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China blocks Meta's acquisition of AI startup Manus

cnbc.com

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Re: China blocks Meta's acquisition of AI startup Manus

#291

Post by refurb »

Detrytus wrote: post #26
some_random wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Your families live here", maybe "We have shadow police stations across the world", the playbook is well established

That's interesting, because recently China is definitely trying to paint themselves as the reasonable, stable partner, commited to upholding international law (unlike the US, which is ruled by a madman) . Trying to block this aquisition without good legal argument goes directly against that strategy.

Ask Vietnam, Philippines and other SE Asian country if they feel China is adhering to “international norms” when it comes to the 9 dash line.

Re: China blocks Meta's acquisition of AI startup Manus

#292

Post by itopaloglu83 »

chinadata wrote: post #219
freakynit wrote: post #218

The governments need to keep their noses away from private companies, unless private companies turn to directly, or indirectly, limit their own competition using nefarious practises. Politicians need to be kept in check, or else, they become dictators. If not, then it's just a matter of when, not if, that that transition happens.

Yes, so the US need allow ASML sell to China.

Didn’t the Dutch government take control of China-own chip maker as well?

Re: China blocks Meta's acquisition of AI startup Manus

#293

Post by BigTTYGothGF »

Avicebron wrote: post #211
BigTTYGothGF wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Outside of immigration issues, you can only be made to surrender your passport if you have been arrested and indicted for a crime, as a part of bail This has historically not been the case, for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haig_v._Agee and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Robeson

You didn't have to bring out the big gun usernames, we get it, you run a bot farm.

Did you respond to the wrong post?

Re: China blocks Meta's acquisition of AI startup Manus

#294

Post by mensetmanusman »

xbmcuser wrote: post #230
bluegatty wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a good answer. The export controls have a strategic purpose - and Manus fits squarely within the spirit of the controls and maybe not the technicality of the rules. Consider that if this were a much smaller project, they'd run afoul of the same technicalities but would they be sanctioned? Probably not. It's very fair to make comparisons as to the arbitrary application of these rules in various regimes, lord k…

Tiktok was about only one thing and that was Israel losing the narrative war as unlike most of western social media which was deranking and censoring showing of Israeli atrocities to the world Tiktok was not.

Anyone who says it’s about one thing is probably under-informed, we also saw how tiktok was pressured into showing people different realities in Russia and Ukraine.

Re: China blocks Meta's acquisition of AI startup Manus

#295

Post by ethbr1 »

xbmcuser wrote: post #230
bluegatty wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a good answer. The export controls have a strategic purpose - and Manus fits squarely within the spirit of the controls and maybe not the technicality of the rules. Consider that if this were a much smaller project, they'd run afoul of the same technicalities but would they be sanctioned? Probably not. It's very fair to make comparisons as to the arbitrary application of these rules in various regimes, lord k…

Tiktok was about only one thing and that was Israel losing the narrative war as unlike most of western social media which was deranking and censoring showing of Israeli atrocities to the world Tiktok was not.

TikTok was about capital realizing that feed algorithms are cheaper and more subtle to buy than advertising or a newspaper.

Same reason Elon bought Twitter.

Money is money, but convincing people is power.

Re: China blocks Meta's acquisition of AI startup Manus

#296

Post by 627467 »

pear01 wrote: post #185
IncreasePosts wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people are ethnonationalists, and the CEO of Tiktok, while he is Singaporean, is also ethnically Chinese. It seems pretty clear that is what the line of questioning was about, and just saying you are Singaporean and not Chinese does not answer the unstated question. Like his politics or not, it is obvious that Tom Cotton is not an idiot who does not understand that Singapore is not in China (like conversation wa…

What is the American ethnicity? Should all other ethnicities be subjected to the same round of questioning before the United States Congress? I'm not sure why you are defending Tom Cotton's intelligence. Rule #1 of asking questions in a courtroom or a congressional setting is to anticipate the answers. Put more strongly, it is often said you should not ask a question you don't already know the answer to. If he though…

Maybe it is about idealistic concepts like "ethnonationalism", but a pragmatic perspective is just that: someone with critical ties/stakes with PRC makes them vulnerable to PRC pressure (just look up PRC overseas police services, or the expanding reach of its National Security Law).

Tbh, its either naive or outright propagandistic to be surprised that powers with stakes on an issue won't pressure to have outcomes lean in their interests. There are centuries of examples of this.

Re: China blocks Meta's acquisition of AI startup Manus

#297

Post by 627467 »

jorblumesea wrote: post #20

So China is just claiming that anyone who is ethnically Chinese should be pressured? Manus is in Singapore and has no direct connections to China physically and financially. SG offices, SG product, SG founders with family on the mainland.

1. Not SG founders

2. China already claims jurisdictional reach on anyone (chinese national or not) when their national interest is involved.

Re: China blocks Meta's acquisition of AI startup Manus

#298

Post by Fricken »

glerk wrote: post #213
Fricken wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The government sits above you because it makes you do things under the threat of violence. Why do you stop at the stop sign? because the government reserves the right to hurt you if you don't. The government's legitimacy comes from it's stick being bigger than yours. It's not sacred, it's not magic. It's a bigger stick. Your value judgement would have weight if your stick was bigger. The guy with the bigger stick dec…

> The government's legitimacy comes from it's stick being bigger than yours By the same argument, are Somalian warlords and Mexican drug cartel also legitimate in the territories they control? I don't think "legitimate" is the word you are looking for to describe pure power dynamics, since "legitimate" is imbued with a moralistic judgement (look up is vs ought etc.). But yes, in practice, if I have a gun pointed at m…

The history of civilization is warlords showing up and saying "Give me 2 bags of wheat from each crop and I won't kill you. Not only that, once I own you, I will fight to make sure the other ensure the other guy can't steal you from me, and that you remain productive."

So long as the warlord can make good on that agreement, you have political order. Over time many abstractions emerge, but backing it all up is the big stick. Now, I'm with you, from a moral standpoint it's all abhorrent. As an anarchist I view civilization to be a hack on the human condition, and I see all states as fundamentally authoritarian.

So it's all just game theory to me. China blocked the Manus acquisition as a matter of national interest. The US also ignores international law on matters on national interest at its own convenience.

If a law is unenforceable is it really a law? Anybody can declare a law. It is only meaningful if it can be enforced.

There are regions of Mexico where cartels hold the monopoly on violence, and the longer they maintain that control the more legitimate they become.

Re: China blocks Meta's acquisition of AI startup Manus

#299

Post by NoGravitas »

HappyPanacea wrote: post #275
xbmcuser wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tiktok was about only one thing and that was Israel losing the narrative war as unlike most of western social media which was deranking and censoring showing of Israeli atrocities to the world Tiktok was not.

No, there were efforts to ban TikTok well before Oct 7th 2023 in 2020-2021 by the first Trump Admin, and there was ongoing effort in 2022-2023 during Biden Admin. TikTok Agrees to Sell U.s. Operations, https://www.tiktok.com/en/trending/detail/tiktok-agrees-to-s... , 25 Dec 2022 Biden approves banning TikTok from federal government phones, https://www.npr.org/2022/12/20/1144519602/congress-is-about-... , 20 Dec 2022…

There were National Security ghouls pushing a TikTok ban as far back as 2020 because of the "China bad" angle, but it didn't really become a widespread and bipartisan concern until after the latest round of massacres amped up in Gaza and USAians started seeing atrocities on TikTok.

Re: China blocks Meta's acquisition of AI startup Manus

#300

Post by dublinstats »

tomhow wrote: post #220
dublinstats wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Can you please stop with this style of commenting? This is not what HN is for – ideological battle, cross-examination, sneering/snark. The thing HN is for is curious conversation, and you'll be much more at home here if you can keep that in mind and make an effort to heed the guidelines. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

I think you're misreading my tone because the other poster was so opinionated. I didn't think being Chinese was insulting or something, but had expected a continuing discussion there.

And I think my prior response in the thread was rather highbrow and clever, referencing ancient history.

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