EU-China trade only represents around 13% of total trade between China and partners, and is easily substitutable by China by a mix of ASEAN (most of whom have an FTA or GATT FTA with the EU), Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, Russia (RU-China trade has a higher dollar value than DE-CN trade, which itself is 2x FR-CN or NL-CN trade), or even India.
As long as (eg.) France continues to support Dassault, Safran, and Thales - all of whom continue to support Indian [0][1] and Vietnamese [2][3] military modernization against Chinese aggression, CN-EU ties will never recover [4].
And that's just the tip of the iceberg depending on EU member state. Germany [5][6], Netherlands [6][7], and other individual EU states have similarly crossed Chinese redlines over the past year.
The DGSI is also actively prosecuting French nationals with ties to PLA adjacent institutions (public, private, and SoEs) for potential espionage risks [8]. Selon vos relations, vous pourriez également figurer sur cette liste, surtout après ce qui s'est passé en Nouvelle-Calédonie [9].
At the end of the day, their Foreign Minister and their entire foreign policy apparatus has consistently stated they will prioritize Russia over the EU for national security reasons (Central Asia, North Korea, Japan).
The EU signing an FTA with India on Jan 27th is also a negative sign for China-EU relations.
> I have 15 years of software engineering experience across some top companies. I truly believe that ai will far surpass human beings at coding, and more broadly logic work. We are very close
Coding was never the hard part of software development.
Getting the architecture mostly right, so it's easy to maintain and modify in the future is IMO hard part, but I find that this is where AI shines. I have 20 years of SWE experience (professional) and (10 hobby) and most of my AI use is for architecture and scaffolding first, code second.
> Amen. It's hard to live with hope right now at all. Programmer or otherwise we're constantly told we're all going to be replaced and the economy is a mess (US). Definitely a depressing time to be alive.
BTW the whole plumber/electrician/whatever thing is ridiculous. I studied industrial automation before I joined tech. I checked the salaries for manufacturing maintenance engineer last month. The wages are a sad joke compared to the costs of living.
There is a 1000+ km long front of active combat in Europe right now. A front where European shells and Russian ones are getting exchanged. Where F-16s fight Su-35s. And then we have things like the Russian cargo ship with nuclear materials that got sunk by a high-end torpedo. Just because shells aren't yet raining down on Berlin, it doesn't mean this war isn't kinetic.
Ukraine isn’t part of the EU, or historically part of the ‘European’ sphere (really meaning Western European). It’s historically been part of Russia. Or if you go back far enough, Russia was part of Ukraine.
It doesn’t completely negate your point, and anyone who isn’t seeing the writing on the wall is being willfully ignorant aka Chamberlain.
But culturally this is also a very different situation from France, Germany, England, Spain, or even Greece being shelled.
Which is also why people are so ‘meh’ on it, practically, and it’s taking so long to respond.
I don't see anything in your comment that would even argue with my point, much less negate it. That history lesson on Europe itself is pretty pointless, because if you go back a bit further you'd find much of Ukraine having been ruled by the Habsburgs - i.e. Austria. It doesn't get more European than that. And that short period of time where the Russians/Soviets ruled basically serves as Putin's propaganda reason for this war. That certainly doesn't belong here either.
Ukraine literally used to rule the land now known as Russia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kievan_Rus%27]. Kyiv used to be the capital. I think you have your history confused, and your 'what is propaganda or not' reversed.
They are basically two brothers with a long history, with Russia having recently been on top - after previously being on the bottom - but then going bankrupt - and now trying to bully it's way back to being on top again.
Either way, they aren't France, Germany, England, Spain, etc. and have wildly different history. Ukraine isn't part of the EU or NATO (and in fact, the possibility they might eventually be is a big driver of what Russia is now doing).
Got to get that bullying in before it's too late, after all.
I already told you why that is not just wrong, it misses the point. It also doesn't help if you want to switch this whole historical legitimation propaganda to the other side, because it is meaningless anyway. We are not living in 19th or 15th or 10th century Europe anymore. Ukraine lies in Europe by any remotely recent definition and it has an actual kinetic front line. End of story. Everything else is malevolent political propaganda.
You should really go and read up on some geography, this is become embarrassing for you. Or spew your russian propaganda elsewhere, because if you are serious you have outed yourself now.
The issue is, the people who are (supposedly) in charge are also sounding increasingly hysterical and seem to be actively pushing for a NATO-Russia confrontation.
That is obviously insane, so I do wonder if there isn't something else going on beneath the surface
I hope so, but we have the head of NATO and numerous senior British officials (including the head of MI6, who is never normally heard from) talking about an impending major war. Maybe (hopefully) this is just hedging and something can be worked out
Molossia (/moʊˈlɒsiə/), officially the Republic of Molossia, is a micronation claiming de facto sovereignty over 11.3 acres (4.6 ha; 46,000 m2) of land near Dayton, Nevada, United States.[1] The micronation has not received recognition from any of the 193 member states of the United Nations.[2][3][4][5] It was first conceived by Kevin Baugh in 1977, before its official creation in 1998. He continues to pay property taxes on the land to Storey County, the recognized local government, although he calls it "foreign aid". He has stated that, "We all want to think we have our own country, but you know the United States is a lot bigger".
US Navy would have have no parking spots left in Europe if they try to annex Greenland.
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