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Flavour said:
Source?
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I don't know where this claim is from but it doesn't surprise me that much - I know the Ming were obsessed with accumulation of silver and most silver from the Americas ended up in China. Spain cracking down on silver smuggling from Central America at the same time that Japan, a source of silver for the Ming, was shutting down its trade with European powers around the 1640s is what ultimately led to a collapse of the Ming economy and their overthrow by the Manchus.

I might be overthinking it but I can see an echo in Ming silver policy in modern China's currency controls making it extremely hard to get money out of the country, while encouraging as much inward investment as possible. I wouldn't be surprised if this is some ingrained Confucian statecraft dating back to the Han.
 
Rimbaud said:
I don't know where this claim is from but it doesn't surprise me that much - I know the Ming were obsessed with accumulation of silver and most silver from the Americas ended up in China. Spain cracking down on silver smuggling from Central America at the same time that Japan, a source of silver for the Ming, was shutting down its trade with European powers around the 1640s is what ultimately led to a collapse of the Ming economy and their overthrow by the Manchus.

I might be overthinking it but I can see an echo in Ming silver policy in modern China's currency controls making it extremely hard to get money out of the country, while encouraging as much inward investment as possible. I wouldn't be surprised if this is some ingrained Confucian statecraft dating back to the Han.
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A lot of silver certainly ended up in China but it would have mostly been melted down to make Chinese currency (achieving the aim of making it hard for the money to leave China). I'm pretty sure the coffee table book historian has got himself muddled.
 
They don't even pretend to be subtle... China frees Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig after Huawei boss released

A diplomatic row between China and the West appears to be ending, after the release of two Canadians held in China and a Chinese tech executive in Canada.
Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, arrested on a US warrant in 2018, left Canada on Friday in a deal with US prosecutors.
Hours later it was announced that Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, accused of espionage by China in the same year, were flying home to Canada.
Beijing denies detaining the Canadians in retaliation for Ms Meng's arrest.
 
China is still a middle-income country. It is relatively easy for states like it and in the past USSR to reach that stage but very few break out of that to become a high-Income country. South Korea is the most recent example and almost all of them are democracies. To become a middle-income country a planned economy throwing money at building things - almost anything: houses, vanity projects and roads to nowhere - will suffice but to get to be a high-income one more subtle qualities like entrepreneurship and consumerism are required. There has been nothing like today’s China before but a lot of economists think they are still too centralised to become a permanent high-income country. They think there was a chance as it opened up its economy in the 2000s but that it has gone backwards since 2014 under Xi Jinping.
 
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vanya said:
China is still a middle-income country. It is relatively easy for states like it and in the past USSR to reach that stage but very few break out of that to become a high-Income country. South Korea is the most recent example and almost all of them are democracies. To become a middle-income country a planned economy throwing money at building things - almost anything: houses, vanity projects and roads to nowhere - will suffice but to get to be a high-income one more subtle qualities like entrepreneurship and consumerism are required. There has been nothing like today’s China before but a lot of economist think they are still too centralised to become a permanent high-income country. They think there was a chance as it opened up its economy in the 2000s but that it has gone backwards since 2014 under Xi Jinping.
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China has made a load of money and has been splashing it around. The West invented wealth as we know it today, so raping African countries is a good strategy but they are a couple of hundred years too late. China keeps nicking patents for cars, TV and everything. That is super but a global player needs to innovate every now and then, just nicking shit from the neighbours might elicit a stern rebuke at some point…
 
MrCurry said:
They are surely just waiting for the right time to take Taiwan. The west will huff and puff but would they really do anything about it? No doubt Beijing has paid close attention to how Russia dealt with Crimea.
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Realistically, what can the west do?

China is such an important market for capitalism, it's going to be tread carefully, don't upset Xi.

All very grim.
 
“Regarding the recent news released on the official website of the WTA, the content has not been confirmed or verified by myself and it was released without my consent,” the letter said.

“The news in that release, including the allegation of sexual assault, is not true. I’m not missing, nor I am unsafe. I’ve just been resting at home and everything is fine. Thank you again for caring about me.”

www.theguardian.com

Scepticism as Peng Shuai letter emerges claiming ‘everything is fine’

The head of the WTA has expressed increased concern for the welfare of Peng Shuai after a letter purportedly from the Chinese player appeared on state media
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
krtek a houby said:
Footage emerges but nobody's buying it. Sorry for another Graun link but the misogynism and wumao shite comments on English speaking sites over here are sickening

Peng Shuai: fresh video emerges as China faces growing global condemnation
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Absolutely fucking massive respect for the Women's Tennis Association for putting their foot down here. This is what integrity looks like.

Also, this is a pretty big deal - sexual exploitation of women by the Party elite is absolutely rife and this is almost certainly why Fan Bingbing disappeared from public view a couple of years ago.

This is an example of the sort of thing that goes on:

www.echinacities.com

Former Railway Minister Sets “Chinese Sex Scandal Record”

www.echinacities.com www.echinacities.com

“On February 1, in the Harbin Intermediate People's Court during the trial of Luo Jinbao, the chair of China Railway Container Transport Co. Ltd, the following information was exposed: Shanxi business woman Ding Shumiao used her connections to the new Dream of the Red Chamber television series [she was an investor] to have the entire cast sleep with Liu Zhijun in exchange for an 800 million RMB intermediary fee for a railway project. He slept with the 12 leading actresses and even with the servant girls and female employees; he slept with the entire production one-by-one."
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This guy was sent down in the anti-corruption campaign but there is nothing to suggest Xi Jinping allies like Zhang Gaoli are any better behaved.

They are absolutely terrified of MeToo movement because the ruling elite is so overwhelmingly guilty of this kind of behaviour. No wonder they are cracking down on feminists they days.

Massive kudos to the WTA for being willing to sacrifice their market in China to call this out and not being placated by half arsed "emails" and videos which may be old/staged.

Their hard line is actually shaking the Communist Party to its core because on the one hand, if Peng Shuai goes free and speaks openly they are scared it will empower others to do the same; and on the other, failing to resolve risks an Olympic boycott and empowers/pressures other sports companies to stop bending the knee to unreasonable demands.
 
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