22-11-2021

monDAy, novEmbEr 22, 2021
4
When America talks, China doesn't listen
Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alam
e-mail: editor@thebangladeshtoday.com
Monday, November 22, 2021
Lingering skepticism about
Rampal power plant
On October 22, 2015 Bangladeshi and Indian
officials participated in a ceremony of laying
the foundation stone for the Rampal power
plant, a massive new coal-fired project that will sit on
the edge of the Sundarbans, the world's largest
mangrove forest to be run with imported coal. But
opposition to the plant has been mounting since the
project was first announced and the same has
intensified in recent months.
Our environmentalists are nearly all united on the
point that the plant on being commissioned, could
sound the death knell of the Sundarbans. They have
sent protest notes to the government saying that the
environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the
project is flawed and called for redoing it honestly and
truly transparently. UNESCO and other internal
organizations have called for an immediate review of
the project or preferably its dropping altogether.
Opponents say that the 1,320 megawatt project
could devastate the Sundarbans, Bangladesh's largest
forest and the nation's last stronghold of the Bengal
tiger. They contend that water diversion to the plant,
coupled with air and water pollution and heavy coal
barge traffic, could leave the Sundarbans - a UNESCO
World Heritage site - with an increasingly degraded
ecosystem.
First conceived in 2010, the Rampal power plant is
a partnership between the Bangladesh Power
Development Board and India's state-owned
National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), which
will share fifty-fifty ownership of the plant, as well as
the electricity it produces. Critics justifiably contend
that despite being a joint project between India and
Bangladesh, Bangladesh will face the adverse
environmental and human impacts.
"Coal is big business in India, and no doubt there are
powerful interests at play," says Ashish Fernandes, an
expert on coal with Greenpeace India. "If Bangladesh
is locked into a coal-dependent energy paradigm,
companies like NTPC will make significant profits, at
the cost of [Bangladesh's] people and environment."
The Sundarbans plays a significant role in our
national economy and it is the largest source of forest
products in the country. Roughly the size of Lebanon,
the Sundarbans is home to at least 330 plant species,
315 bird species, 210 fish species, 49 mammal species,
and 59 species of reptiles. Many of the species are
endangered, including the Ganges river dolphin; the
masked finfoot, a water bird; and the Royal Bengal
Tiger. 'Situating a coal plant near a unique and
already stressed ecosystem is inexcusable,' says an
environmental activist.
The coal plant will suck up 9,150 cubic meters of
water from the Passur River every hour and run it
through a desalination plant. Since mangroves
depend on a brackish mix of fresh and salt water,
scientists not only fear that water levels in the Passur
river will run low, but also that the blend of fresh-andsalt
water could be disrupted, dooming swaths of the
Sunderban's mangroves. Furthermore, water
dumped back into Passur River will be up 20 to 25
degrees F warmer than the river water, threatening
aquatic species.
The water of the Sundarbans and surrounding areas
will be affected by discharging cooling water, effluents
from the ships, and leaching water of the coal from
ships. The Rampal plant will require around 4.72
million tons of coal every year, which the government
says will require a ship a day carrying coal through
wildlife-rich waters.
Another major concern is the air pollution and
toxins generated by the plant, including arsenic,
mercury, lead, nickel, and radium. The government
says the plant could discharge up to 52,000 tons of
sulfur a year, which, depending on the type of coal
burned, could lead to acid rain in the Sundarbans and
surrounding regions.
According to a recent press note from the
government, the plant will only burn "high-quality
imported coal," and "emissions of carbon, sulfur, fly
ash and several other sorts of air pollution will be kept
at a minimum level to avoid having any adverse
impact on the environment."
However, conservationists and scientists have
generally criticized the government's EIA for
downplaying threats and spreading misinformation.
Furthermore, critics say the government had already
tacitly approved the coal plant before the EIA was
even written or submitted to the Environment
Ministry for approval.
It was observed that the EIA process was "used as an
instrument to rationalize a predetermined project."
In last September, concerned Bangladeshis took
their opposition to the streets. At the end of the 400-
kilometer march, activist leaders released the "Long
March Declaration," which demanded that the
government must cancel the project immediately.
Nevertheless, the project is moving ahead. "We have
frequently said there are alternatives for producing
electricity, but there are no alternatives to the
Sundarbans," the declaration read.
US President Joe Biden spoke over
the phone with Chinese leader Xi
Jinping on Monday. The Chinese
dictator might have been on the other end
of the line, but he probably wasn't
listening. About a decade ago, Singapore
was criticizing the US government for
some failing or other. This writer had
occasion to ask an official at the US
Embassy why the Singaporeans weren't
also chastising the People's Republic of
China - since the Chinese were doing the
same thing as the Americans.
He said he had asked, and the
Singaporeans told him: "They [the
Chinese] won't listen to us."
The Americans should have figured this
out long ago. China rarely listens to the
United States. But it's hard for zealous
Americans to overcome their uniquely
American conceit that if they can just talk
with China - about anything, climate
challenges for example - that will
eventually establish a rapport that will
then open the door for discussing other
issues … that will then lead to a negotiated
agreement. No. It's not going to happen.
China will not listen to us Americans.
There is a reason a state of war still exists
on the Korean Peninsula (just a 68-yearold
armistice to cease combat operations).
China will not listen to us - unless it has to.
When do the Chinese listen to the US?
One American observer with four decades
of frontline experience in China puts it
this way:When we are stronger than
China in the categories of wealth and
power;When we have something they
want; When we can reduce the value of a
key asset (or assets) they hold. If the US is
not on course to any one of the three
above (all three would be great) China will
not listen to us. What is China doing when
it "listens"? Even when China "listens," it
is not the way Americans think of
"listening."China waits patiently for the
US finally to arrive at its own selfdiscovery
that the Chinese side is "correct
thinking." Noticed Xi Jinping's remarks
last week about "working with" the US to
re-establish mutual relations? In Beijingspeak
"working with" means we will help
you to accept what we want.
And sometimes China "listens" when it
wants to know what words we want to
hear from it in order for us to give it what
it wants. What are those words? "Winwin,"
"mutual respect," "mutual benefit,"
"new great-power relationship," "good for
American farmers/consumers/etc," to
name a few. In other words, when the
Chinese listen, it's just to be better
equipped to get the jump on us. So it's not
just useless, it can be harmful. But what
about all those painstakingly negotiated
agreements? Even if the US has the upper
hand and the Chinese do talk and
negotiate, and agree to do something,
there is scant evidence they keep their
GrAnT nEWsHAm
promises. Xi Jinping promising Barack
Obama at the White House in 2015 that
China would not "militarize" its artificial
islands in the South China Sea;
Xi's promise to do something about
Fentanyl flows into the US that are killing
tens of thousands of Americans every
year; The Genocide Treaty that Beijing has
signed; The People's Republic of China's
commitments to obey World Trade
Organization rules;
The PRC's commitments to abide by the
UN Convention on the Law of the Sea;
Climate-change agreements. Just look
at the recent US-China agreement on
climate. The vague promises to do nothing
in particular and are made by people who
won't still be alive when the commitments
come due and who know they won't be
held accountable - including by "climate
activists" (who know China won't listen to
them). The list of commitments they have
kept is much shorter. Maybe the only
international agreement the Chinese
Communists have kept is the PRC-North
Korea treaty. They've kept the North
Korean regime afloat for nearly 70 years.
Yet the Americans still haven't given up
trying to get Beijing to "listen" to them
Dr. JoHn C. HULsmAn
about North Korea. Despite the hard
lessons of decades of experience - and the
Donald Trump administration's
successful, if short-lived, attempts to turn
the tables on the PRC and not waste time
talking when the Communists weren't
listening - the Americans of all stripes are
once again hell-bent on talking with the
Chinese.
US military commanders are hot to reestablish
communications with the
People's Liberation Army - as if they can
"talk" their counterparts into good (by US
standards) behavior. The chairman of the
US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark
Milley, seems keenest of all - including to
tipping off Beijing if Biden is planning
something he doesn't approve of.
US business is insisting the Biden
administration start talking - and do
whatever is necessary to give the Chinese
what they want so they can get back to
"business as usual" with the PRC. And
Team Biden probably will. US Trade
Representative Katherine Tai and
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo are
both eager to "recouple" with China - and
chart a "middle way." Presumably they
mean "win-win"? John Kerry, the
"climate czar," apparently has never
stopped talking - and giving the Chinese
(and other American enemies) what they
want. Will we ever learn that the Chinese
won't listen? And that when they do they
aren't listening for the reasons we think
they are? And when they are negotiating
they're just wearing us down and setting
us up?
Source: Asia times
Zimbabwe is set on tackling climate change
The COP26 meeting of nations came
at an extraordinary time in world
history. Many countries are still
battling the pandemic, its impact on
public health and public finances. At the
same time, the urgency of the climate
crisis is forcing transformational changes
to economies. The discussions over these
two weeks have been critical to agree on a
collective way forward and I am proud to
represent Zimbabwe at this important
moment. In my country, we feel the
impact of climate change more than most.
Our temperatures have risen by
approximately 2 degrees Celsius over the
past century, which has seen a significant
increase in extreme weather. In the past
two decades alone, we have had to deal
with 10 droughts. If world leaders do not
step up climate action, developing nations
at the forefront of the fight against climate
change will see jobs lost, livelihoods
destroyed, and lives devastated. That is
something we must avoid and that is why
Zimbabwe is coming to the table with
ambitious plans to tackle climate change
and save our planet.
My government has now committed to
reducing emissions by 40 percent before
2030. This builds on a previous
commitment for a 33-percent emissions
reduction set in 2017. The new target will
see greenhouse gas emissions curbed to
44.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide
equivalent (Mt CO2e) by 2030, a
reduction of about 30 million tonnes. One
of our routes to achieve that is through
Greens sing the blues as reality triumphs at COP26
In the end, it comes down to a difference
in political philosophy. Like their
Marxist forebears, the green activist
community believes that the complexity of
the world can be distilled down to one clear
problem, with one clear policy solution.
Marxists saw the capitalist world system as
the problem and, armed with this
monocausal view of the world, they believed
a class-based analysis of capitalism would
lead to an overthrow of that system,
ushering in the proletarian Valhalla. One
hundred years and 100 million deaths later,
communism - in all its brutal forms - has
been utterly discredited.
Undaunted, the global left has moved
seamlessly onto the green agenda. Here,
global warming is the world's pre-eminent
problem, one whose solution requires the
sacrifice of whatever else comes to hand, in
order to prevent a ring of fire from engulfing
the world. Yet, this over-wrought
monocausality shares a great deal with its
Marxist ancestors. Indeed, the general
green solution to global heating amounts to
Marxism by the back door - to combat this
worldwide emergency, governments must
take over the commanding heights of the
global economy, enforce public mandates
on private individuals and industries alike,
And sometimes China "listens" when it wants to know what
words we want to hear from it in order for us to give it what
it wants. What are those words? "Win-win," "mutual
respect," "mutual benefit," "new great-power relationship,"
"good for American farmers/consumers/etc," to name a few.
EmmErson mnAnGAGWA
significant expansion of renewable energy
with the aim of having 26.5 percent of all
energy from renewable sources by 2030.
This includes investment in hydro energy,
solar energy and biomass.
We have also reaffirmed our
commitment to conserve the diverse
wildlife we have been blessed with. We
have 11 protected national parks, each one
provides a safe environment for our
wildlife, including African buffalo, African
bush elephant, the critically endangered
black rhinoceros, southern giraffe, African
leopard, lion, plains zebra, and several
antelope species.
Last year, mining was banned in all
those national parks. Moreover, my
government entered a partnership with
conservation non-profit African Parks,
signing a 20-year agreement in November
2020 for the management of Matusadona
National Park.
However, with all that ambition, we still
need to cope with the shocks of drought
and the impact of climate change through
necessary social safety nets. That is why I
and engage in economic dislocation if
necessary, all to solve the world's one
overriding issue. The problem with this
leftist fairy tale view is that, when push
comes to shove, the member states of the
world - that still retain the lion's share of the
globe's power, not the politically and
economically illiterate Greta Thunberg and
her ilk - all rightly see the world in more
complex terms. Predictably, the latest leftist
monocausal fairy came up against the wall
of political reality at Glasgow. Just as
unsurprisingly, reality won.
The key issue at the conference became
the desire of the activist world to begin
nothing less than the abolition of fossil fuels,
particularly the winding down of the use of
coal as a primary energy source, as it is
responsible for much of the carbon dioxide
have been appealing for multilateral
support to supplement our efforts.
Developed nations need to widen access
to climate finance as soon as possible.
Sadly, the longstanding pledge to
contribute $100bn annually to help
developing countries deal with the effects
of climate change has been elusive. The
If the sanctions are removed, we would have a fighting
chance at fulfilling our plans to become a middle-income
country by the end of this decade, helping thousands out of
poverty, stimulating innovation and once again allowing
Zimbabwe to play a leading role on the African continent.
wealthiest countries must set an example
and speed up this financing. All it
demands is political will.
Another step the leading economies
should take to support us, and others, is to
end the political and illegal use of
sanctions. In late October, UN Special
Rapporteur Alena Douhan called for the
removal of sanctions on Zimbabwe by the
EU and the US after finishing a factfinding
mission.
She echoed the arguments I have
articulated since taking office, that
sanctions and various over-compliance
with sanctions have had "an insidious
ripple effect on the economy of Zimbabwe
and on the enjoyment of fundamental
human rights, including access to health,
emitted into the air, causing a significant
portion of global warming. In typical leftist,
Wilsonian fashion, the initial wording of the
final communique at Glasgow called for the
world's member states to agree to "phase
out" coal. It was anticipated that this general
pledge would be followed up in the next of
this endless series of conferences with more
specific pledges on how to get to utopia from
The problem with this leftist fairy tale view is that, when
push comes to shove, the member states of the world - that
still retain the lion's share of the globe's power, not the
politically and economically illiterate Greta Thunberg and
her ilk - all rightly see the world in more complex terms.
where we are now. But the activist left had
not counted on the very real interest
calculations of the great powers that are the
primary users of coal: China, India and even
the US. It turns out that both India and
China think the world's problems are a little
bit more diverse and complicated than the
monocausal fairy tale beloved by the green
activist left. In the case of New Delhi,
economic growth amounts to its primary
food, safe drinking water and sanitation."
If the sanctions are removed, we would
have a fighting chance at fulfilling our
plans to become a middle-income country
by the end of this decade, helping
thousands out of poverty, stimulating
innovation and once again allowing
Zimbabwe to play a leading role on the
African continent.
I believe we have demonstrated our
willingness and desire to play a
responsible role in the international
community. We have made great progress
over the last three years and addressed
many of the reforms asked of us, including
providing compensation to landowners
who had their properties expropriated in
the 2000s, and tackling corruption. We
are applying to re-join the
Commonwealth of nations and I hope my
presence at COP26 is yet another sign of
Zimbabwe's reengagement efforts.
I was buoyed by warm bilateral
conversations with US President Joe
Biden, British Prime Minister Boris
Johnson, Canadian Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau, President of the European
Council Charles Michel and others over
the first week of the conference.
But the time for words is over - we must
act now. My hope is the developing world
will be freed to both play its part in the
global fight against climate change as well
as be equipped to deal with its devastating
consequences.
Source: AL Jazeera
aspiration moving ahead. After centuries of
the most wrenching poverty, the Indian
economy is set to boom - with all that this
will mean for the country socially and
politically - thanks to its very favorable
demographic catch-up growth over the next
generation. To put this bounty in peril by
agreeing to give up coal without putting
anything in its place to make some
Westerners feel better about islands sinking
into the Pacific struck many there as the
height of fancy. For India, the ultimate
human right is high rates of growth over a
generation transforming the country once
again into a great power. It turns out the
government of Prime Minister Narendra
Modi thinks there are other primary issues
and interests out there besides global
heating. Likewise, following the tumult of
the later days of Mao Zedong's reign, Deng
Xiaoping rebranded the Chinese
Communist Party's political legitimacy as
being based on delivering on both
capitalism and nationalism, two traits
inherent in Chinese culture. Deng's bold
political risk was rewarded with the greatest
of success as the CCP's grip on power was
bolstered by its triumph on both key counts.
Source: Arab news