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Putin and Trump Grapple with Legal Challenges

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In the span of only about a week, Vladimir Putin was issued an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for ongoing war crimes, while Donald Trump looks set to be indicted on felony charges in a Manhattan courtroom. These twin developments seem to signal the beginning of the end of impunity for the world’s two most destructive, authoritarian leaders in a generation, the Hitler and Mussolini of our day, as the democratic world responds to this new breed of violent fascism.

Their crimes are numerous, and extensively documented, and perhaps finally the law will confront these two autocrats with a fondness for unleashing political violence, and terror.

Indeed, Putin launched a brutal war of aggression in the heart of Europe, starting the largest and bloodiest conflict since the Second World War. Trump attempted to defy America’s voters, and keep himself in office with lies, pressure, political violence, and ultimately a siege of the U.S. Capitol, unsuccessfully attacking American democracy from within. 

For years, they’ve been intimate partners, bound together in their mutual loathing for Western democratic values, and their violent lust for absolute power. Putin played Trump’s political benefactor, interfering in the 2016 election on his behalf, and enabling his rise to power. In office, Trump returned the favor by weakening America on the global stage, and groveling before Putin in public, siding with him over his own intelligence agencies. He nearly destroyed NATO, and savaged America’s traditional alliances, even as he offered rhetorical and political support to his patron in the Kremlin.

These two men represent humanity’s darkest impulses, toward violent domination, autocracy, political extremism, war crimes, hatred, and genocide. Their poisonous partnership is the nexus of modern global fascism, and right-wing radicalism, on both sides of the Atlantic.

Now, the two aging tyrants are finally facing at least the prospect of justice for their crimes, as one prosecutes a cataclysmic failed war in Ukraine, while the other attempts to finish off the ailing democracy he once led, with a third run at the presidency. It’s a moment of hope, and peril.

An element of genocide

“What the nations can offer in the way of good blood of our type, we will take, if necessary by kidnapping their children and raising them here with us.” 

That’s SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler speaking at an infamous secret address in Posen in October, 1943, where he discusses the Third Reich’s policies of ethnic annihilation. The abduction of children en masse is a classic feature of genocide, as articulated by the 20th century’s great genocidaire innovator, Himmler, in a Nazi policy now being widely replicated by Putin in Ukraine.

Indeed, Putin was issued an arrest warrant last week for his role in the abduction of tens of thousands of Ukraine’s children, treated as spoils of war by his regime, and forcibly resettled in Russia at gunpoint. However, this is merely one element of the Kremlin’s larger policy of national and cultural extermination, amid the raining bombs and bullets, as Putin attempts to erase Ukraine from the map. 

The Russian dictator has declared the “historical unity” of Russia and Ukraine, arguing that Ukraine as such does not exist, as he goes about trying to annihilate Ukrainians physically, politically, culturally, linguistically, and nationally. He’s razed their cities, slaughtered their civilians, stolen their children, and annexed their territory, using his nuclear weapons to guarantee freedom of action, in what amounts to the gravest threat to global peace and stability since Adolf Hitler’s Wehrmacht began to devour Europe.

But the Russian military has been utterly unable to stanch fierce resistance, consolidate territorial gains, nor defeat Ukraine’s forces on the battlefield, leading to a protracted bloodbath, as the Western world arms Ukraine to fight back. As the Biden administration leads a coalition of countries to defy Russian aggression, by arming Ukraine to the teeth, Putin’s campaign is in serious jeopardy.

He has failed to subdue or absorb Ukraine, instead embroiling Russia in a strategic nightmare, producing a catastrophic waste of human life, losing hundreds of thousands of his soldiers to casualties, while inflicting mass terror on Ukraine’s towns and cities. After a long delay, the West is now speeding main battle tanks, air defense systems, and long range missile systems into Ukraine, as the war reaches a critical turning point, amid expected Ukrainian counteroffensives.

But Putin has several cards left to play. He was meeting today with his most important international partner, Chinese President Xi Jinping, during a warm three-day summit at the Kremlin in Moscow, where he was received with endless pomp and circumstance. Amid the touted diplomatic friendship, there’s still no sign the Chinese intend to deliver weapons or matériel to Moscow; instead, Xi’s providing crucial political and economic support, or what Secretary of State Antony Blinken called “diplomatic cover” for Putin’s war crimes.

However, Putin has other well-placed allies.

His ideological partners in the United States are beginning to reassert themselves in Washington, as Donald Trump and his lesser protege, Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis, enter the presidential race by declaring they would end American assistance to Ukraine, effectively handing it over to Putin. 

The Trump case

Thus, Donald Trump’s possible criminal indictment is reverberating from Washington to New York to Moscow to Kyiv. If the expected indictment does go through, it’s likely to carry inherently unpredictable effects into the budding presidential race, particularly within the Republican Party.

Presumably, it could either strengthen or weaken Trump’s chances in the upcoming primaries, and lead to far-reaching political consequences in the United States of America. Certainly, the Kremlin will be paying extraordinarily close attention, at a moment that could be pivotal for its war effort in Kyiv, and much else.

An indictment could potentially spell the beginning of the end of Trump’s long stranglehold over the Republican Party, offering an opening to DeSantis and others eager to move on from his poisonous leadership, or it could strengthen his grip. After all, he’s survived numerous crises that would’ve permanently ended the careers of most politicians several times over.

And yet, he’s never been arrested, or tried. 

It’s something he’s been afraid of his entire life, apparently, leading him to burnish his links with prosecutors in New York. But he has no way to prevent the prosecutors now pursuing him.

Aftermath

This could be the beginning of a ferocious power struggle in the GOP, and see the morphing of Trumpism from a mainstream political movement into a violent right-wing insurgency, to the extent it already isn’t one.

It’s impossible to predict, especially with an uncertain future outcome in court. It could presage a further cascade of criminal charges, with at least four extremely serious criminal investigations currently pending, for hoarding classified documents and instigating a failed coup d’etat, among other inquiries, whereas a failure could doom efforts to hold Trump accountable.

In any case, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin’s destinies remain intertwined, as ever, as both men face the first real consequences from their long and ruthless political careers. Suddenly, Putin faces limitations on his movements, and a barrier to travel in the 123 nations that have signed the Rome Statute (China, U.S., and Russia have not signed those accords).

Trump, for his part, faces the real prospect of being fingerprinted, possibly even handcuffed, and of course incarcerated, however unlikely that might be. Still, it’s something that is reportedly giving him great anxiety, although he apparently craves a “perp-walk” to enrage and galvanize his followers, telling associates it would be a fun experience, according to the New York Times.

Certainly, these legal developments are historic, carrying grave implications for American democracy, but also geopolitically. It’s a moment that’s fraught with tension, and truly unprecedented, as a former American president again seeking the presidency faces the prospect of arrest, and trial.

For a country that’s been traumatized, and battered, by Trump and his minions, it’s been a long time coming. It’s a moment of anxiety and high hope, that finally justice will hold this sociopathic criminal accountable for his wrongdoing, and protect American democracy from a would-be dictator.

But with House Republicans already trying to obstruct justice, and interfere with the prosecution that hasn’t even begun, there are also dark possibilities to contemplate. The United States would be deeply destabilized by a failed prosecution, leaving Trump more powerful, his radicalized party more united around him. 

In other words, there are real risks to indicting the Republican frontrunner, and a former American president. However, the risks of not indicting Trump are clear: a lawless nation without recourse to justice, or the rule of law, and the death of our democracy. It’s the kind of country Trump wishes America to be, where the strong cull the weak, and powerful men get away with murder.

If we want to avoid living in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, this is the price. It’s the price of democracy, and freedom from tyranny. Of course, Trump is already wielding his supporters like a cudgel, and he will do everything in his power to obstruct justice, and destabilize the country.

It won’t be easy, but democracy never is. 

Views expressed are the author’s own

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The Lingering Effects of U.S. Crimes in Iraq: 20 Years Later

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Though 20 years have passed since the United States launched a blatant invasion into the sovereign state of Iraq, justice has not been done for Iraq and its people, many of whom are still suffering from the pain created by the unjust war.

During the more than eight-year war and ensuing years of violence after the 2011 U.S. pullout, more than 200,000 civilians were killed and over 9 million others displaced in Iraq. Much of the country’s infrastructure was also destroyed during the relentless bombings launched by the U.S.-led coalition.

As a result, Iraq, a rich country before the invasion, had quickly degenerated into a poor state and is still mired in poverty and chaos due to the political instability and economic hardship caused by the U.S. invasion and its impact.

The U.S. government justified its invasion into Iraq on concocted lies about Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction, but no trace of such weapons has been found until today. On this point, Washington owes Iraq and the international community a thorough explanation.

Iraq has neither received any formal apology from Washington for its illegal invasion, nor got any financial compensation for the massive destruction of its infrastructure and the crimes committed by U.S. troops against Iraqi civilians.

Meanwhile, none of those in Washington who made the decision to invade a sovereign state in blatant violation of the United Nations Charter has been brought to justice. None of those who encouraged or committed the heinous war crimes against civilians in Iraq has been truly prosecuted.

Worse still, if those who committed such crimes as invading a sovereign country could escape any punishment, they will repeat them again and again. As long as the United States continues its hegemonic and belligerent policies, the world will never be peaceful.

Indeed, with its previous crimes unpunished, the United States regards itself as being above the UN charter and other norms guiding the international order. Thus Washington is always tempted to repeat such crimes to serve its own interests, as shown by its launch of airstrikes against Libya and Syria not long after the Iraq War.

Even today, U.S. politicians insist that invading Iraq and ousting its government was a right thing to do. Washington still readily threatens to use force to interfere in the internal affairs of any other country that refuses to obey its orders. The world continues to live under the shadow of war and insecurity.

History has proven that though claiming itself as “peace lover,” the United States is indeed a “war empire.” Ever since its founding in 1776, the country has been at war for 93 percent of its existence. Even former U.S. President Jimmy Carter admitted that the U.S. is undoubtedly the most warlike nation in history.

Though little can be done to bring the American warmongers and criminals to justice for now because the United States remains the sole superpower, it is believed that the time of atonement will eventually come.

Justice could be late, but won’t be absent forever.

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Unpacking the Factors Behind the Dismantling of the U.S. Banking System

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The breakup of banks that is now occurring in the United States is the inevitable result of the way in which the Obama administration bailed out the banks in 2008.

When real estate prices collapsed, the Federal Reserve flooded the financial system with 15 years of quantitative easing (QE) to re-inflate real estate prices—and with them, stock and bond prices.

What was inflated were asset prices, above all for the packaged mortgages that banks were holding, but also for stocks and bonds across the board. That is what bank credit does.

This made trillions of dollars for holders of financial assets—the One Percent and a bit more.

The economy polarized as stock prices recovered, the cost of home ownership soared (on low-interest mortgages), and the U.S. economy experienced the largest bond-market boom in history, as interest rates fell below 1%.

But in serving the financial sector, the Fed painted itself into a corner. What would happen when interest rates finally rose?

Rising interest rates cause bond prices to fall. And that is what has been happening under the Fed’s fight against “inflation,” by which it means rising wage levels.

Prices are plunging for bonds, and also for the capitalized value of packaged mortgages and other securities in which banks hold their assets against depositors.

The result today is similar to the situation that savings and loan associations (S&Ls) found themselves in the 1980s, leading to their demise.

S&Ls had made long-term mortgages at affordable interest rates. But in the wake of the Volcker inflation, the overall level of interest rates rose.

S&Ls could not pay their depositors higher rates, because their revenue from their mortgages was fixed at lower rates. So depositors withdrew their money.

To obtain the money to pay these depositors, S&Ls had to sell their mortgages. But the face value of these debts was lower, as a result of higher rates. The S&Ls (and many banks) owed money to depositors short-term, but were locked into long-term assets at falling prices.

Of course, S&L mortgages were much longer-term than was the case for commercial banks. And presumably, banks can turn over assets for the Fed’s line of credit.

But just as QE was followed to bolster the banks, its unwinding must have the reverse effect. And if it has made a bad derivatives trade, it’s in trouble.

Any bank has a problem of keeping its asset prices up with its deposit liabilities. When there is a crash in bond prices, the bank’s asset structure weakens. That is the corner into which the Fed has painted the economy.

Recognition of this problem led the Fed to avoid it for as long as it could. But when employment began to pick up and wages began to recover, the Fed could not resist fighting the usual class war against labor. And it has turned into a war against the banking system as well.

Silvergate was the first to go. It had sought to ride the cryptocurrency wave, by serving as a bank for various brand names.

After vast fraud by Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) was exposed, there was a run on cryptocurrencies. Their managers paid by withdrawing the deposits they had at the banks—above all, Silvergate. It went under. And with Silvergate went many cryptocurrency deposits.

The popular impression was that crypto provided an alternative to commercial banks and “fiat currency.” But what could crypto funds invest in to back their coin purchases, if not bank deposits and government securities or private stocks and bonds?

What was crypto, ultimately, if not simply a mutual fund with secrecy of ownership to protect money launderers?

Silvergate was a “special case,” given its specialized deposit base. Silicon Valley Bank also was a specialized case, lending to IT startups. First Republic Bank was specialized, too, lending to wealthy depositors in San Francisco and the northern California area.

All had seen the market price of their financial securities decline as Chairman Jerome Powell raised the Fed’s interest rates. And now, their deposits were being withdrawn, forcing them to sell securities at a loss.

Reuters reported on March 10 that bank reserves at the Fed were plunging. That hardly is surprising, as banks are paying about 0.2% on deposits, while depositors can withdraw their money to buy two-year U.S. Treasury notes yielding 3.8% or almost 4%. No wonder well-to-do investors are running from the banks.

This is the quandary in which banks—and behind them, the Fed—find themselves.

The obvious question is why the Fed doesn’t simply bail them out. The problem is that the falling prices for long-term bank assets in the face of short-term deposit liabilities now looks like the new normal.

The Fed can lend to banks for their current short-fall, but how can solvency be resolved without sharply reducing interest rates to restore the 15-year, abnormal Zero Interest-Rate Policy (ZIRP)?

Interest yields spiked on March 10. As more workers were being hired than was expected, Mr. Powell announced that the Fed might have to raise interest rates even higher than he had warned. Volatility increased.

And with it came a source of turmoil that has reached vast magnitudes beyond what caused the 2008 crash of AIG and other speculators: derivatives.

JP Morgan Chase and other New York banks have tens of trillions of dollars worth of derivatives—that is, casino bets on which way interest rates, bond prices, stock prices, and other measures will change. For every winning guess, there is a loser.

When trillions of dollars are bet on, some bank trader is bound to wind up with a loss that can easily wipe out the bank’s entire net equity.

There is now a flight to “cash,” to a safe haven—something even better than cash: U.S. Treasury securities. Despite the talk of Republicans refusing to raise the debt ceiling, the Treasury can always print the money to pay its bondholders.

It looks like the Treasury will become the new depository of choice for those who have the financial resources. Bank deposits will fall. And with them, bank holdings of reserves at the Fed.

So far, the stock market has resisted following the plunge in bond prices. My guess is that we will now see the Great Unwinding of the great Fictitious Capital boom of 2008-2015.

So the chickens are coming hope to roost—with the “chickens” being, perhaps, the elephantine overhang of derivatives.

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Bridge over Troubled Gulf Waters – An American Viewpoint

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The restoration of diplomatic ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia has garnered curious allusions of doom and gloom, if not outright shock and awe, over Israel’s back channel security dialogue with the Kingdom,  not to mention damage to U.S. interests in the region. The New York Times captured it as “the topsiest and turviest of developments anyone could have imagined, a shift that left heads spinning in capitals around the globe.” And in a separate piece, it quoted  Mark Dubowitz, chief executive of the arguably hawkish Foundation for Defense of Democracies that “Renewed Iran-Saudi ties as a result of Chinese mediation is a lose, lose, lose for American interests.”

But the Times wasn’t alone. Twitter was replete with nightmarish scenarios for U.S. influence and prestige in the Middle East and concern in Tel Aviv even as the Biden administration outwardly welcomed the development. John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, expressed skepticism that Iran would honor its commitments to abstain from violence or interference in the Kingdom’s internal affairs, but acknowledged how the development could serve in defusing regional tensions and possibly ending the war in Yemen. Friction between Iran and its neighbors across the Gulf  account for Yemen’s horrendous humanitarian crisis, energy-market rattling missile strikes against the Kingdom and United Arab Emirates, and Tehran’s meddling among Saudi’s Arabia’s disenfranchised Shia community. Reducing that is in Washington and Tel Aviv’s interest, regardless who gets the credit.  

The reality is that Iran and Saudi Arabia have been walking back their mutual escalation of provocative words and deeds for quite some time.

Representatives, generally from the nation’s respective intelligence services, have conducted meetings brokered respectively by the Iraqis and Omanis for at least the last two years. And while the Saudis certainly don’t tell the U.S. everything, my direct experience in this dialogue is consistent with Washington’s assertion that it was kept in the loop and Israel was likewise hardly taken by surprise.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman began his de facto rule of the Kingdom flexing his military muscles in Yemen while making saber-rattling boasts concerning Iran. He even boldly suggested Riyadh would pursue its own nuclear program should the Iranians weaponize theirs. But reality set in after Saudi military failings in Yemen and Houthi attacks inside the Kingdom undermined Prince Mohammed’s superpower narrative.

The crown prince’s confidence in U.S. security guarantees wavered further following the September 2019 missile and drone attacks on Saudi Aramco facilities in Abqaiq and Khurais, which the U.S. acknowledged to have been Iranian facilitated. And Prince Mohammad did not take kindly to incoming President-elect Biden referring to him and the Kingdom as pariahs owing to persistent evidence of human rights violations and an intelligence community assessment the White House released holding him personally responsible for Jamal Khashoggi’s murder.

Ropes of Sand

Prince Mohammad’s political fortunes are largely dependent on whether Vision 2030 can deliver on the promise to diversify the country’s petrochemical-dependent economy and bring greater employment and increased housing. Neom, the high tech, futuristic $500 billion dollar city under construction in Saudi Arabia’s northwest is the centerpiece on which much else depends. Despite the influx of petrodollars owing to the war in Ukraine, Neom has struggled to meet its projected 2024 opening which, along with other setbacks, have shaped Prince Mohammad’s greater pragmatism. The opening to Iran, Yemen ceasefire and reversal of the Qatari boycott reflect such necessary pragmatism.

Nevertheless, the crown prince is demonstrating independence from what he sees as America’s unreliable protective blanket and looking for alternative security partners. Making the Biden White House look bad is just an added benefit-but that does not make for an existential threat to U.S. interests. Despite the Times’  hyperbole (and the Wall Street Journal’s earlier claim that “the relationship had hit the breaking point.”, there’s no evidence Prince Mohammad is prepared to sustain the enormous costs of converting the Kingdom’s well integrated and U.S.-dependent military infrastructure to Chinese or Russian weapons systems.

Moreover, in the most catastrophic scenario, China will not threaten to boycott Iranian oil on which it depends or project force in the Kingdom’s defense were Tehran to attack. But the Crown Prince is betting the U.S. wouldn’t stand by under such circumstances regardless of Riyadh’s friction with Washington, thereby providing him freedom to play the international field to serve his own political narrative.

The Saudi ruler also likes the prestige associated with American technology and its advanced battlefield-tested systems like those the Ukrainians are using to great effect against Russia-as does Prince Mohammed’s one-time ally and increasingly rival UAE’s President Mohamed Bin Zayed, who likewise endeavors to chart his own course. Were Prince Mohammed ever to petulantly jump off that ledge, as he’s certainly capable of impulsive, poorly calculated decisions, doing so could not possibly occur overnight and would leave the Kingdom’s American-centric infrastructure vulnerable.

The fact is that Riyadh has in recent years been scaling back defense spending to finance the crown prince’s grand economic programs. His aim appears to achieve a social contract of sorts cribbed from China to offset his people’s aspirations for political freedom in exchange for social reforms and comfortable lives. 

That’s not to totally dismiss the China card. Prince Mohammed has for some time been looking to China for support in developing Saudi Arabia’s own ballistic missile capability, as well as a pilot nuclear program, and Beijing is only too happy to help. The Intercept reported that part of DCIA Burns’ April 2022 travel to the Kingdom was to dissuade the Crown Prince from procuring fully assembled Chinese ballistic missiles as a deterrent against, or response to, Iran. 

Mind the Gap

But beyond the smiles and handshakes recently choreographed in Beijing, the Crown Prince appears interested in addressing defense gaps relative to Iran whose threat is not going away. China is likely to accommodate capabilities the U.S. would rather withhold making it likely Prince Mohammed will pursue a broad range of military and economic opportunities with Beijing, but avoid an either-or choice with the U.S. 

China, for its part, will eagerly work to erode and replace U.S. regional influence in a region which accounts for much of its energy supplies. As reflected by news that Beijing is working to host a summit among Iran and its Gulf Cooperation Council neighbors, Chinese leaders hope to reap the lucrative economic opportunities and likewise solidify its image as the preeminent and most reliable world power. Money talks, and face is critical in this region where rulers all strive to appear strong and independent of foreign influence, but no Gulf ruler is going to stake their Kingdoms on Chinese security guarantees-or weapons.

Spy Ties

As for Israel, the development similarly falls short of a doomsday event. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would surely value the political gains at home and abroad of securing normalization with Saudi Arabia, coming as it would at both Iran’s and the Palestinians’ expense. But the truth is that Israel’s security back channel with Saudi Arabia has been ongoing for years and across far more challenging political climates. Benny Gantz, while the Israeli army’s chief of staff, then Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, and former directors of the National Security Council Yossi Cohen and Meir Ben-Shabbat have all travelled to the Kingdom in recent years. 

Moreover, a November 2020 Washington Post story quoting Israeli media and claiming confirmation from an anonymous Israeli intelligence official reported that Netanyahu himself, traveling with then Mossad Chief Cohen, met Prince Mohammed personally. The gathering occurred in Neom, the same Saudi futuristic city under development, along with then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Israeli-Saudi cooperation concerning Iran is not going to end, but rather remain in the shadows, for the time being. After all, Iran remains a far more likely military threat. Tehran’s hardline leaders will not order the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to abandon the Kingdom’s Shi’a, whose unrest could undermine Prince Mohammed’s veneer of strength, and threaten the nation’s Northeastern oil epicenter.

It has been vintage Prince Mohammed to quickly follow-up any acts of defiance with the White House, as was the case with last year’s oil production cut, with messaging and appeals to the American public. This appears the case with the Kingdom’s sudden revelation of its willingness to establish ties with Israel. Riyadh went on an info spree in the U.S. following the October cuts to justify the measure, during which it issued statements and used proxies to  highlight its good deeds and philanthropic efforts, including gifts to American universities. 

More practically, however, Prince Mohammed is unlikely to normalize relations with Israel absent the creation of a Palestinian state while his father lives. Palestinian statehood is dear to King Salman’s heart, assuming health has not incapacitated him, the King having played a major role in developing the thrice Arab League endorsed 2002 Arab Peace Initiative. The plan offers Arab states’ recognition and normalization of ties with Israel in exchange for its withdrawal from occupied territories, a just settlement, and a Palestinian state. A frail King Salman reassured Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his own public while still seen conducting meetings in May 2021, as he had after the U.S. pushed Riyadh throughout 2020 to join the Abraham Peace Accords, that Saudi Arabia remained committed to the 2002 framework and would not forsake the Palestinians.

Source: Spytalk  

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Mexican president dismisses U.S. travel advisories

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Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday dismissed U.S. State Department travel advisories that recommend Americans avoid vacationing in Mexico.

“Mexico is safer than the United States,” Lopez Obrador told reporters at his daily press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City.

“There is no problem whatsoever for traveling safely through Mexico,” he added.

According to the president, Mexico is safe and there are increasingly more Americans who have come to reside in the country in recent years.

The U.S. State Department has issued travel advisories for Mexican destinations, including “do not travel” warnings for several states marred by drug violence.

The advisories are part of “a campaign” against Mexico, mainly by “conservative” U.S. politicians who disagree with Mexico’s current reformist agenda, said Lopez Obrador.

Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard was to meet Monday with Mexican consuls in Washington to report on the measures the government is taking against crime and drug trafficking, he said.  

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Photo: Meal Diplomacy — Julie’s Campaign  

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March 13, 2023: This morning, U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung visited the St. John Maha Vidyalaya, Colombo 15, to serve the morning meal to students. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP) provide rice, fortified with folic acid and iron, and pulses to complement the Government of Sri Lanka’s school meal program in nearly 8000 schools across the island, US embassy in a press communiqué has noted.

“The USAID-WFP food will reach one million children across Sri Lanka this year. The school feeding project is among the more than $270 million in new support that the United States has announced over the last year to assist Sri Lankans in recovering from the economic crisis,” the statement added.

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Racism against Asian Americans — a long, ugly chapter in U.S. history

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On the morning of Feb. 13, 2022, 35-year-old Christina Yuna Lee was found dead in her bathroom stabbed 40 times after a man, Assamad Nash, silently followed her up six flights of stairs into her lower Manhattan apartment, only because of her Asian descent.

Following the random yet violent murder, mourners placed flowers, candles, photos and cardboard signs condemning anti-Asian hatred outside the residential building. However, the makeshift memorial for the Korean-American victim was repeatedly vandalized.

Every attack on the memorial is pretty much anti-Asian and “it is very scary now,” said Brian Chin, Lee’s former landlord, whose family came to the United States from China six decades ago. “They’re doing it with hate.”

Lee’s tragedy and similar racist incidents are just the tip of the iceberg regarding anti-Asian racism in the country.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, some U.S. politicians have blatantly spread and hyped up conspiracy theories to shift the blame for their failed response to the contagion onto Asian Americans, causing a surge in anti-Asian hate crimes.

Over three years into the pandemic, the U.S. government, turning a blind eye to science and basic facts, recently introduced discriminatory restrictions targeting tourists arriving from China, raising concerns about further aggravating the situation.

“THEY DON’T DARE GO OUTSIDE”

In the past few years, shocking racist attacks against Asian Americans have occurred frequently in the United States.

For instance, on July 14, 2020, in New York City, an 89-year-old Chinese American woman was slapped in the face by two male strangers on the street, and when she tried to escape, the men set her clothes on fire from behind.

On Aug. 30, 2021, an elderly Filipino woman was pushed down the stairs by a white man in Rego Park Subway Station in Queens, New York, resulting in her sustaining serious facial and physical injuries.

Jenny H., in her 60s, has been living in San Francisco for more than 30 years. She didn’t give her full name to Xinhua for fear that she would again become a target of racial assaults after the interview.

The lady used to like going outside, doing voluntary work, talking to strangers on buses … though such a life is now nothing but a distant memory to her.

In 2020, she had her bones broken in a subway station after someone violently pushed her to the ground. Furthermore, she was once hit in the face by a bus passenger, leaving permanent damage to her eye. Nowadays, she must go to the hospital every three months for a medical checkup, but other than that, she doesn’t dare to go outside amid the spike in Asiaphobia.

Some U.S. politicians bear a great deal of responsibility for this situation, as they tend to scapegoat the Asian community and deliberately stoke xenophobia and racism to cover up their own incompetencies in solving domestic political problems.

Haipei Shue, president of United Chinese Americans, an Asian American advocacy group, told Xinhua that the United States is regressing in the fight against racial discrimination at an alarming rate.

In 2021, hate crimes against Asian Americans rose sharply by 339 percent compared with 2020, showed data from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, a U.S. nonpartisan research and policy center.

Between March 2020 and December 2021, nearly 11,000 hate incidents against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders were reported to the national coalition Stop Asian American and Pacific Islander Hate. One in five incidents occurred as an attacker attributed the impact of COVID-19, income volatility and other problems to Asians and Asian Americans.

In March 2021, Robert Aaron Long, a 21-year-old white man, opened fire in three Asian Massage shops and spas in Atlanta with a gun, killing eight people, including six Asian women.

When addressing a speech at Emory University, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said, “Racism is real in America, and it has always been there. Xenophobia is real in America, and always has been.”

“Asian Americans have been attacked and scapegoated,” she said. “People with the biggest pulpits spreading this kind of hate.”

In May 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden signed the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act. Yet a study published by Pew Research Center in May 2022 showed about six in ten Asian adults see violence against Asian Americans in the United States as increasing, while 19 percent say there has not been much change.

ANTI-ASIAN AMERICAN RACISM IN U.S. HISTORY

In June 2005, construction crews unearthed bones and artifacts while widening a road to make room for the Gold Line rail extension to east Los Angeles. Archaeologists later found 174 burial sites, some dating back as far as the 1880s. A few had headstones with engravings in Chinese, and some contained artifacts such as teapots and jade jewelry.

Historians believe the site was once a potter’s field, a cemetery for the poor, that was lost to developments in the 1920s. Many Chinese were buried there because they were not allowed to be buried among whites in the nearby Evergreen Cemetery.

In 1863, the United States embarked on the Pacific Railroad project, North America’s very first transcontinental railroad, and recruited some 12,000 Chinese workers to construct the project under extremely dangerous and challenging conditions.

Over five consecutive months between late 1865 and early 1866, more than 3,000 Chinese railway workers were killed in avalanches caused by frequent snowstorms. The victims, in ragged clothes and barefoot, were not discovered until the snow melted months later.

Despite their historical contributions to U.S. development, Chinese Americans have become victims of social repulsion and racial violence.

In 1854, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Asian Americans were not and could not be citizens in a case, and such restrictions on Asian Americans’ access to citizenship were not finally abolished until around the 1940s.

The earliest record of organized violence against Asian Americans was in 1871, when a group of whites rushed into an Asian community near Los Angeles’ Chinatown, shooting and hanging 21 Chinese Americans to death, burning down the community, and driving the residents out of the city.

The severe prejudice against Asian Americans eventually led to the prohibition of Chinese immigrants in the United States with the enactment of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which stayed in force until 1943.

The sin of racial discrimination is deeply rooted in U.S. history, with the Chinese Exclusion Act being one epitome, said Shue, head of the above-mentioned Chinese Americans advocacy group. Targeting and suppressing a specific ethnic group, the law has caused irreparable harm to Chinese Americans.

On the night of June 19, 1982, 27-year-old Chinese American Vincent Chin was beaten to death by two white autoworkers in the U.S. city of Detroit at a time when local politicians, union leaders and auto executives blamed Japan for the decline of the U.S. auto industry, and Chin was mistaken as a Japanese.

The two criminals were eventually fined 3,000 U.S. dollars and sentenced to probation. Charles Kaufman, a former U.S. judge who ruled the case, said, “These weren’t the kind of men you send to jail … You don’t make the punishment fit the crime; you make the punishment fit the criminal.”

“In 1982, Mr. Chin was made into a scapegoat not only for Japanese autoworkers and executives but also a deteriorating way of life for those once solidly in the middle class but quickly falling out of it,” wrote David Shih, a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin, in an opinion piece published in The New York Times last year.

Today, Asian Americans are also “the scapegoat for a fading sense of well-being in a market-driven and hypercompetitive society,” Shih said.

“IT’S A DEEP-ROOTED PROBLEM”

Earlier this year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention instituted discriminatory entry restrictions against China, requiring travelers flying from China to the United States to provide negative COVID-19 test results taken within two days of departure or proof of recovery from the disease within 90 days.

Jonathan Reiner, a professor of medicine and surgery at the George Washington University School, tweeted in response that “The U.S. plan to require travelers from China to be tested prior to departure is mostly performative,” adding “The Chinese testing is just a gesture.”

The policy itself isn’t the main concern, but rather the larger anti-Chinese environment under which the rule has been imposed. And it’s an issue that extends beyond the pandemic, said John C. Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice.

“We are concerned that that is another place where it will be an excuse to China-bash and thereby cause a backlash against Chinese Americans and the Asian American community as a whole,” Yang said.

Just about a week after the entry restrictions took effect, an 18-year-old Asian woman at Indiana University Bloomington was attacked and stabbed several times in the head by a 56-year-old white woman with a knife on a bus. The suspect told police that her target was “Chinese” and it “would be one less person to blow up our country.”

Huping Ling, a renowned U.S. historian focusing on Asian American studies, said xenophobic violence against Asian Americans has deep historical roots in the United States. She pointed out in her book “Asian American History and Culture: An Encyclopedia” that driven by racially biased and discriminatory laws and policies, xenophobic violence began with the first wave of Chinese immigrants to the United States and has been repeated ever since.

Li Minjin, an Asian-American writer who grew up in Queens, New York, said in an interview with American media that no matter how educated Asian Americans are or how safe their communities are, they are likely to encounter insults and attacks, and may even be killed. This is the historical result of the long-term persecution of the Asian community.

Some scholars argue that unlike discrimination against African Americans, discrimination against Asian Americans in U.S. society has been xenophobic historically. At its core, from its psychological roots, is a view of “alienating Asians permanently.”

Chinese-American historian Erika Lee wrote in the book “The Making of Asian America: A History” that while the discriminatory laws of the past have been repealed, Asian Americans have not achieved full equality in American society. Many Asians settled in the United States generations ago but are still considered outsiders, which has allowed discrimination against them and made them the target of violence, murder, and hate crimes.

Chinese-American writer and journalist Katherine Chen admitted in a review article that for many years, she has felt like an outsider in the United States, with no choice but to alienate her ethnic traditions and culture. Asian-American groups were beaten, stabbed, or pushed onto subway tracks, but “what happened to us was not noticed among our peers, nor in history textbooks and civil rights speeches,” she said.

In a broader sense, anti-Asian racism is one manifestation of systemic racial discrimination in the United States. Like African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans and other ethnic minorities, Asians have all been objects of discrimination and oppression by “white supremacists” in the United States for a long time. They are also the victims of racial hatred and antagonism incited by U.S. politicians who are acting out of their own interests.

“We are a nation of immigrants with a history of discrimination and exploitation of minority groups. We are still learning from the mistakes of the past. Asian Americans have contributed mightily to the success of the United States, but there is still much work to be done to treat Asian Americans as Americans,” said Committee of 100 President Huang Zhengyu.

The fight against racist words and actions of certain politicians and leaders towards the Asian American community as well as long-held stereotypes is staged on a daily basis, Huang added.

Zhang Yunhan, a tea shop owner in Washington, D.C., was subject to anti-Asian attack, and he believes that the surge in hate crimes in the wake of COVID-19 is a culmination of the racism that has plagued the United States for centuries. “It’s not going to go away. It’s a deep-rooted problem,” he told Xinhua.

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The World Gone Wrong: The USA Proxy War Against Russia will Unleash Hell

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“The United States will provide Ukraine with a new $500 million infusion of aid to help the government in Kyiv continue paying salaries, pensions and providing services, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Thursday. Yellen detailed the assistance following her meeting Wednesday with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Finance Minister Sergiy Marchenko, saying it was necessary to help their government continue to function…

‘The needs of Ukraine are urgent, and we plan to deploy this direct aid to Ukraine as soon as possible to be used on most urgent needs,’ Yellen said. NDTV.com

“In March, 32 states will begin cutting food stamp benefits for more than 30 million Americans, leading toward what some are referring to as a “hunger cliff.” This will mean that poor households will lose about $82 a month in SNAP [also known as food stamps] benefits, even as food prices continue to soar from inflation. (The other 18 states had already ended their emergency food assistance programs.)…The number of infants in Mississippi being treated for congenital syphilis has jumped by more than 900% over the last five years. In 2021, the state was given a federal grant of $18.4 million to hire public health care workers. It spent only $3.6 million.” Jeffrey St. Clair, Roaming Charges, Counterpunch

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If you complain about the billions of dollars going to prop up Ukraine’s corrupt and dictatorial government (pay their pensions, for example) you are branded a “Putin Apologist” by both democrats (particularly) and republicans alike. What gives?

Many Americans are critical of Biden’s scheming on Ukraine because they never got to have a vote in this multibillion dollar transfer of wealth and machinery to one of the most corrupt nation’s in the world. If ever there were a case for a national referendum in the USA, it would have been over this issue. Biden came to the podium one day about a year ago and essentially said, “The USA is sanctioning everything Russian and propping up our newest puppet, Zelensky. If you don’t like it, lump it.”

Republicans hate the thought of the hungry (children, too) and homeless in America getting any sort of handout from the US federal government, but they support handouts to a half-baked racist country called Ukraine which is happily ripping off US taxpayers with the blessing of America’s most virulent Russia haters like Anthony Blinken and Victoria Nuland, who are akin to sharks during a feeding frenzy when discussing anything Russian.

Guess what? Roughly 24 percent of US enlisted personnel are “food insecure” and encouraged by the Pentagon to apply for SNAP benefits through the United States Department of Agriculture. “This summer [2022], DoD released a roadmap, Strengthening Food Security in the Force, which reveals that a shocking 24 percent of active duty service members experience some level of food insecurity, and it acknowledges the connections between hunger and mission readiness, troop retention and recruitment. It should be noted that this survey was done before the recent spike in inflation, so it is likely that this estimate is low.” American Enterprise Institute

That 24 percent figure doesn’t account for the million plus US veterans who depend on those SNAP “hand outs” to get by. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities reported that,“SNAP Helps 1.2 Million Low-Income Veterans, Including Thousands in Every State.”

Oh, and hose hungry active duty enlisted personnel are the ones who are going to go and fight the Russians in Europe, if Biden and Zelensky get their way.

And get this: We learn from the Watson Institute at Brown University the costs to care for veterans of post 9-11 wars are in the trillions. “Between 2001 and 2050, the total costs of caring for veterans of the post-9/11 wars are estimated to reach between $2.2 and $2.5 trillion. This includes the amount already paid in disability and related benefits and medical care, as well as the projected future cost of lifetime disability benefits and healthcare for those who have served in the military during these wars.”

How can we afford to give billions to Ukraine in the face of problems like these, not to mention antagonizing China in the Process?

War is coming for us all because of us all, it seems.

Lunatics in Charge of USA: Look Around!

I am wondering if “Corn Pop” Biden would have authorized an F-22 to shoot down Lawn Chair Larry.  One of Biden’s rationales for ordering shoot-downs was that the 2023 balloons were in airspace reserved for commercial aircraft (I wonder too what kind of medal those F-22 pilots were awarded). Anyway, according to Wikipedia, “ On July 2, 1982, Larry Walters made a 45-minute flight in a homemade aerostat made of an ordinary patio chair and 45 helium-filled weather balloons. The aircraft rose to an altitude of about 16,000 feet (4,900 m), drifted from the point of liftoff in San Pedro, California, and entered controlled airspace near Long Beach Airport. During the landing, the aircraft became entangled in power lines, but Walters was able to climb down safely.”

Zelensky is sure to appear at the Oscar Ceremony in March. Everyone will stand and applaud this man who is nothing but a wartime tyrant. How could he not be ruthless in this role? And his ruthlessness is on display in the manner in which he sacrifices his soldiers in battles they can’t possibly win, or in the elimination of all things Russian in Ukraine. He and his wife live the good life, sheltered and protected by his military only because he is the perfect pitchman. I can’t help but think of Jerry Lewis and his telethon each time I see Zelensky, tin cup in hand.

Don’t be surprised to see Zelensky throw out the ceremonial first pitch this coming American Major League Baseball season.

Critics

Others say that critics of Zelensky are little more than “Useful Idiots” of Putin. But to those critics Zelensky represents a waste of money, billions spent—or lost in the shadows— that could be used in the United States for SNAP, to improve rail safety, or even build a high speed rail that the US currently does not have, but China does. Better still, those billions could be used on healthcare improvements sorely needed in the USA.

Instead, we are once again aching for war. In fact, we’ve already got it by proxy. General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is fond of saying that the Russians have failed in Ukraine. Maybe so, but he has got losses in Iraq and Afghanistan on his record, nothing to be proud about. And yet Milley and all the other generals who punched tickets during those wars are not held accountable. They and the policymakers they obeyed brought no credit to their service, only a $2.5 trillion dollar VA bill.

This Ukraine war was never about that country’s independence, freedom, or the future of mankind. You can pull up all the maps you like showing NATO expansion and speeches from the West claiming that Russia wants a grand empire like the old Soviet Union. All these speeches are complete nonsense.

Putin was sucker punched by the USA/West. The American people took an uppercut from Biden who pretended to be a liberal and devote Catholic. He is neither.

US leaders don’t care about the people of Palestine, Ohio, who will ultimately be polluted to death by chemicals from a recent train derailment in an accident that may well have been mitigated if Biden had enforced regulations on brake safety, as St. Clair reported in Roaming Charges at Counterpunch.

They just don’t care.

“The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants and it provides the further advantage of giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience.” Albert Camus

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Beyond the China balloon?

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The flavour of the month is not Ukraine, but China, the pundits in the West, state Chinese State intelligence gathering has grown in ambition and scale, leaving the West to catch up.

The Chinese balloon which was first shot out of the sky off South Carolina on 4 February 2023 has now triggered a diplomatic crisis between Washington and Beijing. But the subsequent “hysteria” has led to at least three more unidentified being also shot down.

President Biden has said that the Yukon Territory, Canada and those taken down over, Deadhorse, in far Northern Alaska and Lake Huron in the US since the Chinese balloon incident, were not thought to be surveillance vehicles. They seem to be called UFO’s or UAP’s, perhaps sent up by balloon hobbyists in the US. Note the pun in “dead horse”.

Speaking in Japan, Liz Truss in her first public speech since her resignation addressing the Inter –Parliamentary Alliance on China has called on the international community to agree on a coordinated package of defence, economic and political issues on China’s back yard, Taiwan.

More hawkish Conservative MP’s have called on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to reclassify China as a threat, instead of a “systemic competitor”. P.M. Sunak has tried a new way to keep lines open with China for his own reasons, although he originally wanted to placate the hawks in his party,

According to Hindustan Times, China has specified American high altitude spy balloons have flown in Xinjiang and Tibetan skies as well, at unspecified times. China has also vowed to take counter measures against US entries, which undermine Chinese sovereignty,

What is all this spat about?

What the balloon crisis exposed, Washington’s heightened sense of alert as the standoff over the balloon delays were efforts to re-set bilateral relations, according to Reuters.

While US is blowing hot and cold with Vice President Kamala Harris warning against Chinese support for Russia in Ukraine, President Biden has said he does not believe relations between the two countries, US and China, were weakened by the incident.

We note that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken who postponed a planned trip to Beijing over the balloon, is considering meeting Chinese top diplomat, Wang Yi in Munich this weekend.

At the same time Japan and China hold security talks on the side lines of Munich Security Conference on 18 February 2023.

In a word, the balloon incident is the over-reacting whether China is provoking a new war in the Indo-Pacific region, some say as evidence in the South China Seas off Philippines, on 5 February 2023.

A new world order is in the making?

A new axis of World Powers – China, Russia and Iran is coming into being. Although some analysts say it is a myth, we may soon see the formation of an informal “alliance of convenience” between these three nations, perhaps, not to join in the Ukrainian war, but for other reasons best known to themselves.

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Sri Lanka: Was CIA Top Man in Colombo to Play the Great Game Against China?

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by Our Diplomatic Affairs Editor

“All things are ready, if our mind be so.” – William Shakespeare, from Henry V, Act IV, Scene 3 (inspired by a saying attributed to the ancient Greek general Themistocles)

One of the highest officials of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), made a secret visit to Sri Lanka, according to reliable sources in diplomatic missions in Colombo with knowledge of the issue. He was accompanied by a “delegation” led by US Principal Duty Assistant Secretary of Defence for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs, Jedidiah P. Royal. Furthermore, there are rumours circulating that the United States and India are planning to establish a joint military base in Trincomalee. While there has been no official confirmation on this matter, it is clear that Sri Lanka has become a battleground for a great power competition against China. Before assuming his current role as Director of the CIA, William (Will) Burns served as a diplomat and played a crucial role in American diplomacy. He is also the author of the memoir “The Back Channel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for Its Renewal,” in which he highlights the importance of strategic diplomacy and the use of backdoor channels. It is a really useful read to understand the true colours of diplomacy.

To understand the severity of the current geopolitical crisis in Sri Lanka, let’s examine an incident that occurred recently. Three universities in China, Sri Lanka, and an African country had planned to sign a tri-party Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). However, the Indian consul general office in Jaffna intervened and compelled Jaffna University to cancel the initiative, raising serious questions over “academic freedom.” Furthermore, reliable sources have revealed that India is funding several students’ unions in both the North and East provinces to take actions against Chinese development programs. In a recent interview, a young politician in Jaffna expressed concerns that former LTTE cadres may be receiving arms training in a neighbouring country, raising the possibility of a repeat of the tragic history. All of these developments suggest that a great game is being played to undermine the relationship between China and Sri Lanka. Key players in Sri Lanka must be very cautious in their analysis of this geopolitical situation, as there is a risk that Sri Lanka may become a vassal state controlled by the India-USA alliance against China. If Sri Lanka fails in its diplomatic strategy, it could face an unprecedented crisis, worse than prevailing economic meltdown.

China and Sri Lanka have a long and interesting history of diplomatic relations that dates back to the early 15th century, when the Chinese Great Admiral Zheng He made a visit to the Kotte Kingdom on the island. Zheng He, also known as Cheng Ho, was a Chinese explorer and admiral who is credited with exploring and mapping many parts of the Indian Ocean, including Sri Lanka. During his visit to Sri Lanka, Zheng He established friendly relations with the local rulers and introduced Chinese culture and traditions to the island. This visit marked the beginning of a long and enduring relationship between China and Sri Lanka, which continued for several centuries.

The Kotte Kingdom was a powerful Sinhalese kingdom that emerged in the 15th century in Sri Lanka. It was founded by a regional leader named Alagakkonara, who managed to establish his dominance over the region. However, by the mid-16th century, the Kotte Kingdom began to decline due to internal conflicts and external pressures from foreign invaders. The kingdom was weakened by a series of wars with the Portuguese, who eventually succeeded in capturing the capital city of Kotte in 1565. This marked the end of the Kotte Kingdom and the beginning of Portuguese colonial rule in Sri Lanka. After the fall of the Kotte Kingdom, the Sinhalese people migrated to the central hills of Sri Lanka and established a new kingdom in the city of Kandy. The Kandy Kingdom was established in 1590 and became the last independent kingdom in Sri Lanka. The kingdom was able to resist foreign invasion for many years due to its strategic location in the central hills, which made it difficult for invaders to reach. The Kandy Kingdom also maintained strong diplomatic relations with other neighbouring kingdoms, such as the Mughal Empire in India.

Indian influence in Sri Lanka can be traced back to ancient times when Buddhist teachings were brought to Sri Lanka from India. In the 3rd century BCE, the Indian emperor Ashoka sent his son Mahinda to Sri Lanka to spread Buddhism. From then on, Sri Lanka became a hub of Buddhist learning, and Indian scholars and pilgrims regularly travelled to the island to study and worship at the Buddhist sites. In the 11th century, the Chola Empire of South India invaded Sri Lanka and established a short-lived empire on the island. However, Indian influence in Sri Lanka reached its peak during the Kandy Kingdom, when the kingdom maintained close relations with the Mughal Empire. The Mughals were interested in Sri Lanka’s strategic location and trade opportunities, and they established diplomatic and commercial ties with the Kandy Kingdom. The Mughals also helped the Kandy Kingdom to resist the Portuguese, providing military aid and training to the Sinhalese army. Simultaneously, Chinese diplomatic relationship was diluted. Due to Indian influence and other factors, the relationship between China and Sri Lanka declined for many decades, and this history was even wiped out from local history books.  However, after the 1949 Communist Revolution, China again started to focus on building its relationships with other countries, including Sri Lanka. In recent years, China has been a key economic partner for Sri Lanka, investing in major infrastructure projects such as the Hambantota Port and the Colombo Port City.

While the relationship between China and Sri Lanka has had its ups and downs, the two countries continue to share a strong bond that is rooted in their shared history and culture. Today, China is one of Sri Lanka’s most important economic and strategic partners, and the two countries continue to work closely together to promote mutual growth and development. It is true that there are some competitors who are seeking to reduce China’s influence in Sri Lanka. Some countries, such as the United States and India, have expressed concern about China’s growing presence in Sri Lanka and other parts of the region. In recent years, there have been reports of efforts to limit or curtail Chinese investment and influence in Sri Lanka.

However, it is worth noting that China’s involvement in Sri Lanka has brought significant benefits to the country. Chinese investment has helped to fund major infrastructure projects, such as highways, ports, and airports, which have helped to boost economic growth and create jobs. China has also provided support in areas such as education, healthcare, and disaster relief. While there are certainly concerns about China’s growing influence in Sri Lanka, it is important to remember that the relationship between the two countries is based on a long and complex history that goes back many centuries. Despite the challenges and competition from other countries, China and Sri Lanka should continue to work together to promote economic development and mutual growth in the years ahead. Sri Lanka is passing its moment of “know thyself” through its historical roots.

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