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Sunday, Oct 15, 2023 - 19:18 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

Kiss From A Rose On The Red

Thanks to all in the audience for your patience - we are slowly but surely making up for lost time, though *opens envelope* the latest directive is that we will have to back up just a little for the next card, so here's adjusting the Game Clock a bit... no, that's the Doomsday Clock, careful with it! Where do they hire these interns from nowadays?

Okay, that's the right one, we're back at the 27th of May - ladies and gentlemen, all hands together, for Marilyn Monroe!


Turn 14, Action Round 3 (Team Red)

Team Red plays Shuttle Diplomacy for 3 Ops.


...and that's how I plan to win my second Nobel Peace Prize
(Original sources: twilightstrategy.com, cgtn.com)


Henry Kissinger would celebrate his belated hundredth birthday in July at Diaoyutai, Beijing, with a sumptuous banquet hosted in his honour. One believes this gesture entirely sincere, given Chinese cultural veneration of seniority, even ignoring Kissinger's nigh-bulletproof status as an "old friend" here, as hailed by Xi - who had just skipped a meeting with John Kerry (and actual official U.S. diplomats) in a pointed snub. Kissinger's halo in China, despite a... mixed legacy in the West, was of course due to his (pragmatic and realist) advocacy for engaging Communist China in Cold War I, as Nixon's Secretary of State (extending to some politically-incorrect joking with Mao Zedong). As recounted in March with Putin Plays The China Card, this U.S. shift towards China turned them against the Soviets, and ended profitably for both parties.

Kissinger's titanic Influence (for better or worse) in contemporary geopolitics had already been discussed last September, and whatever else might be said about him, there is no doubting his Herculean work ethic in his prime (a virtue shared with a recent POTUS), and Shuttle Diplomacy was named such from Kissinger's indefatigable efforts in traveling between various Middle Eastern capitals towards handling the fallout of the Yom Kippur War in 1973... why is there a sudden chill in the hall? Got to get the air-conditioning checked out...

Anyway, respected as this centenarian might be in China, all his informal dropping-by would really result in, was being politely informed in no uncertain terms that it is now impossible to contain or transform China, although that didn't prevent Chinese propaganda from repeating Kissinger's warning against (simultaneous) conflict with China and Russia, and analysis that a second Cold War would be even more dangerous than the first (then again, he's probably not wrong on that). Xi would in any case indicate that Stability with America remained possible alongside the usual blandishments on "win win" and "joint (not co-)prosperity", which one figures American strategists will likely interpret as playing for time until they (and Team Red) take an unassailable production lead, as explained at the end of the last Turn.

In any case, as we all know, Stability exists merely to be overwhelmed by the application of Influence in The Greatest Game, and Team Red have three Ops to spend here:

2 Ops: +1 Influence in Bolivia (3/2). Given that Bolivia lies to the west of Brazil in South America, their signing a defense agreement with Iran all the way over in southwestern Asia could be thought a little odd. Between that, their switching to Chinese yuan for international trade, and completed deal with China for the lithium reserves that Team Blue had Couped them for in 2019, should be sufficient to relieve them of Team Blue Control... for now at least.

1 Ops: +1 Influence in Nicaragua (1/3). Chinese economic Influence continues throwing its weight around in Latin America, with the Central American Parliament now voting to expel Taiwan in August, to welcome the other China instead. Guatemala remains a Taiwan supporter despite leaning Red in other respects, but the pressure's mounting there too...


As an afterword, Kissinger's visit followed some years after Xi's invitation to thirty handpicked American and Chinese business giants, including the likes of Buffett, Bezos, Tim Cook and Jack Ma - and more recently after others such as Bill Gates and Elon Musk had gotten their audience. This would have to represent Team Red/China dangling their shiny medals/Influence at the chaps who they think are actually pulling the strings in Washington, and from the examples of Disney and the NBA, Xi and the CCP might be correct in their estimation on this yet.

And for the sake of completeness, the dice roll for the Thailand Coup attempt from the previous Turn was one, which made a modified roll of three against Thailand's doubled Stability of four, which thus failed. No luck on the security video front, either, which yielded but a single frame. Cheeky gits:


The Greatest Game is Divine
(Source: chapmanganelo.com)


Team Blue do have the consolation of Shuttle Diplomacy's residual effect lingering in wait for the next Middle East or Asia Scoring Event, however, and as Kissinger takes his leave back to the Team Blue side of the table, all eyes are on them...



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