Happy Hour News
“Gaah, I feel for a joy buzzer!”
Depending on how you look at this, it’s either good/bad news:
Russia has turned to China for military equipment and aid in the weeks since it began its invasion of Ukraine, U.S. officials familiar with the matter told The Washington Post.
The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, did not describe what kind of weaponry had been requested, or whether they know how China responded.
The good news: Pooty-Poot is running out of equipment and we know he is flat broke: we broke him.
And now the bad:
“If Beijing is offering any type of military assistance to aid Moscow’s war in Ukraine, the spillover effects on U.S.-China policy could be vast,” said Eric Sayers, a former adviser to the U.S. Indo Pacific Command and now senior vice president at Beacon Global Strategies.
Mitigating information:
China buys certain weapons from Russia, especially advanced fighter aircraft and surface-to-air missile systems, said Taylor Fravel, a political science professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who specializes in Chinese defense.
“As far as I know, China does not sell any weapons systems to Russia,” Fravel said. “In other words, Russia has enabled China’s military modernization but China so far has not contributed much to the development of Russia’s armed forces, apart from the profits of Russian weapons sales, which can be reinvested to improve Russian capabilities.”
The big players are lining up, and that’s never a good thing.
Mock Paper Scissors 
China is the world’s economic equivalent about you owing the bank and who has the problem.
Sanctioning China would cause a hell of a lot more than expensive gas…and China knows it. They’re already parroting the Russian propaganda about US bioweapons labs in Ukraine. Xi can tell the rest of the world to fuck off and support Putin if he decides to kill every Ukrainian in existence, and repopulates Ukraine with Russians. Worked for China in Tibet.
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Also, Xi is just as insecure an authoritarian despot as Putin. XI is arguably the single most powerful dictator on the planet and he cannot stand the very mild mockery of being compared to Winnie the Pooh.
Xi would melt into a puddle if he ever was subjected to 0.01% of the shit Obama was subjected to.
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Except…China shares a long border with Russia.
China shares no border with the USA, which is also its largest trading partner, IIRC.
Which is more likely to pose a danger to China, a strong USA or a strong Russia?
Conversely, a weak Russia might not be able to protect the vast natural resources of Siberia from a Chinese annexation–so a weak Russia might be desirable for China for that reason as well.
Plus, again IIRC, a Chinese spokesman (their UN Ambassador?) said the other day that the sovereignty of nations must be respected, including that of Ukraine.
So, I’m rather disoriented here.
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China considers Taiwan to be “part of the sovereign nation of China”. They consider Tibet to be “part of the sovereign nation of China.”
I suspect there are other parts of Asia that they consider “part of the sovereign nation of China”, too.
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Russia is also hiring Syrian mercenaries.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/11/putin-approves-russian-use-of-middle-east-fighters-against-ukraine
Poison Dwarf arrested the head of his own security service for giving him bad advice. This was all supposed to be over a week ago.
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Just what does Muther Russia plan to use to pay for this tech? Their dollar isn’t worth beans so what do they have to spend?
w3ski
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