from the maybe-they-can-team-up-with-Frito-Lay dept.
Washington in talks with chipmakers about building U.S. factories:
(Reuters) - The Trump administration is in talks with semiconductor companies about building chip factories in the United States, representatives from two chipmakers said on Sunday.
Intel Corp (INTC.O) is in discussions with the United States Department of Defense over improving domestic sources for microelectronics and related technology, Intel spokesman William Moss said in an emailed statement.
"Intel is well positioned to work with the U.S. government to operate a U.S.-owned commercial foundry and supply a broad range of secure microelectronics", the statement added.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) (2330.TW), on the other hand, has been in talks with the U.S. Department of Commerce about building a U.S. factory but said it has not made a final decision yet.
"We are actively evaluating all the suitable locations, including in the U.S., but there is no concrete plan yet", TSMC spokeswoman Nina Kao said in a statement.
[...] The Trump administration's discussions with chipmakers were reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal, with the report adding that TSMC also has been talking with Apple Inc (AAPL.O), one of its largest customers, about building a chip factory in the United States.
[...] The Journal had also reported that U.S. officials are looking at helping South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co (005930.KS), which has a chip factory in Austin, Texas, to expand its contract-manufacturing operations in the United States.
The U.S. Commerce Department, Samsung and Apple did not respond to requests for comment on Sunday.
Related Stories
TSMC to build a $12 billion advanced semiconductor plant in Arizona with U.S. government support
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's largest contract semiconductor foundry, said today that it plans to build an advanced chip foundry in Arizona with support from the state and the United States federal government.
The announcement follows a Wall Street Journal report earlier this week that White House officials were in talks with TSMC and Intel to build foundries in the U.S., as part of its effort to reduce reliance on chip factories in Asia. Based in Hsinchu, Taiwan, TSMC provides chip components for many of the world's largest semiconductor companies and its U.S. clients include Apple and Qualcomm.
The plant, scheduled to start production of chips in 2024, will enable TSMC's American customers to fabricate their semiconductor products domestically. It will use the company's 5-nanometer technology and is expected to create 1,600 jobs and have the capacity to produce 20,000 wafers a month.
The U.S.-China trade war, national security concerns, geopolitical unrest and the COVID-19 pandemic have all underscored the shortfalls of relying on foundries located abroad and international supply chains.
The U.S. government has reportedly been in talks with TSMC for months, though one sticking point for the company was the high cost of building a new foundry. TSMC chairman Mark Liu told the New York Times in October that the project would require major subsidies because it is more expensive to operate a factory in the U.S. than in Taiwan.
Also at AnandTech, The Verge, CNN, South China Morning Post, Wccftech, and Bloomberg.
Previously: U.S. Attempting to Restrict TSMC Sales to Huawei
Washington in Talks with Chipmakers about Building U.S. Factories
Related: TSMC Holds Groundbreaking Ceremony for "5nm" Fab, Production to Begin in 2020
TSMC Has Started Development of a "2nm" Process Node
DARPA 3DSoC CNFET project moves towards commercialisation phase
Skywater, the US government trusted fab partner, and MIT have announced that the DARPA Three Dimensional Monolithic System-on-a-Chip (3DSoC) programme, has entered its second phase.
After completing the program's initial phase, focused on transferring the Carbon Nanotube Field Effect Transistor (CNFET)-based 3DSoC technology into SkyWater's 200 mm production facility, phase two will focus on refining manufacturing quality, yield, performance, and density – key elements of commercial viability.
[...] A 3DSoC program update will be presented by MIT professor, Dr. Max Shulaker at the virtual 2020 DARPA Electronics Resurgence Initiative (ERI) Summit on August 20th.
Arm Announces Three Year Partnership With DARPA Aimed At Maintaining U.S. Chip Design Lead
In a development that falls in line with recent U.S. efforts to bring semiconductor manufacturing inside its shores, British chip design house Arm announced yesterday that it has entered into a three-year partnership agreement with the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The announcement came as the agency wrapped off an event related to its Electronic Resurgence Initiative (ERI), which is focused on reducing reliance on internationally fabricated semiconductors.
Under the partnership, all of Arm's commercial chip design architectures and intellectual property will be available for use on DARPA projects. The duo will also collaborate on efforts such as sensors that rely on low power use for constant monitoring. At the ERI Summit yesterday, Arm's chief executive officer Simon Segars focused his discussion on devices that fall under the ambit of the Internet of Things (IoT), and the connection of these devices with next-generation 5G networks.
Previously: DARPA's 3DSoC Becoming a Reality
Related: Washington in Talks with Chipmakers about Building U.S. Factories
Report: Samsung may build $10 billion advanced chipmaking plant in Austin
Samsung could build a $10 billion advanced logic chipmaking plant in Austin, according to media reports, potentially adding to the company's existing multibillion-dollar facilities in Central Texas.
If it happens, the Samsung expansion would add to a series of recent stunning wins for Austin's technology sector. In just the past six months, Austin saw electric automaker Tesla pick it as the site for a $1 billion assembly facility and software giant Oracle move its corporate headquarters to Austin.
Citing people familiar with the plans, Bloomberg news service reported that Samsung is considering spending more than $10 billion on the plant, which could be Samsung's most advanced yet. The report said that the final investment amount could fluctuate.
[...] According to the Bloomberg report, the new Samsung facility would be potentially capable of fabricating chips as advanced as 3 nanometers. Construction could start as early as this year, with major equipment added in 2022, and operations as early as 2023.
Also at Bloomberg, The Verge, and Notebookcheck.
Related: Washington in Talks with Chipmakers about Building U.S. Factories
TSMC Will Build a $12 Billion "5nm" Fab in Arizona
TSMC reportedly stops taking orders from Huawei after new U.S. export controls
Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's largest contract semiconductor maker, has stopped taking new orders from Huawei Technologies, one of its largest customers, according to the Nikkei Asian Review. The report said the decision was made to comply with new United States export controls, announced last Friday, that are meant to make it more difficult for Huawei to obtain chips produced using U.S. technology, including manufacturing equipment.
Huawei hits back at US as TSMC cuts off chip orders
Huawei rotating chairman Guo Ping has hit back at the US government's stricter export controls intended to stop the Chinese tech giant from obtaining essential chips, following reports that its biggest supplier has already cut it off. "We still haven't figured it out," Guo said on stage at Huawei's annual analyst summit. "The US government still persists in attacking Huawei, but what will that bring to the world?"
"In its relentless pursuit to tighten its stranglehold on our company, the US government has decided to proceed and completely ignore the concerns of many companies and industry associations," Huawei adds in an official statement. "This decision was arbitrary and pernicious, and threatens to undermine the entire industry worldwide. This new rule will impact the expansion, maintenance, and continuous operations of networks worth hundreds of billions of dollars that we have rolled out in more than 170 countries."
"We expect that our business will inevitably be affected," Huawei's statement continues. "We will try all we can to seek a solution."
See also: Huawei Braces for Latest U.S. Hit, but Some Say Loopholes Remain
TSMC Accepts US Kill Order & Suspends Future Huawei Contracts
Previously: U.S. Attempting to Restrict TSMC Sales to Huawei
Washington in Talks with Chipmakers about Building U.S. Factories
TSMC Will Build a $12 Billion "5nm" Fab in Arizona
(Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Monday May 11 2020, @12:29PM (10 children)
SkyWater funded to expand, develop next rad-hard process [eenewsanalog.com]
CEO interview: Sonderman on SkyWater's technology foundry model [eenewsanalog.com]
List of semiconductor fabrication plants [wikipedia.org]
There are a number of U.S.-based fabs using older process nodes such as 65nm, 90nm, 130nm, 180nm, etc. that could be used to produce monolithic 3D chips [darpa.mil] that can outperform planar chips built on bleeding-edge 7/5/3/2nm. You could also build a new 20nm/32nm/45nm fab for a fraction of the cost of a "3nm" fab, with no need for expensive EUV. The advantage might only last for a few years before TSMC, SMIC, and others respond, but you could continue to get competent, powerful CPUs/SoCs out of mature nodes, with more performance than many users could need, and all made in the USA.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday May 11 2020, @02:20PM (4 children)
You? Like in "you, the MiC, can get your radhard stuff, the Americans will pay"?
Because that scale up of transistor count but maintaining large nodes comes with the price of the dissipated energy - only MiC don't care to have the batteries for their phone in two separate luggages, everyone and their dog wants the slick form factor that Apple taught them is cool.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Monday May 11 2020, @03:09PM (3 children)
https://www.darpa.mil/attachments/3DSoCProposersDay20170915.pdf [darpa.mil]
Nope, most of the energy in CPUs is spent moving data around. 3DSoC is more energy efficient even on older, larger process nodes.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday May 11 2020, @03:39PM (2 children)
Page 7 "3DSoC: 90nm Carbon Nanotube FET (CNFET)"
Ummm... CNFET [wikipedia.org] - as for today, it's still in the "mass-production fiction" stage.
One big problem: when you try to connect that nanotube with metal contacts, you get a Schottky barrier [wikipedia.org].
Two nasties with that:
1. energy consumption to overcome the voltage of the barrier - ultimately, will result in heat
2. capacity of such a diode - may come to limit the frequencies
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Monday May 11 2020, @03:59PM (1 child)
https://youtu.be/6ir_--MgMJI?t=1086 [youtu.be]
They are building chips using CNFETs today. You can skip to 27:22 for the reveal.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday May 11 2020, @10:48PM
At a level of 10k, cf to the presentation.
But yes, you may be getting there.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 11 2020, @02:23PM (2 children)
How about IBM Burlington VT (now part owned by Global Foundries)? For years they supplied the graphics chips used in gaming consoles from several manufacturers...as well as the super-reliable chips used in mainframes and expensive servers.
I'm fairly certain that at least parts of this facility are still working.
Then there is the mainframe plant which I believe is near IBM HQ in Fishkill NY.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday May 11 2020, @03:15PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GlobalFoundries#Fab_9 [wikipedia.org]
Sure. The 90nm node is specifically mentioned in that presentation, and GlobalFoundries famously abandoned efforts to push down to "7nm" because of cost. They should license the technology.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GlobalFoundries#Fab_10 [wikipedia.org]
List said 22-90nm, that section says it now does 14nm. It has been sold to ON Semiconductor.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 11 2020, @07:38PM
Was that town named "Fishkill" before or after a big industrial facility was built there?
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday May 11 2020, @04:57PM (1 child)
3D chips are a great idea...but have they yet solved the problem of cooling them? Until that's handled those chips are only vaporware, and if they use much power, really vapor-ware.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday May 11 2020, @05:32PM
The 50X target is for 90nm 3D vs. 7nm 2D, a combination of performance and energy used. So for example 50X could mean ~4x faster while using 1/12th the energy.
They have a graph for 7nm 3D vs. 7nm 2D, where they are projecting benefits like 10-20x performance using 1/35th to 1/60th the energy, for a "benefit" ranging from 323x to 970x, depending on the workload.
We'll have to see how far it scales up, but even if it was stuck at 5 Watts, hotter CPUs would be toast, especially at the same node. Mobile devices and SBCs would benefit the most. Standalone VR headsets would get a major boost, etc.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 11 2020, @02:02PM (7 children)
The Foxconn Wisconsin debacle has a lesson.
It is problematic to force folks to put a plant in the US.
First, we need to make it economically desirable to do so.
You need a cheap, smart, proactive labor force that wants to work.
The Detroit mode of just do your negotiated task for a shift and head for the bar is a far cry from that.
Chip building is a dirty business and environmental costs need to be sustainable.
Supply chain upstream of making chips may be ok because of the small volumes and high value.
Downstream, who is going to cheaply put the die in packages?
On the good side, maybe it is not as technically hard to make a one generation behind fab today.
That could be a path to bringing the practical knowhow back to make a bleeding edge line.
This isn't a new story. So why is the administration just now noticing it?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 11 2020, @02:27PM (5 children)
Pick 2.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 11 2020, @05:30PM (2 children)
That's insanely optimistic.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Monday May 11 2020, @06:10PM (1 child)
Well, I wouldn't hire Mexicans. They'd just take the chips and dip them in salsa or guacamole before eating them.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Reziac on Tuesday May 12 2020, @03:27AM
I dunno. "Chico and the LAN" might be a hit.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 1) by DECbot on Monday May 11 2020, @08:03PM (1 child)
Need cheap.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 1) by DECbot on Monday May 11 2020, @08:06PM
or "You need."
I'll let you pick this time.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 11 2020, @02:35PM
>You need a cheap, smart, proactive labor force that wants to work.
And not unionize, a deal breaker for the Chinese owners of this glass factory (Netflix American factory)
https://www.netflix.com/title/81090071 [netflix.com]
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday May 11 2020, @02:05PM
TI was a big defense supplier in the early days.
Fairchild / ON / Motorola also.
Hopefully these talks can figure out a way that it's more profitable to build chips in the U.S. without punitive tarriffs or other barriers to trade.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Monday May 11 2020, @02:14PM (20 children)
This is the sort of thing the United States deeply needs. Europe, too (but that's a bigger project given how fractious they are at the moment).
It presents a yawning strategic vulnerability to let your secretly sworn enemy control all your vital manufacturing. China is determined to punish and subjugate the world for the last 300 years of history. Everything they are doing on every level is designed to build an empire with Beijing at the center. They are quite close to their moment now.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by DannyB on Monday May 11 2020, @02:27PM (5 children)
If it were economically viable to manufacture semiconductors in the US, wouldn't we already be doing so?
There are a number of considerations.
Workers are needed who are willing to do the job. For sub-standard pay. Who are willing and eager to be exploited. People sufficiently educated, which excludes many Americans. Immigrants will be needed who have achieved the highest academic credentials . . . at American institutions of higher learning.
The environmental damage of a chip foundary needs to be sustainable.
The Centauri traded Earth jump gate technology in exchange for our superior hair mousse formulas.
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Monday May 11 2020, @03:26PM (4 children)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_semiconductor_fabrication_plants [wikipedia.org]
There are many semiconductor fabs in the U.S. Relatively bleeding edge ones are run by Intel, GlobalFoundries, Samsung, and Micron.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by DannyB on Monday May 11 2020, @04:05PM (3 children)
Interesting.
So why is the administration having this talk about building more chip fabs. Do we need more? If so, and if the issue is to be more state of the art, are willing to abide by US regulations, treat workers like people, pay them? Are we willing to pay for the end product they produce?
Just thinking of meat packing plants for a sec: it is hypocritical for a politician to complain about the life style of a meat plant worker, which is related to how much they make, how many hours they work, and then at the same time advocate policies to work them hard and not pay them much.
Do the US plants on this list have problems with the environment and toxic chemicals they use?
We want clean air and water. We want people to make a decent living. (At least some people want these things.) Yet are we willing to pay the costs to have them?
Will we someday have a "silicon belt" sort of like Detroit's ugly "rust belt". Squeeze out every drop of profit. Leave everything to decay and rot. It's not just the corporations, but also government shares a blame in this.
The Centauri traded Earth jump gate technology in exchange for our superior hair mousse formulas.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 11 2020, @07:42PM
Well, since we're talking about this administration, you can probably bet that one of Jared's relations is somehow involved in a proposed foundary.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 11 2020, @08:34PM (1 child)
Will we have a silicon belt...
That's already happened. Silicon Valley was named that because that was the place where chips were designed AND PRODUCED.
Chip making is pretty much gone from the Valley for years, but they still DESIGN chips and much more significantly they write SOFTWARE and have SOFTWARE SERVICES. The Valley has successfully transitioned economically. It started out as fruit orchards, became a chip making place, and now it's dominated by code monkeys.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Tuesday May 12 2020, @08:09AM
"success"
measuring in average income or quality of life, or damage to environment or...?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Informative) by jelizondo on Monday May 11 2020, @03:22PM (11 children)
Really? History contradicts you. China has had to defend its territory [wikipedia.org] against the French, British, Japanese and Soviets.
Who has military bases surrounding [thesun.co.uk] China?
Is Modern China determined to rule the world? I don't think so. They want greater influence in world affairs, for certain and some military presence against so many US bases in the neighborhood.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Monday May 11 2020, @03:44PM
You misunderstand. China is angry about everything that happened since the Opium War. Treaty ports, extra-territoriality, invasion, colonization. They went from thinking of themselves as the Country at the Center of the World to not being allowed to enter parks in their own cities. It is why they roared when Mao declared the communist victory, "China has stood up." It is why they were so keen to get Hong Kong and Macao back. It is why they are so determined to get Taiwan back.
They are intensely proud in a way that's difficult for other countries to appreciate, and their national humiliation was so traumatic that they will take it out on the rest of the world, come hell or high water.
Even 20 years ago the China Daily had regular pieces about how Siberia and SE Asia belong to China (because they once belonged to Imperial China). And for the last several decades congressional white papers on Chinese military strategy have detailed Beijing's preparations to seize global supremacy. Go and read them. They will open your eyes.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Monday May 11 2020, @03:48PM (9 children)
China is playing the long game. Dominating manufacturing, exporting opioids to the West, building aircraft carriers, moving to exploit Africa, etc.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday May 11 2020, @05:06PM (1 child)
Yes...but it's not clear that they intend this as a military rather than as a commercial empire. Historically China has been quite introverted, except for very brief periods. Their basic feeling have been that the rest of the world doesn't matter, and should just go away and leave them alone.
Has this really changed? It might have, but that's not the greatest probability. Chinese sea expeditions sailed to Africa and to South America before Columbus. But they didn't stay.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Monday May 11 2020, @05:49PM
They had a chance. Here's one explanation:
https://www.quora.com/Why-didnt-China-colonise-the-world-like-the-Europeans [quora.com]
Looking to China's future, they have learned lessons from the past and are advancing militarily. They're working on hypersonic missiles, aircraft carriers, drones, fighter jets, etc. Military budget [wikipedia.org] is way up, tracking economic growth. What will they do with all this power? At a minimum, make power plays in the South China Sea [wikipedia.org], in order to secure resources there and bolster national pride. They could also open military bases [soylentnews.org] around the world to project power.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 11 2020, @05:35PM (3 children)
It sounds exactly what Britain did to China and India. How times change! But seriously, keeping a prison population is not sustainable without MASSIVE overhead of corruption and low productivity. It worked once - and the Europeans did it - but the "resources" of a continent of exploitable laborers are not there any more.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Monday May 11 2020, @06:08PM (2 children)
Many African countries are already full of corruption, and "China the colonizer" is sure to use a lot more carrot than stick compared to the era of European colonialism. China doesn't necessarily want to seize Africa's resources...
Why Is China Building Africa? [forbes.com]
How African governments should negotiate better infrastructure deals with China [archive.org]
You can look for more articles if you're interested.
Aside: Africans in China are not doing so well:
China-Africa: ‘Enough is enough’, as #BlackChina anger spreads [theafricareport.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @06:06PM (1 child)
So the Chinese government and companies, likely at the behest of The International Jew via Israeli NGOs, are moving Africans into China for the poor Chinese to deal with, just like in western countries.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday May 14 2020, @01:58PM
Nope. Probably the few Africans who are in China are mostly businessmen. It's just that your average Chinese person can go a whole lifetime without seeing a black person.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 11 2020, @07:14PM
Funny how effective you can be when you learn from the past.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_Wars [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Monday May 11 2020, @08:55PM
Forgive me, but "China is playing the long game" is rather a canard, because it feeds into a rather unhelpful trope of the Chinese as inscrutable and devious. The rest of the world should not be wary of Beijing because they are any more or less strategic than any other country, but because they are plainly and openly pursuing national objectives that will mean bad things for everyone else.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Monday May 11 2020, @11:07PM
And as I noted [soylentnews.org], just because you play chess, doesn't make you a grandmaster.
I think a huge thing missed is that planning isn't that important. China wasn't beaten in the last few centuries by a bunch of long term planners. They were beaten by a bunch of people who happened to be best of breed in a highly competitive, dynamic, and creative environment (Europe for centuries prior to the First World War).
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Monday May 11 2020, @06:12PM (1 child)
Granted, he was just one of (then) a billion, and a privileged one at that - attending University in Miami, but when a Chinese patriot got suitably drunk back in 1987, the soul he revealed to me wasn't one of revenge or paybacks, it was one of envy: "one day, 10 or 20 years from now, we (China) will be great like you (U.S.)" From over here, that really looks like what China has been striving for: the skyscrapers, the navy, the rocket ships... if they happen to steam-roller the rest of the world the way the US did in the late 1900s, oh well, like pollution, these things just happen.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Monday May 11 2020, @08:40PM
It's a big, complicated subject, which makes it hard to capture in a nutshell, but those skyscrapers, super highways, and all the rest are partly a legacy of the thinking that drove the Great Leap Forward, partly make-work projects for restive citizens, and a scheme to line the pockets of well-connected party cadres. They are not being built to meet demand, or to spur growth. For example, all those skyscrapers in Pudong, Shanghai, were built at once. I went over there and every single one of them was empty, without even teenagers in baggy uniforms as guards to shoo away the curious. There were no cars to be seen anywhere, no pedestrians, only chickens pecking at the gutters.
BBC and news agencies like it have done stories on the vast, empty cities of China. They aren't promoted much because the powers that be don't want them to be. But you can find them online and it will give you a much different perspective.
The key to understanding the dynamic at work is that Chinese don't aspire to one day be great. They are already great. They're the greatest. It is most impertinent of the rest of the world to not acknowledge that China is the greatest. They must be taught a lesson. And they will be. But they do ruefully acknowledge that they "fell behind," and even call themselves a "fall behind-ist country" (luohouzhuyi de guojia).
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 11 2020, @02:40PM (2 children)
The world needs to start doing more of this, moving production out of China.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday May 11 2020, @04:08PM (1 child)
But . . . corporate profits!
And things will cost more if we have to treat workers like human beings and (gasp!) actually pay them!
Can't we just outsource everything?
Maybe we could outsource the government.
The Centauri traded Earth jump gate technology in exchange for our superior hair mousse formulas.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Reziac on Tuesday May 12 2020, @03:52AM
Insider info from an Apple exec, about ten years ago... difference in cost to produce iPads in China vs the U.S. was only $6 ($38 vs $44).
If we outsource the government to China, maybe they'll cut off the supply chain... Hmm. I kinda like that idea. I wonder what the tariffs would look like?
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 11 2020, @02:52PM (4 children)
Whew, I thought I might be in an episode of The Twilight Zone when I misread it the first time as:
Washington in Talks with Chipmunks about Building U.S. Factories
(Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Monday May 11 2020, @03:11PM (3 children)
That's nuts.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 11 2020, @03:21PM (1 child)
No no, the chipmunk thing seems as plausible as most everything else going out of the Whitehouse.
Thanks for brightening the day.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 11 2020, @05:22PM
LOL!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 11 2020, @08:47PM
Eh, you can't expect the Keebler elves to stick to crackers and cookies forever. Chips are a logical extension.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 11 2020, @05:15PM
More buildings for low-income housing. Think of them as barracks. The minority groups (people of color) have armies to build. The USofA is being attacked from within.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 12 2020, @03:26PM
" The Trump administration is in talks with..." and can stop reading the article right there. Although it has the imprimateur of a Reuters article, this particular administration has lied long enough and boldly enough and made enough proclamations about success at various endeavors that were less than fully truthful that it no longer matters whatsoever what the Trump administration says. Anything they say now is irrelevant until actual action occurs, and any such action cannot be changed nor will it be helpful to any person who is not a 1%er. End of story.