Emperor Xi Jinping paid a royal visit to Pu Tin, regional governor of the northern Chinese province of Ruxia.
That's what it looked like, because that is what is happening. Xi was beaming and Putin looked the servant that he is. This was the greatest humiliation Russia has ever seen.
This isn't an alliance, it's boss and lackey. Xi isn't talking about fighting NATO or the US. He'll take Russia first. Putin is trying to buy extra hours in power by selling Russia to China.
Putin's insane war on Ukraine is worsening the Russian demographic crisis, depopulating the country. China isn't doing well and needs space, resources, and victories. Putin's nationalist supporters see what's happening.
China has issued maps that list swaths of Russian border territory with Chinese names and configurations. Putin would give that up to do what, take Bakhmut temporarily? Why not? He doesn't care about Russia or Russians at all.
This will be the choice Russia faces when defeated and ejected from Ukraine. To crawl back to Europe with concessions, accountability, and reparations or to become a gas station province of the Chinese dictatorship.
The US should not make the same mistakes with Xi that it made with Putin. Xi and his gang are self-interested and couldn't care less about Putin or this supposed friendship. They respect strength and will advance if faced by weakness in Ukraine and elsewhere.
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🎯Over-cautious, piecemeal aid has allowed Russia to keep the balance instead of losing decisively and quickly. Western self-deterrence has cost thousands of Ukrainian lives & will cost the West many additional billions because Putin winning would be far more expensive.
He says "West" but means the US, of course. While Biden is worried about destroying Hamas in Rafah, Putin has been destroying Ukraine. While Ukrainian towns are being turned into desert, thousands of US tanks & drones are collecting dust in the western US deserts.
As I wrote in the WSJ and with @general_ben for CNN, this self-imposed feebleness reflects a lack of US strategy and a White House fear of victory. Russia must lose for there to be peace. Now, as 800 days ago, all Ukraine needs are the tools to do it.
China already chose a side in this war and is helping Russia destroy Ukraine to destabilize the free world order it wants to destroy. But instead of sanctions to deter that cooperation, more concessions and more talking about what the West won't do to defend itself.
And why wouldn't France, or any democratic nation, desire regime change in Moscow? Putin's mafia terror state has moved to imperialistic invasion, the largest in Europe since WWII. It's like worrying about who might take over if Hitler fell in 1940.
With many of these college protests, I wonder how much they are drawing attention to the plight of Gazans versus to themselves, and distracting from those with real struggles in a real war zone to advocate anti-Israel, anti-Semitic platforms.
Ask for humanitarian aid for civilians, for Hamas to release the hostages, not the surrender of the side that was first attacked in this war, let alone its extermination. Protests for Gaza that don’t address Hamas aggression aren’t anti-war, they are pro-war. The real one.
Like many people from authoritarian regimes, I support dissidents and lawful protest reflexively because it was stifled and persecuted in the USSR and Putin’s Russia. This is true even when I scarcely sympathize with the cause, or see it as manipulated and toxic.
One of the elements that put the lie to pro-Kremlin advocates like Vance and Musk and their "Ukraine can never defeat Russia!" BS. Ukraine doesn't have to conquer Moscow. It only has to make the Russian invasion & occupation unsustainable and unprofitable for Putin.
So tighter sanctions, esp secondary ones on middlemen, are as important as battlefield gains. Putin's oligarchs and Russian society more broadly must feel the pressure. When Putin sees that continuing the war is a greater threat to his power than ending it, it will end.
Defeating Russian forces is critical to save Ukrainian lives and to make Putin look like a loser, something no dictator can afford. Also why only defending against missiles & drones isn't enough. Destroying the launch facilities wherever they may be is the only way.
When I bash the Trump-led GOP for blocking Ukraine aid I get criticized for not bashing the Biden admin enough for withholding weapons. When I bash the Biden admin, I get attacked for not blaming Trump & Johnson. I get it, but this is the partisan BS that Putin is exploiting.
When casting your vote, yes, "who is better" is a relevant question. But in advocacy, you should speak the truth about all sides. It doesn't "help Trump" to point out the Biden DoD should be doing much more to help Ukraine and US security.
Johnson, Trump, and the GOP treason caucus should be blasted for spouting Russian propaganda & harming US interests, Ukraine in particular. But their agenda is clear and you cannot shame the shameless, only defeat them. But Biden is talking the talk and not walking the walk.
Stop waiting for the history books, I'm happy to blame him now! But the President of the United States cannot blame a feeble Congressman from Louisiana for failing to defend US security & the entire democratic world order against a hostile dictatorship. The buck stops with him.
Turning Ukrainian lives & global security into a domestic football is immoral and idiotic. Trump and his GOP are doing the Kremlin's bidding for election help and cash. Biden feigns helplessness to score points against them as Ukraine burns. Inexcusable.
You cannot shame the shameless. Johnson & MAGA happy to do Trump/Putin's will to destroy Ukraine aren't worried about voters. It's up to the commander in chief to do what is necessary despite the GOP, not whine & blame. Drawdown $, surplus weapons, arms from allies, etc.