Now that a WHO team is in China investigating the 'origins' of the Covid-19 pandemic, here's a message to those who try to peddle theories about 'man-made' virus, who, they think, was of course 'China-made'. Maybe, just maybe, look for another suspect... a thread of evidence...
The amount of ignorance in the comments is staggering. Can't believe that people still compare Zheng He's expeditions to Columbus' or Vasco de Gama's, and blame China for "unmaneuverable" ships that didn't discover America or conquer the spice route.
The expeditions could not /2
My wife grew up in Mao's planned economy. She now owns two flats, and is retired at 55 with plenty of savings.
You can whine until the end of times abt the past, you left as a coward. But those who stayed rolled up their sleeves and built a country. Who's got the last laugh now?
I grew up in Mao's planned economy, where the govt not only controlled prices but also rationed supplies. Everything was rationed, from food, to cloth for clothing (no ready-to-wear clothes) to toothpaste. Whatever wasn’t rationed was always in short supply.
One summer my mother
When you talk about China, just stop for a minute and think about this. My father in law was born in 1940. That was a time when China was one of the poorest countries on Earth. He saw the communists take over. He lived through the great leap forward, was in his late 20's during/2
2- have been about "discovery" when they went along trade routes that were known for centuries by mariners from Africa to China. Just because Europeans didn't know about them doesn't mean that the rest of the world didn't! When Vasco de Gama arrived in Ethiopia, he hired /3
@nise_yoshimi
French explorer arriving in "Canada", meets the local people: "How do you call this place?" "Canada" "Nice name for a country!"
Canada means house 🤣🤣🤣
3- a local pilot to sail his ship to India! As for discovering America, well duh, it was never Columbus' goal, as he was looking for China!
And no, China didn't go on a rampage like the Portuguese and bomb every port along the way, because they had no need nor intention /4
5- NOTHING to sell, and not even money to buy, so their only alternative was to use violence. Later, the Portuguese realized that to make money, they had to seize the trade routes from local traders between India and places like modern Indonesia.
As for Zheng He's expeditions /6
4- to conquer those lands or control the trade routes. All those distant lands were quite happy to go themselves to China to sell their stuff, and buy goods in return, and in fact China had more to sell than any need to buy. Quite the opposite to the Europeans who had /5
15- silver from Potosi, and today, Europe would still be the backwater that it was in the 14th century, the arse end of the world.
And now, after 5 centuries of violence and plunder, it seems they're going back to their original state.
Barbarians with nothing to sell but copium
In China, the media are censored to maintain peace and social stability in the country.
In the West, the media are censored to promote war, hate and chaos around the world.
I don't like either, but only one of them is benign.
6- they were mainly an exercise in power projection. After the Ming had retaken China from the Yuan (Mongol dynasty), it was a message that "China was back", with the goal of establishing or re-establishing diplomatic relations, not conquer the lands.
Of course, such large /7
7- expeditions were a lot of hubris. They were insanely expensive, and there was little return. As China was still threatened by the barbarian tribes in the north, the mandarins determined that resources were better spent for defense, and put an end to them.
And no, /8
4- He nearly died from heart problems 20 years ago, but somehow the doctors saved him, and he's alive and well, soon to turn 81.
The amount of change that he witnessed is just incredible.
By all measures, his life has vastly improved. But for him, that's just the way it was./5
8- they didn't "discover" America. Crossing the Pacific toward the East, not knowing at what distance some unknown land will be found, would have been suicide. it took decades to the Europeans to find the way, and they knew where to go!
Sailing across the Atlantic, as Menzies /9
9- ..but in any case, that past, that history, those changes, they all belong to them, to the Chinese people. It's not for anyone from any other country to tell them how they should feel about it.
For me, I can only be amazed, seeing the country today, at how much resilience /10
5- You don't feel any kind of bitterness for how things were before. There's no regrets. There is however, I believe, a sense of pride. But that is never expressed openly. It's more of a general attitude of being content, being happy and serene. /6
Commendable. But as much as wandering through the streets of Beijing as a foreigner may make you an expert on homelessness in China, do you know who else are experts in that area? Academics.
Yes, academics in China are not all in STEM. There is such a thing as social studies./2
There’s been some discourse lately on homelessness, or the lack thereof, in Beijing.
Since there’s very little data on it, I attempted to find some evidence myself, in the most systematic way I could as an individual. 🧵
3- ..with savings, and his children's help, they moved to a bigger flat, then a bigger one. Now he lives comfortably in a nice 80m2 flat, plays the stock market on his phone, spends days gossiping with his friends.
/4
10- normally sail up in the red sea and transport goods by camel to the Nile. And we know they stopped to go to Mecca, and to Africa, bringing back a giraffe.
So in the end, you cannot compare Zheng He's expeditions to whatever Columbus or de Gama did. It's just not the same./11
2- the cultural revolution. Lived in a 10m2 flat with his family of 4, sharing kitchen and bathroom with other families. There were coupons for rice.
Then China opened up. The state-owned chemical factory where he worked shut down, but he and his wife retired with a pension./3
14- Europeans just got lucky! Because they found literally a mountain of silver in Peru, and more silver in Mexico. Which allowed the trade between China and Mexico via the Philippines to flourish, as silver was scarce in China.
Remove America from the equation, remove the /15
9- has proposed? Very little evidence for it. But sailing around Africa is definitely a possibility, as the route was known to Arab mariners. But again, there is no trace left of it if they did. What would have been the point anyway? It's a long route, when traders would /10
10- and determination, and hard work it took to build all that I see. Chengdu, Hangzhou, those are fabulous cities to live in. How could a people "rise up from the ashes" of its own troubled history, and build a country like that, in so little time?
13- scurvy, storms, attacks by the locals, etc. Only the prospect of getting insanely rich would perpetuate this madness.
Which, again, China DID NOT need! They could get spices easily. They possessed the beautiful silk and porcelain that Europeans were willing to die for./14
7- in the countryside, doing menial stuff. That left many bitter. Doesn't mean they didn't have a good life after that. I know people who had brilliant academic careers afterwards. But they still deeply resent that period, that they were somehow robbed of their best years./8
@vivianwubeijing
That's not courage. That's arrogance and cowardice. She knows he's not going to do anything. He doesn't even have any weapon, not even a baton. She insults and belittles a subordinate police agent who is just doing his job.
You don't know what courage is
@vivianwubeijing
11- Had Columbus not found America by accident, what would have happened?
The answer is: nothing. The Portuguese control of a string of trading ports lasted merely a century. They themselves assimilated to the local populations. Bringing back spices was a sure way to : /12
6- Caveat here. One thing that has marked people of his generation and younger is the cultural revolution. For many, that was a really tough time, especially, I believe, if you were a young, educated person. Universities shut down, you had to spend years /7
12- (1) get rich quick, and (2) die young, as the chances of coming back alive were probably around 25%. Vasco de Gama came back from his first expedition with only a handful of his crew, and it's a miracle that even that small number survived the voyage. Tropical diseases, /13
8- ..and don't tell me that they don't talk about it! It's a topic I've seen come back many times in conversations, where I'm not even involved myself.
So for many, it's a mixture: the past has had its share of dark times. And yet, life now is good. /9
Following Blinken's visit, and in the wake of numerous such diplomatic visits to China, it may be a good idea to remind ourselves that this is only the latest in a long line of disrespectful and arrogant western embassies going back to Tome Pires in 1521!
Here is a summary 🧵 /2
As I read this, I realized how the US has in recent decades fostered the rise of monopolies, or quasi-monopolies, that feel they don't need to address customers desires, only make $ to their shareholders.
That's why you have Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Walmart, GM/Ford
/2
I went to China, drove more than a dozen EVs, and sat in dozens more. Had a lot of conversations, learned a lot of things.
One thing's for sure -- we're absolutely cooked, and it's probably our fault. China's EVs are better.
@InsideEVs
When people inevitably call you a "wumao" whenever you post something somewhat sympathetic to China, you realize how powerful Western propaganda is. It has become a Pavlovian reflex in so many people. Their capacity to reason and argue starts and stops right there. Sad. /2
Finding myself having to patiently explain to my Canadian colleague that, no, Hong Kong was not an "independent country" before 2019.... it's amazing how effective western media's distortion of clear and simple historical facts can be. 🙃
At the conference I'm attending in Québec, none of the Chinese presenters (living in China) could attend because Canada wouldn't give them a visa.
Thank you so much Canada for fostering free scientific exchange and collaboration...
@RnaudBertrand
There is enough inertia and corporate interest in the system that they will continue to materially support Israel with weapons and intelligence. But they've pretty much lost the Saudis at this point. If the whole region decides to act militarily against Israel, they're doomed.
The United States is not trying to block China from growing its economy, but will work to compel the country to stick to international rules, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said
“The CCP has bought up all of the mandarin language media around the world, including the U.S.
These people, like my parents, don’t know they’re slowly getting brainwashed and it’s only been in the last 5-10 years.” —
@RadioFreeAsia
President Bay Fong
Don't go to Russia. Or China. Or Iran. Or North Korea. Or Cuba. Or Venezuela.
Or out of your house. Or your room. Just turn the TV on. Listen to us. We'll tell you all you need to know.
For anyone who's been to a Tibetan area in China (which is much more than just the Tibet SAR), it will be obvious that this article is full of lies. /2
@NewinTown1700
A steam boat. Financed by the profits of the tobacco plantations, obtained from the work of slaves.
Plunder. Violence. Way of the Brits.
Two women lost their baby and one man died of a heart attack after being denied care in Xi'an for not having a recent covid test, and that has become a national scandal.
Anyone out there still believe that there are un-reported Covid deaths in China?
The reason those videos make the rounds on Chinese social media is precisely because they are anomalies. I have never seen any gate like that anywhere, during 3 yrs of Covid.
Unfortunately, they are then spread by clowns like this guy as if that was common in all of China.
This is what China's 15 Minutes cities looks like
One neighborhood, with hundreds of apartment buildings and tens of thousands people , has only a few exits, where you need to scan your QR code COVID passport and your face to get in or out 🚨🚨🚨
Easy to lockdown everyone.
🔊
I agree and disagree. I agree that Westerners have a completely distorted picture of what China is today. I disagree because China is not the paradise on Earth that pro-China expat Twitter too often describes. My 🧵 on homeless was precisely about that. Yes, you won't find /2
This is reflective of everyone in my comments section. It sounds fake to them. A country that provides for its people sounds FAKE to them. Not seeing homeless people sounds FAKE to them. Being able to afford all of your basic necessities sounds FAKE to them. I think it’s because
@TanzaniaUpdates
So they'll move the airport back to China?
Seems to me if they can't repay a 2% interest loan with 7 year grace, "toxic" clauses are not the problem here.
China will operate the airport and make a profit. The people will still have an airport.
Just a reminder, Ukraine is the poorest country in Europe. Yes, the poorest. 3x poorer than China BTW.
So what kind of governance is that? Not doing anything to make your country richer, but instead playing dangerous geopolitical games.
So, is Ukraine richer today?
Sure. Pass the exam, become Party member, go work in the countryside for 5 years doing poverty alleviation. You might learn a few things about governance and humility along the way.
Spent a wonderful day at the relatively new Chengdu Art Museum (2022), a beautiful building in a nice park, that I had not had a chance to visit yet.
All (free) tickets had been sold, but for once, being a foreigner helped: they let me in because "I came from so far away!" 😁 /2
@RnaudBertrand
"We hate you, we think you're an evil genocidal state, we ban half of your products, we are preparing to wage war with you... OK can we have these trade talks now? "
"...."
"Why are you not answering????"
Found one account still posting Oliver Stone's movie on YT. 2/3rd of the way watching it, it just stopped playing and told me this was inappropriate. I could never watch the end.
Thanks, YT, for deciding for me what I can watch. Now I know which side you're on.
If I'm going to live in a city of 10M people, I'd rather live in one where I can just go across the street and bike, walk or jog all morning in a safe, quiet environment that looks like a beautiful garden.
Oh, wait. I already do! 🙂
@egfalken
@AlistairsChina
If you pick at random, you will get "25%" 50% of the time, "50%" 25% of the time, and "0%" 25% of the time. To have a correct answer, those two numbers should be matched. Thus there is no correct answer. Which means you get the correct answer (0%) 25% of the time.
@RnaudBertrand
Taylor Swift is packing theaters across the globe because... her audience loves her and her music. But in China, it's because of the "ever tighter social controls".
By that logic, if Chinese women were "free", they wouldn't like Taylor Swift.
I'm confused. 🤔
When the US killed 7 children with a drone, and even admitted it, in what appears by all accounts to be a war crime authorized by the President himself, how much media traction did it get?
So, don't tell me you care about Peng Shuai and "accountability".
You don't.
Summer vibes in Chengdu, Part 2: afternoon.
Whoever said here that the Chinese live in shoebox apartments and never see nature has never been in Chengdu, or any other Chinese city.
Here is the view from my window, the vines on the 2nd ring road, and Donghu (East lake) park. /2
Japan used to be an electronic chip power house. Not anymore.
It used to be a consumer electronics powerhouse. Not anymore.
It used to be a car manufacturing and export powerhouse. Not anymore.
What's left? Anime and Hello Kitty?
Wow, China’s July automobile exports jump 63%, helping extend the lead over Japan as the world’s biggest vehicle-exporting economy.
Local Chinese brand made up 80% of the exports.
Funny how so many interpret this post as an apology of Mao era's policies, when it's about the cowardice of leaving to live in a rich country because you hated to be poor, and still hate your country for it 40 years later, while those who stayed made it a rich country.
My wife grew up in Mao's planned economy. She now owns two flats, and is retired at 55 with plenty of savings.
You can whine until the end of times abt the past, you left as a coward. But those who stayed rolled up their sleeves and built a country. Who's got the last laugh now?
@RnaudBertrand
The West has adopted a culture of nihilism. Human lives are expendable, for the sake of abstract "values". That gives Covid which kills millions, senseless wars that could be easily avoided, money printing like there is no future. All for "freedom", yet freedom is long gone.
Here's a little trick. Say I have stock worth $100.
I sell it to my buddy for $120. Make $20 profit
My buddy sells it to me for $140. Makes $20 profit
I sell it to him for $160.... and so on.
Now the stock is $500. We find a sucker to buy it, we both make $200.
Got it?
Notice how the word "atrocities" is never used for what the US does, no matter killing children and innocent civilians abroad and at home, imprisoning 2M+ people, letting 800,000+ die from Covid.
But a tennis player in China disappears from social media for a week? ATROCITY!
Taiwan's opposition alliance, which holds a majority in the Legislative Yuan, has submitted a bill for reforming the legislature.
The ruling DPP, in an effort to prevent the bill from passing - sent a lawmaker to snatch it away.
Really, snatched it.😅
China is the world's manufacture, we all know that. But when you buy these little trinkets "Made in China", they're probably imported from a shop in Yiwu (义乌), south of Hangzhou. The trading center has 70,000 shops, yes, 70,000!
There, you can find anything /2
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew's response when questioned over US user data.
Google, FB, IG and YT have all been lobbying the US government to ban TikTok because their platforms and algorithm just can't compete with that of TikTok. TikTok is just killin' it in Silicone Valley.
@PracticalLibSoc
Mao didn't take a prosperous China in 1949 and run it to the ground. China was dirt poor, ravaged by 100 yrs of war. The US embargoed it for yrs after that.
Life expectancy and basic education shot up. The Mao era lasted for 27 yrs. In the lifespan of a country, that's nothing.
@RnaudBertrand
The interview is incredibly "softball". China building a military base in SCS is intimidating? Well, what about 4 new US bases in the Philippines, on top of all the other ones in Japan, SK etc. Isn't that intimidating? But no, the "journalist" won't ask such a question.
@RnaudBertrand
The article is full of baseless and ridiculous innuendos. Like they destroyed the old city "claiming it was unsafe", but they make it sound like they wanted to destroy the cultural heritage. But then they rebuilt it to look the same. So, what? Well, apparently that's "bad".
@KugelmanWilliam
@SafetyGuyTweets
@DrewPavlou
You still have a lot to learn, Billie. 1st lesson, understand that a citizen from another country may know more about it than you do, and may be passionate about defending it. 2nd lesson, don't think you're smarter than her. She went to your country. You never went to her's.
Piano man Brendan Kavanagh AKA Dr K tells Piers Morgan he thinks forces are in play to 'take down' the viral video of him being confronted by Chinese tourists.
"If the video gets taken down, let's kick up a stink!"
@brenkav
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@piersmorgan
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#PMU
Ep. 78 The Biden administration helped install a pro-Chinese government in Brazil, which immediately shut down opposition media and began arresting dissidents. Here are two of its victims.
Huawei is controlled by the military!
MWG arrives in China on civilian aircraft, greeted by civilian Huawei employees.
The 2 Michaels arrive in military plane, welcomed by militaries, and salute them.
Who are they working for again?
Such a good article by Han Feizi. I know one cannot compare big cities like HZ or CD with all of China, but it's still obvious that the middle class, or slightly upper middle class in China has better standard of living than in most Western countries. /2
Let me be clear again. If, as an expat in Shanghai, you were "traumatized" by the lockdown, you really need to think long and hard about how easy a life you've had so far, that such a minor annoyance will "traumatize" you. Go live in a war zone for a while, then we can talk.