White House News (白宮消息) | Feb. 6, 2021

2 - White House News in Chinese (weebly.com)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, seen introducing President Joe Biden at the State Department on February 4, 2021, has offered a tough tone in his first talks with China

Pompeo to Biden: It's The Obligation Of Every Administration To Protect The Previous Administration

Date Published on Feb. 5, 2021
POMPEO: It's the obligation of every administration to protect the previous administration and -- and all the people who were working on behalf of the United States government. I -- I hope they'll do that.

But, more importantly, more importantly than protecting myself or others, this is bigger. You know, you -- you gave the jobs report as you opened this segment. This policy with China matters about -- to every one of the people who is out there seeking employment. If we get this wrong, Maria, we will live in a world that is so deeply different. We will see these sanctions on our leaders pale in comparison to the pain and the absence of prosperity that will be here in the United States of America if we don't get this right.

It's one of the things that I'm proudest of that we did. We protected American jobs. We protected American businesses. We made sure that our intellectual property was in a better place. These are the things that will ultimately matter.

I hope this administration will hear these voices. The American people are now aware. What happened in COVID didn't have to happen. All the -- the -- the millions of jobs that were lost as a result of the Wuhan virus didn't have to happen. But the Chinese Communist Party acted in a way that created enormous risk, hundreds of thousands of lives lost here in the United States and billions of dollars in personal income for ordinary people all across America. Those are the things I really hope the administration will focus on.     source

Pompeo discusses the importance of standing up against China
Feb. 4, 2021
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discusses the importance of the Biden Administration standing up against China.

Blinken Presses China On Uighurs, Hong Kong In First Call

Feb. 6 - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken pressed Beijing on its treatment of Uighurs, Tibetans and Hong Kong in the first conversation between top officials of the two powers since President Joe Biden took office.

"I made clear the US will defend our national interests, stand up for our democratic values, and hold Beijing accountable for its abuses of the international system," Blinken said on Twitter of his call with senior Chinese official Yang Jiechi.

Blinken told Yang that the United States "will continue to stand up for human rights and democratic values, including in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong," a State Department statement said of the call, which took place on Friday Washington time.

Blinken also "pressed China to join the international in condemning the military coup in Burma," it said.

The top US diplomat said the United States would hold Beijing "accountable for its efforts to threaten stability in the Indo-Pacific, including across the Taiwan Strait, and its undermining of the rules-based international system."

The tough tone comes after Blinken in his confirmation hearing said he would continue former president Donald Trump's tougher approach to China in a rare point of agreement between the two administrations.

Blinken has said he agrees with a determination by the State Department under Trump that Beijing is carrying out genocide in the western region of Xinjiang, where rights groups say more than one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim Turkic-speaking people have been rounded up in camps.

Beijing has also ramped up a crackdown in Hong Kong, arresting leading activists, after imposing a new law against subversion following major protests in the financial hub to which it had guaranteed a separate system.     source

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美欲在台海维持分裂，利用东海南海争端围堵中国
​拜登团队内部仍存分歧 特朗普“政治遗产”将严重影响拜登政府对华政策 |
《今晚》TONIGHT 20210204【东方卫视官方频道】Feb 4, 2021

Myanmar is a member of the East Asia Summit, Non-Aligned Movement, ASEAN, and BIMSTEC, but it is not a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. It is a country rich in jade and gems, oil, natural gas, and other mineral resources. Myanmar is also endowed with renewable energy; it has the highest solar power potential compared to other countries of the Great Mekong Subregion.[15] In 2013, its GDP (nominal) stood at US$56.7 billion and its GDP (PPP) at US$221.5 billion.[16] The income gap in Myanmar is among the widest in the world, as a large proportion of the economy is controlled by supporters of the former military government.[17] As of 2020, according to the Human Development Index, Myanmar ranks 147 out of 189 countries in human development.     more details


Who is Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing? 5 things to know

Retired diplomat says 'big man management style' sows seeds of arrogance

Feb. 6 - BANGKOK -- On Monday, after months of saber rattling about alleged irregularities in Myanmar's Nov. 8 general election, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing staged the country's third coup since independence from Britain in 1948.
The commander in chief of defense services invoked powers based on Section 417 of the 2008 military-drafted constitution that enables the holder of his office to wrest full legal, judicial and executive power to create an instant dictatorship.     more details

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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres with CNA's Lin Xueling on "In Conversation" Feb 6, 2021. 

UN chief backs Myanmar people's right to peaceful protest in face of military coup

Feb. 6 - SINGAPORE: United Nations chief Antonio Guterres backed the right of the Myanmar people to peacefully express their rejection of this week's military takeover that displaced the country's elected civilian government.
"Coups are not acceptable in the modern world and I reject and condemn the coup," said the UN Secretary-General on Saturday (Feb 6) in an exclusive interview with CNA.

"I would strongly recommend the people of Myanmar to express their grievances but to do so in a peaceful way." 
Mr Guterres' comments come in the wake of Monday's move during which Myanmar’s military declared a state of emergency and seized power. In an early morning raid, the army detained Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, President U Win Myint, and a raft of parliamentarians and activists.

Social media posts from Myanmar show a growing civil disobedience movement from people banging pots and pans every night, to reports of medical staff going on strike.

"BASIC HUMAN RIGHT"

Mr Guterres said the freedom of expression is a basic human right and urged the military "not to have any violence in relation to the people of Myanmar".

The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting after news of the military takeover broke and has called for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi as well as others detained by the military. But unlike the UN chief, it stopped short of actually condemning the coup.
 
The joint statement by the Security Council had been held up, with one diplomat telling AFP that China and Russia had "asked for more time".
 
China is one of Myanmar’s biggest foreign investors and earlier this week, China’s state-controlled Xinhua news agency downplayed the significance of the military takeover, referring to it as a "major cabinet reshuffle".

The UN chief told CNA they would do "everything possible to make sure that (Aung San Suu Kyi) is released", but admitted the UN is powerless to guarantee that the de-facto leader of Myanmar would not face long-term house arrest again.
Aung San Suu Kyi spent nearly 15 years in detention between 1989 and 2010. She has not been seen publicly since the coup. The Myanmar police have charged her with illegally importing communications equipment, after finding walkie-talkies during a search of her home.

Mr Guterres assured the people of Myanmar that "we would be doing everything we can in order to make the international community aware".     source

White House News (白宮消息) | Feb. 5, 2021

 2 - White House News in Chinese (weebly.com)

The Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) Program was an initiative housed within the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). The CTR program is better known as the Nunn–Lugar Act based on the Soviet Nuclear Threat Reduction Act of 1991 which was authored and cosponsored by Sens. Sam Nunn (D-GA) and Richard Lugar (R-IN). This Act was created in 1986 in a congressional meeting. According to the CTR website, "the purpose of the CTR Program is to secure and dismantle weapons of mass destruction and their associated infrastructure in former Soviet Union states." An alternative explanation of the program is "to secure and dismantle weapons of mass destruction in states of the former Soviet Union and beyond".[1]
CTR provides funding and expertise for states in the former Soviet Union (including Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan) to decommission nuclear, biological, and chemical weapon stockpiles, as agreed by the Soviet Union under disarmament treaties such as SALT I. This funding totaled $400 million a year for a total of four years. After the nuclear warheads were removed from their delivery vehicles by the post-Soviet successor militaries, Nunn-Lugar assistance provided equipment and supplies to destroy the missiles on which the warheads had been mounted, as well as the silos which had contained the missiles. The warheads themselves were then shipped to and destroyed in Russia, with the highly-enriched uranium contained within made into commercial reactor fuel; which was purchased by the United States under a separate program.

In recent years, the CTR program has expanded its mission from securing WMDs at the root source to protecting against WMD "on the move", by enhancing land and maritime border security in the former Soviet Union.

New U.S. President Joe Biden is pitching a tough stance against Russia.
Biden Says No More U.S. 'Rolling Over' to Russia

Feb. 5 - President Joe Biden said Thursday the United States will no longer be "rolling over in the face of Russia's aggressive actions" and demanded release of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

In toughly worded remarks pivoting from his predecessor Donald Trump's muted approach to Moscow, Biden warned of "advancing authoritarianism" in China and Russia.

The speech at the State Department thrust Russia back onto the front burner of the U.S. diplomatic agenda after four years during which Trump largely pushed the worsening relationship with Moscow to the side and consistently refused to criticize Putin.

Biden said that in his first phone call with the Russian leader since taking office on January 20 he "made it clear" to Putin that the relationship was changing.     source

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The Story Behind U.S. Access to Russian Nuclear Warhead Storage Sites
Under the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program, nuclear security served as a common objective for the United States and Russia

A key question for the CTR nuclear security program is how Russia allowed access for teams to visit warhead storage sites that went beyond the verification measures of any previous nuclear arms control agreement. The answer is that the United States and Russia rallied around the mission of enhancing nuclear security. Leaders remained focused on encouragement, resources, patience, and support, opening the relationship to cooperation, while the staff was able to focus on the CTR nuclear security mission for years. The CTR Site Access story shows that negotiations do not have to be about extracting concessions but discovering common goals. It is critical to be up front and honest and to present positions consistently, explain the reasons, explain who and why.

Date Published on Feb. 4

It may be surprising to many that the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) nuclear security program attained access to Russian nuclear warhead storage sites that went beyond the verification measures of any previous nuclear arms control agreement.
Arms control treaties provide access for U.S. inspectors to military bases where nuclear delivery systems are deployed and, and under the INF treaty, there was portal monitoring of missile production facilities. Access to the nuclear warhead storage sites, however, where non-deployed tactical and strategic nuclear warheads are stored and maintained, was never authorized under any treaty or agreement – until CTR. These storage sites have long been regarded as among the most sensitive of Russian sites and have come under renewed attention in recent years as the United States and Russia have engaged in discussions on warhead limits. Under the CTR nuclear security program, however, the U.S. was provided unprecedented access to Russian nuclear warhead storage sites from 2003-2012.

So how did CTR program teams gain permission to visit, given the sites’ extreme sensitivity? The answer is that the objective of the CTR program was never to gain site access or gather intelligence on Russian nuclear weapons and weapons storage sites. The objective was to enhance nuclear security – and the United States and Russia were both strongly committed to achieving that goal. As the program matured and more work was needed at the sites, site access was required for the United States to provide installation services at those sites. Russia only approved site access for the purposes of improving nuclear security at their sites after they were convinced that the Americans were truly committed to achieving that goal and not pursuing ulterior intelligence-related motives.

“Secret” Russian Nuclear Warhead Storage Sites
When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, Russia inherited the largest stockpile of nuclear warheads in the world. Thousands of strategic and tactical warheads were housed in centralized storage facilities and bunkers located on nuclear weapons sites scattered across the former Soviet Union.      continue to read

White House News (白宮消息) | Feb. 4, 2021

 2 - White House News in Chinese (weebly.com)

Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson[5] (born May 16, 1969)[6] is an American conservative television presenter and political commentator who has hosted the nightly political talk show Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News since 2016.
Carlson became a print journalist in the 1990s, writing for The Weekly Standard. He was a CNN commentator from 2000 to 2005, and co-host of the network's prime-time news debate program Crossfire from 2001 to 2005. He would later host the nightly program Tucker on MSNBC from 2005 to 2008. He has been a political analyst for Fox News since 2009, appearing as guest or guest host on various programs before the launch of his current show. In 2010, Carlson co-founded and served as the initial editor-in-chief of the conservative news and opinion website The Daily Caller, until selling his ownership stake and leaving in 2020.[7] He has written two books: a memoir titled Politicians, Partisans, and Parasites (2003) and a political book titled Ship of Fools (2018).

An advocate of U.S. president Donald Trump, Carlson has been described by Politico as "perhaps the highest-profile proponent of 'Trumpism' and willing to criticize Trump if he strayed from it."[8] He is also said to have influenced some key policy decisions by Trump.[9][10] As of 2020, Tucker Carlson Tonight is the most-watched cable news show in the United States.[11] Carlson's controversial statements on race, immigration and women have led to advertiser boycotts against the show.[12][13]

A vocal opponent of progressivism, Carlson has been called a nationalist.[14] Originally a proponent of libertarian economic policy and a supporter of Ron Paul, Carlson would come to criticize the ideology as being "controlled by the banks" and became an active adherer to protectionism.[5][15] He espouses anti-interventionalist views, and has renounced his initial support of the Iraq War.[5][16]

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Tucker: None of Biden's actions help law abiding Americans
893,333 views
Jan 22, 2021
Tucker Carlson examines the new president's top priorities on his first full day in office

CNN Roundly Debunks Tucker Carlson’s COVID-19 Tracker
Fox News host falsely claimed the network had “dutifully removed” its coronavirus ticker after President Joe Biden had taken office.

Jan. 26 - CNN called out Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on Friday for lying that the network had removed its COVID-19 tracker after President Joe Biden had taken office.

On Thursday’s episode of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” the host trotted out the right-wing talking point that the media only really reported on the coronavirus pandemic as a way to criticize former President Donald Trump when he claimed:

It is Joe Biden’s first day in office, and you know what that means? CNN can finally take that COVID death ticker off the screen. There’s no reason for it now. It’s not like you can blame Joe Biden for some Chinese virus that escaped from a lab in Wuhan. Huh. It wouldn’t be fair. Come on now. CNN dutifully removed it this morning. COVID deaths? Settle down, America. It’s just a bad flu season.

Watch Carlson’s comments below and read a transcript of his falsehood on the Fox News website here...    more

Tucker Carlson stands up for QAnon supporters

Jan. 27 - Over the weekend, the Hawaii Republican Party ventured into some fraught territory: defending adherents of the QAnon conspiracy theory. Its Twitter account cast them as patriots who were “largely motivated by a sincere and deep love for America,” and it blamed the media for being too sensational about it. A top official later resigned over an “error in judgment” in posting the thread.

On Monday night, though, a similar argument made its way onto the airwaves, courtesy of one of the most popular prime-time shows in cable news.

Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson decided to take his own swing at defending QAnon supporters, in a way. Like the Hawaii GOP, he didn’t promote or subscribe to the wild and baseless theory about a mass pedophile ring in the U.S. government, but he cast its adherents as victims of looming persecution, denied basic civil liberties. As with many things on his program, it boiled down to a familiar argument: The mainstream media and powerful forces are trying to silence people and control what you think — that, to use the modern parlance, they’re being “canceled.”     continue to read

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Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and the other Fox News pundits are coming to an uncomfortable realization
The commentators of the Trump era are scraping by with the likes of Josh Hawley right now, but it’s becoming obvious that without power, all they have left are vague emotions

Feb. 4 - ..."14 days in, his opponents on the right are utterly outraged by his actions, specifically at the supposedly “dictatorial” way he has conducted himself during his short time on the job.

What they are referring to is almost 40 executive orders and executive actions Biden has signed, as is his prerogative as commander-in-chief. Yes, it’s a relatively high number for an early presidency, but he‘s got some way to go before catching up with Franklin D Roosevelt’s 3,728.

Many of Biden’s orders specifically repeal ones issued by his predecessor, among them the travel ban that brazenly targeted Muslim countries – imposed by executive order a week into Trump’s presidency – and the 45th president’s wild moves to enforce deregulation and order the building of the wall on the Mexican border.

Among those furious at Biden’s straight-out-the-gate signing spree is none other than Josh Hawley, the Missouri Senator who continued to formally object to Biden’s election even after the Capitol was attacked by Trump supporters.

Hawley — who these days is shouting as loud as he can to anyone who’ll listen that he is “being silenced” — vented his outrage earlier this week to millions of viewers on the right’s go-to morning grievance platform, Fox and Friends. Perhaps he’s worried that the reported Fox News ratings slump will become so bad that there literally won’t be any viewers left"...    source

White House News (白宮消息) | Feb. 3, 2021

2 - White House News in Chinese (weebly.com)

Department Spokesperson Ned Price introduces Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken before he delivers remarks to the media at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. on January 27, 2021.
State Department's 1st openly gay spokesperson sends signal to the world, advocates sayBut his appointment must be followed by action to protect LGBT rights, they say.

Jan. 3 - Just over two decades ago, President Bill Clinton had to use a recess appointment to install the first openly gay U.S. ambassador over Republican senators' opposition. Now, on Tuesday, the State Department's new openly gay spokesperson will hold his first daily press briefing.

That the voice of the Biden administration on the world stage, whose words will be analyzed in foreign capitals and provide direction for U.S. diplomats overseas, will be a gay man is unremarkable, which is itself a remarkable thing.

It also sends a potent message to foreign LGBTQ activists, especially those fighting in countries where same-sex relationships are still criminalized.     more details

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Edward "Ned" Price (born 1982) is the spokesman for the United States Department of State. He has served as a political advisor and is a former intelligence officer who worked at the United States Central Intelligence Agency from 2006 until February 2017. On February 20, 2017, Price published an op-ed piece in the Washington Post, outlining his decision to retire from the CIA rather than work in a Donald Trump administration. This piece stirred widespread controversy...

Concerns related to Jared Kushner
In an article published in Politico on July 14, 2017, Price expressed concerns related to the appointment and continued hold of a security clearance of President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. In the article Price reviewed the extensive vetting that he had experienced to gain a security clearance, which lasted approximately a year, and compared that to the security clearance granted to Kushner. Discussing the recent disclosures of the developing information related to Kushner's apparent involvement in a Russian attempt to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, Price said, "I am confident in saying that my clearance would have been immediately revoked had I, as a career CIA officer, been accused of a fraction of these activities."

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U.S. State Department spokesperosn Ned Price.

U.S. urges China to stop pressuring Taiwan

Feb. 3 - Washington, Feb 2 (CNA) The United States has urged Beijing to stop putting pressure on Taiwan in multiple spheres in response to a senior Chinese official's comment that Washington should respect Beijing's position on Taiwan.

"We urge Beijing to cease its military, diplomatic and economic pressure against Taiwan, and instead engage in meaningful dialogue with Taiwan's democratically elected leadership," said State Department spokesman Ned Price Tuesday at his first daily press briefing.

Price was responding to a remark by Yang Jiechi (楊潔篪), a politburo member and head of the Chinese Communist Party's foreign affairs office, made during a speech before the U.S. National Committee on United States-China Relations on Monday.      more details

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Trade to be part of Joe Biden's China strategy, not driving force: Ex-USTR official

The Biden administration would be pressured to engage on trade in the Asia-Pacific region by pacts such as the Regional Cooperation Economic Partnership (RCEP) in Asia, and China's Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) with Europe, said Cutler, who is currently vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute.

Feb. 3 - Trade will be a part of President Joe Biden's overall negotiation policy with China, but it won't be the driving force in Sino-U.S. relations, as it was under former President Donald Trump, a former official at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) said on Wednesday.

"There are fundamental differences on a host of issues between the United States and China that will be difficult to resolve," Wendy Cutler, former assistant trade representative at the USTR, told the Reuters Global Markets Forum.     more details

White House News (白宮消息) | Feb. 2, 2021

 2 - White House News in Chinese (weebly.com)

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif attends a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland, October 29, 2019.
Iranian foreign minister asks Europe to co-ordinate US return to nuclear deal

Javad Zarif calls on EU foreign policy chief to take role in deciding what Tehran and Washington must do before talks


Feb. 2 - Iran's foreign minister has asked the EU to co-ordinate a return of Washington and Tehran into a nuclear deal, after a standoff on who will act first.

President Joe Biden has voiced support for returning to the accord, from which his predecessor Donald Trump withdrew, but has insisted that Tehran first return to full compliance by reversing measures it took to protest against reimposed sanctions.

Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, who had demanded an end to sanctions before Iran acts, offered a way forward.

"You know clearly there can be a mechanism to basically either synchronise it, or coordinate what can be done," he told CNN International.

Mr Zarif said that EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell should play a role as co-ordinator of the Iran deal, which included Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China.

Mr Borrell should lay out "the actions that are needed to be taken by the US and the actions that are needed to be taken by Iran", Mr Zarif said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week warned that the return of the nuclear deal would "take some time" as Iran first needed to "come back into compliance".     source

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Demonstrators scuffle with law enforcement officers during a rally in support of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Saint Petersburg, Russia January 31, 2021.
Kremlin dubs some protesters ‘hooligans & provocateurs,’ says appeal for US sanctions proves Navalny’s team are ‘foreign agents’

Feb. 2 - Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman has defended the police’s decision to take tough measures to detain and disperse supporters of jailed opposition figure Alexey Navalny at rallies across the country over the weekend.Speaking to journalists on Monday, Dmitry Peskov said that the demonstrations attracted “quite a large number of hooligans and provocateurs,” which, he argued, explained the violent clashes with authorities. However, he added, the use of force had to be carefully monitored, even if it was necessary in the face of “illegal actions.”

The Kremlin press secretary added that there was no prospect of dialogue with those causing unrest in the streets and that the minority responsible for violence should be dealt with “in full strictness of the law.” “As for other people,” he added, “there are all the tools for expressing your point of view within the law at your disposal.”     source

进黑海 派战机 增基地 拜登全球布局？20210131 |《今日关注》CCTV中文国际
Feb 1, 2021

US Foreign Policy and Great Power Politics

Feb. 2 - ..."The most significant shift involved U.S.-China relations. China changed by adopting a far more aggressive foreign policy, antagonizing its neighbors from India to Mongolia to Vietnam and other Southeast Asian states. China even managed to rouse the ire of Australians and Canadians. Beijing under President Xi Jinping appears to have no interest in a charm offensive. Through the provocative maneuvers of its fighter jets and warships, China has stoked genuine concerns in Japan and Taiwan.

While China became more aggressive, America under Trump changed from viewing China as a peer competitor to seeing it as an outright threat. Trump also upended long-standing American policies through his near indifference to human rights abuses, his interpretation of the national interest that lessened the utility of traditional alliances, and his extreme undervaluing of diplomacy as a key tool in foreign affairs. He also made America more susceptible to being played by rivals, from the Taliban to Pakistan to North Korea"...     source