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Cake day: April 4th, 2024

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  • Quotes from the article (emphasis mine):

    “A relatively good period for the Russian economy, which was based on previously accumulated resources, is over,” said Oleg Vyugin, an economist and former top central bank official. “High inflation eats away at all that seemingly short-lived success.”

    “If we talk about the middle class, it feels fine now,” said Sergey Dmitrieyev, an IT specialist from Moscow. “Less well-off people are feeling more stressed.”

    The agriculture sector is also feeling the squeeze. “The risk of bankruptcies is rising along with the key rate,” said Eduard Zernin, who served as the head of the Russian Union of Grain Exporters. “When farmers need to fund the sowing in the spring, we will see if those risks materialized.”

    It will be “a year of belt tightening,” said Sofya Donets, an economist at T-Investments. “Creditors win, and borrowers can hardly imagine how they will live.” […] “In some quarters, growth may be negative next year. For now, our main forecast is still growth by the end of next year, slightly below 1%.”

    “The main risks for Russia are problems with payments,” said Alexey Vedev, a former deputy economy minister.

    State-controlled pipeline operator Transneft PJSC and Russian Railways JSC sharply cut investment programs partly due to borrowing costs.

    Private businesses […] are also trimming expenditures, while United Co. Rusal International PJSC, a top aluminum producer, is considering cutting output by more than 10%, citing the economic situation as one of the reasons.



  • That’s a good article, thanks for sharing.

    Many (most?) experts agree that the crisis isn’t yet over (and possibly has not peaked yet), and China is in for long-term trouble. Many Chinese have ploughed their life savings (in the form of pre-payments) into their properties, and are now left alone with homes half-built, with no water or electricity, leaving their buyers with a shattered future and debts that they have to pay for the next 20 or so years. The Chinese government doesn’t provide compensation of any form for the damage done to these buyers.

    Real estate was once considered a safe investment in China, but younger Chinese -if and when they can even afford it at all- might reconsider buying a house, and this in turn will be another major obstacle for the market to revive imo.





  • For example, the Institute of International Finance has long been estimating China’s debt-to-GDP ratio as more than 300 percent (and that was even before the pandemic), and so did many other independent analysts (Fidelity is among them if I am not mistaken). You’ll find ample evidence across the web about this.

    Official numbers are not available, and even if they are in some subset categories, they often appear to be not very accurate. But the "350%-400% hidden debt to GDP ratio” estimate is widely considered reasonable from several independent analyses.





  • I guess what is meant here is that

    The Israelis keep the Palestinians something of a people apart; Xi seeks to assimilate the Uyghurs into a broader “Chinese” identity by suppressing their language, history, and religious life.

    Not that one is less worse than the other (I get your point of genocide), the author is suggesting that there are two different policies: The Israeli policy of segregation versus China’s assimiliation:

    … the Communist Party insists that Xinjiang is an integral part of China. Beijing has imposed its political system and Chinese language and culture on the Uyghurs, who are a Central Asian people and speak a language related to Turkish. The community of less than 12 million is also under pressure from an influx of migrants (you could call them “settlers”) from the dominant Han Chinese ethnic group. Official census data from 2020 show that the Han population in Xinjiang expanded by 25 percent over the preceding decade, while the number of Uyghurs grew by only 16 percent.


  • Western countries are supporting genocide by the Chinese government by buying cheap EVs and many other products made by forced labour in Xinjiang. As the article also suggests, for example, politicians are speaking about China’s abuse of the Uyghurs ‘behind closed doors’ while they should rather call out Beijing in public.

    Addition: Just stumbled upon this that seems to confirm what I said in this comment (it’s an article originally published in September 2024, republished January 2025). It’s about Australia, but we could replace Australia with almost any Western country, maybe with another product than batteries, but the principle remains:

    Australia’s climate ambitions have a modern slavery problem: examining the origins of our big batteries

    Several big battery projects in Australia vital for storing renewable energy to meet the nation’s climate goals are highly likely to be using materials sourced through the forced labour of Uyghur and other Turkic ethnic groups in China, […] research has found. […]

    Two of the largest companies that supply batteries and lithium cells for batteries—Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL) and EVE—are used in Australian projects in spite of having been reported to be implicated in grave human rights violations, notably forced labour of Uyghur and other Turkic ethnic groups in the manufacturing and processing of raw materials. In a damning 2022 report, the United Nations stated that such violations might constitute crimes against humanity.






  • https://beehaw.org/u/[email protected]

    China has created a large system of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance. Approximately one million Uyghurs have been imprisoned in detention centers, for reasons as simple as practicing their religion, having international contacts or communications, or attending a western university […]

    Some have reported experiencing torture and sexual violence [in detention camps]. Those who are detained are often unable to communicate with or receive visits from their families. Children whose parents are detained are placed in government-run adoption centers, sometimes far from their homes and families.

    The Chinese government uses sophisticated technology to monitor people throughout the country. The goal is to spot any perceived infractions, such as connections with people outside of China or expressions of faith. Being caught can result in detention and/or disappearance. Uyghurs are also being watched closely by their neighbors and state agents in their communities.

    Under the “Unite as One Family” program, the Chinese government has stationed an estimated one million Han Chinese citizens in Uyghur households for mandatory homestays to monitor and report on their activities and ensure that they are conforming to Han Chinese rather than Uyghur cultural practices. Uyghur families cannot refuse this in-person monitoring.

    The [Chinese] state began imposing harsh penalties for violations of birth limits [in Xinjiang]. It also implemented an aggressive campaign of mass sterilization and intrauterine contraceptive device (IUD) implantation programs. […] Leaked government documents show that violations of birth limits are the most common reason Uyghur women are placed in a detention camp. Women have testified to being sterilized without their consent while in detention. Other women have testified that they were threatened with detention if they refused sterilization or IUD implantation procedures. In such a coercive environment, it is unlikely that any Uyghur woman can be said to have voluntarily consented to these procedures.

    China has a long history of imposing forced labor on Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Researchers have documented a network of factories being built within and near detention camps in Xinjiang. Leaked government documents reveal that working in these factories is often a condition for release from the camps. Uyghurs have no real choice but to work in these factories, often for low or no wages. Uyghurs are also being transferred in large groups to work at factories throughout China.

    Source.

    Tihs is just a TINY list of atrocities, and similar things happen in Tibet as well (you find a lot of evidence from reliable source).

    [Edit typo.]