The View, from China

**Norton** · 11-04-2023, 08:29 PM

Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai

Let me know if there is anything you disagree with in this video

Excellent vid which I watched before you put it here BB. I am to a realist as he is with a simular life time of observing how the world has become multipolar.

I agree with the vast majority of what he has to say. I differ with his assertion Russia being a great power. Also, he mentions nothing about India. I believe Russia's invasion of the Ukraine has and will more so in the future be something that Russia may never recover from.

India will be the next great super power along with the US and China. Hence, how India leans will determine the future of China's hedgemony goal in Asia which as pointed out in the vid, the US is dead set against happening.

**Switch** · 11-04-2023, 09:22 PM

Originally Posted by Norton

Excellent vid which I watched before you put it here BB. I am to a realist as he is with a simular life time of observing how the world has become multipolar.

I agree with the vast majority of what he has to say. I differ with his assertion Russia being a great power. Also, he mentions nothing about India. I believe Russia's invasion of the Ukraine has and will more so in the future be something that Russia may never recover from.

India will be the next great super power along with the US and China. Hence, how India leans will determine the future of China's hedgemony goal in Asia which as pointed out in the vid, the US is dead set against happening.

I have no problem with China expending influence in the very unstable Asian region. Taking on such disparate nations as Indonesia in the south, Philippines in the north and country’s in between is an absolute, political, economic and religious nightmare for China.

**Buckaroo Banzai** · 11-04-2023, 09:49 PM

Originally Posted by Norton

I differ with his assertion Russia being a great power. Also, he mentions nothing about India. I believe Russia's invasion of the Ukraine has and will more so in the future be something that Russia may never recover from.

First let me start by saying that this is a learning experience for me. In no way do I claim to be an expert, in any of these.
So..

There are superpowers, USA, and China and then there are great powers.
Russia when compared to India comes significantly on top in every military aspect .
The link below compares India's millinery to Russia's (more than two to one in every aspect)
India vs Russia Military Stats Compared
So , if there are superpowers, and great powers, if Russia is not a great power , then who is?

No doubt, India is a major player, and you are right in your observation that it was not mentioned. But IMO with in the context of the current conversation is not a player yet. That's not to say that it will not become one in the future, if there is to be a future. But for now India seems to be in the sidelines.
. I know that there is conflict between China and India on india's northern border .
How do you see india becoming a variable in this conflict? I admit that I don't know. I looked into it after you mentioned it and it seems that India has vested interest with Russia
"When the 15-nation UN security council hastily called for a vote in February to condemn Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, India joined China and Qatar to abstain. It was a difficult balancing act. Delhi didn’t want to alienate Russia, an important historical friend, which supplies 46% of its military equipment,1 without also antagonizing the U.S., its largest trading partner.2 India also depends on Russia’s diplomatic support at the UN for its claims over Kashmir. Afterall, the Soviet Union has used its veto six times at the Security Council on India’s behalf. "

I need to learn more about the Indian veriable.

As to your last comment. -Russia not recovering from the Ukrainian war, is as great ,or greater a threat IMO as Russia winning everything it needs .
Fighting a bear is a dangerous proposition, but cornering one ....

**Switch** · 12-04-2023, 10:00 AM

Russia cannot afford a prolonged war against a western backed Ukraine. China has the weight of numbers going for it, and the capability gap is closing quickly, but remains untested.

Xi could be the next Putin if he does not heed the warning signs. He may be another tyrant, but he is a messy pragmatic one.

**misskit** · 12-04-2023, 01:00 PM

China’s super rich are voting with their assets – and fleeing Xi’s regime

It’s now two months since Chinese billionaire Bao Fan “disappeared”. The 52-year-old investment banker was one of Shanghai’s most successful financiers. That didn’t save him from being seized with no announcement; all Bao’s company has said is that he is cooperating with government investigations.

This was a sharp reminder to other entrepreneurs: Xi Jinping’s China can be a hostile environment for business.

Until recently, China was a great place to get seriously rich: Evergrande, Alibaba, Tencent are just a few companies that made billionaires of their founders and created entire ecosystems of wealth. But that has now changed. In the last few years, Beijing has mauled China’s successful homegrown tech industry, subjected the economy to senseless lockdowns and crowned Xi leader for life.

He has brought back the Maoist slogan of “common prosperity”, extorting “donations” from the Chinese elite in the name of redistribution, while disappearing one of them every so often (charges can take years to be brought).

It’s no wonder that rich Chinese have been planning escape routes for their money and themselves. Increasingly, they’re turning to Singapore, the city-state dubbed “the Switzerland of Asia”. In some ways, this is nothing new. China’s opening up since Mao’s death has been paired with incremental reforms to capital control.

Wherever possible, Chinese elites have been stashing their money offshore. It’s sometimes just good business to make use of favourable interest rates abroad or diversify the currencies your wealth is held in. But for many, a major consideration has always been that you could never guarantee your wealth would remain yours under a Communist system.

In 2015, in the aftermath of Xi’s anti-corruption campaign, an estimated £800 billion of wealth was evacuated out of China. In the end, the central bank was forced to spend a similar amount to prop up the yuan, after which capital controls were tightened.

But there’s renewed urgency now, and with the end of zero Covid, money and people can move around much more freely than in the previous three years. In 2022, around £36 billion left the country under the category of “errors and omissions” according to official data, suggesting “the exit of residents’ money in an unofficial way”, according to the economist Alicia Garcia-Herrero.

Trust between the wealthy and the government has been destroyed. It’s not just the occasional disappearance, but also the way Xi Jinping has crushed China’s homegrown Silicon Valley through punitive fines and forced resignations. Much of this has been done in the name of “common prosperity”, with rumours that a wealth tax might be on the way. This year, Beijing has also renewed its anti-corruption campaign, targeting the financial sector in particular.

And under zero Covid, the hand of the state intruded into every part of people’s lives to an extent not seen since the Cultural Revolution. For the liberal minded, Chinese politics seems to be going the wrong way, while the business minded simply wonder how long they can keep their money – and themselves – safe.

This anxiety was revealed in a curious 60-page critique of Xi Jinping from last year. It was an anonymous Chinese blog which went viral, impressively well-informed and ruthlessly critical of the President. “China’s political elite feel panicked, and want to move their capital out before the country is bankrupted”, the author wrote. Their grasp of the CCP’s internal machinations raised questions of whether the author was in fact a Party insider, perhaps hoping to destabilise Xi ahead of the National Party Congress.

So where is safe for the discerning investor? In previous years, the choice would have been Hong Kong, but that’s now under Beijing’s control. This was clear as far back as 2017 when a Chinese asset manager was abducted, by mainland police, from Hong Kong’s Four Seasons Hotel. His disappearance shocked the city, foreboding the death of the “one country, two systems” arrangement. One Hong Kong based economist tells me that’s when most prescient Chinese started getting their cash out.

Three years later, the National Security Law resolutely scrapped any remnants of “two systems”. It gave Beijing the powers to freeze the assets of anyone charged under the new rules. So Jimmy Lai, owner of Hong Kong’s now-shuttered pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper, saw his fortune frozen when he was arrested. He’s now in the maximum security Stanley Prison, serving a five year sentence. One high net worth individual, from mainland China, tells me that even her Hong Kong-based private bank is urging her to move her assets into Singapore.

The former British colony is still very Chinese: three-quarters of the people there are of Han descent. It has famously low taxes and a high standard of living – but its main advantage is that it’s not under Beijing’s thumb. So in 2021, it saw a record £270 billion inflow of assets under management, almost twice as much as flowed into Hong Kong.

Rents have increased by 30pc in the last year, while anecdotally, headmasters of international schools, luxury car salesrooms, accountants and immigration lawyers in the city all report a massive increase in interest from the Chinese.

The number of “family offices” tending to the super-rich has almost doubled to 700 over the last two years, with some estimating that the number will soon hit 1,500. Singaporean paper Lianhe Zaobao reckons investors from Hong Kong, Macao and Guangdong make up almost half of the new offices. It’s an attractive, safe and obvious escape route for the not-crazy rich Asians.

But nobody knows how long this escape route will last. Locals are already complaining about the new Chinese arrivals pushing up prices, while Singaporean authorities have quadrupled the threshold for an investor visa to £6 million. And from Beijing’s perspective, given its experience from 2015, how long will it wait before acting to stem the deluge?

The Financial Times reports that when Bao Fan went missing, he was also preparing to move some of his money to Singapore. He doesn’t seem to have made it in time. His peers will want to avoid making the same mistake.

China’s super rich are voting with their assets – and fleeing Xi’s regime

**David48atTD** · 12-04-2023, 02:49 PM

555 ...

The View, from China-1681094504-64337768d250e-jpg

**OhOh** · 12-04-2023, 11:55 PM

WSJ

The U.S. Is Not Yet Ready for the Era of 'Great Power’ Conflict.

Since 2018, the military has shifted to focus on China and
Russia after decades fighting insurgencies, but it still faces
challenges to produce weapons and come up with new
ways of waging war.

By Michael R. Gordon

Updated March 6, 2023 11:54 am ET

"Clint Hinote returned from a deployment in Baghdad in the spring of 2018 to a new assignment and a staggering realization.

A classified Pentagon wargame simulated a Chinese push to take control of the South China Sea. The Air Force officer, charged with plotting the service’s future, learned that China’s well-stocked missile force had rained down on the bases and ports the U.S. relied on in the region, turning American combat aircraft and munitions into smoldering ruins in a matter of days.

“My response was, ‘Holy crap. We are going to lose if we fight like this,’” he recalled.

The officer, now a lieutenant general, began posting yellow sticky notes on the walls of his closet-size office at the Pentagon, listing the problems to solve if the military was to have a chance of blunting a potential attack from China.

“I did not have an idea how to resolve them,” said Lt. Gen. Hinote. “I was struck how quickly China had advanced, and how our long-held doctrines about warfare were becoming obsolete.”

Mammoth shift

Five years ago, after decades fighting insurgencies in the Middle East and Central Asia, the U.S. started tackling a new era of great-power competition with China and Russia. It isn’t yet ready, and there are major obstacles in the way.

Despite an annual defense budget that has risen to more than $800 billion, the shift has been delayed by a preoccupation with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the pursuit of big-ticket weapons that didn’t pan out, internal U.S. government debates over budgets and disagreement over the urgency of the threat from Beijing, according to current and former U.S. defense officials and commanders. Continuing concerns in the Mideast, especially about Iran, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have absorbed attention and resources.

Corporate consolidation across the American defense industry has left the Pentagon with fewer arms manufacturers. Shipyards are struggling to produce the submarines the Navy says it needs to counter China’s larger naval fleet, and weapon designers are rushing to catch up with China and Russia in developing superfast hypersonic missiles.

When the Washington think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies ran a wargame last year that simulated a Chinese amphibious attack on Taiwan, the U.S. side ran out of long-range anti-ship cruise missiles within a week.

The military is struggling to meet recruitment goals, with Americans turned off by the long conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, potentially leaving the all-volunteer force short of manpower. Plans to position more forces within striking range of China are still a work in progress. The Central Intelligence Agency, after two decades of conducting paramilitary operations against insurgents and terrorists, is moving away from those areas to focus more on its core mission of espionage.

The U.S. military’s success in the Mideast and Afghanistan came in part from air superiority, a less well-equipped foe and the ability to control the initiation of the war. A conflict with China would be very different. The U.S. would be fighting with its Asian bases and ports under attack and would need to support its forces over long and potentially vulnerable supply routes.

If a conflict with China gave Russia the confidence to take further action in Eastern Europe, the U.S. and its allies would need to fight a two-front war. China and Russia are both nuclear powers. Action could extend to the Arctic, where the U.S. lags behind Russia in icebreakers and ports as Moscow appears ready to welcome Beijing’s help in the region.

The U.S. military is still more capable than its main adversaries. The Chinese have their own obstacles in developing the capability to carry out a large-scale amphibious assault, while the weaknesses of Russia’s military have been exposed in Ukraine. But a defense of Taiwan would require U.S. forces, which are also tasked with deterring conflict in Europe and the Middle East, to operate over enormous distances and within range of China’s firepower.

The threat is mounting. Beijing has in recent years shifted the security terrain in its favor in the areas around China. In the South China Sea, it has built artificial islands and fortified them with military installations to assert control over the strategic waterway and deny the U.S. Navy freedom to roam.

Decades of ever bigger military budgets, including a 7% boost in spending this year, have improved the lethality of China’s air force, missiles and submarines, and better training has created a more modern force from what was once a military of rural recruits. China is developing weapons and other capabilities to destroy an opponent’s satellites, the Pentagon says, and its cyberhacking presents a threat to infrastructure.

The CIA said President Xi Jinping has set 2027 as a deadline for the Chinese military to be ready to carry out a Taiwan invasion, though it said Mr. Xi and the military have doubts whether Beijing could currently do so.

A China in control of the South China Sea and Taiwan would hold sway over waters through which trillions of dollars in trade passes each year. It would also command supplies of advanced semiconductors, threaten the security of U.S. allies such as Japan and challenge American pre-eminence in a part of the world it has dominated since World War II.

In its efforts to meet the new challenge, the Pentagon has expanded its access to bases in the Philippines and Japan while shrinking the U.S. military footprint in the Middle East. New tactics have been devised to disperse U.S. forces and make them less of an inviting target for China’s increasingly powerful missiles.

The Pentagon’s annual budget for research and development has been boosted to $140 billion—an all time high. The military is pursuing cutting-edge technology it hopes will enable the military services to share targeting data instantaneously so that U.S. air, land, sea and space forces, operating over thousands of miles, can act in unison, a current challenge.

Many of the cutting-edge weapons systems the Pentagon believes will tilt the battlefield in its favor won’t be ready until the 2030s, raising the risk that China may be tempted to act before the U.S. effort bears fruit.

A conflict in the Western Pacific might also give Russia’s military, which has been badly battered in Ukraine, the confidence to carry out President Vladimir Putin’s goals of reviving Russian power in what it believes to be its traditional sphere of influence in Central and Eastern Europe.

“This is a massive problem to dig out of,” said Eric Wesley, a retired Army lieutenant general who served as the deputy commanding general of the Army Futures Command, which oversees that service’s transformation. “We are in a vulnerable period where we are pursuing this deterrence capability and their time is running out.”

Chris Meagher, a top Pentagon spokesman, said that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was directly overseeing the implementation of the U.S. defense strategy to counter China and that the department’s forthcoming spending request would advance the effort.

“The challenge posed by the PRC is real, but this Department is tackling it in historic ways with urgency and confidence,” he said, referring to the People’s Republic of China. “Our strategy drove last year’s budget request and is driving our soon-to-be released budget, which will go even further in matching resources to our strategy. We are continuing our work developing new operational concepts, deploying cutting-edge capabilities, and making investments now and for the long term to meet the challenges we face.”

Unassailable U.S.

A little more than a generation ago, the U.S. looked unassailable. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the rapid success of the U.S.-led Desert Storm campaign to evict Saddam Hussein’s troops from Kuwait in 1991 demonstrated Washington’s ability to wage a new type of war, using precision-guided munitions and stealth technology to vanquish regional dangers. President George H.W. Bush declared a “new world order” with the U.S. as its anchor.

In 1995, Beijing began a series of aggressive military exercises near Taiwan to underscore its objections to a visit to the U.S. by Taiwan’s president. The Clinton administration responded with the largest display of American military might in Asia since the Vietnam War, sending U.S. ships through the Taiwan Strait and positioning two aircraft carrier battle groups in the region the following year.

Strategists at the Pentagon’s in-house think tank nonetheless saw trouble ahead.

By using long-range missiles, antisatellite weapons and electronic warfare, Beijing could turn the tables on Washington by attacking the bases and ports the U.S. relied on in the western Pacific to project power, potentially keeping the Americans far from the conflict.

Guided by his defense advisers, candidate George W. Bush proposed to skip a generation of technology and move to advanced tools, such as long-range weapons, sensors and data-sharing technology to counter Beijing’s “anti-access” strategy.

Then the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks changed the threat, and the Pentagon’s mission.

“There was a moment when we thought ‘Huzzah, the transformation of the force is actually going to happen,’ ” recalled Jeff McKitrick, who worked at the Pentagon think tank and is now a researcher with the Institute for Defense Analyses, a Pentagon-supported research center. “Then 9/11 came and everybody focused like a laser beam on the global war on terror.”

Soon this became the mission of Gen. Hinote, then a major, as well. He was known by the call sign “Q,” after the fictional character in the James Bond stories who runs the spy service’s gadget lab, because of his skill in programming the radars and sensors of fighter jets. At the outset of the 2003 Iraq war, he was assigned to a squadron of “stealthy” F-117 fighter jets.

He helped plan the operation to strike at military targets in Baghdad and disable the air defenses of Saddam Hussein’s forces. “We had a really good plan for taking down the Iraqi communications infrastructure, leadership infrastructure and what we thought were the weapons of mass destruction,” he said. “China learned from that.”

As the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan dragged on, the top U.S. Air Force officer in Japan warned that China’s air defenses were becoming impenetrable to all but the most sophisticated U.S. fighters.

In 2009, Robert Gates, defense secretary from 2006 to 2011, limited the procurement of F-22 fighter jets to 187 to free up funds for other weapons programs.

The Air Force’s Air Combat Command said at the time that would leave the service nearly 200 short of the premier air-to-air fighter jets it previously sought for potential conflicts with China and Russia. Such air-to-air combat experience was limited: The June 2017 shootdown of a Syrian Su-22 jet by a Navy FA/18 over Syria was the first time a U.S. fighter pilot had blasted an enemy plane out of the sky since 1999.

Mr. Gates said he sought to hedge against future threats while also focusing on the war on terror. “My concern as secretary was all about balance,” he said, in an email response to questions. “The need to prepare for future potential large-scale conflict with Russia and China while properly funding the long-term ability to deal with smaller-scale conflicts we were most likely to face in the future.”

Mr. Gates said both Presidents Bush and Obama saw cooperation with China as possible and thought a conflict “was low probability.” He said that changed when Mr. Xi came to power in 2013. The Chinese president has backed a stronger Chinese military and a more assertive foreign posture as part of his campaign to expand Beijing’s global clout.

In 2011, Congress and the White House agreed to multiyear spending limits known as sequestration to curb the federal deficit. The move forced a series of across-the-board cuts and hampered initiatives to transform the military, including on artificial intelligence, robotics, autonomous systems and advanced manufacturing.

“With the grinding wars in the Middle East taking $60 billion to $70 billion a year, and service chiefs worried first and foremost about declines in force readiness, we simply didn’t have the necessary resources to cover down on all of the more advanced threats like hypersonics,” said former Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work. “The U.S. responses to China and Russia’s technical challenges were therefore delayed—and when it did respond, its choices were constrained by sequestration.”

Taiwan in focus

In 2018, the Pentagon issued a National Defense Strategy saying the U.S. would prepare for a new world of “great power competition.”

Deterring China from invading Taiwan, a longstanding U.S. partner that Beijing claims as Chinese territory, defines the challenge. Allowing China to take Taiwan, just 100 miles from the Chinese mainland, and then trying to wrest it back, Pentagon officials concluded, would involve the U.S. in a protracted fight and might spur China to escalate to nuclear weapons. The U.S. needed to demonstrate it could prevent Beijing from seizing the island in the first place—a requirement included in the Biden administration’s National Defense Strategy issued in 2022.

In 2019, Gen. Hinote, using his new authority in the Air Force’s future war office, organized another classified wargame. The simulation postulated a Chinese attack on Taiwan and assessed how two U.S. forces might fare in contesting it: an “outside force” made up entirely of long-range U.S. bombers and missiles, and an “inside force” of aircraft, ships and troops that would fight within the range of Chinese planes and missiles.

The conclusion was that neither approach would succeed on its own.

“We needed a mix to protect Taiwan and Japan,” he said. “Ever since, we have been gaming, simulating and experimenting to determine that mix.”

A more recent wargame conducted by the Pentagon’s Joint Staff showed the U.S. could stymie a Chinese invasion of Taiwan and force a stalemate if the conflict was fought later in the decade, although high casualties on both sides would result. That simulation assumed that the U.S. would have the benefit of new weapons, tactics and military deployments that are currently being planned at the Pentagon.

To prepare for the future, the Marine Corps has gotten rid of its tanks and is reinventing itself as a naval infantry force that would attack Chinese ships from small islands in the western Pacific. A new Marine littoral regiment, which operates close to the shore and will be equipped with anti-ship missiles, is to be based in Okinawa by 2025.

In an exercise in May 2021, the Marines lugged a 30,000-pound Himars missile launcher across a choppy sea to the Alaska shoreline, loaded it into a C-130 transport plane and flew it to a base in the wilderness. The purpose was to rehearse the sort of tactics the Marines would employ on islands in the western Pacific against the Chinese navy.

The Army, which saw its electronic warfare, short-range air defense and engineering capabilities atrophy amid budget pressures and the previous decades’ wars, is moving to develop a new generation of weapons systems that can strike targets at much longer ranges. It is planning to deploy a new hypersonic missile in the fall though its utility against Chinese forces will depend on securing basing rights in the Pacific.

The Navy, which is confronting budget pressures, personnel shortages and limits to American shipbuilding capacity, is currently planning to expand its fleet to at least 355 crewed ships, a size still smaller than China’s current navy. In the near term, the U.S. will have around 290 ships.

The Air Force, which has one of the oldest and smallest inventory of aircraft in its 75-year history, has rolled out the first B-21 bomber and is pursuing the capability to pair piloted warplanes with fleets of drones. It has tested a new hypersonic missile that will be fired from fighter aircraft, and developed plans to disperse its planes among a wider range of bases in the Pacific.

Decades-old B-52s are being refurbished to fill out the bomber fleet. The service has decided to buy the E-7 command aircraft—originally produced by the U.S. and Australia—and is procuring advanced weapons to attack Chinese invasion forces.

At times, the pace has been slower than Gen. Hinote would have liked. “As we began to push for change, we lost most of the budget battles,” he said. “There is more sense of urgency now, but we know how far we have to go.”

The general has pushed to equip cargo planes with cruise missiles to boost allied firepower, the use of high-altitude balloons to carry sensors and electric “flying cars” to carry people and equipment throughout the Pacific island chains—ideas that have led to experiments but so far no procurement decisions.

He thinks a future Air Force could rely more on autonomous, uncrewed aircraft and deploy fewer fighters. “When push comes to shove and you have to decide if you are going to field unmanned vehicles, or keep flying old aircraft, we’ve never made that decision,” he said.

“I think we’ve got a recipe for blunting” a Chinese attack, he said. “I just think you have to reinvent your force to do it.”"

The U.S. Is Not Yet Ready for the Era of ‘Great Power’ Conflict With China and Russia - WSJ

**OhOh** · 14-04-2023, 09:53 PM

Airbus unveils research center in Suzhou, expanding tech investment in China

By GT staff reporters

Published: Apr 14, 2023 10:17 PM

"European plane maker Airbus on Friday unveiled a research center in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province, pushing forward the technological infrastructure through digitalization, a fresh step show-ing European companies are further expanding tech investment in the country.

The move also came after French President Emmanuel Macron made a state visit to China last week, along with packages of trade deals signed by European companies including Airbus during the trip, which has shown that the European companies are rejecting "decoupling with China" with concrete efforts.

Strategically positioned in the Yangtze River Delta Region of China, the center, named Airbus Chi-na Research Center, will gain from its proximity to the region's strong aeronautical and hydrogen supply chain. Research will be undertaken in manufacturing innovation, hydrogen infrastructure, cabin experience and new technologies, said Airbus.

The center will also push forward the transformation and modernization of the aviation industry through digitalization and AI. In addition, the center will nurture research and innovation projects with forward-looking technology and good market prospects."

Airbus unveils research center in Suzhou, expanding tech investment in China - Global Times

Afghanistan should be venue for cooperation, not stage for geopolitical rivalries: joint statement

By Fan Anqi

Published: Apr 14, 2023 07:43 PM

"A stable and peaceful Afghanistan is in the interests of all members of the international community, and the country should be a venue for international cooperation rather than a stage for geopolitical rivalries, foreign ministers of China, Russia, Pakistan and Iran stressed at the Second informal Meeting on Afghanistan in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on Thursday.

The ministers reiterated respect for the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Afghanistan, and support for the "Afghan-led, Afghan-owned" principle to determine the country's political future and development path, according to a joint statement issued upon the meeting, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday.

The four countries emphasized deep concerns regarding the terrorism-related security situation in Afghanistan, urging the Afghan interim government to take a more visible and verifiable approach in upholding its commitments on counter-terrorism.

The Afghan authority should take effective measures to protect the safety, security and legitimate rights of foreign institutions and citizens, the joint statement read."

Afghanistan should be venue for cooperation, not stage for geopolitical rivalries: joint statement - Global Times

Tesla sets up new-energy unit in Shanghai amid rapid expansion in Chinese market

By Global Times

Published: Apr 14, 2023 02:20 PM

"US electric car company Tesla set up a new-energy company in China, which focuses on areas such as technical services, artificial intelligence (AI) basic software development and energy storage technical services, according to reports on Friday, in the latest move of the firm's rapid expansion in the Chinese market.

The new unit has a registered capital of $2 million, which is fully funded by Tesla's Hong Kong unit and its legal representative is Tesla executive Zhu Xiaotong, according to Chinese corporate information platform Tianyancha. The unit was set up on Thursday.

The new unit will focus on a wide range of areas of business, including technical services, AI basic software development, solar power generation technology services, energy storage technology services, research and development (R&D) of motors and their control systems, and R&D of auto parts, according to Tianyancha.

The move comes just days after Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk announced on Sunday that the firm would build a new factory in Shanghai to make large-scale batteries.

"Our next Megafactory will be in Shanghai, [China] - capable of producing [10,000] Megapacks per year," Tesla said in a Tweet on Monday, which also included a picture of a signing ceremony in Shanghai."

Tesla sets up new-energy unit in Shanghai amid rapid expansion in Chinese market - Global Times

China willing to work with all parties for common debt disposal framework: central bank governor

By Global Times

Published: Apr 14, 2023 12:57 PM

"China is willing to implement a debt disposal framework with other countries, China's central bank governor Yi Gang said during the World Bank and International Monetary Fund spring meetings in Washington.
Speaking in a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors during the spring meetings, Yi said China's economy is likely to grow around 5 percent this year, according to a statement released by the People's Bank of China on Friday.

Yi note that that China's economy is stabilizing and recovering, while inflation remains at a low level and positive developments have been observed in the real estate market.

Yi stressed that all parties should take concrete actions to ensure the smooth completion of IMF's 16th Quota Review and stressed that China is ready to work with all parties to implement the common framework for debt disposal."

China willing to work with all parties for common debt disposal framework: central bank governor - Global Times

**Switch** · 15-04-2023, 12:51 PM

^^^ OhOh post #3031 begins with a false assumption. The US shift to the Pacific region began under the Obama administration.

2018 was much later, when the idiot trump was at the helm.

This flawed assumption makes a mockery of the entire post. Not unusual where OhOh is concerned. Such dissent is his whole reason for posting by confirmation bias. At least it wasn’t the Chinese mouthpiece The Global Times this time.

**OhOh** · 15-04-2023, 06:54 PM

The West hoped Lula would be a partner. He’s got his own plans.

Brazil’s new president risks alienating the U.S. and Europe as he hosts Iranian warships, equivocates over the Russian invasion of Ukraine and negotiates with China

By Moriah Balingit and Meaghan Tobin

April 13, 2023 at 2:00 a.m. EDT

"BRASÍLIA — In his first months in office, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has declined to join President Biden in condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine, allowed Iranian warships to dock in Rio de Janeiro and dispatched a senior adviser to meet with Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro.

On Friday, Lula will head to Beijing, the finale of a three-day trip to China. More than 200 Brazilian business leaders headed to China ahead of Lula’s arrival to hash out a flurry of deals that will bring Brazil closer to its largest trading partner at a time when relations between Washington and Beijing have grown increasingly tense. Lula’s schedule will include a stop at a Shanghai facility of Huawei, the telecommunications giant that has been subject to U.S. sanctions.

In the Chinese capital, Lula will meet with Xi Jinping, the country’s top leader, who is pushing to upend the U.S.-led international order and position China as a diplomatic power broker. Brasília, meanwhile, is helping Beijing boost its currency, the yuan, over the dollar.

Lula’s election victory last year over Jair Bolsonaro, the dictatorship-admiring former military officer who aligned himself with President Donald Trump and the global right wing, buoyed optimism that Latin America’s most populous nation could be a partner in promoting democratic norms in the Western Hemisphere and beyond.

But instead, Lula is reminding the world of his approach to foreign policy — which, in keeping with his first stint in office, prioritizes pragmatism and dialogue, and shows little concern over whether it antagonizes Washington or the West.

One example: the Russian invasion. Brazil supported a U.N. resolution in February calling for peace and demanding Moscow withdraw troops from Ukraine. But weeks later, Lula refused to sign on to a declaration from President Biden’s Summit for Democracy that condemned Russia’s assault on its neighbor. A senior adviser said Lula did not believe the forum was the appropriate place to discuss the war.

In contrast with Bolsonaro’s pugnacious isolationism, Lula has long sought to expand Brazil’s role on the world stage. He argues that Brazil, home to more people than U.N. Security Council permanent members Russia, Britain and France, should be granted membership in that elite club.

“Brazil wants to reform world governance,” Celso Amorim, a senior adviser to the president, told The Washington Post. “We would like to have a world governance which does not look like the present Security Council.”

As Brazil’s president from 2003 through 2010, Lula pursued a multipolar world order that would support the world’s fastest-growing economies without requiring them to embrace specific political values. In 2009, alongside fellow leaders Dmitry Medvedev of Russia, China’s Hu Jintao and India’s Manmohan Singh, Lula attended the first summit of the BRICS — the large and developing economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — which cast themselves as a foil to the Group of Seven most advanced economies.

The BRICS launched their own financing institution, the New Development Bank, in 2015 as an alternative to the International Monetary Fund. The United Arab Emirates, Uruguay and Bangladesh joined in 2021, while Egypt became a member last month. Lula was set to celebrate Brazil’s continued leadership role in the bloc on Thursday when his successor as president, Dilma Rousseff, is inaugurated head of the bank at its headquarters in Shanghai.

China and Brazil have portrayed their ties to each other — and to Russia — as being of growing global consequence. In an interview with state media Tuesday, China’s ambassador to Brazil, Zhu Qingqiao, described the BRICS as “a catalyst for changing the global governance system.”

None of the BRICS countries currently impose sanctions on Russia. Increased trade between Russia and China in particular has helped take some of the bite out of Western sanctions, and Beijing has leveraged conditions to push more companies to trade in the yuan — in some cases enabling them to bypass the dollar altogether.

Brazil relies on Russia as the top supplier of fertilizer to its agricultural sector, which fuels its booming exports to China. Russia’s trade with both Brazil and China hit record highs in 2022.

Hours before Lula’s arrival in Shanghai, Chinese state media reported that a Brazilian branch of a Chinese state-owned bank had settled its first cross-border transaction in the Chinese currency. Brazil’s central bank announced this month that the yuan had overtaken the euro as the country’s second largest international reserve currency.

“We are seeing more and more capacity on the part of China to act as a viable alternative [to the West] and to develop diplomatic alliances that underscore that point,” said Margaret Myers, director of the Asia and Latin America program at the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington. “The BRICS is increasingly playing that role, and Lula, as a founder of the group, will be inclined to reinforce that vision.”

Lula is also scheduled to meet with representatives of the Chinese electric car manufacturer BYD, which is seeking to take over a former Ford plant in the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia.

Lula has repeatedly suggested that Ukraine also bears responsibility for the war — by defending itself. “If one doesn’t want to, two can’t fight,” said Lula at a January news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, according to Politico.

During a virtual meeting in March with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Lula reiterated his recent calls for a “peace club” of nonaligned countries to mediate between Russia and Ukraine. The idea did not gain much traction in Washington when Lula visited Biden in February.

In Beijing, Lula is hoping for a welcome as warm as those he received on two state visits to China during his first stint as president, when he enjoyed a particularly close relationship with then-leader Hu.

Brazil’s economy boomed during Lula’s first presidency, thanks in large part to soaring commodities prices and sales to China. There was virtually no trade between the two countries when Lula took office in 2003; six years later, China was Brazil’s top trading partner. Last year, that trade volume topped $150 billion, according to Brazilian government statistics, mainly in agricultural commodities such as beef and soybeans.

Brazilian government ministers and business leaders, including executives from Brazil’s top beef and soy exporters, traveled to China last month to make deals with Chinese companies. After a meeting between Brazilian Agriculture Minister Carlos Fávaro and Chinese Customs Minister Yu Jianhua, Beijing formally lifted a ban on Brazilian beef that Brazil had voluntarily imposed in February after reporting a case of mad cow disease. During the 29-day suspension, Brazilian beef exporters said they lost up to $25 million a day, according to local media.

The Chinese customs authority also approved exports from nine additional beef and poultry processing plants, and another 50 are under review, Chinese business media outlet Caixin reported Wednesday.

Other agreements are expected to involve Chinese investment in high-tech capacity in Brazil, including solar power facilities and a new observation satellite that can monitor the Amazon rainforest even during cloudy weather.

Climate change is also likely on the agenda. Xi has articulated a Chinese commitment to reducing carbon emissions; Lula has promised to reverse deforestation in the Amazon, after Bolsonaro promoted development there.

“Lula can say for now, ‘I’m all about reconstruction. Brazil is back,’” said Oliver Stuenkel, a political scientist at the School of International Relations at Fundação Getulio Vargas in São Paulo. “We’re a constructive interlocutor when it comes to strength in the multilateral system. We want to be a provider of global public goods when it comes to fighting climate change.”

Beijing has hailed Lula’s visit as a chance to not only deepen the countries’ economic ties but also advance Xi’s push to position China as a leader of a world order that isn’t constrained by Washington. That drive has also included brokering a rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran in Beijing and articulating 12 principles to end hostilities in Ukraine.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin this week called Lula’s visit an opportunity to “bring more positive energy to developing countries’ solidarity, cooperation and joint response to global challenges.”

Lula, too, has promoted himself as a potential mediator between Moscow and Kyiv.

This month, he sent Amorim, the presidential adviser, to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Before the trip, Amorim — Brazil’s former foreign minister — told The Post he believed a diplomatic resolution to the war was possible.

Lula’s government believes in dialogue and leading by example, Amorim said.

But asked whether Brazil would play a role in enforcing democratic norms.

Amorim replied: “Enforcing is a bad word.”"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...oreign-policy/

**OhOh** · 15-04-2023, 07:05 PM

China, Brazil share positive roles in peace, development

By GT staff reporters

Published: Apr 14, 2023 06:49 PM

"While expressing confidence in the sound and steady growth of China-Brazil relationship, Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed the need for China and Brazil to support each other in exploring their own paths for development and highlighted the two countries' positive role in promoting global peace, stability and prosperity, while meeting with visiting Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Friday. Analysts hailed the top leaders' meeting as offering clear guidance for future development of ties and allowing the two countries to better engage in global governance.

On Friday, President Xi met with visiting Lula in Beijing, during which he called him an old friend on more than one occasion and said he is ready to work with Lula from their strategic vantage point to steer and create a new future for China-Brazil relations in the new era, and to deliver greater benefits to the two peoples.

President Xi noted that as comprehensive strategic partners, China and Brazil share extensive common interests. China always views and develops relations with Brazil from a strategic and long-term perspective, and sees the relationship as a high priority on its diplomatic agenda.

Xi expressed his confidence that a China-Brazil relationship that continues to enjoy sound and steady growth is bound to play an important and positive role for peace, stability and prosperity in their regions and beyond.

Brazilian President Lula said he was honored and proud to head a large delegation on his fourth visit to China. This is his first visit outside the Americas since being elected President last year. This choice reflects Brazil's affection for China and commitment to Brazil-China relations.

China is an indispensable force in global politics, economy and trade, science and technology, and plays a vital role in promoting world peace and development. Brazil is committed to building closer relations with China from the strategic perspective of shaping a just and equitable international order, said Lula, expressing his full confidence that Brazil-China relations would embrace a brighter future.

"With this visit, Lula aims to send a clear and firm signal that China-Brazil relations under his tenure will reach new historical heights," Pan Deng, executive director of the Latin American and Caribbean Region Law Center of China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times on Friday.

The fact that Lula can overcome international and domestic voices of opposition and his own health issues to visit as he just marked his 100th day in office is telling, said Pan.

After Lula took office, the atmosphere for political dialogue between China and Brazil has changed, Zhou Zhiwei, an expert on Latin American studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), told the Global Times.

China-Brazil relations had seen "cool politics but warm economy" under the previous right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, while analysts predict the two countries will embrace a "warm politics and economy" after President Lula's visit, as political trust has been greatly enhanced and the comprehensive strategic partnership enriched, analysts said.

After the meeting of the two top leaders on Friday, China and Brazil released a joint statement on deepening their comprehensive strategic partnership.

Wider economic exchanges

Economic and trade cooperation was among the top items on Lula's agenda. During the talks on Friday, the two leaders called for deeper bilateral cooperation in traditional as well as new areas.

The two leaders also witnessed the signing of several bilateral cooperation documents that cover a wide range of areas, including trade and investment, the digital economy, and information and telecommunication.

China-Brazil trade will not only increase in volume but also expand in scope, especially when the two countries are working to boost economic recovery in the post-pandemic era, analysts said.

"Lula's visit to China has greatly promoted the breadth and depth of bilateral trade and investment," Wang Youming, director of the Institute of Developing Countries at the China Institute of International Studies in Beijing, told the Global Times on Friday.

Wang noted that cooperation in traditional fields, such as minerals and agricultural products (soybeans, corn and meat), will be further consolidated. In emerging fields, such as digital economy, green economy and high-tech, the two sides will expand cooperation to form a scenario in which traditional and new trade goes hand in hand.

During the bilateral talks on Friday, Lula mentioned his visit to Huawei and said he was impressed by China's achievements in areas such as 5G, expressing hope for cooperation in relevant areas.

Wang said that China-Brazil cooperation in the field of science and technology such as semiconductors, chips, 5G and satellites is of great significance, particularly in countering the US' technological hegemony.

"In particular, Lula's visit to Huawei's research institute in Shanghai sent a strong signal to the outside world that Brazil will implement strategic independence and conduct in-depth scientific and technological cooperation with China. This move has a demonstration effect, and more developing countries will follow Brazil's example in the future," Wang said.

Shared pursuit for peace

Zhou Zhiwei at the CASS noted that the greater importance of Xi and Lula's meeting lies in the communication between two major developing countries on regional and global affairs and joint expression of their understanding of peaceful governance.

President Xi stressed China's firm support for Latin American and Caribbean countries to cement the sound momentum of peace, stability, independence and said China will step up strategic coordination with Brazil on global issues of mutual interest in the UN, BRICS, the G20 and other multilateral institutions, and enhance coordination on climate response.

Xi and Lula also exchanged views on the Ukraine crisis and both agreed that dialogue and negotiations are the only feasible way for settling it. They appealed to more countries to play a constructive role for a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis.

Pan Deng said that it is easier for China and Brazil, both developing countries and BRICS members, to find common ground on the Ukraine crisis. With rich political experience, Lula has a deep understanding of the global situation. His visit itself and its outcome show that Brazil is willing to join hands with China on the path of safeguarding multilateralism.

Alessandro Golombiewski Teixeira, former Brazilian minister of tourism and former special economic advisor to the president of Brazil, said that instead of believing in a hegemonic world ruled by one country, both China and Brazil believe in multilateralism and international relations based on equality. The two leaderships from China and Brazil share a common vision in terms of world development, which also promotes bilateral cooperation.

Lula's fruitful visit to China has also attracted global attention, as their joint efforts inject positive impetus into the world amid increasing turbulence and instability.

There is a need to have more weight from the Global South at international institutes and platforms, including IMF, and G20. The more Western countries boycott the voice of the South, the more institutions like BRICS and SCO will grow in influence and scope, Marco Fernandes, a researcher at the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, co-editor of Dongsheng Collective, and member of No Cold War Campaign, told the Global Times.

Timofei Bordachev, the program director for Moscow-based Valdai Club in Russia, hailed cooperation between Brazil and China for moving in the direction of strengthening their own independence.

BRICS is becoming a pillar of democratic global governance and is attracting the attention of more countries. Bordachev told the Global Times that

"There is now a unique opportunity to create an infrastructure of global governance that does not depend on a single decision-making center - it can become the basis of a new international order.""

China, Brazil share positive roles in peace, development - Global Times

**OhOh** · 15-04-2023, 07:09 PM

Chinese top diplomat meets German FM, hoping Germany will support China's peaceful reunification.

By Chen Qingqing

Published: Apr 15, 2023 11:51 AM

"Chinese top diplomat Wang Yi met with visiting German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Saturday, saying that China is willing to strengthen communication and exchanges with Germany and pointing out that China supported Germany's reunification and hopes and believes that Germany will also support China's peaceful reunification.

Wang Yi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, said during the meeting that China and Germany share a wide range of consensus and common interests, and China is willing to strengthen communication and exchanges with Germany, enhance mutual understanding, and prepare for a new round of China-Germany government consultations. The two sides should jointly address global challenges such as climate change, promote the healthy development of bilateral relations, and release positive and constructive signals to the turbulent world, Wang told Baerbock.

The meeting came after Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang and the German FM had comprehensive, candid and in-depth communication on Friday over China-Germany, China-EU relations and international and regional issues.

Qin systematically elaborated on China's stance on the Taiwan question, stating that peace and "Taiwan independence" cannot co-exist and it is China's internal affair that allows no external interference.

On the Taiwan question, Wang told Baerbock that Taiwan's return to the motherland is an important part of the international order in the post-WWII era. "Taiwan independence" forces on the island are seeking to disrupt the current situation in the Taiwan Straits and endanger peace in the region. To maintain stability in the Taiwan Straits, it is necessary to firmly oppose the "Taiwan independence" separatist activities, Wang noted.

"China supported Germany's reunification, and hopes and believes that Germany will also support China's peaceful reunification," he told Baerbock.

Baerbock's visit to China came shortly after French President Emmanuel Macron's calls for Europe's strategic autonomy made waves within the continent and across the Atlantic, especially when the French President said that on Taiwan question, France should not get caught up in an escalation between the US and China.

Some Chinese experts see Macron's remarks as a wake-up call for Europe as in recent years, some European countries have been echoing the US' Indo-Pacific Strategy and NATO's Asia strategy of using the Taiwan question to contain China.

"It is believed that such in-depth dialogue on the Taiwan question would help the German side further understand China's position and the essence of the Taiwan question. As Baerbock is a young politician, it is important to elaborate on the history about the Taiwan question to her," Sun Keqin, a research fellow at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times on Saturday.

Just hours ahead of Baerbock's visit to China, German Foreign Ministry on Wednesday claimed China "had inflamed tensions with its military exercise around Taiwan island."

Baerbock also warned against a "horror scenario" in case of "military escalation" in the Taiwan Straits after her meeting with Qin on Friday, saying that a unilateral, violent change of the status quo would not be acceptable for Europeans, according to media reports.

Some Europeans have been following the US rhetoric on the Taiwan question, and it's important to clarify on the matter about who changed the status quo and who escalated the situation, experts said. "Chinese officials have pointed out in a straightforward way that the 'Taiwan independence' separatists and their collusion with the US are endangering the stability in Taiwan Straits, Germany should understand this fact and should not go too far on the question," Sun said.

Baerbock said during her meeting with Wang that Germany understands the importance and sensitivity of the Taiwan question to China and adheres to the one-China policy.

It's very important for China as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and Germany as a major European country to strengthen dialogue and communication, the German diplomat said. The two countries have many common interests, and Germany is willing to strengthen interaction and communication with China, enhance mutual understanding, expand cooperation in economic, trade, tourism, cultural and other fields, jointly maintain smooth world trade, and continuously develop German-Chinese relations, Baerbock said.

Since the establishment of China-Germany diplomatic relations, Germany has adopted a rational and calm attitude on the Taiwan question as China had always supported Germany's reunification, but recently, the German Foreign Ministry, along with the EU, have been changing in accordance to the US' Taiwan policy, Sun said.

Fu Cong, head of the Chinese Mission to the EU, told the Global Times in a recent interview that concerning the Taiwan question, it's important to emphasize that any position of the European side on the question must be recognized by the Chinese side. And some high-level officials in EU institutions and European anti-China lawmakers visiting the island violated the one-China principle.

From the meeting with Ursula von der Leyen to the meeting with Baerbock, Chinese officials have made it very clear that the Taiwan question is China's core interests, serving as a warning against playing with the fire on the question, Sun noted. "It will be helpful for European officials to take a reflection on it and become more cautious before taking some moves," Sun said."

Chinese top diplomat meets German FM, hoping Germany will support China's peaceful reunification - Global Times

**OhOh** · 15-04-2023, 09:51 PM

**misskit** · 16-04-2023, 06:11 AM

China prepares for Taiwan conflict with updated conscription law

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — China’s Central Military Commission and its leader, Xi Jinping (習近平), this week announced that China will implement a new law for recruiting soldiers during wartime, heightening fears of a potential invasion of Taiwan.

The new regulations are aimed at “optimizing conscription procedures” while prioritizing the conscription of veterans with experience in the armed forces. Additionally, on Tuesday (April 13), Xi called on China’s military forces to prepare for “actual combat,” as reported by AFP.

Most analysts see the move as legal preparation for an anticipated conflict with Taiwan. The updated guidelines comprise 11 chapters with 74 articles in total, and will come into force on May 1, reported NDTV.

A Chinese military official quoted by NDTV said the amendments to the conscription law will “ensure the normal replacement of troops and supplementary needs of soldiers in wartime.” The law also says the Central Military Commission may make additional adjustments to recruitment methods and practices as it sees fit.

News that China plans to amend its conscription law comes less than a week after it carried out naval exercises around Taiwan, which simulated a naval blockade. The recent military drills were seen as a reaction to the meeting between President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy held last week in California.

China prepares for Taiwan conflict with updated conscription law | Taiwan News | 2023-04-14 14:03:00

**OhOh** · 16-04-2023, 07:14 PM

Interview with new president of New Development Bank

"Dilma Rousseff officially took the helm of the New Development Bank (NDB), following an inauguration ceremony held at the bank's headquarters in Shanghai on Thursday. CGTN reporter Wu Lei sat down with the former Brazilian leader to discuss her priorities during her term in office as NDB chief.

The NDB was established in 2015 by the BRICS group of nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Its membership is open to all UN member nations. In 2021, the NDB admitted Bangladesh, Uruguay, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt as new members."

**OhOh** · 16-04-2023, 07:19 PM

For 'bosom friends!' Xi invites Macron to enjoy Guqin melody of 'High Mountains and Flowing Water'

"Chinese President Xi Jinping invited his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron to enjoy the iconic Chinese Guqin melody of "High Mountains Flowing Water" when the two leaders held an informal meeting in southern China's Guangzhou.

Furthermore, the idiom “high mountains and flowing water” which is used to depict a pair of bosom friends, is adopted from the story of Yu Boya and Zhong Ziqi, two musicians and guqin masters, whose friendship was established by their tacit understanding in guqin music."

<em>

**Buckaroo Banzai** · 17-04-2023, 05:19 AM

Originally Posted by panama hat

Not saying that it will or will not. But I don't think Forbes is the best source for projections in these matters.

"Forbes 'curse' strikes again: Silicon Valley Bank joins FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried, WeWork and Elizabeth Holmes as the latest featured company to fall into disrepute - just days after being named one of best banks in US "
Silicon Valley Bank was named on Forbes' America's Best Banks list for 2023 days before collapse | Daily Mail Online

**Buckaroo Banzai** · 17-04-2023, 05:58 AM

Originally Posted by panama hat

So, because of SVB you believe Forbes isn't a trustworthy organisation? That's Backspit-level reasoning. You place the bar very high - one incorrect position and that's the end. Luckily OhWoe's sources are more credible.

No . As I said " Not saying that it will or will not" in fact if I was to make the argument concerning global currencies , I would say the the USD will remain such , because it is a market driven currency as opposed to the Yuan that is Chinese goverment controlled and manipulated. People have a lot more confidence on the market than they do on the Chinese goverment.
But when debating one needs to inoculate one's self against rebuttal and using a publication that is under fire for having been comically wrong so often , leaves you an open target.
So I decided to take a shot at you

, it was such an abviouse retort I could not help myself.
By the way, went to sleep early last night and was up 4 am with nothing better to do.

**misskit** · 17-04-2023, 06:32 AM

Determined to Flee China, Thousands Take a Long, Dangerous Route to the Southern U.S. Border

On a crowded speedboat making a night crossing in rough waters off Colombia in January, Daniel Huang, a former Shanghai fitness trainer, began to regret his decision to try to enter the U.S. via Latin America.

He was soaked through by the crashing waves and he feared the boat would tip over. On his cellphone, he said he typed up a farewell note to his father to send if it seemed he wouldn’t make it to the shore on the Panamanian side, where he would start an arduous jungle trek.

Mr. Huang is part of a huge upsurge of Chinese under Xi Jinping’s rule who have risked arrest, drowning and robbery as they pass through some eight nations to reach the southern U.S. border, following in the footsteps of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans, Cubans and others.

“I could no longer see hope” in China, he said. “If there was any other way, who would be willing to leave their family?”

The Chinese migrants making dangerous treks through Latin America are a subset of the larger outflow of Chinese of all wealth levels. Under Mr. Xi, the private sector has been squeezed, forcing layoffs and driving away entrepreneurs. Others worry political repression will only get more suffocating as Mr. Xi embarks on his third term in power.

The United Nations refugee agency counted 116,868 Chinese seeking asylum around the world at a point measured in mid-2022, up from 15,362 at the end of 2012, the year Mr. Xi took power. The U.N. numbers don’t include Chinese who enter other countries using work, tourist or other types of visas—often people with more assets and education—which have also increased in the past decade. China has a population of around 1.4 billion.

MORE. Determined to Flee China, Migrants Take a Long, Dangerous Route to the Southern U.S. Border - WSJ

**OhOh** · 17-04-2023, 09:52 AM

Originally Posted by misskit

The new regulations are aimed at “optimizing conscription procedures” while prioritizing the conscription of veterans with experience in the armed forces.

Exactly.

China revises conscription work regulation

Recruiting qualified college students prioritized; skilled veterans to be recalled during wartime

By Leng Shumei

Published: Apr 13, 2023 10:16 PM

"China has revised its regulation on conscription work, putting an emphasis on recruiting highly qualified college students and stipulating rules for recalling skilled veterans during wartime.

This is a necessary move for the People's Liberation Army (PLA) as China is deepening systematic reform of the military as well as improving combat capability during wartime amid a turbulent world, experts said.

The revision will take effect on May 1. It is a necessary move toward deepening reform of the national defense and the military, especially after the country has revised its national defense law and military service law.

The move also conforms to the requirement for high-quality personnel along with the acceleration of the mechanization, informatization and intelligentization of the PLA, according to the PLA Daily.

The amended regulation stresses conscription of highly qualified soldiers with priority placed on college students. It notes that the conscription should be conducted based on the needs of the military.

In order to guarantee the PLA's focus on combat preparation, the new regulation optimizes the process to deploy new soldiers. Local military service authorities should shoulder the main responsibility to recruit new soldiers. The new soldiers can also sign up directly, according to the regulation.

In consideration of guaranteeing conscription during wartime, the newly revised regulation stipulates that, should a state of war be declared, main attention could be shifted to conscript skilled veterans in order to form combat capacity rapidly.

Conscripting soldiers from highly educated college students will help the PLA to increase overall quality and build a professionalized force, Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Thursday.

Revision of relevant laws and regulations is a necessary move to guarantee the modernization of the PLA as the country aims to achieve modernization of the national defense and armed forces by 2035, Song said, noting the key is to ensure the military can rapidly scale up combat capacity and make the process more operable and executable given the turbulent world.

China has designed and carried out military reforms since the 18th National Congress of the CPC in 2012 in order to modernize national defense and the armed forces and turn the PLA into a world-class force, which is necessary to safeguard the country's national interests, according to observers.

In 2021, the country updated its military service law with improvement in the welfare of military personnel and the system of registration for military service."

China revises conscription work regulation - Global Times

**harrybarracuda** · 17-04-2023, 08:12 PM

The chinkies have got a new weapon to use against civilians who dare to demand actual freedoms.

There's a lovely little Freudian slip at the end.

China has launched an electromagnetic gun that fires projectiles shaped like coins to quell violent public protests, according to South China Morning Post (SCMP).
The “non-lethal” gun was demonstrated last month in a military technology show broadcast by state-affiliated CCTV.
Manufactured by China North Industries Group Corp, the weapon displayed qualities that were superior to those of traditional rifles, including reduced noise, a tiny muzzle flash, and less recoil.

Lei Fengqiao, the gun’s designer, said that the CS/LW21 gun is designed like coil guns, which use electric power to accelerate the projectile.
“When the nine-level coil is electrified, corresponding magnetic fields are formed, which allow the bullet to be sucked out by a relay race method,” Fengqiao told CCTV.
“It is powered by a built-in lithium-ion battery that can continuously fire hundreds of rounds when fully charged. The charging time is also very short, with little influence from temperature.”
The report added that the handheld gun could lessen the possibility of deadly injuries as it shoots coins-shaped projectiles.
It allows law enforcement agencies control the bullets’ speed and ferocity, thereby curbing riots without causing serious physical injuries to innocent people.

China debuts new electromagnetic gun to curb riots

**harrybarracuda** · 18-04-2023, 09:38 AM

Originally Posted by panama hat

And in a few years China will come up with their very own Airbuss . . .

They've already got some attempt at it. But the only people buying it are chinky airlines being told to and a few others being bribed to...

And of course they've nicked most of the IP from abroad.

**S Landreth** · 18-04-2023, 07:44 PM

Hikvision internal review found contracts targeted Uyghurs

Chinese surveillance giant Hikvision has repeatedly denied reports that the company is complicit in human rights abuses targeting Uyghurs in China's northwestern region of Xinjiang.

But new details from an internal review of its contracts with police agencies in the region reveal the company has known since at least 2020 that some of its Xinjiang contracts were a "problem" because they included language about targeting Uyghurs as a group, according to a recording of a recent private company meeting obtained by technology trade publication IPVM and exclusively shared with Axios.

Why it matters: The Chinese government is perpetrating an ongoing campaign of genocide and mass detention of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in the country's northwest region of Xinjiang.

Procurement documents reportedly show that Hikvision cameras have been installed in public spaces across Xinjiang and in mass detention facilities, and Hikvision cameras have captured footage that has led to the detention of Uyghurs.
Hikvision has also advertised that it offers biometric surveillance technology that can track ethnic minorities, including Uyghurs, though in 2020 the company stated its products no longer offer that capability.
Human rights groups and the U.S. and other governments have accused Hikvision of participating in human rights abuses in Xinjiang — allegations the surveillance giant has rejected.

Background: In January 2019, as scrutiny of the company's Xinjiang operations grew, Hikvision hired Richard-Pierre Prosper, a lawyer and former U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues in the George W. Bush administration, to conduct an internal investigation of its Xinjiang contracts. Prosper is currently a lawyer for D.C.-based legal and lobbying firm ArentFox Schiff.

In its 2020 ESG public report, Hikvision offered a one-sentence summary of Prosper's review, quoting it as saying: “We do not find that Hikvision entered into the five projects in Xinjiang with the intent to knowingly engage in human rights abuses or find that Hikvision knowingly or intentionally committed human rights abuses itself or that it acted in willful disregard.”
When facing criticism for its activities in Xinjiang, Hikvision has repeatedly pointed to its retention of an "internationally respected war crimes investigator" as evidence of the company's sincere desire to comply with international human rights standards.
ArentFox Schiff did not respond to a request for comment.

Details: Prosper gave a talk on human rights compliance, which the company referred to as a "training" in an emailed statement to Axios, to Hikvision’s Australian company partners at the Hikvision Australia Global ESG Conference held near Sydney last month. Prosper's remarks contain previously unknown details from his report's findings.

Prosper says in the recording that the internal investigation's purpose was to assess "what was the company's responsibility and exposure" regarding human rights abuses in Xinjiang. Hikvision had bid on around 15 projects in Xinjiang and won contracts for five, Prosper says, and his team received at least 15,000 pages of related documents and reviewed about 5,000 "line by line."
"The most concerning on paper was the Moyu Project, which was down in the southern part of Xinjiang," Prosper says, referring to Xinjiang's Karakax County, a majority Uyghur region with numerous detention camps where leaked documents have shown that police detained Uyghurs for normal religious practices such as praying regularly and wearing a veil.
The Moyu project "was the most concerning because of the language in the contract," which Prosper says "identified Uyghurs" as a group to focus on and called for surveillance of "religious facilities.”
Prosper says in the recording that his team told Hikvision: "We're not going to absolve the company." He pointed to some of the contracts that included "concerning" language "looking at groups and not isolated to a criminal." Prosper says he told the company, "This is a problem."
Prosper says that after his team completed the review, they told Hikvision: “We don't think you were responsible, but there were some failings in the system where there's some flags you should have looked at.”
In the recording, Prosper also says Hikvision built the systems but then handed them over to China without knowing how the government intended to use them. But he provides no documenting evidence.

What they're saying: “As a global company, Hikvision takes human rights seriously and recognizes our social responsibilities. The company has publicly addressed this concern in its annual ESG Report, as concluded by Ambassador Pierre-Richard Prosper after his team’s thorough due diligence," a Hikvision spokesperson told Axios in an emailed statement.

"The company is fully aware of the room for further improvement, evidenced by our efforts to enhance human rights compliance since 2018, of which this training is one of many measures the company has conducted. The company will continue to ensure that our employees and partners throughout the world are well versed in corporate governance and compliance.”
The Chinese government denies it has committed human rights violations in Xinjiang, instead casting its activities there as fighting terrorism and alleviating poverty.

In the recording, Prosper also casts Hikvision’s failure to identify this concerning language in the contracts in Xinjiang as an issue stemming from a “cultural divide” between East and West.

“We in the West, instinctively or initially, everything is human rights, individual rights,” Prosper says.
But China and other “Communist-based societies” emphasize “collective rights” instead of individual rights, and so the review team explained to Hikvision that individual rights “should be at the front of your mind,” Prosper says in the recording.

State of play: The U.S. government has taken steps to restrict Hikvision's business activities and financial reach.

The Federal Communications Commission in November said it would stop approving new device authorizations for companies, including Hikvision, that had been deemed to be national security threats.
On March 28, the U.S. government added five Hikvision subsidiaries in Xinjiang to the U.S. Commerce Department's Entity List, stating that they were tied to the company's police projects there. Hikvision was added to the entity list in 2019.
The FCC's move essentially keeps Hikvision's products from being sold in the U.S., while its inclusion on the Commerce Department's entity list keeps U.S. companies from selling goods and services to the company.

What to watch: In February, Hikvision sued the U.S. government and the FCC over a ban restricting the sale of Hikvision products in the U.S.

**OhOh** · 19-04-2023, 03:59 PM

APRIL 19, 2023 BY M. K. BHADRAKUMAR

China, Russia circle wagons in Asia-Pacific

"The official visit by Chinese State Councilor and Defence Minister General Li Shangfu to Russia on April 16-19 prima facie underscored the two countries’ emergent need to deepen their military trust and close coordination against the backdrop of worsening geopolitical tensions and the imperative to maintain the global strategic balance.

The visit carries forward the pivotal decisions taken at the intensive one-on-one talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Moscow through March 20-21. In a break with protocol, Gen. Li’s 4-day visit was front-loaded with a “working meeting” with Putin — to quote Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. (here and here)

Li is no stranger to Moscow, having previously held charge of Equipment Development Department of the Central Military Commission who was sanctioned by the US in 2018 for purchasing Russian weapons, including Su-35 combat aircraft and S-400 surface-to-air missile systems.

Song Zhongping, prominent Chinese military expert and TV commentator, forecast that Li’s trip would signal the high level of bilateral military ties with Russia, and lead to “more mutually beneficial exchanges in many fields, including defence technologies and military exercises.”

Last Wednesday, US Commerce Department announced the imposition of export controls on a dozen Chinese companies for “supporting Russia’s military and defence industries.” The Global Times hit back defiantly that “as China is an independent major power, so is Russia. It’s our right to decide with whom we will carry out normal economic and trade cooperation. We cannot accept the US’ finger-pointing or even economic coercion.”

Putin said at the meeting with Li on Easter Sunday that military cooperation plays an important role in Russia-China relations. Chinese analysts said Li’s visit is also a signal jointly sent by China and Russia that their military cooperation will not be impacted by the US pressure.

Putin had disclosed in October 2019 that Russia was helping China to create an early missile warning system that would drastically enhance the defensive capacity of China. Chinese observers noted that Russia was more experienced in developing and operating such a system, which is capable of identifying and sending warnings immediately after intercontinental ballistic missiles are launched.

Such cooperation demonstrate a high level of trust and require a possible integration of Russian and Chinese systems. The system integration will be mutually beneficial; stations located in the North and West of Russia could provide China with warning data and, in turn, China could provide Russia with data collected at their Eastern and Southern stations. That is to say, the two countries could create their own global missile defence network.

These systems are among the most sophisticated and sensitive areas of defence technology. The US and Russia are the only countries which have been able to develop, build and maintain such systems. Certainly, close coordination and cooperation between Russia and China, two nuclear-armed powers, will profoundly contribute to world peace in the present circumstances by containing and deterring US hegemony.

It cannot be a coincidence that Moscow ordered a sudden check of the forces of its Pacific Fleet on April 14-18, which overlapped Li’s visit. The inspection took place against the background of the aggravation of the situation around Taiwan.

Indeed, in early April, it became known that the American aircraft carrier USS Nimitz approached Taiwan; on April 11, the US began a 17-day military exercise in the Philippines involving over 12000 troops; on April 17, news appeared about the dispatch of 200 American military advisers to Taiwan.

The US Global Thunder 23 strategic exercises at Minot Air Base in North Dakota, (which is the US Air Force Global Strikes Command) began last week where a training was conducted to load cruise missiles with nuclear warhead on bombers. The images showed B-52H Stratofortress strategic bombers being equipped by the flight technical personnel of the base with AGM-86B cruise missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads on the underwing pylons!

Again, exercises of US aviation and fleet forces have been increasingly noticed in the immediate vicinity of Russian borders or in regions where Russia has geopolitical interests. On April 5, B-52 Stratofortress circled over the Korean Peninsula allegedly “in response to nuclear and missile threats from North Korea.” At the same time, South Korea, the US and Japan conducted trilateral naval exercises in the waters of the Sea of Japan with the participation of aircraft carrier USS Nimitz.

Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev recently drew attention to Japan’s growing capability to conduct offensive operations, which, he said, constituted “a gross violation of one of the most important outcomes of the Second World War.” Japan plans to purchase around 500 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the US, which can directly threaten most of the territory of the Russian Far East. The Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is working on developing Type 12 land-based anti-ship missiles “in order to protect the remote islands of Japan.”

Japan is also developing hypersonic weapons designed to conduct combat operations “on remote islands,” which Russians see as options for Japan’s possible seizure of the Southern Kuriles. In 2023, Japan will have a military budget exceeding $51 billion (on par with Russia’s), which is slated to increase to $73 billion.

Actually, during the latest surprise inspection, the ships and submarines of Russia’s Pacific Fleet made the transition from their bases to the Japanese, Okhotsk and Bering Seas. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said, “in practice, it is necessary to work out ways to prevent the deployment of enemy forces to the operationally important area of the Pacific Ocean – the southern part of the Sea of Okhotsk and to repel its landing on the Southern Kuril Islands and Sakhalin Island.”

‘Loudly on the quiet…

Surveying the regional alignments, Yuri Lyamin, Russian military expert and Senior Fellow at the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, a leading think tank of the military-industrial complex, told Izvestia newspaper:

“Considering that we have not settled the territorial issue, Japan lays claim to our South Kuriles. In this regard, checks are very necessary. It is necessary to increase the readiness of our forces in the Far East…

“In the context of the current situation, we need to further strengthen defence cooperation with China. In fact, an axis is being formed against Russia, North Korea and China: the USA, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and then it goes to Australia. Great Britain is also actively trying to participate… All this must be taken into account and cooperation should be established with China and North Korea, which are, one might say, our natural allies.”

In highly significant remarks at a Kremlin meeting with Shoigu on April 17 — while Li was in Moscow — Putin noted that the current priorities of Russia’s armed forces are “primarily focusing on the Ukrainian track… (but) the Pacific theatre of operations remains relevant” and it must be borne in mind that “the forces of the (Pacific) fleet in its individual components can certainly be used in conflicts in any direction.”

The next day, Shoigu told Gen. Li, “In the spirit of unbreakable friendship between the nations, peoples, and the armed forces of China and Russia, I look forward to the closest and most successful cooperation with you…” The Russian MOD readout said :

“Sergei Shoigu stressed that Russia and China could stabilise the global situation and lessen the potential for conflict by coordinating their actions on the global stage. ‘It is important that our countries share the same view on the ongoing transformation of the global geopolitical landscape… The meeting we have today will, in my opinion, help to further solidify the Russia-China strategic partnership in the defence sphere and enable an open discussion of regional and global security issues.”

Beijing and Moscow visualise that the US, having failed to “erase” Russia, is turning attention to the Asia-Pacific theatre. Suffice to say, Li’s visit shows that the reality of Russia–China defence cooperation is complicated. Russia–China military-technical cooperation has always been rather secretive, and the level of secrecy has increased as both countries engage in more direct confrontation with the US.

The political meaning of Putin’s 2019 statement on jointly developing a ballistic missile early warning system extended far beyond its technical and military significance. It demonstrated to the world that Russia and China were on the brink of a formal military alliance, which could be triggered if US pressure went too far.

In October 2020, Putin suggested the possibility of a military alliance with China. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ reaction was positive, although Beijing refrained from using the word “alliance”.

A working and effective military alliance can be formed quickly if the need arises but their respective foreign policy strategies rendered such a move unlikely. However, real and imminent danger of military conflict with the US can trigger a paradigm shift."

China, Russia circle wagons in Asia-Pacific - Indian Punchline

**harrybarracuda** · 19-04-2023, 07:38 PM

It's fucking hilarious that Vlad thinks he can trust the chinkies.

They'll be picking up all his oil and gas on the cheap and working out how else they can screw him.

Thread: The View, from China

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