It's all about China

[ochotona]

Moon Cakes suck. They're made from duck fat. It's literally the Chinese Christmas fruit cake that no one wants to eat.

[Kriegsspiel]

Who needs it when they’ve got red bean cakes and moon cakes aplenty?

I've been eating those moon cakes with enthusiasm all my life. It was just a couple years ago I actually decided to read the nutrition info. I really wish I was still in ignorant bliss.

Ok, there's a quote and a person that I did not expect to match up! As a....non-bodybuilding slob* like myself, whose diet mainly comprises belgian ales, pizza, salmon and brie, it's probably not going to change much to eat mooncakes.

But you, sir. I thought you'd avoid anything that ends in "cake" like the plague. And as far as cakes go, these have to be at the top of the list for promoting atherosclerosis.

You know, Dave Tate is pretty famous in the world of lifting for housing Little Debbie:



Same with Mark Bell:



Steroids are the shit.

[Kriegsspiel]

By the way, is it just me or do Moon Cakes sound Korean?

[dualstow]

By the way, is it just me or do Moon Cakes sound Korean?

Moonies

[Smith1776]

Who needs it when they’ve got red bean cakes and moon cakes aplenty?

I've been eating those moon cakes with enthusiasm all my life. It was just a couple years ago I actually decided to read the nutrition info. I really wish I was still in ignorant bliss.

Ok, there's a quote and a person that I did not expect to match up! As a....non-bodybuilding slob* like myself, whose diet mainly comprises belgian ales, pizza, salmon and brie, it's probably not going to change much to eat mooncakes.

But you, sir. I thought you'd avoid anything that ends in "cake" like the plague. And as far as cakes go, these have to be at the top of the list for promoting atherosclerosis.

Oh well. At least you had many years of fun.

*I actually look almost fit except for a blooming beer gut, but I don't doubt that my organs are not pretty.

Haha yup, since the bodybuilding type stuff became a thing I haven't eaten them. Though, honestly, I am frequently tempted!

The explosion of different kinds in recent years is pretty bewildering. I remember growing up only really seeing two kinds: the one with the yolk and the one without. I was always partial to the one without. Now there are just truly bizarre variations.

But yeah, I really wish I never saw infographics like this hahaha.

mooncake-infographic.jpg (105.67 KiB) Viewed 10483 times

[dualstow]

Cool, I’m partial to the lotus seed ones like that at the top left. I guess that’s the “skinny” option.

[dualstow]

Has anybody seen American Factory on Netflix? Very interesting.

[Smith1776]

Has anybody seen American Factory on Netflix? Very interesting.

No, but I will definitely watch it now. Thank you for the recommendation.

Being of Asian descent myself, all this talk about China lately does pique my interest.

[dualstow]

Cool! Tell us more. Cantonese-Canadian? Vietnamese-Vancouverite? Or, prefer to keep it a mystery?

[Smith1776]

Cool! Tell us more. Cantonese-Canadian? Vietnamese-Vancouverite? Or, prefer to keep it a mystery?

First generation Canadian-born Chinese.

My parents came to the country in the 70s when they were already 20 somethings. Since I grew up here my english was better than theirs by the time I entered high school or so.

Honestly, I get incredulous sometimes hearing my father talking about investments. He just keeps talking about how great China is. It's seriously a mirror image of the American exceptionalism you always see on the Bogleheads forums.

Like really, I'm not saying that China doesn't have any great investment or growth opportunities. However, listening to him you'd think that China was the only game in town when it comes to good stocks to buy.

[dualstow]

My Chinese father-in-law does the same, though not about investments.

[ochotona]

Like really, I'm not saying that China doesn't have any great investment or growth opportunities. However, listening to him you'd think that China was the only game in town when it comes to good stocks to buy.

My folks hopped from China to Taiwan to the USA. My Mom is a die-hard gambler, but she's given that up due to age. She was day-trading Enron when it was going down and was a penny stock. Yeah, she's super bullish on anything China, almost beyond reason. The Chinese media worm has definitely infected her brain.

[dualstow]

Did they go to Taiwan in ‘49?

[ochotona]

Did they go to Taiwan in ‘49?

They were there by 1948 I think, going to Taiwan University.

[Kriegsspiel]

I remember reading about how Chinese investment in foreign real estate (Aussie and Vancouver, mostly?) was both a way to launder their money and a way to get it out of China into trustworthy assets. Reading a bit on the Wolf Street blog that ocho linked to, it looks like the Chinese are cracking down on capital flight.

The former chief investment officer of that Chinese agency is now CIO at CalPERS

[Kriegsspiel]

Should have read the whole article, he specifically mentions Australia and Vancouver as where the Chinese launder their money.

[Smith1776]

I've had boots on the ground here in Vancouver looking at the housing market for the past several years.

It's not quite as bad now, but yeah, for a while it was unbelievable.

An entire mcmansion would be, allegedly, owned by a single asian person who listed their occupation as "student at UBC". The entire house would be fit for a mid-grade millionaire at least. Lending standards were and still are pretty lax. You can always get an appraiser to justify some value based on comparables and then get that number marked up by a few percent. The house sells for that higher price, and the other houses in the area get valued based on these increasing comparables. This creates a ratcheting up effect.

Definitely not 2008 level stuff, but the bank that I used to work at had their commercial and residential loan portfolios hit pretty hard recently according to my former coworkers. A huge portion had to be extended and refinanced.

[Kriegsspiel]

On one hand, China hates us.  It thinks we tell everyone what to do and bosses them all around (and they're right), and they already feel like they've been bossed around one time too many and so they want us to leave them the hell alone or at least treat them with huge amounts of respect while also leaving them the hell alone.  On the other hand, there isn't a single person in China who wouldn't cut their own off limbs in order to become an American or even travel to America.  They're busy sending their children to college in America in hopes that they can get a job in America after college in hopes that they can naturalize in hopes they can then send for their parents. Bonus points if it's a son! And we're busy giving a large percentage of Chinese visa applicants visas to America, knowing full well that many of them will steal our corporate/scientific/technological secrets and take them back to China when their visas expire.  It's really lame, but it's the cost of doing business with the Chinese and not closing our borders to them. Don't even get me started on this. We just recently started giving TEN YEAR visas to Chinese applicants! Again, don't get me started on this.

More Chinese students arrested for photographing naval base.

[Kriegsspiel]

Dr. Charles Lieber, a professor who led Harvard’s chemistry department has been arrested and accused of lying about his ties to a Chinese program that recruited scientists and paid them to share their expertise at Chinese universities. . . Lieber’s home was raided by the FBI [on 28 Jan].
. . .
A Senate report published last Noevember identified the Thousand Talents Plan as an open attempt to transmit US taxpayer funded research to China in order to fuel its national development. link

[dualstow]

Yeah, that was in the paper a few days ago. What is wrong with people? Does he need more money that badly?

[Mountaineer]

Yeah, that was in the paper a few days ago. What is wrong with people? Does he need more money that badly?

I heard he spends his yuan at the Wuhan meat market when on tellcation. Rats are expensive.

[dualstow]

You went there. Naughty.

[Kriegsspiel]

A female Chinese military officer was charged with spying while posing as a student at Boston University, but was able to flee the country after FBI agents interviewed her about her links to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

PLA Lt. Ye Yanqing was indicted in a separate criminal case involving Dr. Charles Lieber, chairman of Harvard’s chemistry department, who was arrested on Tuesday and charged with lying about receiving tens of thousands of dollars from the Wuhan University of Technology and lying to the Pentagon about the foreign money.
link

[Kriegsspiel]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDNt_ThDYt0&t=1378s

Good situational summary by Tim Pool.

[Kriegsspiel]

Longread of the day is this transcript with Peter Thiel and Mike Pompeo discussing China. Interesting throughout.

On the subject of selling weapons to China, I just watched a China Uncensored video (here) that talked about how American companies get around the ban on selling technology to the Chinese military by selling it to "private" Chinese companies, who then work with the Chinese military.