• modulus@lemmy.ml
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    16 hours ago

    Mmm, China perfidiously stealing the hard-earned talent of Western engineers? I know just the solution! They should build an anti-communist self-defence wall:

    We no longer wanted to stand by passively and see how doctors, engineers, and skilled workers were induced by refined methods unworthy of the dignity of man to give up their secure existence in the GDR and work in West Germany or West Berlin. These and other manipulations cost the GDR annual losses amounting to 3.5 thousand million marks.

    Some fine historical irony. Of course, given the way the university system works in places like the US, there’s not even a good argument that this imposes costs on the public, who trains personnel only for them to leave and benefit some other state.

    Maybe this is what Trump’s wall is for.

  • JohnBrownsBussy2 [she/her, they/them]@hexbear.net
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    1 day ago

    Based. The west has long relied on international brain drain (caused by imperial wars and neo-colonialism) to accumulate the “best and the brightest” and put a stranglehold on the tertiary/quaternary sectors. It’s amusing to see the shoe on the other foot, especially after the western tech giants have worked so hard to suppress tech worker wages.

    • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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      21 hours ago

      In fact, the West gobbling up skilled labor is a factor of imperialism and underdevelopment. Labor is the superior of capital, so the loss of a skilled engineer is always worse than whatever remittances they might return home.

  • nohaybanda [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 day ago

    Those perfidious Asiatics, offering competitive salaries to experienced engineers! Very anti-competitive. I know what we should do - we can quadruple down on harassing researchers and professionals with Chinese origins. Heck, anyone vaguely Asian will do.

    • AernaLingus [any]@hexbear.net
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      24 hours ago

      I found this line very funny:

      State funding for Chinese companies enables them to offer salaries beyond what Western companies can pay.

      Source?

      it-is-known

      ASML made €8 billion in net income in 2023. TSMC, $30 billion (not Western, but mentioned in the same breath). I’m sure they could scrounge a few coins from under the couch cushions to match salaries if they wanted to.

  • Feline [she/her, they/them]@hexbear.net
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    1 day ago

    As Western governments make it harder for China to access sensitive technologies—a trend expected to continue under the administration of President-elect Donald Trump—many Chinese companies are trying to get ahead by luring away top engineers in areas such as advanced semiconductors and artificial intelligence.

    Hopefully the wsj made up the part about AI. They would do more harm to China than good