I never said “our” Government wouldn’t lie to us (unless you’re Chinese, in which case they definitely will). I just said that the Chinese government constantly lies, which is easily seen by anyone with eyes.

I’m going to be honest here: I approve of your proposal. At the same time, I live in a European country with conscription that borders russia. I don’t think you understand how reliant Europe has become on the US MIC. Even in Norway, where we have Nammo and Kongsberg, we are nowhere near being able to supply a significant force with arms.

In the 90’s, Norway could mobilise and arm ≈500 000 soldiers within a couple of days. Today that number is probably < 50 000. Building production lines takes time.

In the next election (this autumn) my vote is going to the party that takes up-arming the most seriously.

China would have to do a whole lot more than just “not support russia”. As a starter, they’d need to start being transparent, honest, and not censor the ever loving shit out of all information from their country. Then they could stop genociding minorities.

China: Spews blatant and obvious lies about everything that does or does not cast a shadow. Heavily censors any source.

Some guy: I don’t trust information coming from China.

China (and shills): That’s sinophobic!!

I seem to remember that what the EU did to good effect last time this asshat was president was to place extremely directed tariffs/taxes on specific goods from Trump-friendly areas. Essentially saying “we’re going to toll oranges from this specific county in that specific swing state in order to drive a couple specific producers out of business”, and then did that across the country. The advantage being that WTO agreements allow you to answer tariffs dollar-for-dollar, so you can respond to wide-reaching tolls that amount to X USD (e.g. tolls on the entire European aluminium industry) with extremely hard-hitting tolls on very specific producers.

We should be doing that again. Don’t touch the wider American population, but put all our weight into hitting hard against cornerstone businesses in pro-trump counties. Make them regret voting this guy in thinking it would better their economy.

At this point I have a hard time believing that anyone can buy a Chinese product and then talk about there being a “secret backdoor” in seriousness.

Come on: We all should know by now that if it’s Chinese, there is more likely than not some way for Xi to use it for something other than what you want the product to do. There’s nothing “secret” or “back” about this door. It’s more like an open front gate with landing strips and a “welcome home Pooh bear” sign.