Citizen Tribune

ISLAMABAD (AP) —

U.S. Secretary of State Rex

Tillerson is in Pakistan to

deliver a tough message

on the importance of fight-

ing extremists and driving

them from hideouts on

Pakistani territory.

Tillerson arrived in Is-

lamabad on Tuesday, a

day after traveling to Iraq

and Afghanistan in condi-

tions of strict secrecy. He

met with Pakistan's Prime

Minister Shahid Khaqan

Abbasi, Foreign Minister

Khwaja Mohammad Asif

and the heads of the army

and intelligence services.

Tillerson told Abbasi

that Pakistan is "so impor-

tant regionally to our joint

goals of providing peace

and security to the region

and providing opportunity

for greater economic rela-

tionship."

Abbasi said Pakistan

is "committed in the war

against terror."

"We have produced re-

sults and we are looking

forward to moving ahead

with the U.S. and build-

ing a tremendous relation-

ship," he said.

"The U.S. can rest as-

sured that we are strategic

partners in the war against

terror and that today Paki-

stan is fighting the largest

war in the world against

terror," Abbasi said. "We

appreciate the understand-

ings that we agreed and

we appreciate the engage-

ment."

In Afghanistan on Mon-

day, he told reporters that

Pakistan's cooperation on

counterterrorism is essen-

tial for a good relation-

ship with the U.S. His

comments echoed those

of other top U.S. officials

who have been pressing

Pakistan on the matter.

He said Pakistan needs

to "take a clear-eyed view"

of its position and act.

"Pakistan needs to, I

think, take a clear-eyed

view of the situation that

they are confronted with

in terms of the number

of terrorist organizations

that find safe haven inside

of Pakistan," he said. "So

we want to work closely

Pakistan to create a more

stable and secure Pakistan

as well."

Earlier this month, the

campaign appeared to pro-

duce some success when

Pakistani security forces

assisted with the release of

a Taliban-held U.S.-Cana-

dian family after five years

in captivity. However, offi-

cials cautioned that action

needed to be followed with

additional steps.

Tillerson, who will visit

India after Pakistan, is

in South Asia to outline

the Trump administra-

tion's new strategy for the

region, which is heavy

on combatting extremist

groups.

Last week, CIA director

Mike Pompeo said that for

the strategy to work, the

Taliban must be convinced

they have no hope of win-

ning militarily in Afghani-

stan and that means mak-

ing it impossible for them

to cross the rugged Af-

ghan-Pakistani border and

hide inside Pakistan.

"To do that you cannot

have a safe haven in Paki-

stan," he said. But he add-

ed that the U.S. had low

expectations.

U.S. officials have long

accused Pakistan of turn-

ing a blind eye or assisting

the Afghan Taliban and the

allied Haqqani network.

Pakistan routinely denies

colluding with the mili-

tants.

In early October, Gen.

Joseph Dunford, chairman

of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,

told a congressional hear-

ing that it was clear to him

that Pakistan's intelligence

service had connections to

militant groups.

Pakistan has struggled

to shake off suspicion that

it wields a malign and stra-

tegic interest in Afghani-

stan, on its western border.

It has ties to the Taliban

dating to the extremist

movement's genesis in the

1990s.

CITIZEN TRIBUNE

World

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

EEE-5

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, center, is greeted before boarding his plane for Paki-

stan, Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2017, in Doha, Qatar.

Tillerson in Pakistan with a tough message on safe havens

Europe should

preserve its

cultural heritage,

EU's Tusk says

BRUSSELS (AP) — The

European Union must do

more to defend its external

borders against migrants,

EU chief Donald Tusk said

Tuesday, describing Europe

as a "cultural community"

whose heritage must be pre-

served.

While the president of the

European Council insisted

that Europeans are not su-

perior to other peoples, his

rhetoric of cultural preser-

vation echoed in some ways

the language of populist

politicians winning support

across Europe with calls to

keep migrants from settling

on the continent.

"We are a cultural com-

munity, which doesn't mean

that we are better or worse

— we are simply different

from the outside world,"

Tusk said in an address to

the European Parliament in

Strasbourg, France.

"Our openness and toler-

ance cannot mean walking

away from protecting our

heritage," Tusk added. "We

have the right and obliga-

tion to care for what distin-

guishes us from other cul-

tures — not in order to be

against someone, but to be

ourselves. Without a feel-

ing of superiority, but with

a feeling of justified pride."

Europe is deeply divided

over the issue of migration,

with leaders like German

Chancellor Angela Merkel

who initially called for

relatively welcoming poli-

cies now retreating from

those positions, and right-

wing populists warning that

large Muslim communities

threaten to erode Europe's

Christian profile.

The leading proponent of

that view has been Hungar-

ian Prime Minister Viktor

Orban, who erected razor

wire fences in 2015 at a

time when the largest num-

bers of people fleeing war

and poverty in the Middle

East and Africa poured into

Europe. He has often de-

scribed Muslim migrants as

invaders who threaten Eu-

rope's cultural identity.

That view has resonated

in many places including

Tusk's homeland, Poland,

where he was previously

prime minister.

Recent elections in Ger-

many and Austria have re-

flected rising support for

anti-migrant parties.

Tusk said the EU must do

much more to protect the

bloc's external borders.

"Our duty is to protect

them," Tusk said. "The mi-

gration crisis has made us

aware, with full force, of

the need to rebuild effective

control of our external bor-

ders while the aggressive

behavior of certain third

countries, and the destabi-

lization around Europe, has

made us aware of the need

to defend our territory."

Europe has reduced the

migrant flow significantly

since 2015 by making deals

with Turkey and militias in

Libya, something that hu-

man rights activists have

criticized. Migrants in Lib-

ya in particular have said

they faced abuse at deten-

tion centers where they are

prevented from attempting

boat trips to Europe.

Xi's status lifted, setting stage for

an even tighter grip

BEIJING (AP) — The

ruling Communist Party on

Tuesday formally lifted Xi

Jinping's status to China's

most powerful ruler in de-

cades, setting the stage for

the authoritarian leader to

tighten his grip over the

country while pursuing an

increasingly muscular for-

eign policy and military ex-

pansion.

The move to insert Xi's

name and dogma into the

party's constitution along-

side the party's founders

came at the close of a twice-

a-decade congress that gath-

ered the country's ruling

elite alongside rank-and-file

party members. It not only

places him in the first rank,

with past leaders Mao Ze-

dong and Deng Xiaoping,

but also effectively makes

any act of opposing him tan-

tamount to an attack on the

party itself.

"The Chinese people

and nation have a great and

bright future ahead," Xi told

party delegates as the meet-

ing came to a close after del-

egates approved the addition

of Xi's ideology of "social-

ism with Chinese character-

istics for a new era" to the

party charter.

"Living in such a great

era, we are all the more con-

fident and proud, and also

feel the heavy weight of

responsibility upon us," he

said.

The concept Xi has touted

is seen as marking a break

from the stage of economic

reform ushered in by Deng

Xiaoping in the late 1970s

and continued under his

successors Jiang Zemin

and Hu Jintao; Xi has spo-

ken of China emerging into

a "new normal" of slower,

but higher quality econom-

ic growth. The placement

of Xi's thought among the

party's leading guidelines

also comes five years into

his term — earlier than his

predecessors.

"In every sense, the Xi

Jinping era has begun in

earnest," said Zhang Lifan,

an independent political

commentator in Beijing.

"Only Mao's name was en-

shrined in the party ideol-

ogy while he was still alive.

We're opening something

that hasn't been broached

before."

For centuries, Chinese

emperors were accorded

ritual names that signaled

either they were succes-

sors in a dynastic line or

the founders of an entirely

new dynasty. What Xi ac-

complished this week was

a modern equivalent of the

latter, Zhang said.

"He wants to join that

pantheon of leaders," he

said.

Despite being elevated to

the status of both a political

and theoretical authority in

the party, Xi still lacks the

broad popular support of the

Chinese public that Mao had

enjoyed, said Zhang Ming, a

political analyst in Beijing

who recently retired from a

prestigious university.

"This (elevation) is a re-

sult of the party's political

system and not of the sin-

cere support of the people's

hearts," Zhang Ming said.

"If he can achieve that, he

would become Mao."

Xi has described his con-

cept as central to setting

China on the path to becom-

ing a "great modern social-

ist country" by midcentury.

This vision has at its core a

ruling party that serves as

the vanguard for everything

from defending national

security to providing moral

guidance to ordinary Chi-

nese.

He has set the target date

of 2049, the People's Re-

public's centenary, for the

establishment of a prosper-

ous, modern society. China

has the world's second-larg-

est economy and legions of

newly wealthy urban resi-

dents, but raising living stan-

dards for millions of people

continues to be a challenge.

Zhang Ming, the retired

professor, said the goals Xi

laid out were lofty but most-

ly mere rhetoric. "These

goals have nothing to do

with the people but are just

jargon that people shouldn't

take seriously," Zhang said.

"It is not important for him

to achieve these goals, just

as long as his power reaches

its peak."

The move came at the

close of the 89 million-

member party's national

congress at Beijing's hulk-

ing Great Hall of the People,

where nearly 2,300 del-

egates gathered to elect the

party's leading bodies and

hear reports.

Although the delegates

nominally have the power

to vote on candidates, all

choices are carefully vetted

and the outcomes decided

by negotiations among the

top leaders.

The constitution was also

amended to include refer-

ences to the party's "abso-

lute" leadership over the

armed forces, which have

been modernizing rapidly

under Xi, and a commit-

ment to promote Xi's signa-

ture foreign policy and infra-

structure initiative known as

"One Belt, One Road." That

initiative seeks to link China

to Southeast Asia, Central

Asia, Africa, Europe and

beyond with a sprawling

network of roads, railways,

ports and other economic

projects.

Delegates also elected a

204-member Central Com-

mittee, roughly 70 percent

of whom are newcomers.

The committee holds its

first meeting Wednesday

morning, after which the

new 25-member politburo

and its Standing Commit-

tee — the apex of Chinese

political power — will be

announced.

Five of the seven mem-

bers of the current Standing

Committee were left off the

list of new Central Commit-

tee members, as was expect-

ed under the party's unwrit-

ten retirement age of 68.

That includes close Xi

ally Wang Qishan, who led

the party's much-feared anti-

corruption agency that has

investigated well over 1 mil-

lion party members over the

past years, bringing down

two former top generals and

a one-time member of the

Standing Committee.

Wang's retirement ends

a long career that saw him

called on to help set up Chi-

na's first investment bank,

deal with the outbreak of

SARS in Beijing and assist

in organizing the 2008 Sum-

mer Olympics in the Chi-

nese capital.

Along with civilian turn-

over, the military has also

seen a considerable infusion

of new blood. Seven of the

11 members of the Central

Military Commission head-

ed by Xi are expected to be

newly appointed, including

one of its two vice chairmen.

Meanwhile, the number

of women on the Central

Committee remains static

at 10, though it's still not

clear how many, if any, will

make it onto the Politburo,

where two have been sitting.

No woman has ever made

it onto the Standing Com-

mittee, a sharp contrast to

elsewhere in the region such

as Taiwan and Hong Kong

where women have been

elected leaders.