Posted on 11/01/2023 10:12:14 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
With the U.S.’s current primary Middle East focus being on trying to deter a widening of the Israel-Hamas War, China and Russia have been busy cementing their influence elsewhere in the region, most recently in Iraq. This remains a key target for Beijing and Moscow to expand their presence for three main reasons.
First, it could easily become the world’s top producer of crude oil within a relatively short time if the endemic corruption in its hydrocarbons sector was curtailed.
Second, its geographical positioning in the heart of the Middle East make it a vital link in building a network of logistical connections from the east of Eurasia into the west of Europe. And third, together with Iran under whose enduring influence its operates, it forms the core of the spiritual, political, military, and cultural Shia Crescent. A flurry of activity in the past couple of weeks involving Iraq, Russia, and China underline how seriously all these plans are moving forward.
Firstly, plans to increase Iraq’s oil production and then to send that extra output to China in the first instance moved up a gear in last week’s Cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani.
At the meeting, a senior source who works closely with Iraq’s Oil Ministry exclusively told OilPrice.com last week, the Cabinet agreed to increase crude oil exports to China by 50 percent – from 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 150,000 bpd. It was also agreed that the daily production capacity from Iraq’s largest oil field – Rumaila, featuring partners BP (47.6 percent), China National Petroleum Corporation (46.4 percent), and Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organization (6 percent) – is increased from 1.3 million bpd to 1.4 million bpd
(Excerpt) Read more at oilprice.com ...
Why are Arabs so stupid as to cozy up to the racist Chinese?
Funny thing is the Chinese are far ahead of Russia, the US and India in slaughtering and enslaving Muslims. US kills were during Gulf War and afterward.
China’s Repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang
More than a million Muslims have been arbitrarily detained in China’s Xinjiang region. The reeducation camps are just one part of the government’s crackdown on Uyghurs.
Muslims in China are put in reeducation camps, internment camps, and detention camps. Some activists describe them as concentration camps.
Outside of the camps, the eleven million Uyghurs living in Xinjiang—officially called the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region—have continued to suffer from a decades-long crackdown by Chinese authorities.
From CFR , September 22, 2022.
Good color picture of detainees being re-educated in camp.
Also says birth rate went down 60% for the Muslims as a whole due to repressive acts in China.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyghur_genocide
Remember when Dubya played footsie with Shiite “cleric” Muqtada al-Sadr? The Pentagon announced they had the man responsible for the Americans strung up on a Fallujah bridge cornered in a tiny mosque and asked Bush lackey Paul Bremer for permission to blow him up. Hours of thumb-twiddling...then “NO” came the decision from the President. Today Al-Sadr is the most powerful man in Iraq - and 100% allied with Tehran.
FACTS ON FILE-——China sides w/ Hamas against Israel. As of 2022, China was Israel’s
2nd largest trading partner, with total trade value reaching a whopping $24.45 billion.
Both the Trump and Biden administrations had restricted sensitive technological exports to China. As a result, China turned to cooperative Israel. China’s direct investment in Israel’s IT industry, especially in chips and semiconductors, now has increased.
In 2017, Israeli PM Netanyahu said China accounts for one-third of the investment in Israeli high technology, which includes US military technology the US shares w/ Israel, its strongest ally. In the ’90s, Israel sold military equipment and technologies to China, including the Harpy missile system.
This incident chilled relations between the United States and Israel, with Israel being suspended from its status as Security Cooperative Participant in the Joint Strike Fighter program. However, on 6 November 2005, Israel stated that it has been re-admitted into the program.
The US had to pressure Israel to stop sharing US military technology w/ China. Yet Israel still doesn’t restrict China from acquiring dual-usage technologies that could have military implications against the US.
A succession of US administrations warned Israel about its growing tie with China, sharing concern about China using Israel as a backdoor to access sensitive technologies from the US.
The most vocal objection to Sino-Israeli ties came from the Trump administration. When former Secy of State Mike Pompeo visited Israel in 2019, he warned Israelis that the CCP “engages in spying through its commercial state-owned enterprises and presents risk through its technology systems. Pompeo said China’s actions posed a risk.
Unfortunately, Israel largely brushed aside the warnings. Like many other countries, China’s massive market has enticed Israel. Plus, the Israeli government hopes China’s good relationships with Arab nations may help Israel.
This year, Netanyahu was working on a Sino-Israeli free trade agreement and planned to visit China. But China’s siding w/ Hamas should wake up Israel’s leaders to the reality that Communist China’s relationship with Israel is purely transactional.
Thank you Brandon....you created this mess.
No. Bush did, decades ago.
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