The WEEKLY STANDARD podcast, with editor William Kristol on why the Republicans shouldn’t move aggressively on immigration reform this year.
Kristol Podcast: If Immigration Reform Is Urgent, Why Didn"t Obama Act?
Friday, January 31, 2014
Kristol Podcast: If Immigration Reform Is Urgent, Why Didn"t Obama Act?
Kristol Podcast: If Immigration Reform Is Urgent, Why Didn"t Obama Act?
China hits back at US in row over NYT reporter"s departure
AFP
February 1, 2014, 12:01 am TWN
BEIJING–China on Friday hit back at Washington’s condemnation of its treatment of foreign journalists, as tensions rise over a New York Times reporter who left Beijing after not receiving a visa.
The case of reporter Austin Ramzy, who departed Beijing for Taipei on Thursday, has sparked protests from the White House and elsewhere that China is seeking to retaliate against news organizations such as the Times and financial news agency Bloomberg that have published investigations into the family wealth and connections of its top leaders.
“China does not accept the unjustifiable accusations by the U.S. side, and demands the U.S. side to respect facts and take cautious words and acts,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement reported Friday by the official Xinhua News Agency.
Hong added Washington must behave in a way that was more “conducive to media exchanges and mutual trust between the two countries”.
Hong’s sharp retort came after the White House said it was “deeply concerned that foreign journalists in China continue to face restrictions” following Ramzy’s departure for Taipei, where he will report while continuing to seek a visa for mainland China.
Ramzy, who had been based in China for more than six years, left Time magazine in mid-2013 to work for the New York Times.
‘Forced out’
But Chinese officials had not yet granted him a new visa before his previous one expired, effectively obliging him to leave Beijing.
“China is forcing out Austin Ramzy today after 6.5 years,” Times China correspondent Ed Wong wrote Thursday on Twitter.
Ramzy confirmed his arrival in Taipei via Twitter Thursday night. In an earlier message, he wrote: “Sad to be leaving Beijing. Hope I can return soon.”
Ramzy’s departure comes a month after U.S. Vice President Joe Biden raised the issue of China’s treatment of foreign journalists privately with Chinese leaders during a visit to Beijing.
Beijing has blocked the websites of both the Times and Bloomberg after they published investigations in 2012 into the family wealth of former premier Wen Jiabao and President Xi Jinping, respectively.
Authorities also reportedly conducted unannounced “inspections” of Bloomberg’s offices in Beijing and Shanghai last month and demanded an apology from its editor-in-chief amid a controversy over an unpublished article on the government ties of a Chinese billionaire.
China hits back at US in row over NYT reporter"s departure
China hits back at US in row over NYT reporter"s departure
AFP
February 1, 2014, 12:01 am TWN
BEIJING–China on Friday hit back at Washington’s condemnation of its treatment of foreign journalists, as tensions rise over a New York Times reporter who left Beijing after not receiving a visa.
The case of reporter Austin Ramzy, who departed Beijing for Taipei on Thursday, has sparked protests from the White House and elsewhere that China is seeking to retaliate against news organizations such as the Times and financial news agency Bloomberg that have published investigations into the family wealth and connections of its top leaders.
“China does not accept the unjustifiable accusations by the U.S. side, and demands the U.S. side to respect facts and take cautious words and acts,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement reported Friday by the official Xinhua News Agency.
Hong added Washington must behave in a way that was more “conducive to media exchanges and mutual trust between the two countries”.
Hong’s sharp retort came after the White House said it was “deeply concerned that foreign journalists in China continue to face restrictions” following Ramzy’s departure for Taipei, where he will report while continuing to seek a visa for mainland China.
Ramzy, who had been based in China for more than six years, left Time magazine in mid-2013 to work for the New York Times.
‘Forced out’
But Chinese officials had not yet granted him a new visa before his previous one expired, effectively obliging him to leave Beijing.
“China is forcing out Austin Ramzy today after 6.5 years,” Times China correspondent Ed Wong wrote Thursday on Twitter.
Ramzy confirmed his arrival in Taipei via Twitter Thursday night. In an earlier message, he wrote: “Sad to be leaving Beijing. Hope I can return soon.”
Ramzy’s departure comes a month after U.S. Vice President Joe Biden raised the issue of China’s treatment of foreign journalists privately with Chinese leaders during a visit to Beijing.
Beijing has blocked the websites of both the Times and Bloomberg after they published investigations in 2012 into the family wealth of former premier Wen Jiabao and President Xi Jinping, respectively.
Authorities also reportedly conducted unannounced “inspections” of Bloomberg’s offices in Beijing and Shanghai last month and demanded an apology from its editor-in-chief amid a controversy over an unpublished article on the government ties of a Chinese billionaire.
China hits back at US in row over NYT reporter"s departure
Crash driver released on NT$150,000 bail
By Katherine Wei, The China Post
February 1, 2014, 12:01 am TWN
TAIPEI, Taiwan — The Taipei District Court yesterday ruled that truck driver Chang Teh-cheng (張德正) be released on bail of NT$ 150,000 and be confined to his residence in Taipei.
The driver was taken to court for the third time yesterday after the Taiwan High Court ruled twice for Chang’s release against the prosecution’s appeal to have him detained.
Chang, who had been hospitalized and interrogated after he ran his gravel truck through the front gate and up the steps of the Presidential Office last Saturday, was released without bail on Thursday after a four-hour hearing.
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office filed an appeal early on Thursday morning after the court ordered Chang’s release for the first time on Wednesday night; the High Court simply sent the request for detention to the Taipei District Court without a ruling. The District Court then decided against the need to detain Chang as it would be highly unlikely for him to attempt an escape.
Chang’s brother Chang Shao-chi accompanied him to court yesterday, saying that the family felt helpless as Chang had to show up in court for Chinese New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. “Even our mother feels this is weird.”
On Thursday, the court remanded Chang to the custody of three lawyers, and retracted its ruling after the prosecution made another appeal. The trial began at 3 p.m. yesterday.
Chang’s attorney stated that although the prosecution felt Chang should be detained due to the possibility that he may commit a similar crime, the act of “ramming into the Presidential Office” does not call for preventive detention; the judge cannot stretch the law in order to detain him, said a lawyer, surnamed Tseng.
“It had been the residing judge’s decision that Chang should be committed to the custody of three lawyers, but there is no current law that decides if it would be less appropriate if he is entrusted to his family,” said Tseng, who added that the trial will determine the maturity of Taiwan’s judiciary laws.
There has been much speculation over the future course of Chang’s trial, given the fact that prior to driving the truck into the gates of the Presidential Office, Chang had written a letter to a local media outlet, saying that if anyone were to be killed as a result of his actions, he would accept the death penalty. If anyone were hurt, he said, he would accept a life sentence.
Crash driver released on NT$150,000 bail
Chinese prefer buying German, British firms
BERLIN — Germany and Britain are by far the most popular investment destinations of Chinese investors, a study showed on Friday.
According to the study of the economic consultancy Ernst & Young published Friday in Dusseldorf, Chinese investors have made 25 acquisitions in 2013 in Germany and Britain respectively.
Overall, buyers from the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong have taken over 120 companies and shareholdings in Europe in the past year, said the study.
According to the study, the interest of Chinese companies in Europe has increased significantly over the past 10 years, as the number of transactions has more than tripled.
In 2004, only 34 investments from China in Europe were counted, whereas, the number with 119 acquisitions in 2012 is almost as high as in 2013.
The study also said that Chinese investors has preferences for certain industries in Europe.
Buyers from China are particularly interested in consumer goods industry with 21 percent in 2013, while the automotive industry accounts for 13 perecnt.
They also made investments in the areas like real estate industry with 10 percent and 8 percent in energy supply, 7 percent in trade and technology, 6 percent in financial industry and 5 percent in metal processing as well as transport and logistics.
In other industries, Chinese investors carried out a total of 24 acquisitions in Europe.
Chinese investors are interested in Germany primarily for industrial companies, in particular for machine manufacturers and automotive suppliers.
China is the second largest non-European investor in Germany after the United States, and came in sixth place of foreign investors in Germany after the United States, Britain, Switzerland,France and Austria, the study said.
Chinese prefer buying German, British firms
Obama"s options on Keystone
Friday’s much anticipated State Department report on the Keystone XL pipeline is a body blow to environmentalists but does nothing to change President Barack Obama’s two eventual choices and the fact that either one will be unpopular.
Approve Keystone and he angers his liberal base — and donors. Reject it and it remains a thorn in the administration’s side for three more years.
The State Department report only reinforces the conventional wisdom is that Obama will eventually approve the Canada-to-Texas pipeline.
But there’s no report the Obama administration can write that will convince greens the pipeline — and associated oil sands development — isn’t an environmental disaster-in-waiting. The effects of the carbon dioxide emissions from extracting the raw materials and risk of a pipeline break are too great, they say.
And nothing is going to slow down lobbying efforts by pipeline builder TransCanada, the Canadian government and the oil and gas industry. There also is no stopping Republicans, who have made the pipeline at a symbol of what they say is Obama’s failure to create jobs or keep gasoline prices low, although there’s no guarantee the pipeline would do either one in a significant matter.
So for now, back to waiting.
The political pros and cons for Obama are anything but simple. And his decision — by no means imminent — will affect his legacy, the prospects for congressional Democrats and the future of the liberal environmental movement, for starters.
(Also on POLITICO: Big win for big oil)
A group of big Democratic donors, including Esprit co-founder Susie Tompkins Buell and Taco Bell heir and Democracy Alliance head Rob McKay, have publicly pressured Obama to reject the pipeline. Billionaire Tom Steyer, who poured money to help Terry McAuliffe win the Virginia governor’s race last year, ran an anti-Keystone ad during the State of the Union and is expected to spend millions of dollars more.
But Obama isn’t running again and several moderate Senate Democrats, including Mary Landrieu, Mark Begich, Mark Pryor and Kay Hagan, already support building the pipeline. It’d take an anti-Obama talking point off the table and avoid the possibility of an international spat with Canada.
Greens also realistically have nowhere to go — even if disappointed on one issue, a Democratic president and Senate is far better than anything the GOP can offer them.
About 56 percent of Americans support building the pipeline, with 41 percent opposed, according to a poll conducted in November and December by Stanford University and Resources for the Future. But those numbers may be squishy — environmental issues generally rank far below topics like jobs, the economy and health care when it comes down to how much voters care.
(Also on POLITICO: Obama’s power play)
“These findings are suggestive but not conclusive,” said RFF President Phil Sharp told USA Today. “We simply don’t know how firm people’s attitudes are about this.”
In fact, the Republican pressure and expensive lobbying campaigns haven’t actually forced the president to do anything on Keystone but sit and wait for the State Department report. And the issue didn’t put Mitt Romney into the White House, despite his campaign pledge to sign the order on his first day in office to build the pipeline.
Building Keystone would in theory both appeal to independents and Republicans, yet it is just as likely that Obama wouldn’t get credit or love for granting the pipeline permit. The Republicans that have spent five years attacking his administration’s energy policies are not going to suddenly lay off.
In theory, the same moderate Democrats who support the pipeline could benefit from having another opportunity to separate themselves from an unpopular president. But the GOP is going to attack them no matter what.
“Politically, it’s an enormous opportunity and highlights the Obama/Reid anti-energy agenda that vulnerable Democrats like Mary Landrieu, Mark Pryor, Mark Begich and [Rep.] Gary Peters [D-Mich.] represent,” said Senate GOP campaign spokesman Brad Dayspring.
For environmentalists, rejecting the pipeline is a way Obama can help cement his progressive legacy.
Obama laid out an ambitious climate agenda at a Georgetown University speech last June, but the realities of a divided and hostile Congress dictates that he limit himself to regulations or executive actions. The president has spent the last two weeks, including his State of the Union address, talking about just that – things he can do without the help of Congress.
The Keystone XL pipeline fits squarely in that mold — the choice is his, not the House or Senate’s.
“It’s pretty clear that Republican extremists in Congress are making it exceedingly difficult to make progress on other important issues,” said Tiernan Sittenfeld of the League of Conservation Voters. “The good news on addressing climate change is that President Obama has so much authority. He can go big and bold and do things that are truly transformative and will leave a lasting legacy.”
Obama"s options on Keystone
Happy Hour Links: Speak Softly
Sean Trende: What are Republicans thinking on immigration?
Their plan makes no sense.
The distance between Washington and real America widens.
Continetti on the Big Chide.
Happy Hour Links: Speak Softly
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