3/18/2023

Xi Putin coming meeting will be a game changer in the Ukraine War

President Xi's impending visit to Moscow to meet with Putin will be one important event that will be closely watched by the rest of the world. Xi's visit to Russia is sure to come up with very important geopolitical outcome for the China/Russia alliance. It could be the final nail in the coffin for the de-dollarisation move, the coup de grace against the US$ hegemony. Xi's overseas visit in the past had never been done for irrelevant matters.


China's impending supply of lethal weapons to Russia will likely be linked to USA's sale of weapons to Taiwan, which will probably be discussed between Xi and Putin. China is prepared to face USA sanctions by providing arms to Russia, a move in tandem with what the USA is providing to Taiwan. China has to tell the USA that it can also play the same game.

China knows such sanctions, if they go ahead with weapons supply to Russia, cannot be avoided, whether weapons supply to Russia is actually carried out or not, since the USA side is hyping up the possibility. The USA is going all out to target China in every conceivable way. The chips sanctions, the tech sanctions and sanctions on Chinese apps are already on after all.

The USA can extend sanctions to Chinese products, which if done, will cause inflation to skyrocket in the USA. Understandably, the raising of interest rates by the Fed had failed to tame inflation in the USA and the Fed has no more ammunition to bring down inflation without destroying the economy. Any move by way of sanctions on China will inevitably do more harm to the USA, and not just harming Chinese manufacturing. It will in effect be more damaging on the USA than all the sanctions on Russia, which by the way only harmed Europe more than the USA.
 
Anonymous 

3/17/2023

Asean in the eyes of the West - Pathetic and shallow

 


Photo cropped from an article by Ravi Velloor in the ST on 23 Feb 23. The caricature depicting Asean as a bunch of mindless men behaving like hungry third world kids is quite demeaning and condescending. Is Asean really that hungry and silly to rush for a hamburger offered by the Americans, like the $150m pittance, and fighting for it in glee?

Velloor's article in a way repeats the western narrative and wishful thinking that China is now in decline and the USA is back in favour. This kind of American propaganda trying to deceive the world that the failing American Empire is winning the war to remain as the number one hegemon is common in all American and western media, as well as the media of American crony states. 

Is America really winning the war of dominance? Is China really losing it because of a few sanctions and the chip and technology war? Just because of 3 years of Covid lockdown, self imposed by China, would this change the fate of China's rise? Don't dismiss the fact that China is now the number one trading partner of more than 120 countries in the world and now with the opening up, ex Covid, the Chinese factories are going to run full steam ahead while the Americans are sucked in the self destructive war in Ukraine, with its factories ramping more bullets and killer machine.

And not to forget, Asean is not the silly children of yesteryears that would run after a white tourist throwing sweets at them. Asean is now an economic power in its own right and does not need little pieces of crumbs to get by. As long as the region and the world at large remains peaceful, leaving aside the war in Europe, Asean's economies would do well without needing charity from the Americans.

The only way for the Americans to squeeze and control Asean is to blackmail Asean leaders on some indiscretion to do their bidding. This can only happen to one or two Asean leaders but not all the Asean leaders. The only thing the Americans can offer to Asean is war and military hardware that Asean did not want. 

Poor Marcos is now in a very difficult position and being dragged into the anti China camp by the Americans, just a few days after he became the President. What did the Americans have on him that led to this volte face in his foreign polices vis a vis China and the USA?

Which other Asean leader is going to be the next Marcos Jr to be arm twisted by the Americans to go against China?

Indonesia and Malaysia not happy with nuclear subs in the region? But some Asean members are very happy.  Perhaps Indonesia and Malaysia should join the party and ask the Americans to sell nuclear subs to them also. Caveat, the answer likely to be no even if both would want to be subsets of AUKUS, because they are not whites but Muslim states.

America turning Australia into another nuclear armed Israel in the region

If the intention is not to eventually turn those nuclear powered submarines into nuclear armed submarines, it will be stupid to believe that AUKUS had to be created to go all out to antagonise the French, by even cancelling their submarine deal, and ruffling the feathers of Indonesia and Malaysia, which to the USA will just be collateral damage. With Australia holding all the cards and given the emperor's edit to rule this region, other ASEAN countries will just be turned into countries of peripheral importance to the USA.


They have to generate the China threat to support the need to proliferate the nuclear threat discreetly, by playing the China card to justify the nuclearisation of Australia. This may lead to Australia being given nuclear missiles eventually to confront China, using the same tactic they attempted in Ukraine. Theoratically, what threat is China posing to Australia, being more than 4,600 miles away. It is not even within the South China Sea regional zone of dispute. The USA/UK's main intention is to cultivate Australia as their officially deputised sheriff in Asia, step by step.

And why openly supplying nuclear powered submarines for Australia, and not Japan. South Korea or the Philippines, countries which will be much closer and more suitable to threaten China with nuclear submarines? The Anglo Saxon Whites never trust the Japs, South Koreans, Pinoys or coloured people, or trust them enough to supply them with nuclear submarines. The USA and UK only trust their own Anglo Saxon Whites, countries willingly allowing themselves to be sacrificed with their undying support just to uphold the US hegemony, or White Supremacy. Losing that hegemony is not in their common interest, even if they have to go back to the stone age.

Anonymous 

The Americans missed the boat in containing China's rise


India made a wrong and silly move, by broadcasting its superpower intentions too early. Even Germany and Japan, not having announced any semblance of their superpower intentions, but just competing too well on economic grounds, were taken down by the USA from competing with them. All done without a whimper by Germany and Japan, obediently and under the thumb of the USA.

China is choosing to differ in bowing to the USA. China and Russia is providing a challenge to the USA for the rest of world to follow, making China as a pure competitor to challenge the USA that John Joseph Mearsheimer is talking about.

China kept its intention close to its chest for probably three decades, without resorting to loud announcements, and content to bid for time with just upgrading its military defence capabilities, lifting the bulk of its population out of poverty in the interim, enhancing its manufacturing capabilities to compete successfully globally, investing and improving its domestic infrastructure, expanding its soft power across all of Africa, Latin America, Middle East and Asia successfully with its BRI projects and infrastructure developments overseas.

China used the decades well and fruitfully, instead of opting for confrontation and wasting its resources. The trade surpluses with the USA had been well recycled to the chagrin of the USA. It mitigated the importance of the IMF and World Bank.

Even then, the USA, after taking its eyes away from China towards the Middle East and its preooccupation with terrorism, soon realised, knew and feared belatedly what China is doing and became nervous and paranoid when China overtook them in GDP (PPP) and also closing in fast on its nominal GDP as well. Even cutting off China from many technologies and researh over many fields failed to stop China's progress. And so the demonisation, hyping up of threats to instil fear in countries around China, forming alliances to contain China in technology, possibly the only one area still left for them to exploit to keep China down.

But the rise of BRICS is posing yet another big problem for the USA going forward. This is too big and wide a grouping to contain and kept down. And BRICS is growing, with lately, even Mexico touted as a super economy, joining. They can try to ignore the BRICS threat as overblown at their own peril, just like the China rising from the ashes to become a geo-political hot potato blowing up in their face of the USA.

BRICS will carry the de-dollaristion move to another level. That is basically the movement that will be the straw to break the camel's back in de-dollarisation if it succeeds, and it must not fail, in order to provide the world with an alternative to the US$ hegemony and the SWIFT control.

 Anonymous 

3/16/2023

Good news - Singapore learning from India

 Two nations to work together to fuel skills development. This piece of news is perhaps the most important news of the day, or the year, but hidden in page 8. It should be front page news. India is the rising star in the world stage, slated to be the next super power, oops, the number one super power in the world. And Singapore has been drifting aimlessly and many are saying, sliding into the Third World. There are many obvious things that Singapore can learn from India. The most important thing is education.

Singapore, despite the bragging right of having two of the world's top universities, is failing in producing the kind of talents that India is producing. Top CEOs, bankers, IT experts, doctors, professors etc etc, are the pride of India. Indian universities are producing them like a well machine production line, to be employed in the biggest companies all over the world, including in Singapore. Without these Indian talents, American and western MNCs would be in trouble. Singapore's DBS would not be what it is today, including many other big companies and GLCs, if Singapore did not bring in the Indian talents.

The dearth of talents in this talentless island speaks for itself. Something is drastically wrong in Singapore's education system that is not producing the top talents that it needs. The best that Singapore is producing now could be taxi and Grab drivers, highly talented and armed with degrees and diplomas, the best taxi and Grab drivers in the world.

Now that Singapore has discovered its weaknesses and willing to learn from India, Singapore can go ahead and import all the top talents from India, bankers, CEOs, IT experts, doctors and professors. The last is the most important. Singapore should import many more Indian professors to fill its two top universities so that they can also produce the same kind of top Indian talents Singapore needs, and also for the world. With the universities filled with Indian professors and producing the kind of graduates that are as good as Indian universities, maybe then Singapore needs not have to import Indian talents anymore. Indian professors would also be considered as foreign academics, so would also boost up the rankings of the universities.

Indian talents are proven world wide. Indian unversities are proven worldwide for producing excellent talents, despite the biased western grading systems that put them at the bottom of the ladder. And India is the next number one super power. It has already starting to over China in many fields, in space technology, IT, ICBMs, aircraft carriers, mobile phones, EVs, pharmaceuticals. India's aircraft carrier Vikrant is better than Chinese aircraft carriers. India's fighter aircraft Rafaeles are better than China's J20s. India is the world's number one democracy, it is going to be the world's most populous nation, overtaking China. 

All these are facts from Indian media, double checked and verified.  With all these achievements and accolades, India is the real stuff. No bluff.

Singapore would soon be able to return to its past glories as the most productive and progressive nation state with the help of India, and be as great as India. India is the ray of hope for Singapore. Instead of looking east or west, Singapore is looking to India. A very brilliant choice to bet on a dark horse. When you know that you have lost it, running out of ideas, India is the way to go. India would make Singapore great again.