President Biden released a statement on Monday condemning the military coup in Myanmar, also known as Burma, and threatened to take action against those responsible.
Myanmar’s military seized power after claiming there was fraud in recent elections. The military detained senior political leaders, including Aung San Suu Ky, who served as the State Counsellor of Myanmar, the country’s de facto ruler.
In his statement, President Biden said the international community should come together and demand that Myanmar’s military “relinquish the power they have seized.”
“We will work with our partners throughout the region and the world to support the restoration of democracy and the rule of law, as well as to hold accountable those responsible for overturning Burma’s democratic transition,” the statement said.
Biden also threatened to reimpose sanctions on Myanmar. “The United States removed sanctions on Burma over the past decade based on progress toward democracy. The reversal of that progress will necessitate an immediate review of our sanction laws and authorities, followed by appropriate action,” he said. The Obama administration started easing sanctions on Myanmar in 2011 and lifted all remaining sanctions in 2016.
Members of Congress are also calling for action. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NY) said the US and other countries “should impose strict economic sanctions, as well as other measures” against Myanmar’s military.
Senator Mitch McConnel (R-KY) called the situation in Myanmar “horrifying” and said the Biden Administration “must take a strong stand” against Myanmar’s military.
Since the Biden Administration is prioritizing Asia in its efforts to counter China, US media outlets are framing the events in Myanmar as a “test” for Biden to maintain US influence in that part of the world. For their part, China is taking a neutral stance on the situation in neighboring Myanmar.
“China is a friendly neighbor of Myanmar’s. We hope that all sides in Myanmar can appropriately handle their differences under the constitution and legal framework and safeguard political and social stability,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a news briefing on Monday.
Weak response from Biden, threatening Sanctions.
The USA sanctioned Myanmar for 20 years and failed to affect the Military Regime.
The Generals all became wealthy selling Myanmar’s riches on the Black Market and the people were subjugated horrifically.
“Subjugated horrifically”?
Flowery language sounds like propaganda. Myanmar is paying heavy price due to its location. All the ethnic strife has been stoked to prevent stability, and make it impossible for Myanmar and China to built transport infrastructure that both countries would benefit from.
I call horrific the deliberate fueling of ethnic strife. We here are not innocent.
We accepted Egypt’s military coup, and imprisonment of the elected President, most of his government, banishing his party, confiscating their property, and death sentenced for some.
Yet, civil war was averted by the military coup in Egypt returning the country to normalcy.
How do we know what is best for Myanmar?
China has a global non-meddling policy, while the US enjoys exercising its world hegemony in faraway places like Myanmar. For the US this means fomenting a coup as in Ukraine, and sometime opposing a coup. It also brings a general dislike of the US, and more favorable views of China especially in Asia.
“China has a global non-meddling policy”
In what universe?
The US historically fomented, caused and participated in government changes all over the world, including especially Latin America, Africa, Europe, Middle East and Asia. China never has.
That is another big lie, the Us spends more money on helping poor countries then anybody else without asking for anything back. Also now, US private donations to poor countries are even higher than Government money The US takes in over one million refugees and economic political immigrants then any other country. I also escaped the brutality of communism in the 1950’s and found freedom and prosperity in America.
China meddles, but it doesnt currently pretend there’s some religious battle over the god of “democracy.” China currently has no imperial ideology, other than vague “socialism” and not so vague Chinese nationalism.
re: China meddles
Where doe China meddle in a foreign country?
Ever heard of Tibet? ?How about Hong Kong? Taiwan? The Korean peninsula?
Africa, for one place. They’ve put countries in debt with China’s development projects. But it’s none of my business what China does. If China invests in Africa, how does that impact me?
China deserves some praise for acting in China’s best interests. The US acts against US state interests. It’s obvious which state is rising, even though China has many clear problems.
If the US acted in US state interests, its interventions would be more justifiable. But the US does not. I am not arguing that the US must get involved because otherwise China will win out. The US just burns money. The US is best served by exiting the world stage. The US is going broke.
They just don’t meddle in them, they just buy them
Biden also threatened to reimpose sanctions on Myanmar. “The United States removed sanctions on Burma over the past decade based on progress toward democracy. The reversal of that progress will necessitate an immediate review of our sanction laws and authorities, followed by appropriate action,” he said
If “progress towards democracy” is really the determining factor, this must mean the Saudis, UAE, Bahrain, Egypt and even the recipient of the annual $3.8 billion, just to name a few, should be sanctioned immediately.
Our “friends” don’t need no stupid democracy.
“End of History” is inevitable, or maybe it’s not… (Fukuyama’s idea of the world embracing democracy, as an end to ideological strife, which is clear mythology justifying the empire.)
Our hypocrisy was more my point.
Btw, I had told you the cop didn’t die by blunt force trama. Now, CNN admits this is probably true, that there is no evidence of blunt force trama: https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/02/politics/brian-sicknick-charges/index.html
This is like the 20th story I’ve seen hyped that turns out false. The media just makes things up.
And all the left-wing people here fall for it, because the media plays towards y’all’s biases. I admit, the Right falls for Q Anon, but y’all here fall for the exact same tricks by the mass media. No evidence? No problem.
But by the time the truth comes out, no one is interested. I need to find the article here so I can highlight that the author here was errant. But, perhaps if the writers here no longer fall for the mass media lies, they’ll be accused of being right-wing. So, maybe believing a bit isn’t bad.
What in the fuck are y’all talking about? All this from my comment calling out our hypocrisy? Save your sermons for someone else.
Previous conversation. You told me the cop on Capitol Hill died from blunt force trauma. You were wrong. He died, but there was no damage and no sign of an attack on him to date.
I didn’t tell you no such thing. I even went back and checked my comments to you. Didn’t happen. I never had a conversation with anybody about that cop.
I wouldn’t be surprised if you valued “democracy” as the best form of government. But I like Aristotle: A government itself can be good or bad. The form is just the form.
The cult of democracy is, I think, quite dangerous. It’s akin to the cult of Marxism. The Cold War created dangerous cult-like devotion to ideologies.
Explanation: If you were to insist on war against all governments that weren’t perfect, that’s dangerous. I absolutely do not suspect you of such belief, but that is what I am attacking.
I really don’t care what would surprise you. My comment was about our hypocrisy.
My comment was about how the US attacks others due to ideology, eg Fukuyama’s End of History.
In other words: Burma isnt necessarily worse off in having a non-democracy. If the US only advocated for Democracy, it would still be wrong.
And I was talking about hypocrisy. If the subject had been about human rights, I would have made the same comment. If you are going to reply to something I said at least make it about what I said.
The democracy BS is all hypocritical on the part of the US, as if the US were a democratic state. It isn’t. It is not “a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.” US citizens have no say on anything. Other countries are somewhat democratic, and have referendums on important issues. The US does not. To the US, democracy is conceived as the granting to the people the availability to vote for one schmuck or another every four years, then sit down and shut up.
Unlike your lovethrobe Putin, talking about schmucks, the US does not poisen its political opponents and especially in the underpants..