US warns Beijing against using force in South China Sea
"Opinion - How to rein in China without risking war is the issue Biden must address"
State department concerned by new laws that authorise Chinese coastguard to use weapons against foreign ships
Chinese coastguard ships have been authorised to use weapons against foreign ships which Beijing thinks have illegally entered waters it considers China’s. Photograph: Reuters Staff/Reuters
Agence France-Presse Sat 20 Feb 2021 14.53 AEDT
The United States has warned China against the use of force in disputed waters as it reaffirmed its view that Beijing’s assertive campaign in the South China Sea .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/south-china-sea .. is illegal.
The state department voiced “concern” about new legislation enacted by China .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/china .. that authorises its coastguard to use weapons against foreign ships that Beijing considers to be unlawfully entering its waters.
The text “strongly implies this law can be used to intimidate the PRC’s maritime neighbours,” state department spokesperson Ned Price said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
“We remind the PRC and all whose forces operate in the South China Sea that responsible maritime forces act with professionalism and restraint in the exercise of their authorities,” Price told reporters.
In the statement, Pompeo declared that Beijing’s claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea were “completely unlawful”.
The United States has long rejected China’s sweeping claims in the strategic waterway but Pompeo went further by explicitly backing the positions of south-east Asian nations such as the Philippines and Vietnam rather than staying out of the disputes.
The new secretary of state, Antony Blinken, earlier voiced concern about the Chinese maritime law in a call with his Japanese counterpart, Toshimitsu Motegi.
Blinken at the time reaffirmed that the Senkaku islands in the East China Sea – also claimed by Beijing, which calls them the Diaoyu, and Taiwan – fell under a security treaty that commits the United States and Japan to each other’s defence.
China's parliament remakes Hong Kong in its own image
"Opinion - How to rein in China without risking war is the issue Biden must address "Slaughter in the East China Sea "The Dispute About the South China Sea Is Also a Dispute About History and America's Role [...] South China Sea Dispute Timeline: A History Of Chinese And US Involvement In The Contested Region"""
By John Sudworth BBC News, Beijing
Published 13 hours ago
Getty Images
For almost 24 years, Hong Kong has been a kind of unwitting political laboratory, the subject of an experiment centred on the defining ideological divide of our time.
Could two entirely incompatible sets of values - authoritarianism and democracy - be held together, if not in harmony, then at least in some kind of mutual accommodation, in one city?
This was exactly what the Sino-British deal of 1984 had in mind as it laid the groundwork for the territory's eventual handback to China in 1997.
"One Country, Two Systems", as the formula is known, is meant to allow Hong Kong to continue until at least 2047 with its free speech, its independent courts and its vibrant - if limited - democracy, while the new sovereign power maintains its rigid, one-party rule.
The spectacle of China's stage-managed National People's Congress imposing sweeping changes on Hong Kong's political system .. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-56356046 - by a true-to-form unanimous vote - is for many observers the moment that experiment goes up in smoke.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang and other delegates attend the closing session of the National People's Congress (NPC), at the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing, China, 11 March 2021.
Of NPC delegates, 2,895 voted in favour of the changes, none against EPA
As China frequently points out, Hong Kong's former colonial masters were slow to offer its citizens a democratic voice.
Nonetheless, the Hong Kong handed to China - while democratically deficient in terms of universal suffrage - had other deeply ingrained freedoms that were part and parcel of its status as a free-wheeling capitalist economy and a free-trading port.
"Although we've never had democracy," former Democratic Party spokesperson Emily Lau tells me, "the irony is the level of freedoms, personal safety and the rule of law that we have enjoyed for decades is much higher than in some places that have periodic elections."
Those traditions are in stark contrast to the system of governance practised by its political masters in Beijing, and that tension has been at the heart of the tussle over what the "two systems" part of the bargain means ever since.
The turning point
China argues that it has tried to uphold the Basic Law, the mini-constitution that was meant to embody the spirit of the Sino-British Joint Declaration.
It has even attempted in good faith, it says, to enact Article 45 which calls for the introduction of universal suffrage for the election of the city's leader, the chief executive.
The plan was scuppered by the 2014 "Umbrella Movement" driven by anger over the mechanism for choosing the candidates in which Beijing would continue to wield a veto.
The "Umbrella Movement" protests swept Hong Kong in 2014 Getty Images
The attempts to enact a National Security Law, again stipulated by the Basic Law, has also led to protests.
In the end, the sticking point has been less a question of the technicalities of the proposed changes - and more a question of profound distrust.
Most countries have national security legislation, all democratic systems are imperfect in some way, but few have these institutions overseen by a rising, authoritarian superpower.
And the tragedy for Hong Kong's beleaguered pro-democracy movement is that each time it has tried to push back against Beijing, it has found itself worse off than before.
The tipping point came with the massive, sometimes violent, protests in 2019 over plans to introduce an extradition bill, potentially allowing Hong Kong suspects to be sent for trial in China.
The disorder gave Beijing the pretext it needed to finally push through the National Security Law, which had an overnight, chilling effect on the ability to protest.
The law sets out vague, sweeping offences of "secession", "subversion", and "collusion" with foreign forces, and with the possibility of extradition a central feature.
Serious cases can be transferred to the mainland for trial with far less oversight than would have been the case under the rejected extradition bill.
Protests erupted in 2019 against moves to send some Hong Kong suspects for trial in China Getty Images
A series of dawn raids in January saw 55 politicians and activists arrested, with 47 now charged.
Simply holding up protest banners or the wearing of T-shirts are potentially enough to get someone detained.
The effort by Hong Kong democrats ahead of last year's elections to hold unofficial primaries - as a tactical way to increase their chance of winning a majority in the Legislative Council (LegCo) - looked like it might almost have succeeded.
They had, after all, swept the board at the 2019 local elections - the city's only genuinely democratic poll - a result that confirmed the depth of the support for their cause and one that will have seriously spooked Beijing.
But the LegCo primaries plan backfired too - the election was cancelled - ostensibly for reasons of pandemic control - and Beijing brought in the reforms now rubber stamped by the National People's Congress, and under which the chances of pro-democrats winning a majority have gone for good.
Emily Lau is in no doubt about the significance of the new requirement that all candidates will be vetted, by a committee stuffed with Beijing loyalists, to make sure they're "patriots".
"If they are going to impose a system on Hong Kong whereby the voters would in effect be disenfranchised and whereby my party or other pro-democracy people will not be free to take part in elections independently and freely, then One Country, Two Systems is over," she says.
Democracy gives way
Even Hong Kong's pro-Beijing politicians appear to suggest that something fundamental has changed.
Regina Ip is the founder of the New People's Party, with a seat in LegCo and a member of the governing Executive Council.
While she insists that One Country, Two Systems isn't over, she seems less certain about whether it any longer aims to accommodate democracy.
"I think Beijing may be exploring a movement toward alternative systems, such as what some Western thinkers advocate - epistocracy - the rule by more knowledgeable, high information people," she tells me.
I put it to her that such a system sounds very undemocratic.
"A democratic system has no intrinsic value unless it can deliver good outcomes," she replies.
"We have had 23 years of experiments with democracy, the outcomes are far from satisfactory. We are underperforming in many ways."
VIDEO - The HK pro-democracy protesters who face a tough decision over continuing their fight or fleeing to the UK
Chinese state media also appears to be moving the goalposts .. https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202103/1217770.shtml, arguing that One Country, Two Systems has always referred not to political differences, but rather to the need to preserve two different economic systems.
The British signatories to the handover agreement may once have hoped that the fundamental contradiction at the heart of it would be resolved as China modernised, enacted its own internal reforms, and moved politically closer towards Hong Kong.
If so, it has proved wishful thinking, with China arguably more authoritarian than it was at the time the treaty was signed.
"As an inalienable part of China, we cannot afford to be a country that undermines the security of China," Regina Ip says. "If they don't think the current system is sustainable, the option will be to reintegrate Hong Kong, even before 2047."
It is Hong Kong that is changing and in the long tussle between those two, incompatible sets of values, it is democracy that is finally giving way.
Emily Lau, the former Democratic Party chairperson, tells me she knows she is taking a risk, even speaking to the foreign media.
"Well of course there's a risk," she says, "but I mean, frankly I don't think I have breached the National Security Law.
"But that's me saying so… and if they say, oh yes you have, well, that's it. Maybe when this interview is over, someone will be knocking on my door."
Biden Forges Deeper Ties With Vietnam as China’s Ambition Mounts
"Opinion - How to rein in China without risking war is the issue Biden must address Both sides have worrying blindspots. As usual, the US is convinced that it is wholly in the right, morally and otherwise. For his part, says former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd, Xi firmly believes “that the US is experiencing a steady, irreversible structural decline”. Both are wrong – ..."
Visiting Hanoi, the president cemented a new strategic partnership that puts the memories of the past behind them and focuses on mutual concerns over Beijing’s assertiveness in the region.
President Biden and Nguyen Phu Trong, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Sunday. Kenny Holston/The New York Times
By Peter Baker and Katie Rogers Reporting from Hanoi Sept. 10, 2023, 5:22 p.m. ET
President Biden cemented a new strategic relationship with Vietnam on Sunday, bringing two historical foes closer than they have ever been and putting the ghosts of the past behind them out of shared worry over China’s mounting ambitions in the region.
During a landmark visit to Hanoi by the American president, Vietnam’s Communist Party leadership formally raised the country’s ties to the United States .. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/08/world/asia/biden-vietnam-china.html .. to the highest level in Hanoi’s diplomatic hierarchy, equivalent to those it has with Russia and China. Mr. Biden said the breakthrough was “the beginning of even a greater era of cooperation” a half-century after American troops withdrew.
“Today, we can trace a 50-year arc of progress in the relationship between our nations, from conflict to normalization,” Mr. Biden said at a news conference after a meeting with Nguyen Phu Trong, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam. “This is a new elevated status that will be a force for prosperity and security in one of the most consequential regions in the world.”
While neither he nor Mr. Trong directly cited China in their public remarks, it was an important subtext for the move as Mr. Biden works to establish a network of partnerships in the region to counter aggressive action by Beijing. In recent months, he has expanded cooperation with Australia, India, and the Philippines and brought the leaders of Japan and South Korea together at Camp David to seal a three-way alliance that has eluded Washington in the past.
“The United States is a Pacific nation, and we’re not going anywhere,” Mr. Biden said on Sunday, a statement that appeared intended to put China on notice.
But in response to reporters’ questions, Mr. Biden denied any hostile intent, rejecting a new Cold War in the Indo-Pacific region. “I don’t want to contain China,” he said. “I just want to make sure that we have a relationship with China that is on the up and up, squared away, everybody knows what it’s all about.”
People awaiting President Biden’s motorcade in Hanoi on Sunday. Kenny Holston/The New York Times
Beijing was not persuaded. In the days leading up to Mr. Biden’s visit, Mao Ning, a spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry, called on the United States to “abandon the Cold War mentality and zero-sum game mind-set” in its dealings with Asia, insisting that Washington “abide by the basic norms of international relations.”
Mr. Biden arrived in Hanoi after a weekend in New Delhi attending the annual Group of 20 summit meeting .. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/08/us/politics/biden-g20.html . Notably absent was President Xi Jinping of China, who typically makes a point of attending such gatherings. In his place came Premier Li Qiang, the country’s No. 2 leader.
Mr. Biden disclosed during his news conference in Hanoi that he had spoken with Mr. Li on the sidelines of the summit. “We talked about stability,” he said. “It wasn’t confrontational at all.”
Speculation about Mr. Xi’s absence has been intense within the Biden administration. There are four theories for why he skipped the meeting: He has domestic political pressure over the country’s growing economic troubles. He wanted to send a signal to India amid a tense border dispute. He is seen at home as having spent too much time abroad. Or he wants to shift the focus to groupings more susceptible to Beijing’s direction, like the BRICS .. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/24/world/europe/brics-expansion-xi-lula.html .. club of nations that includes Russia, Brazil and other powers.
Despite Vietnam’s new agreement with Mr. Biden, China remains its dominant foreign partner, given the countries’ longstanding economic ties, and Beijing has signaled it will not cede the ground to the United States. Just last week, Mr. Li met with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh of Vietnam on the sidelines of another international summit meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia.
President Biden arriving on Friday at the airport in New Delhi for the Group of 20 summit.Credit...Kenny Holston/The New York Times
But Vietnam, one of the few Southeast Asian nations to push back against Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea, is looking to establish a little more distance from Beijing and give itself a little more latitude. Biden administration officials do not expect Vietnam to abandon its cooperation with China entirely, but hope to offer more of an alternative over time.
Likewise, administration officials anticipate that Vietnam will remain close to Russia, its historic patron since the days of the Soviet Union, and expressed no concerns over a New York Times report .. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/09/world/asia/vietnam-russia-arms-deal.html .. about Hanoi secretly seeking a new arms deal with Moscow even as it hosted Mr. Biden.
The vast bulk of Vietnam’s military is based on Russian equipment, so it has little choice but to continue purchasing weapons, equipment and parts from Moscow. But Vietnam does appear to have begun gradually weaning itself off its Russian suppliers. The American government could follow up Mr. Biden’s visit with sales of F-16 warplanes and military radar batteries, which are coveted by Hanoi.
“Vietnam and the United States are critical partners at what I would argue is a very critical time,” Mr. Biden told Mr. Trong during their meeting in a conference room with a bust of Ho Chi Minh overlooking the two delegations. “I’m not saying that to be polite. I’m saying it because I mean it from the bottom of my heart.”
Now it will define their ties with Washington to be a “comprehensive strategic relationship,” which it has only with China, Russia, India and South Korea. Standing behind Mr. Biden on Sunday was John F. Kerry, the Vietnam War veteran-turned-protester who as a senator helped usher in normalization in the 1990s and as secretary of state supported the elevation nearly two decades later. He now serves as Mr. Biden’s climate envoy.
A ceremony welcoming President Biden at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi on Sunday. Kenny Holston/The New York Times
In treating Mr. Biden to a pomp-filled welcome, complete with goose-stepping honor guards, marching bands and flag-waving children, Mr. Trong was effusive about their relationship, even flattering the 80-year-old president by saying he did not look old.
“You have nary aged a day, and I would say you look even better than before,” Mr. Trong told Mr. Biden. Mr. Trong added: “Every feature of you, Mr. President, is very much complementary of your image.” Mr. Biden laughed appreciatively.
The Vietnamese leadership, though, is more complicated than one man, more of a collective than in China or Russia. As a result, Mr. Biden plans to make a point of paying separate visits on Tuesday to several other influential figures: Mr. Chinh, the prime minister; President Vo Van Thuong; and Vuong Dinh Hue, the head of parliament.
Human rights activists have accused the U.S. government of casting aside its professed commitment to promoting democracy and human rights abroad in favor of shoring up U.S. influence in the region. Vietnam continues to be one of the most authoritarian countries in Southeast Asia, and Mr. Trong’s government has waged an especially harsh crackdown on dissent and activism in recent years.
“U.S. silence on human rights may be seen as complicity in the Vietnamese government’s ever-expanding crackdown on rights, compromising the long-term relationship,” said Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, referring to Mr. Biden’s visit to Hanoi.
The disparity between Mr. Biden and Mr. Trong was evident in their scripted comments after their meeting. While Mr. Trong stressed the importance of “noninterference in each other’s domestic affairs” and respect for each other’s political system, Mr. Biden said he had “raised the importance of respect for human rights.”
The president responded testily when later asked if he was putting American strategic interests over human rights.
“I’ve raised it with every person I met with,” he said.
Sui-Lee Wee contributed reporting.
Peter Baker is the chief White House correspondent and has covered the last five presidents for The Times and The Washington Post. He is the author of seven books, most recently “The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021,” with Susan Glasser. More about Peter Baker
Katie Rogers is a White House correspondent, covering life in the Biden administration, Washington culture and domestic policy. She joined The Times in 2014. More about Katie Rogers
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