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Relations between China and the UK

215 replies

LittleFingerStrength · 14/03/2023 12:30

If there is a thread on this already I apologise.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11857821/China-warns-AUKUS-deal-going-dangerous-path.html

There has been talk for a very long time, so it's no surprise. I understand we will be at war with them in possibly 18 plus months.

I gather we obtain a lot of pharma drugs from India.

I don't know a great deal about trade with China and who they can control trade with us if at war.

I understand they are in BRICS so those countries loyalty is likely to China.

What can be done on a personal level to deal with the potential changes in trade?

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Ozgirl75 · 16/03/2023 11:50

@EggBlanket i totally agree. Barbados is another example where they have heavily invested in infrastructure (needed) just at the very moment they decide to no longer be part of the commonwealth. Slowly they’ll take over the island through investment, and then you have a little chunk of China a short flight from the USA. They’ve also tried to do this through the Pacific islands with Australia’s waning influence.
It’s smart really. While the west worries about its imperial past and wrings its hands over its role in these countries, China, with no such qualms, simply comes in with an open cheque book and takes over by stealth.

LittleFingerStrength · 16/03/2023 11:51

treneton · 16/03/2023 10:40

If a shooting war began with China at the very least the global economic system would effectively collapse for the little people, with ruined assets and roaring inflation - that's when gold comes into its own. But it thought to be so crazy economically that hopefully it should never happen.

www.reuters.com/breakingviews/economic-war-with-china-would-be-mad-2023-02-14/

That was really helpful, thanks

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Politicalnamechange · 16/03/2023 11:54

Ozgirl75 · 16/03/2023 11:50

@EggBlanket i totally agree. Barbados is another example where they have heavily invested in infrastructure (needed) just at the very moment they decide to no longer be part of the commonwealth. Slowly they’ll take over the island through investment, and then you have a little chunk of China a short flight from the USA. They’ve also tried to do this through the Pacific islands with Australia’s waning influence.
It’s smart really. While the west worries about its imperial past and wrings its hands over its role in these countries, China, with no such qualms, simply comes in with an open cheque book and takes over by stealth.

Exactly this. People often wonder why Britain keeps hold of weird places like the Falklands or why we took over strange bits of the globe. It was all strategic. It's the same reason we are still holding a military presence in Cyprus, yes to stop the situation destabilising but also it's a handy safe zone into the middle east.

Politicalnamechange · 16/03/2023 11:55

We also didn't go in all guns blazing to much of the world (unlike the Spanish!) We were quite polite with a number of nations and took them over (in the words of Eddie izzard) with the cunning use of flags.

LittleFingerStrength · 16/03/2023 11:56

EggBlanket · 16/03/2023 11:36

If we go to war with China you will have bigger things to worry about than drinking out of plastic cups.

Well I knew there would be bigger problems than toilet roll from the pandemic - I saw coming miles off, I was comfortable when going to the toilet, did not do without and did not have to go to the shops until Easter 2020.

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treneton · 16/03/2023 11:59

EggBlanket · 16/03/2023 11:43

Agree. They have lent billions to African states who are now all in china’s debt. They have also supplied digital infrastructure to numerous countries which means they can be controlled from afar. Their reach is terrifying.

Yet here we are complaining about our foreign aid programmes and how we shouldn’t be supporting countries poorer than ourselves to build their infrastructure and feed their people. Where we pull out we leave a vacuum that China is only too happy to fill. We are exceptionally short sighted.

You're about 20 years too late with that - the west has exported our capital, know-how and goodwill to them, and they have prospered. I have Chinese people in my extended family, and they are smart, extremely hard-working and never give up and most (except many rich HK Chinese who are understandably bailing out and are a great asset to any receiving country) are very proud of the progress their country has made. A hugely significant proportion of our university graduate population is mainland Chinese. If they were to leave it could mean soaring tuition fees for remaining students. If an iPhone had to be made totally outside of China it's estimated that the cost would be around £5000 !

As I said we were distracted fighting pointless wars whilst they were doing deals and locking in supplies all over the world. They are a 3000-year-old civilisation that has survived for a reason.

Thesharkradar · 16/03/2023 11:59

What about China's looming demographic crisis though?

treneton · 16/03/2023 12:02

Thesharkradar · 16/03/2023 11:59

What about China's looming demographic crisis though?

I think we all have one to be fair. Lots of old people and not enough youngsters to support them in their dotage. They are not in the top 20 for decline.

LittleFingerStrength · 16/03/2023 12:03

The too many young men issue?

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Thesharkradar · 16/03/2023 12:04

Thank you

Abra1t · 16/03/2023 12:06

Ozgirl75 · 16/03/2023 10:45

@Abra1t - my point exactly - the USA weren’t “in” the 2WW in that apart from Hawaii, there was no war on mainland USA, nothing was destroyed and needed to be rebuilt.
The USA could take advantage of the long term peace, plus the time it took for the U.K. to rebuild itself (and Europe too) to quietly make themselves into the mega power that they are today. Not a bad thing! But a good example of why being right in there at the centre of the war is pretty much always a bad thing.

Agree.

Thesharkradar · 16/03/2023 12:06

LittleFingerStrength · 16/03/2023 12:03

The too many young men issue?

Deploying them as cannon fodder has often been a solution for the problem of too many young men causing problems for the rest of society....?

LittleFingerStrength · 16/03/2023 12:16

www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/world/too-many-men/

China and India are in BRICS and wanted to destroy the petro dollar, that started with Rissian sanctions.

We can currently see the banks are having issues. Western left wing ideologies brought down the first bank.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11854497/amp/SVB-hired-woke-board-obsessed-diversity-invested-5BN-healthier-planet.html

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user1477391263 · 16/03/2023 12:20

Ozgirl75 · 15/03/2023 19:07

My last comment - the people of China don’t want war any more than we do. In the past 30 years millions of people have been lifted out of poverty and into a middle class life (and plenty are very wealthy) - there is no way that they would want to jeopardise that. It isn’t history to them either, many people in their 40s and older today grew up very poor and would no way want to go back to that.

Oh believe me, quite a lot of Chinese people do want a war - the government actually has quite a lot of trouble with the belligerent nationalists, and treads a fine line between pandering to them and trying to get them to rein it in.

Doesn’t mean we should go out of our way to give them a war, though.

Initiatives like AUKUS are great, but we should also keep lines of communication as open as possible, to reduce the risk of some chance incident leading to escalation.

LittleFingerStrength · 16/03/2023 12:31

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automation

We won't be reliant upon men in other countries to make things for much longer. What will happen to all those excess men currently working in those factories and causing social problems?

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Scowlette · 16/03/2023 12:41

We don't have excess men in the UK - we don't have enough young men, and an ageing population

Thesharkradar · 16/03/2023 12:45

LittleFingerStrength · 16/03/2023 12:31

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automation

We won't be reliant upon men in other countries to make things for much longer. What will happen to all those excess men currently working in those factories and causing social problems?

Perhaps they can get jobs on onlyfans, gyrating for women with highly paid jobs?

Suzi888 · 16/03/2023 12:45

Scowlette · 16/03/2023 12:41

We don't have excess men in the UK - we don't have enough young men, and an ageing population

We’re doomed.

But in 30 years, I’ll probably be dead thank God!

I think the world will be an awful place by then. Too many people (until we go to war for food and land).

LittleFingerStrength · 16/03/2023 12:45

To translate from ‘partyspeak’ into plain English, the PRC is to become the top superpower, the US will be pushed into second position, and global governance, systems and values will be so ordered as better to suit CCP interests

The woke ideologies really help the global left, they don't work out from family, city, country, the see themselves as globalist sub factions with irrational luxury beliefs, they view others children as surrogate children- theirs to share their beliefs they encourage children to reject their parents world views and stop them fitting in with their families and push the children fit in with a globalist woke faction instead, they want to reject history and country, as they destroy their own country from within others have plans like BRICS!

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LittleFingerStrength · 16/03/2023 12:48

Thesharkradar · 16/03/2023 12:45

Perhaps they can get jobs on onlyfans, gyrating for women with highly paid jobs?

😂

I read somewhere recently that a canvassing doorstepping male Lib Dem politician was convinced that women would be filming him under the gap at the mixed sex changing rooms and how he had no problems with this!

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treneton · 16/03/2023 12:50

If you have never looked at the works of one of the world's greatest thinkers Noam Chomsky then I would commend him. We live in a sophisticated Western liberal democracy, but powers are at force which manufacture and steer the narrative in a direction that suits the most powerful in society and represents their interest not necessarily ours.

Here's a very young Andrew Marr interviewing him about this.

Scowlette · 16/03/2023 12:52

@Suzi888 well quite but how are mothers supposed to feel about their children's future? So much for the end of history: i would seriously rethink my decision to have children if I'd been making it now

LittleFingerStrength · 16/03/2023 12:52

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11867127/TikTok-app-banned-UK-Government-phones-amid-security-fears.html

Thanks for the link I will have a look later.

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