Location: University of Adelaide SA
To be fair, there was a paywall there, but it also said you can sign up with a free account.I don't think a requirement of a free account equals paywall.
The China Problem
Topic moved from The Lounge by dthead on 17 Feb 2022 16:40
Aaron
The Ghost of George Stephenson
Location: University of Adelaide SA
Sonofagunzel
Minister for Railways
@lsrailfan Where does it say you can sign up to WSJ for free? As far as I can tell you have to pay once you’ve hit the article limit.
If there’s a way to get WSJ free I’d like to know!
If there’s a way to get WSJ free I’d like to know!
don_dunstan
Oliver Bullied, CME
Location: Adelaide proud
Western multinationals are under extreme pressure to assure their customers that there's no slave labour in their supply chains - the problem is that obtaining the truth might get them banned from ever being able to trade in China again: BBC;
Swedish fashion giant H&M saw its sales slump in China, months after it became the target of a Chinese boycott.
H&M was among several brands that raised concerns over alleged human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims in China's Xinjiang province.
Its statement led celebrities to cut ties with the brand and e-commerce platforms to drop H&M.
The sales slide came even as H&M's global business returned to profit as the impact of the pandemic eased.
China accounted for around 5% of the retail group's sales last year and is one of its biggest suppliers...
...Several Western brands, including H&M and Nike, recently faced a backlash from Chinese shoppers after the firms expressed concerns about the alleged use of Uyghur forced labour in cotton production.
In March, H&M was removed from the Chinese online retail platform Tmall and domestic phone makers' app stores after it expressed concerns about the alleged use of Uyghur forced labour in cotton production.
But later in March, H&M said it was dedicated to regaining the trust of customers and partners China and that its commitment to the country remained strong.
Last week, the boss of Nike, which also faced a boycott in China, made a robust defence of the sportswear giant's business in the country.
Chief executive John Donahoe said "Nike is a brand that is of China and for China" in response to a question about competition from Chinese brands.
China mets out severe punishments to any foreign company that even asks questions of human rights, let alone identifies slave labour in their supply chains. The most wedged out of all these companies is Apple, which has consistently dodged a pledge that no slave labour whatsoever exists in its supply chains, instead releasing bland reassurances to shareholders and customers that it's doing all it can.
Swedish fashion giant H&M saw its sales slump in China, months after it became the target of a Chinese boycott.
H&M was among several brands that raised concerns over alleged human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims in China's Xinjiang province.
Its statement led celebrities to cut ties with the brand and e-commerce platforms to drop H&M.
The sales slide came even as H&M's global business returned to profit as the impact of the pandemic eased.
China accounted for around 5% of the retail group's sales last year and is one of its biggest suppliers...
...Several Western brands, including H&M and Nike, recently faced a backlash from Chinese shoppers after the firms expressed concerns about the alleged use of Uyghur forced labour in cotton production.
In March, H&M was removed from the Chinese online retail platform Tmall and domestic phone makers' app stores after it expressed concerns about the alleged use of Uyghur forced labour in cotton production.
But later in March, H&M said it was dedicated to regaining the trust of customers and partners China and that its commitment to the country remained strong.
Last week, the boss of Nike, which also faced a boycott in China, made a robust defence of the sportswear giant's business in the country.
Chief executive John Donahoe said "Nike is a brand that is of China and for China" in response to a question about competition from Chinese brands.
China mets out severe punishments to any foreign company that even asks questions of human rights, let alone identifies slave labour in their supply chains. The most wedged out of all these companies is Apple, which has consistently dodged a pledge that no slave labour whatsoever exists in its supply chains, instead releasing bland reassurances to shareholders and customers that it's doing all it can.
freightgate
Minister for Railways
Location: Albury, New South Wales
Taiwan is now planning to intensify training of younger army troops in case China decides to invade their country. If Ukraine war ends in the next few weeks then would China be less likely to act on Taiwan ?
michaelgm
Chief Commissioner
Reckon the ADF would struggle to launch an armed holdup at a 7-11, hilarious.
don_dunstan
Oliver Bullied, CME
Location: Adelaide proud
Reckon the ADF would struggle to launch an armed holdup at a 7-11, hilarious.Yep.
I'm gunna go out on a limb here and say China has the right to plonk a military base in the Pacific. The United States has something like 125 military bases on foreign soil throughout the world including a few here in Australia and some really strange places like Diego Garcia, Guam, etc.
China is an ascendant military and economic power, the West can't tell them they're not allowed to expand to have a military presence in several client states if they want to. They're just doing exactly what the United States did in its own ascendancy a century ago.
doyle
Chief Commissioner
I reckon you are right Don, my issue is we dropped the ball and having any military/police alignments with china should not of even entered these Pacific nations minds, Australian/NZ policy failure at its worst
Carnot
Minister for Railways
Certainly lots of "What if?" to ponder:
Concerns of a Chinese invasion grows in Taiwan
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-27/concerns-of-a-chinese-invasion-grows-in-taiwan/13814804
Concerns of a Chinese invasion grows in Taiwan
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-27/concerns-of-a-chinese-invasion-grows-in-taiwan/13814804
don_dunstan
Oliver Bullied, CME
Location: Adelaide proud
I reckon you are right Don, my issue is we dropped the ball and having any military/police alignments with china should not of even entered these Pacific nations minds, Australian/NZ policy failure at its worstI just think we can't tell China to not have military bases where they like - they want to build their own empire with client states and we probably can't stop them from doing that. Economically they've already partly colonised this country anyway. 31% of our trade. It's gunna be pretty hard for us if they arc up and sink all their trade with us in its entirety - and there's always that threat hanging over our heads with the CCP if we press a bit like ScoMo found out with the COVID inquiry.
We're not negotiating from a position of strength though - and that's what I believe Ukraine to be all about, testing the limits of Western military resolve. China is using Putin as a proxy just like it did with North Korea and is trying to make friends with whoever will take their money (ie small Pacific Nations). And although the war could drag on for a few more months I don't think Ukraine can possibly win, the Russians are going really slowly and putting cities under s to try and force the hand of Zelensky and get him to agree to (maybe) an east-west division of Ukraine or Russian 'peace-keepers' in the Donbass etc.
We'll see what happens but yeah telling that Biden lost the plot in Poland today and directly called for Putin's removal. Interesting escalation in language from Corpse in Chief.
Carnot
Minister for Railways
A lot can happen in a week. The CCP are driving the place (and Hong Kong) into the ground.
lsrailfan
Minister for Railways
Location: Somewhere you're not
A Chinese spy ship was sighted off the coast of WA gathering information, the ship is now in Darwin.
michaelgm
Chief Commissioner
A Chinese spy ship was sighted off the coast of WA gathering information, the ship is now in Darwin.Their very own home port.
Carnot
Minister for Railways
Apparently involved in "Intelligence gathering" along the NW WA coast. They probably didn't find much of that...
Carnot
Minister for Railways
Meanwhile:
don_dunstan
Oliver Bullied, CME
Location: Adelaide proud
Apparently involved in "Intelligence gathering" along the NW WA coast. They probably didn't find much of that...Isn't that US submarine signals base up there somewhere - North-West Shelf Joint Facility or whatever it's called.
Richard Marles missed his ride home...
michaelgm
Chief Commissioner
Channel 10? Claimed the ship never came closer than 460km from the coast.Apparently involved in "Intelligence gathering" along the NW WA coast. They probably didn't find much of that...Isn't that US submarine signals base up there somewhere - North-West Shelf Joint Facility or whatever it's called.
Richard Marles missed his ride home...
Simply an on water matter, just conveniently eight days from election.
Richard Marles or Gladys Liu missed their ride?
don_dunstan
Oliver Bullied, CME
Location: Adelaide proud
Agree that there's a cloud over Gladys Liu but Labor's had a veritable conga-line of CCP apologists compared to the LNP.Channel 10? Claimed the ship never came closer than 460km from the coast.Apparently involved in "Intelligence gathering" along the NW WA coast. They probably didn't find much of that...Isn't that US submarine signals base up there somewhere - North-West Shelf Joint Facility or whatever it's called.
Richard Marles missed his ride home...
Simply an on water matter, just conveniently eight days from election.
Richard Marles or Gladys Liu missed their ride?
There's a rumour on Twitter that Albo's shadow cabinet have already decided on an increase to the GST of 5% but it won't be announced 'till after the election when they discover there's a budgetary 'black hole' (a la John Howard).
I honestly don't care what happens this time around, as I was saying to Doyle apart from the fairly extreme 'climate action' policies it's hard to distinguish them.
We're heading into a 'stagflation' type situation and spending needs to be reined in - it concerns me that neither side really have a plan for that.
michaelgm
Chief Commissioner
A Chinese spy ship was sighted off the coast of WA gathering information, the ship is now in Darwin.Make of this as you wish.
lsrailfan
Minister for Railways
Location: Somewhere you're not
The LNP would have several Chinese "contacts" as well, don't worry about that!Agree that there's a cloud over Gladys Liu but Labor's had a veritable conga-line of CCP apologists compared to the LNP.Channel 10? Claimed the ship never came closer than 460km from the coast.Apparently involved in "Intelligence gathering" along the NW WA coast. They probably didn't find much of that...Isn't that US submarine signals base up there somewhere - North-West Shelf Joint Facility or whatever it's called.
Richard Marles missed his ride home...
Simply an on water matter, just conveniently eight days from election.
Richard Marles or Gladys Liu missed their ride?
There's a rumour on Twitter that Albo's shadow cabinet have already decided on an increase to the GST of 5% but it won't be announced 'till after the election when they discover there's a budgetary 'black hole' (a la John Howard).
I honestly don't care what happens this time around, as I was saying to Doyle apart from the fairly extreme 'climate action' policies it's hard to distinguish them.
We're heading into a 'stagflation' type situation and spending needs to be reined in - it concerns me that neither side really have a plan for that.
Carnot
Minister for Railways
Is Xi Jinping not long for this earth?
don_dunstan
Oliver Bullied, CME
Location: Adelaide proud
Is Xi Jinping not long for this earth?I've seen this rumour repeated a few times and I just don't believe it - it's a bit like the rumour that Putin has cancer. I think sometimes the 'free' media goes on fishing expeditions and makes up propaganda in support of our own agenda.
Carnot
Minister for Railways
This country has lost the plot:
Shameful.
Shameful.
don_dunstan
Oliver Bullied, CME
Location: Adelaide proud
This country has lost the plot:It's disgusting and a taste of things to come if Labor get in. Penny Wong said in no uncertain terms a while back that there should be laws to ensure nobody can "insult" the Chinese Communist Party. That's just giving them exactly what they want and it's incredibly anti-democratic, we should be free to speak our minds in this country about foreign governments, it's an important pillar of our system.
Shameful.
Imagine if there had been laws passed about not saying bad things about Tojo's imperialist Japan or Nazi Germany in case we upset the trade relationship?
don_dunstan
Oliver Bullied, CME
Location: Adelaide proud
I don't necessarily agree with all this show-boating that Drew Pavlou is doing either... it is certainly deliberately provocative towards Chinese loyalists in this country. But he does have a right to protest peacefully without being arrested. Those arrests appear to be entirely political in nature.
Meanwhile, Chinese diplomats see the election here as an opportunity to 'reset the relationship' - The Guardian;
China will seek talks with whichever party wins Saturday’s Australian federal election, with diplomatic sources declaring that they see “a good opportunity” to ease tensions in the period after the vote.
A Chinese diplomatic source, who did not wish to be named, said China was “genuine in our wish to improve the relationship” with Australia, although to date it has not publicly detailed any specific actions it is willing to take.
The source also pushed back at a description by the defence minister, Peter Dutton, that a Chinese intelligence gathering vessel seen off the coast of Western Australia last week was an aggressive act.
“It’s nothing to be worried [about],” the Chinese diplomatic source said.
“There’s no animosity that should be interpreted in such a presence of a ship in the exclusive economic zone of Australia … We don’t agree with his judgement about a threat.”
Seems a bit rich to say that when they get so upset about the "freedom of movement" exercises the US conducted in the South China Sea.
Meanwhile, Chinese diplomats see the election here as an opportunity to 'reset the relationship' - The Guardian;
China will seek talks with whichever party wins Saturday’s Australian federal election, with diplomatic sources declaring that they see “a good opportunity” to ease tensions in the period after the vote.
A Chinese diplomatic source, who did not wish to be named, said China was “genuine in our wish to improve the relationship” with Australia, although to date it has not publicly detailed any specific actions it is willing to take.
The source also pushed back at a description by the defence minister, Peter Dutton, that a Chinese intelligence gathering vessel seen off the coast of Western Australia last week was an aggressive act.
“It’s nothing to be worried [about],” the Chinese diplomatic source said.
“There’s no animosity that should be interpreted in such a presence of a ship in the exclusive economic zone of Australia … We don’t agree with his judgement about a threat.”
Seems a bit rich to say that when they get so upset about the "freedom of movement" exercises the US conducted in the South China Sea.
Carnot
Minister for Railways
Something big is about to happen...