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South China Sea
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Be interesting to see if these protests go anywhere and just how brutal Xi decides to be in putting them down …
[link=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/27/china-covid-lockdown-protest-xinjiang/]Rare protests against Chinas zero covid policy erupt across country[/link][/h2]
Demonstrations were sparked by accusations that pandemic restrictions had hampered rescuers trying to reach a deadly fire in Xinjiang.______
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[h3][link=https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3208278/joe-biden-wins-deal-netherlands-and-japan-china-chip-curbs]Joe Biden wins deal with Netherlands and Japan on China Chip Curbs [/link][/h3]
[ul][*]The agreement would limit exports of some advanced semiconductor-making machinery to China, insiders say[*]The deal is aimed at undercutting Beijings ambitions to build its domestic chip capabilities [/ul]
The Netherlands will prevent ASML from selling to China at least some immersion lithography machines, the most advanced kind of gear in the companys deep ultraviolet lithography line. The equipment is crucial to making cutting-edge chips.Japan will set similar limits on Nikon.
The agreement is a victory for Biden, who seeks to constrain Beijings military advancement by cutting the country’s access to advanced semiconductors.
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Still using the Keith Krach play book. Good news.
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Somewhere Trump is getting ready to fire off a Truth. I would have eaten all their chips years ago. Nobody eats chips like Trump
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[link=https://www.reuters.com/world/us-four-star-general-warns-war-with-china-2025-2023-01-28/]U.S. four-star general warns of war with China in 2025
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A four-star U.S. Air Force general said in a memo that his gut told him the United States would fight China in the next two years, comments that Pentagon officials said were not consistent with American military assessments.
“I hope I am wrong,” General Mike Minihan, who heads the Air Mobility Command, wrote to the leadership of its roughly 110,000 members. “My gut tells me will fight in 2025.”
The letter was dated Feb. 1 but had been sent out on Friday.
[/QUOTE][link=https://www.newsweek.com/congressman-issues-ominous-warning-about-risk-war-china-1777354]Congressman Issues Ominous Warning About Risk of War With China
[/link]
Representative Michael McCaul, the new chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, told[i] [link=https://www.newsweek.com/topic/fox-news]Fox News[/link] Sunday[/i] that the odds are “very high that we could see a conflict with China, Taiwan, and the Indo Pacific.”
While speaking with [i]Fox News Sunday[/i] anchor Shannon Bream, McCaul, a Texas Republican, discussed a memo that circulated on Friday written by Mike Minihan, a four-star U.S. Air Force general who heads the Air Mobility Command. In the memo to his commanders, Minihan [link=https://www.newsweek.com/china-us-war-odds-decreasing-xi-watches-russia-ex-nato-chief-1777293]warned the United States would fight China[/link] in 2025.
In response to Minihan’s memo, McCaul said, “I hope he is wrong…I think he is right though.” The congressman then added that if China failed to take control of Taiwan without bloodshed, then “they are going to look at a military invasion in my judgment. We have to be prepared for this.”[/QUOTE]
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I suspect Taiwan becomes less important as we start to build the electronics here in the US.
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Its worth reading the Krach playbook.
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Way to go Joe.
[link=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/01/30/philippines-bases-china-taiwan/]https://www.washingtonpos…es-bases-china-taiwan/[/link]
[b]U.S. military poised to secure new access to key Philippine bases[/b][/h1]
[h2][b]The expansion is part of a broader push in the Indo-Pacific to buttress U.S. force posture, reinforce alliances and deter China[/b][/h2]While negotiations are still ongoing, an announcement is expected as soon as this week when Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin meets in Manila with his counterpart and then with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
The expansion involves access to Philippine military bases, likely including two on the northern island of Luzon which, analysts said, could give U.S. forces a strategic position from which to mount operations in the event of a conflict in Taiwan or the South China Sea. They will also facilitate cooperation on a range of security concerns, including more rapid responses to natural disasters and climate-related events.
While expanded base access is alone not the security linchpin for the region, its a pretty big deal, said Gregory Poling, director of the Southeast Asia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. This is significant not just in terms of what it means for a Taiwan or South China Sea contingency. This is a signal that the Philippines are all in on modernizing the alliance, and that they understand that a modern alliance means they have responsibilities, too.
[/QUOTE]
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[link=https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3288535/statement-from-secretary-of-defense-lloyd-j-austin-iii/]https://www.defense.gov/N…se-lloyd-j-austin-iii/[/link]
[h1][b]Statement From Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III[/b][/h1] This afternoon, at the direction of President Biden, U.S. fighter aircraft assigned to U.S. Northern Command successfully brought down the high altitude surveillance balloon launched by and belonging to the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) over the water off the coast of South Carolina in U.S. airspace. The balloon, which was being used by the PRC in an attempt to surveil strategic sites in the continental United States, was brought down above U.S. territorial waters. On Wednesday, President Biden gave his authorization to take down the surveillance balloon as soon as the mission could be accomplished without undue risk to American lives under the balloons path. After careful analysis, U.S. military commanders had determined downing the balloon while over land posed an undue risk to people across a wide area due to the size and altitude of the balloon and its surveillance payload. In accordance with the Presidents direction, the Department of Defense developed options to take down the balloon safely over our territorial waters, while closely monitoring its path and intelligence collection activities. This action was taken in coordination, and with the full support, of the Canadian government. And we thank Canada for its contribution to tracking and analysis of the balloon through NORAD as it transited North America. Todays deliberate and lawful action demonstrates that President Biden and his national security team will always put the safety and security of the American people first while responding effectively to the PRCs unacceptable violation of our sovereignty.
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Love it. Fly’s over, sends back everything it needs and then we kill it off our east coast. That’s some great national security right there. High five?
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Honestly the USA Russia and China all have spy satellites
They gained no new information
This was more of a test our response thing
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Im sure the Fox News experts are creating new conspiracies but the images from this balloon are actually less specific than spy satellites because the balloons are affected by wind currents and the satellites arent
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Quote from Thread Killer
Love it. Fly’s over, sends back everything it needs and then we kill it off our east coast. That’s some great national security right there. High five?
Few things on that.
1) Seems prudent to take it down where there is no threat to human life/ civilian infrastructure.
2) Once discovered, the US *very* likely has the technical ability to block outgoing data/ comms.
3) Anything of secret nature potentially along the path would have been shut down and/or our military intel would have put out dummy info … there are surely contingencies in place for such a situation.
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Quote from dergon
Quote from Thread Killer
Love it. Fly’s over, sends back everything it needs and then we kill it off our east coast. That’s some great national security right there. High five?
Few things on that.
1) Seems prudent to take it down where there is no threat to human life/ civilian infrastructure.
2) Once discovered, the US *very* likely has the technical ability to block outgoing data/ comms.
3) Anything of secret nature potentially along the path would have been shut down and/or our military intel would have put out dummy info … there are surely contingencies in place for such a situation.
Exactly right. Which is the point of my sarcasm. Its the look at me I told them to shoot it down safely after it already passed as some kind of brilliant decision that I find silly.-
Reporting now that the DOD tracked at least three other Chinese balloons over the course of the Trump administration.
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Republicans playing directly into Bidens hands
Complete News cycle of Fake outrage then it gets leaked that 3 of these at least happened under trump
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I wonder whether we will ever hear what the sensor load on that balloon was.
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To what purpose
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Quote from dergon
Reporting now that the DOD tracked at least three other Chinese balloons over the course of the Trump administration.
I’m curious as to what they get from the balloon that they aren’t getting through satellites or TikTok.
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[link=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-06/chinese-balloons-spotted-near-military-bases-near-guam-virginia-under-trump]
Bloomberg[/link]
[h1]Chinese Balloons Were Spotted Near US Bases During Trumps Era[/h1] [ul][*]Balloons near aircraft carriers had radar-jamming capability[*]Trump, Biden officials finger-pointing on balloon spy program [/ul]
Alleged Chinese spy balloons were spotted on several occasions during President Donald Trumps administration, including three instances where they traveled near sensitive US military facilities and training areas.
The balloons were spotted near Texas, Florida and Hawaii, as well as the Pacific Ocean island of Guam, where the US has naval and air force bases according to the people who requested anonymity to discuss intelligence matters. The balloons also flew near Norfolk, Virginia, and Coronado, California two ports where the US stations its prized aircraft carriers.
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Guessing theyre trying to look for ways to take out the military if we ever fought. I do recall reading about how satellite imagery has found models of US cities and things like air craft carriers in the remote Chinese deserts. So target practice.
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[h1]
Chinese Balloon Part of Vast Aerial Spy Program[/h1]The U.S. intelligence community has linked the Chinese spy balloon shot down on Saturday to a vast surveillance program run by the Peoples Liberation Army, and U.S. officials have begun to brief allies and partners who have been similarly targeted, the [link=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/02/07/china-spy-balloon-intelligence/?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wp_news_alert_revere&location=alert]Washington Post[/link] reports.
The surveillance balloon effort, which has operated for several years partly out of Hainan province off Chinas south coast, has collected information on military assets in countries and areas of emerging strategic interest to China including Japan, India, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines.
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China would do that?
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I believe that the administration, the president, our military and intelligence agencies, acted skillfully and with care. At the same time, their capabilities are extraordinarily impressive. Was everything done 100% correctly? I cant imagine that would be the case of almost anything we do. But I came away more confident.
~Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), leaving a classified briefing on China, said that he believes the Biden administration made the right decision to wait and shoot down the suspected Chinese spy balloon
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[link=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/02/09/chinese-balloon-surveillance-program/]U.S. declassifies balloon intelligence, calls out China for spying[/link][/h2]
Much of the information the State Department released today was first revealed earlier this week by The Washington Post, but its wider publication to the media suggests a U.S. effort to name and shame Chinese surveillance tactics.
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Quote from dergon
I believe that the administration, the president, our military and intelligence agencies, acted skillfully and with care. At the same time, their capabilities are extraordinarily impressive. Was everything done 100% correctly? I cant imagine that would be the case of almost anything we do. But I came away more confident.
~Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), leaving a classified briefing on China, said that he believes the Biden administration made the right decision to wait and shoot down the suspected Chinese spy balloon
Yeah, I don’t think they did anything wrong militarily etc. Seems reckless to shoot it down over land.
However, the 2-3 days of massive panicked spin (“it happened during Trump admin too!!”; “Who cares about a balloon, it doesn’t tell them anything they didn’t already know from satellites” ([i]really, so why are they doing it?[/i])) was IMO pathetic.
You know the “Hollywood ideal” of politicians who tell it straight, take ownership of everything, “the buck stops here”, never spin, etc? Yeah that’s pretty much the opposite of what we’ve mostly got.-
Well, those Hollywood ideal people dont get elected
And yes there are politics at play and politics is political”it happened during Trump admin too! was offered as a response to Biden is so weak. This never would have happened with Trump.
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well, I don’t have to like it. Take the high road. There are plenty of allies who can fight that way for you.
To me it seems like the level of spin you used to get from partisan media you now get from pretty much *everyone*, up to and including elected officials. I feel like it used to be better. Of course that may be b/c I’m getting older.-
They might not get elected but they get appointed and confirmed unanimously. One more recommendation to read the Krach playbook.
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Take the high road without noting its happened before & not under Biden means allowing right-wing media to define what is important with high road silence being interpreted as guilt. Its happened too many times before with Democrats taking the high road. The hubbub over the ACA (We hate Obamacare! We love the ACA!) is a perfect example of what happens when the silent high road is taken.
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[link=https://twitter.com/JustinTrudeau/status/1624527579116871681]https://twitter.com/Justi…us/1624527579116871681[/link]
Justin Trudea says a an object shot down after violating canadian airspace.
I ordered the take down of an unidentified object that violated Canadian airspace. [link=https://twitter.com/NORADCommand]@NORADCommand[/link] shot down the object over the Yukon. Canadian and U.S. aircraft were scrambled, and a U.S. F-22 successfully fired at the object.
I spoke with President Biden this afternoon. Canadian Forces will now recover and analyze the wreckage of the object. Thank you to NORAD for keeping the watch over North America.-
They seem intent on stirring the pot with these balloons. FAAFO.
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Sky News reporting another object has been shot down. This time over Lake Huron.
Thats 4 in 8 days now
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Million dollar question. Are they all Chinese spy balloons? Or are just picking up on balloons floated by other actors.
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[b]China Hits Back at US with Sanctions on Lockheed, Raytheon[/b]
China has sanctioned the firms previously to little effect
Move may derail US-China efforts to turn down current tensions
[link=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-16/china-sanctions-lockheed-raytheon-over-arms-sales-to-taiwan?srnd=premium&leadSource=uverify%20wall]https://www.bloomberg.com…dSource=uverify%20wall[/link]
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Neither should be doing business with China anyway.
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[h1]Blinken Has Tense Meeting With Chinese Official[/h1] [link=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/18/world/europe/blinken-wang-china-balloon.html]New York Times[/link]
Secretary of State Antony Blinken held what American officials described as a confrontational meeting with his Chinese counterpart on Saturday night in Munich, warning him that the flight of a Chinese surveillance balloon across the United States must never happen again.
He also cautioned Beijing against providing material support to Russias war in Ukraine, a prospect he later suggested China was now strongly considering.
The U.S. description of the meeting, which resumed diplomatic contact between Washington and Beijing after it broke down over the balloon episode, said nothing about how the Chinese official, Wang Yi, responded. But a brief summary on official Chinese state media described an equally sharp exchange.
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If you jump on the Putin train now, youre dumber than dirt. It would be like buying a ticket on the Titanic after you saw the movie. Dont do this. The most catastrophic thing that could happen to the U.S.-China relationship, in my opinion, is for China to start to give lethal weapons to Putin in his crime against humanity.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), delivering a message to China, quoted by [link=https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2023/02/19/what-two-new-party-chairs-reveal-about-the-gop-00083581?nname=playbook&nid=0000014f-1646-d88f-a1cf-5f46b7bd0000&nrid=0000014e-f0ed-dd93-ad7f-f8edad790000&nlid=630318]Politico[/link].
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Yeah. Id agree with LG. Im not sure what a world looks like where Xi starts arming Russians. I think that would mean western countries start arming Ukraine with the real goods.
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[link=https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-xi-jinping-takes-rare-direct-aim-at-u-s-in-speech-5d8fde1a]Wall Street Journal[/link]
[h1]Chinas Xi Jinping Takes Rare Direct Aim at U.S. in Speech[/h1] [h2]Leader blames Washington-led containment, encirclement and suppression for challenges at home[/h2]
Chinese leader Xi Jinping issued an unusually blunt rebuke of U.S. policy on Monday, blaming what he termed a Washington-led campaign to suppress China for recent challenges facing his country.
Western countriesled by the U.S.have implemented all-round containment, encirclement and suppression against us, bringing unprecedentedly severe challenges to our countrys development, Mr. Xi was quoted by state media as saying on Monday.[/QUOTE]
[link=https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/07/chinas-new-foreign-minister-qin-gang-holds-first-press-briefing.html]CNBC
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[h1]Chinese Foreign Minister says U.S. relations have left rational path, warns of conflict unless they hit the brake[/h1]He said the Biden administrations call for establishing guardrails and not seeking conflict simply means that China should not respond in word or in action when attacked.
Thats not possible, Qin said.
If the U.S. does not hit the brake but continue to speed down the wrong path, no amount of guardrails can prevent derailing and there will surely be conflict and confrontation, he said.[/QUOTE]
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Josh Rogin-
[h2][link=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/09/japan-south-korea-agreement-china-washington/]China is pushing Americas Asian allies together[/link][/h2]This weeks [link=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/07/south-korea-japan-forced-labor-rapprochement/?itid=lk_inline_manual_4]historic warming[/link] of ties between Seoul and Tokyo was almost completely overlooked in Washington, where pundits and politicians alike have chosen to focus on the latest kerfuffle with Beijing. Chinas new foreign minister warned of [link=https://apnews.com/article/china-congress-2023-qin-us-1938a701c0d7a2114a18226962de4879]conflict and confrontation[/link] unless Washington backs off of its competitive strategy. President Xi Jinping blamed Chinas economic woes on the United States and its policy of [link=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/07/world/asia/china-us-xi-jinping.html]containment, encirclement and suppression.
[/link]…
Washington policymakers tend to view Asia through only the lens of the U.S.-China bilateral relationship. But these moves by Tokyo and Seoul show that the problems with Beijing dont originate in the United States. It is Chinas behavior, not Washingtons hawkishness, that is exacerbating tensions in the region.
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Japan is doubling its [link=https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/japan-oks-new-budget-incl-hefty-arms-cost-to-deter-china/2023/02/28/e8ed0730-b746-11ed-b0df-8ca14de679ad_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_18]defense spending[/link] over the next five years because it deems that necessary for its defense. South Korea is weaning itself off dependence on the Chinese market and supply chains to [link=https://theasanforum.org/chinese-economic-coercion-during-the-thaad-dispute/]protect[/link] its own economy. To be sure, both countries also have an interest in managing tensions with China, but they realize that countering its challenge to regional security must take priority.
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We dont want a war with China, not a cold one, not a hot one, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (Ill.), the ranking Democrat on the new congressional select committee on U.S.-China relations, told me. We want peace. We want a durable peace. But to achieve that peace, we have to deter aggression.
Thats not dangerous groupthink. Thats a rational, bipartisan approach for defending American interests and promoting American values. The demand signal is coming from U.S. allies in the region who are on the front lines. They are mobilizing to meet this challenge head-on, and Washington must respond to their calls for help.
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