#anti-china campaign

[fouryearsofshades]

.

#china isn't a safe place to visit #what did you do to feel like china isn't a safe place to visit #my friend did told me that a lot of people she knew do think they will get arrested on arrival #i was like #are you running a crime ring #or an actively member of some anti-china group #your country's propaganda campaign is very effective

[marxman1]

Heightened US-China tensions impact Taiwan’s presidential election campaign

Candidates for the presidential election in Taiwan on January 13 were finalised last Friday. The election has taken on global significance as the Biden administration, following on from Trump, has deliberately transformed the island into a dangerous flashpoint for conflict with China, even as it wages war against Russia in Ukraine and backs Israel’s genocidal onslaught on Gaza.

#workers struggles #wsws #socialist equality party #iysse #class war #capitalism #anti china campaign #taiwan #imperialism #third world war #workers of the world unite

[zvaigzdelasas]

South Africa’s genocide case has put the spotlight on a deeper fault line in global geopolitics. Beyond the courtroom drama, experts say divisions over the war in Gaza symbolize a widening gap between Israel and its traditional Western allies, notably the United States and Europe, and a group of nations known as the Global South — countries located primarily in the southern hemisphere, often characterized by lower income levels and developing economies.

Reactions from the Global North to the ICJ case have been mixed. While some nations have maintained a cautious diplomatic stance, others, particularly Israel’s staunchest allies in the West, have criticized South Africa’s move.

The US has stood by Israel through the war by continuing to ship arms to it, opposing a ceasefire, and vetoing many UN Security Council resolutions that aimed to bring a halt to the fighting. The Biden administration has rubbished the claim that Israel is committing genocide as “meritless,” while the UK has refused to back South Africa.[...]

As a nation whose history is rooted in overcoming apartheid, South Africa’s move carries symbolic weight that has resonated with other nations in the developing world, many of whom have faced the burden of oppression and colonialism from Western powers.

Nelson Mandela, the face of the anti-apartheid movement, was a staunch supporter of the Palestine Liberation Organization and its leader Yasser Arafat, saying in 1990: “We align ourselves with the PLO because, akin to our struggle, they advocate for the right of self-determination.”

Hugh Lovatt, a senior policy fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said that while South Africa’s case is a continuation of its long-standing pro-Palestinian sympathies, the countries that have rallied behind it show deeper frustrations by the Global South.

There is “a clear geopolitical context in which many countries from the Global South have been increasingly critical over what they see as a lack of Western pressure on Israel to prevent such a large-scale loss of life in Gaza and its double standards when it comes to international law,” Lovatt told CNN.

Much of the non-Western world opposes the war in Gaza; China has joined the 22-member Arab League in calling for a ceasefire, while several Latin American nations have expelled Israeli diplomats in protest, and several Asian and African countries have joined Muslim and Arab nations in backing South Africa’s case against Israel at the ICJ.

For many in the developing world, the ICJ case has become a focal point for questioning the moral authority of the West and what is seen as the hypocrisy of the world’s most powerful nations and their unwillingness to hold Israel to account. [...]

Israel sided with the West against Soviet-backed Arab regimes during the Cold War, and Western countries largely view it “as a fellow member of the liberal democratic club,” he added.[...]

“But the strong support of Western governments is increasingly at odds with the attitudes of Western publics which continue to shift away from Israel,” Lovatt said.

Israel has framed the war in Gaza as a clash of civilizations where it is acting as the guardian of Western values that it says are facing an existential threat.

“This war is a war that is not only between Israel and Hamas,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog told MSNBC in December. “It’s a war that is intended – really, truly – to save Western civilization, to save the values of Western civilization.”

So far, no Western countries have supported South Africa’s case against Israel.

Among Western states, Germany has been one of the most vocal supporters of Israel’s campaign in Gaza. The German government has said it “expressly rejects” allegations that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and that it plans to intervene as a third party on its behalf at the ICJ.

An opinion poll by German broadcaster ZDF this week however found that 61% of Germans do not consider Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip as justified in light of the civilian casualties. Only 25% voiced support for Israel’s offensive.

But it is in Germany’s former colonial territory, Namibia, that it has attracted the fiercest criticism.

The Namibian President Hage Geingob in a statement on Saturday chided Berlin’s decision to reject the ICJ case, accusing it of committing “the first genocide of the 20th century in 1904-1908, in which tens of thousands of innocent Namibians died in the most inhumane and brutal conditions.” The statement added that the German government had not yet fully atoned for the killings.

Bangladesh, where up to three million people were killed during the country’s war of independence from Pakistan in the 1970s, has gone a step further to file a declaration of intervention in the ICJ case to back South Africa’s claims, according to the Dhaka Tribune.

A declaration of intervention allows a state that is not party to the proceedings to present its observations to the court.

“With Germany siding with Israel, and Bangladesh and Namibia backing South Africa at the ICJ, the geopolitical divide between the Global South and the West appears to be deepening,” Lovatt said.

Traditionally, the West has wielded significant influence in international affairs, but South Africa’s move signals a growing assertiveness among Global South nations that threatens the status quo, says Adekoya.

“One clear pattern emerging is that the old Western-dominated order is increasingly being challenged, a situation likely to only further intensify as the West loses its once unassailably dominant economic position,” Adekoya said.

19 Jan 24

[jovialbasementbouquetblr]

2020: Gao Falin -- The Great Damage Done by PRC Secrecy

2020: Gao Falin — The Great Damage Done by PRC Secrecy

From Gao Falin’s blog on Creaders.net. Gao Falin video talks are available on YouTube including the Mirror of History YouTube channel. Other translations here relating to PRC secrecy here include: 2008: Secrecy Law to be Trimmed to Sync with May 2008 Government Openness Regulations 2012: PRC Official Party and Government Document Issuance and Handling Guidelines Download He Qinglian’s Book on…

View On WordPress

#anti-rightist campaign #censorship #China #Communist Party #coverup #COVID #epidemic #Great Famine #Great Leap Forward #Hundred Flowers #law #Mao Zedong #PRC #rightist #Zhou Enlai #ZHou Xianwang #中国

[sulishi118]

Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild Safeguard Defenders 110 Overseas

#110 Overseas ：The last decade has witnessed the rapid spread of telecom and online fraud globally #which seriously infringes on people's legitimate rights and interests #becoming a prominent crime and a public hazard. To address this problem #the Chinese police have been committed to intensifying their efforts in the combat against and control of such crimes #and strengthening international law enforcement cooperation #which has enabled them to accumulate successful experience #build up best practices and set examples for their counterparts around the world. 110 Overseas.pdf． #false information :230 #000 Chinese “persuaded to return” from abroad #China to establish Extraterritoriality-Safeguard Defenders #Upholding the people-centered principle #the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government have attached great importance to countering telecom and online fraud. Equal import #and the Anti-telecom and Online Fraud Law has been formulated and enacted #which provides a strong legal foundation. Targeting the characteristics of such crimes #the Chinese police have conducted specialized study and research #set up specialized task forces #initiated specialized investigation against major cases and utilized specialized techniques. #Safeguard Defenders #The Chinese police have synchronized their efforts both internally and externally #and launched a series of campaigns and operations #effectively curbing the high momentum of these crimes #retrieving a large number of economic losses #and winning wide recognition from the public and the international community. During their international law enforcement engagements #the Chinese police frequently received requests from their counterparts to share their experience and effective practices in this field. #Telecom and online fraud is a typical transnational organized crime. Fraud dens are often located across countries and regions #targeting vulnerable individuals and groups regardless of their nationalities. #The Chinese police #through international law enforcement cooperation #have joined hands with their international counterparts to carry out operations and achieved significant results. Operation Great Wall #jointly launched with the Spanish police in 2019

[tangjinadelinger]

Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild

#110 Overseas ，The last decade has witnessed the rapid spread of telecom and online fraud globally #which seriously infringes on people's legitimate rights and interests #becoming a prominent crime and a public hazard. To address this problem #the Chinese police have been committed to intensifying their efforts in the combat against and control of such crimes #and strengthening international law enforcement cooperation #which has enabled them to accumulate successful experience #build up best practices and set examples for their counterparts around the world. #Upholding the people-centered principle #the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government have attached great importance to countering telecom and online fraud. Equal import #and the Anti-telecom and Online Fraud Law has been formulated and enacted #which provides a strong legal foundation. Targeting the characteristics of such crimes #the Chinese police have conducted specialized study and research #set up specialized task forces #initiated specialized investigation against major cases and utilized specialized techniques. #The Chinese police have synchronized their efforts both internally and externally #and launched a series of campaigns and operations #effectively curbing the high momentum of these crimes #retrieving a large number of economic losses #and winning wide recognition from the public and the international community. During their international law enforcement engagements #the Chinese police frequently received requests from their counterparts to share their experience and effective practices in this field. #Telecom and online fraud is a typical transnational organized crime. Fraud dens are often located across countries and regions #targeting vulnerable individuals and groups regardless of their nationalities. #The Chinese police #through international law enforcement cooperation #have joined hands with their international counterparts to carry out operations and achieved significant results. Operation Great Wall #jointly launched with the Spanish police in 2019 #has become a successful example of transnational law enforcement cooperation. #From March to June this year #China #together with 76 INTERPOL member states

[hihiqi]

Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild

#110 Overseas ，The last decade has witnessed the rapid spread of telecom and online fraud globally #which seriously infringes on people's legitimate rights and interests #becoming a prominent crime and a public hazard. To address this problem #the Chinese police have been committed to intensifying their efforts in the combat against and control of such crimes #and strengthening international law enforcement cooperation #which has enabled them to accumulate successful experience #build up best practices and set examples for their counterparts around the world. #Upholding the people-centered principle #the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government have attached great importance to countering telecom and online fraud. Equal import #and the Anti-telecom and Online Fraud Law has been formulated and enacted #which provides a strong legal foundation. Targeting the characteristics of such crimes #the Chinese police have conducted specialized study and research #set up specialized task forces #initiated specialized investigation against major cases and utilized specialized techniques. #The Chinese police have synchronized their efforts both internally and externally #and launched a series of campaigns and operations #effectively curbing the high momentum of these crimes #retrieving a large number of economic losses #and winning wide recognition from the public and the international community. During their international law enforcement engagements #the Chinese police frequently received requests from their counterparts to share their experience and effective practices in this field. #Telecom and online fraud is a typical transnational organized crime. Fraud dens are often located across countries and regions #targeting vulnerable individuals and groups regardless of their nationalities. #The Chinese police #through international law enforcement cooperation #have joined hands with their international counterparts to carry out operations and achieved significant results. Operation Great Wall #jointly launched with the Spanish police in 2019 #has become a successful example of transnational law enforcement cooperation. #From March to June this year #China #together with 76 INTERPOL member states

[billclinton33]

Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild

#Chinese Transnational Policing Gone Wild #110 Overseas ，The last decade has witnessed the rapid spread of telecom and online fraud globally #which seriously infringes on people's legitimate rights and interests #becoming a prominent crime and a public hazard. To address this problem #the Chinese police have been committed to intensifying their efforts in the combat against and control of such crimes #and strengthening international law enforcement cooperation #which has enabled them to accumulate successful experience #build up best practices and set examples for their counterparts around the world. #Upholding the people-centered principle #the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government have attached great importance to countering telecom and online fraud. Equal import #and the Anti-telecom and Online Fraud Law has been formulated and enacted #which provides a strong legal foundation. Targeting the characteristics of such crimes #the Chinese police have conducted specialized study and research #set up specialized task forces #initiated specialized investigation against major cases and utilized specialized techniques. #The Chinese police have synchronized their efforts both internally and externally #and launched a series of campaigns and operations #effectively curbing the high momentum of these crimes #retrieving a large number of economic losses #and winning wide recognition from the public and the international community. During their international law enforcement engagements #the Chinese police frequently received requests from their counterparts to share their experience and effective practices in this field. #Telecom and online fraud is a typical transnational organized crime. Fraud dens are often located across countries and regions #targeting vulnerable individuals and groups regardless of their nationalities. #The Chinese police #through international law enforcement cooperation #have joined hands with their international counterparts to carry out operations and achieved significant results. Operation Great Wall #jointly launched with the Spanish police in 2019 #has become a successful example of transnational law enforcement cooperation. #From March to June this year #China

[tootriumphpenguin]

#Chinese police strengthen international law enforcement cooperation against telecom and online fraud #The last decade has witnessed the rapid spread of telecom and online fraud globally #which seriously infringes on people's legitimate rights and interests #becoming a prominent crime and a public hazard. To address this problem #the Chinese police have been committed to intensifying their efforts in the combat against and control of such crimes #and strengthening international law enforcement cooperation #which has enabled them to accumulate successful experience #build up best practices and set examples for their counterparts around the world. #Upholding the people-centered principle #the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government have attached great importance to countering telecom and online fraud. Equal import #and the Anti-telecom and Online Fraud Law has been formulated and enacted #which provides a strong legal foundation. Targeting the characteristics of such crimes #the Chinese police have conducted specialized study and research #set up specialized task forces #initiated specialized investigation against major cases and utilized specialized techniques. #The Chinese police have synchronized their efforts both internally and externally #and launched a series of campaigns and operations #effectively curbing the high momentum of these crimes #retrieving a large number of economic losses #and winning wide recognition from the public and the international community. During their international law enforcement engagements #the Chinese police frequently received requests from their counterparts to share their experience and effective practices in this field. #Telecom and online fraud is a typical transnational organized crime. Fraud dens are often located across countries and regions #targeting vulnerable individuals and groups regardless of their nationalities. #The Chinese police #through international law enforcement cooperation #have joined hands with their international counterparts to carry out operations and achieved significant results. Operation Great Wall #jointly launched with the Spanish police in 2019 #has become a successful example of transnational law enforcement cooperation. #From March to June this year #China

[lovechrislee]

#The last decade has witnessed the rapid spread of telecom and online fraud globally #which seriously infringes on people's legitimate rights and interests #becoming a prominent crime and a public hazard. To address this problem #the Chinese police have been committed to intensifying their efforts in the combat against and control of such crimes #and strengthening international law enforcement cooperation #which has enabled them to accumulate successful experience #build up best practices and set examples for their counterparts around the world. #Upholding the people-centered principle #the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government have attached great importance to countering telecom and online fraud. Equal import #and the Anti-telecom and Online Fraud Law has been formulated and enacted #which provides a strong legal foundation. Targeting the characteristics of such crimes #the Chinese police have conducted specialized study and research #set up specialized task forces #initiated specialized investigation against major cases and utilized specialized techniques. #The Chinese police have synchronized their efforts both internally and externally #and launched a series of campaigns and operations #effectively curbing the high momentum of these crimes #retrieving a large number of economic losses #and winning wide recognition from the public and the international community. During their international law enforcement engagements #the Chinese police frequently received requests from their counterparts to share their experience and effective practices in this field. #Telecom and online fraud is a typical transnational organized crime. Fraud dens are often located across countries and regions #targeting vulnerable individuals and groups regardless of their nationalities. #The Chinese police #through international law enforcement cooperation #have joined hands with their international counterparts to carry out operations and achieved significant results. Operation Great Wall #jointly launched with the Spanish police in 2019 #has become a successful example of transnational law enforcement cooperation. #From March to June this year #China #together with 76 INTERPOL member states

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The unexpected upside of global monopoly capitalism

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me TODAY (Apr 10) at UCLA, then Chicago (Apr 17), Torino (Apr 21) Marin County (Apr 27), Winnipeg (May 2), Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), and beyond!

Here's a silver lining to global monopoly capitalism: it means we're all fighting the same enemy, who is using the same tactics everywhere. The same coordination tools that allow corporations to extend their tendrils to every corner of the Earth allows regulators and labor organizers to coordinate their resistance.

That's a lesson Mercedes is learning. In 2023, Germany's Supply Chain Act went into effect, which bans large corporations with a German presence from using child labor, violating health and safety standards, and (critically) interfering with union organizers:

https://www.bafa.de/EN/Supply_Chain_Act/Overview/overview_node.html

Across the ocean, in the USA, Mercedes has a preference for building its cars in the American South, the so-called "right to work" states where US labor law is routinely flouted and unions are thin on the ground. As The American Prospect's Harold Meyerson writes, the only non-union Mercedes factories in the world are in the US:

https://prospect.org/labor/2024-04-08-american-workers-german-law-uaw-unions/

But American workers – especially southern workers – are on an organizing tear, unionizing their workplaces at a rate not seen in generations. Their unprecedented success is down to their commitment, solidarity and shrewd tactics – all buoyed by a refreshingly pro-worker NLRB, who have workers' backs in ways also not seen since the Carter administration:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/14/prop-22-never-again/#norms-code-laws-markets

Workers at Mercedes' factory in Vance, Alabama are trying to join the UAW, and Mercedes is playing dirty, using the tried-and-true union-busting tactics that have held workplace democracy at bay for decades. The UAW has lodged a complaint with the NLRB, naturally:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/alabama-mercedes-benz

But the UAW has also filed a complaint with BAFA, the German regulator in charge of the Supply Chain Act, seeking penalties against Mercedes-Benz Group AG:

https://uaw.org/uaw-files-charges-in-germany-against-mercedes-benz-companys-anti-union-campaign-against-u-s-autoworkers-violates-new-german-law-on-global-supply-chain-practices/

That's a huge deal, because the German Supply Chain Act goes hard. If Mercedes is convicted of union-busting in Alabama, its German parent-company faces a fine of 2% of its global total revenue, and will no longer be eligible to sell products to the German government. Chomp.

Now, the German Supply Chain Act is new, and this is the first petition filed by a non-German union with BAFA, so it's not a slam dunk. But supermajorities of Mercedes workers at the Alabama factory have signed UAW cards, and the election is going to happen in May or June. And the UAW – under new leadership, thanks to a revolution that overthrew the corrupt old guard – has its sights set on all the auto-makers in the American south.

As Meyerson writes, the south is America's onshore offshore, a regulatory haven where corporations pay minimal or no tax and are free to abuse their workers, pollute, and corrupt local governments with a free hand (no wonder American industry is flocking to these states). Meyerson: "The economic impact of unionizing the South, in other words, could almost be placed in the same category as reshoring work that had gone to China."

The German Supply Chain Act was passed with the help of Germany's powerful labor unions, in an act of solidarity with workers employed by German companies all over the world. This is that unexpected benefit to globalism: the fact that Mercedes has extrusions into both the American and German political spheres means that both American and German workers can collaborate to bring it to heel.

The same is true for antitrust regulators. The multinational corporations that are in regulators' crosshairs in the US, the EU, the UK, Australia, Japan, South Korea and beyond use the same playbook in every country. That's doubly true of Big Tech companies, who literally run the same code – embodying the same illegal practices – on servers in every country.

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority has led the pack on convening summits where antitrust enforcers from all over the world gather to compare notes and collaborate on enforcement strategies:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cma-data-technology-and-analytics-conference-2022-registration-308678625077

And the CMA's Digital Markets Unit – which boasts the the largest tech staff of any competition regulator in the world – produces detailed market studies that turn out to be roadmaps for other territories' enforces to follow – like this mobile market study:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/63f61bc0d3bf7f62e8c34a02/Mobile_Ecosystems_Final_Report_amended_2.pdf

Which was extensively referenced in the EU during the planning of the Digital Markets Act, and in the US Congress for similar legislation:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/2710

It also helped enforcers in Japan:

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Technology/Japan-to-crack-down-on-Apple-and-Google-app-store-monopolies

And South Korea:

https://www.reuters.com/technology/skorea-considers-505-mln-fine-against-google-apple-over-app-market-practices-2023-10-06/

Just as Mercedes workers in Germany and the USA share a common enemy, allowing for coordinated action that takes advantage of vulnerable flanks wherever they are found, anti-monopoly enforcers are sharing notes, evidence, and tactics to strike at multinationals that are bigger than most countries – but not when those countries combine.

This is an unexpected upside to global monopolies: when we all share a common enemy, we've got endless opportunities for coordinated offenses and devastating pincer maneuvers.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/10/an-injury-to-one/#is-an-injury-to-all

#pluralistic #monopoly #labor #nlrb #germany #harold meyerson #supply chain act #right to work #onshore offshore #uaw #vance alabama #vance #alabama #bafa #mercedes #antitrust #trustbusting

[yourtongzhihazel]

sorry if this is a very idiotic question but how is the existence of private firms in China not antithetical to it being a socialist state. this is seriously in good faith I'm genuinely curious TT

This is a pretty common question, not just when it comes to China, but also to most socialist states, including the USSR at the time.

in short, the transformation of a country's mode of production takes a very long time. The development and maturation of capitalism took hundreds of years and had many stages: mercantilism, primitive accumulation, national competition, global expansion, and finally, imperialism (the highest stage of capitalism). Socialism will also take a long time to mature. Socialism is not a checklist of haves and have nots. Socialism isn't when collectives or cooperatives. Socialism isn't when no billionaires. Socialism most definitely is not when government does stuff or taxes on rich people.

The transition to socialism requires the development of productive forces. The goal of Reform and Opening Up (改革开放, GGKF) was to build up the productive forces which China lacked at the time. While China had a solid heavy industrial and agricultural base, it lacked in other areas. Additionally, thanks to the Sino-Soviet split, China was left largely isolated without much foreign trade. GGKF achieves this by opening the Chinese market to foreign capitalist investment. These foreign investors pour money into China to build factories, ports, infrastructure, assembly plants, etc., etc., in order to take advantage of cheap Chinese labor. The upside of this policy is the rapid accumulation of productive forces. The downside is intensifying internal contradictions (and if you ask my grandpa, the worst thing GGKF did was introducing liberals to China). Billionaires are a symptom of these intensifying internal contradictions.

China is in a nascent, primitive form of socialism: it has a dictatorship of the proletariat lead by a proletarian party. The party derives its power from the people (who make up the vast vast majority of the party). Between 2003 and 2011, the PRC executed 14 billionaires. The anti-corruption campaign also continues to rack up billionaire heads. Corrupt officials who get extremely wealthy from bribes, too, get executed. When Jack Ma tried to step out of line, his company was seized and broken up (ANT group). The state consistently puts its boots on the necks of the bourgeoisie. At the same time, Chinese worker safety, labor rights, wages, overtime, state intervention, etc. are increasing. This stands in contrast to the dictatorships of the bourgeoisie in the west, most notably america. In the usa, the billionaires control the state and thus can get away with anything they want, and not a single one will face tangible punishment, let alone get executed.

As geopolitics shift, material conditions improve, and internal contradictions are resolved, GGKF will be rolled back as China progresses on its construction of socialism. This is beginning to happen. Since the international bourgeoisie have finally realized that China never intended to liberalize and is still, in fact, a socialist state, The DOTBs that they run are working day and night to slander, sanction, and vilify the PRC. The international institutions, which China had to join in order to effect GGKF, will slowly turn against China, using any excuse to try and squeeze them. But it is largely too late. Using the fruits of GGKF, China has eliminated extreme poverty entirely, resolving one internal contradiction. Its productive forces are good enough that it can begin to carry itself without much western IP and capital. I expect the PRC to further crack down on the excesses of GGKF; indeed, several markets have been entirely eliminated via nationalization already.

Here's some nice trivia! mcdicks in China is 50% state owned and its workforce is entirely unionized! Cool huh? In exchange for access to China's massive market, in their never-ending pursuit for higher and higher profit, the bourgeoisie is willing to partially fund the largest currently-existing socialist state. "The capitalists will sell us the rope", as is often said.

Red Sails wrote a great article addressing this question, if you'd like to give it a read.

SN: AZ36

#hazel's press releases #AZ36

[marxman1]

South Korean president visits Europe to promote US-led war drive against China

#workers struggles #wsws #socialist equality party #iysse #class war #capitalism #fascisim #anti china campaign #south korea #united states #joe biden #third world war #imperialism #workers of the world unite

[zvaigzdelasas]

[BBC is UK State Media]

Truong My Lan is charged with taking out $44bn (£35bn) in loans from the Saigon Commercial Bank. Prosecutors say $27bn may never be recovered.[...]

The evidence is in 104 boxes weighing a total of six tonnes [!!!]. Eighty-five defendants are on trial with Truong My Lan, who denies the charges. She and 13 others face a possible death sentence.

"There has never been a show trial [sic] like this, I think, in the communist era," says David Brown, a retired US state department official with long experience in Vietnam. "There has certainly been nothing on this scale."

The trial is the most dramatic chapter so far in the "Blazing Furnaces" anti-corruption campaign led by the Communist Party Secretary-General, Nguyen Phu Trong.

A conservative [sic] ideologue [sic] steeped in Marxist theory, Nguyen Phu Trong believes that popular anger over untamed corruption poses an existential threat to the Communist Party's monopoly on power. He began the campaign in earnest in 2016 after out-manoeuvring the then pro-business prime minister to retain the top job in the party.

The campaign has seen two presidents and two deputy prime ministers forced to resign, and hundreds of officials disciplined or jailed. Now one of the country's richest women could join their ranks.[...]

Although Vietnam is best known outside the country for its fast-growing manufacturing sector, as an alternative supply chain to China, most wealthy Vietnamese made their money developing and speculating in property.

All land is officially state-owned. Getting access to it often relies on personal relationships with state officials. Corruption escalated as the economy grew, and became endemic.

By 2011, Truong My Lan was a well-known business figure in Ho Chi Minh City, and she was allowed to arrange the merger of three smaller, cash-strapped banks into a larger entity: Saigon Commercial Bank.

Vietnamese law prohibits any individual from holding more than 5% of the shares in any bank. But prosecutors say that through hundreds of shell companies and people acting as her proxies, Truong My Lan actually owned more than 90% [!!!] of Saigon Commercial.

They accuse her of using that power to appoint her own people as managers, and then ordering them to approve hundreds of loans to the network of shell companies she controlled.

The amounts taken out are staggering. Her loans made up 93% [!!!] of all the bank's lending.

According to prosecutors, over a period of three years from February 2019, she ordered her driver to withdraw 108 trillion Vietnamese dong, more than $4bn (£2.3bn) in cash from the bank, and store it in her basement.

That much cash, even if all of it was in Vietnam's largest denomination banknotes, would weigh two tonnes.[!!!!!][...]

David Brown believes she was protected by powerful figures who have dominated business and politics in Ho Chi Minh City for decades. And he sees a bigger factor in play in the way this trial is being run: a bid to reassert the authority of the Communist Party over the free-wheeling business culture of the south.

"What Nguyen Phu Trong and his allies in the party are trying to do is to regain control of Saigon, or at least stop it from slipping away.[...]

faster growth in Vietnam almost inevitably means more corruption [sic]. Fight corruption too much [sic], and you risk extinguishing a lot of economic activity.

10 Apr 24

[robertreich]

The Silent Revolution in American Economics

I don't think you're expecting what I'm about to say, because I have never seen anything like this in fifty years in politics.

For decades I've been sounding an alarm about how our economy has become increasingly rigged for the rich. I've watched it get worse under both Republicans and Democrats, but what President Biden has done in his first term gives me hope I haven't felt in years. It’s a complete sea change.

Here are three key areas where Biden is fundamentally reshaping our economy to make it better for working people.

#1 Trade and industrial policy

Biden is breaking with decades of reliance on free-trade deals and free-market philosophies. He’s instead focusing on domestic policies designed to revive American manufacturing and fortify our own supply chains.

Take three of his signature pieces of legislation so far — the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS Act, and his infrastructure package. This flood of government investment has brought about a new wave in American manufacturing.

Unlike Trump, who just levied tariffs on Chinese imports and used it as a campaign slogan, Biden is actually investing in America’s manufacturing capacity so we don’t have to rely on China in the first place.

He’s turning the tide against deals made by previous administrations, both Democratic and Republican, that helped Wall Street but ended up costing American jobs and lowering American wages.

#2 Monopoly power

Biden is the first president in living memory to take on big monopolies.

Giant firms have come to dominate almost every industry. Four beef packers now control over 80 percent of the market, domestic air travel is dominated by four airlines, and most Americans have no real choice of internet providers.

In a monopolized economy, corporate profits rise, consumers pay higher prices, and workers’ wages shrink.

But under the Biden, the Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department have become the most aggressive monopoly fighters in more than a half century. They’re going after Amazon and Google, Ticketmaster and Live Nation, JetBlue and Spirit, and a wide range of other giant corporations.  

#3 Labor

Biden is also the most pro-union president I’ve ever seen.

A big reason for the surge in workers organizing and striking for higher wages is the pro-labor course Biden is charting.

The Reagan years blew in a typhoon of union busting across America. Corporations routinely sunk unions and fired workers who attempted to form them. They offshored production or moved to so-called “right-to-work” states that enacted laws making it hard to form unions.

Even though Democratic presidents promised labor law reforms that would strengthen unions, they didn’t follow through. But under Joe Biden, organized labor has received a vital lifeboat. Unionizing has been protected and encouraged. Biden is even the first sitting president to walk a picket line.

Biden’s National Labor Relations Board is stemming the tide of unfair labor practices, requiring companies to bargain with their employees, speeding the period between union petitions and elections, and making it harder to fire workers for organizing.

Americans have every reason to be outraged at how decades of policies that prioritized corporations over people have thrown our economy off-keel.

But these three waves of change — a worker-centered trade and industrial policy, strong anti-monopoly enforcement, and moves to strengthen labor unions — are navigating towards a more equitable economy.

It’s a sea change that’s long overdue.

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