Just as both Russia and India have done over the past months, China has now adopted new laws restricting the free play of foreign NGO’s, to the wild protest of the western “color revolution” networks.

According to Xinhua, the law, passed by the National Parliament of China Thursday, after several readings over the past 18 months, will require foreign NGOs to secure approval from the Ministry of Public Security, and register with the police, to set up representative offices on the mainland; and the NGOs must have an official Chinese partner organization. The law takes effect on Jan. 1.

Xinhua reports that the bill mandates that:

* Overseas NGOs operating on the mainland without approval will be punished.

* NGOs shall not undermine the country’s unity, security or ethnic solidarity nor harm the interests of the state, the public or the legal rights of citizens and other groups.

* They will be banned from engaging in or sponsoring commercial and political activities or engaging in or sponsoring religious activities.

* Financial reports, including sources of funding, will be audited and published.

* Foreign NGOs will not be considered legal entities, and therefore it will be against the law to recruit Chinese members, unless approved by the State Council.

* NGOs will have their registration certificates withdrawn if they are found stealing state secrets, spreading rumors, sponsoring political activities or any other activity that harms state security and interests. Staff directly responsible for the offences may face police detention or criminal prosecution.

The final law dropped restrictions on overseas colleges, hospitals and science and engineering research institutes, which had been included in earlier drafts.  The NY Times Saturday captures the freakout in the West: “This latest move is also part of a wider global trend in which powerful nations, including Russia and India, are cracking down on non-government organizations and consolidating power in the state.” BRICS, anyone?

Xi Jinping, who is leading the transformation of the world in a new paradigm based on development and the common aims of mankind, is, according to the NY Times, taking China back to the bad old days: “Mr. Xi makes loud pronouncements about ideology, and is expected to enact other sweeping security laws. He has departed sharply from the direction of several of his predecessors, who for decades guided China in seeking out foreign expertise to modernize society.”

The Times notes that this will be particularly difficult for certain groups: “Beijing is already suspicious of foreign and Chinese non-government organizations that receive funding from outside sources deemed politically suspect, like the National Endowment for Democracy and the [George Soros’s] Open Society Foundations.” Lyndon LaRouche commented: “Hooray!” 

Former British Prime Minister and Her Majesty’s evil little helper Tony Blair gets a cool £41,000 a month as a retainer fee from the PetroSaudi oil company according to a series of documents seen by the Guardian. The documents show he was paid because he used his influence to help the company enter the Chinese market; the company is owned by Prince Turki bin Abdullah, the son of the late King Abdullah, who was ruler when these transactions occurred in 2010. According to the contract, the company was not allowed to reveal Blair’s role without permission, for fear that he might be targeted by the City regulator, over concerns Blair was advising on deals for investors for a corporate function, which required oversight by the regulator; this Blair did not have, and thus, he was conducting business, that he was not authorized to conduct.

Blair began lobbying for PetroSaudi in the summer of 2010, and according to emails seen by the Guardian, by the end of the year he had arranged a meeting between the chairman of the China National Petroleum Corp., one of the largest companies in the world, and PetroSaudi in Saudi Arabia.

While the documents from PetroSaudi show they had pressed for him to “help deliver transactions, not just make the intros,” there is no evidence that Blair carried out any transactions, and the Guardian writes that there was nothing illegal in any of these talks. Nonetheless it is not clear if Blair is still receiving the retainer fee of £41,000 a month, perhaps for other services. Nor is it explained why such a well-placed company needs Blair for introductions to the Chinese. Or was the money for something else?

The Guardian quotes Blair’s spokesman as having said, “his role was made known to the regulators…and he has never undertaken any activity other than making introductions. He does not do ‘deals.'”

An estimated 350,000 people gathered on the streets of Buenos Aires Friday in a march and demonstration organized by the four major trade union federations to denounce President Mauricio Macri’s brutal austerity policies, demand that he declare a “job emergency,” and not veto a bill that has already passed the Senate that would halt all firings and force companies to double severance payments of those they do fire.

Former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner praised the “marvelous” demonstration, warning that “it would be good if those who mistreated our Fatherland … realized once and for all that, while our people are peaceful and calm, they are not stupid. They just want to be allowed to work in peace…. Part of our Fatherland once again took to the streets of Buenos Aires because [people] aren’t afraid, and because, above all, they want a future.”

Argentina’s labor movement, which for years has been divided into squabbling factions, is now coming together in opposition to the policies that have already led to 140,000 firings in four months. The powerful teamsters, metalworkers, construction and state-sector unions led the march, joined by other citizens, social groups and political parties. The message delivered by the heads of the two factions of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) and the heads of the two factions of the Argentine Labor Confederation (CTA) was that there would be intensified social conflict and a national strike unless Macri changes his economic policies, and doesn’t attempt to veto the job emergency bill.

Macri and his chief of staff Marcos Peña tried to do damage control, claiming that government and workers share the “same concerns and agenda.” But in an April 29 press conference, Peña called the job emergency bill “counterproductive,” as “excessive protection of employment” would only force 40% of workers into the informal economy. A very defensive Macri is making appearances in several cities around the country vowing to create hundreds of thousands of jobs through public works projects.

As the U.S. pursues its war-mongering gunboat diplomacy in the South China Sea, Chinese President Xi Jinping is attempting to create a peace order in Asia. Speaking to the Foreign Ministers Beijing meeting of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building in Asia (CICA) on April 28, President Xi called on those present to follow through and make the vision of a security governance model with Asian features a reality.

CICA was established in 1992 as a forum for dialogue and consultation on security issues in Asia. It has 26 member countries and 12 countries and international organizations as observers. President Xi had first made the proposal for a new regional security cooperation framework based on the CICA at the 2014 CICA Leaders Summit.

He told the foreign ministers,“A stable and developing Asia is a blessing, while a turbulent and declining Asia would bring nothing but trouble to the world. Asia’s security architecture should fit regional conditions,” he said, noting that CICA would be the ideal framework for developing such an architecture. Xi reiterated that China is firmly committed to pursuing the peaceful development path, maintaining international order with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter at its core, fostering a new type of international relations of win-win cooperation, and building a community of shared future for all.

Xi’s proposal received much praise and support from the delegates. He encouraged the Asian nations to scale up exchanges and communication to create a fertile environment to establish regional security governance. China will chair CICA for the next two years and “will work with other parties to raise CICA’s profile in regional security and development affairs,” Xi said.

Speaking at a CPC Political Bureau Study Group on the history of the ancient Silk Road and the Maritime Silk Road on April 29, President Xi Jinping said that he hoped that the Belt and Road Initiative would be of benefit to all countries, as well as to China. President Xi has initiated these study groups in order to invite experts in to the Politburo to more intensively examine questions of importance for the nation, on which they must make decisions.

The expert for the Friday meeting was Prof. Li Guqiang from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

President Xi also addressed the group on the topic. “The construction of the Belt and Road is our multi-directional proposal in the new economic circumstances to create an important mutually beneficial, win-win platform. We must approach it from a higher standpoint, adopt a broader vision in assimilating and drawing lessons on the basis of historical experience. We must use creative ideas and innovative thinking to create a sound basis for our work and in order to allow the people of all the countries along the Road to experience concretely the benefits of the Road and Belt. The Political Bureau is this time studying this topic, most importantly to grasp the historical culture of the ancient Silk Road and the maritime Silk Road, to sum up the historical experience in order to push forward the construction of the Belt and Road under new circumstances and to draw lessons from this historical experience.

“When the Belt and Road was proposed, it aroused great interest in many layers and had reverberations around the world, and every side responded. The reason for the strong response was primarily that the proposal corresponded to the demand of the times and each country quickened its desire for development, which has deep historical roots and its basis in humanity. Viewed from our circumstances, this proposal is in accordance with the demands of our country’s economic development, but is also conducive to drive the development of our neighboring countries. The Belt and Road arouses the sense of history in our neighboring countries. The ancient Silk Road was a corridor of trade, but even more a corridor of friendship.  With the friendly contacts between the Chinese people and our neighboring peoples, we are step-by-step approaching a condition of peace and cooperation, a flourishing of tolerance, of learning from each other, of a mutual benefit and win-win spirit that characterized the ancient Silk Road.

“We have initiated the Belt and Road, but building the Belt and Road is not only our task. It cannot be viewed as only the means of our development, but we must use our development as a critical turning point to allow more countries to get on our express train and to help them realize the goals of their own development. It must be to the benefit of our country but also to the benefit of other nations. We must adopt the principle of justice before benefit, achieving justice then benefit, not eager for success and immediate benefit, not conducting short-sighted actions. We must plan the project as a whole taking into consideration our own interests and the interests of the countries along the way, which may be somewhat different, and seek for more junctures in our mutual benefits and engender in the countries along the Belt and Road our enthusiasm.”

Xi also urged Chinese companies to value not only economic returns from their investment projects in foreign countries but also their reputations as law-abiding and responsible entities.

Although for some time, Chinese scientists have been lobbying for a mission to land astronauts on the Moon, during celebrations April 24 for National Space Day came the first announcement of such a plan from a high-level space official. Lt. Gen. Zhang Yulin remarked at a conference celebrating China’s first Space Day that China plans to land astronauts on the Moon by 2036. Zhang is the deputy commander of China’s Manned Space Program, which posted his remarks on its website on April 28. He is also deputy head of the Central Military Commission’s Equipment Development Department.

China must “raise its abilities and use the next 15 to 20 years to realize manned lunar exploration goals,” Zhang said,”and take a firm step for the Chinese people in breaking ground in the utilization of space.” He also noted that the project would, more broadly, support the scientific and technological development of the country. Zhang’s comments follow President Xi Jinping’s Space Day comments that his “China Dream” is tied to China’s “Space Dream.”

Pang Zhihao, of the China Academy of Space Technology, described the challenges for China’s space program to carry out such a lunar landing. First, a heavy-lift launch vehicle, on the order of the Saturn V Moon rocket, has to be designed, developed, man-rated, and tested. “To send our astronauts to the Moon, we will need a mighty rocket capable of lifting a payload of at least 100 metric tons into low Earth orbit,” he explained.”That is why our scientists have begun to develop the Long March 9.” This new vehicle is expected to have a payload capacity of 130 metric tons, and be ready to fly around 2030. A new crew capsule, larger and more capable than the Earth-orbital Shenzhou craft, will have to be developed. Creating new space suits, appropriate for walking on the Moon, is underway, and techniques for descent to the lunar surface, a soft landing, and the ability to launch from the lunar surface and to rendezvous and dock with an orbiter for the trip home, all are required.

China’s ongoing projects are laying the basis for the manned lunar mission, officials have stressed. The rendezvous and docking missions in Earth orbit with the Shenzhou capsules have laid the foundation for the more demanding lunar-orbit rendezvous needed for the manned mission. Next year’s Chang’e-5 mission, to return lunar samples to Earth, will demonstrate the high-velocity Earth return that the lunar manned mission will require. Similarly, the landing of Chang’e-3 and its companion Yutu rover on the Moon, was good practice for extraterrestrial landing techniques.

Over the next 15 to 20 years, Zhang said, all of these capabilities will be developed.