121–130 of 470 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
China has a very short window of time before their demography crashes.
What do you mean?
> The decision comes as Europeans grapple with record-high power bills, driven in large part by a gas supply shortage. an artificial shortage made by private investors. the russians are selling the gas as per contract, but because it is cheaper than what you can get on the spot market, some idiots are making a quick buck by selling the cheap gas for the spot market price. well, something like that https://blog.fefe.d…
My personal opinion: All this Ukraine stuff is also supported by China. I bet they are ready to buy Russian oil and gas to compensate even if this costs them more than getting them from the open market. Why? Because this is a wonderful test drive to check how the West (sorry for the approximation) is reacting to a country theoretically supported by the West being invaded by another one. For me, the next one on the li…
Tolerated is a better word. There was ample ex ante evidence that the offensive was to be delayed until after the Olympics. And Russia being more beholden to Beijing as an energy supplier is certainly not bad.
But supporting separatism, in any form, isn’t great for Beijing. And China has relations with Ukraine. Huawei has contracts. And China buys Ukrainian weapons.
Am I the only one who thinks that the reality of this crisis is a lot more nuanced than what Western media shows us? Same as with Taiwan. It's an island off China and rebels flew there at some point and started to govern Taiwan as if it was theirs. China always insisted that Taiwan is part of China but because they never used military force to put an end to the game which those rebels played on that island it became…
That's a subjective way to put it, isn't it? You could also say that "rebels" took all of mainland China and Taiwan is the last remaining standoff of the "true" China.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think china is too happy about this separatist support since this sets a precedent for territories they consider separatists like Taiwan.
I really don’t understand this logic. Or rather, it’s easy to turn it around. Russia’s claim is basically, “this is ethnically Russian population speaking Russian”. That’s exactly the same claim that China could make about Taiwan.
It’s also the same claim Western non-Han China could make about itself, or India could make about Tibet.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think china is too happy about this separatist support since this sets a precedent for territories they consider separatists like Taiwan.
I really don’t understand this logic. Or rather, it’s easy to turn it around. Russia’s claim is basically, “this is ethnically Russian population speaking Russian”. That’s exactly the same claim that China could make about Taiwan.
And yet it's not China's claim over Taiwan (and the “speaking Russian” part is kind of difficult to transfer to China and Taiwan).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, of course you can heat with electricity - and using heat pumps this is definitely the future. However, the amount of nuclear available would make only a small difference here. It should be much easier to just buy gas internationally and push forward with renewables.
You can also use the heat directly (district heating) without having to go to electricity and back. This limits the electricity output efficiency but increases the overall efficiency of the plant. It requires changes to the turbines and the buildout of a district heating system though.
And that is sure, while keeping the remaining nuclear power plants in service a little bit longer might be a consideration (though unlikely), investing in new nuclear infrastructure for sure isn't. There, renewables are the way to go.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was unaware it was dead. I was under the impression that despite the brewing trouble with Russia, Germany was planning to use this pipe to buy more Russian gas. It's possible that Scholtz has different ideas about that than Merkel, I suppose.
The SPD has always been on the moderate side when it comes to Russia. His Green coalition partners are NATO hawks though.
Here's some quick numbers I just googled to understand the big picture. This pipeline has an annual capacity of 55 billion cubic meters. It's the same capacity as the Nord Stream 1, which is already in operation. If Germany was truly meaning business, they'd stop Nord Stream 1 the moment Russian boots enter Ukrainian territory. But let's leave that aside. 55 billion cubic meters translate to about 0.6 billion MWh. Th…
More informative might be: some price sensitivities around LNG, and how changing supply may affect price.
Am I the only one who thinks that the reality of this crisis is a lot more nuanced than what Western media shows us? Same as with Taiwan. It's an island off China and rebels flew there at some point and started to govern Taiwan as if it was theirs. China always insisted that Taiwan is part of China but because they never used military force to put an end to the game which those rebels played on that island it became…