Die Indo-Pazifik-Strategie der USA löst in der Welt und insbesondere in den Ländern der asiatisch-pazifischen Region immer mehr Wachsamkeit und Besorgnis aus. Dies sagte der chinesische Staatskommissar und Außenminister Wang Yi am Sonntag während einer gemeinsamen Pressekonferenz mit dem pakistanischen Außenminister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari in Guangzhou in der südchinesischen Provinz Guangdong.
Das Weiße Haus teilte mit, dass US-Präsident Joe Biden während seines Besuchs in Japan den Start einer neuen regionalen Initiative, des Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), ankündigen wird.
Die Strategie ziele darauf ab, die Kooperationsarchitektur, die in der Region gut funktioniert hat, sowie die Errungenschaften und die Dynamik der friedlichen Entwicklung, die durch die konzertierten Bemühungen aller Länder in der Region in den letzten Jahrzehnten geschaffen wurden, zu beseitigen, sagte Wang.
Die von den USA ausgearbeitete Indo-Pazifik-Strategie nenne sich „Freiheit und Offenheit“, sei aber auf die Bildung von Cliquen bedacht und wolle „Chinas Umfeld verändern“, um China einzudämmen. Die Fakten würden beweisen, dass die so genannte Indo-Pazifik-Strategie im Wesentlichen eine Strategie sei, die darauf abziele, Spaltung zu schaffen, Konfrontation zu schüren und den Frieden zu untergraben, sagte er.
Wang betonte, dass China wie andere Länder in der Region Initiativen begrüße, die der Stärkung der regionalen Zusammenarbeit dienten, sich aber Versuchen widersetze, die auf Spaltung und Konfrontation abzielten. In welche Kategorie falle das U.S. Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, fragte er.
Er betonte, dass China die Zusammenarbeit in der asiatisch-pazifischen Region befürworte, fördere und aufrechterhalte und dass das Land keine geopolitischen Eigeninteressen habe, sondern nur aufrichtig für Solidarität und Zusammenarbeit eintrete.
Bilawal erklärte, dass die pakistanische Regierung den Terroranschlag in Karatschi erneut scharf verurteile und ihr tiefes Bedauern über den Tod chinesischer Staatsbürger zum Ausdruck bringe. Pakistan werde Angriffe auf chinesische Freunde und die pakistanisch-chinesischen Beziehungen nicht dulden. Pakistan lege großen Wert auf die Sicherheit chinesischer Bürger, Institutionen und Projekte in Pakistan, und ein Angriff auf China sei ein Angriff auf Pakistan.
Drei chinesische Lehrer und ein pakistanischer Staatsbürger wurden am 26. April bei einer Explosion in der Universität von Karatschi getötet, zu der sich die Belutschische Befreiungsarmee bekannte.
The United States has long used democracy as a tool and a weapon to undermine democracy in the name of democracy, to incite division and confrontation, and to meddle in other countries’ internal affairs, causing catastrophic consequences.
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), as one of the US government’s main “foot soldiers”, “white gloves” and “democracy crusaders”, has subverted lawful governments and cultivated pro-US puppet forces around the world under the pretext of promoting democracy. Its disgraceful record has aroused strong discontent in the international community.
In today’s world, peace and development is the theme of the times, and the trend towards greater democracy in international relations is unstoppable. Any attempt to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs in the name of democracy is unpopular and is doomed to failure.
I. NED organizational structure
After World War II, the United States opened a covert front against the Soviet Union through the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and other intelligence apparatus. By the 1960s, the United States had realized gradually that it was far from enough to “promote democracy” through secret means only. There was an urgent need to establish a “public-private mechanism” to openly provide funding. In 1983 and with the efforts of the then US President and some other people, NED was founded as a bipartisan, non-profit institution.
NED is nominally an NGO that provides support for democracy abroad, but in fact, it relies on continuous financial support from the White House and the US Congress, and takes orders from the US government. Through the provision of funding, it has manipulated and directed NGOs around the world to export American values, conduct subversion, infiltration and sabotage, and incite so-called “democratic movements” in target countries and regions. It is essentially the US government’s “white glove” that serves US strategic interests.
As early as in 1991, the founder of NED Alan Weinstein put it bluntly in an interview with the Washington Post that a lot of what they were doing was what the CIA had done 25 years ago. NED was therefore known globally as the “second CIA”.
NED has four core institutes: the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute, mainly responsible for supporting local political groups; the American Center for International Labor Solidarity responsible for promoting trade unions and labor movements; and the Center for International Private Enterprise for co-opting private enterprises. Through these four institutes, NED has become the mastermind behind separatist riots, color revolutions, political crises, lies and rumors, and infiltration around the world, with an ever-growing list of evils.
II. Instigating color revolutions to subvert state power
NED was seen behind color revolutions instigated and orchestrated by the United States, including the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the Rose Revolution in Georgia, the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, and the Arab Spring.
1. NED instigated color revolutions against “hostile” countries. Early NED documents revealed activities by NED mainly in Eastern Europe to subvert state power in as early as the late 1980s.
◆ On 27 August 1989, the Washington Post published a report titled “How we helped Solidarity win”, pointing out that NED provided financial support for the Polish Solidarity to help them overthrow the then Polish government, heralding drastic changes in Eastern Europe.
◆ In October 2000, NED financed and instigated the Velvet Revolution in Serbia which overthrew the Milosevic government. In 1999 and 2000, NED funded the Serbian opposition with 10 million and 31 million US dollars respectively for its rapid expansion. NED also helped the secret training of a group of college students before handing them over to the leadership of a student group called Otpor! (Resistance!) that later instigated riots. The Washington Post wrote in its post-mortem analysis of Serbia’s Velvet Revolution that US-funded advisers played a key role behind the scenes in nearly every aspect of the anti-Serbia movement. They tracked the polls, trained thousands of opposition activists and helped organize the crucial parallel vote tabulation.
◆ In 2003, the Rose Revolution broke out in Georgia, and then President Eduard Shevardnadze was forced to step down. In this color revolution, NED planned and participated in the entire process from “selecting” opposition leaders, training the opposition to providing huge funds. After the revolution succeeded, NED continued to offer “generous funds”. In 2004 alone, NED provided nearly 540,000 US dollars to 12 NGOs in Georgia.
◆ At the end of 2004, during the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, the United States offered 65 million US dollars to the Ukrainian opposition through NED and other organizations. When massive anti-government demonstrations broke out in Ukraine in 2013, NED funded as many as 65 NGOs in the country, and even provided large funds to pay “wages” to each and every protester. RIA Novosti reported that NED had invested 14 million US dollars in a project in Ukraine which led to the large demonstrations in 2014 that overthrew the then Yanukovych government.
2. NED was an important enabler behind the Arab Spring. In Egypt, Yemen, Jordan, Algeria, Syria, Libya and other countries, NED provided financial support to pro-America individuals and groups by supporting professed feminism, freedom of the press, and human rights activities. It exported various kinds of anti-government ideas, incited color revolutions, and plunged the Arab world into war, social unrest and economic recession.
◆ At the end of January 2011, large-scale anti-government demonstrations broke out in Egypt. On 11 February, President Hosni Mubarak resigned. According to US diplomatic cables and other materials obtained by WikiLeaks, NED played an important role in organizing and manipulating anti-government demonstrations in Egypt. Through NGOs such as the National Association for Change and the April 6 Youth Movement, NED provided funding, training and other support to the demonstrations. The name and slogan of the National Association for Change are identical to those of anti-government organizations in other countries that have received NED training.
◆ In Libya, NED funded, among others, the founders of anti-government organizations Libya Forum for Human and Political Development, Libyan Transparency Association, and the founder of Libya akhbar who fled to London. These groups were active in the 2011 Libyan civil war.
◆ In Yemen, NED funded and worked closely with NGOs such as the “Women Journalists Without Chains” and played an important role in the 2011 anti-government protests in Yemen. Founder of the “Women Journalists Without Chains” Tawakkol Karman organized and led student rallies against the Saleh government.
◆ In Algeria, a number of organizations involved in the Arab Spring protests received funding from NED. NED’s annual reports revealed that the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights received US funding in 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2010. The National Autonomous Union of Public Administration Staff had close ties with the NED-affiliated American Center for International Labor Solidarity.
3. NED instigated the “color revolution” in Bolivia, forcing President Evo Morales to resign and go into exile. During the nearly 14-year rule of the leftist government under Morales, Bolivia enjoyed political stability and the fastest growth rate in South America. Its poverty rate continued to drop, people’s livelihoods improved markedly, and tensions between the white and the indigenous eased significantly. The Morales government won the general election, but was forced to step down by “street movements” and the military and police. NED played a part in more ways than one.
First, grooming anti-Morales forces over the years. Between 2013 and 2018, NED and USAID provided, by various means, 70 million US dollars to the opposition in Bolivia, funded white elites, former right-wing political figures and other anti-Morales elements, weaved an anti-Morales network spanning across universities, think tanks and civil organizations, and even roped in indigenous Bolivians to stand against Morales. A number of leading figures of the opposition received such financial support or had close interactions with the United States.
Second, alleging “election fraud” in a brainwashing campaign. Starting from 2018, NED invested 45,000 and 42,000 US dollars respectively through Fundacion para el Periodismo (Foundation for the Media) and Agencia de Noticias Fides Compania de Jesus (FIDES News Agency Company) to encourage right-wing media outlets in Bolivia to dig up dirt about corruption and abuse of power by the Morales government and to label Morales, who was seeking reelection, a “dictator”. It allocated 45,000 US dollars through Fundacion Milenio (Millennium Foundation) to sponsor universities, business councils and NGOs to hype up “fair election” and “judicial transparency”, in order to build up public expectations for Morales’ “election fraud”.
Third, masterminding street movements. On 29 October 2019, after the result of the general election was released, opposition leaders including Carlos Mesa organized a “peaceful demonstration”, calling for a rerun of the election and distributing cash to the protesters. Opposition leader José Antonio Camacho, who later became a propaganda focus of the right-wing media backed by NED, incited nationwide strikes and became a daring and controllable spokesperson of the United States. NED also spent 200,000 US dollars through the International Republican Institute, a core institute of NED, to improve the mobilizing and organizational capabilities of the opposition parties and give counsel to the “street movements”.
III. Colluding with local political groups to meddle in other countries’ political agenda
By infiltrating target countries, cultivating local anti-government forces and stoking social tensions, NED has been reaching its hands into the internal affairs of other countries.
1. Meddling in Hong Kong’s elections and interfering in China’s internal affairs. NED contacted opposition parties, groups and organizations in Hong Kong through its affiliating National Democratic Institute for International Affairs or the National Democratic Institute (NDI). Since 1997, the NDI has published 18 assessment reports aimed at influencing Hong Kong’s “democratic development”. In 2002, the NDI opened an office in Hong Kong. In 2003, it funded the “1 July marches” orchestrated by the opposition to obstruct legislation on Article 23. In 2004, it funded the participation of opposition parties and groups at workshops and seminars, and provided personal counseling on campaigning skills for their leaders. In 2005, it ran a young political leaders program to support emerging political groups in confronting the government. In 2006, it funded a “Hong Kong Transition Project”. In 2007, it divided its activities in Hong Kong into four programs, i.e. a series of reports entitled “The Promise of Democratization in Hong Kong”, survey of perceptions, the youth’s public engagement and women’s political participation. In 2008, it organized a summit for students. In 2010, it plotted, together with opposition members of the Legislative Council (LegCo), a “five-district referendum” . In 2012, it funded Hong Kong University in opening a “Design Democracy Hong Kong” website, recruited university interns, and funded the summit for students. In 2014, it directed and funded the opposition and young radicals in orchestrating the illegal “Occupy Central” movement.
According to the NED website, 2 million US dollars were spent on 11 Hong Kong-related projects in 2020, with a particular focus on disrupting LegCo elections. Key projects include: “Strengthening Citizen Election Observation”, which offered technical and financial assistance to newly formed destabilizing groups in Hong Kong, and encouraged them to obstruct LegCo elections by means of election monitoring, get-out-the-vote methods, etc.; “Amplifying Citizens’ Perspectives on Political Participation”, which collected and disseminated survey findings on democratic development, and induced young Hong Kongers to share their political participation experiences on the Internet; “Supporting Unity Among Student Activists”, which called for better coordination among Hong Kong student groups prior to LegCo elections, and instructed and trained them to build capacity for “democratic change” and international communication and to play a role in disrupting electoral order; and “Building Regional Solidarity and Empowering the Hong Kong Movement”, which sought to strengthen Hong Kong’s “democratic movement” through network building, cultivate next-generation “leading activists” in Hong Kong, and set up a network of “democratic movement” in Asia.
2. Interfering in Russia’s elections and threatening Russia’s constitutional, defense and national security. According to the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation, between 2013 and 2014, NED allocated 5.2 million US dollars to Russian organizations. In July 2015, NED was declared an “undesirable organization” by Russia. An official statement from Russia pointed out that NED “participated in work to recognize election results as illegitimate, to organize political action with the goal of influencing government policy, and to discredit Russian army service.”
3. Creating political instability in Belarus. The United States masterminded three “color revolutions” against the Belarusian government in 2006, 2010 and 2020 respectively, during which NED played an important role. In 2020, NED spent a total of 2.35 million US dollars in projects related to Belarus. Under the pretext of advancing political processes, NED conducted a project to foster “free and fair elections” with a funding of 80,000 US dollars. Under the project, a comprehensive publicity campaign was launched before presidential elections to inform citizens of electoral rights and independent election monitoring; and during campaigning, education and training on voting were carried out for activists, observers deployed to monitor the voting process, and monitoring findings published through a variety of media outlets.
On 9 August 2020, the incumbent president Alexander Lukashenko won his sixth presidential term with 80.1 percent of the votes. The opposition alleged election fraud, leading to mass protests in Minsk and other cities for days and riots in some regions. NED was very busy during this period. On 17 May 2021, RT released a video call clip between NED’s leadership and opposition figures of Belarus. In the video call, the then NED President Carl Gershman admitted that NED had long been operating across different parts in Belarus and engaged in alleged civil rights activities in eastern Belarus, including Vitebsk and Gomel. NED supported the opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, and worked with her team through its core institutes to facilitate the team’s activities.
While commenting on NED’s activities in Belarus, Dmitry Yegorchenkov, a Russian expert on international relations, said that NED funded many “independent media”, and while the funding for any individual media outlet may not look that significant, the recipients are many. According to the NED website, between 2016 and 2020, NED funded 119 projects in Belarus under the category of “Freedom of Information”, spending an average of 50,000 US dollars on each project. This particular category received more funding than any other category for five consecutive years.
4. Interfering in Mongolia’s parliamentary elections. The International Republican Institute (IRI), one of the core institutes of NED, was deeply involved in Mongolia’s parliamentary elections in 1996. In its 1996 annual report, the IRI revealed that it had provided training for the country’s opposition parties on recruitment, organizational building and campaign activities since 1992. At the instigation of the IRI, Mongolia’s scattering “democratic” forces were integrated into two political parties and later formed a unified opposition alliance in early 1996, taking 50 out of the 70 seats in Mongolia’s parliament. According to several NED annual reports, it awarded the IRI over 480,000 US dollars of grants between 1992 and 1996. In 1996 alone, nearly 160,000 US dollars were earmarked for Mongolia’s opposition alliance to win the elections.
5. “Monitoring” the elections and constitutional referendum in Kyrgyzstan. From 2013 to 2020, NED appropriated over 13 million US dollars to media outlets and various NGOs in the country. NED funding for “disruptive news” in Kyrgyzstan reached over 2 million US dollars in 2020, which included the allocation of 300,000 US dollars to the Kloop Media website to “monitor” Kyrgyzstan’s constitutional referendum and local parliamentary elections. The website recruited 1,500 “observers” during the presidential elections in January 2021, and hired 3,000 “observers” during the local parliamentary elections and constitutional referendum in April.
6. Stirring up protests and demonstrations in Thailand. In 2020, protests and demonstrations broke out in the streets of Thailand. Organizations such as the NED-funded Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) publicly supported and incited the street protests. The Bangkok Post disclosed that the TLHR had received funds from NED. The Nation, a Thai newspaper, reported that NED has also funded media platforms including Prachatai, an online media outlet, and NGOs such as iLaw, an internet-based legal institution. NED has interfered in the internal affairs of Thailand through these platforms and organizations as they call for the Thai government to amend the constitution.
7. Inciting the opposition parties in Nicaragua to seize power by force. Supporting pro-US political forces in the central American country of Nicaragua was among the first programs of NED after its inception in 1983. Between 1984 and 1988, NED provided about 2 million US dollars of funds to the opposition forces in Nicaragua, helping their leader Violeta Chamorro to become president-elect in 1990. As of today, NED is still channeling funds to the opposition and right-wing media outlets in Nicaragua via the Violeta Barrios de Chamorro Foundation for Reconciliation and Democracy established after Violeta Chamorro stepped down. According to public records, between 2016 and 2019, NED provided at least 4.4 million US dollars to Nicaraguan opposition groups, including media organizations. These forces played key roles in Nicaragua’s violent coup attempt in 2018 when they called on opposition supporters to attack the government and assassinate the president.
8. Funding anti-Cuba forces to manipulate public opinion against the government. Cuba has long suffered heavily from US infiltration and subversive activities. Cuban media revealed that NED and USAID allocated nearly 250 million US dollars to programs targeting Cuba over the past 20 years. According to the awarded grants disclosed in 2021 on the NED website, it funded 42 anti-Cuba programs in 2020 alone. In 2021, NED funded and guided anti-Cuba forces to fabricate and spread disinformation on social networks to stoke public sentiments against the government, and instigate the people to take part in activities disrupting public order. For instance, in mid-June 2021, anti-Cuba forces rumor-mongered that the country’s health system was overwhelmed by the COVID-19 pandemic, causing public panic. In July, capitalizing on the surge of street protests in Cuba, NED churned out the fake news that “(more than) 100 protesters … are missing” and used Internet robots to disseminate it. That was a malicious attempt to influence public opinion online and incite the Cuban people to overthrow their government.
9. Long-standing interference in Venezuela’s internal affairs. After Hugo Chavez, the “anti-US fighter”, was elected president of Venezuela in 1999, NED accelerated its behind-the-scenes operations. It provided continuous funding to the Venezuelan opposition and invited people to “training courses” in the United States. Since 1999, NED has run activities via the USAID office in the US Embassy and the offices of its core recipient organizations in Venezuela. It stayed in touch with and funded activities of dozens of institutions and opposition parties and organizations in Venezuela in the name of “promoting democracy”, “resolving conflict” and “strengthening civil society”. NED’s spending on interference activities in Venezuela rose year by year. It was 257,800 US dollars in 1999, the largest in Latin American countries. In 2000, it soared to 877,400 US dollars. In 2002, the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor of the US Department of State earmarked as much as 1 million US dollars to support NED programs in Venezuela. In 2019, NED programs in Venezuela totaled 2.66 million US dollars. Among them was an NED project that focused on advancing “political processes”, for “Strengthening Outreach, Communication and Organizational Capacity” with the funding of over 90,000 US dollars, to be used for providing training and support to local activists, to strengthen the communication capacity of democratic actors, to strengthen the nationwide “civil society” network, and to develop communications teams to disseminate across the country a message (of hope and support) for “democracy”.
In October 2005, Juan Guaidó and four other Venezuelan “student leaders” arrived in Belgrade, Serbia to attend NED-funded training for insurrection. After the training, Guaidó and others returned to Venezuela to promote extreme right-wing ideas, in an attempt to influence young Venezuelans, masterminding a series of violent street political activities. Later, Guaidó enrolled at a US university and, with the support of NED, has been active in relevant political groups in the United States. After Guaidó declared himself “interim president” of Venezuela, his Wikipedia page was created shortly afterwards and edited 37 times by NED-affiliated organizations, to support the propaganda for his “legitimacy”. In November 2021, Russia Today reported in an article that a string of recent US internal documents revealed how the United States meddled in the electoral process in Venezuela. Documents showed that US intelligence fronts weaponized social media to promote Venezuela’s right-wing opposition, and assist their election to parliament, thus laying the foundations for Washington’s appointment of Juan Guaido as the country’s leader.
The four core institutes of NED all engage in all kinds of activities in Venezuela. They have built close ties with opposition parties in the country and helped train existing or newly-established opposition parties on organization, management, publicity and other fronts. They have provided several funding packages to the largest opposition union in Venezuela and pushed it to stage anti-Chavez protests and demonstrations. When Nicolás Maduro was sworn in as President on 10 January 2019, the United States and some other countries refused to recognize his new term and instigated Juan Guaidó, then president of the National Assembly and opposition leader, to contend for leadership and openly challenge Maduro. Guaidó then declared himself interim president and demanded a new presidential election, plunging the country into unrest. The turmoil in Venezuela is a telling example of what “color revolutions” plotted by US-backed proxies would incur. NED’s many years of attempts to cultivate Venezuelan opposition elements clearly played a role. In March 2019, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said that funded by NED, many organizations conducted destablizing activities across the country and attempted to overthrow the Venezuelan government over the past 20 years.
10. Orchestrating violent coup to realize regime change in Haiti. The International Republican Institute (IRI) was deeply involved in the 2001 violent coup in Haiti which toppled the democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. In February 2001, Stanley Lucas, the IRI’s Senior Program Officer for Haiti, openly put forward three ways to dislodge President Aristide at a local radio program. Then US Assistant Secretary of State Roger Francisco Noriega not only collaborated with the IRI to provide funding for the opposition in Haiti, but also gave acquiescence to the opposition’s separatist tactics when mediating the political crisis in Haiti. While claiming to be “promoting democracy around the world”, the IRI was actually in close contact with the opposition in Haiti to conduct subversive operations.
11. Interfering in Uganda’s presidential election by supporting the opposition leader. In Uganda’s presidential election held in January 2021, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, candidate of the opposition National Unity Platform, won 34.83 percent of the vote, coming second. Ssentamu grew up in the slums and was a pop star before entering into politics. Analysts attribute his high popularity largely to the US backing. According to online media, he received training on regime subversion in the United States at the invitation of NED in 2018 on the pretense of seeking medical treatment. Besides, NED also provided funding and assigned counsel to support him during his presidential campaign.
IV. Funding separatist forces to undermine target countries’ stability
China has long been a key target of NED’s infiltration and subversion activities. NED invests heavily in anti-China programs every year and attempts to incite “Xinjiang independence”, “Hong Kong independence”, and “Tibet independence” . According to data released on its website in 2020, NED provided over 10 million US dollars of grants for 69 China-related programs within one year which were aimed to deliver various activities endangering China’s political and social stability.
1. NED is the main source of funding for various “Xinjiang independence” organizations. NED claims to have provided 8.7583 million US dollars of grants for various “Uyghur organizations” between 2004 and 2020. In 2020 alone, various “Xinjiang independence” forces received around 1.24 million US dollars of grants from NED, and the bulk of that was channeled to “Xinjiang independence” organizations such as the “World Uyghur Congress” (WUC). Then NED President Carl Gershman openly claimed that to solve the problems in Xinjiang, a color revolution must be held in China and that regime change can turn the country into a federal republic. Speaking at NED’s Democracy Award event in June 2019, Gershman openly supported the idea of “East Turkestan” to embolden “Xinjiang independence” forces. He also called for global attention to so-called human rights issues in Xinjiang and sought to launch an international alliance dedicated to this matter and to sanction China.
As exposed by US-based website The Grayzone, over the years, NED has directly provided the WUC and the Uyghur American Association (UAA) with millions of dollars, and assisted them in collaborating with governments and legislatures in the United States and other Western countries to level up hostile activities against China. UAA President Kuzzat Altay openly stated that “The most normal thing that I could ever imagine is anti-China activities every freaking day”. The Grayzone’s investigative report showed that when COVID-19 hit the United States in 2020, UAA and its key members fawned on far-right political forces in the United States, branded the coronavirus the “China virus” and incited anti-Asian sentiment.
NED’s Xinjiang-related programs focus on hyping up “human rights crisis” in Xinjiang and are part of the US and Western attempt to use Xinjiang to contain China. In 2019, NED provided 900,000 US dollars of grants for Xinjiang-related programs. Major programs include the program of “Documenting Human Rights Violations in East Turkistan” which was initiated in the name of “defending human rights”, but in reality the program included bribing witnesses and fabricating evidence to justify the so-called charge of “human rights violations” in Xinjiang, and issued nonfactual interim reports and an annual report about education and training centers in Xinjiang; the program of “Empowering Women and Youth for Advocacy and Civic Participation” which provided training on skills and ways of anti-China propaganda and advocacy to Uyghur women and youth, and incited them to carry out anti-China activities; the program of “Defending and Advocating for Uyghur Human Rights” which collected and forged disinformation about “violations of Uyghurs’ human rights” in and outside China, and mounted negative publicity campaigns on Xinjiang-related issues around the world. In 2020, NED provided 1.24 million US dollars of grants for Xinjiang-related programs. Major programs include “Advocating for Uyghur Human Rights through Artistic Interaction” which encouraged “Xinjiang independence” forces in and outside China to hype up Xinjiang-related issues in the name of art, “Documenting and Developing Resources to Strengthen Uyghur Advocacy” designed to build a Uyghur “human rights” database and produce reports to discredit China’s Uyghur-related policies, and “Defending and Advocating for Uyghur Human Rights” and “Empowering Women and Youth for Advocacy and Civic Participation” which were the extension of relevant 2019 programs.
2. NED maintains close ties with “Tibet independence” forces. They have been in contact since 2010 when then Chairman of NED Gershman presented the “Democracy Service Medal” to Dalai Lama. Gershman attended the “Hope and Democracy” event hosted by Dalai Lama in 2016, and celebrated Dalai Lama’s 85th birthday and spoke up for his “Tibet Independence” activities in 2020. On 13 November 2018, NED organized a seminar on Tibet-related issues in the United States, and invited Lobsang Sungen, then “Kalon Tripa” of the “Tibetan Government-in-Exile”. Lobsang Sungen made irresponsible remarks at the event, falsely alleging that the ultimate goal of China’s aid program was to colonize Tibet, and that the international community needed to draw lessons from Tibet’s experience and see China’s hidden ambitions under the Belt and Road Initiative. On 16 June 2021, NED hosted an interview between Penpa Tsering, the new “Sikyong” of the “Central Tibetan Administration”, and Josh Rogin, journalist and columnist with The Washington Post. During the interview, Penpa Tsering claimed that the new “Kashag” will work to resume the stalled “Sino-Tibet dialogue” to find a “lasting, mutually beneficial and non-violent solution”, and will “strengthen international outreach and advocacy”.
NED’s Tibet-related programs focus on strengthening the “Tibet independence” forces and hyping up the Tibet issue internationally. In 2019, NED provided 600,000 US dollars of grants for Tibet-related programs. Major programs include the program of “Strengthening the Tibetan Movement—Campaigning, Training, and Strategic Organizing” designed both to boost “Tibet independence” elements’ ability to launch social movements in Tibet, and to lobby and push the international community to interfere in Tibetan affairs; the program of “Strengthening International Support for Democracy and Human Rights in Tibet” aimed at cultivating local “Tibet independence” forces, enabling closer collusion between forces in and outside China, and planning and implementing social movements in Tibet; the program of “Strengthening Youth Political Participation” aimed to cultivate the next generation of “Tibetan social movement leaders”; the program of “Create Conditions for Dialogue and Negotiations” aimed to promote “Tibet independence” through so-called academic studies. In 2020, NED provided one million US dollars of grants for Tibet-related programs. Major ones include the program of “Tibet Times Newspaper” which published Tibetan-language newspapers, operated and maintained Tibetan-language websites, and provided the platform for activities of the “Tibetan Government-in-Exile” and “Tibet Independence” organizations; the program of “Strengthening International Support for Democracy and Human Rights in Tibet” which collected evidence about human rights questions in Tibet and smeared the Chinese government’s Tibet-related policies at the UN; the program of “Strengthening Awareness about the Panchen Lama” designed to misguide and misinform the international community about and seek support for the so-called “11th Panchen Lama”, and attack China’s policy on freedom of religious belief; the program of “Strengthening Tibet Monitoring and Information Networks” aimed at closer monitoring and tracking of human rights in Tibet and producing negative Tibet-related report; the program of “Promoting Informed Voting among the Tibetan Electorate” designed to get Tibetans to participate in the so-called election and decision-making of the “Tibetan Government-in-Exile”.
3. NED gives full support to “Hong Kong independence”. It has long carried out projects on so-called “labor rights”, “political reform” and “human rights monitoring” in Hong Kong, and was behind almost all street demonstrations there. According to a research into the NED official website by a Hong Kong public opinion analysis agency “Hong Kong Insights”, since 1994, NED has funded opposition organizations, student movement groups and media outlets in Hong Kong such as the “Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor” and “Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions”, and manipulated them to stage demonstrations and protests. And according to statistics by Du Jia, a researcher with the Consilium Research Institute of Chongqing University, NED has funded Hong Kong projects every year since 1994, investing altogether over 10 million US dollars by 2018.
Since 2003, NED has covertly organized, planned, directed and funded many large-scale street movements in Hong Kong, including the illegal “Occupy Central” movement and the violent demonstrations over proposed legislative amendments. In the anti-amendment turbulence in 2019, NED went from behind the scenes to the front line, directly engaging with major anti-China destabilizing forces in Hong Kong, and offering subsidies and training to those involved in the riots. In May 2019, individuals attempting to sow trouble in Hong Kong including founding chairman of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party Martin Lee, founding chairman of “Demosisto” Nathan Law and former chairman of the “Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China” Lee Cheuk-yan visited the United States to attend an NED event titled “New Threats to Civil Society and the Rule of Law in Hong Kong”, openly begging for US intervention in Hong Kong’s proposed legislative amendments.
In September 2019, NED recruited anti-China elements in Hong Kong to join the board of directors of the Washington-based “Hong Kong Democracy Council”. The establishment of the organization exposed the symbiotic relationship between those anti-China forces and Washington. Most of its board members are leading figures for destabilizing Hong Kong, while its advisory board comprises mainly members of non-governmental organizations such as NED. During the anti-amendment movement in 2019, NED arranged for those forces to wage a propaganda campaign on the international arena, financed activities of their organizations, and frequently sent personnel to Hong Kong to guide protests on the ground. In September 2021, NED held the so-called “The Fight for a Democratic Future” symposium, where Nathan Law made a lie-laden speech to distort the truth and defy justice. Leading organizations in the anti-amendment turbulence such as the “Civil Human Rights Front”, “Demosisto” and “Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions” all received NED funding. In 2021, NED further ramped up support for Hong Kong separatists in exile.
In 2019, NED invested about 640,000 US dollars in projects in Hong Kong. To be specific, under the “Strengthening Civil Society and Human Rights Protection” project, it used human rights as a pretext for colluding with pro-independence and so-called “pro-democracy” groups and politicians to accuse the Chinese Central Government of violating human rights; under the “Promoting Evidence-Based Dialogue and Policy-Making” project, it established a so-called “evidence-based dialogue” mechanism purportedly based on Hong Kong citizens’ views about political and economic issues, with the aim of amplifying the voice of pro-independence elements; under the “Expanding Worker Rights And Democracy” project, it assisted Hong Kong trade unions in enhancing organizational, negotiation and propaganda skills, in the name of promoting democracy and the development of civil society in Hong Kong; and under the “Defending Rule of Law and Freedom in Hong Kong” project, it colluded with local troublemakers and anti-China forces in the international business community and government departments to meddle with the rule of law in Hong Kong and concoct reports on the relationship between Hong Kong’s prosperity and its rule of law and freedoms.
V. Producing disinformation and playing up anti-government narratives
1. Circulating provocative rhetoric to arouse anti-government sentiments among the public. In 2021, Cuba experienced its worst economic crisis in 30 years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and tightened sanctions by the United States. Inflation intensified, and food, medicine and power shortages spread across the country. On 11 July, large-scale anti-government demonstrations broke out in many cities, including the capital Havana. Investigations by the Cuban government found close ties between US government agencies and the demonstrations, in which NED played an important role. In the weeks before the demonstrations, anti-government messages surged on social media, which effectively manipulated public sentiments, caused dissatisfaction and incited protests. In the days shortly before the demonstrations, a large number of new accounts popped up on Twitter, which liked and retweeted unverified anti-government posts, all with the hashtag #SOSCuba. According to the Cuban foreign minister, investigations showed close links between these accounts and a company based in Miami, Florida.
2. Fabricating Xinjiang-related lies to fuel the momentum for containing China. The NED-funded “World Uyghur Congress” and “Human Rights Watch” started and spread such rumors as “genocide” in Xinjiang and “the detention of one million Uyghurs in education and training centers”. After interviewing only eight people, the NED-backed “Chinese Human Rights Defenders”, based on such an absurd small-sample “research”, applied the estimated ratio to the whole of Xinjiang and concluded that one million people were detained in the “re-education detention camps” and two million “forced to attend day/evening re-education sessions”, thus disseminating rumors about Xinjiang. Starting from January 2019, the US State Department and NED launched a household survey of Uyghurs working, studying and living in the United States. Respondents were asked if anyone in their family was in an “education and training center” in Xinjiang, and were instigated to come forward to make accusations, in an attempt to incite protests against the Chinese government.
3. Spreading the “political virus” and politicizing COVID-19 origins-tracing. Since the start of the pandemic, the NED-funded “Uyghur American Association” and its affiliates continuously peddled right-wing conspiracy theories, blaming China for the pandemic and all related deaths, and circulating rumors that China is waging a “virus war” on the world and “purposefully, intentionally exporting the virus to cause the pandemic”. Such rumor-mongering fed anti-China and anti-Asian sentiments in the United States and other Western countries.
4. Fueling tensions and hyping up the concept of “sharp power”. In November 2017, NED’s Vice President for Studies and Analysis Christopher Walker and Senior Program Officer Jessica Ludwig wrote an article on Foreign Affairs titled “The Meaning of Sharp Power: How Authoritarian States Project Influence”, marketing the concept of “sharp power” for the first time and whipping up a new round of “China threat theory”. In December 2017, NED issued a report titled Sharp Power: Rising Authoritarian Influence, demonizing China and Russia by alleging that for more than a decade, the two countries have spent huge funds on influencing target countries or groups with non-conventional means such as division, purchased loyalty and manipulation in an attempt to shape global opinion and perceptions.
5. Provoking controversy and stigmatizing China’s press policy. The NED-funded “Reporters Without Borders” has long instigated the international community, advertisers, press unions and foreign governments to treat Chinese media differently and be vigilant against their so-called “threat”. Since COVID-19 struck, the “Reporters Without Borders” made such irresponsible remarks as urging China to “stop censoring information about coronavirus epidemic” and warning against the government’s “increased repression” against journalism. It also fabricated rumors that many Chinese journalists face “years of detention in prisons, where ill-treatment can lead to death”.
VI. Funding Activities and Academic Programs for the Purpose of Ideological Infiltration
1. NED has created various “democracy awards” to encourage dissidents in other countries to help the US “export” democracy. Since 1991, NED has been granting the Democracy Award annually to political activists and dissidents in countries including Russia, China, DPRK, Myanmar, Iran, Cuba, Venezuela and Ukraine in recognition of “defending human rights and democracy”. Since 1999, it has been giving out the Democracy Service Medal annually. In 2002, the medal was awarded to Wu Shu-chen, wife of the then Taiwan authorities leader Chen Shui-bian. In 2010, the medal was awarded to the 14th Dalai Lama，the so-called “Tibetan spiritual leader in exile”. NED also uses the global assemblies of the World Movement for Democracy to grant the Democracy Courage Tributes. Since the Eighth Global Assembly in 2015, names related to China has begun to appear on the list of recipients. Anti-China organizations and individuals seeking independence for Tibet or Hong Kong or related to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) have successively received the Tributes. For example, an Eighth Assembly (2015) recipient is Nathan Law, a “Hong Kong independence” separatist; a Ninth Assembly (2018) recipient is Jin Bianling, wife of the so-called “human rights lawyer” Jiang Tianyong; and among the Tenth Assembly (2021) recipients are Hong Kong Watch, a British anti-China organization seeking to disrupt Hong Kong, Students for a Free Tibet, a “Tibet independence” organization, and Campaign for Uyghurs, an ETIM-related group. Among the recipients, Nathan Law is the founding chairman of Demosistō, an organization pursuing “Hong Kong independence”, and is wanted by Hong Kong police for law-breaking activities aimed at destabilizing Hong Kong. Jiang Tianyong is the mastermind behind disinformation such as “detained lawyer Xie Yang was tortured”, and was involved in meddling in and playing up sensitive cases, inciting illegal gatherings to cause public disorder and collaborating with overseas forces, seriously endangering national security and social stability. Hong Kong Watch has received a warning letter from Hong Kong police for suspected violation of Article 29 of the National Security Law on “collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security”. Students for a Free Tibet sent eight of its key members including then Executive Director Lhadon Tethong to China in 2008 to conduct sabotage activities. Campaign for Uyghurs, a group of Uyghur separatists in exile, is a branch of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC), an ultra-nationalist organization, and its mission is to subvert China and establish an “East Turkestan” nation state.
On 4 June 2019, NED exploited the 30th year since the 1989 political disturbance to give the 2019 Democracy Award to the Tibet Action Institute (TAI), the WUC and ChinaAid, organizations seeking independence of Tibet and Xinjiang or related to ETIM and “democracy movements”.
2. Since 2004, NED has held the Lipset Lecture Series annually in the United States and Canada, and published the lecture in its Journal of Democracy. While most of the lecturers are well-known political scholars, the lectures are heavily ideological. For example, the 2020 lecture was titled “Totalitarianism’s Long Dark Shadow over China” given by American political scientist Pei Minxin.
3. NED makes grants to the Egyptian Democratic Academy, an NGO, for ideological infiltration in Egypt. In June 2011, the then US ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson acknowledged that her country had spent no less than 40 million US dollars to “promote democracy” in Egypt since February 2011.
4. In October 2013, the National Democratic Institute (NDI), one of NED’s core grantees, received over 300,000 US dollars from NED to “improve the communication skills of political activists in Venezuela”. Before Venezuela’s local elections in December 2013, the NDI hosted seminar outside Venezuela to provide “expert advice” on the use of technology and social media for citizen outreach and engagement. Moreover, NED created a virtual toolbox, offering “online customized capacity-building courses on a range of issues relating to political innovation”, which remains active today. These measures did make an impact on Venezuela’s 2015 legislative elections: The Democratic Unity Roundtable, the opposition coalition, claimed a historic National Assembly majority.
5. At the end of 2016, NED sponsored Edward Leung and Ray Wong, separatists seeking “Hong Kong independence”, to study at Harvard and Oxford respectively. In 2017, Johnson Yeung, the former convener of the Civil Human Rights Front, an organization seeking to destabilize Hong Kong, participated in an NED visiting fellows program, in which he talked with civic groups and protesters from South America, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East, and learned from their experience of democratic and social movements.
6.For years, NED has been funding the Interethnic Interfaith Leadership Conference, which has been held 15 times as of November 2020. Many participants are members of separatist groups seeking independence of Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Hong Kong and Taiwan or with Falun Gong. In a keynote speech at the 13th Conference in December 2018, the then NED President Carl Gershman asserted that “China today poses the greatest threat to democracy in the world” and clamored for “supporting for the development of democracy” in China.
7. On 3 June 2019, NED hosted a conference themed “China’s Repression Model”, which claimed that China’s model is eroding the western democratic system through a new generation of technology.
8. From 27 to 30 March 2022, current NED President and CEO Damon Wilson led a delegation to Taiwan, and announced during a press conference that NED would co-host the 11th Global Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy with the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy in October 2022 in Taipei, giving support to the “Taiwan independence” forces under the disguise of democracy.
9. NED makes grants to “civil rights” organizations on a regular basis in the name of funding academic seminars and training. Detailed NED grants to Tibet and Xinjiang in 2020 showed that groups such as the Tibetan Youth Association and the WUC, organizations seeking independence of Tibet and Xinjiang, had received funding from NED for workshops, which provided forum to Tibetans in exile and “Tibet independence” separatists inside China, and for capacity-building training for young Uyghurs to spread a narrative of “Uyghur crisis” in local communities.
10. NED has long provided funding for the training of “politically active” Sudanese young people. In 2020, the Regional Center for Training and Development of the Civil Society (RCDCS) received the Democracy Award for training hundreds of young people across Sudan on “democracy” and activism.
Der chinesische Staatskommissar und Außenminister Wang Yi hat am Donnerstagabend in Beijing den Video-Dialog der Außenminister der BRICS-Staaten sowie von Schwellen- und Entwicklungsländern geleitet. An dem Treffen nahmen neben den Außenministern der BRICS-Länder auch die Chefdiplomaten aus Ländern wie Kasachstan, Saudi-Arabien, Argentinien, Ägypten, Indonesien und Nigeria teil.
Wang Yi verwies darauf, dass Chinas Staatspräsident Xi Jinping vor fünf Jahren das Kooperationsmodell „BRICS+“ vorgeschlagen und damit den Wert von BRICS bereichert und erhöht hat. Angesichts der gegenwärtigen Risiken und Herausforderungen sei es wichtiger denn je, die Solidarität und Zusammenarbeit zwischen den Schwellen- und Entwicklungsländern zu verstärken. Dazu unterbreitete der chinesische Außenminister dem Video-Gipfel drei Vorschläge, nämlich erstens am Multilateralismus festzuhalten, sich zweitens auf die Entwicklung zu konzentrieren und drittens an der Win-Win-Zusammenarbeit festzuhalten.
Die teilnehmenden Außenminister sprachen sich für die Förderung des Multilateralismus, für das Festhalten an Solidarität und Zusammenarbeit beim Kampf gegen die COVID-19-Pandemie und für einen Ausbau der Süd-Süd-Zusammenarbeit aus.
In der Region Ngari (Ali) im Westen des chinesischen Autonomen Gebiets Tibet (Xizang Zizhiqu) mit einer Höheanlage von 4300 Metern über dem Meeresspiegel ist überall die Wüste Gobi mit salz-alkalischem Land. Außer den trockenfesten Tamarisken können andere Pflanzen nur sehr schwer dort überleben. Doch die Erdbeeren in der Gemeinde Shiquanhe der Region Ngari wachsen gut.
Im Mai freuen sich die Menschen in einem Industriegarten für ökologische Landwirtschaft Shiquanhe auf die Erdbeerernte. Sie pflücken Erdbeeen, packen sie in Schlüssel ein, waschen sie und dann sind sie verzehrfertig – mmm, süß, lecker! Shi Nengpei, der Agrartechniker dieses Industriegartens, sagt, aufgrund der großen Temperaturunterschiede zwischen Tag und Nacht und der langen Zeit des alltäglichen Sonnenscheins enthalten die Erdbeeren dort mehr Zucker und schmecken leckerer.
Laut Shi gibt es derzeit fünf Gewächshäuser für Erdbeeren und damit können jährlich 500.000 Yuan RMB (etwa 71.500 Euro) erwirtschaftet werden. Im Industriegarten für ökologische Landwirtschaft gibt es etwa 230 Treibhäuser, in denen 30 Sorten von Gemüse, Obst, Blumen und Pflanzen wachsen. Im vergangenen Jahr wurden 600 Tonnen Gemüse hier erzeugt, was sehr wertvoll für die abgelegene Region Ngari ist. Nach der Praxis von mehreren Jahren ist der Industriegarten zu einer modernen Landwirtschaftsbasis mit Multifunktionen von Technologiepräsentation, Ausbildung der Agrartechnik, Versorgung mit Obst und Gemüse und einem Angebot von vielen Arbeitsplätzen geworden.
Mit der Entwicklung des Industriegartens haben viele einheimischen Menschen nicht nur die jüngste Agrartechnik erlernt, sondern auch mehr Geld verdient. Vom Jahr 2019 bis 2021 hat der Industriegarten 13.000 Arbeitsplätze geschaffen.
Der im Industriegarten arbeitende 30-jährige Luobu war früher ein Viehzüchter. Nach der Ausbildung wendet er derzeit die Pflanztechniken für Wassermelonen, Erdbeeren und Paprikas an. Er kann jeden Monat 6000 Yuan RMB (853 Euro) verdienen.
„Mein Sohn ist Mittelschüler und meine Tochter ist Grundschülerin. Ich möchte mehr Anbautechnik hier lernen, um meiner Familie ein besseres Leben zu ermöglichen. Wenn ich in Zukunft in die Heimat zurückkehre, kann ich nicht nur Jaks züchten, sondern auch Gemüse anpflanzen und verkaufen“, sagte Luobu lächelnd.
Der Verantwortliche des Industriegartens, Liu Jiang, sagte stolz, in der Region Ngari können nicht nur Bäume, sondern auch Gemüse und Obst wie etwa Wassermelonen und Erdbeeren gepflanzt werden. In der Erntezeit können mit dem Obst und Gemüse aus dem Industriegarten 60 Prozent der Nachfrage auf dem Markt der Region Ngari gedeckt werden. „Der Duft von Obst und Gemüse ist sowohl der Duft der modernen Agrartechnik als auch der Duft des neuen Lebens der fleißigen Menschen, die unaufhörlich nach ihren Träumen suchen.“
Eine der wichtigsten Aufgaben, die die Menschheit vor der Landung bemannter Raumschiffe auf der Oberfläche des Mars lösen muss, besteht darin, auf dem kargen, rötlichen Planeten nutzbares Wasser zu finden.
Ein kürzlich von chinesischen Wissenschaftlern erzieltes Forschungsergebnis, das auf der Grundlage von Daten des chinesischen Marsrovers „Zhurong“ erhalten wurde, könnte dieses Ziel näher rücken lassen.
Einem Forscherteam des Nationalen Forschungszentrum für Weltraumwissenschaften bei der Chinesischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zufolge haben sie nach der Analyse von Kurzwellen-Infrarot-Spektraldaten des Rovers hydratisierte Silikate und Sulfate im Amazonischen Terrain an der Landestelle von „Zhurong“ im südlichen Teil eines Einschlagbeckens namens Utopia Planitia identifiziert.
Diese hydratisierten Mineralien sind demnach mit hellen Gesteinen assoziiert und könnten als lokal entstandene Durikrusten interpretiert werden. Diese lithifizierten Durikrusten sind vermutlich durch reichlich flüssiges Wasser gebildet worden, entweder durch aufsteigendes Grundwasser oder durch das Schmelzen von unterirdischem Eis. In einem von den Wissenschaftlern verfassten Bericht, der unlängst in der jüngsten Ausgabe der Fachzeitschrift „Science Advances“ veröffentlicht wurde, hieß es, die an der Landestelle von „Zhurong“ identifizierten In-situ-Beweise für wässrige Aktivitäten deuteten auf eine aktivere Hydrosphäre auf dem Mars hin als bisher angenommen.
Liu Yang, Wissenschaftler vom Staatlichen Schlüssellabor für Weltraumwetter des Nationalen Zentrums für Weltraumwissenschaften und Hauptautor der Studie, sagt, die Ergebnisse deuteten darauf hin, dass flüssiges Wasser während der Amazonas-Epoche, die vor etwa drei Milliarden Jahren begonnen habe und immer noch andauere, aktiver gewesen sein könne als bisher angenommen. „Es gibt wahrscheinlich eine große Menge an nutzbarem Wasser in wasserhaltigen Mineralien rund um den Landeplatz von ‚Zhurong‘ sowie in den weiten Gebieten im nördlichen Tiefland des Roten Planeten. Diese Ressource kann für künftige bemannte Erkundungen auf dem Mars genutzt werden.“
Der Marsrover „Zhurong“ ist das Kernstück von „Tianwen-1“, der ersten interplanetaren Mission Chinas. Gleichzeitig handelt es sich dabei um das sechste Fahrzeug auf dem Roten Planeten nach fünf Rovern aus den Vereinigten Staaten. Den Forschern zufolge ist es „Zhurongs“ Aufgabe, die Landformen des Mars, geologische Strukturen, Bodeneigenschaften, mögliche Wasser- und Eisvorkommen, atmosphärische und ökologische Eigenschaften sowie magnetische, Gravitations- und andere physikalische Felder zu untersuchen.
Der 1,85 Meter hohe und 240 Kilogramm schwere Rover arbeitet bereits seit fast einem Jahr auf dem Mars und hat damit seine geschätzte dreimonatige Nutzdauer weit überschritten. „Zhurong“ habe fast 2.000 Meter zurückgelegt und eine Vielzahl von Daten gesammelt, so die Missionskontrolleure der Nationalen Weltraumbehörde. Erstaunlicherweise habe der Rover immer noch genügend Energie und sei in gutem Zustand.
Das Djungaria-Becken liegt im Norden der Autonomen Region Xinjiang-Uigurien, zwischen dem Tianshan-Gebirge und dem Altai-Massiv. Mit seiner Fläche von 380.000 km2 ist es das zweitgrößte Becken Chinas. Im Osten ist es höher als im Westen, und es gehört zur Kategorie der halbgeschlossenen Becken. Im Zentrum dieses Beckens liegt die zweitgrößte Wüste Chinas, die Guerban-Tonggut-Wüste.
Der wichtigste Pass durch die westlichen Gebirgszüge ist das so genannte Dsungarische Tor (Junggar Men), das zum Alaköl-See und zum Balqash-See in Kasachstan führt. Ganz im Norden mündet der Fluss Irtysh (Ertix) über die Grenze zu Kasachstan in den Zaysan-See. Ansonsten ist das Dschunggar-Becken ein Binnenentwässerungsgebiet, in dem die Flüsse aus dem Altai in den Jili-See und die Flüsse aus den südlichen Gebirgszügen in den Manasi- oder den Aibi-See (Ebinur) in der tief liegenden Senke unmittelbar südöstlich der Dsungarischen Pforte fließen.
Die gesamte Senke liegt zwischen 1.650 und 3.300 Fuß (500 und 1.000 Meter) über dem Meeresspiegel, mit einem allgemeinen Gefälle von Nordost nach Südwest, wo der Aibi-See auf einer Höhe von etwas mehr als 620 Fuß (190 Meter) liegt.
Die Böden dieses Beckens sind reich an Öl, und die Ölfelder von Karamay wurden bereits Mitte des letzten Jahrhunderts ausgebeutet. Sie enthalten auch Kohle- und Metallvorkommen aller Art, und das Altai-Massiv im Norden ist reich an Goldvorkommen.
Seit dem 1. Januar 2002 hat Frankreich für sechs Monate die Präsidentschaft im Rat der Europäischen Union inne. Der französische Präsident Emmanuel Macron hat im Dezember 2021 eine umfassende Erklärung zur politischen Position Frankreichs abgegeben. In dem sich wandelnden internationalen Umfeld hat Frankreich große Ambitionen, die mit großen Belastungen und vielfältigen Herausforderungen einhergehen.
Nach Macrons Plan wird sich die französische EU-Ratspräsidentschaft auf die folgenden Bereiche konzentrieren:
Verabschiedung des Reformplans für den Schengen-Raum, Harmonisierung der Grenzschutzpolitik in der gesamten EU, Stärkung der Zusammenarbeit mit den Herkunfts- und Transitländern von Migranten und Bekämpfung der illegalen Einwanderung.
Entwicklung der digitalen Wirtschaft, Schaffung eines einheitlichen digitalen Marktes und Aufbau einer digitalen EU.
Umsetzung von mehr paneuropäischen Projekten wie der Europäischen Solidarität zur Förderung von Inklusion und Vielfalt in der EU.
Die oben genannten Ziele sind zu ehrgeizig, um während der französischen EU-Ratspräsidentschaft erreicht zu werden, aber Frankreichs Entschlossenheit, die strategische Autonomie in Europa zu fördern, ist unerschütterlich. Wenn Frankreich während seiner EU-Ratspräsidentschaft etwas bewirken will, muss es die europäische strategische Autonomie fördern und die Unabhängigkeit Europas in den europäisch-amerikanischen Beziehungen stärken.
Gesine Weber, Programmkoordinatorin des German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF), und Raphaël Gourrada, Forscher am französischen Institut Open Diplomacy (IOD), analysieren die Absichten und Fähigkeiten Frankreichs, Europa zu strategischer Autonomie zu führen.
Überbrückung der Konflikte innerhalb Europas
Angesichts der drastischen Auswirkungen der Ukraine-Krise auf die europäische Sicherheitslage wird es immer dringlicher, die strategische Autonomie Europas zu fördern. Die derzeitigen antagonistischen Beziehungen zwischen der EU und Russland stellen für Frankreich sowohl Herausforderungen als auch Chancen dar. Einerseits hat die Krise in der Ukraine die Beziehungen zwischen Europa und den Vereinigten Staaten verbessert, aber in gewissem Maße auch den Willen und die Motivation der europäischen Länder geschwächt, strategische Autonomie anzustreben; andererseits hat die Krise in der Ukraine dazu geführt, dass die osteuropäischen Länder die Sicherheitsbedrohung durch Russland spüren, was für Frankreich eine gute Grundlage für die Förderung der europäischen strategischen Autonomie darstellt.
Darüber hinaus kann die Stärkung der Unabhängigkeit Europas im Verteidigungs-, Wirtschafts- und Digitalbereich beweisen, dass das von Frankreich vorgeschlagene Konzept der europäischen strategischen Autonomie keine strategische Autonomie in einem bestimmten Bereich oder Aspekt ist, sondern eine umfassende strategische Autonomie.
In der Frage der europäischen Sicherheit hat es in Europa immer einen Unterschied zwischen dem „Neuen Europa“ und dem „Alten Europa“ gegeben. Das „alte Europa“ bezieht sich auf westeuropäische Länder wie Frankreich, die Niederlande, Spanien und Belgien, während das „neue Europa“ die osteuropäischen Länder bezeichnet, die nach dem Ende des Kalten Krieges das sowjetische Lager verlassen haben. Das „Neue Europa“ und das „Alte Europa“ haben unterschiedliche Einstellungen zu den Vereinigten Staaten, wobei das „Alte Europa“ stärker zur Unabhängigkeit neigt und versucht, ein von der NATO unabhängiges Verteidigungssystem aufzubauen, während das „Neue Europa“ wegen Russland äußerst besorgt ist und in Bezug auf die Sicherheit in hohem Maße von den Vereinigten Staaten abhängt, weshalb es sich nicht aktiv an der europäischen Verteidigungsintegration beteiligt und sogar glaubt, dass Frankreichs Zweck darin besteht, seine Interessen zu schützen.
Die USA befürchten, dass die europäische Verteidigungsintegration die Rolle der NATO in Europa schwächen oder gar ersetzen wird, weshalb Frankreich wiederholt betont hat, dass die Beziehungen zwischen den beiden Staaten komplementär und nicht konkurrierend sind. Dies zeigt, dass es in der EU große Differenzen in Sicherheitsfragen gibt. Wie diese überbrückt werden können, um eine für alle Parteien akzeptable Lösung zu finden, ist eines der Probleme, mit denen Frankreich konfrontiert ist.
Trotzdem hat Macron wiederholt darauf hingewiesen, dass Europa in Sicherheitsfragen zwar seit langem von den Vereinigten Staaten abhängig ist, es aber dennoch notwendig ist, die Militärausgaben zu erhöhen, um das Programm der europäischen Verteidigungsautonomie so schnell wie möglich zu verwirklichen. Dies hängt auch mit den zerrütteten Beziehungen zwischen Europa und den Vereinigten Staaten in der Ära Trump zusammen. Seit Bidens Amtsantritt haben sich die Beziehungen zwischen Europa und den Vereinigten Staaten zwar entspannt, doch hat sich die Haltung der USA, ihre Interessen über die der Europäer zu stellen, nicht geändert.
Unabhängig davon, wer oder welche Partei in den Vereinigten Staaten an der Macht ist, ist es nach Ansicht Frankreichs schwierig, die Beziehungen zwischen Europa und den Vereinigten Staaten in den Normalzustand des Kalten Krieges zurückzuführen, und es ist nur eine Frage der Zeit, bis Europa und die Vereinigten Staaten getrennte Wege gehen. Europa muss seine Illusionen über Bord werfen und so schnell wie möglich den Weg der verteidigungspolitischen Unabhängigkeit einschlagen. Frankreich ist derzeit eines der drei Länder mit der stärksten Militärmacht in der NATO (die Vereinigten Staaten, das Vereinigte Königreich und Frankreich) und verfügt über den vierthöchsten Verteidigungshaushalt unter den europäischen Ländern. Im Übrigen ist Frankreich gut positioniert, um Europa aus seiner sicherheitspolitischen Abhängigkeit von den Vereinigten Staaten herauszuführen.
Eine führende Rolle in der EU
Während die EU-Länder Frankreich in der Vergangenheit häufig vorwarfen, die EU als Instrument zur Ausweitung seines Einflusses zu nutzen, stellen die EU-Länder heute in Frage, ob Frankreich die Last der Verteidigung der kollektiven Interessen Europas tragen kann. Wenn Frankreich im Zentrum Europas stehen soll, muss es während seiner EU-Ratspräsidentschaft seine führende Rolle in europäischen Angelegenheiten hervorheben und gleichzeitig die Vorurteile gegenüber Frankreich ausräumen.
Die größte Herausforderung für Frankreich besteht nun darin, andere wichtige EU-Entscheidungen oder bedeutende EU-Fortschritte an anderen Fronten voranzutreiben und gleichzeitig die strategische europäische Autonomie zu fördern. Zum Beispiel die Wiederbelebung der europäischen Integration mit Frankreich und Deutschland im Zentrum, um einen Konsens in zentralen Fragen zwischen gleichgesinnten Ländern zu fördern, und die Bildung von Allianzen mit gleichgesinnten Ländern wie Italien, Spanien, den Niederlanden und Schweden, um die europäische Verteidigungsintegration zu beschleunigen.
Eine ausgewogene Entwicklung zwischen europäischer strategischer Autonomie und den europäisch-amerikanischen Beziehungen
Die Erreichung der strategischen Autonomie Europas und die Vertiefung der Beziehungen zwischen Europa und den Vereinigten Staaten sind kein Widerspruch. Insbesondere sollte Frankreich seine EU-Ratspräsidentschaft nutzen, um eine europäische strategische Autonomie anzustreben und gleichzeitig die Beziehungen zwischen Europa und den Vereinigten Staaten zu vertiefen.
Da es immer noch viele europäische Länder gibt, die in Bezug auf ihren Sicherheitsstatus in hohem Maße von den USA abhängig sind, müssen die Ziele Frankreichs im Rahmen der europäisch-amerikanischen Beziehungen umgesetzt werden. Die Verbesserung von Frankreichs Anti-Amerika- oder Anti-NATO-Image ist entscheidend für die Stärkung von Frankreichs Position in Europa.
Macron hat erneut bekräftigt, dass alle europäischen Verteidigungsprogramme, auch wenn sie operativ liberal sind, mit der NATO kompatibel sein müssen. Kurzum, während der französischen EU-Ratspräsidentschaft wird Macron nicht nur beweisen müssen, dass Frankreich nicht antiamerikanisch ist, sondern auch, dass es sowohl Europa eine strategische Autonomie ermöglichen als auch die Entwicklung der europäischen und amerikanischen Beziehungen fördern kann.
Aufgrund der fehlenden diplomatischen Unabhängigkeit Deutschlands ist Frankreich das einzige Land in der EU, das mit den Vereinigten Staaten auf Augenhöhe umgehen kann. Frankreichs Priorität sollte es sein, die Stimme der EU in europäischen Sicherheitsangelegenheiten zu stärken, damit die EU von einem Objekt des US-Schutzes zu einem Sicherheitspartner der USA werden kann und so den Mangel an Kohärenz und Koordination in der europäischen Politik gegenüber den USA beseitigt.
In Anbetracht der derzeitigen angespannten Situation in der Ukraine ist die Vertiefung der Sicherheitszusammenarbeit zwischen Europa und den Vereinigten Staaten keine Option, sondern eine Notwendigkeit. Frankreich sollte diese Gelegenheit nutzen, die Beziehungen zwischen Europa und den Vereinigten Staaten zu verbessern. Die von Frankreich ausgesandten verwirrenden Signale haben die USA jedoch misstrauisch gegenüber Frankreich gemacht. So erklärte Macron vor kurzem im Europäischen Parlament, dass Europa in der Lage sein müsse, Autonomie zu erlangen, ohne sich auf die übrige internationale Gemeinschaft zu verlassen, er betonte aber gleichzeitig die Bedeutung der Zusammenarbeit mit der NATO.
Macron sollte sich nicht öffentlich zu Themen äußern, die die europäische Souveränität betreffen, bevor ein europäischer Konsens gefunden wurde. Bei der Einigung mit den Vereinigten Staaten muss ein Grundsatz gewahrt bleiben: die Wahrung der Position der EU in europäischen Angelegenheiten. Das wünschenswerteste Ergebnis wäre es, die Unterstützung der USA für den Prozess der europäischen strategischen Autonomie zu gewinnen.
In 2021, the number of orders from Pinduoduo reached 61 billion, up 59% year-on-year, with a particularly significant increase in orders related to agriculture.
In 2015, Pinduoduo’s predecessor, Pinhaohuo, was established, and at that time the main focus was on the group selling agricultural products. Since then, agricultural products have also shown good development potential in Pinduoduo. During the 2018 Double 11 shopping festival period, Pinduoduo’s produce orders exceeded 40 million units, up 409% year on year.
At that time, Pinduoduo came up with the idea of opening up the chain of agricultural products to be sold online. Today, Pinduoduo has fulfilled its vision and is working on both ends of the “e-commerce for agriculture” strategy. On the one hand, it is on the sales side, expanding the sales of agricultural products. To increase the willingness of users to buy, Pinduoduo has implemented “direct delivery from the source”, so that users can get fresh produce as soon as possible. At the same time, Pinduoduo has also increased its support for agricultural merchants, such as giving traffic tilt, subsidies, and so on.
On the other hand, on the production side, Pinduoduo is helping farmers to produce more quality agricultural products through scientific research. In August 2021, Pinduoduo announced that it had set up an “RMB 10 billion agricultural research project” and subsequently said that it would invest the profits from the second, third, and fourth quarters of last year in agricultural research. Also in August 2021, Pinduoduo launched the second Smart Agriculture Competition to strive for higher quality tomatoes.
Firstly, the tomatoes were grown in a ‘smart greenhouse’ provided by Pinduoduo. Compared to traditional greenhouses, the ‘smart greenhouses’ are more user-friendly for growers. The temperature in a traditional greenhouse can change depending on the external environment and is therefore not as stable. In addition, staff in traditional greenhouses have to manually sow seeds, fertilize, water, and pollinate the plants, which can be costly to maintain. But with smart greenhouses, managers can remotely adjust the elements of the growing environment such as water, fertilizer, light, and carbon dioxide in the greenhouse, enabling unmanned cultivation. The sensors in the smart greenhouse will send any abnormalities in the greenhouse environment to the manager’s mobile phone via software, and the manager can see them and operate them remotely on the phone. If the situation is never dealt with, the grower will receive an emergency call.
Secondly, the teams have also each made full use of more crop-friendly tech in the final. In traditional farming, the yield and quality of crops are affected by weather factors. But with the support of high technology, the stability and controllability of crop growth have been greatly increased. For example, one of the teams has developed a ‘tomato growth state recognition model’. Firstly, a tomato fruit growth state recognition algorithm identifies the size and ripeness of the tomato fruit. The monitored information is then fed into an expert system, which provides the basis for subsequent fertilization, farming strategies, and harvesting.
The team has also developed a ‘smart tomato digital control cloud platform’, which allows real-time monitoring of greenhouse environmental dynamics, remote control of environmental control equipment switches, monitoring of tomato growth images, identification of tomato plant diseases, and analysis based on historical data to remind growers of daily precautions. The platform is equivalent to visualizing tomato growth data and environmental data, allowing growers to better control every aspect of growth.
Another team has developed a new greenhouse CO2 enrichment technology that allows for low cost, zero pollution, and high yields. Plants cannot grow without carbon dioxide, but if large amounts of carbon dioxide are applied directly and the plants have limited access to it, the secondary emissions will cause environmental pollution.
The third team has developed a ‘disease management system’ to collect data on the climate of the greenhouse environment and the growth of tomatoes, and then predicts the risk of infection from common fungal diseases over the next 10 days. Currently, the system predicts four diseases – powdery mildew, leaf mold, black leaf mold, and gray mold. Once growers are aware of the disease risk in time, they can take early preventive measures and dose their tomatoes to reduce the risk of disease.
In the end, the teams all produced tomatoes with more yield, better flavor, and higher nutritional value. One team produced a total yield of 11.3kg/m2 per unit area over the six months of growing, with yields increasing each week in the later stages. Based on a normal tomato growing cycle of 10 months, yields can approach 30kg/m2. This yield is close to the peak yield of small tomatoes grown in greenhouses in the Netherlands during the same period. It is important to note that the Netherlands is a world leader in tomato production.
Another team, on the other hand, achieved a good result in terms of tomato quality. In terms of flavor data, the total soluble solids (the percentage of solutes in the tomato juice that affects the sweetness and acidity of the tomato) averaged 9.8%, far exceeding traditional growing methods. In terms of nutrient data, its tomatoes contain 80.8% more vitamin C, 114% more lycopene, and 72.5% more amino acids than conventionally grown tomatoes.
Agricultural development has always lacked the high-quality talent to support it due to low interest and low profits. The competition has attracted the attention of many young researchers, with 80% of the participants being post-90s and many with a master’s degree or above. To a certain extent, the competition is partly a catalyst for young scientists to join agricultural research.
The finalists used a wide range of artificial intelligence-related technologies. Members of the team also have expertise in a wide range of cross-cutting areas including new plant sensors, artificial intelligence algorithms, and the Internet of Things in agriculture.
The competition also shares the resources of many well-known domestic and international organizations. The competition was conducted under the technical guidance of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and Wageningen University and Research Center in the Netherlands, with the support of some well-known domestic and international institutions, including the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the Agriculture Department of the Dutch Embassy in China, the Danish Agency for Science, Technology, and Innovation, the Swiss Center for Science, Technology and Culture, and Bayer CropScience. The competition will help people to realize that agriculture does not mean “backward”, but can also be “high tech”.
This competition is a big step forward in exploring how to do the digital transformation of agriculture. The final results show that with the support of technologies, not only can production costs be significantly reduced and manpower costs liberated, but also the yield, flavor, and nutritional value of tomatoes grown is higher compared to traditional agricultural methods. It is clear that if information technology is applied to other crops and other industries, it will also achieve the results of smart agriculture on the ground.
Digital agriculture has great promise and will attract more young talent to the field, and China has begun the digital agriculture journey.
Das Tarimbecken liegt zwischen dem Tianshan-Gebirge, dem Kunlunshan-Gebirge, dem A’erjinshan-Gebirge und dem Pamir-Plateau. Mit einer Fläche von rund 530.000 km2 ist es das größte Binnenbecken Chinas und der Welt. Es ist von hohen Bergen umgeben und das Klima ist extrem trocken.
Das Tarimbecken hat eine typische kugelförmige Form von den Rändern zur Mitte. Von außen nach innen treffen wir nacheinander auf den steinigen Gürtel der Wüste Gobi, auf Oasen und die Wüste.
Der äußere Teil des Beckens besteht aus steinigem „Erg“. Dieser „Erg“ hat einen sehr durchlässigen Boden, in den das Wasser der Sommerschmelze sofort einsickert, was die permanente Trockenheit des Bodens der Wüste Gobi erklärt.
Im Inneren des Erg liegt ein Oasengürtel. Die Vegetation ist üppig, die Wälder sind dicht, die Wasserwege verzweigen sich in alle Richtungen, die Felder sind riesig, die Wirtschaft ist entwickelt, und der größte Teil der Bevölkerung des Beckens ist dort konzentriert.
Das Tarimbecken ist äußerst reich an Erdöl und Erdgas.
Wenn wir über die Geografie hinausgehen, können wir uns daran erinnern, dass 1990 dort die „Mumien des Tarim“ gefunden wurden, eine Reihe von Mumien des europiden Typs aus dem 2. und 1. Jahrtausend vor Christus. Sie wurden in Westchina, im Tarimbecken, entdeckt.
In der Kaffeewelt gibt es immer wieder neue Spieler, und dieses Mal ist es der chinesische Sportriese Li-Ning, der ein führender Hersteller von Sportartikeln in China, der überwiegend mit der Marke Li-Ning am Markt vertreten ist.
Li-Ning Sports (Shanghai) GmbH hat die Eintragung der Marke „NING COFFEE“ beantragt. Das Kaffeegeschäft von Li-Ning ist zu einem heißen Thema im Investitionskreis geworden.
Nach Angaben der Statistikfirma iiMedia Research hatte der chinesische Kaffeemarkt im Jahr 2021 ein Volumen von 381,7 Milliarden Yuan RMB. Und es wird erwartet, dass der inländische Kaffeemarkt weiterhin mit einer Wachstumsrate von 27,2 Prozent wächst und das Marktvolumen in China im Jahr 2025 1000 Milliarden Yuan RMB erreichen wird. Angesichts eines solch riesigen Wachstumsmarktes können die traditionellen Giganten nicht stillsitzen. In den vergangenen Jahren sind neben Li-Ning, die Restaurantkette GoBelieve, das TCM-Unternehmen Tong Ren Tang, China Post und dann PetroChina und Sinopec ins Kaffeegeschäft eingestiegen.
Warum macht Li-Ning das Kaffeegeschäft? „Es ist immer noch ein eher exploratives Geschäftskonzept.“ Über das derzeitige grenzüberschreitende Geschäftsverhalten von Li-Ning spekulierte ein Fachmann für Markenmarketing. Seiner Meinung nach ist es nicht verwunderlich, dass Li-Ning an dem Wettbewerb in der Kaffeewelt teilgenommen hat. Selbst wenn Li-Ning seine Produkte mit Kaffee erweitert, steht dies im Einklang mit seiner Wachstumsstrategie.
Kaffee ist heute ein Geschäft für junge Leute. Li-Ning Sports hat sich in den vergangenen Jahren durch die China-Chic-Kleidung von der Talsohle erholt. Um die jungen Leute zu halten, reicht es jedoch nicht aus, sich allein auf die China-Chic-Produkte zu verlassen. Angesichts des harten Wettbewerbs in der Bekleidungsindustrie wird Li-Ning wieder auf den letzten Platz zurückfallen, wenn es die Gunst der jungen Leute verliert. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt ist es für Li-Ning wichtig, einen neuen Weg einzuschlagen, um mit seinen Wettbewerbern um die Augen und Geldbörsen der jungen Leute zu konkurrieren. Wie alle anderen hat auch Li-Ning den Kaffee ins Visier genommen.
Im Vergleich zu anderen Branchen hat Kaffee eine niedrige Einstiegshürde und ein unkompliziertes Modell mit hohem Gewinn. Li-Ning hat den Vorteil, dass es über eigene Vertriebskanäle verfügt. Die Daten zeigen, dass die Zahl der Li-Ning-Verkaufsstellen auf dem chinesischen Markt am 31. März 2022 insgesamt 5872 betrug. Im Jahr 2020 beliefen sich die Marketingausgaben von Li-Ning auf 1,28 Milliarden Yuan RMB.
Die Vorteile von Li-Ning sind jedoch nicht gleichbedeutend mit einem Sieg. Li-Nings eigene sportliche DNA scheint nicht gut zu Kaffee zu passen, was einer seiner Nachteile ist. Es bleibt abzuwarten, ob Li-Ning in der Kaffeewelt erfolgreich werden kann.
