WWG1WGA
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
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Item One:
The CCP's 'Wolf-warrior Diplomacy' is coming back to bite the PRC Internet companies. The anti-Japanese, anti-Korean, anti-American rhetoric and actions has caused many of these companies to withdraw from the PRC. Japanese citizens working and living in the PRC is down by a third in the past decade.
This is having a knock-on effect in Chinese internet companies. Over the past three years about a quarter of the internet companies have either gone bankrupt or had a significant downsizing. Almost all have shrunk. Starting programmer wages are one fourth that of someone with seven years experience. New college graduate programmers earn $1,000-1,200 per month. This is down by ~30% from 2020. Many laid off programmers are working as food service delivery drivers.
Item Two:
PRC car manufacturers are in a continuous shutdown leading to a difficulty in finding spare parts for automotive repairs. More than FORTY car brands have either left the PRC, filed for bankruptcy, or ceased operations in the past five years.
Item Three:
Apple is in an increasingly difficult position in the PRC. Despite showing willing to cooperate with CCP censorship by removing apps from the Apple app store, it is simply not trusted by the CCP. It is also facing severe criticism in the west for this very cooperation.
I believe that Apple is in trouble regardless of which way it goes. Either they risk losing their manufacturing plant for their phones or they risk a complete loss of sales in the PRC AND their manufacturing plant. It should have started a high speed withdrawal from the PRC three years ago. That way they could have saved their manufacturing plant at the cost of the Chinese sales. There could easily be a 2-3 year gap between iPhone models.
Item Four:
The US blacklists 42 Chinese companies (plus 7 others) for aiding Russia's Defense Industry by providing IC chips which originated in the US. These chips are primarily used in missiles and drones. This means that companies will need a special, and VERY difficult to obtain, license to ship anything to companies on the list.
WWG1WGA
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)