i fly airplanes posted:

Framing this as a choice between "mass death" or "covid zero" is absolutely insane.

What do you characterize Singapore and New Zealand, both countries that were heralded as the golden standard on managing covid? Are they "mass death" since they're removed entry testing requirements and masking in public?

ronya posted:

On the flip side, if Beijing did not think that the policy is theatre at this point and is genuinely holding out for something to change - vaccination rates to improve, some new vaccination or treatment technology to alter the calculus - then it would not make sense, beginning in end May as the Shanghai surge blew over, to announce that the local provinces must pay their own way for achieving dynamic clearing and then withdrawing central subsidies

It is setting up the provinces to fail at containment and then blaming them for it - which only makes sense if containment, as an outcome, is not really the priority, but instead an exit strategy with scapegoats

MikeC posted:

If you can't differentiate between symptoms and infection outcomes between the Alpha, Delta, and Omicron variants/subvariants then there is nothing else to discuss, since you are clearly not discussing in good faith.

Tomn posted:

Uh...that feels like a pretty nuclear option. I haven't been keeping track of the latest news, but has the relationship with China and the US really gotten that bad lately?

Tomn posted:

Well yeah, but I thought it was still at the level of cold stiffness and jockeying for diplomatic influence in SE Asia, not active economic hostility (Trump didn't really count in my mind because, well, Trump).

Daduzi posted:

Also just heard that everyone in Shenzhen is being told to work from home next week.

i fly airplanes posted:

You have mentioned that you live in China at least five times in this thread—we get it.

But you have always prefaced this as some prima facie counterargument.

Zwabu posted:

Chinese citizen Ding Liren is currently in the championship match for the world chess title and I've heard that this isn't a big news item in China (correct me if I'm wrong).

This seems odd to me because I thought the whole reason why China has one of the largest groups of highly rated chess players, both men and women, is because they went through some period of state sponsorship and cultivation of chess players - it's easy and cheap to support chess, only requires some computers and books and doesn't need millions in fancy gym facilities etc. like Olympic sports do, and has decent prestige and propaganda value.

Did the government change their mind about chess at some point or is Ding or his family somehow on the wrong foot with the powers that be?

wins32767 posted:

I'd be curious to find out how much work China does on things like, say, donating AIDS drugs or mosquito netting or vaccinations or the like.

AlternateNu posted:

Let's just say the chances China shifts their immigration policy that far is approximately equal to the chance Russia just gives up and pulls out of Ukraine. It's possible! But not terribly likely and would require a massive short term shift in leadership and a lot of awkward post hoc justification.

Beefeater1980 posted:

It was floated last year with the government putting out feelers and the public reception was wildly negative.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3065235/backlash-china-over-draft-rule-permanent-residency-foreigners

E: my kids are chinese citizens tho so maybe I can live out my dotage as a dependent

MarcusSA posted:

Yeah about that…

MarcusSA posted:

MarcusSA posted:

The argument can be made for an economic invasion. Also the quote stands on its own pretty well with regards to how they treat the people in the countries they have a vested economic presence.

Mederlock posted:

The west haven't continued to run concentration camps waging a cultural genocide against groups like the Uyghers while using them for slave labour, Western owned mines in the third world don't have white security squads using nine tailed whips to lash children's backs to ground beef for the crime of picking a few scrap pieces of ore in mine dumping areas, the West doesn't summarily disappear members of their political opposition, etc. Etc.

It's not worse than what the West did 80-100+ years ago... but it's absolutely worse than what the West is doing now, at least nearly at the scale of Chinese firms operating in Africa using predatory loan tactics.

Mederlock posted:

Even if we accept everything you wrote about the West's activities verbatim, do you still think that what China is doing in Africa isn't just as bad, if not worse in some aspects? You do know the West can be lovely to African nations, and China can also be just as lovely in their own unique ways to them too, yeah? They're not mutually exclusive positions. I'd still argue the West is starting to tack in the right direction on this front, but I also could be swayed from that position pretty easily if presented with sufficient evidence.

Dandywalken posted:

If they are no longer using those components, then isnt that the intended outcome?

ronya posted:

It turns out that the US does not actually have a structural dispositional interest in overturning elections in Latin America without the possibility of Soviet intervention

ronya posted:

https://twitter.com/michaelxpettis/status/1738215357603586429

Alchenar posted:

On the other hand on a per capita basis China is still very poor

Raenir Salazar posted:

I see, I thought you were phone posting and meant to write "gini" instead of "gni".

BrainDance posted:

This caught me off guard once, and my wife. I knew I had to see a doctor, but she was confused because I didn't know which doctor to see. And I was like "how would I know? That's why I'm going to the doctor!" but then she kept thinking "yes but we need to know which doctor to see because how else can the doctor know what's wrong with you!"