Category Archives: China

The Winter War

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Over the last three months or so it has become quite clear that the Western alliance has decided to commit energy suicide in order to continue to wage its lunatic proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. Russia and China are being strengthened by the West’s foolhardy sanctions against Russia, and Europe will be impoverished as it shivers in the dark this coming winter.

The following article explains in detail what is happening in the worldwide energy markets, and especially in Europe. Many thanks to LN for translating the German-language text from the Swedish site Poddtoppen:

For the West, the day of reckoning comes in winter

by Rainer Rupp
September 2, 2022

In my Daily Dose last week, I briefly discussed an article by the British professor Helen Thompson published in the Financial Times (FT) on August 19, 2022. Ms. Thompson teaches political economy at the University of Cambridge and is no stranger to the subject. The neoliberal-oriented Financial Times is an organ of the business world read around the globe. Politically, the FT usually follows the British government line and is behind the particularly close relations between London and Washington. This was also expressed in its previous coverage of Russia and Ukraine, in which it follows a strictly anti-Russian course, along the lines of Ukraine-must-win. And that is precisely why Prof. Thompson’s article in the FT has attracted so much attention everywhere.

The sober realism with which Prof. Thompson analyzes the Ukraine crisis, omitting the politically correct anti-Russian bias, is what makes her article so exciting. For it breaks not only with the Financial Times‘ previous line, but also with the mantra constantly repeated in Germany that Russia’s economy is down because of Western sanctions. As alleged proof of this, the public propaganda organs of the German government had recently once again calculated for us that the slump in Russia’s gross domestic product GDP in the first half of 2022 was many times greater than in Europe or Germany.

Of course, the sudden withdrawal of hundreds of Western companies from Russia and the disruption of supply chains had a shock effect on the Russian economy. In March 2022, initial projections expected GDP to slump by as much as -14% for the current year. In the meantime, this bad news has been corrected to -4% percent, because inflation in Russia has fallen rapidly just as the high key interest rates of the Russian Central Bank have, the currency is super-stable, the manufacturing economy has recovered and in many sectors is already back at the level it was before the Russian special operation in Ukraine began.

Optimism reigns in Russia’s economy; new sources of supply have been found; the stores, factories and service providers abandoned by Western companies have found successors to carry on the business of IKEA, McDonald’s hamburgers, Coca Cola and hundreds of other companies. These successors come either from Russia or from friendly foreign countries such as China, Turkey or India. Recently, for example, an Indian food company took over a supermarket chain “For a penny and a pound” in Russia from which a Western company had withdrawn at a loss due to Western sanctions.

The joy of the Western economic warmongers over the collapse of Russian car production in the first months of the sanctions was also short-lived. That’s because the Russians were able to replace the microchips that had previously been supplied by cooperating Western car companies with supplies from China. A few weeks ago, Russian car production returned to its “pre-economic war” level. At the same time, the withdrawal of Western car producers has helped the good and inexpensive small and medium-sized cars from China to break through into the Russian market.

The public propaganda organs of the German government do not report on all this, because that would only illuminate another side of the EU’s bottomlessly stupid suicide sanctions. For the Western sanctions are anything but sustainable. They have only caused a short-term shock. Everything Russia has obtained from the West it either doesn’t need or can get elsewhere. The Russian population can live quite well without French cheese or Parma ham from Italy or cosmetics and luxury items from Dior. And technical products, spare parts, etc. can be produced by the Russians themselves — albeit at higher cost — or they can have them produced cheaply in China. Western technology can also be ordered on short notice from friendly third countries such as India and in Central Asia. This transition takes time but, overall, Russia has managed it so far with flying colors.

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China Won’t Be Here for Long

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Our Dutch correspondent H. Numan sends his observations about the Taiwan crisis, and the larger issues facing China.

China won’t be here for long

by H. Numan

For a few days China caught the full attention of the world. Will they start World War Three? That’s what usually happens, when you shoot down the Speaker of the House of another superpower. As I expected, it simply fizzled out. China didn’t shoot anyone down. Nor will they. It’s all just trying to impress. Pelosi was praised by Republicans and criticized by Democrats. Quite a change. And Brandon Biden? The poor old fool got egg on his face. Same for general Mark ‘Tranny’ Milley.

China can’t invade Taiwan, unless they want to better Operation Downfall. I’m not an expert, but casualties would be extremely high. A lot higher than back in 1945. Taiwan hasn’t been idle for the last 76 years. China won’t invade to save human lives. Far from it. Expect over a million casualties on the Chinese side alone. China is more than willing to expend that much human capital, they’ve got plenty of that. What they lack is expertise and capabilities. And the sure knowledge China would no longer exist if they do. That’s the sole reason they won’t invade.

Let’s start with that. China has grown massively the last couple of decades. From a Third World country into a Third World country with a large export based economy. Quite an achievement, to be honest. But with a catch: they rely almost entirely on imports for everything. Going to war would be the last war for the communist party. The boycott that hits Russia pretty hard would be deadly for China. China has to import most of its food and energy.

Unlike China, Russia is somewhat self sufficient. Sure, life will be hard. But when was life not hard in Russia? It’s not the end of the world for the Russians. Just another tough time. Russia doesn’t need a navy, as it doesn’t import or export a lot. Now look at China. Despite its big mouth, it utterly depends on the US Navy. If anything happens to Chinese maritime trade, it can do absolutely nothing about it. Apart from ships and crew, they lack everything. No experience. No logistics. It’s one thing to sail a ship from Shanghai to Alexandria; sailing a fleet or even a squadron is something else entirely. The Chinese navy can’t operate outside of mainland air cover. It won’t be able to do so for a long time to come.

Let’s say that Chinese salami slicing goes wrong. A missile goes off course and hits Taiwan. Don’t be surprised if right after that Somali pirates highjack a Chinese crude oil tanker, with Allied warships in the region looking the other way. “Out of respect for the sovereignty of the Chinese people.” After all, there is no real reason or need for the US Navy to protect what essentially is an enemy vessel.

What China is doing right now is extremely dangerous, mainly to itself. There is a reason for that. China needs to divert local attention elsewhere. If you have huge domestic problems, focus on a foreign enemy. It’s a tried and true method for all dictatorships. Sometimes it even works.

China realized after the invasion of Ukraine that all her plans of the last forty years to invade Taiwan have failed. That hurts! Hence the hullabaloo. A big part of the Chinese plan was to drop airborne troops and take over the government quickly. That’s pretty risky. It sometimes works, but usually it doesn’t. To remind you, the Germans tried the same when they invaded The Netherlands. It failed. The Allies tried it at Arnhem (Operation Market Garden) and failed. Operation Varsity was successful, but losses were very high. Montgomery was heavily criticized for it. More recent, Russian airborne troops and Spetsnaz tried to take over the airfield near Kiev and completely failed. Those troops were combat veterans with lots of experience. China doesn’t have any combat veterans or experience. None whatsoever. An airborne operation is a bit more complicated than dropping a bunch of troops out of a few planes.

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What’s Missing From This Picture?

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The examples below (posted a little while ago at Vlad Tepes) are illustrative of the way the Western media would report on the massacre at Tiananmen Square if it were to happen today.

Wong Wing, a 30-year-old flight instructor, died suddenly today while away from his home. He is survived by his family, which is his wife and son. He will be missed.

Hu Flung Pu died suddenly this afternoon while seeming to attempt to direct traffic. He is survived by his wife and son and will be severely missed.

Wai So Dim passed away suddenly today while cleaning treads on a government vehicle. No cause of death is known and his family, which consists of his wife and son, are dumbstruck by his sudden passing. He was young and in the peak of good health.

No Pah King mysteriously passed away while just standing still this afternoon enjoying the sunshine. He was known to be in excellent health and people near him at the time say he was an excellent runner. He is survived by his wife and son who expressed deep understanding at Mr. King’s passing. He will be missed.

Hu Yu Hai Ding was discovered dead and mysteriously flat today at a government park. Cause of death not known but there has been an increase in reported deaths of people who are far flatter than is recommended for good health. Hu Yu was 19 at the time of his passing. He is survived by his mother and father, and wife who is expecting a son. The government has issued a warning not to stand near anything that may cause a person to become flatter than normal.

How Long was reported missing today after his wife found him covering a large section of a well-known public area. No cause of death is known but it has recently been determined that being young, healthy and athletic with no bad habits actually can be very bad for your health.

Low Fat, a 22-year-old nutritionist died suddenly today while sunning himself on a large concrete square. It is now said that sunshine and fresh air can be worse for your health than cigarette smoke and factory air. He is survived by his wife and son.

The Abolition of the Soul

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In his poem “Prayer Before Birth”, the late Louis MacNeice wrote the following:

I am not yet born, console me.
I fear that the human race may with tall walls wall me,
with strong drugs dope me, with wise lies lure me,
on black racks rack me, in blood-baths roll me.

[…]

I am not yet born; O fill me
With strength against those who would freeze my
humanity, would dragoon me into a lethal automaton,
would make me a cog in a machine, a thing with
one face, a thing, and against all those
who would dissipate my entirety, would
blow me like thistledown hither and
thither or hither and thither
like water held in the
hands would spill me.

This poem was written during the 1930s, when the prototypical despots Hitler and Stalin were, in their separate but equal ways, realizing the Totalitarian Dream. However, in their wildest imaginings they could never have conceived of the powers that the would-be globalist despots of the 21st century, exemplified by the World Economic Forum, plan to wield in their creation of the Brave New World. Secure in their omniscience, confident of their benignity, certain of their superior understanding, and absolutely convinced of their inerrancy, they intend to remake the world into their image of technologically-driven transhuman perfection.

None of this is hidden. It is all clearly and explicitly laid out in text and videos by those who would implement the New World Order, if only we care to pay attention. If, that is, we are willing to let our good night’s sleep be disturbed by an understanding of what lies ahead.

Many thanks to Hellequin GB for his mammoth effort in translating this essay from Multipolar Magazin:

The abolition of the soul

In their publications, the World Economic Forum and its chairman Klaus Schwab state with astonishing frankness that they intend to intervene in human nature and in humans’ relationships with others using all the technical means at their disposal. People, animals and plants are to be completely redesigned. Human nature is at stake.

“The real goal of totalitarian ideology is not the transformation of the external conditions of human existence and not the revolutionary reorganization of the social order, but the transformation of human nature itself, which, as it is, constantly opposes the totalitarian process. … What is at stake in total domination is really the essence of man.” — Hannah Arendt, 1951

As one of the most influential institutions in the Western World[1], the WEF has been putting its plans into practice with overwhelming speed since 2020, working title: The Great Reset, gateway: the Pandemic.[2] It has often been pointed out that the World Economic Forum pursues totalitarian goals with its transhumanism. Despite this, a majority still seems to have faith that the global business elites are, by and large, acting for the good of humanity. This is a mistake — regardless of whether these elites themselves are convinced that they are doing good or not.

A fashionable term such as “transhumanism” may leave you fairly unmoved if you don’t shy away from considering what it means. Misleadingly, he suggests that the project it describes has anything to do with ‘humane’, humanity or humanism; it hasn’t. It would be more accurate to speak of anti-humanism — for the transhumanist, concern amounts to abolishing all living things altogether. In its presumptuousness, this project is certainly doomed to failure. But it could cause living garbage, misery and great suffering.

Therefore, the following should make it clear that the plans of the WEF are deeply totalitarian, and why. Klaus Schwab’s book The Fourth Industrial Revolution serves as the main source of information, because this WEF publication describes its plans particularly bluntly, and, although it was published in 2016, still agrees with the statements made by the extremely influential Davos Forum.[3] Hannah Arendt’s famous work “Elements and Origins of Total Domination” serves as the background and standard for this assessment.[4]

The totalitarian claim to power: rule people from within

In her analysis of the totalitarian systems of her time, Stalinism and National Socialism, Hannah Arendt discovered a striving for control that goes far beyond the power ambitions of dictators, despots and tyrants of all kinds:

“The real goal of totalitarian ideology is not the transformation of the external conditions of human existence and not the revolutionary reorganization of the social order, but the transformation of human nature itself, which, as it is, constantly opposes the totalitarian process. … What is at stake in total domination is really the essence of man.”[5]

What unites the totalitarian elites is “…the conviction of man’s omnipotence. They first gave the moral nihilism of ‘anything goes’ its real basis through the much more radical nihilism of ‘everything is possible’… The hubris of really believing that everything can be done, that everything given is only temporary, is enough for them. The obstacle is that it can be overcome by superior organization.”[6]

Substituting ‘superior engineering’ for ‘superior organization’ pretty much describes the beliefs of the World Economic Forum.

The transformation of human nature

Already in the first sentence of his book, Klaus Schwab says that the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which in his description “…entails nothing less than the transformation of mankind.”[7] The technologies driving this revolution will be “…fundamentally changing our human identity.”[8] They will change “…what it means to be human.”[9] The Fourth Industrial Revolution “…changes who we are.”

These ideas are indeed revolutionary: If they were realized, humans — and other living beings as well — would finally become objects of industrial production. Nature would no longer be something given that as such has a right to exist and a dignity.

Biological organisms that do not occur in nature

According to Schwab, synthetic biology and neurotechnology make the profound changes in human nature possible. Synthetic biology “… will allow us to tailor organisms by writing DNA.”[10] This, in turn, “… enables the creation of genetically modified plants or animals, as well as the modification of cells of adult organisms, including humans .”[11] All living organisms and all organisms not yet born are now objects of design: “We are confronted with new questions about what it means to be human when it comes to changing the genetic codes of future generations.[12]

Advances in medicine made possible by this are often mentioned, but the whole genome is clearly at stake: “…it’s much easier now to precisely manipulate the human genome in viable embryos… we will in the future probably see designer babies…”[13] Wikipedia clarifies once again that synthetic biology is about “…creating biological systems that do not occur in nature.” And note: “These systems are subject to evolution.”[14] The WEF not only welcomes these prospects, it also considers science capable of implementing them at any time:

“Imagine a world where we can create the bodies we want. In this world we can also design and redesign the plants and animals that live with us. We can change organisms and shape them the way we want them to be. … And this is not the world of tomorrow. You don’t need any imagination. This is the world of today.”[15]

The whole human being becomes the object of technical design — and so are his relationships to other people and things.

Neurotechnology: Mind Control, Emotion Control, Relationship Control

Neurotechnology “…includes any process or device in which electronics interface with the nervous system to monitor or regulate neural activity.”[16] The ways to do this are so varied, according to the World Economic Forum that they “transform the human body into a new technology platform.”[17]

The WEF has no objection to that — we are entering “…the era of the ‘internet of bodies’: We collect our physical data through a range of devices that can be implanted, swallowed or worn. The result is a vast amount of health-related data that improves the well-being of people all over the world…”[18] But not only that: “At the same time, the data from the ‘Internet of Bodies’ can be used to predict and to make inferences that may affect an individual’s or group’s access to resources such as health care, insurance and employment.”[19]

Many citizens have already experienced that “influencing” can also mean “blocking”: Until recently, for example, we had no access to public facilities such as libraries, theaters or swimming pools without a vaccination certificate. During the trucker protests in Canada, Prime Minister and “Young Global Leader” of the WEF Justin Trudeau[20] had the accounts of the 50,000 truckers and their supporters blocked without further ado. In view of such arbitrary encroachments on the simplest rights of unwelcome citizens, it is not surprising that many see it more as a threat: “If we do not like your behavior, we will block your access to vital resources.” But you don’t have to see everything so negatively, because:

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Life After the Great Reset

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For much of last year, China was cited as a role model for the management of the Corona “pandemic”. After the first few weeks they halted the lockdowns, and public spaces in China seemed normal compared with those of the West.

All that changed in early 2022. After a surge of new “cases”, Shanghai went into a draconian lockdown. Our Hungarian correspondent László sends this translated report on what life is like for Hungarian expats in Shanghai.

Life after the Great Reset

Stories from China, the Test Lab of the New World Order

by László

What will life be like in the promised New World Order after the Great Communist Reset? Look at China to get an idea.

A group of Hungarian expats living in Shanghai, China sent their stories home in a podcast — a report from the infamously cruel “Shanghai lockdown”.

However, one may have the impression that these people either do not know the whole truth or they are afraid to tell it. The article below adds another layer of propaganda to the accounts, as it was written by a globalist Hungarian news outlet, 24.hu. Read between the lines:

“It’s very depressing to eat what I have, not what I want”

May 7, 2022

Butter and bread are considered rarities in Shanghai, which has been under lockdown for more than a month. Hungarians living in the 26-million-strong Chinese metropolis told us about the strictness due to the Covid cases, how they spend their days inside their homes, and where their first journey will lead them once the lockdown is finally lifted.

We’re locked up in the winter and we go out in the summer

This is the brief summary of the current situation by members of a group of Hungarian friends who have launched a podcast called Lockdown — Omicron Adventures in Shanghai.

Shanghai was hermetically sealed off at the beginning of April. At that time the news said that the measure was going to be in effect for four days, but since then most districts have not allowed people to go out.

Attila Balogh, who has been living in China for 28 years, said the zero-Covid policy devised by China worked great, but only until the Omicron variant came along.

“Until then, everything was great. Wherever they found an infected person, they tested them quickly and efficiently, isolating neighbourhoods, districts, cities. The country was working, one could do all sorts of things you couldn’t do at home [in Hungary],” he explained.

He noted that the Chinese state had made a legitimacy issue out of the control of the epidemic, in order to prove that the political system was better than the Western one. Nobody wants that approach any more, but at the narrative level it would be difficult to back down at this point.

Attila Balogh went on to say that Shanghai’s ordeal had already begun in mid-January. That was the first time the apartment building where they live was closed down after one of the residents was identified as a close contact. They were tested every 12 hours and after 48 hours everyone was allowed to go about their business. At that time, the procedure was that if an office building was infected, everyone was locked up for a few days while life went on in the city. But this could not go on indefinitely because the number of infected people was increasing. The government therefore decided to revert to the zero-Covid policy, and a policymaker from Beijing started to handle things with an iron fist.

Breathing fresh air outside, after 26 days

The entire city was centrally ordered to be locked down on 1 April, but Péter Ákos Fodor has been unable to go anywhere since 30 March, after a close contact was identified in his apartment building. From that moment on, they were not allowed to go out the front door, not even to the yard.

To understand the whole picture, he said, it is also important to know that China does not have housing estates like the one in Békásmegyer in Budapest. Where he lives, there are between 45,000 and 50,000 people living in 32-storey buildings with more than 100 staircases and numerous entrances. It’s like a small town.

For more than a month now, the rules have been enforced by employees of housing management, dressed in white protective gear. Peter Ákos Fodor said that no one is taken away in handcuffs if they go outside for some air, but they are immediately asked what they are doing there and warned that they had better go back in their flat. You can’t just hang around outside.

“Last Monday, after 26 days, we were allowed to go out of our apartment complex; we were not allowed to leave the apartment until then. But we still can’t walk on the street,” he explained.

In a related story, Mihály Giber, the other creator of the podcast, who is also a member of that group of friends, said that they are in a slightly luckier situation because they have a small garden in front of their ground-floor home where they go out every day to play badminton, even if they were “ratted on” twice by the landlord at the beginning.

They eat what they have

For those of us living in Hungary, it is increasingly just a memory what we did to pass the time when we were under lockdown. Hungarians in Shanghai mentioned one odd pastime, though, among many others: trading with food. They are not allowed to leave their homes, nor can they go to the shops, most of which are in any case closed. The government does send basic foodstuffs to households, but there is very little.

The central food delivery varies from district to district, but as the Hungarians put it, “if we relied on this alone, we would starve.”

When we asked them what was included in such a package that is free of charge, and whether it contained butter or bread, they laughed and said, “Are you kidding? That’s a luxury”. However, they agreed that in general the quality of the packages was improving, but that they mainly consisted of vegetables such as cucumbers and cabbage, as well as rice and eggs.

Bread and butter are therefore unimaginable because they cannot even be bought. It is possible to order food from grocery stores, but it requires good organisation within the community and the use of the grey zone.

Home delivery is not allowed as a general rule, but there are some shops that are authorised to do it. But understand, at the very beginning of the lockdown, even the deliverymen were quarantined, so people were transported from two thousand kilometres away, from Canton, to ensure that supply [in Shanghai]. They are also being tested daily to make sure they do not spread the virus.

It is no longer possible to order individually, and the shops only accept bulk orders, at least 50 portions at a time. Therefore it took a lot of time for their families to find food sources, and they also had to keep up with the demands of the community: where the community wanted to get food from and what it wanted to get.

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Red Dragon, Dead Dragon

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They say demography is destiny. According to the following report by H. Numan, China’s destiny is in an accelerating tailspin.

Red dragon, dead dragon

by H. Numan

I’ve written an essay in which I showed that the People’s Republic of China (‘China’) isn’t going to attack the Republic of China (‘Taiwan’). They probably still won’t, but the whole situation has changed with the advent of the Russo-Ukrainian war. China is on the way to oblivion. In 2050 the country will have fewer than 700 million citizens. Worse, the Chinese government knows it. That changes everything.

It won’t be through war, thank God. Nor by famine or diseases. Though all will definitely play a part in the future. It’s because of demographics. The One Child Policy has been way more effective and has lasting effects far beyond what policymakers could imagine. China will die slowly of old age. Not in the distant future, but (Mark 9:1) within the lifetime of those here standing. By 2050 the Chinese population will be half of what it is today. The shrinkage didn’t start this year, as was expected by the Chinese bureau for lies statistics, but had already begun around 2010. They miscalculated and included about 100 million that should have been born but weren’t due to the one child policy.

Demographics are complicated

Let’s have a look at how demographics work. We can’t foretell what individuals will do when they reach a certain age, but we can do that fairly accurately for large groups. Those groups are called cohorts in demographics; they consist of males and females of the same age bracket, in periods of five years. A generation is the period a cohort needs to start reproducing, usually 20-25 years.

We can split the population into roughly three groups: juveniles (< 21), adults (21-65) and pensioners (>65). Every five years a cohort moves up one spot on the graphs. On the left side are males, on the right side females.

The first graph is Niger, a country with a fast-growing population. Observe a huge number of infants and a very small number of pensioners. This kind of growth is disastrous. In 15 years the largest cohort (bottom) will start reproducing. Making the bottom cohort even larger. A country like this runs out of resources quickly.

The next graph is Sweden, which has a stable population. Though when you look at the bottom, they are slowly shrinking. The last graph is Singapore, which has a declining population. How can you see that? Look at the bottom. Move up the bottom cohort, with a small reduction for death. The Singaporeans aren’t replacing themselves. The bulge in the middle are the people that are the most productive for the economy. By looking at those three graphs, you can see that Niger is in trouble, Sweden is doing all right and Singapore is booming at the moment.

The Chinese graph is worse:

In both graphs you see more males than females. That’s deadly for any civilization. Imagine a war kills off 50% of all males in a country. It will take a while, but they can recover. Imagine the same, but now 50% of all females are killed/removed. That country will never recover. Impossible. It’s gone forever. An observant reader will say: in the right graph are far more females than men. Correct, but have a look at their ages. They start catching up from 55 years and older. Not too many women in those age groups are likely to give birth …

The One Child Policy started in 1980, and was abolished in 2015. That means 35 years or seven cohorts (!) were raised as single children. That’s far more than a generation. Not only that, but Chinese prefer boys over girls. If they only can have one child, it better be a boy! That single boy is far more precious than you think, because he eventually has to provide not only for his parents and grandparents but those of his wife as well, if he can find one. China does not have an old age pension, and does not allow its citizens to invest for retirement.

This created three unforeseen effects. Once those single boys grew up, they started to look for prospective wives among the surviving single girls. For girls a dream come true: they could marry a young handsome millionaire! If a prospective groom doesn’t bring at least two houses (pauper!!) and a BMW he doesn’t have to waste his time wooing her. Yes, even in this woman’s paradise there are still leftover women. The grass is never green enough. Some things never change.

The other effect nobody thought about is that children raised as single children have great difficulties socializing and do not want more than one child themselves. If they want children at all, that is. In 2015 when the Chinese government allowed for two children, nobody responded. A bit later they encouraged three children, but that was ridiculed by the people. A poll was quickly taken offline, because the results were not exactly what the government wanted to be. +90% of respondents stated that they don’t want any kids at all. None. In very plain language. Not a word of Chinese in it (in a matter of speaking, of course)!

The third and most important effect is that the emperor cannot send countless soldiers to die in a vain, glorious war. Invading Taiwan will immediately cause widespread revolution. Because the parents and grandparents of those soldiers would have lost the means to subsist in their old age.

What’s the complexity of demographics?

First nothing seems to happen, then it happens all of a sudden. It takes 20 years (four cohorts) to become a productive adult. It takes 45 years (nine cohorts) to reach the age of retirement. Then, all of a sudden … boom! … retirement. One day you are working, the next day you’ll never work again. It’s not a gradual process, it happens from one day on the next.

From 1980 onwards Chinese people became prosperous. Less poor, for the most part. But some people really became wealthy. Here China loves to play the numbers game. “We have more millionaires than The Netherlands has inhabitants!” True enough, but China also has 1.4 billion citizens. If we look at the percentages, China has less than 1% of it citizens as millionaires. In The Netherlands that’s 3%.

The prosperity of China is over. Forever. Demographically, they borrowed from the bank. Now it’s payback time. Raising children is very expensive. From 1980 onwards Chinese didn’t have to spend their money on raising children. They could spend it on whatever they wanted. That’s the reason why Thailand became — until Covid — the most popular foreign tourist destination for the Chinese. Chinese tourists amounted to one-third of all arrivals. That money would otherwise have been spent on raising children.

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Mene, Tekel, Perish!

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Our Dutch correspondent H. Numan draws on historical parallels to analyze the likely consequences of the Russo-Ukrainian war.

Mene, tekel, perish!

by H. Numan

We’re about one month into the Russian invasion. The fog of war covers everything. It’s pretty clear Russia is not winning this war. Let’s have a look at the big picture.

Germany, before that the German Empire, and before that the Kingdom of Prussia, developed Blitzkrieg. Not the word; that was coined by British journalists in 1939. The Germans called it (still do) Bewegungskrieg. It was their answer to most of their military problems. Attack aggressively with everything you’ve got as fast as possible. It worked pretty well for them.

Russia has a very different strategy. They made sure their borders were far, far away. Really far away. No matter who attacked, they would invariably get stuck in the snow before reaching Moscow. Even Napoleon capturing the city didn’t deter them. They burned it down themselves, and continued the fight. That worked pretty well for them. Supposing the Wehrmacht had captured Moscow, it certainly wouldn’t have ended the war.

After World War 2 the USSR set up a large security zone to extend that wide border. Most of it consisted of occupied countries and Nazi allies during WW2, turned into vassal states. Other states, Finland, for example, were forced into benevolent neutrality. All gaps were closed or under Soviet control. Mother Russia was finally secured!

Socialists know nothing about economics. That’s a given. All they can do is spend money. Eventually they run out of it. A major contribution to the collapse of the USSR was the Chernobyl disaster. The cleanup costs exceeds $700 billion. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The USSR collapsed soon afterwards in 1991. The Warsaw Pact was dissolved. Many former republics within the USSR gained their independence. Among others, Ukraine.

The date 1991 is important. That’s forty-one years, or in Gettysburg terms: two score and a year ago. In other words: a very long time. That’s where Putin got it wrong. You see, people change over time. So do nations. Wishing for something doesn’t make it right. Putin firmly believes Russia deserves secure borders. Nothing wrong with that. So do I. In my opinion, the Dutch borders are only secure when we can observe German and French movements from our trenches just outside Paris and Berlin. (That’s a joke, folks!) See where Putin is wrong? He looks at a map. Picks the largest extent ever of Russia’s borders and works to reestablish them again. Regardless of what others think about it. Most do not want to be part of Russia again.

Times change. As simple as that. Time hasn’t been kind to Russia. One of the reasons why Ukraine among others does not want to be part of Russia again is the economy. Russia and North Korea have more in common than Putin likes to admit. Both have a pathetically small economy supporting way too big an army. The only real difference is the number of nukes. North Korea has just enough to secure its existence. Russia has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world. Both use theirs to prop up their economy. It’s not a coincidence that from the start of the war Putin threatened to use nukes, if he doesn’t get his way. To give you an idea, the German economy is slightly smaller than the Russian economy. If the Benelux together with Sweden and Austria compete economically with Russia, Russia loses.

The invasion idea wasn’t a bad one. “Let’s march into Ukraine, stomp some people and change the government.” It worked very well in the past. Kazakhstan and Belarus were reconquered that way. They are independent countries in name, but in reality parts of Russia. It worked to a lesser extent also in Georgia and Moldova. There they didn’t change the regimes, but set up “independent” enclaves. Just enough for the moment. Georgia and Moldova are more independent than Belarus, but not a lot. By the way, reconquering Moldova was also part of the invasion plan for Ukraine. The troops are already there.

At first Russia did the same in Ukraine. The Crimean peninsula was annexed, after a rather silly referendum. A referendum the way dictators always want it: with a nearly unanimous yes vote. Had Hitler and Putin been really clever, they would have invited the entire world to witness the referendum. Made scrupulously sure the referendum was fair and honest. In both cases it was certain more than 65% would vote yes, far more than required. By going for the illusive 99% they showed the world it was all bogus.

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Ukraine: Field Test of the Great Reset

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Many thanks to Hellequin GB for translating this article from the Austrian weekly Der Wochenblick:

In the shadow of war: Ukraine as the Great Reset laboratory of the global tech elite

While a very real conflict is raging in Ukraine, naturally no spotlight falls on the digital distribution battles. The advocates of radical world restructuring and total surveillance have long recognized the potential of the Eastern European country. With the strong participation of President Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine would not only be a Mecca for US bio-weapons laboratories, but also pave the way for digital networking, the Metaverse and the transparent citizen. The lynchpin is the digital ID app “DiiA”, an abbreviation for “The State and I”.

Zelensky’s social credit system

The journey takes us back to 2019. Zelensky had only been a few months in office, and founded a “Ministry for Digital Transformation”. Its most important task was to create a platform for the “state on a smartphone”, the DiiA app finally rolled out in February of 2020. Since then everything has been going fast: more than 50 applications, proofs and official channels are now running via the app: driver’s license, Covid vaccination pass, student card, starting a business, insurance, social benefits. A French tech portal writes: “A model that we only knew from China with its social credit system.” By the way: “ID Austria” is supposed to go in this direction in the final phase.

The social credit system is also to be taken quite literally: last year Zelensky promised every citizen who could provide proof of a full vaccination certificate in DiiA a reward of 1,000 hryvnia (roughly €30) — about a tenth of a typical monthly wage. Authorities may no longer insist on the paper form of documents — and observers assume that the dual variant is only an interim solution. The timing is hardly a coincidence: Two weeks before the release, Zelensky was the guest of honor at the World Economic Forum (WEF) summit led by the “Great Reset” architect Klaus Schwab.

“Investment Mecca” for tech companies

In Zelensky’s WEF speech, the catchphrase of a “new normal” was already mentioned. The current global institutions did not work efficiently; one needed to rethink international security. His vision at the time: Ukraine should take a leading position in Central and Eastern Europe. He openly presented his country’s investment opportunity and recalled that some “big tech” companies started in garages. His stated dream was to open a kind of East European Silicon Valley and transform his country into an “investment Mecca”. Or as Zelensky put it: “Ukraine is the place where miracles are made a reality […] there is a significant opportunity to expand new industries.”

Schwab was impressed and happy with the “reforms” in the country. The WEF itself initiated some of these with its subordinate think tanks for Ukraine.

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Heim ins Reich

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H. Numan’s latest essay provides an overview of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Heim ins Reich

by H. Numan

Russia attacked Ukraine. They don’t want Ukraine, they want Mykraine.

I was watching this when things started to heat up. I thought: either Putin will attack right now, or he will wait until May-June. There’s a reason for that. The same reason why Germany attacked on 22 June 1941. The reason is mud.

Most people know Germany got stuck in the mud during the autumn rains deep in Russia. That season is called Rasputitsa. It’s not one season, but two. First you get the autumn rains that turn the ground into a quagmire. Snow and frost make it passable. The second Rasputitsa people always forget. During the spring, thawing turns the ground into a quagmire again. That’s the reason why Germany couldn’t attack earlier. A few weeks earlier wouldn’t have made any difference to the outcome. Winter didn’t defeat them; the Red Army did.

I’m certain people will come up with the attack on Yugoslavia to counter my argument. That attack didn’t influence Operation Barbarossa significantly, not enough for it to fail. It lasted 12 days (6-18 April 1941) with a mere 151 casualties on the German side. April is well within the Rasputitsa season, so they couldn’t invade Russia anyway. It was too early in the season. You can only fight in summer and winter in Eastern Europe.

Putin is using that to his advantage. When the ruckus heated up I saw three possible options:

1: Acknowledge the breakaway areas as independent

Give them Russian passports, and send troops to defend the Russian population. That’s standard Russian procedure. Exactly the same happened in Georgia in 2008. Russia supported insurgents in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Gave the locals Russian passports and sent in peacekeepers. They are still there. He did it in Crimea in 2014 and again in the Donbas region a few days ago.

2: Occupy the entire Donbas region

Before hostilities began, insurgents and Russian troops occupied about 25%-35% of the area. There is a lot of industry and it has large mineral reserves, especially coal and gas. The population is pro Russian; Russian troops would be hailed as liberators.

3: Go for broke

Occupy the entire country. It’s clear now that Putin planned to do just that. The other two options make no sense. Option 1: Why do anything at all? Option 2: Looks good on paper, but it has some serious drawbacks. You see, Ukraine is largely flat country with a high mountain range in the west, the Carpathian Mountains. These are excellent for defense. The Germans were able to hold back a vastly superior Russian army for over a year during World War 2.

That’s what Putin wants to do. Occupy the entire country, set up strong defensive positions in the Carpathians during the Rasputitsa and wait for what comes. Which probably is not a lot. The EU doesn’t have an army. All EU nations have are a few clowns clad in green, except France and the UK. The state of the German army is pathetic. Years of serious neglect changed it from the backbone of Euro defense into a blunt broken butter knife. The Dutch army, by the way, is an integral part of the German army nowadays. In even sorrier condition. In the unlikely event we have to send our army to the Ukraine, the question will be: one or both soldiers?

France very clearly doesn’t want to fight for Ukraine, and why should it? Even economic sanctions won’t be unanimous. Germany and Italy do not want Russia out of the SWIFT system. [This article was written a week ago, but publication was delayed. The situation has changed.] The EU is strongly divided. Of course former Warsaw Pact nations are really worried. They know what’s coming. Everybody is doing what they do best: Light up a national monument with blue and yellow, and express support on Facebook. Oh, the EU announced very strong measures. Russia is banned from the European Songfestival. That’ll teach ’em!

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The Year of the Jackpot

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When I started thinking about this essay, I remembered that I had used the same title in the past. I looked up the original — it turned out to have been posted more than fourteen years ago, when I was still a neophyte in the blogging business.

Here’s my summary of the Heinlein story that inspired the post:

Back in the early 1950s the science fiction writer Robert Heinlein wrote a story for Galaxy magazine called “The Year of the Jackpot”.

The protagonist is a statistician named Potiphar Breen, who consults as an actuary for various insurance companies. He deals with probability and statistical trends in his work, but his hobby is the study of various cycles in human behavior and natural phenomena.

To entertain himself he has plotted graphs of various cycles — the rise and fall of the hemlines of women’s skirts, the incidence of various diseases, climatic fluctuations, and so on. He has noticed that whenever several of the significant trendlines bottom out at the same time, a major human catastrophe inevitably occurs, such as the French Revolution or the Civil War, with the most recent being the Great Crash of 1929.

Breen, observing that all the trendlines are about to bottom out again, and to an extreme not seen before in human history, decides to retire to a cabin in the desert with provisions and ammo to wait out the coming troubles. The situation deteriorates, with earthquakes, contagion, insurrection, and anarchy, culminating in a mushroom cloud rising high over the city of Los Angeles.

But that’s not the real jackpot. I don’t want to spoil the ending of the story; you’ll have to read it for yourselves…

Circumstances have changed a lot since then, but the theme remains a compelling one. The conceit involves what the poet Ted Hughes called the “cycles of concurrence”: the multifarious tides in the affairs of men that converge upon a single moment, which becomes a singularity in human history.

At one point I had my eye on 2009 as the Year of the Jackpot, and then later 2012 (to coincide with the end of the Mayan “Long Calendar” cycle and the reelection of Barack Hussein Obama). After that I gave up predicting the jackpot. We seem to be a lot closer to it every day, but it will arrive whenever it arrives.

Ten or twelve years ago the trends I noticed involved mass immigration, Islamization, political correctness, government debt, and “quantitative easing”. Since then a number of additional sine waves have emerged to warrant attention: the actions of the Deep State vis-à-vis Donald Trump, the baleful interference of Communist China in American affairs, the Western effort to gin up a war with Russia, the increasingly overt machinations of the globalist New World Order, and of course the “pandemic” of COVID-19 and its accompanying “vaccinations”. The last two draw together a lot of other threads as all the cycles trend towards bottoming out at the same time.

I’d like to say: “The Year of the Jackpot will be 2022,” or 2023, or some other specific year. But I’ve learned my lesson. I don’t make predictions anymore.

We seem to be heading for a cataclysmic dénouement in the near future, but there may be yet more cycles whose oscillations have yet to be plotted on the graph. Who knows?

Yet the jackpot is coming. It could be this year or next year, or it could be postponed for a generation or so. The system has proved remarkably resilient so far. It’s too early to write its obituary.

A Lytic Agent Acting to Dissolve Western Culture

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On Friday I wrote about the latest ukase from the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia, which once again orders parishes to shut down church services, this time because of the Omicron variant.

Paul Ashley asked the following question in the comments:

How will the diocese punish a parish for simply ignoring their pathetic and cowardly edict?

While formulating an answer, I started thinking about the larger issues. Below is an adapted and expanded version of my response.

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They can’t call in the state police to arrest people. They don’t have a Swiss Guard. Their only leverage is that ultimately they own the church real estate.

They could commence a legal process to return the plant to direct diocesan control, and evict the heretics. But that would be very expensive and time-consuming, and they could not be certain of success. As far as I know, there is nothing in the canons of the national church that grants the bishop the authority to exercise such dictatorial control over the parishes. She has arrogated unto herself powers the ECUSA doesn’t grant her.

Furthermore, the case would be litigated in the civil courts, which may not be all that interested in what the diocese thinks are its inherent powers.

That’s why I argued, during the heated discussion that preceded the breakup of our church, that we should flip the bird to the bishop and continue to hold services as the congregation saw fit. The vestry, however, had been fully assimilated into the Covid Borg, and voted to obey the bishop. That caused a schism — we, the unassimilated, were in the majority, but it made no difference. So we formed a dissident congregation that meets in a private home. The priest and the organist are part of our little group.

The rump, so to speak, of the original congregation consists of obedient masked and jabbed people who are deathly afraid of Corona. They do what the bishop tells them, and shut down when commanded. I think there are four or maybe five of them.

There were also several people who quit attending church of any sort as a result of the toxic conflict over the issue. They have withdrawn completely.

That’s what Covid did to my little church — it destroyed it. And I’m paranoid enough to believe that was one of the purposes of it.

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For the last fifty years or so, the globalists that aim to create the New World Order have been employing various strategies to introduce what I call lytic agents into Western culture. The purpose is to break it down into smaller and smaller parts, to dissolve the traditional social order.

For decades the principal lytic agent employed was mass immigration, and especially Muslim immigration. That’s why this blog was founded more than seventeen years ago, to agitate against that process.

The Powers That Be had evidently observed what happens in places like Nigeria when the percentage of Muslims in the population passes a tipping point. The old social structures are gradually destroyed, sharia law is implemented, and from then on the Prophet PBUH rules with an iron fist.

The average Muslim in existing Islamic societies is not all that bright, and has a volatile temperament. This renders him susceptible to manipulation and control by Islamic despots, which for centuries has been the typical political arrangement in Muslim countries.

I can only assume that the globalists have calculated that they can do the same thing with the newly-Islamized cultures of the West, once the existing order has been thoroughly dissolved. Heck, they might even convert — what difference would it make? They don’t have to believe all that stuff, and the despots in charge don’t have to follow the rules; they can drink and smoke all they like, so long as they’re out of the public eye. And, as a further inducement, the men at the top of the pyramid get to keep large harems of nubile females (or catamites, if that’s more to their taste). As for the women — well, they’ll be out of luck. But progressive chicks don’t seem to have caught on to that fact yet.

As of 2020, however, Islam as a favored lytic agent has been exchanged for SARS-CoV-2. The NWO folks seemed to have determined that it has a superior capability to destroy traditional Western culture, and have pulled out all the stops to make it do just that.

Christianity, even in these degraded times, is the strongest bastion of Western culture, especially here in the United States. The earlier socialist-communist infiltration of the mainstream denominations comes in handy now — the leadership of the organized churches can implement policies that have the effect of destroying their institutions as functioning entities, driving out members who really believe in God and the mission of Jesus Christ. Those left behind in the shells of the churches are obedient drones, functionally indistinguishable from the apparatchiks who occupy the academy, the media, the government, and other major institutions. The institutional Church will become a walking corpse.

If my little dissident congregation is any indication of the larger processes at work, real Christianity — the vital, active force that has existed continuously for two thousand years — will be driven underground, and persecuted when it dares to show its face in public.

And that’s a hopeful sign, because Christianity thrives under persecution. That’s why it is spreading so widely in China.

Pollyanna — Please Come Home

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In the following essay MC tackles the dire state of affairs in the fragmented country formerly known as the United States of America.

Pollyanna — Please Come Home

by MC

I truly believe that Communism/Nazism/Socialism is Satanic. Whilst the useful idiots may actually believe that they are doing the “good works” of Socialism, to Yah they are as “filthy rags” (in the Hebrew this is understood as “used sanitary towels”): “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” (Isaiah 64:6)

Socialists of all stamps seem to feel righteous and superior when they inflict their ‘good’ doctrines upon us. But their coercion and forcible conversion are essentially meaningless in the realm of Yah’s knowledge of Good and Evil, and they too will be judged against the Ten Commandments. They will be held accountable for their theft (redistributive taxation) and their murder as well as of throwing their ‘gods’ in Yah’s face (first commandment in Hebrew).

In Acts we read of a community of “followers of the WAY (of Yah)”. The important thing to understand is that this was a totally voluntary community, no coercion; people were happy to share what they could bring to the community. Anas and Safira sought to deceive and were struck down, not by the community, but by God himself.

But this Acts community is not Socialism or Communism where the community is not voluntary and the ‘pigs’ exploit Snowy — Snowy must join the bread queue whilst the ‘pigs’ have their food brought to them by servants.

Many point out the nasty side of the Bible, the death penalty for sodomy, adultery and fornication, for example. But this was for the same voluntary community structure that we read about in Acts. You keep the Commandments, leave and go to one of the refuge cities, or be put to death.

What is missing from Socialism is the “voluntary” element. The few who believe themselves ‘enlightened’ and thus qualified to dictate to the rest of us how we should live. This is forcible conversion, not to a ‘religion’ as such, but to a much nastier and more ruthless political religion.

The COVID-19 vaccine mandate falls into this category of forcible conversion. Everything about the SARS-COV-2 saga is a lie. But an effective one that has panicked half the world into compliance.

I have never been a fan of vaccination. From the days of Edward Jenner it has been a huge revenue-earner, and this always seems to have been of greater priority to medical professionals and their Big Pharma owners than the safety and effectiveness of the products.

This link sums up the Naturopathy view of vaccines: dangerous biologicals for the treatment of non-dangerous (in clean and well fed-people) diseases.

If the Covid vax were safe and effective, then why worry about a so-called “pandemic of the unvaccinated”? Why are the unvaccinated deemed to be a danger to the vaccinated? Is this a political stunt rather than a medical one? The evidence that it is becomes more and more convincing as we listen to the vaccine effectiveness countdown, now at 3% and dropping.

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Do you Love to Hate?

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Our Israeli correspondent MC sends this essay on the dire excesses of contemporary public policy, including the “vaccine” situation in Israel, which suffers from one of the worst cases of the Coronamadness.

Do you Love to Hate?

by MC

Any private view that deviates from the approved ‘liberal’ meme is now labelled as hate. I hate Islam, for example; I do, I do.

They send these missiles over and they explode near me and my family, but although the firing of missiles at civilians is a war crime, it is an acceptable war crime because Islam is a religion of peace and lurve. Isn’t it?

I have to say it is because to point to the world-domination aspects of Islam is ‘Islamophobia’ and Islamophobia is a ‘hate’ crime.

In 1941, in operation Barbarossa, the Nazi armies swept across the Russian Steppes, raping, looting and burning as they went. Liberals (modern day Nazis) would have those peasants whose livelihood had just gone up in flames smile and accept their fate for the greater good. A freezing winter of starvation and death is not an excuse for ‘hate crimes’; to be a hate crime, the action must fall into a violation with very narrowly defined victim and perpetrator groups.

To criticize Islam is a hate crime, full stop. To criticize Judaism is less black and white. To criticize and demean Israel, the only Jewish State, is to be encouraged.

If you come to Israel you will find that the majority of people are of Mediterranean appearance, with very dark Ethiopians, and very light Russians, but to liberals Israel, and all Jews, are white supremacists, no matter what their skin colour. Since most Jews in the USA are Ashkenazi Jews of European extraction, then Jews in Israel must therefore be ‘white’ and ‘supremacist’ (living in the ‘holy land’ as ‘occupiers’ claiming to be the ‘chosen race’, regardless of their origins).

Everybody knows that God in his wheelchair, just before he died, anointed all liberals to carry on his works of lurve, compassion and coercion. After all, it is ‘right’ and ‘just’ to make people conform for the benefit of all of us. Forcible conversion is a major part of the socialist creed.

For a Liberal, there are two ways of doing things; the Liberal way and the wrong way. To do things the wrong way violates Liberal principle and is thus implied criticism; a hate crime because ‘liberalism’ is one of the defined victim/perpetrator groups.

We no longer debate issues; we just manoeuvre our opponents into the treacherous quicksand of mudslinging. Any dialogue can be reduced to a monologue by just a few well-placed liberal epithets invoking ‘racist’, Nazi, Fascist, hate and conspiracy theory.

Recently we have seen quite a few so called ‘conspiracy theories’ prove to be accurate. When somebody puts two and two together and gets four, when they were supposed to get five, if we then yell “CONSPIRACY THEORY” for all we are worth we can make it all go away.

The so-called conspiracy theory was once the domain of the loony left, but has morphed over the last few decades into a weapon to suppress logical speculations. Here is some logical speculation:

  • China released the COVID-19 virus at the Armed Forces Games in Wuhan in October 2019.
  • Releasing a dangerous bioweapon of mass destruction is justification for war.
  • In December 2019 General Milley was worried that President Trump might declare war on China, so he took steps to acquire the power of the Commander-in-Chief for himself.
  • Milley tells his counterpart in China that he will give them a heads-up if the POTUS decides that China has committed an act of war.

If we put these points together we can logically draw the following conclusions:

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