indigi posted:

has China put any boots on any non-Chinese ground anywhere

Nature posted:

The reactor is unusual in that it has molten salts circulating inside it instead of water. It has the potential to produce nuclear energy that is relatively safe and cheap, while also generating a much smaller amount of very long-lived radioactive waste than conventional reactors.

Construction of the experimental thorium reactor in Wuwei, on the outskirts of the Gobi Desert, was due to be completed by the end of August — with trial runs scheduled for this month, according to the government of Gansu province.

quote:

Operated by the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics (SINAP), the Wuwei reactor is designed to produce just 2 megawatts of thermal energy, which is only enough to power up to 1,000 homes. But if the experiments are a success, China hopes to build a 373-megawatt reactor by 2030, which could power hundreds of thousands of homes.

quote:

When China switches on its experimental reactor, it will be the first molten-salt reactor operating since 1969, when US researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee shut theirs down. And it will be the first molten-salt reactor to be fuelled by thorium. Researchers who have collaborated with SINAP say the Chinese design copies that of Oak Ridge, but improves on it by calling on decades of innovation in manufacturing, materials and instrumentation.

quote:

Yoshioka says many countries are working on molten-salt reactors — to generate cheaper electricity from uranium or to use waste plutonium from light-water reactors as fuel — but China alone is attempting to use thorium fuel.

Agrajag posted:

lmao looks like crypto nerds are losing their poo poo on reddit and theyre coming up with weird conspiracy theories

Anime Schoolgirl posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H47ow4_Cmk0

AnimeIsTrash posted:

Chicago has a pretty high Indian dispoara population. You'd see a bunch of no farmers, no food signs if you drove around in Kent, WA which has a pretty high Punjabi dispoara population. I saw some dudes protesting the Indian government there too.

crepeface posted:

actually the covid thread is not the worst place to discuss china

Atrocious Joe posted:

Poland is going to invade and annex Western Ukraine when Russia invades Eastern Ukraine.

30.5 Days posted:

So did that guy just happen to be having a party in gulen's house right as the coup started or?

Orange DeviI posted:

whose lightning quick punches have the weight of 5000 years of tradition behind them

gradenko_2000 posted:

insisting that they be called the CPC pisses off all the worst people so I will keep doing it

AnimeIsTrash posted:

I'm thinking about joining nato.

gradenko_2000 posted:

Lol the State Dept spokesperson is literally named NED

slave to my cravings posted:

they should have put kamala in charge of the Russia/Ukraine situation

Gripweed posted:

I'm tired of only hearing one side. Can I get some arguments in favor of rebuilding the Russian Empire?

Mantis42 posted:

Sorry tankies, but the time has come to admit that Russia and NATO are BOTH poo poo and that Putin is also an imperialist warmonger. As an enlightened centrist, I must throw my support to the PRC, who has proven to be a stabilizing and fairhanded voice throughout this crisis.

Dolphin posted:

I'm actually very proud of [Dolphin for] that series of quotes.

Homeless Friend posted:

im just here shitposting in the moment and dolphin is hitting that post button looking decades, perhaps centuries, into the future

CaptainACAB posted:

oh i wanted to post the Only Correct Take here, since i see everyone losing it in the forest:

The only reason this is happening is because the USSR was illegally dissolved against the will of it's people. The CPSU is the legitimate government of both the illegally occupied Ukranian SSR and the illegally occupied Russian SFSR. It was never defeated in a free or fair election, but was overthrown in a CIA and IMF backed bandit coup.

Putin represents those same bandits who destroyed the greatest workers' state that has ever existed, immiserated it's people, looted their society and cast them into darkness and warfare where previously there was peace and prosperity. Soviet brothers are now forced to kill each other when they once lived in harmony. This does not, of course, mean that we should side with the IMF backed Ukranian fascists and liberals, as they represent nothing more than another faction of bandits.

What we should support, instead, is the withdrawl of BOTH illegal occupation forces and a return of the country to it's legitimate government, which is the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Azathoth posted:

i dunno if it's an official thing but the way that media has taken to reporting on casualties is that they only report what has been "confirmed" for whatever level of confirmation seems appropriate. it is supposed to deal with the problem where media would report "as many as X killed" based on guesses, estimates, missing people, etc. that would then have to be walked back when specific numbers were known. there was a lot of talk about it a while back because a number of conspiracy theories used those initial reports and the subsequent lower numbers to vaguely gesture at something sinister happening. so now we get implausibly low numbers being reported instead and we're supposed to read between the lines that the actual death tolls are going to be much, much worse.

Tiler Kiwi posted:

prices at the pump prices at the pump prices at the pump prices at the pump prices at the pump prices at the pump prices at the pump pr

Majorian posted:

https://twitter.com/fruitdotzip/status/1532103154703118337

Du Based

Oglethorpe posted:

thailand legalized it

Al-Saqr posted:

i genuinely think we’re going back to 19th century ‘perfidious celestials’ levels of insane coverage soon thank goodness China can actually fight back and protect itself from the crazies in the west

SorePotato posted:

Who cares loser, your spinning bowtie cannot lead me astray from Xi Jinping Thought. I live eternal in the people's heavenly army, while you, a CIA brain floating in a jar, are set to be replaced in two weeks

GlassEye-Boy posted:

Trade wars are easy.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/1-china-southern-buy-96-112117077.html

Tankbuster posted:

lol he grew his beard for the bengal elections and forgot to cut it.

quote:

Vladimir Putin’s brutal attack on his Ukrainian neighbors has sparked global outrage — and forged unprecedented unity — among the democratic nations of the world. Not so with Xi Jinping, the hypernationalist president of the People’s Republic of China. Rather, he is no doubt taking notes and learning lessons from Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine to apply to his plans for Taiwan.

The United States and our partners in the international community need to do the same to develop and put in place a new and more resilient strategy for Taiwan while there is still time.

A clear lesson from the war in Ukraine is that authoritarian leaders have been emboldened in recent years by dysfunctional democracies and hesitant international institutions. Accordingly, the United States needs less ambiguity to guide our approach to Taiwan. In today’s world — with Mr. Xi’s China — a robust and credible deterrence to preserve peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait requires clarity in word and deed. President Biden vowed in May to use force to defend Taiwan — the third time he has said so, even though his aides have said the longstanding U.S. policy of strategic ambiguity has not changed.

The moral and strategic case for standing with Taiwan, whose people share our interests and our values, could not be clearer. China is carrying out influence campaigns against Taiwan using cyberattacks and disinformation, deploying propaganda to reinforce its “one China” message, spreading disinformation and conspiracy theories to divide Taiwanese society and make it easier to gain control of the island. This is a plan of attack eerily reminiscent of Mr. Putin’s in Ukraine.

China is also employing coercive economic tactics against any nation or company that does not fall in line with Beijing’s anti-Taiwan policy, going as far as imposing a trade embargo on Lithuania for welcoming a Taiwanese representative office in Vilnius. Given Taiwan’s role as “foundry to the world” for the manufacture of advanced microchips, Beijing’s willingness to threaten supply chains and potentially hold the global economy hostage is a matter of concern for the United States’ prosperity and security and those of our allies and partners.

Making matters worse, Taiwan now also faces an aggressive Chinese military, which seems determined to be postured for an invasion in the coming years.


China’s rapid military buildup with new technologies and weapons deployed against Taiwan threatens to destabilize the entire Indo-Pacific. There are near daily Chinese military incursions into Taiwan’s air defense zone and dangerous and unsafe Chinese Navy maneuvers intended to coerce and intimidate Taiwan on the high seas as well. Only a few weeks ago, 29 Chinese military aircraft, including six bombers, flew into Taiwan’s air defense zone — sending a clear message of a potential blockade — before returning to base. These are not the actions of a nation with a policy of maintaining peace and stability. These are the actions of a nation intent on aggression.

Moreover, Beijing’s recent threats over Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan were as predictable as they were indicative of Mr. Xi’s truculence. But the United States must be clear: Using her visit as an excuse for performative sound and fury is simply that: a pretext for more aggressive steps that China has been preparing to take anyway. That is why Ms. Pelosi was right in not letting China decide who can and cannot visit Taiwan. The result of Beijing’s bluster should be to stiffen resolve in Taipei, in Washington and across the region. There are many strategies to continue standing up to Chinese aggression; there is clear bipartisan congressional agreement on the importance of acting now to provide the people of Taiwan with the type of support they desperately need.

We saw the warning signs for Ukraine in 2014 and failed to take action that might have deterred further Russian aggression. We cannot afford to repeat that mistake with Taiwan.

That is why I have worked with Senator Lindsey Graham to introduce the bipartisan Taiwan Policy Act of 2022.

Our legislation would reinforce the security of Taiwan by providing almost $4.5 billion in security assistance over the next four years and recognizing Taiwan as a “major non-NATO ally” — a powerful designation to facilitate closer military and security ties. It would also expand Taiwan’s diplomatic space through its participation in international organizations and in multilateral trade agreements.

The legislation would also take concrete steps to counter China’s aggressive influence campaigns, impose crippling economic costs if Beijing takes hostile action against Taiwan (such as financial, banking, visa and other sanctions) and reform American bureaucratic practices to bolster support for Taiwan’s democratic government. In short, this effort would be the most comprehensive restructuring of U.S. policy toward Taiwan since the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979.

While Beijing will likely rely on a planned narrative of blaming the United States for any aggression, the fact is that it’s China, not the United States, that has been steadily seeking to change the status quo with Taiwan.

The United States and our partners must remain cleareyed as we respond with measured steps during this critical window of opportunity — before China unalterably changes the cross-strait dynamic to its advantage and sets the stage for a possible invasion of Taiwan — to reinvigorate our diplomatic strategy. To work with Taipei to modernize its military to maintain deterrence. To combat Beijing’s political influence and misinformation campaigns. And to develop deeper ties between our two peoples.

As China challenges us across every dimension of national security — militarily, economically and diplomatically and on values — we are laying out a new vision that ensures our country is positioned to defend Taiwan for decades to come. Getting our strategy right is essential to deter and constrain Beijing’s problematic behavior and to encourage Mr. Xi to make different choices from Mr. Putin’s.

To be clear, the United States is not the world’s policeman. But surely we have a moral and practical obligation to stand with the people of Taiwan, who want only to be able to determine their own future.

If we do nothing, then we must be comfortable with effectively ceding Taiwan by letting China continue its unabated military, economic and diplomatic bullying campaign.

Mr. Putin’s delusions in Ukraine could not make the catastrophic global consequences of inaction clearer.

ikanreed posted:

In principle, I think freedom of religion is really important and you can't suppress the human desire to believe.

In practice: lol, owned.

Egg Moron posted: