Biden Visited Canada
Note: This article was written on March 26th.
Bitcoin continued to fall slightly overnight, consolidating above 27,000, waiting for the next surge.
The current President of the United States, Biden, went to Canada on the 23rd and 24th of the month. This is his first official visit to Canada since taking office. Public reports indicate that the United States and Canada reached an agreement on illegal immigration.
At the press conference, Biden made another classic slip of the tongue. When he said "applauding for Canada", he said "applauding for China's progress". He explained, "You know what I mean — I'm thinking about China."
The China he was thinking of also made an important visit to its northern neighbor recently. On March 22nd, China and Russia jointly issued a "Joint Statement on Deepening the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of Coordination for a New Era" [1].
A few days before the visit on the 20th, on March 16th, the Russian Satellite News Agency said that Russia intends to establish a special economic zone called the International Forward-looking Development Zone in the Transbaikal Krai. In addition to the common policies of economic benefits, such as tax incentives and customs facilitation, there were two exaggerating points on the rules circulated online, one is that Russia will open up its rail standards and the other is the so-called "extraterritorial jurisdiction".
As we all know, Russia's rails are not compatible with ours.
I remember visiting the border town of Haparanda-Tornio between Sweden and Finland many years ago. It is called Haparanda on the Swedish side and Tornio on the Finnish side. At that time, I stood on a railway bridge over the Tornio River and looked across, as if I could see the freight trains of the Second World War rushing past on the bridge. The special feature of this railway bridge is that it has dual gauge tracks. This is because the railway tracks in Sweden use the European standard gauge of 1435mm, while Finland continues to use the Soviet standard gauge of 1520mm. These two gauges are not compatible. [2]
The rail standards between China and Russia also have such differences. The standard gauge of our country's rails is the European standard gauge of 1435mm, while Russia uses the Soviet standard gauge of 1520mm. If Russia does indeed loosen its standards, it means that we can lay down the standard gauge of 1435mm within its territory, which will certainly benefit our economic radiance, but weaken Russia's regulation of us.
As for extraterritorial jurisdiction, this is even more surprising. This means that Chinese enterprises doing business in the special zone will only be subject to Chinese law, not Russian law. This is certainly a significant protection for cross-border businesses and entrepreneurs, but it may also imply a sense of "loss of sovereignty" for the host country of the special zone.
In fact, the issue of the development of the Far East is often hyped up every few years on the internet, but most of them have no follow-up. I wonder if this time will receive effective implementation.
Some people say, what's the point of going to such a cold place in the north? We still need to revitalize the Northeast economy, and we still need to invest in and develop the vast western region. Where do we have the energy and money to invest in developing someone else's special zone?
Perhaps it is suitable for building a Bitcoin mining farm? It's naturally cold, and in the design of the computer room, air ducts are left to let the cold air from Siberia blow in to cool down the operating mining machines quickly, thus avoiding the cost of air conditioning or other cooling facilities. The question is whether the power resources in this area are sufficient?
I checked it briefly. It is said that this place in Transbaikal has "extremely rich natural resources such as coal, gold, silver, copper, iron ore, and timber, as well as fertile black soil and natural grasslands". Having coal should make it easy to build power plants for generating electricity nearby. Inputting mining machines on-site and converting them into Bitcoin will eliminate the cost of long-distance power transmission.
The White House under Biden published a report on cryptocurrencies a few days ago, blackening the entire industry. Now he is heading north, and it is unclear what he is planning.
The global reserve currency status of the U.S. dollar is eventually coming to an end. The wheels of history are rolling forward, and it is not something that Biden and his staff can stop.
Reference:
[1] Website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/zyxw/202303/t20230322_11046188.shtml [2] https://www.sinfin.net/railways/world/sweden.html
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(Disclaimer: The content of this article does not constitute any investment advice. Cryptocurrency is a very high-risk product, and there is a risk of going zero at any time. Please participate carefully and be responsible for yourself.)