Thanks Michael, it's clear the Chinese government is worried also as seen in recent piece on overseas earnings tax

太他妈的牛！ 不得不佩服，印度人牛逼！ 印度人狂借网贷不还！中资网贷出海六年，百家中资平台亏70亿退场。 印度修手机的拉杰什，从一款中资网贷App上借了8000卢比。钱到账5分钟，他换了个手机号，把App删了。 催收电话打到他通讯录里的朋友那儿，朋友问的第一句话是：你在哪个平台借的，帮我也弄一笔。 ​​拉杰什后来接受采访时说了一句话，被传得很广：手机里冒出来的钱，凭什么要还。 ​​这句话把上百家中资平台钉在了印度。巅峰时期，印度每三家在线借贷平台里就有一家带着中资背景，累计砸进去的钱折合人民币约180亿，六年之后整体亏损超过70亿，退出率超过95%。 ​​头部中资平台的坏账率突破50%，中小平台飙到80%，放出去100块能收回20块就算行业优等生。 ​​ ​​国内最管用的“爆通讯录”，逻辑是熟人社会里的面子约束，你不还钱，亲戚朋友同事都知道，你抬不起头。 到了印度，催收电话打过去，对方的反应不是“我劝他还”，是“你告诉我怎么下载这个App”。 ​​印度有22种官方语言和数千种方言，催收团队准备的英语和印地语话术，面对其他语种的借款人根本对不上频。社会压力机制反转成了免费的获客渠道。 印度这个奇葩的地方， 印度人都是欠债不还吗？

At this point, ath else would be superior strategy. How about a Weiqi game or a wok cookoff instd? Culturally appropriate, Confucian gentlemanly, televised for max rating, and offers TW a better chance than drone war. And if PRC loses, ROC deserves to claim the mandate of heaven.

A video is going viral on Chinese social media of a gem vendor casually selling a full kilogram of lab-grown ruby. The comments are chaos. People are calling it building material, suggesting it as a dumbbell, or asking if it can prop up a table leg. At a kilo, it’s less jewelry and more construction supply🤣 China is the world’s biggest producer of synthetic gems. Henan alone accounts for most of the global lab-grown diamond rough, while Wuzhou in Guangxi is known as the artificial gem capital, cranking out billions of cubic zirconia and synthetic corundum every year. On Taobao, 3-carat rubies, sapphires, and diamonds regularly go for the price of a meal. Young buyers are skipping the consumerism markup, grabbing loose stones, and making their own jewelry. What used to be a rare geological miracle is now just affordable material. Lab-grown and natural gems are essentially identical in composition, structure, hardness, and optics. The only real difference is origin and growth time. Turns out “gem freedom” is just scale and practicality.

Involution to combat hoeflation

看到袁腾飞抱怨美国医疗贵，我其实一点都不意外。 我20多年前来美国读书，第一天师兄就告诉我们：在美国一定要有医疗保险。 学校注册也要求必须有保险，没有就得买学校的学生保险。 后来我工作、结婚、生孩子，对美国医疗体会更深。我的双胞胎早产，住NICU，前后账单超过百万美元，是真正的“million-dollar babies”，但因为有保险，绝大部分都被cover了、最后我自己出的就一顿饭钱，70美元。 所以美国医疗最关键的问题，不只是“贵”，而是贵和保险紧紧绑在一起。有好的保险，遇到大病、手术、早产，保障其实很强；没有保险或者保险很差，压力就会非常大。 美国医疗弊端当然很多。医生、护士、技师收入都高，整个人力成本非常高；保险体系复杂，账单不透明，看专科有时还要等很久。但美国也不是穷人生病没人管。低收入人群有Medicaid，也就是华人常说的“白卡”；老人有Medicare。真正比较尴尬的，反而常常是收入不上不下、保险又不够好的中产。 还有一点很多新移民不知道：美国医院账单很多时候是可以谈的。 自费病人可以问self-pay discount，也可以申请financial assistance、charity care或者分期付款。 我以前在中国医院工作过，后来又长期生活在美国，所以两边都看过。中国医疗能够做到便宜、快速、方便，很大程度上是几代医务人员用极高的工作强度和相对较低的收入撑起来的。中国医生一天看几十个甚至上百个病人，在美国几乎不可想象。 但随着中国医务人员收入提高、医疗规范加强，这种低成本高效率的模式也很难永远维持。中国未必会走成美国这样，但未来同样会面临医疗费用、医生收入和等待时间之间的平衡问题。 所以移民美国，千万不要把美国想象成天堂。医疗贵，人工贵，房产税高，律师贵，修车贵，大学也贵，生活中会遇到很多问题。 但美国也不是某些人嘴里的“牢A”，不是普通人一生病就一定倾家荡产，也不是人人生活在水深火热之中。 美国就是一个优点和缺点都非常鲜明的国家。成熟的选择，不是先把美国想象成天堂或者地狱，而是把它的优缺点都搞清楚以后，再决定这种生活适不适合自己。

Breaking news: Xi Jinping invites 100,000 Americans to Chinese McDonald's, along with 25% off coupons.

You are right, please send back every Chinese AI researcher, to ensure no spying. Remove all AIDC component from China, because listening devices. And cut off China from American internet however you like, because distillation. Then it will be a fair race 🫡

You know how you can find people who know how China negotiates? Among Chinese people. There's a lot of them, many even speak English, in the EU. They might not have Michael's depth of Chinese aphorisms, but maybe just for the groundbreaking diversity, give the Chinaman a chance.

In your honor, I will call it "geopolitical luxury beliefs". Just like for domestic politics, these "noble" positions collapse under historical and realist scrutiny. And it's espoused by ppl least affected by bad policies, w/ an appalling record that make Woke look competent.

Many years ago, during my time studying South Asian studies at Johns Hopkins University in the US, my professor solved a long-standing mystery for me: Why do Indians constantly emphasize "purity," yet their public sanitation is so poor? The answer lies in the fact that what many Indians mean by "purity" is actually ritual compliance, not physical cleanliness. Consequently, a cup of water that looks greasy and filthy can be considered supremely "pure" simply because it was drawn from a specific sacred site, by a specific holy person, at a specific auspicious hour. Once you grasp this distinction between ritual purity and physical cleanliness, it becomes easy to understand the attitude of many Indian scholars toward democracy. Just as they are willing to ignore physical grime and actual hygiene for the sake of ritual purity, they are equally willing to disregard tangible governance performance for the sake of democratic formality. This explains why, in the classic debate comparing China and India, whenever outsiders point out that "India lags behind China" based on sheer common sense, the most common and lazy copium is: "We are simply unwilling to compromise our principles." This is clearly a highly satisfying answer for many, for it allows them to claim the moral high ground while dodging the objective gap in actual performance. However, the harsh reality is that if a cup of water is contaminated, anyone who drinks it will get very sick, no matter how ritually pure it is deemed to be. By the same token, no matter how self-gratifying the obsession with democracy is, if it fails to deliver tangible performance, it will be exposed as an illusion the moment it faces a true test of hard power.

Ma Jianping, a barbecue shop owner in Tongchuan, Shaanxi province, has recently gone viral on Chinese social media because he bears a striking resemblance to Elon Musk, and people are suggesting that he rename his barbecue shop to "SpaceX Barbecue".

Only 40% of people getting this right is concerning lol