How China's Military Views the United States

China almost scored a Chinook helicopter, along with a defector from Taiwan. The defector, a Lt. Col. Hsieh, was arrested before he could fly the Chinook to a waiting Chinese ship in the Taiwan Strait. The defector was hoping to pocket $15 million for his efforts. Hsieh, right.

Taiwanese Pilot Planned CH-47 Defection To China: Reports

 

The problem is that nearly half of the people in Taiwan are descended from people who immigrated from China with Chang-Kai Shek, and many of those people feel a family root connection to China. Faced with an unbelievably large military, one survival instinct can kick in: if you can't beat them, join them. Especially when there are millions of dollars in incentives. The Taiwanese who are descended from much earlier immigrations, known as native Taiwanese, have no such connection to China within their memories. They would be fierce fighters, I would think, and would not care how big China's army might be.

 

I suspect that went away once China became a major threat. Also, the opposition party won the majority and the presidency a little over 20 years ago. The Kuomingtang was Chang-kai Shek's party and they were in power from 1947 to the election in 2000. The military is no longer used as a tool of repression.

 

More on China's aging population. Young couples still do not want to have children. The cost to raise a first child is apparently higher in China ($76.6k) than it is in the U.S., as surprising as that may sound. Instead of children, many Chinese have been adopting pets. Young Chinese are referred to as the Last Generation. In big cities like Shanghai and Beijing, the cost can be closer to $150k. They must be doing the U.S. side of the study differently than the people who claim that it takes $240k to raise a child through high school.

China’s young people still don’t want to have kids

 

U.S. had a bumper crop for wheat, and prices were at a multi-year low, so China scooped up 60 million bushels. China's wheat farms had a poor season due to rains during harvest time. Wheat typically has been selling for $7-9/bushel the last couple years, so the purchase was probably for $420 million.

A Month After Xi Jinping Meets With Iowan Farmers, China's Outsized Impact On US Commodity Markets Is Made Clear With Historic Buying Spree

 

More on how China is handling its provincial debt problem. China is transferring $137 billion in loans to provincial governments to help them out. They are also taking action to prevent local governments from borrowing funds from elsewhere to create a debt overload. One potential result of this could be to persuade local officials to "lie flat", or do nothing.

It is a bit surprising to me, as $137 billion is less than 1.5% of $9.3 trillion. It is hard to imagine this having much impact, other than to get them through the next month or so.

China’s Power Shift Risks Wave of Local Officials ‘Lying Flat’

 

Chairman Xi apparently told Joe Biden in San Francisco that China intends to "take control of" Taiwan.

Xi straight-up told Biden that China is going to take over Taiwan, report says. It could end in war.

 

The U.S. could easily scare the hell out of any small country it wanted to. One of our 11 aircraft carriers has more than enough firepower to destroy most of the Houthi's fighting capability as well as a significant percentage of Yemen's population. We have chosen not to use the offensive capabilities at this time. We have tried to prevent Yemen from getting weapons from Iran, just like Israel has tried to prevent Hamas from getting weapons from Iran. The real answer is to get rid of the administration that is providing the weapons: Iran's government. But Biden does not want to do that for obvious reasons. We don't want to be responsible for all the collateral damage that would occur. So we let our ships defend themselves (and the ships) from the missiles while we gather information. Once we find out where the weapons are stored, and how they are smuggled into Yemen, we might see a different posture.

China certainly has plenty to fear from the U.S. Navy. It is the main reason that China has not invaded Taiwan already. They know they don't have an answer for the F-35's and attack subs that would sink their entire navy in a matter of days. Their bases would also be wide open to attack from the air. And there is a very small chance they could locate a carrier group to aim missiles at it. The carriers would likely stay out of reach. It would be a repeat of the Iraq invasion: bombers coming in with near impunity, and highly accurate weapons striking targets.

 

China is back to spying on the U.S., this time from a spacecraft in orbit. The spacecraft has released six objects that are emitting signals. The signals get stronger when the objects are over the U.S.

Chinese Spacecraft Emitting Strong Signal Over North America

 

Chairman Xi insists that China's diplomats return to talking tough and being confrontational, like they did before Covid. Looks like playing nice with the west is not an option. Better to threaten and bully your customers. This is called "Return of the Wolf Warriors". Tell your lies loudly and proudly, and make your demands.

Xi urges Chinese envoys to create 'diplomatic iron army'

 

Chairman Xi decides to have a major purge of his generals. This has apparently weakened the Chinese army and slowed China's drive to modernize the military. The purges may be related to corruption, or they may be political in nature.

Sweeping Chinese military purge exposes weakness, could widen