• Damarcusart [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    3 days ago

    There is something refreshing about the way Trump always says the quiet part out loud. Makes it much harder for libs to insist that the US isn’t really trying to foment terrorism in Xinjiang or escalate things against China.

  • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    3 days ago

    Even after getting the base back online there’s 2 years minimum before it gets capability to start putting agents back Xinjiang and then there’s 1-2 years before those agents bear fruit, assuming China doesn’t immediately flag and remove them.

    The best this can produce is some propaganda against China to use in the west when China start arresting agents and population members who collaborate. It can’t hope to harm China itself, so its best possible function is production of anti-China propaganda.

    Xinjiang and Taiwan are the only propaganda in the last 10 years that has had any real impact on views of China. Taiwan is going nowhere and falling off as a tool for impact so they probably believe they really need this or westerners are going to start viewing China favourably.

    It will never actually be successful in destabilising China unless somehow they turn massively incompetent and simply do not react to it which I kinda think is unlikely.

    We’re going to be combatting Xinjiang propaganda again in 3-5 years if they get back in to Afghanistan though.

    • darkcalling [comrade/them, she/her]@hexbear.net
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      3 days ago

      I think because of the Gaza genocide they’re desperate to at least both-sides the situation.

      The whole world knows they’re guilty of enabling the genocide there, of all but orchestrating it by proxy. But they probably hope to use this situation to rile up the Muslim world against China with the feeling that in 4 years assuming the Gaza situation is “resolved” by the zionoists either completing the genocide or stopping partway and declaring victory, that the Muslim world will be ready to forget yesterday’s news and hated enemy and embrace their new hated enemy China which unlike the US is 100% sanctioned by the gulf state comprador governments and media. And they could be quite right. At the very least it lets them muddy their own involvement by saying “oh that was those Jews, not us, they tricked us, we love Muslims, it was a mistake, we didn’t realize”.

    • AssortedBiscuits [they/them]@hexbear.net
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      2 days ago

      I think it’s mostly wishful thinking on Trump’s part. Afghanistan is just not going to let the US back in, especially with their various business deals with China or how Russia is the only country to officially recognize the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan as the legitimate state.

      The Taliban is probably the most reactionary national liberation struggle actor, but it’s still a national liberation struggle in the end.

      • I agree, I don’t see the Taliban selling out and letting the US military back into Afghanistan. Besides, Russia/China have a lot more to offer than the US does here: (cheap or free) food and military supplies – and all without any demands of a Russian/Chinese military presence inside the country.

      • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
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        2 days ago

        I am not too sure. The Taliban probably has a price. There’s something you could give them that would make them say “think of everything we could do with that”. The question is just whether the US is willing to offer something big enough.

    • Damarcusart [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      3 days ago

      I was thinking this was more for military use, have a base west of China that can launch missiles, planes and potentially nukes, or at least threaten to do so, forcing China to spread their defenses thinner. If the new government of Nepal turns out to be a full on US puppet, we’ll probably see them do a similar thing there, allowing US troops into their nation so the US can surround China.

  • dead [he/him]@hexbear.netOP
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    3 days ago

    The video clip comes from a joint press conference earlier today with Kid StarverKeir Starmer. I think Trump only mentions it in passing, I watched a longer video and it didn’t seem to have more details.

    In the video Trump says that the US needs to retake the base to prevent China from something nuclear. The SCMP article says that Trump thinks that China controls the airbase, not sure. The dropsite tweet says that the US wants the base to monitor China.

    The US left Bagram Air Base in July 2021 as part of the US withdrawl from Afghanistan.