and the west bed in a low profile manner. another island gets a visit via us delegation. the solomon islands in the south pacific hosted the deputy secretary of state, wendy sherman, and the us ambassador to australia. caroline kennedy, daughter of the late us president john f. kennedy. the state department says the diplomatic visit is to commemorate the battle of guadalcanal in world war 2. but the other agencies traveling with these 2 diplomats are raising questions. all right, let's get into the em up me. sovereignty in the world of politics is generally defined and accepted as a nation's supreme right to act independently, without outside interference to do that, which it feels best serves its national interest. and that has been the subject of debate over taiwan for hundreds of years from its native population predating

written history of the island to the questionable 300 year rule by the ming dynasty of mainland china. in the 1300s to the stint of dutch colonialism in the 1600s, taiwan sovereignty has been disputed all through history. so when how speaker nancy pelosi chose to make a short stop in taiwan in early august 2022. did she effectively defy beijing's request? not to come and break the one china policy, the u. s. claims to subscribe. joining us now to discuss the complicated history of taiwan and the future of us. china relations is doctor bates and gil, he's the professor and department head of mockery university, and he's an expert on chinese foreign policy and also was the former director of the talk home international peace research institute. dr. gil,

thank you for joining us now. dr. gil china has had a dubious claim to taiwan, dating back to at least the 1300s. this has been disputed by some historians, but at the very least, china has had influence over the island since that present day. beijing uses the term reunification when talking about taiwan. is this characterization accurate? well, i think the greatest aspiration certainly as expressed by a she jumping repeatedly is the so called great rejuvenation of the chinese nation. which, which i interpret to mean a sort of return to china's past greatness in which it is widely respected in the world seen and accepted as a great power. and may be most importantly in which the leadership of

the chinese communist party is not only accepted by the world but is indeed respected. and even they hope appreciated by the international community. and that's probably the grandest ambition of all. and, you know, she has made it clear that he intends to drive forward across that grand ambition. such that china would become if not the most powerful and respected country in the world. and certainly among the most powerful and respected countries in the world. but in modern times, it was the san francisco peace treaty of 1951, which saw imperial japanese colonization of taiwan come to an end after the allies defeated japan and world war 2. that treaty signed by 48 nations. however,

it failed to define taiwan as independent, nor did it say who if any country taiwan would be seated to. and this leads us to the present. they ambiguity of the sovereignty status of that island. the san francisco peace treaty of $951.00 was extremely flawed. most of the 48 signatories agreed to sort of leave taiwan in limbo and play it by ear if you will. this ended the japanese occupation, but didn't really defined high ones national status in a post occupation world. so is independence, thereby a default status if occupation comes to an end. according to the un charter, recall, the china mainland china, the people's republic of china, was not even a member of the united nations until 1971. and was

really something of an outcast and isolated a by the international community. and instead, the government on taiwan, the national government on taiwan, was considered the legitimate government of china had a seat in the united nations was played a very, very major role in the post world war to construction of the international community, et cetera. and you know, with that kind of support, i think yes, the communist leadership in china at the time in the fifty's and sixty's did believe that, you know, taiwan may have been used as an instrument against it less. so i think today, although that may be changing, of course, there is now no official diplomatic relationship between the united states and taiwan. the united states has been relatively clear and consistent in it's

messaging about taiwan status, that it does not support a time on independence. its principal interest is that the differences across the taiwan strait be settled peacefully and include, you know, the consent of the people of taiwan. but that other than that, the united states official policy is that it does not have any sort of preferred outcome as long as it's peaceful and done with the consent and support of the people of taiwan. so, you know, i wouldn't say it's a cudgel exactly, but i think increasingly clearly there is some concern that china may wish to resolve this differences with taiwan through the use of force in which in which case could well result in some form of american intervention to try and prevent

that. now the u. k for their part in this treaty recognized the beijing communist party, whereas the u. s. officially gave the island quote, an undetermined status. now today, the united nations whose charter this treaty falls under, does not officially recognize taiwan as an independent nation state. the principle of independence is easy to understand at the popular sentiment, but on the world stage politically and economically. does full sovereignty and independence benefit taiwan, or would it be more beneficial to be reunited with the mainland? you know, the fact is that depending on how you measure it, it's been well over a century or more that there has been no effective control of taiwan by

a government in the mainland. and so, you know, it's unavoidable then that, you know, with that passage of time of the people of taiwan. i have have felt increasingly a less and less associated you know, politically, surely with mainland china. and i think that is really at the center of the differences across the taiwan strait about you know, whether taiwan should or should not be considered a part of mainland china. so u. s. foreign policy seems to acknowledge b, one china policy. this is in reference obviously to taiwan and hong kong, but the beijing government specifically told nancy pelosi that her visit was not welcome. according to the chinese foreign ministry spokesperson thou the shon quote,

i want to reiterate that the one china principal is at the heart of china's cor interest. no country force or individual shall ever underestimate the firm. resolve staunch will and strong capability of the chinese government and people to defend sovereignty and territorial integrity and to achieve national reunification and rejuvenation. now this came on the heels of president biden's gap just a few months prior saying that the u. s. would assist taiwan militarily of china, re unified the island by force. us china relations have grown continually. i fear over the last 6 years, locked in this trade war, and even expressing us goals of containing china. where does this put the relationship between the world's top 2 super power economies in the coming years?

well, clearly the visit by the speaker, you know, has created increase tensions in the us china relationship. you know, i think there is probably some blame to be had on both sides of this question for the resulting increase tensions. it was an unprecedented, obviously the speaker of the us house of representatives had visited taiwan once before, you know, back in the 1900 ninety's when newt gingrich visited. so it's not entirely unprecedented. and i think, you know, the core message coming out of washington is that this does not signal any fundamental change in those core elements of the us policy toward toward taiwan. but nevertheless, clearly controversial. beijing not happy launched the massive

military exercises against, you know, in around taiwan as a signal of its unhappiness. and you know, that's just lead to even greater and even pulling in beijing signal that is pulling out of a variety of dialog mechanisms with the united states. and so we see ourselves in a much, much more difficult situation between these 2 great powers which, which of course is unfortunate. but, you know, congressional delegations have visited taiwan for many, many years. this is nothing new. and so i think in a sense, we see a bit of overreaction, i would say from, from beijing on this. but of course, as you said, the united states in china relations were already in very, very difficult situation. and we see a worsening now as a result,

and we can hope that the 2 countries could try and rebuild some of those guardrails and come to at least a more stable a set of understandings with one another going forward. dr. bates scale. thank you so much for sharing your insight with us today. coming up next, this tiny chain of islands in the south pacific is suddenly on everyone's radar. find out next why the solomon islands are being ported by both the united states and china. stay tuned to the em out, we'll be right back. i ah ah

ah wish it was their land to begin with and then it was part of their original reservation. and it was somewhere in the 1920s that they lost oak flat. but it's always been considered sacred to them. oh, but altogether would, in this resolution copper project area, there are approximately $800.00 archaeological sites that would be destroyed. oh wow. wow. that is right in the heart of where meaning for culture, where you know would be the same if you fire bomb the vatican. i hope that

this country recognizes native american ceremonies. cheryl ceremony grounds sacred sites because that's where our hardy said we belong to mother earth. we do not own mother earth. we belong to with blue bears as small island change off the coast of sydney, australia. the solomon islands often overshadowed by better know neighbors such as new guinea and fiji are now creating waves in the south pacific, largely forgotten by the west after the battle of guadalcanal and world war 2. this island chain is garnering renewed interest by both china and the u. s. in recent months. china brokering

a fishing deal that comes with the site of security packed that has put the solomon islands back on americas radar, beijing offering hone era security in the way of training the islands royal police force, and agreeing to have chinese vessels visit. the solomon island ports, meanwhile, the prime minister of the islands, manasseh. so go vari, says there will be no chinese bases in his country and that australia is still their security partner of choice. though a recent visit by chinese foreign minister when he has advanced the islands ties to china, both diplomatically and economically with china promising infrastructure development in this rural country. and all this coming about a year after australia signed the new august pact with the u. k. and us in great france in the process for its part, the us is trying to revive old ties with the island, sending a top diplomatic delegation in early august deputy secretary of state,

wendy sherman. and daughter of a former us president turned ambassador to australia. caroline kennedy, now a young j. s. k, while serving in the navy during world war 2, nearly died in fighting on the islands and was rescued by island locals. the 2 dignitaries attended a world war 2 memorial service on august 8th, and then planned to reopen the u. s. embassy on the island that was shuddered back in 1993. coming with the envoys. usa id, though officially described as the world's premier soft power humanitarian agency, with their mission statement, citing building communities and advancing democracy. where usa id goes. the cia follows for more on what this diplomatic trip means and what u. s. a i d 's presence implies is former a cia agent and whistleblower,

and also host of the new show of the same name, the whistleblowers as john kerry aka john, thank you so much for joining me on saturday. and congratulations on your new showing. looking forward to seeing more of that 1st, at a given your many years, your extensive history in the cia. we know what the state of goals of u. s. a i d r. but what role do they play for the cia? well, 1st you have to look at what intelligences it really is very simply, just information. and usa, i d being a part of the state department really is one of the, the greatest intelligence providers to the cia, everything that a u. s. a i d officer writes makes its way back to the cia through the state department. and so you s a r d may be out there trying to do good work, sir. you know, building dam sir, or digging wells or whatever. but eventually they're going to serve as

a source of intelligence for the cia. so even though they may not meet with ca, personnel, they may not be involved directly with the cia indirectly. they're quite important . the ca, than is obviously america's top spy, an psy op agency. there are countless coups color revolutions, riots that are left in the wake. anywhere. the agency goes, i mean just look at south america back in the 1980s as the most obvious and admitted role of the cia and the blood bath that happened there. why might the cia have interest now in the solomon islands? ah, it's all about china. you know, the cia, it really hasn't had a presence in the solomon islands and indeed a so recently we didn't even have an embassy in the solomon islands. we had closed it, but the solomon islands are very important to australia. and australia, of course, is very important to the united states. and over the years,

the last decades as china has become ascendant, every thing in the pacific rim region has become more and more important to the cia as an intelligence issue. if the cia can in some way impede chinese development or expansion even in a little place, like the solomon islands, they're willing to give it a try. and that's why all of a sudden the solomon islands are very important to the united states or impede chinese influence. indeed, you know, the united states has the of the monroe doctrine, where we view any foreign military attack on any country in north central or south america as an attack on the united states. well, with the same logic, the chinese a, you know, ought to have respected their own sphere of influence, at least that's the chinese point of view, right? i mean, on a map that would make that right well, so he was

a i. d is currently led by samantha power. she is an obama administration darling at one time the u. s. ambassador to the, when i'm also a former adviser to president obama on his national security council. a lot of people up placed the ongoing, the still ongoing, a crisis in yemen at her feet squarely at her feet. she herself has lamented that president obama didn't do enough in syria. and as she advised him, she's very frequently labeled a war hawk. oh yes. now she leaves the country's so called humanitarian aid agency . how do you square her appointment in the binded administration with this new interest in the solomons? oh, this makes complete sense to me. the fact that samantha power heads an organization like usa, i. d, a is an example of an extension of what scholars might call soft power.

first of all, you're exactly right, samantha power is a long time war hawk. she's one of the most neo liberals in a neo liberal administration. that's saying a lot. it's a lot, she really was responsible for the war in yemen. she was in part responsible for the war in syria. she was in part responsible for the war in libya. this is her foreign policy. her personal foreign policy believes. now at u. s. a. i d, she's able to exert us soft power in the form of international development, as i said, a few minutes ago, building bridges and digging wells, and building roads and hospitals and electrical grids and, and sewage systems. as a way to, to expand the u. s. footprint all over the world,

including in the solomon islands. so the fact that she has these pro war views makes perfect sense to me when the united states is using every, every thing in its arsenal to confront the chinese. she would be the person to do that. yeah, i found that such an interesting, interesting air quotes appointment. so anyway, id, i agree. now the chinese, they view the solomon's as their neighbor on. it's a country in their hand, spear as we mentioned. if you look on a map, pretty simple, there's cause for that relationship to strengthen. what reason does the us have for wanting presence on this tiny island way over on the other side of the ocean? well, the u. s. thinking is twofold. number one, the australians have asked us to become involved. and because the australians are panicked about the chinese, we're more than happy to do that. but secondly,

you have to look at the broader u. s. policy toward china. we made a conscious decision, probably going as far back as the reagan administration, to challenge china at every opportunity, whether it's chinese expansion or globalization or, or whatever it is. you know, one of the things that we're having trouble confronting is the chinese are not going around the world to spread an ideology. they're going around the world to build things, right? roads ports, as i said, they're, they're truly assisting in the economic development of a lot of countries that really do need economic development. that something that the united states has been unwilling to do. we say that we don't have the money for it. the truth is we have plenty of money, we just, we've chosen to spend it on right. we allen military hardware. exactly. yeah. allocate it somewhere else. and so we're having trouble confronting the chinese on this because they've chosen to not spend it on military hardware. so the chinese,

as you said, view the solomon islands, certainly within their sphere of influence. now the solomons are led by somebody who is open to improving relations with china. and we're panicking. yeah, and i'll add one thing to that john, which i find kind of interesting is that i'm about a year ago. but i think was december of 2021. there was a riot in. yes. what effectively was a a chinatown that's around the solomon islands? ah, there are, there's a, one of the islands of the chain of islands, and there, i forget, they call them if it's not a we, there's one prime minister, but there's effectively a governor of that particular that particular island is very pro taiwan, very anti china. and there is talk that they are also pro america pro australia against any chinese influenza. and that they might have had something to do with that riot. what do you, what do you say about that?

you know, i, i wouldn't discount that. it was only in the last few years that the solomon islands decided to withdraw their recognition of taiwan at the united nations and recognize of mainland china as the official representative of the chinese people. so we're talking about momentous foreign policy for foreign policy changes in that tiny country i, i could see something like that being the case said wouldn't be it's believable, right? it wouldn't be out of the ordinary, especially now that you are say i d has express interest i and we know certainly that cia is going to be interested can i, i don't want to ask you to predict the future. but would it be reasonable to say that perhaps there might be, some unrest may be a who may be some sort of revolution. i favor independence. yeah, that's always possible. but i also think we should watch to see what the australians are going to do. because i think that if the australians see the

solomon's heading down that path, that path toward violence or revolution, i wouldn't be surprised if the australians begin pouring in massive amounts of money just to keep the solomons at bay and to keep them away from the chinese before a qu, i could see a qu happening. why benchley? right? he got to give you. i say, i do some time, john. all right, we will leave that right there. john kerry, aku host of the brand new show the whistle blowers, thank you for making some time to be here shedding some light on this very important subject especially given your years and years of yeah. experience. thank you john. thanks for having me. all right, that is gonna do it for this weeks episode of modus operandi the show that digs deep into foreign policy. i'm your host manila chan. thank you for tuning in. we'll see you again next week to figure out the ammo ah

ah 19 to the u. s, as i was returning to peaceful life, but the newspapers didn't report ongoing massacres and the ukranian ssr according to intelligence ukrainian nationalists and the ukrainian insurgent army, led by romans forgive. each perpetrated these atrocities for huge was before. but that was what i should be. so thought knew it would be wise to review. i wish please. of course we'll do immune avenue through the plant of the head of the n. k v d sabotaged department of the time he was tasked with stopping the atrocities in ukraine for a good reason. general suit planter was very familiar with the situation he had experienced fighting the nationalist before the war. get the movie, you know in love list. he can't get

a 0. do it's inevitable. so didn't know creamy but it is paulette. again, the task was tremendously difficult, but pseudo planter was determined to completed. we had personal accounts to settle with the ukrainian nationalists look forward to talking to you all. that technology should work for people. a robot must obey the orders given by human beings, except where such orders at conflict with the 1st law show your identification. we should be very careful about our personal intelligence. and the point obviously is to great trust rather than fear a very job in with artificial intelligence. real summoning with a robot must protect its own existence with

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with me for a deadline on all the t international. tens of billions, the kelvin 24 more wounded. don't think he is still a city in russia, with officials say us applied artillery system with the ukrainian a prize. follow the frogs suggesting that russia security concerns should be addressed to wait to pace. the new prate over this out a new round of demo.