Tiananmen Fugitive

zhang boli

This is former journalist Zhang Boli, Tiananmen fugitive telling how he escaped from China. He used a fake ID to travel from north to south. Fortunately, the picture of him flashed on TV did not show his face very clearly. The most challenging part of his escape was getting from Guangdong to Hong Kong. It’s interesting how a crime syndicate then could regard him as a hero and helped him escape. They were even willing to do it for free. The triad chief Zhang met was someone holding a masters degree in the University of HK. As Mr Zhang remarked: 香港太漂亮了,连黑社会都那么文明。

Operation Yellow Sparrow in Hong Kong was this secret organisation that raised funds to help Tiananmen fugitives escape. From what I know, one of the biggest donors to this operation was singer Anita Mui. I’m not surprised that Chow Yuen Fatt also donated, but Jackie Chan? Interesting.

Anita Mui05

The drama at the US Embassy in HK on the day Zhang broke in is truly engaging. The ethnic Chinese US ambassador was moved to tears by Zhang’s heroism. Luckily, there wasn’t that much trade between the US and China back then. In more recent times, probably when Obama was president, Zhang could have been handed over to the HK police and his life would have been over. In spite of Hong Kong still being a British colony back then, Zhang was aware that there were many departments in HK’s civil service which had close contacts with the mainland.

Zhang Boli now lives in the US and works as a pastor at a church. He has written a book Escape From China detailing the harrowing and difficult two years he spent as a fugitive before arriving in the US.

The most striking observation Zhang made towards the end of the interview – something which I’m also acutely aware of, is the CCP’s success in brainwashing not just the generations which never heard about the Tiananmen massacre as it occurred but also the generation that tuned in to the incident as it occurred.

It’s amazing how people can ever forget. That could be because the CCP had waited for memories to fade and then introduced their twisted version of the narrative, blaming the West for instigating the whole unrest and all future unrest. It’s as if China will have no political dissidents if the West had not interfered. Henceforth, the gullible will recognise no local or homegrown uprising. Any protest against the CCP or Chinese government will be deemed a coloured revolution started and sponsored by hostile Western governments.

Fake Videos

Chinese balloon manufacturer’s website suddenly disappeared. Chinese media company uses AI to generate fake news – government sponsored like Russia, not to be confused with amateur productions by fringe groups in the West. Why has AI not taken off with Baidu? It will happen – as soon as they’ve figured out how to rein in their AI so it doesn’t give politically incorrect replies.

Nomadism Returning To China

Residential blocks empty. People camping in car parks and on beaches. This is Hainan Island and it seems that nomadism may be the new way to go. Some of the “nomads” may be poor but some some own homes on wheels worth tens of millions. A very interesting video by Comrade Shi Bing Feng.

When Face Is An Issue Yet Not An Issue

The Chinese foreign office claimed that a civilian research balloon (no company name revealed) had somehow lost its way and drifted into US airspace all the way from mainland China.

When America shot it down, they said that it’s a test of US sincerity in peaceful engagement. What are they really saying? Does it mean that if a US civilian research balloon were drift out of control and end up in China’s airspace, they would engage it “peacefully” or perhaps even leave it alone?

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is said to have rescheduled his visit after the balloon fiasco. China’s foreign office again issued a statement saying that there was never a meeting in a first place. Thanks to the not so forgetful netizens, there is in fact a statement dated 18 January 2023 by China’s foreign office inviting Blinken for a meeting. It’s really puzzling how these folks could make such unreasonable remarks, lie through their teeth and get away with it.