President Trump on Saturday invited the president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, to the White House, embracing an authoritarian leader who is accused of ordering extrajudicial killings of drug suspects and who crudely disparaged Mr. Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama.
Mr. Trump had a “very friendly conversation with Mr. Duterte,” according to a statement issued by the White House late Saturday. It said that the two leaders “discussed the fact that the Philippines is fighting very hard to rid its country of drugs.”
In fact, Mr. Duterte’s war on drugs has resulted in the deaths of several thousand people suspected of using or selling narcotics, as well as others who may have had no involvement with drugs. Human rights groups and many Western governments have condemned Mr. Duterte for the bloody campaign.
A spokesman for Mr. Duterte, Ernesto Abella, confirmed the White House invitation, saying that Mr. Trump had expressed “his understanding and appreciation of the challenges facing the Philippine president, especially on the matter” of drugs.
Mr. Trump’s embrace of the Philippine leader comes a week after Mr. Trump called to congratulate President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey for his victory in a disputed referendum that cemented his autocratic rule. He has also lavishly praised President Xi Jinping of China in recent days for his cooperation in pressuring North Korea, overlooking the fact that Mr. Xi, too, has shown an increasingly repressive streak in his country.
Mr. Trump has spoken warmly of the Egyptian leader, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who seized power in a military coup. And he vowed during the presidential campaign to reset relations with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
In its statement, the White House suggested that Mr. Trump was eager to mend relations. The president’s invitation, it said, was aimed at discussing “the importance of the United States-Philippine alliance, which is now headed in a very positive direction.”
In its statement, the White House suggested that Mr. Trump was eager to mend relations. The president’s invitation, it said, was aimed at discussing “the importance of the United States-Philippine alliance, which is now headed in a very positive direction.”
"The demographic most opposed to President Trump is not a racial minority, but a cultural elite." Daniel Greenberg
"Failure to adequately denounce Islamic extremism, not only denies the existence of an absolute moral wrong but inherently diminishes our chances of defeating it." Tulsi Gabbard
"It’s a movement comprised of Americans from all races, religions, backgrounds and beliefs, who want and expect our government to serve the people, and serve the people it will." Donald Trump's Victory Speech 11/9/16
INSIDE EVERY LIBERAL IS A TOTALITARIAN SCREAMING TO GET OUT -- Frontpage mag
There are many that criticize Trump establishing relations with such as Duterte and Putin. They forget the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Inviting national leaders to the White House conversing with them, playing golf with them does not condoning all their policies.
For example Trump and Xi met in Mar-A-Lago for two days in April.
"Based on the briefing on Friday afternoon by Secretaries Tillerson, Mnuchin, and Ross, the Trump-Xi summit took first steps in four substantive areas: President Trump’s commitment to visit China this year; the restructuring of the senior-level dialogues; the declaration of a 100-day process for addressing economic frictions; and an agreement to coordinate actions on North Korea. In addition, it was reported, the personal chemistry created between the two presidents and among their senior officials was positive, and that can contribute to good relations going forward. For a relatively short summit at the beginning of a new American administration, this was a reasonable set of accomplishments." https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-fro...ump-xi-meeting/
In addition: China ‘Deports’ U.S. Citizen Arrested for Espionage Following Trump-Xi Meeting by Penny Starr1 May 2017130
An American woman, held for two years in Chinese custody for spying charges, was released and “deported” back to the United States, Channel News Asia reported, the development confirmed by the U.S. State Department on Sunday.
Sandy Phan-Gillis was arrested in March 2015 after visiting China with a trade delegation on behalf of the oil industry in her hometown of Houston, Texas. She was released just days after being sentenced to three and a half years in prison for espionage, stealing state secrets, and passing intelligence to a third party.
“We are aware that Chinese authorities deported Ms. Phan-Gillis back to the United States,” a State Department official said. “The United States welcomes her home.”
Dui Hua, a San Francisco-based human rights group who had been working on Phan-Gillis’ case, said she was reunited with her family in Los Angeles.
On the one-year anniversary of her detention, Phan-Gillis had still not been charged with any crime.
Newsweek reported at the time that Phan-Gillis had “been in and out of China dozens of times over the years,” leading “powerful business delegations from her hometown of Houston to Shenzhen, China’s Silicon Valley.”
Phan-Gillis disappeared after excusing herself from dinner on the last night of a business trip to meet with a friend. She called her husband and friends to tell them her stay in China had been extended, with Mr. Gillis describing his wife’s voice as sounding “strained” during their last call.
The U.S. Consulate did not establish that Phan-Gillis had been detained by the Chinese communist government, and it took months more to learn why they were holding her.
Phan-Gillis’ return to the U.S. comes just three weeks after Chinese President Xi Jinping met with President Donald Trump at his Florida estate. Since their first face-to-face and very cordial meeting, the two leaders “have been in constant touch with each other,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said on Friday.
The human rights group Dui Hua said negotiations to secure the release of Phan-Gillis ramped up during U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s visit to Beijing in March.
“Tillerson’s State Department was assisted by the White House in bringing the negotiations to a successful conclusion,” the human rights group said.
The United Nation’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention had criticized China’s handling of the case of Phan-Gillis, who was born in Vietnam and escaped that country as part of the exodus in the late 1970s of the “boat people” who were fleeing the communist government.
ZitatPresident Trump on Saturday invited the president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, to the White House, embracing an authoritarian leader who is accused of ordering extrajudicial killings of drug suspects
Key word "accused" which by paragraph 3 has morphed into "guilty". Perhaps he is responsible, but Duterte's real crime is he
Zitatcrudely disparaged Mr. Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama.
Duterte gets a bad press which means he is out of favor with the PTB. That makes him a good guy, or possible good guy in my book.
ZitatPresident Trump on Saturday invited the president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, to the White House, embracing an authoritarian leader who is accused of ordering extrajudicial killings of drug suspects
Key word "accused" which by paragraph 3 has morphed into "guilty". Perhaps he is responsible, but Duterte's real crime is he
Zitatcrudely disparaged Mr. Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama.
Duterte gets a bad press which means he is out of favor with the PTB. That makes him a good guy, or possible good guy in my book.
Good criteria to judge someone.
Illegitimi non Carborundum
During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.- Orwell