China is preparing for war…
‘The battle is on’: China warns it will no longer be ‘intimidated’ by the US
China’s state media has warned that the “battle is on” with the United States, as tensions with the West continue to grow amid the coronavirus pandemic.
An editorial in the state-run Global Times newspaper accused the Trump administration of “seizing China by the throat”, saying the rising superpower is “prepared to engage in a long-term battle with the US”.
It comes after US President Donald Trump announced earlier this week that the US would work on a response to China’s planned national security legislation for Hong Kong.
“Since China is determined to push forward the national security legislation for Hong Kong, it has been prepared for any possible reaction from the US,” the editorial said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping tells military to prepare for war, boosts defence budget
The President of China has urged the country’s army to prepare for armed combat, claiming the coronavirus pandemic is having a significant impact on national security.
On Tuesday, President Xi Jinping said China must ensure its military is strong because the coronavirus pandemic has had a “profound” effect on the world situation and China’s security.
State media China Daily reports Xi instructed the military to gear up combat preparation and conduct battle drills in a flexible manner.
…Trump responds by ratcheting up the threats…
Trump announces unprecedented action against China
President Donald Trump launched a blistering attack on China Friday, naming misdeeds that range from espionage to the violation of Hong Kong’s freedoms, and announced a slew of retaliatory measures that will plunge US-China relations deeper into crisis.
…and yet where is NZ?
New Zealand missing in Five Eyes condemnation of Beijing over Hong Kong security law
New Zealand is missing from a firmly-worded condemnation by the Five Eyes nations of Beijing’s new security law that cracks down on Hong Kong.
Foreign Minister Winston Peters on Thursday night issued a statement saying New Zealand held “deep concern” about the national security legislation for Hong Kong, passed by China’s National People’s Congress.
…Winston has recently been attempting to become political relevant again by attacking China, but Winston’s new political boyfriend, Todd Muller, is a bought and paid for tool of Beijing so Winston can’t attack his new romance’s economic backer.
The possibility of conflict between China and America is bad news for NZ.
Trump needs war before his election so he can manufacture a conflict to hold onto the White House.
China’s own people need to have their attention diverted from asking questions about how the Chinese Government deceived the planet and lied about the enormity of the pandemic by externalising an enemy in the form of Trump.
Thanks to the National Party, NZ is enslaved economically to our Chinese Overlords while being owned politically by America’s mass surveillance 5 Eyes.
I’ve been asking questions as to why NZ wasn’t informed back in November of the pandemic when US intelligence knew China were lying.
I asked if we were informed and why didn’t Jacinda do more.
Turns out that Trump has been with holding intel to 5 Eyes partners as punishment for whatever petty reason has drifted into his headspace on any given day and NZ wasn’t given any heads up to the Chinese pandemic.
Which begs the question, why the hell are we in 5 Eyes if we aren’t getting crucial information?
Why the hell did National sign us up to a Space Force deal that turns Rocket Labs (which is itself an extension of the US Military Complex) into a launch site for US Military Satellites, especially as that now makes us a target for Chinese and Russian Subs sitting of the East Coast of NZ to strike satellite launches from NZ.
That’s why NZ is buying planes with sub hunting torpedo capacities.
So we are not getting intel from being a member of 5 Eyes that could have warned us about the pandemic.
National have made us a military target by allowing Rocket Labs to be a pawn in the US Military Industrial Complex.
All the while National have enslaved us more deeply by being economically addicted to China.
I think the first solution to how NZ survives conflict between our largest trading partner and our political master is to not have National anywhere close to power!
If we wish to maintain our Independence, we need to show leadership by openly criticising both sides and asking for a more peaceful, productive and collaborative co-operation in the Pacific, especially at a a time of climate change and increasing poverty across the Pacific.
I think we have a leader in Jacinda who could articulate this powerful vision and provide that leadership, because if we don’t make a radical departure now we are going to get sucked into the geopolitical vortex between these two and be forced to choose a side that in’t in our true national interests.
We have an enormous number of Pacific Islanders and Asian-New Zealanders living here, they are a natural resource as cultural bridges back to the rest of the Pacific, why not take the strength of our optimistic youth and their fresh ways of inclusion and use them as a Pacific wave of diplomacy to work together and not against in the Pacific?
Why let the war mongers dictate the narrative? Why not have a leader who can articulate a vision of co-operation in the Pacific challenge that narrative by being direct in our criticism while inclusive in our solutions?
That window of opportunity for dialogue and co-operation is however rapidly closing.
I fear the Hawks have won the debate and the Doves haven’t realised it yet.
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Chinese aggression has been building for a couple of years now and planned years before that.
Personally I blame Obama for letting the cat out of the bag by doing nothing as the Spratly islands were illegally occupied and fortified, and stupid corrupt businesses and politicians for taking the short term cash and enslaving our economy here through the Pacific and in Australia.
Trump may trigger a war which would be terrible but imagine where China would be with Obama in charge.
If there is real conflict we must go with Australia, and that will be siding with America -for all its many flaws it would be unconscionable to side with a communist dicatorship that represses the freedoms of its people and puts its minorities in concentration camps and kills them and harvests their organs.
Australia should nuclear arm for its own long term security.
New Zealand must invest in modern military hardware, anti shipping and anti aircraft missiles and ships and planes.
If there is war or even a deep cold war, lets turn our increasingly obtrusive spy powers from our civilians, to our politicians and business peoples dealings with China and begin the treason trials.
kCCO
”If there is real conflict we must go with Australia, and that will be siding with America -for all its many flaws it would be unconscionable to side with a communist dicatorship that represses the freedoms of its people and puts its minorities in concentration camps and kills them and harvests their organs.”
I’m struggling with that comment. Our human rights record isn’t clean, the Aussies spent a fair bit of time in their history herding the Aboriginal population over cliffs and these days Christmas Island is the holiday destination for many. good ole USA still hasn’t got over the Civil War and Blacks get murdered in front of the camera and you pick on China. Is one murder better than another.
No country has a blame free history including ours, does that give a free pass for human rights abuses now?
Was Australia killing its political opponents on Christmas Island and harvesting their organs?
Here Here
Obama or the USA do not have any jurisdiction over the Spratleys. That’s a South Asia matter.
If the USA wants to play policeman then start with Palestine. Iraq, Yemen and get out of its illegal occupation in Syria.
The Spratleys give control of the South China Sea which is of enormous strategic value.
Maybe when Yemen is invading there and also in to India, Tibet and running concentration camps we should pay them the same attention.
Two things.
No. Wait?
Three things…
Things one and two…
Big. Very big. Biggest ever penis extensions for xi jinping and donald trump then leave them alone with them.
Thing three.
Crop dust the U$A and The People$ republic of cheap pla$tic $hit in ecstasy powder. And I mean a lot of ecstasy powder. Knee deep. Perhaps deeper. Much more deeperer. Most deepest yet. Deepest ever. No one’s done deeper E ever. That’s a fact. Look it up.
Then, and only then, will there be world peace. jinping and the donster clinging to each other in mutual admiration as they snort on while the rest of us just get on with it trying to navigate through life which is hellish at the best of times.
I think what we AO/NZ’ers could do is wrap ourselves in the RAF and the Royal Navy then ignore the rest of the world with some of that spare E.
Here’s a music video that’ll take your mind off most things… Lets bring Moose riding to the living room?
Danger-danger… High Voltage! Fire in the Disco!
https://youtu.be/R-FxmoVM7X4
I hope no Moose were harmed during the making of that video
President Xi vs President Trump: Evil & calculating, vs Evil & deranged. Then there is the Commonwealth (which Queen’s Birthday weekend brings to mind), but the British Empire is too inward looking to even commit to evil anymore.
Being a tax haven (or at least financial services Centre for the Cook Islands, which is similar enough), along with our distance from the rest of the world, may make NZ neutral territory. Picking sides is asking for trouble. Proxy war (maybe over Taiwan?) seems not unlikely in a USAn election year.
But if the USA are really committed to dismantling the UN, then we surely have to oppose that? Eliminating SARS-COV-2 also makes the USAn response look all the more useless. It may already be too late for us to mollify the bullies.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/417904/us-pulls-funding-for-who-over-its-handling-of-covid-19
I find myself thinking of a friend who escaped one abusive relationship to immediately start another. That fell to pieces in a pretty nasty way. Now they are with someone else and I just try to keep emotionally distant from the fallout. As an excolonial country are we simply conditioned to latch onto a coloniser? I wish I could be more hopeful about our ability to be a strong and independent Aotearoa.
You worry too much, Martyn. Other than invasions of nations with ineffective air forces or no planes at all, America has not had a successful war since 1945 (and the Russians did most of the fighting, and had superior weapons by the middle of that war).
Korean War: failure (stalemate, with no clear winner, though the Koreans were able to clear half the country of the forces of American imperialism)
Vietnam War: failure.
Even the proxy war in which the Americans sponsored Iraq to teach the Iranians a lesson for throwing out the US puppet Shah Palavi ended up with the wrong result. Iran won.
Middle East Wars: failure.
Afghanistan War: failure.
Proxy War on Russia (Ukraine): failure
Proxy War on Russia (Ukraine): failure (the Americans didn’t even try on that one once the Russians showed they meant business. Thus ended the military American Empire.
War on Drugs: failure.
War on Poverty: failure
War on democracy: success.
War on truth: partial success.
So when Trump declares that there will be consequences if China steps out of line he means the US will draw up a list of Chinese officials who won’t be allowed to visit Hawaii for their holidays-not that any Chinese officials would want to go there anyway.
All that said, the US industrial-military-financial complex has a great interest in maintaining the myth that America has the capacity to wage and win wars, even if their latest planes tend to fall out of the sky and their biggest investments in twentieth century technology are floating coffins.
How old is the oldest American warship? I guessed and was out by 20 years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Blue_Ridge_(LCC-19)
Were does NZ stand in all of this? It is one of several prizes that the winner of economic or military warfare hopes to fully colonise.
At sea for a record number of days because it is one of just a few not infested with Covid-19.
Apologies. I have spotted two major errors in what I typed.
There were two proxy wars against Russia in different locations, eastern Ukraine and Georgia. (I didn’t count the financial war on Russia of the late 1980s to early 1990s which resulted in Russia becoming like the Wild West (pardon the pun) with criminals in charge and gangs roaming the streets. American speculators and looters had a great time until Putin came along, which is why the American ‘elites’ hate him -and want us to hate him. Hence Russia got the blame for everything -from the election of Trump to the collapse of faith in the Democrats. It’s a wonder no one has blamed Putin for Covid-19.)
‘Proxy War on Russia (Georgia): failure (the Americans didn’t even try on that one once the Russians showed they meant business. Thus ended the military American Empire.’
The last two paragraphs should be the other interchanged.
[US Blue Ridge] At sea for a record number of days because it is one of just a few not infested with Covid-19.
Were does NZ stand in all of this? It is one of several prizes that the winner of economic or military warfare hopes to fully colonise.
All so true Afewknowthetruth. You are not going to FKN believe this, but just watching RT (Putin puppet) and the moronic yanks are suggesting that RUSSIA may have started the riots????
China announced a strange new pneumonia on December 31 . They identified a new virus when they isolated it on Jan 7. Their first death was Jan 12th. Before that it could not be confidently determined that there was a new pathogen involved as the symptoms were the same as a severe flu.
Though the local Wuhan authorities turned out to be wrong to try to silence the first doctors and reporters who suspected something new was at large, overall I think the way China has dealt with both their own problems with the virus and informing the WHO what they new and when they new it was just the responsible action. There was as far as I can discover no delay at all between them knowing about the virus and the rest of the world knowing about it.
If the US goes to war with China over it it will be entirely on the US. China won’t attack them but they will try to defend themselves. However I see that as an extremely unlikely development. Trump is all about threats and bluster , hadn’t you noticed?
I am very pleased to learn that we have not gone along with the condemnation by the rest of the 5 eyes.
I would have thought you would be too Martyn.
D J S
Good comment.
It also has to be noted that the Wuhan authorities at the time were not sure what they had on their hands. There is a trade-off between mass panic in a country the size of China, at the time of lunar new year, and the risk of the virus.
If the announcement had been made earlier and in an undisciplined way, there could have been mass fleeing of people out of Wuhan, and the resulting massive disruptions and injuries and deaths that arise out of that.
Care to comment on why the Chinese ambassador to New Zealand was endangering New Zealanders’ lives when she started whinging about the China travel ban Mark?
This was on FEBRUARY 18th 2020 which was at least one month AFTER the Chinese Communist Party was fully aware that the coronavirus was both highly contagious and transmissible between humans:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/news/119575877/chinese-ambassador-hits-out-at-new-zealand-travel-ban-in-response-to-novel-coronavirus-outbreak
Because when it comes to the NZDF they’re all cheap Kients who lack the necessary military genius. Whether it was deliberate or not Beijing has effectively forced the entire western world to blockade themselves and China didn’t even have to lift a finger.
As it turns out America has had numerous viral epidemics and they had every opportunity to plan but they didn’t because in there version of capitalism there is no profit in storing medical supplies and again just lacks the necessary levels of military genius.
yes.
but blaming china for handling of pandemic is furthering the conflict
check this out its food for thought…
ttps://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/05/29/german-official-leaks-report-denouncing-corona-as-global-false-alarm/
this is not to question our government’s initial decisions about lockdown as they were made at a time of uncertainty and influenced by “expert” opinion. nor is it to question their current strategies nor require any particular action.
but we should always critically examine expert advice when it has significant consequences.
lazy public service reviews of other peoples reviews of possibly relevant research is not good enough.
and need to analyse the ideas and interests that provided the impetus that got us into the current situation. so we can avoid falling into the same traps next time.
maybe the action required is to demand better and more independent research by our public service or university academics. independent of corporate interests.
as for US vs China i support what you have said.
Why are we part of five eyes?
*Because Governments are ineffective at changing anything.
*Here is another example for you to drill down on Martyn.
*I will lead you onto this next botch up sent by National and still festering under labour.
Don’t trust NZTA. – A clear cut case to reform the NZTA as it shows disregard for public scrutiny of its operations as a public funded agency without any transparency. Listen through the link below to the only RNZ news cover today at 8am.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018748645
Latest RNZ News Bulletin
Previous Track Play/Pause Next Track.
01:26 08:29
• Latest RNZ News Bulletin 8′29″Digital Bulletin (30 May 2020)
WORD copy transcribed.
Quote;
“*the (NZTA) transport Agency has refused to release a report to the ‘conflicts of interests’ over the awarding of contracts over high tech projects.
*The enquiry was sparked almost a year ago in the fallout from revelations of mismanagement in it’s now defunct “connected Journeys” unit.
*The NZTA agency said last July 2019 it would release the report of findings and how it would correct them.
*Nearly 11 months later it is – “citing a law that allows it to with hold that information that would prejudice the maintenance of that law”- The agency say’s that decision has been carefully considered”
Un -quote;
*Result Labour are so far ineffective of initiating meaningful change.
Full story from 2019.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/395618/questions-raised-over-how-nzta-protects-sensitive-information
“There has been a clear lack of management controls and processes implemented around such registration activity, with even the CJS Director involved.”
Contractors made up 90 percent of staff at Connected Journeys, which rapidly grew from eight people to 100 as it developed transportation apps.
“The high use of contractors means that a large amount of IP sits with individuals who are only meant to have short-term roles in the organisation,” Deloitte said.
NEW ZEALAND IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
31 Jul 2019
Questions raised over how NZTA protects sensitive information
11:31 am on 31 July 2019
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Phil Pennington, Reporter
@pjppenn phil.pennington@rnz.co.nz
Major questions have been asked about how the beleaguered Transport Agency protects its sensitive information.
*Result Labour are so far ineffective of initiating meaningful change.
I think China is to be expected to respond in the way it does. But I don’t think it needs to do this for the sake of maintaining order at home. The US is acknowledging that Hong Kong is part of China not challenging its right to defend it as in the case of Taiwan. I don’t see China needs to go beyond angry rhetoric and risk a war when it has dealt with the pandemic and its economy is already responding.
On the other hand Trump has more reason to be bellicose towards China because his crisis at home is much worse than China’s. He failed to deal with the Covid pandemic and its meeting growing resistance from workers and state and local politicians against the consequences of ‘opening up’ and causing new spikes, that threatens his reelection.
For that reason don’t expect him to go to war with China to get re-elected when he has a ready made solution at home to declare martial law to suppress a black rebellion caused by his MAGA support base engaging in police killings and militia demos, climaxing in the public lynching of George Floyd. Declaring martial law at home is what he needs now. And he has the power to do it and get away with it.
Yes, Trump needs a war to keep hold of presidential power but the domestic war he is now stoking up to activate his fascist base and rally the wavering sections of the bourgeoisie to his expansion of executive power, is much less risky than a hot war with China.
It deals with his main enemy which is at home, unless that class enemy has the power to resist fascism and build alliances among workers in all nations for socialist revolution.
That’s why NZ working people need to unite with the workers’ resistance that is building up in the US and China and reject both National and Labour subservience to the regimes in both countries.
NZ’s little old $300b economy is not worth including anymore in the big decisions when taking into consideration its entire economy is about to collapse. Chump change.
But what do we really gain from being in this 5 eyes deal?
What exactly?… except expectations to take sides in other peoples punch ups? Do we really need that? I don’t think so. We should be the ‘Scandinavians’ of the South Pacific. In economy, in trade, in a kind of communal nationalism that looks after its own first and foremost.
We could learn a lot from the Scandinavian country’s.
No we play for the All Black jersey we don’t play for the money. If the underlying motivation was truly profit then you would be correct and Danial Carter, Richie McCaw and all the other starting line ups of today would be getting multimillion dollar contracts in France instead of living in a “little old $300b economy.”
While you was dreaming of dystopia, I’m over here dreaming of utopia.
‘Spears shall be shaken,shields shall be splintered, A sword day, A red day and the sun rises.
Ride now, Ride now too ruin and the worlds ending, Death Death Death’
King Theoden
“China’s own people need to have their attention diverted from asking questions about how the Chinese Government deceived the planet and lied about the enormity of the pandemic by externalising an enemy in the form of Trump.”
What!
Deceived the planet? How, and when.
The fuss is about the US and Trump verbally attacking China with smear campaigns based on lies, misinformation and false assumptions.
China is not passing laws aimed at interfering with the USA’s internal business. The USA is passing legislation that has no jurisdiction in China but are intense propaganda based on false information, to whip up the US public into an anti China hysteria.
The main diversion happening is aimed at sidelining that the covid19 deaths in the USA so far are 100 times higher per capita than what happened in China. That diversion is what Trump is trying to create along with his fellow dreamers.
China’s rhetoric in return is calling out what the US and their puppet states are doing, and stating that they can deal with that as the US has a lot to loose in creating bad relations with China.
China’s CCP is an evil repressive regime. It is behaving like a international bully now that it is bring finally called into line. It is time it was delt with, but this should been actioned a long time ago. Problem is, like a spoilt child, it has been allowed to do as it will for too long. It doesn’t like it, so throws fits and tantrums. Let it do so. Let the rest of the world see it for what it really is – a festering boil on the backside of humanity. It need lancing before it gets too late.
The west deserves to be dominant by China, in our pursuit of maximum profits, we’ve exported jobs ,businesses and technology with little consideration given to the impact on our society.We’ve sold land , our citizenship and allowed Chinese nationals to reside and work ,undercutting locals, we even allow them to participate in our parliamentary process as appointed members of parliament. Our sovereignty and foreign policies are tailored to ensure harmony so trade will continue uninterrupted and the profits returned to be dispensed as per trickle down theorem.
We, as a nation are no more than a prostitute with a habit relying on Chinese favour .
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