Tag: China

China Signs On

The pagans may not be believers, but they appear to recognize true evil when they see it, and by their adoption of Russia’s rhetoric, it appears they have some idea with whom they’re at war.

Beijing has labeled Washington the “true empire of lies” as it dismissed allegations contained in a new report by the US State Department, which accused China of “global information manipulation.”

“Some in the US may think that they can prevail in the information war as long as they produce enough lies. But the people of the world are not blind,” China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Saturday. It added that “more and more people in the world” are seeing through America’s “ugly attempt to perpetuate its supremacy” with lies.

The US has a long history of manipulation and disinformation campaigns, the ministry continued, citing a number of examples spanning from the early Cold War period to the present day.

Of course, it’s also possible that the Chinese diplomats just recognize the “empire of lies” as effective anti-Clown World rhetoric with a strong dialectical base and are adopting it on that basis. But while they’ve been at asymetric “unrestricted” war with the USA since 1999, they have not been open about it. Clearly, that is changing.

UPDATE: Interesting. The Chinese Foreign Ministry actually put out a press release dedicated to this one specific issue.

Q: The US Department of State released a report on September 28, claiming that China has invested billions of dollars to spread disinformation globally. It says that China’s “global information manipulation” is not simply a matter of public diplomacy – but a challenge to the integrity of the global information space, and if unchecked, Beijing’s efforts could result in a sharp contraction of global freedom of expression in the future. What is China’s response?

A: The US Department of State report is in itself disinformation as it misrepresents facts and truth. In fact, it is the US that invented the weaponizing of the global information space. The relevant center of the US State Department which concocted the report is engaged in propaganda and infiltration in the name of “global engagement”. It is a source of disinformation and the command center of “perception warfare”. From Operation Mockingbird which bribed and manipulated news media for propaganda purposes in the Cold War era, to a vial of white powder and a staged video of the “White Helmets” cited as evidence to wage wars of aggression in Iraq and Syria earlier this century, and then to the enormous lie made up to smear China’s Xinjiang policy, facts have proven time and again that the US is an “empire of lies” through and through. Even some in the US, such as Senator Rand Paul, acknowledged that the US government is the greatest propagator of disinformation in the history of the world.

Some in the US may think that they can prevail in the information war as long as they produce enough lies. But the people of the world are not blind. No matter how the US tries to pin the label of “disinformation” on other countries, more and more people in the world have already seen through the US’s ugly attempt to perpetuate its supremacy by weaving lies into “emperor’s new clothes” and smearing others.

Remarks on the US State Department’s Report Targeting China, 30 September 2023

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The US Will Lose the Next War

The US military of 2023 is not the US military of 1943. More to the point, the US military production infrastructure of 2023 is not the US military production infrastructure of 1939. The media is finally beginning to figure this out in the aftermath of Russia’s comprehensive defeat of NATO’s proxy army in Ukraine.

Our country could very well lose a large-scale war for lack of weapons and ammunition—but not because of aid to Ukraine. In a major conflict, the U.S. would run out of munitions in a few weeks, and in less than a week for some crucial categories. The quantity of weapons we are providing Ukraine is marginal compared with necessary weapons that we have not stocked… Nor can we rely on our allies to supply themselves or engineer a lend-lease program to send us weapons if we should be fighting but they are not. For instance, even before it began sending weapons to Ukraine, the British military was so poorly stocked that in a major war, it would have run out of ammunition in a week.

In 1942, Admiral Chester Nimitz fought on the Midway Islands with only three aircraft carriers at his disposal. Less than three years later, he commenced operations against the Marianas with 15 new, larger, and faster carriers to feed into the fight. China has built a defense industry capable of such rapid production—but today, the United States couldn’t pull it off.

No, the US Navy will lose an attrition war with China, even if it wins an initial battle or two. The situation is actually worse than the situation that Japan faced in 1941. The neoclowns thought there would be no need for peer-level warfare because history had ended in favor of liberal democracy, and everyone knows that nation-states that harbor McDonalds never go to war with each other. Hence their obsession with turning every Main Street from Albania to Vietnam into a clone of a mall circa 1989.

But both the Chinese and the Russians have been gearing up for full-scale conflict with the US military for more than 20 years. And they’re just about ready, if the recent decision to sanction two of the five US corporations still producing military vehicles is any guide.

China Daily: Lately the US has provided advanced weaponry to China’s Taiwan region through arms sales, military assistance and loans. China’s foreign ministry spokesperson said earlier that China would take strong measures to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity. I wonder if you have anything new on that?

Mao Ning: In disregard of China’s firm opposition, the US government deliberately supplies weapons to China’s Taiwan region. This seriously violates the one-China principle and the stipulations of the three China-US joint communiqués, contravenes international law and basic norms governing international relations, and undermines China’s sovereignty and security interests. The US is going further down the wrong and dangerous path of arming Taiwan.

Lockheed Martin Corporation, St. Louis, MO directly participated in the US arms sale to Taiwan announced on August 24 as the principal contractor. Northrop Grumman participated in several US arms sales to Taiwan. In accordance with the Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law of the People’s Republic of China, China decides to impose sanctions on these two above-mentioned US defense corporations.

Let me stress, the Chinese government never wavers in its resolve of safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity. We call on the US to earnestly abide by the one-China principle and the stipulations of the three China-US joint communiqués, stop arms sales to Taiwan, stop military collusion with Taiwan, and stop arming Taiwan, otherwise it will be met with China’s resolute response.

Even though it should, the US will not preemptively surrender on the issue of Taiwan. This means that war is coming to the West, probably sooner than most people expect. And it isn’t going to end well, because the rulers of the West are not Western in any way, nor do they care in the least for the people of the West over whom they presently rule.

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China Governs Its Own People

A civnat and imperial subject expresses his horror of a nation daring to govern its own nationals:

Beijing is obsessed with suppressing dissent among ethnic Chinese living in democracies and has no hesitation intimidating human-rights activists and dissidents in the West.

Beijing calls it, euphemistically, ‘persuade to return’ and thinks it legitimate because democracies will, by and large, not extradite people to dictatorships like China. Indeed, the European Court of Human Rights has effectively banned its member states (which include Britain) from extraditing to China anyone under their jurisdiction. Hence the ‘persuasion’.

China thinks it has a right to enforce this because, under Chinese law, its citizens are subject to Communist Party law wherever they live. And China’s National Intelligence Law requires its people and companies to assist Beijing’s spies whenever requested — and to keep that assistance secret.

The irony of paper citizens arguing that borders don’t exist and the economy is global, but that the Chinese people don’t have the right to govern Chinese people around the world, requires a degree of intellectual incoherence that is both impressive and historically ignorant.

Meanwhile, they have no problem with private corporations attempting to control the behavior of people of every nation, everywhere around the world.

Again, the incoherence is astounding. Especially when it wasn’t until November 1991 that the USA defined economic growth in terms of state-based Gross Domestic Product rather than the historical nation-based Gross National Product.

Finally, it’s more than a bit ironic that the article warns about China infiltrating and making use of the Five Eyes surveillance system used by Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States to spy on each other’s citizens.

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Desperately Seeking Allies

The US appears to have made at least a modest amount of headway in signing up Vietnam for its Asian NATO after Biden’s recent visit:

Vietnam and the US have agreed to dramatically upgrade their bilateral relations and strengthen defense cooperation, while hailing several major deals worth billions of dollars. The announcement comes amid strained relations between both Hanoi and Washington with China.

In a statement released on Monday following a meeting between US President Joe Biden and Vietnamese leader Nguyen Phu Trong, the White House said that the two countries elevated their relations to ‘Comprehensive Strategic Partnership’ status, the highest tier in Hanoi’s hierarchy of bilateral ties, “for the purposes of peace, cooperation, and sustainable development.”

On security, the US and Vietnamese leaders welcomed “further cooperation in defense industry and defense trade in accordance with each side’s conditions,” according to the statement. In addition, the US said that it “is committed to continuing to assist Vietnam to develop its self-reliant defense capabilities.”

Vietnam is more than happy to acquire some outside assistance, and certainly, the Vietnamese diaspora in the USA makes the rapprochement easier in some ways. However, there is no way that the Vietnamese are going to sign themselves up as a Ukrainian-style proxy army in service to the West.

Also, it is the Vietnamese, and not the Chinese, that the other Asian nations have historically feared. As Lew Kwan Yew described it, they are regarded as “the Prussians of Asia” and fundamentally more warlike and aggressive than their neighbors. China, for all its power and population, is generally not feared because the Middle Kingdom has historically been uninterested in anything outside its borders. Even the limited Chinese invasion of Vietnamese-occupied Cambodia in the 1970s was instigated at the repeated request of the other Asian nations, led by Singapore.

The Chinese are not particularly concerned, but neither are they confused about Washington’s intentions.

“Let’s be honest, if there were no China-US tensions, Washington wouldn’t be so interested and have such strong intentions of upgrading its ties with Vietnam to this level,” Lü Xiang, a US studies research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Monday.

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A UATV Offer

It’s become clear that a lot of readers are very interested in contemplating what is likely to come next in WWIII. As a wargamer and game developer, it’s also of particular interest to me.

Here’s the deal. If there are 10 new Premium subscriptions or 25 new Basic subscriptions in the next 24 hours, I will broadcast a supersized Darkstream dedicated to reviewing in detail the 165-page report on the CSIS summary of the 24 US vs China wargames conducted in January, entitled The First Battle of the Next War: Wargaming a Chinese Invasion of Taiwan.

By the way, there are now 5,463 videos available on UATV, with 3-6 more being added every single day. The duplicate set of servers has already been installed at the European data center and is expected to go operational before the end of the month.

UPDATE: Apparently there is considerable interest in WWIII. The 24 hours aren’t even close to being up and BOTH targets were blown away. So it’s on. I’m up to page 30 already, and I’m also working on seeing if I can obtain the rules of the wargame. They’re not necessary for the detailed analysis as I should be able to glean their assumptions from the results, but I like to read wargame rules.

Also, in order to express my appreciation for the high degree of interest indicated and support provided, I’m going to add a second review of the CNAS wargame conducted in June 2022.

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China Lays the Legal Ground

I think it’s safe to expect Chinese corporations to be seizing foreign-owned property in Hong Kong and Taiwan soon, and taking steps to abandon the international arbitration system given these remarks on a new law that strips foreign state immunity by the Foreign Ministry.

Q: The Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress reviewed and passed the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Foreign State Immunity at a recent session. The law adjusted China’s previous stance of absolute state immunity and authorized courts in China to hear lawsuits against foreign states. What’s the reason for such an adjustment?

A: Enacting the Law on Foreign State Immunity is a normal legislative activity conducted by the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress. The law stipulates provisions related to foreign state immunity in line with international practices and aims to improve China’s foreign state immunity system. The law stipulates the rules for Chinese courts to handle civil cases involving a foreign State and its property, with a view to protecting the lawful rights and interests of the parties concerned, safeguarding the sovereign equality of States, and promoting friendly exchanges with other countries, which all in turn boost China’s higher-level opening-up.

The Law on Foreign State Immunity affirms the fundamental principle that a foreign State and its property enjoy immunity in China, at the same time stipulates exceptions relating to non-sovereign act of a foreign State, under which Chinese courts can exercise jurisdiction, such as cases involving disputes arising out of a commercial activity, relevant personal injury and property damage. The Law also states that Chinese courts can take compulsory judicial measures against a foreign State’s commercial property under strictly limited circumstances. It fully adheres to international law and it is also consistent with general state practices.

As a responsible major country, China firmly upholds the principle of sovereign equality and will faithfully implement this Law to protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese nationals and legal persons and respect the immunities enjoyed by foreign States under international law.

Translation: The USA and other Western governments, including Canada, have increasingly been utilizing their courts to the detriment of Chinese corporations and individuals. China is clearly going to follow their lead by giving its courts the power to exercise jurisdiction over foreign entities and individuals who had previously been considered off-limits on the basis of foreign state immunity.

Given how little foreign investment there is in mainland China, one would tend to expect the primary application of this expanded jurisdiction will be in Hong Kong, and eventually, Taiwan.

I expect Taiwan to peacefully unify with the mainland much sooner than most people are expecting, and I strongly suspect that it will be someone like this man who will make it happen when the time comes. Despite his public statements, I would assume that he is, for all intents and purposes, the CPC’s preferred candidate for the office, because when China eventually makes its move for reunification, it will want to have a pragmatic figure in control of Taiwan’s government in order to avoid violence and bloodshed.

The billionaire founder of tech giant Foxconn, Terry Gou, has announced he will run for president of Taiwan as an independent candidate, pledging to fix cross-strait relations and boost Taiwan’s economy.

At a press conference on Monday, Gou – a well-known and outspoken businessman – announced what he called “the era of entrepreneurs’ rule”. “I have decided to join the 2024 presidential race,” he said, touting his business and finance experience, including dealings with China.

“Give me four years and I promise that I will bring 50 years of peace to the Taiwan Strait and build the deepest foundation for the mutual trust across the strait … Taiwan must not become Ukraine and I will not let Taiwan become the next Ukraine.”

Gou should not be able to come anywhere close to winning in normal political circumstances. He couldn’t even win the Kuomintang nomination. But given the fact that the outcome of the NATO-Russian war should be known by the time the election takes place in 2024, combined with the increased US activity in southeast Asia, the fear of being similarly sacrificed on the altar of US geostrategic interests may be enough to move the Taiwanese electorate away from the separatist parties.

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Calling China’s Bluff

The problem with de facto recognizing Taiwan as a sovereign state is that China isn’t bluffing.

The US government has approved an $80 million arms transfer to Taiwan under a program normally reserved for sovereign nations – a move likely to anger Beijing, which considers the island part of its own territory.

The State Department informed relevant lawmakers of the upcoming weapons sale on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press and Reuters, which obtained a copy of the congressional notification.

The transfer “will be used to strengthen Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities through joint and combined defense capability and enhanced maritime domain awareness and maritime security capability,” the department said, without naming any particular systems.

Though prior deals with Taipei have been carried out under different export authorities, the latest transfer is slated to go through the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program. Past FMF sales have largely been made to full-fledged nation states, with the sole exception of the African Union, and language used in the new notification could imply sovereignty for Taiwan, a stance China is unlikely to accept.

This is more of Clown World’s very clever wordgames that no one could possibly ever see through or object to. After all, the USA isn’t formally recognizing Taiwanese sovereignty, it’s merely treating Taiwan as if it is a sovereign state. That will totally fool everyone! And if Xi and the People’s Liberation Army choose to react to the de facto recognition in the place of the de jure recogition, well, joke’s on them!

When did retarded children take over US foreign policy?

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Russia: Two Predictions

ANON: Peace plan. Lines on the map stay where they are. general cease fire. Ukraine stops all pursuit of war crime stuff. Ukraine joins EU, but not NATO. Reset button over a few years on sanctions, and attempt to have a non-adversarial relationship. Security guarantees on both sides. Acceptable?

VD: No chance. There is no peace plan. WWIII is already well underway. The only reason the neocons want a peace plan with Russia is so they can focus on China. But China and Russia are perfectly aware of the divide-and-conquer plan.

ANON: So peace will come when? Russia retakes the Soviet-controlled area?

VD: Peace won’t come until the USA and NATO surrender. Right now, the USA is actively pivoting to China, but having to fend off both Iran and Africa.

ANON: Nukes will fly first in Europe

VD: I don’t think so. When push comes to shove, the USA will give up Europe. The US already is actively avoiding direct conflict with Russia and dangling “hey, keep what you’ve got” in front of them. If you read the military think tanks, they’re all screaming “CHINA CHINA CHINA!”

ANON: You are assuming that all of the various EU countries will accept Russian rule.

VD: No, not at all. Russia doesn’t need or want to rule them. They want them to stop sanctioning them economically at the US demand. The US isn’t even planning to fight Russia. They’re planning to have Poland do it.

ANON: Russia has made it clear it wants the old Soviet borders and has a right to them.

VD: Russia can take all of Europe. It could have done so before. It won’t unless the Europeans are dumb enough to force them to do it. The reason the US will let Europe go is because it’s not even strong enough to beat China alone. And China is a threat in a way Russia is not.

ANON: I’m going on the record now that Russia will not and cannot take the old Soviet borders and conquer Europe. You are wrong. You are correct that the US cannot contest the South China Sea alone, but the US, Philippines, Australia, Japan, S. Korea, and Vietnam can hold off China or make it so painful to take.

VD: Here’s my prediction: China will take Taiwan without barely firing a shot. The US will not commit more than 10k additional troops to Europe. The EU and NATO collapse, and most of the current European governments are replaced with BRICS-friendly nationalist governments. The question is if any other fronts go hot. If China gets greedy, they’ll go for Australia, which will involve war with the USN. Japan, Vietnam, and S. Korea will all refuse to back the USN, Australia and the Philippines will.

ANON: We’ll see.

VD: The great unknown right now is if China and Russia mean what they say about multipolarity. Have they learned from the ultimate failures of the British and American empires or not?

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US Historical Hypocrisy

The Chinese diplomats are well-educated in US history, which is a real problem for US diplomats.

BLOOMBERG: The US said on Tuesday that it will impose visa limits on some officials in China for their part in allegedly forcing Tibetan children to assimilate into mainstream Chinese society. What is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ response?

Wang Wenbin: The US imposed those illegal sanctions on Chinese officials under the pretext of Tibet-related issues and in disregard of the facts. This move gravely interferes in China’s internal affairs, harms China’s interests, and violates basic norms governing international relations. We firmly oppose and strongly condemn it.

The human rights conditions in Tibet are at their historical best, as witnessed by the international community. The region has long enjoyed a booming economy, harmonious and stable society, and effective protection and promotion of cultural heritage. The rights and freedoms of all ethnic groups, including the freedom of religious belief and the freedom to use and develop their ethnic groups’ spoken and written languages, are fully protected. As is commonly seen around the world, there are boarding schools across Chinese provinces and regions to meet the need of the local students. In the case of China’s Tibet, this is a region of high altitude and highly scattered population in many areas. For children from herding families in particular, they have to travel long distances to get to school. If schools were to be built in every place the students live, it would be very difficult to ensure adequate teachers and quality of teaching in each school. That is why boarding schools have been set up as a practical way to ensure all children’s equal right to education. It is entirely up to the students and their parents whether to go to boarding schools or not. Students can choose to go home on every weekend, holiday and festival (including traditional Tibetan festivals such as the Tibetan New Year and the Shoton Festival), as well as during the winter and summer breaks. Parents can visit their children at school any time and take their children home whenever needed. Courses of traditional culture, such as Tibetan language and literature and folk dance, are widely available, traditional food unique to the Tibet Plateau is provided, and students are allowed to wear traditional dresses at these schools. The boarding schools in Tibet are examples of human rights and cultural heritage protection. The so-called “forced assimilation” is pure fabrication.

In contrast, throughout the US history, more than 4.7 million Native Americans were slaughtered, and people of Asian and African descent and other ethnic communities suffer daily from the scourge of racial discrimination. In recent years, the US’s armed invasion has led to millions of casualties in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria. The US needs to reflect on itself, instead of styling itself as a judge and wantonly meddling in other countries’ internal affairs by wielding the big stick of “human rights”.

I need to stress that Tibet-related affairs are purely China’s internal affairs that brook no foreign interference. The US needs to respect facts, fulfill its commitment on Tibet, stop using Tibet-related issues to meddle in China’s internal affairs and undermine China’s interests, and immediately withdraw its wrong decision. Otherwise, there will be a resolute response from China.

To say that the USA is badly losing the battle for global hearts and minds would be an understatement. All the USA really had going for it once the rest of the world industrialized in the aftermath of WWII was a) its military and b) the dollar. And international confidence in both are rapidly falling.

What makes the Chinese so formidable on the global stage is the fact that unlike Europeans, they understand the influence of word magic. And unlike Clown World, they understand that power trumps influence.

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A Classic Clown World Caper

Whenever anything is fake, gay, and beyond retarded, you know Clown World must be involved somehow. These “peace talks” in Jeddah make the endless, pointless Israeli-Palestinian peace talks look substantive and meaningful by comparison.

Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hosted a summit of 42 nations over the weekend to draft principles for the end of Putin’s War in Ukraine. Russia was not invited to the talks, but China and the remainder of the BRICS group sent delegations. The talks concluded with a statement of principles, and the group agreed to meet again in the next few weeks and that Russia would be excluded from the process.

Ukraine Peace Talks Move Forward With China Present and Russia Excluded, RED STATE, 7 August 2023

This is as if Germany, Italy, Romania, Norway, Finland, and Japan had met at Yalta to discuss the terms for the end of World War II. Personally, I suspect China only attended because none of the Standing Committee could believe that it was real and they wanted to read the transcripts just for the comedy.

Foreign Minister: Now we should discuss the matter of this invitation from the Saudis to the peace talks.

Prime Minister: What do our friends in Moscow say?

Foreign Minister: The Russians are not invited.

Security Minister: Is Lukashenko representing the Union State, then?

Foreign Minister: Belarus isn’t invited either.

Political Minister: So who is offering the terms?

Foreign Minister: Apparently Zelensky, by the looks of them.

Prime Minister: And they’re offering these terms to Russia?

Foreign Minister: Yes.

Prime Minister: To the side that is actually winning the war?

Foreign Minister: Yes.

Prime Minister: And they delusional?

Economics Minister: Jane Yellen’s proposals were less hallucinatory than this and she was on ‘shrooms.

Foreign Minister: So we’re not sending anyone?

Prime Minister: Are you kidding? Tell Li Hui to make sure he gets this on video! It will be even funnier than that time Chen sent a pair of Brazilian trannies to Hunter Biden’s hotel room and he was too cracked out to notice.

Foreign Minister: Right. And we’ll release the usual statement afterwards, of course.

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson’s Remarks on China Attending the Meeting in Jeddah on Ukraine

The Special Representative of the Chinese Government on Eurasian Affairs had extensive contact and exchanges with participating parties, made clear China’s position and propositions, listened to the opinions and advice from various parties, and worked for more common understandings on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis. China’s positive role in promoting talks for peace was fully recognized. China will continue to act in the spirit of the four principles, joint efforts in four areas and three observations proposed by President Xi Jinping, work on the basis of the document of China’s Position on the Political Settlement of the Ukraine Crisis, enhance dialogue and communication with all parties, and contribute to the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis.

I’ll admit it, the diplomatic statement made me laugh. While it may not initially strike the average reader as amusing, it is if you happen to have made a regular habit of reading Chinese diplomatic responses. By changing just a few words, it could easily pass for the Foreign Ministry Spokesperson’s Remarks on the Situation in Niger, the Foreign Ministry Spokesperson’s Remarks on Media Reports that Italy Is Considering Not Renewing the Belt and Road Cooperation Document, or the Foreign Ministry Spokesperson’s Remarks on the Breaking of a Window of the Chinese Embassy in Odessa That May Have Been Caused by a Russian Hypersonic Missile or Perhaps by a Careless Romanian Cleaning Lady Who is Known to Drink Țuică While She Works.

I don’t know what the eventual terms will be when the Kiev regime finally admits the obvious and surrenders while there is still the possibility of an independent Ukrainian state and before the land is entirely divided up between Russia, Belarus, Poland, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, and Slovakia. But I’m confident they won’t very closely resemble the terms now being proposed in Jeddah.

UPDATE: These two quotes from the article should suffice to demonstrate how utterly clueless Red State conservatives are about the global geostrategic situation in general, and the Ukrainian military situation in particular.

The advertised purpose of the conference was to pave the way to a durable and equitable peace agreement. Equitable, of course, is in the eye of the beholder. Those folks who believe that Russia was “tricked” into or “forced” to invade Ukraine because of NATO shenanigans orchestrated by Bond-villain Victoria Nuland will view “equitable” quite differently from people without substance abuse issues…

Ultimately, I think something like Zelensky’s 10-point will be the subject of an international conference. I think part of any final deal will be a Russian withdrawal from Ukraine and Ukraine’s admission into the EU and NATO bolstered in the short run by security guarantees furnished by the G-7.

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