Miscellaneous News

It can indeed become a viable alternative to bypass Singapore if needed. But on the West side of that railway is the Port Klang, in the State of Selangor, which is still facing the Malacca Straits. So if the Malacca Straits do get blocked, Port Klang will be blocked too. To me, the Gwadar Port, and the overland trade route has the true potential to bypass the Malacca Straits.

The ECRL is more than just a link between the ports on the East and West coast of the the Malaysian peninsula. It is also a long overdue improvement of the rail infrastructure on the East Coast of the Malaysian peninsula. The East Coast rail infrastructure has been neglected for decades because of politics, and a lack of government interest. The existing railway currently has no direct rail line connecting Kuala Lumpur to the biggest cities of the East Coast. And it has also aged quite abit. So the ECRL is a much needed project that has been planned since the 2010s.

Unfortunately, corruption, scandals, and politics have derailed the ECRL project for years. The anti-China politics was a major stumbling block too. It had set back years of development plans in Malaysia. The country stagnated and the less wealthy suffered as a result. That is why anti-China disinformation pisses me off so much. It's so easy for ppl to fall for it, and the resulting damage is tangible indeed.

coolgod said:

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Xi DaDa just visited Zhanjiang, maybe he also paid a visit to the naval base?

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Off-the-record visit yesterday, as there is a large no-fly zone for drones in Guangdong.

Chevalier said:

The Swiss upon realising that without banking, they have nothing to offer the world that Austria and any other European country can’t offer:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1645649554652688384

let’s see,
european chocolate - Norwegian chocolate is better
mountains - Austria and north Italy has better skiing
frauleins - deutschland has better
snooty attitude- I can go to Paris for that

what the hell else can Switzerland offer besides cheese with holes in it?

Neutrality like virginity is one those things that you can’t ever get back once you lose it, this isn’t Mean Girls where Regina George can claim to be a quarter virgin. Once Swiss neutrality is compromised, it may as well join the EU and be as pathetic as say Slovakia.

meanwhile in the land of checks and balances and free markets, the cycle of enrons seems to be a fixture of American capitalism

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1645479337896837121

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There is only so far the USA can continue its bullying until eventually, it simply put everything falls appart. I swear everything the USA touches turns to shit and eventually I predict on the day the USA loses its super power status, I reckon many European countries will do anything to get back into the worlds good graces, even if they have to do to the Americans what the Nazis did to the Jews. The damage to Switzerlands reputation is simply something that can never recover now and it is all Americas fault

ACuriousPLAFan said:

You mean extraction by PLAAF Special Ops team flying in from Mexico using Y-9 or Y-20 specially modified with rockets for STOL operations.

View attachment 110823
There are two wide stretch of expressways in front of Ma Yilong's HQ in Austin, Texas. Shouldn't be difficult to land and takeoff a retrofitted Y-9 or Y-20 on it.

@siegecrossbow We need your help to ensure Comrade Ma's mission success on the ground.

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Traffic jam is so bad you’d need to land on top of cars. No thanks.

Chevalier said:

The Swiss upon realising that without banking, they have nothing to offer the world that Austria and any other European country can’t offer:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1645649554652688384

let’s see,
european chocolate - Norwegian chocolate is better
mountains - Austria and north Italy has better skiing
frauleins - deutschland has better
snooty attitude- I can go to Paris for that

what the hell else can Switzerland offer besides cheese with holes in it?

Neutrality like virginity is one those things that you can’t ever get back once you lose it, this isn’t Mean Girls where Regina George can claim to be a quarter virgin. Once Swiss neutrality is compromised, it may as well join the EU and be as pathetic as say Slovakia.

Click to expand...

Well the Swiss still have alot more to offer than just banks, chocolates, cheeses, and ski resorts. They have many famous industrial companies too. Albeit mostly in collaboration with other Western European firms.

The Swiss have renowned clockmakers like Rolex, and Tag Hauer. They have the large electrical engineering and railway firm of ABB. The Swiss are a major cable car maker with Garaventas. The Swiss have the F&B giant: Nestle. They have their pharma giant: Novartis. And the Swiss have major arms companies like Sig Sauer and Oerlikon. These are the true foundations to Switzerland's wealth. Their financial industry is just the icing on the cake.

I'm not saying this to say that the Swiss will have a happy ending. They will fall together with the rest of the West. Their industries are heavily dependent on imports and outsourcing. It's just that compared to the British, their economy much less imbalanced to finance. Hence, they might fall slower than the British.

The Swiss have never been truly neutral in my opinion. They are very similar to the Swedes. They see themselves as part of the collective West. They act neutral only to things concerning the West. But against the Russians, Chinese, and others, they stand together with their Western cohorts. It was Swiss arms companies prior to WW2 who helped Nazi Germany developed new weapons to circumvent the treaty of Versailles. Swiss banks have disclosed account holder names on the instructions of the US. The Swiss are quite close to NATO, but are quite belligerent to the Soviets and the Russians. The Swiss have also sold weapons to Taiwan before, so much for neutrality. The Swiss are essentially a part of the collective West, and they'll fall with the rest of the West.

Japan realizing that after China becomes self-sufficient and outcompetes them on automobiles, shipbuilding, and semiconductors, the only thing they'll have left to export is their anime and manga:

Japan’s leading business lobby group says anime, manga key to economic growth​

They also should consider government support for JAVs, that's certainly a popular soft-power export.

Sardaukar20 said:

It can indeed become a viable alternative to bypass Singapore if needed. But on the West side of that railway is the Port Klang, in the State of Selangor, which is still facing the Malacca Straits. So if the Malacca Straits do get blocked, Port Klang will be blocked too. To me, the Gwadar Port, and the overland trade route has the true potential to bypass the Malacca Straits.

The ECRL is more than just a link between the ports on the East and West coast of the the Malaysian peninsula. It is also a long overdue improvement of the rail infrastructure on the East Coast of the Malaysian peninsula. The East Coast rail infrastructure has been neglected for decades because of politics, and a lack of government interest. The existing railway currently has no direct rail line connecting Kuala Lumpur to the biggest cities of the East Coast. And it has also aged quite abit. So the ECRL is a much needed project that has been planned since the 2010s.

Unfortunately, corruption, scandals, and politics have derailed the ECRL project for years. The anti-China politics was a major stumbling block too. It had set back years of development plans in Malaysia. The country stagnated and the less wealthy suffered as a result. That is why anti-China disinformation pisses me off so much. It's so easy for ppl to fall for it, and the resulting damage is tangible indeed.

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well I say this not as a Singaporean (I fully agree that Singapore needs to be taken down a notch before it realizes that retaining a US navy base will be the death of us) but I suspect that the ECRL will be of limited utility to bypass Singapore in SCS-Indian Ocean trade. The slowest and most costly part of the shipping process is transshipment from port to rail and vice versa, and the ECRL needs to do it twice. It is no substitute for the proposed Kra Canal or Kunming-Singapore railway.

However, the Kuantan-KL stage of the rail link does seem to imply that shipping to and from China can access Malaysia's core metropolitan area directly from the SCS without going through Port Klang (and therefore bypassing Malacca and Singapore). Since KL is landlocked anyway and the Singapore Straits are quite shallow, using Kuantan port might be an overall improvement in the China-KL shipping route. Hopefully this means closer economic integration between China and Malaysia.

Singapore... will wisen up and find ways to compete when they realize that the Msians are catching up in the Asian trade. Indonesia too, hopefully, but those guys are just slow.

Ursula come back!

luminary said:

They also should consider government support for JAVs, that's certainly a popular soft-power export.

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Not technically legal in the PRC. A better idea would be arranging marriages of retired actresses with rich spoiled nouveau riches and wait for the remissions.