Miscellaneous News

[sheogorath]

This is not true. Interests will align at some point. The west and the Soviet Union's interests aligned in WWII. Geopolitics is weird like that.

They only aligned when the Germans attacked them. Otherwise the west were perfectly content with letting the nazis ravage eastern, central and Southern Europe even in violation of múltiple agreements

They even had sympathy for Hitler, starting with Churchill

 

[Biscuits]

Yeah, exactly completely agree.

The Europeans do not see China as equal either, but the Europeans are not completely blind, they see China doing better in many fields and endeavors.

That in turn elicits fear and hate in some people, especially in the media.

Good.

I think they subconsciously do see that they don't really have any way to effectively fight China, which inherently means that they are inferiors, not equals. In order to cope with this, they declare that China is equal or slightly less equal (near peer) to them, but this doesn't completely assauge their worldview, so they lean on conspiracy theories that claim China will collapse at any moment or that China is in fact much smaller than it really is.

If they didn't have a subconscious inferiority complex, there wouldn't be a reason to make all these theories that China would collapse or that the economy is only 1/3rd of what it actually is. They wouldn't need to make China look smaller if they themselves were naturally bigger to begin with.

In non anglo Europe, I'd bet that most people have a somewhat "positive" view of China (not politically, but they simply think it's a massive, very modern country with old culture), and these people also don't have any idea how they would even begin to fight China, economically or otherwise.

Europe isn't doing too hot against just Russia right now. Only the most insane genuinely believe they can do anything effective vs China.

 

[FriedButter]

Nobody was making those theories back in the early 2000s when China was inferior to the West.

Except for Gordon Chang in 2001 and Peter Zeihan in 2003. Foreign Policy also had an article about the coming collapse of China in 1995.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

 

[coolgod]

The Gallium and Germanium restriction could have major effect on the US MIC, but we likely will not see the effect until a year later. By then the stocks will run out, and the cost of acquiring these materials will go up. Pay attention to programs related to missiles and radar and watch out for budget overrun and delays. Well, not like those don't happen before the ban, but it will be exacerbated.

The US MIC is probably thanking China for the ban. It allows them to have an additional excuse to delay weapons delivery, continue charging the government during the delay, and increase the final sales price.

I would not be surprised if the CEOs of the largest military contractors all hold regularly meetings with Chinese leaders.

 

[Abominable]

When the coups in Guinea-Conakry, Mali, and Burkina Faso happened Nigeria could ignore it because those countries don't border Nigeria, Niger is different. If Nigeria wants to build a gas pipeline from it's south transiting past Niger and Algeria to Europe but Russia says no where would that leave Nigeria? Also Nigeria has had issues of coups in the past and a lot of politicians fought the military, including the current President, they don't want coups to become the norm. When the westerners first got to Africa, they were hailed because they actually presented themselves as saviors to help them fight their regional rivals, to do business, etc. We all know how that turned out.

It is in Nigeria's long term interests to remove a malignant influence so that the region doesn't fall back to 1980s style military rule. It is in Nigeria's influence to make sure another batch of Europeans don't present themselves as liberators only to turn around and start giving orders and extracting resources for its benefit. The Chinese are excellent examples on how to not only conduct business but to respect people; they come in, finance deals, and create win-win situations (or at least present it as such) and move on. The Nigerian military fought a small war with Chad in the 1980s, there didn't seem to be a problem there so why now?

Nigeria's military is simply a reflection of the country's ethnically diverse society, there's no internal dispute or division that I know of. It has a significant chunk of Muslims and Christians in all services. The only historic divide was in the past where northerners tended to go into combat roles, while southerners preferred technical roles, southerners tend to be more educated by far and northerners looked at their southern counterparts as being to erudite to be warriors while southerners looked at northerners as too unsophisticated. However, these are stereotypes.

Interesting to hear an African centric perspective, and you bring up a valid concern.

I don't think the Russia wanting to limit Nigerian oil exports to Europe is "malignant". They've currently being put under massive economic siege by Europe. Put yourself in their shoes, if Europe wanted to sanction Nigeria wouldn't you want Russia to help you by counter sanctioning them?

I don't think it's because of the race of Russians either - slavic people aren't considered "white" by Europeans.

For what its worth I don't think oil exports are an issue. Whether it's through a pipeline or by tankers, both Russia and Nigeria are members of OPEC+ and should be coordinating oil exports to benefit each other.

 

[supersnoop]

I thought this was an old story from a few months ago.

But no, it is the same story from a few months ago, with yesterday's date.

Seems like something going on behind the scenes.

Somebody pushing one way. Someone pushing the other way.

The more things change, the more things stay the same.

Nothing behind the scenes, business doesn’t want this Huawei ban. Huawei has consistently provided great service at the best cost to companies, this is why they have grown so much. So the politicians want to basically make you pay more for captive service?

 

[supercat]

Seriously, is this the best they can come up with, 600 years. Have they lost their minds so much that they cannot come up with realistic punishments. Simply give her a life sentence and be done with it.

I guess the difference between a single life sentence and multiple life sentences/ultra long sentence is that with a single life sentence, you still have a chance to get out of jail with a pardon, but your chance of get out jail is extremely slim in the latter cases.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's national railway operator would have to spend up to 400 million euros ($437.44 million) to replace all the components in its infrastructure supplied by Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies, Spiegel magazine reported on Friday.

Deutsche Bahn, which is state-owned, would face delays of five to six years for its projects if the German government decided to ban Huawei components in the short term, the report said, citing an internal company document.

It seems that those live in the jungle are much smarter.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1687835251949842432

David P. Goldman thanks his Chinese friends for taking the blames for Jews.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1687461974035111936

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1687250861129617409

A surprisingly accurate description of the US itself:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1687450462876749824

Therefore, the world's only hope for growth is a key risk.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1687640054842396672

 

[Rank Amateur]

It is exactly this Indian attitude that keeps the nation underdeveloped. Too many announcements, too much talking, too much pre-celebrating, and too little actual work done.

Lets say that the West gives India 7nm chip technology today. I believe that India will still continue producing 7nm chips 10 years later. Because India does not have foundational semiconductor technology. The oligarchs are gonna control the biggest semicon foundries anyway, and they will care so much more about profits than innovation. Why care about R&D when India assumes it could con the West of next technology?

India just wants a chip industry to poke China in the eye. And then what? Export only? India has no tech industry that is comparable to anything in East Asia. Where are the Indian laptop makers, smartphone makers, IOT makers, drone makers, server makers, etc? If they even exist, are they competitive globally? How many of the top international electronics companies are producing their stuff in India? Apple sure comes to mind, but their India adventure is not going to plan.

India has no comprehensive national industrial plan. Everything it does is about screwing China. India is so busy announcing its semiconductor project, make in India, Modi's supapowa vision, blah x 3. But what is being done on the ground to setup India for that future supadupa development? Education is going down, R&D budget is pitiful, and foreign firms are leaving India as fast as they are coming in.

The Kaveri engine program summarizes how well India develops high technology. Years back, Indians were celebrating it, and laughing at the Chinese WS engine development. Today, the Kaveri engine program is a confirmed failure. Now the Indians have conveniently forgotten about it. They are instead celebrating their supposedly upcoming "Make in India" GE F404 engine. An engine that they can never produce without GE's support. While China is on its way to introducing it's own upcoming WS-15 engine. This is the difference between India and China.

"The Kaveri engine program summarizes how well India develops high technology. Years back, Indians were celebrating it, and laughing at the Chinese WS engine development. Today, the Kaveri engine program is a confirmed failure. Now the Indians have conveniently forgotten about it. They are instead celebrating their supposedly upcoming 'Make in India' GE F404 engine. An engine that they can never produce without GE's support. While China is on its way to introducing it's own upcoming WS-15 engine. This is the difference between India and China."

The above remark reminds me a lot of this post at CDF way back in 2011 (by the member cmdjing):

"It was during the 80's when the PLAAF had nothing but J-7s and J-8's while the IAF purchased the Mirage-2000 and the Mig-29. For nearly a decade the PLAAF had no answer until the purchase of the first Su-27's. . . . In 20 plus years China has gone from building J-8s to J-20's. India has gone from buying Mirages to buying Rafales. That says a lot about their respective aerospace industries . . . ."

 

[Rast]

Not sure where exactly to put this. However, this has been debated for quite a while on the web, do you call it a copycat of the Defender?

It's a design that expands on the major Toyota Land Cruiser (FJxx) series and homages aesthetics that dates back to before the Land Rover Defender was even a thing.

Last generation Toyota FJ Cruiser (2006-2022) for reference:

Toyota Land Cruiser FJ60 (1980-1987) Series:

Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40 (1960-1985) Series:

The LR Defender debuted in 1983, twenty three years after Toyota introduced their the now iconic FJ40 design. The people who are trying to claim the new Land Cruiser is copying the LR Defender are only doing it because they are sad and insecure people who are jealous because soon there won't be any excuse for why they bought a overly expensive, poorly assembled, and unreliable vehicle.

 

[james smith esq]

"The Kaveri engine program summarizes how well India develops high technology. Years back, Indians were celebrating it, and laughing at the Chinese WS engine development. Today, the Kaveri engine program is a confirmed failure. Now the Indians have conveniently forgotten about it. They are instead celebrating their supposedly upcoming 'Make in India' GE F404 engine. An engine that they can never produce without GE's support. While China is on its way to introducing it's own upcoming WS-15 engine. This is the difference between India and China."

The above remark reminds me a lot of this post at CDF way back in 2011 (by the member cmdjing):

"It was during the 80's when the PLAAF had nothing but J-7s and J-8's while the IAF purchased the Mirage-2000 and the Mig-29. For nearly a decade the PLAAF had no answer until the purchase of the first Su-27's. . . . In 20 plus years China has gone from building J-8s to J-20's. India has gone from buying Mirages to buying Rafales. That says a lot about their respective aerospace industries . . . ."

Unlike China, India’s entire population, elites and commoners, were imperialized for a significant period, and by the British, no less. That trauma, and its consequent repetitive trauma patterns will take more than a century to overcome! Just like we Black folks in the Anglosphere, it’s one thing to take your independence from a empire, it’s another to have your “freedom” or independence given to you!