AID shuttered…Launching the crazies…Friends Israel's making (not)…& then Iran…China's new wedge (Morocco?)…and for our paid subs: China's rural challenge...& Cartoonists on AID, Gaza, AI & JD Vance
In this weekly feature for Andelman Unleashed, we continue to explore how the media of other nations are reporting and commenting on the United States, and how they are viewing the rest of the world.
To emphasize, we cover lots of ground….So, you may not want to read it all, but it's all here for you!
If there is a single theme, incidentally, that runs through this week's edition of TWTW (well, actually, most issues these days) it was perhaps best stated by that master wordsmith, H.L. Mencken, one of our genuine heroes:
"For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."
How others see America
Leave it to Le Monde to capture impeccably at least a sliver of America's dilemma with the shuttering of AID and a host of its other overseas capabilities. Andelman Unleashed reported last week on how "the U.S. is weakening itself." Now Le Monde's China correspondent Harold Thibault is reporting from Beijing how the "Trump storm is a boon for China."
Thibault's dispatch begins with an anecdote that suggests just one small corner of Beijing's opportunity:
Founded by activist Li Qiang, the NGO relies on his own work, that of an employee, and a network of contacts in China….But the affronts to Beijing should soon end: 90% of the NGO's $1 million annual budget came from funding from the US federal government. The Donald Trump administration cut this when it came to power.
Li Qiang is therefore preparing to abandon all plans for investigations. "This is a huge gift to China; the Chinese government must be delighted. For us, it's very hard ," confides this man.
China is still in a state of expectation, the Republican's term has just begun and he seems unpredictable, but [China] is already seeing that opportunities are opening up, as the American desire to stop paying for the rest of the world leaves it so much space: The direct decomposition of institutions and certainties of the United States on the moral ascendancy of its model relativizes criticism of other regimes, even among the most repressive.
From the World Health Organization to the UN Human Rights Council, the Paris climate accords, UNRWA Palestine relief agency, UNFPA Population Fund, UN Office of Drugs & Crime, International Migration Organization, but especially across a vast swath of territories from Africa to Asia, Oceania, and even America's own backyard in Latin America, America's outright withdrawal or funding freezes over the past three weeks has brought critical programs to a halt with few prospects of resumption before incalculable damage can set in.
So, voilà China's big opportunities. As the UN-affiliated Better World Campaign put it this week:
Halting aid … opens the door for rival powers like China and Russia to expand their influence.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative has already poured over $1 trillion into infrastructure projects across Asia, Africa and Latin America. Beijing’s investments, such as railways in Kenya and ports in Djibouti, bolster its strategic foothold in regions critical to U.S. interests.
By suspending aid, the U.S. risks opening an opportunity for China to position itself as a more reliable and influential partner.
On Latin America, Diana Roy wrote for the Council on Foreign Relations:
China’s state firms are major investors in the region’s energy, infrastructure, and space industries, and the country has surpassed the United States as South America’s largest trading partner. Beijing has also expanded its cultural, diplomatic, and military presence throughout the region. Most recently, China celebrated the opening of a new mega port in Peru as part of its Belt and Road Initiative.
Beijing has invested heavily in Latin America’s space sector and has strengthened its military ties with several countries, particularly Venezuela.
The United States and its allies fear that Beijing is using these relationships to pursue its geopolitical goals—like the further isolation of Taiwan—and bolster authoritarian regimes such as those in Cuba and Venezuela.
On Africa, Chido Munyati of The World Economic Forum reports:
China has become sub-Saharan Africa’s largest bilateral trading partner. Around 20% of the region’s exports now go to China and about 16% of Africa’s imports come from China, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This amounted to a record $282 billion in total trade volume in 2023. Primary commodities—metals, mineral products and fuel—represent about three fifths of Africa’s exports to China, while it typically imports Chinese manufactured goods, electronics and machinery. At the same time, China has also emerged as the largest bilateral creditor to Africa,
Meanwhile, it seems, China has already begun finding its way around any American or even European tariffs, as Jevans Nyabiage suggests in Hong Kong's South China Morning Post:
An electric vehicle (EV) battery parts maker has become the latest Chinese company to begin production in Morocco to target lucrative European and North American markets, while avoiding punishing Western tariffs.
The plant, near Morocco’s Jorf Lasfar deep water commercial port, is part of a $2 billion deal … the latest move in the country by Chinese companies to circumvent tariffs and other import restrictions imposed by the United States and European Union. The plant will…create a combined production capacity equivalent to 70 gigawatt-hours, enough to power more than 1 million electric vehicles annually.
“This commissioning marks the beginning of a new era for Morocco’s role in the global EV supply chain,” the firm’s chief executive Allen Luo said.
Still, as Africa Intelligence points out:
Donald Trump's new administration will be paying particular attention to Morocco. The only African country to have a free trade agreement with the United States has become a hunting ground for major Chinese groups …
Nevertheless, China has a broader playing field. Eleven Central and South American countries, four Middle East, and three Asian nations all enjoy free trade status with the U.S. China has been developing increasingly close relations with most of them.
Finally, as the great Swiss cartoonist Patrick Chappatte suggests, Trump's tariff threats may also be driving Europe and China into each other's arms! (Not a single European nation enjoys the privilege of free trade with America.)
We're BACK!
On Friday, Andelman Unleashed will resume its Unleashed Zoomversations for all our (lightly) paid subscribers … an hour of exciting conversation, preview of the upcoming edition, hosted by yours truly and with an open mike for all our paying folks!
SO, if you're paid up, look for an email with time and a link this week and get your questions ready
Meanwhile, talk about trade ….
Poland's daily Wyborcza is pretty horrified about Trump's latest art of the deal—fearing a cutoff by China to its sources of valuable rare earth minerals. So, let's make another deal:
A condition for continued U.S. support for Ukraine in its war with Russia is an agreement with Kiev on access to that country's rare earth elements.
"We're giving them money in handfuls. We're giving them equipment," Trump said. "We want to make a deal with Ukraine where they'll back up what we're giving them with their rare earth elements and other things."
Trump suggested that he had received information from the Ukrainian government that it would be willing to make such a deal.
Willing, but only when you consider the alternative?
And then, there’s China….hardly ready itself to roll over when Trump roars. On Sunday, just hours before kickoff for SuperBowl LIX, Beijing let Washington have it, as London’s Financial Times was among the first to describe:
China has imposed retaliatory tariffs on the US—hitting about $14bn worth of goods and dashing hopes that a trade war between the world’s two largest economies could be avoided. Compared with the blanket US tariffs, China’s measures—which target US exports of liquefied natural gas, coal, crude oil and farm equipment as well as some automotive goods with levies of 10% to 15%— were seen as creating space for negotiations to avert a wide trade conflict. But by the Sunday deadline there was no news of a deal and China’s embassy in Washington said the tariffs came into effect at 12.01am Beijing time on Monday (11.01am on Sunday in Washington DC)….
Experts have suggested Beijing might have objected to Trump’s tactics, announcing the tariffs just two days before they came into effect, and before approaching Chinese officials for negotiations.
Special for the Paid !
Andelman Unleashed has unleashed new, (lightly) paid tiers. For new paid subscribers, an inscribed copy of my latest book, A Red Line in the Sand.
Just another perk for the cherished, paid members of our Unleashed family, with a weekly portfolio of cartoons, largely from Cartooning for Peace … and rezoooooming this coming Friday, a weekly live conversation with Andelman.
So do sign up … cheaper than a monthly mocha grande.
This will also help us subscribe & support great journalism in multiple languages across the globe.
How others view the World
Permission to unleash the crazies?
It's a question worth asking. Did the arrival of Donald Trump in power and his tornado of activities in his first three weeks suggest that some of the world's extremes, relegated until now to a far corner of the political landscape in a host of countries, may suddenly seem (perhaps in contrast?) as rational alternatives.
As London's Financial Times reported:
Reform UK has taken the lead in a major opinion poll for the first time in a move that will alarm Labour and the Conservatives ahead of local elections in May. Public support for Reform, the rightwing populist party led by Nigel Farage, was up 2% to 25% according to a survey by YouGov. Sir Keir Starmer’s ruling Labour party was down 3 points to 24%, while the Conservatives slipped 1 point to 21%. YouGov said it was the first time its survey had shown Reform in front, although with a lead of just 1% over Labour.
Farage’s party, which has five MPs, appears to be benefiting from a growing anti-establishment mood across many western nations. Reform has been praised by Elon Musk, the technology billionaire and close confidant of Trump, who has repeatedly criticised Starmer.
A “mega-poll” of almost 18,000 voters commissioned by campaign group Hope Not Hate, suggested Farage's party would win 76 seats if a general election was held immediately, including 60 seats at present held by Labour.
And it could get a whole lot worse as HNH's poll indicates, checking potential seats in the next parliament:
Who are these Farage voters? HNH suggests it’s not a single bloc—it’s a coalition of people frustrated with mainstream politics, attracted by promises to “fix the system.”
Sound familiar?
And then there's all those immigrants….
Britain's Tories (the main opposition party) are taking another cue from Trumpworld, as Charles Hymas, home affairs editor of The Telegraph wrote in London:
Jobless and low-paid migrants would be barred from settling indefinitely in the UK under the first major Conservative policy announcement by Kemi Badenoch. The Tory leader is proposing that migrants who have entered the UK legally should only be allowed to apply for indefinite leave to remain (ILR) once they have been in the country for 10 years, double the current five-year threshold.
To qualify, a migrant would have to have worked and not claimed benefits or used social housing during the entire 10 years they had spent in the UK. They would also have to have been “net contributors” to the economy over the decade, meaning their salary and tax payments must be high enough to outweigh their costs to the state, including those of their children and any benefits they may have claimed. It would mean most low-skilled foreign workers, including any on the minimum wage, would be excluded.
Again, sound familiar?
And they’re loose in Israel as well apparently….
As the liberal Israeli daily Haaretz suggested:
In the wake of President Trump's outlandish remarks about the U.S. "taking over" post-war Gaza, Aryeh Dery, a leading ultra-Orthodox politician and Netanyahu confidant, addressed the President directly: "You serve as a messenger of God in support of the people of Israel."
Choosing to present America as called by God to move history was jarring, coming as it did after the newly sworn-in President of the United States said in his inaugural address, "I was saved by God to make America great again."
How to make friends (if not influence people), Netanyahu-style
Fresh back from a triumphant (at least from his perspective) visit to Washington, the Israeli leader thought it might be a good idea to elaborate on the plan proposed by his pal, Donald J. Trump. As The Jerusalem Post reported:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Saudi Arabia had enough land to provide the Palestinians with a state in a Channel 14 interview on Thursday.
"The Saudis can create a Palestinian state in Saudi Arabia; they have a lot of land over there," he said.
Well, maybe not so fast, Bibi? As Haaretz reported some of the reaction:
Saudi Arabia and the UAE slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after he suggested that a Palestinian state could be established on Saudi soil.
President Trump has long prided himself on being able to negotiate just about anything he ever desired. Well, he may just have met his match. As Zac Crellin of Germany's DW news agency reported:
Iran's supreme leader urged his government not to negotiate with the Trump administration after the US president proposed fresh nuclear talks.
"You should not negotiate with such a government. It is unwise. It is not intelligent. It is not honorable to negotiate," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said during a meeting with army commanders.
Khamenei said the United States had already "ruined, violated and tore up" a 2015 nuclear deal negotiated under Democratic President Barack Obama's administration. Donald Trump, a Republican, pulled out of the deal in 2018, during his first presidential term. "We must understand this correctly: They should not pretend that if we sit down at the negotiating table with that government, problems will be solved," Khamenei said.
"No problem will be solved by negotiating with America," he said, citing previous "experience."
It should also not be forgotten that Iran continues to support a host of terrorist force across portions of the Middle East, especially in Iraq and Syria. So, Zac Crellin's additional DW dispatch is equally concerning:
Human Rights Watch has warned that the Trump administration's cuts to overseas aid could worsen "life-threatening conditions" in camps in Syria that hold relatives of members of the "Islamic State" group.
"The US government's suspension of foreign aid to non-governmental organizations operating in these camps is exacerbating life-threatening conditions, risking further destabilization of a precarious security situation," HRW said in a statement.
How can we forget Ukraine?
There may have been a boatload of North Korean troops dispatched to support Russian forces in Ukraine, but suddenly they’d disappeared, then they’re back? Park Boram, of South Korean news agency Yon Hap has been pumping her country's intelligence service, which not surprisingly keeps a pretty good eye on the North:
The National Intelligence Service (NIS) disclosed that North Korean soldiers who fought alongside Russian troops in battle against Ukraine have been pulled from the front lines in mid-January due to heavy casualties.
"Since mid-January, there have been no signs showing North Korean troops deployed to the Russian Kursk region engaging in battle," the NIS said, adding that heavy casualties appear to be one reason for the absence of North Korean troops, and that efforts are under way to determine the exact reason.
North Korea is estimated to have sent some 11,000 troops to support Russia in its war against Ukraine. Of those, 300 are believed to have been killed, with some 2,700 others wounded, South Korea's spy agency has told lawmakers.
But not so fast! As the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reports:
Thousands of North Korean troops have returned to active combat in Kursk Oblast after a brief pause. A Ukrainian brigade operating in Kursk Oblast published a video on February 8 reportedly showing North Korean forces conducting assaults alongside Russian forces in Kursk Oblast. South Korean sources recently reported that Russia withdrew North Korean troops from the battlefield in Kursk Oblast in mid-January, possibly for rest and reconstitution or to rethink how Russia is using these troops. ISW assesses that North Korea is using the war in Ukraine as a testing ground for its own military capabilities.
And then Japanese broadcaster NHK identified some potentially toxic quid pro quos:
North Korea is expected to start producing drones this year that will be co-developed with Russia….The two countries reached an agreement under which the North receives technical help from Russia to develop multiple types of drones to be mass manufactured. The accord on drone development is in return for North Korea's deployment of soldiers to aid Russia, which is continuing its invasion of Ukraine.
Sources say Russia is reluctant to provide support for North Korea's development of nuclear weapons. They say Moscow worries that factors such as Pyongyang conducting nuclear tests would complicate the North's relations with the United States as well as neighboring countries, including China.
In November 2024, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected a performance test of a so-called suicide drone and ordered that a system be developed to mass produce the weapon.
What’s new on ‘paid’
Now, for our most highly valued, but lightly paid members, we'll conclude with a stunningly disturbing view (or uplifting, depending on your perspective) on education at the grassroots level in wannabee superpower China.
And we'll wind up with our great partner Cartooning for Peace and Le Monde delivering a bonus gallery from the world’s cartoonists on events today and tomorrow.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Andelman Unleashed to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.
