China sanctions US drone maker Skydio • Hacker News Board

Re: China sanctions US drone maker Skydio

#51

Post by aurareturn » Thu, Oct 31, 2024, 7:41 PM UTC

Manuel_D wrote: post #38

aurareturn wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that people actually ask this question, shows how people in the west (assuming you are from there) only see China through mainstream media. No offense to you in particular. In China, if you walk around the street in any city, you can see many American brands such as McDonalds, KFC, Starbucks, Microsoft, Apple. American logos are proudly displayed. If you walk into a cafe, you will more often than not, hear A…

75% of Chinese report negative views of the US: https://sccei.fsi.stanford.edu/china-briefs/how-do-chinese-p... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-American_sentiment_in_m... Apparently 60% responded that the killing of Bin Laden was a bad thing because he was an anti-american warrior.

>75% of Chinese report negative views of the US

I'm not arguing that. I'm arguing the type of negative view and the degree.

Re: China sanctions US drone maker Skydio

#52

Post by petre » Thu, Oct 31, 2024, 7:42 PM UTC

lazyeye wrote: post #18

aurareturn wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny thing is, when I talk to Chinese people in China, nearly all of them understand why the US and China are fighting: economic reasons. There isn't the same level of hate/demonization of the US in China as there is the opposite in US. People in China seem to be able to separate the emotions from the situation and able to understand the circumstance logically. Meanwhile, in the US, it's become more of a hate thing…

Is this actually true? From what Ive seen and read, the US is constantly demonized in the Chinese media.

I sonetimes come across Global Times articles which are subtly nuanced, not by demonizing the US but by promoting the Chinese narrative instead instead.

Re: China sanctions US drone maker Skydio

#53

Post by jayyhu » Thu, Oct 31, 2024, 7:42 PM UTC

dtquad wrote: post #20

The US "sanctions on Chinese" are limited to US federal agencies not being allowed to use Chinese drones. China now confidently banning Skydio entirely and also blocking them from getting batteries probably means that China has concluded that it is impossible for the US to make batteries on their own. People will bring up the recent lithium discoveries in the US but has completely forgotten the amount propaganda that…

While it might be hard for the US to make lithium batteries that are competitive economically, there are still many countries in the world that can make them economically that are not China, eg. SK, Japan, Taiwan, and the rest of SEA. For Skydio, surviving these sanctions is just a matter of moving their supply chain away from China.

Re: China sanctions US drone maker Skydio

#54

Post by mightyham » Thu, Oct 31, 2024, 7:46 PM UTC

simonsarris wrote: post #26

aurareturn wrote: post #5

I find the author's letter a bit tone deaf. It acknowledges that China is sanctioning Skydio for military reasons, but ignores that the US is doing the same.

You mean with DJI? It's not remotely symmetrical. The US does not prohibit DJI from buying US parts to use in their drones. The US do not prohibit US citizens from buying DJI drones. Only the US Dept of Defense is prohibited from buying DJI equipment. The US does this because DJI is considered a Chinese Military Company [1] (nb that DJI disputes this and asked to be removed from the list). China is sanctioning Skydio…

Last month the U.S. House of Representatives voted to "bar new drones from Chinese drone manufacturer DJI from operating in the United States"[1], and even more recently there has been reports that customs is, using some arguably phony justifications, holding up imports of DJI drones[2].

While you are right that the US has not fully passed and officially enforced a country-wide DJI ban, saying that the US is "just" banning DJI usage by the dept of defense, ignores a number of developments suggesting that the US is in the process of a more expansive ban.

[1] https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-house-votes-bar-new-dron... [2] https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-customs-halting-some-dro...

Re: China sanctions US drone maker Skydio

#55

Post by aurareturn » Thu, Oct 31, 2024, 7:47 PM UTC

pedroma wrote: post #41

aurareturn wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that people actually ask this question, shows how people in the west (assuming you are from there) only see China through mainstream media. No offense to you in particular. In China, if you walk around the street in any city, you can see many American brands such as McDonalds, KFC, Starbucks, Microsoft, Apple. American logos are proudly displayed. If you walk into a cafe, you will more often than not, hear A…

I was under the impression there was a large demographic of Chinese who would buy Huawei phones over iPhones because they were Chinese and not American, despite the chip being being a few generations behind an iPhone. Meaning, there are people in China who are nationalistic, as there are in America. And these have enough of a Chinese over American view they would purchase an arguably worse product for their views. As…

  Meaning, there are people in China who are nationalistic, as there are in America. And these have enough of a Chinese over American view they would purchase an arguably worse product for their views.

Of course there are nationalists in China. I didn't argue against that.

  As for cultural exports, I think America just dominates the world in that regard. If you want to use that as a comparison China would have to have equivalent cultural exports to be a fair point. And as far as I know most people have no qualms with eating Panda Express, PF Changs, or small Chinese takeouts, which is a Chinese cultural export.

I don't think a few Americanized Chinese restaurants with American owners compare to my examples?

The cultural export power of America is precisely one of the main reasons why I sense that the level of anti-American sentiment in China is not nearly as bad as the anti-China sentiment in the US.

  I'm skeptical of that. I'd concede if you provided data but a quick Google search for AQI right now says the worst US city NYC is 54 AQI and Shenzhen is 56. Los Angeles is 33, SF is 19. (source IQAir)

The data is just me walking on any street in Shenzhen and almost never smelling any gasoline or feel the heat from cars.

Re: China sanctions US drone maker Skydio

#56

Post by aurareturn » Thu, Oct 31, 2024, 7:50 PM UTC

kortilla wrote: post #47

aurareturn wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to disagree on this one. It's not based on my personal observation. I recently read a comment on HN on why this is. The main point of that comment suggested that in a democracy, the government has to convince the public (voters) to hate something before they can justify the action. In China, they don't have do such thing obviously. Therefore, the level of propaganda is not nearly the same.

That’s a false premise. The government in the US does not need popular approval to do things. There isn’t direct voting on any of these actions and pressure on politicians is indirect and very slow for all but extremely egregious actions.

>That’s a false premise. The government in the US does not need popular approval to do things.

Are you sure about that? Every US history class I've ever taken growing up told me about some form of propaganda usage by the US government prior to some action. WWI, WWII, Cold War, Vietnam War, Iraq War etc.

Re: China sanctions US drone maker Skydio

#57

Post by aurareturn » Thu, Oct 31, 2024, 7:53 PM UTC

themaninthedark wrote: post #44

aurareturn wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that people actually ask this question, shows how people in the west (assuming you are from there) only see China through mainstream media. No offense to you in particular. In China, if you walk around the street in any city, you can see many American brands such as McDonalds, KFC, Starbucks, Microsoft, Apple. American logos are proudly displayed. If you walk into a cafe, you will more often than not, hear A…

What do you mean by "everything Chinese will inevitably get the "China bad" treatment." China is either the 2nd or 3rd largest trading partner of the US. A large amount of our finished consumer good come from there as well are raw industrial inputs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_trading_pa... https://usafacts.org/articles/who-are-the-uss-top-trade-part...

China mostly exports goods lower on the value chain. When China tries to move up in the value chain such as exporting whole cars, phones, networking gear, software, that's where the "China bad" becomes much more of a problem for Chinese companies.

Re: China sanctions US drone maker Skydio

#58

Post by ganeshkrishnan » Thu, Oct 31, 2024, 7:53 PM UTC

simne wrote: post #43

aurareturn wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean in general, starting with Huawei.

Huawei got sanctions after catch on spy activity. Who else you know?

Likewise skydio got sanctions after arming Taiwan. Can you arm Russia from within US without sanctions?

Re: China sanctions US drone maker Skydio

#59

Post by tzs » Thu, Oct 31, 2024, 7:55 PM UTC

kortilla wrote: post #50

jayyhu wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sanction aside, this action is a wake-up call for all US based companies operating in geopolitically sensitive industries that they absolutely need to diversify their supply chain away from China. And in terms of the sanction itself, it’s definitely a reasonable response by China, given the fact that DJI is heavily sanctioned by the US government.

DJI has extremely light sanctions. I can still buy them in the stores in the US. If they were heavily sanctioned by the government, this would not be possible.

> DJI has extremely light sanctions

...at the moment. The House has passed a bill that would ban the sale of most models of their drones. The bill is currently in committee in the Senate.

Re: China sanctions US drone maker Skydio

#60

Post by Spooky23 » Thu, Oct 31, 2024, 7:56 PM UTC

mightyham wrote: post #54

simonsarris wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean with DJI? It's not remotely symmetrical. The US does not prohibit DJI from buying US parts to use in their drones. The US do not prohibit US citizens from buying DJI drones. Only the US Dept of Defense is prohibited from buying DJI equipment. The US does this because DJI is considered a Chinese Military Company [1] (nb that DJI disputes this and asked to be removed from the list). China is sanctioning Skydio…

Last month the U.S. House of Representatives voted to "bar new drones from Chinese drone manufacturer DJI from operating in the United States"[1], and even more recently there has been reports that customs is, using some arguably phony justifications, holding up imports of DJI drones[2]. While you are right that the US has not fully passed and officially enforced a country-wide DJI ban, saying that the US is "just" b…

The house they always passes legislation that will never be implemented to support the base or send a message.

That signal only has meaning if the Senate or administration takes it up. For example, before the great flip of segregation advocates, the house passed legislation making lynching a federal crime for nearly 50 years. The Senate never allowed it to leave committee for a vote.

The meaning of the signal is unclear without understanding the dynamics. The MAGA idiots control it, so there’s a lot of performative legislation to keep the crowd occupied.