Ukraine

Surely China relies on the west to buy all the junk they produce.

 

When you see all those container ships stacked up all going to western countries from China you have to wonder if those other countries really have the same kind of buying power.

 

China will have no issues in exporting goods. The population of Far East countries and African nations as they develop will boost trade from China. With the exception of the States, China's, top 5 trading partners will be far east countries.

 

That's good, maybe we will stop buying their rubbish then.

I have no idea who is China's biggest customer, but surely it would be a dent in their income.
And a big dent in our imports which we would have to get elsewhere at higher prices.
Surely it would be a lose lose situation for both sides.
Isn't it about time someone worked out that none of these sanctions actually work in the way intended, oh they might work on a small country like Iran, regarding it not affecting us too much, but when it goes global there are no winners.
I can't see an end to this, but it's about time someone somewhere started talking common sense.
Otherwise why the hell are we still worrying about climate change, because the way it's going none of that is going to matter.

 

Or has a military powerful enough. They would get flattened very quickly by the USA - never mind the entire NATO alliance. Taiwan will give them a bloody nose - when they finally decide to 'occupy' Taiwan - and that's without support from the USA - which Joe had already pledged.

China is unable to manufacture complex silicon chips - they can't supply them to Russia - but hello - Taiwan has the skills/expertise to make complex chips.

One China and all that - yes - China want Taiwan because of their far more advanced technology.

China is all bluff - just like Putin.

I see that Putin is calling in his lightly trained reserves. He won't give up until Russia is on it's knees.

 

China sells goods to the West for big money. If they have to sell to Africa they will be unable to charge what they do. China desperately needs to keep the West on side probably why they continue to leave Taiwan alone.

 

If I was Xi Jin Ping, I'd be furious at Putin right now.

Putin has completely scuppered China's plans. China has spent the past few years really gearing up it's military. The west has done pretty much nothing to match it because our politicians, and probably the vast majority of regular people, couldn't comprehend the notion that we might find ourselves on the verge of world war 3. Putin's actions serve as a wake up call. Germany has changed its stance on pacifism. And smaller NATO members everywhere have committed to significantly increase military spend, while none NATO countries are asking to join. All because of Putin.

Ukraine is a nation of tough people, and if they were ever on the fence, I'm pretty sure they're now west leaning. Germany and other big consumers of Russian fuel are frantically looking for alternatives which in the mid to long term develops energy independence, making it harder for other countries to hold people to ransom. Companies everywhere are looking at their supply chains rather than assuming they can always source from wherever they've always sourced from in the past.

It's all a massive mess for China, which was already having major economic wobbles before all this kicked off.

Of course this will be of little comfort if Putin turns out to be insane enough to start a nuclear war.

 

Tearful children and spouses have been pictured waving off Russian fathers and husbands as Putin's mobilisation begins.

Yes. 2 weeks training and then straight to the front line to fight against Western trained soldiers with current combat experience and armed with the latest Western weapons. It's not just the Ukrainian soldiers either - the conscripts will have to deal with armed Partisans and the Ukrainian people themselves.

I heard that out of a batch of 40 prisoners who went to the front line - 38 were killed, 1 was wounded and the other 1 escaped unhurt.

This is a slaughter - plain and simple - I'm not surprised that people are leaving Russia.

 

It seems to me that a world war wouldn't look like the Russia / Ukraine war. The situation in Ukraine, perhaps because of the terrain, perhaps politics, I'm not sure, but it feels very old fashioned. If the media is to be believed, it looks like it's not that different to trench warfare of WW2. Basically poorly trained foot soldiers and battle tanks.

I think the staples of a modern war would look very different. I think the it will have a huge cyber warfare element, and a space element, taking out spy, Comms, and navigation satellites. In terms of bombs and bullets, I think that's going to more about missiles, drones, and automated countermeasures than infantry men with rifles.

Let's hope this all stats hypothetical. With a bit of luck something unfortunate will happen to Putin and his inner circle before it gets that far.

 

Heard on the news this morning that the US has been in 'secret' contact with Russia - warning them off using Nukes in Ukraine - the news reader used the words 'deadly consequences'.

Rumour circulating is that NATO will not use nukes in retaliation - instead they will sink the Russian navy.

 

I read an article about that too.

So, Putin is justifying his war to his people by saying the West is threatening their existence. While.... America has been secretly threatening them.

 

I don't think anyone needs to threaten him. He knows full well that if he uses nuclear weapons he will cease to exist in minutes.