[JuanP]

"Wuhan pool party shows China is over the COVID-19 lockdowns ..."
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/498256-wuhan-w ... -lockdown/

It's incredible how fast we adapt to new habits and perceptions. Looking at those pictures of people having fun in the pool so close to each other without wearing masks felt weird. The Chinese are not living in fear like so many others all over the world are. What a difference having an effective government makes!

People are desperate to go out, get some fresh air, and have some fun. The beach had more more people in it yesterday than I've seen in my 30+ years living in Miami Beach, and it's not even the tourist season! They were packed like sardines. Most young people in Miami still don't give a f**k about this virus. I have to admit that I couldn't care less either. I do like reading about how the world is mismanaging the pandemic, though. It entertains me. This pandemic has been more entertaining than anything else for me, particularly our overreactions and the damage to the economy. God, I'm a selfish prick!

[REAL Green]

The Chinese are not living in fear like so many others all over the world are. What a difference having an effective government makes!

The effective government that unleashed a pandemic. WOW! That is effective alright.

I have to admit that I couldn't care less either. I do like reading about how the world is mismanaging the pandemic, though. It entertains me. This pandemic has been more entertaining than anything else for me, particularly our overreactions and the damage to the economy. God, I'm a selfish prick!

Yeap, amazing how some people take pleasure in other peoples suffering!

[evilgenius]

I think one thing is clear from the rhetoric that has formed around the debate this deeply into the election, we are not going back to the old order. China was the place where cheap labor gave the US cheap prices. People are asking Trump to introduce policy that protects them from having their jobs undermined. They aren't asking for a better educational system, so that they can keep up with the high tech managerial trends necessary when a country is employing people to manage the sort of economy that develops when you are the receiver of such low priced goods. People were not responding by believing in going back to school or otherwise keeping up with the changes. They don't want an expansion of the suffrage. They want their old jobs back. Scabs!

Now, I am hearing get tough language from both sides. It isn't just Trump that is listening. This is a good time to ask ourselves if this is not a self-fulfilling prophecy? Do we think this about China because we have talked ourselves into it? Were we on a better track? Where will this one take us, especially since you can't collect the tech genie back into the bottle? Are we developing a generation of people who will, perhaps more easily than some other generations, walk into getting fleeced? All these people who honestly believe the world is run by pedophiles and other assorted folks who represent the deepest fears of someone like Alex Jones. It's the Illuminati on steroids today. People who think like that, though, are easily hunted by those who don't believe the same as they do. It's like the sorcerer Don Juan said, "The hunter of power is successful because he knows the routines of his prey, while himself having no routines."

[asg70]

Most young people in Miami still don't give a f**k about this virus. I have to admit that I couldn't care less either.

Boy it's great to come here and get a nice big taste of selfish disregard for public safety.

Is there anything you DO care about anymore or do you just want to watch the world burn?

[REAL Green]

“President Xi Launches Historic Purge Against China's 'Deep State”
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ ... deep-state

“Just days after Communist Party officials censored a prominent academic who dared to criticize the CCP and its glorious leader, Xi Jinping, more news of what appears to be a mounting purge of dissent in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, as Beijing prepares a Russia-style vaccine rollout. WSJ reports that one of Xi's most senior allies has called for a Maoist purge of China’s domestic-security apparatus, insisting last month that it is time to “turn the blade inwards and scrape the poison off the bone.” Within one week of the call, party "enforcers" launched investigations into at least 21 police and judicial officials. Dozens more have been taken down in the weeks since. So far, the most high-profile figure to face charges is the police chief of Shanghai. In essence, President Xi, who won plaudits for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic but is nevertheless weakened due to China's weakened economy and rising tensions with Washington, is launching his own assault on the deep state, mirroring President Trump's animosity and distrust toward his own intelligence machine. While it's true that China's political system suffers from "endemic corruption", that's not the real reason President Xi is doing this now, contrary to what some western media outlets have suggested. Instead, it appears President Xi is launching his own war against China's "deep state" by launching a full-blown purge of the state security apparatus. The ultimate goal of the campaign is simple: create police, prosecutors and judges who are "absolutely loyal, absolutely pure and absolutely reliable…“Xi is especially reliant on this coercive state apparatus, yet also distrustful of it,” Wu told the Wall Street Journal. We really couldn't have put it better ourselves.”

[REAL Green]

We are seeing a Chinese peak. China’s growth and global postion of power are now hitting limits. This is at the same time US hegemony is in decline. This is within a decline in globalism and international cooperation. Something new is ahead. It is likely regional in flavor but poorer in output. It will be very expensive to regionalize value chains. The reason for this is the redundancy and overlap. I personally welcome this decline because it is a necessary degrowth to globalism. Globalism has become destructive. It needs to be muzzled. My hope is this does not lead to war which will be particularly dangerous in this time of macro problems and overall decline.

“Why Beijing's Wolf Warrior Diplomacy Suddenly Quieted Down”
https://www.theepochtimes.com/why-beiji ... 65849.html

“Top-level Chinese officials have recently shifted away from the regime’s wolf warrior diplomacy tactic to a more toned-down approach. This turnaround can be interpreted as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) not wanting to decouple from the United States nor shut out of the global economic order led by Washington…Wolf Warrior Diplomacy Creates a Global Enemy For a long time, the CCP has regarded diplomacy to be a way of extending its tyranny. Its aggressive and offensive diplomacy is characterized by the goal of inciting national sentiment and brainwashing the Chinese people…However, this wolf warrior diplomacy has brought an obvious side effect, namely, “the big power diplomacy with Chinese characteristics” proposed by CCP leader Xi Jinping has deteriorated to distrust by all countries in the world, and to once again becoming the “human enemy.” A recent Pew Research Center survey showed “roughly two-thirds of Americans now have a negative opinion of China, the highest percentage recorded” since Pew began asking the question 15 years ago. Shifting to Dialogue Mode Buys Time Wolf warrior diplomacy has not only failed to elevate international power proposed by China’s foreign ministry, it has ruined the image of a worldly new power the CCP created through painstaking efforts. The relationship between the CCP and other countries in the world continues to deteriorate—especially U.S.-China relations…The United States has said it clearly: “When it comes to the CCP … we must distrust and verify…Countries will not move their industrial supply chains to China, especially after seeing the threat of the CCP’s tyranny to the global economy and politics. Considering national security and the safety of people’s lives and health, countries will accelerate their decoupling with the regime. A tidal wave of decoupling from the CCP has already begun. Countries involved in cooperation projects and organizations led by the CCP’s investment-oriented “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR, also known as Belt and Road Initiative), Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and the BRICS, have had serious conflicts and disagreements with the CCP over the pandemic and diplomacy. India and Brazil, members of the BRICS, for instance, have shown deteriorating relations with the CCP. Through the pandemic, deterioration of relations between the CCP and other countries has accelerated. Once the industrial chain moves out of China, it will be difficult to get it back. The status of “world factory” will never return. The CCP’s perverse actions will only lead to its exclusion from the international community and the world economic order.”

[REAL Green]

“Renowned EU Scientist: COVID-19 Was Engineered In China Lab, Effective Vaccine "Unlikely"
https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/reno ... e-unlikely

“Not only is he an internationally known expert in biotechnology and nanotechnology who has had a stellar academic career, but he is also the president of the World Academy of Biomedical Sciences and Technologies (WABT), an institution founded under the aegis of UNESCO in 1997. In other words, he is a man of considerable stature in the global scientific community. Equally important, one of the goals of WABT is to analyze the effect of biotechnologies - like genetic engineering - on humanity. In his new book, this world-class scientist does exactly that. And what he says is that the China Virus definitely wasn’t a freak of nature that happened to cross the species barrier from bat to man. It was genetically engineered in the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s P4 (high-containment) lab in a program supervised by the Chinese military. Prof. Tritto’s book, which at present is available only in Italian, is called Cina COVID 19: La Chimera che ha cambiato il Mondo (China COVID 19: The chimera that changed the world). It was published on August 4 by a major Italian press, Edizioni Cantagalli, which coincidentally also published the Italian edition of one of my books, Population Control (Controllo Demografico in Italian) several years ago. What sets Prof. Tritto’s book apart is the fact that it demonstrates - conclusively, in my view - the pathway by which a PLA-owned coronavirus was genetically modified to become the China Virus now ravaging the world. His account leaves no doubt that it is a “chimera”, an organism created in a lab. He also connects the dots linking the Wuhan lab to France and the United States, showing how both countries provided financial and scientific help to the Chinese as they began to conduct ever more dangerous bioengineering experiments. Although neither American nor French virologists are responsible for the end result—a highly infectious coronavirus and a global pandemic—their early involvement may explain why so many insist that the “chimera” must have come from nature. The last thing they want to admit is that they might have had a hand in it. Those of us who, early on, argued for a laboratory origin were dismissed as conspiracy theorists. Our articles were censored as “fake news,” often by American virologists who knew perfectly well what the truth was, but preferred to protect China, and themselves, from scrutiny lest they themselves be implicated. Dr. Tritto’s 272 pages of names, dates, places, and facts leaves such apologists with no place to hide.”

[dissident]

More plausibility pap for the ignorant. It does not follow that: if virus engineered, then no vaccine. Until we see real HIV like action from Covid-19 (there is none), this claim is utter BS. Sounds like propaganda using a paid shill to me. His fame does not make him a saint.

BTW, flu vaccines don't last either since there are new strains every year.

[REAL Green]

“Losses from China Overseas Takeover Binge Are Piling Up Fast”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/losses-c ... 00911.html

“Some of the Chinese overseas investments that have recently imploded are legacy acquisitions from the debt-fueled deal spree in the years before 2018,” Lars Aagaard, head of mergers and acquisitions and financial sponsors for Asia Pacific at Barclays Plc based in Hong Kong, said in a phone interview. Even Chinese companies’ pre-Covid attempts to extricate themselves from investments are being tripped up by the pandemic…The pandemic is not the only factor explaining the plunge in dealmaking activity. India, Australia and the European Union have increased scrutiny on foreign investment in moves widely viewed as targeting Chinese buyers. Tensions between Washington and Beijing have seen sanctions imposed on officials in China and Hong Kong over human rights issues, adding uncertainty for Chinese companies operating overseas”

[bochen777]

People tend to love the dramatic. The dollar is unlikely to collapse overnight, but it is undeniably in the middle of a slow and steady decline, which is much preferable for everyone, especially China.

When catalytic economic and geopolitical changes happen too quickly, it usually causes massive collateral damage world wide, and leave huge power vacuums that could lead to unforeseen and unwanted developments.

China will actively work to help manage American decline to minimise the risks of a sudden and uncontrollable collapse, and instead ease it into the slow lane and out of the way.

China could have taken any number of actions in retaliation to any number of American provocations to massively damage and exacerbate existing issues in America across the entire spectrum, but it is unmistakably holding back, especially when contrasted to the earlier days of the trade war.

Obviously there is a massive element of not wanting to interrupt your opponent when he is busy making stupid mistakes, but I think America is in a far more precarious position than most mainstream analysts would believe, and Beijing recognises that.

It is not hitting back and even actively backing off because it does not want to risk cornering a wounded rabid beast, nor does it want to be blamed for the calamity it can see coming down the road that America is now in serious risk of blundering into if it is not careful.

America is increasingly risking ending up in an inter-war Germany kind of economic calamity if it continues to print dollars and accumulate debt like there is no tomorrow while it’s government acts like a self parody.

Modern fiat money economies are fundamentally based on trust. That if I give you goods and services now in exchange for paper IOUs, I am trusting your that those IOUs will be worth something in the future when I need to cash them in. Everything America is doing right now is eroding that trust.

If history has taught us one thing, it is that the markets have no loyalty. London bankers and traders were at the forefront of the run on the pound that caused Britain to crash out of the ERM.

If things get bad enough and people think there is easy money to he made, Wall Street will lead the charge to trash the dollar to make a quick buck.

Note that at its most extreme, the pound only dropped from around 3 to 2.4 DM, which is a 20% drop. A calamity but hardly a collapse, and that is the ballpark range for what I would expect a major USD market correction to look like btw.

That is a significant point to remember because while a massive market correction on the dollar will significantly damage America economically, it won’t destroy it overnight, nor will it erode any of its existing hard power capabilities.

With racial tensions already sky high, a massive economic hit could easily tip America over the edge into chaos. And that’s not even considering the far graver threat of actual civil war if Trump losses in November and refuses to leave office.

In that situation, it would be all too easy for America to start an external war to try to redirect domestic fury and also stimulate economic growth through the war effort.

China doesn’t want to be the target of that. It would much rather America attacked someone else and exhausted itself for a few years and then China could come in and end the war with minimal cost and maximum gain, like America did in both world wars.

[REAL Green]

“How China’s Expanding Fishing Fleet Is Depleting the World’s Oceans”
https://e360.yale.edu/features/how-chin ... lds-oceans

“Estimates of the total size of China’s global fishing fleet vary widely. By some calculations, China has anywhere from 200,000 to 800,000 fishing boats, accounting for nearly half of the world’s fishing activity. The Chinese government says its distant-water fishing fleet, or those vessels that travel far from China’s coast, numbers roughly 2,600, but other research, such as this study by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), puts this number closer to 17,000, with many of these ships being invisible like those that satellite data discovered in North Korean waters. By comparison, the United States’ distant water fishing fleet has fewer than 300 vessels. China is not only the world’s biggest seafood exporter, the country’s population also accounts for more than a third of all fish consumption worldwide. Having depleted the seas close to home, the Chinese fishing fleet has been sailing farther afield in recent years to exploit the waters of other countries, including those in West Africa and Latin America, where enforcement tends to be weaker as local governments lack the resources or inclination to police their waters. Most Chinese distant-water ships are so large that they scoop up as many fish in one week as local boats from Senegal or Mexico might catch in a year. Many of the Chinese ships combing Latin American waters target forage fish, which are ground into fishmeal, a protein-rich pelletized supplement fed to aquaculture fish. The Chinese fleet has also focused on shrimp and now endangered totoaba fish, which are much prized in Asia for the alleged medicinal properties of their bladders, which can sell for between $1,400 and $4,000 each. Nowhere at sea is China more dominant than in squid fishing, as the country’s fleet accounts for 50 to 70 percent of the squid caught in international waters, effectively controlling the global supply of the popular seafood. At least half of the squid landed by Chinese fishermen pulled from the high seas is exported to Europe, north Asia and the United States. To catch squid, the Chinese typically use trawling nets stretched between two vessels, a practice widely criticized by conservationists because it results in a lot of fish inadvertently and wastefully killed. Critics also accuse China of keeping high-quality squid for domestic consumption and exporting lower-quality products at higher prices. In addition, critics say, China overwhelms vessels from other countries in major squid breeding grounds and is in a position to influence international negotiations about conservation and distribution of global squid resources for its own interests. China’s global fishing fleet did not grow into a modern behemoth on its own. The government has robustly subsidized the industry, spending billions of yuan annually. Chinese boats can travel so far partly because of a tenfold increase in diesel fuel subsidies between 2006 and 2011 (Beijing stopped releasing statistics after 2011, according to a Greenpeace study).”

[Newfie]

China has been lying about catch’s first years, breaking international treaties.

Good use for our carrier fleets.

[dissident]

China has been lying about catch’s first years, breaking international treaties.

Good use for our carrier fleets.

Your post is cryptic. The US loves to break international treaties itself. It is now in the process of tearing up every nuclear arms limitation and weapons in space limitation treaty. There not a peep about this in the fake stream media which is no longer a watch dog, but a hound under the control of its master.

Also, the USA has been engaged in piracy off of China's coast by seizing Iranian ships. The UN did not authorize any such action so please spare the propaganda about "international". Even if the US gets support from some coalition of the billing it is not international. The NATO west routinely calls itself the international community when it accounts for 11% of the population of the planet and even among that 11% there is no monochrome solidarity.

[REAL Green]

Your post is cryptic. The US loves to break international treaties itself. It is now in the process of tearing up every nuclear arms limitation and weapons in space limitation treaty. There not a peep about this in the fake stream media which is no longer a watch dog, but a hound under the control of its master.

True, but the US is under the microscope and one of the most hated of nations by the global intellectual community. China on the other hand is look up to as a new wonder nation when the truth is they are a despotic regime run by an inbred political party that has nominated an emperor. This emperor is bent on empire and hegemony. Their industrial and social actions are killing the planet more than any other nation. Yes, the US and Europe are the worst in cumulative historic terms but right now China is the true up and coming villain.

[Shaved Monkey]

Interesting outcomes from the virus on the global economies
Australia went into recession after a full lockdown and now a secondary lock down in its second most populace state
Yet still performed better than Sweden
Swedens neighbour Norway who went into lock down also performed better than Sweden and lost thousands less lives
The UK who tried a mix of semi lockdown semi BAU performed terribley and the US with no clear or unified plan did the worst in lives lost and economically

Chinas economy grew

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/fede ... 55rk4.html

[dirtyharry]

""In July, a survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in China showed that 84 percent of US enterprises are unwilling to withdraw from China, and 38 percent of them will maintain or increase their investment in China. Of course, Chinese companies have also remained very eager to increase their investments in the US."
Interesting for all those who said US companies want to leave China .

[jedrider]

How China’s Massive Fishing Fleet Is Transforming the World’s Oceans
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/09/beijing-fishing-fleet-subsidies-north-korea.html

I thought this is interesting.

[REAL Green]

“China To "Gradually" Sell 20% Of Its US Treasury Holdings, May Dump It All In Case Of "Military Conflict": State Media”
https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/chi ... treme-case

“The Beijing-backed publication writes today that "China may gradually reduce its holdings of US Treasury bonds to about $800 billion from the current level of more than $1 trillion, as the ballooning US federal deficit increases default risks and the Trump administration continues its blistering attack on China" citing unnamed experts…One expert cited in the GT report, professor at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Xi Junyang, emphasized that "China will gradually decrease its holdings of US debt to about $800 billion under normal circumstances." He added in what appears the most interesting and "dire scenario" quote in the article (or we're perhaps meant to take it as a veiled threat under the guise of a mere aside): "But of course, China might sell all of its US bonds in an extreme case, like a military conflict." But as we detailed previously, such a "nuclear option" may not be that nuclear after all, since the Fed has monetized three times as much debt as China holds in the past 3 months without a glitch - meanwhile, even though dumping its US paper would result in some brief dramatic headlines, not only would it not affect the US, but would prove too self-destructive for Beijing to pursue outright (which currently calibrates and fine-tunes its exchange ratio with the help of its trillions in US reserves). Still, the fact that Beijing views such as an option as an alternative if not bargaining chip, enough to mention it again in the state-owned media, suggests that the possibility of a full-blown capital war is now at hand. Should China proceed with this highly symbolic if largely innocuous escalation, one can only imagine what the US retaliation would be.”

[REAL Green]

Bochen’s Chinese paradise:

“Xi's Political Rivals Run For Cover: "A Purge Is Coming - Be Careful"
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ ... be-careful

“Nikkei Asian Review has more details on Xi Jinping's ongoing purge in preparation to establish total authority over China's Communist Party, including related to some recent key, deeply symbolic acts: Also on Aug. 26, Xi convened a meeting of 300 or so senior police and state security officials from across the country at Beijing's Great Hall of the People. In a pompous ceremony, Xi handed to the police force a newly designed red and blue flag. The red portion, occupying the top half of the flag, symbolizes the party and is meant to portray the police's absolute loyalty to the party, it was explained. It ultimately means that for the first time the country's police forces are under Xi's direct control, instead under the immediate oversight of the government's State Council… The Nikkei report links Xi's penchant for bestowing new flags on state enforcement entities as underscoring their total loyalty to the party, which increasingly means himself, also given also significant rumors Xi is looking to resurrect Mao Zedong's historic 'Chairman' title to replace his slightly less impressive title of General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party… Amid Xi's ongoing anti-corruption purge, at least thirty top party officials have already fallen, which many say is reminiscent of Mao's infamous first major party purge in 1941, dubbed the “Yan’an rectification movement” which paved the way for the founding father of the People's Republic of China being declared chairman. Nikkei underscores that with the underlying intentions related to the rectification movement clear, rivals and political enemies are "running for cover" — including apparently leaders of the rival Communist Youth League, now in subtle ways relaying to its members: "A purge is coming. Everyone, be careful."

[ralfy]

From "Donald Trump really is Xi Jinping’s friend. The phase one US-China trade deal proves it":

Pressure from the US president has helped China in a way its leaders would not want to acknowledge publicly

This deal strengthens the hands of Beijing’s pro-reform officials and kick-starts long-delayed liberalisation nearly 20 years after China joined the WTO