Miscellaneous News

Helius said:

Notice how down-to-business Wang Yi is with the meet-and-greet. He and Lavrov don't even stand on formality as much now. At least that's how I interpreted it -

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More info about the meeting:

In arguably Beijing’s strongest signal of support for Russia yet, Sergey Lavrov is a full participant at a China-hosted meeting on Afghanistan affairs.

China is currently hosting the third “Meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Neighboring Countries of Afghanistan” in Tunxi, Anhui, which will run from March 30 to 31.

Headed by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, the meeting will be attended by Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan – the same countries that participated in the second Meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Neighboring Countries of Afghanistan in Iran in October 2021.

Taliban’s acting foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, will also be in attendance, following Wang’s surprise visit to Kabul earlier this month.

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Some U.S. tech companies would stoop this low: if I cannot compete with you, I smear you!

Facebook paid GOP firm to malign TikTok​

The firm, Targeted Victory, pushed local operatives across the country to boost messages calling TikTok a threat to American children. “Dream would be to get stories with headlines like ‘From dances to danger,’ ” one campaign director said. ​

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Well said, instigating a nuclear war is never a good idea. By the same token, it's probably no longer feasible for China to ask reparation from other imperialists that also have nuclear weapons now, such as UK and France. There is no need to single out Russia. China's current priority is Taiwan, South China Sea, and Diaoyu Islands, not lost territories to the Tsarist Russian Empire.

Bellum_Romanum said:

Is this the new tact for the American political strategy to sort of walk away from the regime change call Biden blundered into uttering days ago?

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This the West's way of giving Putin an off-ramp. Blame it on the generals to stop the war.

AssassinsMace said:

This the West's way of giving Putin an off-ramp. Blame it on the generals to stop the war.

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If the West was winning why would they need to give others an Off-Ramp ?

KYli said:

I might have overestimated Lee Hsien Loong. Not a smart move.

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I read that as Lee being really cautious because he wants China to maintain the status quo since that's what has kept the peace for 70 years, not just between China-Taiwan but the whole East Asia.

He and everybody knows the US has been the disrupting force behind cross-strait relations, with blatant abandon to boot. So any changes to the status quo would disrupt that peace in ways nobody could precisely predict.

So he's hoping China would be the adult in the room and not get egged on by the US.

But ofc he can't say all that to Biden's face, but anybody with a lick of diplomatic sense can read between the lines and get his drift.

Helius said:

I read that as Lee being really cautious because he wants China to maintain the status quo since that's what has kept the peace for 70 years, not just between China-Taiwan but the whole East Asia.

He and everybody knows the US has been the disrupting force behind cross-strait relations, with blatant abandon to boot. So any changes to the status quo would disrupt that peace in ways nobody could precisely predict.

So he's hoping China would be the adult in the room and not get egged on by the US.

But ofc he can't say all that to Biden's face, but anybody with a lick of diplomatic sense can read between the lines and get his drift.

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But the thing is, peace in the region is definitely going to get disrupted because of the US in the future. He has to understand that if China doesn't support Russia, then they will be next and possibly in the near future, maybe pushed to the limit and take drastic actions like Russia did, completely destabilizing the region.

In my view, they should have kept quiet like all the other ASEAN countries and stayed neutral. Taking actions like these will only serve US interest, and escalate tensions within the region. Unless something else is happening behind the scenes, and these articles from SCMP is the same overexaggerating of announcements or result of talks. Either way, its to early to say what will be result of these visits and talks. On what we know on the surface, If Lee thinks this is the way to keep peace within the region, then he might have miscalculated here.

AssassinsMace said:

This the West's way of giving Putin an off-ramp. Blame it on the generals to stop the war.

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Mighty generous of them. Wait 'til Putin starts giving out medals to his top brass for job well done, and see what they'll drum up with next.

Coalescence said:

But the thing is, peace in the region is definitely going to get disrupted because of the US in the future. He has to understand that if China doesn't support Russia, then they will be next and possibly in the near future, maybe pushed to the limit and take drastic actions like Russia did, completely destabilizing the region.

In my view, they should have kept quiet like all the other ASEAN countries and stayed neutral. Taking actions like these will only serve US interest, and escalate tensions within the region. Unless something else is happening behind the scenes, and these articles from SCMP is the same overexaggerating of announcements or result of talks. Either way, its to early to say what will be result of these visits and talks. On what we know on the surface, If Lee thinks this is the way to keep peace within the region, then he might have miscalculated here.

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At least from the quotes in the SCMP piece, Lee doesn't explicitly object to China-Russia ties.

He's speaking more in the lines of China should be even more mindful of her long-held stances esp. as they relate to the status quo, and esp. in light of Russia's willingness to disregard such notions re Ukraine -

Nonetheless, Lee emphasised that he did not believe the fact that “China refuses to distance itself from Russia” would come at a cost to the Asian superpower within the region.

“All the countries in the region … worry about sovereignty and the principles of the United Nations charter, but at the same time they want their ties with China and quite a few of them have significant ties with Russia,” the prime minister said.

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Lee is thinking more about Singapore's well-being (which is understandable) even as he talks about Taiwan, because once the red lines are crossed, it won't be confined to China and Taiwan. The whole of Asia will suffer.

Helius said:

I read that as Lee being really cautious because he wants China to maintain the status quo since that's what has kept the peace for 70 years, not just between China-Taiwan but the whole East Asia.

He and everybody knows the US has been the disrupting force behind cross-strait relations, with blatant abandon to boot. So any changes to the status quo would disrupt that peace in ways nobody could precisely predict.

So he's hoping China would be the adult in the room and not get egged on by the US.

But ofc he can't say all that to Biden's face, but anybody with a lick of diplomatic sense can read between the lines and get his drift.

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Sorry, I did not get his drift.

If Lee wanted to maintain the status quote, he could have just stayed home like the other 9 ASEAN leaders. Instead he went to the US and toed the US line on Ukraine. He was neither carrying a message from ASEAN nor had he publicly explained the ASEAN position on Ukraine and China.

Rettam Stacf said:

Sorry, I did not get his drift.

If Lee wanted to maintain the status quote, he could have just stayed home like the other 9 ASEAN leaders. Instead he went to the US and toed the US line on Ukraine. He was neither carrying a message from ASEAN nor had he publicly explained the ASEAN position on Ukraine and China.

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As I'm sure the members on here who hail from the region would know better than me, and maybe correct me if necessary, Singapore has traditionally been in a geopolitical tough spot.

As a country the size not even that of Hong Kong, she has precious little else to bargain with apart from her service sectors and oil refinery industry, with an absolutely lopsided reliance on imports for essential goods and raw materials, and water supply from Malaysia being the most critical of all.

So Singapore can't be seen as taking any one side with blatant disregard to the other side since she doesn't have that kind of clout both geopolitically and in national prowess vis-a-vis her neighbours who have much abundance in territories, people and resources. The composition of Singapore's Armed Forces and particularly her military alliance with the US are reflective of that.

What some people may see of politicians like Lee who appears as "playing both sides" is really a policy that's born out of necessity.

When the US doesn't even shirk from confronting the world's second largest power and bringing out the whole works to undermining China, imagine what the Americans could do to a pro-China city-state like Singapore who has no true allies in the region where everybody is non-aligned by policy because ASEAN isn't a defence pact like NATO.

Too many crazy and racist homeless people that got released onto street.

Cool design, but maybe the navy should retire these death machines.