Miscellaneous News

Cyclist said:

No, my earliest post only suggest that China keep improving its PR (without neglecting hard power) and dispel bad rumor before it spreads.

We know already, this latest conflict is about PR war, some countries want to create bad image of China or possibly create a boycott of Winter Olympic.

The bad rumor started when they said Peng Shuai is missing, and China's media release an email which is said to be from her. IMHO, that rumor can be handled better than that, which now already be done like live video call with IOC official.

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On this note I agree with you.

I want you to imagine yourself as Blinken while reading this news:

Lithuania reaffirms its adherence to the ‘one China’ policy, but at the same time has the right to expand cooperation with Taiwan,

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That's pretty good right? That's them saying "we didn't change anything, it's you who started oppression us all of sudden for no reason".

including establishing non-diplomatic missions

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I think this calls for slamming the newspaper down on the ground and yelling "where is my fucking money Lithuania?"
At this rate it won't be long before they pussy out and take down that new Taiwanese door sign.

Cyclist said:

I guess we can agree to disagree.

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In the Ontario Royal Museum, the best part of it is the Chinese collection. Apparently the guy who collected all those Chinese artifacts bought most of them, and did not steal it. Could be true. No one seems to think Canada stole from China that sort of thing.

Very prominently displayed in the exhibit hall, in the entrance when we walk in, is two stoned craved statues. They stand over five feet tall, commanding over the entrance. On one side, the Confucian scholar, with his book. On the other side, the Chinese general, holding a sword.

That in a nutshell, is statecraft in ancient China. The scholar, and the general.

So obviously, we all know who is soft power and hard power. It is so ingrained, we never even think about it.

That to me, continues to this very day. What the Chinese ambassador to Sweden, he said it best. That CCP official said that they will have a glass of fine wine for their friends, but shotguns for their enemies.

That is the traditional soft power and hard power.

Western soft power, it seems to me to be all a trick. If one does not do it willing it, then it will be done onto thee unwillingly. To accept Western soft power, it is sort of like those children stories where the kid must sell their soul to John Milton, et al.

Temstar said:

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On a related note from Xi Yazhou's podcast, apparently China is very pleased with that planeload of pine cone seeds and have made the matter known to the Taliban. Next thing on Taliban's export to do list is saffron. Their dude in charge of all this actually studied China's poverty relief program personally in China and this is his Afghanistan version.

Xi Yazhou said they should do an ad for their pine cone seeds: it start with Soviet tank columns driving past a pine forest and the trees shake a lot but no pine cone falls to the ground. Then later American Hummer drive by and the pine trees shake again and still no pine cone fall to the ground. The finally Taliban stop by in pickup trucks and climb up the tree to pluck the pine cones.

Tag line: Afghan pine cone seeds - watered by the blood of three empires

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Afghans are gonna make bank on Saffron; that stuff is crazy expensive.

Chinese as a whole hardly use saffron. China needs other spices like cumin and cinnamon, fruits like lychees, cherries and blueberries, tree nuts like pistachios and almonds; coffee beans and basmati rice.

A giant market is next door to Afghanistan. They need all the refugees to work.

Crang said:

How is the China Pakistan oil pipeline project? Presumably if successful you can construct oil and gas pipelines from Afgh to China. I'm not sure how the topography of pipelines from Central Asia to China differ from Pakistan/Afghanistan to China. As you know China already imports gas from Central Asia eg Turkmenistan Kazakhstan via pipelines already thru Central Asia Lines A to C.

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Himalayas...
People forget that when they were building KKH - between China-Pak in the 80s

Literally hundreds of workers, soldiers died (soldiers because at first it was built for millitary reasons- economic is a recent phenomen)

They still have cemetery along the route paying homage to the fallen heroes

Himalayas is no joke

We have made clear in contacts with China and in public statements that this is predominantly a bilateral matter between China and Lithuania, but also since the summer, the EU has stood by Lithuania in the face of sustained coercive measures from China

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Oof, that's the sound of somebody being sold out Zelensky-style.

All Brazilian telcos in talks with Huawei.
Looks like Huawei would have had over 70 % of 5G market share in the world had it not been for the US dirty games

manqiangrexue said:

He's not asking me because he knows the answer; I know the answer and he knows I know the answer. He wants to see if you know the answer, which it doesn't seem like you do despite being laid out as obvious as can be to you. The answer is that he used hard power, verbal at first, with the physical as back-up. That meeting is the Chinese telling him if he doesn't wanna end up like Park Geun-Hye and turn South Korea into the new North Korea, he better recognize who the upcoming power is and act wisely. He wasn't talking to an idiot like Trump so he likely could afford to say that in a much more subtle way without it getting lost on the other guy but in general, that's the gist of it. Nobody moves an inch for soft/flaccid/limp shit.

You don't even understand the basics of how important the global competition is to the point where you're talking about people getting hurt like that would make the competition get out of hand. It's ridiculous. "I guess we can agree to disagree" is just an escape when you've been out-debated by like 7 different people. I think Somalia has the highest standard of living in the world; show me all the modern places with rich people walking like ants among skyscrapers? Well, we can agree to disagree.

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It's my personal opinion and I don't really think cuisine is one of those soft power that can influence. My preference is video game, when people do not know the origin of the country, they play as long as it is a good game and then later on when they are already hooked, it can be revealed that it is from China.

I am not insider in both China or Korea government so I don't know what they are talking about. The fact that China's ambassador want to meet someone who is considered anti-China, it is already showing China prefer talking rather than force. By talking hopefully will lead to peaceful reunification with Taiwan province too.

I am not here for debating or changing many of members' opinions, just want to voice my opinion. If it is agreeable then it's okay, if it is not then it's okay too. That's why I said we can agree to disagree.

Bellum_Romanum said:

Lol because China wasn't in any realistic position to challenge the world hyper power which is the U.S. at that time and China wasn't seen as the menacing/pacing threat that the U.S. sees China today back then.

How old are you? If you don't mind me asking and where did you grow or born? Am asking because I am genuinely curious as to how your thought process came to be this way. And how your environment that you grow up helped shaped, mold, your current world views especially or more specifically to China and the west relations.

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I agree with what Henry Kissinger recently said ( ):