Today’s post will be about China vs us, and how we can bring them down.
If you stepped back and feel like the war is starting to go Johan No.1 to the head, we must inform you that China has just had a twelve-point meeting for the next five-year plan and the “reunification” with Taiwan was high on the agenda – it should happen within the next five-year period, preferably soon.
It cannot be denied that it is either China + Russia at the top or Europe + USA. See it as a company where you try to outpace competitors and sell your product.
Europe’s “decline” has been going on for quite some time, and the crash in 2008 that affected a group of countries labeled PIIGS was due to China learning to copy their manufacturing and being able to sell at a lower price with the same quality.
Every country always has a strategic production and various industries that are important for the country – the arms industry, food production, electricity production, and more.
At times, Europe, more than the USA, has made sure to “give away” our advantage, especially to China. In 2008, Sweden was strong because China had not yet managed to copy our high-tech industry, but when I looked at it, we lost about 4-5 years, 15% in market share, or something like that.
I often joke about our efforts to save the environment and that it is a Russian influence operation, which it partly is, always resulting in us shutting down fully functioning production or operations that China thanks and takes over the manufacturing for.
Everyone knows that China’s emissions increase magnitudes above our reductions, so overall global emissions are increasing, but they try to find creative explanations to make it still our fault – most recently emissions per capita so China doesn’t look so bad.
But there is more to it – China ALWAYS bribes its way into projects, and they have surely also bribed their way to the strategic decisions we have made in Europe that have benefited China.
Then they never bid on equal terms – they offer financing, and the Chinese state is behind it when our companies bid like a company and must get paid.
Economic decisions from the business sector also play a role and simmer.
For example, Reinfeldt has been buddies with China
https://www.expressen.se/nyheter/reinfeldts-miljonavtal-med-diktaturen-kina
And Bildt does not support a free Taiwan
https://www.expressen.se/debatt/illavarslande-av-bildt–att-stotta-kinas-politik
China in 1990 and China in 2025 are two fundamentally different countries where they have made a class journey that would make us green with envy. I saw CHEC in 2006 and see them now in 2025 – they have gone from a joke to world-leading.
I have also tried being a boss over Chinese people and then working for them – when you work for them, your life is not particularly fun at all. I believe many who have tried it can confirm this.
Yes, the USA acted this way after WW2 and until recently, favoring themselves at the expense of everyone else, and yes, the USA has started many wars for democracy and peace that were actually to benefit themselves.
Post-WW2, Europe let go of the whole colonial idea, but until quite recently, our companies behaved terribly in Africa, for example, putting profit above all, often resulting in much suffering, and we liked corrupt dictators because it brought in the most money.
Before that, our colonization was not particularly pretty, and there is a certain schadenfreude in seeing countries that were major colonizers and arch-racists now facing major problems domestically because of it.
But that is EXACTLY what Russia and China are doing right now in the world’s vulnerable countries – colonizing them. After all, we must look at today in 2025 at some point, right?
First of all, we are heading towards a period where world trade will be severely disrupted, which means we cannot import what we need.
Just recently, VW saw the consequences of this when they had to shut down car production because they didn’t have computer chips – we have long said that a car doesn’t roll if it’s 99.7% complete for a few years – how right we were 😶
China controls all cellulose for cotton gunpowder, over 90% of rare earth metals, and Turkey 100% of an ingredient for rubber.
If you dig around a bit more, you will find more, and it’s enough that exports to us are cut off, and there will be no *insert any product*.
The other day it came out that China controls many ingredients for essential medicines. If anyone bothers to check, it is probably true that after 2000 they started buying up strategic companies, shutting down manufacturing in Europe, and moving to China.
Not because it’s good business, but because then they control the crucial component in the product.
Smart, and extremely short-sighted of us.
Volvo was bought, shut down here, and expanded in China – it has been said that they wanted our R&D?
Just like Russia, China has tried to take full control of a raw material, technology, or product we need and then blackmail us.
Ukraine solved it for us with Nordstream, but to get hold of raw materials or products we cannot easily buy from friendly countries, it becomes a bit more complicated.
I have amused myself by looking at some figures from Google AI so some reservation –
-Agriculture in the EU has decreased by 37% since the early 2000s.
-Electricity production in the EU has decreased by 5.8% since 2008.
-Mining has decreased by 80% since 1990.
-Sweden’s share of global exports was 1.7% in 2000 and is now 0.9%, we have lost about 50% of our market share of exports.
-The EU’s share of exports is now 13.4% and was around 20% in 2000, the same there 😶
-Germany has lost 50% of its car exports since 2017.
-EU’s risk of poverty was 16.2%, in China 17%, and in the USA 11.1%. Now, it is measured differently, but we are not light years ahead of everyone else as we claim – with reservations for the definition of poverty.
In order to manufacture products, we need raw materials, and at least the EU has understood that now.
https://www.consilium.europa.eu/sv/infographics/critical-raw-materials
In order to sell our products, we need willing buyers, and they have gone to China, which manufactures the same products cheaper than us – partly because we have too high electricity prices.
Electricity price
-China 0.1USD
-USA 0.17USD
-EU 0.35USD
Everything is averaged, but Europe has 3 times the electricity price of China, and the USA, so good luck selling electricity-intensive products on the world market.
For our part in Sweden, our big export secret was that we had very cheap electricity prices for the industry that could produce the electricity-intensive products that the rest of Europe couldn’t manage. We had the highest quality and were close to the market, so we outperformed China even with higher wages.
Today, it doesn’t look like that anymore, and some electricity-intensive industries have closed following the shutdown of our nuclear reactors.
Here it becomes a bit tricky to understand how we are going to save the climate – we shut down agriculture, we restore wetlands that must be agricultural land to receive subsidies, we shut down electricity production, and we lose our advantage in exports – the above figures are difficult to explain away.
Should we save the climate by going back 200 years in time?
The whole EU has unfortunately gone through this journey and we stand united in our misery, which is always something.
All companies that established themselves in China had their trade secrets stolen and their machines and products subjected to “reverse engineering.”
For many years, China’s state-owned hacker groups stole our company secrets.
For a long time, companies in China received state support to engage in price dumping and eliminate our companies.
Tit for tat, right?
We have every right to retaliate in kind.
And we must, because China is beginning to establish a dominance that is somewhat unsettling.
Currently, Rand in the USA has released a report stating that the USA must coexist with China.
And China has gone all-in with its “dollar killer.”
Coexisting with China for the USA means giving up its dominant position and letting China take over.
For Europe, if we don’t stop China, they will soon have built up Russia’s defense forces, and the threat to us will have increased exponentially.
It’s them or us, period.
China’s real estate bubble is in a “controlled bursting phase,” whatever that means, and making it an uncontrolled crash might not be a bad idea?
Just as Russia was not allowed to crash in Ukraine, we have been tiptoeing around China, but the easiest way to the finish line would be to economically crash China.
Then they will also turn inward, and as a bonus, Russia will lose the war in Ukraine.
It’s us or them.
The easiest thing is to stop buying Chinese products – a good start.
USA also plays dirty tricks, but Europe must get on board.
If we wait too long, it’s game over, but just like in the Ukraine war, I hope there is still time.
China will in one way or another take over Taiwan, and once they have done that, the barrier to expanding in Southeast Asia will be removed, and they can start advancing one island group at a time.
If China is given free rein to invade and conquer, the Chinese empire will do just that – continue expanding as long as possible.
“China does not start wars.”
Wikipedia’s information on China’s wars paints a slightly different picture 😶
A world where Russia and China are not held accountable will first lead to a global war, maybe we are already at that point.
If we lose a global war – welcome to our time as colonized resource colonies.
It’s us or them, and we have tried to welcome Russia into Europe and let China continue with its market manipulations, and that has brought us here – not directly our fault if there is war, right?
Right now, China has a very clever game plan – they lose civil production that we bought, but their allies all over the world now want to buy Chinese, so their weapons industry will replace that loss.
Then we will not sell to their rogue friends, so they will sell to them instead, even in civil production.
Should we try to do as Russia and “economically crush them in a month 😡” by continuing to buy their products after almost four years, and selling everything they need for the military, of course it won’t work.
But in the coming years, it is probably the only chance to bring down China; if we don’t do it, there will be a very hot cold war at best where we will no longer feel like the humanitarian superpower.
As a bonus, the Russian puppet will implode, and Ukraine has chosen us – maybe they can provide some subversive activities in China as well?
Don't forget to donate, Ukraine's cause is ours! Support Ukraine!
Russian losses in the war in Ukraine:
SLAVA UKRAINI
AFU reports:
Thank you Johanno1, great perspective on the soufflé that China is baking. Much of what has happened in the last 20 years is due to Europe voluntarily shutting down stable energy production and voluntarily deciding to stop manufacturing vehicles other than electric ones. The German deindustrialization is largely due to this. They cannot compete when energy prices soar and their products are banned. And electric vehicles are manufactured much cheaper in China.
But it’s a soufflé and it’s delicate. China does not have a robust foundation to stand on, and if we simply refrain from destroying it for ourselves, we can manage it, together with the countries in Asia that also fear Chinese dominance.
Very good about China. Thank you for the lesson. Before the Beijing Olympics, I thought that China was heading in the right direction even if it was slow. To be honest, I also thought that Taiwan belonged to mainland China.
When I read the book “Mao. The true story” and found out that Mao supported the Japanese occupation of China because it led to the fall of his worst competitor Chiang Kai-shek and his escape to Taiwan, I once again had to stand in the corner of shame. I have always had at least some understanding of why China became communist and the claim to Taiwan, but I have had to change my mind a lot. The book ends with an epilogue. I quote: “Today, Tiananmen Square in the middle of the Chinese capital is still dominated by Mao’s portrait and likeness. The current communist regime claims to be Mao’s heir and steadfastly defends the myth of Mao”. (Page 711)
70 million Chinese lost their lives under his rule. An apology from Xi would have been appropriate.
But thank you for the post, Johan no1!
I thought damn what MXT writes long but then I remembered that MXT has posted a lot about China. But when it started to hit a yellow wall, I went down to post my excerpt with the attack line. That MXT has had Chinese people working for him in IT (!) and has worked with IT for Chinese people, yes I can imagine that sucks, with a Chinese female boss who sends the code to a dozen Chinese people for review and deduction on the salary for each bug, until there is a debt to work off for free next month. But then I saw that Lynx addressed Johan in his comment and was about to correct him when I went up to check if it really was MXT who was the author. Someone had changed it to Johan?
No, no one has changed anything in the post, it has been Johan’s all along.
Could you have been on yesterday’s post first and then missed that it was Johan when you read today’s?
Unlike Johan, I have had no business dealings with the Chinese at all!
👍 not into yesterday’s but an expectation of the same setup as last week where johann only published on substack most of the week.
Pokrovsk and its surroundings plummeted like a stone from a huge to a strong pressure – perhaps related to the Ukrainian counteroffensive in Pokrovsk, where the pressure also dropped the most?
N Slobozhansky-Kursk 1↘️
S Slobozhansky 18↗️
Kupyansk 9
Lyman 8💥↘️
Slovyansk 9💥↗️
Kramatorsk 0
Kostjantynivka 14💥↘️
Pokrovsk 34💥💥↘️↘️
Oleksandrivskij 14💥↘️
Huliaypillia 2
Orikhivsk 5
Prydniprovskij/Dnipro 2
Thank you 205. Your compilation is daily reading. I hope Pokrovsk will hold so it was a shock yesterday. I thought that the Russians are now doing everything to cash in a profit. Maybe because their resources are running out. Nice that it has calmed down now in Pokrovsk.
👍 The fact that Ukraine has repelled the Russians’ encirclement of Pokrovsk is a sign that things are not going the Russians’ way in Pokrovsk right now. They are heavily “dependent” on being able to encircle the target (yes, based on what it has looked like: Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Toretsk, Lyman) and without the encirclement, they have no grip. I suppose there is quite a bit of frustration in Pokrovsk right now on the Russian side.
David D:
‘More to come,’ HUR says, as sabotage fires spread across Russia. Russia faces an increase in the arson and “spontaneous combustion” of electrical panels, railway relay cabinets, and other infrastructure helping Moscow wage its war against Ukraine over the past week, a source at Ukraine’s military intelligence told the Kyiv Independent.
Thank you. 205👍
Damage to a weld seam at Ringhals 3. May be forced to close earlier than planned.
Now a suspicious person wonders when this was discovered. Before or after shutting down unit one and two?
https://www.tn.se/article/45143/stralskada-kan-stoppa-ringhalsreaktor-i-fortid/
Ouch, ouch, not good at all.
Worked for a larger European company where even Chinese entered the industry and took market shares… the Chinese company was on paper “German” and through Cyprus the tentacles then reached China and the Chinese state.
Difficult in larger procurements as the Chinese state plays the long game and supports when needed all the way to the bitter end to maintain their sales according to plan.
Reality looks a bit different than the picture you, Johan, are trying to paint.
Some examples:
In 2008, there was a pure financial crisis and it had nothing to do with China.
Europe’s climate policy also has nothing to do with China and Russia; it’s a conspiracy you keep trying to spread without any basis. It simply stems from the scientific support for the necessity of change and an increased awareness of the population’s and public opinion’s problems.
Both Russia and China have of course benefited from it, but in different ways. China is heavily investing in solar panels and wind power for its own electricity production and, of course, sees great advantages in selling it to others as well. China wants to avoid being dependent on other countries for its own electricity production.
For Russia, it’s the opposite; they want us to be dependent on their gas and oil, not to become self-sufficient.
The reason we haven’t chosen nuclear power is that people are overly worried about it, not because everyone would be bought by Russians and Chinese.
A major reason for the decrease in electricity production (I wonder where your figure comes from) is that we have become more energy-efficient. Consumption has simply decreased, for example, Swedish households used an average of 13,000 kWh/year in 2000, and by 2020 that number had dropped to 11,000 kWh/year.
It’s true that prices have risen, about 25% between 2000 and 2022 (CPI rose at the same time by 49%), but it’s not solely due to increased production costs but also to increased taxes, etc., but perhaps mainly because we are now dependent on electricity prices in Europe. During the same period, real wages have increased.
It’s not particularly strange that our share of global exports has decreased. More and more of the developed countries have evolved and started their manufacturing. It’s a natural development when mass production occurs in more places. It’s not China’s fault. (Even the USA has lost globally).
China’s success in exports is not because they have “ruined” Europe’s manufacturing; it’s because they have been investing in education, research, etc., for the past 30-40 years and have low wages.
They have, of course, copied us and often blatantly stolen designs, etc., but they have now surpassed us in many cases. Then, of course, there has been some unfair competition when huge sums of money are injected into certain initiatives. But that’s up to them?
Here we are about to let the state act as a guarantor in the construction of nuclear power plants. It’s also a disregard for the free market.
LM Ericsson started its success story by building “pirate copies,” and they eventually admitted to using bribes in various ways between 2000-2016.
When it comes to trade, we are not much better than China itself.
Look at the USA now, exploiting its position by imposing tariffs everywhere. They are not trying to compete fairly at all, but it’s China that is the main villain.
In Europe, we have voluntarily chosen to focus less on manufacturing and more on design, service development, etc., and then we have willingly bought cheap products from China.
No, when it comes to trade, China has simply worked methodically for many years to develop and build up its industry, and they have simply outcompeted us in many areas. Sure, sometimes dirty, but it’s the same everywhere.
Then they (just like the USA) have the advantage of a huge domestic market. They can develop products and make them profitable without even exporting them.
For small Sweden, there are many areas where it’s simply impossible to compete because the necessary investments are way too high. (That’s why we need to cooperate more within the EU, so those who want us out of the EU are really the ones serving China’s interests).
China is absolutely not our friends, and we must do everything to stop them, but we must do it for the right reasons. They support Russia, they try to gain leverage over several smaller countries, and they are a communist dictatorship with all that it entails.
That’s why we must counteract them, not because they have been smart and built up their industrial capacity while we have comfortably let it happen.
We simply have to step up our game and improve if we are to beat China.
Good post. What China thinks of Sweden, we know. The former Chinese ambassador was not particularly diplomatic and said outright what he thought. Sweden is a simple little country that cannot be compared to Great China. In fact, Trump has been better in that regard. “Sweden – small but sharp.” According to PM Nilsson in a column in DI.
Off-Topic
“An American military helicopter and a fighter jet have crashed in separate accidents in the South China Sea, according to American media.
The Navy writes on X that the helicopter crashed during a routine mission. Half an hour later, the fighter jet also crashed. Both were operating from the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier.
It is unclear what caused the accidents and it has not been disclosed exactly where they took place. There is no information that any persons were injured.”
https://omni.se/dubbla-amerikanska-krascher-i-sydkinesiska-sjon/a/3Ml72P
The British aircraft carrier “Prince of Wales” was in these waters for about 2 months ago for training. 2 F35s had to make emergency landings in India and Japan. Previously, the British lost an F35 in the Mediterranean.
Seems tough to be a naval pilot (or maybe it’s called naval aviator?).
It is probably tough training to become a Marine Corps pilot or naval aviator. I have heard both terms.
Does it smell like something we are not familiar with? Maybe some kind of signal disrupting activity, like the Chinese have come up with? A bit like the cable breaks? No evidence but strange and obvious?
“Saab can double its production of Jas Gripen if Ukraine proceeds with its purchase plans for 100-150 planes. CEO Micael Johansson tells FT.
Part of the production would likely be in Ukraine, while the company plans to increase capacity in Brazil, as well as possibly in Canada and other parts of Europe.
Defense expert Sash Tusa at Agency Partners points out that Saab has at most produced 18 Gripen planes in a year and that the company is currently just above half of that number. At the same time, Saab has “better chances than many others” to scale up production.
– The hardest part is to exceed its historical production level, he says.”
Yes, then you need to replace all American components. It takes a little time! RR or Eurojet engine?
That’s why it “only” became LOI and no purchase contract!
Not entirely certain that we have to do it.
SAAB has previously denied being stopped by the USA, and they probably still want to sell their engines (getting Ukraine to buy F-35 is probably just a dream regardless).
I believe that, for once, you are wrong…sorry
Linköping is small and rumors are spreading…..RR or Eurojet EJ230?
Off-Topic
Doesn’t it feel like a way to secure deportations, to pay bribes to make it happen. IF the information is correct, of course.
“The government, through the Ministry of Justice, has paid five million SEK to Somalia, writes DN.
The money has funded three positions, which have gone to relatives of individuals in the inner circle of the Somali Prime Minister. They are said to have received over 100,000 SEK each in monthly salary.
The payments were previously unknown and are in addition to the aid funds that Ekot previously revealed in October that the government redirected to Somalia in exchange for the country starting to accept individuals who had been forcibly deported from Sweden.
Minister for Migration Johan Forssell has personally signed the decision but has not wanted to participate in an interview with DN. In a written statement, he says that there is no indication that any mistakes have been made.”
https://omni.se/nytt-hemligt-upplagg-regeringen-skickade-miljoner-till-somalia/a/Av4Wwq
Russia claims to have shot down nearly 200 Ukrainian drones during the night towards Monday, according to Reuters. Around 34 of these are said to have been fired towards Moscow.
The number of drones that hit their targets is currently unclear. There is no information about damages in Moscow. At least five people are said to have been killed when a drone hit a bus in the Bryansk region, Governor Alexander Bogomaz wrote on Telegram.
Ukraine has not commented on the attack.
“❗️🇺🇦Ukrainian military personnel from the 7th Airborne Assault Corps report that urban battles are ongoing in Pokrovsk with 🇷🇺Russian infantry groups that, using their numerical superiority, have penetrated the city”
https://bsky.app/profile/militarynewsua.bsky.social/post/3m465eer6422v
🔥🤩 Units of the Special Operations Forces successfully struck a fuel depot and an oil depot in the temporarily occupied territory of the Luhansk region. ❗️SOF drones struck at the moment when the tanks were being filled, which enhanced the effect.
Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and others were attracted here with promises of cheap, green electricity and low grid fees. However, their electricity consumption is enormous and they create few jobs per consumed MWh compared to traditional industry.
So it is not obvious that Sweden benefits from giving away electricity to data centers. If the electricity had instead gone to electricity-intensive industries with export value and jobs, the multiplier effect in the economy would have been significantly higher.
Sweden has gone from being the “world’s battery for industry” to being the “world’s refrigeration room for data centers”, but with low economic returns on electricity.
We no longer export value, we export watts.
Ukraine wanted to buy Patriot from the USA, but unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be happening much.
With more systems, they would dare to take a chance to temporarily deploy a couple of them in order to pick off the FAB traps. If they can reach PAC-2 GEM at 100-160km, it could be effective.
“Ukraine needs at least 10 Patriot air defense systems immediately, says Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha. Kyiv is urging partners to help procure them under the PURL initiative, while also working to boost domestic production for long-term deterrence.”
https://bsky.app/profile/noelreports.com/post/3m466of6hqk2j
We can see that #fcktrmp #Krasnov is NOT helping! Everything he says looks like Maskirovka!
“Vattnet från den skadade reservoaren i Belgorod fortsätter att stiga. Nya bilder visar att slussporten knappt håller. Experter varnar för att en ytterligare precis träff kan utlösa en fullständig kollaps. Under natten svämmade Nezhegolfloden över, vilket ledde till översvämningar på vallen i Shebekino. Vattnet rör sig mot Vovchansk.”
It’s a pity they didn’t choose the CV-90. It is both a bit lighter and a bit faster and “battle-proven.”
Perhaps the decision is more about economic politics than the most optimal choice.
It’s probably not wrong that they do business with Germany and we seem to be able to sell Gripen.
“🇺🇦🇩🇪 Ukraine has decided on the main infantry fighting vehicle for its own production – it will be the KF41 Lynx from German Rheinmetall. According to the Defense Network, the first Lynx, manufactured in Hungary, arrived in Ukraine in late 2024 for testing.
Last week, at a meeting in the Ramstein format, the defense ministers of Ukraine and Germany signed an agreement that provides for the creation of a joint production of Lynx in Ukraine. Rheinmetall plans to open the plant by the end of 2025.”
“❗️Russians förlorade en Ka-52 militärhelikopter tillsammans med dess besättning enligt ryska källor”
https://bsky.app/profile/specialkhersoncat.bsky.social/post/3m46cn4ql5s2g