China news roundup / Nachrichten 2024-02-24/25

2 months ago

INTERVIEW: How the West has been misreading China for years

"Money, labor, fertilizer, energy, transportation, all these are the means of production. They all belonged to the state. Today the money belongs to state banks. The land belongs to the state. Energy is controlled by the state. Large enterprises are controlled by the state. That was their goal, and they achieved it.
The second point is democratization. At no point did anyone say they wanted to have a separation of powers. On the contrary, Zhao Ziyang said very clearly back in 1987 that China would never have the separation of powers. Xi Jinping also made that very clear. But nobody in the West heard them, because they didn't want to hear it.
There is a profound failure on the part of a great many people, politicians, experts and scholars outside China to simply listen to what all of these leaders said very clearly and also to read and understand what’s been happening. The failure is reasonably straightforward. It is a refusal to believe that a communist — a Chinese communist — is a communist."

--- True. Although, to be fair, there was a time when it actually looked like China was developing in a more open direction. Even I thought that, with some luck, the CCP would loosen its grip enough so that there might be a successful democratic uprising. But after 2008, that dream faded away.

"In the 1970s, Deng Xiaoping sent missions to Japan and the United States. When they came back, the conclusion was that the U.S. economy was terrible with lots of unemployment and big debt. “They need us. They are about to collapse. This is a great opportunity for us.” — this was what [Chinese leaders] said when they were pretty much unable to feed their own people in the 1970s.
The same story has repeated itself. The biggest moment was in 2008 with the global financial crisis. At that moment in Beijing thought, “This is it. This is the collapse of the capitalist system. Our social system is superior.” So, they went around the world in 2009 and 2010, talking about "the China way," that "our socialist system is superior to the capitalist system.""

--- Well, actually, in the 2000's there were many Chinese, at least among the general populace, who did not believe in Western collapse, but saw the West as superior (economically) & should be emulated.
Now, though, under emperor Xi, it's probably back to the common 'We Chinese are the best. Only evil conspiracies have kept us from leading the world.'

"Xi Jinping has what others didn't have. He's got much greater clout. Xi Jinping ... merely says what all his predecessors have said very consistently since 1949. He is no different from any of his predecessors."

--- Well... He is different. None of his recent predecessors concentrated (or even tried to) so much power in one person.

China Coast Guard conducts patrols in waters near Taiwan's Kinmen Islands

"The China Coast Guard conducted “law enforcement patrols” in waters near the Taiwanese-held Kinmen Islands on Sunday, Chinese officials said, amid rising tensions in the area following a deadly incident earlier this month.
“During the patrol, the coast guard vessels adopted measures such as verbal warnings to strengthen law enforcement, effectively maintained order in the relevant sea areas, and earnestly safeguarded the safety of fishermen's lives and property,”"

--- Just the usual Chinese bluster, I suppose. At the moment, it seems as if China's response to the boat accident stays fairly muted.

Brahma Chellaney on Taiwan: China’s self-serving historical tales

"Taiwan has never been an integral part of China in history. And the only outside power that secured control over all of Taiwan was Japan.
While Taiwan remained under Japanese colonial rule until 1945, Japan officially renounced its sovereignty over it only in the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty, but without the transferee being identified.
The communist-led People’s Republic of China, having exercised no territorial sovereignty over Taiwan, lacks the legal standing to lay claim to the island democracy.
In fact, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), founded in 1921, long regarded Taiwan as a foreign territory and articulated for the first time its goal of “liberating” the island just months before it seized power in Beijing in 1949."

--- It doesn't matter. What matters is the word of the CCP & of emperor Xi. Whatever they claim must be taken at face value. If you don't, you're guilty of blasphemy.