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Phead128

Major
Staff member
Moderator - World Affairs
This post reminded me of a recent episode of Kaiser Kuo's Sinica podcast,
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. One interesting argument that Tooze makes is that the economic implications of China's demographic transition are overblown precisely because China's labour force is still relatively under-developed, i.e. even if demographic horizons are relatively constrained going forward, there remains a large scope to improve the productivity of that labour force.
I like how the West is saying AI + Robotics is changing the way people work (i.e., less jobs, more net productivity). They say one human can be more productive, or you don't even need certain jobs as they can be replaced/automated.

But it comes to China, they do some Antiquity Medieval Per Capita labor force calculations, where primitive inputs = linear outputs. One less human = one less unit of economic output = GDP doom Hurr durrr. AI + Robotics? I subscribe to 19th century economic theories.

And when you dismiss their demographic implosion criticism with AI + Robotics, they either get silent or double-down as if China has no AI capabilities. (Don't you dare burst their bubble of wanting China to collapse so they don't have to contend with competitor, lazy man's complacency, delu-lu).
 

AssassinsMace

Lieutenant General

Isn’t it interesting that the world especially the West is just a bunch of don’t think for themselves blind obedient lemmings? Yes because of the US’s war in Iran everyone is scrambling to renewable energy. And why is everyone caught flat-footed? Because they blindly obeyed the US who is at the heart of why they were caught in this predicament in the first place. And that’s why they really hate China. China is undermining the US just because it’s not following. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Democrat or a Republican leading the US. Both of them directly steered the world away from renewable energy just because China would have to be involved. I had to tell the tale of Obama destroying the renewable energy revolution to someone recently that I’ve repeated before in here. Before people would be in disbelief and denial that the saint, Obama, would do this to the world. Now they want to hear more how Obama destroyed the renewable energy movement in the US and the world just because he felt dissed by China. Just look at how the Democrats support tariffs on green technology from China. And the world pretty much followed along. Look at how Europe gets angry that China just doesn’t blindly follow them on Ukraine despite how they were vilifying China right before Russia invaded. China is just suppose to blindly follow even though at first they framed Ukraine as being about going against China also. China is suppose to help the West undermine China. What the West has been complaining about China is China making the correct decisions in life because look at what the result is of the world obeying the West.
 

Lethe

Captain
I like how the West is saying AI + Robotics is changing the way people work (i.e., less jobs, more net productivity). They say one human can be more productive, or you don't even need certain jobs as they can be replaced/automated.

But it comes to China, they do some Antiquity Medieval Per Capita labor force calculations, where primitive inputs = linear outputs. One less human = one less unit of economic output = GDP doom Hurr durrr. AI + Robotics? I subscribe to 19th century economic theories.

And when you dismiss their demographic implosion criticism with AI + Robotics, they either get silent or double-down as if China has no AI capabilities. (Don't you dare burst their bubble of wanting China to collapse so they don't have to contend with competitor, lazy man's complacency, delu-lu).

We all know there's a whole industry of folk in the west who are eager to grasp at any conceivable argument as to why China's economic miracle can't possibly continue, and Demographic Collapse Theory is certainly one favoured narrative. For clarity, Tooze isn't saying anything like that in the linked podcast, nor does he ignore the burgeoning role of AI and robotics. His point is that those latter factors aren't even necessary to negate the idea that China's ongoing demographic transition has dire implications for its future economic trajectory, because there's still considerable scope to improve China's human capital (and, just as importantly, good prospects for doing so). The burgeoning robotics and AI sectors promise to further disrupt the relationship between the size of the labour force and economic output, but Tooze's point is that, for a still developing nation like China, the relationship was already more contingent than linear. It's not exactly a radical idea, more a reminder of fundamentals that have sometimes between obscured in the discourse about novel developments such as AI.
 

magmunta

Junior Member
Registered Member
I didn't know that Russia delivered most of its oil to China through a pipeline.

Do you think Iran could deliver its oil by sea across the Caspian Sea to Russia, and then onward to China via an existing Russian oil pipeline?
No, logistics kills. It's 5000km from the Caspian coast to where oil is needed in china. And in general, Russian logistics sAck. I remember watching Thamoas Sowell, famous American economist, pointing to this. It's just so expensive and time consuming to transport goods from one part of Russia to another.
 

zed21

New Member
Registered Member
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The KMT is celebrating we only need to spend NT$780 billion on US weapons instead of NT$1.25 trillion. Take that DPP!

This is why China should just continue figuring out how to get its hard power ready for the day force needs to be used. Its just a waste of time. Both parties are just fighting on how they should approach being the US lapdog. Neither party is serious about reunification since they will no longer be in power. Just a bunch of grifters from both end trying to play off as many people as possible.

If you done your preparation properly, you should be able to take Taiwan and you never have to hear these grifters ever again.
Honestly wonder how much of those weapons they are getting from the USA given the rear earths embargo and the weapons being used up in Ukraine and Iran right now. Also, are those weapons even usable at all given that all those weapons are almost guaranteed to be second hand bullshit that simply cannot do its job no matter what (I mean Israel got the good stuff and we all saw what happened there, does Taiwan have anything of the equivalent).
 

Racek49

Junior Member
Registered Member
No, logistics kills. It's 5000km from the Caspian coast to where oil is needed in china. And in general, Russian logistics sAck. I remember watching Thamoas Sowell, famous American economist, pointing to this. It's just so expensive and time consuming to transport goods from one part of Russia to another.
It is possible, however, to supply Iranian oil to Russia, and Russia can export the same amount to China. It is a fairly common scheme. I think it has already been used in Russia's trade relations.
 
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