Thread: The View, from China

Originally Posted by helge

Probably true

But point is, Harry:

They used to visit Washington or London for such.

Shut up you retard.

Originally Posted by Hugh Cow

MissKit...Late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was said to have "hated" the song, according to the school's former director of music, while the Inner London Education Authority criticized it as "scandalous." The song was banned by the South African government of the time.

Well she would. Her support of Pinochet as well as some other policies destroyed her credibility.

Nah, destroying the unions destroyed her credibility.

In war, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and that has never changed, and probably never will.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Nah, destroying the unions destroyed her credibility.

In war, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and that has never changed, and probably never will.

What are you smoking tonight ?

Looking at the videos on youtube about China, things look catastrophic in China. Someone in Beijing needs to pull a rabbit out of a hat.

Originally Posted by helge

What are you smoking tonight ?

Fuck off you scandihooligan retard.

^ Including Thailand.


Thailand aims to become first BRICS member in Southeast Asia

Published: May 29, 2024

Thailand will apply to join BRICS to become the group's first member from Southeast Asia, after the Thai cabinet has approved the letter of intent for the country to join the organization, a Thai government spokesperson was cited by media reports as saying on Tuesday.

According to Thailand government spokesperson Chai Wacharonke, the country realizes the importance of multilateralism and the increasing role of developing countries in the international arena. The country's vision is in line with the BRICS principles, according to a Bangkok Post report on Tuesday.

According to a report from the Bangkok-based Kasikorn Research Center, if Thailand joins the BRICS cooperation mechanism, it will gain new development opportunities.

Thailand's trade with BRICS countries accounted for 22.8 percent of the country's total trade volume. For Thailand, joining BRICS helps to diversify trade, investment, and financial risks and gain new development opportunities, said the report.

Thailand aims to become first BRICS member in Southeast Asia, eyeing more development opportunities - Global Times

"development opportunities".

Look forward to more Betong airport-style white elephant projects then.

Originally Posted by 39TG

Beijing needs to pull a rabbit out of a hat.

Monthly update:

China's foreign trade in goods from Jan to May totals 17.5 trillion yuan, up 6.3% y-o-y

By GT staff reporters

Published: Jun 07, 2024 11:47 AM

"China's foreign trade in the first five months of 2024 recorded a yearly increase of 6.3 percent to 17.5 trillion ($2.42 trillion), further consolidating the strong momentum amid the country's steady economic recovery, data from China's General Administration of Customs (GAC) revealed on Friday.

Observers noted that the country's trade performance aligned with expectations, and attributed the trade's continuous rebound to China's production strengths, market potential, and diversified trading partners, while maintaining a positive outlook for the upcoming months.

Exports in the first five months of 2024 recorded an annual increase of 6.1 percent to 9.95 trillion yuan, while the imports amounted 7.55 trillion yuan, up 6.4 percent yearly, according to GAC data.

While the global trade pattern is changing, China's trade sector continues to enjoy buoyant prospects thanks to its strengths in production capacity and market potential, Cong Yi, a professor at the Tianjin School of Administration, told the Global Times on Friday. Cong remained confident in China's further growth in external demand and imports.

The figures also reflected China's foreign trade recovery which had been majorly impacted last year, Li Changan, a professor at the Academy of China Open Economy Studies of the University of International Business and Economics, said on Friday.

Noticeably, trade figures in May reached a yearly increase of 8.6 percent to 3.71 trillion yuan, recording an accelerated monthly increase, according to Lü Daliang, a GAC spokesperson.

Exports in May stood at 2.15 trillion yuan, surging 11.2 percent year-on-year, while the imports grew by 5.2 percent to 1.56 trillion yuan.

China's exports of electromechanical products in the first five months totaled 5.87 trillion yuan, up 7.9 percent and accounting 59 percent of the country's total exports, according to official data.

Specifically, exports of integrated circuits recorded a year-on-year increase of 25.5 percent to 444.73 billion yuan, while the exports of autos totaled 329.7 billion yuan, up 23.8 percent yearly.

China has been working on upgrading its industrial structure by shifting away from focusing on processing primary products, with a growing share targeting on advanced and technological products, which reflects the country's developing competitiveness for exports in the future, Cong noted.

Echoing Cong's sentiments, Li told the Global Times that the strong export figure for electromechanical products as well as other commodities with high added value is also a major achievement for China's high-quality opening-up.

Cong meanwhile noted that increased imports of bulk commodities reflected China's growing consumption and production demand, indicating the country's stable economic development has boosted the import demand.

The export growth rate of ships surged 100 percent year-on-year during the above-mentioned period, while the figure for new-energy vehicles stood at 26.3 percent.

Both Cong and Li highlighted strengthened trade cooperation with a more diversified grouping of partners including the ASEAN and Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) partner countries, which will also help China to cope with the challenges posed by "decoupling" practices implemented by the US and other Western countries.

ASEAN remained China's largest trading partner from January to May with a total value of 2.77 trillion yuan, surging by 10.8 percent year-on-year and accounting 15.8 percent of the country's total foreign trade. China's trade with BRI partner countries stood at 8.31 trillion yuan, up 7.2 percent yearly.

Enhanced cooperation with ASEAN is also a vivid example demonstrating the regional economic development bolstered by the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), Cong said. Multiple Chinese cities recorded strong foreign trade figures with RCEP member countries so far in 2024, as the world's largest trade pact has been fully implemented across all 15 members for a full year.

Moving forward, observers remained optimistic about China's foreign trade given the largely favorable conditions. Li expected more targeted policies will be rolled out, while the continuous optimization of commodity structure and diversifying trading partners will help cope with the impact resulting from increasing trade barriers among other external challenges.

Meanwhile, China's services trade also expanded. In the first four months of 2024, the total import and export of services increasing 16.8 percent to 2.43 trillion yuan year on year, China's Ministry of Commerce said on Friday.

Travel services maintained a growth momentum as the major sector in the services trade, with the import and export of travel services amounting to 660.03 billion yuan, an increase of 48.6 percent year-on-year."

China's foreign trade in goods from Jan to May totals 17.5 trillion yuan, up 6.3% y-o-y - Global Times

I'm not surprised if they're bribing all these dictators to take on more absurdly pointless "Belt and Owed" projects.

Saudi Arabia joins BIS- and China-led central bank digital currency project

By Marc Jones

June 5, 202410:30 PM GMT+7Updated 4 days ago

"LONDON, June 5 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has joined a China-dominated central bank digital currency cross-border trial, in what could be another step towards less of the world's oil trade being done in U.S. dollars.
The move, announced by the Bank for International Settlements on Wednesday, will see Saudi's central bank become a "full participant" of Project mBridge, a collaboration launched in 2021 between the central banks of China, Hong Kong, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.

The BIS, a global central bank umbrella organisation which oversees the project, also announced that mBridge had reached "minimum viable product" stage, meaning it will move beyond the pro type phase.
Roughly 135 countries and currency unions, representing 98% of global GDP, are exploring central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs. But the new technologies they use makes cross-border movement both technically challenging and politically sensitive.

The most advanced cross-border CBDC project just added a major G20 economy and the largest oil exporter in the world," said Josh Lipsky, who runs a global CBDC tracker, opens new tab at the U.S.-based Atlantic Council.

"This means in the coming year you can expect to see a scaling up of commodity settlement on the platform outside of dollars – something that was already underway between China and Saudi Arabia but now has new technology behind it."

The mBridge transactions can use the code China's e-yuan is built on. That code is also available to the project's 26 other "observing members" that include the likes of the New York branch of the Federal Reserve, the International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank.

The BIS also said the mBridge platform was now compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine - a piece of software that forms the backbone of the network used by the Ether cryptocurrency.

Supporters of CBDCs say they will modernise payments with new functionality and provide an alternative to physical cash, which seems in terminal decline.
But questions remain why they represent an advance, with barely any uptake in countries such as Nigeria that have already adopted them, and both political and public pushback in some countries amid fears they could enable government snooping.

As well as dominating the mBridge project, China is carrying out the world's largest domestic CBDC pilot which now reaches 260 million people and covers 200 scenarios from e-commerce to government stimulus payments.
Other big emerging economies, including India, Brazil and Russia, also plan to launch digital currencies in the next 1-2 years while the ECB has begun work on a digital euro pilot ahead of a possible launch in 2028.

In stark contrast, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill banning the Federal Reserve from creating a "digital dollar", although it still needs to pass a vote in the Senate to become law."


Reporting by Marc Jones Editing by Christina Fincher

reuters.com

But questions remain why they represent an advance, with barely any uptake in countries such as Nigeria that have already adopted them, and both political and public pushback in some countries amid fears they could enable government snooping.

Exactly. Authoritarian regimes want to know exactly who is spending what, and will then have the ability to fuck people up if they dare speak up about anything.

Meanwhile, stupid people like hoohoo cheer them on.

Originally Posted by OhOh

Saudi Arabia has joined a China-dominated central bank digital currency cross-border trial, in what could be another step towards less of the world's oil trade being done in U.S. dollars.

Saudi should prepare for the coming invasion and regime change.

You do not fuck with the dollar un-punished and examples has to be made

Fascinating seeing the chinky police state at work.

Teacher Li: The hunt for the cartoon cat vexing China'''s censors

JUNE 10, 2024 BY M. K. BHADRAKUMAR

China springs a BRI surprise on US

"The report of the death of China’s Belt and Road Initiative [BRI] was an exaggeration, after all.

Within days of the US President Joe Biden’s acerbic remark during an interview last week with the Time magazine that the BRI has “become a nuisance graveyard initiative,” a trilateral intergovernmental agreement to commence construction work on the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan [CKU] railway project was signed in Beijing on Thursday.
Chinese President Xi Jinping offered congratulations on the trilateral intergovernmental agreement with Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan and described the CKU as “a strategic project for China’s connectivity with Central Asia, symbolising the three nations’ collaborative efforts under the Belt and Road Initiative.” Xi hailed the agreement as “a show of determination”.

The idea of such a railway project was first proposed by Uzbekistan in 1996 but it languished for over a quarter century thereafter due to the geopolitical and alliance changes in Central Asia, including reservations reportedly on the part of Moscow and Astana. China, which could unilaterally finance CKU, also lost interest and prioritised its ties with Russia and Kazakhstan.

Principally, the failure of the three countries to reach a consensus on the railway’s route became a vexed issue with China and Uzbekistan favouring a southern route, which would represent the shorter transit route to Europe and West Asia, while Bishkek insisted on the northern route—a longer passage that would connect Kyrgyzstan’s northern and southern regions and boost its economy.

However, the moribund project took new life following the changing geopolitics of Central Asia, as intra-regional integration processes began gaining traction, the rethink in Moscow in favour of strengthening regional connectivity in the conditions under western sanctions, etc.

Indeed, with improved railway connectivity, it is not only the connection between China and the two Central Asian countries along the route that will be strengthened, but the interconnectivity in Central Asian region as well.

However, in a curious reversal of roles, as Central Asia turned into a turf of the great game lately between the US on one side and Russia and China on the other, Washington began taking a dim view of the prospect of such a project to connect the railway systems of China potentially to the European railway network through Turkmenistan, Iran, and Türkiye.

Suffice to say, in the past two years, with renewed interest, China began viewing the 523 km long railway line — 213 kms in China, 260 kms in Kyrgyzstan, and 50 kms in Uzbekistan — optimistically as a shorter route from China to Europe and West Asia than the existing 900 km corridor that passes through the Trans-Siberian Railway in Russia, which lacks modern infrastructure with only a single non-electrified track that makes it incapable of transiting Chinese goods to Europe, and also mitigate the economic costs associated with Western sanctions on Russia.

Above all, the growing geopolitical tensions over the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea have begun posing serious concern and top priority for Beijing to establish alternate land routes to the European market.

Without doubt, CKU has huge potential in geopolitical, geo-strategic and geo-economic terms. Succinctly put, it will complete the southern passage of the New Eurasian Land Bridge, shaping a convenient transport path from East and Southeast Asia to Central and Western Asia, Northern Africa and Europe.

Specifically, apart from integrating Central Asian region with the wider transportation network, and connect it better to the global market, Beijing envisages that CKU could be further extended to other countries in future, such as Afghanistan.

In fact, speaking at the signing ceremony on Thursday alongside Xi and Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev underscored that “This road will allow our countries to enter the wide markets of South Asia and the Middle East through the promising Trans-Afghan Corridor.”

Of course, the construction of CKU, which is expected to start later this year at a cost of $8 billion, poses formidable challenges, being a trans-national project to be executed by a joint venture of between three countries in the BOT format. No doubt, CKU involves daunting engineering skills with its path traversing the challenging terrain of western China and Kyrgyzstan at altitudes ranging from 2,000-3500 meters and involving the construction of more than fifty tunnels and ninety bridges through Kyrgyzstan’s highest mountains.

But China has vast experience and expertise in pulling it off. Xi said the agreement signed in Beijing provided a “solid legal foundation” for the railway’s construction and it transformed the project “from a vision to a reality”.

The project feasibility study is currently being updated, following the completion of field surveys by Chinese engineers in December. Zhu Yongbiao, a professor at the Research Centre for the Belt and Road of Lanzhou University, told Global Times that construction techniques and financing pose no problems.

The Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson stated at the daily press briefing in Beijing on Friday, “This important milestone was achieved thanks to the tremendous efforts of different departments and experts, as well as the personal attention and support from the leaders of the three countries.”

The spokesperson flagged that CKU is “another testament to the importance of the Belt and Road Initiative and demonstrates the popularity of the vision for a community with a shared future for mankind in Central Asia.”

The CKU originates from the western Chinese hub of Kashgar to the Uzbek city of Andijan in Ferghana Valley, passing through Torugart, Makmal and Jalalabad. It connects the Soviet-era railway grid in Uzbekistan leading to Termez on the Amu Darya bordering Mazar-i-Sharif city in Afghanistan.

Uzbekistan announced last month that the Trans-Afghan railway project is anticipated to be completed by the end of 2027, connecting Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, “facilitating crucial trade routes and bolstering regional connectivity.” Interestingly, the Trans-Afghan Railway project has also figured in the Chinese-Pakistani documents in the past.

The joint statement issued after Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s visit to China last week vowed to make the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor “an exemplary project of high-quality building of Belt and Road cooperation… (and) recognised the significance of Gwadar Port as an important node in cross-regional connectivity” while also agreeing to play a constructive role “in helping Afghanistan to achieve stable development and integrate into the international community.”

Notably, in the first official recognition of the interim Taliban government by a major nation, Xi Jinping welcomed Asadullah Bilal Karimi, the Taliban-appointed Afghan ambassador, in a formal ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in January, along with envoys from Cuba, Iran, Pakistan and 38 other countries, who also presented their credentials.

It is entirely conceivable that the time has come for the realisation of the century-old dream of a Trans-Afghan railway. Qatar reportedly has shows interest in funding the project. At a meeting in Kazan in February with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mirziyoyev had disclosed that the Russian side had expressed interest in participating in the development of the technical justification for the project and its promotion. The Russian Deputy Prime Minister for Transport Vitaly Savelyev who had earlier visited Tashkent, attended the meeting in Kazan.

Certainly, the restoration of full relationship between Moscow and Kabul, which is imminent, will help speed up matters.

The CKU becomes the lodestar in a phenomenal transformation of regional connectivity in Central Asia and far-flung regions surrounding it. In the current international climate, this has profound geopolitical implications for the Russian-Chinese joint/coordinated efforts to push back the US’ dual containment strategy. "

https://www.indianpunchline.com/chin...urprise-on-us/

Originally Posted by helge

Saudi should prepare for the coming invasion and regime change.

You do not fuck with the dollar un-punished and examples has to be made

Been too late for quite some time.
The U.S. Dollar has no where to go.

Originally Posted by HuangLao

Been too late for quite some time.
The U.S. Dollar has no where to go.

Sometime in the future there must emerge some sort of global trade currency which replaces the $ and any other national currency. What it will be and when will it happen is unknown but in the mean time, I don't see the $ being unseated as the primary trade currency.

Originally Posted by Norton

in the mean time, I don't see the $ being unseated as the primary trade currency.

What do you reckon would happen if it did..get unseated and all the dollars went "home" ?

Oops.

Police in China have arrested a 55-year-old man after four US university tutors were stabbed at a public park.
The Iowa Cornell College instructors were taken to hospital after a "serious incident" during the daytime attack in the northern province of Jilin, a college statement said.
Iowa Representative Adam Zabner said his brother, David, was one of the four instructors injured in what he described as a stabbing.
China's foreign ministry said that none of those injured were in a life-threatening condition.
Police said an assailant with the surname Cui clashed with one of the Americans and then stabbed the person. He went on to injure three other US visitors and a Chinese tourist who tried to come to their rescue.
Mr Zabner said the group of instructors had been visiting a local temple on Monday when they were attacked by a man with a knife.
He said his brother had been stabbed in the arm at Beishan Park in Jilin city and was recovering well in hospital.

I'm sure no-one will think badly of Chinkystan for the actions of a lone madman.

BRICS and China related.


Oh dear......just gonna get worse for the U.S.



Saudi Arabia's petro-dollar exit: A global finance paradigm shift

Originally Posted by helge

What do you reckon would happen if it did..get unseated and all the dollars went "home" ?

U.S dollars held abroad is U.S debts and it is enormous, it will take forever for all that to be paid back making the dollar come home.

Originally Posted by Molle

U.S dollars held abroad is U.S debts and it is enormous, it will take forever for all that to be paid back making the dollar come home.

Yes, I can't imagine them just paying it off. What are they going to do, print it?

Originally Posted by Molle

Print some more until debtors get pissed off by their asset getting diluted.
Oh wait...

Replace the regime in those countries that tries to trade internationally using other currencies?
Oh wait..

Oh so they're going to invade Brazil, India, China, Russia, etc. are they?