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China’s Growing Influence on Myanmar’s Generals

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China has emerged as the most important outside player in Myanmar’s escalating crisis, endorsing the military administration just as the generals are losing control of large swaths of the country and consolidating dominance over various ethnic armed factions on their shared borders.

Last month, Chinese Foreign Minister Qn Gng made his first official visit to Myanmar, meeting with junta Senior General Min Aung Hlaing in Naypyidaw. Peace talks between ethnic resistance organisations (EROs) and the junta were also held in Beijing. Meanwhile, the military’s proxies, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), paid a visit to Yunnan Province.

Analysts worry that Beijing has gained significant clout over Myanmar’s struggling leadership and a number of armed players operating along the country’s porous borders. For more over two years, the junta has used Chinese and Russian fighter jets and weapons to kill, airstrike, and shoot down people and resistance fighters throughout the country.

China has ceased aggressively pressuring the state to resume Myanmar’s democratic transition, as well as expressing support for jailed leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party. It has continued to ignore the underground National Unity administration (NUG), a parallel administration formed by elected and deposed NLD MPs.

china myanmar

The growing weight of China in Myanmar

Experts and diplomats warn that this is not without risks. According to some estimates, Myanmar’s generals control less than half of the country, and efforts to bring them to the bargaining table with ethnic forces have yet to yield dividends. Beijing’s backing also shields the junta from international pressure to back down, extending the civil conflict and jeopardising China’s strategic interests.

However, Chinese officials are unlikely to see it that way. China intends to ensure that Myanmar’s fragmentation — comparable to China’s historical “Seven Warring States” period over 2,200 years ago, according to one seasoned Burmese observer — will fend off any significant Western presence.
China’s increasing power

The growing weight of Beijing in Myanmar, a country larger than France situated between India, China, and Southeast Asia, has significant strategic ramifications for the area. The junta intends to provide Beijing with access to the Indian Ocean via a projected Chinese-led deep-sea port in western Myanmar, as well as railways and roadways connecting the port to Yunnan via northern Myanmar.

Myanmar’s military has also openly supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s claim to Taiwan. This has the potential to upset the balance of power in Southeast Asia, where the United States and China have been battling for influence.

According to China scholar and former diplomat Michael Ng, Beijing’s viewpoint is related to internal politics, after President X Jinping centralised decision making and marginalised the foreign affairs ministry.

china myanmar

Support for General Min Aung Hlaing

“In the same month [March] that he secured a convention-breaking third term, Xi paid a state visit to Moscow even as Russia continues to bomb and pillage Ukraine,” Ng, a former Hong Kong government official in charge of Southeast Asian affairs, said.

“It is clear that Xi is doubling down on authoritarian regimes worldwide as long as they support his ambitions.” It’s not surprising that Xi sent Qin Gang to Myanmar to show his support for Min Aung Hlaing.”

According to many Chinese sources, Min Aung Hlaing’s leadership has been pushing for Chinese investment to return. Under the Myanmar junta, which has stopped releasing details of investment permits, Chinese investments rank first among permitted foreign direct investments.

“China is now backing the junta,” a diplomat in Yangon observed, referring to the regime’s extensive interaction with the Chinese government.

According to the diplomat, the important concern is how the regime would accommodate China’s economic and geopolitical objectives in Myanmar, which include the projected port, dams, and highways.

A decade of reformist governments, first by Thein Sein and later Aung San Suu Kyi, strove to connect big infrastructure ideas with Myanmar’s economic and environmental objectives, but the junta lacks the competence and political clout to do so.

China had long regarded Myanmar as its backyard under past military administrations, but felt marginalised when then-President Thein Sein opened up the country in 2011 and launched a process that resulted in modest democratic reforms in the hitherto isolated country.

china myanmar

China’s Access to the Indian Ocean

China recently sponsored discussions between the junta and three members of Myanmar’s ethnic army coalition, known as the Northern Brotherhood Alliance, in the Mongla district of northern Myanmar’s Shan state, near China’s Yunnan Province.

According to VOA, the meetings were intended to persuade the ethnic armies to support the junta’s planned elections, but they ended without an accord on June 2. Mongla is a Chinese-speaking region under the grip of a rebel faction.

The Chinese government’s major objective in Myanmar is to get access to the Indian Ocean via the proposed port of Kyaukphyu, as well as connectivity from Rakhine to Yunnan.

According to Tower, Beijing is providing significant political, economic, and tactical military support to the United Wa State Army, a formidable Chinese-speaking militia organisation dominating territory in northern Shan State and pledging nominal respect to Myanmar’s sovereignty.

As a result, China is “tilting the balance of power in favour of the Wa and supporting consolidation of the critical northern EAOs under UWSA leadership,” according to Tower. “Beijing is using relations with northern armed groups to put pressure on the junta, and in practise has abandoned its support for ASEAN’s leadership role in the Myanmar crisis.”

However, sources close to the Chinese say that Beijing was just dealing with whoever was in control.

“After keeping some distance with the Burmese generals since the coup,” a source close to Chinese government officials said, “China moved to fully engage with the State Administration Council (also known as SAC, the official name of the junta) a few months ago.” “The engagement has resumed, but the results haven’t.”

“China’s top priority in Myanmar is to gain access to the Indian Ocean through the proposed Kyaukphyu port and connectivity from Rakhine to Yunnan,” the source stated. “Chinese officials are aware of how unpopular the SAC is and how strong Aung San Suu Kyi’s support is.” However, Daw Suu went too far in her attempt to remove the Burmese military.”

Many will disagree with this evaluation. Suu Kyi struck a deal with the generals more than a decade ago and agreed to participate in the system under the military-drafted constitution, which banned her from becoming president and gave the military a large position in administration and parliament.

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Trudeau’s Gun Grab Could Cost Taxpayers a Whopping $7 Billion

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Trudeau's Gun Grab
Trudeau plans to purchase 2,063 firearm from legal gun owners in Canada - Rebel News Image

A recent report indicates that since Trudeau’s announcement of his gun buyback program four years ago, almost none of the banned firearms have been surrendered.

The federal government plans to purchase 2,063 firearm models from retailers following the enactment of Bill C-21, which amends various Acts and introduces certain consequential changes related to firearms. It was granted royal assent on December 15 of last year.

This ban immediately criminalized the actions of federally-licensed firearms owners regarding the purchase, sale, transportation, importation, exportation, or use of hundreds of thousands of rifles and shotguns that were previously legal.

The gun ban focused on what it termed ‘assault-style weapons,’ which are, in reality, traditional semi-automatic rifles and shotguns that have enjoyed popularity among hunters and sport shooters for over a century.

In May 2020, the federal government enacted an Order-in-Council that prohibited 1,500 types of “assault-style” firearms and outlined specific components of the newly banned firearms. Property owners must adhere to the law by October 2023.

Trudeau’s Buyback Hasn’t Happened

“In the announcement regarding the ban, the prime minister stated that the government would seize the prohibited firearms, assuring that their lawful owners would be ‘grandfathered’ or compensated fairly.” “That hasn’t happened,” criminologist Gary Mauser told Rebel News.

Mauser projected expenses ranging from $2.6 billion to $6.7 billion. The figure reflects the compensation costs amounting to $756 million, as outlined by the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO).

“The projected expenses for gathering the illegal firearms are estimated to range from $1.6 billion to $7 billion.” “This range estimate increases to between $2.647 billion and $7 billion when compensation costs to owners are factored in,” Mauser stated.

Figures requested by Conservative MP Shannon Stubbs concerning firearms prohibited due to the May 1, 2020 Order In Council reveal that $72 million has been allocated to the firearm “buyback” program, yet not a single firearm has been confiscated to date.

In a recent revelation, Public Safety Canada disclosed that the federal government allocated a staggering $41,094,556, as prompted by an order paper question from Conservative Senator Don Plett last September, yet yielded no tangible outcomes.

An internal memo from late 2019 revealed that the Liberals projected their politically motivated harassment would incur a cost of $1.8 billion.

Enforcement efforts Questioned

By December 2023, estimates from TheGunBlog.ca indicate that the Liberals and RCMP had incurred or were responsible for approximately $30 million in personnel expenses related to the enforcement efforts. The union representing the police service previously stated that the effort to confiscate firearms is a “misdirected effort” aimed at ensuring public safety.

“This action diverts crucial personnel, resources, and funding from tackling the more pressing and escalating issue of criminal use of illegal firearms,” stated the National Police Federation (NPF).

The Canadian Sporting Arms & Ammunition Association (CSAAA), representing firearms retailers, has stated it will have “zero involvement” in the confiscation of these firearms. Even Canada Post held back from providing assistance due to safety concerns.

The consultant previously assessed that retailers are sitting on almost $1 billion worth of inventory that cannot be sold or returned to suppliers because of the Order-In-Council.

“Despite the ongoing confusion surrounding the ban, after four years, we ought to be able to address one crucial question.” Has the prohibition enhanced safety for Canadians? Mauser asks.

Illegally Obtained Firearms are the Problem

Statistics Canada reports a 10% increase in firearm-related violent crime between 2020 and 2022, rising from 12,614 incidents to 13,937 incidents. In that timeframe, the incidence of firearm-related violent crime increased from 33.7 incidents per 100,000 population in 2021 to 36.7 incidents the subsequent year.

“This marks the highest rate documented since the collection of comparable data began in 2009,” the criminologist explains.

Supplementary DataData indicates that firearm homicides have risen since 2020. “The issue lies not with lawfully-held firearms,” Mauser stated.

Firearms that have been banned under the Order-in-Council continue to be securely stored in the safes of their lawful owners. The individuals underwent a thorough vetting process by the RCMP and are subject to nightly monitoring to ensure there are no infractions that could pose a risk to public safety.

“The firearms involved in homicides were seldom legally owned weapons wielded by their rightful owners,” Mauser continues. The number of offenses linked to organized crime has surged from 4,810 in 2016 to a staggering 13,056 in 2020.

“If those in power … aim to diminish crime and enhance public safety, they ought to implement strategies that effectively focus on offenders and utilize our limited tax resources judiciously to reach these objectives,” he stated.

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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue

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Google

Google is so closely associated with its key product that its name is a verb that signifies “search.” However, Google’s dominance in that sector is dwindling.

According to eMarketer, Google will lose control of the US search industry for the first time in decades next year.

Google will remain the dominant search player, accounting for 48% of American search advertising revenue. And, remarkably, Google is still increasing its sales in the field, despite being the dominating player in search since the early days of the George W. Bush administration. However, Amazon is growing at a quicker rate.

google

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

Amazon will hold over a quarter of US search ad dollars next year, rising to 27% by 2026, while Google will fall even more, according to eMarketer.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the forecast.

Lest you think you’ll have to switch to Bing or Yahoo, this isn’t the end of Google or anything really near.

Google is the fourth-most valued public firm in the world. Its market worth is $2.1 trillion, trailing just Apple, Microsoft, and the AI chip darling Nvidia. It also maintains its dominance in other industries, such as display advertisements, where it dominates alongside Facebook’s parent firm Meta, and video ads on YouTube.

To put those “other” firms in context, each is worth more than Delta Air Lines’ total market value. So, yeah, Google is not going anywhere.

Nonetheless, Google faces numerous dangers to its operations, particularly from antitrust regulators.

On Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Google must open up its Google Play Store to competitors, dealing a significant blow to the firm in its long-running battle with Fortnite creator Epic Games. Google announced that it would appeal the verdict.

In August, a federal judge ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly on search. That verdict could lead to the dissolution of the company’s search operation. Another antitrust lawsuit filed last month accuses Google of abusing its dominance in the online advertising business.

Meanwhile, European regulators have compelled Google to follow tough new standards, which have resulted in multiple $1 billion-plus fines.

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Pixa Bay

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

On top of that, the marketplace is becoming more difficult on its own.

TikTok, the fastest-growing social network, is expanding into the search market. And Amazon has accomplished something few other digital titans have done to date: it has established a habit.

When you want to buy anything, you usually go to Amazon, not Google. Amazon then buys adverts to push companies’ products to the top of your search results, increasing sales and earning Amazon a greater portion of the revenue. According to eMarketer, it is expected to generate $27.8 billion in search revenue in the United States next year, trailing only Google’s $62.9 billion total.

And then there’s AI, the technology that (supposedly) will change everything.

Why search in stilted language for “kendall jenner why bad bunny breakup” or “police moving violation driver rights no stop sign” when you can just ask OpenAI’s ChatGPT, “What’s going on with Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny?” in “I need help fighting a moving violation involving a stop sign that wasn’t visible.” Google is working on exactly this technology with its Gemini product, but its success is far from guaranteed, especially with Apple collaborating with OpenAI and other businesses rapidly joining the market.

A Google spokeswoman referred to a blog post from last week in which the company unveiled ads in its AI overviews (the AI-generated text that appears at the top of search results). It’s Google’s way of expressing its ability to profit on a changing marketplace while retaining its business, even as its consumers steadily transition to ask-and-answer AI and away from search.

google

Google has long used a single catchphrase to defend itself against opponents who claim it is a monopoly abusing its power: competition is only a click away. Until recently, that seemed comically obtuse. Really? We are going to switch to Bing? Or Duck Duck Go? Give me a break.

But today, it feels more like reality.

Google is in no danger of disappearing. However, every highly dominating company faces some type of reckoning over time. GE, a Dow mainstay for more than a century, was broken up last year and is now a shell of its previous dominance. Sears declared bankruptcy in 2022 and is virtually out of business. US Steel, long the foundation of American manufacturing, is attempting to sell itself to a Japanese corporation.

Could we remember Google in the same way that we remember Yahoo or Ask Jeeves in decades? These next few years could be significant.

SOURCE | CNN

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The Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Government Appeal in a Texas Emergency Abortion Matter.

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(VOR News) – A ruling that prohibits emergency abortions that contravene the Supreme Court law in the state of Texas, which has one of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the country, has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. The United States Supreme Court upheld this decision.

The justices did not provide any specifics regarding the underlying reasons for their decision to uphold an order from a lower court that declared hospitals cannot be legally obligated to administer abortions if doing so would violate the law in the state of Texas.

Institutions are not required to perform abortions, as stipulated in the decree. The common populace did not investigate any opposing viewpoints. The decision was made just weeks before a presidential election that brought abortion to the forefront of the political agenda.

This decision follows the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended abortion nationwide.

In response to a request from the administration of Vice President Joe Biden to overturn the lower court’s decision, the justices expressed their disapproval.

The government contends that hospitals are obligated to perform abortions in compliance with federal legislation when the health or life of an expectant patient is in an exceedingly precarious condition.

This is the case in regions where the procedure is prohibited. The difficulty hospitals in Texas and other states are experiencing in determining whether or not routine care could be in violation of stringent state laws that prohibit abortion has resulted in an increase in the number of complaints concerning pregnant women who are experiencing medical distress being turned away from emergency rooms.

The administration cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case that bore a striking resemblance to the one that was presented to it in Idaho at the beginning of the year. The justices took a limited decision in that case to allow the continuation of emergency abortions without interruption while a lawsuit was still being heard.

In contrast, Texas has been a vocal proponent of the injunction’s continued enforcement. Texas has argued that its circumstances are distinct from those of Idaho, as the state does have an exemption for situations that pose a significant hazard to the health of an expectant patient.

According to the state, the discrepancy is the result of this exemption. The state of Idaho had a provision that safeguarded a woman’s life when the issue was first broached; however, it did not include protection for her health.

Certified medical practitioners are not obligated to wait until a woman’s life is in imminent peril before they are legally permitted to perform an abortion, as determined by the state supreme court.

The state of Texas highlighted this to the Supreme Court.

Nevertheless, medical professionals have criticized the Texas statute as being perilously ambiguous, and a medical board has declined to provide a list of all the disorders that are eligible for an exception. Furthermore, the statute has been criticized for its hazardous ambiguity.

For an extended period, termination of pregnancies has been a standard procedure in medical treatment for individuals who have been experiencing significant issues. It is implemented in this manner to prevent catastrophic outcomes, such as sepsis, organ failure, and other severe scenarios.

Nevertheless, medical professionals and hospitals in Texas and other states with strict abortion laws have noted that it is uncertain whether or not these terminations could be in violation of abortion prohibitions that include the possibility of a prison sentence. This is the case in regions where abortion prohibitions are exceedingly restrictive.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which resulted in restrictions on the rights of women to have abortions in several Republican-ruled states, the Texas case was revisited in 2022.

As per the orders that were disclosed by the administration of Vice President Joe Biden, hospitals are still required to provide abortions in cases that are classified as dire emergency.

As stipulated in a piece of health care legislation, the majority of hospitals are obligated to provide medical assistance to patients who are experiencing medical distress. This is in accordance with the law.

The state of Texas maintained that hospitals should not be obligated to provide abortions throughout the litigation, as doing so would violate the state’s constitutional prohibition on abortions. In its January judgment, the 5th United States Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the state and acknowledged that the administration had exceeded its authority.

SOURCE: AP

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