In a country ruled by party dictatorship, the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party is dependent on faith in the party’s leadership. To achieve that, the party does something that it probably does better than any other government in the world – brainwashing. That’s because the folks in the propaganda department understand the insecurities of the Chinese people better than anyone else.
The 2015 movie Warrior Wolf 1 made a star out of actor Wu Jing who supposedly wrote and directed the movie which boasts a powerful PLA and an elite force named “Warrior Wolf” battling a drug cartel operating near the border. Released at a time of moribund stock market performance, the movie earned almost USD 90 million – a small success. Wu Jing played the hero who goes by the name of Leng Feng, a rebellious Rambo-like character who broke the rules but got the job done.
2 years later in 2017, the sequel for Warrior Wolf was released. This time, the enemy was the Western world. Leng Feng (Wu Jing) the Chinese Rambo settled down to a peaceful life in Africa after being released from prison for killing a bully who mocked his patriotism. Reminds me of 水浒传 . Trouble soon came knocking as civil war broke out in that unnamed African country. The rebels/mercenaries won and the Chinese army could not evacuate the Chinese expats because there was no approval from the UN. Leng Feng (Wu Jing) became a one-man army battling a Western-sponsored rebel army. He killed its leader, avenging his girlfriend’s death. He then rescued the refugees and hostages, bringing them safely to the UN camp. The most memorable part of the movie was his statement at the end “Don’t give up if you run into danger abroad. Please remember, a strong motherland will always have your back!’
The misleading words even appeared on the image of a Chinese passport. 无论你在海外遇到了怎样的危险，请你记住，你的背后有一个强大的祖国！It may all be fake, but the formula worked. Warrior Wolf 2 grossed USD 874 million. It was the second highest grossing film in China after Star Wars. Many Chinese people who had never seen or owned a passport believed that those words were really there. Many Chinese nationals naively believed that if they were stranded overseas because of wars or natural disasters, they would be promptly rescued. Wu Jing became an idol in China. Patriotism and nationalism fuelled by hatred went off the charts. Wu Jing himself likened Chinese patriotism to a piece of wood that has been dried to its core. All it needs is a spark from him. Indeed, for the first time in recent history, there was a chance that Chinese nationals could finally hold their heads on the international stage.
In one scene in Warrior Wolf 2, Leng Feng (Wu Jing) was fighting with the leader of the mercenaries played by American actor Frank Grillo. In the fight scene, Leng Feng (Wu Jing) was losing at one point. Grillo said: “People like you will always be weaker than people like me.”
It got subtitled as “Your inferior race will always be weaklings.” Wu Jing literally put racist words into Grillo’s mouth and the audience cheered when the tables were turned and Leng Feng defeated the leader of the mercenaries. The audience were fooled by words which were never there, but the effect on them with the final outcome of the fight was highly satisfying. Frank Grillo clarified that he would never have agreed to Wu Jing’s subtitles even if he were portraying a racist. Wu Jing’s dirty little trick is an example of the dirty trick 树上开花 – creating an illusion to trick the target.
Few people in China were aware that Wu Jing had used a dirty trick on them to stoke toxic nationalism and hatred for the West. Chinese media styled him into an idol. In the fictional boxing arena, Rocky the American defeated the Soviet Union, but Americans did not see Sylvester Stallone as a national hero. It was just a movie. In the minds the less mature Chinese audience, coupled with Wu Jing’s frequent appearance on TV, the public saw him as a real national hero and a role model for patriotism. His next movie Wandering Earth or 流浪地球 also did very well. Wu Jing had effectively been styled into a model for Chinese patriots. However, in TV interviews that followed his phenomenal success in Warrior Wolf 2, Wu Jing came across as boastful and chauvinistic. Appearing on TV with his wife, he made it obvious that he doesn’t treat her as an equal. He also used an iphone and wore Adidas while encouraging everyone to use Huawei and the most insulting part, his son holds an American passport while he holds a HongKong passport.
As Chinese people are suffering the worst economic crisis in a generation, the people saw through Wu Jing’s lies and hypocrisy. With his passport secret out, the authorities no longer sees any value promoting or defending him. His latest film was a big flop.
Wu Jing’s meteoric rise followed some illogical, inexplicable pattern on Chinese social media, also seen in the case of Singapore’s former goalkeeper Hassan. Like Hassan who was crowned 门神, Wu Jing was an idol in 2017. Unlike Wu Jing, Hassan did not milk for publicity but like Wu Jing, Hassan is destined to fade into obscurity. I predicted this when everyone was still glorifying a mediocre player as 门神.
In 1994, leaders from Russia, Ukraine, the United States, and the United Kingdom met in Hungary to sign the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances. This historic treaty promised to protect Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty, and existing borders if it agreed to give up its nuclear weapons, which were then the third largest in the world.
Presidents Bill Clinton, Boris Yeltsin, and Prime Minister John Major publicly committed to upholding Ukraine’s territorial integrity—a pledge that was meant to secure international peace.
Russia’s Violation and the Annexation of Crimea
The promises of the Budapest Memorandum were first broken in 2014, when Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea. This act marked the beginning of Russia’s aggressive campaign against Ukraine, escalating into the full-scale war in Ukraine that continues today.
Since 2014, Russia has repeatedly violated Ukraine’s sovereignty, undermining international law, and challenging the credibility of global treaties.
Why Treaties Matter: Lessons from Ukraine
The Russia-Ukraine conflict shows that international agreements like the Budapest Memorandum are meaningless if leaders fail to honour them. Under Putin, Russia has betrayed the trust of the global community, proving that appeasement only encourages aggression.
Despite this, some argue that making Ukraine more defenseless could stop the war. History and ongoing events clearly demonstrate the opposite: supporting Ukraine’s defense is essential to uphold sovereignty and deter further attacks.
The Ongoing War in Ukraine and Global Implications
The war in Ukraine is more than a regional conflict—it is a test of international law, global security, and respect for national sovereignty. The failure to enforce treaties like the Budapest Memorandum emboldens aggressors and threatens peace worldwide.
Supporting Ukraine’s military and political resilience is not just about protecting one country—it is about defending the principles that prevent war and hold powerful nations accountable.
The US House of Representatives passed a bill on 21 July calling on the government to disclose the US-held assets belonging to top Chinese Communist Party officials if China invades Taiwan.
The Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, introduced in February by House Republican Conference Chair Lisa McClain and Representative Brad Sherman, passed by unanimous voice vote. It targets members of the CCP Politburo Standing Committee and Central Committee members.
The legislation requires the US Department of the Treasury to submit a report to Congress detailing the assets held by these officials, including the amount, nature of the assets, and the names of associated financial institutions. It also mandates briefings on how the assets were acquired and whether any illicit or corrupt means were involved.
The bill was widely mocked on Chinese media. It’s as if China would not dare to invade Taiwan if their corrupt officials were exposed. The bill was also mocked by Chinese people, not because they trust their leaders, but because the people are powerless to overthrow their leaders even if their “crimes” were exposed and scrutinised by all and sundry. But there’s more.
The bill also authorises the Treasury Secretary to block CCP officials from accessing funds in US financial institutions. Now that’s the only part that’s going to hurt.
The department’s website and social media platforms must publish the reports in Chinese and English. The bill prohibits major financial transactions between US institutions and immediate family members of the listed officials. Why should they worry? It’s not that Chinese netizens would have access to the website or their social media account. Even those who know about it may not care and those who care are powerless. The bill is quite farcical but not in the way the Chinese media described it.
When China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, many Western analysts believed that rapid economic growth and the rise of a well-educated middle class would inevitably lead to democratization. For a time, that prediction seemed plausible. Yet, more than two decades later, China has not transitioned toward democracy.
Why? One key reason is that only a small minority of Chinese citizens worry about the fragility of private property rights in the country. While political elites and wealthy businessmen often safeguard their assets abroad—frequently in the United States—the average citizen is encouraged to take pride in China’s aircraft carriers, nuclear weapons, and space program. This sense of collective national ownership fosters loyalty, but it masks a deeper truth: in China, the state ultimately owns the individual.
Anything a person possesses—wealth, property, or even opportunity—can be claimed by the government at any time. Much like air, freedom and security are taken for granted until they are suddenly withdrawn.
Jackie Chan’s recent movie A Legend 传说 was released in July 2024. Launched with great fanfare, iIt had all the elements that would attract a younger audience. It had action, romance and special effects. In the latter department, AI was used to create a realistic younger Jackie Chan for an earlier part of the storyline. The producers expected the movie to be a hit, but it turned out to be huge flop.
Jackie Chan is undeniably an icon of the Hong Kong movie industry. He saw its golden age in his 20s. He also saw its decline in his 60s. It all started when he was an extra and a stuntman in the 1970s. Discovered by director Wang Jing after a few box office failures, he rose to become a superstar. How did he end up a failure today?
Born in 1954, Jackie Chan’s original name was Chan Kong Sang 陈港生, meaning born in Hong Kong. His parents escaped from China to Hong Kong after the CCP took over the mainland and took up menial jobs in the British colony. Back on the mainland, his father Charles Chan was a law enforcer, a mole in the underworld. His mother was a member of the underworld dealing with drugs and gambling. Charles would join her instead of turning her in.
When Jackie Chan was 6, his parents found work in Australia and left him at a boarding school that taught Chinese opera. 7 of the students from that opera school would later become the 7 little stars in Hong Kong’s movie industry in the 1970s. The late 1970s saw Hong Kong grow from a cheap factory to a booming financial centre. Foreign investments poured in. Incomes went up and the locals had disposable income to spend on entertainment.
The Hong Kong government of the time gave movie makers tax incentives. Within a short time, both local and international syndicates (some legal, some not so) started investing in filmmaking. The sheer quantity of films made during that time brought on the golden age of Hong Kong movies. Kung Fu films proved especially popular. The first Kung Fu megastar was born – Bruce Lee.
Educated in the US, Bruce Lee majored in philosophy at the University of Washington. Unlike the Kung Fu movies of that time, Bruce Lee’s moves on the set were real and potentially lethal. His speed and power required no special effects to embellish. Western audiences were impressed and started paying attention to Chinese martial arts. Unfortunately, Bruce Lee died at his prime, passing away at the age of 33 in 1973. He had only made 4 Kung Fu movies in his short career, but all four were box office hits at only a fraction of Hollywood budgets. Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest jumped on the bandwagon, each churning out dozens of low budget formulaic Kung Fu films every year.
However, the kind of profits seen in Bruce Lee films remained elusive. The 7 little stars who just graduated from the opera school entered the job market at the right time. Everyone of them achieved some level of success but the luckiest among them was Jackie Chan. His 1978 movie Drunken Fist was a huge success in Hong Kong and Japan. While some people saw Jackie Chan as the next Bruce Lee, the two Kung Fu stars have very little in common. Jackie Chan’s specialties are acrobatics and comedy while Bruce Lee didn’t even try to make the audience laugh. You won’t find much in the way of serious fighting techniques in Jackie Chan’s movies.
While Jackie Chan may not be a true martial arts expert, his stunts were truly death-defying. He claimed that he had never used a double. You can ask ChatGPT for a list of Jackie Chan movies and how successful they were at the box office. His audiences were awed by his stunts and his fan base was built on youngsters’ admiration for his guts and dedication.
“The stuntman’s life is also precious. How can I risk someone’s life for my own gains?”
Many were touched by this statement. They called him Big Brother Jackie. He was an idol to many moviegoers.
In May 1989, Chinese students occupied Tiananmen Square in Beijing in protest, demanding dialogue with and reforms from the government. Many Hong Kong celebrities supported the students. The most vocal among them was Anita Mui. A Concert For Democracy was held at the race course to raise funds to help the students. On 27 May 1989, practically all Hong Kong singers showed up. Jackie Chan suddenly became a singer and stole the limelight on stage. He proudly announced that no Chinese person will bow before an autocracy.
Then, the shooting started on 4 June 1989. Many Hong Kongers were infuriated. Celebrities like Anita Mui and members of the underworld raised funds to rescue fugitives. Jackie Chan was silent and went straight back to work.
A movie entitled 鼠胆龙威 inadequately translated as “High Risk” was released in 1995. The movie starred mainland Chinese star Jet Li 李连杰 and Hong Kong singer Jacky Cheung 张学友. I saw that movie and found it hilarious. It’s a parody and the person they were making fun of couldn’t have been anyone else but Jackie Chan. In High Risk, Jacky Cheung the singer played a Kung Fu star wannabe who was cowardly and dishonest, using stuntmen to do all his stunts while claiming that he did all his stunts himself.
There was one memorable in scene in which the star wearing a Bruce Lee yellow jumpsuit got a stutman to jump from a building and land on a pile of cardboard boxes while he wore the exact same jumpsuit hiding at ground level. Once the stuntman hit the pile of boxes, a herd of workers crowded around that pile of boxes. The stutman who just landed crawled out while the star crawled in. The crowd dispersed and the star raised his hands in triumph. Apart from his dishonesty, the star was also a womaniser. 鼠胆龙威 means timid as a mouse, disposition of a dragon.
All this was of course not missed by Jackie Chan. He promptly called a press conference denying the “accusations” in the movie and insisting that director Wang Jing 王晶 had an axe to grind. Unfortunately for Jackie Chan, Hong Kong’s journalism in the 1990s had reached a whole new level of tenacity and audacity. They reviewed suspicious scenes from his movies, finding evidence which forced Jackie Chan to confess that he had in fact used stuntmen in most of the dangerous stunts.
His stunt team 成家班 went as far back as 1976. There were about 20 members in this team and they were all professional stuntmen. Very little was known about this team until Jackie Chan went to Hollywood and the team swelled to over 50 members. Hong Kong journalists’ revelation shattered Jackie Chan’s image as a noble Kung Fu star who would rather risk his life than others’.
Is using a double something that Hong Kong audiences couldn’t accept? Certainly not. People were simply pissed off with his dishonesty. Look at his less successful senior at the opera school, Sammo Hung. He had used stunt doubles and not only had he never denied it, he called them out on the stage and let them share the limelight.
Thanks to the now defunct Apple Daily, another aspect of this fake hero was exposed in 1999. Former Miss Asia Elaine Ng Yi-Lei announced that she was pregnant. She was single and hinted that the child was some Kung Fu superstar. Fans knew that prime suspect Jackie Chan was married to Taiwanese actress Lin Feng Jiao in 1982. Later that year, Elaine Ng gave birth to a baby girl and named her Etta Ng. Was Apple Daily’s report factual?
When Etta was 2 years old and after the persistent questioning from the media proved unbearable, Jackie Chan finally admitted that he is indeed the father of Elaine Ng’s child. During the press conference, he made a foolish remark that would get him branded as an asshole for the rest of his life.
“I have made a mistake that men throughout the world can make.”
His mistakes were many and this included a much publicised relationship with Hong Kong actress Cherie Chung. At that time, Jackie Chan’s wife Lin Feng Jiao was told to keep a low profile in the US. Though there were rumours going around that he might be married and Lin Feng Jiao’s son looked like him, Jackie Chan denied that he was married until the media was hounding him and Cherie Chung about marriage. Lin Feng Jiao read the news, flew to Hong Kong and confronted bewildered journalists, announcing that she was the rightful Mrs Chan. Cherie Chung was stunned.
By then, Jackie Chan’s image in Hong Kong was severely tarnished but audiences in the mainland were still kept in the dark. Jackie Chan played the “patriotism” card, singing praises for the CCP and trying to erase Hong Kong’s unique character, saying that there is no such thing as Hong Kong movies. All movies made in Hong Kong are Chinese movies. In the 1980s, Hong Kong produced 300 movies a year. The territory now produces less than 50 movies a year.
Jackie Chan told Hong Kongers that too much freedom is bad. Chinese people need to be controlled. He was later appointed as a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a political advisory board that does nothing apart from nodding.
In 2020, Hong Kong national security law was passed in response to protests against extradition which erupted into riots. From then all, all Hong Kong media would be subjected to censorship. Getting movies approved became a major hurdle for filmmakers. As a CPPCC member, Jackie Chan burst onto the scene, loudly supporting the National Security Law. At a conference for moviemakers in China the following year, he declared his admiration for CCP members and espoused the greatness of the CCP and how quickly the party was able to get things done.
Jackie Chan certainly got things done. He started acquiring properties in main cities in China (contrary to Li Ka Shing who bailed out) started businesses, including restaurants and collaborated with public listed companies like Kweichow Moutai. A few bottles of that and a few phone calls to the right people could get his scandals censored in China.
But his political career had not been smooth. He was named official Narcotics Control Ambassador by Chinese police in 2009. He also openly supported the death penalty for drug trafficking. Not long after that in 2014, his son, Jaycee Chan was arrested for having marijuana in his apartment. He would spend 6 months in jail.
Following that companies he had promoted or collaborated with went bust one by one. Gym chain California Fitness was one, also Chinese brands like Ba Wang hair tonic, Fen Huang Cola, Ai Duo Electronics, Si Nian Dumplings etc. Industries call it the curse of Jackie Chan. Sure, he still has his fans but Chinese people are too familiar with bootlickers and regard them with contempt. Besides, that’s not the only character flaw that Jackie Chan is trying to hide with “patriotism” and bootlicking. The big question is, is there still a market for movies starring this pathetic individual? While it’s true that getting on douyin to stomp on Japanese or American flags can instantly earn one fans and money, these are zero capital “ventures”. Jackie Chan’s movies cost millions to shoot and the number of fools needed to break even are much larger.
Why is it that a country with no lack of intellectuals can submit to a dictatorship? Of course there are conditions. So how do dictators satisfy those conditions?
The fall of a dictatorship always brings about wild celebration. But just as life is getting better, people will start finding fault with the new system and some may even start wishing for the return of dictatorship.
This is an interesting book. The author thinks that Western strategists are clueless, sanctions have no effect on the Russian economy, Putin is a genius and Russia is winning the war.
1 June 2025
Ukraine says it has completed its biggest long-range attack of the war with Russia on Sunday, after using smuggled drones to launch a series of major strikes on at least 40 Russian warplanes at four military bases.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said 117 drones were used in the so-called “Spider’s Web” operation by the SBU security service, striking “34% of [Russia’s] strategic cruise missile carriers”.
SBU sources told BBC News it took a year and a half to organise the strikes.
Russia confirmed Ukrainian attacks in five regions, calling them a “terrorist act”.
four Russian airbases – two of which are thousands of miles from Ukraine – were hit:
Belaya in Irkutsk oblast (region), Siberia
Olenya in Murmansk oblast, Russia’s extreme north-west
Dyagilevo in central Ryazan oblast
Ivanovo in central Ivanovo oblast
“The SBU first smuggled FPV drones into Russia, followed later by mobile wooden cabins. Once on Russian territory, the drones were hidden under the roofs of these cabins, which had been placed on cargo vehicles,” the sources said.
“At the right moment, the roofs were remotely opened, and the drones took off to strike the Russian bombers.”
The drones were not remotely operated by independently piloted by AI.
I once saw a video made a Malaysian woman who said that we should not place too much hope on the next generation. Nobody knows us after the third generation. Most of us will never become famous and be remembered after we’re gone. Even famous Chinese movie stars from my generation are unknown to most youngsters in China.
But strange things happen in the contained and somewhat controlled world of the Chinese internet. Earlier on, we had goalkeeper Hassan being crowned 门神 for the weirdest possible reasons and just as I expected, Hassan had very wisely retired from football and capitalised on the madness.
I wonder if China would still remember him as 门神 in 10 or even 3 years’ time. But Interestingly, some heroes, accidental or otherwise, get resurrected for no apparent reason.
Then, there’s that old and forgotten song 兰花草 which suddenly got revived and earned its reviver quite a bit of money.
Even more inexplicably, a character who stole the limelight recently is a 1200-year-old person called Huang Chao黄巢 (835-884) . The strange thing about Huang Chao suddenly going viral 1,141 years after his death, is that there were no movies or TV series made of him in recent years.
Huang Chao was a failed scholar and a salt smuggler who started a rebellion during the final days of Tang Dynasty. Actually, he started a rebellion when the Tang empire was still prosperous and powerful but brought it to its knees.
Huang Chao was best known as a mass murderer who slaughtered millions and prepared food out of corpses to feed his army. Marching into the capital of Changan, he slaughtered the 5 families and 7 clans who were the elite at that time. All the highest positions of the land and the most profitable businesses were once reserved for these 5 families and 7 clans. Everyone else was shut out. The An Lu Shan rebellion (755-763) was merely a blip in Tang history. The Li family quickly regained control and restored the old order. The Tang Dynasty was still prosperous and powerful after that. It was Huang Chao’s rebellion that dealt a devastating blow that would put the Tang Dynasty on the path of irreversible decline.
After failing as a scholar, Huang Chao wanted to trade salt legally, but he could never get the permit as he had no connections. In 875, at the age of 55, Huang Chao started an armed rebellion and gained many followers. They didn’t just include peasants but highly talented failed scholars as well. After numerous failures that led to many indiscriminate killings which might have resulted in the death of some 8 million people, he finally succeeded in capturing Luoyang and Changan in 880. He went on to slaughter the 5 families and 7 clans. After Huang Chao’ heinous deed, the once prosperous Tang Dynasty was practically destroyed with remnant loyalists setting up a new capital in Chengdu . In Changan, Huang Chao declared himself emperor of Qi. He might not have totally destroyed the Tang Dynasty himself, but he certainly paved the way for its ultimate destruction. So how did Huang Chao suddenly go viral on contained and controlled Chinese internet?
In mid-April 2025, a letter went viral on Chinese internet. It was apparently written by a woman accusing her very accomplished husband, China-Japan Friendship Hospital surgeon Xiao Fei, of cheating on her with a junior doctor by the name of Dong Xiying.
Xiao was also reportedly left an unconscious, anaesthetised patient lying on the operating table while he stepped into an altercation to defend Dong against a colleague who had criticised her. Yes, he had endangered the patient’s life to attend to a private squabble. There was no way to cover up the matter and a public outcry followed.
On 27 April 2025, the hospital announced that it would fire Xiao after finding the accusations in the letter to be true. However, this did not quell public anger as netizens discovered more irregularities concerning Xiao Fei’s lover, female doctor Dong Xiying.
Internet sleuths revealed that Dong did not have a medical background. Instead, she was an economics graduate who switched to medicine via Peking Union Medical College’s experimental “4+4” programme, which allows graduates of non-medical disciplines to complete Doctor of Medicine studies and a shortened residency to just four years.
The US-style programme was launched by the college in 2018. At that time, college president Wang Chen said the idea was to break through the previous limitations of medical education and recruit multidisciplinary talent.
After the scandal broke, many had doubts about this programme, and wondered whether a four-year medical education programme was adequate. A doctor was quoted by Yicai news as saying that, “Medicine requires the accumulation of experience. You may have talent but … you can’t rely solely on talent to solve practical clinical problems.”
The strong reactions from the public may have also been provoked by the silence from the authorities. While the hospital has fired Xiao and the National Health Commission announced that it would thoroughly investigate matters involving Xiao, Dong and related institutions, there has not been any updates since.
In spite of the practice working well in other countries, many netizens were also extremely sceptical of the 4+4 system because of the deep-seated issues of nepotism and corruption in Chinese society. Netizens suspected that Dong’s family must have pulled strings to get her into her current position. It was later revealed that Dong’s mother was the vice principal at another university. Her father is a senior executive at a state owned enterprise. One of her research papers is also very similar to one published by her aunt’s student. In response to these allegations, the university quickly removed Dong’s profile from its website.
A joke went viral on Chinese social media. A sick man infected with a virus confesses that he had pulled strings to get himself admitted to the hospital. The doctor replies, “I also got in through the back door”. The assistant surgeon adds, “Me too.”. Finally, the virus speaks up and asks: “Am I the only one who made it here on my own merits?”
Many versions of that joke were created from that concept.
Back to Huang Chao. Perhaps, this was just one of the many triggers for the revival of Huang Chao. In recent years, short films with the “revenge” theme were highly popular on Chinese internet. These stories usually begin with a poor chap being bullied or spurned by his girlfriend. Years later, he returns home a tycoon and it’s payback time. The Chinese public love such stories and hence, they fantasize about a modern Huang Chao who could cut through all the legal crap and destroy the broken system with a bulldozer. Huang Chao might have failed to root out the Tang loyalists completely, but he inspired large numbers of rebels who would eventually pave the way for a new age in China.
