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### [At least 5 Tibetans in Lhasa end their lives amid harsh Chinese COVID lockdown](https://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/covid_lockdown-09292022135649.html)
> *"At least five Tibetans in the regional capital Lhasa have taken their lives as a rigid Chinese government zero-COVID lockdown nears its second month, but Beijing is covering up the severity of the situation in Tibet, sources there told RFA.
The Chinese government imposed a lockdown 52 days ago in Lhasa"*
--- Seems like lockdowns in Tibet & Xinjiang are even harsher than elsewhere, but because these provinces are already pretty isolated & not very important to the Chinese economy, we don't hear much about the situation.
### [Tibet, By Any Other Name](https://chinamediaproject.org/2022/09/29/tibet-by-any-other-name/)
> *"Speakers of Mandarin educated in the pinyin system, created by Zhou Youguang in the 1950s, shortly after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, will instantly recognize “Xizang” as the pinyin rendering of Tibet (西藏) — which in the local Tibetan language is called “Bod” (བོད་).
[...] How long has “Xizang” featured in English-language coverage by the Party-state media? Only for a matter of months, it turns out.
In the state-run media to date, the “Xizang” change appears to apply only to the Global Times. Core state media like People’s Daily Online, and China Daily, published by the State Council Information Office, have not yet followed suit."*
--- Hmm, wasn't that in the news quite a while ago, perhaps even last year? I mean to remember talk about some official directive to promote the use of Xizang.
> *"at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), where “Xizang” was used just once in English-language material before 2022 — in a 2018 release by the Chinese Consulate General in Vancouver — a shift seems to be underway. It may have started on September 16, 2021, when a statement about a meeting between Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, noted that “Russia firmly supports China’s positions on issues related to Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Xizang and human rights.”
In 2022, the use of “Xizang” seems to have been standardized by MOFA within this list of sovereignty-sensitive territories.
Perhaps the change at the Global Times and at MOFA is also a trial balloon that will prompt similar changes at other state media down the line."*
--- The problem of course is, that noone abroad will recognise what Xizang means. Therefore it is unlikely that it will find broader acceptance.
> *"There are also parallels in China’s past re-labeling in the official discourse of other places and features on the map. For seven decades running, China has promoted the use of “Mount Qomolangma” over “Mount Everest,” spurning the latter’s association with imperialism and colonialism"*
--- Also not very successful. Although, if there hadn't been emperor Xi's shift to more openly aggressive policies, such terminology changes might have been promoted by certain 'progressives' or other CCP appeasers. An example would perhaps be the shift from Peking to Beijing.
Even in Germany, where Peking is still official usage, there were efforts to change it into Beijing, although acc. to German pronunciation rules, most people then would have said something like Buy-Ying. (Instead of Kanton, the media use Guangzhou nowadays, & the pronunciation is often unrecognisable.)
### [My 5-year-old daughter just confirmed our decision to leave China](https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/28/opinions/china-foreigner-xenophobia-monkeypox-covid-bossons/index.html)
> *"In April 2020, I watched as the city’s expatriate population began to find themselves shunned by locals concerned about imported Covid-19 cases, despite the vast majority of imported cases being brought in by returning Chinese nationals, the foreign ministry said at the time.
Infamously, many of the city’s African residents were expelled from their residences and denied access to hotels despite having not left the country since the pandemic began."*
--- Funny, how the author avoids at all cost to use the word racism or racist for Chinese actions, only allows it once as a quote. Obviously, only Europeans & white US-Americans can be racist.
> *"Despite having Chinese ancestry, my daughter, Evelyn, does not look particularly Chinese, a fact that is often pointed out to my wife, who hails from Jiangsu province in eastern China. As such, she stands out among her classmates, who are all ethnically Chinese.
[...] some of her classmates had taunted her with calls of “waigouren,” meaning ‘foreigner’ in Mandarin Chinese"*
--- Ethnically Han-Chinese, he probably means. Loads of other ethnicities in China, & some are largely caucasoid.
> *"Words from power carry weight, and careless comments or malicious statements risk othering segments of society and fueling xenophobic attitudes. We saw this clearly with former US President Donald Trump’s repeated use of terms like “Chinese virus” and “kung flu,” which provided cover for the racists on Twitter and likely contributed to the rise in anti-Asian incidents in the US and other Western nations."*
--- Ah, the USA. Now he can call out racists.
> *"To be clear: I’m cognizant that Evelyn’s experience of being singled out by her classmates for her physical appearance pales in comparison to the verbal harassment and outright violence experienced by Asian and Pacific Islander communities in the US and other Western nations during the pandemic."*
--- Utter bullshit. You can find racism pretty much anywhere in the world. & pretty much anywhere in the world, there is a wide range from physical violence to verbal harassment.
### [China Signals No Let-Up in Its Aggressive Diplomacy Under Xi](https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2022-09-29/china-signals-no-let-up-in-its-aggressive-diplomacy)
> *""We Chinese will not capitulate. We will not sit and do nothing while our country's interests are being harmed," Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu said in response to a Reuters question at a Thursday news conference to discuss Chinese diplomacy in the decade since Xi assumed power."*
--- As long as emperor Xi stays in power, nothing will change.
### [Chinese Launch Assault Craft from Civilian Car Ferries in Mass Amphibious Invasion Drill, Satellite Photos Show](https://news.usni.org/2022/09/28/chinese-launch-assault-craft-from-civilian-car-ferries-in-mass-amphibious-invasion-drill-satellite-photos-show)
> *"The PLAN brought amphibious landing craft to a Chinese beach near the Taiwan Strait, according to Aug. 31 satellite imagery reviewed by USNI News. Offshore, the PLAN arrayed several large civilian ferries and warships. The PLA landing craft left the beach, swam to the car ferries and loaded amphibious assault craft aboard at sea via a specially-constructed ramp. The landing craft then left the ferries and returned to their starting point.
[...] “Everybody assumed that you had to seize a port first. That those [ferries] were second echelon forces… Somebody else has got to seize the port,” he said.
“2021 was the first time we saw them dump amphibious assault vehicles right into the water, which means now those ferries can be the first echelon sending assault units straight to the beach.“"*
--- Should lay to rest the idea that the PLAN wouldn't have the capacity to land a large enough force in Taiwan.
These civilian ships are probably more vulnerable than proper military vessels, but emperor Xi is more than willing to sacrifice soldiers for his goals.
### [Water scarcity challenges China’s development model](https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/water-scarcity-challenges-china-s-development-model)
> *"the water intensity of Chinese GDP has been gradually declining, and last year saw the release of the first ever Five Year Plan for water security. However, it is one thing for Beijing to emphasise “high quality” and more water-efficient growth through greener manufacturing and decreased household consumption. It is another thing to deliver it. Beijing’s encouraging rhetoric is belied by the litany of measures employed to stimulate the flagging housing market and the country’s oversized reliance on infrastructure spending to grow the economy. The difficulty in replacing these water-intensive sectors without incurring intolerably low growth may well preclude sufficiently deep and rapid structural reforms"*
--- As usual you have to ignore the words & check the deeds. The CCP has for a long time believed that the abundance of water in the south will forever help the north. If climate change leads to droughts in the south, while the north stays as dry as it is, China has a big problem.
### [Fraying at the Edges: A Subsystems/Normative Power Analysis of the EU's “One China Policy/Policies”](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/china-quarterly/article/fraying-at-the-edges-a-subsystemsnormative-power-analysis-of-the-eus-one-china-policypolicies/7A751B4051FDA33D23AD238130F1CC6D)
> *"Under the “one-China principle,” the PRC asserts sovereignty over Taiwan; yet European governments refer to “one China” policies, committing to only extend formal recognition to the PRC without acknowledging its claimed sovereignty over Taiwan – implying that Taiwan's future status is yet to be determined. Effective “one China” policies – how international actors engage with Taiwan – are often more expansive and flexible than official positions would suggest. As argued by Liff and Lin in this special section, the prevalence of this distinction in the international community undermines the PRC's claims that the “one-China principle” enjoys universal acceptance."*
--- Should be mandatory reading for Western journalists.
### [Chinese poet's account deleted after satirical poem ahead of party congress](https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/party-congress-poet-09292022135848.html)
> *""More than a billion people are waiting for the wind," the poem says. "It will come from the direction it comes from."
"Officials are waiting; entrepreneurs; ordinary people too," it continues. "We have no idea if it'll be an east wind or a west wind, this autumn ... a wind that blows forwards, or one that blows backwards."
[...] "We are just waiting here like puppets ... to hear our fate; ours personally, as well as that of the country,""*
--- Even the slightest hint of criticism is too much.
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#### [‘Do not bet’: China’s central bank warns against yuan speculation](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/29/do-not-bet-chinas-central-bank-pboc-warns-against-yuan-speculation.html)
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#### [Ukraine and Taiwan build common ties, defying pressure from China](https://www.dw.com/en/ukraine-and-taiwan-build-common-ties-defying-pressure-from-china/a-63281471)
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#### [Leaders of China, Japan say it is important to develop ties](https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/china-japan-leaders-say-important-develop-ties-2973016)
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#### [How Global Public Opinion of China Has Shifted in the Xi Era](https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2022/09/28/how-global-public-opinion-of-china-has-shifted-in-the-xi-era/)
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--- No video news today, just 2 otherwise interesting videos:
---
### --- Lei's Real Talk: ""Unrestricted warfare" and the weaknesses of the Chinese military explained by a former PLA officer"
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bFz57nimXsY" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
### --- Guardian: "Lady of the Gobi: trucking coal across the desert to China"
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8JvOMiPZjmU" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
---
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### [Don't write your homework while Covid positive, or you have to burn it](https://twitter.com/TGTM_Official/status/1575232882636881942)
### [Using the subway? Only with Chinese ID.](https://twitter.com/GabrielCorsetti/status/1575321661464870912)
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### [Ansehen Chinas unter Xi Jinping stark verschlechtert](https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/ausland/chinas-ansehen-unter-xi-jinping-hat-sich-drastisch-verschlechtert-18350585.html)
> *"Die Zahl der befragten Deutschen, die „kein Vertrauen“ in Xi Jinping haben, stieg von 62 Prozent vor acht Jahren auf 79 Prozent. Vor allem hat sich das China-Bild in Deutschland radikal verändert: Hatten 2005 nur 37 Prozent der Deutschen eine negative Meinung von China, verdoppelte sich die Zahl seither auf 74 Prozent."*
--- Wer hätte das gedacht? Aggressive Außenpolitik, zunehmende Militarisierung, Menschenrechtsverletzungen & Völkermord führen zu Mißtrauen. Wie kommt das nur? Liegt bestimmt an den fiesen westlichen Medien.
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#### [Geklonter Polarwolf in China vorgestellt](https://www.faz.net/aktuell/gesellschaft/tiere/geklonter-polarwolf-in-china-vorgestellt-beagle-war-leihmutter-18351194.html)
---
[](https://ecency.com)
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