Latest Moan From You and Me 2024

I think there are many reasons to worry about what China might do. But cutting their own nose off to spite their face is not one of them.

The Chinese economy is already going through a bit of a wobble. If they bin off their customers then they'll very quickly become skint. In fact the very reason China has such a grip on global supply chains is because for decades they've been deliberately selling stuff cheap, or even at a loss, in order to crush the competition. It's not that nobody else can make stuff, they just can't make it as cheap as China can, without massively stripping back on things like health and safety, or enlisting actual slaves. If China were to suddenly put their prices up, thinking they've got us over a barrel, yes it would be a pain for us ordinary consumers, but all that would happen is lots of other companies in lots of other countries would suddenly spring up, suddenly able to compete.

 

The point is, @Clueless 1 v2, that the west is losing manufacturing capacity and expertise so China will become a monopoly and can then charge what it likes or simply cut off the supply to countries tha resist its other plas such as buying up all the arable land in Africa and harassing Taiwan with a view to conquest and acquisition of its microchip factories and labs.

As for hospices @Punkdoc I was shocked to learn that only 10% of funding comes form government coffers. That seems to me exceedingly unwise and short-sighted so well done to the Beeb for highlighting it but a big campaign will be needed to achieve the greater awareness needed to change it.

 

I do think we are entering a different world these days, I notice that India seems to be cuddling up to Russia more these days.
I think the East west, big split, is coming and when it does we will be sorry we sent all our manufacturing out east.

 

@Obelix-Vendée, I belief the Taiwan microchip factories have a "kill switch" in place, so, in the event of an invasion by China, the capacity to produce microchips will be destroyed. The US has taken some production back, to assist with any shortages.

 

The only reason China has any power to do anything is because we, the collective of the wealthy western nations, handed it to them. First of all very literally, in the form of financial aid, which we still give them because despite being one of the biggest economies now, they somehow wangled it to qualify as a developing nation. Then the other way we handed them power is simply by buying all their stuff without ever asking how they make it so cheap. If they were to do anything to rock that boat, then it's as I mentioned earlier, they lose business to everyone else.

Now the biggest issue is their petulant attitude. They spat their dummy out when someone politely suggested that China is no longer a developing nation, in the spirit of what that term means. They are spit their dummy out when anyone speaks to a Taiwanese official or even says 'Taiwan', and of course they will spit their dummy out if any government suggests maybe if China is not competitive we should shop elsewhere. Given that they've been massively gearing up their military for a couple of decades while the rest of the world buries it's head in the sand, or in a pile of cheap goods, that could pose a slight problem if China does try to put us over a barrel. But I can't see any way that they could hold us to ransom in the long run. No manufacturing expertise has been lost. It's just been scaled back. It would quickly come back if it was profitable.

 

I think the west needs to slowly start pulling lots of other stuff back from China or the whole region, although where we in the UK would find factory workers from is another matter.

 

@Clueless 1 v2 In the time it takes to build the factories and workshops, set up the machinery, hire and train staff to run them the supply chain will have been disrupted so that a lot of our stuff will stop working and economies may break. China, being what t is, would see that as a good long-term strategy and, unlike western governments, they do play a long game when it comes to policies and economics.

 

By being a PIA I've got a Docs appointment for the 3rd June.

 

I think we were well behind the curve at the start of WW2, we really dont want to have to be in that situation again, because it would be even worse now in this day.
I doubt we would even be able to make a lavatory brush these days

 

Do you mean you are one, or you have one?

 

A lot of trust has been lost for China since it came to light that the Chinese government was pulling the strings on the company that won the contract to build our 5g infrastructure. Since then Chinese tech has come under a lot more scrutiny, and lots of activity in the tech sector has suddenly started to exclude China.

I can't remember where I read it but the latest one was about Chinese EVs found to be quietly sharing data. Probably no different to the way every smartphone shares data with Google or Apple, but nonetheless the suspicion is now there and it's hard to come back from that. Chinese companies are losing out on big contracts because of it, and in my opinion, that's a good thing. China has been gearing up it's military, and has made no secret of it's hostile intentions. People think the next big war will look like world war two, but the reality is whoever controls the data flows wins. No commerce, no banking, no comms. So for the Chinese, selling cheap tech gives them more control. For everyone else, clamming up on Chinese tech just seems common sense.

 

Check they mean 2024!

 

I dont believe another war would be like WW2 but its about the population as well, not just techy stuff.
We dont seem to make anything that people use day to day.
There is even one advert that says China sends us toilet rolls.

 

Well, there was a piece on the news yesterday about an electric car plant that has gone bankrupt and is going to be turned into a giant data storage centre. This was reported as a great development, but data centres have huge issues in terms of energy use and are not sustainable in a world aiming for net zero. (And most of the data does not need to be stored. Stuff needs pruning. But I digress ...) Maybe there are better uses, eg training that workforce up in chip tech.

 

The rest of the world does in fact already have plenty of manufacturing facilities, and lots of skilled people. It's just not really shouted about because it tends to be more specialist.

Here's a thought. China exports a lot of plastic rubbish. That worked for years and years as kids wanted shiny colourful toys, perfect candidates for mass produced plastic tat. China largely left Taiwan alone for years. They were no problem.

In more recent years, toys are going out of fashion. Even young kids are occupying themselves on electronic gadgets now. Where are the chips made? Suddenly it's imperative that Taiwan is reunified with China by any means necessary.