The de-Westernization of China
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Friday, September 10, 2021 10:55
VIEWED: 1317
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China has recently
Forbade IPOs from being offered on western exchanges
Smacked down Jack Ma's Ant company bc it was offering lines of credit
Fined and canceled a famous actress for corruption
Forbade more than3 hrs of videogames per week (Let's see them enforce THAT one!)
And these are just the tidbits I happened on. I haven't been really looking. But I'm under the distinct impression that China is gearing up for Something Big, even if that Something Big is just the impending implosion of the USA and not anything as active as war.
Quote:
Moon of Alabama
To Counter U.S. Hostility China Moves Towards People Centered Policies
In December 2001 China became a member of the World Trade Organization. That opened new markets for China's industry and attracted a lot of foreign investment.
The growth in GDP that China has achieved since is breathtaking.
This development allowed China to make enormous investments in infrastructure. It also generated the resources necessary to eliminate poverty.
It is no coincidence that this development happened while the U.S. was wasting money on wars in the Middle East. As the U.S. is now step by step retreating from those wars to confront China the country needs to prepare itself for the new environment.
The introduction of more and more capitalistic features into China's economy over the last 20 years has created imbalances. Business tried to ignore or to gain influence over government structures and regulations. Companies abused their workers. Speculation by rich people created bubbles in the housing markets. Cultural excesses that emphasized individualism threatened national unity.
These imbalances let the description of China's economy as 'socialism with Chinese characteristics' look empty. Over the long run they would lead to dissatisfaction of a wide range of the public with the ruling political establishment. It was high time to eliminated the excesses the ultra fast development had created.
The government had to act to avoid future internal conflicts. Since the end of last year it has done so with the same efficiency that allowed it to stop and eliminate Covid-19 outbreaks. It does this ruthlessly without regards to stock values or investor interests.
Some six weeks ago I argued against Stephen S. Roach's take on new Chinese regulations and described why the wider public in China will not care about 'investors' and will support those steps.
Since then the regulation campaign has continued with astonishing speed and breath. Here is a collection of headlines, published since my last take, that detail the development and the flood of new regulations and laws designed to set things right while keeping China's economic growth going.
China Stocks Tumble in ‘Panic Selling’ Amid Broad Crackdown
China market regulator boosts food delivery worker protections
China moves against private tutoring companies, causing shares to plunge.
China’s private tutor ban kills another profit center
Wipeout: China stocks in US suffer biggest 2-day loss since 2008
Why China’s crackdown on tech and education won’t scare off global investors
Tencent Is World’s Worst Stock Bet With $170 Billion Wipeout
China Doesn’t Care How Much Money You Lose
China Seen Ushering in New Era as it Puts Socialism Before Shareholders
China Orders 25 Tech Giants to Fix Raft of Problems
China's campaign to regulate Big Tech is more than just retaliation
China’s Sweeping Crackdown on Big Tech Is a Wake-Up Call for the U.S.
Rosy upsides to Xi’s neo-socialism
Xi Sends Warning to Investors With Delayed Huarong Lifeline
China passes tough new online privacy law
Wealth gap sparks Xi’s call for ‘common prosperity’
China blasts '996' excessive work culture
With new privacy law, China could reshape cross-border data rules similar to Europe’s GDPR
Unpacking China’s game-changing data law
Xi Jinping says Big Tech crackdown is makingNOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Beijing Plans To Place Didi Under State Control: BBG
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/beijing-plans-place-didi-under-
state-control-bbg
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Forbade more than3 hrs of videogames per week (Let's see them enforce THAT one!)
It would be surprisingly easy given the amount of control the Chinese government has on any internet activity. At least, it will be for any modern games. People here in the states willingly and often unknowingly give up information such as their statistics on where and when they're playing a game and the durations of these sessions. Yanno... all in the name of "marketing".
If somebody wants to circumvent these new rules by hooking up their old Nintendo, or really any system before the XBox 360/PS3 era, they'll probably be fine as long as one of their Commie neighbors doesn't rat them out, but that's assuming they can even get their hands on old systems.
I don't really know how deep the Chinese survalence goes into peoples PC's, but it would stand to reason that when they log on the internet they probably have some sort of TeamViewer program installed by default that could allow any government employee to pull up their screen and see what they're up to at any given time. Unless they've got an old computer that isn't connected to the network to play games on, I'd think that even emulating old games could be risky.
On top of all of that, it wouldn't surprise me if part of this new law makes any computers not connected and/or not connectable to the internet as well as old video games and system contraband, making the act of even playing them a huge risk when you're likely to have a neighbor rat you out.
Could you imagine being a kid, playing an old Nintendo game at a friend's house outside of "gaming hours", telling your parents what you did that day and then having to live with the fact that your friend's entire family were punished harshly after your mom or dad alerted the authorities that they had contraband?
Man... fuck China.
P.S. And hell... let's face it... There's a pretty good chance that our own government knows every single file that is on all of our PCs and might have even downloaded them and stored them remotely already. Every year PCs get quite a bit more powerful, yet the benefits for the end user seem to have really capped off for most of these upgrades.
My thought is any time you buy a beefier computer, only 20% of the improvement in the design goes to the end user, and the other 80% of it goes to the government.
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Vaccinated People: "You need to get muh vaccination shots that don't work because I got muh vaccination shots that don't work and I'm afraid of people that didn't get muh vaccination shots that don't work because muh vaccination shots that don't work don't work."
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NO MORE GIRLY-BOYS!
Quote:
Broadcasters must “resolutely put an end to sissy men and other abnormal esthetics,” the TV regulator said, using an insulting slang term for effeminate men — “niang pao,” or literally, “girlie guns.”
That reflects official concern that Chinese pop stars, influenced by the sleek, girlish look of some South Korean and Japanese singers and actors, are failing to encourage China’s young men to be masculine enough.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/china-decrees-no-sissy-men-allo
wed-tv
I'm telling you, the timing on these coming all together is significant.
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
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So, in addition to forbidding Chinese IPOs and stocks from being offered on western exchanges, thumping down on Jack Ma, Baidu and other tech monopolies, publicly cracking down on anti-Chinese values, forbidding private education, blocking the transfer of yuan out of China via HK, China is also popping their real estate bubble with the impending bankruptcy of Evergrande, China's largest RE investor.
I've been casually watching China for years now.
Under two previous Secretaries, China used "market economies" and foreign investment to speed development. I've seen bubbles in aluminum, copper, iron, agricultural commodities, real estate etc etc. And while China almost eradicated poverty, they have also developed a super-rich class. As I posted elsewhere, people work for reward. Even the most meager farmer in China knows that getting rich requires speculation, and the Chinese population has become more involved with the stock market, real estate speculation, and so forth. China seems intent on cutting that off.
Unlike Russia, China's experience with neo-liberal capitalism and financialism has been mostly gentle, so in some ways it may be more difficult to eradicate the culture of financialism from the population (a new Cultural Revolution?)
OTOH, Russia's oligarchy deeply embedded in Russia's political system, so while "the people" alive today remember the horrors of the 90s, it has been extremely difficult for Putin evict the oligarchs from political power.
In any case, BOTH nations seem destined to separate themselves from western financialism and economies. Russia has been working on this since 2000, China over just the past 6 months or so, but - again- I find China's timing meaninful.
Putin predicted that the west would face financial crisis in 2023. That doesn't sound like a prediction, it sounds more like a plan. Not RUSSIA's plan - Russia has already de-linked from the west and they have no economic or financial leverage on us.
But maybe he knows of CHINA's plan, which may be either 1)bankrupting us in an arms race or 2) dumping the dollar.
Or both.
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
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We're doing just fine destroying the value of our dollar without China's help.
It's why I don't really care about saving more than a few years worth of bucks. Why bust my ass earning cash that might go up in smoke a few years from now? I'm in a much better position to make ends meet if the western market is destroyed than most Americans are.
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Vaccinated People: "You need to get muh vaccination shots that don't work because I got muh vaccination shots that don't work and I'm afraid of people that didn't get muh vaccination shots that don't work because muh vaccination shots that don't work don't work."
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