Hotznplotzn @ Hotznplotzn @lemmy.sdf.org

Posts

175

Comments

37

Joined

6 mo. ago

@WizardOfLoneliness

The U.S. spends ~3.4% of its GDP for military.

Quick reminder that it is Russia that started the war and invaded Ukraine, and that Russia officially spends 40% of its budget for military, that's ~10% of its GDP (for comparison: the GDP rate in western Europe is around 2%).

[Edit typo.]

I fully agree. These are advisories, not warnings, though. Many countries (like Germany) even explicitly said that their new advice does not mean to be a warning. I am not an expert for this, so please just let me know if I am mistaken, but as far as I understand, the Truthout article seems to be accurate in its wording.

Not sure whetver I interpret your comment correctly. But that's right, if you're Australian. But this advisory comes from the Canadian government for people travelling with a valid Canadian passport.

You might have (intentionally?) misunderstood the content.

many of them had central planning of the economy, and most of them had highly delegated (for example village bodies which elect city bodies which elect country bodies, etc.) or sectoral (for example X, Y, and Z interest groups must obligatorily be represented in decision-making) political systems that meant workers were represented at every level of government and decision-making.

These 'highly delegated' systems where 'workers were represented' was -and, more important, still is- part of these countries' official narratives. The reality is completely different. We saw and see this in all countries with so-called communist and socialist structures: Every 'delegate' who holds/expresses different views than the central Party is forced to resign as a delegate (and often faces harsh consequences, ranging from forced dissappearance, imprisonment, and even death penalty). The 'votings' of these delegates are highly.staged and have nothing to do with free elections.

Such systems produce the worst results of ultra-liberal capitalism where workers and the people have no say.

(I posted an article an hour or so ago here, but it got deleted without any reason provided. Which is bad, because it is a good example for what I just described.)

[Edit typo.]

No, because these cheap EVs from China are essentially cheap because of slave-like forced labour.

Zhu Hengpeng, who worked for a Chinese government thinktank for more than 20 years, disappeared a few months ago after making disparaging remarks on China's economy, including the GDP growth and other metrics. You'll find ample evidence for this.

Gemini says source of claim is ...

Thanks for this. If you don't have better sources than Gemini, I end this discussion.

Hateful warmongering against China has forced it on a “delete America” program. This is opportunity for Canada. Divisiveness from US is needed instead of evil against China.

Your comments are outright wrong. This is not hateful warmongering, I am offering simple facts. The 5% growth rate in China is most likely wrong. Even one of China's leading economists recently claimed that growth rates in the country are more around 2% (he has since disappeared).

A lot of China's EV manufacturers already went bankrupt or ceased production in recent years due to fierce price wars, but the country has still a huge overcapacity, and we see the same pattern in practically all other industries.

(To use your language: just look at the numbers instead of repeating the Chinese propaganda absurdity.)

Extremely shameful and destructive for the lacks of talks between Canada and China. Tariffs were put on with not even a phone call, as Sulivan met with Trudeau one weekend.

Talks between Canada and China have been going on all the time, but China doesn't appear to listen. The government in Beijing ordered Chinese companies to overproduce -EVs and other products- as they think this is the only way to support their troubled economy. They make decisions in complete disregard of anyone else. I don't say tariffs or other protectionist measure are a good thing, but a free competitive market only works if everyone plays according to the rules. China doesn't.

No one wants and needs 'affordable' EVs made with slavery-like labour.

China set for rapeseed meal shortage after 100% duty on top supplier Canada

China is likely to face a supply shortage of rapeseed meal by the third quarter of this year as Beijing's tariffs on shipments from top exporter Canada disrupt trade and as alternative sources are unlikely to make up the deficit [...]

Rapeseed is an oilseed crop which is processed into oil for cooking and a variety of other products, including renewable fuels, while the remaining rapeseed meal is used as high-protein animal feed and fertilizer [...]

China relies on top grower Canada for more than 70% of its rapeseed meal imports and nearly all of the oilseed imports. Rapeseed is also known as canola [...]

I don't know what this rant is about, but it has nothing to do with the posted article, at least that's apparent.

@eureka@aussie.zone

It's amazing that you are citing the Chinese Ministry but could not find the Australian government's response.

The Australian Government has expressed its concerns to the Chinese Government following an unsafe and unprofessional interaction with a People’s Liberation Army – Air Force (PLA-AF) aircraft.

On 11 February 2025, a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft conducting a routine maritime surveillance patrol in the South China Sea experienced an unsafe and unprofessional interaction with a PLA-AF J-16 fighter aircraft.

The PLA-AF aircraft released flares in close proximity to the RAAF P-8A aircraft. This was an unsafe and unprofessional manoeuvre that posed a risk to the aircraft and personnel.

@Stephen Darby

Congratulatoins for your first post. You are right, whataboutism is widespread here on Lemmy.

As an addition:

Modern slavery in China

Since 2018, evidence of forced labour of Uyghur and other Turkic and Muslim majority peoples has emerged in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Uyghur Region). [...] Forced labour imposed by private actors is also reported, in addition to forced marriage and organ trafficking, with vulnerability primarily driven by discriminatory government practices. While China demonstrated some efforts to tackle modern slavery through sustained coordination at the national and regional levels – including by adopting a new national action plan for 2021 to 2030[...] – its overall response is critically undermined by the use of state-imposed forced labour.

... doing things properly and everything is local then Deepseek reportedly has some efficiency advantages that make it worth considering over alternatives

DeepSeek isn’t uncensored if you run it locally (https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/28978937), and this is just one issue among many others.