Pompeo the Great (Michael Pompeius Magnus)

‘The West Is Winning,’ U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Tells Nations at Munich Security Conference
BY ELLA KIETLINSKA

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at the annual Munich Security Conference in Germany on Feb. 15, 2020. 

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended the strength and sustainability of the Western world despite misgivings in Europe when speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Feb. 15.
More than 500 high-level decision-makers from all over the world convene annually at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, to discuss international security policies and address current security challenges. 

Among the attendees are heads of states, ministers, members of parliament, business leaders, scientists, and high-ranking members of civil society.
The central theme of this year’s conference was fading of the West, and “the Western project,” a phenomenon called “Westlessness” by the Munich Security Report 2020, an official primer for this year’s conference. 

In today’s world, what has been understood as the basis of the West: liberal democracy, human rights, market-based economy, and the rule of law, “is increasingly contested,” which in turn poses security challenges, according to the report.
“The world is becoming less Western … the West itself may become less Western, too,” the report says.
The main theme of Pompeo’s speech was “The West Is Winning.”
“Free nations are simply more successful than any other model that’s been tried in the history of civilization. Our governments respect basic human rights, they foster economic prosperity, and they keep us all secure,” Pompeo said. 

The West is not just limited to geographical location, as “any nation that adopts a model of respect for individual freedom, free enterprise, national sovereignty … [is] part of this idea of the West,” he explained.
To illustrate his point, Pompeo talked about the many refugees who risk their lives to escape in droves across the sea to Greece or Italy, but not to Iran or Cuba. 

On the other hand, some Asian countries were able to get out of poverty and emerge as world-leading economies by embracing Western principles, like South Korea, which is in stark contrast with Communist-ruled North Korea.
Pompeo emphasized the strength of the U.S. economy, citing low unemployment rates, rising wages, as well as the resilience of the country’s political system.
Respect for sovereignty, freedom, and democracy are critical values of the West that allow it to win, Pompeo said.

South Korea’s Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Japan’s Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi pose during a trilateral meeting during the 56th Munich Security Conference (MSC) in Munich, southern Germany on Feb. 15, 2020.

US Commitment to Protection of Freedom and SovereigntyThere are, however, countries that do not respect sovereignty and can pose threats to the West, Pompeo said. 

He listed Russia, which “seized Crimea and parts of Eastern Ukraine,” Iran, which attacked Saudi oil facilities and has troops in several Middle East countries, and China, which ”encroaches on the exclusive economic zones of Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia,” and uses “unfair trade practices.”

He strongly disagreed with remarks made in recent years by Western leaders, “questioning America’s commitment to the transatlantic alliance and America’s leadership in the world.” 

He also quoted a Western leader who said the day before that “the United States rejects the international community.”
In response, Pompeo provided examples of U.S. involvement in fighting and countering all kinds of attacks on sovereignty and freedom of Western countries. 

The United States has worked to confront and counter these threats through sanctions and military actions.
The United States also arms threatened or attacked nations—e.g., Ukraine and provides them with financial aid, and training. 

The United States has led the global fight to defeat ISIS, Pompeo said.
The United States urged NATO Allies to increase their defense spending to “$400 billion in new pledges,” and actively participates in NATO’s military exercises in Europe, he said.
“We support independent nations. … Our signature military project together is a defensive alliance,” Pompeo said.
Pompeo announced a new U.S. commitment to “provide up to $1 billion in financing to Central and Eastern European countries of the Three Seas Initiative.” 

The goal is “to galvanize private sector investment in the energy sector to protect freedom and democracy around the world,” said Pompeo.

U.S. President Donald Trump and other leaders attend the Three Seas Initiative Summit of Eastern European countries at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland, on July 6, 2017. 

The Three Seas Initiative is a political platform at the presidential level that unites 12 Central and Eastern European countries, located between the Adriatic, the Baltic, and the Black seas, in an endeavor to build a North-South infrastructure corridor connecting countries of this region.
Most of the Three Seas participants used to be a part of the former Eastern Communist Bloc, dominated by the Soviet Union. 

Therefore their infrastructure was not only underdeveloped in comparison with Western Europe but also focused mainly on interconnections along the East-West axis. 

This was a major impediment to economic growth in the region. 

In terms of energy, the region remained dependent on a single supplier of gas and oil—Russia.
Included in the Three Seas Initiatives are projects to create an energy market that will provide diversification of energy sources and suppliers, and one of the new energy suppliers to countries participating in the initiative is an American producer of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Chinese political donations pose a threat to Australian democracy

Concerns are being raised over political parties accepting substantial payments from sources linked to the Communist Party of China
By DANIEL FAZIO 

On June 5, the ABC television show Four Corners shed light on substantial donations to the Liberal-National coalition (LNP) and Labor (ALP) parties from Chinese sources linked to the Communist Party of China (CPC). 

These revelations raise serious concerns that require immediate action to prevent the further corrosion of Australian politics and the undermining of the country’s national sovereignty.
Current Australian electoral laws allow political parties to seek and accept foreign donations, so there is no suggestion that the parties have done anything illegal.
However, being beholden to foreign donors risks corrupting and compromising Australian national sovereignty. 

Indeed, Four Corners revealed this is why ASIO, the country’s chief intelligence agency, warned senior Liberal-National and Labor officials that China is exercising undue influence in Australian politics.
ASIO is also concerned about CPC influence in Australian universities, its monitoring of Chinese students and Chinese media in Australia to ensure they don’t engage in activities contrary to Beijing’s views.
One thing is certain: the Chinese are not donating hefty sums of money to the LNP and ALP because they have an altruistic desire to aid Australian democracy. 

Beijing is seeking to exploit Australia’s economic reliance on China because it serves its geo-strategic interests.
China’s increasing assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific region and growing presence in Africa indicates a calculated strategic move beyond Deng Xiaoping’s axiom: “hide your strength, bide your time.”
By deploying its soft power to increase its hard power, China is no longer hiding its strength or biding its time.
Should Australian political parties continue accepting Chinese donations, they risk facilitating growing Chinese influence in Australian politics which will undermine national sovereignty and compromise future Australian governments into acting contrary to Australian interests.
Chinese influence in Australian politics is already evident. 

In 2016, it emerged Labor Senator Sam Dastyari had received gifts and payments for legal and travel bills from Chinese contacts.
During last year’s federal election, a Chinese donor threatened to withdraw a promised A$400,000 (US$303,700) donation to the ALP after its shadow defence minister, Stephen Conroy, expressed support for freedom of navigation laws in the South China Sea, which were contrary to Beijing’s claims in the area.
It has also transpired that Australia’s former trade minister, Andrew Robb, accepted an A$880,000 a year consultancy with a Chinese firm before he left parliament after having negotiated the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement.
Australia needs to immediately ban foreign donations for all political parties and mandate full disclosure of all donations from all organisations and individuals.
Current Australian electoral law means donations below A$13,000 don’t have to be disclosed. 

Total transparency is the only way to minimize corruption and subversiveness of the political process.
The issue of the Chinese donations are symptomatic of the closed operational culture of the LNP and ALP. 

This lack of transparency plays into Chinese hands. 

Secrecy serves the designs of the political parties and those who seek to influence them.
Australian political parties are very opaque. 

They operate in a democracy but their internal culture and workings are not open or democratic. 

Within the party structures, power and decision-making is concentrated in the hands of a very small number of individuals.
Dissenting views are not tolerated and it is almost impossible for those aspiring for internal party positions and a parliamentary career to make headway without currying favor with the power brokers. A political operative once told me “election day” is the only day democracy operates in Australian politics.
The current state of Australian politics offers little hope for genuine and transparent reform. 

Voters are becoming increasingly apathetic, cynical and disillusioned. 

The political parties are content to perpetuate this vicious cycle because a disengaged electorate allows them to avoid proper scrutiny.
Party officials, determined to keep power concentrated in their hands, vehemently resist calls to democratize. 

This singular focus on the pursuit and maintenance of power leaves parties open to be compromised by vested interests. 

This will further corrode the political process and weaken national sovereignty.
Political parties in comparable nations such as Britain, Canada and the US are much more democratic than those in Australia. 

The revelations about the Chinese donations are a warning to the Australian electorate to emerge from our apathetic stupor and deploy our collective power at the ballot box and demand openness and accountability from our elected representatives and their parties.
Lord Acton said, “power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” 

Transparency and accountability are the only real safeguards against undue Chinese influence upon the political process and national sovereignty.

Oil Becoming Code for Sovereignty in Contested South China Sea

By Ralph Jennings

Ships of Chinese Coast Guard are seen near Chinese oil rig Haiyang Shi You 981 in the South China Sea, about 210 km (130 miles) off shore of Vietnam.

TAIPEI — The search for oil and natural gas is seen as a driving factor in rival claims to the South China Sea, with many of the countries in the region currently reliant largely on fuel imports.
Yet no one has struck a head-turning deposit of oil or gas in the 3.5-million-square-km (1.4-square-mile) sea, which stretches from Taiwan to Singapore, despite prospecting since 1970.
Analysts who follow the South China Sea disputes point to national sovereignty as a top reason that countries are exploring for oil and gas. 

Brunei, China, Malaysia and Vietnam do their own prospecting. 

The Philippine government accepted exploration bids in 2014 from private companies.
“The South China Sea is not Saudi Arabia, it’s not Iraq, it’s not the Middle East,” said Fabrizio Bozzato, associate researcher specialized in international affairs at Tamkang University in Taiwan. “The primary purpose of the claimants to be there is not because they want to access the oil and gas resources in the area. Developing hydrocarbon resources in the South China Sea would be way to mark the territory.”
Fossil fuel exploration came up in October when Manila and Beijing began discussing joint oil exploration, according to Philippine media. 

The talks are part of rebuilding relations that were strained since 2012 when vessels from the two sides became locked in a standoff at Scarborough Shoal west of Luzon Island.
In Taiwan, which also claims much of the South China Sea, the former president suggested joint resource exploration with rival claimants.
But the act of exploring for oil or gas sends a signal of control over the tract of sea being drilled, analysts say, pointing to a series of spats.
An aerial view of one of the structures built by China at the Philippine-claimed Mischief Reef, Spratly Islands in South China Sea.
When the Philippines turned up gas off Palawan in 1976, China complained and stalled the project.
The positioning of a Chinese offshore oil driller’s rig in the Gulf of Tonkin in 2014 sparked a boat ramming incident with Vietnam, where deadly anti-China riots also erupted. 

Vietnam formally protested another Chinese rig in April this year.
Joint exploration would imply a concession of sovereignty, Baker said.
“There’s probably very little incentive for countries to actually go and try to do this exploration simply because it’s very difficult to come to an agreement between different countries because it requires some acknowledgement of the right to exploit those resources, which means they have to give up some sense of sovereignty,” said Carl Baker, director of programs at Pacific Forum CSIS in Honolulu.
“And for the Chinese this is very difficult to do, and for the Philippines and Vietnam, they’ve found it creates problems in domestic circles as well,” he said.
The Philippines began more than 40 years ago looking for oil west of Palawan island, at Reed Bank. In 1984, a Philippine company found an oil field in the same region and it supplies 15 percent of the annual oil consumption in the Philippines.
The U.S. Energy Information Agency estimates 11 billion barrels’ worth of oil under the sea and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. 

Much of that lies under the continental shelves of Southeast Asian claimants, which are not disputed. Much of that potential energy has not been tapped yet, Baker said.
Saudi Arabia has an estimated 268 billion barrels of proven oil reserves and Iraq has 144 billion, the U.S. Energy Information Agency says. 

Russia leads the world in natural gas reserves with 5,085 trillion cubic feet.
Falling oil prices and the costs of extracting any fuel from under the seabed limit the value of exports from any undersea discoveries, analysts add.
In Malaysia, the claimant country that has found the most fossil fuel to date, few are pushing for exploration, said Oh Ei Sun, international studies teacher at Singapore Nanyang University. 

Malaysia has about five billion barrels of oil and 80 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
“Even if you discover new sources of oil and gas, you would still have to spend a lot on equipment and other resources to dig them out, so the urgency, the call for having new sources of oil and gas at the moment I don’t think they are very high,” Oh said.