If anyone needed evidence that China believes it can act with impunity, it appears that a high profile tennis player who made a #metoo allegation against a government official has disappeared.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/17/tenni...hnk/index.html

Just in case this isn't sarcasm.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/17/polit...est/index.html

Chinese military hardware is still technologically inferior to American hardware but the gap is closing due to a huge amount of investment, diminishing returns of R&D (easier to catch up than be on bleeding edge), straight up IP theft, and asymmetric development of technologies that Russia and US have historically avoided (hypersonic missile is one of those areas).

There is also the issue they have so far built around making things expensive for Americans with a massive number of rockets. They are building for deterrence, not building to win in an outright confrontation, probably understanding nukes are deterrents to war.

These type of incidents, if true, will be China's biggest challenge going forward.

They can silence her in public. They can disappear her to a re-education camp until she submits and learns what she can and cannot say in public and tows the line and comes out and proclaims 'no I just took some time to myself and outside the public eye for personal reasons', but such incidents do get out amongst the populace and such top down abuse will gain greater and greater push back.

That is the inevitable consequence, imo of making people more wealthy (building the MC) that their focus changes from just subsisting to the quality and freedoms in their lives.

If CHina believes they can build the thriving MC they need to achieve their top World Power ambitions but also control and abuse them as if still living in N.Korea type State, I think they will find themselves embroiled in their own civil war.

I guess you mean internal push back?

Correct.

So distracted by the battle they will face from within and because I think they hit a tipping point that the more draconian they get trying to crush it the more push back will rise up, that it could be that, that impacts their global domination plans more than any foreign nations push back to try and prevent it.

BTW that is exactly the plan I think Trump and his team have in mind if they retake the WH.

I am quite certain that Trump will not allow the mistake he made the last time, which was the fear of mass resignations in protest to some of his authoritarian pushes, to slow him one bit the next time he takes office.

Quite the opposite I think he will attack with zeal those institutions, in ways to force the mass resignations and purge them of those men and women of good will and good intent, who would say 'No' to Trumps most egregious demands while then eagerly filling every vacancy with the most sycophantic person in the ranks willing to raise their hand to gain power and a seat at the table. All the while Trumps base will see this as a win. Him clearing out the Deep State.

While the rest of America rings their hands in consternation that such mass resignations in the past were an the type of indictment that would see the House and Senate rise up to protect the Constitution, as long as the GOP has the power to protect it they will.

As mass numbers hit the street to protest Trump actions he now slams the full force of the police and his alt police (Proud Boys, etc) against them. Numbers than rise in even more indignation and he crushes them all the same

The goal being to create a state where he can declare this a new civil war between him and basically blue State type supporters and the party (dem's) who support them.

The goal being to break them with Military and police and alt police and recraft a new constitution and frame work for governance that could see Trump and republicans retain power for the foreseeable future.


Nothing irks Trump more, imo, than the fact Putin had the resolve to follow thru and do what needed to be done to secure himself as president for life and Trump pulled back on it due to others always warning him about the 'Mass Resignations". I do not see him letting that stop him again and in fact I think he will realize it can be used as his path to enduring power.

Some might think that is crazy Fanfic but I would bet there is no way Trump does not try something huge to orchestrate a way to stay in indefinite power with another win. He has talked out loud about 'never giving up that office' and when Trump says it out loud like that people should never assume it is hyperbole. He always means it.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/tennis/...18-p59a6e.html

WTA basically says: free Peng or no more women's tennis in China.

That is fantastic that the Tennis Association is willing to risk their relationship in China, a market most sports see as their biggest growth area and thus usually avoid any conflict with the State and the athletes are forced to tip toe around.


That said I just don't think China will do a thing to respond. There view is so long term and it REQUIRES the authoritarian iron fist, and there is no way, imo they allow any sport to compromise that and break them on that. Heck they would destroy their current Tech Center to maintain their master plan, when Tech giants get to cozy in their power.

What I suspect is she will make an appearance, give an interview maybe saying she is fine, not coerced and is just taking some time away from the sport and media.

The Chinese have been accused of taking the punishment for one and visiting on the entire family if they don't get compliance. For a young woman, just on the forefront of getting to enjoy life's pleasures and share it with her family a threat of them all being sent off to separate work camps forever to live out the rest of their lives, would be a compelling reason to comply and play ball.


I feel if we continue to see incidents like this, and I think we will as wealth increases and people find their voice, that groups like the Tennis Association and the world in general may have only one tactic to combat it. Just keep cutting China off and isolating them. No tennis for them and none of their players can play outside China either. Extend that to every Sport. Extend that to trade. Extend that in every way like old school isolation of a State. OR just turn a blind eye to this type of abuse I think will only grow. CEO disappeared. Top stars disappeared. Etc, Etc.

It’s a bit symptomatic, China is slowly losing international goodwill.

still waiting for any evidence that she is missing or has been disappeared or that her original post was deleted by censors and not by herself or that the latest email from her is fake or that the latest pictures are fake.....

seems like the propaganda has created a nice unfalsifiable outlook in many... if she appears then it is because she is being coerced under the threat of her family being sent off to gulags, if she doesn't appear then she has been disappeared. one wonders if there is anything that could happen that would not be twisted into confirmation of evil on the part of "china" or the "ccp", which is of course presupposed

How credulous are you? In the real world, if your friends start calling you because they are concerned about you, and there are stories in the news that something awful may have happened to you, you pick up the phone and tell them everything is fine. Or even better, you go on ESPN, reiterate your #metoo allegation, and tell everyone that you are not being silenced by the Chinese government.

You don't drop off the face of the earth and then send a weird email walking back your allegation.

You are correct in saying it is near impossible in such coercion type cases to prove the person is not being coerced.

We have seen recent videos of people abducted and then put out in front of tv visibly frail but saying they are fine as their captures stand in the background.

If you want to say believing anything but that they are fine is a propaganda because how can they prove it... then sure.

A person captured and coerced is always fine if they say so, can be your default.

I don't know anything for sure here but the situation is certainly questionable as hell and demands more suspicion than trust. Anytime someone accuses some one powerful of a crime and then disappears from normal contact it should be treated as suspicious. In China, that much more so.

It’s not sarcasm at all. If the USA and China were on even footing, why would the potential war be China attempting to take over the South China Sea? If they were on even footin the war would be on Americas doorstep as well. No one actually thinks that could happen. You are right that Chinas strength is in asymmetric threats but it’s weakness is it’s ability to project force- they basically have no ability to project force where as the USA has lots and lots of ability to project force.

I get what you are saying above and agree with it but that said to say this quote by you "...Chinas military is incredibly unimpressive. I’m more likely to rule the world than they are...", is not sarcasm at all seems very strange.

So in light of what you say in your last post, which is reasonable do you believe that China's ability to project force is so weak that indeed you would be more able to invade and take over other countries ad project more force than China or would you admit that was sarcasm/hyperbole, other?

Common sense says this girl is under wraps or in prison.

Yes but what is the world going to do?

I still think if a ton of countries boycotted the Winter Olympics china would be pissed. Problem is everyone is scared of them

Seems like a great time for tariffs to work their magic on WalMart's bottom line. We've got inflation moving the needle. What better time to tariff? What's a few more notches on the upward graph?

China tennis player Peng will reappear in public 'soon' - Global Times editor

Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai has been staying at home "freely" and will make a public appearance "soon", Global Times editor-in-chief Hu Xijin, a prominent state-media journalist, said on Saturday....

..."In the past few days, she stayed in her own home freely and she didn't want to be disturbed. She will show up in public and participate in some activities soon," Hu wrote on Twitter....

..."I am glad to see the videos released by China state-run media that appear to show Peng Shuai at a restaurant in Beijing," Women's Tennis Association (WTA) chairman Steve Simon said in a statement.

"While it is positive to see her, it remains unclear if she is free and able to make decisions and take actions on her own, without coercion or external interference. This video alone is insufficient.

"As I have stated from the beginning, I remain concerned about Peng Shuai's health and safety and that the allegation of sexual assault is being censored and swept under the rug. I have been clear about what needs to happen and our relationship with China is at a crossroads."...

I guess her re-education is almost complete

I wouldn’t have said it wasn’t sarcasm if I was being sarcastic. Not only do I believe it, it’s literally true. I don’t want to put a number on my chances of taking over the world but it’s certainly somewhere between 0% and 50%. I’m an American of good character with lots of friends.

Otoh, China has zero chance of taking over the world, I’m somewhat sorry to reveal. They couldn’t even beat India in a war , let alone the US or Russia.

Ok so you are nutbar. Sorry but that is the only way to look at.

You literally believe that you, a poster on 2+2 should be the betting odds on who will have the best future chance to rule the world because you are a US citizens with friends.

That is just nonsense. China is on track to have a GDP that will be bigger than a number of the G7 countries combined. They are rapidly building allies in the UN through their new silk road initiative.

China is certainly no where near there yet but they are taking a generational approach. To suggest they have zero chance is to simply say money and nation wealth means nothing in geopolitical power equations. Amongst the most naïve view I have heard here on the forums.

Well we still got Trump's Tariffs. Why doesn't Biden remove them?

Tariffs I doubt are fueling inflation.

IÂ’m not a nutbar, IÂ’ve already said I am unlikely to take over the world. A real nut bar would go to Albania and hire some mercenaries to begin his conquests of Bosnia under the cover of Russian aggression in Ukraine and syria

But I could see how if you think IÂ’m a nut at that would make you sour in my prospects of taking over the world.

China is held in check in a wide variety of ways. Russia and France have stronger militaries than China and are both more likely(very unlikely) to take over the world.

OBOR would be threatening if it achieved literally all its goals but that is not going to happen. If it achieves most of its goals that would be a good thing for the world; increased trade and gdp to China is a positive for Everyone. They are not a threat the way the USSR was. Total gdp doesnÂ’t directly translate to power. Their gdp is primarily going up because westerners (like me)want it to go up.

Having said that, they are failing at basic tasks. They often alienate their neighbors and have no safe harbor in the Philippines, India, or Japan. They have been embarrassingly bad at propaganda so much so that it is in anti Chinese governments interests for them to get better. They recently built their first aircraft carrier. It is 80 year old technology and made out of basically paper machie.

These international agreements that China is engaged in are double edged and there is no evidence they are getting the upper hand. They sounded like North Korea in response to the AUKUS deal for example. There is internal strife . They absolutely have no chance of achieving dominance in the foreseeable future.

Perhaps 200 years from now after weÂ’re all dead a weakened us will split into warring factions(impossible now) and super human Chinese will March through California and Nevada.But the west thinks generationally too they just think further ahead.

Get out of your bubble dude. China is politicking all over the place and making inroads with countries all over the world. Not only that, but they are selling a populist antithesis to the American neoliberal hegemony which is appealing to many.

The CCP is an organization of yes-man at the best of times, and under Xi Jinping the authoritarian needle has been cranked to near maximum in party politics. Members of the inner circle or near-inner circle are regularly "disappearing". That's hardly new, but is happening a lot now. That's something that give a lot of international players pause, even those who couldn't care less about China's general lack of respect for human rights.

But also outside the inner circle the current regime approach to any problem has been infamously heavy-handed during Xi Jinping's decade in charge. The current regime are the legacies of those who cracked down on Tiananmen Square in 1989, and it shows. Enormous amount of surveillance, ever increasing censorship, wide-spread persecution of journalists and activists and of course the horror of the Uyghur genocide.

On the business side of thing, the regime has favored increases in state control, giving less room for enterprise. At the same time, the Chinese model of simply stealing foreign IP and technological advances has reached absurd levels.

It's not some Hollywood-moment where suddenly every realizes what was wrong and change their minds, but China is certainly bleeding international goodwill.

Not going to waste a lot of time on this.

That you see Russia and France and other could keep China in check but you believe they could not keep you in check as you have "US friends' is nutty. Sorry.

You would not have a greater chance than China in achieving World dominance. Saying China would be stopped does not mean that you would get further than they would.