Steve Bannon, Executive Chairman of Breitbart News, will be speaking in Tokyo on Wednesday about the importance of democracies working together to counter the threats posed by the Communist regime in China.
The 12th annual InterEthnic/InterFaith Leadership Conference will feature democracy and human rights activists representing a wide-range of faith traditions, including Chinese, Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongolians, Taiwanese, Hong Kongers, Macauers, Christians and Falung Gong practitioners.
Bannon will also be in dialogue with conference participants about Asian democracies’ reaction to regional crises involving China and the role the U.S. can play in the alliance.
The theme of this year’s conference is “Advancing Human Rights, Democracy, and Peace: New Tools, New Strategies, New Generation,” according to its website.
The three areas of focus at the conference include new dilemmas and new opportunities following the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Chinese Communist Party’s influence on, and a threat to, the Asia-Pacific region; and forging an alliance of Asian democracies.
Earlier this month Bannon joined Breitbart News Daily SiriusXM co-hosts Alex Marlow and Raheem Kassam on Tuesday and discussed China and U.S. relations and their strategic vision at length.
Bannon said a recent speech by Chinese President, Xi Jinping, “His three-and-a-half hour speech a couple weeks ago was the single most important political speech of the 21st century. I think you could actually argue that years from now people might say it started there. Because he fundamentally went through how the Chinese Confuscious mercantilist authoritative model has beaten the West.”
“It’s their world now,” Bannon continued. “They’re a hegemonic power. It’s not that they’re rising to be a hegemonic power. It’s not that what they always wanted to be was considered a great power along with the United States and Russia. They’re saying, hey, the game’s over.
Bannon called it “awe-inspiring” and said China is “in your face in doing it.” He faulted the Bushes and “that whole group” who insisted China would liberalize and become a free market democracy if we gave them favorable trade deals. Bannon called the strategy “dead wrong.”
“We have an enemy of incalculable power and they’re not a strategic partner,” Bannon said. “They are an enemy and we have to understand.”
Other speakers will include Australian MP Michael Danby; former Japanese MP Makino Seishu; Japanese MPs; and the Dalai Lama’s East Asian representative Lung Tok.
Scholars from Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Australia, Switzerland, the United States, Canada, and Germany also will take part in the conference.
Yang Jianli, founder of the conference, said in his opening remarks at the first conference, “It is the first time in history” that so many different ethnic, geographical and religious groups have gathered voluntarily without coercion.
The conference is co-organized by the Human Rights Foundation of Japan, the Forum for a Democratic China and Asia (Germany), the Uyghur Human Rights Project, the Tibet Legal Association, the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center, and the International Chinese-Tibetan Association.
The conference is sponsored by the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy and the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy.
Bannon’s speech will be live-streamed on Breitbart News’ Facebook on Tuesday 7:30 p.m. ET.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.