2) The threat has prompted the Biden administration to take action to reduce U.S. reliance on China for rare earth metals that are used in everything from smartphones to electric vehicles to fighter jets.
3) In 1992, Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping predicted the importance of rare earths to China’s future when he famously said, “The Middle East has oil. China has rare earths.”
4) Today, China is the dominant global supplier of rare earths, a group of 17 chemical elements used in the production of critical components of key technologies, which could easily be used as a weapon against other countries in a trade war or a conflict.
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Military officials outlined new spending requirements to boost deterrence against China, including new weapons, new construction & closer military-to-military collaboration with allies. defensenews.com/congress/2021/…
2) A report from U.S. Indo-Pacific Command delivered to Congress on Monday calls for roughly $27 billion in additional spending between 2022 and 2027; with $4.6 billion for fiscal year 2022 alone.
3) INDOPACOM renewed its call for the U.S. to build a $1.6 billion, 360-degree persistent and integrated air defense capability in Guam, served by a $200 million high-frequency radar system in Pulau and a $2.3 billion constellation of space-based radars.
The military was never interested in peace or a democratic transition & neither was Aung San Suu Kyi
The Tatmadaw is an army of darkness, its inner logic a riddle, its brutality a reflection of its repressive character thenation.com/article/world/…
2) The Tatmadaw is a postcolonial army that has, since Myanmar’s independence in 1948, acted as a colonizing force in multiple ethnic areas. Brutal war against the civilian population has long been a feature of its counterinsurgency against dozens of diverse ethnic rebel armies.
3) Suu Kyi pursued “national reconciliation” not for peaceful resolution of incessant civil war with ethnic minorities. For her, rather, it was between her ethnic Bamar civilian political party and the Bamar-dominated military—an elite bargain.
Youthful demonstrations have used social media and other tech to outmaneuver and expose old-fashioned coup makers
Generation Z members are “digital natives” known for their social media & internet-savvy. asiatimes.com/2021/02/myanma…
2) It is becoming abundantly clear that Myanmar’s military leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing didn’t anticipate the youthful fury his democracy-suspending coup would spark.
3) These are vastly different from those in 1988, when soldiers managed to suppress a pro-democracy uprising by spraying automatic rifle fire into crowds of unarmed demonstrators.
#US chip makers try to reverse Trump’s moves to block sales to #Huawei
Companies are seeking more time to make their cases before an interagency panel and hoping for a policy shift scmp.com/news/china/dip…
2) Hours after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged that the government has “ceded” Indian territory to the Chinese & raised questions over the agreement, the Ministry of Defence issued a strongly-worded statement.
3) The ministry made clarifications in the statement: “the assertion that Indian territory is up to Finger 4 is categorically false. The territory of India is as depicted by the map of India including over 43,000 sq km currently under illegal occupation of China since 1962.”
Cambodia’s govt suspended a 2 week military exercise with China next month, citing a need to cut spending amid the pandemic
The opposition said that it did so to avoid angering the Biden admin rfa.org/english/news/c…
2) The joint exercise, originally scheduled for March 13-27, sees around 3,000 Cambodian and Chinese troops take part in live ammunition drills—including training on the use of tanks, armored vehicles, and demining equipment.
3) Eng Chhai Eang, deputy president of the banned opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) dismissed the government’s claims, saying that in previous years, “all the expenses for military exercises were paid by China.”
2) A paper was published today by Dr. Steven Quay, M.D., PhD., CEO of Atossa Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATOS), entitled, "A Bayesian analysis concludes beyond a reasonable doubt that SARS-CoV-2 is not a natural zoonosis but instead is laboratory derived."
3) "Like many others, I am concerned about what appear to be significant conflicts of interest between members of the WHO team and scientists and doctors in China and how much this will impede an unbiased examination of the origin of SARS-CoV-2," said Dr. Quay.