Miscellaneous News

iewgnem

Captain
Registered Member
Broke: We stopped China from distilling

Woke: China will surpass us and their models will be banned here

Bespoke: Laotian kids using GLM 7 will hack Western govts


View attachment 177193 Note: The GLM 5.2 suggests the gap is more like 5 months rather than 9
Oh man what would Chinese labs do if they lose the revenue they make from Americans using open models for free.
 

Matcher6130

New Member
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VW blaming it's decline on Chinese EVs is only 1/4th the story. The reality boils down to a combination of bad luck and incompetence.
  1. The single biggest contributor to VW's decline is rising energy costs, starting with the Russo-Ukraine War and Germany's heavy reliance on Russian oil which permanently ate away at profit margins and depressed consumer purchases. This got even worse with the US-Iran War since oil is a global commodity with global pricing.
  2. The complete and utter failure of CARIAD, VW's internal software stack from the firmware level all the way to driver infotainment apps. VW had no experience with software this ambitious, and blundered it so badly they burned through €14 billion with nothing to show for it. And then:
    • Spent another US$7 billion forming a joint venture with Rivian, which is turning into a failure because Rivian is poorly run.
    • Spent another €700 million to buy a stake in Xpeng to acquire their software, which is turning into too little too late.
  3. Failure to modernize its manufacturing techniques meant as everyone else produced better cars for less money, VW was stuck in the past. They blame it on the unions, but for those following German news it was the unions themselves complaining about this for years.
    • For context, Germany's labor unions follow a legal framework called Mitbestimmung or "Codetermination" where the unions have a majority-minority take in the company with a union rep sitting on the board of directors. Structurally it allows efficient communication across the entire corporate hierarchy and discourages short-term thinking for long-term wealthy. It's why VW has survived and thrived for so long.
    • In this case, VW's factory workers and managers were seeing their competitors, both domestic and foreign (BMW, Hyundai, BYD, etc), closing the gap with VW's raw industrial might through better tech. But the the rest of the board voted them down believe the costs weren't worth the gains. Now the workers are getting shafted twice by losing their jobs and two thirds their share value in VW.
I wanted to post this in the EV board but felt it was better here, with conversation of a brewing trade war between the EU and China.
VW is a prime example of why the EU is so up in arms. The simple fact is EU companies are failing from their own mistakes and weaknesses, on top of the world economy whacking them in the knees. But instead of rolling up their sleeves and getting to work, they scream "everything is China's fault." When in reality China could not exist altogether and they'd still be failing.
 
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obj 705A

Junior Member
Registered Member
Why the World Cup Keeps Eluding China

This week, as the FIFA World Cup heats up in North America, we explore the state of Chinese soccer and why—despite repeated attempts at reform—it hasn’t found success on the global stage.

Chinese fans are once again lamenting the absence of their national team from the World Cup. The disappointment is particularly acute because this year’s tournament expanded from 32 to 48 teams, including a record nine from the Asian Football Confederation, in which the Chinese team competes.

China has reached the World Cup only once, in 2002, when it was eliminated from the group stage without scoring a goal. Though Chinese fans are used to seeing regional rivals Japan and South Korea easily qualify for the tournament, losing out to newcomers such as Jordan and Uzbekistan is harder to swallow.

What I find interesting is not simply the existence of these problems but China’s inability to solve them. Soccer is a personal priority of Chinese President Xi Jinping, a longtime fan of the sport. In 2011, before becoming president, Xi expressed three wishes for Chinese soccer: to qualify for the World Cup, host the World Cup, and win the World Cup.

Fifteen years later, China is no closer to those goals, despite billions of dollars in investment; repeated anti-corruption campaigns; and a massive, state-backed push to turn China into a “first-class soccer superpower” by 2050.

Part of the problem is that the Chinese domestic league is large and lucrative enough to keep talented players from seeking opportunities abroad, but it is so rife with incompetence and corruption that this talent often goes to waste.

Not a single player on the current Chinese national team plays for a foreign club; by contrast, only eight members of the U.S. squad play for Major League Soccer, the relatively weak U.S. league with several Canadian teams. Chinese players often go abroad during their youth careers but rarely stay overseas at the senior level.

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The state of football in China is just puzzling. I mean billions of dollars including taxpayer money has been spent on it. The president himself says China has three goals to achieve in football which is unusual for China since the Chinese tend to just do stuff and not declare it beforehand which just tells you how enthusiastic the state was about the sport.

And still the Chinese football team is just in this terrible state.

1.4 billion people, billions of dollars spent, the government itself stated it's interest in the sport and in the end this national team still couldn't find 11 half decent players to qualify for the world cup. Meanwhile You have midget states that no one ever heard of like Curaçao with a population of 150k people who did manage to qualify.

What's even the use of this national team? Just to waste money? If it wont bring results it should be disbanded. Chinese culture is usually super competitive thus bringing you good results. Yet this doesnt seem to be the case for football.

If China can't find 11 half decent players then they should do what Arab countries are doing. 8 arab teams qualified for the world cup. For Iraq 16 out of 26 players are born outside Iraq. For Morocco 19 out of 26 players are born outside Morocco, actually in their match against Brazil which was a 1-1 draw, all 11 active players were born, raised and played outside Morocco.

China should go to Europe, Africa, Latin America, Japan, South Korea, search for decent players of Chinese decent, doesnt even have to be 100% Chinese blood, they could be 50% or 25% Chinese decent, grant them citizenship and have them play for the Chinese national team.
 
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