That's just what happens when the Communist Party of China has you by the balls. Note to other manufacturers: diversify and disengage.
Apple Hides Taiwan Flag in Hong Kong
601–610 of 730 posts
Re: Apple Hides Taiwan Flag in Hong Kong
#602Earlier quoted context omitted.
They often restrict tourism from Mainland China as leverage, as Taiwan receives a lot of tourism revenue from China.
The restriction of not allowing mainland into Taiwan is controlled by Taiwan. Not by China... Taiwan is the one that put the policy in place that China can only visit Taiwan via a tour group only.
Here you go: https://www.dw.com/en/taiwan-reduces-reliance-on-mainland-ch...
"Beijing's attempt to punish Taiwan by throttling tourism from the mainland hasn't made much impact. Taiwan set a new tourism record last year by successfully courting visitors from the rest of Asia."
Yes Taiwan has the sovereignty to do that, but China also has exit restrictions (USA does not have exit restrictions, which I assume is why you may be unfamiliar with this concept).
Re: Apple Hides Taiwan Flag in Hong Kong
#603Between this and the NBA's capitulation to making the Rockets' GM retract his statements on Hong Kong, at what point does appeasement just become acceptance of China's behavior? Sure, from the individual business' perspective they don't want to risk alienating the Chinese government and losing the Chinese market, but if China sees that they can get their way by simply threatening foreign companies then it will just e…
> at what point does appeasement just become acceptance of China's behavior? This seems to be US policy since Nixon's visit to China. The difference is now we're just more open about it.
Someday we may regard those "achievements" as the worst strategic mistake by any sitting US president.
Re: Apple Hides Taiwan Flag in Hong Kong
#604Between this and the NBA's capitulation to making the Rockets' GM retract his statements on Hong Kong, at what point does appeasement just become acceptance of China's behavior? Sure, from the individual business' perspective they don't want to risk alienating the Chinese government and losing the Chinese market, but if China sees that they can get their way by simply threatening foreign companies then it will just e…
Courage is in short supply.
No, no, courage is when you remove the headphone jack from your phones so you can sell dongles and wireless earbuds.
Re: Apple Hides Taiwan Flag in Hong Kong
#605Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you think 2019 China is that similar to 1930s Germany you should just come right out and say it, in my opinion. Let that argument stand on its merits. If you didn't intend a parallel between 1930s Germany and 2019 China, there is, again in my opinion only, probably a better way of making your point.
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> Go on any Chinese social media site and the amount of nationalist rhetoric you'll find is quite disturbing
Thank you for pointing this out. The amount of nationalistic remark from some HN commenters is also quite disturbing.
Denial, ad hominem, and cynicism seems to be their strategy. Most China submissions that they don’t like suddenly forum slide like crazy by triggering the flame war detector; downvoting anything they don’t want to hear without merit.
Re: Apple Hides Taiwan Flag in Hong Kong
#606Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is it really overblown? Think about it. It's not like Nazi germany only had followers because they were being mind-controlled. They were slow-boiling the frog back then as well and those who didn't want to notice could easily justify everything. Well, sure, nazi germany ran concentration camps, keeping hundreds of thousands prisoner based on ethnicity and religion. It's not like China is doing that after all… … right…
>Is it really overblown? Think about it. The problem is people in the west can only "think about it" in western lens which leads to readily accessible Godwin's Law. Chinese mental schema is not preoccupied with Hitler, most Chinese aren't familiar with Nazi death camps and the ones that are, don't attribute any particular significance to them because China is a 5000 year old country with a long legacy of exterminatio…
Muslim countries were much more secular before the 1980s. The is no such thing as the reforming Arab autocrat.
Re: Apple Hides Taiwan Flag in Hong Kong
#607Earlier quoted context omitted.
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1. Germany was preparing for outright war throughout the 1930s. Conscription was introduced in 1935.Is China seriously planning to militarily annex Taiwan? Leaving aside propaganda etc. 2. This point appears to be about how unfair historical treatment can lead to fascism. Are you saying that the people of China are headed in this direction? 3. I'll defer to your judgement as I presume you read mandarin/canto, but I d…
This always happens, someone compare X to Nazi Germany, he means it's similar in points Y, and then everybody says but X doesn't have gas chambers or X doesn't want to kill all jews.
I'm pretty sure OP meant that it's similar because it's a dictatorship, it is very aggressive internationally, it uses propoganda against its own civilians like no other country, right now with a very strong air of nationalism and "the world is against us", it isn't shy about killing opposition, it built a huge army. The powers at be in the west (today's powers are large international corporations) are intent on appeasing China.
Do I think China is 1930s Germany? No, you can only get in the same river once. Is this parallel interesting? Yes
Re: Apple Hides Taiwan Flag in Hong Kong
#608Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Is it really overblown? Think about it. The problem is people in the west can only "think about it" in western lens which leads to readily accessible Godwin's Law. Chinese mental schema is not preoccupied with Hitler, most Chinese aren't familiar with Nazi death camps and the ones that are, don't attribute any particular significance to them because China is a 5000 year old country with a long legacy of exterminatio…
Muslim countries were much more secular before the 1980s. The is no such thing as the reforming Arab autocrat.
My insinuation is Arab autocracts are quiet on the issue because they will find the techniques useful.
Re: Apple Hides Taiwan Flag in Hong Kong
#609Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do not support the atrocities that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is committing against the people of Yemen (civilian death toll closing in on 100,000 [0]) with American purchased F-35 jets manufactured by Lockheed Martin. How can I, as a person, talk with my money to prevent this? How can Lockheed Martin, a corporation whose fiduciary obligation is to generate profit for its shareholders, prevent this? How can the US…
> How can I, as a person, talk with my money to prevent this? With your personal money? You can't. Can you convince extremely wealthy people to spend their money in a way that will ultimately lose them money? Possible, but still losing odds. See Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins for an example of what this fight looks like. (he was one of the guys who paved way for the original deals between the US an…
Thanks for that book recommendation - really appreciate it. I have been looking for a solid critical reference regarding the World Bank (and IMF, for that matter) for some time now. There were some allusions in Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine that set me down this rabbit hole.
Re: Apple Hides Taiwan Flag in Hong Kong
#610Earlier quoted context omitted.
All politics is a charade to some extent, a social game humans play to achieve a result which we can't really get to otherwise; international politics is simultaneously more obviously a charade and precisely the place where keeping up the charade is most important, because the consequences are far more present. In national politics, there's a government and that government has a police force and a military. Regardles…
Can you unpack what you mean by ‘charade’...? In particular, why did you choose that word? Are you suggesting it is fake? Fake in what sense? One useful definition of politics is this: systems and behavior that result from people disagreeing without violence. Politics can occur in convincing a group of people where to go to dinner, that your technical idea is worthy of effort, or that a President must be held account…
> Can you unpack what you mean by ‘charade’...? In particular, why did you choose that word? Are you suggesting it is fake? Fake in what sense?
I'm suggesting it's fake in the sense that it pretends things are real which are not physically real, like national boundaries and countries and other jurisdictions. Los Angeles County has no physical existence beyond the people who pretend it's real.
> One useful definition of politics is this: systems and behavior that result from people disagreeing without violence.
I agree with this, but it doesn't capture people pretending administrative jurisdictions exist. How taxes work is a good example of the charade becoming useful: Services have to be paid for, so taxes must be collected somehow. How do you do that without making people feel like they're paying for a lot of stuff they're not getting? By drawing lines on a map and saying that everyone who lives within those lines pays these taxes, and everyone who lives outside of those lines pays those taxes, and so on. Poof: You have a way to pay for things which gives people some kind of choice in the matter beyond just voting. That's important because other, more real, effects of the economy can determine which areas have rich people and which areas have poor people.