Scotty

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Thank you for your sophisticated elaboration.

Your account is just a few days old, but your comments' pro-China and anit-democratic spin is already visible.

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Your comment misses the point completely, the most important point being that it's about China and has nothing to do with the US nor anyone else.

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Scotty @scribe.disroot.org 2d ago

Given how much we spend subsidizing these plants I'd be curious if they are even a net positive.

Do you have any numbers to foster your arguments?

I don't think you are right with your opinion, but even if so, it would then make no sense to buy Chinese cars that are even more subsidized than any Western country does and ever did. This is not economically viable (a fact that even Chinese automakers themselves admit), and there is ample evidence of forced labour across Chinese supply chains as well. Just look at the BYD plant in Brazil last year, just to name a more recent example.

The Canadian government unveiled its strategy to revive the country's auto industry just two week ago.

Currently, Canadian automobile industry and its dedicated parts suppliers directly employ 110,486 people in Canada in dealerships, assembly plants, national and regional offices, captive finance companies, and transportation and logistics facilities. In addition, there are 106,773 jobs across the country related to the automobile industry.

It is noteworthy that these numbers are relatively high, although the domestic industry has shrunk in recent decades. Last year, 1.2 million cars were made in Canada, down from more than 3 million at its peak in 1999.

It's time to revive the industry while not repeating the mistakes of the past, when Canada relied too much on the US.

@iikidd@lemmy.world

Scotty @scribe.disroot.org 3d ago

This is why we need transparent supply chains. The Chinese government is opposing such transparency heavily. Chinese companies employ migrant workers in their factories abroad and have fully integrated supply chains, which means no local Canadian companies and workers will benefit.

China is notably among the countries with practically non-existent workers' rights. Independent labor unions are illegal in the country as the government only endorses one union, the so-called All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU). All other unions fall under the ACFTU's hierarchical control.

The government also frequently cracks down on labour activists. Legally, workers are guaranteed a 40-hour week with overtime pay, a minimum wage and social security benefits. But enforcement is down to the local governments that more often than not fails to protect workers. In addition, an “informal" economy leads to many migrant workers working without formal contracts. They are not officially employed anywhere, moving to and from companies to work during peak production seasons.

And these are only a very few examples what's wrong in China's social system. Critics often call for more workers' right in Canada and other Western states, which is, of course, perfectly right. I'd fully support that. But everyone who portrays China as a better solution has no clue about the Chinese economy. It's far worse than anyone in the West can imagine.

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Scotty @scribe.disroot.org 3d ago

The ones that are not built by coerced labour.

Edit for an addition as I have just noticed: Last week, the linked article's author Daniel Murphy won the 2025 Hinrich Foundation Award for Distinguished Reporting on Trade for its series on China’s hidden forced labor and its impact on the global supply chain.

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Scotty @scribe.disroot.org 3d ago

it would be really inconvenient for propagandists like you if people actually start going to China and seeing it for themselves.

The hilarious (and concerning) part of your comment is that you really believe your 10-day trip to China as a tourist and some images on the web give you a real impression about the country and its government. You know nothing about that topic.

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Scotty @scribe.disroot.org 4d ago

There is a comment on this topic:

Carney’s Secret Police Deal With People’s Republic Of China Shows Extraordinary Carelessness Or Worse. It refers to a classified classified June 2019 NSICOP report, which states:

“PRC officials have used covert and unauthorized tactics, including unauthorized trips to Canada, threats, intimidation, harassment, arresting relatives in China as a form of leverage, paying Chinese-language journalists to locate and track individuals, and discouraging people from reporting their covert activities to Canadian police.”

Read that again. Chinese police have paid Chinese-language journalists in Canada to locate and track targets. They have arrested family members in China to coerce compliance. They have actively discouraged victims from reporting to Canadian police.

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Scotty @scribe.disroot.org 4d ago

Don't forget to bring a burner phone and do not criticize the government or something.

There are around 100 Canadians wrongfully imprisoned in China, and thousands of other foreign nationals.

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Scotty @scribe.disroot.org 6d ago

Netanyahu is a war criminal, and so is Putin.

But Dimitri Lascaris has a different view apparently. He has been conveying each single piece of pro-Russian propaganda bs since the invasion of Ukraine and supports the Kremlin. This person is a disgrace.

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Scotty @scribe.disroot.org 6d ago

And 5,169 Russians are also serving in the IDF. And from many other countries. Just in case you want to post this also in the other country-specific communities (there is also a 'Russia' comm here, just fyi).

As an addition, here is a very good story of Canadians fighting in Ukraine:

One operates a Leopard battle tank in the eastern region of Sumy. Another guides drones over the Dnipro river in Ukraine’s southern Kherson province. A third — a mother from B.C. — tends to wounded recruits in a Donetsk-stationed penal unit ...

“I always told my family and friends I’m one that will go and do something, not just talk about it,” said Cowboy, the Canadian tanker whose real name Canadian Affairs agreed to withhold for security reasons ... “You can talk about it all day and pray about it all day,” he said. “But at the end of the day, if you don’t go and try to make change, there won’t be no change" ...

Reliable estimates of the number of Canadians in Ukraine are hard to pin down. Ottawa does not track how many citizens have enlisted. But early in the war, former Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj, who helped Ukrainian diplomats organize volunteers, estimated roughly 1,500 Canadians had applied to join the International Legion in 2022 ...

Scotty @scribe.disroot.org 6d ago

This.

The so-called 'de-risking' was invented particularly for China, now we can apply it also to the US.

Scotty @scribe.disroot.org 1w ago

...and not the Chinese economy.

Scotty @scribe.disroot.org 1w ago

Canada built more than 3 million cars in 1999, now it builds 1.3 million. As many other Western countries, it must and will 're-industrialize' as geopolitical tensions can't be expected to ease, not with the US nor with long-standing dictatorships like China and Russia.

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Scotty @scribe.disroot.org 1w ago

I am not a legal expert, but whataboutism is certainly irrelevant.

Russia started an illegal invasion of Ukraine, and it has been deliberately attacking and destroyed civilian infrastructure in Ukraine worth of hundreds of billions. Russia is responsible for this and it will have to pay.

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Scotty @scribe.disroot.org 1w ago

It was Russia that started this war and it must be clear that it will have to pay for the destruction it has caused. That's justice.

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Scotty @scribe.disroot.org 1w ago

Proceeds refers to the interest rates the Russian assets earned by those assets (such as government bonds and other fixed income investments), while seizure of the assets would mean the assets (such as government bonds) would be transferred to Ukraine.

For now, Russian assets are frozen, meaning Russia can't access them, and only the proceeds are used for Ukraine's reconstruction and defence. But the assets are still Russia's, they just can't access it.