Setting the Scene

A list of some of the upcoming posts.

View from China with an Austrian School of Economics Perspective.

To gain an understanding of any foreign place, the best method by far is to go experience it yourself in all of its totality. To let its reality wash over you and seep into your every pore 24x7.

The second best option is to ask a friend with on the ground experience. Second hand information cannot compare to first hand, but it is still far ‘richer’ in terms of background information than third party reports. It is also much less likely to be falsified.

The least reliable option is to depend on third party reports, especially those written by people who themselves lack any direct experience. This would be true even if the report itself were factually correct. When reading about ‘event XYZ’ in faraway country Ruritania in the newspaper, or hearing claims about it in a YouTube video made by someone we don’t know, we simply cannot compensate for something crucial: a lack of background knowledge on Ruritania.

In this light, consider the difficulty created if for years, this same newspaper and all others in the reader’s country have been systematically printing up false reports on Ruritania. In such a situation readers have no hope at all of making sense of things.

For those readers who wish to take the plunge, in our first few posts we will try to supply a barebones outline of SOME aspects of Chinese reality which differ substantially from much of the West, plus a list of some of the most blatant falsehoods on offer. On a few points we will go into some detail, but these background articles are NOT meant to be a comprehensive survey. Our account is not static, but in flux, and affected by current events. It is very broad stroke and not always nuanced. The attempt here is not to describe the fine texture of Chinese reality, but to provide a background landscape against which to set later articles on more specific topics.

These background posts will cover:

(1) The Covid-19 Regime
(2) Society & Quality of Life
(3) Censorship & Freedom of Expression
(4) Money & Economy
(5) Power structures, respect for rule of law, individual rights, alleged labor camps and police

For those curious to know more, read on!