This is the best primer on China and how the Chinese economy works I’ve ever read. The point you make about China being essentially a federated system (much like the US) is something Westerns need to hear.
the massive rise in the chinese economy is at least in part because they were in such sad shape to begin with in 1980, kinda hard to understand why the guy in charge just before that miracle is on the money?
Thank you, very helpful. They are the narratives I come across in the West on alt media. Good idea to include ‘narrative’ #4 and its complete incoherence.
I would add the mainstream Western narrative, which combines elements of #2-4, but which is fear-mongering and/or moralising to lay the basis for increased Western belligerence and potential war. It depends on claims of Uighur genocide and CPC militarism, a version of the War on (of) Terror, based on the narrative that our narrow, flimsy and fast-disappearing democratic rights in the West are threatened by outside forces.
In order to propagandise us with the ideology of Western supremacy, to garner our support and take sides in the imperialist rivalry, everything about China must be misrepresented!
It's true that even today provincial and local governments still retain significant independence to formulate their own policies. This independence is however inevitably impacted by the step by step rollout of unified nationwide e-government systems.
I think you are soft pedalling what is happening in China. My wife was in Beiing last year with our kids. In public toilets there you have to show your face to a camera. Only after she was identified did she get toilet paper. Another friend who is married to a Chinese and since 20 years lives in South China told me of absolutely insane Covid restrictions. After a number of people burned in a high rise that had been welded shut for quarantine reasons millions went into the streets with white papers to protest. Why white paper? Write anything anti-regime and off you go.
Finally about Xinjiang: that is absolutely horrific what is happening there. Ok it is not mailand China. But still. Horrific totalitarian control. Huge concentration camps to sininizise the minorities. Kasakhs from the Mongolian province of Ulgi who have relatives over the border have told me the details. Biggest mistake of the Chinese authorities was to also target the Kasakhs as they have relatives abroad.
Thanks for sharing, though that's a bit much to comment on all at once.
As to what happened in the Covid years, and the events you refer to, you might want to check out the articles we published during that period. Not all of your information is correct. This is not surprising since most of the Western reporting on China during that period was quite dishonest. We documented those events quite extensively. Just to cite two examples, that high rise building in Ürümqi was not welded shut. If it had been then many many more people would have died. Nor to our knowledge were any of the white paper demonstrators detained for very long. In many cities they were not detained at all. And of course they ultimately succeeded, with the government surrendering to their unwritten demands shortly thereafter.
As to the Uyghur issue, well, it sounds like you are echoing the storyline put out by Western governments. We are not aware of any hard evidence supporting this, but that's not something which we are going to sort out in these comments ;)
I am a Russian speaker who until 2019 lived in one of the countries adjacent to China. China´s influence is very strong and suffice to say today - after the start of the Ukraine war and the growing influence of China - people will not talk about things Chinese on the phone anymore. I have family in one of these countries and more I will not say about me. If you are really and truly interested in what happened (and probably is still happening) in Xinjiang I refer to you to this publication in the Russian online journal Medusa. They are now forbidden in Russia but in 2018, when this article was published they were not. As it happened after the start of the Ukraine war Medusa of course got money from the West and they translated this article into English. Again, this article is from 2018 and back then Russia wasn´t dependent on China and the truth could be told. Yes, China made a big mistake by not targeting only the Uighurs, but the Kazakh minority as well. I am curious whether you will really read the article.
Sorry, got confused. The article with Kasakh survivors of Chinese reeduction camps actually appered not in Medusa but in this journal: https://kiozk.ru/article/russkij-reporter/zavodnoj-mandarin-2 Unfortunately for China there were quite a bit of dual Kcitizens
It reads like a travel guide mixed with a bit of history about the terrorism problem and the standard Black Mirror propaganda. The article references well known Western propaganda outfits (e.g. “Human Rights Watch”) and cites them as sources. The problem with articles like this is that it’s hard to know which parts are real and which ones are fabricated. Unfortunately this makes the entire content borderline worthless.
This is the best primer on China and how the Chinese economy works I’ve ever read. The point you make about China being essentially a federated system (much like the US) is something Westerns need to hear.
I hope you are able to promote this piece.
First rate!
I believe if you restock this your followers can read and restock as well
living in taiwan, i know from conversations with my students that the public school system was
effusive in its description of the horrors of the cultural revolution.
when kissinger was sent to china, how responsible for the current market sized beast are the hidden
controllers of banks today.
using russya as an example, clearly when the mask is removed, the mafia, the family businesses
are dragged into the light.
back to taiwan, it is known that companies moved their main production facilities from this island
to the mainland for all its advantages in the past. currently the local propaganda outfits
express facilities being built in taiwan and abroad. attempts, it is their challenge to find
populations that can support high technology production.
another theory; china was doing so well 2019, that someone made the decision to poison the well
and link a plandemic to their country.
here in taiwan, the suffering generated fallout that is still being resolved, business locations
in formerly high-rent areas have not been replaced.
another anecdote, the taiwanese with money, seek to spend it elsewhere..
another anecdote; 2023 i was contacted by email and social media by chinese recruiters.
in my over 20 years experience of teaching english, first time it happened.
the massive rise in the chinese economy is at least in part because they were in such sad shape to begin with in 1980, kinda hard to understand why the guy in charge just before that miracle is on the money?
Thank you, very helpful. They are the narratives I come across in the West on alt media. Good idea to include ‘narrative’ #4 and its complete incoherence.
I would add the mainstream Western narrative, which combines elements of #2-4, but which is fear-mongering and/or moralising to lay the basis for increased Western belligerence and potential war. It depends on claims of Uighur genocide and CPC militarism, a version of the War on (of) Terror, based on the narrative that our narrow, flimsy and fast-disappearing democratic rights in the West are threatened by outside forces.
In order to propagandise us with the ideology of Western supremacy, to garner our support and take sides in the imperialist rivalry, everything about China must be misrepresented!
Thanks for the long post! Perhaps China is like the EU, a regional power that sits on top of a tree of more local governments.
It's true that even today provincial and local governments still retain significant independence to formulate their own policies. This independence is however inevitably impacted by the step by step rollout of unified nationwide e-government systems.
I think you are soft pedalling what is happening in China. My wife was in Beiing last year with our kids. In public toilets there you have to show your face to a camera. Only after she was identified did she get toilet paper. Another friend who is married to a Chinese and since 20 years lives in South China told me of absolutely insane Covid restrictions. After a number of people burned in a high rise that had been welded shut for quarantine reasons millions went into the streets with white papers to protest. Why white paper? Write anything anti-regime and off you go.
Finally about Xinjiang: that is absolutely horrific what is happening there. Ok it is not mailand China. But still. Horrific totalitarian control. Huge concentration camps to sininizise the minorities. Kasakhs from the Mongolian province of Ulgi who have relatives over the border have told me the details. Biggest mistake of the Chinese authorities was to also target the Kasakhs as they have relatives abroad.
Thanks for sharing, though that's a bit much to comment on all at once.
As to what happened in the Covid years, and the events you refer to, you might want to check out the articles we published during that period. Not all of your information is correct. This is not surprising since most of the Western reporting on China during that period was quite dishonest. We documented those events quite extensively. Just to cite two examples, that high rise building in Ürümqi was not welded shut. If it had been then many many more people would have died. Nor to our knowledge were any of the white paper demonstrators detained for very long. In many cities they were not detained at all. And of course they ultimately succeeded, with the government surrendering to their unwritten demands shortly thereafter.
As to the Uyghur issue, well, it sounds like you are echoing the storyline put out by Western governments. We are not aware of any hard evidence supporting this, but that's not something which we are going to sort out in these comments ;)
I am a Russian speaker who until 2019 lived in one of the countries adjacent to China. China´s influence is very strong and suffice to say today - after the start of the Ukraine war and the growing influence of China - people will not talk about things Chinese on the phone anymore. I have family in one of these countries and more I will not say about me. If you are really and truly interested in what happened (and probably is still happening) in Xinjiang I refer to you to this publication in the Russian online journal Medusa. They are now forbidden in Russia but in 2018, when this article was published they were not. As it happened after the start of the Ukraine war Medusa of course got money from the West and they translated this article into English. Again, this article is from 2018 and back then Russia wasn´t dependent on China and the truth could be told. Yes, China made a big mistake by not targeting only the Uighurs, but the Kazakh minority as well. I am curious whether you will really read the article.
https://meduza.io/en/feature/2018/10/01/an-internment-camp-for-10-million-uyghurs
Sorry, got confused. The article with Kasakh survivors of Chinese reeduction camps actually appered not in Medusa but in this journal: https://kiozk.ru/article/russkij-reporter/zavodnoj-mandarin-2 Unfortunately for China there were quite a bit of dual Kcitizens
It reads like a travel guide mixed with a bit of history about the terrorism problem and the standard Black Mirror propaganda. The article references well known Western propaganda outfits (e.g. “Human Rights Watch”) and cites them as sources. The problem with articles like this is that it’s hard to know which parts are real and which ones are fabricated. Unfortunately this makes the entire content borderline worthless.