Is There a Tipping Point for China and Human Rights Violations???

[ixcuincle]

 

[Larry]

. . . thus creating a situation where, if McCarthy does it, McCarthy gets credit for doing something moral, and China's retaliation makes Joe Biden look worse.  

 

Boy, that threat will sure make McCarthy think twice, won't it?  

 

[CousinsCowgirl84]

1 hour ago, Larry said:

. . . thus creating a situation where, if McCarthy does it, McCarthy gets credit for doing something moral, and China's retaliation makes Joe Biden look worse.  

 

Boy, that threat will sure make McCarthy think twice, won't it?  

 

I don’t think it will make Biden look worse. And I don’t think it is McCarthy’s goal in visiting Taiwanese officials either.

Edited March 30, 2023 by CousinsCowgirl84

[China]

F.B.I. Arrests Two on Charges Tied to Chinese Police Outpost in New York

 

For years, thousands of New Yorkers and tourists have walked past an unassuming office building in Lower Manhattan. On Monday, federal prosecutors unsealed criminal charges accusing two men of helping run an unauthorized Chinese police outpost there, one of more than 100 around the globe used to intimidate and control China’s citizens abroad, and to stamp out criticism of the ruling Communist Party.

 

The two men were arrested on Monday and charged with conspiring to act as agents of the Chinese government, and with obstructing justice. They are said to have used the police outpost to intimidate Chinese dissidents living in the United States, on China’s behalf.

 

Charges were also unveiled in two related cases: one against 34 Chinese police officers accused of harassing Chinese nationals who lived in the New York area, and another against eight Chinese officials accused of directing a Zoom employee based in China to remove dissidents from the platform.

 

The Manhattan police outpost, court papers say, was overseen by the Fuzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, a branch of China’s Ministry of Public Security. It is one of scores of such operations around the world that have unnerved diplomats and intelligence officials.

 

The case represents the first time criminal charges have been brought in connection with such a police outpost, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

------------------------------------------------

 

China’s US police stations target anyone comparing Xi Jinping to Winnie the Pooh

 

Chinese Communist Party enforcers in their secret US network of police stations are ordered to harass dissidents, spy for plots to overthrow the regime – and to monitor derisive remarks about President Xi Jinping’s resemblance to Winnie the Pooh.

 

The Chinese police stations – two of them based in New York City – cooperate with the country’s diplomats to pressure dissidents, including pro-democracy demonstrators, to return to China where they face repression and imprisonment.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Come and get me...

 

 

[Fan since a Fetus]

.

 

 

Edited October 24, 2023 by Fan since a Fetus

[China]

 

[Renegade7]

They can try and copy our notes and work if they want, doesn't matter if they too stupid or lazy to use them properly...womp womp...

[CousinsCowgirl84]

In the thread people were saying it could just be water on the decks which I kind of agree with. This doesn’t appear to be an official assessment but just some dude using google earth?

[Renegade7]

1 minute ago, CousinsCowgirl84 said:

In the thread people were saying it could just be water on the decks which I kind of agree with. This doesn’t appear to be an official assessment but just some dude using google earth?

 

Possible...I've also seen videos of concrete in China made so cheaply poorly and out of code it crumbles in your hand, word their version of the f22-raptor is a giant paper weight, empty skyscrapers and megahighways...this wouldn't shock me.

 

They have no problem stealing how to make something but have a habit of not putting the same amount of effort into quality to either save money or because they have lower standards less regulations then us as a habit to entice American companies to come there to save money.

[TheGreatBuzz]

FWIW, Chinese carriers give me precisely zero fear.

[Renegade7]

U.S. imports from China plummet as relations remain tense

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/08/06/us-china-economy-trade-mexico/

 

 

Mexico has now surprised China as our largest trading partner.

[ixcuincle]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cvnf6Jxtglx/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

[China]

As China’s economy, population implode, Xi is looking to start a war

 

China’s severe workforce woes have caught the attention of President Joe Biden.

 

Last Thursday at a Democratic Party fundraiser in Utah, he said the country had the “highest unemployment rate going.”

 

Biden could not have been referring to the official urban unemployment rate, which was listed as 5.2 percent in June. He had to be thinking of the figure for the out-of-work young people. Beijing reported that in June, 21.3 percent of China’s urban youth — those in the 16-24 age cohort — were unemployed.

 

Yet that shockingly high figure is deceptively low. For March, Beijing reported youth unemployment of 19.7 percent. It might have been 46.5 percent, however. Zhang Dandan of the prestigious Peking University wrote that perhaps as many as 16 million in the youth cohort had given up looking for a job that month. Add them into the pool, and the unemployment rate of course soars.

 

So what happens when almost half of a country’s young are without work?

 

For one thing, many of China’s unemployed young are refusing to have children themselves. “Sorry, we are the last generation, thanks!” was a popular Chinese hashtag in May of last year before authorities censored it.

 

Moreover, tens of thousands of young people now identify themselves on social media sites as “full-time children,” those returning to live with parents as they did in secondary school “because they simply can’t get work.”

 

Unemployment is driving others to turn their backs on society in different ways. The University of Pennsylvania’s Victor Mair put it this way in his Language Log: “‘Lying flat,’ ‘Buddha whatever,’ ‘Kong Yijiism,’ ‘involution’ — China today has so many memes for opting out.”

 

Other young people are opting out of China altogether by leaving their country permanently. There has been an unprecedented surge in Chinese migrants entering the U.S. over its southern border, many of them apparently in the under-25 age group. Customs and Border Protection reports that the number of apprehensions of migrants from China in the first five months of the current federal fiscal year was more than 1,000 percent larger than the number during the comparable period in the preceding fiscal year.

 

And there is always the possibility of radical political change. The Chinese people, young and old, are generally unhappy. There was a series of extraordinary protests late last year, including those across the country in major cities, in November.

 

“China is in trouble,” Biden correctly pointed out last Thursday, calling the country “a ticking time bomb.” 

 

“They have got some problems,” the president said. “That’s not good because when bad folks have problems, they do bad things.”

 

Biden by “bad folks” was undoubtedly referring to Xi Jinping, who is now in war mode. For one thing, he cannot stop talking about war. His regime is fast making preparations for waging one, implementing the largest military buildup since the Second World War. He is also trying to sanction-proof the Chinese regime, stockpiling grain and other commodities, surveying America, mobilizing China’s civilians for battle, and purging China’s military of high-ranking officers. 

 

The regime is also conducting “campaigns to instill loyalty to the Communist Party,” according to the New York Times.

 

Click on the link for the rest

[China]

China's economic woes keep getting worse. Here's why

 

After three years of strict "zero-COVID" lockdowns, analysts had expected China's economy to quickly recover this year. But recent sets of data suggest otherwise. Retail sales, industrial output and investment in July all grew at a slower-than-expected pace. In the meantime, a fall in aggregate demand has put deflationary pressure on the world's second-largest economy.

 

How concerned should the United States be about the Chinese economy? How much have Beijing's policies contributed to woes in, for example, its property sector? Chinese policy makers were once known for being pragmatic, but can the pragmatism continue in the current political climate in Beijing?

 

NPR spoke to Tao Wang, author of the book, Making Sense of China's Economy. She's a former economist at the International Monetary Fund and is currently a managing director and chief China economist at UBS in Hong Kong.

 

2023 was supposed to be the year China's economy roared back. What went wrong? How much should we be concerned about China's economic trajectory?

 

The consensus expectation is that China's economy will recover this year after three years of zero-COVID policy. We expected the recovery to be driven by a rebound in consumption, led by normalization of economic activities and improvement in the labor market, and stabilization of the property sector. The economy rebounded in the first quarter largely as expected, and in the case of property and exports, slightly better than expected. However, going into the second quarter, property recovery faltered, with [housing] sales and starts falling much further. In addition, as local governments faced financing challenges, they tightened fiscal spending, which also constrained growth. Against this backdrop, the industrial sector started to destock and consumption recovery slowed in the second quarter. As a result, overall economic growth slumped in the second quarter.

 

At the Politburo meeting in late July, China's senior leadership recognized the difficulties facing the economy and vowed to roll out more supportive policies to help stabilize the economy. We expect an easing of fiscal policy with more credit support for infrastructure investment and modest easing of property policies. Our baseline forecast is quarter-on-quarter growth recovering to 4-4.5% in the third and fourth quarter, resulting in annual GDP growth reaching about 5% this year (the government's target for 2023), compared to barely 3% in 2022. The economy may not recover in the second half and growth would fall far short of 5% this year if the property sector does not stabilize, either because property policy is not eased significantly, or proven insufficient to halt the fall. In which case, a prolonged deep property downturn will continue to depress income and confidence of both the corporate and household sectors, as well as prices.

 

Click on the link for the full interview

[China]

China ‘Might’ Have Lost a Nuclear Submarine with ‘All Hands Lost’

 

Has a Chinese Submarine Been Lost in the Taiwanese Strait? - On Tuesday, online rumors circulated that a Chinese Type 093 (Shang-class) nuclear-powered submarine suffered a serious mishap while transiting the Taiwan Strait.

 

According to early reports, it was lost with all hands.

 

The Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense (MND) announced that it was meticulously and very cautiously monitoring all maritime and aerial activities around the Taiwan Strait.

 

Still, it also said that military intelligence and surveillance did not detect any evidence of a Chinese submarine crash in or near the waters.

 
The report of the lost submarine came just days after China conducted large-scale military drills around Taiwan.

 

The loss of the submarine was first reported via X – the social media platform owned by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, formerly known as Twitter.

 

There has been almost no information released to corroborate the sinking of the submarine.

 

Beijing has not commented on the matter, including any confirmation or even denial.

 

Click on the link for the full story

[PeterMP]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/07/opinions/rising-superpower-myth-china-rayburn-bergen/index.html

 

"Opinion: The ‘rising superpower’ myth about China Opinion by Peter Bergen and Joel Rayburn Published 3:45 AM EDT, Thu September 7, 2023"

 

There isn’t much of anything that the polarized politicians of Washington, DC agree on, but there is a large degree of bipartisan consensus around one big, supposed threat: China. The purportedly rising nation with a plausible plan to replace the US as the dominant superpower.

 

The Biden administration’s 2022 National Security Strategy describes China as “the only competitor with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to advance that objective.”

 

(Rather than compete with China, we need to be thinking of ways to help China decline/age gracefully/peacefully and avoid another Russia.  Given their government, its control over their society, and the power that Xi has, that isn't going to be easy.  But it makes more sense than making sure we have more bullets than them.)

[Larry]

Not an opinion I'd disagree with.  

 

Certainly believe we should have multiple tools in the toolbox.  

 

OTOH, when they're doing things like building artificial islands so they can try to claim ownership over other country's waters, the military option is a tool that you have to have.  

[Renegade7]

That bills is gonna come due soon regarding the ramifications of their 1-child policy back in the day and the way they financed their infrastructure boom this century.

 

The local level debt and sharp shrinking of their working age population alone might blunt them supplanting us as the primer superpower.

 

Bigger concerned would be them realizing this and acting desperate to get something major while they can, like Taiwan (see Russia going after Ukraine).

 

They bent and broke as many rules as possible to catch up with the rest of world, so did USSR...how they each did it in their own respective time periods were completely unsustainable.

 

Bill comes due eventually.

 

 

Edited September 7, 2023 by Renegade7

[PeterMP]

1 hour ago, Larry said:

Not an opinion I'd disagree with.  

 

Certainly believe we should have multiple tools in the toolbox.  

 

OTOH, when they're doing things like building artificial islands so they can try to claim ownership over other country's waters, the military option is a tool that you have to have.  

 

I understand your point.

 

But in terms of the artificial islands fundamentally, over time they aren't going to be able to maintain them.  They aren't going to have the man power or the money (and with rising sea levels, they will continually have to be maintained).

 

There needs to be somehow a bioptic approach.

 

One side, okay this is an issue and you can't just claim whatever territory you want.  That's an issue and we need to work with the other countries that it is impacting.

 

On the hand, you want to waste your money on something that is going to be hard to sustain for not much value.  Have at it.

[TheGreatBuzz]

1 hour ago, Renegade7 said:

Bill comes due eventually.

 

So do ours.  China holds a lot of our debt.  And the way some of their "private companies" are buying up chunks of land in the US is concerning.  

[Renegade7]

52 minutes ago, TheGreatBuzz said:

 

So do ours.  China holds a lot of our debt.  And the way some of their "private companies" are buying up chunks of land in the US is concerning.  

 

They can't keep loaning us money if their debt forces their own problems.

 

Same way we can't keep borrowing from them if we go to war with them.

 

Their debt is more saddled local levels then ours, making it harder for them to resolve it without some form of consolidation, imo.

 

Even if China as a country holds more of our debt then any other single country, the country the US is in debt to the most is ourselves via our mandatory spending programs like social security.

 

I'm more concerned about balancing our budget then China ripping the rug out from under us, our economies are too intertwined with them needing to export  a lot because it isn't as self-sufficient internally as ours yet.

 

Mexico has taken over as our largest trading partner anyway this year.

Edited September 7, 2023 by Renegade7

[Renegade7]

4 hours ago, PeterMP said:

On the hand, you want to waste your money on something that is going to be hard to sustain for not much value.  Have at it.

 

Facts.

 

In the context of near inevitable ocean level rises towards tail end of this century, making islands sounds stupid.

[China]

China is considering a ban on clothes that ‘hurt the feelings of the Chinese people’

 

China’s legislature is considering revisions to a law that could result in fines and jail time for individuals who offend the government through their clothing or speech.

 

About the potential revisions: The proposed changes outlined by the Standing Committee target behavior deemed “detrimental to the spirit of the Chinese people and hurt the feelings of the Chinese people,” without specifying the exact offenses.

 

Offenders could face detention for up to 15 days or fines of up to 5,000 yuan (approximately $680).

 

China’s broader crackdown: The potential revisions reflect a broader crackdown on civil liberties under Chinese leader Xi Jinping. In recent years, such crackdowns include the detention of a woman for wearing a kimono in public due to historical tensions between China and Japan, as well as recent incidents involving individuals wearing rainbow-themed shirts or LGBTQ+ flags on university campuses.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Where is China's defense minister? Mystery swirls over fate of Li Shangfu

 

Mystery deepened Friday over the fate of China's defense minister, who has not been seen in more than two weeks — an unexplained absence that comes two months after the disappearance and then replacement of the country's foreign minister.

 

As is the norm in China’s opaque system of government, little is known about why Li Shangfu, 65, has not been seen in public since Aug. 29. But a rush of reports in the Western media, as well as public comments by a top U.S. diplomat, have fueled growing speculation.

 

His future is of great interest in the West, which will be eager to see if Li might be the latest target of a crackdown by the increasingly powerful President Xi Jinping. The removal of Qin Gang as foreign minister and a recent shake-up at the top of the country's nuclear forces come as Beijing also grapples with economic troubles and spiraling tensions with the United States.

 

“Clearly there’s some turbulence at the top of the party,” said Alexander Neill, a Singapore-based strategic adviser on Asia-Pacific geopolitics, who noted it was too early to tell exactly what, if anything, has happened to Li.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Renegade7]

China Is Suffering a Brain Drain. The U.S. Isn’t Exploiting It. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/03/business/china-brain-drain.html?smid=nytcore-android-share

 

As long as they leaving, I can live with that, that helps all of us...