I live in China, Beijing to be exact. I believe that western media is again not really reporting what is happening here.
People here are not protesting for democracy, but for easing of lockdowns. That several people are shouting "We want democracy" means absolutly nothing, this is enormous country with 4.5 Population of US. You can find people yelling "We want emperor back". Majority people are pissed, because they follow world cup and see that nobody is wearing mask. For example on protest in Beijing they were shouting that they are patriots, and want lockdowns to end.
As for protest, what I was surprised, is how fast have they worked. In less than week, they have starting easing measures. Guangzhou (big city in south) has removed all measures.
In West people were literally called Nazis, conspiracy theorist, anti science for over a year when they were fighting lockdowns. DeSantis was called crazy for opening Florida. Gavin Newsome in Commiefornia was decimating small business with lockdowns. In Europe (continent where I was born) protestors were beaten by the police. Australia had interment camps. Canada and their truckers not to mention (who were called white supremacist for wanting easier Covid measures).
I am not saying this to show how China is good, but how bad thing are in US. Government and MSM were absolutly out of control for 2 years, any descent was punished to same level as CPC is doing in China. Only ironically their protest actualy worked, and in US you still have idiots doing double masking an Dr Fauci is waking free man.
When you compare the bravery of the citizens of China and Iran to the “resist” Blueanon crowd in the US, the contrast is striking.
I used to manage a team in China and travel there a few times a year. One guy on my team, in particular, was very western. He LOVED the US and especially, the NBA (I got to take him to a Celtics game when he came over to the states which was awesome).
When he was in the states or we were on calls together (not on WeChat mind you), we would discuss politics, what was happening in Hong Kong at the time, etc. But, on a trip to China, we were getting coffee one afternoon, and I brought up a topic we had discussed many times before...around the difference between the expectations of Americans to have a government that respects individual liberty vs. the Chinese expectations of a strongman leader, and he got VERY uncomfortable. Later he asked me to not bring up those discussions in public when I’m in China because you never know who’s listening.
I was really taken aback. It was one of those small moments that makes you appreciative to be an American; that I never have to worry about who is listening over my shoulder (other than for the fear of liberal schoolmarms, to wag their finger at me).
Praying for the Chinese people, and hope that at the very least American companies (looking at you, Apple and Google), can stay out of the way and not aid the Chinese government in their repression.
I’m hopeful but I question many leaders in the West’s true resolve. We saw they were perfectly happy to squelch protestors in their own country (Canada and Australia for example) using methods the CCP would have been proud to call their own. As a result, any vocal support from many of these clowns will be nothing but empty virtue.
We see the same thing happening in Iran, with young people rising up and saying "No!"
Unfortunately, leaders in the West--and particularly the current leaders of the federal government of the U.S.--are more sympathetic to the leaders of authoritarian regimes like China and Iran than they are to the protestors. Oh, there are some tacit comments about people's right to protest; meanwhile, international deals are still being struck with the dictators crushing the protestors.
The sad reality is that these particular governments WILL NOT STOP murdering their own citizens. No one on the global stage has the will to make them stop or even think twice.
Like Bari Weiss's interview with Benjamin Netanyahu, this is a very powerful article and report by a courageous, experienced and well informed journalist.
To me, this is the kind of journalism that we used to see in the Wall Street Journal, NY Times and WaPo, but they all have so many commercial conflicts of interest that we don't see this kind of reporting much anymore.
CNBC's and the NY Time's Andrew Ross Sorkin's interview yesterday with Sam Bankman-Fried about his FTX catastrophe was just as gripping and impressive.
As a reader and viewer, I don't know enough to fact check anyone. That is why I read and watch so many versions and recaps of important stories on web sites like Common Sense, TheDispatch.com, wsj.com, Seekingalpha.com and WaPo.
After you do your homework, you can jump to some conclusions, but you do it with humility because you know that in a few minutes new information will become available that may change your view of things.
Some stories, like China's, are not new. They're just more of the same depressing reports about how power-greedy people are so willing to destroy and take other people's lives on their ways to political power.
No greed is worse than the greed for political power.
Are the lockdowns really about covid? Or are they a way to minimize the rioting? The Chinese people have a lot to be angry about other than the covid policy. They lost their money buying apartments that never existed, there aren’t enough women to marry the men, and they are being watched wherever they go, whatever they do. And now they have Mao 2.0 for life.
Once the totalitarians gain control, it's extraordinarily difficult to remove them. But not impossible.
Yet there are always quislings, looking to bend to the power of the state. We saw them in full bloom during our pandemic. Willing to sacrifice liberty for the illusion of safety. Swallowing and repeating the lies of those in power. That the vaccines worked and were safe. They clearly don't and they aren't. That lockdowns work. They don't. And the damage - physical, psychological and economic are staggering. That masks are essential. They aren't. They are marks of nothing but abject fear and obeisance (driving masked and alone????) And that moral and good people would accede to the trashing of the Bill of Rights and accept vaccine mandates. Or craziest of all, that Jesus would want you to take the jab.
Our own totalitarian liars are different from the Chinese tyrants only in degree, not in inclination.
The fate of the Ceausescus should be the fate of all tyrants.
I have no sympathy for people who oppose one totalitarian ideology while embracing another. What do the Uyghurs expect from a government that knows how totalitarianism works?
In addition, I am more concerned with the domestic power exercised by Chairman Biden than President Xi as, closer to home, Midshipmen are denied graduation by the USNA because they refuse to take a rushed, experimental “vaccine” that doesn’t work and poses known and yet denied health risks in the short term and unknown health risks in the long term.
DOWN WITH BIDEN AND TRUDEAU AND THEIR BLOODY, BLOOD-CLOT-PRODUCING, REGIMES
We want to “renegotiate” too. Free, fair, and transparent elections. Election Day, not election months. NO BALLOT HARVESTING. No state supported racism. Equality under the law.
The only thing that really matters is control of the army. No revolution or major change can take place in China while the army is totally under the control of the party.
Somewhat related to this in the spirit of information flow and the fact that all of us are finally understanding things outside of our bubbles: SEVEN THOUSAND PEDOPHILES are being released in the state of California.
The people releasing these cretins are pro-criminal DEMOCRATS and these pedophiles will be coming to a state near you.
There are links to support this, but do not want to clog Bari's comment section with hyperlink issues.
Fascinating: none of the coverage I’ve read so far made the explicit connection that The Urumqi fire specifically affected Uyghurs. Granted, some mentioned the region and I could have inferred this. My geography is not as solid as it might be and I didn’t make the connection.
It sometimes feels too easy to project our own desires and cultural assumptions onto other peoples. No doubt there are those young Chinese who yearn for a Western-style freedom; but let’s not jump to conclusions about what the Chinese people want.
Hopefully the Chi-Comms don’t invade Taiwan as a way to divert attention from their domestic problems.
I think the world would be a much better place without the regimes currently running China and Iran, but I think we should be prepared for the violence that usually follows regime changes.
Interesting parallel in that the CCP is going to extremes to "eradicate a virus" while on the other side of the world, a certain faction is going to extremes to "eradicate "racism."" Both result in censorship and incarceration, be it literal or figurative.
The following quote assumes that locking people indoors and other extreme measures are the cause of a lower COVID death rate in China. Actually, the cause of a lower COVID death rate in China is that the death rate is less than 1% and all of these measures are pure folly. Add to this that one cannot eradicate a virus anyway.
FOLLY. On both sides of the world. FOLLY.
"True, the country has seen relatively few Covid deaths, but it has come at a steep price: to keep people inside, the authorities have, in many cases, welded apartment doors shut or locked them with chains."
Unfortunately these protests will be snuffed out like Tiananmen, Hong Kong, and Jimmy Lai. American corporations could make a difference but are too reliant on China and therefore, cowardly. People like Steve Kerr and Mark Cuban are enablers and justify their involvement by saying “the U.S. isn’t perfect either”
I live in China, Beijing to be exact. I believe that western media is again not really reporting what is happening here.
People here are not protesting for democracy, but for easing of lockdowns. That several people are shouting "We want democracy" means absolutly nothing, this is enormous country with 4.5 Population of US. You can find people yelling "We want emperor back". Majority people are pissed, because they follow world cup and see that nobody is wearing mask. For example on protest in Beijing they were shouting that they are patriots, and want lockdowns to end.
As for protest, what I was surprised, is how fast have they worked. In less than week, they have starting easing measures. Guangzhou (big city in south) has removed all measures.
In West people were literally called Nazis, conspiracy theorist, anti science for over a year when they were fighting lockdowns. DeSantis was called crazy for opening Florida. Gavin Newsome in Commiefornia was decimating small business with lockdowns. In Europe (continent where I was born) protestors were beaten by the police. Australia had interment camps. Canada and their truckers not to mention (who were called white supremacist for wanting easier Covid measures).
I am not saying this to show how China is good, but how bad thing are in US. Government and MSM were absolutly out of control for 2 years, any descent was punished to same level as CPC is doing in China. Only ironically their protest actualy worked, and in US you still have idiots doing double masking an Dr Fauci is waking free man.
When you compare the bravery of the citizens of China and Iran to the “resist” Blueanon crowd in the US, the contrast is striking.
I used to manage a team in China and travel there a few times a year. One guy on my team, in particular, was very western. He LOVED the US and especially, the NBA (I got to take him to a Celtics game when he came over to the states which was awesome).
When he was in the states or we were on calls together (not on WeChat mind you), we would discuss politics, what was happening in Hong Kong at the time, etc. But, on a trip to China, we were getting coffee one afternoon, and I brought up a topic we had discussed many times before...around the difference between the expectations of Americans to have a government that respects individual liberty vs. the Chinese expectations of a strongman leader, and he got VERY uncomfortable. Later he asked me to not bring up those discussions in public when I’m in China because you never know who’s listening.
I was really taken aback. It was one of those small moments that makes you appreciative to be an American; that I never have to worry about who is listening over my shoulder (other than for the fear of liberal schoolmarms, to wag their finger at me).
Praying for the Chinese people, and hope that at the very least American companies (looking at you, Apple and Google), can stay out of the way and not aid the Chinese government in their repression.
I’m hopeful but I question many leaders in the West’s true resolve. We saw they were perfectly happy to squelch protestors in their own country (Canada and Australia for example) using methods the CCP would have been proud to call their own. As a result, any vocal support from many of these clowns will be nothing but empty virtue.
We see the same thing happening in Iran, with young people rising up and saying "No!"
Unfortunately, leaders in the West--and particularly the current leaders of the federal government of the U.S.--are more sympathetic to the leaders of authoritarian regimes like China and Iran than they are to the protestors. Oh, there are some tacit comments about people's right to protest; meanwhile, international deals are still being struck with the dictators crushing the protestors.
The sad reality is that these particular governments WILL NOT STOP murdering their own citizens. No one on the global stage has the will to make them stop or even think twice.
Like Bari Weiss's interview with Benjamin Netanyahu, this is a very powerful article and report by a courageous, experienced and well informed journalist.
To me, this is the kind of journalism that we used to see in the Wall Street Journal, NY Times and WaPo, but they all have so many commercial conflicts of interest that we don't see this kind of reporting much anymore.
CNBC's and the NY Time's Andrew Ross Sorkin's interview yesterday with Sam Bankman-Fried about his FTX catastrophe was just as gripping and impressive.
As a reader and viewer, I don't know enough to fact check anyone. That is why I read and watch so many versions and recaps of important stories on web sites like Common Sense, TheDispatch.com, wsj.com, Seekingalpha.com and WaPo.
After you do your homework, you can jump to some conclusions, but you do it with humility because you know that in a few minutes new information will become available that may change your view of things.
Some stories, like China's, are not new. They're just more of the same depressing reports about how power-greedy people are so willing to destroy and take other people's lives on their ways to political power.
No greed is worse than the greed for political power.
Are the lockdowns really about covid? Or are they a way to minimize the rioting? The Chinese people have a lot to be angry about other than the covid policy. They lost their money buying apartments that never existed, there aren’t enough women to marry the men, and they are being watched wherever they go, whatever they do. And now they have Mao 2.0 for life.
Once the totalitarians gain control, it's extraordinarily difficult to remove them. But not impossible.
Yet there are always quislings, looking to bend to the power of the state. We saw them in full bloom during our pandemic. Willing to sacrifice liberty for the illusion of safety. Swallowing and repeating the lies of those in power. That the vaccines worked and were safe. They clearly don't and they aren't. That lockdowns work. They don't. And the damage - physical, psychological and economic are staggering. That masks are essential. They aren't. They are marks of nothing but abject fear and obeisance (driving masked and alone????) And that moral and good people would accede to the trashing of the Bill of Rights and accept vaccine mandates. Or craziest of all, that Jesus would want you to take the jab.
Our own totalitarian liars are different from the Chinese tyrants only in degree, not in inclination.
The fate of the Ceausescus should be the fate of all tyrants.
UYGHURS
I have no sympathy for people who oppose one totalitarian ideology while embracing another. What do the Uyghurs expect from a government that knows how totalitarianism works?
In addition, I am more concerned with the domestic power exercised by Chairman Biden than President Xi as, closer to home, Midshipmen are denied graduation by the USNA because they refuse to take a rushed, experimental “vaccine” that doesn’t work and poses known and yet denied health risks in the short term and unknown health risks in the long term.
DOWN WITH BIDEN AND TRUDEAU AND THEIR BLOODY, BLOOD-CLOT-PRODUCING, REGIMES
We want to “renegotiate” too. Free, fair, and transparent elections. Election Day, not election months. NO BALLOT HARVESTING. No state supported racism. Equality under the law.
The only thing that really matters is control of the army. No revolution or major change can take place in China while the army is totally under the control of the party.
Somewhat related to this in the spirit of information flow and the fact that all of us are finally understanding things outside of our bubbles: SEVEN THOUSAND PEDOPHILES are being released in the state of California.
The people releasing these cretins are pro-criminal DEMOCRATS and these pedophiles will be coming to a state near you.
There are links to support this, but do not want to clog Bari's comment section with hyperlink issues.
Fascinating: none of the coverage I’ve read so far made the explicit connection that The Urumqi fire specifically affected Uyghurs. Granted, some mentioned the region and I could have inferred this. My geography is not as solid as it might be and I didn’t make the connection.
It sometimes feels too easy to project our own desires and cultural assumptions onto other peoples. No doubt there are those young Chinese who yearn for a Western-style freedom; but let’s not jump to conclusions about what the Chinese people want.
Clearly the Covid restrictions are the main rub.
Sic semper tyrannus.
Hopefully the Chi-Comms don’t invade Taiwan as a way to divert attention from their domestic problems.
I think the world would be a much better place without the regimes currently running China and Iran, but I think we should be prepared for the violence that usually follows regime changes.
Interesting parallel in that the CCP is going to extremes to "eradicate a virus" while on the other side of the world, a certain faction is going to extremes to "eradicate "racism."" Both result in censorship and incarceration, be it literal or figurative.
The following quote assumes that locking people indoors and other extreme measures are the cause of a lower COVID death rate in China. Actually, the cause of a lower COVID death rate in China is that the death rate is less than 1% and all of these measures are pure folly. Add to this that one cannot eradicate a virus anyway.
FOLLY. On both sides of the world. FOLLY.
"True, the country has seen relatively few Covid deaths, but it has come at a steep price: to keep people inside, the authorities have, in many cases, welded apartment doors shut or locked them with chains."
Unfortunately these protests will be snuffed out like Tiananmen, Hong Kong, and Jimmy Lai. American corporations could make a difference but are too reliant on China and therefore, cowardly. People like Steve Kerr and Mark Cuban are enablers and justify their involvement by saying “the U.S. isn’t perfect either”