• u_tamtam@programming.dev
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    1 year ago

    China seems incapable of reading the room/learning from recent geopolitical events. There is no turning back once economies are decoupled and bridges are burnt. It’s almost as if Xi is high on his own propaganda and forgot he has to rely on the world economy to get his fiefdom beyond the middle income trap and through the crises (demographic, environmental, economic) to come. If Europeans are willing to pay double their heating bill so not to rely on Russian gas, there’s no reason not to consider alternative producers of rare earth, which are literally everywhere.

    • Bloops@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      Yes you are so right. It’s very unfortunate dictator Xi Jinping is doing this out of nowhere based on no past events whatsoever. It’s really a shame we live in an acausal world.

      • u_tamtam@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        I appreciate your sarcasm, though, I didn’t imply this comes out of nowhere. This escalation has been brewing for decades and is only exacerbated by Xi’s agressive doctrine.

        Like for all authoritarianisms, the leader gets to score some short term points and everyone else loses. In this instance, China will lose more (practically speaking, its position as the largest exporter of some rare earth)

    • Pili@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      If Europeans are willing to pay double their heating bill We’re not willing, we’re being forced to by our scummy governments. They never asked us for our opinion.

      • u_tamtam@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        I was surprised by how overwhelmingly positive support was, I mean, you don’t need too much brain to understand the geopolitical context and motivation behind it. What’s left of your economy, and by extend, job, lifestyle, if a single bad-faith actor can put your factory out of business? Or threatens to let you freeze to death in the middle of the winter?

        It was fun to see even the far left/right parties over here (who have open ties and funding from Russia) refuse to contest that. Complaints I’ve seen were within the “I get my facts from Facebook” crowds, who also happen to be incapable of understanding their energy bills and are oblivious to the subsidized/capped prices their governments applied to them (often to a greater extent due to their unfavorable financial situation, how ironic).

        I don’t know which category that leaves you.