Well the question isn't about taking China seriously, but admitting that China was right in the first place. US's argument is that China can spread disinformation on Tik Tok, which is exactly what China was saying about Facebook etc... So, China, which doesn't have freedom of speech banned those sites for promoting foreign interests. US is now trying to do exactly the same to Tik Tok.
IF you accept USA's argument here, then you implicitly accept China's argument since they're the same argument. So, again, it doesn't matter what China says, what matters is what you just said:
It’s kind of hard to take their criticism seriously when western sites and apps like the BBC or Instagram are blocked in China.
So there by admitting, China was right, countries SHOULD block foreign influence.
Yes, they can't operate the website in USA so they'll operate it in Canada and Mexico. And yes, that's why they're targeting the stores and not the site, because the only thing they can do is prevent operations inside the country but they cannot block access to it.
Finally, of course technically Apple could only allow EU to do this, but much like their transition to USB-C it would be weird if they did that. ESPECIALLY since having Tik Tok on their phones would be a benefit to them, not a negative.
*Edit: Also I was defining free speech in my initial post, which you seem to agree with. I was not trying to define this abhorrent loophole of a bill that bans but doesn't ban because of 1A Tik Tok. And if you don't understand why the government trying to loophole out of the constitution is bad, well I have no words.
Actually that's not correct. Media isn't like other products, it's protected speech. This is why even though we've sanctioned Russia, you can still go and read Russian Times. Even foreign media, which Tik Tok is, would be protected under our free speech laws.
This is why this "ban" isn't a ban, which the senators keep repeating. It doesn't block Tik Tok or it's website from being used by Americans. All it does is block Tik Tok from being distributed by American app stores. So if they don't divest, you could still go to their website and download their app. With the new EU ruling, Apple is going to have to allow third party installation anyway, so you'll still be able to use Tik Tok as if nothing happened.
So what's all this really about? Propaganda and showmanship. They're just pushing a China bad narrative as realistically our 1A laws prevent them from doing anything actually effective here.
That's an excellent question because people completely misunderstand freedom of speech. The law is freedom of speech from government persecution. Which is literally what banning Tik Tok is. It's the government persecuting a company for being Chinese.
What the law does not protect is private persecution. If you come to my house and announce you're a pedo, I can kick you out of my house for that. Just like tik tok can ban you.
Absolutely, it's incredibly annoying everyone has a bias. But that's what we are going to see as the world splits into 2. In many ways it's inevitable. I'm just appreciative that at least for now, both sides seem to be opposed to war, with distressingly USA seemingly more likely to start it. Since historically when you have 2 superpowers, war is the first thing that they used to do.
Sure, I completely agree with everything you have said. And the sad reality of news right now in the English speaking world has a US bias for obvious reasons. My link to a S.Korean paper is still a link to a US ally. They're not as biased as USA itself, but won't escape all influences. It's unfortunate at best.
Well it's also important to note that western media is intentionally not reporting on this properly and putting what I said as remarks at the end of articles. There's two reasons for this.
This has never happened before. Countries usually just bail out their property developers and hope they'll build cheaper housing. IE USA Circa 2008. So we really don't know what the outcome of this is. Wall St of course hates this and is terrified of this. I mean if it works and other countries follow suit in the future, what would that mean for all the Wall St. billionaires.
Obviously the usual China bad narrative. The west really really doesn't want any Chinese actions to be viewed in a positive light.
So here's a Korean article that explains it better and isn't as influenced by western media.
The key take away point is, stop believing US media, it's absolutely shit propaganda. I'm not saying China is good, hell I agree with the Koreans that this might not work, but for the love of god don't believe USA.
China has said they will bail out the regular people. What they're doing is they're buying the homes at a discounted price from the people and turning them into subsidized housing. To quote the article:
“We will scale up the building and supply of government-subsidized housing and improve the basic systems for commodity housing to meet people’s essential need for a home to live in and their different demands for better housing,”
So there's no bailout for the property developers but they are controlling the loss for regular folks.
I'm sorry people downvoted you without explaining that. I know it's hard to read the entire article sometimes.
No, and that's the problem. Ever since Covid, people are leaving major cities and moving to more affordable locations. This is largely due to this new work from home culture. Thus, a lot of these grand skyscraper projects are falling apart globally, the news just likes to focus on China, which in fairness is the largest failure of all the nations.
It's also important to note that while there is an abandoned skyscraper by a Chinese developer in LA, there are also abandoned skyscrapers in NYC and SF that has nothing to do with China. It's just a bad market for new buildings since people are leaving cities.
That doesn't really work. For example, driving is the same action. I do this action over and over again. However, I drive to vastly different destinations. I'm not in fact doing the same thing over and over even though the same action is being done.
Similarly an algorithm will give vastly different results based on the inputs I give it. Saying it's the same formula with different inputs would be very incorrect.
Gotcha! Yes it is whataboutism. Just like what you're doing with China and their calls for peace in Gaza. Everything you said about China is arguing in bad faith and pushing US whataboutisms.
*Edit I love it I knew you were going to do this. Look at my comments above I'll quote myself
*Edit: I’m really hoping you’ll resort to whataboutism. Since your entire argument is a whataboutism. You’re saying you won’t believe genocide victims because what about China doing stuff that has nothing to do with Gaza.
Which is correct. Ukraine constantly attacked Donbas and Luhansk. I didn't say they attacked first. Just like Hamas didn't attack first. Israel was killing Palestinians before the Oct 7th attack. But of course, you didn't know that.
Lol the leader of the election polls to be the next president is literally saying he'll invade Mexico. Sure Mexico has no worries. It's just the likely leader of USA saying it.
*Edit: I'm really hoping you'll resort to whataboutism. Since your entire argument is a whataboutism. You're saying you won't believe genocide victims because what about China doing stuff that has nothing to do with Gaza.
This is true, as I said in another post the situation is far more complex than most people understand. In fact, this whole argument comes from the Philippines back tracking on something Duerte said to China. In the Philippines defense, while there was a verbal agreement to not supply the Thomas Shoal, there was no written agreement so Marcos is not breaking anything.
Donbas and Luhansk was constantly attacked by Ukraine. That's what caused Russia to enter Ukraine.
The same can't be said about Palestine.
But keep pushing American propaganda like you care, even while USA is openly talking about bombing TMSC to the ground if China invades Taiwan.
*Edit: Or how America openly talks about invading Mexico, assassinates Iranian people, refuses to remove bases from Iraq and Syria in opposition to their sovereign government wishes. I could go on.
That's literally not the article I linked. Also we are talking about a call to a ceasefire, which China has called for on both conflicts.
*Edit: Also
Beijing supporting the Kremlin’s plans economically rather than openly amid international pressure.
China is also the US's second largest trade partner. Your article is just repeating that yes, China will sell to countries that commit war crimes. They never said they would stop and your article is loudly proclaiming it. That's nice, but irrelevant.
Actually, both China and the Philippines have an agreement to allow both sides to fish there. And China has even stated regret that at one point their blockade impeded Philippine fishing boats. Additionally, there was no evidence of the Philippine claim that there was cyanide being used, though there is evidence that historically the Philippines themselves have done that.
It's a lot more complicated than most people understand.
Just to be clear then, you're opposed to this bill passing?