The common theme about doing business in China is that China is very adept at making sure that money invested into China never, ever leaves the great financial wall of China.
China is choking the Internet
141–150 of 160 posts
Re: China is choking the Internet
#142Here is a simple solution might help...Get a vacation out of China. Setup a VPN and done. If you love Chinese culture and freedom, you better try Taiwan. It's a republic (100 years mostly), democratic little island with Chinese traditional culture inside. I think if you want to do a startup for your future business entrance into China. Taiwan might be great for you. Although the market is small, but you can think tha…
Another vote for Taiwan.
People are friendly, the society is (mostly) free and you don't have to compromise your conscience. Food is great, diverse and safe. Granted, local driving habits are suicidal, but that not really different from the mainland.
The level of technical expertise around is very high. I've been doing hardware development in Taipei, and for about any component you can source vendor's field assistance engineer within a day.
The trade agreement though seems to be very heated topic there, with lots of lobbying pro and contra. But ultimately it is likely to come through.
Re: China is choking the Internet
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem with this is the same as for services like dropbox. If enough people do this they will start blocking the slicehost IPs. To be successful you need to have * IP usage distributed over a wide range * private distribution of proxy details * ability to switch to a new proxy when your current one is blocked Tor tries to accomplish most of this, but from the OP's post it appears that it is being effectively blo…
In practice, only services that are advertising themselves as a way to get around the firewall may get blocked. Using SSH through some arbitrary VPS provider in the U.S., the chances of it getting blocked are very low...low, as in I've done it for years with the same IP with no problems.
In practice the great firewall is still not blocking vpn, even a weak pptp is ok.
Many very well known vpn services are still not blocked, and not because of ignorance from govt. Just search for vpn on taobao (chinese ebay), and you'll find plenty of options.
Re: China is choking the Internet
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
I voluntarily live in China and in many ways prefer living here to living in my homeland (the US). Otherwise, why would I be here? The food's great, the economy's great, people are friendly if you try to understand the culture, cost of living is low, and there's plenty of interesting historical stuff all around. Not to mention it's a very fascinating time to be here as you can see the most populous nation on Earth ra…
Cost of living ain't low, unless you live in a village. Shanghai is more expensive than NY. A beer is 45RMB, and that's for a Bud, not a fancy micro. Live like a local and you forgo comfort for cost. Anything foreign or of genuine quality is 2x the price as the western world. Even HK is a deal, unless you have to buy or rent property.Every time I go for business, I do all my shopping for 100% originals, not fakes. Th…
You really, really got a bad deal on your beer. I've had imports at Shanghai restaurants for a fraction of that. Shanghai can be expensive, but it's nothing like NYC. In Shanghai, you can live within a short walk of the subway line, eat out every day and have a maid to cook your other 2 meals for under 1000USD/month. Loads of college grads in the city earn less than half that.
If you have absolutely no ability to adapt to local food and need to have everything as you had it at home, then it will definitely cost you. Immigrants to the west can't always find their favorite food or products, either.
Re: China is choking the Internet
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
Really, you complain about China because a Bud is 45 kuai?!?! Of course anything foreign is more expensive than the west. You realize you are in the other side of the world, right? About the CCP making a mint off the US: Keep in mind that is the US that's selling treasuries.
> Of course anything foreign is more expensive than the west. You realize you are in the other side of the world, right? Actually that has more to do with Chinese currency manipulation than anything else. By refusing to adjust their currency appropriately, foreign goods are unaffordable to most domestics. This is the reason their economy is growing at amazing rates -- it's not magic. Long term this will cause problem…
Funny how no one used to complain when it was the rich countries who dictated the rules of the game (via the IMF).
Re: China is choking the Internet
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
I lived in Mountain View (California -- where Google is located) and I had to call the police twice because I heard gun shots over the creek behind my apt complex. In China I go to the ATM at 2am and it's totally safe.
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." --Ben F
And, ironically, that's exactly what the American people did with the patriot act and 8 years of Bush.
Re: China is choking the Internet
#147As I write this I too am having to go through a VPN to access the world. Even when it works properly, I constantly have to "play the VPN game." I really don't have the time to list out every item from jhancock that I disagree with, but pretty much all of them made me grimace. And I find it poignant that he no longer lives here. I too live in Shanghai and have for the past 5 years. I came here looking for another view…
People can enjoy clean water and clean air in the US because all the crap we consume is outsourced to China.
Good point. However, if it wasn't, I doubt it would be the same in the US for two reasons. The first reason is that it isn't just the US outsourcing to China, ie. China gets everyone's crap. But the second and maybe more important reason, is that the US and most western countries, I assume, have stricter laws that China about pollution and waste disposal.
Re: China is choking the Internet
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cost of living ain't low, unless you live in a village. Shanghai is more expensive than NY. A beer is 45RMB, and that's for a Bud, not a fancy micro. Live like a local and you forgo comfort for cost. Anything foreign or of genuine quality is 2x the price as the western world. Even HK is a deal, unless you have to buy or rent property.Every time I go for business, I do all my shopping for 100% originals, not fakes. Th…
Really, you complain about China because a Bud is 45 kuai?!?! Of course anything foreign is more expensive than the west. You realize you are in the other side of the world, right? About the CCP making a mint off the US: Keep in mind that is the US that's selling treasuries.
A Snow, at 3 to 5 kuai, tastes good. King Long's cheaper, but tastes awful.
Re: China is choking the Internet
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
You don't get "uppity" with Chinese officials. You either have a good connection to the government or you can do squat. Government ties is everything if you really want to get your business going. The real problem is the international companies providing all this nifty IT tech to actually realize this 1984 path what is going on in China.
I've worked inside various China government departments. In many respects, they have less data on China citizens than the U.S. government has access to on U.S. citizens. If China is on a "1984 path", all I can tell you is the U.S. and UK are ahead of them at the moment in terms of data collection. As to needing to be an insider to get your business going. This is only true for certain types of business. For those typ…
China still takes the lead in censorship.
Re: China is choking the Internet
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
The chinese government don't care about VPN that target people with credit cards that can pay in US dollars because most local chinese won't have access to that and those that do are also likely to travel abroad and be exposed to all that information anyway...
Not always. Different ISP's block different things and work/home connections also have different rules. Once I came home to find they blocked the port to SSH & VPN. After 1 month of fighting with the IT management in the local building they opened it again.
Yep! The Great Firewall is only the outermost layer of blocking inside China. The ISP blocks plenty: only last week they suspended my account for a few days, probably as a "threat". It seems officials develop connections with the ISP's to collect surfing histories of customers these officials have an interest in. There's no concept of "providing an internet service to customers" in the minds of the ISP managers. If you use a Chinese ISP for any sort of web-hosting, be aware it may be vandalized by anyone willing to pay 100 rmb (i.e. 15 US dollars).