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Global Pulse: Raqqa is captured, but ISIS still has time on its side; China’s National Congress: diligent or dogmatic?

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ISIS has time on its side

American-backed forces may claim to have seized the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, but the Islamic State is not beaten and will return, writes Shiraz Mehar in the New Statesman.

“Despite all the military pressure it faces and its renewed focus on the internet, IS remains a potent force on the ground. As it retreats from Raqqa – as it did in Mosul – it is leaving behind a legacy of devastation,” Maher writes.

“There will be no Marshall Plan for Syria and Iraq to rebuild their civil infrastructure or stimulate their stagnating economies. And the many deep-rooted problems, founded on simmering sectarian and ethnic tensions, communal distrust, privation and generalized insecurity, will remain. These contributed to the rise of IS in the first place – and have been exacerbated as a result of conflict.

“As with other millenarian movements, IS has time on its side. The terror group is content to ride the ebb and flow of global currents, just as it did after 2007 when its predecessor was beaten back in Iraq. Then, as now, it contented itself with retreating and waiting for the opportunity to re-emerge.”

Chinese National Congress is diligent, not dogmatic

The Congress of the Chinese Communist Party is all set to convene in Beijing, and the world, particularly the West is watching. Yet, some Westerners hold an ideological view on it, editorialises The Global Times, and provides a point-by-point description of “the blood and bones of China’s national operating mechanism”. “The Congress is an important chance for the outside world to further understand the CPC and a deep knowledge of the CPC is a shortcut and key to comprehensive knowledge of China,” it says.

“Firstly, the CPC is well-structured, highly disciplined and emphasizes unity, and thus it is swift in action. Party discipline is prioritized over the law…”

“Secondly, the CPC is diligent and willing to sacrifice.”

“Thirdly, the CPC is not dogmatic, and seeks truth from facts. It has the capacity for self-reflection and the spirit of reform.”

“Fourthly, the CPC has a strong sense of mission. It is well-grounded and yet visionary. The CPC is the legacy of Chinese history, born in a time of agony for China and yet an idealistic party. It is a tenacious team, difficult to beat.”

‘A dazzling spectacle of totalarianism’

Stein Ringen, however, calls it “a dazzling spectacle of China’s totalarianism” in The Washington Post. The spectacle, he writes, would be a combination of both truth and fiction.

“The fictitious part is the pretense of procedure. The congress will rubber-stamp decisions already made and elections dictated to it. The appearance of collective decision-making is for show. Xi is the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao and has moved the system back toward one-man rule.”

The combination of these two developments — forwards economically and backwards politically — is alien to the Western liberal mind. Some who look to China cling to the illusion that the People’s Republic is a benevolent autocracy of effective governance, albeit with blemishes. But there are many autocratic regimes in the world, such as Russia and Turkey. China is something else, a neo-totalitarian party-state.

When the party secretaries leave the Great Hall of the People and return to their posts throughout the land, they will have been told, and will tell others, that their regime is one of discipline without dissent…Its agenda will be control and control again.

When journalists are silenced

A day after Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed by blowing the car she was driving to pieces, The New York Times editorialises that this is the “new normal” for journalists across the world.

Galizia’s murder followed a familiar pattern of threats, libel and attack. “The Times of Malta reported that she alerted the police two weeks ago that she was receiving threats. That warning does not seem to have been taken seriously. She had also suffered legal harassment for her reporting; in February, a court in Malta ordered her bank accounts frozen after she was sued for libel by two government officials she reported were seen at a brothel.”

“Ms. Caruana Galizia’s killers must be brought to justice. But the most fitting tribute to her work would be for leaders who purport to be democrats to denounce the demonization of journalists and to let reporters perform their essential democratic role without fear or harassment.”

Justin Trudeau – no longer the infallible Prince Charming?

Mistakes and mishaps are happening in Canada under the watch of Justin Trudeau and his team – once sarcastically called “Prince Charmings who can do no wrong” – and they are finally starting to hurt Trudeau’s Liberal government, editorialises The Economist.

“Among the goofs are a cultural policy that enraged Quebec, the French-speaking province, and a tax-reform proposal that riles doctors, farmers and owners of small businesses. Other problems are outside the Liberals’ control. They include the renegotiation of the North American Free-Trade Agreement (a pact with Mexico and the United States that Donald Trump keeps threatening to rip up), and the cancellation of a planned oil pipeline, which angered the western province of Alberta.”

“The opposition was leaderless until May, when Andrew Scheer became head of the Conservatives; Jagmeet Singh took charge of the left-wing New Democrats this month. Although the Liberals are still ahead in the polls, with the support of 37% of voters, compared with 33% for the Conservatives, the gap is narrowing. Mr Trudeau’s approval rating is still above 50% but has been trending downwards. The unicorn is flying into heavier weather.”

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