Chinese Military,Political and Social Superthread

[OldSolduer]

A local resident, a senior manager in the public service (who I know), complained at a public consultation that the owner would be making a profit, as if that was somehow disqualifying.

Of course "profit" is a dirty word to communists, the lazy and envious.

 

[Czech_pivo]

I don't think the Americans will win this, to be honest. They can't get past ideology. They have a few lucky things going for them. Power consumption in China per capita is still half that of the US. And at the current rate of closure, China is probably 15 years away from parity. But also, the Chinese can deploy power how they want. Compare that to the backlash against data centres in the US.

To even start to win, the US has to change the entire culture around seeing renewables and EVs as ecofads. There's some pivoting from conservatives in the US. But we're probably a long way from real change. And after attitudes change, they have to the build the manufacturing capacity to catch up. Again, for reference, China installs solar panels every year that are the equivalent of half of Canada's grid. In all these discussions, most people would rather whine about China building coal plants than acknowledge how big their lead is.

The majority just don’t understand that they’ve dig their own hole.

 

[GR66]

I don't think the Americans will win this, to be honest. They can't get past ideology. They have a few lucky things going for them. Power consumption in China per capita is still half that of the US. And at the current rate of closure, China is probably 15 years away from parity. But also, the Chinese can deploy power how they want. Compare that to the backlash against data centres in the US.

To even start to win, the US has to change the entire culture around seeing renewables and EVs as ecofads. There's some pivoting from conservatives in the US. But we're probably a long way from real change. And after attitudes change, they have to the build the manufacturing capacity to catch up. Again, for reference, China installs solar panels every year that are the equivalent of half of Canada's grid. In all these discussions, most people would rather whine about China building coal plants than acknowledge how big their lead is.

Agree with you in general for the short term but in the longer term China is facing two serious own goals that will almost certainly seriously cripple them: demographic collapse and a leadership that is too focused on regional domination rather than regional integration.

A rapidly aging population will cripple domestic demand, increase social service expenditures and weaken productivity. Civil unrest is almost a given if the CCP isn't able to somehow mitigate these trends. If it weren't for the Chinese government's bullying tactics with its neighbours then possibly they could have expanded their regional trading networks with friendly nations like Vietnam and the Philippines in the same way that the US was able to tap into cheap Mexican labour to remain competitive.

The other advantage that the US has over China is geographical isolation from any real competition and access to abundant key resources while China is reliant in imports of food and other key resources.