Thread: Eurasia Topics

Originally Posted by OhOh

If you would kindly list your alleged occurrences, name of convicted foreigner and Chinese, amounts and legal decisions, court etc. I will check your database against my official database and post here confirmation/rejection. All additional confirmed cases not on your database will be published.

Win/win, don't you agree?




Of course failure to supply, may lead me to believe you have, 0 , that's a big fat zero, evidence to support your fantasy.

Of course you, being the chinky brown noser, think everyone is just dying to hand over their land to chinkies to build shit on with chinky labour for sale to chinkies.

Or handover their farmland to be poisoned with pesticides by chinky banana growers.

Or handover their ports to Chinastan.

Your tongue must be permanently stained a dark shade of Beijiing Brown.

Chinastan isn't a race, it's a country you idiot.

And a parasitic one at that.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Chinastan isn't a race

Where was this allegation made by me?

Originally Posted by OhOh

Where was this allegation made by me?

Your post 127 you idiot.

The Eagle, the Bear and the Dragon – a short fable for our times of trouble



by Pepe Escobar – Crossposted with permission with Consortium News



Once upon a time, deep into the night in selected campfires across the deserts of Southwest Asia, I used to tell a fable about the eagle, the bear and the dragon – much to the amusement of my Arab and Persian interlocutors.

It was about how, in the young 21^stcentury, the eagle, the bear and the dragon had taken their (furry) gloves off and engaged in what turned out to be Cold War 2.0.

As we approach the end of the second decade of this already incandescent century, perhaps it’s fruitful to upgrade the fable. With all due respect to Jean de la Fontaine, excuse me while I kiss the (desert) sky again.

Long gone are the days when a frustrated bear repeatedly offered to cooperate with the eagle and its minions on a burning question: nuclear missiles.
The bear repeatedly argued that the deployment of interceptor missiles and radars in that land of the blind leading the blind – Europe – was a threat. The eagle repeatedly argued that this is to protect us from those rogue Persians.

Now the eagle – claiming the dragon is getting an easy ride – has torn down every treaty in sight and is bent on deploying nuclear missiles in selected eastern parts of the land of the blind leading the blind, essentially targeting the bear.



Dragon bridge, Ljubljana. (Ali Eminov/Creative Commons)

All That Glitters is Silk

Roughly two decades after what top bear Putin defined as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20^thcentury”, he proposed a form of USSR light; a political/economic body called the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

The idea was to have the EAEU interact with the EU – the top institution of the motley crew congregated as the blind leading the blind.

The eagle not only rejected the possible integration; it came up with a modified color revolution scenario to unplug Ukraine from the EAEU.

Even earlier than that, the eagle had wanted to set up a New Silk Road under its total control. The eagle had conveniently forgotten that the original, Ancient Silk Road linked the dragon with the Roman empire for centuries – with no interlopers outside of Eurasia.

So one can imagine the eagle’s stupor when the dragon irrupted on the global stage with its own super-charged New Silk Roads – upgrading the bear original idea of a free trade area “from Lisbon to Vladivostok” to a multi-connectivity corridor, terrestrial and maritime, from eastern China to western Europe and everything in between, spanning the whole of Eurasia.

Facing this new paradigm the blind, well, remained blind for as long as anyone could remember; they simply could not get their act together.
The eagle, meanwhile, was incrementally raising the stakes. It launched what amounted for all practical purposes to a progressively weaponized encirclement of the dragon.



The eagle made a series of moves that amount to inciting nations bordering the South China Sea to antagonize the dragon, while repositioning an array of toys – nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers, fighter jets – closer and closer to the dragon’s territory.
All the time, what the dragon saw – and continues to see – is a battered eagle trying to musc
e its way out of an irreversible decline by trying to intimidate, isolate and sabotage the dragon’s irreversible ascent back to where it has been for 18 of the past 20 centuries; enthroned as the king of the jungle.

A key vector is that Eurasia-wide players know that under the new laws of the jungle the dragon simply can’t – and won’t – be reduced to the status of a supporting actor. And Eurasia-wide players are too smart to embark on a Cold War 2.0 that will undermine Eurasia itself.

The eagle’s reaction to the dragon’s New Silk strategy took some time to swing from inaction to outright demonization – complementing the joint description of both the dragon and the bear as existential threats.

And yet, for all the spinning crossfire, Eurasia-wide players are not exactly impressed anymore with an eagle empire armed to its teeth. Especially after the eagle’s crest was severely damaged by failure upon hunting failure in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria. Eagle aircraft carriers patrolling the eastern part of Mare Nostrum are not exactly scaring the bear, the Persians and the Syrians.



James Audubon and His Journal, published in 1899 in the Public Domain. (Wikimedia Commons)

A “reset” between the eagle and the bear was always a myth. It took some time – and much financial distress – for the bear to realize there won’t be any reset, while the dragon only saw a reset towards open confrontation.

After establishing itself, slowly but surely, as the most advanced military power on the planet, with hypersonic know-how, the bear came to a startling conclusion: we don’t care anymore about what the eagle says – or does.

Under the Raging Volcano

Meanwhile, the dragon kept expanding, inexorably, across all Asian latitudes as well as Africa, Latin America and even across the unemployment-infested pastures of the austerity-hit blind leading the blind.

The dragon is firmly assured that, if cornered to the point of resorting to a nuclear option, it holds the power to make the eagle’s staggering deficit explode, degrade its credit rating to junk, and wreak havoc in the global financial system.

No wonder the eagle, under an all-enveloping paranoid cloud of cognitive dissonance, feeding state propaganda 24/7 to its subjects and minions, keeps spewing out lava like a raging volcano – dispensing sanctions to a great deal of the planet, entertaining regime change wet dreams, launching a total energy embargo against the Persians, resurrecting the “war on terra”, and aiming to punish like a Bat Out Of Intel Hell any journalist, publisher or whistleblower revealing its inner machinations.
It hurts, so bad, to admit that the political/economic center of a new multipolar world will be Asia – actually Eurasia.

As the eagle got more and more threatening, the bear and the dragon got closer and closer in their strategic partnership. Now both bear and dragon have too many strategic links across the planet to be intimidated by the eagle’s massive Empire of Bases or those periodic coalitions of the (somewhat reluctant) willing.


Friedrich Johann Justin Bertuch, the mythical creature dragon, 1806. (Wikimedia Commons)

To match comprehensive, in-progress Eurasia integration, of which the New Silk Roads are the graphic symbol, the eagle’s fury, unleashed, has nothing to offer – except rehashing a war against Islam coupled with the weaponized cornering of both bear and dragon.

Then there’s Persia – those master chess players. The eagle has been gunning for the Persians ever since they got rid of the eagle’s proconsul, the Shah, in 1979 – and this after the eagle and perfidious Albion had already smashed democracy to place the Shah, who made Saddam look like Gandhi, in power in 1953.

The eagle wants all that oil and natural gas back – not to mention a new Shah as the new gendarme of the Persian Gulf. The difference is now the bear and the dragon are saying No Way. What is the eagle to do? Set up the false flag to end all false flags?

This is where we stand now. And once again, we reach the end – though not the endgame. There’s still no moral to this revamped fable. We continue to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Our only, slim hope is that a bunch of Hollow Men obsessed by the Second Coming won’t turn Cold War 2.0 into Armageddon.

The Eagle, the Bear and the Dragon ? a short fable for our times of trouble | The Vineyard of the Saker

Instead of posting this bullshit why you don't you educate yourself with something more realistic.

https://www.amazon.com/1984-Signet-C...s%2C361&sr=8-1

We’re all actors in the New Silk Road play

By Pepe Escobar – posted with permission

Scores of nations across the Global South have adopted the Chinese development model over financing from the US or EU for very simple reasons

It’s the same old story: The dogs of demonization bark while the New Silk Road caravan advances. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), according to a projection by Anglo-Australian mining and metals giant BHP Billiton, will generate as much as US$1.3 trillion in myriad projects up to 2023 – only a decade after its official launch by Chinese President Xi Jinping in both Astana (now Nur-Sultan) and Jakarta.

It’s easy to forget that the BRI – a massive connectivity project, both geo-strategic and geo-economic, now in effect all across the Eurasian landmass, as well as straddling the South China Sea, plus the Indian Ocean all the way to East Africa – is less than six years old, and projected to last until 2049.

As I previously reported, the BRI is now configured as the authentic International Community 2.0 – much more representative than the Group of Twenty, not to mention the Group of Eight. Even before the start of the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing last week, 126 states and territories had signed BRI cooperation agreements. After the forum there are 131, plus Switzerland soon to join. The BRI is also engaged with no fewer than 29 international organizations, including the World Bank.

Considering only projects already being implemented, the World Bank estimates that BRI nations have reduced shipping times by up to 3.2%, and trade costs by up to 2.8%.

The BRI forum’s key takeaway was Beijing’s ability to execute a masterful geopolitical Sun Tzu maneuver – realizing that for the scheme to proceed more smoothly it would have to address key questions about debt sustainability, anti-corruption, consultative processes, plus emphasize “bottom-up” negotiations.

Scores of nations across the Global South, as well as some aspiring to developed world status, have adopted the Chinese investment and development model over financing from Washington or Brussels for three very simple reasons: no strings attached, no one-size-fits-all straitjacket, and no interference in their internal affairs.

That’s the case in BRI projects focused on the group of China plus Central and European nations, now called 17+1 (Greece just joined). The BRI has been on a roll implementing the China-Europe Land-Sea Express Line, from Athens to Hamburg via Skopje and Belgrade – with a branch out to the Mediterranean port of Bar in Montenegro, just across from Italy – and then to Budapest, the ultimate crossroads in Eastern Europe, and all the way north via the Czech Republic to Hamburg.

Additionally, the Land-Sea Express Line will connect to the Pan-European Corridor linking Bari, Bar, Belgrade and Timisoara in Romania.




New Silk Roads stretch from China to Europe, Southeast Asia and Africa. Image: CFR

"ASEAN goes BRI

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is arguably the crucial front to ensure the BRI’s further success – side by side with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). And all 10 ASEAN leaders attended the BRI forum.

Beijing’s strategic outlook involves the positioning of Thailand as ASEAN’s key transportation hub. Thus it needs to complete the $12 billion, multi-phase, 873-kilometer high-speed rail line linking central and northeastern Thailand to the rail line being built from Kunming to Vientiane, which is due to be completed in 2021.

This is the flagship project of the BRI’s China-Indochina Peninsula Economic Corridor, connecting southern China with mainland Southeast Asia all the way to Singapore.

At the recent BRI forum, China, Thailand and Laos signed a memorandum of understanding on building the stretch between Nong Khai and Vientiane. Now comes the hard slog of renegotiating the terms for building the 607km stretch from Bangkok to Nong Khai, on the Thai side of the Mekong.

Malaysia managed to renegotiate the budget and route of its Eastern Coast Rail Link. Plus, China and Myanmar are renegotiating the $3.6 billion Myitsone Dam project.

At least nine of no fewer than 23 projects, part of the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor, are rolling – including a special economic zone (SEZ) in Kyauk Phyu in the west, the Kyauk Phyu-Kunming railway and three border cooperation zones in Kachin and Shan states. Myanmar is absolutely key for China to enjoy strategic access to the Indian Ocean.

Elsewhere in maritime Southeast Asia, the $6 billion, 150km Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail is a goer, despite facing accusations of non-transparency by Indonesia’s Investment Coordination Board. Still, the Joko Widowo administration’s second term is bound to be involved in no less than $91 billion worth of BRI-related projects to develop four different economic corridors.

One thing is common to these multiple BRI negotiation fronts – the Lost in Translation syndrome. Imagine terms and contracts mired in a maze of cross-references and a trilingual swamp (Mandarin, English and then Thai, Lao, Indonesian, etc).

Not to mention the clash between local red tape and the ultra-streamlined Chinese infrastructure-building juggernaut – perfected to the millimeter for the past few decades.

Still, Beijing is learning the key lessons, admitting it’s essential to renegotiate key terms, amend deals, pay close attention to local input, and, essentially, allow more transparency.

Chinese contractors must employ more local workers, encourage technology transfer, and be very aware of negative environmental impacts. There are suggestions that an overseas BRI arbitration court – for instance in neutral Geneva – could be set up in addition to BRI courts in Shenzhen and Xian, in the interests of more transparency."




All aboard for a Silk Road journey. Photo: Pepe Escobar


"Hop on a camel and join the band

Wang Huiyao, founder of the Center for China and Globalization think-tank in Beijing, correctly argues that the BRI “has become a plan for global development – the kind the world has been sorely lacking since the financial crisis of 2008.”

That was certainly the intent even during the long gestation period before the birth of the BRI in 2013. The Chinese system works like this. The top of the pyramid issues a guideline, or a plan, and then the subsequent layers of the pyramid come up with their own implementation strategies, tweaking the process non-stop. It’s always a variant of Little Helmsman Deng Xiaoping’s famous dictum “crossing the river while feeling the stones.”

As it stands, there’s no evidence the US government will be engaged with the BRI, not to mention “try to shape it to bring about a more multipolar Asia,” as my friend Parag Khanna argues. The BRI itself – along with other mechanisms such as the Eurasian Economic Union – is already configuring a multipolar Asia. And no one across Eurasia – apart from Hindutva fanatics and Japanese supremacists – is buying the Pentagon narrative of China as an existential threat.

It’s quite enlightening to pay attention to the words of former Hong Kong governor Tung Chee-hwa, who seems to display more wisdom in his 80s now, as chairman of the Chinese Consultative People’s Congress, than when he was lodged in Government House.

And then we could travel in time to the Ancient Silk Road – which as a trade and cultural exchange network between East and West was a de facto prototype of globalization.

We’ll find out that among the non-stop Ancient Silk Road travelers – and merchants, messengers, pilgrims – there was also a motley crew of jugglers, acrobats, musicians, dancers and actors. Centuries later, history strikes again, and we are all actors now in a massive, global development caravan.

We?re all actors in the New Silk Road play | The Vineyard of the Saker

Are you going to post every piece of bollocks from this new website you've found?

Twice?

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Are you going to post every piece from this new website you've found?

Twice?

If they continue to publish articles, some shared from other sites and they maybe of interest to TD posters, yes. It maybe a new site to you, but it's not to me.

There were three copies this afternoon.

Any observations to make on the articles content?

Originally Posted by OhOh

If they continue to publish articles, some shared from other sites and they maybe of interest to TD posters, yes. It maybe a new site to you, but it's not to me.

There were three copies this afternoon.

Any observations to make on the articles content?

They're utter shite. The sort of drivel you write, really, probably why you like it so much.

Originally Posted by OhOh

Eurasia Topics

Wtf! Who gives a fuck? We have enough threads that have fuck all to do with Thailand already. What next, perhaps a nice thread on Antarctica?

I'm with you on that one Norton. Sick to death of Trump China and Russia and Brexit. Jeesus some posters must have posted 500 posts about how bad Brexit is and it hasn't eve happened FFS. along with continue the story advanced acronym addicts and what did you eat drink or f#&k today. I'd rather read S.A's fooking hot thread. At least that's about Thailand. Mind you thumbs up to Cujo for the puppies thread.
Then there's 87 pages (so far) on Smegs obsession with Teak door. Fook me I think they need to look who the obsessed are. Some knock DJ pat but at least he use to post some good pics around bangkok etc. I may even try to post a few myself when i get into Bangkok next week if my fooking wireless adaptor stops playing up.
I suppose I could drop it into Thermae for Balders to have a look at when he's between roots.

Originally Posted by Norton

Wtf! Who gives a fuck?

Some residing in Thailand understand that a large % of the world's citizens live this part of the globe. They also see the growing connectivity, wealth growth, cultural, commercial, financial and political amongst neighbouring countries. Many of these impact on life in Thailand, good and bad.



The blue group are the Asians (50+ %). Russia appears to be classified as European.

Originally Posted by Norton

We have enough threads that have fuck all to do with Thailand already.

As you point out, TD is littered, with sub 5 replies posts and illustrating a particular viewpoint. This thread contains articles with an alternate viewpoint in one place. It is open to all to add or comment on

Some may find them useful others are free to ignore them, as they desire, or until I am directed by the site owners to desist.

Originally Posted by Norton

Wtf! Who gives a fuck? We have enough threads that have fuck all to do with Thailand already. What next, perhaps a nice thread on Antarctica?

It's all part of HoHo's chinky brown-nosing.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhon...n_(Antarctica)

Here's a rather interesting picture of a tub of margarine. I wonder if it was made in Chinastan?

Philippines gives thumbs up to Duterte as loyalists dominate mid-term vote

"MANILA (Reuters) - Allies of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte have dominated a mid-term Senate election according to unofficial results on Tuesday, indicating growing support for the maverick leader and broad public endorsement of his controversial rule.

Nine of 12 Senate seats available look set to go to pro-Duterte candidates and the rest to independents, unofficial results showed, with the opposition that campaigned strongly against his presidency failing to make the cut.

Monday’s ballot for more than 18,000 posts, among them hundreds of mayors, governors, and Congressmen, was billed as a referendum on the firebrand president, with special focus on his bid to consolidate power in the all-important upper house.

A Senate majority would be a boon for Duterte, lessening the chance of censures and house probes against his government and making it easier to co-opt independents and sideline opponents to push through bills vital to his ambitious reform agenda.

“This president’s popularity and transferability of his popularity is unprecedented to say the least, despite all the controversies,” said political analyst Edmund Tayao.

“You expect normally two or three candidates from the opposition to win but this is a wipe-out.”

Candidates leading the Senate race include the president’s closest aide, the daughter of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, the wife of the country’s richest man, a jailed politician recently cleared of plunder, and a police general who led a war on drugs that killed thousands in its first few months.

OPPOSITION DECIMATED

They would join 12 Senate incumbents of which only four are from the opposition, including the biggest critic of Duterte’s war on drugs, Leila de Lima, who has been in detention since 2017 on narcotics charges.

The mid-term results leave the political opposition in tatters and changes the dynamic of a Senate that has traditionally been a vital check on state power and a bulwark against the kind of political dominance that Duterte is demonstrating. Duterte is expected to retain control in the lower house also.

The opposition vowed not to give in.

“We acted not for the certainty of victory but the certainty of our beliefs and conviction,” said incumbent Senator Francis Pangilinan. “Our fight for justice, for sovereignty and a more progressive future for our people continues.”

The mid-terms came at a time when Duterte, 74, is seemingly untouchable, with last year’s spiraling inflation now under control and a recent poll showing his public approval rating at a staggering 81 percent.

Duterte’s down-to-earth appeal and his diehard social media support base has so far insulated him from domestic repercussions for his misogynistic remarks, jokes about rape, tirades against the Catholic church, an embrace of rival China, and a crackdown on drugs that killed thousands of users and small-timer peddlers in slum communities, many execution-style.

Experts say the administration’s winning formula was focusing less on policy and more on Duterte’s personality, including using daughter Sara Duterte as a potent surrogate, in a possible succession play for the 2022 presidential election.

“That was a wise move on the part of father and daughter, they were willing to use their brand,” said political strategist Malou Tiquia.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-p...KCN1SK0BI?il=0

China hails Modi victory. This is why.

(Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the informal summit in Wuhan, China, April 2019)

"The first Chinese commentaries have appeared on the outcome of the general elections in India. The timing is important, since the counting of votes is yet to take place in India. Yet, Chinese commentaries have presumed that the result cannot be contrary to the trend that the exit polls have indicated — that PM Modi is securing a renewed mandate to head another government.

This presumption is broadly in line with the estimations by Chinese commentators in the recent weeks and months. The Chinese commentators have not hidden their acclamation of the Modi government. Contrary to the common opinion among Indians that the Modi government showed a pro-US tilt in foreign policies, the Chinese (and Russian) opinion has been generally positive about Indian policies through the past 5 years.

China was not particularly perturbed that India has a deepening engagement with the US or that India’s non-alignment is in any great danger. This opinion was reinforced following Modi’s informal summit with the Chinese President Xi Jinping last year in April in Wuhan and with Russian President Vladimir Putin a month later in Sochi. It stands to reason that both Xi and Putin have sized up Modi from very close, intimate quarters and decided that they could do business with him even in new Cold War conditions.

In fact, in an extraordinary gesture of camaraderie, the Kremlin announced the decision to confer Russia’s most prestigious national award to Modi after the Indian election got under way.

A commentary by the “Observer” in the Chinese communist party newspaper Global Times on May 20 is self-revealing in its display of a sense of relief that Modi will be at the helm of affairs in Delhi at a critical juncture in the geopolitics of the region. The following excerpts will be of interest:

1. “Modi’s reelection will further stabilise and improve China-India relations. During Modi’s term of office, India’s relations with China show the trend of steady development. The meeting between President Xi Jinping and Modi in 2018 opened a new chapter for the two countries’ bilateral ties and laid the foundation for future relations.”
2. Admittedly, Modi’s actions have also triggered controversy in China — such as his initial bonhomie with the Tibetan leadership based in Dharamsala, his three visits to Arunachal Pradesh or the rising trend of Hindu nationalism (which “somewhat contained Modi’s policies towards China.) But these were actions with an eye of India’s domestic politics with the aim to “drum up support” for the Bharatiya Janata Party, while “generally speaking, Modi’s policies have been sound.”

3. “Modi separated political conflicts from economic cooperation, a wise move that brings reciprocal results to both countries (India and China). Modi knows that tense relations with China are not in line with India’s interests.”

4. “India joined the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank although the US and Japan strongly opposed… India has stuck to its policy of non-alignment and did not adjust its policies toward China according to Washington’s strategy for Beijing. These are all positive diplomatic achievements of the Modi administration.”

5. Looking ahead, “these policies will continue if Modi is successfully re-elected… Modi’s reelection benefits the continuity of his policies toward China and the two countries’ mutual trust.”
6. “India’s dispute with Pakistan is an important factor that influences China-India relations. China always encourages the two countries to build mutual trust through cooperation in trade, economies, anti-terrorism and other areas. As Pakistan and India are both members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, they will have more cooperation within the framework.”
The commentary draws satisfaction with the recent trend that India’s deficit in bilateral trade trade is steadily narrowing. And it envisages that the US-China trade war “provides more chances… (as) China will turn to India when it is looking for a substitute for imports.” Pharmaceuticals and computer software are particularly promising areas. Equally, the commentary is cautiously optimistic that India may take a fresh look at the Belt and Road projects in South Asia.

The Chinese commentators have consistently hailed Modi as a “reformer” who is taking India on a path of modernisation and rapid growth. In their judgment, Modi is far from dogmatic in foreign policies and has an open mind to expand cooperation with China, mindful of the advantages that such cooperation can bring to advance his development agenda.

In strategic terms, China is not overtly anxious that under Modi’s stewardship, India continued to expand its so-called “defining partnership” with the US. But the “red line” will be India’s strategic autonomy, which, in the Indo-Pacific context, narrows down to Modi hitching the Indians wagons to Trump’s regional strategies. In the Chinese assessment, Washington is eager to lure India into its bandwagon, but Modi has been doing a smart trapeze act by getting all good things from the big powers without really giving away anything that might erode India’s freedom of thinking and action.
Curiously, Russia also shares the Chinese view. To what extent Indian policies have figured in the Sino-Russian discourses we do not know — and we may never get to know. But India being a “swing state” in the contemporary world situation, its policies impact the Eurasian integration processes, which are at the core of the Russian and Chinese strategies. It is entirely conceivable, therefore, that Moscow played a significant role behind the scenes in getting the Chinese block removed on the Masood Azhar denouement.

Without doubt, the delisting of the Azhar controversy from the litany of India-China discords is a defining moment in the trajectory of relations between the two countries. Conceivably, a period of creative diplomacy lies ahead as China takes over the chair of the Financial Action Task Force for the coming one-year period starting in July. (Xiangmin Liu, who currently serves as director-general of the legal department at the People’s Bank of China (China’s central bank) and concurrently as the vice-president of the FATF, picks up the baton of presidency for an one-year term from the US’ Marshall Billingslea at the meeting of the grouping at Orlando, Florida on June 16-21.)

Between the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and the FATF, there is scope for dialectical thinking to arrive at a reasonable reconciliation of the seemingly contradictory and intractable issue of terrorism in India-Pakistan relations. This is where China’s unique position to promote reconciliation comes into play. The FATF plenary is of vital importance for Pakistan, as a decision will be taken whether the country should be moved out of the “grey list” or kept there due to any residual shortcomings. Of course, this would have significant bearing on Pakistan’s standing with multilateral lenders like the IMF, World Bank, ADB, etc. and in risk rating by agencies such as Moody’s, S&P and Fitch. Islamabad is attaching high importance to the FATF designation.

Significantly, EAM Sushma Swaraj is attending the SCO foreign ministers meeting in Bishkek on May 20. Swaraj will certainly run into her Chinese and Pakistani counterparts in Bishkek. The SCO summit meeting is due to be held on June 13-14. Suffice to say, if China is successful in cutting the Gordian knot of terrorism in India-Pakistan relations, a new vista opens up in the Sino-Indian relationship and we may see a new dawn in the politics of the region.

Quite obviously, China is conscious that the China-Pakistan-India triangle is at an inflection point. An influential “India hand” in Beijing’s strategic community, Ma Jiali, a senior research fellow at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, has been quoted in a Global Times report yesterday as saying that “the growing US presence would have limited influence on overall China-India relations” and in regional security, he underscored that China will continue playing a mediating role in India-Pakistan relations. Ma added China highly values its relations with both India and Pakistan. China will keep furthering its relations with Pakistan, and also attach great importance to India’s concerns."

https://indianpunchline.com/china-ha...y-this-is-why/

Yes, it's good that Modi got re-elected. I expect he's already told his staff to return the invite to the next Winnie the Pooh "belt and road extravaganza" having snubbed the last two.

ASEAN countries praise poverty alleviation work, urge greater cooperation

By Zhang Li in Nanning | China Daily | Updated: 2019-06-05 09:32



A delegation of political parties in Southeast Asian countries visit Xinle village, once a poverty stricken area in China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, on Thursday. TANG DIANSHENG/FOR CHINA DAILY

"Representatives from the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations have hailed China's rural development model, especially the country's efforts on poverty reduction.

Officials from the member countries' ruling parties made the comments on Friday during a three-day visit to the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in the southwest.

The autonomous region, which had 4.52 million poverty-stricken people at the end of 2015, is regarded as a major front in the fight against poverty across the country.

The delegates saw firsthand government efforts to help fight poverty through cooperatives and companies being encouraged to offer expertise, infrastructure and management skills.

Do Lien Huong, from the Communist Party of Vietnam, said it was "brilliant" that the government had involved companies to provide scientific management.

"The rural area looks so different from when I came here 10 years ago. I must say the Chinese government has taken useful measures to develop the backward area," Do Lien Huong said.

Charnkrij Dejvitak, a central executive committee member of Thailand's Palang Pracharath Party, said the keys to China's success on poverty alleviation represent the central government's long-term planning and its determination to carry it out.

"About 60 percent of our people in Thailand are suffering from poverty and we can learn so much from the Chinese model in which the government, the companies and the people are cooperating so well. Each party can benefit from this sustainable and effective solution," said Charnkrij.

Wei Qingcheng, a farmer in Xinle village of Nanning, was one of the impoverished locals who spoke to the delegates about how his fortunes were turned around.

He used to grow corn and live from hand to mouth.
But last year, the 61-year-old farmer made a healthy profit of 180,000 yuan ($26,000) by planting an herb used in traditional Chinese medicine with the help of the local government.

"I never expected that I could earn more than my two sons who are working in cities," he said.
In 2015, a cooperative that specialized in Tetradium ruticarpum planting was set up to increase villagers' income. The herbal medicine, a distant relative of citrus, is easy to grow in mountain areas.

The market for it is promising as it can also be used as an insect repellent and is effective in pain relief.
"Our company offers plants, fertilizer and technical guidance to farmers all free and we are also responsible for the marketing," said Huang Bingzhu, manager of the Yinggao Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Co based in Nanning, who runs the cooperative.

Huang said that villagers only need to provide their labor and land. Farmers in return can get 70 percent of the profits. "Now we have 265 households engaged in the business and the growing area has reached 166.7 hectares this year," Huang said.
To ensure the farmers have income all year round the collective has also developed an edible fungi industry using rotten branches from the herb plants and pulp waste.

According to Pan Chunlan, the head of Xinjiang town in the region, most villagers have built new three-story buildings with the money they have earned in recent years.

The delegation members were invited by the International Department, Central Committee of the CPC to attend the neighborhood seminar held in Nanning.

Wong Kah Who, secretary of Perak State Committee of Democratic Action Party of Malaysia, urged party-to-party exchanges between China and ASEAN member states.

"We hope that the political parties of China and ASEAN countries, especially the ruling parties, can deepen exchanges, dialogue and mutual understanding, help each other enhance governance capabilities and jointly contribute their wisdom to the peace and prosperity of the region," Wong Kah Who said.

Chhair Sokty, deputy director of the Cambodia People's Party international relations section, said multilateral cooperation should be strengthened and measures taken to diminish friction.

"Maybe we should learn something from China's opening-up and establish multilateral cooperation to boost common prosperity," Chhair Sokty said."

ASEAN countries praise poverty alleviation work, urge greater cooperation - Chinadaily.com.cn

Moral of the story?

When you've spent years stealing from foreign countries, you put yourself in a position of economic strength.