Miscellaneous News

[manqiangrexue]

If you read Spengler, Western culture particularly Germanic/Anglo-American is described as Faustian. As in being restless, insatiable hunger for infinite knowledge, power, and expansion. This urge pushes them explore and act where others dare not tread sometimes to greatness but just as often to ruin.

It is my belief that they will never accept being in a subordinate position to China even in near collapse. They fought countless wars, especially two World Wars and only ended their competition when they were convinced they were together part of a superior collective "West," not equals to the rest of the world. The Brits convinced themselves they were the brains, while the US the muscle behind the operations, the other Europeans still believed they had cultural superiority but together they were better than the rest. No such compromise can be achieved with China as they're radically different from the West.

The best China can do is mostly ignore them and hope is that they continue to be distracted and redirect their frustration and anger inward and any great talent or new ideas be ruthlessly poached and studied.

This is because their recent successes have made them arrogant. In history, when the Western knights were getting hunted down and killed like prey on a pleasure hunt by the Mongolians, they had no such attitudes or ambitions. They scampered like roaches to the thundering hooves of the Khan's calvalry and wanted only to survive. There is nothing special about Western culture; they are monsters when strong and vermin when weak. The Faustian demeanor you see is merely the current trend in thousands of years of history. We can put them back to a time when they scattered to the roar from the East.

 

[henrik]

Eh, still think it's just a negotiation tactic. Both sides are posturing for better position to force a compromise, probably because the talks are not going well behind the scenes due to neither side wanting to give ground, so they're back to posturing.

What's important is that this is between the US and China. It doesn't make sense for China to declare a trade war on the world over rare earths. China cannot win that kind of war.

China does not want any other country re-export any rare earths to the US. China should from now on hike prices for rare earths, even if they approve such exports.

 

[enroger]

This is because their recent successes have made them arrogant. In history, when the Western knights were getting hunted down and killed like prey on a pleasure hunt by the Mongolians, they had no such attitudes or ambitions. They scampered like roaches to the thundering hooves of the Khan's calvalry and wanted only to survive. There is nothing special about Western culture; they are monsters when strong and vermin when weak. The Faustian demeanor you see is merely the current trend in thousands of years of history. We can put them back to a time when they scattered to the roar from the East.

Xi: What is best in life?

manqiangrexue: To crush your enemy's corporates, see their market share shrink before you, and to hear the lamentation of their CEOs!

Xi: That is good.

 

[proelite]

Are they all Asians, Indians and Eastern Europeans? Is that surplus because they can't get funded anymore due to the fatigue and financial strain it has caused to try to do research keeping up with China? The current GOP is cutting everything scientific that's not immediately yielding needed fruit. Hence, they hate STEM and don't see the value.

Nah. Mainly because hiring in white collar jobs have stopped, and jobs went to H1Bs or being outsourced.

 

[FairAndUnbiased]

No, after they're hopelessly behind on everything, they'll stop. They literally want to stop right now but can't because we're in the heat of things. Americans hate STEM; they are all burned out. Their best talents are lawyers, investment bankers and shit. They're only still pushing forward under the guise of keeping the lead but once that's done they'll be too demoralized to continue. You blew a tech lead to a country that just a couple years back, couldn't make ball point pen tips. What are your chances of coming back from being left behind by that country? That's what the rare earths ban is meant to inflict as the ideal end game.

it wasn't really "couldn't make ball point pen tips". China did much more difficult shit like rocketry and supercomputing before that.

In fact the entire situation was an example of how an angry non-technical politician can harm the industry due to their ignorance.

Premier Li was said to be entirely obsessed with ball point pens. He was irrationally angry about it.

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How much did China spend on ball points? $17 million dollars.

How much ball point pens does China sell? $1.25 billion.

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The value of the ball tip is ~1% the value of the entire pen.

Steel producers were reluctant to pursue this market because it is a tiny, low profit market with incumbents. But due to Premier Li's political, not business or technological, directive, TISCO made a ball tip for 1% of a minor market.

 

[manqiangrexue]

it wasn't really "couldn't make ball point pen tips". China did much more difficult shit like rocketry and supercomputing before that.

In fact the entire situation was an example of how an angry non-technical politician can harm the industry due to their ignorance.

Premier Li was said to be entirely obsessed with ball point pens. He was irrationally angry about it.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

How much did China spend on ball points? $17 million dollars.

How much ball point pens does China sell? $1.25 billion.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

The value of the ball tip is ~1% the value of the entire pen.

Steel producers were reluctant to pursue this market because it is a tiny, low profit market with incumbents. But due to Premier Li's political, not business or technological, directive, TISCO made a ball tip for 1% of a minor market.

LOL I know that story. I just wrote that shit for dramatic effect. And also, it was probably an American politician's understanding anyway.

 

[enroger]

LOL I know that story. I just wrote that shit for dramatic effect. And also, it was probably an American politician's understanding anyway.

Yeah it was considered to be something of an ego trip by LiKeQiang, at worst you can accuse him of being overzealous in self reliance. The west wish they have some overzealous bureaucrats that can make things happens

 

[GulfLander]

An alleged incident reportedly occured in China, when a scenic view vlogger (does drone shots) was contacted by an alleged female person who wanted to have collaboration with the vlogger. The vlogger received the coordinates of the sites the woman wants to "vlog", but he realized those coordinates are close to militaty sites, the vlogger reported the incident to authorities.

为拍摄爆款视频偏爱小众景点 镜头却对准边境军事管理. 美女博主策反我境内100余名人员大学生识破境外间谍陷阱并举报获表彰

Google Translated

In order to shoot a popular video, she preferred niche spots, but the camera was focused on border military management. A beautiful blogger instigated more than 100 people in our country to rebel. College students were commended for spotting overseas spy traps and reporting them.

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[Chevalier]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1977229289524543656

In the era where a Russian Ukraine war exists, it’s not too far off to believe a war involving China and the rest of nato won’t be far behind.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1977231274159788411

let us not forget that the Anglos may fall back on their piratical nature.

 

[4Tran]

In the era where a Russian Ukraine war exists, it’s not too far off to believe a war involving China and the rest of nato won’t be far behind.

It'd be a bit hard because China isn't interested in fighting a war any time soon, so the US would have to start it themselves, and that's going to be hard to justify. Moreover, NATO is all the way on the other side of the world so there's not a whole lot they could do even if they were interested in being a belligerent.