International

“We no longer have a democracy worth defending”

Johanna Lei takes a hard line with her country. The confrontational course with the People’s Republic of China is dangerous. The USA is adding fuel to the fire.

Interview by Joanna Lei* conducted by Pierre Heumann

(21 March 2023) Taiwanese opposition politician Joanna Lei accuses the government in Taipei of dismantling democracy and trying to distance itself more from the People’s Republic. Instead, Lei favours peaceful coexistence with mainland China, for example by founding a “commonwealth”. This is causing displeasure in Washington. According to Lei, the USA wants to assert its own interests at Taiwan’s expense. She fears that America could use the small Republic of China, i.e. Taiwan, for a proxy war against the People’s Republic.

Beijing takes the initiative in the Ukraine conflict

by Ralph Bosshard,* Switzerland

(14 March 2023) Just in time for the anniversary of the Russian attack on Ukraine, the Chinese Foreign Ministry launched its initiative for a political solution to the conflict.1 [See the 12 points in the appendix, ed.]

With its cleverly formulated and launched peace proposal, Beijing has staked its claim to a say in important issues of world politics and continues to promote its vision of a multipolar world in which Russia, too, would have to find its own place. Far from letting its Russian partner drag it into a conflict at an inopportune moment, however, China is not prepared to drop it either.

The ninth anniversary of the Ukraine war

by Prof. Jeffrey D. Sachs,* USA

(7 March 2023) We are not at the 1-year anniversary of the war, as the Western governments and media claim. This is the 9-year anniversary of the war. And that makes a big difference.

The West and the Global South

‘You can’t be neutral in Ukraine War’

You are either with us, or against us

by Ben Norton,* USA

(7 March 2023) The foreign ministers of the United States, Germany, and Ukraine have told the world “you can’t be neutral” in NATO’s proxy war with
Russia,¹ recalling President George W. Bush’s infamous declaration, “You are either with us, or against us”. In doing so, these Western officials are implicitly criticizing the vast majority of the countries on Earth, which are in the Global South, and which have maintained strict neutrality over the war.

USA/Nato/Japan versus China

Militarization of the First Island Chain

by German Foreign Policy*

(28 February 2023) NATO expands cooperation with Japan on a broad front – at a time when Tokyo is engaged in the greatest arms buildup since 1945. USA gears up the entire first island chain of China for war.

The catastrophic earthquake forces all sides to rethink

by Karin Leukefeld,* Beirut

(21 February 2023) The UN Security Council addressed the situation in Syria on Monday afternoon (NY local time) [13 February]. A “private meeting” and “non-public consultations” focused on how to get more aid to earthquake-affected areas in northern Syria and Syria’s coastal region as quickly as possible.