Tea at Trianon: Buying Power

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, December 11, 2020

Buying Power

From The American Spectator:

It was one of those forgettably historic moments at the United Nations. The year was 2015, the UN’s 70th anniversary, and China’s President Xi Jinping was in New York, speaking in person to the UN General Assembly. In festive spirit, Xi announced that China would set up a $1 billion trust fund to be dispersed over ten years to ‘support the UN’s work’ and ‘contribute more to world peace and development’.

So began the Peace and Development Trust Fund, one of China’s more insidious projects to co-opt the UN, its logo and its global networks. On Xi’s watch, China has become the second-largest contributor to the UN General Assembly and Peace-keeping budgets, secured the fawning allegiance of the World Health Organization and taken charge of four other specialized UN agencies.

But that trust fund, one of Xi’s pet projects, has taken on a quietly invasive role that needs a major public airing. China’s Peace and Development fund bypasses the common pots of UN funding and channels millions of dollars every year directly from Beijing to the executive office of the UN Secretary-General.

Not that the $1 billion promised by Xi ever fully materialized. By the time the deal was signed in 2016, China had arranged a big discount for itself, downsizing the gift to $200 million over 10 years, or $20 million a year. It was still gravy, and the then Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was grateful. His spokesman described China’s new fund as a ‘demonstration of the strong commitment of the government and people of China to the goals and activities of the UN’.

Actually, it’s worked the other way around: China’s Peace and Development fund has translated into a stronger UN commitment to the goals and activities of China. A priority of this fund is UN promotion of Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative, with its predatory lending practices, strong-arm diplomacy and trade practices, and potential military extension of China’s reach.

China’s direct cash infusion to the secretariat, totaling $20 million a year, is split into two subfunds. One funnels $10 million annually to the executive office of the Secretary-General, to help him promote ‘Peace and Security’. The other subfund pours $10 million a year, earmarked for ‘Sustainable Development’, to a satrapy within the secretariat, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), which since 2007, at the pleasure of the Secretary-General, has been run by — you guessed it — China.

This Peace and Development lucre is doled out for dozens of projects each year, blessed by Beijing, approved by Secretary-General António Guterres and adorned with the UN’s baby-blue label. In approving these projects, Guterres is advised by a five-member steering committee, chaired by his Brazilian chef de cabinet. The other four committee members are all from China: one senior official from China’s foreign ministry, another from China’s finance ministry, plus China’s ambassador to the UN and the UN Under-Secretary-General in charge of DESA, previously China’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Liu Zhenmin. Within DESA, the sustainable development subfund is managed by another official from — you guessed it again — China. (Read more.)

From The Western Journal:

A suspected Chinese spy navigated her way into the inner circle of multiple politicians, including Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, who launched a short-lived campaign for president last year, according to a new report from Axios.

The report Monday, which cited “current and former U.S. intelligence officials and one former elected official” as its sources, said the woman at the center of the intrigue, who went by the names of Fang Fang and Christine Fang, sought to build relationships with emerging political figures.

“Through campaign fundraising, extensive networking, personal charisma, and romantic or sexual relationships with at least two Midwestern mayors, Fang was able to gain proximity to political power,” Axios reported. (Read more.)