If one read the famous SunZi Art of War, the key points are actually less about fighting a war, it is about prevention and how to win a war without fighting, it is also about managing people to win the right to rule by winning the hearts and minds of the enemies. As such, SunZi urged that prisoners of war be respected and well treated, so that when they are released and return to their country, they will share their good experience with other soldiers.

The art of war also regard taking the entire city with the entire population in take with the least killing and damage to property are the top level achievement.

The reality that more than 90% of Chinese population regardless of their native languages, geographical location, food habits as Han Chinese tell a lot of the inclusive nature of traditional Chinese rulers towards the entire population.

Europe is still a me and you , US and Them mentality till this day. That why NATO and EU will not last beyond this century.

Lordy! Found at the end of a study about how to conduct war against China…

Things are ramping up towards war! America wants to fight China.

The idea of US being at war with China… is terrifying.

The Taiwan issue can be resolved peacefully, and the Taiwan Strait can be calm.

But this requires [1] the United States to stop playing the “Taiwan card,” [2] return to the essence of the one-China principle, [3] abide by the political commitments made to China, and [4] clearly oppose and stop “Taiwan independence.”

World Hal Turner 17 May 2023

The Ukraine NAZI government launched air attacks with over 100 drones into Russia today. Most of the Drones were defeated by Russian Electronic Warfare, but several did get through as seen on video below. At least one drone hit a Helicopter Factory in Lyubertsy, Russia, outside of Moscow.

Lyubertsy is a city and the administrative center of Lyuberetsky District in Moscow Oblast, Russia.

Residents in Lyubertsy say they heard drone aircraft in the sky shortly before FOUR loud explosions.

Those explosions seem to have taken place at the Kamov company. Ukhtomsky Helicopter plant named after N. I. Kamov (developer of the Ka-50 “Black Shark” and Ka-52 “Alligator” helicopters)

As Rospublic writes, this happened some time after an UAV flew over Dimitrov near Moscow. Locals heard four explosions, then a fire broke out at the plant.

VIDEOS of drones in the air are now starting to appear on social media.

This one shows a drone flying over Dimitrov:

Sources inside Russia confirm over 100 drones heading to central regions were intercepted just today in Russia. Another source added that civilians in Moscow are struggling to get taxi due to interference of EW tools with GPS.

Mr. Gower (in “Teachers”)

Escaping Debt Slavery: Ethiopia, Africa, and the IMF

Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor

17 May 2023

In 1987, at the Organization for African Unity, Thomas Sankara said, “Debt is a cleverly managed reconquest of Africa.” Ethiopia might actually be better off if the US keeps the IMF from signing off on its latest loan request.

The US is holding up Ethiopia’s request for a $2 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for postwar reconstruction and development. I spoke to Robert J. Prince, Retired Senior Lecturer at the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies , about Ethiopia, Africa, and the IMF.

ANN GARRISON: A source who preferred to remain anonymous told me that the US is holding Ethiopia’s loan up, demanding accountability for wartime atrocities, but that their real goal is to force Ethiopia to distance itself from Russia and China, but most of all from Eritrea. That sounds plausible, but what do you think?

ROBERT J. PRINCE: I’m not at all surprised that the loan request is in limbo, as Washington has been putting all kinds of pressure on Ethiopia for some time. And this is just another form of pressure. Indeed, putting all the pieces together, Washington has been engaged in nothing short of hybrid warfare against Ethiopia ever since Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018. The games being played with the IMF loan are simply one element of that.

Concerning Washington’s claims of Ethiopian government atrocities, Washington is well aware that the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) tried to regain power militarily and failed. The TPLF has essentially been Washington’s proxy in the region.

This was a two-year war, and in war, unfortunately, atrocities are committed, but most of the documentation that I have seen places the atrocities on the TPLF side of the fence, and they have been, quite frankly, horrific.

Having failed to overthrow the Abiy government and bring the TPLF to power, the United States tried to control the outcome diplomatically, through the Pretoria peace agreement, which Washington orchestrated from the sidelines to save the TPLF from complete defeat. The pressure that is being put on them through this IMF agreement is an example of that.

Let’s just look for a moment at the comment about Eritrea. In my mind, there’s no doubt that one of the main targets of Washington in the Horn of Africa is the Eritrean government. We need to keep a couple of things in mind, given the wall of bad press that Eritrea gets in this country. One is that Eritrea is the only country in Africa that has refused to collaborate with AFRICOM, the US Africa Command.

And the other thing, less known and less appreciated, is that Eritrea also refuses to accept IMF and World Bank loans with their structural adjustment aspects. I don’t think there’s any other country in Africa that has done that either. So these are really the main reasons for Washington’s hostility towards Eritrea.

But you have to add something else. To back up a little bit, I was recently reading a book about Ethiopia called The Lion of Judah in the New World . The author is Theodore Vestal, an Oklahoma State University professor. And in that book, he makes a comment about Henry Kissinger’s policy towards the Horn of Africa. We’re talking 1972-1973, but it really sets the stage very nicely. And what Vestal notes is that in some National Security Council secret document, Kissinger said that the best thing for Washington’s policy in the Horn of Africa was to keep the region divided and pit one side against another.

Think about what’s happening now, the carving up of Sudan over 10 years ago, the splitting up of Somalia that you’re reporting on these days, and then the ethnic conflicts that continue to hurt Ethiopia. That is classic Kissinger divide-and-rule kind of stuff.

And the opposite of that is Ethiopia, trying to make regional alliances, both for economic and political reasons. And from what I can tell, the strength, the real key to economic and social dynamism and development in the Horn of Africa is the Eritrean-Ethiopian connection. So of course that’s something that Washington wants to break up. It’s another reason Eritrea gets all the bad press it gets.

It’s very difficult for me to analyze what’s fact and what’s fiction in US reporting on Eritrea. I don’t follow much of it because I feel it’s so one-sided.

AG: Okay, the same source, who prefers to remain anonymous, said that China is Ethiopia’s largest bilateral creditor. So therefore, the US thinks that China should take on more responsibility in terms of the bailout package. However, the Chinese want the IMF to foot the bill. Could you interpret?

RJP: We need to remember certain things about the IMF and the World Bank. While they claim to be international organizations, and of course to a certain extent they are, they are US run and dominated. And since the late 1970s, early 1980s, the IMF has attached conditions to its loans. And those conditions are known as structural adjustment, which has been discredited by academics all over the world for the past 35 or 40 years. It doesn’t lead to development, but it does lead to greater debt.

So how would this particular proposal be any different from other IMF proposals? I don’t know.

But in terms of the broader geopolitical question, let’s just be frank about what’s happening in the Horn of Africa. And here I would like to take a specific example that relates to foreign aid and major funding. And that has been the West’s attitude towards the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which has the potential of really creating a kind of economic dynamism in the Horn of Africa which hasn’t existed until now.

Ethiopia went on several occasions to the IMF and the World Bank asking for financial aid to help build the dam, but they didn’t get it. And, in fact, most of the funding for that dam has come from the Ethiopian people themselves, which is quite moving. So this is their dam. And this is their dam, whether they’re Amhara, Oromo, Tigrayan, Somali, or any other Ethiopian ethnicity. It doesn’t matter. It’s their dam.

The creation of this dam is one of the few counterbalancing forces that I see to all this ethnic tension and dissent. Everyone has a place in that dam. And not just Ethiopia, because this dam, when completed, and it’s near completion, is going to provide electricity for the entire region. And without electricity, development is difficult, difficult to impossible.

Now, where do the Chinese fit into this? The Chinese are the only major foreign country to my knowledge that have played any role in funding this dam.

AG: I believe they invested in the electricity delivery infrastructure.

RJP:  That may be. I haven’t seen the statistics for a couple of years, but as I remember, Ethiopians had invested about $6 billion and the Chinese had invested about $1 billion.

So you’ve got that big project. And in the midst of all this ethnic tension that we’re seeing, the dam brings Ethiopians together and brings the Horn together, but what has the US and the World Bank position been on the dam? They’ve opposed it, they’ve opposed it down the line. They’ve thrown monkey wrenches into it. This is the kind of project that the IMF and the United States refuse to fund. But this is the kind of project that the Chinese in particular welcome and help. So there’s that part of it.

When I look at this Chinese, Russian, and American competition for Ethiopia, and for Africa in general, what we’re really seeing is the reemergence of the politics and division of the Non-Aligned Movement of the 1950s. If you really get down to it, very few countries want to take sides in this New Cold War.

They want to be able to deal with both China and the United States, but this is unacceptable to the US. This whole thing is being played out worldwide. It’s being played out in Africa, and the people of Africa are making it really clear that they don’t want to take sides, and that both sides have a possibility to engage in their development.

How could US policy towards Ethiopia change to make it more constructive? I don’t see that happening, by the way, but if it did, they would invest in infrastructure. All this US/AFRICOM military buildup that we’re seeing in the region is only causing more conflict.

If the US wants to compete with the Chinese in developing Africa, that can be done. The United States still has tremendous resources and has the ability to do it. Then ask the Ethiopians what kind of aid and investment they want. Ask Africans. That kind of competition would be a win-win situation for everyone. There’s no need for it to be anything else, but I don’t see our government moving in that direction at all.

AG: No, they don’t fund development. They fund aid, which creates dependency.

RPJ: Yes.

AG: For those not so familiar with the IMF, could you explain what structural adjustment means, what the IMF demands in exchange for these loans and bailouts?

RJP: Good question. Structural adjustment means laying down conditions that countries must accept in order to get the money that they need, often that they’re starving for. That means that they’re forced to open up their economies to foreign intervention, whether it’s investment or markets. And for a country that’s trying to develop economically—it really doesn’t matter whether it’s on a capitalist or socialist model—some kind of protectionism is almost required in the initial stages of development, for a certain amount of time.

Structural adjustment eliminates the possibility of a young, emerging economy developing to the point where it can compete globally. One part of it is allowing goods to be imported into the country at prices that local manufacturers can’t compete with.

Economies still recovering from colonialism are weak. So they need some form of protectionism. and some form of government support for their economic development.

Structural adjustment severely limits the role of a government in helping a country stand up. That’s really the heart of the matter.

Conditions include cutting government support for education, health care, transportation and other forms of infrastructural development. Then these areas are taken over by foreign players. As that happens, it’s inevitable that these countries can’t compete, their debt grows larger and larger, and therefore they have to come back to the IMF or the World Bank for further aid. And they get caught in a debt cycle. So this is the problem of structural adjustment.

AG: Don’t they typically wind up using the money they borrowed to pay interest on the debt, giving it right back to the people who loaned it to them?

RJP: Yes they do! Addis is applying for an IMF loan for debt relief, to service its increasingly heavy interest payments. Ethiopia’s debt distress level is rated as high and that’s probably one of the key factors behind this loan application. Between 1970 and 2006, Ethiopia’s debt levels were somewhere between $1 and 10 billion. Since 2006 those debt levels have risen precipitately. Just since 2020, when the TPLF’s failed attempt at a military coup began, Ethiopia’s debt ballooned from $34 to 60.1 billion, a near doubling over three years. This is an increasingly unmanageable burden for Ethiopia to bear, cutting into development possibilities not just for Ethiopia but for the entire Horn of Africa.

Virtually all Horn of Africa countries are near “debt distress.”  Sudan and Somalia are already in debt distress, meaning they cannot in any way pay off the loans they have acquired from multinational entities like the IMF and World Bank, or from private sources. Twenty-two African countries are now either bankrupt or at high risk of debt distress.

African debt remains at its highest level in over a decade. Debt servicing sucks up increasingly large proportions of budgets and revenues. As a result, a wave of defaults in the world’s most vulnerable countries is likely to occur and faster than expected.

The other thing that happens is there’s so much corruption that gets involved, given all the African despots we support, that a lot of this money just disappears.

So they’ve set up a system that’s very hard to get out of. It’s an endless cycle of growing poverty and social problems and greater economic interference from larger countries, but particularly from Washington and the Europeans.

I first looked at this policy 30-plus years ago, after serving in the Peace Corps. And then I couldn’t believe it could last this long because it’s so punitive. But now it’s finally coming apart. We’re seeing countries that don’t want to be dominated by the dollar anymore and will trade with China in yen. These are attempts to get off of exactly these kinds of policies.

And who is looking at IMF policies and saying we’ve had it? Well, virtually the entire Global South.

One last point on these policies. It’s much easier to impose them on poor countries. When the United States or the World Bank or IMF tried to do that with China and Russia, and even Iran, as they did, they did not succeed. So it’s been middle and larger economies that have danced with the IMF for a certain amount of time, until they realized this is not in their interest and pulled back.

AG: It sounds like it could be better if they don’t get this $2 billion loan in the long run.

What do you think might be the consequence if they don’t? Calling it a bailout makes it seem dire.

RJP: Whether Ethiopia gets the loan or doesn’t there will be pressure either way. One of those “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situations for sure.

If they don’t get the loan – given the level of domestic turmoil the country is experiencing – their financial situation will be that much more difficult, forcing them to look for other creditors.

But it is not at all clear – given that the conditions the IMF is asking are not public – that even getting the loan could be problematic. For example,

One of the conditions for the loan to be processed is that Ethiopia give the IMF creditors and development partners guarantees for the $2 billion, which will be difficult for Ethiopia to come up with and add considerable pressure on Ethiopian finances should they be unable to pay on time. Nor is there any assurance that even if such conditions were met, that the loan would be granted.

So pressure both ways: if they get it, depending on the conditions, and if they don’t get it, given the financial problems. All this needs to be placed in the broader context of Washington’s hybrid warfare against the Abiy government.

If you just look at the Tigray War, and now all these terrible massacres taking place in the Oromia Region and elsewhere, it seems like the country’s falling apart. But when you look at the economic indicators, you see that it’s not in spite of all of this. The Ethiopian economy is growing, and regional integration is taking place. This region is tired of war, of factionalism, of the kind of sectarian policies that have dragged it down for so long.

All these countries want to find common ground. And so is that approach going to win out? I believe that it will in the end, but not without a lot of pain and struggle in the years ahead.

AG: Okay, thank you, Rob Prince for speaking to Black Agenda Report.

RJP: My pleasure.

Ann Garrison is a Black Agenda Report Contributing Editor based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2014, she received the Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza Democracy and Peace Prize    for her reporting on conflict in the African Great Lakes region. She can be reached at ann(at)anngarrison.com.

Robert J. Prince is a retired Senior Lecturer at the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies and a political commentator at Pacifica affiliate KGNU-Boulder, Colorado.

LIVE UPDATES! HEAVY RUSSIAN RETALIATION ATTACK (HAPPENING NOW)

World Hal Turner 17 May 2023

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Russia is appaently retaliating for the 100+ drones launched by Ukraine into the Moscow area earlier today.  At least fifteen (15) heavy explosions have already occurred in multiple cities in Ukraine.  Fighter/bombers and Strategic Bombers are in the air.  Ukraine is being PUMMELED!

This story is happening now (5:32 PM EDT ) Updates to appear below . . .

UPDATE 5:36 PM EDT —

Russian Strategic Aviation (T-22M3) launched an attack on Odessa using H-22 air-to-surface cruise missiles. During the attack, at least 15 powerful detonations were registered.

Air defense also operated, but apparently without success.

In total, about 15 explosions have already thundered in the Odessa region.

Russian missile strike on the transport hub near Odessa.

From Odessa, now:

Additional missile or drone strikes taking place in  Zatoka, Kotovskoye and Krasnoselki.

Air raid sirens now once again sounding here in Kyiv. Drones detected in the skies above the region.

Takeoff of Russian TU-95MS strategic bombers from Russia’s ‘Olenya’ airbase has reportedly been detected.

Ukrainian monitoring groups report that the airspace of Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Cherkasy, Poltava, Kirovohrad, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhya regions is swarming with Russian UAVs searching for targets.

UPDATE 5:41 PM EDT —

Estimated list of destroyed military facilities in Odessa

Krasnoselka – BC warehouses
Settlement of Kotovsky – hangars with equipment
Zatoka – hangars with equipment
Nerubayskoye – BC warehouses
The Tsentrolit plant (Suvorovsky District), where military equipment was located, can also be added to the list of probable targets. Under Zatoka there is a railroad track on which NATO carries weapons through Romania.

not sure if Russian attacks succeeded, will see later.

Ballistic missile launches from the Belgorod region in Russia against the Kharkiv region, and Explosions are recorded in Kharkov.

Ukraine Air Raid siren alerts in:

Donetsk
Dnipropetrovsk
Zaporizhzhia
Cherkasy
Kharkiv
Kirovohrad
Poltava regions.

Massive explosions reported in Kharkov; Multiple rocket hits.

Strikes by FAB-500M62 UMPC glider bombs against AFU facilities in Kizomys and Velikiy Island, Kherson region.

UPDATE 5:55 PM EDT —

Over Kiev, central and north-eastern Ukraine, at least several dozen UAVs “Geran-2″Drones.

An air alert has been declared.

3 Tu-95 bombers of the Russian Aerospace Forces took off into the air.

A little earlier, explosions thundered in the Nikolaev region.

UPDATE 6:11 PM EDT —

Ukraine says , “Our reaction on this , will be very very hard… and unexpected…

In Kupyansk district (Kharkov region), powerful explosions are heard.

Explosions in Zaporizhzhia – air defence at work. One Russian missile/drone (waiting for confirmation of exactly what it was) has been shot down so far.

 

UK escalation, Storm Shadow long-range missiles to Ukraine

A Minus And Plus For The Debt Ceiling Crisis

The debt ceiling discussions in Washington may well be help President Biden’s secret domestic agenda but it is hampering on of his foreign policy aims.

The New York Times economy columnist Paul Krugman is aghast that the Biden administration had not prepared for the obvious showdown with the Republicans:

As soon as Republicans took control of the House last November, it was obvious that they would try to take the economy hostage by refusing to raise the federal debt limit. After all, that’s what they did in 2011 — and hard as it may be to believe, the Tea Party Republicans were sober and sane compared to the MAGA crew. So it was also obvious that the Biden administration needed a strategy to head off the looming crisis. More and more, however, it looks as if there never was a strategy beyond wishful thinking.
…
[R]ight now I have a sick feeling about all of this. What were they thinking? How can they have been caught so off-guard by something that everyone who’s paying attention saw coming?

I am amused over this. Krugman seems to have believed Biden’s election campaign talk about being ‘progressive’ or on the ‘left’. Joe Biden was and is far from that. I for one would characterize him as a centrist with strong leanings towards the right.

The fight over the debt ceiling is arbitrary but a chance for Republicans to threaten some damage. The fear is then used to push for domestic policy concessions:

For those somehow new to this, the United States has a weird and dysfunctional system in which Congress enacts legislation that determines federal spending and revenue, but then, if this legislation leads to a budget deficit, must vote a second time to authorize borrowing to cover the deficit. If even one house of Congress refuses to raise the debt limit, the U.S. government will go into default, with possibly catastrophic financial and economic effects.

This weird aspect of budgeting allows a party that is sufficiently ruthless, sufficiently indifferent to the havoc it might wreak, to attempt to impose through extortion policies it would never be able to enact through the normal legislative process.

I do not for one moment believe that Biden is unhappy about that.

In the 1990s and early 2000s Biden supported bankruptcy reform that made it more difficult, especially for the poor, to get rid of debt:

[Biden] had pushed for two earlier bankruptcy reform bills in 2000 and 2001, both of which failed. But in 2005, BAPCPA made it through, successfully erecting all kinds of roadblocks for Americans struggling with debt, and doing so just before the financial crisis of 2008. Since BAPCPA passed, Chapter 13 filings went from representing just 24 percent of all bankruptcy filings per year to 39 percent in 2017.

Before that Biden had called for cuts to Social Security:

In 1984 he proposed freezing Social Security benefits — that is, ending cost-of-living adjustments that boost benefits to keep up with inflation. In January 1995 he gave a speech endorsing a balanced budget amendment (an utterly lunatic policy) and boasted about his previous record of proposing “that we freeze every single solitary program in the government, anything the government had to do with, every single solitary one, that we not spend a penny more, not even accounting for inflation, than we spent the year before.” In November 1995 he did so again, boasting that “I tried with Senator Grassley back in the ’80s to freeze all government spending, including Social Security, including everything.”

There are other non-progressive laws and several wars that had Biden’s support. In the current fight over the debt ceiling the Republicans demand cuts to several welfare bills. It is certainly not obvious that Biden is against those. He may well be using the debt ceiling fight to push for politics he favors but which a majority of Democrats would otherwise oppose.

Talks have been held in the White House with Senate and House majority and minority leaders. There were no serious results because the Democratic Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer held Biden back from making concessions to the Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy:

The California Republican had vented to his colleagues just hours before the meeting that the current format of negotiations — with all four party leaders in a room with the president — wasn’t fruitful. Speaking to his conference on Tuesday morning, McCarthy said the five of them had achieved little in their first sitdown last week, arguing that Schumer had prevented Biden from fully engaging with the speaker and McConnell, according to two people familiar with his remarks. Whenever Biden did seem to agree with Republicans, McCarthy said Schumer would try to cut him off.

The talks will now continue without the Senate leadership:

Leaders agreed to narrow a bicameral negotiation down to Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Biden, hoping fewer players might be more productive in reaching a bipartisan deal to raise the debt ceiling. Even then, it looks like a longshot to some Senate Democrats.

That setting will give Biden the opportunity to make ‘concessions’ that are favored by his rich donors but opposed by a majority of people who voted for him. He will then sell those by presenting them as the only possible step to take. Maggie Thatcher’s “There is no alternative!” will again succeed.

The current due date for a debt ceiling deal is Friday:

Reflecting the growing sense of urgency, the White House announced Tuesday that the president will cut short his trip to Asia and now plans return to Washington on Sunday in order to resume negotiations with Republicans as soon as possible.Biden will depart Wednesday for a trip to Japan but will no longer make stops in Papua New Guinea and Australia before returning stateside.

There is a G-7 meeting in Japan during which Biden will press for some anti-China wording but probably without much results. The canceled Quad meeting in Australia was also to support his anti-China agenda as was the planned stop in Papua New Guinea where the U.S. navy wants extensive port rights.

For Biden’s foreign policy agenda the canceling of those dates is bad. It makes the leadership of the PNG look stupid:

PNG News & Info @PngPles – 2:08 UTC · May 17, 2023PNG declares Monday as Public Holiday in Port Moresby as US President Joe Biden makes historical visit
Link

The canceling of the visit may well be the end of the planned port agreement as the opposition in PNG will now have chance to look into the dubious and secretive deal:

The Opposition Leader, however, said the cancellation of the trip would give the opportunity for the Prime Minister to tell this country what this Defense Cooperation Treaty is all about.Mr. Lelang said information on the contents of the Defense Cooperation Treaty with the United States was sketchy, therefore, created a lot of confusion and uneasiness around the country as to what this means for us. The Opposition is calling on the Prime Minister to come out and tell the nation the details of the Defense Cooperation Treaty.

The Opposition Leader reminded the Government that we have a foreign policy of “Friends to All and Enemies to None” and PNG need to stand firm on this foreign policy position.

Mr. Lelang said we should not be blinded by the dollar sign or be coerced into signing deals that may be detrimental to us in the long run.
…
Meanwhile, Former Prime Minister and Ialibu Pangia MP Peter O’Neil also expressed concern that the only people who seems to know about this security pact is the former Minister for Foreign Affairs, the PM and Minister for Defense.
…
I am told there will be Security Agreement to be signed between US and PNG, however, that particular agreement was never made public, never debated on the floor of Parliament, never been approved by Parliament so we are all going blind and some of the reports we are getting are concerning”
…
From the information we gathered, the Agreement is that the pact was largely drafted by the US Government. Only a few of our own PNG Government officials and the then Minister for Foreign Affairs have seen this document and as a result has been put forward to the Prime Minister and officials to sign the agreement on the day of the visit of the US President,” Mr O’Neil said.

This reminds one of the AUKUS deal which will see Australia pay huge amounts of money for nuclear submarines it does not need. That deal was also negotiated secretly and agreed upon without any public discussion.

If the Defense Cooperation Treaty with the PNG fails the chance for a conflict with China will lessen and the world will be better off. If some people in the U.S. will lose some government support due to a debt ceiling agreement it will be bad for them.

But in total that would still be a win.

Posted by b on May 17, 2023 at 16:12 UTC | Permalink

Szijjártó: The EU Will Lose Out if it Views China as a Rival

The European Union will lose out if it views China as a rival, as it has become evident in recent years that the Far Eastern country already has a competitive advantage in many areas, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said on Facebook following his meetings on Tuesday in Ningbo, China.

According to a statement by the ministry, the minister emphasised during the opening of the China-Central and Eastern Europe Trade Exhibition that China is Hungary’s strategic partner. The agreement regarding the partnership was signed in 2017, and it is not just a communication ploy, but an issue that the government takes seriously. He pointed out that China’s gross domestic product has now surpassed that of the EU. He also reminded that in 2010, China accounted for only 9 per cent of the world’s GDP, while the EU accounted for 22 per cent. However, the situation has changed for various reasons, and now the figures stand at 18 and 17 per cent respectively.

He emphasised that if the EU wants to benefit from its relationship with China, it should focus on cooperation based on mutual trust, respect, and benefits

rather than rivalry. ‘Hungary does not see China as a risk or a threat, but rather as a state with which we can gain many benefits through cooperation,’ the minister nailed down.

According to Péter Szijjártó, the Hungarian example demonstrates that much can be gained from fair cooperation, as Hungary has become the number one investment destination for Chinese companies in Central and Eastern Europe. The country has the highest number of Confucius Institutes, and most Chinese cities can be reached directly from Hungary. Furthermore, Hungary has the highest number of food export licences among the countries in the region, and following the COVID-19 pandemic, Beijing opened organised travel opportunities to Hungary, the first within the EU, he highlighted. The minister stated that there is an increasing demand for healthy food in China, and Hungary has a competitive advantage at the EU level due to its strict food safety regulations. Of the twenty-three Hungarian companies present at the exhibition, the majority represent the food industry, he noted.

The minister emphasised that the government strongly opposes the bloc formation that is taking place in the world, as this goes against the Hungarian national interest. He reiterated that Central Europe has always lost out historically when there was conflict between the East and the West.

‘Instead, we support connectivity and consider the East-West division as good news in the key sectors of the global economy.

Separation and risk reduction make no sense,’ he said.

He highlighted that Hungary is a good example in this regard, as it has become an important meeting point for Western car manufacturers and Eastern battery manufacturers who need each other. He emphasised that, apart from Germany and China, only Hungary has factories of all three major German premium car brands, and at the same time, four out of the world’s ten largest electric battery manufacturers are present in the country. He noted that the value of Hungarian trade with Zhejiang Province alone reached $1.6 billion last year, which greatly contributed to breaking the Hungarian-Chinese trade record. As a result, China has become Hungary’s number one trading partner outside of Europe.

“Most of them are dead!”- Ukraine’s army DECIMATED says Col. MacGregor | Redacted w Clayton Morris

The Car Rental Sales Tax Swap Scam

Car rental corporate consolidation, funded by you.

Not-so-fun travel fact: Every time you rent a car, you are participating in a decades-old scam that lets rental car corporations dodge a bunch of taxes and foist the cost onto renters and local taxpayers. This backdoor subsidy entrenches the dominance of the big players in what is now a very concentrated industry — but a few states are starting to fix the problem, and more should get on the same road.

Here’s what happened: Starting in the 1970s and continuing through about 2000, dominant car rental corporations such as Enterprise convinced state governments to make a kind of tax swap. In exchange for being exempted from sales taxes or other taxes applied to the purchase of a vehicle, which everyone else who buys and owns one pays, car rental corporations started levying an excise tax on each rental of 6 to as high as 14 percent, depending on the state.

These swaps — where the same piece of legislation exempted car rental corporations from the sales tax or other related purchase taxes while creating a rental excise tax — occurred in 13 states: First in Texas in 1971, then Virginia, Maine, Illinois, Colorado, Kansas, Mississippi, New Mexico, Iowa, Washington, Maryland, and South Dakota, ending in West Virginia in 2000, according to research documents I received from a smaller competitor to the dominant rental car corporations.

Many other states do the same thing in some way, either via administrative or executive order, or via different pieces of legislation that weren’t passed at the same time. The details may be different, and I’m glossing over particulars that vary state to state (for instance, in Kansas car owners pay property tax on their vehicles, which car rental corporations are exempt from), but the end result is the same.

The big car rental corporations, in short, did a very good job sweeping across the country collecting what is a massive backdoor tax subsidy on the purchase of their main business asset.

There are three issues that this rental corporation subsidy causes. The first is that the car rental corporations simply slapped the excise tax onto every customer’s bill. So they avoid the taxes every car buyer pays on the front end, in favor of one that renters pay.

The rental car corporations argue they should be exempt from sales tax because their cars are “business inputs,” as they say, or because they aren’t the actual end users of the product. But they’re perfectly free to take normal business deductions on car purchases, and they do; they just also get a very specific exemption for themselves.

The second is that states are losing a lot of revenue on this deal, as rental car corporations purchase some 2 million vehicles annually. That lost revenue totals more than $3.5 billion, according to one study, including more than $100 million dollars each in states such as New Jersey, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York.

That’s significant money that could get put toward state needs, but instead subsidizes the car rental industry.

Third and finally, as mentioned, the car rental industry is very consolidated, and tax subsidies entrench both its economic and political power. Currently, just three corporations — Enterprise, Hertz, and Avis — hold 95 percent of the car rental market.

You may think you’re renting from other corporations when you land at the airport or somesuch, but nope, you’re just patronizing different brands from the big three: Enterprise owns Alamo and National, Avis owns Budget, Payless and Zipcar, and Hertz owns Thrifty and Dollar, for example.

These corporations explicitly don’t want competition now that they’ve successfully consolidated, so they’ve been lobbying state legislatures to apply excise taxes to rentals at upstarts like car-sharing companies — which is all well and good, except the people who share cars on those platforms very much paid the sales taxes and registration fees that the rental car corporations avoid. So it’s “tax thee and not me,” in order to maintain the big three’s dominance.

State policymakers, though, are working to fix this issue. In Oregon, for example, the state Department of Revenue won a court case affirming that the state’s vehicle sale tax should be applied when a rental car corporation purchases a car. North Dakota also repealed the exemption from sales tax that is applied to car rental corporations. Hawaii and Georgia partially ditched their exemptions, too.

In two states at the moment — Kansas and Massachusetts — there are bills before the legislature that would eliminate the car rental corporation tax exemption. In several other states, including New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Tennessee, an administrative change could even do the trick, because the sales tax exemption was never passed by the legislature, just applied by an agency or governor.

The road here is pretty clear: Stop the backdoor subsidizing of very dominant firms in a very concentrated industry. Elected officials just need to decide to take it.

Why the U.S. Should Close Its Overseas Military Bases

A growing movement is pushing back against long-held orthodoxy, arguing that it’s time to abandon these outposts and bring the troops home.

Today, the United States has more overseas military bases than every other country combined; its estimated 750 bases spread across 80 or more countries and constitute 75 to 85 percent of the world’s total overseas military bases—likely more than any other people, nation, or empire in history. . . . 

Despite being one of the most well-entrenched orthodoxies of U.S. national security strategy, it may well be time for change. 

A growing movement argues that rather than keeping the barbarians at the gate, the gates themselves have drawn the United States into reckless and unpopular conflicts, tempting policymakers into knee-jerk military responses rather than diplomatic ones, and provoke enemies rather than deter them. 

After decades of consensus, activists, scholars, and veterans are now pushing back against what they see as a geopolitical misstep, arguing that it’s time to abandon these long-held outposts and bring the troops home. . .

here

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 17 2023 18:17 utc | 28

Russia and China Win Big, US Hegemony Dies w/ Garland Nixon, Dr. Wilmer Leon, Danny Haiphong, Margaret Kimberley

Such an outstanding interview!

Really worth your time!

Cayman depositors left in the cold after Silicon Valley Bank collapse

by Renae Stampp

May 13, 2023

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(CMR) The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank two months ago is being felt by depositors at its Cayman Islands branch as their funds have reportedly been seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC).

According to a report by Wall Street Journal, American depositors were protected when the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took control of the California-based bank on March 10 and were guaranteed all their funds.

However, WSJ explained that “it has been a vastly different story for customers of SVB’s Cayman Islands branch, which was left out of the First Citizens deal and placed under FDIC receivership. “

On March 31, the FDIC reportedly notified SVB’s Cayman Islands depositors that they wouldn’t be covered by its deposit insurance and that they would be treated as “general unsecured creditors.” FDIC said that only domestic deposits are covered by its insurance under the Federal Deposit Insurance Act.

The FDIC’s notice surprised customers who had thought an earlier statement from U.S. regulators that said all SVB depositors would be made whole also applied to them, according to WSJ.

According to the report, the Cayman Islands branch was set up to primarily support the bank’s activities in Asia, and depositors, which include multiple Chinese investment firms, haven’t been able to access their funds since SVB’s collapse.

It is unknown how much in deposits the Cayman Islands branch had at the time of SVB’s failure. However, the bank’s last annual report said the bank had $13.9 billion in foreign deposits at the end of 2022 that were not subject to any U.S. federal or state deposit insurance.

SVB also had a bank subsidiary in the U.K. and branches in Germany and Canada. The German and Canadian branches didn’t take deposits; they only made loans. Its U.K. bank, which HSBC has taken over, had about $8.5 billion in deposits on March 10 of this year.

Following the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (“SVB”) and the appointment of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as the Receiver in March, the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority said it was engaging with the FDIC and other stakeholders regarding the receivership process and impact on SVB’s Cayman Islands branch.

A Cayman Islands Monetary Authority representative told WSJ the regulator is still assessing the situation.

A spokesperson for Phoenix Property Investors, a Hong Kong-based private-equity firm that had funds in SVB’s Cayman Islands branch, told WSJ, “When the FDIC announced they would insure unsecured deposits, it seemed that they would include all deposits, including ours.”

Employees of other investment firms that had deposits at SVB’s Cayman Islands branch also told WSJ that following the bank’s failure, they received notices reassuring customers that they would have full access to their money and that transactions were being processed.

Instead, their bank statements at the end of the month showed their balances were at zero and that their funds had been transferred to “SVB Receiver.”

Uninsured depositors are expected to be paid based on assets available in the receivership estate to pay claims; however, one lawyer explained that as the FDIC liquidates assets, there may not be sufficient assets available to satisfy all claims. This means foreign depositors may recover little or nothing.

Chicken Chilaquiles

Chilaquiles is a Mexican layered dish, sometimes called “Mexican lasagna,” that makes good use of somewhat dried-out corn tortillas. Fresh corn tortillas are perfectly appropriate, however. If you’re a cheese lover, use more in this recipe.

Ingredients

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
• 8 (6-inch) corn tortillas (preferably stale)
• 2 (10 ounce) cans tomatoes with green chiles (or substitute 2 1/2 cups salsa)
• 1 (15 to 16 ounce) can black beans, drained
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
• 1 cup non-fat plain yogurt (or an 8-ounce container)
• 8 to 10 ounces grated Monterey jack cheese (or more if desired)

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray an 8- or 9-inch square baking dish (or similar casserole) with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Heat about 1 inch of water in the bottom of a wide skillet. Bring to a boil. Add chicken breasts. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer chicken breasts for 5 minutes (the water should not be boiling, but at the barest simmer; adjust the heat if necessary). Flip and cook 4 minutes more. Remove from heat and set aside. (If the chicken should appear a tad undercooked, don’t worry, it will continue to cook in the casserole).
3. Cut tortillas in half. Spread about 3/4 cup of the tomatoes in the bottom of the casserole. Cover the bottom with tortilla halves. Cut the chicken into small dice.
4. Begin building layers of ingredients on top of the tortillas: Sprinkle with half the chicken, then spread on half the remaining tomatoes. Spoon on half the black beans and sprinkle with cilantro. Dollop on half the yogurt and sprinkle with half the cheese. Top with more tortilla halves.
5. Again build layers. Start with chicken, then tomatoes, black beans and cilantro. Spoon on yogurt and top with cheese. Bake 30 minutes, or until cheese is melted and casserole is hot. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
6. Serve with green beans or salad.

Serves 6.

China and Zambia reveal America’s treatment to African Americans and democracy control

Sitrep today

Here is what the world looks like today MAY 2023.

• Red color = The multipolar world. Led by China.
• Blue color = Rules based world. Led by the United States.
• Orange color = Leaning multipolar, but not fully committed.

No

They aren’t

They are just putting up a show of doing so

The Chinese always work in layer after layer of secrecy

Bottom line is if they display something to the world — it’s either perfected completely or its a red herring

China won’t be spending billions to close the gap with the USA. That would not be economical at all.

China is spending billions TO DEVELOP THEIR OWN VERY DIFFERENT CORE TECHNOLOGY RELATED TO PROCESSORS

You don’t understand?

Let me explain

In the mid 2000s, China sank billions into the automobile industry and everyone was saying how China would be developing its own path breaking vehicles and cutting edge IC engines

Instead for a long time it looked like China was merely copying foreign designs and their engines were pretty okay and nothing cutting edge

So they laughed and said how corrupt China was and how they were sinking billions into making ordinary engines and copycat designs of ICE cars

IN REALITY THE CHINESE WERE PUMPING THOSE BILLIONS INTO ELECTRIC VEHICLES, BATTERIES, TURBINES, SOFTWARE AND RARE EARTH PROCESSING

And today China controls everything in that area and is superior even to the US or Japan in that aspect.

China is the world leader in this area

That’s China for you

Only someone who understands the Mandarin mindset would know what they plan to do

My guess is they will keep buying chips from the greyzone and keep diverting trade orders for IC chips and they will keep investing decently in local chip manufacture. A few billion maybe. Maybe around 20% of the amount they claim.

Yet THEY WILL INVEST THE REST OF THE BIG BUCKS IN AREAS OF TECHNOLOGY where they have a head start and where the West have no core technology control

Like Photonic Chips, Like Graphene movement where the West is barely just ahead of China or even at the same level as that of China

Like they did with Trains, EVs, Solar Panels

China won’t spend billions just to level with the West. That’s a waste of resources

They will spend Billions to SLINGSHOT AHEAD OF THE WEST and develop their own independent core control technology

That’s the Chinese Way

Stone Temple Pilots – Interstate Love Song

DeepAi interpetation

I asked DeepAi to generate art from the song…

Here is what it came up with.

You ain’t seen nothing yet. In a decade China will double in size, in a generation it will grow 3 times its present size. And it will only stop once it’s economy is 6 times that of the USA. So the U.S. containing China is no different from some one trying to stop Lebron James from growing past 5 foot tall!

Yesterday the Chinese made your toys and sneakers. Today they make you computers and phones. Tomorrow the make your cars and jet planes. Mark my word even Chinese weapon sales will overtake the U.S. By 2050 the U.S. will be totally and absolutely destroyed by itself, India will overtake them. And the U.S. debts will hit 200 trillion dollars paying a minimum of 8 trillion a year just to service its debts if it Fong change its course.

By 2050 the entire Africa and Latin America will be filled with Chinese roads, bridges, ports, railway, high speed trains, airports and planes. And BRICS engulfed 100 nations and it will be 10 times the size for G7. If you are westerner thinking you can stop China. It’s is like you trying to stop the waves of the seas from hitting your shores.

By 2050 China will be mining the moon and having station on Mars. By 2050. China’s middle income will be at least 1.2 billion and its consumption alone will be 6 times that of the U.S. So are you sure you want to think China has hit its limit?

It is too depressing for a racist and xenophobic westerners. I spare you. Go back to sleep and think you still own the world.

Chicken a la Jerusalem

This is a recipe from the Santa Anita Racetrack in California.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

• 2 pounds chicken pieces
• All-purpose flour
• 1/4 pound butter
• Salt and pepper
• Nutmeg
• 1/2 pound small mushrooms
• 6 cooked artichoke hearts
• 1/2 cup cream sherry
• 1 cup cream or Half-and-Half
• Mined parsley
• Minced chives

Instructions

1. Dredge chicken in flour.
2. Melt butter in large skillet. Add chicken and sauté until lightly browned. Season to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
3. Wash mushrooms and pat dry. Add to chicken along with artichoke hearts. Pour sherry over all; cover, then simmer for 15 minutes, or until chicken is tender and most of the wine has evaporated.
4. Stir in cream. Add more cream if needed to thin sauce to desired consistency. Add parsley and chives and serve at once.

Roy Buchanan – Turn to Stone (live)

Deep Ai version

I asked DeepAI to generate “artwork” based on that last video.

Here is what it came up with…

Though it has reached 190 billion US dollars, it is no longer all being traded in US dollars. In his article in the Chinese media, Putin said that “the share of settlements in national currencies” of all that trade “is growing.” 65% of that massive China-Russia trade is now being conducting in their Russian and Chinese currencies.

Though the US sees Russia and China as the largest threats to its position in the world, it is not just America’s enemies that are fleeing the dollar. Its closest friends have hinted at it too. Following his meetings with Xi in China, French President Emmanuel Macron likely stunned and angered the US by calling for Europe to reduce its dependency on the “extraterritoriality of the US dollar.”

These calls for a flight from the US dollar are not merely economic, they are geopolitical. They are calls to reshape the world order by challenging US hegemony and advocating multipolarity. The monopoly of the dollar has not just assured US wealth: it has assured US power. Most international trade is conducted in dollars, and most foreign exchange reserves are held in dollars.

That dollar dominance has often allowed the US to dictate ideological alignment or to impose economic and political structural adjustments on other countries. It has also allowed the US to become the only country in the world that can effectively sanction its opponents. Emancipation from the hegemony of the dollar is emancipation from US hegemony. The flight from the US dollar is a mechanism for replacing the US led unipolar world with a multipolar world.

As the US has recently demonstrated in Cuba, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Iran and Russia, the monopoly of the dollar allows it to be very powerfully and quickly weaponized. Countries’ funds can be held hostage, and countries can be coerced and starved into falling in line by sanctions. Recent demonstrations of that power have awoken many countries to their own vulnerability.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen recently said that “There is a risk when we use financial sanctions that are linked to the role of the dollar that over time it could undermine the hegemony of the dollar.” She explained that “Of course, it does create a desire on the part of China, of Russia, of Iran to find an alternative.”

And that’s just what it’s done. But Yellen is still missing the larger effect of US dollar warfare. It is not just China, Russia and Iran that are now seeking to escape the pressure. America’s enemies, but also its friends and everything in between, are considering taking flight from the dollar.

China and Russia are doing it. NATO ally France is calling for it for Europe. Nonaligned countries are also either talking about it or already doing it.

India is a growing economic power. And, like China, India has massively increased its trade with Russia. India and Russia have now begun discussions on a free trade agreement between India and the Russian led Eurasian Economic Commission.

The two countries are now engaged in “advanced negotiations” for a new bilateral investment treaty. Russia has expressed interest in using “national currencies and currencies of friendly countries” for trade. India, too, “has been keen on” moving toward leaving the dollar behind by “increasing the use of its rupee currency for trade with Russia.” And India has recently begun purchasing some Russian oil in Russian rubles.

US dollar hegemony has also been threatened right in America’s backyard. Brazilian ;President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has proposed ;escaping dollar control by “creat[ing] a Latin American currency.” While in China for meetings with XI, Lula asked

,

“Who decided the dollar would be the [world’s] currency?”

He then answered his own question. In March, Brazil and China escaped the US dollar by each assigning one of its banks to conduct their bilateral trade in the Brazilian real and the Chinese yuan.

Pakistan is now also trading with China in its own currency. Iran and Russia have taken flight from the dollar and are now settling trade in rials and rubles

. They recently announced that they have circumvented the US financial system by linking their banking systems as an alternative to SWIFT for trading with each other.

Saudi Arabia has said that it sees “no issues” in trading oil in currencies other than the US dollar. Robert Rabil

, Professor of political science at Florida Atlantic University, says that the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Israel have all made some movement away from the US dollar.

The Eurasian Economic Union has agreed on “a phased transition” from settling trade in “foreign currency” to “settlements in rubles.”

Perhaps more surprisingly for the US was the decision at the March 30-31 meeting of the finance ministers and central bank governors of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to reduce reliance on the US dollar. ASEAN is made up of Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar and Brunei.

The meeting produced a joint statement to “reinforce financial resilience . . . through the use of local currency.” But what must have been most unsettling for the US was the explanation given for the decision by Indonesian President Joko Widodo. Widodo said that the move is necessary to protect from “possible geopolitical repercussions.” What did he mean by that? “Be very careful,” he explained. “We must remember the sanctions imposed by the US on Russia.”

Yellen was right. Widodo said that US sanctions on Russia exposed just how vulnerable countries are if they rely on US dollars and US foreign payment systems. He said that using ASEAN’s Local Currency Transaction system to trade in local currencies would help address the need for Indonesia to prepare itself for the possibility that the US could similarly sanction it.

The EEU and ASEAN are not the only organizations mapping their flight from the US dollar. BRICS is a massive international organization whose primary purpose is to balance US hegemony in a new multipolar world. Comprised of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, it represents 41% of the world’s population. BRICS, too, is talking about conducting trade in the currencies of its members or even in a new BRICS’ currency.

Lula recently suggested that “the BRICS bank have a currency to finance trade between Brazil and China, between Brazil and other BRICS countries” so that countries are not compelled “to chase after dollars to export, when they could be exporting in their own currencies.” Russian State Duma Deputy Chairman Alexander Babakov also recently said that BRICS is working on creating its own currency.

A BRICS currency could challenge the dollar beyond the borders of BRICS. “Because each member of the BRICS grouping is an economic heavyweight in its own region, countries around the world would likely be willing to do business” in the currency, suggested a report in the Financial Post.

One such region is Africa. In July, the Russia-Africa summit will be held in St. Petersburg. Olayinka Ajala, senior lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Leeds Beckett University and the author of “The Case for Neutrality: Understanding African Stances on the Russia-Ukraine Conflict,” told me in a recent correspondence that a “main focus of Russia and China at the moment is to get African countries to support the proposed BRICS currency.”

He says that “this will be a major topic in the upcoming conference.” Ajala explains that “Africa is a consuming continent, meaning they import lots of goods and services.” He says that “with a population of over 1.2 billion, if Russia and China are able to convince African countries on the need to ditch the dollar, it will be a huge blow to the US.”

From Africa to Southeast Asia and Latin America, from Russia and China to India, Iran and Saudi Arabia, countries are mapping their course for a flight from the US dollar. As a mechanism for transition from US hegemony to a multipolar world, the economic effects would be great, but the geopolitical effects could be even greater.

Davy Knowles – Almost Cut My Hair

DeepAi version

I made a DeepAi art query.

Here is the result…

The most realistic cartoon.

Davy Knowles w/Band of Friends – A Million Miles Away

Democrats and Republicans may be divided on former leader’s stance on Ukraine conflict, but both are impeccably hostile towards Beijing

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They have pointed to how the state of New York, which is overwhelmingly against Trump, passed a law that allows for a one-year window for victims of sex crimes to sue even if their cases are way past the statute of limitations.

Some conspiracy theorists have claimed that the law was passed just so someone like the writer E. Jean Carroll could come forward to successfully sue Trump for sexual abuse and defamation, even though the alleged incident took place in the mid-1990s. One way or another, the Democrats are running scared, and they should be.

One of Trump’s headline-grabbing pronouncements on CNN was that he would immediately end the war in Ukraine.

“If I were president, I would have that war settled in one day, 24 hours,” he declared. That may not sit well with Democrats and many Europeans, but he has solid support among Republican voters.

According to a new Pew Research Centre poll, only 44 per cent of Republican respondents say they have confidence in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to “do the right thing regarding world affairs”, compared with 71 per cent of Democrats.

The wide gulf between the two main US party voters held when respondents were asked whether they held favourable views of Ukraine in general, with 52 per cent of Republicans and 77 per cent of Democrats holding a positive view.

The Pew survey follows many recent polls showing increasing scepticism among Republican voters towards Washington’s blank-cheque support for Ukraine against Russia.

Nothing ends a proxy war faster than when foreign weapons and other military aids dry up. The United States, of course, has been the chief supplier of arms and intelligence to Ukraine. Given the unrealistic goal of Ukraine and its Western supporters to regain all lost territories, including Crimea, from Russia, Trump’s position is perfectly rational and defensible.

It doesn’t take a genius to guess who Washington will train its guns on once the crisis in Ukraine is out of the way.

As president, Trump started the economic war against China, which Biden has inherited and expanded. Under Trump’s ultra-hawkish secretary of state Mike Pompeo, his administration laid down a formal containment strategy against Beijing which he and his supporters once likened to the old cold war containment of the Soviet Union.

Despite the blatant hostilities of the Biden White House, his officials have so far refused to adopt the rhetoric of a cold war and even recently moderated the terminology of decoupling to de-risking.

Trump and his likely hardline officials will have no such inhibitions. After all, Republicans may not see eye to eye with Democrats over Ukraine; they share bipartisan hostilities towards China.

Perhaps the only wild card with President Trump 2.0 is whether he would continue with his personal disdain for traditional allies or build on Biden’s anti-China alliances.

Best of Larry, Darryl, and Darryl (part 2)

Larry the cable guy

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev talks in Chinese! What is his favorite Chinese food and literature?

In a recent interview, Tokayev had such a conversation with CCTV (a national television broadcaster of China) host Wang Guan.

Host: What do you miss most about China?

Tokayev: I have been in China for almost eight years, so I miss a lot of things, Chinese food, Chinese culture, and Chinese people.

Host: You just mentioned Chinese food. What is the one Chinese food that you like the most, want to eat the most, and miss the most?

Tokayev: twice-cooked pork, Peking duck, Dandan noodles.

Host: Dandan noodles!

Tokayev: Did you know? Dandan noodles.

Host: I know that Dandan noodles are a bit spicy, aren’t they?

Tokayev: Very spicy.

Host: Can you eat spicy food?

Tokayev: I eat, I like spicy food.

Having studied and lived in China for nearly 8 years, Tokayev can speak fluent Chinese and likes to play table tennis.

On the day of his 70th birthday, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev came to the ancient Chinese city of Xi’an to attend the China-Central Asia Summit and had a warm reception from his Chinese friends.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev arrives in Xi’an, northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, on May 17, 2023.

Chickaritos

Ingredients

• 3 cups finely cooked chicken (or canned)
• 1 (4 ounce) can diced green chiles
• 1/2 cup finely chopped green onions
• 1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1 (17 1/4 ounce) box frozen puff pastry sheets, thawed, pie pastry for double-crust 10-inch pie or flour tortillas
• Water
• Salsa
• Guacamole

Instructions

1. In a bowl, combine chicken, chiles, onions, cheese, and seasonings. Mix well; chill until ready to use.
2. Remove half of the pastry from the refrigerator at a time. On a lightly floured board, roll to a 9 x 12-inch rectangle. Cut into 9 small rectangles. Place about 2 tablespoons filling across the center of each rectangle. Wet edges of pastry around filling. Crimp ends with a fork to seal. Repeat with remaining pastry and filling. Place, seam side down, on a lightly greased baking sheet.
3. Refrigerate until ready to heat.
4. Bake at 425 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.
5. Serve warm with salsa and guacamole.

Kremlin slams Macron comments over Russia’s ‘subservience’ to China

The Kremlin on Monday slammed comments made by French President Emmanuel Macron, who said Russia was becoming a vassal to China as a result of the conflict in Ukraine.

“We categorically disagree with this. Our relations with China have the character of a special, strategic partnership,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Peskov said Macron’s comments reflected “an absolutely wrong understanding of what is happening.”

In an interview published Sunday, Macron said that Russia, isolated by its offensive in Ukraine, had “entered a form of subservience with regards to China.”

Macron also said Russia had already suffered a “geopolitical defeat” in the interview published by the Opinion newspaper.

China has sought to posture itself as neutral in the Ukraine offensive, but it has never condemned the Russian invasion.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping presented himself as a mediator concerned with maintaining stability when he visited Russian President Vladimir Putin in March.

The relationship between China and Russia is based on “mutual interests, benefits, close worldviews and the common rejection of any attempt to dictate” a country’s behaviors, Peskov said.

Xi has not visited Kyiv but he spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by telephone in late April, the first known phone call between the two leaders since the start of the offensive.

Chinese special envoy Li Hui is expected to arrive in Kyiv for a two-day visit on Tuesday.

He will be the highest-ranking Chinese diplomat to visit the country since Moscow launched its offensive last year.

He will also visit Russia, as well as European Union members Poland, France and Germany.

Video: U.S. PATRIOT Missile System Fires 30+ Missiles over Kiev But Gets TAKEN OUT by Russian Hit

World Hal Turner 16 May 2023

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One of the much vaunted PATRIOT missile systems given to Kiev to fight Russia, fired about thirty Air Defense missiles overnight but in the end, was hit by a Russian inbound attack. Video below shows the salvos and the final inbound Russian hit. Ukraine is actively (and desperately) trying to have the video removed!

Overnight, Russia engaged in a very thorough missile attack against Ukraine, with what appears to have been a “saturation” attack against Kiev for the express purpose of overwhelming missile defenses.

Ukraine and its supporters are furious that these videos are published. They are actively and aggressively demanding the videos be taken down “because they can identify Air Defense locations for Russia to hit.”

And more…

In fact, there are literally DOZENS of these brain-dead NAZI Ukraine supporters aghast that the videos are available.  Why they’re supporting a NAZI regime is beyond me, but then again they’re probably the same idiots who wore masks and got the death dart for COVID!  No one pays attention to them because they’re demonstrably stupid.

In the first video below, we can see what __may__ be a PATRIOT system, (might also be NASAMS) deployed near an apartment or other large complex, firing about thirty outbound missiles:

Doing the numbers:

I counted 30 Patriot PAC-3 MSE launches here.

The cost of these per missile in FY2024 is about $5,275,000.

That was $158,250,000 fired in about two minutes. And as we see, the battery or something else got hit and exploded. So it failed in its mission.
The cost of a Patriot battery to the U.S. military is over a billion dollars, so its destruction is a significant thing

$5,275,000 is US port cost- PER MISSILE. By the time they reach Ukraine, cost must have blown to $20 million plus.

If the Russians get the US to use 30 Patriot Missiles a day (or more), soon the US will start seriously eating into it’s stockpile of Patriot Missiles.

I am unsure of the build rate on the Patriot Missiles but I think it is safe to assume that it is nowhere close to even 150 per month (5 per day) let alone 200 a week.

Saturation Attacks so as to overwhelm a defense’s amount of ready to use ammo is already a stated potential attack option by the Chinese against our fleet assets in the Pacific. It looks like that has now become a tactic of the Russians wrt Ukraine’s air defense systems.

Be interesting to know if any Patriot Missiles were in those weapons storage areas that were blown up earlier in the week.

The Patriot system is designed to shoot down sitting ducks as they glide in on a constant trajectory.

The Kinzhal hypersonic missile approaches its target with evasive maneuvers at a speed of over Mach 10. The missile pushes a plasma-mach-wave in front of it making it invisible to radar detection. There is no missile defense system in the world (including high energy lasers) which can shoot these suckers down.

Based on the video above, scratch one Patriot battery at a cost of about $1 billion dollars.

MORE:

This is how you can tell the Ukies had a bad night….

From Ukraine Defense official Telegram account:

“ Kiev is being hit with “Kalibers”.

The head of the office of the President of Ukraine Ermak reports that the air defense is working and urges not to post videos from the sites of Russian missile strikes.

There are also reports from Kiev that the Internet, including mobile, does not work in some areas.”

More from Slavyangrad on Tele:

“ According to local sources for the Kiril Fedorov channel the explosion was at the site of a AD position in the Svyatoshinsky district of Kiev.

Apparently, ambulances have started arriving.”

I would just add that one of the performance objectives of Kinzhal / Kalibr development was specifically against patriot missile batteries.

Tonight proved that the PATRIOT is obsolete technology.

It also proved that the entire western media has been lying through its teeth along with the Pentagon.

MIM-104 Patriot missile batteries stand no chance whatsoever.

They are utterly obsolete against Kinzhal.

It seems to me that the US today has become like a deranged, deviant, LGBTQ/BLMized version of the fall of the Roman Empire’s last years.

Sounds like a punk Rock group…

Biden and the Deviants

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Since Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan, China has stopped dialogue with USA. But USA officials badly want to meet China. Finally on 2023/5/8 China Foreign Minister Qin Gang met US ambassador to Beijing N Burns, Qin repeated what China has told USA before. Will USA hear it this time?

China-U.S. stalemate shows signs of easing

China and the United States are engaging in more high-level talks. Wang Yi, Director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, and U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan had candid, in-depth, substantive and constructive discussions on bilateral ties in Vienna, Austria, on May 10-11.

Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, and Sullivan held discussions on removing obstacles in the Sino-American relationship and keeping bilateral ties from deteriorating.

Earlier, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang met with U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns in Beijing on May 8. It was the first time Burns had met China’s top diplomat since he took office in April 2022.

China-U.S. relations are of great significance not only to the two countries but to the world, Qin, who succeeded the posts previously held by Wang in March, told Burns. President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden reached an important consensus during their meeting in Bali, Indonesia, last November [ahead of the Group of 20 Summit there]. “However, a series of erroneous words and deeds from the American side since has undermined the hard-won positive momentum in the Sino-American relationship, disrupted the planned dialogue and cooperation agenda and chilled bilateral relations again,” he said.

The top priority is to stabilize China-U.S. relations, avoid a downward spiral and prevent misunderstandings between China and the U.S., according to Qin. He stressed this should be the basic consensus between the two countries, adding the U.S. should work with China to get the ties back on track.

Good timing

On May 8, Burns tweeted that he and Qin had “discussed challenges in the U.S.-China relationship and the necessity of stabilizing ties and expanding high-level communication.”

The meeting happened after Burns on May 2 had said “the U.S. is ready to talk” as he virtually joined an event organized by the Stimson Center, a think tank in Washington, D.C., according to NBC News.

“The U.S. relationship with China remains complicated and competitive, but Washington does not seek conflict with Beijing and believes more dialogue would be constructive,” the ambassador added.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on May 8 that the Qin-Burns meeting was a normal diplomatic arrangement as he answered a question about the timing and signals of this encounter.

“The meeting is a positive sign. I believe Burns had been waiting for this conversation and it finally happened, indicating the stalemate between China and the U.S. is beginning to dissolve,” Wu Xinbo, Dean of the Institute of International Studies and Director at the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, told Beijing Review. “But it’s just a beginning.”

China halted cooperation with the U.S. on security, climate change and other areas as countermeasures following the visit to China’s Taiwan region by then Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi last August, which constituted a serious violation of the one-China principle and infringed upon China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Despite China later resuming talks, the U.S. hyping up the “wandering balloon” incident led to new tensions. In late January, a Chinese balloon was spotted over North American airspace. The U.S. claimed it was a “spy balloon” and shot it down on February 4, collecting the debris, while China reiterated it was a meteorological balloon and the unintentional entry into American airspace was due to force majeure. The worsening situation resulted in the U.S. postponement of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to China scheduled for early February.

“Qin’s meeting with Burns shows that the level of diplomatic contact has been raised; it also implies that a meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries may be on the agenda,” Lu Xiang, a research fellow with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told Chinese newspaper Global Times on May 8.

In recent weeks, senior U.S. officials have hinted at a re-engagement with China, calling for healthy and constructive relations. Blinken told The Washington Post on May 3 that it’s important to re-establish regular lines of communication at all levels and across the government. U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said the same day that China had invited him to visit the country in the near term for talks on averting a global climate change crisis, Reuters News Agency reported.

Burns has undertaken recent travels to Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, Shanghai and Tianjin to engage in direct dialogue with individuals from a range of sectors, including government officials and representatives from esteemed universities.

Action speaks louder

In his meeting with Burns, Qin further stated “the U.S. should not talk about communication while continuously trying to suppress and contain China.”

He emphasized the U.S. must respect China’s red lines and stop damaging China’s sovereignty, security and development interests. In particular, the U.S. must “correctly handle the Taiwan question, stop hollowing out the one-China principle and stop supporting and conniving at ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces.”

“Qin’s message was clear: China is open to engaging in dialogue to resolve differences, but any dialogue must have a clear purpose and not merely be for the sake of talking. Dialogue cannot be used to justify actions that harm China’s interests and the U.S. must demonstrate its commitment to improving bilateral relations through tangible actions,” Lu said.

The U.S. officially rejects “Taiwan independence” but at the same time sends military contractors to the region; this is inconsistent, according to the research fellow.

A delegation of U.S. defense contractors attended a “defense industry forum” in Taipei on May 3. Head of the delegation, retired Lieutenant General Steven Rudder, who once oversaw U.S. Marine Corps operations in the Pacific, said in his speech that U.S. defense contractors “want to be part of the self-defense capabilities of Taiwan.”

Two days later Reuters reported the Biden administration planned to send $500 million worth of “weapons aid” to Taiwan using the same emergency authority that has been used more than 35 times for Ukraine.

Wu pointed out although the Biden administration has exhibited a willingness to talk and work with China, its strategy inherited from former President Donald Trump still considers China a major competitor instead of both a rival and partner. “That’s the root cause of the worsening China-U.S. relations,” he explained.

“To ameliorate bilateral relations, the U.S. must change how it perceives China on a handful of issues, including the Taiwan question and technological blockade,” Wu said. “America’s current China policy, which claims rivalry, competition and cooperation coexist, is self-confrontational because there’s no clear line between the three. You cannot request cooperation when you contain China in the name of competition, and you cannot avoid conflict when you cross China’s red lines. That’s wishful thinking on the part of the U.S.”

University Distinguished Service Professor, Emeritus and former Dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government Joseph Nye also raised his concerns over the conditions of China-U.S. relations. “I’m afraid that, as I said, it’s a cooperative rivalry, but there’s too much emphasis on the rivalry and not enough on the cooperation,” he said at a book launch hosted by the Center for China and Globalization in Beijing on April 28.

He believes no country could pose an existential threat to the other unless the two blunder into a protracted conflict, similar to the situation in Europe in 1914 when great powers thought they could have a short, sharp war but ended up with a four-year war that killed over 10 million people and destroyed four empires.

“To get this [Sino-American] cooperation going, we’ll have more meetings like the one Xi and Biden had in Bali, but it’s going to have to become a more regular thing, not just the occasional event,” he added.

America is in need of Mental health, 40 yr old man identifies as this.

President of ASML: China’s self-developed lithography machine is destroying the global chip industry chain. Are you afraid?

2023-05-17 11:46

 

On March 28, Vinnink, President of ASML, visited China in a low-key trip. Not long after ASML officially restricted the sale of lithography machines below 14 nanometers to China, Wennink’s visit to China may be a curiosity about the Chinese market, or an investigation of the current state of China’s technology.

But it can all be summed up in one sentence. The reason for visiting China is that ASML and Wennink still have nostalgia for the Chinese market. According to reports, after meeting with Wang Wentao, Minister of Commerce of China, the two sides conducted in-depth exchanges on ASML’s development in China.

However, the words that Wen Ningke said in person afterward caused chills in many Chinese people. In Wennink’s view, if China develops its own lithography machine, it will destroy the global chip industry chain.

This sentence is funny, as if China develops its own technology, it has already stood on the opposite side of the world.

 

Wennink’s visit to China

ASML, which was born in the Netherlands, is the world’s largest lithography machine manufacturer and the only company in the world that can produce EUV lithography machines. The title of “King of Chips” is not intrusive on them. With a share of more than 60% in the global lithography machine market, ASML is worthy of this title, not to mention the market share of EUV technology. It has exceeded 95%.

 

Originally, ASML’s technology and the Chinese market formed a win-win relationship of mutual nourishment. However, due to the suppression of China’s technology by the United States, ASML was forced to agree to the decision of the United States and banned the sale of many products exported to China. . It also includes the most advanced deposition equipment and immersion photolithography system in the world.

With ASML’s ban on sales to China, the company’s order market has shrunk rapidly. After all, China is ASML’s third largest market in the world by sales, with sales of nearly 2.7 billion euros, no matter who it is, it is hard for anyone to give up. So Wen Ningke finally started his trip to China after all kinds of entanglements.

 

After the talks between Wenninger and Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao, both sides received the confidence of the other party in Sino-Dutch economic and trade. Wang Wentao also said that he would maintain the stability of the global semiconductor industry chain and supply chain. For those goods affected by export controls, ASML said that it will take some time for these controls to be legislated and take effect.

In addition, from 2019 to now, ASML has strong confidence in Sino-Dutch trade. We have reason to believe that the arrival of Wennink is a performance of ASML’s gratitude. After all, the huge Chinese market has allowed one-third of ASML’s revenue to be shouldered in the past two years.

 

Since it is seeking peace, why provoke?

But when Wen Nink was interviewed, he said that if China wants to develop its own lithography machine, it is a “destructive behavior” that will cause impact and chaos to the global chip industry chain. Among Chinese companies, the one that left an important impression on Wenningke is “Huawei”.

 

In Wennink’s view, Huawei’s strength is unquestionable, but if Huawei wants to make its own chips, it needs to have its own lithography machine. But in Wennink’s view, doing so will disrupt the balance of the global supply chain.

Some people think that this is Wennink trying to save his respect for his visit to China, while others think that this is an excuse for the United States to restrict the sale of lithography machines. However, the premise of these conjectures is that Wenningke has no intention of the Chinese market.

 

This obviously does not match the purpose of his visit to China. So the most likely thing is Wennink’s fear of the rapid development of Chinese technology.

ASML originally planned to increase the production capacity of EUV lithography machines to 90 units and DUV lithography machines to 600 units in the next three years. In the case of ever-increasing production capacity, China’s stable and huge but limited market has become the largest digester of ASML’s output.

 

But once China’s technology matures and it has the ability to make its own lithography machines, “Made in China” will be a terrifying existence in the world.

 

Chinese technology development

On the other hand, Wennink’s timidity and fear are not unfounded worries. After all, since the second half of 2022, China has been continuously “applying eye drops” to ASML. For example, last year, Chinese companies expected to bid for 27 lithography machines, and Japanese lithography machine companies contracted 21 sets of large orders, and the remaining 6 sets were taken over by domestic lithography machine companies.

 

Behind the failure of ASML is the maturing of Chinese technology.

Coupled with the mass-produced 28nm lithography machine in China, the problem of immersion technology has been solved, and the difficulty of subsequent technology development should be greatly reduced. Moreover, in recent years, China has attracted many technical talents from its own “Taiwan Province”, and has also injected fresh and powerful blood into the development of China’s lithography machine technology.

 

Whether it is a country or an enterprise, the premise of existence and communication is to put profits first. China’s current research and development is progressing smoothly. If China’s technology progresses, it will really be a kind of “destruction”. Then face the destruction, after all, if the old doesn’t go, the new won’t come. Starting with China’s continuous development, destroying and rebuilding always leads to a better future.

The American Dream Is Dead

Don’t Make Workers Eat the Kroger-Albertsons Merger

How mergers push wages down, and what to do about it.

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Back in October, Kroger and Albertsons, two of the biggest supermarket chain corporations in the U.S., announced they intend to merge. If allowed, the merger would bring a host of brands, including Safeway, Shaws, and Harris-Teeter, under the umbrella of one grocery behemoth. It would be the largest merger in retail grocer history, and so has rightfully drawn antitrust scrutiny from Congress, the Federal Trade Commission, and several state attorneys general, as well as a private antitrust action on behalf of grocery buyers.

One of the concerns raised, of course, is that the merger will result in higher prices, as the new grocery giant monopolizes local markets, which has particular salience in a moment of higher than normal food inflation. But another concern is that the merger will specifically harm workers, as the newly-merged entity will have significant power over labor markets too, giving it the ability to push down wages, not just for those who work at Kroger or Albertson’s owned stores, but across the industry.

Justifying those concerns, a recently released study from the Economic Policy Institute shows that workers across the grocery sector would lose more than $330 million annually should the merger be allowed to proceed. Here are the specifics:

• The merger will lower wages for 746,000 grocery store workers in over 50 metropolitan areas of the U.S. […]
• The total annual earnings of grocery store workers will fall by $334 million in affected metropolitan areas;
• Because Kroger and Albertsons employ about one quarter of all grocery store employees, most of the wage losses caused by the merger will be a negative externality that falls on grocery store workers employed by other firms. On average, all grocery workers in affected markets will lose about $450 per year in wage income;

This drop in wages is a result of labor market power (or monopsony or buyer power, if you want to get fancy). When there are fewer employers, those that remain have more leverage to keep wages low because workers can’t credibly threaten to leave for a competitor, or actually leave, in order to raise their pay or improve their working conditions.

And this power would clearly be exacerbated by a Kroger-Albertsons merger, since the two corporations have significant overlap in their store footprints. To be exact, about half of Albertsons 2,270 stores are within three miles of a Krogers store, which would give the merged entity a lot of incentive to shut stores down and consolidate both consumer and labor markets.

The overlap is magnified especially in some localities, since grocery buying is typically an intensely local activity. For instance, in Chicago, 55 Kroger stores and 102 Albertsons stores are within three miles of each other. A similar situation exists in a host of other cities, including Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Seattle.

It seems pretty clear, then, both anecdotally and quantitatively, that workers would get left picking up crumbs should the merger go through.

The analysis being done around how a Kroger-Albertsons merger would push down pay fits into a broader investigation of employer power and a search for affirmative solutions, including the Treasury Department report I’ve pointed to a few times, which found that “a careful review of credible academic studies places the decrease in wages at roughly 20 percent relative to the level in a fully competitive market.”

Other work has looked at the effects large corporations such as Amazon or Walmart have had on labor markets, and they consistently find wages going one direction: Down. And labor markets with higher levels of concentration see more wage cuts and labor law violations. It’s all bad news.

Antitrust would be the traditional remedy for this sort of corporate power, but in recent decades enforcers have largely let buyer-side antitrust cases fall completely by the wayside. The only recent notable case in the space was the successful effort to stop two large book publishers from merging, on the grounds that it would drive down compensation paid to authors.

Instead, enforcers have resorted to janky agreements in which the merging entities sell off some of their facilities to competitors, in theory fostering an overall more competitive environment, despite the merger. Kroger claims it is cooking up just such a deal now to appease enforcers. But there’s a history of such deals resulting in complete failure.

In fact, in 2015, Albertsons sold off 168 stores across eight western states to grease the skids for its acquisition of Safeway. But the buyer of the bulk of those stores couldn’t handle such a rapid expansion, and ended up filing for bankruptcy and selling off 100 of its stores, 33 of which were bought back by Albertsons at fire-sale prices. So a bunch of small towns and cities that were supposed to avoid winding up with a monopolized grocery market received exactly that.

Legislation was introduced this legislative session in several states, including New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania, that would bolster the ability of state antitrust enforcers to bring cases on behalf of workers, explicitly, by inserting into law that protecting wages and working conditions is a clear-cut goal of antitrust law. A separate Minnesota bill that has already passed the state House also includes such language around hospital mergers, with explicit protections for health care workers, who are especially susceptible to monopoly power as large health care systems consolidate.

But that’s the legislative long game. In the short-term, enforcers should block the Kroger-Albertsons merger so workers don’t have to eat it on another consolidation play that helps no one but the folks in suits sitting in corners offices.

Central Asia is located in the heart of the Eurasian continent and is a strategic channel connecting the East and the West. The five Central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan – are China’s western neighbors. Over 2,000 years ago, the ancient Silk Road passed through Central Asia, serving as an important trade route connecting China with neighboring countries and Europe. In modern times, China has established strategic partnerships with the five Central Asian countries and deepened cooperation and exchanges. The five Central Asian countries are not only important energy suppliers to China but also cooperate with China on security to combat extremist and separatist forces and maintain regional stability.

This year (2023) marks the 31st anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the five Central Asian countries. Over the past 31 years, China’s relations with Central Asian countries have continuously improved and upgraded, achieving leapfrog development. The upcoming China-Central Asia Summit will open a new chapter in China-Central Asia relations.

Taking economic and trade cooperation as an example, in the 31 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, the trade volume between China and the five Central Asian countries has increased by over 100 times. In 2022, the bilateral trade volume reached a historic high of 70.2 billion US dollars, with China’s imports of agricultural, energy, and mineral products from Central Asian countries increasing by over 50% year-on-year, and its exports of electromechanical products to Central Asian countries increasing by 42% year-on-year. From January to March this year, the trade volume between China and the five Central Asian countries increased by 22% year-on-year. China will work with the economic and trade departments of Central Asian countries to consolidate and develop the good momentum of trade and investment, and promote the further development of China-Central Asia economic and trade cooperation with the China-Central Asia Summit as an opportunity.

2023 also marks the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative. With the joint efforts of China and the leaders of the five Central Asian countries, the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative in Central Asia is promising. In the future, China-Central Asia Belt and Road cooperation can be expanded to new areas such as digital economy, artificial intelligence, green energy, and poverty reduction.

China Cancels 129.1B Chip Orders, Deals $1.5T Blow to US Chip Giants, SMIC Emerges Victorious.

According to customs data, in the first quarter of 2023, the domestic import of chips was 108.2 billion, a decrease of 32.1 billion from the previous year.

Coupled with the cumulative reduction of 97 billion in 2022, the total is 129.1 billion.

Some foreign media have pointed out: “SMIC is the big winner!”

Since the second quarter of 2021, China has begun to reduce the import of chips.

In the first quarter of 2022, the import of chips decreased by 21%.

This trend directly affected the chip industry in the United States and TSMC. After losing the Chinese market, US companies face huge economic losses and can only maintain normal operations through layoffs.

China is one of the largest chip procurement countries in the world, consuming over 70% of global chip shares.

Reducing chip imports affects the production and exports of US chip manufacturers, leading to a significant compression of the US chip manufacturers’ market share and profit.

For TSMC, although the reduction in Chinese imports will not directly affect its business, if the chip purchases of other countries also decrease, it will lead to a reduction in the global chip market supply, which will in turn affect TSMC’s customer demand and revenue.

If the United States continues to take export control measures against China, TSMC’s days are also destined to be difficult.

https://youtu.be/4ARlrhxUhNE

“Under democracy, creditors begin to make loans and the debtors can’t pay and the creditors get more and more money, and they end up turning a democracy into an oligarchy, and then the oligarchy makes itself hereditary, and you have an aristocracy.”

“The emergence of financial and landholding oligarchies made debt peonage and bondage permanent, supported by a pro-creditor legal and social philosophy that distinguishes Western civilization from what went before. Today it would be called neoliberalism.”

“What impoverished the population of the Roman Empire” bequeathed a “creditor-based body of legal principles to the modern world”.

“Rome’s law of contracts established the fundamental principle of Western legal philosophy giving creditor claims priority over the property of debtors – euphemized today as ‘security of property rights’. 

Public expenditure on social welfare was minimized – what today’s political ideology calls leaving matters to ‘the market’. 

It was a market that kept citizens of Rome and its Empire dependent for basic needs on wealthy patrons and moneylenders – and for bread and circuses, on the public dole and on games paid for by political candidates, who often themselves borrowed from wealthy oligarchs to finance their campaigns.” 

“These pro-rentier ideas, policies and principles are those that today’s Westernized world is following. That is what makes Roman history so relevant to today’s economies suffering similar economic and political strains.”

“The greed of creditors brings neither enjoyment nor profit to them, and ruins those whom they wrong. They do not till the fields which they take from their debtors, nor do they live in their houses after evicting them.”

CGTN