Schnicnac

Also wondering, why not start with the many western LBH lingering here in bars, not integrating well and moaning all day long 🙂 Ah yea, they are of course the "big spenders" with their few thousand bucks... reminiscing in past glory days when they were considered wealthy... 🙂

Good way to keep track of tax payers and their obligations...<180 vs >180 days 🙂

They will probably need to write many, many important letters with fancy letterheads warning Thailand or impose tariffs 🙂

Working with the EUSSR, what can possibly go wrong?

There still seems to be an abundant supply of them coming... fleeing declining public safety, immigration crises, extortionate taxation and wokeness, being bitter about the wealth decline in their western homeland vs wealth increase in Asia... 🙂

Also wondering... it seems to be a misplaced Chinese-hate pattern here among many salty, self-entitled western (?) LBH who funnily live in a country with cultural, linguistic and societal composition that is already for centuries partly Chinese influenced... settling and integrating here long before Europeans and Americans mass tourists... Many of these hipocrites will also be the first ones to enjoy speedy and convenient high speed train rides once the project is finished. Pathetic 🙂

All these threads about "bad Chinese here", "bad Chinese there", seems to be a reflection of the overall bitterness of Western folks seeing the constant decline of the West be it in influence/ say on world affairs, be it in economics, be it in self-entitled superiority complex 🙂 Give it another 4-5 decades and there will be immigration waves towards Asia from desperate Westerners, either escaping woke societies, repressive taxation or even declining public safety 🙂

Says who? A salty Western retiree? 🙂

Yea of course no wonder, it seems after almost 5 decades of Cold War the simplistic Rambo movie style "us good them bad" thinking is rapidly taking hold in many brains again, where each sides almost religiously glorifies their own system. And the sheep just follow. Yet, one might be wondering sometimes about some self-entitling tendency to mentally climaxing each time when the holy word democracy comes up, yet seem to deviate more and more from the nice theoretical concept. A more honest look helps, when looking close enough what some of those self-titled democracies offer, then one will see the suffering from an extreme bipartisan political climate or increasingly narrow corridors of tolerated opinions, a general decline in wealth of the non-elite and a more and more impoverished lower and middle class, drug addiction in the open, ailing or non-existent public infrastructure, ongoing immigration crises, woke'ism... but, hey, at least one can vote for one of the two or maybe more of the "same action different name" parties and everything will definitely change for the better...and yea we hear you people... promised! 🙂

Again, a treaty with linked conditions. You don't follow the conditions, you see repercussions because the other party just pays attention to these. Same as Trump scolded the lousy free rider members of NATO that didn't pay their fair share like famously Germany:) It stands that none has seen Chinese troops venturing to places far offshore to invade them. Sending a full set of troops, tanks and aircrafts vs a bunch of mercenaries in Africa is a whole different game. What existed in recent hundreds years of history is what is called Germany today was a handful of states, some small, some large, the Austrians had an empire together later on with Hungary... Of course the further you go back the more you can have your one country/ empire, but same of course then would be valid for China and its hundreds and hundreds of years claims dating back when it comes to maritime and land claims. In any case Mr. Ice Field, at least one should applaud you for your sense of commitment trying hard to have the last word and with that feel that you are somehow right. Your knowledge of dynamics here in this part of the world lacks the cultural and linguistic insights necessary to tap a layer deeper beyond what has been translated and processed for you already. Cheers! 🍾 🙂

No didn't miss it at all, it's just different from a full fledged army with carriers. Just having mercenaries here and there, not much different from other state sponsored clandestine actors in the Middle East, Central Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe, instigating all kinds of fancy color revolutions 🙂 In HK there were obviously some actors calling for separation, I guess in most countries you would sit in jail for this...even in...mmh...say....Spain 🙂 Germany and Austria are distinct countries...it's not like one was taken from each other after waging war on them because they didn't tolerate state sponsored drug trafficking:)

As much as of a treaty (albeit "only" a bilateral one) as the UN Charter both of which Iraq under Saddam and the US, UK and other allied invaders subscribed too. You see, it's easy to tell others what is good and bad and create rules to be imposed on others, but following them in the same manner can sometimes be a bit hard. Russia was never comfortable with the demarcation and linked it to many conditions, many of which involve Ukraine staying in Russia's realm of influence... and that's why it has not been solved. Again, there is fantastic literature from knowledgeable historians about this, just need to find it 🙂 To the point of being pedantic, but it's called Republic of China, established in 1912 and moved just over to the island to which also previous Chinese governments laid claim and hold. In the ROC people speak almost all Mandarin, some also Hokkien (which is also spoken by the people in Fujian in China's south), use (traditional) Chinese (characters) to write, celebrate Chinese festivals, culture and yes even interact with Mainland China as one of their major trading partner. Ask any of the KMT + allied parties voters there what their preference is, it may shatter your pinky world view 🙂

Haven't seen Russia or China shipping troops thousands of kilometers from their shores to search in vain for nuclear weapons or fighting another system, but rather engage in disputes with neighbors which is pretty more common than you may think. Since the end of Britain's 99 year lease in 1997 China has re-exercised control over the whole of Hong Kong and two years later Macau, nothing new about it. Actually by just looking at a map you may find out they are located at the Southern tip of Guangdong, write and speak Chinese 🙂If you think about it, the Qing had been pretty generous to even give Britain such a long lease after being defeated in wars against state sponsored drug trafficking. And last but not least, even the Republic of China on Taiwan (yes that's the formal name) happens to have maritime disputes in the South China Sea overlapping for example with those of the Philippines as it conflicts with their not 9 but 11 dash line. So what are we going to do about it? 🙂

Guess that also explains the extraordinary overreach of US taxation lamentably harassing its ordinary citizens overseas with related paperwork and pay demands...those very laborious citizens that left and live (and benefit from) in another country and its infrastructure... all this machine, the bases all over the world and the companies benefiting from it cost money. Of course any crisis and conflict is another revenue boost..

Well said