'Solid German business sources completely contradict the “message” delivered by the German Council on Foreign Relations on the trip to China.
According to these sources, the Scholz caravan went to Beijing to essentially lay down the preparatory steps for working out a peace deal with Russia, with China as privileged messenger.
This is – literally – as explosive, geopolitically and geoeconomically, as it gets. As I pointed out in one of my previous columns, Berlin and Moscow were keeping a secret communication back channel – via business interlocutors – right to the minute the usual suspects, in desperation, decided to blow up the Nord Streams.
Cue to the now notorious SMS from Liz Truss’s iPhone to Little Tony Blinken, one minute after the explosions: “It’s done.”
There’s more: the Scholz caravan may be trying to start a long and convoluted process of eventually replacing the US with China as a key ally. One should never forget that the top BRI trade/connectivity terminal in the EU is Germany (the Ruhr valley).
According to one of the sources, “if this effort is successful, then Germany, China and Russia can ally themselves together and drive the US out of Europe.”'
'Scholz himself, one day before his caravan hit Beijing, stressed to Chinese media that Germany has no intention of decoupling from China, and there’s nothing to justify “the calls by some to isolate China.”'
So could this all be the foundation stone of the Berlin-Moscow-Beijing trans-Eurasia geopolitical/geoeconomic corridor? That will mean Bye Bye Empire. Once again: it ain’t over till the fat lady goes Gotterdammerung.
Link to Article:
https://www.unz.com/pescobar/berlin-goes-to-beijing-the-real-deal/- Anonymous
Anonymous
“We must be fully prepared to respond to external interference and major incidents relating to Taiwan independence through non-peaceful means and other necessary measures, always maintain a high state of readiness, and be ready for war at all times,” the head of the Central Military Commission’s research bureau, Major General Liu Yantong, wrote.
General Xu Qiliang, formerly the party CMC’s top-ranked vice-chairman, urged the PLA to be “resolute” in crushing attempts at Taiwanese independence and foreign interference and prepare for a rapid transformation from peace to wartime. “Always maintain a high-readiness posture, like arrows on a pulled string ready to go, to ensure that the troops are prepared to fight at all times,” he wrote.
Xu also said China must make good use of the fundamental “ballast” in great power competition – the strategic deterrence provided by its nuclear weapons.
In his party congress report, President Xi Jinping set a goal for the PLA to “build a strong strategic deterrent system”.
Xu said the PLA should carry on with its “asymmetric countermeasures” approach, and “stick to the tactic of focusing on developing whatever the adversary fears the most”. Strengthening its strategic capabilities could effectively deter an enemy, he said.