Editorial Roundup: Excerpts from recent editorials
Excerpts from recent editorials in the United States and abroad:
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Nov. 9
The Washington Post on Internet censorship in China:
CHINA'S INTERNET is a universe of contradictions. It has brought hundreds of millions of people online and has become a vast marketplace for digital commerce, yet it is also heavily policed by censors to snuff out any challenge to the ruling Communist Party. Under President Xi Jinping, the censors are working overtime to keep 721 million Internet users under control.
The latest effort came Monday. China's national parliament approved a cybersecurity law that can be used to restrict free speech and force foreign Internet companies to heed the demands of China's security services. Censorship is not new in China; a huge phalanx of officials are devoted to it, harsh punishments are meted out, and the country is ringed by a content-blocking Great Firewall. But now censorship will be more fully enshrined in the legal code.
Article 12 of the new law prohibits use of the Internet for "inciting subversion of the national regime" or "the overthrow of the Socialist system." Also banned is inciting separatism or ethnic hatred, "endangering national unity," or "fabricating" or disseminating false information about the economy. These are all touchstones of Chinese authoritarianism, vague enough to be deployed in many circumstances to smother dissent. Article 37 of the new law requires "critical information infrastructure operators" to store users' data, including that of foreign companies, on Chinese territory, making it easier for the security services to snoop. Article 24 requires Internet providers to demand the real identity of those they provide services to - making it easier for security services to track down those who would like to speak their mind. Many foreign businesses are also alarmed that the new law may give the Chinese authorities access to their technology and data.
Offering a glimpse of how censorship actually works in China, Ronald Deibert, director of the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs, released a report recently on digital streaming services. Similar to Periscope (which is banned in China), these apps, such as YY, 9158 and Sina Show, have become a craze. Mr. Deibert's researchers downloaded these three, and between February 2015 and October 2016 extracted 19,464 keywords that trigger censorship on chats associated with each application. Rather than monolithic control, they found censorship is decentralized and somewhat chaotic; the platforms are often expected to adhere to a kind of "self-discipline" rather than direct orders. Mr. Deibert's group discovered that the most popular app, YY, with 844 million registered users, automatically sends a report back when a user types a banned keyword; the report includes not only the user's name but also who the message was sent to and the message itself.
In law and in practice, China is creating the world's largest online thought prison. It turns the idea of the Internet as a force for freedom on its head, and as China goes, so go other tyrants. From Vietnam to Saudi Arabia, from Russia to Turkey, the age of Internet repression has blossomed.
Online:
http://www.washingtonpost.com
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Nov. 10
The New York Times on Afghan refugees:
Pakistan is turning them back. Thousands who spent their life savings on a bid to resettle in Europe are being told it's time to head home. Inside Afghanistan, tens of thousands have become internally displaced in recent months as fighting between the Taliban and government security forces rages in several provinces. The refugee crisis could reach unprecedented numbers, with as many as 1.5 million returning home, many involuntarily, by the end of the year, according to humanitarian organizations.
Yet, there is no plan to adequately address this humanitarian emergency. Its scale and the international community's dismissive attitude toward the plight of vulnerable Afghans is shameful. Pakistan, home to 1.3 million registered Afghan refugees and some 700,000 undocumented Afghans, has begun to crack down on those refugees living in the country without permission. By the end of this year, as many as 360,000 could be forced to return to Afghanistan, if current rates hold, according to the United Nations refugee agency. This year's number of returnees is about four times higher than last year's.
Among those caught in Pakistan's toughening stance is Sharbat Gula, the subject of a famous photo that was published on a cover of National Geographic magazine in 1985. That photo was taken at a refugee camp in Pakistan when she was about 12. Ms. Gula, now in her 40s, was recently arrested and deported back to Afghanistan because she had been living in Pakistan without legitimate papers.
As Afghans become ever more hopeless about the future of their country, a rising number have set out on long and perilous journeys to Europe. Last year, 213,000 Afghans made it to Europe, where leaders have been grappling with the even larger influx of Syrians. While Syrians are not being forced to return home, European leaders last month struck a deal with the government of Afghanistan to establish a mechanism for the return of tens of thousands of Afghans who have failed to get asylum or legal residency in Europe. Under the deal, the Afghan government agreed to accept even citizens who fear for their safety if they were to return home.
Those who go back home, often having spent all their money on smugglers, face grinding poverty and violence. Within the country, about 221,000 Afghans fled their homes between January and August, according to the United Nations. For many, the only option is to pitch a tent in one of the country's bulging and poorly serviced refugee camps.
The United Nations refugee agency has been making desperate pleas to donors for more assistance as winter approaches. Last month, it said it needed $181 million to cover basic operations in the months ahead. Fulfilling that need immediately is the least the international community can do. Beyond that, it will need to rethink its long-term approach to Afghan refugees and how to resettle more abroad in the years ahead.
Online:
http://www.nytimes.com
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Nov. 9
China Daily on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Japan:
As Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi starts his three-day official visit to Japan on Thursday, he will be expecting to see the already close bilateral relationship rise to a new height, with several major deals set to be inked.
Among them will be a civil nuclear cooperation agreement, which allows Japan to export its nuclear plant technologies to India, and one on India's purchase of 12 amphibious rescue aircraft from a Japanese manufacturer worth up to $1.6 billion.
These deals are especially significant given that India has yet to ratify the international Non-Proliferation Treaty, and that the aircraft deal will be one of Japan's first sales of military equipment since it lifted a 50-year ban on arms exports.
The very good personal chemistry between Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is said to have played a part in deepening relations between the two nations. It is reported that Modi is one of the few people Abe follows on Twitter. Modi, on his part, first visited Japan back when he was chief minister of India's Gujarat province.
It would be just another diplomatic anecdote if it stopped there.
Yet some have tried to describe the visit as a mutual effort by New Delhi and Tokyo to "counter an assertive China", or "to keep a rising China in check". They hope that an anti-China alliance could be forged between the world's second most populous nation and third-largest economy, because of China's longstanding territorial dispute with India and its spat with Japan over the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.
People with such thinking have too simplistic an idea of international relations that are not a zero-sum game.
Modi has always sought "to lead India's foreign policy with its economic interests in mind". And Japan's trade with India is still less than a quarter of that between India and China.
China, as the top trade partner of both, is more than happy to see deepened economic, trade and political relations between its neighbors if they contribute to peace and stability in the region.
While some in Japan may continue to trumpet "the rule of law in the South China Sea" or "freedom and openness in the Indian and Pacific Oceans", as Abe did with Modi in September on the sidelines of a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Laos, Sino-Indian relations are strong enough to withstand differences and external interferences.
Online:
https://usa.chinadaily.com.cn
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Nov. 9
The Dallas Morning News on why Donald Trump should be a statesman:
Congratulations, Mr. Trump. You're hired.
The presidency is the biggest job America has to offer, and come Jan. 20, it's yours. We wish you every success. All of us who live in this great nation depend on strong leadership from you now.
In winning the election you have proved many millions of your supporters right. They said you heard their concerns, while Hillary Clinton and establishment figures in government, media and pop culture did not.
We've questioned whether your temperament, experience and values are right for this office. We'd like nothing better than to be proved wrong.
You made a strong start with your elegant victory speech early Wednesday. You pledged "to bind the wounds of division" and to be "president for all Americans." Those are noble goals, ones we share.
As you build your Cabinet, we hope its members reflect those aspirations, that they indeed work with you in building a government that works for everyone.
We, too, will use this time to consider anew what lessons we take from this long campaign and the results it produced on Election Day.
Will establishment figures, from both the Democratic and Republican parties, who dismissed the concerns of Trump supporters re-examine their hostility, and look for ways to bridge cultural chasms?
Now that the election is over, it's imperative that all Americans, including Republican leaders, broad-minded Democrats and Trump supporters alike, seek out their "better angels" and recommit to what's best for America.
We exhort them to chart a way forward that truly will make Americans safe and secure, that will more equitably distribute economic prosperity, that will inspire free enterprise, personal liberty and a stronger sense of shared community.
Mr. Trump, we call on you to show the way, to lead the country toward these broadly shared goals in ways consistent with the constitutional ideals that have served the United States for more than two centuries. That will take selflessness and leadership by example to build unity and equal opportunity.
We are going to be hopeful. We are going to be aspirational for you and for our country. This election gives you the opportunity to prove yourself a statesman. We very much hope you do.
Online:
http://www.dallasnews.com/
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Nov. 10
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Trump and Obama's Thursday meeting:
President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump met face-to-face and shook hands for the first time Thursday. First time ever. A worried American public needed badly to witness this moment and be reassured that a peaceful, respectful transfer of power will happen.
The meeting had high potential to be tense and uncomfortable, given their years of animosity. Perhaps because of the possibility of confrontation, schedulers had initially planned for a light, 10-minute get-together. Instead, it turned into a 90-minute discussion delving into substantive national and international issues.
Thursday's meeting was perhaps the most sobering one of Trump's life. No one can enter the Oval Office without being struck by the awesome responsibility of the president's job. Trump now receives the same daily, top-secret briefings that Obama receives from CIA and National Security Agency officials.
This newspaper, like every major metropolitan daily in the country, had strongly opposed the notion of a Trump presidency. When Tuesday's election results came in, our initial reaction was that the nation was headed for disaster. Protesters have taken to the streets threatening violence and insisting that Trump is "not my president."
To them we say: Get over it. The nation cannot continue the kinds of destructive sniping that dominated the campaign - sniping that, yes, this newspaper participated in. Thursday's meeting provided some very necessary reassurance that the world around us isn't going to collapse. Trump can, if he works at it, be presidential.
It truly is time for Americans to set aside the rancor and harsh words. For Obama, the meeting was a chance to show his human face to Trump, an opponent who spent many years treating the president as an object of ridicule and illegitimacy.
It was because of Trump's sustained public campaign challenging Obama's status as an American-born Christian that the president felt compelled to fight back hard, starting with a lengthy roasting of Trump at the 2011 White House Correspondents dinner. It endured up to the last day of campaigning this week. Some say it was the humiliation of Obama's roasting that motivated Trump to run for president.
They never had a chance to clear the air until Thursday. And because of Trump's penchant for off-the-cuff, abrasive comments during the campaign, there was little reason for Obama or the American public to see him in any light other than one of callous abrasiveness.
We stand by our criticism of his offensive campaign rhetoric and believe he must repudiate it. He should make certain that his followers don't assume his election signals an open season on insulting and demeaning their fellow citizens, and noncitizens, with reckless abandon.
Now, as president-elect, Trump has shown some recognition that it's time to assume a more dignified and statesmanlike demeanor. We sincerely hope what was on display Thursday marks Trump's new beginning.
Online:
http://www.stltoday.com/
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Nov. 9
The Philadelphia Inquirer on division in America:
At press time Tuesday night, the presidential election was going into extra innings, in a nail-biter that makes the seventh game of the World Series game feel like a nap.
While we don't at this point know who won, what we do know is that many expectations were turned on their heads: mainly, that a bombastic, unqualified candidate with no record of public service with a disorganized, undisciplined organization and little support from his party was still able to attract votes at the same rate as a seasoned, experienced candidate who has prepared for this job much of her life.
Throughout this campaign, much of the debate focused on the undecided voter, but in this case "undecided" meant that neither candidate held much appeal.
Still, the high voting turnout numbers from Tuesday for two "unpopular" candidates suggests that people were indeed engaged in this election. Maybe that's not so surprising, and we suspect that one big motivator for the crowds at the polls was fear: Clearly, those who voted for Donald Trump bought into the fear that their candidate instilled in rally after rally: that America is no longer great, that we are a laughingstock, that immigrants are going to take over, and if they don't, the terrorists will.
While Hillary Clinton's campaign reacted with a message of "love trumps hate," and sold unity with "Stronger Together," the fact is that Democrats also capitalized on fear to galvanize voters: the fear of a Trump presidency.
With no clear winner apparent late Tuesday night, we don't know which fear was the bigger motivator.
So we'll talk about our fear: that the United States of America is less united than we'd like to believe. We fear that there are two Americas: one America that is inclusive, progressive, and looks to the future, and another America that is suspicious of outsiders, wants to return to a simpler time that no longer exists (if it ever did) and that is restrictive of human, civil, and reproductive rights.
A companion fear: that this country could be forfeiting the leadership role it has held in the world since World War II, with an unstable leader at its head.
As Tuesday night's electoral map was filled in with results, what was striking was how the nation's divisions appear to be equal in size.
And among the jobs faced by whoever is the final winner of this strange, painfully long election, this will be the most important: finding and building more bridges between these two separate countries.
Forget the actual problems of our roads, highways and bridges - the infrastructure of our democracy needs the most work of all.
Unfortunately, we believe that only one of the candidates is open to that task.
Online:
http://www.philly.com/