This series is great !xi-clap

!

> Some Western media outlets have recently hyped up the so-called "debt trap" theory once again, attempting to shift the blame for some developing countries’ debt problems onto China.

> This is a blatant lie and another attempt to smear China.

> In the past 10 years since the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was proposed, fruitful cooperation has been carried out in various fields, bringing tangible benefits to the people of participating countries.

> Africa's Macro-Economic Performance and Outlook, a report released by the African Development Bank in January 2023, showed that the total debt service payments suspended by China under the G20's Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) have exceeded the total amount from G7 countries.

it doesnt take long to search the internet for many instances of debt forgiveness of structural loans from China. when has the IMF done this?

> Research results released by the China Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University in the U.S. indicated that China contributed 63 percent of debt service suspensions.

thats quite a lot of debt suspension for a country that makes up less than 20% of the worlds GDP (adjusted).

> In fact, the debt issues of developing countries are closely related to Western countries, especially the U.S.

> World Bank statistics showed that multilateral financial institutions and commercial creditors account for nearly three-quarters of Africa's total external debt.

> The U.S. is the largest shareholder of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), while American and European financial institutions serve as the dominant commercial creditors to African nations.

oof. and to make things worse, western loans that go toward extractive and manufacturing industries give way to horrible working conditions while superprofits are whisked away to the imperial core. otoh, loans from China go toward a more balanced development plan including schools, hospitals, and infrastructure as well as industries (where a significant smaller portion of the profits go to China, and only to pay back the loan)

> It is evident to the international community who are the reliable partners of developing countries and who are the instigators of their financial issues.

damn right!

I am an Amerikkan weighing my options on where to flee to. China is an option and i was wondering how much mandarin to learn to get into the country, where I can continue my education in the language there (because the best place to learn a new language is a country that speaks it) if i should be fluent before i move there, that's fine too. i would do literally anything to leave this shithole. TIA comrades and good day.

Taiwan People's Communist Party general secretary Lin De Wang 林德旺

Article is 2 years old, but it's a happy article and I wanted to post it anyways.

EDIT: For anyone curious, here's a link to her Douyin page: https://www.douyin.com/user/MS4wLjABAAAAC-deOgCmNN2bIugq3od6LBI-Ws7Pn8EuLwWBjZg-ghg It says she has 11.151 million followers and 170 million likes, which is awesome.

https://archive.ph/dHhU6

• An overview of China’s output in 2022 reports it has become the ‘most active’ country in the hunt for scalable storage options for renewables
• Contributions by US scientists accounted for 10.5 per cent of papers on the subject, report says

> China accounted for half of the world’s research papers into energy storage technology published last year, an increase of 5 per cent on 2021, according to a report by a team of researchers from a number of Chinese universities and institutes. > > In contrast, contributions by US scientists made up 10.5 per cent of papers on the subject in 2022, a 2 per cent fall on the previous year’s figures, the researchers said, in a paper published by the journal Energy Storage Science and Technology. > > China had become the “most active country in the world in energy storage fields on all three aspects of fundamental study, technical research, integration and application”, the report said. > > The researchers searched the Web of Science index using the keywords “energy storage” as part of the study, which gives an overview of China’s research advancements in the field. > > China is already the world’s leader in renewable energy installations and is also leading in energy storage, with a capacity of 59.8 gigawatts at the end of 2022, according to the China Energy Storage Alliance. > > Most of China’s electricity is derived from coal and energy storage is key to the country meeting its net zero goals. But a lack of large-scale methods of increasing capacity is hampering the total generation potential of existing renewable projects. > > For example, solar energy accounts for 16.6 per cent of China’s installed power generation capacity but is delivering just 2.73 per cent of usable electricity to the grid, as of the first quarter of 2o23, according to the National Energy Administration. > > China remains reliant on pumped hydropower for its energy storage and leads the world in continuing to build facilities based on the technology. In 2022, the highest proportion of new storage capacity was derived from hydropower, the report said. > > While China has the largest pumped hydropower storage capacity in the world, its main research focus has been on other methods, such as a variety of battery-based tools as well as thermal and flywheel technologies. > > Most of the research papers released in 2021 focused on alternatives to pumped hydropower, according to last year’s report, a situation that continued in 2022. > > The United States – which continues to rank among the top spots for energy storage – launched an initiative in 2020 to maintain its global position. The Energy Storage Grand Challenge goal is for all of the United States’ storage technologies to be produced domestically by 2030. > > The researchers found that China had greater access to the materials and means of production than the US, but was still grappling with scalability to meet the storage demands of existing renewable installations and their energy output. > > Development of new renewable facilities has continued in China, even though the energy output of solar and wind projects is not being fully harnessed, according to the NEA. > > However, the increase in research and a rise in patents relating to energy storage highlighted in the report suggests that the scientific community is prioritising innovation to help China expand its large-scale capacity. > > According to the report, 100 megawatt projects are becoming the norm in China, where many developments are under way. > > The Chinese Academy of Sciences was responsible for one of a number of innovative advancements in 2022, with its research into a 300MW compressed air storage system, the report said. > > The researchers said China would remain dominant in global rankings for published research, patent applications and the installation of energy storage capacity. > > Next year would continue to be an important one for the development of energy storage and China’s technology in the field was expected to be the world’s best in the coming five to 10 years, they said.

Here is an interesting article comparing the economic development of China with Japan. The key argument is that Japan's explosive GDP growth was based on a property bubble and that China was following in its footsteps. However, the government has recently addressed the bubble. As a result, annual growth will be 5% instead of 6-8%, but there won't be several lost decades.

I think there's a lot of merit to this, but there are a couple points they could have addressed. No distinction is made between productive GDP (energy, manufacturing, construction, etc.) and unproductive GDP (FIRE economy). So yes there was a construction bubble, but how much of that was real compared to fictitiously high property prices that you see in America and Japan? The article also asserts that 5% growth is normal for an economy that is China's size, but why should we expect the same growth for semi-planned economies and unplanned economies? And then there is the graph at the end showing expected annual growth depending on size of the economy. If China shedding its bubble brings it down to the expected 5%, then surely all capitalist economies would be underperforming if they shed FIRE.

I was discussing it today with someone, who insisted it was neo colonialism.

I know, they're saying that mainly out of brainworms rather than actually researching it, but there are parts of the deal that seem off to me.

China invested a fuck ton. An absolute fuckload. 0% interest loans, and even grants where they'd build massive infrastructure like airports and bridges for free. I can see how that sets them apart from colonial projects.

However, authority over the port was 'awarded' by Pakistan to a Chinese state run company, and terms were agreed upon by which China takes 90 percent of the profits, and Pakistan takes 10.

On the one hand, Pakistan wouldn't be making any of that money if left to their own means, on the other, that profit balance seems harsh? I guess China have to make their money back after all that great investment somehow.

My defence of it is sure, the port ended up like that, but the rest of the investment didn't. The whole Gwadar region has been transformed at an efficient cost (not bloated by profiteering capitalist contractors, as Iraq was), with non exploitative loans agreed upon by Pakistani leaders not placed in power by violence (as is usually the case with IMF loans - a coup happens first). Only the port has been taken over in such a way, and in time I predict that Pakistan's relationship with China will be much to their own benefit.

does anyone know where i can find a pdf of a quality english translation of The Governance of China by Xi Jinping? been on my reading list for a while

thanks comrades!

I was kind of sick yesterday, and while I was resting I went on a long Wikipedia journey learning about this guy. I'm fascinated. Some of the efforts he led in Chongqing seems incredible, like expropriating billionaire's stuff to fund public housing. But of course there's the big scandal, with lots of lurid details like how his wife maybe poisoned somebody.

Anybody have anything good to read about him that isn't American Wikipedia? Or hot Bo takes to share? How has the Chongqing Model influenced Chinese politics today, and was it as good as it seems? What's up with his falling out with his buddy the police chief? Did Bo's dad really commission an author to write that he was a better statesmen than Henry Kissinger (I would hope so!) and more beloved than Princess Diana?

Very Interesting interview on the cultural revolution you can really establish a good feeling of the era.

• China's economy is 40% state-owned – compare Lenin's NEP period, 70-77%

• Soviet state-owned enterprises were designed to make a thing (like the water service, like the post office). Chinese state-owned enterprises are different: they are profit-making players in the market.

• China has enterprises owned by local and provincial government – sometimes they compete with each other! So the state competes with itself on the market!

• They can sell 49% of their stock on the stock market, even to foreigners.

• The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC) is an institution directly under the management of the State Council. It is an ad-hoc ministerial-level organization directly subordinated to the State Council – http://en.sasac.gov.cn/sasacaboutus.html – It's like the Chinese statist Berkshire Hathaway. In theory, it can control a company as much as a shareholder can.

• Li-Wen Lin & Curtis J Milhaupt write about Chinese corporate structure. They say when direct state industries (like post offices or Soviet bureaux) turned into profit-seeking state-owned things and essentially bought the party off, made it rich.

Hi all,

I've been learning Mandarin for just over 6 months but I am having trouble with my listening comprehension. Does anyone have any good resources for listening practice? I am looking for HSK 1/2 level stuff. I basically just need to immerse myself in as much content as I possibly can until all this vocab and grammar starts to cement itself in my brain.

I already use Hello Chinese and a few other apps. Ideally I would just be looking for quick fire phrases and conversations that I can listen along to. Youtube has some stuff but the quality is always a bit up and down.

Thanks

My current understanding –

• It was a terrible famine, no denying that, one of the worst in human history.

• It wasn't the first famine in China, in fact it was the last, so a positive spin would be to say it put an end to Chinese famines. Chinese famines happened under Sun Yat-Sen and the Qing Dynasty too. (Though this was was that bit worse)

• Mao's mismanagement should probably be blamed. Liu Shaoqi said the causes were 30% natural factors, 70% mismanagement

• Collectivisation doesn't seem to have been the problem. Collectivisation in China was comparatively smooth, not like the USSR and elsewhere.

• A bigger problem was bad agronomy.

Are these takes mistaken? Should I correct or expand my understanding?

https://yewtu.be/watch?v=plHRRFHZ_f0

Aka The U.S goes mask-off on the South China Sea, and Johnny Harris tries to equivalent China's actions to that of the U.S.

What can I say? On Harris himself, I suspect his moderacy is being used to co-opt a sort of good cop side of the pro U.S position, considering past videos. NED- National Endowment in Democracy, an international pro-U.S organization funded by the C.I.A to support color revolutions.

But on a more serious note: What do you suppose of the Philippine Sea debate, because I haven't gotten a clarified rationale and context on China's actions, from your side? And how would I counter claims of local Chinese aggression.

(reposted from r/Sino)

Great thread by Jason Hickle about his new research paper arguing against the neoliberal narrative.

TLDR: Socialist China (Pre Reforms) was assumed to have 80% poverty rate by neoliberal agencies, and since the reforms, its rate has declined and declined and now extreme poverty is eliminated. The truth is different. When looking at things like the basket of goods, Socialist China (Pre Reforms) had just 5% of people unable to afford to live. This increased up to 60% after capitalist reforms, a trend seen worldwide.

Unlike the rest of the world, China slowed, halted and reversed this trend, bringing it down to around 5% in 2018, after which there is no clear data yet. This Hickel attributes purely to the measures by the CPC and Xi, which no one else bothers to put in place because of the neoliberal narrative created and funded by places like the World Bank, IMF etc.

In the end:

> Thankfully, China has gradually recovered from this crisis. Real data only goes to 2008, but Moatsos credibly indicates the poverty rate was down to 5% by 2018, as the labour movement gains strength and as Xi's anti-poverty programmes deliver progress.

> What can we learn from all this? Well, public provisioning systems (and price controls) can be very effective at preventing poverty and improving social outcomes. Especially in developing countries. This enabled China to outperform much richer nations.

> But note that the poverty line here is focused on basic needs. Clearly China of the 1980s needed to increase industrial production to deliver higher-order living standards! We argue this could have been done without the capitalist reforms, thus preventing quite a lot of misery.

I’ll read the full paper later. And while I won’t go quite as far as Jason in saying they could have done entirely without the capitalist reforms, especially with the collapse of the USSR (!ussr-cry, I’m sure with hindsight there are many things they would’ve done differently.

The new episode of the Socialist Program where Brian Becker interviews Ken Hammond, a Marxist professor of Chinese history about his new book. I thought this was a great listen and will pick up the book soon as well. Hammond discusses the evolving Chinese socialist project and pushes back against mainstream Western views on China. Also he counters the tendency of some Marxists to only identify with one of Mao/Deng, instead viewing the economic transformation as a dialectical process that required both approaches. Great to hear from an actual China expert for once.

The one with all the resources on misconceptions of Social Credit and such.

@Dirt_Owl I found a bird manhua

Such cool systems exist in the world and yet we are stuck with the worst ones. :deeper-sadness:

> BTW, eating the Beginning of Summer rice can prevent summer heat.Come on, do what the pandas are doing!

https://nitter.lacontrevoie.fr/ipandacom/status/1654637096727113728#m

e.g. that there are limited re-education camps, no control of Uyghur birth rates, etc.

Literally spy balloon 2.0. This time a community center for helping immigrants with government paperwork is actually a secret spy agency.

> He clarified that it was a police overseas service station, which was different from an actual police station. According to him, no police officers from China had visited their office and the association was focused on helping Chinese citizens renew and complete forms.

> Jimmy Lu explained that during the pandemic, many Chinese immigrants were unable to travel back to China due to restrictions. To aid them, the association collaborated with the local police station in Fuzhou to remotely assist immigrants in renewing their Chinese driver’s licenses, as well as other necessary documents.

>Jimmy Lu said that the association offered its office as a venue for Chinese immigrants to have virtual meetings with police officers in China. The staff at the association also assisted in measuring the applicants’ vision and weight to ensure their driver’s license information was up-to-date. The association informed Chinese-language media in NYC when establishing the police service station in 2022. In a picture the association shared with the press, Harry Lu, Jinping Chen and other leaders of the organization sat in front of a desk with a banner hanging on the wall that said, “Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station.”

>To coincide with the time zone in China, the office operated at 9:30 p.m. every Thursday from February to September 2022, helping more than 120 Chinese immigrants renew their driver’s licenses, Jimmy Lu said. Federal prosecutors say the police station was closed in the fall of 2022 after those operating it became aware of the FBI’s investigation.

I also absolutely love that part, the super duper secret police station is so secret that they checks notes gave the media a photo of them in front of a sign that says "Fuzhou Police Overseas Service Station".

One of my…friends is falling for their bs about China. I need some sources to either debunk their claims or show that they’re literally a cult.

It begins.

"Ackshualy that's not a swastica, you see back in Asia they have these symbols..." :maybe-later-honey:

Interesting thread by David Fishman. There are more examples/threads in the replies, but they seem to be pushed by Sinophobes and Anti-China folks, so I'm not linking them.

David is a great person to follow on Twitter, btw. His threads on renewable energy in China are fascinating to read.

On this topic, it's sad. I don't think the government needs to be doing this. Domes, minarets, the green color scheme are all beautiful and as Chinese as anything else. As is laid out in the thread, and lied about by all others, this hasn't impacted prayers and celebrations and actual Muslim existence in China. So, it's only purpose seems to be to make the buildings "look" more Chinese which you really don't need to do. If skyscrapers and glass buildings can be Chinese, then so can domes and minarets.