"Chai-Nah"

It's pretty obvious that coronavirus was deliberately released by the Chinese for political reasons and I think the new national security law passed in Hong Kong underpins that. The protestors disappeared and while the world recovers, they are able to proceed with it. It's a clear breach of the agreement between Britain and China from the 1980s that stipulated Hong Kong's freedoms will remain in place for 50 years after the Handover in 1997.

Now that popular app Tiktok has proven to be a dangerous data collection source for the Chinese. Perhaps it wouldn't be such a big issue since most self respecting adults wouldn't use such an app, but when they download it onto their phones for their children and that phone is taken into their work environment, the microphone could be activated to listen in on conversations, compromising all sorts of industry. Or if it's on their laptop and they connect to corporate systems, they can access sensitive files - even in defence and national security.

I digress. In the case of Hong Kong, the Brits need to step up beyond the issuing Visas to Hong Kong citizens. It's a great gesture, but surely the Chinese will smuggle in their own operatives amongst the migrants. Perhaps some could even deliberately (or unknowingly) carry the coronavirus and reintroduce it to the United Kingdom. Same with Australia. Our Prime Minister is following Boris Johnston in issuing visas to those in Hong Kong wishing to get out.

If they are able to get away with their silent bioweapon attack that is COVID19 - what's next? Even if it wasn't a deliberate release, their cover up immediately afterwards implicates them. The source is still China and they need to held accountable.

If they are able to get away with the new security laws in Hong Kong, what next?

In the worlds of the great Admiral Roebuck: send in the fleet.

As we've seen in recent weeks, a large chunk of the West's populace, particularly the yoof, do not believe the states in which they live in have a right to exist.

Against bellicose and self-confident civilizations that actually place a premium on a common identity, culture, and respect for their own history and forebears, we don't stand a chance.

Sad.

Hmm. Not the biggest fan of conspiracy theories, to be honest.

Well, we're being told today, again, not to stick our nose in this business but as someone wrote the Times other day, surely they'd not mind a bunch of 'trouble-makers' removed from the territory?

If we had any teeth in this country, I daren't suppose we'd rattle their cages somehow. Little things here and there. If we had a fleet, Boris would be tempted I'm sure. No, the way to do it is somehow marshalling the 'free' powers into a coalition. Not militarily, but a bloc out there to send a message.

Trouble is, unlike the Cold War, this one is being waged against an enemy we all do business with and rely upon. Recent features in said Times say on one hand, enough's enough with letting China interfere in things here but maybe it's too late. Their students get leniency, they buy up major businesses and if they don't like stuff said about them, they have a measure of weight.

Otherwise, I don't buy into the Covid-is-a-weapon thread. Otherwise we should all start asking the USA for reparations for 1918.

Since we've already redirected our barley to another nation (Indonesia, was it?) I think we can do without China's business and influence.

What's the conspiracy? That covid is a bioweapon deliberately released or that Tiktok is spying on us? The latter is already being investigated by Defence in Oz (and independent corporations had already told their employees not to download it) and was banned in India for similar reasons. As for whether covid was deliberately released.... Between crippling the US economy over trade agreements, silencing Hong Kong protestors, curbing population growth in China, territorial disputes at the Indian border and with Japan, buying up cheap stock in Italy when it was the coronavirus epicentre, etc. there are plenty of reasons to believe it was.

Despite that, China is still the source, whether it was directly released or accidentally contracted from a bat. They need to be held accountable by other countries. Moreover, they should have admitted responsibility and offer genuine assistance. The actions after detection, especially their efforts to cover it up, doesn't inspire confidence in their official word.

I can't say for sure about TikTok as it's not one I've heard about, though I wouldn't be surprised. Loathe TikTok as it is. Myself, and I think Blunty, believe that Covid isn't deliberately released upon the world. Certainly not a bio-weapon. MI5 have stated as such even though the former head of MI6 thinks it was. I can see how folk would think it was deliberate and a weapon at that.

Aye. Suspicions are all well and good in their place, but I prefer solid proof.

I wasn't even aware of TikTok pre-Corona and have no intention of using it, so no personal worries there .

Of course we'd all like solid proof. Problem arises when those in power are too frightened to be transparent. The Australian government's recently announced upgrade for the defence force to prepare for a hostile post-Covid world suggests the proof without blatantly stating it, in my eyes.

As for Tiktok, I couldn't think of anything more time-wasting than that!

I've read of a "TikTok" house...full of TikTok stars...Saddest words in the English language. Makes me put my Orson Welles hat on and sigh.

As for the proof, we might never know. Not yet. If China were any other country we would have some sort of transparency. Paper today had some case involving their treatment of Muslims in the west of the country. Think their ambassador to the UK has some bare-faced cheek making threats over trade and whatnot, because of Hong Kong. If Mrs T had an inkling of this back in the day, she would have burned the agreement before their eyes.

Well, they aren't Thatcher but I think the Trumps, Bojos and Scomos of the world give us the best opportunity today of ensuring China doesn't get too big for her boots.

"James, we're sending the fleet to China."

Well, sort of. Lately the US have been sailing Nimitz-class carriers (6000 crew each, 100,000 tons) and their respective battlegroups, out in the Far East and last week, two were in the South China Sea for the first time since at least 2018.

Anyway. The Times (and other sources), say today we -that is to say Blighty- are intending to send HMS Queen Elizabeth (700 crew, 1200 with aircraft etc) and a small group (7 ships total including the carrier) out to the Far East early next year. The rationale is that our two new carriers will be used to potential (after all, why spend billions upon billions and not). Admiral so-and-so says one will be in the Atlantic to support NATO and "why not send the other to look after the trade routes..." out East.

A map suggests that, in light of no Empire to support the fleet (HK going in 1997), we could get 'the right to refuel' at Yokohama (USN base, Japan), Darwin (RAN, Oz) and Singapore. Something like two frigates, couple of RFA ships and a sub.

There is sadly, the fact that this man's navy is quite toothless in a way. The Queen Elizabeth has been beset by all manner of problems since even before launch with no aircraft or aircraft unable to land on it, or the wrong type of aircraft, the systems had problems, propellers...etc and as yet, the Prince of Wales is still in trials. Even if the QE is ready to fly the flag (to use an interwar expression) out East, it has to overcome all manner of problems. Also, I can't see Xi quaking in his size nines at the sight of the Royal Navy steaming up. (Plus, all our Type 45's, a.k.a the D-class frigate, seem to be laid up in Portsmouth right now with everything wrong with them. Ships that are meant to be our backbone and cost a billion or something EACH)

Still, this and Huawei and universities seems to be showing a gradual shift in what we've been following since the so-called Golden Era in Cameron's premiership with China.

I stand ready with my butler, our wooden dinghy and my tattered Union Jack.

https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/defence/royal-navy-aircraft-carrier-hms-queen-elizabeth-be-based-far-east-uk-bans-chinese-tech-firm-huawei-britains-5g-network-2913359

https://www.thearticle.com/do-we-risk-exposing-hms-queen-elizabeth-to-the-fate-of-force-z



from the Times, above


from a trip ages ago

Interesting.

Combined with Sco-Mo's comments about preparing for a dangerous post-covid world, it's nice to think maybe the West might stand their ground against Chinese aggression.

The article did say something about 'borrowing' aircraft to land on our carrier. Ah, the modern Royal Navy. I say chaps, would you, er, you know.

Part of me would feel quite inadequate sailing that mob out east what with the fact an average American BG sails with at least twelve to fifteen escorts and supply vessels and whatever beneath.

But, as far as the West standing up Fields, there have been mutterings apparently that we're trying to coerce a sort of Coalition against China. Not necessarily or solely military but a bloc I guess.

We're kicking Huawei or its kit out by 2027 (somebody saying this is an outrage, it's a kick in the teeth to those who use phones or some nonsense).

Hilly wrote:

But, as far as the West standing up Fields, there have been mutterings apparently that we're trying to coerce a sort of Coalition against China. Not necessarily or solely military but a bloc I guess.

So they should.

In a slightly unrelated note, Russia hacking into Britain's coronavirus vaccine research systems is quite telling of the advances made in the West in this area. They didn't alter any findings so it must have been them trying to work out how to create one for themselves.

Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang wrote:

Hilly wrote:

But, as far as the West standing up Fields, there have been mutterings apparently that we're trying to coerce a sort of Coalition against China. Not necessarily or solely military but a bloc I guess.

So they should.

In a slightly unrelated note, Russia hacking into Britain's coronavirus vaccine research systems is quite telling of the advances made in the West in this area. They didn't alter any findings so it must have been them trying to work out how to create one for themselves.

But they said they diden't do it and would never do anything so naughty...don't you believe them?

The guys on the James Bond & Friends Podcast covering GE made an interesting point of how things seem to have come full circle as far as the Russians are concerned. After the Soviet Union fell it seemed the Russians became allies and the Cold War was a thing of the past. After all that hubhub in the early 90s about "is James Bond relevant post-Cold War?", well, here we are today.

China's ambassador to the UK has been an awfully busy chappy this week. Other day quoted about the rumour (as apparently the RN are sort of umming and ahhing slightly about this) of sending the carrier out east. Saying pretty much we should watch ourselves and don't even think about joining the US in whatever they're doing.

Today he was shown drone footage of what's going on out west in Xingjang and he's asked what does he think he's being shown. Suddenly launches into a nice tourism piece (apparently it's a rather nice part of China. "We have a saying in Chinese...") and then say doesn't know what he's being shown.

Reminds me, slightly, of 2003 when Saddam's propaganda bonze was on a rooftop saying about how there's no American tanks in Baghdad etc and in the background, a series of American tanks trundling in.

Makeshift Python wrote:

The guys on the James Bond & Friends Podcast covering GE made an interesting point of how things seem to have come full circle as far as the Russians are concerned. After the Soviet Union fell it seemed the Russians became allies and the Cold War was a thing of the past. After all that hubhub in the early 90s about "is James Bond relevant post-Cold War?", well, here we are today.

And yet, with Skyfall and Spectre, it's revisited again. It's understandable for that discourse to explored immediately post-Cold War. In the age of Putin, you'd expect that conversation to be dead.

Hilly wrote:

China's ambassador to the UK has been an awfully busy chappy this week. Other day quoted about the rumour (as apparently the RN are sort of umming and ahhing slightly about this) of sending the carrier out east. Saying pretty much we should watch ourselves and don't even think about joining the US in whatever they're doing.

Today he was shown drone footage of what's going on out west in Xingjang and he's asked what does he think he's being shown. Suddenly launches into a nice tourism piece (apparently it's a rather nice part of China. "We have a saying in Chinese...") and then say doesn't know what he's being shown.

Someone posted about that on FB. I must go back and look at the footage.

Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang wrote:

Makeshift Python wrote:

The guys on the James Bond & Friends Podcast covering GE made an interesting point of how things seem to have come full circle as far as the Russians are concerned. After the Soviet Union fell it seemed the Russians became allies and the Cold War was a thing of the past. After all that hubhub in the early 90s about "is James Bond relevant post-Cold War?", well, here we are today.

And yet, with Skyfall and Spectre, it's revisited again. It's understandable for that discourse to explored immediately post-Cold War. In the age of Putin, you'd expect that conversation to be dead.

Sure, and for SF/SP that was more on the growing emergence of cyber terrorism and how the 00-branch could keep up with that.

For the age of Putin, so far I think only QOS made a reference, "the Russians aren't playing ball".

This past week the Chief of the Defence Staff (what was once the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, CIGS) has been quoted as saying we in Britain need to have a Cold War plan for China. Then there's the story of the Chinese setting up a fishing port in Papa New Guinea cause for concern for Australia.

Away from China, Sweden is seriously considering applying to join NATO whilst expanding it's military by up to 30,000 owing to Russia.

I didn't live through the Cold War, well, I was 5-6 when it was ending with the wall and fall of the USSR, so I'm reliant on studies at university and so on. We got through forty-five years without a conflict as such, and you'd imagine we will now. However, you do wonder. Interesting times and not I guess solely down to either China or Russia.

At the moment I reckon we could start a war in an empty room.