freediver wrote on Jul 29^th, 2025 at 8:05pm:


You haven't defined culture.

As a matter of fact, I despise your delusional  "individiual freedom" culture which disregards the wellbeing of the collective, aka 'common prosperity' or the 'general  welfare'. 

And while Trump is battling the effects of Neoclassical-informed WTO freetrade rules, and the c-o-l crisis in the US, China has  created the world's largest middle class. 

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The CCP introduced the world's first complete lockdown beginning in Wuhan, in an effort to prevent the spread of the the disease.

And with idiot "freedom" ideologues  running loose around the world, the CCP has to defend its one-party government against "freedom" propaganda, while the democracies become ungovernable.   

freediver wrote on Feb 26^th, 2026 at 10:39am:


Thanks.

So you know what I think about the manner in which delusional "individual freedom" ideolgues interact with another: look around you.

Observe the entrenched poverty and c-o-l pressures for average wage earners, amidst soaring inequality.

eg, the greedy "free"  rent seekers who refuse to countenance changes to the tax system to enable home ownership by average wage earners.

Deplorable.     


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Th\e denial was short lived, ie, until there was no doubt about the highly contagious nature of the disease and Wuhan was subject to the severest lockdowns in the world, because China didn't have the resources to protect the millions of  people living in small villges in the regions.

freediver wrote on Feb 26^th, 2026 at 3:48pm:


You are referring to the 'culture' of a one-party government,  in this case the CCP. 

Answering your question is not straight forward.

eg, the present leader - Xi Jinping - is focused on eradicating corruption in the Party, to enable the success of the CCP's mission: ie "the rejuvination of the Chinese Nation". 

What does that say about the 'culture' of the CCP?   

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At a time when most Chinese people were subject to absolute poverty; it's reasonable to assume the "culture" of the party has changed since then.


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Well, the US was suffering under a decade of the Great Depression; and most  Chinese were too poor at the time  to be aware of what was happening in the rest of the country, and had to rely on what the Party told them. 

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Only for a month, until the severity of the illness could no longer be hidden by a Party which wants to avoid social instability ...ah, there's a part of the CCP's 'culture' you don't like: you prefer individual "freedom" to social stability.

Meanwhile in the West some economists openly urged governments not to "wreck the economy" by locking down cities to save lives. Perhaps that concern also briefly exercised the CCP, hence the initial denial of covid's severity, until the likelihood of mass deaths in China became obvious. 

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"Better lies" than Western governments,  some of whom were happy to sacrifice lives by carrying on with "business as usual".  Plenty of 'lying' to go around, in a pandemic - as in war.... 


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About a month, until Wuhan became the first city in the world to be locked-down, for every Chinense and the whole world to see.

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Explained above: the denial was short-lived, and as for the real death-toll numbers around the world, we know they were high everywhere. China no doubt saved many lives by implementing the severest lockdowns. 

Did China lie about the number of deaths  in China?

Maybe - social stability in pursuit of common prosperity is more important than individual freedom in China (as noted above).

A pandemic - like war - has the potential to unleash powerful social instability.

........

Meanwhile in the US:

(Daily Mail)

Trump urged to declare national emergency to take power over midterm elections

Ah....the joys of adversarial-party electoral politics: it will be fascinating to behold, not least because the implications for the world are profound.

Jasin wrote on Feb 28^th, 2026 at 4:11pm:


Difficult to answer:  please explain "just issued over a thousand Fishing Vessels upon the limit of Nihonese waters" .

A link would be helpful.

freediver wrote on Mar 1^st, 2026 at 11:19am:


OK,  we'll have to take this slowly....to repeat:

<<Answering your question is not straight forward. eg, the present leader - Xi Jinping - is focused on eradicating corruption in the Party, to enable the success of the CCP's mission: ie "the rejuvination of the Chinese Nation".

What does that say about the 'culture' of the CCP?>>


Note: your chosen base for debate  was the "culture" (of the CCP);  you must critique my statement above,  before we can move on.    

Frank wrote on Feb 26^th, 2026 at 9:03am:



Instructive



The history of China the CCP would rather not tell

https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/global-roaming/global-roaming-china-histo...



Guest: Frank Dikötter, author of Red Dawn Over China

AI Overview
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freediver wrote on Mar 2^nd, 2026 at 1:30pm:


I wasn't: 1930s versus 1960s.

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To illustrate the flaws of mainstream Western neoclassical economists, who even today are crushing late-entrance mortagees, while benefitting wealthy savers. Deplorable.

Exhibit One: the RBA split 5-4 on the latest interest rate decision, proving Neoclassical economists  - which they all are - haven't got a clue how the economy works, satisfied to  crush borrowers/low-income households by 'wrecking the economy to save it' (from inflation), while rewarding themselves with higher income on term deposit while they sleep.    

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Yes and no to both your (as usual) inane questions: indeed the GD wrecked more lives around the world than did  Mao's flawed attempt at 'collectivization' in China.

And now we witness Trump begging China to help him open the Strait of Hormuz.....oh - how the power dynamic between the US and China has changed since Mao's time, courtesy of the pragmatic culture of the CCP, ie learning from mistakes since Mao's time,
and creating the world's largest manufacturing powerhouse.   

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The only thing that hasn't changed is your blind "freedom" ideology which has incapacitated your ability to reason. 

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Answered above: you are so ideologically blinded you keep asking the same question even when answered.   

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haha - 'the pot calling the kettle black'; Xi is advised by infinitely more learned advisors than Mao, and Xi knows he has to maintain the 'social licence' to govern... a task made easier as the Chinese people witness the increasing social division in the world's most powerful democracies - the worst example being the US itself. 

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Estimates range from 15-50 million; while the GD ruined the lives of 100s of million people in the "free " world.  (And fast forward to the present: I reflected on "freedom" last Saturday night while dodging the homeless in Geoge St,  Sydney; not to mention the guy sleeping in the very smart foyer  - stinking of urine - of a CBA bank near Wynyard).

Deplorable; your Neoclassical-based  "freedom" ideology stinks like that up-market CBA bank foyer. 

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...for a short time, until a pandemic was confirmed; and the reason for the delay?

The CCP is permanently threatened by your "freedom ideology" which is readily swallowed hook-line-and-sinker by instinctively self-interesd individuals (who we all are), but which is increasingly unsustainable as population and ecological limits are reached on the planet; collectivism will have to overrule individual "freedom", to achieve sustainable prosperity.

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When the pandemic was confirmed, China locked down in Jan 23 2020, and saved countless lives in China, while the UK - late to lockdown, even though his advisers were urging Boris to do so  - suffered  the highest death rate in Europe (except Italy, for particular reasons), and Boris lost his job....