I was going to copy Chen Weihua by calling her the "b" word on Twitter. I was prepared to get suspended on Twitter since I barely use that platform to begin with
Miscellaneous News
- Thread starter bd popeye
- Start date
The establishment doesn't want a legal precedent to be set where an individual can get out of their student loans. A precedent will cause the flood gates to open.
We saw leveraged mortgage backed securities culminating in the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Now there are "student loan asset backed securities" (SLABS) which are also leveraged derivatives but based on student loans and federally protected.
The derivatives industry might implode if there's large scale forgiveness of student loans.
antiterror13
Brigadier
Who are the real friends of China ? My guess are Cambodia, Thailand, Laos? .. who others ?
Holy moly
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
The US doesn't have friends. It has dependents. That's really the difference. If they weren't dependent on the US for something, there's nothing.
solarz
Brigadier
Right on.
EU deploys new strategy in standards battle with China
Europe stresses 'democratic values' as it seeks more clout over high-tech rulesHAMBURG, Germany -- The European Commission has unveiled a new standardization strategy that underscores the growing geopolitical significance of the rules that govern all sorts of products and technologies, particularly amid the West's tensions with China.
The framework released this week comes against a backdrop of European companies complaining that they have been increasingly disadvantaged by China's growing clout in standard-setting processes for strategic sectors.
Standards for the most complex devices to the simplest tools and parts are set and imposed to ensure products are reliable, safe and work anywhere. But the new blueprint will expand the scope of the European Union's standardization system from a focus on product safety to shaping the technologies of the future.
Priorities include technologies related to green and digital transitions -- such as the recycling of critical raw materials and developments in clean hydrogen, low-carbon cement, semiconductors and data collection -- as well as COVID-19 vaccines and medicines.
The EC will also fund standardization projects in neighboring countries and Africa, and will pursue more coordination between EU member states and "like-minded" partners -- a term often used to differentiate fellow democracies from autocracies, in particular China.
Efforts to ensure that data is protected in artificial intelligence technologies or that mobile devices are safe from hacking "rely on standards and must be in line with EU democratic values," stressed Margrethe Vestager, EC chief for digital and competition affairs, in announcing the strategy, which came out early on Thursday in Asia.
"We need standards for the rollout of important investment projects, like hydrogen or batteries, and to valorize innovation investment by providing EU companies with an important first-mover advantage," she said.
Pressure on the EC to come up with a strategy like this has been building in recent years, as in global bodies that set standards.
Consider the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), which formalizes standards after discussions by technical committees of experts from around the world. From 2011 to 2021, China's influential secretariat positions in ISO technical committees and subcommittees rose by 58%, whereas such spots occupied by the U.S., Germany and Japan remained relatively flat, according to the U.S.-China Business Council.
China's own standardization policy, released last October, commits to international cooperation. It pledges to "promote the opening of standards and systems, and ensure that foreign-invested enterprises participate in the formulation of standards in accordance with the law," according to a translation of a report on a government website.
The EU Chamber of Commerce in China, however, has alleged that China uses its domestic standards to erect market barriers against foreign companies. It says technical specifications are only made available to a select group of foreign enterprises and updates remain confidential.
At the same time, critics say China uses its Belt and Road infrastructure initiative to establish de facto standards abroad, giving Chinese companies an edge. In recent months, German companies have, for example, complained that they increasingly run into difficulties when supplying industrial equipment to Russia due to the country's growing embrace of Chinese standards.
Complying with another standard typically involves major additional expenses for research and development and certification, as well as a considerable loss of time.
"The German industry is watching the targeted international spread of state-driven national technical standards from China as a matter of great concern, the risk being a fragmentation of technical market access requirements," Siegfried Russwurm, president of the Federation of German Industries, told Nikkei Asia.
"We urgently need concrete measures that enable the EU to counter the spread of Chinese standards under the framework of the Silk Road initiative," he added, using another term for China's Belt and Road Initiative.
Similarly, Reinhard Buetikofer, head of the European Parliament's delegation for EU-China relations, told Nikkei that the EU has no technology leadership when it comes to important issues, such as augmented reality, computer-brain interfaces, AI and rare earths.
"Given that standardization is of utmost geopolitical significance, the EU must act faster and more coordinated and make cooperation between politics and industries more efficient, and precisely that's what this new strategy is about," he said.
Assessing the potential of the new European strategy, Julia Pfeil, a Frankfurt-based expert on public policy and regulatory practice at multinational law firm Dentons, said the EU will encourage member states to participate in standard-setting committees, including by subsidizing travel expenses and offering monetary rewards to companies that push their own experts to join in.
"If an international committee used to have 200 participants and now 20 are added from EU countries, it does make a difference," Pfeil said. "In terms of the European Commission announcing it will fund standardization projects in neighboring countries and in Africa, it will be a similar effect, as these projects will then likely lead to standards that are compatible with products and processes by European companies."
Some may say that Europe is fighting fire with fire, shifting away from an approach that largely left standards to the private sector.
Sibylle Gabler, director of government relations at the German national organization for standardization DIN, said the EC was compelled to respond to China's concentrated state-driven standardization by finding a European answer that combines the bottom-up approach with political priority setting.
"Moreover, in October last year, China released its new strategy for standards that calls for a more intensive use of international standards in China, limiting the role of the authorities," Gabler told Nikkei Asia. "But from what we hear from companies, this is not happening."
Non paywall source:
Nikkei is very Pro-US and EU but this article contains useful information. 'International standards' is a byword for western - white hegemony. The same as 'international' law and 'international' rules based order. Implies that you are not civilized enough and need to adopt their 'higer' standards.
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Countries we like are Pakistan, Russia, Cambodia and Laos. Friends? I have no idea but those countries are extremely friendly to us at the moment. That can of course rapidly change with a new leadership or foreign sponsored successfull coup.
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AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
And it'll just cost them more money. They're trying to get Africa to follow their standards...? The West didn't bother with these "sh*ithole" nations until China started investing. They're already alarmed by China's Belt and Road. Why? Because they saw these countries as strategically worthless and ignored them all this time until China started giving attention. The only way they can get African countries to follow their standards is to spend a lot of money developing these countries with their technology. If they don't, it's basically up for grabs and a race of whose technology gets there first. The only other way is to point a gun at Africans' heads and force them. If they could do all that right now, they wouldn't be all worried over China, would they?EU deploys new strategy in standards battle with China
Europe stresses 'democratic values' as it seeks more clout over high-tech rules
HAMBURG, Germany -- The European Commission has unveiled a new standardization strategy that underscores the growing geopolitical significance of the rules that govern all sorts of products and technologies, particularly amid the West's tensions with China.
The framework released this week comes against a backdrop of European companies complaining that they have been increasingly disadvantaged by China's growing clout in standard-setting processes for strategic sectors.
Standards for the most complex devices to the simplest tools and parts are set and imposed to ensure products are reliable, safe and work anywhere. But the new blueprint will expand the scope of the European Union's standardization system from a focus on product safety to shaping the technologies of the future.
Priorities include technologies related to green and digital transitions -- such as the recycling of critical raw materials and developments in clean hydrogen, low-carbon cement, semiconductors and data collection -- as well as COVID-19 vaccines and medicines.
The EC will also fund standardization projects in neighboring countries and Africa, and will pursue more coordination between EU member states and "like-minded" partners -- a term often used to differentiate fellow democracies from autocracies, in particular China.
Efforts to ensure that data is protected in artificial intelligence technologies or that mobile devices are safe from hacking "rely on standards and must be in line with EU democratic values," stressed Margrethe Vestager, EC chief for digital and competition affairs, in announcing the strategy, which came out early on Thursday in Asia.
"We need standards for the rollout of important investment projects, like hydrogen or batteries, and to valorize innovation investment by providing EU companies with an important first-mover advantage," she said.
Pressure on the EC to come up with a strategy like this has been building in recent years, as in global bodies that set standards.
Consider the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), which formalizes standards after discussions by technical committees of experts from around the world. From 2011 to 2021, China's influential secretariat positions in ISO technical committees and subcommittees rose by 58%, whereas such spots occupied by the U.S., Germany and Japan remained relatively flat, according to the U.S.-China Business Council.
China's own standardization policy, released last October, commits to international cooperation. It pledges to "promote the opening of standards and systems, and ensure that foreign-invested enterprises participate in the formulation of standards in accordance with the law," according to a translation of a report on a government website.
The EU Chamber of Commerce in China, however, has alleged that China uses its domestic standards to erect market barriers against foreign companies. It says technical specifications are only made available to a select group of foreign enterprises and updates remain confidential.
At the same time, critics say China uses its Belt and Road infrastructure initiative to establish de facto standards abroad, giving Chinese companies an edge. In recent months, German companies have, for example, complained that they increasingly run into difficulties when supplying industrial equipment to Russia due to the country's growing embrace of Chinese standards.
Complying with another standard typically involves major additional expenses for research and development and certification, as well as a considerable loss of time.
"The German industry is watching the targeted international spread of state-driven national technical standards from China as a matter of great concern, the risk being a fragmentation of technical market access requirements," Siegfried Russwurm, president of the Federation of German Industries, told Nikkei Asia.
"We urgently need concrete measures that enable the EU to counter the spread of Chinese standards under the framework of the Silk Road initiative," he added, using another term for China's Belt and Road Initiative.
Similarly, Reinhard Buetikofer, head of the European Parliament's delegation for EU-China relations, told Nikkei that the EU has no technology leadership when it comes to important issues, such as augmented reality, computer-brain interfaces, AI and rare earths.
"Given that standardization is of utmost geopolitical significance, the EU must act faster and more coordinated and make cooperation between politics and industries more efficient, and precisely that's what this new strategy is about," he said.
Assessing the potential of the new European strategy, Julia Pfeil, a Frankfurt-based expert on public policy and regulatory practice at multinational law firm Dentons, said the EU will encourage member states to participate in standard-setting committees, including by subsidizing travel expenses and offering monetary rewards to companies that push their own experts to join in.
"If an international committee used to have 200 participants and now 20 are added from EU countries, it does make a difference," Pfeil said. "In terms of the European Commission announcing it will fund standardization projects in neighboring countries and in Africa, it will be a similar effect, as these projects will then likely lead to standards that are compatible with products and processes by European companies."
Some may say that Europe is fighting fire with fire, shifting away from an approach that largely left standards to the private sector.
Sibylle Gabler, director of government relations at the German national organization for standardization DIN, said the EC was compelled to respond to China's concentrated state-driven standardization by finding a European answer that combines the bottom-up approach with political priority setting.
"Moreover, in October last year, China released its new strategy for standards that calls for a more intensive use of international standards in China, limiting the role of the authorities," Gabler told Nikkei Asia. "But from what we hear from companies, this is not happening."\
Nikkei is very Pro-US and EU but this article contains useful information. 'International standards' is a byword for western - white hegemony.
Non paywall source:
They are amicable as long their hegemony is well and safe and you follow their rules & standards as a lapdog in the realms of trade, technology, export, import, sanitary, IP and much more. Still, the Middle East & Near East (Eurocentric terms and we should use West Asia & we do not use the Sinocentric term Near West to describe the region) posed no threat and still they ravaged the whole region with their bellicose and militaristic policies under the banners of 'War on Terror' and 'Arab Spring' to spread 'enlightened' western centric values to the region (and in the process ravage the countries who's leadership were less reponsive to western influences).
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