4/12/2022

Ukraine: Misinformation, disinformation, distorted truth or truth, reading between the lines

1. SINGAPORE: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sparked intense public debate in Southeast Asia. Within the region, there are worries that segments of society have bought into the Kremlin’s online disinformation campaigns aimed at swaying sentiments on the war and justifying Russia’s invasion....

2. TWO PRO-RUSSIA NARRATIVES

The first narrative involves the Donbas region and the portrayal of Ukrainian authorities as neo-Nazis bent on subjecting Russian-speaking residents to constant military onslaught and genocide.

The second involves the assertion that the United States operates a network of biological weapons laboratories in Ukraine. Both of these debunked narratives, utilised as justifications for the invasion, have been widely propagated by Russia’s official Twitter accounts....

3. Amongst the 1,961 tweets identified from Singapore- and Philippines-based Twitter accounts, 838 of them mentioned the terms "US", "USA", "America" or "American". A substantial majority of these tweets carried anti-American sentiments. Analysts have highlighted how Russia seems to have masterfully curated their narratives to tap on "existing anti-Western messages" that have appeal in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The goal here is to convert this reservoir of anti-Western sentiment into goodwill and support for Russia....

4. According to the 2022 State of Southeast Survey, a significant minority of Singaporeans and Filipinos - 21 per cent and 31 per cent respectively - expressed no or little confidence that the US would do the "right thing" to contribute to global peace, security and prosperity. ...

Darren Cheong is a research associate with the Regional Strategic and Political Studies Programme at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. This commentary first appeared on the Institute's blog, Fulcrum.

The above is quoted from CNA and reads, this is an authoritative and objective analysis of the Ukraine crisis and ... the Russians are trying to write the narrative which is generally false and disinformation. Agree? Or this is the officially approved version of the Ukraine crisis?

In para 1, it says that the region is worried about segments of society being misled by the Russians as believing in the Russian narrative is bad. True?  The region means what, Asean or just Singapore? The underlying statement is that the Russian narrative is false. Really?

Para 2, the two Russian narratives, one, Ukrainian authorities used neo Nazi elements to kill Russian speaking Ukrainians and two, Americans operate bioweapon labs in Ukraine, are untruths and have been debunked? Really? Debunked by who? Has the UN conducted any investigation or no investigation?

Para 3 said a 'substantial majority of these tweets carried anti-American sentiments' meaning a substantial number of Singaporeans and Filipinos are anti Americans. Meaning a substantial number of them don't support the Americans involvement in the Ukraine war. And the substantial numbers include those in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, all anti Americans. This is contrarian to the American's claim that the international community is against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Para 4, 21% and 31% of Singaporeans and Filipinos have little confidence in US doing the right thing to contribute to global peace, security and prosperity. Is the author implying that this is a minority and the majority have confidence in the Americans doing the right thing? Or maybe, the same percentages have confidence in the Americans while the balance 40-50% is not sure? By not saying how many percent believe in the Americans doing the right thing, is telling only half truth, half the picture. Why not tell the whole truth since the author must have the full statistic?

The article also implies that Singapore's stand against the Russian invasion has the support of Indonesia, the Philippines and Brunei, that in Asean, Singapore is not alone in opposing the invasion.

What do you think? What is the message of the article and what is the truth? Is it objective and impartial analysis or the author is telling his version of the anti Russian narrative?


36 comments:

  1. This is ka ki kong, ka ki song. Nothing is objecttive if no fact is presented, anyway false fact also can be created.
    All this people from think tank institute(as well as SPH) can also be under the influence of CIA.
    In india, the most popular news is now from mr Arnab..because he dare to f..ck the USAss by saying what most people dare not say about the evil empire.

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  2. No, no, no, not true. The Americans can influence or pressure any country, but not Singapore and not Singaporean thinkers and analysts. Singapore is a very strong and independent country and would not be pressured or influenced by any country. Singapore and Singaporeans got principles and stand on principles.

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  3. Red dot don't play play...it's a rumble between big elephants.

    'Russia’s top diplomat has declared that the purpose of the special military operation in the Ukraine is to put an end to the US-dominated global order.'

    https://www.unz.com/aanglin/lavrov-the-ukrainian-operation-is-intended-to-end-us-world-domination-agenda/

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  4. No joke! People here have been misled by Russian misinformation. They were not misled by fabrication, lies and misinformation when Iraq was invaded. Is it just because the UN used their rubber stamp to legalise it? Now the world is seeing the UN as an entity without credibility and responsibility..

    Now, who is the one country generating the biggest misinformation campaign in history? Does US$300 million a year gives everyone a clue? Make a guess! I think most people do not need to guess, and is a well known fact at their finger tips, however much the MSM narrative is trying to do damage control. Significantly, I think Russia does not, even if they want to, have that kind of spare cash to fund their misinformation campaign worldwide.

    For trying to destroy the truth through preventing investigation and thorough verification of the facts regarding the Bucha case, they ride rough shod over attempts to ask the UN to conduct an investigation, which was blatantly blocked by the British. Even when the accused wants an investigation to prove their innocence, the accusers would not allow. Is that how the UN works? Obviously the UN has been hijacked to look after the interest of the West, nothing more nothing less.

    How much misinformation can the Russians spread if you just consider that they totally do not have the Western MSM's support to do their disinformation work. Even on social media, like Youtube, Twitter etc, much of the uploads are one sided pro Western hubris demoonising Russia and China.

    In fact, the smearing of China has been more vile and intense lately, a sign that the evil empire is now desperate to target China for standing behind Russia. Likewise, India is facing the same problem, with threats getting more serious by the day.

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  5. Why does the West need to threaten China & India at the same time?

    'Cos the recent confiscation of Russian assets had frighten all the non-US wealthy folks..rumour has it that they are getting out and dumping Western 'assets' asap.

    Seems like the Euros and USD are weakening and PMs are rising...

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  6. Remember somebody confidently told the world that China would be ostracized by nations if it carries on its South China Sea policy? But many nations still flock to Beijing!

    That fellow also told the world not to panic during the beginning of the Lehman crisis. When everybody else is panicking and you can still keep your cool, it means you don't understand the problem!

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  7. Thankfully, I never read the MSM, otherwise I would have run out of salt. Please stop listening to the MSM, experts and analyst, otherwise the price of salt is liable to shoot up as well like oil, when demands surge. LOL

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  8. Singapore branch of the US brainwashing apparatus is beginning to show its true colour, rising to the occasion! Beware of all the misinformation coming from this Channel News America.

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  9. According to NBC News report: “Multiple US officials acknowledged that the US has used information as a weapon even when confidence in the accuracy of the information wasn’t high. Sometimes,” the report noted, “it has used low-confidence intelligence.” The purpose for using intelligence which, to quote NBC News, “wasn’t rock solid”, was to deter Russian actions by keeping Russian President Vladimir Putin “off balance.”

    It is well known that Ukraine maintains an expansive and capable information warfare capability. Units such as the Ukrainian Intelligence Service’s 72nd Center for Information and Psychological Operations (PSO) have been carrying out a sophisticated propaganda campaign designed to enhance the perception of Ukrainian strength and resolve while denigrating the Russian special military operation underway in Ukraine. Indeed, the 72nd PSO was considered by Russia to be such a threat that the Russian military singled out its headquarters for destruction early on in the conflict.

    Moreover, it has been reported that, in the aftermath of the February 2014 “Maidan Revolution” in Ukraine, the US intelligence community has initiated and maintained in-depth contacts with their Ukrainian intelligence and security counterparts, a relationship which has only expanded in scope and scale over the course of the preceding eight years. Logic dictates that information operations targeting Russia would be an area of joint interest, and that the US would be assisting Ukraine in this effort following the initiation of the current Russian-Ukrainian conflict on February 24, 2022.

    Providing declassified intelligence to Ukraine for it to be repackaged and disseminated as anti-Russian propaganda is very much a legitimate use of intelligence information. Moreover, under certain conditions relating to covert political action, US intelligence organizations may use manufactured information to help breathe life and credibility into a false narrative designed to undermine the operations of a designated enemy. Under such conditions, however, the information must not be able to be sourced back to the US and, most importantly, this information should not be disseminated in a manner which would misinform US policymakers.

    This is admission on the part of unnamed US national security officials that the US is releasing sub-standard (i.e., potentially false and misleading) intelligence for the purpose of shaping a public narrative designed to be absorbed and believed by civilian consumers at home and abroad, thereby creating genuine political pressure on the Russian leadership.

    The US intelligence community has been walking on thin ice since its use of politicized intelligence to manufacture a case for war against Iraq in 2003. Now, the revelations that the US intelligence community is releasing sub-standard intelligence, knowing that it might be false and misleading, to shape US and global public opinion against Russia, should drive a stake through the heart of US credibility – or at the very least make the American public, and the world community, ask themselves whether they can ever again take US intelligence assertions at face value.

    - Scott Ritter, RT

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  10. Channel News America today reported that the Russians are using rape as a weapon, after nine women were said to have been raped by Russian soldiers.

    How is rape now a weapon in a war, I failed to understand. Did the Ukrainian soldiers drop their guns (or cuckoo birds) because of that? Very soon they will say that Russian soldiers are using sodomy as a weapon, to frighten the Ukrainian soldiers. Lelensky better prepare lots of lubricants for his backside and get ready for sodomy when Ukraine falls.

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  11. The Ukrainians have been fabricating a lot of lies and false flag incidents to blame the Russians for atrocities. Ukrainians putting on Russian uniforms to commit crimes like rape and murder are elementary.

    So much lies and disinformation have been published by the main media that no thinking person would believe in the main media anymore.

    The credibility and trust of the main media have gone done the sewers.

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  12. Who is the biggest culprit in spreading fake news and disinformation?

    Who is the biggest source of manufactured fake news?

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  13. The Ukrainians have lots of old Soviet Era weapons which have now been used to promote false flag operations, like the missile that hit the railway station. The Russians said that they do not use that kind of obsolete weapons anymore.

    In any case, why would the Russians allow those civilians to leave under their humanitarian corridors and hit them for the world to condemn. Does not make any sense. Why not just let them remain in the war zone, if their intention was not to let them survive. Those civilians have been used as human shields to prevent the Russians striking the Ukrainian soldiers hiding behind them. When they choose to leave, the Ukrainians probably take this opportunity to create a false flag to blame the Russians.

    Now the MSM is admitting that the war in Eastern Ukraine is lost to the Russians and nothing to lift the Ukraine troop's moral using propaganda is of any relevance.

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  14. I think the Russians have very incriminating evidence by sanctioning Biden's son, Hunter.

    The MSM is asking the question - How long can Putin remain in power?

    In any case, I think he will outlast Biden. The USA mid term election is producing another blockbuster show for the world to enjoy. But it is all for entertainment only folks. The left hand or the right hand are up for the American voters to choose. A democracy with a dictator or dictators behind the curtain.

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  15. Looking at some of the video clips, the Ukrainian soldiers are very cruel people. They are killing Ukrainians to blame it on the Russians. They are learning every dirty trick their American masters taught them.

    When they accused the Russians of wanting to use chemical bombs, this is preparing the world to get use to this news before they use it on their own people and blame the Russians for it, like the Americans using it in Syria and Iraq.

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  16. Many people have been asking why is Ukraine such an important asset for the USA to protect?

    If the information about the tunnels and bio weapons lab are exposed for the world to see, we can understand now why the USA is so paranoid about Ukraine falling into Russian hands and shedding Ukrainian blood and bankrupting NATO resources and credibility, all to protect the USA and Joe Biden's hideous asset in Ukraine. Interesting to hear what Trump has to say if true.

    Another mystery to be exposed is what or who is inside the steel manufacturing plant in Mariupol, that the Ukrainian Military takes so much risk to extricate, loosing five helicopters and numerous crews and even attempting to do the extraction by sea, using a merchant ship. Much speculation has been going on about what is hidden inside the facility. It certainly must be some very incriminating people or thing.

    Going forward, let us see how the UN and ICC deals with it. Probably for the Russian raising it at the UN, it will be blocked. So, no investigation means no crime. QED

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  17. This silly Comedian still cannot see what the hell is going on and thinking he can win a war against the Russians. In the meantime Ukrainians are dying everyday and the debt of Ukraine is mounting and the country dysfunctional.

    How many fools are out there thinking a tiny country could take on Russia when the Americans would not even dare to do so?

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  18. US dollar holds strong amid diversification talk

    The freezing of much of Russia’s official foreign reserves has inevitably led some again to predict the imminent demise of the dollar’s “exorbitant privilege” as the world’s reserve currency of choice. But we should not write the greenback’s obituary just yet.

    On its own, the sanctioning of Russia’s reserves will likely reinforce the primacy of the dollar as the backbone of the fiat currency system. Only if the United States were regularly to use such financial sanctions as an offensive foreign policy weapon might a more rapid erosion in the dollar’s status occur.

    True, in the past four years – a period marked by a US-China trade war and the Covid-19 pandemic – the dollar has accounted for only 40% of new reserve accumulation, compared with 23% for the euro. The Chinese renminbi’s share of new reserves has jumped to 10%, while the Japanese yen and British pound have gained ground as well.

    Despite this, it is far from clear that confidence in the dollar is waning. First, global reserve growth over the past four years was a fraction of the rapid growth seen in the five years before and after the 2008 global financial crisis, reflecting reduced global imbalances. The dollar’s share of reserves has fallen from 73% in 2001 to 59% last year. But most of this decline took place in the 2000s, when reserves surged by US$8.1 trillion (compared with US$2.6 trillion in the last decade).

    Second, the International Monetary Fund’s new allocation last year of US$650 billion in special drawing rights (SDRs, the IMF’s reserve asset) artificially deflated the dollar’s share of global reserve growth during the pandemic. SDRs are based on a currency basket in which the dollar’s share is only 42%, while those of the euro, renminbi, yen, and pound are 31%, 11%, 8% and 8%, respectively. As SDRs accrue principally to advanced economies that never use them, these shares effectively inflate the shares of non-dollar foreign reserves.

    Finally, countries with strong security relationships with the US – including the vast majority of states with the largest holdings of foreign-exchange reserves – typically maintain a larger-than-average share of their reserves in dollars. As long as America’s Asian and European allies deem US security guarantees to be credible, these countries have little incentive to shift away from the dollar.

    Reserve freezes are not new, but the measures against Russia mark the first time that they have been applied to a G20 country with a high degree of global trade and financial integration. For foreign investors, reserve freezes that aim to create a financial panic pose an existential threat, in terms of the potential for capital to be either lost or trapped onshore.

    The potency of the sanctions imposed on Russia’s reserves stemmed not from US actions alone, but rather from the concordant steps taken by Europe and Japan. Their participation ensured de facto near-unanimity, because Chinese banks became reluctant to deal with Russia for fear of being sanctioned in turn.

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  19. But for now, the sanctions risk premium on foreign exchange reserves realistically applies only to countries at high risk of globally coordinated measures – namely China. For the vast majority of other countries, sanctions risk should remain low. Reserve diversification will continue to make sense, but it is likely to benefit currencies of countries deemed to be “sanctions-remote”.

    And while the US trade war with China and the freeze of Russia’s reserves have again raised fears of an exodus from the dollar, the question is where to? Strong network effects underpin the dollar’s “exorbitant privilege”, and the Russia sanctions have arguably reinforced its anchor status. All things considered, a 60/40 reserve split between the dollar and other currencies looks appropriate.

    While the renminbi should continue to benefit from China’s strong trade linkages with smaller countries and commodity exporters, its challenge to the dollar is likely to suffer from greater uncertainty regarding the rule of law and the sanctions risk premium. Larger central banks may be more reluctant to hold renminbi due to Western sanctions risk and the corresponding risk that China would be forced to reimpose capital controls on foreigners. The Chinese currency should therefore remain a fractional share of global reserves.

    The euro’s share of global reserves should rebound if yields return to positive territory. Recent progress in reducing the risk of a eurozone breakup is the precondition for both higher rates and a larger share in global reserves. Nonetheless, Europe still must address the issues that kept the euro’s share of reserves below 30% prior to the eurozone crisis: fragmented domestic capital markets and flawed counter-cyclical stabilization mechanisms.

    Other countries have some risk diversification value. But they are both individually and collectively too small to offer a credible alternative to the US, China and Europe as a destination for reserves.

    That said, one can expect lingering fallout from the freezing of Russia’s reserves. China will seek to insulate its existing reserves from potential sanctions. Commodity exporters will consider how to invest freshly minted foreign exchange reserves stemming from the current commodity boom. And foreign investors, both public and private, will assess possible collateral damage from financial sanctions that might affect the convertibility of renminbi assets onshore.

    What might eventually upend the dollar’s continued dominance? If history were to rhyme with the United Kingdom’s experience of a century ago, it would involve some combination of US financial sanctions overreach, further economic stagnation at home, and an erosion of credible security guarantees abroad. Such a scenario looks less remote than it did five years ago. But don’t bet on it happening anytime soon.

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  20. The US believes that sanctions could only have adverse impact on other countries like Russia and China and it would not be hurt. This is only true if they can retain dollar hegemony and keep the international banking system intact, and that EU will not collapse if this war and sanctions drag on for another 6 months or longer.

    The economies of US, EU, China, Russia and the rest of the world are very closely interdependent and everyone would be hurt if the sanction is not stopped.

    Then there is the initiative by Russia, China and the rest of the world coming out with an alternative international banking system to bypass the sanctions. When this is successfully implemented and there is no more fear of sanctions, sanctions would not work anymore and there will be a big reshuffle of the whole international trading system and the weakening of the supremacy and dominance of the dollar hegemony.

    Who can stand and bear with the pains of sanctions and who can hold out longer? There are many weak links in EU as well as in the US. The trade war is hurting the Americans as much as the Chinese if not more. It is not a one sided affair and every punch thrown out would have a reaction that may be equally strong. The interdependency of the US China economies says it would hurt both parties and the winner is not necessary the US. Very likely EU would raise their hands first. They are now all bluffing that it is not hurting them and pretending that all is well.

    He who laughs last laughs best.

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  21. Russia's pivot to China for payment alternatives offers limited gains

    Despite prospects of increasing cooperation on cross-border financial messaging, China's homegrown payment system is still too small and too narrow in scope to replace Russia's lost access to the international financial system, analysts said.

    CIPS handles about 5% of the volume that Swift does, according to Junyu Tan, an economist at French investment bank Natixis specializing in Asia thematic research.

    "The space will be quite limited in the short run for China's financial infrastructure to help with the sanctions on Swift for Russia," Tan said in a call with journalists March 7. "Over time, it can become a second best, but possibly a far distant second best."

    "Building mutual financial infrastructure is possible but not probable, because participants from the Chinese side would be opening themselves for sanctions, although [it] can be done with those that have no overseas exposures, such as development banks," said Rodrigo Zeidan, a finance and economics professor at New York University Shanghai. "There would be [a] political cost for China, who claims itself neutral, if such a system is built, yet the benefit would be so little due to the difference of the sizes of economy."

    "Chinese banks as a system will need to be prepared to avoid settlement risks amid Swift sanction against Russia," according to Xiangcai Securities' March 16 report. China may push for "a more comprehensive and regional payment infrastructure over [the] medium-to-long term" since CIPS is too small to replace Swift, it said.

    China Development Bank could not be reached for comment.

    Yuan only

    "What Russian needs is hard currencies, which they won't be able to get from a shared financial infrastructure with China, if any, which provides only yuan that can only buy Chinese goods," Zeidan said. "The yuan is not a convertible currency, they still don't have easy access to other currencies."

    Over 17% of bilateral trade between China and Russia was settled in yuan, which accounted for about 12% of Russia's foreign exchange reserves, according to a Chinese government statement issued Feb. 9.

    The yuan was the world's fourth-most-used currency in global payments in January, with a market share of 3.2%, according to Swift. The Chinese currency trailed the dollar, euro and British pound.

    In trade finance, the yuan was the world's third-most-used currency, with a market share of 1.92%, after the dollar and euro, with a market share of 87.38% and 5.76%, respectively.

    China and Russia have reduced their use of the dollar in bilateral trade significantly amid rounds of sanctions from the U.S. and other developed economies in recent years. Among the latest arrangements, PJSC Gazprom Neft said in September 2021 that it would use the yuan instead of the dollar in settlements for fueling planes in China, according to a Reuters report citing the CEO of the oil arm of Public Joint Stock Company Gazprom.

    "Ultimately, the strength of the [yuan] will come from China's capital market deepening and reform," Harvard's Yu said. "More than the size of the economy, the size of trade, or the stability of the currency, what determines the power and strength of a global currency is the depth and width of the financial markets" in which it operates.

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  22. Such information and reports are all information war to boost the confidence of the Americans and undermine the other side. When the stakes are high, Russia and China and the rest of the world would not take the bullying and highhanded sanctions kindly and would fight it out all the way. It is not just economics but a lot of political and strategic considerations at play.

    The Chinese and Russians and BRICS countries have been preparing and working on this for a long time and not unprepared. They will be hurt initially, just like the trade wars, but would recover and everything would be changed. The Americans have undermined the confidence and trustworthiness of the dollar and international financial system and would not get away with it. They have shown their bad intent and there is no turning back for the Russo China bloc to go their own way however painful it would be.

    It is war and there will be casualties.

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  23. All the negative reports generated from the west are like the reports in Channel News America, one sided and the Americans always right and always win.

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  24. We have yet to see how much effect all those trade done outside of the US$ has on the percentage of the US$ in global use in 2022. Moreover with countries now more unsure of the safety of keeping US$ as reserves, resulting in a drop in holdings of US$, that fact could be undermined by the unrestrained printing of fiat money to hide the fall in percentages.

    Indications put the printing by the US Treasury at between US$80 billion to US$85 billion a month, or more than a trillion a year. All this should go into the money supply spread around the world. But with less demand worldwide in 2022 resulting from the sanctions on Russia, it ultimately should mean more US$ will remain in USA, thereby becoming a contributing factor to inflation that, by design, is supposed to be exported to the rest of the world.

    What happens with such money printing in the past may not necessarily reflect what such printing will cause today, when then the USA was able to export inflation caused by money printing all over the world with oil totally traded in US$. Controlling inflation is a balancing act, but with corporate and personal debts up to their eyeballs and inflation so severe, printing more money worsens the problem and raising interest rates equally bad.

    I am no economist, but isn't that how it works?

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  25. Keeping their cards close to their chest is the best way to deal with the USA. Let them think that China, Russia, India and others moving away from the US$ and the creation of a new BRICS system of settlement is not of any significant threat to the USA SWIFT system. Let them continue to dwell in their comfort zone, the same way they took their eyes off China's rise until it became impossible to hold them back.

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  26. With China making mRNA vaccine, China can now let the USA and the West advertise the effectiveness and goodness of mRNA vaccines for them. Free advertising is always welcome for them. China can continue to depend on their own Sinopham and other Chinese developed vaccines which have been effective.

    Now what vaccines are the USA and the West going to target when China's mRNA vaccine gets approval and are ready for the world market in poorer countries, much cheaper than Pfizer or Moderna? Hope those poor countries can have 'Freedom of Choice".

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  27. Have governments dump US Treasurys these past six weeks ?

    Bond yield move inversely to bond prices. US 10-year Treasury yield rose seemingly unabated from a trough of 1.682% on March 01 to a high of 2.792% yesterday April 11.

    Although US Treasurys prices are tumbling mainly due to expectations that the US Federal Reserve will raise interest rates to curb strong inflationary pressures, the fall in US Treasury debt prices could in part be due to governments getting rid of their holdings of US Treasury debt as confidence that the US government will honour its debt obligations tanked after the US froze Russia's central bank reserves.

    The US Department of the Treasury report that will be issued on May 16 will be very interesting as it will show the amount of holdings of US Treasury Paper by different countries for the month ending March 31.

    As at end-January 2022, China holds USD1060.1 billions in US Treasurys. Singapore holds USD192.5 billions.

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  28. Be never in doubt that the USA will in time punish those countries that abstained or voted against their UN resolution to condemn Russia.

    The USA has already started rolling the ball against the big fish - China and India. They have big treasury holdings. Pakistan is now a work in progress with unknown holdings. There are many smaller countries with minor holdings, but still harbouring fear of being frozen. Will they take precautions if they had been among those that abstained? They should be worried.

    The USA and the West does not believe in honour. There is no honour among thieves.

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  29. Rise of the multipolar world:
    http://thesaker.is/interview-london-paul-from-the-sirius-report-move-to-multipolarity/

    'Global trade, finance and ecoomies will literally go through a revolution. The BRI (Belt and Road Initiative) has laid the foundation for a global trade system but it is fluid and subject to change. There is no doubt that banks and the global financial system are going to undergo radical changes, including their investment arms. There will be a radical overhaul of the function of governments and financial institutions to include central banks. We expect to see the adoption of sophisticated barter systems which will facilitate trade whereby the respective counter parties will set transaction prices as they see fit, free from government interference.

    In terms of future currencies, we are going to see the adoption of new payment mechanisms outside the purview of the USD / UST complex. This will include nations trading in local currencies, adopting future cryptocurrencies or digital currencies in multilateral formats such as the EAEU and the ASEAN nations. The backbone of future trade will be in currencies which are backed by real wealth, to include gold, perhaps silver and a basket of commodities. There will be no single world reserve currency in the future. China has always made it clear that it doesn’t seek to make the yuan a world reserve currency but merely to internationalise its currency. Russia also has that possibility via its vast commodity resource base, for the future global adoption of the ruble in terms of trade, particularly with the Global South but also the West and not just in terms of demanding ruble for gas as we are currently seeing.'

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  30. Instead of simplifying and making trade among nations more orderly the US$ has created multiple problems and issues for the world today. It is time and necessary to revamp the system.

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  31. Same as reports on mRNAs and how good they are, no bad things, no deaths, no adverse reactions, very good. Very very good. The best vaccines, world best vaccines. Go for more boosters.

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  32. China can half the price of its mRNA vaccines and see how the American pharmas going to rob the rest of the world with their outrageous prices.

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  33. Looks more like a racist hate crime against Chinese.

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  34. Anon2 "Singapore and Singaporeans got principles and stand on principles."

    Agreed! Anyone disagree can balek kampong.

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  35. Looks more like a racist hate crime against Chinese.

    We should send our triads to settle the score.

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