Miscellaneous News

BlackWindMnt said:

When the situation is all cool we can all talk though, but when the fists are raised by the giant talking though became harder and harder.

I don't think Japan is willing to sacrifice their defense force for taiwanese pineapples, they don't have that silicon shield anymore now that US is getting their semi industry. Japan knows exactly how this will end for Taiwan given their experience with the plaza accord.

Click to expand...

windsclouds2030 said:

The USA in particular is essentially a CORPOTOCRACY or PLUTOCRACY at the 20th / 21st century!

Democracy is just a deceiving term used by the ruling class to fool the plebs there... fortunately it still has the magical $$$ (digital) "printer" running so can give many free hand-outs so far, but imagine if the USD is no longer a WRC thus can't "print" at will

Click to expand...

They can only do this because they have the technology to offer other countries. What is a modern society without computers with the associated hardware/software, and to a far lesser extent civilian jetliners. Until China/another country can offer competitive products along these lines the US will keep printing without any concern. But I assume if when China does market these products they will be considered national security risks, and they will be blackballed from all Western nations. Marketing these products will allow third countries to have a much greater latitude in their relations. Right now to go against the US is to commit oneself to the stone age.

Anyone can spin. If 3% of Americans hold the majority of wealth in the US, that's called drastic inequity. Again the US would get the gold medal for word gymnastics because the percentage of Chinese that hold the majority of wealth is most certainly larger than in the US but it would not be seen as narrowing of inequity. It would seen as communism. So the things they say China should be doing, some other Westerner would charge communism and it would have absolutely nothing to do with dealing with inequity. Westerners think if they had a billion people to take care of, it would be no problem for them. Christians already tell their own that they're the ones feeding China so of course they think they can take care of a billion people. You just have to look at Congress squabbling over the budget only thinking about how they're suppose to get more than other districts. If there were a billion Americans, the US would be a third world country simply because of bipartisan politics they can't get past.

ZeEa5KPul said:

The usual boilerplate. The useful thing to come out of a meeting like this is a tactical truce - time which China can use to grow stronger and prepare for the next round of hostilities.

As the recent Ladakh business showed, decades of salami slicing can be undone in an instant.

Click to expand...

Yup, agree.

Gotta to back it up.

The French, the United States, they are not backing that up.

AssassinsMace said:

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Anyone can spin. If 3% of Americans hold the majority of wealth in the US, that's called drastic inequity. Again the US would get the gold medal for word gymnastics because the percentage of Chinese that hold the majority of wealth is most certainly larger than in the US but it would not be seen as narrowing of inequity. It would seen as communism. So the things they say China should be doing, some other Westerner would charge communism and it would have absolutely nothing to do with dealing with inequity. Westerners think if they had a billion people to take care of, it would be no problem for them. Christians already tell their own that they're the ones feeding China so of course they think they can take care of a billion people. You just have to look at Congress squabbling over the budget only thinking about how they're suppose to get more than other districts. If there were a billion Americans, the US would be a third world country simply because of bipartisan politics they can't get past.

Click to expand...

A possibility not discussed in the article: China can still contribute to further reduction of global inequality by outcompeting developed countries and get rich at their expense.

supersnoop said:

As far as factory owners/managers are concerned, you often hear about these (Chinese) guys that sound like they are from Charles Dickens' stories.

These can be corroborated from the many stories and videos that always come up.
You see a lot of military style discipline, standing at attention, inspections, yelling, etc.
This is not really preferable for "regular civilians" which is why its not really common practice anymore outside of China.
Probably a product of a lot of SOEs having a military history.
Just kind of takes time for people to learn how to adjust to locals or what not.

However, who knows if things will soften in the future? According to reports, Amazon warehouse management is primarily driven by AI and algorithms, penalizing workers for going to the washroom as their productivity per minute is 0 when they do...

Click to expand...

Yes, the harsh treatment of workers is very common in China.

It is less of SOE but more of imported influence of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, all the economy miracles in the past. SOE was more relaxed back in the 1990s and before. Among the college graduates back then, the first choice was big SOEs, followed by European companies, then American then Japan then Korean, then Taiwan. SOE being 1st is about its relative good pay and relaxed working condition. European for the good pay and friendly working culture, American for its higher pay but less friendly air, Japan, Korean and Taiwan companies have harsher and lower pay in that order.

If you ever worked in a SOE back then, boss yelling at subordinate will get serious troubles. SOE culture today has changed a lot but it is influenced by the private capitalist sectors rather than the other way around.

"soften in the future" is almost certain. Tough competition create the tough treatment, relaxed competition will lead to softer treatment. China's stunning growth in the past decades is not a miracle, not without cost, the cost of human relationship. Let's be realistic, Chinese are often regarded as hard worker, but who voluntarily works hard without pressure? Pressure to get rewarded or not to be punished either way.

There is a lesson for both Chinese and anyone else to learn. For Chinese, to learn treating themselves and others more relaxed. For others, don't expect to earn the same kind of economy gain without living a life that is equally tough as the Chinese. If it is "ok" that tens of thousands of Chinese workers work in the blood and sweat factories of Foxconn to make iPhones for the world, then people in any other developing country should not "complain" unless some local law is broken.

Bellum_Romanum said:

Has France or French politicians have made prior visits in the past? Or is this visit was the first of it's kind. Also, is France trying to f..k with the U.S. attempts to reduce the tension (based on the most recent pronouncements that came from both Sino-America statements) or are we witnessing the execution of the American led strategy formulated earlier this year in England during the G-7 summit.

They are really trying to nibble at China's most core principle with respect to Taiwan. China it seems is being pressed to make a drastic action because it's military power is not really being feared let alone respected or worst these antagonists think that China will be muted with respect to using military action in Taiwan because of how western based intelligence misreading, willfull misunderstanding and frankly lack of respect with respect to China's bottom line.

Is the trend going to vilify China enough that it'll acquiesce to the demands imposed by the west; to weaken her economy thereby weakening the party which in the minds of the China watchers would lead to internal disarray causing a fissure within the Chinese people which could then sprung the new dawn of sprinkles and rainbow the western dreamers call "Democracy" a.k.a. plutocracy.

Click to expand...

As some said lately, the price of keeping the status quo with Taiwan is increasing for the mainland. And in the last 2 years, we saw that all of the previous assumptions that were made by previous Chinese governments were wrong. These assumptions were:
- No-interference in foreign wars and internal affairs.
- Low military spending
- No formal alliances or security guarantees
- Let the money flow and everything will fall into its place
- No first use and minimal deterrence
To be fair, China needed these to some extend for fast economic growth. But when I look at it, these policies lead to China having a much smaller political influence and military (being mostly corrected nowadays) than its economic size would suggest. For example, Australia despite having no disputes with China and having China as its largest trade partner still became an adversary overnight. It literally points guns at China. It seems using economics as the only foreign policy tool has its limitations. I think China should start to behave more like the USA minus its warmongering. It should also make it very clear to the world that attempts at Taiwanese independence equal to the invasion of the island and China is willing to escalate, if needed, to the highest level including the use of WMDs.

solarz said:

Makes sense, Western capitalists are going to get shafted if Evergrande goes kaput.

Makes you wonder why in the West, the supposed "democracies", the common people are the first ones to get screwed in the event of a major bankruptcy.

Click to expand...

Schoosh.... Developers and Financiers don't want us lower down in the pecking chain to hear what Chairman Xi plans to do, if it works out it will be a win for the smaller guys.

Overbom said:

Thats quite bad.
Has there been research to stop these thing?. Keep in mind that these are the top military officers who are supposed to live in good conditions.

So how about soldiers, NCOs and other officers on the frontlines?

Practical solutions are needed

Click to expand...

How could you stop Tibetan plateau having only 1/3 of oxygen as sea level? You can't wear oxygen masks all the time.

Top military officers do have bigger living quarters and higher salary, but it is against PLA principle that officers enjoying better treatment than soldiers. If an officer can not endue the same living condition as a private, then he is not qualified as a PLA.

Also very important about this specific case, the officer die of cancer, cancer is not caused by high altitude and coldness, they may worsen the situation, but still.

Just the day before US-China summit, Biden reaffirmed Diaoyutai/Senkaku Island is under article five of US-Japan security treaty.

BoraTas said:

As some said lately, the price of keeping the status quo with Taiwan is increasing for the mainland. And in the last 2 years, we saw that all of the previous assumptions that were made by previous Chinese governments were wrong. These assumptions were:
- No-interference in foreign wars and internal affairs.
- Low military spending
- No formal alliances or security guarantees
- Let the money flow and everything will fall into its place
- No first use and minimal deterrence
To be fair, China needed these to some extend for fast economic growth. But when I look at it, these policies lead to China having a much smaller political influence and military (being mostly corrected nowadays) than its economic size would suggest. For example, Australia despite having no disputes with China and having China as its largest trade partner still became an adversary overnight. It literally points guns at China. It seems using economics as the only foreign policy tool has its limitations. I think China should start to behave more like the USA minus its warmongering. It should also make it very clear to the world that attempts at Taiwanese independence equal to the invasion of the island and China is willing to escalate, if needed, to the highest level including the use of WMDs.

Click to expand...

"It seems using economics as the only foreign policy tool has its limitations"

Which is a darn shame and it seems the humiliation of the Qing during the Opium Wars, the Sino-Japanese war, the Japanese invasion in 1937 (KMT Era) are lost on these enterprising mentality first attitude from the previous preceding governments (Jiang, Hu) forgetting the lessons of those bitter periods showing that despite Qing Dynasty being relatively one of the top ECONOMIC power in the world, the criminal neglect of military modernization is what precipitated the seed of their own destruction ushering the period of 100 years humiliation from all western powers and the subsequent Japanese lobotomy of China.

Sometimes I begin to wonder if the preceding leaders despite their great stewardship of growing the Chinese economy has forgotten the lessons and teachings of Chairman Mao Zedong that real power comes from the barrel of a gun; or was it assumed that as China keeps biding her time by continuing to subsidized the standard living of western countries that America and her allies would forget that China is run by their sworn political ideological enemy which is Communism? And that her economic growth wouldn't be envied with contempt by the countries it thought were her friends? I recognize that hindsight is 20/20 so no one can say for certain that if Chinese actions were more assertive earlier on that it would not have made it even more perilous for the Chinese nation to have made.

All I can say is that I don't envy to be in the shoes of Gen.Secretary Xi Jinping and his leadership team having to deal with these seemingly intractable problems that's being thrown at China at present.