關於 countries with nuclear weapons ，我們在網路上蒐集到這些相關的討論、資訊與評價

Nightcrawler whistles | Lee Yee

High-ranking officials who have been sanctioned by the US and those who have not yet made it on the list have each responded, one after another, in a “One Country, One System” tone of voice. Apart from "resolutely opposed" and "severely condemned," they have not addressed the reasons behind the US’ decision for the sanctions. They say it is an honor to be sanctioned for the cause of the nation. Some simply issued statements in simplified Chinese characters, clearly not targeted at the Hong Kong people. The most ludicrous is that Carrie Lam said she was planning to proactively cancel her US visa that expires in 2026 anyways. It turns out that she cannot enter the US border because she “voluntarily canceled” it herself. Her Ah-Q-style, self-consoling spirit does not die!

An honor or a disgrace, it really depends on who issued the sanction. To be sanctioned by North Korea, Cuba, Russia or China is not the same as being sanctioned by the US. As such, feelings of glory or humiliation should be the opposite too. Some international experts and finance experts analyzed that the strictest clause is to “prohibit all transactions by US persons or within (or transiting) the US that involve any property or interests in property of designated or otherwise blocked persons.” If genuinely implemented, it would mean that the bank accounts and credit cards of sanctioned individuals will be canceled, their Facebook accounts will be shut down, McDonald’s cannot sell them Happy Meals, they cannot buy iPhones from Apple and cannot enjoy original factory maintenance services, etc. It is said that even China-funded banks will be black-listed because China-funded banks also have branches in the US. It is still uncertain whether these will be the case because never before have sanctioned individuals come from an international finance center such as Hong Kong. Although it is undetermined, the concerned parties cannot but consider the implications and countermeasures if confirmed. It is embarrassing enough just not to be able to use a credit card.

In 1969, the Soviet Union wanted to carry out a “surgical strike” on China’s nuclear base. It tried to gauge the reaction of the US, but the US halted them to stop. Why did not the Soviet Union test the water with other nuclear-weapon states such as the UK and France? This is because the US military power is strong enough to contain reckless military actions by other countries.

In 1971, Henry Kissinger made a secret visit to China and the Sino-US relations achieved a major breakthrough. That year, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly passed a motion to admit the entry of China in the UN. How is it that China had struggled for more than two decades to join the UN but managed to win the resolution this round? This is because the US had changed its China policy.

In 2000, the US granted China permanent normal trade relations status. The following year, China entered the World Trade Organization (WTO) and has since found prospering opportunities to become the World’s Factory in the global market. Why had China not been able to enter the WTO for so many years? This is because the US did not grant China this permanent normal trade status until this time.

When China and the US commenced diplomatic relations in 1979, Deng Xiaoping visited the US and said to his accompanying associate on the plane: “Looking back over the past few decades, all countries that have good relations with the US have prospered.” China has indeed thrived. What Deng did not say was that the countries that have unfriendly relations with the US have pauperized, such as Cuba, China before 1976, and even the Soviet Union, which had only strategic weapons, and its people had to line up to buy bread.

The Cold War after the Second World War was led by the US, and other Western countries followed. The US has always been the trending global leader with its national power, system, technology, dollar hegemony, pop culture, and free spirit. It is not that the US does not make mistakes, but its system and the spirit of freedom make it capable of correcting its mistakes. The US began the wave of diplomatic relations between Western countries and China in the 1970s, and the trend of investing in China in the 21st century. Without the US, China would still be isolated and impoverished. The US is now making amends and starting an ultra-cold war with China, which seems to have also shown a trend-setting momentum.

So, are sanctions the new direction? At least the Five Eyes Alliance will follow subsequently. Stop deceiving yourself with “I have no assets in the US” and “I do not want to go to the US.”

Therefore, not only eleven individuals and their families suffered insomnia last Friday night, but also some followers and those who did things against their conscience. Returning officers responsible for disqualifying nominees, wicked police officers, 18 members of the Council of the University of Hong Kong, and those who claimed not patriotic enough to make it to the first sanction list and not able to enjoy the honor. I’m afraid they did not get a wink of sleep either or at least suffered anxiety because only an idiot cannot see the true powers and the direction of the world trends.

The humiliation brought about by being cut off from US companies, the immediate considerations of various inconveniences, the spread of sanction from the US to other civilized countries, the devastating impact on the will to govern subordinates and the entire ruling team, and many more. These will not just happen overnight but will come one after another and very soon. The responses of the sanctioned high-level officials are really just nightcrawlers whistling.

China’s “New Squabbling Situation” (Lee Yee)

Yesterday, I mentioned that the US deterred the Soviet Union’s intention to employ nuclear weapons to attack China’s military base in 1969, and since then implemented a half-century policy of interactions with China. Although the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has always said that “the US will never give up their ambition to destroy our nation,” looking back at history, even when the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China in the nineteenth century, the US did not make territorial claims from the Qing empire. Instead, it advocated “open doors to share the benefits equally” to avoid China being carved up. The US’ share of the Boxer’s indemnity has been gradually paid back through the training of Chinese talents and the studying of Chinese students in the US. The Rockefeller Foundation founded the Peking Union Medical College (PUMCH) in 1917, the predecessor of Tsinghua University, bringing modern western medicine into China. When the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out, a veteran American military aviator Claire Lee Chennault was hired as an aviation adviser and trainer in China. He organized the First American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Republic of China Air Force, nicknamed the Flying Tigers, and assisted China in fighting against the Japanese in World War II.

In response to the anti-China speech given by the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a mainland Chinese netizen commented, “you needed education, they gave you Tsinghua University; you needed medical care, they gave you PUMCH; you needed to fight against Japan, they gave you the Flying Tigers; you needed to oppose the Soviet Union, they gave you a platform; you needed to open up, they gave you foreign funding; you needed trade, they gave you a trade surplus...You say that they have an endless ambition to destroy your nation, they will give it a try!” This is a very vivid description of how Sino-US relations have evolved so far.

Just a few days before Pompeo delivered his “Communist China and the Free World’s Future” speech, Chinese State Councilor and Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi also gave a long speech at the inaugural ceremony of the Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy Studies Centre on July 20. The speech was titled, “Study and Implement Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy Conscientiously and Break New Ground in Major-Country Diplomacy with Chinese Characteristics." I share the URL here ( https://www.sohu.com/a/408705618_99900926 ) and strongly recommend readers to browse this masterpiece. Let’s see if anyone can tell me after reading it, what is the content of Wang’s three to four thousand words on “Xi’s Thought on Diplomacy,” and what specific facts were there about “breaking new ground in major-country diplomacy.” Nowadays, the daily news is about Western countries’ policies, acts, and speeches directed at China and Hong Kong. Mainland netizens have recently lined up the front-page headlines of the Chinese internal newspaper “Reference News,” and they were all, “China condemns…, China warns the UK…, China is resolute to fight back…” This is not at all a new diplomatic situation but a new squabbling situation.”

After reading Wang’s speech, why not make a comparison to see if this Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs, who has the same ranking as the US Secretary of State, is of the same caliber and merit as Pompeo? Then you will understand why the US now refuses to restart dialogue with China and only looks at China’s actions.

Looking at the successive Chinese foreign ministers after the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, with the exception of the time during the Cultural Revolution, Zhou Enlai, Chen Yi to Qian Qichen were all decent. I still remember that after the breakthrough in Sino-US relations in 1971, the New York Times columnist James Reston visited Zhou Enlai in China and their battle of words was brilliant. Why does the current foreign minister only speak empty words but know not what they are?

Of course, this is related to the current situation in China for the apotheosis of the core leader. In addition to the unknown “Xi Jinping’s Thought on Diplomacy,” there will be “Xi Jinping’s Thought on Economics, Education, Military…” one after another.

A netizen quoted Wang’s speech and left a comment, “Brown-nosing is linguistic corruption and spiritual bribery...The giver only has to expend dignity and cunning with words, and the recipient is rewarded with personality and public interests. It is consensual for both giver and taker, and they usually have a tacit understanding where they jointly commit an ugly conspiracy...In a totalitarian society, brown-nosing is a multiple outbreak and refractory Covid-19. After an organized and large-scale epidemic, it will eventually become an incurable disease of personality cult detrimental to the entire nation and society.”

German Protestant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that “the nature of folly is a moral rather than an intellectual defect.” I believe this moral defect stems from a totalitarian system. When power becomes absolute, all those in power at various levels will, as Lu Xun said, “fawn upon their superiors and be overbearing upon those below.” The regime causes those with authority to never hear the true voice, how is this not stupid?

‘Ways of the World’: Don’t judge by words but by actions (Lee Yee)

The tables are turned as the Sino-US relations have reverted to half a century ago. No, it is even worse.

In 1969, the evil flames of the Cultural Revolution were still burning and the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) led the blind crowd to shout every day, “Down with American Imperialism, Down with Soviet Union Revisionism.” During that year, there was the Sino-Soviet border conflict between the Soviet Union and China in the vicinity of Zhenbao (Damansky) Island. The border clashes were so serious that the Soviet Union was ready to employ nuclear weapons on China’s nuclear military base. At that time, the Soviet ambassador to the US informed the US National Security Advisor Heinz Alfred Kissinger of this intention, hoping that the US would remain neutral. However, President Nixon categorically rejected as he believed once Pandora's box of nuclear weapons was opened, the entire world would kneel before the polar bear. He opposed the Soviet’s operation and leaked the news to a newspaper for publication. China immediately called “the entire nation to enter a ‘Ready to fight’ mode.” The actions of the Soviet Union were contained and the nuclear disaster did not occur.

The following year, in 1970, Mao Zedong invited American pro-CCP journalist Edgar Snow who made a trip to China for an informal talk. Snow might have been entrusted by Nixon to investigate the possibility of breaking the ice in Sino-US relations. In July 1971, Dr. Kissinger made a secret visit to Beijing and facilitated Nixon’s ice-breaking journey to China the year after, and thus began the China and US strategic interactions.

After the Cultural Revolution, China and the US established diplomatic relations in 1979. In that same year, Deng Xiaoping visited the US. On the plane, he said to his associate, “As we look back in the past few decades, all those countries that were in good relations with the US have prospered.”

China has indeed become rich. The American policymakers and businesses all expected that economic freedom would lead China towards political freedom, but no such thing happened. On the contrary, China’s authoritarian politics became harsher and harsher and finally fulfilled Nixon’s frightful prophecy: fearing that he had created a “Frankenstein” by opening the world to the CCP.

If dictatorship does not carry out political reforms in response to economic needs, then all dictators will eventually become a giant monster. What is more terrifying than any other dictators in history is that the US and the Western world have fattened China. Rich and powerful in military strength, its money and influences have penetrated across the globe, giving rise to a situation of what US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo described in his speech last week, “If we don’t act now, ultimately the CCP will erode our freedoms and subvert the rules-based order that our societies have worked so hard to build...If the free world doesn’t change – doesn’t change, communist China will surely change us.”

Pompeo’s speech not only declared the start of the cold war between the US and China, but also signified that a tougher, close-to-war era is looming.

He quoted President Reagan’s saying, that he dealt with the Soviet Union on the basis of “trust but verify.” When it comes to the CCP, said Pompeo, they must “distrust and verify.” “Trust but verify” means they would trust what one says but also observe how one acts; “distrust and verify” on the other hand, means they do not listen to what the person says, but only watch what the person does. Facing deterioration of the relationship with the US, the CCP keeps saying both parties should resume dialogue. But the US is fed up with dialogues. As Pompeo said, all the dialogues with Yang Jiechi are nonsense.

Comparing with speeches made by Chinese politicians, which are often lacking substance but full of self-praise, what touched me most about Pompeo’s speech was how he acknowledged and reflected on previous policy mistakes. He said, “Perhaps we were naive about China’s virulent strain of communism, or triumphalist after our victory in the Cold War, or cravenly capitalist, or hoodwinked by Beijing’s talk of a ‘peaceful rise.’”

Actually, being naive, triumphalist, hoodwinked, were all one, or all of the mistakes committed by numerous countries, investors, people in the past 50 years. Now Pompeo, openly reflecting on these, suggested that the US has completely awakened. Yesterday, Xinhua News Agency was still mumbling about “China-US cooperation would be a win-win situation; fighting against each other would only lead to a lose-lose one.” From the US point of view, the win-win of working together only means China would win twice; when fighting against each other, it would be lose-lose, losing twice for China.

Over a hundred years ago, Alexis de Tocqueville, a French historian famous for his studies on the new world’s politics and culture, said, “America is great not because she is cleverer than the other countries, but she is more capable of repairing mistakes she made.” This is down to the fact that the US has sufficient freedom of speech, which China lacks. And it is exactly because China prohibits people from “unwarranted public distortion” of the central government, that it keeps making mistakes, again and again.

我們平常接觸的有關朝鮮的訊息是怎麼來的呢？可以看看這紀錄片： https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eclCfjP7hLM

關於朝鮮戰爭內幕： https://bit.ly/2I9WzU3

臉書專頁： https://www.facebook.com/ComradeXiangyu
專訪： https://blow.streetvoice.com/41873

編曲： Ransom-Notes https://soundcloud.com/ransom-notes
作詞、混音：鍾翔宇
母帶後期製作工程： Glenn Schick


Follow Xiangyu on Twitter https://instagram.com/notXiangyu
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有些人會說：「如果朝鮮不是獨裁國家的話，為什麼不給外國旅客自由行呢？為什麼大部分電腦都沒連上境外的互聯網呢？」我希望那些人從不同的角度來思考這些問題。二戰期間的同盟國會開放自己的國家給德國、意大利和日本觀光客自由行嗎？別忘了，朝鮮戰爭只有停火，沒有停戰。

假如互聯網是在 1930 年代的德國發明的，而非 20 世紀下半葉的美國，而德國情報機構能暗中監督和控制一切連上該網路的任何設備（正如斯諾登透露美國國安局所做的那樣），同盟國會讓一般老百姓連上同個互聯網嗎？還是他們會跟朝鮮一樣建設自己的網路？

朝鮮是個小國家。雖然它從 1953 年一直呼籲正式停戰，但它從 1950 年到現在一直與大部分西方國家處於戰爭狀態。只要戰爭狀態不變，這些政策不是「反自由」的，而是任何理性的政府（無論是資本主義國家還是社會主義國家）會施行的防禦性措施。



誰是朋友？誰是敵人？
Who are our friends? Who are our enemies?

我們能否 追究這個問題而不自欺欺人
Can we look into this question without lying to ourselves?

誰的盟友？誰的利潤？
Whose allies? Whose profits?

是誰激於義憤而爭鬥和犧牲
Whose struggle and sacrifice are stirred by righteous indignation?


1.
饒舌的激進份子 被說是憤世
The radical rapper is said to be cynical.

我只想引人深思 和去偽存實
I just want to get people to think, cast aside falsities, and retain the truths,

因為從小到大有太多虛偽人士
because througout our lives, too many hypocrites

灌輸錯誤認識 使人愚昧無知
have instilled false understandings, causing us to ignorantly

地無視 顯而易見 的壓迫和暴行
disregard the clearly visible oppression and atrocities,

使人固執己見 而失去批判思考力
causing us to stubbornly cling to our own opinions and lose our ability to think critically.

一旦遇到陌生的意見 認知就失調
When we encounter unfamiliar opinions, we experience cognitive dissonance.

變本加厲地延伸原本的錯誤視角
Doubling down on our mistaken views

成為了心理防禦機制 也使我們無意識地
has become a psychological defense mechanism which causes us to unknowingly

成為壓迫自己的體制的棋子
become pawns of the system that oppresses us

即使我們自以為自己是正義的義士
although we think of ourselves as just and morally courageous people,

但其實是我們迷失於斷章取義的歷史
it is actually us who are lost in deliberately misinterpreted history.

而敵視 並歧視 被壓迫的各國人民
We vilify and discriminate against the oppressed peoples of all countries;

自以為仁義 卻把壓迫者 奉若神明
we think we are righteous, yet we deify the oppressors.

不分明侵略和防禦只要求無條件的和平
We don't differentiate between aggression and defense, we simply ask for unprincipled peace,

得到奴隸主的肯定不過不被他們尊敬
gaining the approval of slave masters but not their respect.


2.
監禁率最高的國家被當作自由象徵
The country with the highest incarceration rate is considered to be a symbol of freedom;

最常推翻民選政府的它被當作摯友良朋
we call it our friend as it leads in overthrowing democratically elected governments.

我們只有盲人摸象般稱頌或貶斥
We make praises and criticisms based on conclusions made from bad information,

偏執地不檢視騙子掩飾的現實
stubbornly refusing to investigate the truths hidden by liars.

別人飢餓 我們說是領導人無人性
When others starve, we say their leaders are devoid of humanity

卻不記得制裁的目的 是經過餓死人民
while failing to remember that the goal of sanctions is to sabotage stability

破壞穩定 以迫使 革命群眾 放棄革命
through starvation in order to extort the revolutionary masses into giving up revolution.

如果這不是恐怖主義 那麼你的定義可能有問題
If this isn't terrorism, then your definition might be flawed.

我問你 唯一動用核武器的到底是誰？
I ask you, who is the only one to have used nuclear weapons?

為何朝鮮發展核武就被認為是罪？
Why is it considered a crime when (DPR) Korea develops nukes?

誰的奴性思維被支配得顛倒是非
Whose slave mentality's been been dominated to the point where right and wrong are inverted,

使我們把自衛視為威脅 把威脅視為慈悲？
having us believe defense is threatening and threats are benevolent?

是誰不知不覺地在重複戈培爾所起草
Who unknowingly repeats lies written by Goebbels

的流言蜚語的同時說別人被洗腦
while at the same time calling others brainwashed,

並對用著堅如鐵的毅力英勇地起義
while unreasonably being hostile towards those who use their iron-firm willpower

驅逐侵略者的人民無理地壞有敵意？
to heroically drive out aggressors through rebellion?

#朝鮮 #DPRK #Korea