Comments by "Ash Roskell" (@ashroskell) on "Russia Struggles Going into Second Year of War" video.
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@peterlearner8594 : All true, but keep in mind that China has been covertly supporting Russia throughout this war. An open decision to support them would amount to a change in rhetoric, more than an actual real terms change, as they’ve been finding it expensive to retool their factories, so as to ensure that any shell casing or weapons don’t carry obvious markings of China’s production on them.
If I had to guess, I’d say China is merely testing the waters to see what western resolve looks like in the face of that threat. China is facing a serious economic downturn of its own and knows that sanction packages have already been prepared in the west, to be slapped on swiftly, should they chance their arm with even, “minor,” support in terms of weapons and materials.
This, “Doubling Down,” message is probably as much for Beijing’s ears as Moscow’s. I could be entirely wrong, but China is always super cautious in all it does. They haven’t even actually voted in the UN Council in favour of Russia’s war, so far. Nor have they voted against resolutions against Russia, preferring to, “abstain.”
China stands to gain a lot from a weakened Russia, and will know that a prolonged, grinding war could result in Russia becoming a, “vassal state,” supplying those vital fossil fuels in return for China’s propping up of their teetering state? If Russia was to become as reliant upon China as North Korea is for their mere existence - in a similar way that Belarus is the vassal of Russia, destined to have their administration overthrown if Russia should see a democracy in a Revolution (which would be its first ever, btw) - then China might be able to rescue itself from its all but insurmountable domestic, economic and demographic woes. So, Xi will be playing both ends off against each other, hoping for a protracted conflict now.
Xi is almost as bitter about Putin’s miscalculations over Ukraine as he is, as it cost him Taiwan, as he sees it. At least, in the immediate future. And any plans they had of dominating the world by dominating the manufacture of technology and the raw materials for making said tech, which would have been the main benefit of swift invasions of Ukraine and Taiwan together, have been scuppered now anyway, since America has set up its own manufacturing hub, with many of the same people who produced all those microchips in Taiwan (over 50% of the world’s supply from one factory, btw) now based in the heart of the US, whilst the Argon and other precious minerals that Ukraine produces, are still well within the none-occupied zones of Ukraine.
This was a lengthy response, so I appreciate your patience if you bore with me. But, I just wanted to show that, A) there are so many moving parts to this that we cannot predict with any certainty how things will unfold, other than to be sure that Russia will be forced out of Ukraine in the end. And, B) China may want to exacerbate the situation, but it’s not in China’s interests to burn all of its boats and come out as a direct antagonist to the west, when it has so little to gain from Russia that it cannot get anyway, by safer means, which traditionally, has always been their preferred way of doing things regardless. ✌️🇺🇦
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@peterlearner8594 : Yeah, it’s almost impossible to know what is true if you just look at a cross section of popular news outlets these days, which is why I think it’s worth spending a little time,on a regular basis, evaluating your sources, looking into who owns them, who the share holders are, the records of their editors and journalists, etc. It’s not as difficult as may sound.
And we all have to be open to the possibility that trusted sources can change. Jake’s take on Edward Snowden is a great example of that. I too admired the guy, what he did, and the great sacrifice he made, when it all blew up in the press. But just who TF is he now? And how, “freely,” is he even speaking at all as repression increases in Russia? The special privileges he’s been granted look more and more, “contingent,” and I cannot decide if we’re all going to wind up seeing an explosive final upload, exposing some of the Kremlin’s darkest secrets on the same day that Snowden falls out of a window, or he’s just going to parrot their talking points until the day he dies just so he can avoid defenestration? I struggle to believe he’s been bought or, “come around to their way of thinking,” given he was willing to sacrifice literally everything he had to expose the truth in the first place, so he must be under life and death pressures? But, regardless, it’s hard to accept that a man who’s commentary and interviews were sought all over the world, by organisations like Amnesty International and much of the free press, as a kind of spokes person for open democratic practices, has now become a shill for Moscow. But that seems to be the case?
So, regular review of your news (and/or opinion) sources is as important as finding a trusted source in the first place. But you sound to me like you get it?
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