Watching the CCP Press

 

A Chinese factory in Zambia was set on fire. The following quotes are from the Global Times, the CCP news outlet.

The three Chinese nationals from East China’s Jiangsu Province were murdered by three local Zambians who then set fire to the warehouse of a Chinese clothing company on Sunday, outraging the Chinese community in the African country, local sources revealed to the Global Times.

According to a preliminary investigation by Zambian police, the suspects, two men and one woman, entered the warehouse and killed the victims before committing robbery, and then set a fire to destroy evidence.

Then the article wanders into the territory of victimhood.

Some Chinese living in the country expressed concern over their own safety. Some locals have misunderstood epidemic measures adopted by some Chinese companies, they said. . . Local Zambians have misunderstood why Chinese companies are prohibiting their employees from going outdoors during the epidemic: allegedly one of the reasons for the murders. 

The Chinese are acting responsibly, and those irrational locals just don’t understand. But why would they not accept the wisdom of the Chinese position?

Some reports by Western and local media and politicians have stigmatized China and are affecting Africans’ ideas of China and Chinese people, Chinese nationals working in Zambia told the Global Times.

False Western reports have generated a bad impression of Chinese, Wang Xin, deputy head of the Overseas Chinese Association in Zambia, told the Global Times on Monday. Those who thought the novel coronavirus originated in China were staying away from Chinese and this had induced conflict between Chinese and local Zambians, Wang said.

False Western reports led to people thinking the virus originated in China. 

Huh.

The rest of the article lets the reader draw the unavoidable conclusions:

Some Chinese living in Zambia also claimed that Lusaka Mayor Miles Sampa has been playing a role in provoking conflicts between Chinese and local Zambians with his allegedly frequent comments against Chinese.

During an inspection of a cement factory with a closed-off management system amid the epidemic, Sampa accused the Chinese management of being “slavery reloaded” and posted the comment “Black Zambians did not originate Coronavirus. It originated in China,” he said on his Facebook page. He also publicly used derogatory words such as “Chinaman.”

Get it? The truly lamentable virus is racism, spread by the lies of the Western press.

This is what they put in their English-facing pages; imagine what we don’t see. 

Makes me get almost nostalgic for the USSR – they lied just as much, but they didn’t whine like the CCP. Such delicate sensibilities , so easily bruised. Of course, it’s for domestic consumption: those Western devils are Stigmatizing China, which is inseparable from the CCP, and this baseless slander is a coordinated attempt to sully the shining truth of Xi.

If I could make an observation, it might be this: Xi, and by extension, his political apparatus is really bad at reading the room.  This was actually an opportunity to bind the world’s economies tighter to China if they’d behaved differently. Lies, delays, defective medical equipment, and utter BS deflecting responsibility may play well domestically, but when you have your forearm on the windpipe of the domestic audience, what’s the point? The world expected the CCP to act like a grown-up who shared the values of the international system they desire to join, and the CCP says nah, bro, we’re going to deflect all criticism and screw Hong Kong and threaten Taiwan and India also you should buy our stuff, because screw you.

They may have thought this would work in the West because they had penetrated the academic institutions, corrupted the elites in government with investments, depended on the reflexive anti-Americanism of the chattering class, and could count on Paul Krugman to write another piece about their nice train stations. Maybe they’re right. But if the virus had come from Italy or Japan or the UK or Canada, the response would have been different.

We know that, right? In our gut? Those countries would have behaved completely differently. The media might be hating on the UK because it’s Tory now, but otherwise, the NYT and WaPo would be doing stories about how Canada’s acceptance of blame is laudable and stands in stark contrast to Trump’s failings, and here’s Gov. Cuomo to tell you how Trump should have done this or that.

The only time China pops up in the COVID stories these days is to tell you they tested eleventy billion people in Wuhan and no one had the virus, so everything’s awesome, and meanwhile in Virginia people are going to the beach like suicidal lemmings.

Perhaps Xi gambled that contrition would be seen as weakness –  the anti-Western narrative would prove more profitable, and the West would fracture along its brittle lines and seek to channel its anger inward. Can’t say it won’t work. He has lots of help. You can always hire people to hate their own culture, but the most dependable allies are the ones who’ll do it for free.

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  1. Gary McVey Contributor
    Gary McVey
    @GaryMcVey

    Even the Murder Hornets are sitting in nests reading this column/post and shaking their heads in grinning mock admonishment–“Jeez, James, you don’t have to fatally sting your target that much”…

    • #1
  2. Gary Robbins Member
    Gary Robbins
    @GaryRobbins

    Once again a great post.  China really does not get why people have a problem with them, and the COVID-19 “gift” that they gave to the world.  

    I really wish that we had used the Trans-Pacific Partnership to bring together the countries of the Pacific Rim to unite against the CCP.

    One last point.  You wrote:  “Makes me get almost nostalgic for the USSR – they lied just as much, but they didn’t whine like the CCP. Such delicate sensibilities, so easily bruised.”  It seems to be that there is a very loud American politician who whines incessantly about how others are so unfair to him, while leaders like Reagan dismissed his opponents with a chuckle and a long drawn “Well….”   

    • #2
  3. JennaStocker Member
    JennaStocker
    @JennaStocker

    It seems the CCP has absorbed more from America than just action-hero movies: that any criticism can be deflected by all powerful victim card. Who knew grifters like Al Sharpton had such loyal ChiComm followers. And with a US & CCP media more interested in shaping the truth than exposing it, the mutual admiration goes both ways. Great post.

    • #3
  4. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    China is, and always shall be, the enemy of the West. Their culture is immiscible with the West. They are our enemy, and they should be treated as a more mortal Threat than the USSR. At least they wanted to be Western. Russia always has. 

    I just pray that China implodes. 

    • #4
  5. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    China will do to the rest of the world what it is doing to Hong Kong.  Cutting all business ties with China is a tough but necessary step to ensure our survival . . .

    • #5
  6. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    James Lileks: Makes me get almost nostalgic for the USSR – they lied just as much, but they didn’t whine like the CCP.

    I’m not so sure that the USSR didn’t whine like the CCP. I’m not going to dig out a specific example, but there are plenty of Russians who remember those days who will tell you the government fostered that kind of victimology (and there are even more who bought into that line and still have it in their possession). Their whines may not have got repeated so much in the U.S., though.

    • #6
  7. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    James Lileks: Makes me get almost nostalgic for the USSR – they lied just as much, but they didn’t whine like the CCP.

    I’m not so sure that the USSR didn’t whine like the CCP. I’m not going to dig out a specific example, but there are plenty of Russians who remember those days who will tell you the government fostered that kind of victimology (and there are even more who bought into that line and still have it in their possession). Their whines may not have got repeated so much in the U.S., though.

    The Russians connections to the press were by no means as effective as the ones the CCP have.

    • #7
  8. Jon1979 Inactive
    Jon1979
    @Jon1979

    The combination of Mafia shakedown guy and fake-Rolex peddler that China attempted during late March and April also didn’t help their PR efforts. Having at least one state-run media outlet and a couple of party apparatchiks essentially tell the U.S. “Nice generic drug import system you’ve got here. It would be a shame if anything happened to it,”  while at the same time shipping the Europeans masks and other equipment that had 60-70 percent failure rates was a way not simply to threaten or annoy the leadership of those countries. It was a way to burn into the brains of the public the reality that China in the middle of the worst viral outbreak in a century will scam you for good initial PR or try and intimidate you into silence, and in both cases would potentially play with your life, by either withholding needed medication or providing safety equipment that is anything but.

    All the Krugman columns in the world for foreign consumption can’t change people’s minds outside of China, when they’ve had real-world negative experiences, while the spin put on stories for domestic consumption only has a chance of working if the Chinese public sees Xi’s government continuing their rising standard of income and quality of life. If their actions cause enough companies to relocate their operations either back home or to alternative sites like India or Vietnam, the Chinese public’s going to start to get grumbly, and the Chinese overseas will be more likely to bring complaints about the declining standards of living home as they are information. That won’t effect change overnight, but it will cause growing problems for Xi as the decade rolls on.

    • #8
  9. SkipSul Inactive
    SkipSul
    @skipsul

    I think the main difference between the USSR and CCP propaganda is really a lot simpler: the Soviets just didn’t have the money, and had been pariahs in the international community since they overran eastern Europe, so they had less overt penetration into the international news business.  China has pretended to be capitalist and modernizing for the last 20 years, they have pots of money, and only in the last few years, thanks to Xi’s utter lack of subtlety and easily wounded ego (cue the Winnie the Pooh jokes), has the rest of the world started to notice that “Hey!  The Chicoms really are rat-bastards!”  This realization is still, however, not universal, the Chicoms have had 20 unimpeded years to build up their machine, and have put Western economies in a stranglehold while buying up their ports and infrastructure and shipping.  The USSR was never half so clever, nor a tenth so wealthy.  

    • #9
  10. Dr. Bastiat Member
    Dr. Bastiat
    @drbastiat

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):
    It seems to be that there is a very loud American politician who whines incessantly about how others are so unfair to him

    Oh gosh, there are many.  Joe Biden.  Nancy Pelosi.  AOC.  Bernie Sanders.  Very common phenomenon.

    Great point.

    • #10
  11. iWe Coolidge
    iWe
    @iWe

    Come on, folks. The demonization is over the top.

    Yes, China’s culture is different. And yes, their business ethics and practices are unacceptable.

    But avoid trading? Why should we? Global trade allows for the massive variety of products at affordable prices. Cutting off our noses to spite our faces is not very smart.

    We should do business, on our terms. When we cannot get acceptable terms, we go elsewhere. Just as free individuals and societies ought to do.

    • #11
  12. iWe Coolidge
    iWe
    @iWe

    And we can easily deal with the destruction of Hong Kong: Offer immigration papers to all Hong Kong citizens who meet education and other pro-freedom criteria.

    China’s weakness is that they do not understand the value of human capital, so we should liberate it when and where we can.

    • #12
  13. SkipSul Inactive
    SkipSul
    @skipsul

    iWe (View Comment):
    We should do business, on our terms. When we cannot get acceptable terms, we go elsewhere.

    The problem is fundamentally a lack of trust.  When we say “on our terms,” how are we enforcing that?  How can we know they are actually fulfilling their end of any given deal, reliably, and in good faith?

    Terms are only as good as the willingness and abilities of both parties to enforce them – I deal with this all the time with my own customers.  We agree to a set of terms for an engineering project, or for an extension of credit, or for a long term contract as a supplier, and a fair amount of time the other party is soon stretching meanings, delaying payments beyond agreed periods, or similarly yanking us about.  But as we’re all domestic we at least are all on the same legal footings, and we have the power to withhold product and support if things go sour.  We have had, in our experience, considerably less leverage or recourse when dealing abroad.  Given China’s track record of abrogating terms, how do we enforce “our terms?” 

    • #13
  14. Gary Robbins Member
    Gary Robbins
    @GaryRobbins

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):
    It seems to be that there is a very loud American politician who whines incessantly about how others are so unfair to him

    Oh gosh, there are many. Joe Biden. Nancy Pelosi. AOC. Bernie Sanders. Very common phenomenon.

    Great point.

    They are whiners, but not the largest whiner of them all.  Can you recall another President who had greater self-pity?

    • #14
  15. Postmodern Hoplite Coolidge
    Postmodern Hoplite
    @PostmodernHoplite

    James Lileks: You can always hire people to hate their own culture, but the most dependable allies are the ones who’ll do it for free.

    Also, there are even those who will pay for the opportunity to hate on their own country (those who voluntarily pay good money to read Paul Krugman.)

    • #15
  16. SkipSul Inactive
    SkipSul
    @skipsul

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):
    It seems to be that there is a very loud American politician who whines incessantly about how others are so unfair to him

    Oh gosh, there are many. Joe Biden. Nancy Pelosi. AOC. Bernie Sanders. Very common phenomenon.

    Great point.

    They are whiners, but not the largest whiner of them all. Can you recall another President who had greater self-pity?

    Obama was utterly insufferable in this regard.

    • #16
  17. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):
    It seems to be that there is a very loud American politician who whines incessantly about how others are so unfair to him

    Oh gosh, there are many. Joe Biden. Nancy Pelosi. AOC. Bernie Sanders. Very common phenomenon.

    Great point.

    They are whiners, but not the largest whiner of them all. Can you recall another President who had greater self-pity?

    There are some Republican presidents who should have done a lot more whining, as some people call it.

    • #17
  18. Hang On Member
    Hang On
    @HangOn

    @jameslileks : You have part of the analysis, but only part.

    This is a counter to the protests of African ambassadors in China who have protested the treatment of their citizens at the hands of Chinese. Basically, when quarantines were lifted, Africans were targeted and run out of their lodgings and worse because they were once again visible. They became a target.

    But it isn’t only African foreigners who are being targeted. They are targeting westerners as well. They are banned from going into restaurants – Jim Crow all over again.

    Chinese are great at playing the victim card. They still play the rape of Nanking for all it’s worth.

    As for Wuhan, outbreaks are occurring again. They are being blamed on foreigners. The provinces along the North Korean border are locked down and of course, it’s coming from North Korea. 

    And why has Tom Friedman been ignored? If ever there was a brown nose to China, Tom Friedman is it. He has books filled with it. All those bright shiny buildings with no rebar.

     

    • #18
  19. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    iWe (View Comment):
    But avoid trading? Why should we?

    To stop funding evil people who want to destroy us and rule the world.

    • #19
  20. Hang On Member
    Hang On
    @HangOn

    iWe (View Comment):

    Come on, folks. The demonization is over the top.

    Yes, China’s culture is different. And yes, their business ethics and practices are unacceptable.

    But avoid trading? Why should we? Global trade allows for the massive variety of products at affordable prices. Cutting off our noses to spite our faces is not very smart.

    We should do business, on our terms. When we cannot get acceptable terms, we go elsewhere. Just as free individuals and societies ought to do.

    That would be because we wouldn’t be cutting off our noses to spite our faces. Talk about over the top.

    Freeze China out. Totally and completely. They have earned it.l

    • #20
  21. Hang On Member
    Hang On
    @HangOn

    Gary Robbins (View Comment):

     

    They are whiners, but not the largest whiner of them all. Can you recall another President who had greater self-pity?

    And of course to you all the Russia B.S. has been nothing to whine about.  You still think of the intelligence services as non-politicized probably. And that just shows your level of incredulity.

    • #21
  22. Miffed White Male Member
    Miffed White Male
    @MiffedWhiteMale

    iWe (View Comment):

    Come on, folks. The demonization is over the top.

    Yes, China’s culture is different. And yes, their business ethics and practices are unacceptable.

    But avoid trading? Why should we? Global trade allows for the massive variety of products at affordable prices. Cutting off our noses to spite our faces is not very smart.

    We should do business, on our terms. When we cannot get acceptable terms, we go elsewhere. Just as free individuals and societies ought to do.

    Would you have traded with the USSR or Nazi Germany?

     

    • #22
  23. Dr. Bastiat Member
    Dr. Bastiat
    @drbastiat

    Miffed White Male (View Comment):

    iWe (View Comment):

    Come on, folks. The demonization is over the top.

    Yes, China’s culture is different. And yes, their business ethics and practices are unacceptable.

    But avoid trading? Why should we? Global trade allows for the massive variety of products at affordable prices. Cutting off our noses to spite our faces is not very smart.

    We should do business, on our terms. When we cannot get acceptable terms, we go elsewhere. Just as free individuals and societies ought to do.

    Would you have traded with the USSR or Nazi Germany?

     

    I have been in iWe’s camp on this for years.  But I’ve been gradually moving toward Miffed’s point of view.

    And then this.  I view China’s handling of COVID-19 to be, at the very least, a hostile action.  Add in their respect for our patent laws (non-existent), their environmental policies (disasterous), their human rights policies (horrifying), and their obvious ambitions of global power, and you get a country that is clearly our enemy.  Not an iffy business partner, but an enemy.

    Stopping trade with China is an important, but inadequate, step toward correcting our relationship with China.  They are overtly hostile to the United States, and should be treated as such.

    The longer we trade with them, the more money we give them, the worse this is going to get.

    • #23
  24. Ontheleftcoast Inactive
    Ontheleftcoast
    @Ontheleftcoast

    China and its lackeys:

    YouTube is automatically deleting comments that contain certain Chinese-language phrases related to criticism of the country’s ruling Communist Party (CCP). The company confirmed to The Verge this was happening in error and that it’s working to fix the issue.

    “Upon review by our teams, we have confirmed this was an error in our enforcement systems and we are working to fix it as quickly as possible,” said a YouTube spokesperson. The company did not elaborate on how or why this error came to be, but said it was not the result of any change in its moderation policy.

    But if the deletions are the result of a simple mistake, then it’s one that’s gone unnoticed for six months. The Verge found evidence that comments were being deleted as early as October 2019, when the issue was raised on YouTube’s official help pages and multiple users confirmed that they had experienced the same problem.

    This, plus an unconfirmed tweet. Looks a bit hinky. Hat tip Vlad.

    China is warning Canada to release Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou to avoid “any continuous harm” to relations between the two countries one day before the British Columbia Supreme Court is set to issue a key decision in her extradition case.

    “The Canadian side should immediately correct its mistake, release Ms. Meng and ensure her safe return to China at an early date so as to avoid any continuous harm to China-Canada relations,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Tuesday.

     

    HISTORY: Lessons From Operation ‘Denver,’ the KGB’s Massive AIDS Disinformation Campaign. “Historian Douglas Selvage sheds light on a conspiracy theory that reverberates to this day.”

    In September 1985, the Soviet State Security Committee (KGB) informed other Warsaw Pact foreign intelligence agencies that it had launched a new, major disinformation campaign. “We are carrying out a complex of [active] measures in connection with the appearance in recent years of a new dangerous disease in the USA known as AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome).” The KGB explained that “the goal of the measures is to create a favorable opinion for us abroad — namely, that this disease is the result of secret experiments by the USA’s secret services and the Pentagon with new types of biological weapons that have spun out of control.” Most likely, the KGB had initiated the disinformation campaign as early as 1983, but the September 1985 document — obtained by Christopher Nehring from the former Bulgarian State Security archive — is the earliest conclusive evidence that has turned up so far.

    Social media:

    . . .Vice reported that the Chinese government, via state-run media organizations, has run a series of ads that blame President Donald Trump for the spread of coronavirus, but that until now these had not been tagged as “political” by Facebook. 

    New York University’s research showed that one of these state agencies, Xinhua News Agency, regularly posts paid political content not disclosed as such by Facebook

     

     

     

     

     

    • #24
  25. Ontheleftcoast Inactive
    Ontheleftcoast
    @Ontheleftcoast

    From America’s New Newspaper of Record:

    China Issues Stay-At-Home Order To Hong Kong To Prevent Spread Of Democracy

    HONG KONG—Sensing the possibility of a dangerous contagion spreading, China has issued a stay-at-home order for Hong Kong so that ideas of democracy might not spread.

    “There is a virus out there,” said Chinese President Xi Jinping. “One that could destabilize all of China. That’s why we are requiring all people in Hong Kong to stay home so they don’t infect each other with the idea they get to vote for their own leadership, say whatever they want, or tell each other I look like Winnie the Pooh when I don’t because I look like Brad Pitt.”

    Reaction by the American media was swift. “Wow, China is so great! I wish we could be like China!” exclaimed numerous journalists. “Why can’t Trump be China?”

    American politicians also spoke up on the order. “Hopefully the people in Hong Kong will be more compliant than Americans,” said Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer. “We issued our stay-at-home order far too late to stop the spread of the idea that people have liberty and can do whatever they want.”

    • #25
  26. Jon1979 Inactive
    Jon1979
    @Jon1979

    Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

    Miffed White Male (View Comment):

    iWe (View Comment):

    Come on, folks. The demonization is over the top.

    Yes, China’s culture is different. And yes, their business ethics and practices are unacceptable.

    But avoid trading? Why should we? Global trade allows for the massive variety of products at affordable prices. Cutting off our noses to spite our faces is not very smart.

    We should do business, on our terms. When we cannot get acceptable terms, we go elsewhere. Just as free individuals and societies ought to do.

    Would you have traded with the USSR or Nazi Germany?

     

    I have been in iWe’s camp on this for years. But I’ve been gradually moving toward Miffed’s point of view.

    And then this. I view China’s handling of COVID-19 to be, at the very least, a hostile action. Add in their respect for our patent laws (non-existent), their environmental policies (disasterous), their human rights policies (horrifying), and their obvious ambitions of global power, and you get a country that is clearly our enemy. Not an iffy business partner, but an enemy.

    Stopping trade with China is an important, but inadequate, step toward correcting our relationship with China. They are overtly hostile to the United States, and should be treated as such.

    The longer we trade with them, the more money we give them, the worse this is going to get.

    Step one is to get all of our offshore manufacturing eggs out of Xi’s basket, and the same goes for European nations, since reliance on Chinese factories has allowed their leadership to run a guns-and-butter economy, increasing military spending while also able to increase the (starting from a low point) quality of life for a large part of the country. Take away the foreign capital coming into China, and at the very least it forces Xi to make a guns or butter decision (he’ll choose the former, but doing that can get China locked into a downward spiral on quality of life, and more potential Hong Kong-like disruptions).

    • #26
  27. Columbo Inactive
    Columbo
    @Columbo

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    James Lileks: Makes me get almost nostalgic for the USSR – they lied just as much, but they didn’t whine like the CCP.

    I’m not so sure that the USSR didn’t whine like the CCP. I’m not going to dig out a specific example, but there are plenty of Russians who remember those days who will tell you the government fostered that kind of victimology (and there are even more who bought into that line and still have it in their possession). Their whines may not have got repeated so much in the U.S., though.

    China has learned from the Muslim community how successful the whining of discrimination and oppression is with the American MSM. This is no different than what CAIR did after 9-11. They turned the story of terrorism inflicted on America into the Muslim community being the victims of discrimination.

    • #27
  28. Hang On Member
    Hang On
    @HangOn

    China Just Destroyed Hong Kong

    • #28
  29. Gary Robbins Member
    Gary Robbins
    @GaryRobbins

    Hang On (View Comment):

    China Just Destroyed Hong Kong

    This deserves a Post of its own.  We need to radically change our relationship with China.

    • #29
  30. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    The Global Times is owned by the government so i would say propaganda, but this story may shed some light on what happened??

    https://freebeacon.com/national-security/china-builds-massive-spying-capacity-in-africa/

     

    • #30
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