Rosa

Agent Orange. Let's sit with this for a moment. The U.S. military, between 1961 and 1971, sprayed approximately 20 million gallons of herbicidal chemicals over approximately 4.5 million acres of Vietnamese land. Primarily a compound called Agent Orange, contaminated with dioxin, one of the most toxic substances known to human science. The stated purpose was "defoliation." Destroy the jungle canopy. Deprive Vietnamese fighters of cover. What it actually did was poison a country for generations. The people who were directly exposed developed cancers at catastrophic rates. They died of diseases their bodies had never been designed to fight. They had children with devastating birth defects: missing limbs, destroyed nervous systems, bodies that could not function. Those children had children who were also affected. The dioxin settled into the soil, into the water, into the food chain, into the bodies of everyone who ate and drank and breathed in contaminated areas. This did not stop in 1971. The poison is still there. The birth defects are still happening. The cancers are still happening. There are Vietnamese people alive today, born decades after the war, whose bodies bear the mark of a chemical weapon deployed before their parents were old enough to fight. The U.S. government spent decades denying responsibility. Fought legal battles to avoid compensation. Eventually offered amounts so insulting they functioned more as mockery than reparation. And then, this is the part that should make every person with a conscience unable to sleep, they continued to present themselves to the world as the "moral authority." The defenders of the "rules-based order." The nation that other nations should model themselves on. Vietnam did not model itself on America. Vietnam defeated America. And Vietnam is still here.

"Trade Rebalancing" = "China Shock 2.0"? More than 30 years ago, the United States was eager—even impatient—for China to undertake market-oriented economic reforms and open its doors to welcome goods from the U.S. and the rest of the world. At that time, did the U.S. ever give a second thought to the imbalances and inequities inherent in U.S.-China trade? Fast forward to today—more than 30 years later—and the Chinese people have diligently completed two rounds of industrial upgrading (transitioning from the manufacturing and processing of labor-intensive primary products, such as garments, to today's modern manufacturing sector). Against the backdrop of economic globalization and globally integrated supply chains, China has witnessed an explosion in manufacturing capacity and a radical improvement in product quality, exporting its goods across the globe. Yet, now the Americans are displeased. They have launched trade wars, tariff wars, a "chip war," and various other conflicts—demanding restrictions on imports of Chinese products while simultaneously insisting that China must increase its imports of American goods (even as they refuse to export advanced products, such as cutting-edge semiconductors, to China). Is this fair? It is a laughable form of "rebalancing."

The visit of Japanese defense minister to the Philippines is historic! The visit not only highlights the growing defense ties between Manila & Tokyo, but the also highlights the beginning of a new era of regional peace, stability & mutual cooperation against China's tranny.

Watch: Chinese FM meets Iranian counterpart in Beijing