panther pan

[⏳Towhee 🌏☮️ @amborin]

Sergey Lavrov: The U.S. is systematically destroying and/or appropriating other nations' energy reserves and energy infrastructure, toward the goal of becoming sole supplier: Nordstream, Venezuela, Iran, etc.

Lavrov: "the Americans want to take over all the energy supply routes of all leading countries, all continents, becoming a global intermediary and dispatcher of their supplies. It should be noted that the implementation of this plan would give the United States not only incredible profits, but also fantastic power over all countries and peoples on the planet. Trump intends to achieve this through pressure - both economic, through tariff sanctions, and military."

https://t.co/2OFQnly5b7

[Pepe Escobar @RealPepeEscobar]

THE CHOKEPOINT DILEMMA

Prof. Michael Hudson - all too diplomatically - explains:

"The guiding aim of U.S. imperial diplomacy has been to control the world’s economic chokepoints, starting with control of oil."

Massive fail via the war on Iran.

That is leading to...

"Plan B to control the world’s choke points: If it cannot control key resources by outright control by allied governments or client oligarchies, then isolating them; and if that fails, then it is necessary to destroy them to prevent them from offering other countries an alternative source of supply outside of U.S. control – and on payment terms other than the U.S. dollar. The guiding principle is that if the United States is unable to control foreign oil production, then it is necessary to simply destroy it so as to leave the United States and its allies in total control of the entire world’s trade in critical energy and petrochemicals, so as to monopolize its economic natural-resource rents and the fictionalization of the resulting oil-trade surpluses.”

Where we are now:

"The U.S. attempt to win the war against Iran by destroying its government and re-instituting a new U.S. puppet dictator has led Iran to protect itself by raising the stakes to a fight for its survival with the entire world’s economy balance at stake.”

And there’s nothing vociferating neo-Crassus can do about it.

[观察者网 @realGuancha]

Chinese social media is exploding with "Toilet Bag" memes. （Screenshot: Douyin@万物之间）So here's how this whole mess began…

Chinese bubble tea chain Molly Tea just lost a ¥10.3M trademark suit to Louis Vuitton over a four-petal floral logo "too close" to LV's monogram.

Chinese netizens are in stitches — pointing out LV's flower closely resembles the Tang Dynasty baoxiang flower (宝相花) and the lattice window patterns found in classical Suzhou gardens, both of which are traditional public-domain designs. They ask: Should an ancient pattern be monopolised by foreign company and then used to sue a local brand?

Someone even spotted the same clover-like pattern on a Chengdu public toilet wall. LV's lawyers, your move. 🚽⚖️

IP law says one thing. Cultural common sense says another.

Tomorrow we'll translate a Chinese scholar's reading of this case — asking where modern IP law should stand when it collides with living cultural tradition.

LV may have won the money, but it's losing the room. It is not the first time a Western luxury house has trampled on non-Western cultures and paid the PR price. Dior faced boycotts for copying a Chinese mamianskirt yet claiming it as its own "iconic silhouette"; Gucci pulled a sweater likened to blackface; Chanel was slammed for commodifying Native American headdresses — all while rarely crediting the source culture.

#LouisVuitton #LV #MollyTea #CulturalAppropriation #IPLaw #China #HumorousChinese

[Arya Yadegaar @AryJeayBackup]

❗️NEW: Imam Khamenei’s funeral is the BIGGEST recorded funeral in history

According to official estimates, 41 to 43 million people attended the funeral ceremony in total over 6 days in 5 cities: Tehran, Qom, Najaf, Karbala, and Mashhad.

The ceremonies in Tehran lasted 3 days, while in Qom, Najaf-Karbala, and Mashhad, they lasted 1 day each.

41 to 43 million number is based on a combination of field data and official sources: It includes the number of people using public transportation to reach the ceremony, the number of active mobile phones in the Mosalla and along the procession route, the average time each person spent at the ceremony (approximately 2,5 hours), the estimated population density along the Tehran march route, the distance from the Jamkaran Mosque to the Lady Masoumeh Shrine in Qom, and the distance from the airport to the Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad.

All of these factors were considered as supporting data in the calculations.

In addition, official figures from Iraqi authorities, provided by the Prime Minister's Office, confirm the presence of approximately 10 million people at the ceremonies in Najaf and Karbala.

[Lord Bebo @MyLordBebo]

🇪🇺‼️🚨 THE EU TRICK EXPLAINED

Because Chat Control was a proposal from the European Council, 360 votes were required to cancel it.

360 votes represent a majority of all MEPs, not just those present.

The trick was to schedule the vote on the final voting day before the summer recess, when many MEPs are already absent or on vacation. In that way there are not enough voters to cancel the law.

→ Hence today’s vote to cancel Chat Control only received 314 out of the 360 votes needed.

In such a flipped cancellation vote, every absentee effectively counts as a vote for the bad law.

The Ursula and co using EU’s own long vacation policy to trick the parliament and push through surveillance is peak EU.

PS: Video with members of the European Council who pushed Chat Control through … Ursula, Macron, Merz, Meloni and co.

[Ben Norton @BenjaminNorton]

Japan is the textbook example of a vassal state.

The US nuked Japan twice, and still has 76 military bases there hosting 54,000 US soldiers.

Japan is so shameless that it celebrates its imperial master's independence day. And it did a drone show depicting Trump.

Humiliating.

[Masu Zafi 🔥🔥 @masuzafi]

🚨 “Trust me, nobody’s going to break a Chinese blockade on Taiwan.”Kishore Mahbubani just dropped this on live CNN in front of Fareed Zakaria and Richard Haass.
No shots fired.
No invasion required.
Just a blockade.
And the West can’t break it because China is now the world’s only manufacturing superpower.
Chinese products have become indispensable.
While the Beltway experts were still recycling 20th-century myths about aging populations and “combat experience,” Mahbubani hit them with the cold economic reality : the long game is already over.
This 16-minute reaction is one of the clearest explanations of why Western containment strategy is finished.
For those of you that missed the show,
watch the full clip here:
Do you think the West can actually break a Chinese blockade on Taiwan?
Be honest in the replies

[Penguin X @ThePenguinBTC]

En çok altın toplayan ülke, kağıt altını yasakladı.

Bu hafta Çin'in en büyük bankaları peş peşe aynı kararı aldı.

Başta dünyanın en büyük bankası ICBC olmak üzere, Postal Savings, Ping An ve Guangfa, vatandaşlarına altın işlemini kapattı.

İlk bakışta çok garip.

Dünyada en çok altın toplayan ülke, neden kendi halkına altını kapatır?

Cevap, kapattıkları altının cinsinde. Yasakladıkları gerçek altın değil. Kağıt altın.

Kağıt altın da, yıllardır altının fiyatının manipüle edildiğini söyleyenlerin tam olarak işaret ettiği şey.

Önce şu ikisini ayıralım.

Bir yanda gerçek altın var.

Elinde tutabildiğin, kasana koyabildiğin metal.

Diğer yanda kağıt altın.

Burada elinde aslında hiçbir şey yok. Bir bankada "senin adına şu kadar altın var" yazıyor, hepsi bu. Metali görmüyorsun, teslim almıyorsun. Sadece fiyatını takip eden bir kağıt tutuyorsun.

Çin'in kapattığı şey işte bu ikincisi.

Bankalar bunu yaparken resmî bir sebep de açıkladı. Fiyat çok oynadı, halkı bu riskten koruyorlar. Kulağa masum geliyor.

Ama işin altında çok daha büyük bir mesele var.

Çünkü dünyada satılan kağıt altın, var olan gerçek altının kat kat üstünde.

Şöyle düşünün.

Bir kuyumcu var. Kasasında belli bir miktar altın duruyor. Ama sattığı makbuz, kasasındaki altından kat kat fazla.

Herkes makbuzuna bakıp "benim altınım var" diye rahat. Kimse gidip metali istemediği sürece bu düzen sorunsuz yürür.

Ama bir gün herkes aynı anda kapıya dayanıp "gerçek altınımı istiyorum" derse, kasadaki altın hepsine yetmez. Makbuzu olanların çoğu eli boş döner.

Dünyadaki kağıt altın sistemi tam olarak buna benziyor. Bazı hesaplara göre, satılan kağıt altın, var olan gerçek altının onlarca katı.

İşte manipülasyon suçlaması da burada başlıyor.

Ortada gerçekte olmayan bir sürü altın varmış gibi göründüğü için, altın olması gerekenden bol sanılıyor. Bol sanılan şeyin fiyatı da düşük kalır. Yani kağıt altın, gerçek altının fiyatını aşağıda tutuyor. Bunu yıllardır dile getiren çok kişi var.

Şimdi aynı şeyi bir devlet, üstelik en çok altın tutan devlet, fiiliyata döküyor.

Çünkü Çin iki şeyi aynı anda yapıyor.

Bir yandan kendi halkını bu kağıt oyunundan çekiyor. Kaldıraçlı, karşılıksız altını kapatıyor.

Bir yandan da devlet olarak yıllardır sessizce gerçek altını yığıyor. Elindeki dolar rezervini azaltıp yerine külçe altın koyuyor.

Bu ikisi ayrı ayrı iki haber gibi görünüyor. Ama ikisi de aynı yöne işaret ediyor.

Bana kalırsa Çin, kağıt altın oyununun bir gün biteceğini görüyor.

O gün, herkesin aynı anda "gerçek altınımı ver" dediği gün. Kağıt makbuzun bir işe yaramadığı, sadece elinde metal olanın kazandığı gün.

Çin şimdiden o güne hazırlanıyor. Hem kendi kasasını gerçek altınla dolduruyor, hem de halkını bu riskin dışına çıkarıyor.

Bütün bunların anlamı şu.

Bugün ekranda gördüğümüz altın fiyatı, altının gerçek fiyatı değil. Kağıt piyasa yüzünden olduğundan düşük görünüyor.

Çin bunu görüyor.

Herkes düşük fiyata bakıp altından umudunu keserken, Çin tam da o fiyattan sessizce gerçek metali topluyor.

Gelişmeleri takip ediyorum. Sizi bilgilendireceğim.

[Sulaiman Ahmed @ShaykhSulaiman]

WATCH: IRAN’S HEAD COACH TO THE MEXICAN PEOPLE BEFORE LEAVING THE WORLD CUP:

♦️ "We are leaving this place, but our hearts and our presence remain here."

♦️ "The country and people of Mexico have become a part of all of us. We thank you for all this hospitality you have provided"

♦️ "We love the people of Mexico like our own homeland. This is the greatest achievement we are taking with us."

[Lord Bebo @MyLordBebo]

🇪🇺🏳️‍🌈 Support for LGBT rights became lower in EU — Eurobarometer data

7% fewer Europeans agree that homosexuals should have the same rights as normal people (including marriage & adoption) in comparison with 2019

... 7% decline, BIG

[Angelo Giuliano 🇨🇭🇮🇹 @angeloinchina]

FIFA: The Corrupt Double-Standard Machine

1983 Throwback >> Spain needs an 11-goal swing to pip Netherlands for Euro 84. They face Malta in Seville.

Malta goalkeeper laughs it off beforehand. Half-time: only 3-1. Then… 9 goals in the second half. Final score: Spain 12-1 Malta. Santillana and Rincón go on rampages. Spain qualifies on goal difference. Netherlands gutted.

Obviously a scam arranged game. Rumors of bribes, dodgy refereeing, drugged lemons for Malta players at half-time, and Spanish players foaming at the mouth on steroids. Malta players later called it out.

FIFA? Complete silence. No investigation. Business as usual.

2026 repeats the script: Algeria-Austria stoppage-time theater. Sudden 3-3. Both advance. Iran out. Benches erupt. FIFA shrugs.

Russia invades Ukraine → banned in days.
Israel faces genocide accusations in Gaza → zero ban.

Matches roll on. “Geopolitics? Not our problem.”

FIFA doesn’t run football. It rigs it.

The only real solution? Stop watching. Boycott.
No viewers = no cash = no power.
Starve the mafia. The beautiful game belongs to fans, not these suits.

They only win if we keep tuning in.

Unplug.

[VAN MUTOKA @vanmutoka1]

🟥🇺🇲🇸🇬Un jour, la CIA tenta de recruter le chef des services de sécurité intérieure de Singapour.
L’agent américain chargé de l’opération fut arrêté sur-le-champ.
À Washington, la panique fut immédiate. Pour étouffer l’affaire, un émissaire de haut rang fut dépêché en urgence à Singapour. Dans la plus grande discrétion, il proposa à Lee Kuan Yew 3,3 millions de dollars afin d’acheter le silence.
Lee Kuan Yew refusa net. Froidement, il formula une contre-proposition qui claqua comme un rappel à l’ordre :
Singapour n’avait pas besoin de pots-de-vin, mais de 33 millions de dollars d’aide économique.
Cinq ans plus tard, il décida de rendre l’affaire publique.
Le Département d’État américain nia aussitôt.
C’est là que l’offense devint double.
D’abord parce qu’ils avaient cru que les dirigeants de Singapour étaient à vendre.
Ensuite, parce qu’en niant les faits, ils traitaient Lee Kuan Yew de menteur.
Alors, il convoqua la presse et posa un ultimatum sans détour :
si les États-Unis persistaient dans le déni, les documents et les enregistrements seraient rendus publics.
Quelques heures plus tard, Washington recula.
Le Département d’État reconnut intégralement la véracité de sa version.
Cette histoire rappelle une vérité trop souvent oubliée :
la souveraineté d’un pays ne se mesure pas à sa taille, mais au caractère de ceux qui le dirigent.
Quand un État se respecte, même les empires finissent par reculer.’🇺🇲🟥🇸🇬

[Accountable @Accountable2019]

"Reino Unido ha invadido 171 países.

Francia asesinó a 22 presidentes africanos desde 1963.

EEUU tiene +750 bases militares en 80 países.

¿Y te preocupa Rusia?"

[𝘊𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘦 @OopsGuess]

Following the release of new evidence regarding Unit 731, China warned Japan to reflect on the crimes of its militarist and fascist past.

Japanese fascist descendants keep calling Chinese memory “anti-Japanese education.”

As if hatred needed to be taught.

Japan committed crimes so depraved that even animals would not understand them.

Unit 731 and other Japanese military doctors treated living human beings as disposable lab material.

They placed a mother and baby in a heated room, constantly raising the floor temperature, simply to see whether the mother would trample her own child and use the body as a cushion to survive.

They drained blood from living bodies and injected animal blood to observe the reaction.

They carried out vivisections, frostbite experiments, plague warfare, and human experimentation as routine military science.

And after the war, many of these war criminals were protected because the United States wanted their biological warfare data.

Some escaped real punishment.
Some entered universities and become respected scholars.
Some entered pharmaceutical and medical institutions.
Some died peacefully as “respectable” men.

That is the real obscenity.

Not Chinese memory.
Not Chinese anger.

The crime itself.

Japanese neo-fascists ask why China remembers.

The better question is:

How could any civilized society forget?

[Unpopularfootyx @Unpopularfootyx]

🚨🎙️ ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIĆ ON LIONEL MESSI'S INFLUENCE ON ARGENTINA AFTER THEIR WIN OVER AUSTRIA:

“I'm obsessed with watching Messi.

Not because he's my friend.

Not because of nostalgia.

Because after all these years, I'm still trying to understand how one player can control a football match without touching the ball every minute.

I watched Argentina today and the first thing I noticed wasn't the scoreline.

It was the way Austria reacted whenever Messi moved.

One step to the left, defenders follow.

One drop into midfield, the entire shape changes.

One glance over his shoulder panic.

That's not football.

That's psychological warfare.

And that's why I laugh when people reduce him to goals and assists.

They don't understand what they're watching.

Messi isn't just Argentina's best player.

He's Argentina's system.

He's their confidence.

He's their belief.

He's the reason every teammate walks onto the pitch thinking the impossible is possible.

People ask me about the GOAT debate.

What debate?
Seriously.

What debate?

For me, there isn't one.

The debate exists because television needs content and social media needs arguments.

When I watch football, I don't see a debate.

I see Messi.

Then I see everybody else.

That doesn't mean other legends weren't incredible.

It means I've never seen another player influence a match, a team and an entire generation of football the way Messi has.

And today was another reminder.

He didn't need a hat-trick.

He didn't need to score from 40 yards.

He just needed to be Lionel Messi.

And suddenly Argentina looked like a completely different team.

That's greatness.

Not when everything depends on you.

When everybody becomes better because you're there.

I've played against great players.

I've played with great players.

But Messi is the only player I've ever watched and genuinely thought:

'This isn't normal.'

The scary thing?

Opponents know exactly what he's going to do.

And they still can't stop it.

That's why I don't waste my time with comparisons anymore.

Some players become legends.

Some players become icons.

Messi became a category of his own.

And after today's performance, if you're still asking me who the greatest footballer of all time is...

You're asking the wrong question.

The right question is:
Will football ever produce another one like him?”

[Ratko R. @RatkoR2]

PRÄSIDENT PUTINS BOTSCHAFT AN DIE DEUTSCHE REGIERUNG UND DAS DEUTSCHE VOLK

So wird der Gnadenstoß versetzt – ohne Waffen, verbal… 🥳

„Wir wollen euch nicht angreifen! Warum sollten wir? Diese Zeiten sind längst vorbei! Jeder, der noch bei Verstand ist und klar denken kann, versteht das.

Erstens:

Ihr habt bereits Staatsschulden in Höhe von 2,5 Billionen Euro, und kein seriöser Wirtschaftswissenschaftler hat eine Ahnung, wie ihr die jemals zurückzahlen wollt. Und jetzt wollt ihr weitere 1 Billion Euro aufnehmen, um euch gegen uns zu bewaffnen. Wollt ihr, dass das russische Volk diese Schulden bezahlt? Niemals!

Zweitens: Euer Land ist voller Millionen von Migranten, die euch 50 Milliarden Euro im Jahr kosten. Sollte das russische Volk dafür zur Rechenschaft gezogen werden?

Drittens: Ein beträchtlicher Teil eurer Bevölkerung ist so verrückt, dass er glaubt, das Klima durch Fahrradfahren und Insektenessen beeinflussen zu können. Vielleicht ließe sich dieser massive Hirnschaden beheben, aber das würde uns auch etwas kosten.“ viel.

Viertens: – Euer Bildungssystem war einst vorbildlich. Jetzt findet in vielen Klassen praktisch kein Unterricht mehr statt, weil fast niemand mehr Deutsch spricht.

Fünftens: – Eure Infrastruktur verfällt, und ihr kommt mit den Reparaturen nicht voran.

Sechstens: – Eure Eisenbahnen waren einst der ganze Stolz der Welt. Jetzt fahren eure Züge wie in Indien.

Siebtens: – Wir brauchen eure berühmten Ingenieure nicht. Während der Sanktionen haben wir gelernt, dass wir ohne sie auskommen können. Sollten wir sie aber doch brauchen, wenden wir uns an China. Dort sind sie nicht nur billiger, sondern auch besser.

Achtens: – Ihr habt weder Rohstoffe noch Energiequellen. Warum sollten wir also euer Land erobern? Um Probleme zu lösen, die wir sonst gar nicht hätten? Realistisch betrachtet: Selbst wenn ihr uns rufen, kapitulieren und weiße Fahnen hissen würdet, würden wir trotzdem nicht kommen!

[Dustin @r0ck3t23]

Elon Musk just proved that ownership in America is a legal fiction.

Musk: “You get taxed on what you earn, you get taxed on what you buy, and you get taxed on what you own.”

Think about what property tax actually means.

You worked for decades. Paid it off in full. The deed is in your name.

Stop paying the government its annual fee. Watch them take it and sell it to someone who will.

You never owned that house. You were leasing it from an entity you never signed a contract with.

Income tax tells the same truth in softer packaging.

The government does not take a portion of your earnings. They decide how much of your own labor you are permitted to keep.

That is not semantics. It is a confession of who the system believes your time belongs to first.

Sales tax buries itself in the receipt. Two people exchange value voluntarily. A third party who contributed nothing takes a cut simply for allowing it to happen.

Now stack all three.

Taxed when you create. Taxed when you spend. Taxed when you hold. Taxed again when you die and try to pass it to your children.

At no point in that cycle does the system recognize your output as yours.

Because money is not an abstraction. It is crystallized human lifespan.

Every dollar taxed is an hour you already lived, already bled for, already gone.

The state is not managing an economy. It is claiming dominion over time you will never get back.

And spending it on systems you never asked for and actively oppose.

The institution extracting all of it faces zero obligation to perform. A contractor who delivers nothing gets fired. A bureaucracy that burns through trillions gets a budget increase the next fiscal year.

SpaceX pays taxes to the agencies that obstruct its launches. Tesla funds the regulators drafting rules to shield its competitors.

The builders are not subsidizing government. They are financing their own friction.

The tax code is 74,000 pages long. Not because the economy demands it. Because the extraction had to be buried in enough complexity that you would stop asking who it was designed to protect.

The past belonged to the people who taxed the world.

The future belongs to the people who build it.

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

I often like Ray Dalio's takes on China but he gets quite a lot demonstrably wrong in this FT article on the "tribute system."

China's ancient tribute system - called 朝贡 (cháogòng) in Chinese - is typically very misunderstood in the West: we typically think it involved tributary states paying some form of "tribute" to China in exchange for protection - the way medieval vassals would pay fealty to a lord in Europe.

In reality, it had little to do with that. In fact, it was almost the opposite: in the Chaogong system, it was actually China paying the "tributary states."

The system was basically a quid-pro-quo where China would get "得名" (dé míng, literally "getting name/prestige") while tributary states would get "得实" (dé shí, literally "getting substance/material benefit") in exchange. It was about China paying huge amounts of money and other material benefits for the recognition of its centrality.

That's what makes it so alien to the Western framework, where tributary states are paying UP to the center, and security is enforced through military presence. The Chaogong system was almost exactly the inverse on both counts: China was paying DOWN and regional order was maintained not through the military but through generosity.

The core guiding principle of the system was established by the Hongwu emperor, the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty (incidentally one of the most interesting emperors in Chinese history since he is the only founder of a major dynasty who started off in life as a wandering beggar).

The principle he set in place was 厚往薄来 (hòu wǎng bó lái) - literally "generous outflow, modest inflow": giving out much more than you take in. This wasn't a byproduct of the system - it WAS the system. The entire architecture of Chaogong was built on this principle of asymmetric generosity.

Very concretely the way it worked is that tributary states would pay largely symbolic tribute to China (like local specialties and curiosities, the system codified that tribute should be "easy to obtain and not costly", 必易得而不贵) and they would in exchange receive 3 layers of economic benefits:
1) Immediate payback in the form of money and expensive goods (silk, brocade, porcelain, tea, silver, etc.), which value was typically dozens of times the value of the tribute received by the emperor
2) The right to trade during their tribute visit: the envoys' entourage could trade with specially licensed Chinese merchants at the Huitongguan (the official guesthouse in the capital)
3) Most importantly, and that's where the real money was, they would be granted the right to trade at Chinese ports. Under the Ming maritime prohibition, tributary status was the only legal entry point into the Chinese economy

China being China, this gave rise to some pretty funny hustles. The deal was so good that people started inventing entirely fictitious countries just to get in on it. There are several documented cases of people fabricating countries and showing up as "envoys" at the imperial court just to claim the privileges (https://t.co/nlJB8yWblv).

Another funny one is that there are several cases of Fujian merchants who would sail to Southeast Asia, get themselves appointed as minor officials by local rulers, then sail right back to China as "foreign envoys" - carrying huge commercial cargoes. In 1438, three members of Java's tribute delegation turned out to be guys from Fujian (https://t.co/QBES0IVprC).

The scam got so widespread that the Ming had to invent a credential system (勘合, kānhé) specifically to verify that tribute envoys were who they claimed to be and that the countries they came from were real.

More seriously though, the Chaogong system also led to big domestic tensions in some of China's neighboring countries, notably Japan which was permitted only one tribute mission per decade. The stakes were so high that the 2 most powerful feudal clans at the time (the Ōuchi and the Hosokawa) fought a shadow war over who controlled the trade license.

This culminated in the Ningbo Incident of 1523 (https://t.co/TgKtlc7zlO): two Japanese delegations from both rival clans arrived at the port of Ningbo and got into a dispute over whose credentials were legitimate, which ended up in a pitched battle on Chinese soil. They ended up rampaging through the city, killing Ming military officers, and altogether terrorizing the local population - all over who got to trade with China.

The aftermath of the Ningbo Incident led to the total breakdown of Japan-China trade. If that sounds familiar, it should...

Which brings back to today and Ray Dalio's description of China's tribute system, as well as his claim that we're facing some sort of modern revival of it in Asia.

First of all, some parts of his article are correct: there is indeed a significant power shift happening in Asia, with countries hedging by building closer ties with Beijing, and the US progressively withdrawing and altogether losing ground.

He is also completely right that Chinese strategic culture genuinely differs from Western strategic culture: as he writes they indeed play Go (WeiQi) and not chess.

He is however wrong to describe the tribute system as one based on pressure and intimidation. As we've just seen, it was pretty much the opposite: the basic idea was to be so generous that everyone wants in (to the extent that countries would literally fight to be tributaries), not so threatening that nobody dares leave.

He also - weirdly - seems to conflate the tribute system with the Art of War, treating them as two faces of the same Chinese playbook, when they've got strictly nothing to do with each others. They're not even from the same school of thought: the Chaogong system is fundamentally Confucian (以德服人, "winning people through virtue") whereas Sun Tzu is from an entirely different Chinese intellectual tradition - the Strategist school (兵家) - which is about as far removed from Confucian thinking as Machiavelli is from the Bible.

Mashing them together reads like someone who has picked up a handful of Chinese cliché references and treats them as interchangeable ingredients in a single "Chinese strategic culture" soup.

All in all, he makes the error WAY too many Western commentators do with Chinese concepts: he uses them as exotic wrapping paper for a fundamentally Western analysis. Strip away the Chinese terminology and his argument is actually pure Western thinking: what he is claiming is that China, as a rising power, is using its growing economic and military weight to reshape the regional order, weaker states are bandwagoning, and the declining hegemon can't stop it.

He is essentially taking Graham Allison's "Thucydides Trap," awkwardly draping it in misunderstood Chinese concepts, and presenting it as if it were Chinese thinking.

That being said, he is ironically correct - I think - that there is some form of revival of a tribute-like system but not in the way he understands it: China will (and does) use trade - its "generosity" - as a gravitational force to pull countries into its orbit. Not by threatening to cut them off, but by making the relationship too valuable to walk away from. THAT is much closer to how the actual Chaogong system worked.

It doesn't mean that the system is purely benevolent. The flipside of generosity is the absence of it: in the original tribute system, you could be cut off the way Japan was after the Ningbo Incident in the 16th century. And it's also what's happening - to some extent - to Japan today: after PM Takaichi declared that Japan would go to war with China over Taiwan, China has systematically restricted trade with Japan. Same story with what happened, for instance, to Australia in 2020 over PM Morrison's declarations on Covid.

The pattern is the same: the reward for participation is trade, and the punishment for hostility is its withdrawal. Essentially in the tribute system there is no stick, just a carrot: the stick is taking the carrot away.

Which, incidentally, is why you can be extremely confident that China will go to enormous lengths to develop its internal market, and why the current situation where China runs huge trade surpluses is facing mounting pressure to change from within China itself. If countries don't feel they're benefiting enough from trade with China, the entire logic collapses. That's why developing domestic demand isn't some target China sets itself to assuage Western demands, as some claim: it's genuinely a strategic imperative.

It's also why it's ironic that the West is so keen on pushing China to boost domestic consumption: in effect, it means we're already in a de-facto Chaogong-like system and they're asking that the carrot be bigger.

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I also wrote a Substack version of this post, which you can find here: https://t.co/jBUIVbDT9C

[Wiki Leaks 1.0 @WikiLeaksQ]

🚨 BOMBSHELL FROM JAPAN — THEY CAN’T HIDE THIS ANYMORE

Professor Robert Clancy just dropped the receipts:
A massive Japanese study tracking 20 MILLION people found that ALL excess deaths were in the vaccinated group.

The unvaccinated group? ZERO excess deaths. And here’s the killer detail: mortality surges exactly 3 months after every booster — with peak deaths hitting around 100 days post-vaccination.

The pattern is undeniable. In my opinion, they can no longer suppress the information on the COVID vaccine. The data is out. The cover-up is crumbling. The world needs to see this.

FOLLOW ME, THE NEXT DROP WILL BE SHOCKING

[Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil @ivan_8848]

🚨The BIGGEST THREAT in the WORLD is NATO.

🚨Putin says the current crisis in Ukraine is a direct result of years of aggressive NATO policies.

🚨NATO Didn't Want Russia Because NATO
Wanted a WAR With Russia

🚨From 2001 all the way to 2022, 21 years, NATO moved inexorably East, surrounding Russia.

🚨The Ukraine - Russian War Was Provoked!

🚨Tucker Carlson: Putin did not start this war.

🚨This was not, "An unprovoked invasion." "Putin just randomly went over the line into Eastern Ukraine and stole these oblasts. He stole this land that belonged to another people."

🚨That's a lie, and it's not a defense of Putin to call it everybody knows it now. The truth is that in 2001, Putin, same guy, same leader, asked the Bush Administration, in person, directly to George W. Bush,
🚨"I would like to join NATO. I would like to join the defensive alliance that exists to keep me from moving West into Western Europe."

🚨PUTIN: Two Times That We Were Ready to Join NATO. Both times we were turned down.

🚨Ukraine is the only NON-NATO nation supporting every NATO mission. In Afghanistan and Iraq Ukrainian troops are helping to support democracies.

▶NATO has been encircling Russia since the nineties.

▶NATO exists to solve the problems created by NATO’s existence.

▶ NATO has never defended anyone, but only attacked.

▶NATO is a military Alliance that feeds on war.

▶To justify its existence, NATO constantly needs an external enemies and conflicts.

▶The purpose of the NATO alliance is "to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.

▶Prof. Jeffrey Sachs: The Casus Belli of the Ukraine War is NATO Enlargement, US Coup, CIA Operations All Over Ukraine.

▶Jeffrey Sachs on Trump: Until President Trump Says Publicly, "NATO Will NOT Enlarge," This War Will Continue. That's his JOB. The way to end this war is to say publicly, "NATO enlargement was a mistake, it was a provocation, it was a threat to Russia's security."

▶Jeffrey Sachs: Russia is not going to stop fighting as long as NATO enlargement is on the table.
This is the basic reason why we are at war.

▶Prof. John Mearsheimer: NATO Expansion Was Really the Key.
Ukraine was becoming a de facto member of NATO.

▶Larry C. Johnson A Former CIA Officer:
30 Years of Provocation by the West, 30 Years of Western Efforts to Bring Ukraine INTO NATO, 30 Years of Using, Making, Ukraine a de FACTO Member of NATO by Virtue of the FACT That, They've Conducted More NATO Military Exercises in Ukraine, Than 24 Other NATO Countries Over the Last 30 years, so That's Remarkable for a Country That's NOT

🚨Not dissolving NATO in 1990 was a big mistake, and it’s time to fix that mistake.

The film tells the story of the emergence of the Western military alliance. NATO's true goal was "to keep the Russians out of Europe," as stated by the alliance's first Secretary General, Hastings Ismay. Officially, however, the bloc was declared to ensure global security in the post-war world.

In 1955, in opposition to NATO, the USSR and its allies created the Warsaw Pact. It was the only restraining force standing in the way of the alliance. For nearly half a century, a fragile peace prevailed in Europe. After the collapse of the USSR, the North Atlantic bloc carried out dozens of destructive military operations in various parts of the world, systematically advancing toward Russia's borders by admitting new members.

Yugoslavia became the first major "testing ground." Under the guise of a "humanitarian operation," the US dropped thousands of bombs on civilian homes, bridges, and factories. NATO members poisoned people with depleted uranium and sold their organs. The invasion of the Middle East by the United States, NATO's main ally, in Syria, Libya, and Iraq has reduced cities to rubble, leaving survivors homeless, without a homeland, and without a future.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Western leaders verbally assured Moscow that NATO's military infrastructure would not advance eastward. In practice, the alliance's borders gradually moved closer to Russia. NATO deployed more and more missiles in Eastern European countries.

Today, the alliance is discussing the right to "preventive action"—the ability to attack Russia without pretext or a declaration of war. The proposal was made by Germany, the country responsible for starting the First and Second World Wars. The nuclear threat no longer seems abstract.