ZIONIST OCCUPIERS WANTON MURDERS
Gaza conflict spills into the West Bank as settler attacks and clashes leave dozens of Palestinians dead

Zeena Saifi, Becky Anderson and Kareem Khadder, CNN
Wed, October 18, 2023 at 10:21 PM MDT·8 min read


Ibrahim Wadi, 62, and his son Ahmad, 24, were on their way to a funeral for four Palestinians shot dead by Israeli settlers in their occupied West Bank community, when their car came under attack.

The father and son were driving through the small village of Qusra, just south of Nablus, which has become a focal point of violence over recent days, when they themselves were fired upon by armed settlers on Thursday. Family members told CNN that the men were transferred to a nearby hospital and died of their wounds soon after.

They are among at least 61 people, including children, to be killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7, when Hamas launched its unprecedented, surprise assault on Israel, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health there. More than 1,250 have been injured.

Hamas’ attack has left more than 1,400 people dead in Israel, mostly civilian, with at least 199 believed to be held hostage inside Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.

Israel announced a “complete siege” of the enclave in response, carrying out widespread airstrikes across the Gaza Strip that left at least 3,478 people dead and threatening a ground invasion, according to the health ministry in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas. Meanwhile, tensions are mounting in the West Bank, where Palestinians have been killed in confrontations with both Israeli forces and settlers.

Hani Odeh, Qusra's mayor, was also going to the funeral and witnessed settlers in a street where Ahmad and Ibrahim were killed. - CNN

Hani Odeh, Qusra’s mayor, told CNN that settlers roam freely in the village under the protection of Israeli police. He said he had informed a member of COGAT, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, that he was going to attend the funeral, along with Ahmad and Ibrahim.

A few hours beforehand, the Israeli official told him to take a different route than the one they would usually take, to avoid settlers in the area. But to Odeh’s surprise, the road to which they were diverted was filled with settlers, who eventually shot and killed Ahmad and Ibrahim in their car.

Odeh told CNN he watched the attack happen from his own vehicle while Israeli soldiers patrolled the street. He went up to one officer, urging him to disperse the settlers, but no one did anything. He said it felt like a trap.

CNN reached out to COGAT and the IDF for comment on Odeh’s claims but have yet to receive a response.

Brig. Gen. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military’s spokesperson, said last week that the military was on high alert in the occupied territory, adding it was preparing to thwart any potential attacks. “Anyone who challenges us in Judea and Samaria will be met with huge force,” Hagari said, using the Jewish biblical names for the West Bank.
A surge of attacks

CNN spoke with residents in the West Bank who say they are fearful of a wave of violence from the Israeli military and security forces, as well as revenge attacks by the estimated 700,000 Israeli settlers living in the area. The latest killings come against the backdrop of a year in which the West Bank has seen a surge in settler attacks, including one that an Israeli military commander called a “pogrom.”

Even before the war with Hamas, the West Bank had been boiling. Following a wave of Palestinian attacks on Israelis last year, Israel launched regular incursions and raids into the West Bank targeting what they said were militant strongholds. The resulting violence left a record number of both Palestinians and Israelis dead, numbers not seen in at least a decade.

Days after the deadly violence in Qusra, home to around 7,000 people, residents are still reeling. Photographs commemorating the six people who were killed plaster the walls of homes and buildings. A bleak emptiness fills the air.

Armed settlers attacked an apartment building on October 11, killing four people. - CNN

Torched cars, broken water pumps and ransacked electricity lines surround an apartment building on the edge of the village where the first four killings took place. Inside the floor is littered with glass, and bullet marks scar the walls.

Armed settlers attacked the building on October 11, triggering calls for help from residents. When several neighbors arrived at the scene, the settlers opened fire and four people were shot dead: Musa’ab Abu Raidi, 19, Obaida Abu Srour, 18, Hassan Muhannad, 22, and Moath Odesa, 29.

Inside the apartment building, Rabeea, 19, and her brother, Abdulrahman, 12, watched with horror as the attack unfolded. The siblings, who asked that CNN not use their last name for fear of reprisals from Israeli settlers, recounted how settlers lobbed rocks and fired at the building as they hid inside with their mother.

Abdulrahman, 12, lost his father seven years ago when he was shot dead by Israeli settlers near Nablus. - CNN

Their older brother and his 6-year-old daughter were injured and receiving treatment at a hospital nearby. Odeh, the mayor, told CNN that they were among 12 people to be hospitalized after the attack.

Rabeea said her brother can’t sleep at night; he’s too scared to be alone. CNN met the family as they were packing up their things and getting ready to move to another village.

“I feel so bad. I want to cry but, what can we do?” she said. “I want to stay here but we can’t do anything.”

They’ve been here before. Seven years ago, Rabeea and Abdulrahman said their father was shot dead by Israeli settlers near Nablus. The fear of being attacked forced their family to pick up and move to Qusra. Now, too scared to stay, they are being driven from their home again.

Since Israel took control and occupied the West Bank in 1967 from Jordan following the six-day war, the territory, which residents hope will form part of a future Palestinian state, has been settled by Israeli civilians, often under military protection.

Most of the world considers these settlements illegal under international law, but despite this successive Israeli governments have pledged support for them. Israel views the West Bank as “disputed territory,” and contends its settlement policy is legal.

This year, following the election of the most right-wing, extremist government in Israeli history under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, violence between settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank flared.

As of mid-September this year, the United Nations had reported 798 settler-related incidents in the occupied territory, leading to 216 Palestinians injured. In the same period, Israeli forces killed 179 Palestinians in the West Bank.

The IDF says most are terror suspects or people engaging violently with its troops during raids, but does not offer evidence in every case for this assertion.

Settlers have long been accused of carrying out acts of violence against Palestinians. As well as killings, these attacks have included incidents of physical assault, property damage and harassment.

Odeh insisted their aim is to drive Palestinians from their home and ultimately from the occupied West Bank.
Record housing approvals

This year, in the wake of international criticism, Netanyahu instructed Jewish settlers not to grab land in the West Bank without the Israeli government’s permission. But under his leadership, Israel has approved a record number of housing units in West Bank settlements.

Members of his far-right government, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who are themselves settlers, have been accused of inciting violence against Palestinians since taking power.

In the wake of Hamas’ attack on October 7, Palestinians are being subjected to tight restrictions on movement within the West Bank and between the West Bank and Israel, with Israeli military forces imposing a full closure of checkpoints and roadblocks, according to several residents who spoke to CNN.

Palestinians living in the West Bank told CNN the closure has significantly impacted their daily lives, restricting their ability to travel for work, school, medical treatment and other essential activities.

In a call with US President Joe Biden on Saturday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas demanded an end to settler attacks against people in Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps in the West Bank, while stressing the need to stop the killing of civilians on both sides.

The wives, daughters, and sisters of Ahmad and Ibrahim Wadi told CNN's Becky Anderson they would continue to defend their land. - CNN

At the home of Ibrahim and Ahmad, who lived a short drive away from the apartment building that was attacked in Qusra, and in full view of an encroaching Israeli settlement, their family – wives, daughters, and sisters – were in mourning on Sunday.

“Thank God, we are strong. And God willing, we will continue to have strength and patience,” Khitam Wadi, Ibrahim’s wife and Ahmad’s mother, told CNN.

“My husband loved his land. He defended his land. And we will continue to do the same so long as we are alive,” she added.

Evidently shaken, Khitam found it hard to describe her grief. But the younger women in the family, while in pain, were adamant on standing their ground.

Aseel Wadi's father and brother were killed by Israeli settlers as they drove to a funeral for Palestinians killed in their West Bank community. - CNN

“I’m sad, of course. This all affects me, but not to the extent that it weakens me. We’ve been experiencing the same thing our entire lives, nothing has changed,” Aseel, Ahmad’s sister and Ibrahim’s daughter, said.

“This is our home. My dad taught me to love my land. I will teach my kids the same. And I will stay for as long as I live.”

CNN’s Abeer Salman and Celine Alkhaldi contributed to this report.

Anger against Israel threatens to boil over in increasingly violent West Bank

Nataliya Vasilyeva
Thu, October 19, 2023 

At least 75 Palestinians have been killed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) or Israeli settlers in the West Bank since Hamas’s attack

Eight-year-old Jad wears a pendant with a photo of three young men. One of them, his favourite uncle Ahmad, was shot dead by Israeli settlers in the West Bank last week when they attacked a funeral procession.

Ahmad Wadi, 25, and his 62-year-old father, Ibrahim, were victims of an escalating spiral of violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The rising hostilities have gone largely unnoticed as Israel unleashed a war on Hamas in response to a deadly cross-border raid from Gaza into southern Israel on Oct 7. But the anger here in the West Bank risks growing into a second – or third – front of a wider conflict in and around Israel.

Jad, 8, wears a pendant with a photo of three men, one of whom, his uncle Ahmad, was shot dead last week by Israeli settlers - Heathcliff O'Malley

At least 75 Palestinians have been killed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) or Israeli settlers since Hamas’s attack, which is already the highest monthly death toll in the West Bank since the UN began keeping records in 2005.

On Thursday alone, six Palestinians, including a 17-year-old boy, were killed in clashes with the IDF and a rare air strike on the West Bank.

Ahmad and Ibrahim Wadi died last Thursday when they were shot by Israeli settlers who opened fire on a funeral procession they took part in.

Sitting in his living room over a plate of dates and cardamom-infused tea, Sayed Wadi on Thursday spoke of his uncle Ibrahim as a man highly respected in the community who would often act as a mediator between feuding families.

The father and son last Thursday morning went to a hospital in the nearby town of Salfit to collect the bodies of four distant relatives who had been shot dead by Israeli settlers in an altercation the day before.

“Everyone initially wanted to take part in the funeral but it was Ibrahim who told people at the hospital to stay back to avoid confrontation with the IDF,” Mr Wadi told The Telegraph.

The party consisted of four vehicles, including two ambulances. But with the Israeli army having put up roadblocks and severely restricted movement in the West Bank since the Gaza war started, the funeral procession had to turn into a back road where IDF soldiers told everyone to get out of their vehicles.

It was an ambush. Hardline Israeli settlers came out to pelt stones at the car. The father and son were shot and killed when they went to check the ambulance.

Mr Wadi is convinced that was a pre-planned attack: “I’m sure the settlers targeted him [Ibrahim Wadi]. He was known locally for his position against confiscation of property and land.”

Sayed Wadi believes the attack on his relatives was an ambush - Heathcliff O'Malley

One of the ambulance drivers told the Haaretz newspaper “the settlers were waiting there – they started firing on us and other people who had come for the funeral.”

Palestine’s WAFA news agency said both IDF soldiers and settlers opened fire. The IDF said it was investigating the incident.

Asked about the spiralling violence in the West Bank, Jonathan Cornicus, an IDF spokesman, said on Sky News: “Israel has for years been very restrained in its use of force.”

“We are aware of the intentions of Palestenians in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) to copy or emulate the same type of attacks that Hamas did in the communities around the Gaza Strip,” he said. “We’re on high alert. There’s no room for nonsense.”

The past year has seen increasing levels of violence by young settlers, who started to raid Palestinian villages or attack farmers in the fields. The attackers are rarely arrested, and reports of prosecution are even rarer.

Mr Wadi said the violence spiked under Israel’s pre-war government which included hardline Right-wing figures, some of whom publicly backed a rapid expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. They are widely considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.

“Previously, settlers were not armed: with the new government, you see that even the IDF needs protection from them,” said Mr Wadi, who on Thursday sat in his living room in Ramallah underneath a poster with photographs of Ibrahim and Ahmad and “Martyrs” written on the top.

Although the West Bank has been spared the devastating airstrikes Israel unleashed on Gaza in the past two weeks, life there has been disrupted in multiple ways.

Ramallah is unsettled and quiet, with its residents fearing an escalation in violence - Heathcliff O'Malley

Students and employees have been unable to report for duty or study, fearing violence or settlers or checkpoints. Since the start of the war, Israel has barred Palestinians, except for residents of East Jerusalem, from entering Israel, even if they were passing from one part of the West Bank to another.

Ali, a 42-year-old construction engineer from the town of Beit Jala, just south of Jerusalem, has not been able to get to his work at a construction site in Hebron, further south, since Oct 7.

“I preferred to stay home and not to go to work because the Bethlehem governorate is completely cut off from the rest of the West Bank, and I’d need to take the risk to go to work and might get attacked or shot by the IDF.”

Off Ramallah’s main Al-Manarah square, business at the numerous gold jewellery stores was sluggish.

“We have very few shoppers because everything is on hold: people are postponing weddings, celebrations: no one is in a mood to celebrate,” an employee who asked to be unnamed, fearing violence from both sides, told The Telegraph.

“No one feels safe. We know that the IDF can come in and storm Ramallah if they wanted to.”

Young men in the West Bank. 'People are outraged and feel very sad about what’s happening in Gaza,' said one - Heathcliff O'Malley

Many felt reluctant to speak out publicly about their grief over the mounting casualties in Gaza after Israel made several arrests over social media posts supporting Gaza, including that of Dala Abu Amna, a singer and social media influencer.

Hamas on Thursday called on Palestinians in the West Bank to “continue to mobilise” and “surprise the occupation forces with all possible means of resistance”.

On Ramallah’s main square, with a roundabout adorned with statues of three lions, people were gathering on Thursday afternoon for an improvised protest. Three young women in black abaya dresses and traditional Palestinian kufiya scarves draped on their shoulders looked on, while a few young men in the middle of a roundabout waited for a sign for the protest to kick off.

Melik Khattab, 18, whose broad smile revealed his dental braces, admitted that his parents were worried and wanted him to stay indoors to avoid trouble. But Mr Khattab said he was ready to confront and hurl stones at both the IDF and the Palestinian Administration’s security forces.

“People are outraged and feel very sad about what’s happening in Gaza,” he said.


West Bank a possible 'third front' for Israel

Ali Sawafta and John Davison
Thu, October 19, 2023 



Funeral of a Palestinian who was killed by Israeli forces, near Ramallah

By Ali Sawafta and John Davison

RAMALLAH/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Violence in the occupied West Bank has surged since Israel began bombarding the Gaza Strip and clashing with Hezbollah at the Lebanon border, fuelling concerns the flashpoint Palestinian territory could become a third front in a wider war.

Israel is waging war against the militant Hamas group in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, but Israeli soldiers and settlers pulled out of Gaza in 2005. Israel still occupies the West Bank, captured with Gaza in a 1967 Middle East war.

Hamas, which controls Gaza, killed more than 1,400 people in a surprise attack in Israel on Oct. 7, prompting an Israeli bombardment that has killed 3,500 in Gaza. Israel is preparing a full-scale ground assault on Gaza to destroy Hamas.

Western countries supporting Israel fear a wider war that would open up Lebanon, with its Iran-backed group Hezbollah, as a second front and the West Bank as what Israeli media call a potential third front.

Clashes between Israeli soldiers and settlers and Palestinians have already turned deadly. More than 70 Palestinians have been killed in West Bank violence since Oct. 7 and Israel has arrested more than 800 people.

Israeli forces raided and carried out an air strike in a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank on Thursday, killing at least 12 people, Palestinian officials said, and Israeli police said an officer was killed during the raid.

The violence poses a challenge to both Israel and to the Palestinian Authority (PA), the only Palestinian governing body recognised internationally which is headquartered there.

The Israeli military said it was on high alert and bracing for attacks including by Hamas militants in the West Bank.

Hamas was trying to "engulf Israel in a two- or three-front war", including the Lebanese border and the West Bank, military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus told Reuters. "The threat is elevated," he said.

'GIVE PEOPLE WEAPONS. LET THEM CLASH'

In Ramallah, rare chants this week supporting the military wing of Hamas - a rival of the PA's ruling Fatah party - showed a growing appetite for armed resistance.

"Give people weapons. Let them clash. We'll show what we can do," said Salah, a 20-year-old demonstrator who gave only his first name.

Fatah official Mowafaq Sehweel told Reuters: "We should let go of the reins and use whatever means to fight occupation."

Others are less ready to fight.

Nizar Mughrabi, owner of an architecture firm, said he was disgusted by Israel's assault on Gaza but not ready to pick up a gun.

"Netanyahu wants to fight, Haniyeh wants to fight - put them in the desert with guns and let them shoot each other," he said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Palestinian officials and Israeli analysts say a number of factors are both helping to ignite tensions, but conversely also limiting their scope, for now.

One is the hundreds of arrests Israel has made.

Hamas cited attacks on West Bank Palestinians and arrests this year as part of its reason for attacking on Oct. 7.

But the arrests have also limited West Bank violence, said Mustafa al-Khawaja, a 52-year-old anti-settlement activist.

"In Gaza, there's enough time (for Hamas) to organise militarily," he said. "Here, the occupation (Israel) can clamp down on a daily basis. It leaves no space to build up military or political forces."

WEST BANK A COMPLEX PATCHWORK

While Hamas tightly controls besieged Gaza, the West Bank is a complex patchwork of hillside cities, Israeli settlements and army checkpoints that split Palestinian communities.

Israel occupied the territory in 1967 and has divided it into large areas it controls, small areas where Palestinians have full control and areas where Palestinians and Israeli forces divide civil and security duties.

Between the seat of power in Ramallah and poorer peripheral areas, there are multiple views on the benefits of violence.

Desperate young men in refugee camps are more willing to fight than those in Ramallah where businessmen and senior Palestinian officials stand to lose from a spiral of violence.

"My business is already suffering because of the unrest," Mughrabi said.

Another key factor in stemming violence is Israel's security agreement with 87-year-old President Mahmoud Abbas's PA.

Abbas condemned Israel's assault on Gaza while his security forces cracked down on demonstrations. Fatah has not issued public calls for armed resistance.

"The PA wants to keep peace and is worried that marches of thousands of people could quickly turn into hundreds of thousands," said Palestinian political analyst Hadi al-Masri.

He added that PA officials do well financially and rely on arrangements with Israel to get paid.

Should Abbas lose his grip or become ill in his old age, the situation could deteriorate, he said.

'LONE WOLVES'

Lior Akerman, a former officer in Israel's internal security service the Shin Bet, said fears over West Bank unrest predated the Hamas war.

Hamas for years had been trying to "do all it can to activate terrorists in the West Bank," he said.

Akerman acknowledged, however, that security measures had been tightened since the Gaza bombardment began, saying that the most recent round of arrests might not have happened under normal circumstances.

"Last night the army ... took around 100 terrorists in the West Bank. In regular days ... the Shin Bet would arrest only those they knew were preparing terror attacks," he said.

One worry for Israel in the West Bank is "lone wolf" attacks from among Palestinians who have disparate local loyalties but an overall contempt for Israeli occupation, analysts say.

Recent surveys have shown overwhelming public support among Palestinians for armed groups, including local militias that include members from traditionally separate factions.

Even before the current Gaza crisis, the West Bank had seen a surge in violence.

Israel stepped up military raids and a spate of Palestinian attacks targeted Israelis. The 2023 Palestinian death toll until Oct. 7 was over 220 and at least 29 people in Israel had been killed, according to UN records.

(Reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah, John Davison in Jerusalem; Writing by John Davison; Editing by Howard Goller)

China Sells Most US Securities in Four Years Amid Yuan Weakness

JAPAN REMAINS LARGEST HOLDER OF U$ DEBT

Masaki Kondo and Ruth Carson
Wed, October 18, 2023 

(Bloomberg) -- Chinese investors offloaded the most US bonds and stocks in four years in August, fueling speculation the authorities may have moved to beef up their war chest to defend a weakening yuan.

The bulk of the $21.2 billion of sales were in Treasuries and US equities, with funds in the Asian nation also cutting holdings of agency debt, according to data from the US Department of the Treasury released on Wednesday. In August, the onshore yuan tumbled to its lowest against the dollar since November, prompting Beijing to tell state-owned banks to step up intervention in the currency market.

“This could be to liquidate some bond holdings to obtain US dollar cash in case it is needed later to defend the yuan via intervention operations,” said Gareth Berry, a currency and rates strategist at Macquarie Group Ltd. in Singapore. “The same reason may go for why they sold stocks.”

Chinese investors sold a record $5.1 billion of US stocks in August, the data showed.

While Chinese funds have been selling down holdings in Treasuries this year, they had been buying more or less equivalent amounts of US agency bonds. As such, the net sale of both types of bonds in August will raise eyebrows for investors tracking demand for US debt.

US bonds have sold off heavily again this year, as stronger-than-expected labor and inflation data have triggered a hawkish response from Federal Reserve officials. A Bloomberg index of Treasuries is heading for a sixth straight month of losses, while US 2-year yields surged to the highest since 2006 this week.

China’s Falling Treasuries Holdings Mask Rotation to Agency Debt

Japanese investors have also been paring their holdings of US securities, with sales of corporate bonds hitting a record.

“I suspect that Japan investors bought US corporate bonds over the past two years to obtain a yield pick-up over Treasuries,” said Macquarie’s Berry. “Now that Treasury yields have risen so much, they can feel more comfortable rotating back the other way.”

--With assistance from Marcus Wong and Wenjin Lv. 

Taliban says plans to formally join China's Belt and Road Initiative

Joe Cash
Thu, October 19, 2023

Taliban's acting commerce minister Haji Nooruddin Azizi speaks during an interview with Reuters, at the Embassy of Afghanistan in Beijing

BEIJING (Reuters) - The Taliban administration wants to formally join Chinese President Xi Jinping's huge 'Belt and Road' infrastructure initiative and will send a technical team to China for talks, Afghanistan's acting commerce minister said on Thursday.

Beijing has sought to develop its ties with the Taliban-run government since it took over in 2021, even though no other foreign government has recognised the administration.


Last month, China became the first country to appoint an ambassador to Kabul, with other nations retaining previous ambassadors or appointed heads of mission in a charge d'affaires capacity that does not involve formally presenting credentials to the government.

"We requested China to allow us to be a part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and Belt and Road Initiative... (and) are discussing technical issues today," acting Commerce Minister Haji Nooruddin Azizi told Reuters in an interview a day after the Belt and Road Forum ended in Beijing.

The Pakistan "economic corridor" refers to the huge flagship section of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Afghanistan's neighbour.

Azizi said the administration would also send a technical team to China to enable it to "better understand" the issues standing in the way of it joining the initiative, but did not elaborate on what was holding Afghanistan back.

Afghanistan could offer China a wealth of coveted mineral resources. Several Chinese companies already operate there, including the Metallurgical Corp. of China Ltd (MCC) which has held talks with the Taliban administration, as well as the previous Western-backed government, over plans for a potentially huge copper mine.

"China, which invests all over the world, should also invest in Afghanistan... we have everything they need, such as lithium, copper and iron," Azizi said. "Afghanistan is now, more than ever, ready for investment."

Asked about the MCC talks, Azizi said discussions had been delayed because the mine was near a historical site, but they were still ongoing. "The Chinese company has made a huge investment, and we support them," he added.

Investors have said security remains a concern. The Islamic State militant group has targeted foreign embassies and a hotel popular with Chinese investors in Kabul.

Asked about the security challenges, Azizi said security was a priority for the Taliban-run government, adding that after 20 years of war - which ended when foreign forces withdrew and the Taliban took over - meant more parts of the country were safe.

"It is now possible to travel to provinces where there is industry, agriculture and mines that one previously could not visit... security can be guaranteed," Azizi added.

Afghanistan and 34 other countries agreed to work together on the digital economy and green development on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Forum on Wednesday.

(Additional reporting by Ahmad Masih Noori and Charlotte Greenfield in Kabul; editing by Miral Fahmy)

China ready to boost Pakistan ties but urges security guarantee -Xi
Reuters
Thu, October 19, 2023


BEIJING (Reuters) - China is willing to strengthen co-operation and promote solidarity with Pakistan but has urged it to guarantee the safety of Chinese organisations and personnel working there, China's foreign ministry said, quoting President Xi Jinping.

China is a major ally and investor in Pakistan but both separatist and Islamist militants have attacked Chinese projects over recent years, killing Chinese personnel.

Xi on Thursday evening met Pakistan's caretaker prime minister, Anwar ul Haq Kakar, who is in Beijing this week for a forum on China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Xi said both countries should pursue an "upgraded version" of a China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, enhancing cooperation in industrial parks, agriculture and mining, new energy, as well as early implementation of major connectivity projects.

At the same time, he called for security for Chinese interests.

"We hope the Pakistani side will guarantee the safety of Chinese institutions and personnel in Pakistan," the ministry cited Xi as telling Kakar.

Kakar said on Wednesday Pakistan had completed more than 50 projects worth $25 billion under the CPEC, a flagship project under China's BRI with more than $65 billion pledged for road, rail and other infrastructure developments.

Xi said China was open to buttressing cooperation within the U.N. and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation framework and safeguard the interests of developing countries.China also welcomed more high-quality agricultural imports from Pakistan, the ministry said in a statement late on Thursday.

Separatist insurgents in Pakistan's resource-rich Balochistan province say China has ignored warnings not to enter deals with the Pakistani government. China has also warned of the danger or Islamist militants in Pakistan.

(Reporting by Liz Lee; editing by Robert Birsel)

China ramps up yuan internationalisation under Belt and Road Initiative
Reuters
Updated Thu, October 19, 2023 at 1:55 AM MDT·3 min read
31




SHANGHAI/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - China is using loans agreed through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to promote the yuan internationally, having already boosted the yuan's share of global payments to record levels.

During the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing that ended on Wednesday, China's policy banks signed a series of yuan-denominated loan contracts with foreign lenders.

Many of the 130 countries that attended the forum belonged to the Global South, while most Western nations stayed away, and the presence of Russia's President Vladimir Putin lent support to Chinese President Xi Jinping's ambition for a new, multi-polar world order.

"You can see that the countries that are basically using the RMB for trade settlements are mostly countries that have visited Beijing or have come up with strategic agreements with Beijing, Russia being the most obvious one," said Alicia Garcia Herrero, Asia Pacific chief economist at Natixis.

Geostrategic tensions and high U.S. interest rates have helped Beijing increase the yuan's acceptability with some countries.

In September, the yuan - also called the RMB - accounted for 3.71% of global payments by value, hitting a record high, and almost doubling from 1.91% in January, according to SWIFT data released on Wednesday. Still, the yuan's share is negligible compared with the dollar's 46.6%.

Rising Sino-U.S. competition and the Russia-Ukraine war, both pushed Beijing to persuade more countries to use yuan for settlement, despite the currency's depreciation against the dollar.

And funding BRI projects has helped China revitalise the once-stalled process of yuan internationalisation. It is 10 years since Xi launched his signature BRI strategy, aimed at building global infrastructure and energy networks connecting Asia with Africa and Europe.

"Amid rising currency volatility globally, the BRI provides a good opportunity to expand the RMB's international clout," China International Capital Corp (CICC) wrote.

The China Development Bank, a state policy lender, signed yuan-denominated loan contracts with Malaysia's Maybank, Egypt's central bank, and BBVA Peru to support BRI projects.

Another policy bank, the Export-Import Bank of China, signed a yuan-based loan agreement with Saudi National Bank, while Bank of China helped Egypt issue Africa's first yuan-denominated Panda bonds.

Beijing also allocated an additional 80 billion yuan ($10.94 billion) to its Silk Road Fund for BRI projects.

A major driving force behind the rise in yuan financing has been the sharp increase in U.S. interest rates.

As a result of the "increasingly high borrowing cost of the dollar... many debtors have turned to the RMB for financing or refinancing," Natixis economist Haoxin Mu said, while also citing "the weaponisation of the dollar" in the wake of the Ukraine war as a factor behind the increased use of the yuan.

Natixis' Garcia Herrero said the yuan is still a long way from challenging the dollar's dominance, citing its tiny share in the oil trade, and foreigners slashing holdings in Chinese stocks and bonds. She also cautioned that a currency favoured by a bloc has less chance of being accepted as a reserve currency.

"A reserve currency is never a currency of a group of countries," Garcia Herrero said. "Can you do this in a targeted way with MOUs with all BRI countries? Maybe. But it will not become a truly global international currency."

($1 = 7.3157 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Samuel Shen and Tom Westbrook; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

China’s Belt and Road Initiative: What’s working and what’s not

Ann Scott Tyson
Thu, October 19, 2023 



Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week launched a new phase of China’s massive global infrastructure and development program, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), aimed at strengthening the country’s economic integration and influence with the rest of the world.

With an estimated $1 trillion in investments over the past 10 years, the initiative has focused heavily on big projects by Chinese state-owned firms to construct a network of railways, roads, ports, power grids, and pipelines across Asia, Europe, Africa, and Latin America. Going forward, the initiative will shift to smaller, greener, and digital projects by commercial firms, a pivot that Mr. Xi called “a new stage of higher-quality and higher-level development.”

Speaking on a vast stage at the Belt and Road Forum before dozens of world leaders assembled in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on Wednesday, Mr. Xi called for building “a new platform for international economic cooperation” among the more than 150 nations that have signed BRI agreements with China.

“China can only do well when the world is doing well. When China does well, the world will get even better,” he said, adding that China is a main trading partner with more than 140 countries.

Mr. Xi first announced plans to build new intercontinental land and maritime linkages in 2013, describing them as the revival of ancient Silk Road trade routes. The initiative has won support from many countries since. It is especially popular in the Global South, where billions still lack basic infrastructure systems for drinking water, electricity, roads, schools, and internet. Now entering its second decade, the initiative also faces serious challenges, including rising debt among participating countries, China’s own groggy economy, and, recently, signs of regional competition. But after this week’s celebratory summit, analysts say the initiative is moving forward, as is China’s ability to shape the global development agenda.

The BRI was “very much based on China’s experience of infrastructure-led growth,” says Christoph Nedopil Wang, director of the Griffith Asia Institute and a professor at Griffith University in Australia. Basically, if you build a road, prosperity will follow.

“This is a strong view of the Belt and Road Initiative, to really copy China’s model internationally,” and to establish the initiative as a China-led alternative to Western development models, he says. Although China is adjusting that strategy in the initiative’s new phase, Dr. Nedopil Wang considers the first decade an overall success.

“The BRI has increased China’s credibility to deliver projects,” in part by branding much of China’s overseas economic engagement with the BRI label, he says.
Weighing the debt burden

The world will face a $15 trillion gap between projected and needed global infrastructure by 2040, according to the Global Infrastructure Hub.

“Together, with the contributions of the Belt and Road Initiative, we can turn the infrastructure emergency into an infrastructure opportunity” and “supercharge the implementation of the [United Nations] sustainable development goals,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres told the Beijing forum on Wednesday.

Indeed, many countries remain eager for China’s help in fast-tracking development.

As he waits to hear Mr. Xi’s speech, Nepal’s ambassador to China, Bishnu Pukar Shrestha, says his country wants Beijing to help build a railway between Shigatse, Tibet, and Kathmandu. “We need big projects; we need connectivity,” he says. “It’s not more than 100 kilometers [62 miles] on the Nepal side, so they can do this; they can grant us,” he says.

But initiative infrastructure projects have also relied on debt financing, adding to the debt burden of developing nations, as China has emerged as the world’s biggest bilateral creditor to low- and middle-income nations. Mr. Guterres stressed the need for “actions right now to promote effective debt relief mechanisms.”

Over the past 10 years, some of the countries that received large amounts of finance and investment from China under the initiative include Pakistan, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria.

In Pakistan, which has received some $52 billion in construction and investment, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has built several major highways covering about 500 miles and also prioritized hydropower and coal-fired power plants.

“When this initiative was launched, we were facing severe electricity shortages” and problems with connectivity, says Zafar Uddin Mahmood, the special envoy for CPEC in Beijing from 2014 to 2017. In three years, BRI projects produced nearly 8,000 megawatts of electricity, or 33% of the country’s total energy requirements, he says. “We were able to overcome the shortage of electricity in this short period of time,” says Mr. Mahmood, an assistant to Pakistan’s prime minister on the BRI from 2022 to 2023.

The large projects added significantly to Pakistan’s debt problem. “We are a heavily indebted country; we have more than $100 billion, and the Chinese are a major part of that, but ... not the entire part,” he says.

“When you compare [the debt burden] with the benefits, we don’t have any major issues,” he says. Chinese interest rates are on average below 3%, he says, and China has been “very generous in rescheduling the debts when we were unable to pay.”

Pakistan is not alone. In Laos, China built a $5.9 billion railway connecting the two countries that opened in December 2021, helping create jobs, fuel trade, and link the landlocked nation of 7 million people to global supply chains. The project is the first leg of China’s ambitious plan to expand its rail network through Laos, Thailand, and Malaysia to Singapore. But the project has also worsened Laos’ debt burden – in turn, creating problems for Beijing, experts say.

“If anything, BRI becomes a debt trap for China,” says Zongyuan Zoe Liu, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of “Sovereign Funds: How the Communist Party of China Finances Its Global Ambitions.”

“It’s a problem when foreign sovereigns can no longer pay,” Dr. Liu adds. “It’s a lose-lose situation. ... China on one hand suffers from reputational damage, and delayed payment is the best-case scenario.”
China corrects course

China has begun joining with other foreign creditors to negotiate debt relief – such as for Zambia this summer – although Dr. Liu says Beijing prefers to extend the period of repayment rather than engage in debt forgiveness, the latter being known as a “haircut.”

Besides adding to debt issues, BRI projects have sparked criticism for having a lack of transparency, contributing to environmental problems, and employing Chinese goods and workers rather than local ones.

On Wednesday, Indonesian President Joko Widodo told the forum that initiative projects should stress giving countries “a sense of ownership,” rely on local employment and products, and “must not complicate their fiscal conditions.”

Italy, the only Western European country to have joined the BRI, has indicated it may not renew its participation when its five-year BRI memorandum of understanding with China expires in March next year.

“Trade-wise, it was a disaster for Italy. We didn’t get anything out of it,” says Alessia Amighini, co-head of the Asia Center and a senior associate research fellow at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies. Italy’s trade deficit with China grew from $20 billion in 2019 to $48 billion in 2022, she says.

“BRI is very effective for China’s connectivity with the rest of the world, but it’s not a win-win game,” says Dr. Amighini, an associate professor of economics at the University of Piemonte Orientale.

Beijing’s recalibration of the initiative is in part a response to such concerns, experts say.

In contrast with big infrastructure projects loaded with debt, the next phase will emphasize smaller-scale business investment with profit potential. Focus areas will include digital connectivity and the transition to renewable energy, an industry where China enjoys a competitive advantage.

China’s overall BRI investments and construction have declined since a peak in 2018, and the average deal size has fallen by nearly half. It has boosted green energy investment in areas such as solar, wind, and hydropower. Yet China also continues work on new coal-fired power plants overseas, despite a pledge not to do so, according to Dr. Nedopil Wang, the Griffith Asia Institute director.

“The original BRI relied very much on this debt financing and using Chinese infrastructure firms to build out public infrastructure,” says Dr. Nedopil Wang. China has realized that “roads don’t generate any revenue, particularly in developing countries,” he says, so it is moving toward “commercially viable projects.”

This week’s forum, which attracted about 10,000 officials, executives, and journalists, included a CEO conference in which some 300 Chinese and foreign business executives signed cooperation contracts worth $97 billion. Ben Okoye, executive vice chair of Brass Fertilizer & Petrochemical of Lagos, Nigeria, holds a freshly signed contract in a shiny red folder for a project connected to a new methanol plant.

“This is the first [BRI] contract for our company,” he says, but it plans to bid for more.

China marks ten years of Belt & Road forum, though interest is waning

RFI
Wed, October 18, 2023 

AP - Louise Delmotte

Beijing will inject over $100 billion of new funding into its Belt and Road initiative (BRI), China's President Xi Jinping said Wednesday at a summit marking the vast infrastructure project's tenth anniversary.

The Belt and Road strategy is a central pillar of Xi's bid to expand China's clout overseas, with Beijing saying it has now inked over two trillion dollars in contracts around the world.

Proponents hail it for bringing resources and economic growth to the Global South.

Unpaid loans

This week's summit celebrates the tenth anniversary of the project, which has been stalling due to the increasing incapability of receiving countries to pay back loans used for individual construction ventures.

Xi's initiative has built power plants, roads, railroads and ports around the world and deepened China’s ties with Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Mideast.

But the massive loans backing the projects have burdened poorer countries with heavy debts, in some cases leading to China taking control of those assets.

Chinese money

At the forum’s opening ceremony at the ornate and cavernous Great Hall of the People, Xi promised that two Chinese-backed development banks – the China Development Bank and the Export–Import Bank of China – will each set up 350 billion yuan (€45,3 billion) financing windows.

An additional 80 billion yuan (€10 billion) will be invested in Beijing's Silk Road Fund to support BRI projects.

China's BRI

XI launched the BRI in 2013 during a visit to Kazakhstan.

But Xi used the forum to meet with many of his allies, notably Russia's President Vladimir Putin.

(With newswires)

Read more on RFI English

Read also:
What is Europe's billion-euro plan to rival China's Belt & Road project?
G7 aims to raise $600 billion to counter China's Belt and Road
Europe counters China's Belt and Road strategy with plans for €150 billion investment in Africa

Putin and Xi get closer
Karina Tsui
Wed, October 18, 2023 



China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin declared that their relationship was “continuously deepening” after the two met in Beijing this week during the 10th anniversary celebrations of China’s Road and Belt Initiative.

As a worsening conflict brews in the Middle East, the two leaders hailed their “close and effective strategic coordination” amid their increasing isolation from the West.

The Xi-Putin meeting comes as the U.S. tightened restrictions on Beijing’s access to artificial intelligence chips as part of a series of measures announced Tuesday that would prevent China from making “breakthroughs” to advance its military operations, Commerce Department Secretary Gina Raimondo said. A 2022 Georgetown University report found that of 97 AI chips procured through the Chinese military over an eight-month period in 2020, nearly all were designed by U.S. companies.

There are cracks in the Sino-Russian relationship: Putin’s Ukraine invasion has weakened China’s geopolitical goal of weakening the Western alliance, while Russia is likely miffed by Xi’s decision not to offer them lethal aid. But China is motivated “to keep Russia in the game as long as possible,” writes Bloomberg Opinion columnist Minxin Pei. The weaker Russia becomes, the more Beijing is incentivized to “prop it up” given that Xi does not want to face the US and its allies alone, Pei writes. Beijing has provided Moscow with equipment and materials crucial for military uses, and bilateral trade between the two countries reached a record high in 2022.

Both Beijing and Moscow have avoided directly condemning Hamas for its attack on Israel, and have instead focused their criticism on Israeli attacks in Gaza and called for an independent Palestinian state. China, in particular, has attempted to assert itself in the Middle East by forging stronger diplomatic ties with Arab leaders, but a previous attempt by Beijing to mediate tensions between Israelis and Palestinians yielded few results. Foreign policy experts note that for Russia and China, the fighting between Israel and Hamas is a “long-awaited distraction” from the Ukraine war and China’s ongoing crackdown on Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

TWO FASCISTS ON A RED CARPET

Putin meets with Hungary's prime minister in rare in-person talks with an EU leader

JUSTIN SPIKE and KEN MORITSUGU
Updated Tue, October 17, 2023




BEIJING (AP) — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán held talks on Tuesday with Vladimir Putin in a rare in-person meeting for the Russian president with a leader of a European Union country.

Orbán and Putin met in Beijing before an international forum on one of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature policies, the Belt and Road Initiative. Their meeting focused on Hungary’s access to Russian energy.

EU and other Western leaders have largely eschewed contact with Putin over Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine that began in February. Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer met with Putin in person in April 2022.


“Hungary never wanted to confront Russia. Hungary always has been eager to expand contacts,” Orbán told Putin, according to a Russian translation of his remarks broadcast on Russian state television.

Bilateral ties between the two countries have suffered because of EU sanctions against Moscow, he said.

Hungary’s stance on the war has confounded its European partners and led to deadlocks in providing financial and military assistance to Kyiv. Orbán has refused to supply Ukraine with weapons and not allowed their transfer across the Hungarian-Ukrainian border. He has also threatened to veto EU sanctions against Moscow, though has always ultimately voted in favor of them.

Orbán’s meeting with Putin appeared to be a boon for the Russian president, who could point to it as a sign that unity within the EU on its support for Ukraine — and its condemnation of Russia for starting the war — was faltering.

Putin said that while opportunities for maintaining ties with some countries are “limited in the current geopolitical situation, it causes satisfaction that we have managed to preserve and develop relations with many European countries, including Hungary.”

Budapest has blocked an EU military aid package to Kyiv worth 500 million euros ($526 million) since May, and said it would continue doing so until it receives concessions from Kyiv concerning its listing of a Hungarian bank as an international sponsor of the war.

Orbán, a conservative populist leader who has repeatedly criticized Western sanctions against Russia, said that his country has remained eager to maintain ties with Moscow, on which Hungary is highly dependent for natural gas, oil and nuclear fuel.

While most of Hungary’s neighbors in Central and Eastern Europe have taken great strides to wean themselves off of Russian energy, Orbán has worked to maintain and even increase supplies of Russian gas and oil, arguing that they are essential for the functioning of Hungary’s economy.

“We are doing what we can and trying to save what we can in our bilateral contacts,” he said, noting the planned expansion of Hungary’s only nuclear power plant by Russian state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom. The project will be financed with a 10-billion euro ($10.5 billion) loan from a Russian state bank.

In a post on his Facebook page, Orbán reiterated his longstanding call for a cease-fire and immediate peace talks in Ukraine, though he has not indicated what such an arrangement would mean for Ukraine’s future security or territorial integrity.

“In Europe today, one question is on everyone’s mind: will there be a cease-fire in Ukraine,” Orbán wrote. “For us Hungarians, too, the most important thing is that the flood of refugees, the sanctions and the fighting in our neighboring country should end.”

Putin, making a rare trip out of Russia, is holding a series of meetings with other leaders who have come to Beijing for the Belt and Road Forum, and will also hold talks with Xi.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said Tuesday that he had had a short meeting with Putin, one that is also likely to raise concerns in Europe. Under Vučić, Serbia has been increasingly drifting away from its proclaimed goal of joining the EU and is moving closer to Russia and China economically and politically.

Serbia has refused to join EU sanctions against Moscow, although Vučić says Serbia respects the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

Both China and Russia are the main suppliers of weapons for the Serbian army at a time when growing tensions over its former province of Kosovo is one of the main Western security concerns for regional stability.

China has provided Serbia with billions of dollars in loans for factories and highways that Chinese companies are building. A free trade agreement signed with China on Tuesday goes directly against EU economic policies and would have to be scrapped if Serbia were to join the EU.

___

Justin Spike reported from Budapest, Hungary. Dusan Stojanovic contributed to this report from Belgrade, Serbia.

___

This story has been corrected to delete references to Putin’s meeting with Orbán as being the first in-person talks for Putin with an EU leader since the start of the war. Putin met face-to-face with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer in April 2022, around two months after the start of the war.


Orbán's chief of staff tries to justify his meeting with Putin and calling war in Ukraine a "military operation"

Ukrayinska Pravda
Wed, October 18, 2023 


On Wednesday 18 October, Gergely Gulyás, head of the administration of the Hungarian Prime Minister, attempted to respond to criticism of Viktor Orbán’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in China.

Source: Hungarian TV channel ATV, citing Gulyás, reported by European Pravda

Details: Orbán’s chief of staff commented on criticism voiced by the US Ambassador to Hungary, David Pressman, who said that the Hungarian prime minister "chooses to stand with a man whose forces are responsible for crimes against humanity in Ukraine".

Quote: "If you think back to previous years, you will see meetings, a lot of meetings between Joe Biden and President Putin," Gulyás commented, advising the journalist to look at photos from these meetings.

When the ATV journalist pointed out that the presidents of the United States and Russia have not met since Russia invaded Ukraine, the Hungarian official reminded them of the importance of "talking about peace and the need to put an end to Russian aggression".

"This is exactly what the prime minister has been doing, and I would advise others to do the same," he added.

At the same time, Gulyás did not give a direct answer to the question of why Orbán used the Russian propaganda term "military operation" to describe the aggression against Ukraine during his meeting with Putin. He merely reiterated that Budapest's official position is condemnation of the war and respect for Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

Earlier it was reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Beijing.

This is the first time in more than a year that Putin has met with the leader of an EU country. In April 2022, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer visited Moscow and met with the Kremlin leader.

Orbán regularly makes anti-Ukrainian statements in the spirit of Russian propaganda. In particular, he has said that the historic opportunity for Ukraine to join NATO has been lost and that Kyiv should forget about joining the Alliance.

Vladimir Putin gets diplomatic stage at belt and road gathering in Beijing

South China Morning Post
Wed, October 18, 2023

Chinese President Xi Jinping's belt and road forum has provided a rare diplomatic stage for his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, who has been increasingly isolated since Moscow invaded Ukraine.

It was Putin's second overseas trip since the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest in March over the alleged war crime of illegally deporting Ukrainian children. He travelled to Kyrgyzstan earlier this month for a summit of former Soviet nations.

In the Chinese capital, Putin - who has been shunned by the West - was on a charm offensive, meeting regional leaders and the prime minister of a European Union country. He also held talks with Xi on Wednesday.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

THAILAND IS RUN BY A JUNTA

Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin meets Vladimir Putin at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. Photo: EPA-EFE

He met new Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin on Tuesday at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, a tightly guarded compound in the west of Beijing where Xi usually hosts his foreign counterparts.

Thailand, one of Washington's oldest allies in Asia, has not joined the West to condemn Putin's war in Ukraine.

Noting that Russia's trade with Thailand "decreased slightly last year amid the turbulence in international relations", Putin said his country would "do our best to make our relations develop as intensively as possible and contribute to the development of our states", according to the Kremlin.

In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Thavisin lauded the "more than 1 million Russian tourists" who travelled to Thailand. "Ready to invite Russia to consider increasing investment in Thailand. And invited Mr Putin to visit Thailand in order to strengthen our relationship," he wrote.

A Thai government statement said Putin had accepted the invitation, according to Agence France-Presse.

Putin also met his Vietnamese counterpart Vo Van Thuong, who hosted US President Joe Biden in Hanoi last month, when the former Cold War foes announced an upgrade in bilateral ties.

According to the Kremlin, Putin told Thuong that relations between the two countries were "developing a traditional friendly atmosphere". "Of course, we are also actively cooperating on the global stage," he said.

TWO STALINISTS ON THE RED CARPET

Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong called Russia a partner of "top importance" when he met Putin. Photo: Sputnik via Reuters

Thuong, who took office in March, said Vietnam "always considers Russia one of its partners of top importance", according to a readout from Hanoi.

"Vietnam always bears in mind the support and assistance offered by Russian people for the country's course of national development and protection," Thuong told Putin.

According to a post on the Vietnamese government website, Putin also accepted an invitation to visit the Southeast Asian country "soon".

Like Thailand, Vietnam has taken a neutral stance over the war in Ukraine, citing its "bamboo diplomacy" policy of not taking sides.

The United States, European Union and other Western countries imposed sanctions on Putin and other government figures following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

In Beijing on Tuesday, Putin also met Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban - a rare meeting for the Russian leader with the head of an EU member state since the start of the Ukraine war.

According to Russian media, they focused on Hungary's access to Russian energy, with Orban telling Putin that Hungary "never wanted to confront Russia" and had always been "eager to expand contacts".

Putin said that while opportunities for maintaining ties with some countries were "limited in the current geopolitical situation" it was satisfying that Russia had "managed to preserve and develop relations with many European countries, including Hungary".

Putin also held informal talks with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Tuesday night before a welcome dinner at the Great Hall of the People hosted by Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan.

Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine just days after a trip to Beijing in February 2022, calling it a response to the expansion of Nato and provocations from Europe. Since then, the Russian leader has largely stayed home, aside from trips to Central Asia, Iran, Armenia and Belarus.

He has missed regional and global meetings including the Group of 20, though he did join the Brics summit in July via video link.

Putin travelled to Beijing with a high-level delegation that included two deputy prime ministers, the government chiefs in charge of finance, development of the Far East and the Arctic, the head of the central bank, and chief executives of the country's energy giants, according to Russian news agency Tass.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2023 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2023. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Vladimir Putin feted at Xi Jinping's global Belt and Road summit

Tessa Wong - Asia Digital Reporter, BBC News

Wed, October 18, 2023 at 10:38 AM MDT·

Mr Xi and Mr Putin led the group of leaders into the Great Hall of the People in Beijing
ON THE RIGHT THE BUTCHER OF ETHIOPIA AND NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER

Russian leader Vladimir Putin was given the red carpet treatment at a global summit in Beijing, as China and Russia deepen their solidarity.

Hosted by China's President Xi Jinping, the meeting celebrated 10 years of his signature foreign and economic policy, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Mr Putin was the guest of honour among leaders and officials from more than 130 countries.

He has rarely left his country since invading Ukraine in February last year.

Not only is he facing increasing diplomatic isolation, he has also been issued an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC) over alleged war crimes in Ukraine.

Mr Putin is highly unlikely to be arrested in China as Beijing is not a state party to the statutes of the ICC. He and Mr Xi are known for their close relationship, with the Chinese leader famously declaring their countries had a "no limits friendship" just before the war began.

Wednesday's proceedings kicked off with an opening ceremony held in Beijing's Great Hall of the People. Mr Xi made his entrance together with Mr Putin, with the two striding into the hall shoulder-to-shoulder in front of other countries' leaders.

Mr Putin was also front and centre along with the Chinese president for the group photo, and was second to speak after Mr Xi. They later held a three-hour bilateral meeting, at which they discussed Ukraine and the Middle East.

Later, Mr Putin referred to the growing number of conflicts in the world. "All these outside factors are common threats and they strengthen Russian-Chinese co-operation," he told a news conference.

While Mr Putin had pride of place in previous Belt and Road summits, those events took place before Russia began its war on Ukraine.

China since then has come under criticism from the West for standing by Russia, even as it has also tried to show support for Ukraine.

Mr Putin and Mr Xi were front and centre of the group photo

On Wednesday Mr Putin was keen to return the favour. In his speech, he pledged support for Mr Xi's vast BRI project saying it was "in tune with Russian ideas" and praised "our Chinese friends" for their achievements.

The BRI has seen China pouring an estimated trillion dollars into investment and infrastructure projects around the world.

Addressing a roomful of delegates mostly from the so-called Global South group of developing countries, he also said that "Russia and China and the majority of states in the world share aspirations" for co-operation and economic progress.

Mr Putin's visit comes amid fears that China and Russia are building their own bloc to rival the West.

Both countries have publicly denounced the US-led "global hegemony" and have called for a "multipolar" world with more centres of power.

In the lead-up to the BRI's anniversary, China released two white papers positioning the BRI as the bedrock of a new world order, one that it casts as more just and inclusive.

Belt and Road: Is China's trillion-dollar gamble worth it?

Putin in China to strengthen anti-West coalition

In his speech littered with Silk Road references and colourful proverbs, Mr Xi continued to stress this point. He said the BRI "represents the advancing of our times and the right path forward", and was "on the right side of history".

He denounced "ideological confrontation, geopolitical rivalry and bloc politics", unilateral sanctions and "decoupling" supply chains. Beijing has often criticised Washington for leading what it sees as an unfair form of globalisation.

In contrast, the BRI has encouraged "win-win co-operation" where "the flame runs higher when everyone adds wood".

Mr Xi also laid out an eight-point plan on taking the BRI forward, including promoting smaller projects, "green development" and "integrity building".

The BRI has been widely lauded for spurring development in many countries, but has also been criticised for saddling borrowers with mountains of debt, damaging the environment, and fuelling corruption and wasteful projects.

The summit in Beijing has attracted countries mostly from Africa, South East Asia, and South America. Other attendees include Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and representatives from Afghanistan's Taliban government.

TSMC Drops Plan for Chip Site After Reports of Local Protest

Jane Lanhee Lee
Tue, October 17, 2023 


(Bloomberg) -- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has dropped plans to build an advanced chip plant in the island’s north, a pullback that comes after reports of growing local opposition to the move.

TSMC had explored the Longtan Science Park in Taoyuan as a potential site. But the factory would have been built on land that the government is acquiring to expand the park, which the local community voiced strong opposition to, media including the Central News Agency reported this week. TSMC won’t proceed with the fab after evaluating current conditions, the company said, without giving a reason.

The protests are aimed at a third-phase expansion of Longtan, one of the island’s premier industrial parks and home for years to TSMC and other major tech names. Residents complain that the government is acquiring land in the vicinity below market price, and are trying to stall the process, CNA and other outlets cited officials and people in the area as saying.

Taiwan’s largest company invests heavily to secure its lead in chipmaking capacity and technology, spending upwards of $30 billion each year on new equipment and facilities. Local media reported the plan was to build a next-generation 2-nanometer plant at the site. The company has two fabs in Taiwan for 2nm process technology under construction, one of them in Hsinchu where it already operates a major production facility.

Shares in TSMC, which will outline its longer-term spending plans when it unveils earnings Thursday, ended Tuesday 1.1% higher.

Beside expanding domestically, the world’s leading chipmaker is building two chip fabs in Arizona at a cost of roughly $40 billion, with help from US subsidies. It’s also setting up a campus in Japan’s Kumamoto in partnership with Sony Group Corp.

(Updates with details of the complaints from the third paragraph)

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

U$A

Black people say a negative media stereotypes their community, racism plays a role

Ray Marcano

GRIO
Wed, October 18, 2023 

Nearly 40% of survey respondents said they see racist or racially insensitive news often.

Black people hold critical views of the media, which they say stereotypes their community and covers it more negatively, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.

“There’s not a lot of African American coverage unless it’s February or it’s criminal,” one focus group participant told Pew.

Michael Lipka, the associate director of news and information research at Pew, said overall, Republicans harbor more media distrust than Democrats. But Black Americans distrust the media at the same rate regardless of their political preference

Kim Smith, an associate professor in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at North Carolina A&T, an HBCU, said the survey results do not surprise him. (Submitted photo)

Regarding how the media covers Black people, “The views are pretty similarly negative on both sides of the aisle,” Lipka told theGrio. “There’s not really much disagreement there. Even Black Republicans hold the view that there are a lot of problems with how the news media covers Black people.”

The survey of nearly 5,000 Black adults was conducted in late February and early March. According to the results, released on Sept. 26:

• 63% said news about Black people is often more negative than other ethnic or racial groups.

• 43% said news coverage largely stereotypes Black people.

• Nearly four in 10 (39%)  said they see racist or racially insensitive news fairly or extremely often.

• Only 6% of those surveyed said they believe they’re being fairly treated.

Focus group comments, sprinkled throughout the survey, drove home the point of distrust.

Regarding how Black people are covered in the news, one focus group participant said, “When a White person commits a crime, it’s an individual, it is a mental issue. When a Black person commits a crime, it’s the total community. It’s the Black community, and it’s an indictment on all of us.”

When discussing why news coverage may be racially insensitive, one participant said news outlets want white people “to be scared, and fear coming to the Black areas or put money in those areas to build up the businesses to help us out. … They want to look at a Black person and think we’re all bad and think we’re all going to hurt them when that’s not true.”

---

The survey results don’t surprise Kim Smith, an associate professor in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at North Carolina A&T, an HBCU.

“Overall, the results seem to support two decades-old communication theories,” in agenda setting and cultivation theory, he said.

In agenda setting, “If your media messages portray African American men as mere thugs and drug dealers, that is how society will see them,” Smith said in an email to theGrio. “If Black women are portrayed as angry all of the time and as sex objects, that is how society will portray them.”

“There’s not a lot of African American coverage unless it’s February or it’s criminal.”

Focus group participant, Pew Research study

In cultivation theory, “Long-term exposure to negative media messages results in normalized behavior, Smith said. “Repeated mug shots of Black men as perpetrators of crime and continuous coverage of crime in Black neighborhoods sends the message that all Black men are criminals and that no one in Black neighborhoods cares about crime in their communities.”

And while the news media does a good job of telling people what happened, it doesn’t dive deep enough to explore why the problems exist.

“The implications of such decades of superficial coverage are huge,” Smith said. “Black communities don’t get the resources needed to better their communities because people are afraid to invest in those communities. And what are the social and psychological impacts of such coverage on people of color, as these negative images and messages flow 24/7 on the Internet and social media?”

Lipka said it was interesting that nearly half of the survey respondents found it very or extremely important that journalists advocate for Black people.

“A lot of most Black Americans say that journalists should cover all sides of the story, understand the history of the issues, and personally engage with, with the communities that covering,” Lipka said. But he noted, “48% of Black Americans say that it’s important for journalists to advocate for Black people when they’re covering Black people,” a departure from the typical job of objectively reporting the facts.

Smith believes the journalism profession has a lot of work to do.

“We, as journalists and journalism educators, have lots of work to do to mitigate decades’ impact of agenda setting and cultivation theory.”

The post Black people say a negative media stereotypes their community, racism plays a role appeared first on TheGrio.

U$A

An 18-Year-Old Had Consensual Sex With a 16-Year-Old. He Went to Jail for 6 Years.

Lenore Skenazy
Wed, October 18, 2023 

Emily Horowitz | Emily Horowitz

When Henry was 18, he had sex with a 16-year-old he met on a dating app who said they were 18 too. The 16-year-old's parents found out, summoned the cops, and Henry was charged with a sex offense. He took a plea: no jail time, and seven years on the sex offense registry.

Henry's story is one of about 60 that appear in a new book by sociologist Emily Horowitz: From Rage to Reason: Why We Need Sex Crime Laws Based on Facts Not Fear. If you believe that our country's sex offense registries should actually make kids safer, this book will leave you shaking with frustration.

At the time of his arrest, Henry was attending community college. He was immediately expelled but appealed and was allowed to graduate. Being on the registry made it nearly impossible to find work, however.

After three years with little income—and several hundred dollars a year in payments for court-mandated polygraph tests—Henry moved back in with his parents. The neighbors got up in arms, so all three of them moved to Henry's grandmother's house.

"Probation authorities stipulated that Henry had to post signs on each entrance of her house that read, 'no persons under seventeen allowed on this property,'" writes Horowitz. That meant his cousins could no longer visit.

At last, Henry found a good job. But when he gave his probation officer his office address, he was told it was too close to a school. Many registries have location requirements that forbid registrants from living, or sometimes working, near any place kids might congregate: a school, a daycare, or a park. (These residency restrictions are worthless when it comes to enhancing public safety.)

Henry begged his probation officer to let him keep this hard-won job. The officer said he could continue working until a judge ruled on his request. But when Henry got to court, writes Horowitz:

"[H]e was told he was in violation of his probation. The judge said he should have quit immediately upon learning from probation that the office was located too close to a school. Henry explained that he didn't quit because of his pending appeal, as he'd been out of work for months and, additionally, it was a term of his probation that he be employed.

"At this point, Henry had only three years left of probation. Due to his infraction, however, the judge issued the harshest ruling possible, sentencing Henry to six years in state prison. The only good thing, he says, is that 'the minute I went to prison, my grandma could take those signs down.'"

That's just one story from Horowitz's book; there are many others. In some of those stories, the registrant did in fact commit serious, disturbing crimes.

"Perpetrators should be punished and held accountable," writes Horowitz.

But that does not mean the sex offense registry is effective. Despite the myth of "frightening and high" rearrests, decades of scientific studies have consistently found that recidivism for sex crimes is lower than for almost all other criminal offenses. Registration has not further reduced recidivism, according to studies.

The registry is a mishmash of punitive rules and mandates, often including counseling, sometimes for life. While several of Horowitz's interviewees were grateful for what their therapy helped them understand about themselves and their crimes, others got treatment that seemed suspiciously prurient.

For instance, one registrant told Horowitz that he and his fellow group therapy participants were required to "report all sexual thoughts, including dreams, to their providers during group sessions."

"He says he once watched a treatment provider berate someone for an 'inappropriate' dream," she writes.

This man sent Horowitz a note, describing other sessions:

"In one group, the counselor said we were allowed the 'two-second rule.' This applied if we saw an attractive woman walking by. It would be appropriate/healthy behavior to 'look' for two seconds. We were 'allowed' to masturbate to thoughts of age-appropriate adults. The rules change with each counselor/group/treatment center."

At another treatment center:

"[W]e were told we couldn't masturbate to thoughts of former loved ones. Since they were no longer in our lives, it was inappropriate. We now had to write a fantasy script, with a specific two-page instruction on how to write it properly. We would then present our writing in group, of our detailed sexually appropriate fantasy, and read it aloud."

After weeks of corrections and rewrites, he told Horowitz, "We would then be granted permission to use the approved fantasy script to masturbate to."

Horowitz knows that expressing any sympathy for the plight of people found guilty of sexual crimes—who are among America's most hated criminals—makes her a target for hate as well, as if she shrugs off the trauma of sexual abuse.

She doesn't. She is a mom of four. She wants the best for them, and for all children. She wrote this book in the hopes that future sex offense laws and punishment will do what they're supposed to do: actually make kids safer.

The post An 18-Year-Old Had Consensual Sex With a 16-Year-Old. He Went to Jail for 6 Years. appeared first on Reason.com.