BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Hong Kong: China approves 'patriotic' plan to control elections - "‘I think we have different definition about democracy, the key issue is to ensure that the people governance Hong Kong, and what we are doing is to that direction. And our decision to reform the to improve the electoral system is to toward the long term stability and prosperity of Hong Kong. I believe this is in line with the interests of Hong Kong people in the long run.’
‘I'm trying to get a sense of what you mean, though, by improve the electoral system. Would it be better if there were regular votes in the Hong Kong Legislative Council in which no one voted against what Beijing wanted, as we saw in Beijing today?’
‘You know, every electoral system need to be improved according to to keep pace with the times as the world practice in Britain. Your electoral system spends hundreds of years to be improved until today. And for Hong Kong, we have successfully improv-, implemented one country two systems over the past 24 years. Meanwhile, there are some issues, especially after the turbulence over the proposed amendment bill in 2019.’
‘Aha, well, this is when we get to the point, isn't it? We're told that what you want to do, perhaps you can confirm this in Beijing is to ensure that no one who is not deemed by the Communist Party to be a patriot can run for an election. Now, elections in this country mean that anybody, pretty much anyone can run except if you're in prison. You only want people whose views you approve of to run in elections. Is that right?’
‘Well, the electron system should be accustomed to the national or local conditions. In Hong Kong, we have seen too many political frictions over the past years. The victims are the whole public of Hong Kong people.’
‘But that means the people you disagree with can't run for election. I'm just asking you to clarify that that is what the new law says.’
‘Well, it depends on the definition of patriots. I believe there will be further regulations on how to define and how to select the process. Aim is ensure that patrias will have the administrative power of Hong Kong so that it will be good for the long run of governance.’
‘Usually, normally a patriot is someone who loves their country. But there are people who can love China, who can love their country. But they might not love, might not love President Xi, they might not love the Chinese Communist Party. Are they defined as patriots or are patriots only people who agree with the ruling clique?’
‘Hong Kong is part of China, and loving Hong Kong is the same of loving China.’
‘But is it the same as loving the Communist Party?’
‘Well, China is, China's governing party is the Communist Party and the Communist Party of China, it take a people centered approach. Actually the CPC is not as you defined in the Western media. We are doing this for the benefit of the whole Chinese people.’
‘And so the answer is yes, you have to love the Chinese Communist Party to be defined as a as a patriot.’
‘The current political system of the mainland China and the grand situation in Hong Kong.’
‘So what do you say to the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who was just said, this is the latest step by Beijing to hollow out the space for democratic debate in Hong Kong, contrary to the promises made by China, himself. And he's being urged, you will know by many, in his own party to now put sanctions on the leaders of Hong Kong, those who support Beijing.’
‘First, this is purely China's internal affair, we urge the British government not to intervene in any form of China's internal affair. After all, it is the Chinese government and Hong Kong is a government who cares about the long term stability and prosperity of Hong Kong. We don't have any reason to make Hong Kong instable, we need to ensure that stability and prosperity and success of Hong Kong’...
[On Xinjiang] ‘What was reported by BBC, you know, in China is it's called British Bias Cooperation. There are too many fake news… I notice that the BBC and other media have take footages that are not real pictures, false images.’
‘So I can see and the ambassador could see men on their knees blindfolded in their hundreds being led to trains. Now you saying that I can't see that, that those aren't real images that someone has made them up?
‘Well, I can tell you a story that a few days ago, you made a, BBC made a special program. Woman appearing on the TV, saying that she has been to the Education and Training Center. Actually she doesn't. She is just like an actress.’...
‘I'm asking you about a specific thing that your Ambassador saw. And he said on BBC television, he didn't say it was fake. He said, I'll get back to you. So I'm asking you to get back to us. We can see with our own eyes. The US Secretary of State says it's genocide we're witnessing. The Canadian Parliament says it's genocide. The Dutch Parliament says it's genocide. Many British Members of Parliament say that what we're saying is genocide. If you can't even answer a simple question, which is what are we seeing in those images? Why should people believe what you're saying?’"
Deng Xiaoping was not a patriot, since he sanctioned the 1984 Joint Declaration which let the UK interfere in China's internal affairs
Pablo Djankowicz Ruizinowitz's answer to Is China a developed country? - Quora - "I lived in Beijing for 6 months, and I was deeply impressed with the level of infrastructure development, especially in the inner city, where the wealthy elite families of Beijing live. This is also where the expats tended to hang out, and in the high-end bars and clubs of Sanlitun and the Workers’ Stadium. Some of those malls and clubs were among the best I’ve ever seen in my life—sleek, modern and oozing wealth. The best part—they wanted Westerners in these areas. I was a non-white Westerner who hung out with blond, blue-eyed Western Europeans, so we could get into clubs and bars almost for free that would cost me hundreds of dollars to get into in NYC. And they were awesome, comparable to the best of the best in NYC and London. But once in a while I would get a glimpse of the true poverty of China—really bad slums that could only be glanced above high walls (especially as you went down to the southern Beijing suburbs), really impoverished beggars out in the streets of Wudaokou and Haidian, panhandling. I then traveled throughout China outside Beijing, and that’s where the extent of the deep poverty could be seen in all its sad, depressing glory. Villages right next to the Great Wall, only 30 miles from Beijing, that were just as bad as the deprived rural villages of Guatemala and Cambodia—both countries which I’ve traveled to. What shocked me about this level of poverty is that it was so close to Beijing, and that there wasn’t much insulation built into these mud-brick houses considering the extreme cold of the region (at least in Guatemala and Cambodia the very poor lived in a climate where the weather was not extreme). Terrible, grinding poverty—with stone-age shack after stone-age shack—next to these beautifully-built roads in Inner Mongolia. Mile after mile of depressing, extremely poor, dusty towns in Hebei, Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces, some without paved roads. It was bizarre because you would sometimes go from first-world infrastructure—the highways in China look just like the ones in Western Europe or the kept-up parts of America, silky smooth and sleek—and then you’d get off the highway into very poor third-world towns where sometimes there were no paved roads if you went a bit further in. Xi’an, the major city of Shaanxi province, reminded me of Guatemala City or Managua, the main city of Nicaragua, with a small area filled with wealth (that’s where the tourists stayed) and then a lot of poverty all around... Outside the major cities, China is still very poor. And that’s still the majority of the country."
In echo of Mao era, China's schools in book-cleansing drive - "As schools reopened in China after the COVID-19 outbreak, they have thrown themselves into a nationwide exercise to remove books deemed politically incorrect, deepening Chinese President Xi Jinping’s push to instil patriotism and ideological purity in the education system. A directive from the Ministry of Education last October called on elementary and middle schools to clear out books from their libraries including “illegal” and “inappropriate” works. Now teachers have removed books from schools in at least 30 of mainland China’s 33 provinces and municipalities... Censorship in China has been intensifying under Xi, but analysts say this is the first national campaign aimed at libraries in decades. It comes as government employees in Hong Kong last week removed books by pro-democracy activists from public libraries to see whether they violate a new national security law. “This is the first movement targeted at libraries since the Cultural Revolution,” said Wu Qiang, a political analyst based in Beijing and former political science lecturer at Tsinghua University. In the late 1960s, zealous teenagers driven by Mao Zedong carried out a nationwide campaign targeting libraries and destroying or burning what they could get their hands on, as part of a wider destruction of traditional culture... The ministry directive did not list titles, but said illegal books are those “that damage the unity of the country, sovereignty or its territory; books that upset society’s order and damage societal stability; books that violate the Party’s guidelines and policies, smear or defame the Party, the country’s leaders and heroes.” Inappropriate books are “not in line with the socialist core values; that have deviant world views, life views and values” or are books “promoting religious doctrines and canons; promoting narrow nationalism and racism.”... One middle-school teacher in a rural area told Reuters their school had removed traditional comic-like picture books called lianhuanhua, or “linked images,” popular in China until the 1990s; books about Christianity; books about Buddhism; and notably, copies of “Animal Farm” and “1984” – George Orwell’s classic novels about authoritarianism which have been available in China for decades... “Book inspection and clean-up is meticulous but tedious work, shouldering the heavy responsibility of watering the flowers of the motherland,” announced a Weibo post in May by Xianlai school in Jiangxi province, above a picture of a woman in a floral dress sorting books on a shelf. “Our school has taken concrete action to cultivate a virtuous youth, and has raised the quality of our library books one step further.”... Reuters tried to call more than 100 other schools across the country to inquire about the removal campaign; 44 of the numbers were functioning. Of those, officials at 23 declined to comment or hung up. There was no response from the rest... The titles are being replaced with new books from a 422-page list published in the directive by the Ministry of Education. Suggestions include the “Communist Manifesto and the new era,” the poems of Mao Zedong, and “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” the influential 19th-century abolitionist novel of slavery in America... Initially, universities were the focus: Since 2017, many higher education institutions have been tasked with placing Xi’s ideology, which he has branded “Xi Jinping Thought,” at the core of their curricula, and the government has tasked universities to start research centres for it. Later, the drive broadened to younger minds. In 2018, the government launched a campaign to expunge unapproved foreign content from compulsory education textbooks used in the first nine years of school. The ministry’s notice from October called on schools to carry out an “inspection and cleaning programme” of books. It said three types should be rejected: illegal books, inappropriate books and books with poor appearance or no value. It also called on schools to perfect a mechanism of managing a library’s catalogue so any incoming book is inspected. If a problem arises, both the person who recommends the book to students and the one who decides to use it must be held responsible, it said. “Contending for the youth’s brains is one of the most important things for the Party,” said Wu, the political analyst in Beijing. Young protesters in Hong Kong last year have shown why China is so determined to keep a tight control of the education of young people. People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official newspaper, has said Hong Kong’s education was “poisoned.” State media has run multiple editorials in recent months attacking the city’s tradition of civic education. The party, said Sun Peidong, a professor with Shanghai’s Fudan University, thinks: “why that protest happened so brutally is because of the lack of patriotic education in Hong Kong.” The western province of Gansu was among the first to remove offending material. In December, a picture of two women burning books in front of a library in Zhenyuan, a small Gansu county, went viral online... Some posts said China was “burning books and burying Confucian scholars,” an edict supposedly issued by China’s first emperor, Qin Shihuang, more than 2,000 years ago to destroy works he regarded as politically dangerous... the Fudan University professor Sun, an expert on the history of the period who now lives in Paris, said she has faced increasing censorship since 2015. In 2019, she stopped teaching her long-time class about the era and quit the history department. The authorities “don’t want the ordinary people of China, especially the younger generation of China to know” about it"
Melissa Chen on Twitter - "Fun fact: When Xi Jinping took power in 2012, Lee Kuan Yew, former PM of Singapore, said approvingly, “I would put him in the Nelson Mandela class of persons.” I would put that statement in the Paul Krugman class of predictions."
China’s Global Mega-Projects Are Falling Apart - WSJ - "Built near a spewing volcano, it was the biggest infrastructure project ever in this country, a concrete colossus bankrolled by Chinese cash and so important to Beijing that China’s leader, Xi Jinping, spoke at the 2016 inauguration. Today, thousands of cracks have emerged in the $2.7 billion Coca Codo Sinclair hydroelectric plant, government engineers said, raising concerns that Ecuador’s biggest source of power could break down. At the same time, the Coca River’s mountainous slopes are eroding, threatening to damage the dam. “We could lose everything,” said Fabricio Yépez, an engineer at the University of San Francisco in Quito who has closely tracked the project’s problems. “And we don’t know if it could be tomorrow or in six months.” It is one of many Chinese-financed projects around the world plagued with construction flaws... China’s lending practices have been criticized by foreign leaders, economists and others, who say the program has contributed to debt crises in places like Sri Lanka and Zambia, and that many countries have limited ways to repay the loans. Some projects have also been called mismatches for a country’s infrastructure needs or damaging to the environment. Now, low-quality construction on some of the projects risks crippling key infrastructure and saddling nations with even more costs for years to come as they try to remedy problems. “We are suffering today because of the bad quality of equipment and parts” in Chinese-built projects, said René Ortiz, Ecuador’s former energy minister and ex-secretary general of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. China’s Embassy in Ecuador didn’t respond to requests for comment on the hydroelectric project... In Africa, more than 60% of the revenue major international contractors collected in 2019 went to Chinese companies, according to a 2021 paper by the China-Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University. Critics say the relatively easy availability of Chinese loans for Chinese construction can lead to inflated project costs because there is less pressure on governments to minimize expenses... In Pakistan, officials shut down the Neelum-Jhelum hydroelectric plant last year after detecting cracks in a tunnel that transports water through a mountain to drive a turbine. The head of the country’s electricity regulator, Tauseef Farooqui, told Pakistan’s senate in November that he was concerned the tunnel could collapse just four years after the 969-megawatt plant became operational. That would be disastrous for a nation that has been battered by rising energy prices, said Mr. Farooqui. The closure of the plant has already cost Pakistan about $44 million a month in higher power costs since July, according to the regulator. Hydropower plants can have operating lives of up to 100 years... Uganda’s power generation company said it has identified more than 500 construction defects in a Chinese-built 183-megawatt hydropower plant on the Nile river that has suffered frequent breakdowns since it went into operation in 2019... Completion of another Chinese-built hydropower plant further down the Nile, the 600-megawatt Karuma Hydro Power Project, is three years behind schedule, a delay that Ugandan officials have blamed on various construction defects, including cracked walls. UEGC also said the Chinese contractor, Sinohydro Corp., installed faulty cables, switches and a fire extinguishing system that need to be replaced. Earlier this year, the government had to start paying back the $1.44 billion it borrowed from the Export-Import Bank of China to finance the project, even as the plant remains inoperational. Sinohydro and China International Water didn’t respond to requests for comment on the Ugandan projects. In Angola, 10 years after the first tenants moved into Kilamba Kiaxi, a vast social housing project outside the capital of Luanda, many locals are complaining about cracked walls, moldy ceilings and poor construction... The Chinese government didn’t respond to requests for comment on criticism of Chinese-built infrastructure in Africa and Asia. A spokesman for Angola’s ministry for Construction and Public Works didn’t respond to requests for comment... Current government officials and Ecuadorean economists said some projects made little sense, including the expropriation of thousands of acres of farmland in an Andean valley to build a new metropolis called Yachay City that was supposed to turn Ecuador into a regional tech power. The Export-Import Bank of China provided a $200 million loan for early infrastructure works. Today, the project has been abandoned, with a $6.3 million supercomputer that was supposed to be used by researchers sitting out of doors and unused. In 2019, the comptroller general’s office reviewed the construction of 200 Chinese-built schools, reporting that some of the buildings had problems with their foundations and others had classrooms with sloping floors and exposed cables. Fifty-seven of the schools were finished behind schedule... In 2014, 13 Chinese and Ecuadorean employees were crushed to death in a construction accident. Since the 2016 opening, officials from the state electricity utility have found more than 17,000 cracks in the power plant’s eight turbines, according to the state utility. It blames the fissures on faulty steel imported from China. In 2021, the utility took Sinohydro to international arbitration in Chile, which is ongoing, over demands to repair the damage."
Chabuduo
Xi Jinping’s dream of world domination is over - "China’s population has fallen by around 850,000 since 2021, the first time since 1961. This was expected to happen about 10 years hence. The fact it’s happened now is yet further proof that Chinese Communist Party (CCP) policies are incapable of generating economic growth at levels needed to achieve Beijing’s aspirations to superpower status. On the contrary, Xi Jinping’s incompetence increasingly undermines the wellbeing of the Chinese population, the stability of the CCP regime and by extension, peace and security in the world at large... For years before the pandemic, the Chinese domestic economy had been quietly stagnating. Potemkin-style lockdown policies that crippled the economy without lifting immunity levels then paralysed economic activity. Xi’s draconian assault on private tech entrepreneurs has sent the sector best suited to employing educated young people into decline. By July last year, youth unemployment reportedly peaked at 20 per cent. The inflated construction and property sectors have imploded, and debt has reached unsustainable levels. Xi knows urgent steps are needed to revive the economy. His formula for success is a frankly contradictory model called the “Dual Circulation Economy”. With the latest virus surge worsening the crisis at home, the domestic economy is unlikely to make good headway in the near future; while China still depends on trade with the US, Europe and other increasingly cautious or hostile free world partners more than it does on expedient pseudo-allies in Russia and the Middle East; so the sunny uplands of world economic domination are still far out of reach, perhaps for ever."
Chinese netizens slam Korean celebrities for saying 'Lunar New Year' instead of 'Chinese New Year' - "Chinese social media users flooded the comment sections of Korean celebrities who wished their fans good fortunes using the phrase “Lunar New Year” instead of “Chinese New Year.”... Chinese commenters quickly bombarded the post with criticism of her use of “Seollal” instead of "Chinese New Year," even accusing Jang of cultural appropriation... Conversely, some celebrities who used the term “Chinese New Year” received criticism from South Korean commenters."
NTU CNY Board Vandalised With 'Lunar' Crossed Out, University Says Usage Of Word Is Inclusive - "The picture, taken by a person on Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu, was accompanied by a post protesting the university’s decision to remove all mentions of ‘Chinese New Year’ and replace them with ‘Lunar New Year’... It urged students to protest against the SAO and NTU’s decision and safeguard Chinese traditional culture... A user who claimed to be one of the staff members at the celebration said they tried to fix the vandalism by using a marker pen and paper tape, but someone took the tape off again later. In the end, according to the user, staff had to use an isolation belt to protect the board."
Shanghai Economy Shrinks Almost 14% as Covid Lockdown Takes Toll - Bloomberg - "Shanghai’s economy contracted 13.7% from a year ago, the biggest decline among China’s provinces and municipalities. In Jilin -- which also imposed a lockdown to curb Covid infections -- GDP shrank 4.5%"
Congressional Black Caucus Partners With Chinese Communist Party Influence Group. - "The Congressional Black Caucus partnered with a Chinese Communist Party influence group flagged for its efforts to malignly influence U.S. government policy on a virtual visit discussing “economic and trade cooperation”... The caucus claims to tackle racism and “marginalization,” but, as The National Pulse has previously revealed, it collaborates with one of the most racist, repressive, and genocidal regimes in history: the Chinese Communist Party. In addition to CBC members sending their student-age constituents on propaganda trips to China, the group also had its staff members participate in a “virtual visit” with the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs (CPIFA) in December 2021... The U.S. State Department compares the United Front to the Chinese regime’s “magic weapon” to advance its preferred policies... While the CBC and its members are quick to call out America as a systemically racist country, the caucus routinely fails to call out the Chinese Communist Party for its human rights abuses and exploitative trade practices."
Peng Shuai: WTA demands private meeting before tournaments can resume - "The governing body for women's tennis says it wants to meet Peng Shuai in person before it can resume tournaments in China. Last year the former tennis star accused a top Chinese official of sexual assault in a social media post. Ms Peng then briefly disappeared from the public eye. She later denied making the allegations. The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) also called for a "formal investigation" into her accusations. In a statement, the WTA said it would not "compromise its founding principles" to operate events in China... Ms Peng caused an uproar with a 1,600 word essay on Chinese social media platform Weibo, where she claimed that former Chinese vice-premier Zhang Gaoli forced her into sex during a years-long relationship. It sparked international concern for her safety and prompted the WTA to suspend tournaments in China. However the former doubles world number one later said that she deleted the post because she "wanted to". In highly controlled interviews with foreign media outlets, she also described the situation as a "huge misunderstanding". While Ms Peng attended the Winter Olympics in Beijing last February, she has not been seen outside China since first making the allegations. She retired from competitive tennis in February 2022."
Chen Weihua （陈卫华） on Twitter - "Most people assumed only big nations bully small ones. But in the case of Vietnam in 1979, it was Vietnam which provoked multiple times (bullied China). That was why China decided to teach it a lesson. Chinese self restraint/tolerance is well-known until the Red Line is crossed."
China Bans Time Travel Films and Shows, Citing Disrespect of History - "“The rationale [for the time travel ban] is that whatever isn’t possible in the real world belongs to superstition,” said film critic and journalist Raymond Zhou Liming, who notes that time travel is untouched by censors in Chinese literature and theater... “Most time travel content that I’ve seen (in literature and theater, that is) is actually not heavy on science, but an excuse to comment on current affairs”... Apparently unhappy with film and TV presenting even the fictional notion that China’s ability to provide happiness is a thing of the past for the average man, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television posted its guidance about time travel... Since China’s ruling party bases much of its doctrine and strict media management on scientific Marxism, the fantasy of time travel – which potentially gives the individual the freedom to reorder reality – conflicts with politically correct thought completely ruled by the CPC."
Meme - "How Southeast Asians thought the Japanese would treat them in 1941 *Rex, happy dinosaur from Toy Story*"
"How the Japanese really treated them *T-Rex from Jurassic Park*"
"How Africans think the Chinese will treat them in the 21st century *Rex, happy dinosaur from Toy Story*"
Meme - "Learn Cyber bullying with chinese characteristics online in 4 weeks
Chen Weihua. Mastery Course"
Tofu Dreg: China's poorly constructed residential towers - "This video starts by showing construction workers in China alarmed at the brittle rebar they've been given to put in concrete. Then it gets worse. Welcome to Tofu Dreg, the dismal buildings going up in China at the place where Chabuduo meets the Chinese Dream."
China’s Dangerous Tofu Projects - "The term “tofu project” was first coined by Premier Zhu Rongji in 1998, who said on a tour of flood dykes on the Yangtze River that they were as flimsy and porous as tofu dregs, the leftover bits in the tofu-making process. The term – and the problem – gained national traction after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, where 20,000 of the almost 70,000 victims were schoolchildren who died in collapsed school buildings, which were later proven to be hastily and shoddily built... projects are often rushed for impending state anniversaries. For example, ahead of the 90th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party on July 1, 2011, a number of construction projects opened, including the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge. However, a CCTV report just days after the bridge opened showed missing and unsecured bolts and gaps in the guard rail. In 2007, a bridge in Hunan Province, intended to open in time for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the local prefecture, collapsed during construction, killing 64 people. These projects, known as “tribute projects,” have gained a great deal of negative attention in China. Why is the quality of some of these structures so poor? Corruption and graft undoubtedly play a role when project money is skimmed off the top for and by officials, leaving less funding for quality materials, qualified staff, and acceptable workmanship. Additionally, projects are often granted to companies that have more political ties than qualifications... Local governments, meanwhile, have massive incentives to promote rapid and unfettered growth, and often turn a blind eye to construction standards. For one, local governments rely on the revenues arising from construction, including land sales and transfer fees. In 2010, total land transfer revenues totaled 3,000 billion RMB ($464 billion), which was more than 70 percent of local government revenues. For another, local officials are promoted based on the growth rates of their jurisdictions."
Tofu-Dreg Construction in China - "Recently the fragility of a “tofu-dreg” construction was caught on video in Chongqing. A man could simply demolish one of the “concrete” pillars on a bridge with bare hand. The concrete pillar is designed as a part of safety railing that is supposed to prevent people from falling into river. Local bureaucrats confirmed that this ¥4,750,219 (approximately $680,000) bridge construction project began in Dec 2017, and it was completed in Aug 2019. They explained that the developer, Hunan Construction Group, established in 1992, had been involved in highway and bridge construction even though it had been cited many instances of using lower quality materials and overlooking substandard work in the past. Ironically the local bureaucrats approved this particular bridge’s structural strength, design and dimensions after the completion of main structure. However, the concrete pillars on both sides of the bridge had not been assessed or examined by authority because the railings were considered as “accessories” only. At the end, someone would ask, “how much is a human life actually worth in China?” In general, social economic infrastructures, such as roads, bridges, public buildings, are vulnerable to corruption because every layer of CCP’s hieratical structure wants to skim off from the budgets and abuse power"
Tofu Residue Project-Forbidden News - "CCP banned news that must be seen over the wall, banned news, mainland news, China news interpretation commentary, banned news click on the ranking list"
