By Amarynth and the Here Comes China Newsletter by Godfree Roberts
What were we talking about just three or four months ago? Remember? China was going to imminently attack Taiwan. There was wall-to-wall coverage.
The jingoism did not work. Nobody attacked Taiwan.
China stated that Taiwan will be integrated with the mainland at the right time, and follow the correct procedure. China is dealing with a recalcitrant province that historically is as a result of war.
Now, there is even a bigger outcry. Russia is going to imminently invade the Ukraine. So we see an exchange in the western rhetoric from territorial flashpoint Taiwan, to territorial flashpoint the Ukraine in an attempt to contain something, anything that could create the space for the US/NATO and western puppets to maintain power and hegemony.
Will it work this time? The jury is out.
This is on the eve of the Winter Olympics that has already started with qualifying competitions and competitors entering the Olympic villages. https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202201/1246696.shtml
A month or two ago, China gave what one could see as a request, but it can also be interpreted as stronger than that.
World expects ‘truce’ during Winter Games
A UNGA resolution, co-sponsored by 173 countries and adopted on Dec 2, asks all countries to observe the Olympic truce and stop hostile activities seven days before the Winter Olympic Games through to seven days after the end of the Winter Paralympic Games.
http://en.people.cn/n3/2022/0115/c90000-9945122.html
This is consistent with the historical values of these games all the way back to Ancient Greece in the ninth century.
Even so, the provocation beat, and false information continues on.
Russia does not rule out military provocations from US, Kiev regime – diplomat
A Bloomberg publication that Chinese President Xi Jinping allegedly asked Russian President Vladimir Putin not to invade Ukraine during the Olympic Games is an operation of US intelligence agencies, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
China called this a despicable trick. “The report was purely made out of thin air. It seeks not only to smear and drive a wedge in China-Russia relations, but also to deliberately disrupt and undermine the Beijing Winter Olympics. Such a despicable trick cannot fool the international community,” Zhao Lijian, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a routine press conference.”
https://tass.com/politics/1391903
The cowardly attacks on China itself also have not really reduced. We are just not seeing those as all eyes are on Russia
Chinese military calls U.S. warship’s trespassing a “serious provocation”
http://en.people.cn/n3/2022/0121/c90000-9947625.html
Before this, we had the endless media announcements of who is going to boycott the Olympics (whether invited or not but they never said they were not invited, they just made it up), and then quietly, they asked for visas to attend anyway. It is all a show. The Anglosphere has lost military supremacy as well as economic supremacy, and they are not elegant losers. In fact, they will continue to attempt to overturn any security balance anywhere in the world to appease their own hubris for total spectrum dominance or at least the appearance of that.
India for once spoke out and said they will not boycott the Olympic Games, as in these circumstances they will follow their policy of ‘neighbors first’. Uhm, who knew they had such a policy?
The backdrop to the Anglosphere being butthurt and trying to change the Russian ‘request’ for security guarantees into sole focus on Ukraine is not stopping the march towards a world order based on Law and not Rule by some flunky. China is not falling for it in their press, or in their spoken word. This trend is inexorable and the Anglosphere has but limited time to change or to be run over. The old games of money and guns, the warfare model based on coercion, are coming to an end.
Here are three examples of the world changing.
- China launches Global South economic alliance to challenge US ‘unilateralism’ and ‘cold-war mentality’
China just launched a new economic alliance of Global South nations called the “Group of Friends of the Global Development Initiative”. Beijing said it seeks to challenge (US) “unilateralism” and the “Cold-War mentality,” and promotes “win-win cooperation”.
- The Stans are now being ‘multi polarized’ and while Russia gathered them together with the recent military adventure in Kazakhstan, China is following and cementing the trend.
Xi to chair virtual summit commemorating 30th anniversary of China-Central Asia ties http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/20220124/cdb72b8e378647a192152361a299c216/c.html
So, this meeting happened yesterday and the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, will be attending the Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing.
- Pakistan is sailing Chinese Frigates and contracted the construction of eight Hangor-class submarines, four Type 054A/P ships and medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned combat aerial vehicles from China. https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202201/1246789.shtml
On the big picture, Chas Freeman has this to say.
The question is whether China will choose to accept an active role in stabilizing the region. “Great power rivalry” or a putative Manichean struggle between China and democracy will not drive this decision. On the evidence to date, it will instead reflect the broadly overlapping national interests of China, Europe, India, Japan, and Korea, the fractious states of West Asia and North Africa, and the United States. All share a compelling interest in a stable Middle East whose quarrels do not export radicalism or endanger access to crucial energy supplies.
It would be in America’s interest for China and other countries that rely on Middle Eastern energy exports to share the burden of preserving global prosperity by coming together to safeguard the world’s energy trade. If China faces a choice in this regard, so does America. The United States can cooperate to mutual advantage with China, other rising powers, and the oil producing countries of the region, or it can overwrite obvious interests it shares with China and others with irrational antagonism and pursue a pointless game that no one can hope to win. Chas W. Freeman
In terms of economics and trade, what I personally expect to see as a result of Putin and Xi’s talks while Putin attends the Olympic games, is a much revealed new economic system, which, on a transaction level, will start to be closely integrated across the non-Anglo world. The level of the reveal may be muted, and we may have to read the tea leaves to understand the size and scope of this change.
The driver of that will be the E-CNY, China’s digital currency, which will be massively rolled out for use at the Winter Olympics. https://govt.chinadaily.com.cn/s/202101/27/WS601137c9498eaba5051c195e/e-cny-chinas-digital-currency.html
We also note financial integration in other spheres as the Russian Standard Bank clients are now able to transfer money to the cards of the Chinese UnionPay payment system. This is not a SWIFT transaction.
Overall, the anti-China rhetoric remains at top decibels. As you will see from the extra reading below, while we were watching Russia, the war propaganda against China did not reduce one bit.
How does one raid airspace?
China Launches Biggest Raid On Taiwanese Airspace Since October As CCP’s Pacific Perimeter Expands
Moon of Alabama did an exposé on how the ‘China Threat’ media cycle works: https://www.moonofalabama.org/2021/10/how-the-china-is-a-threat-fake-news-cycle-works.html#more
And before that, he teased apart the Taiwan Airspace or Air Defense Zone: https://www.moonofalabama.org/2021/10/how-ap-reuters-and-scmp-propagandize-their-readers-against-china.html#more
Godfree Roberts created a comprehensive list of current propaganda at the end.
China data points: What are they up to?
Space
Common prosperity is the main driver of China’s values today.
“Common prosperity is not egalitarianism. To use an analogy, we will first make the pie bigger and then divide it properly through reasonable institutional arrangements. As a rising tide lifts all boats everyone will get a fair share from development and development gains will benefit all our people in a more substantial and equitable way”. Xi Jinping.
As part of the Common Prosperity drive, 6.5 million low-cost homes for leasing will be built across 40 major cities in the five years through 2025, Pan Wei, an official with the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, told reporters at a press conference.
On Tuesday, Xi told the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) to maintain “zero tolerance” for corruption (SCMP):
- “There is still a long way to go to effectively tackle the more invisible, deep-rooted corruption and we still have a long way to go to eradicate it completely.”
Imports and Exports Hit $6 trillion for the first time in 2021. The total import and export volume of China’s merchandise trade was 39.1 trillion yuan ($6.15 trillion), a year-on-year increase of 21.4%. Compared with 2019, China’s 2020 foreign trade volume, exports and imports had increased by 23.9%, 26.1% and 21.2%, respectively.
China-Africa trade rose 32%, or $67 billion, to $254 billion in 2020, according to China Customs.
19 out of 33 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean had signed up for the Belt and Road, but some of China’s biggest Latin American investment partners – Brazil, Argentina and Mexico – have not formally signed up to the Belt and Road. Nevertheless, China is now the largest trading partner of Brazil, Argentina and most of the rest of South America.
Renewables will meet over 70% of China’s additional electricity demand in the next three years as coal’s role in powering the world’s second-largest economy continues to decline. Wind and solar farm installations will lift their combined generating capacity 75% to 930 Gw by 2024 from 600GW now.
At the January 20th Foreign Ministry Press Conference, a reporter from MASTV asked: “The 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer [above], from the top global public relations firm, Edelman, finds trust among Chinese citizens in their Government in 2021 hit a record 91%, up 9% from last year, and the top globally. Overall, China’s Trust Index is 83%, up 11%, the highest in the survey. Do you have any comment?”
FM Spokesperson Zhao Lijian: “I noted relevant reports. The 2017 and 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer reports, as I recall, showed that the trust among Chinese citizens in their government was the highest in all the countries surveyed. The figure in this year’s report hits a record high in a decade. We have shared with you a 10-year survey by the Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government on China. It finds out that the Chinese people’s satisfaction with their government’s performance has been over 90 percent for years in a row, which is consistent with the findings of the Edelman Trust Barometer. As a Chinese citizen and civil servant, I’m not surprised at all. “
Extra reading
Background on the Hong Kong color revolution: https://www.fridayeveryday.com/under-the-surface-a-very-different-hong-kong-story/
A legal forensic take-down of the Xinjiang accusation of genocide and forced labor: the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) substantially misrepresented and exaggerated allegations of forced labor in Xinjiang, having insufficient evidence to prove their claims.
http://www.cowestpro.co/uploads/1/9/9/7/19974045/cowestpro_working_paper_jan_2022_v2.pdf
Sinopec discovered yet more new oil and gas reservoirs in Xinjiang totaling 88m tons of condensate oil and 290bn cubic meters of natural gas. So, do you get why the US wanted to destabilize Xinjiang via terrorist attacks in this region?
How a simple blogger exposed the supposed China experts in the West: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202201/1246795.shtml
Weaponized Freedom of navigation is ongoing
Two U.S. carriers enter S.China Sea, to ‘counter malign influence’ https://t.co/REorwjYKOO pic.twitter.com/O9J26y74Je
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 24, 2022
The US Congress passed a $7 billion anti-China propaganda bill to villainize China and to exclude Chinese news from America. To put this in perspective, the 2020 budget of NASA is $20 billion dollars.
Ideological attacks…
- Bloomberg’s Stephen Engle interviews Oscar Kwok
- How BBC journalist John Sudworth reports on Xinjiang.
- Abdul Tursuntohti – a radicalized extremist in Xinjiang
- How are jailed extremists treated in Xinjiang?
- Jeffrey D. Sachs on BBC Newsnight.
- The big business of Uyghur genocide denial.
Economic attacks…
- China’s trade surplus hits annual record as exports soar 30% / FT (paywall)
- China’s economy is slowing, a worrying sign for the world / NYT (paywall)
- China sounds alarm on slowing economy as key political risk / Bloomberg (paywall)
- Xi warns of threats to global recovery / FT (paywall)
- China’s slowing growth will have a global impact / FT (paywall)
Health attacks…
- Top 10 Global Risks of 2022: From China’s COVID-19 policy to Trump’s fight for the midterms.
- Xi’an lockdown brings heartbreak as pressure to contain outbreak grows
- Beijing Is Intentionally Underreporting China’s Covid Death Rate.
This is one more example. We see big news headlines that a ‘China Spy’ was arrested. But when the man is quietly let go because of no evidence, they don’t bother to report that.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202201/1246590.shtml
Tom Fowdy at RT reports as follows:
The US is now doing to China what it’s done in the build-up to every war
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/547290-chinas-global-image-worse/
Thank you to Godfree Roberts who does a yeoman’s job to pull together the 50 most important data points emerging from China in one newsletter week after week. It is getting very difficult to remain a generalist China watcher as the place is just so big and the pace of development is astounding. I use but a fraction of the newsletter information. This week’s long reads contain work by: Ambassador Chas W. Freeman, Jr., Ning Nanshan, Helen De Cruz & Pauline Lee, and Wang Wenbin. If you have an interest in China, go get the Here Comes China newsletter here: https://www.herecomeschina.com/#subscribe
US looks moore and more like a caught fish hopping on the deck before checked-out under the indifferent gaze of Russia and China.
@ Amarynth
Thanks for putting together such monumental work, it will take time to disect it, however, enough evidence is given on a preliminary reading, of the massive propaganda campaign launched against China (and Russia), part of the empire’s Full Spectrum Dominance strategic aims, and their desperation to remain relevant, aware as they are of their decline.
Lone Wolf
iandroidoidne major domain to conquer, and that is the harddrive of computers and phones.
That is today dominated in China, Russia and Iran, by preferably Windows, Android and iOS.
Why these nations can not outsmart Microsoft, Google, and Apple, all off them pure spyware, representing a rape of digital security and a direct threat towards all sectors in society.
How this is even possible with all kind of hypersonic this and that, space here and there, but yet alliwing NSA into the pocket and home if nearly every citizen, every business, every branch of gouverment, is beyond my understanding.
There us no bigger question on this planet to me.
Yes thete is all these linux projects, but if one examine the Linux foundation, one will see they are in bed now with virtually every evil instans one can come up with, so its only a matter of time, if not achieved already, that they will be in full control of the crucial kernel auditing.
Small groups of people are writing operating systems from scratch with no more funding than the fun of it.
Microsoft is in nearly ever computer on the planet, not due to it ever being the best, but because the huge dark force behind it, bought their way into better competitors and CRUSHED them from the inside back in those 386 days.
How one can be so fantastic, but yet miss out on that boat, is not just incredible, but to some extent suspicius.
Can someone shed light on this?
Replace “iandroidoidne” with “China, Russia and Iran”…
In order to read what I thought I was posting… Darn phone…
Big if true. Where’d you find this out? Any links?
This is Wikipedia, so it is ‘China Bad’. But it does lay out new Chinese operating systems.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HarmonyOS
Google is not used in China as it refuses Chinese law.
Have you also heard of Kylin?
Look closely at that aircraft carrier and you will see that it is streaked with rust and looks like a picture from a ship breaker’s yard.
The US is no longer capable of maintaining its military assets.
Not wrong. One of the F-35’s aboard the carrier just crashed onto the deck and fell into the South China Sea.
https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2022/01/25/f-35-that-crashed-into-the-carrier-carl-vinsons-deck-fell-into-the-south-china-sea/
Taiwan belongs to the Chinese…not to Donald Trump…
It is known a powerplant lasts decades but wind turbine and Solar panel farms last for how long before they need to be replaced by new ones in a new Expenditure? Also, how do you dispose of masses of useless solar panels if apparently you, at the end of the, are meaning to go green? China has probably seen the performance of “renewables” in Western Europe and Texas and will focus on gas, oil, Pebble bed and clean coal.
Thorium reactors
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02459-w
A nod to Amarynth for continuing to publish this important information.
Great work, Amarynth. Terrific resource for those who are inclined to dive deep into the issues.
I know very little about China and to be honest I’m not that interested. However, I do hope and wish them much success hosting the games. And always pray for their friendship with Russia.
It is amazing how well the media propoganda influences my fellow citizens. I like talking to people and finding out what they’re thinking. Well to a point I do because it’s quite sickening how ignorant people are. China for example. It’s tiresome hearing, “China is our enemy, they want to murder us all.” Really! How are planning that??? Let me guess, tbeyll get us as we’re walking into walmart to buy tbeir products. Or better yet tbeyll just wait till we exit. With a cart full of stuff. Is tbat what the box told you???? It really is insane.
Mention Isreal and its we got to bless isreal so God blesses us. That one really makes me want to puke.
The truth is American media is one of the greatest threat to all of humanity. They are liars and murders. Think a minute, ever hear tbat said before. No, that’s not just coincidence. Anyone with wisdom and good sense knows it’s true.
Just one more thing then I will stop. It’s clear our military is not much an adversely to Russia or China. I actually get a smile seeing them beg our so called allies to join in on their bullying. Only a bitch cant fight fair or by themselves. Anyways, tbese tensions at some point will blow over. Whatever way it works out our military will retreat with its tail between its legs. If they even have one left. But I believe their next deployment will be against us, the citizens of the United States. Look around, the structure of society is crumbling Just my thought, I do really think once America fate is sealed as no longer the world leader “bully” the focus will be on us the citizens. Our so called great military will be tasked with keeping all us in line and obedient.
Dark days ahead . Our rulers will be bitter and vengeful once it happens. God have mercy on us all.
Maybe Lord willing Russia will offer some of us asylum. I’m not very smart but could put my mind to learning Russian and not bragging but would make one of those fine Russian women a good husband. God Bless.
The US will spend $7 billion on Chinese propaganda, this and for certain much much more. Why this figure is the GDP’s of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kosovo.
Not to forget the $billions in resources to NSA and 13 other Spaghetti Agencies, Crony Think Tanks and thousands of dubious NGO;s . . . . . . . and for what, there’s no stopping this juggernaut?
And they will all fail WTFUD,those billions will just be added to the National debt now close to 30 Trillion,
at just 2% the interest is 500 billion,if interest rates rise to just 5% which is historically considered the norm
Then the annual bill rises to a Trillion a year,totally unsustainable.
Sincere question: How does one “buy” digital Yuan in the US? If it’s not available now, but will be available in the future, how do you envision such a transaction occurring under the auspices of the Treasury department, or outside their auspices. Thank you.
Can anyone please let me know “how to open an account” in Russia?
Where can I find their interest rates? Is it in the US any branch of Russian banks?
Thank you
Do a search “how to open a bank account in russia”, there are a lot of answers, though most are out of date.
https://www.expatica.com/ru/finance/banking/how-to-open-a-russian-bank-account-859128/
https://www.b2bpay.co/how-open-bank-account-russia
are reasonably up to date.
Theoretically, you can open an account online from overseas, but good luck doing that, as almost all banks will require your passport and signature before allowing your account to commence. You may be able to open a Russian account from a US bank that operates in Russia, but you’ll need to talk to the individual banks.
I couldn’t find any Russian banks operating in the US. But I only searched a few major ones.
The major Russian banks will allow you to open accounts in dollars, euros and rubles, allowing easy transfer in currencies.
I have both dollar and ruble accounts with SberBank, though I only use the ruble account, as its easier to transfer rubles internationally now. I had to provide my passport, visa and signature to open the accounts in branch.
Interest rates are found by searching the individual banks, but unless you have a large amount in the account, it won’t be much.
Related, perhaps, in case you are interested, you may be able to open an account with Bank of China, which has some foreign branches. I have seen at least one in Toronto, plus you can access money in China via CIBC and Bank of Nova Scotia (although I haven’t tried this in three years).
If you have a BoC account, you could get WeChat and have cash loaded onto your phone, freeing you to purchase and transfer cash to your friends in China online