CHINAwatch

"After coming to live in China, I have loved it here" - American digital entrepreneur Cyrus Janssen

A YouTube video clip of Cyrus Janssen's TED Talk in January 2023 illustrates why the world needs the ancient Chines adage 和而不同 "Harmony despite Differences" flagged up as a third bullet point in my China Daily op-ed of 10 February 2023. 

China's "global ambitions" according to two prominent Western sinologists

In Daring to Struggle: China's Global Ambitions Under Xi Jinping (10 June,2022), Bates Gill, Chair of the Department of Security Studies at Macquarie University and Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Insitute in London, focuses on China's six perceived strategic interests: Legitimacy; Sovereignty, Wealth, Power, Leadership and Ideas.

The Ideas consist of four strands - (a) a new global era with dynamic "changes not seen in a hundred years" as backdrop for the struggle to realize the China Dream of national renaissance; (b) an aim to build a "Community of Common Destiny" for mankind beset with interconnected and inter-dependent challenges like Climate Change and global security; (c) achieving global "unity with diversity" in international relations, relying on China's ancient adage of "harmony despite differences" (和而不同); and (d) seeking "Chinese Solutions" for global challenges instead of blindly following a superficial, one-size-fits-all Western hymnbook.  

In The Final Struggle: Inside China's Global Strategy (2022), Ian Eason, Senior Director of the Project 2049 Institute, based in Arlington, Virginia, USA, tries to turn President Xi's concept of "Common Destiny" on its head, hyping it as a sinister plot to achieve global dominance by shaping a panopticon "world government" bent to his will. Understandably, to veteran China-bashers and those otherwise infected with Sinophobia, every curved shadow would look like a snake, as the Chinese saying goes. (杯弓蛇影)

Eason's overhyped narrative and wafer-thin understanding of China notwithstanding, eye-catching infographics by Louis Martin Vezian are perhaps the most interesting parts of the book, showcasing at a glance how much national progress and global influence China has achieved over recent decades under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The following reproduced infographics may come in handy by way of reference or reminder. 

Download China's One-World Government (Louis Martin-Vezian)

Download Taking Over International Institutions (Louis Martin-Vezian)

Download Wall Street PRC (Louis Martin-Vezian)

Download PRC Owned IoT in America (Louis Martin-Vezian)

Download Compromised Container Ports (Louis Martin-Vezian)

Download We Surround You (Louis Martin-Vezian)

Download China is the Future (Louis Martin-Vezian)

Download Buying Global Influence - (Louis Martin-Vezian)

 

 

How to read and deal with China - Kishore Mahbubani on Aljazeera English's "The Bottom Line"

Kishore Mahbubani was a Singaporean diplomat for more than 30 years and served as president of the United Nations Security Council. He tells Aljazeera host Steve Clemons that the US should get accustomed to a multipolar world it can no longer dominate and learns how best to engage with a Rising China. 

Is China's Covid model broken?

Live TV interview dated 23 December on India Today TV

Cambridge Poll shows 70% of World Now Supports China

A Cyrus Janssen YouTube video clip of 25 November flags up a Cambridge University Centre for the Future of Democracy (CFD) report (published 20 October 2022) A World Divided: Russia, China and the West showing that:

(a) Among the 1.2 billion people who inhabit the world’s liberal democracies, three-quarters (75%) now hold a negative view of China, and 87% a negative view of Russia, according to the report, published today by the University’s Centre for the Future of Democracy (CFD).

(b) Yet among the 6.3 billion who live in the world’s remaining 136 countries, the opposite is the case – with 70% of people feeling positively towards China and 66% towards Russia.

This resonates with the final paragraphs of my Op-ed dated 22 November in the China Daily, in particular -

".. according to calculations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, developing countries will account for nearly 60 percent of the world's GDP on a purchasing-power parity basis by 2030. More are becoming confident enough to assert their national interests, individually or collectively, in defiance of hegemonic strong-arm tactics.

OPEC's recent refusal to expand oil production on US say-so is a case in point. More are likely to have China as the largest trading partner and to welcome, as espoused by Xi, a more inclusive world order not drawn on ideological lines." 

Deciphering China's 2022 National Party Congress

Exclusive live interview with WION TV of India on 23 October 2022

China's Party Congress underway

Live interview with NDTV of India on 16 October, 2022

Some fresh perspectives on Xinjiang and Tibet

Some fresh perspective is provided by Shaun Rein, an American Chinese of Jewish extraction, author of "End of Cheap China" and Founder of China Market Research Group, in a video podcast of 20 February 2022 hosted by Cyrus Janssen, a Canadian blogger who lived in China a long time and now relocated back in Canada.

Shaun visited Xinjiang and Tibet long enough to be able to share some insights on criticisms of China regarding Xinjiang and Tibet. He also offered some tips on how China could improve its communications with the West.   

A summarizing expose of 12 March, 2022 with real-life videos alleging hidden CIA operations is provided by Felix Abt, author of "My Seven Years in the Hermit Kingdom" in Covert Action Magazine, Covert Action Institute, a non-profit organization incorporated in the State of New York. 

How the Ukrainian Crisis Impacts on Eurasia Geopolitics and US-China Relations

A PowerPoint presentation to the EGN Founding Chairmen Group in  Hong Kong on 7 April, 2022.

Download How the Ukrainian Crisis Impacts on Eurasia Geopolitics US-China Relations including HK 

 

Building China 3.0 - Final Sprint toward the China Dream

The above named is a full lecture for the Ljubljana Confucius Institute, Slovenia, including Q & A, open to worldwide participation. The lecture (free of charge) was  simultaneously promoted by the World Strategic Insights based in Rome.

The Zoom lecture took place on Thursday, 17 February, 2022 at 0900 hours European time (1600 hours Beijing/Hong Kong time). The lecture attracted 135 applicants with 76 physically present, pandemics and other obstacles notwithstanding. 

Full details of the lecture's contents are here. A copy of the PowerPoint presentation in PDF format is as follows. Download Building China 3.0. A voice-over video recording of the PowerPoint lecture is here. Also re-published on World Strategic Insights based in Rome. 

Owing to time constraints, one question not given time to answer was on China's hukou (household registration) problem, which created a massive underclass of rural migrants. A podcast Caste aside: The future of China's peasants captures the conundrum. 

The ongoing hukou reform remains a huge, moving challenge. You can't flood the big cities with migrant, poorly-educated villagers. You can't leave them in limbo. Covered in the PowerPoint presentation is China's massive high-speed rail network expansion (doubling to 70,000 km), to connect ALL cities with a population of over 500,000 people, with modern motorways connecting ALL towns with population over 200,000 inhabitants, however remote, by 2035. Many fourth-tier cities and towns are in a largely rural region, including millions of villages. A great many are formed into inter-connected "urban clusters".(Slide 109 of 114) Along with the vibrant digital economy, this hopefully will provide many opportunities for the "rural" population.