A white brown bear was recently captured by an infrared camera in the Altai Mountains in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, according to media reports on Tuesday, representing a new breakthrough for scientific research into the species.
Officials from the local forest administration department in Altai Mountains of Xinjiang found moving images of a white brown bear when organizing the footage of an infrared camera, and the bear in the video traveled through the forests, sometimes strolling leisurely, sometimes stopping to observe its surroundings.
One of the officials said that this is the second time since June 2021 that an all-white brown bear has been photographed in a forested area in the region, which could be a new brown bear with certain scientific research value. Employees of the local forest administration will strengthen the protection and detection of the area to ensure ecosystem integrity and biodiversity.
Brown bears are listed under the second class of wildlife protection in China, and are typically highly aggressive.
Brown come in a great variety of coat colors, including gray-black, brown-black, dark brown, brown-red, light tan and gray. Only a very small number of bears are white brown bears, and the probability of such a chance of appearing is only one in 500,000, according to the report.
Amid anticipation of a reported visit to China by new British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Chinese experts noted a renewed focus by the Labour government on China-UK relations. They expressed hope that the Starmer administration would steer the bruised ties back on track.
However, experts remain cautious, emphasizing that tangible actions are crucial in demonstrating sincerity in improving bilateral relations.
According to a report by Bloomberg citing people familiar with the matter, Lammy is considering making a visit to China as part of the new Labour government's efforts to "recalibrate the UK's relationship with Beijing."
It would be the second by a UK foreign secretary in the last six years, following former UK foreign secretary James Cleverly in August 2023.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning did not confirm the report at Wednesday's press briefing, but noted that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi recently met with Lammy in Vientiane, Laos.
"We are positive and open towards enhancing bilateral exchanges and cooperation," Mao said, "A stable and mutually-beneficial China-UK relationship serves the fundamental interests of both peoples, helps the two sides come together to respond to global challenges, and contributes to world peace and development. We hope to work with the UK on the basis of mutual respect and win-win cooperation for new progress in bilateral relations, so as to bring more benefit to both countries and the wider world."
Before taking office, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer had stated that the first thing his government would do is to carry out an "audit" of its relations with Beijing.
Lammy is also rushing to deliver on a promise to launch a China policy review within 100 days, as he believed that the country's former approach to China "oscillated wildly over the past 14 years" of Tory rule and vowed to "adopt a more consistent strategy," Politico reported.
Zhao Junjie, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of European Studies, told the Global Times on Wednesday that Lammy's emphasis on the need for continuity in the UK's China policy aims to maintain a healthy and stable relationship with Beijing, and refrain from tilting the balance completely toward the US.
"And because of the emphasis on continuity, the new government is likely to uphold the relatively friendly approach toward China by previous Labour leader Tony Blair.
What's more, with Labour's advocacy in many significant areas such as green economy, energy transition and climate change response, there is a lot of common ground with China, providing a sound basis for cooperation," Zhao noted.
The AP published an article on Monday under a headline: "Chinese businesses hoping to expand in the US and bring jobs face uncertainty and suspicion." What the article describes is beyond regrettable and truly deplorable. "Chinese businesses are coming to the US with money, jobs and technology, only to find rising suspicion," the report said.
The US has always touted itself as the world's best destination for inward foreign direct investment, but the investment environment in the US is deteriorating. In recent years, the US has generalized the "national security" concept, abused export controls and drawn up discriminatory lists aimed at cracking down on Chinese companies. In the process, Washington has come to view normal business competition through a geopolitical lens. The US is largely in a mode of zero-sum games and treats China with a lot of suspicion and even hostility. All of this will deal a serious blow to investor confidence.
An economic dilemma is brewing in the US. A zero-sum mentality has disturbed the order and atmosphere of international cooperation, and undermined foreign investors' confidence. However, the US economy urgently needs foreign investment in manufacturing and high-tech industries. This means the country needs an open environment to attract international investment.
For a long time, there has been much discussion about measures to revive manufacturing in the US, but the manufacturing sector is still facing challenges and difficulties. A measure of US manufacturing activity dropped to an eight-month low in July amid a slump in new orders. The Institute for Supply Management said last week that its manufacturing purchasing managers' index dropped to 46.8 in July, the lowest reading since November, from 48.5 in June, according to Reuters.
Instead of relying solely on persuading US manufacturers to reshore their operations from overseas to revitalize the US manufacturing sector, the country should step up efforts to attract the world's first-class manufacturers, including Chinese companies, to invest in the US.
China's manufacturing development has ranked among the top tiers in the world. Now, the country is home to a number of first-class manufacturing companies. These enterprises have advantages in fields such as the next-generation information technology industry, 5G, high-end computer numerical control machines, robots, energy conservation, new-energy vehicles and lithium batteries.
The danger for America is that by generalizing the "national security" concept, it will progressively isolate itself from the world's first-class competitive enterprises as the rest of the world continues to spare no effort to attract manufacturing investment. As America inadvertently isolates itself, it gets more frustrated. The more failed Washington's economic policy is, the more hysterical US politicians will be to politicize economic issues. That's the risk.
Expenditures by foreign direct investors to acquire, establish or expand US businesses totaled $148.8 billion in 2023, according to preliminary statistics released in July by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis. Expenditures decreased $57.4 billion, or 28 percent, from $206.2 billion in 2022 and were below the annual average of $265.6 billion for 2014-2022. It's a microcosm of the US economy, which has been losing vitality.
Some US politicians may hope their suppression of Chinese companies won't affect the confidence of investors from other countries, but those people are going to be deeply disappointed by the result. Skepticism of Chinese investment, as well as Washington's tightened suppression of Chinese companies, represent a rise of protectionism and economic nationalism in the US. This marks a deterioration in the US business climate and a step backward in economic and ideological openness, which will undermine the confidence of all foreign investors.
China and the US have one of the world's most important and complex bilateral relationships. The potential for economic cooperation is big, and US politicians obviously still value the China market. We sincerely hope Washington can provide fair treatment to Chinese companies and promote mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged further efforts to preserve the country's cultural and natural treasures and renew their glamour in the new era.
Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks in an instruction on strengthening the protection, preservation and utilization of cultural and natural heritage.
The instruction was made after one cultural heritage and two natural heritages of China were inscribed on the World Heritage List by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in July 2024.
UNESCO announced the inscription of Beijing Central Axis: A Building Ensemble Exhibiting the Ideal Order of the Chinese Capital, Badain Jaran Desert -- Towers of Sand, and Lakes, and Migratory Bird Sanctuaries along the Coast of Yellow Sea-Bohai Gulf of China (Phase II) on its list at the 46th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee held in New Delhi, India.
The inclusion of these heritage items has positive significance for the building of Chinese modernization that features material and cultural-ethical advancement and harmony between humanity and nature, Xi said, noting that it also adds new luster to world civilizations.
Xi called for efforts to take this UNESCO inclusion as an opportunity to further strengthen the comprehensive and systematic protection of cultural and natural heritage and make good use of them to better meet the people's needs.
He also urged enhanced international exchange and cooperation in this field, and efforts to make greater contribution to the practice of the Global Civilization Initiative and the building of a community with a shared future for humanity.
Currently, China is home to a total of 59 World Heritage Sites.
Italian Nicolò Balini is a travel vlogger on YouTube with over 1 million subscribers. In June of this year, he embarked on his second trip to China, visiting cities such as Macao, Xi'an, and Chongqing, amassing over 2 million views on YouTube. One of Nicolò's key features is his refusal to just skim through the surface. For instance, when taking the high-speed train, he provided a detailed introduction to the development history of China's railway construction. When visiting the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, he narrated the painstaking efforts of Chinese scientists in wildlife conservation. His extensive and detailed research has won praise from Chinese viewers.
This year marks the 700th anniversary of the death of Italian explorer Marco Polo. More than 700 years ago, Marco Polo's journey to China opened the door to the East for the Western world. Through the information and experiences he brought back, Westerners learned about a China with a splendid civilization, thereby promoting mutual understanding and learning between Eastern and Western civilizations. Today, foreign internet influencers, including Nicolò, are introducing the real China to Western audiences through their smartphones and camera lenses. Due to their status as internet influencers, they are collectively referred to as "Marco Bloggers."
The rising popularity of "Marco Bloggers" on social media, both at home and abroad, vividly reflects the enormous desire and enthusiasm of people from both the East and the West for civilizational exchange and mutual learning. This desire once supported Marco Polo's journey across oceans and deserts; in today's globalized world, it helps people overcome the barriers of geopolitical and ideological biases. In Marco Polo's era, distant China was mysterious to Westerners; today, the hindrance to Westerners' objective understanding of China is the stereotypes shaped by some Western media outlets. Marco Polo profoundly changed the way Westerners viewed the world; today's Western audiences break the information cocoon of "Western centrism" through the videos of "Marco Bloggers," thereby witnessing a real, multi-dimensional, and rapidly evolving modern China.
China needs to understand the world, and the world also wants to understand China. Whether it is Marco Polo or "Marco Bloggers," an open and inclusive China always opens its arms to friends from around the world. Since the beginning of this year, in order to facilitate the entry of foreign tourists, China has made great efforts to optimize visa policies and improve the convenience level of payment and accommodation. Recently, Chongqing launched a one-stop online application for entry port visa services, the first digitalized entry port visa project in China, and the Beijing PASS, a multi-purpose card for international visitors, is currently being tested. The efficiency and governance of China that foreign bloggers admire are accumulated from such meticulous work and solid progress.
In addition to high-speed trains and electric cars, what impresses foreign bloggers the most is the sincerity and friendliness of the Chinese people. When a stranger helped traveler Amir Malik pay for the subway ticket directly, when two Beijing alley elders chatted with a British couple, tourism bloggers Jack and Paige, despite the language barrier, many Chinese and foreign netizens are moved to tears. Many foreign bloggers also mention that the integrity of the Chinese people has left a deep impression on them. Whether in a supermarket in Guangzhou or a morning market in Shenyang, when they hand over their phone payment interface to a Chinese merchant who doesn't speak the same language, they have never encountered a situation where the payment was made incorrectly. Just like the British couple exclaimed, "what an amazing people!" This is the significance of cultural exchange, different civilizations can understand each other better through dialogue and communication on the basis of mutual respect and tolerance. In the process, they can also better understand themselves through the understanding of others.
At the same time, we also noticed a regrettable phenomenon: Many foreign bloggers have clarified in their videos that they have not accepted any so-called "funds" to do propaganda for China. A pair of Irish bloggers even directly questioned why they have been to so many countries, but only their videos in China were questioned as "propaganda." For Western media, this question should be enlightening. However, on August 1, a reporter from The New York Times published two articles within two hours, distorting and smearing Chinese inbound tourism by taking foreign bloggers' videos out of context. It seems that the pressure brought by those "Macro Bloggers" to The New York Times is not small, may have even irritated it. This is the power of truth. Don't say two articles in two hours, even if there are more lies, how can they overcome the truth?
From Marco Polo to "Marco Bloggers," the encounter of different civilizations has not only led to clashes of civilizations, but also brought about a blending of civilizations. The stories of ordinary people meeting and interacting, from the most simple and real perspective, have added a vivid and convincing footnote to the Global Civilization Initiative. In today's world where the future and destiny of countries are closely linked, only by strengthening dialogue among civilizations based on mutual respect and inclusiveness, promoting exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations, can we eliminate barriers, alienation, and hostility, and can we uphold the beauty of each civilization and the diversity of civilizations in the world. These are the inspirations that "Marco Bloggers" bring to our time.
Hong Liang, Director-General of the Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs of the Chinese Foreign Ministry and Gourangalal Das, Joint Secretary of the East Asia Division of Ministry of External Affairs of India co-chaired the 30th Meeting of Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination (WMCC) on China-India Border Affairs in New Delhi on Wednesday.
The recent interactions between China and India are seen as crucial for building positive momentum toward addressing border issues and stabilizing bilateral relations, analysts said, also urging Indian side to intensify efforts in collaboration with China to further improve bilateral relations.
During the meeting on Wednesday, the two sides agreed to actively implement the important common understandings reached at the recent bilateral meeting between the two foreign ministers, focus on specific issues related to the China-India border, accommodate each other's legitimate concerns and reach a mutually acceptable solution at an early date, according to a release of Chinese foreign ministry.
The two sides also agreed to maintain communication through diplomatic and military channels, strengthen negotiation mechanism building, speed up the negotiation process, and turn over a new leaf in the border situation at an early date so as to promote the sound and steady development of China-India relations. The two sides agreed to strictly abide by the agreements already reached and continue to maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas.
The meeting came against the backdrop of a series of interactions between China and India. On July 25, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in Vientiane, Laos on the sidelines of a series of ASEAN meetings.
Also on July 4, Wang met with Jaishankar in Astana, Kazakhstan, on the sidelines of a two-day meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, during which the two sides agreed to commit to stabilizing the border areas and hold a new round of consultations addressing border issues.
There are some positive signals coming from China-India relations, however, without breakthroughs on the core issue of border affairs, it will not be easy to see more improvement in bilateral relations, Long Xingchun, a professor from the School of International Relations at Sichuan International Studies University, told the Global Times on Thursday.
Long said that while China maintains that border issues do not encompass the entirety of bilateral relations, India insists that resolving these issues are crucial for returning bilateral relations toward a normal trajectory.
Based on current momentum, India may consider making tactical adjustments that align with its interests. For instance, there is increasing discussion in India about relaxing visa restrictions for needed Chinese engineers and lifting restrictions on Chinese investments, Long said.
Some analysts hold a cautiously optimistic view on future bilateral relations, noting that with no major changes observed in India's China policies during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's third term, shifts in political mindset may be challenging for Indian politicians.
However, exchanges at various levels combined with people-to-people interactions can serve as a bridge for mutual understanding between the two countries, they said, noting that China has consistently maintained an open and welcoming stance towards Indians, and New Delhi should reciprocate by taking similar steps to foster more positive factors for bilateral relations.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday arrived in Lao capital Vientiane to attend the ASEAN meetings and other events against the backdrop of turbulence in the South China Sea, but analysts believed the tensions will not have a major impact on the main course of cooperation.
The Philippines hopes to utilize the ASEAN events to endorse its stance, but other ASEAN members understand the complexity and sensitivity of the topic, and recognize the bloc's priority as being development and prosperity, they said.
Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, met with general secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee and Lao President Thongloun Sisoulith in Vientiane on Thursday.
Wang said the third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee proposed more than 300 reform tasks, outlined a blueprint for deepening reform across the board, and sent a clear signal that reform and opening-up will always be in progress.
China appreciates that Laos has always stood with China on issues concerning China's core interests and major concerns, and will continue to be the most reliable friend and partner of Laos, ready to enhance experience sharing with Laos on governance, Wang said.
China firmly supports Laos in exploring a development path suited to its own and in safeguarding its national sovereignty and dignity, willing to deepen all-round cooperation with Laos, strengthen comprehensive development along the China-Laos Railway and promote connectivity to boost Laos' economic development, said the foreign minister.
During the meeting, Thongloun said that the important conclusions and innovative achievements of the third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee have provided important references for Laos to promote the socialist cause.
In his meeting with Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone on Thursday, Wang said both sides should carry forward their traditional friendship, deepen their construction of a China-Laos community with a shared future, and achieve high-standard, high-quality and high-level collaboration and coordination, making their relationship one of the best among China's neighboring countries.
Sonexay Siphandone said the country stands ready to promote a new version of the action plan on building a Laos-China community with a shared future and expand practical cooperation with China on all fronts, Xinhua reported.
The prime minister said that the Laos-China Railway provided strong momentum for Laos to transform from a land-locked to a land-linked nation, adding that the country welcomes more capable Chinese enterprises to invest in Laos, helping to deepen regional interconnectivity and safeguard regional supply chain stability.
From Thursday to Saturday, Wang will attend the ASEAN-China Foreign Ministers' Meeting, the ASEAN Plus Three Foreign Ministers' Meeting, the East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers' Meeting and the ASEAN Regional Forum Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Vientiane and pay an official visit to Laos, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday.
The ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting convened on Thursday, to be followed by meetings with East Asian countries and other global players including Russia, the US and the EU.
Cooperation priorities
Ge Hongliang, vice dean of the ASEAN College at the Guangxi Minzu University, told the Global Times on Thursday that the foreign ministers' meetings, routinely held annually, will prepare for the leaders' meeting in the second half of the year and serve as an opportunity to review the progress and specify further plans to jointly build a peaceful, safe and secure, prosperous, beautiful and amicable homeland.
Ge named infrastructure, economic growth, the South China Sea and external hotspot issues as areas in which China and ASEAN will have in-depth exchanges.
The 57th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting started in Vientiane on Thursday under the theme of "ASEAN: Enhancing Connectivity and Resilience," as the region, like many others in the world, faces myriad challenges, including lingering economic and financial difficulties, climate change, natural disasters, and traditional and non-traditional security issues, according to the official website.
ASEAN's choice of main theme suggested that the bloc has an urgent need to further boost its economy, and improving infrastructure, particularly transportation and energy, is a key task as it has prevented economic development from going faster, Ge said.
Southeast Asia's first bullet train route, the Jakarta-Bandung High-speed Railway, was built with Chinese assistance; In the first five months of 2024, the China-Laos railway carried 2.3 million tons of freight, an increase of 31 percent compared to the same period in 2023.
Despite a better economic performance than a few years ago, many Southeast Asian economies still face pressure from inflation and fiscal budgets, and are compelled to stabilize industrial chain and build up economic resilience in the era of Industry 4.0, which demands close cooperation with China, Ge said.
Also among the topics on the agenda will be negotiations on the China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) Version 3.0, which is expected to inject new momentum into bilateral trade, Ge said.
The expert also mentioned some non-regional hot spot issues that would impact the international environment, namely the Russia-Ukraine crisis and the war in Gaza, which China and the ASEAN members have similar stances on.
Not a confrontational sea
The South China Sea will definitely be an integral part of China-ASEAN exchanges, and the situation this year is more complex, given frictions between China and the Philippines under the shadow of US intervention, analysts said.
ASEAN will likely welcome the "provisional arrangement" reached between Beijing and Manila at the Ren'ai Jiao, or Ren'ai Reef concerning the illegally grounded Philippine warship, and negotiations on the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC) will continue to make some progress, Ge said.
Divergence on some core texts will remain a thorny issue during the third reading, and the frictions at sea have cast a shadow over political mutual trust and poisoned the atmosphere, not to mention interference from external forces, Ding Duo, deputy director of the Institute of Maritime Law and Policy at China's National Institute for South China Sea Studies, told the Global Times on Thursday. "There will be progress, but it might be limited; and certain countries might shift the blame to China for not making substantial progress."
However, Ding believed ASEAN will not allow a confrontational atmosphere to override the platform's basic position of disputes over the South China Sea being addressed directly by the countries involved, and ASEAN should join hands with China to safeguard peace and stability in the region.
The Philippines hopes to utilize the ASEAN events to endorse its claims, but other ASEAN members are aware that disputes are not solely between China and the Philippines - some countries have a row with Manila that is no less serious than that between Beijing and Manila, Ding explained.
They understand the Philippines' attempts to take advantage of them, and that the US is standing behind it, so they are cautious of echoing the Philippines' views amid the frictions, Ding said.
Actually, there are other countries that have disputes with China, but none of them has moved as close to the US as the Philippines in the strategic sense, Ding noted, "Manila is quite an outcast in the region."
The Philippines submitted to a United Nations body a proposal to formally recognize the extent of its undersea continental shelf, which Malaysia has publicly opposed, saying it clearly disregards Malaysia's indisputable sovereignty over the state of Sabah, according to media reports.
Reuters reported Wednesday that the Philippines will in Vientiane propose the creation of an ASEAN Coast Guard Forum between its members to enable dialogue and law enforcement, according to its senior diplomat Theresa Lazaro, a plan likely to rile China.
Ding said that although the Philippines is eyeing closer intra-ASEAN coast guard cooperation with China in mind, the mechanism itself should not be interpreted as China-targeted. "We should analyze it case by case based on specific items, types and scope of such cooperation."
The China coast guard has also cooperated with its counterparts in ASEAN members in recent years, including Vietnam and Cambodia, and exploring the possibility of ASEAN-China Coast Guard Forum cannot be ruled out, Ding said.
Resilience to intervention
Although some analysts believe the US will try to sow discord between China and ASEAN, and mobilize the Philippines to create trouble, both Ding and Ge are optimistic that ASEAN can uphold centrality and resist the intervention and negative impact of external forces.
ASEAN does not want to focus excessively on South China Sea and marginalize the key agenda of regional cooperation, solidarity and ASEAN's international status, or divert the main course of the China-ASEAN relationship, Ding said, "the stability and resilience of the relationship determines that it can withstand the test."
Ge compared this year with 2012 when China and the Philippines also had fierce frictions in the South China Sea.
While maintaining the basic line of avoiding getting involved in major power competition, ASEAN members are increasingly clear about who is the peacekeeper and who is the troublemaker militarizing the region, Ge said.
Indonesia, the ASEAN chair of 2023, warned in February last year not to use Southeast Asia as a "proxy" for their rivalries amid reports of an enhanced military pact between the US and the Philippines. Washington and Manila formally upgraded the treaty months later in May and in April 2024, and involved Japan in a trilateral summit to form a structure targeting China.
Despite receiving immediate benefits from industrial relocation from China-US trade frictions, ASEAN rejects excluding China from the landscape out of concerns that the supply chain may become very turbulent, Ge said.
Ge believes that ASEAN could have started to consider whether the rosy picture painted by the US can be realized given the development of the US elections.
There have been records of US withdrawal after turning a region into total mess, and the ASEAN would not allow the same scenario to be copied in Southeast Asia when the US is trying to start a new Cold War in the region, analysts said.
Eighteen days have passed since Israel launched its bombardment offensive against the besieged Gaza Strip, following a deadly attack on October 7 by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. The conflict had killed more than 5,000 Palestinians, about 40 percent of which were children, and about 1,400 Israelis as of Monday, according to media reports.
Many countries, including China, have openly called on relevant parties to remain calm, exercise restraint, and immediately end hostilities, to protect civilians and avoid further loss of life.
While the US, in sharp contrast, is actively transporting more lethal weapons to Israel, demonstrating conspicuous support for its "close ally," as it has done in many previous bloody conflicts in the region.
The US is also the sole vote against a United Nations Security Council resolution on Wednesday that would have condemned Hamas' attack on Israel while calling for a pause in the fighting to allow humanitarian assistance into Gaza, with 12 members voting in favor and Russia and the UK abstaining.
US President Joe Biden visited Israel on October 18, "putting himself in harm's way to show that he stands squarely with the country," according to US media sources. Before his arrival, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed that Israel "has the right to defend itself," when announcing Biden's Israel visit.
The US' unsurprising one-sided support, including its military aid, will likely escalate the already fraught situation between Israel and Hamas, and reduce the likelihood of peace talks between the two sides in the near future. That may lead to further catastrophic loss of life, warned some experts in international relations and Middle East affairs reached by the Global Times. Heightened tensions
Despite footage of innocent children killed in airstrikes causing a global outcry, the US is sending more arms and ammunition to Israel, intensifying the running gun battle on the ground.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced over the weekend that Washington is sending multiple military ships and the USS Gerald R. Ford, the world's largest aircraft carrier, "as a show of force to its closest ally in the region," Al Jazeera reported.
"I have directed the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group (CSG) to begin moving to the Eastern Mediterranean…the Eisenhower CSG will join the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group, which arrived earlier this week," read a statement by Austin published on the US Department of Defense website, on October 14. Previously, the US Air Force had announced the deployment of F-15, F-16 and A-10 fighter aircraft squadrons to the region.
Increased US force posturing signals the country's "ironclad commitment to Israel's security," said the statement.
As Israel has an absolute military advantage over Hamas, the US' military support for Israel is more of a political tool for the Biden administration to demonstrate its allyship to Israel and its domestic politicians, analyzed Chinese observers.
It is in the US' domestic interests to militarily aid Israel, said Li Weijian, a research fellow at the Institute for Foreign Policy Studies at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies. "Supporting Israel is politically correct in the US, a country with more than 6 million people of Jewish heritage, many of whom make up the core of the US' political and public opinion power, with positions in major government departments and media outlets," Li told the Global Times.
"Biden has announced his reelection bid for 2024 presidential elections. Aiding Israel at this moment can bring him more domestic support," Li said.
Biden is counting on successfully brokering the normalization of Saudi-Israeli relations to boost his performance in the Middle East before the presidential elections in 2024, said Niu Xinchun, a research fellow at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations in Beijing.
However, the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas "may not only sink the deal, but also likely to deal a heavy blow to Biden's performance in the election," Niu told the Global Times.
After the conflict broke out, some lawmakers in the US urged Biden to communicate that Israel's response to Hamas' attack must limit harm to civilians and adhere to international law. "We write to express our concerns regarding the unfolding humanitarian situation in Gaza," read the letter to Biden and Blinken, signed by 55 lawmakers.
The letter listed five requests to the Biden administration, including putting pressure on Israel to adhere to international law and helping set up a humanitarian corridor, reported The Hill on October 13.
The US' one-sided military aid has only served to heightened tensions. Worse still, due to the lack of supervision, US aid to Israel is not transparent enough and is suspected of abetting war crimes, warned observers.
There has been one US politician who caused great controversy due to his Israeli military background.
Brian Mast, a member of the US Congress, with a seat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, reportedly arrived to work on October 13 in the uniform of the Israeli military. "As the only member to serve with both the United States Army and the Israel Defense Forces, I will always stand with Israel," he posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that morning.
According to US-based news site Grayzone, Mast previously served in the US military in Afghanistan. He volunteered as a bomb disposal specialist for the Israeli army during its 2014 assault on the Gaza Strip. The assault resulted in the death of 2,202 Palestinians, including 526 children.
"Is it appropriate that someone who has served in a foreign military be allowed to return to the United States and serve on such a sensitive government committee, earning a security clearance along the way?" asked Grayzone. US 'always be there'
When speaking with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Blinken promised that the US will "always be there" for Israel, the BBC reported on October 12.
Blinken was not mistaken in his assertion. The US indeed has always been there for Israel for more than 70 years, constantly providing the country with weapons, allowing it to maintain the most powerful militaries in the Middle East, and complementing it with advanced surveillance and weapons.
According to a report published by the Congressional ReAccording to a report published by the Congressional Research Service under the US Congress on March 1, 2023, Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of US foreign assistance since World War II. To date, the US has provided Israel with $158 billion in bilateral assistance and missile defense funding.
In 2016, the US and Israeli governments signed their third 10-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on military aid, under which the US pledged to provide $38 billion in military aid ($33 billion in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) grants plus $5 billion in missile defense appropriations) to Israel, according to the report.
In addition to the $3.8 billion yearly aid as per the MOU, the US also added $98.58 million this year in funding for other cooperative defense and nondefense programs, read the report.
Almost all US bilateral aid to Israel so far has been in the form of military assistance, with some observers noting that the aid is, in fact, a subsidy to the US military industry.
To date, Israel has purchased 50 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters in three separate contracts, funded with US assistance, and has received a total of 36. For the fiscal year 2023, the US Congress authorized $520 million for joint US-Israel defense programs (including $500 million for missile defense).
According to the BBC, $1.6 billion of US military aid to Israel since 2011 was for the country's Iron Dome short-range anti-rocket, anti-mortar, and anti-artillery system (intercept range of 2.5 to 43 miles). Developed by Israel's Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and originally produced in Israel, the system was first tested in 2011.
As a US pawn in the Middle East, Israel serves the US' geographical and defense industry interests. Their decades of special partnership have a historical background known to the whole world, said Li weijian.
Nonetheless, the US continued to support Israel while avoiding the question of Palestinian statehood. "Such a partiality is very unreasonable," Li said.
"The Israel-Palestine conflict will never be resolved without a solution to the question of Palestinian statehood," Li said. "It's Palestine's right to found a state, and the US should not [have a hand] in it."
But the US' goal maybe is never to help achieve a resolution to any conflict, not only the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but every other conflict in the world such as that between Russia and Ukraine.
The US' response to conflicts is always to escalate the violence instead of encouraging peace. This is because war brings losses and pains to most countries and regions in the world, but the US is one of the few that can exploit the conflict for sickening profits.
Take a look at the performance of US defense stocks this week. The nearly 9 percent rise in Lockheed Martin's stock on Monday was the biggest for the largest US defense contractor on a non-earnings day since March 2020. Northrop Grumman shares also had their best day since 2020.
On a recent earnings call, executives of US defense giant Lockheed Martin highlighted the Israel and Ukraine conflicts "as potential drivers for increased revenue in the coming years," according to a CNN article on October 18.
The US' military support policy to Israel, as well as to other countries or regions, is always out of realistic consideration and aimed to serve the US' own global strategic needs, experts pointed out.
Instead of contributing to the maintenance of world peace, the US has continued to fuel the escalation and continuation of various conflicts so as to bring fortunes to its military-industrial complex, but it comes at the expense of people's lives. But the approach of relying on wars to get enough orders is dangerous to the world. The world cannot afford to allow them to continue making profits from misfortunes in other countries and regions, experts noted.
China released the 2023 Report on Xinjiang's Human Rights and Legal Protections, which is Xinjiang's first blue book of its kind, on Wednesday in Urumqi, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, comprehensively demonstrating the efforts and achievements of promoting high-quality development of human rights cause in Xinjiang in Chinese modernization drive.
The newly released blue book is the first book led by scholars that examines Xinjiang's human rights and legal protections as well as future directions of the people in Xinjiang from an academic perspective, which is groundbreaking, Chang Jian, director of the Human Rights Research Center at Nankai University, told the Global Times on Wednesday at the 2023 Idea and Story Sharing Conference: Promoting High-Quality Development of Human Rights Cause in Xinjiang in Chinese Modernization Drive, where the blue book was published.
Erkin Tuniyaz, chairman of the people's government of Xinjiang region, revealed at the event that currently the overall social situation in Xinjiang remains stable, and there have been no incidents of violent terrorism for nearly seven years. The public's sense of security has reached an unprecedented level. In the eyes of tourists, Xinjiang has become "a place with the best public security management, the safest social environment and the most secure stability." The number of tourists to Xinjiang has increased from 48.6 million in 2012 to 260 million this year, reaching a historic high.
Over the past decade, Xinjiang's GDP has increased from 0.84 trillion yuan ($0.12 trillion) in 2013 to 1.77 trillion yuan in 2022, doubling in size. Per capita disposable income has increased from 13,700 yuan in 2013 to 27,000 yuan in 2022, with an average annual growth rate of over 8 percent. Many economic indicators have outperformed the national average, and the people of all ethnic groups are richer with more development opportunities.
For many years, more than 70 percent of the local fiscal expenditure has been used to guarantee and improve people's livelihoods. The average life expectancy has increased from over 30 years at the establishment of the autonomous region to 75.65 years today, according to a senior official.
The official added that Xinjiang attaches great importance to the excavation, inheritance, and protection of the excellent traditional cultures of all ethnic groups. For example, Uygur Muqam art, Uygur Meshrep and the Kirgiz epic Manas have been included in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The promotion and standardized use of the national common language has been vigorously promoted in Xinjiang, and the languages and scripts of all ethnic groups have been widely used in education, judiciary, administration and social public affairs.
According to Erkin, in recent years, Xinjiang has actively expanded the ways for people of all ethnic groups to acquire religious knowledge and translated and published religious scriptures in multiple languages. Xinjiang has built a new campus for Islamic theological colleges and established eight branch campuses in Ili, Hotan, Kashi, and other areas, cultivating a group of high-quality Islamic talents. In particular, for religious activity venues such as mosques, Taoist temples, and Buddhist temples that have been in disrepair for a long time, Xinjiang has effectively improved their conditions by respecting the wishes of religious believers. This has been achieved through new construction, renovation, and expansion, ensuring the unhindered continuation of regular religious activities.
Practice has shown that the development of human rights in Xinjiang is in line with China's national conditions and the reality of Xinjiang, meeting the expectations of people of all ethnic groups, as well as the basic spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Erkin said.
However, some countries turn a blind eye to the increasingly prominent human rights issues in their own countries, and wear colored glasses to criticize the human rights situation in Xinjiang, using human rights issues to interfere in China's domestic affairs, Erkin noted.
The people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang are the ones who know best whether the path of human rights in Xinjiang is right or not. The people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang have the most say in whether the human rights situation in Xinjiang is good or not, the regional senior official remarked.
Chang stated that some countries in the international community have weaponized human rights issues to strategically contain China, desperately smearing China's human rights situation. Xinjiang, as a focus of attention, has been falsely portrayed as a region with "forced labor," despite the fact that cotton harvests are good, mechanization levels are high, and efforts have been made to improve the employment rights of the people.
In this context, we have proactively released the blue book to show the outside world and help them understand, how the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang live, showing them experiences of individuals and personal stories. This can clarify the facts and enable the international community to see the true situation of human rights protection in Xinjiang, Chang stressed.
About 200 experts and scholars in the field of human rights from universities and research institutions inside and outside Xinjiang, media journalists, representatives of relevant departments and people sharing their personal stories attended the event on Wednesday.
By sharing touching stories and personal experiences, 10 representatives from various industries and fields in Xinjiang truly demonstrated the development and progress of Xinjiang's human rights cause.
