u/throwaway39791

I had no idea about the North Korean influence on China and always thought it was the other way around. Around this time, this is post-Nixon, so wasn't China also looking a lot towards the West? Was it looking at both?

I read on Chinese Marxism specifically to understand CCP ideology and specifically how a Marxist-Leninist party could have even conceived Reform and Opening Up, let alone implement it with discipline. The answer on that front is ultimately Marxism itself and Mao Zedong Thought. Even the phrase "To get rich is glorious" can be speculated as having Soviet origin, specifically with Nikolai Bukharin.

Aha, I suspected it had some connection to the NEP era.

Unrelated, but as I understand it, during this reform era, there was also an America-phillic liberal faction in Academia during the 90s which was on its ascendance (at least before the bombing of the embassy).

This propaganda analysis was interesting, because I keep on thinking about how for me in the 2000s, a lot of media was imported from Japan (ie, Naruto, Doraemon), and I did not realize until much later that they weren't domestic. I remember the vibes around this era being a lot more relaxed, even if there were memories of tension; were these the Chungwan performances you are talking about in terms of dances? Because otherwise I'm scratching my head to think about where else the state could disseminate it in large quantities when there was so much new media available.

It was an era when it was good to be a translator.

which is basically what is most of Xi Jinping era propaganda

I think I see how this goes hand in hand with the closing of the country internally. At a high level I feel like the government wants more control and now has both the technical skill and willpower to do so. I think what is insidious is not that the same slogan is repeated twenty years, and the slice "what you don't know you don't know" becomes that much bigger.

Well this shows my ignorance for expecting that;

On an unrelated note, you wouldn't happen to have any books or any other good sources on this history of Maoism, would you?

I'm not saying that China is easy, but I think compared to China, Japanese politics seem to certainly be more legible than Chinese politics. It's like Japan on steroids.

All the problems that Japan has for English language discourse, China has too, and it has a great firewall which slows down osmosis even if it doesn't stop it.

Plus I feel like Japan is more integrated into the anglo media ecosystem, relatively speaking, compared to China, which is funny because China was very heavily influenced by the Japanese mediasphere at least in entertainment.

And then you add a fact that I think a lot of Chinese are slowly becoming less anglophilic than they used to be due to shifting narratives, events in America not helping, so you have a wall filled with people who don't want to climb over.

Nothing stops a determined china watcher from learning, but I think this really slows the rate of diffusion that other places have.

I had to google that, but I'm not surprised given how far away I am from the general sino mediasphere.

You're in Utah.

The Mormon capital.

I mean, if you squint you could call it a merger proposal, especially when it's between older individuals who already have established households and lives.

You laugh, but this is the kind of democracy that Alexis DeTocqueville was praising America for in this nation of presidents. Tennis club, civic associations, library drives, I think we need more of these.

We should bring back civic society; most of what still exists are aging fast.

Agreed, these takes make sense and line up with everything else I know, I'm just moaning a general fact before reading the article.

This article is in fact, significantly better in quality than most other articles I've read given its actual sourcing from Chinese sources.

Netizens went wild by posting comments such as “Long live the people,” with the Bilibili video surpassing 35 million views in just days. Government censors promptly deleted it.

A reminder that the ML state in China is less ideological so much as it is pragmatic.

It's rather awkward, given its purported Maoist foundations, but the state almost reminds me of the directorate of the French revolution of all things; letting out some reactionaries if the revolutionaries gain too much power, and vice versa.

Chinese youth dissatisfied with their reality sometimes invoke Mao to criticize the corruption and inequality they see around them, even challenging the CCP’s official assessment of the Cultural Revolution. The party, however, finds it difficult to punish or respond to such criticism.

We see often that Chinese people protest by using communism and nationalism as a bludgeon. During the blank paper protests, for example, people sang the national anthem very loudly.

Another development in China is the disappearance of public forums where young people could openly express and discuss their grievances with the status quo. When Xi became the country’s leader 13 years ago, the country saw a diverse range of competing ideas and movements for reform.

The country certainly has become less relaxed in its laws since then. While laws were on the books, there was a general impression that nobody followed the rules, and the general impression now is that you will go to jail if you don't, or are not careful. (Example, TV antennae for unauthorized foreign channels).

In this situation, authorities find it puzzling when Chinese youth express their discontent and anger — or attack ethnic minorities or retreat into distorted interpretations of history — through heterodox ideas that warp the concepts stressed by the CCP: Mao Zedong Thought, the greatness of the Chinese nation and slogans of victory over the US.

In his essay “Tangping and the Culture of the Post-90s Generation,” historian Xu Jilin, a professor of history at East China Normal University in Shanghai, interpreted “tangping” (lying flat), a social phenomenon and lifestyle movement in China where young people reject the country’s intense work culture, pressure-cooker competition and traditional societal milestones, as an accumulation of “ressentiment.” He warned that this “unorganized force” packed with resentment possesses an immense and irresistible destructive power.

“The targets of this resentment are first capital, second the elite and third the meritocratic system itself that forces individuals to struggle unceasingly,” he wrote. “Among those left behind by society, hostility toward the wealthy and the elite is pervasive online.”

I find it funny that just as China seems to be have discovered the malaise of becoming wealthy and therefore comfortable, so too have they rediscovered populism. It would be funny if it wasn't so dangerous. Were China to become a democracy tomorrow I have little hope for peace in our time. There will be war with Japan in a week.

“On prosperity, there is clear discontent over the real estate downturn, job insecurity among youth and slowing economic growth, but public satisfaction and expectations are high for the convenience brought on by advanced technologies such as AI and robotics given their rapid integration into daily life,” he said. “Similarly, on the country’s greatness, China’s image as an economic and technological power continues to bolster national pride.”

“Taken together, Chinese attitudes toward the Xi administration do not have monolithic support or hostility but resemble a patchwork,” he added. “Since public discontent isn’t strong enough to shake the regime, ‘development with happiness’ will likely persist.”

“But beneath the surface of society, negative emotions like resignation, withdrawal and occasionally a desire for revenge that erupts into indiscriminate violence will continue to accumulate,” he predicted.

Suzuki said that as the widespread adoption of AI worsens job insecurity, the actions of low-income urban workers like delivery drivers will emerge as a critical variable.

Despite their country’s dazzling advances in state-of-the-art technology, young people in China are experiencing anxiety and anger over their future that are simmering like lava. This should be a warning for Korea and the US, both of which are grappling with deepening inequality, while the streets of Europe have seen that fury erupt with great intensity.

I think this is one of the most balanced takes I've seen, though I feel like it should probably be the other way around. If anything, the optimism in China seemed to have lasted longer than in the US, and it seems to be Chinese citizens catching up to this general reactionary malaise.

Edit: This source is good, but I just wanted to moan about the general lack of good sources elsewhere and in general.

Because of the language barrier and other barriers, Chinese sources are so hard to find that it's basically two separate spheres. Japan and SK are kinda integrated into the Western (and by extension, anglo) mediasphere, forwards and back.

But to get what the average Chinese consumer reads on the net and on the news, most china watchers are at a loss, especially if they don't speak Chinese. There is so much garbage that analysts have to remind you: if your analyst does not speak Chinese and has no Chinese sources, chances are their analysis might not be that great.

A Korean source is likely to be closer, and it's good that this is now diffusing to the rest of the anglosphere, but I still bemoan the lack of good quality sources on what is going on in the possibly second most important single country in geopolitics.

Anybody with an internet connection today is probably intimately familiar with the USA, but China is a black box. The economy might implode or it might unleash a new innovation on the world. Nobody will know until it happens.

Let's be honest, given the current administration and the cockup that was the blockade I'll assume that if Trump pivoted to Asia, Trump will be the one invading Taiwan.

There is nobody else uniquely capable of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and disappointing everyone.

Perhaps that's why this episode aged so well. Given how much of trek is interacting with new cultures, I always enjoyed their spotlights on language and learning languages. There is something comforting about thinking that sometimes, the more things change...

transporting and intergating those people into their army is higher compared to currently existing manpower pool in russian regions.

Thank you, that answers that.

It genuinely is pleasant that I no longer have to hide my hobbies out of shame that the community is full of fascists and people might judge me a fascist if they didn't know me, and now I only have to hide them out of shame because it's a spreadsheet simulator and people will judge me a nerd, which is a much more pleasant state of affairs.

Agreed. But I realized something just now:

Even if unintentional, I think this demonstrates a sense of unfamiliarity with the Dominion on the part of Dr. Bashir.

What I would do to make this decision intentional is to make (I forget his name, the other mutant) say the endonym name of the language instead, or perhaps a different name used by linguists in the Federation. Surely they have linguists studying the language.

Like, if we applied this with another language, it would be like:

"Since when did you speak Inuitese?"

"I learned Inuktitut 30 minutes ago."

Discussing the trend of anti-industrialization and rural romanticization (which has probably been going on for as long as the industrial revolution and probably predates it by several millenia), I know by now that you don't fix it by bashing people's heads and pointing out the holes in their argument.

When fascists are dreaming of a reactionary past, calling them stupid won't stop them from implementing a new reactionary regime and then proceeding to silence all the historians. What fascists really want is to introduce their new dystopian society.

Similarly, when populists dream of an imagined past of idyllic plenty, what they want obviously is what most men want: to work little and enjoy the fruits of abundance; and to be the masters of their time and liberties.

When they point out that they would like to return to the middle ages because they worked less, I think it's productive to gawk less at "middle ages" and more at "worked less".

I think it is a good Bismarckian trade off for less economic growth in exchange for a more stable society.

Ah damn I wasn't aware of that episode. I'll have to go watch that now, that I've got to see!

Russia has now turned its attention to countries with poor democratic credentials, limited press freedom and a weak judiciary

I'm surprised it's still only 5.5k.

Given how high recruitment bonuses are already in Moscow, if Russians did start publicly offering those bonuses to these regions, wouldn't that be enough?

Why not cooperate under the table with these regimes for extra manpower?

I'm surprised that countries, especially those with unemployment problems and corrupt governments, aren't cooperating more on these issues with Russia and vice versa.

Consider Mongolia and its enthusiastic participation in UN peacekeeping missions, for example; at the individual level, people are enthusiastic to join because it's a life changing amount of money.

While the risks are higher, surely there are regions where: the poverty rate is high enough and the government is corrupt enough that it makes sense to have some sort of more formalized agreement in place; and if these regimes are already aligned with Russia, what is the West going to do?

I'm sure this surface level analysis is full of holes, so I'm sure I'm missing something, but where?

You were aware of the HOI4 subreddit.

I'm frankly more surprised that most forums I've seen have cleaned up their acts or something because I haven't seen a fascist in a long time, at least not the hitler larpers. (No idea on hoi4 now since I haven't played that for a decade at this point).

I'm pleasantly surprised that my hobby is significantly less toxic than it used to be.

A more recent phenomenon; I can see how this escaped notice. Thank you for satisfying my curiosity.

I thought it was common knowledge that Chinese stock-market prices were unreliable (hence why anybody of wealth puts their money into real estate)? I thought "Chinese investors lose money in stock market" wasn't a news story?

Chen Wensheng, a small business owner and investor from China's southern Hainan, said he bought into the rally emboldened by what he felt was official support for the likes of ​Unitree, which counted state-backed funds as investors. But Chen and his friends are now nursing losses.

Sounds like a story that could come out of a good day or a bad day in most sectors.

And given the national security implications of AI which have already come to pass, I doubt the Marxist Leninist state will refuse to use industrial policy if things really go sideways and starts to actually impact capacity.

And given the official attitude towards bubbles, if the bubble continues to pop or at least deflate, will this significantly impact capacity in a meaningful way? We've seen China not be afraid to let bad companies die, like in the case of EVs, and the net result of that is a painful lesson to the rest of the world in terms of automakers.

What are the actual longterm implications of this for Chinese AI research and progress?

I'm more surprised that any east asian country has a large proportion of migrants, but that's more due to my ignorance than anything else.

Was this a recent thing or is migration a longstanding policy?

I'm somewhat but not entirely surprised by countries on that list, but I did not expect China to dominate that list.