In Way Over Its Head, U.S. Empire Doubles Down

I've written before about suspecting that the decision to brand U.S. imperial wars as Democrat (Ukraine, genocide in Gaza) or Republican (Iraq, Afghanistan) was a strategic error. Case in point: the wrestling match in Congress to pass yet another $95.3 billion for "D" wars, including ramping up a long term military presence to turn Taiwan into the next Ukraine.

Unrelated issues like militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border, a vote and donation magnet for Republicans, are a stumbling block under this strategy. The Punch and Judy show of the two parties battling it out despite having the very same corporate sponsors is now impinging on keeping the debt-ridden empire and its proxy warriors solvent.

What to do?

Simon Ateba, White House correspondent for Today News Africa, summed up the plan succinctly:

Possibly Congress can beat that. Here's what they spent valuable time and effort on yesterday -- condemning evidence-free allegations of rape being used to portray Israelis as victims rather than genociders.

The U.S. empire is on the skids. Broke, ideologically deranged, and clutching at straws to justify its continued aggressive actions around the globe. (For a peek into U.S. ambitions to put nukes in space -- and the resistance -- check out the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.)

It's understandable that empire managers are panicking. Their worst nightmare has come true. As their decades of global dominance wind down before they even got a chance to dominate outer space, targeted nations are making common cause with one another. 

https://twitter.com/Sprinter99800/status/1754837851756188009

Who could have foreseen this development? Just about everybody who can perceive that the emperor has no clothes.

BRICS Summit vs. Camp David

In sharp contrast to the BRICS summit in South Africa ushering in a "multilateral organization that will shape the contours of a new system of international relations," (Pepe Escobar), the U.S. hosted Japan and South Korea at Camp David to hammer out a three-way military alliance between grossly unequal partners.

From Sara Flounders writing in Workers World:

The military pact of South Korea and Japan with the U.S. intentionally damages both the South Korean and Japanese economies, as China has been the major trading partner of both countries. However, right-wing militarists in office in each country seem willing to act against their own people’s interests.

The U.S. government has long maintained separate defense pacts with both countries. Based on Japan’s brutal 35-year colonial occupation of the Korean peninsula, from 1910 to 1945, there remains deep hostility among the Korean people toward Japan. Nevertheless, based on U.S. pressure, the regimes have now become “partners” against China.

Excerpt from the White House statement:

Pre­sident Biden commended President Yoon and Prime Minister Kishida for their courageous leadership in transforming relations between Japan and the ROK. With the renewed bonds of friendship—and girded by the ironclad U.S.-Japan and U.S.-ROK alliances—each of our bilateral relationships is now stronger than ever. So too is our trilateral relationship.

My translation: the deeply unpopular President Yoon making nice with colonial exploiter Japan was a prerequisite for the new war pact against China.

In an interesting parallel, it now appears that China and Russia's brokering of an historic rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran earlier this year paved the way for both nations to join BRICS. 

 

Now being termed BRICS 11 because six nations have joined the original five of the acronym (the other new members are the United Arab Emirates, Argentina, Egypt, and Ethiopia).

From BRICS fan Escobar writing in The Cradle:

Here is the Johannesburg II Declaration of the 15^th BRICS summit. BRICS 11 is just the start. There’s a long line eager to join; without referring to the dozens of nations (and counting) that have already “expressed their interest”, according to the South Africans, the official list, so far, includes Algeria, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Belarus, Bolivia, Venezuela, Vietnam, Guinea, Greece, Honduras, Indonesia, Cuba, Kuwait, Morocco, Mexico, Nigeria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkiye and Syria.

So while the bigger, wealthier group forges ahead with a comprehensive agreement to reign in predatory debt mechanisms of the West against the Global South and, incidentally, to reject new members if they sanction existing BRICS nations, the U.S. continues looking for a nation to play the role of Ukraine in its planned war against China.

As blogger Andrew Korybko observed:

the recent Sino-Filipino incident that was sparked by Manila’s failed attempt to smuggle construction materials to a disputed reef could have been timed to precede the latest trilateral talks and this week’s joint drills, thus enabling them to be spun as defense measures instead of provocations..

All of this leads to “pacifist” Japan saber-rattling against China in its South Sea on the Philippines’ behalf in support of their shared US patrons’ “rules-based order”, which solidifies their nascent trilateral alliance.. and consequently advances the AUKUS+ agenda of “containing” China.

Meanwhile, the usual suspects have been busy on the information war front.

An investigation by Alan MacLeod of MintPress News found that the FBI and the government of Taiwan have been working together to spread hate against China in the U.S.

Official documents reviewed by “MintPress News” show that the Taiwanese government is attempting to drum up anti-China hostility, influence and intimidate American politicians and is even working with the FBI and other agencies to spy on and prosecute Chinese American citizens.

Key points of this investigation
• Taiwanese officials are monitoring Chinese Americans and passing intelligence to the FBI in attempts to have them prosecuted.
• Taiwan is working with “friends” in media and politics to create a culture of fear towards China and Chinese people in the US
• Taiwanese officials claim they are “directing” and “guiding” certain US politicians.
• Taiwan is monitoring and helping to intimidate U.S. politicians they deem to be too pro-China.
• The island is spending millions funding US think tanks that inject pro-Taiwan and anti-China talking points into American politics.

Why do nations like Japan, South Korea, Australia, and the Philippines, for whom China is a huge trading partner, submit to U.S. demands that run counter to their own economic interests?

Because if you don't submit, they do this to you: "The Outcome Of American Interference In Pakistan."

But much of the world is banding together to say Enough! Note that BRICS came out strongly against war in space, and in favor of arms control treaties in what the U.S. predictably rejects in its key "warfighting domain." Indeed, satellite communications have been integral to the U.S./NATO waging their proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.

Full disclosure: I work for the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space which is prominently featured in Jeremy Kuzmarov's article.

It appears that war has hastened ongoing cooperation with Russia by many nations -- in direct opposition to its stated goal of isolating Putin and his government. For example, check out this speech by Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki at the BRICS summit denouncing "U.S. exceptionalism" on the grounds that "it has gravely impaired global progress for over a century now."

I think we can all agree that century is behind us, and history is now remaking itself.

Pivot To Asia, Round Two

I've been hoping to find a digest of reliable information and analysis about U.S./NATO war plans aimed at China. Here is my second attempt, an imitation of my friend JK's valiant efforts on Ukraine news (her mini-digest "contains information you are not likely to read/hear in the Western/U.S. media." If you want to get on her list, message me.) 

A lot has happened since my first attempt back in February; but, since I don't read or speak either dialect of Chinese (or Japanese or Korean), I feel ill-qualified to edit news from China. Maybe someone among the readers here will consider taking this on?

Item #1

BLINKEN IN CHINA: Did it accomplish anything?   (9:41)

Andy Boreham, Reports on China, June 20, 2023

Excerpt:

"The common interests of the two countries should be valued, and their respective success is an opportunity instead of a threat to each other." Chinese President Xi Jinping

Item #2

Corporate media slanders China, Cuba: a lie so blatant even the Pentagon must deny it

by Sara Flounders, Worker's World, June 16, 2023

Excerpt: 

Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister, Carlos Fernández de Cossío Domínguez, called the [Wall Street Journal] reports “totally mendacious and unfounded… Cuba rejects all foreign military presence in Latin America, including the many U.S. bases and troops” and the U.S. occupation of Guantanamo. 

(Note from LS: Touché)

Item #3

NATO opening an office in Japan

Bruce Gagnon, Organizing Notes, June 17, 2023

Excerpt:

NATO is planning to open a liaison office in Japan (likely hosted at Yokota Air Base), the first of its kind in Asia. The station will allow the military alliance to conduct periodic consultations with Japan and key partners in the region such as South Korea, Australia and New Zealand as China emerges as ‘a new challenge’

Item #4

Strategies of Denial

by Gray Anderson, New Left Review, June 15, 2023

Excerpt: 

passage of the Inflation Reduction and CHIPS Acts made tangible the ‘deep integration of domestic policy and foreign policy’. Restrictions on the export of crucial AI and semiconductor components to China.. confirmed the drive to monopolize ‘chokepoint’ or ‘stranglehold’ technologies, a veritable declaration of economic war. ‘These actions’, a CSIS analysis concluded, ‘demonstrate an unprecedented degree of US government intervention to not only preserve chokepoint control but also begin a new US policy of actively strangling large segments of the Chinese technology industry – strangling with an intent to kill.’ 

Item #5

What's behind U.S.-driven reforms coming to the World Bank?

Conor Gallagher, Naked Capitalism (link is to Popular Resistance share), June 14, 2023

Excerpt:

Change is coming to the World Bank.. It’s difficult to predict exactly how the new mission will play out, but one thing is clear: the efforts are being driven by the desire to counter/thwart Beijing’s expanding global influence.. And it looks like the reforms will go hand in hand with pushing the debunked narrative that Chinese lending is a debt trap while also trying to relegate China to the backseat in the growing number of distressed countries.

(Note from LS: Since China kicked butt on accomplishing the "eradicate poverty" goal previously expressed as the World Bank's mission, PR spin is sorely needed.)

Item #6

The Hegemon Will Go Full Hybrid War Against BRICS+

Pepe Escobar, Strategic Culture, June 12, 2023

Excerpt:

U.S. Think Tank Land – inebriated by their self-created aura of power – always telegraphs in advance what they’re up to. That was the case with Project 9/11 (“We need a new Pearl Harbor”). That was the case with the RAND report on over-extending and unbalancing Russia. And now that’s the case with the incoming American War on BRICS as outlined by the chairman of the New York-based Eurasia Group.

Item #7

U.S. Navy preparing for war with China - COI #432 (51:51)

Kyle Anzalone & Connor Freeman, Conflicts of Interest, June 10, 2023

China portion begins around 11:40

Excerpt (from Antiwar.com post describing the contents of the video):

..details a top US admiral – the head of INDOPACOM – saying he’s been tasked by the president and the Pentagon chief to win direct a war with China over Taiwan

Item #8

Taiwan Says It's in Talks on Being Brought Under US Nuclear Umbrella

Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com, May 28, 2023

Excerpt:

Taiwan’s foreign minister said last week that the US and Taiwan are in talks on the possibility of the island being brought under Washington’s nuclear umbrella, a step that would make a catastrophic war between the US and China much more likely.

Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu made the comments before Taiwan’s parliament

Item #9

Psy-ops warriors: Tiananmen Square and the media-pack

Gregory Clark, Pearls & Irritations, June 12, 2023

Item #10

Fixing an American Mess: China, Iran, and Pakistan link up to secure Afghanistan

F.M. Shakil, The Cradle, June 13, 2023

Excerpt:

As part of their strategic partnership agreement for 2021, China reportedly pledged a $400 billion investment in Iran over the next 25 years, while Pakistan hosts the flagship project of the BRI, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). It is in this complex security context that the first-ever trilateral anti-terrorist parley between China, Iran, and Pakistan took place last week.

Item #11

The generational divide in Australian politics is widening

Alan Patience, Pearls & Irritations, June 17, 2023

Excerpt:

AUKUS is becoming a rallying point for those who are fed up with the old politics. Local [Australian Labor Party] branches.. are rising up to condemn the Albanese government’s morally flawed commitment to the project. Indeed that commitment is likely to become counterproductive for the government at the next election. 

(Note from LS: AUKUS is a military alliance to threaten China -- Australia's largest trading partner -- and its provision to station nuclear submarines in Australia is a violation of that nation's constitution.)

Item #12

Fukushima plan a nuclear threat to Asia-Pacific

Shaun Burnie, China Daily, June 13, 2023

Excerpt:

There is no scientific, legal or moral justification for Japan to deliberately contaminate our shared and common marine environment. And concerned citizens, scientists, maritime lawyers, the fishing communities across the Asia-Pacific and the world's leading oceanography universities and institutes have spread public awareness about the nuclear dangers, something that has rarely been done before.

Item #13 (mainstream media source)

Space race: how the U.S. and China are locked in a battle to become superior in space

Rachel Shilke, Breaking News Reporter, Washington Examiner, June 20, 2023

Excerpt:

China launched its Tiangong space station in 2022, working as the sole operator and user. Tiangong was created after China was excluded from the [International Space Station], largely because of the U.S.'s reservations over Chinese space programs and their ties to the [People's Liberation Army].

(Note from LS: "Breaking news" from mainstream media alleges U.S. is "locked in battle" with China for space dominance, but "U.S. remains superior." Delusional thinking by the declining empire.)

---

Want to know more about how space figures into plans for war on China? 

More details and link to register for a July 15 Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space webinar here. (Note that the NY time should read EDT not EST.)

Rogue's Gallery Smiling While Lying You Into World War

See that smile? That is the shit eating grin of a man who has become wealthy peddling weapons to the U.S. taxpayer. Does going from the board of Raytheon to heading up the Pentagon's decisions to purchase Raytheon products seem like a conflict of interest? Lloyd Austin says it's not. (Cue the soundtrack playing in my head since I saw this photo.)

In Austin's extensive and lucrative catalog of lies we also find that the U.S. envisions a "free, open and secure Indo-Pacific." He won't say but we know the U.S. will accomplish this via ongoing coercion and bullying of the Philippines, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand...there are more, but you get the idea. 

China's so-called "aggression" toward Taiwan, one of its provinces that the fading U.S. empire has decided to use as the proxy to make war on its biggest economic competitor, is trumpeted by corporate press lackeys like AP constantly now. This collusion between the liars in office and the liars in media means the general public hears such false messages repeatedly and almost nothing to counter them. 

I don't know how much David Rising of the AP gets paid to help pull the wool over your eyes, but he's earning it by simply repeating nonsense like this from Lloyd Austin: the war in Ukraine "serves to underline how dangerous the world would be if big countries were able to 'just invade their peaceful neighbors with impunity.'"

Would be? How about is? Big country U.S. has invaded 800+ spots around the globe with their military bases, and has further attacked and occupied scores of nations.

Here's one way to look at it.

This graph shows the number of ongoing U.S. military interventions (air, ground, naval) since 1898. We used a 100 person-year threshold for ground interventions and similar for air & naval. The U.S. has been consistently involved in ~15 interventions at a time since WW2. 2/7 pic.twitter.com/HQBMBSoHjF

— Jennifer Kavanagh (@jekavanagh) June 18, 2022

Here's another:

#Biden : "Who in the Lord's name does #Putin think gives him the right to declare new so-called countries?"
The World: What about the #Embargo to #Cuba not to mention all the U.S. Invasions all over the world since WW2 in the name of democracy! Awkward! #UkraineRussiaCrisis pic.twitter.com/cdlBRvvCHl

— Alex! (@xsemperfidelis) February 23, 2022

Cut to today when someone has blown up the Nova Kakhova dam controlling the water supply to Crimea. Previously the U.S. and Norway  destroyed a Russian gas pipeline to Europe and Ukraine bombed a major bridge from Russia to Crimea. The Western press rightly considers these to be dastardly deeds but hilariously blames them on..Russia.

When people tell you who they are, believe them. pic.twitter.com/dubdV7xwzR

— professional hog groomer (@bidetmarxman) June 6, 2023

Almost everything President Biden has said about Ukraine has turned out not to be true, but he wasn't lying when he said that the Nord Stream 2 would never open. But he's kind of dingy now and as such a much less convincing liar than the architects of World War 3 who he fronts for.

Here's another major player, one whose lies are regularly reported by government stenographer Politico: 

Despite being used to it, I remain absolutely gobsmacked at the lies coming from the American government.

Anyone who pays even remote attention to the subject can see U.S. policy on China and Taiwan has changed dramatically.

For one the core of the policy towards Taiwan was… pic.twitter.com/b8b8bEeoJ8

— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) June 5, 2023

 It was difficult to find a picture of Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor, "smiling."

For gender equity, here are a couple of the smiling liars helping make our warmongering machine look woke.

Victoria Nuland straddles many administrations, D and R, and was smiling when she handed out cookies to coup supporters in Ukraine in 2014 -- but I like this picture of her better. Recently she's been "helping" Pakistan during their lawfare soft coup of hugely popular PM Imran Khan, and "helping" Sudan.

Check out this timeline leading up to the current state of Sudan 👀 pic.twitter.com/ckMnJVL71s

— VRosen (@vrosen11) April 24, 2023

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre's entire job is managing lies with a straight, if not smiling, face. Lies like: America is helping Ukraine fight for its democracy. With Ukraine as the most corrupt and arguably least democratic nation in Europe, it takes a lot of poise and keeping one's eye on the ball of future lucrative employment to offer up this gross canard without LOL.

But here's the thing: nobody will be laughing once we've been lied into a nuclear WW3.

Throwing Rocks Under Russia's Skates

When I was a kid, police knocked on my door in Los Angeles responding to a complaint by neighbors that I had attacked their son. I explained that the older boy had been throwing rocks under my skates repeatedly despite my demands that he stop. After my busy mother declined to intervene, I grabbed a curtain rod from my garage to make him stop. The police accepted my self-defense argument and went away.

The rock throwing stopped after that, for good.

My toddler grandson started at a new day care recently. The care provider told us that any time a child in her care feels threatened by another child coming too close or trying to grab a toy they're playing with, she teaches the child to say "SPACE!" accompanied by an outstretched, talk-to-the-hand gesture. "It's not a question," she explained. "It's a demand, and it needs to be respected."

It seems to me, and to the U.S. intelligence veterans listed below their recent full page ad in the New York Times, that the Russian Federation has been demanding "SPACE!" with regards to NATO since the fall of the Soviet Union. In other words, for decades.

Alice Slater's cogent response to the recent G7 summit held in Hiroshima as an ominous warning of continued U.S. nuclear belligerence included this reminder:

U.S. allies in nuclear crime include five NATO countries with U.S. nuclear bombs on their territory—Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Turkey—and Japan of all nations, ironically, under its nuclear umbrella which is abandoning its Peace Constitution under US pressure and will become a NATO affiliate instead of urging that all the G7 nations join the new Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons which they have all boycotted and rejected. [emphasis mine]

“The US leads the way in dishonoring its Non-Proliferation Treaty obligation for “good faith efforts” for nuclear disarmament and has never acted in “good faith”.

China is now also having rocks thrown under its skates in Taiwan and the South China Sea. Any response it makes beyond demanding "SPACE!" will be misrepresented in the corporate press most in the U.S. rely on, as a method of building the case for a proxy war on the Belt and Road Initiative leader now commanding the world's economy.

The U.S. could not subdue insurgents in Afghanistan, one of the poorest countries in the world, but pretends it can win against military powers like Russia and China.

Nuclear weapons are likely to be the only way the U.S. could prevail over a Russia-China alliance currently supported by most of the Global South.

And the G7 met in nuclear victim city Hiroshima to remind us, not so subtly, of that grim fact.

Where To Get Some Real News -- While We Still Can

This was an informative webinar my husband and I watched yesterday. Chengpang Lee, assistant professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic Uni and Dic Lo, Reader in Economics at SOAS Uni of London, shared information that was new to us. Link to recording is eagerly awaited and will be shared.

Seven years ago I published a list of sources I considered useful for gathering real news as opposed to repackaged Pentagon or State Department talking points posing as news.

The list is much shorter today. Venerables like Democracy Now! have succumbed to the lure of big money and as a result are cheerleading for proxy war in Ukraine. How the mighty have fallen.

With a particular focus on the ginning up of war against China, here's my current list. The link will take you to an article or episode related to the U.S. pivot to Asia, but the whole publication is worthy of attention. In no particular order:

Covert Action Magazine (text)

CaitlinJohnstone.com (text or audio)

Pearls and Irritations (text)

Reports on China (short videos)

Consortium News (text)

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting/FAIR (text)

Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action (text)

Organizing Notes (text or videos)

Hankyoreh (text)

Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space (videos)

Sydney Criminal Lawyers blog (text)

MintPress News (text and videos)

The Most Censored News/Behind the Headlines with Lee Camp (videos)

 No More Battle of Okinawa: Nuchi du Takara (Life is a Treasure) People’s Association

My list is heavy on text (which I prefer) and light on videos and podcasts (which many people prefer these days). Please use comments to suggest other reliable sources I've missed!

EDITED Feb 12 to include more sources:

The Cradle (text)

Global Research (text)

BreakThrough News (videos)

Multipolarista (text)

Information You Aren't Likely To Read/Hear In Western Media: Pivot To Asia Edition

Source: India and Geopolitics

If imitation is a sincere form of flattery, here is my one-time attempt to imitate my friend JK's terrifically useful mini-digest on Ukraine. Sent via email a few times a week, containing "information you are not likely to read/hear in the Western/U.S. media," its author has identified the need for someone to do something similar for news on the war on China the U.S. is planning aka the Obama-Biden pivot to Asia.

I'm unqualified to take on this project because I don't read Chinese or Japanese beyond the kindergarten level or any other East Asian languages. But, in the spirit of JK's heroic communication efforts around the U.S. war on Russia, here goes.

Item #1

Follow the Puck -- Trends in Geopolitics by SL Kanthan, Indian blogger on "India's role in a multipolar world"  January 31, 2023

(Note from LS: MUST READ! Examines why people in the U.S. believe so many things about China that are demonstrably false.)

Item #2

CSIS advises US to prepare for possible redeployment of tactical nukes to S. Korea by Lee Bon-young, Washington correspondent for Hankyore  January 20, 2023

 

Source: CGTN

Item #3

The US-Australia Military Alliance Serves Washington's Interests, Not Ours by Paul Gregoire, Sydney Criminal Lawyers  January 27, 2023

Item #4

War in the Taiwan Strait May Mean War For North, South Korea by Cheong Wook-Sik, Hankoreh Peace Institute  January 31, 2023

 

Item #5

How CNN & BBC trick you about China: Selina Wang and her failed exposé [Length: 11:42] by Andy Boreham, Reports on China  January 30, 2023

 

Item #6

Okinawa Against US-JAPAN Alliance [Length: 12:15] by Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space  February 1, 2023

(Note from LS: MUST WATCH! Discusses how the U.S. with full Japanese cooperation has turned Okinawa into a war base and an obvious target during any conflict with China.)

 

Item #7

Why is Victoria Nuland coming to Sri Lanka? by Shenali D. Waduge, Lankaweb   January 31, 2023

 

Item #8

Joint Statement of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China on the International Relations Entering a New Era and the Global Sustainable Development

February 4, 2022

(Note from LS: MUST READ. It's a year old and long, but well worth your time to understand reality behind headlines like "China, Russia partner up against West at Olympics summit" by Reuters or "Russia and China unveil a pact against the West" in the New Yorker.)

If Taiwan Is The Next Ukraine, Better Start Studying

Source: China Protests US Navy, Coast Guard Ships in Taiwan Strait, VOA

My last blog post made reference to a RAND study on perceptions of U.S. space programs in both Russia and China. The report noted how much more difficult it is for people in the West to understand Chinese attitudes and beliefs. Indeed, the authors could not even select ten space developments in recent decades that were seen as significant by Chinese publications they studied.

As U.S. warmongers clearly signal their intention to use Taiwan to weaken China

in a move analogous to using Ukraine to weaken Russia, it's time for me to do some studying.

Since information rather than propaganda is so hard to come by these days, I've compiled a digest that goes partway toward addressing that problem. I don't read Chinese so I'll have to rely on English translations or, in some cases, messaging prepared with a Western audience in mind.

I acknowledge that this is a very incomplete list of worthwhile readings, so I welcome your feedback and further suggestions in the comments.

China digest

outsider perspectives

Taiwan and the making of an 'Asian NATO' - Monthly Review Online, Danny Haiphong

China chip ban a US exercise in extreme self-harm - Asia Times, David P. Goldman

Countries struggling against US domination are inevitably turning to China - Friends of Socialist China, Margaret Kimberley

'China knows it's getting stronger' George Yeo on US-China tensions - South China Morning Post, Talking Post with Yonden Lhatoo

'Peaceful modernization': China's offering to the Global South - The Cradle, Pepe Escobar

Screenshot from a video of former Communist Party of China (CPC) Chairman Hu Jintao, age 79, being removed from the closing day of the 20th National Congress of the CPC. Xi Jinping is seated to his left when a man in a mask comes to escort Hu out.

The interpretations of this odd event are indicative of 1) the difficulty for Westerners to understand what's going on in China and 2) the often knee-jerk hostility where most commenters assumed this was like a Mafia hit or purge.  Other commenters said: Hu has Alzheimers and may have needed to attend to his personal hygiene. 

It is well nigh impossible for me to know the truth of what happened. So, I'll keep reading.

Chinese perspectives

Hold High the Great Banner of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics and Strive in Unity to Build a Modern Socialist Country in All Respects - Report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, October 16, 2022, Xi Jinping

Special report on the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China - People's Daily Online (in Google English translation, for what it's worth)

‘Who Am I,’ video about CPC’s growth, purposes and goals, goes viral - Global Times

Who Am I? - YouTube