Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Lithuania evacuates its embassy in China

economist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

421–430 of 727 posts

Re: Lithuania evacuates its embassy in China

#421

Post by gpm »

Aeolun wrote: post #206
motiejus wrote: post #200

I am Lithuanian; Lithuania Taiwan PRC conflict is frequently a topic of discussion these days among my peers. My position, shared by a few others, is that this is the next best thing that happened in Lithuania after leaving USSR: the first being joining NATO and EU in 2004. Everyone in the world can (and almost everyone do) endorse PRC. "You won't get fired for picking IBM/Oracle/PRC". While very few countries have t…

Even if you lose all business with China, in the long term that is better. It’s disturbing I cannot buy goods that are not (at least partially) made in China.

One component of this seems to be that by moving online we've lost access to the labels on goods. In a store, you can usually just look at the "made in " label printed on the box. On amazon, that information is pretty much never available.

Possibly this is partially because they're commingling inventory made in different places, but I think a lot of it's just that amazon doesn't see any reason to force people to list that.

Re: Lithuania evacuates its embassy in China

#422

Post by mthoms »

sudosysgen wrote: post #407
mthoms wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s a pretty bold statement. When has the US ever threatened China’s internal security?

Did you forget the Cold War before Nixon? The Korean War? Even today various officials in the US military are discussion how best to militarily contain China.

Which of those relates to Chinese internal security?

In other words - aside from containing Chinese/Communist external influence, when has the US threatened China?

Note: I'm not justifying or condemning any of those "external" actions by the US, I'm just curious if you can illustrate a past or ongoing threat to China proper?

Re: Lithuania evacuates its embassy in China

#423

Post by trasz »

yoavm wrote: post #333
dexterdog wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it that different than the US complaining about Iran/NK/flavor of the week?

What? Yes, of course it is. Do you not see a difference between a nuclear threat to, well, agreeing to the opening of a Taiwanese office? In what world is this even similar?

In what world was that an actual threat?

Re: Lithuania evacuates its embassy in China

#424

Post by notpachet »

antattack wrote: post #416
motiejus wrote: post #200

I am Lithuanian; Lithuania Taiwan PRC conflict is frequently a topic of discussion these days among my peers. My position, shared by a few others, is that this is the next best thing that happened in Lithuania after leaving USSR: the first being joining NATO and EU in 2004. Everyone in the world can (and almost everyone do) endorse PRC. "You won't get fired for picking IBM/Oracle/PRC". While very few countries have t…

It's impossible to do that for larger countries, cooperation with China is the only way. Large economies are too tightly coupled to just cut China off. It would take a decade or two.

Sunk cost fallacy. Anything is possible, it's just a matter of how much pain you're willing to bear for your principles.

Re: Lithuania evacuates its embassy in China

#425

Post by eunos »

synergy20 wrote: post #320
k_sze wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stop spreading nonsense. Xi Jinping studied chemical engineering. Zhu Rongji studied electrical engineering.

Zhu took the tests and get admitted, like the rest of his peers(Jiang, Hu, Wen, Li,etc) they're all true graduates from the best universities in China then, which explains why China made leaps and bounds under their leadership. Xi is the only exception among them. Xi got in college without _any_ tests, purely because he has a powerful father then. It's said he could not understand a thing taught and there is no way h…

>he has a powerful father then

His powerful father made him a target during cultural revolution

Re: Lithuania evacuates its embassy in China

#426

Post by trasz »

baybal2 wrote: post #368
LambdaTrain wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He completed BE in Chemical Engineering from Tsinghua University [1]. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi_Jinping

Hsi Chinping bought his degree paper from a ghostwriter, and barely showed for classes. A practice deemed "almost" acceptable in the mainland among elites. People tell "for somebody already so high rank, merely buying a university degree is not really cheating" I once had an argument over this 9 years ago with Chinese peers. The conversation came to "Maybe, if he was given a degree, and job even without a ghostwriter…

So your claim is that Xi is only barely better educated than every republican US president since the nineties?

Re: Lithuania evacuates its embassy in China

#427

Post by mcguire »

nindalf wrote: post #219
LatteLazy wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China could take Taiwan and I don't think anyone would stop them. But the aftermath would be pretty terrible. The US and EU would lock them out of the their economies, as would basically every country in the region except NK. Economic collapse would ensue and that would likely lead to a revolution: the CCP have basically ruled on a "give up freedom and get economic opportunity" ticket. If they can't deliver... There…

There is no US Air Force base in Taiwan. There are 3 in South Korea (Kunsan, Osan, Sasebo) and 3 in Japan (Kadena, Yokota, Misawa). That’s it. No country would lock China out of their economies. It would be the most painful suicide imaginable. China is already the source of most components in most industries. A China that annexed Taiwan would also be the main source of the world’s semiconductors. And that’s even befo…

You've read Norman Angell's The Great Illusion?

Re: Lithuania evacuates its embassy in China

#428

Post by whimsicalism »

bettysdiagnose wrote: post #106
Raed667 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cynicism of China foreign policy never ceases to amaze

It's like they want the rest of the world to hate them.

Do you all really not see how our media has a hand in this at all?

Re: Lithuania evacuates its embassy in China

#429

Post by jelly »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #360
forty wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm French, I hope we (France, EU) follow your lead.

No. France's traditional stance is more independent non-aligned and it is in France's interest to maintain decent working relations with all sides. France was the first Western country to recognise the PRC, for instance. This was realpolitik and hopefully that will continue. Before every action we need to ask yourself what we want to achieve and whether that is actually achievable. This requires knowledge of other co…

Its incorrect to call opening an office for Taiwan a "rash, emotional move". It's a simple ackowledgement of the way things already are (two nations who talk and negotiate with each other) and helps Taiwan and France build their relationship.

The concern is that the CCP will have a rash, emotional response (as they did with Lithuania) because they imagine they can set the terms for any Taiwan-related business.

These frequent emotional outbursts have cost the CCP so much political capital, which means countries like France will reconsider their relationship.

Re: Lithuania evacuates its embassy in China

#430

Post by whimsicalism »

trasz wrote: post #423
yoavm wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? Yes, of course it is. Do you not see a difference between a nuclear threat to, well, agreeing to the opening of a Taiwanese office? In what world is this even similar?

In what world was that an actual threat?

From Iran, none. From NK, I'm not sure - I am not convinced by the rationality of their actors.
Post reply on HN