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submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net to c/news@hexbear.net

Image is from Wikipedia's article on the war..


I've wanted to cover Myanmar for a while now but haven't had the needed knowledge to write much more than "This situation really sucks." After doing a little reading on the situation, I feel even more confused. A decent analogy is the Syrian Civil War, at least while Assad was in power (though it's still pretty true today) - many different opposition groups, some co-operating with the United States, others not. The main government supported partially by an anti-American superpower, but who could live with that government collapsing if there are deals to be made with the group coming into power. A conflict kept going and exploited at least partially by the United States and other imperial core powers, though with plenty of genuine domestic animosity and desires for political independence.

Recently, the Myanmar government - the mainstream media uses "junta", which is probably accurate despite the connotations - has promised elections at the end of 2025. This doesn't seem likely to happen, and even if it did, how this would work in a country as war-torn as Myanmar is unclear. The government is losing territory and soldiers at a quick pace; they now hold only 21% of the country, though that 21% does at least comprise many of the cities. It's difficult to get a handle on the number of people affected because civil wars and insurgencies have been ongoing in some shape or form for decades, but we're talking at least millions displaced and thousands of civilians killed.

Here's a comment by @TheGenderWitch@hexbear.net from fairly recently that covers the situation in Myanmar:

comment

The military government of Myanmar is losing to the Rebel Groups, and badly. https://www.voanews.com/a/myanmar-s-rebels-closing-in-around-junta-into-fifth-year-of-civil-war-/7958145.html

somethings really afoot though, news about myanmar from western outlets and channels have suddenly all remembered myanmar exists and written quite a lot about them in the last few days. Its suspicious, it could be capitalists trying to signal their want for US involvement in the civil war. It could also be a targeted propaganda campaign already pre planned in order to make sure people are clued into the conflict.

I think this seems to be another Assad situation. The Military government is pretty unpopular domestically and is losing quite a bit of ground. I would be surprised if they lasted to 2027. Supplied by both Russia and China, theyve been able to keep some flow of weapons, but are suffering a lot from manpower issues. Conscription has been enacted, but conscripts are a poor replacement for trained soldiers. According to reports, they only hold about 21% of the land and are losing lots of territory. They also have extended their emergency rule for another 6 months, throwing doubt on the ability to follow through with their 2025 election. They've lost large amounts of territory, thousands of soldiers, and 2 regional commands. They're not dead yet though, as they have some ability to retake some territory and win some battles, but again 21%. Rebels currently are making steady progress towards the second largest city in the country.

while I don't like the rebels, they are western aligned, they have popular support and are allied to many of Myanmar's ethnic minority defence groups. Im wondering who really has the power in this situation though, since many of the gains seem to be made by the Ethnic armies, not the NUG. This revolutionary energy could be fueled to establish a socialist federation, but won't, and the popular revolutionary energy is fueled toward the NUG. It'll probably be another pro-west bourgeoisie democracy. It will probably then turn against the ethnic rebels and we'll end up basically where myanmar was pre coup. Probably will have a strong military influence on politics as well, since the rebel forces seem to be made up of officers and very little political groups. By then, people will be extremely tired of war and more likely to accept any conflict resolution than another civil war. In the midst of "It Happened" stands a stronger, unmovable "nothing ever happens". Would be neat if the Communist Party of Burma could somehow come out on top, but they have only around 1000 soldiers and don't control a large amount of territory.

China's interests in the region are still secure, but siding with the Junta is a bad idea, one I understand though. China doesn't want a western aligned power to take over a china aligned state, and is trying to make sure their economic investments in the area are protected and their mineral income is continued. They have deep ties with many Ethnic Minority states, especially on their border, and the NUG forces, mostly again to protect infrastructure investments and keep the minerals flowing. They might flip back to the NUG as the Junta starts collapsing over the next year or so, especially since the new US administration seems to be really cutting back on foreign aid. The General in charge of the rebel government forces complained quite a bit about how much aid ukraine got and how much he wanted that aid. He was basically begging for anti aircraft systems "like in ukraine" lol. China could definitely swoop in and back the rebels, which while hurting their reputation, is probably the best move long term. China's only interest is to keep Myanmar from being pro-west, keep control of Myanmar's mineral flow, and protect other investments in the area.


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Israel-Palestine Conflict

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Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:

UNRWA reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.

English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
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English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
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Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Sources:

Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.

Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.

Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:

Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.

https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.

Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:

Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.


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[-] xiaohongshu@hexbear.net 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Commentary: China wants the private sector to drive growth again, but trust can’t be rebuilt overnight

After years of cracking down on “barbaric growth of capital" in the private sector, China is wooing entrepreneurs again. Is it too little too late? Former SCMP editor-in-chief Wang Xiangwei weighs in.

HONG KONG: At the start of 2019, Chinese President Xi Jinping convened senior officials in Beijing for a workshop to discuss and prepare for "black swan" and "grey rhino" events amid a slowing economy and rising international uncertainties.

This meeting followed then US President Donald Trump's initiation of a trade war against China in July 2018, which sent bilateral ties into a downward spiral.

Mr Xi urged officials to remain vigilant and address "major risks" across various fields, including politics, ideology, economy, society, technology and the external environment.

A black swan refers to an unpredictable market event with extreme financial consequences, while a grey rhino is a highly probable and impactful threat that is often ignored.

Since then, China’s leadership has taken decisive steps to tackle perceived grey rhinos, such as ballooning local government debts, struggling city and community banks, and the "irrational and barbaric growth of capital" in the private sector, particularly targeting big tech firms like Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post.

However, Beijing's harsh campaign against the private sector has inadvertently unleashed another grey rhino: A lack of confidence among private entrepreneurs.

STIFLING INNOVATION

This lack of confidence, known in China as "lying flat" or "tang ping”, initially caught on among the country's overworked youth who sought to do the minimum and take a break from relentless work.

During the three years of the COVID-19 pandemic, this malaise spread nationwide, affecting not only bureaucrats but also entrepreneurs.

It was also partially fed by fear that success in private business could come with political risks: In 2020, Beijing abruptly halted the US$34 billion IPO of fintech giant Ant Group, controlled by Jack Ma, after he reportedly criticised regulators for stifling innovation.

What ensued was a multi-year crackdown on the so-called "excesses" and "barbaric growth of capital" in the private sector, which has since driven entrepreneurs' confidence to historic lows.

Mr Ma largely disappeared from the public eye following those events, reinforcing concerns that China’s business climate had become too unpredictable.

Within this context, Mr Xi's high-profile meeting with selected private entrepreneurs, including Mr Ma, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Feb 17 is significant - his first such meeting in nearly seven years.

ARE XI’S ASSURANCES ENOUGH?

According to Xinhua, Mr Xi reportedly told entrepreneurs, also including Mr Ma, Ren Zhengfei of Huawei and Wang Chuanfu of BYD, that it was "prime time for private enterprises and entrepreneurs to give full play to their capabilities”.

He assured them that the current difficulties and challenges facing the private sector could be overcome and called for renewed confidence in the future.

Mr Xi also vowed to create equal treatment for the private sector and pledged to ensure access to bank loans while addressing widespread illicit law enforcement and administrative actions, including arbitrary fees, fines, inspections and asset seizures.

Mr Xi’s remarks represent the strongest signal of support for private enterprises at a time when China’s economy is in a deflationary cycle, weighed down by falling property prices and low consumer confidence. Meanwhile, Mr Trump in his second term has threatened additional tariffs on Chinese products, and China’s exports, one of its traditional growth engines, remain bleak.

Beijing recently announced an economic growth target of "around 5 per cent" for this year, but revitalising the private sector is crucial to achieving this goal, especially since the private sector contributes about 60 per cent to China’s gross domestic product and over 80 per cent of employment.

Will Mr Xi’s words be enough? After all, China had already been unwinding its crackdown on the private sector starting in 2023, with officials increasing pro-business rhetoric and referring to private entrepreneurs as "one of us”.

Yet in many cash-strapped localities, illicit actions against the private sector, including arbitrary fees, fines, and asset seizures, have continued unabated.

Mr Xi’s remarks are expected to curb these illicit actions, but whether they will spark optimism among private businessmen remains to be seen.

the rest of the article

A REAL TURNING POINT?

Sensing scepticism, official media has ramped up efforts to reassure the private sector.

Notably, the People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist Party’s newspaper of record, recently published a long article titled I Have Always Supported Private Enterprises, highlighting Mr Xi’s support for the private sector and countering scepticism that he favours the state sector.

China’s latest efforts to reassure the private sector are a step in the right direction, but more needs to be done to restore confidence. The global success of DeepSeek’s AI language model and the popular animated film Ne Zha 2, both funded and developed by private entrepreneurs, offers significant insights.

More than anything, the rise of DeepSeek demonstrates that the private sector has elevated itself to drive China’s innovation and cutting-edge technologies, moving beyond its traditional role of job creation and playing second fiddle to the state sector.

The fact that the Hangzhou-based company was under the official radar until its sudden rise to fame suggests that if the government allows the private sector to operate without political, ideological and regulatory straitjackets, it can produce global winners.

This is likely the best way to restore confidence and tame the charging grey rhino.

For those paying attention to the “two sessions” in China, it shouldn’t surprise you that private capital has indeed made a come back with Jack Ma’s reappearance a few weeks earlier.

I am increasingly losing faith in Xi’s ability to curb private capital. Since Li Qiang (Shanghai lib) became the Premier in early 2023, from abandoning Zero Covid policy to opening up China’s capital markets, all indications are pointing to what I have suspecting all these while, that the liberals have indeed succeeded in their coup and have been having the upper hand since 2023.

[-] CyborgMarx@hexbear.net 3 points 3 months ago

If China wants to survive climate change and the fall of the American empire, this kind of 80s bullshit neoclassical liberal utopianism needs to be purged from Chinese politics

Overwhelming price controls, capital controls, adjusted real wages, nationalization of any industry that even gives the appearance of suffering from an investor strike, forced employee buyouts of any enterprise that can't be bothered to actually do capitalism, debt jubilee for every local government and anyone who isn't a western educated liberal shithead

Honestly, price controls and stimulus checks would solve most of these supposed issues surrounding consumption, but the "confidence" fairy is still rattling around in the heads of Chinese liberals

[-] thelastaxolotl@hexbear.net 2 points 3 months ago

i think instead than a coup they are both being forced to cooperate after the new US aggression that even if started by Trump it will probably continue by his successor so they have to worked together for now

[-] xiaohongshu@hexbear.net 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Honestly it’s more of a low consumption problem, which itself is driven by the falling property prices (70% of household wealth is in real estate) and the local government debt problem, and both factors are themselves underpinned by a massive wealth inequality problem that remains unresolved.

That’s why I keep saying that developing the domestic consumption market is the only way out to reduce reliance on trade (US trade aggression) and investment (dollar hegemony).

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[-] RobnHood@hexbear.net 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Yemen has BANNED the import of BURGERS. We salute the People of Yemen and Ansar Allah in their brave campaign against treatlerism.

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[-] Awoo@hexbear.net 2 points 3 months ago
[-] vegeta1@hexbear.net 1 points 3 months ago

Good. Fuck im

[-] uSSRI@hexbear.net 1 points 3 months ago

People already clowning on his corpse lmao

what a piece of shit

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[-] jack@hexbear.net 1 points 3 months ago
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[-] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Trump Administration launches CBP Home, a new “self-deportation” app

Article

The app replaces Biden-era CBP One, which helped asylum seekers get appointments at the border to legally enter the country. The app created by the Biden Administration called CBP One, to help asylum seekers get an appointment at the border to legally enter the country, is now CBP Home, which includes a new tool launched Monday by the Trump Administration to allow immigrants who are in the country irregularly to “self-deport.”

“The CBP Home app gives foreign nationals the option to leave now and self-deport, so they may still have the opportunity to return legally in the future and live the American dream,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement. “If they don't, we will find them, deport them and they will never come back.”

The app has a new feature called “Intent to Depart” that offers undocumented immigrants or those whose paroles, or parole permits, have been revoked “an orderly and defined voluntary process to notify the U.S. Government of their intent to leave the country,” according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which is responsible for the app. Pete Flores, acting CBP commissioner, said in a press release that through this route irregular immigrants could avoid “harsher consequences” such as detention or expedited removal.

Those undocumented immigrants who choose to self-deport using this tool must identify themselves with a photo and biographical information. The application also asks immigrants if they have “enough money to leave” the country and if they have a “valid and unexpired passport from their country of origin.” The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the umbrella agency for immigration enforcement, such as CBP, has not clarified how the process works once the app forms are completed.

The Administration terminated CBP One just minutes after Donald Trump took office. Originally launched in 2020, the Joe Biden Administration expanded its functions in 2023 to include tools for migrants in Mexico to request appointments to file asylum petitions, in order to order the flow of migration and reduce illegal crossings. In the year it was available, one million immigrants were able to enter the country legally thanks to it.

During the campaign, Trump criticized it, saying it facilitated mass migration to the United States and that authorities did not adequately vet migrants before letting them into the country, and promised to end it. When he made good on his promise last January 20, thousands of migrants who already had scheduled appointments were left stranded without them.

"The Biden Administration took advantage of the CBP One app to allow more than one million aliens to illegally enter the United States. With the launch of the CBP Home app, we are restoring the integrity of our immigration system," Secretary Noem said Monday. Those who have the CBP One app downloaded on their cell phones will see that they will be automatically upgraded to CBP Home.

The Trump administration, frustrated with the current pace of immigrant apprehensions and deportations, has recently made “self-deportation” a key strategy in its immigration agenda. The app comes after the Republican administration announced on February 25 that it would create a registry for immigrants in an irregular situation. The measure, which has not yet entered into force, although there is no clear deadline for it, would force undocumented immigrants over 14 years of age who have been in the country for more than 30 days to provide their personal information, fingerprints and place of residence.

The Republican administration also announced last month that undocumented immigrants will be banned from flying and will only be able to board planes that will take them back to their respective countries. Until then, it was possible for people without papers to travel on domestic flights with the identification granted by the CBP One application. This was announced by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA): “Illegal aliens who previously had their identity established using CBP One will only be allowed at the checkpoint if the TSA can determine that the purpose of the travel is for deportation or movement between detention centers”.

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[-] ThisMachinePostsHog@hexbear.net 1 points 3 months ago

The weather is looking particularly dangerous tonight in the Mississippi valley. Stay safe, any comrades that live in the highlighted areas!

[-] Redcuban1959@hexbear.net 1 points 3 months ago

Peru: Former president Pedro Castillo was hospitalized in Lima due to a health decompensation after starting a hunger strike to protest against his trial.

  • Telesur
[-] Leegh@hexbear.net 1 points 3 months ago
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[-] micnd90@hexbear.net 1 points 3 months ago

I legitimately don't understand how libs are mad at Continuing Resolution and seething at Chuck Schumer, other than calling for Chuck to retire and calling for him to be primaried, which admittedly is quite fun. Back in December we had Continuing Resolution as well to continue funding the govt. Continuing Resolution means govt budget stays the same, and this one is a Continuing Resolution from December, so this is essentially a Biden budget. What am I missing? Why libs happy in December but mad now, is it because Orange man president? Or is there any provision that made December bill GOOD but March bill bad? What's the difference?

[-] carpoftruth@hexbear.net 1 points 3 months ago
[-] Lovely_sombrero@hexbear.net 1 points 3 months ago
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[-] LargePenis@hexbear.net 1 points 3 months ago

Iconic comrade Leila Khaled has been hospitalized with an Intracranial hemorrhage (ICH). Sending sincere prayers and good vibes to our heroic comrade.

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this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2025
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