A collection of my blogs and articles posted across various websites during the week; journals read, and NSA’s FOIA documentations and digital film releases.
1] The enduring SINO-BRITISH relationship continuance is the choice piece to read first; likely be followed by SADDLE ON UKRAINE with an assessment on possible China's arms provision to Russia.
Of course, also reflecting Why China’s Actions Toward Ukraine and Russia Could Shape the Course of Future Geopolitics (counterpunch 21/3).
One could probably interprete China’s strategic posture to Ukraine to that of applying economic exertion to make Kyiv recognises, and even embraces, China’s primary role as a mediator in the war. One can also offer an explanation that in any such a mediation effort China would continue maintain strategic partnership and coordination with Putin’s leadership, whilst gaining the wider economic opportunities for Ukraine’s subsequent reconstruction, and thereby enhance, and enlarge China’s geopolitical premier positioning - after the successful concluded Saudi-Iran mediation - in the international arena.
In the name of STRATEGIC AUTONOMY AND DECOUPLING, nations are pouring tens of billions into promoting chip production. However, semiconductor firms are realising that they had massively overinvested in capacity, and are now pulling back. In the final quarter of 2022, American real spending on information-processing equipment was down by 2%, year on year. The big tech firms are likely to cut capex by 7% in real terms in 2023, forecasters projected.
On the ongoing tech war, even as China’s semiconductor output shrinks 17 per cent in first 2 months of 2023, her flagship CPU designer Loongson puts on a brave face amid US sanctions, indicating the company is evaluating the advanced 7-nm process from a number of foundries to manufacture its future chips, which include GPUs (general purpose units) - as reported by the south china morning post.
Peking University professor Lu Feng (路风) had once stressed that, in the context of the US-China chip war, his advice is to “take a tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye”. He further said, “The more China backs down, the more frequent and heavier the blows [by the US] will become. Thus, it is time for China to harden its fist and develop the ability to grab hold of the other side by the ‘throat’. Only then will the other party acknowledge that we both belong to a ‘community with a shared future for mankind’.”
While US affairs specialist, Da Wei (达巍), professor of international relations at Tsinghua University gives a measured but dielectric articulation on the SINO-USA COMPETITION landscape.
This is the “Industrial policy” dictum refering to government efforts to shape the economy by targeting specific industries, firms, or economic activities. Oftentimes, it is aided by subsidies, tax incentives, infrastructure development, protective regulations, and research and development support like in Biden's CHIPS - the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors and Science - Act. However, too much of industrial policy can be overpowering, and prolonged excess can do harm, (Ruchir Agarwal, Industrial Policy and the Growth Strategy Trilemma, IMF blog 21/03/2023).
2] Since the TAPAO takeaway paper, diaspora communities have queried in what ways would ever this state survives with RM$1.5T national debts and +RM$1.8T already looted abroad, and that the Private Financial Initiative issue and the Littoral Combat Ship case yet to be investigated thoroughly.
The state of an economy:
Malaysia dire economic situations with off-balance accounts.
The way forward is for the country - whether under the structured developmental approach or with the targeted area-based poverty alleviation objectives - to undertake a serious re-consideration on DEBT FINANCING in economic development.
This is achievable if The Script of Madani Malaysia abounds, and the spirited values permeated through country and countrysides with practical PRAXIS in ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT endeavour.
3] The week's outlook in the Asia-Pacific region and around The World is amalgamated in the MOMENTUM, edition #139 whereas a collation of breaking news items are in the FRIDAY FILES - curated belately.
Previous issues of ON GEOECONOMICS and GEOPOLITICS are available HERE1 and HERE2.
4] There was a reposted piece on POLITICAL KURDISH PRISONERS, and as the Kurdish people celebrate Newroz, the party’s co-chairs Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar have expressed their “sincere thanks” to everyone who have showed solidarity with the HDP’s struggle.
5] Tuesday dawn, the George Washington University's National Security Archive released under the Freedom of Information status a suite of documents and films. Piled onto the desk(top) includes The 1965-66 “Arc Light” campaign bombings which have sombering yet surrealistic realities on Singapore which had became the R&R hub of US imperialism in the Vietnam War effort, and is still maintaining the US-Singapore security cooperation agreement as America goes to war constantly (global research, 28/02/2023) or as Ben Norton said, “U.S. Launched 251 Military Interventions Since 1991, and 469 Since 1798,” Multipolarista, September 16, 2022; read also the Black Agenda 15/03/2023 Report because warfare is always profitable to the US capital class.
Whereas, China's path to modernisation has inspired African and other Global South countries. The whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach is even acknowledged by World Bank as the better politico-economic development model for emerging markets and low-income countries: [World Bank and DRC (Development Research Centre of the State Council). 2019. Innovative China: New Drivers of Growth. Washington, DC: World Bank], more so when any poverty reduction story is a story of persistent growth through an energetic economic transformation process, and socialist praxis in sustaining consistent common wealth sharing.
Have a nice weekend browsing through content links, READ the material contents therein or DISTRIBUTE this digest freely to your peers, diaspora communities and WhatsApp Elements FB Instagram Signal Telegram WeChat groups.
©csloh