Huawei CFO case – China compels to act

The vile unilateral arrest of Huawei’s CFO by the Canadian govt under instruction from the Americans compelled the Chinese govt to act against the Canadians and the Americans. This is an arrest of a Chinese national on transit and who has not committed any crime in Canada or the USA. The alleged crime is a violation of an American sanction on Iran that was unilaterally imposed by the US and nationals of other countries need to comply unless they are operating in the USA.
 
If the Americans can imposed their domestic laws on foreign nationals in other parts of the world, it would mean the American laws are international laws or the USA is the Empire of the world and every country would come under American laws.
 
China or any country would not subject their nationals to American laws and jurisdiction. This is a violation of the rights of other nationals and China must act or its govt would loose the support and respect of its citizens and countries of the world. After several stern warnings, the Canadians still refused to release Meng Wanzhou from custody. The latest, she has been allowed bail. This is not enough. The bail conditions were atrociously prohibitive, $10m bail, electronic tag, and the cruel hand and leg cuffing of a dignified and highly educated female top executive were incomprehensible. Only a rogue regime could ever do such wicked things.
 
It has been reported that China has arrested an ex Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig in China. Kovrig is now working with an International Crisis Group in Hong Kong. If the Canadians and the Americans deemed fit to address Chinese nationals for not breaking any of their laws, China can do likewise in return for the rogue behavior of these regimes. The Americans got the cheek to tell China to respect human rights and to release the Canadians. And they have issued warnings to Americans not to visit China for fear of arrest. This must be expected. China cannot sit idly by and allow Chinese nationals to be arrested anywhere in the world by rogue regimes when they did not commit any crimes against those countries. Kovrig must be treated under the same conditions as Meng, handcuffed, leg cuffed and paraded in court. The bail conditions should be no less than Meng.
 
More arrests of Americans and Canadians are on the card if Meng Wanzhou is not released. Both can play the same dirty game. If the Americans and Canadians want to play international kidnappers, China too can do the same. If China does not act to arrest the Canadians or Americans, then the Americans and Canadians would be embolden to arrest Chinese businessmen anywhere, anytime they so chose. This fear would stop Chinese businessmen from travelling outside China and must be removed at once. With the arrest of the Canadian, China is telling the Canadians and Americans that they too are subject to be arrested by China at will anywhere, anytime. The boyish PM Trudeau cannot pretend and act so innocently over this kidnapping of Meng, that it was a legal matter and has nothing to do with him or politics. Now his little balls are being caught between China and the USA and other Canadians are going to pay for his childish prank on China. He is being taught a lesson not to meddle with the men in the game of politics. And Canada is now know throughout the world as a dangerous country of kidnappers. They would arrest anyone under instruction from the US, even innocent people who did not commit any crime in Canada. Beware when travelling to this terrorist country.
 
While the American’s main intent was to kill Huawei, China has banned the sale of all Apple iPhones in the whole of China.
 
PS. There is a rumour that Kovrig has secret information on North Korea and North Korea is asking China to repatriate him to serve jail time in North Korea : ) How’s that for tit for tat? Wait for more Canadians to be arrested in greater China.

Desperate Evil Empire Resorts to Commercial & Financial Terrorism

   The audacity of this criminal act of kidnapping a Chinese national, the Chief Financial Officer of Huawei, Meng Wanzhou goes beyond the norms of human conduct in international relations. By prefabricating and trumping up fake charges against Meng Wanzhou, US shows that  it is a desperate country that has become wild and mad totally devoid of reason and logical thinking.

The Evil Empire thinks by its desperate criminal act it can hold back China's development of 5G by its international renowned company Huawei. China's success in developing 5G shows it is leading the world in the latest fifth industrial revolution which is not only good for China but also for the entire world. Why must US and some of its Western allies look at China's success in 5G with jaundiced eyes? It is really shameless, illogical and totally wild and mad for US to tell China to stop its 5G development just to give America time to catch up with it.

China is many years ahead of US and its Western allies in 5G development. The 5G system will be fully functional in China from 2019 and in many Asian, European and African countries by between 2020 and 2025.

When USA is unable to compete with China in a level playing field it resorts to using dirty underhand methods to try to stop China's technological advancement. By kidnapping and retaining Meng Wanzhou the Evil Empire thinks it can extort billions of dollars from China under its wild illicit sanctions. So far the Evil Empire has earlier gone away with extorting two billion dollars from another Chinese firm ZTE under the same illicit sanctions.

America has been cheating and swindling the whole world with its control of the PetroDollar. It has weaponized the PetroDollar and using it as a monetary and financial weapon to bully and threaten countries big and small to achieve its political and military aim of world domination and hegemony. With its full control of the PetroDollar the Evil Empire has been able to abusively using sanctions arbitrarily and indiscriminately to extort billions of dollars from other countries. This extreme abuse of using sanctions base on America's nefarious and illicit rules is tantamount to using mafia tactics to arm robbery and arm twisting to force designated victims to pay illicit extortion money.

Moreover US sanctions on Iran is illegal as it is against the decision of the United Nations and has been strongly objected and rejected by Germany, England, France, Italy, Russia, India, Japan and China.

The illegal kidnapping and retention of Huawei's Chief Financial Officer, Meng Wanzhou is  a dastardly criminal act which must be strongly denounced and condemned by the whole civilised world. The retention of Meng Wanzhou is clearly part of this shameless America's rogue tactic to browbeat and terrorise the world. Huawei and its Chief Financial Officer , Meng WSanzhou had done nothing wrong or illegal. The rogue Evil Empire must hence quickly release Meng Wanzhou without conditions.

If the USA resorts to commercial and financial terrorism and wrongful and illegal retention of a company's executive officer other countries will not be long to learn the precedent set by America and the Evil Empire will soon find itself in the receiving end.

Southernglory1

Wednesday, 12th December, 2018

Fandi being replaced by foreign coach for the national team

Just a few months into the job Fandi is being replaced yet by another foreign coach. Has Fandi failed doing what he was supposed to do, raise the standard of the national football team? I would say yes and no. He failed because there was little improvement, a kind of more or less the same situation. No, because with the present team, no wonder coach can do anything to make them better. Can the new foreign coach do better, maybe, maybe not? If he is going to keep the same team, nothing will change.
 
There is a Chinese saying, change the water without changing the medicine. If the players are the same players, no wonder coach can make them better. Many foreign coaches had come and gone, collecting their fat pay without any improvement. And the administration cannot see anything wrong and also failed to understand what was wrong and keep on changing coaches like changing underwear and expects miracles by a new coach to turn a bunch of mediocre players into world champions. If this could be done, it would have been done long ago. Stupidity is to keep on doing the same and expect something new to happen.
 
What is wrong with the players, yes, what is wrong with the players, not the coaches? Look back and reflect on the past glorious days of Singapore football and try to see the differences between then and now. Where were the Rajagopals and the Quah Kim Songs? Today we have a homogenous team of wannabe Fandis, even a new generation of Fandis. And they still could not deliver without the Rajagopals and the Quah Kim Songs.
 
Get the message? Forget about changing the coaches. Put Fandi back and change the players if they want the national team to improve and deliver the results. Picking the right players is more important than training them to play well. Choo Seng Quee picked Fandi from the mob because he was good at talent spotting. You need good coaches with this instinct and skill to pick good players, not players that looked good but cannot deliver.
 
This is a disease, that anything foreign is good. Pick a foreigner to head an organization and let him pick all the foreigners to replace the Singaporeans. Let him eventually replace all Singaporeans in Singapore with foreigners. How to destroy Singapore or Singaporeans? It is as easy as ABC. Let the foreigners do as he wants, hire as he wants, using Singapore’s money to spend on bringing in more foreigners and paying foreigners in the millions. A bland cheque to hire and hire foreigners.

PS. The Malaysian team was at its best when Towkay Soh Chin Ann was in charge with Santokh Singh in defence.

What we Cannot Defend Do Not Belong to us.

A Singapore Lesson

Déjà vu 2002.  A young Singapore National Service Army Reservist (NSman) packed his uniforms and military gear into his car, ready to report and fights the war for which he had been trained for and been on standby for over 15 years earlier.  He had hoped that war will never come; but he remembered Sun Tzu’s 1^st Principle in The Art of War - “Do not assume that the enemy will not come, but be prepared for his coming”.   

2018 last week, 16 years on; the sons of Singapore’s earlier NSmen braced themselves as they stood their ground for the potential armed conflicts which none of us actually wanted but prepared for.   

In 2002, a Malaysian gunboat had intruded and dropped anchor in Singapore waters in the vicinity of Pedra Branca Island where Horsburgh Lighthouse stands.  This unannounced provocative action followed Malaysia’s arbitrary claim of sovereignty and ownership over the Island and the Lighthouse, which was built by the British in 1851, without producing any basis for her purported legitimacy. Singapore had operated the Horsburgh Lighthouse on the granite island for more than 130 years without protest from its neighbour Malaysia (formerly Malaya), who actually acknowledged in a 1953 letter that “Johore (Malaya’s Southernmost State) does not claim ownership of Pedra Branca”.

For over more than a few days in 2002, the Singapore Navy encircled the Malaysian gunboat as our elite Commandos secured the Lighthouse, on the soccer-field size Island, with machine gun positions and other defensive weapons.  The standoff was tense and intense.  Elsewhere, 14 km away on the Singapore mainland, I had enjoined several thousand other NSmen readied to be deployed for the Mission which we were operationally-ready and trained for – to protect and safeguard the sovereignty of Singapore.

Then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew knew that the Petra Branca situation should not be allowed to fester and remain.  A Malaysian political party had already called for the invasion and occupation of the Island and Lighthouse.  PM Lee ordered the Malaysian gunboat to leave (by a specified deadline) or “be sunk”!  The ultimatum was quickly relayed through diplomatic channels to Malaysia.  To shorten this narrative, the Malaysian gunboat left long before PM Lee’s deadline as promptly as its unwelcomed arrival.  Everyone knew that PM Lee was a man of action who meant every word, warning and threat.  And sovereign is not a game to ‘play, play’ (in Singlish) or to be trifled with.

“WHAT WE CANNOT DEFEND DO NOT BELONG TO US!” – The Key Lesson.

The dispute over Petra Branca was finally resolved by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague in 2008.  The ICJ recognized and ruled that Singapore has sovereignty over Petra Branca.  Status update: In February 2017, Malaysia applied to the ICJ to overturn its 2008 decision, citing new “facts”.  Malaysia subsequently withdrew her application in June 2018, after these new “facts” were examined and found to be immaterial and irrelevant to support any review of the 2008 ICJ decision.   

Fast-Forward 16 years to October-November 2018.  Malaysian Government vessels, presumably including some armed naval ships, blatantly and deliberately intruded and violated Singapore Territorial Waters off Tuas on more than 14 occasions.  Like in 2002, the latest intrusions were not responding to any Singaporean provocations.  They followed the 25 October 2018 unilateral Malaysian official declaration to extend her Johor Port Limits arbitrarily beyond even their 1979 self-declared maritime boundary into our de facto, longstanding and established Singapore territorial waters.

The extension of Johor Port Limits makes no economic or rational sense and is a deliberate provocative action since Johor Port activities had also slowed down and reduced considerably because of the recessionary Malaysian economy due to domestic unrests, falling palm oil and petroleum prices.   So, why the need to increase the Johor Port Limits?      The 2 Johor Ports of Pasir Gudang and Tanjung Pelepas also handled less than 9.5 million 20-foot equivalent container units (TEU) compared to Singapore’s 34 million TEU, which is second only to Shanghai’s 40 million TEU.  Even so without the Port volume, Why Extend Them Into Other Country’s Territory?

In fact since 1999 or earlier, all ships of every nationality, including Malaysia, have recognized and respected Singapore’s territorial jurisdiction of the violated waters eg regular patrols by the Singapore Navy and Police Coast Guards, and seeking our permission to enter them.  The shipping community was therefore baffled and confused by the 11 Nov 2018 Malaysian Port Circular and 22 Nov 2018 Notice to Mariners.   

Like in 2002, Singapore protested the Malaysian intrusions through the usual diplomatic channels, but the provocative intrusions continued unabated almost daily.    The Singapore Navy intercepted the Malaysian vessels and warned them to leave our territorial waters.  

Singapore declared at a Press Conference on 4 December 2018 that the unilateral and arbitrary extension of Johore Port Limits “violated Singapore’s sovereignty”.  Several Singapore Ministers, all NSmen themselves, including the Defense Minister, have also publicly warned Malaysia to “cease and desist” her provocations or face their natural consequences from the full might of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF).   

“WHAT BELONGS TO US, WE WILL FIGHT AND DEFEND AT ALL COSTS!” 

– The NSmen Response.

There is no ambiguity in a unified Singaporean response to the latest Malaysian provocations and violations of Singapore sovereign territory.  Even the leading opposition political party in Parliament, many also NSmen themselves, issued a Press Statement in full support of “our men and women in all our security and enforcement agencies who have been activated to deal with the incursion of Malaysian vessels into Singapore waters”. 

The Singapore Port Limits are now extended to the boundaries of our own Territorial waters.  Know that more than 1,000 ships use the Singapore Port on a daily basis.

Last Friday, even after Singapore’s public warnings in all the news and social media, at least 3 Malaysian ships made further illegal incursions in violation of our waters.  Lucky for them, they were spared from total annihilation within seconds by our Harpoon Missiles only by the well-disciplined restraint of the Singapore Navy.  

Malaysians and Singaporeans must understand that the return of Dr Mahathir as Malaysian Prime Minister a few months ago means also embracing the baggage of Dr M’s past bitterness with Singapore during his first tenure as Prime Minister from 1981 to 2003.  In addition to his own failure in building a better Malaysia, Dr M's personality and feelings of lower self-esteem and inferiority to former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew explain his driving motivations when dealing with Singapore.  We should not be stupid or foolish enough to be suck into any war due to someone’s inability to adapt and adjust to his current surroundings.   

In Sun Tzu’s 2^nd Principle in The Art of War, he said: “When the enemy attacks, he must be met (or crushed) with unassailable and invincible force”.   Singapore wants to be a friend to all countries.  We have always regarded Malaysia to be a close friend and often good neighbor.  DO NOT MAKE US YOUR ENEMY.

Tin pot dictators with tin can brains

The western media are having a field day demonising and discrediting China and its BRI projects as one that would turn countries into debt owing to China and in worse case surrendering the projects to China in the end. It is all China’s fault and it is all China’s scheme of things, to make these countries in debt?
 
Is this true? How many countries and their leaders would want to be debt ridden willingly without a gun pointing at their heads and with all the time in the world to use their best men and best brains to negotiate a project to their benefits? China’s BRI projects and infrastructure investments in foreign countries are projects that were negotiated between two willing parties that have seen the goodness of the projects to go ahead. Only sick and idiotic leaders would sign away their national interests to China willingly. The terms and conditions of such projects were carefully negotiated on an equal paper terms.
 
This is unlike imperialism and colonialism of the West when they came, they saw and they conquered. The locals and natives have no say. The West came and decided what they wanted and took everything they wanted, even enslaving the natives and ruled over them. How is this compare to the present China BRI and infrastructure projects? China bullying the unwilling partners into submission, into debt? How many fools believe in this western myth?
 
Every leader of an independent country that agreed to participate in the BRI or infrastructure projects went in with their eyes wide open and has carefully thought through before signing on the papers. China can only offer to invest, to build and to finance at terms that are favourable to the other party and the projects must be seen as beneficial to the other parties.
 
The western poisonous narrative is that these leaders are idiots, cannot think and easily duped by China or simply blind. So they were taken for a ride by China. There are some other possibilities like corrupt leaders that think of their own pockets first and country last. There are also tin pot leaders or dictators with brains made of tin cans, empty and making a lot of noise when rattled. When you have leaders with a tin can brain, can you blame China for failures in the successful management of the projects or failure to finance the projects they wanted and signed with China?
 
Big infrastructure projects involved big capital commitments and these can only be recoverable over many years or decades. In China, many projects would be loss making initially and would only breakeven over several decades. Not many countries can build huge infrastructure projects and finance them with ready cash. It is like buying a property, it has to be financed over 30 or 50 years. And there are projects that would at best breakeven but their real contributions are in other areas and industries like highways and railroads.
 
The logic and reasoning of Mahathir over the debt of Malaysia incurred by Najib are simply hogwash. These projects are meant to be long term and financed over the long term. And the benefits are there over the long term, especially the Malacca port that would serve the same purpose as the Gwadar port in Pakistan and Piraeus port in Greece. It benefits Pakistan, Greece and China. Only tin pot leaders would think China or any country would pour in money to build and finance projects that would benefit other countries and not China or themselves. Najib’s big plan could be compromised by the falling oil prices as that was where his money was coming front to finance these projects. Did he have other contingency plans should oil prices fell drastically and unable to finance his projects? Did he over budgeted?
 
The cancellation of the east coast high speed train would scuttle the reasons for the Malacca port and the huge train manufacturing plant in KL. They are all inter related as part of the BRI. Pulling off one big piece would bring down the whole plan. Tin pot leaders would not be able to understand the complexities of big plans except one at a time. They called this single factor analysis. They cannot grasp anything more than 1 when they have tin cans as brains.
 
So, is it the fault of China or countries that failed to do their sums right to have joint projects with China in the BRI? Or is it the fault of tin pot brain leaders? Even tin pot leaders would not be stupid enough to willingly sign contracts with China or anyone else that would not benefit their countries, unless their arms are twisted, beholden and a colony or semi colony like Japan and South Korea and several others of the American Empire.
 
Indonesia and the Philippines are going ahead with multi billion dollar projects with China and clearly know the consequences to avoid a debt trap. This can only happen if they did their sums and financing right. They cannot come back and blame China latter when they mismanaged or done their sums wrongly in the future. At this moment both govts are very happy with the deals with China, fair and square. How else could it be for them to sign if the deals are not favourable to them and did meet their needs and interests?
 
But the West would be sounding for alarm that these two govts are running themselves into debt traps set by China. Are these govts made of fools?
 
PS. After the foolish Mahathir cancelled China’s high speed train and other major projects linked to the BRI, Malaysia has gone back to China for help to make Malacca the port of call for China’s merchant fleet and be the centre of the BRI in the region, replacing Singapore. This is after the recent spat with Singapore over the sea dispute. Would China say yes when the other projects that were part of the BRI were cancelled that would make the Malacca port irrelevant, a misfit? Tin can brains and tin can thinking.