Miscellaneous News

Okay I'm being rude so excuse me. What I'm seeing is the reverse, India is afraid being marginalized, of the BRICS they hold the least importance so they have to piggybank on China and Russia. The US knows the Indians very well, their crave for status and can be easily cajoled especially their so called intellectual class.

loviscort said:

Chinese anxiety over progress in the Indo-US relations is palpable. concerns that India was becoming part of the US strategy of containing China. Overall, one had the impression that China was feeling more unsure of itself and felt that India had proved to be adept and agile in advancing its interests.

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If they were actually anxious, wouldn't they be visiting India instead of the other way around?

If you want to see more of our "anxiety" about India, I would refer you here: Funny Stuff Thread.... to loosen your day
Most of our discussions about India is in that thread.

plawolf said:

Please don’t let sentiment cloud your judgment. Kissinger would genocide every last Chinese man, woman and child if he thought the US could do it at an acceptable cost. He has done more than his fair share of crimes against humanity in his time.

He is only ‘friendly’ to China because he is smart enough to realise it would be stupid for America to try to fight a cold or hot war against China at this point. But if China suffered some unexpected calamity that massively weakened it, he would be amongst the first to demand war.

He is an American first, foremost and exclusively. He is only China’s ‘friend’ because he believes that to be in the best interests of America. Nothing wrong with that, it’s the same attitude every Chinese leader or person of matter and worth should take.

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Well, a rational enemy is still preferable to an irrational one. At least you can sit down and negotiate with them, with an irrational enemy like the Biden administration there is only one thing left to do.

supercat said:

The guy has no idea what he was talking about. The blow to Vietnam dealt by China in 1979 was especially hash, because its younger, elite troops were deployed to Cambodia. As a result, older Vietnamese soldiers, who had married, many with kids, suffered disproportionately higher casualties during its conflict with China in 1979. It's Vietnam that needs to erase its shadow of 1979.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1681098879327150081

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It was explicitly not China's objective to take cities. They just wanted to settle the border conflict and demilitarize Vietnam.

China also needed to showcase it's land forces, to show that if US or USSR invaded, China could make Korea happen again, or repel them to an even greater extent.

7000 irretrievable casualties to 60-100 000 is an absolute beating. It's a stronger performance than what Russia is doing in Ukraine.

If you doubt the numbers, there is irrefutable proof in that despite China being the attacking side in the notoriously unfriendly Vietnamese territory, China still took an order of magnitude more prisoners than Vietnam.

Ultimately, the war settled border disputes in China's favor, prevented Vietnam from expanding it's national power indefintely, and China showed that the spirit of Korea, the ability of the PLA to wreck larger forces through inventive tactics, was alive and well. And as such, neither the USSR or US dared to invade, despite tense moments such as the Taiwan strait crisis.

Temstar said:

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Oh man, full house.

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A lot of these African countries are signatories to the ICC. If Putin attends and speaks before the summit without incident, it'll be quite the statement Africa will be making.

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Yameen's message is being heard across the nation of nearly 1,200 islands and about 542,000 people.

The "Indian military presence in the country is illegal ... [and] bilateral security agreements related to a [security base] and similar agreements are unconstitutional," Mohamed Saeed, a former minister for economic development in the Yameen government, told Nikkei Asia. "Therefore 'India Out' is a national call."

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Temstar said:

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Come on man, read the room.
To be fair though whenever China and US seems to be discussing things in private as with this Kissinger trip the Europeans get really nervous, so I can under of understand why Borrell want to come so badly.

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Borrell is all of Kissinger's evil with none of Kissinger's intelligence.

As I see it, Kissinger is a massive pragmatist and nationalist. His goal is always to strengthen America, but he also knows which fights are smart to pick and which aren't.

The current young (Biden's puppetmasters, not Biden himself) and jingoistic US leadership wants to hedge all of America's future prospects on a succesful invasion of Taiwan. So they're creating the public consent that "Taiwan has always been a part of America", similar to how Russia began to publicly undermine and question Ukrainian national existence after 2014.

If you care about American national power, that is a very stupid move.

America has the world's largest military, dominant global reserve currency and 2nd largest economy. You really want to bet all of that on your ability to D-day into a Chinese island right next to the mainland that is basically the most heavily defended area in the world? The only war theater in the world where hypersonic anti ship missiles will get thrown at you like tomahawks get thrown at third world countries?

What pragmatists in Washington realize is that US can still fight on, without betting it all on a disfavorable WW3.

In fact, anywhere except inside China and it's defense bubble, I'd bet on US militarily any day.

Despite that, the young nationalist US regime is so obsessed over preparations to annex Taiwan that they're losing the Middle East to China, even through US should by all means be more powerful there.

US has plenty of resources and fighting power, gambling it all will prove their national undoing into India level status, rather than continued cold war or a soft and dignified landing. The likes of Kissinger will spin in their graves for it.

Biscuits said:

It was explicitly not China's objective to take cities. They just wanted to settle the border conflict and demilitarize Vietnam.

China also needed to showcase it's land forces, to show that if US or USSR invaded, China could make Korea happen again, or repel them to an even greater extent.

7000 irretrievable casualties to 60-100 000 is an absolute beating. It's a stronger performance than what Russia is doing in Ukraine.

If you doubt the numbers, there is irrefutable proof in that despite China being the attacking side in the notoriously unfriendly Vietnamese territory, China still took an order of magnitude more prisoners than Vietnam.

Ultimately, the war settled border disputes in China's favor, prevented Vietnam from expanding it's national power indefintely, and China showed that the spirit of Korea, the ability of the PLA to wreck larger forces through inventive tactics, was alive and well. And as such, neither the USSR or US dared to invade, despite tense moments such as the Taiwan strait crisis.

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Vietnam do get their "mythical" status after the conflict, comparable to Afghanistan being "graveyard of the empire". That said, for an "industrial" country, Vietnam Military Industry Complex looks very meh.

sheogorath said:

Seems Europe's need to push Zelensky down everyone's throat backfired in Latin America

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1681032048251641857

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More is mentioned in the Bloomberg article :

Chilean Foreign Minister Alberto van Klaveren said he was “very surprised that there are members of our group which oppose any resolution concerning the war in Ukraine.”

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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s reluctance to accept any strong language on Russia disappointed EU countries, according to a bloc official. It also strengthened Latin American nations opposing a tough position, officials said. Lula was wary of upsetting Russia, one senior diplomat said.

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Latin American countries wanted to mention a readiness to finalize the agreement, but France, Austria and several other states blocked this, according to an EU official. Latin American states have balked at the EU’s Green Deal, and rules to reduce CO2 emissions that include strict conditions to gain access to the European market.
The issue is partly an attitude problem. “Latin America fears that now the European Union is looking to them only for mineral resources,” said Jose Ignacio Torreblanca, head of the Madrid office of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank. “The summit is a beginning, the EU is saying, ‘We care.’”

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Still, one EU official played down the competition from the BRICS, saying that the more it expands, the weaker it would become. The EU told Argentina that joining the BRICS now, during Russia’s war in Ukraine, would send the wrong signal, the official said, and the country won’t be joining any time soon.

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If the expansion of BRICS would lead towards its weakening, then why are they trying to dissuade Argentina from joining ? Isn't "wEaK" BRICS in EU's interest ?

caudaceus said:

Vietnam do get their "mythical" status after the conflict, comparable to Afghanistan being "graveyard of the empire". That said, for an "industrial" country, Vietnam Military Industry Complex looks very meh.

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Look at what people do, not what people say.

USSR didn't even bother threatening China again.

US by all means could have invaded Taiwan, but the threat of land retaliation (for example, in Korea) kept them off China during all those years when China didn't have much of a navy.

Maybe to pop quiz historians, Vietnam not having it's North annexed into China is proof of Vietnam's mythical status. But the reactions of the contemporary superpowers showed that the war cemented China's dominant land fighting legacy.

Biscuits said:

Look at what people do, not what people say.

USSR didn't even bother threatening China again.

US by all means could have invaded Taiwan, but the threat of land retaliation (for example, in Korea) kept them off China during all those years when China didn't have much of a navy.

Maybe to pop quiz historians, Vietnam not having it's North annexed into China is proof of Vietnam's mythical status. But the reactions of the contemporary superpowers showed that the war cemented China's dominant land fighting legacy.

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A good rule of thumb to quickly and easily cut through historical BS and cope is what I like to call the Butthurtometer test. The side that is butthurt the most and longest after a war is the side that lost it.