Foreign news

ASPI Propagandists’ Rank Hypocrisy Exposed!

Published

4 years ago

October 23, 2020

The nominally “Australian” think tank behind the widely reported accusations that China is using its Uyghur Muslim minority as forced labour is itself sponsored by American and British arms companies that have profited from forced prison labour. This is according to an explosive report today by Marcus Reubenstein in APAC news, Micheal West Media and Pearls and irritations “ASPI’s forced labour links”.

The Citizens Party has exposed the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) as a foreign interference operation in Australia, funded by the US State Department and other foreign governments, NATO, and multinational weapons manufacturers, to force Australian foreign policy to follow the USA’s hostile turn against China to the detriment of Australia’s relationship with our biggest trading partner.

A recent five-part series published in the Citizens Party’s Australian Alert Service, “The China Narrative”, by researcher Melissa Harrison, revealed ASPI’s central role alongside ASIO and a small gang of academics, journalists and politicians in relentlessly hyping accusations against China, including that China is persecuting Uyghur Muslims in concentration camps and as slave labour.

While those claims are unproven, this report by Marcus Reubenstein identifies 11 of ASPI’s funders which have used and continue to use forced prison labour in their supply chains, including BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, and the US government itself, which owns the world’s largest prison labour company.

As Reubenstein reports, “US government-owned UNICOR has 110 factories in at least 65 Federal prisons across the United States. Inmates manufacture a wide array of products for both civilian and military applications, with 16 of its prison factories specialising in the manufacture of electronics. The company also supplies the US Military, whose government gives both direct and indirect financial support to ASPI.”

By contrast, when ASPI’s claims about Uyghur forced labour are examined in detail, there is little evidence of anything other than the Chinese government incentivising job placement agencies to find jobs for Uyghurs as part of its poverty-reduction and deradicalisation programs.

ASPI stands exposed as supremely hypocritical propagandists, a foreign-backed front for the war machine that has left mass death and destruction in its wake in the Middle East and is now targeting China with accusations that have the same credibility as the claims of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. If Australians want to understand the motives and credibility of the organisations pushing us towards conflict with China, which they should, they must read “ASPI’s forced Labour links.”

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Foreign news

French Envoy Seeks Collaboration With NAN To Boost Seamless Relationship

Published

3 hours ago

February 5, 2025

The Gleamer

The new French envoy to Nigeria, Marc Fonbaustier, on Wednesday called for collaboration with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) toward strengthening the mutually beneficial relationship between the two countries.

Fonbaustier, who is the French ambassador to Nigeria and the ECOWAS, made the call when he paid a courtesy visit to Malam Ali Muhammad Ali, NAN’s Managing Director, in Abuja.
The ambassador said that his purpose of visiting was to pay tribute to the MD, and to seek collaboration in three areas with a view to promoting stronger, seamless and fruitful partnership between both countries.

He added that Nigeria and its people were hospitable, especially to the foreigners and ambassadors alike.

He added that Nigeria was a country with so much energy, strength, stamina and so many talents.

In Nigeria, with the population of this size, it is inevitable that the elites of the country are very outstanding, “and there may be a Franco/Nigeria moments now”, he jokes.

According to him, France and Nigeria can collaborate more and learn from each other.
“I could feel it particularly during the state visit of President Bola Tinubu which took place in November 2024.

“I was there and I could see the intensity, the strength and the scope of the partnership, and I am here to scale up that partnership in all sectors.

“I am coming here for three reasons, first, to pay a tribute to the NAN MD and his team for the quality of this agency. We can testify that the contents that you publish are very factual, and also very well set up and structured.

“You do fact checking and you really do try to provide the community with quality information. I think, as a French ambassador, I can recognise that as part of a living democracy,” he said.

The French ambassador said the second reason for the visit was to intimate the NAN MD of France’s eagerness to go on partnership with NAN saying he hoped for assurance of a seamless, fluid and easy relationship.

He said that his third reason stemmed from his observation that NAN recently signed some partnership framework agreements with Egypt and China, saying “it may be time to think of balancing this partnership with others”.

“Especially with French, and to talk with Agence France-Presse (AFP) to see if there’s ground for a closer relationship between NAN and AFP.

“Which is also a recognised agency like yours, and I bet you the sky will be the limit to the collaboration, ’’he said.

Responding, the NAN MD informed the envoy that the agency was African’s biggest news content provider on account of its size.

Ali gave the envoy a little details of the agency’s operation and its outreach, saying “as our continent’s biggest news content provider, we have offices nationwide and in selected African countries.

“We have offices in countries such as South Africa, Cote d’ivoire, Addis Ababa, and then we have offices also beyond the shores of Africa. We have in New York and we are the only resident wire service in the United Nations.

“At a time in the past, the agency had 11 foreign offices, including Moscow, and presently, we are trying to re-open some of our shut offices, especially in London.
“We value partnership and understanding that we have with similar news organisation such as Reuters and, incidentally, we have a long standing relationship with AFP which you just raised.
“I know for years we have exchange of news between NAN and AFP but it’s a cooperation that we will like to strengthen and with your greater involvement,’’ he said.

The MD commended the ambassador for reaching out and engaging with some Nigerians communities to douse the tension of the allegation made by the Nigeriens.

He also lauded the envoy’s leadership and visibility to Nigeria and the ECOWAS, “which has helped to douse the perception and misconceptions about France, especially in the Sahel”.
“I think you have helped to reverse some of this perceptions. I thank you for the kind words that you said about the agency and about our management.

“We also see partnership as an important tool in checking the spread of fake news.
“We’ve seen instances where fake news has done great deal of damage, and with the coming of social media it has done even greater damage.

“Our country is facing a lot of challenges, one of which is the increasing insecurity, and the social media has been used by those who do not want to see our country to prosper,” Ali said.
He further said that NAN was a credible news agency that always fact check to correct the wrong narratives by those who are in the business of causing troubles.

He also told the envoy that the agency has its content in the Nigerian indigenous languages, starting with Hausa and it would proceed to Yoruba and Igbo languages later, “then later in future to French.

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