[Wuli]

If so Trump is wrong on the CCP. It needs to be slowly pushed out of the west’s economic engagment with it. Anything that helps China’s markets helps the CCP and helps sustain the continued dictatorship running things in China, a dictatorship seeling to expand its influence and its political model.

[Zhang Fei]

[Yesterday, the United States, Japan, South Korea, France and Britain held massive joint military drills near Taiwan. Then, China responded with its own record-setting drills, completely encircling the island nation with China’s Coast Guard, and buzzing it with fighter jets launched from China’s first production aircraft carrier.]

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The hype is evident from the missing numbers. Under 2 dozen PLAN ships. The US drills are similarly small scale, with 2,000 sailors involved. The Eisenhower alone has a crew of 6,000. For perspective, the Normandy landings involved 7,000 naval vessels, 350K men.

[plain talk]

Make a deal deal