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### [China Covid: Coffins sell out as rural losses mount](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-64347085)
> *"One villager, a customer, told us that at times the coffins have sold out. Laughing with a dose of the black humour you find in the area, he added that those in the funeral industry had been "earning a small fortune"."*
--- But leaner times are ahead. Because many of those who died now of Covid would have died over the next few years. So, there will be less funeral business in the near future (unless there is a new deadly variant of the Wuhan virus).
> *"Doctor Dong Yongming, who operates a very small village clinic, thinks at least 80% of residents there had already caught Covid."*
--- & that's probably similar in many rural areas. Which is why Spring Fest travel will probably not lead to a major peak.
### [China’s palace politics: Xi Jinping loyalists compete for power](https://www.ft.com/content/f1ddaaa1-7077-4e0a-bdc4-55205e4d2657?sharetype=blocked)
> *"“Xi’s status and authority as top leader are unlikely to meet any challenges from within high-ranking CCP cadres, but factional competition is already starting to take place among the various groups of Xi’s followers,” said Wu, now with Stanford University and the US-based Asia Society think-tank."*
--- Well, there is always factional struggle in the CCP, so it's not really 'starting'.
> *"Analysts also believe that understanding the backgrounds, personalities, ideological leanings, policy preferences and personal networks of Xi’s top lieutenants is crucial to elucidating the murky and often unpredictable world of Chinese politics."*
--- Meh. It can be helpful to analyse what happened afterwards, but predictions or even understanding ongoing business is not so easy.
> *"Still, Joseph Torigian, an expert on elite Chinese and Soviet-era politics at American University in Washington, points to a “very poor record” among China watchers of predicting contemporaneous dealings in Beijing’s secretive party compounds."*
--- Yep.
### [Getting Personal With State Propaganda](https://chinamediaproject.org/2023/01/25/making-propaganda-personal/)
> *"Last month, Nanchang Aviation University (南昌航空大学), located in China’s southern Jiangxi province, announced that it had launched the “Jiangxi International Communication Research Center” (江西国际传播研究中心) in cooperation with the China Media Group, the state media conglomerate formed in 2018 directly under the CCP’s Central Propaganda Department. According to coverage by China Education Daily, a newspaper directly under the Ministry of Education, the new center is an experiment in combining central CCP media and universities (央媒+高校) to carry out international communication by using the “overseas student resources” (留学生资源) of the university.
Nanchang Aviation University has so far established cooperation with more than 70 universities in 20 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine."*
--- It's the CCP who makes Chinese students abroad suspects, not racial profiling or racism. You simply have to be suspicious, because the CCP can & will use every Chinese abroad as an intelligence asset.
In that vein: [Concerns grow over British universities' ties with military-linked Chinese partners](https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/uk-universities-01252023124535.html)
### [China expands system of extradition treaties](https://www.rfa.org/english/news/southchinasea/woody-island-missiles-01252023013003.html)
> *"Of those four, Uruguay and the Republic of Congo has already ratified it on their side, thus bringing them now into effect, while Kenya and Armenia still need to ratify the treaties on their side for them to enter into effect.
Today, China has ratified extradition treaties with 45 countries, with another 14 countries where either both or one party need to complete ratification to bring them into effect."*
--- Quite a list of countries, where you can't feel safe as a Chinese dissident:
### [China’s Mad Dash Into a Strategic Island Nation Breeds Resentment](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/23/world/asia/china-solomon-islands.html)
> *"China has opened a large embassy, started construction on a stadium complex and signed secretive deals with the government on security, aviation, telecommunications and more. Many islanders liken it to seeing carpenters waltz unannounced into your kitchen, drawing up plans, tearing down and building, with little explanation."*
--- Apt comparison.
> *"“China is much less successful than is commonly assumed,” said Audrye Wong, a political scientist at the University of Southern California. “They think paying off people is a quicker and more efficient way of achieving the things the Chinese government wants. The reality is it often creates a backlash and doesn’t work.”"*
--- Luckily.
> *"Mr. Olea said he was making $1.20 an hour less than what he used to make at a hotel, after promises of extra money for food and transportation never materialized. A dozen others said that they had received no safety training, and that their Chinese foremen communicated with hand gestures and hit them in the head if they got something wrong."*
--- Welcome to China ... in the Solomons.
### [ESA is no longer planning to send astronauts to China’s Tiangong space station](https://spacenews.com/esa-is-no-longer-planning-to-send-astronauts-to-chinas-tiangong-space-station/)
> *"For the moment we have neither the budgetary nor the political, let’s say, green light or intention to engage in a second space station; that is participating on the Chinese space station"*
--- Good. At least some people in European politics are waking up.
---
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#### [China puts missile bases on disputed South China Sea islands, analysts say](https://www.rfa.org/english/news/southchinasea/woody-island-missiles-01252023013003.html)
---
#### [China offers Sri Lanka a 2-year debt moratorium](https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/25/china-offers-sri-lanka-a-2-year-debt-moratorium.html)
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#### [Chinese authorities detain Tibetan writer for contacting people in exile](https://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/palgontibetanwriterdetained-01252023160728.html)
---
---
### --- China Uncensored: "China Is Desperate for Money"
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4MSyKQHM3Ds" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
### --- BBC News: "Coffins sell out as rural China battles Covid"
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CsY7IEJuQtI" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
---
---
### [China betreibt noch weitere illegale „Polizeistationen“ in Deutschland](https://www.focus.de/politik/ausland/bislang-noch-keine-schliessung-china-betreibt-noch-mehr-illegale-polizeistationen-in-deutschland_id_184020840.html)
> *"Dem für Spionageabwehr zuständigen Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV) sind nach SZ-Informationen zwei weitere Polizeistationen bekannt, betrieben von den Behörden der Stadt Wenzhou."*
--- Dann sollte man vielleicht mal was unternehmen, nicht nur offiziellen Protest einreichen.
> *"die Betreiber pflegen offenbar enge Verbindungen zur chinesischen Botschaft in Berlin und zu den Konsulaten. Deutsche Sicherheitsbehörden gehen davon aus, dass sie auch Landsleute in Deutschland ausspionieren. Chinas Botschaft teilte auf Anfrage mit, derartige „Polizeistationen“ gebe es nicht. Es handle sich „bei diesen Freiwilligen einfach um engagierte Überseechinesen“"*
--- Engagiert vom chinesischen Staat.
### [Mit Hoffnung in das neue Jahr](https://www.tagesschau.de/ausland/asien/china-corona-221.html)
> *"Ein Dorf mit etwas mehr als 2000 Einwohnerinnen und Einwohnern im Landesteil Hunan im Süden Chinas.
[...] Sie alle hatten bereits eine Corona-Infektion, sagen sie. Wie die meisten der Dorfbewohnerinnen und -bewohner bereits im Dezember. Sieben oder acht Menschen seien in diesem Dorf im Zusammenhang mit Covid gestorben
[...] Auch im nächsten Krankenhaus, in einem anderen Landkreis weiter nördlich, ist die Situation ähnlich. Die Ärzte berichten von einer Zeit im Dezember, in der es nicht genügend Betten für Patienten gab. 80 Prozent der Bewohnerinnen und Bewohner der kleinen Stadt hätten sich in dieser Zeit infiziert, erzählt ein Arzt. Von etwa 20.000 Infizierten seien mehr als 100 gestorben, die meisten mehr als 80 Jahre alt mit Vorerkrankungen."*
--- Was interessanterweise fast genau eine 0,5%-Todesrate zeigt. Ein bißchen zu genau. Tatsächlich dürfte das nochmal deutlich höher sein.
Zeigt übrigens aber auch, daß auch der ländliche Raum schon seine Welle hatte & keine größere Spitze mehr zu erwarten ist.
### [Wenn ihr dieses Video seht, bin ich verschleppt worden](https://web.archive.org/web/20230125150845/https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/ausland/china-festnahmen-junger-frauen-nach-null-covid-protesten-18628269.html)
> *"Vor einigen Tagen wurde ein Video in mehreren sozialen Netzwerken verbreitet. Darin erzählt eine junge Frau, die sich als Zhixin vorstellt, dass vier ihrer Freundinnen vom 18. Dezember an, eine nach der anderen, von der Polizei abgeholt worden seien."*
--- Vor einigen Tagen ...
Die FAZ hat ziemlich lange gebraucht, um dieses Thema aufzugreifen. & dann basiert das Ganze offenbar auch noch fast ausschließlich auf englischsprachigen Berichten.
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[](https://ecency.com)
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