csmonitor--2020-05-05--Inside a hotspot: Voices from the floor of a meat-packing plant

The pressures on plants to stay open are immense , but staying open can risk the well-being of those who keep them humming , many of whom have felt overlooked .
Now , mayors , legislators , and health officials are rallying around Waterloo ’ s workers , with a local sheriff saying Monday that he was seeing “ massive improvements ” at Tyson .
The plant suspended operations on April 22 – one of about 20 slaughterhouses and meat-processing plants to have shut down around the country .
The closures will have consequences for consumers and for hog farmers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ animals .
Iowa ’ s governor , senators , and agricultural secretary have urgently requested federal help .
What do you do when the people who help feed America can ’ t – or won ’ t – go to work ?
A Tyson pork processing plant in Waterloo , Iowa , offers a window into the challenges facing workers and businesses amid the pandemic .
“ I understand that we are vital to putting the food out there for not just America but the whole world , ” says one employee who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ if we are so vital to doing that , why not take care of us ?
” Even before Iowa started shutting down due to the current pandemic , Khalil El-Amin ’ s employer gave him a special letter .
It explained that he was an essential worker , in case the state went into lockdown and he got pulled over on the way to work .
He still has it in his glove box , even though he ’ s no longer commuting to his job at Tyson Fresh Meats in Waterloo @ @ @ @ @ @ @ On April 22 , Tyson suspended operations in Waterloo , its largest pork-processing plant in the country , saying that protecting their 2,800 employees was its top priority .
The move came amid intensifying pressure from local elected officials , increasing reports of positive COVID-19 cases at the plant , and hundreds of workers not showing up for their shifts amid rising health concerns .
Editor ’ s note : As a public service , all our coronavirus coverage is free .
No paywall .
The situation illustrates the dilemmas facing meat-packing plants @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s food supply chain .
The pressures to stay open are immense , but public health officials say staying open can risk the well-being of those who keep them humming .
More broadly , some workers say they have long felt overlooked and undervalued .
“ I understand that we are vital to putting the food out there for not just America but the whole world , ” says another Tyson worker who has tested positive for COVID-19 and agreed to speak on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution .
“ But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that , why not take care of us ?
” Tyson ’ s Waterloo operation is one of about 20 slaughterhouses and meat-processing plants industry-wide that have shut down across the country as nearly 5,000 employees have been diagnosed with the disease .
Last week ’ s pork production was down about 40 % compared to the same period last year .
For now , frozen and refrigerated meat is helping to fill the gap .
Meanwhile hog farmers are facing the heart-wrenching prospect of mass euthanization .
In a bid to keep @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Donald Trump last week invoked the 1950 Defense Production Act in an executive order urging meat processing plants to run at the maximum extent possible – a move that experts say is designed to give the plants legal cover if employees fall ill .
The disruption is bringing to light a broad range of concerns about the U.S. meat supply chain , from a lack of flexibility and agility to the treatment of not only animals but also the people who work long hours to bring meat to American tables .
“ I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ providing food … and then making sure that the people are safe , ” says Rev .
Belinda Creighton-Smith , a Baptist pastor and social justice leader in Waterloo , who says more than a dozen plant employees have come to her with their concerns .
“ We need to make sure that we ’ re taking care of our brothers and sisters first and foremost and not being concerned that we ’ re cutting into our profits and production slowing down.
” How the pressure built on Tyson A third Tyson employee @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his protection , inspects gutted hogs and takes pride in the company ’ s high standards for its meat .
One day in April , he says , he overheard supervisors at work discussing positive cases at the plant .
The next two days , he called in to say he wouldn ’ t be coming to work .
Both times , he says , human resources told him he was more likely to get COVID-19 shopping at Walmart than coming to work , where he would be safe .
He came back @ @ @ @ @ @ @ find out that someone he worked near that day fell ill after work .
“ I needed the money , ” he says , but worried about endangering his baby son and his girlfriend .
“ It almost seemed like , man , we just was almost considered throwaways instead of essential workers.
” Mr. El-Amin , on the other hand , who works on the loading dock and has limited interaction with other employees during his shift , says he ’ s been impressed by the company ’ s proactive approach .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ forklift every other hour , he says , put up signs in the hallways , installed temperature scanners for arriving employees , and erected plexiglass barriers at the lunch tables .
Before they were able to procure masks , they handed out cotton bandanas .
“ I felt like , ‘ Wow , they ’ re really trying to do something for us here , ’ ” he says .
Many meat-packing workers come from minority backgrounds and other populations that have been disproportionately impacted by the current crisis .
Tyson is one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ employs a diverse workforce , including many foreign workers , some of whom have limited English skills and rely on company-provided interpreters .
While workers say the pay is good and it offers a rare opportunity for those without a college degree to advance into management positions , the company has come under fire for how it has handled the coronavirus crisis .
“ The health and safety of our team members is our top priority , and we take this responsibility extremely seriously , ” said Tyson spokeswoman Liz Croston in a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the plant has provided and enforced the use of PPE for its workers , checked them for symptoms , and carried out a deep clean and sanitization while the plant is idle .
The company , which does not offer paid sick days , has also relaxed its attendance policy and eliminated waiting periods for short-term disability coverage , which now covers 90 % of regular pay for those diagnosed with COVID-19 .
“ We are continuing to work closely [ with ] health officials to ensure our efforts meet or exceed local @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” she added .
One of those health officials is Sheriff Tony Thompson , who oversees the planning and operations for the local emergency center spearheading the response to COVID-19 .
On April 10 , he visited the Tyson plant with the county health department director and another colleague .
He says he observed that only about a third of employees were wearing facial coverings and there was no apparent enforcement of PPE .
That day , Tyson knew that they had three positive cases of COVID-19 , but public health officials knew @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was in the teens , Sheriff Thompson adds .
Yet the plant was being thoroughly cleaned only once per day , around 11:30 p.m. after three shifts of workers had been through .
As he left the plant , he recalls turning to his colleagues and saying , “ They just drove a Mack truck through our defenses… .
We ’ ve got to shut this down.
” Within a week , he and 19 other local officials – including six state representatives and seven mayors – signed a letter urging Tyson to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ras Smith , a signatory who lives two miles from the plant , said the hope was to avoid broader losses by all parties .
“ It wasn ’ t about Tyson vs. them , or Waterloo vs. the pork producers , ” he says .
“ If we act aggressively now , ” the thinking went , “ we can save ourselves heartache , cost , and lives in the future.
” The county currently has identified more than 1,500 cases and 18 deaths .
The Iowa Department of Public Health on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Iowa , and said that so far it has identified 444 cases from the Waterloo plant , with 17 % of workers tested so far .
Two workers from Tyson ’ s Columbus Junction plant have died .
At a press conference on Monday , Sheriff Thompson praised Tyson for “ massive improvements ” toward making their plant safe .
A meeting Friday with Tyson representatives “ was an energizing and encouraging first step forward to get that plant reopened.
” The people behind the bacon Iowa is the top pork producer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ plants like the one in Waterloo has created a significant bottleneck .
Iowa State University economist Dermot Hayes has described the pork supply chain as an escalator that can ’ t be turned off .
If you put a gate at the top , the pigs pile up quickly , with nowhere to go .
They gain weight so rapidly that even during a short plant closure they could become too big for a plant to accommodate when it reopens .
The USDA has confirmed $ 1.6 billion in support for pork producers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ financial losses farmers are worried about .
Many are trying desperately to prevent their hogs from going to waste , from feeding them extra fiber to slow down their weight gain to selling live hogs to hunters who will use the meat for their family , says Iowa Pork Producers Association CEO Pat McGonegle .
“ We are using every tool we have to find every avenue that is available , ” he says , including using local butchers to process the meat for food banks across the state .
“ Not in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ business have I seen anything like this.
” One thing the pandemic has revealed is the need for greater flexibility and agility in the meat supply chain , says Bobby Martens , a professor of supply chain management at Iowa State University ’ s business school .
One of the early reasons for the bottlenecks was meat that had been packaged for restaurants rather than individual sale suddenly had nowhere to go when they shut down in March .
The worker safety issue is even more challenging .
It ’ s easy to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shut down earlier , but they were balancing a lot of factors , including a potential customer backlash , he says .
“ Tyson was between a rock and a hard place with some of the decisions they had to make , because consumers were not likely to understand why meat prices were so high , why pork wasn ’ t in the store , and at the same time [ they ] were balancing the health and well-being of their workers , ” Professor Martens says .
As for the worker with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s been quarantining since April 20 .
He has yet to see a paycheck , even though Tyson has said it would continue to pay employees .
His rent is due by Thursday , and funds are running low .
The worker who has tested positive says he hopes Americans shopping in the supermarket are becoming more aware of the people who bring them the bacon , so to speak – from the farmers to the truck drivers to the processing plant workers .
“ We ’ re behind the scenes until @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like this that comes along , and it ’ s put out there that , ‘ Hey , this is what ’ s being done for you to go in there and pick it off the shelf and put it in your oven , or your skillet , ’ ” he says .
“ Until this came along , I don ’ t think the average person even thought about what all is done for the meat to get out there to them .
”

The meat industry has been hit hard by the coronavirus. Workers know how essential their jobs are, but some at one Iowa plant say the feeling is that they seem expendable. That could be changing.
The pressures on plants to stay open are immense, but staying open can risk the well-being of those who keep them humming, many of whom have felt overlooked. Now, mayors, legislators, and health officials are rallying around Waterloo’s workers, with a local sheriff saying Monday that he was seeing “massive improvements” at Tyson.
The plant suspended operations on April 22 – one of about 20 slaughterhouses and meat-processing plants to have shut down around the country. The closures will have consequences for consumers and for hog farmers who now have nowhere to send their animals. Iowa’s governor, senators, and agricultural secretary have urgently requested federal help.
What do you do when the people who help feed America can’t – or won’t – go to work? A Tyson pork processing plant in Waterloo, Iowa, offers a window into the challenges facing workers and businesses amid the pandemic. “I understand that we are vital to putting the food out there for not just America but the whole world,” says one employee who tested positive for COVID-19. “But if we are so vital to doing that, why not take care of us?”
Even before Iowa started shutting down due to the current pandemic, Khalil El-Amin’s employer gave him a special letter. It explained that he was an essential worker, in case the state went into lockdown and he got pulled over on the way to work.
He still has it in his glove box, even though he’s no longer commuting to his job at Tyson Fresh Meats in Waterloo, Iowa.
No one is.
Why We Wrote This The meat industry has been hit hard by the coronavirus. Workers know how essential their jobs are, but some at one Iowa plant say the feeling is that they seem expendable. That could be changing.
On April 22, Tyson suspended operations in Waterloo, its largest pork-processing plant in the country, saying that protecting their 2,800 employees was its top priority. The move came amid intensifying pressure from local elected officials, increasing reports of positive COVID-19 cases at the plant, and hundreds of workers not showing up for their shifts amid rising health concerns.
Editor’s note: As a public service, all our coronavirus coverage is free. No paywall.
The situation illustrates the dilemmas facing meat-packing plants, an essential part of America’s food supply chain. The pressures to stay open are immense, but public health officials say staying open can risk the well-being of those who keep them humming. More broadly, some workers say they have long felt overlooked and undervalued.
“I understand that we are vital to putting the food out there for not just America but the whole world,” says another Tyson worker who has tested positive for COVID-19 and agreed to speak on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. “But if we are so vital to doing that, why not take care of us?”
Tyson’s Waterloo operation is one of about 20 slaughterhouses and meat-processing plants industry-wide that have shut down across the country as nearly 5,000 employees have been diagnosed with the disease. Last week’s pork production was down about 40% compared to the same period last year. For now, frozen and refrigerated meat is helping to fill the gap. Meanwhile hog farmers are facing the heart-wrenching prospect of mass euthanization.
In a bid to keep the meat supply chain running, President Donald Trump last week invoked the 1950 Defense Production Act in an executive order urging meat processing plants to run at the maximum extent possible – a move that experts say is designed to give the plants legal cover if employees fall ill.
The disruption is bringing to light a broad range of concerns about the U.S. meat supply chain, from a lack of flexibility and agility to the treatment of not only animals but also the people who work long hours to bring meat to American tables.
“I think there’s this tension of providing food … and then making sure that the people are safe,” says Rev. Belinda Creighton-Smith, a Baptist pastor and social justice leader in Waterloo, who says more than a dozen plant employees have come to her with their concerns. “We need to make sure that we’re taking care of our brothers and sisters first and foremost and not being concerned that we’re cutting into our profits and production slowing down.”
How the pressure built on Tyson
A third Tyson employee, whose name is being withheld for his protection, inspects gutted hogs and takes pride in the company’s high standards for its meat. One day in April, he says, he overheard supervisors at work discussing positive cases at the plant.
The next two days, he called in to say he wouldn’t be coming to work. Both times, he says, human resources told him he was more likely to get COVID-19 shopping at Walmart than coming to work, where he would be safe.
He came back on the third day, only to find out that someone he worked near that day fell ill after work. “I needed the money,” he says, but worried about endangering his baby son and his girlfriend. “It almost seemed like, man, we just was almost considered throwaways instead of essential workers.”
Mr. El-Amin, on the other hand, who works on the loading dock and has limited interaction with other employees during his shift, says he’s been impressed by the company’s proactive approach. They deployed workers to wipe down his forklift every other hour, he says, put up signs in the hallways, installed temperature scanners for arriving employees, and erected plexiglass barriers at the lunch tables. Before they were able to procure masks, they handed out cotton bandanas.
“I felt like, ‘Wow, they’re really trying to do something for us here,’ ” he says.
Courtesy of Khalil El-Amin View caption Hide caption Khalil El-Amin worked at the loading dock at Tyson Fresh Meats in Waterloo, Iowa, before it temporarily suspended operations on April 22, 2020.
Many meat-packing workers come from minority backgrounds and other populations that have been disproportionately impacted by the current crisis. Tyson is one of the largest employers in Waterloo and employs a diverse workforce, including many foreign workers, some of whom have limited English skills and rely on company-provided interpreters.
While workers say the pay is good and it offers a rare opportunity for those without a college degree to advance into management positions, the company has come under fire for how it has handled the coronavirus crisis.
“The health and safety of our team members is our top priority, and we take this responsibility extremely seriously,” said Tyson spokeswoman Liz Croston in a statement to the Monitor. She said the plant has provided and enforced the use of PPE for its workers, checked them for symptoms, and carried out a deep clean and sanitization while the plant is idle. The company, which does not offer paid sick days, has also relaxed its attendance policy and eliminated waiting periods for short-term disability coverage, which now covers 90% of regular pay for those diagnosed with COVID-19.
“We are continuing to work closely [with] health officials to ensure our efforts meet or exceed local, state, and national guidelines,” she added.
One of those health officials is Sheriff Tony Thompson, who oversees the planning and operations for the local emergency center spearheading the response to COVID-19.
On April 10, he visited the Tyson plant with the county health department director and another colleague. He says he observed that only about a third of employees were wearing facial coverings and there was no apparent enforcement of PPE.
That day, Tyson knew that they had three positive cases of COVID-19, but public health officials knew the total case numbers among plant employees was in the teens, Sheriff Thompson adds. Yet the plant was being thoroughly cleaned only once per day, around 11:30 p.m. after three shifts of workers had been through.
As he left the plant, he recalls turning to his colleagues and saying, “They just drove a Mack truck through our defenses…. We’ve got to shut this down.”
Within a week, he and 19 other local officials – including six state representatives and seven mayors – signed a letter urging Tyson to voluntarily cease operations.
Democratic state Rep. Ras Smith, a signatory who lives two miles from the plant, said the hope was to avoid broader losses by all parties.
“It wasn’t about Tyson vs. them, or Waterloo vs. the pork producers,” he says. “If we act aggressively now,” the thinking went, “we can save ourselves heartache, cost, and lives in the future.”
The county currently has identified more than 1,500 cases and 18 deaths. The Iowa Department of Public Health on Tuesday declared outbreaks at five meat facilities in Iowa, and said that so far it has identified 444 cases from the Waterloo plant, with 17% of workers tested so far. Two workers from Tyson’s Columbus Junction plant have died.
At a press conference on Monday, Sheriff Thompson praised Tyson for “massive improvements” toward making their plant safe. A meeting Friday with Tyson representatives “was an energizing and encouraging first step forward to get that plant reopened.”
The people behind the bacon
Iowa is the top pork producer in America, and the shutdown of plants like the one in Waterloo has created a significant bottleneck. Iowa State University economist Dermot Hayes has described the pork supply chain as an escalator that can’t be turned off. If you put a gate at the top, the pigs pile up quickly, with nowhere to go. They gain weight so rapidly that even during a short plant closure they could become too big for a plant to accommodate when it reopens.
The USDA has confirmed $1.6 billion in support for pork producers. But it’s not just financial losses farmers are worried about.
Many are trying desperately to prevent their hogs from going to waste, from feeding them extra fiber to slow down their weight gain to selling live hogs to hunters who will use the meat for their family, says Iowa Pork Producers Association CEO Pat McGonegle.
“We are using every tool we have to find every avenue that is available,” he says, including using local butchers to process the meat for food banks across the state. “Not in my 30 years of doing the pig business have I seen anything like this.”
One thing the pandemic has revealed is the need for greater flexibility and agility in the meat supply chain, says Bobby Martens, a professor of supply chain management at Iowa State University’s business school. One of the early reasons for the bottlenecks was meat that had been packaged for restaurants rather than individual sale suddenly had nowhere to go when they shut down in March.
The worker safety issue is even more challenging. It’s easy to say in hindsight that Tyson should have shut down earlier, but they were balancing a lot of factors, including a potential customer backlash, he says.
“Tyson was between a rock and a hard place with some of the decisions they had to make, because consumers were not likely to understand why meat prices were so high, why pork wasn’t in the store, and at the same time [they] were balancing the health and well-being of their workers,” Professor Martens says.
As for the worker with a girlfriend and young child, he’s been quarantining since April 20. He has yet to see a paycheck, even though Tyson has said it would continue to pay employees. His rent is due by Thursday, and funds are running low.
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The worker who has tested positive says he hopes Americans shopping in the supermarket are becoming more aware of the people who bring them the bacon, so to speak – from the farmers to the truck drivers to the processing plant workers.
“We’re behind the scenes until there’s a pandemic or something like this that comes along, and it’s put out there that, ‘Hey, this is what’s being done for you to go in there and pick it off the shelf and put it in your oven, or your skillet,’ ” he says. “Until this came along, I don’t think the average person even thought about what all is done for the meat to get out there to them.”


csmonitor--2020-04-30--For Native Americans, coronavirus looks heartbreakingly familiar

But history has also given Native communities a fierce perseverance .
“ Tribal communities are resilient to this , ” says Jessica Elm , a researcher and member of the Oneida Nation .
“ We know our ancestors have got through it , so we know we can get through it.
” So tribes are doing what they can .
At stake is more than just the health of the individuals .
In a culture that reveres its elders , those over age 65 hold much of the collective memory of customs , languages , and practices .
This is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of North America .
“ Every [ issue ] that is true elsewhere in the United States is being magnified ” in Indian Country , says one expert .
What if a community had only one 45-bed inpatient health clinic for an area twice as large as Rhode Island ?
Or if it was so remote you could only get there by plane ?
Or if its neighborhoods had a disproportionately high number of older people and those with health complications ?
And what if , over the centuries , time and again @ @ @ @ @ @ @ For the first North Americans , memories of pandemics are long .
Lela Oman was an infant in Nome , Alaska , during the 1918 flu epidemic .
Nome , on the far northwestern tip of the continent , had just gotten a telephone line , so residents were able to get some advance warning .
Everyone knew what to do after that , Ms. Oman recalled in a 1996 interview for a University of Alaska , Fairbanks , oral history project .
Dog teams “ went to Deering and to Shishmaref telling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” she said .
“ At Shishmaref , there were guards , sentries , with guns .
If anybody started coming up this way , shoot to kill.
” Editor ’ s note : As a public service , all our coronavirus coverage is free .
No paywall .
Those responses from a century ago are playing out again now as Native communities across North America go on the offensive against COVID-19 .
Infectious diseases have played a tragic role in the history of indigenous people on the continent , from smallpox @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the population through the centuries .
Now , with the arrival of the new coronavirus , Native communities face severe challenges .
Those on reservations are disproportionately old , have high rates of chronic disease , are often living in remote locations , and rely on dramatically underresourced health systems .
What ’ s more , for some Native tribes , older people are the last repositories of vanishing languages and cultures .
“ Every [ issue ] that is true elsewhere in the United States is being magnified ” in Indian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health .
As recently as the 1918 flu epidemic , the death rate for Native communities in the U.S. was four times higher than the nation as a whole .
That shared past has pushed some Native communities to act faster than their neighboring state and national governments , reprising the same shutdowns and security patrols from a century ago .
But it has also added something more – a remarkable perseverance .
“ This has in many ways been a perfect storm ” for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But in Native populations , “ there ’ s incredible resilience and flexibility.
” The scope of the challenge A lack of testing is a problem for the entire continent , but it ’ s an additional problem for Native communities and health systems that were already stressed .
That has made it hard to get an accurate gauge of the coronavirus ’ s impact .
There are 2,711 confirmed cases in the U.S. Indian health system , and 89 deaths , as of Tuesday , according to an Indian Country Today database @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Services Canada was aware of 129 confirmed positive tests on First Nations reserves .
Those numbers may not capture the large indigenous population living off reservations .
Yet reservations are the greatest cause for concern .
While the majority of indigenous people live outside reservations , reservation demographics skew toward the most vulnerable populations , including older people and those with chronic illnesses .
Most positive cases in Indian Country are concentrated in a few reservations .
Moreover , reservations struggle with a host of challenges .
Health facilities are understaffed and underresourced @ @ @ @ @ @ @ generations under one roof .
Infrastructure is poor , and in some cases nonexistent .
One in three people in the Navajo Nation don ’ t have running water , for example , according to the Navajo Water Project .
In Canada , some reserves not only lack water but also have a “ do not use ” advisory in effect , meaning they can ’ t even use that water for hand-washing .
Many reservations are also remote , and that isolation can cut both ways .
Ninety-six First Nations in Canada @ @ @ @ @ @ @ while in Alaska , essential air services that carry food , freight , and mail have been reduced dramatically .
The Canadian government has sent hand sanitizer , masks , gloves , and isolation shields to indigenous communities and is deploying the Canadian Rangers to Inuit communities in northern Quebec .
The U.S. Congress , meanwhile , has passed four national relief packages that include more than $ 8 billion for Indian Country .
But that comes after decades of underfunding from national governments that , through treaty agreements , have a trust @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Take the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and Nebraska .
There is one inpatient health care facility on the reservation , which has a population of almost 20,000 and is more than twice the size of Rhode Island .
The clinic has 45 beds and 16 staff members , according to the Indian Health Service .
More supplies are being ordered , and the tribe has a contingency plan for two large-scale quarantine sites .
The echoes of the past are hard to ignore .
“ This situation is retraumatizing to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Barlow at Johns Hopkins .
“ After they have rebounded from generations of genocide and ethnocide and really started to develop autonomous structures for governing and so forth , ” she adds , they ’ re “ being revisited by an old enemy .
Here is this deadly virus , and they don ’ t have what they need to contain it.
” So tribes are taking matters into their own hands as best they can .
Since the evening of April 3 , for instance , the Oglala Sioux have been enforcing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , restricting who can enter .
( Neither South Dakota nor Nebraska has issued statewide lockdown orders . )
The tribe has been educating members on hand-washing , including drawing up posters in various languages .
“ Are we ready as a people ?
” asked Julian Bear Runner , president of the tribe , in an April 1 Facebook Live video .
“ We ’ re getting ready .
I think we ’ re as ready as we can be right now.
” The Little Pine Nation is taking similar steps .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the Little Pine Nation has 2,000 members .
The reserve sits in a valley with two main roads in and out .
The Nation runs its own security force , and members say they began patrolling – allowing only residents and essential travel in and out – as soon as the province closed major services on March 25 .
Little Pine has also closed schools and organized the distribution of food and supplies .
Doug Cuthand , a local columnist and filmmaker , says he ’ s never seen anything like it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ total community effort to try and stop this thing , ” he says .
“ Because there is a fear that if it does get a foothold ... it could be very dangerous.
” One of the deepest concerns is for tribal elders .
Elders are revered in indigenous communities as the carriers of knowledge , tradition , and language .
And tribes around the continent have been taking extra care of them .
Since mid-March , the Cherokee Nation has delivered food to elders across the reservation – including perishable items from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ down .
Tribal members have also been visiting elders in person to instruct them , in Cherokee , how to follow health and safety guidelines .
The Cherokee Nation is the largest tribe in America , but only 2,000 of its 380,000 members are fluent Cherokee speakers , according to Chuck Hoskin Jr. , principal chief of the Nation .
The “ lion ’ s share ” of them are age 65 or older , he says .
“ They ’ re the keepers of our stories and our history.
” “ They @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ingenuity and knowledge , ” adds Dalee Sambo Dorough , chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council .
“ The lessons that they share , that they ’ re eager to ensure that others heed – especially when it comes to hunting , fishing , harvesting , and our overall food security ” – are crucial .
It was only in 1925 , after all , that a serum was rushed by a dog team to Nome to prevent a diphtheria outbreak – a crisis that inspired the Iditarod race .
“ For many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the past [ are ] recent history , ” Dr. Dorough adds .
In that way , this crisis feels familiar .
John Borrows , a member of the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation in southern Ontario , wrote last month about how infectious diseases left a mark on his mother ’ s childhood .
“ That kind of telescopes then to what happened in the previous generation with the Spanish flu and what her father experienced , and then that telescopes back to the previous generation with smallpox and what her great-grandfather @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an expert in indigenous law at the University of Victoria Law School in British Columbia .
“ So it cascades and it gets wrapped together for folks – that smallpox is Spanish flu is tuberculosis is COVID-19.
” Today , his mother ’ s reservation is organizing supplies and food distribution for the neediest people .
She gets soup delivered to her front door every evening .
“ Sometimes people view reserves as just a lost cause of problems , ” he says .
“ But they ’ re also homelands , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s Mr. Cuthand says his community ’ s quick response comes from the knowledge of what past pandemics have done to First Nations communities .
What inspires hope is “ the fact that [ First Nations ] are so disciplined.
” If anything , Native communities can take pride in how they ’ ve responded to the COVID-19 pandemic so far , says Jessica Elm , a postdoctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health .
“ In some ways I feel we ’ re doing better than a lot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” says Dr. Elm , a member of the Oneida Nation in northern Wisconsin .
“ Tribal communities are resilient to this .
... We ’ ve been through it before .
We know our ancestors have got through it , so we know we can get through it.
” Correction : This article has been corrected to accurately state the number of Navajo without running water .
Editor ’ s note : As a public service , all our coronavirus coverage is free .
No paywall .
Also , the story has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Cherokee Nation members .

But history has also given Native communities a fierce perseverance. “Tribal communities are resilient to this,” says Jessica Elm, a researcher and member of the Oneida Nation. “We know our ancestors have got through it, so we know we can get through it.”
So tribes are doing what they can. At stake is more than just the health of the individuals. In a culture that reveres its elders, those over age 65 hold much of the collective memory of customs, languages, and practices.
Perhaps no community in North America has been more shaped by infectious disease than Native tribes. Overcoming today’s crisis means turning to deep wells of resilience.
This is how COVID-19 looks to the Native tribes of North America. “Every [issue] that is true elsewhere in the United States is being magnified” in Indian Country, says one expert.
What if a community had only one 45-bed inpatient health clinic for an area twice as large as Rhode Island? Or if it was so remote you could only get there by plane? Or if its neighborhoods had a disproportionately high number of older people and those with health complications? And what if, over the centuries, time and again infectious diseases had tragically swept through?
For the first North Americans, memories of pandemics are long.
Lela Oman was an infant in Nome, Alaska, during the 1918 flu epidemic. Nome, on the far northwestern tip of the continent, had just gotten a telephone line, so residents were able to get some advance warning.
Everyone knew what to do after that, Ms. Oman recalled in a 1996 interview for a University of Alaska, Fairbanks, oral history project. Dog teams “went to Deering and to Shishmaref telling everybody up there not to come down,” she said. “At Shishmaref, there were guards, sentries, with guns. If anybody started coming up this way, shoot to kill.”
Why We Wrote This Perhaps no community in North America has been more shaped by infectious disease than Native tribes. Overcoming today’s crisis means turning to deep wells of resilience.
Editor’s note: As a public service, all our coronavirus coverage is free. No paywall.
Those responses from a century ago are playing out again now as Native communities across North America go on the offensive against COVID-19. Infectious diseases have played a tragic role in the history of indigenous people on the continent, from smallpox to the measles wiping out large swaths of the population through the centuries.
Now, with the arrival of the new coronavirus, Native communities face severe challenges. Those on reservations are disproportionately old, have high rates of chronic disease, are often living in remote locations, and rely on dramatically underresourced health systems. What’s more, for some Native tribes, older people are the last repositories of vanishing languages and cultures.
“Every [issue] that is true elsewhere in the United States is being magnified” in Indian Country, says Allison Barlow, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health.
As recently as the 1918 flu epidemic, the death rate for Native communities in the U.S. was four times higher than the nation as a whole. That shared past has pushed some Native communities to act faster than their neighboring state and national governments, reprising the same shutdowns and security patrols from a century ago. But it has also added something more – a remarkable perseverance.
“This has in many ways been a perfect storm” for Native communities, says Dr. Barlow. But in Native populations, “there’s incredible resilience and flexibility.”
The scope of the challenge
A lack of testing is a problem for the entire continent, but it’s an additional problem for Native communities and health systems that were already stressed. That has made it hard to get an accurate gauge of the coronavirus’s impact.
There are 2,711 confirmed cases in the U.S. Indian health system, and 89 deaths, as of Tuesday, according to an Indian Country Today database. And as of Wednesday, Indigenous Services Canada was aware of 129 confirmed positive tests on First Nations reserves. Those numbers may not capture the large indigenous population living off reservations.
David Jackson/Reuters View caption Hide caption Residents, including Chief Wilfred King (far right), stand at a checkpoint restricting access to their community to slow the spread of the coronavirus in their remote First Nations community of Gull Bay, Ontario, April 27, 2020.
Yet reservations are the greatest cause for concern. While the majority of indigenous people live outside reservations, reservation demographics skew toward the most vulnerable populations, including older people and those with chronic illnesses. Most positive cases in Indian Country are concentrated in a few reservations.
Moreover, reservations struggle with a host of challenges. Health facilities are understaffed and underresourced. Homes are crowded, with several generations under one roof. Infrastructure is poor, and in some cases nonexistent. One in three people in the Navajo Nation don’t have running water, for example, according to the Navajo Water Project. In Canada, some reserves not only lack water but also have a “do not use” advisory in effect, meaning they can’t even use that water for hand-washing.
Many reservations are also remote, and that isolation can cut both ways. Ninety-six First Nations in Canada can be reached only by plane, while in Alaska, essential air services that carry food, freight, and mail have been reduced dramatically.
The Canadian government has sent hand sanitizer, masks, gloves, and isolation shields to indigenous communities and is deploying the Canadian Rangers to Inuit communities in northern Quebec. The U.S. Congress, meanwhile, has passed four national relief packages that include more than $8 billion for Indian Country.
But that comes after decades of underfunding from national governments that, through treaty agreements, have a trust responsibility to provide health care to tribes.
Take the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and Nebraska. There is one inpatient health care facility on the reservation, which has a population of almost 20,000 and is more than twice the size of Rhode Island. The clinic has 45 beds and 16 staff members, according to the Indian Health Service.
More supplies are being ordered, and the tribe has a contingency plan for two large-scale quarantine sites. The echoes of the past are hard to ignore.
“This situation is retraumatizing to many tribal communities,” says Dr. Barlow at Johns Hopkins.
“After they have rebounded from generations of genocide and ethnocide and really started to develop autonomous structures for governing and so forth,” she adds, they’re “being revisited by an old enemy. Here is this deadly virus, and they don’t have what they need to contain it.”
Defending the reservation
So tribes are taking matters into their own hands as best they can.
Since the evening of April 3, for instance, the Oglala Sioux have been enforcing a curfew on the Pine Ridge Reservation, restricting who can enter. (Neither South Dakota nor Nebraska has issued statewide lockdown orders.) The tribe has been educating members on hand-washing, including drawing up posters in various languages.
“Are we ready as a people?” asked Julian Bear Runner, president of the tribe, in an April 1 Facebook Live video. “We’re getting ready. I think we’re as ready as we can be right now.”
Courtesy of Cherokee Nation Communications Department View caption Hide caption Cherokee Nation Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. and Deputy Chief Bryan Warner hold up masks during the coronavirus pandemic in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The tribe donated 1,200 masks to 17 fire departments.
The Little Pine Nation is taking similar steps. A Cree First Nation in northwest Saskatchewan, the Little Pine Nation has 2,000 members. The reserve sits in a valley with two main roads in and out. The Nation runs its own security force, and members say they began patrolling – allowing only residents and essential travel in and out – as soon as the province closed major services on March 25.
Little Pine has also closed schools and organized the distribution of food and supplies. Doug Cuthand, a local columnist and filmmaker, says he’s never seen anything like it.
“It seems to be a total community effort to try and stop this thing,” he says. “Because there is a fear that if it does get a foothold ... it could be very dangerous.”
Care for elders
One of the deepest concerns is for tribal elders. Elders are revered in indigenous communities as the carriers of knowledge, tradition, and language. And tribes around the continent have been taking extra care of them.
Since mid-March, the Cherokee Nation has delivered food to elders across the reservation – including perishable items from 10 casinos and hotels the tribe shut down. Tribal members have also been visiting elders in person to instruct them, in Cherokee, how to follow health and safety guidelines.
The Cherokee Nation is the largest tribe in America, but only 2,000 of its 380,000 members are fluent Cherokee speakers, according to Chuck Hoskin Jr., principal chief of the Nation.
The “lion’s share” of them are age 65 or older, he says. “They’re the keepers of our stories and our history.”
“They’re holders of [our] ingenuity and knowledge,” adds Dalee Sambo Dorough, chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council. “The lessons that they share, that they’re eager to ensure that others heed – especially when it comes to hunting, fishing, harvesting, and our overall food security” – are crucial.
It was only in 1925, after all, that a serum was rushed by a dog team to Nome to prevent a diphtheria outbreak – a crisis that inspired the Iditarod race.
“For many of our leaders, the epidemics of the past [are] recent history,” Dr. Dorough adds.
In that way, this crisis feels familiar. John Borrows, a member of the Chippewas of Nawash First Nation in southern Ontario, wrote last month about how infectious diseases left a mark on his mother’s childhood.
“That kind of telescopes then to what happened in the previous generation with the Spanish flu and what her father experienced, and then that telescopes back to the previous generation with smallpox and what her great-grandfather experienced,” says Mr. Borrows, an expert in indigenous law at the University of Victoria Law School in British Columbia. “So it cascades and it gets wrapped together for folks – that smallpox is Spanish flu is tuberculosis is COVID-19.”
Today, his mother’s reservation is organizing supplies and food distribution for the neediest people. She gets soup delivered to her front door every evening.
“Sometimes people view reserves as just a lost cause of problems,” he says. “But they’re also homelands, and people love them.”
Little Pine’s Mr. Cuthand says his community’s quick response comes from the knowledge of what past pandemics have done to First Nations communities. What inspires hope is “the fact that [First Nations] are so disciplined.”
If anything, Native communities can take pride in how they’ve responded to the COVID-19 pandemic so far, says Jessica Elm, a postdoctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health.
“In some ways I feel we’re doing better than a lot of people in this current situation,” says Dr. Elm, a member of the Oneida Nation in northern Wisconsin. “Tribal communities are resilient to this. ... We’ve been through it before. We know our ancestors have got through it, so we know we can get through it.”
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Correction: This article has been corrected to accurately state the number of Navajo without running water.
Editor’s note: As a public service, all our coronavirus coverage is free. No paywall. Also, the story has been updated to include the correct number of Cherokee Nation members.


csmonitor--2020-06-11--Daily for June 11, 2020

Daily for June 11, 2020

The private memorial service for George Floyd had ended and Martin Rogers stepped out into the hazy afternoon light .
He walked across the street and sat down on an empty park bench , and from that vantage point , he looked back and ahead , to the struggle then and now for racial justice in America .
He recalled a recent trip to Selma , Alabama , with his wife , who grew up there .
They visited the Edmund Pettus Bridge , where in 1965 state troopers and sheriff ’ s deputies armed with tear gas and billy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of voting rights for African Americans .
“ Bloody Sunday , ” as the confrontation became known , marked a seminal moment in the civil rights movement and prodded Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act that year .
“ Walking onto that bridge – that was powerful , ” says Mr. Rogers , a former grade-school teacher .
“ You could feel the history of what those marchers achieved.
” A Connecticut native who moved to Minneapolis in the early 1980s , he attended the memorial here for Mr. Floyd last week @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he serves as an elder .
He heard the Rev .
Al Sharpton deliver a stirring eulogy for Mr. Floyd , the Black security guard who died on Memorial Day under the knee of a white police officer as other officers held him down .
“ What happened to Floyd happens every day in this country – in education , in health services , and in every area of American life , ” Mr. Sharpton told mourners , his voice rising .
“ It ’ s time for us to stand up in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ‘ Get your knee off our necks !
’ ” The viral video of Mr. Floyd ’ s death ignited outrage and massive protests in Minneapolis that spread across the country , creating a groundswell that could represent the start of the nation ’ s largest grassroots movement since civil rights and the Vietnam War .
The prospect inspires cautious hope among residents that their city might emerge from an uprising born of tragedy as the Selma of the North .
“ What we ’ re seeing is a step forward , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time , and I ’ m not sure everybody is ready to change .
Black people – we ’ re ready .
What we need is for everyone to stay involved and stay passionate.
” Civil rights luminaries , religious leaders , and politicians joined Mr. Floyd ’ s family for the memorial to commemorate his life and call for racial equality .
Outside the sanctuary , a sound system carried the words of Mr. Sharpton and other speakers to hundreds of people gathered on the streets and in a nearby park .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Rest in Power George , ” “ Black Lives Matter , ” “ I Can ’ t Breathe ” – on T-shirts , face masks , and cardboard signs .
The deep tensions between people of color and the city ’ s predominantly white police force exploded after a bystander ’ s video surfaced of Officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Mr. Floyd ’ s neck for almost nine minutes .
Shonda Henderson , who has raised her six children in Minneapolis , warns her two teenage sons to avoid cops whenever possible @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s reputation for abusive behavior .
“ I want to see the police violence against us stop and law enforcement start working for us , ” says Ms. Henderson , a housekeeper at a downtown hotel .
The demographics of the protesters – as much as the number and size of recent rallies – give her reason to think the emotion of the moment could evolve into a sustained movement .
“ What ’ s different this time is I ’ m seeing everybody out here – Caucasians , Asians , Latinos @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Americans , ” she says .
“ We ’ re all sticking up for each other and realizing that these issues of equality affect every one of us.
” Millennials and Generation Z have supplied much of the energy and momentum behind the demand for racial justice in Minneapolis and elsewhere .
Mariana Noyola , who will enter ninth grade this fall , convinced her parents to attend the gathering outside the memorial service .
“ It ’ s scary to be African American in America .
We ’ re looked at differently @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , we feel more threatened , ” she says .
“ Other people feel like our Blackness is some kind of weapon.
” The teenager sounded weary beyond her years as she recited the names of Black men killed by police in Minneapolis and other cities the past few years : Jamar Clark , Philando Castile , Eric Garner , Michael Brown .
“ We don ’ t want this to keep happening , ” she says .
“ So we ’ re making sure that we ’ re heard and we ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t look like the past.
” The looting and destruction of hundreds of businesses hindered the first days of protests .
Along Lake Street in South Minneapolis , one of the most racially diverse and hardest-hit stretches in the city , many of the small-business owners are people of color and include immigrants from Somalia , Laos , and an array of other countries .
Marvin Applewhite launched a GoFundMe campaign that raised more than $ 53,000 to provide cleanup services for businesses in the area .
He considers his multicultural , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ communal will to remedy racial friction .
“ George Floyd ’ s death has brought people together who I ’ ve never seen coming together here , ” he says .
“ And now they ’ re coming together across the country.
” Near the end of his eulogy for Mr. Floyd last week , Mr. Sharpton declaimed , “ You changed the world , George .
We going to keep marching , George .
We going to keep fighting , George.
” Shae Noyola , Mariana ’ s mother , added a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ alike .
“ Don ’ t want change , ” she says .
“ Make change.
” A shrine has bloomed at the intersection where George Floyd gasped his final breaths outside a corner grocery store .
A mural of him adorns one of the shop ’ s exterior walls , his head encircled by a halo of names of people killed by police .
Beneath the painting lies a welter of flower bouquets , handmade placards , photos , and other offerings of anguish , anger , and unity .
Around the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ death , a chalk drawing on the pavement shows a human figure with angel ’ s wings .
Visitors by the hundreds eddied through the site on the day of Mr. Floyd ’ s memorial as the mood drifted between block party and open-air wake .
Smoke from barbecue grills swirled in the air while volunteers served free food and distributed donated goods .
A series of speakers and musicians took to a stage erected in the middle of the street .
Almost every one of them yelled out to the crowd , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Each time the reply arrived like cracks of thunder : “ George !
Floyd !
” Here , at the junction of grief and catharsis , Lorraine Gurley felt at once downcast and uplifted .
Thirty years ago , responding to a report of a neighborhood party turned unruly , a white Minneapolis cop fatally shot her unarmed brother in the back .
The case provoked racial animus and local protests .
But unlike the four officers involved in Mr. Floyd ’ s death , the patrolman who killed Tycel Nelson neither @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ascending to the rank of lieutenant over the ensuing two decades .
Ms. Gurley , a pastor at a church on the city ’ s north side , wonders whether Mr. Floyd would be alive if the city had imposed reforms on the department after her brother ’ s shooting .
She wants the next three decades of policing in Minneapolis and across the country to bear little semblance to the past three .
“ There has been so much frustration , so much sorrow , so much loss and death in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ change the system , ” she says .
A message written in chalk on the pavement behind her read , “ Together We Will Change The World.
” “ All the things we wish could ’ ve happened when my baby brother died – that ’ s what we hope will happen now.
” The pressure exerted by the protests has begun to alter city policy .
A veto-proof majority of the Minneapolis City Council vowed this week to replace the police department with a new public safety system , and the police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from contract negotiations with the officers union .
At the same time , the demands for reform in Minneapolis and other cities extend beyond revamping law enforcement .
The surging movement encompasses a broader desire to redress racial inequality in employment and education , in housing and health care , in the culture of everyday American life .
A reputation for liberal politics and policies contrasts with wide economic disparities in Minneapolis between people of color and white residents , who make up about 60 % of the population .
The enduring inequities @ @ @ @ @ @ @ raise questions among some Black activists about the city ’ s potential to equal Selma ’ s legacy .
Shanene Herbert runs the healing justice program for the Minneapolis office of the American Friends Service Committee , a Quaker organization that promotes social equality .
Reacting to large corporations in Minnesota offering statements of support and pledges of funding for the cause of social justice , she says , “ Why now ?
Do you need your name attached to it ?
Will you leave when the cameras go ?
” Yet if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wave of young adults powering the protests here and nationwide gives her a sense of optimism .
“ Our younger generation doesn ’ t have the patience of the older generations , ” Ms. Herbert says .
“ They ’ ve seen enough .
They ’ ve been traumatized and they ’ re not willing to wait for change.
” The urgency cuts across racial lines .
Ella Masters grew up attending Trinity Lutheran Church in South Minneapolis , where last week organizers set up a distribution site for donated goods in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ two grocery stores and largest department store were among several businesses damaged or destroyed by rioters .
Ms. Masters and her partner , Cameron Kinghorn , drove to the church from their home a few miles away to donate laundry detergent , diapers , and other essential items requested by organizers .
Without ignoring the toll on businesses , they credit the scale and duration of the protests for forcing the city to reexamine its relationship with race .
“ A human life is more important than property , ” says Ms. Masters @ @ @ @ @ @ @ need people to get out of their comfort zone and start acting to save lives .
Good intentions aren ’ t enough.
” Mr. Kinghorn , who is biracial , related that the recent upheaval has nudged some of his friends and acquaintances to reevaluate their passive advocacy for equality .
“ They ’ re looking for ways they can actively help , ” he says .
He hopes more of his cohort will step forward to push Minneapolis in the direction of Selma as a historical symbol of racial justice .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can ever reach that level , ” he says .
“ But I think there ’ s a chance , and I would not have said that a couple of weeks ago .
”

Will Minneapolis become the Selma of the North? Collapse
The private memorial service for George Floyd had ended and Martin Rogers stepped out into the hazy afternoon light. He walked across the street and sat down on an empty park bench, and from that vantage point, he looked back and ahead, to the struggle then and now for racial justice in America.
He recalled a recent trip to Selma, Alabama, with his wife, who grew up there. They visited the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where in 1965 state troopers and sheriff’s deputies armed with tear gas and billy clubs attacked peaceful demonstrators marching in support of voting rights for African Americans. “Bloody Sunday,” as the confrontation became known, marked a seminal moment in the civil rights movement and prodded Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act that year.
“Walking onto that bridge – that was powerful,” says Mr. Rogers, a former grade-school teacher. “You could feel the history of what those marchers achieved.”
A Connecticut native who moved to Minneapolis in the early 1980s, he attended the memorial here for Mr. Floyd last week on behalf of the Christian church where he serves as an elder. He heard the Rev. Al Sharpton deliver a stirring eulogy for Mr. Floyd, the Black security guard who died on Memorial Day under the knee of a white police officer as other officers held him down.
“What happened to Floyd happens every day in this country – in education, in health services, and in every area of American life,” Mr. Sharpton told mourners, his voice rising. “It’s time for us to stand up in George’s name and say, ‘Get your knee off our necks!’”
The viral video of Mr. Floyd’s death ignited outrage and massive protests in Minneapolis that spread across the country, creating a groundswell that could represent the start of the nation’s largest grassroots movement since civil rights and the Vietnam War. The prospect inspires cautious hope among residents that their city might emerge from an uprising born of tragedy as the Selma of the North.
“What we’re seeing is a step forward,” Mr. Rogers says. “Change takes time, and I’m not sure everybody is ready to change. Black people – we’re ready. What we need is for everyone to stay involved and stay passionate.”
A different kind of movement
Civil rights luminaries, religious leaders, and politicians joined Mr. Floyd’s family for the memorial to commemorate his life and call for racial equality. Outside the sanctuary, a sound system carried the words of Mr. Sharpton and other speakers to hundreds of people gathered on the streets and in a nearby park. The demonstrators bore messages of solidarity – “Rest in Power George,” “Black Lives Matter,” “I Can’t Breathe” – on T-shirts, face masks, and cardboard signs.
Bebeto Matthews/AP View caption Hide caption George Floyd's brother Philonise Floyd (right) and cousin Shareeduh Tate share memories of George during his funeral at North Central University, June 4, 2020, in Minneapolis.
The deep tensions between people of color and the city’s predominantly white police force exploded after a bystander’s video surfaced of Officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on Mr. Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes. Shonda Henderson, who has raised her six children in Minneapolis, warns her two teenage sons to avoid cops whenever possible, a concern rooted in the department’s reputation for abusive behavior.
“I want to see the police violence against us stop and law enforcement start working for us,” says Ms. Henderson, a housekeeper at a downtown hotel. The demographics of the protesters – as much as the number and size of recent rallies – give her reason to think the emotion of the moment could evolve into a sustained movement.
“What’s different this time is I’m seeing everybody out here – Caucasians, Asians, Latinos. It’s not just African Americans,” she says. “We’re all sticking up for each other and realizing that these issues of equality affect every one of us.”
Millennials and Generation Z have supplied much of the energy and momentum behind the demand for racial justice in Minneapolis and elsewhere. Mariana Noyola, who will enter ninth grade this fall, convinced her parents to attend the gathering outside the memorial service.
“It’s scary to be African American in America. We’re looked at differently, we’re seen as dangerous, we feel more threatened,” she says. “Other people feel like our Blackness is some kind of weapon.”
The teenager sounded weary beyond her years as she recited the names of Black men killed by police in Minneapolis and other cities the past few years: Jamar Clark, Philando Castile, Eric Garner, Michael Brown.
“We don’t want this to keep happening,” she says. “So we’re making sure that we’re heard and we’re seen so that our future doesn’t look like the past.”
The looting and destruction of hundreds of businesses hindered the first days of protests. Along Lake Street in South Minneapolis, one of the most racially diverse and hardest-hit stretches in the city, many of the small-business owners are people of color and include immigrants from Somalia, Laos, and an array of other countries.
Lucas Jackson/Reuters View caption Hide caption Members of the community volunteer to clean up the debris left after a building burned and collapsed during demonstrations in reaction to the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Minneapolis, May 30, 2020.
Marvin Applewhite launched a GoFundMe campaign that raised more than $53,000 to provide cleanup services for businesses in the area. He considers his multicultural, multiethnic team of volunteers reflective of the communal will to remedy racial friction.
“George Floyd’s death has brought people together who I’ve never seen coming together here,” he says. “And now they’re coming together across the country.”
Near the end of his eulogy for Mr. Floyd last week, Mr. Sharpton declaimed, “You changed the world, George. We going to keep marching, George. We going to keep fighting, George.”
Shae Noyola, Mariana’s mother, added a coda intended for the city and country alike. “Don’t want change,” she says. “Make change.”
Grief and catharsis
A shrine has bloomed at the intersection where George Floyd gasped his final breaths outside a corner grocery store. A mural of him adorns one of the shop’s exterior walls, his head encircled by a halo of names of people killed by police. Beneath the painting lies a welter of flower bouquets, handmade placards, photos, and other offerings of anguish, anger, and unity.
Around the corner, marking the spot of his death, a chalk drawing on the pavement shows a human figure with angel’s wings.
Visitors by the hundreds eddied through the site on the day of Mr. Floyd’s memorial as the mood drifted between block party and open-air wake. Smoke from barbecue grills swirled in the air while volunteers served free food and distributed donated goods. A series of speakers and musicians took to a stage erected in the middle of the street. Almost every one of them yelled out to the crowd, “What’s his name?” Each time the reply arrived like cracks of thunder: “George! Floyd!”
Carlos Barria/Reuters View caption Hide caption A resident stands in front of a makeshift memorial honoring George Floyd, at the spot where he was taken into custody, in Minneapolis, June 1, 2020.
Here, at the junction of grief and catharsis, Lorraine Gurley felt at once downcast and uplifted. Thirty years ago, responding to a report of a neighborhood party turned unruly, a white Minneapolis cop fatally shot her unarmed brother in the back.
The case provoked racial animus and local protests. But unlike the four officers involved in Mr. Floyd’s death, the patrolman who killed Tycel Nelson neither faced criminal charges nor lost his job, ascending to the rank of lieutenant over the ensuing two decades.
Ms. Gurley, a pastor at a church on the city’s north side, wonders whether Mr. Floyd would be alive if the city had imposed reforms on the department after her brother’s shooting. She wants the next three decades of policing in Minneapolis and across the country to bear little semblance to the past three.
“There has been so much frustration, so much sorrow, so much loss and death in the Black community. We have to change the system,” she says. A message written in chalk on the pavement behind her read, “Together We Will Change The World.”
“All the things we wish could’ve happened when my baby brother died – that’s what we hope will happen now.”
“Good intentions aren’t enough”
The pressure exerted by the protests has begun to alter city policy. A veto-proof majority of the Minneapolis City Council vowed this week to replace the police department with a new public safety system, and the police chief announced the department’s withdrawal from contract negotiations with the officers union.
At the same time, the demands for reform in Minneapolis and other cities extend beyond revamping law enforcement. The surging movement encompasses a broader desire to redress racial inequality in employment and education, in housing and health care, in the culture of everyday American life.
A reputation for liberal politics and policies contrasts with wide economic disparities in Minneapolis between people of color and white residents, who make up about 60% of the population. The enduring inequities – magnified by the coronavirus pandemic – raise questions among some Black activists about the city’s potential to equal Selma’s legacy.
Shanene Herbert runs the healing justice program for the Minneapolis office of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization that promotes social equality. Reacting to large corporations in Minnesota offering statements of support and pledges of funding for the cause of social justice, she says, “Why now? Do you need your name attached to it? Will you leave when the cameras go?”
Lucas Jackson/Reuters View caption Hide caption People raise their fists after a memorial service for George Floyd following his death in Minneapolis police custody, in Minneapolis, June 4, 2020.
Yet if experience informs her skepticism, the huge wave of young adults powering the protests here and nationwide gives her a sense of optimism. “Our younger generation doesn’t have the patience of the older generations,” Ms. Herbert says. “They’ve seen enough. They’ve been traumatized and they’re not willing to wait for change.”
The urgency cuts across racial lines. Ella Masters grew up attending Trinity Lutheran Church in South Minneapolis, where last week organizers set up a distribution site for donated goods in the parking lot. The area’s two grocery stores and largest department store were among several businesses damaged or destroyed by rioters.
Ms. Masters and her partner, Cameron Kinghorn, drove to the church from their home a few miles away to donate laundry detergent, diapers, and other essential items requested by organizers. Without ignoring the toll on businesses, they credit the scale and duration of the protests for forcing the city to reexamine its relationship with race.
“A human life is more important than property,” says Ms. Masters, who is white. “We need people to get out of their comfort zone and start acting to save lives. Good intentions aren’t enough.”
Mr. Kinghorn, who is biracial, related that the recent upheaval has nudged some of his friends and acquaintances to reevaluate their passive advocacy for equality. “They’re looking for ways they can actively help,” he says. He hopes more of his cohort will step forward to push Minneapolis in the direction of Selma as a historical symbol of racial justice.
“I don’t know if we can ever reach that level,” he says. “But I think there’s a chance, and I would not have said that a couple of weeks ago.”


csmonitor--2020-06-12--How China’s heavy steps in Hong Kong reverberate in Taiwan

For now , Taiwan ’ s relations with the U.S. have strengthened .
The island ’ s president has deftly inserted Taiwan into the collection of countries condemning China ’ s attacks on Hong Kong ’ s semi-autonomous status .
Shirley Kan , a specialist in Asian security affairs , says China should avoid miscalculation , saying if anything , Taiwan ’ s position in what she calls the “ coalition of democracies ” standing up to China is stronger than ever .
While China is facing internal pressure to demonstrate strength , no one anticipates steps threatening Taiwan ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has its hands full .
What does worry some experts , however , is that China might misjudge the United States , seeing it as weak and distracted .
Others wonder if an American president seeking reelection might be tempted to bolster his increasingly anti-China stance .
It ’ s a plan rejected by more than 85 % of Taiwan ’ s people , many of whom are closely watching China ’ s clampdown on Hong Kong .
At boisterous marches , they chant cautionary slogans like “ Today ’ s Hong Kong @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In China ’ s eyes , Taiwan is a province that ultimately should be fully united with the mainland under Communist Party rule , by force if necessary .
Beijing vows to take over Taiwan , invoking the same “ one country , two systems ” formula of its Hong Kong policy .
Preparing the lifeguard station from which he watches over sea bathers in Taiwan ’ s Kenting National Park , Su Chenzhe takes a moment to reflect on events in Hong Kong , some 400 miles away across the Taiwan Strait @ @ @ @ @ @ @ today ’ s Hong Kong to be tomorrow ’ s Taiwan , ” the young man with a swimmer ’ s build says one morning as he surveys the waves breaking at his beach in southernmost Pingtung County .
“ I want Taiwan to be a free , democratic country.
” Mr. Su ’ s words echo the conversations and slogans one hears increasingly across a fervently democratic Taiwan – and especially in the pro-Hong Kong bookshops and coffeehouses of the capital , Taipei – as mainland China steps up actions weakening Hong @ @ @ @ @ @ @ political system .
Like Hong Kong , Taiwan in the eyes of China ’ s Communist Party government is a province – governed separately for now but ultimately to be fully united with the mainland under Communist rule , by force if necessary .
Beijing vows to take over Taiwan , invoking the same “ one country , two systems ” formula of Hong Kong policy – a plan rejected , say polls , by more than 85 % of Taiwan ’ s 23 million people .
And it is this stance from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has many Taiwanese keeping a sharp eye on events in Hong Kong , attending boisterous pro-Hong Kong marches , and invoking cautionary slogans like “ Today ’ s Hong Kong , tomorrow ’ s Taiwan !
” No one anticipates any steps threatening Taiwan ’ s autonomy on the order of the mainland ’ s tightening grip on Hong Kong any time soon .
Beijing would seem to have its hands full managing events in Hong Kong and other restive regions like Xinjiang and Tibet , economic fallout from the coronavirus , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s rise to dominance in a dynamic Asia .
Moreover , Taiwan ’ s relations with the United States have strengthened under President Donald Trump , and the island ’ s president , Tsai Ing-wen , has played her limited cards adeptly , foreign policy experts say .
She has recently showcased the advantages of handling the coronavirus crisis with transparency ( as opposed to the mainland ) and clarity at home .
And , they say , she has deftly inserted Taiwan into the collection of democracies , starting with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s attacks on Hong Kong ’ s democratic system and its status as a semi-autonomous entity .
What does worry some experts in Asian security issues , however , is that China might misjudge the U.S. , seeing it as weak and distracted with multiple crises and thus unlikely to respond to Chinese provocations .
Others wonder if a mercurial American president might be tempted to take dramatic steps concerning Taiwan to put fresh meat on the bones of his increasingly anti-China stance in the run-up to November elections .
“ The U.S. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ health , in the economy , and the political crisis playing out on the streets – and so what I ’ m arguing is that the [ Chinese Communist Party ] might think that U.S. leadership and America ’ s strengths are weakened , and that could lead to some dangerous miscalculations , ” says Shirley Kan , an independent specialist in Asian security affairs and former analyst at the Congressional Research Service .
“ But China should not make that mistake , ” she adds , noting that if anything , Taiwan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the “ coalition of democracies ” standing up to China over Hong Kong is stronger than ever .
Other experts underscore Mr. Trump ’ s penchant for dramatic foreign policy actions – meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un , recognizing Jerusalem as Israel ’ s capital and moving the U.S. Embassy there – and posit that he could choose Taiwan as a way of dramatizing his newfound toughness on China .
“ Imagine a major incident in the South China Sea , ” where China has been stepping up its fighter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ airspace , “ and I wouldn ’ t be surprised to see any of a number of dramatic steps in response , like rushing through more sophisticated arms sales to Taipei or even inviting President Tsai to the White House , ” says Harry Kazianis , an expert in U.S.-China relations and East Asian security at the Center for the National Interest in Washington .
“ Basically , it would be the U.S. recognizing Taiwan as a separate entity ” from China .
Taiwan ’ s public overwhelmingly supports closer economic and political @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the U.S. more favorably than mainland China by a nearly 2-to-1 margin , according to a May poll by the Pew Research Center .
“ There is no doubt Taiwan will get closer to the U.S. and further away ” from the People ’ s Republic of China ( PRC ) , says Dennis Lu-Chung Weng , a political science professor at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville , Texas .
For many analysts , it was China ’ s aggression , heightened by its tightening grip on Hong Kong , that led @ @ @ @ @ @ @ victory in January .
Her Democratic Progressive Party considers Taiwan an independent country , though Ms. Tsai is careful not to enflame the independence-unification debate .
Ms. Tsai is “ a stable hand at the tiller .
She does not create surprises for anyone , ” says Kharis Templeman , an adviser on the Hoover Institution Project on Taiwan .
But to understand Beijing ’ s pressure on both Hong Kong and Taiwan , it ’ s important to consider Communist Party leaders ’ concerns about discontent at home , some Asia experts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is now experiencing some domestic internal pressure , ” in part over its handling of the coronavirus , says Dr. Weng , who is also a research fellow at National Chengchi University in Taiwan .
“ There are a lot of complaints , ” he adds .
“ They have to show the people ... they are strong enough to take over Hong Kong.
” In recent months , Beijing has adopted a similar toughened posture toward Taiwan , escalating military patrols around the island , which lies just 80 miles off the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a constant barrage of cyberattacks and disinformation .
Beijing has become “ even more aggressive in military threats , [ diplomatically ] poaching Taiwan ’ s allies , preventing Taiwan from participating in international organizations , ” says Ketty W. Chen , vice president of the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy in Taipei .
Beijing , for example , has barred Taiwan from participation in the World Health Organization , even though Taiwan has been on the front line of the coronavirus pandemic .
But if anything , this approach has backfired , says @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and President Xi [ Jinping ] have painted themselves into a corner and have to treat Taiwan harshly , ” she adds , “ but then what to do after that ?
” Meanwhile , China ’ s pressure tactics are wearing thin , say Taiwanese interviewed across the island .
“ China wants to unite with us , but they are constantly attacking us !
” says Jojo Lin , a recent college graduate and one of the record number of voters who cast their ballot for Ms. Tsai .
In her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ took her trademark balanced approach , calling for peace and stability and urging both sides to “ find a way to coexist over the long term.
” But she confirmed Taiwan ’ s opposition to Beijing ’ s reunification policy : “ We will not accept the Beijing authorities ’ use of ‘ one country , two systems , ’ ” she said , “ to dwarf Taiwan and destroy the cross-strait status quo.
” With both Beijing ’ s aggression and her public ’ s regard for the U.S. on the rise @ @ @ @ @ @ @ highlighting her strong relations with Washington .
At the same time , it may not be in her interest to see Taiwan become a pawn in what the National Interest ’ s Mr. Kazianis calls a “ rhetorical cold war ” between the two superpowers .
Last week Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement blasting the Communist Party for its “ obscene propaganda ” about U.S. street protests even as China represses individual freedoms .
“ When people – such as those in Hong Kong and Taiwan – with common roots @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , that freedom is crushed , and the people subordinated to Party dictates and demands.
” That their freedom has been “ crushed ” might be news to the Taiwanese .
But being mentioned in the same breath as Hong Kong is also reassurance that Taiwan ’ s standing in Washington , long secondary to relations with Beijing , is now on stronger footing .
“ Suddenly it ’ s cool to be pro-Taiwan again in U.S. foreign policy circles , ” says Mr. Kazianis .
“ What it amounts to is a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ existence as a separate entity ” from mainland China .
Still , many experts caution that Taiwan must remain “ realistic , ” as Ms. Kan says , and understand that even an increasingly anti-China U.S. will have to carefully tend its relations with Asia ’ s rising superpower , the world ’ s second-largest economy .
“ Much more than in the past , Taiwan enjoys bipartisan support in Washington , especially in the Congress , and is viewed as one of the partners in a free and open Indo-Pacific , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I see no paradigm shift ” in the triangle of U.S.-China-Taiwan relations .

For now, Taiwan’s relations with the U.S. have strengthened. The island’s president has deftly inserted Taiwan into the collection of countries condemning China’s attacks on Hong Kong’s semi-autonomous status. Shirley Kan, a specialist in Asian security affairs, says China should avoid miscalculation, saying if anything, Taiwan’s position in what she calls the “coalition of democracies” standing up to China is stronger than ever.
While China is facing internal pressure to demonstrate strength, no one anticipates steps threatening Taiwan’s autonomy any time soon. Beijing has its hands full. What does worry some experts, however, is that China might misjudge the United States, seeing it as weak and distracted. Others wonder if an American president seeking reelection might be tempted to bolster his increasingly anti-China stance.
The Taiwanese are fervently democratic. In polls, a resounding majority oppose a “one country, two systems” formula for relations with China, à la Hong Kong. But how do they walk that path?
It’s a plan rejected by more than 85% of Taiwan’s people, many of whom are closely watching China’s clampdown on Hong Kong. At boisterous marches, they chant cautionary slogans like “Today’s Hong Kong, tomorrow’s Taiwan!”
In China’s eyes, Taiwan is a province that ultimately should be fully united with the mainland under Communist Party rule, by force if necessary. Beijing vows to take over Taiwan, invoking the same “one country, two systems” formula of its Hong Kong policy.
Preparing the lifeguard station from which he watches over sea bathers in Taiwan’s Kenting National Park, Su Chenzhe takes a moment to reflect on events in Hong Kong, some 400 miles away across the Taiwan Strait.
“We don’t want today’s Hong Kong to be tomorrow’s Taiwan,” the young man with a swimmer’s build says one morning as he surveys the waves breaking at his beach in southernmost Pingtung County. “I want Taiwan to be a free, democratic country.”
Mr. Su’s words echo the conversations and slogans one hears increasingly across a fervently democratic Taiwan – and especially in the pro-Hong Kong bookshops and coffeehouses of the capital, Taipei – as mainland China steps up actions weakening Hong Kong’s semi-autonomous status and democratic political system.
Why We Wrote This The Taiwanese are fervently democratic. In polls, a resounding majority oppose a “one country, two systems” formula for relations with China, à la Hong Kong. But how do they walk that path?
Like Hong Kong, Taiwan in the eyes of China’s Communist Party government is a province – governed separately for now but ultimately to be fully united with the mainland under Communist rule, by force if necessary. Beijing vows to take over Taiwan, invoking the same “one country, two systems” formula of Hong Kong policy – a plan rejected, say polls, by more than 85% of Taiwan’s 23 million people.
And it is this stance from the increasingly aggressive authorities in Beijing that has many Taiwanese keeping a sharp eye on events in Hong Kong, attending boisterous pro-Hong Kong marches, and invoking cautionary slogans like “Today’s Hong Kong, tomorrow’s Taiwan!”
No one anticipates any steps threatening Taiwan’s autonomy on the order of the mainland’s tightening grip on Hong Kong any time soon. Beijing would seem to have its hands full managing events in Hong Kong and other restive regions like Xinjiang and Tibet, economic fallout from the coronavirus, the U.S.-China trade spat, and steering China’s rise to dominance in a dynamic Asia.
Moreover, Taiwan’s relations with the United States have strengthened under President Donald Trump, and the island’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, has played her limited cards adeptly, foreign policy experts say. She has recently showcased the advantages of handling the coronavirus crisis with transparency (as opposed to the mainland) and clarity at home. And, they say, she has deftly inserted Taiwan into the collection of democracies, starting with the U.S., that have condemned China’s attacks on Hong Kong’s democratic system and its status as a semi-autonomous entity.
Risk of miscalculation
What does worry some experts in Asian security issues, however, is that China might misjudge the U.S., seeing it as weak and distracted with multiple crises and thus unlikely to respond to Chinese provocations. Others wonder if a mercurial American president might be tempted to take dramatic steps concerning Taiwan to put fresh meat on the bones of his increasingly anti-China stance in the run-up to November elections.
“The U.S. now has three crises – in public health, in the economy, and the political crisis playing out on the streets – and so what I’m arguing is that the [Chinese Communist Party] might think that U.S. leadership and America’s strengths are weakened, and that could lead to some dangerous miscalculations,” says Shirley Kan, an independent specialist in Asian security affairs and former analyst at the Congressional Research Service.
“But China should not make that mistake,” she adds, noting that if anything, Taiwan’s position in what she calls the “coalition of democracies” standing up to China over Hong Kong is stronger than ever.
Other experts underscore Mr. Trump’s penchant for dramatic foreign policy actions – meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the U.S. Embassy there – and posit that he could choose Taiwan as a way of dramatizing his newfound toughness on China.
Ann Wang/Reuters View caption Hide caption Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen waves to the crowd in Keelung, Taiwan, June 9, 2020.
“Imagine a major incident in the South China Sea,” where China has been stepping up its fighter jet reconnaissance flights in Taiwan’s airspace, “and I wouldn’t be surprised to see any of a number of dramatic steps in response, like rushing through more sophisticated arms sales to Taipei or even inviting President Tsai to the White House,” says Harry Kazianis, an expert in U.S.-China relations and East Asian security at the Center for the National Interest in Washington. “Basically, it would be the U.S. recognizing Taiwan as a separate entity” from China.
Taiwan’s public overwhelmingly supports closer economic and political ties with the U.S., while rating the U.S. more favorably than mainland China by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, according to a May poll by the Pew Research Center.
“There is no doubt Taiwan will get closer to the U.S. and further away” from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), says Dennis Lu-Chung Weng, a political science professor at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas.
For many analysts, it was China’s aggression, heightened by its tightening grip on Hong Kong, that led to President Tsai’s landslide reelection victory in January. Her Democratic Progressive Party considers Taiwan an independent country, though Ms. Tsai is careful not to enflame the independence-unification debate.
Ms. Tsai is “a stable hand at the tiller. She does not create surprises for anyone,” says Kharis Templeman, an adviser on the Hoover Institution Project on Taiwan.
Jacob Turcotte/Staff
But to understand Beijing’s pressure on both Hong Kong and Taiwan, it’s important to consider Communist Party leaders’ concerns about discontent at home, some Asia experts say.
“The Chinese Communist Party is now experiencing some domestic internal pressure,” in part over its handling of the coronavirus, says Dr. Weng, who is also a research fellow at National Chengchi University in Taiwan. “There are a lot of complaints,” he adds. “They have to show the people ... they are strong enough to take over Hong Kong.”
Pressure tactics
In recent months, Beijing has adopted a similar toughened posture toward Taiwan, escalating military patrols around the island, which lies just 80 miles off the coast of mainland China, while waging a constant barrage of cyberattacks and disinformation.
Beijing has become “even more aggressive in military threats, [diplomatically] poaching Taiwan’s allies, preventing Taiwan from participating in international organizations,” says Ketty W. Chen, vice president of the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy in Taipei. Beijing, for example, has barred Taiwan from participation in the World Health Organization, even though Taiwan has been on the front line of the coronavirus pandemic.
But if anything, this approach has backfired, says Dr. Chen. “The PRC government and President Xi [Jinping] have painted themselves into a corner and have to treat Taiwan harshly,” she adds, “but then what to do after that?”
Meanwhile, China’s pressure tactics are wearing thin, say Taiwanese interviewed across the island.
“China wants to unite with us, but they are constantly attacking us!” says Jojo Lin, a recent college graduate and one of the record number of voters who cast their ballot for Ms. Tsai.
In her inauguration address in May, Ms. Tsai took her trademark balanced approach, calling for peace and stability and urging both sides to “find a way to coexist over the long term.” But she confirmed Taiwan’s opposition to Beijing’s reunification policy: “We will not accept the Beijing authorities’ use of ‘one country, two systems,’” she said, “to dwarf Taiwan and destroy the cross-strait status quo.”
“It’s cool to be pro-Taiwan again”
With both Beijing’s aggression and her public’s regard for the U.S. on the rise, Ms. Tsai is likely to continue highlighting her strong relations with Washington. At the same time, it may not be in her interest to see Taiwan become a pawn in what the National Interest’s Mr. Kazianis calls a “rhetorical cold war” between the two superpowers.
Last week Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement blasting the Communist Party for its “obscene propaganda” about U.S. street protests even as China represses individual freedoms. “When people – such as those in Hong Kong and Taiwan – with common roots in an awe-inspiring civilization … embrace freedom, that freedom is crushed, and the people subordinated to Party dictates and demands.”
That their freedom has been “crushed” might be news to the Taiwanese. But being mentioned in the same breath as Hong Kong is also reassurance that Taiwan’s standing in Washington, long secondary to relations with Beijing, is now on stronger footing.
“Suddenly it’s cool to be pro-Taiwan again in U.S. foreign policy circles,” says Mr. Kazianis. “What it amounts to is a de facto recognition of Taiwan’s existence as a separate entity” from mainland China.
Still, many experts caution that Taiwan must remain “realistic,” as Ms. Kan says, and understand that even an increasingly anti-China U.S. will have to carefully tend its relations with Asia’s rising superpower, the world’s second-largest economy.
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“Much more than in the past, Taiwan enjoys bipartisan support in Washington, especially in the Congress, and is viewed as one of the partners in a free and open Indo-Pacific,” says Ms. Kan. “That said, I see no paradigm shift” in the triangle of U.S.-China-Taiwan relations.
Ann Scott Tyson’s reporting included some from Taiwan.