Republican Governor Kim Reynolds of the midwestern U.S. state of Iowa laid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine squarely at the feet of President Joe Biden and his approach to foreign policy.
In the official Republican response to the Democratic president’s State of the Union address, Governor Reynolds offered a list of what she described as the administration’s foreign policy failures, including last year’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, which she said not only “cost American lives,” but “betrayed our allies and emboldened our enemies.”
Reynolds suggested Biden allowed the Ukraine invasion to occur by waiving sanctions on Russian pipelines while eliminating domestic oil production. She concluded that Biden and congressional Democrats were too busy “focusing on political correctness rather than military readiness.”
“Weakness on the world stage has a cost,” Reynolds said. “And the president’s approach to foreign policy has consistently been too little, too late.”
Turning her attention to the U.S. economy, the first-term governor said Biden and congressional Democrats have spent the last year “either ignoring issues facing Americans or making them worse,” specifically inflation. Reynolds said the administration was warned that “spending trillions of dollars would lead to soaring inflation, and were told that anti-energy policies would send gas prices to new heights.”
She also boasted of the approach taken by her and other Republican governors in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. This included opposing coronavirus restrictions such as vaccine and mask mandates, especially those in public schools.
She said keeping schools open is just the start of a “pro-parent, pro-family revolution” that includes banning the teaching of so-called critical race theory, which conservatives contend could further divide Americans and worsen race relations.
“Americans are tired of a political class trying to remake this country into a place where an elite view tells everyone else what they can and cannot say, what they can and cannot believe,” Reynolds said. “They’re tired of people pretending the way to erase racism is by categorizing everybody by their race.”
The 62-year-old Reynolds began her political career as the elected treasurer of a rural county, serving four terms in that office before her election to the Iowa state Senate in 2008. She was elevated to the post of lieutenant governor two years later as the running mate of Governor Terry Branstad, succeeding him in 2017 when he was confirmed as then-President Donald Trump’s choice as ambassador to China.
Republican Governor Kim Reynolds of the midwestern U.S. state of Iowa laid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine squarely at the feet of President Joe Biden and his approach to foreign policy.
In the official Republican response to the Democratic president’s State of the Union address, Governor Reynolds offered a list of what she described as the administration’s foreign policy failures, including last year’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, which she said not only “cost American lives,” but “betrayed our allies and emboldened our enemies.”
Reynolds suggested Biden allowed the Ukraine invasion to occur by waiving sanctions on Russian pipelines while eliminating domestic oil production. She concluded that Biden and congressional Democrats were too busy “focusing on political correctness rather than military readiness.”
“Weakness on the world stage has a cost,” Reynolds said. “And the president’s approach to foreign policy has consistently been too little, too late.”
Turning her attention to the U.S. economy, the first-term governor said Biden and congressional Democrats have spent the last year “either ignoring issues facing Americans or making them worse,” specifically inflation. Reynolds said the administration was warned that “spending trillions of dollars would lead to soaring inflation, and were told that anti-energy policies would send gas prices to new heights.”
She also boasted of the approach taken by her and other Republican governors in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. This included opposing coronavirus restrictions such as vaccine and mask mandates, especially those in public schools.
She said keeping schools open is just the start of a “pro-parent, pro-family revolution” that includes banning the teaching of so-called critical race theory, which conservatives contend could further divide Americans and worsen race relations.
“Americans are tired of a political class trying to remake this country into a place where an elite view tells everyone else what they can and cannot say, what they can and cannot believe,” Reynolds said. “They’re tired of people pretending the way to erase racism is by categorizing everybody by their race.”
The 62-year-old Reynolds began her political career as the elected treasurer of a rural county, serving four terms in that office before her election to the Iowa state Senate in 2008. She was elevated to the post of lieutenant governor two years later as the running mate of Governor Terry Branstad, succeeding him in 2017 when he was confirmed as then-President Donald Trump’s choice as ambassador to China.
A Chinese official’s pitch this week for stronger Sino-U.S. relations could indicate that Beijing wants to edge away from Russia and repair economic relations, some analysts say.
In a speech Monday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged Washington to “reinstate a reasonable and pragmatic China policy” and “promote putting bilateral ties back on the right track,” the state-run China Daily news website reported.
A breakthrough in Sino-U.S. relations would mark a turning point since the two powers began sparring in 2017 over trade, technology transfers and growing Chinese military might around Asia. U.S. President Joe Biden’s government said in a report Tuesday it still sees China as a competitor that’s “unfair” in trade.
Trade ties, distance from Russia
China has tried to avoid siding openly with Russia on its invasion of Ukraine last week despite a long, deepening friendship with Moscow.
China did not join Russia in vetoing a U.S.-backed U.N. Security Council resolution against the attack, and its U.N. ambassador suggested that Ukraine form a “bridge” between the East and West .
Washington has blasted its former Cold War rival Russia over the invasion.
Wang is “trying to make nice” in view of China’s “increasingly” close ties with Russia, said Sean King, vice president of Park Strategies political consultancy in New York. “These are perilous times when we see who’s who and what’s what,” King said.
Chinese officials are hoping the U.S. side will welcome their appeal for better relations as the United States faces “mounting inflation” among other economic issues, said Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.
Wang said Monday that China was willing to work with the United States on a G-7-led global infrastructure plan called Build Back Better World and welcomes Washington in its Belt and Road Initiative aimed at opening trade routes by building new infrastructure. Biden happens to be pushing the U.S. Senate for a $2-trillion social spending bill, which also is called Build Back Better.
“Now that the U.S. is embroiled in the confrontation with Russia, the U.S. will need friends and allies, and China has been adopting a rather ambivalent attitude with regards to the Ukraine invasion, so that creates a window of opportunity for the U.S. and China to come closer together,” Oh said.
China could offer the United States “cost effective technology” for railways and prefabricated bridges, said Eduardo Araral, associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s public policy school. But he said Washington may be “too proud” to accept that support.
He said that bickering between the two powers has eased already. “Now it’s either no news or positive news, which is good news,” Araral said. “At least there’s no more shouting match or megaphone diplomacy.”
Momentum from 50 years ago
Wang spoke Monday at a video ceremony marking the 50-year anniversary of the Shanghai Communique. Former Chinese leader Mao Zedong and former U.S. President Richard Nixon signed the statement as a prelude to normalizing two-way relations.
“History tells us that by seeking common ground while reserving differences, we can attain peaceful co-existence between countries with different social systems,” the foreign minister said.
“The older generation of leaders in both countries realized that despite the differences, neither side had the intention to change the other,” he said. “Both sides hoped to see that the two countries could grow in parallel and conduct cooperation based on shared interests.”
No deal yet
The Chinese foreign minister’s comments, however, offer no actual deal. Wang criticized Washington on Monday as not “earnestly complying with the principles and spirit” of the Shanghai Communique, China Daily reported.
“It should abandon its mania for zero-sum games, give up its obsession with encircling and containing China, and break free from the shackles of political correctness,” he told the video ceremony.
Americans continue to worry about China. Some point to China’s growing use of big data analytics and its links to COVID-19. The coronavirus was first reported in China in late 2019.
“Unfortunately, with the virus, everybody blames China, so I don’t think it’s going to change,” said Sylvia Rampi, general manager for an association of mostly Chinese-operated businesses in Oakland, California.
As Taiwan continues to face a military threat from China, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said this week the Taiwanese government continues to focus on its “asymmetric defense” capability — including U.S. assistance — to make it an unattractive target, despite its limited military power.
Taiwan’s current strategy is to make certain “China will understand it will pay a very heavy price if it initiates conflict against Taiwan,” Wu said during a virtual event hosted by the McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University.
Speaking with former U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, Wu argued for continued U.S. support of Taiwan through arms sales, military exchanges, shared intelligence, and freedom of navigation exercises in the Taiwan Strait.
FILE – Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu holds a speech during his visit to Czech Senate in Prague, Czech Republic, Oct. 27, 2021.
“We want the people here in Taiwan to be able to defend themselves if China is going to launch a war against Taiwan,” Wu said.
Taiwan has lived under the threat of military action by China since China’s Nationalist Party, the Kuomintang fled the mainland after losing the Chinese civil war in 1949. While the conflict has remained largely a stalemate since then — with Beijing continuing to claim Taiwan as a province — an aggressive military modernization campaign by China means it could be able to attack Taiwan as early as 2027, according to the U.S. Defense Department.
Wu said China could have the potential to attack targets other than Taiwan in the future.
“China has made so much investment and have modernized their military capable of not only striking at Taiwan but go beyond the first island chain, so we need to develop our asymmetric warfare so that Taiwan is able to defend itself,” he said, referring to the name of the defensive barrier of Taiwan, Japan, Okinawa, and the northern Philippines.
Similar concerns have led the United States as well as France, Japan, Australia, India, South Korea, the Philippines, and the European Union to become more vocal about the future of Indo-Pacific security in the face of a rising China. Earlier this month, Washington released its latest Indo-Pacific strategy, which called for greater cooperation with regional partners.
Wu said Taiwan must be “very careful” to not provoke China and trigger a conflict. The most recent incident occurred in 1995 and 1996, when China fired missiles toward Taiwan ahead of its first democratic elections. Future triggers could include a formal declaration of independence by Taiwan from China, which is why leaders such as President Tsai Ing-wen are extremely careful when they discuss Taiwan’s political status.
Wu said domestic problems could also force Beijing’s hand if it needed to unite China against a common enemy. “We also need to watch out for this classical theory about authoritarian countries. They like to divert domestic attention by initiating external conflict. If something is happening in China, inside their country, for example, economic slowdown, unemployment, or major disasters, things like that, that might be the time that we need to watch very carefully,” he said.
In the meantime, Taiwan continues to face Chinese efforts to sway public opinion and destroy morale from within Taiwan by convincing civilians “democracy is doomed.” Tactics have included more than 1,000 Chinese People’s Liberation Army air sorties toward Taiwan last year, Wu said, as well as disinformation campaigns and political infiltration.
Wu said these tactics are “below the thresholds of a military conflict” but still require Taiwan and allies such as the United States to keep pushing back.
Events like Wu’s talk at the McCain Institute are part of Taiwan’s greater public relations strategy to remain a central concern for both the U.S. government and the U.S. public, said Kitsch Liao Yen-fan, a cyber and military affairs consultant at the Taiwanese civil society group Doublethink Lab.
Liao said this was a particular concern for Taiwan after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan last year, as the U.S. public may not want to see its military send troops to another foreign conflict. While the United States is not formally committed to defending Taiwan if it were attacked, under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act it has pledged to help it defend itself.
Whether this would ever extend to sending U.S. personnel to Taiwan in a wartime scenario, however, is still a topic of debate — and a decision that Taipei hopes to influence.
Talks like those by Wu, however, “create sufficient momentum to tip public opinion on Taiwan’s side, and on the political side of the United States to reach a tipping point where the willingness to actually send the military into the next conflict will be reversed again,” said Liao.
The tourism sector continues to report positive indicators of reactivation in Barranquilla.
This capital is attractive for national and international visitors who see here as an integral destination to visit and enjoy all a city offer.
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At least this is reflected in the numbers registered in the first monthly bulletin 2022 and the offer and employment report of the District Tourist Information System.
From the Tourist Attention Point (PAT) of the Carnival Museumone of the most visited sites in the city.
Secretary of Economic Development, Ricardo Silver Sarabia, He expressed that the capital of the Atlantic continues to position itself as a destination for international visitors. “They increased from 12,320 to 17,142 (January 2019 vs. January 2022), which represents a growth of 39%,” she said.
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The Gran Malecón del Río, in Barranquilla, is visited daily by hundreds of tourists.
Photo:
Vanexa Romero – THE TIME
In addition to the rise in this indicator, the city also registered a total of 109,305 national tourist arrivals.
The foregoing demonstrates a positive result after the opening of new international air connectivity routes from the Ernesto Cortissoz airport, from where it is recorded that the 5 main destinations of international origin are: United States (19%), Chile (12%), Mexico (8%), Peru (7%) and Panama (5%).
In January 2022 we recorded the highest Consumer Confidence Index and we are the only positive city in the country
“In January 2022 we recorded the highest Consumer Confidence Index and we are the only positive city in the country, which motivates us to continue with the roadmap that the Information System has marked to promote tourism, which begins by awakening the sense of belonging from home”, expressed Plata Sarabia.
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The promotion of international journalists
Precisely these days, the renowned journalist and public relations specialist of North American origin is in the city Jess Scott, who has shared in his social networks the emotion for his visit and his pleasure towards the typical dishes, the hotel offer and other emblematic places of the city.
Scott writes for major media outlets such as the Lonely Planet, Miami New Times, Condé Nast Traveler, BBC and National Geographic.
Hoteliers celebrate the good moment
The report for the first 31 days of the year also showed that hotel occupancy reached 55%, while the Average spending per stay is close to $800,000, maintaining the range of the last quarter of 2021.
“The results of the strategies implemented between the public and private sectors to accelerate the economic revival of the sector are evidenced in these very positive figures, but above all, constant”, as expressed by the head of the Tourism Office, Kathy López.
The capital of the Atlantic stands out for the variety of its hotel offer, especially for those travelers who arrive for business.
Photo:
The Information System also consolidated the supply and employment figures for the city’s tourism sector for the last quarter of 2021, including service providers such as accommodation and lodging establishments, restaurants, travel agencies and transport operators.
López explained that this measurement analyzes the establishments that have the legal documentation for the exercise of their tourist service activities, such as the National Registry of Tourism (RNT).
Taking into account the above, important data on the labor dynamics of the sector stand out, such as the fact that 62% of tourism employees correspond to accommodation services, 20% to gastronomic establishments, and 16% to travel agencies.
Restaurants with RNT are the second provider of tourist services that places more employees within the labor market of the sector, with 20% of them.
Employment figures left by tourism
The labor market of tourism sector evidences a more balanced dynamic than other sectors of the economy with respect to the opportunities it offers to population groups such as women and young people:
51% of all employees in the city’s tourism sector are women, representing the majority of employed people.
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52% of tourism management positions are held by women, which includes private companies, government entities and unions.
63% of the people who work in tourism in Barranquilla have technical, technological or professional academic training related to tourism.
The tourism program University to the neighborhood It is one of the most enrolled students, with more than 300 students.
LEONARDO HERRERA DELGANS Correspondent of EL TIEMPO Barranquilla On Twitter: @leoher69 Write me at leoher@eltiempo.com
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Iran is “in a hurry” to strike a new nuclear accord as long as its national interests are protected, its foreign minister said on Monday as Tehran and the United States resumed indirect talks on salvaging Tehran’s 2015 agreement with world powers.
The talks, with European intermediaries shuttling between the two, have been held in Vienna since April amid growing Western fears about Tehran’s accelerating nuclear advances, seen by Western powers as irreversible unless a deal is struck soon.
The 2015 deal limited Iran’s enrichment of uranium to make it harder for Tehran to develop material for nuclear weapons, in return for a lifting of international sanctions against Tehran.
But it has eroded since 2018 when then-President Donald Trump withdrew the United States and reimposed far-reaching sanctions on Iran. The Islamic Republic has since breached the deal’s limits and gone well beyond, rebuilding stockpiles of enriched uranium, refining it to higher fissile purity and installing advanced centrifuges to speed up output.
“Iran is in a hurry to reach agreement in Vienna…, but this should be within the framework of our national interest,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told a news conference in Tehran.
He urged Western powers to stop “playing with time.”
Western leaders say time is running out for a viable accord and have accusing Iran of stalling to increase its leverage.
Parties involved in the talks, which resumed last week after a 10-day break, have voiced hope about restoring the pact despite what Tehran has said are “key outstanding issues that require political decisions by the West.”
“Talks are not at a dead end…Iran has already taken its political decision by staying in the deal despite the U.S. withdrawal,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said.
Remaining gaps
A senior Iranian official told Reuters that “some 30% of difficult issues remain to be resolved but it is possible to reach a deal by early March.” A Western diplomat said “reaching a deal is possible around early March, if all goes well.”
After eight rounds of talks, key bones of contention include Iran’s demand for a U.S. guarantee of no more sanctions or other punitive steps in future, and how and when to restore verifiable restrictions on Iran’s nuclear activity.
A second Iranian official said Tehran was also insisting on being able to seal and store its advanced centrifuges inside Iran, rather than dismantling and sending them abroad, as Western powers have called for.
He said Iran further wants the removal of some 300 extra sanctions on Iranian entities and individuals not related to the nuclear deal.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has said it will remove curbs inconsistent with the 2015 pact if Iran resumes compliance with it, implying Washington would leave in place sanctions imposed under terrorism or human rights measures.
U.S. officials have said the Biden administration cannot guarantee that a U.S. government would never renege on the agreement because it is classified as a non-binding political understanding, not a legally binding treaty.
For NPR’s Emily Feng, it was snail noodles, a deliciously stinky snack.
Her article, written for a large U.S. media organization, triggered a seemingly orchestrated online attack — complete with Feng’s photograph — by China’s official state media outlets and private Chinese citizens accusing her of being anti-China. Feng tweeted about the “hurdles” she found “perplexing but also sadly routine” in reporting on snail noodles.
For foreign journalists, such attacks, some physical, are increasingly common — and well planned by the Chinese government, according to Chang Ping, a former journalist who now lives in Germany as a China affairs commentator. The most recent occurred during the opening hours of the Olympics, when a Chinese security officer hustled a Dutch journalist off camera on live TV.
“The articles that attack foreign media are not a decision made by editors or journalists or whoever wrote them. Everything goes with the state’s grand diplomatic plans,” Chang Ping told VOA Mandarin. “The so-called crass ‘wolf diplomacy’ didn’t happen because the diplomats or the government became stupid. It became like this because they believe it will bring them good results. They believe it works.” “Wolf warrior diplomacy” is a newly assertive Chinese attitude in its dealings with the world.
Li Busheng, a pseudonym used out of fear by an experienced Chinese journalist working for a Western media outlet in China, told VOA Mandarin that “many times the social media or websites claim they use algorithms to push only the stuff (an audience member) likes to read, but the reality is, you’ll always see these anti-West or China-West confrontation articles. It’s like they force-feed it to you.”
Reporting challenges
A report by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China, or FCCC, on media freedom in 2021 found that foreign journalists are facing “unprecedented hurdles” because of Beijing’s efforts to “block and discredit independent reporting.”
“As the number of journalists forced out by the Chinese state grows due to excessive intimidation or outright expulsions, covering China is increasingly becoming an exercise in remote reporting.”
The 2021 FCCC report did not mention any controversial reports on snail noodles; back in 2022 China, however, Feng tweeted about surveillance and middle-of-the-night COVID-19 checks by unmasked Chinese officers. Feng declined to speak with Mandarin VOA.
China’s Foreign Ministry has described the FCCC as “an illegal organization, never acknowledged by China.”
Foreign journalists are routinely surveilled online and offline, in the field as well as in the cities where they are based, according to the FCCC report, published January 31. Virtually all the foreign journalists responding to an annual survey by the report’s authors said that reporting conditions did not meet what they considered to be international standards.
Chinese authorities appeared to be encouraging a spate of lawsuits or the threat of legal action against foreign journalists, the report found. Such litigation is typically filed by sources long after they explicitly agreed to be interviewed.
The FCCC notes that based on precedent, foreigners involved in civil or criminal lawsuits and court proceedings in China can be banned from leaving the country.
Telephone and email requests for comment on the FCCC report, which had been sent last week to the Chinese embassy in Washington, went unanswered.
The report quotes David Rennie, Beijing bureau chief of The Economist, as saying, “In the past, the main tools used to control media involved restrictions on access, blacklisting from events, or problems with press cards and visas. The growing use of the law is new and worrying.”
Visa limbo
Foreign correspondents unable to remain in China have relocated to report from Taipei, Singapore, Sydney and London, the report says. Hong Kong, once the preferred post outside China, is no longer an appealing option because of Beijing’s crackdown on the press under a national security law imposed in 2020. The broadly written law has been used to arrest and jail local journalists.
The Chinese authorities have hobbled the remaining journalists working for U.S. news organizations by refusing to renew the press cards essential for reporting. At least 22 journalists from the United States, Britain, Canada, Italy, Japan and New Zealand are in constant limbo after authorities trimmed the period covered by residence permits from one year to two or three months.
Authorities use China’s strict pandemic measures to delay approvals for journalist visas, which has left many news organizations understaffed, the report says. The pandemic controls also help authorities shut down reporting trips and decline interview requests.
“China thinks it’s in the world center now, and you see more reports on how Xi Jinping is pointing a direction for the world,” said Chang Ping. “The purpose of attacking media and journalists is clear: to frighten them. And it works.”
Noodlegate
So how did Feng’s January 16 paean to the delights of stinky snail noodles become a target? Posted on NPR’s health and development blog, Goats and Soda, her piece bore the headline, “Snail noodles go viral in China during the pandemic. But the dish is a bit … funky”.
On an always hungry internet that had had quite enough of pandemic favorites such as sourdough starters, snail noodles barreled toward viral fame.
FILE – A roadside food vendor sells snail noodles in Hanoi, Oct. 10, 2003.
It began: “It’s fermented. It’s stinky. It’s delicious. And during the pandemic, it’s become a national sensation. The dish is snail noodles, or luosifen.”
The snack, local to China’s southern province of Guangxi, so captured Feng that she traveled to the food fad’s center near the Vietnamese border.
Her article chronicled the economic ingenuity of a struggling manufacturing center that pivoted to stinky snack stardom even before the pandemic.
Feng tweeted that there were “numerous state pieces” responding to her article, including one from a local newspaper in Guangdong province headlined “Anti-China Chinese reporter infiltrates into Guangxi and writes about luosifen cynically.” The article included a photo of Feng.
A pro-China overseas online publication called Student Daily in North America also accused Feng of “spreading rumors that luosifen will cause another pandemic and smearing traditional food as a way of passing virus.” The Chinese article ends saying, “From bats to luosifen, Western media never stops smearing the origin of COVID-19 virus.”
