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

Japan's gamble to turn island of Hokkaido into global chip hub

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 485 posts

Re: Japan's gamble to turn island of Hokkaido into global chip hub

#151

Post by jabron »

elefanten wrote: post #129
noduerme wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not even a tough call if you had to lay odds on which would go offline first. Is "politically unstable" once again an acceptable euphemism for a small democracy being threatened with destruction by a totalitarian superpower? I thought we decided that was gauche. After, say, the German invasion of Czechoslovakia.

Spot on. And the mistake of considering appeasement of said totalitarian superpower by “letting them have it” would be just as enormous.

Comparing Nazi Germany and the PRC in any way is certainly an interesting choice, considering they're the one major power in the world that actually doesn't have a recent history of invading sovereign nations.

Re: Japan's gamble to turn island of Hokkaido into global chip hub

#152

Post by ivell »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #97
ivell wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That cost is simply too high; no one in China wants to pay it China was happy to invade Tibet and assimilate it's population. Hard to believe that a government who claims all of South China sea, large parts of India (Arunachal Pradesh) does not want to expand. Or do you think people of Arunachal Pradesh are also Chinese?

Arunachal Pradesh is a historic part of Tibet and was part of the Qing Empire before the Chinese revolution of 1912. When Tibet then broke away from China the Brits got what is now Arunachal Pradesh from Tibet. Hence the ongoing Chinese claim but the days of any military actions are long gone.

If historical claims are valid, then Mongols would be very happy to claim large swaths of land. Or if more recent claims are to be taken, then the Brits have claims over quite a large amount of countries.

Historical claims are meaningless and are just an excuse for expansion.

Re: Japan's gamble to turn island of Hokkaido into global chip hub

#153

Post by noduerme »

inglor_cz wrote: post #132
noduerme wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not even a tough call if you had to lay odds on which would go offline first. Is "politically unstable" once again an acceptable euphemism for a small democracy being threatened with destruction by a totalitarian superpower? I thought we decided that was gauche. After, say, the German invasion of Czechoslovakia.

As a Czech who absolutely hates the Protectorate era, I can still see a good case to use somewhat neutral expressions like "politically unstable" if you want to discuss technical topics like supply chains without delving into the underlying politics. Declaring "I am a friend of democracies threatened by totalitarian countries" before every economic utterance looks as performative and ultimately counterproductive to m…

So, let's say the TSMC is the modern equivalent in "supply chain" terms as Czech guns made in Plzeň, like the Škoda 75mm cannon - wait, let's rewind. I'm not saying Czechoslovakia was politically stable in 1939. I'm saying that when your neighbor claims they need to rescue you from instability - like when America says they need to rescue a Latin American or Middle Eastern country from "political instability" when that country elects someone who doesn't want the country's resources owned and run by companies with imperialist backing - that is code for a green light to conquer them and take their resources. The same as it was for the Germans. The same as it is for China re: Taiwan and Russia re: all the former Soviet republics. Declaring your neighbor "politically unstable" and presenting yourself as its savior was the clearest way in the 20th Century to declare war without any casus belli. I'm sure you wouldn't like your country to be invaded again if the powers around it decide you can't manage your own affairs.

[edit] I also spent about a year living in Prague and I love your country, Czechs are the best, and their sense of freedom is an immense relief from let's say other countries in the EU, so, I think it's amazing that you have maintained your independence from the enormous forces surrounding you and pulling in all directions. I think part of this is something I observed, that Czechs act like they are part of one small family.

Re: Japan's gamble to turn island of Hokkaido into global chip hub

#154

Post by watwut »

tonyhart7 wrote: post #141
watwut wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean, like America is doing right now while simultaneously destroying its international position and quality of life?

"simultaneously destroying its international position" US has been doing the same thing for last 200 years and you act like its been different ??? oh, is that because you dnt get benefit as opposed to instability that US cause like middle east, south america, africa and asia ????

US was not destroying its own international position for 200 years. Their international position went all the way up in that period. It was also not destroying its own quality of life for 200 years.

Re: Japan's gamble to turn island of Hokkaido into global chip hub

#156

Post by iamacyborg »

laughing_man wrote: post #24
jack_tripper wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's with all this scaremongering around China gonna invade everything anytime soon? How many wars has China started? In my lifetime I've only seen one major county besides Russia having a habbit of starting illegal wars whenever geopolitics doesn't go its way and it's not China.

China has started border skirmishes with India every twenty years or so since the founding of the PRC. And then there's Tibet. Just because they haven't initiated a mass invasion of Eastern Siberia you shouldn't get the idea China isn't pursuing an expansionist foreign policy.

> And then there's Tibet.

I suspect they only care about Tibet in as much as it’s crucial for freshwater supply across significant parts of Asia, which is precisely why there are border clashes with Indian forces.

Re: Japan's gamble to turn island of Hokkaido into global chip hub

#157

Post by gampleman »

jack_tripper wrote: post #62
rich_sasha wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China kind of says a lot of things Russia was saying for the past 20 years. A lot of the wester world (not all) said, yeah yeah, it's all just talk. Then it wasn't. I sincerely hope China doesn't go that was as it is to me, despite all its flaws, a super impressive country, but I think it careless to ignore warmongering talk.

A LOT of countries on the planet talk about annexing their former territories, like Orbans Hungary. Others have actually done it (Armenia- Azerbaijan). What do you want to do about it? Start a world war with them just in case to provent them from doing it (further)? Bombing them in the name of peace?

"Preventive war is like committing suicide out of fear of death."

Otto von Bismarck

Re: Japan's gamble to turn island of Hokkaido into global chip hub

#158

Post by decimalenough »

SenHeng wrote: post #72
HeinzStuckeIt wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The South China Morning Post itself recently wrote on speculation that Beijing could try to challenge Tokyo’s control of Okinawa, given its history and proximity to Taiwan.[0] [0] https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3333468/ch...

About a decade ago, some Chinese propagandists were encouraging calling Okinawa the Ryukyu kingdom and trying to ferment an independence campaign. It didn’t get too far.

Ryukyu was an independent kingdom with its own ruling court, language, culture etc until 1872, when it was annexed by Japan. Quite a few Okinawans would rather like to return to the previous state of affairs, although probably not if it involves exchanging the Japanese yoke for the Chinese one. (Ryukyu was a Qing tributary, but the Qing had bigger problems on their hands than worrying about a bunch of small islands.)

Re: Japan's gamble to turn island of Hokkaido into global chip hub

#159

Post by YurgenJurgensen »

TheThirdNuke wrote: post #7
ta20240528 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you clarify this for me: the Soviets don't exist, so how can they possibly take the whole of Japan - in some future? If you mean Russia, then no.

Ukraine has a proper army and the support of Europe, albeit with dated weapons. Japan has neither and it's dubious whether the United States would step in. Hokkaido has always been under threat from Russia and the Soviets quickly took the Kuril Islands, which wasn't even originally theirs.

The Russians lost control of the Black Sea to a country that doesn’t have a navy. Its naval incompetence is legendary. There is zero chance of them conducting an amphibious invasion against anyone any time this century.

Re: Japan's gamble to turn island of Hokkaido into global chip hub

#160

Post by inglor_cz »

noduerme wrote: post #153
inglor_cz wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Czech who absolutely hates the Protectorate era, I can still see a good case to use somewhat neutral expressions like "politically unstable" if you want to discuss technical topics like supply chains without delving into the underlying politics. Declaring "I am a friend of democracies threatened by totalitarian countries" before every economic utterance looks as performative and ultimately counterproductive to m…

So, let's say the TSMC is the modern equivalent in "supply chain" terms as Czech guns made in Plzeň, like the Škoda 75mm cannon - wait, let's rewind. I'm not saying Czechoslovakia was politically stable in 1939. I'm saying that when your neighbor claims they need to rescue you from instability - like when America says they need to rescue a Latin American or Middle Eastern country from "political instability" when tha…

Again, context matters and we are likely not talking in a "let us decide whom to invade" context.

BTW "Declaring your neighbor "politically unstable" and presenting yourself as its savior was the clearest way in the 20th Century to declare war without any casus belli" is not really true, sometimes this happened, but wars have been declared for all sorts of putative reasons, like "our particular minority is being oppressed" or "the neighbouring government plotted against the life of our sovereign" or "they are infidels, go get them".

Anyway I don't really see what you propose. Binning expressions because someone someday used them in bad faith, in the belief that this will stop future invasions from happening?

This seems to be somewhat futile to me. Invasions aren't fundamentally caused by words. Words only work as a cloak and one cloak can be easily substituted by another, and it will, depending on the current state of politics in the invader and invadee country.

Note that the Russians explained their invasion into Ukraine by calling them "fascists". Should the Western civilization drop the word forever because of that?

Post reply on HN