Security Threat: China's Interest in US Agriculture
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) recently warned that China's interest in the agriculture of the United States poses both a serious economic challenge and a security risk to the United States.
China sits on 7-9% percent of the world's arable land, 294 million acres, but is home to nearly 20% (1.4 billion in 2020) of the global population (nearly 8 billion in 2022). By comparison, the US has more than 375 million acres of arable land and a population of 329.5 million.
China has sought to resolve its dilemma of achieving food security by buying up farmland and agricultural businesses abroad on a huge scale, including in the United States, and by seeking to advance its own agricultural technology, including through theft of US agricultural technology.
~ READ MORE HERE (Gatestone Institute) ~
Who is Winning the Russo-Ukrainian War?
hat’s happening in the nearly six-month-old Russo-Ukrainian war? It’s hard to say. Moscow expected a proverbial cakewalk and bungled its initial attack. After rebuffing Russia’s assault, the Zelensky government expanded its objectives, expressing its desire to reconquer portions of the Donbas seized by separatists with Russian support in 2014, as well as Crimea, which had been formally annexed by Moscow.
In recent months, however, Russian forces have made slow progress in the Donbas and now occupy a fifth or more of Ukrainian territory. But Ukraine and its advocates have been threatening counteroffensives against Moscow’s supposedly overstretched forces. Conflicting claims have been made about casualty levels, the impact of high-tech allied weapons sent to Ukraine, and both sides' prospects in the war.
~ READ MORE HERE (American Conservative) ~
When Russia Prepared for the Inconceivable
"Many of our readers have challenged my idea that Russia invaded Ukraine out of fear – fear that, deprived of the strategic depth Ukraine provides, Russia might be invaded and occupied. Rather than debate the moral implications of Russia’s decision to invade, I have argued that having Europe’s easternmost “border” less than 300 miles from Moscow was for Russian leaders unacceptable, and that the invasion was, rightly or wrongly, an act of premeditated self-defense."
"The counter to this argument, of course, is that the war is based on a nonexistent threat. Ukraine was not in a position to invade Russia, and no potential enemy had any intention of invading Russia. How, then, could Moscow feel justifiably threatened?"
~ READ MORE HERE (Geopolitical Futures) ~ |
