this post was submitted on 16 Nov 2023
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I'm sure Xi is beyond having his feelings hurt by Biden, but just look at Bilken's reaction lmao.

Inviting a head of state to your country to publicly insult them is unacceptable anywhere, so this is only going to further tarnish the shitty reputation of American diplomacy.

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[–] heartheartbreak@hexbear.net 102 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Biden's reason doesn't even make any sense

Well you see here jack he's the leader of a country with a totally different style of government than ours

Barely even paraphrasing lmfao this guy's brain is swiss cheese

[–] Tankiedesantski@hexbear.net 72 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Ehh it kinda makes sense if you agree with the idea that liberals view any deviation from Western liberalism as ontologically wrong and evil. Just jarring to see it said out loud in a diplomatic setting.

[–] heartheartbreak@hexbear.net 48 points 2 years ago

I agree but just because the quiet part is said out loud doesn't make it make any more sense lol

[–] mathemachristian@hexbear.net 57 points 2 years ago (1 children)

We are moving backwards from "Capitalism is a necessary evil because of human nature" to "Capitalism is the only good form of economy".

[–] Tankiedesantski@hexbear.net 38 points 2 years ago

Agreed. The swiss cheese holes have gotten to the tact and inhibition parts of his brain.

[–] CarbonScored@hexbear.net 32 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Seriously. Biden just outwardly saying his definition of dictator is 'leader not in exactly the same way as us' is really weird.

[–] BlueMagaChud@hexbear.net 17 points 2 years ago

hitting the dog whistle and then breaking out websters dictionary

[–] GarbageShoot@hexbear.net 29 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Look, he is. He's a dictator in the sense that he's a guy who runs a country that is a communist country that's based on a form of government totally different than ours,

May as well give the quote. Seems like, insofar as it has substance, it just circles back around to gommulism bad

[–] Tankiedesantski@hexbear.net 15 points 2 years ago

Gommunism bad. Being different bad.

Fukuyama end of history bullshit.

[–] EnsignRedshirt@hexbear.net 83 points 2 years ago (5 children)

Trump would have handled this better, and I’m not joking.

[–] Tankiedesantski@hexbear.net 75 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Trump would wait at least a few days before calling Xi the leader of Hamas or some dumb shit.

So yeah, you're right.

[–] EnsignRedshirt@hexbear.net 78 points 2 years ago (8 children)

Nah, Trump likes Xi. He’ll be all over the place about China, but on an individual level he can spot a winner, and he likes winners. He might even still call Xi a dictator, but he’d be like “and that’s good, because he’s a very smart man. Very smart. China is lucky to have him. Some of us aren’t so lucky, if you know what I mean.”

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[–] Dingus_Khan@hexbear.net 51 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

He called the leader of Egypt a dictator to his face, through a translator fwiw.

Edit: ok it actually wasn't to his face. He called Sisi his favorite dictator before he arrived to an event, in front of diplomatic staff from Egypt

[–] Tankiedesantski@hexbear.net 36 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Trump or Biden? Equally possible. Trump meant it as a compliment, Biden because of brain rot.

[–] Dingus_Khan@hexbear.net 29 points 2 years ago

Hahah fair, no I'm talking trump on this one

[–] TheDialectic@hexbear.net 32 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Egypt is our ally right? That means he probably is a dictator. It is a safe guess. I have no actual knowledge of the situation

[–] Dingus_Khan@hexbear.net 23 points 2 years ago

Yes, and absolutely

[–] zephyreks@hexbear.net 31 points 2 years ago (1 children)

On one hand, getting called a dictator. On the other hand, I'm fairly sure Trump sees that as a compliment.

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[–] usernamesaredifficul@hexbear.net 41 points 2 years ago

well Trump's zero sum game everything is a negotiation attitude would genuinely help here.

he might think Xi is a dictator but he also wouldn't give a shit either way

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[–] Collatz_problem@hexbear.net 63 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

I think that means that America failed to get any concessions from China.

[–] Tankiedesantski@hexbear.net 50 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The one thing they seemed to get was resumption of direct military to military hotlines. Not sure how useful that's gonna be if they piss the Chinese side off though. Not hard to order the generals to pick up the phone, listen to the yank, then say "okay" and hang up.

[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 53 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

It's definitely useful for when the americans are doing their stupidly fucking dangerous freedom of navigation missions through chinese territory. During these missions the US ships have to turn off various monitoring equipment among other things. It's so fucking easy for one or the other side to misinterpret one another if they ever do something they're not expected to do in those situations, without communication they will default to assuming the worst and that's where it gets hairy, everyone starts shooting, and then everyone else in the region starts shooting because everyone is shooting. Launch after launch will happen because there's no de-escalation channel or way to just say "shit that was a mistake we're sorry" when something actually goes wrong.

Imagine when a ship gets spooked, does something unexpected, then some scrambled jets get shot down, then even more shit happens, and every single asset in the region just acts independently based on the information they have at hand (the ship/jets nearest to me just got blown up, we should release our payload into the target). It's a huge cascade.

Communication really matters to avoid this.

[–] nat_turner_overdrive@hexbear.net 47 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Conversely, if you know China isn't taking your calls, you have no choice but to avoid large provocations. I think refusing the back channels and forcing US foreign policy to be all out in the open was a good tactic.

[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 20 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

You don't need to do large provocations for this cascade to occur. Freedom of navigation operations have the potential to spiral out of control extremely easily.

This video poses this scenario very well: https://youtu.be/vJXWJ-Px5tU

I don't necessarily agree with all the interpretations of effectiveness of weapons/missiles etc in this video, but as an example of how officers in charge of each of these assets will act independently on incomplete information about the situation it's a very realistic example of how this shit could cascade on a complete misunderstanding. The particularly interesting part of this begins at 6:00 but the lead up is important in establishing the list of assets in the region in the scenario. An emergency phonecall in this situation would have resulted in the US knowing "this is a mock attack as an exercise, not a real one" and the spark that lights this cascade of events would not have happened. But without that phonecall, the training exercise jets are shot down, and what follows is a cascade of events leading to devastating losses of both sides as every existing asset interprets the nearby events as existential and releases their full capabilities. Whether the interpretations of the effect of these jets/missiles are correct is not really relevant compared to understanding how this cascade could easily happen from routine exercises that happen regularly without a line of communication.

[–] AlyxMS@hexbear.net 16 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (5 children)

Can't believe I watched the whole thing, god the entire video is so... masturbatory.

  • PL-15, literally the newest A2A missile ever fielded and a significant kinematic advantage over AIM-120. Nope, can barely score two hits with a 20 missile salvo. Also always launched from max range to minimize chance to hit I guess.

  • PL-12, estimated to be equal to AIM-120C. Scored like 1 hit after a 100 something missile salvo.

  • AIM-120D, don't ever misses, downs dozens upon dozens of aircrafts while barely taking losses. "Once again proves the united states's advantage in missile technology".

  • Evasive maneuvers against modern A2A missiles: If the F-18s do it, it always works, 98% effectiveness against anything. If the flankers do it, it never works. They might as well be flying straight, would have the same results.

  • Missile salvo of 30 sea skimming cruise missile toward a carrier: All intercepted, no problem.

  • A small salvo of Harpoons, pretty much the most obsolete ship to ship missile still in service, okay the 054A made a valiant effort but can't intercept them all. Also the CIWS can do nothing against a subsonic target.

  • DF-21D. From the late 2000s and highly experimental. Not perfected until DF-17 and 26 from recent years. Functions flawlessly at max range and we only lost the carrier due to this wunderwaffe.

  • Okay we lost but we are against overwhelming odds also we intentionally placed multiple handicaps on ourselves. And we still had an exchange ratio of like 1:50.

  • Everyone in comments: OMG this simulation is so accurate! But as a navy man here we would've never had those handicaps and we would've totally wreaked havoc on their obsolete military guys.

This thing had the plot of a top gun movie but is presented like a simulation done to the last detail. Just... strange. Gives off a big "elite waffen SS against soviet human wave attacks" energy.

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[–] zephyreks@hexbear.net 31 points 2 years ago

US FONOPS are actually insane. They broke the decades-old status quo that established the Taiwan Strait as Chinese territorial waters under the CPC-KMT consensus.

[–] usernamesaredifficul@hexbear.net 24 points 2 years ago

I heard they did get the Chinese to stop supplying the chemicals used to make fentanyl to Mexico. (as I understand it previously Chinese companies were selling chemicals that have legitimate and legal industrial uses in larger quantities than the legal market can support, similar to how American gun manufacturors make 40% more guns than the legal gun market can support)

[–] egg1918@hexbear.net 62 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Really think they're fucking up by reopening the military communications link. I guess China has to to show they're the reasonable party, but the US is just going to do what they were already doing. That is, ratcheting up tensions as much as possible whenever it suits them (pelosi fucking off to Taiwan for personal gain, that whole weather balloon embarrassment) then privately calling the PLA to say don't worry bro it's no biggie we promise. And then a month later doing it all again. I just don't see what China has to gain apart from the initial PR boost.

[–] Trustmeitsnotabailou@hexbear.net 35 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Trying to reason with a narcissist is pointless

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[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 55 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The way he says this makes me think there's probably a whole school of thought in the establishment ghoul circles that revolves around wording things in specific ways that translators will soften or "interpret" in a way that makes them sound not as bad in alternate languages.

[–] Blep@hexbear.net 23 points 2 years ago (5 children)
[–] 7bicycles@hexbear.net 15 points 2 years ago (1 children)
[–] Blep@hexbear.net 31 points 2 years ago

I mean the ghoul translator softening is much funnier if the people in question already know whats being said

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[–] RNAi@hexbear.net 49 points 2 years ago (1 children)

When they go low, we get high stalin-smokin

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[–] GaveUp@hexbear.net 49 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Honestly not even mad, this is completely expected lol

[–] Tankiedesantski@hexbear.net 49 points 2 years ago

My guess is that as soon as he heard it, Xi leaned over to his aide and whispered "Looks like I owe you a beer" into their ear.

[–] Mindfury@hexbear.net 43 points 2 years ago

begging Xi to clap back with "you could say the same about Biden, but you'd be wrong; he doesn't even run his country, the CEOs are the dictators"

[–] barrbaric@hexbear.net 34 points 2 years ago

xi-square-up The fuck you say about me?

sicko-wistful

[–] Great_Leader_Is_Dead@hexbear.net 32 points 2 years ago

Xi: "that's nice sweetie"

[–] TheBroodian@hexbear.net 31 points 2 years ago

Damn, how do people face Biden in person and not vomit at the sight of his face

[–] TupamarosShakur@hexbear.net 24 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The video of Blinken shaking his head like “goddamnit” is pretty funny

[–] Tankiedesantski@hexbear.net 20 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The face of a man who knows he's about to work through the night because his boss just said something incredibly dumb.

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[–] M68040@hexbear.net 24 points 2 years ago

One step forward, two steps back

[–] kristina@hexbear.net 20 points 2 years ago
[–] Catradora_Stalinism@hexbear.net 17 points 2 years ago (1 children)

god the US has fallen hard after the fall of the soviets hasn't it

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