Miscellaneous News

Chinese strategy is to appear strong when it's weak and weak when it's strong. It is even a famous quote from Sun Tzu.

That's why the CCP acted way more aggressively on the Taiwan issue during the last century when they were nothing compared to now.

They were weak and needed to act aggressively in order to storm out of that period. Only by appearing so 'unhinged', could they deter.

However, now that they are this strong, it is, instead, beneficial to act weak and give your enemy a false image of your capability.

And it's working for them quite well. When you listen to US politicians, think tanks, media, and elites, talk about China, they look like they don't have 3 working brain cells without exception.

So, due to such a large mismatch between reality and their own perceptions of reality, defeating them will be way easier.

They are not acting against the US provocations around Taiwan, not because they are weak, but because they are strong.

And it's all a matter of calculating the probability of something and the risk to reward of doing something for statesmen.

Even though I'm pretty sure they are around 90% capable of defeating the US/retaking Taiwan, why not wait for 100%?

However, I'm pretty sure that if the US provocations keep escalating, it will make the calculation shift toward acting earlier.

On one hand, they will have to line the risk of international/domestic prestige loss from US provocations and their inactivity,

VS the risk of starting AR and risk of a potential 5% probability of losing or whatever else that will be in the next few years.

delta115 said:

Doesn't make sense as trip wire force, small unit like that is not enough to justify conflict with China. Beside, if US want to go to war with China for Taiwan they don't need that kind of excuse to begin with.

Also, in an event of open war, that base would be first to capture or destroy anyway. The black ops on mainland also too much risk for geopolitical image, if any of them got caught.

The move seem like US still want to flex themselves on Taiwan with minimal risk while also use this unit for training and observation post.

Click to expand...

I don't think they're for China at all.

Kinmen has been a hotbed for Taiwanese defection. In 2023 a Taiwanese officer swam to Xiamen from Kinmen. Lin Yifu, a current member of the State Council, also swam from Kinmen to Xiamen.

These look like barrier troops to me, to prevent defection in peacetime and surrender in wartime. That is also why they're described as "trainers". Their role is in controlling Taiwanese troops.

manqiangrexue said:

Do you realize how low hanging and easy the fruit is for Americans to place some personnel in Taiwan? Do you know how high the threshold is for China to stop them? It's essentially, go to war or offer the US negotiations/concessions to remove them which I think everyone here understands is stupid. This is a perfect example of the need to avoid being baited into a disadvantaged and uneven situation.

They can wait for the power balance to tilt further instead of bursting a blood vessel in their eyes getting baited into doing something now when it would be better and easier to do it later. If the power balance starts to tilt the other way or if China achieves a power dominance that makes foreign military intervention inplausible and economic sanctions useless, then it comes time when something more proactive should be done. If you were disappointed by this, if you expected that something spectacular that you can toast to would be done, then you haven't been watching China at all for the past few decades. Our main reaction to all US provocations has been outgrowing the US and running down the clock on their global rule. That's the one reaction they really fear; everything else they're happy deal with/negotiate over. What the flying F do you think they should do?

I see you've edited this in as a counter-thesis to everything you've said above.

Click to expand...

Which is why I edited my comment since my initial reaction was EMOTIONAL stemming from the blatant double standard applied by the usual suspects.

FairAndUnbiased said:

I don't think they're for China at all.

Kinmen has been a hotbed for Taiwanese defection. In 2023 a Taiwanese officer swam to Xiamen from Kinmen. Lin Yifu, a current member of the State Council, also swam from Kinmen to Xiamen.

These look like barrier troops to me, to prevent defection in peacetime and surrender in wartime. That is also why they're described as "trainers". Their role is in controlling Taiwanese troops.

Click to expand...

In all honesty, it seems like China is simply waiting for a good time when the USA is distracted enough that they would make this one of the first places to cleanse of US influence. I am still a little shocked that their are troops so close to China ready to cause trouble but then again, they have signed away all rights to life so I guess sooner or later, their existence is tied to whether the stability of the USA itself is in question or not. Hopefully a civil war happens sooner or later so we can watch all these US bases around the world get lethally emptied of troops, because they have been based around China and the Middle East long enough, heck even Okinawa would benefit from having their sovereignty back once these pieces of trash are gone. True I got carried away earlier but nothing will change my belief that the worth of a US soldier is worth absolutely nothing in my eyes as long as they bare their fangs against China and that one day of those fangs not broke is a day too many

zhangjim said:

I have become numb to this kind of thing. The leadership will always only repeat those useless words. Do they really fear that war will expose the weakness of the army?

The public cannot always support policies that lack hope.Political legitimacy is not a property that can be squandered at will.
The true hawks in China still lack influence. Those "nationalists" only focus on ancient costumes and engage in ridiculous cosplay of ancient costumes.
Strekov is a dangerous opportunist, but we don't even have such people.
We have always been taught to believe in the leadership and decisions of the higher ups, but now they still cannot demonstrate a clear determination to uphold national unity.
The leaders who dared to make great decisions and take the initiative to fight for national security are no longer alive, and now only ordinary people lead us.

Click to expand...

I always felt these type of reactions usually come from two groups of people.

First group is the fenqings of the 2000s who imo are pro china but too emotional and demands the gov to act rashly to meet their short sighted expectations. The other group is the anti china gov hanjian type who makes use of any opportunities to pretend to be pro china but actually belittle the Chinese gov and lament them as weak and ineffectual.

I dun know which you belong to but based on your previous, I'm leaning more on the latter.

Bellum_Romanum said:

I am definitely leaning towards your opinion. I just can't quite grasped and understand the rationale behind such callous and obvious trampling on China's supposed red line. The PLA can't even visit anyone's port without the west going on a meltdown, yet China with its supposed "strong" PLA can't even make a determined action to stop placing ot American troops so close to the mainland?

What the flying f... are the people behind the CPC leadership more can wait for to cause them to act? Massively disappointing TBH. But then again, we can't let EMOTIONS dictate the right course of action when it comes to situation that involves catastrophy for the world.

Click to expand...

The way I understand it is that the Americans always had some troops on Taiwan since the 1970's although very low in numbers.

It is nothing new.

Sure, it comes up from time to time, but I doubt it will matter if the crap hits the fan.

If the US Troops are in Kinmen islands, the PLA should focus on the defensive posture. Afterall the best defense is a good offense.

Chenguang Gong, a 57-year-old engineer and naturalized American citizen, was arrested on charges of stealing trade secret technology, including missile tracking and sensor technology, to allegedly provide it to China.
He worked at a Los Angeles-area company and is accused of illegally downloading sensitive technology related to detecting nuclear missile launches and tracking ballistic and hypersonic missiles.
The Department of Justice has stated that the stolen technology would be "dangerous to U.S. national security if obtained by international actors"

Temstar said:

View attachment 124964
There seem to be an uptick in people fantasizing about being abused by Chinese police?

We should do a psychoanalysis.

Click to expand...

The vibe of JAC

Overbom said:

The Ukraine special

Click to expand...

That's why China must help Russia to win the Ukraine War. Talking about that war, then and now:

A potato said:

View attachment 125001
If the US Troops are in Kinmen islands, the PLA should focus on the defensive posture. Afterall the best defense is a good offense.

Click to expand...

I don't think a few or even a a few hundred US troops are a real threat to China.

Some are drinking buckets of copium right now. Only a few days ago, they had no idea that China was about to produce 5 nm chips. Now, all of a sudden, they know the yield rate of such production!

SMIC to sell Huawei costly, inefficient 5nm chips​

Employing export-ban workaround, SMIC may achieve a yield of only 30-40%, compared with TSMC’s more than 80%

Click to expand...

Congratulations to Bolivia!

Good question.

Obviously, the Nord Stream pipelines exploded themselves, just like JFK's head.