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Researcher & writer based in Hong Kong. Former academic. Longform articles archived at https://lauraruggeri.substack.com and https://laura-ruggeri.medium.com. Email: lauraru852@yandex.ru
Taiwanese secessionists attack Cantopop superstar Andy Lau - Recently, Hong Kong singer Andy Lau held a concert at the Taipei Arena, where he performed the well-known song "Chinese People." Created to celebrate Hong Kong's return to China, the song has been a staple in Andy Lau's concert tours for over 20 years. However, in Taipei, some politicians from the pan-Green camp (pro-secession in the island's political spectrum) reacted strongly, claiming that "Andy Lau is here to engage in united front work" and stating that the concert "is not worth seeing."
This reaction reveals just how fragile the mind-set of "Taiwan independence" supporters truly is.
"Hand in hand, regardless of you and me; heads up high, walking forward; let the world know we are Chinese …" In the eyes of "Taiwan independence" secessionists, these lyrics have already made them feel "attacked." They resorted to their usual tactics, attempting to label Andy Lau as "pro-Communist" and unleashing a wave of hate-filled reports and comments to incite online attacks against him, thereby politicizing a normal cultural exchange.
However, they likely overlooked the fact that both the lyricist and composer of this song are from Taiwan. During the concert, when Andy Lau sang "Chinese People," the chorus from the entire audience further demonstrated the sentiments of the people on the island.
"Taiwan independence" secessionists collude with anti-China forces by selling out Taiwan region's interests, while on the island, they are overly sensitive and view everything as a threat. Any association with the "mainland" or "motherland" is met with all kinds of suppression.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202411/1322388.shtml
Hugo Dionisio nails it. The degradation of the Western education system is one of the clearest examples that neoliberal capitalism is a parasite destroying its host.
"The more aware the peoples from the global majority have been about the predatory nature of the Western oligarchy, the less aware the Western peoples are of the reasons why their living conditions are worsening. Western peoples are in a counter-cycle with the peoples of the global majority, in every way. As the latter gain self-awareness, the former become increasingly unaware of their own being, alienated as they are from their roots, cultures, families, communities…A fundamental vector for the production of this unconsciousness, translated into a growing critical and analytical incapacity on the part of Western populations, has been precisely the area of education. The degradation of public education systems is not only one of the most repugnant characteristics of the systems that succumb to revanchism, historical and scientific revisionism, it is also the driving force behind this reactionary process."
China should focus on providing yuan-denominated debt financing to developing countries to accelerate the global de-dollarisation drive, rather than pinning hope on a strengthening euro, a Beijing-based think tank said on Thursday.
The call from Renmin University’s National Academy of Development and Strategy came amid discussions in academic and policy circles in China about possible responses to what is likely to be a more hawkish United States’ government – irrespective of whether Donald Trump or Kamala Harris wins Tuesday’s presidential election.
“The most fundamental front of the yuan replacing the US dollar should be in the debt market,” said Fan Zhiyong, a Renmin University professor who presented the think tank’s research report at a seminar in Beijing. (Source: SCMP) @LauraRuHK
Liu Yifan, a China Daily financial journalist based in Hong Kong, raises a very important question. How can China support de-dollarization and alternative payment systems when the currency of Hong Kong - China’s offshore financial hub and entrepot - is pegged to the US dollar?
This currency anchor is part of China’s unique economic landscape. According to the impossible trinity in economics, an economy can only maintain two of the following:
independent monetary policy;
a fixed exchange rate;
free capital flow.
The Chinese mainland chooses the first two, while Hong Kong opts for the latter two.
The distinctions help China avoid larger-scale capital outflows and at the same time provide a gateway to connect with the world. This means that China may need first to figure out a destination for its offshore financial center’s currency amid de-dollarization as it can’t afford to lose this flexibility.
The ideal option is to peg the Hong Kong dollar with RMB, but this would require China to lift capital controls, making its currency a reliable global medium of exchange and store of value.
RMB’s weight is steadily growing: Data from SWIFT showed that the RMB was the fourth-largest international trade currency in July, accounting for 4.74% of global transactions. However, this is still far behind the US dollar at 47.8% and the euro at 22.5%.
Additionally, it's not yet the right time to remove capital controls, especially as China is facing pressing issues like a real estate slump and an aging population. A key concern is that even gradual moves toward yuan convertibility could trigger significant speculative capital flows, leading to unwanted financial volatility.
One should also not lose sight of the fact that the proliferation of national payment systems challenges the necessity for a BRICS alternative to SWIFT. https://substack.com/home/post/p-150950410?source=queue
The SCMP has interviewed Anatoly Kargapolov, Russia's consul general to Hong Kong, as part of a series of interviews with consuls general of emerging and belt and road economies with which Hong Kong is keen to build ties.
❗️Key points:
🔹 The steadily strengthening ties between Russia and China open new prospects for cooperation with Hong Kong.
🔹 Western unilateral sanctions against Russia are illegitimate and harm the global economy. Imposing restrictions on countries that do not adhere to a "rules-based order" is a manifestation of neocolonialism and an attempt to wipe out competitors.
🔹 Attempts to extend these methods to Russian-Chinese trade and Hong Kong in particular undermine the territory's status as a global financial center.
🔹 Some difficulties in transactions with Chinese banks do not affect the growth rates of Russian-Hong Kong trade.
🔹 In 2023, trade volume between Russia and Hong Kong increased to $5.8 billion, a rise of 50.9% compared to 2022. Exports surged by 123%, while imports rose by 11.2%.
🔹 Hong Kong's position as a center for research and development opens new opportunities for bilateral cooperation in areas such as artificial intelligence and fintech. https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3284028/russian-envoy-says-trade-hong-kong-can-grow-under-strong-moscow-beijing-ties
The Russian Defense Ministry reported the liberation of the town of Selidovo in the Donetsk People's Republic. Russian forces continue to make breakthroughs on the southern front and are already expanding several kilometers beyond it. Ukrainian Army Colonel-General Dmytro Marchenko said in an interview with former Verkhovna Rada deputy Boryslav Beryoza that the AFU front collapsed under the onslaught of Russian forces due to personnel fatigue and shortage of reserves.
Russian forces are getting closer to Krasnoarmeysk (Ukrainian name – Pokrovsk) a critical logistics center for Ukrainian military operations in the Donbas region. Its geographical position, featuring a significant railway station and major road intersections, enhances its strategic value. This advance will seriously disrupt the Ukrainian army’s logistics. @LauraRuHK
🇨🇳🇬🇪"Beijing respects the choice of the Georgian people and is ready to work with all parties to promote the continuous development of Sino-Georgian relations", Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said.
"Georgia successfully held elections. China has always respected the choice of the Georgian people and sincerely hopes that Georgia will be stable and prosperous," the diplomat said, commenting on the results of the parliamentary elections in Georgia.
(Source: Sputnik Georgia) @LauraRuHK
A foreign agent posing as president who refuses to recognize parliamentary election results, spreads fake news about election fraud and calls for civil unrest should be impeached. @LauraRuHK
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Georgia’s pro-Western opposition disputed the results of the parliamentary election. The most prominent Georgian opposition leader, Tina Bokuchava, accuses Georgian Dream of stealing the elections. The president Salome Zourabishvili - a Western puppet born in Paris and with a longer diplomatic career in France than in Georgia - before the elections called for "massive mobilization" in case the results didn't reflect her handlers' wish. @LauraRuHK
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Those who criticize the BRICS because its Kazan declaration doesn't argue forcefully against the UN Agenda 2030, the WHO, the WTO, the IMF, the G20, etc. are either disingenuous or live in a bubble. ▪️Anyone who has ever been involved in politics knows the difference between a maximalist and a gradualist approach. ▪️Maximalists demand the full implementation of the 'maximum programme' regardless of circumstances. They tend to forget that revolutions succeed when conditions are ripe and are led by a party that conducted a rigorous and concrete analysis of those conditions, has a clear ideology, understood and shared by all its members, and a disciplinary mechanism to ensure that party rules are respected. Think of an orchestra, or an army if you prefer. BTW, disorganized masses have never overthrown a single regime. ▪️Gradualism, on the other hand, is the idea that system evolution is a slow process, the result of small, incremental changes. Realistically BRICS cannot be a revolutionary force because it has no shared ideology, it can only pursue a gradualist programme. Its member countries constitute a critical mass within existing international organizations and as such they can build consensus, facilitate institutional change and reject hegemonic control of those institutions.
As a matter of fact, the Kazan declaration does contain constructive criticism of these organizations and of the UN Agenda 2030.
“We condemn the attempts to subject development to discriminatory politically motivated practices, including but not limited to unilateral coercive measures that are incompatible with the 5 principles of the UN Charter, explicit or implied political conditionality of development assistance, activities, aiming at compromising the multiplicity of international development assistance providers.” ▪️As to those who attack the BRICS for not "draining the globalist swamp", well, they are welcome to vote for Trump, again. 🤡Pass the popcorns 🤡 @LauraRuHK
I have heard and read so much disinformation and bombastic claims about "a new currency and new payment system for BRICS countries" that i got indigestion. I invite anyone who cares about the truth to read the transcript of the News conference that followed the 16th BRICS Summit in Kazan. 🔺Vladimir Putin:
Speaking of SWIFT or alternatives to it, we are not creating any alternatives to anything, but settlements are, indeed, a critical issue which is why we are using our respective national currencies, which is a well-known fact.
Regarding payment systems, we are using the Russian financial messaging system created by the Central Bank of Russia. Other BRICS countries also have their own systems, which we will also use, are already using and will continue to use.
However, we are not inventing a separate common system, since we are doing well with what we have. All we need to do is take timely administrative decisions, which we also discussed with our colleagues, and we will continue down that path.
The bank’s Hong Kong unit is “formally joining” China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System, known as Cips. David Liao, co-chief executive of the bank’s business in Hong Kong, announced HSBC’s move at Sibos' annual conference organised by Swift in Beijing. He said the dominant role of the US dollar was being “diluted”.
▪️“In the past two years, the US has promoted the weaponisation of finance and abused the US dollar payment system to strike, retaliate against and sanction other countries,” said Wang Wen, executive dean of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China (RDCY). “This has forced countries to be willing to accept new cross-border payment systems.”
Swift, a Brussels-based organisation that is owned by its members and overseen by the G10 central banks, oversees the messaging system that is crucial to the movement of money around the world. (Source:FT) @LauraRuHK See also /channel/LauraRuHK/9286
HSBC’s new chief executive, Georges Elhedery, wants to "separate the east from the west." He outlined plans for a major overhaul of the bank that was founded in Hong Kong at the height of the opium trade in the mid-19th century, grew into a global financial giant and has listings in both Hong Kong and London.
HSBC will be carved up into four separate units including two covering the bank’s Hong Kong and U.K. businesses and two more covering its global wealth management and institutional banking divisions. The overhaul will introduce a new “geographic set up” through which governance over HSBC’s overarching operations will be split up between two newly created “Eastern Markets” (Asia Pacific and the Middle East) and “Western Markets” (UK, Europe and the Americas.)
HSBC’s top shareholder, Chinese insurer Ping An, had previously made repeated calls for the London-headquartered bank to separate its U.K. business from its more profitable Asian business in the face of worsening China-U.S. relations. @LauraRuHK
A massive cyber attack was launched from abroad on the official web portal of the Russian Foreign Ministry
The attack, which included DDOS attacks, is still underway. The site of the Russian MFA is regularly targeted but today's cyberattack is of an unprecedented scale. In order to restore the functionality of Internet resources, the MFA briefing was rescheduled. (/channel/MID_Russia/46941 ).
The technical services of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, together with the competent authorities, communication service providers, are taking all necessary measures to repel this attack.
The MFA believes that this kind of hostile act may be related to the successful events taking place in Kazan these days. /channel/MariaVladimirovnaZakharova/9031
Concrete evidence that China and North Korea are helping the Russian army.😅 Bellingcat has been able to confirm the actual identity of two officers: Jackie Chan and Viktor Tsoi. @LauraRuHK
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The turnout in the second round of the Moldovan presidential election has exceeded 54% as of 19:00 GMT, with over 1.7 million citizens having cast their vote, the Central Electoral Commission says.
Former Moldovan Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo got more votes (51.19%) inside the country than his rival, incumbent President Maia Sandu (48.81%)
However, Sandu took a lead in total count, which also includes polling stations abroad. With 95% of all ballots counted, Sandu has 51.68% of the vote, while Stoianoglo has 48.32%. (Source: RIA Novosti) @LauraRuHK
There is a reason why i publish no more than 3 or 4 articles a year. Each one of them requires months of research and pondering. I start writing only when i discover something that has escaped the attention of other writers or hasn't been discussed widely enough. For the article i have just finished i read about 10 books, some of them for the first time. During the summer i was in Italy, where i had access to my old library. It contains volumes i bought and read in the 1980s and 1990s, when the political education of anyone claiming to be an anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist necessarily included all the classics of Marxism-Leninism. Since then the world has changed dramatically but what i learned in those years hasn't been forgotten. It still provides very useful insights. For a presentation about colour revolutions that I gave a few months ago I had downloaded or borrowed books written by people i utterly despise like Gene Sharp and George Soros because i believe that knowing your enemy is just as important as knowing your friends. Sure, it can be nauseating, but someone has got to do it. While slogging through the mud, i entertained myself with Goethe's "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." I know that many people are happy to scroll through social media and don't bother reading anything longer than 500 words, which is why i opened this fast food outlet on Telegram. But for a decent meal i suggest you go somewhere else. PS. The article will be published next week. In the meantime i am having some fun, hiking, cooking, and starting a novel i have long wanted to read but couldn't find the time for, "Laurus" by Eugene Vodolazkin. @LauraRuHK
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Nikolay Patrushev, Russian presidential aide and head of the Maritime Board, stated at a shipbuilding meeting in Crimea:
"The US and its NATO allies are exerting every effort to maintain their dominance, including in the world's oceans. Their plans involve expanding naval presence in the Black Sea, altering the regime of the Black Sea straits as established by the Montreux Convention, and using Europe’s inland waterways for military access to the Black Sea via the Danube River."
He noted that unfriendly Western countries are working to diminish Russia's role in the Black Sea region as part of their strategy to achieve a decisive defeat of Russia. (Source: TASS) @LauraRuHK
"Sovereign is he who decides the state of emergency". The EU, being an American excrescence disfiguring the body of Europe, can hardly be considered "sovereign", but that's not stopping the EU Commission from channelling its inner Carl Schmitt in order to make that excrescence look even more hideous in the eyes of European citizens. The state of emergency, tried and tested during a hyped-up influenza pandemic, has become permanent and surveillance measures have become the basis of a new political order. If you don't believe me, just read the latest report on the EU military and civil preparedness, prepared by former Finnish President Sauli Niinistö and presented to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday. If you live in a EU country you are supposed to think and act like a prepper, because apparently you are at risk - epidemics, war, climate change, cyberattacks, disinformation... are all bundled together to justify totalitarian measures and divert huge chunks of the budget to privileged sectors such as the military-intelligence-information-industrial complex.
The report also includes plans for greater intelligence cooperation – a controversial topic given national spy agencies’ tight grip on security issues. Niinistö calls to “strengthen EU intelligence structures step-by-step towards a fully-fledged EU service for intelligence cooperation.” To respond to "hybrid threats such as disinformation" it advocates a a ‘naming and shaming’ approach (nothing new here, critical voices have already been censored and labelled 'Russian agents', 'anti-semites', 'climate change deniers', etc), "rapid attribution and the public use of intelligence to place hybrid actors on the backfoot, preventing or disrupting their malicious plans." Big Brother would approve. Fearmongering and scapegoating will be ramped up. EU citizens will have to look under the bed to ensure no Russian is hiding there, stockpile dry food, water and medications, school children will undergo 'civil defense' drills...and now that it's mentioned in the report, that "15-min. city" all of a sudden acquires a new meaning. @LauraRuHK https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/5bb2881f-9e29-42f2-8b77-8739b19d047c_en?filename=2024_Niinisto-report_Book_VF.pdf
Election shock in key US ally Japan - The failure of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has ruled for almost all of Japan's post-war history, and its coalition partner to secure a majority is the latest sign of disgruntled voters in U.S.-allied countries, following elections in France and Germany. Ruling parties that are doing Washington's bidding, supported its confrontational posture toward China and Russia, doubled down on bellicose rhetoric, sent military aid to Ukraine, increased military spending and imposed boomerang sanctions have alienated their voters. @LauraRuHK
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Yesterday the Knesset passed two laws banning the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) from operating in occupied Palestine despite objections from around the world. UN agencies slammed this decision underlining the importance of the work of the organization for the survival of Palestinians.
UNICEF spokesperson James Elder warned that the decision could cause further loss of children's lives.
"A decision such of this suddenly means that a new way has been found to kill children," Elder said.
Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), stressed implementation of this decision would be a "collective punishment."
"If implemented, this would add to the acts of collective punishment that we have seen imposed on Gaza," Laerke warned.
🔺This morning an Israeli strike on a five-story building where displaced Palestinians were sheltering in the northern Gaza Strip killed at least 90 people, more than half of them women and children, Gaza’s Health Ministry said. @LauraRuHK
This column in Hong Kong's SCMP reflects the views of the sane majority.
"China is not Putin’s only big-time partner, though Washington and Brussels may want you to think that. The much-touted Western unity has crumbled. The next president of the US could be, again, Donald Trump, who has vowed to end the Ukraine war quickly. He is right to think that, just like Joe Biden was right to exit Afghanistan, though it seems to be in the nature of US foreign policy to dig new holes as soon as the country pulls itself out of one.
It’s irrelevant whether the rest of the world wants to side with Moscow or sympathise with Kyiv. They just never consider the war their problem. Yes, a big European problem, and even arguably the collective West’s, but not theirs.
However, the West has made it everyone’s problem, and that’s pushing them to hedge their bets with Brics. They want a potential trade or financial escape route. They have seen how Washington and Brussels have weaponised the global financial, trade and internet systems against Russia. They fear they may one day end up at the receiving end of the same treatment, especially when the US nowadays imposes severe sanctions against countries, companies and individuals at the drop of a hat. It doesn’t even make a pretence at fairness or due process any more.
But Russia, it turns out, is not Cuba or Venezuela, whose economy has been crushed by US sanctions. The IMF’s GDP growth forecast for the full year for Russia is 3.6 per cent.
The country’s rapid economic restructuring and rebound have been extraordinary, though few Western politicians or pundits would admit it.
They convinced themselves that Russia had feet of clay, and that the Putin regime would collapse. Quite the reverse has happened. While Russia initially underestimated Ukraine’s resilience, the West still refuses to acknowledge Russian endurance.
Now it’s Ukraine that is collapsing. The UN Population Fund estimates the country may have lost more than 20 per cent out of a population of roughly 45 million since Russia’s first invasion in 2014.
The West claims Russia cannot be allowed to win as it will trample on the principles of national sovereignty and morality (...) Those who have armed Netanyahu to the teeth have no moral case against Putin."
Germany's Rheinmetall has launched the first of its four weapons manufacturing plants in Ukraine. As promised, we're looking forward to seeing some Russian fireworks on the premises.
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The ruling party of Georgia, Georgian Dream, wins 54.2% of the votes in the parliamentary elections.
Four opposition parties received a total of 37.5% of the vote. The US/EU-backed opposition proved popular among Georgians living abroad and in the capital Tbilisi, where Western-funded NGOs and their clients are mainly located. 🔺Kakha Kaladze, mayor of Tbilisi, on the significance of Georgia's parliamentary elections:
External forces cannot accept the fact that Georgia did not share the fate of Ukraine, did not join the sanctions. They are directly proving to us that white is black, that transparency is anti-democratic, and that LGBT propaganda is a manifestation of humanism and liberalism.
We are told that radicals called NGOs have the right to receive funds, to use all this to oppose the people, to organise revolutions, to finance extremism. And we, the Georgian people, are not supposed to know anything about this.
I would like to appeal here to the petty radicals and their instigators that this cannot continue, this will not happen. Corrupt people cannot come back to power. Georgia will not return to the past. Georgia will not go back to the past. /channel/ukraine_watch/31365
Historical revisionism. The European Parliament passed a motion presented by IPAC members stating that UN Resolution 2758 does not have any bearing on Taiwan’s participation in the UN or other international organizations. EU parliament members, egged on by the anti-China lobby known as IPAC, called on the EU and its member states to support Taiwan’s “meaningful participation” in international bodies. ▪️Here is yet another pathetic attempt to revise history in order to shape the present, provoke China and damage EU-China relations. You can easily guess who created and is funding IPAC. Should China advocate for the "meaningful participation" of Catalonia in the UN and other international organizations? 😏 You can read the 1971 UN resolution 2758 here https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/192054?v=pdf
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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows...just follow the money. 👉/channel/LauraRuHK/9286 👉/channel/LauraRuHK/9288
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Anglo-Saxon supremacists and their puppets are livid at the patent failure of their attempt to demonize countries such as China, Russia and Iran that don't march to the beat of their drum. An increasing number of countries don't want to march in lockstep with Washington and be told what to think and what to do, who to trade with and who to cooperate with. The BRICS summit in Kazan is making it clear that the Global Majority would rather adhere to international law than follow the hegemon's rules. In its hubristic delusion Washington thought that it could trample the interests of sovereign countries through various forms of coercion and blackmail. It is not working. So now it is faced with two choices - it can accept the new multipolar reality or escalate its hybrid wars. It's either the West and the rest, or the West against the rest. @LauraRuHK
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The leaders of the BRICS countries called for the elimination of unilateral economic and secondary sanctions that are contrary to international law, according to the final declaration of the summit in Kazan.
The Kazan Declaration of the BRICS countries "Strengthening Multilateralism for Equitable Global Development and Security" was published on the Kremlin website.
"We reiterate that unilateral coercive measures, including in the form of unilateral economic sanctions and secondary sanctions, contrary to international law, have far-reaching implications for the enjoyment of human rights, including the right to development, for all populations of targeted States, disproportionately affecting the poor and people in vulnerable situations. Accordingly, we call for the elimination of these measures." @LauraRuHK http://static.kremlin.ru/media/events/files/en/RosOySvLzGaJtmx2wYFv0lN4NSPZploG.pdf
"Controversial"??! BRICS currently comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates. The group represents approximately 46% of the world’s population and over 36% of global GDP. The BRICS countries overtook the G7 countries share of the world's total gross domestic product (GDP) in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP) in 2018. By 2024, the difference had increased even further. Representatives of over 30 countries are taking part in the BRICS summit. But Jack Schickler, Euronews Senior Reporter and British spin doctor in Brussels, thinks that the UN Secretary General shouldn't attend the most consequential summit of the year. 🤣@LauraRuHK
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Wow. It only took three years for CNN to wake up and smell the coffee. The Global Majority has been strengthening economic and political ties with Moscow while the Deranged Minority is digging itself into an even deeper hole by supporting Nazis in Ukraine and Israel.
@LauraRuHK