While we obsess over Trump, China is making history

By Fareed Zakaria

 

While news and analysis in the United States continue to be obsessed with President Trump’s daily antics and insults, halfway around the world, something truly historic just happened. China signaled that it now sees itself as the world’s other superpower, positioning itself as the alternative, if not rival, to the United States. 

This is not my opinion based on reading the tea leaves of Chinese politics. It is the clearly articulated view of China’s supreme leader, Xi Jinping. In his speech last week to the 19th Communist Party Congress , Xi declared that China is at a “historic juncture,” entering a “new era” that will be marked by the country becoming a “mighty force” in the world and a role model for political and economic development. He asserted that China’s “political system . . . is a great creation” that offers “a new choice for other countries.” And he insisted that the country will defend its interests zealously while also becoming a global leader on issues such as climate change and trade.

Ever since China abandoned its Maoist isolation in the 1970s, its guiding philosophy was set by Deng Xiaoping. At that time, China needed to learn from the West, especially the United States, and integrate itself into the existing international order. According to Deng, it should be humble and modest in its foreign policy, “hide its light under a bushel,” and “bide its time.” But the time has now come, in Xi’s view, and he said the Middle Kingdom is ready to “take center stage in the world.”

Xi’s speech is important because this party congress made clear that he is no ordinary leader. He ascended to a second term in office without naming any obvious successors from the next generation of party officials, thus maintaining a grip on power far more secure than his immediate predecessors. More important, the party enshrined his thoughts in the constitution, an honor previously accorded only to Mao Zedong in his lifetime. (Deng’s thoughts were added, but only posthumously.) This means that for the rest of his life, Xi and his ideas will dominate the Communist Party of China.

In a recent issue of the New York Review of Books, Andrew Nathan noted that Western policy toward Beijing has generally assumed that, over time, as China modernized its economy, it would become more pluralistic at home and more cooperative abroad. Nathan added, however, that a few writers and journalists, such as James Mann, worried that China instead would stay authoritarian and provide support for other anti-democratic countries.

The reality is not quite as extreme as Mann predicted. China has remained resolutely authoritarian — in fact, even more so in recent years. But on issues such as climate change, trade and North Korea, it has in fact become more cooperative. While Beijing has tried to set up a few alternative international institutions of its own, it is also the third-largest funder of the United Nations and the second-largest contributor to the international body’s peacekeeping budget. China seeks a revision of the international system to accommodate its own rising power, not a revolution and wholesale replacement of the Western-built international order.

In part, China’s new stance toward the world, and the way it has been received, are a result of the continued strength of the Chinese economy and the growing political confidence of the party under Xi. But these changes are also occurring against the backdrop of the total collapse of political and moral authority of the United States in the world. A recent Pew Research Center survey charts a 14-point drop in those who view the United States favorably across the more than 30 countries polled.

Countries such as Australia, the Netherlands and Canada now all have a more favorable view of China than of the United States. Many of the countries surveyed — including Germany, Chile and Indonesia — have greater confidence in the leadership of Xi than that of Trump. China has aggressively sought to improve its image in the world, spending billions on foreign aid, promising trade and investment, and opening Confucius Institutes to promote Chinese culture.
Meanwhile, consider how the United States must look now to the rest of the world. It is politically paralyzed, unable to make major decisions. Amidst a ballooning debt, its investments in education, infrastructure, and science and technology are seriously lacking.

Politics has become a branch of reality TV, with daily insults, comebacks and color commentary. America’s historical leadership role in the world has been replaced by a narrow and cramped ideology. Foreign policy has become a partisan game, with Washington breaking agreements, shifting course and reversing policy almost entirely to score political points at home.

The shift in reputation that we are witnessing around the world is not so much about the rise of China but rather the decline of the United States.

Trump calls for new action, not new money, to tackle opioid crisis

PBS News Hour Link to Audio and Video

Read the Full Transcript

• Judy Woodruff:
  From President Trump today, a summons to battle opioid addiction. He called for new action, but not necessarily for new money.
  William Brangham begins our coverage.
  
  
• President Donald Trump:
  As you all know from personal experience, families, communities and citizens across our country are currently dealing with the worst drug crisis in American history and even, if you really think about it, world history.
  
  
• William Brangham:
  President Trump, flanked by survivors, first-responders and family members impacted by opioids, declared a public health emergency.
  
  
• President Donald Trump:
  This epidemic is national health emergency. Unlike many of us, we have seen and we have seen in our lifetimes, nobody has seen anybody like what is going on now. As Americans, we cannot allow this to continue. It is time to liberate our communities from the scourge of drug addiction. Never been this way. We can be the generation that ends the opioid epidemic. We can do it.
  
  
• William Brangham:
  The president spoke at length of the severity of this crisis, which claimed the lives of at least 64,000 people last year, has stretched the ability of first-responders and filled treatment centers to capacity nationwide.
  
  But the president also told a more personal story, about his own brother Fred, who died after his struggle with alcoholism.
  
  
• President Donald Trump:
  But he really helped me. I had somebody that guided me. And he had a very, very, very tough life because of alcohol, believe me, very, very tough, tough life. He was a strong guy. But it was a tough, tough thing that he was going through, but I learned because of Fred. I learned.
  
  
• William Brangham:
  The administration today announced several initiatives. The prescription drug Opana will be removed from the market because it’s considered too dangerous.
  
  A key regulation will be changed to expand access to treatment facilities. They will allow grants from the Labor Department and money for HIV/AIDS care to be used in this fight. And officials will be able to tap the Public Health Emergency Fund, even though that fund has less than $60,000 in it.
  
  No new money has been allotted by today’s action. Many say the president’s declaration of a public health emergency is important, but they note that it falls short of a more sweeping state of national emergency, which would give the government far more flexibility to respond to the epidemic.
  
  The president’s own commission on this crisis, chaired by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, had urged that more comprehensive declaration earlier this year. Christie today was still very supportive of the president’s action.
  
  
• Gov. Chris Christie, R-n.j.:
  What the president did today was historic and it is an extraordinary beginning set of steps to dealing with this problem.
  
  
• William Brangham:
  Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said that without more robust funding, today’s action is simply not enough.
  
  
• Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-calif., House Minority Leader:
  Declaring an emergency means he can have access to some funds, but the funds in that account are like $57,000, $58,000, so show me the money.
  
  
• William Brangham:
  Today’s declaration lasts for just 90 days, but can be renewed indefinitely by the president.
  
  For the PBS NewsHour, I’m William Brangham.
  
  
• Judy Woodruff:
  The state of Rhode Island has been especially hard hit by this epidemic and has one of the highest overdose fatality rates in the country.
  
  Gina Raimondo is the governor and a Democrat. And she joins me now from Providence.
  Governor, welcome to the program. Thank you.
  
  What does it mean to you that the president has declared this a public health emergency?
  
  
• Gov. Gina Raimondo, D-r.i.:
  Well, good afternoon, Judy. Good to talk to you.
  
  This is a public health emergency. It’s a public health emergency here in Rhode Island. Since I have been governor, I have done two executive orders on the matter. And it is certainly probably the biggest public health crisis we face in America.
  
  So, we can’t do enough. People are dying every day because of overdose deaths. I’m sick and tired of going to funerals in my state of my friends’ kids, family members of people who I know. Every day almost, I hear a story of this. And we have to do more.
  
  
• Judy Woodruff:
  What is your understanding of what can happen now as a result of this being declared a public health emergency that couldn’t be done before?
  
  
• Gov. Gina Raimondo:
  You know, this has just come out, so it’s little too soon to say.
  
  What I will say, though, is to me it seems like too little too late. This has been an emergency for some time. What we really need is resources, Judy. We know what works. We have to do prevention and we have to get folks into treatment.
  
  And so what the president should be doing if he really did care about these lives is sending finances and funding to us on a local level so that we can get folks into treatment. We know what works. Like, here in Rhode Island, for example, we have been using our Medicaid expansion dollars to provide medical assisted treatment to folks in prison, so they don’t overdose and die when they come out.
  
  It works. It’s saving lives. But if the president were serious about treating this like a crisis that it is, he would have acted sooner, and at this point he would be providing some budget behind this priority, because that’s what we need.
  
  
• Judy Woodruff:
  Well, at the White House, officials are telling reporters that this is going to put them in a position to urge the Congress to put more fun into this so-called Public Health Emergency Fund, which they would point out has not been funded by the Congress for years.
  
  
• Gov. Gina Raimondo:
  And that would be a good step. That would be a good step, although, again, I would say we’re past baby steps on this.
  
  I mean, in a small state of Rhode Island, hundreds of people die every year because of overdose. And these are people in every zip code, of every socioeconomic status in every neighborhood. Young people, kids in their 20s, are dying, and it could be prevented.
  So I would say we need more money for prevention, more money for mental health. We don’t have nearly enough mental health facilities. And more money for medical-assisted treatment. And I don’t think we can wait. It’s time for action. People deserve action.
  In the past two weeks, I have gone to three funerals related to this. Enough is enough. We’re doing everything we can, and the president needs to do everything he knows how to do to save lives.
  
  
• Judy Woodruff:
  Well, the president, I think, went out of his way today to say that this is something that matters deeply to him personally. He spoke about his own brother who died of — having been diagnosed with alcoholism.
  
  The president sounded like he’s very determined to keep the focus on this.
  
  
• Gov. Gina Raimondo:
  Well, talk is one thing, but let’s see action.
  
  You know, as I said, people are still unable to get access to mental health services, either because they can’t afford it, they don’t have insurance, or there’s not enough capacity in the system.
  
  He mentioned today, for example, going after cheap fentanyl coming in from China. Take action on that. Fentanyl is killing our kids every day. It’s coming in from China and Mexico. So, let’s see some real enforcement.
  
  And, again, just — I’m just imploring him, put politics aside, imploring the Congress, put politics aside, do the right thing, give the states not just flexibility. Give us the finances that this country has, so we can save lives.
  
  
• Judy Woodruff:
  And time matters here?
  
  
• Gov. Gina Raimondo:
  Time absolutely matters. Every day we wait, people lose their lives. That is about the size of it. So let’s get to work.
  
  
• Judy Woodruff:
  Governor Gina Raimondo of the state of Rhode Island, thank you very much.
  
  
• Gov. Gina Raimondo:
  Thank you.

China is winning the future. Here’s how

By Fareed Zakaria

This week, the front page of the New York Times described the Trump administration’s repeal of the Clean Power Plan, the Obama administration’s attempt to slash carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants. “The war on coal is over,” declared Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt. Right under that article was an article from halfway around the world detailing China’s massive new investment in electric vehicles, part of Beijing’s determination to dominate the era of clean-energy technology. It is a tale of two strategies.

The Trump administration has decided to move into a new century: the 19th century. Coal has been in decline for at least seven decades. In 1950, it accounted for half of all U.S. electricity generation. It is now down to a third. Additionally, massive automation of mining has meant that the jobs in the industry are disappearing, down from 176,000 in 1985 to 50,000 in 2017.

Machines and software are replacing coal miners just as surely as in other industries. Demand for coal is weak because of alternatives, chiefly natural gas. In the past couple of years, many of the top American coal companies have been forced to declare bankruptcy, including the largest, Peabody Energy.

Despite President Trump’s policy shift, these trends are unlikely to change. Reuters found that, of 32 utilities in the 26 states that filed lawsuits over the Clean Power Plan, “the bulk of them have no plans to alter their multi-billion dollar, years-long shift away from coal.” The reason utilities are shedding coal is economics — the price of natural gas has plummeted in recent years, and its share of U.S. electricity generation has nearly tripled since 1990. In addition, costs are falling dramatically for wind and solar energy.

And, of course, coal is the dirtiest form of energy in use. Coal-fired power plants are one of the nation’s leading sources of carbon-dioxide emissions, and most scientists agree those emissions lead to global warming. They also cause terrible air pollution, with all its attendant health problems and costs.

That’s one of the reasons China, which suffers more than a million deaths a year because of poor air quality, is making huge investments in clean energy. The country has become one of the world’s leading producers of wind turbines and solar panels, with government subsidies enabling its companies to become cost-efficient and global in their aspirations. In 2015, China was home to the world’s top wind-turbine maker and the top two solar-panel manufacturers.

According to a recent report from the United Nations, China invested $78.3 billion in renewable energy last year — almost twice as much as the United States.



Now Beijing is making a push into electric cars, hoping to dominate what it believes will be the transport industry of the future. Already China has taken a large lead in electric cars. In 2016, more than twice as many were sold in China as in the United States, an astonishing catch-up for a country that had almost no such technologies 10 years ago. China’s leaders have let it be known that by 2025 they want 20 percent of all new cars sold in China to be powered by alternative fuels. All of this has already translated into jobs, “big league” as President Trump might say: 3.6 million people are already working in the renewable-energy sector in China, compared with 777,000 in the United States. 

China is still heavily reliant on coal, which it has in plentiful supply, and it has tried to find steady sources of other fossil fuels. It went on a shopping spree over the past two decades, making deals for natural resources and energy around the world, often paying at the peak of the commodities bubble in the mid-2000s. But over time, it recognized that this mercantilism was a bad strategy, tying Beijing up with expensive projects in unstable countries in Africa. Instead, it watched and learned from the United States as technological revolutions dramatically increased the supply and lowered the cost of natural gas and solar energy. China has now decided to put a much larger emphasis on this route to energy security, one that also ensures it will be the world’s leading producer of clean energy.

Trump has often talked about how China is “killing us ” and that he’s tired of hearing about China’s huge growth numbers. He should notice that Beijing is getting its growth by focusing on the future, the next areas of growth in economics and technology. The United States under Trump will be engaged in a futile and quixotic quest to revive the industries of the past. Who do you think will win?

Bernie Sanders & Robert Reich discuss how we defeat Republicans' horrid 'health care' proposal

Noam Chomsky (UPDATE Oct 04, 2017) - BEST Interview 2017

God Bless America

By Frank Bruni

“God bless America,” our president said, dutifully, after the bloody Sunday in Las Vegas. It’s a wish worth repeating. It’s an intervention sorely needed in a country seriously lost.

God bless America, where shock over a torrent of bullets that sends dozens more to the morgue doesn’t last, if indeed there’s shock at all. This kind of violence is no longer exceptional. But we are. No other affluent country can match our massacres or, in the face of them, our paralysis. We stand out boldly in this regard. We lead.

God bless America, awash in self-delusion. House Speaker Paul Ryan responded to the horror in Las Vegas by saying that “what truly defines us” are the acts of heroism we learned of, while the shooting itself “is not who we are.” How does he figure that? Las Vegas was one of the worst but hardly the first. And it demands more than the gauzy pieties and press-a-button platitudes that too many politicians spout.

God bless America, where the juxtaposition of two articles published by this section of this newspaper on Monday said it all. The first was pictorial, a calendar that captured all the mass shootings in the United States since June 12, 2016, when gunfire ruptured the party in the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla. There had been 521 in 477 days. Last March was a curious lull. Just 22 mass shootings then.

The second article was by Steve Israel, a former congressman, and its transcendent point was in its terrifying headline: “Nothing Will Change After the Las Vegas Shooting.” That’s an outrageous forecast. In all likelihood, it’s an accurate one, too.

God bless America, where the fact that we can’t be 100 percent sure that a given new gun restriction would lessen the dying becomes an excuse not to give it a try, though the stakes couldn’t be higher, the sirens couldn’t be louder and each new marker surpasses the last.

In Newtown, Conn., in 2012, 26 people perished, 20 of them children. In Orlando four years later, 49 died. And in Las Vegas, the count so far is 59. What’s the trip wire for urgency and action? Triple digits?

God bless America, where the Second Amendment seems to be getting a hell of a lot more respect right now than the First. It has become totemic, part of a larger culture war that blinds too many Americans to the amendment’s conception in an entirely different era and context, long before the efficient killing machines of today. There’s the right to bear arms, sure, but there’s also the right to walk into a nightclub or a concert — or to send a child off to school — without a sense of dread that’s increasingly and fully warranted. Aren’t we entitled to that, too?

God bless America, where a whole class of sellouts, Donald Trump prime among them, lack the character to stand up to the death merchants of the National Rifle Association. At the group’s April convention, Trump told them: “You came through big for me, and I am going to come through for you.” Tit for tat and forget about the lives potentially sacrificed to the deal. They will be accorded their pro forma moments of silence. They will get the usual candlelight vigils. It will be pretty and it will be almost pointless, because the band will play on.

God bless America, where we’ve outsourced empathy and righteous anger from the White House to television talk shows and learned to lean on the comedians who host them. On Monday those jokesters seriously channeled our emotions and sounded the appropriate alarms. Politics and entertainment don’t merely overlap. In the Trump era, they’ve traded job descriptions.

God bless America, whose partisan fevers are so corrosive that when the musician Caleb Keeter tweeted that his presence in Las Vegas on Sunday had shown him “how wrong” he was to oppose gun control, critics aplenty assailed the selfishness of the epiphany. How about welcoming a convert to a just cause and using his newfound passion as best we can? Wouldn’t that be more constructive?

God bless America, with its sloppy ooze of agenda-driven misinformation. In the hours after the shooting, posts that erroneously identified the shooter and baselessly described him as a Trump-hating liberal or a recent convert to Islam gained serious traction on Google and Facebook, an echo of the fake news in the 2016 presidential election, an example of the conspiracy theories that so many Americans embrace and an illustration of the house of mirrors in which they now stumble around.

“We are working to fix the issue,” a spokesman for Facebook told The Times. A spokesman for Google said, “We’ll continue to make algorithmic improvements.” Pandora cackled. Her box is wide open, and it’s called the internet.

God bless America, with our boundless talent and galling complacency. If we summon enough gratitude for the former to banish the latter, we just might find our way forward.