HGW XX/7
An amusing Polandball comic about China: Han never learns.
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The Song dynasty part is... not entirely accurate. Song is well known for its piss weak military for most of its period and being punched in the face by foreign powers. Think the unequal treaties that the Qing made with the western powers, but substitute "western powers" with "nomadic powers".
Yes, the west are not the first to made unequal treaties with China.
The Song Dynasty did manage to produce Yue Fei. Though he ended up being executed by his own emperor. (A very familiar theme in Chinese history: Anyone with even a hint of threatening the rulers usually end up being executed, even if all they are trying to do is save the nation.)
In China, Local Leaders Defy Beijing on Reforms.
Why 1 million Chinese migrants are building a new empire in Africa.
edited 10th Jun '14 10:54:08 AM by Quag15
These officials have lost confidence in the party
Oh, wow. Officials in a government that is prone towards suddenly demoting and jailing or executing its officials set up escape routes out of country? Who'da thunk?
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
From Quag's second linked article: "...The idea that the Communist Party will collapse and democracy will eventually triumph in China is a grave misreading of the situation. The party stands as a harmonizing and unifying force in Chinese society – a far more important consideration for the middle class given the painful legacy of China’s historical fragmentation in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Indeed, it stands to reason that if the CCP succeeds in elevating China into the echelons of the high income bracket, then conversely it will act as a powerful legitimating device for the regime."
Yeah, I remember reading someone who claimed that while Milton Friedman claimed that free market policies help the development of democracy, their implementation commonly branded as "neoliberalism" actually aids the maintenance of oligarchic regimes like the one in the PRC. So as long as no major economic collapses occur, that is.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
x4 Regarding that...corruption is endemic to the system. To get anything done, you need to know the right people and grease the right palms. A few years ago a six year old girl made the news when asked what she wanted to be when she grew up and she said a corrupt official because that's how you get rich. It's a pretty sad state of affairs.
No one can become a rich and powerful official without a bunch of skeletons in their closet. Skeletons that gets dragged out of the closet and used to take you down when there's fighting between government factions and you're on the losing side. Chinese government not as monolithic as it likes to appear, it's very Game of Thrones behind the scene.
edited 10th Jun '14 10:54:17 PM by nightwyrm_zero
That confirms the theory that my family and I have been talking about: quite a lot of mainland Chinese money spent overseas are, well, money gathered from corruption.
This is not just bad for the PRC but for other places as well. Here, in Australia, the housing market have been pushed to incredible heights with a lot of the potential buyers looking around Chinese.
edited 10th Jun '14 11:08:49 PM by IraTheSquire
Same here in Canada. Vancouver moreso than Toronto but housing prices have skyrocketed due to overseas buyers. Even in Hong Kong, everything has become much more expensive in the last two years coz a lot of mainlanders have been coming in to buy luxury goods like jewelry and brand names and has driven up the prices of everything else coz of increased store rents. Funny (but depressing) fact, one of the most sought after items to buy in HK is baby formula coz HK has much, much better quality and safety assurances for its foods.
Essentially, this is what the world is dealing with. You have people who are so unscrupulous and greedy that they would knowingly sell toxic baby formula to their neighbours in order to make a quick buck. And the Chinese government is unable to stamp it out because of systemic corruption and the willingness for local officials to look the other way as long as the right palms are greased.
On multiple threads about China counterfeiting, selling poisoned shit and aggression and what not, it seems people views the PRC as one giant evil dude doing all these things. But the reality is that it's a multitude of small evil dudes who are all trying to get rich quick and the central authority is incapable of or unwilling to control them. China isn't trying to sell you poisoned pet food. China is a fucking Randian paradise where people who sells poisoned pet food can get away with it coz they have the money to pay the right people off.
edited 11th Jun '14 8:00:22 AM by nightwyrm_zero
V
London as well, from what I've heard here.
I have balls.
Angelina Jolie has made me happy.
HGW XX/7
Is it just me, or are Chinese netizens batshit insane?
I don't like how the article seems to imply that she just made a gaffe: Jolie doesn't strike me as anyone's fool. I think she knew exactly what she was doing.
edited 11th Jun '14 1:13:06 PM by Achaemenid
Schild und Schwert der Partei
Some of them are government shills. Some are just Standard Internet Comment Section Talk.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
HGW XX/7
Polandball on Philippine "Independence"
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They're not part of East Asia.
Wasn't there a Southeast Asia thread?
HGW XX/7
There's a South Asia thread, and they ain't part of South Asia.
Of course, the Philippines aren't really Asian at all
@Quag
- A Philippine politics thread is still around.
Never Trust
They're East Asian enough for them and China to be sticking their togues out at each other over the Spratlys.
Trump delenda est
I'd appreciate that any news regarding the Philippines that are outside of the maritime disputes (which has its own thread) be kept in the Philippines thread.
edited 9th Jun '14 5:56:47 AM by tricksterson
Trump delenda est