The China Thread

[DGuller]

You seem to misunderstand my point. 

Very easy to do when your entire point consists of calling the argument incredibly stupid.

The incredibly stupid part is thinking that you can somehow increase freedom by taking freedom away.

Okay, I see where you're coming from, so that allows me to address your argument.  What you're calling as incredibly stupid is in fact part of game theory.  It's paradoxical, not incredibly stupid.  Incredibly stupid may be missing the paradox entirely without realizing that the situation is more complex than it seems.

Sometimes having freedom to do something leaves you vulnerable to coercion that costs you more freedom than that freedom of action gives you.  In game theory, you often have situations where having an option to act actually forces your hand in equilibrium, so in fact that extra freedom is enslaving rather than liberating.  One of the solutions to prisoner's dilemma is to make snitching so cost-prohibitive that it's no longer an option, which would actually leave you better off as a result, because that same restriction of freedom that's imposed on you protects you from your partner snitching on you.

[Syt]

Joint letter by 2 Senators/3 Representatives to Activision/Blizzard:

https://www.wyden.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/101819%20Wyden%20Letter%20to%20Activision%20Blizzard%20RE%20Hong%20Kong.pdf

Not often you will see Marco Rubio and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez signing off together on an issue.

[Valmy]

Yeah this whole China thing is producing rare moments of unanimity in Congress. You don't see that very often.

[Josquius]

Also in China.
Big news in the uk at the moment is 29 dead Chinese people being found in the back of a freezer van having just been smuggled into the country.
Apparently the Chinese Internet is freaking out and pulling ebrywhich way.

[Agelastus]

Also in China.
Big news in the uk at the moment is 29 dead Chinese people being found in the back of a freezer van having just been smuggled into the country.
Apparently the Chinese Internet is freaking out and pulling ebrywhich way.

39, not 29.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Its beginning to look like the people in the refrigerated container were Vietnamese, at least some of them anyway.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-50185788

£30k to be an illegal in the UK; sounds like a lot to me 

[HVC]

Also in China.
Big news in the uk at the moment is 29 dead Chinese people being found in the back of a freezer van having just been smuggled into the country.
Apparently the Chinese Internet is freaking out and pulling ebrywhich way.

39, not 29.

it was reported as 29 here on the first day too, so I guess they revised it at some point?

[Agelastus]

Also in China.
Big news in the uk at the moment is 29 dead Chinese people being found in the back of a freezer van having just been smuggled into the country.
Apparently the Chinese Internet is freaking out and pulling ebrywhich way.

39, not 29.

it was reported as 29 here on the first day too, so I guess they revised it at some point?

They were reporting 39 before lunch back on Wednesday so it must have been a very early report that said 29.

Of course, at that time they were also still reporting as if the trailer, not just the cab, had come in from Holyhead. It was rather confusing the next time the news was on when all of a sudden the trailer had come from Zeebrugge without any explanation.

[Sheilbh]

Meanwhile in Chinese soft power:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/05/hong-kong-protest-themed-cake-disqualified-from-uk-baking-contest

[Legbiter]

Meanwhile in Chinese soft power:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/05/hong-kong-protest-themed-cake-disqualified-from-uk-baking-contest

Jesus.

Opening up to China in the 90's was a mistake.

[Valmy]

Meanwhile in Chinese soft power:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/05/hong-kong-protest-themed-cake-disqualified-from-uk-baking-contest

The more China does this shit the more unpopular it becomes.

[HVC]

as long as we buy their stuff I don't think they care how popular they are

[Valmy]

as long as we buy their stuff I don't think they care how popular they are

Well that is the thing. There are plenty of other places to make that shit, places that will not assault our citizens rights and freedoms and try to control our internal affairs.

[Legbiter]

as long as we buy their stuff I don't think they care how popular they are

Seriously fuck the Chinese, better to just slowly start shifting production lines out of there. They steal everything, even if it's nailed down IP wise and worse they demand we conform to their internal depravities. Which in itself is a huge unknown business risk anyway. Sure they can maybe keep the pots and pans stuff, etc but everything else is better off someplace else

[Valmy]

as long as we buy their stuff I don't think they care how popular they are

Seriously fuck the Chinese, better to just slowly start shifting production lines out of there. They steal everything, even if it's nailed down IP wise and worse they demand we conform to their internal depravities. Which in itself is a huge unknown business risk anyway. Sure they can making pots and pans, etc but everything else is better off someplace else

Legbiter and me agree on something

I liked that story about how that Chinese company began this big sporting goods line called "Jordan" and had a silhouette of Michael Jordan as their logo, and this is one big fucking company with stores all over China. So, of course, Michael Jordan sues them and not only did the Chinese courts decide that that could be any basketball player named Jordan and ruled in favor of the Chinese company but then Jordan got counter-sued...and I think he even lost not to mention the latest threats to the entire NBA just because the GM of the Houston Rockets tweeted something. I mean and this is just shit related to Basketball. WTF China?

Anyway I thought the attempts to bring them into the international system would moderate the Communist Party in its excesses but...I think it is pretty obvious that that was a failed experiment. We all made money and had some fun but it is time to move on. They are not moderating shit and our interests are hurt the longer they are tied to theirs.