Update On China

| October 8, 2020

Eeewww!  This is another look at China, and how it may not be the threat we sometimes perceive.

https://www.defensenews.com/opinion/commentary/2020/09/17/if-china-loses-a-future-war-entropy-could-be-imminent/?utm_source=clavis

Let me just drop some real history on you: real innovation in China came to an end with the end of the K’ang Tsi dynasty. At that time, porcelain produced during the K’ang Tsi reign was so well-made and so durable that it was sought after by European traders for their wealthy clients. The remains of shipments of that porcelain have been found at the sites of Spanish cargo ships that foundered in a Caribbean hurricane and sank with all hands and cargo on board In the Gulf of Mexico, where they’d stopped to take on gold shipments to Spain.

When the Regency Period rolled around, and George III spent time babbling to himself in a mental hospital while the Prince Consort (William) took the reins of rulership, it was considered even more valuable as a prestigious antique, and was eagerly sought after by the rising middle class in England’s early 19th century.

By the time the British Crown had begun to release its hold on that part of the world, the Chinese imperial government was mostly on its way out. When Mao Tse-Tung got into his land war with Chiang Kai-Shek and chased him off the mainland to Taiwan at the end of WWII, the damage to innovation in the Chinese people had long been squelched into a nonexistent state. It was all about pleasing Mao. The Great Famine, which was caused by a prolonged drought, did enough damage to the population in general on its own, so that by the time it was over and Mao was seated firmly on his pedestal, the Great Leap Forward had become the Great Leap Backward.

The Chinese people have not had anything creative come out of them in nearly a century now. All the “innovations” they have are stolen from US companies that send materials and plans to them to be manufactured into high-priced stuff for sale here in the USA. Best example is the Apple iPhone, (plus whatever follows it now), which costs probably $25 to produce and goes for $3,000 to $5,000, or whatever the current price is.

Several weeks ago, I posted an article about six Chinese nationals at the NIH who had been sent packing back to China, and who were here for the purpose of getting info on how to make the COVID-19 vaccines. This is not something new: the Soviets had spies here in the USA during and after World War II. The only reason that the Soviets were able to do their own nuclear testing was because of that little project at the University of Chicago under the Alonso Stagg stadium, where a nuclear chain reaction finally came into existence. One of the physicists wo worked on that was a Nazi spy funneling everything to Hitler’s physicists. And the Soviet army confiscated all of that, took it home to Moscow’s scientists, who started working on it immediately, once the War was over. Yes, Hitler’s physicists had been working on it in Austria; the remains of a heavy water generator were found after the war was over.

We had Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, a really prime pair of people who funneled classified info to the Soviets after WWII, based on “principles”, and more recently, the Walker family who did it for the sole sake of cash.

Without this theft of what is best described as private or intellectual property, neither the Soviets nor the Chinese could have been very successful with a nukes program. Look how long it took Fatty Kim da T’ird to get one that did work. And he nearly blew the lid off the mountain where that last nuke test took place. He hasn’t done anything like that lately; I wonder if he spooked himself.

The gist of the linked article is that without the innovations that are unintentionally supplied to the Chinese, they will stagnate and if there is a real war, they will be unable to return to their current level. The author indicates that a real war will – not would – result in a real loss of control of the populace and China, as a nation will sink back into the entropy that existed under Chairman Mao.

Category: China, Historical

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A Proud Infidel®™

Hell, just look at the Military hardware the Chinese use and guess how much of it ISN’T copied from us and the Russkies!

Commissar

Makes sense for an emerging power to do this. Skip years of research and development by stealing it. They are not trying to be a peer threat to the US. Just sufficiently near peer to be able to leverage conflict deterrence as a means to achieve their goals of being a regional hegemon. Americans have proven that they are no longer willing to shed blood and treasure to defend other nation. A long standing political trajectory that has been accelerated and politically affirmed by the Trump administration. China, knowing this only needs to increase the stakes of a conflict such that the US is unwilling to risk conflict other than to pursue narrowmUS interests. In the past, nations in the region would constantly put US interests over Chinese interests in international negotiations because they regarded the US as the more reliable partner and the US was the undisputed hegemon in the Pacfic region. This has always been politically aggravating to China because most Chinese senior leaders believe China should be regarded as the regional hegemon. China plays the long game and it was clear that the US was retreating from their willingness to be involved in foreign conflicts. It has been a long slow drunken walk, but China knew the sentiment of the American people was that foreign entanglements should be a much lower priority for US resources. So all China had to do was develop sufficient force projection to be able to serve as a regional hegemon as the US disengaged in the region or their commitment in the region became less re,label forcing regional nations to reconsider their priorities with respect to balancing US/Chinese interests. The canary in the mine is the moment in time when the Chinese military is a sufficient deterrent where we begin to equivocate on our defense commitments in Taiwan. Trump significantly disrupted our commitments in the region. Even going so far as to bring into question our commitment to South Korea. And withdrawing from the Trans Pacific Partnership efforts. Among the primary goals of the TPP was to create a trade agreement that… Read more »

MI Ranger

So Here Commissar, I am confused by your propaganda?!
If Mr.President has demonstrated anything it is his willingness to kill his enemies and minimize the war. He killed the Iranian General, and left it at that, Iran did an unspeakable retaliation but because no US lives were lost (on purpose or not) he de-escalated. Yes, some soldiers have TBI, but no one else died.
China seems to appeasing the mad tyrant, not paying his kids to let them continue their way. If China escalates we will likely see a society bombed into the stone age and America with a few less Democrats.

MI Ranger

Herr Commissar (I hate auto correct!)

Bim

Story time: about 10 years ago, I was an RF engineer working on hardware to provide in-building systems for cell service -essentially, if you worked in a building that had poor cell service, you would purchase a system with our box to grab the outside signal and push it into your building for seamless coverage.

We designed a good, low noise power amplifier module that resided in the unit and had it built inhouse. I think the amortized cost for us to build one was around $400 each. Our company got purchased by a big corporation and the higher ups decided to farm everything out to be built overseas to save labor. A year later, in another cost cutting endeavor, some bigwig decides that we don’t need to be enginerding or supporting all this stuff ourselves either and started looking for off-the-shelf modules to replace the one I helped design as well as most of our other stuff.

We got in several different modules from different manufacturers in China to test and evaluate. Two of them (from different companies) had the exact specifications to our original unit. I opened both of them and found OUR design, right down to the revision numbers on the software and circuit boards. They were in a different enclosure/heatsink, but the guts of the unit was 100% our work. I brought this up to management, who shrugged their shoulders and said “Let’s buy them, then. They’re only $140 delivered.”

I left the company immediately after that – laid off due to more cost cutting.

Fuck China. With the many-barbed cock of Satan.

KoB

Imma wid you Bim; BTDT…several times. Classic example of why we find our selves in the mess we are in. Management has sold out the American worker AND consumer for a few more points/pennies of profit. I try real real hard not to buy Chinese product and generally succeed. Am gonna have to buy me a TV Set eventually. If I can’t find one NOT made in China, then I’ll just do without. A multitude of electronics companies that I repped for back yonder are gone.

I have no real problem with the brainwashed Chinese person. They really have no clue or say so in their lives. The Chinese Communist Government is all they have ever known, for the most part. Very few left from the time before Mao took over. The Chinese Communist Government? They can kiss my ass and the sooner they are destroyed, the better.

rgr769

An Apple iPhone goes for about $900 to $1000. I got a two-fer at Costco an AT&T plan renewal. I would not be surprised that it only costs $25 to make one, especially if the ChiComs are using prison labor to make some of the components.

Taras Shevchenko

Not all tech transfer was theft or unintentional.

Flashback: Bill Clinton gave China missile technology
https://capitalresearch.org/article/flashback-bill-clinton-gave-china-missile-technology/

SteeleyI

The article is a bit ham-fisted. True, National Socialism was hate filled, but it also built the economy that yielded (arguably) the greatest military the world had ever seen to that point.

The Chinese performed poorly against Vietnam because they were INVADING VIETNAM, which is right up there with invading Russia in the winter or Afghanistan…ever. I mean, we didn’t do so well in any of those three places. In a war with China we would be fighting in their backyard. They have the interior lines, they have been building infrastructure for decades, and they have less to lose. All they have to do is sink one carrier or take out one major Army or Marine combat formation with a lucky rocket strike.

We have to start thinking about war differently- our enemies do. We see it as a binary thing- War/Peace. In reality, it is a continuum or spectrum.

By the way, the Soviets got a nuke partly because of espionage, but in the main because they stole as many Nazis as we did.

We have to start thinking about war differently- the rest of the world is.