2020/7/24 23:28:43
The deterioration in bilateral ties between China and the US is a result of moves by the US side, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said when talking to his German counterpart Heiko Maas in a phone call on Friday. The US is trying to slow down China's development and it is using any means it can to achieve the goal, according to a press release from the ministry.
Wang said that some anti-China forces in the US have been pushing ideological confrontation recently and forcing other countries to pick a side and join the confrontation with China in order to boost US interests. Any country that has conscientiousness and independence will not stand for it, Wang said.
Wang also said that China still wants a win-win situation with the US without clashes and confrontation and with mutual respect. But China must firmly safeguard national sovereignty and dignity, as well as its development rights, and the basic code for international relations should be observed.
China will not tolerate further provocation from the US, Wang said.
Global Times
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Black Activists: Portland’s Focus on Feds Only Aids Message
By ANDREW SELSKY
Black Lives Matter organizer Teal Lindseth, 21, leads protesters on Thursday, July 23, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — After George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police, people in Portland came out in droves to protest police brutality and racism, chanting that “Black lives matter.” As the weeks went by, the crowds dwindled to a few dozen and the protests increasingly turned violent.
Since President Donald Trump deployed militarized federal agents to the progressive city early this month, the numbers of protesters have swelled again into the thousands, including mothers wearing yellow shirts and dads armed with leaf blowers to drive away tear gas.
“Feds go home!” the mostly white demonstrators chant. But they also call for racial justice, often led by Black protesters with megaphones.
While the protests have taken on a new tone of opposition to federal intervention, Black leaders and protesters say the surge in activity — though often chaotic — hasn’t distracted from their anti-racist message. Instead, it’s shined a spotlight on it.
Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, the first Black woman elected to that office, rejected the idea that the Black Lives Matter protests are being hijacked by white people.
“We cannot afford not to respond to this attack on our democracy, this attack on our Constitution,” Hardesty said. “And we would be foolish to believe that we could stay focused just on Black lives and not address the physical assaults that are taking place.”
Federal agents have used tear gas, less-lethal ammunition and other force against protesters who have been targeting the U.S. courthouse with fires and other vandalism during two months of nightly demonstrations. Peaceful protesters have been tear-gassed and hit by munitions. U.S. authorities say they must act to protect federal property and officers, while local leaders say their presence has made the situation more volatile and urge the agents to leave.
By being subjected to tear gas, nightsticks and pepper spray, “white people are stepping up and they’re seeing the brutality” that Black people normally experience, said white protester Carol Vogel Warner, who has an adopted Black son. “They’re feeling it.”
Portland police also have used tear gas and other force against protesters.
State Sen. Lew Frederick, a Black Democrat who’s dodged pepper balls fired by federal agents at the protests, said the Trump administration “miscalculated” if it thought it could end the demonstrations with a show of force.
“It reignited the protest movement in Portland,” Frederick said, adding that he’s seen more Black people demonstrating now than in the early days.
Those attending the protests are overwhelmingly white, a reflection of Oregon’s makeup. Its population is only 2% Black, compared with 13% for the entire U.S., largely due to the state’s racist past. Its Constitution excluded Blacks from living in Oregon until the clause was repealed in 1927.
Even this week, with the nation focused on the deployment of the federal agents and their tactics, white protesters chanted the names of Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black Americans who have been killed by police.
Vogel Warner said thousands of people stopped marching Monday to remember them.
“We all raised a hand and we had some moments of silence, offering either prayers or chants or our silent love to those people who died,” she recalled.
The intervention in Oregon could be just the beginning of a clash between the Trump administration and Democratic leaders in cities nationwide. The White House announced this week that federal agents also will deploy to Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee and Albuquerque, New Mexico, to combat rising crime.
The Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of more than 150 Black-led organizations across the U.S., said it remains “undeterred.”
“As we witness Portland becoming a war zone, we understand clearly that this is an attempt to intimidate not just protesters on the streets of Portland but to derail our movement in defense of Black lives,” said Chinyere Tutashinda, a coalition organizer. She called it “a failed strategy” designed to increase support for Trump’s re-election.
Some Black protesters, however, say that white people who have been throwing water bottles at law enforcement and causing vandalism are setting back the movement.
“When we ask people to stop, they don’t. I have been pushed tonight. I have been shoved tonight. I have been told to shut up,” Portland demonstrator Julianne Jackson said. “If white people want to help us, this is not helping us.”
The protests are just one prong of the move to end police violence and racial discrimination and serve underserved communities, Frederick said. Another is changing laws and providing assistance.
After Floyd’s death, Oregon lawmakers passed police accountability measures proposed by the People of Color Caucus, to which Frederick belongs.
And on July 14, 10 days after the federal deployment in Portland, lawmakers provided $62 million in federal coronavirus relief funding to Black people and businesses affected by the pandemic.
“That’s because of the People of Color Caucus and the kind of momentum that has been fostered,” Frederick said.
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Associate Press reporters Aaron Morrison in New York and Aron Ranen and Gillian Flaccus in Portland, Oregon, contributed to this report.
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