The Coming Collapse of China and India

[Hexachordia]

Nothing is worse for China to walk the path of the "global leader in a colonial apocalypsis, with the oil drained, resources exhaustively exploited, wealth usurped and nations hollowed out with cultures and real heritages. There is nothing left to police about like an old prostitute marrying you as everybody pretends to give you some dowries. Stupid, I know the war had such agenda in minds of the western countries even Russia as well to push China onto a podium of a crumbling brothel.

The west just pretends to hype up the tension to make the dowries look tempting, in a certain moment they would back down and let China take over everything/the ruin. I am sure of it, because global economy has come to the worst period where currencies are becoming virtualized and slowly starting to burst in illusional bubbles. A big Zimbabwe is here at all of us just they have the technology to create propagandas that can hold up the huge bubble for quite a while untill now. Therefore, I am here, let me be your savior instead.

[Hexachordia]

Have you noticed one of either Putin and Zelensky if stepped down the war will soon come to an end? this is a two men`s war, Zelensky is such a perfect leader in war for Ukraine yet Russia just had not noticed the message? this war was agreed on from both the west and Russia, China probably also knew about it. While it seems it only takes only one term of presidency of either presidents to stop the war, but it also can be a term of indefinite length of time for war too. It would take as long as enough to divert us from the truth that every nations wealth have been hollowed and usurped. Although it can be said civil wars preceding had prompted Zelensky to come up, but it is till hard to tell if it was just by chance people had choosen a good warleader in advance or somebody expected something and pre-choosed him for the election. Hard to understand how a nation comes to be hollowed? a crumbling dollar tells, if the oil is failing of course the dollar will fall, it is that simple, not just oils, also other valuables. Electric cars is a scam to prevent people from living more efficiently on coals, otherwise people wll notice the oil dollar had been a trap. As the oil production hyped up, dollars would buy up other resources and tamper with the soil, the more oil is consumed, the more a nation will be in debt in dollar. The USA is a prime example, but the USA do not need to care because the US government is an empty puppet, people will foot the bill of this puppet. The US is nervous about Russia`s gas and oil also for this reason, energy is the real currency, the more you consume the more you are in debt to the currency controllers not necessarily dollar here. The big businesses will have to coordinate their policies with the currency controllers, in this way they hollow your country inside out, leaving people irrevocably in debt which is impossible to pay back except for war and remove themselves from their own countries. Or you can physically say it is like a vacuum in form of a nation against the pressure of floating currencies.

This is happening worldwide. India is a special case since they have a mass of non-civilian classes, fully to be exploited and abused. The general condition of the nation is ever without an end a downward deterioration toward social and economical dystopia： even too weak for a moderate open economy. They are easily agitated in nationalist zeals regardlessly to the corruption inside, the weaker the more nationalistically indoctrinated. Russia in this sense is still definitely a strong country, for the sign of collapse happens only to strong nations, you see nothing unusual in Africa and India, whatever happens. But India should know how to respect their neighbors before they can extricate themself from the coming disgraces. Evil deeds being excused is the sign of your weakness, if you want to become a true great nation. This is a big crisis we should togather hold up the true hope not falling into the traps.

[Wunder-Zeichen]

Foreign investment in China slumps to 18-year low

Recent years have seen almost no new entries by European companies, according to an analysis of investment into China by New York-based Rhodium Group. And among businesses that continue to invest in China, the research firm noted a trend of "internal decoupling," with companies including large automakers segregating their Chinese and non-Chinese supply chains to limit risks such as technology leaks. Other companies have scaled back their Chinese operations or pulled out entirely, reflected in balance of payments data as a drag on total investment. By the end of 2022, the number of foreign manufacturers and other companies in the industrial sector in China was down 0.5% on the year, the first decline in three years. This comes as tensions between Washington and Beijing over advanced technologies have increased risks for companies with China at the center of their supply chains. By the end of last year, Sony Group had moved most of its camera production for Japan, the U.S. and Europe from China to Thailand.

New U.S. chip rules, and an 18-year low in foreign investment in China

Chinese autonomous vehicle companies collectively drove more than 450,000 miles in road tests in California in 2022, but they might be headed into a dead end as American legislators have begun asking if the data collected by self-driving cars might present a national security risk to the U.S.

U.S. chipmakers have been grounded at home for a decade if they want a slice of a juicy $39 billion federal fund. Companies that receive funding must agree not to expand overseas for at least 10 years, according to new commerce department rules today. The move marks the latest aggressive attempt by the Biden administration to boost its homegrown semiconductor industry and slow China’s access to crucial chipmaking equipment, after it passed the landmark $52 billion CHIPS Act last year.

TikTok must be removed from all U.S. federal government devices within 30 days, in the latest American restriction on the short-video app owned by Beijing-based ByteDance.

Foreign investment in China hit an 18-year low in the second half of last year, dropping to $42.5 billion between July and December 2022, compared with over $160 billion in half-year totals between late 2020 and early 2022. Companies are scaling back their Chinese operations or pulling out entirely to trim their exposure to the geopolitical headwinds between the world’s two largest economies.

Fake accounts posing as two Reuters journalists were used to question Chinese activists on several social media platforms, to seek information about activists’ ties to a protest group around the time of the COVID-zero demonstrations late last year. Bādiūcǎo 巴丢草, a well-known Chinese activist and dissident artist based in Australia, first tweeted about one of the impersonations on Saturday. Reuters has been unable to verify the people behind the fake personas.

Russia is ditching the dollar for the yuan, slightly moving the needle in China’s yearslong but mostly frustrated attempt to compete with the U.S. in global finance and commerce. Russia’s growing use of China’s currency is the latest indicator of stronger ties between the new nations, given their shared ideological positions and grievances with the West. “Moscow has jettisoned concerns about giving China too much leverage over its economy,” said Alexander Gabuev, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

[Wunder-Zeichen]

India at No. 126 of 137 countries, below Pakistan & Sri Lanka, both of which are facing economic crises. The report analysed 6 factors including income, health, freedom & corruption.

https://archive.is/uu4DM, https://imgflip.com/i/7fme5m

I'm sure they have their reasons. But obviously not everyone is happy or pleased with this report.

Like, for example, Jyothsna Yalapalli, Brand Strategist (from Mainstream Advertising) functioning as Remote Brand Head for 5 Early stage Startups.

The #WorldHappinessIndex2023 conducted by #jokers is back again. As per this whatever survey, #India at 126 (out of 137 countries), is way way behind war-torn #Ukraine led by a wholly clueless Olive Tee, #Iran under manically suppressive regime, economically collapsed #Turkey & bhooka bhooka Papistan on the edge of default-with inflation around 40%, economically crawling bankrupt #SriLanka and Bangladesh, and China with zero freedom. Even US where giant banks are collapsing like packs of cards, and where people pop in pills like candies to fight depression/haywire mental health & madcaps run across shooting kids/young, randomly, is happier than India…people in all these crippling-collapsing countries are happier than us in the surging young India! LOL. And 20% of #Finland pop, the happiest country, have mental health problems/mental disorders. The country has a shorter spell of sunlight (73/365 days) - dark days can drive people nuts.

Are these jokers running a newer hypothesis that “#War and #Hunger keep people slim and fit, forever hyperactive & therefore every body gets loaded with tonnes of endorphins”? —- Tadap Tadap kar jiyo aur kush raho

(Or)

Have these jokers interviewed utterly jaded Rahul Baba and his camp mates, recently married Swara Bhasker aunty, bleak & gloom doom Raghuram Rajan Saar, etc only, instead of talking to chirpy, optimistic, vibrantly dressed up Indians who are not only making good money, building businesses but also are consuming as well as creating real whacky, badass content and always try to maintain irrepressible an attitude (at least 8 of 10 times, they stay so)…

Paagal log!

(Just now, one more shooting in USA : The Denver East High School shooter is a student who was on a behavioral plan that required him to be searched at the beginning of each school day. He shot two school administrators with a handgun this morning as they patted him down)

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update...5025991462912/

But by the same token, I agree with her that the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network's World Happiness Report should not be taken seriously by a responsible thinker and without experimental confirmation. At least for the most part. There are lots of variables to consider. There are too many other variables that could significantly impact the outcome, and there are too many other adjustments that could overhaul and repair the system. At the same time, and as the New York Times rightly notes, making predictions is difficult because there are so many variables we would have to control for and so many variables we don't know. Moreover and as explained by EduGorilla Prep Experts (2022), there can be many factors or variables that may affect the outcome. They actually compete with the independent variable in explaining the outcome. So, they could affect the result of the experiment.

In any case, Jyothsna Yalapalli makes some good points in the context of the report. And here is the main point, at the beginning:

"#Ukraine led by a wholly clueless Olive Tee,
#Iran under manically suppressive regime, economically collapsed
#Turkey & bhooka bhooka Papistan on the edge of default-with inflation around 40%, economically crawling bankrupt
#SriLanka and Bangladesh, and China with zero freedom.
Even US where giant banks are collapsing like packs of cards,
and where people pop in pills like candies to fight depression/haywire mental health & madcaps run across shooting kids/young,
randomly, is happier than India…
people in all these crippling-collapsing countries are happier than us in the surging young India! LOL."

In the telling of their (typically false and inaccurate) narrative, they would have you believe that people in those crippling and crumbling or possibly even collapsing countries are super happy, or that they really are happier, when in reality they are actually not that happy, and even though they are no happier than anyone else. And indeed, they are collapsing in so many disparate and desperate and disproportionate and potentially chaotic ways.

LOL indeed.

Ukrainians, on the other hand, are much happier after the Russian Invasion — or than they were earlier. That's all thanks to Vlad the Great, who is all-loving, who is all-merciful, who cares for each and every one of them individually. Amen to that.

Ukraine 'Happier' After Pandemic, Russian Invasion

Despite Russian missiles raining down on Ukraine almost every other day, in a war that has killed thousands of civilians and left millions homeless, Ukrainians are ‘happier’ than they were earlier, suggests the latest edition of the World Happiness Report (WHR). In the 11th edition of the report released by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), Ukraine’s rank improved from 98 in 2019-2021 to 92 in 2020-2022 — a period coinciding with the Russian invasion. Russia’s rank too improved from 80 to 70.

Attachment 118776

https://imgflip.com/i/7fmfa0
Thanks, Vlad.

That is the most truthful and sincere part of the report.

https://www.theapricity.com/forum/sh...53#post7687053

[Wunder-Zeichen]

Counter Chinese Bullying With an 'Economic Article 5'

The United States should treat China’s economic bullying against one ally as an attack against all—in the spirit of NATO's Article 5, Anders Fogh Rasmussen writes.

As China’s wealth has grown, so has its willingness to use economic bullying to achieve its foreign-policy goals. When Australian politicians called for an investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 outbreak in China, Beijing responded by slapping tariffs of more than 100 percent on Australian wines. Unsurprisingly, Australian wine exports to China collapsed, from $870 million in 2020 to just $8.3 million in 2022. The consequences for Lithuania were even starker when it allowed a Taiwanese representative office to be set up in Vilnius. In response, China launched an effective embargo on the entire Baltic state. This had significant knock-on effects on the European Union’s single market, with China also pressuring European companies to remove Lithuanian products from their supply chains. NATO is the world’s most powerful military alliance because its adversaries know that an attack on any member will be met with a response by all, as Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty makes clear. It is time to apply the same approach to economic coercion. It is time for an economic version of NATO’s Article 5.

[Wunder-Zeichen]

An Asian Demographic Decline Deepens In Three Nations

GIS Reports
ECONOMY APRIL 4, 2023

China, Japan and South Korea are in demographic decline. Is that good or bad?

Government financial incentives may be useless in reversing the demographic slide
Aging societies bring greater economic costs but could also help the environment
The fastest way to reverse population declines is a relaxation of immigration policies

Briefly after the Cold War, when globalization dominated the world, national sovereignty seemed relegated to the dustbin of history. The Western consensus of liberal democracy, market economy and free trade had triumphed for good, or so we thought. The main concerns of this age? The management principles of just-in-time delivery and global sourcing. A World War I-style bloody trench warfare? Never again in Europe. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 altered the situation dramatically. Suddenly, humanity is no longer at the end of history, but right in the middle of it. Long-held beliefs had to be substantially revised. The priorities of trade and economic growth had to be replaced with the imperative to build strong armed forces. National security once again depends on the number of tanks and artillery pieces. Today’s supply-chain questions include how many soldiers a country can mobilize and how quickly it can do so. The strength of a nation is once again measured by the dark ages criteria of the 19th and 20th centuries. But military might is not the only yardstick. Demographics – the size, birth rate and age structure of a given population – is intricately linked to the strength of a nation as well, along with social and economic conditions that encourage or discourage people from having families.

Population and Resources

In Asia, for a long time after World War II, the Malthusian fear reigned supreme: Rapid population growth would cause massive famines and a shortages of resources. Population growth would stall socioeconomic development. The worry was so great that the two largest countries by population, China and India, adopted policies to control population growth. In India, this rigid intervention only survived for a short time during the 1970s when a program of enforced sterilization was implemented. In China, the one-child policy was launched in 1980 and only revoked some 36 years later. Relentless population growth was seen as a major threat to the peace and stability of civilization. The world seemed destined for doom as the global population in November 2022 crossed the 8 billion mark.

Fewer Births and Aging Populations

But today, the fears are different. Important countries in Asia and other parts of the world are faced with the new challenge of a shrinking and aging population. China has abolished its one-child policy and authorities are now campaigning for young people to get married and have many children. At first people were allowed two children. Now the authorities promote the idea that the more children the better. The reasons are clear: 12 percent of China’s population, some 166 million people, are 65 or older. The growth rate has dropped to 0.49 percent and the fertility rate is down to 1.7 children per woman, putting the People’s Republic 148 out of 190 nations. China is far from the rate of 2.1 children required to maintain a stable population. The situation is even worse in neighboring Japan and South Korea. Japan’s population is declining by 0.17 percent per year, while South Korea’s is growing at a meager 0.36 percent. The fertility rates are 1.1 children in South Korea and 1.4 in Japan. The prospects in both cases are alarming, with Japan’s population, which today stands at almost 126 million, dropping to 104 million in 2050 and a mere 72 million in 2100. India and Indonesia present a different picture. India will soon, if it has not already, overtake China as the world’s most populous country – both now with more than 1.4 billion people, but on different trajectories. Currently India’s annual growth rate is 1.2 percent, with a fertility rate of 2.1 children. By 2050, India’s population will rise to 1.7 billion and thereafter stabilize at 1.5 billion in 2100. India’s population pyramid by age continues to be healthy, with only 6 percent, or 85 million Indians, 65 or older.

IMPACTS OF A DEMOGRAPHIC DECLINE

Those concerned about the ecological impact of a continuously rising world population will welcome the demographic trend in most parts of Asia. Already today, the rapid growth of the Asian middle class is putting a great strain on resources, leading to air pollution and shortages of drinking water, among other problems. More immediate will be the negative impact on the labor market. China managed to become the “workshop of the world” because of its competitive and cheap labor force. China is seeing a substantial reduction in its labor force that will accelerate, and which it may not be able to compensate for through automation and innovation.

Japan is rapidly aging. Together with South Korea, Japan will face a massive social security burden. In China, the prospects of an aging society are even more alarming with its comparatively modest economic development. Japan has a nominal per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of some $38,000, while China’s nominal per capita GDP is $8,600. Economists are, therefore, looking at a Chinese society that is growing old before it has grown rich, the reverse of what has happened in the industrialized West during the past six decades. While economists focus on the material aspect, there are also mental, psychological and even political issues to consider. The growth in the proportion of elderly people could lead to a more conservative society focused more narrowly on the interests of its generation. Furthermore, there is the question of how a shrinking society will face the challenges of the 21st century. These trends are more noticeable in Japan than China now. People may become more withdrawn and egotistical. Not marrying or creating families is an expression of how one feels about the existing society. In China, young women are refuting calls to have children. Rapid urbanization can further reduce the incentive to sacrifice. Who wants to be housebound if you can pursue a career and an independent life?

[Wunder-Zeichen]

CHINA IS FACING A POPULATION CRISIS

China is facing a population crisis in part due to more women choosing to focus on their careers and personal goals, instead of starting a family. The Chinese government abolished its one-child policy in 2016, and scrapped childbirth limits in 2021 — but married couples are still having fewer children. China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported that the population dipped to 1.412 billion last year from 1.413 billion in 2021.

Already grappling with an aging population and poised to be overtaken by India as the world’s most populous country, China continues to struggle to boost its birth rate. “Covid continues to have many negative repercussions and has caused an overall sense of uncertainty towards the future,” Mu told CNBC. “There’s a sense of helplessness that is prohibiting many women from wanting to have children.” The rising cost of living is also steering more people away from wanting to expand their family, she added. China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported that the population dipped to 1.412 billion last year from 1.413 billion in 2021. The natural growth rate was negative for the first time since 1960, according to Wind data.

Career and freedom remain a priority

China has a larger population of mothers in the workforce compared with countries in the West, Andy Xie, an independent economist, told CNBC. “There is a desire to have a career in China and being a stay-home mother is never a goal. It doesn’t even appear on the radar for most women,” Xie said. As more women attain higher qualifications and rise up the ranks in the workplace, they expect their husbands to earn more than them, according to Xie. In 2020, female students accounted for almost 42% of doctorate degree enrollment, and a significantly higher number of women enrolled for a master’s degree than men, Statista data showed. “Men face a tremendous burden as women would demand financial security from them,” and in turn wouldn’t want to get married either, according to Xie who said that “people used to be criticized for being single, but there’s no social stigma against it anymore.”

[Wunder-Zeichen]

Japan's population drops by half a million in 2022

Tokyo, Japan (CNN) — Japan’s population has fallen for the 12th consecutive year, as deaths rise and the birth rate continues to sink, according to government data released Wednesday. The population stood at 124.49 million in 2022 – representing a decline of 556,000 from the previous year, figures show. That figure represents both the natural change in population – meaning deaths and births – and the flow of people entering and exiting the country. The natural change last year was the biggest on record, with a fall of 731,000 – cushioned by the influx of people entering Japan, which provided an increase of 175,000, said Cabinet Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno in a news conference on Wednesday. “It is essential to take firm measures to address the declining birthrate, which is a major factor in the decline in population, as one of the top priority issues to be addressed,” said Matsuno. Japan has one of the lowest birth rates in the world, as well as one of the highest life expectancies; in 2020, nearly one in 1,500 people in Japan were age 100 or older, according to government data. That means a swelling elderly population, shrinking workforce, and not enough young people to fill in the gaps – posing a demographic crisis decades in the making.

The Alternative, Optimistic Story of Population Decline

Jan. 30, 2023

China, South Korea and Japan are now all in population decline; this is due in part to rapid increases in income, employment and education.
Fewer people on the planet, of course, may reduce humanity’s ecological footprint and competition for finite resources.
Global population will inevitably decline, and rather than try to reverse that, we need to embrace it and adapt.

[Wunder-Zeichen]

Democracy Dies in Spin: Washington Post Reporters Double as PR Flacks for TikTok

Many elected Republicans and Democrats agree: TikTok is a danger to Americans and should be banned, or at the very least heavily regulated.

Among the laundry list of concerns surrounding the massively popular short-form-video app: ByteDance, TikTok’s China-based owner, has allegedly spied on American citizens, including several tech journalists; the app has the ability to boost or censor videos in response to the whims of the Chinese Communist Party; the platform’s trends and filters threaten the mental health and safety of American children; and, of course, TikTok has a huge collection of user information, including biometric location data for more than 100 million users in America alone.

It should go without saying that the identification of a few popular videos that cut against the CCP’s interest does not negate the many documented examples of censorship and manipulation that benefit the dictatorial regime. China has its own version of TikTok called Douyin, which is also owned by ByteDance and has “detailed rules banning criticism and ‘subversion’ of the PRC and its Communist Party.” The Chinese app’s community self-disciplinary regulations say Douyin “adheres to and promotes” the “traditional culture and virtues of the Chinese nation” and “the core values of socialism.” The guidelines ban content that “damages the national image or interests” of the PRC, “subverts state power,” or encourages people to protest. Other banned content includes any postings damaging the image of the PRC or any “revolutionary leaders, heroes, and martyrs” or advocating independence for Hong Kong, Tibet, Taiwan, and Xinjiang.

Because TikTok’s parent company is based in China, lawmakers have expressed concern that it would be required to comply with Chinese laws requiring companies to provide the CCP with access to user data and other proprietary information. But over at the Washington Post, no one seems too concerned. In fact, the paper’s recent coverage of the issue has veered into pure PR. “If the goal is to plug the holes in the U.S. information sphere, banning TikTok and other foreign apps might be like a Band-Aid on a colander,” WaPo’s technology news analysis writer Will Oremus wrote in an “analysis” piece published on Monday.

[VIK LEWA]

Imran Khan, Pakistan's Ex-Leader, Is Arrested

Mr. Khan, a former cricket star, has staged a comeback since being ousted, challenging the powerful military. His detention raises fears of mass protests.

Ecological Threats and Terrorism

The links between the growth in regional terrorism and ecological crisis are unmistakable. How terrorist groups use ecological threats to recruit new members is less clear. This is not to say that there is a direct correlation between a country or region experiencing ecological challenges and experiencing terrorism but that they often intersect. GermanWatch’s Climate Risk Index of countries impacted by ecological disasters features countries experiencing significant terrorism-related challenges as well – including the Philippines, Mozambique, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Ecological threats and terrorism are interconnected in two important and corresponding ways. Firstly, climate change has intensified the drivers and conditions that encourage radicalisation. The ten most impacted countries by terrorism on the Global Terrorism Index has consistently included countries experiencing instability, poverty, weak governance and conflict. Ecological disasters can exacerbate these conditions. The current research on the relationships between natural disasters and mobilisation to radicalisation shows that there is limited evidence-based data to causally tie ecological destruction and terrorism. Yet, reports from governments and civil agencies – including in the Sahel, South Asia, and Central Asia – have repeatedly shown that the impacts of drought, resource shortage, and decreased agricultural conditions have been contributing factors in recruitment and mobilisation by terrorist groups. Secondly, it has also provided opportunities for terrorist actors to exploit extreme weather events to propagandise, recruit, and raise funds. Terrorist groups such as al-Shabaab in Somalia, Islamic State (IS) and its affiliates, Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), and Jamaat Nusrat Al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM) have exploited extreme weather events by filling the vacuum left by governments unable (or unwilling) to provide humanitarian relief, often in remote locations. For example, in Pakistan, Jamaat-ud-Dawa – the then front organisation of terrorist group Lashkar-e Taiba – offered huge humanitarian relief after the devastating floods in 2010. This came after wide criticism in Pakistan of the government’s slow and ineffective response to the crisis. Reports by Center for Global Development, a nonprofit research organisation dedicated to reducing poverty, indicated that the government of Pakistan “has clearly lost the war” in terms of winning credit for its relief efforts, and that Lashkar-e Taliba demonstrated that “they care about ordinary people.” Similarly, in Somalia, by consistently undermining famine relief efforts, al-Shabaab forced the population in areas under its control to rely on them as the sole provider of public goods. This was made to undermine the Somali government and strengthen their own legitimacy. In water-short northern Iraq, ISIS captured, monopolised, damaged, and robbed water installations which allowed them to “recruit” farmers no longer able to access water and electricity. Even though these examples are not strictly driven by ecological disasters, the collective incidences of extreme weather events as well as great competition for resources illustrates that there will only be greater opportunities for terrorist groups to exploit further in the future.