Foreign Digest: Syria and China

Syria

            Germany began putting on trial last week Syrian regime officers for crimes against humanity, including torture.  Their accusers will be the first to face any of the Baathist regime’s agents in court.  The tyrant of Syria, Bashar Assad, a state sponsor of terrorism, orders atrocities, including the use of chemical weapons, against the Syrian people who have rebelled against his rule.  Both non-Islamists and Islamist Arabs, in addition to Kurds, have risen up against the Baathist regime.  Assad is backed by Iran, the Russian Federation and Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shi’ite terrorists sponsored by Iran.  The United States and its Western and Arab allies, aided some non-Islamist Arab and Kurdish rebels, but focused primarily on fighting Islamist terrorists, such as al-Qaeda and its offshoot, the “Islamic State.”  Turkey, where there is Kurdish separatism, backs its own Arab rebels.

Meanwhile, Israel has increasingly been striking Iranian and Hezbollah targets in Syria in recent weeks.

China

            Communist China is using propaganda and disinformation tactics like those used successfully by the Russian Federation, led by tyrant Vladimir Putin.  Instead of only promoting positive images of Communist China, Peking is promoting contradictory conspiracy theories in the West, particularly about the novel coronavirus, in order to undermine confidence in the truth.  Iran has also increased its propaganda efforts   Russia succeeded in electing its preferred candidate, Donald Trump, President of the United States after a “sweeping and systematic,” according to the American Special Counsel and confirmed by the Senate Intelligence Committee, effective active measures campaign led by the former Soviet intelligence officer Putin, among other examples of interference in Western politics.

           A dissident Hong Kong book store owner defected to the Republic of China because his sale of books critical of Communist China jeopardized his liberty, as Peking has been violating its promise to respect the city-state’s autonomy and freedom after reversion from British rule in 1997.