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Comment by trixie_ | Hacker News Reader

The current administration has been bullying China incessantly. I'm not going to say if the reasons were justified or not because it's complicated, but we shouldn't be surprised by China's response. It's not like we're actively trying to improve relations either.

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The world needs to start bullying China. I am sickened by how weak the EU is with china. They care only about profits. We need to start treating China like we treat Russia. They are a serious threat to the rest of the world environmentally, politically, and militarily.

I think you're probably right... except the EU is also not very strong w.r.t. Russia, since they're so dependant on Russian oil and natural gas.

Sure bully China some more. Today they're kicking out foreigners, tomorrow they will take Taiwan. No dobut. Just like the world stood by as Hong Kong fell, the same will happen with Taiwan. China is only testing the waters with Hong Kong.

That's what being tough is all about. Be careful what you wish for.

> Just like the world stood by as Hong Kong fell

Hong Kong was already PRC-administered Chinese territory.

We tell ourselves that to help us sleep at night. We'll think of a good excuse for Taiwan as well.

China's state-sponsored IP theft has been called the largest transfer of wealth in history. I'm honestly curious what the best diplomatic strategy is to combat it, other than declaring war.

I doubt this claim very much. How was such a calculation made?

It was in the book "Dawn of the Code War".

The same way the MPAA sues single mothers for quintillions of dollars.

Copyright, patents, and trademarks are all just customs to facilitate creation. They run counter to the obvious Schelling point of information being easily propagated. Bundling these customs up into "IP", attempting to cement them into some iron-clad property regime, and then complaining when that is not respected is mostly just a symptom of western corruption.

The immediate remedy is tariffs that compensate for the lack of royalties for goods imported back into the western market. The longer term solution is to accept the reality, and hope that as China develops they will want to buy into the paradigm.

There's no good way of combating it that doesn't end in war. Sanctions will lead to more Chinese public support for that war. Perhaps this leads the CCP to become complacent and fight us before they can win. That's probably the best conventional scenario (for the West)

Unconventional scenario: We steal traditional Chinese medicine and deny we took it. It achieves pretty much nothing but hopefully some Chinese people will understand why we did it and realise their government was naughty.

We can just start stealing back Chinese IP. They're inventing and designing a lot of their own stuff now -- fabs, for example. Let's just do industrial espionage and use it to build up domestic production!

It’s nothing new though. IP theft has a long and honorable history. It’s only recently that we have decided that it’s such a terrible thing, now that we own so much of the IP in question.

You should do the cost/benefit analysis of war over IP theft. I don't think a lot of people have because we're trending towards war.

Ah yes, telling China not to abuse human rights is "bullying" now

The current administration could could care less about human rights. That's obviously not what I'm talking about.

China is the bully here. Just see what they are doing at the borders with India at Galwan Valley! I don't see how you can come to that conclusion! US is doing the right thing!

http://cdn.images.dailystar.co.uk/dynamic/1/photos/730000/Co...

You are confusing military bases with expansion. Having a military base is not the same as claiming territory. This is the maritime boundary claimed by China: https://i2.wp.com/thegeopolitics.com/wp-content/uploads/2017...

China has illegally extended its maritime boundaries to include boundaries of other ASEAN countries (read up on UNCLOS: [2] and what is considered International Waters and what is not. It even lost a legal battle with Philippines [3] but still continues to illegally expand its maritime boundaries). It can lead to blockade of essential goods and services including oil and gas to Japan and South Korea. US doesn't claim any of those lands or sea except for the base where it has military presence. All major powers in the World have military bases spread across the globe. None of them are considered "expansionist". Many of those bases are setup either through an agreement with the Country in possession of the land or by leasing it. The bases can be removed at any time. But China is claiming territory. Both are totally different! So yes I stand by my point: China is the bully here!

It is doing the same in India as well. Expansion. Please don't compare the two again!

[2]: https://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unc...

[3]: https://qz.com/733012/it-is-beijings-fault-that-china-lost-b...

I made no claims. Purely posted a picture that illustrates the complex geo-political landscape surrounding China. Context ...

Trump's tactics with China haven't been great, but he was right to do something about Chinese IP theft, security concerns, and Chinese joint venture model. The US should have pushed forward with the TPP (blame starts with Obama on this) to build regional support, and not pushed hard for trade negotiations with strategic allies. WTF are you doing making Canada mad over trade, especially when there's a trade war with China?

How does "blame start with Obama on this"? Donald Trump withdrew the US signature from TPP in January 2017.

Looking back through old news, in 2016, Clinton was not in favor of the deal, probably because of the anti-globalist faction in her party. Trump was against it because America first...which is slightly different.

I think I blamed Obama a bit because it looked like all outcomes of the election lead to no TPP, so he didn't push it hard enough, didn't negotiate hard enough to at least get Clinton to support it, or didn't rush it through while he was in power. It felt like he saw it wasn't going to happen and gave up. Maybe it's not fair to put some of this on Obama, Trump was the one who made it official.

if the US gets to arbitrarily arrest US citizens, it's only fair that china should get to do it too

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