Miscellaneous News

[ACuriousPLAFan]

According to the Guanqi team, they believe post Macron's visit China and France is now actively discussing PLAN basing in one of their pacific overseas territories. They also said we should expect France to do something to appease the US on the surface and we should ignore it because they've already flew it by China.

Sure enough shortly after Macron went back a French frigate transited Taiwan Strait, evidentially France had China's permission as the ship kept to China's side of the strait and both countries kept the incident very low profile.

If you could only pick one, where in the above map's read circles would you put the PLAN base?

That sounds overtly optimistic, to-be-honest. Unless Macron and his successors are hell-bent pissing off Washington DC and Brussels, I doubt the viability of this happening.

However, European and pan-Atlantic politics aside, PLAN basing warships in the South Pacific (regardless of whether the basing is located in French Pacific Territories, Solomon Islands or elsewhere) is definitely a great boon for Chinese interests in the Pacific.

Oceanic island nations spread across central and southern Pacific are gradually become dueling grounds for influence and support between Washington DC and Beijing. If China is to play a much bigger role in the geopolitics of Oceania and offer those island nations an alternative (which has long been dominated by the US, Australia and New Zealand), then a firm Chinese footprint in the region is definitely preferred.

There is also the factor of intensifying engagement and cooperation between China and Latin America, signified by Brazilian President Lula's recent visit to China. Soon, shipping lanes between China and Latin America laid across the Pacific would become busier than ever. Eventually, this necessitates adequate protection of these shipping lanes against potential harassments and interceptions by the US-led military and/or US-funded maritime PMCs in the future. Hence a solid Chinese military presence in the region will become an eventual necessity.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. We will see in due time if thats true.

As for a hypothetical ideal base for China, I think somewhere here:
View attachment 111307

Those aren't in the Pacific. Besides, the PLA (more specifically, PLAN) already has a resupply base in Djibouti.

They could easily expand the base from merely resupplying PLAN warships conducting anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden into a fully-fledged joint-service military base with runways and hangars for the PLAAF and more proper naval facilities for the PLAN that would permit sustained military operations in the region.

 

[Biscuits]

LMAO

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1649033239934439426

There are reports that Chinese illegal immigrants attempting to enter the US through the southern boarder has increased remarkably this year. Well, if you increase hostility greatly toward China, some dumb Chinese would think that they will have a better chance to get asylum in the US. As a result, more of them would be willing to pay the human smuggling gangs to have themselves smuggled through South America and Mexico. These are not really poor people in China. However, they have no idea what is waiting for them in the US.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1649110995711787008

Fake news, would not surprise me if those were vaguely ethnic Asian looking prisoners/actors paraded around to create those images.

Do Americans even know what the average Chinese opinion of latin America is like? There is no one except triads who would willingly associate with the gangs there, and only to turn a profit, not to enter US which is very easy for Chinese to do by flight or boat. Despite tensions, US still has more or less open borders, because they let the corrupt from China into their country willingly.

 

[luminary]

BTW Twitter removed discriminatory tags on Chinese, Russian and Iranian media workers.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1649245968582459393

When do we get an Elon react stickie?

Despite outcry,

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• Republicans claim that the project is a front for a CCP plot. “Ground Zero; The Communist Take-Over In Michigan.”
• Senators reference everything from the Chinese “spy balloon” to a COVID-19 “coverup” by the CCP, fentanyl production for Mexican cartels and Taiwan military training in Michigan.
• Local officials say they have denied accusations that the company would spread Communism, bring in thousands of Chinese workers and hide ballistic missiles in its factory.
• “Despite what any current politicians might say, there is no communist plot within Gotion.” said the company’s vice president.

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urge US to calm rhetoric about ‘unsafe’ chip reliance in event of a Chinese invasion​

• Taiwanese officials have urged American counterparts through backchannels to tone down their rhetoric about the dangers of relying on TSMC chips
• “The window’s closing,” Republican McCaul said about a US push to move the chips supply chain out of Taiwan. “We don’t have a whole lot of time.”
• Warren Buffett has already pulled out $3.5 billion from TSMC over concerns
• The Kuomintang has accused Tsai of allowing the US to hollow out its economy

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to make surprise appearance in drill near disputed China-India border​

• Washington sends B-1B Lancers to push New Delhi to adopt aggressive stance towards China.
• A pair of supersonic heavy bombers will make a surprise appearance at Exercise Cope India from April 13 to 24.
• The bombers, which were seen parked in Bangalore in southern India, will join the drill being held less than 700km (435 miles) from the Chinese border.

 

[Temstar]

When do we get an Elon react stickie?

Despite outcry,

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• Republicans claim that the project is a front for a CCP plot. “Ground Zero; The Communist Take-Over In Michigan.”
• Senators reference everything from the Chinese “spy balloon” to a COVID-19 “coverup” by the CCP, fentanyl production for Mexican cartels and Taiwan military training in Michigan.
• Local officials say they have denied accusations that the company would spread Communism, bring in thousands of Chinese workers and hide ballistic missiles in its factory.
• “Despite what any current politicians might say, there is no communist plot within Gotion.” said the company’s vice president.

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urge US to calm rhetoric about ‘unsafe’ chip reliance in event of a Chinese invasion​

• Taiwanese officials have urged American counterparts through backchannels to tone down their rhetoric about the dangers of relying on TSMC chips
• “The window’s closing,” Republican McCaul said about a US push to move the chips supply chain out of Taiwan. “We don’t have a whole lot of time.”
• Warren Buffett has already pulled out $3.5 billion from TSMC over concerns
• The Kuomintang has accused Tsai of allowing the US to hollow out its economy

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to make surprise appearance in drill near disputed China-India border​

• Washington sends B-1B Lancers to push New Delhi to adopt aggressive stance towards China.
• A pair of supersonic heavy bombers will make a surprise appearance at Exercise Cope India from April 13 to 24.
• The bombers, which were seen parked in Bangalore in southern India, will join the drill being held less than 700km (435 miles) from the Chinese border.

Oof, that battery plant deal is quite important, coupled with Biden's Inflation Reduction Act it would make their allies think twice about joining any sanctions on China since US itself is making deals like this while telling others not to.

Domestically people are pretty fired up too:

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[baykalov]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1649182459337011204

 

[luminary]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1649283205705465856

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has rejected the controversial

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bill that imposes the death penalty for homosexuality, requesting that it be returned to parliament to make it even stronger.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1649230549460959234

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1648662293264179200

 

[plawolf]

The issue is Israel has nuclear weapon. If Israel can continue its policies of eradicating Palestinians and building more settlements in the West Bank. A few decades from now, there would be only a few Palestinian enclaves left within Israel territory. After that, any country in the Middle East dares invading Israel would meet with nuclear weapon.

Time is ticking. Either Arabs stop Israel from taking most of West Bank now or it is too late. I just think it is already too late as Israel's plan of more settlements is already in fast motion.

Israeli nuclear weapons are actually incredibly fragile and almost unusable in the face of any nuclear counter threat due to the tiny size of Israel.

Iran and Saudi Arabia can take 10 nuke hits and still survive as a nation and people afterwards. 10 nukes would basically wipe Israel completely off the map and what little is left has zero chance of survival as a viable state afterwards.

The small size of Israel and its lack of SSBNs also make a surprise nuclear alpha strike by an enemy very appealing as it will have a high probability of completely wiping out Israeli second strike capabilities or at least limiting any second strike to acceptable levels.

This is why Israel is so hell bent on preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Once anyone else obtains nukes, Israel’s nuclear arsenal becomes effectively unusable as to use it would mean the end of Israel, forever. A conventional military defeat, even a total one, is not going to result in the total eradication of Israel as a nation and the Jews as a people. No matter what the scare mongers might say.

The problem is that even without an Iranian nuclear breakout, it might already be too late for Israel since if the rumours are true, Saudi Arabia is already a de facto nuclear power due to their secret agreements with Pakistan. The recent SA-Iran détente is actually incredibly bad news for Israel since guess who those SA nukes are now pointed towards?

Despite its tenacity and vibrancy, from a purely objective point of view, Israel is a really terrible bet as your main partner in the ME. It is a tiny country almost universally hated by its neighbours, without the size or scale for true self sufficiency, and it has done little since it’s creation to try to better its relations with its neighbours to truly integrate itself into the region and instead has depended almost exclusively on the use and threat of military force to keep its neighbours divided and beaten down.

With its current policies, the only way to keep Israel safe is to keep the rest of the ME burning, and beaten down, and that’s basically what the Americans have had to do all these decades.

There is no way in hell China is going to carry that water of Israel. Hence why there is really no choice between the US and China for Israel to choose from when battle lines are being drawn. To think otherwise is to delude oneself. Morality and sentiment doesn’t matter in international relations, the only thing that truly matters are interests, and Israel’s interests will always mean it sides with the US.

 

[xlitter]

It is not white worship. It is a trade show.

In a trade show, there are some freebies, but there is not enough freebies for everybody sometimes.

The booth has to practice some judgement. You do not give free stuff to a nobody.

So who is to blame for this fiasco?

I would blame BMW and whoever had that idea of giving out free ice cream.

I mean, it is a car show. Those car shows tend to draw out everybody including a lot of low life.

They thought no low life would show up to a car show and cause trouble?

It's kind of funny that way.

Who knew Chinese so woke over free food.

The people at the auto show that day were all members of the media, that is, everyone had a camera

 

[Overbom]

Biggest revelation of the decade. I am literally shaking by this news. I thought the PLA was a peaceful, lets hug each other, type of organisation. My whole worldview is crumbling right now.

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China building cyber weapons to hijack enemy satellites, says US leak​

Classified CIA document assesses Beijing’s ambitions to take control of communications critical to fighting wars

China is building sophisticated cyber weapons to “seize control” of enemy satellites, rendering them useless for data signals or surveillance during wartime, according to a leaked US intelligence report.

The US assesses that China’s push to develop capabilities to “deny, exploit or hijack” enemy satellites is a core part of its goal to control information, which Beijing considers to be a key “war-fighting domain”.

The CIA-marked document, which was issued this year and has not been previously reported, was one of dozens allegedly shared by a 21-year-old US Air Guardsman in the most significant American intelligence disclosures in more than a decade.

 

[Overbom]

Chad. No more state media label