Absolutely agree, it's time for American video games to stop publishing in China. It's not worth the Chinese influence on our society.
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Blizzard has been bending over backwards for some time with regards to China but this is the first time I remember them taking action against someone who does not work for them.
the simple matter is, you cannot pick and choose, all the companies must be shamed into not bending to China's censorship because it won't be long before such actions suddenly show in law; not that some of the speech regulations in the EU aren't close as it is with regards to what you can and cannot say with regards to religions
Everyone already has or currently is moving manufacturing operations from China to Viet Nam or India.
5 more years and the only factories China will have are going to be domestic.
If we elevate authoritarian countries to our level, democracy may be in for a rough future.
We should be learning a lot from the China situation. Modern China proves that authoritarian capitalism works and that you don't need freedom or liberty for your citizens. And that's incredibly scary.
Imagine if that meme spreads to democratic countries...
We need to be handling this situation with urgency. As bad and as pressing an issue as climate change is, this is much more terrifying.
For some definition of "works". China has recently (2017) became richer than Brazil, what is a feat, but well, Brazil isn't a liberal democratic paradise and whatever democracy we have is very recent.
All the stable democratic countries are much richer than China.
They had a substantial headstart, China is really only about two decades into this, and they're just getting warmed up. If things continue more or less along the same path, and I see little to expect otherwise (China only gets stronger, it's citizens more allegiant) Let's see where they are 10, 20 years from now. Especially now that they are actively exploiting one of the West's biggest Achilles heels: our unique combination of greed + the sense of individual freedom + corporate control of the economy. China is demonstrating how easily they can control Western corporations, and in turn individual people. What percentage of the American public works for a corporation with interests in China? This control may not be that sophisticated yet, but give them some time.
And what plausible recourse do we have?
- Government sanctions? The trade abuses were far more obvious than this, and look what a shitstorm of half-informed but hyper-emotional arguing that turned into.
- Corporations recognizing they are strategically putting themselves into a situation that threatens their long term existence, or, thinking beyond a 5 year window? It seems unlikely.
- Western society collectively recognizing there is a genuine existential threat and banding together to do something about it? We can't even get people on forums to even remotely agree, so seems unlikely.
It's going to take time, but my hunch is this capability will be a big part of China's eventual checkmate on the West. And all executed within a timeframe of < 50 years. History in the making.
In the 1960s the economy of North Korea was outstripping the South. Cuba seemed also to be doing well. The US was terrified of a “domino effect” where countries would turn communist one by one. That’s one reason it got involved in Vietnam. But look at the North now.
Sure China is doing well right now. But let’s see how they handle boom-bust cycles.
The interesting thing is, how would we know that they haven't already handled them, and in such a way that we don't even recognize they occurred?
Also, let's not forget: Past performance is no guarantee of future results.