–Black and white thinking won’t end the Ukraine war: CarrZee
–Brutal Boxer rebellion in 1900 offers lessons
–WARNING: This story includes a picture of historic brutality from Wikipedia
–Adds FT on China as NOTE
See this from the Telegraph apple.news/AreaXxSxOTQqyTByJ4nj9LQ
March 12-14, 2022 (LONDON) CarrZee: If Mr Putin was sure of his historical mandate for war, he would not need to restrict media coverage. Perhaps Mr Putin needs to invoke history even more than he has.
Meanwhile in Ukraine, Mykhailo Fedorov, the country’s youngest minister, has “created a new playbook for military conflicts” by deploying technology, trade and finance as “modern weapons of war,” according to the New York Times.
Now … can or will such tactics be used to hasten the end of the Ukraine war and speed the global climate transition?
CarrZee: I’m worried about Mr Fedorov’s “black and white”, “good and evil” thinking. Is the young man forgetting history, or at least not placing enough emphasis on it?
Wouldn’t his campaign have more credibility if he were to take into account NATO and Ukraine’s blame for the war? Remember, at the turn of the century, Putin apparently wanted to join NATO.
And what about Germany’s decision to renege on Nord Stream 2?
What the NYT didn’t cover was Federov’s push to draw China into his campaign:
I will snip the translation for convenience:
Union Pay International is China’s payments system and it’s widely available in Russia.
Adding China’s payment system to the ones that already have been withdrawn in Russia would be a coup for Ukraine.
US media outlets, citing Washington officials, say that Russia has in recent days asked China specifically for military equipment, including drones, BBC reports. China said the reports were “fake news,” a label that didn’t amount to a denial, BBC WorldService said (see FT below).
Yet, CarrZee reckons Ukraine probably shouldn’t hold its breath while it’s waiting for China or UnionPay to agree to help.
China, quite rightly, has a long memory.
Its Boxer Rebellion against foreigners was quelled in 1900 even more brutally than what’s going on in Ukraine today — by a group of countries that resemble today’s G7 (G8 if it still existed).
See this horrific tactic, for instance:
Here is the group that “attacked” China to “defend” foreigners there. Ukraine was part of Russia then.
CarrZee: There was nasty brutality on both sides of the Boxer Rebellion and it is one of the most controversial incursions in human history — among historians trying to credibly assign blame. This bit stands out for me (again, thanks Wikipedia, which has a fascinating post on what happened and why it’s important — many surprising people supported the Boxers):
Since war was never declared, the Allied troops behaved like soldiers who were mounting a punitive expedition in colonial style, rather than soldiers who were waging a declared war with legal constraints. The Allies took advantage of the fact that China had not signed “The Laws and Customs of War on Land”, a key document signed at the 1899 Hague Peace Conference. They argued that China had violated its provisions but they themselves ignored them.
And this quote:
A foreign journalist, George Lynch, said “there are things that I must not write, and that may not be printed in England, which would seem to show that this Western civilisation of ours is merely a veneer over savagery.
The “Eight Nation Alliance’s” behavior in ignoring the “The Laws and Customs of War on Land” the year before its “invasion” or “protection” reminds me not only of the current situation in Ukraine, but also of the USA’s current behavior in largely ignoring for the past thirty years the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change it agreed circa 1992.
Mr Fedorov should remember history and climate as he seeks to enlist help for a compromise that will end today’s war.
NOTE
On Monday the Financial Times wrote More information can be found here.
https://www.ft.com/content/75701f79-2edd-4a46-98e7-620473ffabce (emphasis added):
Xi Jinping faces a fateful decision on Ukraine
China’s ‘no limits’ partnership with Russia risks open confrontation with the west
Just before Russia invaded Ukraine, Vladimir Putin met Xi Jinping in Beijing. Shortly afterwards, the two countries announced a “no limits” partnership. Highlight text Whether there are truly no limits to the China-Russia partnership may become clear in the coming days, following reports that Moscow has asked Beijing for military aid. If Xi grants that request, China would in effect be entering a proxy war with the US and Nato nations that are backing Ukraine. That decision could spell the end for the globalised economic system that has fuelled China’s extraordinary rise over the past 40 years. Russia and China share a deep hostility to America’s global power. But they have approached their rivalry with the US in very different ways. China can afford to play a “long game”, relying on its economic might to change the global balance of power. But Russia, in a weaker economic position, has gambled on brute force in Ukraine…It is hard to play the long game if you tie yourself to a reckless gambler….see FT for full story
(Tweaks headline; adds China’s fake news allegation; corrects to say “adding China’s payment system” from “Russia’s” in paragraph under UnionPay snip in an earlier version of the story — sorry for the confusion)