Yeeyan Phlegming 🇺🇸🌊💙

Since everyone seems to have an opinion on what's happening in Beijing, I guess I'll throw my hat into the ring. Want to thank @yieldsearcher for posting various threads on this, lots of great takes but none seemed to be hitting THE spot from my perspective. All the major coverage on the arrest of Zhang Youxia (and Liu Zhenli but he's not the key focus) have revolved around things like "leaking nuclear secrets", "anti-corruption", or "Stalin-like purge by Xi". What I didn't see people talk about was how the CCP has publicly described the reasons for their arrests. Things like corruption aside, did nobody compare what the "reasons" for Zhang & Liu's arrests were vs. those of He Weidong and Miao Hua from last year? If you read it superficially it's essentially the same thing, but one key aspect no one seems to be talking about is this: when He & Miao were arrested, the public report stated (emphasis mine) "...seriously UNDERMINED the principle of the Party commanding the gun and the system of the Chairman of the Central Military Commission assuming overall responsibility." Zhang & Liu's public report? "...seriously TRAMPLED on AND UNDERMINED the system of the Chairman of the Central Military Commission assuming overall responsibility." Who is the Chairman of CMC? It's Xi. And when you emphasize how they fucked up with TWO adjectives instead of just one (yes, verbs can be adjectives!) you know it's serious AF. Xi has been consolidating power since he took over, it's not a secret. But his actions of purging people he personally groomed over the years has people confusing between what I believe is Xi's ultimate goal vs. what western media superficially sees, and this is where we get WSJ's stupid take on leaking nuclear secrets and "corruption". NOBODY in the Chinese power pyramid is clean! You must be corrupt to some level to be considered useful. If you don't have weaknesses, how can you be leveraged? If you can't be leveraged, how can you be trusted? Xi will allow graft and corruption as long as it doesn't interfere with his ultimate goals, and "the system of the Chairman of the Central Military Commission assuming overall responsibility" is the biggest goal of them all: Xi wants the PLA to be answering to commands from only one voice, his. The old mantra is that the Party controls the guns - that's thrown out the window. It's Xi now who controls the guns, and he's willing to purge anyone who's in the way, even if it's someone he's known since they were in diapers, in this case Zhang. Now, I read people saying "Taiwan is saved! Xi purged the last of the generals who had actual combat experience!" LOL that's fucking wishful thinking. Given today's PLA command structure, which has been revised 15 ways from Sunday, Xi doesn't need experienced generals to run the invasion, Xi just needs absolute obedience on his strategic commands, and leave the rest to the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission (JSDCMC) which incidentally was headed by Liu Zhenli, who was arrested with Zhang Youxia around the same time. Taiwan is a goner, I don't care what the Blue Birds think. Even without the DPP's fuckery Taiwan is a foregone conclusion anyway. With the recent announcement by Nutlick of the $500B investment from Taiwan along with moving the entire sub-5nm ecosystem to Arizona, Taiwan has already lost her "Silicon Shield"! It's just a matter of time when she's completely hollowed out, and Xi would just swoop in with Trump's blessings in the near future. What will Trump get out of this? I have no idea but I'm sure China will pay Trump handsomely for selling something he doesn't own.

Jesus fucking Christ.

😂

@Mast3rmo @RnaudBertrand @rkelly91021

@RnaudBertrand @rkelly91021 That's not his point. He's right on figures wrong on predictions. They can have this plant up and running before 2027

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but if infrastructure like this 👇 gets blown up, as of this moment it will take at least a decade to recover from this war - and the truth is that the world's energy picture is probably changed forever. This single facility 👇produced roughly 20% of global LNG supply (aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/18…) and, as of 2011, had taken $70 billion to build (energyintel.com/0000017b-a7be-…). What makes this even worse is that Iran's strike on this was retaliation after Israel attacked their South Pars gas field which draws from the same natural gas reservoir, which is the world's largest by far (9,700 km² - about the size of Qatar itself). Heck, on the list of the 25 largest natural gas fields (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_n…) this single reservoir holds roughly 40% of their combined recoverable reserves - and is nearly 6 times bigger than the 2nd biggest field in the world. And, unlike many of the others on the list, it's only at 10% depletion (meaning 90% of the gas is still there). Which means that, probably for many years, a huge share of the gas from the world's largest reservoir simply won't be extractable, as infrastructure on both sides - Qatar's and Iran's - has now been blown up. From a global energy supply perspective, we're deep into worst-case scenario territory.

@jrocinha99 No official confirmation nor any coverage online other than these unsubstantiated rumors.

How can they possibly get away with this

@repairmanjack9 @annmarie That would imply an opinion and fortunately she is not a Fox "news" host 😂

@annmarie Why don't you report Trump is a deranged, orange moron? Tell the truth.

WSJ: Trump, who knew about the Israeli strike on South Pars in advance, supported it as a message to Tehran over its block of the Strait of Hormuz. The president believes Iran got the message and is now against attacks on Iranian energy infrastructure, the officials said. But Trump could once again be open to targeting more Iranian energy facilities depending on Tehran's future actions in the strategic waterway, the officials said.

@D162Michele You forgot this.

How exactly would the Japanese sink China’s invasion fleet? With what? Hello Kitty and sumo wrestlers?

@drjeffloftus @TheLongInvest If you've been wrong for 30 years why not continue to be wrong until you die?

@TheLongInvest A nuclear weapon unleashed from Iran toward the United States would have been a million times worse…. Let’s be honest.

When I had to listen to people say ‘Keep to charts, politics has nothing to do with the market’ I think we need to be honest with ourselves Trump has been awful for the market.

@AgileTrader7 @assface_burner Perception, unfortunately, is reality more often than not.

@assface_burner Race is perception, Obama is black even if his mom is Caucasian

Why are people so obsessed with race switching in movies from source material? Does the race of the person really matter that much? If the character is accurately portrayed, why does the color of their skin matter?

@EyesWideShot77 @BeijingDai 😂

@BeijingDai Everyone is tired of seeing China’s “soft power”—everyone knew y’all had it, and the tariff wars proved it—It’s starting to turn into ridicule even from your peer adversaries. You’re one of the most “dragon-ish” Chinese on here—when will the world see some “hard power,” man? 😅

China seems to have found an effective method to sanction Panama. The approach is to impose lengthy, repeated, and rigorous inspections on all ships registered in Panama when they call at Chinese ports. Considering that nine out of the world's top ten busiest ports are in China, the reach of this measure is substantial. The logic is simple: the cost and hassle of these inspections will likely drive ships to deregister from Panama and reflag elsewhere. For Panama, which relies heavily on ship registry fees, this exodus would translate into a massive and direct loss of fiscal revenue.

In a similar vein...

@RossKneeDeep @mmpadellan

@mmpadellan Okay, was it the stroke or a lobotomy?

Just so we're all on the same page here: The worst kept secret is that John Fetterman is definitely planning on switching to the Republican party, right? No surprise here? Because seriously, WTF bro?

@yieldsearcher They are now truly just souls.

Who are these 0.07% brave souls?

@MeidasTouch @RapidResponse47 The only psycho in this whole scenario is the orange 🤡 in the WH.

@RapidResponse47 🤔

No such threat to our homeland of Iran launching a drone offensive on our West Coast, dumbasses. The nuclear threat of the psychotic, murderous Iranian regime is very real, however. Thank God we finally have a President who's doing something about it.

@Bellajuliet09 @AnnaBower @MacGregorGarlic Thank you, stealing this.

@AnnaBower @MacGregorGarlic

Q: You don’t regret that people might’ve lost important income to support their lives? A: No, I think it was more important to reduce the federal deficit. Q: Ok. Did you reduce the federal deficit? A: No, we didn’t.

CONFIRMED: There is going to be a major shift in the balance of power around the Gulf region. Iran is poised to call the shots n dismantle the petrodollar system within the gulf. This will be a catastrophic economic downturn for the US ever experienced in the superpower history.

@RepOfSomaliland LOL apparently dumb fucks can't read. Taiwan is officially a Province of the Republic of China, I'm not talking about the People's Republic of China.

@RepOfSomaliland Taiwan is a Province under the Republic of China constitution. Ignoring the existence of the PROC, recognizing a small province as the name of the mission is pretty idiotic. It's like "California Representative Office".

Republic of Somaliland isn’t bowing to Beijing.🇨🇳 In Hargeisa, the Taiwan Representative Office operates openly under the name “Taiwan”—something no other Taiwanese mission abroad is allowed to do. The Taiwan 🇹🇼 flag flies high and proud. Across the world, it’s usually “Taipei” to avoid angering the Chinese Communist Party. Somaliland stands up to bullies.

@lylegoldstein There's no scenario where dealing with China will be "smooth sailing" in any way shape or form. The only way forward is to accelerate the TSMC ecosystem move, approve the visa requests by TSMC, and focus on our assets and a new reality of having only the 2nd island chain.

Chinese strategists watch Israel's missile intercept campaign with great interest. CCTV7, Junshi Baodao, 16 Mar. The caption notes the U.S. press concern that Israel is running short on such interceptors. To be sure, if U.S. has its hands full with an Iran scenario, it is hard to believe that a Taiwan scenario would prove to be "smooth sailing" for the U.S. military. It's high time that American strategists move beyond the obsession with Taiwan and start to gauge defense requirements off of a more realistic (and feasible) benchmark.

@PolymarketIntel 😂 I think they've got plenty coming from Temu.

Trump on Iran: They are sending out 2–3 missiles. They still got some, they might have 8% left.

@FirstSquawk Then stop calling the Chinese our enemy 😂 I mean WTF? Would a girl date you if all you do in school is broadcast what an ugly bitch she is?

BESSENT: DON'T WANT TO DECOUPLE FROM CHINA