Page 5 - Aruba-today-15 Sept 2020

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WORLD NEWS Tuesday 15 sepTember 2020
U.S. ambassador to China to step down next month

By KEN MORITSUGU ucts and China retaliated
Associated Press in kind. Other disputes fol-
BEIJING (AP) — The U.S. am- lowed over technology,
bassador to China will step human rights and the re-
down early next month, sponse to the coronavirus
ending a three-year ten- pandemic.
ure marked by a trade war Branstad joined U.S. Trade
and increasingly bitter rela- Representative Robert
tions between the world's Lighthizer and U.S. Treasury
two largest economies. Secretary Steven Mnuchin
Terry Branstad, appointed at trade talks with Chinese
by President Donald Trump counterparts in Beijing in
in 2017, confirmed his de- May 2019.
cision in a phone call with The phase one deal
Trump last week, the U.S. reached the following Jan-
Embassy said in a state- uary represented a truce
ment Monday. It did not but did not address the
give a reason for his depar- more fundamental com-
ture. plaints of the American
"I am proudest of our work side.
in getting the phase one The U.S. Embassy statement
trade deal and deliver- also noted Branstad's role
ing tangible results for our in the effort to reduce the
communities back home," In this June 28, 2017, file photo, U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad makes comments about flow of fentanyl from China
he was quoted as saying at pro-democracy activist and Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo during a photocall and remarks to jour- to the United States, includ-
an embassy staff meeting nalists at the Ambassador's residence in Beijing. ing a 2018 pact in which
on Monday. Associated Press China agreed to list the
Word of his departure opioid as a controlled sub-
leaked out earlier in the day versy when China's official tacted the People's Daily bassador after a vacancy stance.
when Secretary of State People's Daily newspaper on Aug. 26 about the piece, of several months, during Branstad also made a rare
Mike Pompeo thanked rejected an opinion col- asking that it be printed in which the embassy's No. visit to Tibet in May 2019,
Branstad on Twitter for his umn that he had written. full without any edits before 2 official, David Rank, re- where he expressed con-
service. Pompeo tweeted last week Sept. 4, the People's Daily signed after criticizing the cerns about what the U.S.
"Ambassador Branstad has that China's ruling Com- said in a statement posted Trump administration's with- called Chinese govern-
contributed to rebalancing munist Party refused to run online. drawal from the Paris cli- ment interference in the
U.S.-China relations so that Branstad's op-ed while the Branstad, 73, is a native of mate accord. freedom of Tibetan Bud-
it is results-oriented, recip- Chinese ambassador to Iowa and was governor of Soon after arriving in Bei- dhists to organize and
rocal, and fair," Pompeo the United States "is free to the major farming state for jing in June 2017, Branstad practice their religion.
wrote in a follow-up tweet. publish in any U.S. media 22 years over two spans, welcomed American beef "He encouraged the Chi-
China's foreign ministry said outlet." from 1983 to 1999 and 2011 back to the Chinese market nese government to en-
before the embassy an- Chinese foreign ministry to 2017. after a 14-year ban, saying gage in substantive dia-
nouncement that it was spokesperson Zhao Lijian Early in his first term, he "I know it is a key priority of logue with the Dalai Lama
aware of Pompeo's tweet responded that Branstad's met Xi Jinping, now Chi- the president to reduce the or his representatives, with-
but had not received any article was "full of loop- na's leader, when the then trade deficit, and this is one out preconditions, to seek
notification that Branstad holes, seriously inconsistent county-level Communist of the ways we can do it." a settlement that resolves
was leaving. with facts and wantonly at- Party official visited Iowa But trade relations quickly differences," an embas-
Branstad became em- tacks and smears China." on a 1985 trade trip. soured, as the U.S. imposed sy statement at the time
broiled in a recent contro- The U.S. Embassy had con- Trump appointed him am- tariffs on Chinese prod- said.q
U.S. lawyer says Assange faces decades in prison if convicted

By JILL LAWLESS Attorney Eric Lewis, ap- he said.
LONDON (AP) — An Ameri- pearing as a defense wit- Assange's lawyers say the
can lawyer told an extra- ness, said the scope of the prosecution is politically
dition hearing in Britain for indictment pointed to "a motivated and that he will
Julian Assange on Monday very aggressive approach not receive a fair trial in the
that the WikiLeaks founder to sentencing on the part United States, They also ar-
faces decades in prison of the government." gue that the conditions he
if he is convicted on spy- "All signs point to a very would face in prison would
ing charges in the United long sentence, measured breach his human rights.
States. in many decades," said Assange's legal woes be-
U.S. prosecutors have in- Lewis, a senior partner at gan a decade ago, when
dicted the 49-year-old Aus- Lewis Baach Kaufmann WikiLeaks published clas-
tralian on 17 espionage Middlemiss in Washington, sified U.K. military docu-
charges, and one of com- DC. ments about the wars in
puter misuse, over WikiLe- "We are looking at a sen- Iraq and Afghanistan. He
Supporters of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange take part in a aks' publication of secret tence somewhere be- has been in a British prison
protest outside the Central Criminal Court, the Old Bailey, in Lon- U.S. military documents a tween 20 years, if every- since he was ejected from
don, Monday, Sept. 14, 2020. decade ago. The charges thing goes brilliantly, to 175 his refuge at the Ecuador-
Associated Press carry a maximum sentence years, which the govern- ian embassy in London in
of 175 years in prison. ment could easily ask for," April 2019. q