Gongol.com Archives: February 2025
February 18, 2025
A major warning sign from China
China has just issued a major warning sign which the rest of the world shouldn't ignore: Not about its external ambitions, but about its internal fragility. Xi Jinping has been quoted by state-run media saying, "It is the right time for the majority of private business and entrepreneurs to show their talent". It's not a particularly poetic take, but it reveals a lot in its subtext. Something has Xi alarmed about his country's economy. ■ It's also worth noting that among the audience members targeted for the message was Jack Ma of Alibaba. The same Jack Ma who effectively went missing for a couple of years after he criticized some government regulators. Someone like him doesn't just show up in the government's favorable public light if they feel strong enough to keep him in the penalty box. ■ If Xi is putting the private sector on notice that it's going to need to step up its game, he is telegraphing that the economy is weaker than he needs it to be in order to feel secure in his regime's internal stability. Every power structure depends on some form of legitimacy. Democratic elections are the best way, to be certain, but even dictators depend upon a certain amount of buy-in from others. When they lose it, they often lose their own lives (see: Muammar Qaddafi, final days of). ■ Xi needs economic growth because it is the widely-recognized token the Communist Party has exchanged with the people of China as a substitute for their natural political and civil rights and liberties. If the economy stalls, the party's legitimacy is undermined. And if it has stalled enough that Xi is trying to rally the economic troops in public, then things may be worse than the official data might reveal. ■ The CCP isn't particularly good at adapting to bad news or big trends promptly; look at how long it took them to realize that the One Child Policy was a demographic doom loop (something that should have been evident from simple math done decades ago). Even the tech industry can't move fast enough to reignite a stalling economy of China's size, so the fact there appears to be some grasping underway should serve as a noteworthy warning.
Someone's been trying to sabotage German naval vessels
It's not hard to guess which country is probably the culprit
Import taxes and the American manufacturer
The higher up the economic food chain, the more likely it is that import taxes are going to cause hassles
Nearby pilot caught Toronto crash on video
(Video) And there's at least some data to suggest that the plane was coming in hard at a very bad time for ground conditions
