Los Angeles Times - 02.10.2019

LATIMES.COM WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2019A

THE WORLD

KYIV, Ukraine — Petro
Poroshenko, who was
Ukraine’s president until
May and dealt with both the
Obama and Trump admin-
istrations, said in a rare in-
terview with The Times on
Tuesday that he never felt
pressure from President
Trump or his personal attor-
ney Rudolph W. Giuliani to
open questionable corrup-
tion investigations of former
Vice President Joe Biden.
Neither, Poroshenko
added, did he ever think that
Biden’s 2016 demand that
Ukraine fire an embattled
top prosecutor stemmed
from anything improper or
personal on Biden’s part.
Speaking at his political
party headquarters in Kyiv,
the Ukrainian capital,
Poroshenko said that if
Trump or his allies had
made such a demand, he
would have immediately dis-
missed it.
“If they asked, I would
have said, sorry, there is an
official channel for that,”
Poroshenko said.
But he added that if fed-
eral prosecutors working in
his government had re-
ceived such requests — as
former prosecutor general
Yuri Lutsenko says he did —

he would not necessarily

have been informed.

Trump has acknowl-

edged that he pressed

Ukraine’s recently elected

president, Volodymyr Zelen-

sky, to open investigations

into Biden and his son Hunt-

er, who served on the board

of a Ukrainian gas company.

Trump has promoted un-

substantiated allegations

that the former vice presi-

dent pushed Ukraine to fire

its then-top prosecutor, Vik-

tor Shokin, in an effort to

protect Hunter Biden.

Numerous Ukrainian of-

ficials, including Lutsenko,

have said there is no evi-

dence to support the claim.

At the time of the July 25

phone call in which Trump

asked Zelensky for the Bid-

en investigation — which

Trump referred to as a “fa-

vor” — the U.S. president

had also put a hold on nearly

$400 million in aid to

Ukraine. Those actions are

now the subject of a House

impeachment inquiry.

Trump insists the withhold-

ing of the aid was not related

to his request that Ukraine

investigate one of his leading

2020 political rivals.

Zelensky, in a brief news

conference Tuesday, re-

peated his assertion that he

could not be pressured into

opening a corruption inves-

tigation. He added that he

had never met or communi-

cated with Giuliani, who has

been subpoenaed by House

Democrats and ordered to

produce documents related

to his dealings with Ukraine.

“There are many people

abroad and in Ukraine who

would like to pressure me,”

Zelensky said. “However, I

am president of independ-

ent Ukraine and I think

it is impossible to influence

me.”

According to a White

House memo describing the

July 25 call, Zelensky ap-

pears eager to cooperate

with Trump and agrees that

his government will meet

with Giuliani during the at-

torney’s next visit to

Ukraine. “I just wanted to

assure you once again that

you have nobody but friends

around us,” Zelensky told

Trump, according to the

White House account.

Asked if Ukraine pos-

sesses its own account of the

phone call with Trump, Ze-

lensky said it was “the same

text.” He did not elaborate.

“I understand the Presi-

dent Trump topic is the

hottest for you,” he told the

gathering of Ukrainian and

U.S. journalists in the presi-

dential headquarters. “And

for us, the hottest topic is af-

ter all our country, our inde-

pendence, the return our of

[imprisoned] people and

our territories.... What con-

cerns President Trump, I

have said it all already, and

you have read it.”

Poroshenko warned that

the cascading U.S. scandal

and Zelensky’s much-criti-

cized awkward response to

Trump’s pressure threaten

to harm traditionally strong

bipartisan support for

Ukraine in the U.S. Congress

as well as in parliaments

throughout the West.

“Ukraine should not be

involved,” he said in the in-

terview. “I hate the idea that

mistakes involved Ukraine

in an internal political mat-

ter.” Although he said both

American and Ukrainian

sides shared blamed, he did

not dispute a generally held

notion that Zelensky, a for-

mer actor who won an upset

victory against Poroshenko,

is a political neophyte who

was caught off guard by

Trump.

The great beneficiary of

any flagging in international

support for Ukraine,

Poroshenko said, will be

Russian President Vladimir

Putin, who seized the coun-

try’s Crimean peninsula in

2014 and backs separatists

fighting a war in eastern

Ukraine.

“Now is a decisive mo-

ment for Ukraine,” he said,

expressing alarm that Wash-

ington or other capitals

might start to ease sanc-

tions against Moscow and

force Kyiv into a “capitu-

lation” that allows the Rus-

sian military presence to

stand.

Poroshenko, who made

cultivating Presidents

Obama and Trump a pri-

ority, was given a red-carpet

treatment on his first visit to

the Trump White House in

early 2017 and had several

other meetings with Trump

in New York and Europe on

the margins of international

summits.

He said he spoke to Giu-

liani only a couple of times

and found him to be very

“pro-Ukraine,” champi-

oning potentially lucrative

investment by U.S. compa-

nies and advocating that

Trump do more to bolster

Ukraine’s economy and de-

fense.

Wilkinson is a Times staff

writer and Loiko a special

correspondent.

Ukrainian denies pressure from U.S.

PRESIDENT Trump meets with then-leader Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine in

2017. Trump has acknowledged asking Poroshenko’s successor for a political favor.

Olivier DoulieryTNS

Ex-president says that

Trump did not ask for

inquiry and that Biden

did nothing improper.

By Tracy Wilkinson
and Sergei L. Loiko

BEIJING — The pomp,
drama and advanced mili-
tary technology on display
at the 70th anniversary of
the People’s Republic of
China sent a dramatic, care-
fully rehearsed message to
the world on Tuesday that
China has emerged as a
global military power — a
formidable rival to the
United States.
The dazzling parade
played an important domes-
tic role as well, drumming up
fervent nationalism and loy-
alty to the Communist Party
of China and President Xi
Jinping, at a time when the
party feels threatened, with
the economy — the main
source of its domestic legiti-
macy — slowing.
It also faces a bruising
trade war with the United
States, as other Western
powers turn against the Chi-
nese government’s policies,
particularly its detention of
around 1 million minority
Muslims, mainly Uighurs,
and Beijing’s support for a
tough crackdown by Hong
Kong authorities on pro-
democracy protesters.
The parade sent a confi-
dent, almost defiant mes-
sage to the world that Chi-
na’s time has come and that
its past humiliations —
largely by outside intruders
and foreign forces — and its
strategy of hiding its power
and biding its time are over.
“It’s a military parade
that is political shock and
awe,” said Richard McGre-
gor, China analyst at the
Lowy Center, a Sydney, Aus-
tralia-based independent
think tank. “It wasn’t so long
ago that when China had
military parades, they were
much smaller. The hardware
was much less impressive
and they took place in a dif-
ferent diplomatic context —
when China was trying to lie
low rather than the other
way around.
“The medium is the mes-
sage. It’s designed to look
powerful and slightly intimi-
dating and instill a sense of

pride at home and deter ene-

mies abroad.”

On Tuesday morning just

before the parade, 56 can-

nons were fired 70 times,

shattering the silence in

Tiananmen Square. Bei-

jing’s sky was smoggy as Xi

and other Chinese leaders

took their places on the po-

dium at precisely 10 a.m.

Elsa Kania, adjunct sen-

ior fellow with the Technol-

ogy and National Security

Program at the Center for a

New American Security, said

the parade showcased Xi’s

power as military com-

mander in chief and showed

how far the military had

come since he ordered it to

pursue technological inno-

vation in 2014. She said Chi-

na’s strategic capabilities

may have far-reaching impli-

cations for the military bal-

ance in the Indo-Pacific and

beyond.

“This parade highlights

in stark relief the People’s

Liberation Army’s ambi-

tions to become a truly

world-class military that is

leading in new frontiers of

military power, from un-

manned weapons systems

to hypersonic glide vehi-

cles,” she said.

Another theme that per-

meated was the party’s de-

termination to reenergize

the Chinese people — par-

ticularly its youth, a genera-

tion often obsessed with

their smartphones, e-shop-

ping and livestreaming —

with deeper loyalty to the

party.

Xi said no force could

undermine Chinese sover-

eignty, urging greater efforts

to reunify with Taiwan and

to uphold Hong Kong’s in-

tegrity as a territory with a

different political system

under the leadership of the

Communist Party.

“There’s no force that can

shake the foundations of

this great nation. No force

can stop the Chinese people

and the Chinese nation forg-

ing ahead!” he declared.

Just 10 months after Xi’s

January warning to party

apparatchiks that growing

political and economic risks

in China could threaten the

party’s long-term grasp on

power, the parade marked a

remarkable turnaround in

the party’s effort to reinvigo-

rate and stake its legitimacy.

“This is a very important

milestone. The party strug-

gles to define and defend its

legitimacy and right to rule,

and it relies very heavily on

this narrative of having lib-

erated the country,” said

Bates Gill, an expert on

China based at Macquarie

University’s Department of

Security Studies and Crimi-

nology in Sydney.

“The Red Army was in-

strumental in achieving the

victory in 1949, and celebrat-

ing the military in this way

underscores that the Com-

munist Party, which con-

trols the gun, brought the

country out of its humili-

ation and has now set it on

this path to great power

status,” he said. Gill added

that Xi’s position at the

heart of all the military

power on display sent a mes-

sage of firm control to any re-

maining enemies he had in

the party.

Chinese viewers watch-

ing on TV posted messages

on social media that they

were moved to tears at the

message that the nation has

risen to greatness after dec-

ades of struggle.

“China today is created

by hundreds of millions of

hard-working Chinese and

China’s tomorrow will be

even more prosperous! Long

live the great People’s Re-

public of China! Long live

the great Communist Party

of China! Long live the great

Chinese people!” Xi said.

Thousands of people

waved flags rapturously

throughout the parade, as

gigantic portraits of Com-

munist Party leaders, begin-

ning with the founding

leader Mao Tse-tung and

ending with Xi, were borne

along on floats.

The dark episodes of the

past were airbrushed away

— the massacre of student

protesters in Tiananmen

Square in 1989, the famine in-

duced by party policies in

1958 or the chaotic Cultural

Revolution, when officials,

teachers, academics and

others were denounced by

young Red Guards and

killed, jailed or sent to the

countryside for “reeducat-

ion.”

The parade saw China

display some of its most ad-

vanced military technology

for the first time, including 16

Dongfeng-41, or DF-41, long-

range ballistic missiles with

a range of up to 9,300 miles,

each capable of swiftly strik-

ing with 10 separately tar-

geted nuclear warheads.

“Just respect it and re-

spect that China owns it,”

tweeted the editor of the

state-run Global Times, Hu

Xijin. In another tweet he

said the message being sent

was: “Don’t mess with the

Chinese people or intimi-

date them.”

Although the size of Chi-

na’s nuclear missile arma-

ment stockpile is much

smaller than the United

States’, Beijing showed off

advanced hypersonic weap-

ons capable of maintaining

speed and evading intercep-

tion, ground-to-air missiles

capable of intercepting

weapons, advanced drones

and unmanned submarines.

Of the 580 pieces of equip-

ment, 40% were new.

“Showing the DF-41 at

this parade means that

China already possesses a

more powerful missile than

this,” posted a Chinese neti-

zen with the handle

Gaolinyuan, 23, of Tianjin.

China also showed off a

new hypersonic missile,

DF-17, which Chinese neti-

zens proudly joked was a

100% reliable express deliv-

ery: “Dongfeng Express at

your service. Missions al-

ways deliver.”

The intercontinental

JL-2 missile, another piece

of weaponry eagerly awaited

by observers, can be

launched from a nuclear

submarine. Advanced

drones at the parade in-

cluded the Gongji-11, or

GJ-11, stealth attack drone,

capable of striking strategic

targets without being de-

tected, according to the

Global Times.

“Judging from the

drone’s aerodynamic wing

design, the GJ-11 is likely to

have outstanding stealth ca-

pabilities and flying quali-

ties,” Chinese military ana-

lyst Wei Dongxu told the

Global Times.

Chinese officials and

commentators tried to bal-

ance China’s dramatic show

of force with its claims to

prize world peace, arguing

that the display was about

transparency.

Senior Col. Zhou Bo told

Chinese state-owned CGTN

television that the drones on

display underscored Chi-

nese determination to lead

the world in artificial intelli-

gence by 2030, including Chi-

na’s military.

He said the advanced

weapons and the high mor-

ale of the Chinese people

meant the country could be

confident it would never be

bullied: “China is flying on

the top of the world. If you

view all the new advanced

weaponry, you can ask your-

self what else do we need?

We have almost everything.”

But some analysts said

the military parade be-

trayed signs of the insecurity

of the Communist Party.

“The bottom line is this:

Rolling nuclear-capable

missiles through the streets

is the ultimate show of inse-

curity and Cold War think-

ing,” tweeted Rory Medcalf,

head of the National Securi-

ty College at Australian Na-

tional University.

“The message there I

think is pretty clear: We still

control the gun. These guys

are loyal to us; that’s in some

ways the ultimate guarantor

of our legitimacy and power.

That’s an important mes-

sage for the domestic audi-

ence to absorb,” said Gill.

“All that technological prow-

ess speaks to the national-

ism or patriotism among the

Chinese people of whom

many, not all, are proud to

see the advances that have

accrued to China’s military,

able to be used for the de-

fense of China’s expanding

international interests.”

Special correspondents

Nicole Liu and Gaochao

Zhang contributed to this

report.

China military

display elicits

boasts, tears

PERFORMERSparade through Beijing as the nation celebrates the founding of communist China in 1949.

“It’s a military parade that is political shock and awe,” an Australia-based analyst said of the weapons display.

How Hwee YoungEPA/Shutterstock

The People’s Republic

marks 70 years with

audacious showcase of

high-tech weaponry.

By Robyn Dixon