Chinese Knives | I primarily agree...

Jul 9, 2019

KizerBelt and Road is indeed fairly focused on making developing nations do deals that in the long term will never benefit them half so much as promised. The Chinese businesses are extracting wealth from the countries around them. It is a long standing international business model, it’s just usually the West doing it, and now it is China stepping up with the propositions. In Pakistan they are already learning the costs of being the boss, though. For once it is not our stuff getting blown up. Right now the US has a heavy presence in many countries bordering China, but in the long term, the US position around China is pulling back from a high water mark. That is inevitable. It is not a matter of politics or warfare, it is a matter of wealth and geography - politics and warfare can only hasten it. The Chinese are already the powerhouse of Asia. The US is going to rely on SK and Japan and increasingly India, but the Chinese are going to have effective veto power on things in that part of the world. That means little to most people, though. And frankly that includes most Americans. Instead of the resources of the South Pacific rim going to primarily enrich a handful of rich Western businessmen, they will primarily enrich a handful of rich Chinese businessmen. And the terrorism and populist resistance to these activities will be their problem, not ours. It will cost them blood and treasure, not us. I am kinda ok with that. funny thing - usually when people see maps of US military deployments with our soldiers all over the globe they go “this is too much”, “why are we over there”, “we have problems we need to fix”. They realize that our soldiers are protecting business interests, not vital ones - that in many ways all that cost and effort amounts in the end to corporate welfare. They know it is an issue. But tell them Chinese influence might push us out of those areas and suddenly there is stalwart overriding interest in keeping the soldiers there in the ass end of nowhere, holding the line against China. the power of words never fails to astound me.

Jul 9, 2019

Jul 9, 2019

KizerI think you’re confusing tariffs and currency manipulation and other forms of economic protectionism, btw. The tariffs are new. The US trade deficit existed well before they came along. as far as national security and hacking, I will just say this: in terms of cyber warfare people don’t realize how active the US is in China right now. The truth is, we are playing offense, not defense. If you don’t realize that US citizens working for defense contractors see real time info every day pulled out of corporate data wells from out friends and enemies alike, you haven’t even been paying attention to open sources. you hear what they are up to, not what we are up to. And if you wanna talk about ‘by design’ - that is very much by design. Keeps people scared.

Jul 9, 2019

Jul 9, 2019

Kizernot to pile on, but one more thing: “Theft of knife design is just a small (but real) example of how their growth is built. In many ways, the US has been funding this growth. Putting in huge amounts for research and development, then it is stolen by Chinese companies and sold back to the US for a fraction of the cost that the US could manufacture the same thing for. “ I have three problems with this edit of yours: 1)the US knife industry hasn’t been putting in “huge amounts” of anything for R&D since forever. That is generally accounted to be part of the problem. 2) these “stolen” designs are brought to the Chinese by US executives who want a better profit than they would get on the back of American labor. what actually happens is the US company pays the Chinese company to make their knives, and the Chinese don’t forget how they made them. Also the US company keeps going back to these OEMs - they are there right now, doing more business than ever before, so, who is ripping off who exactly? 3) Chinese knife companies aren’t winning “most innovative knife design” awards like WE does because they do no R&D. In China, R&D for things that size is dirt cheap. Hell, we pay them for it. food for thought.

Jul 9, 2019

Kizer

116

Jul 9, 2019

reswrightI don't know things to the depth that you do. Re R&D in the US being stolen - no, I wasn't talking about knife design - they'd just buy the knife and copy it (no hidden technology) - more high tech silicon valley type stuff. I'm glad you have a handle "on the few" who profit on the many. I'm not from the US, but I feel for the US, especially the lower classes who pay the majority of the taxes; it is the same here in Australia. And corrupt politicians all too willing to sell anything to overseas, esp Chinese, interests.

Jul 9, 2019

Jul 9, 2019

KizerI primarily agree with that. You're also a little closer to the Chinese than we are in America, so you're definitely entitled to some wariness where they're regarded. Wariness of power is a trait one associates with surviving to old age. One thing I'd say, though: don't underestimate the degree to which the rise of China is fueled by internal research and an embrace of science. Yes, you do have a situation in China where some of its companies are fed business secrets by the PLA and by nationalist hacker groups working in the same vein. You also have a situation in China where the Chinese military is willing to share some of its research to Chinese companies in order to help bring them along. All that's true. But you also have a situation in China where they place a lot more emphasis on scientific careers and discovery than the US does. In the US, and in a number of Western democracies, the most common profession in government is the law. There's more lawyers elected to office here than any other profession, by far. If you go down the list of Chinese leadership nearly all of them have got science or technical degrees. Many have advanced degrees. That matters when it comes time to approve programs. And America has a decided anti-intellectual bent to its politics -- we distrust smart people, half of America thinks 'college professors' are part of what's wrong with America. Oh, we love our tech giants, because they're powerful -- but if it emerges that one of them is secretly bad, most of America will prove to 'have known that all along' because we don't trust genius in America. To be fair, one of the biggest reasons that Americans don't trust brainpower is that it's usually used to screw them over. People come up to the poor and working classes in America with clever arguments and rhetorical training, they get the American citizen on board and then, whether it's fracking or pipelining or outsourcing, or the promise of new jobs, at the end of the affair the American citizen is holding the bag and the clever people who talked them into it are back in their corporate enclaves, living millionaire lives, having successfully consolidated more American wealth away from the people who made it possible. I watch Strayan politics from afar, and don't have anywhere near the grip on it than I do US politics, but it does seem like you guys have a touch of the same American attitude toward genius, probably for the same reasons we do. We see what's happening in China and decide it's gotta be all the result of skullduggery, and we discount the impact of rational R&D policies and a general willingness of politicians to commit to aggressive development policies. And the thing we discount most of all is the fact that our own businesses, and the politicians they control, US and AUS, have done as much to fuel the rise of Chinese capabilities as the Chinese have. What, we only built half those factories ourselves, you know, so our shareholders could make better profit. Didn't work out so well for the American worker but -- the rich shareholders DGAF. Bottom line is that Chinese espionage is real and problematic, but Chinese growth is primarily fueled by their own internal activity.

(Edited)

Jul 9, 2019

Kizer

116

Jul 10, 2019

reswrightYou're right on. I have a huge distrust of Government and big business - they're both in it together to benefit a few at a huge cost to the many. I understand why Trump got elected, and why Brexit came about, and our own ridiculous turnaround of leadership. I understand that this distrust by the masses is largely a 1st world country phenomenon. I also believe that we have largely contributed to the environment of China's rise in power, and they have pounced on that opportunity. Thank you for your posts - you have removed a few more layers of the onion :)

Jul 10, 2019

Jul 10, 2019

Kizerwell, the good news is that China wants stability. The bad news is that we are likely looking at some serious global instability dire to shifting climate and crop failure. The good news for Oz is that so much of Australia is already marginally hospitable for life that long term climate change may well be positive in the long run in the land down under. Law of large numbers and all that. The bad news for the rest of us is that your native flora and fauna might possibly spread as a result, like the Fremen legions launching from Arrakis under the banner of Atreides jihad.

Jul 10, 2019

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Jul 13, 2019

reswrightI mean, I've seen pictures of the funnel web spider and the giant stinging tree. And seen the four page list of poisonous snakes in Australia. I'm surprised you guys didn't end up with some kinda marsupial velociraptor come to think of it.

Jul 13, 2019

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