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TSMC at the head of history’s tide: two high walls and one sharp knife

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Re: TSMC at the head of history’s tide: two high walls and one sharp knife

#62
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> China regards Taiwan as part of China, whether right now or eventually depends on how much CCP koolaid they've consumed. The problem with using "China" here is that it is always misleading if people have no prior knowledge of the situation. Specifically "China" here means "People's Republic of China" because they consider that the "Republic of China" ceased to exist in 1949 and Taiwan, as a province of the Republic…

>So it's a bit like if the two Koreas refused to acknowledge the existence of each other and claimed the whole peninsula for themselves, which I believe is actually not far from the situation there. But it's more complicated with China because of the existence of a "3rd faction" in Taiwan that would like to see Taiwan independent of any Chinese state whatever that state might be. I believe this is the official situat…

Well, I think this is the difference between the official positions (which are the same on both sides) and the reality on the ground in terms of relative power.

The PRC/mainland is massively bigger and more powerful than the ROC/Taiwan so they think that they have the means to pursue their official position.

Taiwan knows that they don't have the means to pursue their official position so there is little point making noise about it. And furthermore, the "3rd faction", which the current President belongs to, is not sympathetic to that position, anyway. But when the KMT is in power they do at in way that protects that position (eventual (re-)unifaction).

Re: TSMC at the head of history’s tide: two high walls and one sharp knife

#63
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Ukraine disappears tomorrow, Western Europe will follow, and with that the only US platz d'arme in Asia against Russia, and the only remaining US nuclear allies. Following this, don't think you will be able to leisurely spend the remaining of your life. Everybody down to your granny will be forcefully drafted, and mobilised.

>If Ukraine disappears tomorrow, Western Europe will follow Ah yes, the dreaded invasion of Western Europe by Russia, with their 90% outdated tanks and planes that could be held back by a single major European army. A terrifying prospects that haunts every european at night.

Why the derision? Thousands died when Russia seized Crimea and kicked off skirmishes in Donbass.

Re: TSMC at the head of history’s tide: two high walls and one sharp knife

#64

I've seen usage of Google Docs as a generic method for publicizing articles increase a great deal over the past year or two. Especially from China / greater Asia to a lesser extent. Why?

Google Docs makes it easy to add annotations to parts of a text, which you can see used here by the author to add sidenotes, as a comment section and by readers to suggest improvements to the translation.

I'm not aware of it being some general trend, though; I've only seen Jeff Ding use it like that. Could you point to some other writers using Google Docs as a generic publishing method?

Re: TSMC at the head of history’s tide: two high walls and one sharp knife

#65
post #64

I've seen usage of Google Docs as a generic method for publicizing articles increase a great deal over the past year or two. Especially from China / greater Asia to a lesser extent. Why?

Google Docs makes it easy to add annotations to parts of a text, which you can see used here by the author to add sidenotes, as a comment section and by readers to suggest improvements to the translation. I'm not aware of it being some general trend, though; I've only seen Jeff Ding use it like that. Could you point to some other writers using Google Docs as a generic publishing method?

The vast majority of publications from Hong Kong protestors are through Google Docs for example: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZrIiXypVUvPIRs9JG8AsU55F...

Re: TSMC at the head of history’s tide: two high walls and one sharp knife

#66
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If Ukraine disappears tomorrow, Western Europe will follow Ah yes, the dreaded invasion of Western Europe by Russia, with their 90% outdated tanks and planes that could be held back by a single major European army. A terrifying prospects that haunts every european at night.

Why the derision? Thousands died when Russia seized Crimea and kicked off skirmishes in Donbass.

It's denial. People are ready to deny the reality if doing so lets them justify their inaction.

Re: TSMC at the head of history’s tide: two high walls and one sharp knife

#67
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If Ukraine disappears tomorrow, Western Europe will follow Ah yes, the dreaded invasion of Western Europe by Russia, with their 90% outdated tanks and planes that could be held back by a single major European army. A terrifying prospects that haunts every european at night.

> Ah yes, the dreaded invasion of Western Europe by Russia, with their 90% outdated tanks and planes that could be held back by a single major European army. Tanks - Russia: 10000+ Tanks - Germany: 300 + 1200 US army tanks

Firstly, it's quite disingenious to take Germany as the example when they have never had a large army in the past 50 years and have not been a military power. Let's compare what is comparable: Russia and France use about the same percentage of their budget for military purposes: 9% for France, 11% for Russia.

Tanks - Russia

- T72 - 2000 tanks, 7000 in reserve

- T90 - 350 active, 200 reserve

- T14 Armata (i.e., top of the line) - 100 planned, 20+ active.

Tanks - France

  - Leclerc (top of the line) - 222 active, 200 upgraded to XLR-Standard

  - AMX10/20 - 300
Planes - Russia

  - SU57 - 1.

  - SU35S (refurbished Su27 from 2003) - 97

  - SU34 (from 1990) - 120

  - Mig35 - 4.

  - Planes from before 1980 - 500
Planes - France

  - Rafale B/C/M - 150

  - Mirage 2000 - 120
So, even if Russia intends to throw tanks from 1970 at Europe to have them be utterly crushed by aviation, a single country from Europe stands more or less toe to toe with it.

Re: TSMC at the head of history’s tide: two high walls and one sharp knife

#68
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is Chinese "self-media" being gossip blogs needing salt different from all the jobs, elon musk, paul graham and other kind of hero worship this place is normally overflowing with? Don't get me wrong, I'm generally against Hero worship in general, and I have my fair share of beefs with ALL these different hero worship things, but I grew up on Bill Gates hero worship only to later find out that he sold the whole th…

Coz Chinese people have been conditioned by a level censorship and media control unseen elsewhere, the resulting susceptibility to yummy and palatble disinformation is quite deep and prevalent, you may have read news about strong reaction about strange things from the west, you guessed it right there's alway legions of "self-media" behind it, it’s unfettered and state sanctioned algorithm-driven circlejerk machine, a…

Buddy, if you watch American news media with any level of knowledge about material reality you will be blown away by the level of deception, sensationalism, and servility to power. We all need to chill out when talking about foreign countries.

Re: TSMC at the head of history’s tide: two high walls and one sharp knife

#69
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of Taiwanese see themselves as Chinese; not under the same government. But of the same people.

% lower and lower. The recent 228 isa case. Many Taiwanese considered themselves Japanese as well. And many just Taiwanese. Let there be a vote ... actually it has been voted sort of.

[deleted]

Re: TSMC at the head of history’s tide: two high walls and one sharp knife

#70
post #61

Taiwan population is around 24 million. It might be cheaper for US to offer to relocate whole country to the continental North America. Give everyone citizenship and free land, move TSMC to Texas. Make Taiwan island a huge military base.

Taiwan is bigger than Maryland. We need a military base bigger than Maryland?
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