[Asia/Oceania] Yellen says she hopes China wont mount retaliation against any steps Washington takes

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > [Asia/Oceania] Yellen says she hopes China wont mount retaliation against any steps Washington takes

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(Thread IKs: fart simpson)

i say swears online: Mar 4, 2005

Some Guy TT posted:

Sometimes the disappearance is connected to suggestions there was an affair, maybe even a sexual assault allegation. There could be hints of professional jealousy; it's the outcome, say, of a simmering, behind the scenes power struggle. At other times, the whiff of corruption appears to emit a strong odor.

There are many more cases that involve government critics: protesters, human rights champions, Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities. There's also examples that confound quick explanation: the rich tech entrepreneur, the Chinese chief of an international police organization, the glamorous movie star adored by hundreds of millions.

Recently, the disappearance that has bewildered China watchers and led to unbridled social media speculation inside and outside the country is that of its top foreign affairs diplomat, Qin Gang, who went missing over a month ago. He vanished just as Washington and Beijing made a renewed push to stabilize strained relations.

"This is how the system protects itself," said Pavel Slunkin, a former diplomat from Belarus, a country where prominent opposition figures of President Alexander Lukashenko were kidnapped and murdered in the 1990s.

"Authoritarian governments treat information as a threat. That's why they need to control it. It was this way in the Soviet Union. It's this way today in China, in North Korea, in Iran, in Belarus."

But it is the Chinese government, many say, that has taken the practice of "disappearing" high-profile figures to new, or at least head-scratching, heights. And in recent years this activity, which Beijing studiously avoids publicly addressing to the extent that it often pretends nothing has happened, has touched the country's billionaires, corporate titans, security chiefs, actors, scientists, sports stars and diplomats alike.

"A lot of what we think we know about these cases is just speculation,'' said Yaqiu Wang, a senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Some of this speculation may eventually turn out be true, of course, but what it shows is the black-box nature of China's political system; its arbitrary and unaccountable power."

Since late June, this black box has enveloped Qin, China's former foreign minister, who was just seven months into the job when he completely faded from public view without any official explanation.

He was last seen in public on June 25 in Beijing.

Qin was smiling as he walked side by side with Andrey Rudenko, a senior Russian foreign ministry diplomat. A week earlier, Qin, 57, widely described as a protege of China's President Xi Jinping, played a prominent role in hosting Secretary of State Antony Blinken during the highest-level trip to China by a U.S. official since 2018.

Blinken's visit came in the wake of a diplomatic fallout between the two countries after Washington accused Beijing of operating an extensive international surveillance program. This allegation, which Beijing denied, was neatly illustrated by a Chinese balloon that flew over U.S. airspace without permission. The U.S. shot it down.

Qin's meeting with Blinken took place without any obvious signal of the Chinese diplomat's impending downfall.

"The two sides had candid, substantive, and constructive discussions on key priorities in the bilateral relationship and on a range of global and regional issues," Matthew Miller, a State Department spokesperson, said of the trip.

Yet over the next few weeks a series of high-level meetings Qin was expected to attend were abruptly cancelled. He was not present, for example, when U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen undertook a four-day visit to China the first week of July. He did not participate in an important summit of regional Asian leaders that kicked off in Jakarta, Indonesia, about a week later − an absence that China's foreign ministry said was for "health reasons." By the middle of July, Qin's name had been removed from the foreign ministry's website and spokesperson Mao Ning said she had "no information" about him when pressed by reporters in briefings.

Qin had, effectively, vanished into thin air.

It appeared to be an extraordinarily precipitous fall from grace for one of China's most powerful diplomats. Qin was a close Xi ally. He had risen through the ranks of the Chinese Community Party faster than most. He was named foreign minister after spending less than two years as China's ambassador to the U.S.

What's more, Qin appeared to meticulously exemplify, according to Altman Yuzhu Peng, a Chinese-born communications scholar at the University of Warwick, England, the idea of the "wolf warrior."

The term is a shorthand expression for the style of aggressive and confrontational Chinese diplomacy that's been adopted by the Xi administration. It stems from the 2015 Chinese action movie of the same name that features skilled Chinese army heroes fighting villains in Asia and Africa but whose real enemies appear to be U.S. foreign policy, Western geopolitical dominance and critics of the Chinese government more broadly.

"Qin's disappearance is really hard to explain," said Peng. "He's very well aligned with the wolf warrior image."

And yet, according to seasoned China watchers such as Christopher Johnson, a former Central Intelligence Agency analyst of Chinese politics, Qin's sudden disappearance conforms to a familiar pattern in China.

"It's actually pretty common," said Johnson, who is now the president of the China Strategies Group, a Washington-based political and financial risk consulting firm focused on the superpower country.

"China has a system they call 'double restrictions','' he said. "It's a form of extrajudicial detention where the authorities can keep you as long as they want without charge while they investigate whatever part of the puzzle you may or may not be. It is a very unusual and opaque system, and the purpose is usually to generate fear."

In May, Duan Weihong, 56, once one of China's wealthiest women, made her first known public appearance in five years. Duan built her fortune in real estate development and by facilitating investment opportunities for family members of some of China's most senior officials, including former premier Wen Jiabao.

Duan, who also goes by the name "Whitney Duan," vanished from her Beijing office in 2017 as Chinese Communist party investigators probed her links to Sun Zhengcai, a former government minister who is serving a life sentence in China after admitting to taking millions in bribes. Duan has only briefly surfaced once before since her unexplained disappearance. In 2021 she called her former husband and business partner, who lives in exile in the United Kingdom, to urge him to stop publication of a book that details the couple's business dealings.

Many other Chinese public figures have suffered equally puzzling fates:

Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai, 37, a three-time Olympian who won 25 career tour titles, disappeared in November 2021 after she claimed in a social media post that China's former vice premier Zhang Gaoli forced himself on her in his bedroom while his wife stood guard outside. Her post was quickly scrubbed from the Internet and the Chinese government alternated between saying Peng was "resting at home" and that it had not heard of the issue. A month later, Peng retracted her allegation, saying there had never been any sexual assault, a difficult to understand assertion given that her original post described the alleged incident in detail. When Peng showed up for what looked like a series of highly staged appearances at the Beijing Winter Olympics, in February 2022, she again recanted her original claims about an assault and also announced her plans to retire from tennis. Few believe she was speaking freely. Her current level of freedom is not clear.

In 2018, Fan Bingbing, 41, one of China's most famous domestic movie stars who has also appeared in the "X-Men" franchise, disappeared for four months. Her manager and others around her also vanished. Rumors surfaced online that she was being held as authorities investigated her for tax evasion. In 2019, Fan broke her silence in an interview in which she appeared to thank the Chinese authorities for "disappearing" her. "No one can have smooth sailing throughout the journey," Fan told The New York Times in August that year. "It may be a trough I encountered in my life or in my work, but this trough is actually a good thing. It has made me calm down and think seriously about what I want to do in my future life," she said in the interview.

Jack Ma, 58, the billionaire founder of Alibaba, a Chinese competitor to Amazon and on some measures the world's largest online commerce firm, has rarely been seen in public since he criticized China's financial regulators in 2020. Ma, a former English teacher, was last spotted at a school in China in March, according to the South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper that is owned by Alibaba.

The first Chinese had of Interpol, the France-based international police organization, disappeared in 2018 while he was on a visit to China. Meng Hongwei, who had been due to serve in the role until 2020, inexplicably resigned from his position days after his wife reported him missing. In late 2020, Meng surfaced in a Chinese court, where he was sentenced to almost 14 years in prison for allegedly misusing state funds. His wife, who has been given political asylum in France, claims the charges are politically motivated.

"A more charitable interpretation of all these events is that the Chinese Communist Party, which is obsessed with corruption, is really concerned about protecting its reputation," said Lyle Goldstein, an expert on China who runs the Asia program at Defense Priorities, a Washington think tank.

Goldstein pointed out that days after Qin was removed from his post, China abruptly announced it had replaced two top commanders of its nuclear and missile arsenals, a move that could be connected to corruption allegations. The two generals, Li Yuchao and Liu Guangbin, have not been seen in public for months.

"It seems like they want to be opaque," Goldstein said of China's apparent strategy for appointing and dismissing key officials and military leaders. He said that strategy has "got a lot of people" in Washington "worried" as China's military capabilities increasingly match, and in some cases, surpass the Pentagon's.

China named veteran diplomat Wang Yi, Qin's predecessor, its new foreign minister on July 25.

There has still been no formal explanation for the abrupt personnel change.

Qin has still not been seen in public. His whereabouts have also not been disclosed.

Johnson, the former CIA analyst, said that Qi's sudden removal was "triple awkward" for U.S. and Chinese officials and their staff during a period of renewed diplomatic activity; when both sides are attempting to stabilize an at-times fractious relationship amid deepening economic, technological and military competition.

But he did not think it would have much of an impact on U.S. or Chinese policy.

And in one sign of this apparently business-as-usual state of affairs, Miller, the State Department spokesman, said during a briefing with reporters on Aug. 1 that an invitation to visit Washington that had previously been extended to Qin had been officially transferred to Beijing's new top foreign affairs diplomat.

"We, as outsiders, aren't necessarily supposed to understand why China does this," said Johnson, reflecting on what could be driving not just Qin's disappearance, but myriad others like it.

"Usually it has more to do with internal skullduggery than anything else."

Xi himself mysteriously disappeared for two weeks in 2012 when he was China's vice president in an episode that has never truly been explained. Chinese officials later said he suffered a sports injury. Xi also stayed out of public sight for a few weeks in 2022 after a trip to central Asia, sparking false rumors of a coup.

Suspected Chinese spies:Disguised as tourists, they tried to infiltrate Alaskan military bases

Still, one theory doing the rounds on social media and among some experts is that Xi ordered Qin's removal after he learned he had an affair − that led to a son − with a TV journalist. Another is that, perhaps as a result of his time as a diplomat in the U.S., he was "turned" − recruited as a spy − by U.S. and British intelligence services.

Another is that, Icarus-like, Qin simply flew too close to the sun.

He was promoted too quickly in a country that for all its rapid modernization is still rigidly hierarchical and places great cultural value on climbing the ranks through slow, steady, hard work. In this theory, Qin flew higher and higher, then as the sun melted the diplomatic wax in his wings, he tumbled into the sea and drowned.

"I've seen all the rumors and I'm pretty skeptical about a lot of them," said Slunkin, the former diplomat from Belarus, who encountered Qin in that country in 2015 when he was involved with helping to arrange a visit by Xi.

Slunkin is now a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations' Warsaw, Poland, office. He stressed that he only spent a short period of time with Qin, and does not consider himself an expert on China.

But he recalled a figure who to him seemed to have a "more modern, more Western" manner compared to the dozens of "conservative" ministry officials Qin was working with to make sure Xi's visit to Belarus encountered no hiccups. He said Qin spoke excellent English and many of his subordinates were afraid of him.

He also described a moment when he was awoken at 2 a.m. by a telephone call from Qin who wanted, at that precise moment, to go to a museum Xi was due to visit the next day. He wanted to go over the plan. This included a lengthy discussion of the exact moment "solemn music" would turn on as Xi walked up some steps.

"I would say his disappearance is probably a combination of all the points we are discussing in public," he said.

tldr

but also

quote:

Fu headed the program from 2014 to 2022, interviewing major personalities such as Ban Ki-moon, Shinzo Abe, John Kerry, Henry Kissinger and Bashar al-Assad. Her final interview in the Talk with World Leaders series was in March 2022 with Chinese diplomat Qin Gang, who at the time was Chinese ambassador to the United States.

who must go?

# ? Aug 8, 2023 02:56

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# ? May 24, 2024 21:45

stephenthinkpad: Jan 2, 2020

Antonymous posted:

doesn't shanghai also have a short airport HSR

Yes I was going to mention that, but you got to give Shanghai credit for having not only the first and also fastest maglev system. It also predated the China HSR boom for almost 10 years.

When I was in a tour group many years ago (pre BJ Olympics), the Shanghai tour guide was very pound of the maglev and sold it to us as an extra tourist attraction. So we did a maglev round trip for fun.

Edit, if you want to nerd out, Shanghai has 4 HRS stations and all can be reached by metro.

stephenthinkpad has issued a correction as of 03:01 on Aug 8, 2023

# ? Aug 8, 2023 02:56

Second Hand Meat Mouth: Sep 12, 2001

i say swears online posted:

who must go?

https://twitter.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1688419581281660929

# ? Aug 8, 2023 03:01

crepeface: Nov 5, 2004; r*p*f*c*

stephenthinkpad posted:

Also today I found out Indonesia burnt 100+ fish boats from other SEA countries for illegal fishing, presumably entering in the dispute sea in their own "dash lines".

Is this common in SEA? Is there a sank fishing boat database? Oryx for CSC?

lol i went searching after i saw the new atlas video about it too

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2023/02/16/kelantan-mmea-disposes-of-seven-seized-vietnamese-boats

quote:

"Since 2007, Kelantan Maritime has disposed of a total of 264 Vietnamese fishing boats through a variety of disposal methods like sinking, destroying, auctioning and selling and gifting with an estimated value of more than RM380 million.

# ? Aug 8, 2023 03:10

Second Hand Meat Mouth: Sep 12, 2001

"auctioning and selling and gifting" lmao

# ? Aug 8, 2023 03:12

i say swears online: Mar 4, 2005

Second Hand Meat Mouth posted:

"auctioning and selling and gifting" lmao

wanton destruction

# ? Aug 8, 2023 03:13

Some Guy TT: Aug 30, 2011; Can't post for 2 hours!

hot witch divorcee posted:

enjoying this video if just for finding out that china's state media clowns on "democracy dies in darkness" as hard as we do

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehK5gLiNX5s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehK5gLiNX5s&t=640s

timestamped for the part that made me go wtf obama actually said this in front of a camera

# ? Aug 8, 2023 04:25

crepeface: Nov 5, 2004; r*p*f*c*

Some Guy TT posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehK5gLiNX5s&t=640s

timestamped for the part that made me go wtf obama actually said this in front of a camera

lol wtf

"we pump conspiracy theory raw sewage into the public square until truth is impossible to discern and the citizens lose trust in their government and each other"

# ? Aug 8, 2023 05:38

PDP-1: Oct 12, 2004; It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

stephenthinkpad posted:

BJ Olympics

*bevis laugh*

# ? Aug 8, 2023 05:46

Centrist Committee: Aug 6, 2019

Some Guy TT posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehK5gLiNX5s&t=640s

timestamped for the part that made me go wtf obama actually said this in front of a camera

lol. lmao.

# ? Aug 8, 2023 07:06

comedyblissoption: Mar 15, 2006

Some Guy TT posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehK5gLiNX5s&t=640s

timestamped for the part that made me go wtf obama actually said this in front of a camera

obama's talking about allowing news channels on national television say the us bombed the nordstream pipelines

# ? Aug 8, 2023 08:32

Al-Saqr: Nov 11, 2007; One Day I Will Return To Your Side.

I mean that video that CGTN put out is 100% correct but I like the small window of pretend freedom that liberal capitalism provides rather than the totalitarian censorship approach to be honest.

# ? Aug 8, 2023 08:41

Orange Devil: Oct 1, 2010; Wullie's reign cannae smother the flames o' equality!

I mean I do sympathize with your situation but you gotta aspire to better than a more comfortable mind prison my guy.

# ? Aug 8, 2023 09:06

genericnick: Dec 26, 2012

crepeface posted:

lol wtf

"we pump conspiracy theory raw sewage into the public square until truth is impossible to discern and the citizens lose trust in their government and each other"

Pretty sure he's claiming the other guys are doing this

# ? Aug 8, 2023 09:20

Truga: May 4, 2014; Lipstick Apathy

Some Guy TT posted:

did u know that originally the word propaganda simply referred to any sort of media that was intended to be persuasive and that the word didnt have any negative connotations

i thought that was very interesting

i knew about this, but also tv ad segments used to be called "economic propaganda programming" here when i was a kid :v:

# ? Aug 8, 2023 10:03

Votskomit: Jun 26, 2013

genericnick posted:

Pretty sure he's claiming the other guys are doing this

There's really no way to know now, because of all the sewage.

# ? Aug 8, 2023 10:27

Raskolnikov38: Mar 3, 2007; We were somewhere around Manila when the drugs began to take hold

is there a factual list of what actually gets censored inside China? blocking western lies, propaganda, racism memes, and color revolutions from circulating is hardly a sin

# ? Aug 8, 2023 10:41

gradenko_2000: Oct 5, 2010; HELL SERPENT; Lipstick Apathy

Rappler: Imee Marcos Tilts Towards China

(reposting in full here because the article is behind a paywall)

quote:

When opposition Senator Aquilino �Koko� Pimentel III was asked recently if he had any other senator in mind to recruit to the minority, he replied in jest, �The next logical person to recruit to the minority is blood related to the President.� He was obviously referring to Senator Imee Marcos, the sister of the President.

Some of Imee�s positions have diverged from the President but there is one issue wherein their differences stand out: China.

Let�s look back. Last year, as President Marcos had barely warmed his seat, an important official from China came to visit: Liu Janchao, minister of the international department of the Communist Party of China�s (CPC) Central Committee. For some reason, he was unable to see the President.

Instead, it was the President�s sister who met with Liu. Imee gave Liu and his delegation a tour of the Marcoses� ancestral home in the city of San Juan in Metro Manila, which has since been turned into a museum.

In a video, Imee is seen seated with the ranking Chinese official and his team on a long table, exchanging pleasantries. She told her guests, �We consider Chinese officialdom and the Party our personal friends and allies.�

This was significant, coming from the sister of the President, who has embraced the alliance with the US. She also heads the Senate foreign relations committee.

Moreover, Liu was an important official who led the Chinese Communist Party�s international department which is �one of the most authoritative and increasingly transparent channels of CPC influence and power,� according to some China watchers.

The international department used to be dedicated to diplomacy with other foreign communist parties but it has expanded to forging relations with political parties in many parts of the world.

At the time of Liu�s visit, President Marcos had already declared that he would not give up an inch of territory to a foreign power, referring to China and the country�s maritime dispute with the regional giant.

As chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, Imee has consistently taken positions sympathetic to China. In at least three instances, she made her preference for China public.

In a Senate hearing in September last year, she poked the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) officials when she questioned them on their constant filing of diplomatic protests against China on its incursions on the West Philippine Sea. At the time, the DFA had filed more than 300 diplomatic protests during Duterte�s presidency with 48 more under Marcos.

Here are excerpts from the exchange between Imee and the DFA, as CNN Philippines reported:

Imee: �What�s the point of sending hundreds of hundreds of protests aside from, well, annoying both parties?�

�[It�s embarrassing that you keep writing to them, and they keep ignoring you. You lose your dignity and respect, and it doesn�t look good.]�

Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Maria Angela Ponce: �The protests are an assertion of our rights under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and under the arbitral award. By asserting our rights, we are ensuring that we do not lose them.�

Imee: �Is there a better way of doing this that is less confrontational and less anti-culturally Asian?�

Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo: �I�m thinking of sending fewer notes but with more substance, omnibus [diplomatic protests], I�m seriously thinking that.�

Next on Imee�s poke list was the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) which is on the frontlines of protecting the West Philippine Sea (WPS). In a separate Senate hearing, she scolded the PCG for just limiting itself to doing patrols. She wanted them to talk to the aggressor, the China Coast Guard: �I�m quite surprised that the Coast Guard is sitting on the sidelines and waiting� [You keep going around in circles?�You�re not doing anything.]�

Admiral Artemio Abu, PCG head, was not in the Senate hearing but, in a speech before new Coast Guard recruits, countered Imee by saying that her comment that they were sitting idly by was not true. In fact, on Abu�s watch, the Coast Guard went beyond patrols and installed buoys, which served as sovereign markers, in the WPS. They also started to accompany the Navy in its supply missions to Ayungin Shoal.

Last month, Imee urged the government to strictly monitor US military aircraft that enter the country�s airspace the same way it tracks down Chinese ships intruding into the West Philippine Sea. �The same zeal in tracking any violations in our maritime territory and EEZ (exclusive economic zone) must also apply where Philippine air traffic rules and joint military agreements with the US are concerned,� she said.

The US military planes that landed in the country were involved in joint exercises with the Philippine armed forces.

In my interview with Renato de Castro, international relations professor at De La Salle University, I asked him about the senator�s proposal. He explained the vast difference between the presence of Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea (an occupying force) and the US military aircraft (a friendly force) in the country.

The Chinese ships enter our EEZ without permission while the American planes� entry is covered by legal agreements. Moreover, the aim of China is to challenge the Philippines� sovereign rights, posing a threat, while the US is in our country to assist the military.

Context:

Philippine mainstream media, and especially Rappler, which is funded by NED and was founded by Pierre Omidyar, of The Intercept, has always portrayed China in nothing but a negative light. This is probably not surprising, but it is especially pertinent in this case because prior to the 2022 elections, the media went hard on portraying Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as being China-aligned. The most notable example was in October 2021, when Marcos, as a private citizen holding no office, met with Chinese ambassador Huang Xilian.

The implication here was that Marcos would be a "Chinese lapdog", as a continuation of the media's portrayal of former President Rodrigo Duterte as a Chinese lapdog, an image that has mostly since stuck (and played-up again by the media when Duterte met with Xi Jinping in July of this year.

The problem the media faces today, is that Marcos Jr has embraced the US so fully, that they cannot credibly make this kind of claim anymore. Indeed, the article above does mention how much Marcos Jr had sidled up to the Americans, but makes no mention of how Rappler themselves tried to create this impression that he was maybe going to favor the Chinese (and that therefore you shouldn't vote for him).

So instead, they've shifted to writing these pieces against Imee Marcos.

This is not to say that the Marcoses aren't doing and saying these things for their own cynical reasons, but it hurts the media's credibility, at least in my eyes, for them to shift their rhetorical focus like this, without acknowledging that they'd gotten it wrong before, and while trying to make it seem as though there's some kind of political, if not ideological, rift between brother and sister. It's a ridiculous notion considering how well they've managed to plot their return to power over the last three decades, but that's presumably what the media would like us to believe, and all mostly because it's not acceptable to criticize the American foreign presence in the Philippines.

# ? Aug 8, 2023 11:25

wynott dunn: Aug 9, 2006; What is to be done?

Who or what can challenge, and stand a chance at beating, the corporate juggernauts dominating the world?

genericnick posted:

Pretty sure he's claiming the other guys are doing this

yeah he�s referring to Putin and Bannon in the full video, he starts the segment around 31:00

https://www.youtube.com/live/YrMMiDXspYo?feature=share

# ? Aug 8, 2023 11:48

Hedenius: Aug 23, 2007

https://twitter.com/PDChina/status/1688754405758185472?s=20

# ? Aug 8, 2023 13:43

fart simpson: Jul 2, 2005; DEATH TO AMERICA

Hedenius posted:

https://twitter.com/PDChina/status/1688754405758185472?s=20

hell yes

# ? Aug 8, 2023 13:48

Telluric Whistler: Sep 14, 2008

As a current frequent commuter of this route I approve as long as it doesn't have a stupid 5-7pm service gap like the current HSR

# ? Aug 8, 2023 13:52

stephenthinkpad: Jan 2, 2020

Surely Obama knows in the US the libs have much stronger stranglehold (narrative power) over the main stream media/social media/Hollywood/"moral highground".

Same for the western Europe region too in my impression.

# ? Aug 8, 2023 13:55

fart simpson: Jul 2, 2005; DEATH TO AMERICA

Telluric Whistler posted:

As a current frequent commuter of this route I approve as long as it doesn't have a stupid 5-7pm service gap like the current HSR

what would actually help me is if they speed up the border crossing at the west kowloon train station. right now the train from futian to west kowloon is only 14 minutes, but the border crossing itself takes like a half hour because you gotta walk so far and stand in lines

# ? Aug 8, 2023 14:02

genericnick: Dec 26, 2012

stephenthinkpad posted:

Surely Obama knows in the US the libs have much stronger stranglehold (narrative power) over the main stream media/social media/Hollywood/"moral highground".

Same for the western Europe region too in my impression.

The US had comparative advantage in propaganda for all of the Cold War while loudly proclaiming that commie propaganda was everywhere. It's just how it works.

# ? Aug 8, 2023 14:40

stephenthinkpad: Jan 2, 2020

So I just want to post an update on the Chinese podcast I follow. Like I said this show is purely for domestic audience and features 2 anonymous officials from inside the party.

These are from the last 3 episodes.

* In the last episode, they almost came out and said China is supporting Russia with important civil military dual use components. Like 90% percent said that but didn't sign their names on it. In the past they are much more conservative in this gray area and only hinted by the fat military nerd (he officially is an youtubers so his words don't have any weight.)

They even gave a couple examples. Beijing has export restrictions on high quality military helmets. But the N Koreana are able to buy construction site helmets that look like construction helmets but have the same spec of the military helmets.

Lancets and other drones may have quality components in them, if you follow certain drone channels, they break down the flight characteristics of various drones and can deduce what kind of specific components that drones have.

One guy hinted that Kissinger might have reached a "don't ask don't tell" policy between the US and China, as in, as long as you don't officially sell Russia poo poo, the white house won't pole their nose into it. This person is not high level enough to know the Kissinger detail but he made educational guesses. If he actually knew about the detail, he wouldn't even touch this subject.

* On Qin Gang

The episode 2 days after Qin Gang, they started off and said this episode is not going to discuss something we can't discuss. All the audience are Chinese so he doesn't need to say an extra word to hint at what that thing is.

However he talked about some spycraft related stuff and stories that I later realized might have been related.

He talked about the different way the Brits and the Americans groom their potential spies or key people for color revolution. Talked about how American only want to hire/develop people who are already in the business and have the spy skills. While the British empire have the tradition of get you sign up when you are going to schools in British universities. And they would do extra things outside of monetary compensation to boost your career and get you in debt, and will call in the favors much later in life. "Including help you for example doing interview of important people" (the other podcast host immediately interrepted, " that's not a good example to use... ")

I didn't think much of it until after the podcast, I remember that Phoenix TV woman supposedly had an affair with Qin Gang was a jounalist. I am not going to write her name because I don't want outsider search this post. But double check her education, yes she got her master degree in Cambridge. And here is an interesting part, her got a Cambridge Garden named after her, when she was 33.

So maybe this is the reason Mr Foreign Minister lost his job. I am not saying I have more evidence of it but this sounds like a much more believable explanation than the guy just lost his job over having an affair. And so far the penalty doesn't look like its severe enough to make QG lose both his party membership and his employment in the foreign ministry, but rather just get sent to a desk job to retire. Maybe he just hosed the wrong person by accident. We will know in a few years. If this is the extent of the issue then somebody can talk about it down low in a few years. It's less severe than say the top generals in the PLA rocket force got repaced by outsiders. That looks like a money corruption case.

# ? Aug 8, 2023 15:24

mark immune: Dec 14, 2019; put the teacher in the cope cage imo

Al-Saqr posted:

I mean that video that CGTN put out is 100% correct but I like the small window of pretend freedom that liberal capitalism provides rather than the totalitarian censorship approach to be honest.

lol awesome

# ? Aug 8, 2023 16:36

Shear Modulus: Jun 9, 2010

wynott dunn posted:

yeah he�s referring to Putin and Bannon in the full video, he starts the segment around 31:00

https://www.youtube.com/live/YrMMiDXspYo?feature=share

yeah the bit about fake news causing distrust among americans towards the government and Our Institutions, and that distrust being the one and only immediate cause of every problem in america is the mainstream dem position

# ? Aug 8, 2023 18:02

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

I wonder how come whenever journalists or pundits talk about fake news they always bring up Russian disinfo and Trump lying but never the WMDs in Iraq that every single one of them agreed was real

# ? Aug 8, 2023 18:33

Al-Saqr: Nov 11, 2007; One Day I Will Return To Your Side.

why would china implement an export restriction for their own helmets even though they want to supply their north korean allies with it i dont understand.

# ? Aug 8, 2023 18:51

Cpt_Obvious: Jun 18, 2007

https://twitter.com/narrative_hole/status/1688618374991884288

# ? Aug 8, 2023 18:56

Megamissen: Jul 19, 2022; any post can be a kannapost
if you want it to be

whoa

# ? Aug 8, 2023 18:57

ScootsMcSkirt: Oct 29, 2013

Cpt_Obvious posted:

https://twitter.com/narrative_hole/status/1688618374991884288

the US is finished

# ? Aug 8, 2023 19:00

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

Al-Saqr posted:

why would china implement an export restriction for their own helmets even though they want to supply their north korean allies with it i dont understand.

so as to not overtly embarrass the US by selling military equipment to a sanctioned rogue state

# ? Aug 8, 2023 19:03

indigi: Jul 20, 2004; ^{how can we not talk about family

when family's all that we got?}

Cpt_Obvious posted:

https://twitter.com/narrative_hole/status/1688618374991884288

drat

# ? Aug 8, 2023 19:04

fits my needs: Jan 1, 2011; Grimey Drawer

https://twitter.com/TIME/status/1688974104668344328?s=20

quote:

The former cricket star also argued that he should be transferred to a prison near the capital, Islamabad, that has �A-class� facilities. In better facilities, authorities provide inmates with goods such as access to newspapers, air cooler, television and permission to be served home-made food, Khan�s legal team said.

# ? Aug 8, 2023 19:05

copy: Jul 26, 2007

Megamissen posted:

whoa

# ? Aug 8, 2023 19:09

Orbis Tertius: Feb 13, 2007

indigi posted:

I wonder how come whenever journalists or pundits talk about fake news they always bring up Russian disinfo and Trump lying but never the WMDs in Iraq that every single one of them agreed was real

a handful of mildly scathing articles were written about Judith Miller after the war was over, what more do you want.

# ? Aug 8, 2023 19:27

mark immune: Dec 14, 2019; put the teacher in the cope cage imo

Al-Saqr posted:

why would china implement an export restriction for their own helmets even though they want to supply their north korean allies with it i dont understand.

�more helmets please� - china

# ? Aug 8, 2023 19:29

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# ? May 24, 2024 21:45

Best Friends: Nov 4, 2011

indigi posted:

I wonder how come whenever journalists or pundits talk about fake news they always bring up Russian disinfo and Trump lying but never the WMDs in Iraq that every single one of them agreed was real

2003 is the one and only time a good person is allowed to doubt the media (offer only valid retroactively). any other doubting of the media however is Very Problematic. trumpian. dare I say, authoritarian.

# ? Aug 8, 2023 19:37

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > C-SPAM > [Asia/Oceania] Yellen says she hopes China wont mount retaliation against any steps Washington takes

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