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2023-04-24 17:29:03 Chinese ambassador sparks European outrage over suggestion former Soviet states don't exist

Lu made the remarks in response to a question whether Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, was part of Ukraine.

"Even these ex-Soviet countries don't have an effective status in international law because there was no international agreement to materialize their status as sovereign countries," Lu said, after first noting that the question of Crimea "depends on how the problem is perceived" as the region was "at the beginning Russian" and then "offered to Ukraine during the Soviet era."

"If anyone is still wondering why the Baltic States don't trust China to 'broker peace in Ukraine,' here's a Chinese ambassador arguing that Crimea is Russian and our countries' borders have no legal basis," Lithuanian Foreign Minister Landsbergis wrote on Twitter Saturday following Lu's interview.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/24/china/china-ambassador-lu-shaye-baltic-soviet-states-europe-intl-hnk/index.html Open / Comment

2023-04-24 17:12:36 Australia overhauls defence strategy to respond to China’s build-up

Government to strengthen northern bases and long-range strike capabilities for ‘missile age’ threats

Australia has unveiled the biggest strategic shift in its military posture since the second world war to adapt to China’s military build-up in the region and the “rise of the missile age”.

“No longer is our alliance partner, the United States, the unipolar leader of the Indo-Pacific. Intense China-United States competition is the defining feature of our region and our time,” the report said.

“China’s military build-up is now the largest and most ambitious of any country since the end of the second world war,” said the report, which was written by Angus Houston, the former head of Australia’s defence force, and former defence minister Stephen Smith. It warned that the rivalry between the US and China “has the potential to threaten our interests, including the potential for conflict”.

The defence pivot is anticipated to cost A$19bn (US$12.7bn) over the next four years, though almost A$8bn of funding will come from project cancellations or revisions. Existing plans to procure 450 infantry vehicles from German and South Korean contractors have immediately been reduced, as has an order of howitzers.

Roggeveen said the cancelled projects — which fit in Australia’s traditional defence approach — highlighted how the new stance was focused on denying China the ability to dominate the region, which he described as an achievable strategy.

https://www.ft.com/content/cf8d6271-3008-46e6-ba55-66fb2deae115

https://archive.ph/thUoS Open / Comment

2023-04-24 16:48:24 Factory Slump Hits Taiwan as March Industrial Output Plummets

Taiwan’s industrial production plunged in March, weighed down by a manufacturing sector struggling to overcome a slump in global demand.
Industrial output shrank 14.5% last month compared to a year ago, the Economics Ministry said in a statement Monday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast a 12.3% drop.

March’s decline was the biggest contraction since May 2009 — in the direct aftermath of the global financial crisis — for any month other than January and February.

While output in the electricity sector also shrank, the main drag was from Taiwan’s increasingly idle factory floors. Manufacturing production fell 15.2%. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the economy’s largest company, foreshadowed the news in its first-quarter earnings call last week, saying lower capacity utilization had weighed on its gross margin.

Taiwan’s chip output declined 18.9% in March, the Economics Ministry data show. 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-04-24/factory-slump-hits-taiwan-as-march-industrial-output-plummets

https://archive.ph/fgmEB Open / Comment

2023-04-24 16:37:09 The Philippines and China have agreed to establish “more lines of communications” to immediately resolve conflicts between the two countries over the West Philippine Sea, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said.

“We are currently working on that and are awaiting the Chinese response and we are confident that these issues would be worked out that would be mutually beneficial for both our nations,” Marcos said in a statement after a meeting with China’s Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who is on a three-day visit to Manila, his first trip to the Southeast Asian nation.

China and the Philippines should work together to promote peace and stability in Asia by deepening their relations, Qin said before meeting Marcos, in a sign that Beijing is seeking to chip away at US sway in the Southeast Asian nation.

Qin’s visit coincides with the largest US-Philippines military exercises in decades. Top diplomats and defense officials from the countries recently met in Washington, where they expressed “strong objections” to Beijing’s sea claims, and agreed to finalize plans for joint patrols in the disputed waters.

Qin’s visit to the Philippines comes ahead of Marcos’s meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House on May 1. They plan to discuss economic cooperation, clean energy transition investment, and efforts to uphold international law and promote a free and open Indo-Pacific.

“It’s very, very useful and very, very productive that Minister Qin came here and that we were able to talk things a little bit through, make plans for the future,” Marcos said.

https://gcaptain.com/philippines-opens-more-lines-of-communication-with-china-to-resolve-maritime-conflict/ Open / Comment

2023-04-24 05:14:39 Letter to the Speaker of the House and President pro tempore of the Senate consistent with the War Powers Resolution (Public Law 93-148)

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/04/23/letter-to-the-speaker-of-the-house-and-president-pro-tempore-of-the-senate-consistent-with-the-war-powers-resolution-public-law-93-148-3/ Open / Comment

2023-04-24 05:14:39 Open / Comment

2023-04-24 05:14:39 Incompetence!

16,000 Americans are trapped in war torn Sudan and the Biden administration has no plans to evacuate them.

One American has been killed.

How many more will die?

Katie Daviscourt

@police_frequency Open / Comment

2023-04-24 04:21:46 Khartoum map update:

Few changes were possible to confirm today.

SAF control added across northern entrance bridge to Umm Durman.

Contested area partially expanded south of the airport.

War Mapper Open / Comment

2023-04-24 04:18:40 Anon: Yeah they repealed the Bush era exemption. So its required again.

IE no more Iraq war AUMF so they have to do these again for the first time in decades. So no one is used to seeing this for what has become routine mil ops.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/29/us/politics/congress-iraq-war-powers-authorization.html Open / Comment

2023-04-24 04:04:18 The Dutch military have evacuated a number of civilians from Sudan. These include Dutch and other nationals. The operation was conducted with a RNLAF C-130H; Dutch marines kept order on the ground, according to the MoD in The Hague. It said the C-130 was returning to Jordan where the Dutch have positioned two Hercules.

Hans de Vreij Open / Comment