Foreign Digest: China, Canada, Australia, Romania, and Nicaragua

China: Communist China recently seized a Vietnamese-claimed island in the Spratley Islands in the South China Sea. The islands are contested by several Asian States. China, which illegally claims the South China Sea, has been assertive in its territorial claims to the Spratleys. It had already seized the Paracel Islands, which were claimed by Vietnam. Chinese forces yesterday also violated the airspace and territorial waters of Senkaku, a Japanese island claimed by China, even surveilling it with a helicopter, to which Japan issued a diplomatic protest. Canada: Canada’s conservative party lost the Canadian parliamentary elections a week ago, after having led the polls at the start of the election campaign a few weeks ago because of Donald Trump’s disrespectful pressure to force Canada to join the American Union and his unnecessary imposition of tariffs on Canadian exports to America. The ruling center-left party, which won the most votes and seats, will continue to govern Canada, likely in again coalition, as it is slightly short of the necessary majority to govern alone. They were seen by Canadians as more capable of standing up to Trump than the conservative leadership, unlike some of the conservative provincial premiers. The conservative party leader, a Trumpist who broke with the American tycoon over sovereignty and tariffs even lost his own seat. Canada, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, has been a strong ally of the United States. Australia: The ruling center-left party easily won the most votes and a majority of seats in the Australian parliamentary elections, as Trump’s tariffs weighed heavily against the conservatives, as in Canada. Similarly, the center-right party leader even lost his own seat. Australia is a non-NATO American ally and a member of other pacts with the U.S. Romania: Today, as Romanians began voting in the first round of the rescheduled presidential elections, Russians hacked the election system, causing a temporary delay. As I had posted, a little-known independent pro-Russian candidate won the first round in December without having spent much in campaign funds because of heavy Russian interference. The result was overturned because of the Russian interference and campaign expense irregularities, for which he was charged and banned from running for the presidency, as I had posted. A center-right party’s candidate had come in second, but that party and other conservative parties formed an electoral bloc with the ruling center-left party behind the Prime Minister, whom it is supporting in today’s vote. A different pro-Russian anti-European anti-NATO candidate is expected to win the most votes, but not nearly enough for a majority, thereby necessitating a run-off election among the top two candidates. The run-off is scheduled for May 18. Romania is a NATO ally of the U.S. Nicaragua: Nicaragua’s Marxist Sandinista dictatorship is withdrawing from UNESCO because of a freedom of the press prize awarded to the main opposition newspaper, La Prensa (the Press), published in exile. I have posted on the increased repression in the Central American State.