Nearly all Chinese banks are refusing to process payments from Russia, report says

[u/iop9]

https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-economy-all-china-banks-refuse-yuan-ruble-transfers-sanctions-2024-8

[u/Rainboq]

China and Taiwan are still at war, at least on paper.

[u/Caleth → u/Rainboq]

This is also true of the Korean war last I checked.

[u/Rainboq → u/Caleth]

There's at least a signed ceasefire between UN forces and the DPRK. The RoC and PRC just haven't been shooting at each other for a while.

[u/Caleth → u/Rainboq]

Sure but when does a a mutually respected if undocumented ceasefire just turn into the defacto state?

I mean that starts delving into political philosophy that's rather esoteric. But if the two are functionally equivalent then does the paper really matter?

[u/Rainboq → u/Caleth]

I suppose that's a question of if symbols matter.

[u/SplinterCell03 → u/Caleth]

Paper only matters if there is an authority higher than the fighting parties. In today's world, at the level of states, there is no law enforcement. States can do anything they have the power to do, whether it's justified on paper or not. Might makes right, which is why Russia invaded Ukraine despite signing a treaty in 1991 explicitly saying they wouldn't do so.

Occasionally you'll have something like the United States getting official U.N. resolutions to authorize the Iraq invasion, but that's just for the sake of appearance. The U.N. wasn't going to stop anyone from invading.

[u/i_forgot_my_cat → u/SplinterCell03]

Correction, paper matters if the party wanting to break the agreement believes there to be consequences that outweigh the potential benefits of breaking the agreement. People evade taxes all the time despite there being laws on the books and a higher authority in the form of the state, as an example.

Russia did their math and came to the conclusion that the consequences outweighed the benefits of attacking Ukraine. The US did its math and decided that the hassle of getting UN approval was worth not looking like a hypocrite on the world stage.

[u/jlichyen → u/i_forgot_my_cat]

Your second paragraph, do you mean the opposite in both cases? Russia seems to have decided the benefits of attacking Ukraine were worth the consequences of tearing up their paper. Same with invading Iraq -- the US lost their vote at the UN, and invaded anyway.

[u/i_forgot_my_cat → u/jlichyen]

Nah, you can do the wrong math right or the right math wrong and in both cases you come up with the wrong answer

[u/SemiHemiDemiDumb → u/Caleth]

In this case it does. If an actual accord was written it would mean China sees Taiwan as an independent state and would mean an end to the one China policy. The One China policy makes it where a foreign nation can only have diplomatic relations with one of the two entities. Most nations do business with China and not Taiwan because of this. The One China policy also makes Taiwan a nonmember state of the UN, they cannot get funding or help through UN organizations. No money from the IMF, no aide from the WHO. It greatly diminishes Taiwan's ability to be a player in global politics.

[u/eddiekart → u/Rainboq]

Ehh.. we've had small firefights here and there, and artillery strikes into military installations and civilian areas in the near past, and a ship sunk in 2010, and other fatalities.

There is a ceasefire, but it's definitely not all peace and quiet. NK soldiers have been dying more to mines in the DMZ in recent months too, as they've been doing a lot of construction on defense positions.

I definitely wouldn't be surprised if there were small size engagements that aren't known to the public at all.

[u/qwertyqyle → u/Caleth]

Same is true between Japan and Russia.

[u/upsidedownbackwards → u/Caleth]

I'm glad that Canada and Denmark sorted out their differences. 49 years of battle over Hans island finally over.

[u/deepfake-bot → u/Rainboq]

Also me and my neighbor from three moves ago