Putin enjoys Xi's Chinese welcome but heads home without pipeline deal
"Russia is keen to push ahead with plans for a new pipeline, Power of Siberia 2, and had hoped for progress in Beijing. The pipeline would bring additional volumes of Russian gas from Western Siberia to Northern China via Mongolia and, for Moscow, help make up for the loss of European markets.
Last year Russia and China had signed a memorandum of understanding on the project, but Beijing appears in no rush to do the deal. As well as pricing issues, some commentators believe China wants to avoid over-dependence on Russian fossil fuels."
--- I doubt that it has much to do with overdependence. It's more probably about money and showing Russia who's in charge.
s.a.: Three key takeaways from Putin’s Beijing trip
Trump says he will speak to Taiwan's president in break from protocol
"When asked about the potential conversation between Trump and Lai, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday that China "firmly opposes official exchanges between the United States and Taiwan""
--- And some western media make a big deal out of it. As if this would cause some serious trouble between US and China. Or even war.
Anyway I doubt that Trump will actually do it. Although with this guy you never know.
"Trump's break with tradition in 2016 resulted with China lodging a complaint with the US over the call."
--- A Chinese complaint. The western media are shaking in fear.
"In 1982 the US assured Taiwan that it would not consult Beijing on arms sales to Taiwan. But when asked about that commitment as he flew back from Beijing, Trump said the 1980s was a "long way"."
--- He is a moron, after all.
s.a.: The aftermath of Trump-Xi summit: comparing U.S. and China announcements
China says US should stop 'threats' against Cuba after ex-leader charged
"Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said the US should "stop threatening force at every turn", and that Beijing "firmly supports Cuba"."
--- Just look how much such firm Chinese support has helped Maduro and Khamenei.
Germany urged to stop admiring Beijing and wake up to ‘China Shock 2.0’
"Germany must stop admiring China’s success in the EU or it will sleepwalk into the kind of deindustrialisation the US experienced 25 years ago"
--- Sadly true. All recent German governments did not understand what China was actually planning to do. A lot of German politicians still don't.
"Its report pointed out that Beijing was running a policy project, named “10,000 little giants”, that was specifically targeting Germany’s Mittelstand, the country’s ecosystem of middle-sized, innovative industrial suppliers and firms. Germany was described as “frantically searching for culprits” for its economic woes with high energy prices and bureaucracy dominating the political conversation, instead of China."
--- To be fair it's not only China. German politics, interior politics, did its fair share in causing the problems. There is too much bureaucracy and there's too much tax. Particularly on energy. On top of that German industries, particularly pharma and automobiles, were much too friendly towards China and still think they could earn more money in China than they would lose worldwide.
New Chinese surveillance leaves foreigners nowhere to hide
"familiar faces popped up on the screen. It was a comprehensive database of almost every foreign journalist based in the Chinese capital Beijing around 2021, including official passport photos taken at the entry/exit bureau, private cell phone numbers, visa details, and dates of birth. He also found his own exact personal information lying dormant on this Chinese police watchlist.
"It was more interesting than shocking," NetAskari told DW. "When you work as a journalist in China, you basically assume you are always on their radar. But what surprised me was simply how easy it was to access this highly sensitive system."
[...] This system no longer relies solely on police cameras on street corners. It accurately records the specific train carriage and seat number a target occupies when arriving from Beijing or Shanghai.
It even synchronizes photos taken by facial-recognition ticket gates at local ski resorts directly into its tracking mechanism. The movements of the researcher's acquaintances who recently skied in Zhangjiakou were precisely flagged and mapped out with detailed trajectories in the system.
"The idea is simply to process as much data as possible from as many sensors as possible in real time,""
--- Welcome to China, where chabuduo culture not only makes your private data not so private but also government data.
"Deep in the backend, certain foreign journalists are assigned a special real-time tracking tag called "trackable." The moment they step into a jurisdiction, the system can automatically trigger early warnings for the police.
[...] Because the system has access to your mobile payments, ticket purchases, and social networks, authorities can perfectly anticipate your itinerary, ensuring you only see what they want you to see upon arrival."
--- No wonder that in recent years not much negative is coming out of China anymore. Well at least when it comes to normal journalistic channels.
German authorities arrest 2 on China espionage allegations
Heavy rain triggers flooding and landslides in parts of China
Eight dead, dozens trapped in Chinese coal mine after gas explosion
--- China Uncensored featured the usual weekend news variety again:
--- China Uncensored: "It's Too Late To Stop A War With China"
China bildet offenbar Putins Soldaten für Ukraine-Krieg aus
"Die russischen Soldaten sollen sowohl an virtuellen Simulatoren als auch praktisch anhand von Drohnenparcours in Lagerhallen trainiert worden sein.
Nach Informationen europäischer Geheimdienste soll die umgekehrte Ausbildung chinesischer Soldaten in Russland eher auf das Erlernen konventioneller Kriegsführung abgezielt haben, darunter die Bereiche Panzertruppen, Artillerie, Pionierwesen und Flugabwehr. Insgesamt rund 600 Soldaten sollen an unterschiedlichen Militärstandorten in Russland seit 2025 ausgebildet worden sein."
--- 600 Soldaten. Gähn. Das ist vermutlich nur ein üblicher Militäraustausch und keine spezielle Vorbereitung für den Ukraine-Krieg.
China-Importe steigen, deutsche Exporte brechen ein
"Ohne einen besseren Schutz vor staatlich geförderten chinesischen Exporten stehe Deutschland eine Deindustrialisierung bevor, mit der Schließungen von Fabriken und schwindenden Fähigkeiten, heißt es in dem Bericht. Der Ausblick ist düster: Industriestandorten wie Stuttgart und Wolfsburg könne der wirtschaftliche Niedergang drohen, warnen die Experten. Auch die Entscheidung, die Sparpolitik aufzugeben und Milliarden in die Aufrüstung zu stecken, reiche nicht aus, um die deutsche Industrie zu retten.
"Berlin sollte offensiv statt defensiv agieren und Paris dabei unterstützen, den Internationalen Währungsfonds und die G7 dazu zu bewegen, Chinas unterbewertete Währung und sein einseitiges Handelsmodell anzugehen""
--- Leider haben gewisse deutsche Industriezweige, die etwas chinafreundlich sind, immer noch einen zu starken Einfluss auf die deutsche Regierung.
Taiwan erhält vorläufig keine US-Waffen
"Eine Woche nach dem Besuch von Präsident Donald Trump in Peking hat die US-Regierung einen milliardenschweren Waffenverkauf an Taiwan auf Eis gelegt. "Im Moment machen wir eine Pause, um sicherzustellen, dass wir die Munition haben, die wir für 'Epic Fury' brauchen", sagte Marine-Staatssekretär Hung Cao bei einer Anhörung des Senats."
--- Da scheint der Trumpel doch wieder vor China eingeknickt zu sein.
Xi und Putin - viele Vereinbarungen, doch eine fehlt
"Beim geplanten Bau der Erdgaspipeline "Kraft Sibiriens 2" von Russland nach China gab es nach russischen Angaben zwar Fortschritte, aber noch keine Einigung. Beide Seiten hätten eine "grundlegende Übereinkunft" unter anderem bezüglich "der Trassenführung und der Bauweise" erzielt, erklärte Kreml-Sprecher Dmitri Peskow gegenüber russischen Medien. Es gebe jedoch noch keinen klaren Zeitplan.
Die geplante Pipeline "Kraft Sibiriens 2" soll sich von der Jamal-Halbinsel im nördlichen Sibirien durch die Mongolei über eine Strecke von rund 2600 Kilometern bis nach China erstrecken und könnte jährlich 50 Milliarden Kubikmeter Gas transportieren. Moskau versucht bereits seit Jahren, das Projekt voranzutreiben - auch weil das Gas aus Vorkommen stammt, die in der Vergangenheit nach Europa exportiert worden waren. Bislang hatte sich Peking bezüglich des Projekts allerdings zögerlich gezeigt."
--- Kaiser Xi lässt die Karotte weiter baumeln.
China setzt Japan mit Lieferstopp für Rohstoffe unter Druck
Arbeitsplätze weg, schrumpfende Industrie – Studie zeigt die dramatischen Folgen des „China-Schock“ für Deutschland
Wieder mutmaßliche chinesische Spione festgenommen
