Miscellaneous News

RedBaron said:

I presume this means that after the death of Nguyen Phu Trong anti-China faction has prevailed ?

MANILA, Aug 30 (Reuters) - The Philippines and Vietnam will sign a defence cooperation agreement on Friday, the office of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said, a significant step by two countries that have long opposed China's actions in the South China Sea.

Vietnamese Defence Minister Phan Van Giang was in Manila on Friday to hold talks with his Philippine counterpart, Gilberto Teodoro, and he paid a courtesy call earlier in the day on Marcos.

"We now talk about defence cooperation, security cooperation, maritime cooperation, and certainly, on the area of trade as well," Marcos was quoted as saying in a statement, which did not specify details of the defence agreement.
"Your visit, I think, will serve as further impetus, further push to increase that – the depth and the range of our relationship."
The agreement comes at a time of simmering tension in the South China Sea and international concern about an escalation, and over the conduct of China's vast fleet of coastguard and its activities in the exclusive economic zones of its neighbours.

Vietnam has a tricky balancing act of opposing actions by China that it deems infringements on its sovereignty, while needing to maintain close relations with its giant neighbour, forged over decades by their ruling Communist Parties.
Vietnam's decision to enter into the agreement comes at a time when U.S. defence ally the Philippines and China are sparring almost every week over the South China Sea, a row that has raged for more than a year.
China claims sovereignty over almost all of the strategic waterway.
Despite their overlapping claims in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, where Vietnam and the Philippines each occupies atolls and reefs, both countries have expressed desire to work together and tackle disputes.
Coast guards of the two countries earlier this month held their first-ever joint exercises in Manila, simulating fire-fighting drills and search-and-rescue exercises.
That came after Marcos visited Hanoi in January and signed deals that covered "incident prevention in the South China Sea" and "maritime cooperation".

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Click to expand...

From my previous post Vietnam is the victor in this SCS saga, they want the Philippine to take the lead, suffer the consequences while they take up the pieces, build an artificial island laughing among themselves as both the American and the Philippines look on with amusement....lol

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Jun 13, 2024 — The Philippine navy is “monitoring” Vietnam's island-building activities in South China Sea waters within Manila's exclusive economic zone, a naval official ...


As a matter of fact it was Vietnam who invade and take one of our island in the SCS. The tactic that the Vietnamese use is straight from Sun Tzu teaching, inviting the whole island garrison to a party in the Vietnamese control island with beer, wine and prostitute while they take the island stealthy.

1968 – Philippine occupation​

[]
In 1968, Filipino troops occupied Song Tử Đông (Northeast Cay, Parola) and Song Tử Tây (Southwest Cay, Pugad). "As this relates to Cloma, no official act by the Philippine government could be found which contemporaneously and specifically ratified his declaration. However, in 1968 the Philippine government began sending troops to occupy the area and in 1971 made an official announcement that the Philippines were occupying several of the features in KIG for “reasons of national security and to “protect the interests of the state and its citizens.”

1975 – Capture by South Vietnam​

[]
Southwest Cay is near the northern edge of the in the . It is just northwest of in the group, which also contains the Filipino-occupied (Parola), the South Vietnamese-occupied South Reef, and the unoccupied North Reef. Southwest Cay and Northeast Cay are just 1.75 miles (2.82 km) apart, and each island is visible from the other.

Sometime in 1975, all the Filipino soldiers guarding Southwest Cay (Pugad) left to attend to the birthday party of their commanding officer who was based on Northeast Cay (Parola). A storm that day is also believed to have influenced the soldiers to regroup temporarily on Parola. A report also came out saying that South Vietnamese officials managed to send prostitutes to the birthday party to lure the Filipino soldiers guarding Pugad. It was said to be a "present" to the Filipino commander for his birthday, and as a move of South Vietnamese forces to befriend all Filipino soldiers guarding the Spratlys. Filipino soldiers did not expect that South Vietnam would resort to foul play since both the Philippines and South Vietnam, together with the United States, were allies in the . This tactic is believed to be the reason why South Vietnamese forces knew that the Filipino soldiers left the island, an action that is usually kept confidential.[

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

]

After the party and after the weather cleared out, the returning soldiers were surprised that a company of South Vietnamese soldiers were already on the island. The South Vietnamese flag replaced the Filipino flag flying on the pole erected by Filipino soldiers. The Filipino soldiers returned to Parola immediately for fear that Parola would be the next target. After higher-ups of the Philippines were informed about the situation, they instructed the troops based in Parola and Pagasa () to stay on red alert status. For the following mornings, the only thing the Filipino soldiers could do on Parola was to "curse" while South Vietnamese soldiers on Pugad sang their national anthem. officials, who did not want to compromise the alliance while the Vietnam War was still being fought, decided to remain silent.

sndef888 said:

All of these bills are basically the last cries of a dying empire desperately trying to implement protectionism

It's honestly pathetic to watch lol

Click to expand...

“Last cries of a dying empire”: so when should we expect said “empire” to end?

The trade war has started since 2018 and the U.S. economy has grown substantially since then, the tensions in the U.S.-China relationship have had negligible impact on macroeconomic statistics, and are clearly US-China tensions still top of mind for Chinese corporates and policymakers with the U.S. entirely steering this ship.

Even if you assume the U.S. economy grows at 1.5% and China grows at 5% into perpetuity, there are 2-3 decades where the U.S. economy is at least 70% of China’s size. If this “dying” involves in the best Chinese case, waiting an entire working career for maybe, one day, seeing the relative U.S. power position ambiguously drop, that’s gotta be worth something, I guess (?)

chgough34 said:

Getting China to sanction Vietnam is good for the United States since it harms China’s economy with no cost to the U.S., it irreparably harms a bilateral relationship China holds that it built up with substantial effort, and it makes for all asean states to look to the U.S. to play daddy moral hazard/external balancer. Since there’s nothing China can do to substantively harm the U.S., it just harms US “puppets” but in doing so, it makes it much easier for the U.S. to improve relations with said “puppets” and it harms China’s economy

Click to expand...

Utterly deluded claim.

chgough34 said:

“Last cries of a dying empire”: so when should we expect said “empire” to end?

The trade war has started since 2018 and the U.S. economy has grown substantially since then, the tensions in the U.S.-China relationship have had negligible impact on macroeconomic statistics, and are clearly US-China tensions still top of mind for Chinese corporates and policymakers with the U.S. entirely steering this ship.

Even if you assume the U.S. economy grows at 1.5% and China grows at 5% into perpetuity, there are 2-3 decades where the U.S. economy is at least 70% of China’s size. If this “dying” involves in the best Chinese case, waiting an entire working career for maybe, one day, seeing the relative U.S. power position ambiguously drop, that’s gotta be worth something, I guess (?)

Click to expand...

Lol, the "growth" of the US economy is entirely a mirage funded by its USD hegemony. There is no way in practical terms that a US citizen is more productive than 5 Chinese citizens.

You're assuming that the USD will remain strong forever and the US will only gradually decline in relative terms

When in reality there's a pretty decent chance of it meeting an unceremonious ending that results in it fragmenting into multiple pieces, or at the very least a collapse in the value of the USD reflecting its true value.

China is just waiting because it doesn't want the US to get desperate enough to take military action today, which, even if they can't win will still severely damage China's development.

sndef888 said:

Lol, the "growth" of the US economy is entirely a mirage funded by its USD hegemony. There is no way in practical terms that a US citizen is more productive than 5 Chinese citizens.

Click to expand...

This is simple. 20%-ish of Chinese workers are subsidence farmers as opposed to ~0% of the U.S. population: then if you look at US firms - there simply are no Chinese equivalents of the size and scope of U.S. firms like Microsoft, Oracle, Linde, Air Products and Chemicals, ThermoFisher Intel, Pfizer, Nvidia, AMD, Boeing, etc and countless other innovative manufacturers and service firms. China simply lacks the multiplicity of large technologically complex firms that the U.S. contains in droves - that drives the technological frontier more than anything else and can easily explain the productivity differential.

Even with the recent Boeing and Intel news - they clear far more in revenue and volume in a quarter than COMAC and a random set of Chinese logic IC manufacturers have cleared in the past decade combined

sndef888 said:

You're assuming that the USD will remain strong forever and the US will only gradually decline in relative terms

Click to expand...

Indeed. US power is based off of accumulated U.S. advantages in physical capital, human capital, technological development, network effects, etc. unless China somehow manages to vaporize every facility and company document, those advantages will be enduring

sndef888 said:

When in reality there's a pretty decent chance of it meeting an unceremonious ending that results in it fragmenting into multiple pieces, or at the very least a collapse in the value of the USD reflecting its true value.

Click to expand...

Hmm…sure. What date should we expect this by?

RedBaron said:

Utterly deluded claim.

Click to expand...

If there was, we would’ve seen it by now since with the 301 tariffs, the Huawei export ban, the October 7 export ban, the Pelosi trip to Taiwan, the CFIUS rollout, the TikTok ban, the CCP travel/visa restrictions, the South China Sea/Philippines stuff, the journalist kicking out, the Taiwan Travel Act, US army members in Taiwan, etc

among others were all the 246,495th time the US apparently crossed China’s red line only for China to do…nothing.

chgough34 said:

This is simple. 20%-ish of Chinese workers are subsidence farmers and then if you look at US firms - there simply are no Chinese equivalents of the size and scope of U.S. firms like Microsoft, Oracle, Linde, Air Products and Chemicals, ThermoFisher Intel, Pfizer, Nvidia, AMD, Boeing, etc and countless other innovative manufacturers and service firms. China simply lacks the multiplicity of large technologically complex firms that the U.S. contains in droves - that drives the technological frontier more than anything else.

Even with the recent Boeing and Intel news - they clear far more in revenue and volume in a quarter than COMAC and a random set of Chinese logic IC manufacturers have cleared in the past decade combined

Indeed. US power is based off of accumulated U.S. advantages in physical capital, human capital, technological development, network effects, etc. unless China somehow manages to vaporize every facility and company document, those advantages will be enduring

Hmm…sure. What date should we expect this by?

Click to expand...

You're basically repeating the sort of nonsense that neoliberal thinktanks spread word for word.

"China simply lacks the multiplicity of large technologically complex firms that the U.S. contains in droves - that drives the technological frontier more than anything else"

LMFAO. As I said, no, there's nothing particularly competitive about US firms except in a few tech sectors that definitely do not justify the majority of the supposed 30 trillion economy. It is all down to USD hegemony, which is a privilege that will not last forever. Feel free to bet the other way. We're discussing a speculative here, why are you trying to ask for a date? I'm not Gordon Chang. I just know that empires typically last 200-300 years, and the US is reaching 250 years old in 2026. Wink wink.

chgough34 said:

If there was, we would’ve seen it by now since with the 301 tariffs, the Huawei export ban, the October 7 export ban, the Pelosi trip to Taiwan, the CFIUS rollout, the TikTok ban, the CCP travel/visa restrictions, the South China Sea/Philippines stuff, the journalist kicking out, the Taiwan Travel Act, US army members in Taiwan, etc

among others were all the 246,495th time the US apparently crossed China’s red line only for China to do…nothing.

Click to expand...

And yet the US still adhere to the One China Policy, that's the Chinese redline not your illusionary version.

chgough34 said:

Yeah, China is the substantially weaker party in U.S.-China relations. The U.S. gets to set terms

Click to expand...

It's the complete opposite. US doesnt even have any credible road map to catch up to China economically, and economics is what determine national power.

US is unable to get even any high-level dialogue in at this point of time, while China is directly hitting US and EU economies into recession, livelihoods remain unaffected in China by US attempts at retaliations. Why do you think US is the one trying to initiate negotiation and hotlines all the time?

Because US doesn't have the power to affect China's home economy, it doesn't cost the CPC anything to not negotiate with America. The sense of urgency is not there.

chgough34 said:

If there was, we would’ve seen it by now since with the 301 tariffs, the Huawei export ban, the October 7 export ban, the Pelosi trip to Taiwan,

Click to expand...

0 impact on Chinese economy, which is what CPC is gonna look at.

chgough34 said:

the CFIUS rollout, the TikTok ban,

Click to expand...

Which Biden doesn't have the balls to finish, despite China not even warning them.

chgough34 said:

the CCP travel/visa restrictions,

Click to expand...

He banned some persons who will never vacation in US from vacationing in US. Kekw.

chgough34 said:

the South China Sea/Philippines stuff, the journalist kicking out, the Taiwan Travel Act, US army members in Taiwan, etc

among others were all the 246,495th time the US apparently crossed China’s red line only for China to do…nothing.

Click to expand...

And China retaliate by aggroing Russia against the EU, resulting in the collapse of EU industry sector, deep recession in European NATO and stagflation in the US, alongside a war that has erased 100 000s of western ideology motivated and god knows how much stockpiles for the US. Btw according to your standard of considering US army in Taiwan, PLA is in Donbass.

Now, also Israel is under threat. The last US colony in Middle East, after China broke the Saudi petrodollar agreement.

Where are America's red lines?

America is slapping China on the chest, having no visible impact on Chinese livelihoods, while every return blow China throws are punches that put economies into recession, kill thousands in proxy wars/attacks and degrades US military capabilities.

When was the last time an US led attack managed to disrupt thousands of lives in China?

Under such a status quo, why would China negotiate with US?