@HudsonInstitute @nuryturkel I have witnessed and helped document China’s abusive treatment of Uighur ethnic minorities. @FareedZakaria in no way “dismiss (ed)” such concerns. He questioned “groupthink” where it comes to how to deal with the serious challenges posed by China. washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/… @HudsonInstitute @nuryturkel @FareedZakaria @FareedZakaria column laments that we lack a “rational and considered” foreign policy detailing how to deal with China — a policy rooted not in fear of China, or fear of being labeled “soft,” but in national interests, including advancing universal human rights.

Thread on Jimmy Carter and 1994 North Korea nuclear crisis.
In August, 1994, I was one of a small team of intelligence officers asked to brief the former President prior to his mission to Pyongyang. Carter had essentially volunteered for the task…much to Clinton’s consternation. For benefit of those who didn’t live through it, 1994 nuclear crisis was no laughing matter. US and DPRK came closer to war that year than we had at any time since the Armistice. Only Trump “fire and fury” episode comes close, and we now know that was more kabuki than real.

@shustry I’m not a European security specialist or a Russia expert. The courses I have taught on Russia were always team-taught, with me handling the China piece of a fun course on the Eagle, the Dragon, and the Bear.
But I have 35 years of experience on international security, with…. @shustry …the bulk of that time spent as a political-military analyst at State/INR and as Asia adviser to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Military analysis must always be put in context, and not every troop assembly means invasion is imminent. That said, experienced military…

@SiddiqRex @anneapplebaum “Blackface” is not the same as casting white actors to play black roles. The latter is an appropriate subject to discuss, especially at the collegiate level, where raising uncomfortable subjects should be the norm, not the exception. @SiddiqRex @anneapplebaum And as for “blackface,” should “birth of a nation” NOT be shown in a film class, or a class on race and history in USA, just because it contains those hurtful images? Have we become a nation incapable of inquiry into uncomfortable subjects? Really?

Marc / you really should read Mueller report someday. Then you would know Trump was NOT exonerated of colluding with Russia. It’s a basic fact you struggle with in your oped.
Btw, “resistance” didn’t mean Dems rejected trump was @potus washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/… No Surprise that you hold Democrats responsible for “resisting” Trump’s assault on our democracy and fail to deem that effort virtuous. But I’d say four years of Trump has proven that those who resisted his agenda will go down as heroes; those who aided him as dupes.

Covid Thread from Seoul: What ROK got right. What we got wrong. Why there is NO EXCUSE for Trump’s catastrophic failure to respond to COVID.
Just spent five days in ROK for work. I was STUNNED by the contrast with USA. Everything is open. Schools. Restaurants. Stores. Offices. HOW have they done it?
It begins with having an actual government that CARES about the health — physical, and economic — of its citizens. Trump KNEW we faced a deadly virus, but he cared ONLY about himself and his re-election. He LIED to us. Repeatedly. And is still lying today.

As @potus @realDonaldTrump @StateDept tries to walk, chew gum, and ingest bleach at same time, they must contend with possibility that Kim Jong-un, leader of DPRK, may be incapacitated or even dead. DPRK probably has enough fissile material for 30-50 nuclear weapons. What to do? Let me offer up some suggestions, as one who had to help puzzle out DPRK policy at State Dept and Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1989-2012.
Do:
1) Coordinate all steps with ROK, and keep Japan and China in the loop. This is vitally important. Don't "go it alone."

I don’t know if @SenatorBurr is guilty of the crime of insider trading. There is strong prima facie evidence to charge him.
But here is what I DO know.
Senators are public servants, and must be motivated in all they do by the public interest; NOT by their personal interests. I worked in the Senate for 15 years. I had the chance to study and interact with 177 Senators over that time. I saw the good, the bad, the ugly, and the despicable, during my own period of public service.

@DanLamothe @jdawsey1 So much about this State Dept event is troubling. Short thread, as a former State intel officer who once had to prepare teams to meet the press. @DanLamothe @jdawsey1 First - this should never have been “not for attribution.” When US mounts an operation like this, officials normally speak on the record. David Schenker is the assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs. This is his account. He should speak on the record.

@SopanDeb As a “student of history,” Let me add a couple of things @joetsai1999 left out:
1) Hong Kong protesters are NOT “separatists”
2) HK citizens are CHINESE too, belying Joe’s claim that “all” Chinese are against HK protesters;
3) HK residents demand rights PROMISED them by China. @SopanDeb @joetsai1999 4) the humiliations endured by the corrupt, weak, venal late Qing Manchurian Dynasty don’t justify CCP abrogation of the HK Basic Law, police brutality, or suppression of rights promised under “one country, two systems.”
5) the allied relief force that marched on Beijing did so..

@ElizabethHeng @AOC Elizabeth Heng can’t see a difference between advocating for universal health care and a living wage versus Pol Pot collectivizing all land ownership, emptying cities, killing everyone who is educated, and waging ethnic cleansing? Really?
Your propaganda proves you are unfit. @ElizabethHeng @AOC I worked in a Cambodian refugee camp in Thailand, volunteered as an election officer in Kampong Cham province in 1993, studied Cambodia’s reconstruction in 1994-95, and supported the Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal. I know a little about Pol Pot and his horrific brand of Maoism.

@realDonaldTrump 2) These advanced, solid-fueled, Road-Mobile missiles are most likely nuclear-capable and directly threaten US forces and citizens in Northeast Asia, including some 30,000 military personnel on the Korean Peninsula. @realDonaldTrump 3) No previous US President would have ignored such a flagrant violation of UN Resolutions directly affecting US National Security.
4) Trump’s endorsement of Kim’s “beautiful” vision for the future of North Korea is an abject abandonment of every value US holds dear. Specifically

@realDonaldTrump As one of the 500,000 people living in @RepCummings district, let me say:
I love living here (28 years, so far) and CHOOSE to stay here to live, work, play, grow.

So am I not a human being in your eyes? Who else do you think sub-human? All 500,000 of us, or just the minorities? @realDonaldTrump @RepCummings Btw, ‘sir.’ Do you know so little about our Constitution that you think @RepCummings runs his district as an administrator? He REPRESENTS us in Congress, where he fights hard for the 500,000 Americans in his district.
You were elected to be President of all of us....

@jdawsey1 @eilperin @brady_dennis I was a proud INR analyst for nine years. I often appears before Congress to testify in closed session. Never was my analysis subjected to political review. INR is NOT a policy shop. It is an analytic arm. It is absurd that @WhiteHouse or @WHNSC would have any role screening it. @jdawsey1 @eilperin @brady_dennis @WhiteHouse @WHNSC @whitehouse and Trump can have any policy position they want on climate change. They can even bury their heads in the sand and claim it is all a “Chinese hoax.” But they should not be allowed to supppress expert analysis, or skew it to fit their policy objectives.

North Korea and ROK Special adviser Moon Chung-in. Thread.

Just finished a dinner with Moon Chung-in, special adviser to President Moon Jae-in (no relation) of South Korea. Moon made news today, but the real story is NOT what Vox reported here: vox.com/2019/2/26/1824… Moon was asked about a hypothetical Trump-Kim deal - a deal that would indeed be a bad deal for the US...IF it bore any resemblance to what is going to happen in Hanoi in a few hours...which happily for all of us, it does NOT. Asked about this hypothetical deal, Moon condemned it

@existentialfish @dpletka Hi Danny - couple of points prompted by your climate change remarks:
1) Not sure where you got impression that global temperatures have reversed course. They have not. WaPo has good article here explaining the lull in rising temps.

google.com/amp/s/www.wash… @existentialfish @dpletka This brings me to second point. Scientists (you and I are rightly humble about NOT being scientists), DO talk about /EXPLAIN the variations in weather that occur in context of climate change/global warming. And WaPo article is proof that press DOES talk about..we must listen.

@JRubinBlogger In the delusional world of @potus USA is getting ripped off by our allies, who don’t pay us protection money and who have never been asked to contribute (paraphrasing, and giving him credit for more coherence than he showed tonight on the issue).
Reality is quite different. @JRubinBlogger @POTUS Japan and ROK not only spend billions on their own defense (buying almost all of their advanced weapons from us for cash), but also provide very generous “host nation support.” This means the facilities/bases/housing enjoyed by our troops are overwhelmingly paid for by Japan/ROK.

Trump began with incorrect understanding of WHY DPRK sought talks - attributing Pyongyang’s desire to negotiate to US max pressure campaign, when truth was more complex. Trump doesn’t do “complex.”
Error compounded In Singapore by Trump naïveté. washingtonpost.com/world/national… Anyone who actually READ the joint statement from Singapore knew it does NOT say why DJT claims it says - KJU did NOT promise to denuclearize. He promised to work TOWARD a “denuclearized Korean Peninsula” - with reciprocal obligations.

Few thoughts on US Intel and DPRK.
1) No one should expect DPRK to halt production of fissile material without it being a part of a reciprocal process of denuclearization and sanctions relief. Absent that, DPRK will maximize its position until the deal is struck. Dealmaking 101. 2) "News" that DPRK has more than one HEU facility is NOT NEWS. Experts have long argued that the Yongbyon centrifuges could not have been assembled so quickly had DPRK not already had experience elsewhere. This has long been an "open secret" and is NOT new information.

Initial impressions of Trump-Kim:
Positive side of ledger:
1) Met.
2) Reiterated vague commitments to peace/denuclearization of Korean Peninsula.
3) Agreed to resume POW/MIA remains recovery ops. (I have written on this in past, and why it is important.)
4) Agreed keep talking Negative side of ledger (brace yourselves...long list.)
1) repeats past deal language (92, 94, 2000, 2005, 2012), but has vaguest language on denuclearization since ‘92. Big step backwards.
2) 0 details on what denuclearization means, how to accomplish, or when to start.

Thread: Trump's Morning of Intemperance
@potus badly mishandled DPRK policy. USA weaker as result. 3 changes made summit possible:
1) President Moon elected President ROK, reaching out to DPRK;
2) KJU consolidated political and military power;
3) Max pressure by UN/Trump Handed a chance to put US-DPRK relations on a better trajectory -- headed in direction of peace and denuclearization -- Trump misinterpreted how we got here. He attributed DPRK willingness to talk to his Max Pressure campaign alone -- ignoring the two more important factors.