The gamble has not failed. It just takes longer. Democracy and market economy are definitely gaining on the Chinese people. More people are studying aboard and wanting China to be more like the West, although some bureaucrats are stubborn and holding China back. Take Hong Kong as an example, nobody would image such pro-democracy would happen at such a massive scale. Hong Kong people have done it. The Hong Kong people demand democracy more than ever. I am very very proud of them.
> The gamble has not failed. It just takes longer.
Sure, and if you give a monkey with a typewriter infinite time, he'll eventually write Shakespeare. The point is, we made the bet 50 years ago and China has only become less free and more totalitarian. How much longer are you willing to wait? If you keep the status quo, you'll just be strengthening the iron-grip of the anti-democracy-at-all-costs CCP party.
> Take Hong Kong as an example, nobody would image such pro-democracy would happen at such a massive scale.
I've only ever heard this line from the CCP propaganda media and biased pro-Beijing people. For most of the world it was a given.
> Only impatient and ignorant monkeys think it takes several years to change 1.4 billion people.
It's a matter of willingness, not time. If Xi can create a system to surveil and restrict the free speech of 1.4 billion people in less than 10 years, I'm sure he can create a system of Democracy in even less time than that.
> US relations with China began in the 1970s during the Nixon administration.
US started diplomatic relationship with China, in order to fight USSR, not to put a bet. USSR was by far the bigger threat and the US and China had a common enemy.
> If Xi can create a system to surveil and restrict the free speech of 1.4 billion people in less than 10 years.
Have you not learned a thing in your whole life? Changing 1.4 billion people's ideology is way way way harder than building a surveillance system.
Exactly. :) Those bureaucrats are holding back the 1.4 billion lovely people. We need to differentiate the people from the CCP. The people love the US and freedom. I am proud of the people in Hong Kong. They are fighting for their own freedom harder than ever.
I'm curious why parent is down-voted, is this line of thinking completely out of wack? I thought China is definitely going to become more democratic, following similar path as Japan and Korea.
In what way is China becoming more democratic? Last time I heard, China doesn't have free elections and those that spoke against the government got jailed, beaten, or disappeared.
China has indeed gone through a number of phases of relative (relative being the key word) openness. Similar to the Krushchev thaw, subsequent re-tightening, and then re-loosening in the late Soviet era.
After the Mao era, things became increasingly unrestricted until the '89 crackdown. A second relative period of relatively lax censorship came in the new century. It has been tightening again since Xi came to power, but arguably still less strict and totalitarian than under Mao.
> I'm curious why parent is down-voted, is this line of thinking completely out of wack? I thought China is definitely going to become more democratic, following similar path as Japan and Korea.
Bloomberg has lost my trust as a reliable source of information since the invented story about China Chip hack[1]. Contrary to the article, China is the leading investor in renewable energy[2][3].
There is nothing contrary about this report. Coal and renewables don't annihilate each other like matter and antimatter.
China is simultaneously expanding its use of electricity from coal, renewables, and nuclear plants faster than any other country in the world. This is because China is the world's largest consumer of electricity and is still growing.
Well, the share of coal in China's primary energy mix has declined to a new low[1]. Basically, China has been trying to close down small, inefficient coal plants and build renewable power stations. Resuming massive construction of coal plants does comply with what they have been doing.
Yes, the central government wants to use coal more efficiently and to curb acutely harmful air pollution. China's energy mix is now less coal-heavy than it was 10 years ago. Since China's total energy use is still growing robustly, a declining share for coal does not necessarily mean a declining absolute quantity (tonnage) of coal. According to your own link, "Among the fossil fuels, consumption growth was led by natural gas (+18%) and oil (+5.0%), while coal use rose (+0.9%), the second consecutive year of growth."
The big problem with China’s renewable energy investments is that they are largely out west while the problems are largely out east. They are planning a super grid to solve this, but it isn’t there yet and its not clear when it will be.
The argument isn't crazy when you consider the ability to control and manipulate messaging. It's not different than investigating RT or other foreign funded media.
This angle is correct - since moderators and admin are located in China it is not hard to censor material, create dissent and appeal to a Chinese propaganda model.
From the article that I suspect many did not read: "lawmakers questioned TikTok’s data-collection practices and whether the app adheres to censorship rules directed by the Chinese government that could limit what U.S. users see"
Metadata, GPS location, Camera/Photos and Videos can also leak information about people, specfically children/teens of high ranking officials.
"And the lawmakers said that TikTok could be a “potential target of foreign influence campaigns like those carried out during the 2016 election on U.S.-based social media platforms.”"
Is this fear different than what China says about USA tech like Google/Apple/Microsoft? Nope - same. They treat it differently and force companies to comply with their laws and rules.
It is different in the sense that TikTok does not create any content. It is a platform for other young people to post videos. It is like Youtube where people post and share videos. Yes, people can post political videos and spread disinformation on Youtube, just like on other platform as well. Singling out TikTok for this smells more like protectionism. Facebook has more than 2 billion users worldwide and the US has a population of less than 400 million. The majority of the users come from other nations. According to your theory, Facebook posts severe national security risk to all other countries where Facebook operates because Facebook is a foreign funded and controlled company to other countries.
It seems that Oracle was prepared to have two co-CEOs at the same time. When an emergency like this happens, the other co-CEO can take over any any time.
The China chip hacking story was an invented story by Bloomberg. Everyone else denied it including Apple as the customer, US government, the supplier of the chip etc. Bloomberg fabricated the story. Ever since, I do not trust Bloomberg as a reliable source of information.
Smoking and Juul hurt public health more than anything else. Not only the smokers themselves get lunge disease or even die, but also other innocent second-hand smokers get hurt. I do not want my little kids' lungs to absorb smoke just because they are playing in public. Smoking and Juul are universally bad with little or no benefits. They should be banned from any public space for good.
This kind of paranoia about exposure goes way too far beyond trying to prevent actual negative consequences to a fanatical obsession with one irritant out of a million which is way below the noise floor.
If you want to live in a HEPA bubble, live in a HEPA bubble. Outside isn't that.
Google, Amazon, Microsoft, etc. are all extended branch of the Trump government as well. They collaborated with NSA to spy on other nations and its own people. It is a well-known fact. Google is working with the US military to weaponize AI. Amazon and Microsoft work with the military to weaponize cloud technologies.
That's nonsense. Huawei has never proven to be connected with China government either. It is a private company owned by its founder and employees. There is ZERO evidence whatsoever that Huawei has spied for China government.
Huawei has publicly stated that Ren Zhengfei holds veto powers as part of their shareholder agreement, so I'm not sure that their claimed ownership model actually translates to the same level of control that implies in the western world.
Not that ownership matters anyway. AT&T isn't owned by the US Government either, but I bet the CCP doesn't want them implementing infrastructure projects in China. Actually, we know for a fact they don't because their 'national champion' policy is well known.
