China thread

[Mikado463]

Not to derail Swerd's Ukraine / Russian thread I thought it best to start a new one with regards to China and it's latest assertion.............

China and Solomon Islands Draft Secret Security Pact, Raising Alarm in the Pacific (yahoo.com)

 

[mtrycrafts]

Scary stuff. Just what the world needs.

 

[cpp]

China always pushes the buttons to test weak leadership.

 

[SithZedi]

Great thread idea. The Chinese government is the real threat to the US or 'free world". The next threat is our own internal decay as Lincoln warned. Globalisation, not in the economic definition but in the definition of "one world government is right up there. Rule by an elite.

Russia is really just caught between the US and China while trying to punch up back into superpower status. The Russian existentialist question is where do they want to be?

This will be interesting.

 

[Trell]

Then there is this with China huffing and puffing, but dangerously so.

Pelosi set to visit Taiwan despite China warnings, sources say

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi was set to visit Taiwan on Tuesday, three sources said, as the United States said it wouldn't be intimidated by Chinese threats to never "sit idly by" if she made the trip to the self-ruled island claimed by Beijing.

www.reuters.com

 

[highfigh]

China always pushes the buttons to test weak leadership.

Why would they need to test ours with Walter, er, Biden hiding out most of the day?

 

[cpp]

Why would they need to test ours with Walter, er, Biden hiding out most of the day?

China has been testing the US for a long long time with the Marshall islands, Solomon Islands , South China Sea and of course our relationship with Taiwan. Just like North Korea, they just keep on keeping on until something occurs and then its a full on escalation.

 

[Mikado463]

Then there is this with China huffing and puffing, but dangerously so.

Pelosi set to visit Taiwan despite China warnings, sources say

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi was set to visit Taiwan on Tuesday, three sources said, as the United States said it wouldn't be intimidated by Chinese threats to never "sit idly by" if she made the trip to the self-ruled island claimed by Beijing.

www.reuters.com

perhaps Nancy can get 'Chuckie' to join her on the trip ??

China warns US jets escorting Pelosi to Taiwan could be shot down

China fired its most direct warning shot yet amid reports that Nancy Pelosi may visit Taiwan on Friday.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[Hobbit]

Then there is this with China huffing and puffing, but dangerously so.

Pelosi set to visit Taiwan despite China warnings, sources say

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi was set to visit Taiwan on Tuesday, three sources said, as the United States said it wouldn't be intimidated by Chinese threats to never "sit idly by" if she made the trip to the self-ruled island claimed by Beijing.

www.reuters.com

For about a 12 year period I used to go to China about 1.5x a year on average. About every couple of years the China/Taiwan standoff would rear it's head. There were even times when ships would be sent out to do drills etc, the free world or China. What I'm getting at is this their normal periodic posturing but at a time when we're just being more sensitive to it?

 

[OHMisback]

China is ran by who? I'm asking a question, WHO is in charge in China? I really don't know.

Russia is ran by who? Thugs and Oligarchs.

India, Turkey, Germany, Japan, Finland, France, England, Ireland, Canada, Belgium, Israel and the US. Is ran by who?

I worry about selling farm land and timber rights to foreign investors. That should be stopped. South America is doing the same thing
where the government lets them.

 

[Swerd]

For about a 12 year period I used to go to China about 1.5x a year on average. About every couple of years the China/Taiwan standoff would rear it's head. There were even times when ships would be sent out to do drills etc, the free world or China. What I'm getting at is this their normal periodic posturing but at a time when we're just being more sensitive to it?

Good question. Here's a few things that make China's more recent behavior different that it was in the past:

• China has greatly increased spending on it's military, especially on it's navy, with three aircraft carriers (and apparently more on the way), a much larger blue water navy, and an increased nuclear armed submarine force.
• China has aggressively eliminated most of Hong Kong's democracy and freedoms.
• China has claimed all of the South China Sea as China's protected sea coast. It's created a number of islands in that shallow water to build air bases. Note the locations of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the unlabeled Hainan Island south west of Hong Kong.
  
  
  
  China's main submarine base is on Hainan Island. The shallow waters all around it make it difficult to hide it's nuclear armed subs. If the South China Sea & surrounding waters have Chinese air cover, those subs can easily reach the deeper Pacific without detection. That directly threatens us.
• China is trying to create navy bases in the Pacific and Indian Oceans to allow refueling and replenishment of it's new blue water navy.

This is quite different than the occasional periodic posturing that you noticed in the past.

 

[Mikado463]

Good question. Here's a few things that make China's more recent behavior different that it was in the past:

• China has greatly increased spending on it's military, especially on it's navy, with three aircraft carriers (and apparently more on the way), a much larger blue water navy, and an increased nuclear armed submarine force.
• China has aggressively eliminated most of Hong Kong's democracy and freedoms.
• China has claimed all of the South China Sea as China's protected sea coast. It's created a number of islands in that shallow water to build air bases. Note the locations of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the unlabeled Hainan Island south west of Hong Kong.
  View attachment 57115
  China's main submarine base is on Hainan Island. The shallow waters all around it make it difficult to hide it's nuclear armed subs. If the South China Sea & surrounding waters have Chinese air cover, those subs can easily reach the deeper Pacific without detection. That directly threatens us.
• China is trying to create navy bases in the Pacific and Indian Oceans to allow refueling and replenishment of it's new blue water navy.

This is quite different than the occasional periodic posturing that you noticed in the past.

good info ! and to add to it Chinas continued financial commitment to countries in our own backyard (Central & South America)

 

[Mr._Clark]

Good question. Here's a few things that make China's more recent behavior different that it was in the past:

• China has greatly increased spending on it's military, especially on it's navy, with three aircraft carriers (and apparently more on the way), a much larger blue water navy, and an increased nuclear armed submarine force.
• China has aggressively eliminated most of Hong Kong's democracy and freedoms.
• China has claimed all of the South China Sea as China's protected sea coast. It's created a number of islands in that shallow water to build air bases. Note the locations of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the unlabeled Hainan Island south west of Hong Kong.
  View attachment 57115
  China's main submarine base is on Hainan Island. The shallow waters all around it make it difficult to hide it's nuclear armed subs. If the South China Sea & surrounding waters have Chinese air cover, those subs can easily reach the deeper Pacific without detection. That directly threatens us.
• China is trying to create navy bases in the Pacific and Indian Oceans to allow refueling and replenishment of it's new blue water navy.

This is quite different than the occasional periodic posturing that you noticed in the past.

At the risk of connecting too many dots, I find myself wondering if Pelosi's trip is related to the chip shortage and the apparent need to ramp up production of military hardware to support Ukraine. I do not know what chips go into the various missiles and other hardware being supplied to Ukraine, but it wouldn't surprise me if at least some of these use chips that are made in Taiwan:

>>>U.S. dependency on Taiwanese production of chips for defense systems extends beyond AI. TSMC makes semiconductors used in F-35 fighters and a wide range of “military-grade” devices used by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). Many U.S. defense systems use field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA) which are similar to commercial versions but introduce certain specific militarily relevant features, such as higher levels of heat and radiation tolerance. The major designers of FPGAs are U.S. firms that depend on Taiwan for much of their production. The U.S. firm Xilinx, for example, invented the FPGA, but most of its semiconductor wafers are manufactured by TSMC and United Microelectronics Co., another Taiwanese firm. The full extent of U.S. reliance on Taiwan for the manufacture of chips for military applications is unknown, but it is an important factor underlying U.S. government pressure on TSMC to move its production of military devices to the United States.<<< (emphasis added)(I certainly do not know either)

https://www.csis.org/analysis/semiconductors-and-national-defense-what-are-stakes

On the other hand, it's hard to see why it would be beneficial for Pelosi to visit Taiwan if the goal is to discuss defense-related chip production (i.e. it seems like there should be plenty of other qualified people who could visit Taiwan if, for some reason, and in-person visit to discusss military chip production was deemed to be necessary).

 

[Mr._Clark]

Pelosi's trip is creating quite a bit of buzz in the OSINT world. Here are a couple of examples.

So many people were tracking Pelosi's flight that it apparently caused one of the flight tracking sites to crash:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1554504105388695552

People have also been tracking the PLA flights in the area:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1554470893161975810

 

[Swerd]

At the risk of connecting too many dots, I find myself wondering if Pelosi's trip is related to the chip shortage and the apparent need to ramp up production of military hardware to support Ukraine. I do not know what chips go into the various missiles and other hardware being supplied to Ukraine, but it wouldn't surprise me if at least some of these use chips that are made in Taiwan:

I certainly don't know an answer to your questions. I guess a lot depends on who else is accompanying Pelosi on that trip – State Dept, DoD, Commerce and Trade representatives? Lockheed Martin or Boeing representatives?

I would also imagine that Taiwan is getting nervous about China's intentions, what with the Ukraine War.

 

[Danzilla31]

I certainly don't know an answer to your questions. I guess a lot depends on who else is accompanying Pelosi on that trip – State Dept, DoD, Commerce and Trade representatives? Lockheed Martin or Boeing representatives?

I would also imagine that Taiwan is getting nervous about China's intentions, what with the Ukraine War.

I'm trying very hard to understand what point Pelosi's visit has at all. She didn't announce it officially until the last minute.

And Biden and the White House administration haven't been very keen on it from comments he's made.

All it seems to do is give Biden a massive headache of a problem to deal with.

 

[Mikado463]

I'm trying very hard to understand what point Pelosi's visit has at all. She didn't announce it officially until the last minute.

And Biden and the White House administration haven't been very keen on it from comments he's made.

All it seems to do is give Biden a massive headache of a problem to deal with.

Perhaps she felt the need to get out of the country given the 'rigging' that is going on with regards to her husbands drunken car crash incident that is going to court ??

 

[Trell]

Perhaps she felt the need to get out of the country given the 'rigging' that is going on with regards to her husbands drunken car crash incident that is going to court ??

Thankfully, your demographics is not replenished, so there is hope for a better USA.

 

[Swerd]

I'm trying very hard to understand what point Pelosi's visit has at all. She didn't announce it officially until the last minute.

It's not hard to understand. Pelosi did visit Ukraine last spring. She went to assure Ukraine of our support. She has now done the same for Taiwan.

 

[Trell]

It's not hard to understand. Pelosi did visit Ukraine last spring. She went to assure Ukraine of our support. She has now done the same for Taiwan.

He's essentially an isolationist and have been so for quite some time. That "isolationism" is not even handed as I recall, nor is it grounded in liberal democracy either.