Did Trump Abandon Taiwan?

In his Fox News Interview after his return from China, President Trump said,

“When you look at the odds, China is very, very powerful, big country. That’s a very small island. Think of it, it’s 59 miles away. We’re 9500 miles away. That’s a little bit of a difficult problem. Taiwan was developed because we had presidents that didn’t know what the hell they were doing. They stole our chip industry.”

That means, Trump has understood China’s paramount Leader Xi Jinping’s warning that Beijing and Washington will “have clashes and even conflicts” if the issue is not handled properly, the Thucydides Trap. the risk for war when an emerging power threatens to displace an existing superpower. It’s interesting that Xi every now and then mentions it in the context of the US-China relationship.

Russia’s Putin is about to visit Xi next week, just days after Trump has left. They will certainly discuss the Ukraine, Taiwan and Iran.

President Trump won’t interfere when Xi will put more pressure on Taiwan in China’s sphere of influence. Trump has not officially stopped weapons sales to Taiwan but is currently withholding approval of a major arms package

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Empty-handed Trump

Wishful President Donald Trump has said that China pledged not to arm Iran and that Iran should not possess nuclear weapons. None can be found in Chinese Government official announcements. There is no new treaty, no official pledge.

China seeks economic collaboration with Iran and offers diplomatic support rather than provide military support. Xi made that probably very clear in his discussions with Trump.

It is, on the other hand, longstanding Chinese conviction that Iran remains a non-nuclear-weapon state party to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. Thus, Iran has the right to peaceful nuclear technology. It’s very clear that China stays committed to the framework of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) as the basis for a new consensus.

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A World Beyond Fossiles

Why is everyone so desperate to get the Strait of Hormuz open as it was before the US American/Israeli war of choice against Iran? Why can’t measured World leaders see the big advantage, a chance to finally (and actually almost too late) free us from deadly dependence on corrupt Gulf monarchies with regard to oil and gas?

Just consider practicing much more cognitive dissonance reduction. I suppose shutting down the choke point in the Middle East for oil and gas would actually be the best for our serious attempts to address climate change, if there are any.

A radical turn, not whiny insistence without alternative due to (as discussed mainly in hopelessly backward Germany) low wind speeds, low sunlight (in the dark months of wintertime), lack of charging stations, ugly wind turbines, and whatnot?

Iran may actually do us a big favour. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps released the above map on May 5 which had been misinterpreted by most western politicians. Although, in the beginning, fears were spread by Iranian spokespersons Iran could keep the Strait of Hormuz closed “forever”. But that actually applied to hostile vessels only.

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Could Iran Win the ESC?

My first thought was, when I saw this a couple of weeks ago, Do they want to participate in the ESC? No, certainly not. This is just making fun of it (western pop culture) on a very high level. This is propaganda with numerous truths, in contrast to Trump’s Truth Social platform, a truly Orwellian name.

Here are the lyrics.

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Trump Won the War?

This week, President Donald Trump is due visiting China after he had postponed the flight in March because of the war in Iran. He will meet China’s paramount leader in Beijing, Xi Jinping, and this is the first visit of a US President in China in 9 years. There are many important discussion points on the agenda, but I’m quite sure that Donald Trump’s first claim will be, I WON THE WAR!

The war was well-prepared (Congress was involved, the propaganda machine working well so that the public endorsed it, even an attempt for a powerful UN Security Council resolution was launched). But G.W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell were insufficiently informed about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, the alleged reason for the assault. They did not exist, at least never were found.

Long time ago, one of my favourite jokes about former President George W. Bush who sent the United States together with a coalition of the willing (sans Germany and France) into the Iraq War (it happened that I was in nearby Kuwait at that time) went,

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