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On Campuses Far From China, Still Under Beijing’s Watchful Eye

nytimes.com

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Re: On Campuses Far From China, Still Under Beijing’s Watchful Eye

#41

Post by nostrademons »

api wrote: post #20
gogopuppygogo wrote: post #9

China is buying influence Globally as the United States and Europe cede soft power after years of war in the middle east. While not fantastic for rights of freedom loving people everywhere it is probably a good thing for Africans in general since they seem to be getting a lot of economic love from China in exchange for mineral rights. http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/03/africa/what-africans-really-th...

War in the middle east is ruining the West. I don't understand it and I don't buy the oil explanation. With the absurd cost of these wars we could just buy the oil, or pay for megaprojects to replace it with gas (even gas to liquids), nuclear, and renewable power. There seems to be no rational explanation for the immense gravity well of Middle Eastern war and how it drags in Democrats and Republicans alike even if th…

It could simply be bureaucratic imperative. 26 years of war in the Mideast has created a whole generation of policy wonks whose expertise is the Middle East; if we cease to be at war in the Middle East, then all of their jobs are on the chopping block and all of their expertise is useless; therefore, they have a very strong self-preservation incentive to recommend policies that continue the war in the Middle East.

Re: On Campuses Far From China, Still Under Beijing’s Watchful Eye

#42

Post by sslayer »

HarryHirsch wrote: post #22
api wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

War in the middle east is ruining the West. I don't understand it and I don't buy the oil explanation. With the absurd cost of these wars we could just buy the oil, or pay for megaprojects to replace it with gas (even gas to liquids), nuclear, and renewable power. There seems to be no rational explanation for the immense gravity well of Middle Eastern war and how it drags in Democrats and Republicans alike even if th…

War in the middle east is ruining the West. I don't understand it and I don't buy the oil explanation The conspiracy theory is that the war serves to dislodge the population and increase refugee flows to Europe to destabilize the region economically and politically. The war in the Middle East is in truth a war against the European Union, especially Germany. So the story goes.

Overall it's about SOTF. TPTB have a healthy respect for diversity. Conflict promotes innovation, ingenuity, and growth. The West has become domesticated, just like various breeds of animals and plants, the bloodlines become polluted. War, conflict, strife and struggle preserve the human race. But for how long??...

Re: On Campuses Far From China, Still Under Beijing’s Watchful Eye

#43

Post by mcphage »

api wrote: post #20
gogopuppygogo wrote: post #9

China is buying influence Globally as the United States and Europe cede soft power after years of war in the middle east. While not fantastic for rights of freedom loving people everywhere it is probably a good thing for Africans in general since they seem to be getting a lot of economic love from China in exchange for mineral rights. http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/03/africa/what-africans-really-th...

War in the middle east is ruining the West. I don't understand it and I don't buy the oil explanation. With the absurd cost of these wars we could just buy the oil, or pay for megaprojects to replace it with gas (even gas to liquids), nuclear, and renewable power. There seems to be no rational explanation for the immense gravity well of Middle Eastern war and how it drags in Democrats and Republicans alike even if th…

> It's almost like when presidents are elected they learn something nobody else knows.

I should hope so! Otherwise what do we spend billions on intelligence organizations for?

Re: On Campuses Far From China, Still Under Beijing’s Watchful Eye

#45

Post by pessimizer »

api wrote: post #20
gogopuppygogo wrote: post #9

China is buying influence Globally as the United States and Europe cede soft power after years of war in the middle east. While not fantastic for rights of freedom loving people everywhere it is probably a good thing for Africans in general since they seem to be getting a lot of economic love from China in exchange for mineral rights. http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/03/africa/what-africans-really-th...

War in the middle east is ruining the West. I don't understand it and I don't buy the oil explanation. With the absurd cost of these wars we could just buy the oil, or pay for megaprojects to replace it with gas (even gas to liquids), nuclear, and renewable power. There seems to be no rational explanation for the immense gravity well of Middle Eastern war and how it drags in Democrats and Republicans alike even if th…

I don't think the answer is any deeper than that wars involve spending an enormous amount of money on contractors, and those contractors in turn fund politicians who will drive more business in their directions, then supply then with output from thinktanks that they fund to justify those decisions to their peers and the public, and ex-employees to hire into the bureaucracy. This, they do in a completely bipartisan manner, so their papers and bureaucrats are installed permanently, not turned over between administrations.

It's not a single-minded conspiracy with some deep reason. It's just basic economic incentives. There's nobody in the US who will make money from not attacking the middle east, and plenty that would. Policy in the US is determined by financial interest.

Re: On Campuses Far From China, Still Under Beijing’s Watchful Eye

#46

Post by woodandsteel »

I think the Chinese government is making a huge mistake in the way it is oppressing freedom of speech at home and broad.

China is now on its fourth political and economic system in the last century and a half. The present system is an accidental conglomeration of three quite contradictory philosophies: Confucianism, Marxism, and liberalism. It seems quite likely at some point it is going to prove unworkable.

At that point China is going to need to really think things out from basic principles and decide what sort of country it wants to be over the long term. That will take a great deal of intelligent, independent thinking. Alas, that is just what Xi Jinping is doing his best to stamp out.

Re: On Campuses Far From China, Still Under Beijing’s Watchful Eye

#47

Post by erikpukinskis »

gragas wrote: post #26

It's interesting how many people instantly try to twist this into an anti-Israel thread.

I'm not sure what you're implying when you say it's "interesting".

If you have a problem with the equation of anti-Tibet political intervention by China and anti-Palestine intervention by Israel then state your case.

Re: On Campuses Far From China, Still Under Beijing’s Watchful Eye

#48

Post by agjacobson »

In 2016, China landed a robotic rover on the moon. The NY Times had fairly extensive coverage. For a solid month, the main article was in the top ten of forwarded articles, assuring that all nytimes.com readers would repeatedly see it in a prominent sidebar. This is unusual behavior. NY Times readers are interested, but easily jaded by space travel. And nothing lasts forever a month.

Finally, I complained to the nytimes.com ombudsman. Gone in a day! Someone there must have agreed with me. Click farm behavior.

Re: On Campuses Far From China, Still Under Beijing’s Watchful Eye

#49

Post by bgentry »

vtange wrote: post #30

Reminds me of that one time when some students at UCSD protested against the university hosting the Dalai Lama for a graduation speech. https://qz.com/908922/chinese-students-at-ucsd-are-evoking-d... I've always felt that in an increasingly globalized and connected world, we will start to see increased external influence in America from parties that are not the Democrats or the Republicans. China is arguably the worl…

The UCSD Dalai Lama incident is literally the subject of at least the first four paragraphs of this article.

Re: On Campuses Far From China, Still Under Beijing’s Watchful Eye

#50

Post by maverick_iceman »

I see this as an outgrowth of left-liberal student bodies clamping down on conservative speech on college campuses. If leftist students can block Ann Coulter from speaking then why can't Chinese students block the Dalai Lama? Every speech is guaranteed to offend someone and that's verboten in today's campuses. As a libertarian, I was always worried about this and it was a main reason why I opposed social justice warriors. Sadly, our fear has come to pass and censorship now reigns in universities. In the future, children's fairytales will be the only safe topic to discuss.
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