feedmegin posted:

Umm. The Falklands was not and is not uninhabited.

Gorilla Salad posted:

Like the Falklands.

Turns out, stupid poo poo like that, with an easily identifiable 'enemy', is a great way to get people to ignore problems at home.

Myriarch posted:

Maybe it's just me, maybe, but if the Brits had lost the Falklands back in 82, I highly doubt they would be constantly railing about the loss today and refusing to acknowledge international maps showing the change of ownership. Maybe the first two or three years, but by 35 years later it wouldn't be an issue, and much less 60 years later.

Myriarch posted:

Maybe it's just me, maybe, but if the Brits had lost the Falklands back in 82, I highly doubt they would be constantly railing about the loss today and refusing to acknowledge international maps showing the change of ownership. Maybe the first two or three years, but by 35 years later it wouldn't be an issue, and much less 60 years later.

LentThem posted:

This should be required viewing for every idiot kid in my apartment building

https://my.mixtape.moe/tdasmr.mp4

Geisladisk posted:

The thing is though the Chinese "butthurt" over the nine dash line and other territorial disputes isn't just some dead thing in the past. It active and ongoing aggression by China, where China is grabbing land and sea from it's neighbors by bullying it's smaller neighbors into submission.

And although on a personal level for the average Chinese person, it certainly is petty butthurt bullshit, in the wider geopolitical sense it isn't just pettiness that motivates the Chinese state; By bullying foreign nations and transnational corporations and threatening them with very real economic damage if they do not play along and accept China's demands, China makes sure that the disputed territory is rarely if ever depicted as anything but Chinese - Making the public beyond China slowly get used to and accept the territory as Chinese.

tote up a bags posted:

In Tokyo it's common to see Chinese tourists empty shelves of products in the major shopping area large drug stores. I always wondered why.

Grand Fromage posted:

Yeah they're just rightfully scared that those products in China are fake. They don't trust importers to be genuine either.

Going to Japan to buy like twelve rice cookers apiece is more of a mystery but I assume there's reselling or the entire extended family has demanded them or something going on there. That's another thing, mainlanders will demand tribute if you go abroad so some people are buying those 80 cans of baby formula not for themselves, but for everyone they know.

Grand Fromage posted:

Yeah they're just rightfully scared that those products in China are fake. They don't trust importers to be genuine either.

Going to Japan to buy like twelve rice cookers apiece is more of a mystery but I assume there's reselling or the entire extended family has demanded them or something going on there. That's another thing, mainlanders will demand tribute if you go abroad so some people are buying those 80 cans of baby formula not for themselves, but for everyone they know.

McGavin posted:

No mystery about it. They're reenacting the voyages of Admiral Zheng He and his treasure fleets.

Blistex posted:

Devils Affricate posted:

Nowhy's Ark

Devils Affricate posted:

Nowhy's Ark

Devils Affricate posted:

Nowhy's Ark

Baronjutter posted:

I remember watching some documentary on the treasure fleet and a bunch of ship builders and historians were saying the official chinese party line on the size of the ships was physically impossible. Like they were most likely real, and most likely very big for the day, but they weren't 300 or even 500 feet like some like to claim.

Blistex posted:

Even in fairly calm waters, wooden ships over 300ft are pretty much asking to fall apart or leak like sieves due to their timbers flexing and letting water through their hulls. Every wooden ship that was 300ft or longer that wikipedia knows of was built in the latter half of the 1800's on, and most of them made extensive use of metal fasteners and other devices/structures not possible during Zheng He's time.

Blistex posted:

Even in fairly calm waters, wooden ships over 300ft are pretty much asking to fall apart or leak like sieves due to their timbers flexing and letting water through their hulls. Every wooden ship that was 300ft or longer that wikipedia knows of was built in the latter half of the 1800's on, and most of them made extensive use of metal fasteners and other devices/structures not possible during Zheng He's time.

Blistex posted:

The only presents my inlaws were able to keep were the ones that I physically made for them while they were here. I made my mother in-law a cherry and walnut cutting board, and my father in-law a ceramic coffee mug. As soon as they arrived home their family/extended family basically ransacked their luggage for stuff they requested, and stuff they would outright ask to have, and know they will get because of face. At least the stuff I made for them they could say, "no Blistex made this specifically for us, it is very special" and they would back off. Bought products don't have that ability.

quote:

Earlier this month, police in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou responded to a call after bar staff reported finding a suspicious suitcase.

It contained two million yuan in cash ($314,204; £233,323) - an extraordinary amount of money, maybe even life-changing.

They managed to track down the owner, who according to the local police, had arranged to meet with his ex-girlfriend in the bar.

The money? It was a "break-up fee" a new trend in Chinese dating.
The price of true love?

Everyone knows that dating can be expensive; forking out a bit of cash to buy drinks or meals in the early stages of a relationship, or buying gifts and holidays later on.

No longer content to just have the awkward meeting to hand each others' stuff back, break-up fees have emerged in recent years in China as a sort of compensation at the end of a long-term relationship.

While not legally binding, it's a bit like one party giving their former partner a divorce settlement.

It's the person that ends the relationship that pays the fee. They decide, based on the amount of time, effort and money they have invested in the relationship, how much money they should give to their former partner.

Some people look pragmatically at the amount of money their partner had spent on them while they were dating, whereas others set a levy based on how severe they think the emotional damage of the break-up will be.

Break-up fees are more commonly paid by men - out of guilt or in order to offset their partner's upset. However, increasingly some women see it as acceptable to pay a fee, given that it is traditionally the man who will pay for meals and gifts in a Chinese relationship.....

quote:

Some have been met with droll humour, such as a case in April where a woman sent her former partner an inventory of every single restaurant and hotel they had visited. She had painstakingly researched how much her partner had spent on her, and wanted to reimburse him what she thought she owed.

Outrail posted:

This seems like an exceptionally easy problem to get around.
"Everything got confiscated by customs/stolen by thieves, here's a packet of American gum, which they didn't confiscate/steal."

Devils Affricate posted:

Nowhy's Ark

Baronjutter posted:

No! They were bigger than any western ship! Ancient china was building wooden cruise ships.


Most biggest best ships ever


You heard of Columbus ship? Very famous. Well chinese ship 100x the size, 100x more famous.

Blistex posted:

Even literally insane people have some manner of compass that points them in a somewhat general direction. The Trump administration on the other hand seems to be blowing not only with the wind, but against it in an almost random pattern.

Platystemon posted:

My pet theory is that Trump is desperate enough and delusion enough for the Nobel Peace Prize that he’ll give China and North Korea everything they want.