Being The Economist, they even managed to work in the whole 'but at what cost angle' 🤣

Foreign unis feel the pain

Abroad, shrinking enrolment is now hurting some universities that had become overly reliant on Chinese students. In the 2024-25 academic year Chinese made up more than two-fifths of international students at the Russell Group of 24 top British universities. Many of them expanded master’s programmes to attract students from China, charging them fees far above those of home students. Faculties grew and new facilities were built. There was an “illusion of financial stability”, says Filippo Boeri, at City St George’s, University of London. But now universities are closing courses and laying off staff or asking them to take voluntary redundancy.

Chinese students drying up will deprive the West of valuable talent. It may also do no good for China. As the country opened up to the world, haigui brought home skills and knowledge acquired overseas. The group were key in helping the country to modernise and the economy to catch up (eight of the 21 current members of the Communist Party’s ruling Politburo studied abroad). The international experience of the haigui has also helped Chinese firms seeking a foothold in foreign markets. When fewer turtles swim the seas, China will surely suffer too. ■

Hard to say, but AI bubble popping could be the catalyst. The war on Iran has structurally driven up energy prices globally, and the US bond market is now struggling. The fed will likely be forced to raise the rates next year, and much of the hyperscaler build out hinges on having low rates. On top of that, we're seeing more and more evidence that AI adoption is not going well, which will also drive demand for new datacenters down. And given how much of the economy is tied into this stuff, there could be a massive crash if this starts to sputter. At that point, Cuba is going to be the last of their worries. The Americans basically stuck their dick in a blender with the war on Iran.

Indeed, hopefully Cuba can transition towards renewables and survive the siege.

It's such a great example how the whole free press narrative is a brilliant piece of propaganda. It turns out that simply marginalizing ideas is far more effective than banning them.

lmfao imagine being over the age of 12 and using authoritarian unironically, some real intellectual titans on this site 🤣

and here's something for you to mald over

• https://sccei.fsi.stanford.edu/china-briefs/reverse-brain-drain-exploring-trends-among-chinese-scientists-us
• https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/is-the-us-witnessing-the-start-of-a-brain-drain-of-chemists-to-china/4023959.article
• https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/09/science/nobel-winning-us-chemist-will-move-to-china-to-lead-ai-institute.htmlunlocked_article_code=1.wlA.-_eU.hvAo1uhEkhDR&smid=nytcore-ios-share
• https://e.vnexpress.net/news/tech/personalities/7-prominent-scientists-and-experts-who-left-us-uk-for-china-in-2026-5096244.html
• https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3359883/10-scientists-and-experts-who-have-left-us-and-uk-china-so-far-2026

I'm also looking forward to more American top scientists moving to China as their funding gets cut and they can't find new students.

American financial strength forms the basis for these interventions though, and that's rapidly evaporating as well. Just look at the whole fiasco with yen carry trade unwinding.

fun fact, you can literally use meme templates any way you like

Most modern web breaks without Js though.

Wow, thank you so much for taking your valuable time from huffing gas to write all that.

I'm really impressed you can tell what kind of tank it is under the plating.

They still get used, just in a very different role than before drones were a thing. And the days of big tank formations rolling through are very much over. Nowadays they mostly do mine clearing, artillery support, and mobile command centres.