Miscellaneous News

iewgnem

Junior Member
Registered Member

By the way, didn't certain US think tanks claimed that China's actual "muh PPP" defense budget is something like 700+ billion USD instead of just 250-300+ billion USD?

China should agree to Trump's proposal, and "halve" her own 700+ billion USD defense budget to 350+ billion* USD.

View attachment 145619

Trump: "Win-Win for both sides of the Pacific!"

Xi (thinking to himself): "Thanks Trump, you just gave me an additional 50-100+ billion USD* of defense budget for absolutely no reason lmfao"

View attachment 145620
Trump might as well just say America is broke and can't afford its military budget.
Which means all China has to offer is agreeing not to double its own defence budget in exchange for US halving theirs.

Or China can always play the "per capta" card for the lolz
 

lych470

Junior Member
Registered Member
The real big losers of the war in Ukraine are the UK, France and Germany.

They lost economically and militarily and thus lost their morale in the European Union. The world order in which these former powers still had relevance is over and now they will have to reinvent themselves or disappear.

Russia and the US have seen that they cannot win unilaterally and will have to make a deal in which both will concede part of their plans. Russia will get Donbas and Crimea, and the US will gain control of the exploration of rare earths and western positions in Ukraine.

But those who can be called "winners" of the war will be Poland, Italy and Spain, who will take advantage of the weakness of Germany and France to increase their influence and desires in the EU.

For Ukraine, the result will be mixed. The old artificial Ukraine, with its Orthodox majority population and Soviet borders, has been destroyed, it is gone forever!

But a new Ukraine should emerge better than the one that ended in the long run. The dominant part of the male population will be Polish/Ruthenian from the west of the country, will continue to have access to the Black Sea and will have the presence of Poles and Americans exploiting rare earths and agriculture. It will be an extension of Poland politically, economically and ultimately militarily. The Orthodox men who did not die in the war or migrated abroad will be much weaker and this will make the new Ukraine more cohesive socially and politically.

For Russia, the agreement will be good for the economy, but it will not be a complete victory because the existence of a new cohesive Ukraine linked to Poland and the US will be an unneutralized threat.

For China, the result is also mixed. A Russian agreement with the US means that Russia is also open to negotiations with the US and will put its interests first. So on the one hand it will be good for China's economy, but on the other hand it will also have to deal with the reality of Russia being open to negotiations with the US. Therefore the Chinese will also have to negotiate with the Russians for better agreements and security.

For the US, the outcome of the war in Ukraine will be equally mixed. On the one hand, they prevented a complete Russian victory and reasserted their control over Europe, but on the other hand, they saw that they had reached their limit and were also unable to defeat Russia. It was a stalemate in the grand scheme of things.

All this just shows that we are in a multipolar world again.

The fierce expansion of US hegemonic power after the collapse of the USSR is over, but they continue to be a superpower.

The US, China and Russia have seen their strengths and their limits and will have to coexist from now on. The balance of interests between the powers will once again be the focus of the world.
This is the Romance of the Three Kingdoms but with extra steps.
 

vincent

Grumpy Old Man
Staff member
Moderator - World Affairs

“I got my own slave!”

My first time coming across this guy. I guess he’s a social media influencer. I never laughed so hard in a while. I knew it was coming when it started to move. I never thought Chinese technology would be used in this way. I presumed it would be in the hands of some nerd hobbyist or university type setting.

If Chinese EVs were ever allowed to be sold in the US, giving it to someone like this guy. It would be gold for advertising.
He needs to update the firmware

 

Randomuser

Senior Member
Registered Member
Modi going to the AI summit , then US and then talking like something has been achieved is a prime example of how Indians act.

When you actually ask what was achieved, you realize nothing substantial. But if you were to hear the ways Indians talk you would think DeepSeek was discovered by them instead of China.

Unfortunately due to data and AI making things more objective and away from human emotion, that approach is pretty much the wrong path forward. Only actual results will do the talking and the difference between those who do and those who don't is going to be a lot larger than the past. All those who don't will find themselves left behind in the trashcans of history as time goes pass them.
 
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