Day: June 22, 2025

Iran’s Trump card – quick overview of How Iran could close the Straits of Hormuz. Reports indicate that the Iranian Parliament has agreed to do it. Unscripted and unedited.

The funeral of Chinese General Xu Qiliang not only laid to rest a vice chairman of the country’s Central Military Command (CMC) who helped consolidate Xi Jinping’s power over the military, it also signaled that another CMC vice chairman had been purged. Among the Politburo member wreaths on display at the ceremony, He Weidong’s was conspicuously absent, nor did He attend in person. He Weidong oversaw China’s military operations around Taiwan as head of the People Liberation Army’s (PLA’s) Eastern Command, and orchestrated the large-scale drills following former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit. He has not been seen in public since the National People’s Congress on March 11. While he is one of more than 70 PLA generals purged since Xi took power, his position as vice chairman marks the most senior purging of a CMC member since China’s Cultural Revolution. Is Xi Jinping simply strengthening the military’s combat readiness, or are there other motives at play? Could the latest purges of those closest to and fast-tracked by Xi suggest the erosion of his power in a factional war, as some CCP scholars say?

Global investors are stunned. What’s happening in China right now isn’t just a slowdown — it’s a full-blown collapse, and somehow, it’s worse than 2008. Factories are closing, real estate is crumbling, consumption is vanishing — and yet, almost no one in the mainstream media is talking about it. This isn’t a projection, it’s happening right now — and it’s already hitting markets from Wall Street to Frankfurt to Tokyo. If you thought the 2008 crisis was bad, brace yourself. Because this time, the engine of the global economy is breaking down in silence.What are global banks suddenly pulling out of — and why is no one sounding the alarm? Why are investors dumping Chinese assets faster than they did during the COVID panic? And how did China’s entire economic model collapse… without a single bomb dropped?To understand the scale of this disaster, we have to start where the cracks became impossible to ignore…

Once upon a time, “Long Live China-Pakistan Friendship” was a diplomatic slogan used by Chinese state media to spread across the globe. From helping build dams and high-speed rail projects to jointly developing fighter jets, Pakistan has long been China’s most trusted “iron brother” and a core customer for military exports.But this time, Pakistan has not chosen China.On May 29, Pakistan’s second “Babur-class” corvette, PNS Khaibar, ordered from Turkey, completed port testing and left Istanbul, officially starting sea trials. This was not an ordinary ship trial; it represented a $1.5 billion strategic shift: four corvettes were all ordered from Turkey, leaving Beijing with nothing.What’s even more ironic is that Pakistan has indeed used Chinese ships in the past. Back in 2017, they introduced four 054A/P class frigates from China—larger, more powerful, and delivered more quickly, at a cheaper price. But this time, they chose the inferior, assembled “Babur-class”. So, the question arises: why did China lose to an “assembled product” when their ships had better performance, lower prices, and quicker delivery?

The coast guards of Japan, the United States and the Philippines have held joint exercises, amid concern over growing Chinese maritime activities.

00:00 Introduction00:23 China’s Rare Earths Leverage Game05:40 New Zealand-China08:19 China Reopens STAR Market to Loss-Making Tech Firms09:37 Second China-Central Asia Summit

China sharply increased military activity near Taiwan this week. Beijing sent dozens of warplanes across the median line of the Taiwan Strait just days after a British warship passed through the sensitive waterway. Taiwan’s Defense Ministry reported Friday, June 20, 50 Chinese military aircraft operating around the island, with 46 crossing the median line that separates Chinese and Taiwanese airspace.

China’s population is collapsing to the point that preschools and kindergartens are shutting down. It’s only a matter of time…

Who really governs China today? Former CCP leaders Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao are quietly pulling the strings behind the scenes. This program traces Hu’s stunning political comeback following his public humiliation in 2022, and explores Wen’s improbable longevity as the CCP’s ultimate survivor. From emotional crisis manager to behind-the-scenes kingmaker, Wen’s path reveals both the limits and hidden mechanisms of power in China’s opaque system. A Capricorn, Hu’s survival instincts have kept him in the game. And the comeback of the “Hu juniors” says it all. The question now is: Where will they take China in the post-Xi Jinping era?