US officials say Russia has asked China for military help in Ukraine

https://www.ft.com/content/30850470-8c8c-4b53-aa39-01497064a7b7

Russia asked China for help fighting Ukraine.
Unbelievable! Looks like Russian military is in such a bad shape that the 2nd strongest military in the world asks for help from the 3rd.
If China gives Russia even a single bullet, Biden should respond with fighter jets.

 

Putin already sent his special Chechen Islamic brigade to "liberate" Ukraine. I also saw he's importing Syrian mercenary Muslim fighters into Ukraine. I don't think think China would be stupid enough to join that party.

 

I don’t think China will send anything, at least not openly. They see the massive PR problem Russia is facing now. If they help them, the entire West will start working on policies to kill their dependence on China. Also, such help would be a signal to escalate with the fighter jets and, possibly, a no-fly zone.

 

China has journalists embedded with Russia's forces, helping to spread and amplify Russian propaganda. Who knows? They might decide to get involved and help Russia with some kind of aid. It could easily be cast as a response to our support for Ukraine. The people of China are brainwashed enough to go along with it.

However, I think the Chinese would like to avoid economic consequences that might bring, and they can see that western countries and others, such as Japan and South Korea, aren't messing around.

 

Anyone think China would be deterred from invading Taiwan by the type of sanctions being imposed on Putin? I know the West is more dependent on Chinese goods than Russian oil but still China's economy would tank under these kind of sanctions.

 

All depends on how deluded Chinese leadership is. If they're like Puitn, they may throw caution to the wind and deem retaking some territory and restoring some lost piece of their former imperial glory to be worth any economic price.

 

I don’t see any indications of China building up invasion force on the coast close to Taiwan. China sees Russia’s errors and realizes it would take at least a year to properly plan the invasion, with plenty of training and weapon production. If they help Russia now, they immediately trash their image, which will have direct consequences on their economy before China even starts to invade. If China had invasion force sitting ready now then I’d be worried. All that Russian energy is worth nothing if their economy slows to a point where they simply don’t need it anymore.

 

On the other hand, cheap Russian energy and other imports could hasten their preparation. They can also plan for economic repercussions based on what Russia is going through now.

 

Most Chinese glory took place when they built a wall to repel the Mongol hordes. Now they make cheap products for WalMart and Home Depot.

 

I fear that we place too much store by the idea of economic greatness as a motivating factor. To us, material wealth and prosperity is an end to itself, but I think to these imperialists in Russia and China it is more a means to an end, a way to facilitate military greatness and some kind of national/imperial status.

 

I'm sure Taiwan is investing in Stinger missiles and any other kind of air defenses they can get their hands on. People love people defending themselves.

 

I don't get it. I don't get why Russia should ask another country to help them defeat Ukraine so that madman Putin can be the dictator of Ukraine when it merges with Russia. Putin's plan is to do what he wants with Ukraine. Putin won't stop there. He'll go on to invade other countries and he won't stop until he has it all.

 

What's in it for China? The price they'll demand off Putin would be enormous, open access to Russian markets and cheap oil and gas would be just the starters.

 

Taiwan and the South China Sea. The Chinese are very old culture. The oldest one. A waiting game. Let the USA/Europe and Russia fight, get weaker....All those economic sanctions against Russia will hurt Europe and the USA as well. Petrol prices are going up, food prices are going up etc...Some will have to pay for all those millions of refugees in Europe etc...Nothing good will come out of this mess. The winner - China.

 

What can they supply Russia with???.... some small arms...a few Tanks....ration packs.....what??
What Russia needs are competent fighters and experienced field officers and NCOs and that's not coming from China
I think Xi will turn round and politely say "no"

 

Especially when Putin has no realistic prospects of victory. China would be wasting their money and equipment helping Putin with a lost cause.

 

Totally agree...

Seems Russian military is imploding if this is true.

 

If this is the case.....Put
ler is in a bigger pickle than what anyone may know.

 

We have to aim for one of two outcomes. Either Putin takes an off-ramp and withdraws, or others in Russia take the off-ramp of ending Putin's reign.

 

Go ahead and sanction China. We would collapse. The Russia sanctions have put us on the path to recession already. The dumbest SOB in geopolitical history resides in the White House

 

Nope. The dumbest SOB in geopolitical history resides in the Kremlin.

 

Here's a thought. If we're having a deep recession could we at least have the Fed raise interest rates on savings above 0.01%? It would make me proud to be a American.

 

Can't see America coming out weaker from this unless it turns into a shooting war between Russia and NATO. And even then given the performance of the Russian army to date the odds would favor NATO (as long as it doesn't go nuclear when of course everybody loses).

And I say this acknowledging that Russia hasn't committed all its available heavy weaponry/firepower to the current campaign and is not a spent force (well not yet anyway and certainly not in the near future). However the bulk of its active duty soldiers have been committed to Ukraine so a fight anywhere else would be next to impossible for it to sustain.

 

nothing....they run the risk of the world finding out how poor their kit might actually be. Which third world nation would then buy from them?

They've doubtless already got their eyes on Russia being their bitch already, due to the sanctions. So why expend any resources on someone who you will have by the short and curlies in a short space of time anyway? All they need to do is sit back and wait for Russia to fall into their lap. They're VERY good at playing the long game remember - not that this situation is likely to take long to play out.

 

200K+ Russkis have already lost jobs....and sanctions are barely 10 days old.....by years end there'll be 3X more Russian migrants clamoring to get into EU than the 1-2 mln Ukranian refugees at the moment.