China 🇨🇳 is the World's Propaganda Factory
Note:
This was originally written Monday September 11, 2023. I don't really remember what prompted me to write this, what was going through my head, but I just felt like writing about China 🇨🇳, and also Taiwan 🇹🇼. This is apart of a series that I wrote about China 🇨🇳 and Taiwan 🇹🇼. The first two are about China 🇨🇳, and then the last two are about Taiwan 🇹🇼. There's also an unofficial fourth entry that I wrote about China 🇨🇳's opinions on North Korea 🇰🇵 and what it's relationship with North Korea 🇰🇵 actually is, but it's mostly just these posts and they're mostly just about China 🇨🇳 and Taiwan 🇹🇼 respectively. And since I finished posting my series on Israel 🇮🇱, Palestine 🇵🇸, Hamas, and Iran 🇮🇷, I thought I would go ahead and post these since I haven't posted anything political or historical in the past couple of weeks.
All of the stuff I've posted in the last couple of weeks have all been about entertainment, movies, TV shows, and cartoons. One of them was about an episode of a National Geographic series from the 1990s about a talking Earth 🌎 teaching you about the animals of the world using the best stock footage and public domain music that Nat Geo has available. In that case, it was about dinosaurs 🦖🦕 and also insects 🪰🐜🪲, arachnids 🕷️, and bats 🦇.
In addition to this, of all the political and historical stuff I've posted on this blog, I haven't really posted anything on Asia. The only Asia related posts I've posted on here in my Politics and History categories is the one I wrote about Myanmar 🇲🇲 and the civil war going on there, and the complicated and messy history behind all of it, and the one that I posted about the Vietnam War 🇻🇳, and an alternate history scenario in-which South Vietnam and its anti-communist allies won the war instead of North Vietnam 🇻🇳 and its communist allies ☭.
All of the other ones have either about Africa or the Middle East. All of the Africa ones I posted were about Liberia 🇱🇷 and the two brutal civil wars that happened there, and the all of the Mideast ones I posted were about the on-going situation in Israel 🇮🇱 and Gaza, and in the Red Sea and Yemen 🇾🇪 with the Houthis. I really didn't write that much about the Houthi situation, like I didn't write anything specifically dedicated to it and posted it on here. The most I've written about the situation in the Red Sea involving the Houthis is in the note for the last entry in the Israel-Hamas war 🇮🇱 series where I mentioned just the current developments that had happened, all the stuff that I knew at the time that I wrote that note.
Basically, the Iranian-backed 🇮🇷 Houthis started launching attacks on shipping in the Red Sea in response to the Israel-Hamas war 🇮🇱 in Gaza from Yemen 🇾🇪, a country that has been in a civil war since 2014, a civil war that was largely instigated by the Houthis themselves who took the capital, Sanaa, and have held onto it since. The Houthis claimed that they were just attacking Israeli shipping 🇮🇱, but in reality, they were attacking American shipping 🇺🇸 and then European shipping 🇪🇺 and Asian shipping. Since the United States 🇺🇸 had already sent aircraft carrier strike groups to the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea in response to the war in Gaza, it was them that began retaliating against the Houthis.
Then, the US 🇺🇸 built a coalition of many other countries, mostly from Europe, but also a couple from Asia, one from Oceania, one from Africa, one from the Middle East, and another one from North America, and began conducting a military operation to defend the shipping lanes in the Red Sea from further Houthi attacks, an operation they call Operation Prosperity Guardian. Now, when I saw the name of that operation, I genuinely thought that it said Operation Prosperity Garden, and I had wrote that initially when I wrote the note for the last Israel-Hamas war 🇮🇱 post. But, then I looked at it again on Wikipedia, and it was actually Operation Prosperity Guardian 😅. I don't know if I misread it or if someone on Wikipedia messed up and put Garden instead of Guardian. But, it's Operation Prosperity Guardian, not Operation Prosperity Garden. I corrected it on on the other note, but still.
If that wasn't enough, the Wikipedia page also kept adding countries to the belligerents list, such as Germany 🇩🇪, New Zealand 🇳🇿, and South Korea 🇰🇷, and I edited the note a few times to add those countries since there were apart of the belligerents list on the coalition side. But, then a day or so later, those countries were removed from the list, and I had to go back and remove them. So, as of now, the official list of members in the US-lead coalition 🇺🇸 is the United Kingdom 🇬🇧, Greece 🇬🇷, Norway 🇳🇴, the Netherlands 🇳🇱, Denmark 🇩🇰, Canada 🇨🇦, Australia 🇦🇺, Singapore 🇸🇬, Sri Lanka 🇱🇰, Bahrain 🇧🇭, and the Seychelles 🇸🇨 in a purely support role.
It's like a larger scale, more souped up version of Operation Ocean Shield, the military operation in-which the US 🇺🇸 put together an international coalition to stop Somali pirate attacks 🇸🇴🏴☠️ in the Gulf of Aden. The Somali Civil War 🇸🇴 had caused many Somalis 🇸🇴 to turn to piracy 🏴☠️ in order to make a living. It's almost as if civil wars happening in countries that border international shipping lanes and choke points is a bad thing. Except, here in this case, the Houthis' reasoning for attacking shipping in the Red Sea is not the same as the Somali pirates' 🇸🇴🏴☠️ reasoning for attacking shipping (or raiding shipping) in the Gulf of Aden.
The Houthis are mostly motivated by politics, and are not just in it for the money 💵💶💷 like the Somali pirates 🇸🇴🏴☠️ were 🤑. They're trying to show off, show their allegiance and "solidarity" with the Palestinian cause 🇵🇸 when Israel 🇮🇱 is bombing the shit out of Gaza. That's not to say there isn't a money 💵💶💷 component to this, there is, but the Houthis' motive for attacking international shipping has more to do with politics, and them wanting to virtue signal for lack of a better term.
I also think the coalition for Operation Prosperity Guardian is a lot smaller than the coalition for Operation Ocean Shield. Ocean Shield was a straight up NATO operation, whereas this isn't, since it features a few non-NATO countries along with all the NATO ones, which are the majority. That's not to say that non-NATO countries didn't participate in Ocean Shield, they did, but it featured a lot of NATO countries (including most of the ones involved in Prosperity Guardian right now) and the operation was still largely conducted as a NATO operation. Prosperity Guardian isn't being conducted as a NATO operation like Ocean Shield was, it's mostly being conducted as a US operation 🇺🇸 where the US 🇺🇸 works with some partners.
I say that Prosperity Guardian is larger in scale than Ocean Shield because while it features less countries in the coalition, the weapons and equipment that the enemy, the Houthis have at their disposal are far more powerful and destructive than anything the Somali pirates 🇸🇴🏴☠️ had. Like, the Houthis straight up have helicopters that they use to board ships with, whereas the Somali pirates 🇸🇴🏴☠️ only had fishing boats 🚤 basically. All of the Houthis' weapons and equipment come courtesy of Iran 🇮🇷 because they are an Iranian proxy group 🇮🇷.
I mean, they aren't just an Iranian proxy 🇮🇷, they do have agency and make decisions on their own. But, they are more of an Iranian proxy 🇮🇷 than Hamas is, since they are actually Shia whereas Hamas is Sunni. That's an important distinction to make because Iran 🇮🇷 is a Shia theocracy, and it tends to sponsor groups that are also Shia. So, if an Islamic militant group ☪️ is Shia, then it's probably backed by Iran 🇮🇷. Hamas is the exception, one of the few if only, Sunni organization being supported by Iran 🇮🇷.
The situation right now as far as Prosperity Guardian and the Red Sea crisis as a whole goes is that the US 🇺🇸 and the UK 🇬🇧 has launched airstrikes against Houthi bases and Houthi positions in Yemen 🇾🇪, which has of course sparked huge backlash and protests 🪧 in Yemen 🇾🇪. I mean, why wouldn't there be? The Yemenis 🇾🇪 have been bombed by the Saudis 🇸🇦 for the past 9 years, and they got a lot of their bombs from the Americans 🇺🇸. They don't want to be bomb again, this time by the Americans 🇺🇸 and the British 🇬🇧. Even though, as far as I know, no civilians were actually killed in the US and UK strikes 🇺🇸🇬🇧 on Yemen 🇾🇪.
Right now, it's just a brutal back and forth between the coalition and the Houthis, with the Houthis attacking US forces 🇺🇸 in the Red Sea, and the US 🇺🇸 retaliating with strikes of its own. They are no closer to defeating the Houthis. Completely defeating and destroying a group like the Houthis is close to impossible, and that's not even the Biden administration's goal with this operation. Their goal is to deter the Houthis from attacking international shipping any further by showing what happens if they keep doing what they're doing. And what happens is that they get blown up 💥 by American and British missiles and bombs 🇺🇸🇬🇧. Whether any of this will work in the long run is still up in the air, and we'll just have to wait and see what happens next.
Of course, this is all happening within the broader context of attacks on US forces 🇺🇸 in both Iraq 🇮🇶 and Syria 🇸🇾 by other Iranian proxies 🇮🇷. Last month, in December 2023, the US 🇺🇸 launched airstrikes against a Shia militia group that had carried out a drone attack against US forces 🇺🇸 stationed in northern Iraq 🇮🇶, the Kurdish dominated region specifically. The US 🇺🇸 also has military forces in the Kurdish majority region in northern Syria 🇸🇾 as well, since the US 🇺🇸 supported the Kurdish militias in both northern Iraq 🇮🇶 and northern Syria 🇸🇾 during the Syrian Civil War 🇸🇾 and the war against ISIS specifically.
Which had started in Syria 🇸🇾 during the civil war, and then expanded to Iraq 🇮🇶, and eventually the entire world as countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa had joined the US 🇺🇸 in the fight against ISIS since ISIS had expanded its territory to Iraq 🇮🇶 as well as Syria 🇸🇾. They even expanded to Africa in places like Libya 🇱🇾, Algeria 🇩🇿, the Democratic Republic of the Congo 🇨🇩, Mozambique 🇲🇿, Uganda 🇺🇬, Mali 🇲🇱, Niger 🇳🇪, Burkina Faso 🇧🇫, Egypt 🇪🇬, Nigeria 🇳🇬, Cameroon 🇨🇲, and Chad 🇹🇩.
They also expanded to the Northern Caucasus region in Russia 🇷🇺 in Chechnya and Dagestan, which is why ISIS attacked Russia 🇷🇺 during this time, and why Russia 🇷🇺 was against ISIS. They technically joined the fight against ISIS, but they did it on their own terms, and didn't not help the US 🇺🇸 in its efforts. In fact, Russia 🇷🇺 was working against the US 🇺🇸 and its interests during the war against ISIS because instead of focusing on destroying ISIS in Syria 🇸🇾, the Russians 🇷🇺 mainly focused on helping the Assad regime destroy the pro-democracy opposition, the secular anti-Assad pro-democracy rebels. They focused more on propping up the Assad regime, and saving Bashar al-Assad's ass than eliminating ISIS targets in the country. Russia 🇷🇺's fight against ISIS was mainly focused on the Northern Caucasus region because it was happening within their own country, their own territory, and they were also still in the middle of fighting the Second Chechen War.
So, the only groups that the US 🇺🇸 could rely on to help them fight against ISIS besides their NATO allies were the Kurds, the Kurdish militias, the ones that Turkey 🇹🇷 doesn't like. And it was ultimately the Kurds that cleared northern Syria 🇸🇾 of ISIS militants, they were the ones who liberated Raqqa from ISIS. Not Assad's forces, and not any of Islamic militants opposed to ISIS, and even the pro-democracy rebels. It was the Kurds, and that's why the US 🇺🇸 supports them, much to the chagrin of the Turks 🇹🇷.
ISIS even spread to Iran 🇮🇷 itself, and Afghanistan 🇦🇫, where they began fighting the Taliban, and have been fighting the Taliban ever since, even after the Taliban seized back control of Afghanistan 🇦🇫 and are the de facto government now. ISIS truly was a global threat during the 2010s, and they arguably are even to this day, though not as much as their heyday in the mid 2010s. Iran 🇮🇷 had to deal with an ISIS attack recently in the city of Kerman, during a commemoration event marking the 4 year anniversary of the death of Qasem Soleimani, the IRGC general that the US 🇺🇸 had killed with an airstrike in Iraq 🇮🇶 back in 2020. Iran 🇮🇷 even retaliated against ISIS for the attack in Kerman with airstrikes in Iraq 🇮🇶, Syria 🇸🇾, and even Pakistan 🇵🇰 that the US 🇺🇸 described as "reckless."
Like I said in a note in a previous post, Iraq 🇮🇶 and Syria 🇸🇾 have both become places where countries bomb terrorists and militias that they don't like. And I guess Yemen 🇾🇪 is also joining that category, what with how many times that country has been bombed by Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 and its allies, the United Arab Emirates 🇦🇪, Bahrain 🇧🇭, Qatar 🇶🇦, Egypt 🇪🇬, Jordan 🇯🇴, and Morocco 🇲🇦. And now, the US 🇺🇸 and the UK 🇬🇧 have joined the group of countries that have bombed Yemen 🇾🇪 to kill terrorists or militia groups they don’t like, in this case, the Houthis, who the Saudis 🇸🇦 were also mainly targeting in their military intervention in the Yemeni Civil War 🇾🇪.
That's not to say that the US 🇺🇸 hasn't struck Yemen 🇾🇪 before in the past. They've struck Yemen 🇾🇪 numerous time before the War on Terror and during the War on Terror against al-Qaeda, who has had foothold in Yemen 🇾🇪 since 1998. Don't forget, the al-Qaeda attack on the USS Cole in 2000 happened off the coast of Yemen 🇾🇪 and it was carried out by al-Qaeda from Yemen 🇾🇪. Since the beginning of the 21st century, and there has not been time when the US 🇺🇸 has not conducted some sort of airstrike on Yemen 🇾🇪.
It's just that now, the US 🇺🇸 is targeting the Houthis, a group that they really didn't pay that much attention to until the Yemeni Civil War 🇾🇪 happened, and the US 🇺🇸 supported Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦's intervention in the war by supplying them with weapons. Most of, if not all of Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦's military weaponry and equipment is from the US 🇺🇸. And the Houthis are not a new group, you know, they didn't just emerge from the civil war. They've been around since the 1990s. They emerged in 1994, and have been active inside Yemen 🇾🇪 ever since. Now, they've become an international problem, not just a Yemeni problem 🇾🇪. And now, because of the civil war, and the Houthis, al-Qaeda, and ISIS specifically, Yemen 🇾🇪 has become yet another Middle Eastern country that's bombed by outside powers to eliminate terrorists or militias, any non-state actor that they consider a threat or a nuisance.
It's not even just the US 🇺🇸, the UK 🇬🇧, Iran 🇮🇷, Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦, and Russia 🇷🇺 that do this, it's also Turkey 🇹🇷, who has bombed both Iraq 🇮🇶 and Syria 🇸🇾 on more than one occasion, including three months ago in October, when the Kurdish political party/militia/terrorist group called the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) committed a terrorist attack against Turkey 🇹🇷, in its capital, Ankara, and Turkey 🇹🇷 bombed both Iraq 🇮🇶 and Syria 🇸🇾 in response. The US 🇺🇸 also accidentally shot down a Turkish drone 🇹🇷 that was taking part in those retaliatory strikes. This all happened the same week that the Hamas attack on Israel 🇮🇱 on October 7 happened, just a few days before it happened.
Even the UAE 🇦🇪 has sort engaged in some questionable behavior during the Yemeni Civil War 🇾🇪, as the Emirati government 🇦🇪 began hiring mercenaries, American mercenaries 🇺🇸 specifically, to carry out assassinations against people who they claimed were terrorists, but were often politicians or political activists that were apart of political movements that the Emiratis 🇦🇪 didn't like and saw as a threat, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist movement and organization ☪️ that exists in countries in the Middle East and North Africa like Egypt 🇪🇬, Bahrain 🇧🇭, Turkey 🇹🇷, Iran 🇮🇷 (sort of), Iraq 🇮🇶, Jordan 🇯🇴, Qatar 🇶🇦, Kuwait 🇰🇼, Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦, Syria 🇸🇾, Algeria 🇩🇿, the UAE 🇦🇪 itself, Libya 🇱🇾, Mauritania 🇲🇷, Morocco 🇲🇦, Sudan 🇸🇩, Tunisia 🇹🇳, Israel 🇮🇱 (sort of), Palestine 🇵🇸 of course (Hamas is an off-shoot of the Muslim Brotherhood), and of course, Yemen 🇾🇪 itself. Something that got those American mercenaries 🇺🇸 in trouble. They were arrested and charged with war crimes for participating in extrajudicial killings against civilians in a foreign country. Basically, helping the Emiratis 🇦🇪 kill their political enemies in Yemen 🇾🇪 under the guise of counterterrorism. But, the mercs insist that they're innocent, and that they didn't do anything wrong, and that they did kill actual terrorists. The BBC did a video about it, you can go check out.
But, anyway, I've talked enough about this. The point is that all of the political stuff I've posted on the blog so far has been about what's happening in the Middle East, and that's where most of the world's attention is at, and what all the headlines are about. I know that I veered off course into a tangent about terrorism, but to be fair, the Chinese government 🇨🇳 did use terrorism as an excuse to crackdown on the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, and subjugate them, persecute them, erase their identity and culture, and ultimately bring them to heel. Which they have successfully done, unfortunately. Xinjiang is now a shell of its former self, and has been thoroughly been Sinicized.
The Uyghurs have been forced to dress and act more "Chinese," and are being purposefully outpopulated by Han Chinese. It's an official government official to encourage more Han Chinese people to move into Xinjiang, and replace the Uyghurs as the majority. The Uyghur language has been replaced by Mandarin as the dominant language in the region, and Xinjiang as a whole has pretty much been turned into a tourist destination where Chinese people 🇨🇳 and foreigners are given a very sanitized, Disneyfied, and government approved version of Uyghur culture and history.
Speaking of Disney, what makes the whole Uyghur situation even worse is that a company like Disney was complicit in it, willingly filming the live action Mulan movie next to the very concentration camps that the Chinese government 🇨🇳 has detained thousands, if not, millions of Uyghurs in, and thanking the government bureau or department in charge of running those concentration camps. This was a case where evil had prevailed, and the entire rest of the world allowed it prevail. Now, let's talk about how Chinese propaganda 🇨🇳 is bad, and China 🇨🇳 produces propaganda for other besides itself.
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China 🇨🇳 is not just the world's factory when it comes to consumer goods, they're also the world's factory when it comes to propaganda as well. They not only produce propaganda for their own country, but they also produce propaganda for Russia 🇷🇺, North Korea 🇰🇵, Iran 🇮🇷, Syria 🇸🇾, Venezuela 🇻🇪, Belarus 🇧🇾, Myanmar 🇲🇲, Afghanistan 🇦🇫 (under Taliban control), and of course, Cuba 🇨🇺.
Any country that's authoritarian and is friendly with Beijing, they will produce propaganda for them, praising them, making them look as good as possible, while making western countries like the US 🇺🇸, the UK 🇬🇧, France 🇫🇷, Germany 🇩🇪, Canada 🇨🇦, and Australia 🇦🇺, and western aligned countries like Japan 🇯🇵, South Korea 🇰🇷, Ukraine 🇺🇦, India 🇮🇳 (sort of), and Taiwan 🇹🇼 look as bad as possible. And a lot of this propaganda is not targeted at the domestic Chinese audience 🇨🇳, but it is in fact targeted at western audience, trying to convince them that their own countries are bad, while China 🇨🇳 is good.
China 🇨🇳's perfectly innocent, it's not trying to do anything bad, it's not threatening its neighbors with military force or economic coercion, it's not committing a genocide within its borders. China 🇨🇳's only using its power to make the world a better place, and everyone benefits from a China 🇨🇳 that's on top of the world. Not the US 🇺🇸, the US 🇺🇸 is inherently evil empire that's making the world a more chaotic and violent place by meddling in everyone's affairs, forcing everyone to do things their way or the highway, and trying to be the world's police. They lie, cheat, and steal, they cannot be trusted under circumstance. Not like China 🇨🇳, China 🇨🇳 can totally be trusted, in fact, they're the only country you should trust. That's the basic message of a lot of this Chinese propaganda 🇨🇳.
Or when something happens in the world, especially in Africa or Asia, China 🇨🇳 not only tries to take advantage of it, but also propagandizes about it, and trying to find a way to make it the West's fault. Like, they were one of the first governments in the world to recognize the Taliban after they took control of Afghanistan 🇦🇫 in 2021, and have used their propaganda apparatuses and their simps in the West try to rehabilitate the Taliban's image, and try to make them look good, friendly, and peaceful (and not like the terrorists that they are), and make the war seem like nothing more than Western aggression towards an innocent little country in Central Asia. All so that Chinese firms 🇨🇳 can gain mining concessions ⛏️ for Afghanistan 🇦🇫's vast natural resources.
The Taliban have indeed welcomed Chinese companies 🇨🇳 into the country, and have allowed them mine for gold, copper, iron ore, barite, lithium, chromite, lead, talc, zinc, as well as precious and semi-precious stones. The USGS 🇺🇸 has estimated that Afghanistan 🇦🇫 has about $1 trillion 💵 worth of untapped minerals, and China 🇨🇳 now has near unlimited access to it. Some of these minerals are necessary to making electrical wiring, semi-conductors, and smartphone batteries, mainly iron ore, copper, and lithium.
They also want access to the oil 🛢️ and natural gas 🔥 that's in the country as well; BTW oil production 🛢️ in Afghanistan 🇦🇫 only began in late 2012, so no, the War in Afghanistan 🇦🇫 was not over oil 🛢️ like some overly conspiratorial anti-American leftists 🚫🇺🇸 have suggested over the years since the invasion in 2001 🙄; anyone who says the War in Afghanistan 🇦🇫 was over oil 🛢️ is an idiot 😤!; even then, Afghanistan 🇦🇫 is still not one of the top oil producers 🛢️ in the world, I don't think it's even in the top 10.
They defended the Omar al-Bashir regime in Sudan 🇸🇩 when they were being accused of war crimes and genocide in Darfur. And I wouldn't be surprised if China 🇨🇳 has also tried using the current civil war in Sudan 🇸🇩 to its advantage, and not only supports the government forces over the RSF, but has propagandized about it and tried to make the whole thing the West's fault or make it seem like the West wants to intervene, even though they don't.
They supported the Kazakh government 🇰🇿 when all those anti-government and pro-democracy protests 🪧 were going on in early 2022, saying in their propaganda channels that the whole thing was a Western attempt to destabilize Kazakhstan 🇰🇿 and overthrow the government there 🙄; you know, the same BS Russia 🇷🇺 always says whenever protests 🪧 happen in a post-Soviet country that has a friendly government to them. And they of course Russia 🇷🇺's actions in helping the Kazakh government 🇰🇿 put down the protests 🪧; something that Russia 🇷🇺 used its military alliance, CSTO to do.
It's sort of like the Warsaw Pact in that way. The only real military operation the Warsaw Pact conducted was the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia 🇨🇿, called Operation Danube, where they invaded Czechoslovakia 🇨🇿 just to stop the country from liberalizing. And just like how the Warsaw Pact of the Cold War didn't join the Soviet Union ☭ in its invasion of Afghanistan 🇦🇫, none of the CSTO members joined Russia 🇷🇺 in its invasion of Ukraine 🇺🇦, and indeed, Russia 🇷🇺 didn't invoke Article 4 to justify a CSTO invasion of Ukraine 🇺🇦, and just decided to invade Ukraine 🇺🇦 itself. Article 4 BTW is the CSTO's equivalent to NATO's Article 5. Most people agree that the CSTO wouldn't actually stand a chance in a fight against NATO. The military imbalance is just way too great, and NATO would easily decimate the CSTO in a war between the two.
That is if CSTO even still exists by the time war breaks out between NATO and Russia 🇷🇺, if one ever breaks out. Since many of the other member states are starting to doubt the validity and the viability of the alliance given that they've all seen Russia 🇷🇺's dismal performance in the war in Ukraine 🇺🇦, and their inability to conquer the entire country, or even take the capital city, Kyiv. And also because Russia 🇷🇺 has failed to live up to its security commitments to the other member states, largely because of the invasion of Ukraine 🇺🇦. Especially Armenia 🇦🇲, who is pissed at Russia 🇷🇺 for failing to stop the Azerbaijani advance 🇦🇿 into Nagorno-Karabakh back in September 2023. So, this organization, this alliance could easily fall apart in the next few years, thanks to Putin's decision to invade Ukraine 🇺🇦.)
They've supported and defended the Assad regime in Syria 🇸🇾 on multiple occasions during the Syrian Civil War 🇸🇾, and supported Russia 🇷🇺's actions during that war; which included indiscriminate bombings of Syrian cities 🇸🇾 like Aleppo, and killing and abusing civilians; some of those war crimes were committed the Russian mercenary company 🇷🇺, Wagner Group. They've accused the West (mainly the US 🇺🇸) of plotting to overthrow Bashar al-Assad just like they did Saddam Hussein in Iraq 🇮🇶.
They've even dismissed the claims that Assad has used chemical weapons ☣️ against the opposition forces and against civilians during the war, even though there's mountains of evidence support the claims that he did, and they have given credence to conspiracy theories that the whole thing was made up by the West to vilify Assad and justify an Iraq-style invasion 🇮🇶; none of which is true. I mean, Barack Obama was trying everything he could to AVOID intervening in Syria 🇸🇾 because he didn't want to break his campaign promise of not intervening in the Middle East, and because he didn't want to be compared to George W. Bush and make the same mistakes he made.
He didn't even enforce his own red lines when Assad violated them; and in the end, he only deployed a thousand troops; not exactly what I would call a full scale invasion. Even then, the main point of the intervention was fighting ISIS, not Assad and a lot of the coalition fighting was done through airstrikes, not with ground forces, although ground forces did do quite a bit.
Obama again went out of his way to make sure the US forces 🇺🇸 and the coalition did not go after Assad's forces, and only focused on attacking ISIS and other Islamic militant groups ☪️ in the country during the war, although they did also go after Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Shia militia group and political party 🇮🇷 based in Lebanon 🇱🇧; most of the strikes against Assad's forces during the war happened during the Trump administration and only a few during Obama's.
BTW, US forces 🇺🇸 did engage the Wagner Group on multiple occasions in Syria 🇸🇾 during the war, and I think they even killed some of them; making this one of the few times in history where Americans 🇺🇸 have fought Russians 🇷🇺 directly on a battlefield, in an active war zone, even if said Russians 🇷🇺 were not an official part of the Russian military 🇷🇺. Despite this though, the Wagner Group is not officially recognized by the US government 🇺🇸 as a terrorist organization, only as a criminal organization (which, yeah, they are too); they are recognized as a terrorist organization by France 🇫🇷, Estonia 🇪🇪, Lithuania 🇱🇹, Ukraine 🇺🇦, and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.
They've also defended the military junta in Myanmar 🇲🇲 after they carried out a coup against the government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, and after the military junta was accused of committing war crimes and genocide against the various ethnic groups in the country (again); dismissing those claims as "Western propaganda"; how typical 🙄; it really isn't surprising that China 🇨🇳 defends genocidal regimes like those in Myanmar 🇲🇲 or Sudan 🇸🇩 (before the coup) considering they're doing the same thing on their own territory.
They've also supported and defended Russia 🇷🇺's involvement in the Central African Civil War 🇨🇫, even though Russia 🇷🇺's involvement was mainly through the Wagner Group. But, the Wagner Group was spreading Russian influence 🇷🇺, and carrying out Russian interests 🇷🇺 in the Central African Republic 🇨🇫, and in other African countries, including Mali 🇲🇱, Guinea 🇬🇳, Burkina Faso 🇧🇫, Mozambique 🇲🇿, and Niger 🇳🇪.
Speaking of which, in addition to supporting violent and kleptocratic regimes and dictators and denying war crimes and genocide, I would not be surprised if China 🇨🇳 and its army of simps in the West have also produced propaganda supporting the various coups in West Africa over the past year or so, even if a lot of those coup plotters and coup supporters were pro-Russian 🇷🇺; the only exception or odd one out is Gabon 🇬🇦; the military has not voiced any pro-Russian opinions 🇷🇺, nor have any of the coup supporters to my knowledge; plus, I do think that China 🇨🇳 and Russia 🇷🇺 both supported the Ali Bongo Ondimba regime, so I'm not even sure if they're okay with the coup or not. But, China 🇨🇳 still supports anything that's pro-Russian 🇷🇺 because anything pro-Russian 🇷🇺 is pro-Chinese 🇨🇳 by proxy, and China 🇨🇳 is just okay with anything that's anti-western in general.
Speaking of which, there also tends to be a lot of overlap between China simps 🇨🇳 and Russia simps 🇷🇺, like you can't be a contrarian Westerner simping for China 🇨🇳, while not also be simping for Russia 🇷🇺; you kind of have to simp for both. A lot Chinese talking points 🇨🇳 are also Russian talking points 🇷🇺 because the Chinese government 🇨🇳, the Chinese Communist Party 🇨🇳☭, supports the Putin regime, Xi Jinping supports Putin.
They have stood by Russia 🇷🇺 throughout their invasion of Ukraine 🇺🇦, amplifying Russian talking points 🇷🇺; all the BS post-hoc justifications for the invasion like how it was all about NATO, or how Ukraine 🇺🇦 was persecuting Russian speakers and ethnic Russians in Donbas, or how there are bio-labs ☣️ in Ukraine 🇺🇦 producing biological and chemical weapons ☣️ 🙄; which is pretty ironic considering they defended Assad's use of chemical weapons ☣️, making excuses for him, and saying that he never used anyway, despite the countless evidence saying otherwise 😒; now they're using chemical and biological weapons ☣️ as a BS post hoc casus belli for Russia 🇷🇺's invasion of Ukraine 🇺🇦, shame China 🇨🇳, shame; they're doing the very thing they accused the Americans 🇺🇸 of doing with Assad, which is lying about chemical weapons ☣️ to justify a war.
It's all the more ironic when you consider that China supporters 🇨🇳 in the West have made false accusations about the US 🇺🇸 lying about chemical and biological weapons ☣️ in China 🇨🇳 during the COVID-19 pandemic 🦠😷. I remember this one guy ♂︎, Daniel Dumbrill was saying this in one of his videos during the pandemic 😷 that the US 🇺🇸 was falsifying intelligence about China 🇨🇳 possessing weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) like chemical and biological weapons ☣️ in Shenzhen or Shanghai or some other Chinese city 🇨🇳 in the southern or eastern part of the country. Like, he said that the US 🇺🇸 was saying that the Chinese government 🇨🇳 was developing WMDs there inside one of these factories. And he said that reason why the US 🇺🇸 was doing this was to justify an Iraq-style invasion 🇮🇶 🤦♂️.
Yes, these people really do just keep bringing up the Iraq War 🇮🇶 in order to discredit any American criticism 🇺🇸 towards China 🇨🇳, or American concern 🇺🇸 about China 🇨🇳 🙄 because it's the only thing they really have. It's the one war that they can point to (besides the Vietnam War 🇻🇳) as an example of unjustifiable war of aggression by the US 🇺🇸, or as an example of American imperialism 🇺🇸; American leaders 🇺🇸 lying about a country to cynically start a war over natural resources or to assert American dominance 🇺🇸. If it's not Iraq 🇮🇶, then it's Libya 🇱🇾, and if it's not Libya 🇱🇾, it's Syria 🇸🇾, and if it's not Syria 🇸🇾, then it's Panama 🇵🇦.
But, the US invasion of Panama 🇺🇸🇵🇦 was so long ago, and has largely been forgotten that most of these people don't bring it up at all; the invasion of Panama 🇵🇦 happened in December 1989 and ended in January 1990 under President George H.W. Bush (Bush Sr.) just in case you were wondering. Oh, and Kosovo 🇽🇰, can't forget about Kosovo 🇽🇰, these people love to bring that up from time-to-time, but not to same extent as any of those other ones I mentioned; partially because it wasn't as recent as any of those other conflicts I mentioned. So, Iraq 🇮🇶 is usually the go-to.
But, all they do is perpetuate myths and conspiracy theories about the Iraq War 🇮🇶 that just aren't true, that are objectively false if you were to look at the Iraq War 🇮🇶 in a non-biased and good faith way. And they're just doing this to excuse or obfuscate China 🇨🇳's actions, China 🇨🇳's crimes and imperialistic ambitions, and believe me, China 🇨🇳 does have imperialist ambitions; I mean, just look at their Belt & Road Initiative. And since this was during the backdrop of the pandemic 😷, they really hated when the West was criticizing China 🇨🇳's response to the virus 🦠, and when the West was suggesting that the virus 🦠 escaped from a lab in Wuhan, the place where the pandemic 😷 started (a theory that has not been proven and many scientists around the world are skeptical of); so they were really trying extra hard to defend China 🇨🇳, and dismiss any and all criticisms towards the regime, constructive or not.
Obviously none of what Dumbrill said was actually true. The US 🇺🇸 was not claiming that China 🇨🇳 was holding WMD stockpiles in Shenzhen or Shanghai or wherever, and they were not trying to use it to justify an invasion of China 🇨🇳 similar to the invasion of Iraq 🇮🇶. The US 🇺🇸 doesn't want to invade China 🇨🇳, that's the very last thing they want to do; just the mere thought of a such thing fills American policymakers 🇺🇸 with dread.
If anything, they've been trying everything they can to avoid a war with China 🇨🇳. Even going as far as saying that they want China 🇨🇳 to succeed, but only by the rules. As in, within the bounds of international law, which China 🇨🇳 continues to violate in regards to their South China Sea claims as well as their genocide against the Uyghur people in Xinjiang. But anyway, back to Chinese propaganda 🇨🇳 about the war in Ukraine 🇺🇦.
The Chinese public 🇨🇳 (for the most part) has fully bought into Russia 🇷🇺's narrative about the war in Ukraine 🇺🇦, and is fully convinced that they are fully justified in what they are doing, or at the very least, they are indifferent to it, and don't think it's a big deal, and that it doesn't affect them at all; those Chinese people 🇨🇳 are wrong, it does affect them, mostly in regards to whether the Chinese government 🇨🇳, and Xi in particular, calculates from watching it unfold whether a full-scale invasion of Taiwan 🇹🇼 is actually worth it or not; something that would affect the lives of every Chinese citizen 🇨🇳 if it ever came to pass.
All of this is thanks to the efforts of Chinese propaganda channels 🇨🇳 for the domestic audience, from how Chinese media 🇨🇳 frames the war in Ukraine 🇺🇦 for the Chinese public 🇨🇳. And it even isn't just the Chinese people 🇨🇳 or even Westerners (Americans 🇺🇸, British 🇬🇧, Canadians 🇨🇦, French 🇫🇷, Germans 🇩🇪, etc.), it's people in other countries that are more sympathetic to Russia 🇷🇺 or are lukewarm about Russia 🇷🇺 (meaning that aren't directly allied to Russia 🇷🇺, or friendly with Russia 🇷🇺, but are tolerant of them and just see them as a regular country) like India 🇮🇳, Hungary 🇭🇺, Turkey 🇹🇷, various African countries, various Latin American countries, the Solomon Islands 🇸🇧 (a country that's aligned with China 🇨🇳), the Maldives 🇲🇻 (a country is also aligned with China 🇨🇳, but is having a referendum on the country's current pro-Chinese leadership 🇨🇳 which may lead to the country decoupling from China 🇨🇳 and moving closer to the West if the opposition wins), Mongolia 🇲🇳, and even Mexico 🇲🇽.
I read a comment on YouTube from a Mexican 🇲🇽 saying that their government and their media has repeatedly towed the Russian line 🇷🇺, and has pushed Russian propaganda 🇷🇺 about the war in Ukraine 🇺🇦; even if the person in question commenting didn't agree with it personally. This likely due to Mexico 🇲🇽's more positive stance on both China 🇨🇳 and Russia 🇷🇺, the Mexican elite 🇲🇽 were likely influenced by both countries and their propaganda about the war; that, and their less favorable view of the United States 🇺🇸, Mexico 🇲🇽's neighbor to the north.
All this, while China 🇨🇳 still refuses to give Russia 🇷🇺 direct military aid, despite Putin pleading to them to give them more weapons and ammunition. Like, the Chinese 🇨🇳 are willing to help Russia 🇷🇺 out in the propaganda war, voicing support for and justifying Russia 🇷🇺's actions, amplifying all of their talking points, and blaming everything on the West.
But, they aren't willing to actually help them out in the actual shooting war on the ground; probably because they know doing so would not actually be in their strategic best interests, since they would be sanctioned too, and they don't need that right now; their economy is already struggling without Western sanctions; and plus, Russia 🇷🇺's losing, and has shown incredible weakness, and a hilarious inability to overpower and overtake Ukraine 🇺🇦 on the battlefield, so why help them militarily at all if they're already a lost cause at this point?
In fact, China 🇨🇳 has refused to sell weapons and ammunition to Russia 🇷🇺 so much, that Russia 🇷🇺 literally had to turn to North Korea 🇰🇵 to get weapons and ammunition. Russian defense minister 🇷🇺, Sergei Shoigu traveled to Pyongyang in July, and Kim Jong-un met Vladimir Putin in Russia 🇷🇺 (probably Vladivostok since it's the closest Russian city 🇷🇺 to North Korea 🇰🇵, or perhaps all the way to Moscow; he is going by train, he could take the Trans-Siberian Railroad) recently, in early September; it was all over the news.
A lot of western analysts believe the meeting between Kim and Putin is to strike a weapons deal where North Korea 🇰🇵 will provide ammunition and perhaps even weapons to the ammunition and weapons strapped Russia 🇷🇺 for their war in Ukraine 🇺🇦 in exchange for nuclear weapons technology ☢️ to boost North Korea 🇰🇵's nuclear program ☢️, and even help with their satellite technology to launch a military or spy satellite into orbit. Russia 🇷🇺 likely made a similar deal with Iran 🇮🇷 to get those Shahed 131 drones. And it's been reported that Shoigu even suggested that Russia 🇷🇺 and North Korea 🇰🇵 may start conducting joint military exercises together, something they haven't been done in decades, likely since the Soviet Union ☭ was a thing.
Now, China 🇨🇳's position on Russia 🇷🇺 and the war in Ukraine 🇺🇦 may seem pretty confusing. Like, why would China 🇨🇳 not provide any military aid to Russia 🇷🇺 when they said their "friendship" had "no limits" just a few weeks before the invasion started, and when China 🇨🇳 clearly has more modern and sophisticated military weaponry than the two countries that Russia 🇷🇺 is currently getting weapons and ammunition from: Iran 🇮🇷 and North Korea 🇰🇵? Well, think of it like this: China 🇨🇳 wants to support Russia 🇷🇺 and what it's doing in Ukraine 🇺🇦 while taking as little risk as possible.
The communist regime ☭ in China 🇨🇳 is quite risk averse (at least compared to the Putin regime in Russia 🇷🇺), and they don't want to do anything that will hurt their economy in any way, because they know that their economy is the source of their global political power. Their economy is literally the only reason why people say that they're a superpower or a potential superpower. And the Chinese 🇨🇳 know that if they support the Russians 🇷🇺 too openly and too directly, than they will be targeted by the West, and have severe sanctions placed on them, something that would only hurt their stagnating and even declining economy even more.
China 🇨🇳 wants Russia 🇷🇺 to win the war (clearly), but not if it'll cost them their own economic strength and global influence. So, that's why they've refused to give Russia 🇷🇺 military aid, and only voiced propaganda support for Russia 🇷🇺's aggression in Ukraine 🇺🇦. They've pretty much decided to leave the direct military aid to Iran 🇮🇷 and North Korea 🇰🇵 because those two countries are already pariahs on the global stage. That way, they can be the patsies and take the fall if the war ends in a Russian defeat 🇷🇺 😞, and the whole thing blows up in their faces. China 🇨🇳 will be hurt in the long term after a Russian defeat 🇷🇺 in the Ukraine war 🇺🇦, but not in the short term, and China 🇨🇳 is only really thinking about the short term here.
—
Update (Friday October 20, 2023):
🇲🇳
Remember how I said that Mongolia 🇲🇳 is one of the countries that's lukewarm about Russia 🇷🇺? Well, as it turns out, that's a little complicated. You see, despite Mongolia 🇲🇳 maintaining good relations with Russia 🇷🇺, the president, Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh put out a video during the onset on the Russian invasion of Ukraine 🇷🇺🇺🇦, warning the ethnic minorities in Siberia that the Russian military 🇷🇺 was conscripting them and using them as canon fodder in the war in Ukraine 🇺🇦; which is definitely true, the Russian military 🇷🇺 is using ethnic minorities in the country as canon fodder in the war against Ukraine 🇺🇦. He also told them that they are more than welcome to come to Mongolia 🇲🇳 seek asylum, and avoid conscription. On top of that, he was wearing a Ukrainian pin 🇺🇦 or Ukrainian bow 🇺🇦 when he was issuing this warning, clearly showing solidarity with Ukraine 🇺🇦.
My guess is that Khürelsükh was mostly directing his message towards the ethnic Mongolic Buryat people who mainly live in the Russian republic 🇷🇺, Buryatia. Makes sense right? He's welcoming ethnic Mongols to come live in Mongolia 🇲🇳, and these ethnic Mongols are facing the brunt of Russian conscription 🇷🇺 during the war in Ukraine 🇺🇦.
But, I do think he did mean other non-Mongolic Siberian peoples as well, other ethnic minorities in Siberia who live in poverty, and are being conscripted into Putin's war of aggression, like Tuvans for instance; Tuvans are an ethnic group who share a lot of cultural similarities with Mongols (they have throat singing just like Mongols do), but are a Turkic people who speak a Turkic language, which the Mongols aren't; the Mongols are a distinct ethnic group from the Turks, and speak a distinct language. And let's not forget, Buryats are not the only Mongolic ethnic group in Russia 🇷🇺, there's also the Kalmyks, who mainly live in the Republic of Kalmykia, although that republic is in Southern Russia 🇷🇺, as oppose to Buryatia, which is in Siberia (the Russian Far-East 🇷🇺).
So, I think Khürelsükh is welcome any and all ethnic minority groups in Russia 🇷🇺 that want to escape conscriptions, and even ethnic Russians as well. Mongolia 🇲🇳 has become a popular destination for ethnic Russians who want to flee the country to escape conscription or mobilization, or just to escape the increasingly totalitarian rule of Vladimir Putin. It's easy for them because Russian is a commonly spoken language in Mongolia 🇲🇳.
I mean, Mongolia 🇲🇳 has historically been in Russia 🇷🇺's sphere of influence, ever since it first gained independence from China, after the dissolution of the Qing Dynasty, and the end of imperial rule in China overall in 1912; it lost its independence to the Republic of China (ROC) 🇹🇼 for a brief time, but regained it in 1921. Mongolia 🇲🇳 became a communist state ☭ (called the Mongolian People's Republic) in 1924, and was firmly a Soviet client state ☭ up until 1992 after the Soviet Union ☭ collapsed.
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The communist regime ☭ in Mongolia 🇲🇳 was disbanded and replaced with the government Mongolia 🇲🇳 still has today thanks to a new constitution being adopted, and the communist party ☭, the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party 🇲🇳 essentially being forced to step down to allow multi-party elections to take place; Mongolia 🇲🇳 had become a democracy. Despite this, that party is still around, it's still part of mainstream Mongolian politics 🇲🇳, but it changed its name to the Mongolian People's Party 🇲🇳, and it abandoned Marxist-Leninism in favor of democratic socialism.
Yes, right wingers, they are completely different ideologies, and they do not correlate with one another, nor does one necessarily lead to the other; democratic socialism or social democracy does not automatically lead to Marxist-Leninism. Most Marxist-Leninist states throughout history have established through violent or forceful methods, whether through violent revolution, through civil war, or through coup d'état, or were installed by a foreign invading power (*cough* the Soviet Union ☭ *cough* *cough* Vietnam 🇻🇳 *cough*); there hasn't been a Marxist-Leninist state that I can think of that started out as a democratic socialist state and then became Marxist-Leninist. A couple or a few Marxist-Leninist states may have come to power through a democratic process, but they're Marxist-Leninist from the get-go; it's not that they're democratic socialist and then become Marxist-Leninist, they are always Marxist-Leninist from the beginning. Anyway, back to the Mongolian People's Party 🇲🇳.
The current Mongolian president 🇲🇳, Khürelsükh, the guy I've been talking about throughout this update, is in fact a member of the Mongolian People's Party 🇲🇳. He was their candidate for the 2021 presidential election, which he won handsomely as you can see; to this day, it remains the oldest political party in Mongolia 🇲🇳. So, yeah, long story short, of course Russian was going to be a common language in the country, even to this day. Even the Mongolian language itself uses the Cyrillic alphabet in most official script just like Russian does, although the Mongolians 🇲🇳 do still maintain the old traditional Mongolian alphabet/script (the one that's written vertically top down), but most official Mongolian documents 🇲🇳 today are written in the Cyrillic alphabet.
It's pretty surprising to see the President of Mongolia 🇲🇳 take such an overtly pro-Ukrainian stance 🇺🇦, and actually warn non-Russian ethnic groups living in Russia 🇷🇺 (in Siberia) about being conscripted in the war, and telling them that they can come to Mongolia 🇲🇳 for refuge if they wish, despite his government's official pro-Russian stance 🇷🇺. I mean, I still Mongolian officials 🇲🇳 are still meeting with Russian officials 🇷🇺 in Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia 🇲🇳's capital) and probably in Moscow (Russia 🇷🇺's capital) too.
How is that? How is it that the Mongolian president 🇲🇳 can film a video warning Siberians that the Russian military 🇷🇺 is conscripting them to fight in Ukraine 🇺🇦 and using them as canon fodder, and telling them they can escape to Mongolia 🇲🇳, and yet still maintain a healthy and friendly relation with Putin's Russia 🇷🇺? Why would he want to do that? Why would the Mongolian government 🇲🇳 want to do that?
Well, my guess is that the Mongolians 🇲🇳 want to maintain good relations with the Russians 🇷🇺 because they don't want to face the wrath of Russia 🇷🇺's military might themselves; they don't want to be attacked by Russia 🇷🇺 at a time when Russia 🇷🇺 has already invaded one of its neighbors. Mongolia 🇲🇳 directly borders Russia 🇷🇺, it shares a massive land border with Russia 🇷🇺, and Mongolia 🇲🇳's military isn't anywhere near as large or powerful as Russia 🇷🇺's. So, in the event of a war, Mongolia 🇲🇳 would likely have a tough time defending itself against Russia 🇷🇺, unless it had outside help; if other countries were supplying military aid like the Ukrainians 🇺🇦 are receiving.
It's a complete reversal of the military dynamic centuries ago, when it was the Mongols who were more powerful militarily, and it was the Russians who were militarily weaker and feared the military might of the Mongols; the Russians and other peoples of the Kyivan Rus' that faced the brunt of the Mongol Empire's expansion into Europe; they even learned a thing or two from the Mongols, things that they would use in their own imperialist expansion into Siberia.
So, from Ulaanbaatar's perspective, it's better to stay on Moscow's good side for now, than to be openly hostile towards them, even if they disagree with their decision to invade Ukraine 🇺🇦, and disagree with their decision to mainly conscript ethnic minorities in the country like the Mongolic Buryat people rather than ethnic Russians who mostly live west of the Ural Mountains in European Russia 🇷🇺; ethnic Russians who live in cities like Moscow or Saint Petersburg aren't facing the brunt of the war, and don't have to face the reality of the war.
Besides, Russia 🇷🇺 is losing the war against Ukraine 🇺🇦, the Ukrainians 🇺🇦 are kicking the Russians' asses 🇷🇺, and the Russians' military capabilities 🇷🇺 are being degraded. So, the Mongolians 🇲🇳 don't even have to be all that openly hostile towards the Russians 🇷🇺 or be all that openly friendly towards the Ukrainians 🇺🇦. They can just keep things business as usual, and wait for the Russian military 🇷🇺 to be weakened the point that it's no longer a threat to them.
So, we can see why the Mongolians 🇲🇳 may be maintaining good relations with the Russians 🇷🇺 despite them disagreeing with them on Ukraine 🇺🇦. But, why are the Russians 🇷🇺 okay with this? Why are they okay with the Mongolians 🇲🇳 taking a more pro-Ukraine stance 🇺🇦, and telling their citizens that's okay for them to flee conscription and mobilization into Mongolia 🇲🇳? You'd think the Russians 🇷🇺 would be more upset by that, and demanding the Mongolians 🇲🇳 walk back their statements, or threatening to sever ties with them or whatever. But, no, that's not happening. Why is that? Why are the Russians 🇷🇺 just accepting this?
Well, my only guess is that Russia 🇷🇺 still wants to maintain its influence over Mongolia 🇲🇳. Mongolia 🇲🇳 has been in the Russian orbit 🇷🇺 since the early 20th century, Russian is a dominant language in Mongolia 🇲🇳 even to this day. And the Russians 🇷🇺 don't want to give that up, they don't want to lose Mongolia 🇲🇳 to China 🇨🇳. The same competition or dilemma is playing out in Central Asia as well, with all the post-Soviet countries in that region, Kazakhstan 🇰🇿, Uzbekistan 🇺🇿, Turkmenistan 🇹🇲, Tajikistan 🇹🇯, and Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬; those countries were all apart of the Soviet Union ☭, they were all constituent Soviet republics ☭, whereas Mongolia 🇲🇳 was simply a Soviet client state ☭, within the Eastern Bloc. This is all the result of Russia 🇷🇺 not realizing that it's a declining power, and that it's the junior partner to China 🇨🇳 in this new "axis" against the West.
Speaking of China 🇨🇳, Mongolia 🇲🇳 has sort of made the same calculation about China 🇨🇳 that they have Russia 🇷🇺, though it is a bit different. For one thing, Mongolia 🇲🇳 used to be apart of China, during the imperial era (China was even ruled by a Mongol dynasty at one point), for a brief time under the ROC 🇹🇼. But, after the Chinese 🇹🇼 lost control of Mongolia 🇲🇳 again, this time to a Soviet-backed communist revolution ☭, and they were kind of forced to relinquish control of it for good. The Soviets ☭ forced them to recognize Mongolia 🇲🇳's independence after World War II, and the Chinese 🇹🇼 begrudgingly agreed because they didn't want to deal with the Soviet military ☭, especially when they had their own internal problems to deal with like the communist insurgency ☭ led by Mao Zedong.
Even after the communists ☭ took control and established the People's Republic of China 🇨🇳 (PRC), they made no attempts at retaking Mongolia 🇲🇳 because they were still friendly with the Soviets ☭, and respected their wishes to have an independent Mongolia 🇲🇳, and even when they weren't, they still saw Mongolia 🇲🇳 as a convenient buffer zone separating them from the Soviets ☭. That BTW was also one of the big reasons why the Soviets ☭ didn't annex Mongolia 🇲🇳 themselves, despite the Mongolian communists 🇲🇳☭ asking them to, because Mongolia 🇲🇳 was a convenient buffer separating them from China 🇨🇳.
Though I should note that the Soviets ☭ had a nuclear deterrent ☢️, so Mongolia 🇲🇳's role as a land buffer was rendered obsolete by the time the Soviets ☭ developed their own nuclear weapons ☢️ after World War II. China 🇨🇳 did not have nuclear weapons ☢️ until the 1960s, so Mongolia 🇲🇳 was still somewhat useful to them as a land buffer up until the 60s, when the Sino-Soviet Split 🇨🇳☭ had happened and the Chinese 🇨🇳 at long last had their own nukes ☢️.
Plus, an independent Mongolia 🇲🇳 served the Soviets' ☭ interests just fine, annexing it was just unnecessary in their eyes. I'm kind of surprised that the Chinese 🇨🇳 or the Soviets didn't decide to also give Mongolia 🇲🇳 nukes ☢️, or use it as a platform to deploy their own nukes ☢️ to really enhance deterrence, and increase Mongolia 🇲🇳's role as buffer. But, I suppose a nuclear-armed Mongolia 🇲🇳☢️ really didn't serve either the Chinese 🇨🇳 or the Soviets' ☭ best interest, if it would've helped maintain Mongolia 🇲🇳's role as a buffer state between the two communist juggernauts, especially during the Sino-Soviet Split 🇨🇳☭.
(This is the flag of the Soviet Union ☭, or the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ☭, or USSR ☭ short.)
And in modern times, in the post-Cold War world, Mongolia 🇲🇳 has still maintained pretty strong bilateral ties with China 🇨🇳. They've participated in the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI), and the Chinese 🇨🇳 have developed infrastructure projects in the country. But, despite this, the Mongolians 🇲🇳 don't fully trust the Chinese 🇨🇳 or agree with everything they do or say, and recently, they've been trying to establish a closer and friendlier relationship with the United States 🇺🇸.
But, similar to the Russians 🇷🇺, the Mongolians 🇲🇳 know they can't anger or alienate the Chinese 🇨🇳 too much, otherwise they might risk military retaliation against them, and the Mongolian military 🇲🇳 is definitely outmatched by the Chinese military 🇨🇳 in terms of size and power. And they also know that the Chinese 🇨🇳 could reassert their claim over their territory, and may take steps to reincorporate Mongolia 🇲🇳 into their territory again. Ever since Xi Jinping took power, he's been reasserting China 🇨🇳's claim over certain territories based on historical precedent. And he's using his military, the People's Liberation Army (PLA), to intimidate his neighbors to try to reestablish control of those territories, and Mongolia 🇲🇳 could always be next. After all, Mongolia 🇲🇳 did used to belong to China, not to the PRC 🇨🇳, but to past imperial dynasties; and the ROC 🇹🇼, but the PRC 🇨🇳 would rather you forget about that detail.
So, the Mongolians 🇲🇳 definitely want to stay on Xi's China 🇨🇳's good side just they stay on Putin's Russia 🇷🇺's good side, and that's why they haven't been as forthright with the relationship with the Americans 🇺🇸 as they might've been otherwise. That's why Ulaanbaatar has been trying to stay on the good sides of both Moscow and Beijing, it's in their best interest to do so. When you're a landlocked country sandwiched in-between two major world powers who have imperialistic ambitions and could turn hostile at any time as Mongolia 🇲🇳 is, and your military forces aren't strong enough to resist either of them or both of them on their own without outside assistance that isn't guaranteed, you can't afford to be too assertive and make them angry at you.
At the same time though, don't be surprised if there's a scenario in which China 🇨🇳 invades Taiwan 🇹🇼, and starts forcefully conscripting Mongolians in Inner Mongolia to fight against Taiwan 🇹🇼 (and the US 🇺🇸 and Japan 🇯🇵), and the Mongolian president 🇲🇳 (whoever that may be) puts out a video telling Mongolians from Inner Mongolia to come to Mongolia 🇲🇳 to avoid conscription into the Chinese military 🇨🇳.
But anyway, I just thought that I would write this update telling you that Mongolia 🇲🇳's relationship with Russia 🇷🇺 (or China 🇨🇳 for that matter) isn't that cut and dry, that there are things that the Mongolians 🇲🇳 disagree with the Russians 🇷🇺 on; the Ukraine war 🇺🇦 being one of them. The video with the Mongolian president 🇲🇳 was brought my attention by another video by a YouTube channel called the Icarus Project, I'll link it down below. The Icarus Project is a pro-Ukrainian channel 🇺🇦 that focuses a lot on making videos about Russia 🇷🇺, explaining why Russia 🇷🇺 is the way it is, and the challenges that Russia 🇷🇺 faces ever since it decided to invade Ukraine 🇺🇦.
It's a pretty new YouTube channel, it barely started last year on September 20, 2022, and only has 24 videos, and the guy behind it admittedly talks in a very dry and monotone voice; which makes some of his sarcastic quips and jokes fall flat. I'm entirely sure if this channel is even really run by a real person or if it's an AI, or if it is a real person, but they use a fake computerized voice.
If it is indeed run by a real person using their real voice, they definitely edited out all the breaths in-between each sentence, which indicates a real person talking. Which is understandable. I do that too, or I used to when I still did YouTube videos because those breaths in-between sentences can be a bit distracting, but only if you really looking out of them; most people probably don't even notice or perceive those breaths.
But, anyway, concerns about the channel and the person who runs it aside, this video that I'm talking about talks about Siberia, and the people who live in, and the hardship that they've faced and continue to face at the hands of the Russians 🇷🇺. It is certainly eye opening, especially those unfamiliar with Russian history 🇷🇺 or contemporary Russian politics 🇷🇺.
It definitely shows that Russia 🇷🇺 really was no different from the other colonialist imperialist powers of centuries past, and was arguably worse or just as bad, especially during the Soviet period ☭, when the Soviet government ☭ took more heavy handed steps to suppress indigenous Siberian cultures and languages, and Russify these regions, and force the Soviet way ☭ of doing onto these Siberian peoples.
It definitely pokes in a hole in the narrative that Russia 🇷🇺 is somehow an anti-imperialist power, trying to resist the clutches of colonialism. Of course, this isn't to excuse America 🇺🇸 and other Western or Western-aligned powers of the things they've done and continue to do in some cases, but it is to show the Russia 🇷🇺 and China 🇨🇳 don't have legs to stand on as far as being "anti-colonialist" or "anti-imperialist."
They're imperialist, colonialist powers just like the rest of them, and they're even embarking on a neocolonialist project now in the 21st century, especially in places like Africa, Central Asia, the South China Sea, and of course, Siberia to name a few. On top of that, Russia 🇷🇺 and China 🇨🇳 refuse to even acknowledge their past colonialist misdeeds, let alone their current colonialist and imperialist transgressions.
At least the US 🇺🇸, Canada 🇨🇦, Australia 🇦🇺, and New Zealand 🇳🇿 are trying to make up for their misdeeds, and make things right with their indigenous populations, by acknowledging that they did wrongdoings and are trying to reconcile and build a better path for the future by granting indigenous people more rights, granting them more autonomy and self-determination, returning stolen lands, and recognizing their languages, and so on. It isn't perfect, there's still a long way to go, and there have certainly been setbacks; and some pretty severe setbacks at that in some cases. But, at least it's step in the right direction.
Russia 🇷🇺 and China 🇨🇳 aren't doing any of that. They refuse to even acknowledge that they've done anything wrong throughout their history, and still like to paint themselves as the good guys in every situation. And they're continuing to commit these same transgressions (or worse) against their ethnic minorities and indigenous groups even to this day, while trying to present themselves to the outside world as "anti-imperialist" or "anti-colonialist."
It's sort of like how the Empire of Japan 🇯🇵 tried to present itself as an anti-colonialist pan-Asian power trying to liberate Asia from the grasp of European and American imperialism and colonialism, but were themselves imperialists and colonialists, and were arguably way worse than the Europeans or Americans 🇺🇸 they were replacing.
At least, Japan 🇯🇵 is on a better path now than it was during the days of the Empire, but they haven't fully acknowledged all of their wrongdoings during World War II or during their colonialist rule over places like Korea. And while they have made attempts to reconcile with the Ainu people in particular, those efforts have so far have left a lot to be desired; not the US 🇺🇸 is one to talk. But, anyway, it's better if you just watch the video yourself rather than just read my long-winded ramblings, so here you go:
—
Link to the Icarus Project's video on Siberia:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4gMrVgIf120
—
Update (Wednesday November 29, 2023):
🇨🇳🇺🇸
In the main part of the article, I talked about how China 🇨🇳 wants to help Russia 🇷🇺 in the war in Ukraine 🇺🇦, while taking as little risk as possible, that they want them to win, but not if it'll cost them economically, and they ultimately just leave it to pariah states like North Korea 🇰🇵 and Iran 🇮🇷 to provide Russia 🇷🇺 direct military assistance. Well, I'm sure anyone reading that could ask, "Well, isn't that sort of like what the United States 🇺🇸 and the West as a whole is doing with Ukraine 🇺🇦?"
Yes, you could say that China 🇨🇳 is essentially taking the same approach to Russia 🇷🇺 that United States 🇺🇸 is taking with Ukraine 🇺🇦. They're helping their preferred country to only to the extent that they won't negatively affected in any way. A lot of people have criticized the US 🇺🇸 for only providing incremental support to Ukraine 🇺🇦, and not forming a coherent strategy around helping Ukraine 🇺🇦 win the war.
Ben Hodges harps about this all the time, in pretty much every interview he does about the war in Ukraine 🇺🇦. He says that thinks that the Biden administration should say that "We want Ukraine 🇺🇦 to win," and forming a coherent strategy around helping Ukraine 🇺🇦 win, and providing them capabilities they need to win. Mainly, he just wants the US 🇺🇸 to provide Ukraine 🇺🇦 all of the military capabilities it needs to retake Crimea, because for him, Crimea is the decisive terrain as he calls it.
Once Ukraine 🇺🇦 retakes Crimea, then it'll essentially be all over for the Russians 🇷🇺. The Russian military 🇷🇺 will lose one of its main apparatuses for power projection, and will greatly degraded. Putin's legitimacy back at home will greatly affected, and he will be forced to withdraw his forces, if his forces hadn't already retreated back into Russia 🇷🇺 by that point, and Ukraine 🇺🇦 will have all of its territory back.
It's not as straightforward as he puts it, like retaking Crimea won't immediately end the war. But it will be an important step towards a Ukrainian victory 🇺🇦, and it will put Ukraine 🇺🇦 in a better position to regain all of its territory from Russia 🇷🇺. And losing Crimea will certainly hurt Putin and hurt the Russian military 🇷🇺, and will greatly limit their ability to project power in the wider world outside of Eastern Europe.
But, because the Biden administration hasn't done this, and hasn't declared that their goal is Ukrainian victory 🇺🇦, a lot of people have speculated that they don't actually want Ukraine 🇺🇦 to win. They think that they just want Ukraine 🇺🇦 to survive, but not win, and they want the Russians 🇷🇺 to be weakened, but not collapse.
So, they've been trying to strike this balance of keeping the war going long enough to degrade Russia 🇷🇺's military capabilities, but not end too quickly to allow Ukraine 🇺🇦 to decisively win and regain all of its territory, and possibly lead to Russian collapse 🇷🇺. They don't want another Libya 🇱🇾 or Syria 🇸🇾 situation. Russia 🇷🇺 after all is a thousand times bigger than Libya 🇱🇾 and Syria 🇸🇾 combined, and it has the world's largest nuclear weapon stockpile ☢️. So, that's why they think they've only been providing military aid to Ukraine 🇺🇦 incrementally, to keep Ukraine 🇺🇦 alive, but not win, so that the war will ultimately end in a stalemate and a negotiated settlement so that things can go back to the way things were.
While I do think is some merit to that theory, I don't think it's the entire reason why the United States 🇺🇸 hasn't provided everything Ukraine 🇺🇦 would theoretically need to win the war, and regain all of its territory. This theory neglects to mention the fear of escalation. Ever since the year started in 2022, the Biden administration has been fearful of Russian escalation 🇷🇺.
Like, if we provide Ukraine 🇺🇦 a certain weapon system or if we let Ukraine 🇺🇦 attack Russian territory 🇷🇺, then Russia 🇷🇺 will escalate and might use nuclear weapons ☢️. Obviously, no body wants a nuclear war ☢️, except some crazy people, and no body in America 🇺🇸 wants to get directly involved the war, and have to deploy our own forces against Russia 🇷🇺, not even people who support Ukraine 🇺🇦. After all, Iraq 🇮🇶 and Afghanistan 🇦🇫 were both disasters.
So, the Biden admin just decides to impose arbitrary restrictions on itself and on Ukraine 🇺🇦 in how to prosecute the war. Telling them that they can't attack Russian territory 🇷🇺, and withholding certain weapon systems that they're afraid will upset Putin, and provoke him into going nuclear ☢️. You know, at least, until they finally muster up the courage to actually give Ukraine 🇺🇦 the weapons they were afraid would upset the Russians 🇷🇺, and provoke them into escalating the war, and then Russia 🇷🇺 doesn't do anything. How that hasn't convinced the US 🇺🇸 or any other country that providing weapons to Ukraine 🇺🇦 is fine, and that Russia 🇷🇺 won't do anything no matter what they say, I don't know. But, that's how it's been playing out.
So, in a sense, you could say that China 🇨🇳 is essentially approaching this war the same way the United States 🇺🇸 is. I've even heard people say more broadly that China 🇨🇳 and the United States 🇺🇸 share a lot of similarities. And yeah, there some similarities. They're both superpowers, or wannabe superpowers in the case of China 🇨🇳. They're both risk averse, and want a world based on stability and predictability rather than a world based in chaos and unpredictability. One is clearly more risk averse than the other. And both try to morally grandstand, and act like they're morally superior to everyone else. China 🇨🇳 likes to pretend that it's morally superior to the United States 🇺🇸 certainly, even though by all measures, it isn't.
I've seen people try to compare the United States 🇺🇸 to Russia 🇷🇺, especially in regards to the road to war, and how they got there, and how it compares to the war in Iraq 🇮🇶. That's basically the thesis of Sarcasmitron's entire series on the Russo-Ukrainian War 🇷🇺🇺🇦. He concluded that Putin's foreign policy, and Russia 🇷🇺's warlike mentality right now is almost identical to Bush's foreign policy, and the United States 🇺🇸's warlike mentality after 9/11. According to the thesis presented in his most recent video, America 🇺🇸 was essentially playing by Russia 🇷🇺's playbook with the Chechen Wars, and Russia 🇷🇺 was playing by America 🇺🇸's playbook with the Iraq War 🇮🇶 and the War in Afghanistan 🇦🇫. These two countries were basically copying each other's homework so to speak, without either country realizing it or acknowledging it.
He even said that the war in Iraq 🇮🇶 was fought with the same goal in mind as the war in Ukraine 🇺🇦: to end the international liberal order. And he also concluded that Putin's paranoia and his trajectory towards war with Georgia 🇬🇪 and Ukraine 🇺🇦 can be traced back to a conspiracy theory dreamt up by a crazy American cult leader 🇺🇸.
He even said that Russia 🇷🇺's hybrid warfare tactics that they used on Ukraine 🇺🇦 (specifically the war in Donbas) prior to the 2022 invasion, were born out of this conspiracy theory and Russia 🇷🇺 trying to use it against the West. But, since they were based on a conspiracy theory that was pure fantasy, pure make believe, these hybrid warfare tactics didn't work as intended, and Russia 🇷🇺 was forced to resort to conventional force invasions, one in 2014 (two if you count the annexation of Crimea at the start of the war) and one in 2022, which the one that's on-going right now. And yeah, there are a lot of similarities there too, in fact, there are arguably more similarities between America 🇺🇸 and Russia 🇷🇺 than there are between America 🇺🇸 and China 🇨🇳, especially in regards to their histories, their racism, and their horrific colonial pasts.
With that being said however, that would all be ignoring the huge differences. For one thing, the US 🇺🇸 is providing direct military aid to one side in the war, and is open and honest about it, China 🇨🇳 isn't. China 🇨🇳 isn't providing aid to either side in the war, and even if they are, they're being pretty secretive about it. There are some rumors that China 🇨🇳 is providing military aid to Russia 🇷🇺 through third parties and through back channels, and I think the French secret service 🇫🇷, the DGSE said something to that effect, but there is no concrete evidence that China 🇨🇳 is providing military aid to Russia 🇷🇺 at this time.
So, for the sake of brevity, let's just say that China 🇨🇳 isn't providing Russia 🇷🇺 any military aid, and is just letting North Korea 🇰🇵 and Iran 🇮🇷 do all that. Another big difference between the way China 🇨🇳 is handling the war in Ukraine 🇺🇦 and the way the US 🇺🇸 is handling the war in Ukraine 🇺🇦 is that China 🇨🇳's hesitation to go all in is based on economic and reputational concerns, whereas the US 🇺🇸's is based on concerns about escalation and regional stability.
The Chinese 🇨🇳 don't want the war to damage their economy any more than it already is, they don't want the war to turn Europe 🇪🇺 against them, and they want Putin to stay in power. The Americans 🇺🇸 on the other hand, don't want the war to escalate beyond the borders of Ukraine 🇺🇦, and turn into a wider European war, or turn into a nuclear war ☢️, and they also don't want Russia 🇷🇺 to collapse, and break apart or descend into civil war.
It's sort of similar to how Washington views the war in Gaza between Israel 🇮🇱 and Hamas, and how they're approaching it. They don't want the war to escalate and turn into a wider regional war, and destabilize the Middle East. Some of these worries and concerns might overlap, but they're based on completely different calculuses. And we should recognize that in how we think about this war, and the different players that are involved.
—
Link to Sarcasmitron's video about the American origins of Putin's madness 🇺🇸:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OFyn_KSy80
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