CHINA

I've been reading this piece on Biden and China and where it could go:

https://www.thenation.com/article/world/biden-china-cold-war/

In Xinjiang, empty reeducation centers loom eerily over the landscape, even as officials woo tourists and try to move past the crackdown. History suggests it may be a long time before Xinjiang can regain int'l trust. Our look at XJ's present and future: https://t.co/7raMfaNWMk

— Eva Dou (@evadou) September 23, 2022

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/23/china-ready-for-fight-over-international-action-on-xinjiang-human-rights-abuses

“If some forces in the international community – or even anti-China forces – make so-called ‘Xinjiang-related motions’ or so-called ‘resolutions’, we won’t be afraid,” Xu said. “We will take countermeasures resolutely and fight.”

I had no idea that the camps had been closed, nor that it was in response to international pressure. That's great news. I had always thought of Xinjiang as kind of a hopeless case (basically that China wouldn't respond to the level of pressure the world cared enough to apply.)

I will say that "crackdown" is a weird framing here.

Why do you think it’s weird?

Really interesting on the escalation of surveillance, and how the cost could cripple the country.

https://www.chinafile.com/reporting-opinion/notes-chinafile/chinas-urban-residents-party-state-closer-ever

i think it's interesting after 1978 what had become de facto decentralization due to the political paralysis after 1966 (early in the 60s and 70s, the first experiments with abandoning collectivism even if the xiaogang blood contract is what's remembered) continued and was written into the constitution in 1982 in the form of the maoist two initiatives outlined in on contradiction, or maoism to defend federalism. this continued for forty years, allowing a great deal of experimentation. and the past decade and especially as taisu zhang explains the past two, three years has been about trying to undo all of this. you have forty years of doing one thing then a rapid shift toward centralizing, reaching down the very bottom. surveillance is in the service of this centralization; centralization is also in service of surveillance (it doesn't work without central hubs for data).

I've just read Red Dust by Ma Jian, the author leaves his job after his work unit accuse him of being too liberal (he likes poetry and art, wears denim and sports long hair). He travels across China commenting on political change etc.

This takes place around 1983, and to be honest his account of his country scares and intrigues me.

What is China like now? I still seem to know so little of it. Are the carriages on trains swimming in mucus? Do bad teeth abound?

I'd like to know if it has changed much culturally from 20 years ago and if so, is it for the better.

And other little titbits too please.

― Rumpy Pumpkin (rumpypumpkin), Wednesday, December 1, 2004 4:27 PM (eighteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

So I did an interview with my wife, she talks about her great-grandfather, who was a spy for the communists in the civil war, and her aunt who was a red guard, then a lot about growing up in a huge communal factory complex, also about her brother dying and how her parents could secretly have another kid (this is the comedy section afaic)

May be of interest, well it is to me, ymmv etc. but you're already on the China thread so

https://centuriesofsound.com/2023/04/17/1-4-the-timbers-already-a-boat/

I remember getting a school library book in the early 80s about China (which was already probably out of date), and thinking it was almost like a science fiction society - the matching uniforms, the thousands of black bicycles in streets without any cars, the propaganda statues, collective farms - the USSR seemed kind of clunky and old fashioned but they had a space program... but China back then just seemed a world away

I used to be woken every morning by the middle school in my community playing the national anthem (chorus is "rise up! rise up!" so it was suitable for getting out of bed) after which the students would march around in well-drilled formations, think it was like 8am. So not everything has changed.

chorus is "rise up! rise up!"

ha that's the last thing the Party wants now.. 'stay down' more like it

funny you say that, there were anti-lockdown protests where people used the national anthem in this exact way. was going to say "subverting" it but they weren't really. think this sort of thing is par for the course for revolutionary parties that gain power, france has a similar thing with their national anthem I suppose.

I've read about Chinese democracy activists who do something similar with the Chinese constitution... *yes* the People's Republic actually has a constitution that ensures all sorts of rights & freedoms to its citizens, and is essentially ignored by the communist party, and will continue to be ignored but at least these folks are able to legally point out the hipocrisy

they're called like neo-constitutionalists or something