October 18, 2022

RT News - October 18th 2022

13 people are killed and dozens injured as a military jet crashes near a residential building in Southern Russia, around one hundred and fifty kilometers from the border with Ukraine. Via RT website : The death toll in a fighter jet crash in the southern Russian city of Yeysk has climbed to 13, Aleksey Kuznetsov, an aide to the country’s health minister, said. The plane fell from the sky on Monday evening after one of its engines caught fire during a training flight, the Defense Ministry said. Both pilots safely ejected, but the aircraft crashed just outside a nine-story building and exploded. Kuznetsov said that three children are among the victims, adding that 19 people were hospitalized.

Over a hundred Russian citizens - the majority of which are civilian sailors - have returned home in a prisoner exchange with Ukraine - which received service women in return.

The US calls for international troops to deploy to Haiti which has been gripped by riots over a humanitarian crisis. But locals are gearing up to protest against what they see as foreign intervention. Please see previous archives from the past couple of weeks to find out how this has progressed, this channel or on RT.com website.

Iran begins refining its crude oil in Venezuela, as the countries continue to boost bilateral ties, amid the pressure from US sanctions.

US recession forecast hits 100% as Washington turns a blind eye.

The China Communist Party congress starts it's 3rd day whilst western media are portraying China as a threat.

The impact of sanctions hits large and small companies in USA (QueenStreet comment - and everywhere else on the planet). Are the Americans falling for the threat rhetoric?
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I found this on the Financial Times website re: China policy in European Union, though I can't find the report (paper?) that FT refer to on Europarl website or anywhere else. There are a lot of unnamed sources too. The "directive report" has come from Atlanticist/USA interests, we must assume but may well change relationships to the detriment of all, for the foreseeable future. https://on.ft.com/3MBeymx I am posting this so we can all see what we are being dragged into without consultation or consent :

EU foreign policy China

EU ministers advised to take tougher line on China - Paper by bloc’s foreign service calls for Beijing to be seen as an all-out competitor

The EU must toughen up its attitude towards China and see the country as an all-out competitor with limited areas of potential engagement, the bloc’s ministers have been advised ahead of talks on recalibrating Brussels’ strategy towards Beijing.

The EU should work more closely with the US, strengthen its cyber and hybrid threat defences, diversify its supply chains away from China and deepen ties with other Indo-Pacific powers, according to a paper prepared for member states by the bloc’s foreign service.

“China has become an even stronger global competitor for the EU, the US and other like-minded partners,” says the paper, seen by the Financial Times. “It is therefore essential to assess how best to respond to current and foreseeable challenges.” These, the paper says, are likely to “widen the divergence between China’s and our own political choices and positions”.

The assessment “admits that China is not going to change”, said a senior EU official. “In short, moving to a logic of all-out competition, economically but also politically.”

The paper underscores the significant souring of the EU-China relationship since the existing policy towards Beijing was agreed in 2019, a decline marked by trade disputes, tit-for-tat sanctions and a series of failed efforts to find areas of mutual agreement.

China’s backing for Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, its threats towards Taiwan, its attitude towards human rights in Hong Kong and its treatment of its Uyghur minority are all major developments since the EU formed its existing policy, officials said, warranting a rethink.

“This is the moment to assess . . . And see if our policy is the right one,” said a second senior EU official. “We have to factor in the serious events that have happened over the past year.”

On Sunday, Chinese president Xi Jinping used his speech to the Communist party congress — where he will cement his position as the country’s most powerful ruler since Mao Zedong — to rail against “foreign interference” and “protectionism and bullying” by other countries.

The EU document suggests that the bloc’s existing policy of seeing China as “partner-competitor-systemic rival” is outdated. The paper will be discussed by foreign ministers at a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday to prepare for a debate on China by the bloc’s 27 leaders at a summit that begins on Thursday.

Arriving at the meeting on Monday, Dutch foreign minister Wopke Hoekstra said: “There is increasing realism in the dialogue with China. We are leaving naivety behind.”

Josep Borrell, the bloc’s chief diplomat, said: “A new discussion on China, with a new analysis, is very timely.”

The EU’s discussions this week come after the US warned that China was its “most consequential geopolitical challenge”, releasing a national security strategy that warned Beijing “harbours the intention and, increasingly, the capacity to reshape the international order”.

“We will prioritise maintaining an enduring competitive edge over the PRC,” the US strategy said.

For the EU, China’s deepening ties with Russia, particularly since the invasion of Ukraine, are “a worrying development . . . [that] cannot be ignored”, the ministerial paper says, adding that Beijing’s support for Moscow has “brought China to more directly contest western democracies”.

When asked about the FT’s report on the paper, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said: “China and the EU are partners, not rivals. Our economies are closely linked and highly complementary. Our co-operation far outweighs competition.”
“We hope the EU side will view China-EU co-operation in an objective manner, expand common interests and contribute to the stability of global industrial and supply chains,” they added.

The five-page document includes just one paragraph on areas of limited potential cooperation with China — including climate change, the environment and health — in stark contrast to the existing policy that describes Beijing as “a strategic partner of the EU in addressing global and international challenges”.

The EU’s dependence on China for semiconductors and certain rare-earth metals is addressed as a “strategic vulnerability” by the paper, which calls for more domestic production, diversified supply chains and other initiatives such as better recycling inside the bloc.

The EU should also recognise that China’s “activities and positions in multilateral organisations exemplify its determination to systematically promote an alternative vision of the world order, where individual human rights are subordinated to national sovereignty, and economic and social development takes prominence over political and civil rights”, the discussion paper says.

“The EU and member states have also experienced increased instances of economic coercion by China, harsher competition in key technologies, cyber and hybrid threats and information manipulation, as well more assertive policies in the Indo-Pacific,” it continues, calling on the EU to promote a “better offer” to third countries that are engaging with Beijing.