81–90 of 106 posts
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China has 5000 years of ascending to superpower status, not all of it very peaceful. If you mean China hasn't invaded another country since 1979, well, sure, I'll give you that.
Yes, I think this post pretty much frame the discussion after the "open and reform" era.
Another article on New Yorker (published in 2015), "Born Red", is quite interesting as well on this subject. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/06/born-red According to the article, Xi once said, "People who have little experience with power, those who have been far away from it, tend to regard these things as mysterious and novel. But I look past the superficial things: the power and the flowers and the glor…
I cannot help to remind you that Xi is the president of a country with 1.3 BB people. If you think he does not know this fact, you are plain ignorant.
Chinese political sphere isn't any another-world strange thing. It's just like any such things: human-dealing and power-plays... Xi knows too well how to deal with people, and how complex they are, otherwise he would not reach his currnet power at all...
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For everyone else who doesn't know what "6/4" refers to, it refers to the date of the Tiananmen Square protests: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1...
A Day To Remember. A short video where they ask Chinese University students, "what day is today." Filmed in 2005... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCPkkGArVy4 I watch this clip a lot around the 6/4 anniversary. This is not the original copy, that's somewhere on Vimeo I think.
CCP's online control only got worst these years.
Today if you ask average young people on the street in China about 4 Jun, some (If not many) of them may even don't understand what you're talking about.
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Yes, I think this post pretty much frame the discussion after the "open and reform" era.
So the era just before that when they were not doing very well and we're engaged in non peaceful activities doesn't count. Got it.
This post is about Xi, which took office in 2012. And the aspects initiates my post is about China's recent movement to more openly show off its power.
What's the point of "when they were not doing very well" in this context?
> we're engaged in non peaceful activities
What does this refer to?
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As a foreigner this feels a bit like a US' reaction about their loss of leadership. There has to be something wrong about China's rise. Imagining that it will surpass their own economic power through good management by a central government is something they just refuse to accept. It has to be some authoritarian cheat mode.
In general, 'something nefarious is going on overseas', beyond the Anglo cultural domain. Interesting thing to me is, as you point out, how the "mechanics of power" are held to be a byzantine mystery in Communist Party of China, but it is over here just a matter of a 'pick the least ugly' beauty contest over here in US of A. Of course, what is truly opaque is just which groupings in the West hold the true power and j…
This is the classic "what breaks you only make you stronger" but in a very aggressive way. Throughout history those who were oppressed and then made it to the top would usually end up wanting to seize full control and more oppressive than their oppressors. Xi looks friendly to the people, but there is a Chinese saying: 笑裡藏刀 (xiào lǐ cáng dāo)or "smile in hiding knife.” He is the alpha male of the entire Party. On one…
> [1]: http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v06/v06p--9_Bennett.html
I read 2/3 of that article with some interest and occasional surprise until I ran into the part where the holocaust is flat out denied and the bombing of German cities called the greatest war crime of WWII.
Judging by the fact that you share that link as if it's well-researched truth I wonder what your agenda is. Do you believe that, and I quote, "there was no plan to exterminate Jews in World War II"? If not, why do you quote that article as if it has merit?
The weird thing is that the article does not support your argument. Your argument is against nationalism, and I passionately agree with you there. The article you quote is all about, and I quote again, "the fallacious belief that multi-racial societies are viable".
I find the parallels between Xi and Putin fascinating: both had "modest" origins (or modest spells in the case of Xi) and much publicize them. Both were not really accounted for much, simply managing to rise through the ranks without making a wave, and always scrupulously deferring to authority. Both were nominated to the head of their respective party as a compromise or a strawman. That is until they took power, aft…
I honestly find it suspect that the media is full of "russia! russia! russia!", but nobody ever mentions China, which is in a far greater position for war (1.6 MILLION TROOPS) and accounts for like 28% of all known hack attempts. And speaking of influencing elections... there was this thing in the 90's called... Chinagate. [1] With millions directly found to influence an election. As well as leaked weapons and nuclea…
Russia, on the other hand, has been regressing and getting smaller. Set aside their nuclear arsenal, and they aren’t leading in anything, and are falling behind in nearly everything (they are barely within the top 10 of countries in terms of GDP). This is quite a comedown from 30 years ago and the Russian, especially Putin’s, response has been to create havoc amongst Western democracies.
China will continue to hack into other countries’ systems to steal technology and IP etc (and the various intelligence agencies have been warning against this for over a decade) but they are not gonna try and create political havoc unlike the Russians.
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> I did not remark China becoming more authoritarian under his rule. Xi greatly suppressed political dissent, online and off. There was a burgeoning, very interesting online debate about democracy and governance, full of thoughtful ideas, brilliant satire, and more. AFAIK, that's mostly gone. You can read about it here: http://chinadigitaltimes.net/ He also arrested and otherwise suppressed many political opponents,…
> Xi greatly suppressed political dissent, online and off. But was that different from his predecessors? > He also arrested and otherwise suppressed many political opponents, at least in large part under the guise of an 'anti-corruption' campaign. That I would like to know more about. Most of the times, people just quote Bo Xilai (who seem to have been a genuinel crime ring boss) and his successor. I have a hard time…
> But was that different from his predecessors?
Yes; I meant to say he greatly increased suppression of dissent
> Is there a place to read about that?
I'd start with the link above. The NY Times covers it occasionally, including a recent story about Xi's childhood home (AFAICT - I didn't read much more than a paragraph).
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You're not wrong about some mainland Chinese refusing to believe (or never learning in the first place) anything about 6/4. My wife is among them, or used to be at least. Then again if you ask the average US freshman if the US military shot and killed a bunch of student protestors, you'd find a number who wouldn't believe you. Difference is in the US a trivial we search answers that question for you, while in China a…
Then again if you ask the average US freshman if the US military shot and killed a bunch of student protestors, you'd find a number who wouldn't believe you. Saying "US military" is somewhat misleading. The soldiers who shot and killed four students at Kent State University were part of what we call the "National Guard".[1] These are reserve military units. National Guardsmen usually have full-time civilian jobs and…
Today's millennials aren't interested in understanding "federalism", which is one of the founding tenets of the USA?
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> I think the best thing is to just disable pre in mobile. That sounds great, do you know how to do this? I'm on Firefox mobile so user styles might be an option
If you have uBlock Origin installed, you can tweak styles with its "My Filters". I have these in there: news.ycombinator.com##.comment code:style(white-space:pre-wrap) news.ycombinator.com##.comment pre:style(max-width:none!important) The first line makes code blocks in HN comments word-wrap (while still preserving whitespace otherwise); the second lets them expand to the width of their containing comment.