Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on Jul 28^th, 2021 at 8:38am:

That is almost exactly the sentiment that foreigners (who have lived in China) report.

There is no rule of law, only 'law rule' which party officials are generally immune to. The regime's police and security personnel operate under a 'grey zone' meaning many 'laws' broken are generally ignored... Until they're not. Then they clamp down out of the blue. This is where foreigners get caught up in the regime's Orwellian dystopian system. Sometimes the issue stems from a political stouch the regime is having with the foreigners' country of origin (e.g. right now being American, Canadian or Australian could land you in jail for the most minor of offences or no offence committed at all).

The regime prefers to blame the 'spreading of rumours' or the 'causing a nuisance' on foreigners wherever it can. And the penalties for even minor offences can be as severe as anything Stalinism and Nazism might have applied.

The regime does not care much more for Chinese nationals, of course, and nationals can be harrassed wherever they are in the world if they, say, criticise the regime. If these 'regime detractors' cannot be got to directly, their families will be harrassed and disenfranchised of rights. Their relatives can lose their jobs, be expelled from educational institutes, detained, arrested, tortured and jailed.

Any opportunity by apparatchiks can be used to discriminate against ethnic minorities, migrant workers, illegitimate children, foreigners or those who otherwise fall foul of the regime.

The regime operates like the Mafia than a government.

Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on Jul 28^th, 2021 at 12:39pm:

From what I'm told, foreigners visiting or working in China are lulled into this sense that everything is 'easy going' in China.

What they don't know is that they're being watched by the regime and reported on by random people for any hint of being anti-regime.

Foreigners often speak freely (as they would in their own country) in bars and restaurants or anywhere in public not realising that some may speak their language and are recording them or taking notes or pictures. They also generally don't know that most Chinese have been taught to act on xenophobic instincts and keep an eye on foreigners, entertain them even, and watch for signs they may be 'spies' or 'undercover reporters'.

Kurt  Vonnegut saw it all, 50 years ago!


Western civilization is nearing collapse as oil runs out, and the Chinese are making vast leaps forward by miniaturizing themselves and training groups of hundreds to think as one. Eventually, the miniaturization proceeds to the point that they become so small that they cause a plague among those who accidentally inhale them, ultimately destroying Western civilization beyond repair.


Slapstick, 1976.

Frank wrote on Jul 29^th, 2021 at 2:43pm:

Given western and colonial empires had been hand-wringing about the Yellow Peril since the 19th century, more like Kurt was not so much prescient than on the absinthe.

NorthOfNorth wrote on Jul 29^th, 2021 at 5:27pm:

They had a long view and their warnings have been unheeded. Vonnegut sensed that, correctly.

Do note - the book is imaginative fiction. True like parables are true, not like climate change models or CCP pronounements/announcements.

China will rule the world?

Not a chance.

I'd bet the regime is in the process of reversing the entire Deng Xiaoping project...

It's the last desperate act of a regime that senses it's own destruction.

Grappler Truth Teller Feller wrote on Jul 29^th, 2021 at 11:12pm:

Ah yes... How culturally generational memory fades!

"Beijing has accused the UK of still living in its “colonial days”."

That is the nature of China's policy. Taiwan was tribal until the Dutch colonised it and then China's Qing Empire held the colony 1683-1895. It's been independent since, with Chinese population. China's colonial push now is ethnic to keep all the Han race in 1 land as in Hitler's German racial lands.  In India, China is starting to have non-Chinese ethnic territory which is a true colonial policy.