{"id":80005,"date":"2023-02-14T03:00:39","date_gmt":"2023-02-14T08:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=80005"},"modified":"2023-02-13T14:22:20","modified_gmt":"2023-02-13T19:22:20","slug":"chinas-awkward-actions-on-the-world-stage-do-not-charm-the-neighbours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2023\/02\/14\/chinas-awkward-actions-on-the-world-stage-do-not-charm-the-neighbours\/","title":{"rendered":"China&#8217;s awkward actions on the world stage do not charm the neighbours"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cdrsalamander.substack.com\/p\/sticks-lasers-and-balloons\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CDR Salamander<\/a> explains why the BRIC (Brazil-Russia-India-China) &#8220;coalition&#8221; is as unlikely to occur in the real world as any other opium pipe-dream:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Peoples-Republic-of-China-flag.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right; padding: 0px 0px 10px 25px\" src=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Peoples-Republic-of-China-flag-480x320.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"320\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-67341\" srcset=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Peoples-Republic-of-China-flag-480x320.png 480w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Peoples-Republic-of-China-flag-150x100.png 150w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Peoples-Republic-of-China-flag-768x512.png 768w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Peoples-Republic-of-China-flag.png 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Yes, the USA and Canada had our <em>Balloons of February<\/em>, but in the last year or so, what has China been doing to seem like a pleasant alternative to the United States to the rest of the world?<\/p>\n<p>Her largest neighbor? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-asia-53062484\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">They get sticks<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<p><em>The root cause is an ill-defined, 3,440km (2,100-mile)-long disputed border.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Rivers, lakes and snowcaps along the frontier mean the line can shift, bringing soldiers face to face at many points, sparking a confrontation.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The two nations are also competing to build infrastructure along the border, which is also known as the Line of Actual Control. India&#8217;s construction of a new road to a high-altitude air base is seen as one of the main triggers for a deadly 2020 clash with Chinese troops.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>How bad is the situation?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Despite military-level talks, tensions continue. In December 2022 troops clashed for the first time in more than a year.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>It happened near the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh state, the eastern tip of India. Some soldiers suffered minor injuries.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>De-escalation work has taken place since a major clash in June 2020. The Galwan Valley battle &mdash; fought with sticks and clubs, not guns &mdash; was the first fatal confrontation between the two sides since 1975.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>At least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers died.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Another face-off in January 2021 left troops on both sides injured. It took place near India&#8217;s Sikkim state, between Bhutan and Nepal. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The &#8220;I&#8221; and &#8220;C&#8221; in the B.R.I.C. are not going to be close friends, ever &mdash; one of the reasons I roll my eyes at those who propose the BRIC nations as some kind of power block &mdash; something only slightly sillier than the Cold War &#8220;Non Aligned Movement.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>With the &#8220;B&#8221; being the basket case Brazil (<em>always the nation of the future, and always will be<\/em>), and the &#8220;R&#8221; being Russia, I mean, child please.<\/p>\n<p>Another nation that if the PRC was just slightly more subtle and less arrogant they might have a chance to make things more difficult for the USA-Japan-Australia defense concerns is The Philippines. They had a window in the last couple of decades, but &#8230; if they&#8217;re doing <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/sofiatomacruz\/status\/1624939062963621889\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">this<\/a>;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Screenshot-2023-02-14-at-14-14-54-Sticks-Lasers-and-Balloons.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Screenshot-2023-02-14-at-14-14-54-Sticks-Lasers-and-Balloons.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"643\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-80006\" srcset=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Screenshot-2023-02-14-at-14-14-54-Sticks-Lasers-and-Balloons.png 550w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Screenshot-2023-02-14-at-14-14-54-Sticks-Lasers-and-Balloons-480x561.png 480w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Screenshot-2023-02-14-at-14-14-54-Sticks-Lasers-and-Balloons-547x640.png 547w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Screenshot-2023-02-14-at-14-14-54-Sticks-Lasers-and-Balloons-128x150.png 128w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The PRC Wolf Warrior Lack of Charm Campaign perhaps may play well internally &mdash; and that may be all they care about &mdash; but there was a window not long ago that the PRC was playing smart on the world stage &mdash; making significant impact in Australia and having the USA happy to let them set up Confucius Institutes at our major universities, etc &#8230; but the last decade or so they somehow decided to play a different game.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CDR Salamander explains why the BRIC (Brazil-Russia-India-China) &#8220;coalition&#8221; is as unlikely to occur in the real world as any other opium pipe-dream: Yes, the USA and Canada had our Balloons of February, but in the last year or so, what has China been doing to seem like a pleasant alternative to the United States to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,22,23,5,683],"tags":[31,316,754,1507,485],"class_list":["post-80005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asia","category-china","category-india","category-military","category-pacific","tag-army","tag-borders","tag-coastguard","tag-himalayas","tag-philippines"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/favicon.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-kOp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80005"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80007,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80005\/revisions\/80007"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}