Fight Over Retirement in France Is a Question of Identity

“Resistance to the government’s plan to push back the retirement age is not just about working longer. It springs from a deep sense of what defines France as a nation.

Monday is line dancing; Tuesday scrapbooking with friends; Wednesday caring for her two grandchildren.

Martine Mirville’s itinerary is an advertisement for retirement in France.

After decades of working, much of it as a secretary, she packed up her desk for the last time, bought an apartment in this seaside town in Normandy where her daughter lives, and started the coveted next stage of her life.

“I wake up every morning and say how lucky am I to be here,” said Ms. Mirville, 67, during a break from her Thursday morning gym class. Then, she used a favored French expression that has been echoing across the country in protests this year: “This is the time to enjoy life.”

Since President Emmanuel Macron’s government introduced plans to push the retirement age back from 62 to 64, France has been convulsed by regular strikes and protests that have drawn millions into the streets, not only in the capital, but in towns and villages across the country.

On Tuesday, workers walked out of schools, refineries, power plants, airports and transportation systems in the biggest mobilization yet, trying to all but turn out the lights in the country in protest.

The government’s plan has struck a deep and sensitive nerve in a society that cherishes retirement and reveres a generous balance between work and leisure perhaps more than any other Western industrial country.

France’s attachment to retirement is complex, touching on its history, identity and pride in social and labor rights that have been hard won.

They will not be easily forfeited, no matter how many times the government argues that changing the pension system is imperative to save it, given the demographic realities confronting the country.

When it was introduced by the National Resistance Council after World War II, the retirement system — along with national health care — was part of a series of celebrated social measures intended to help bind the fractured country together.

It was designed so active workers pay the pensions of their elder generation, creating interdependence, “so we don’t necessarily want to fight one another,” explained Bruno Chrétien, president of the Institute for Social Protection. “It built a kind of social peace.”

The problem today is that the baby boomers have retired and are living much longer than when the system was devised, while the system’s motor — the younger work force that pays for their pensions — is not keeping up.

Mr. Macron and his government say that the pension system is in “an increasingly precarious state” and that his proposed change is “indispensable” to put it on firmer financial footing.

The French, polls show, are overwhelmingly opposed to retiring later.

“We are capable of being as productive as Americans. But don’t forget, life is not just about working,” said Hervé Bossetti, 58, a money manager at his fifth protest snaking through Paris last month, dressed in a striped prisoner’s uniform, carrying a ball and chain, and wearing a sign that said, “Prisoner of work.”

He added, “In France, we believe that there is a time for work and then a time for personal development.”

In Granville, a town perched on a cliff overlooking the English Channel in the north of France that was proclaimed the best place to retire by Le Figaro in 2022, the allure of retirement is on full display.

Restaurants, cafes, museums and theaters are full of seniors — who make up 45 percent of the town’s population.

The Inter-Age University offers dozens of courses, from Russian to contemporary history.

The town supports more than 100 clubs and charitable organizations.

“It’s the first time in my life I’ve been onstage,” said Catherine Iacovelli-Hamon, 62, who moved to town about three years ago, after selling the tobacco and newspaper shop in Caen that had soaked up six days a week of her life for 20 years. Her pension covers about three-quarters of her last salary — enough to travel, and go to restaurants and the theater. “All the things we could not do, finally, we are doing them.”

After World War II, only one-third of people lived to see retirement. Those who did, got access to just 20 percent of their former salary for a handful of years before dying.

Since then, France’s pension payments and life expectancy have both ballooned.

Today, the average French pensioner is richer than the general population, accessing roughly 75 percent of their previous earnings with fewer expenses.

In France, 4.4 percent of retirees live below the poverty line — one of the lowest rates in the 38-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Instead of just three years, the average French person will spend more than a quarter of their life — from 22 years for men, to 26 for women — in retirement, and much of that in good shape, which French statisticians measure as “life expectancy without disability.” Those who made it to 65 in 2021 could expect another 11 to 12 good years, on average, according to French government statistics.

No longer a short reprieve before death, retirement is now seen as “the afternoon of life, a time that is blessed,” said Serge Guérin, a professor of sociology specializing in old age at Iseec Business College in Paris.

“It’s a time of liberty, to finally enjoy your grandchildren, your interests, your desire to travel, to volunteer and be elected in your community.”

It is also seen as compensation for working life.

“There is this vision in France,” Mr. Guérin added, “that working time is time waiting to be able to enjoy life.”

Many retirees in Granville were hard at work in a metal hangar, putting the finishing touches on their handmade floats for the town’s annual carnival. Jean-Paul Doron was painting a chest to be filled with confetti. Now 70, Mr. Doron began work at 18 as a metal worker, and later became a warehouse stocker at France Télécom — the former national telephone company that became synonymous with horrific work culture in France, after dozens of employees committed suicide and managers were sent to jail for “institutional moral harassment.”

“People shouldn’t wait for retirement to have liberty,” said Mr. Doron. “The young need to fight for working conditions that are respectable to them.”

The French labor code outlines specific hazardous conditions, offering workers exposed to things like extreme temperatures or night shifts points that can go toward early retirement. However, only 15 percent of French workers were entitled to points under this system, according to a recent Ministry of Labor report.

That hardly captures the overbearing sense of pressure French workers, filling protests, describe using the same term — “pénibilité,” which roughly translates to “hardship.”

Researchers say the culture of the French workplace remains largely hierarchical and increasingly stressful.

“People say, ‘My work weighs on me. I don’t necessarily have health problems, but I find it difficult to withstand.’ They talk about pressure, always working at a fast speed, never being allowed the time to finish a job in peace. But there aren’t any points for that,” said Annie Jolivet, an economist and researcher at the Center for Employment and Labor Studies.

Ironically, around three quarters of French workers have consistently expressed satisfaction with their work repeatedly in surveys over the past twenty years. They have also said, repeatedly, they’d like to retire as early as possible.

“It’s a place of contradictions,” said Bertrand Martinot, a workplace economist and fellow at the right-leaning Montaigne Institute, whose recent report showed a large majority of the French were satisfied at work, but most found their work hard, and almost half said they thought the current retirement age of 62 was already too late. “This shows there is an essential schism in France, but the story is more complicated than just ‘work is a horror.’”

One explanation Mr. Martinot offers is distrust of government. Another is that by changing the age of retirement, the state is breaking an unspoken promise to workers.

“It’s a kind of contract that’s been signed with the state,” he said. “People will accept intense work, and a low salary, if they have a long retirement, with a good quality of life.”

Mr. Chrétien, the director of the Institute for Social Protection, offers another theory: That the French social protection system built after World War II came at a time when France’s international status as a superpower was eclipsed by the United States.

The social protection scheme, he said, “became an element of national pride.”

“We are not as powerful, but still, we have something others don’t — the best social protection system in the world that is extremely generous and extremely costly.”

The pension system is the biggest part of that social protection system.

“In some way," Mr. Chrétien said, “the French are experiencing the postponement of retirement as a very questioning of their identity.””

 

Meksikos ginkluotųjų pajėgų šnipinėjimas kelia baimę dėl „karinės valstybės“susidarymo

„Tai yra pirmas kartas, kai paaiškėjo popieriaus takas, siekiant visiškai įrodyti, kad Meksikos kariuomenė šnipinėjo piliečius, kurie bandė atskleisti jo netinkamus elgesius.

MEKSIKO MIESTAS - Meksikos ginkluotosios pajėgos šnipinėjo žmogaus teisių gynėją ir žurnalistus, kurie tiria įtarimus, kad kareiviai nužudė nekaltus žmones, rodo dokumentai, pateikdami aiškius įrodymus apie neteisėtą kariuomenės naudojimą šnipinėti civilius.

 

Vyriausybė daugelį metų buvo įsivėlusi į skandalą dėl sudėtingų šnipinėjimo programų naudojimo nuo daugybės žmonių, kurie atsistoja į opoziciją Meksikos lyderiams. Tačiau stebėjimo ekspertai sako, kad tai yra pirmas kartas, kai pasirodė popierinis takas, siekiant visiškai įrodyti, kad Meksikos kariuomenė šnipinėjo piliečius, kurie bandė atskleisti jos klaidas.

 

Dokumentai ir interviu parodo, kaip šnipinėjimas, kuris sugadino ankstesnę vyriausybę, tęsėsi, valdant prezidentui Andrésui Manueliui Lópezai Obradorui, kuris pažadėjo, kad jo administracija neužsiims tokiu stebėjimu, kurį jis pavadino „neteisėtu ir „amoraliu “.

 

Meksikos ginkluotosios pajėgos nėra įgaliotos šnipinėti civilius gyventojus, sako teisės ekspertai, tačiau kariuomenė jau seniai naudoja šnipinėjimo technologijas ir išaugo vis dar galingesne, vadovaujant p. López Obrador.

 

2020 m. Gynybos ministerijos pranešime, kuriame praėjusiais metais buvo išspręsta išsamiai Meksikos ginkluotųjų pajėgų įsilaužimu ir peržiūrėjo „New York Times“, kariškiai aprašė išsamią asmeninių pokalbių tarp žmogaus teisių gynėjo ir trijų žurnalistų detales, aptariančius įtarimus, kad kareiviai vos keliomis keliomis keliomis keliomis savaitėmis anksčiau, susidūrę su karteliu, nužudė tris civilius gyventojus.

 

Ataskaitoje teigiama, kad advokatas Raymundo Ramosas bandė „diskredituoti ginkluotas pajėgas“, aptardamas įtarimus dėl neteisėtų kariuomenės nužudymų su žurnalistais.

 

Ji rekomendavo kaupti informaciją apie jo asmeninius pokalbius, tačiau neįtraukti jos į oficialias bylų bylas, galbūt, bandant išlaikyti savo šnipinėjimo paslaptį.

 

Teismo medicinos testai rodo, kad pono Ramoso mobilųjį telefoną kelis kartus užkrėtė Pegasus - ypač galinga šnipinėjimo programa - maždaug tuo pačiu metu, kai kariškiai parengė savo pokalbių ataskaitą, teigiama Toronto universiteto „Citizen Lab“ analizėje .

 

Nepaisant prezidento tvirtinimų, Meksikos gynybos ministerija aktyviai naudojo Pegasą 2020 m., kai buvo nulaužtas p. Ramoso telefonas, duomenimis, trys žmonės, susipažinę su eksporto licencijomis, reikalingomis parduoti kibernetinį ginklą už Izraelio ribų, kur jis yra pagamintas.

 

„Pegasus“ iš skaitmeninio įrenginio gali išgauti didžiulį kiekį informacijos be jokio įspėjimo: tekstai, skambučiai, kontaktai, nuotraukos - net jo vieta.

 

„Mes kalbame apie karinį stebėjimą, žinant jūsų asmeninę informaciją, draugystę, viską“, - interviu sakė ponas Ramosas. „Jie žino, kur aš visą laiką“.

 

Ponas Lópezas Obradoras, kuris pradėjo eiti pareigas 2018 m., pažadėjo, kad jo administracija niekada nešnipinėja savo oponentus.

 

Nauji karinio šnipinėjimo įrodymai rodo, kad ponas Lópezas Obradoras, kaip ginkluotųjų pajėgų vyriausiasis vadas, žinojo apie stebėjimą ir jį toleruoja, sakė ekspertai - arba jo paties pavaldiniai jam nepakluso.

 

„Abu scenarijai yra baisūs, tačiau visi įrodymai rodo, kad armija šnipinėja savo iniciatyvą ir dėl savo interesų“, - sakė Meksikos tyrimų ir mokymo ekonomikos centro kariuomenės ekspertė Catalina Pérez Correa.

 

„Atsižvelgiant į didžiulę jos turimą ekonominę galią ir visas valstybės funkcijas, kurias ji kontroliuoja“, - ponia Pérez Correa sakė: „Galima sakyti, kad Meksika turi karinės valstybės statybinius blokus“.

 

Pagal p. Lópezą Obradorą, kariuomenė prisiėmė daug didesnę atsakomybę už policiją, taip pat kontroliuoja šalies uostus ir muitinę, sudarė 1000 mylių traukinių linijos dalį ir netgi platino vaistus. Visoje šalyje dislokuotų karių skaičius yra aukščiausias pastarojo meto istorijoje.

 

Gynybos ministerija neatsakė į prašymus komentuoti, tačiau teigė, kad jos žvalgybos žvalgybos rinkimas yra sutelktas į kovą su organizuotu nusikalstamumu ir pripažino Pegasus naudojimą tik nuo 2011 iki 2013 m.

 

Izraelio „Pegasus“, „NSO Group“ gamintojas, teigė, kad negali patvirtinti savo klientų dėl konfidencialumo susitarimų.

 

„Bendrovė neveikia technologijos ir nežino, ką tiria jos klientai“, - rašė NSO grupė rašytiniame pranešime ir pridūrė, kad bendrovė „tiria bet kokį patikimą teiginį apie netinkamą jos technologijos naudojimą“.

 

2021 m. Bideno administracija įtraukė NSO į nepatikimų grupę, nurodydama, kad užsienio vyriausybės įmonės šnipinėjimo programą naudoja, nukreipdamos į aktyvistus ir žurnalistus.

 

Spalio mėn. Meksikos žiniasklaida pranešė, kad kariuomenė įsigijo „Spyware“ pagal dabartinę administraciją. Tuo metu ponas Lópezas Obradoras teigė, kad kariškiai vykdo „žvalgybos darbus, o ne šnipinėja“.

 

Tai, kas pradėjo šnipinėjimą p. Ramos atveju, buvo automobilių persekiojimas smurtiniame Nuevo Laredo mieste palei JAV pasienį vieną naktį 2020 m. liepos mėn. Kareiviai, vejantys kelis pikapus, galiausiai nužudė keliolika keleivių, kurie, pasak kariuomenės, buvo vietinės nusikalstamos grupės dalis.

 

Ponas Ramosas sakė, kad per kelias dienas ir savaites jis kalbėjo su trijų aukų tėvais, kurie teigė, kad jų sūnūs buvo nužudyti, nors jie buvo nekalti. Jie keliavo pikapuose, tačiau juos pagrobė kartelis, sakė tėvai.

 

Ponas Ramosas pradėjo viešinti įtarimus, o netrukus vietinis laikraštis paskelbė sugadintą kūno kameros filmuotą medžiagą apie konfrontaciją. Vaizdo įraše parodė pareigūnams, purškiantiems vieną iš sunkvežimių kulkomis, nepaisant to, kad niekas šaudo atgal, ir tada liepė nužudyti žmogų, išgyvenusį tą išpuolį.

 

"Jis gyvas!" Vaizdo įraše šaukia vienas pareigūnas. "Nužudyk jį!" - kitas atsako.

 

Būtent tada į pono Ramoso telefoną nukreipė Pegasą. Anot „Citizen Lab“, šnipinėjimo programos penkis kartus užkrėtė jo telefoną.

 

Ponas Ramosas pasakojo „The Times“, kad visi sulaikyti duomenys buvo mainai iš pranešimų ir vienas skambutis, skirtas užšifruotoje programoje „Telegram“. Kariuomenės žvalgybos pranešime teigiama, kad ponas Ramosas turėjo „ryšius“ su Meksikos karteliu ir jam finansiškai naudinga diskredituoti ginkluotas pajėgas.

 

Pagal Meksikos įstatymus, atrodo, kad kariškiams neleidžiama perimti privačias žinutes, teigė teisės ekspertai. Bet net jei tai galėtų, jiems prireiks federalinio teisėjo leidimo - to, ką kariškiai teigė viešai atskleisdami, kad jos neprašė pastaraisiais metais.

 

Kriminaliniame tyrime, kuris buvo atvėrtas pono Ramoso byloje, federalinė teismų sistema patvirtino, kad nebuvo prašymų šnipinėti jo ryšius, teigia trys su byla pažįstami žmonės, kuriems nebuvo leista kalbėti viešai.

 

Byla yra vienas reikšmingiausių proveržių per „Spyware Research“ metus, sakė skaitmeniniai tyrėjai.

 

„Aš niekada nemačiau nieko panašaus“,-sakė Johnas Scottas-Railtonas, „Citizen Lab“ vyresnysis tyrėjas. „Pirmą kartą tai parodo, kaip operatoriai paėmė šio vyro asmeninį skaitmeninį gyvenimą, išmetė jį ant stalo ir tada bandė pasirinkti dalis, kurios jam būtų labiausiai kenksmingos“.

 

Pirmiausia kariuomenės pranešimą antradienį paviešino trys Meksikos naujienų parduotuvės, dirbančios su vietos teisių grupėmis.

 

Dokumente, kuris buvo išsiųstas el. paštu, 2020 m. rugsėjo 2 d., rodoma, kad galingiausi kariuomenės žmonės dalyvavo šnipinėjime.

 

Panašu, kad jį pagamino antras aukščiausias kariuomenės karininkas, ir, atrodo, buvo kreiptas į jo aukštesnįjį, gynybos sekretorių Luisą Cresencio Sandovalą.

 

Tą pačią dieną ponas Sandovalis surengė susitikimą, suplanuotą su aukšto rango pareigūnais ir karinės agentūros vadovu, kuris tiria žudynes, jo kalendorius, gautas iš nulaužtų bylų rodo.

 

„Kariuomenė nenaudojo„ Pegasus “kovai su nusikalstamumu“, - sakė Luisas Fernando García, vietinės skaitmeninių teisių grupės „R3D“ direktorius, kuris padėjo atskleisti kariuomenės ataskaitą. „Kariuomenė šnipinėjo civilius gyventojus, kad apsisaugotų“.

 

Ataskaitoje nurodoma, kad šnipinėjimą atliko slaptosios ginkluotųjų pajėgų šaka, vadinama karinės žvalgybos centru.

 

Agentūros tikslas yra generuoti „žvalgybą“ iš „informacijos, gautos uždaruose kanaluose“, - sakė kariuomenė 2021 m.

 

Kitame dokumente teigiama, kad viena iš pagrindinių rizikų, su kuriomis susiduria centras, yra „kad šio centro vykdoma veikla atskleidžiama visuomenei“.

 

Spying by Mexico’s Armed Forces Brings Fears of a ‘Military State’

"This is the first time a paper trail has emerged to prove definitively that the Mexican military spied on citizens who were trying to expose its misdeeds.

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s armed forces spied on a human rights defender and journalists who were investigating allegations that soldiers had gunned down innocent people, documents show, providing clear evidence of the military’s illegal use of surveillance tools against civilians.

The government has been embroiled in scandal for years over the use of sophisticated spyware against a wide range of people who stand up to Mexico’s leaders. But surveillance experts say this is the first time a paper trail has emerged to prove definitively that the Mexican military spied on citizens who were trying to expose its misdeeds.

Documents and interviews show how the spying that tarnished the previous government has continued under President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who vowed that his administration would not engage in such surveillance, which he called “illegal” and “immoral.”

Mexico’s armed forces are not authorized to spy on civilians, legal experts say, but the military has long wielded spying technology and has grown ever more powerful under Mr. López Obrador.

In a 2020 Defense Ministry report, unearthed last year in an extensive hack of the Mexican armed forces and reviewed by The New York Times, military officers described the details of private conversations between a human rights advocate and three journalists discussing allegations that soldiers just weeks earlier had executed three civilians in a confrontation with a cartel.

The report contended that the advocate, Raymundo Ramos, was trying to “discredit the armed forces” by discussing allegations of unlawful killings by the military with reporters.

It recommended that the military glean information from his private conversations, but not include it in official case files, perhaps in an attempt to keep its spying secret.

Forensic tests show that Mr. Ramos’s cellphone had been infected multiple times by Pegasus — extremely powerful spyware — around the same time that the military produced the report on his conversations, according to an analysis by Citizen Lab, a research institute at the University of Toronto.

Despite the president’s assertions, Mexico’s Ministry of Defense was actively using Pegasus in 2020, when Mr. Ramos’s phone was hacked, according to three people familiar with the export licenses required to sell the cyberweapon outside of Israel, where it is made.

Pegasus can extract enormous amounts of information from a digital device without any warning: texts, calls, contacts, photos — even its location.

“We’re talking about the military monitoring you, knowing your personal information, your friendships, everything,” Mr. Ramos said in an interview. “They know where I am at all times.”

Mr. López Obrador, who took office in 2018, promised that his administration would never spy on its opponents.

The new evidence of military spying suggests Mr. López Obrador, as commander in chief of the armed forces, either knew about the surveillance and tolerated it, experts said — or his own subordinates disobeyed him.

“Both scenarios are terrible, but all the evidence we have points to the army spying on its own initiative and for its own interests,” said Catalina Pérez Correa, an expert on the military at Mexico’s Center for Research and Teaching in Economics.

“Taking into account the enormous economic power it has and all the state functions it controls,” Ms. Pérez Correa said, “you could say that Mexico has the building blocks for a military state.”

Under Mr. López Obrador, the military has taken on far greater responsibility for policing, as well as controlling the nation’s ports and customs, building part of a 1,000-mile train line and even distributing medicine. The number of troops deployed across the country is at its highest point in recent history.

The Ministry of Defense did not respond to requests for comment, but has said that its intelligence gathering is focused on fighting organized crime and has acknowledged using Pegasus only from 2011 to 2013.

The Israeli manufacturer of Pegasus, NSO Group, said it could not confirm its clients because of confidentiality agreements.

“The company does not operate the technology, nor does it know who its customers are investigating,” the NSO Group said in a written statement, adding that the company “investigates any credible claim of misuse of its technology.”

The Biden administration blacklisted the NSO Group in 2021, citing the use of the company’s spyware by foreign governments to target activists and journalists.

Mexican news media reported in October that the military had purchased spyware under the current administration. At the time, Mr. López Obrador said the military was carrying out “intelligence work, not spying.”

What set off the spying on Mr. Ramos was a car chase in the violent town of Nuevo Laredo along the U.S. border one night in July 2020. Soldiers pursuing several pickup trucks ultimately killed a dozen passengers who the military said had been part of a local criminal group.

In the days and weeks that followed, Mr. Ramos said, he spoke to the parents of three of the victims, who said their sons had been killed even though they were innocent. They were traveling inside the pickups, but had been kidnapped by the cartel, the parents said.

Mr. Ramos began publicizing the allegations, and soon a local newspaper published damaging body camera footage of the confrontation. The video showed the officers spraying one of the trucks with bullets despite no one firing back, and then ordering the assassination of a survivor of the attack.

“He’s alive!” one officer yells in the video. “Kill him!” another responds.

That’s when Mr. Ramos’s phone was targeted by Pegasus. The spyware infected his phone five times in the days before and after the military emailed its report, according to Citizen Lab.

Mr. Ramos told The Times that all of the intercepted exchanges were from messages and one call made on Telegram, an encrypted app. The military’s intelligence report said Mr. Ramos had “links” to a Mexican cartel and would benefit financially from discrediting the armed forces.

Under Mexican law, the military does not appear to be allowed to intercept private messages, legal experts said. But even if it could, it would need a federal judge’s authorization — something the military has said in public disclosures it has not once requested in recent years.

In a criminal inquiry that was opened into Mr. Ramos’s case, the federal judiciary confirmed that there had been no requests to intercept his communications, according to three people familiar with the case who were not authorized to speak publicly.

The case represents one of the most significant breakthroughs in years of spyware research, digital investigators said.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab. “For the first time, it shows us how the operators took this man’s private digital life, dumped it out on the table and then tried to select the parts that would be most harmful to him.”

The military’s report was first made public on Tuesday by three Mexican news outlets working with local rights groups.

The document, which was sent by email on Sept. 2, 2020, suggests that the most powerful people in the military were involved in the spying.

It appears to have been produced by the second-highest-ranking officer in the military, and appears to have been addressed to his superior, Secretary of Defense Luis Cresencio Sandoval.

That same day, Mr. Sandoval had a meeting scheduled with high-ranking officers and the head of the military agency that was investigating the killings, a copy of his calendar retrieved from the hacked files shows.

“The military wasn’t using Pegasus to combat crime,” said Luis Fernando García, the director of R3D, a local digital rights group, which helped uncover the military’s report. “The military was spying on civilians to protect itself.”

The report indicates that the spying was carried out by a secretive branch of the armed forces called the Military Intelligence Center.

The agency’s purpose is to generate “intelligence” from “information obtained in closed channels,” the military said in 2021.

One of the main risks facing the center, another document says, is “that the activities carried out by this center are revealed to the public.”"

There is nothing ideal in the world

 Those who blew up in Nordstream pipeline's three out of four lines, possibly, as alibi, took on a ship a couple of Ukrainian alcoholics, which we often see at beverage shops. If this is confirmed, German society who is forced to save brutally gas, will become angry and look badly at the side of the Ukraine. 

Nėra pasaulyje nieko idealaus

Tie, kurie susprogdino Nordstream dujotiekio tris iš keturių linijas, galimai, kaip alibi, pasiėmė į laivą porą ukrainiečių alkoholikų, kokius dažnai matome prie gėrimų parduotuvių. Jei tai pasitvirtins, vokiečių visuomenė, priversta žiauriai taupyti dujas, užpyks ir blogai žiūrės į Ukrainos pusę.

 

 

Aukščiausi Kinijos pareigūnai rodo griežtesnę poziciją prieš Vakarų pastangas Ukrainoje ir kitur

   "Kinijai jautė vis didesnį JAV ir jos sąjungininkų spaudimą panaudoti jos įtaką Rusijai, kad sustabdytų Ukrainos įvykius. Vašingtonas taip pat viešai apkaltino Kiniją, kad ši svarstė ginklų siuntimą į Rusiją, paskatindama iš Vakarų pareigūnų daug perspėjimų, kad Pekinas susidurs su pasekmėmis tokiam veiksmui.

 

     Dabar aukščiausias Kinijos lyderis Xi Jinpingas pirmąkart ryškiai pareiškė, kad jis laikysis griežtesnės pozicijos prieš tai, ką jis suvoki, kaip JAV ir jos sąjungininkų pastangas blokuoti Kiniją keliuose frontuose, įskaitant jos paramą Rusijai.

 

     „Vakarų šalys, vadovaujamos Jungtinių Valstijų, įgyvendino Kinijos stabdymą visur, apsupimą ir slopinimą, o tai sukėlė precedento neturinčių sunkių iššūkių mūsų šalies plėtrai“,-pirmadienį sakė p. Xi, pranešė oficiali Kinijos naujienų agentūra.

 

     Pono Xi susitikimas su prezidentu Bidenu lapkritį sukėlė vilčių, kad Pekinas ir Vašingtonas gali bandyti suimti žemyn nukreiptą spiralę santykiuose. Nuo to laiko įtampa tik padidėjo dėl Amerikos paramos Taivano, Kinijos nenoro prisijungti prie sankcijų prieš Rusiją ir Kinijos šnipų baliono sušaudymą JAV.

 

     Bideno administracija pavaizdavo p. Xi, siekiant pertvarkyti JAV vadovaujamą tarptautinę tvarką, kad sustiprintų Pekino interesus. Kinijos glaudus suderinimas su Rusija tuo metu, kai Vakarai siekia izoliuoti Maskvą, suaktyvino susirūpinimą dėl naujos Šaltojo karo versijos.

 

     „Tai yra pirmas kartas mano žiniomis, kad Xi Jinpingas viešai pasirodė ir nustatė, kad JAV imasi tokių veiksmų prieš Kiniją“, - teigė Michaelas Swaine'as, „Quincy“ atsakingo įstatymų leidybos instituto vyresnysis mokslo darbuotojas. „Tai, be abejo, atsakas į atšiaurią Kinijos kritiką ir asmeniškai prieš Xi Jinping'ą, kurią pastaraisiais mėnesiais skleidė Bidenas ir daugelis administracijos.“

 

     Kinijos užsienio reikalų ministras Qin Gang, buvęs ambasadorius JAV, neigė, kad Pekinas svarsto galimybę siųsti ginklus į Rusiją ir kritikavo, kaip analogiškus tokiam veiksmui, JAV ginklų pardavimus Taivanui. Jis kaltino „nematomą ranką“ - JAV, kitaip tariant, už konflikto Ukrainoje eskalavimą.

 

     Kinija „nėra krizės dalis ir nepateikė ginklų nė vienai konflikto pusei“, - sakė p. Qin. „Taigi, kokiu pagrindu vyksta kalba apie kaltę, sankcijas ir grasinimus Kinijai? Tai visiškai nepriimtina.“

 

   

Top Chinese officials signal a harder stance against Western efforts on Ukraine and other China's fronts.

"China has come under increasing pressure from the United States and its allies to use its influence on Russia to stop the Ukraine events. Washington has also publicly accused China of considering sending weapons to Russia, prompting a flurry of warnings from Western officials that Beijing would face consequences for such an action.

Now, China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, has signaled in uncommonly blunt terms that he will take a harder stance against what he perceives as an effort by the United States and its allies to block China on a several fronts, including its support for Russia.

“Western countries led by the United States have implemented all-around containment, encirclement and suppression of China, which has brought unprecedented severe challenges to our country’s development,” Mr. Xi said in a speech on Monday, according to China’s official news agency.

Mr. Xi’s meeting with President Biden in November had raised hopes that Beijing and Washington might try to arrest the downward spiral in relations. Tensions have since only escalated over American support of Taiwan, China’s unwillingness to join sanctions against Russia and the downing of a Chinese spy balloon over the United States.

The Biden administration has depicted Mr. Xi as seeking to reshape the United States-led international order to bolster Beijing’s interests. China’s close alignment with Russia, at a time when the West is seeking to isolate Moscow, has intensified concerns about a new version of the Cold War.

“This is the first time to my knowledge that Xi Jinping has publicly come out and identified the U.S. as taking such actions against China,” said Michael Swaine, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. “It is, without doubt, a response to the harsh criticisms of China, and of Xi Jinping personally, that Biden and many in the administration have leveled in recent months.”

China’s foreign minister, Qin Gang, the former ambassador to the United States, denied the allegation Beijing is considering sending weapons to Russia and criticized U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan. He blamed an “invisible hand” — the United States, in other words — for escalating the conflict in Ukraine.

China “is not a party to the crisis and has not provided weapons to either side of the conflict,” Mr. Qin said. “So on what basis is this talk of blame, sanctions and threats against China? This is absolutely unacceptable.”"