With these executions Beijing is sending a message of deterrence to would-be scammers. But the business has now moved to Myanmar's border with Thailand, and to Cambodia and Laos, where China has much less influence.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked to run online scams in Myanmar and elsewhere in South East Asia, according to estimates by the UN. Among them are thousands of Chinese people, and their victims who they swindle billions of dollars from are mainly Chinese too.
Frustrated by the Myanmar military's refusal to stop the scam business, from which it was almost certainly profiting, Beijing tacitly backed an offensive by an ethnic insurgent alliance in Shan State in late 2023. The alliance captured significant territory from the military and overran Laukkaing, a key border town.
China exercising profound influence over their near abroad.
They are Han Chinese, Most of those triad family come from Yunan borders a few decades ago. In Myanmar , thanks to military junta , they can easily buy citizenship by bribing authorities One of them is even a MP Senate in Military aligned party.
The famous case I always bring up is the accident with the USS John McCain. The US Navy tried screens but due to this accident and other reasons has gone back to mechanical controls. Cars can have some screens but key controls (HVAC, car safety, windows, etc.) should be mechanical.
I would argue peak car was a little earlier, maybe the 2000-2010 decade. Fewer screens to fail, analog buttons and dials. Airbags, and ABS for safety but without the additional computers/screens.
Entirely agree, although I think it varies by make / model. Roughly look for whenever a particular car got OBDII, which makes diagnostics way easier (and was kinda the perfect level of digitization, again in my opinion), through (as you say) whenever they started digitizing the cockpit and/or (which oddly - maybe? - coincide, in my experience) manufacturers stopped considering ease of maintenance in engineering decisions. In general late-1990s through 2005-2010. Cars since that decade (or so) are more sophisticated, at the expense of far, far shorter useful lifespans.
Mid 2008s saw a lot of cost cutting after the financial crisis, and then some very weird engineering decisions to deal with increased efficiency laws that made for much more complicated engines and transmissions even in smaller cars, if the smaller cars even continued to exist.
Early 2000s JDM coupes will always hold a soft spot in my heart, even though they've mostly rotted away at this point. I used to say I was into cars but these days there's nothing that inspires me at all, I'd be happy just to have a reliable electric box with 4 wheels.
Interesting. I kinda skipped that era of cars. Went from a mid-nineties Miata - which I still have, mostly maintain myself, and will never sell - to a 2015 CX-5, which I like, and seems well-made, but isn't exactly friendly to DIY. It's barely had any problems, though, through 150k miles, so that's not exactly a complaint.
No question, though, my next utility-car will be electric, and (though you'll have to pry it from my cold dead fingers) I expect my Miata to be the last ICE car I'll ever own.
I picked the same strategy for Windows. I remember I was still on 2000 when XP is hot, and still on XP when 8 is available, and now I use 10 and this is going to be my last Windows as 11 is too shitty and I suspect 12 and beyond are going to be worse.
As for your job search, I would recommend that you look way beyond your home country if you haven't started doing that already. There are markets where there are jobs and while finding work overseas is not easy, there are markets where ML/product/research roles are still open.
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