I/II. https://www.vox.com/world/2017/7/30/16064978/trump-china-north-korea-tweets-july
Trump blamed China for North Korea. Then he changed his mind. Then he changed it again. “It's clear that President Trump does not understand North Korea.” Updated by Zack Beauchamp@[email protected] Jul 30, 2017, 1:10pm EDT On Friday, North Korea tested a missile that could theoretically hit New York and Washington, DC, the first time it’s ever tested a missile with that kind of range. On Saturday night, President Trump tweeted something of a response to this very serious threat — blame China: Follow Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump I am very disappointed in China. Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet... 4:59 AM - Jul 30, 2017 22,222 22,222 Replies 23,773 23,773 Retweets 87,150 87,150 likes Twitter Ads info and privacy Follow Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump ...they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem! 5:05 AM - Jul 30, 2017 27,915 27,915 Replies 21,699 21,699 Retweets 85,970 85,970 likes Twitter Ads info and privacy There is a certain kind of logic here: China is North Korea’s largest trading partner by far, so Beijing really does have economic leverage over Pyongyang. If China were to put more pressure on North Korea, this could — as the president says — help get North Korea to the negotiating table. But experts say that, contra Trump, China can’t “solve” the North Korea nuclear crisis on its own. North Korea is not just going to give up its nuclear program because Beijing says so. “Sure, China has some economic leverage, but its political influence has limits,” Jenny Town, the assistant director of the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University, tells me via email. “Believing China has some secret power over North Korea is just wishful thinking.” Trump’s new tweets also flagrantly contradict his line from just one month ago — when he thanked China for its efforts with North Korea: Follow Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump While I greatly appreciate the efforts of President Xi & China to help with North Korea, it has not worked out. At least I know China tried! 12:08 AM - Jun 21, 2017 16,006 16,006 Replies 18,319 18,319 Retweets 82,955 82,955 likes Twitter Ads info and privacy What this all shows, most fundamentally, is that Trump’s North Korea policy makes no sense. It keeps changing in a way that reflects the president’s own mercurial nature and lack of detailed policy knowledge. It is the precise opposite of the kind of careful diplomacy you’d need to enlist China’s help against North Korea. “Trump's concept that ‘China could easily solve this problem’ shows a fundamental lack of understanding of this challenge,” explains Laura Rosenberger, the former National Security Council Director for Korea and China. “Vague demands and non-specific threats are not going to move the Chinese.” Trump has no coherent approach to North Korea Trump has taken aggressive stances on China for years prior to taking office, particularly on the issue of trade. During the campaign, he claimed China was “ripping us left and right” and suggested, somewhat strangely, that he’d “take ‘em to McDonald’s and go back to the negotiating table!” This skepticism about China colored the early months of Trump’s presidency, particularly when it came to North Korea. In March, for example, he slammed China on Twitter for failing to assist (much like he did this weekend): Follow Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump North Korea is behaving very badly. They have been "playing" the United States for years. China has done little to help! 6:37 PM - Mar 17, 2017 27,659 27,659 Replies 20,952 20,952 Retweets 89,226 89,226 likes Twitter Ads info and privacy In an interview with the Financial Times published on April 3, Trump demanded that China fix North Korea or else face the threat of some (unspecified, but by implication military) US action. "If China is not going to solve North Korea, we will. That is all I am telling you," he said. “China will either decide to help us with North Korea, or they won't. And if they do that will be very good for China, and if they don't it won't be good for anyone.” Then Trump welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping to his estate at Mar-a-Lago on April 6 — and everything changed. By the president’s own account, as told to the Wall Street Journal, the two men briefly chatted about the history of Chinese-Korean relations. The conversation rocked Trump’s world. “After listening for 10 minutes, I realized it’s not so easy,” the president told the Journal. “I felt pretty strongly that they had a tremendous power [over] North Korea. ... But it’s not what you would think.” Town called Trump’s approach to North Korea “naive” in our correspondence, and this is a perfect example of what she’s talking about. The president claims to have come to a profound realization about one of the most dangerous conflicts on earth after a 10-minute conversation with the leader of North Korea’s chief patron, which also happens to be the United States’ chief rival in East Asia. In any event, the conversation with Xi seemed to have really shaped the way that the president thought about China’s approach to the North — hence the tweet in June thanking Xi for his efforts. Now he seems to have come back around to his original position yet again, for reasons that are not fully clear. “IT'S CLEAR THAT PRESIDENT TRUMP DOES NOT UNDERSTAND NORTH KOREA” In Trump’s defense, his new/original stance is more accurate than the post-Xi meeting one. China has done a bit to pressure Pyongyang, like ramping up criticism of the North in state-run media outlets, but that hasn’t caused Kim to change course on any major issue (at least, as far as we can tell). Moreover, trade between China and North Korea actually increased in the first quarter of 2017, suggesting Beijing isn’t seriously trying to use economic pressure — by far its biggest stick when it comes to the North. But by taking so many different positions, and shifting between them so rapidly, the president has undermined whatever ability the United States might have had to actually get the Chinese to ramp up pressure. “[Moving Beijing] requires a comprehensive and carefully executed strategy that includes specific asks and clear consequences for inaction,” Rosenberger tells me. “Members of Trump's administration have tried to put in place the kind of comprehensive strategy we need, building on the Obama administration's efforts toward the end of his second term, but President Trump and his shoot-from-the-hip twitter statements are undermining that very effort.” It’s important not to dance around the root cause of the problem here: The president’s lack of actual policy opinions. This is a man who, three months into his presidency, admitted publicly that the Chinese president convinced him to change his mind on one of the world’s most important crises. Trump does not know very much about North Korea and seems to base his opinion on whatever he feels. It’s impossible for the United States to have a cogent approach towards the Korean peninsula when the president keeps tweeting out contradictory policy stances. “It's clear that President Trump does not understand North Korea or the complexity of the situation,” Town writes. “Until Trump takes this issue seriously and takes the time to actually learn/recognize what North Korea's strategic concerns and interests are and start to build a policy that addresses them, not just look for quick fixes, the situation will continue to deteriorate.” II. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/31/trump-ethics-chief-walter-shaub-kleptocracy Trump makes US seem a 'kleptocracy', says ex-ethics chief Walter Shaub Shaub, who quit job at head of Office of Government Ethics this month, describes ‘embarrassment’ of Trump’s business ties as president Donald Trump dining at the Trump International hotel in Washington. ‘He’s his own landlord at this point,’ Walter Shaub said. Donald Trump dining at the Trump International hotel in Washington. ‘He’s his own landlord at this point,’ Walter Shaub said. Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock David Smith in Washington Monday 31 July 2017 07.00 BST Last modified on Monday 31 July 2017 07.01 BST The former head of the US government ethics watchdog has warned that Donald Trump’s conflicts of interest put the country at risk of being seen as a “kleptocracy”. Speaking to the Guardian, Walter Shaub, who quit this month as director of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE), condemned the president for using his hotels and other properties for government business in what is in effect a free advertising campaign. “His actions create the appearance of profiting from the presidency, and the appearance here is everything, because the demand I’m making is so much more than ‘have a clean heart’. It’s: ‘Have a clean heart and act appropriately,’” Shaub said. US government ethics chief resigns, with parting shot at Trump Read more “The fact that we’re having to ask questions about whether he’s intentionally using the presidency for profit is bad enough, because the appearance itself undermines confidence in government.” He added: “It certainly risks people starting to refer to us as a kleptocracy. That’s a term people throw around fairly freely when they’re talking about Russia, fairly or unfairly, and we run the risk of getting branded the same way. America really should stand for more than that.” The outspoken Shaub, 46, was a thorn in the side of the Trump administration, turning him into an unlikely star of the “resistance”. His name was spotted on placards at anti-Trump demonstrations and a fan page materialised on Facebook. The career government lawyer left the OGE almost six months before his five-year term was due to finish and is now senior director of ethics at the not-for-profit Campaign Legal Center, where he reckons he will be better placed to to push for reforms. These are vital, Shaub argues, because Trump’s intertwined business and political interests, while notviolating any laws, mark such a break from past norms that there is an “ethics crisis” in Washington. “We can’t know whether his decisions are motivated by his policy aims or his financial interests,” he said, “and that uncertainty alone creates the problem because, whatever his intent, people having to ask undermines the faith in governmental decision-making and puts a cloud over everything the government does.” The president regularly spends weekends on his family’s properties. On Saturday night, he dined at the Trump International hotel, halfway between the White House and the US Capitol. The luxury hotel is situated in the government-owned Old Post Office building, for which Trump signed a 60-year lease in 2013. Shaub said: “It’s wildly inappropriate for him to be running a hotel that he’s leasing from the federal government. As a president, you shouldn’t be doing business with the United States government. He’s his own landlord at this point.” Presidents such as John F Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson put their assets in a blind trust; Jimmy Carter did the same with his peanut farm and warehouse. Trump, who has not released his tax returns, announced before taking office that he would place his business interests – which include hotels, golf courses and merchandise – into a trust run Donald Trump Jr, his eldest son, and Allen Weisselberg, chief financial officer of the Trump Organization. Trump is the sole beneficiary of the trust and retains the power to revoke it at any time. Shaub said the steps Trump had taken were “meaningless” and he should at least have declared that he and his appointees would not attend events at his properties, removing the incentive for foreign businesses and politicians to hold gatherings there. “But he’s not willing to do that because he’s too busy running around giving free advertising to his properties,” he said. The Trump hotel has become a magnet for lobbyists and foreign diplomats. In February, Kuwait held its national day celebration there; in May, the hotel hosted a conference organised by the Turkey-US Business Council and American Turkish Council. Trump has business interests in at least 20 countries, including a $150m tower in the Philippines, golf courses in Ireland and Scotland and numerous projects in India. Shaub continued: “You’ve had countries in the world who have suddenly booked major events at his hotel that they used to hold elsewhere. You’ve had businesses and charities – and these could be international businesses – with the ability to hold events at his place and basically funnel money to the president in the hopes that it will influence his decision making, and we can’t know for sure that it doesn’t. “It may not, but again, it undermines faith in the integrity of government if we don’t know.” Trump has praised the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, leaders of countries where he has financial interests, Shaub noted. “Or you have his ban on people from certain Muslim-majority countries coming into the United States – and the countries excluded from that list, in that region of the world, include countries where he has significant financial interests. So this raises questions about the extent to which the United States’ interests are coming first.” A stormy month for the Trump administration has included the revelation that in June last year, Donald Trump Jr met a Russian lawyer he believed would offer damaging information about Hillary Clinton provided by the Russian government. The president claimed that any politician would have taken the meeting as part of opposition research. Shaub disagrees. “That’s just a shocking claim,” he said. “That’s just terrible. It’s ridiculous to say that just about anybody else would have taken that meeting. No, you don’t go and meet with a foreign government that wants to share something with you while you’re in the inner circle of a campaign for the presidency.” Over four decades, Democratic and Republican presidents have worked closely with the OGE. Shaub met Barack Obama but never came face to face with Trump, who showed little interest in government ethics and little support for the OGE. Shaub recalled that delegations from around the world had come to learn about the ethics programme and regard it as “the gold standard”. “Now we’re anything but that,” he said. “In fact, we’re running around the world trying to promote anti-corruption measures and we don’t even have our own house in order. So it’s an embarrassment.” -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
