Tag: China

Meanwhile, on Taiwan

The two anti-independence parties are formally joining forces:

Taiwan’s opposition parties have agreed to run a joint campaign in January’s election, raising the chances that a more China-friendly government takes power in Taipei. The Kuomintang and Taiwan People’s Party announced plans to run a united campaign following a meeting Wednesday that centered around how to decide which of their two nominees would head the campaign as the presidential candidate…

“A successful opposition alliance — no matter who is running as president — means it’s likely cross-strait tensions will improve as the opposition has more than a 50% chance of beating the DPP’s Lai according to local polls,” according to Wang Yeh-lih, a political science professor at National Taiwan University.

Lai has benefited so far from a divided opposition to lead most opinion polls. He had a 33% support rating, according to the latest survey by broadcaster TVBS, with Ko in second at 24% and Hou with 22%. Foxconn Technology Group founder Terry Gou had the backing of 8% of respondents. An alliance between the KMT and the TPP could leave Gou out in the cold after the independent presidential contender also floated the idea of teaming up with Ko.

Which means that after the 2024 election, the Chinese will likely be negotiating with a relatively friendly government. If Gou ends up in a position of power, such as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, that may indicate that a sudden reunification announcement is in the cards.

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China Disappears Israel

China has literally wiped the name of Israel off its mapping software.

Chinese tech giants Baidu and Alibaba no longer display the name of Israel on their maps, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday – a move they said reflected ‘Beijing’s vague diplomacy in the region.’

The online maps show Israel’s borders and cities, the paper said.

But the country itself is not named – in contrast to other neighboring countries.

Social media users shared maps they said confirmed the WSJ’s point.

I don’t think Beijing’s Middle East diplomacy has been even remotely vague; it’s apparent that the mainstream media doesn’t want to let the public know how massive the weight of world opinion against Israel is now.

It’s fascinating to see how the media appeals to world opinion when it’s attacking Russia, then tries to pretend it doesn’t exist and doesn’t matter when it’s defending Israel. And amping up the propaganda not only isn’t working, it’s counterproductive when literally no one except neocons and Boomercons believe it.

Meanwhile, the Chinese are observably unimpressed with the media theatrics.

The current ground operations have evidently resulted in excessive casualties, and with the situation in Gaza deteriorating further, a humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip is poised to escalate. Continuous casualties will only breed more hatred. Strategically, this is not merely a military test for Israel but also a test of wisdom. Excessive actions will cause Israel to lose the sympathy gained due to Hamas’ attacks. 

The criticism of Israel’s excessive use of force in Chinese public opinion is primarily based on morality. However, some Western media outlets have labeled the Chinese internet discourse as “antisemitic,” which is clearly an unjust accusation. There is absolutely no foundation for the formation of “antisemitism” as an ideology in China. China prioritizes regional peace and opposes the slaughter of civilians by a state apparatus. The mainstream voices on Chinese internet platforms echo this sentiment.

US and Israel should approach international criticism rationally, GLOBAL TIMES, 30 October 2023

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That Will Show China

A US response meant to mitigate a Chinese boycott inadvertently demonstrates China’s economic might:

The United States has for the first time begun buying Japanese seafood to supply its military there, a response to China’s ban on such products imposed after Tokyo released treated water from its crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea.

Unveiling the initiative in a Reuters interview on Monday, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said Washington should also look more broadly into how it could help offset China’s ban that he said was part of its “economic wars.”

China, which had been the biggest buyer of Japanese seafood, says its ban is due to food safety fears.

The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog vouched for the safety of the water release that began in August from the plant wrecked by a 2011 tsunami. G7 trade ministers on Sunday called for the immediate repeal of bans on Japanese food.

“It’s going to be a long-term contract between the U.S. armed forces and the fisheries and co-ops here in Japan,” Emanuel said. “The best way we have proven in all the instances to kind of wear out China’s economic coercion is come to the aid and assistance of the targeted country or industry,” he said.

The first purchase of seafood by the U.S. under the scheme involves just shy of a metric ton of scallops, a tiny fraction of more than 100,000 tons of scallops that Japan exported to mainland China last year.

I’m sure the Japanese seafood industry appreciates the gesture. But one can’t help but ask two questions:

  1. Why hasn’t the USA been buying Japanese seafood to supply its troops occupying Japan until now?
  2. How, exactly, is replacing less than 1/100,000th of the lost business, or .001 percent, going to keep the Japanese seafood industry solvent?

As with seafood, so with artillery shells…

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China Warns Israel

The Chinese Foreign Ministry makes it very clear whose side China is on, and that the Chinese government will not endorse an Israeli invasion of Gaza:

AFP: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made comments yesterday on the recent situation in the Middle East. He said that the Palestinian question is at the core of the Middle East issue and the crux is that justice has eluded the Palestinians for too long. Can you elaborate on that?

Wang Wenbin: On October 12, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs Wang Yi talked with Celso Luiz Nunes Amorim, chief advisor of the Presidency of Brazil, on the phone with a focus on sharing views on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Director Wang Yi noted that China is deeply saddened by the rising tension between Palestine and Israel and the huge civilian casualties. He said China opposes acts that harm civilians and condemns violations of international law. China calls on all parties to exercise restraint, de-escalate the situation on the ground as soon as possible and prevent further expansion of the conflict. The top priority is to ensure the safety of civilians, and open corridors for aid so as to avoid a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Director Wang Yi pointed out that the Palestinian question is at the core of the Middle East issue. He said the crux of the issue is that justice has eluded the Palestinians for too long. The current conflict showed again in an extremely brutal way that solution to the Palestinian question lies in resuming genuine peace talks as soon as possible and realizing the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. China calls for an international peace conference with greater authority and impact as soon as possible to galvanize a more broad-based international consensus with the two-state solution serving as its basis and formulate a timetable and roadmap to that end. The UN has the responsibility and obligation to play its due role on the Palestinian question. China supports the Security Council in holding an emergency meeting on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, agrees that the meeting should focus on humanitarian concerns, demand a ceasefire, an end to violence and the protection of civilians, form a binding international consensus and take concrete next-steps. China will stay in contact and coordinate and cooperate closely with Brazil and relevant parties in this regard. 

Amorim said that the key to resolving the conflict is to resume peace talks, and Brazil is ready to closely coordinate with China to work jointly to ease the situation. 

The Chinese diplomats always utilize positive and neutral language, but in a way that leaves little room to misinterpret what they’re saying.

Translation: follow through on your threats to enter Gaza and we will backstop the support provided by Iran and Russia to Hezbollah and the Palestinians.

The Global Times made it even more explicit, just in case the message didn’t get through.

China’s top diplomat Wang Yi said Israel’s actions have gone beyond the scope of self-defense, expressing concerns about the escalating Israel-Palestine conflict as Israel ordered one million people from the northern part of Gaza to evacuate within 24 hours as it prepared for a ground assault.

No wonder Netanyahu and his generals are thinking long and hard about this one. I expect they’re going to roll the dice anyhow, though, because they have about as much military support from the US as they’re likely to receive in the foreseeable future. I’d like to be wrong, indeed, I very much hope I’m wrong, but the stark reality is that this may be Israel’s last, best, chance at ethnically cleansing Gaza and taking another big step toward Greater Israel that they’re ever going to have.

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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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