Acting Defense chief Shanahan vows U.S. will no longer 'tiptoe' around China - NBC News

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June 1, 2019, 8:43 AM UTC / Updated June 1, 2019, 9:55 AM UTC

By Linda Givetash and Associated Press

Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan blasted China in a speech to national security leaders in Singapore on Saturday.

In his first major speech on the international stage, Shanahan denounced China's efforts to steal technology from other nations and militarize man-made outposts in the South China Sea as a "toolkit of coercion."

He didn't name China in early parts of his speech to the Shangri-La Dialogue, a national security conference, but made his target clear by referencing Beijing's campaign to put advanced weapons systems on disputed islands in the region.

"Perhaps the greatest long-term threat to the vital interests of states across this region comes from actors who seek to undermine, rather than uphold, the rules-based international order," Shanahan said.

"If these trends in these behaviors continue, artificial features in the global commons could become tollbooths. Sovereignty could become the purview of the powerful," he added.

A senior Chinese military official hit back, accusing the U.S. of "harming regional peace and stability."

"He (Shanahan) has been expressing inaccurate views and repeating old tunes about the issues of Taiwan and the South China Sea," Shao Yuanming, a senior official of the People's Liberation Army, told reporters after Shanahan's speech.

Shanahan's comments come amid rising tensions between the U.S. and China.

The Trump administration has been waging a trade war with Beijing, imposed sanctions on the tech giant Huawei and agreed to sell weapons to Taiwan, a sovereign island that mainland China claims as its own territory.

The speech marks Shanahan's first major address on the international stage while he awaits nomination for permanent secretary, which has not been sent to Capitol Hill by President Donald Trump.

It also set the tone for U.S. military cooperation and influence in the Indo-Pacific for nervous allies who fear the economic impacts of the ongoing trade disputes.

Shanahan rejected suggestions that the U.S. is in a "faceoff" or trade war with China and said economic negotiations with Beijing are ongoing and the Pentagon is building relations with the Chinese military. But he said he would be more critical of China than previous defense secretaries.

"I won't apologize for the way I framed some of my remarks, but we're not going to ignore Chinese behavior," Shanahan said ahead of his speech. "I think in the past people have kind of tiptoed around that. It's not about being confrontational, it's about being open and having a dialogue."

Shanahan also met with Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe on Friday. It's the first time since 2011 that China has sent a top-level leader to Shangri-La.

The pair agreed to improve communication and deepen exchanges and cooperation between U.S. and Chinese militaries. It's a significant shift from the rhetoric of both Chinese President Xi Jingping and a former U.S. general last year that indicated the possibility of a shooting war.

The U.S. has been critical of China over its militarization of man-made islands in the South China Sea, and defense intelligence officials have expressed concerns that China's growing military could lead an attack against Taiwan.

The waters have been hotly contested by countries in the region. China claims a huge chunk of the sea of its own in order to maintain control over an oil-rich choke-point where $5.3 trillion of trade passes annually.

On Saturday, Shanahan said that while the U.S. is willing to cooperate with China, behavior that erodes other nations' sovereignty and sows distrust of China's intentions must end.

"Competition does not mean conflict," he said. "Competition is not to be feared. We should welcome it, provided that everyone plays by internationally established rules."

He also restated America's distrust of Huawei, the world's leading network equipment provider and second-largest smartphone maker, saying the company is "too close to the government," which has laws requiring data to be shared.

"You can't trust that those networks are going to be protected," he said.

The defense secretary also vowed that the U.S. will remain invested in the Indo-Pacific region's stability, including maintaining a focus on denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.

"We are where we belong. We are investing in the region. We are investing in you, and with you," he said.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Friday that hardening attitudes of both the U.S. and China have been worrying, and urged the U.S. to prepare for China's stronger role in global trade while calling on Beijing to settle disputes in the South China Sea peacefully.

"The fundamental problem between the U.S. and China is a mutual lack of strategic trust. This bodes ill for any compromise or peaceful accommodation. But to go down the present path would be a serious mistake on both sides. There is no strategic inevitability about a U.S.-China faceoff," he said.

Linda Givetash

Linda Givetash is a reporter based in London. She previously worked for The Canadian Press in Vancouver and Nation Media in Uganda. 

Associated Press

Reuters contributed.

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2019-06-01 09:55:00Z
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Britain braces as Donald Trump marches into political mayhem - CNN

Theresa May last week became the second British prime minister to fall victim to Brexit. The governing Conservative party is engaged in a myopic fight over who will replace her. Voters are sick of the mess and are flocking to political movements on the extreme ends of the Brexit debate.

Ordinarily, a state visit from the sitting US President is a chance for the UK so show off to the world the "special relationship" it enjoys with America and Britain at its best. But the best outcome for the Trump state visit is that it passes with as little fuss as possible.

The chances of that seem slim. On Friday night, the Sun newspaper published an interview with the President in which he said that Boris Johnson, the current front-runner to replace May, would do a "very good job" as prime minister.

It was his second intervention in as many days. Earlier in the week, Trump said that Johnson was a "friend" for whom he had "a lot of respect." He said the same thing of the hard Brexiteer and Conservative Party nemesis, Nigel Farage. Trump even hinted that he might meet the pair while he's in London.

Officials would rather he didn't, and there's nothing on the official schedule so far. And while Farage would thrive from the attention, it's not at all clear that Johnson would benefit from a presidential one-on-one.

Under normal circumstances, someone hoping to be the next leader of a country would bite the hand off a US President offering an endorsement. But these are not normal circumstances and Donald Trump is not a normal President.

Johnson is often described as a British Trump. Both men have a history of saying controversial and sometimes offensive things in public (Johnson famously wrote a newspaper column last year saying that women wearing full Islamic face veils looked like letter boxes). Both have been accused of lying during political campaigns (something for which Johnson now faces a court hearing). And both have absolutely epic hairstyles.

However, the comparisons only work at this superficial level. Comparing Johnson's politics to Trump's populism is at best disingenuous and at worst a smear. The thing is, it's a smear that works.

Trump is not popular in the UK. Most Brits regard his style of politics as crass. His public comments about women and Muslims don't go down well. There is a sense of British fair play that tends to extend to the level of decency expected by those elected to power. This is especially true of Conservative party members. Think people drinking warm beer and watching cricket, not screaming "lock her up" at rallies.

Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary, University of London sums it up: "I think people in the US don't appreciate that Donald Trump is seen on all sides of British politics as a figure of fun and not someone to take too seriously. Any endorsement by him isn't likely to do a candidate any good -- and might do them some damage."

The problem for Johnson is that, in calling him a "friend", Trump has already given him something of an endorsement.

It's unlikely that Johnson feels the same. In 2015, when Johnson was mayor of London, Trump said that some areas of the British capital with large Muslim populations had become so radicalized "that police are afraid for their own lives." Johnson's riposte was that he wouldn't visit some parts of New York for the "real risk of meeting Donald Trump."

For Farage, the Trump connection plays differently.

His newly-formed Brexit Party finished in first place at last week's European elections. Broadly speaking, Farage's base is far more sympathetic to Trumpian politics than Johnson's. An endorsement from Trump could help Farage lock down that harder-line voter at a crucial moment in British politics. And Farage has the luxury of not needing to look outside of that pool of voters.

Unlike Farage, Johnson has to appeal to a far broader church if he is to succeed as leader. Many Conservatives voted to remain in the EU and remain ardently pro-European. As recently as October, liberal Conservatives grimaced at the idea of Johnson becoming prime minister. Today, many of them see him as their only option if they are to avoid electoral oblivion.

The success of the Brexit Party has spooked Conservatives. The longer Brexit remains unresolved, the more vulnerable they are. On Friday, the polling company YouGov published a survey of voters' general election intentions which placed both the governing Conservatives and opposition Labour behind the second-placed Brexit Party.

Brexit, as if anyone needed reminding, is the single most divisive issue in Britain today. Ahead of the Brexit Party in the YouGov survey were the Liberal Democrats, a party that campaigned in last week's European elections using the slogan "Bollocks to Brexit."

The UK's traditional two-party system has held for a long time, but it is creaking. Brexit has devastated the traditional dividing lines and rewritten the rules of politics. Neither of the main parties has even begun to work out how to address this new challenge.

And into this mayhem marches a US President with a proven track record of being wildly unhelpful to the British government. On his last visit, his opening gambit was to give an interview to the Sun newspaper in which he trashed Theresa May's handling of Brexit.

Last year, he publicly stated that the deal she had struck with the EU would prohibit the UK from being able to trade with the US.

Whether or not the President will meet with either Johnson or Farage is getting a lot of attention. As things stand, people working on the details of the trip do not officially expect either meeting to happen. But this is a president who marches to the beat of his own drum and loves attention -- good or bad.

It probably hasn't occurred to him that others would prefer that he kept his mouth shut.

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2019-06-01 09:54:46Z
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Trump creates diplomatic headache for U.K. even before state visit - NBC News

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June 1, 2019, 7:06 AM UTC / Updated June 1, 2019, 7:10 AM UTC

By Rachel Elbaum

LONDON — Britain and the U.S. may have a special relationship but President Donald Trump’s state visit will be a diplomatic balancing act for the U.K., where Trump is deeply unpopular.

Even before his arrival on British shores, the president caused a stir by wading into the contest to replace Theresa May as prime minister and criticising Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex.

Trump's trip comes as the U.K. is facing its most significant crisis since the Second World War.

It is currently in the midst of a long and messy divorce from the European Union, the economic and political bloc it has belonged to for more than 40 years.

That divorce has now brought down a second prime minister in less than three years.

May announced on May 24 that she will step down as prime minister and leader of her ruling Conservative party just days after the president's visit. Her party is now in the midst of a heated race to decide who will be its next leader — and the country's next prime minister.

In an interview Friday with the British tabloid The Sun, Trump said Boris Johnson — the divisive populist and ex-foreign secretary who is favorite to replace May — would make an "excellent" prime minister.

"I think Boris would do a very good job. I think he would be excellent," Trump said.

The president also referred to the American-born Duchess of Sussex as "nasty" over comments she made in 2016 threatening to move to Canada if Trump won the White House.

But he wished her well in her new life as a princess. "I am sure she will do excellently," he added.

The comments threatened to overshadow the build up to Trump's long-awaited state visit.

Trump is widely disliked in the U.K. He has a positive opinion rating of only 21 percent, according to YouGov, compared to 72 percent for former President Barack Obama.

But he told The Sun Friday that “I don’t imagine any U.S. president was ever closer to your great land.”

"Now I think I am really — I hope — I am really loved in the U.K.," he added. "I certainly love the U.K."

On Tuesday, the day after Trump’s arrival, thousands of people are expected to hit the streets of the capital to protest, like they did during his last visit in July.

It was a similar story for President George W. Bush, whose state visit came eight months after the invasion of Iraq.

Demonstrators protest against President Donald Trump's visit to the U.K. in July 2018.Yves Herman / Reuters file

Yet it’s precisely because of the U.K.'s Brexit mess that it needs this visit now more than ever.

With no Brexit deal in sight, and future trade ties with Europe now up in the air, a trade deal with the U.S. has become increasingly important.

“The cleaner the Brexit, the easier it is for the U.S. to strike a free trade deal with the U.K.,” said Leslie Vinjamuri, the head of the U.S. and Americas program at the Chatham House think tank.

“That plays into the hands of those who are pushing for a hard Brexit,” from the E.U. with no agreement setting out a framework for future relations.

On his last visit to the U.K., Trump didn’t hold back.

He blasted May over Brexit and warned that her plan could scuttle an American trade deal with the U.K. because Britain would remain too close with the E.U.

In his interview Friday Trump again criticized May's handling of Brexit, saying she "didn't give the European Union anything to lose" in negotiations.

“Any foreign intervention into something as sensitive as Brexit is tricky and likely to put people in a bad political position. People here will be very nervous on the extent to which they engage with it,” said Vinjamuri.

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama met Britain's Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, at Buckingham Palace, in May 2011 during their state visit.Reuters file

There are few precedents when it comes to presidential state visits. This is only the third for a U.S. president since the queen assumed the throne in 1952, with Bush receiving the honor in 2003 and Obama in 2011. The queen only hosts one or two state visits a year.

This trip will stand in stark contrast to Obama’s visit in particular.

Obama and his wife Michelle were welcomed by the queen, as well as the glamour couple of the time, Prince William and Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, who had married only a month earlier. Their Buckingham Palace banquet was filled with glitz and glamour and included former prime ministers as well as the mayor of London, and even actor Tom Hanks.

Ahead of Trump's arrival, however, some of the U.K.’s most senior politicians have said that the visit is a mistake and that they won’t attend the Queen’s uber-formal state dinner at Buckingham Palace.

Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has refused to join the white tie event and said that May "should not be rolling out the red carpet for a state visit to honor a president who rips up vital international treaties, backs climate change denial and uses racist and misogynist rhetoric."

Corbyn, however, has been criticized for inviting members of Hamas and Hezbollah to an event in Parliament in 2009 and for calling the groups “friends.” Both groups are classified by the U.K. and U.S. as terrorist groups and have repeatedly called for the destruction of the State of Israel.

But he’s not the only political leader refusing to meet with the president.

Vince Cable, leader of the centrist Liberal Democrats, also turned down a seat at the dinner with Trump. And Mayor of London Sadiq Khan called May’s invitation “ill-judged” and called on her to revoke it in 2017 when it was first made.

Despite the objections to Trump's visit and the difficulty for U.K. politicians to head off any explosive comments the president may make, experts say that the close relationship between the two countries is bigger than their leaders.

“The government has made big attempt to say to people that however much you may find Trump objectionable you must distinguish the man from the office,” said the former Ambassador to the U.S. Christopher Meyer.

"This is a state visit, this is an honor for the whole of the U.S."

Rachel Elbaum

Rachel Elbaum is a London-based editor, producer and writer. 

Associated Press contributed.

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2019-06-01 07:10:00Z
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Kim Yong Chol's demotion would be very good news for America - Washington Examiner

Reports from a South Korean newspaper suggests that two of Kim Jong Un's top officials have been purged from his regime. If true, this would be welcome news for U.S. diplomacy.

Chosun Ilbo reports that North Korea has executed a lead negotiator responsible for discussions with the U.S., has sent Kim Yong Chol to a labor camp, and has told Kim's sister Kim Yo Jong to "lie low." It also asserts that a North Korean propaganda outlet, Rodong Sinmun, recently editorialized against traitors.

The U.S. State Department says it is investigating. But again, if this report is true, the first reaction should be one of guarded optimism for the U.S. After all, if Kim Yong Chol has been purged from the highest echelons of the regime, it would mean the departure of a key hardliner who had the North Korean leader's ear.

And there should be very little doubt that Kim Yong Chol is an archon of North Korean regime hardliners. Pushing his young boss to play for time and sanctions relief, Kim Yong Chol is an obstruction to President Trump's grand bargain. And up until this news, it was increasingly clear that the North Korean leader was holding to his adviser's bent. If, however, Kim Yong Chol has been sent away to the gulags, it comes at a crucial time. Kim Jong Un has repeatedly struck out those around him to consolidate his personal power at the heart of North Korean governance. Yet regime pressures in North Korea are now defined by the upcoming food crisis. If Kim cannot address that food crisis, either by an amelioration of U.S. sanctions under diplomacy, or via extorting the U.S., he is likely to launch new long range ballistic missile tests. Kim Yong Chol almost certainly would have advised a harder rather than softer line against America.

This flows into why I believe President Trump walked away from Kim Yong Un at the two leaders' most recent summit in Hanoi this February. Trump believes, with good reason, that Kim has not yet made up his mind as to whether to pursue a compromise. So if only for a moment, and if only contingent on Chosun Ilbo's report, this is good news.

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2019-05-31 16:16:00Z
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Trump threatens tariffs on Mexico over immigration: Live updates - CNN

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders dismissed any legal concerns with the President’s tariffs announcement.

Asked if there are concerns the action will get tied up in court, Sanders said:

“Not at all. The President has the legal authority to do this through IEEPA. In fact, that give him much broader authority than he’s taken on this front.”

For context: IEEPA is the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which authorizes the President to regulate commerce after declaring a national emergency.

She continued, “This is a measured response to the authority that he has, there’s case law that supports it from precedent where this has been done in the past. And again, the President’s going to fulfill his duty, it would be nice if Congress would fulfill theirs.”

However: As CNN reported yesterday, privately, officials have conceded it’s not clear the White House has the legal authority to impose tariffs on this scale. They are concerned that, because of the scope, the mandate will potentially face legal challenges that could leave it tied up in the courts before June 10 even gets here. 

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2019-05-31 16:12:00Z
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Trump threatens tariffs on Mexico over immigration: Live updates - CNN

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders dismissed any legal concerns with the President’s tariffs announcement.

Asked if there are concerns the action will get tied up in court, Sanders said:

“Not at all. The President has the legal authority to do this through IEEPA. In fact, that give him much broader authority than he’s taken on this front.”

For context: IEEPA is the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which authorizes the President to regulate commerce after declaring a national emergency.

She continued, “This is a measured response to the authority that he has, there’s case law that supports it from precedent where this has been done in the past. And again, the President’s going to fulfill his duty, it would be nice if Congress would fulfill theirs.”

However: As CNN reported yesterday, privately, officials have conceded it’s not clear the White House has the legal authority to impose tariffs on this scale. They are concerned that, because of the scope, the mandate will potentially face legal challenges that could leave it tied up in the courts before June 10 even gets here. 

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2019-05-31 14:58:00Z
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Trump announces escalating tariffs against Mexico, starting at 5 percent, until illegal immigrants 'STOP' - Fox News

President Trump on Thursday abruptly announced a new 5 percent tariff on Mexico beginning in early June, saying the levy will "gradually increase" until the ongoing illegal immigration surge at the southern border is "remedied" and illegal migrants "STOP."

"On June 10th, the United States will impose a 5% Tariff on all goods coming into our Country from Mexico, until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP," Trump wrote. "The Tariff will gradually increase until the Illegal Immigration problem is remedied, ... ..at which time the Tariffs will be removed. Details from the White House to follow."

Fox News is told the tariff on all goods by land, sea, and air from Mexico will hike to 10 percent on July 1 -- and potentially increase substantially from there.

"If Mexico still has not taken action to dramatically reduce or eliminate the number of illegal aliens crossing its territory into the United States, Tariffs will be increased to 15 percent on August 1, 2019, to 20 percent on September 1, 2019, and to 25 percent on October 1, 2019," Trump said in a statement released later by the White House on Thursday. "Tariffs will permanently remain at the 25 percent level unless and until Mexico substantially stops the illegal inflow of aliens coming through its territory."

The statement added: "Thousands of innocent lives are taken every year as a result of this lawless chaos.  It must end NOW! ... Mexico’s passive cooperation in allowing this mass incursion constitutes an emergency and extraordinary threat to the national security and economy of the United States."

Specifically, White House sources told Fox News that Mexico would need to step up security efforts on the border, target transnational smugglers, crack down on illicit bus lines and align with the U.S. on a workable asylum policy. Mexico could use certain so-called choke points on the southern border to curb illegal migration sharply, according to the sources.

The Washington Post reported earlier in the day that the Trump administration was considering the move, and that it had broad support in the White House -- although some aides reportedly tried to talk Trump out of it.

“We are going to do something very dramatic on the border because people are coming into our country," Trump told reporters earlier Thursday.

The International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 permits tariffs to be levied by the executive in the event of a national emergency originating from a foreign source. Trump said he was invoking the powers in the law and would use his "sole discretion" to determine whether Mexico had taken sufficient action.

"If Mexico does not take decisive measures, it will come at a significant price," Trump concluded in his statement.

The situation could complicate the legislative passage of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), sent to Congress by the White House on Thursday, which has aimed broadly to limit tariffs among the three countries.

However, the White House told Fox News it saw the matters as entirely distinct and did not anticipate complications for the USMCA.

Migrants seeking asylum in the United States lining up for meals provided by volunteers near the international bridge in Matamoros, Mexico. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

Vice President Mike Pence was in the Canadian capital of Ottawa on Thursday to build support for the USMCA. The U.S. recently lifted steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada that had threatened to sink the arrangement, which was signed in November with the goal of replacing the North American Free Trade Agreement.

TRUMP ORDERS ASYLUM OVERHAUL, CITING STATS SHOWING MOST CLAIMS ARE FRAUDULENT OR UNFOUNDED

The news of the tariff came hours after Politico reported that an internal plan under consideration at the Department of Homeland Security effectively would block Central American migrants from bringing asylum claims, by prohibiting claims from applicants who resided in a country other than their own before seeking entry to the United States.

Arrests along the southern border have skyrocketed in recent months, with border agents making more than 100,000 arrests or denials of entry in March, a 12-year high. Immigration courts that process asylum claims currently have faced a backlog of more than 800,000 cases and asylum applicants increasingly have been staying in the U.S. even after their claims for asylum have been denied.

More than 4,000 individuals have been apprehended at the border with children who are not their own in recent months, administration officials tell Fox News.

And, Customs and Border Protection said it apprehended or turned away over 109,000 migrants attempting to cross the border in April, the second month in a row the number has topped 100,000.

In a dramatic moment, more than 1,000 illegal immigrants were apprehended by border agents near the U.S.-Mexico border early Wednesday -- the largest ever group of migrants ever apprehended at a single time, sources told Fox News on Thursday. The group of 1,036 illegal immigrants found in the El Paso sector included migrants from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, according to sources.

Trump tweeted a video of the episode on Thursday, with the note: “Democrats need to stand by our incredible Border Patrol and finally fix the loopholes at our Border!”

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A top Border Patrol official told lawmakers in April that authorities have apprehended more families illegally crossing the border between October 2018 and February of this year than during all of the 2018 fiscal year (Oct. 1, 2017-Sept. 30, 2018).

"Much media attention has focused on caravans coming across from Central America," Rio Grande Valley (RGV) Sector Chief Patrol Agent Rodolfo Karisch told the Senate Homeland Security Committee. "But, the fact is that RGV is receiving caravan-equivalent numbers every seven days."

Fox News' John Roberts and Edward Lawrence contributed to this report.

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2019-05-31 14:15:06Z
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