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HomeReportGlobal Pulse: Britain's best hope outside the EU lies with China

Global Pulse: Britain’s best hope outside the EU lies with China

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China’s role in a post-Brexit world

British Prime Minister Theresa May’s visit to China last week has taken the two countries’ relations forward, the South China Morning Post editorializes.

“For all the uncertainty, risks and lack of trust though, it is obvious that if Britain is to carve out a new role in the world as it looks to a future beyond the European Union, its best hope lies in strengthening and deepening Chinese ties.”

The deals discussed during the trade delegation included an agreement to work together on the Xiongan New Area, a hi-tech special economic zone. However, May apparently showed a lack of trust, unlike her predecessor David Cameron. However, the South China Morning Post grants that despite her obvious misgivings, May handled the visit well. “She had been under pressure to raise issues including democracy and human rights and although they appear to have been discussed, no open criticism of Beijing was made,” they write.

“As cool as May is on some aspects of ties, she cannot avoid the importance of China to her country’s future. There will be disagreements, but building trust through discussing issues of common interest like trade, investment, education and science will create a foundation for broader discussion to enable a continuation of the “golden era”.”

Trump wants to give North Korea a bloody nose

“There has been a new flurry of discussion about military options the Trump administration may be considering for North Korea, including the “bloody nose” — a limited strike on a missile launch site or other select target meant to convey U.S. resolve and induce the regime of Kim Jong Un to back away from its reckless pursuit of a nuclear arsenal,” writes the Washington Post in an editorial.

Mr. Cha, an expert on North Korea, says that North Korea will build a huge arsenal of nuclear weapons to threaten the United States. US Presidents in the past have forced action when the situations bubbles over to this point. Preemptive military action, however, has several drawbacks as an option. North Korea could always launch a lethal counterattack.

“The argument for preemptive action is that the United States cannot suppose that it can deter the Kim regime from using its weapons, because it is irrational. It follows that allowing the dictator to acquire the capacity to strike the homeland is intolerable and the infliction of a “bloody nose” would convince him that the United States is serious about preventing it. But, Mr. Cha asks, “if we believe that Kim is undeterrable without such a strike, how can we also believe that a strike will deter him from responding in kind?” We can only hope that the president and his staff have done that same logical analysis — and that talk of a “bloody nose” is just that,” the Washington Post concludes.

How budget cuts in America affect Palestine

The United States is undermining the stability in the Palestinian region by cutting financial aid to the area, writes Scott Anderson in Foreign Policy. The United States will provide only $60 million now to UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), instead of the $360 million it sent last year, which is an 83 per cent cut.

“This announcement came as a shock to the agency, with no notice that the funding we have been able to rely on for decades would be massively decreased. In order to ensure continuity of food aid and other life-saving assistance to hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees, we initiated procurement processes in December and relied on funding pledged to our emergency assistance program to pay for and deliver the food,” writes Anderson.

The US government has been one of the largest donors to UNRWA, and its decision not only jeopardizes the agency’s relief work, but also adversely affects the Palestinian refugees they serve by putting them in danger.

“UNRWA will do everything in its power to continue providing for those in need. This includes launching an unprecedented global fundraising campaign in which we are reaching out to a broad range of governmental donors, the private sector, foundations, charities, and individuals. Failure to make up the funding gap will mean service disruptions to food-insecure refugees, vulnerable children, mothers, the disabled, the sick, and the dying.”

“Now is certainly not the time for any country to pull back from these longstanding commitments.”

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