Tan Weiwei, A night in Ulan Batoor... American reactions

 

 

 

A little entertainment from two Americans' reaction to a Mongolian/Chinese song, A night in Ulan Batoor, by Tan Weiwei. For more of her exceptional vocals listen to this below, Kang Ting Love Song.

ISEAS -Yusof Ishak Survey...Why only 50.5% favouring China over USA?

China has dethroned the US to become the top alignment choice for Southeast Asians, as Washington loses ground on a range of key issues from regional economic engagement to the Israel-Hamas War, a new survey showed.

A survey of 1,994 Southeast Asians by the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute published yesterday shows China’s popularity in a head-to-head race with the US climbing from 38.9 percent last year to 50.5 percent in 2024.

Among individual nations, Beijing garnered some three out of four votes in Muslim-majority Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.  Taipei Times

Doesn't anyone think the result and commentary following the above survey a bit out of sync? Caveat, the survey was conducted from a sample of the elite, likely mostly western educated.

Just read the last statement, 3 out of 4 votes in Muslim-majority Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei favoured China. This is a 75% approval rate for China. In order to counter balance this huge gap, the other countries must be voting at 70% in favour of the USA to end up with China having only a marginal advantage. Could this be the case?

Take a look at the Asean states and see who would vote in favour of America in the 70% or more?  Only the Philippines could be voting overwhelmingly for the Americans. Oh, another state could possibly do the same. As for the rest, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar would vote for China in the high 70s.The two other states left would be Thailand and Vietnam. Vietnam may be a 50:50 case. Thailand with China investing heavily in the country, with very good economic and trade relations with China, can only vote more in favour of China than otherwise.

So, can China really received a mere 50.5% favourable votes against the USA? My eyeballs are rolling. The only possibility is that the elitist western educated respondents were in the majority, and from one or two countries that are pro Americans, in absolute majority to be voting for the Americans. But even then, only two countries are on the side of the Americans.  Oops, Singapore is neutral. I stand corrected. The rest of the Muslim majority states are strongly anti America, with Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar also strongly pro China. Let's say Thailand and Vietnam offset each other, the votes must come up strongly in favour of China. It cannot be just a 0.5% in favour of China.

What do you think?

Janet Yelling at China to stop producing goods for the world

 Janet Yellen is again in China talking about warning China to curb its industrial overcapacity. Why is a country's overcapacity of any concern to the USA, I wonder? The USA is obviously unable to catch up and is inventing all kinds of narratives to hold back China. The reason that China can stand on its own today is all about its overcapacity to counter USA and Western sanctions. China is in fact 'future proofing' its push to be able to withstand USA and Western sanctions and threats.

China will be on its knees today without its dominance in some areas of scientific research and engineering, having a hold on rare earths, lithium and bauxite among others, and besides that, China had already built up all the logistics and expertise in refining such elements. Of course, upgrading the military stands as the foremost important aspect of China's indulgence in overcapacity. It will not be wasted.

Janet Yellen is telling China the USA is building up its industrial capacity too. Good luck to that, but why is there a need for her to tell China this. How long is the USA going to take to set up the logistics alone to undertake the job of truly decoupling from China?

Upon her return to the USA, I can more or less predict the salivating USA Government and MSM will start yelling to the world that Yellen had succeeded in pushing China to reduce its industrial capacity, lectured China again on human rights (their favorite past-time), besides warning China of further USA retaliation if China does not follow their script and all the hocus pocus. China is so familiar with the USA playbook to care two hoots about the yelling.

Watching her alighting from the plane, holding the rails tightly, reminds me of Biden stumbling up and down the steps of Air Force One. This old lady should not have been pushed into this job and is another example of 'elderly abuse'. Why is the USA abusing their old people to such an extent. Are there no capable young people to take over the running of the country, that they have to rely on such old feeble folks to hold the country together? The future does not look good for them if that is so.

Anonymous

Trump's little brain versus China's long term plans

 During the Trump administration, EVs, solar panels and wind turbines were demonized by Donald Trump himself, because they were starting to be dominated by China and USA and Europe were falling behind.

Trump had claimed that wind turbines were killing birds, the most ridiculous reason of all reasons (could be killing his bird). Trump also warned EV buyers that he will punish those buying them, in other words punishing Tesla too. And tariffs were slapped on solar panels mostly from China. What did these all achieve in the end? It slowed USA's progression towards renewable energy, and it fell behind China with another self-inflicted mistake.

Then Donal Trump was all for expanding USA's oil exploration, fracking and further investments in big oil, probably the biggest lobby contributing to his Presidential campaign in 2016.

Despite the onslaught, China persevered, resisted and expanded production and did not fall for Trump's political gamesmanship. China is today not only the dominant player in EVs, solar panels and wind turbines, but also controls the raw materials for their manufacturing such as rare earths, lithium, graphite and steel production among others.

China's domination does not come about by chance. Chinese leaders always look far ahead, 20 to 30 years ahead, betting on those sectors that have the biggest potential for growth and took control of the source of raw materials available and building up its refining capabilities, that nobody thought necessary to challenge. And now the USA and the West have lost the plot and are trying to play catch up. Catching up is now difficult, or should I be blunt and say impossible, so they are resorting to what they do best to pull others down to their level - sanctioning, demonizing, erecting barriers, increasing tariffs, roping in allies to set up alliances, all with the objective of stifling China.

And of all things, Janet Yellen is warning China not to increase industrialization further, which will make it more difficult for the USA and the West to pull closer. Good try Janet, just like the oil price cap that she came up with.

Anonymous

Japan invaded, colonised and massacred many Asean countries and people, but most trusted? Are Asean people stupid?

 I almost fell off my chair watching Channel News America interviewing someone and having the view and proclaiming that Japan is the most trusted power in ASEAN. And China is slowly losing trust among ASEAN countries. This narrative has been repeated quite regularly.

Why isn't the USA even mentioned in this instance regarding trustworthiness among ASEAN states? The USA was supposed to be so trustworthy (maybe in the Philippines and also in you know which other ASEAN country) in ASEAN. Every move that ASEAN makes, e.g. in Myanmar has to involve the USA. So how could the USA not be viewed in that context? The answer is that USA reputation is now so badly battered and distrusted in ASEAN that it is not worth a mention. So, Japan, a USA colony is taking its place. They cannot put China at the top, right?

Perhaps the distrust of the USA can be solidified by repeating the case of Indonesia being dragged, unknowingly, by the Pentagon as being a party to a joint statement that castigated Russia in Ukraine and criticising China, which, Pabowo, the then Defence Minister of Indonesia, had to come out to clear the lies by saying that no such agreement had taken place, and had to come out to tell Russia and China that Indonesia valued their relations. That was a big blow for the USA. That they lie, cheat and steal is no idle boast.

If China is reported to be slowly losing its trust among ASEAN countries, yet another headline at the bottom of the screen had a different take of the whole situation. It is reported that ASEAN is more in favour of China as the superpower in the region, not the USA. No wonder reading the fine print on anything is that important. That headline probably won't last another minute.

How in the world can Japan be claimed to be the most trustworthy power in ASEAN boggles the mind? Have ASEAN countries forgotten what the Japanese did to their grandparents and parents during WW2? Have some unfilial beans forgotten about the comfort women issue, especially if their mothers or sisters were victims? And yet Japan still do not come clean over all this, unlike the Germans.

How could Japan also be viewed as a trustworthy power, when it attacked Pearl Harbour while negotiations were still ongoing in Washington during WW2? That already shows how sneaky and untrustworthy the Japanese are. And yet among ASEAN states they claimed Japan to be the most trustworthy. I rest my case.

Why is Channel News America bringing up this issue suddenly? I guess the anti-China agenda is still top of their agenda, just to stoke unease among ASEAN states against China. I know that sometimes negative issues, about China or Chinese nationals, periodically pops up on MSM, innocently looking negative issues of minor importance, but strategically and discreetly inserted to brainwash viewers and readers of such news. Do not fall for the scam by them using such insidious attempts. 

Anonymous