Real though, what is holding Weibo from aggressively expanding while Twitter is facing controversy after controversy?
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- Thread starter bd popeye
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I think to do this they would have to do a douyin/TikTok type split. The current registration and censorship standards are not friendly for international userbase.
The management of Weibo is quite poor. Their management standard is' no standard '. However, Mr. Musk's "outstanding decision" successfully turned Twitter into a social platform with a worse experience.
Large internet companies in China have grown up in an environment of policy protection and legal deficiencies. Such like Baidu has faced serious development setbacks overseas: advertising, software bundling and installation, and excessive access to personal information are all behaviors that foreign users dislike. Many of their business strategies adopted in China pose a risk of being sued overseas.
It's even simpler. It is REALLY hard to register on Chinese platforms while not being Chinese due to various restrictions on them. Esp. in the likes of WeChat.
Supapowa Lithuania is more than welcome to send its carrier battle groups to the SC Sea and TW Strait.
Noting that transatlantic and Indo-Pacific security are deeply interconnected, the strategy mentions "China" 18 times and "Taiwan" 16 times. Both are mentioned more than "Russia," which appears eight times.
Noting that transatlantic and Indo-Pacific security are deeply interconnected, the strategy mentions "China" 18 times and "Taiwan" 16 times. Both are mentioned more than "Russia," which appears eight times.
Got to admit, I really don't like Blackpink.
Why?
Simply because they got no damn talent.
Just look at that classic song in that video.
Can't sing, can't dance, can't play the piano, like WTF?
Why is the audience screaming at this?
Sometimes I feel really disappointed at society in general.
Makes me think. Maybe I should become a fucking hermit and get the hell out of here.
Yeah, maybe that is what I will do. Blackpink, more like black hole of talent!
Here is the original sound track, and a couple of people dancing.
There is no comparison to what black hole of talent is able of.
I'm not a fan of Black Pink either.
But I rather support them.
As far as I am concerned,
This kind of issue is intrinsically related to the bad attitudes where the flight stewardesses in Hongkong only want to serve people speaking English.
It is essentially the same thing.
Asians thinking that other Asians have no talent.
Asians thinking that White people are better at everything.
Asians thinking that White people are better at dance.
Asians thinking that White people are more talented.
Asians thinking that only white people are more worth paying.
All of this has to change.
Otherwise the next time someone looks at you.
They will also tell YOU that you are not talented.
And they won't pay you
Because YOU are Asian.
Russian insistence is the one to blame for this mess but one of our esteemed moderator @tphuang makes compelling argument for India being a part of SCO and BRICS to ensure that India is not fully in the arms of the west as one example. I still remain ambivalent and uncomfortable, not to mention weary of having India having an insiders view on the dealings and strategies for these 2 important organizations that are increasingly becoming important in the current geopolitical climate both Russia and China faces.
India reminds me of the character Theron from the movie 300. A slick talking pompous sniveling coward, who desires power above all else, undeserved recognition and importance.
These descendants of nazis need to be harshly dealt with. They need to understand in no uncertain terms that China will fight to the last against invaders, and that their homelands will be the least safest place to be for the relatives and families of the invader.
Chinese rhetoric against the Baltics is insufficient. If continued NATO aggression against China's East manifests, China should openly support and offer aid for the reintegration of the Baltics into Russia. Let the Moscowites sort these SS-collaborators out, they have the best historical experience with it.
Related...
Vilnius NATO summit will likely be a flop
Europe is out of money and bullets and loath to escalate by supplying the air power Ukraine says it needs to win the war
by July 7, 2023
US President Joe Biden will spend three days in Europe at the NATO Summit in Vilnius scheduled for July 11 and 12. The main topic will be Ukraine and where to go from here.
Ukraine is pushing for either immediate NATO membership or actionable security guarantees from NATO. But Ukraine’s position is undermined by the failure of the counteroffensive against Russia, and the failure of its attempts – via sabotage, assassination and lethal drones aimed at the Kremlin – to destabilize the government of President Vladimir Putin. Now Ukraine is saying it needs NATO air power to be able to win its war.
It will be very hard to get a NATO consensus on the road ahead, no matter how much arm twisting Washington uses on its European partners.
Europe is already in a recession thanks to the Covid catastrophe, the sanctions on Russian energy and the huge unemployment levels, which impact recent immigrants. The result of all that is social unrest across Europe. France is already experiencing a serious revolt, and while the French situation has eased in the past few days, it will come back.
Meanwhile, the German government coalition is steadily losing popular support and the AfD, Germany’s right-wing party, is now the second most popular party in the country. Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his coalition partners don’t know what to do: They as a last-ditch effort.
Italy is also far from out of the mess. The country has a conservative leadership but is being battered by unprecedented waves of immigrants coming from the Middle East.
Biden knows that he cannot unilaterally use US forces, especially air power, without airbases and supply centers in Europe. Right now, Washington has a free hand because US warplanes are not bombing Russian positions in Ukraine. Bombing them, however, would force a strong European reaction and shatter NATO.
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky has been pressuring Washington for advanced warplanes, saying airpower would make it possible for Ukraine to win. But the only practical way forward with that over the next year is to operate from bases outside of Ukraine using US and possibly other NATO aircraft.
This would certainly mean war in Europe, and the currently ruling governments in Europe either would have to say no or face being removed by force. It is, therefore, an unlikely, if highly dangerous, scenario.
Washington has already signaled that it has been unable to convince its partners about Ukrainian NATO membership. It is likely that behind the scenes Washington is trying to craft some sort of security guarantee for Ukraine, but any meaningful guarantee is probably a bridge too far.
Russia is also restive after the Yevgeny Prigozhin-led coup attempt. Putin wants a military victory soon, as does the Russian army, which was badly stressed by the Prigozhin accusations.
Holding the line against a Ukrainian counteroffensive is not really a victory for the Russians, since their image remains tarnished at home. It is reasonable to expect, therefore, that once the Ukrainian losses mount up high enough in the coming weeks, the Russian army will make dramatic offensive moves against Ukraine.
The big unknown is what the Russian army will do: Will it launch a big attack on Kiev, Kharkiv or Odessa? If, after Vilnius, Moscow sees Zelensky without any expectation of NATO coming to save him, it will exploit the situation very quickly.
Part of the Western foundation for Ukraine’s offensive was the introduction of modern technology on the battlefield, represented especially by the appearance of the Leopard tank. Unfortunately for NATO, the Leopard tanks have not saved the day for Ukraine.
So far, between 16 and 20 Leopards have been knocked out on the battlefield along with lots of other NATO-supplied armor, including infantry fighting vehicles such as the US Bradley and mine-clearing systems like the Finnish and the German Wisent 1.
Polish Leopard tanks arrive in Ukraine. Image: Substack
The Leopard and US Abrams main battle tank form the armor backbone of NATO’s land defense.
While the US and its allies have superior air power, they have sparse and inadequate air defenses compared with what Russia can bring forward. This means that a land defense needs to stand up to Russian attack helicopters armed with missiles, lethal drones and air-launched mines in addition to artillery.
The failure of the Leopard in Ukraine represents a huge challenge for NATO and signals that the current NATO “tripwire” strategy may not work.
Under the tripwire paradigm, the idea is that an initial Russian attack (most likely in the Baltic states, because Russian forces are very close to Estonia and Latvia) can be held for some days while the US ships heavy forces into Europe. But if the tripwire is illusory, then NATO is exposed to rapid Russian advances in Europe should an attack be launched.
The bottom line is that NATO’s strategy needs revision or, alternatively, that the Europeans and Russians need to work out a mutually acceptable security arrangement. It is exactly such an arrangement that Russia proposed to NATO in December 2021. It was rejected without discussion.
Now the ammunition cupboard is bare, even in the United States. The Russians are learning how to counter advanced Western systems, a negative development for NATO’s security. It could not be a worse time to risk Europe’s security on the basis of being able to stop a Russian attack.
It may be easy for British politicians to scream they want NATO to fight in Ukraine, but it isn’t London that is likely the first target of Russia’s missiles. Cracks in the alliance are emerging more quickly than anticipated, and Europe’s weak governments are in trouble.
It will be interesting to see how Vilnius plays out. It will certainly be a propagandistic show, but there is a good chance Vilnius will be a flop.
That's some world-class diplomacy, Grandma Yellen. Truly well done.
*claps hand sarcastically and loudly*
*claps hand sarcastically and loudly*
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