Humans all like good simple stories, so we should not be surprised that that's what they often are given. That said, some story tellers are professionals; others less so. Here are a few less than charitable assessments of Beijing's story telling prowess: https://www.quora.com/Has-the-China-government-s-propaganda-failed/answer/Liu-Lisong
To your last sentence: Clearly the prospect of war is in the air. But if spraying a bit of Covid pixie dust is enough to induce frenzied hysteria on the part of the Chinese authorities, it's hard to imagine how that could succeed.
I'd rather not be forced to eat this excrement enchilada, as the next manufactured crisis [mon(k)eypox?] is already queued up and ready for mass digestion.
Unfortunately, its rather difficult at the moment to walk around Shanghai and assess the damage.
Tyranny in the sense of the attempted exercise of power over people without much regard to a basis in law or even rationality - yes. That said, those attempts are tempered by the ability of the overlords in Beijing to get people on the ground to do their bidding. The reality is that that has not always worked out so well. China is a densely populated society which has evolved a strong aversion to open conflict, especially in the big cities. A preference for conflict avoidance doesn't always translate into merely following or pretending to follow orders. It also translates into a preference for compromise. In the context of events over the past two months, this has resulted in a lot of resistance at all levels - not only among the common folk, but also among the people ordered to enforce tyrannical and often illegal policies. This is because mass resistance tends to lead to the ground-level policy implementers backing down and looking for compromises. Much of that resistance has been effective, and the more effective it is, the more people grow backbone. While it's quite difficult to rank injustice, even if we just look at China, there are and were definitely "shittier" places than Beijing, Shanghai or Tianjin. Ruili (a city on the Burmese border) in particular comes to mind, which we plan to soon publish a piece on.
fake is the key word here...
With regard to ... ?
The entire world is a stage!
All of this is well scripted.
If it looks like war preparation, it probably is.
Humans all like good simple stories, so we should not be surprised that that's what they often are given. That said, some story tellers are professionals; others less so. Here are a few less than charitable assessments of Beijing's story telling prowess: https://www.quora.com/Has-the-China-government-s-propaganda-failed/answer/Liu-Lisong
The more things change, the more they stay the same!
These are the best and the brightest in China, and likely to become future leaders.
https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2022/05/peking-university-protest-video-first-tear-down-the-wall/
The Beida wall story is indeed a good example of the widespread resistance to tyranny and the reaction to that resistance mentioned in this comment:
https://austrianchina.substack.com/p/dealing-with-shanghai-authorities-in-may-2022/comment/6777014
To your last sentence: Clearly the prospect of war is in the air. But if spraying a bit of Covid pixie dust is enough to induce frenzied hysteria on the part of the Chinese authorities, it's hard to imagine how that could succeed.
Its a setup for failure, without a doubt!
I'd rather not be forced to eat this excrement enchilada, as the next manufactured crisis [mon(k)eypox?] is already queued up and ready for mass digestion.
Unfortunately, its rather difficult at the moment to walk around Shanghai and assess the damage.
What a tyrannical shithole
Tyranny in the sense of the attempted exercise of power over people without much regard to a basis in law or even rationality - yes. That said, those attempts are tempered by the ability of the overlords in Beijing to get people on the ground to do their bidding. The reality is that that has not always worked out so well. China is a densely populated society which has evolved a strong aversion to open conflict, especially in the big cities. A preference for conflict avoidance doesn't always translate into merely following or pretending to follow orders. It also translates into a preference for compromise. In the context of events over the past two months, this has resulted in a lot of resistance at all levels - not only among the common folk, but also among the people ordered to enforce tyrannical and often illegal policies. This is because mass resistance tends to lead to the ground-level policy implementers backing down and looking for compromises. Much of that resistance has been effective, and the more effective it is, the more people grow backbone. While it's quite difficult to rank injustice, even if we just look at China, there are and were definitely "shittier" places than Beijing, Shanghai or Tianjin. Ruili (a city on the Burmese border) in particular comes to mind, which we plan to soon publish a piece on.
Open conflict?
Nah, no such thing!
https://twitter.com/xiaoli_ya/status/1529700808140345350