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Professor Howitzer Balding 大老板

@BaldingsWorld

20 Nov

So since the NYT has done a story on China Moly, a Congolese mine, and Hunter Biden I've been getting pinged a bunch and I think there is a key aspect that needs to be fleshed out. Hunter's firm really played no role here BUT (drum roll) that actually makes it worse 1/n

China Molybendum is the key Chinese player here is a major Chinese mining firm. They mine a variety of metals which are frequently found together like copper, tungsten, and cobalt. They are listed in HK and one of the largest globally in their category of preferred metals 2/n

Beijing had given China Moly and other Chinese firms marching orders about preferred sectors and investments. For China Moly that meant EV inputs like cobalt. Freeport McMoran a US company mining similar metal portfolio owned the Congolese mine producing copper and cobalt 3/n

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Professor Howitzer Balding 大老板

@BaldingsWorld

17 Nov

So with the China journalist story back in the news I'm going to tell a story I don't think I have ever told completely, told parts of it but I tell it now so hopefully the context and my position makes more sense. Here goes 1/n

I had officially been let go from my job at Peking University and word was leaking out in the Chinese language community though I had not announced it publiclly because I felt doing so would put myself and my family at risk which was entirely accurate. 2/n

During this time, I received a speaking invitation from Xinhua for a conference in Hainan. This was very puzzling. Word was spreading rather rapidlyin the Chinese language world appearing on chat boards so they had to know so why were they inviting me when they clearly knew 3/n

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Professor Howitzer Balding 大老板

@BaldingsWorld

16 Nov

So a short thread on the US China Zoom call and that other reason you come to Twitter epistemology (a big word that means how do we know what we think we know). So here goes. I rightly deride all the arm chair (yes looking right at journos and other Galaxy Brains) sophistry 1/n

Discussing the summits and yes I said the same under Trump. There are two basic reasons for this. First, most meetings of this kind produce very little new information. Read the output from the China side and the US side and it was like watching reruns you've seen before 2/n

Second, the information received is generally very poor quality so even if there is some shred of new information it is very poor quality signal. How many times do politicians promise things they never intend to deliver even in the best of circumstances? Armchair analysts 3/n

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Professor Howitzer Balding 大老板

@BaldingsWorld

1 Nov

As I have detailed repeatedly, my complaint about journalism is not that they have an view point they want to push but rather they are awful at their fundamental job on gathering facts about complex news issues and events. The reason this matters is it provides very VERY 1/n

Distorted understanding and importantly solutions to problems. More importantly for them it sets their preferred candidates up for failure because they have absolutely no chance of providing the absurdly simple solutions provided by journalistic narratives. Couple examples 2/n

For the last four years the answer to any foreign policy issue was "stupid Trump". What was sold was that new leadership would be able to solve these problems. Anyone that wasn't cursed with a Galaxy Journo Brain knew these issues were deep seeded going back decades 3/n

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Professor Howitzer Balding 大老板

@BaldingsWorld

25 Oct

Professors and universities like to think of themselves as the smartest people in the room but they unwittingly reveal their ignorance by saying "I'm just a professor my research is academic." Let's unpack this thinking how they are targeted for the EXACT reason they think 1/n

Acts as a shield. In other words, they are saying out loud, we have no idea what we are talking about. First, let's put to rest the idea that professors are not targeted. I won't detail how I know that but I do. It can be because of the university they work at or the type 2/n

of research or because of material you may have access to. There are a variety of reasons why. Second, China keeps very detailed records of professors, research, think tankers, with lots of scoring and information they want to obtain. In other words, China generates targets 3/n

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Professor Howitzer Balding 大老板

@BaldingsWorld

24 Oct

https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/1452280865514573836

This is a very very charitable interpretation not least if which is because the White House walked this exact statement back only a few minutes after he says it. However because he says it this leaves us two specific choices in his to interpret what he said 1/n

https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/1452280865514573836

First, he said the quiet part out loud maybe even as a signal to Beijing knowing his press people would walk out back. Possibly. Second, it was the standard Biden non sequitur his press people walk back shortly after he says something. I will generally leave the Rohrshach 2/n

Interpretation up to you as I leave the door open to either but will say my leaning is that he simply misspoke like the "agreement" about Taiwan he previously cited. However, let's assume for a moment he didn't misspeak and the (widely assumed though rarely spoken) assumption 3/n

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Professor Howitzer Balding 大老板

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Professor Howitzer Balding 大老板

Professor Howitzer Balding 大老板

Professor Howitzer Balding 大老板

Professor Howitzer Balding 大老板

Professor Howitzer Balding 大老板

Professor Howitzer Balding 大老板

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