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Theresa Fallon

@TheresaAFallon

Apr 7

The guided weapons are commonly referred to as “glide bombs”& consist of decades-old projectiles that would typically be dropped from Su-34 & Su-35 warplanes directly over targets. By adding cheap pop-out wings & a satellite navigation system,these former “dumb bombs” can… 1/

2/ …these former “dumb bombs” can now be launched by Russian bombers deep behind the front line and out of reach of Ukraine’s air-defence systems.

3/ “For them, it is much cheaper than using hundreds of thousands of artillery shells, when one of these bombs will demolish several buildings,” said Vlad, a 27-year-old soldier serving in the eastern Donetsk region.

Read 9 tweets

Theresa Fallon

@TheresaAFallon

Mar 24

‘Insane’: Xi’s call for ethnic Chinese to tell Beijing’s story stirs anger.
"Chan encouraged ethnic Chinese from across the world to unite, and with the help of Chinese officials, to work together to spread positive messages about communist-ruled China."
via @AJEnglishaje.io/6f96r7

2/ Telling the Chinese Communist Party's story well has long been the work of United Front Groups:
"In 2023, Chan attended Beijing’s annual session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in and said that “we should put more effort in mobilising righteous individuals overseas” and “expose the hypocrisy of fake news from the West”.

3/ “As he openly called on overseas Chinese to tell China’s story well, he also attempted to blur the distinction between Chinese nationals and non-China nationals of Chinese descent,” Loh said.

“And I think that most countries will find it unacceptable to have its own citizens working for a foreign actor to exert influence that might work against the interests of your country.”

Read 6 tweets

Theresa Fallon

@TheresaAFallon

Feb 28

Hmm, wonder why these documents were leaked now? 🤔

“Criteria for a potential nuclear response range from an enemy incursion on Russian territory to more specific triggers, such as the destruction of 20% of Russia’s strategic ballistic missile submarines.”

2/ “The cache consists of 29 secret Russian military files drawn up between 2008 and 2014, including scenarios for war-gaming and presentations for naval officers, which discuss operating principles for the use of nuclear weapons.”

3/ There is a bit of a reach here as all countries need to have scenario planning. This also highlights the Marriage of Distrust between Russia and China.

“The defensive plans expose deeply held suspicions of China among Moscow’s security elite even as Putin began forging an alliance w/ Beijing, which as early as 2001 included a nuclear no-first-strike agreement.”

Read 10 tweets

Theresa Fallon

@TheresaAFallon

Feb 26

1/ Over 20yrs later, a look at US wish casting that having🇨🇳join WTO before it was actually ready would help speed up the process in which 🇨🇳would become more like the US. No other country in history helped strengthen a peer competitor while simultaneously eroding their own production base which contributed to rust belts across swathes of the US, disgruntled workers, & the rise of populism.

Great read by @JKynge and Keith Fray.

2/ From the very beginning, Beijing had a vy different view of US motivation for having🇨🇳join the WTO.

“Bill Clinton, the then US president, hailed China’s membership as “removing [Beijing’s] government from vast areas of people’s lives” and promoting political reform. Jiang Zemin, China’s then leader, had a different take. He warned that America’s real motive was to “westernise and divide Socialist countries”.

3/ This wasn’t how US policy planners 20yrs ago envisioned their push for 🇨🇳’s accession to the WTO would eventually turn out. 👀

As the WTO falters, “China is accelerating efforts to construct an alternative trade architecture that is insulated from US influence and centred upon the developing world.”

Read 10 tweets

Theresa Fallon

@TheresaAFallon

Dec 15, 2023

Finally, Beijing’s useful idiots hiding in plain sight in Brussels are being exposed. About time!

You can bet there are a lot of very nervous folks in Brussels today after this long term research on Beijing's lucrative influence activities.

.@FT posted text exchanges between Belgian Senator Creyelman and his 🇨🇳Minister of State Security (MSS) handler. Creyelman could hardly be described as the sharpest tool in the shed (and thank goodness for that). 😉

Read 4 tweets

Theresa Fallon

@TheresaAFallon

Dec 13, 2023

VW employees are disgusted by this joke of an audit in Xinjiang.

“The consultancy firm hired by Volkswagen to investigate allegations of forced labour in the carmaker’s Xinjiang plant in China is facing a staff rebellion after the report cleared the German company of human rights abuses, according to insiders.
All of Löning’s 20 employees, except the founder Markus Löning and another executive, have asked to make it clear they were not backing the conclusions of the audit. VW commissioned it earlier this year in response to complaints from investors over mounting evidence of rights violations in the region.” #Shame

2/ @VW #Shame “The controversy reflects an increasingly tight balancing act for many German companies such as VW, which depend on China for a large proportion of their profits and try to stay clear of upsetting Beijing or Chinese consumers, which have in the past boycotted brands that respond to reports of human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
Rushan Abbas, a Uyghur American activist whose sister has been imprisoned by Chinese authorities, said in her view, the audit of VW’s plant in Xinjiang was “aiding and abetting the Chinese government’s crimes against humanity”.
“To think that such a sham was executed against the advice and vehement opposition of his own experts is not just irresponsible, it’s morally bankrupt,” she added. @FT

@VW If you own @VW stock — time to sell it. I am posting this clip from 2019 where Diess declared that he didn’t know about forced labour and Uyghur ‘re-education’ camps in Xinjiang. #shame
bbc.com/news/av/busine…

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