4 ms·

Articles like these never fail to drive home just how much of a US patsy the EU has always been.

mtgx 10y ago
Indeed. And yet you keep seeing articles from NY Times, Bloomberg, and even Reuters, with an almost negative tone about how the EU basically wants to destroy American companies by putting some more regulations on them or daring to investigate them for anti-trust or tax avoidance. And here comes China that basically says from the start to all foreign companies: "You give us half, or you're out. Take it or leave it. And we still get to impose whatever regulations, official or unofficial, want, depending on our mood. We'll also turn a blind eye to local Chinese companies completely ripping off your technology. Sounds good?"
mywittyname 10y ago
Unlike the EU, China has the capability to build companies that could rival top US players. So it's unsurprising that China takes the uncompromising approach to foreign investment that they do. I'd love to see an American's reaction to a speech where Xi Jinping exclaims that he will ensure that all Americans start using Baidu as their search engine.
- cronjobber 10y ago
  Europeans had been promised and conditioned that their countries would give a shit about privacy. It would have seemed unlikely to European founders that they'd be allowed to run a blatant commercial spyware operation like Google or Facebook; and in fact I'd bet that they would have met fierce regulatory resistance... until Google and Facebook waltzed in from the US and surprise, nobody put up any resistance until the war was won. Yeah, sure, long after the war was lost, some EU regulatory theater. I actually bought a N900 back in the day. It was good. Nokia smartphones could have been a thing, not just because they were good, but they'd taken off just a few years later especially on privacy grounds. There's not nearly enough conspiracy theorizing about Elop blatantly Osborning Maemo...
  - cptskippy 10y ago
    Elop's actions as a whole seem so blatantly towards selling the company off and yet there has been very little scrutiny of them.
  - pitaj 10y ago
    > Europeans had been promised and conditioned that their countries would give a shit about privacy Do Europeans really care that much about privacy? As an outsider, I don't see much fighting for privacy coming from Europe. > blatant commercial spyware operation like Google or Facebook What kind of regulation do you think would stop this "spyware" as you call it? Are you really going to restrict an internet firm from collecting user information with the user's consent and then selling that information? What regulation would you do? Something like "right to be forgotten" is the absolute worst direction to go. When I first heard about it, I knew the regulators were idiots. That is patently opposed to free expression.
- serge2k 10y ago
  > I'd love to see an American's reaction to a speech where Xi Jinping exclaims that he will ensure that all Americans start using Baidu as their search engine. Why would anyone care?
  - mywittyname 10y ago
    Exactly. I'm poking fun at Trump's nationalistic brouhaha concluding this article.
xiaoma 10y ago
Europe is a has been. And it has been for at least 70 years. China is rising.
- jsn117 10y ago
  Europe is free, China is not.
  - xiaoma 10y ago
    China is competently run, Europe is not.
    - jazzyk 10y ago
      Oh, really? https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jun/16/chinas-debt-is-250-of-gdp-and-could-be-fatal-says-government-expert https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jun/16/chinas-debt...
      - xiaoma 10y ago
        Yes. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?end=2015&locations=XC-CN&start=1960&view=chart http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?end=2015&...
        jazzyk 10y ago
        Showing total GDP, without accounting for population is disingenuous. Don't you think that GDP per capita would be a better indicator, perhaps? http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD?end=2015&locations=XC-CN&start=1960&view=chart http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD?end=20...
        xiaoma 10y ago
        China's outperformance of Europe is undeniable. In the chart you shared China was at barely 1/20 of Europe's level a generation ago and now is over 1/3. What will the comparison be in one more generation?
notfromhere 10y ago
What are you going to do when your national defense is wholly dependent on the U.S.?

mtgx 10y ago

Indeed. And yet you keep seeing articles from NY Times, Bloomberg, and even Reuters, with an almost negative tone about how the EU basically wants to destroy American companies by putting some more regulations on them or daring to investigate them for anti-trust or tax avoidance. And here comes China that basically says from the start to all foreign companies: "You give us half, or you're out. Take it or leave it. And we still get to impose whatever regulations, official or unofficial, want, depending on our mood. We'll also turn a blind eye to local Chinese companies completely ripping off your technology. Sounds good?"

mywittyname 10y ago

Unlike the EU, China has the capability to build companies that could rival top US players. So it's unsurprising that China takes the uncompromising approach to foreign investment that they do. I'd love to see an American's reaction to a speech where Xi Jinping exclaims that he will ensure that all Americans start using Baidu as their search engine.

cronjobber 10y ago
Europeans had been promised and conditioned that their countries would give a shit about privacy. It would have seemed unlikely to European founders that they'd be allowed to run a blatant commercial spyware operation like Google or Facebook; and in fact I'd bet that they would have met fierce regulatory resistance... until Google and Facebook waltzed in from the US and surprise, nobody put up any resistance until the war was won. Yeah, sure, long after the war was lost, some EU regulatory theater. I actually bought a N900 back in the day. It was good. Nokia smartphones could have been a thing, not just because they were good, but they'd taken off just a few years later especially on privacy grounds. There's not nearly enough conspiracy theorizing about Elop blatantly Osborning Maemo...
- cptskippy 10y ago
  Elop's actions as a whole seem so blatantly towards selling the company off and yet there has been very little scrutiny of them.
- pitaj 10y ago
  > Europeans had been promised and conditioned that their countries would give a shit about privacy Do Europeans really care that much about privacy? As an outsider, I don't see much fighting for privacy coming from Europe. > blatant commercial spyware operation like Google or Facebook What kind of regulation do you think would stop this "spyware" as you call it? Are you really going to restrict an internet firm from collecting user information with the user's consent and then selling that information? What regulation would you do? Something like "right to be forgotten" is the absolute worst direction to go. When I first heard about it, I knew the regulators were idiots. That is patently opposed to free expression.
serge2k 10y ago
> I'd love to see an American's reaction to a speech where Xi Jinping exclaims that he will ensure that all Americans start using Baidu as their search engine. Why would anyone care?
- mywittyname 10y ago
  Exactly. I'm poking fun at Trump's nationalistic brouhaha concluding this article.

xiaoma 10y ago

Europe is a has been. And it has been for at least 70 years. China is rising.

jsn117 10y ago
Europe is free, China is not.
- xiaoma 10y ago
  China is competently run, Europe is not.
  - jazzyk 10y ago
    Oh, really? https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jun/16/chinas-debt-is-250-of-gdp-and-could-be-fatal-says-government-expert https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jun/16/chinas-debt...
    - xiaoma 10y ago
      Yes. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?end=2015&locations=XC-CN&start=1960&view=chart http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?end=2015&...
      - jazzyk 10y ago
        Showing total GDP, without accounting for population is disingenuous. Don't you think that GDP per capita would be a better indicator, perhaps? http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD?end=2015&locations=XC-CN&start=1960&view=chart http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD?end=20...
        xiaoma 10y ago
        China's outperformance of Europe is undeniable. In the chart you shared China was at barely 1/20 of Europe's level a generation ago and now is over 1/3. What will the comparison be in one more generation?

notfromhere 10y ago

What are you going to do when your national defense is wholly dependent on the U.S.?