Month: June 2022

There is something I wish to add to Matt’s (Laowhy) analysis. The “optimists” should ponder over the reason why China is the only country in the world of its size to maintain its borders for more than 2,000 years. The CCP is often chastised for its inhumanity, but is the CCP wholly to blame?

While Shanghai was locked down recently, there was an anecdote going around. When people were asked whether they would rather stay at home or be transferred to the temporary shelter if they were tested positive, almost everyone said that they would rather stay at home. But when asked if their neighbour were tested positive, almost everyone said that they ought to be taken to the temporary shelter.

Believe it or not, this is the mentality that has made China great through the centuries. People only focus on the big picture and what benefits them. They have no concern for what happens to the unfortunate minority. Forget about Private Ryan and let’s move on. That’s what 正能量 or “positive energy” is all about. That’s why 闷声发大财 worked so well. It’s only on rare occasions that bullying and unfair treatment are called out. Very few would fight the system and its bullies. Most people just struggle to get into a position where they can bully and treat others unfairly. Revolutions only happened when everyone suffered the same misfortune.

The great Lu Xun once said, “we can easily become slaves and become very happy about it”. We can see it in the new narratives doled out by the CCP vis-a-vis the Tiananmen massacre and Hong Kong never being a colony. The young can be forgiven for not having lived through history, but folks older than me have embraced the lies distortions, hypnotised by a faith that is almost religious.

It’s practically in the blood if not the DNA to submit to a son of heaven. Theoretically, China saw the end of imperialism in 1911. Mao Zedong, before he came to power, swore to move the mountains of imperialism and feudalism. He swiftly reintroduced them once he got a taste of power.

Every Chinese person is capable of great subservience if he is poor and powerless. Once he acquires wealth and gains power, he becomes a ruthless despot. To prevent the country falling back into de facto monarchy, there must be some form of checks and balances in the system to preempt such outcomes. Sadly, democracy is yet to catch on with descendants of the dragon.

Deng Xiaoping tried to prevent Maoist dictatorship by limiting terms. Xi Jinping brought it right back. As Chinese science fiction author Ni Kuang once said, China has merely been swinging from one side to the other over 5,000 years. One moment, you may see the new China with a new model for success, the next moment, it’s back to the old China again, spiralling towards defeat. The only way to break the cycle according to Nobel laureate Liu Xiabo – 300 years of Western colonisation.

Like Matt, I wish I could return to the China I once knew.

The families of the 4 victims have become uncontactable. The hospital where they were supposed to be warded is now heavily guarded. A reporter who merely tried to obtain information from the staff was arrested. The scene of the crime was locked up but it had been visited by suspicious strangers in the night.

The official media had not released any information on how the case was progressing. All they provided was a telephone recording from an unnamed member of the hospital staff claiming that the rumour that the 4 victims had died “is probably certainly untrue”.

The authorities also warned the public not to believe and spread rumours. But what exactly is the truth? Why is it that the authorities are covering up? Do such things happen elsewhere in the world? Yes and no. The beatings, yes, but the way a legitimate government handles the crime? No. Who knows how many more George Floyds there have been in China.

The huge problem we have here is that the brainwashed folks don’t recognise the hegemony for what it is. America is arrogant and bossy, but it’s definitely the lesser of two evils.

Ba Jiong is a Taiwanese native from the Taroko tribe. The two stories being told here are related. The first one is a mainlander married to a Taiwanese and living in Taiwan. While in Taiwan, she kept criticising the system there being way inferior to the system on the mainland. One of her biggest complaint is that testing in Taiwan is not free.

However, on a recent trip back to her hometown in Xiamen (to escape the “outbreak” in Taiwan), she was tested positive for Covid (asymptomatic) and ordered to isolate herself at a shelter. The trouble is, she had her daughter with her and she wanted to bring her along. The Xiamen authorities allowed her to bring her daughter with her to the shelter but as this would be against protocol, she had to sign an indemnity, taking full responsibility for her daughter’s (tested negative) medical expenses if the child fell ill.

She refused to sign and complained on social media, but as Xiamen uncle pointed out, isn’t this what she wanted? There was a glaring difference in the way she criticised the system in Taiwan and the mainland. Ba Jiong highlighted the fact that she avoid attributing it to the Party or the government unlike her complaints about Taiwan.

The second story is even more interesting. A Norwegian woman working as a general manager in a hotel in China suddenly realised that her China-born daughter was acting like a spoiled 红二代/富二代. Worried about the kind of person her daughter would grow up into, she left China and returned to Norway.

Here’s another video and it’s by Xiamen uncle Li Lansi. Didn’t she say that things on the mainland are much better than they are in Taiwan? Isn’t this what she wanted? Why is she complaining now? I believe that many of those who praise the system in China would think twice about experiencing it themselves.

As people in the cities cheer every rocket launch, they seem oblivious to the fact that many tragic accidents arising from falling debris, either from discarded rocket components or decommissioned satellites are carefully covered up. Make no mistake. Houses have been damaged. Farming has been disrupted. Lives have been lost without any meaningful compensation. Same everywhere in the world? Believe me, you’d rather that not happen to you when you’re in China.

A very interesting interview with former escapee Kent Wong. Wei Yu hails him as one of the grandfathers of Chinese escapees. This may beg the question, why are so many people living in the free world envious of those who are living in China? Will Mr Wong consider going back to the “New China”? Is there something which he knows about China but those foreign admirers don’t? Many of those still basking in the glory of the age of modernisation and reforms seem unaware that history is already repeating itself.

For the longest time, Chinese people have been telling me that they want to leave China. The most common reason was 变数太大. And for the longest time, I didn’t understand what that meant. China is so prosperous and progressive. Why do these people want to leave. It’s only in recent years that I’ve come to realise what 变数太大 meant. While everything looks nice and rosy in the cities, it’s not the same everywhere in China. What appears to be the most stable political system in the world demands huge sacrifice from the commoners with its process of dynamic adjustments. Nobody’s rights are protected when a big adjustment takes place. Overnight, due to political reasons, everything that you have built up over the years could be rendered worthless. Every good deed you’ve been praised for can become crimes.

There are still people who cannot believe that a country so successful economically could so dangerous for average person just minding his own business. Mr Wong gives us all the details from his experience.

Many of such theme parks in China have the same fate as our Tang Dynasty Village. The sole purpose of many mega projects in China is to attract investors and line the pockets of the contractors and administrators. In fact, it doesn’t even matter of the first brick were laid.

Already in her 50s, retired Chinese musician Han Hong (Yangjan Zhoma) has been doing charity work for more than a decade and she was especially active during the pandemic. As a celebrity, the media naturally followed her and the publicity sparked a storm of donations.

Unlike most donation drives in China, Han Hong’s was completely transparent. She declared every single yuan she received from the public and accounted for every single yuan spent. This practice is virtually unprecedented in China. Not only that, her organisation demonstrated far greater efficiency than many government initiatives mired in bureaucratic roadblocks and corruption. Not having all the necessary permits in order would prove to be her Achilles heel.

Eventually, the sheer amount of money she received from the trusting public and her meteoric rise in popularity resulted in many other charities being left out and certain “interested parties” unable to gain much from donation drives. Having repeatedly put some politically motivated, self-serving people to shame, her organisation became subjected to brutal auditing and her downfall was meticulously orchestrated.