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World
Trump OKs sanctions against international tribunal employees
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US International CourtAttorney General William Barr speaks from behind a teleprompter as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo listens, during a joint briefing, Thursday, June 11, 2020 at the State Department in Washington, on an executive order signed by President Donald Trump aimed at the International Criminal Court. Trump has lobbed a broadside attack against the International Criminal Court. He's authorizing economic sanctions and travel restrictions against court workers directly involved in investigating American troops and intelligence officials for possible war crimes in Afghanistan without U.S. consent. The executive order Trump signed on Thursday marks his administration’s latest attack against international organizations, treaties and agreements that do not hew to its policies. (Yuri Gripas/Pool via AP) |
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump lobbed a broadside attack Thursday against the International Criminal Court by authorizing economic sanctions and travel restrictions against court workers involved in investigating American troops and intelligence officials and those of allied nations, including Israel, for possible war crimes in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Trump's executive order marked his administration’s latest attack against international organizations, treaties and agreements that don’t hew to its policies. It would block the financial assets of court employees and bar those employees and their immediate relatives from entering the United States.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denounced The Hague-based tribunal as a “kangaroo court” that has been unsuccessful and inefficient in its mandate to prosecute war crimes. He said that the U.S. would punish the ICC employees for any investigation or prosecution of Americans in Afghanistan and added that they could also be banned for prosecuting Israelis for alleged abuses against Palestinians.
Pompeo's comments were echoed by Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Attorney General Wiliiam Barr and national security adviser Robert O'Brien, who spoke at a State Department announcement of the new measures. Barr also announced that the U.S. would investigate possible corruption within the ICC hierarchy that he said raised suspicions that Russia and other adversaries could be interfering in the investigatory process.
None of the four men took questions from reporters at the event.
The Hague-based court was created in 2002 to prosecute war crimes and crimes of humanity and genocide in areas where perpetrators might not otherwise face justice. It has 123 state parties that recognize its jurisdiction.
Human rights groups deplored the Trump administration’s move.
“The Trump administration’s latest action paves the way for imposing sanctions against ICC officials and demonstrates contempt for the global rule of law,” said Andrea Prasow, the Washington director of Human Rights Watch. “This assault on the ICC is an effort to block victims of serious crimes whether in Afghanistan, Israel or Palestine from seeing justice. Countries that support international justice should publicly oppose this blatant attempt at obstruction.”
Thursday's announcement is the latest action that puts the administration at odds with allies in Europe and elsewhere. Since taking office, Trump has withdrawn from the Paris climate accord, the Iran nuclear deal and two arms control treaties with Russia. He has pulled the U.S. out of the U.N. Human Rights Council and the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, threatened to leave the International Postal Union and announced an end to cooperation with the World Health Organization.
Unlike those treaties and agreements, though, the United States has never been a member of the International Criminal Court. Administrations of both parties have been concerned about the potential for political prosecutions of American troops and officials for alleged war crimes and other atrocities.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Trump's order “is a matter of serious concern,” describing the European Union nations as “steadfast supporters of the International Criminal Court.”
“The court has been playing a key role in providing international justice and addressing the gravest international crimes," he said. “It is a key factor in bringing justice and peace. It must be respected and supported by all nations.”
The executive order authorizes the secretary of state, in consultation with the Treasury secretary, to block financial assets within U.S. jurisdiction of court personnel who directly engage in investigating, harassing or detaining U.S. personnel. The order authorizes the secretary of state to block court officials and their family members involved in the investigations from entering the United States. The ICC-related travel restrictions go beyond what the State Department issued last year.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement that, despite repeated calls by the United States and its allies, the ICC has not embraced reform. She alleged the court continues to pursue politically motivated investigations against the U.S. and its partners, including Israel.
“We are concerned that adversary nations are manipulating the International Criminal Court by encouraging these allegations against United States personnel,” McEnany said. “Further, we have strong reason to believe there is corruption and misconduct at the highest levels of the International Criminal Court office of the prosecutor, calling into question the integrity of its investigation into American service members.”
The U.S. has extracted pledges from most of the court’s members that they will not seek such prosecutions and risk losing U.S. military and other assistance.
However, ICC prosecutors have shown a willingness to press ahead with investigations into U.S. service members and earlier this year launched one that drew swift U.S. condemnation.
Last year, after then-national security adviser John Bolton threatened ICC employees with sanctions if they went forward with prosecutions of U.S. or allied troops, including from Israel. Pompeo then revoked the visa of the court’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda. Bensouda had asked ICC judges to open an investigation into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan that could have involved Americans. The judges initially rejected the request, but the denial was overturned after Bensouda appealed the decision and the investigation was authorized in March.
The appellate ruling marked the first time the court’s prosecutor has been cleared to investigate U.S. forces, and it set the global tribunal on a collision course with the Trump administration. Bensouda pledged to carry out an independent and impartial investigation and called for full support and cooperation from all parties. Pompeo called the decision “a truly breathtaking action by an unaccountable political institution masquerading as a legal body.”
The case involves allegations of war crimes committed by Afghan national security forces, Taliban and Haqqani network militants, as well as U.S. forces and intelligence officials in Afghanistan since May 2003. Bensouda say there’s information that members of the U.S. military and intelligence agencies “committed acts of torture, cruel treatment, outrages upon personal dignity, rape and sexual violence.”
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Time
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Slams China's 'Coercive Bullying Tactics' Against the U.K.
World
The UK steps up its fight with China by preparing tough new laws to prevent hostile takeovers of British firms
World
We Cannot Forget the Massacre At Tiananmen Square—China Is Going Back Down That Path
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| Click here to read the full original article. |
The image from June 5, 1989, is etched in our minds.
One man.
Four tanks.
This iconic image has become a symbol of the resilience of the Chinese people during the Tiananmen Square massacre. Hundreds to thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators were killed by communist troops from June 3 to June 5, 1989.
It is a visual representation of the Chinese people’s fight for freedom, and the great lengths that the Chinese government will go to in order to quash it.
This June 4 anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests is especially ominous.
It comes during the growing collapse of the “one country, two systems” framework that preserved liberty and prosperity in Hong Kong since 1997. Vigils commemorating the events of Tiananmen Square have even been outlawed.
It’s being commemorated against the backdrop of the Chinese Communist Party’s gross mishandling of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s happening while at least 1 million Uighurs are languishing in political reeducation facilities in China’s Xinjiang region. Other religious minorities face persecution as well.
The oppression of the Chinese people is evident. Perhaps there has been no greater threat to freedom in China since Mao than Xi Jinping.
Xi has further tightened his grip on the levers of control. Widespread use of surveillance tracks ordinary Chinese citizens’ every move. Tracking is deployed for the purpose of measuring a person’s “social credit” to determine how well their personal behavior aligns with the Chinese Communist Party’s priorities.
The party is also undertaking efforts to Sinicize religion, making Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and all other religions conform to Chinese characteristics—replacing the sacred with the secular.
All private life is considered public, therefore falling under the party’s control. This we know well from the now famous whistleblower Dr. Li Wenliang.
His attempts to sound the alarm about the novel coronavirus resulted in him being called in for questioning by Chinese authorities, being forced to recant his statement, and eventually, succumbing to death by the very virus he tried to alert the public about.
It is for the Chinese people that we commemorate the anniversary of Tiananmen Square. We mark their fight for freedom—recognizing it as a battle that has not yet been won. We remember their plight because it is a poignant reminder that freedom is not free and that it is absolutely worth fighting for and defending where possible.
There is a battle over values being waged in Asia. One model suppresses and undermines freedom while the other seeks to preserve and promote it. One system blurs the lines between public and private, while the other keeps those lines distinct. One embraces authoritarianism where the other embraces liberty.
The U.S. must stand on the side of values. That means standing unwaveringly with the people of China wherever freedom is under threat—whether in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet, or in the People’s Republic of China.
This article by Olivia Enos first appeared in The Daily Signal on June 3, 2020.
Image: Tank Man. Flickr/Mike Licht. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0).
Click here to read the full original article.
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World
UK to announce laws to prevent foreign takeovers posing national security risk - Times
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| Prime Minister's Questions at House of Commons in London |
(Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is preparing to announce tough laws to prevent foreign takeovers that pose risks to national security amid growing concern about the influence of China, The Times newspaper reported.
The prime minister is said to be pressing for legislation to make it mandatory for companies to report attempted takeovers which could give rise to security risks, backed by the threat of criminal sanctions, according to the newspaper.
Companies that fail to report takeovers or ignore conditions imposed by the UK government after takeovers could see their directors jailed, disqualified or fined, the newspaper said.
The approach, which is being pushed by the prime minister's adviser Dominic Cummings, is said to have the support of finance minister Rishi Sunak and will require businesses to declare when a foreign company tries to buy more than 25% of shares, purchase assets or intellectual property, the Times said.
The prime minister also wants academic partnerships and research projects to be included under the rules, the newspaper added.
The legislation, which The Times said could be tabled within weeks, comes at a time of increased tension between Britain and China, after the country designated Huawei a "high-risk vendor" in January and expressed concern over Beijing's handling of the situation in Hong Kong.
Johnson has also come under pressure from the United States and lawmakers from his own party, who have argued that Huawei's equipment could be used by Beijing for spying, which the Chinese telecom giant has repeatedly denied.
(Reporting by Bhargav Acharya in Bengaluru; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
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World
Exclusive: U.S. to impose restrictions on additional Chinese media outlets - sources
By Patricia Zengerle, Matt Spetalnick, Humeyra Pamuk and David Brunnstrom
https://www.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-u-designate-additional-chinese-185154018.html
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is expected to designate at least four additional state-run Chinese media outlets as foreign embassies, increasing restrictions on their operations on American soil, three people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
The action by the State Department, sure to further inflame U.S.-China tensions, could come as soon as Thursday, the sources told Reuters. It follows President Donald Trump's announcement on Friday of retaliatory measures against Beijing over its tightened grip on Hong Kong.
The designations are expected to include China Central Television (CCTV), the top state-owned network, and China News Service, the country's second-largest state-owned news agency, two sources said on condition of anonymity.
They would be added to five Chinese outlets placed under restrictions in February over U.S. allegations they were used by China and its Communist rulers to spread propaganda.
Like the others, they will be required to register their employees and U.S. properties with the State Department, similar to rules covering embassies and other diplomatic missions.
Though three sources said the announcement was on track for as early as Thursday, a fourth did not rule out a delay.
The White House and State Department did not respond to requests for comment. There also was no response from the Chinese embassy in Washington.
Tensions between Washington and Beijing have spiked, as Trump and his aides have complained about China's early handling of the coronavirus outbreak and its treatment of Hong Kong, which has enjoyed special U.S. treatment as a global financial center.
Chinese state media has been reveling over chaotic race-related protests in the United States and highlighting Trump's threat to use troops, even as the anniversary looms of its own bloody military crackdown on demonstrators in Tiananmen Square 31 years ago.
HONG KONG TENSIONS
Trump on Friday ordered his administration to begin the process of eliminating special U.S. treatment for Hong Kong on the grounds it no longer had enough autonomy, but stopped short of calling an immediate end to former British colony's privileges.
China's state-run Global Times newspaper called Trump's announcement "recklessly arbitrary."
The United States and China have clashed in recent months over journalists working in each other's countries.
Michael McCaul, top Republican on the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, said: “These are Chinese Communist Party propaganda outlets that peddle dangerous information to grow the Party’s power -- not report the news."
In February, the Trump administration said it would treat five major media entities with U.S. operations the same as embassies: Xinhua News Agency, China Global Television Network, China Radio International, China Daily Distribution Corp. and Hai Tian Development USA, Inc.
In March, Washington said it was slashing the number of journalists allowed to work at U.S. offices of major Chinese media outlets to 100 from 160 due to Beijing's "long-standing intimidation and harassment of journalists."
In response, China said it was revoking accreditations of American correspondents with the New York Times, News Corp's Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post whose credentials expire by the end of 2020.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle, Humeyra Pamuk, Matt Spetalnick and David Brunnstrom, Editing by Franklin Paul and David Gregorio)
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Business
New U.S. restrictions on 33 Chinese firms and institutions take effect June 5
By David Shepardson and Karen Freifeld
https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-restrictions-33-chinese-firms-162134191.html
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S Commerce Department said on Wednesday that new restrictions on 33 Chinese firms and institutions it announced last month will take effect Friday.
The agency has added the companies and institutions to an economic blacklist, accusing them of helping China spy on its minority Muslim Uighur population in Xinjiang or because of alleged ties to weapons of mass destruction and China's military.
China's foreign ministry said last month it deplored and firmly opposed U.S. sanctions over Xinjiang, calling it a purely internal affair for China.
The move will restrict the sales of U.S. goods to the companies and institutions on the list, as well as certain items made abroad with U.S. content or technology. Companies can apply for licenses to make the sales, but they must overcome a presumption of denial.
Seven companies and two institutions were listed for being "complicit in human rights violations and abuses committed in China's campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, forced labor and high-technology surveillance against Uighurs" and others, the Commerce Department said.
Two dozen other companies, government institutions and commercial organizations were added over Washington allegations that they supported procurement of items for use by the Chinese military.
The blacklisted companies focus on artificial intelligence and facial recognition, markets in which U.S. chip companies such as Nvidia Corp <NVDA.O> and Intel Corp <INTC.O> have been heavily investing.
The new listings follow a similar October 2019 action, when the Department of Commerce added 28 Chinese public security bureaus and companies - including some of China's top artificial intelligence startups and video surveillance company Hikvision <002415.SZ> - to a U.S. trade blacklist.
The actions follow the same blueprint used by Washington in its attempt to limit the influence of Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL] for what it says are national security reasons. Last month, the Department of Commerce took action to try to further cut off Huawei's access to U.S. chipmakers.
(Reporting by David Shepardson and Karen Freifeld; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Rosalba O'Brien)
World
New U.S. ban on Chinese airlines hurts Chinese students who were already struggling to get home
https://www.yahoo.com/news/department-transportation-ban-leaves-fate-191228204.html
A new Department of Transportation order banning Chinese airlines from flying to and from the U.S. is an added hardship for thousands of Chinese students in the U.S. who were already struggling to get back home due to their own government’s cap on international flights.
The U.S. DOT order, posted Wednesday on a federal website, is scheduled to take effect on June 16. Several Chinese students in New York tell NBC News that previous Chinese regulations limiting the number of flights into China because of the coronavirus pandemic have already had them scrambling for weeks to find flights home with little success. There are more than 400,000 Chinese students at U.S. universities.
“I know the relationships between the two countries are kind of frayed on multiple fronts, but you know, it’s your students, you’ve got to take care of us,” said Jiang Li, a former New York University student who has been trying to book a flight back to China since April.
Li, 30, said he was initially angry when he first heard of the decision Wednesday morning, but is hopeful that an agreement will be reached to resume flights later this month.
Li had hoped that the summer after his graduation would be the “perfect opportunity” to spend time with his family. “I have not spent more than two weeks with my family at a time,” said Li.
In March, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) drastically reduced the number of international flights through its so-called “Five One” policy. Under the policy, foreign airlines can only fly one route into China and Chinese domestic airlines only one route out to any country -- both with no more than one weekly flight. The aviation authority also limited the number of passengers on each plane to no more than 75 percent capacity.
The policy created a dilemma for Chinese students: finish the semester here in the U.S. and risk being stranded or immediately buy a ticket home.
“I was pretty stressed, especially when they first announced the limited flights,” said Owen, 28, who was finishing his master of business administration at NYU. “I was debating whether I should just leave the country ASAP.”
Owen, who didn’t want his last name used, chose to stay in the U.S. to finish his degree. But the decision came at a price, as tickets back to China have become increasingly hard to obtain.
According to aviation analytics firm OAG, the number of flights into China dropped from 1,340 in January to 69 in April. Before Wednesday’s announcement, the number of scheduled flights from the U.S. to China for June 2020 was about 79 flights, compared to 1,524 for June 2019.
Given the estimated 410,000 Chinese students in the U.S., according to April figures from China’s Ministry of Education, the lack of commercial airline tickets has created a market that cannot keep up with consumer demand.
In Owen’s case, he purchased multiple tickets back to China in hopes that one of the flights would not get cancelled.
“I have to admit that it was a very draining process to have to constantly checking on the available tickets,” Owen, who showed NBC News the more than $20,000 worth of transactions he made to purchase plane tickets. “You have to bet on multiple tickets to be able to go back to China.”
None of those tickets worked, but he was able to return to China through a last-minute flight on Monday.
Others have not yet been as lucky.
Jenny Zhuang, a rising senior from NYU, says she tried to get back to China by buying tickets from a friend. Those tickets didn’t pan out, but by Tuesday night, she was already packing for a flight she was hoping to obtain through a ticket transfer.
“There's an uncertainty in it, but I still have to prepare for that,” the 21-year-old said.
CAAC has defended its policy to restrict flights as an effort to contain the risk of importing coronavirus infections.
Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry, addressed questions about CAAC’s policy and its impact on students abroad in a May 27 press conference. He noted that the Chinese government had chartered planes to bring its citizens home and had pledged “to protect and assist Chinese nationals wherever they are.”
But China’s Foreign Ministry has also used its platform to address reports of growing tension between Chinese and U.S. transportation authorities -- a reality that led to Wednesday’s U.S. ban on Chinese airlines.
“China opposes any possible U.S. disruption of or restriction on Chinese airlines' normal passenger flight operations,” Lijian said in response to a May 22 U.S. DOT order for certain Chinese airlines to file schedules and flight details with the U.S. government.
According to the DOT, this earlier order was issued because of “the failure of the Government of the People’s Republic of China to permit U.S. carriers to exercise the full extent of their bilateral right to conduct scheduled passenger air services to China.”
At the time, the DOT had said that Delta and United Airlines had submitted applications to the Civil Aviation Authority of China (CAAC) to resume flights in June.
Delta told NBC News that its applications to CAAC have not been approved.
“We support and appreciate the U.S. government’s actions to enforce our rights and ensure fairness,” Delta said in a statement about Wednesday’s DOT order.
When asked about their CAAC applications to resume flights, United Airlines told NBC News that it is “not currently operating passenger flights between the U.S. and China.”
On Wednesday, in announcing its new restrictions on Chinese airlines, the U.S. DOT said, “[W]e continue to find that the Government of China has, over the objections of the U.S. Government, impaired the operating rights of U.S. carriers and denied U.S. air carriers the fair and equal opportunity to exercise their operating rights under the agreement.”
The department said the Chinese airline suspension is intended to “restore a competitive balance and fair and equal opportunity among U.S. and Chinese air carriers.”
CAAC and the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., also did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Department of Transportation’s decisionThough China has continued to schedule chartered flights home for its citizens, Zhuang and Li say competition for these flights had already been fierce and does not make up for the shortage of commercial flight options.
“The government is sending way fewer flights than we actually need to get our students back,” Zhuang, who signed up for a charter flight, said.
Zhuang says she understands the reasoning behind the CAAC policy, but that for her family in Shenzhen, China, the waiting has been difficult.
“My father has experienced a mental breakdown or something,” Zhuang said. “He almost cried because he said he wants me to go back but why couldn't I? And I had to just tell him, ‘I'm okay. I'm safe here.’”
Similarly, Li, who says he wants to be reunited with his family in Hunan Province, stood outside the Chinese Consulate in New York with a sign that read, “My mom is waiting for me for dinner at home.” Li says he is frustrated with the current situation because his citizenship alone should enable him to return.
“I love my country,” he said. “And that's why I didn't choose to stay here.”
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