As the US remains isolated at the UN due to its stance over the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine, #China seizes the chance to burnish its multilateral leadership credentials. usnews.com/news/world/art…
"The U.S. position is a gift to China, frankly. The U.S. has been trying to put pressure on China to back U.N. action over situations like Myanmar, and now Washington is stopping the Security Council speaking on the Middle East," said @RichardGowan1.
"This is hurting the Biden team's reputation at the U.N., and leaves China looking like the responsible power."
A senior U.S. administration official said China's government "doesn't care about Israel and Gaza. lt does look for every opportunity to distract from its acts of genocide against Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
It's the United States that is engaging in intensive diplomacy with Israeli, Palestinian, and other regional leaders to bring an end to the violence," the official said.
China’s mission to the United Nations hit back, saying the U.S. comments were "untrue and distracting." "Conflict in Gaza continues, and civilian casualties increase with each passing day.
In the face of such a situation, anyone in good conscience will call for cessation of hostilities," a spokesperson said. "The U.S. has every opportunity to prove that it cares about Muslims."
Since taking office in January, Democrat Biden has stressed the importance of U.S. re-engagement with the 193-member world body to challenge China.
But the U.S. objection to a council statement on Israel and Gaza - drafted by China, Tunisia and Norway - has left a lot of countries frustrated, diplomats said.
"It is clear that China wants to profit from U.S. isolation over Gaza and is putting itself in an unusual leadership position on Palestinian issues," said a second U.N. Security Council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.
A spokesperson for China's U.N. mission told Reuters: "Most members of the Security Council hope to see the council play a role in promoting a ceasefire and stopping the violence. China, as president of the council, must fulfill its responsibility."
Biden's foreign policy moves have so far largely been centered on China, Russia and Iran, but he has now been forced to focus on the Middle East conflict.
"China has played it nicely; they are positioning themselves as a Middle East player and with some good reason too because others have been less engaged," said a senior Asian U.N. diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Chen said #Taiwan's outbreak is still at its peak and most of the cases can still trace back to its source. He reminded all citizens to be careful again and he is calling on those coming into Taiwan from foreign countries can delay their trips.
Taiwan's New Taipei City government released the history of movement of many confirmed #COVID19 patients and the results show that many of these people rushed to popular local supermarkets in Xinzhuang, Yonghe and Banqiao, which are some of the hotspots. udn.com/news/story/120…
May 15 was the first day that #Taiwan reported more than 100 local cases in a single day and that was also the day when almost all supermarkets across Taiwan, especially in Taipei and New Taipei City saw the "panic-buying" scenes made up by super long lines of people.
Yesterday, New Taipei City's Health bureau released the history of movement and local hotspots and the result showed that several local PX marts (one of the most popular local supermarket chains), traditional market and park are all hotspots.
One day after #Taiwan's health authorities expand the level three warning to the entire country, hundreds of people across the island are expected to be fined up to $15,000 NTD for failing to wear masks in public. focustaiwan.tw/society/202105…
Kaohsiung Mayor @chimaichen said the city will issue 633 tickets for violations of the CECC guidelines that occurred over the past 24 hours. Among those violations, 604 cases involved people who ignored the mask-wearing rule, the mayor said.
Chen was one of several local government chiefs who pledged zero tolerance for those who break the rules and granted power to officers from different government departments to issue notices to people who do not wear masks in public.
On Thursday, Lithuania's parliament becomes the latest to call #China's persecution of the #Uyghurs in #Xinjiang genocide, voting to call for a U.N. investigation of internment camps and to ask the European Commission to review relations with Beijing. usnews.com/news/world/art…
The non-binding resolution, supported by three fifths of Lithuanian parliament members, also called on China to abolish a national security law in Hong Kong, and to let observers into Tibet and begin talks with its spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
"We support democracy, as we will never forget the cruel lesson of living under occupation by a Communist regime for 50 years", said Dovile Sakaliene, a lawmaker who has been blacklisted by China and who sponsored the resolution.
"I think we are struggling with the fact that China’s regime of censorship over Xinjiang is intensifying. Researchers and journalists no longer have meaningful access to the region and the United Nations has been blocked from conducting their fact-finding missions."
"We need to continue to use what resources are available to us to try to put the pieces of a very complex puzzle together, to try to understand this rather significant shift in the policy that began with the arrival of Chen Quanguo."
After #China released videos featuring #Uyghur men and women in #Xinjiang denying US accusations that #Beijing is committing human rights violations against them, a text received by @AP showed that the videos are part of China's propaganda campaign. apnews.com/article/asia-p…
The videos, which officials have insisted are spontaneous outpourings of emotion, have also featured prominently in a series of government news conferences held for foreign media.
But the text obtained by AP is the first concrete confirmation that the videos are anything but grassroots. Sent in January to government offices in the northern city of Karamay, the text told each office to find one Uyghur fluent in Mandarin ...