China Watch Thread

Post Reply
User avatar
caltrek
Posts: 6474
Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 1:17 pm

Re: China Watch Thread

Post by caltrek »

French Senators Visit Taiwan Despite Chinese Opposition
October 5, 2021

https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2021 ... ition.html

Introduction:
(Kyodo News) Taipei - A group of French senators who form a France-Taiwan parliamentary friendship group, including former Defense Minister Alain Richard, arrived on the self-governed island on Wednesday, local media reported.

China lodged its strong opposition to their Taiwan visit when the plan came to light in March, with the Chinese ambassador to France sending a letter to Richard saying the move would run counter to the "one-China" principle.

The senators are expected to meet with Taiwanese officials during their visit, including President Tsai Ing-wen on Thursday, according to her office.
Taiwan's Foreign Ministry said on Twitter on Wednesday that it wishes the senators "a rewarding visit aimed at taking two-way ties to new heights."

When China objected to the senators' plan, the French Foreign Ministry brushed aside the complaint, saying they can freely decide on their planning for visits and meetings.
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
User avatar
caltrek
Posts: 6474
Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 1:17 pm

Re: China Watch Thread

Post by caltrek »

The Many Signals China Is Sending With Its Taiwan Flyovers
by Jen Kirby
October 9, 2021

https://www.vox.com/22713517/china-taiw ... s-xi-biden

Introduction:
(Vox) On October 1, the Chinese military sent a batch of 38 warplanes to bother Taiwan. Over the next four days, Taiwan says that the Chinese military deployed about 150 aircraft into its air defense identification zone, or ADIZ, an area that extends past Taiwan’s airspace within which aircraft still have to identify themselves. Taiwan’s defense minister called the provocation the “most serious” in 40 years.

Raymond Kuo:

…The important thing to recognize is that they’re entering the air identification defense zone, the AIDZ, but not Taiwanese airspace. Under international law, your airspace extends 12 nautical miles outside your land boundary, for lack of a better term. AIDZ — I think about 20 countries have declared AIDZ — is, essentially, when you enter this zone, we want you to identify yourself to give our air defenses more time to figure out who you are. So [China’s military] has been entering in this southwestern corner, they’ve been vectoring around Taiwan, so kind of parallel to the Taiwanese territorial waters and airspace.

…I think recently — not just this October, but the previous few months — has been a response to the broader tightening of US alliances in the region. The Joe Biden administration has…quickly coalesced a coalition against China and tightened those alliance relationships that have been atrophying a bit under the Trump administration.

…The Chinese government is not stupid. They understand there’s going to be backlash in Taiwan. I’m not sure, which makes me more concerned. It could be that this is the best option they have, and so they’re just going to use it. It could be that they just really don’t care, so they’re signaling — if you’re dividing it into domestic politics, Taiwanese politics, international politics — they either don’t care about the Taiwanese politics, it’s just for the domestic and international side.

…A lot of what we’re seeing is not just US and Taiwanese dialogue. Earlier this year, Biden’s first two White House summits were with the Japanese prime minister [Suga Yoshihide] and the Korean president [Moon Jae-in] for a reason. In both of those summits, they mentioned Taiwan. That was the first time in 52 years that [Japan and the US] mentioned Taiwan [in a joint statement]. It might have been the first time for Korea.
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
User avatar
wjfox
Site Admin
Posts: 8663
Joined: Sat May 15, 2021 6:09 pm
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Re: China Watch Thread

Post by wjfox »

China tells mines to produce 'as much coal as possible'

Updated 0819 GMT (1619 HKT) October 20, 2021

The Chinese government has ordered the country's coal mines to "produce as much coal as possible" as it tries to increase production as winter approaches, and ease an ongoing energy crunch.

The announcement from China's National Development and Reform Commission comes after weeks of power shortages across many provinces, forcing the government to ration electricity during peak hours and some factories to suspend production. The problem has weighed on economic growth as industrial output drops.

Beijing pushed coal mines to curtail production earlier this year as the country pursued ambitious targets to cut carbon emissions. But demand has surged for projects that require fossil fuels, and there just hasn't been enough power to go around.

To combat the problem, China began ordering coal mines to ramp up production, with authorities in Inner Mongolia, the country's second largest coal-producing province, ordering dozens of mines to boost output earlier this month.

Now, the NDRC is demanding that mines nationwide up production by as much as they can heading into the final quarter of 2021. Shutting down coal mines is prohibited.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/10/20/busi ... index.html


Image
User avatar
Yuli Ban
Posts: 4631
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 4:44 pm

Re: China Watch Thread

Post by Yuli Ban »

Curious about this reversal on their part. I wonder if they're expecting something...
And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future
User avatar
wjfox
Site Admin
Posts: 8663
Joined: Sat May 15, 2021 6:09 pm
Location: London, UK
Contact:

Re: China Watch Thread

Post by wjfox »

China Evergrande shares fall sharply after $2.6bn asset sale collapses

‘No guarantee’ Chinese property giant can meet its $305bn debts, starting with a deadline on Monday that could trigger default

Thu 21 Oct 2021 06.35 BST

Shares in the struggling property giant China Evergrande have fallen sharply after plans to offload a stake in one of its units for $2.6bn fell through, casting further doubt over whether it can avert the country’s biggest ever corporate failure.

China Evergrande Group, the parent company for the sprawling empire built by former steel industry executive Xu Jiayin, was down more than 10% in Hong Kong at midday on Thursday. Evergrande Property Services, one of its most profitable units, was off by 6.45%.

Evergrande announced on Wednesday that it had formally abandoned plans to sell a 50.1% slice of Evergrande Property Services, and said there was “no guarantee” it could meet its financial obligations in order to stay afloat.

The company, which is China’s second-biggest property developer with thousands of projects, has debts of $305bn.

[...]

Evergrande also owes billions to offshore bondholders and has already missed several key bond interest payments since September. The company will officially go into default if it fails to stump up $83.5m when a 30-day grace period for a repayment originally missed in September ends on Monday.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... ls-through


Image
User avatar
caltrek
Posts: 6474
Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 1:17 pm

Re: China Watch Thread

Post by caltrek »

Film Censorship Law Passed in Hong Kong
by Lexi Lonas
October 27, 2021

https://thehill.com/policy/internationa ... -hong-kong

Introduction:
(The Hill) A new film censorship law was passed on Wednesday in Hong Kong, stating films that threaten national security cannot be made.

Hong Kong's chief secretary, the second-most-powerful person in the government, will get to decide what movies could potentially threaten national security and can revoke film licenses if they deem a movie is "found to be contrary to national security interests,” Reuters reported.

"The goal is very clear: it’s to improve the film censorship system, to prevent any act endangering the national security," Commerce Secretary Edward Yau said.

If a movie is deemed to threaten national security, it is punishable by a $128,000 fine and up to three years in prison.

The law comes after a national security law was passed in Hong Kong in 2020 that many say has been used to silence pro-democracy voices.
Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
weatheriscool
Posts: 12727
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 6:16 pm

Re: China Watch Thread

Post by weatheriscool »

caltrek wrote: Wed Oct 27, 2021 9:15 pm Film Censorship Law Passed in Hong Kong
by Lexi Lonas
October 27, 2021

https://thehill.com/policy/internationa ... -hong-kong

Introduction:
(The Hill) A new film censorship law was passed on Wednesday in Hong Kong, stating films that threaten national security cannot be made.

Hong Kong's chief secretary, the second-most-powerful person in the government, will get to decide what movies could potentially threaten national security and can revoke film licenses if they deem a movie is "found to be contrary to national security interests,” Reuters reported.

"The goal is very clear: it’s to improve the film censorship system, to prevent any act endangering the national security," Commerce Secretary Edward Yau said.

If a movie is deemed to threaten national security, it is punishable by a $128,000 fine and up to three years in prison.

The law comes after a national security law was passed in Hong Kong in 2020 that many say has been used to silence pro-democracy voices.
LIterally seig heil level garbag!!!
User avatar
Yuli Ban
Posts: 4631
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 4:44 pm

Re: China Watch Thread

Post by Yuli Ban »

Senior US general warns China's military progress is 'stunning' as US is hampered by 'brutal' bureaucracy
In the wake of China's test of a hypersonic missile, the second most senior US general said Thursday that the pace at which China's military is developing capabilities is "stunning" while US development suffers from "brutal" bureaucracy.

The outgoing Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General John Hyten, echoed Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin's characterization of China as a "pacing threat" while calling Russia the most imminent threat.
"Calling China a pacing threat is a useful term because the pace at which China is moving is stunning," Hyten told reporters at a Defense Writers Group roundtable Thursday morning. "The pace they're moving and the trajectory they're on will surpass Russia and the United States if we don't do something to change it. It will happen. So I think we have to do something."
And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future
User avatar
Yuli Ban
Posts: 4631
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 4:44 pm

Re: China Watch Thread

Post by Yuli Ban »

Two Chinese Supercomputers Break Exascale Barrier
Two Chinese supercomputers have already broken the notorious exascale barrier, but their developers prefer to stay quiet about it for now. Both systems are reportedly based on China's homegrown Phytium and Sunway processors and therefore do not use crucial technologies developed outside of Tianxia. If the information is correct, then China is ahead of the U.S. in exascale supercomputing, but there is a catch.

Almost a Year Ahead
Two systems in China achieved 1.3 ExaFLOPS peak performance and around 1.05 ExaFLOPS (or higher) sustained performance in Linpack benchmark in March 2021, reports NextPlatform. However, neither of the machines is currently listed in the global Top 500 list of supercomputers as their developers do not want subcontractors of their partners to get into trouble with the U.S. government.

NextPlatform says it got the information from a source from the U.S. that knows what is going on in China. If the information is accurate, China has beaten the U.S. by almost a year with its exascale system as Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility's Frontier supercomputer will only start operations in late 2021.

Yet, there are some factors to consider. Frontier's target performance is about 1.5 TFLOPS, which is almost 50% higher when compared to the sustained performance of China's exascale supercomputers. Furthermore, Frontier is projected to consume around 30 MW of power, whereas one of its rivals from China has a power consumption of about 35 MW. Last but not least, Chinese developers use existing architectures developed for PetaFLOPS-scale systems and workloads, which may not be optimal in the future.
And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future
Nanotechandmorefuture
Posts: 478
Joined: Fri Sep 17, 2021 6:15 pm
Location: At the moment Miami, FL

Re: China Watch Thread

Post by Nanotechandmorefuture »

Yuli Ban wrote: Thu Oct 28, 2021 7:52 pm Two Chinese Supercomputers Break Exascale Barrier
Two Chinese supercomputers have already broken the notorious exascale barrier, but their developers prefer to stay quiet about it for now. Both systems are reportedly based on China's homegrown Phytium and Sunway processors and therefore do not use crucial technologies developed outside of Tianxia. If the information is correct, then China is ahead of the U.S. in exascale supercomputing, but there is a catch.

Almost a Year Ahead
Two systems in China achieved 1.3 ExaFLOPS peak performance and around 1.05 ExaFLOPS (or higher) sustained performance in Linpack benchmark in March 2021, reports NextPlatform. However, neither of the machines is currently listed in the global Top 500 list of supercomputers as their developers do not want subcontractors of their partners to get into trouble with the U.S. government.

NextPlatform says it got the information from a source from the U.S. that knows what is going on in China. If the information is accurate, China has beaten the U.S. by almost a year with its exascale system as Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility's Frontier supercomputer will only start operations in late 2021.

Yet, there are some factors to consider. Frontier's target performance is about 1.5 TFLOPS, which is almost 50% higher when compared to the sustained performance of China's exascale supercomputers. Furthermore, Frontier is projected to consume around 30 MW of power, whereas one of its rivals from China has a power consumption of about 35 MW. Last but not least, Chinese developers use existing architectures developed for PetaFLOPS-scale systems and workloads, which may not be optimal in the future.
Yuli Ban wrote: Thu Oct 28, 2021 7:51 pm Senior US general warns China's military progress is 'stunning' as US is hampered by 'brutal' bureaucracy
In the wake of China's test of a hypersonic missile, the second most senior US general said Thursday that the pace at which China's military is developing capabilities is "stunning" while US development suffers from "brutal" bureaucracy.

The outgoing Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General John Hyten, echoed Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin's characterization of China as a "pacing threat" while calling Russia the most imminent threat.
"Calling China a pacing threat is a useful term because the pace at which China is moving is stunning," Hyten told reporters at a Defense Writers Group roundtable Thursday morning. "The pace they're moving and the trajectory they're on will surpass Russia and the United States if we don't do something to change it. It will happen. So I think we have to do something."
This is good for Futurism and the Future Timeline. It will spur technological advances here in the West.
Post Reply