Shanghai declares zero-Covid milestone but residents cast doubt on reopening
"On Chinese social media, some Shanghai residents said they were still not allowed to go outside despite their neighborhoods reporting no recent cases. Others lashed out at state media reports claiming life in the city is returning to normal.
Meanwhile, an article on the website of the People's Daily, the Communist Party's mouthpiece, featuring pictures purporting to show reopened restaurants, cafes and supermarkets was lampooned.
"Although I'm not allowed to go out in Shanghai, I can feel a real sense of warmth from your fake news. Thank you People's Daily!""
--- Quickly deleted, of course. Because there is only one reality in China, the one reported by the CCP.
Meanwhile, other cities who suffer similarly but are not as famous & big as Shanghai should not be forgotten:
Long Lockdowns in China’s Border Towns
"Ruili, on Yunnan’s border with Myanmar, has weathered nine separate lockdowns, totaling over 160 days [...] the city of Dongxing in Guangxi Province has been closed for two and a half months [...] along the border with Russia, the small city of Suifenhe in Heilongjiang Province has been closed for over 90 days"
--- You don't hear much about these places, because there are almost no Western expats there. But partially the situation can be even worse than in Shanghai. No wonder then that people flee:
"In the three years since the pandemic began, the resident population of Ruili has fallen from 500,000 to 100,000
[...] along the southwestern frontier of this nation, ordinary small-town life is a thing of the past. Yunnan has 25 border counties and cities that remain under stringent pandemic prevention controls. Nationwide, there are 136"
--- Life is nice under emperor Xi's eternal zero-Covid policy.
Beijing’s rhetoric in spotlight as Taiwan condemns California shooting
"David Chou, 68, was arrested on Sunday at Laguna Woods, Orange County, after he allegedly opened fire on a group of people at Geneva Presbyterian church, killing one and injuring five others.
Police described the shooting as a “politically motivated hate incident”, saying the suspect could have been motivated by his discontent with cross-strait tensions in recent years"
--- Interesting to see the struggle by some media to fit this into their narrative of anti-Asian hate stoked by Trumpists et al. They just don't want to see that most anti-Asian hate originates from China.
"Online pictures placed Chou at a meeting of a Las Vegas group that supports the “peaceful unification” of Taiwan and mainland China.
[...] According to the Alliance for China’s Peaceful Reunification, there are more than 30 such groups operating across the US. These groups, which are loosely affiliated with a central body in Beijing, can also be found among Chinese communities in Britain, publishing writings against Taiwan independence"
--- "Loosely affiliated with a central body in Beijing". In other words, they are more or less controlled by the United Front, the major Chinese organisation for international influence operations. See: California church shooter in Taiwan 'peaceful reunification' group linked to Beijing
"Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson for China’s ministry of foreign affairs, said he had “noticed” relevant reports on the shooting and the suspect’s Taiwanese origin. He added: “We hope the US government can take action against its increasingly severe gun violence problem.”"
--- 'Nothing to do with our anti-Taiwanese propaganda, it's all the US' fault.'
Imagine what gigantic tantrum we would have seen, if the victims would have been mainland Chinese.
s.a.: Authorities: Hate against Taiwanese led to church attack
China air crash that killed 132 may have been deliberate, says US report
"Analysis by US officials of the black box flight recorders found amid the wreckage suggests deliberate input from the cockpit forced the Boeing 737-800 plane into its catastrophic dive"
--- What a number of people already suggested from the available data right from the start. So, it looks like suicide-murder by one of the pilots.
"China’s air regulator has not commented beyond saying last month that investigators were continuing their inquiries"
--- Strangely, the Chinese authorities seem reluctant to even consider suicide-murder. Don't really understand why. Someone afraid of losing face or being fired?
Some factories might leave China, but in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t matter much
"survey results indicate that “companies don’t want to quit the market, but they don’t know what to do,” said the EIU’s Marro. “Right now it’s more a story of hesitation.”
“Foreign companies are going to be upset about these [zero-Covid] policies, but at the end of the day there’s not many companies that are going to jeopardize their position in a decades-long market based on a temporary shock,”"
--- Yeah, but how temporary will it be, really? Decoupling is on emperor Xi's mind & as soon as China has achieved the planned 'dual-cirulation' economy, foreign companies will be pushed out of the Chinese market.
Ten years from boom to bust, Chinese football in a tailspin
""The gloss has come off China's sporting ecosystem," Mark Dreyer of China Sports Insider told Reuters.
"Who would trust China with a World Cup bid given everything we've seen in the last two years from the pandemic?
"In football terms, we've basically seen the full boom and bust.""
--- Trust? Since when do you need trust to win a World Cup bid? All you need is money. FIFA is just as corrupt as the IOC.
France navigates tricky China challenges
How China is destroying the Uyghur Mosques
--- Spectator: "How powerful is the People's Liberation Army?"
--- WION: "Gravitas: Here's why Chinese nationals are leaving Pakistan"
--- China Observer: "Run! Is China Going to Cut Itself off From the World?"
Australian police as CCP goons
Panic in the mall! (because someone's Covid app turned red
Die drei großen Fehler des Xi Jinping
"Dennoch scheint das Machtgefüge des Xi Jinping in den vergangenen Wochen Risse bekommen zu haben. Der Grund: eine Serie großer politischer Fehlentscheidungen. Mit denen setzt er China-Experten zufolge vor allem den Rückhalt jener breiten Wirtschaftselite aufs Spiel, die die Maschine China am Laufen hält."
--- Pfff... Gerade den Wirtschaftseliten hat man ja in den letzten Jahren gezeigt, wer das Sagen hat. Gefährlicher für Xi ist da schon, daß sich pensionierte KPCh-Spitzenkader offen kritisch äußern. Die könnten sich zu Kondensationskernen für die Opposition gegen Kaiser Xi entwickeln. Ob sich daraus wirklich was ergibt, ist eine andere Frage, aber neben der Verärgerung von Elitestudenten ist das am ehesten ein Problem für Xi.
"„In der Summe führen all diese Fehler meines Erachtens dazu, dass hinter den Kulissen in Peking die Frage nach der Strategie von Xi gestellt wird“, sagt Ex-Botschafter Schaefer.
Leute, die Xi in der Partei wirklich gefährlich werden könnten, kennt der frühere Diplomat allerdings keine"
--- Stimmt. Kaiser Xi war in den letzten Jahren recht erfolgreich mit der Eliminierung innerparteilicher Opposition.
ZDF-Doku zu Corona: „Wir hätten diese Tragödie verhindern können“
"Wir hätten diese Tragödie, die Millionen Leben gekostet hat, verhindern können. Aber wir haben diese Chance vertan, wegen Chinas Verhalten und der Impotenz der WHO, etwas dagegen zu unternehmen."
--- Impotenz. Kann man so sagen. Aber da war doch auch sehr viel Kumpanei zwischen WHO & KPCh dabei.
Masseninhaftierungen in China: Uiguren-Bezirk hat die höchste Gefangenenrate der Welt
"sogar nach konservativer Schätzung liegt die Gefangenerate in Konasheher zehn Mal höher als die in den USA, einem der Länder mit den meisten Häftlingen gemessen an der Bevölkerungszahl. Sie ist auch 30 Mal höher als die Rate in China als Ganzem"
--- Alles fiese Terroristen, ganz offenbar. Wenn das nächste Mal ein 'Chinaliebhaber' damit kommt, daß die USA ja viel schlimmer sind, hat man wieder ein Argument mehr.
Angreifer in US-Kirche war »aufgebracht über politische Spannungen zwischen China und Taiwan«
"Bei dem Angreifer habe es sich um einen Einwanderer aus China gehandelt, der »aufgebracht über die politischen Spannungen zwischen China und Taiwan« gewesen sei"
--- Ein Einwanderer aus Taiwan. Allerdings hatte er Verbindungen zu einer Organisation, die offenbar von der chinesischen Einheitsfront gesteuert wird.
Flugzeug in China womöglich absichtlich zum Absturz gebracht
"Aus diesen Daten geht laut »Wall Street Journal« hervor, dass einer der Piloten oder jemand, der ins Cockpit eingedrungen war, das Flugzeug per Steuereingabe in den Sturzflug versetzt und zum Absturz gebracht hatte. Laut der Zeitung halten US-amerikanische Behörden eine Verantwortung des Piloten für wahrscheinlicher."
--- Wenn jemand ins Cockpit eingedrungen wäre, hätte es aber wohl einen speziellen Alarm gegeben. Von daher war es vermutlich, wie schon recht früh vermutet wurde, einer der Piloten.
China stoppt offenbar tägliche Veröffentlichung von Anleihedaten
Studie zum Bitcoin-Mining: In China wird heimlich weitergeschürft
