China

[zippy1]

18 hours ago, Spekulatius said:

Probably need more than a slap on the wrist to prevent this going forward:

https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2025/01/05/2003829674
 

Als the more reason shadow fleet taken care of. Look at this rust bucket!

There is a Chinese patent on how to cut the underseas cable with low cost. 
"本发明公开了一种拖曳式海底电缆切割装置及其电缆切割方法。现有需要一种快速、低成本的海底电缆切割装置。本发明的拖环固定在主杆一端，主杆另一端固定有两块翼板；两块翼板的一个侧面位于对称中心线处固定有一个锚钩，另一侧面位于对称中心线处也固定有一个锚钩；两个锚钩内侧均固定有切割刀，且每把切割刀与两块翼板之间均设有一块导铁，导铁与两块翼板均固定；铁链一端与固定在拖船上的拉力传感器固定，另一端与切割锚的铁链固定。本发明的拖船通过铁链拖动切割锚切割电缆，实现了切割锚直接在海底钩住电缆并快速切断电缆，且从拉力传感器和回收切割锚后检查切割刀上是否有残留铜屑两方面确认电缆切割是否完成，可靠性强。"
Translated this with ChatGPT
 

This invention discloses a towed submarine cable cutting device and its cutting method. Currently, there is a need for a fast and cost-effective submarine cable cutting device. In this invention, a towing ring is fixed at one end of the main rod, while two wing plates are fixed at the other end. On one side of the two wing plates, a grappling hook is mounted at the centerline of symmetry, and another grappling hook is mounted on the opposite side at the same centerline. Cutting blades are fixed inside both grappling hooks, and a guide iron is installed between each cutting blade and the two wing plates, which are also fixed to the guide iron.

One end of the iron chain is connected to a tension sensor mounted on the tugboat, while the other end is attached to the chain of the cutting anchor. The tugboat tows the cutting anchor using the iron chain to cut the cable. This enables the cutting anchor to directly hook and quickly sever the cable on the seabed. The completion of the cable cutting is confirmed by checking the tension sensor and inspecting the cutting blades for residual copper debris after recovering the cutting anchor, ensuring high reliability.

https://patents.google.com/patent/CN111203499A/zh

[Luke]

 

Pretty good take on the current situation

[Luke]

23 hours ago, Spekulatius said:

Probably need more than a slap on the wrist to prevent this going forward:

https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2025/01/05/2003829674
 

Als the more reason shadow fleet taken care of. Look at this rust bucket!

Regarding Taiwan this comment is thought provoking, by Adam Tooze:

 

 

 

 

Edited yesterday at 02:03 AM by Luke

[Luke]

It was probably a huge strategic mistake by western elites to internationally isolate Taiwan so much but at the same time support so much of its high tech growth.

[zippy1]

7 minutes ago, Luke said:

Regarding Taiwan this comment is thought provoking, by Adam Tooze:

 

 

 

 

It is thought provoking because he completely ignore that there are 25 million people living on the island and most of these do not want to be ruled y CCP, I suppose.. 

[Luke]

3 minutes ago, zippy1 said:

It is thought provoking because he completely ignore that there are 25 million people living on the island and most of these do not want to be ruled y CCP, I suppose.. 

Yes of course, the ideal case is Taiwan establishing independence via referendum and gets acknowledged worldwide. And then china accepts it too. Is that realistic though? Anyways folks, i am out of china stocks just now. No more energy with all this geopolitical non sense and war games, takes up way too much mental energy and china moves nowhere for years while the US outperforming on all fronts. I was the last bullish man standing but admit defeat and mistake.

[zippy1]

46 minutes ago, Luke said:

Yes of course, the ideal case is Taiwan establishing independence via referendum and gets acknowledged worldwide. And then china accepts it too. Is that realistic though? Anyways folks, i am out of china stocks just now. No more energy with all this geopolitical non sense and war games, takes up way too much mental energy and china moves nowhere for years while the US outperforming on all fronts. I was the last bullish man standing but admit defeat and mistake.

Some overseas Chinese seem to think that overthrowing CCP and break China into a few countries like the sizes of European countries is the way to go.  I am actually curious about whether that would be better for the Chinese.  

[Luke]

2 minutes ago, zippy1 said:

Some overseas Chinese seem to think that overthrowing CCP and break China into a few countries like the sizes of European countries is the way to go.  I am actually curious about whether that would be better for the Chinese.  

Yep, thats the goal of the western/US politics. Best case is CCP falls due to so much economic and internal unrest, then some sort of democracy can be established and candidates be financed that integrate themselves into the US/EU order. Then only North Korea/Russia and the Islamic regimes have to fall+some trouble makers in SA and Africa.

[Luke]

I think for the US and Taiwan it makes the most sense to just acknowledge the republic of china as a legitimate independent country and risk war with China. Taiwan could run a referendum for which they can easily get a majority to be independent, maybe even rename to republic of taiwan. IF there is a war then the US could use that to end the chinese government once and for all, although with a price to be paid consisting of some dead soldiers on both sides, the world would afterwards have much better stability. Possibly EU troops could also fight there, maybe a combination on both the russian front as well as chinese front.

[Luke]

If those wars are won you would basically have 1.5b additional consumers that join western markets, with the right US president the SP 500 would explode afterwards.

[mcliu]

 

[zippy1]

1 hour ago, mcliu said:

 

Yes, this is similar to what Russia did in Ukraine. However, Taiwanese law, which was passed years ago,  actually does remove these people's Taiwanese citizenship. They can not have dual-citizenship.

[Spekulatius]

7 hours ago, zippy1 said:

Yes, this is similar to what Russia did in Ukraine. However, Taiwanese law, which was passed years ago,  actually does remove these people's Taiwanese citizenship. They can not have dual-citizenship.

Who would want Chinese citizenship anyways? it just means if you travel in China, you may get treated as a Chinese citizen which means no rights. You are also obligated by law to spy for the CCP. You got to be dumb as a rock to apply for Chinese citizenship.

You are much better off living as a foreigner in China.

[WFF]

46 minutes ago, Spekulatius said:

Who would want Chinese citizenship anyways? it just means if you travel in China, you may get treated as a Chinese citizen which means no rights. You are also obligated by law to spy for the CCP. You got to be dumb as a rock to apply for Chinese citizenship.

You are much better off living as a foreigner in China.

Don’t know about the laws, but better off as a foreigner is right (lower taxes and access/priority to better schools/etc)