The Biden administration has taken the pillar of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) and made it into a governing principle by which it lives. Everybody in the administration is a diversity hire. They don’t even hide it anymore, as evidenced by remarks at the White House by the press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre.
“The cabinet is majority people of color for the first time in history. The cabinet is majority female for the first time in history. A majority of White House senior staff identify as female. Forty percent of White House senior staff identify as part of the racially diverse communities, and a record seven assistants to the president are openly LGBTQ+.”
The White House’s so-called values-driven policy has resulted in strengthening and maintaining relationships only with liberal democracies. The secondary result is that large swaths of the global population have been relegated to inferior status because they don’t conform to Biden’s worldview. Unable or unwilling to endure harsh covert and overt criticism from Washington, other proud sovereign nations are abandoning relationships with the United States and aligning themselves with the new global superpower in the making, China.
The most significant of these geopolitical shifts was when Saudi Arabia’s king presided over a senior meeting of cabinet ministers and voted to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a permanent intergovernmental international organization headquartered in Beijing. This vote followed another major realignment – Saudi Arabia and its erstwhile enemy Iran decided to shake hands and establish mutual diplomatic relations in a meeting hosted by the Chinese foreign leader.
It is unthinkable that America is losing its Middle East partners to an authoritarian regime in China. It is hard to imagine how much the relationship has soured when one considers that victory in World War II against the Germans was brought about by secret meetings in 1943 that President Roosevelt held with Prime Minister Winston Churchill organized by the Shah of Iran in Tehran. The critical guest then was Stalin, the Soviet leader, who agreed to accept US weapons shipped from the Persian Gulf through land routes to the Red Army to defeat the Germans.
When Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, the Senior Bush corralled a community of nations, including Arab states, to ultimately join an international coalition to defeat Iraq.
These American presidents didn’t just talk the talk. They walked the walk of diversity and inclusion by including anyone, regardless of race or identity, to join hands to defeat tyranny. In contrast, the Biden administration is so fixated on diversity that it looks down on any government that does not meet its standards. This is partly why major countries of the Global South have refused to join America in condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Consider the sensitive subject of human rights and LGBTQ issues. America has evolved here, and most people born after 1992 would be alarmed that the guiding principle in the United States government for years was, Don’t ask, Don’t tell. President Bush won reelection in 2004 arguably because of his opposition to gay marriage. Even President Obama, the cultural icon of the Democratic Left, supported the Defense of Marriage Act in the 2008 election. If not for Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s decisive vote, gay marriage would probably still have been illegal in many states.
The modern Democratic Party expects other countries to change instantly rather than appreciate that extremely conservative countries, like Saudi Arabia, will take even longer to embrace change. While we are not a fan of MBS regarding his role in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, we appreciate that many women in Saudi Arabia today can drive cars and work, freedoms they didn’t have five years ago. A more nuanced approach would have kept Saudi Arabia in America’s bag.
The Biden administration has similarly punished an entire country, Afghanistan, because the government there, led by the Taliban, is not friendly to diversity. But when American sanctions have frozen Afghani assets, when American actions have cut off trade with Afghanistan, women and children are dying because of poor health and hunger. It was Biden’s reckless withdrawal that brought the Taliban to power. Eager to score political points on the 20th anniversary of 9/11, Biden did not work towards installing a democratic government in Kabul and instead abandoned the country, leaving behind $85 billion of weapons. When an occupier leaves a country as fragile as Afghanistan, it is the occupier’s responsibility to transition to a government with which it can maintain diplomatic relations.
It is little wonder that countries are moving to the umbrella provided by China, which, as a matter of principle, does not interfere with the internal workings of countries. Expect more countries to embrace China. Honduras just did. And Brazil, led by a leftist revolutionist who should have found dealing with the White House an easy task, has just decided to conduct all trade with China in Yuan and Brazil’s currency, the Real, in a blow to the dollar’s prominence.
President Biden would’ve found brutal authoritarian Stalin to be unworthy of a meeting and would never have engaged with him in Tehran. Would World War II have ended in an allied victory if President Biden was in office?
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TIPP Takes
Geopolitics And Geoeconomics
#1. Global Network Aims To Sue Wagner As A ‘Terrorist’ Organization – Al Jazeera
Ukrainians in exile are mobilizing an army of lawyers to seize Wagner’s assets and hobble Russia’s ability to wage war.
Andrei Medvedev, an escaped mercenary of the Wagner private military company who crossed into Norway, may now become a star witness in a series of civil lawsuits being prepared worldwide against Wagner, with a flagship class-action lawsuit ready to go to court in the United Kingdom.
Last November, UK-based law firm McCue Jury and Partners served a letter before action on Prigozhin and 32 defendants associated with the company.
#2. Zelenskyy: Russia Will Be Held Accountable For War Crimes In Ukraine – Euronews
“All Russian murderers will get fair sentences. One hundred percent. We will ensure it. We will find formats, we will find tools,” Zelenskyy said in a late-evening video address to Ukrainian citizens.
The comment followed the first anniversary of Russia’s withdrawal from Bucha – the town now synonymous with war crimes allegations.
“We must do everything to make Bucha a symbol of justice. We want every Russian murderer, executioner, terrorist to be held responsible for every crime,” Zelenskyy said at a Kyiv summit on the Bucha crimes.
Ukraine estimates that around 1,400 civilians died around Bucha and 637 in the town.
#3. Russia Protests About ‘Provocative Actions’ By U.S. Forces In Syria – Reuters
Russia has protested to the American-led coalition against ISIS about “provocative actions” by U.S. armed forces in Syria.
Hundreds of ISIS fighters are camped in desolate areas where neither the coalition nor the Syrian army exerts complete control. Russia and Turkey are conducting joint patrols in northern Syria and have agreed to special zones where the coalition can operate.
But Russian Rear Admiral Oleg Gurinov, head of the Russian Reconciliation Centre for Syria, told Tass that U.S. forces had twice been spotted outside the agreed zones.
“Provocative actions on the part of U.S. armed forces units have been noted in Hasakeh province … the Russian side protested with the coalition,” he said, without giving details of timing.
#4. UAE Cancels Russia’s MTS Bank Licence, Citing ‘Sanctions Risk’ – Middle East Eye
The UAE has canceled the license of Russia’s MTS Bank, giving the lender six months to wind down operations in the country.
With branches in Moscow and Abu Dhabi, MTS Bank was included in a list of sanctions rolled out by the U.S. Treasury in February as part of a U.S. crackdown on Russian sanctions evasion.
UAE had initially defended its decision to grant MTS a license after the U.S. designation, saying that the bank “contributed to supporting legitimate trade between the two countries and servicing the Russian community in the UAE.”
#5. Spanish PM Urges China’s Xi To Speak With Ukraine’s Zelenskyy – Al Jazeera
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has encouraged Chinese President Xi Jinping to talk to the Ukrainian leadership and learn firsthand about Kyiv’s peace formula to help end Russia’s invasion.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez praises parts of China’s 12-point proposal for ending the Russia-Ukraine war.
Sanchez told a news conference in Beijing that he had informed Xi, who visited Moscow on March 20-21, that Spain supported the proposals made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. These include a demand to restore Ukraine’s territory to the status quo before Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
#6. Japan FM To Visit China, First Time In Over 3 Years – AFP
Japan’s top diplomat Yoshimasa Hayashi will visit China this weekend, the first such visit in over three years, the foreign ministry in Tokyo announced.
The April 1-2 trip will include talks with Hayashi’s Chinese counterpart Qin Gang, the ministry said and will be the first time a Japanese foreign minister has visited since December 2019.
Ties between Tokyo and Beijing have been tense in recent years, with Japan wary of China’s growing military power in the region.
#7. Ten Chinese Jets Cross Taiwan Strait Median Line: Island’s Defense Ministry – WION
Nine Chinese fighter jets and one military drone crossed the median line in the 24 hours to 6 am on Saturday, Taiwan’s defense ministry said in its daily report on Chinese military activities.
Beijing has threatened unspecified retaliation if the Taiwanese president, Tsai Ing-wen, now traveling in the Americas, should meet the U.S. House of Representatives speaker, Kevin McCarthy. She is expected to meet him in Los Angeles on her way back to Taipei this month from Central America.
#8. U.S. To Open Vanuatu Embassy In Latest Move To Counter China In Pacific – Reuters
“Consistent with the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy, a permanent diplomatic presence in Vanuatu would allow the U.S. to deepen relationships with Ni-Vanuatu officials and society,” the State Department said.
Washington’s latest move aims to boost its diplomatic presence in the Pacific to counter China’s growing influence. The United States has diplomatic relations with Vanuatu but is currently represented by diplomats based in New Guinea.
The United States States reopened its embassy in the Solomon Islands this year after a 30-year absence. Despite the diplomatic push, the Solomon Islands announced it had awarded a multi-million-dollar contract to a Chinese state company to upgrade an international port in Honiara.
#9. Harris Pledges Billions In Climate Funds For Africa – D.W.
In addition to private investment totaling some $7 billion, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announced that Washington would provide federal investment to boost access to climate information services.
The private funding is to be used to promote climate-smart agriculture and tackle climate change’s effects on Africa’s food security.
Harris’ Africa trip marks the fifth high-level visit from the United States to the continent in a few months.
Numerous studies have established that even though African countries add relatively less towards the climate crisis, the repercussions faced in the continent are substantial.
#10. UN To Start Allowing Deep-Sea Mining Applications From July – D.W.
After two weeks of negotiations, the International Seabed Authority (ISA) has decided to start taking permit applications from companies that want to mine the ocean’s floor in July.
The undersea mining will be conducted to extract critical battery materials — cobalt, copper, nickel, and manganese — from potato-sized rocks called “polymetallic nodules” found at depths of about 2.5 miles to 3.7 miles.
The Jamaica-based ISA was established under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. It holds authority over the ocean floors outside its 167 member states’ Exclusive Economic Zones.
The UN’s decision to take deep-sea mining applications comes when no mining code is in place. Several countries have insisted that undersea industrial mining should require strict rules.
#11. ChatGPT Banned In Italy Over Privacy Concerns – BBC
Italy has become the first Western country to block the advanced chatbot ChatGPT.
The Italian data protection authority said there were privacy concerns relating to the model, created by U.S. start-up OpenAI and backed by Microsoft. The regulator said it would ban and investigate OpenAI “with immediate effect.”
Millions of people have used ChatGPT since it launched in November 2022.
Republished with permission from TIPP Insights
