The current administration has been bullying China incessantly. I'm not going to say if the reasons were justified or not because it's complicated, but we shouldn't be surprised by China's response. It's not like we're actively trying to improve relations either.
US citizens warned they face arbitrary arrest in China
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Re: US citizens warned they face arbitrary arrest in China
#32Re: US citizens warned they face arbitrary arrest in China
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
The most famous one ended when the soviet union collapsed (fatigue, economic stresses, random misunderstandings). I'm looking forward to the same thing happening to CCP/china in about a decade or so.
Here's hoping the US isn't the one that collapses in on itself this time. My perception of China is that it's government makes life pretty terrible but it seems better organized over there (because of state control).
A lot of what they're doing is BS/Potemkin villages. Imagine everything being built with the attitude that the only thing that matters is time and price. In a country with 1.4B people. Same shitty "if it looks good on the surface it's good enough" ideology everywhere, at every single level in society. Then imagine this has been going on for decades.
No wonder the CCP banned the construction of very tall skyscrapers recently.
Re: US citizens warned they face arbitrary arrest in China
#34Not just arrested but tortured, as we've seen with the two Canadian Michaels and the British Simon Cheng. Edit: British-employed not actually British
Chinese government is constantly challenging the validity of foreign passport if the person is ethnically Han Chinese. Governments must apply diplomatic pressure go get their citizens free.
Re: US citizens warned they face arbitrary arrest in China
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
I went to Beijing in 2019 and while I felt the security of subway stations was a bit overdone (metal detectors and bag scanners) I had little trouble buying things: while shops wanted me to pay with wechat they accepted cash all the time. I also found the security of tiennam square not much different from the eiffel tower (which I didn't enter because the security seems such a hassle at that time). Security of very h…
I've been to the Eiffel tower several times. The security there is not even in the same league as the security as Tiananmen Square.
My experience in tienanmen: Showing my passwort and a bag scanner, going through. Area was limited with small metal fences.
My experience at the eiffel tower: Bag scanner, didn't go through (because I had a huge bag which was not allowed). Area was limited with huge glass panes. (Don't know if they want to see any ID)
So it felt very much the same to me, but the security in Paris was probably not police (I didn't go fully in, so I don't remember).
Re: US citizens warned they face arbitrary arrest in China
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would say only 1 Michael, The other one sold drugs in a country that specifically banned drugs
Good point, committing a crime there is an especially bad idea.
Why there's a country where doing a crime is a good idea? I can recall that also US still have capital punishment for example
Re: US citizens warned they face arbitrary arrest in China
#37The current administration has been bullying China incessantly. I'm not going to say if the reasons were justified or not because it's complicated, but we shouldn't be surprised by China's response. It's not like we're actively trying to improve relations either.
if the US gets to arbitrarily arrest US citizens, it's only fair that china should get to do it too
Re: US citizens warned they face arbitrary arrest in China
#38[removed]
Re: US citizens warned they face arbitrary arrest in China
#39Not just arrested but tortured, as we've seen with the two Canadian Michaels and the British Simon Cheng. Edit: British-employed not actually British
I would say only 1 Michael, The other one sold drugs in a country that specifically banned drugs
This is incorrect. The two Michaels have been accused of spying. You're thinking of a third Canadian Robert Schellenberg. His punished was suddenly changed from 15 years in prison to a death sentence after a recent retrial.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-53104303
https://globalnews.ca/news/5257482/robert-schellenberg-death...
Re: US citizens warned they face arbitrary arrest in China
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
A real "hermit kingdom" has no exports, though, no? If China is going that way, I can't imagine how it plans to keep its economy going. Does it think its urban centers are already self-sufficient centers of economic demand for the products it produces currently?
Doesn't take much imagination. Pre-1975 China?
pre 1975 China was pretty different and thinking that it will go back to that state is pretty arrogant.
Now, compared to then, China has a huge internal market thanks to the rising of the middle class that could take the clash of a potential export collapse by leveraging their internal market.
So said, whenever there's somebody exporting there's another one importing. Perhaps we should ask ourselves where are we going to get the goods that now are produced largely in China.