Europe
News and information from Europe 🇪🇺
(Current banner: La Mancha, Spain. Feel free to post submissions for banner images.)
Rules (2024-08-30)
- This is an English-language community. Comments should be in English. Posts can link to non-English news sources when providing a full-text translation in the post description. Automated translations are fine, as long as they don't overly distort the content.
- No links to misinformation or commercial advertising. When you post outdated/historic articles, add the year of publication to the post title. Infographics must include a source and a year of creation; if possible, also provide a link to the source.
- Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. Don't post direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments. Don't troll nor incite hatred. Don't look for novel argumentation strategies at Wikipedia's List of fallacies.
- No bigotry, sexism, racism, antisemitism, islamophobia, dehumanization of minorities, or glorification of National Socialism. We follow German law; don't question the statehood of Israel.
- Be the signal, not the noise: Strive to post insightful comments. Add "/s" when you're being sarcastic (and don't use it to break rule no. 3).
- If you link to paywalled information, please provide also a link to a freely available archived version. Alternatively, try to find a different source.
- Light-hearted content, memes, and posts about your European everyday belong in other communities.
- Don't evade bans. If we notice ban evasion, that will result in a permanent ban for all the accounts we can associate with you.
- No posts linking to speculative reporting about ongoing events with unclear backgrounds. Please wait at least 12 hours. (E.g., do not post breathless reporting on an ongoing terror attack.)
- Always provide context with posts: Don't post uncontextualized images or videos, and don't start discussions without giving some context first.
(This list may get expanded as necessary.)
Posts that link to the following sources will be removed
- on any topic: Al Mayadeen, brusselssignal:eu, citjourno:com, europesays:com, Breitbart, Daily Caller, Fox, GB News, geo-trends:eu, news-pravda:com, OAN, RT, sociable:co, any AI slop sites (when in doubt please look for a credible imprint/about page), change:org (for privacy reasons), archive:is,ph,today (their JS DDoS websites)
- on Middle-East topics: Al Jazeera
- on Hungary: Euronews
Unless they're the only sources, please also avoid The Sun, Daily Mail, any "thinktank" type organization, and non-Lemmy social media (incl. Substack). Don't link to Twitter directly, instead use xcancel.com. For Reddit, use old:reddit:com
(Lists may get expanded as necessary.)
Ban lengths, etc.
We will use some leeway to decide whether to remove a comment.
If need be, there are also bans: 3 days for lighter offenses, 7 or 14 days for bigger offenses, and permanent bans for people who don't show any willingness to participate productively. If we think the ban reason is obvious, we may not specifically write to you.
If you want to protest a removal or ban, feel free to write privately to the admin that applied the rule (check modlog first to find who was it.)
view the rest of the comments
I read it and I think you’re confusing reality you don’t like with propaganda.
First off, it’s factual that air conditioners manufactured in Europe are generally split devices that need drilling (which anyone who rents can’t do, not just people who live in historic buildings who the article focuses on), and they also require installation by a certified expert (limits what brand you can actually buy at your location).
It’s also factual that people are buying more of them. I want to say I’ve never seen as many windows covered in plastic with a hose sticking out as this summer, and that all my neighbors are either talking about getting AC or smug about already having AC (I live in a building built less than 10 years ago and many of us have split devices), but it’s actually a well-documented trend in the last few years, not just now.
It’s also factual that Midea’s reported sales are surging and it’s factual that they have a large market share in Europe, nearly 30% here in Germany. That this brand appears often is due to them having a market share this large in the residential segment. Gree is larger worldwide but e.g. in Germany only has less than 5% in the residential segment.
What I’m getting at is that it’s true that there is a lot of advertising right now for their portable split device, but that they’re one of the biggest names in Europe in the residential market is not a new development at all. There is no sudden push from China.
Outside their share of the market, for portable devices it’s mostly Chinese manufactured devices too. Probably because those need to be cheap.
For split devices, the big names that are not Chinese are Japanese (Daikin and Mitsubishi). For some reason these Japanese brands are the big ones to go to if you want manufactured in Europe. I remember when we got our current AC there was a German brand we could have gotten, but they manufacture in China… in “partnership” with Midea. We went with Daikin, although it wasn’t for this reason.
So this is the reality. The worldwide market leader is Chinese (Gree). The market in countries like Germany is dominated by Chinese manufactured devices on the lower end (mostly Midea) and other countries only play a role on the higher end, but even then it’s >70% Asian.
Europe simply is not prepared to deal with rising temperatures by itself, and it follows that for every heat wave in the future, we can expect more articles about Chinese AC manufacturers growing their businesses in Europe. It’s certainly convenient for China, but it’s also just the reality we have.
This narrative has been spread in Chinese state-media and then across China's social media. Nothing there happens organically. This is a Chinese state-controlled propaganda campaign as Beijing just exploits what they can.
That Chinese people like it doesn’t make it less true and calling it propaganda won’t fix your problem.
You have two options if you want to improve the situation:
What Chinese people post in the country's social media sphere is highly censored. It has nothing to do with reality.
Addition as I just stumbled upon this disgusting propaganda stuff spread by Chinese state media (and then by social media, in China as well as in the West)
Philippines condemns China for ‘racist’ AI video depicting Filipinos as monkeys
This comes straight from one of the Chinese Communist Party's media outlets.
Not good but what the hell does this have to do with what the rest of this thread was about? Seems to me like you want to just deflect away from being wrong