15-21 may 2017-min

2 15 - 21 May, 2017
S
Editorial
♦ By Tarek Fatah
Author & Columnist, Canada
@TarekFatah
tarek.fatah@gmail.com
NEW DELHI TIMES
Friendship treaty with Pyongyang weighs heavily on China
T
♦ By NDT Bureau
@NewDelhiTimesIN
info@newdelhitimes.com
he theory of Karma is unfolding on
Korean Peninsula. China which stood
by North Korea through thick and thin over
last couple of decades now faces the ire of
Frankenstein’s monster. With tensions
escalating to new highs, the enfant terrible
has tried to browbeat the mentor, triggering
heated discussions both within and
outside China. The friendship treaty is now
on line.
China and North Korea inked the Sino-
North Korean Mutual Aid and Cooperation
Friendship Treaty over half a century back.
The treaty was signed in 1961 and renewed
in 1981 and 2001; the latest renewal makes
it effective until 2021.The latest conflict
with US has subjected the treaty to its most
stringent test yet in its history.
Article 2 of the treaty stipulates: “The two
parties undertake jointly to adopt all
measures to prevent aggression against
either party by any state.” It also provides
that “in the event of one of the parties being
subjected to armed attack by any state or
several states together and thus being
involved in a state of war, the other party
shall immediately render military and other
assistance by all means at its disposal.”
Chinese and North Korean leaders
exchanged messages on the 55th
anniversary of the signing of the treaty in
2016. The treaty, in its heydays, helped
prevent South Korea’s domination in the
process of unifying the peninsula and
Why don’t anti-fascists fight Islamofascism?
eventy-two years ago this Friday, on
May 5, 1945, Hitler’s fascist dream of
a “Thousand Year Reich” lay in ruins, as
Berlin fell to the Red Army, only to find the
ashes of the “Fuhrer” who had shot himself
five days earlier.
On the very day Berlin fell to the Soviets,
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill
ordered an appraisal of “the long-term
policy required to safeguard the strategic
interests of the British Empire in India and
the Indian Ocean.”
Two weeks later, Churchill received the topsecret
report that, among other proposals,
cited the necessity of a British presence in
northwest India (today’s Pakistan) “from
which British air power could threaten
Soviet military installations.”
When this was brought to the attention of
the leaders of India’s freedom movement,
they made it clear to Britain they would not
accept British bases on Indian soil after
independence.
On the other hand, the leader of the All
worked as a bulwark against US and South
Korean military designs on North Korea;
acting as a buffer to prompt Seoul and
Washington to cool down. The China-
North Korea divergences over the latter’s
nuclear development have widened since
last renewal. North Korea’s rogue
behaviour has opened up old debates in
China and elsewhere over whether the
treaty that is outdated and costing China
dear internationally should be scrapped.
China government recently defended the
treaty to ‘promote friendly cooperation
between the two countries in various fields
and safeguard regional peace and
security.’
A stable geopolitical structure is the
precondition for peace in Northeast Asia.
South Korea and the US have repeatedly
hyped up the prospect of the collapse of
Pyongyang’s regime and exclusion of
China’s interests from Korean peninsula.
Rather than cherishing the treaty and
making it one of the cornerstones of
national security North Korea has
relentlessly pursued nuclear technology
jeopardising security of self, China and the
region. This violates the principles of the
treaty which firmly opposes aggression.
The situation has changed a lot since
renewal in 2001. China’s approach so far
has been like telling a schoolyard troublemaker,
‘it doesn’t matter how bad your
behaviour gets, we will always protect you
against anyone who might discipline you’.
Such attitude has encouraged Pyongyang
to behave worse than ever. Why should it
support a bully who is also threatening?
North Korea started the Korean War by
invading the South Korea. US and South
Indian Muslim League, M. A. Jinnah, was
amenable to the idea, and so was laid the
foundation of the Islamic Republic of
Pakistan -- that would serve the West in
fighting Moscow.
It’s no coincidence that within a few years,
Pakistan joined the West in two military
pacts against Moscow — SEATO and
CENTO.
Today, a new fascism is in the air, one that
also speaks of rule over the planet, not
just for 1,000 years, but until the end times.
But like the rise of fascism in Germany, Italy
and Spain in the 1930s, the West and its
citizenry again seem unconcerned or
unaware of the catastrophe that may
unfold.
Even in the 1930s, when the Spanish
Republic stood up to the Hitler-backed
fascists of Francisco Franco, the UK and
US refused to help the elected government
in Madrid, leaving it to left-wing activists
from around the world to join the war on
the side of the Republic.
These included Canadian volunteers of the
Mackenzie-Papineau Brigade (popularly
known as the Mac Paps).
Today’s fascists have an additional
Korea have never tried to invade or attack
North Korea in 64 years since, so its alibi of
developing nukes for self defence lacks
credibility. US forcibly shut down Taiwan’s
nuclear programme in the 70’s and 80’s but
China, rather than stopping Pyongyang,
became the facilitator by vetoing UN
sanctions against North Korea. Every
Chinese action to prop up North Korea and
keep Korea divided sullied its image
internationally. Probably a unified capitalist
Korea would have served China’s trade
interests better.
North Korea’s insistence on developing
nuclear weapons and conducting missile
launches in violation of UN Security Council
resolutions has increased manifold the risks
of military clashes with the US. China’s
geographic proximity aggravates the risks
of nuclear contamination in north eastern
region in the event of war. China could
advantage over the Franco-Mussolini-
Hitler types.
They are Islamofascists, who not only seek
authoritarian supremacy, but claim to
possess a divinely ordained doctrine to
justify annihilating democracy, liberty,
freedom of expression and the equality of
men and women.
I am not just referring to ISIS, the Islamic
State in Iraq and Syria, the Taliban in
Afghanistan, al-Shabab in Somalia or Boko
Haram in Nigeria. These are the fringes of
Islamofascism.
The two main players are in Pakistan, created
summon determination to impose fullscale
sanctions on North Korea which has
taken China for granted and continues to
insult and disrespect. North Korean
economy is heavily dependent on China
which is firmly against any military strike.
It is the only country that can influence
Pyongyang without using military means.
Photo Credit: Shutterstock
China has quite a few options up its
sleeves. In principle, it could interpret
North Korea developing its nuclear
weapons as an act of aggression and
declare the treaty null and void.
A joint military strike of US, China, Japan
and South Korea against DPRK, though
too farfetched, is also a possibility but
China and Russia won’t like North
Korea to fall for strategic reasons. Lets
not push China. Allow it time as it
prefers to do things calmly, steadily but
firmly at its own pace.
by Britain and armed by America, and the
authoritarian dictatorship of Turkey, that
is still sustained by NATO.
Unlike the years leading up to the last Great
War against fascism, this time the left in
the West has deviated from its historic
role and is today an ally of the Islamists.
Two recent incidents highlight this
problem.
In India, the Islamic University of Jamia
Milli has conferred an honourary
doctorate on Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, despite the dictator’s
vicious crackdown on dissenting Turks
and ruthless treatment of minority Kurds.
And in the United States, the City
University of New York has invited radical
Muslim activist, Linda Sarsour, to deliver
a commencement address June 1.
Abraham Foxman, former head of the Anti-
Defamation League, says, “She’s [Sarsour]
a bigot, and she shouldn’t have been
invited [to CUNY].”
With universities honouring such
individuals, where does an old-fashioned
“AntiFa” (anti-fascist) like me, whose
licence plate says, “Mac Pap”, go?
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