China making amendments to BRI plan

The original Belt and Road New Silk Road Plan includes high speed train cutting down from southern China through Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia to Singapore. Its west bound line cuts through Myanmar, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, the Middle East towards Turkey and Europe.
This Plan is now modified taking into consideration the choice of Vietnam and India not to participate in the BRI. The southern line would now commence from Kunming, China through Laos, Cambodia and further south to Singapore bypassing Vietnam completely. The west bound line would also by pass India as well as India has decided to build its own Silk Road with Japan, starting from east India and ending in west India.
 
When the BRI is completed, goods from Vietnam and India to and from Europe would have to go by air or by sea, not by train, unless they build their own high speed or snail speed train to connect with the Chinese high speed train lines.
 
A third amendment is in the making with Mahathir cancelling all Chinese high speed train projects in Malaysia. It is likely that the southern point of the Chinese high speed train would end in Bangkok, Thailand and missing Malaysia and Singapore altogether. Goods from both countries to and from Europe and China would likewise go by air or sea. The heavy stuff that would be too expensive to go by air would have to go by sea in snail speed to Europe and China by then.
 
A fourth possible development would be for Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and India to build their own high speed train network starting from Vietnam down to Singapore and back up west to India.
There will then be two Silk Roads by land, one built by China and one by India, to transport goods to the various countries along the New Silk Roads. India may want to call it the New Sari Road. Oh it can extend all the way to Japan as well.

There is no need for China to beg the unconvinced to join the bandwagon if they chose to be left out of the game plan.

National plan to fight fake news

The Select Committee has come out with a national strategy ‘to combat fake news campaigns run by foreign operators to safeguard its sovereignty and security. The focus of the Committee is foreign operators and social media. The problem is that local operators and main stream media are not saints and angels either and did not conduct campaigns to undermine the country’s and national interest. This point is not addressed by this Committee or only superficially.
 
The Committee claimed that they have ‘evidence suggesting that “a range of state and non state actors” are engaging in disinformation operations here, and that these operators have used online news articles and social media to influence Singaporeans and legitimize another state’s international actions.’ It also mentioned that “a particular foreign state” without identifying it, had launched closed to 40,000 attacks. The identity of this state is quite obvious depending on what lenses one is wearing. Some choose to call it A state, some choose to call it B state, according to their vested interests and alignment with the respective state.
 
If one is to read the so called serious articles posted in the main media, one can easily identify the amount of falsehood and fake news used to undermine certain states with disinformation, and I quote thenewpaper report, ‘”Cyber armies” are also deployed to aid sectarian or political agendas in several neighbouring countries, and these can easily be repurposed and deployed against Singapore.’
 
How such blatant distorted fake news and political disinformation could be allowed into the main media needs no explanation. There is no need for more training for journalists or editors to make them less so stupid to miss the biased contents, agenda in fake news. Other than those that have not read history or political science, or are absolute idiots, anyone with a little common sense would be able to check the facts and distill the truth from fake news.
 
Often the fake news in the main media is done in collusion with foreign states to disparage and attack other states. Main media is as guilty or more guilty than social media in the spread of fake news and disinformation for political agendas.
 
So, where are we heading in this witch hunt? How real is the effort to fight fake news?

Who is paying for Trump’s trade war?

Trump is happily raising tariffs after tariffs and the Chinese reciprocating as much as they could on American exports. So, who is paying for all the tariff hikes? It was reported that American trade deficit with China for the month of Jul/Aug actually gone even higher after the tariffs. What does this say about the effectiveness of the trade war?
 
American exports to China are not only going to be more expensive, China has even stopped buying from American farmers and looking for other alternative sellers. When alternative sources are found, there would be no need to go back to buy American produce. American companies in China are also feeling the squeeze as their exports back to the US would be more expensive too. Can they afford to close their factories in China and move back to produce in the USA? For one, Boeing is losing all the thousands of aircraft that China has ordered and would be ordering. Deals cancelled.
 
What about Chinese exports to the US especially the consumer goods and home appliances, including mobile phones and computer related products? The Chinese products are so cheap that the 10% or 25% tariff would not make them more expensive than the European or Japanese made. Ultimately the American consumers would be the one paying for the tariff hikes in more expensive Chinese products that could be had cheaper.
 
Trump’s tariff hikes are actually taxes on the American people. Trump is actually raising taxes on the American people, forcing them to pay more for Chinese imports. And of course the American govt would gain from these taxes at the expense of the American people. It is all done for the good of Americans, so they said.
 
Who ends up the winners and who ends up the losers?
 
There is another big loser, another little USA, ie Australia. After trying to attack China like the Americans, banning Huawei and ZTE from 5G mobile phone operations in Australia, China has shut its door to Australian products. As of today, 480 Aussie ships, loaded with cargoes from iron ore, oil, LNG, farm produce, etc etc are circling outside Chinese ports wanting to sell/unload their goods at cheap sale price, but China is saying NO to them. Just like the American soya bean ships, they are just sailing around the Chinese ports praying for a change in Chinese policy, and an end to the trade war to let them in.
 
The Aussies may have a lot of raw material to sell. But without buyers, or big buyers like China, the raw material and commodities are worthless. The African countries are benefitting from the trade war. China is buying from Africa instead.

Ministerial pay – In the name of transparency and coming clean

The govt organ has come out to debunk the various versions of ministerial pay put up in the social media. In summary, what the social media was saying is that they wanted to know what the ministers were being paid. All the guessing and interpretations, some right, some wrong, some partially right, some partially wrong, is unnecessary if the govt would come out clean, be transparent as they used to shout about, to dispel the half truths due not of intent but lack of official statements.
 
Yes, there is a formula in the govt website site on the formula recommended by the last ministerial salary review. But the formula did not tell the whole story as the formula and practice did not seem to tally or is perceived so. Why? Simply because the govt is not telling the way it should be. Just come clean and settle this issue once for all and stop the people from guessing and speculating the worse case scenario. When everything is legal and official, there is nothing to hide. When the govt is trying to hide by not telling, it only leads to suspicion and mistrust.
 
Yes, this is the third time I am saying, parroting the govt, to be transparent, to come clean on the ministerial salary. This means telling the people what the ministers are being paid, not just basic salary and performance bonuses, give the full pay of the ministers, including other appointments like directorship, chairmanship and whatever, as long as it is income to the ministers due to his ministerial appointment. Is this too much to ask for?
 
Anyone being paid by taxpayers’ money must come clean, be transparent, the fourth time I am saying this, to account and justify for his or her income. This is basic in a democracy, in a country that prides itself that there is no corruption, no abuse of power, everything is legal and TRANSPARENT, nothing to hide, nothing to be ashamed of, nothing that is illegal, nothing that is funny and unexplainable.
 
The govt owes it to the people to settle this matter once and for all to kill all the fake news and half truths and mischievous speculations. It is for the good of the govt to make this right once and for all.
What do you think? Would there be more bits and pieces here and there and more half truths than the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
 
PS. The govt formula for minister’s pay is based on a fixed sum, eg PM’s salary is $2.2m a year based on basic salary, 13th month, a variable component up to 3 months, a performance bonus, up to 3 months and a national bonus from 3 to 6 months.
 
The PM does not get the performance bonus but can get 6 months of national bonus, ie basic salary +1 +3 +6. Other ministers would get basic salary +1 +3 +3 +3, ie basic salary +10 months. The PM is also supposed to get a basic salary +10 months to give $2.2m a year. A MR4 minister should get $1.1m a year. These are supposed to be max they could get. True, not true?
 
This looks like it, with a max of $2.2m for the PM and $1.1m for an entry level minister. But this is not the case when the performance bonus can be 4.1 average or more than 3 months. If any of the variable bonus can be more than 3 months, it means the max is not the max. So the max of $2.2m and $1.1m is not the max as provided by the ministerial review committee formula.
 
So, how many months did they get over the last 5 years. No need to talk about those earlier years before the salary revision.
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What the world would be like like without the USA or China?

Many people would have taken sides to praise or curse at the USA and China, being the two super powers on earth and influencing and affecting every country when they sneezed. Let's take a look at the world if one of these powers is not around.

What would the world be like without the USA?

Take the case of the world without the USA. The Red Indians or native Indians would still be the owners of North America and the buffaloes would roam the prairies. There would be no nuclear bombs, no air planes, no automobiles, no electricity, no apples or computers and mobile phones and many modern inventions and conveniences.

There would also be no wars of the scale the Americans are committing, no genocides of Red Indians and Arabs, no mass murders of the Koreans and Vietnamese, no Korea War or Vietnam war, no invasion of Iraq and Libya. Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi would still be alive. And no CIA to finance, train, finance and support terrorist movements. The Americans are desperately trying to save their terrorists holed up in Idlib, Syria, to avert them from being wiped out by the Russians. And likely no drug syndicates supported by the CIA to provide funds for the CIAs do commit more war crimes and crimes against humanity.

There will be no little USAs trying to punch above their weights, challenging and provoking China and Russia.

And there will be no democracy to talk about. The world would be a little more primitive, but more peaceful, without wars and all the sophisticated war machine for killing more people.

What would the world be like without China?

There would be no Belt and Road Initiative, no big infrastructure projects in Asia and Africa. There would be no rude Chinese tourists throwing their money everywhere and demanding attention. There would be no cheap consumer products for the poor and not so rich. Consumers would still be buying super expensive IBMs and Apple products, expensive computers and mobile phones, no cheap and good Xiaomis or Huaweis or Oppos and household appliances.

The third world countries would have no access to cheap financing to develop their countries. The raw material rich countries would not have big buyers like China to buy their raw materials, or according to the western narrative, to exploit their natural resources for cash or developments. The bulk of Australian natural resources in 480 bulk carriers now circulating outside Chinese ports is a good example of not just having the natural resources, you must have a willing buyer or else your natural resources would be as good as dirt if no one wants to buy them. Australia can try to sell to Europe, Japan and USA and see if there are takers. In this case, obviously no takers.

Without China, the Americans would continue to rule the world and bully everyone with regime change and military threats. I think there would be no wars as the Americans would over power every country and rule over them. There would be no resistance to the American fire power. There is another view to this. Wars would continue as the Americans need to create wars to sell their war machine or else their military war complexes and industries would close down, no buyers, no need for weapons and war machines.

Would the world be more blessed, a better place, without China or the USA?

PS. Without the Americans, there would be peace in the Middle East. Israel would be history. There would be several million Arabs still alive and populating the area instead of being war collateral, American's modern day version of genocide. If the Arabs are still fighting among themselves, they would be using knives and riding on camels.