Politics China's Economy and Politics

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I also regard the cycle theory as bs. Like the first comment it just serves to selectively illustrate a prefered outcome and create a "story" for their investments.

Its this China fandom from certain actors which for years always painted a pre determined economic outcome in regards to China which plays a large role in hyping China beyond what it really is.

Japan is way smarter in dealing with China. Don't prop them up by lying to yourself and making bad decisions based on that.
 
China has up to now nothing like this. In many other areas also not.

The Cerebras CS2. The Leibniz Supercomputing Center in Munich got one thats why I stumbled upon it.

Thats a next level increase. 120 trillion parameters.


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It will be the first superpower achieving superpower by copying and extorting knowledge (from stupid CEOs and politicians with no strategic horizon) until the last minute.

And then claiming victory


I think you can also not ship it to China because 7nm - well sucks build your own.

If they don't get their own chips soon its over for Chinas superpower ambitions. Thats when you will start noticing the differences in the systems which were also apparent during the cold war. I see the massive cracks already just takes time for others to notice that.

It can mimick the West quite well for a time but then constant erosion with no renewal sets in. The freedom to adapt just is missing.
 
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Recently released details of Kenya’s 2014 loan agreement with China to finance a controversial railway project have once again highlighted the predatory nature of Chinese lending in developing countries. The contract not only imposed virtually all risk on the borrower (including requiring binding arbitration in China to settle any dispute), but also raised those risks to unmanageable levels (such as by setting an unusually high interest rate). With terms like that, it’s no wonder that multiple countries around the world have become ensnared in sovereignty-eroding Chinese debt traps.

Over the past decade, China has become the world’s largest single creditor, with loans to low- and middle-income countries tripling in this period, to US$170 billion at the end of 2020. Its outstanding foreign loans now exceed 6% of global GDP, making China competitive with the International Monetary Fund as a global creditor. And through loans extended under its US$838-billion Belt and Road Initiative, China has overtaken the World Bank as the world’s largest funder of infrastructure projects.

To be sure, since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, China’s overseas lending for infrastructure projects has been on the decline (until 2019, it was rising sharply). This is partly because the pandemic left partner countries in dire economic straits, though growing international criticism of China’s predatory lending has likely also contributed.

One might hope that this downward trend augurs the end of colonial-style lending by China. But the decline has been offset by an increase in bailout lending, mostly to BRI partner countries—including Kenya—which were already weighed down by debts owed to China.

The scale of the bailout lending is massive. The top three borrowers alone—Argentina, Pakistan and Sri Lanka—have received US$32.8 billion in rescue lending from China since 2017. Pakistan has been the biggest borrower by far, receiving a staggering US$21.9 billion in Chinese emergency lending since 2018.

This highlights the self-reinforcing debt spiral into which China thrusts countries. Because Beijing, unlike the IMF, doesn’t attach stringent conditions to its loans, countries simply borrow more to service outstanding debts, thus sinking ever deeper into debt.

Crucially, China’s loan contracts are typically shrouded in secrecy; Kenya’s revelations, for example, were technically in violation of its agreement’s sweeping confidentiality clause. In many cases, the loans are hidden from taxpayers, undermining government accountability. China also increasingly channels its lending not to governments directly, but to state-owned companies, state-owned banks, special-purpose vehicles and private-sector institutions in recipient countries. The result is crushing levels of ‘hidden debt’.

Consider Laos, where hidden debts to China eclipse official debts. To stave off default following the pandemic shock, the small, landlocked country was forced to hand China majority control of its national electricity grid. And it may find itself with little choice but to barter away land and natural resources.

There is ample precedent for this. Already, several of China’s debtors have been forced to cede strategic assets to their creditor. Tajikistan has surrendered 1,158 square kilometres of the Pamir mountains to China, granted Chinese companies rights to mine gold, silver and other mineral ores in its territory, and approved the Chinese-funded construction of a military base near its border with Afghanistan.

Sri Lanka’s debt crisis first attracted international attention in 2017. Unable to repay Chinese loans, the country signed away the Indian Ocean region’s most strategically important port, Hambantota, and more than 6,000 hectares of land around it, by granting a 99-year lease to China. In Sri Lanka, the port transfer was likened to a heavily indebted farmer giving his daughter to an unyielding money lender. Despite this sacrifice, Sri Lanka defaulted on its debts earlier this year.

Similarly, Pakistan has given China exclusive rights to run its strategically located Gwadar port for four decades. During that time, China will pocket a whopping 91% of the port’s revenues. Moreover, the China Overseas Ports Holding Company will enjoy a 23-year tax holiday to facilitate its installation of equipment and machinery at the site.

Near Gwadar, China plans to build an outpost for its navy—a move that follows a well-established pattern. Debt entrapment enabled China to gain its first overseas naval base in Djibouti, strategically situated at the entrance to the Red Sea. China is also now seeking a naval base on the West African coastline, where it has made the most progress in Equatorial Guinea, a heavily indebted low-income country.

This is the result of a lending strategy that is focused squarely on maximising leverage over borrowers. As one international study showed, ‘cancellation, acceleration, and stabilization clauses in Chinese contracts potentially allow the lenders to influence debtors’ domestic and foreign policies’. China often exercises this policy leverage by reserving the right to recall loans arbitrarily or demand immediate repayment.

In this way, China can use its overseas lending to advance its economic and diplomatic interests. If China can dim the lights in Laos, for example, it has a certain ally in multilateral forums. If it can drive a country to debt default, it can secure all the trade and construction contracts it wants. And if it can control a country’s ports, it can strengthen its strategic position.

The details of China’s loan contracts with developing countries have not yet come fully to light. But it is already clear that China’s creditor imperialism carries far-reaching risks, both for the debtors themselves and for the future of the international order.
https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/k...a light on Chinas predatory lending practices
 
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"China doesn’t like dissent.. and that’s catching on in your country too!"

Errr . . No . . . dont see any such action with regards lockdowns or camps here in Romania Bernie.
 
no. I wish the protestors the best.
However, some of us really go with double standards. The way privacy is reduced and surveillance is increased we slowly head towards Chinese style possibilities as well. Scares me, since governments are not prone not to abuse the tools at their disposal.

As for China, the CCP will most likely strike back and crush the protests, but China is in for a downward spiral. Domestic unrest, trade war initiated by the US, increasingly hostile neighbours, Covid lockdowns, a real estate bubble and too few children bode doom. Question is not if, but when China / CCP is faltering. We might well just witness the beginning and it might take some years to happen, but it will.
 
I fear the CCP regime will resort to massive bloodshed soon.

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Obey:

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The main reason for that was the workers weren't paid on time:

So again, obey.
 
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Soldering doors

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Not so much that the Chicoms will occupy other countries with military forces, more that they will heavily influence or outright control all the organs of power. The media, big tech, many/most political leaders. It's already happening. Even western countries like Italy are controlled - almost lock, stock and barrel by the CCP. And they certainly have undue influence/leverage on the Biden administration.
Just look at África, they "loan" money to build infraestructures (roads, railways, ports), after 10 years the host Nation doesn't have money to pay back the "generous loan" so everything just becomes Chinese property.
 
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