The current excitement in China

[Durnik]

..

General observations after a few days wandering around : it's kind of quiet but the weather has been cold and rainy. Some businesses died, some new places showed up, most obvious fatalities have been the food courts in the ground floor of the big buildings. Maybe half those places gone.

..

Thanks for (all of - abbreviated for space) this.

[StevenBauer]

https://youtu.be/CjxU39DYSfM

[StevenBauer]

This guys got a crappy job:




https://youtu.be/e6KRKrSymb0

[skuthorp]

#41.
Stuck between a rock and a hard place, and in strife wherever he goes, even if as there he goes nowhere.
I am imagining what his blood pressure might be…………….

[miketaylor]

This seems to be more widespread than you suggest.

I am presently in Turkey and have much the same problem.

I can open and read the site but connot sign in or post and much of the graphic content is unobtainable.

I get round the problem by using a VPN which currently says I am in France.

Can you get round the problem in the same way from China? If not I would suggest that there are chinese problems as well as the site admin's.

Mike

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

VPNs are extremely widespread in China - see my post above on tunnelling out of the Great Firewall.

In fact they are so very common that I assume they are tolerated as long as people don’t do it in the streets and frighten the horses. In my time (but see HRD comment above!) satellite dishes were banned - and on almost every building.

[Gerarddm]

China Vows Crackdown On 'Hostile Forces' As Public Tests Xi | HuffPost Latest News

[Gerarddm]

^ I assume these stories come from reputable reporters, who have seen things that perhaps you have not?

NYTimes has a headline that says that Jiang's death may pose problems for Xi. I did not delve into the article yet.

[Gerarddm]

Opinion | The Communist Party Is Losing China’s People - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

FWIW. By a Chinese writer who lives in Beijing.

[skuthorp]

Paywall, but that is being talked about here too. If they loose the people's confidence they cannot stand without even more draconian measures. And those measures have a negative long term effect as well. Of course they could go all NK about it……………….

[Gerarddm]

They don't effing want "democracy". They want a government that works.

Aye, there's the rub.

The New York Times is garbage on this subject. The only thing they know about China is that they don't like it. They are morons, liars and assholes. Washington Post, home base for Janet Cooke, is in the same boat.

Sorry, just the facts ma'am.

No, those are your OPINIONS of the NYTimes and the WaPost. BTW, Nicholas Kristof today has an even handed op-ed piece in the NYTimes. He was their China bureau chief for a few years. This is his opinion too.

[George.]

OK, the NYT is a propaganda outlet, and so are all the other Western news media reporting on the unrest in China. Of this we are assured vehemently in long-winded posts of a familiar tone.

One wonders, does China employ trolls and bots like Russia?

[Garth Jones]

So the first sentence of China's constitution is:

Article 1 The People’s Republic of China is a socialist state under the people’s democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants.

In my reading 'socialist state under the people's democratic dictatorship' pretty well equates with our general concept of 'communism.' The rest of the document fits too.There is only one party in China, and it does in fact rule, so while some folks may think that 'ruling communist party' is a dog whistle phrase - and to to some it probably is - the words seem accurate.

If anybody else is interested, the Chinese constitution can be found here: http://www.npc.gov.cn/zgrdw/englishn...nt_1372963.htm

[Canoeyawl]

They are morons, liars and assholes.

.

...

[Gerarddm]

HRDavies, I am inclined to give the NYTimes and the WaPost a bit more slack than you considering the sheer number of Pultizers they've won.

YMMV, of course.

[Gill]

HRDavies, I am inclined to give the NYTimes and the WaPost a bit more slack than you considering the sheer number of Pultizers they've won.

YMMV, of course.

Like the ones they were awarded for the Russiagate hoax? About as well-deserved as Obama's Nobel Prize.

[Hallam]

At first glance I thought the thread title was The Current excrement in China......

....carry on.

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Re HRD’s post 54, above:

I remember chatting, at a Queen’s Birthday party held by the British Embassy in Beijing around 2,000, to the China correspondent of the London “Daily Telegraph”.

I asked him why he reported as he did and he replied very honestly that he could only file the stuff that his Editor wanted.

[StevenBauer]

What do you think about this HR?

AC72FA12-AAF7-460D-9942-B17696032C74.jpg

[StevenBauer]

The fact that they have expelled all the foreign journalists doesn’t seem like a red flag to you?

[Osborne Russell]

They don't effing want "democracy". They want a government that works.

In that case they are the enemy of human rights, and they and their commie government can eff off.

I don't believe it to be the case. Why do you? Is that the message of the blank pieces of paper they hold up?

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

No. (They haven't "expelled" anyone, btw. All foreign visas were cancelled early on, they just have not restarted the journalist visas and under the circumstances I can understand why. How much stupid crap did the western press print during this thing ? "Engineered bioweapon" anyone ?)

Prior to Mr Trump's ascendancy I'd have felt different but these days I have less than zero respect for the press. If the Times and Washpost were interested in actual journalism things would be different.

But they aren't, so eff 'em.

I think that The Economist’s David Rennie is in Beijing and has been there since 2018. I stand to be corrected but I recall columns by him on the pandemic written very obviously by a résident lao wai, and the Economist staff page shows him as resident in Beijing.

[Osborne Russell]

In other news, Canada has ordered The People's Republic to stop using storefronts as bases for their goon squads.

[Gerarddm]

I know about the occasional clinker article that the NYTimes has produced. I still give them more credence than Pravda. A low bar, I know.

[Osborne Russell]

In other other news

I was dragged into China consulate, protester Bob Chan says

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-63318285

He described being beaten by masked men outside the consulate, some of whom he said were trying to take down a display of banners.

"I then found myself being dragged into the grounds of the consulate. I held on to the gates where I was kicked and punched, I could not hold on for long," he said.

"I was eventually pulled onto the ground of the consulate. I felt punches and kicks from several men. Other protesters were trying to get me out of this situation, but to no avail.

"The attack only stopped when a man who turned out to be a uniformed officer from the Greater Manchester Police pulled me outside the gates.

London council rejects new Chinese embassy amid residents’ safety fears

People living near Tower of London site said largest diplomatic base in UK would put lives at risk

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...s-safety-fears

In a tense meeting, the Tower Hamlets council voted unanimously against the proposed development to move the current embassy to a 2-hectare (5-acre) site opposite the Tower of London. Local residents and advocacy groups, who feared being swept into protests, called the plans into question, saying they would endanger people’s lives.

Simon Cheng, the founder of Hongkongers in Britain and a Tower Hamlets resident, said he was happy with the outcome. He raised concerns about surveillance and said at Thursday’s meeting that the plans put the lives of those who fled Beijing’s crackdown at risk.

“I think the Hongkonger community, and many others – Uyghur Muslims, Tibetans, and even our Chinese community – will be happy about this,” said Cheng after the vote. “We definitely don’t want to see the authoritarian state with upgraded facilities and to impose a greater national security reach to the community who should be with the democracy and freedom.”

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

“Wolf Warrior” nonsense, again.

This puzzles me, because the regular Chinese diplomats whom I have known have been first class people. Very sound on the “line” but able to maintain their national position on any issue fluently and with charm.

[George.]

I see. No wolf warriors in China. They are not buzzing Taiwan with weapons all the time and crowing about it in the local press. All lies made up by journalists out of the country.

What about the Uighur genocide, HRDavies? Is that for real or more foreign press crap?

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

This was what I meant by “wolf warrior” stuff:

It definitely happened; it was done by lower level Consular staff and it definitely sank the plans for a super Embassy on the site of the Royal Mint:

I was dragged into China consulate, protester Bob Chan says

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-63318285

He described being beaten by masked men outside the consulate, some of whom he said were trying to take down a display of banners.

"I then found myself being dragged into the grounds of the consulate. I held on to the gates where I was kicked and punched, I could not hold on for long," he said.

"I was eventually pulled onto the ground of the consulate. I felt punches and kicks from several men. Other protesters were trying to get me out of this situation, but to no avail.

"The attack only stopped when a man who turned out to be a uniformed officer from the Greater Manchester Police pulled me outside the gates.

[George.]

Well, this is interesting. Thanks to the propaganda campaign in Western media about nonexistent protests, China has scrapped zero covid and eased restrictions.

[George.]

You are way too strident and aggressive to be credible, HRDavies. You sound like you have a chip on your shoulder at best, or a hidden agenda.

[George.]

From BBC:

How have the rules changed?


Following the protests against Covid lockdowns across the country last week - including direct criticism of President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party - the government announced an easing of the measures.


These include:

• Lockdowns now targeted to buildings, units or floors rather than to whole neighbourhoods or cities
• "High-risk" areas to come out of lockdown in five days if no new cases are found
• Schools to remain open if there's no wider campus outbreak
• People with Covid no longer required to go to a centralised quarantine facility
• PCR tests are no longer required to enter public transport, restaurants, gyms and other public buildings, with the exception of schools, hospitals and nursing homes
• Lateral flow tests to replace PCR tests in most cases
• Inter-province travel restrictions lifted

Earlier, the government reduced isolation from 10 to eight days - five days at an isolation centre, plus three at home.


China is also now allowing international arrivals for the first time since March 2022.

Not having to go to a "centralized quarantine facility" is pretty major.

[Peerie Maa]

You are way too strident and aggressive to be credible, HRDavies. You sound like you have a chip on your shoulder at best, or a hidden agenda.

Don't you just love it when someone starts a p!$$!ng contest with someone who lived in the country under discussion, worked for a company owned within said country, and still, I dare say, has contacts living there.

[George.]

someone who lived in the country under discussion, worked for a company owned within said country, and still, I dare say, has contacts living there...

...and claims that a whole bunch of journalists who have also lived and worked in the country under discussion, and still, I dare say, have contacts living there, are all liars and propagandists, while he alone knows the truth.

[George.]

Still too strident.

The BBC article says nothing about this "green code" you talk about so much. It does say that people no longer have to go to a "centralized quarantine facility", to which your response is:

I am not sure this is true or not or has been true for a while or not.

Surely if you live in China and know all about it you should know about that.

[George.]

It most certainly does.
This is the entire current complaint by the people of China.

Wait, I thought there was no complaining by the people in China. All propaganda.

Not having to go to a quarantine facility for testing positive sounds like a much bigger deal. No comment?