"The coronavirus graphically demonstrated that even recognized risks can catch the world off guard. SARS and Ebola had alerted the world to the danger of a zoonotic virus. Just last year, governments and international agencies issued clear and repeated warnings. The U.S. government ran simulations of an outbreak code-named 'Crimson Contagion' that highlighted the threat. An international panel of experts convened by the World Health Organization warned explicitly of the pandemic threat to human life and the global economy. Yet when [...]

"Daniel Russell, a former U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, sees Xi’s fulfillment of a domestically popular mission to unify the motherland as one of several echoes of Russia’s 2014 move on Crimea. The 'muscular assertion of sovereign power at a moment of weakness at home' is another. Putin had been struggling with low approval ratings since returning to power two years before and could ill afford to appear weak, after losing a struggle to keep [...]

"Daniel Russel, a former senior Obama administration official who dealt with Asia, said that American diplomats traditionally have been able to acknowledge U.S. struggles when dealing with foreign audiences. That dash of humility, however, was coupled with a sense of U.S. credibility – that America could be relied upon to help the oppressed in other countries as they fought for democracy, human rights and other ideals... "'The willingness of people in other countries to stand with you rests in large part [...]

"Danny Russel, a vice president at the Asia Society, who served in the Obama administration, said the Trump administration had long since 'crossed the Rubicon in terms of undercutting any credibility the United States may have had with the Chinese public about our commitment to values and to our principles.' "Trump tweets and actions this week 'are just gratuitous validation,' said Russel, who added that a theme running through Trump’s domestic and foreign policies 'is the theme of polarization and divisiveness. [...]

"'The legislation on Hong Kong was a decisive show of force by Xi Jinping, signalling a willingness to defy international opinion, to challenge the United States and to threaten the people of Hong Kong - and by extension, the people on Taiwan as well,' said Daniel Russel, Vice President of the Asia Society Policy Institute. "'There is little sympathy for Hong Kong protesters on the mainland, and this muscle-flexing by Xi is a timely distraction from the government’s early missteps on [...]

"Daniel Russel, a former Asia affairs adviser to President Barack Obama and now vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute, a U.S.-based think tank, said China's legislation is a 'decisive show of force by (Chinese President) Xi Jinping, signaling a willingness to defy international opinion, to challenge the United States, and to threaten the people of Hong Kong...'" Read the full article here: Full Article

"'The irony is that in punishing Hong Kong, we wind up martyring it rather than saving it,' said Daniel Russel, an assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific in the Obama administration. As for diplomacy between Washington and Beijing, he said: 'The brake pads in the relationship have worn very, very thin. And it’s hard to see this confrontation going anywhere except escalation...'" Read the full article here: Full Article