This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
- China implements ‘Skynet’ surveillance program to control protests
- United States and Israel lose their votes in UNESCO
- Foreign ministers rush to Geneva to complete Iran nuclear deal
China implements ‘Skynet’ surveillance program to control protests
Uighur terrorist act at Tiananmen Square on Oct 29
The recent successful terrorist attack by ethnic Uighurs in the heartof Beijing’s most securely guarded and well-protected offices ( “30-Oct-13 World View — China scrambles to suppress Tiananmen Square terror attack reports”)illuminates the increasing discontent of the ethnic Uighur populationin Xinjiang province in northwest China.
To provide better and more thorough control over the population, andto try to prevent everything from protests to terror attacks, China’sgovernment has installed as many as 130 million security camerasaround the country, with 800,000 in Beijing alone. Facial recognitionsoftware is being installed so that the movements of any citizen canbe tracked automatically by computer systems. China is calling thisthe “Skynet” program; Skynet was the name of the computer systemin Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator movies that became self-awareand decided to protect itself by killing all the humans.
However, in Xinjiang province itself, tens of thousands of securitycameras, two million internet monitors, and large internal paramilitaryforces have not only not pacified the Uighur population but havefueled protests, and violence appears to be worsening significantly.Uighur insurgents cannot obtain guns domestically, but Xinjiang liesnext door to Central Asian states where guns are plentiful. The realdanger for China is that Uighur terrorists will target China’s energyinfrastructure, bombing Xinjiang’s rail network and a growing numberof oil and gas pipelines that are vital to supplying energy to therest of China.
The Uighurs are not the only rebellious group in China. China hastens of thousands of “mass protests” every year, and the ChineseCommunist Party’s great fear is that these individual protests willcoalesce into a major regional protest. I’ve been writing for severalyears that China is overdue for a new national civil war. (See“China approaches Civil War” from 2005.) China’s history is full of massive civil warrebellions, such as the White Lotus Rebellion (1796-1805) and theTaiping Rebellion (1852-1869), killing millions or tens of millions ofpeople. These occur at regular intervals, with each new one occurringat about the time that the survivors of the preceding one die off.The last of these rebellions was Mao’s Communist Revolution (1934-49),and now it’s time for the next one. The Diplomat
United States and Israel lose their votes in UNESCO
Both the United States and Israel will no longer be permitted to votein the United Nations Educational, Scientific and CulturalOrganization (UNESCO), although they both will remain non-votingmembers. The U.S. stopped paying dues to UNESCO in 2011 when thestate of Palestine was made a member of UNESCO, in accordance withU.S. law, and Israel followed suit. UNESCO cancels the ability tovote for any country that hasn’t paid its dues in two years. UNESCOsupports girls’ and women’s education and the protection andpreservation of cultural heritage sites. U.S. State Dept. and Global Post
Foreign ministers rush to Geneva to complete Iran nuclear deal
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry joined foreign ministers fromRussia, Britain, China, EU, France, and Germany and rushed to Geneva onFriday, leading journalists to conclude that a deal with Iran had beenreached and that all was needed was the signatures. That turned outnot be true, but officials are saying that a deal is close and shouldbe reached this weekend.
The details of the proposed agreement are not known, butthe general outline is as follows:
- Iran will promise to limit its uranium enrichment program to below the level needed to build nuclear weapons and will promise not to build nuclear weapons.
- Iran will agree to U.N. inspections.
- The West will reduce some sanctions that target Iran.
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was stinging inhis criticism of the proposed deal:
The deal that is being discussed in Geneva right nowis a bad deal, it’s a very bad deal. Iran gets everything that itwanted at this stage and it pays nothing.
President Barack Obama called Netanyahu to reassure him andsaid in an interview:
We don’t have to trust them. What we have to do is tomake sure that there is a good deal in place from the perspectiveof us verifying what they’re doing. And that they’re actuallymoving in the right direction.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said:
We’ve got to be creative, we’ve got to be innovativeand deal with situations as – on the basis of realities, not onthe basis of illusions. I believe, at the end of the day,everybody will be happy with a deal that can be achieved …
Iran demands respect and equal footing [that is] only done whenyou are prepared to accommodate the other side without trying toimpose your views.
It is not clear whether the U.S. Senate will approve any deal that’ssigned. Also, it’s not clear whether Iran’s Islamic Revolution GuardsCorps (IRGC) will go along with any deal. VOA and Tehran Times
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, China, Skynet, Uighurs, Xinjiang,Tiananmen Square, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Terminator,White Lotus Rebellion, Taiping Rebellion, Communist Revolution,Israel, UNESCO, Palestine, Iran, John Kerry,Benjamin Netanyahu, Mohammad Javad Zarif,Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, IRGC
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