Ulrich Speck (🇩🇪) on democracies vs 🇨🇳 & 🇷🇺 :

「The battle clearly is about principles: how to organise power inside states and between states. What rulers in Russia and China want is clear: the right to run states without democracy and rights of the people, and the right to dominate weaker countries by using every instrument.

Liberal-minded countries around the world, led by the US, are pushing back against this vision that Putin and Xi try to jointly advance ("changes that the world has not seen in a century").

That struggle is not just about borders and the independence of countries (Ukraine, Taiwan), it is a struggle about far broader principles: the future of the liberal order -- the package consisting of human rights, rule of law, democracy, market economy and collective security.

Ukraine and Taiwan are on the frontline of this struggle for broader principles and ideas of order. Important for the liberal-minded coalition to win: to make sure that Russia won't control Ukraine and China won't subjugate Taiwan by force.」

https://nitter.net/ulrichspeck/status/1703328806411370949

As recently as in 2021 it would've been seen as scandalous to state the reality of rising threat of authoritarianism as clearly. The peoples on the front lines of that struggle were routinely shrugged off as "alarmists" or worse.

On a personal note I recall hanging out with a number of German China-business types and discreetly gauging their interest in the ethical considerations of their 'engagement', not least due to certain historical considerations supposedly learned from Germany's own past. Depending how one counts, they collectively hit either 0% or 100% batting average. Zero concerns about anything. Schroeder and Merkel weren't complete anomalies, but normalizers of that indifferent appeasement and collaboration (for profit).

Thankfully I already knew that this lot wasn't representative of entire Germany and the reaction to russian invasion of #Ukraine shows that most Germans still see value in doing the right thing.

#china #russia #authoritarianism #AxisOfDespots #Germany #UlrichSpeck #Zeitenwende #HandelOhneWandel #democracy #Taiwan #humanrights

🔥📜☭ 🇨🇳 ★ A highly recommended recapping of personal account and insightful advice for the current batch of sinologists from someone who's seen and experienced most if it, Geremie R. Barmé 👇

Thanks to livelihoods and eventually whole identities being dependent on 'playing ball' (i.e. collaboration and collusion) with the CCP party-state apparatus, the sinologist contingent were always going to pay by providing cover and excuses for the never-ending (un-critical!) engagement and appeasement, logically considered to be necessary for the ultimate prize: business.

Some sinologists had the nous and moral compass to try and minimize the corruptive aspects of the engagements aiding the party-state.

Most I believe took the easiest and most lucrative road and became useful tools for the machine that fed them. This ranged from learning to withhold criticism of the Party to becoming shameless firebrands promoting CCP ideology no matter how deranged. (case in point: the so-called "peaceful liberation" of #Tibet by the Chinese communist party's army oxymoronically named the 'PLA').

The china-trained sinologist army was then recruited as academic advisers for foreign ministries across the globe, spreading their gospel of the necessity of (uncritical!) engagement and appeasement over the decades. Thanks to this decades long normalization of dictatorship many people are now shocked (!) when exposed to harsh critical evaluation of the uncritical #appeasement era. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

(sorry for the typoes!)

#longread #GeremieRBarmé #ethics #ccp #prc #xijinping #china #chinese #sinology #academia #sinophilia #oldchinahand #selfcensorship #HandelOhneWandel #zeitenwende

https://thechinaproject.com/2023/09/15/in-a-retro-mood-the-ethical-dilemmas-of-cutting-a-deal-with-xi-jinpings-china/

@raymondpert "KUKA is a German manufacturer of industrial robots and systems for factory automation. The Chinese company Midea Group owns more than 95% of the company."

#zeitenwende #HandelOhneWandel #KUKA #germany #Deutschland #natsec

☝️ Question to the #EUCommission: If the values enshrined in #UnitedNations (#humanrights) declarations are considered truly important, why are all the democracies financing, industrializing and otherwise empowering hostile #authoritarian regimes?

There are basically zero incentives for governments and elites of developing countries to choose #democracy over #authoritarianism... 👀

💥 Why not establish a global trading system where authoritarians and despots face serious tariffs and embargoes, and military-expansionist or even genocidal regimes actually face at least *some* real world consequences over their crimes? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Meanwhile trade and financial, industrial and technological assistance should be reserved for countries with at least *minimal* adherence to the most basic #UN ideals.

Why is this simple concept so difficult? Reward good, not evil.

Is it really hard to fathom *why* the post-1989 world rewarded greed over democratic values? In 1989, only months after the #TianAnMen massacre, trade delegations were queueing up to kowtow the #CCP #dictatorship... They got the message, as did #putler a decade later.

#WTO #MFN #MostFavoredNation #china #russia #AxisOfDespots #brics #SCO #EuropeanUnion #HandelOhneWandel
@EU_Commission

⬆「Haldenwang said there were “astonishing parallels” between the present and the 1920s and 1930s that should prompt concern.

“For too long there was too little opposition to the rise of extremism and authoritarianism,” he told a conference of security experts Monday. “Ninety years ago an elected extremist party gained power that first led Germany into a dictatorship and finally toward total ruin.”

While the current conditions are different than a century ago, Haldenwang said Russia’s attack on Ukraine last year has been seized upon by “intellectual arsonists on the new right, demagogues and extremist ideologues, conspiracy theorists and influencers for foreign powers” who have helped stoke anxiety and polarization in some parts of society.

Germany and other European countries have expelled a considerable number of suspected Russian spies since the outbreak of war and sought to curb its state-backed media. China is also increasingly being seen as a threat in the theater of “hybrid warfare,” though Beijing’s efforts to undermine democracy in Germany and elsewhere are considered more subtle but potentially more dangerous.」

https://apnews.com/article/germany-extremism-russia-hybrid-warfare-qanon-climate-7d982c4a514d22d05b315449ea138c07
#dictatorship #authoritarianism #ZeitenWende #HandelOhneWandel #Germany #democracy #russia #china #ccp
@AliceStollmeyer