Miscellaneous News

supercat said:

Article from 2013 that didn't age well:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1943279049591394654

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Clickbait headline aside, it wasn’t a bad article, certainly not critical in the way the headline suggested. Also thankfully did not just say “Adopt western democracy! It will fix everything!”
Few interesting things to mention:
Talks about reshoring, 10 years later we are still talking about it, lol
Talks about “emerging India”, ditto above
Discusses Geely being behind at the time, also Silicon Valley innovation. Google Waymo is sourcing Geely Zeekrs. Mercedes is sourcing an inline 4 from Geely.
Points out shipbuilding technology being behind. We know this is currently keeping American think tanks employed with their monthly “Chinese shipbuilding will bury us” articles.
Few global clothing brands, lol, see above, replace shipbuilding with SHEIN.
The conclusion is quite conciliatory, says “Don’t count China out”. The problem is this
“Yet transforming a fractious developing country of such gargantuan size into an economically advanced nation has simply never been done before.”
I would say 99% of readers here actually fully agree.

India's AAIB is due to release a preliminary report into the crash of Air India Flight 171 shortly.

In recent days, outlets reporting on apparent leaks from the investigation have alleged that a key line of inquiry relates to operation of the engine fuel cut-off switches located in the cockpit. The podcast below featuring former NTSB air accident investigators elaborates on the implications of that for the investigation.

GulfLander said:

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Pardon my language, but this is actually really fucking juicy news, especially the chatter concerning increasing Egyptian access to RMB denominated debt:

During the talks, both sides discussed ways to strengthen coordination on various monetary and financial issues, including activating a local currency swap agreement, facilitating payments settlement in local currencies, exploring the issuance of Panda Bonds, and creating interoperability between their respective national payment systems.

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Egypt has been a major recipient of US military aid for decades, which amounts to and represents a double digit percentage of the annual Egyptian military budget. This stream of money is effectively a bribe to the Egyptian military leadership for keeping peace with Israel, as well as leverage for , and presumably Chinese arms.

However, have most likely convinced Egypt that American money will dry up sooner rather than later, likely one reason why Egypt has visibly increased its interest in arms from and military cooperation with China.


EAF Commander attending CATIC celebration in Cairo in May 2005


EAF & PLAAF Commanders meeting in Beijing in July 2024

The Chinese and Egyptians aren't quite there yet, but meaningful access to RMB denominated debt could help Egypt wean off its dependency on American military aid, and may represent a significant source of financing for future arms purchases from China.

It is not just US military aid. Egypt has a huge debt to the IMF.

Digitimes having another one

Subsidy hangover? China's June auto sales surge may be last hurrah

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China's auto sales reached 2.08 million units in June, marking the highest monthly total since June 2022. Analysts believe the spike was likely driven by consumers accelerating purchases in anticipation of cuts or shifts to government subsidy program...

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By:Nuying Huang, Taipei; Levi Li, DIGITIMES Asia

Officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, tasked with responding to widespread disasters like the recent flash flooding in central Texas, have said the implementation of red tape by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem hampered the agency's response to the disaster late last week and delayed the deployment of federal search and rescue crews by 72 hours.

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From Forbes Breaking News Youtube

CMP said:

I expect they will cave fast, along with the South Koreans. If either of them toughs it out and fights like they mean it, I will be pleasantly surprised, but I doubt it will happen. They're both just too weak.

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The Koreans might, as there is always a chance with them, they being so volatile. Do not really expect it, but who knows.

One thing I have noticed over the years, is that when South Korea and China get more friendly, then Japan is always there too. Same happens when Japan and China gets friendly, then seems like South Korea demands to be there too.

If one flips, then both are going to flip. Chances are low, but who knows.

What Trump wants now, is probably even worst than what he wanted from China, haha! To this day, no one really knows what Trump 2.0 wanted from China. Haha!

There is some real disarray on the foreign front, and it all stemmed from that total mutual trade embargo. Haha! Haha!

US foreign relations have not recovered from that yet.

No questions were settled, and people are getting upset, and some are antsy.

Waiting Trump out, is not really an option. Tariffs tend to be sticky. Once implemented then vested interests do not want any changes having them repealed.

MAGA! Magnificent!

Once the Koreans and Japanese start to think about that, when the auto tariffs will be repealed, for example, they might not like what their thoughts are.

Haha! Haha!

horse said:

MAGA! Magnificent!

Once the Koreans and Japanese start to think about that, when the auto tariffs will be repealed, for example, they might not like what their thoughts are.

Haha! Haha!

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1. Russia and China doing trade without any USD, that set the precedent. It was rather easy, and if some country wants to use local currency for its China trade, that is very easy to arrange. China is going after the US dollar, trying to weaken that dollar hegemony, thereby weaken America.

2. America is attacking South Korea and Japan with these demands. Hey, listen, if there are 100% tariffs on Chinese cars, because they are better than American cars, then are Hyndai and Toyota and Honda build better cars than the Americans? You sure that tariff on cars will not go any higher? Against this backdrop, China does not put out the welcome mat for South Korea or Japan, but threatens them, if they do anything against Chinese interests. In other words, Trump tariffs weaken the US alliances because the strategic auto industry gets weaker affecting all of Korea and Japan, but then China piles on. Seems like China is intent on breaking these alliances.

So that is where we stand today. Forget about the BRICS. The BRICS is for the members, and it is about development.

Russia and China going on this alone - are going after US dollar hegemony, and through kinetic war and economic ruthlessness both are going to try to break the allies.

Guess who is winning?

STFU! Hahahahaha!

Sardaukar20 said:

Well at this point, any BRICS currency basket discussion is kinda moot. We should move on from this pipe dream already.

In any case, China circulates two types of RMBs. One for its internal economy, and another for forex. Both RMBs are heavily regulated by the government. I don't know the actual mechanisms, but i believe that this is done to protect China's economy from forex manipulations and attacks.

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China needs to allow the RMB to appreciate substantially. When that happens other countries will be scrambling for RMB and then use it as the trading currency.

henrik said:

China needs to allow the RMB to appreciate substantially. When that happens other countries will be scrambling for RMB and then use it as the trading currency.

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It’s a double edged sword and not just all benefits and no costs or risks, which will take several lectures to just scratch the surface.

China keeps careful control on the RMB for very good reasons, which is why it’s not desperately keen for the RMB to just straight replace the USD, as that would trade one problem for another.

What it is doing is removing the USD from its own bilateral trade with the RoW, but it has no interest in actively promoting that the RMB he used by other countries doing trade with each other.

China also cannot simply create a separate international trading currency, as that will basically carry much of the same risks and costs as just straight using RMB.

The ideal solution, which is what China is trying to push, is for the whole world to accept a common universal trading currency that isn’t linked or dependent on any single nation. That way all countries can essentially separate the often conflicting internal and external monetary policy priorities and pressures on their own sovereign currency supply and demand dynamics.

This is why it continues to tolerate India. Because for such a currency to work, you can’t just issue with to and between friendly nations. I think the rational is that if you can develop a framework that will satisfy the Indians, you can easily build upon that to satisfy just about anyone else.