SpankyMcFarland

I expect China’s global share of auto industry sales to increase progressively over the next few decades. Does anybody disagree with that?

To argue otherwise defies basic common sense. Look at the news in any area of science or technology and you’ll find Chinese people somewhere. But it’s even simpler than that. I think of the achievements of the Chinese people I have met and then I scale that sample up to 1.4 billion, with a ‘b’, mate, with a ‘b’. The consequences are not difficult to figure out. Once China got even a roughly level playing field against the West it was always going to perform spectacularly. For good or ill that’s the world we live in and we avoid dealing with it at our peril.

The key geopolitical challenge of this century is China. I anticipate a world dominated by that country in the not too distant future. If it remains as authoritarian as it is, liberal democracy will have a very hard time surviving anywhere.

Actually, China is innovating in these industries, not just lapping the rest of the world in production. Pay attention to the strides they are making in battery technology which mirrors what they are doing in nearly any area. Open a pathology or any medical journal and look at the names and universities on original research. Increasingly, the many, many Chinese authors are in Chinese universities. The era when China could be accused of just copying tech from elsewhere is long gone.

France just didn’t show enough interest in its North American colonial project. There was no excuse for letting the colonies from a considerably less populous country at the time become so much bigger.

I’m seeing BYD car dealerships sprouting in Europe. Change is afoot, guys. Talent, hard work, and extraordinary scale have combined to create a formidable competitor.

Floor-crossing has to be accepted as part of our system, which it is, or condemned as always unacceptable. Any prevarication looks like trying to find excuses for only one side doing it. If you really believe a person has committed crimes you should go to the police with your evidence.

They are now a serious competitor in both EV and renewable technology, to mention two key industries for the future. Nobody can deny that.

The direction of travel is fairly clear when one considers where China was fifty years ago.

Anybody talking like that is not familiar with science or technology. China knows what counts and has a plan to catch up and surpass in every key area. Just look at the claims of progress on car batteries made every month now: https://www.carwow.co.uk/news/10630/catl-electric-car-batteries-930-miles-range-four-minute-charging#gref It’s the same in every area of medicine that I’m aware of.

It’s well to remember that his disgraceful behaviour that day was only one part of a sustained campaign to overturn the election result. There’s no question about his intent.

Trump couldn’t be playing more into the hands of Xi if he tried. I thought we were supposed to see a pivot away from ME wars and to the Far East where three key allies of the West - South Korea, Japan and, above all, Taiwan - are under serious threat from China. Israel is fully capable of taking care of any threat in Western Asia but America has wasted precious munitions and seriously damaged its credibility in a foolish war of choice there. Perhaps Americans aren’t aware of how enraged politicians in Europe and Asia are about a plague of problems that have just been handed to them for no good reason that may cost them their jobs. If the crisis drags on and seriously damages the economies there we could see a global re-alignment away from the US.

You ain’t seen nothing yet, lads. The candour level about Mr. Trump’s adventure is going to rise abruptly among his peers around the world as stagflation, rioting, disorder and the Lord knows what begin to appear. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/27/us-humiliated-iran-leadership-trump-merz

Unfortunately true. Trump is the fungal infection that eventually kills the sick patient. He’s not the underlying cancer.

IDF volunteer and Illinois native, Daniel Raab, was once proud to brag about killing unarmed Palestinians to what he thought was a sympathetic Israeli film crew. However, since these events were made public six months ago, he and his family in America aren’t talking so loud. https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Daniel+Raab&as_sitesearch=www.theguardian.com&sei=EtnvaevKJcS0hbIPv5_f2Ak&pli=1 Hamas are religious fanatics fueled by a murderous ideology. But I support them, apparently.

If you start a thread like this without condemning Trump wholeheartedly then you can’t be taken seriously.

Absolute garbage from you. I don’t support the terrorists of Hamas but you blindly cheer for Netanyahu and his murderers. That’s the difference. What’s going on right now in the West Bank with the willing connivance of the IDF who are often directly involved with settler violence is utterly indefensible. Well, change is coming. America is waking up to the truth.

Charles will change nothing on this horrible mission he must endure. Trump simply despises liberal democracies. He’s far more comfortable with the crooks of the world.

That’s a good model which is common in Europe too. By contrast, my last GP was part of a group that did not share patients and my current GP in Canada is a sole practitioner which is even worse. When he’s away the ER is the back-up plan. I’m afraid we need something more than that. A quarter of NL’s patients don’t have a GP now. If private care would improve things I would be willing to pay for it.

In Gaza and the West Bank these days, the IDF often don’t even bother coming up with some sort of story about the civilians they kill: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/27/israeli-attacks-gaza-clean-water-shortage-crisis-disease-palestine

We are Canadian and we want to stay that way, a simple fact you and your MAGA friends in Canada can’t get their heads around. BTW I’d be paying attention to the status of your ‘world reserve’ currency if I were you.

The race is about every technology and China is catching up fast.

The US turned its back on Britain and France more than Israel there. All talk of Britain’s Special Relationship with the US should have ended immediately. At that time, the Israel Lobby was a minor force in US politics

The difference is that America is next door which makes its threats far more serious.

It’s hard to see how the Chinese won’t dominate the global transition to electric vehicles. Does America expect us to follow it back to the twentieth century?