Guest essay by Eric Worrall
According to the Financial Times, the deteriorating relationship between the USA and China has triggered a collapse in renewable investment, a resurgence in coal, and has turned Greta Thunberg into a Chinese Nationalist hate figure.
Climate change: how China moved from leader to laggard
Beijing’s U-turn on renewables is triggering alarm ahead of UN meeting
Leslie Hook in Baoding
The smoggy city of Baoding is known for two things: donkey burgers, and solar panels. An industrial centre just south of Beijing — 45 minutes via high-speed rail — the city’s high-tech zone styles itself as “Power Valley” because it is home to so many solar manufacturers.
But for Vincent Yu, deputy general manager at Yingli Solar, one of the first renewables companies to set up in the city, business has been difficult lately. “These last two years, there has been a lot of pressure. The subsidies for solar projects have fallen,” Mr Yu says. New solar installations in China — running at 53 gigawatts in 2017 when demand peaked — will be about 40 per cent lower this year, he estimates.
…
The company is the highest profile casualty of a change in policy that is being felt across the renewable energy sector in a country once celebrated as the world’s clean energy champion. Chinese investment in clean energy is plummeting — down from $76bn during the first half of 2017, to $29bn during the first half of this year.
…
Mr Li says deteriorating relations between the US and China — along with the unrest in Hong Kong — have helped fuel a growing nationalist sentiment and a broader anger at the west.
One of the targets of this nationalist ire has been Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenage activist who is revered as a climate hero in some parts of the world. “Many netizens see [Greta] as representing the general liberal western agenda,” says Mr Li. “There is this larger perspective that the west is ganging up against China.”
At the same time, coal appears to be again in the ascendant with Li Keqiang, China’s premier, last month identifying it as a priority area. China remains the world’s biggest producer. Many see this as part of a growing focus on energy security in Beijing, a result of Chinese leaders being spooked by deteriorating relations with the west. “Energy security anxiety is a blessing for the coal [sector] in China,” says Mr Tu.
…
Read more: https://www.ft.com/content/be1250c6-0c4d-11ea-b2d6-9bf4d1957a67
You can see where this is heading – when next week’s COP25 climate talks inevitably collapse, this time everyone will claim the failure is President Trump’s fault for upsetting China.
Orange man bad … Asian Brown Cloud – ignored.
That will be the “official” UN position. Make the US PAY!
China should be careful or the Climate Faithful will have them saying 7 Our Fathers and 8 Re-Grets
Should that be 8 Re-Greta’s?
+42
Trump called China’s bluff on fake energy. For the first time in 50 years, the U.S. had a President who was smart on China. All of this fake energy “investment” was a giant Potemkin village. China was attempting to goad the U.S. into destroying itself with fake energy, manufactured in China, while they hid all of their real power plants behind Potemkin villages of wind and solar.
Interesting thought there, Luke. Who’s to say China hasn’t been painting cardboard silver, covering it in plastic, and putting the panels on stakes so that it looks like a solar farm?
Our spy satellites probably couldn’t tell the difference.
No, I don’t think China has actually done that, but it would sure be a cheap way to goad other countries into buying Chinese solar panels in an effort to “keep up.”
/channeling P.T. Barnum
They have been known to fake practically everything else (water, eggs, salt, cooking oil, cars, you name it) so why not solar farms?
And their economic numbers.
There are two things I know about the Chinese: They are a patient people, and they are pretty sure that they are superior and are destined to rule the world. Yes, they have a lot in common with Western liberals, although Western Liberals are not as patient.
I agree with Luke that China is more than happy to see the West kill itself on renewable energy, and has been happily encouraging our suicide for decades. Trump appears to be one of the few western politicians that understands this.
It’s nice to see that quite a few of them are eager to migrate to the US and some European countries legally to get away from Mainland China. Most of them want out from under the Chinese government. Most of them aren’t Chinese Government intelligence agents, although I’m sure the CIA people not pushing the impeachment fiasco or working hard to identify spies.
Sorry..but I can’t even remotely follow the logic.
China is investing in solar panels..in their country. What the heck does Greta or Trump have to do with any of it? Just make and install more. No one is stopping them. It’s just bizarre.
What has actually happened is they are reaching the natural limits of the amount of intermittent power the grid can absorb. They have to build more coal so they can build more solar, keeping solar well under 10% of the total.
Geo’s right! Trust Chairman Mao’s ‘children’ completely, utterly and at all times. I mean…what could go wrong?
I like the way they use the words “investment” and “subsidy” interchangeably. (Of course, the Chinese are not alone in that wordplay.)
I like the way they use the words “investment” and “subsidy” interchangeably. (Of course, the Chinese are not alone in that wordplay.)
And they never use “spending”.
lucklucky
And they never use “spending”. (OP’s money).
PaulH – of course the Chinese are not alone in using the words investment and subsidy interchangeably. And they are not alone being successful capitalistic countries either. It seems not to occur to anybody here in the West that they are proving to be excellent capitalists – they are beating us in our own game. The world has never seen anything like this before, namely a successful communist, capitalist country.
And the US are losing. Trump foolishly assured us that a trade war is easy to win. Well yes, but only if you have plenty of manufacturing muscle and capital enough behind you – like the US used to have. Those days are past. The boot is on the other foot now. This trade war will soon be known as Trump’s folly.
There was no other choice than to challenge the trade situation w/China. The alternative was to do nothing & continue letting them take advantage. And Trump knows very well it is/will be a difficult battle w/them.
You are on the mark. Canada’s re-elected Prime Minister is the kind of political doormat that they love to target and “work with”. USA don’t go there!
Andy,
The Chinese are much more exposed on trade than the US, they just hide it better because they are not really a capitalist country. They are a communist country and always have been, they have just put on some capitalist clothing in an attempt to fool the rest of the world (at which they have only been marginally successful). China is no more capitalist than Tom Cruise is a fighter pilot.
Good analysis, Paul.
Paul Penrose – you are quite mistaken. My dictionary tells me that capitalism is “a system where trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit rather than by the state”. China is just that. Their government, as it happens, is communist – which here means that any change, any new legislation, must come through the communist party, no other political parties being allowed. As we all know, all governments to varying degrees interfere with their capitalistic system (by taxation, subsidies, trade wars, etc., etc.) – capitalism is an unruly beast and must be controlled. It has quite a free hand in Chine at the moment. For any population it is a bit like fire : “It is an excellent servant – but a terrible master”
No, governments are the unruly beasts that must be controlled. You have it backwards.
All “private” companies in China are controlled, de facto, by the state. Try starting a business there and report back to me how it goes. You will be a 49% owner at best, if in fact you are even allowed to start one. There is nothing “free” about the Chinese government or economy. They are quite thoroughly controlled by a few people at the top of the Communist party. But I will never convince you, so there is no practical use in continuing this conversation.
It really is fascinating how people who know nothing about economics claim to be experts in what capitalism is.
In capitalism the only way to get rich is by providing people with products that they want to buy.
Under capitalism, there is nobody who forces you to buy anything, or to work anywhere.
The idea that capitalism is a beast is put forth by those who can’t tolerate that nobody wants to pay them what they think they are worth.
These are the ones who want government to seize money from those who earned it in order to give it to them. That’s beastly.
So you claim that China’s government is 100% communist while their economy is capitalist. Lol. Please do explain how a communist single-party state is capitalist.
I have a better description of capitalism. It is an auction system where we determine, in real time, the best possible use for a limited supply of goods and services. That’s it.
WOW – I sure drew some fire! Well, the proof of the pudding is in the eating – and the Chinese just love this pudding. 10,000 years of human civilized history shows without a doubt that human beings are happy and satisfied with their existence under any ruler who gives them freedom, peace and hope for a better future for them as individuals and for their children and families. The huge majority of Chinese people have that at long last – there will be no resistance to the system there in the foreseeable future. By freedom I do NOT mean freedom to agitate for a different political system (most people don’t give a damn about that) – just freedom to live, love and work where you like – freedom to buy what you like – and freedom from slavery.
Yes, I absolutely agree that the less government interference in the capitalist system, the better – and also here you will find that China has fewer rules and regulations, less red tape, than in most western countries.
“Is no more Red China,” said my Chinese guide for a tour I went on a few years back. “Is Pink China.”
At the local level, there is a lot of capitalism in China. It’s the moderate to big companies that are still completely controlled by the government.
Free trade is the best choice, but it’s not a choice we have with China. The Chinese have been dedicated trade warriors for decades, using complex tariff and non-tariff barriers, including restrictions on investments in China without using a Chinese partner. They have also engaged in theft of intellectual property on a massive scale.
We used to look the other way. During the cold war we wanted a stronger China to balance against the Soviet Union. China was weak and not then a threat.
The Soviet Union fell and economically Russia became insignificant except in the oil/gas markets. China has prospered using a Lee Kuan Yew (of Singapore) approach of fostering a freer market under an authoritarian government. They have not been “communist”, except in name, since the 1980’s.
Now China is a geopolitical and economic threat. They are internationally aggressive, especially since Xi rose to power, for the first time in Chinese history (unless you count the Yuan Dynasty, which was Mongol, not Han Chinese). Obama recognized this change, intending a “pivot” of US efforts toward East Asia/Pacific and away from Europe/Middle East. But as with most of what he tried, he was ineffectual.
Trump is rhetorically hard to take, but he has made one right move after another. He has weakened China, while the US economy has become more robust. The nations around China, eg. Viet Nam, have grown from the shift in business away from China. Things are going well.
A good China trade deal would be great news for the stock market, but ironically, geopolitically the US and it’s allies might do better raising even more pressure on China. A collapse of the Xi regime may be coming, though we cannot rely on that happening
Thank you. That is much clearer than comments like “China is not capitalist”, etc.
Her 15 minutes are up
That would be nice, Neo.
Regards,
Bob
Does anyone know where her ship is in the North Atlantic?
38.69801 N/9.41616 W
Cascais near Lisbon, Portugal
Nov 24, 2019 14:38 UTC
https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:5193570/mmsi:227825030/vessel:LA%20VAGABONDE
&
https://www.vesselfinder.com/?mmsi=227825030
They’re still quite a ways from Portugal. Not even to the Azores yet. They are a little more than halfway through their trip.
https://sailing-lavagabonde.com/
The pro skipper’s twitter
https://twitter.com/_NikkiHenderson/status/1198994788294578178
Not sure if saveenergy’s statement is a joke.
She is about 140nm west of Lagens in the middle of the Atlantic doing about 10 knots course east.
But if you look at windy.com, and go forward towards the end of this week, it looks like she will be blown back to the American continent again. I am sure this is because the Chinese got angry with her. 🙂
With a speed ranging from 4 to 10 knots, she could have used one of these water bikes with pedals instead and have the airplanes going back and forth between EU and US drop some food to her.
Tue 26/Nov 11:43 GMT
41º 02.663 N 37º 43.517 W
Course: 82° true,
Speed: 10.0 kts.
(Conditions: winds at 25 kts 232° true)
La Vagabonde in realtime
https://sailing-lavagabonde.com
They’re about a days sail from the Azores.
When this came up a couple of days ago, the map showed them doing just over 6 Knots, today just over 7 Knots. In both cases considerably less than local wind speeds.
Just wondering, as this is something I know nothing about, should they be going faster ? or are they running on the diesels ? These speeds seem somewhat less than one might expect if it were possible to bicycle across 🙂
Hi Fanakapan,
They have Lenny onboard; he’s 11 months old. They’re also working with weather routers to help keep them on course and to avoid serious weather conditions.
At times over their trip they’ve slowed to 4-5 knots to avoid 30-40 knot winds and high wave conditions.
Depending on wind direction, they could be going faster but they’re sailing a catamaran which is prone to listing side to side with gusts.
They’re doing a great job of sailing as safely as possible.
They rarely have a stern breeze, so if you’re sailing at some large angle broadside to the wind you’re going to be going much slower than it. I’ve seen them get up to 10 knots, and the skipper said they did 10-20 all day one day.
https://twitter.com/_NikkiHenderson/status/1197832482911072256
That does look like a stiff headwind. Would be a cryin’ shame for them to have spent all of that time and effort and not be able to get her to port in time for her show. haha I’d lmao…
She’ll get to COP 25 before the events end on December 13. The interesting question, given her preference for zero carbon fuel consumption, is when.
Given their current location, an average speed in knots, a likely 1-2 day layover in the Azores, and her preference for mode of transportation Lisbon to Madrid, my guess – she arrives in Madrid on December 6th.
If she flies from the Azores to Madrid, it would take 3-4 hours. Azores to Lisbon is about 2 hours.
Just for fun, make a guess.
She was a novelty, nothing more than that. She is old news now.
That didn’t take long.
I hope it won’t harm her psychologically but it probably will. With her issues, a major failure in her area of obsession is likely to hit her hard.
Her parents should have protected her from this.
I would feel sorry for her if she were not such an obnoxious scold.
Her parents put her up to this for….insert reason here..
HOW CAN YOU SAY THIS!!!!????
YOU…YOU STOLE HER CHILDHOOD AND FORCED HER TO MAKE WEIRD ANGRY FACE AT UN.
(and me too :-))
Just think if she had to live through a childhood with the H-bomb and Cold War in the 1950s where she had to go through Duck and Cover and kissing her butt goodbye under a school desk.
Wait… Shouldn’t St Greta be a favourite in China? She is promoting more solar after all.
If their unreliables industry is facing problems, wouldn’t they want MORE virtue-signalling virgins to tout the conversion to solar?
Dictatorships don’t like competition.
What makes you think she’s a virgin? Any normal 16 year old girl has her hormones dominating every thought, as with every 16 year old boy. We were all 16 once.
She has immaculately conceived her knowledge of the climate sciences, and Gaia has revealed to her the timetable for planetary climate Armageddon. She’s a warmist miracle! She’s given virgin birth to student strikes for climate justice! Oh holy madre Greta! We light a candle for you … because PG&E has shut OFF our power.
She’s born of Gaia’s eternal powers … or … by Soros, Gore’s, Steyer’s, Rockefeller’s, or Bloomberg’s $Billions …
You are going to hell…or could be Slough, just off the M4 in the UK. About the same IMO, although I have not been to Hell, yet. That is somewhere in the USA.
Yes it is. It’s in Michigan. Will have a high in the 30s this Thanksgiving. Always thought Hell was supposed to be warmer, guess Dante had it right after all.
There is a Hell NY abut 20 miles from Heaven NY. The community in Heaven had a falling out and the breakaway group moved out to establish a new town.
Hell can be found daily, on the streets of Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Venice Beach, and even … Santa Monica. Humanoid organisms, formerly known as men and women shuffling in and out of their tents, and shanty’s collecting free needles from beneficent governments and NGOs. Officially feeding their habits to keep them “safe from AIDS” … but prolonging their constantly drugged stupor.
Always thought Hell was supposed to be warmer
John, Hell, MI must be the seventh level, which is a frozen lake.
Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough. Considering that Betjeman penned those lines a fairly long time ago, its interesting to ponder what he would have thought today. 🙂
There’s even a Hells kitchen “about 20 miles from Heaven NY.”
https://maps.app.goo.gl/GvbSVanAfFVPMMMD7
err
cos shes NOT “normal”
What makes you think she’s a virgin? Any normal 16 year old girl…
Well right there is your mistake. She not normal. Even if that wasn’t well know, just look at the way she dresses. Does any normal 16 year old girl dress like an 11 year old? really?
It’s great to hear that Chinese Authorities have turned Greta Thunderberg into a Chinese Nationalist hate figure. Her fifteen minutes of fame are coming to an end.
Used to be that “Chinese Nationalist” referred to the bunch on Taiwan. What did I miss?
It’s “walk the walk” not “talk the walk”
Greta comes a lot closer to waking the walk than do most of the climate warriors.
“Walk the talk” is a shortcut. Short for “You can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk?”
Kinda like saying “it ain’t Rocket Surgery” instead of “Rocket Science” or “Brain surgery”.
I look forward to her walking to China and India to protest their increased CO2 emissions
I wonder if St. Greta is about to become a martyr to the Cause.
All China need do to clean up their air is install modern scrubbers on their coal power plants.
Let them show how Socialism helps its denizens for free. Or not.
It is not that simple. There are multiple sources of air pollution and power plants are only one of them.
Others include:
transportation (how many old smoke spewing buses and trucks are there, how many people ride motor scooters and motorcycles without pollution control equipment),
home heating and cooking (gas and electric may be rare),
industrial process (all those smoke belching factories are now in China along with their jobs).
Coal is the major source of domestic heating & cooking in Beijing, for example. Hence its winter smogs.
Add in the millions of vehicles .
Carbon Dioxide isn’t killing the planet. Many ailments are the fault of particulates from diesel engines.
Even basic biology tells one that CO2 causes plants to grow very well indeed. The more there is the better they grow, which equates to more crops.
I remember all the fuss about the Ozone layer being destroyed by pollution. 20 or so years on and that fallacy has been laid to rest and now forgotten.
What does one do when Man Made Global Warming narrative is no longer having an impact?
One simply changes the stripes, but it’s the same animal.
They’re pretty much outlawing ICE scooters and motor cycles within cities and tending to build newer power plants further away. They cheat on emission controls like in most everything.
Having participated in the 2-year Hebei Clean Air Project I can add that the air pollution control measures included 51 separate initiatives. Everything possible was done from getting old buses off the road, old cars and inefficient industrial processes improved to domestic heating stoves (800,000 units).
The air quality is not much affected by power stations. That is old hat – a European thing, or North American. They are replacing the oldies at a rate of 1 per week. The problem is more old industry and cars – lots of them. Construction is a major source of ambient PM10. There is a lot of construction going on in cities.
When it comes to the general environment it is (old) industry that is the major contributor.
I think the US/China relationship is not in that bad a shape.
Trump and Xi are supposedly about to come to at least a partial trade agreement.
Trump has held off signing a bill passed by both Houses of Congress in support of the demonstrators in Hong Kong. No doubt Trump is using this as some sort of leverage, and perhaps the huge vote in favor of the demonstrator’s causes will help to change the dynamic in Hong Kong and let the people get their lives back to normal. We’ll see what Beijing does as a result of this vote.
The world is watching. How do the Chinese want the world to see them? As reasonable? Or as dangerous bullies?
Tom Abbott
The Chinese don’t give a monkeys about what the west thinks.
Hong Kong is their property, always has been, it was only leased to the UK.
What’s our Queen and parliament going to do when they can’t even respect the Democratic decision of Brexit? Wag a finger angrily at China?
HotScot
“What’s our Queen and parliament going to do when they can’t even respect the Democratic decision of Brexit? ”
A minor point, but, ….. in actuality it would be …… “a Democratic decision not to respect the 2016 POTUS vote total”, …….. verses …… “a democratic decision not to respect the Brexit vote total”.
When used in the above context, the capital ‘D’ infers the Democrat Party to us on the western side of the Atlantic. 😊
“The Chinese don’t give a monkeys about what the west thinks.”
Well, it’s not just the West that is watching. It is also a lot of countries that China might want to influence in a positive way, that are looking, too. Would you want to do business with a proven dangerous bully if you were a developing country? I don’t think I would. I would be wary that they might want to bully me. I would be suspicious of any deal they offered me.
Aggresive actions by the Chinese now might harm their greater, long-term plans. If the Chinese leadership is smart they will leave the people of Hong Kong to themselves. Hong Kong is not a danger to the Chinese. Hong Kong is not trying to separate themselves from China. China can afford to think long-term about Hong Kong. Now is not the time to squash Hong Kong. Live and let live, should be your guide. This will get China much farther along the road they want to travel than will aggression.
China’s green projects were always just a headfake as they continued to build cost-effective coal plants.
Renewables are collapsing in China just like they are in Germany. Not because of US policy but because they’re expensive and useless.
coal appears to be again in the ascendant….While paying lip service to renewables coal has been the planned source of power to electrify the masses. The 600 new coal fired electric plants have been scheduled for the last decade
Surely it was an open secret that China was humoring and taking full advantage of the West’s self- immolation. There has been no change in China’s real energy plans. They were already building thousands of coal fired plants with Obama’s and the UNs blessing. They got so good at it that they created a new industry building thousands more coal plants throughout Asia and Africa long before Trump came in the scene.
They all know that China rose to become the world’s largest emitter of CO2 while the west was closing down industries and economies “to save the planet” – a euphemism for the real goal of a centrally planned New World Order.
All that’s happened is that the ideologues are coming to realize that the IPCC based excuse for needing a néomarxiste global government is being undercut by the ‘East’s’ full steam ahead burning of fossilfuels and the investment in coal electrical plants in Africa and Asia. New governments in Europe will be building fossil fuel plants, too!
For those who joined the show late, we are going ahead with the big CO2 experiment. We will know without a doubt what the ECS is . We will know its costs and its benefits and more than a few of us will be surprised .
Yes. ‘Global Warming’ was supposed to be the issue that would allow the ‘elite’ to impose a global government. But the Chinese aren’t interested in being ruled over by Western liberals when they can run their own country instead and the West is in rapid decline (not least because of the ‘Global Warming’ scam).
”New governments in Europe will be building fossil fuel plants, too!”
Yes. The masses will be screaming ”I’m freezing and I can’t see with the lights out” and the West’s governments will look at each other and think they had better DO SOMETHING!
I think the cry that the coal industry was dead (as they have been saying here in Australia for years) were premature to say the least. The need for power trumps everything.
yeah well unless BHP and the indian pommy chap wise up?
we wont be able to smelt enough steel to keep up with needed demands to be making power plants etc
hes off on some unicorn fart dream making it greener
And best of all, they are selling their coal power technology to African nations who are sick of being lectured by rich Western green hypocrites.
China has always followed a China first policy. It is a shock to them that President Trump has been following an America first policy.
We have plenty of evidence that isolationist policies are harmful. On the other hand, when one of the world’s major economies (China) games the system, it is crazy to be a free trader. Trump understands that whereas 99% of other politicians do not.
And best of all, they are selling their coal power technology to African nations who are sick of being lectured by rich Western green hypocrites.
Gary, hopefully all these new worldwide coal plants will produce a market for exported US coal, tho the US Marxocrats will try to stop it.
I lived in Beijing for a while studying Chinese and at one point we had a Western guy who was a consultant to the Communist party on energy and economic policy come in and talk to us. He explained that the central leaders in Beijing actually had no idea how many coal plants were currently under construction (this was 2005.) Part of the reason was local officials would often just do what they wanted without the blessing of the central committee. Then one day they show up and a plant is already half done because some official took a bribe. He was saying central planning isn’t nearly so central as we envision. Some of this may now be different since Xi Jinping has cracked down.
Beginning in 2009 most Chinese coal-fired power plants are ultra-critical operating at 1400 deg. C, extremely clean low emission (keeping in mind that CO2 is not a pollutant). These plants will be operating well past 2050, long after the wind turbines constructed during the past 20 years are abandoned or junked.
+10
“Climate change: how China moved from leader to laggard”
The leader part was a combination of china cashing in on greenism and the desperation of the falangs to find a “climate leader” out here in Asia where all we have are nonAnnex countries. The meaning of nonAnnex is something the media dummies never understood or don’t want to understand.
Chaamjamal
The west simply doesn’t understand how the Asian culture operates.
Meanwhile, Democracy in Europe and the US is under sustained attack and not holding up too well.
This is when 16 years olds find out adults rule the world and tolerate their tanties!
Sigh, more politics than the climate can handle. At some point people will realize the true goal of CC is wealth redistribution and nothing more.
Yes. The Apex Predator Capitalists led by the likes of Soros and Rockefeller Inc want to redistribute the last shards of wealth from 90% of the population; then depopulate and deindustrialize the planet and make the survivors permanent New Dark Age serfs.
Looks like Greta is sure to get a lump of coal in Christmas stocking.
“Chinese investment in clean energy is plummeting — down from $76bn during the first half of 2017, to $29bn during the first half of this year.”
That’s a “Tipping Point”
Ha, that would have made a good title – Chinese solar investment hits a tipping point 😉
I just stumbled on this web site that tracks coal power plants globally by year. Shut down, running, under construction, planned…
The default when you hit the site is 2018. Take a look at what you see. Then grab the slider and mover it all the way to the right to see what the planned ones are globally. That’s a LOT of coal power!
https://www.carbonbrief.org/mapped-worlds-coal-power-plants
Great website.
Funny to see how the Spanish persistently love their coal. This is a good talking point for jet-sets at the COP25 jamboree in Madrid – oh sorry, not to be mentioned.
Apart from that, the western EU is perfectly in line with US, going for mainly natural gas, some of it imported from Russia. All while the former East Block countries play it safe with coal.
What I find most interesting about the map, is that very few or any coal plants seem to be put out of operation in the near future.
Thanks, David, interesting site.
Confusing headline. The term “Chinese Nationalist” (capital N) usually refers to the KMT, so I expected to read about Taiwan, but in fact the people referred to in the story are Chinese nationalists in China.
I was fooled too. Thinking back to the days of Chiang – never a dull moment here.
China has been playing the nationalism card a lot lately, they blame the Hong Kong riots on foreign interference. I have read claims that some mainlanders are covertly joining the Hong Kong protests to support the protestors. I suspect they are suffering a lot more internal unrest than they are letting on.
Yes, that’s the great open secret about China. Let’s hope they manage their internal tensions in a humane manner without searching too far for foreign scapegoats. The world doesn’t need that.
They don’t wanna say the c-word: communists!
I fear that indulging the Snork Maiden as much as they have, when she needed to be in school, will not turn out to have been in her best long term interests.
The Chinese government is building external (read Western) enemies to keep internal problems out of sight.
Greta Thunberg is just another government licenced xi-target to hate.
Blame the Chinese u-turn on management looking at the numbers and seeing that energy production, efficiencies and the return on investment, carbon based fuels v renewable, means the rational person uses carbon based fuels.
There is a reason that our forefathers stopped using windmills and sailing ships, as charming as they where.
你怎么敢！
为什么不呢
你用空话偷走了我的梦想和我的童年。
I had to use Google Translate, how dare you!
Room for one more, honey……
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-xinjiang/more-secrets-of-chinas-xinjiang-camps-leaked-to-foreign-media-idUSKBN1XZ0DH
Correct, Mike. These idiots still think they can destroy billions of people’s lifestyles and see out their retirement behind the walls of their gated communities. It takes a lot to rile the ordinary Joe, but the thing that always gets them on the streets is screwing with their personal money.
“It takes a lot to rile the ordinary Joe, but the thing that always gets them on the streets is screwing with their personal money.”
That’s right. That’s why we are seeing the protests in France and now in Iran, where the Iranian government raised gasoline prices.
That’s why the Green New Deal is DOA (Dead on Arrival), once people understand what it will cost them personally.
You need REALLY low self-esteem to pay much heed to a teenaged high school dropout throwing a tantrum. In limousine liberal precincts of the West, such virtue-signalers are surprisingly common. In the rest of the world, where the struggle to survive is more urgent, crabby teenagers are less enthralling. Third-worlders are less likely to use goofy words like “self-esteem.” They’re busy with real stuff like food, clothing, and shelter.
Greta is just a minor spoke in the wheel of the US + Chinese 1% making giant profits; Trump is the main road block. The 99% rest can only hope that he succeeds.
Kissinger unintentionally created the US strongest adversary, leaving Russia behind in the dust.
Giving Trump credit for the collapse of climate talks is like giving Newton credit for the existence of gravity. Trump can certainly claim to be one of the first national leaders to point out the nonsense of the climate crusade but when the talks collapse it will be due to the mighty weight of reality.
Yup; anthropogenic warming will be net beneficial and anthropogenic greening cornu-conspicuously-copic.
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Greta was being groomed to be the new saint of the global warming movement. Al Gore has become old and stale. After all his forecasts in the movie “An Inconvenient Truth” failed he has become kind of discredited. But Greta was supposed to be the new spokesman. The new future. She was supposed to get the Nobel Prize and be the guiding star of the new generation in their holy crusade.
But it didn’t go as the global warming elites expected. Instead of the public rallying to Greta as the virgin god of global warming the public laughed at her “how dare you” speech and at her childish simplicity. So she is no longer useful to the leaders of global warming. She will quietly fade away now. Who knows – maybe she will even go back to school and get her high school diploma.
The Chinese needed some “green” posturing by developing solar power, especially to try to sell them to the West, using their dominance in the rare-earth metals market. But then they figured out that coal power was cheaper for their own use.
The Chinese government is a master of propaganda, and knows how to take advantage of “useful idiots” like Greta Thunberg, and dump them when they become inconvenient. Western elites and “intellectuals” can rant all they want about Chinese hypocrisy, but we all must understand that the Chinese are NOT stupid, and they have four times our population.
President Trump has understood this, and is willing to challenge China where the USA can prevail, and leave things alone in areas where China is stronger.
No surprise here that this western establishment supported puppet gets roasted by the other, most populous part of the world.
Although the tone, as usual smacks of sinophobia -no one needs to be nationalist to acknowledge the ridicule of the Thunbergmania-, it is a logical consequence. Just as for Y2K, or the Icelandic volcano no fly day -in NATO air space- that others ignored.
It’s now apparent NO ONE took the Paris Accords seriously except wooly-headed liberals and Malthusian mass-murder fanatics. Outlets such as Bezos’ WAPO are freaking out since the truth is so obvious.
Meanwhile Green Energy is falling apart. In Germany the wind-power industry is collapsing… the population has turned against wind power… it’s a blight on the landscape and hazardous to health… unreliable and ultimately very expensive.
Meanwhile China is running away from Green Energy Tech as fast as possible and specifically slashing solar panel subsidies. It cost China at least $76 B to learn what a boondoggle Green tech is. And furthermore, how exposed to energy shortages it leaves China in the event of hostilities.
I love the claim of how China’s alleged leadership in renewables was somehow thwarted by the US.
People can’t seem to accept the fact China had them duped even when they had it demonstrated right in front of their faces.
Climate religious zealotry will lead to war.
This is as certain as night follows day.
Some nations will self-flagellate due to climate fanaticism.
Others will not.
The former will declare a jihad against the latter.
It will happen 2030-2040.
The Chinese government is a master of propaganda, and knows how to take advantage of “useful idiots” like Greta Thunberg, and dump them when they become inconvenient. Western elites and “intellectuals” can rant all they want about Chinese hypocrisy, but we all must understand that the Chinese are NOT stupid, and they have four times our population.People can’t seem to accept the fact China had them duped even when they had it demonstrated right in front of their faces.
The phantasto-radical water-melons from the ultra-left green religion in the western world against the crony-corporatist red-Ponzi masters of the world. Where is the popcorn?