Miscellaneous News

ACuriousPLAFan said:

The Wuhan Municipal Emergency Management Bureau issued a statement, stating that the Wuhan Earthquake Monitoring Center affiliated to the Bureau was attacked by an overseas organization.

An expert group composed of the National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center and 360 Company found that the cyber attack was initiated by overseas government-backed hacker organizations and criminals. Preliminary evidence shows that the cyber attack on the Wuhan Earthquake Monitoring Center came from the United States.

CIA and NSA, the usual suspects.

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Yeah, even a fairly low level bureau with likely much less cybersecurity compared to the norm can easily reveal the whole path of hostile attempts at cyber theft. Even when it's a relatively clandestine attempt.

There's nothing US does that China isn't aware of. China has higher quality and quantity engineers and IT personnel, the government is also more experienced with both offensive and defensive cyber warfare.

Another hitjob on China by CNA. Prices in China are falling and we are supposed to be worried? Pork prices are falling and China is supposed to be heading to a recession? But when the African Swine fever epidemic shot up pork prices in the Trump era, China was also supposedly heading into serious trouble? It always seems like China is always a step away from doom.

CNA should worry about Singapore first. There is a serious inflation issue there. Food prices are rising fast. They should ask the average Singaporean if they would like to have some of that deflation over in China. Which is more important? The affordability of food, or taking pot shots at the CCP?

Sardaukar20 said:

Another hitjob on China by CNA. Prices in China are falling and we are supposed to be worried? Pork prices are falling and China is supposed to be heading to a recession? But when the African Swine fever epidemic shot up pork prices in the Trump era, China was also supposedly heading into serious trouble? It always seems like China is always a step away from doom.

CNA should worry about Singapore first. There is a serious inflation issue there. Food prices are rising fast. They should ask the average Singaporean if they would like to have some of that deflation over in China. Which is more important? The affordability of food, or taking pot shots at the CCP?

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Singapore is US occupied territory.

ansy1968 said:

Correct sir, it also how many local listeners there is. China had 1.4 billion people surely those numbers can support an indigenous music industries, while SK and Japan can't and need to export their song to stay viable. Thus instead of creative music it had been capture by corporate greed. I love Japanese music before BUT lately it had become stalled, bland and boring, they're a trailblazer during their time , Now it had become a shell of her former self.

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Of course, just like I'm sure there are a billion Hindi song or Hindi movie lovers but my point was sheer numbers doesn't necessarily correlate to global reach.
Since my post was a response to softpower and global influence, the reach is always far more important.
It's not different than cooperate branding which indirectly also correlatates with soft power. There are literally starbucks, McD, KFC etc. in almost every major city in the world.
Almost all personal computers run either Windows or IOS.
They grow mostly due to cooperate greed, no doubt about it however those things are all also softpower. McD etc. is more than just hamburgers. In a way it's American soft power and brand perpetuated by profit seeking.
No different than the songs, movies etc. we spoke about.

It is fairly well known that news agencies like Reuters or AFP regurgitate NED or White House originated talking points and then these get propagated all over by the newspapers.

supercat said:

Just as TikTok introduced the plain text function:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1683735339490222080

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1683069651150929922

The US thought China would never catch up with them. Such hubris makes a hard-break from China impossible now.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1683920101303803905

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Oren Cass doesn't seem to realize or admit that his definition of the "free market" is actually a variation of China's definition. If you abandon free trade and adopt a highly protectionist policy that bans / restricts trade with all foreign entities that don't advance US national interests, and force people to "buy American" via allocating a large % of the domestic market to domestic companies, that's basically a more extreme version of China's economic policy. The only "free market" being practiced then is among domestic companies, which funny enough, is also what China does.

So talking about not allowing China to corrupt US "democratic capitalism," while advocating for China's economic strategy, is the height of irony. It looks like more and more US think tanks are realizing that their current strategy is strictly inferior to China's, but not wanting to admit intellectual defeat, they spin up a version of China's strategy as MY WESTERN GENIUS and coat it with terms like "democracy" and "free market" to fool the American public. Unfortunately, the rest of the world isn't that stupid.

Any way, the central problem with "democratic capitalism" is that the two terms are fundamentally contradicting. Democracy is populist, while capitalism is elitist. The former aims to decentralize power; the latter aims to concentrate it. They are always in tension, and while that tension can be managed, it works, but eventually it tips to one side or another because keeping two forces perfectly even is impossible in the long-term. As with the failed European experiment of detente and balance of power, so too will "democratic capitalism" eventually collapse. We are already seeing the signs - where Western think tanks are eager to blame China for the decline of their institutions, in fact it is their own system's instability that they are witness to. The corruption of democracy by capitalism is as certain as it is inevitable.

horse said:

From what I understand, classical music is the West is either dying or dead.

In America, I believe classical music is largely dead in most states. I happened to be in Florida a while ago, and not one single classical music radio station I could find. Classical music is probably dead or a living fossil in Florida. Doubt that is the only state without a classical music radio station.

Some white people claim that the Chinese, Koreans, and Japanese will keep classical music alive. They could be right.

I personally believe there will be an explosion of Chinese talent into ancient Chinese instruments, and Western classical music, in the coming years.

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Not so. There's lots of orchestral music and new classical-type compositions around. By the likes of Hans Zimmer. The problem is that these works are still in copyright so rarely performed by orchestras.

Please stop discussion about Re: Singapore CNA.

If this was already posted, I'm going to re-post anyways:

Bypass paywall:


US modus operanti on re-shoring: "Hype re-introduction of manufacturing, overpromise, premature victory lap.... then pretend nothing happened when it all fails to be realized"

The comment section is hilarious too.

Delusional.

"To be clear: neither targeted national security actions nor attempts to build diversified supply chains represent decoupling," Shambaugh said in the prepared remarks. "We seek a fair and healthy economic relationship that benefits both countries and supports American workers and businesses."