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They're encircling the middle east, of course that's just coincidence. Wow, that could've been the whole point to Nixon opening up America to China. Gives the military industrial complex a damn good excuse to stay in the middle east, 9/11 was just icing on the cake.
They're encircling the middle east, of course that's just coincidence. Wow, that could've been the whole point to Nixon opening up America to China. Gives the military industrial complex a damn good excuse to stay in the middle east, 9/11 was just icing on the cake.
Big mistake Nixon made. Yeah opening up to the communists is really gonna win them over.
No, in my view there is simply no point in such fast civilian travel. Planes fly at almost 1000 km/h, yet few people fly across an entire big country. Most people travel relatively short distances, even by plane. Whether it takes an hour or a quarter of an hour, doesn't matter.
Those ultra high speeds might only make sense for the military, to move troops to a remote border fast.
They might also make sense for international, especially intercontinental civilian travel, but I doubt one can put one of those tubes on the bottom of the ocean all the way from, say, Lisbon to Rio. Too expensive and difficult.
I think with 5G on the horizon (where China is leading), physical business travel will actually decline as teleconferencing will get to a new dimension, maybe even include augmented reality.
the CCP uses highspeed rail to crush rebellions in tibet and xinjiang
Europe is stupid if they embrace huawei. All there networks will be compromised. They will end up like africa paying tribute to the center kingdom.
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Originally Posted by Bettafish
Don't be brainwashed by the anti China propaganda too much.
Yes it is true that China government does not do well in human rights etc. especially when they feel a threat, but only morons believe China government does not care about people's safety and health at all. After all, the officials are Chinese and humans too.
I know western media tend to portray Chinese officials and even Chinese people as robots with no feeling, but it would be too naive to take it for granted.
Back to the point. Given the technology we have, I don't think we need trains faster than planes either. What is the point? Most people leave their hometown only several times a year.
You should be wary of the chinese government. Its a dictatorship. Xi does not even have term limits anymore. He could end up like mugabe. If the economy goes south or there a giant national disaster, it will be yellow turban rebellion since there is no democracy or free press to address the grievance or use as a release valve for the people's anger.
Also, I think high speed rail is one of the only things china invested smartly in. Its a national disgrace that the US has no comparable system.
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Originally Posted by nedergras
They're encircling the middle east, of course that's just coincidence. Wow, that could've been the whole point to Nixon opening up America to China. Gives the military industrial complex a damn good excuse to stay in the middle east, 9/11 was just icing on the cake.
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Originally Posted by davidt1
Big mistake Nixon made. Yeah opening up to the communists is really gonna win them over.
the middle east is a distraction. the US is the #1 energy producer now. Let the israeli handle the jihadists. Have to kurds convert back to zohorastrianism and arm them to the teeth. Problems solved.
communist China is a long term threat.
Nixon made the smart move at the time. The soviet union was the bigger threat. as soon as soviet fell, the US should have discontinued trade with china. US politicians and corporations were greedy. THey sold out the midwest and US manufacturing for short term profits.
You better hope china grows old before they get rich or japanese rapes them again. Otherwise, you'll be in the concentration camp with the uighers and the tibeteans making huawei smartphones.
Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun - Mao
Well, like every country the Chinese also have their problems, but unlike the Europeans or Americans they try to solve them, instead of postponing things forever and getting lost in political disputes.
Like the one child policy, which should have been addressed and amended at least a decade or two before it was? The clunky and pointless hukou system? The state of public education, where the cost of educating a child in tier 1 or 2 cities far outpaces the average salary? The massive upswing in the kidnapping and trafficking of young girls? Etc etc.
Perhaps the biggest difference between media in China versus Western nations is that while Western media airs both positive and negative stories about the government, the Chinese media tends to only air positive things. If something negative is shown, it almost universally shows a resolution which paints the relevant agency tasked with dealing with the issue in a positive light (for example, if there is an unsolved murder or a chemical spill, the story is not likely to be aired; it won't be until the perpetrators are caught or the environmental bureau has cleaned up the pollution and prosecuted the responsible individuals). In countries like the US where media is privately held and operated, negative media gets a boost because it sells better... The feel-good story of the night is always at the end of the broadcast, long after all the bad stuff has already made you feel hopeless. If you follow Xinhua, CCTV or the Global Times, you will almost only see the positive aspects of modern chinese life.
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And yes, it may not be common for a Western person to say this openly, but I am very impressed with China and I wish them all the best I wish we had politicians with a vision here in Portugal, too, it would not be such a backwards dump...
I am quite impressed with China and am fortunate to have been here for a period of its astronomical growth. But, if you talk and listen to people who have been here through this time, you will get a more nuanced picture of life here. I'm constantly walking a line between telling people that no, life here is not a minefield of authoritarian repression and mandated expressions of devotion to "the great leader," but it's also not the ultimate privilege of being in a society of forward- looking, virtuous geniuses who are the living vanguard of a mystical ancient culture under the umbrella of universal peace and good.
Big mistake Nixon made. Yeah opening up to the communists is really gonna win them over.
The bigger "mistake" as far as Western governments go was much more recent, allowing China into the WTO, and turning a blind eye to their business practices and unequal state subsidies which gave them an unfair advantage at the expense of businesses in Western nations and their employees. Also, failing to levy any meaningful penalties to businesses who moved operations to China and left their workers hanging. To this end, you can't really blame China, who played off of and benefited from Western greed and naivety. The same domestic oligarchs and aristocrats who made millions and billions selling Western jobs to China are now the same guys screaming that we need to hit the brakes because now China has the money to operate autonomously and needs the west less than it did before (to say that it doesn't need the west at all is inaccurate, but, it no longer needs to rely on it as much as it once did).
Had the economic opening up of China and the rush of Western investment in the late 90's/early 00's not happened, then I wouldn't be here now, on an American made exercise bike in a $1000 USD/year gym on the ground floor of the 4 year old, 34-story apartment I live in near the waterfront in Shenzhen, tapping away on a Huawei Mate phone. It would still be a sea of concrete apartment blocks with squat toilets surrounding factories spewing carbon into the air. There would be no handmade islands in the SCS nor any J20's or investment in Africa. So, for all the hand-wringing in the West over these issues, those who are upset need to look at the role their own governments and corporations played in creating this reality.
Sometimes I think a country with a long hot season cannot be too productive (unless you can afford AC everywhere like in Singapore).
In many regions of India, the temperature reaches 40 C regularly for quite a few months, and the average high is over 30 C for 8 months of a year.
People in such an environment have to be a bit "lazy" and laidback otherwise they get sick.
In most of China, only July and August are very hot but they still cannot be compared to India's May and June.
Lee Kuan Yew ("the founder of modern Singapore") said that air conditioning was the most important invention for Singapore and one of the most important inventions in history, because its use in sub/tropical countries has allowed for economic production that previously would have been impossible due to extreme heat.
In China, many if not most people still think that cold is bad, and leads to all manner of physical maladies, from headaches to cancer. People think that if it's 35 degrees Celsius outside and you put the AC at 28, the cold air coming from it will make you sick, perhaps give you hypothermia. It's still generally preferable to many to work and live in sweltering heat than risk death from the scourge of cold, moving air.
Most people only bash China because the rise of China (and other developing countries) means the West's decline. They have no clue of China, never been there, never had to do with Chinese people. They just can't stand the thought that the West no longer runs the world. Asia has 4.5 billion people, it is only fair that Asia (not just China) takes over.
Then there is the absurd commie-bashing, and finally a racist element as well. If the Chinese looked like Swedes, China-bashing would be much less.
Nor do I understand the constant reminder that Xi's number of terms is no longer limited. It is not limited in places like Germany, either, Merkel is in her forth term and nobody seems to care.
It seems Germany, France, Italy and EU will go with the Belt and Road Initiatives. Germany will use Huawei 5G to develop autonomous vehicles. “Western media” is no use because of its fake contents that caused lost of credibility, and it does not cover too many people to begin with, certainly not in China.
^ I only "bash" China because China and India are ridiculously overhyped by the same people who realize India and China can't be match to the west simply because they never were and never tried to be. I've said many times the only places that have the same moral level of the west or better are: eastern europe, japan, korea, israel and that's only if they for some bizarre reason find a way to work together...which probably will never happen.
The Chinese on the other hand are very smart but their government limits their access to information through censorship and media control so even the smartest person can't succeed when he/she doesn't have the knowledge necessary. China are in the same league as Nigeria, fast growing economies whose growth will slow and it's already slowing down, they're as overhyped as Isis or Russia, neither of these "enemies" has fraction of the power English-speaking media claims they have.
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I wish we had politicians with a vision here in Portugal, too, it would not be such a backwards dump...
