In this mailing: Pete Hoekstra: What to Expect from the Biden-Xi Meeting - And It's Not Good Amir Taheri: France: Nationalism Makes a Comeback What to Expect from the Biden-Xi Meeting - And It's Not Good by Pete Hoekstra  •  November 14, 2021 at 5:00 am       With the U.S. suffering significant inflation, and with supply chain disruptions identified as one of the causes, expect little pressure on China to address intellectual property theft, currency manipulation, unfair Chinese government support in distorting markets, or disruptive Chinese trade barriers. The bias will be to put a happy face on this relationship. We certainly can hope for Biden to put up a strong position on the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 750,000 Americans are dead.... America, and the world need answers. China needs to be held accountable. One can only fear where this goes if the U.S. does not confront China. It is unlikely we will see any leadership from Europe on this issue; European leaders seemed determined to forge closer economic ties with China, which will doubtless use these revenues for bulking up its military to "take over the world." It is either Biden or nobody, and nobody seems to have the upper hand. An even worse potential outcome on the COVID-19 pandemic issue may be a gauzy statement along the lines that ... the U.S. and China will closely cooperate on addressing the current situation.... Even worse, we will form the core of a new global organization to prepare for, confront, and combat any potential future pandemics. Heaven help us if this is the outcome. With the U.S. suffering significant inflation, and with supply chain disruptions identified as one of the causes, expect little pressure on China to address intellectual property theft, currency manipulation, unfair Chinese government support in distorting markets, or disruptive Chinese trade barriers. The bias during the upcoming meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Communist China's President Xi Jinping will be to put a happy face on this relationship. Pictured: Then US Vice President Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, then First Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, in Los Angeles on February 17, 2012. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images) Here is what we likely can expect from the upcoming meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Communist China's President Xi Jinping. Climate change, yes. Human rights, not so much. Throw in a little trade but take out all references to the Wuhan-origin of the coronavirus pandemic. This will be a summit that majors in minors. It will have significance, but only because of what it fails to do rather than what it does. Continue Reading Article France: Nationalism Makes a Comeback by Amir Taheri  •  November 14, 2021 at 4:00 am       Like Macron five years ago, Zemmour is seen as the outsider opposed to incompetent and corrupt insiders. He seems unaware of the difference between American "secularism," in which the state sees itself as protector of all religions, and the French laïcité in which the state regards all religions as potential or actual threats. The problem that France faces comes from political groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafist groups, Khomeinist circles and home-grown militants radicalized through the Internet. Like French President Emmanuel Macron five years ago, Éric Zemmour (pictured) is seen as the outsider opposed to incompetent and corrupt insiders. (Photo by Valery Hache/AFP via Getty Images) Although the next French presidential election is months away, the way the media in Paris along with French chattering classes are behaving, one might think that we are on the eve of polling day. Turn on any TV channel and open any newspaper and you are likely to run into oodles of speculation about the journey to the Élysée Palace. One reason may be even the main one, for this premature interest is a 63-year old journalist who has cast himself as a modern version of the Prophet Jeremiah to depict gloom and forecasting doom for French democracy. The man in question is Éric Zemmour, who has been lurking on the margins of French journalism, always in minor roles for almost three decades and, yet, is now entering as the rising star of French politics on the right or, as his enemies claim, the far right. Continue Reading Article