Nancy Pelosi ties Chinese cyber-attacks to need for Taiwan visit Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi has tied her controversial visit to Taiwan to an alleged barrage of China-directed cyber-attacks against the territory. Pelosi's main reason for visiting Taiwan, as explained in a press release, is "reaffirming our support for our partner and … promoting our shared …
Most Taiwanese are generally happy with the current status quo - they have had de facto independence for many decades, and have never been under the control of the CCP, but nobody wants to upset China by pointing it out. However the way China has behaved in HK, and the way Russia has behaved in Ukraine have made a lot more people nervous of China potentially using "bigger-army-diplomancy" to bagsy them and start a war.
Even now certain policies to try to make up for the atrocities have kinda back fired. For example if a TW company hires a foreigner they have to pay higher taxes, neutral for TW citizens and a tax break for hiring indigenous peoples. This ofc led to bullying in the workplace since some of the non indigenous employees would assume unfair hiring practices to get a tax break and to meet a quota.
Anyone who thinks that the ancestors of the less than 3% left of the Formosan peoples would have given up their prime real estate to "off with their heads Shek" should really have another look.
"Mainland China would now be a slave trader's paradise."
So more like China than like Taiwan then?
https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/2018/findings/country-studies/china/
So how come Taiwan is not a slavers paradise, is not committing genocide, and did not have to go through things like the cultural revolution and the great leap forward?
The chinese governnent has lifted lireally a record number of people our of poverty.
You may not like the way it was done, but that doesn make this any less true.
The US in the meantime has 60% of the population lkving from.paycheck to paycheck, and food insecurity on the rise, even with the group of people that are regularly thanked for their service.
The foundations of the US constitution was a great feat, but it's devolved into an oligarchy, with a few ultra-rich people essentially owning everything that's nailed down.
If that is a response to me, I was literally just comparing the two leaders and the end result. If your going to point out the rebel who went to Taiwan was a bastards (which fair enough sounds a bit of one with things like the white terror, most countries who have done well have plenty dirty pasts, not excusing this), then look at the end result democracy (instead of white slavery as claimed by the poster).
Then it's worth comparing what China ended up with Mao, the great leap forward (several million peasants probably didn't enjoy that bit of how it was done from what I understand), suppression and the like also, with the end result of a less democratic government.
Just seemed a bit weird to say the democracy would have ended up a slavers paradise (which AFAIK it isn't unless I am missing something current in the news), while ignoring the reality of China's CCP.
(several million peasants probably didn't enjoy that bit of how it was done from what I understand)
Then you don't understand what happened there after Mao came to power.
It were the chinese intelligentia that were decimated under Mao, as they were seen as the ones collaborating with western powers, which pushed opium to the chinese population.
Interesting that the first "governor" (of Tung Chee Hwa) of Hong Kong after it was returned to China was the son of Tung Chao-yung, a senior KMT member. He tried Taiwan as the place to do business, but soon realised that was a waste of time so used Hong Kong as a better location.
The company logo was the Formosa flower.
Oh give you that he helped eradicate the opium problem, increased literacy etc. But there's quite a bit of bad attributed to him and the cadres that followed him also. A lot of peasants died also. It's almost like both of them were more complex than the soundbite.
All I was trying to say was if you are pointing out that the founders of Taiwan now were bad, and that apparently the end result was a slavers paradise. While also thinking that Mao was unaccountably brilliant, and the end result of the CCP is a party of freedom of speech and thought, with a right to protest without tanks rolling over you etc.
I think that's a weird thing to compare and imply.
Don't forget to read about Spain, France, Normans, Romans, Vikings, and, well, pretty much everywhere, on the whole.
If you think this sort of behaviour is to be deplored, stick to deploring what is going on *now*.
'Cos if you want to try to make yourself seem clever by making political hay of the past then first demonstrate that *your* antecedents are squeaky clean (hint: they aren't, your history is as blood soaked as everyone elses')
Most despotic governments like the CCP are just piss and wind in fancy uniforms.
They are used to unwavering compliance from their oppressed masses.
Give the leaders hell, make them look small and pathetic.
They no more wish to press the big red button than we do.
Tell that to Jesus College Cambridge and other apologists for the CCP. You know the college that made a huge fuss trying to take down a plaque about someone with a vague connection to the slave trade, but happily takes money from the Chinese government (slavers and genocides) to back it.
Also MPs and other taking money from Chinese agents.
They have corrupted our system.
Did you study history in China, or merely at a western university sponsored by China?
The guy who stood in front of the tank was not hurt by the tank; he has never been traced. Which in China most probably means "executed".
And are we denying that troops and tanks fired into crowds at Tianemen square? Seriously? If it never happened, why do the Chinese need to censor it?
"The Tianemen square 'massacre' never happened"
Not actually on the Square, which was essentially a rallying point, but around 200 died on June 3 at Muxidi 2.5 miles to the west of the Square, and several civilians, government officers and soldiers died elsewhere around the Beijing area. The final official statistics were 241 dead of which 218 were civilians (Zhang Liang The Tiananmen papers [Little Brown & Co, UK 2001])
I really wish the west would just come out and acknowledge Taiwan as a full nation, give it embassies and just stop the whole One China thing. Acknowledge and reward the people of Taiwan for developing a strong and stable democracy!
What can China do if the entirety of Europe, the USA, Australia, UK, etc. all act at the same time? It can't attempt to stop trading with all of them at the same time, it can't attempt to punish them all at the same time. A United front would show China that despite its words to the contrary it needs the west as much as the west needs it. Probably more in truth.
It won't happen, but it would be lovely to see...
" we could refer to Taiwan as 'real China' and the PRC as 'occupied China' "
We could but it would be absurd. The CCP won the civil war in 1949 and the KMT lost it, and they both agreed all along that the island of Taiwan was part of China.
If Taiwan had attempted to secede from China, in say 1960, they would probably have succeeded and would now be an independent member of the UN. But Chiang Kai-shek insisted on the fiction that he was the real ruler of China, and that opportunity was lost. That's why the UN seat was given to the Beijing government in 1971 and Taiwan was left nowhere.
As a Taiwanese who would absolutely love to normalize our status the sad fact is that it's complicated and we have to be somewhat pragmatic.
I can travel (at least I could pre-covid) with my green Taiwan e-passport visa-free to most of the world including Europe and the UK. We vote directly for our representatives and presidents. We have our own currency, military, political system, banking network, postal service, phone prefix etc.
Yes, it's pretty annoying when you book a hotel or flight and have to click "Taiwan, Province of China" in the dropdown box but if the only option to scrap that is going to war I guess we can deal with it. Apart from that we are already a 100% independent democratic nation and a pretty damn fine one if I may say so.
100% independent democratic nation
Asude from the fact that the Taiwanese govt is doing exactly what they're being told by their US overlords.
If you want to see what happens to US allies, just at the multitude of former 'allies' of the US that were no longer useful.
If there's going to be a hot war in SE Asia, the US will have no qualms to fight it down to the last japanese, south-korean and japanese citizen.
NATO is a military organization. Quit the hypocrisy.
Most countries in the world that don't align with the US are under war or embargo.
You whine about Ukraine because it is happening to you. If it was the US attacking Ukraine, the country would have already been flattened for its own good.
The Ukraine and Taiwan situations are just different and cannot be compared.
Ukraine: UN member state; independence from the Soviet Union when the latter fell apart is almost universally recognised, including by the US.
Taiwan: Not a UN member state; independence from China almost universally unrecognised; not recognised by the US; civil war between Communists and Guomindang never formally ended, as far as I can see.
Very little difference. Both are used as proxies to contain what the US sees as threats to their hegemony.
Instead of focusing inward and making life.better for its citizens, the US is desperately trying to cling on to the unilateral power they wielded after the USSR fell, after which, instead of using their power to lift everyone up, they used it to enrich themselves, while keepimg everyone else down.
This has now come back to bite the US in the ass.
50% of every tax dollar paid in the US goes to the MIC, while infrastructure is crumbling, healthcare is #38 on the planet in quality, while being #1 in cost, life expectancy has actually dropped in recent years and mental health has dramatically decreased, resulting in mass shootings and the whole blue hair zher, xe, they, them idiocy. Meanwhile the prison population has explodede and is higher in both absolute and relative numbers, compared to a 'tyrannical' government like China's.
With US inmates being used as slave labour and people going to prision for having a joint in their possession, while the son of the current president has been filming himself with deug dealer amounts of crack, which is being muffled under the carpet.
With US inmates being used as slave labour and people going to prision for having a joint in their possession, while the son of the current president has been filming himself with deug dealer amounts of crack, which is being muffled under the carpet.
There's also Paul Pelosi's DUI case in Napa Valley. Poor guy must have been so stressed he flashed his CHP donor card at the police officers instead of his driving licence. Easy mistake to make i guess. And the appointment of a judge who's a Democrat, but has never run a criminal trial the day before is sheer coincidence.
Didn't you mean Putin bots? Everyone who has a minority view contrary to yours, must be a bot.
Have actually ever thought about someone just blindly (I don't see any proof of your claims) main stream media (not even non-mainstream articles from western media, but the most generic drivel that outlets such as CNN considers news), is actually being a sheep?
1949 Syrian coup d'état
1949–1953 Albania
1951–56 Tibet
1953 Iranian coup d'état
1954 Guatemalan coup d'état
1956–57 Syria crisis
1960 Congo coup d'état
1961 Cuba, Bay of Pigs Invasion
1961 Dominican Republic
1963 South Vietnamese coup
1964 Bolivian coup d'état
1964 Brazilian coup d'état
1966 Ghana coup d’état
1967 US manufactured coup in Greece
1971 Bolivian coup d'état
1970–73 Chile
1980 Turkish coup d'état
1979–89 Afghanistan, Operation Cyclone
1980 -1988 material support for Iraq against Iran
1981–87 Nicaragua, Contras
1983 Grenada
1996 Iraq coup attempt
2001 Afghanistan
2003 to 2011 Iraq War
2011 Libyan civil war
2011–present Syria
Panama?
IRA
Edgewood_Arsenal_human_experiments
It can't attempt to stop trading with all of them at the same time
That process has to some extent already begun [FT], initiated by international trading partners alarmed at the increasing instability of business conditions and China appears to be unconcerned.
Historically, Chinese policy has always valued (at least the appearance of) stability and taken a long-term view of its ambitions. That caution seems to have been abandoned and Xi seems to be an impatient man with almost unfettered personal power and a personal mission. I think it would be foolish to prejudge what China "can" and "can't" attempt to do: Putin has essentially wrecked his country's economic future in pursuit of a mad historical fantasy starting from a much weaker position.
If there's one lesson we should learn from domestic politics it's the vacuity of the question surely they can't be that stupid?.
What can China do if the entirety of Europe, the USA, Australia, UK, etc. all act at the same time? It can't attempt to stop trading with all of them at the same time, it can't attempt to punish them all at the same time...It won't happen, but it would be lovely to see...
Just be patient. We've already had a taster with China's Covid lock downs and the supply chain disruption that's been causing. Now, we've poked the panda, and they've threatened to retaliate. Exactly how is as yet unclear, but I think we can make some educated guesses. So China will impose it's own sanctions on the West, and our supply chain woes will get worse.
Now all we need is for the US to deal with Iran, more tanker wars and we can look forward to a very merry xmas.
Such sanctions would only bring short term woes. There is already a lot of firms pulling manufacturing out of China for other cheaper places (Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, India). And there is very little that is produced in China that could not be reproduced outside of China, perhaps it would take some time to build a new factory, train workers, etc., but that move is already happening.
China knows it cant do too much in that regard, without killing its own economy, and the whole deal of the CCP with it's people is that it will maintain a growing economy. The moment that stops, things started looking decidedly different internally.
So China might do a few targeted sanctions, but it wont do much to hurt it's already struggling economy...
This is exaclty my fear of the US govt. With their current still large military power, which will disappear overnight if their economy crashes (unless they start a war).
China and Russia are completely self-sufficient, whike western countries have sold their crown jewels to foreign nations to make a quick buck.
No, China and Russia are not self sufficient.
China imports food, iron ore and oil and apart from that they risk a property bust if growth flags.
Russia has raw materials, but seems to lack the ability to do much with them at scale. The gas pipelines were mostly built by Germans. The whole economy is just too corrupt and dysfunctional.
China and Russia share a border.
Russia has oil and other raw materials, China has a huge manufacturing capability.
They are self-sifficient. Especially with their new trade alliance.
https://www.worldstopexports.com/chinas-top-10-imports/
Don't see any critical food items as a major import, which would be strange with a 1.2billion population.
China impose sanctions on the west?
Excuse me while I try and avoid laughing. China has a export focused economy based on selling to the west. If they decide to stop selling to us then it's going to destroy them economically, and while a lack of cheap tat will be an issue for some while as soon as factories are set up to produce replacements then nobody is going to go back to buying from China again.
It would be the biggest mistake of the century should China try that, so they won't unless they want to utterly ruin their economy. That would only make sense unless they were ready to invade Taiwan, but looking at Ukraine and the relative effectiveness of Russian vs Western military equipment in practically untrained hands will have shelved invasion plans for at least as long as it takes to replace Russian equipment with something that might stand some prospect of working, should they invade.
Also; Russia's has committed economic suicide over gas and confiscating industries in Russia under foreign ownership; even once sanctions are released banks and companies bitten once aren't going to want to spend on building infrastructure in Russia again. And after Russia deciding to weaponise gas supplies after countries have been forced to diversify their suppliers to deal with that whom do you think is going to put themselves in a position where Russia might screw them over again by buying their gas again afterwards?
Excuse me while I try and avoid laughing. China has a export focused economy based on selling to the west.
Flip that around. The West has a service-based economy focused on imports from China. As one simple example, any idea what percentage of the world's antibiotics are made in China?
But China's also been busy over the last couple of decades drumming up other trade deals. Sure, those deals may come with strings attached, but BRICS is arguably doing better than the EU, and probably going to add members.
Meanwhile, the West is doing just fine. We have no supply chain disruptions. We have no energy crisis. We have no food crisis. The US is absolutely not in recession because the old "two quarters of negative GDP growth" is sooo last century. We are going to solve our energy crisis by tilting at windmills and solar. Guess where those, or key components for those are made..
Or China could express it's displeasure by closer ties with Russia, and maybe do some arms deals with it. Historically there's been a lot of trade there, either as plain exports, or licence deals. But China is almost certain to respond to Pelosi's trip in a way we won't like. Maybe their hackers will release police camera videos from Mr Pelosi's recent traffic accident. Maybe they'll sanction stuff our industry needs.
But we're certainly living in interestng times, The US wants to maintain hegemony, China and the EU are competing with it. The Russia thing is accelerating the EU's collapse, China may try to provoke the US's collapse. And there's probably going to be a global popcorn shortage.
Capitalists who see, once again, an opportunity to become the middle man and rake in a *few bucks before the crap hits the fan again.
Or pragmatists. There's a lot of countries, including some rather large/important ones (like India, Saudi) that are pretty much ignoring the West's sanctions. And they're observing the pain the West's sanctions have been causing both their own nations, and ours.
Russia is getting more revenue after the sanctions than before it.
Pensions and wages have been increased by some 10%, the Ruble is the new gold standard and is the best performing currency in the last 6 months, while BRICS countries are creating a new reserve currency backed by commodities, the USD is no longer being the sole currency in which oil is traded by Saudi Arabia.
With the USD only being backed by debt, and the printing presses running overtime to 'curb inflation' I see Zimbawan type USD bills not too far over the horizon.
Russia Stronk! F3ar teh might of rUssiA11!11
Alternately, the Ruble is worth so little that people empty large bags of Ruble notes into the air in shopping centres in Russia and nobody bothers picking them up because they aren't even useful as toilet paper, let alone currency.
The Russian economy is utterly screwed, having broken contracts and confiscated anything within arms reach. This has been followed up by threatening to nuke their trading partners twice a week for the last 6 months, and you lot can't figure out why nobody thinks it's worthwhile trading with the Russians anymore, even including the Chinese?
About the most than can be hoped for is that the Chinese will snap up bankrupt Russian businesses when your economy totally collapses.
The formerly feared Russian military has proven to have better social media than soldiering skills, which is why they are 6 months into a 3 day "special operation" to institute a puppet government, and are relatively in a worse position than on day one.
And yet we are supposed to fear Russia, or think that we are somehow as badly off as Russia is? No thinking person is going to believe that, no matter how much propaganda you pump out.
no matter how much propaganda you pump out.
Yes... it's all propaganda.
https://www.exchangerates.org.uk/RUB-USD-spot-exchange-rates-history-2022.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/13/climate/russia-oil-gas-record-revenue.html
https://marketrealist.com/economy-and-politics/new-global-reserve-currency/
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russias-putin-announces-10-hike-pensions-minimum-wage-2022-05-25/
Note that these are all western websites.
As for even China not wanting to trade with Russia:
https://nypost.com/2022/03/14/china-and-russia-forming-a-new-axis-to-challenge-the-west/
Stop watching CNN, it rots your brain.
Alternately, the Ruble is worth so little that people empty large bags of Ruble notes into the air in shopping centres in Russia
Pics or it didn't happen. I think you're thinking of Germany, where the Euro replaced the Reichsmark, and Germans are being forced to take cold showers.
The Russian economy is utterly screwed, having broken contracts and confiscated anything within arms reach.
Well, we did kinda steal Russia's bank reserves, Gazprom, and held NordStream 2 for ransom. But such is politics. Western firms have been forced to abandon factories and other assets in Russia, Russia's simply recycling those assets and repurposing those investments.
This has been followed up by threatening to nuke their trading partners twice a week for the last 6 months,
Whereas the EU has been actually nuking it's trading partners by sanctions. A country may rely on Russia's energy, but too bad.
The formerly feared Russian military has proven to have better social media than soldiering skills, which is why they are 6 months into a 3 day "special operation" to institute a puppet government, and are relatively in a worse position than on day one.
I'm pretty sure it was Western experts who made those claims. Not sure what you mean by 'worse position' though given Ukraine's around 20% smaller than it was after the 2014 coup, and has lost most of it's industry. Plus heavily defended front-line places like Pisky are falling, and once DPR/LPR/Russian forces have broken through all the fortifications around the old Donbas contact line, it'll have a clearer run to take everything east of the Dnieper River. Which would be a bit awkward for Kiev, but Budpest managed.
Oh, and Ukraine's used to puppet governments since the one installed in 2014.
Pics or it didn't happen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE0379-GxKQ
heavily defended front-line places like Pisky are falling, and once DPR/LPR/Russian forces have broken through all the fortifications around the old Donbas contact line, it'll have a clearer run to take everything east of the Dnieper River.
So 6 months on, Ukraine will still fall in 3 days time?
I.. see. So your 'reliable' source is a Ukrainian propaganda channel?
So 6 months on, Ukraine will still fall in 3 days time?
I give it till the end of the month. Again, you may want to look at any convenient satellite imaging service at places around Donetsk, like Pisky. As there'd been a lot of fighting and shelling of Donetsk and DPR/LPR territory in general since 2014/15, Ukraine had time to do a lot of spade work. Plus train a lot of it's military in the latest and greatest NATO tactics, modernise it's hardware etc etc..
Russia's now broken through those fortifications in several places. It's been steadily attriting Ukraine's military, and destroying a lot of it's hardware. Once through those lines, the territory between Donbas and the Dnieper are much less defended or defensible. Which means the anti-Kiev forces should be able to advance much faster, give or take how many working Javelins etc Ukraine has left.
That's probably been hastened by Kiev's decision to move artillery from Donbas to the Kherson front, apparently to support the 'major offensive' that was due to happen there and re-capture Crimea. Except of course re-deploying men & materiel away from Donbas has meant Russia can advance, and eventually threaten the eastern part of Kiev.
So Kiev's been busily trying to poke holes in a bridge designed to withstand a nuclear war using it's 88kg wunderwaffe, which would have been a lot more useful countering anti-Kiev advances in the east.. Which is what MLRS was designed for, ie area attack/denial. It's the grid-square removal service. Russia's also been busily forming up Ukrainian BTGs to defend around Kherson, and eventually advance. Rumor has it that may be towards Kryvyi Rih, Zelensky's home town. Hopefully that won't result in Ukrainians being tossed into it's iron mines, as Ukrainians did to it's Jewish population during WW2.
Meanwhile, Zelensky's been posing for Vogue, and perhaps not paying attention to increasing complaints from his military, so I think there's a high risk he won't last till the end of August either.
But such is politics. I feel very sorry for the Ukrainians, who've been lead down this path by the West and Ukraine's oligarchs. Nearly 1/4 of Ukraine's population has been displaced or killed, and there's been collosal damage to infrastructure and property. And for what?
I.. see. So your 'reliable' source is a Ukrainian propaganda channel?
My "reliable source" is a video of somebody doing it, which is good enough for most people.
I give it till the end of the month.
I take it you don't mean the end of August. August 2022? Just to be sure that we're on the same page.
Given that Russian forces occupy half the territory they did in February i'm not particularly convinced that they are going to steamroller to victory in the next three weeks, but we'll see in 3 weeks time.
So Kiev's been busily trying to poke holes in a bridge designed to withstand a nuclear war using it's 88kg wunderwaffe, which would have been a lot more useful countering anti-Kiev advances in the east.. Which is what MLRS was designed for, ie area attack/denial. It's the grid-square removal service.
Grid Square Removal System was the British army joke name for the MLRS based on the development programme being called the General Support Rocket System. The thing is, it never stopped being developed. Western countries have long since developed it from being an indiscriminate bombardment system such as the Grad system that you lot have to something that tosses 6 guided missiles per launch cell.
And this looks very much like it's done the job quite successfully; I wouldn't want to be running trains over this bridge.
https://twitter.com/OAlexanderDK/status/1553357749676900355
But such is politics. I feel very sorry for the Ukrainians, who've been lead down this path by the West and Ukraine's oligarchs. Nearly 1/4 of Ukraine's population has been displaced or killed, and there's been collosal damage to infrastructure and property. And for what?
I feel very sorry for the Ukranians. I think the main Reason for Putin invading was to eliminate the threat from Russians looking over the border at Ukraine and seeing their much better quality of life. I think the main reason they are fighting so hard is to keep their quality of life and not have to live under the Russian system of governance, if you can call "might makes right" a system of governance.
My "reliable source" is a video of somebody doing it, which is good enough for most people.
They're heeerreee!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtrR84jboT4
Obviously everying on the Internet is true. Oh, and remind me, what did Zelensky do, and own prior to becoming President?
Given that Russian forces occupy half the territory they did in February i'm not particularly convinced that they are going to steamroller to victory in the next three weeks, but we'll see in 3 weeks time.
Not sure how you work that out. But yes, we'll see. Ukrainian forces have apparently entered Bakhmut, pushing out the Western forces. The mighty Kherson counter offensive doesn't seem to be happening. Zelensky's been begging China to intervene, whilst China has been getting ever closer to Russia, and further from US aligned interests. Oh, and he's been begging (or threatening) the EU because they haven't given him the €8bn he thinks we owe him.
So wait and see. Especially as in other news, China's starting to announce it's retaliation to Pelosi's trip. In Germany, the Rhine's water levels have been falling, threatening water/cooling/shipping for the industries around the Rhine, including electricity generation. In France, summer temperatures have reduced cooling capacity for their power stations.
And in a couple of months, we'll see the first frosts.
So basically Russia doesn't really need to hurry. Western sanctions have succeeded in harming the West more than they have Russia, and the worst is yet to come. The worse it gets, the worse the West's negotiating position will be, and the greater the divisions between EU members and EU and the US. And in the UK, we may get a new-ish PM, and in the US, they have the mid-term elections in November with the Dems going in with pretty dire polling and approval numbers.
But on the plus side, it's apparently now legal to fly into the US or within the US with drugs.
And this looks very much like it's done the job quite successfully; I wouldn't want to be running trains over this bridge
Well, you're not a combat engineer with training on how to repair stuff like that. Plus big piles of hardox sheets, prefabbed runway/bridge repair sections, or a pile of plywood and some concrete. If you were a combat engineer, you'd know that to effectively destroy a bridge, you really want to knock down the supports, not make small holes in the spans.
Oh, and not sure what you meant by 'your', given I'm British. Not an untrained Ukrainian who's been busy lobbing Grad missiles in the general direction of a Russian built and controlled nuclear power plant. The Bbc seems very confused about that story. But the Bbc is very easily confused. It doesn't appear to have noticed the Amnesty report, or what's been going on in Gaza the last couple of days.
Regarding ...
Nancy Pelosi ties Chinese cyber-attacks to need for Taiwan visitAnd as if to confirm the link, a DDoS takes out Taiwan's presidential website ahead of senior politico's arrival. Perhaps coincidentally, the website of Taiwan's president became unavailable on Tuesday afternoon, apparently due to a DDoS attack initiated by unknown parties.
...... such is much more likely to be something deliberately initiated/activated by known "unknown parties" allied to Fort Meade type support operations.
And you know it makes more sense .... for such is exactly what such systems/operators are prone to do in order to try to both lead and mislead parties in one's own preferred direction of strange travel .... and in so doing does it make it a lot easier to justify their further expensive public and private undisclosed defence and security funding streams too, which is probably absolutely vital to ensure their continued existence.
OMG it got me again. I read it through the third time and then looked to see who could possibly be saying this gibberish, and it is the friendly chatbot. I'm actually cheered to think this might mean I don't strictly react ad hominem. Or maybe I'm just tired.
It's much more GBIrish, trindflo, and pleasantly ideal for all parties into the surreal heavy stuff and no virtual nonsense.
If you need translation help in a foreign mother tongue for easier understanding give Google Translate a whirl. It's not bad for a machine learning what humans are taught or pick up quite naturally to master all manner of disciplines requiring clear unambiguous communication and prime instruction sets.
China doesn't like that language, but has lived with it for over four decades – during which time the likes of TSMC turned Taiwan into a vital source of technology on which the US relies. US commerce secretary Gina Raimondo recently stated that losing access to Taiwanese tech would crash the US economy into a recession.
So, stuff Taiwan produces is vital to the US (and elsewhere, of course), but they (we, 'the West') also don't want to stop buying stuff from or selling stuff to PRC. Trade is good for international stability but vendor lock-in is a stupid mistake.
Probably, it's dangerous for the despotic to have a neighbour with linked or parallel histories prior to the rise of said despot. It's easier for the captive citizens to imagine themselves being free than if they see freedom among a culturally distinct population. It's similar to how West Berlin made Stalin and his successors unhappy.
It's an example of the dangers of shortterm-ism. If PRC moves in on Taiwan and somehow avoids a shooting war with 'the West' then TSMC and the like will be a valuable asset for about 5-10years. After that period, manufacturing closer to 'home' will have become more common. If they move in and a shooting war starts it will be valuable until its facilities are 'taken out' as strategic targets by one side or the other.
Let's do whatever we can to try to avoid either scenario.
How about the hundreds of thousands of Imperial treasures held at the Taipei Museum looted by the Nationalists and transported by the trainload when they fled to Taiwan? So many barely 10% may be displayed at any one time.
Really? Then how curious there is lots more stuff in the Imperial Palace Museum, Beijing which somehow did not get smashed by the Red Guards - which is a tiresome, misleading and an unsubstantiated knee-jerk excuse for the Nationalist looting.
Yes, for some reason, jump-starting an economy of 1.2billion people who are living in poverty and have had sanctions until the 1970s imposed by the west is slightly harder than jump-starting an economy of 23million people, with industry backed by 'the west' from day 1.
Yes, for several reasons. They have always wanted it because it was once conquered by China and they think it should be theirs. They like carving out pieces of land and calling it theirs on a tenuous historical basis, so for that reason alone they'd take it. It also provides them with a useful area for military installations to mess with east and southeast Asian trading and naval traffic and denies the same advantages to anyone else. They wanted it when it wasn't democratic or wealthy, and now that it is, they want it even more.
There is plenty of room for discussion as to "how democratic is democratic" and I think it is a journey.
In comparison, all those countries that are not even trying to pretend are not legitimate and nobody should pretend they are anything other than de-facto dictatorships.
Calling yourselves the "democratic peoples republic of ..." does not make you any of those things and generally seems to specifically state that you are not.
Certainly, some/much of the EU has better democratic processes than the UK and (more so) the USA but at least even we and the US are more or less democratic. Countries that do not even pretend to be democracies are not legitimate. We can hold our noses and deal with them but we should never pretend that any of them, like China, North Korea, Russia etc are legitimate governments. For the sake of keeping the peace for the moment, we can deal with them, have commercial relationships or even go on holiday there but we should not pretend that they have the leaderships they should.
Everytime an Arab country voted or acted to expell the dictator in place, the West has intervened to defend the dictator or promote a new one.
The real thing that the West did in Syria was to prevent the fall of Bachar al-Assad and fight the people the West was allegedly supporting.
The West don't care about anything not even its own people, only the interests of some sects.
As soon as things get tougher the so called Western democracy turn to extremism in a matter of days.
The only difference between the USA and China or Russia, is that the USA control the propaganda tools. It is always their say, their lies that are being propagated.
Japan, they have been nuked and behave like sheep; sheep under control and scrutiny.
Yes exactly. having lived in a country, Sri Lanka, with a compromised democracy (nothing like as bad as China) the west has amazingly good levels of democracy, freedom of speech, etc.
There is a huge difference between "imperfect" and "oppressive".
Sri Lanka is most assuredly NOT CHINA. China is spotlessly clean cities. Sri Lanka is a garbage dump and the best place on earth to get canine rabies.
In China there is no bigotry, you can drink beer on the street, It's safe around the clock. Nobody bothers you. Crime is nil.The people are friendly and they love to speak English to you. ther is NO comparison at all Between Sri Lanka which is a filthy place compared to a Modern Chinese City which is spotless.
Stop idealizing the so called freedom in the West. They show a smiling face just because their propaganda is dominating. They demonize anyone who stands in their way ensuring that there is no other view than theirs. Look at the McCarthyism and remember that in the US there is basically one only party with 2 close shades.
To what extent does the democracy go? Unlimited where the populace votes on every issue and winds up "voting in" bread and circuses?
I do believe in a democratic form of government, but I also believe that the vast majority of people aren't qualified or responsible enough to guide a democracy. The sticky points come when rules are needed that weed out the people that will never think about the common good, only themselves, while not winding up excluding people with opposing, but valid viewpoints.
For all of China's faults, they do wind up doing many things right. As the world's product factory, they have to. The US has been losing it's materials and manufacturing base not due to cheap labor elsewhere, but over regulation. It's much simpler for a legislator who has no background outside of a law degree to ban things or put in so many rules that amount to the same thing rather than coming up with solutions to issues. The US has plenty of Rare-Earth minerals, but mining is effectively being banned and mining rare earths, which often have Thorium mixed in, even more so. China found a solution and dominate the world supply. Every company in the US has to source their own raw materials where China has done colossal deals to secure metals such as copper so their industries don't run short. Don't get me wrong, I can rage for a week non-stop on China's ills as well.
I have to say you made some valid points but never drew the correct conclusion.
The MURICAN BRAG has caught up to it finally. After WWII we find out there were no other war Heroes other than Muricans. Over the years they have JOHN and JOAN Wayne'd us to death. But then along came heel spurs Trump who in his infinite wisdom viewed the global division of labors as a "RIP OFF".. THey are RIPPING US OFF! Then began the Tariffs, the sanctions for not being NYCE NYCE TO Trump and he followed in the economic illiterate footsteps of Obama the proof that the US was no longer a slave state, by weaponizing the US Dollar Reserve. Then comes weak JOE, dithering Joe, slow jow who only makes everything much worse. He sustains Trump's Trade war while American Businesses scream their lungs out to end the disaster. But JOW listens to UNIONs instead including the GOV longshoremen that have fought port Automation for the last 30 years. You still have 100 ships back up at LA and LONG BEACH.
Even the COVID respite of Shanghai didn't give Joe's gov Longshoremen union any shade.
Oh, and I have NEWS for you. Three days ago the venerable Janet Yellen said the US is no longer dependent on China for Rare Earth Metals. Well that's a big sigh of relief. The Trump PARANOIA over the idea of Division of labor results in protectionism and the false Claim the US can bootstrap itself and go it alone.
Meanwhile, an Air career in China buys $38 Billion in Airbus and ZERO from Boeing... The US largest individual exporter.
Trump wanted to destroy Huawei and SMIC... He failed at both. Yes the Huawei market shrank globally to 6.6 Billion person's presently under US Santions. And SMIC just smashed 7nm chip scale YEARS before the Nancy Kerrigan Kneecapping American Foreign policy had expected the knee to heal. SMIC is thriving.
The NANCY KERRIGAN Kneecapping Strategy of America is to take that led pipe and bash the knee disabling a competitor. This does not make Murica more competitive, just incredibly stupid.
Look at what is actually going on in China Chips. The Trumpers and the Biden UNIONS want to block China's access to tech especially European ASML machines. What is China doing? Well Chinese math skills are excellent. China is focused on Chips larger than 14nm scale which is 95% of the present global market for chips. China is nearing 80% self-sufficiency in this area. So from the largest buyers in the world, they will soon be the largest producers and sellers in the world. But WAIT... there's more...
China can now produce 14nm scale in bulk and SMIC just hit 7nm scale. The US protectionists are pumping $52 billion in taxpayer dollars into FAB plants. If FAB plants were a good deal, why didn't the US have any Fab that could produce 7nm Scale or 14 nm Scale?
Forgetting the high likelihood none of these FAB plants will see the light of day, it will take 5 yeas before any FAB plant could make its first run of sad defective Chips. And the CHIPS act as with Typical America Bragism starts in at 2nm... when Intel has already failed at 10mn and in the process had 80 Billion in stock buybacks. But let's say it's all true... that this will happen in Five years.... Where will China be in Five years?
If they are at 7nm today.
And the US will be even more dependent on substrates, ion implanters, washes etc. Not to mention the EPA, OSHA, IRS, FTC on their backs... That's a little Nancy Kerrigan of its own... the Gov bureaucrats wielding the lead pipe. In a labour-intensive business... I haven't even touched on the Murican uneducated employees, the global leader of employer theft, workers comp, violence against the company, passive-aggressive habits, and the most litigious on earth. But we don't need to talk about all that. All we need to ask is where China will be in five years.
They have the washes now, they are made in China, and tariffed by Trump and Biden into the USA. They have their own Ion Implanters now. Their Chinese Space Station is equipped with ION engines. They can now produce silicon wafers, They have all the grinding machinery, wire bonding and stud bumpers they need. They have their own homegrown 28nm lithography now. The Claim the ASML machines were too complex and required 100,000 components was the hardy laugh by the US. They aren't laughing so hard now and ASML is most assuredly not laughing. Their CEO predicts China can and will make their own narrow gated lithography in roughly 5 years... But are those years in Shenzhen time or the relaxed vacation laden European time, or RUST BELT TIME IN OHIO?
Why in blazes do you think Buffett and Monger, giggle when asked about their BYD investment? They know the Chinese work ethic and speed of development and thrifty management. Are Buffett and Monger hanging out in Ohio and Arizona and Texas? NO. They see diminishing returns in FAB in the US.
You are not talking about one fab plant BUT DOZENS... atop a 3% shrinkage of the US semiconductor market, all aimed at just 4% of the global semiconductor market. It is a BUST.
Where will China be in five years? Completely self-sufficient. Trump Biden will have turned the largest buyer of semiconductors into the largest producer and seller.
And to even things up you said you could say a lot of Bad things about CHINA. Maybe you don't like their government. That's too bad. How is Vietnam different after the grand VIETNAMIZATION failure and Dominos failure? Whether you like something is irrelevant. The question is are you capable of measurements?
I can drink beer in public in China day or night. You can't do that in the US or UK unless you hide the beer out of some kind of puritanical guilt. The US has lost its moral compass. Pull out the lead pipe and bang away at your own knees. The US has made a detour into the Abyss steered by incredibly stupid Politicians.
Of course, JAPAN did win WWII, didn't they? Perhaps you should have looked at the articles of Surrender before you opened your mouth.
The US has long forgotten about Pearl Harbour, the Death Ships packed with US POW's and sent into the shipping lanes at night to be sunk by US subs. And the Death March, the torture of US soldiers on the Islands. Live dissections of Ameican Soldiers... Things so inhuman...
I just wish I could bring back 60,000 dead US Marines to see what they thought of your brilliant suggestion in person.
The Chinese lost 2 million soldiers blocking the Japanese from reinforcing the Pacific Islands where the US Marines were landing. the Japanese have had their wings clipped for a reason. I would have expunged Japan as a country and given it all to China.
Loudly telling everyone you won WW2 to everyone, while ignoring the major (and much larger) sacrifices other nations have made is also ludicrous.
Total US casualties in WW2 was aroud 350k, casualties on just the russian side was 20-24 million.
Absolutely not diminishing the sacrifice made by US citizens in WW2, but please stop with the blustering.
Nancy's little junket is just a show of political grandstanding at a time when her political party is suffering some of its lowest approval ratings. I don't know how pulling the tiger's tail is a good idea to change that, but that's all her trip is. There is no reason why a US politician should be doing these sorts of trips. Foreign relations is the job of the President, Vice President and State department. Should there be a place for some sort of agreement/treaty, that's when Congress would be involved and would do their work from the US, not spend tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer's money to go on holiday.
I'm dreading the commercial backlash that seems to be inevitable.
Taiwan's and China's networks have been a toxic mess since they came online, even if it's for different reasons. It's just political to call out all the attacks now. There are any other number of countries that could be accused of the same - Korea, Russia, and definitely the US.
Meanwhile back home in FLAWLESS HONEST Murica, a T-Mobile franchise owner takes customers for $26 million in a pfizing scam.
WILL Pelosi be adding T-Mobile headquarters to her travel itinerary? Don't forget your solder iron Nancy....
..then you look for some handy foreign stalking horse to publicly flagellate, hoping your loyalist partisan base overlooks the domestic issues, and rallies against the specter of a foreign aggressor.
The fascinating thing, is that both the principals here are doing the same thing.
Xi is very worried about maintaining his remarkable run of economic growth, now that the West is getting tired of unfair business practices, lies about 'two systems' in Hong Kong, and various pugilistic forays abroad, while COVID19 is putting a serious damper on PRC economic output. He has to keep up delivering the expected growth that got him where he is, or his fortunes may turn south. Having a spat with Evil America is just the thing to brighten up an otherwise not-so-cheery political horizon for him.
Pelosi, meanwhile, has just had the door slammed in her face by the Supremes over Roe v. Wade at home, and wants to buff her cred with a little China-bashing. She's always been keen to parry accusations of being a clueless Democratic Dove, by living out her 'tough-on-China' fantasies whenever and wherever she can. This is another one of those.
In the end, Pelosi is probably right that the CCP is going to do whatever the CCP is going to do, regardless. And Xi is probably right, that his loyal partisans will be successfully distracted by some good old chest-thumping anti-Americanism, especially if it's served piping hot, and fresh.
It's kind of pathetic, if predictable. But well... Here we are.
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