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Comment by 40acres | Hacker News Reader

Great response dude. I'm so concerned because China is moving up the economic ladder when it comes to production. China is no longer a place where the British own the land and the people make T-shirts. These guys are stepping it up, China is making phones.. cars.. they have their eyes set on aerospace, they are building islands in the sea and infrastructure on other continents. Look at what China is about to do to Africa, seems downright colonial. China has taken blue collar jobs in America. Are they now about to start making microprocessors? We have one of America's greatest sources of IP generating talent (Google) ready to risk it all and re-invest in the country, China is about to become an equal power. We don't seem to be prepared.

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What is China doing to Africa? And how is that any different than what US does to any other region in the world. Even though America is a democracy it has not really promoted democracy overseas. Apart from earlier itself being involved in wars now instead many bad foreign leaders are supported by US politicians and leaders. Allies which have been behaving badly for long time.

US greatest talent is (perhaps was) it’s ability to attract the talent of the world and creating great value out of it. This happened primarily during and after the world wars was as many nations were becoming more hostile places and American open culture and values became a refuge for many. US will only truly lose it’s leadership position when it gives up on moral leadership.

What China is doing in Africa is a little different from what US and Eurapa did: China is less likely to make judgement on the African's own internal affair but more focus on the reward/risk of project success. The consequence is: those countries that benefit most _happen to be_ dictator countries. Example: Rwanda, Ethiopia. That's coincident. China invest more on those countries just because they happened to be more stable so there are less risk, not because China love dictatorship. China also invest in Europa and US. They are stable too.

There's one thing US did that was quite close to China is doing now in Africa: Marshal Plan. It was long time ago.

Western media totally misread the real situation. HNer's seems have less population from Africa but more from US/Europa because of majority of them are form tech industry. But if you go to Youtube which has more average people, you will find a lot more African. The tone is quite different.

"attract the talent"...this is no longer the case. I talk to 50+ (new) senior engineers/month (for the past 6 years) and there has been a serious mind shift in the last couple years. I now hear things like "hasn't immigration become impossible to the US" and with increasing remote work, people are happy/prefer working from their home countries (better tax structures, they actually make more money). While this won't hurt US in the short term, the next generation of top startups might not be in Silicon Valley.

The next shock that Silicon Valley and US government will face in the near future is when the next social media monopoly or communication service is from a Chinese owned company. Imagine if wechat had won the messaging war vs whatsapp. This is bound to happen sooner than later - eq Tiktok is coming close to disrupting Youtube/Instagram.

Yes, ever since WW2 the US has has been the global media leader, and with that the cultural influencer. That space is now primarily online/social platforms, so if those shift to the Chinese, so will the power to influence. And everyone who wants to do commerce has to play to the tune of those who control customer attention.

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