China Banking News

I read the first hundred pages of The Road last year, and read the first hundred pages of Blood Meridian this year, and in both instances, gave up, because the books never clicked. Lyrical writing, but the characters are reduced to way down Maslow's hierarchy, and the tone is so relentlessly bleak, with almost no humanity breaking through, it was difficult to feel anything besides the flint clicking against the cold steel in the overwhelming darkness. I know many of you love it, but to me, it's overwrought, overstylized, and overhyped.

>be Milton Friedman >visit China in 1980 >see thousands of workers digging canal with shovels >ask Chinese official: "Why not use bulldozers?" >official replies: "That would eliminate jobs" >Friedman: "Then why not use spoons?"

If this continues I think at some point even the Gulf States would think that working with the US-Israel regime is just not worth it anymore

100 percent disagree. One of the great film making achievements. Warren Beatty is one of the best directors of the last 50 years. This is a beautifully made film on every level with one of the great Diane Keaton performances. Any person wanting to make a love story that is both small and epic should watch this. In this era of shorter attention spans REDS stands out as what long form storytelling used to be. This used to be what a big screen movie was with our IMAX or special effects - and it is breathtaking. The witnesses alone - real people from the era telling the story interspersed with the films scenes give of a depth and authenticity we never see anymore in studio movies. See REDS!!

People will hate this but it has to be said.. Genghis Khan is vastly overrated. Yeah, the Mongols conquered a lot of stuff. They were good at war. But that's it. They didn't contribute to human society in any measurable way that affects anyone today. I will bet money you've never eaten a buuz dumpling or listen to throat singing. A large part of the Mongol's success comes from their sheer brutality towards common folk. And brutalize the common folk they did. Sack a castle and kill everyone. Come back two weeks later when people are rummaging through the wreckage and kill everyone again. Capture a bunch of men, women, and children, and make them march at the head of the army's assault, taking the casualties and filling up moats with their corpses. So sure, the war machine was impressive but the slaughter of millions of peasants is (aside from kind of sickening to consider) entirely unimpressive. And in exchange for the slaughter of so many the world got.... ? Mid asian food and terrible music? Weird horse products? "They are inhuman and beastly, rather monsters than men, thirsting for and drinking blood, tearing and devouring the flesh of dogs and men, dressed in ox-hides, armed with plates of iron... bulky, strong, invincible, untiring... They are without human laws, know no comforts, are more ferocious than lions or bears." - Matthew Paris (English Benedictine monk in the 1240s) "They should be called monsters rather than human beings, thirsting after and drinking blood, tearing apart and devouring the corpses of dogs and humans... Devoid of human laws, they have no knowledge of clemency.." "They are extremely arrogant toward other people, [and] tend to anger... easily... They are the greatest liars in the world in dealing with other people... They are crafty and sly... [and] have an admirable ability to keep their intentions secret... They are messy in their eating and drinking and in their whole way of life, [and] cling fiercely to what they have. They have no conscience about killing other people..." -John of Plano Carpini (1240s) "One cannot sufficiently defame the cruelty and artful ability for deception of that people... a certain ill-bred breed of inhuman humans, whose law is lawlessness, whose wrath is furious... overrunning countless lands, which it is dreadfully devastating, killing and horribly exterminating by fire all who stand in their way." -Ivo of Narbonne (1240s) A disgusting people who happen to get very, very good at warfare but highly overrated by people who value martial excellence.

This is very significant. "Mainland incorporation" means government control. via Bloomberg

Beijing long treated social welfare as a backstop, not a strategy. That distinction is quietly disappearing. Quality of life dominated discussions at this year's Two Sessions—expanded school breaks, staggered paid leave, stronger labour protections, and hukou reform for the roughly 400 million migrant workers locked out of the urban social safety net. The agenda signals a quiet but notable reframing of policy. The centre’s calculus has shifted. More income + less stress = more consumption. Better conditions = more babies and stronger eldercare capacity. With the birth rate at historic lows and India having overtaken it as the world's most populous country, the state that once managed labour as an abundance problem is now treating human capital as a growth constraint. Wellbeing, labour mobility, and demographic resilience are now explicitly wired into PRC innovation and consumption strategies. A burnt-out, hukou-constrained workforce cannot drive the domestic demand or produce the homegrown talent that Beijing's tech ambitions require. The 15th 5-year plan (2026–30), unveiled this session, sets the stage—but rollout remains the perennial challenge. Li Qiang's 2024 pledge to extend urban residency rights to 300 million workers has stalled, and the gap between livelihood rhetoric and fiscal commitment is wide. Beijing is trying to make it more pleasant to live in China. Whether that translates from delegate corridors into lived policy will be worth watching.

Chinese defense tech has been embarrassed on the battlefield. But let’s not forget how Elon laughed at BYD only for BYD to indigenize Apple & Tesla tech and then outcompete Tesla. Their defense tech is weak now. It won’t stay that way if we keep handing them our tech.