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

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251–260 of 485 posts

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

#251
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is a lie. China has an ongoing invasion of Bhutan.

China built a road and villages and military outposts in Bhutan, over China-Bhutan border.

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

#252
post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both points are not really true. For the China part: Yes, the "by force" part certainly exists as a position, in competition to the peaceful unification approach. It's important to keep in mind, though, that the confrontative position of the first Trump administration and afterwards the Biden administration significantly helped the "by force" faction. There was an interesting piece in Foreign Policy about that, a soc…

So according to your logic, it only counts if it's unanimous inside Taiwan to not be taken over by Beijing but it doesn't need to be unanimous for those who want reunification with China?

No. I pointed out that both the "by force" statement for China and the "Taiwan doesn't want" statement are so oversimplified that they became factually incorrect. The "logic" is your inference and neither stated nor implied by me.

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

#253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ahhahah. For SWEs I think the phrase is "undefined behavior". FWIW, my friend, I'm a Jew and I spent 5 years in France, Spain and Germany before coming to Prague. Czechia was the one place I felt welcome and safe in the EU. The noble history of the Czechs played a big role in that, but you could feel it every day in the way people treated each other. There is something incredible there about the people, the family, t…

Czechia is the most Jewish-friendly country in the EU, and will likely stay so. Our Jewish community used to be very vibrant and it is sorely missed. We should indeed defend Taiwan, but we (as "the entire EU") seem to be lukewarm even about defending Ukraine which is much closer to us and in a hot war. Some people just prefer sticking their head in the sand. Maybe the Jewish people are better at discerning building-u…

I hope it remains so. I felt an affinity from even before I stepped off the train from Munich. It's a funny story - my passport was examined by German police in the bar car of the train. My passport was not in order and they were radio calling to see whether to haul me back to Munich and detain me. I played for time as the border approached. The bartender was Czech, and he watched all this quietly. As soon as we stopped at the last town on the border, the police decided to tell me to have a nice trip, and he took me into the store room on the train, opened the window and poured shots and lit a cigarette for me as we crossed the border and said "fucking Germans. Welcome to Czechia... anything is possible!" And immediately I fell in love with the country. I would say, God bless that bartender on the train but almost everyone I met in the next year in Prague was equally kind and wonderful.

I can't speak for all Jewish people, but yes we are raised reading history to understand the way that threats can build up over time, and the multiple masks that threats can wear. For me, personally, I see this as an affinity to all small, powerless but free people... Kurds, Taiwanese, Ukrainians, Tibetans, Yazidis... particularly those who don't evangelize but simply want to be left alone to prosper and live in peace with their own people. Czechs are similar to that as the most "western-facing Slavic people" and I grew up in America enthralled by Vaclav Havel as a beacon for individuals and every small nation wanting freedom.

You are of course right that this history of persecution raises one's antennae and evokes horror at anything that seems to favor totalitarian modes of thinking. But the Czechs level of paranoia made me laugh sometimes, maybe because it was so similar.

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

#254

Maybe we should stop selecting islands next to China to be global critical supply chain hubs. I mean, even if the Chinese were non-expansionist and benevolent, it's still kind of tempting them a little too much.

Who is "we"? Japan doesn't have much choice, they either do things even though they are next to China, or ..what? Maybe its time for people to stop being paralyzed by fear and invest in their future. If China is such a severe threat to Japan, then invest more in the JSDF. Yes, China is powerful and has an aggressive stance, but that's no reason to give up without a fight. Japan and South Korea together can very nearl…

They already are investing in the JSDF. The JS Chokai is in San Diego right now being equipped with Tomahawk cruise missles, but AFAIK the plan is to equipped all 8 Kongo class destroyers with those missles.

And that's just one part of the expansion. But the short version is that the JSDF isn't staying a defensive only institution.

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

#255
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I respect China (in fact, in this stupid timeline more than the U.S.) but China is already huge. The whole world would be a much better place if China just chilled the fuck out and would just stop harassing border countries (I know, I know, this is true for at least two quarters of planet Earth). Let them have Taiwan if that would make them shut up, but it won't. Tributary system? Allowed to keep? Pressure Japan? How…

I think you’ve nailed it perfectly. China definitely has its imperialist side, but the way it operates is completely different from the US style. I often feel China’s foreign policy is kinda “dumb” in execution, but that’s just our national character at work. Take Myanmar as an example: if we were the US, it would be simple – send in troops, install a pro-China regime, done. But we’re not America, and we can’t do tha…

> Take Myanmar as an example: if we were the US, it would be simple – send in troops, install a pro-China regime, done. But we’re not America, and we can’t do that without the entire Western media tearing us apart.

The way to do it, is to propose a UN coalition invasion. Or to quietly provide arms to the side you like more (which never backfires).

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

#256
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right now there is no non-violent path to achieving that because Taiwan intends to violently and militarily resist if it comes to that. Probably with the aid of America, although I’m a lot less certain of that than 5 year ago, and it’s looking like it’s a lot more likely to be with the aid of Japan as well. Also a success by the PRC would still result in the political destruction of the Republic of China and the subj…

It should be noted that even if Taiwan's military resistance were negligible (or on the order of Tibet's), which it's not, that would not validate invading them and taking away their autonomy. For all intents and purposes, Taiwan is a self-governing nation, distinct from China precisely because it does not wish to be part of China.

Agreed.

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

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 oppr…

The cloak of words has always been needed, for some reason, to convince a population to make the sacrifices necessary to go to war. Yes, there have been other spoken reasons for invading a peaceful sovereign country. This does not change the fact that Russia is the belligerent party against Ukraine, or that China is the belligerent against a completely harmless and peaceful Taiwan. Taiwan's situation right now is ver…

> The cloak of words has always been needed, for some reason

Needed? Probably not. There is just no reason not to use that cloak of words.

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

#258
post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both points are not really true. For the China part: Yes, the "by force" part certainly exists as a position, in competition to the peaceful unification approach. It's important to keep in mind, though, that the confrontative position of the first Trump administration and afterwards the Biden administration significantly helped the "by force" faction. There was an interesting piece in Foreign Policy about that, a soc…

>> the confrontative position of the first Trump administration and afterwards the Biden administration significantly helped the "by force" faction This is the argument that you hit your wife because someone on the telephone made you angry.

This is about international relations. You won't get any insight into it if you reduce any point you don't like to argumentative metaphors.

Even within the framework of (structural) realism so popular in contemporary US politics there's this well-known problem that the buildup of defense capabilities of party A looks like aggression to party B - and vice versa. See the seminal work Perception and Misperception in International Politics. Or the relations of Britain and Germany before WW1 and WW2.

The FP article I mentioned, "Trump’s Trade War May Make Elite Young Chinese More Nationalistic" [1], illustrates the argument. You have actual empirical data, changing over time, after exposure to the "treatment". So at least a hint of causality.

[1] https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/05/21/trump-tariffs-china-tra...

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

#259

Maybe we should stop selecting islands next to China to be global critical supply chain hubs. I mean, even if the Chinese were non-expansionist and benevolent, it's still kind of tempting them a little too much.

This is 750 km from China (going through Russia) and a 2600km trip from China's nearest port. If this isn't safe enough is all of Asia off limits then?

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

#260
post #78

As a European I have to say I am extremely jealous of a government with the willingness of doing something as radical as this. Europe desperately needs to secure its own semi conductor supply chain. Neither the EU nor any member states seems willing to do anything about this though. Europe still is in a position, where it feasibly could control 100% of the semiconductor value chain on the continent. But besides meani…

At least European countries excel at introducing new regulations and taxes.

Imagine a government that considers its people more than tools for the wealthy to use and discard as they see fit! So many regulations meant to protect the plebes!

Universal healthcare? Vacation time you can actually use? Data privacy laws?

What a bunch of losers! Next you’ll tell me they actually give parents time off to raise their kids instead of dumping them into daycare after a month of drudgery and try to call it bonding !

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