i mean.. north korea needs food. And I doubt they give a shit about Ukrainians dying.

Apparently, China's not sending enough or the Kim-Xi relation is a bit frosty.

as long as it makes something go boom far away, I'm sure it's good enough for the Russian army.

how much are they paying?

It's most likely to modernize the equipment and tactics. Better recruitment. I have heard bits and pieces that they are recruiting lots of graduates from the nuclear engineering schools to the detriment of the civil nuclear industry. Also, before covid, the rocket force was recruiting students in the artificial intelligence field. That's the conventional and nuclear missile forces.

so, you want China to start more openly helping Russia in their war effort?

seems like China could just drop their opposition to Russia using nuclear weapons. I'm sure Russia and China could set up a business deal to help upgrade Russia's nuclear arsenal, for the right price or raw material.

true. dynasties fell when lots of shit hits the fan. But the current mess started with some loosening of the restrictions shortly after the October Congress. That led to a rise in cases -> lockdowns -> protests against lockdowns -> dropping zero covid completely. I'm sure arguments are made that the people wanted no restrictions anymore.. and they got what they wanted. Now the people have to suffer the consequences of it.

Xi supporters are criticizing going from zero covid to zero restrictions so quickly. I'm thinking that the original plan was to reopen in the spring, since that would make a lot more sense than doing it during winter where people regularly catch diseases with fevers, cough, etc.

even if they release the data, no one would believe it anyways. So why bother.

>allow home tests for travelers from China

I think the requirement here is to have a telehealth representative while you're taking the test.

Of course, like with the lab tests, for a fee, I'm sure you can get sign off on a negative test result.

My thinking is that if the EU has to back down from the price cap due to the effects on their economy, Russia can dictate terms on restarting the oil deal, which I would assume would cover the fines from the breaches of contracts and other compensation. It comes down to who blinks first. Also, OPEC could also tighten the supply even more.

also, I did not know about the oil industry and the effects of stopping the oil drilling. thanks for the info :)

if Russia stops production completely and takes all their oil off the global market, it would cause the oil price to jump drastically. If India pays 'normal' prices now (say, 80 dollars), it would be cheaper than the elevated prices with messed up supplies (maybe 150+ dollars).

it's not the first time protests like this.. or even violent (relatively speaking, no one died) ones have achieved their goal. off the top of my head

- 2019, a city near hong kong: protests over local officials lying about building a crematorium instead of a park. Central government officials stepped in, gave amnesty to all involved, and ordered all medical bills to be paid by the state.. and I think the construction was cancelled.

- early 2010s: protests in Guangdong province over the removal of Cantonese programming from state tv. I think the change was delayed, and now, with online streaming, not a big deal.

- 2004ish: protests over a migrant worker who died in detention because he didn't have his paperwork to be in a different city. turns out, the detention centers were part of a policy from the state council and a law was never passed by the NPC to make living in another city without paperwork illegal. the supreme court unofficially ruled that the policy may be unconstitutional without a corresponding law. The policy was rescinded.

not really. the use of nukes wouldn't be to win a war. it will be to make sure the enemy loses. I'm sure if your nukes wipes out 98+% of the enemy civilian population, the enemy military will probably start questioning whether it was worth the fight.

so, Russia would be defenseless at the mercy of the West / former Soviet bloc...

I would rather make sure that

>nothing can live on the soil of your cities for the next thousand years.

also applies to my enemies while I still can.

"Russia has to be dismantled or renewed to a point it will never be a threat again."

sounds like no real difference to the above quote. They may as well make sure to ensure their enemies don't live long enough to gloat or claim victory over Russia.

so, what incentive does Russia have to not go scorched earth and burn all of Europe?

Oh. I was assuming that Russia responds to NATO getting involved by targeting NATO cities. Basically, would NATO intervention over Ukraine be worth losing their cities and economic centers?

Also, the nationalists that support nukes and believe in whatever ideological propaganda are most likely lesser educated (not finishing high school or did not go to college) and most likely live out in the non-tier 1/2 cities. Although their lives have improved in the last 30 years, there is still a large income disparity, where most of the benefits are seen in the cities. And the CPC has only 100 million members. It would be a bit ironic if the CPC was overthrown for not being socialist enough.

And with the trade restrictions the EU and US is putting on China, the CPC does see that extreme sanctions will eventually be put on them for whatever BS reason, so they may think that eventually Europe and the US would refuse to do business with them anyways.. so they won't be losing any customers or trade partners if they wipe each other out.