Lai, Taiwan’s vice president, reached more than three million votes by early evening after polls closed at 4 p.m. (0800 GMT), according by to a running tally by Taiwanese media, putting him comfortably ahead of his two rivals, though no party has conceded or claimed victory.
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The parliamentary elections are equally important, especially if no party wins a majority, potentially hindering the new president’s ability to pass legislation and spending, especially for defence.
Taiwan has a general election on Saturday. The international media has highlighted the election as an important geopolitical pivot – namely, if the current incumbent government party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), wins the presidency and legislature and continues its call for formal (not just de facto) independence from mainland China, that will mean intensified attacks on Taiwan by Beijing, perhaps leading to military conflict.
The election on January 13th, of Taiwan’s next leader, will choose between Lai Chin-le (Taiwan’s current ‘Vice-President’) who favors war against the mainland, versus Hou Yu-ih, who favors continuation of the ambiguous status-quo that has maintained China’s peace for decades. A less likely third option in this contest is Ko Wen-je, who could draw off enough votes away from Hou Yu-ih so as to throw the ‘election’ to Lai Chin-le, much like Ralph Nader in the 2000 U.S. Presidential ‘election’ drew off enough votes away from Al Gore so as to throw the U.S. Presidential ‘election’ to George W. Bush (which caused the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq and might even have caused the successful Saud-Bush 11 September 2001 attacks that Bush blamed on Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden and used as the ‘justification’ for invading Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003).
Thailand’s recently renewed commitment toward finishing the already under-construction Thai-Chinese high-speed railway may help move the Southeast Asian nation forward, out of the shadow of years of Western-induced political instability, and into the light of peace and prosperity as it and the rest of the region rise with China.
A surprising change of tone came from the Pentagon in early December. After weeks of devastating Israeli military operations inside Gaza, the US Secretary of Defense implored Israel to demonstrate restraint and concern for the civilian population.
China’s stance on war is very clear, in fact, it could not be more clear. In every conflict on the globe China calls for peaceful resolution and dialogue to resolve differences rather than force. A recently released White Paper, on the White Paper, on the Belt and Road Initiative, emphasised this calling for global peace, security and safety. China is nothing, if not consistent in this.
Canadian-Ukrainian professor Ivan Katchanovski’s investigation of the Maidan massacre in Kiev in February 2014 found an organized mass killing of both protesters and the police, with the goal of delegitimizing the Yanukovych government and its forces and seizing power in Ukraine, as he wrote for Consortium News in an in-depth article in 2019. (On Wednesday three policemenwere sentenced for the massacre, one was acquitted and one was released for time served. The official investigation ignored Katchanovski’s academic research.)
When working for Stratfor (Shadow CIA), Peter Zeihan, et al, met with Srdja Popovic.
Thanks for the email! I think the idea of meeting this April/May is great! Since Stratfor is based in Austin (we also have an office in DC), we would it was very easy to “jump” to Colorado. When are you exactly in Colorado? It is most convenient for me to meet around the first week of May, but i am flexible. Otherwise, I will work on that Peter Zeihan, our “head-analyst” and my “boss”, came with me.
Both Juan Guaidó, and Leopoldo Lopez, have already been trained to use Gene Sharp’s tactics to overthrow a ‘dictator’ in ‘nonviolent ways’, which was used by US-funded OTPOR, to overthrow Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević (which wasn’t as peaceful as they made it to be), in 2000. Ivan Marović was a member of OTPOR. Another member, Srđa Popović, went on to start CANVAS, which worked with Stratfor to spy on activists and overthrow governments. CANVAS has been declared a terrorist group in the UAE.
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