Miscellaneous News

manqiangrexue said:

If I had to guess what it is, I'd guess it's some cheese. The greastest cultural divide between French food and Chinese palates has got to be weird rare stinky cheeses that the French covet but the Chinese think are disgusting. Macron probably had some shit that took 16 years to make that is teeming with maggots and odd coloured mould all over it, costs like 200 Euros a gram and only a single family in France has passed down the tradition of making this cheese, 1 wheel per month, enitrely by hand in a 600 year old barrel and he's smiling like the taste is going to send Xi and his wife into orgasm. Xi, however, took one bite and felt like someone had just put a used condom fermented for a month in a marathon runner's used sock into his mouth. Literally considered for a moment if this counts as an assassination attempt.

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What was on the menu for the state banquet?

Temstar said:

Nothing wrong with blue cheese, it's just an acquired taste. They probably shouldn't have used it as introductory to French cruisine. I wouldn't use stinky tofu to introduce people to Chinese food either.

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An acquired taste to say the least. I can handle most cheese and I enjoy tofu but both blue cheese and stinky tofu, I wouldn’t enjoy it much and that is ultimately something only a niche crowd would enjoy. I suspect many here are no different

Remember the cartoon post by zhao lijian depicting real aus war crimes by their military against civilians in Afghanistan? The one that angered the aus political elites


Well the whistle blower who exposed those crimes have been sentenced very heavily. Longer sentence than expected.


Unlike zionist Israel who seem to take delight in their war crimes and let whole world watch, Aus gov wants to keep their dirty secrets quiet and so make an example of the guy who exposed their crimes. To deter others from doing it in the future. While those war crime perpetrators remain scotfree and unpunished

It's also no surprise this piece of news is buried in the newspaper reporting. Conveniently the front pages and spotlight is all on the current news of national budget release and analysis. Most Australians probably not even aware.

Which is more ironic when Aus state media, ABC just yesterday bombarded us with news of the alleged Chinese spy in Aus lol

manqiangrexue said:

If I had to guess what it is, I'd guess it's some cheese. The greastest cultural divide between French food and Chinese palates has got to be weird rare stinky cheeses that the French covet but the Chinese think are disgusting. Macron probably had some shit that took 16 years to make that is teeming with maggots and odd coloured mould all over it, costs like 200 Euros a gram and only a single family in France has passed down the tradition of making this cheese, 1 wheel per month, enitrely by hand in a 600 year old barrel and he's smiling like the taste is going to send Xi and his wife into orgasm. Xi, however, took one bite and felt like someone had just put a used condom fermented for a month in a marathon runner's used sock into his mouth. Literally considered for a moment if this counts as an assassination attempt.

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Next time Xi should bring some stinky tofu from the Ming dynasty.

manqiangrexue said:

Blue cheese? Ain't nothing wrong with blue cheese; I enjoy blue cheese with my buffalo wings. Although some Chinese don't like it, that's starter level. I'm talkin' about shit like this:

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I thought it was only the Italians that make the maggot-feces cheese and goat-digested cheese?

horse said:

They do not want to compete. When you do not want to compete or fight for it, you are backing out in full retreat.

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Probably true, the oil/ICE lobby in US is well established. And for EVs to be successful, you also need the energy infrastructure for EVs. Infrastructure is not a strong suit of the US. Urban sprawl also doesn't favor EV car: far daily driving distances associated with suburban life and low density of charging stations in suburbs all shift preference towards ICE cars.

AndrewS said:

The key point is that a full blockade of the Malacca Straits would result in serious damage for ASEAN states.
If an exemption is made for ASEAN trade, well, the China-ASEAN trade is already intermixed by the time it reaches the Malacca Straits...

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Exactly. Even if the blockading party declares that they'll exempt non-Chinese trade, it'll still affect other nations' trade, because ships today rarely make just one stop in any region. I will add that Japanese and South Korean trade would also be affected. What about shipping insurance? They are not gonna insure shipping that goes through an active conflict zone. So a blockade of the Malacca Straits is effectively a blockade of East Asia and ASEAN.

AndrewS said:

If you look at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute surveys or the polls of the public, ASEAN states will be neutral, with the possible exception of the Philippines which could join the US. But if the US is blockading the Malacca Straits, those neutral ASEAN states will be leaning towards China.

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Yes, many people in ASEAN are leaning towards China. Even a sizable portion of population in the Philippines. The real question is what will the governments and elites do when the real Malacca Straits crisis comes? I don't have much faith in many of them. My guess is that around half of them will either side with the US or do nothing. That is until their people compels them to act or overthrow them. But we won't know until that happens.

AndrewS said:

The key point is that in the Gaza war, there is minimal economic damage to the Middle East because Gaza is poor and barely has any trade because the Israeli military blockades the Gaza coastline and controls the land borders.

But if the Middle Eastern countries can't sell hydrocarbons to China, nor import Chinese goods, that has a serious effect on them.

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Yup. Their wallets will start to suffer without that big export market to China. What I think the Gulf Arab states will try first is to redirect their trade with China via the BRI routes. Whether through Gwadar and CPEC, or via other overland routes. Iran is another story. Although Iran could still trade with China via overland routes, they are not likely to take this lying down.

AndrewS said:

If China is being blockaded by the US, then we can expect China to supply large amounts of weapons for a full-scale proxy war in the Middle East. My guess is that we would see US destroyers in the Arabian Gulf being targeted by ASBMs, launched from Iran or even Western China. US bases in the region would be targeted. So would Israel.

And if India joins in, then I can see Indian aircraft carriers being targeted as well.

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If the US leads a blockade of the Straits of Malacca, then I'm certain that India will be in the mix. Whether in a support role, or in active combat. India will not want to miss an opportunity to deal massive hurt to China. If Israel wants to join the blockade to hurt Iran too, then good luck to them. Furthermore, India and the US will definitely want to blockade Gwadar to stop an alternative shipping route to China. Which will automatically pull Pakistan into the war. I have more faith in Iran and Pakistan rising up to the fight than the Gulf Arab states. Because China is their economic lifeline and an old and trusted friend. Unlike the Gulf Arab states, they won't trust any false promises by the West to "bail them out". If their trade with China is being blockaded, then that is effectively an act of war on them. For sure China has to support them to fight their war on their side and in exchange, they can provide bases for any PLAN vessels in that region.

I'll finish with the delusions of the Indian elites and the Jai Hinds. Blockading China is effectively WWIII, so if India thinks that it can unilaterally do it without US leadership, its gonna find itself getting ganged-up on. Fighting the US Navy is one thing, but fighting the Indian Navy is nowhere near as scary. So countries affected by the blockade are gonna be more inclined to join China to sink the Indian Navy.

Heresy said:

I understand that there is probably a desire to keep a village idiot as a mascot in lots of online communities, but I think we here at SDF deserve a better class of village idiot than what @pmc here is delivering.

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The only other guy I can think of is sleepy.... I prefer pm gulf arabs c

Sardaukar20 said:

Exactly. Even if the blockading party declares that they'll exempt non-Chinese trade, it'll still affect other nations' trade, because ships today rarely make just one stop in any region. I will add that Japanese and South Korean trade would also be affected. What about shipping insurance? They are not gonna insure shipping that goes through an active conflict zone. So a blockade of the Malacca Straits is effectively a blockade of East Asia and ASEAN.


Yes, many people in ASEAN are leaning towards China. Even a sizable portion of population in the Philippines. The real question is what will the governments and elites do when the real Malacca Straits crisis comes? I don't have much faith in many of them. My guess is that around half of them will either side with the US or do nothing. That is until their people compels them to act or overthrow them. But we won't know until that happens.


Yup. Their wallets will start to suffer without that big export market to China. What I think the Gulf Arab states will try first is to redirect their trade with China via the BRI routes. Whether through Gwadar and CPEC, or via other overland routes. Iran is another story. Although Iran could still trade with China via overland routes, they are not likely to take this lying down.


If the US leads a blockade of the Straits of Malacca, then I'm certain that India will be in the mix. Whether in a support role, or in active combat. India will not want to miss an opportunity to deal massive hurt to China. If Israel wants to join the blockade to hurt Iran too, then good luck to them. Furthermore, India and the US will definitely want to blockade Gwadar to stop an alternative shipping route to China. Which will automatically pull Pakistan into the war. I have more faith in Iran and Pakistan rising up to the fight than the Gulf Arab states. Because China is their economic lifeline and an old and trusted friend. Unlike the Gulf Arab states, they won't trust any false promises by the West to "bail them out". If their trade with China is being blockaded, then that is effectively an act of war on them. For sure China has to support them to fight their war on their side and in exchange, they can provide bases for any PLAN vessels in that region.

I'll finish with the delusions of the Indian elites and the Jai Hinds. Blockading China is effectively WWIII, so if India thinks that it can unilaterally do it without US leadership, its gonna find itself getting ganged-up on. Fighting the US Navy is one thing, but fighting the Indian Navy is nowhere near as scary. So countries affected by the blockade are gonna be more inclined to join China to sink the Indian Navy.

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If there is a blockade of Straits of Malacca, then China will blockade Korea and Japan. That is why they need more missiles, warships and CVs now.

horse said:

Okay, I know I should continue this rant, about this American 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs, because I have been drinking, and figured what could be the right move.

The wrong move, is to retaliate. That was my gut reaction, not to retaliate. Of course, the PRC will retaliate, but that is not going accomplish anything, but do it for symbolic reasons.

What the right move is, that is to infiltrate.

The Chinese auto industry, still should target the American market for sales, perhaps in products like auto parts, which is a big market. Infiltrate like that, then the Chinese auto industry would know what is going on everywhere, to maintain is dominating position in the world auto market.

Some American partners are likely to step forward with help with that.

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China will retaliate because you cannot show weakness to the Anglos. Failure to make the Americans pay for this will see all the Eurotrash politicians in the EU pile in with their own tariffs on Chinese EVs and other key future industries.

The Ango goal is more about trying to kneecap China rather than protect their tiny and entirely irrelevant EV sales. America and the EU would not give a fuck about EV if China wasn’t leaving them in the dust.

China has always been smart and careful with how it retaliates to avoid damaging its own core industries while still inflicting pain on the Americans. While that means Chinese responses are often not as flashy as America’s sweeping bombastic announcement, the flip side is that Chinese tariffs try their best to not penalise Chinese industries and consumers and also avoiding limiting legitimate competition as much as possible.

I really hope this is a good start. Imagine when this pact working together

Sardaukar20 said:

Yes, many people in ASEAN are leaning towards China. Even a sizable portion of population in the Philippines. The real question is what will the governments and elites do when the real Malacca Straits crisis comes? I don't have much faith in many of them. My guess is that around half of them will either side with the US or do nothing. That is until their people compels them to act or overthrow them. But we won't know until that happens.

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The elites and decision makers in ASEAN have more at stake with China trade and relations than with the USA.

So they'll likely do nothing, but lean towards China if there is a Malacca blockade.

For example, China accounts for 39% of global gross manufacturing output, and ASEAN is intertwined with this.

And as per the late Henry Kissinger, Ray Dalio and the FT earlier this year, the world (outside of the USA) sees the US being "overly aggressive" towards China, to put it mildly.

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If India actively supports a blockade of the Malacca Straits, then they're effectively declaring war on ASEAN.
That is a step too far for India.

My read is that India will be neutral, but play both sides for all they can get.