Tag: China

Throw ‘Em in Dat Briar Patch

President Trump – presumably the short fake one – threatens the BRICS countries with an additional 10 percent tariff:

US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose an additional 10% tariff on any country which “aligns itself” with BRICS, accusing the economic bloc of adopting “anti-American policies.”

The warning came just hours after BRICS leaders concluded their annual summit in Rio de Janeiro. In its joint declaration, the bloc criticized unilateral tariff actions and condemned what it described as “indiscriminate” trade measures, without mentioning the US directly.

“Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Sunday.

There is just one problem with this tactic. The whole point of BRICS is to break free of the Clown World financial system. So increasing the cost of doing business with the United States, which requires submitting to that financial system, only further increases the incentives for the BRICS countries to not do business with the USA, but with each other instead.

And BRICS is already economically outperforming both the USA and the other G7 nations. We can expect it to continue doing so, especially as the USA wastes its resources in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and the South China Sea.

DISCUSS ON SG

You Just Thought of That NOW?

Remember when the jokers at NATO were telling everyone that Russia would be out of ammunition in two weeks and that it had no allies, so everyone should support the Kiev regime? Now they’re trying to scare everyone with a threat that was always obvious to more serious military analysts.

NATO chief Mark Rutte has chillingly warned that World War III will start with simultaneous invasions from Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin.

Secretary-general Rutte suggested the combined attacks from the Chinese and Russian leaders could trigger a World War nightmare and bring the planet to the brink of Armageddon.

According to the NATO chief, China would start by seeking to grab Taiwan – while ensuring the Kremlin dictator simultaneously attacks NATO territory, amid fears Putin is anyway eyeing the Baltic republics Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, formerly part of the USSR.

Now, suddenly, they’re aware that Russia has allies, that Russia and its allies significantly outnumber the US-EU-Israel alliance in terms of population, military power, and industrial capacity, and that the USA cannot possibly defeat either Russia or China, let alone both at once.

The fascinating thing is that their solution to the danger to which they are so newly awakened is exactly the same as their original call for everyone to support the Kiev regime.

I wouldn’t bet one single dime on these incompetent Clown World puppets. The smarter move would be to bet on their continuing failure.

Israeli media outlet Haaretz has reported that the U.S. military used 93 ‘THAAD’ interceptor missiles in 11 days to defend Israel, revising earlier estimates by others of $800 million to an actual cost of approximately $1.2 billion. With an annual production rate of roughly 36–48 ‘THAAD’ interceptors, the United States used nearly two years’ worth of interceptors during the war.

DISCUSS ON SG

China Backs Iran

This might explain why the Western media is so eager to prematurely write off Xi Xinping and his influence in China.

President Xi Jinping of China just got on television in Beijing and, among other things, announced “Our strategic interests in the Middle East will no longer be threatened. We will stand with Iran.”

This is a colossal development in geopolitical matters.

China, like every other nation on earth, understands that Israel started this trouble by making a SNEAK ATTACK upon Iran.   Everyone also knows the USA entered the fray with another SNEAK ATTACK against Iranian nuclear sites.  But that conflict did not go the way the Israelis or Americans thought it would.

It is widely understood that the only reason Israel stopped attacking Iran was because they were running out of anti-ballistic-missile defenses and on the final day of fighting, a full 50% of Iranian missiles were getting through, hitting targets inside Israel.

While Israel had more than adequate ability to continue OFFENSIVE action, they were ONE DAY away from having zero DEFENSIVE ability against Iranian ballistic missiles.

So they got US President Trump to work out a ceasefire to which Iran said “If Israel stops attacking us, we will stop attacking them.”  That was the “ceasefire.”

In the days since, it is widely rumored that the conflict __IS__ going to resume, once Israel loads-up on missile defenses.  Iran is aware of this, and is doing everything it can to prepare. Complicating things further, all countries of the world also found out yesterday, the US is ceasing certain weapons shipments to Ukraine because US inventory is “starting to get too low.”   So even the US is now in weapons trouble after wasting countless weapons, ammunition, and supplies, funding the disastrous Ukraine conflict with Russia.

Now, with Israel having basically run-out of air defense missiles, and with the US “too low” in inventory to continue supplying Ukraine, China steps-up and says they will stand with Iran.

Translation: this marks the long-expected shift of US attention from Ukraine to the Middle East and from Russia to Iran. Xi is giving President Trump and the neocons fair warning that the US will not be permitted to proceed in the Middle East with the uninterrupted hand to which it is accustomed.

UPDATE: 40 J-10 Chinese fighter jets arrived in Iran today, and 20 more are on the way.

DISCUSS ON SG

Who Comes After Xi

Xi Xinping has been the architect of China’s advance onto the world stage while simultaneously breaking free of Clown World’s subversion, but it appears that Clown World hasn’t given up on taking control of China yet.

CCP politics is getting wild… So for months rumors and whispers have swirled that Xi Jinping has lost control of the party to Zhang Youxia and the party elders. Xi Jinping supposedly has lost control to Zhang Youxia and the party elders. But this isn’t a simple case of one faction overpowering another. Even within the ranks of the party elders, there are competing priorities for what China’s next phase should look like. Some want to save the regime from collapse. Others want to push for political reforms. Some focus on reviving the economy. And there are those who want absolute control just to survive this life and death struggle.

Youxia has supposedly gambled everything to take down Xi Jinping. For a few weeks, the political center in Beijing appeared deadlocked. Xi Jinping disappeared, and then resisted change. Zhang Youxia, backed by military force, demanded it, and the party elders were caught in the middle trying to maintain a fragile balance. Then, in the last week or so, Xi Jinping suddenly re-emerged in public with greater visibility. He scored a minor win when Beijing announced that he would appear at the September 3rd World War II Victory Day parade. Whether he will inspect the troops or simply give a speech remains unclear.

Meanwhile, Zhang Youxia has been steadily expanding his grip. Miao Hua, one of Xi Jinping’s most trusted generals, was officially removed. Zhang has started moving into the Navy and the Air Force to root out Xi’s remaining loyalists. All the signs and rumors pointing to Xi Jinping’s loss of power reached a new phrase yesterday when Xi Jinping himself made an announcement on behalf of the party. In effect, he confirmed his own decline. After not announcing Politburo meeting minutes in May, the CCP made a single terse announcement at the end of June, saying the meeting was to review “regulations on the work of the Central Party Decision Making and Consolidation Body.

This body basically assumes the very role that Xi Jinping once held in making decisions. Meaning Xi is no longer the highest authority in the CCP. He now has a boss, and that boss is this new decision-making body. This new body isn’t just for advice. It controls the full chain of power from policy formation to execution. In fact, in effect, it is now the de facto highest governing body of the CCP.

Xi has strong support from Putin, but that may not be enough. Remember, the Hu Jintao faction never saw Xi coming, and if these reports are to be considered credible – which may or may not be the case, they may be pure Clown World wishful thinking – then it appears that Xi has not been able to set up a succession plan to continue what have been his generally successful policies.

China’s economic turmoils can hardly be laid at his door, as they are the inevitable result of the credit boom that began long before Xi came to power, and indeed, they are the result of the pro-Western faction within the CCP that is susceptible to the same corrupt blandishments that have bought the interests of politicians around the world from Australia to Zambia.

In any event, the next transitions of power in China and Russia will set the stage for the shape of the coming world order, so it is no surprise that various global factions are interests around the world are actively involved in attempting to influence those processes. And the unexpected ascendances of both Xi and Putin demonstrate that the next leaders may well be men that are not yet on the media’s radar.

DISCUSS ON SG

Shipbuilding is Naval Power

An Analysis of a US-China Naval War

The balance of naval power in the 21st century increasingly hinges on industrial capacity rather than technological superiority alone. Today’s comparison between Chinese and American shipbuilding capabilities reveals a strategic reality reminiscent of the industrial imbalances that defined naval warfare in World War II. China’s shipbuilding capacity is estimated to be 230 times greater than that of the United States, with Chinese shipyards having a manufacturing capacity of roughly 23.25 million tons compared to less than 100,000 tons for U.S. shipyards. This disparity represents one of the most significant shifts in global naval industrial power since the rise of American maritime dominance in the 20th century.

This analysis examines three critical dimensions: the current state of Chinese versus American shipbuilding capacity, the historical lessons from the U.S.-Japan naval competition during World War II, and the potential implications for modern naval warfare scenarios. The findings suggest that while technological advantages and operational expertise remain important, the sheer scale of China’s industrial capacity provides strategic advantages in any prolonged naval conflict, fundamentally altering the calculus of maritime deterrence and warfare.

Part I: Contemporary Shipbuilding Capacity Comparison

China’s Maritime Industrial Revolution

China dominates the global shipbuilding industry, producing over 70% of new orders in 2024, with seven of the world’s top ten shipbuilders being Chinese companies. This transformation represents what analysts describe as the most significant shift in maritime industrial power since the decline of European shipbuilding in the mid-20th century.

As part of its “military-civil fusion” strategy, China is tapping into the dual-use resources of its commercial shipbuilding empire to support its ongoing naval modernization. The China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), the world’s largest shipbuilder, exemplifies this integration. In 2024 alone, one Chinese shipbuilder constructed more commercial vessels by tonnage than the entire U.S. shipbuilding industry has built since the end of World War II.

China’s shipbuilding supremacy extends across multiple vessel categories:

Commercial Dominance: China secured 388 bulk carrier orders in 2024, accounting for 75% of global activity, and captured 74% of the global tanker market with 322 vessel orders. In container vessels, Chinese dominance is even more pronounced, with 259 vessels representing 81% of global activity.

High-Value Markets: Perhaps most significantly for naval implications, China overtook South Korea in the LPG carrier sector, securing 62 LPG carrier orders compared to South Korea’s 59, giving China a 48% market share. This represents a breakthrough into traditionally sophisticated shipbuilding markets previously dominated by South Korean and Japanese yards.

Infrastructure and Scale: China has “dozens” of commercial shipyards larger and more productive than the largest U.S. shipyards. China’s total shipbuilding capacity increased by 12% to 47.8 million deadweight tons in 2024, with most Chinese shipyards fully booked for the next three to four years.

American Shipbuilding Decline

The United States presents a stark contrast to China’s expansion. The United States has a relatively insignificant capacity at 0.13 percent of global shipbuilding output, compared to China’s 46.59 percent. This represents a dramatic fall from American maritime industrial leadership.

Historical Context: America reached the pinnacle of its shipbuilding history during WWII and continued to serve as the world’s leading shipbuilder for decades thereafter. But competition from subsidized foreign shipyards quickly eroded that lead, especially after U.S. shipbuilding subsidies expired in 1981.

Current Infrastructure: The United States currently boasts the same number of private shipyards capable of producing new warships as it did in 1933: just seven. In addition, the Navy’s four public yards are no longer available for new construction like the ten public yards were in 1933.

Production Rates: From 2012 to 2021, the U.S. fleet added an average of 10.1 new ships a year—even fewer than the inadequate 12.7 production rate before World War I. Although the Fiscal Year 2025 budget requested an increase in shipbuilding to $32.4 billion, the U.S. Navy requested only six new ships, instead of the seven ships projected, remaining below the 10 to 11 new ships needed each year over the next 35 years.

Capacity Constraints: Despite nearly doubling its shipbuilding budget over the last 2 decades, the U.S. Navy hasn’t increased its number of ships. The Virginia-class submarine program exemplifies these challenges: in June 2024, the program’s rate of production was at about 60% of its annual goal—putting it years behind schedule, with much of this delay resting on the shipbuilder’s capacity to meet construction deadlines due to workforce shortages.

Strategic Implications of the Capacity Gap

The shipbuilding disparity carries profound implications beyond simple vessel counts. China’s massive shipbuilding industry would provide a strategic advantage in a war that stretches beyond a few weeks, allowing it to repair damaged vessels or construct replacements much faster than the United States, which continues to face a significant maintenance backlog and would probably be unable to quickly construct many new ships or to repair damaged fighting ships in a great power conflict.

This industrial capacity translates into fleet expansion rates that favor China. The U.S. Defense Department estimated China’s naval fleet would grow from 395 ships in 2025 to 435 by the end of the decade, while the U.S. Navy’s fleet was projected to decrease to 285 ships by 2025 and slightly rebound to 290 by 2030.

DISCUSS ON SG

Continue reading “Shipbuilding is Naval Power”

It’s Really Not a Flex

I have no sympathy for Mr. Vylan. None whatsoever. I wouldn’t blame the British people who want their country back for deporting him. but I also wonder if the people of no particular ethnicity who just happen to rush to crush critics of the Israeli Defense Forces like Mr. Vylan for no reason at all ever stop to think through the obvious consequences of their actions and how those actions look to others around the world. There was a time when it was hard to understand the intensity of the Chinese focus on the Great Firewall of China, its decoupling from the West, and the development of a BRICS financial system, but now it’s obvious that the Chinese have been paying attention to the way that the people of the West are being oppressed and have no intention of being subjected to similar restraints.

But at least the so-called Enlightenment ideals that supposedly defined the modern facsimile of the traditional West have been revealed for the satanic deceptions that they always were.

I also wonder how those who are celebrating the deplatforming of IDF critics are going to like it when critics of the People’s Liberation Army and the Russian Armed Forces are subjected to similar treatment.

DISCUSS ON SG

How China is Ending Divorce

The recent memes about the changes to Chinese divorce law are more than a month out of date and a little exaggerated. But the changes show that the Chinese government is serious about winning the 21st century as the West continues to spiral downward into dyscivilization:

China has made significant changes to its divorce laws, aimed at making marriage registration simpler and divorce harder. A new 30-day cooling-off period has been introduced, requiring couples to wait before finalizing their divorce. This period gives couples a chance to reconsider their decision, potentially preventing hasty decisions, but it also raises concerns about women who may feel trapped in abusive or unhappy relationships.

The law overhauls property division, shifting from equal distribution to ownership based on who paid for the property. This means that if one spouse paid for the property, they retain ownership even if the other spouse’s name is on the title. Property gifts from family members to one spouse are also exempt from being shared. Additionally, the law grants equal custody of children to both parents, meaning both parents retain their rights to the children unless there are extenuating circumstances. This aims to reduce custody battles, making the process smoother and ensuring that both parents have a say in raising their children after separation.

The West is going to have to follow suit sooner or later, because the current female-favoring divorce laws are not only destroying far too many existing marriages, but are preventing men from pursuing marriage, or even relationships, in the first place.

Simply refraining from distributing men’s property to women and preventing women from being able to use access to children as a post-marital weapon would significantly remove some of the current disincentives to marriage.

DISCUSS ON SG

NATO Takes Aim at China

Fresh from losing a proxy war to Russia, the brilliant strategists at NATO are now preparing for war with China over Taiwan. Rhetorically, anyhow:

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte issued a warning highlighting that the “massive” military buildup in China raises the risk of a potential invasion of Taiwan, potentially dragging Russia into this and impacting European security.

“We have this close relationship with Japan and the Republic of Korea, Australia and New Zealand, exactly for the reason that these countries are very, very worried about the massive military buildup in China that at the moment is taking place,” Mark Rutte said ahead of the Nato summit in The Hague, the Independent reported.

Rutte speculated that if China attempt to attack or invade Taiwan, then there is a possibility that Beijing would draw in Vladimir Putin, who would create trouble in Europe to divert the attention and resources of NATO. ‘We are all very worried, of course, about the situation in Taiwan. And we also know there is a risk that if the Chinese will try anything with Taiwan, that no doubt he will call his junior partner, Mr Putin, and make sure … he will keep us busy here, if that would happen’, he added.

He also noted in his pre-summit address that the rapid expansion of military capabilities of China was evident from the global rise of its defence firms. “We know that out of the 10 biggest defence companies, only a couple of years ago, you would not find any Chinese companies. At this moment, you will find three to five Chinese defence companies in the top 10 of the biggest defence companies in the world. This shows you that this massive buildup is taking place and is having a huge impact, also when it comes to the defence industrial production of China,” he also said.

Neither NATO nor the USA can fight China. We’ve already seen that the collective might of NATO can’t do anything more than slow Russia down, and the combined alliance of Israel and the USA was able to settle for an inconclusive draw with Iran.

China has more people, a larger military, and far more formidable industrial capacity than Russia and Iran combined. If China wanted to take Canada, there isn’t anything anyone could do about it, let alone Taiwan.

So expect reunification with the mainland within the next decade, and most likely a reunification as peaceful and devoid of global drama as the resolution of the Hong Kong situation was. And the first sign of it coming will likely be either South Korea or Japan “unexpectedly” changing sides and signing some kind of alliance with China.

DISCUSS ON SG

US Begs China for Help

Are we seriously supposed to believe that no one in the Trump administration took the probability of Iran restricting global oil supplies into account?

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called on China to prevent Iran from closing the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important shipping routes. His comments came after Iran’s state-run Press TV reported that parliament had approved a plan to close the Strait but added that the final decision lies with the Supreme National Security Council.

Any disruption to the supply of oil would have profound consequences for the economy. China in particular is the world’s largest buyer of Iranian oil and has a close relationship with Tehran.

Oil prices rose following the US attack on Iranian nuclear sites, with the price of the benchmark Brent crude reaching its highest level in five months.

“I encourage the Chinese government in Beijing to call them [Iran] about that, because they heavily depend on the Straits of Hormuz for their oil,” Rubio had said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday. “If they [close the Straits]… it will be economic suicide for them. And we retain options to deal with that, but other countries should be looking at that as well. It would hurt other countries’ economies a lot worse than ours.”

I would be too sure about that, given the way China obviously foresaw the need to avoid utilizing the more traditional sea routes.

On May 25, 2025, the first freight train from Xi’an, China, arrived at the Aprin dry port, Iran, marking the official launch of a direct rail link between the two countries. This new logistical artery significantly reduces transit times (from 30–40 days by sea to roughly 15 days by land) yielding a direct impact on transportation costs. This railway is part of a much larger and broader East-West Corridor that is designed to link China, physically, with a trade route directly to Africa, and to Europe, without having to use the more traditional sea trade routes.

An oil tanker carries between 500k and 2 million barrels of oil. 18.5 million barrels transit the Straits of Hormuz every day, which means about 18 tankers per day. China utilizes 16 million barrels per day, although obviously not all of it comes through the Straits.

A rail tanker car carries 700 barrels and Canada ships 150,000 barrels by rail every day from the Albert oil sands. Taking the faster rail delivery time into account, it would require 9,150 rail cars to replace those 16 daily tankers, and a total of 274,500 rail cars to meet the daily oil requirements without a hitch. That sounds like a lot, until you observe that the China Railway Rolling Stock Corp. is the world’s leading manufacturer of rolling stock, with the capacity to manufacture over 500 high-speed train sets, 12,000 subway cars and 50,000 freight cars per year.

I think it is safe to assume that China has already built the 300k or so freight cars required to replace the 1,120 sea tankers that historically supplied it, given that they didn’t just start building the Aprin-Xi’an link in 2024 and the two countries signed an economic cooperation pact in 2021.

However, China doesn’t transport all its oil through the Strait of Hormuz. It only obtains about one-third of it that way, 5.1 million barrels per day. So it only needs a total of 87,500 freight cars to substitute for that particular source. Which, one notes, the Chinese could have completed before the launch of the railroad if they started manufacturing them as recently as August 2023.

DISCUSS ON SG

The Irrelevance of the US Navy

China and Iran have just rendered the US Navy irrelevant, as it no longer has the ability to a) infringe upon Iran’s ability to export oil or b) prevent China from obtaining oil. This may be the most significant thing to happen on the global scene since the beginning of the Russian Special Military Operation in 2022.

China and Iran have launched a new rail route that directly links their economies and bypasses U.S. naval power and sanctions. The corridor shortens delivery times, facilitates Iranian oil exports, and strengthens Beijing-Tehran cooperation across the region.

  • The first cargo train from Xi’an, China arrived at Iran’s Aprin dry port near Tehran, marking the start of a new China-Iran rail route.
  • This rail line cuts freight travel time from Shanghai to Tehran from 30 days by sea to just 15 days by land.
  • Railway officials from six nations, including China and Iran, met in Tehran on May 12 to coordinate transcontinental trade standards.
  • The China-Iran rail connection enables oil shipments from Iran to China and the movement of Chinese goods to Europe without U.S. naval oversight.
  • China and Iran signed a 25-year, $400 billion economic cooperation agreement in 2021 as part of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.

The successful launch of the Xi’an-Tehran rail link is yet another demonstration of how the US has lost its global hegemony and superpower status. It is still a primary regional power, but it’s ability to project power has been significantly constrained and is now limited to Western Europe and the Americas.

At this point, it is reasonable to suspect that China’s regional dominance over Asia, Africa, and Persia is now more important than the USA’s regional dominance over the Americas and Western Europe, especially since the remnants of Clown World that rule Western Europe are directly opposed to the American national interest.

The current US political structure may not even make it to 2033, which, you may recall, I first predicted publicly 21 years ago, in 2004.

DISCUSS ON SG