Top Gum Out Gunned

The week ended on May 9, 2025, interesting news items to look at this week are:

1. Top Gun Out Gunned:  There is a Chinese Proverb “ 自古美人如名將,那許人间見白头” in poetic English it would read “Since days of old, fair maids and famed knights vie, Who e'er could flee the touch of Time's gray dye?”  It is wise for beauties and famous generals to quietly retreat from the limelight than expose their frailty publicly. Too sad, politicians are seldom wise and we have the present world superpower run by gerontocracy and a president who wants to cling onto power until he is 86. In a declining society, the images of an aging leadership can come to embody a general sense of withering and decay. (Fig. 1).

I am 73 and certainly not against old age but age is marked not only by years than by a refusal to stop learning and unmovable away from glory past. The deadliest catalyst for the fall of an empire is an overreach coupled with heroic dreams that a singleton from the West can put a thousand “peasants”  to flight. John Rambo, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell and now Donald Trump. (Fig. 2).

Although no western media would give an A1 headline space  to the air battle between India and Pakistan nor report but the minimal information, the reality of the aerial combat has shaken all Western elites to the core. (Fig. 3)

(i) The Pakistan India Air Combat Score Board: On May 7 2025 the aerial combat totaled 125 jet fighters (75 from India and 50 from Pakistan) with an engagement period lasted for over one hour. This made one of the largest air battles in world history. India had a grab bag of fighter jets from their armoury comprising French made Rafale & Mirage 2000 (18% of Fighter Jets), Su-30 from Russia (54%), Mig29 from USSR (22%)  and locally made HAL (6%). In particular the Rafale is a 4.5G top of the line fighter jets with a price tag of $280 million a piece (even pricier than the US F35). Indian Air Chief Marshal R.K.S. Bhadauria (retired) even once claimed a single Rafale can take down multiple JF-17s. On the Pakistan front, Pakistan’s Air Force core competence were Chinese4.5G J-10 (each cost $50 mil) and Joint Chinese/Pakistan 4G JF-10 (Xiaolong, each cost $25 mil). The result Indian lost 3 Rafale plus one each of Su-30 and Mig29 and UAV from Israel on May 7 and another 25 UAV on May 8 as against zero losses from Pakistan, a score of 0 to 5+1+25.

(ii) The Air Battle Shocker: The Indian fighter jets were shot down 160Km away from Pakistan and the time lapse between an enemy radar lock to missile impact on the Indian fighter jet was only 7 seconds. On paper at least Pakistan air to air defense missiles PL-15 only had a strike distance of 145Km and Ground to air Red Flag 9 missiles (“HQ9”) a strike distance of 125Km. Theoretically speaking,  the Indian fighter jets were beyond Pakistan’s reach. The “Black Technologies” ("Heikeji" in Chinese) involved that made the Pakistani mission a complete success was the seamless Chinese datalink. The radar lock was made possible by HQ9 radar, all data were shared with the Chinese made Reconnaissance aircraft ZDK-03 and fighter jet J-10. J-10 then fires PL-15 missiles with guidance provided by ZDK-03 which has a detection radius of 400Km. Neither the J-10 nor ZDK-3 need a radar lock on the Indian jets and therefore unnecessarily revealed their maneuvers to the adversary. At a close enough range, the onboard radar on the PL-15 missile would take over, and at a speed of Mach 5, no Western aircraft could navigate away from the impact. This integrated warfare approach immediately creates a complete redundancy of any multi-nation coalition forces because fighting systems from different countries all speak different languages. By the way, although Pakistan has a number of F16s, the US crafts were not employed because the US had placed restrictions on Pakistan to use F16 only against terrorists. In a sense, the India Pakistan air battle is a real eye opener to the endless possibilities of a Chinese system and the limitations of Western armaments.

(iii) China CBDC now connects to 10 ASEAN Countries and 6 Middle East Countries (Fig. 4):

The market rumor if confirmed would mean 38% of world trade will enter into the realm of CNY instead of USD. The logic is simple, in a typical trade payment say from Malaysia or Thailand, a China CBDC transfer only takes 7.2 seconds as against 3 days in SWIFT and a 98% reduction in transaction costs. I recently had a personal conversation with a young West African in Brisbane, he told me all his remittances to West Africa were in cryptos because it is fast, cheap and cannot be stolen. He would never go back to cross border bank transfers. It appears only those about to go to the mausoleum would use USD SWIFT transfers, the younger generation has already left.

(iv) Canadian and Australian Federal Election: Just one word would explain the large voter swing in both elections. Standing too close to Trump 2.0 guarantees a rejection. In the current fourth turning, people’s desire is stability for tomorrow have enough trouble of its own. (Fig. 5)

Matthew 6:25  "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26  Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27  Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? 28  "So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29  and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30  Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31  "Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32  For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.33  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.