By Amarynth for the Saker Blog including a number of data points from Godfree Roberts
Did you know that a huge International Forum on Democracy is ongoing in China right now? This is before the supposed Summit on Democracy which is an attempt to divide the world into Democracies and Autocracies, according to the wishes of the rules-based international order.
As we have seen so often from China, they acted with incredible speed and presented their own high-quality International Forum. They also published a Chinese White Paper on Democracy and it outlines how their Whole Process People’s Democracy functions for their people: http://en.people.cn/n3/2021/1204/c312369-9928374.html
These are the first presentations followed by a panel discussion:
In addition, China released a full report on the state of US democracy: http://www.news.cn/english/2021-12/05/c_1310352578.htm
China has learned over the past three years how to defend itself against accusations coming from the combined Western influence sphere. Although we know that the media in general still balances toward the combined Western Sphere, there is now a serious contender in the room with the ability, incredible speed of implementation, track record, education, and creative expressive talent to gain media supremacy in getting their message to the world.
Oh, the poor ‘partners’ …
Australia
The ‘partners’ are being led by their noses. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the US and its allies are the “biggest beneficiaries” of Australia’s trade row with China. Washington is in bed with Canberra, at the same time, it points the finger at Beijing and in the background, it picks up Australia’s lost Chinese trade. So, simply stated, all the trade that Australia lost in their trade row with China, from coal to iron ore to meat, the US quietly picked up.
Taiwan
From Taiwan, I hear a similar activity is taking place but this is not yet confirmed by the needed 3 sources. The idea of keeping the issues with Taiwan hot, is that the Taiwanese semiconductor foundry company (TSMC), the biggest employer in Taiwan with a raft of supporting industries around it, is being moved lock, stock, barrel, and existence to new facilities in Arizona. We will wait for more confirmation, but this is a very dangerous move to make, as TSMC is not only the biggest semiconductor company in the world, the industry itself depends on a highly educated and trained workforce. The Taiwanese workforce will lose its lunch.
All the latest from Godfree Roberts’ newsletter, Here Comes China:
BeiDou conducted the first inter-satellite and ground station communication using using lasers instead of radio signals, transmitting data a million times faster than radio and increasing satnav accuracy 4000%. Read full article →
A high-speed railway linking China to landlocked Laos opened Friday. The 660-mile, 160 km/h line runs through mountains and ravines from Kunming to Vientiane. Read full article →
Premier Li Keqiang says the establishment of a centre in Hong Kong to handle Asia – Africa trade and investment disputes will strengthen the city’s role as an arbitration hub and “provide more convenient and efficient dispute resolution services” for parties in both regions. [It also bypasses the WTO–Ed.] Read full article →
China’s service trade rose 13% YoY to $659 billion in the first ten months of the year. Service exports rose 29% YoY, and service imports rose 1%. In October alone, the country’s service trade hit 414 billion yuan, up 24% YoY. Read full article →
China now leads the world in trade of both goods and services and its trading partners now cover 230 countries and regions. China contributed 35% of the growth in global imports in the past five years. Read full article →
Meeting its carbon goals could save China trillions: China could dodge $134 trillion in climate-related losses by meeting carbon neutrality targe. China is predicted to see an 81% reduction in its accumulative climate-related losses by 2100 if it achieves its carbon neutrality target, according to a new study from think tanks in Beijing and London. Read full article →
And extreme ethics violation in my view: In 2018, Dr. He Jiankui shocked the world by announcing that he had used the CRISPR genome-editing technique to alter embryos that were implanted and led to the birth of two children. Today, the children are healthy toddlers and Western researchers want to get their hands on their DNA. Read full article →
China has doubled installed renewable energy capacity since 2015, to one billion kW, or 43% of total installation: Wind power generation increased 30% year-on-year (299 million kWs), solar power generation grew 24% (282 million kWs), and hydropower remains at 385 million kWs; Cost inflation delays solar energy expansion. Read full article →
New groundwater regulations tackle overuse and contamination of 16 billion m³/year of water. Fines could reach $783,000 daily. Right now 44% of groundwater monitoring stations record Grade V, the lowest water quality. Read full article →
China is scouring the countryside to find native seed, animal and fish genetic resources in a national germplasm census to protect “family property” and gain self-reliance in crop and animal breeding. “Excellent” plant and animal resources will be protected on company-run farms if they are in danger of extinction or turned over to Chinese breeding companies to exploit their commercial potential to propel Chinese seed companies as global competitors. Read full article →
Guinea-Bissau and Eritrea join the Belt And Road Initiative. Guinea-Bissau covers 36,125 square kilometres, with a population of 1,874,303, and like China’s Macau, was once part of the Portuguese Empire. Eritrea also signed an MoU with China to join the BRI and is expected to cement China’s presence in the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea, with interests ranging from a military base to protect shipping, in addition to infrastructure projects in ports and railways. China has been investing in the country for some time. Read full article →
To conclude, China developed its policies to deal with its national issues. But in so doing it has created both practical and theoretical achievements which are the world’s most advanced. China has never asked other countries to learn from its example, but neither can if forbid them to do so. Given the gigantic scale of China’s achievements anyone with sense in the world will study these intently. The “Resolution on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party over the Past Century” is therefore not only key for China, it is a document of crucial importance for the entire world. Learning from China.
“Given the gigantic scale of China’s achievements, anyone with sense in the world will study these intently.” – There was a time when such things needed not be said.
Excellent sit-rep. Thanks.
‘Taiwanese semiconductor foundry company (TSMC), the biggest employer in Taiwan with a raft of supporting industries around it, is being moved lock, stock, barrel, and existence to new facilities in Arizona.’
TMSC is the ‘crown jewel’ that the U.S. needs. Once it is secured, then the U.S. will let Taiwan go.
I have two questions.
1. Will China allow this move to take place?
2. If the move is completed, will the U.S. be able to keep the technology from leaking to China?
Oh that’s a long way down the road yet for the lack of the infrastructure and skilled help to operate it will drag it out for quite some time yet.
As we saw with the power for profit scam in Texas, they won’t be able to depend on any of the utilities which they need to operate an operation that size, so I wouldn’t worry if I was China nor clap my hands in the west for the west has years of decaying infrastructure to repair and replace plus at least a generation to educate.
The foundry isn’t the key strategic resource. Rather, the strategic assets are the companies that make the machines that the foundry buys to churn out chips. At the moment the most leading edge company is based in Europe. Indeed, China’s government had left chip manufacturing to market forces until the US threatened to sanction the leading European company if it went ahead with a contract to supply a Chinese chip manufacturer with leading edge machines.
Following the US sanctions, China’s government stood up and took notice, and, being China, it wasn’t long before they developed a long term plan: Build from the ground up an entirely China developed chip manufacturing system that is 100% free from foreign companies and intellectual property. To that end, a couple of years ago China set up several institutes of technology dedicated to training the physicists, engineers and workers needed to develop chip manufacturing techniques and technology that is free of western IP. The timetable is to be able to bulk manufacture 14nm chips (think PC desktops from two years ago) by 2024, to manufacture the current generation of chips by 2028 and to be equal with the best in the world by 2030.
Good summary. But the Chinese know that the “silicon tech route” is nearing its end and so they know that they can’t win the competition following that route. So their investments in the silicon route will remain limited.
The thinking in China is now focused on what comes after “Moore’s Law”. They know that the West is invested in the silicon route and needs to recuperate its huge investments by generating profits in that route. This means that the West will not be able to focus its investments on newer routes for the foreseeable future. Such a situation is seen as an opportunity : few competitors and the potential to being first to master these new technological routes.
Chinese technology institutes are fully immersed in these new routes. And huge investments are now being realized to try to leapfrog the Western Silicon Route by focusing on carbon chips or photonic-chips that seem to promise far higher speeds and far lower energy consumption…
We live indeed in interesting time. What if China’s bets are successful within the next few years ?
The move to relocate the semiconductor industry itself shows that the US has no intention of coming to Taiwan’s protection once China moves ahead with the unification. They’ve already accepted defeat.
Oh my God, the article is talking about socialism and everyone knows that won’t work, I mean after all if corporations can’t loot and steal while keeping the working class under their collective thumbs depriving them of everything from a decent living to good education to decent healthcare then we know that won’t serve the interest of the ruling class..
In regard to Taiwan, this all started under Trump and his trade wars with Chinese companies. There was quite a bit of news about this last year and as far as I am aware TMSC is building a new plant in Arizona – not leaving Taiwan lock stock and barrel:
https://sputniknews.com/20200515/taiwanese-semiconductor-manufacturer-to-spend-12bln-to-build-factory-in-us-1079310788.html
At the same time US chipmaker Intel Corp also announced plans to build two fab facilities in Arizona worth $20bn.
Beijing hired over 100 TSMC specialists to help build their own semi-conductor industry and has been diligently building its own chips so it is not reliant on Taiwan:
https://sputniknews.com/20200812/beijing-seeks-100-tsmc-chip-staff-in-bid-to-boost-chinese-tech-self-reliance-in-major-trade-war-1080143216.html
So the Chinese have been becoming self-reliant in advance of this move by TSMC et al.
China is about a decade behind in complex chip manufacturing technology. They have achieved 28 nm chip production while TSMC and Samsung are at 5 to 8 nm production nodes. But (Chineese) SMEE hasn’t produced a commercially competitive system because it lags behind in production volume/speed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtOyW-JpJjM
That laser article makes me think that the Russian army`s laser weapon is A Lot more complex then “we” imagine.
Thanks for tracking PRC for us Amarynth.
As you say, the PRC is certainly very nimble and quick.
CGTN has a nice round-up of the International Forum on Democracy:
‘The forum, named “International Forum on Democracy: The Shared Human Values” opened in Beijing with more than 500 domestic and foreign senior politicians and scholars from over 120 countries, regions and international organizations taking part in the two-day event.’
Interesting to note the tussle for the meaning of ‘democracy’ between PRC, or rather CPC, and the Empire in the CGTN piece.
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-12-04/Opening-ceremony-of-international-forum-on-democracy-begins-in-Beijing-15IRPiuCnsI/index.html
And once again a Thank You! to Amarynth for bringing this article.
From what I understand of the Chinese Democratic process, you have to be a member of the Party to vote. As a member you attend a congress and elect the delegates that attend the next level of congress until the Politburo level is reached. At each step of the process there’s vote trading and dialogue until consensus is reached as to who the local delegates are, and where their support will be placed at the next level. If you have no interest in politics, don’t join the party.
My father-in-law was a local leader for many years and even long after his retirement many of the local people would come to him to have local disputes settled. One of the family members was a founding member of the CPP, yet the wife has zero political interest.
Compared to the recent election disasters in the USA where the lesser of two weevils (no offense intended to weevils anywhere) is the only choice and the process is chaotic, the Chinese one hardly affects the operation of the economy or society. One of the benefits of the Chinese process is a higher number of meritocratic candidates.
Thanks Amarynth for informing about “the dialogue on democracy” organized by CGTN
Martin Jacques’ presentation was absolutely excellent “The Western concept of democracy lacks historical context“.
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Now to JackJC :
What you describe there relates to the internal process of representation of party members at the different institutional levels of, the party, the CPC.
What most people seem not to know is that this internal process of representation in the party is mirrored at the level of state institutions :
— direct public elections take place at the local level of rural villages (since the nineties if my memory serves me well). Everyone can decide to be a candidate and all villagers can vote for the candidate of their choice. Cities rely on voluntary participation in local “quarters” (sorry I don’t know the right English word). The same goes on in the lowest party structure which is the local cell.
— the elected officials of the multiple villages then elect their representatives at the district level by choosing among themselves who they think is the most qualified to have authority over themselves in the future.
— and this representation mechanism is repeated at the higher institutional levels till the top echelon the Political Bureau.
The West calls democracy the fact of voting for representatives every 4 or 5 years. But in the meantime the citizens have no say over any decisions at the different institutional levels of state power.
In China things are quite different.
Representatives, elected directly by the people or elected among themselves, have to implement the will of the people. This is done through various consultation mechanisms.
Direct consultation means asking for the citizens’ opinions about the texts of a legislation before it is being voted upon… Some legislation texts come for public consultation then are reworked by the Congress and the reworked version comes back for further consultation…
Indirect consultation means various polling techniques. The implement of the will of the people necessarily implies that congress members know what the people want. Polling in China is not about getting someone elected. It is about legislating according to the will of the people…
@laodan,
Thanks for expanding on that. I think by ‘quarter’ you mean neighborhood, district or possibly Riding. If I recall correctly the old Chinese cities were segmented into different areas with gates controlling access, a similar concept.
From your description of the election process, this sounds very similar to the way the Green Army was organized during theTaiping Rebellion. It was an effective force as the troops respected their officers and they all came from the same area.
Cheers!
Yes “neighborhood committees” seems the right word for these voluntary local structures in Chinese cities.
I just discover that the following sentence, in my comment, is wrong —”and this representation mechanism is repeated at the higher institutional levels till the top echelon the Political Bureau”—. The Political Bureau is the highest party structure while “the State Council” is the highest state institution.
Thanks Laodan for your two comments. The second one about the democratic process « bottom-up » is a dream made true. In France Valerie Bugault developed a similar system with 2 requirements : one is to allow all the possible autonomy of the local group before referring to higher levels of authority. Second is « imperative mandates » instead of representative mandates. Elected candidates have to fulfill specific tasks they have been elected for, or be replaced. She is working a lot on reshaping the Law, as a tree having its roots in natural law, the trunk being the « common » law ( civil rights) and then the many branches. She has proposed a new model of company organisation that seem to be similar to the functioning of a Chinese company. She offers a system that would fit western societies… She is very pragmatic and understands the intricacies and f-laws of the current western system. My question remains: how do we recover our sovereignty? Recovering the «printing » and the flow of money instead of having private banks? Redistributing not only the power that got grabbed and concentrated but also the land and ressources and everything else that goes with it? It seems that even if the money system collapses, the « elite »might still have the means to secure their privileges and possessions by corruption and force. So, it is difficult to imagine a radical shift from plutocracy to a democracy as direct as possible, without getting into a bloodbath. The Chinese went through lots of violences and in the west, having been spoiled in both senses, entitled and rotten, our reforming would very likely go through more difficult times. It is hard to imagine… how we could make it through. Yes, Chinese are admirable. And yet, progress has its cost. Even if democratic governance ( versus plutocratic) is better for the greatest number of human beings, it might ( or will!) consume it all, just like a batch of bacteria multiplying in a jar until they all collapse, out of ressources.
Of course, we are not in a closed system, and yet, the analogy holds to an « extent ».
Interesting times indeed. I pray/practice to be calm… Another one than the Chinese are exemplar at.
Thank you all for the quality infos.
After Biden called for a meeting with his “democratic friends” to insult Russia and China, they set this up to complete the joke.
It amazes me to watch how people think they have to pick sides in a brawl between bullies.
Even if TSMC and Intel recycle water, they will still need a continuous source of fresh water due to evaporation if nothing else. The water recycling plants, aqueduct, and desalinization plants should be an easy $20 trillion right there — or something like that. ***Ain’t gonna happen.***
I cannot help to think that this article is in part a response to a dialog to a recent post on the Saker website (/distorted-american-aristocracy/#comment-994614). I believe all this discussion about “Democracy” by the West is but so much propaganda. The Chinese response to it will likely manifest to be the same as it side steps the larger problem. (i.e. Response to B.S. is often turns into more B.S.) Whether the world has “democracy” or not is not the real problem. What I believe matters much more is the ablilty of governing bodies to tend to welfare of the common property of the people, ultimately to the common good of all people. The common people have to be brought to an understanding of that. (Those people to stormed the U.S. Capitol earlier this year are but morons who are mad because they can’t also have rides into space on Bezos’ rocketship. They have no understanding of collective well being. It would be nice if someone could educate them.) In the sense of tending to the welfare of the commons, both the east as well as the west fall short. (e.g. As pointed out in the past dialog the U.S. per capita output of carbon emissions is about 17.6 metric tons per year, and China is about 6.4. About 2 metric tons per year is more like what it needs to be.) Right now there is a competition going on between the world’s major economic systems in global markets which is depleting world energy, and essential resources, and more notably is degrading the natural environment we all depend on. What environmental, e.g. climate control and other, measures are being advanced right now are but a sprinkling of “greenie dust” on the core problem. (please note carbon emissions, environment, is only part of the aggregate of what constitutes “the public commons.” There also exist other tenents like basic freedoms, property rights, affodable cost of living, etc.) Basically, the competition needs to stop. The major economies need to find accomodation with one another. What is widely recognized worldwide, and is also well recognized by many within the U.S.A., is that the entities governing the U.S.A. are no longer capable of the looking out for the public commons for the common good of the common people.
The Chinese governing system may well offer an alternative. The ability to tend to the commons for the future in benefit to all is what I believe needs to be demonstrated in honest for China or any other government to win the current propaganda wars.
Germany recently formed a new government. It will be interesting to see what they do as part of the EU.
I know not , as an Indian , whether to laugh or cry. A Democracy Summit with Modi as a lead participant is more a Demonocracy. Modi represents an absolute perversion of the history of free India. His parent organisation , the RSS, modeled itself in the thirties , on Mussolini and Nazis. THey were bootlickers of the British , like the Muslim Leaguew which won its demand for partition of India & for creation of Pakistan. The father of the creed of Hindutva now being propagated officially by Modi, that father also expressed his belief in a two-nation theory of Hindus and Muslims being different. Absolute hogwash, because , every village in India is mixed population. Pattition was a disaster. Modi in power is a ruthless autocrat operating though mobs and goons in the streets who kill and rape at their pleasure and face no action by the Govt. Minorities , including Muslims and Christians , are openy attacked. The latest is assault on numerous churches. And , here is Biden, in a country founded by puritans of the Mayflower openly cohabiting with these anti-christ characters. However, India is a Union of States and policing powers are abused in states run by Modi’s BJP. Other states like where I live, in Mumbai , do not exhibit this . Modi has no legitimacy in India considering the RSS’ lack of a role in our freedom struggle. (This is different from Hitler, who , at least contrived some legitimacy for himself by attacking the Versailles treaty)Recently, Modi yielded to a year-long farmer protest and repealed a pro-crony-corporate farm laws. This is a landmark event showing the way forward to end this nightmare in India. Meanwhile, Biden can redeem himself only if he raises these human rights issues with Modi, at the very ,east.