Thread: The View, from China

Originally Posted by sabang

The rise of China- the biggest shift in our international environment since Europeans settled on this continent - Pearls and Irritations

The Author ...

Bob Douglas AO is a medical graduate who spent the early part of his career as an epidemiologist working on the treatment and prevention of early childhood pneumonia.

So we are to believe that an medical epidemiologist is someone experienced to comment on International relations?

Originally Posted by sabang

My “take-home” is that we have made a very bad decision about AUKUS and that we must not under any circumstances go to war with China over Taiwan.

Aukus will dribble off into obscurity, but it has done what it was required to do and reset the chin strategies

Australia needs to strengthen its democracy with a federal ICAC and then use that to show the path for our neighbors and limit the sale of sovereignty to the chins.

If we do not engage in ensuring better national institutions for our neighbors with real policies and expertise , then the current batch of tinpot dictators will continue to amass influence to rob their countries and accept payments from Chin land

Originally Posted by baldrick

Australia needs to strengthen its democracy with a federal ICAC and then use that to show the path for our neighbors and limit the sale of sovereignty to the chins.

This ...

BERLIN, Aug 19 (Reuters) - The German economy became more dependent on China in the first half of 2022, with direct investment and its trade deficit reaching new heights, despite political pressure on Berlin to pivot away from Beijing, according to research seen by Reuters.

At the same time, growth in German exports to China weakened significantly, the German Economic Institute (IW) said in its study, citing economists pointing to a trend towards more local production in the Chinese market.

"The German economy is much more dependent on China than the other way round," said Juergen Matthes, who authored the study.

He warned that this dependence posed a political problem as Beijing's stance on the Ukraine war and its military posture towards Taiwan placed German business with the world's second-largest economy under scrutiny.

"Yet despite these dangers and problems, economic interdependencies with China have been moving in the wrong direction at a tremendous pace in the first half of 2022," the economist said.

The study found that German investment in China amounted to around 10 billion euros ($10 billion) between January and June, far exceeding the previous peak half-year value recorded since the turn of the millennium of 6.2 billion euros.

"The Chinese sales market and the profits beckoning there in the short term simply seem too attractive," Matthes said.

China's share of German imports rose to 12.4% in the first half of 2022, compared with 3.4% in 2000, while German imports of Chinese goods surged in value terms by 45.7% year on year during that six-month period, the IW found.

FULL- German dependence on China growing '''at tremendous pace''', research shows | Reuters

economic interdependencies with China have been moving in the wrong direction at a tremendous pace

Really?

So this time it's finally for real PH- China is doomed (again)? Y/N. Don't suppose you remember the 2008 GFC (and this is nowhere near as bad as that was). Was amerka doomed?

Originally Posted by sabang

So this time it's finally for real PH- China is doomed (again)? Y/N. Don't suppose you remember the 2008 GFC (and this is nowhere near as bad as that was). Was amerka doomed?

What a pity you are so poorly informed.

Reputation is like virginity. You can only lose it once. XI has ruined the Chinese economic reputation. Everything from the property market to Covid policy is shown to be a failure.

Xi has nowhere to hide now. I hope his destructive, inexperienced brand of thinking continues.

DOOM! This time it's for real I tell ya (not like all those other times).

What happened to that mass exodus from HK then?

Hong Kong Population Drops by Record as People Flee Covid Curbs



Hong Kong’s population dropped by a record as people fled strict Covid-19 restrictions that have hobbled the city as most other regions move on from the pandemic.


The city saw a decline of 121,500 residents in the year ended June 30, leaving the population at about 7.29 million, according to government data released Thursday. That means the population fell 1.6%, marking the third straight year of declines and the biggest drop in at least six decades. A wide-reaching national security law may have also been a contributing factor.

Amid the “continued impact of Covid-19, stringent border control and quarantine measures have been in place in Hong Kong, the Mainland and other places around the world, resulting in severe interruption of cross-boundary travel,” a government spokesperson said in a statement accompanying the data, adding that the inflow of people into Hong Kong has “remained at a low level.”

Hong Kong -- which saw its population swell in the post-war era amid waves of mass migration from the mainland -- has only seen a few instances of decline since 1961. The overall population shrank by 0.2% amid an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome and protests against an earlier security law in the 2002-03 period, for instance.

MORE Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

You will see many of them come back as the Covid restrictions ease. We have already been through this anyway. It is not the epic fail "colour revolution" that is the cause, at all.

In the meantime, HK population has shrunk by 1.6%. Wow, what a mass exodus. Biblical.

Originally Posted by sabang

What happened to that mass exodus from HK then?

Do you mean the one pre-handover? They all came to Vancouver.

Originally Posted by sabang

We have already been through this anyway.

Yes we have, several times. They brought in draconian immigration laws to stop them leaving and you keep conveniently ignoring it.

Firstly, I think you are trying to imply drastic emigration laws. Secondly, I am not aware of it. Got any, y'know, details? As best I am aware, you can leave HK anytime you want, unless of course you have an arrest warrant.

^^ Yes that was quite funny, wasn't it? They mostly came back, and found those who stayed just got richer. Still, a second residency is not a bad option.

Originally Posted by sabang

They mostly came back

That ain't "The View, from Vancouver". I'm sure your fellow sycophant, socal, might even disagree with you on that one.

Originally Posted by sabang

Firstly, I think you are trying to imply drastic emigration laws. Secondly, I am not aware of it.

I didn't "imply" anything you illiterate fool. It is...

...a new immigration law that includes powers to stop people entering or leaving the city, raising fears of Chinese mainland-style “exit bans” in the international business hub. The legislation sailed through a legislature now devoid of opposition, as Beijing has quashed dissent and sought to make the semi-autonomous city more like the authoritarian mainland after huge and often violent democracy protests.

And of course you are not "aware" of it, you always conveniently "forget" things you don't like.

It was more than a year ago.

The only people prevented from leaving HK are those with an arrest warrant- like any other place.





https://fb.watch/f3-9N7Ut9p/


^ The flick above is an absolute hoot, if you like laughing at dumb aussies.

Ah yes, Youtube videos by chinky brown nosers, always a reliable source.

Originally Posted by sabang

The only people prevented from leaving HK are those with an arrest warrant- like any other place.

Of course in Hong Kong there may be an arrest warrant if someone is expected he may have expressed views not identical with the official party line.

China has pledged to forgive 23 interest-free loans for 17 African countries and will also provide food assistance to the struggling nations.

China will forgive 23 loans for 17 African nations, China’s foreign minister Wang Yi has announced.

“China will waive the 23 interest-free loans for 17 African countries that had matured by the end of 2021,” Mr Wang said at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation according to a statement.

He pledged that China would continue to actively support and participate in the construction of major infrastructure projects in Africa through financing, investment and assistance.

“We will also continue to increase imports from Africa, support the greater development of Africa’s agricultural and manufacturing sectors, and expand co-operation in emerging industries such as the digital economy, health, green and low-carbon sectors.”
Mr Wang also pledged that China would provide food assistance to the 17 African nations.

Critics argue China is involved “debt trap diplomacy”, alleging the country issues loans in order to eventually secure strategic international assets.


South Asian country Sri Lanka granted China Merchants Ports Holdings a 99-year lease on the $US1.5 billion ($A2 billion) Chinese-built deepwater Hambantota Port in 2017 after falling deep into debt.

Kenya, South Africa and Uganda are among numerous African states that have borrowed heavily from Chinese lenders.

According to World Bank data from 2020 cited by Forbes, the African nations with the highest external debt to China as a percentage of gross national income are Djibouti (43 per cent), Angola (41 per cent) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (29 per cent).
African countries have also enthusiastically joined China’s transcontinental Belt and Road Initiative to build port, rail and land infrastructure, Beijing’s modern-day Silk Road.

Australia scrapped a deal between Victoria and China for Belt and Road Initiative infrastructure in 2021, calling it “inconsistent with Australia’s foreign policy”.

But the concept of a Chinese “debt trap” has also been criticised, with a study in 2020 finding China had restructured or refinanced about $21 billion of debt in Africa between 2000 and 2019. The study also noted there was no evidence of “asset seizures”and that Chinese lenders had not used courts to enforce payments, or applied penalty interest rates to distressed borrowers.

Meanwhile, Adalberto Costa Junior, a presidential candidate in Angola, has vowed to examine the county’s debt if he is elected.
Angola owes about $90 billion, which will cost it about $8 billion each year in amortisation, according to Bloomberg.

“The amount of real foreign debt is not known,” Mr Junior said in an interview on the


Around $27 billion of Angola’s total debt is owed to China, with the funds used to build roads, hospitals and railway links.
Mr Junior warned that any borrowings not linked to infrastructure projects could be renegotiated.

https://www.news.com.au/finance/econ...f8efd0360b2fec

^Sounds like poor selection of country assets by China in the first place. Another reason they can’t compete with west on economic norms. XI is not experienced enough using western economic methodology.

Another Chinese scam that failed. Don’t throw money at countries when you know the countries are not developed enough to repay the loans.

I am not sure how you can describe forgiven debt as a scam. How much debt has your country forgiven recently?

Originally Posted by sabang

I am not sure how you can describe forgiven debt as a scam. How much debt has your country forgiven recently?

It’s from an AU website, so maybe you can answer that question?

My post is not about so called ‘forgiven’ debt, whatever that is supposed to mean, but about Chinese choices for supposed ‘loans’.

The myth of "debt trap" in Western narratives - Global Times

^ The Global Times is a daily tabloid newspaper under the auspices of the Chinese Communist Party's flagship newspaper, the People's Daily