It has long been a high-risk station to be seen as having vast wealth, particularly if said wealth was greatly in excess of the "emperor" (local or national). Many an ancient rich man has found that his life with his ancestors has arrived sooner than one would reasonably expect.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

China not only wants more sea it wants land as well no matter who has it.

A small village in a hotly contested region high in the Himalayas could become a chokepoint in the ongoing border dispute involving China.

A small village in a hotly contested region high in the Himalayas could become a chokepoint in the ongoing border dispute between China and India — the world’s two biggest nations with a combined population of 2.8 billion.

Tawang, a holy town home to India’s largest Buddhist monastery, is a pilgrimage site for Tibetan Buddhists. But China has a strong interest in the region and considers the town, which is part of the state of Arunachal Pradesh, to be illegally occupied by India.

Both countries share a frontier that is not fully demarcated, leading to several disputes between the two superpowers that have spilt over into violence in recent years.

The disputed border runs from the east of Bhutan across the Himalayas, with India asserting its boundary claim based on the 1914 McMahon line, named after the British foreign secretary of colonial India.

However, China refuses to accept the line and claims the entire Arunachal Pradesh region as its own. India says the border is 3,488km long, while China puts it at around 2,000km.

Tensions between the two nations have escalated in recent years, with both sides deploying tens of thousands of troops with heavy armaments along the disputed border.....

Xi Jinping calls for China's military to become a 'Great Wall of Steel' at National Peoples' Congress address.

Xi Jinping has told a gathering of Communist Party officials that China must modernise its military, oppose Taiwan pro-independence forces and promote "reunification of the motherland".

Speaking at the National Peoples' Congress (NPC), China's ceremonial parliament, Mr Xi said his country must turn its military into a "Great Wall of Steel" that would safeguard his country's sovereignty, security and developmental interests.....

China not only wants more sea it wants land as well no matter who has it.

A small village in a hotly contested region high in the Himalayas could become a chokepoint in the ongoing border dispute involving China.

Chinese land claims can be found on the strangest objects. When my son started school, he was given a tiny globe (5 cm / 2" diameter), a pencil sharpener in the base - a dime product from China. I also own a small children's ball (10 cm / 4") printed as a globe. Everything from China. Of course, Taiwan is colored identically to China. But there are also strange dashed lines in the South China Sea, even if that sea is barely discernible on these tiny globes. On the larger ball there is a english text on it, a Chinese authority has approved its map with approval ID number. What?

It is a civilizational achievement of states to mark their state borders with boundary stones by mutual consent and to fix their location, serial numbers, etc. in border treaties. In the Himalayas it can be complicated to set permanent boundary stones that are protected from erosion. But modern technology makes it possible to fix precise coordinates in border treaties instead. Why can't the ancient high culture of China do that?
Because it still feels betrayed and robbed of land by the five European powers when China was helplessly weak until the 20th century. But which European power has conquered and annexed the largest piece of former Chinese lands - Russia. Did China forget that? Bad prospects for peace in the 21st century.

Poor little Winnie. :-(

Winnie the Pooh horror film screening cancelled in Hong Kong, likely due to Xi comparisons.

..VII Pillars Entertainment said on its Facebook page that it was with "great regret" that the scheduled release of the movie on March 23 had been cancelled. It did not give further details.

Chinese censors have in the past targeted the film's main character, originally conceptualised by English author A A Milne, due to memes that compare the bumbling bear to President Xi Jinping.

The comparisons began in 2013 when Mr Xi visited the United States and met his then counterpart Barack Obama and some online commentators seized on their likeness to Pooh and Tigger.

Some people have used the image of Pooh to signal dissent....

ROFLMFAO!!!

Are there "Leftover Women" in China? :-O

China’s “social credit score” system has taken a dark new twist with a bizarre plan to turn around collapsing marriage and birth rates.

China’s “social credit score” system has taken a dark new twist. What you do, drink, buy and say could now determine whom you are allowed to date.

The Chinese Communist Party commissars of Jinan city in Shandong province are pulling everything they know about the 650,000 citizens under their control into one State-controlled singles dating app.

It’s called Palm Guixi.

And it’s the regional response to Chairman Xi Jinping’s order to turn around the nation’s collapsing marriage and birth rates.

The idea is simple.

Build comprehensive profiles about eligible young men and women’s personalities, habits, preferences, behaviours - and affiliations. Boil these down to scores. Run them through an AI. Then organise a blind date for the resulting ideal match.

Put simply, the Communist Party of China has got a math problem.....

More war talk?

China Warns Taiwan Leader to Avoid McCarthy as She Visits US.

China warned the US and Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen that any meeting with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy would be a serious provocation, raising the stakes for her trip to the US.

Tsai left Taipei on Wednesday bound for New York on a plane that was guarded by F-16 fighters as it headed over the Pacific. She’ll later visit two Central American allies, and on the way home she’s planning to stop in Los Angeles, where she’s expected to meet with McCarthy.

“We resolutely oppose this and will definitely take measures to respond,” Zhu Fenglian, spokeswoman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said at a regular press briefing in Beijing, when asked about the potential meeting. She gave no further details.

“If she meets with McCarthy, it will be another provocation that severely violates the one-China principle, damages China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and sabotages peace and stability of Taiwan Strait,” Zhu said.....

Another move by China that won't go down well.

New satellite photos have shown a worrying development on a remote island that could indicate China’s next move.

Why would civil-war-wracked Myanmar spend millions on upgrading the runway and military facilities on a remote island? It probably has something to do with the murderous regime’s closest international friend: China.

Great Coco is the largest of the group of seven islands in the Bay of Bengal between India and Myanmar. It’s about 10.4km long and 2km wide. Overall, about 1500 people live there.

It would remain just another forgotten dot on a map if it wasn’t for Beijing’s determination to establish itself as a global superpower.

And that’s what makes this dot so important....

China chucks another hissy fit tantrum.

China begins military drills around Taiwan after Tsai Ing-wen's meeting with US Speaker.

..Taiwan's Defence Ministry said 71 Chinese aircraft, including fighter jets and bombers, and nine ships had crossed the Taiwan Strait's median line by 4pm Saturday (local time), following China's announcement it would hold "combat readiness patrols" to the north, south and east of the island.

The drills, announced the day after Ms Tsai returned from the US, had been widely expected after China condemned the meeting with Speaker Kevin McCarthy at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

"This is a serious warning to the Taiwan independence separatist forces and external forces' collusion and provocation, and it is a necessary action to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity," the People's Liberation Army's Eastern Theatre Command announced in a brief statement.

As part of the exercises, a Chinese warship began live-fire drills, firing multiple rounds of artillery in the Luoyan Bay area on the coast of Fujian province, about 50 kilometres north-west of the Taiwan-controlled Matsu islands.

Taiwan's Defence Ministry said it was monitoring the situation, maintaining a high degree of vigilance, and would respond appropriately to defend the island's security.....

Now that didn't make China happy.

Fiji and China relationship tested as Prime Minister Siteveni Rabuka skips meeting with top Chinese diplomat.

Chinese Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Ma Zhaoxu was due to hold talks with Mr Rabuka in Fiji after sitting down with senior Australian officials in Canberra earlier this week.

But plans for the high-level meeting were thrown into disarray after Mr Rabuka took leave earlier this week to mourn a close family member who passed away.

The prime minister proposed Deputy Prime Minister Manoa Kamikamica meet the Chinese vice-minister instead, but Chinese officials initially rejected that offer, insisting Mr Ma was still intent on meeting with Mr Rabuka himself.

The ABC has been told that Mr Kamikamica met with the Chinese official delegation early this morning, but Mr Rabuka did not join in — even though the prime minister had returned to work first thing today.

It is not yet clear if Mr Rabuka will agree to sit down with Mr Ma later today, or in the coming days.

But the episode risks exacerbating tensions between Chinese officials and Mr Rabuka's government, which has taken a noticeably more sceptical approach towards Beijing than the former administration under Frank Bainimarama.....

It looks like the U.S. isn't the only 1 with a leak.

Document leak claims China planned to send weapons to Russia amid Ukraine invasion.

Just more intimidation?

China Warns of Rocket Debris Near Taiwan Ahead of Satellite Launch, Denies No-Fly Zone Claims.

This won't make Xi happy either as more of his plans fail.

DOJ Charges Dozens Of Chinese Officials For Allegedly Harassing, Persecuting Dissidents In US.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York unsealed a pair of criminal complaints against 44 Chinese agents for allegedly harassing Chinese dissidents based in the United States, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Monday.

The two efforts allegedly involved over 40 members of China’s national police department, the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), and two members of the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), who used fraudulent social media accounts on an unnamed U.S. platform to “harass and intimidate” Chinese citizens who promoted political views that were opposed by the Chinese government, the DOJ said in a press release.

One complaint also alleges that, beyond harassing and attempting to suppress the free speech rights of Chinese nationals based in the U.S., members of the MPS created articles and videos to target both Chinese dissidents and the U.S. government....

It doesn't take much to upset the delusional.

Chinese state media accuses the West of ‘slander’ after reporting India’s population boom.

Beijing’s state broadcaster, CCTV, has accused Western media of “ignoring China’s development” and using India’s overtaking of the superpower’s population to criticise it.

In a commentary on Thursday, the broadcaster claimed Western media’s subtext was that China’s development was in “big trouble” and that the country would decline when its demographic dividend disappears.

India is set to overtake China as the world’s most populous country by the end of June, UN estimates showed on Wednesday.....

There's international law and the Chinese interpretation of it.

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/04/24/chinese-ambassador-s-remarks-on-crimea-provoke-outrage-in-europe_6024027_4.html

Beijing's ambassador to France Lu Shaye triggered a furore by saying on French television that countries that emerged after the fall of the Soviet Union "don't have effective status under international law because there is not an international agreement confirming their status as sovereign nations".

Lu has previously acknowledged being part of the so-called "wolf warrior" class of Chinese diplomats, a nickname given to those who respond vehemently to critics they perceive as hostile to China.

Moldova? Estonia? Lithuania? Latvia? What about Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Belarus?
Is Russia a sovereign state?

Is Xi planning on some more thievery?

Cluster of Chinese vessels spotted near Russian rig off Vietnam.

A Chinese research vessel flanked by coast guard and nearly a dozen boats on Wednesday entered a gas block operated by Russian and Vietnamese state firms, two monitoring groups said, another potential flashpoint in the South China Sea.

It follows a pattern of assertive moves of late by Beijing in its neighbours' exclusive economic zones (EEZ), as it presses its claim to sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, testing the United States and its allies at a time of heightened regional tension.....

Is Xi planning on some more thievery?

Maybe Xi already knows there won't be a Russian presence in the Pacific in the future, neither in the South China Sea, the East China Sea, nor in the Sea of Japan. There were a few interesting Chinese temples from the Yuan and Ming dynasties near the mouth of the Amur river, far to the north off Sakhalin Island ("Jilin" in Chinese). In 1850 the Russians discovered a column of the Ming dynasty temple there when they conquered the region from the Qing dynasty (map). In 1904 Russians dismantled the column and moved it to the Arsenyev Museum in Vladivostok (Russian outpost; founded 1860, which name's meaning is: rule/dominate the East). China never forgets.

Xi isn't happy and I guess that little fat Kim will soon chime in.

China erupts in anger over Japan’s latest move.

China has erupted in anger after Tokyo deployed air defence missiles to a remote island, labelling Japan as a “dangerous country” that could launch an attack on the region within the decade.

Beijing-based Institute of Modern International Relations official Liu Jiangyong told the Communist Party’s Global Times that Japan was “hyping” the threat of China.

“Following the new national security plans, Japan would probably become a dangerous country that could take military action against other countries in the following five to 10 years,” Professor Liu said.

The accusation comes amid a growing diplomatic storm over the ownership of the strategic Ryukyu Islands that form an arc between Taiwan and mainland Japan......

It's fine when they do it and yet they kick up such a stink when someone else does the same thing.

This sounds like China is copying the Russian style of rhetoric and lies:


Zelensky dominates summit as G7 leaders call out China
wrote:

Volodymyr Zelensky made a scene-stealing arrival at the G7 summit in Japan on Saturday, as world leaders issued a veiled warning to China...

... sanctions so far have failed to stop Russia's invasion, and Friday's pledge to "starve" Russia of resources for its "war machine" remains vague.

But with world leaders literally standing shoulder to shoulder with Mr Zelensky, the optics send a firm message to Moscow that they mean business.

The leaders also sought to deliver a message to Moscow's ally, China...

... called for a "free and open Indo-Pacific" - rhetoric used in the past in response to China's territorial claims in the South China Sea.

More importantly, the leaders took a strong stance against what they called "economic coercion" - using trade to bully other countries - and called for China to "play by international rules".

Stressing their commitment to "economic resilience", they vowed to take steps to "reduce excessive dependences in our critical supply chains" - a reference to how the G7 countries are still inextricably linked to China in trade.

But they also said they wanted "constructive and stable relations" with China and added that their polices were "not designed to harm China nor do we seek to thwart China's economic progress and development".

China on Saturday expressed "strong dissatisfaction" with the G7's joint statement, and complained to the summit organiser Japan, Beijing's foreign ministry said. "The G7 insisted on manipulating China-related issues, smearing and attacking China,"...

Is Russia now so enfeebled that the spotlight against World Domination now turns to illuminate China?


All in our deadly one world,
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Stepping to a new low, China is now up to grave robbing. :-O

A Chinese ship has been caught red-handed trying to quietly loot the war graves of 840 men, ripping up World War II-era wrecks.

A Chinese salvage ship has been caught red-handed looting the war graves of 840 men, ripping up the World War II wrecks of the battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser HMS Repulse for high-quality steel.

Malaysian media and maritime open-source intelligence analysts last week located a dredger sitting illegally over the designated war grave of the two British warships sunk by Japanese bombers in December 1941.

Royal Malaysian Police on Friday reportedly uncovered live ammunition, two British 5.25-inch anti-aircraft cannons, a ship’s anchor and sections of hull at a jetty in Kota Tinggi, Johor.

HMS Prince of Wales was a modern 35,000-tonne warship lined with 14.7-inch (370mm) thick armour plate. HMS Repulse was a much older 27,600-tonne battlecruiser, protected by thinner 6-inch (152mm) belt armour.

But the steel used in the era’s warships was of exceptionally high quality and represents a quick and easy source of scrap to be smelted into new products.

The salvage ship Chuan 68, which belongs to the Chinese firm Fujian Ya Rui Marine, has been observed operating in Malaysian waters since early this year.....

Absolutely no respect. :-(