Ugh. I was just yelled at on one of the American social media platforms. Sheech! Get a fucking life.
Then, I had to endure a troll on MM that was telling me how wrong I am, and that I “obviously never been to China”; where there are no freedoms…
I got six phone calls from the USA. All with 001 -324 prefix. Uh oh… spam auto dial.
What do all three things have in common?
Yeah. They all are associated with the United States; the people, the culture, the government, the laws, and the rules.
We are close. Pivot point is earlier during this turning. I think that the climax is THIS year, moving into next. But that we will have a subsequent three additional years of zesty activities.
Sigh.
Today is a bunch of stuff. Enjoy.
Shaker Beef Goulash
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 2 pounds beef, cubed
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 2 large onions
- 1 cup oil
- 1 cup apple juice
- 6 medium carrots
- 2 tablespoons snipped parsley
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon marjoram
- 1/2 teaspoon thyme
- 1/3 cup cold water
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 6 small potatoes
Instructions
- In plastic bag combine first four ingredients. Shake.
- In large skillet add 2 tablespoons oil and brown shaken ingredients.
- Add onions, 1 cup water and apple juice. Cover and simmer for 1 1/4 hours until tender.
- Add carrots, parsley and spices. Simmer 30 minutes more.
- Blend 1/2 cup water and 3 tablespoons of flour. Stir into stew. Cook and stir until bubbly.
- Cook potatoes while stew is simmering. Peel and boil.
- Add 1/4 cup milk and 3 tablespoons of butter. Beat until smooth whipped potatoes.
- Spoon mashed potatoes around edge of stew and sprinkle with parsley.
- Serve while hot.
China Proposes $58 Billion Railway Project in Pakistan to Reduce Reliance on Western Trade Routes
China has proposed to build its most expensive Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to date, a $58 billion railway system in Pakistan to reduce the reliance on Western trade routes, according to a research paper commissioned by China earlier this week.
Article HERE
How Is China Turning Deserts Into Arable Lands?
A report from the UN reveals that drylands, including vast areas of desert, cover 41.3% of Earth’s total land area. What if large amounts of this land could be converted into fertile ground capable of producing crops? This is a particularly important question in China, which has a total land area of 3.5 million square miles, but only 12% of which is arable.
In 2016, researchers from China’s Chongqing Jiaotong University claimed to have developed a novel technology that can convert desert to arable land.
At first glance, the idea of converting deserts into farmlands seems beneficial to agriculture, the economy, reforestation, and natural resource management. However, the impact of converting desert and grassland to arable land could have large-scale repercussions on the Earth’s climate, biodiversity, and overall ecological balance.
The technology developed by the researchers at Chongqing Jiaotong University involves a paste made from plant cellulose, that can greatly improve the ability of desert sands to hold water, minerals, air, microbes, and nutrients essential for plant growth.
This paste was applied to a sandy 1.6-hectare plot in the Ulan Buh Desert, in the Mongolian Autonomous Region. Over time, the plot was transformed into fertile cropland capable of producing tomatoes, rice, watermelon, sunflowers, and corn.
Professor Yang Qingguo, of Jiaotong University, explained that “The costs of artificial materials and machines for transforming sand into the soil is lower compared with controlled environmental agriculture and reclamation”
According to the Chinese researchers, the plants grown in the sandy plot delivered higher crop yields, using the same amount of water needed for growing crops in normally arable soils. Moreover, the amount of fertilizer needed to produce the crops was lower than what is generally required for the growth of vegetables in other soils.
This research was conducted by scientists Yi Zhijian and Zhao Chaohua, and their results were published in 2016 in the English language journal Engineering, which is released by the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE). The technique undertaken by the researchers was also presented at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), an initiative begun in 1994, with the aim of stopping the advance of desertification by 2030 through the use of global cooperation and long-term strategies.
The research work at Jiatong University is not the first Chinese attempt to convert desert into fertile land. China launched a much more ambitious program in 1978, known as the Three-North Shelter Forest Program, and often referred to as the Three-North Shelterbelt Program, or Great Green Wall. The goal of this program is to stop the expansion of the vast Gobi Desert and initiate reforestation projects in the northeast, north, and northwest regions.
Thus far, the program has effectively curbed the expansion of desertification and helped prevent sandstorms and soil erosion, conserve water and soil, and safeguard agriculture in the region.
The Shelter Forest Program has a projected completion date of 2050, by which time it is estimated that a projected 35 million hectares (87 million acres) of land will have been converted to forest. The Chinese government claims it is the world’s biggest reforestation initiative.
In the past four decades, more than 7.88 million hectares of windbreak trees have been planted, 336,200 square kilometers of desertification have been reversed, and more than 10 million hectares of grasslands have been protected or restored, according to a report released by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
At the same time, in the Loess Plateau, grass and forest coverage has been increased by around 60%, and the silt build-up in the Yellow River has been reduced considerably.
NASA satellite images confirm that forest cover has increased in China over the last 20 years due to the various conservation efforts launched by the Chinese government.
However, some elements of the project have been considered controversial. For example, during the early years of the project, monoculture was adopted in some areas, which reduced species biodiversity and led to the spread of plant diseases.
Jennifer L. Turner, director of the China Environment Forum at the D.C.-based Woodrow Wilson Center, told National Geographic magazine in 2017 that. “With the Great Green Wall, people are planting lots of trees in big ceremonies to stem desertification, but then later no one takes care of them, and they die.”
The magazine also pointed out that afforestation can exceed the land’s carrying capacity, dooming the trees to an eventual death without constant human intervention. For this reason, in 2008, the World Bank recommended China focus more on quality than quantity in some areas of the project.
Despite some initial problems, China has continued the world’s largest afforestation project and this has resulted in some positive outcomes. Since the project began, the northern region has witnessed a growth in green cover from 5% to 13.5%, and sections of the Gobi desert are now blooming with healthy vegetation, fertile soil, and increased rainfall.
Another major breakthrough came in the form of replacing the Maowusu Desert in northern China’s Inner Mongolia Region with lush forest. By 2020, 93.24% of the Maowusu desert had been restored with vegetation, and the desert areas, which were previously ranked among China’s four largest, have now almost disappeared from the map.
Beyond the Great Green Wall, China has taken other measures to stem the growth of deserts. A series of laws passed beginning in the early 2000s, also addressed the problem with efforts to return some farm and grazing lands to a state of forest cover or grassland.
More green cover could mean increased food security, more rainfall, higher yield, decreased soil erosion, and less land degradation. In addition to those working in China, there are many researchers working on afforestation technology and projects.
- Liquid Nano Clay (LNC), a special sand treatment that can change the dry character of sand particles by the means of a clay coating and allows them to hold water, was developed by Norwegian scientist Kristian Morten Olesen in 2005. Olesen claims that using this method, any poor-quality sand can rapidly be converted into high-yield soil.
- In 2018, Desert Control, the company started by Olesen, joined with Dubai’s International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) to conduct laboratory and field experiments to prove LNC’s potential in transforming UAE’s desert lands into lush green fertile regions. Faisal Al Shimmari, an innovator from UAE, conducted an experiment in which he farmed two lands, one treated with LNC and the other without LNC. He found out that the LNC treated land consumed only 81 cubic meters of water to produce crops compared to the 137 cubic meters of water used by the untreated area. Excited with this initial success, Desert Control now plans to boost its nano clay production to further escalate the process of desert reforestation in the UAE whereas, the UAE government also sees LNC as an opportunity to increase food security in the country.
- Center-pivot irrigation, an efficient water distribution technique developed by American farmer Frank Zybach in the 1940s, and which is credited with helping to restore land after the “Dust Bowl,” is now being practiced extensively in arid regions such as Libya, India, and the UAE. The system is designed to minimize water loss through evaporation, by utilizing a combination of sprinkler and drip irrigation methods that feeds water from a pivot point within a circle.
- More than 90% of Egypt’s total land area is desert, but the country is strongly committed to stopping desertification and converting its arid land into arable land. Over the decades, Egypt has engaged in a number of afforestation and de-desertification projects, including the use of nanoclay and soil formation using compost. Between 1998 and 2020, the Serapium Forest project replaced 200 hectares (494 acres) of desert land with trees, using treated sewage water. In the coming years, the government hopes to launch similar projects to generate more arable land.
- In 2007, 11 countries on the African continent came together under the leadership of the African Union to establish The Great African Green Wall. This large afforestation project has a goal of creating an 8,000 Km long green corridor across Africa by 2030. As a result of the Great Green Wall project, Senegal has managed to restore 800,000 hectares of degraded land, Niger has planted 149 million plants, and Ethiopia has successfully grown 5.5 billion plants and seedlings for local communities. However, more than halfway through the project’s schedule, it has covered only 4% of its target area.
- Mauji island, a barren wasteland in Assam, India was turned into a productive forest spanning across 550 hectares of land, by Jadav Payeng, who has been dubbed the forest man of India. Jadav started planting trees as a teenager to prevent soil erosion and he continued to plant trees throughout the Mauji region for the next 40 years. Recently, he joined forces with Fundación Azteca, an NGO that aims to plant 7 million trees in Mexico in the coming years.
- In 2019, the government of India introduced the concept for the Great Green Wall of India, a 1400 km long green corridor that would be developed from Porbandar to Panipat, and could restore the country’s drylands through extensive afforestation.
- Shyam Sundar Jyani, winner of UNCCD’s 2021 Land for Life Award has planted more than 2.5 million trees in the dry state of Rajasthan, India. He focused on indigenous species tree plantation and by the means of his grassroot campaigns, he inspired thousands of villagers for tree plantation in different arid areas of Rajasthan.
If all the deserts on Earth become fertile, this would have a number of consequences, both positive and negative for life on earth.
- Food insecurity is a serious global issue at present. According to a 2019 UN report, around 750 million people are currently facing high or extreme levels of food insecurity. With enough arable land, there is the possibility that the agriculture sector could expand enough to end food insecurity.
- Fewer deserts could mean more land would be available for forest animals and plant species, this will lead to an increase in biodiversity. However, at the same time, the extinction or reduction in desert-based species could lead to an ecological imbalance.
- Deserts play a key role in regulating the earth’s temperature, and their dry condition promotes the concentration and formation of useful minerals such as potassium, borate, gypsum, nitrate, etc. If all the deserts on our planet disappear, then this would likely adversely affect the earth’s climate, and there might be a question of the continued availability of various minerals.
- Apart from the vast array of plant and animal species that may not survive without deserts, there are 2.1 billion humans who have made drylands their home, and they are well adapted to the desert lifestyle. Such communities may struggle for existence in the absence of drylands, and they would need to adapt to new ways of life.
- Forests have long been touted as a natural system for carbon sequestration, which means that more forests could reduce global warming. However, although trees take up carbon through photosynthesis, they also emit a complex range of chemicals, some of which can warm the planet. Trees with dark leaves may also raise temperatures by absorbing sunlight. A recent research suggests that the warming effects from forests could partially or fully offset their cooling ability.
- Forests in the place of deserts could bring more rainfall and an increase in the availability of freshwater with it. This would be a great relief to one-fifth of the human population that is currently facing water scarcity. However, this would also have a far-reaching and unknown effect on the planet’s overall climate.
Desert greening is a challenging task but the experiments conducted in China and other parts of the world to implement desert reforestation on a large scale have raised hopes for a healthy and resourceful future ahead.
One hundred years ago…
China’s Space Station has achieved 100% regeneration of its oxygen supply using its onboard oxygen regeneration system.
The Space Station, which is currently operated by the Shenzhou-15 crew, can produce all of its own oxygen, according to an official speaking at a space technology symposium in Harbin City on Friday.
“At present, the six systems are in stable operation, with 100 percent of the oxygen resources regenerated and 95 percent of the water resources recycled,” said Bian Qiang, director of the environmental control and life-support engineering office under the Astronaut Center of China.
“This reduces the amount of supplies from the ground by six tonnes every year,” added Bian.
The revelation marks a significant advancement in China’s manned spacecraft’s environmental control and life-support systems, moving from “replenishment” to “regeneration.”
The system has six subsystems for various operations, such as the creation of oxygen, the removal of carbon dioxide, and the creation of water from carbon dioxide and hydrogen.
The system’s technology is among the greatest in the world, and as a result, the requirement for ground supplies is reduced by six tons annually.
China bets on cheap next generation Sodium Ion batteries. A more sustainable future indeed.
This latest technological breakthrough in battery making offers huge reduction in cost and reduced environmental impact such as air and water contamination.
That’s the way to go, China Scientist. Keep up the good job
China simulates algorithm to evade US’s sophisticated hypersonic missile defense system
Is it possible in Australia as a tourist to hire a Jeep and drive right around the entire coastline of the contiguous country, or staying as close as possible to the coast? Starting in Sydney and returning to Sydney via Perth and the Cape York Tip?
It is possible to drive around Australia on National Highway Route 1 – refer attached image:
If you plan on doing this trip, plan your trip in minute detail. How far you can go every day, where you are going to stay. Keep in contact with family and friends and keep them informed as to your progress.
Now some parts of the Australian Outback have next to no accommodation there. You may find it wise to carry additional containers of water, fuel and food. A satellite phone is also a good idea – don’t rely on your normal surburban cellular mobile phone to give you mobile phone coverage in the outback. I would even go as far as getting an old fashioned Australian Road Atlas (book of maps of Australia) so that if/when you have no GPS signal, you can still keep track of your location. Keep your eyes on the weather. Above all, you don’t want to be caught out in the Northern Australian Wet Season. As a precaution, when going into a low populated area, it’s a good idea to tell the police from where you’re leaving that “I’m going to head to xyz location along this route. I expect to be there by xx:xx time on dad/mom/yyyy. That way, they can check in and if you haven’t arrived, they have a good idea to mount a ground and aerial search. If your vehicle breaks down, DO NOT LEAVE IT!!!! It is your shelter, and is far easier spotted from the air than a solitary person wandering around the outback. The Aboriginal has survived in the Outback for 60,000+ years, however you and I will not survive wandering about the outback!!!!
Win-Win vs Lose-Lose: The Time Has Come for the World to Choose
It is a tragedy of our age that society has been locked in a zero-sum operating system for so long that many people living in the west cannot even imagine a world order designed in any other way… even if that zero sum system can ultimately do nothing but kill everyone holding onto it.
Is this statement too cynical?
It is a provable fact that if one chooses to organize their society around the concept that all players of a “great game” must exist in a finite world of tension as all zero-sum systems presume, then we find ourselves in a relatively deterministic trajectory to hell.
You see, this world of tension which game masters require in today’s world are generated by increasing rates of scarcity (food, fuel, resources, space, etc). As this scarcity increases due to population increases tied to heavy doses of arson, it naturally follows that war, famine, and other conflict will rise across all categories of divisions (ethnic, religious, linguistic, gender, racial etc). Showcasing this ugly misanthropic philosophy during a December 21, 1981 People Magazine Interview, Prince Philip described the necessity of reducing the world population stating:
“We’re in for a major disaster if it isn’t curbed-not just for the natural world, but for the human world. The more people there are, the more resources they’ll consume, the more pollution they’ll create, the more fighting they will do. We have no option. If it isn’t controlled voluntarily, it will be controlled involuntarily by an increase in disease, starvation, and war.”
When such a system is imposed upon a world possessing atomic weapons, as occurred in the wake of FDR’s death and the sabotage of the great president’s anti-colonial vision, the predictably increased rates of conflict, starvation and ignorance can only spill over into a global war if nuclear superpowers chose to disobey the limits and “norms” of this game at any time.
Perhaps some utopian theoreticians sitting in their ivory towers at Oxford, Cambridge or the many Randian think tanks peppering foreign policy landscape believed that this game could be won if only all nation states relinquished their sovereignty to a global government… but that hasn’t really happened, has it?
Instead of the relinquishing of sovereignty, the past decade has seen a vast rise of nationalism across all corners of the earth which have been given new life by the rise of China’s Belt and Road Initiative and broader multipolar alliance. While these impulses have taken on many shapes and forms, they are united in the common belief that nation states must not become a thing of the past but rather must become determining forces of the world’s economic and political destinies.
The Case of the Bi-Polar USA
Unfortunately, within the USA itself where nationalism has seen an explosive rise in popularity under President Trump, the old uni-polar geopolitical paradigm has continued to hold tight under such neocon carryovers as Mike Pompeo, Defense Secretary Esper, CIA director Gina Haspel and the large caste of Deep State characters still operating among the highest positions of influence on both sides of the aisle.
While I genuinely believe that Trump would much rather work with both Russia, China and other nations of the multipolar alliance in lieu of blowing up the world, these aforementioned neocons think otherwise evidenced by Pompeo’s October 6 speech in Japan. In this speech, Pompeo attempted to rally other Pacific nations to an anti-Chinese security complex known as the Quad (USA, Australia, Japan and India). With his typically self-righteous tone, Pompeo stated that “this is not a rivalry between the United States and China. This is for the soul of the world”. Earlier Pompeo stated “If the free world doesn’t change Communist China, Communist China will change us.”
Pompeo’s efforts to break China’s neighbours away from the Belt and Road Initiative have accelerated relentlessly in recent months, with territorial tensions between China and Japan, Vietnam, South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Philippines, Indonesia and Brunei being used by the USA to enflame conflict whenever possible. It is no secret that the USA has many financial and military tentacles stretching deep into all of those Pacific nations listed.
Where resistance to this anti-China tension is found, CIA-funded “democracy movements” have been used as in the current case of Thailand, or outright threats and sanctions as in the case of Cambodia where over 24 Chinese companies have been sanctioned for the crime of building infrastructure in a nation which the USA wishes to control.
Pompeo’s delusional efforts to consolidate a Pacific Military bloc among the QUAD states floundered fairly quickly as no joint military agreement was generated creating no foundation upon which a larger alliance could be built.
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi accurately called out this regressive agenda on October 13 saying:
“In essence [the Indo-Pacific Strategy] aims to build a so-called Indo-Pacific NATO underpinned by the quadrilateral mechanism involving the United States, Japan, India and Australia. What it pursues is to trumpet the Cold War mentality and to stir up confrontation among different groups and blocs and to stoke geopolitical competition. What it maintains is the dominance and hegemonic system of the United States. In this sense, this strategy is itself an underlying security risk. If it is forced forward it will wind back the clock of history.”
China Responds with Class
China’s response to this pompous threat to peace was classy to say the least with Wang Yi teaming up with Yang Jiechi (Director of China’s Central Foreign Affairs Commission) who jointly embarked on simultaneous foreign tours that demonstrated the superior world view of “right-makes-might” diplomacy. Where Wang Yi focused his efforts on Southeast Asia with visits to the Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, Malaysia, Laos, Thailand and Singapore, Yang Jiechi embarked on a four-legged tour of Sri Lanka, the UAE, Algeria and Serbia.
While COVID assistance was a unifying theme throughout all meetings, concrete economic development driven by the Belt and Road Initiative was relentlessly advanced by both diplomats. In all bilateral agreements reached over this past week, opportunities for cooperation and development were created with a focus on diminishing the points of tension which geopolticians require in order for their perverse “game” to function.
In Malaysia, the $10 billion, 640 Km East Coast Rail link was advanced that will be completed with China’s financial and technical help by 2026 providing a key gateway in the BRI, as well as two major industrial parks that will service high tech products to China and beyond over the coming decades.
After meeting with Wang Yi on October 9, Indonesia’s Special Presidential Envoy announced that “Indonesia is willing to sign cooperation documents on the Belt and Road Initiative and Global Maritime Fulcrum at an early date, enlarge its cooperation with China on trade and investment, actively put in place currency swap arrangements and settlements in local currency, step up the joint efforts in human resources and disaster mitigation, and learn from China’s fight against poverty.”
In Cambodia, a major Free Trade Agreement was begun which will end tariffs on hundreds of products and create new markets for both nations. On the BRI, the New International Land-Sea Trade corridor and Lancang-Mekong Cooperation plans were advanced.
In the Philippines, Wang Yi and Foreign Minister Locsin discussed Duterte’s synergistic Build Build Build program which reflects the sort of long term infrastructure orientation characteristic of the BRI which are both complete breaks with the decades-long practices of usurious IMF loans which have created development bottlenecks across the entire developing sector.
In Thailand Wang Yi met with the Thai Prime Minister where the two accelerated the building of the 252 km Bangkok-Korat high speed rail line which will then connect to Laos and thence to China’s Kunmin Province providing a vital artery for the New Silk Road.
In the past few years, the USA has been able to do little to counter China’s lucrative offers while at best offering cash under the rubric of the Lower Mekong Initiative established under the Hillary-Obama administration in preparation for the Asia Pivot encirclement of China that was unleashed in 2012. This was done as part of a desperate effort to keep China’s neighbors loyal to the USA and was meant to re-enforce Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership which Trump thankfully destroyed during his first minutes in office.
Yang Jiechi’s Four-Legged Tour
In Sri Lanka, a $90 million grant was offered by China which will be devoted to medical resources, water supplies and education and which the Chinese embassy website stated “will contribute to the well being of Sri Lankans in a post-COVID era”. Another $989 million loan was delivered for the completion of a massive expressway stretching from Central Sri Lanka’s tea growing district to the Port of Hambanota. While this port is repeatedly used by detractors of the BRI like Pompeo as proof of the “Chinese debt trap”, recent studies have proven otherwise.
In the UAE, the Chinese delegation released a press release after meeting with Prince Zayed al-Nahyan stating: “Under the strategic guidance of President Xi and the Abu Dhabi crown prince, China will enrich the connotation of its comprehensive strategic partnership with UAE, cement the political trust and support, promote alignment of development strategies, and advance high-quality joint construction of the Belt and Road.”
In Algeria, Yang offered China’s full support for the New Economic Revival Plan which parallels the Philippines’ Build Build Build strategy by focusing on long term industrial growth rather than IMF-demands for privatization and austerity that have kept North Africa and other nations backward for years.
Finally in Serbia which is a vital component of the BRI, the Chinese delegation gave its full support to the Belgrade-Budapest railway, and other long term investments centered on transport, energy and soft infrastructure, including the expansion of the Chinese-owned Smederevo Steel Plant which employs over 12 000 Serbians and which was saved from bankruptcy by China in 2016. By the end of the trip, Prime Minister Brnabic announced: “Serbia strongly supports China both bilaterally and multilaterally, including President Xi Jinping’s Access and Roads Initiative and the 17+1 Cooperation Mechanism, in the context of which most of Serbia’s infrastructure and strategy projects will be realized”
The Spirit of Win-Win Must Not Be Sabotaged
Overall, the spirit of the growing New Silk Road is fast moving from a simple east-south trade route towards a global program stretching across all of Africa, to the Middle East, to the High Arctic and Latin America. While this program is driven by a longer view of the past and future than most westerners realize, it is quickly becoming evident that it is the only game in town with a future worth living in.
While China has committed to the enlightened idea that human society is more than a “sum of parts”, the Cold Warriors of the west have chosen to hold onto obsolete notions of human nature that suppose we live in a world of “each vs. all”. These obsolete notions are premised on the bestial idea that our species is destined to do little more than fight for diminishing returns of scraps in a closed -system struggle for survival where only a small technocratic elite of game masters calling themselves “alphas” control the levers of production and consumption from above.
The US relies on printing tens of trillions of dollars to increase the USD GDP, whereas China relies on increasing productivity by producing and selling tens of trillions of dollars globally to increase the Chinese GDP. Which is sustainable?
The U.S. economy is no different from the Ponzi scheme. Basically the US economy is totally unsustainable. Today the U.S. economy need to essentially print, or create money out of thin air or sell US treasury bills ie. Sell more debts to pay the interest on the 31.4 trillion dollars debts it has run into. The U.S. stock market value is kept artificially high through the buy back of stocks using cheap money. At dirt cheap rates!
The U.S. has handed out free money ie. Helicopter money at least in excess of 10 trillion dollars during the previous 4 presidents term alone. All these U.S. happening as long as the U.S. hegemony of Dollar as in place. Post Ukraine war this hegemony is essentially over! That explains the U.S. bank run of the bank. The Fiscal structure of the U.S. economy totally unhealthy. The U.S. government is spending money it does not have doing things it does not need to do and protecting nations that don’t need the U.S. to protect!
Worst the U.S. do not have products or services that is competitive and required or demanded by the world. It can only coerce, bribed or forced customers to buy. These days. Even that is not quite possible. Hence it earns very little and spend way way way above its means. That explains its uncontrollable deficits and debts bubble. That is exploding anytime.
China’s GDP is based on actual demand if it’s higher value added products and services throughout the world. It is broad based and healthy. It is totally the opposite of the U.S.
What surprised you most when you came to China?
Before I went to China, I always thought it was a country full of fakes.
But once I went there for the first time, my mindset and view of this nation changed completely. It is so well developed and advanced.
- Cashless and mobile payment! They don’t even carry their wallets around, just using their phones instead to pay for everything via WeChat and Alipay.
- Transportation. So easy to travel around. Very affordable long-distance traveling, especially the high-speed railway. You’d love it. And Shanghai’s maglev train. The Maglev train from Shanghai airport to the city is just 7mins, normally 45 mins. We reached the top speed of 431 kilometers per hr. (I think the world should kiss China’s ass on this!).
- Sharing food around the table, using your own chopsticks. They’ll order a ton of food and it’s meant for everyone to share so obviously don’t eat all of one thing.
- The country is filled with amazing historical archaeological sites.
- For such a massive population, I spent most of my time in Shenzhen, Suzhou & Shanghai but it was significantly cleaner than I would have expected.
- I feel China is safer than many other developed countries. From my own life experience, I never felt unsafe walking around in cities after dark.
- Infrastructure in China makes me look at other countries and weep with embarrassment. Everything is huge – malls, stations, towers. I was mind-blown when I saw bund Shanghai for the first time. There is just too much to see and do, and breathtaking man-made and natural scenery is everywhere.
I’m sure plenty of people can come up with a bunch of negative sides to all of these (Remember I come from India), and China is definitely not without its problems, but there’s a whole lot of good stuff here too, and it’s definitely worth getting to know the country and its people.
Is China ahead of us? – It’s a strange realization, yes! Amazing civilization, They have got so far ahead of the West in 30 years it’s not a joke!
Playing around with AI generated art
China issues joint statement with Brazil at end of Lula’s visit
China and Brazil have issued a statement; one of the main points is that the two countries have agreed to use their own two currencies for trade settlement without using the US dollar. Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of raw materials; China is the world’s largest exporter of finished good.
When Lula started his visit to China, his first stop was Shanghai, headquarters of the New Development Bank, founded by the BRICS governments to promote lending to developing economies using their own currencies without going through the US dollar. The New Development Bank is the BRICS answer to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund which is controlled by the US and its allies in Europe and Japan.
The first president of the New Development Bank is Dima Rousseff who was president of Brazil after Lula in 2012, and is his close ally.
Shaker Spoon Bread
Ingredients
- 1 cup cornmeal
- 1 quart (4 cups) sweet milk
- 3 eggs, separated
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 3/4 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Instructions
- Scald milk and add cornmeal gradually. Cook until thick.
- Pour small amount over beaten egg yolks. Return to heat and cook a few minutes longer.
- Add butter and fold in beaten egg whites.
- Add baking powder and salt.
- Pour into greased baking dish and bake at 325 degrees F for 1 1/2 hours, stirring once after the first 15 minutes of baking.
Beijing is fully aware the NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine is the un-dissociable double of the U.S. war against its Belt and Road Initiative.
Imagine President Xi Jinping mustering undiluted Taoist patience to suffer through a phone call with that warmongering actor in a sweaty T-shirt in Kiev while attempting to teach him a few facts of life – complete with the promise of sending a high-level Chinese delegation to Ukraine to discuss “peace”.
There’s way more than meets the discerning eye obscured by this spun-to-death diplomatic “victory” – at least from the point of view of NATOstan.
The question is inevitable: what’s the point of this phone call? Very simple: just business.
The Beijing leadership is fully aware the NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine is the un-dissociable double of an American direct war against the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Until recently, and since 2019, Beijing was the top trade partner for Kiev (14.4% of imports, 15.3% of exports). China essentially exported machinery, equipment, cars and chemical products, importing food products, metals and also some machinery.
Very few in the West know that Ukraine joined BRI way back in 2014, and a BRI trade and investment center was operating in Kiev since 2018. BRI projects include a 2017 drive to build the fourth line of the Kiev metro system as well as 4G installed by Huawei. Everything is stalled since 2022.
Noble Agri, a subsidiary of COFCO (China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation), invested in a sunflower seed processing complex in Mariupol and the recently built Mykolaiv grain port terminal. The next step will necessarily feature cooperation between Donbass authorities and the Chinese when it comes to rebuilding their assets that may have been damaged during the war.
Beijing also tried to become heavily involved in the Ukraine defense sector and even buy Motor Sich; that was blocked by Kiev.
Watch that neon
So what we have in Ukraine, from the Chinese point of view, is a trade/investment cocktail of BRI, railways, military supplies, 4G and construction jobs. And then, the key vector: neon.
Roughly half of neon used in the production of semiconductors was supplied, until recently, by two Ukrainian companies; Ingas in Mariupol, and Cryoin, in Odessa. There’s no business going on since the start of the Special Military Operation (SMO). That directly affects the Chinese production of semiconductors. Bets can be made that the Hegemon is not exactly losing sleep over this predicament.
Ukraine does represent value for China as a BRI crossroads. The war is interrupting not only business but, in the bigger picture, one of the trade and connectivity corridors linking Western China to Eastern Europe. BRI conditions all key decisions in Beijing – as it is the overarching concept of Chinese foreign policy way into mid-century.
And that explains Xi’s phone call, debunking any NATOstan nonsense on China finally paying attention to the warmongering actor.
As relevant as BRI is the overarching bilateral relationship dictating Beijing’s geopolitics: the Russia-China comprehensive strategic partnership.
So let’s transition to the meeting of Defense Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) earlier this week in Delhi.
The key meeting in India was between Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and his Chinese colleague Li Shangfu. Li was recently in Moscow, and was received by Putin in person for a special conversation. This time he invited Shoigu to visit Beijing, and that was promptly accepted.
Needless to add that every single player in the SCO and beyond, including nations that are for the moment just observers or dialogue partners as well as others itching to become full members, such as Saudi Arabia, paid very close attention to the Shoigu-Shangfu camaraderie.
When it comes to the profoundly strategic Central Asian “stans”, that represents the six feet under treatment for the Hegemon wishful thinking of using them in a Divide and Rule scheme pitting Russia against China.
Shoigu-Shangfu also sent a subtle message to SCO members India and Pakistan – stop bickering and in the case of Delhi, hedging your bets – and to full member (in 2023) Iran and near future member Saudi Arabia: here’s where’s it at, this the table that matters.
All of the above also points to the increasing interconnection between BRI and SCO, both under Russia-China leadership.
BRICS is essentially an economic club – complete with its own bank, the NDB – and focused on trade. It’s mostly about soft power. The SCO is focused on security. It’s about hard power. Together, these are the two key organizations that will be paving the multilateral way.
As for what will be left of Ukraine, it is already being bought by Western mega-players such as BlackRock, Cargill and Monsanto. Yet Beijing certainly does not count on being left high and dry. Stranger things have happened than a future rump Ukraine positioned as a functioning trade and connectivity BRI partner.
What are some reasons why the Chinese government has remained in power despite its poor record of performance?
Visit China
The Average Mainlanders almost never praise their Government. They always complain, complain and complain
And their complaints!
- Weyyy! I invest 100,000 Yuan in Evergrande Bonds and it took 2 month to recover the money!!!! Two month!!!!
- There was a power failure in so & so district for 20 minutes!!!!! The Local Government is so incompetent
- They took 24 hours to deliver my Ibuprofen. What Incompetence
- Bank of China server down for more than 10 minutes. Shame on you. Letting down the public.
I realized that to me, a foreigner this was a super efficient government because in India you shrugged even if you had a 10 hour power cut, SBI servers are often 5–6 hours down and NOBODY HAS FULLY RECOVERED THEIR MONEY LOST IN AN INVESTMENT VENTURE EVEN AFTER TWO YEARS
Yet the Mainlander is so used to the Ultra Efficiency of his Government that the smallest of problems are INTOLERABLE
That’s why the CPC remain in power
They do things for their people that no democracy except maybe scandinavian ones or singapore do.
A Hospital in Beijing had a fire and 21 lives were lost
- First all trading suspended
- Second no more admissions until the matter is verified
- Third Alternative arrangements made for all incoming admissions by the Government
- Fourth 198 Hospitals inspected for fire safety and more to be inspected
- Fifth Insurers have already agreed for a payout of 572,000 Yuan per deceased person (₹ 70.67 Lakh) which will be disbursed within 4 weeks
WITHIN A BLOODY 48 HOUR PERIOD!!!
And yet the whole Weibo is FURIOUS and not one user takes the Governments side
- Every one says “It should have been prevented”
- Everyone says “Government is becoming arrogant”
- One Youngster tweeted “Less meeting with Europeans and more focus on Chinas problems”
Those are the High Standards that the Citizens of China are used to today
If this was India, already the average Indians would be defending the Government
- Everyone would say “Awww!!! Still what can you expect in a Nation of 1.4 Billion people”
- Everyone would say “Awww!!!! Still we have Vande Bharat”
- Everyone would say “Awww!!! Rahul Gandhi will be worse”
The Chinese who lived in America and who came to China on holidays are ASTOUNDED by the transformation in their relatives
They have been told bogey stories of CPC and Guns and Police State and Gulags by their Mothers and Grandmothers
Yet when they come for Chinese New Year, they see their mainland relatives yell at cops and demand that the cops allow them way and the cops shrug, are apologetic, even say “Sorry”
One Woman said how on Lunar New Year Day, Workers came within an hour to fix the electrical system, something that never happens during Christmas in US.
IT’S BETTER THAN HOW THESE AMERICAN CHINESE ARE TREATED IN USA
So to me, living in India – the CPC is wonderful
Yet to the Mainlander especially the 90s Kids, the Government is doing what IT SHOULD BE DOING and if it slacks even a little, THEY WILL SHOW THEIR IRRITATION
It shows the standards they expect
And the CPC lives up to these standards proudly especially the younger guys at the grassroots level
When a Mainlander goes to US or France today he returns to China with a sense of disgust for democracy and pride at his Government
It’s why most Mainlanders today who study in US and overseas almost always want to return back to China after their graduation
No wonder the US wants to clamp down on its Chinese Student Inflow
It’s fine when Chinese settle down in US and work for the US and use their brains for the US
It’s entirely different when Chinese leave the US after Graduation back home to use their brains for China.