The above cartoon suggests the content of this Global Times article, “US' ban on Huawei eventually boomerangs on itself.” We know how poorly the illegal sanctions laid on Russia and the USSR before it have performed, that they primarily damaged the ones breaking the law in various ways while actually strengthening the target of the sanctions.
Can I interpret all that defence sector blather to mean that the security of non Huawei phones is absolutely compromised with backdoors and only Huawei phones are secure? The USA Defence department wants to buy a secure phone and has one choice:- Huawei. They do seem to be talking around the point and scared shitless of getting to it.
Clowns juggling little steel balls as did Captain Queeg.
I don't think Yankee ingenuity is mere hyperbole and I don't think the individual ability to innovate is dead. But bringing it to fruition would require an ownership class that actually invests instead of living off of rent-seeking. They're aided and abetted by a government that prefers to bully and destroy competitor nations instead of doing the hard work of rising to the competitive challenge, a project that would result in huge benefits to the overall economy and to Americans' quality of life.
While that sounds reasonable, the laws of “economies of scale” and the systemic reality of “network effects” may render America’s ability to meet “competitive challenge” impossible. Certainly if one looks at key elements such as scientific/engineering talent pool, or breadth and depth of manufacturing resources, no unbiased observer would bet on the US.
Perhaps if the US weren’t intent on subjugating Europe and formed an Atlantic partnership (supplemented by Japan, SK, Taiwan etc) there could be more of an equal contest, but even then it’s doubtful when you look at the failures across Europe of their vaunted “market leaders” (such as Vestas in wind turbines, or dozens of failures in EV battery technology) — most are or will not be competitive with much younger Chinese companies.
If China were to protect its own inventions using predatory western intellectual property practices (as are being used by ASML and Nvidia against China today), the west could conceivably be excluded from a widely expected paradigm shift from silicon to carbon (graphene) substrates or even, at some point, light based (photonic) designs.
In short, it isn’t just financial resources which will drive successful new products. Keep your eye on the TSMC and Samsung chip factories under construction in the US.
Everything you say is true but much is possible where there's the will to attempt it, and we don't even see that.
Forgot who I was listening to recently who pointed out the wide gap between our production of military hardware vs. Russia's, and the fact that seems to be an acceptable imbalance to our political leadership. Otherwise, we would see moves to expand production, build more factories if needed, start recruiting and training more skilled workers, or even just running more shifts at the factories they have now since Russia's are apparently running 24/7. Why is there no pressure on the weapons industry to do this? You'd think it would be priority number one considering how many battlefronts we seem determined to engage in.
God knows I don't want more wars or any at all for that matter but if you're going to piss off the entire world it's best not to be stuck in the unenviable position of bringing a knife to a gun fight.
US military procurement is a long bureaucratic cycle. RFI, followed by RFP, followed by (outsourced) evaluation of proposals, award of contract, outsourcing compliance with contract (IV&V), many reports, compliance reports, progress reports, remedial action reports, mods to contract.
The Russians and the Chinese work with state industries and private companies without all of the above, Cheaper, better, faster.
Yes, the typical bureaucratic maze, but is there any reason it has to always be total business as usual? In "Against All Enemies", Richard Clarke describes the pretty unprecedented collaboration that was made possible between intelligence and security entities that typically worked at cross purposes because of good top-down leadership and a sense of urgency on the issue of emergent terrorist groups like Al Queda. All of that was squandered by Bush II and his administration, of course, the communication failures especially were legion. But it at least hints at what is possible with good leadership and a clearly defined mission.
Macgregor talks about the insane military budgeting and procurement process, where you have 4-stars (way more of these than we need) looking out for their own little fiefdoms, with no one at the top doing the kind of long-term strategic planning that's needed, and we see the results - an overpriced, ineffectual Frankenstein monster with parts that operate independently instead of in concert.
Maybe we're beyond the point where we can do anything differently after decades of promoting careerists and conformists instead of the people who deal in hard facts and who can act decisively. The lack of accountability for failures just means, as Thomas Sowell points out, you've got people in charge who have paid no price for being wrong.
Wouldn't surprise me. In one of his discussions about military history, possibly with Michael Vlahos, Doug Macgregor recounted how Eisenhower as commander of Allied forces in Europe, could not get consistent support from the Army Air Corps, who wanted to bomb their preferred targets instead of providing strategic support for the ground forces. By contrast, when Soviet troops moving westward encountered large German troop formations in their path, the generals simply radioed central command and within minutes Soviet bombers would do enough damage to them that ground forces could get through without having to take a large number of unnecessary casualties.
You have to appreciate that this procurement process applies to all Departments and Federal Agencies.
Then, to aggravate things a little more you should study up on Davis-Bacon. I tried to apply for a Federal Loan program to construct low income housing. The economist in charge told me that I could not afford it because Davis-Bacon, invoked for construction spending of every single Fed dollar, mandates paying prevailing, i.e. union wages.
Makes one appreciate Putin's war on bureaucratic red tape as it exists in all systems. Of course, Russia doesn't mind paying good wages and constructs most housing and its adjuncts with public monies. The difference in efficiency is massive and startling for those who study it.
If the US was serious about rebuilding their manufacturing base they would stop the insane spending on their military and revert to a defensive position, cuts to their unaffordable large bureaucracy and other waste would also go a long way to financing rebuilding infrastructure. The US when it first started as an industrial power used tariffs to protect from Europe, used properly they can foster domestic industry.
However there are zero moves in this direction, seems the snouts in the trough are quite happy to continue to pursue a zero sum game. The same applies to all the West, with automation tech now, domestic production can be made affordable, the will however does not exist.
Actually all the will in the world is insufficient in solving complex problems. Otherwise, you could will yourself to land on the moon (!). Automatons (robots) have been under “serious” study in the US since at least the 50s. But that little Roomba was not designed and built in America.
Thanks for providing the link to that outstanding essay; it's an excellent backgrounder. IMO, it details just how deep US Imperialism rests on Evangelical Messianism that began in the early 1800s and it ultimately responsible for the Anti-Communist Crusade and its numerous offshoots both before and after WW2.
Thank you, Uncle, for the video link demonstrating how China has, via comprehensive industrial planning, come to dominate the world’s electric technology industry—and probably for at least the next generation. A good companion video is one run a few days ago at Ben Norton’s Geopolitical Economy podcast on how China’s central government ensures the development and control of the full suite of key industrial sectors, including electronics:
Yes, energy is the most important factor and an issue I've been following since the 1990s. I have a major essay dealing with energy and technology in the works.
"such substitution will bring more economic burden to the US."
Lol. They think the pentagon or rest of the deep state gives a flying fuck about the taxpayers, or their children & their grandchildren, who will be stuck with the bill? 🤣
I recall the entire western establishment mocking a certain bouffont haired individual for being stupid enough to suggest that China might be a geo-political and economic rival. This was 5 years ago. How time have changed. Now China is part of the new Axis of Evil. Or so we must think.
Now personally I do not hold China's actions and motives in the same positive light as many here, but I would say it is a pretty stupid policy to antagonise a superpower - which is what the USA/West is doing to China - and Russia btw. So we now have a unique situation where those two great rivals - China and Russia have been pushed together in an alliance against a US led West. This is about the dummest foreign policy in the history of mankind. And the same geniuses who formulated and implemented this fubar are apparently still running the foreign policy of the USA/NATO etc in the absence of a POTUS with mental capacity. It would be laughable if not so bl**dy dangerous.
I find the national-security puppet show vastly amusing as well. If you are in the mood for even more laughs, consider how American poodle Canada 'allowed itself to be persuaded' that it made more sense to have its new 5G network built by has-been Nokia than by Huawei, thus guaranteeing we will end up with a lower-performance but higher-cost system.
But wait - that's not the funny part. Know who builds the Secure Telephone Units (STU) higher members of the Canadian government use to communicate with one another and with our allies, on the most-secret aspects of national business and security? The NSA. That's right - an American agency legendary for spying on pretty much anyone who doesn't notice an ear in the blossoms outside the window, a foreign-intelligence service with an insatiable appetite for information of all sorts. But I'm sure they wouldn't spy on us.
Huawei was blocked from rolling out 5G infrastructure and western rollouts of the technology have been painfully slow with the sanctioning chihuahuas experiencing cost increases which have naturally been passed on to customers. In the meantime China has advanced various rollouts of comms tech that have vastly improved efficiency in distribution networks. Meanwhile the chihuahuas continue to wallow and promote delusions that they can catch up to China. When you look at how China and ASEAN are scaling it's mission impossible.
I have reached a conclusion of which I am increasingly convinced. The ruling oligarchy of the US is made up of a few extremely ignorant nouveau riche families that chance placed at a favorable historical moment. The clumsiness and arrogance of such insatiable individuals is such that they have confused the luck granted by history with their irrepressible delusions of power. Comparing the decline of the US empire to that of the Roman empire is like comparing the extinction of a match to that of a volcano. There is no way the US will be able to impose its "rules-based order" on the rest of the world. When the remora abuses the shark, the shark swallows it. The shark has already opened its jaws.
Yes, Yankee self promoting propaganda was always hyperbole. Why do you think they imported to the U.S. all those Nazi scientists after 1945? Werner von Braun maybe the most famous, but he was just one of a great number of Nazi scientists who worked for the US.
Situation hilarious, yes, but also ironic and tragic—all qualities united as one. With the comments about global competencies, surely you have identified an emergent feature of the new modern age…
Well, People Centered Development is a fine example of another of the many emergent feature in today’s world, and I agree People Centered Development is one such. In my original comment I was trying to acknowledge you certainly had ALREADY identified one such important emergent feature when you wrote about competencies spreading globally via educational expansion. I apologize for my choice of ambiguous phrasing [‘surely’] in my original comment.
Thanks again for your reply. Raising competencies is one component of People Centered Development, perhaps the main and most important. IMO, it's important to see how that particular dynamic's playing out in India's Caste-ridden society as many millions of minds are not being educated, thus their competencies are not being raised and that stunts India's growth potential. Russia and China have shown that religious ideologies must remain personal and not inhibit People Centered Development's ideology, which is areligious--agnostic.
"Huawei's products are competitive and popular in terms of price and quality. Therefore, it is almost impossible for the US to find complete substitutes. "
Classic non sequitor surely Shirley.
If it competitive and popular that means there are other similar products. How they then arrive at a "therefore" of it being impossible to find complete substitutes remains a mystery.
I wonder how the US would reacted to the rest of the world doing something similar with Cisco.
Can I interpret all that defence sector blather to mean that the security of non Huawei phones is absolutely compromised with backdoors and only Huawei phones are secure? The USA Defence department wants to buy a secure phone and has one choice:- Huawei. They do seem to be talking around the point and scared shitless of getting to it.
Clowns juggling little steel balls as did Captain Queeg.
Quite apt, uncle.
I don't think Yankee ingenuity is mere hyperbole and I don't think the individual ability to innovate is dead. But bringing it to fruition would require an ownership class that actually invests instead of living off of rent-seeking. They're aided and abetted by a government that prefers to bully and destroy competitor nations instead of doing the hard work of rising to the competitive challenge, a project that would result in huge benefits to the overall economy and to Americans' quality of life.
Well said!!
While that sounds reasonable, the laws of “economies of scale” and the systemic reality of “network effects” may render America’s ability to meet “competitive challenge” impossible. Certainly if one looks at key elements such as scientific/engineering talent pool, or breadth and depth of manufacturing resources, no unbiased observer would bet on the US.
Perhaps if the US weren’t intent on subjugating Europe and formed an Atlantic partnership (supplemented by Japan, SK, Taiwan etc) there could be more of an equal contest, but even then it’s doubtful when you look at the failures across Europe of their vaunted “market leaders” (such as Vestas in wind turbines, or dozens of failures in EV battery technology) — most are or will not be competitive with much younger Chinese companies.
If China were to protect its own inventions using predatory western intellectual property practices (as are being used by ASML and Nvidia against China today), the west could conceivably be excluded from a widely expected paradigm shift from silicon to carbon (graphene) substrates or even, at some point, light based (photonic) designs.
In short, it isn’t just financial resources which will drive successful new products. Keep your eye on the TSMC and Samsung chip factories under construction in the US.
Everything you say is true but much is possible where there's the will to attempt it, and we don't even see that.
Forgot who I was listening to recently who pointed out the wide gap between our production of military hardware vs. Russia's, and the fact that seems to be an acceptable imbalance to our political leadership. Otherwise, we would see moves to expand production, build more factories if needed, start recruiting and training more skilled workers, or even just running more shifts at the factories they have now since Russia's are apparently running 24/7. Why is there no pressure on the weapons industry to do this? You'd think it would be priority number one considering how many battlefronts we seem determined to engage in.
God knows I don't want more wars or any at all for that matter but if you're going to piss off the entire world it's best not to be stuck in the unenviable position of bringing a knife to a gun fight.
US military procurement is a long bureaucratic cycle. RFI, followed by RFP, followed by (outsourced) evaluation of proposals, award of contract, outsourcing compliance with contract (IV&V), many reports, compliance reports, progress reports, remedial action reports, mods to contract.
The Russians and the Chinese work with state industries and private companies without all of the above, Cheaper, better, faster.
Yes, the typical bureaucratic maze, but is there any reason it has to always be total business as usual? In "Against All Enemies", Richard Clarke describes the pretty unprecedented collaboration that was made possible between intelligence and security entities that typically worked at cross purposes because of good top-down leadership and a sense of urgency on the issue of emergent terrorist groups like Al Queda. All of that was squandered by Bush II and his administration, of course, the communication failures especially were legion. But it at least hints at what is possible with good leadership and a clearly defined mission.
Macgregor talks about the insane military budgeting and procurement process, where you have 4-stars (way more of these than we need) looking out for their own little fiefdoms, with no one at the top doing the kind of long-term strategic planning that's needed, and we see the results - an overpriced, ineffectual Frankenstein monster with parts that operate independently instead of in concert.
Maybe we're beyond the point where we can do anything differently after decades of promoting careerists and conformists instead of the people who deal in hard facts and who can act decisively. The lack of accountability for failures just means, as Thomas Sowell points out, you've got people in charge who have paid no price for being wrong.
You should look at the long history of inter-service rivalries as one big part of the Outlaw US Empire's military problems. It goes way back to WW1.
Wouldn't surprise me. In one of his discussions about military history, possibly with Michael Vlahos, Doug Macgregor recounted how Eisenhower as commander of Allied forces in Europe, could not get consistent support from the Army Air Corps, who wanted to bomb their preferred targets instead of providing strategic support for the ground forces. By contrast, when Soviet troops moving westward encountered large German troop formations in their path, the generals simply radioed central command and within minutes Soviet bombers would do enough damage to them that ground forces could get through without having to take a large number of unnecessary casualties.
You have to appreciate that this procurement process applies to all Departments and Federal Agencies.
Then, to aggravate things a little more you should study up on Davis-Bacon. I tried to apply for a Federal Loan program to construct low income housing. The economist in charge told me that I could not afford it because Davis-Bacon, invoked for construction spending of every single Fed dollar, mandates paying prevailing, i.e. union wages.
Makes one appreciate Putin's war on bureaucratic red tape as it exists in all systems. Of course, Russia doesn't mind paying good wages and constructs most housing and its adjuncts with public monies. The difference in efficiency is massive and startling for those who study it.
If the US was serious about rebuilding their manufacturing base they would stop the insane spending on their military and revert to a defensive position, cuts to their unaffordable large bureaucracy and other waste would also go a long way to financing rebuilding infrastructure. The US when it first started as an industrial power used tariffs to protect from Europe, used properly they can foster domestic industry.
However there are zero moves in this direction, seems the snouts in the trough are quite happy to continue to pursue a zero sum game. The same applies to all the West, with automation tech now, domestic production can be made affordable, the will however does not exist.
Actually all the will in the world is insufficient in solving complex problems. Otherwise, you could will yourself to land on the moon (!). Automatons (robots) have been under “serious” study in the US since at least the 50s. But that little Roomba was not designed and built in America.
It's all about collecting rents to retain their status. But the system's in jeopardy because Biden's a huge liability.
The USA should take its blinkers off and start dealing with situations in a way that makes sense.
Some detail as to why the luddites in the USA sanctions business are all wrong:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5YEcu3VHc0
7 minute utoob from "Inside China Business".
Kevin Walmsey (ICB) is without peer in his surveys and understanding.
Agreed. This lad is pretty good too: https://warwickpowell.substack.com/p/dire-straits
This is a long but very well crafted analysis of the Taiwan follies.
Thanks for providing the link to that outstanding essay; it's an excellent backgrounder. IMO, it details just how deep US Imperialism rests on Evangelical Messianism that began in the early 1800s and it ultimately responsible for the Anti-Communist Crusade and its numerous offshoots both before and after WW2.
Thank you, Uncle, for the video link demonstrating how China has, via comprehensive industrial planning, come to dominate the world’s electric technology industry—and probably for at least the next generation. A good companion video is one run a few days ago at Ben Norton’s Geopolitical Economy podcast on how China’s central government ensures the development and control of the full suite of key industrial sectors, including electronics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4__IBd_sGE&t=2s
The US Government is spending $50B on an US based Intel chip factory.
Another blowback at taxpayer expense.
" And that aspect will continue to grow markedly in the decades to come".
It is doubtful if any positive aspects of present day industrial society will grow in the decades to come. For further explication on that, see:
https://thehonestsorcerer.substack.com/p/2019-peak-western-civilization
Yes, energy is the most important factor and an issue I've been following since the 1990s. I have a major essay dealing with energy and technology in the works.
"such substitution will bring more economic burden to the US."
Lol. They think the pentagon or rest of the deep state gives a flying fuck about the taxpayers, or their children & their grandchildren, who will be stuck with the bill? 🤣
I recall the entire western establishment mocking a certain bouffont haired individual for being stupid enough to suggest that China might be a geo-political and economic rival. This was 5 years ago. How time have changed. Now China is part of the new Axis of Evil. Or so we must think.
Now personally I do not hold China's actions and motives in the same positive light as many here, but I would say it is a pretty stupid policy to antagonise a superpower - which is what the USA/West is doing to China - and Russia btw. So we now have a unique situation where those two great rivals - China and Russia have been pushed together in an alliance against a US led West. This is about the dummest foreign policy in the history of mankind. And the same geniuses who formulated and implemented this fubar are apparently still running the foreign policy of the USA/NATO etc in the absence of a POTUS with mental capacity. It would be laughable if not so bl**dy dangerous.
I find the national-security puppet show vastly amusing as well. If you are in the mood for even more laughs, consider how American poodle Canada 'allowed itself to be persuaded' that it made more sense to have its new 5G network built by has-been Nokia than by Huawei, thus guaranteeing we will end up with a lower-performance but higher-cost system.
But wait - that's not the funny part. Know who builds the Secure Telephone Units (STU) higher members of the Canadian government use to communicate with one another and with our allies, on the most-secret aspects of national business and security? The NSA. That's right - an American agency legendary for spying on pretty much anyone who doesn't notice an ear in the blossoms outside the window, a foreign-intelligence service with an insatiable appetite for information of all sorts. But I'm sure they wouldn't spy on us.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/ypwpgk/canada-bought-50-million-worth-of-secure-phone-systems-from-the-nsa-42514
My military unit worked for the NSA and US Army. Yes, we spied on everything. And that was before the internet and smart phones.
I served 39 years with the navy, the latter third or so of it as an above-water-warfare director.
Huawei was blocked from rolling out 5G infrastructure and western rollouts of the technology have been painfully slow with the sanctioning chihuahuas experiencing cost increases which have naturally been passed on to customers. In the meantime China has advanced various rollouts of comms tech that have vastly improved efficiency in distribution networks. Meanwhile the chihuahuas continue to wallow and promote delusions that they can catch up to China. When you look at how China and ASEAN are scaling it's mission impossible.
And just one more to emphasize the point that the USA is not going to bring its manufacture all back home from China.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4vSkyNqtuU
20 minutes.
The USA oligarchs in their greed let the cat out of the bag and the Chinese dragon snacked on it :))
Although it's mnot100% true all the time, the inability to collaborate--to win at all costs--is actually a massive handicap.
I have reached a conclusion of which I am increasingly convinced. The ruling oligarchy of the US is made up of a few extremely ignorant nouveau riche families that chance placed at a favorable historical moment. The clumsiness and arrogance of such insatiable individuals is such that they have confused the luck granted by history with their irrepressible delusions of power. Comparing the decline of the US empire to that of the Roman empire is like comparing the extinction of a match to that of a volcano. There is no way the US will be able to impose its "rules-based order" on the rest of the world. When the remora abuses the shark, the shark swallows it. The shark has already opened its jaws.
Yes, there's always a bigger fish; in this case, Humanity.
Yes, Yankee self promoting propaganda was always hyperbole. Why do you think they imported to the U.S. all those Nazi scientists after 1945? Werner von Braun maybe the most famous, but he was just one of a great number of Nazi scientists who worked for the US.
Situation hilarious, yes, but also ironic and tragic—all qualities united as one. With the comments about global competencies, surely you have identified an emergent feature of the new modern age…
People Centered Devlopment--the emerging dominant political-economy.
Well, People Centered Development is a fine example of another of the many emergent feature in today’s world, and I agree People Centered Development is one such. In my original comment I was trying to acknowledge you certainly had ALREADY identified one such important emergent feature when you wrote about competencies spreading globally via educational expansion. I apologize for my choice of ambiguous phrasing [‘surely’] in my original comment.
Thanks again for your reply. Raising competencies is one component of People Centered Development, perhaps the main and most important. IMO, it's important to see how that particular dynamic's playing out in India's Caste-ridden society as many millions of minds are not being educated, thus their competencies are not being raised and that stunts India's growth potential. Russia and China have shown that religious ideologies must remain personal and not inhibit People Centered Development's ideology, which is areligious--agnostic.
"Huawei's products are competitive and popular in terms of price and quality. Therefore, it is almost impossible for the US to find complete substitutes. "
Classic non sequitor surely Shirley.
If it competitive and popular that means there are other similar products. How they then arrive at a "therefore" of it being impossible to find complete substitutes remains a mystery.
I wonder how the US would reacted to the rest of the world doing something similar with Cisco.
A better term would be ubiquitous--present everywhere.