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The News That Doesn’t Fit to Print or Broadcast
If I told you that thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of workers in Germany who hadn’t been paid for months or were being laid off were setting factories ablaze in protest almost every other day, this would certainly make international news. You might be curious enough to follow up on that news. Certainly, if this were happening in Great Britain or France or Russia or Iran, that would be evident in virtually every mainstream news outlet after each incident happened, being featured on CNN, Fox, ABC, CBS, NBC, The BBC, Sky News, and in all the major newspapers.
If I told you that, as horrific as the plowing down of shoppers in Germany at an outdoor Christmas fair was, something like this was also happening every few days in one specific country, you might think that that was also newsworthy enough to be mentioned on an American national news broadcast and in other countries as well.
One country that’s not likely to broadcast the news of these employee protests, arsons and the plowing down of pedestrians is the country where these incidents are happening—because in a workers’ paradise, these things aren’t supposed to happen. In fact, if anyone in this particular country is caught releasing videos or stories of protests —of factories torched by disgruntled workers or innocent civilians who have been plowed down or assaulted by individuals who simply couldn’t take it anymore — then the individuals leaking these videos and news stories to the outside world face arrest, imprisonment, and possible disappearance by the authorities.
What I’ve been describing has been happening in China on an almost daily basis for the past several months and yet American and European news bureaus are failing to report on any of it. Much of this unrest is a result of the severe downturn in the Chinese economy. In Baotou, Inner Mongolia, north of Beijing, where factory workers and those mining rare earth minerals haven’t been paid for months, even the police force hasn’t been paid their wages by the state. Do you sense a potential problem here? Any student of history, particularly the history of political revolutions — France and Russia, in particular, will note a familiar pattern here.
The probable reason that American and European news bureaus are ignoring these stories is because they’re afraid of falling into disfavor with the Chinese Communist Party and being expelled from China. Such is the Catch-22 for international news bureaus: Don’t report, stay in China and never challenge the lies from the CCP as to the protests, the crime, or what’s really happening with the Chinese economy…or report on any one of these stories and be expelled—and lose any possibility of ever reporting on what’s happening in China again.
Chinese workers who haven’t been paid for months are realizing that they have been working essentially as slaves to produce goods that they cannot afford for other countries. Is China at a breaking point? If the police force isn’t paid for months, how inclined are they to maintain public order? If firefighters aren’t paid, how long before fires spread throughout China’s major cities and manufacturing centers? Is the Chinese economy at an intermediate or advanced stage of collapse? Are the CCP’s days numbered? Will the workers in the workers’ paradise unite? Outwardly on the world stage, this doesn’t bode well for the stability of peace in the region. A wounded animal is often more dangerous and erratic; it may be tempted to lash out at its neighbors. China may do just that in a desperate attempt to infuse some semblance of national pride to avert homegrown political uprisings. China watchers in the incoming Trump administration need to monitor events in China closely and be prepared to respond strategically to whatever is coming…because if China’s economy is in the advanced stage of collapse, bad things are likely to happen—and perhaps not just in China.
Published in General
Sounds like mostly good news to me, really.
They’re mad as hell, and they aren’t going to take it any more.
This doesn’t surprise me, but I’d like to see some corroboration.
In 2003 I was living and working in a middle eastern desert, and was very interested in learning exactly why I was there. It was enlightening to learn that our media had been ignoring stories so that Saddam Hussein wouldn’t kick them out. CNN was a prominent example, and I then stopped watching them.
What are the positive benefits, and to whom do they accrue, derived from media accepting these conditions?
Basically the same stuff CNN copped to in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in 2003. But thanks for the heads up on conditions in the PRC today.
Gordon Chen has been predicting the falling apart of the Chinese economy for some time. He did so a number of times on the Bill Bennett podcast. I am unsurprised by the news, though it is interesting that I had to learn about it here rather than on a podcast. I suppose that the media, just as they were pro NAZI in the ’20s and early ’30s, are pro PRC now and would rather not cast aspersions on their favorite regime.
If the China government collapses, are we absolved of all the money we owe them?
Perhaps George Soros and like-minded folks will “buy” the debt.
Then we default.
Sorry, George.
By the way, hat-tip to the guys at The China Show who have been reporting on these stories for a long time (including stories about the gross negligence of Chinese construction projects and the corrupt officials who are bribed or simply aren’t inspecting projects properly leading to disastrous consequences) including the efforts of the CCP to quash these stories. The hosts each spent over 10 years living in and traveling around China, still have numerous contacts in country, and are fluent in Mandarin and can read Chinese.
Here is an article on the build up of Chinese weapons and warfare operations that appeared today in The Federalist. What isn’t discussed in the article is how reliable China’s naval ships and other military capabilities really are given the dismal record they have in construction of high speed rail, cities, high-rises and other major projects. Also not mentioned is how the CCP inflates numbers and boasts about how efficient their infrastructure is when it clearly is not.
I worked as a contractor for a Canadian oil company in Kazakhstan that was acquired by the Chinese National Petroleum Company in 2005. It was their largest acquisition to date, so it was a high-profile operation. I was shocked how little mid-level CNPC managers knew about producing oil and gas. And their management style was even worse.
Since that experience I’ve been skeptical of the claims of Chinese greatness.
This article in the NY Post discusses a surge of Revenge on Society Crimes in China.
From the article: “He (Xi) ordered local governments to prevent future “extreme cases.”
Uh…good luck with that. This is laughable and tragic at the same time. The Chinese people are the most monitored and spied upon citizens on the planet. If a truck driver in Guangdong, Shanghai, Wuhan, Hong Kong, or wherever snaps while driving his truck and begins plowing down pedestrians and crashing into other cars, then there’s not much the local police can do except clean up the mess afterward and arrest anyone recording the incident on their cell phone. More invasive measures are sure to generate more anger and resentment from an already angry populace…particularly those workers not getting paid or those citizens who have lost their life’s savings in fraudulent housing investments that have gone belly up.
That is going to be one mother of a preference cascade.
Your skepticism is well-founded. Here is the today’s episode of The China Show where they examine the Chinese bluster about how advanced their development of robotics is, as well as, how sophisticated and advanced their new fighter aircraft may or may not be. Enjoy:
https://www.youtube.com/live/U5PxfqCkqpU?feature=shared
I’ve heard that Chinese stealth aircraft are primarily stealthy head-on; that other aspects are far easier to detect. Great on approach, but significantly less so against a defense in depth. I don’t know how accurate that is. It might be our guys whistling past the graveyard.
Well, I think you’re referring to Gordon Chang. He wrote The Coming Collapse of China in 2001, and he predicted that collapse in 2011. Things are running a little late regarding his timeline.
Thank you, I have only heard his name spoken, not seen it in print. Bennett’s pronunciation sounded like Chen.
It used to be said of an author friend of mine in Oregon, that he predicted 8 of the last 3 recessions.
Meanwhile in Brazil (which has been a socialist hot mess for a while now)…
And note how the BYD spokesperson speaks more like a CCP official rather than a spokesperson for autonomous company admitting any culpability in the horrific treatment of BYD on the slave labor brought to Brazil from China:
It should be noted that there really are no truly independent corporations in China. They are all affiliated and/or controlled by the CCP.