On China changing: What I think has been happening is that the younger generations have very differing ideas to that of the old CCP in control and they're not afraid of them, esp after all the lockdowns. They didn't like what happened to Hong Kong and those that have visited and talked to the people there report back that they don't want war with Taiwan. I think Xi is out of touch with is people. Temu is having a lot of problems right now and in dissarray. Seems another disaster about to happen.
BHP here has replaced people with robotics and tech. This is probably happening in China too. I do know that the mines here had a similiar idea of being able to operate mines with buttons with minimal staff. They have that initial outlay of the robot and tech and don't pay continual wages, etc. No unions either.
A dozer to work in a mine has to be fitted with $30k of safety equipment after it's been bought to be brought up to standards for operation by a human. Imagine if it doesn't need a human to operate it? There are self driving trucks in mines now. Machines don't require perfect pronouns
I don't know if Xi will go to a gold standard. He may do so as he tends to join with Russia. I think they are trading in gold in some areas allready.
