krtek a houby
Merry Xmas!
Wumao, much
Mearsheimer on why the US is in trouble
- Thread starter Protag
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PR1Berske
Alligator in chains by the park gates.
Oh dear.
???
gosub
~#
In hindsight playing the Soup Dragon a copy of I'm Free was a mistake. Has lead to an out break of illegal raves on Gosub's Moon. That, in my benevolence; I don't mind but the music...Swanny whistle house music really didn't need inventing.
One country 2 systems! Remember that? China barely paid lip service to what was agreed over the return of HK...wasn't just the UK that noticed...major reason Taiwan doesn't trust China
One country 2 systems! Remember that? China barely paid lip service to what was agreed over the return of HK...wasn't just the UK that noticed...major reason Taiwan doesn't trust China
Gromit
International Man of Misery
gosub
~#
Seems a bit excessive...its not like the clangers have umbrellas or anything. I for one have full confidence that Guvnor Spoon will get things back on an even keel
Yuwipi Woman
Whack-A-Mole Queen
I get the impression that he's just a troll.
danny la rouge
More like *fanny* la rouge!
Seems good advice.
NoXion
Craicy the Squirrel
Nice graphic. It's missing quite a lot of information, though. Like how many of those bases are joint operations, how big they are, do they even still have US personnel present, and so on. Does it matter to you whether those bases are there with the consent of the local government? Also, those two bases within the Indian Ocean and the one in the middle of Australia are not "surrounding China" by any definition I would consider reasonable. It's a shit recycling of the same old propaganda that gets passed around concerning Iran and Russia.
Posted this in the other thread, but it's worth reposting for those unfamiliar with Mearsheimer:
First he'll talk about the holocaust. That's obligatory for him.
Biden's doing nothing except trying to remember how to tie his laces.
krtek a houby
Merry Xmas!
There seems to be quite a few on urban at the moment.
krtek a houby
Merry Xmas!
Why are you warmongering over Taiwan?
Who are these alleged radicals and who's been doing the allegations?
wemakeyousoundb
hopefully not gimboid
I might have to go to the feedback forum and beg for a yawn react emoji now
Leighsw2
strictly off the record
He's certainly hated by people who aren't Putin apologists.
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Larry O'Hara
Well-Known Member
What a nasty little creep you are. Thank you for crawling out of your sewer though—will add you to my ignore list.
At least some of that image is inaccurate, there appears to be a US military base in Hong Kong?
Nor are there any in Cambodia, and the closest to a base in Thailand is a research project into infectious diseases as a partnership betweenthe Thai government and US Army "Medical Component of the Armed Forces Research Institute of the Medical Sciences". Calling this is a military base is a bit disingenuous.
Nevertheless it is true that the US military has a network of bases in Asia, and it is also true that they would be gone from South Korea if they didn't want them there to ward off the threat from North Korea, possibly with Chinese backing; and that they would be gone from Japan if Japan didn't rightfully fear what Chinese hegemony in the Pacific would mean for its own security. Likewise the Philippines tried to get closer to China and China took that as subservience and started infringing more shamelessly on their territory, so they promptly invited the US military presence back.
There is nothing "radical" about hoping that Chinese hegemony can supplant US hegemony, and certainly nothing radical about ignoring the desire of Taiwan for self-determination and democracy over Chinese fascist rhetoric about blood and soil and threats to re-educate Taiwanese people after military subjugation.
What I would hope for is for the development of South East Asia to mean the ASEAN countries can cooperate on defense alongside Taiwan, Japan and South Korea so that they can defend themselves against Chinese hegemony without reliance on the US. This is a consistent anti-imperialist position; supporting China against the US is no more progressive or radical than supporting the French Empire against the British Empire, or perhaps closer to supporting Nazi Germany as an alternative to British imperialism.
I lived in China for several years and it frankly only got less attractive to me as it developed, especially as Wechat et al made the surveillance state and propaganda omnipresent and as social media became heavily astroturfed and manipulated and as Xi became an outright dictator.
The US at least has space for opposition and social progress - the Civil Rights Movement is unthinkable in China and almost nobody cares about or thinks about the plight of Tibetans or Uighurs or Mongolians due to the highly efficient system of propaganda which prevents anyone hearing anything but the official line. Independent trade unions are also impossible and working conditions are terrible as a result. Economic inequality is comparable to that of the US and the Party elite are tightly fused with the capitalist elite.
In the US there are widespread protests against Israeli bombardment of Gaza, a tradition continuing from protests over Iraq and Vietnam which I believe can serve as a moderating influence on US power; I cannot imagine similar protests in China over a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, or Chinese support for North Korea invading South Korea. Similarly while many white Americans said Black Lives Matter and joined demonstrations in solidarity, Chinese were silent over the mass incarceration of Uyghurs and destruction of their culture as a consequence of the absence of any political freedom or freedom of speech and most are ignorant of how many Tibetans have self-immolated in desperate protest against Chinese occupation.
A hegemonic China will only seek to export its authoritarianism as freedom of speech in general is a threat to the ruling party. A Chinese Communist Party member once told me that they will get rid of the firewall only once they can have sufficient control over discourse outside of China, and it is clear to me they already seek to do so, they already maximally use all their economic leverage to try and coerce countries into giving way over even the most minor of slights, and to coerce foreign companies exposed to the Chinese market to censoring on their behalf, flooding foreign social media with bots and propagandists. I don't see why they would change this behaviour once Chinese hegemony supplanted US hegemony, so I see no reason to cheer for it.
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Yuwipi Woman
Whack-A-Mole Queen
In addition, I would like a map of Chinese bases and outposts derived by the same criteria as this was determined. I've been hearing reports for a while about Chinese outposts being built all over the area.
gosub
~#
I'd you are going to do that you want to include international borders disputed or otherwise. Is a bit old hat anyway China / Russia equally went down the Blackwater work around
Yuwipi Woman
Whack-A-Mole Queen
Yes, there seems to be a lot of disputed territory. It either seems to be expanding, or I wasn't paying attention. Both are possibilities.
ska invita
back on the other side
What conclusion you draw from the fact that the US is the worlds largst miltary power by far and has multiple basis on every continent and a miltary reach unique on the planet is up to the mind of the beholder, but there's no point diminshing the reality of it as some sort of anti-propaganda. Its the way it is.
ska invita
back on the other side
im not okay with it but i definitley dont think the US should intervene. do you think the US should intervene if China sends in the troops?
There are 7 Chinese military outposts in the South China Sea.
In addition there is a Chinese naval base in Cambodia:
China's secret naval base in Cambodia, through satellite imagery
Uncover China's clandestine naval presence in Cambodia revealed through satellite imagery. dynamics of this hidden base in the Indo-Pacific region
www.naval-technology.com
There are also bases in Pakistan and Tajikistan and one seemingly in construction in Sri Lanka:
China’s next overseas military base likely a Sri Lankan port, report says – The China Project
The People’s Liberation Army Navy’s first overseas military base was built in China-invested Djibouti, and researchers think Beijing could use the same playbook again.
thechinaproject.com
I wonder what a map would look like including these bases and erasing the imaginary US ones.
Jeff Robinson
Marxist-Lentilist: Jackboots and Jackfruit
For anybody who's interested, an article has just been published documenting how John Mearsheimer doesn't know what he's talking about re Ukraine. One of the authors summarises the paper here:
threadreaderapp.com
Thread by @jan_dutkiewicz on Thread Reader App
@jan_dutkiewicz: 🚨 New Publication 🚨 In @JIRD_jour, @jan_smolenski and I critique the trend of IR theorists with little expertise in Ukrainian, Russian, and Eastern European politics making broad descriptive and pre...…
threadreaderapp.com
gosub
~#
China, Solomon Islands sign policing pact in upgrade of ties
China and the Solomon Islands on Monday signed a deal on police cooperation as part of an upgrade of their relations to a "comprehensive strategic partnership", four years after the Pacific nation switched ties from Taiwan to China.
I was naming places within the scope of that map which was posted.
There are also minor outposts in Cuba and Argentina, which are at least as significant as the US Army disease research base in Thailand and certainly more significant than the imaginary US base in Hong Kong.
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