Latest Analysis and Commentary
by Nils A. Haug • January 1, 2025 at 5:30 am
The moral laws of each tradition -- that of the Torah and Sharia – when applied -- result in different outcomes. Most of the punishments specified in the Torah are no longer practiced. According to Sharia, however, punishments such as amputations or stoning to death for adultery, "especially women" – which can include pre-marital sex or having been raped -- as well as death for blasphemy or for choosing to leave the religion, are in force to this day.
"If they [Muslims] had gotten rid of the punishment [often death] for apostasy, Islam would not exist today," the late Sunni religious leader, Yusuf al Qaradawi, speculated on Egyptian television.
Nonie Darwish responded: "The most striking thing about his statement, however, was that it was not an apology; it was a logical, proud justification for preserving the death penalty as a punishment for apostasy."
Divinely sanctioned treatment by Muslims of non-Muslims still includes rape, slavery and death.
"So, when you meet those who disbelieve [in battle], strike [their] necks until, when you have inflicted slaughter upon them, then secure their bonds, and either [confer] favor afterwards or ransom [them] until the war lays down its burdens. That [is the command]. And if Allah had willed, He could have taken vengeance upon them [Himself], but [He ordered armed struggle] to test some of you by means of others. And those who are killed in the cause of Allah - never will He waste their deeds." — Quran 47:4 (Sahih Translation).
As the visions of holy war and martyrdom are underpinned by Sharia, Islamic jihadists appear to believe that they are doctrinally permitted to sow terror, death and destruction among non-Muslims wherever they are.
One unsurprising reason for the "wilful blindness" of the US and other major Western powers towards religious extremists is that politicians look for votes.
[I]t is the tiny nation of Israel that has found itself largely alone in the desperate fight to preserve the West's Judeo-Christian ideals. It would be to the West's advantage if its other nations would join Israel in this noble task.
The laws of the Torah, which became known to the world as Moses' Ten Commandments, founded the West's moral and ethical precepts on which its laws and judicial concepts such as justice and mercy are based. This development is reflected in the United States' founding documents, as well as England's Magna Carta of 1215, among others. (Image source: iStock/Getty Images)
The laws of the Torah, which became known to the world as Moses' Ten Commandments, founded the West's moral and ethical precepts on which its laws and judicial concepts such as justice and mercy are based. This development is reflected in the United States' founding documents, as well as England's Magna Carta of 1215, among others. The opening paragraph of America's 1776 Declaration of Independence, for instance, refers to "the laws of nature" and "nature's God." From this assertion, the imperative of a sound ethical, moral and religious foundation for America's values was established. According to America's founding fathers, the laws of Moses – those moral codes sometimes collectively referred to as the "natural law" – underpin the value-based Western order, or civilization as distinguished from barbarism. In terms of religion, people in the West generally value the underlying importance of these Judeo-Christian values to their community.
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by Robert Williams • December 31, 2024 at 5:00 am
The Labour government apparently does not care about Hamas terrorists promoting Hamas in London. What they do seem to care about is shutting down all criticism of Hamas. One elderly pensioner -- who expressed his disappointment that Palestinian flags were being flown all over Bethnal Green Road in East London -- was arrested for it.
Then there are the mosques where hatred and violence are preached. At Birmingham's Green Lane Mosque, for instance, the imams give lectures on how to properly stone a woman – you first bury her up to her waist – and how to kill homosexuals and apostates. Evidently, that did not bother the British government one bit.
So, while ordinary Britons are serving prison sentences of up to several years for posting relatively bland statements on social media, the people behind these charities and mosques continue to run their businesses as usual.
Where does that leave the Jews and everyone else? In beautiful downtown Upyoursville.
At Birmingham's Green Lane Mosque (pictured), the imams give lectures on how to properly stone a woman – you first bury her up to her waist – and how to kill homosexuals and apostates. (Photo by Ooscom/Wikimedia Commons)
European authorities, as usual, refuse to fight the violence running rampant in their streets. Most recently, Amsterdam's mayor, Femke Halsema, banned a rally against antisemitism at the central Dam Square; she said out of concern for Jewish citizens. After the Amsterdam attacks against Jews and Israelis, during which the police stood by and did nothing, Halsema publicly regretted calling the event a pogrom. Such terms, she said, were "propaganda": "If I had known that it would be used politically in this way, and also as propaganda... I want nothing to do with that. The Israeli government spoke of a 'Palestinian pogrom on the streets of Amsterdam,' and in The Hague, the words were used to discriminate against Moroccan Amsterdammers – Muslims. That is not what I meant or what I wanted."
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by Lawrence Kadish • December 31, 2024 at 4:00 am
You have to give this much to outgoing U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. He does not seek to hide his plans to try to derail the will of the American electorate that will put Donald J. Trump back in the White House on January 20. Pictured: Trump points to Schumer as he speaks during the annual Alfred E. Smith Foundation Dinner on October 17, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
You have to give this much to outgoing U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. He does not seek to hide his plans to try to derail the will of the American electorate that will put Donald J. Trump back in the White House on January 20. According to reports in Politico, Schumer is planning a multi-front political ambush of the Trump agenda. This starts with trying to derail Trump's emergency response to Biden's wave of illegal immigrants (some of whom are creating crime waves in places such as New York, Colorado and Utah). The "dreaded Venezuelan crime gang," Tren de Aragua, for instance, designated by the US Department of Homeland Security as a Transnational Criminal Organization (TCO), and called by Interpol "a significant security threat to the United States," is now "unleashing terror across 19 states" and has set up shop in remote North Dakota and "every major city of Tennessee."
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by Gordon G. Chang • December 30, 2024 at 5:00 am
In fact, no Chinese ruling group has ever held indisputable sovereignty to the island.
From 1928 to 1943, the Communist Party itself recognized Taiwan as a state separate and apart from China.
If Xi Jinping thinks Trump will not defend Taiwan, will he then attack?
[T]he People's Republic is getting weaker — the Chinese economy is failing — making notions of inevitability outdated.
Elon Musk is brilliant when it comes to providing what the world needs, but he is ignorant about Taiwan. So, respectfully, Mr. Musk: China is China, Taiwan is Taiwan, and Taiwan, although close to China, is not China. Pictured: Musk meets with China's then Premier Li Keqiang in Beijing on January 9, 2019. (Photo by Mark Schiefelbein/AFP via Getty Images)
"From their standpoint, you know, maybe it's analogous to like Hawaii or something like that, like an integral part of China that is arbitrarily not part of China mostly because... the U.S. Pacific Fleet has stopped any sort of reunification effort by force," Elon Musk, appearing remotely at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles in September, said referring to Taiwan. In May, Musk talked to CNBC on the same topic. "The official policy of China is that Taiwan should be integrated," he told the channel's David Faber. "One does not need to read between the lines. One should only read the lines." And then the world's richest man stated this: "I think there's a certain, there's some inevitability to the situation." Musk is brilliant when it comes to providing what the world needs, but he is ignorant about Taiwan. His conclusions could not be more wrong.
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by Con Coughlin • December 29, 2024 at 5:00 am
Whether it is using schools, hospitals and other public buildings that are supposed to be afforded immunity in conflict under international law, or simply using Palestinian civilians as human shields, Hamas terrorists have consistently jeopardised the well-being of those they purport to defend.
Another area where Hamas deliberately intensifies the suffering of Palestinian civilians as a means of pressuring Israel to end its military offensive is by denying Palestinian families access to much-needed aid supplies.
When the Gazans, for whom the aid is intended, try to approach it, there have been reports of Hamas operatives shooting them.
If the Biden administration and its allies in the media, the United Nations and the European Union really want to see a peaceful resolution of the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, then they should direct their criticism of the wilful mistreatment of civilians towards Hamas and Hezbollah, and their backers, not Israel.
Ending the malign operations of terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah is the best means of ending the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon respectively, and providing ordinary Palestinians and Lebanese with a genuine opportunity to make a better life for themselves.
Another area where Hamas deliberately intensifies the suffering of Palestinian civilians is by denying Palestinian families access to much-needed aid supplies. When the Gazans, for whom the aid is intended, try to approach it, there have been reports of Hamas operatives shooting them. Pictured: Hamas terrorists on a pickup truck "escort" trucks carrying humanitarian aid that they intend to loot, near the Rafah border crossing with Egypt in the southern Gaza Strip on December 10, 2023. (Photo by Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images)
If Western politicians and aid agencies want to apportion blame for the high death tolls in the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, then they need look no further than the Iranian-backed terror groups cynically risking the lives of innocent civilians to achieve their diabolical agenda. From the moment Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists launched their deadly attack against Israel on October 7 last year, killing 1,200 people and taking another 250 or so hostage, Hamas terrorists have shown a wilful disregard for the lives and well-being of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Whether it is using schools, hospitals and other public buildings that are supposed to be afforded immunity in conflict under international law, or simply using Palestinian civilians as human shields, Hamas terrorists have consistently jeopardised the well-being of those they purport to defend.
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by Amir Taheri • December 29, 2024 at 4:30 am
A number of other pseudo-collectivist outfits that had never been anything but expensive ghosts have continued to fade away, among them the Association of South East Asian Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, BRICS+, the Russian-led Eurasia phantom, various pan-Islamic money-spenders and time-wasters, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Arab League.
All that not to mention the so-called Axis of Resistance that the Islamic Republic of Iran had created at huge expense to "export revolution" to the four corners of the world.
The year's revenant was Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who before the October 7, 2023, invasion by Hamas, seemed to be on his way into oblivion via a possible stint in the can. Within a few months, however, the world discovered a brand-new Netanyahu casting himself as an international statesman. British historian Andrew Roberts even compared him to Sir Winston Churchill, who was branded a sad failure in 1939 but praised as a hero a year later.
All in all, not a bad year, and if the pendulum swings in the current direction, the best may be yet to come.
As 2024 draws to a close, one thing is certain across the globe: the pendulum of history is swinging away from the direction it had taken since the 1990s. (Image source: iStock/Getty Images)
As 2024 draws to a close, one thing is certain across the globe: the pendulum of history is swinging away from the direction it had taken since the 1990s. For almost three decades, it had swung towards what one might call soft-left, in its latest epiphanies as globalism, political correctness and multiculturalism -- all versions of collectivism. By collectivism, we mean ideologies that see humanity in terms of groups or herds rather than individuals, and nation-states as pawns for self-perpetuating global elites to move on their imaginary chessboard. The first institution to get hit was the United Nations that, as its name suggests, was supposed to be a nonpartisan grouping of sovereign nation states working together within a commonly accepted framework of rules and traditions in the service of peace and international cooperation. In the past few years, however, the UN has morphed into a partisan club for soft-left ideologues.
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by Lawrence Kadish • December 29, 2024 at 4:00 am
Pictured: President-elect Donald Trump rings the opening bell on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange on December 12, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
The new economic policies of President-elect Donald J. Trump promise to include his campaign pledge to "Make America Great Again." Just a few months ago, commentators were assessing that the Biden administration's greatest ambition was "managing America's decline." What a difference a day makes: November 5, 2024. Trump, a businessman, appears to have a good grasp of most domestic and foreign policy issues that greet him at the stable door. He has already been overflowing with ideas -- such as refusing to allow a hostile Communist China to control the Panama Canal, as it presently does; and aligning more closely with Greenland and Canada to provide the northern hemisphere a stronger foothold to safeguard its security and prosperity and that of the Free World. In securing America's financial future, Trump's maganomic policies appear to turn on three points:
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by Majid Rafizadeh • December 28, 2024 at 5:00 am
In addition, now that Syria has been closed off as a supply route to rearm Hezbollah, Iran is reportedly considering weapons airlifts directly to Lebanon to resupply Hezbollah, so they both can continue their shared goal of eliminating Israel. The mullahs have got to go. So long as they remain in power, the chances for enduring peace in the region is zero.
Iran's recent losses have left the regime clinging to the hope that nuclear weapons will enable it to secure its reign and dominate the Middle East, then the rest of the world, using Venezuela and the Caribbean to incapacitate the "Great Satan," the United States.
Allowing Iran to succeed in these endeavors is not a great idea. Both the Iranian people and the entire region need to be freed from a future of tyranny. The future of a nuclear-armed Iran, run by mullahs on a mission, must be averted; the opportunity will not be there forever.
Both the Iranian people and the entire region need to be freed from a future of tyranny. The future of a nuclear-armed Iran, run by mullahs on a mission, must be averted; the opportunity will not be there forever. Pictured: A Fattah hypersonic ballistic missile is displayed during the annual military parade in Tehran, on September 22, 2023. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
This year, thanks to the relentless -- and often maliciously vilified -- efforts of Israel standing alone, like David against Goliath, to save the West from an autocratic tyranny, the Iranian regime has at last been facing significant setbacks. Israel, unthanked, has weakened Iran and its proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas, diminished their influence and destabilized their plan to wipe Israel -- and after that Western civilization -- off the map. Compounding this, Iran's longstanding ally, Bashar al-Assad of Syria, collapsed, further isolating Iran's regime. These events have collectively dealt a heavy blow to Iran's strategic leverage and regional ambitions. Complacency, however, would be a grave mistake.
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by Drieu Godefridi • December 27, 2024 at 5:00 am
Literally "flat, dark calm," Dunkelflaute is characterized by a simultaneous lack of wind and sun in winter, when demand for electricity in Germany is at its highest... On December 12 of this year, for example, German electricity production from wind and solar power was 1/30th the demand for it.
But this is "for the planet", right? Not even close. Despite its commitment to so-called green energies, Germany still has a high carbon footprint due to its increased reliance on coal and lignite to make up for energy shortfalls.
Germany's high electricity prices are leading to the relocation of its industry, as companies look for sites where energy costs are more affordable. How can you stay viable when you pay three times more for electricity than your competitors?
Whole swathes of Germany's proud industry are collapsing. We only remember the big names -- VW, BASF, Mercedes-Benz -- but every big company that disappears or downsizes takes with it a myriad of small and medium-sized enterprises that end up collapsing along with it.
Dependence on unreliable energy sources (wind, solar), combined with the hasty phase-out of nuclear power, has made Germany's electricity the most expensive in Europe and compromises the country's -- and ultimately the continent's -- energy autonomy.
Dependence on unreliable energy sources (wind, solar), combined with the hasty phase-out of nuclear power, has made Germany's electricity the most expensive in Europe and compromises the country's -- and ultimately the continent's -- energy autonomy. Pictured: An array of solar panels operated by the multinational energy company RWE, at the Hambacher Forst opencast lignite mine near Elsdorf, Germany, photographed on November 12, 2024. (Photo by Ina Fassbender/AFP via Getty Images)
Solar and wind power production falls drastically during unfavorable weather conditions. It happens, in fact, every year. This condition, however, now has far-reaching economic and environmental repercussions, revealing the flaws in an energy policy based on intermittent renewable energies. Why does Germany, while having one of the highest carbon footprints, now consume the most expensive electricity in Europe? How did the country lose its energy autonomy? For the last fifteen years, Germany invested massively in solar and wind energy, while sabotaging its own nuclear power stations. By 2023, renewable energies accounted for 55% of electricity production in the country. In 2022, it was only 48%.
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by Khaled Abu Toameh • December 26, 2024 at 5:00 am
"For the longest time, I struggled with my identity. A Palestinian kid born inside Israel. Like...wtf. Many of my friends refuse to this day to say the word 'Israel' and call themselves 'Palestinian' only. But since I was 12, that did not make sense to me. So, I decided to mix the two and become a 'Palestinian-Israeli.' I thought this term reflected who I was. Palestinian first. Israeli second. But after recent events, I started to think. And think. And think. And then my thoughts turned to anger. I realized that if Israel were to be 'invaded' like that again, we would not be safe. To a terrorist invading Israel, all citizens are targets.... And I do not want to live under a Palestinian government. Which means I only have one home, even if I'm not Jewish: Israel." — Nuseir Yassin ("Nas Daily"), Israeli Arab blogger, the day after October 8, 2023.
These [Arab Israeli] leaders will do anything to grab the attention of the media – even if that means inciting against Israel. They know that when they deal with the real problems facing their Arab constituents – such as unemployment and poverty – no one will write about them in the media. Yet, when these leaders make fiery statements against Israel, they often win headlines and front-page stories. As far as they are concerned, "I don't care what you write about me as long as you spell my name right."
By engaging in anti-Israel incitement, these Israeli Arab leaders are causing huge damage to their own constituents. These leaders make the Israeli Arabs look as if they are a "Fifth Column" -- an enemy within. These leaders are stoking fear and mistrust between Jews and Arabs inside Israel, while ignoring that most Israeli Arabs say they feel comfortable living in the Jewish state.
If Israeli Arabs want to secure a prosperous future for themselves and their children, they need to get rid of extremist Arab leaders who speak and act against the interests of the Arab community inside Israel. If these Arab leaders are unhappy living in Israel, they are welcome to move to the West Bank, Gaza Strip or any Arab country -- where they will quickly miss Israel's democracy and freedom of speech.
While the attitudes of the Israeli Arabs toward Israel are encouraging, some of their leaders continue to act against the interests of their own people. These leaders, including current and former members of the Israeli Knesset (parliament), have long been taking advantage of the country's democratic system to engage in anti-Israel rhetoric, causing huge damage to their own constituents. Pictured: Arab Israeli Members of Knesset Ayman Odeh (L), Ahmad Tibi (R) and Aida Touma-Suleiman in the Knesset chamber, in Jerusalem on July 10, 2023. (Photo by Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images)
The Iran-backed Palestinian Hamas terrorist group has long been seeking to spark a civil war between Israel's Arab and Jewish citizens. Over the past few years, Hamas has called on the two million Arab citizens of Israel to revolt against their own country and join the Jihad against Israel. Hamas's attempts were partially successful in May 2021, when some Arabs attacked their Jewish neighbors. The assaults occurred at the same time as an Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip. That operation was launched in response to rockets fired by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups at Israel. Fortunately, the violence that erupted in 2021 ended quickly.
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by Lawrence Kadish • December 25, 2024 at 2:00 pm
Pictured: The HL-2M nuclear fusion tokamak, at a research laboratory in Chengdu, China. (Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images)
As dreams of renewable green energy fade, along with electric car batteries that freeze in winter, explode in summer and cannot conveniently take you as far as you might want to go without a long refill that may or may not be available, and with windmills and solar panels that are dependent upon wind and sun when there might not be much of either, the future keeps looking better and better for long-lasting, totally clean nuclear fusion energy – if and when it can be developed. Increasingly, people are starting to see nuclear fusion as the wave of the future for both affordable energy and "saving the planet" from being overrun by pollutants. One small reactor in your car could enable it to travel for "a million kilometers" – quite different from trying to find a charging station while crossing a desert.
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by Nils A. Haug • December 25, 2024 at 5:00 am
Israel's enemies in Gaza today, like the Philistines of old, constitute a mortal threat to the nation, although that threat diminishes as Israel again succeeds in overcoming its enemies.
One hopes, with the astounding team of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President-elect Donald J. Trump, who successfully initiated the Abraham Accords, that jihads, pogroms and similar events will no longer take place, and that Israel will soon herald in a new dispensation of peace and redemption, as promised to Moses on Mt. Sinai, and live once again as "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."
Hamas has been occupying Gaza, as did the Philistines. Both tribes had a similar agenda: eliminating all Israelites, the Israelis of today. Pictured: Hamas terrorists with their child trainee at a rally in Gaza City on May 24, 2021. (Photo by Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images)
The Hebrew prophet Amos lived some 2,700 years ago, during the reign of King Jeroboam II of Israel. At the time, the Israelites' main enemies were the Philistines of Gaza, reputed to be the most menacing tribe in the region and dedicated to the destruction of Israel. Amos predicted dire punishment for the Philistines, who had taken "captive whole communities and sold them to Edom." The Philistines had attacked the Israelites, enslaved and sold them to another of their enemies, the tribe of Edom. According to Amos, divine retribution was at hand. Certain passages of Amos's prophecy cite the punishment of Israel's Gazan enemies: "Because she took captive whole communities and sold them to Edom, I will send fire on the walls of Gaza that will consume her fortresses. I will destroy the king of Ashdod and the one who holds the scepter in Ashkelon. I will turn my hand against Ekron, till the last of the Philistines are dead."
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by Charles Jacobs and Uzay Bulut • December 25, 2024 at 4:00 am
The Jews are not committing genocide against Muslims in Gaza, whose population grew almost 3% last year. Muslims, however, are committing mass murder via jihad against Christians in Africa. Yet the Pope cowers from defending his own flock.
The number of Christians intentionally murdered, let alone tortured, raped, kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam far exceeds the number of Gazans killed unintentionally as Israel directs its fire at terrorists who hide behind civilians. Indeed, Israel is defending its population from the very same jihadist assaults faced by African Christians.
Ahsan Raja Masih, a young Pakistani Christian, has been sentenced to hang for his faith over false "blasphemy" charges. The Catholic Bishops of Pakistan have recently joined the Christian community's outcry against the death sentence. Where is the Pope?
By turning reality on its head, the Pope's shameful defamation of the Jews complements his passivity in the face of Islamic jihad against Christians. Perhaps he believes that pointing a finger at the Jews will divert Muslim rage from the Vatican. Surely, it distracts the world from his own cowardice and failure to protect Christians.
"Nigeria is the most violent country in the world for Christians. Every two hours, a Christian is killed in Nigeria," according to Open Doors. Pope Francis has not called for an investigation of the jihadists and their sponsors. Pictured: State officials walk past wounded survivors of a jihadist attack on St. Francis Catholic Church in Ondo State, Nigeria, in which they murdered 50 Christians, on June 5, 2022. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
Christians face persecution, discrimination, forced conversion and even mass murder for their faith in many parts of the Muslim world, yet Pope Francis, in his upcoming book called Hope, calls for an investigation to see if the Jews are committing a "genocide" against Palestinian Muslims in the Gaza Strip. The Jews are not committing genocide against Muslims in Gaza, whose population grew almost 3% last year. Muslims, however, are committing mass murder via jihad against Christians in Africa. Yet the Pope cowers from defending his own flock. Africa has become the epicenter of radical Islamic terrorism. Murderous jihad attacks against Christians abound in Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Niger, the Central African Republic, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon.
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December 25, 2024 at 3:00 am
(Photo by Bruce Yuanyue Bi/Getty Images)
Wishing only the best for our friends, the Free World and the brave men and women protecting our freedom. Countless thanks and very warmest best wishes for the New Year! — All of us at Gatestone.
by Gordon G. Chang • December 24, 2024 at 5:00 am
[T]rying to reach a grand bargain with China — what [Trump] was hinting at — would be exactly the wrong approach at this or any other moment.
Trump has already tried to reach an accommodation with China: his Phase One Trade pact of January 2020. He calls it "the best trade deal" ever, but it is now widely viewed as a bust. The Chinese, during an election year in America, never honored its terms.
[Chinese President Xi Jinping's] actions are the inevitable result of China's communist political system, which idealizes violence, struggle, and domination. This system means there can be no accommodation with the Communist Party.
The Chinese regime believes the world is its enemy. No enduring understanding, pact, deal or agreement is possible.
"China and the United States can together solve all of the problems of the world, if you think about it," President-Elect Donald Trump said on December 16. But trying to reach a grand bargain with China — what he was hinting at — would be exactly the wrong approach at this or any other moment. The Chinese regime believes the world is its enemy. No enduring understanding, pact, deal or agreement is possible. Pictured: Chinese President Xi Jinping hosts then President Trump in Beijing on November 9, 2017. (Photo by Thomas Peter-Pool/Getty Images)
"China and the United States can together solve all of the problems of the world, if you think about it," President-Elect Donald Trump said on December 16, at a Mar-a-Lago press conference. He also called China's President Xi Jinping "amazing" and confirmed he had invited the Chinese leader to his inauguration. Earlier in the month, Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris and stated this in connection with efforts to end the war in Eastern Europe: "China can help." The victorious Trump of December was noticeably more friendly to China than the Trump of the long, grueling campaign. During the campaign, the Republican candidate was often in trade-war mode, promising to impose an additional across-the-board tariff of more than 60% on all Chinese goods.
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