Comments by "林子倫" (@zilun) on "China threatens to withhold rare earth metal sales to gain leverage on trade" video.

It's illegal, though. CCP did this to Japan once. WTO wasn't pleased and made it illegal in 2014. If CCP started whining about how this is unfair, it's just going to expose how CCP had been violating WTO's rules year after year after U.S. invited China to be part of WTO, which gave rise to China's economy. China can limit its production for environmental reasons. But China never did ( costs of cleaning up environmental mess of China's mining method exceeds profits made from those mining, which was how China dominated the market ) because people involved wanted those dollars. So, we'll see. I highly doubt it'll go beyond marketing ploy to ease Chinese citizens' concerns over trade war.
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What U.S. did, was stopping "Unrestricted Warfare" started by CCP. What CCP is doing with this "warning" is to prevent Chinese citizens from revolting when factories started moving out of China, and massive unemployment rolls out. You know, "We have to do what makes our people happy." This message isn't for U.S., since CCP knows White House is aware CCP is full of shit. It's to ease Chinese' unrest, like that whole "long march" of starvation. You know, shift the blame to U.S. to stay in power.
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@misterdd7239 This isn't western powers vs asian powers, this is democracy and freedom of the people vs totalitarian ideology. CCP thinks democratic society is a joke as it is vulnerable to various forms of attacks to weaken it. Use free speech to create distrust in free world's leaders, use their "land of law" to commit illegal acts first, and by the time legals system grinds through due process, irreversible damage had been done, etc, etc; while totalitarian state has solid wall of shield against external infiltration. That's what's going on. I'd very much like my democratic society preserved. China, and Chinese tradition, and Chinese literature, will be fine after CCP is long gone. There is no threat to Chinese power. Just look at Chinese in western world, all doing very well.
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@misterdd7239 Taiwanese currently in Taiwan. But I grew up in Singapore and lived in U.S. for decades. On the web, I had been called CIA, Russian spy, racist pretending to be Chinese, you name it, so it doesn't really matter.
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@audience563 They were *not* indicted for speech. Mannings took CDs to military server and downloaded military data out of base. It is illegal. Even if Manning never gave it to anyone, and did it just for fun but got caught, he'd still be in jail. Assange was indicted for soliciting such act and publishing materials that was obtained illegally. It has nothing to do free speech.
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@houfame I agree those who tried to cover up the truth should be punished by law. But there is no power stopping people in the know to come forward, and expose it without breaking any laws. U.S. had Richard Clarke and Joseph Wilson exposing Bush admin’s lies about WMD. Both did it without breaking any law, and it was Cheney's office that got investigated when there was suspicion of retaliation to make an example out of Joseph Wilson to silence others. Point being, Manning and Assange were not charged for speaking out.
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@Shenzhou. That argument again. Here's list of nations with high GDP growth, look at how great Libya and Rwanda is, and how shitty Denmark had become： https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_real_GDP_growth_rate Poor countries can have high GPD boost easily. Developed countries with high living standards don’t see a lot of GDP growth.
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@Shenzhou. Btw, Taiwan's great development under KMT was not Jiang Jieshi's doing. It was Jiang Jingguo's vision and execution. Yes, that happened under authoritarian leadership. However, it was also him who ended authoritarian governance, ended Jiang dynasty to a point of banning his kids and grandkids from entering into politics, ended KMT's stronghold in politics to his own party members' dismay, because he envisioned a better Taiwan that is governed by the people. Yes, we got him instead of Kim Jong Il, lucky us, but that's no validation of authoritarian working. Especially when the guy who made it work decided it's best to get rid of it completely.
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@Shenzhou. Wrong! LOL. It's because it's easier for nations to be lifted off poverty but harder for nations with high living standards to improve at the same **rate**. Hence, high GDP growth nations are all poor nations and low GDP growth nations are all rich nations with high living standards. You have no idea how much Trump had accomplished. No idea at all. We had seen authoritarian leadership eventually fall apart and liberated. But we've never seen a free nation collapse and adopted authoritarian leadership to recover. Authoritarian leadership is playing dice. You're lucky if you get someone like Trump, Lee Kuan Yew, you eat shit if you get someone like Kim Jong Il. Free nations get course corrections on regular basis. Authoritarian nations require strict censorship and heavy indoctrination. Those in power need to be above the law. That's how weak the system is, once the nation's people know the truth, it collapse. That's not a strong structure, at all.
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@Shenzhou. And U.S. pressured Jiang Jingguo to mentor Taiwanese? America was reluctant to sell Taiwan military arsenal in the old days to prevent KMT from attacking mainland unprovoked, because Jiang Jieshi's plan was to eventually reclaim China when KMT is strong enough. Jiang Jingguo ended Jiang dynasty on his own free will. Geez. Gawd, that China being 2nd largest economy again. Because you have the largest population. Okay? Is that really that hard to grasp? Taiwan's total population, including rural areas, low income population, is less than Shanghi, has 134% GDP of Shanghi. Per capita: Taiwan USD$25k, U.S. USD$60k, China USD$9.9k. Yeah you have a big population, what does that have anything to do with economy under authoritarian regime? Yeah, guess who okay'd shifting Taiwan's production to China? Modern KMT who wanted to become part of China. Guess who finally got elected to put in restrictions and helped keep those money in Taiwan to boost our GDP? The party that's for independence. See, that still works under free system. We don't need a totalitarian power monger above the law to accomplish things we can do ourselves. Citizen's total reliance and dependence on absolute power is a dangerous thing. If CCP decided to screw you all over in this CCP-U.S. fight, to maintain their power, you are powerless to do anything about it. Enjoy your "long march" just so your hardship can help CCP keep their powers over you. While Americans are doing it for a brighter future for their kids.
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@misterdd7239 I'm not a member of any party. Singapore isn't a one party authoritarian. PAP is still leading Singapore not because PAP silences opposing voices or place dissents in jail to warn others, or indoctrination kids to be loyal to PAP. It's because, so far, Singaporeans given rights to free speech and free press, couldn't show PAP is doing a bad job. Yes, sadly, that isn't the case for Taiwan. But give young Taiwanese time to learn that political leadership is important, they should get involved, and it will get better over time. I highly doubt one party KMT dynasty till today would have been better. I'm not pro America, but definitely pro 'American Constitution'. Many U.S. presidents and American big corps had done stuff that were unconstitutional. Those won't sit well with me. None of the wars Obama got U.S. involved in were legal, so I don't like those. But if Americans stick to rules set by their founding fathers, it's great. Trump is great, in my book. Of course I'm against a totalitarian state constantly issuing threats of hostile takeover of my home when it had never, ever ruled Taiwan for even a minute for the entire history of planet Earth. Doesn't matter if that political group has my skin color. Wrong is wrong.
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@Shenzhou. It's not what I think or my reasoning. It's a fact. When KMT under Jiang Jieshi had plans to reclaim China, U.S. not only limited military arsenal sales to Taiwan but sold only crap. It was after Taiwan shifted to pure defense only with no plans to attack any country, that U.S. started selling Taiwan state of the art military weapons. U.S. didn't use military sales to pressure Taiwan to go this way or that way. Yes, KMT led by Jiang Jingguo was what propelled Taiwan to a success that it is today. But it was also him who ended KMT's one party dominance, because he had a vision of a better Taiwan governed by the people. How many times do I have to repeat this? If he could rise from his grave, he'd tell you, you are wrong about one party authoritarian being better. Btw, that great president, also never trusted CCP. There is now a divide in Taiwan, but it's not caused by Taiwanese. It's CCP infiltrating into KMT. C'mon. KMT once saw CCP as an enemy to a point of wanting to restart a military war with CCP. They were on the opposite sides of a civil war where each side lost families. And now, all KMT does, every single freakin day, is talk about how great CCP is. We are not dumb. Unlike KMT, DDP never, ever, had plans to go to war with CCP or "reclaim mainland". All DDP wants is for Taiwan to eventually have nothing to do with CCP and be left alone and do our own thing like we always had. Since CCP never ever governed Taiwan and never ever set foot on Taiwan anyways.
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@Shenzhou. Yeah, yeah, Taiwan parliament fight is embarrassing. But they don't call military tanks on civilians. Are you sure you want this mud fight? Your parliament are committing murders with people "disappearing", it's only that it's all kept under the lid. If you could see those videos, which is worse? Chair brawl or murders?
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@Shenzhou. Trump? Or, you can just google: 1st 6 months: https://live.staticflickr.com/4312/35579681360_efd4ebd367_b.jpg So far, https://www.whitehouse.gov/trump-administration-accomplishments/
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@Shenzhou. Yeah, monarchs lasted a long time. But cavemen system lasted longer, you want to switch to the system that lasted longer? Authoritarianism requires silencing the truth. Once people knows the truth, it collapses. How is that not weak? I don't get how this is hard to grasp. Greece fell due to invasion of barbarians. So yes, if Canada and Mexico had better military power than U.S. and are barbaric, U.S. is screwed. What's your point? During those times, who had better living standards? Let's just say, for argument's sake, North Korea's system is so strong that it takes over the entire world. So what? Does that mean you have a higher living standard living in that totalitarian state that won? Denmark isn't world's superpower, but do Danish have better living standards or Chinese? What type of life do you want to preserve, a democratic one, or an authoritarian one? If you pick the latter, I really don't know what to say. Also, American Constitution wasn't copied from ancient Greece.
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