Miscellaneous News

Mr T

Senior Member
Yes it is... and the non-interference is about the political situation within... since the interests or terms of engagement, by this I mean government to government interaction not in terms of war, changes it becomes a matter of foreign policy and is no longer or can no longer be considered purely an internal matter...
So if the military junta had simultaneously announced it would tear up all agreements with China, Beijing would go "oh well"? Ok, but I doubt that would happen. I'm sure the CCP would demand the military stick by those agreements else it would cut off trade. It's not just about foreign policy.

the problem I have with sanctions in general in a western context is that it is not designed to help anyone especially the people in the country that is being sanctioned...

You mean like sanctions against North Korea? China signed up to those.

Of course I am not completely indifferent, generally I myself would not want to live under a military government but that is for me as a Chinese concerning China... not a foreign nation that I have no right to determine their fate...

Whilst a lot of people on this forum identify as being Chinese, my understanding is that few actually live in China. I'm not going to put you on the spot to identify where you live, but I find it odd that it seems to be an almost universal position advanced here that forum members would only comment on the affairs of the PRC. Surely people in North America, South East Asia and Europe would primarily comment on the affairs of the countries they actually live in and probably hold nationality of?

In that scenario, as far as I can see commenting on "internal Chinese affairs" is largely done out of empathy, albeit through family or historical ties. I'm not sure that's a lot different from commenting on events happening in other countries where human beings are/may be suffering. I don't think you need a direct link to another person to want for them to be helped in a time of need.

Going back to the main topic, it's up to China what it does in response to the coup. But that doesn't mean it would be wrong to oppose it and insist the civilian government be freed from detention.
 

Skywatcher

Captain
There's nothing China can do about the coup (at an acceptable cost anyways).

Beijing isn't going to send in the 15th Airborne Corps, and the Tatmadaw probably won't do anything to upset core Chinese interests.
 

Mt1701d

Junior Member
Registered Member
So if the military junta had simultaneously announced it would tear up all agreements with China, Beijing would go "oh well"? Ok, but I doubt that would happen. I'm sure the CCP would demand the military stick by those agreements else it would cut off trade. It's not just about foreign policy.
I am not sure which part you are not understanding... should junta after taking power suddenly go, all prior agreements are null and void then of course China will act and has every right to, especially if there are physical assets involved... because they would have changed the interaction without the agreement of the other side, in this example China. Again that is one-sidedly disregarding actual interests without any mutual agreement and is therefore not an internal matter but a matter involving a foreign entity, call it foreign policy or whatever, they are effectively taking actions against a foreign entity, which inherently make the situation go beyond internal matters, however if the Junta took power but kept all agreement in place or attempted to re-negotiate that’s a different matter altogether...
You mean like sanctions against North Korea? China signed up to those.
The issues North Korea raised goes far beyond internal matters, and is not even comparable to the current situation with Myanmar in the slightest and the sanctions China imposed wasn’t under the guise of human rights at least as far as I understand. The issue of North Korea was a possible destabilisation of the entire region, China is included in the region, furthermore the target of North Korea was South Korea and Japan, to a lesser extent, which in turn would have drawn the US into any possible conflict and also drag China into it... further the sanctions against North Korea, after talks with the US, was the very opportunity you were talking about at the beginning and what exactly happened after China supposedly demonstrated their key power role model behaviour and sided with the US... the US decided start a trade war, they decided they wanted to crush ZTE and Huawei and they wanted to force an unfair treaty, hell China even accept some of the terms...
Whilst a lot of people on this forum identify as being Chinese, my understanding is that few actually live in China. I'm not going to put you on the spot to identify where you live, but I find it odd that it seems to be an almost universal position advanced here that forum members would only comment on the affairs of the PRC. Surely people in North America, South East Asia and Europe would primarily comment on the affairs of the countries they actually live in and probably hold nationality of?

In that scenario, as far as I can see commenting on "internal Chinese affairs" is largely done out of empathy, albeit through family or historical ties. I'm not sure that's a lot different from commenting on events happening in other countries where human beings are/may be suffering. I don't think you need a direct link to another person to want for them to be helped in a time of need.

Going back to the main topic, it's up to China what it does in response to the coup. But that doesn't mean it would be wrong to oppose it and insist the civilian government be freed from detention.
I don’t really understand your point... we are discussing the actions that should be taken by China specifically... we can neither influence the actions or stance of China, but merely discuss it and express our opinions...

We can talk about the situation in Myanmar too, which I think is quite horrible but again that doesn’t mean we have the right or China has the right to intervene should it remain a completely internal issue and The Junta act according to agreement externally, especially not in the way the west does by arbitrarily imposing sanctions, possibly creating and supporting rebels and insurrections, it may not have happened in Myanmar yet but we have more than enough examples around the world...

Simply consider it this way, Australia committed war crimes with video evidence, it was an inhumane act against a surrendering non-combatant on foreign soil... by all accounts, should something like this happen with any other non-western+allies countries, the country involved would have been sanctioned to high heavens... yet what happened to Australia, someone got sacked and the whistleblower faces the possibility of 50 years in jail... they say the responsibility is on the individual, but the same doesn’t apply if it’s not a western+allies country apparently... and you are saying that these hypocrites have any right to judge others.

This is the thing that I think you don’t get, please correct me if I am wrong... you look at this situation and think, damn this is a terrible situation something must be done, the international community must do something... well I sympathise but frankly no one has the right to, apart from the people of Myanmar themselves or at least until such point the internal conflict spill over to the international stage but not before...
 

manqiangrexue

Brigadier
Iiiiiiinteresting...

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British troops in Mali are being commanded by a Chinese officer it emerges, as first patrol on UN mission is completed​

Dominic Nicholls
Sun, January 31, 2021

British troops are being commanded by a Chinese officer for the first time, it has emerged.

The 300 British troops
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will work under a Chinese sector commander as part of the United Nations (UN) force.

Lieutenant Colonel Tom Robinson, Commanding Officer of the Light Dragoons, said the Chinese military had provided a hospital to the UN mission and were responsible for protecting the camp which houses the British troops.

“I work for a Chinese Brigadier who is sector commander,” Lt Col Robinson said.

“He’s a professional guy who I very much enjoy working with.”
 

solarz

Brigadier
Iiiiiiinteresting...

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British troops in Mali are being commanded by a Chinese officer it emerges, as first patrol on UN mission is completed​

Dominic Nicholls
Sun, January 31, 2021

British troops are being commanded by a Chinese officer for the first time, it has emerged.

The 300 British troops
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
will work under a Chinese sector commander as part of the United Nations (UN) force.

Lieutenant Colonel Tom Robinson, Commanding Officer of the Light Dragoons, said the Chinese military had provided a hospital to the UN mission and were responsible for protecting the camp which houses the British troops.

“I work for a Chinese Brigadier who is sector commander,” Lt Col Robinson said.

“He’s a professional guy who I very much enjoy working with.”

Chinese UN missions are almost never reported in Western media. Looks like China's footprint in these kinds of missions are growing ever greater.
 

Mt1701d

Junior Member
Registered Member
Iiiiiiinteresting...

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

British troops in Mali are being commanded by a Chinese officer it emerges, as first patrol on UN mission is completed​

Dominic Nicholls
Sun, January 31, 2021

British troops are being commanded by a Chinese officer for the first time, it has emerged.

The 300 British troops
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
will work under a Chinese sector commander as part of the United Nations (UN) force.

Lieutenant Colonel Tom Robinson, Commanding Officer of the Light Dragoons, said the Chinese military had provided a hospital to the UN mission and were responsible for protecting the camp which houses the British troops.

“I work for a Chinese Brigadier who is sector commander,” Lt Col Robinson said.

“He’s a professional guy who I very much enjoy working with.”

Chinese UN missions are almost never reported in Western media. Looks like China's footprint in these kinds of missions are growing ever greater.
I am actually impressed they didn’t try to talk smack about the Chinese UN peacekeepers and mention the alleged incident from 2016 and from The Telegraph no less
 

Mr T

Senior Member
This is the thing that I think you don’t get, please correct me if I am wrong... you look at this situation and think, damn this is a terrible situation something must be done, the international community must do something... well I sympathise but frankly no one has the right to, apart from the people of Myanmar themselves or at least until such point the internal conflict spill over to the international stage but not before...
I think the point is that if you only act when it spills into the international arena it's too late. For example, let's take a fictional state called Country A. The military of Country A stages a coup and replaces the civilian government. The international community does not take any action, and the military assumes it will be business as normal, so they do not negotiate or back down. Unfortunately things do not go well for the military, and after the bloody suppression of protests there is a civil war. Two things happen. First, before foreign nationals can be evacuated, some are killed and others taken hostage. Second, criminal gangs start operating over the border with neighbouring countries, which leads to civilians in those countries being killed.

Now if we replace Country A with Myanmar, and it's Chinese citizens who get killed through no fault of their own, what then? Yes, Beijing could seek justice, but it wouldn't bring the dead back to life.

I am not saying that scenario will happen, but waiting until domestic matters become international can be a really bad idea.
 

Mt1701d

Junior Member
Registered Member
I think the point is that if you only act when it spills into the international arena it's too late. For example, let's take a fictional state called Country A. The military of Country A stages a coup and replaces the civilian government. The international community does not take any action, and the military assumes it will be business as normal, so they do not negotiate or back down. Unfortunately things do not go well for the military, and after the bloody suppression of protests there is a civil war. Two things happen. First, before foreign nationals can be evacuated, some are killed and others taken hostage. Second, criminal gangs start operating over the border with neighbouring countries, which leads to civilians in those countries being killed.

Now if we replace Country A with Myanmar, and it's Chinese citizens who get killed through no fault of their own, what then? Yes, Beijing could seek justice, but it wouldn't bring the dead back to life.

I am not saying that scenario will happen, but waiting until domestic matters become international can be a really bad idea.
I understand and admitted it is a potential issue but my question is what are sanctions and threats from the international community going to do in your scenario? Let us examine the case...

1, If a military is going to attempt a coup most likely the country/region is not the most stable to begin with, I realise that it may not always be the case, but that would be the most likely scenario... the people going to these regions either have some protection or already know of the potential damages.

2, Even in the case of a policy of non-interference that doesn’t mean the potential country B doesn’t do anything to ensure the safety of their citizens, after all that would constitute country B’s interests.

3, in your first hypothetical situation... the potential for endangering foreign citizens is massively inflated. As country A’s coup takes place, country B give some lip services and then applies sanctions meaning all of country B’s citizens, who either cannot be evacuated in time or cannot get to the relative safety of an embassy/consulate are now potential hostages to force country B hand, they are in more danger due to the actions of Country B...

4, your second hypothetical situation... it would be the responsibility of neighbouring countries to protect their own boarder in the first place and should any Country B be concerned then they should either send troop to bolster the boarder to crack on the criminal gangs or if they are concerned send troop to the other neighbours, with the neighbours approval of course, to help bolster their boarders or do both... I realise I am being very idealistic on this but the only other real option is to go in with military force every single time something like this happens and it will happen regardless of how many time outside military interferes in prior incidents...

I am not suggesting that the international community simply leave it be... ensuring the respective countries citizens’ safety must be prioritise and reminders and negotiations should be done to that end... but not interfere in the coup itself, if it does not threaten the region, by sanctions or otherwise, which may in turn further endangers foreign citizens... by immediately going to the sanctions route you are creating a scenario by which there is less to lose for both the military attempting the coup and the citizens resisting it making the possibility of an international incident even more likely... and I am not saying that if Sh*t hits the fan the international community ignore it, that would be irresponsible for all parties concerned but going down the sanction route immediately as step one does nothing but inflame the already unstable situation further...

Look, the problem I see is this, by sanctioning or threatening sanctions right off the bat you are making what is essentially a local issue into an international one straight away, the potential civil war option is immediately front and centre because the rebels / other stakeholders / other interested parties, who want to cause trouble and blow the situation up will see these lip service and sanctions as international support that will most likely never materialise as the western countries are simply doing it to pat themselves on the back, soothe their holier than thou self-righteousness and never really intending to do anything concrete in the first place.

Ps. we have taken up pages with our walls of text, well me mostly, sorry I am long winded... so let continue this on another thread if you want to discuss further.
 
Last edited:

Hadoren

Junior Member
Registered Member
I think the point is that if you only act when it spills into the international arena it's too late. For example, let's take a fictional state called Country A. The military of Country A stages a coup and replaces the civilian government. The international community does not take any action, and the military assumes it will be business as normal, so they do not negotiate or back down. Unfortunately things do not go well for the military, and after the bloody suppression of protests there is a civil war. Two things happen. First, before foreign nationals can be evacuated, some are killed and others taken hostage. Second, criminal gangs start operating over the border with neighbouring countries, which leads to civilians in those countries being killed.

Now if we replace Country A with Myanmar, and it's Chinese citizens who get killed through no fault of their own, what then? Yes, Beijing could seek justice, but it wouldn't bring the dead back to life.

I am not saying that scenario will happen, but waiting until domestic matters become international can be a really bad idea.
And would sanctions stop this hypothetical scenario from occurring? I'm quite skeptical.
 
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