Mattis didn't disclose ties to China-boosting firm in column slamming Trump's 'America First' policy Just the News ^ | November 26, 2020 | Susan Katz Keating Posted on 11/26/2020, 9:23:36 PM by george76
In an online column denouncing President Trump's "America First" policy that includes measures regarding Beijing, ex-Defense Secretary James Mattis did not disclose his affiliation with an organization that fosters international business deals with communist China.
As coauthor with three other writers in a Nov. 23 Foreign Affairs column, Mattis did not mention that he works for the The Cohen Group consulting firm. Nor did he challenge China's tough talk against U.S. policies regarding Taiwan, nor the strict economic retaliation Beijing levied against Australia.
Instead, Mattis criticized Trump administration policies toward Beijing. Such policies, touted by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, are not in line with The Cohen Group's approach toward international business dealings with Beijing.
China is a market of enormous opportunity and complexity," the group states on its website, adding that the group's China Practice "has a solid record of success with professionals in offices in Beijing, Tianjin and Washington, DC."
The Cohen Group is run by another former Defense Secretary. William Cohen, who has been involved with China since 1978, when he went there to meet with Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, according to the organization.
"Since then, he has been a constant presence in the U.S.-China relationship, including commercial development and security cooperation," the organization states, noting that Cohen serves on the Board of Directors of the U.S.-China Business Council.
Mattis joined The Cohen Group in 2019 as a senior counselor.
Mattis was among a group of retired four-star officers who drew criticism earlier this year for denigrating Trump in a series of articles, tweets, and other commentary.
William Cohen RINO kleptocracy ping...
... Deng, who died in 1997, invigorated the Chinese economy by investing heavily in development projects, welcoming foreign investment and keeping ideologues from exerting too much sway. He is remembered for folksy expressions delivered in his thick Sichuanese accent, like his call for pragmatism: “It doesn’t matter whether it is a white cat or a black cat. As long as it can catch mice, it is a good cat.”
At the peak of his power in the 1980’s, he allowed his top underlings to explore ideas like holding democratic elections and creating an independent judiciary. He separated the party from the bureaucracy and from day-to-day economic management.
But after popular protests for democracy culminating in the mass demonstration at Tiananmen Square in 1989, Deng ordered a violent crackdown on dissent. He also purged the most liberal leaders. Serious political reform became taboo. The notion that the Communist Party could increase its popularity by easing its grip on power also fell into disfavor with the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Even after giving up all of his politicalposts, Deng kept the party focused on generating high economic growth, which he believed would mitigate demands for political change and prolong Communist rule.
That calculation proved right. Chinese Communists do not face any organized opposition today, a decade and half after their Communist allies in Eastern Europe tumbled.
Yet the price is that China has become something of a kleptocracy, with tens of millions of government and party officials using largely unchecked political powers to enrich themselves. Top leaders have called corruption a cancer that is eating away at the party’s legitimacy and posing the greatest challenge since the street protests of 1989.
Mr. Ren, the former party chief of Guangdong Province, wrote that a recent raft of corruption cases was “the tip of the iceberg.” He said the party had to focus on the ultimate goal of a “democratic political system” and submit itself to the rule of law.
“Hasn’t the central leadership repeatedly stressed governing according to law and protecting human rights?” Mr. Ren wrote, referring to official propaganda. “But if we have laws and don’t follow them, there can be no talk of the rule of law.”
-——Chinese Advocates of Reform Seek Help From Deng’s Spirit
NY Times ^ | August 21, 2004 | JOSEPH KAHN