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China's state media buys Meta ads pushing Russia's line on war

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Re: China's state media buys Meta ads pushing Russia's line on war

#171

Post by ethbr0 »

itsoktocry wrote: post #164
hkmaxpro wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know about the ads, but here are their state media reports: They peddle Russia’s claim that US has bioweapons in Ukraine: https://www.newsweek.com/china-peddles-russias-claim-that-us... And here’s CGTN’s article on “biolabs” in Ukraine, citing Russia media outlets and officials: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202203/1254330.shtml Edit: As pointed out by a commenter, the above article is from GlobalTimes, not…

> And here’s CGTN’s article on “biolabs” in Ukraine, citing Russia media outlets and official There are biolabs in the Ukraine, as confirmed by Nuland in the Senate hearings. Whether they have bio-weapons or medical research, who knows, but you can perhaps understand that the Russians might be concerned? What's really amazing about this story that only days ago it was painted as a Q-anon theory. Turns out it was real…

There's a reason "dual purpose" exists as a term. Most American grade schools have "hacking devices", should we define that to be any computer.

And at this point, the Russians have demostrated a clear willingness to lie about anything in pursuit of their geopolitical agenda (see: months of explicit denial of preparing for a Ukrainian invasion, by all levels of their government, in official statements).

Re: China's state media buys Meta ads pushing Russia's line on war

#172

Post by wbsss4412 »

thereddaikon wrote: post #86
pavlov wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually the opposite: supporting Russia's invasion is in direct conflict with China's long-standing official line that sovereignty must be the primary principle in international relations. From China's point of view, Taiwan is purely a question of Chinese sovereignty. They've never recognized the Taipei government and they try to sanction countries that do recognize Taiwan. The idea is that this "recognition li…

Quoted post unavailable.

Majorities of the population of both Taiwan and China both see the issue in a more nuanced manner than what you laid out here.

You can go on and deride people who disagree with you as deluded here, but that’s projection on your part.

Re: China's state media buys Meta ads pushing Russia's line on war

#173

Post by OminousWeapons »

maratc wrote: post #115
hkmaxpro wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do your links [1][2] support the claim that Ukraine is developing “biomilitary activities” (as claimed in the title of the Global Times article)? They seem to point to medical research to fight against diseases, rather than “biomilitary activities”.

Genuine question: Why would the US Department of Defence fund "medical research to fight against diseases"?

The DoD funds a lot of medical research to improve combat readiness. When I was an academic researcher, we were working on a project that was partially DoD funded to develop a diagnostic device which was meant for personalizing medication for patients undergoing cardiac procedures, but the military was interested in using it for developing personalized versions of QuikClot for soldiers who experienced battlefield trauma.

I also worked for a company which had several novel therapeutics for agents commonly used in bioweapons in their pipeline and the DoD was funding parts of that as well.

Re: China's state media buys Meta ads pushing Russia's line on war

#174

Post by qiskit »

hkmaxpro wrote: post #112
somenameforme wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The existence of biolabs is completely genuine. You can read more (from a .gov site) here [1]. They seem to have removed the fact-sheets from the site, but you can still access them on archive.org, like here [2]. The fact sheets don't have anything especially seedy on them but do confirm that the labs were funded by the US Department of Defense, and do work with pathogens. Point being you don't need the quotes. There…

How do your links [1][2] support the claim that Ukraine is developing “biomilitary activities” (as claimed in the title of the Global Times article)? They seem to point to medical research to fight against diseases, rather than “biomilitary activities”.

> They seem to point to medical research to fight against diseases, rather than “biomilitary activities”.

They are dual use research. Just like research for nuclear energy is the same as research for nuclear weapons. Research for rockets is the same for icbms. It's why we are so keen on preventing iran from developing their nuclear energy program. It's why we are worried about north korea's "space" program. The same thing with cybersecurity. By learning to prevent cyberattacks, you are also learning how to carry out cyberattacks. And vice versa. You can't research against diseases/viruses/etc without procuring, creating and developing them.

Re: China's state media buys Meta ads pushing Russia's line on war

#175

Post by BeefWellington »

tablespoon wrote: post #31
plussed_reader wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's not to understand? Russia is doing the pre-production research of how China will need to protect their economy when they put their military in Taiwan.

> What's not to understand? Russia is doing the pre-production research of how China will need to protect their economy when they put their military in Taiwan. China will not get sanctioned like Russia has. The world's dependence on Chinese manufacturing is like Europe's dependence on Russian gas, times ten. Or, more precisely, it will get sanctioned like Russia has, but like the Russian sanctions, they will include…

This cuts both ways though, China is dependent on foreign agriculture[1], which Russia cannot provide them right now (certainly it will be hard to farm in Ukraine during an active conflict). Particularly for things like pork.[2]

Stopping the flow of just pork products to China may result in enormous unrest and it certainly wouldn't be a given that the CCP would be capable of quelling that.

[1]: https://www.fas.usda.gov/data/china-evolving-demand-world-s-...

[2]: https://www.worldstopexports.com/international-markets-for-i...

Re: China's state media buys Meta ads pushing Russia's line on war

#176

Post by zardo »

rcMgD2BwE72F wrote: post #97
waffleiron wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, but sadly deeper pockets have always meant louder voice.

That does not mean we should offer megaphones to the most powerful, does it?

It does for the megaphone salesmen.

Re: China's state media buys Meta ads pushing Russia's line on war

#177

Post by pessimizer »

ushtaritk421 wrote: post #11

Eh. Aren't we the part of the world that supports free speech? Let them say what they want.

Nah, that's over. The American public is too delicate to be exposed to official state broadcasts because they might be biased towards the state that produced them.

Re: China's state media buys Meta ads pushing Russia's line on war

#178

Post by ben_w »

zardo wrote: post #155
hkmaxpro wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The answer is simply the first paragraph of [1]: > The U.S. Department of Defense’s Biological Threat Reduction Program collaborates with partner countries to counter the threat of outbreaks (deliberate, accidental, or natural) of the world’s most dangerous infectious diseases. The program accomplishes its bio-threat reduction mission through development of a bio-risk management culture; international research partne…

> The Biological Threat Reduction Program’s priorities in Ukraine are to consolidate and secure pathogens and toxins of security concern Where would these pathogens and toxins that need to be secured be coming from?

Given the phrase “deliberate, accidental, or natural”, basically anywhere.

The two hypotheses about the origins of COVID are natural (wet market) and accidental (lab leak). Back when “The War On Terror” was the political Zeitgeist-meme, there was at least one anthrax attack (deliberate), and I remember suggestions that terrorists might also try to trigger foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks or algal blooms (it may not surprise you to learn that the latter was suggested by someone looking for government funding for their existing research into algal blooms).

Re: China's state media buys Meta ads pushing Russia's line on war

#179

Post by throw10920 »

bilbo0s wrote: post #141
adultSwim wrote: post #136

I'm uncomfortable with how this article talks about how evil the ads are without actually showing them. It's not clear to me who is doing the propaganda here (the ads vs the article about the ads).

It's not clear to me who is doing the propaganda here (the ads vs the article about the ads Just, Devil's Advocate, but why can't it be both?

Nailed it. I think that very few people would say that Chinese state media is not a propaganda machine, and Axios has a noticeable spin to it in general.

Re: China's state media buys Meta ads pushing Russia's line on war

#180

Post by ModernMech »

maratc wrote: post #115
hkmaxpro wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do your links [1][2] support the claim that Ukraine is developing “biomilitary activities” (as claimed in the title of the Global Times article)? They seem to point to medical research to fight against diseases, rather than “biomilitary activities”.

Genuine question: Why would the US Department of Defence fund "medical research to fight against diseases"?

DARPA funds all kinds of stuff. The national defense angle I think should be obvious at this point post COVID.
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