Tag: Conflict escalation

China says US ‘playing with fire’ by giving Taiwan more military aid

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

China says US ‘playing with fire’ by giving Taiwan more military aid

Related:

Why Should We Care About America’s Indo-Pacific Allies?, May 10, 2024:

We’re not obligated to defend Taiwan. What we are obligated to do is governed by the law and the law is the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act.

…

But defending Taiwan is not one of those things, but it means that we sell them equipment that they need to defend themselves and the like. And it makes it clear intent that we want a peaceful resolution of the Taiwan PRC issue, a peaceful resolution across the Taiwan Strait. And that we are opposed to a forceful reunification against the Taiwanese people’s will.

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Is the United States going to defend Taiwan? If the answer to that question is yes, they’re going to lose hundreds of thousands of troops in that fight and they ought to know that. And then they can then make the calculus whether it’s worth it or not.

— Admiral Harry B. Harris, Jr., former commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command

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China warns PH, slams US

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
Straight from the horse’s mouth. Source.

China warns PH, slams US

Senior Col. Wu Qian, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of National Defense, accused the Philippines of causing disturbances in various areas with the support and encouragement of the United States.

“From Ren’ai Jiao (Ayungin Shoal) to Xianbin Jiao (Sabina Shoal) and from Houteng Jiao to Huangyan Dao (Scarborough Shoal), such repeated provocations have allowed the international community to see clearly who is undermining peace and stability in the South China Sea and who is fabricating and spreading lies,” Wu said.

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No. I won’t follow back, Twitter

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The seal on the left is the seal of the Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF–OIR). The seal on the right is of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). According to Reason, the CJTF–OIR is embedded with the SDF (see below*).

But Ahmed al-Sharaa AKA Abu Mohammad al-Julani said that the Kurds were the brethren of Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). /s

International anarchist and leftist groups declare their support for SDF

International League of Peoples’ Struggle:

Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman José María Sison organized the ILPS in 2001.

CPP: The Great Left Divide

*Syria’s Rojava [Where They Run Torture Camps] Is in Grave Danger + 

The SDF equals the YPG/PKK/Kurds: A timeline of the PKK’s war on Turkey

Syria’s Rojava [Where They Run Torture Camps] Is in Grave Danger +

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
Federalization of Syria a.k.a. Balkanization

Syria’s Rojava Revolution Is in Grave Danger (Reason magazine)

If the Kurdish-Arab alliance unravels, the U.S. military may decide to directly back Arab tribes as a bulwark against Iran and the Islamic State, according to Nicholas Heras, who has advised the U.S.-led military coalition in Syria and is now senior director for strategy at the nonprofit New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy in Washington. In 2019, when former President Donald Trump wanted to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria, the Trump administration considered a strategy of letting the Kurdish forces fall to Turkey and buying off Arab tribes.

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The United States has, directly and indirectly, backed all sides of the fight. Turkey is a NATO ally. Some of the SNA [Syrian National Army] units now attacking Kobane had received weapons and training from the CIA and the U.S. military. (After the Trump administration cut off support, a U.S. official condemned these same factions as “thugs, bandits, and pirates that should be wiped off the face of the earth,” and the Biden administration imposed human rights sanctions.) Meanwhile, several hundred U.S. troops are embedded with the SDF.

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In his Sunday victory speech about the fall of the Assad government, President Joe Biden said that he wanted to support an “independent, sovereign—an independent—independent—I want to say it again—sovereign Syria.” But U.S. policy at the moment seems to be creating the opposite: a Syria chopped up [Balkanization] by foreign powers.

Rojava is also known as the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.

Related:

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Marcos Says Philippines Won’t Send Warships After China Clashes

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said his nation won’t deploy Navy warships to the South China Sea in response to recent clashes with Beijing in disputed waters.

Marcos Says Philippines Won’t Send Warships After China Clashes

Previously:

Philippines to match China’s gray zone tactics in South China Sea

What’s Really Going On In the South China Sea Between the Philippines and China

What’s Really Going On In the South China Sea Between the Philippines and China

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

What’s Really Going On In the South China Sea Between the Philippines and China

by Tina Antonis

Maritime clashes between the Philippines and China had been mostly over the Philippines’ military outpost, BRP (BRP—Barko ng Republika ng Pilipinas, which translates to “Ship of the Republic of the Philippines”—the ship prefix for the Philippines) Sierra Madre, in the Spratly Islands, which is disputed by Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan (a province of China, as recognized by the United Nations’ Resolution No. 2758), and Vietnam. The BRP Sierra Madre was intentionally run aground on a reef near the Second Thomas Shoal in the disputed Spratly Islands, in 1997, so that the Philippines could stake their territorial claim.

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