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Showing posts with label credible source. Show all posts
Showing posts with label credible source. Show all posts

Thursday 3 March 2022

US' human rights situation worsened in 2021: report

 

US human rights 

 

China's State Council Information Office on Monday issued the Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2021. The report said the human rights situation in the US, which has a notorious record, worsened in 2021 as political manipulation led to a sharp surge in COVID-19 deaths, and shooting deaths in the country hit a new record.
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The report revealed that despite having the world's most advanced medical resources, the US has the biggest number of COVID-19 infections and deaths globally. But the US government isn't rethinking its approach and still lacks effective anti-epidemic plans. Instead, it stoked the origins-tracing of COVID-19, and has been keen on passing the buck, shifting the blame and political manipulation.
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The public security situation in the country also deteriorated and violent crimes remained prevalent. There were 693 mass shootings in 2021, up 10.1 percent from 2020. More than 44,000 people were killed in gun violence, according to the report. 

 US human rights violations in 2021. Graphic: GT
US human rights violations in 2021. Graphic: GT

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The report also highlighted the country's growing discrimination against ethnic minority groups, especially people of Asian descent with around 81 percent of Asian American adults saying violence against Asian communities is rising.
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Unilateral US actions created new humanitarian crises across the globe, the report noted. A US drone strike during US' withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan killed 10 members of an Afghan family, including seven children, among which the youngest was only two years old.
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The report pointed out that in 2021, the US public persona of "human rights defender" was totally debunked as the so-called "Summit for Democracy" under the guise of safeguarding human rights became a farce. At the 48th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, many countries blasted the US for being the "biggest destroyer" of human rights in the world and urged the country to address its own human rights violations.
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It's universally acknowledged that the US has a big human rights problem. The problem is characterized by racial discrimination, the lack of respect for the disadvantaged, the disparity between the rich and the poor, and the number of shooting deaths every year, Li Haidong, professor at the Institute of International Relations of the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Monday.
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So when the US talks about human rights issues in other countries, it must have a clear understanding of its own human rights situation, Li urged. But the tragedy is that the politicians in the country always turn a blind eye to US' poor human rights record and pretend to be "teachers on human rights" in the international community, said Li. He added that the US has no qualification and pointed out the fact is that chaos on human rights in other countries and regions have often been brought by the US.
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On the human rights issue, the US should learn to communicate with other countries and regions on an equal footing, instead of imposing its own standards on them, Li urged.
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Chinese observers also criticized the US of weaponizing human rights to smear and attack other countries and regions, saying it is a despicable act.

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Friday 25 February 2022

Russia ‘ready to talk’ after militarily paralyzing Ukraine in hours

Black smoke rises from a military airport in Chuguyev near Kharkiv on February 24, 2022, after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military operation in Ukraine. Photo: VCG Black smoke rises from a military airport in Chuguyev near Kharkiv on February 24, 2022, after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military operation in Ukraine. Photo: VCG 

 Click here to stay tuned with our live updates on Ukraine tensions.


 The root cause of the sharp confrontation at the global strategic level is the US


`As some local residents began fleeing Kiev early Thursday morning and rushing west while air raid sirens sounded in the Ukrainian capital, fears of war have grown palpably, catching global media attention and sending the world's markets tumbling, shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military operation in the Donbas region.
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As world leaders reacted to the quickly escalating Ukraine-Russia crisis, China once again called on the relevant parties to remain restrained and prevent the situation from sliding out of control.
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The situation of the Ukraine-Russia crisis has been changing rapidly over the past 24 hours. Putin on Thursday authorized "a special military operation" in the Donbas region, and Ukraine confirmed that military targets across the country have come under attack, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
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The operation has been described by the Western media such as Reuters and CNN as a "full-scale invasion," and Reuters called it the biggest attack "by one state against another in Europe since World War II." Explosions have been heard in Ukrainian cities including Kiev and Kharkiv, some media reports said, and Russia also closed all flights to and from 12 airports in the south of Russia. In less than 24 hours, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared martial law in the country and urged Ukrainians to stay home, and he also announced Ukraine had cut diplomatic ties with Russia. An aide of Zelensky also told reporters on Thursday that more than 40 Ukrainian soldiers and around 10 civilians died in the first hours of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the AFP reported.
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In numerous videos and photos shared by Chinese nationals living in Kiev with the Global Times on Thursday, a heavy traffic jam was seen in the early morning as many local residents fled the city. Some residents started to line up to buy necessities and withdraw money from banks. Chinese Embassy in Ukraine also issued a security alert to Chinese nationals in the morning, asking them to monitor how the situation is evolving, laying out specific issues they should pay attention to in preventing from getting into a dangerous situation.
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In response to the quickly evolving situation, the Chinese Embassy in Ukraine issued two security alerts to Chinese citizens and companies in the country within one day. The embassy said although their work and study had been affected, there were no "waves of panic."
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"Dark day for Europe" was how some Western media and politicians described the situation, and countries including the US, Germany, UK and Australia criticized the Russian government move. The US and its allies are poised to unveil further sweeping sanctions against Russia, with US President Joe Biden calling the military operation an "unprovoked and unjustified attack."
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However, in the eyes of Putin and most Russians, the latest move serves as a counterstrike against the Western squeezing of Russia's security room with extreme measures and a relatively large-scale showdown in wrestling with the US, a view that is also shared by the majority of Chinese.
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"Circumstances require us to take decisive and immediate action," Putin's order read. In an address to the public, the Russian president said he wanted to "demilitarize" and "de-Nazify" Ukraine, Russia Today said. Putin further said, "We have no plans to occupy Ukrainian territory."
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"Demilitarize" could be understood to be putting down arms and surrendering, which can also be understood as incapacitating the opponent and rendering them unable to form a threat in a broader sense, Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Thursday.
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"As a result, Russia will completely destroy the heavy weapons of Ukrainian troops, including warplanes, tanks and armored troops as well as defense forces, such as air defense missile forces and the navy," Song said.
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Russia announced it has destroyed Ukraine's airfields, air defenses and control systems just a few hours after it launched the military operations.
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"And as we take the measures announced by the president to ensure the security of the country and the Russian people, we will certainly always be ready for a dialogue that will return us to justice and the principles of the UN Charter," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said late on Thursday.
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Yury Tavrovsky, head of the "Russian Dream-Chinese Dream" analytics center of the Izborsk Club, told the Global Times that Russia's military operations in Ukraine are "completely legal."
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Both chambers of Russia's Duma (parliament) had earlier approved recognition of Donetsk and Lugansk as "independent states." The Upper Chamber (the Senate) later approved use of armed forces outside the national borders, Tavrovsky explained.
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The military operation was launched just one day after the US and Europe unveiled what is believed to be just the first round of sanctions against Russian individuals and institutions in response to Putin's signing of two decrees recognizing Lugansk and Donetskas independent and sovereign states.
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As global markets tumbled steeply over the Ukraine-Russia crisis, some raised questions as to why Russia took this step, how the situation will evolve and whether the US will engage in a direct war with Russia.
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Moscow's motivation
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In a phone call with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov explained the development of the Ukraine situation and Russia's position, saying that the US and NATO violated their commitments by expanding east, refused to implement the new Minsk Agreements, and violated UN Security Council Resolution 2202, forcing Russia to take necessary measures to safeguard its own rights and interests.
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Noting that China has always respected the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, Wang said that China recognizes the complex and special historical context of the Ukraine issue and understands Russia's legitimate security concerns.
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China maintains that the Cold War mentality should be completely abandoned and a balanced, effective and sustainable European security mechanism should be finally established through dialogue and negotiation, Wang said.
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"China believes there should be mutual cooperation and sustainable security, and the reasonable security concerns of all parties concerned should be respected and solved," Hua Chunying, spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said during a press conference on Thursday.
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China hopes all parties will not shut the door on peace, but continue negotiations and try to ease the situation as soon as possible, she said.
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Some Chinese observers said the US has continued its intensive containment of Russia, for example, by implementing more sanctions, finally forcing Russia to try to realize its security demands in this drastic way.
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Russian elites such as Putin and Deputy Chairman of Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev believe that the Ukraine issue has reached the point where it must be resolved.
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"I believe Russia's military operation is a reaction by Moscow to Western countries' exertion of pressure on Russia for a long time, showing that Moscow can't tolerate it anymore," Yang Jin, an associate research fellow at the Institute of Russian, Eastern European, and Central Asian Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Thursday.
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"As to how the situation will evolve, I think we need to spend more time to observe it. First thing first, we need to focus on the attitude of the US, on whether Washington will launch a direct war against Russia," he said, noting that everything depends on how NATO and the US will react.
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If the entire military operation goes smoothly, Russia could reach its target of fully controlling Ukraine, and what worries NATO most is whether Russia will then carry out further operations again the three Baltic countries, namely Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Li Haidong, a professor from the Institute of International Relations of China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Thursday.
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The US and NATO are now observing how the situation evolves. The US and NATO have been training Ukraine troops since 2014, and it's time to see if they will confront Russian troops and for how long they will fight them. "As long as Russia does not engage in military conflicts with NATO members, there won't be direct confrontation between NATO and US [on one side] and Russia [on the other]," Li said.

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Wednesday 16 February 2022

China - World Leader

 

I do share the views expressed. We saw when both stood up for Venezuela, and possibly Iran. Heavy weight China/ Russia partnership does move the geopolitical needle and change the balance equation. Never expect war, but Putin did flex some biceps.

China is China.
-  Kanthaswamy Balasubramaniam,Kanthaswamy Balasubramaniam

There are many predictions about China's economic collapse. Why isn't that happening?
Take Evergrande!!!!

Why did so many Economists predict that Evergrande collapse would be huge etc etc????

Because they are stupid??? No

Because they are biased??? Maybe…but they are still reputed Academics who wont just tout propaganda

So Why????

BECAUSE THEY LOOK AT EVERYTHING FROM THE US ANGLE (And the European Angle and the Japanese Angle and the Indian Angle) or the US LENS

In the United States - The Shareholder is GOD

So any Collapse of a Company , leads to a blow in the Markets which causes massive massive massive losses and creates all the financial crises since 1929.

In China - The Investor is GOD

China believes that the Speculator is a Gambler. They restrict major funds from investing too much into the Stock market and ensure that the Common Citizens who invest in the stock market know that they can lose their shirt or win a pile of gold.

Instead their Focus is on the Investor - the ones who paid for the Houses, the ones who bought Bonds etc. They are to the Chinese - the backbone of Economics.

IN the United States - Rule of Law is Cumbersome but Absolute

This means - THE LAW Comes First. So whenever any Company Collapses - you have Chapter 11s filed , Protection of the Company Directors and Shareholders , Allowing the Company to file counter suits etc.

This means the Assets of the Company get wound up for an average of 46 months and by this time shares plummet to Zero.

Thus a Companys failure means failure for all its investors.

In China - The Public is Absolute or the Common Man

China puts everything including Freedom or Human Rights above the Common Man.

So in China when a Collapses - the System will first Force a company to pay back its investors.

The Law never interferes

The Company has to pay back its investors by selling Assets, swapping Assets etc.

This means Assets of a Company can be disposed off in weeks rather than months or years.

And thus Investors almost always get between 55% - 100% of what they invested

IN the US - Value is all about Perception

US doesnt like the word ‘Assets’ or ‘Profits’

They like ‘ Potential’ or ‘Expansion’

This means many Companies in US are almost always heavily bloated with very little Real Assets

So in a sense US is mostly like India. They do nothing until a company folds and then its Chapter 11 and in some cases - FBI investigations or SEC investigations

So when a Company crashes - its Perception or Potential crashes and its Value crashes.

In China - Value is all about ASSETS

China doesnt like words like ‘Potential’ or ‘Closing a Deal’ etc.

They like Hard Core Assets - Land, Contracts, Trade Deals, Gold, Jade, Coal , Gas Pipelines are what they love.

So when a Company crashes - It always has Assets to back it up and these Assets manage to salvage a big chunk of Value

So thats what is helping China ignore Evergrande or even a Real Estate Crisis while if this was happening in US or even India - people would be scrambling for cover.

Yet while Economists are good - they simply dont think like a Chinese or know the Chinese System

My Associate Lawyer in Singapore told me how Westerners focussed on Huge Office Space whereas a CHinese office was a small 15X10 enclosure and yet you had 10 times larger deals floating through the same.

Likewise Most Western Personal Debts are based on paperwork etc. Most Chinese Personal Debts are given based on just the mans face and his Chop (Chop is a personalized Stamp like thing with Unique Chinese characters)

So those who make Predictions on China - Just dont understand how China works

Its why Singapore never makes Predictions on China. They simply report the US Predictions and Laugh because They are Chinese too.

Likewise South Korea understands the Chinese Way as does Taiwan and even HK

Thats why South East Asia really didnt care too much about Evergrande. They just reported what the West said but ignored it.

Thats why South East Asia scrambled in Panic when Lehman Brothers folded. They also know how US works and knew how big a crisis it was.

Just change your glasses and wear a Chinese one - and you will see just how different Chinese Business is compared to the Western models
 
 
 
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Saturday 12 February 2022

American Bible versus Chinese Dao Dejing, What is the real crisis of global order?

 

Modern capitalism has deep religion roots 

 

Andrew Sheng: My view is that the real crisis with the liberal democratic order is not whether autocracy is on the rise, but whether the liberal order is fit for purpose in a world threatened with existential climate change. After more than 40 years of liberal order, the world has had the highest social inequality, accelerating climate change, rising seas and natural disasters and failing governance everywhere.

 

American Bible vs Chinese Dao De Jing

Image of Tao Te Ching (Dao De Jing) by Lao Tzu
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RM 61.63
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Image of Tao Te Ching (The Way) by Lao-Tzu by Lao Tzu
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WRITING in Foreign Affairs magazine, Professors Alexander Cooley and Daniel Nexon argue that the core crisis lies in illiberalism on the rise. Namely, the contest of the century is not simply US-China, but liberal democracy versus autocracy.
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This week, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken warned the recent Quad meeting in Australia that “China wants to dominate the world.”
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On the other side, the Russians claim that it is the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation that is expanding eastwards, whilst China accuses the United States of Cold War mentality in trying to contain China and stir up trouble over Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
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The American foreign policy community has always lamented that despite opening up economically, the Chinese did not convert politically to the liberal democratic model, thus justifying American sanctions against China.
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By not converting to American ideals, the next step is to contain these “revisionist” powers.
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This “convert or contain” approach smacks of fundamentalist Christian beliefs to either evangelise or defeat the non-believers.
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Modern capitalism has deep religious roots.
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German sociologist Max Weber was first to pronounce that the Spirit of Capitalism came from the Protestant Ethic.
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Even though capitalism existed in ancient China, India and other cultures, its modern ethos was based on Protestant Christianity that revolted against the authority of the Roman Catholic Church and 16th century Catholic monarchs.
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The Puritan streak in American capitalism favoured hard work and acquisition of assets, not because it was greed, but because it was done for the glory of God.
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Capitalism greed is, therefore, not only rational and modern, but founded on religious ethics.
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To be rich is to be glorious (for God). Forget about the fact that wealth may have been founded on exploitation of other human beings and mother nature.
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International relations theorist Alexander Wendt argued that modern social science (including international relations) is founded on the key assumptions of materialism (reality is physical); reductionism (complexity can be reduced to simplicity); things behave in law-like ways (determinism); there is cause and effect (mechanism); and there exists objective truth (perfect objectivity).
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These assumptions are all embedded in American foreign policy of rational liberal democracy ideals, rule-based order; beliefs in individual human rights and in God that are enshrined in the US Constitution and coins – In God we Trust.
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In contrast, Chinese statecraft is founded on the 10th century BC I Ching (Book of Changes) and the 4th century BC Dao Dejing (the Book of the Way (Dao) and Virtue or De). Unlike the Bible, the most translated book in the world, which begins with “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth”, the Dao (the second most translated book) begins with “The Dao that can be expressed is not the eternal Dao”.
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In other words, the Dao challenges almost all the assumptions that lie in modern social science: that no rule is forever, rights are balanced with obligations, good is embedded with evil, and nothing can be taken for granted.
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For Christians, God is perfect and man’s job is to seek perfection. According to the Dao, there is no perfection except constant change.
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Life evolves through the interaction of complexity and its parts. The individual (a rational man in economics with rights) is part of a collective and therefore has obligations to society and nature.
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There is no absolute good or perfect information, since Daoists believe that good and evil exist together in all beings and everything is relative, changing in cycles of time.
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China’s dual circulation policy can easily be understood as coming from Daoist philosophy.
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One example of the contradiction between liberal democrats and autocracy is the issue of legitimacy, often without self-reflection on their own record.
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The latest Edelman Trust Barometer 2022 showed that based on samples taken across 27 countries, China has the highest trust amongst the general population (index of 83), compared with the United States (43) and the UK (44), with the US Trust Index declining 10 points since 2017.
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Thus, the crisis in global order is not one of ideology, but very fundamental worldviews as to whether the world is unipolar and mono-culture, or poly-centric and where diverse systems and beliefs can co-exist and co-create with each other.
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My view is that the real crisis with the liberal democratic order is not whether autocracy is on the rise, but whether the liberal order is fit for purpose in a world threatened with existential climate change.
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After more than 40 years of liberal order, the world has had the highest social inequality, accelerating climate change, rising seas and natural disasters and failing governance everywhere.
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The environmentalist say that we have less than three decades (to 2050) to get to net-zero on carbon emissions.
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The demands on society to change are huge.
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Democratic governments facing elections that cost more and more to campaign in order to win find it harder and harder to take tough structural adjustments that are necessary to achieve both carbon neutrality and social equality.
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As Cooley and Nexon themselves admit, “in their current form, liberal institutions cannot stem the rising illiberal tide... Any attempt to grapple with this crisis will require policy decisions that are clearly illiberal or necessitate a new version of liberal order.”
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The recognition that you may have to do bad things to get good results is at the heart of the difference between the Bible and the Dao. The simple, naive version is that good things can only be achieved by righteous good politicians. The Dao recognises realistically that there is no gain without pain and no perfect leaders.
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For liberal democrats, the idealist search for the moral best has ended up with electoral promises remaining promises, no delivery of better jobs, human well-being and fairer social and ecological justice.
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Whither global order?
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For Christians, let us pray. Daoists will dialectically wait for more changes to come.
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by Andrew Sheng writes on global issues from an Asian perspective. The views expressed here are the writer’s own.

Andrew Sheng | South China Morning PostBy Tan Sri Andrew Sheng (born 1946) is Hong Kong-based Malaysian Chinese banker, academic and commentator. He started his career as an accountant and is now a distinguished fellow of Fung Global Institute, a global think tank based in Hong Kong.[1] He served as chairman of the Hong Kong Sec

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Western concept of democracy lacks historical contexts, disrespect cultural difference, conquest by force, colonisation, slavery, genocide, human rights, doctrine of discovery embodied in their laws !