My theory on the new cold war NATO strategy (China Warns Countries Not to Team Up Against It to Gain Trump Tariff Reprieve)
You should check how much of inputs in Vietnam comes from China (while yes, the majority of the outputs goes to the USA), and how much of their manufacturing force have Chinese companies at the core and Chinese supply lines. Also, how much they rely on China for required infrastructure, including how much electricity is currently supplied from Nanning.
Vietnam has potential, but that potential can only be capitalized if it aims to grow alongside a prosperous China.
The Philippines will need some type of revolution, drastically upgraded infrastructure, drastically improved education for its people. Their political structure is basically unchanged for centuries, with a couple of dynastic ruling families and as yet, a population unready for the structured existence of industrialization and manufacturing.
China also has a more efficient energy transfer system than elsewhere in the world, so the loss is a lot less than you would expect, lower than, for example, it would be in US.
If they just want to stay out of the situation they wouldn't make this statement, which sets forth their position very thoroughly: a two state solution based on 1967 borders. They've made this position clear for decades.
Chinese influence is coming into West Asia without a doubt, but they do NOT intend to be another great power that has clearly picked a side, clearly favoring certain countries over others. Picking side is how the West had played things, divide and conquer, sow distrust. After all this time, all countries there KNOW the Americans will pick Israel above all others, and thus the US can never act as a genuine peacemaker, no one will trust them to be fair. Nor can Russia, which has picked their sides fairly clearly too. But China can, having established trade relations with many countries in the region, and therefore in a position to talk to all sides and actually have the believable neutrality to pass messages, promote negotiations, and maybe achieve something.
I'm little frustrated, because it seems like people just want China to turn into another US, to interfere deeply with other countries' internal affairs but just do so with whatever side that is different than what the West had traditionally picked. That doesn't result in a multipolar world where great powers respect every country and regions' sovereignty; that's just tilting the world toward another pole. So they aren't going to do it, there is clearly stated principles behind their stance.
Finally, the Chinese historically did not played politics by using forceful power. For thousands of years, the way they dealt with foreign powers is through a system with tieres of BENEFITS and honors (apart from short aberration, such as Mao era). So they've always been more about the carrot than the stick, and now too they work more with dangling potential benefits to the West Asian countries in their effort toward providing more stability. It's more about painting a picture to all the leaders about how great it would be if everyone is not fighting as much, the potential for prosperity, etc, which is always going to be a longer process than straight up sending violence.
A society literally dominated by chaebols.. The system doesn't work well 😔
China has been working to increase the PLAN's power and reach this past decade. They are nearing to a blue water navy at this point, and have broken through the first island chain, within which they are no longer considered to be defeatable without extreme cost.
The US has withdrawn their concentration back to Guam (previously, they didn't bothered to arm the second island chain).
China has 20x the manufacturing power of the US and a bigger PPP (more efficient use of their military budget) , and they have known the US will one day come for them since Mao. Their recent ships are lighter in tonnage but newer than the American fleet by several decades, carries better equipment, radar, with greater fire power that makes them more equal to traditional ships one category higher in tonnage.
Finally, they aren't building a navy to project power around the globe like the US navy does. The PLAN intends to have the capability to defend their home waters and to protect their economic interests abroad, that's it, so it will never need to have as many ships as the US navy, so a tonnage or ship number comparison would not be an accurate measure of the PLAN capabilities.
To be fair they are parliamentarian and have been for centuries.
But, the parliament is literally staffed by aristocrats and other types of ruling elite, so....
I can't do americanized Chinese food I confess, I'm not American enough for that ;D
I honestly thought you made up this quote to be ironic, only to find it's actually in the article. Orz
Also, why is the talk only about tritium and carbon-14 in this report, ignoring 64 other elements present in the water that potentially contain harmful effects. The IAEA report states they only investigated these two elements by Japan's request, it does not imply that there are no other elements they can or should also investigate, just they didn't because they weren't requested to.
What? That's exactly what happens. Various stations in Washington DC have been closed, for 6+ months at a time, the past two years, for renovations. They made do with route workaround and shuttles in the meantime. Are you implying stations shouldn't update just because it might cause inconvenience? Safety trumps inconvenience.
This "underlying trend of things" is the dao, by the way :) Daoist philosophy and worldview, and Confucian philosophy and worldview--in addition to an awareness of history--still deeply underly Chinese thought and society. The way Judeo-Christian philosophy underlying the West. It's part of what accounts for the "with Chinese characteristics".
Unfortunately, the separatist government on Taiwan has a 40% core base who firmly believe that the USA, Japan, and South Korea will definitely come help them fight the PLA. In fact, they rely upon it, because in actuality they themselves are NOT joining the army, which is having difficulties with recruitment. But they sure believe that the US with its awesome navy will crush the PLAN, since the mainland is practically falling apart in some type of 1970s communist dystopia.
While there may have been legitimate reasons for these folks' reluctance to change their life and become a part of the mainland--many of which could probably have been addressed and negotiated if everyone were calm and relations were frequent and friendly as they were 15 years ago--they are also the product of intense anti-mainland propaganda that includes rewritten history books and rampant media misinformation.
So yeah, that's why these things always work so well. First they have a whole system of information warfare that salts the ground, and then they use people's genuine hopes and wishes against them, and even though everyone knows they're being used, they still believe they can get what they want as a result of being used.
I notice that as well, but the ones I come across seem to me more like classic conservatives (more isolationist and/or anti-atlanticist, strong military for defense but also our country should mind our own business, etc.) While we disagree on many core values, they seem reasonably rationale and factual, and have a solid grasp on international geopolitics. Versus the insane incoherence--well, more like "will say anything outrageous to satisfy a riled up base"--of rightwing populism.
I contribute that less to a deliberately created pipeline, though, than the natural result of the complete suppression of a genuine left in this country. With communism equated to Nazism since elementary school, most people will avoid lefty-sounding talking points and titles and then have only one direction to go when they look for alternatives to the mainstream narrative. And the YouTube algorithm picks that up in its big data.
Arguably, this is part of cultural DNA of the united states, which forebears arrived to escape authoritarian persecution, and whose Constitution assumes the state is there to deprive the rights from citizens, which must be protected from the state via laws, rather than believing that a state can also work to specifically enact and protect those rights, that without a state there ARE no rights.
The Chinese have historically held learning in high esteem and it remains the case today, imparted from parent to child at all levels of society. (I am sick from hearing it nonstop growing up, lol.)
Comes from Confucian traditions and the historical meritocratic bureaucracy. Taking the imperial exams was how one ascended the social ranks, for millennia, or maintained one's current high rank. Titles in the bureaucracy was not heritable, and every generation that fails to get a similar high level job gets demoted some ranks down, until they are relegated to commoners, oh the horror. Hence studying has always been considered the best thing to do to develop one self and one's place in society.
Do you believe that third world countries in general who have a desperate need to develop and not be poor anymore should be prevented from access to cheap energy because that's all they can afford? If so, do you believe already-developed countries should pay subsidies so these countries can use the far more expensive green energy and build the infrastructure to access it?
Do you know that as the world's factory, how much of the carbon China produces should be counted under the tabs of all the countries that put in orders for it to produce? What do you feel about those western countries which are the world's highest carbon emitter per capita and yet refuse to sign onto climate accords or take big actions?
Do you only expect perfection in a black or white way and everything that doesn't meet that standard is completely pointless, instantly to be dismissed, or are you able to celebrate some progress where they exist? If not, because you believe the climate issue is an urgent one that must contain no compromise, what policies do you believe is practically implementable and quickly effective and what steps to you think we can take to get there?
Paper in general, gun powder, compass
They wish it's this easy to keep people. If businesses knew how to monopolize the market forever, they wouldn't have been so desperate to set up these walls.
I dropped cable for Netflix years ago with a shrug, and as Netflix and all the streaming services are turning into cable I dropped them too and will wait for the next thing. If talking to some large group of faceless masses becomes annoying and spam filled, I'll keep my resources for other things I can turn my attention to.
It's weird to me to see these artificial structures treated as though they're some real solid thing with no alternatives. That's literally these companies' PR to make us believe it
I agree that the world isn't going to rise up in a united front with China against the US. China (and certainly the CPC) doesn't expect that, although they do what they can to engage with the global south simply as part of an unchanging decades long strategy. For the CPC, Trump is short term phenomenon reflecting the same long term trend from USA that they always knew they will have to deal with at some point. Although they were probably hoping they wouldn't have to deal with it quite so quickly.
The rhetoric in the West is really different from the news and analysis in Chinese. It's calmer and always tend to take the long perspective, small adjustments required but the direction of travel remains steady. Working with neighboring countries is a part of consistent and ongoing relationship-building. While one may leverage the current volatility to get some stuff done, China does not expect miracles. Its confidence comes from know it has the ability to weather these external fluctuations within itself, and when push comes to shove, it can never and will not rely on any other entity.