broadsword
Brigadier
I'm happy for Indonesia. Chinese soft power is giving their people employment from which they can place food on the table.
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and Global South strategic cooperation
- Thread starter Strangelove
- Start date
Hopefully Ganjar Pranowo (the current Central Java governor, coming from Jokowi's party and also his ally) can win this coming February. Beijing needs a friendly and welcoming Jakarta to not just further Chinese investment and development in the country, but also lead and stabilize ASEAN (being the "Big Brother" of ASEAN, after all) in order to secure China's southern frontier against an increasing DC-led coercion in the region.
more interesting is what UAE will bring. UAEAF has not yet acquired Rafale, and their fighters are mostly mirage, which i am sure PLAAF would be VERY interested in. now J-10C should have no problem knocking out mirages. but unless there is a huge capability gap even beyond rafale, i dont see UAEAF buying j-10c, since they are already buying a lot of rafale. now in all honesty acquiring J-10C or even JF-17 to replace mirage makes sense for them since they have a close relationship with Pakistan.
I think the meaning of this joint excercise is much more than selling some hardware. This year is UAE military in China, maybe next time and soon we will see PLA excercising in UAE. maybe soon Saudi in China and vise versa. UAE could be China's foot print like Qatar to US, not necessarily a permenant base, but regular vist, joint excercise, resupply, intel sharing, all kinds of things.
The Iran and Saudi reconciliation really opened the door. Up till now China has had joint excersize with Iran in the region, but never a gulf country. With the reconciliation, China can intensify military cooperation with everyone without much risk of upsetting anyone. We could even see a military version of Iran and Saudi reconciliation, such as joint excersize of Iran, Saudi and China.
I think there is also a large India aspect to this exercise we're missing.
Supposedly India is having an exercise right beside Chinese border from July 31st to Aug 5th.
Xi was just at WTC airforce command on July 26th. I'm sure these things are all linked somehow.
why would there need to be Indian component to this? Why would pla need uae support for India?
if china wants to show strength against India, it can just do whatever it needs to do itself.
It's about gaining influence and political support, not military support.
still don't need UAE for that against India. And UAE would not want to be used in that way.
If China wants to give a sign to India, they would exercise with Pakistan
UAE and the other gulf states has deep military ties to Pakistan. Who do you think funds Pakistan's military? It certainly isn't the IMF.