China is now trying hard to limit the amount of information going out about new Chinese weapons systems. In my opinion, this is how they get serious about the invasion of Taiwan before it starts. They have been advertising their new military capabilities for several years, in the hope of intimidating Taiwan into submission, but that has not worked. Now they are going quiet about their military capabilities in the final leadup to war. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/11/...s-online-military-content-intl-hnk/index.html
A reporter sheds some light on the slow train-wreck of Xiongan, Chairman Xi's northern technology center just south of Beijing. China has already spent $93 billion building the city in a reclaimed swamp, but few people actually live there. The city has figured out how to protect the city from floods; open the floodgates and flood the neighboring cities! Many of the people who do actually reside there were residents of villages that were torn down to make way for the new city, or workers involved in the construction of the city. Why Chinese President Xi’s $93 Billion Dream City Remains Empty Xiong'an - Wikipedia
A U.S. think tank says that China is not ready for war. It says that China's spending on the military is primarily to make the Communist Party look good in the eyes of the people. The CCP is concerned about maintaining its grip on power, especially during the current economic downturn. China also tends to use its military to threaten the populace. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/16/china/china-military-readiness-rand-report-intl-hnk-ml/index.html
China decided to set up a live-fire training exercise off the coast of Taiwan without giving any warning first. More reckless behavior from China. They did the same thing in between Australia and New Zealand recently. https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/26/asia/taiwan-china-live-fire-drill-zone-intl-hnk/index.html
Ham-handed as Trump is on his best day, I really think Trump sees us and that he’ll actually try diplomacy at some point …
In this respect, I fully agree. Russia, China, Afghanistan, Iran, etc. What a winning combination! Anyone who chooses that "alternative" deserves it. And good riddance! Unfortunately we have a POTUS and fanbase of followers who want to join that team. Can't fix stupid.
They did improve, until about 2017. But it's all downhill from there and will continue to be downhill from here on out. Though our POTUS and his band of morons are doing their best to throw them a lifeline. Again. Can't fix stupid.
Your source used the wrong words to describe the situation: China WASTED more cement in three years than the U.S. used in a hundred years. China built an insane number of buildings and even entire cities that look like they will never be lived in. The buildings were simply ways to park money until the real estate market collapses. China's people do not trust their government or their stock market, so they throw money at something tangible without regard to its utility. They might as well build Moai statues in the Gobi Desert--they would be just as useful.
Wrong as usual. It is China that has a lot of catching up to do. The U.S. spends $800 billion a year on national defense, and has been spending at a high level for decades. That is how the U.S. became the #1 military in the world, and has been #1 for decades. China is the new country with regards to military spending, and this is diverting money from the rest of its economy, which is in trouble.
China announces retaliatory tariffs on Canadian agricultural products, after Canada levied tariffs on EV's and other products that China was dumping on their market. China announces retaliatory tariffs on some Canadian farm, food products
Downhill in what way? I can't really think of a single modern industry that China hasn't made world-beating progress in since 2017. Autos (BYD, Geely, etc.), pharmaceuticals (from ~0 to ~1/3 of novel drugs in the world), telecom (5G, 5.5G, now 6G), energy (solar, wind, nuclear), software (Tiktok, Capcut, etc.), AI (Deepseek, Qwen, etc.), robotics (Kuka, Unitree, more industrial robot deployment than the rest of the world combined, etc.), semiconductors (not just logic, but power semis like SiC, GaN, GaO as well), Aerospace (C919, 6th gen fighters, etc.), and the list goes on. They may not be world-leading in all of them, but the progress has been tremendous when compared to 8 years ago.
I agree in general with the improvements, but China still has a lot of huge challenges with their economy. The government is trying to persuade people to move away from the coast, which is limited on fresh water supply for the hundreds of millions of residents, and move inland, where things like the Three Gorges Dam can supply fresh water. No one wants to move, hence the ghost cities with few if any residents. The Chinese people still do not trust their government. They have the most monitored society (through cameras and on-line monitoring) in the world. Women are unwilling to have children in a country that feels like it has an uncertain future, so the population is shrinking. China routinely mismanages capital (the ghost cities are only one example). The Chinese consumers were freaked out by their recent economic downturn, and stopped spending money. This has led to deflation. More on fresh water: Most of China is heavily dependent on water from snowmelt in the Himalayas, which feeds their three biggest rivers. Because of Global Warming, the snowmelt from the Himalayas is expected to disappear during summer in the next couple of decades. How can China support 1.4 billion people without drinking water? The people in Beijing currently survive on 3% of the fresh water that people in New York City survive on.
