USA honestly needs a revolution

 USA honestly needs a revolution to have any chances of changing. Rednote could be that catalyst for a revolution in the making, as the realization is too profound and shocking for USA citizens, at least for those unable to make ends meet. Not being able to afford food and lodging is what will drive people to be really desperate. And some of the Tik Tok refugees do sound really desperate, some in tears and some cursing the USA Government.

Some USA leaders had even been broaching the idea of banning USA citizens from visiting China not too long ago, when China started opening up, but could not afford a reason to do so, which if done would never be tolerated if it is to be called a democratic country. Businesspeople, for example, cannot be prevented from going to China. Now, USA citizens do not even have to travel to China to see for themselves. The interaction between ordinary Chinese Rednote users and Tik Tok refugees are already eye-opening events. For them it is a better, cheaper and faster way to learn the truth about China without even having to travel there.

Sometimes change comes unexpectedly and without preparing for it. This is one such instance that is becoming historic.

Anonymous

Slave wages to fight fire in America

 Trump will use the nuclear option if the Los Angeles fire does not die out after he assumes office, LOL. He will detonate a nuke inside the city to stop the fire from spreading, the same kind of nuke he wanted to fire into a hurricane to stop its destruction, LOL again because it is funny. Trump sometimes sounds like a kid too used to kidding others.

Biden already tried using incarcerated people to become firefighters, paying them slave wages, said to be US$10.24 a day to do the job, which obviously did not succeed. Working for US$10.24 a day must be an insult to those incarcerated people. Now they are reported to be training more of them to be firefighters, upping their wages to US$30 a day. Wonder if they will call it 'slave wages', which I think it is. Anyway, this is what the Chinese call 'building a toilet when the urge to poo is intense'. If this is the USA formula of taking care of disasters and catastrophes, what happens when there is a hypersonic nuclear missile attack?

Not to worry about no takers for free training to be firefighters though, as Biden has just pardoned about 2,500 of them to be trained as slaves to fight fires, LOL. USA has all the manpower to do great things.

Anonymous

Why USA home security and military can buy and use Chinese made drones?

 If USA home security and military can buy and use Chinese made drones, where is the issue regarding and about National Security? It is all a lie to deny USA civilian usage knowing that any comparison between DJI drones and their own is slapping their own faces. China is not exposing it as those are obviously not the top-notch military drones used by the PLA, but social media vloggers like Kevin Walmsley on 'Inside China Business' is a site well-respected for digging up sources that showed the reality. Because the Western MSM does not talk about it and China is not exposing it, it is assumed that nobody knows about the hypocrisy of the USA Government.

There are reasons outlined by Kevin Walmsley why USA made drones are not reliable for certain purposes. For help and rescue missions involving difficult or higher elevation terrain, USA made drones tend to lose contract up to a certain distance or further up mountainous regions. DJI drones are reported to be more reliable in all terrain and weather conditions, and the most important reason of all is they are much cheaper.

If there is a reason to doubt the superiority of DJI drones, one just has to ask why the Ukrainians are buying DJI civilian drones and modifying them for its military use. Even the Israelis are reported to have no confidence relying on the performance of USA made drones. Expensive and inferior makes all the difference.

Of course, one other reason for the USA banning Chinese drones is to protect its own drone manufacturers, which is the same modus operandi as using tariffs to protect its EV makers that are finding it impossible to compete with BYD.

Anonymous

In an authoritarian state, in the name of national security, people can be arrested, things are banned, cannot do this, that....

 I tend to believe in the narrative that the banning of Tik Tok has to do with its platform allowing ongoing conversation between users about the genocide in Gaza by the Israelis. This has prompted Netanyahu to pressure the USA Congress to do the necessary to ban Tik Tok, using National Security reasons by the USA and pushing the narrative that Tik Tok is controlled by the CCP, which it is not. After all, National Security issue is an easy to use and difficult to prove narrative that the USA has been using like a duck to water.

It is also reported that Trump is giving a 90-day reprieve to Tik Tok pending further action after that. We have also heard the news that Trump and Xi had contacted each other and talked to each other on a number of topics, with Trump gloating that they have successfully sound out each other over many issues. I just wonder if they talked about the Tik Tok issue, which Trump himself is a subscriber.

The Chinese co-founders, I understand, have a minor 20% stake in ByteDance, a Chinese company incorporated in the Cayman Island, and the owner of Tik Tok, with 20% stake in the hands of employees and 60% owned by institutional investors. The Tik Tok app is being run by a Singaporean, based in Singapore.

This indicates that Tik Tok has little to do directly with the CCP nor is under its control and is therefore should not in any way be a National Security issue for the USA. Tik Tok users in the USA are not even complaining about accusations that the App is stealing their user particulars, with some users even offering such information to Tik Tok to spite the USA Government. Tik Tok users in the USA knows that the Chinese Government has neither the time nor interest in the personal life of each and every one of the 170 million users in the USA. It is a fabricated and fallacious argument. There is undoubtedly a deep political motive that the USA Government is using to ban the app.

Now, we are seeing a bigger problem manifesting itself with Tik Tok refugees moving to Rednote, an even more China-centric app, and discovering how the USA Government had lied to them for decades about China. They were shocked to discover that life in China was so much better than in the USA for the lower income group. Everything was so cheap, available and affordable, overturning the mantra that Chinese citizens are suffering under the Socialist Government in China.

Having said that, I do not know whether Trump can be trusted to let Tik Tok continue after the 90-day reprieve. I personally would not be too positive knowing how the USA political system works, and Tik Tok had better not be overly optimistic about long term survival in the USA. After all, remember that Trump is going to be there for another just 4 years.

Anonymous

China would make all the cars in the world outside America

 American and European ban or high tariffs against Chinese EVs is only a stop gap measure and would not make any difference, cannot save the legacy car industry. New technology, cost efficiency, clean energy and protection of the environment would put an end to all combustion engine cars. Only a few legacy cars would survive as collectors' items or for car enthusiasts as an expensive hobby.

Combustion engine cars would still be in production for a short while in America and Europe but not for long. There is just no justification for their existence when new energy cars are the new way to go into the future. The rest of the world would be turning to EVs as the medium of choice, saving on energy and cost and technically a better car in every aspect. The Americans and Europeans would not be able to sell any combustion engine cars to the rest of the world against better, cheaper and more efficient EVs.

The Americans and Europeans can close their markets to EVs Made in China. It would not make a dent against China.  Not only China will be making EVs, every country in the Global South would also want to make EVs for their own consumption or to export to the world. The Global South countries are not trapped by existing facilities making combustion engine cars.  They are completely free to move into making EVs in joint ventures with China.  They do not have to reinvent the wheel and can just rely on Chinese technology to make all the EVs they need. 

The Global South would all be users of EVs and new technology coming from China, including high speed trains, 5G/6G, Beidou satellite position system, communication system etc etc. America and Europe can sit on the wayside as spectators, continue to live their lives using obsolete technology and legacy cars for transportation and antique train systems. And Chinese apps like TikTok, Rednote and Lemon8 etc would be the apps of choice in the Global South, free from being monitored and listened to by American intelligence operators.

And the Global South would live on happily thereafter.