Tag Archives: China

A self-inflicted hostage-taking situation?

June 14, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Why is it that big German automakers are worried about Chinese retaliation?

Because they voluntarily put themselves in the position to be retaliated against. Think Germany’s voluntary dependency on Russian gas recently. That didn’t work out very well either. But for whatever reason, this is what Germans do.

Germany launches 11th-hour bid to avert trade war with China – Germany wants the EU to set tariffs on electric vehicles at a low level to avoid severe retaliation from Beijing…

Germany’s position was “problematic,” he said: While big German automakers still entertain good ties with Beijing, that’s not necessarily the case for smaller businesses, meaning “the German economy as a whole has an interest in a more assertive policy towards China.”

Spies and saboteurs?

May 19, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hi-tech, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

The Chinese? No way.

Communist governments would never do that kind of thing. They just aren’t those kind of people.

Germany could ban China’s Huawei, ZTE from parts of 5G networks – Germany is considering banning certain components from Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE in its telecoms networks, a government source said, in a potentially significant move to address security concerns.

“This is a sign that the German government may finally be taking China-related risks to national security seriously. But after years of dithering, the German 5G network is deeply dependent on Chinese suppliers. It will take many years to unwind this.”

If a frigate and a supply ship is the entire German navy…

May 13, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

I don’t know how much reassurance that’s going to give.

As China flexes muscle, German Navy sails to Asia to reassure allies – European forces signal combat readiness and pitch weaponry to regional partners.

A German frigate and combat supply ship set sail from Europe to Asia this week in a show of support for allies facing China’s “aggressive behavior,” with the defense minister not ruling out the prospect of the vessels passing through the Taiwan Strait.

The Empire of Evil overtakes the Empire of Evil

May 10, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

As Germany’s top trading partner.

US overtakes China as Germany’s top trading partner – The United States overtook China as Germany’s most important trading partner in the first quarter of this year, according to Reuters’ calculations based on official data from the German statistics office.

Germany’s trade with the United States – exports and imports combined – totalled 63 billion euros ($68 billion) from January to March, while the figure for China was just under 60 billion euros, the data showed.

Germans asked to stop being so naive

April 25, 2024 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Hideology, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Germans reply by saying “What do you mean?”

“Just because we’re uncritical, unquestioning and easily taken in doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re naive. It worked with Russia, didn’t it?”

German spy agency warns companies against being too “naive” on China – Germany’s domestic spy agency told companies on Wednesday they should be on guard against industrial espionage by Beijing, warning them not to be naive or over-reliant on China.

The warning from the agency’s deputy head Sinan Selen came days after three German nationals were arrested on suspicion of handing over technology with military applications – a case which has highlighted mounting anxiety across Western Europe about Chinese spying.

Lots of us take Pervitin too

April 17, 2024 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Or at least that’s what they used to call it.

We don’t all smoke weed in Germany, Scholz assures Chinese students – Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday reassured Chinese students in Shanghai that they did not have to smoke cannabis if they studied in Germany and that Germany had legalised cannabis hoping that consumption would go down.

Scholz made the comments in response to a question from a student at Tongji University, who asked whether he would have to smoke cannabis if he studied in Germany, as the drug was not legal in China.

The urge to urge

April 16, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Urged once again. Due to the urgency, I guess.

Well, I’m sure this urge will finally do the trick.

German chancellor urges Chinese industry bosses to play fair in EU market – Olaf Scholz says European cars should have equal access to Chinese customers.

“The only thing that always needs to be clear is that the competition is fair,” he said during a discussion with students at Tongji University in Shanghai. “That means there can be no dumping, no overproduction and that intellectual property rights are not violated,” he said.

“Based on fraudulent information?”

January 2, 2024 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

No way. Emission certificate fraud? For fraudulent emissions?

The Chinese would never do that.

German authority probes alleged Chinese emission certificate fraud – Listed project coordinates show only desert on Google Maps.

The German Emissions Trading Authority is looking into allegations of irregularities in an undisclosed upstream emission reduction project in China, the body told Nikkei Asia.

The move comes after allegations by German biofuel producers that upstream emission reduction (UER) certificates issued by the authority, known as DEHSt, to some international fossil fuel companies for their emission curtailment projects in China were based on fraudulent information.

Green Diplomacy

September 19, 2023 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

It’s a lot like Green energy utopia. It has nothing to do with the real world.

Real world diplomacy rule number one: Never actually speak the truth.

Beijing summons German ambassador after foreign minister calls Xi Jinping a ‘dictator’ – While they are major trade partners, Berlin-Beijing ties have been fraying as some in the German government take a harder line over issues ranging from human rights to Taiwan.

Baerbock, who has pushed for a more hawkish line, made the remarks in a Fox News interview on Thursday during a visit to the US.

While talking about the Ukraine war, she said: “If Putin were to win this war, what sign would that be for other dictators in the world, like Xi, like the Chinese president? So therefore Ukraine has to win this war.”

Englisch of the Day: Guarantee

August 25, 2023 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

This is an assurance that another’s obligation will be fulfilled, or something presented as such security; guaranty. In this case, they mean with taxpayer money.

And the guarantee is that the Germany economy is guaranteed to fall flat on its face if the German government continues its odd obsession with remaining dependent on China as a business partner. It’s recent dependency on Russan gas was just that much fun, I guess.

German guarantees for China investments plummet -document.

The volume of investment guarantees provided by the German government to companies investing in China has collapsed this year, a government document showed, highlighting the impact of Berlin’s efforts to end over-reliance on the country.

Only 51.9 million euros ($56.26 million) in guarantees have been issued so far this year, according to the document seen by Reuters, less than a tenth of the 745.9 million euros in guarantees issued over the whole of last year.