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Saturday, 10 September 2022

Washington weaponizes Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) even before it takes shape

After a long period of public opinion hype, the first ministerial meeting of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) led by the US and participated by a total of 14 countries is set to be held in Los Angeles from Thursday to Friday. Although officials in Washington claimed that this does not mean participating countries have to pick a side between China and the US, it is just a cover-up to appease people and an insincere statement - in related reports in the US and Western media, "anti-China" frequently appears in news headlines, and some even couldn't wait to tout that the IPEF is "the best way for US to counter China in the Indo-Pacific."

In May this year, US President Joe Biden announced the launch of the IPEF during his visit to Japan. Washington's boast that the IPEF "goes beyond typical trade deals" and will "have an affirmative economic agenda" in the region is just a guise to cover up the IPEF's "innate deficiencies." Its "non-typical" feature is that it does not include tariff relief, market access and other arrangements, which makes it difficult for member states to obtain substantial economic benefits from it; its "innovation" is that it does not require congressional approval, and member states can freely choose to participate in the four pillars. This means the IPEF lacks legal binding force.

More importantly, although the IPEF has been painted with "economic cooperation," its root is the "political framework" to contain China. Washington's real purpose is to create a small circle of supply chains and industrial chains in the Asia-Pacific region that is "decoupled" from China. This obviously harms the vital interests of Asia-Pacific countries, and this is what most countries are worried about and opposed to. At the same time, some member governments have not been able to explain to their citizens the "necessity" of participating in the IPEF. Most of them participated in the negotiation with a skeptical attitude, and some were coaxed by the US.

Washington has designed four "pillars" for the IPEF: trade, labor and digital economy; clean energy and decarbonization; resilience of supply chains; tax and anti-corruption. What is basically certain is that Washington will not offer any concessions to the participating countries. Based on past experience, what Washington will actually do is to ask for more. While inciting other countries to "decouple" from China's industry chain, it also attempts to quietly turn these countries into economic vassals of the US. Countering China has become Washington's open scheme, while creating more economic vassals and geopolitical minions at the same time is its secret plot. This should arouse high vigilance of Asia-Pacific countries.

Coincidentally, the IPEF has a high degree of overlap in terms of the members with the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) that came into effect earlier this year. Among the 15 member countries of RCEP, 11 countries have participated in the IPEF. Only four countries, including China, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, are not IPEF members. And among IPEF countries, apart from the US, India and Fiji, the remaining 11 countries have all joined the RCEP.

The US wants to use IPEF to hurt the foundation of RCEP and hollow out this regional free trade agreement. However, compared with RCEP, which has solidly promoted regional economic integration, IPEF is just a big empty shell. Each participating country has its own demands for interests, and it is impossible for all of them to follow US orders like Japan.

Most of the participating countries hope to obtain US commitment to open the market through the IPEF negotiation, but Washington is advertising that the IPEF negotiation will bring benefits to US labors, as well- as small and medium-sized enterprises. Washington has shown no interest in bridging the gap between different interest demands.

In addition, the IPEF faces a huge uncertainty - its progress is made only by the president's executive order. When the US government changes, the negotiated agreement may be overturned at any time. It is widely anticipated that once there is a political party rotation and if the Republican Party takes office, relevant content relating to fair trade, digital economy, and clean energy will be revised immediately and substantially. This means that three of the so-called four pillars of the IPEF could collapse overnight.

People still have a fresh memory of the TPP, and many people still use the TPP to benchmark the IPEF. In 2016, Washington pooled a lot of resources to building the TPP to contain China. Now that six years have passed, China and the international community, including the US, have become more deeply integrated. Washington is still obsessed with protectionism and unilateralism, and even blackmails the world at its whim. Before the IPEF takes shape, some people in the US are eager to install teeth on it, claiming that "an IPEF without teeth is bad for the US and catastrophic for our relationships in the region." Such bloc confrontational mentality and geopolitical evil thought have already determined the future of the IPEF.

Although the stage of the IPEF was set up, the play is not on yet. Washington cares only about its own hegemony and does not care about the interests of others, and this farce is only a temporary one.

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‘China free to set Asia policy’

World needs more than ‘beautiful words’ from the US: Global Times editorial

'We lied, we cheated, we stole', ‘the Glory of American experiment’ by former US Secretary of State/Ex-CIA director Mike Pompeo

This guy speaks the facts:

Wednesday, 7 September 2022

Liz Truss takes over a Britain in decline and in severe crisis: Martin Jacques

Liz Truss delivers a speech at an event to announce the winner of the Conservative Party leadership contest in central London on September 5,2022. Photo: AFP

Liz Truss is the new British Prime Minister. She beat her Conservative rival Rishi Sunak by tacking strongly to the right. No doubt the fact that she is white, and Sunak is brown, was also a major factor for the 170,000 overwhelmingly white Conservative Party members who voted. If Truss is to be taken at her word, she will be the most right-wing prime minister since Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.

Each of the last four Conservative prime ministers has been more right-wing than their predecessor: in chronological order, David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, and Liz Truss. Truss wants to cut taxes, doesn't like the state, is hostile to redistribution, believes in trickle-down economics (that feathering the nests of the rich will ultimately help the poor), and is an anti-China hawk.

In being true to her beliefs, however, she faces a gargantuan problem. She is confronted with the worst economic crisis of any British prime minister since 1945. It is impossible to find any good news on the economic front. As a result of the war in Ukraine, the price of natural gas, which is the main source of domestic heating, is five times what it was a year ago and is predicted to carry on rising steeply. Without state intervention to hold down energy prices, around half the population will this winter be impoverished.

Inflation, which for most of this century has been at around 2 percent, is already at 11 percent, and is predicted to rise to 20 percent. Interest rates, which have similarly been very low, are rising rapidly, meaning much higher mortgage payments for homeowners. The Bank of England forecasts that the country will go into recession towards the end of this year, and some believe that it will continue until 2024.

With inflation now in double figures, workers are finding they are facing wage increases that are less than half the increase in prices: as a result, they are confronted with the prospect of sharply declining real wages over the next several years. There is growing industrial unrest which is likely to become increasingly widespread over the next year.

This is not just a short-term problem. Real wages are now just below the level they were in 2007, on the eve of the Western financial crisis. In other words, the British economy has been stagnating for the last 15 years and in the process has been falling behind its near neighbours Germany and France. One major think-tank is predicting that over the next two years Britain will experience the largest fall in average real incomes for over one hundred years.

It is inconceivable that Truss can tackle this nightmare scenario by cutting taxes, rolling back the state, and turning a blind eye to the poorest sections of the community. This will require state intervention and redistribution on the scale of the COVID-19 crisis in 2020, otherwise the Conservative Party will surely lose the next general election in 2024. Truss faces a major dilemma: take the right-wing ideological route and court electoral disaster or follow a pragmatic road and swallow her ideological principles.

Even before the coming economic tsunami, there was a mood of frustration and dislocation, a feeling that the country no longer worked properly. Far from ushering in a new era of prosperity and efficiency, Brexit has become synonymous with labour shortages in many parts of the economy. This has been accentuated by the impact of COVID-19 which continues to disrupt the economy, most obviously in the form of chronic labour shortages in many sectors. Britain's most-loved institution, the National Health Service, is now on life-support, a result of being starved of money for many years and an increasingly chronic shortage of staff.

It is important to emphasise that Britain is now in a much inferior position than it was in 1979 when Thatcher first came to power. This is a weakness it shares more generally with the West and especially Western Europe. The Soviet bloc aside, the West for the most part dominated the world during the 1980s. Its influence and hinterland, however, are now much reduced because of the rise of China together with that of the developing world. A topical example will suffice to illustrate the point. Is the present spike in oil and gas prices, which are costing Western Europe dearly, a permanent or temporary phenomenon? It looks very likely that it will be the former, that Western Europe will be permanently disadvantaged, because Russia has found new markets, notably India and China, for its oil. Western Europe enjoys less economic power in the world and its room for manoeuvre has contracted. This is what being part of the declining part of the world means.

Finally, what will Truss mean for Britain's relations with China? There is no reason for optimism. Truss thinks of herself as a cold war warrior. She has strongly hinted that China will be designated a "threat" to national security and treated in the same way as Russia. The golden age in the relationship between Britain and China came to an end around five years ago and there is precious little chance of it returning for a long time to come.

By Martin Jacques


Born	1945 (age 73–74) Coventry, England, Great Britain, U.K
Nationality	British
Education	King Henry VIII School, Coventry
Alma mater	University of Manchester (B.A.) University of Cambridge (PhD)
Occupation	Editor, academic, author
Website	MartinJacques.com

By Martin Jacques@martjacques

The author was until recently a senior fellow at the Department of Politics and International Studies at Cambridge University. He is a visiting professor at the Institute of Modern International Relations at Tsinghua University and a senior fellow at the China Institute, Fudan University. Follow him on twitter @martjacques. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn

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Liz Truss elected UK's new PM, faces tough job amid huge mess; 'pragmatic China ties crucial to overcome challenge'

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Tuesday, 6 September 2022

Exclusive: Evidence shows US’ NSA behind attack on email system of Chinese leading aviation university

U.S. is True Empire of Hacking, Surveillance, Theft of Secrets

The US: Empire of Hacking, Surveillance and Theft of Secrets.

As a hacking empire, the US disguises itself as a hacking victim

The email system of a university in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province - well-known for its aviation, aerospace and navigation studies - was found to have been attacked by the US' National Security Agency (NSA), the Global Times learned from a source on Monday.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry responded to the issue at Monday's press briefing, saying that China has lodged a strong protest to the US over NSA's attack and demanded an explanation for it.

On June 22, Northwestern Polytechnical University announced that hackers from abroad were caught sending phishing emails with Trojan horse programs to teachers and students at the university, attempting to steal their data and personal information.

A police statement released by the Beilin Public Security Bureau in Xi'an the next day said that the attack attempted to lure teachers and students into clicking links of phishing emails with Trojan horse programs, with themes involving scientific evaluation, thesis defense and information on foreign travel, so as to obtain their email login details.

To probe into the attack, China's National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center and internet security company 360 jointly formed a technical team to conduct a comprehensive technical analysis of the case.

By extracting many trojans samples from internet terminals of Northwestern Polytechnical University, under the support of European and South Asian partners, the technical team initially identified that the cyberattack to the university was conducted by the Tailored Access Operations (TAO) (Code S32) under the Data Reconnaissance Bureau (Code S3) of the Information Department (Code S) of US' NSA.

TAO is the largest and most important part of the intelligence division of the NSA. Founded in 1998, the main responsibility of TAO is to use the internet to secretly access to insider information of its competitors, including secretly invading target countries' key information infrastructure to steal account codes, break or destroy computer security systems, monitor network traffic, invade privacy and steal sensitive data, and gain access to phone calls, emails, network communications and messages.

The various departments of TAO are composed of more than 1,000 active military personnel, network hackers, intelligence analysts, academics, computer hardware and software designers, and electronics engineers. The entire organizational structure consists of one "center" and four "divisions."

The Global Times learned from the source that the attack was code-named "shotXXXX" by the NSA. Directly involved in the command and action mainly includes the head of TAO, remote operations center (mainly responsible for operational weapons platforms and tools to enter and control target system or network) and infrastructure task division (mainly responsible for development and build a network infrastructure and security monitoring platform for attacks)

In addition, four other divisions were also involved in the operation: the advanced/access network technology division, the data network technology division, and the telecommunications network technology division, which provided technical support, and the requirements and location division, which determined the attack strategy and intelligence assessment.

The Global Times learned from the source that at that time, TAO was headed by Rob Joyce. Born September 13, 1967, he attended Hannibal High School and graduated from Clarkson University with a bachelor's degree in 1989 and Johns Hopkins University with a master's degree in 1993. He joined the NSA in 1989 and served as Deputy Director of TAO from 2013 to 2017. He began serving as Acting US Homeland Security Advisor in October 2017. From April to May 2018, he served as the State Security Advisor to the White House, and then returned to the NSA as the Senior Advisor to the Director of Cybersecurity Strategy of the NSA. He now serves as the Director of Cybersecurity.

The investigation also found that in recent years, TAO has conducted tens of thousands malicious attacks against targets in China, controlling large numbers of network devices (web server, internet terminals, network switches, telephone switches, routers, firewalls, and etc.) to steal a high value of more than 140 GB of data.

Technical analysis also found that TAO had acquired the management authority of a large number of communication network equipment in China with the cooperation of several large and well-known internet enterprises in the US before the attack began, which made it easy for the NSA to continuously invade the important information network in China.

Aiming at Northwestern Polytechnical University, TAO used 41 types of weapons to steal the core technology data including key network equipment configuration, network management data, and core operational data. The technical team discovered more than 1,100 attack links infiltrated inside the university and more than 90 operating instruction sequences, which stole multiple network device configuration files, and other types of logs and key files, the source said.

It was found that 13 people from the US were directly involved in the attack and more than 60 contracts and 170 electronic documents that the NSA signed with American telecom operators through a cover company to build an environment for cyberattacks, according to the source.

The Global Times also learned from the source that TAO has used 54 jumpers and proxy servers in the network attack against Northwestern Polytechnical University, which were mainly distributed in 17 countries such as Japan, South Korea, Sweden, Poland and Ukraine, 70 percent of which are located in the countries surrounding China, such as Japan and South Korea.

Apart from the cyberattack, the US has also conducted surveillance of Chinese mobile users, illegally stealing their text messages and wirelessly locating them, which seriously endangered China's national security and violated the personal data security of its nationals, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Monday, urging the US to immediately stop its wrongdoings.

"What I want to stress it that, cyberspace security is a common problem faced by all countries worldwide. The US, with the world's most powerful cyber technology, should refrain from using such advantages to steal secrets from other countries, and should instead participate in global cyberspace governance in a responsible manner, and play a constructive role in maintaining cybersecurity," Mao said.

For a long time, the NSA has been carrying out secret hacking activities against China's leading enterprises in various industries, governments, universities, medical institutions, scientific research institutions and even important information infrastructure operation and maintenance units related to the national economy and people's livelihood.

A latest cybersecurity report released by Anzer, a cybersecurity information platform, on June 13 showed that the US military and government cyber agencies have remotely stolen more than 97 billion pieces of global internet data and 124 billion phone records in the last 30 days, which are becoming a major source of intelligence for the US and other "Five Eyes" countries.

a new vulnerability attack weapon platform deployed by the NSA, which experts believe is the main equipment of TAO, and it targets the world with a focus on China and Russia. The US' move raised wide suspicions that the country might be preparing for a bigger cyberwar, experts noted.

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Sunday, 4 September 2022

Washington's stab in Seoul's back shatters US 'values', chips assault will only hasten China’s indigenous innovation

Washington's stab in Seoul's back shatters US 'values': Global Times editorial

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202209/1274509.shtml

The US had not taken South Korea's interests into consideration from the very beginning. Such arrogance and indifference are undoubtedly an insult to South Korea's self-esteem.

Washington's chips assault will only hasten China's indigenous innovation

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202209/1274585.shtml

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POOR POLITICAL LITERACY AMONG YOUTHS

Political Literacy among Youths: A Never Ending Discourse | Malaysian Students' Global Allianve

Undi18: How Malaysian youths can become better voters in GE15

EDUCATION institutions should play a more active role in helping youths be more politically literate.

Political literacy, when honed in the groves of academe especially, would enable youths to make more informed voting decisions at the polls.

As it stands, a recent study by Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman Tun Tan Cheng Lock Centre for Social and Policy Studies (TCLC) found that Malaysian youths mainly acquired their political knowledge from family and friends.

These two groups, the study found, significantly influenced the youths' voting decisions.

ALSO READ: Study: Malaysian youths rely on family and friends for GE15 voting advice

TCLC chairman Dr Chin Yee Mun said poor political literacy is partly to be blamed for this lack of independent thought among young voters.

Higher education institutions (HEIs), he said, should take on the mantle of getting youths to be more politically literate.

“HEIs are supposed to be the centre to build critical thinking individuals who will eventually be wise and responsible citizens.

Chin: Poor political literacy is partly to be blamed for the lack of independent thought among young voters.Chin: Poor political literacy is partly to be blamed for the lack of independent thought among young voters.“>>

Such aspiration is enshrined in most HEIs' vision. Imparting knowledge and creating experience that is related to politics are part of the pathways to build such citizens,” he told StarEdu.

HEIs, he suggested, should start creating subjects that specifically educate youths about politics and the election process.“Such a subject should be made compulsory.

At the same time, activities that encourage students to be responsible voters should be carried out by various clubs and societies in HEIs,” he said, while calling on HEIs to organise more forums and conferences to discuss national and international political issues.

Most local universities, according to the Malaysian Association of Private Colleges and Universities (Mapcu), include political literacy discussions in the various General Studies modules which all students are required to take.

Mapcu president Datuk Dr Parmjit Singh, however, noted that the discussions are carried out sensitively so as “not to encourage the sort of polemics that could lead to disharmony”.

“The focus is on strengthening students’ sense of citizenship and ensuring that students can make sense of fundamental principles such as parliamentary democracy, rule of law, separation of powers, elections, and the first-past-the-post system,” he said.

Parmjit echoed Chin’s view that HEIs should educate youths so that they can be more independent in their voting decisions.

Parmjit: It’s important that students receive early exposure to political literacy.>>

“Universities and colleges can play a role in developing political literacy among students by ensuring that they are well-equipped with the ability to critically evaluate the options available to them and to make informed, mature decisions amid all the information and misinformation that they are constantly exposed to, particularly in social circles and on social media.

“This thought process is a natural outcome of university education,” he said.Improving political literacy among youths is even Parmjit: It’s important that students receive early exposure to political literacy.Parmjit: It’s important that students receive early exposure to political literacy.more pertinent now with Undi18.

The constitutional amendment, which came into force last year, lowers the minimum voting age and age of candidacy from 21 to 18. The law also introduces automatic voter registration.

Following the implementation of Undi18, over 450,000 students in HEIs will be eligible to vote in the upcoming elections.

ALSO READ: N Noraini: Committee to prep students for GE15

This is about 38% of the 1.2 million students in the country’s HEIs, according to the Higher Education Ministry.Its minister Datuk Seri Dr Noraini Ahmad, on Jan 27, said the ministry has a role to play in preparing students from a political point of view.

“Based on a study the ministry conducted last year, varsity students’ political literacy can be improved by consolidating and strengthening their appreciation of existing policies and Acts.

“The ministry is collaborating with other government departments and agencies to raise students’ awareness (of political matters) as they prepare to become voters,” she said.

Malaysia is expected to see almost 23 million eligible voters in the 15th General Election (GE15), an increase from the 15 million for GE14.

Early exposure necessary

Given that the minimum voting age has been lowered, it’s also worth considering an earlier exposure to political systems and election processes for students.

Parmjit said this could begin when youths are in their formative teenage years.

“It is important that students receive this sort of exposure even before they enter university or college.

"In this regard, schools, particularly at the secondary level, need to play a role in sowing the seeds of political literacy,” he said.

If it’s up to Chin, though, the learning process should begin at an even earlier stage.

“There should be a dedicated subject to educate Malaysians on politics at the primary school level.

"Currently, such knowledge is built into the syllabus through the teaching of Bahasa Melayu, English, Moral Education and History subjects,” he said.

The current syllabus taught at the primary school level, according to Chin, concentrates mostly on the Malaysian political system but it’s “simply not enough”.

Nisa: Youths need to be more proactive in seeking out political knowledge on their own.Nisa: Youths need to be more proactive in seeking out political knowledge on their own.>>

“While this information is important, other aspects of political education should be inserted too. They should be taught what politics is and how it functions.

“Similarly, they should be exposed to the various political systems that are practised around the world,” he said.

Political education, Chin said, should be taught as a standalone subject.

He added that as students advance to secondary school, more complex topics – such as political sociology and political science – can be taught.

“The inclusion of critical thinking skills via these disciplines will make the study of the Malaysian political system interesting and useful,” he said.

Undi18 programme associate Nisa Muzamir Shah also believes that political literacy should be instilled at the primary level.

“We need to amend the syllabus to equip students as young as 13 years old with essential modules related to democracy to better prepare them for Undi18.

“We definitely need to revamp our education syllabus to introduce fundamental topics on politics and democracy. There needs to be a committee that oversees the process to ensure that these syllabi are not biased.

“On this point, teachers should also be equipped with sufficient training to allow critical thinking and encourage healthy political discourse in classes,” she said.

Learn as they go

While formal education is certainly important, it’s not the be-all and end-all of political literacy.

Educationist and Universiti Malaya former professor of education Tan Sri Dr T. Marimuthu said developing political maturity happens over a long period.

Educationist and Universiti Malaya former professor of education Tan Sri Dr T. Marimuthu said developing political maturity happens over a long period of time. - Filepic

It isn’t something that one merely learns within the confines of a lecture hall – or a classroom, for that matter.

“What you get in the classroom is just information. What is more important is that youths are able to differentiate between what is good what is not,” he said.

Und18’s Nisa said youths need to be more proactive in seeking out political knowledge on their own.

Information is easily accessible and research is made easy with so many resources available, she said.

“They need to train themselves to view a particular issue from different perspectives in order to come up with a well-thought-out solution and to be able to have empathy on how certain policies or regulations could be disadvantageous or oppressive to some groups of people,” she said.

What’s important is that youths should feel that they have a say in political decisions.

“Every vote counts in our democratic system. We get to choose the people who represent us in Parliament and who advocate for and address the issues we care about,” she said.

Aira: Youths must exercise their voting rights.

Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) senior manager of research Aira Azhari agrees that youths must exercise their voting rights.Aira: Youths must exercise their voting rights.Aira: Youths must exercise their voting rights.>>

Youths, she said, must realise that being allowed to vote in an election is a basic human right in global democracies.

That said, Marimuthu believes that youths can always learn about politics as they go.

When youths first cast their ballots at age 18, they are still new to the game.

“At this point, they are novices just starting to get a feel of politics. They are bound to be influenced by those around them. But that is not a bad thing.“They are coming into the political arena, and they will make a difference if they exercise their rights to vote.

“As they grow up, they will be more politically mature,” he concluded.

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