Thanks. It’s corrected now.

Soon after Trump won the election last November, Gates tweeted:

Congratulations to President Trump and VP-elect Vance. America is at its strongest when we use ingenuity and innovation to improve lives here in the U.S. and around the world. I hope we can work together now to build a brighter future for everyone.

Just look what Project 2025 says about public health care, issues like transgender medicine, reproductive rights, and just look at the people in charge for Trump’s health care plans. These are ‘anti-vaxxers’ to say the least. If these plans became reality, it’s hard to imagine imho that it will ‘improve lives’ in a ‘brighter future for everyone.’ Scientists openly warned senators to approve RFK jr. for secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services.

But Bill Gates is ‘impressed.’ No critical word.

Don’t get me wrong, Gates can do that for his charity, continued support for tax exemptions, and whatever he feels is important to him. He must not criticizes Trump openly if he doesn’t want to, but he then could at least withold such public praise. It’s a slap in the face to those threatened by a possible future lack of health care.

@bungalowtill

I suggest you read the study before commenting (the link works fine here, but you’ll find it also in the article).

The study finds, among others, that TikTok users exhibited significantly more positive attitudes towards China’s human rights record as reports on forced labour and other human rights violations by the Chinese government are suppressed.

The Chinese government is actively silencing the views of Americans who try to criticize the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party, according to the study.

Free speech doesn’t mean that foreign autocratic governments can silence Americans (nor other countries’ citizens) from expressing their opinion in public forums. This is what happens on Tiktok, and, even more so, on Red Note.

There is a recent study on Tiktok and how it compares to Instagram and Youtube – (pdf)

An article about the study says:

The three-level study, which has now been peer-reviewed, looked at TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.

Typing in four politically-loaded key words – “Tiananmen,” “Tibet,” “Uyghur,” and “Xinjiang” – the team first looked at what content the respective algorithms delivered.

The researchers found that while TikTok might not deliver more pro-CCP content, it did deliver less anti-CCP content than the rival platforms. It also, interestingly, delivered more content that researchers say was irrelevant to the keywords.

The team next looked at engagement to see if this explained why anti-CCP content was performing less well. But it found that TikTok users “liked or commented on anti-CCP content nearly four times as much as they liked or commented on pro-CCP content, yet the search algorithm produced nearly three times as much pro-CCP content”. This didn’t happen on Instagram or YouTube.

The last element of the study looked at the impact the content was potentially having on users. The researchers surveyed 1,214 Americans to find information on their social media usage, and their opinion on China’s human rights record. What they found was that the more time users spent on TikTok, the more positive their attitude towards the CCP was.

The researchers came to the damning conclusion that “taken together, the findings from these three studies raise the distinct possibility that TikTok is a vehicle for CCP propaganda.”

Another widely ignored issue regarding Tiktok and other Chinese apps is that European digital rights organization Noyb has filed GDPR complaints against TikTok, AliExpress, SHEIN, Temu, WeChat and Xiaomi for unlawful data transfers to China.

@bungalowtill

Kann es es sein, dass Du den Artikel und die Kommentare (vielleicht absichtlich?) falsch interpretierst?

Yeah, a bunch of 2 billion people in the SE Asia.

This is a related comment by a Nigerian author:

Decoding China’s Nigerian Charm Offensive

The pledge of $140 million in military aid and the promise to train 6,000 military personnel across Africa sounds impressive until you do the math. It’s pocket change compared to what China earns from African trade. Yet, we [Nigerians] a’re supposed to see this as a major commitment to African security. Talk about strategic investment on a shoestring budget!

[It is] particularly intriguing that China is supporting Nigeria’s bid for a permanent United Nations (UN) Security Council seat. Don’t get me wrong – we [Nigerians] absolutely deserve that seat. But China’s support comes with strings attached, whether we admit it or not. It’s no coincidence that this backing comes alongside discussions about currency swaps and infrastructure projects. Beijing’s diplomatic support always comes with a price tag.

[…] “Don’t let others bully you – let us protect you instead.” It’s like switching landlords and calling it independence.

What’s particularly noteworthy is China’s support for “Africans addressing African issues in the African way.” Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? But this is coming from the same country that has voting rights in African development banks and significant control over numerous African infrastructure projects. The contradiction is glaring.

The proposed expansion of military cooperation deserves special scrutiny. Yes, we [Nigerians] need all the help we can get in tackling our security challenges. But military aid often comes with hidden costs. Just ask any African country that has ever tried to balance military cooperation with maintaining strategic autonomy.

The details of these agreements [with China] often remain shrouded in secrecy. […]

Other African nations have already learned the hard way that Chinese loans can be a double-edged sword. Just ask our neighbours about their experiences with Chinese debt restructuring. […]

China’s overcapacity (and weak domestic demand) is a well-known fact even if we look at the official Chinese numbers.

[Edit typo.]

@Tolookah

It’s hard to determine in this shemozzle, but this is probably the best part:

The situation reached peak chaos when several influencers attempted damage control using AI-generated Mandarin apologies, which accidentally included the phrase “Taiwan is a sovereign nation” in traditional characters with extra flourishes.

Yes, that’s right. The ~9% is the core inflation. Food prices, for example, are even in the 30% range.

If the U.S. (and other Western countries) did that, it constituted a nightmare scenario for China and other autocracies.

No, they didn’t ‘agree’ on more investment and cooperation, Sri Lanka rather hadn’t any choice as to accept deals whose “specifics […] were not disclosed at the signing ceremony.”

The debt-trap diplomacy seems to work once again.

Sri Lanka’s Dissanayake in Beijing: Why Sri Lanka must look harder at what it’s signing on with China

When Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake meets his host, Chinese President Xi Jinping, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing […], he may be captivated by the charm of Chinese hospitality. Yet, behind the warm smiles and firm handshakes, he is likely to remain mindful of the immense challenges his country has endured. Beneath the surface of cordiality lies a complex equation that Sri Lanka might find daunting to confront […]

The Hambantota Port deal is the most well-known example, where Sri Lanka leased this strategically vital facility to a Chinese company for 99 years. This agreement highlights the risks tied to such investments. […]

China’s involvement in Sri Lanka’s economy began with grand promises of boosting infrastructure. Projects like the Hambantota Port, Colombo Port City and Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport were introduced as transformative initiatives. However, these projects, funded mostly through high-interest loans, soon exposed their hidden challenges […]

Similarly, the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport [in Sri Lanka], often called the “world’s emptiest airport”, shows the risks of investing in projects with little economic viability. These initiatives have added to Sri Lanka’s debt, with China holding around 10-15 per cent of the country’s external debt. These investments serve China’s strategic interests more rather than meeting Sri Lanka’s developmental needs […]

The government struggled to access foreign currency reserves to pay off debts and import necessary items leaving the economy in ruins. China’s reluctance to restructure its loans during this time revealed the dangers of relying on unclear financial agreements.

For ordinary people in Sri Lanka, this meant soaring prices, a lack of fuel and medicine and growing frustration across the country. […]

[Edit typo.]

I agree, and I also thought to post it in ‘News,’, but the commodities are needed for things like semiconductors, solar PVs, LED lights, circuitry, … I am unsure. But I would be interested to know what others and the admins and mods say. Please let me know what you think about it and I post such things elsewhere.

@spit_evil_olive_tips@beehaw.org

the average American worker has more in common with the average Chinese worker than they do with an American oligarch

The average American worker has also more in common with the average Chinese worker than they do with an American oligarch Chinese oligarch and Chinese dictator. So your argument is not very valid.

all of the American propaganda about how Chinese people are inherently untrustworthy and nefarious is gonna fall apart as people interact with actual Chinese people and realize “oh they’re pretty much just like me, other than the language barrier”.

No one says that Chinese people are worse or better than Americans or any other people on this planet. We’re all the same. The problem here is the dictatorship in China that collects data of Americans and other people around the globe as others in this thread already have said. The Chinese people are fine, the Chinese government is not.

Reporter removed after interrupting Blinken’s last speech — (video, 1 min)

The BBC was inside Secretary Antony Blinken’s last briefing when he was interrupted. The reporter was physically taken out by security and has been identified as Sam Husseini.

The most important thing in Duolingo’s chart on social media is the fact that they didn’t show the unit. How much are these 216% in absolute numbers? (If there are 100 learners, you can easily increase that by 200%, but the total number remains still meaningless.)

With better numbers, this article is useless, except maybe for Chinese propaganda.

I am not a mod, but I guess this happens sometimes. No stress I would say.

There is already a thread here: https://beehaw.org/post/18010336

There is a lot wrong with the IMF/Word Bank system, but China is much worse than that. Comparing IMF with the Chinese system makes no sense.

How much of this growth is organic?

Addition: TikTok users’ attempted migration to Chinese app RedNote isn’t going too well

TLDR: Many got banned as they appear to have violated the platform’s rules (because they can’t read the terms).

People are using a CCP mouthpiece that is openly using a name referring to Mao Zedong’s “little red book”, and that is supposedly even worse than Tiktok. The only thing that is more worrying is the media believing such a hype. This is completely artificial imo.