I think it's interesting that so many people think it can be banned.
I'm not at all convinced of that. There's a strong first amendment argument that can be made there, and I suspect the courts are going to shut this nonsense down pretty quickly.
It's the wrong approach anyway. What we need is much stronger privacy law, not hamfisted attempts to ban one app. F*c*book and Google are at least as if not more dangerous than TikTok.
I think it's interesting that so many people think it can be banned.
I'm not at all convinced of that. There's a strong first amendment argument that can be made there, and I suspect the courts are going to shut this nonsense down pretty quickly.
It's the wrong approach anyway. What we need is much stronger privacy law, not hamfisted attempts to ban one app. F*c*book and Google are at least as if not more dangerous than TikTok.
Yes on everything...100% If they're going to ban TikTok then they need to also ban FaceBook and Twitter which is just as bad if not worse than TikTok. Sure, both FaceBook and Twitter are ran by a American companies but that doesn't make it anymore safe for its users and there's still a shitton of misinformation spread to users from other countries such as Russia to interfere with elections and world events. And there are bots galore doing this as well.
If we had less old geezers in congress who would actually turn a computer on and know how to use anything other than a mobile flip phone I think we'd see a different outcome here.
I think it's interesting that so many people think it can be banned.
I'm not at all convinced of that. There's a strong first amendment argument that can be made there, and I suspect the courts are going to shut this nonsense down pretty quickly.
It's the wrong approach anyway. What we need is much stronger privacy law, not hamfisted attempts to ban one app. F*c*book and Google are at least as if not more dangerous than TikTok.
A foreign nation spying on American citizens is a First Amendment right? I guess I missed that part of the Amendment.
America needs to out-compete China, not ban it like they did with Huawei and now with TikTok. They can call it what ever they want (national security or national whatever) but if US companies had a better product then Americans would use it. Sad image for the US.
I agree. Ban if you have good reason to ban. Show evidence and act accordingly.
'Suspecting' this or that could happen and throwing everything under a 'national security' umbrella is doomed to failure.
That failure itself would be OK if it only impacted the country taking the action.
The problem is when you start demanding others follow suit (as the US does with its 'allies').
It won't work with places like China. Even now, Blinken is in China telling them what to do with their Russian interests - on their own soil. That is crazy.
Would US politicians accept someone from China landing in Washington and threatening action if they didn't get their way?
Sadly, US interests (and with it, influence) are being impacted by foolhardy decisions of a few China hawks with influence.
Non-US companies are wisely seeking to 'de-Americanise' for fear of being dumped onto some entity list, or worse, being required to stop doing business with someone simply because a small part of US technology is used in their equipment. All unilaterally.
The best route from the get go was to out-compete/out-innovate rivals, not 'ban' them for reasons with zero supporting evidence.
The Tik Tok situation is more paranoia than anything else.
You want to see evidence? Search Forbes Investigation on TikTok data storage. Yeah, it’s stored US business user financial information in China server. I don’t mind to see TikTok shutdown cuz there’s no Facebook, Google, or YouTube can be operated in China anyway. Games played both ways
Nope - ByteDance had 120 Billion in revenue and the US part of TT makes only a quarter of TikTok's revenue. So according to the article BD is making „at most“ 30 Billion… but very likely significantly less. You suggest it being 40 Billion.
its really interesting how many people hear follow suit on this calling TikTok out for spying on Americans while all of the American based social media platforms are quite well known to be spy tools to spy on even their friends and partners!
If Apple really wants to help the United States, it can do reverse engineering on the TikTok algorithm based on the TikTok use data on iPhone. What needed is a new legislation to protect youth and shielding from brainwashing. While TikTok & CapCut use TT&CC, we can have the law named BrainBlank Protection Act, i.e. a BBP against the CCP. Nice, isn’t it?
America needs to out-compete China, not ban it like they did with Huawei and now with TikTok. They can call it what ever they want (national security or national whatever) but if US companies had a better product then Americans would use it. Sad image for the US.
I agree. Ban if you have good reason to ban. Show evidence and act accordingly.
'Suspecting' this or that could happen and throwing everything under a 'national security' umbrella is doomed to failure.
That failure itself would be OK if it only impacted the country taking the action.
The problem is when you start demanding others follow suit (as the US does with its 'allies').
It won't work with places like China. Even now, Blinken is in China telling them what to do with their Russian interests - on their own soil. That is crazy.
Would US politicians accept someone from China landing in Washington and threatening action if they didn't get their way?
Sadly, US interests (and with it, influence) are being impacted by foolhardy decisions of a few China hawks with influence.
Non-US companies are wisely seeking to 'de-Americanise' for fear of being dumped onto some entity list, or worse, being required to stop doing business with someone simply because a small part of US technology is used in their equipment. All unilaterally.
The best route from the get go was to out-compete/out-innovate rivals, not 'ban' them for reasons with zero supporting evidence.
The Tik Tok situation is more paranoia than anything else.
If you wrote this post in 2005 I’d have agreed with you. Now I view this post as hopelessly naive. Xi greenlit the Ukraine invasion, believing that his forever friend would win quickly, setting the stage for a Taiwan invasion. That’s not paranoia — it happened, and we have witnessed the worst horrors of war in Europe since the Nazis.
Ths CCP is a malignant force in the world. It must be contained. Being an apologist for them is a stain that you can’t wash out.
It wasn't Xi who greenlit anything for the Ukraine invasion. That much is very clear.
It's more probable that careless US foreign policy had more to do with that (over decades) and that is the case here with Huawei, entity lists and Tiktok and of course the Taiwan and general semiconductor situation. It was naive to think Russia wouldn't take action (be it military or otherwise).
And for, as ugly as war is, sadly the Ukraine situation isn't the collection of worst horrors since the Nazis. I'd say that goes to the Yugoslav wars.
EU to tell Beijing of plan to blacklist more Chinese businesses for breaching Russia sanctions
Purpose is to enlist China’s help in ending the companies’ activities that allegedly violate sanctions on supplying products with military applications to Moscow
Discussion will come as a series of events this week, from charges of espionage and hacking to raids on businesses seeking proof of state subsidies, pressure bilateral ties
When the EU sanctions China, I thought that you would be more supportive. Evidently not. The war in Yugoslavia was a civil war, and while 100,000, more or less, died, Ukraine was invaded by Russia, and to date, there are over 500,000 casualties, including killed and wounded, not to mention Ukrainians who have been forced to move to Russia, including children.
By far, the "collection of worst horrors since the Nazis", was likely the "Great Leap Forward";
The Great Leap Forward was an economic and social campaign within the People's Republic of China(PRC) from 1958 to 1962, led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Party ChairmanMao Zedonglaunched the campaign to reconstruct the country from an agrarian economy into an industrialized societythrough the formation of people's communes. Mao decreed that efforts to multiply grain yields and bring industry to the countryside should be increased. Local officials were fearful of Anti-Rightist Campaigns and they competed to fulfill or over-fulfill quotas which were based on Mao's exaggerated claims, collecting non-existent "surpluses" and leaving farmers to starve to death. Higher officials did not dare to report the economic disaster which was being caused by these policies, and national officials, blaming bad weather for the decline in food output, took little or no action. Millions of people died in China during the Great Leap, with estimates ranging from 15 to 55 million, making the Great Chinese Famine the largest or second-largest[1] famine in human history.[2][3][4]
You supporting Xi's PRC is certainly on message for you, and the fact that the U.S. sanctions the PRC for supporting Russia is the minimum to be expected. Blaming the U.S. for Russia invading Ukraine is certainly on message for you as well, though it certainly isn't supported by the facts.
I'm not supporting anyone.
EU sanctions on China aren't relevant to my point, or Russian actions. That problem goes much further back than Putin's nutcase invasion of 2022 and you will have real trouble finding any serious commentary that doesn't reference US foreign policy/NATO actions as trigger points over the years. Notably, but not limited to, events in 2008.
And Biden's public comments on 'putting an end' to Nord Stream were another foreign policy failing.
It's worth remembering that sanctions on Russia aren't working with the desired effect. That is not only because of China. How many other countries aren't participating? Most of the world?
My point on recent war horrors in Europe should be crystal clear.
Anyway, the whole TikTok thing is just another kind of ill thought out move reeking of paranoia, and of fear of China rising and overtaking the US in a multi polar world.
I'm guessing this is what you are referring to in 2008;
5/25
CREDIT
April 3, 2008: Russia Fights Ukrainian NATO Membership
In early April of 2008, a NATO summit began with intense debate about extending a Membership Action Plan (MAP) to Ukraine. In order to gain membership to NATO, a military alliance between 28 European countries and two North American countries dedicated to preserving peace and security in the North Atlantic area, countries must first have a MAP. Russian President Vladimir Putin makes his opposition to Ukrainian membership known to NATO leaders, at one point allegedly telling President George W. Bush that Ukraine is “not even a real nation-state.” NATO does not offer Ukraine a MAP
NATO is a defensive alliance. There were also guarantees to protect Ukraine by the West in 1994 when Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons. I'm guessing that meant fuckall to the EU.
Needless to state, Sweden and Finland quickly gained membership to NATO after Russia invaded Ukraine. For all practical purposes, Russia increased its borders with NATO overnight due to the "special military option". The Baltic is now an almost completely NATO lake. I'm guessing that wasn't what Russia expected.
Germany failed to see any national security issues with reliance on Nordstream, and Nordstream II; boy were they ever wrong. Fucking morons.
wrt sanctions,
I wouldn't be too sure about sanctions at this point in time. If anything, Russia faces a declining population, and declining energy sales, and increasing inflation. Sanctions on military related hardware are increasing, and various EU countries that have been too fucking lazy to do anything about it are now becoming "concerned" that the EU may face Russia if Ukraine fails to stop them. You know, because Russia states so every fucking day, including nuking the EU.
Your point about recent horrors in the Europe is not "crystal clear". If anything, you fail.
I wouldn't even try to spin US foreign policy into good light. It can't be done.
Putin's Munich speech was clear enough.
As for 2008, you forgot Georgia! Wow!
There were more clear indicators both before and after. Just another mess. The US doesn't meddle in other nations affairs, right?
Now look at US military deployments around China. See a pattern there?
Yes, the 2008 NATO meeting comments were a shock for even some of the participants. The British representative was one!
US foreign policy, not just in Europe but around the world, and in persuance of its own interests is pushing nation states away from it. Hence BRICS+, the Global South etc.
Unilateral sanctions on China? Why should anybody follow unilateral sanctions?
And you complain about China, but isn't it India that is doing more than any single nation to prop up the Russian oil economy? It went from basically not buying Russian oil to being it's biggest customer! What does India think of sanctions? A QUAD member!
In fact, what does most of the world think of sanctions? Not much at all, right? Because when you actually take a look at the map on which countries are applying sanctions and which aren't, you get a real eye opener. At last count, 87% of countries were still doing business with Russia.
Aren't delays in US aide packages doing untold harm to Ukrainian interests? Isn't there a growing movement on the US side that just wants to let Ukraine wither and surrender to Russia because it's costing too much?
And whenever the US expresses an 'iron clad' will to defend you, isn't that the moment you start quaking in your boots?
Aren't vetoes at the UN doing untold damage to Palestinian interests and causing unrest among the middle east nations?
Syria is an utter mess. Who should Europe thank for the refugee crisis?
Afghanistan was another mess!
I recently saw 'Escape from Kabul'.
An absolute foreign policy horror show.
Iraq?
Why is Africa almost entirely a Chinese interest now?
With Latin America going in a very similar direction.
The G7 has already lost huge relevance with regards to the Global South, BRICS+.
De-dollarisation is underway.
And now you call the Germans morons. Wow! Thanks.
So tell me. What gave the US the right to even think about killing Nord Stream? Much less say it publicly? And in such an off-the-cuff manner.
You've got to choose between Biden or Trump. The Germans will be laughing into their beer knowing that nothing could be worse than having two choose between those two options.
Why not just make up foreign policy as you go!?
And as for diplomacy, who needs that when you're pulling all the strings? At least for the minority of countries that make up 'the West'.
The 'morons' are the clueless idiots who have got us into these situations (over and over again) and, with the genies already out of their respective bottles, time is tick-tocking (oh! the irony) down on the uni-polar world that the US wants to dominate. And US foreign policy is largely to blame for many failings.
The TikTok move is just another late and very ill thought out blunder.
The CHIPS act is understandable in essence but comes after years of complaints that government subsidies were how China moved its pieces and were 'foul play'. But hey, not like literally everyone else on the planet? Including the US!
The problem with the CHIPS act is the anti China conditions. It isn't a move to enhance the terrible state of US semiconductor manufacturing. It is also a move to cripple China. Although US semi conductor interests have already been negatively impacted across the board. US industry associations have made their concerns known to the Administration but 'the hawks will hawk' and everything has fallen on deaf ears and now time is tick-tocking (just in case you didn't catch the irony last time around) into an inevitable downward spiral. And with every slide on that spiral you can bet someone's going to say 'Ban!' and the spiral will deepen even further.
The root problem here is that the US actually thought such a foolish plan could ever work.
The Global South/BRICS+, make up 80% of the Earth's population. The 'West' as you like to remind us at every turn, is fast becoming a niche group of minority players.
'Data' is the 'new gold' in many ways, and for sure there is much scope for abuse but that potential abuse is everywhere, not only China, and once again, it is the US players (including government!) who have been caught interfering with it in nefarious ways. And not only the data but the network channels it travels over. 'clean networks'? Come on!
A few million TikTok users aren't doing much except for killing (or wasting) their time.
Yes, things need monitoring. Legislation needs to be updated to accommodate technology advances, and it is almost always behind the curve, but Tik Tok doesn't need banning or 'transfer'. It needs regulating just like every other player.
Perhaps a bigger issue is how platforms like Tiktok were able to find a willing audience to be able to kill time. That is far more worrying.
If Facebook/Instagram are now claimed to be bad for the mental health for many of its users, TikTok may well be reducing already short attention spans to new lower records. But I see now bans on the horizon for US players.
America needs to out-compete China, not ban it like they did with Huawei and now with TikTok. They can call it what ever they want (national security or national whatever) but if US companies had a better product then Americans would use it. Sad image for the US.
I agree. Ban if you have good reason to ban. Show evidence and act accordingly.
'Suspecting' this or that could happen and throwing everything under a 'national security' umbrella is doomed to failure.
That failure itself would be OK if it only impacted the country taking the action.
The problem is when you start demanding others follow suit (as the US does with its 'allies').
It won't work with places like China. Even now, Blinken is in China telling them what to do with their Russian interests - on their own soil. That is crazy.
Would US politicians accept someone from China landing in Washington and threatening action if they didn't get their way?
Sadly, US interests (and with it, influence) are being impacted by foolhardy decisions of a few China hawks with influence.
Non-US companies are wisely seeking to 'de-Americanise' for fear of being dumped onto some entity list, or worse, being required to stop doing business with someone simply because a small part of US technology is used in their equipment. All unilaterally.
The best route from the get go was to out-compete/out-innovate rivals, not 'ban' them for reasons with zero supporting evidence.
The Tik Tok situation is more paranoia than anything else.
If you wrote this post in 2005 I’d have agreed with you. Now I view this post as hopelessly naive. Xi greenlit the Ukraine invasion, believing that his forever friend would win quickly, setting the stage for a Taiwan invasion. That’s not paranoia — it happened, and we have witnessed the worst horrors of war in Europe since the Nazis.
Ths CCP is a malignant force in the world. It must be contained. Being an apologist for them is a stain that you can’t wash out.
It wasn't Xi who greenlit anything for the Ukraine invasion. That much is very clear.
It's more probable that careless US foreign policy had more to do with that (over decades) and that is the case here with Huawei, entity lists and Tiktok and of course the Taiwan and general semiconductor situation. It was naive to think Russia wouldn't take action (be it military or otherwise).
And for, as ugly as war is, sadly the Ukraine situation isn't the collection of worst horrors since the Nazis. I'd say that goes to the Yugoslav wars.
EU to tell Beijing of plan to blacklist more Chinese businesses for breaching Russia sanctions
Purpose is to enlist China’s help in ending the companies’ activities that allegedly violate sanctions on supplying products with military applications to Moscow
Discussion will come as a series of events this week, from charges of espionage and hacking to raids on businesses seeking proof of state subsidies, pressure bilateral ties
When the EU sanctions China, I thought that you would be more supportive. Evidently not. The war in Yugoslavia was a civil war, and while 100,000, more or less, died, Ukraine was invaded by Russia, and to date, there are over 500,000 casualties, including killed and wounded, not to mention Ukrainians who have been forced to move to Russia, including children.
By far, the "collection of worst horrors since the Nazis", was likely the "Great Leap Forward";
The Great Leap Forward was an economic and social campaign within the People's Republic of China(PRC) from 1958 to 1962, led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Party ChairmanMao Zedonglaunched the campaign to reconstruct the country from an agrarian economy into an industrialized societythrough the formation of people's communes. Mao decreed that efforts to multiply grain yields and bring industry to the countryside should be increased. Local officials were fearful of Anti-Rightist Campaigns and they competed to fulfill or over-fulfill quotas which were based on Mao's exaggerated claims, collecting non-existent "surpluses" and leaving farmers to starve to death. Higher officials did not dare to report the economic disaster which was being caused by these policies, and national officials, blaming bad weather for the decline in food output, took little or no action. Millions of people died in China during the Great Leap, with estimates ranging from 15 to 55 million, making the Great Chinese Famine the largest or second-largest[1] famine in human history.[2][3][4]
You supporting Xi's PRC is certainly on message for you, and the fact that the U.S. sanctions the PRC for supporting Russia is the minimum to be expected. Blaming the U.S. for Russia invading Ukraine is certainly on message for you as well, though it certainly isn't supported by the facts.
I'm not supporting anyone.
EU sanctions on China aren't relevant to my point, or Russian actions. That problem goes much further back than Putin's nutcase invasion of 2022 and you will have real trouble finding any serious commentary that doesn't reference US foreign policy/NATO actions as trigger points over the years. Notably, but not limited to, events in 2008.
And Biden's public comments on 'putting an end' to Nord Stream were another foreign policy failing.
It's worth remembering that sanctions on Russia aren't working with the desired effect. That is not only because of China. How many other countries aren't participating? Most of the world?
My point on recent war horrors in Europe should be crystal clear.
Anyway, the whole TikTok thing is just another kind of ill thought out move reeking of paranoia, and of fear of China rising and overtaking the US in a multi polar world.
I'm guessing this is what you are referring to in 2008;
5/25
CREDIT
April 3, 2008: Russia Fights Ukrainian NATO Membership
In early April of 2008, a NATO summit began with intense debate about extending a Membership Action Plan (MAP) to Ukraine. In order to gain membership to NATO, a military alliance between 28 European countries and two North American countries dedicated to preserving peace and security in the North Atlantic area, countries must first have a MAP. Russian President Vladimir Putin makes his opposition to Ukrainian membership known to NATO leaders, at one point allegedly telling President George W. Bush that Ukraine is “not even a real nation-state.” NATO does not offer Ukraine a MAP
NATO is a defensive alliance. There were also guarantees to protect Ukraine by the West in 1994 when Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons. I'm guessing that meant fuckall to the EU.
Needless to state, Sweden and Finland quickly gained membership to NATO after Russia invaded Ukraine. For all practical purposes, Russia increased its borders with NATO overnight due to the "special military option". The Baltic is now an almost completely NATO lake. I'm guessing that wasn't what Russia expected.
Germany failed to see any national security issues with reliance on Nordstream, and Nordstream II; boy were they ever wrong. Fucking morons.
wrt sanctions,
I wouldn't be too sure about sanctions at this point in time. If anything, Russia faces a declining population, and declining energy sales, and increasing inflation. Sanctions on military related hardware are increasing, and various EU countries that have been too fucking lazy to do anything about it are now becoming "concerned" that the EU may face Russia if Ukraine fails to stop them. You know, because Russia states so every fucking day, including nuking the EU.
Your point about recent horrors in the Europe is not "crystal clear". If anything, you fail.
I wouldn't even try to spin US foreign policy into good light. It can't be done.
Putin's Munich speech was clear enough.
As for 2008, you forgot Georgia! Wow!
There were more clear indicators both before and after. Just another mess. The US doesn't meddle in other nations affairs, right?
Now look at US military deployments around China. See a pattern there?
Yes, the 2008 NATO meeting comments were a shock for even some of the participants. The British representative was one!
US foreign policy, not just in Europe but around the world, and in persuance of its own interests is pushing nation states away from it. Hence BRICS+, the Global South etc.
Unilateral sanctions on China? Why should anybody follow unilateral sanctions?
And you complain about China, but isn't it India that is doing more than any single nation to prop up the Russian oil economy? It went from basically not buying Russian oil to being it's biggest customer! What does India think of sanctions? A QUAD member!
In fact, what does most of the world think of sanctions? Not much at all, right? Because when you actually take a look at the map on which countries are applying sanctions and which aren't, you get a real eye opener. At last count, 87% of countries were still doing business with Russia.
Aren't delays in US aide packages doing untold harm to Ukrainian interests? Isn't there a growing movement on the US side that just wants to let Ukraine wither and surrender to Russia because it's costing too much?
And whenever the US expresses an 'iron clad' will to defend you, isn't that the moment you start quaking in your boots?
Aren't vetoes at the UN doing untold damage to Palestinian interests and causing unrest among the middle east nations?
Syria is an utter mess. Who should Europe thank for the refugee crisis?
Afghanistan was another mess!
I recently saw 'Escape from Kabul'.
An absolute foreign policy horror show.
Iraq?
Why is Africa almost entirely a Chinese interest now?
With Latin America going in a very similar direction.
The G7 has already lost huge relevance with regards to the Global South, BRICS+.
De-dollarisation is underway.
And now you call the Germans morons. Wow! Thanks.
So tell me. What gave the US the right to even think about killing Nord Stream? Much less say it publicly? And in such an off-the-cuff manner.
You've got to choose between Biden or Trump. The Germans will be laughing into their beer knowing that nothing could be worse than having two choose between those two options.
Why not just make up foreign policy as you go!?
And as for diplomacy, who needs that when you're pulling all the strings? At least for the minority of countries that make up 'the West'.
The 'morons' are the clueless idiots who have got us into these situations (over and over again) and, with the genies already out of their respective bottles, time is tick-tocking (oh! the irony) down on the uni-polar world that the US wants to dominate. And US foreign policy is largely to blame for many failings.
The TikTok move is just another late and very ill thought out blunder.
The CHIPS act is understandable in essence but comes after years of complaints that government subsidies were how China moved its pieces and were 'foul play'. But hey, not like literally everyone else on the planet? Including the US!
The problem with the CHIPS act is the anti China conditions. It isn't a move to enhance the terrible state of US semiconductor manufacturing. It is also a move to cripple China. Although US semi conductor interests have already been negatively impacted across the board. US industry associations have made their concerns known to the Administration but 'the hawks will hawk' and everything has fallen on deaf ears and now time is tick-tocking (just in case you didn't catch the irony last time around) into an inevitable downward spiral. And with every slide on that spiral you can bet someone's going to say 'Ban!' and the spiral will deepen even further.
The root problem here is that the US actually thought such a foolish plan could ever work.
The Global South/BRICS+, make up 80% of the Earth's population. The 'West' as you like to remind us at every turn, is fast becoming a niche group of minority players.
'Data' is the 'new gold' in many ways, and for sure there is much scope for abuse but that potential abuse is everywhere, not only China, and once again, it is the US players (including government!) who have been caught interfering with it in nefarious ways. And not only the data but the network channels it travels over. 'clean networks'? Come on!
A few million TikTok users aren't doing much except for killing (or wasting) their time.
Yes, things need monitoring. Legislation needs to be updated to accommodate technology advances, and it is almost always behind the curve, but Tik Tok doesn't need banning or 'transfer'. It needs regulating just like every other player.
Perhaps a bigger issue is how platforms like Tiktok were able to find a willing audience to be able to kill time. That is far more worrying.
If Facebook/Instagram are now claimed to be bad for the mental health for many of its users, TikTok may well be reducing already short attention spans to new lower records. But I see now bans on the horizon for US players.
Your grasp of geopolitics is pretty limited, in both scope and of the facts, and you seem to blame the U.S. for everything, and the EU, China, Russia and their BRICS partners for little or nothing. Worse is your failure to understand history.
Interestingly enough, I have been working while listening to many different audiobooks on the Pacific War. I believe it give me a massive advantage in understanding both history, dying empires, and global trade, all of which came about under the U.S. and Western leadership post WWII.
Nord Stream 2 is a tool Russia is using to support its continued aggression against Ukraine. Russia seeks to prevent it from integrating more closely with Europe and the United States. Nord Stream 2 would enable Russia to bypass Ukraine for gas transit to Europe, which would deprive Ukraine of substantial transit revenues and increase its vulnerability to Russian aggression. Nord Stream 2 would also help maintain Europe’s significant reliance on imports of Russian natural gas, which creates economic and political vulnerabilities for our European partners and allies. For these reasons, the United States Government and a plurality of European countries oppose Nord Stream 2.
Details: The statement was signed by 57 Georgian diplomats. Among the signatories are former Foreign Minister David Bakradze, Georgian diplomatic representative Giga Bokeria, former Ambassador Konstantine Gabashvili, former Minister Grigol Vashadze, former Ambassador Ivane Machavariani, and others.
The diplomats noted that the Georgian Dream directly attacks Georgia's main international partners, the United States and the European Union, which weakens the country and contradicts national interests and the constitution.
"Our country has found itself at the crossroads of important decisions many times, but it has never been so clear and morally justified where the right path is today," the diplomats said.
"The cascade of decisions made by the Georgian Dream has clearly turned the country's foreign policy course 180 degrees. Today, the Georgian government insists that it is not ready to join the European Union, adopting laws that directly contradict the course chosen by Georgia, the will of the overwhelming majority of the population and international obligations. This separates us from the EU," the statement said.
The diplomats stressed that this was happening at a time when the EU had opened the door for Georgia to join and granted candidate status, and only nine steps remained to be taken before accession negotiations begin.
To get back to the Pacific War, what is happening in China looks much like what happened in the 1930's in the Pacific, and it will be the U.S. and its allies that will have to respond. No sense giving more tools to China, semiconductor tech, as an example, to make it easier to weaponize China's military.
You want to blame the U.S. for putting the screws to China, but no mention that China is a totalitarian government under Xi, and a threat to the global order, just as Russia, and Iran are. No mention that China is bullying other countries in the South Chins Seas, and certainly, no mention of China's threats against Taiwan.
I get it, you are fond of authoritarians, but that isn't great for stability in the world.
America needs to out-compete China, not ban it like they did with Huawei and now with TikTok. They can call it what ever they want (national security or national whatever) but if US companies had a better product then Americans would use it. Sad image for the US.
It can be tough to compete with an opponent who cheats. Government subsidies, product dumping, etc.
America needs to out-compete China, not ban it like they did with Huawei and now with TikTok. They can call it what ever they want (national security or national whatever) but if US companies had a better product then Americans would use it. Sad image for the US.
I agree. Ban if you have good reason to ban. Show evidence and act accordingly.
'Suspecting' this or that could happen and throwing everything under a 'national security' umbrella is doomed to failure.
That failure itself would be OK if it only impacted the country taking the action.
The problem is when you start demanding others follow suit (as the US does with its 'allies').
It won't work with places like China. Even now, Blinken is in China telling them what to do with their Russian interests - on their own soil. That is crazy.
Would US politicians accept someone from China landing in Washington and threatening action if they didn't get their way?
Sadly, US interests (and with it, influence) are being impacted by foolhardy decisions of a few China hawks with influence.
Non-US companies are wisely seeking to 'de-Americanise' for fear of being dumped onto some entity list, or worse, being required to stop doing business with someone simply because a small part of US technology is used in their equipment. All unilaterally.
The best route from the get go was to out-compete/out-innovate rivals, not 'ban' them for reasons with zero supporting evidence.
The Tik Tok situation is more paranoia than anything else.
If you wrote this post in 2005 I’d have agreed with you. Now I view this post as hopelessly naive. Xi greenlit the Ukraine invasion, believing that his forever friend would win quickly, setting the stage for a Taiwan invasion. That’s not paranoia — it happened, and we have witnessed the worst horrors of war in Europe since the Nazis.
Ths CCP is a malignant force in the world. It must be contained. Being an apologist for them is a stain that you can’t wash out.
It wasn't Xi who greenlit anything for the Ukraine invasion. That much is very clear.
It's more probable that careless US foreign policy had more to do with that (over decades) and that is the case here with Huawei, entity lists and Tiktok and of course the Taiwan and general semiconductor situation. It was naive to think Russia wouldn't take action (be it military or otherwise).
And for, as ugly as war is, sadly the Ukraine situation isn't the collection of worst horrors since the Nazis. I'd say that goes to the Yugoslav wars.
EU to tell Beijing of plan to blacklist more Chinese businesses for breaching Russia sanctions
Purpose is to enlist China’s help in ending the companies’ activities that allegedly violate sanctions on supplying products with military applications to Moscow
Discussion will come as a series of events this week, from charges of espionage and hacking to raids on businesses seeking proof of state subsidies, pressure bilateral ties
When the EU sanctions China, I thought that you would be more supportive. Evidently not. The war in Yugoslavia was a civil war, and while 100,000, more or less, died, Ukraine was invaded by Russia, and to date, there are over 500,000 casualties, including killed and wounded, not to mention Ukrainians who have been forced to move to Russia, including children.
By far, the "collection of worst horrors since the Nazis", was likely the "Great Leap Forward";
The Great Leap Forward was an economic and social campaign within the People's Republic of China(PRC) from 1958 to 1962, led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Party ChairmanMao Zedonglaunched the campaign to reconstruct the country from an agrarian economy into an industrialized societythrough the formation of people's communes. Mao decreed that efforts to multiply grain yields and bring industry to the countryside should be increased. Local officials were fearful of Anti-Rightist Campaigns and they competed to fulfill or over-fulfill quotas which were based on Mao's exaggerated claims, collecting non-existent "surpluses" and leaving farmers to starve to death. Higher officials did not dare to report the economic disaster which was being caused by these policies, and national officials, blaming bad weather for the decline in food output, took little or no action. Millions of people died in China during the Great Leap, with estimates ranging from 15 to 55 million, making the Great Chinese Famine the largest or second-largest[1] famine in human history.[2][3][4]
You supporting Xi's PRC is certainly on message for you, and the fact that the U.S. sanctions the PRC for supporting Russia is the minimum to be expected. Blaming the U.S. for Russia invading Ukraine is certainly on message for you as well, though it certainly isn't supported by the facts.
I'm not supporting anyone.
EU sanctions on China aren't relevant to my point, or Russian actions. That problem goes much further back than Putin's nutcase invasion of 2022 and you will have real trouble finding any serious commentary that doesn't reference US foreign policy/NATO actions as trigger points over the years. Notably, but not limited to, events in 2008.
And Biden's public comments on 'putting an end' to Nord Stream were another foreign policy failing.
It's worth remembering that sanctions on Russia aren't working with the desired effect. That is not only because of China. How many other countries aren't participating? Most of the world?
My point on recent war horrors in Europe should be crystal clear.
Anyway, the whole TikTok thing is just another kind of ill thought out move reeking of paranoia, and of fear of China rising and overtaking the US in a multi polar world.
I'm guessing this is what you are referring to in 2008;
5/25
CREDIT
April 3, 2008: Russia Fights Ukrainian NATO Membership
In early April of 2008, a NATO summit began with intense debate about extending a Membership Action Plan (MAP) to Ukraine. In order to gain membership to NATO, a military alliance between 28 European countries and two North American countries dedicated to preserving peace and security in the North Atlantic area, countries must first have a MAP. Russian President Vladimir Putin makes his opposition to Ukrainian membership known to NATO leaders, at one point allegedly telling President George W. Bush that Ukraine is “not even a real nation-state.” NATO does not offer Ukraine a MAP
NATO is a defensive alliance. There were also guarantees to protect Ukraine by the West in 1994 when Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons. I'm guessing that meant fuckall to the EU.
Needless to state, Sweden and Finland quickly gained membership to NATO after Russia invaded Ukraine. For all practical purposes, Russia increased its borders with NATO overnight due to the "special military option". The Baltic is now an almost completely NATO lake. I'm guessing that wasn't what Russia expected.
Germany failed to see any national security issues with reliance on Nordstream, and Nordstream II; boy were they ever wrong. Fucking morons.
wrt sanctions,
I wouldn't be too sure about sanctions at this point in time. If anything, Russia faces a declining population, and declining energy sales, and increasing inflation. Sanctions on military related hardware are increasing, and various EU countries that have been too fucking lazy to do anything about it are now becoming "concerned" that the EU may face Russia if Ukraine fails to stop them. You know, because Russia states so every fucking day, including nuking the EU.
Your point about recent horrors in the Europe is not "crystal clear". If anything, you fail.
I wouldn't even try to spin US foreign policy into good light. It can't be done.
Putin's Munich speech was clear enough.
As for 2008, you forgot Georgia! Wow!
There were more clear indicators both before and after. Just another mess. The US doesn't meddle in other nations affairs, right?
Now look at US military deployments around China. See a pattern there?
Yes, the 2008 NATO meeting comments were a shock for even some of the participants. The British representative was one!
US foreign policy, not just in Europe but around the world, and in persuance of its own interests is pushing nation states away from it. Hence BRICS+, the Global South etc.
Unilateral sanctions on China? Why should anybody follow unilateral sanctions?
And you complain about China, but isn't it India that is doing more than any single nation to prop up the Russian oil economy? It went from basically not buying Russian oil to being it's biggest customer! What does India think of sanctions? A QUAD member!
In fact, what does most of the world think of sanctions? Not much at all, right? Because when you actually take a look at the map on which countries are applying sanctions and which aren't, you get a real eye opener. At last count, 87% of countries were still doing business with Russia.
Aren't delays in US aide packages doing untold harm to Ukrainian interests? Isn't there a growing movement on the US side that just wants to let Ukraine wither and surrender to Russia because it's costing too much?
And whenever the US expresses an 'iron clad' will to defend you, isn't that the moment you start quaking in your boots?
Aren't vetoes at the UN doing untold damage to Palestinian interests and causing unrest among the middle east nations?
Syria is an utter mess. Who should Europe thank for the refugee crisis?
Afghanistan was another mess!
I recently saw 'Escape from Kabul'.
An absolute foreign policy horror show.
Iraq?
Why is Africa almost entirely a Chinese interest now?
With Latin America going in a very similar direction.
The G7 has already lost huge relevance with regards to the Global South, BRICS+.
De-dollarisation is underway.
And now you call the Germans morons. Wow! Thanks.
So tell me. What gave the US the right to even think about killing Nord Stream? Much less say it publicly? And in such an off-the-cuff manner.
You've got to choose between Biden or Trump. The Germans will be laughing into their beer knowing that nothing could be worse than having two choose between those two options.
Why not just make up foreign policy as you go!?
And as for diplomacy, who needs that when you're pulling all the strings? At least for the minority of countries that make up 'the West'.
The 'morons' are the clueless idiots who have got us into these situations (over and over again) and, with the genies already out of their respective bottles, time is tick-tocking (oh! the irony) down on the uni-polar world that the US wants to dominate. And US foreign policy is largely to blame for many failings.
The TikTok move is just another late and very ill thought out blunder.
The CHIPS act is understandable in essence but comes after years of complaints that government subsidies were how China moved its pieces and were 'foul play'. But hey, not like literally everyone else on the planet? Including the US!
The problem with the CHIPS act is the anti China conditions. It isn't a move to enhance the terrible state of US semiconductor manufacturing. It is also a move to cripple China. Although US semi conductor interests have already been negatively impacted across the board. US industry associations have made their concerns known to the Administration but 'the hawks will hawk' and everything has fallen on deaf ears and now time is tick-tocking (just in case you didn't catch the irony last time around) into an inevitable downward spiral. And with every slide on that spiral you can bet someone's going to say 'Ban!' and the spiral will deepen even further.
The root problem here is that the US actually thought such a foolish plan could ever work.
The Global South/BRICS+, make up 80% of the Earth's population. The 'West' as you like to remind us at every turn, is fast becoming a niche group of minority players.
'Data' is the 'new gold' in many ways, and for sure there is much scope for abuse but that potential abuse is everywhere, not only China, and once again, it is the US players (including government!) who have been caught interfering with it in nefarious ways. And not only the data but the network channels it travels over. 'clean networks'? Come on!
A few million TikTok users aren't doing much except for killing (or wasting) their time.
Yes, things need monitoring. Legislation needs to be updated to accommodate technology advances, and it is almost always behind the curve, but Tik Tok doesn't need banning or 'transfer'. It needs regulating just like every other player.
Perhaps a bigger issue is how platforms like Tiktok were able to find a willing audience to be able to kill time. That is far more worrying.
If Facebook/Instagram are now claimed to be bad for the mental health for many of its users, TikTok may well be reducing already short attention spans to new lower records. But I see now bans on the horizon for US players.
Your grasp of geopolitics is pretty limited, in both scope and of the facts, and you seem to blame the U.S. for everything, and the EU, China, Russia and their BRICS partners for little or nothing. Worse is your failure to understand history.
Interestingly enough, I have been working while listening to many different audiobooks on the Pacific War. I believe it give me a massive advantage in understanding both history, dying empires, and global trade, all of which came about under the U.S. and Western leadership post WWII.
Nord Stream 2 is a tool Russia is using to support its continued aggression against Ukraine. Russia seeks to prevent it from integrating more closely with Europe and the United States. Nord Stream 2 would enable Russia to bypass Ukraine for gas transit to Europe, which would deprive Ukraine of substantial transit revenues and increase its vulnerability to Russian aggression. Nord Stream 2 would also help maintain Europe’s significant reliance on imports of Russian natural gas, which creates economic and political vulnerabilities for our European partners and allies. For these reasons, the United States Government and a plurality of European countries oppose Nord Stream 2.
Details: The statement was signed by 57 Georgian diplomats. Among the signatories are former Foreign Minister David Bakradze, Georgian diplomatic representative Giga Bokeria, former Ambassador Konstantine Gabashvili, former Minister Grigol Vashadze, former Ambassador Ivane Machavariani, and others.
The diplomats noted that the Georgian Dream directly attacks Georgia's main international partners, the United States and the European Union, which weakens the country and contradicts national interests and the constitution.
"Our country has found itself at the crossroads of important decisions many times, but it has never been so clear and morally justified where the right path is today," the diplomats said.
"The cascade of decisions made by the Georgian Dream has clearly turned the country's foreign policy course 180 degrees. Today, the Georgian government insists that it is not ready to join the European Union, adopting laws that directly contradict the course chosen by Georgia, the will of the overwhelming majority of the population and international obligations. This separates us from the EU," the statement said.
The diplomats stressed that this was happening at a time when the EU had opened the door for Georgia to join and granted candidate status, and only nine steps remained to be taken before accession negotiations begin.
To get back to the Pacific War, what is happening in China looks much like what happened in the 1930's in the Pacific, and it will be the U.S. and its allies that will have to respond. No sense giving more tools to China, semiconductor tech, as an example, to make it easier to weaponize China's military.
You want to blame the U.S. for putting the screws to China, but no mention that China is a totalitarian government under Xi, and a threat to the global order, just as Russia, and Iran are. No mention that China is bullying other countries in the South Chins Seas, and certainly, no mention of China's threats against Taiwan.
I get it, you are fond of authoritarians, but that isn't great for stability in the world.
America needs to out-compete China, not ban it like they did with Huawei and now with TikTok. They can call it what ever they want (national security or national whatever) but if US companies had a better product then Americans would use it. Sad image for the US.
I agree. Ban if you have good reason to ban. Show evidence and act accordingly.
'Suspecting' this or that could happen and throwing everything under a 'national security' umbrella is doomed to failure.
That failure itself would be OK if it only impacted the country taking the action.
The problem is when you start demanding others follow suit (as the US does with its 'allies').
It won't work with places like China. Even now, Blinken is in China telling them what to do with their Russian interests - on their own soil. That is crazy.
Would US politicians accept someone from China landing in Washington and threatening action if they didn't get their way?
Sadly, US interests (and with it, influence) are being impacted by foolhardy decisions of a few China hawks with influence.
Non-US companies are wisely seeking to 'de-Americanise' for fear of being dumped onto some entity list, or worse, being required to stop doing business with someone simply because a small part of US technology is used in their equipment. All unilaterally.
The best route from the get go was to out-compete/out-innovate rivals, not 'ban' them for reasons with zero supporting evidence.
The Tik Tok situation is more paranoia than anything else.
If you wrote this post in 2005 I’d have agreed with you. Now I view this post as hopelessly naive. Xi greenlit the Ukraine invasion, believing that his forever friend would win quickly, setting the stage for a Taiwan invasion. That’s not paranoia — it happened, and we have witnessed the worst horrors of war in Europe since the Nazis.
Ths CCP is a malignant force in the world. It must be contained. Being an apologist for them is a stain that you can’t wash out.
It wasn't Xi who greenlit anything for the Ukraine invasion. That much is very clear.
It's more probable that careless US foreign policy had more to do with that (over decades) and that is the case here with Huawei, entity lists and Tiktok and of course the Taiwan and general semiconductor situation. It was naive to think Russia wouldn't take action (be it military or otherwise).
And for, as ugly as war is, sadly the Ukraine situation isn't the collection of worst horrors since the Nazis. I'd say that goes to the Yugoslav wars.
EU to tell Beijing of plan to blacklist more Chinese businesses for breaching Russia sanctions
Purpose is to enlist China’s help in ending the companies’ activities that allegedly violate sanctions on supplying products with military applications to Moscow
Discussion will come as a series of events this week, from charges of espionage and hacking to raids on businesses seeking proof of state subsidies, pressure bilateral ties
When the EU sanctions China, I thought that you would be more supportive. Evidently not. The war in Yugoslavia was a civil war, and while 100,000, more or less, died, Ukraine was invaded by Russia, and to date, there are over 500,000 casualties, including killed and wounded, not to mention Ukrainians who have been forced to move to Russia, including children.
By far, the "collection of worst horrors since the Nazis", was likely the "Great Leap Forward";
The Great Leap Forward was an economic and social campaign within the People's Republic of China(PRC) from 1958 to 1962, led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Party ChairmanMao Zedonglaunched the campaign to reconstruct the country from an agrarian economy into an industrialized societythrough the formation of people's communes. Mao decreed that efforts to multiply grain yields and bring industry to the countryside should be increased. Local officials were fearful of Anti-Rightist Campaigns and they competed to fulfill or over-fulfill quotas which were based on Mao's exaggerated claims, collecting non-existent "surpluses" and leaving farmers to starve to death. Higher officials did not dare to report the economic disaster which was being caused by these policies, and national officials, blaming bad weather for the decline in food output, took little or no action. Millions of people died in China during the Great Leap, with estimates ranging from 15 to 55 million, making the Great Chinese Famine the largest or second-largest[1] famine in human history.[2][3][4]
You supporting Xi's PRC is certainly on message for you, and the fact that the U.S. sanctions the PRC for supporting Russia is the minimum to be expected. Blaming the U.S. for Russia invading Ukraine is certainly on message for you as well, though it certainly isn't supported by the facts.
I'm not supporting anyone.
EU sanctions on China aren't relevant to my point, or Russian actions. That problem goes much further back than Putin's nutcase invasion of 2022 and you will have real trouble finding any serious commentary that doesn't reference US foreign policy/NATO actions as trigger points over the years. Notably, but not limited to, events in 2008.
And Biden's public comments on 'putting an end' to Nord Stream were another foreign policy failing.
It's worth remembering that sanctions on Russia aren't working with the desired effect. That is not only because of China. How many other countries aren't participating? Most of the world?
My point on recent war horrors in Europe should be crystal clear.
Anyway, the whole TikTok thing is just another kind of ill thought out move reeking of paranoia, and of fear of China rising and overtaking the US in a multi polar world.
I'm guessing this is what you are referring to in 2008;
5/25
CREDIT
April 3, 2008: Russia Fights Ukrainian NATO Membership
In early April of 2008, a NATO summit began with intense debate about extending a Membership Action Plan (MAP) to Ukraine. In order to gain membership to NATO, a military alliance between 28 European countries and two North American countries dedicated to preserving peace and security in the North Atlantic area, countries must first have a MAP. Russian President Vladimir Putin makes his opposition to Ukrainian membership known to NATO leaders, at one point allegedly telling President George W. Bush that Ukraine is “not even a real nation-state.” NATO does not offer Ukraine a MAP
NATO is a defensive alliance. There were also guarantees to protect Ukraine by the West in 1994 when Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons. I'm guessing that meant fuckall to the EU.
Needless to state, Sweden and Finland quickly gained membership to NATO after Russia invaded Ukraine. For all practical purposes, Russia increased its borders with NATO overnight due to the "special military option". The Baltic is now an almost completely NATO lake. I'm guessing that wasn't what Russia expected.
Germany failed to see any national security issues with reliance on Nordstream, and Nordstream II; boy were they ever wrong. Fucking morons.
wrt sanctions,
I wouldn't be too sure about sanctions at this point in time. If anything, Russia faces a declining population, and declining energy sales, and increasing inflation. Sanctions on military related hardware are increasing, and various EU countries that have been too fucking lazy to do anything about it are now becoming "concerned" that the EU may face Russia if Ukraine fails to stop them. You know, because Russia states so every fucking day, including nuking the EU.
Your point about recent horrors in the Europe is not "crystal clear". If anything, you fail.
I wouldn't even try to spin US foreign policy into good light. It can't be done.
Putin's Munich speech was clear enough.
As for 2008, you forgot Georgia! Wow!
There were more clear indicators both before and after. Just another mess. The US doesn't meddle in other nations affairs, right?
Now look at US military deployments around China. See a pattern there?
Yes, the 2008 NATO meeting comments were a shock for even some of the participants. The British representative was one!
US foreign policy, not just in Europe but around the world, and in persuance of its own interests is pushing nation states away from it. Hence BRICS+, the Global South etc.
Unilateral sanctions on China? Why should anybody follow unilateral sanctions?
And you complain about China, but isn't it India that is doing more than any single nation to prop up the Russian oil economy? It went from basically not buying Russian oil to being it's biggest customer! What does India think of sanctions? A QUAD member!
In fact, what does most of the world think of sanctions? Not much at all, right? Because when you actually take a look at the map on which countries are applying sanctions and which aren't, you get a real eye opener. At last count, 87% of countries were still doing business with Russia.
Aren't delays in US aide packages doing untold harm to Ukrainian interests? Isn't there a growing movement on the US side that just wants to let Ukraine wither and surrender to Russia because it's costing too much?
And whenever the US expresses an 'iron clad' will to defend you, isn't that the moment you start quaking in your boots?
Aren't vetoes at the UN doing untold damage to Palestinian interests and causing unrest among the middle east nations?
Syria is an utter mess. Who should Europe thank for the refugee crisis?
Afghanistan was another mess!
I recently saw 'Escape from Kabul'.
An absolute foreign policy horror show.
Iraq?
Why is Africa almost entirely a Chinese interest now?
With Latin America going in a very similar direction.
The G7 has already lost huge relevance with regards to the Global South, BRICS+.
De-dollarisation is underway.
And now you call the Germans morons. Wow! Thanks.
So tell me. What gave the US the right to even think about killing Nord Stream? Much less say it publicly? And in such an off-the-cuff manner.
You've got to choose between Biden or Trump. The Germans will be laughing into their beer knowing that nothing could be worse than having two choose between those two options.
Why not just make up foreign policy as you go!?
And as for diplomacy, who needs that when you're pulling all the strings? At least for the minority of countries that make up 'the West'.
The 'morons' are the clueless idiots who have got us into these situations (over and over again) and, with the genies already out of their respective bottles, time is tick-tocking (oh! the irony) down on the uni-polar world that the US wants to dominate. And US foreign policy is largely to blame for many failings.
The TikTok move is just another late and very ill thought out blunder.
The CHIPS act is understandable in essence but comes after years of complaints that government subsidies were how China moved its pieces and were 'foul play'. But hey, not like literally everyone else on the planet? Including the US!
The problem with the CHIPS act is the anti China conditions. It isn't a move to enhance the terrible state of US semiconductor manufacturing. It is also a move to cripple China. Although US semi conductor interests have already been negatively impacted across the board. US industry associations have made their concerns known to the Administration but 'the hawks will hawk' and everything has fallen on deaf ears and now time is tick-tocking (just in case you didn't catch the irony last time around) into an inevitable downward spiral. And with every slide on that spiral you can bet someone's going to say 'Ban!' and the spiral will deepen even further.
The root problem here is that the US actually thought such a foolish plan could ever work.
The Global South/BRICS+, make up 80% of the Earth's population. The 'West' as you like to remind us at every turn, is fast becoming a niche group of minority players.
'Data' is the 'new gold' in many ways, and for sure there is much scope for abuse but that potential abuse is everywhere, not only China, and once again, it is the US players (including government!) who have been caught interfering with it in nefarious ways. And not only the data but the network channels it travels over. 'clean networks'? Come on!
A few million TikTok users aren't doing much except for killing (or wasting) their time.
Yes, things need monitoring. Legislation needs to be updated to accommodate technology advances, and it is almost always behind the curve, but Tik Tok doesn't need banning or 'transfer'. It needs regulating just like every other player.
Perhaps a bigger issue is how platforms like Tiktok were able to find a willing audience to be able to kill time. That is far more worrying.
If Facebook/Instagram are now claimed to be bad for the mental health for many of its users, TikTok may well be reducing already short attention spans to new lower records. But I see now bans on the horizon for US players.
Your grasp of geopolitics is pretty limited, in both scope and of the facts, and you seem to blame the U.S. for everything, and the EU, China, Russia and their BRICS partners for little or nothing. Worse is your failure to understand history.
Interestingly enough, I have been working while listening to many different audiobooks on the Pacific War. I believe it give me a massive advantage in understanding both history, dying empires, and global trade, all of which came about under the U.S. and Western leadership post WWII.
Nord Stream 2 is a tool Russia is using to support its continued aggression against Ukraine. Russia seeks to prevent it from integrating more closely with Europe and the United States. Nord Stream 2 would enable Russia to bypass Ukraine for gas transit to Europe, which would deprive Ukraine of substantial transit revenues and increase its vulnerability to Russian aggression. Nord Stream 2 would also help maintain Europe’s significant reliance on imports of Russian natural gas, which creates economic and political vulnerabilities for our European partners and allies. For these reasons, the United States Government and a plurality of European countries oppose Nord Stream 2.
Details: The statement was signed by 57 Georgian diplomats. Among the signatories are former Foreign Minister David Bakradze, Georgian diplomatic representative Giga Bokeria, former Ambassador Konstantine Gabashvili, former Minister Grigol Vashadze, former Ambassador Ivane Machavariani, and others.
The diplomats noted that the Georgian Dream directly attacks Georgia's main international partners, the United States and the European Union, which weakens the country and contradicts national interests and the constitution.
"Our country has found itself at the crossroads of important decisions many times, but it has never been so clear and morally justified where the right path is today," the diplomats said.
"The cascade of decisions made by the Georgian Dream has clearly turned the country's foreign policy course 180 degrees. Today, the Georgian government insists that it is not ready to join the European Union, adopting laws that directly contradict the course chosen by Georgia, the will of the overwhelming majority of the population and international obligations. This separates us from the EU," the statement said.
The diplomats stressed that this was happening at a time when the EU had opened the door for Georgia to join and granted candidate status, and only nine steps remained to be taken before accession negotiations begin.
To get back to the Pacific War, what is happening in China looks much like what happened in the 1930's in the Pacific, and it will be the U.S. and its allies that will have to respond. No sense giving more tools to China, semiconductor tech, as an example, to make it easier to weaponize China's military.
You want to blame the U.S. for putting the screws to China, but no mention that China is a totalitarian government under Xi, and a threat to the global order, just as Russia, and Iran are. No mention that China is bullying other countries in the South Chins Seas, and certainly, no mention of China's threats against Taiwan.
I get it, you are fond of authoritarians, but that isn't great for stability in the world.
TL:DR.
Formatting often dies in these lengthy exchanges on AI forums. This is a case of that, but how wonderful that you commented! /s
America needs to out-compete China, not ban it like they did with Huawei and now with TikTok. They can call it what ever they want (national security or national whatever) but if US companies had a better product then Americans would use it. Sad image for the US.
Agreed. Nobody is using TikTok _because_ it's made in China. They use it because it does what they want, and does it well.
Forcing TikTok to sell to an American company is just a way to give the US government control over it, not unlike exactly what they are scared of in China. Ironic bizarro world.
I guess American companies are not capable of creating a competitive platform offering the same features? Don’t wait for this brain dead time-waster to be forced out, get its domestic replacement out there now, then shame, induce, or appeal to the “patriotism” of TTers to migrate over. Hell, Trump could single handedly move his sheeple over in days.
The problem isn't the development of a competitive platform, but the 'network effect' of having a large audience. Does anyone remember Google Hangouts? In purely technical respects, it was far superior to Facebook. But it never took off because people won't move to it since their 'friends' are not on it. Chicken/egg problem.
You mean Google+, not Hangouts.
Google+ failed because it did nothing at all better than the existing alternative. To get people to adopt a new platform, that has to be significantly better at something that people care about.
Comments
Yes on everything...100%
If they're going to ban TikTok then they need to also ban FaceBook and Twitter which is just as bad if not worse than TikTok. Sure, both FaceBook and Twitter are ran by a American companies but that doesn't make it anymore safe for its users and there's still a shitton of misinformation spread to users from other countries such as Russia to interfere with elections and world events. And there are bots galore doing this as well.
If we had less old geezers in congress who would actually turn a computer on and know how to use anything other than a mobile flip phone I think we'd see a different outcome here.
its really interesting how many people hear follow suit on this calling TikTok out for spying on Americans while all of the American based social media platforms are quite well known to be spy tools to spy on even their friends and partners!
I wouldn't even try to spin US foreign policy into good light. It can't be done.
Putin's Munich speech was clear enough.
As for 2008, you forgot Georgia! Wow!
There were more clear indicators both before and after. Just another mess. The US doesn't meddle in other nations affairs, right?
Now look at US military deployments around China. See a pattern there?
Yes, the 2008 NATO meeting comments were a shock for even some of the participants. The British representative was one!
US foreign policy, not just in Europe but around the world, and in persuance of its own interests is pushing nation states away from it. Hence BRICS+, the Global South etc.
Unilateral sanctions on China? Why should anybody follow unilateral sanctions?
And you complain about China, but isn't it India that is doing more than any single nation to prop up the Russian oil economy? It went from basically not buying Russian oil to being it's biggest customer! What does India think of sanctions? A QUAD member!
In fact, what does most of the world think of sanctions? Not much at all, right? Because when you actually take a look at the map on which countries are applying sanctions and which aren't, you get a real eye opener. At last count, 87% of countries were still doing business with Russia.
Aren't delays in US aide packages doing untold harm to Ukrainian interests? Isn't there a growing movement on the US side that just wants to let Ukraine wither and surrender to Russia because it's costing too much?
And whenever the US expresses an 'iron clad' will to defend you, isn't that the moment you start quaking in your boots?
Aren't vetoes at the UN doing untold damage to Palestinian interests and causing unrest among the middle east nations?
Syria is an utter mess. Who should Europe thank for the refugee crisis?
Afghanistan was another mess!
I recently saw 'Escape from Kabul'.
An absolute foreign policy horror show.
Iraq?
Why is Africa almost entirely a Chinese interest now?
With Latin America going in a very similar direction.
The G7 has already lost huge relevance with regards to the Global South, BRICS+.
De-dollarisation is underway.
And now you call the Germans morons. Wow! Thanks.
So tell me. What gave the US the right to even think about killing Nord Stream? Much less say it publicly? And in such an off-the-cuff manner.
You've got to choose between Biden or Trump. The Germans will be laughing into their beer knowing that nothing could be worse than having two choose between those two options.
Why not just make up foreign policy as you go!?
And as for diplomacy, who needs that when you're pulling all the strings? At least for the minority of countries that make up 'the West'.
The 'morons' are the clueless idiots who have got us into these situations (over and over again) and, with the genies already out of their respective bottles, time is tick-tocking (oh! the irony) down on the uni-polar world that the US wants to dominate. And US foreign policy is largely to blame for many failings.
The TikTok move is just another late and very ill thought out blunder.
The CHIPS act is understandable in essence but comes after years of complaints that government subsidies were how China moved its pieces and were 'foul play'. But hey, not like literally everyone else on the planet? Including the US!
The problem with the CHIPS act is the anti China conditions. It isn't a move to enhance the terrible state of US semiconductor manufacturing. It is also a move to cripple China. Although US semi conductor interests have already been negatively impacted across the board. US industry associations have made their concerns known to the Administration but 'the hawks will hawk' and everything has fallen on deaf ears and now time is tick-tocking (just in case you didn't catch the irony last time around) into an inevitable downward spiral. And with every slide on that spiral you can bet someone's going to say 'Ban!' and the spiral will deepen even further.
The root problem here is that the US actually thought such a foolish plan could ever work.
The Global South/BRICS+, make up 80% of the Earth's population. The 'West' as you like to remind us at every turn, is fast becoming a niche group of minority players.
'Data' is the 'new gold' in many ways, and for sure there is much scope for abuse but that potential abuse is everywhere, not only China, and once again, it is the US players (including government!) who have been caught interfering with it in nefarious ways. And not only the data but the network channels it travels over. 'clean networks'? Come on!
A few million TikTok users aren't doing much except for killing (or wasting) their time.
Yes, things need monitoring. Legislation needs to be updated to accommodate technology advances, and it is almost always behind the curve, but Tik Tok doesn't need banning or 'transfer'. It needs regulating just like every other player.
Perhaps a bigger issue is how platforms like Tiktok were able to find a willing audience to be able to kill time. That is far more worrying.
If Facebook/Instagram are now claimed to be bad for the mental health for many of its users, TikTok may well be reducing already short attention spans to new lower records. But I see now bans on the horizon for US players.
I wouldn't even try to spin US foreign policy into good light. It can't be done.
Putin's Munich speech was clear enough.
As for 2008, you forgot Georgia! Wow!
There were more clear indicators both before and after. Just another mess. The US doesn't meddle in other nations affairs, right?
Now look at US military deployments around China. See a pattern there?
Yes, the 2008 NATO meeting comments were a shock for even some of the participants. The British representative was one!
US foreign policy, not just in Europe but around the world, and in persuance of its own interests is pushing nation states away from it. Hence BRICS+, the Global South etc.
Unilateral sanctions on China? Why should anybody follow unilateral sanctions?
And you complain about China, but isn't it India that is doing more than any single nation to prop up the Russian oil economy? It went from basically not buying Russian oil to being it's biggest customer! What does India think of sanctions? A QUAD member!
In fact, what does most of the world think of sanctions? Not much at all, right? Because when you actually take a look at the map on which countries are applying sanctions and which aren't, you get a real eye opener. At last count, 87% of countries were still doing business with Russia.
Aren't delays in US aide packages doing untold harm to Ukrainian interests? Isn't there a growing movement on the US side that just wants to let Ukraine wither and surrender to Russia because it's costing too much?
And whenever the US expresses an 'iron clad' will to defend you, isn't that the moment you start quaking in your boots?
Aren't vetoes at the UN doing untold damage to Palestinian interests and causing unrest among the middle east nations?
Syria is an utter mess. Who should Europe thank for the refugee crisis?
Afghanistan was another mess!
I recently saw 'Escape from Kabul'.
An absolute foreign policy horror show.
Iraq?
Why is Africa almost entirely a Chinese interest now?
With Latin America going in a very similar direction.
The G7 has already lost huge relevance with regards to the Global South, BRICS+.
De-dollarisation is underway.
And now you call the Germans morons. Wow! Thanks.
So tell me. What gave the US the right to even think about killing Nord Stream? Much less say it publicly? And in such an off-the-cuff manner.
You've got to choose between Biden or Trump. The Germans will be laughing into their beer knowing that nothing could be worse than having two choose between those two options.
Why not just make up foreign policy as you go!?
And as for diplomacy, who needs that when you're pulling all the strings? At least for the minority of countries that make up 'the West'.
The 'morons' are the clueless idiots who have got us into these situations (over and over again) and, with the genies already out of their respective bottles, time is tick-tocking (oh! the irony) down on the uni-polar world that the US wants to dominate. And US foreign policy is largely to blame for many failings.
The TikTok move is just another late and very ill thought out blunder.
The CHIPS act is understandable in essence but comes after years of complaints that government subsidies were how China moved its pieces and were 'foul play'. But hey, not like literally everyone else on the planet? Including the US!
The problem with the CHIPS act is the anti China conditions. It isn't a move to enhance the terrible state of US semiconductor manufacturing. It is also a move to cripple China. Although US semi conductor interests have already been negatively impacted across the board. US industry associations have made their concerns known to the Administration but 'the hawks will hawk' and everything has fallen on deaf ears and now time is tick-tocking (just in case you didn't catch the irony last time around) into an inevitable downward spiral. And with every slide on that spiral you can bet someone's going to say 'Ban!' and the spiral will deepen even further.
The root problem here is that the US actually thought such a foolish plan could ever work.
The Global South/BRICS+, make up 80% of the Earth's population. The 'West' as you like to remind us at every turn, is fast becoming a niche group of minority players.
'Data' is the 'new gold' in many ways, and for sure there is much scope for abuse but that potential abuse is everywhere, not only China, and once again, it is the US players (including government!) who have been caught interfering with it in nefarious ways. And not only the data but the network channels it travels over. 'clean networks'? Come on!
A few million TikTok users aren't doing much except for killing (or wasting) their time.
Yes, things need monitoring. Legislation needs to be updated to accommodate technology advances, and it is almost always behind the curve, but Tik Tok doesn't need banning or 'transfer'. It needs regulating just like every other player.
Perhaps a bigger issue is how platforms like Tiktok were able to find a willing audience to be able to kill time. That is far more worrying.
If Facebook/Instagram are now claimed to be bad for the mental health for many of its users, TikTok may well be reducing already short attention spans to new lower records. But I see now bans on the horizon for US players.
Your grasp of geopolitics is pretty limited, in both scope and of the facts, and you seem to blame the U.S. for everything, and the EU, China, Russia and their BRICS partners for little or nothing. Worse is your failure to understand history.
Interestingly enough, I have been working while listening to many different audiobooks on the Pacific War. I believe it give me a massive advantage in understanding both history, dying empires, and global trade, all of which came about under the U.S. and Western leadership post WWII.
WRT to Nordstream;
https://2017-2021.state.gov/fact-sheet-on-u-s-opposition-to-nord-stream-2/
Gee, that was prescient...
How about Georgia;
You might have seen the current ongoing protests.
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/04/29/7453440/
To get back to the Pacific War, what is happening in China looks much like what happened in the 1930's in the Pacific, and it will be the U.S. and its allies that will have to respond. No sense giving more tools to China, semiconductor tech, as an example, to make it easier to weaponize China's military.
You want to blame the U.S. for putting the screws to China, but no mention that China is a totalitarian government under Xi, and a threat to the global order, just as Russia, and Iran are. No mention that China is bullying other countries in the South Chins Seas, and certainly, no mention of China's threats against Taiwan.
I get it, you are fond of authoritarians, but that isn't great for stability in the world.
Haha, that's cute.
TL:DR.
Agreed. Nobody is using TikTok _because_ it's made in China. They use it because it does what they want, and does it well.
Forcing TikTok to sell to an American company is just a way to give the US government control over it, not unlike exactly what they are scared of in China. Ironic bizarro world.
Google+ failed because it did nothing at all better than the existing alternative. To get people to adopt a new platform, that has to be significantly better at something that people care about.
Google+ was not.