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The ‘Rules Based Order’ Knows No Distance
Remarks by President Biden Providing an Update on Russia and Ukraine, Feb 15 2022
Nations have a right to sovereignty and territorial integrity. They have the freedom to set their own course and choose with whom they will associate.
The distance between the U.S. (New York) and the Ukraine (Lviv) is 7,194 kilometer (4,470 miles). The distance between Russia and Ukraine is zero kilometer (zero miles). They are neighboring countries.
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Readout of Senior Administration Travel to Hawaii, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Solomon Islands, Apr 22, 2022
The two sides engaged in substantial discussion around the recently signed security agreement between Solomon Islands and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Solomon Islands representatives indicated that the agreement had solely domestic applications, but the U.S. delegation noted there are potential regional security implications of the accord, including for the United States and its allies and partners. The U.S. delegation outlined clear areas of concern with respect to the purpose, scope, and transparency of the agreement.
If steps are taken to establish a de facto permanent military presence, power-projection capabilities, or a military installation, the delegation noted that the United States would then have significant concerns and respond accordingly.
The distance between the continental U.S. (Los Angeles) and the Solomon Islands is 9,845 kilometer (6,118 miles). The distance between the continental China (Shanghai) and the Solomon Islands is 5,901 kilometer (3,667 miles).
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I wonder, MoA, if you realized that in your Part 1 comparison, US-Ukraine on the one side and Russia-Ukraine on the other, you had placed Russia’s Ukraine dilemma identical to China in the Korea 1949/50 situation.
The Chinese struggled with the Korea problem for several months. It was the fifth poorest nation in the world, with no missiles, no aircraft that could fire anything, no warships, nothing except lots of horses and carbines. When the Chinese finally intervened in Dec 1949 (American troops had reached the Yalu tri-nation river border by Nov), it sent in 3 million soldiers, mostly aged between 18 and 21, mostly peasant boys and farmers. Almost a million were dead three years later. That war kept Taiwan still separate, but it won China 70 years of peace producing the economic and technological results you see today. Those results must do more, advancing China to the next stage; and the Chinese will always remember their forefathers whose sacrifices for future generations must never be wasted.
China hadn’t come 5000 years only to be taken over by some barbarians again. China had tasted all that for 100 years. And then in March 2021 Yang Jiechi reminded Antony Blinken and Jake Sullivan of that history with the term yangren 洋人. Neither understood, of course.
The Chinese official translation then of yangren 洋人 was ‘westerner’ — the translator was being polite, which is accurate but not true, linguistically. In the annals of Chinese history (eg. Book of Han, Sima Qian’s Records of the Grand Historian) and other classical text, yangren 洋人 referred to the coalition of a dozen tribes called Xiongnu, in whom the Huns were the strongest and biggest. After waiting a century, the Han Wudi ruler (circa 100 BCE) finally launched also a 100-year-long campaign to crush them. The Xiongnu-Hun retreated to the northwest and Caucasus, and some 200 years later, made their move, circa 450 CE attacked Russia, crossing the Volga then reached Europe.
But note, the Xiongnu-Huns never, never, never came back to China and today they don’t even have a nation-state to their name: absolutely none, not even a tombstone; totally finished.
Those two wars by China, against Huns and Americans, have a parallel encapsulated in the Yang’s term yangren 洋人, which as a slur refers to a people living an ocean away (hence the script氵) whose finest literary, scientific and intellectual culture and civilization are confined to herding sheep 羊. The two script-words strung together produces yang 洋. That is, Yang had called Blinken and Sullivan barbarians. The Chinese (especially the pretty woman translator) naturally understood all that, but never the rest of the world, not even today.
When Russia told the Chinese leadership of their Ukraine plans, China told them the same dilemma we faced in Korea 1949. We can only hope they understood why we told them that, that is, truly, truly understand the necessity of their Ukraine decision, what that entails, the sacrifices and so on. But no Chinese, including Yang, told them about the lesson of the Huns, which is the more important of the two wars 2000 years apart. (Maybe it takes too long to explain and, besides, foreigners, including Russians, can never, never, never fathom Chinese culture, thought processes and rationality. Ten out of ten couldn’t overcome the first hurdle: language.)
Hope all this helps to clarify and add value to your post.
PS: We heard Dmitry Medvedev, the other day, was talking about Sun Tzu? Really?
Posted by: C Forest | Apr 24 2022 1:04 utc | 140
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