Proactively “From the Sea”; an agent of change leveraging the littoral best practices for a paradigm breaking six-sigma best business case to synergize a consistent design in the global commons, rightsizing the core values supporting our mission statement via the 5-vector model through cultural diversity.
History will show in stark relief that one of the most selfish and greed-based errors in the post Cold War period was the active participation of the Western democracies in building up the power of the Chinese Communist Party. You can track the worst of this grasping period from the Clinton Era Loral Aerospace slime to the Obama, “We welcome the rise of China” expansion. It was a bi-partisan error, though the bookends of the center-mass were (D). Both parties were driven by the money that could be made, contributions to be gathered, and in a smaller measure – a hope to avoid another Cold War. Just as today we shake our head at the Soviet Union helping Germany rebuild her military power in the 1930s, so too will the future – if not dominated by the CCP information dominance campaign – report the crass stupidity of the late 20th and early 21st Century of the West vs. China. It was/is not just an American problem. Running on a capitalist model of comparative advantage and marginal cost savings/gains independent of larger global strategic risks, the capitalist economies moved critical parts of their supply chain to China. As China grew richer and her people started to develop an appetite for more, other economies with an export model changed to serve that Chinese need. As the relationship between government and people – and the rule of law – in China evolved, this inter-dependency gave the Chinese Communist Party a two edged blade. China controlled the production of things you need, and she also controlled access to markets your people have become reliant on. China is now in a place where she is strong enough and rich enough to start throwing her weight around. What she cannot get through direct bribery and corruption, she will try to accomplish with threats. Especially smaller nations, she has no problem playing hardball to get them to kowtow. Two traditional USA allies – by design – are under attack from China with this economic weapon right now. China wants those nations to act like the tributary states she sees them as. The USA needs to provide all the economic, diplomatic, and informational support – and then some – these nations deserve. First to Australia;
China has suspended imports from four large red meat abattoirs, fuelling concern of a campaign by Beijing against Australian producers in response to Prime Minister Scott Morrison's push for an independent coronavirus inquiry.
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Australia's beef trade has boomed in recent years, based largely on Chinese demand. Last year, the country's imports reached $2.87 billion, double the value of imports in 2018 which were worth $1.37 billion. China accounted for 24 per cent of total Australian beef exports last year, up from 14 per cent in 2018 and 11 per cent in 2017, Meat and Livestock Australia figures show.
Next New Zealand who, rightfully, supports Taiwan's membership in the World Heath Organization;
"China urges New Zealand to strictly abide by the 'one China principle' and immediately stop making wrong statements on Taiwan, to avoid damaging our bilateral relationship."
China has denounced Taiwan's WHO attempts as a political stunt aimed at promoting the island's formal independence, and said it will fail in its efforts.
Note the high-handed and arrogant tone. That is intentional. "Wrong." How these nations respond to China's pressure is important to watch. Any weakness will simply bring harder pressure to fall in line.
Last Tuesday we linked to a message to the Chinese people from Deputy National Security Advisor Matt Pottinger given in Mandarin. It is still great, but the question was, how effective was it? Well, ... the Communists will tell you what they fear;
The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. The name of the issuing body has been omitted to protect the source.
Strictly delete any reposts, comments, and content related to U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Matthew Pottinger’s Chinese speech from all platforms, websites, and interactive comment sections, leaving no dead corners. If any are found by the internet management office or reported by internet commentators, they will be dealt with seriously.
The 75th Anniversary of VE Day. At the end of war comes victory, and defeat. As such, this video of surrendering German forces represents both. The only good part of a war is when it ends.
Our friend Jerry Hendrix put out a nice overview of the selection of the FREMM for FFG(X). I have a few thoughts over at USNIBlog. Come on by and give it a ponder.
More of this. Much more of this. Yes, it is an investment of your time, but listen - or read the subtitles - of this message to the Chinese people from Deputy National Security Advisor Matt Pottinger. Wow. I've been waiting for decades for someone in positions to significance to do something like this - and to do it so well in their own language. Well...BEHOLD!
Finally a site whose metrics I like. I like it because it gives the end user at least a little control. If you wonder how the USA is doing relative to other transparent nations, IMAO, the best metric to use is number of deaths per million. I also think you need to stick to Western European nations, the Anglosphere, and their auxiliaries in Asia such as Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore where you can have confidence in the numbers. In Western Europe, I prefer to look to France as a benchmark. You really can't use island nations with low population density as a benchmark. That takes out Oceania's New Zealand & Australia. That leaves the UK and France. Italy and Spain are close, but they are simply too chaotic and aspects of their civic culture too apart from the USA. The UK seems attractive, but for a variety of reasons (demographics, population density, etc), I believe France is the better pick. Germany? No. They are doing well because, well, they are Germans. I was joking about this with a German friend over the weekend who has lived in the USA almost two decades and goes home to Hanover every summer. She agrees. A nation full of Germans function, well, like a nation full of Germans. It helps at times like this. So, that leaves us with France. I have my biases, as I have always felt more at "home" in France and the Low Countries than the UK - but I think that is a reasoned call. That's my intro, and here is the graph that I think tells the best story.
We are doing fine, and so is France, TBQH. Go to FT website here and play around some. Of note, I will not entertain arguments from anyone trying to use total numbers as a benchmark. You can't compare a nation of 330 million to one of 5.6 million. To get even close, you need to move that decimal point over one. Now, everyone go wash your hands. H/t JBM.
If it hasn't hit you yet, it will soon. Everyone's assumptions about what the defense budget will look like - what it will buy and who gets what part of the pie - are gone. The larger impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is unknown, but we do know this; at no time has so much debt been piled so high on top of an incredible spike in unemployment and economic collapse - in so little time - in the lifetime of any living American. What can we expect? Our guest for the full hour this Sunday from 5-6pm Eastern to discuss this and more will be Todd Harrison, the director of Defense Budget Analysis and the director of the Aerospace Security Project at CSIS. As a senior fellow in the International Security Program, he leads the Center’s efforts to provide in-depth, nonpartisan research and analysis of defense funding, space security, and air power issues. He has authored publications on trends in the overall defense budget, military space systems, civil space exploration, defense acquisitions, military compensation, military readiness, nuclear forces, and the cost of overseas military operations. Mr. Harrison joined CSIS from the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, where he was a senior fellow for defense budget studies. He previously worked at Booz Allen Hamilton where he consulted for the U.S. Air Force on satellite communications systems and supported a variety of other clients evaluating the performance of acquisition programs. Prior to Booz Allen, he worked for a small startup (AeroAstro Inc.) developing advanced space technologies and as a management consultant at Diamond Cluster International. Mr. Harrison served as a captain in the U.S. Air Force Reserves. He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with both a B.S. and an M.S. in aeronautics and astronautics.
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