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i.e. Europe does not care if 24 million Democratic Chinese are suddenly forced into an authoritative society against their will as long as they receive their ch

by izend 5y ago

i.e. Europe does not care if 24 million Democratic Chinese are suddenly forced into an authoritative society against their will as long as they receive their cheap goods?

mathverse 5y ago
Pretty much just look at european take on Ukraine. "Not my chair not my problem".
phatfish 5y ago
It's nothing to do with "Europe" or anywhere else, or consumers. The reason the Chinese government is uninterested with the "bad press" around repression of minorities in their country is because the know corporations will always take profit over ethics, and will happily contract Chinese factories in the name of being "competitive" -- which boils down to bigger payouts for the executive class.
pjc50 5y ago
The disaster of Afghanistan has made everyone very wary of interventionist foreign policy.
mschuster91 5y ago
Personally, I'd support more European backing of Taiwan, and if it needs to be by deploying a bunch of troops there, then that's fine by me. The problem is that the German automotive industry has only China as market to grow (Europe/US/Canada are saturated, South America, most of Asia and Africa don't have enough rich elites, Arabia wants ultra-luxury/sports cars), and the automotive industry is extremely well connected to our politics - even if the CDU/CSU aren't in government any more, liberal FDP now is, and they'll bow to the whims of the industry... meaning Germany will not consent to anything that threatens the automotive industry. Italy and Greece have been forced to sell off harbors, airports and other infrastructure to China as a consequence of the 2008ff crises, Croatia has sold a large and important bridge project to China, and Hungary's Orban is effectively China's puppet. The result of that, combined with the 100% consensus requirement on European foreign policy decisions, is why Europe will likely rather stand aside than show China the well-deserved boot. Especially disgusting given that the European Union's foundation was the lessons-learned of the NS dictatorship and we all swore "never again" - and now we're staying silent as China is building concentration camps for Uyghurs and Tibetans.
- def_true_false 5y ago
  EU countries can and do act on their own -- see for example French military operations in Africa.
  - mschuster91 5y ago
    China is a whole different league to fight against than some backwater former colony and current dictatorship that struggles to feed its army. It's no big deal to bomb someone like Ghaddafi's Libya to hell and back... China will fuck over your entire economy if you dare to establish relations with Taiwan, such as Lithuania currently experiences.

by izend 5y ago

i.e. Europe does not care if 24 million Democratic Chinese are suddenly forced into an authoritative society against their will as long as they receive their cheap goods?

mathverse 5y ago

Pretty much just look at european take on Ukraine. "Not my chair not my problem".

phatfish 5y ago

It's nothing to do with "Europe" or anywhere else, or consumers. The reason the Chinese government is uninterested with the "bad press" around repression of minorities in their country is because the know corporations will always take profit over ethics, and will happily contract Chinese factories in the name of being "competitive" -- which boils down to bigger payouts for the executive class.

pjc50 5y ago

The disaster of Afghanistan has made everyone very wary of interventionist foreign policy.

mschuster91 5y ago

Personally, I'd support more European backing of Taiwan, and if it needs to be by deploying a bunch of troops there, then that's fine by me. The problem is that the German automotive industry has only China as market to grow (Europe/US/Canada are saturated, South America, most of Asia and Africa don't have enough rich elites, Arabia wants ultra-luxury/sports cars), and the automotive industry is extremely well connected to our politics - even if the CDU/CSU aren't in government any more, liberal FDP now is, and they'll bow to the whims of the industry... meaning Germany will not consent to anything that threatens the automotive industry. Italy and Greece have been forced to sell off harbors, airports and other infrastructure to China as a consequence of the 2008ff crises, Croatia has sold a large and important bridge project to China, and Hungary's Orban is effectively China's puppet. The result of that, combined with the 100% consensus requirement on European foreign policy decisions, is why Europe will likely rather stand aside than show China the well-deserved boot. Especially disgusting given that the European Union's foundation was the lessons-learned of the NS dictatorship and we all swore "never again" - and now we're staying silent as China is building concentration camps for Uyghurs and Tibetans.

def_true_false 5y ago
EU countries can and do act on their own -- see for example French military operations in Africa.
- mschuster91 5y ago
  China is a whole different league to fight against than some backwater former colony and current dictatorship that struggles to feed its army. It's no big deal to bomb someone like Ghaddafi's Libya to hell and back... China will fuck over your entire economy if you dare to establish relations with Taiwan, such as Lithuania currently experiences.