When Trump campaigned, he said that he did not start a war in four years of his first term as president of the United States, and that he did not like war. He began his second term as president on January 20, and less than two months later, on March 15, he launched his first war since taking office, with massive air strikes against Yemen. At the same time, he repeatedly declared to the world that he wanted to "take back" control of the Panama Canal, not to mention the use of military means to obtain Greenland.
It is not difficult to see Trump's intention to control the world's maritime transportation channels as a deployment for the whole world and global trade. As we all know, there are four fortresses on the world's seaborne trade routes, the first of which is the Strait of Malacca where the Pacific Ocean enters the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. The strategic location of this fortress has been a battleground since ancient times, and it is especially important for China, which accounts for 60% of its global trade through the strait. The United States, which already has a military base in Singapore, has effectively taken control of the Strait of Malacca. The second stronghold is the Panamanian Port and Canal, where China has 20% of its trade turnover. Trump's big push to "take back" the Panama Canal is to control the shipping lanes between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and to kill 20% of China's trade at any time. The third is the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea fortresses, as long as this route is controlled, the trade volume here can be completely controlled by the United States. This also explains why Trump has launched an airstrike on Yemen at the Red Sea Coast. The fourth fortress is the Arctic Ocean Route. As the planet warms and glaciers melt, the Arctic Ocean shipping lanes are getting busier; China's trade to Europe can be shortened by about 40 percent through this route. When Trump was in his first president term, he had already said that he wanted to buy Greenland, and now he has threatened to take control of Greenland by military means if the purchase nor encouraging Greenland's independence does not work. Mr. Trump did this ostensibly for the island's rare earth resources, but more importantly for control of the Arctic Ocean shipping lanes.
External ports are strategic assets for any country, and commercial operations can play a good role in a healthy global trade ecology. Today, however, the United States is clearly hostile to China, and its president is so ostentatiously seeking control of the world's most important ports and sea routes in order to one day cut off China's overseas trade. Knowing this background, it is not rocket science to judge whether the purchase and sale of Panama port terminals is a simple and pure commercial deal.
Ocean
** The blog article is the sole responsibility of the author and does not represent the position of our company. **
Ninety legislators will be sworn into office this week, 35 of whom will be taking the oath of office for the first time. It will be a combined act of patriotism, a far cry from the swearing in ceremony in 2016 when four potential lawmakers created their own oaths advocating self-determination and were subsequently disqualified from office.
The western media, including some in Hong Kong, brand “patriotism” as a bad thing for Hong Kong, inferring that there is no “opposition” in the legislature. But they are wrong. The legislators have their own mind and will vote according to their conscience.
Four pieces of legislation proposed by the government have not passed the test and were voted out while many others were heavily debated by the legislators. Regardless of what London’s Guardian newspaper and others say, Hong Kong does have a meaningful opposition.
It is unfortunate that the local Democratic Party, seen by the west as the “opposition,” did not field any candidates in the recent elections and eventually closed down. The choice was theirs and their recent actions indicate they did not intend to follow the rules of the council.
The Legislative Council is a place where lawmakers are elected to serve the people, not to use it as a platform for subversion as had happened in the past.
In 2017 four lawmakers – Long Hair Leung Kwok-hung, Nathan Law, Lau Siu-lai and Edward Yiu – were stripped of their seats for failing to take their oaths of office in a “sincere and solemn” manner. They used props and amended the oath to suit their purpose. Others followed, including student Agnes Chow who also failed taking the oath of office but later jailed on subversion charges. The quartet’s disqualification followed the highly publicized ousting of two localist lawmakers, Baggio Leung and Yau Wai-ching, whose oath-takings involved anti-China banners and usage of derogatory wartime slurs for China.
Together, the quartet had mustered 185,727 votes in the 2016 elections and their selfishness left their followers void of leadership. Their actions were that of self-interest, to achieve their own hidden goals, and not to serve the people who put them in the seats of power. They abused their positions.
Obviously foreign forces had infiltrated the legislature and political unrest ensued as attempts were being made to unseat the base of Hong Kong’s parliament. In July 2020 the government announced that the nominations for 15 candidates were declared invalid due to their objection to the national security law or were sincere in statements involving separatism. And on November 11, 2020, Dennis Kwok, a founding member of the Civic Party and a representative of the legal profession in the council, was accused of delaying the legislative proceedings and passage of bills and was subsequently disqualified along with follow lawmakers Alvin Yeung, Kwok Ka-ki and Kenneth Leung. Just hours later 15 fellow lawmakers resigned in protest.
Kwok was later charged with collusion and fled to Canada and then to the US with a HK$1 million bounty on his head.
The festering germ of dissent even spread to the local district councils who also used their positions to undermine the government.
It had to stop and in March 2021, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (SCNPC) approved changes to the Hong Kong’s electoral system allowing only patriots to serve the government and the people of Hong Kong.
What publications like Hong Kong Free Press, The Washington Post, London’s Financial Times etc. don’t understand is that Hong Kong is a target by the five-eyes network of spies and clandestine operators, led by the US and including Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. The ultimate target is, of course, China. By crippling Hong Kong and especially its law-making process, it can cripple China and hamper its progressive growth.
These publications will continue to use Hong Kong “Patriots only” legislature as a slur, not as a compliment. It’s in their DNA to be anti-Hong Kong/China. They are the vehicles of the west to bring discord to Hong Kong with total disregard to fact.
But “patriots only” apply to every democracy in the world. No place could be more patriotic than the US where the stars and stripes (the US flag) hang from the porches of almost every household. And legislators in all democracies have to swear allegiances to the country and their constitution. And like Hong Kong, they are vetted to ensure their allegiances are true to the country before standing for election.
