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Sunday, Mar 19, 2023 - 15:47 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

And All The Masks Start Slipping

Well, well. Barely a week after an observation on civilization versus decadence/barbarism within historical cycles on this blog, China has come up with a Global Civilization Initiative (GCI) to go with their GSI/GDI, while declaring their intent to "reform global governance" - i.e. raise a new/alternative world order to replace the current (American) one and rewrite international norms and rules, as explained here last September. Mind, this is also Sunak's and the United Kingdom's interpretation, so one hopes some concurrence might be had on this reading. Team Blue's move has been to have the International Criminal Court (ICC) issue an arrest warrant for Putin, which was noted to be more than a little ironic given that the U.S. never recognized its jurisdiction over their own guys (also discussed under rule enforcement, in that September update); but then, the point of Control over such alphabet agencies is to exploit their Influence, so good job.

This of course comes in the wake of the epochal Saudi-Iran rapproachment as brokered by China/Team Red, the repercussions of which remain reverberating globally. From a broader perspective, the U.S. now being a competitor - as opposed to China being a customer - had always made a longer-term relationship with the Saudis tenuous, not that it had been very stable before this. While there remain some challenges on the new Middle East realignment, Team Blue media has not missed its significance towards diminishing U.S. Influence in the region, despite Uncle Sam attempting to hide his "imperial anxieties" at yet more chipping away at his dollar hegemony. Interestingly, relief for the long-suffering Yemeni commoners seemed an afterthought as Iran pledged to stop arming the Houthis, with Team Blue more concerned that China might wrangle a peace settlement in Ukraine too (they won't, too many vested interests in keeping the proxy war going)


All according to Liar Game "encirclement" script
(Sources: newindianexpress.com, mangakakalot.com)


Further, the hypothesis from last month that the U.S. Culture Wars were being fed to distract the plebs from the true elites/banksters has apparently hit the mainstream... on Fox News. That shouldn't make the theory any less plausible, though, and more open-minded patrons of this blog might observe what happens to the extant woke bias of corporate (social) media, once The Greatest Game gets going in earnest. There will be much less patience for language-policing and navel-gazing academic part-of-speech status games once the Deep State shifts into a (Cold) war economy, and I am personally waiting to see what the thus-unoccupied Wall Street fat cats will pull out, on another increasingly likely-looking financial collapse: will adding another stripe to the flag be sufficient, or will they have to dig out the bondage gear?

But let us not tarry in the past too much, for the present awaits - and the new President of China has some words to say... and accuses the United States by name, for the first time:


Turn 13, Action Round 3 (Team Red)

Team Red plays UN Intervention for its Event, simultaneously with Containment for 2 Ops - cancelling the Containment Event. UN Intervention also yields 1 VP for Team Red from U2 Incident played in the Headline Phase, for a 2 VP lead.


Doesn't "Great Wall of Steel" sound so familiar?
[N.B. That said, given that they literally produce over half of the world's steel, this may not be all that infeasible]
(Original sources: twilightstrategy.com, channelnewsasia.com)


UN Intervention here references Russia's managing to set up a debate on the Nord Stream sabotage in the U.N. Security Council, and even if one expects exactly nothing to come of it, it does still symbolize Team Red going after the levers of global governance, as proclaimed by Xi. And if anyone was thinking that the China-Russia axis at the heart of Team Red was vulnerable, Xi's pending visit to Moscow to meet Putin might warrant some reconsideration. Team Blue media has been pushing China's shipping of weapons and body armour to Russia via Turkey (3/2) and the UAE (3/3, as part of Gulf States) as more casus frigus belli, neglecting that some housing projects in the U.S. probably have more than the about 1,000 firearms involved, and that Russia isn't short on such gear anyhow.

The real headache for America/Team Blue here is that this signals that China/Team Red is not acknowledging their commands, and the missed opportunity to get Russia on their side circa 2010 - followed by a failed attempt at isolating them - might yet be realized as one of the greatest strategic missteps by U.S. policymakers. It's looking like the U.S. has shelved their domestic disarray to counter China if for the time being at least, but one figures that isolation - or Containment - of China will be even more challenging. For one, many countries (including the U.S. and Singapore) actually rely on trade with China for prosperity, if not survival itself. With Team Red's BRICS+ having already surpassed Team Blue's "Golden Billion" G7 in terms of GDP, political/military encirclement (or "power play", as charted out last May) looks to be the Blues' best bet currently.


1 Ops: +1 Influence in Honduras (1/1). Two can play at the same encirclement/containment (and face) game, clearly, and China has bought Honduras over from their previous recognition of Taiwan, further shrinking the latter's circle of official supporters to just thirteen. Honduras had apparently given Taiwan the option to beat Beijing's bid by doubling their current annual fee of some US$100 million, but had been declined. But honestly, it's not like any of those 13 pals will be of much help if Red China decides to go for it, so one understands if the Taiwanese would prefer to put their funds directly towards defence against a total Blockade (as previewed last August)

This said, one figures that China would much prefer a non-military solution to their Taiwan issue (as also assessed by the U.S. intelligence community), and as such it should be tempting for Team Blue to try and force China to engage on undesired ground - or waters, as the case may be. The Anglo AUKUS nuclear submarine deal has been interpreted thus, with commentary that it appears a costly symbolic gesture by the Australians, who won't even be taking delivery for a couple of decades - and this to protect sea-borne trade from... their biggest trade partner. China may well try to pry some nuclear sub secrets of their own out of Russia given this development, and Putin may well be under enough pressure to acquiesce.

Honduras certainly isn't the only Central American nation in Team Red's sights, and from how they have just sent an envoy to both Honduras and Panama (2/1), the U.S. is well aware of that too. Panama is reportedly busily hammering out a free trade agreement with the Chinese, who are fast approaching America's door from the south.

1 Ops: +1 Influence in North Korea (0/4). The Hermit Kingdom has without doubt been riled up by Team Blue's bringing of Japan and South Korea together on military ties, which has seen them fire both intercontinental and short-range ballistic missiles, in the general direction of the new best buddies. This came alongside a warning of 800,000 citizens having signed up to fight the U.S., which is however a pretty long swim. Still a cheap investment to secure a flank for China as it goes.



Havana, Panama, Tegucigalpa - all the same yeah?
[N.B. Always thought "being extra" was uniquely Singlish; guess it's not so.]




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