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Senator Kyrsten Sinema - A Game Changer of American Politics

12/31/2022

1 Comment

 
Dr. David Wordman
 
One's success is bound to be a product of one's personal traits and life experience accumulated in one's lifetime living through one's environment. Kyrsten Sinema born on July 12, 1976 had a homeless childhood and worked hard academically to better herself, she developed a successful career eventually becoming a U.S. Senator in 2019 before turning 43 and replacing Arizona retiring Senator Jeff Flake. On December 8th, Senator Sinema announced her resignation from the Democratic party to become an independent, joining two other independents, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Senator Angus King of Maine.  Officially Senator Sinema's decision will influence the Democratic control of the Senate depending on how independent she will be. If she would caucus with the Democrats like the other Independents do, then Democrats will hold a 51:49 clear majority in the Senate. If she would not caucus with the Democrats, then Democrats will have a 50:49 majority. Judging from her voting records of 50% with the Trump Administration, even though she said she would not caucus with Republicans, there are certainly possibilities on issues related to finance/budget or military spending that may result in a 50:50 tie requiring the VP as the tie-breaker.  Another Democratic Senator from West Virginia Joe Manchin, like Sinema, had frustrated the Biden Administration and liberal Democrats in the past two years on certain voting issues, for example, on debating and passing the massive $3.5 trillion Build Back Better Bill and opposition to the changes on the Senators' filibuster rules. Even though the White House (Joe Biden) and the Senate Majority (Chuck Schumer) think the Democrats will still be in charge and day-to-day operations won't change, the fact that Senator Sinema formerly declares as a new independent at a time that American bi-partisan politics essentially is walking on high-wire needing serious reform to get our Congress and Administration to work more efficiently is very significant, more than just an impact on senate voting.

This significant impact may be examined from at least three aspects, first, Senator Sinema's personal career objective – With her background, self-made successful woman, liberal on social issues and conservative otherwise, she may be a possible 2024 Presidential candidate to galvanize the independents and the dissidents of the two major parties who have been frustrated with the past two Administrations. Second, a movement of political reform – Citizens are fed up with our inefficient governments. It is necessary to force the American two-party system to reform and to examine whether a third significant party can make Congress and Administration function more efficiently. Senator Sinema may trigger such a movement. Third, A complex immigration problem - the Biden Administration like the Trump Administration is blaming the U.S. semiconductor manufacturing supply chain deficiency on China and Taiwan. Biden's semiconductor revitalization plan of inducing TSMC of Taiwan to build its fabs in Arizona and grant massive number of TSMC employees visas to work in Arizona is a serious social problem reminiscing the days when black laborers from Africa were forced to immigrate to the U.S. (Arizona having a long border with Mexico is facing the illegal immigrant problem.) How the two parties may be pulled back from an ill-formed anti-China (and anti-Taiwan) foreign policy to focus on our real domestic issues of education and immigration to fix the problem of the decline of America?

Krysten Lea Sinema was born in Tucson Arizona having an older brother and younger sister. Her parents divorced and her mom remarried and moved the family to Florida. When her stepfather lost his job, the family lived in an abandoned gas station under hardship. Yet she finished Walton high school as a Valedictorian at age 16 (1992) and a BA degree from Brigham Young University at age 19 (1995). While working as a social worker, she obtained an M.A. In 1999 and J.D. In 2004 from Arizona State University College of Law and practiced as a criminal defense lawyer. In 2008, she participated in the Harvard University JFK School of Government Program for Senior Executives with an LGBTQ Victory Institute fellowship. She started her political career as early as 2002 running for public office as a Green party member but failed. In 2004, she switched to the Democratic party and won an Arizona house representative seat. From then on, she served three terms as Arizona house representative, then won state senate (2010 election) and next won a Congress House seat (2012, 2014, and 2016 elections). In 2018, she ran for and won the U.S. Senate seat for Arizona by raising three times more campaign funds than the combined total of her three competing candidates raised together. Although Senator Sinema had been attacked on her voting records such as voting 50% of the time with the Trump Administration and having few accomplishments on legislation to her name, but she is a true independent (proven by her voting record), confident and decisive (for example in 2012 running for Congress by resigning state senate position and in 2018 taking on the Senate race).

Sinema is firm in her belief and in saying and doing the right things (“unafraid to say what I believe about and what our party needs to do.”) Sinema voted against both Pelosi and Schumer to be the majority leader.  For the current American political system, we have a dysfunctional Congress and government hence being unable to solve many domestic issues ranging from budget, military funding, healthcare, taxation, immigration, and infrastructure, as well as many more social issues (guns and crimes etc.) Foreign affairs have been used to divert attention from domestic problems. With our superior military power (and military-industrial complex), we often set foreign policies to obtain an unfair advantage for us. Using subsidies to move TSMC fabs and employees to Arizona will not solve our education problem failing to produce a sufficient number of STEM professionals other than violating WTO rules, upsetting our EU and Asian allies and destroying global cooperation. The competition from a rising China is inevitable. It can only be sensibly dealt with a fair collaborative attitude for mutual benefits. The U.S. cannot rely on our military power to initiate or engage in wars to solve problems. Since Sinema announced her switch from democrat to independent, there are questions about her real intentions. She says that she is not interested in the presidency even though reporters and Bernie Sanders have linked her independent stand to her personal aspiration. This author would suggest that Senator Sinema might have a chance to be a game-changer in American Politics. He hopes she will consider it.             




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1 Comment

Why Anti-China? Anti-China for whose benefit? Who understands these?

12/24/2022

1 Comment

 
Ifay Chang, columnist of the China-US Forum
 
Anti-communism is an ideological matter. Western developed countries advocate individual liberalism, pursue a democratic system based on individual interests and freedom, and promote the democratic model of popular elections, voting by citizens. Under the concept of governance that communism pays attention to the collective public opinion using consensus building process and focuses on basic citizens welfare, the western developed countries regard communism as hostile to democracy limiting individual freedom, so they are anti-communist and are unwilling to coexist with communism or learn from each other. The anti-communism became an international movement after the establishment of the Soviet Union creating a two polarized world. Eventually, the economic failure of the Soviet communist system under the Western economic sanctions strengthened the anti-communist ideology in the West.
 
Under the corrupt rule of the Qing Dynasty, China suffered from more than one hundred years of Western aggression and bullying. In the end, Chinese People's Revolution created a republic system in early twentieth century for China. The Chinese Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)  competed for political power, resulting in the split across the Taiwan Strait, which was not without the interference of Western anti-Communist ideology and the communist Soviet. Therefore, the Chinese mainland led by the Chinese Communist Party is targeted as a communist country by the West, even though the Chinese Communist Party had differences from the Soviet communist organization and pursued its own path. China has five thousand years of culture and history and also has been inspired by the thoughts of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, father of modern China. China has always treasured her own historical background for developing her own political system, and many political scholars have debated and concluded that there is absolutely no need to blind copy any imperfect political system from the West for China, a nation with more than billion people. The West, led by the United States, has witnessed China's rapid rise and progress in many domains since the disintegration of the Soviet Union. However, the West not only did not have the willingness to jointly develop with China for prosperity, but also decided to oppose China and put all the anti-communist forces onto her.
 
Since the beginning of the 21st century, China has made very broad and comprehensive progress, including political reform, economy, military, science and technology, and space exploration. In contrast, the United States adopted an ill-conceived hostile policy to target China eventually openly identify China as her strongest competitor threatening the U.S. and began to fight against China in all aspects, which are more vicious than ideological opposition to China. The United States is a two-party political system, no matter which party is in power, when the United States is gradually caught up by China with advances whether in economic, social or military domain, she chooses to blame China for the U.S. problems or decline, instead of reflecting on the U.S.’s own actions. Therefore, the two parties in the United States have reached a consensus on the anti-China fight, and used their monopoly over the media's discourse power to discredit and suppress China's development. In fact, what the United States fights against China is not for the welfare of the American people but for the interests of the political party in maintaining its power and economic interests. For example, the trade tariff and sanctions against China actually hurts American people and industries just as much if not more than hurting China. However, the American people cannot be deceived forever, and sooner or later the people will wake up to facts. As an example, China just successfully constructed, launched and assembled her space station in space despite of the U.S. sanction. Hindsight tells us that accepting China's request to participate in the NASA led space program (life may end in 2023) may be far more beneficial than accepting any other nation on ideological basis.
 
The United States is a big and powerful country after all. Since World War II, she has established her position for leading the world. The U.S. has hundreds of overseas military bases and a large number of U.S. troops and military deployments in important geographical areas such as Germany, Japan, and South Korea. Although there is not a large number of U.S. troops stationed in Taiwan, the U.S. has made a significant investment for the purpose of influencing Taiwan's political and economic affairs. This can be seen in Taiwan's presidential elections, candidates must be blessed by the United States in order to win the presidential election. Therefore, the Taiwan regime (especially the current DPP) will be echoing with the U.S. China strategy, and the U.S. anti-China attitude or anti-China policies will directly affect Taiwan's political position. The United States once scolded Chen Shui-bian (2001-2008) as a troublemaker, and her moderate attitude towards Ma Ying-jeou's (2009-2016) mainland policy was closely related to the fact that the United States was experiencing the financial crisis (2008-) and depended on the Chinese mainland's economic support. Today, with the banner of anti-China raised prominently by Trump and Biden, the Tsai Ing-wen regime (2017-) had boldly moved towards anti-China and anti-Chinese, and her betrayal to Taiwan people’s ancestry for keeping her political power with the U.S. blessing all can be traced to the tempo of U.S. China strategy. Taiwan's resistance to China or anti-China actions are by no means for protecting the well-being of the Taiwanese people, rather it is solely for the interests of keeping the DPP in power. Under the influence of the United States, the opposition party KMT could not carve out its own independent road either. This is the tragedy of the Taiwanese people. Taiwan has the reputation of practicing democracy but its people cannot fulfill their own independent will.
 
Why anti-China? Anti-China for whose benefit? After understanding these questions, the citizens of the world and the people of Taiwan can start to make correct decisions about their own future. Even the American people will wake up one day. Of course, the Chinese people must continue to work hard for the rejuvenation of the great China! The prospect of creating a world of great harmony (Sun Yat-Sen's global view 世界大同) under China’s initiative such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is very bright!
 


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Significance of Arab Summit to the World

12/17/2022

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Dr. Wordman

The most critical news even hotter than those related to the Russia-Ukraine war and the G20 convention and its bilateral summits, is no other than the Arab Summit and President Xi’s speech at the Arab Summit and his state visit to Saudi Arabia. The significance of the Arab Summit can be examined through history in terms of ‘Separatism’ and ‘Unification’ prevailed in political policies and diplomatic tactics. The Arab world is bestowed with rich energy resources, but it has been a victim of separatism policy, an off-shoot of colonialism after the two world wars when revolutions furiously took place in the continents ruled by colonialism. Today, the Arab world is war-torn and separated into many political entities due to external interference, namely the Soviet Union and the U.S. Unification is a much older concept well documented in Chinese history.  Dynasties after dynasties, unification was desired as a political concept to encourage harmonious living together as citizens of a nation even though ruled by an authoritarian emperor. When China struggled against colonialism and became a republic during the two world wars, it has been pursuing unification, nevertheless. China was separated into two parts across the Taiwan Strait out of external influence, namely the Soviet Union and United States battling an ideologically driven Cold War. Unification being written into the constitution of both the PRC and ROC, of course, has its historical reason. In this article, the author would like to discuss the importance, but not so obvious, of the Arab Summit to the world.
 
The U.S. emerged as the world's  strongest super power after benefited from WW I and WW II. It is no fault to desire and to behave as a world leader to guide the world to prosperity. However, perhaps influenced by colonialism and the success of Menlo doctrine, the U.S. adopted ‘Separatism’ as the principal policy to control, rather than to lead, the world. Separatism as a strategy for controlling the world has two axioms. One is to suppress the rise of any strong united country to be a rival of the U.S. The Soviet Union (now Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union) and rising China in this century were clearly two pieces of  evidence exhibited in the strategy of the U.S. national security strategy. Two is to divide and maintain a separated world for ease of control. This can be seen clearly in the Middle East and Africa. Europe may have realized the value of unification but the U.S. had never wanted a strong United Europe. So to its advantage it had organized a military alliance, NATO, under its control. NATO unified part of Europe’s military forces under the U.S. command, since, except for France, most other NATO countries are equipped or rely upon U.S. military equipment or aid. In Asia, the U.S. had Japan under control (Japan had been suppressed once in the ‘80s when Japan’s economy rose to the world's  number two position). The U.S. insisted the separation of the two Koreas is clearly another piece of evidence. So, targeting China today as an enemy by playing the Taiwan card against China’s unification policy is no surprise, a logical consequence of the U.S. separatism strategy.
 
We are familiar with the ‘Arab Spring’ movement. It is essentially a separatism tactic using violent riots as a revolution to topple those stable but not under U.S.-controlled governments. In Chinese language, it has been translated as 阿拉伯之春, but Spring in English can mean the first season of the year when plants sprout but it can also mean bounce with little control. The Arab Springs are actually riots orchestrated by external forces using whatever issues (religion, race, social and economic problems) to bounce or topple stable governments, be they authoritarian or democratic governments. The Arab nations have suffered severely from Arab Springs. Today, an organized Arab Summit without the hands of the U.S. is very significant in that the Arab nations have finally recognized the evil of separatism. Furthermore, the U.S. has turned from a big buyer of Arab oil to a competitor, a seller of its shale oil. The Arab nations need more than ever to unite together. Welcoming China’s President, Xi Jinping to attend the Arab Summit also signifies that. Although differences exist in the Arab world, it is still advantageous to embrace unification than separatism. The outcome of the Arab Summit will very likely turn a new chapter for world politics and foreign diplomacy.
 
Both ROC and PRC have recognized the importance of the Arab world not just from the oil they need but also from geopolitical considerations. ROC maintained a good relationship with Saudi Arabia. Many young professional citizens from Taiwan, for example, nurses and engineers, had been assigned to work in Saudi Arabia helping its hospitals and engineering projects. Later the PRC under the one-China principle replaced the ROC in the United Nations, the PRC had essentially offered similar professional services to Arab nations. Many Arab nations adhered to the One China principle, and Saudi Arabia eventually abandoned ROC and recognized PRC as the other over 190 UN members did. Instead of judging this diplomatic flip as a morale defection, it is more a diplomatic reality. However, among these diplomatic flips, there is an unexplained hidden reason that the Arab nations especially realized the pitfalls of separatism and how much damage it had made in the Arab world. Perhaps the Arabs had appreciated the insistence on unification of the Chinese political philosophy. Both PRC and ROC had viewed the Taiwan Strait Separation as a domestic issue. It was the U.S. that has been the promoter of maintaining a de facto separation. Hence, Arab nations would decisively make a clean flip rather than keeping steps with the ambiguous Taiwan policy the U.S. was practicing.
 
President Xi’s state visit to Saudi Arabia and the Arab Summit will certainly strengthen the trade relations between the two countries, the use of RMB as currency for oil purchases, accelerated infrastructure projects and military equipment procurement, and increased cultural exchanges. But more significantly, Xi’s trip may shine a spotlight on unification versus separatism for the Arabs, the people in Taiwan and Mainland, the Americans, and the whole world to see: unification leads to a harmonic world and separatism causes human misery!
 
中國與阿拉伯國家高峰會對世界的意義 (中譯)

      比俄烏開戰和G20峰會及其雙邊元首峰會更火爆的關鍵消息,莫過於阿拉伯峰會和習主席出席中阿峰會,並對沙烏地阿拉伯進行國事訪問。 中阿首腦峰會的意義,可以從歷史上的「分裂」與「統一」, 兩種國際盛行的政治政策和外交策略來考察,阿拉伯世界擁有豐富的能源資源,但它一直是分裂主義政策的受害者,這是兩次世界大戰後殖民主義的脱變,在殖民主義統治的大陸上發生了激烈的革命。 今天,阿拉伯世界飽受戰爭蹂躪,是由於外部干涉,主要是蘇聯和美國, 加劇分裂,阿拉伯世界被分裂成許多政治實體。統一是一個更古老的概念,在中國歷史上有很好的記載,中國歷代王朝在專制皇帝的統治下都希望統一,作為一個政治概念來鼓勵一個國家的公民能和諧地生活在一起。 中國在兩次世界大戰期間反對殖民主義、致力於建立共和國的時候,也一直在追求統一反抗分裂。 由於受到外部影響,即蘇聯和美國在意識形態驅動的冷戰中互鬥,中國在台灣海峽兩岸被分成兩部分(中國受害於分裂主義還有蒙古被分割)然而「統一」被寫入中華人民共和國和中華民國的憲法,當然有其歷史原因。 在本篇文章中,作者想討論(不那麽明顯的)中阿元首峰會對世界的意義和重要性。

      美國受益於一戰和二戰,一躍成為世界上最強大的超級大國。 渴望以世界領導者的身份來引導全球走向繁榮並沒有錯。 然而,也許是受到殖民主義利益和門羅主義成功的影響,美國採取了“分裂主義”作為主要外交政策,以控制世界而不是領導世界。 分離主義作為控制世界的策略有兩個目標。 一是壓制任何強大的統一國家崛起成為美國的對手。蘇聯(蘇聯解體後為現在的俄羅斯)和本世紀崛起的中國成為美國國家戰略和 安全策略中的對手就是明證。 二是分裂和維持一個分裂的世界,便於控制。 這在中東和非洲可以清楚地看到。 歐洲已經意識到統一的價值,但美國從來不想造成一個強大和統一的歐洲。 因此,它組織了一個在其控制下的軍事聯盟-北約,這對它有利。 北約將歐洲部分軍事力量統一在美國的指揮之下,因為除法國外,其他北約國家大多依賴美國的軍事裝備或援助。 在亞洲,美國控制了日本(日本在80年代經濟上升到世界第二的時候被打壓過一次)。 美國堅持朝韓分裂很顯然的是另一個證據。 因此,今天通過打台灣牌反對中國統一將中國視為敵人也就不足為奇了,這是美國分裂主義戰略的合乎邏輯的結果。

      我們熟悉「阿拉伯之春」運動。 這本質上是一種分裂主義策略中的技倆,利用暴力騷亂作為革命來推翻穩定但不受美國控制的政府。 在中文中,它被翻譯為阿拉伯之春,但英文中的春天可以表示一年中植物發芽的第一個季節,也可以表示不受控制地反彈。 阿拉伯之春實際上是由外部勢力策劃的騷亂,利用任何問題(宗教、種族、社會和經濟問題)來反彈或推翻穩定的政府,無論是威權政府還是民主政府,只要是不順從的政府。 阿拉伯國家深受阿拉伯之春之害。 今天,一次沒有美國在內的有組織的阿拉伯首腦會議,意義重大,阿拉伯國家終於認清了分裂主義的罪惡。 此外,美國已經從阿拉伯石油的大買家變成了其頁岩油的競爭對手、變成賣家。 阿拉伯國家比以往任何時候都更需要團結起來。 邀請中國國家主席習近平在阿拉伯首腦會議上出席,也表明阿拉伯世界儘管存在分歧,但認清了統一主義總比分裂主義有利。 中阿峰會的成功很可能會掀開世界政治和國際外交的新篇章。

      中華人民共和國和中華民國都認識到阿拉伯世界的重要性,不僅從他們需要的石油觀點,而且從地緣政治和歷史淵源考慮。 台灣與沙特阿拉伯曾經保持著良好的關係。 許多台灣的年輕職業公民,例如護士和工程師,被派往沙特阿拉伯工作,幫助其醫院和工程項目。 後來中華人民共和國在一個中國原則下在聯合國取代了中華民國,中華人民共和國基本上也向阿拉伯國家提供類似的專業服務。 許多阿拉伯國家都堅持一個中國原則。 沙特阿拉伯最終放棄了中華民國,並像其他 190 多個聯合國會員國一樣承認了中華人民共和國。 與其將這種外交轉變判斷為「不講義氣」,不如說它是一種外交現實。 然而,在這些外交轉折中,有一個難以解釋的隱情,那就是阿拉伯國家特別意識到分裂主義的陷阱及其對阿拉伯世界造成的破壞。 也許阿拉伯人讚賞中國政治哲學裡堅持統一的信念。 中華人民共和國和中華民國都將台海分離視為國內問題。 是美國一直在推動和保持台海事實上的分裂。 因此,阿拉伯國家寧願果斷放棄模棱兩可的糢糊對台政策。

      習主席對沙特阿拉伯的國事訪問和參加中阿峰會必將加强两國貿易關係,以人民幣作為貨幣購買石油,加快基礎建設項目, 軍事裝備採購,增加文化交流等項目,但是從歷史的長程和全球的視野看來,其實更重要的是,習近平主席此行可能像聚光燈一樣會讓阿拉伯人、兩岸人民、美國人和全世界看清統一與分裂的區別:統一能導致世界和諧,分裂則為人類帶來苦難!
 
Ifay Chang. Ph.D., Inventor, Author, TV Game Show Host and Columnist (www.us-chinaforum.org) as well as serving as Trustee, Somers Central School District.
 
 
 

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