This week
Diplomacy
The CPC and ROC claimed all of China’s remaining disputed territories in 1949. Mao gave up some territories in exchange for treaties with twelve neighboring countries, including Myanmar, Nepal, North Korea, Mongolia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Russia, Laos, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Vietnam. Chinese Leaders after Mao rarely made such compromises.
“Foreign China scholars were disappointed because they loved China so much that they wanted to change China. And when they found out China had not changed, the love turned into hatred. That cannot be the basis of love: ‘I love you because I can change you.’ That is the basis of trouble,” says former Singaporean Minister of Foreign Affairs, George Yeo.
Hong Kong has the world’s freest economy, says the Fraser Institute’s 2024 “Economic Freedom of the World” report. Hong Kong scored 8.58, followed by Singapore with 8.55. Switzerland was third with 8.43, followed by New Zealand and theUSA, with 8.39 and 8.09.
Geopolitics
Disease ecologist Peter Daszak describes the ‘witch hunt’ he and his organization have endured over Covid lab leak allegations, endured four years of “relentless” and “damaging” attacks. He has faced death threats and harassment because of his work with Chinese scientists on virus research before the Covid-19 pandemic – an experience he describes as a “medieval” witch hunt.
Taiwan teachers call for a return to Chinese culture. Says Ou Gui-zhi, a teacher at Taipei First Girls High, “It’s clear that no one is born supporting Taiwan independence, it is an ideology deliberately cultivated”. Wu noted that in recent years, he has encouraged several students to visit the mainland and was surprised by the changes in their perspectives.
Margaret Brennan, CBS: “How would you apply “proper leverage to the Chinese and to the Mexican drug cartels” to stop exporting fentanyl?”
SEN. JD VANCE: Well, I think you walk into Beijing, you talk to Xi Jinping, and you say, “Your entire economy is going to collapse unless you get access to American markets. You need to take this fentanyl seriously, or we are going to impose serious tariffs and economic penalties for not following our laws and not helping us stem the flow of this deadly poison.”
MARGARET BRENNAN: And you wouldn’t be worried about blowback on the US economy?
SEN. JD VANCE: I think that we have a powerful economy, Margaret, with the best workers in the entire world. If we need to fight a trade war with the Chinese, we will fight it, and we will win it.
Defense
Iran has fielded China’s Shen Neng directed laser energy weapon for dazzling and
The content below was originally paywalled.
destroying drones. The Iranian government also has a large inventory of uncrewed aerial systems, including kamikaze drones.
“Imperialism is afraid of China and of the Arabs. Israel and Formosa [Taiwan] are bases of imperialism in Asia. You are the gate of the great continent and we are the rear. They created Israel for you, and Formosa for us. Their goal is the same.” Mao Zedong, 1965.
Shanghai University’s quantum computer breached military-grade encryption protocols, according to recent findings. Utilising a ‘D-Wave quantum system’, the team successfully attacked algorithms like Present, Gift-64, and Rectangle—critical components of the Substitution-Permutation Network (SPN) structure, which forms the basis for the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). AES encryption is widely used in military, financial, and other security-sensitive sectors. This raises alarm about the future reliability of conventional encryption systems in China.
China has a long-term plan of overwhelming the West with economic power, positive projection of that power throughout the RoW, a reputation for non-intervention, respect for sovereignty and fair play–while the West’s full support for Israeli genocide is destroying its soft power, especially among Moslems in Indonesia and Malaysia. China gains nothing strategically by becoming embroiled in the Middle East conflict, especially when it does not threaten its oil supplies. – Roger Boyd
At least five U-2 spy planes were shot down while on surveillance missions over China. “Since America didn’t want its own pilots shot down in a U-2 the way Gary Powers had been over the Soviet Union in 1960, which caused a major diplomatic incident, they turned to Taiwan. In the following years, three more U-2 pilots were killed on missions over China. In July 1964, Lt. Col. Lee Nan-ping’s U-2 was shot down by a PLA SA-2 missile over Chenghai, China. In September 1967, a PLA missile hit the U-2 being flown by Capt. Hwang Rung-pei over Jiaxin, China, and in May 1969, Maj. Chang Hsieh suffered a “flight control failure” over the Yellow Sea while reconnoitering the coast of Hebei province, and the pilots were released in 1982.
Since July 2023 the PLAAF inducted 74 J-20s, and is operating a total of 195 J-20s. Until July 2023 the PLAAF operated at least eight air brigades equipped with the J-20, out of which one brigade was wholly equipped with the type. As of May 2024 the PLAAF operated 12 air brigades with J-20s, out of which three brigades are wholly equipped with the type.
Has Western neoliberalism destroyed its economy and society? Emmanuel Todd: “I do not believe that the USA will also enter into a conflict with China after the lost war in Ukraine. They just don’t have the means. A war between China and the USA in the South China Sea would be over in a few hours, the Chinese would easily sink the American aircraft carriers with hypersonic missiles”.
