Biden suspends campaign for re-election

So after pressure from Democratic leaders and when presented with polling results that strongly suggests that he had no "path to victory", Joe Biden suspended his campaign and endorse his VP, Kamala Harris as the Democratic Candidate for President in the 2024 election.

Contrast this to Trump's attempt to cling onto power after the 2020 election, and claimed that the election was fraudulent, and that the Presidency was stolen from him, and instigating a mob to storm the Capital on Jan 6, 2021.

Biden addresses his decision to suspend his bid for re-election.

Why do some countries get rich?

The video above points out that while globally, the world has gotten rich in the last 2 centuries, the wealth is not equally distributed. And that 6.7 billion people still live on $30 or less. Why?

At 3:16, the video provides an answer: Freedom. The freer the country, the richer the people are able to be.

At 6:35, Singapore is highlighted.

China, after Lee Kuan Yew's passing in 2015.

Singaporeans know this story.

How Deng Xiaoping visited Singapore in 1978, saw how a predominantly Chinese society could be rich even as it is governed strictly, and saw in Singapore, the future of China.

While China wanted to learn from Singapore, and in fact, hundreds of official trips to study the "Singapore System" were made by mid-level officials, the fact is that China and Chinese officials saw in Singapore what they wanted to see in Singapore (or saw Singapore's solutions through ideological lenses. This is very normal.) And so "transplanted" the policies and practices without fully understanding the fundamentals that made Singapore a success. For example, the lesson from Singapore's fight against corruption was distilled as "the importance of committed leadership", and ignored the significance (and importance) of the rule of law in Singapore, and how the law also applies to leaders and leadership. 

Thus, there is a hypothesis that China has not fully understood the Singapore Model.

To be fair though, what they did understand or what they did transplant from Singapore to China did result in about 4 decades of progress and growth for the Chinese economy (with about 2 decades of an inflating housing bubble). 

Deng and his successors, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao led China into successive years of growth.

Singapore's 4th Prime Minister

So Singapore has her 4th Prime Minister.

And the only people who commented on it was.. foreigners? Foreign press?

Wargaming China's Invasion of Taiwan

 Video: Why US Airpower will save Taiwan:

 

What is the Belt and Road Initiative REALLY about?

Megaprojects explains the Belt and Road Initiative:

This is a rather comprehensive video explaining China's Belt and Road Initiative.

The BRI is the initiative of Xi Jinping, announced in 2013. Prior to that, China's guiding principle was from Deng Xiaoping: "Hide your Strength and Bide your time."

Apparently, when Xi took over, he decided that the time to hide your strength and bide your time was over; that China's time to shine has arrived; that China was ready to take to the stage as a world leader, and to displace the current world leader.

A Superficial Summary (and commentary) of Countries Military Ranking

As a consequence (partly) of the Ukraine invasion, some "hypothetical" questions are being asked - Can China take Taiwan? If the US comes to Taiwan's aid militarily, or in a straight (military) contest between China and the US, will China prevail or will the US? If Japan gets involved, is it a given that Japan being "smaller" (militarily, territorially, and economically) it will be disadvantaged (at least against China)?

Can China take Vietnam if it wants to? In an Sino-Indian war who will win/lose/prevail/be left standing?

Those are the big questions.

There are slightly smaller questions. Like, would Singapore be able to defend itself against Malaysia? Indonesia? If her bigger neighbours attempt to swallow the "little red dot"?