Beat me to it. Saw it overnight. To me it is a sign of weakness. Always before he was able to claim power by seeming acclamation, making all the moves he needed to behind the scenes before it happened. Made it look like consensus. This tells me he is perceiving enemies and feels like he hast to make a public showing. I saw some think pieces with headlines about whether we should take the Chinese challenge less seriously now that they seem to be weakened. I don’t think so. They still have immense economic resources and will be a challenge, even if they have a setback. I think we do it with alliances and showing the superiority of our open system, presuming we remain open. But they will remain a challenge even if current leadership seems to be faltering
China claims it is running on a new version of democracy. It just doesn't have elections. This is like claiming to go swimming without any water. They claim to consult with common people. In fact, they say they really want to hear from common people. One problem: this was tried once in the past, and it didn't end well for the common people. Chairman Mao encouraged people to air their grievances in 1956. Then he arrested, expelled, or murdered many of these same people in 1957. The Chinese version of democracy sounds dangerous. I'm guessing that there are a few details that are left out of Chinese history books. China says it's running on a new version of democracy that doesn't rely on elections. Experts say it's just another mind game.
More details on Beijing's "Bridge Man" protester: China congress: How one man on a bridge marred Xi Jinping's big moment
Bridge Man gives way to toilet protests. Toilets are the least likely place for the government to monitor with cameras (at least, it was until now), and protesters who are shut out of on-line platforms are resorting to writing protests in bathrooms across China, and on bulletin boards in universities worldwide. Anti-Xi protest spreads in China and worldwide as Chinese leader begins third term | CNN
China has finally solved it's baby crisis. Step 1: Government official looks up names and phone numbers of newlyweds. Step 2: Call them three months after the wedding. Ask if they are taking vitamins to help them get pregnant. If not, ask why not. Step 3: Call them six months after the wedding. Ask if they are pregnant. If not, ask why not. Step 4: Stand outside their door, and call them through the door. Ask them if they are trying to get pregnant right at this moment. If not, ask if they need help. Chinese authorities ask: Dear newlywed, when's the baby arriving?
They are missing the passive aggressive comments at family gatherings by grandma on how she’ll die alone and lonely without grandkids. Big mistake.
A review of China's last attempt to invade Taiwan. It did not end well (for China). They attacked Kinmen Island with 9,000 troops, and 3,000 were killed and 5,000 surrendered. Kinmen Island is a very small island that is closer to China than it is to Taiwan, but it is heavily fortified and controlled by Taiwan since 1947. An embarrassing defeat 73 years ago is a preview of the problems China would face in an attack on Taiwan today
Foxconn employees are now climbing the fences to escape their largest manufacturing site (200k people) during Covid lockdown, when food started running short. Workers are fleeing from Foxconn, China's biggest iPhone factory, by climbing over fences and walking down highways on foot amid COVID fears, photos and videos show
This article alleges that Xi has sacrificed China's future in exchange for absolute power, by enforcing draconian and unnecessary Covid restrictions on the entire population. It is likely that the reason for the extreme Covid measures is to consolidate power, not to protect public health. How Xi sacrificed China’s future in pursuit of total power
But U.S. Coast Guard cutter inspects a few hundred Chinese fishing vessels off of Ecuador, and three vessels run away while one tries to ram the cutter (unsuccessfully). The Chinese gov't immediately responded by demanding that the U.S. stop inspection their fishing vessels. China fishing fleet defied U.S. in standoff on the high seas
One of the vessels that ran from the cutter was a refrigerated transport-only ship (no fishing capability), which is illegal to use to transport fishing catches in. I personally would like to see the U.S. force that ship into port in Ecuador and offload it as payment to Ecuador for fishing illegally in their waters. Then maybe decommission the ship and sink it to use it as an artificial reef.
Chairman Xi has installed a "war cabinet", replacing people in key economic posts with people that have a military background. The writer of this article believes that an invasion may occur within two years, which is before the U.S. will have very much computer chip manufacturing capacity. China could be gearing up to invade Taiwan now that President Xi has installed a 'war cabinet', veteran investor Kyle Bass warns
I wonder if China is in a hurry to get their war underway before Ukraine defeats Russia. That way, the U.S. could not transfer weapons systems (artillery, etc.) from Ukraine to Taiwan.
Ukraine is this () close to defeating Russia. All that is required is one final push. The final push would be US and NATO sensing a minimum million troops and China and all other Russian allies staying out of it.
Adam Tooze on the degree of German economic entanglement with China, leading to paragraphs like this Ola Kallenius, CEO of Mercedes Benz, meanwhile, has suggested the west’s hands will be tied if Beijing were to try to seize Taiwan. “If one thinks that the Chinese economy could be unbundled from the European or the American, it is a total illusion,” he said in an interview with Die Welt in September. “It would have dramatic consequences for the world economy that would in no way be comparable to those of the Ukraine war.” BMW CEO Oliver Zipse October 19 even went so far as to defend China’s market policies and compare them favorably to how President Joe Biden is changing the playing field in the U.S. The 50-50 joint ventures that Beijing required foreign carmakers to set up in China were “fair for everyone,” Zipse said in an interview near BMW's plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina. He warned that the Biden administration’s climate law designed to wean the US off battery materials sourced from China could provoke retaliatory steps and set off a “dangerous” game of trade barriers. Chartbook #168: Germany's economic entanglement with China
Chairman Xi urges "global tech cooperation". Translation: give China access to and/or control over your technology, and they will figure out how to defeat you with it. Xi Jinping urges global tech cooperation as IBM, Intel, Cisco CEOs attend China's internet conference Seriously? One of the most closed countries in the world, with 2 million censors monitoring Chinese citizens on the internet and deciding what they can and can't see or say, wants an "open" cyberspace? Let China set the rules for internet usage in your country. They will establish "reasonable order" and tell you what to think and what not to think. What could go wrong?
I don't think you would have to totally disengage with the Chinese economy. The West would mostly want to focus on high-tech businesses. China could still make our toys and sneakers, but not aircraft parts or computer chips. Pulling car-manufacturing out of China would be difficult, of course. The Chinese are not as dull as the Russians, and could probably figure out how to continue making cars from the abandoned factories (with new Chinese emblems on them, of course). And our iPhones would cost more once we started making them in the U.S. (and the Chinese would continue to make them and smuggle them into the U.S.). We should also stop training college students from China in STEM fields, especially engineering. The main issue is raw materials. China still controls about 90% of the world's rare earth metal production. So even if we wanted to pursue electric cars and solar panels and wind turbines, we would be severely limited without Chinese cooperation. The situation would improve if countries like Australia took back their mining operations from the Chinese (and there are also opportunities in South America for mining), but the balance would still heavily favor China. Unfortunately, Bill Clinton gave away the farm on that a long time ago. Zipse would change his tune on how fair China's policies are with regard to trade if he ever decided to take his manufacturing plants out of China. He may not know he's on a one-way street until he turns around and tries to go in the other direction.
The final push would be Russia running out of WWII weapons and having to take WWI weapons out of museums and try to figure out how to make them work. The U.S. and NATO will not have to send anyone. Russia is doing just fine with its "strategic retreat to victory" plan as well as its "nostalgia for war relics" plan. The two plans are very complementary. As far as Russian allies "staying out of it", that is pretty much a certainty at this point. China is just not stupid enough to get involved with Russia's problems (plus, I'm sure they do not want Ukraine's exotic metals production to be in the hands of a large, militarized country). The armies of Russia's other allies are not as good as Russia's, and they do not want to get their troops slaughtered with western weapons for an "ally" that is slipping into irrelevance. If anything, Russia needs to save some troops and ammo to protect Moscow from their "allies". If Russia is weakened too much, then one of their allies may decide to invade Russia and sack Moscow. At that point, nuclear weapons are the only option Russia would have, and no one knows if they would even work properly. I am picturing a sign outside Moscow saying "Welcome to Greater Chechnya, Comrades!" If one of the Stans sacks Moscow, then say goodbye to your Russian vodka. My question at this point would be: Has the number of tanks operated by Ukraine increased or decreased since the start of the war? Russia has been so generous in providing tanks to Ukraine that it is hard to be sure.
