Russian Roulette
Xinjiang propaganda and facts, AUKUS resurfaces, Xi Jinping: profound and complex changes, Medvedev: Western neo-colonialism is dead, Taiwan treasure is offshoring, Ukraine suffers devastating losses
UPDATE: The most famous of Xinjiang’s rising young stars is Dilraba Dilmurat. Economic development and the Belt and Road Western Gateway is booming.
The United States seems to be playing Russian Roulette with geopolitics. Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya and now Russia. However, Ukraine may be the final spin of the chamber.
The AUKUS submarine plan was never a plan, but that’s not stopping Australian PM Anthony Albanese, UK PM Rishi Sunak and US President Joe Biden trying to think up a roadmap for a marine mirage.
President Xi Jinping said that, “Western countries - led by the US - have implemented all-round containment, encirclement and suppression against China, bringing unprecedentedly severe challenges to our country’s development.”
Former Russian President and PM Dmitry Medvedev wants to “hammer the final nail into the coffin of the Western world's neo-colonial aspirations […] It is time for international surgery to remove the malignant tumour of the colonial past.”
The most pressing issue in Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan is not Beijing’s eventual reassertion of sovereignty, but whether it has sufficient time to escape the island fortress for the United States with its semiconductor manufacturing treasure.
New reports that Russian air defences have destroyed nine Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles and shot down 15 HIMARS and Uragan rockets, destroyed a Ukrainian Buk-M1 anti-aircraft missile system, an S-300 radar and a US-made counter-battery radar station during the special military operation in Ukraine.
The greatest propaganda campaign in human history
China is the victim of the largest and greatest propaganda campaign in human history. Whether this is a sign of things to come or an aberration based around a particular point in time remains to be seen but propaganda it is. Apparently, in 2017, China incarcerated between 1 and 5 million Xinjiang residents, except there’s no logistics to provide for the movement and incarceration of this many people, so that was impossible.
When those claims were discredited, they softened the allegations, yet 150 million tourists a year went to engage with local culture, eat local foods and they saw local language and the religion of Islam were widely practiced so, it wasn’t “cultural genocide”.
The claims were diluted to “forced labour”, except some of the world’s biggest companies work there: Germany’s Volkswagen; USA’s Skechers; Japan’s Uniqlo; France’s SMCP; and Spain’s Inditex which owns Zara, have all investigated – and some have been investigated but no evidence has been found. One of the world’s largest apparel companies, HK based Esquel have taken this matter to the US Supreme Court. Hilton and Marriott Hotels, KFC, McDonalds and many more US brands operate without any issue and employ people in accordance with their own standards and local laws. The world’s biggest agricultural machinery company, John Deere, company, not only operates there, business is so good it started a JV in China in 2020 in order to “capitalise on this important and rapidly expanding marketplace”.
Read full article here.
AUKUS resurfaces!
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is expected to visit Washington in the next two weeks to announce the long-awaited roadmap for the AUKUS submarine agreement alongside UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and US President Joe Biden.
Another part of the rationale is that the deal would add to deterrence of China as its influence in the Pacific grows.
The Morrison government’s cancelling of the French deal was a US designed event to significantly harm Emmanuel Macron’s election prospects and severely damaged Australian-French relations. AUKUS also generated consternation in Indonesia and some other Southeast Asian nations, who worried the deal catalyses a regional arms race and greater tensions in the region.
The Albanese government has been stressing that a strengthened defence capability is a net plus for security partners in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. However, Indonesia has countered with a non-proliferation paper at the UN and worries that AUKUS facilitates unwanted US military projection across the region. Regionally, AUKUS has damaged Australia’s regional standing and its nuclear non-proliferation credentials.
Technological developments offer Australia many alternatives for its requirements; long transits between ports, stealth capacity to avoid persistent surveillance and lengthy duration of submerged operations.
Some have suggested Australia may operate UK-built nuclear-propulsion submarines as a a means to throw Britain a financial lifeline to its naval construction industry, while also providing the Albanese government with the promise of a face-saving submarine delivery before the end of the decade.
While the Albanese government paid US$500 million to help restore relations with France, neighbours in the South Pacific and Southeast Asia are lukewarm to Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Defence Minister Richard Marles’ efforts to convince them that Australia is not simply a US auxiliary force in the Pacific and a reticent partner of ASEAN and the Pacific Islands Forum. In fact, both domestic and regional critics believe AUKUS compromises Australian sovereignty because of its command and technology reliance on the US.
In the final analysis, AUKUS is an overly ambitious, prohibitively costly and highly risky regional nuclearisation and militarisation plan accentuated by darkening clouds in international affairs. The April 2023 Australian Defence Strategic Review can be expected to attempt to reconcile regional diplomatic opposition and the domestic fiscal sinkhole that AUKUS represents.
The Editor.
Xi Jinping : “profound and complex changes”
The Washington-led ‘containment, encirclement and suppression’ of China presents challenges at home. President Xi’s comments marked an unusual departure for a leader who has generally refrained from directly criticising the US in public remarks - even as his decade long leadership has demonstrated a pragmatic approach to the bilateral relationship.
“Western countries - led by the US - have implemented all-round containment, encirclement and suppression against us, bringing unprecedentedly severe challenges to our country’s development,”
The public exposure of US suppression of China’s development over the past five years comes as President Xi tells investors that China’s economy, while damaged by US policies including the securitisation of trade and technology, has displayed enormous resilience and continuing vitality.
The comments were part of a speech to members of China’s top political advisory body during the annual legislative “two sessions” in Beijing. While President Xi has mentioned the US in critical tones during internal speeches, such remarks have often filtered out through subordinates relaying his messages for broader audiences, within the party and beyond. In statements made in public settings or directly reported by state media, President Xi has typically been more measured and vague regarding the US and other Western countries, referring to them as “certain” countries rather than naming them explicitly.
“have the courage to fight as the country faces profound and complex changes in both the domestic and international landscape.”
By publicly exposing the US policy of containment, a term loaded with Cold War meaning, President Xi is demonstrating that bilateral tensions caused by the US are damaging trade and technology, reducing global economic development and, that the US proxy war against Russia is demonstrably dangerous and unnecessarily destructive for the Ukrainian people.
The Editor .
EU-China Relations Summary
The war in Ukraine has hobbled the EU’s push for strategic autonomy, but its desire to pursue this goal remains.
The war has increased the EU’s dependence on and tilt towards the US. This trend is largely expected to continue.
The war has accelerated the EU’s shift of emphasis to “competitor” and “rival” in its triadic “partner-competitor-rival” positioning on China.
Beijing’s stance in the Russo-Ukrainian war has been misunderstood and has contributed to Europe’s growing antagonism towards Beijing.
The influence of pro-US (and China-sceptic) countries in central, eastern and northern Europe over EU decision-making has increased considerably over the past year. This is not good for EU-China relations.
The EU is beset with economic, political and social problems and the situation continues only to get worse. This is detrimental to the EU’s pursuit of strategic autonomy.
Past and upcoming visits to Beijing by European leaders signal that Europe still wants (or needs) to strengthen economic ties and engage with Beijing even if this means going against US wishes.
The EU’s economy is in the doldrums. Deepening economic ties will continue to be one of the keys to fostering closer relations with the EU and its members states. But the pull of the Chinese market will not prevent the EU from reducing its dependence on China in certain areas. Nor will it prevent the EU’s continued “interference” in and around the Indo-Pacific.
Transatlantic ties may have strengthened over the past year but rifts remain and could widen again in future. EU-US economic competition and European distrust of Washington should encourage the EU in its pursuit of strategic autonomy and prevent it from tilting too far towards the US (see also Xin Hua).
France and Germany remain the two key “pragmatic” countries that China should continue to engage with, though they have less sway over the EU than they used to. France continues to be seen as the country most aligned with China’s hope for a more independent EU.
Read full list at Sinification.
Dmitry Medvedev: Hammer the final nail into the coffin of the Western world's neo-colonial aspirations
The sharp blade of turbulence in international relations has opened a festering sore of our world's lingering problems. For many decades they have been treated with "political band-aids" instead of addressing the causes of the disease. But the abscess cannot go on forever. It is time for international surgery to remove the malignant tumour of the colonial past.
One example is Argentina's withdrawal from the Malvinas (or Falklands, in British parlance) agreement with Britain. The paper is fairly recent by historical standards - 2016. But politically it is rotten and stinky (as, indeed, is everything touched by London's plague hand). Buenos Aires' focus on continuing the just struggle to regain sovereignty over disputed territories clearly demonstrated the course of strengthening the legal personality of states and their fight against the shameful modern practices of neo-colonialism that continue to plague many countries.
There are still enough non-self-governing territories in the world, according to UN classifications, and they are remnants of the collapse of the colonial system in the 1950s and 1970s. Indeed, do former colonial powers really want to give them true freedom? Hardly.
Never would Britain give the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius, nor would France give Mayotte to the Union of the Comoros or the Epars Islands to Madagascar. They have therefore lately only been strengthened in their understanding of the rightness of resisting the remnants of neo-colonial practices and the imposition of perverse cultural attitudes that emanate from former Western metropolises.
Read full article here.
TSMC shifts to US before Beijing reasserts sovereignty.
The most pressing issue in Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan is not Beijing’s eventual reassertion of sovereignty, but whether it has sufficient time to escape the island fortress for the United States with its semiconductor manufacturing treasure.
The new TSMC semiconductor factory that is under construction in the US is catalysing enormous consternation among those who fear being left behind. Opposition politician Chiu Chen-yuan questioned foreign minister Joseph Wu about the rapidly expanding off-shoring of TSMC. Was the company under intense pressure and receiving vast bribes to export its most sophisticated technology to its new plant in Phoenix, Arizona? Had the government inked a “secret deal” with the Americans to disadvantage Taiwan? An avalanche of comments on LINE, WeChat, Weibo Telegram, Facebook and YouTube denounced Taiwan’s provincial government for stripping Taiwan of its greatest treasure to ensure the political elite have a fortune awaiting them in Arizona before they escape Beijing’s reassertion of sovereignty.
The Editor
Tass: Ukraine suffers devastating losses
Russian air defences have destroyed nine Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles and shot down 15 HIMARS and Uragan rockets over the past day. Russian forces destroyed a Ukrainian Buk-M1 anti-aircraft missile system, an S-300 radar and a US-made counter-battery radar station over the past day during the special military operation in Ukraine, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Monday.
"In the area of the settlement of Troitskoye in the Donetsk People’s Republic, a Ukrainian Buk-M1 self-propelled anti-aircraft missile system was destroyed. In the area of the community of Andreyevka in the Donetsk People’s Republic, a guidance radar of a Ukrainian S-300 surface-to-air missile system was obliterated. In addition, a US-manufactured AN/TPQ-37 counter-battery radar station was destroyed near the settlement of Gulyaipole in the Zaporozhye Region," the spokesman said.
"In the past 24 hours, operational/tactical and army aviation, missile troops and artillery of the Russian group of forces struck 86 Ukrainian artillery units at firing positions, manpower and equipment in 117 areas," the general said.
Russian fighter aircraft shot down a Ukrainian Su-27 fighter jet and a Mi-8 helicopter while Russian air defenses downed a Ukrainian Air Force MiG-29 fighter jet near the city of Krasnoarmeysk in the Donetsk People’s Republic, the general added.
Russian forces struck Ukrainian army units in the Kupyansk area, eliminating enemy manpower and equipment, "As many as 45 Ukrainian personnel, two armored combat vehicles and three pickup trucks were destroyed," Konashenkov reported. Russian forces struck Ukrainian manpower and equipment in the Krasny Liman area, eliminating over 160 enemy troops, a tank and a Grad multiple rocket launcher over the past day. "In the Krasny Liman direction, units of the battlegroup Center and artillery inflicted enemy losses of over 160 troops, a tank, three infantry fighting vehicles, five armoured combat vehicles, three motor vehicles and a Grad multiple rocket launcher in that area in the past 24 hours, the general specified.
In the Donetsk direction, Russian forces eliminated about 225 Ukrainian troops, five infantry fighting vehicles, nine armoured combat vehicles, five pickup trucks, four motor vehicles, an Uragan multiple launch rocket system and a D-30 howitzer were destroyed as a result of the continued active operations by units of the southern battlegroup and artillery fire.
In addition, Russian forces obliterated an ammunition depot of the Ukrainian army’s 55th artillery brigade in the area of the settlement of Dachnoye in the Donetsk People’s Republic and a US-made AN/TPQ-37 counter-battery radar near the community of Chasov Yar in the Donetsk People’s Republic. Russian forces destroyed about 65 Ukrainian troops in the southern Donetsk and Zaporozhye areas in the past day, Konashenkov reported.
"As many as 65 [Ukrainian] personnel, two armoured combat vehicles, two pickup trucks and Uragan and Grad multiple rocket launchers were destroyed in those areas in the past 24 hours. Russian forces destroyed three Ukrainian armored combat vehicles and an Akatsiya self-propelled howitzer in the Kherson area over the past day, Konashenkov reported.
"In the Kherson direction, artillery fire eliminated three armoured combat vehicles, eight motor vehicles and an Akatsiya self-propelled howitzer," the spokesman said. Russian air defenses destroyed nine Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles and shot down 15 HIMARS and Uragan rockets over the past day, Konashenkov reported.
"In the past 24 hours, air defense capabilities intercepted 15 rockets of the HIMARS and Uragan multiple launch rocket systems and destroyed nine unmanned aerial vehicles in areas near the settlements of Berestovoye in the Kharkov Region, Karmazinovka in the Lugansk People’s Republic, Blagodatnoye, Novoandreyevka, Kirillovka and Verkhnetoretskoye in the Donetsk People’s Republic, Chubarevka and Magedovo in the Zaporozhye Region and Lesnoye in the Sumy Region," the spokesman said.
In all, the Russian Armed Forces have destroyed 396 Ukrainian warplanes, 217 helicopters, 3,345 unmanned aerial vehicles, 410 surface-to-air missile systems, 8,192 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles, 1,054 multiple rocket launchers, 4,284 field artillery guns and mortars and 8,771 special military motor vehicles since the beginning of the special military operation in Ukraine, Konashenkov reported.
Read full report here.