where a miscalculation could go horribly wrong. But whether Pelosi becomes a Helen of Troy to get men to fight on her account or whether she becomes an angel of peace by bringing about a solution of the Hong Kong variety, she has made herself immortal in the annals of our times.

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Officials from Iran and the six nations that struck the pact – Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States – will meet in Vienna to see if Tehran and Washington can agree to resume compliance with the deal under which Iran curbed its nuclear program to gain relief from U.S., EU and U.N. sanctions.

In 2018 then-President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the pact among the major powers known as the P5+1 and Iran and restored harsh U.S. sanctions, prompting Tehran to begin violating its nuclear restrictions about a year later. “The two presidents had the chance to talk about how we can align our perspectives heading into that (Nov. 29) meeting so that the P5+1 is united in dealing with Iran and trying to pave the way for a return to the (deal),” White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in a virtual think tank appearance.

The U.S.-Iranian talks are indirect, with officials from the other nations shuttling between them, because Iran refuses direct contact with U.S. officials. While China favors reviving the agreement, it has tended to place the onus on the United States, rather than Iran, blaming Washington for having abandoned the deal and giving Tehran an economic lifeline by buying Iranian oil despite U.S. sanctions.

(Reporting By Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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Xi told Biden in the video conference the two countries face multiple challenges together and must increase communication and cooperation.

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Washington is planning to follow the 2016 verdict by the International Court of Justice that thwarted Beijing’s claims over much of the South China Sea. However, Beijing had denied to follow the ICJ ruling.

The Biden administration is following the path of the Trump administration over the South China Sea as the current administration stands behind ICJ’s 2016 ruling that rejected Beijing’s claims over much of the South China Sea. The current administration has also continued the US naval operations in the region that were implemented during the Trump administration, Foreign Affairs said.

Washington’s attempt to counter China at the South China Sea without a collaboration of claimants would be a waste. Recently, the Biden administration’s Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin visited the Philippine capital Manila opening the gate to speed up Washington’s policy on the South China Sea.

The Philippines and Vietnam, elites and the broader public judge Washington’s commitment to the region based in part on whether it defends their maritime rights., Foreign Affairs said.

Washington and Manila’s ties were lowered under former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte as his regime was more inclined towards Beijing. But the recent visit of the defence secretary will certainly strengthen their relations to counter Beijing at the South China Sea.

The US administration should lay the foundation for a coalition to counter China in the region and back the rule-based claims. By planning for increased support for Philippine military modernization and the rotational deployment of U.S. military assets, including missile platforms, in the Philippines, it can strengthen short-term deterrence. And by increasing long-term diplomatic and economic pressure on Beijing, it can help pave the way for a peaceful, equitable resolution of maritime disputes before the window for compromise disappears altogether, reported Foreign Affairs.

Vietnam, a claimant over the South China Sea, has taken strong stances to strengthen its claims over the region in the last five years.

The country has been continuously denouncing China’s claims of sovereignty via diplomatic notes and occasional press statements and has quietly upgraded its defensive capabilities in the Spratly Islands, an expanse of contested reefs and islets claimed in whole or in part by China, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Brunei. Hanoi has slowly deepened security relations with the United States and continues to insist on its offshore oil and gas rights despite increasingly effective Chinese operations to block exploration, said Foreign Affairs.

At a time when Beijing’s control over disputed South China is growing and the path to resolution is narrowing, by acting now Washington and its regional partners can work together to bolster the rules-based order in the South China Sea, Foreign Policy added. (ANI)

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Washington [US], August 3 (ANI): US State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Monday (local time) has said that People’s Republic of China (PRC) interest in Afghanistan could be “an alignment of interest” when it comes to what the United States and China seek in Afghanistan.

“There’s an alignment of interest in at least some areas when it comes to what we seek, what China seeks and what the broader international community seeks in Afghanistan,” Spokesperson Price told ANI on being asked what is US’ assessment of meeting between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Taliban delegation led by its chief negotiator Abdul Ghani Baradar.

The meeting between the Chinese and nine officials from the Taliban group coincided at a time when US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was on his official visit to India. The Chinese invited the Taliban leaders in the coastal city of Tianjin and the optics of that coincidence showed Wang welcoming Baradar, the Taliban’s co-founder and head of its political commission, with open arms, then sitting down for talks with the Taliban delegation.

The display was a sharp contrast to the reception that the Chinese Foreign Minister had offered in Tianjin two days earlier to Wendy R. Sherman, the American deputy secretary of state. The visit was a part of what her office described as ongoing US efforts to hold candid exchanges with Chinese officials to “advance US interests and values and to responsibly manage the relationship.”

US State Department spokesperson Price referred to this meeting and said that the US-China relationship in one word is ‘complex’ and in three terms it is ‘oriented around competition.'”She (Sherman) had an opportunity to explore all three of those areas in a conversation that was candid and expansive, one of those areas where there is at least the potential for some level of cooperation was Afghanistan,” Price stated in the briefing.

Experts say although the US might once have fiercely resisted Chinese attempts to increase their influence inside Afghanistan, now Washington’s priority appears to keep away a civil war. Spokesperson Price also affirmed that is in no one’s interest to see Afghanistan descend into all-out civil war. “It is in everyone’s interest to see a solution to the conflict that is just as durable as Afghan-led, and Afghan Owned” he concluded. (ANI)

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“We will not flinch when our interests are threatened. Yet we do not seek confrontation,” Austin who is on a tour of south-east Asia said during a speech in Singapore.

“I am committed to pursuing a constructive, stable relationship with China, including stronger crisis communications with the People’s Liberation Army. Big powers need to model transparency and communication. We hope we can work together on common challenges, especially climate change,” he said further.

Relations between Washington and Beijing have been fractious, and senior diplomats have traded barbs on several occasions since Biden became president. On Monday, Chinese vice-foreign minister Xie Feng accused the US of treating the country as an “imaginary enemy” in a strong message to the visiting US deputy secretary of state, Wendy Sherman.

The Defence Secretary also decried the actions of Myanmar’s military rulers and urged a regional bloc to keep demanding an end to the violence.

Austin applauded the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for its efforts to solve the crisis, including a consensus reached with Myanmar’s military leader in April.

The five-point document calls for an immediate end to violence and the start of a dialogue among contending parties, with a special ASEAN envoy mediating in the talks. However, a special envoy still hasn’t been appointed.

“The Myanmar military’s refusal to respect the inalienable rights of the Burmese people and to defend their basic well-being is flatly unacceptable,” Austin said, adding a military exists to serve its people, not the other way around. “And so we call on the Myanmar military to adhere to the ASEAN five-point consensus and to forge a lasting peace.”

He said the US will work with partners in the region to urge Myanmar’s military to “move in the right direction” and release civilians it has imprisoned. (ANI)

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China on Friday imposed sanctions on seven US individuals and entity, under Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law, in response to the US penalties imposed on the Hong Kong officials over the crackdown on democracy in the semi-autonomous region.

Reacting to it, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that these actions are the latest examples of “how Beijing punishes private citizens, companies and civil society organizations as a way to send political signals and further illustrate the PRC’s deteriorating investment climate and rising political risk”.

“We’re undeterred by these actions and we will remain fully committed to implementing all relevant U.S. sanctions authorities,” she  said. The sanctions come days before Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman is to visit China, making her the most senior U.S. official to visit the country during the Biden administration. A Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson said, “The US has concocted the so-called ‘Hong Kong Business Advisory’ to groundlessly smear Hong Kong’s business environment, and illegally imposed sanctions on several officials of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong SAR.”

The list of seven US individuals and entity include former US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Louis Ross; Chairman of US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) Carolyn Bartholomew; former Staff Director of Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) Jonathan Stivers; DoYun Kim at National Democratic Institute for International Affairs; senior program manager of the International Republican Institute (IRI) Adam Joseph King; China Director at Human Rights Watch Sophie Richardson, and Hong Kong Democratic Council.

Earlier, a notice by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) indicated that seven Hong Kong-based Chinese officials have been added to OFAC’s list of Specially Designated Nationals. The punitive actions reportedly target individuals from the Hong Kong liaison office. The LOCPG is China’s main platform for projecting its influence in Hong Kong and has repeatedly undermined the high degree of autonomy promised for Hong Kong in the Sino – British Joint declaration. (ANI)

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In a statement on Sunday (local time), the senior administration officials said: “Tomorrow, the US and our allies and partners are exposing further details of the PRC’s pattern of malicious cyber activities and taking further action to counter it, as it poses a major threat to the US and allies’ economic and national security.”

In the announcement which will be made tomorrow morning at 7 am (local time), there will be three things including — an unprecedented group of allies and partners (the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, and NATO) will be joining the US in exposing and criticising the PRC’s Ministry of State Security’s malicious cyber activities.

This is the first time NATO has condemned PRC cyber activities, the officials said via Teleconference. “We will show how the PRC’s MSS — Ministry of State Security — uses criminal contract hackers to conduct unsanctioned cyber operations globally, including for their own personal profit. Their operations include criminal activities, such as cyber-enabled extortion, crypto-jacking, and theft from victims around the world for financial gain,” the officials said.

Second, the National Security Agency, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and Federal Bureau of Investigation — NSA, CISA, and FBI — will expose over 50 tactics, techniques, and procedures Chinese state-sponsored cyber actors used when targeting US and allied networks, along with advice for technical mitigations to confront this threat.

Third, the United States government, alongside our allies and partners, will formally attribute the malicious cyber campaign utilising the zero-day vulnerabilities in the Microsoft Exchange Server disclosed in March — a number of months ago — to malicious cyber actors affiliated with the MSS with high confidence.

Apart from that, tomorrow’s actions will be an example of how we continue to build on the progress made from the President’s first foreign trip. From the G7 and EU commitments around ransomware, to NATO adopting a new cyber defense policy for the first time in seven years, we’re putting forward a common cyber approach with our allies and laying down clear expectations on how responsible nations behave in cyberspace, they added.

In order to protect the American people and interests, the US government announced in April that it conducted cyber operations and pursued proactive network defense actions to prevent systems compromised through the Exchange Server vulnerabilities from being used for ransomware attacks or other malicious purposes.

It also announced earlier that we identified additional vulnerabilities in the Microsoft Exchange Server software and immediately shared them with the company to facilitate the development and release of patches to minimize systemic risk. (ANI)

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“As facts have proven time and again, it is the US that has been forcing companies to install backdoors and obtaining user data in violation of relevant rules. The US itself is the top threat to global cybersecurity,” Wenbin said during a press briefing.

Wenbin stated that the US has long been taking advantage of its advanced tech capacity to run invasive surveillance on people at home and abroad, steal various types of data and violate all kinds of privacy.

“The Patriot Act adopted after 9/11 requires cyber companies to offer regular updates on user information. This move has drawn much attention from around the world. France’s CNIL decided in December last year that the French websites of Google and Amazon breached relevant French law by placing cookies on the computers of users without obtaining prior consent and without providing adequate information. Earlier, Ireland asked Facebook to suspend the transmission of EU user data to the US,” he further said.

“We call on the international community to jointly expose and reject US practices that endanger global cybersecurity and undermine global rules,” he added.

The ties between Washington and Beijing had deteriorated after the US has taken sharply opposing positions against China in various issues including the trace of the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the human rights exploitations of Uyghur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang province. (ANI)

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Pew Research Center recently conducted a survey among the 17 biggest economies of the world– in Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region–which gave extremely negative views about China. The study showed that whereas last year negative views of both countries were at or near historic highs, confidence in the US president has shot up precipitously since Joe Biden took office, while confidence in President Xi Jinping remains unchanged and near historic lows.

Ratings for the Chinese President have been consistently low in many countries, particularly across the Western European nations surveyed, since this question was first asked in 2014. Positive views of the US among advanced economies are improving since President Joe Biden took office, while negative views of China and its President Xi Jinping – who has been on the job since 2013 – continue to hover near historic highs. Large majorities of the countries surveyed hold broadly negative views of China, including 88 per cent of people in Japan, 80 per cent of people in the Netherlands and Sweden, and 78 per cent of people in Australia.

Negative views of China have remained largely unchanged since last year. In some countries, though, they have continued to climb in the wake of bilateral tensions and perceptions that China handled the COVID-19 pandemic poorly, said Pew.

Biden versus Xi

Last year, across Western Europe, more people had confidence in Xi than then US President Trump. A year on, confidence in Xi remains at or near historic lows, with people surveyed saying they have little or no confidence in him. Biden meanwhile has delivered a bounce for views of the US President.

The majority of people in every public surveyed say they have confidence in Biden to do the right thing when it comes to global affairs. Sweden alone saw a 70 percentage-point increase in confidence for the US President since last year. One area where China beats the US in public perceptions is in its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Across all the publics surveyed, a median of 49 per cent says China has done “a good job dealing with the coronavirus outbreak”, compared to 37 per cent for the US. The only place surveyed that thinks Washington has done a better job than Beijing is Japan.

But China continues to trail the US substantially when it comes to the importance of strong economic ties. Around half or more in most places surveyed say it “more important for their nation to have strong economic ties” with the US than China. Only Singapore and New Zealand bucked that trend.

Reflecting high levels of confidence in the US President, overwhelming majorities say Biden is well-qualified for the position, and many see him as a strong leader. Very few view Biden as either dangerous or arrogant. And in most cases, these views are in stark contrast to the views of his predecessor.

The election of Joe Biden as President has led to a dramatic shift in America’s international image. Throughout Donald Trump’s Presidency, the survey around the world held the United States in low regard, with most opposed to his foreign policies. This was especially true among key American allies and partners.

Across advanced economies in Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region, few people think the Chinese government respects the personal freedoms of its people. Coupled with this, unfavourable views of China are also at or near historic highs.

Large majorities in most of the advanced economies surveyed have broadly negative views of China. The unfavourable views have remained largely unchanged since 2020, in the wake of various bilateral tensions as well as a widespread sense that China handled the COVID-19 pandemic poorly.

There is a widespread preference for stronger economic ties with the U.S. over China. In most advanced economies surveyed, a majority – and often a wide majority – say it is more important for these economies to have strong economic ties with the U.S. than with China, the survey revealed.

But, few have confidence in Chinese President Xi Jinping to do the right thing in world affairs. These negative evaluations of him are at or near historic highs in most places surveyed. Xi is aware that China is locked in an ideological struggle with democracies, a battle that US President Joe Biden has termed as ‘existential’ and needs myth-making to keep party cadres ready for ‘sacrifice’. (ANI)

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During the 100th founding anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Xi threatened that any nation who gets in the way of China’s priorities “will find their heads bashed bloody against a great wall of steel”.

In an interview at Fox News, Pompeo urged the Biden administration to take the Chinese threat seriously and that the Chinese President sees America as ‘weak’.

“We’ve seen this now for six months with this administration: unprepared to respond to Chinese aggression,” he said.

The former US diplomat claimed that Biden still refuses to hold China accountable for obstructing a full investigation into the origins of COVID-19 and has yet to penalise Xi’s regime for its oppressive actions against the people of Hong Kong and Xinjiang province.

“The Chinese can see weakness. They can see an administration that’s not prepared to respond in the way the Trump Administration did with clarity and force and resolve. This is what it’s going to take to deter Xi Jinping,” he said.

Pompeo further remarked: “Xi is serious. He has confidence, he’s aggressive. He thinks America is declining. He’s wrong about that but it’s going to take American leadership to prove him wrong.”

As the CCP centenary celebration began, China revelled in what it views as the bedrock of the nation’s global success. However, they will without a doubt fail to mention that tens of millions of people have been killed at the hands of the CCP, according to Fox News.

CCP chief Mao Zedong became China’s leader in 1949 and moved to annex Tibet in 1951, where an estimated 87,000 Tibetans were killed, alongside 2,000 Chinese soldiers. Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama fled into exile, where he has remained since.

Despite Mao’s promises of a “Great Leap Forward”, a massive famine swept China, devastating the country and killing as many as 30 million people.

The Xi-led regime has seen massive human rights violations of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, while Beijing has also moved forward to crush free speech and democracy in Hong Kong. (ANI)

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