Doug Bandow is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, a former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan, and the author of several books, including Foreign Follies: America’s New Global Empire and Beyond Good Intentions: A Biblical View of Politics.
Posts by Doug Bandow
July 07, 2022
On January 1, 1997, Hong Kong, effectively seized by Great Britain in war a century before, reverted to Chinese rule. Only recently liberated from the madness of Mao Zedong’s rule, Beijing promised to preserve Hong Kong’s separate “system” for 50 years.
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June 09, 2022
Under Xi Jinping, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has returned to its Maoist past. Both Xi and Mao Zedong promoted party and especially personal rule. Both sought to extinguish even the hint of dissent.
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May 24, 2022
In less than two years, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has asserted almost complete control in Hong Kong. Other than possessing a generally open internet, the “special administrative region” is now like any other Chinese city.
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March 29, 2022
Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues. Ukrainian resistance so far has been fierce, but Russian forces retain a huge advantage in firepower. A victory by Moscow would mean installation of a puppet government in Kyiv, with harsh repression to follow.
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March 07, 2022
The group Open Doors USA figures that 360 million Christians last year lived in countries where persecution was “significant.” Roughly 5,600 Christians were murdered, more than 6,000 were detained or imprisoned, and another 4,000-plus were kidnapped.
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February 11, 2022
A year ago Burma’s military staged a coup. The junta has since killed at least 1,500 people and detained another 12,000, of whom nearly 9,000 remain in custody. A couple thousand sought by the regime are in hiding.
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January 18, 2022
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is completing the destruction of the old Hong Kong. The last vestiges of free expression and democratic choice are disappearing.
On January 4, the media site
Citizen News closed due to the deteriorating legal environment.
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January 05, 2022
Communism has spawned only one full-scale monarchy: the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. On December 17, 2011, 70-year-old Dear Leader Kim Jong-il died. That very same day, Kim’s 27-year-old son, Kim Jong-un, was put forth as the “Great Successor” and surrounded by elderly “mentors” who were supposed to guide him as he took over the leadership.
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December 14, 2021
Presidential summits tend to focus on PR rather than substance. The Biden administration’s “Summit for Democracy” looks no different.
Its objectives were worthy. As the State Department explained it, President Joe Biden planned to “bring together leaders from government, civil society, and the private sector to set forth an affirmative agenda for democratic renewal and to tackle the greatest threats faced by democracies today through collective action.”
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November 30, 2021
China’s Xi Jinping has already served longer than any U.S. president other than Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And Xi is likely to pass FDR in just a couple years. The Chinese president and Chinese Communist Party general secretary has secured the support necessary for a third term—expected to be followed by a fourth and even fifth one, should Xi, currently 68, live long enough.
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