We are just a group of retired spooks that discuss things that you’ll not find anywhere else. It makes us unique. Take a look around. Learn a thing or two.
I tire of the mess that the United States is creating.
Let’s take a break from it.
Here’s a nice interlude with some great art. There’s something about this art that awakens odd feelings inside. Nothing that I can put my finger on, but marvelous never the less. I hope that you all appreciate this post and the art that is presented.
It’s hard to look at the illustrations of Kouki Ikegami and not feel as if you’re looking at the concept art for a gorgeous anime film. The talented illustrator has a beautiful way of turning simple everyday surroundings into charming and nostalgic worlds of art. Two renditions of his gorgeous “A large cloud and small railroad crossing” based off of Kusatsu Station in Shiga prefecture.
Ikegami’s attention to detail of real life settings and backgrounds has some of his illustrations being compared to the beautifully animated films of Makoto Shinkai. Many on Twitter have pointed out how some of the finer details–such as the wear and tear on some building structures, sign lettering, and even the LINE messenger app on a girl’s cell phone–make the illustrations appear as actual photographs.
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0 frgr28
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I hope that you all enjoyed this as much as I have. Please have a great day. Spend the time with friends and family and maybe a great meal out. And remember, no matter what, I believe in you.
Do you want more?
I have more articles like this one in my Art Index here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Here's a nice short story to provide some brief moments of pleasure. I do hope that you enjoy it as much as I have. - MM
THE DRAGON
By Ray Bradbury
The night blew in the short grass on the moor; there was no other motion. It had been years since a single bird had flown by in the great blind shell of sky.
Long ago a few small stones had simulated life when they crumbled and fell into dust. Now only the night moved in the souls of the two men bent by their lonely fire in the wilderness; darkness pumped quietly in their veins and ticked silently in their temples and their wrists.
Firelight fled up and down their wild faces and welled in their eyes in orange tatters. They listened to each other’s faint, cool breathing and the lizard blink of their eyelids. At last, one man poked the fire with his sword.
“Don’t idiot; you’ll give us away!”
“No matter,” said the second man, “The dragon can smell us miles off anyway. God’s breath, it’s cold. I wish I was back at the castle.”
“It’s death, not sleep, we’re after…”
“Why? Why? The dragon never sets foot in the town!”
“Quiet, fool! He eats men traveling alone from our town to the next!”
“Let them be eaten and let us get home!”
“Wait now; listen!”
The two men froze.
They waited a long time, but there was only the shake of their horses’ nervous skin like black velvet tambourines jingling the silver stirrup buckles, softly, softly.
“Ah.” The second man sighed. “What a land of nightmares. Everything happens here. Someone blows out the sun; it’s night. And then, and then, oh, God, listen! This dragon, they say his eyes are fire. His breath a white gas; you can see him burn across the dark lands. He runs with sulfur and thunder and kindles the grass. Sheep panic and die insane. Women deliver forth monsters. The dragon’s fury is such that tower walls shake back to dust. His victims, at sunrise, are strewn hither thither on the hills. How many knights, I ask, have gone for this monster and failed, even as we shall fail?”
“Enough of that!”
“More than enough! Out here in this desolation I cannot tell what year this is!”
“Nine hundred years since the Nativity.”
“No, no,” whispered the second man, eyes shut, “On this moor is no Time, is only Forever. I feel if I ran back on the road the town would be gone, the people yet unborn, things changed, the castles unquarried from the rocks, the timbers still uncut from the forests; don’t ask how I know; the moor knows and tells me. And here we sit alone in the land of the fire dragon, God save us!”
“Be you afraid, then gird on your armor!”
“What use? The dragon runs from nowhere; we cannot guess its home. It vanishes in fog; we know not where it goes. Aye, on with our armor, we’ll die well dressed.”
Half into his silver corselet, the second man stopped again and turned his head.
Across the dim country, full of night and nothingness from the heart of the moor itself, the wind sprang full of dust from clocks that used dust for telling time. There were black suns burning in the heart of this new wind and a million burnt leaves shaken from some autumn tree be- yond the horizon. This wind melted landscapes, lengthened bones like white wax, made the blood roil and thicken to a muddy deposit in the brain. The wind was a thousand souls dying and all time confused and in transit. It was a fog inside of a mist inside of a darkness, and this place was no man’s place and there was no year or hour at all, but only these men in a faceless emptiness of sudden frost, storm and white thunder which
moved behind the great falling pane of green glass that was the lightning. A squall of rain drenched the turf; all faded away until there was unbreathing hush and the two men waiting alone with their warmth in a cool season.
“There,” whispered the first man. “Oh, there…”
Miles off, rushing with a great chant and a roar – the dragon.
In silence the men buckled on their armor and mounted their horses. The midnight wilderness was split by a monstrous gushing as the dragon roared nearer, nearer; its flashing yellow glare spurted above a hill and then, fold on fold of dark body, distantly seen, therefore indistinct, flowed over that hill and plunged vanishing into a valley.
“Quick!”
They spurred their horses forward to a small hollow.
“This is where it passes!”
They seized their lances with mailed fists and blinded their horses by flipping the visors down over their eyes.
“Lord!”
“Yes, let us use His name.”
On the instant, the dragon rounded a hill. Its monstrous amber eye fed on them, fired their armor in red glints and glitters, With a terrible wailing cry and a grinding rush it flung itself forward.
“Mercy, God!”
The lance struck under the unlidded yellow eye, buckled, tossed the man through the air. The dragon hit, spilled him over, down, ground him under. Passing, the black brunt of its shoulder smashed the remaining horse and rider a hundred feet against the side of a boulder, wailing, wailing, the dragon shrieking, the fire all about, around, under it, a pink, yellow, orange sun-fire with great soft plumes of blinding smoke.
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“Did you see it?” cried a voice. “Just like I told you!”
“The same! The same! A knight in armor, by the Lord Harry! We hit him!”
“You goin’ to stop?”
“Did once; found nothing. Don’t like to stop on this moor. I get the willies. Got a feel, it has.”
“But we hit something!”
“Gave him plenty of whistle; chap wouldn’t budge!”
A steaming blast cut the mist aside.
“We’ll make Stokely on time. More coal, eh, Fred?”
Another whistle shook dew from the empty sky. The night train, in fire and fury, shot through a gully, up a rise, and vanished away over cold earth toward the north, leaving black smoke and steam to dissolve in the numbed air minutes after it had passed and gone forever.
Do you want more?
I have more stories much like this one in my Ray Bradbury Index here…
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you.
One the most profound realizations that one MUST arrive at is that the American (and Western) “news” is a massive propaganda organ. It’s not that they twist and distort the news. Oh, I wish it was that simple. No. Rather, they lie, and make up fanciful stories towards manipulation. That’s it, and nothing more can be said.
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Now, of course, you can categorize the the lies.
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You can say that the lies fall under categories. And of these, purposes for the manipulation of large groups of people.
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I really don’t think that this is all that difficult to understand.
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All these different organizations are vying for your mind. They want you to think certain ways, and in doing so it gives them advantage. Depending on who is involved, you can then map out the funding, and the then compare with the depth and breadth of the articles that the media bombards you with.
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I’ve posted a lot of articles about the anti-China narrative, and discussed the people behind this screed. Pretty much it’s a mix of religious fundamentalists, neocons, and hard-Right players. And when Donald Trump became President in 2016, the opened the funding floodgates, as well as staffed his administration with neocons, and the result was a “firehose” of anti-China disinformation.
They all are looking forward to getting involved in a hot war with “juicy and wealthy” China. They just want an EXCUSE.
You will find these articles all over the internet. Such as this one (below) that I pulled off of Free Republic right now…
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China's military is poised to outgun the West after HUGE growth
3/15/2021, 9:34:39 AM · by RomanSoldier19 · 12 repliesDaily Mail via msn ^ | 3/14/2021 | Marco Giannangeli
It follows an ominous warning last week by the commander of US forces in the Indo-Pacific that China may launch a military operation against Taiwan "in the next six years". This would likely lead to military reprisals from the US Navy and allies including Britain, which is sending its new carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, to lead a multinational strike force to the Far East in May. China commands the world's largest military, with 2.18 million soldiers, sailors and aviators on active duty. And after a recent 6.8 percent rise it will command a £200billion military budget this year. But it...
Oh, Ah.
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Read the text, of “ominous warning” and “military reprisals”. War in that far-away land is being jinned up, don’t you think? Any day now, some proud American Rambo’s are gonna “kick some slant eyed butt”, don’t you know.
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Not gonna happen.
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Why?
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Well, in the first case the American and UK military excursion into the South China Sea in late Summer 2020 was a disaster, and the seven aircraft carriers steamed back to American (and the UK) with their “tail between their legs”. Trump incensed that his orders were not carried out, fired his military brass as soon as then returned. It was a “Waterloo moment“, and scared the living shit out of the military brass.
And in the Second Case, please just keep in mind that Taiwan is part of China. No matter how much this is omitted in the neocon publications and articles. No matter how many times the American “news” talks about the USA “doing something”, nothing is going to happen. You can yell, scream and stamp your feet but that will not change the fact that Taiwan agreed to become part of China, and this union is recognized by the United Nations.
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Taiwan stopped being an independent nation, and became a Chinese client state in 1972 by [1] The Shanghai Communiqué and the 1982 [2] Joint Communiqué and [3] the August 17 Communiqué. It's the 23rd province of China.
All of this his was codified and made permanent on October 1971, when the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 2758, which recognized the government of the People’s Republic of China as the only legitimate representative of China at the United Nations and established the One-China Principle.
American “news” is a big lie, and people are following it because just about everything in America has been corrupted beyond recognition. No one trusts the government, yet somehow they believe the media. They turn to alternative media in the belief that they have not been corrupted.
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Ah. But they have.
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But anyways,
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Aside from all that “noise” out of the “news”, China is moving on. It is on all fronts. So the USA doesn’t want to partner with China on anything. OK. No problem. But watch out. As I have said before; China does not play.
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Meanwhile check out what is going on with China and Taiwan right now…
China’s railway operator echoes netizens’ call for a high-speed rail route to Taiwan
By Global Times Published: Mar 14, 2021 03:03 PM
Reprinted as found. All credit to the author, and edited to fit this venue.
An aerial photo shows the Pingtan Strait Road-rail Bridge in East China’s Fujian Province. The first of its kind in China, the bridge opened on Saturday, shortening travel time between the provincial capital of Fuzhou with the island county of Pingtan to 35 minutes from around two hours. The bridge will make it more convenient for compatriots in the island of Taiwan to travel to the Chinese mainland. Photo: cnsphoto
China’s top railway operator said on Sunday that it has “taken seriously the building of a railway to the island of Taiwan,” echoing Chinese netizens’ calls as well as the Russian Ambassador to China’s wish to visit the island by train.
China Railways, the country’s top railway construction company, discussed the technical issues and routes of building the high-speed railway from East China’s Fujian Province to the island of Taiwan in an article published in its official WeChat account on Sunday.
No wonder Donald Trump wanted to ban WeChat, you cannot have the anti-China narrative polluted by facts.
In the article, it mentioned China’s National Comprehensive Transportation Network Plan, which was rolled out in late February and set the construction goals from 2021 to 2035 with a long-term plan extended. A route from Fuzhou to Taipei, in the island of Taiwan, was also listed in the plan.
China’s HST (High Speed Train) rail network as of 2020.
The plan soon drew heated discussions on Chinese social media platforms. Netizens also expressed a strong wish to “visit Taiwan by train.”
Close up showing the HST bridge between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan.
Denisov said he is looking forward to taking a high-speed train to visit the island some day in an interview with Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV in early March. “If I could have a chance to visit Taiwan Province, of course I prefer to do it by train.”
Responding to such calls, the railway operator giant noted, “The dream that countless Chinese people have dreamt is finally drawing closer,” as the Beijing-Taipei high-speed rail has only “the last part” between the Straits left to be completed.
It further went on to explain that with the completion of the Fuzhou-Pingtan railway last December, all of the construction work on the Beijing-Taipei high-speed rail has been completed except for the last section, which will link the mainland across the Straits, referring to “the last part” from Pingtan to Taipei.
The Fuzhou-Pingtan railway, the nearest one on the mainland from Taiwan, was put into operation on December 26. Pingtan is only 68 nautical miles away from Taiwan’s Hsinchu, the closest point across the straits.
The Pingtan Strait Road-Rail Bridge, a key project of the Fuzhou-Pingtan railway, has a total length of 16.34 kilometers. It is the world’s longest cross-sea road-rail bridge and the first road-rail bridge in China.
Is this even possible, or is this a “pipe dream”?
Oh yes. It is absolutely possible. Consider that all of the neighboring nations are enthusiastically participating with China in establishing communication and trade routes and upgrading their infrastructure. And consider the a fore mentioned “Pingtan Strait Road-Rail Bridge” which was just completed last year. Which followed the HK – Macao – Zhuhai bridge effort (outside my front door)…
The Fuzhou-Pingtan railway in east China’s Fujian Province went into operation Saturday morning after seven years of construction, allowing visitors from the Chinese mainland and China’s Taiwan to travel more conveniently across the Taiwan Straits.
The Fuzhou-Pingtan railway in east China’s Fujian Province went into operation Saturday morning after seven years of construction, allowing visitors from the Chinese mainland and China’s Taiwan to travel more conveniently across the Taiwan Straits.
The 88-kilometer railway, designed to support high-speed trains running at a speed of up to 200 km per hour, connects the provincial capital of Fuzhou with the largest island in the province, which is the nearest place in the Chinese mainland to Taiwan Island, only 68 nautical miles (about 126 km) away from Hsinchu City.
The 88-kilometer railway, designed to support high-speed trains running at a speed of up to 200 km per hour, connects the provincial capital of Fuzhou with the largest island in the province.
Noting that they have been taking the “Strait” ship to travel between Pingtan and Taiwan, Yang Binghao, who is from Taiwan and runs a cultural and creative center in Pingtan, said that with the Fuzhou-Pingtan railway, “Taiwan compatriots can now transfer via railway after arriving in Pingtan by sea, and then we can easily travel to Beijing, Shanghai and other parts of the mainland.”
Yang believes that the railway will further promote the opening-up and development of Pingtan and facilitate cross-strait travel and communication, benefiting local residents and people from both sides.
Thanks to bullet trains running on the Pingtan Strait Road-Rail Bridge, it now only takes around half an hour for residents and visitors to commute between both places.
Thanks to bullet trains running on the Pingtan Strait Road-Rail Bridge, it now only takes around half an hour for residents and visitors to commute between both places. The 16.3-kilometer-long bridge, with a six-lane highway on top and a high-speed railway at bottom, is China’s first and the world’s longest cross-sea road-rail bridge.
The 16.3-km-long Pingtan Strait Road-Rail Bridge is China’s first and the world’s longest cross-sea road-rail bridge. /CFP
The new railway will link the island county with major cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen through the transportation hub in Fuzhou, according to Li Fei, an official with the China Railway Nanchang Group Co., Ltd.
In 2009, the Pingtan Comprehensive Pilot Zone was launched in the county to facilitate cross-strait exchange and cooperation, aiming to become a “common home for compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Straits,” which currently houses more than 1,000 Taiwan-invested enterprises.
A young child ride the HST on the way to Taiwan.
Comprised of 126 islands, Pingtan is home to marvelous natural wonders and a number of tourist attractions such as Haitan Island, Tannan Bay, Pingtan Island National Forest Park, and Haitan Ancient City, and has become increasingly popular among visitors from home and abroad in recent years.
From January 20, up to 17 sets of bullet trains will run on the line every day, up from 9.5 sets plying currently, further boosting the development of local tourism.
So what is China doing to quench the anti-unification efforts?
Sure all this is fine and good. China is building bridges, and tunnels and aiding in economic development. However the United States is funding the Taiwan separatist movement. (As well as funding NGO’s such as the NED, and NID for insurgency efforts.) But what is China doing to quench those who want to fight a “hot war” for “American Democracy”?
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Thursday stressed the importance of the one-China principle and 1992 Consensus in addressing the development of cross-strait relations.
The premier made the remarks during a virtual press conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing after the closing of the fourth session of the 13th National People's Congress, China's top legislature.
The Chinese mainland welcomes dialogue with different parties regarding cross-strait relations to achieve the unification of China, Li said, before stressing opposition to any form of separatist activities or foreign interference in cross-strait affairs.
The central government will continue to enable Taiwan compatriots to share in opportunities on the mainland, he added.
So yeah. Who, as you well know, already have Chinese passports, is still able to buy property and set up businesses but will now be granted easy loans and smooth sailing in new businesses and ventures. China is “pulling out all the stops” to help integrate the Taiwanese with the mainland Chinese.
Some thoughts
When I was a young boy, the “news” was all about the “War in Vietnam”. Every day were reports on how our “brave young men were saving the world from communism”. And the media was all over it. From Walter Cronkite on television to magazines such as “Popular Mechanics (illustrated)” and “Vanity Fair”. In those days we were all afraid of “The Red Menace”, and the “Domino Effect”, and were terrified of the “loss of our freedoms”.
Domino theory, also called Domino Effect, theory in U.S. foreign policy after WorldWar II stating that the “fall” of a noncommunist state to communismwould precipitate the fall of noncommunist governments in neighbouring states. Thetheorywas first proposed by President Harry S.Truman.domino theory | internationalrelations | Britannica.com
In those days, as a young boy, I would watch Hollywood movies glorify war. I would envision myself flying in TheB-24Liberator bombing the shit out the of the evil Nazi’s (12 O’Clock High), or fighting on the front lines with John Wayne in the movie TheGreenBerets (1968).
John Wayne in the movie The Green Berets (1968).
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It wasn’t until I was much older that I realized that were I to follow my boyhood dreams, I would probably have been shipped off to die in some distant land. I would have died a virgin, and forgotten by the rest of the world. But no one else realizes this, and America is still playing the same old games that ended up killing thousands of Americans, and millions of civilians over the last fifty years.
This is just a typical example of how absolutely “off the wall” American media is when it comes to reporting what is going on in China.
It omits facts.
it omits history.
It omits contemporaneous news.
It fabricates news.
It distorts events.
It produces emotion laden articles full of fear.
It is, after all, a reflection of what America stands for.
I will generate more articles along these lines in the future. For now they will all fall under the heading… “America is having a hissy fit.”
You’ll not find any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
Please kindly help me out in this effort. There is a lot of effort that goes into this disclosure. I could use all the financial support that anyone could provide. Thank you very much.
If your expecting the American or British press to say anything good about China, you’ve got a long wait. It’s reached a point that they would rather cut off their arms and legs rather than diverge from their anti-China, negative “boogieman” agenda.
"It's not fair to say that Americans are silent about everything. Americans are very vocal about China stealing and China having no freedom and China having the largest concentration camp for Muslims and China having no human rights for Tibetans.
All these must be true because our politicians and free press say so.
Americans are right to stand up against China imperialism of Belt and Road. Americans will never be silent about China trying to take over the world's islands and oceans.
As for the Capitol insurrection, we blame China for poisoning the minds of Americans with their Hong Kong revolution footage. We also blame Hong Kong freedom fighters for taking American money and then messing it up.
In fact, China gave Trump the royal treatment and then suckered him into a trade war which damages America. China is to blame for Trump and his trade wars. China is to blame for discovering the Covid virus.
We now know that it's been all over the world with no one the wiser, but China had to make a big stink and shut down the country. China has few Covid deaths but China also has no freedom and no human rights. What do you prefer?
Don't forget some spokesmen for some secret American agency said that China may have corrupted American elections.
China is to blame for destroying American democracy. Who can we believe if we don't believe in patriotic American elected officials, the free press, and American agencies? Don't worry Jay, Americans will be very vocal about China.
They will support more patriotic wars by any means and sanctions against the great evil China with their democratic elections and tax dollars. God bless America!
-Jay Janson's Blog
Never the less, China is moving forward. Step by step. Pace by pace. Slowly, cautiously, silently.
Just because it is not being reported on does not mean that it is not going on. It’s just that most people in the West (that means you Americans) are kept ignorant of the true and real state of affairs. And this ignorance will, mark my words, come back to bite you.
I (personally) have long held the belief that the COVID-19 was a biological attack on China by the Trump Administration. That it was number 8, of 9 such attacks, all of which were part of the “Annihilate China” strategy by John Bolton / Mike Pompeo and Donald Trump.
This view is not shared with the American media. Who not only ignore it, but also craft highly unlikely articles countering it.
However this belief of mine is actually shared by the governments of Russia, China, India, Iran, and their allies. This view is what China believes, and what they formally announced to the United Nations in a formal complaint. This view is what Russia believes as well, and it was this narrative that brought the two nations together in a joint defense posture. And while Americans might continue to live under their delusions, the rest of the world is pretty much is watching, taking notes, and looking at the USA for what it really and actually is.
Obviously his four years would be topped by a major military engagement with the “evil communist regime” (his words, not mine).
Which was to “provoke” the American military to justify a military excursion into Chinese claimed water. It did not go as planned and Trump fired his military brass as a result of that.
After all, how can you be a “War President” without a war to fight?
Prior to this, the American media had been whipped up into a anti-China frenzy. They were ready to “do what ever it takes” for “the American way of lifeTM“, “democracyTM” and “freedomTM“!
All this is very interesting, but none of the background information is actually covered in the West. Instead it’s the same “song and dance” and a slow slog though the standard “China Narratives” of crowding, poor, downtrodden, polluted underlings under an impressive tyrannical regime.
It’s purpose is to make people hate, loathe, despise and distrust China. It’s also a well-funded narrative, with billions of United States Federal Dollars going towards the creation of this narrative; this image.
Here, in this post we are going to cover another thing that is intentionally omitted from the American “news” and the UK tabloids.
We are going to cover how China dealt with the biological attack, while at the same time, following through with their plans for a new nation built upon social infrastructure, a suppression of crime and poverty and the fruits of a merit-led leadership.
Powerful stuff. But is nothing that you will read about on CNN, MSNBC, the Rush Limbaugh show, and Alex Jones.
This post is about what China has become.
This post is about what China was doing while the rest of the world (namely America, the UK and Australia) were dancing around, kicking it, spitting on it, pissing on it, and screaming insults at it.
America, the UK and Australia “piled on” China relentlessly with a massive anti-China propaganda assault in 2020.
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It is the story of a beautiful butterfly that is finally flapping its’ bright-colored wings, after a long time being the harassed and despised caterpillar.
The following is an astoundingly excellent article titled “From Terrified to Triumphant — How China Flipped 2020“. It was found on the World Affairs Blog, and all credit to the author. I edited it to fit this venue and for simplification so that the widgets and HTML won’t crash non-compliant systems. Aside from that it is exactly as found.
I urge the readership to visit that blog for more excellent articles, insight and data that is free of my opinions, and hubris. Aside from that, my editing or notes can be found and identified by italics.
From Terrified to Triumphant — How China Flipped 2020
It was the worst way to start a year for China. On the New Year’s eve of 2020, Chinese social media were full of rumors about re-emergence of SARS virus from 2003. Chinese New Year was about to begin in three weeks, which would involve hundreds of millions of people traveling all over the country.
Xi Jinping had already warned officials a month earlier that the US-China trade war and sanctions would make 2020 a very challenging year. Now an unknown virus was about to decimate the economy and shred the “China dream” into pieces.
Worse, as time went on, China was not only left alone to fend for itself, but the anti-China forces piled on with Psy-ops.
Social media attacked the Chinese people and blamed them for “eating bats” — a popular video of a Chinese blogger drinking bat soup went viral, although it turned out that she had the soup three years earlier in an island (Palau) thousands of miles away from China.
US media, filled with Shadenfreude, kept saying “deadly coronavirus” (until it spread to Europe and the US) and shouted out malevolent things to mock and frighten China:
In a highly cynical move, American media and politicians tried to turn a Wuhan eye doctor, Li Wenliang, into a whistleblower and an anti-CCP martyr — he was neither. And Chinese people living in the West were being physically assaulted by xenophobic and ignorant idiots.
It was a lonely, heart-wrenching, and an incredibly frightening moment for China. But the country ignored the judgmental, cruel world and came together as a family. That’s what Confucianism and collectivism (a core principle of socialism / communism) are all about.
The Chinese came together. The Coronavirus emergency brought the Chinese people closer than ever before.
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China’s Incredible Response
China did the only rational and scientific thing possible: completely shut down Wuhan and even Hubei province (with 57 million people).
California
39,512,223
Texas
28,995,881
Roughly the population size of both California and Texas together.
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Tens of thousands of doctors, nurses, volunteers, and even PLA soldiers were sent to Wuhan. People were restricted from leaving their homes; and communist party members volunteered to deliver food for millions of people.
Doctors wore diapers and worked 14 hours a day, while sweating inside the suffocating PPE; nurses cut their hair to reduce cross-infection; and healthcare workers stayed in hotels for many weeks to protect their families.
Hi-tech corporations came to the rescue with drones to deliver food, robots to deliver medicines, big data to detect clusters, and AI to read CAT scans.
The inimitable construction workers of China built two new hospitals in two weeks.
People with mild symptoms were quarantined in stadiums and college dormitories to stop the spread of the virus.
People with mild symptoms were quarantined in stadiums and college dormitories to stop the spread of the virus.
Chinese hospital staff inside the rapidly constructed emergency hospital in Wuhan.
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Hospital beds in the emergency hospital constructed in Wuhan.
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China mobilized the military to tackle the biological attack / pandemic. During the entire year of 2021, the China military was on a DEFCON ONE alert.
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Another view from inside one of the two emergency hospitals in Wuhan.
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MRI machine in one of the emergency hospitals.
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All hospitals throughout China worked together as one single entity to fight the Coronavirus.
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Stadiums, and gyms were converted to quarantine areas for the population to be screened within.
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Medial staff worked long days, under difficult conditions, all wearing full biological protection.
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The hospitals were not just new, but were modern, equipped with AI and 5G infrastructure, and completely sterile.
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A tired medial staffer rests upon a mattress in a quarantine holding area.
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Exercise is a fundamental part of the Chinese daily routine. Both in the morning and in the evening.
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Taking swabs with the children.
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Fighting the virus by spraying chemicals in a water fog.
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Fighting the virus by teams using hand foggers.
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Exhausted staff.
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Taking measurements. In the early months everyone used hand temperature scanners. then in mid-year thermal video scanners became available and protected all public places.
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Hospital staff.
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Hospital staff cut their hair off to prevent the spread of coronavirus and to avoid cross contamination.
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Auto-delivery robots were designed and mass-produced to service the Chinese in China.
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Hotel robots with AI and 5G technology delivered food to the hotel quarantine areas.
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Drones provided food delivery as well as monitored the streets and neighborhoods for isolation compliance.
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Everyone in China did their part. Corporations built mask and PPE factories in a week; and workers slept in those factories for weeks to ramp up production.
Doctors worked meticulously, exploring different drugs — including Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) — to treat the new virus; and scientists were racing to develop vaccines.
When big cities like Shanghai and Beijing had to shut down for 2-3 weeks, everybody cooperated and followed the guidelines.
Later, when there were mini-outbreaks — like in Qingdao and Xinjiang — China set up mobile, inflatable labs to fo PCR tests for 1-2 millions of people per day.
Test, trace, treat — China diligently followed the principles of science.
Unlike America, when China goes lock-down, it really does quiet. Nothing moves. Everyone complies. In a nation that has six times the population of America, it is a most unified and cohesive collection of citizenry.
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Beijing during the Coronavirus lock-down.
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Shanghai during the Coronavirus lock down.
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Shenzhen during the Coronavirus lock down.
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When China would shut down and lock down a region, everyone would comply and there were no exceptions.
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The subways were all quiet during a lock-down.
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During the lock down, nothing moved, and no one was demanding that it was their “Right” to not wear a mask.
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After 76 days of incredible human drama, Wuhan came out of lockdown. Thanks to China’s “authoritarian”, “draconian” and “human rights-violating” measures, China had contained the pandemic and was ready to roar.
After the lock-down normal life returned to China.
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A return to normal life and public gatherings.
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While most of China returned to normal, there still remained pockets of quarantine areas.
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President Xi Peng worked tirelessly to address this emergency and spend much of his time going town to town working with the people directly. As opposed to the American Donald Trump method of EO decree from the golf course.
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Throughout China were posters, and banners encouraging people to work together as a one unified family-nation. And it worked. People did come together. People did work as one.
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Drone fireworks over Shanghai.
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Meanwhile, the world was just coming out of its delusion.
Having wasted precious three months gloating about China’s suffering, America started plunging into COVID19 lock-downs in April.
The rest is history. By the end of the year, the USA had 20 million confirmed cases and 350,000 deaths.
Looking at COVID-19 deaths per million population, China was 3 and the U.S. was more than 1,000.
This is how China ended 2020 — with celebrations and large parties of Merry Christmas and Happy New Year:
The Chinese celebrate Christmas and the end of 2020.
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The Chinese saying “good bye” to 2021.
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All over China, people celebrated 2020 ending.
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In the local town squares and the mall open spaces, people gathered to say good-bye to 2020.
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Chinese people went out and celebrated the end of 2020 together.
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Rather than the flashy neon color light shows, cities celebrated the end of 2020 with reflection.
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In Shanghai.
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People celebrated all over China.
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The end of 2020 was a milestone event for many Chinese people.
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China’s other impressive achievements in 2020
Xi Jinping and Beijing officials must have spines made of steel.
In spite of the horrifying events of the year, Chinese officials kept working on their individual objectives. Here are some commendable and unbelievable achievements of China in other areas:
In 2020, China’s international trade (exports + imports) was eye-popping $4.8 trillion; and the trade surplus was $500 billion. (link)
China opened up the financial services industry to Wall Street’s delight.
Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, BlackRock, you-name-it all eagerly opened up numerous ventures in China.
China signed two landmark trade deals — RCEP and CAI.
RCEP is the world’s largest free trade agreement (FTA) — with 15 Asian countries accounting for 30% of world’s GDP. It’s also the first time that Japan and South Korea have signed FTA with China.
CAI (“Comprehensive Agreement on Investment”) is a China-EU investment deal that was under negotiations for six years. While the incoming Biden team tried to stop the deal, Germany quickly wrapped it up just before the year-end.
The United States no longer is part of many of the trade agreements in the Asian Pacific Rim.
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In both these treaties, notice that the U.S. is left out.
Now, China is even ready to join TPP, which Trump quit.
China managed 39 space launches, probably making China #1 three years in a row
Had the most number of vaccines in Phase 3 trial; successfully tested in many countries like Brazil, Turkey, UAE etc.
Approved Sinopharm vaccine for use; and promised cheap vaccines for developing nations (while the US and Europe have refused to do the same). This will save billions of lives in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
TikTok became the #1 app in the world
Quantum supremacy: China’s system was 10 billion times faster than Google’s
Nuclear fusion: China turned on its “artificial sun” — HL-2M Tokamak. Still a long way to go for sustained and large scale power generation, but a major breakthrough nonetheless.
Semiconductor: Chinese companies like SMIC and Yangtze Memory made significant progress, in spite of vicious American sanctions. This is the last frontier that China needs to conquer.
Deep-sea submersible (“Fendouzhe”) went 10,000 meters below the ocean to study the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest place on earth! It ranks second in the world for the deepest dives.
Announced that China will reach carbon neutrality by 2060.
Tested digital Yuan/RMB (DCEP) in many cities. This lays the groundwork for internationalization of Yuan in 2022.
Digital e-yuan.
Environment
China made significant progress in sustainability and climate action.
Beijing had 276 days of “good air quality.” Why? Use of natural gas (instead of coal), more green energy, and proliferation of electric cars. And one didn’t need scientific instruments to measure pollution. Just look at the sky!
China made significant progress in sustainability and climate action.
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China’s total renewable energy (installed capacity) reached more than 840 GW. (This is 3.5x the US). The breakdown is as follows:
hydropower = 360 GW;
solar energy = 240 GW;
wind power = 220 GW;
and biomass = 20 GW.
China installed more than 40GW of solar capacity in 2020.
Between 2016 and 2020, China planted billions of trees that covered a total area of 350,000 sq km — that’s twice the size of California!
Now more than 23% of China is covered by forests. Such afforestation/reforestation efforts take a lot of money and efforts, but China is serious.
China has been reforesting for decades.
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Infrastructure
Controlled the massive floods that ravaged vast regions of China for many weeks. (Predictably, western media and many social media citizens drooled about the possibility of the Three Gorges Dam crumbling and destroying China).
Inspite of this, China increased the high-speed rail (HSR) network to about 39,000 Km.
China's High Speed Train network = 39,000 Km / 24233.4 miles
America's High Speed train network = 0km / 0 miles
China’s High Speed Rail is the fastest, most extensive, and the cheapest to ride upon in all the entire world.
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Xiongan Smart City made tremendous progress, including a new bullet train station
Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) kept advancing.
Turkey is now linked to Xian, China.
More than 1,200 freight trains per month link 92 European cities to China.
Here are are some photos of driverless (a.k.a self-driving or autonomous) subway trains, new metro stations/lines, battery-powered trams, highways, and bridges that China built in 2020.
Even Wuhan added a new line and some artistic metro stations — check out the last two photos. (Ask yourself why America can’t afford such luxuries anymore).
Chinese High Speed Rail stations are beautiful, aesthetically pleasing to the eye, functional and also looks like something out of the televisions show “Star Trek”.
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In the Chinese smart cities the commuter buses and trams are driver-less and rely on 5G and AI technology.
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Throughout China are new AI controlled transports, quiet electric buses, beautiful stations and well-maintained infrastructure. 5G is everywhere.
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The interiors of the new transport lines are unique to the cities where they reside and special care and attention has been devoted to ease of maintenance, cleaning and beauty.
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And least you get the incorrect impression that this is but one singular city within China, you are very wrong. It’s common throughout China with substantial numbers of cities being updated in mass.
Chinese smart cities of 2020.
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AI controlled public transportation.
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Station interiors are just beautiful. They are airy, clean and roomy.
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High Speed Trains all connect to the individual subway lines and other modes of public transportation.
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Chinese road works are in a class by themselves. They are beyond compare and impressive in every way.
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Chinese build bridges to an extent that astounds.
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Another Chinese bridge.
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The interior of the stations are beautiful.
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These are public works where the public meets and conjugates.
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Geopolitics
China quietly stopped Hong Kong’s insurgents and put an end to U.S. shenanigans.
Beijing called out Washington’s bluff about sanctions and passed the National Security Law, which also kicked out American spies and fake NGO’s like NED, which specialize in brainwashing and color revolutions.
In the midst of all these problems, America’s vassal states — India and Australia — saber rattled in ominous ways.
However, the border conflict with India was de-escalated, while letting both sides save face.
Australia was spanked very hard as a warning to other vassals.
If Australia slips into a recession, the next Prime Minister will be a lot less racist and uncouth. And perhaps Australia will be more careful about committing war crimes in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
The world view of Australia today.
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China also made a momentous and long-term deal with Iran, cementing China’s influence in the Middle East.
China’s new extradition treaty with Turkey in 2020 should help capture some Uyghur terrorists who are fighting in Syria alongside of ISIS and Al Qaeda.
Trade deals RCEP and CAI have strengthened China’s inclusion and ties with Europe and Asia, thus diminishing America’s chances for proxy wars.
The vision of Eurasia became much clearer in 2020.
Military drills and more strategic alliance with Russia in 2020 should improve china’s security posture.
Russia and China share a common defense against all military threats. They share intelligence data, technologies, and military bases.
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Conclusion
If your neighbor’s house is on fire, you should help them. In Jan/Feb, the U.S. gleefully watched China burn and bragged about American exceptionalism.
While China was busy fighting the Coronavirus, America was berating it for everything. Anything that China did was bad, wrong or a “threat to democracy”.
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That’s when the US and the EU should have given generous aid to China to contain the pandemic.
Then, from April on, western societies refused to learn anything from China.
Filled with hubris and undeserved overconfidence, the West kept fumbling for months.
Incompetent governments and irrational public couldn’t agree upon simple things like wearing masks or even if COVID-19 is real.
As the West imploded, China soared to the skies.
To put it succinctly, China had a stellar year.
And with Trump’s loss, the U.S. is more polarized than ever before.
By the time Biden’s administration gets its geopolitical strategy together, everyone from Asia to Europe would see the writing on the wall — that China will inevitably be the #1 economy soon.
2020 started out as a terrifying year, but ended up as the most pivotal year that sealed China’s unique status in the 21st century.
Metallicman comments
Many people who have their eyes open can see the stark differences between China and the United States today. And they are stark. Frighteningly stark. A smart, and intelligent person, would learn from China. A caring person would do what they can to embraces the techniques and lessons that China has successfully implemented.
But that is not going to happen. Is it?
Instead, America and it’s allies are still playing the same-old, same-old game of political Ponzi-schemes, lies and the threats of military backed “color revolutions” if other nations refuse to “toe the line”.
It’s all a big “song and dance” for the sheeple to believe in.
Even intelligent articles written by knowledgeable people don’t get the full extent of the social, societal, generational, and political upset that is going on…
China’s rise reflects a bourgeoning global movement away from U.S. imperialism and toward self-determination.
“China has already closed the gap in many economic sectors and has surpassed the U.S. in others.”
Much of the 2020 presidential election between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was spent bashing China. Trump repeatedly called Biden “soft” on China while Biden claimed the same about Trump. In the last debate before votes were cast, Biden stated that Trump “cozies up to thugs” such as China’s president Xi Jinping. Although U.S.-China relations have sunk to their lowest point since normalization under Trump, Biden has made no indication that he wants to reverse course. American exceptionalism will be the ruling ideology of the U.S. state and the preservation of U.S. dominance the primary goal of the ruling class no matter who is elected president in November.
American exceptionalism, however, cannot save the U.S. empire from itself. Hurling slander at China does not change the existing reality of U.S. imperial decline.For one, neither Biden nor Trump can rescue the U.S.’ battered capitalist economy. Negative growth, mass unemployment, and the eventual expiration of moratoriums on evictions and foreclosures are likely to keep U.S. capitalism on a path of slow to no growth for years to come.
China, on the other hand, has no such problem. After mobilizing for three months to contain COVID-19, China’s economy grew at a rate of nearly five percent from July to September despite the decrepit condition of its largest trading partner and the world economy at large.
Many economists have predicted that China will overtake the U.S. in economic scale by 2030 in GDP terms. The pandemic is likely to accelerate this trend. China has already closed the gap in many economic sectors and has surpassed the U.S. in others. Market analysts predict that China’s leadership in electric vehicle production and consumption will dominate the global market in the coming years.
China is already a global leader in renewable energy production. Furthermore, in the much-heralded arena of 5G technology, China is also well ahead of the United States. China possesses twelve times more 5G base stations than the U.S. and the gap grows wider in sectors such as high-speed rail.
"Hurling slander at China does not change the existing reality of U.S. imperial decline.”
The key factor that separates the U.S. and China is austerity.
China’s planned economy and socialist governance system allows for the subsidization of the needs of the people to exist simultaneously with investments in high-tech industries. Upgrades in telecommunications technology and e-commerce, for example, have played important roles in the rising incomes of rural families and therefore have contributed to the overall policy of poverty alleviation in China.
Technology under late stage U.S. capitalism serves as a weapon against the broad masses of people by raising their rate of exploitation as contending tech corporations battle over which can dominate the market faster. Technological development receives no assistance from the state unless in the form of military contracts for the production of weapons, bases, and other installations of war.
U.S. attempts to isolate Chinese technology and trade across the world have failed time and time again, from Trump’s trade war midway through his first term to the more current policy of sanctions against corporations such as Huawei. The U.S. has thus needed to rely upon military aggression to enforce its containment policy toward China.
Nearly half of all U.S. military assets and over sixty percent of naval forces reside in the Asia-Pacific. The U.S. is not satisfied with its influence in the region, however, and has attempted to create an “Asian NATO” comprised of India, Japan, and Australia. Enhanced military aggression fits with the larger U.S. military strategy of “Great Power Competition” which targets Russia and China as the primary threats to U.S. hegemony abroad.
“Nearly half of all U.S. military assets and over sixty percent of naval forces reside in the Asia-Pacific.”
American exceptionalism is the ideological framework for the United States’ anti-China policy. Donald Trump used his first term to increase hostilities with China on the basis that its biggest economic competitor was unfairly undercutting U.S. supremacy in all areas of international relations. China has been singled out as the principle threat to American “greatness” and “exceptionalism. The War on Terror utilized racist imagery of a white civilization under siege from Arab and Muslim savages. “Great Power Competition” depicts the United States as a white civilization under siege by a modern form of Yellow Peril.
However, American exceptionalism and the imperialist ambitions behind the ideology have been a staple of U.S. relations with China since the Chinese Revolution of 1949. U.S. diplomatic, military, and economic strangulation of the People’s Republic in the first two-plus following the Chinese Revolution was justified on the basis that China was a “lost” possession in need of recovery. As Qiao Collective noted, normalization did not necessarily change the U.S. attitude that China’s social system must be overthrown in favor of U.S.-style “democracy.” Debates over China’s Most Favored Nation (MFN) trade status within Congress and the White House consistently focused on utilizing the U.S. capitalist economy as an engine of privatization in China that would force its social system to adopt a Western-style model of government.
The case of China bursts asunder the illusion that the U.S. can force nations into political submission simply by exposing the people to the U.S. capitalist economy. China’s political and economic trajectory should be clear to anyone paying attention. Capitalist mechanisms in China act as a springboard for the achievement of poverty alleviation and an elevation of the standard of living of the Chinese people.
China’s adherence to an international governance system based in the U.N. Charter is popular both with capitalist countries seeking to do business in China and Global South nations in need of breathing room from imperialist treachery. China’s economic and political development model is especially popular in China. The Chinese government sports an approval rating of 80-90 percent depending on the poll.
“China has been singled out as the principle threat to American “greatness” and “exceptionalism.”
Too often Western and American eyes are fixated on their isolated hatred of non-white peoples to consider the global implications of China’s rise.
China’s rise reflects a bourgeoning global movement away from U.S. imperialism and toward self-determination. The more that the U.S. attempts to impose its so-called exceptionalist values on the world, the more that the world’s nations harden their struggle for self-determination out of necessity and survival.
The re-election of MAS in Bolivia, the continued struggle of the Syrian governmentagainst U.S. sanctions and war, and the DPRK’s commitment to the reunification and sovereignty of the Korean Peninsula despite constant U.S. threats all fall within a larger resistance movement to U.S. empire. And it should not surprise anyone that these countries also happen to be China’s closest allies in their respective regions.
U.S. imperialism is a social order coming apart at the seams.
For nearly half of the 20th century, economic stability and growth allowed the U.S. political establishment to boast about the exceptionalism of its society even as it used every means at the disposal of the state to repress liberation movements at home and abroad.
The War on Terror soiled the U.S.’ image in the world and further sent capitalism into a tailspin of decline. A New Cold War has been launched against China and its strongest ally, Russia, to reinvent the political terrain of 20th century U.S. dominance.
It won’t work. American exceptionalism cannot save the U.S. empire from itself, nor can the ideology find sufficient traction to thwart China’s rise.
What the U.S. empire will accomplish in the coming months and years is the further spread of mass death and economic misery all over the world.
The Left’s task is not to fear or challenge China’s rise but to stop the U.S. empire from bringing the world to the precipice of a humanity-defeating World War in a ceaseless bid to preserve global hegemony.
-Black Agenda Report
Indeed. America is at a dangerous time. Like a compulsive gambler that now is facing the loan-sharks for his indiscretions, America too must “face the music”. The game is over. The clock has struck twelve, and the time is up.
It’s time for reckoning.
The future belongs to the nations that provide for their citizenry, protect them and invest in THEM and their families. Like China. Exactly like China; nations that make things with factories, and nations that provide good solid educational opportunities for their people and place of employment will do far better…
…than nations (like America) that rely on artificial number games on spreadsheets to support a tiny minority of ultra-wealthy people in their pursuit of greed and military conquest.
The old way of doing things will no longer work. Like an old car that is burning gasoline but is going nowhere, so is the United States beginning to collapse upon itself….
The old world is on the way out. Being lead by America it is kicking and screeching towards the hole dug in the cemetery of ancient empires. The only danger ahead is the crazed extent that a desperate and nuclear armed nation might go to in it’s quest to maintain it’s global dominance. We can only hope that President Biden will keep calm, follow the path laid before him and search for terms of co-existence with other nations, societies and cultures.
Meanwhile…
China is there. It is the shining city on the hill that all nations can look to for guidance and support. They are willing to offer a helping hand. But the real question is this; is the West ready to accept it?
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This is the third post of the impressions that American Fred Reed had when he visited China for the first time in over a decade. It’s all priceless and underlines what I have been trying to convey for years now. This, as his third post, was written after he had a chance to sit down, and contemplate the differences between America and China and what both are “supposed” to be. It’s a fantastic read. And here it is…
This is from the article “Comparing China and America – Economies Diverge, Police States Converge” by Fred Reed it was written on November 28, 2018. All credit to the author.
Comparing China and America – Economies Diverge, Police States Converge
By Fred Reed.
I have followed China’s development, its stunning advance in forty years from impoverished Third World to a huge economy, its rapid scientific progress.
Coming from nowhere it now runs neck and neck with the US in supercomputers, does world-class work in genetic engineering and genomics (the Beijing Genomics Institute), quantum computing and quantum radar, and in scientific publications.
It lags in many things, but the speed of advance, the intense focus on progress, is remarkable.
Recently, after twelve years away, I returned for a couple of weeks to Chungdu and Chong Quing, which I found amazing.
American patriots of the lightly read but (of a) growly sort will bristle at the thought that the Chinese may have political and economic systems superior to ours, but, well…
… China rises while the US flounders.
They must be doing something right.
In terms of economic systems, the Chinese are clearly superior.
China runs a large economic surplus, allowing it to invest heavily in infrastructure and in resources abroad.
America runs a large deficit.
China invests in China, America in the military.
China’s infrastructure is new, of high quality, and growing.
America’s slowly deteriorates.
China has an adult government that gets things done.
America has an essentially absentee Congress and a kaleidoscopically shifting cast of pathologically aggressive curiosities in the White House.
Admit it. This is the truth.
America cannot compete with a country far more populous of more-intelligent people with competent leadership and the geographic advantage of being in Eurasia.
America has "Diversity Officers" and "Political Correctness", not to mention racial quotas.
Washington’s choices are either to start a major war while it can, perhaps force the world to submit through sanctions, or resign itself to America’s becoming just another country.
Given the goiterous egos inside the Beltway Bubble, this is not encouraging.
To compare the two countries, look at them as they are, not as we are told they are.
We are told that dictatorships, which China is, are nightmarish, brutal, do not allow the practice of religion or freedom of expression and so on. The usual examples are Pol Pot, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, and North Korea, of whom the criticisms are true.
By contrast, we are told, America is envied by the world for its democracy, freedom of speech, free press, high moral values, and freedom of religion.
This is nonsense.
You tell em' Fred.
In fact the two countries are more similar than we might like to believe, with America converging fast on the Chinese model.
The US is at best barely democratic.
Yes, every four years we have a hotly contested presidential election, full of sound and fury signifying nothing.
The public has no influence over anything of importance: the wars, the military budget, immigration, offshoring of jobs, what our children are taught in school, or foreign or racial policy
The American public has no influence over anything of importance.
We do not really have freedom of speech.
Say “nigger” once and you can lose a job of thirty years. Or criticize Jews, Israel, blacks, homosexuals, Muslims, feminists, or transsexuals. The media strictly prohibit any criticism of these groups, or anything against abortion or in favor of gun rights, or any coverage of highly profitable wars that might turn the public against them, or corruption in Congress or Wall Street, or research on the genetics of intelligence.
Religion?
Christianity is not illegal, but heavily repressed under the Constitutionally nonexistent doctrine of separation of church and state.
Surveillance?
Monitoring of the population is intense in China and getting worse. It is hard to say just how much NSA monitors us, but America is now a land of cameras, electronic readers of license plates, recording of emails and telephone conversations. The tech giants increasingly censor political sites, and surveillance in our homes appears about to get much worse.
Here we might contemplate Lincoln’s famous dictum…
“You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”
Being a politician, he did not add a final clause that is the bedrock of American government…
“But you can fool enough of the people enough of the time.”
You don’t have to keep websites of low circulation from being politically incorrect. You just have to tell the majority, via the mass media, over and over and over, what you want them to believe.
The dictatorship in China is somewhat onerous, but has little in common with the sadistic lunacy of Pol Pot’s Cambodia.
In China you do not buck the government, propaganda is heavy, and communications monitored. If people accept this, as most do, they are free to start businesses, bar hop, smoke dope (which a friend there tells me is common though illegal) engage in such consumerism as they increasingly can afford and lead what an American would call normal lives.
A hellhole it is not.
Socially
China has a great advantage over America in that, except for the
Muslims of Xinjiang, it is pretty much a Han monoculture. Lacking
America’s racial diversity, its cities do not burn, no pressure exists
to infantilize the schools for the benefit of incompetent minorities,
racial mobs do not loot stores, and there is very little street crime.
America’s huge urban pockets of illiteracy do not exist.
There is not the virulent political division that has gangs of uncontrolled Antifa hoodlums stalking public officials.
China takes education seriously, as America does not.
Students study, behave as maturely as their age would suggest, and do not engage in middle-school politics.
In short, China does not appear to be in irremediable decadence. America does.
An intelligent dictatorship has crucial advantages over a chaotic pseudo-democracy.
One is stability of policy.
In America, we look to the next election in two, four, or six years. Businesses focus on the next quarter’s bottom line.
Consequently policy flipflops.
One administration has no interest in national health care, the next administration institutes it, and the third wants to eliminate it.
Because policies are pulled and hauled in different directions by special interests–in this case Big Pharma, insurance companies, the American Medical Associatiion, and so on–the result is an automobile with five wheels, an electric motor but no batteries, and a catalytic converter that doesn’t work.
After twenty-four years, from Bush II until Trump leaves, we will neither have nor not have national health care.
China’s approach to empire is primarily commercial, America’s military.
The former turns a profit without firing a shot, and the latter generates a huge loss as the US tries to garrison the world.
Always favoring coercion, Washington now tries to batter the planet into submission via tarifffs, sanctions, embargos, and so on.
Whether it will work, or force the rest of the world to band together against America, remains to be seen.
Meanwhile the Chinese economy grows.
America builds aircraft carriers. China builds railroads, this one in Laos.
America builds aircraft carriers. China builds railroads, this one in Laos.
A dictatorship can simply do things.
It can plan twenty, or fifty, years down the road. If some massive engineering project will produce great advantages in thirty years, but be a dead loss until then, China can just do it. And often has.
When I was in Chengdu, Beijing opened the Hongkong–Zhuhai-Macau oceanic bridge, thirty-four miles long.
HK to Zhuhai bridge.
The bridge. The US would take longer to decide to build it than the Chinese took actually to build it.
In the US?
California wants high-speed rail from LA to San Fran. It has talked and wrangled for years without issue. The price keeps rising. The state can’t get rights of way because too many private owners have title to the land.
Eminent domain?
Conservatives would scream about sacred rights to property, liberals that Hispanic families were in the path, and airlines would bribe Congress to block it.
America does not know how to build high-speed rail and hiring China would arouse howling about national security, balance of payments, and the danger to motherhood and virginity.
There will be no high speed rail, there or, probably, anywhere else.
Wreckage from the 8.0 earthquake. This is not unrepaired devastation but, weirdly, is kept as a tourist attraction and actually propped up so it won’t collapse further.
China has a government that can do things: In 2008 an 8.0 quake devastated the region near the Tibetan border, killing, according to the Chinese government, some 100,000 people.
Buildings put up long before simply collapsed.
Some years ago everything–the town, the local dam, and roads and houses–had been completely rebuilt, with structural steel so as, says the government, to withstand another such quake. Compare this with the unremedied wreckage in New Orleans due to Katrina.
Here we come to an important cultural or philosophical difference between the two countries.
Many Orientals, to include the Chinese, view society as a collective instead of as a Wild West of individuals.
In the East, one hears sayings like, “The nail that stands up is hammered down,” or “The high-standing flower is cut.”
Americans who teach school in China report that students will not question a professor, even if he spouts arrant nonsense to see how they will react. They are not stupid. They know that the Neanderthals did not build a moon base in the early Triassic. But they say nothing.
This collectivism, highly disagreeable to Westerners (me, for example) has pros and cons.
It makes for domestic tranquility and ability to work together, and probably accounts in large part for China’s stunning advances. On the other hand, it is said to reduce inventiveness
There may be something to this.
If you look at centuries of Chinese painting, you will see that each generation largely made copies of earlier masters. As nearly as I, a nonexpert, can tell, there is more variety and imagination in the Corcoran Gallery’s annual exhibition of high-school artists than in all of Chinese paining.
People alarmed at China’s growth point out hopefully that the Chinese in America have not founded Googles or Microsofts.
No, though they certainly have founded huge companies: Alibaba, Baidu, Tiensen for example. However, the distinction between inventiveness and really good engineering is not always clear, and the Chinese are fine engineers.
With American education crashing under the attacks of Social Justice Warriors, basing the future on a lack of Chinese imagination seems a bit too adventurous.
Conclusion
It’s a great article and report. Of course, I do not agree with everything. But it’s decent enough to include here.
China is NOT what Americans think, expect or plans for. It’s like a drunk high school teenager thinking that he can go into a Bull-Fight and take on a raging Steer. It’s not going to happen, and it’s lethal to boot.
Bullfighter gored by a raging bull.
America had best wise up and “get with the program”, or else a ton of hurt is going to collapse on that “Great American Experiment”.
I hope that you enjoyed this post. If you want to see others of a similar nature, please check out my Happiness Index. Here…
You’ll not find
any big banners or popups here talking about cookies and privacy
notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from the hosting ads – a
necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I just don’t make money
off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I don’t track you
because I just don’t care to.
Here we continue with our various videos of life in China, and how strange it must appear to a foreigner.
Please kindly note that this post has multiple embedded videos. It is important to view them. If they fail to load, all you need to do is to reload your browser.
Inside a bullet train
Bullet trains are all over China. There is an enormous network of them. They are very comfortable to ride in, and their cost is reasonable.
I looked at various sites on the internet, and it’s a hoot how everyone tries to justify the superiority of Amtrak compared to China’s bullet trains. They imply that China’s bullet trains are nothing to be proud of.
It’s funny, but sad too. You know, the first step in recognizing you have a problem is to face up to it, and announce that you have a problem. (12 step program for those of you who don’t know the reference.)
They do one on one comparisons and come to the conclusion that they are similar. What a laugh. The trains are similar. How can you possibly come to that conclusion?
The one article (linked above) starts off straight forward enough…
But then it starts to show a bunch of photos how they are really just pretty similar, aside from the price, and speed. As if the train stations are identical. (Have you been to an Amtrak train station lately? Talk about a run-down 1960’s era ghetto.)
Really?
Here’s a screen capture from the article listed above.
In the comparison they say that the two systems are pretty much the same. After all, it is the politically correct thing to say. Right?
What’s what the article says. Then, it shows this following picture.
Is that the only difference? Really? Are you so dumb founded blind in political correctness not to notice the differences right in front of your face?
In China, the stewardesses are all female. They are all attractive, and rated in beauty, physical appearance, and weight. They are all under 35 years of age.They are trained to be demure and act very respectfully.
In America on Amtrak, there are no age, appearance, weight or gender requirements. The attendants can be polite or not, fat or not, ugly or not, burly or not. In the progressive reality that is America today that is the reality. But don’t deny what is right in front of your eyes just for the sake of political correctness.
This is what the interior of one looks like…
And here’s the view outside…
Oh, and while I am at it, here is what the over all appearance and image that the Chinese bullet trains have in China and around the world.
In contrast Amtrak is viewed as sluggish, antiquated, and brutish. Check out the video and then go ride on Amtrak to see what I am talking about.
Train Stations
Here’s a quick comparison in train stations.
First, we check out Amtrak’s stations. The photo below is a historical station known as Sandpoint. Now, don’t get the wrong idea.
I do happen to love history and American rail has had so many absolutely awesome train stations. What about the one on Allegheny avenue in Pittsburgh, or the massive complex in Detroit? Ah, but they are all gone now.
American train station – Sandpoint station. This is typical of what remains in the United States for railroad stations for passengers.
All that remains are little quonset hut kind of affairs. You know the kind used to give the impression of progressive advancement by tearing down the old. Sad.
Now, let’s look at the train stations that you would encounter were you to board a train in China. This is from the 3nd tier city Tianjin. It’s third tier, ya all! It’s just a little Po-dunk city.
Chinese train station in Tianjin, China. It is new. Well taken cared for, and well maintained. There are no beggars and the floors are so clean that you could eat off them.Chinese high-speed rail. Look at all those bullet trains. How many billions and billions of dollars was spent for the California high-speed rail, and what? Only 15 miles were completed, and not one single train was fabricated? What a waste. America is much better than that.
Ask yourself how, and why can China do this, but much bigger, and better USA cannot? Maybe fighting eight simultaneous wars and spending 65% of welfare benefits on illegal aliens has something to do with it. Eh?
Maybe. But I also like to think that part of it is because China is a meritocracy.
America has so much to be proud of, yet we have let our achievements grow fallow, and our leadership become corrupt. We, our parents, and our grandparents are all responsible for the sad, sad state of affairs in America today.
Pennsylvania Railroad Station Pittsburgh
How bridges are made in China
Once you visit China, you will notice that everything seems to be above the ground. All the highways seem to go over the houses and through the mountains. This differs from the United states, where the roads must curve around and get permissions to build and put roads in. Not so in China.
They just build over everything. It’s sort of like this…
Classes and testing in China
Classes in such a populous nation as China can get to be pretty enormous. The same is true for tests and testing. Here is sort of what it can look like…
Uses for a Harley-Davidson Motorcycle
The Chinese people do tend to be a bit innovative. This is especially true in the rural countryside. Here we see how an old Harley is being utilized on the farm, as it were.
And that is about it for now. Let’s continue with our exploration further, shall we…
OK. At numerous videos for this part, let’s go and move on to the
next post which covers even more strangeness inside of China this month…
If you want to go to the start of this series of posts, then please click HERE.
Links about China
China and America Comparisons
The Chinese Business KTV Experience
This is the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find
in the British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American
liberal press. This is the reality. Read or not.
Learning About China
Contemporaneous Chinese Music
This is a series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music
in China. It is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at
that, all that I am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews.
However, this series of posts should serve as a great starting place for
investigation and enjoyment.
Parks in China
Articles & Links
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cookies and privacy notices. There are no ads on this site (aside from
the hosting ads – a necessary evil). Functionally and fundamentally, I
just don’t make money off of this blog. It is NOT monetized. Finally, I
don’t track you because I just don’t care to.
You can start reading the articles sequentially by going HERE.
You can visit the Index Page HERE to explore by article subject.
You can also ask the author some questions. You can go HERE to find out how to go about this.
Here are some other notes that I have to just throw in… We need to talk about how to get to the park.
When you arrive to the various national parks you will more than likely need to take a train. Busses and cars tend to be slow. You can fly there with a plane, but the bullet trains are everywhere in China, they are reasonably priced, and quick. So most Chinese end up taking a bullet train to the destination and then go to the park from there.
It’s sort of like this…
Riding in a bullet train is a smooth, easy experience.
You have plenty of leg room. The coach is wide and you can easily move forward and backward in the car. There are plenty of bathrooms, with an average of two per car, which means that you typically don’t need to stand outside and wait for the bathroom to be available.
The ride is very, very smooth. It is calm. It is pleasant. It is relaxing.
Chinese High-Speed Rail
China has an extensive network of bullet trains.
China announced that it would implement bullet trains, and a network throughout China at the same time that California announced that it would implement a bullet train that would connect San Francisco to Los Angeles.
China’s announcement was met with laughter.
“China could never pull it off.”
“China only makes junk. It would never work and break down all the time.”
Well, today in 2019, we know that the (American) California bullet train never got off the ground.
It is still billions of dollars in the red. The American engineers couldn’t design it properly, so they had to turn to Japanese assistance. The train route was fraught with problems, and as of today, only 15 miles of track has been laid. No stations are completed. No vehicles are manufactured. And the program has been scrubbed as “unobtainable” by the Governor of California.
Meanwhile, China’s bullet train rail line network look like this…
The Chinese network of high speed rail. This is what it looks like as of 2020. The rail lines are not only more extensive than the California plans, but are actually faster than the trains (that were) planned for California.
The Chinese are proud of their high-speed rail (bullet trains) and they have good reason to be.
I, as a rail enthusiast, admire their efforts and completely enjoy the luxury of rail travel. Yes, I do love to fly, but flying in the United States is more like being herded into cattle cars than anything resembling comfortable travel.
Over the years, the American airlines (of all types) have been dealing with increasing federal regulation, and completely diminishing value of the dollar (thank you Federal Reserve), and so they have been forced to cram more and more people on tinier, and tinier aircraft. Often charging an assortment of extra fees from everything to luggage to snacks and meals on the planes.
Not so in China.
About the Trains
The train stains are all new and China certainly has mastered crowd control. While the slower “old fashioned” trains still exist, and are being used, the bullet trains (high-speed rail) offers a comfortable alternative to those who are willing to pay the extra $5 to ride in roomy comfort.
These trains are fast. There is no denying that. They do slow down when they near a train station, but even then, they are fast. As this video clearly shows…
Once you arrive at the station, you will need to take a car or a bus to the park. That is, of course, unless you don’t have a loved one, a family member or a friend to pick you up.
And, what ever happens, your train experience would typically look a little like this…
Car or Driver Rental
The most common way to achieve this is to use DD or take a taxis.
DD is the Chinese version of Uber. It pretty much works the same as Uber does, except that (it has been my personal experience) that the Chinese driving the cars for DD have to have their cars pre-screened for acceptability, where Uber does not have this requirement (that I am aware of). Thus the DD cars tend to be nice, clean and often new.
However, you will need to navigate through the massive mazes of highways and roads, such as this…
As well as go through all sorts of tunnels. After all, most parks in China are in mountainous regions and the Chinese do love their tunnels.
Tunnels
I’ve got to tell youse guys one thing. Tunnels in China are quite a different experience than tunnels in the United States. It really is. In fact, I could probably write a couple of posts on this subject.
The Chinese are traditional conservative pragmatists.
Government and management obtained their positions through merit.
Public works are to be designed for public use. There must be an element of beauty mixed with functionality.
They are indeed, quite a different experience. Have you ever seen light shows in American tunnels? How about planted shrubbery, trees, or flowers inside the tunnel? How about daily cleanings, sweepings, and washings by the cleaning crews? (China does not have welfare. They have work-fare. You want to eat, you must work.)
Look at how clean these tunnels are…
Now, let’s go to the next part of this post. (If I throw in too many micro-videos nothing appears and the post takes forever to load.) So to continue, please go follow this arrow…
If you want to go to the start of this series of posts, then please click HERE.
Links about China
China and America Comparisons
The Chinese Business KTV Experience
This is the real deal. Forget about all that nonsense that you find
in the British tabloids and an occasional write up in the American
liberal press. This is the reality. Read or not.
Learning About China
Contemporaneous Chinese Music
This is a series of posts that discuss contemporaneous popular music
in China. It is a wide ranging and broad spectrum of travel, and at
that, all that I am able to provide is the flimsiest of overviews.
However, this series of posts should serve as a great starting place for
investigation and enjoyment.
