This week
Diplomacy
Leaders from 54 African countries with 30% of the world’s population attended FOCAC. Xi: “We have together built roads, railways, schools, hospitals, industrial parks, and special economic zones. These projects have changed the lives and destiny of many people”. He committed another $50 billion to continue the work and canceled all tariffs for 33 African countries. The effect will be increased exports from Africa to China.
The greatest demographic fact of our century is Africa’s exponential growth. UN forecasts say its population will grow from 811 million in 2000 to 4.3 billion in 2100, a vastly significant megatrend.
American voters want U.S. China policy to be “smart, firm, strong, and diplomatic.” Only 13% want an aggressive approach and 5% want a confrontational one. 73% say the U.S. should hold high-level diplomatic talks with China.
The UN General Assembly adopted two Chinese resolutins: The first is that July 6 will be “World Rural Development Day” (America has always been hostile to development in foreign countries and China is seeking to have development recognized as a human right). The second, the “United Nations Games” resolution, calls for convening the UN Games annually and invites relevant stakeholders to make voluntary contributions to a trust fund dedicated to the Games (a shot across the bow of the corrupt, US-controlled IOC).
Geopolitics
The United States is losing ground in important parts of Asia. “For these poor but growing countries, the American mortgage crisis was a staggering affair: why give poor people high-interest mortgages when they know they won’t be able to pay them back? Morality at zero. The irresponsibility of the United States was soon joined by that of Europe, so slow to react. In truth, it was China’s massive stimulus policy that pulled the world out of recession. The emergence of the BRICs rebounds from this double Western irresponsibility.”
By letting Jews plant bombs in electronic consumer devices, the West has undermined its own and Taiwan’s tech products and boosted China’s. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have switched to Huawei phones and telecoms, with the rest of MENA
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expected to follow suit. After Crown Prince Salman revealed that the Royal Family uses custom Huawei phones, Huawei became flooded with orders.
The 2018 and 2019 ZTE and the Huawei incidents forced a reckoning across Chinese industry and government: the flick of a pen from halfway around the world could, at least temporarily, cripple two technological crown jewels. Beijing set up a national technology security system to better protect its high-tech firms.” The government’s main science funding body launched an emergency project to study and solve the “chokepoint problem.” And state media published a list of 35 chokepoint technologies on which China urgently needed to reduce its foreign dependence.
300 German companies in China criticize the slow visa process for Chinese employees. In a letter to German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, “ the qualification of Chinese employees in Germany and joint project development are crucial to the success of German companies. We are concerned that there are still difficulties in providing Chinese employees of German companies with visas for Germany in a timely manner”.
BRICS lays the foundation for decoupling from US agriculture with the development of a post-American international economic system. This includes a grain exchange, new logistic centers, transportation infrastructure, development banks, insurance systems, native technologies and digital platforms, de-dollarisation, and the abandonment of the SWIFT transaction system. The US weaponisation of trade will continue to encourage the rest of the world to reduce their dependence on the US and find more reliable economic partners.
The CIA was attempting to set up hundreds of paramilitary officers in North Korea. What struck him as a spectacular secret was a CIA cover organization called the SEA Supply Company. In a few years, this group would be training police forces in Thailand, but in the immediate term Smith discovered that SEA Supply was involved in planning an invasion of China through the CIA Station in Taiwan with the help of the Nationalist Chinese (Kuomintang or KMT), stationed in Burma. General Stilwell’s deputy, Desmond FitzGerald, ran the operation, which had the goal of invading China from Burma through Yunnan province.
The last CIA-sponsored invasion of China occurred in August 1952, when 2,100 KMT troops led by General Li Mi were turned back by the Chinese army after penetrating 60 miles inland. Then Li Mi gave up on his goal of taking over China and focused on controlling the opium trade with his 12,000 troops located in Burma. “Li Mi’s troops would not give up their Burmese poppy fields,” Smith wrote, “because of the problems that it could lead to in this still explosive part of the world.”
In July 2024, a Chinese tourist was murdered in Osaka. In February 2024, a Chinese student was murdered in Japan’s Hamana lake. In August 2024, a Chinese student was stabbed to death by a Japanese.
Defense
Egypt operates 220 F-16s with no beyond visual range air-to-surface weapons whatsoever, and Washington offered Cairo the upgraded F-16V, but the cost was too high. The U.S. sold 66 F-16Vs to Taiwan for $8 billion, or $121 million per jet. By contrast, Pakistan signed a $1.4 billion deal with China in 2009 to buy 36 J-10Bs at $39 million each. The J-10C offers superior combat capabilities to the enhanced F-16V at a comparable cost. The J-10C can carry the PL-15 300 km range missile.
USN fanboys become furious when I point out that silly FONOPs in the South China Sea are under constant surveillance and can be hit by hypersonic missiles from multiple directions. FONOPs symbolism works for people ignorant about modern weapon systems, satellite coverage, etc. In other words, how a 21st century naval war (which no one has ever seen) might be fought. PRC remote sensing capability is now very advanced, and they have developed a 10B parameter transformer specifically for processing remote sensing data: Having a 300 remote sensing sat constellation like Jilin-1 that can see object move w/ 0.5m precision & able to revisit location every 5 minutes. How much data has been collected from silly FONOPs that was then used to train the remote sensing transformer?
China just released Kongtian Lingmou 3.0, the world’s first 10 billion parameter space-air remote sensing interpretation model. It can process massive datasets and complete space-air tasks, like fine classification and tracking small moving targets. Pair that with the 10 billion model and tracking ships 6000 nm away wouldn’t be much of an issue. And that’s just their civilian constellation. TP Huang
China’s VT-4 main battle tank has successfully completed assessments in Algeria, The VT-4 boasts very high levels of mobility, with its 1,300 hp diesel engine ensuring a high power-weight ratio. The tank benefits from torsion bar suspension, an integrated hydraulic transmission system, and automatic gear transmission for steering and acceleration. It uses an autoloader allowing its weight to be reduced considerably and its crew cut from four to just three. The tank uses a 125mm main gun, while Japanese and South Korean tanks use 120mm guns. The tank uses composite armor and FY-4 explosive reactive armor for protection, equivalent to 700mm of protection.
A more detailed look at China’s mysterious stealth frigate, a technology demonstrator for the next generation of warships. China produces more destroyers than the next several producers combined, and has in some years launched ten destroyers in a single year. Only six countries in the world field more than ten destroyers in their entire fleets, with the U.S. Navy fielding 75, Japan 36, and South Korea 13.
The first Yulan-class landing helicopter assault (LHA) ship, the Type 076, will be the world’s largest amphibious assault ship, 260 m. x 52 m, or 13,500 m2—the area of three U.S. football fields, considerably larger than the U.S. America-class LHA and Japanese Izumo-class. Its electric catapult will launch fixed-wing aircraft, unique among LHAs, and an aircraft elevator on each side for lifting aircraft from the internal hangar to the flight deck. The 076 may launch fixed-wing aircraft, or at least fixed-wing combat UAVs, putting the Type 076 in a class of its own. It features a floodable well deck on its stern, for launching amphibious vehicles for “ship-to-shore” operations.
Egypt placed its first order for Chinese J-10C fourth generation fighters, following its admission to BRICS. The J-10C is far more capable than any fighter in the Israeli fleet other than its two squadrons of F-35s, with large scale acquisitions potentially forcing Israel to expand F-35 orders and to invest in more capable air to air missiles for its aircraft.
Two huge container ships for the first time passed each other just 750 nautical miles from the North Pole, en route to connecting Chinese ports to Russia’s Saint Petersburg. Flying Fish 1, the first-ever Panamax container ship to venture into the Arctic, is traveling from Saint Petersburg in the Baltic Sea to Qingdao in northeastern China. Carrying close to 5,000 containers across a length of 294 meters it sets a new record for largest box ship to travel across Russia’s Northern Sea Route.
Chinese scientists use Starlink satellite signals to detect stealth targets during a radar experiment in the South China Sea. The detection method relies on forward scatter, where an object like a plane or drone disrupts electromagnetic waves from a satellite, causing small signal disturbances, which are captured and analyzed to determine the object’s location. This technique does not require the radar to emit signals, making it harder for adversaries to detect or jam.
