Welp... The silver lining is that we're going to learn a lot from China about how heavy metal toxins affect humans and the environment...

So we have that going for us...

Which is nice.

https://www.theguardian.com/environm...lage-pollution

There is a crisis of confidence in Chinese food supply now. There is wide spread perception (with more than an ounce of truth) that a lot of the supply is tainted. Even a random street vendor is likely using banned ingredients (to bleach noodles for example).

The weird thing is they are happy to buy “Made in China” baby powders and supplplements if they are imported from abroad. Chinese exchange students bring luggage bags full of supplements back to China as gifts. Expensive scams like Isotonix for important people like bosses GNC for random relatives.

It’s actually kind of comical how little faith the Chinese upper middle class has in the Chinese food supply chain.

I follow China mostly from this channel-
https://www.youtube.com/user/NTDChinaUncensored

Which I think is worth sharing, at least for the host’s wit.

Watched a few on that channel... I think it’s pretty bad. A lot of nuggets of truth exaggerated or twisted to make a point.

Reading WeChat Moments (essentially the built in Twitter) is pretty fascinating.

Someone posted a picture of a cropped screenshot (some words were cut off) of HK protest headline with a comment along the lines when we treat Hong Kongers like this, how could we expect Taiwan to return to the embrace of Motherland (母國).

That post no longer exists.

Yeah, I hear you. They don’t hide their bias for sarcasm and against the CCP, which is fine with me because I don’t either. I find their reporting on how the broader media reports on China news to be informative.

I honestly don’t know what the end game could possibly be in HK but if the reported numbers are close to accurate, a quarter or a fifth of the city’s population is in the streets protesting, in effect, against CCP rule.

Hong Kongers seem to be in favor on the "one country, two systems" scheme, but if they push through that extradition law, who knows.

https://gfycat.com/relievedcornychrysomelid

Well, if the Chinese experiments succeeds we're probably looking at recipe for how a lot states are going to function in the future. Surveillance, citizen ratings and censorship: A digital dictatorship with economic freedom on offer for the educated and obedient.

Great news for authors of cyberpunk novellas, but probably not the best environment for free spirits.

Zhaoxin just put out a chip that’s about two or three years behind American chips.

Stone cold lock the chip was built off state sanctioned theft/transfer of AMD tech.

I just don’t understand how that JV got through national security review.

Regardless of all of these postings, these are not issues that get solved through conflict with China. Either through armed conflict or through an economic one. The main reason being, neither one can be won.

No, the only way to execute change is through engagement. That's what opened China up in the first place, and it's really the only way forward to execute change there. Engage with the citizens through trade and to the free flow of technology and ideas, and thus execute change from within. It won't be fast, but it also won't result in the world burning down.

It takes two to dance.

All China has done in the last 20 years or so, especially since Xi, is take advantage of our unwillingness to fight.

Literally the only thing Donald and I agree about is China. I obviously think that we're handling the trade war all wrong, but to pretend that China is some benevolent entity that has the best interests of the world at heart is super silly.

The right way would have been to get together with all the other countries in the world and do a multilateral free trade deal that excluded China... and then as a group force China to either alter course or stop being a major exporter. Instead we've started fights with literally every player on the board.

I think ultimately we're going to lose this trade war, mostly because the US is carrying it out alone. This opens up tons of avenues for the Chinese to change suppliers/customers and sustain themselves despite our tariffs.

But yeah morally I'm basically 100% in agreement with grizy. The CCP has a LOT of blood on their hands. They have gotten better since Mao but that's not saying much.

What I am seeing on WeChat just fills me with dread about China’s future. Since about Monday it’s been a flood of posts on Hong Kong youngsters being varieties of naive and stupid and that Chinese students are much better educated. The political posts are only coming from maybe 5% (mostly from maybe 1%) but there is no counterpoint at all.

And based on my conversations with Chinese expats, even the most educated ones, usually educated in western universities and now working in American firms, are actually buying the CCP line of “just different viewpoints.”

The propaganda is working. And it almost certainly will keep working until Chinese economy runs out of low hanging fruits to fuel rapid economic growth.

There is already growing discontent over Chinese government increasing enforcement of tax collection. Apparently it used to be the case you just reported basically nothing and nobody came looking until you piss someone high up off.

I am sorry, any viewpoint that condones what’s atrocities in Xinjiang and Tibet, and the outright theft of IP from people who are working with you in good faith, is invalid.

Conspiracy theories that CIA is paying 3-6000 HKD to protesters now making rounds along with other straight patriotic propaganda. State TV speculates American “black hand” is behind the protests.

My favorite CCP propaganda line is “1.4 billion hands are protecting the Chinese flag.” What are the other 1.4 billion hands doing?

**** in Hong Kong is likely going to get much worse before it gets better.

https://i.imgur.com/vAJfFqs.gifv

China seems to be doing everything it can to keep the protests alive. Unintentionally of course.

I just don’t see how this is going to end well.

To be honest, at this point, a part of me just wants China to send in the army and end it now because the crowd is still growing and their demands are fundamentally incompatible with CCP/Xi’s bottomline so we are virtually destined for a crackdown anyway. The longer the protests go on, the more protesters there will be and the more entrenched they will become, increasing casualty numbers when Chinese military finally marches on protesters and the world watches in impotent rage and horror.

By the way, it’s not true big Hong Kong businesses are against protests. They just can’t openly say so. Hong Kong’s richest men published ads that troll the Chinese government pretty hard while keeping plausible deniability.

There was that story about the CEO who was ordered to release names of protestors, and he only put his name. Was forced to resign a few days later. Hard to imagine business owners being against the protests but I'm only getting a thin slice over here.

I completely agree about clearing it out now and how dragging it out will only make the end results worse.

I was talking to my exchange friend from China, and she feels for the people, but also believes China is in the right. Strange dichotomy

My understanding is a lot of small local businesses that really can't afford disruptions are mad.

Big businesses understand this has become a fight for the long term viability of Hong Kong as a major economic player.

Water cannons out, live “warning” shots fired.

Lam urged by business leaders to negotiate but she says, in effect, she can’t.

Chinese troops moved in on “routine rotation.”

Activists, including elected representatives, arrested.

Someone leaks what’s been assumed all along: HK government was told to give nothing.

A nasty crackdown is coming. Beijing is going to arrest tens if not hundreds of people over the next few days if the activists don’t end up dead in protests first.

It doesn’t even really matter for Hong Kong anymore. The city as a modern financial hub with rule of law and access to Chinese market is done for.

Hong Kong was literally stolen from the Chinese by the British because the Chinese wouldn't let the British sell drugs in China. China has a lot of problems and to take issue with their government is fair. To expect Hong Kong to be its own enclave is preposterous and amounts to imperialist apologism. If you are not sure what I mean, look at a map.

And yes ofc trade action should be taken against the chinese for their IP theft but also for their labor dumping and currency fixing. It is strange that when a country dumps a commodity like steel all **** hits the fan but when the same happens with labor noone does a thing. It's bizarre the left's obsession with disagreeing with everything Trump does simply because he has done it. Reminds me of a party whos name starts with an R. I guess the default position of the Democratic party is unfettered free trade capitalism.

If I had to live there, I'd take Hong Kong under British rule any day of the week over the dystopic nightmare that is current day China.