Category Archives: foreign policy

An End to the Ukrainian War

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The lede in a Wall Street Journal article goes like this:

Western leaders are beginning to have a clearer vision of how they hope the war in Ukraine will end.
What is missing is any plan to make it happen.

On the contrary. The principal, the nation that has been invaded by the barbarian, has a very clear vision of how the war will end. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has articulated that vision since the day the barbarian hordes swarmed over the borders: all Russian forces out of all Ukrainian territory. Full stop.

This is a preview of An End to the Ukrainian War. Read the full post (371 words, estimated 1:29 mins reading time)

Courage

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Republic of China President Tsai Ing-wen is making a formal diplomatic trip to Belize and Guatemala. En route, she’ll make “transit stops” in New York on the way out and in Los Angeles on the way back.

While in New York, Tsai is expected to meet with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R, CA).

The People’s Republic of China’s government men are dismayed. No mind. If President Joe Biden (D) had any courage, Tsai would make an additional transit stop, this one in DC, in the Oval Office, to meet with Biden.

But he doesn’t, so she won’t.

This is a preview of Courage. Read the full post (155 words, estimated 37 secs reading time)

Another Biden Admin Diplomatic Failure

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This one in our backyard. On the heels of the People’s Republic of China’s brokering a rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, right under Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s nose, the PRC apparently has convinced Honduras President Xiomara Castro to end her government’s recognition of the Republic of China and switch that recognition to the PRC.

This also has happened under Blinken’s nose.

I have to ask: did Blinken and his boss President Joe Biden (D) really not know this move was in progress? If not, why not? If so, what were they doing about it, and why did they fail?

This is a preview of Another Biden Admin Diplomatic Failure. Read the full post (215 words, estimated 52 secs reading time)

Some Needed Firings

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They haven’t happened, yet, but they need to.

The US Air Force this month launched an effort to hire a handful of senior-level diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) managers and is hoping to place these officials in posts across the country, from Washington, DC, to Alaska.

And

The Air Force is looking for a “supervisory diversity equity inclusion and accessibility officer for Air Force headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, which will pay anywhere from $155,700 to $183,500 per year.” The person who fills this position will serve as a “first-level supervisor” who will direct employees assigned to the Air Force’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

This is a preview of Some Needed Firings. Read the full post (320 words, estimated 1:17 mins reading time)

“Dumb Rule”

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Now the Army management corps has struck again, this time doing away with a long- (and I mean long) standing tradition of letting tank crews name their tanks. Unless they perform on the gunnery range (under the range’s necessarily artificial—peacetime safety constraints, and all that—conditions) well enough to suit those in the management corps.

One former Army officer said [brackets in the original],

Sounds like a dumb rule that has [command sergeant major] written all over it[.]

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Bye Bye

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The People’s Republic of China’s Foreign Minister, Qin Gang, seems to be dismayed with us. The Wall Street Journal‘s headline says it:

China’s Foreign Minister Says Ties With US Risk Going Off the Rails

According to the WSJ, Qin said that

the Biden administration was insincere in saying it wanted to preserve relations and warned the US against engaging in what he called new McCarthyism.

And his boss, PRC President Xi Jinping

criticized what he termed a US policy of “all-round containment, encirclement and suppression” of [the PRC].

This is a preview of Bye Bye. Read the full post (270 words, estimated 1:05 mins reading time)

Streamlining

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Recall the People’s Republic of China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law that requires all PRC-domiciled businesses, and by extension, the companies which those businesses control that are domiciled in non-PRC nations, to provide, even to actively seek out, any and all information that the PRC’s intelligence community wants those businesses to produce.

Now the PRC is moving to streamline that process.

China is set to create a new government agency to centralize the management of the country’s vast stores of data, as Beijing seeks to address data-security practices by businesses and streamline its regulatory structure.
The new national data bureau is set to become the top Chinese regulator on various data-related issues, people familiar with the matter said, in a shift from the current structure in which multiple ministries share oversight.

This is a preview of Streamlining. Read the full post (258 words, estimated 1:02 mins reading time)

Rules for Investing in the People’s Republic of China

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The Biden administration is starting to pay lip service to setting rules for American businesses’ investing in the People’s Republic of China. It’s

preparing a new program that could prohibit US investment in certain sectors in China, a new step to guard US technology advantages during a growing competition between the world’s two largest economies.

And, of course, the effort will need new taxpayer money.

Treasury and Commerce departments said they expected to finalize their policy on the issue in the near future. Both agencies said they expected to seek additional resources for the investment program in the White House budget, which will be released next week.

This is a preview of Rules for Investing in the People’s Republic of China. Read the full post (432 words, estimated 1:44 mins reading time)

Germany Welches Again

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I wrote yesterday, in part, about Germany’s disreputable performance in supporting Ukraine in the latter’s war for existence against the Russian barbaric invasion.

Now, Germany has made the apparent decision to walk away altogether in any practical form from Ukraine in that nation’s hour of need, paying only lip service to aiding that nation.

In a landmark speech days after the invasion, [Chancellor Olaf] Scholz promised a Zeitenwende—a turning point—pledging to rebuild Germany’s military, secure alternative energy supplies, and help Ukraine fight off Russia.

Since then, according to Bojan Pancevski, in his Thursday Wall Street Journal article (at the link just above), Germany has

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Canada’s “Surge”

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Canada has started objecting to the illegal alien irregular immigration influx that nation is experiencing across its own southern border. Even The Dallas Morning News has the right of Canadian government personnel’s whining [emphasis in the original].

For those who live in places where mass migration isn’t a problem, it’s easy to take a tone of moral superiority and look down on those who have to balance humane treatment with security.
But when the problem lands on their doorstep, it’s surprising how quickly that tone changes and the attitude that something must be done takes root.

And

This is a preview of Canada’s “Surge”. Read the full post (304 words, estimated 1:13 mins reading time)