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- Thread starter bd popeye
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Back when I was still in school in the 1990s. I had helped to draw a mural of a Proton flying car. To hype up Mahathir's 'Vision 2020'. Proton was Mahathir's pet company. Proton had dreams back then to be one of the leading automotive companies in Asia.
Look at Proton now in 2021. Owned by Geely, an automotive company only one year younger than Proton. And no flying Protons in sight. Proton is a great case study about the end result of Malay Supremacy, political interference, corruption, money wasting, arrogance, and stupidity.
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Thats exactly what China is doing. And China can do it because it knows Germany depends on China
If Germany is so bold, let's decouple then. Can it do so? No!
If the EU wants to, it can respond, so lets go for Trade War with the EU. Can it do so? No!
Thats what happens when you have garbage economies and you are on the verge of covid lockdowns. Lets see their next step. All they are doing in the moment is talk, talk, talk. Let's see them do hard action if they can
What’s amusing is that people keep on saying that China is all bark and no bite. Seems like the Western powers are just as bad in this regard.
This must be how it feels like to speak from a position of strength. Feels good man
They should be scared. When you see China taking such actions and being assertive, it means that it has calculated that the enemy is too weak to mount a response
First we saw it with the countersanctions on EU for Xinjiang. So that time it basically said to the EU, CAI is a trash paper for me. You either sign it or not, I don't care
Then this time, lets do a trade war if you want to "protect" Lithuania, I don't care. The EU is facing so many problems at the moment, that if China decides to take action it will be devastating for them
Already the EU is capitulating, it has started making noises about bringing a WTO case lol. For anyone who knows, the WTO is as good as gone with the US blocking everything. The EU is closely following the French tradition of surrender in this
Lotus had some nice technology in engine, and tuning. In the early 2000s, Proton wanted to use the Lotus engine technology to create a new generation of homegrown engines. The Campro engine project. Prior to that, Proton cannot produce its own engines. Nevertheless, the Campro engine project failed mainly due to incompetence. The engine was produced, but it was terrible, nothing like what it was envisioned to be. They eventually gave up Campro and went back to importing engines from Mitsubishi, Honda, etc. Proton had Lotus engineering input, and yet it still could not design a proper petrol engine in the early 2000s. They can't even reverse-engineer engine technology that they had bought! That gives you an idea of how incompetent Proton is.
Yes, having access to Proton's sales and distribution network in Malaysia is great to push Geely sales into the market. But there is one major limitation: Proton is only strong in Malaysia. In the greater SEA, Proton is neither common, nor desirable. Toyota dominates Thailand, and parts of Indochina. Wuling, and other Chinese companies are doing quite well in Indonesia. Geely would be better off just doing the sales and distribution themselves outside of Malaysia. Proton has no brand power outside of Malaysia.
On paper only. Geely is running the show behind the scenes. Because the Proton management are so clueless, they would rather let Geely run the show on their behalf. And why not? Geely gets to puppet Proton, while the Proton management get their free wages, and free credit. Proton still gets to improve under Geely's management. Its a win-win deal.
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Because the Germans is the "good west".
German companies to choose Lithuania over China? What? Why? This has gotta be a real comedy piece.
Germany is still choosing Russia, over the USA for their energy needs. They are still not sold over those 'Freedom Gas'. They are not afraid of 'energy bullying' from Russia.
Human rights don't put food on the table. Human rights don't keep your lights on, and your winters warm. Human rights don't pay your bills. The Germans know that. So what's gonna happen is, China can squeeze Lithuania hard with impunity, and Russia is more than happy to pile on the pain. While the EU just gives some lip-service to Lithuania. Just let the fool continue being the fool.