One side is intelligent — and the other is not — Biden's alleged warning to China

19 March 2022

Regarding the Biden-Xi virtual summit about the Russo-Ukrainian War

Let's look at three levels of lying and one of arguable truth-telling.

Lying level 1 — intentionally distorting what probably happened — in a specific instance

From the Washington Times:

President Biden warned Chinese President Xi Jinping of consequences for supporting Russia’s war on Ukraine, a senior administration official said.

“President Biden made clear the implications and consequences if China provided material support to Russia as it prosecutes its brutal war in Ukraine, not just for China’s relationship with the United States, but for the wider world,” the official said.

Mr. Biden delivered the warning in a two-hour phone call Friday with Mr. Xi, who has entertained requests from Russia for economic and military support.

What follows will eventually reveal what a 'crock' The Washington Times' statement is.

Lying level 2 — lying by completely making things up

From US News & World Report:

The result of Friday’s virtual summit shows China now openly considers its ability to maintain economic ties globally outweighs Moscow’s need for more deadly weapons to break the burgeoning stalemate in the former Soviet republic – and as such its decision will likely further anger Russia.

“Xi’s remarks basically propose a U.S.-China G2 to co-manage Russia,” says Sun Yun, director of the China Program at the Stimson Center think tank, who also believes China has no intention of providing Russia with weapons.

“The Russians will not like that.”

The Pentagon believes the potency of Ukraine’s resistance has surprised the Russians and has exceeded even Western assessments of how long the formerly Cold War-era military would be able to stave off an active threat from its east.

The sheer scale of the subsequent fighting has drained Russia’s supply of precision weapons and armaments, U.S. officials believe, forcing it to rely now on “dumb bombs” and other indiscriminate instruments of war that have partially contributed to the troubling increases in civilian casualties and deaths.

These circumstances yield a tricky position for Xi of maintaining support for Putin, with whom he has aligned in pursuit of China’s economic, political and geographic ambitions – namely an annexation of Taiwan akin to Russia’s seizure of Ukrainian territory.

Notice the volumes of bullshit that were stuffed into that brief overview:

First, China and Russia both have denied that Russia asked China for weapons.

Such a request seems unlikely — in that Russia would not want to make itself subservient to China. And economically oriented China presumably would not want to assume the status of a co-belligerent.

Second, only the US and European Union call the war a stalemate.

Rationally speaking, it is pretty difficult to have a stalemate only 3 weeks into an invasion of the geographically second largest country in Europe.

Furthermore, Russian strategy and tactics appear to be less aimed at 'shock and awe' — than they are at capture — with as little destruction and death to innocents as possible.

The standards for measuring progress between those two different ways of waging war grossly diverge.

Third, it seems unlikely that the Russians have run out of precision munitions. Especially so, given the long run-up to this war.

Fourth — and military relevantly — precision munitions have comparatively little value in forwarding the kind of widespread military destruction necessary to obliterating swaths of enemy forces. That is usually accomplished by artillery. Artillery is a Russian specialty.

Furthermore, in military-to-military confrontations, there is absolutely nothing wrong with using allegedly 'dumb' bombs. They are much cheaper and kill just as well.

Fifth, on the conduct-of-war subject, we have heard not a word from the American Lamestream about the neo-Nazi Ukrainian Azov Battalion using civilians as shields. Just as ISIS did in Syria.

It is impossible to avoid civilian casualties in those situations. The US knows this.

Sixth, what is genuinely remarkable about American 'reporting' is that none of it has a clue as to what "troubling increases in civilian casualties and deaths" really look like.

By the standards of war, Russia has mowed down almost no civilians in Ukraine. Even according to Ukraine's own casualty announcements.

The comparative dearth of civilian casualties in Ukraine is evident, when compared to the most applicable historical standard — World War 2's eastern front.

Seventh, US News & World Report goes out of its way to link Ukraine with Taiwan. Both as measures of supposedly shared Russian-Chinese evil.

Evidently, the United States' own (continuing) perambulations as Killer and Pillager of Millions is completely forgotten.

Eighth and last — notice the Godzilla-like hypocrisy of the US and EU feeding torrents of arms, munitions and military aircraft into Ukraine — yet demanding that China refrain from doing so on the other side.

And tell me again, who provoked the Ukrainian war on purpose?

Lying level 3 — our wimpy White House — lying by gross omission of embarrassing facts

Evidently having been told to 'stuff it' — the White House managed only the following in public response. Xi's reply Biden is nowhere to be found:

President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. spoke today with President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The conversation focused on Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

President Biden outlined the views of the United States and our Allies and partners on this crisis. President Biden detailed our efforts to prevent and then respond to the invasion, including by imposing costs on Russia.

He described the implications and consequences if China provides material support to Russia as it conducts brutal attacks against Ukrainian cities and civilians.

The President underscored his support for a diplomatic resolution to the crisis. The two leaders also agreed on the importance of maintaining open lines of communication, to manage the competition between our two countries.

The President reiterated that U.S. policy on Taiwan has not changed, and emphasized that the United States continues to oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo.

The two leaders tasked their teams to follow up on today’s conversation in the critical period ahead.

In contrast to American truth-mangling . . .

. . . does accuracy come from an adversary?

China's perceptions of the Biden-Xi call are conveyed by the PRC's mouthpiece, The Global Times.

Slightly format-dismembered for better clarity:

Emphasizing Biden's "warning" to China is the US government's way to set its own diplomatic narrative

with the purpose to show American public its toughness and capability in pressuring China,

further isolating Russia and driving a wedge between China and Russia,

Lü [Xiang, a research fellow] said,

. . . this is a self-deceiving narrative.

Chinese President Xi Jinping encouraged the US and NATO to have conversations with Russia to solve the problems behind the Ukraine crisis, and expressed opposition to indiscriminate sanctions.

Washington is eager to influence China's attitude over Ukraine crisis, but as the situation evolves, China's largely neutral stance on the issue has been strengthened.

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has significant impacts, but it has also opened up new geopolitical space . . . .

The US tried to coerce China to meet its own needs.

Such a way is an unhealthy and problematic way to handle relations with China and other major powers.

But this is in line with the US' bullying nature and logics, which apparently is not accepted by China and many other countries.

[I]t is such bullying norm that has made many international issues harder to solve, [Professor] Li [Haidong] said.

The US continues to see itself as exceptional.

The superiority mentality makes the US believe it can set up rules around the world and then act beyond those rules.

Washington thinks pressure campaign can solve all the problems while sanctions can bring all it wants, Li noted.

However, the US has overlooked the shattered ties between itself and Russia due to its pressure and sanction campaign of the past three decades, which contributed to the Ukraine crisis.

Moreover, the US wants to apply such logics to its relations with China.

"Hasn't the US learned any lesson from this tragedy?" Li asked.

To ensure that no one misses China's point, the above op-ed is illustrated with a cartoon showing Uncle Sam pumping gasoline onto a fire labeled "Ukraine".

It would challenge common sense, as well as History, to argue with the PRC's analysis.

President Xi evidently told Biden to go fly a kite.

Ergo, the White House's blandly uninformative press release. No one likes to admit that his or her chest-thumping fell on intelligently deaf ears.

The moral? — These days, I do not believe a word that emanates from US Establishment sources

They're all lying. And they're all corrupt.

Gonzalo Lira's negative assessment of the West's propagandizing media people is (at least arguably) correct:

Gonzalo Lira, System Pigs, Part 1 — Journalists, YouTube (18 March 2022)

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One side is intelligent — and the other is not — Biden's alleged warning to China