OTF China Watch

[Anton Gramscescu]

OTF China Watch

I think the weirdest use of the Stars and Bars is its appropriation by Napoli as a symboil of "southern pride". The first time you come across one while strolling the Spanish Quarter is a jarring experience.

But it does prepare you for when you get to the San Paolo and they have the home-made flags depicting Iron Maiden's Eddie the Head in a Napoli jersey carrying the confedrate flag.

[Bored Of Education]

OTF China Watch

It may not be Eddie

[Ginger Yellow]

Seems like the situation for the Uyghur population is getting even grimmer. Comparisons to the Cultural Revolution.

[Ginger Yellow]

I suppose this is technically a PIK bond now.

https://twitter.com/DavidInglesTV/status/1060772318241153024

[Kevin S]

They're going to need a Pork Futures Warehouse before long.

[ursus arctos]

Too bad it wasn’t JPY denominated.

We could have had Pay in Katsu.

[Ginger Yellow]

Forget pivot to blockchain, now we pivot to Old Masters!

Shares in Yulong Eco-Materials Ltd. jumped as much as 47 percent after the company said it agreed to buy a “Crucifixion” painting for $75 million. The added market value that resulted, as much as $65 million from Friday’s close, came after the company said it plans to pay for the acquisition by issuing 7.5 million restricted shares valued at $10.00 per share -- if the deal gets shareholder approval, and the painting passes an appraisal and has authentication documents.
That’s a big shift from Yulong’s prior business model, as a “vertically integrated manufacturer of eco-friendly building products and a construction waste management company located in the city of Pingdingshan in Henan Province, China.”

[Nocturnal Submission]

Must-see report on China's Muslim "reeducation" camps in Xinjiang: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-...ormation-camps

[Balderdasha]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting. Something that doesn't often seem to be mentioned in news reports on Xinjiang is the province's immense oil resources. I've never visited Xinjiang personally, but the main anecdote I have relating to it comes from a geography teacher friend of mine (Chinese national). She told me that one of her male university friends was unpopular with women because of some facial scarring, I think remnants of childhood chicken pox. Unblemished skin is highly coveted, and it would have severely dented his marriage prospects. So, his solution was to go out to Xinjiang for five years in the oil industry, make his fortune and come back to find a wife. A decent amount of money goes a long way to offset facial scarring apparently. The way my friend described her friend's experiences in Xinjiang made it sound like the old wild West. Desert, not very many amenities, hardly any women, but the chance to make enough money for it all to be worthwhile.

There's big money out there, and a lot of Han Chinese were being shipped into the oil, gas and mineral industries. I don't think many of the job opportunities or much of the resource wealth was being redistributed to the local population. So, there's a lot of resentment.

[tee rex]

The protestors in Hong Kong have shown themselves to be more courageous (and effective) in standing up to Beijing than any number of politicians in Western democracies.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Must-see report on China's Muslim "reeducation" camps in Xinjiang: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-...ormation-camps

This was the second report from John Sudworth: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-...ds-and-mosques

[Nocturnal Submission]

Sudworth's latest report focuses on Uighur and Kazakh children: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-...re-my-children

[Ginger Yellow]

Another dodgy WMP unravels

[Nocturnal Submission]

The latest from the Beeb about China's "voluntary education and training camps" in Xinjiang: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-50511063

[Diable Rouge]

And now the Uighurs are being forcibly sterilised.

[Diable Rouge]

More on enforced birth control in Uighur areas.

[Ginger Yellow]

Mapping Xinjiang concentration camps by their absence from maps.

[Balderdasha]

I haven't commented much on the Xinjiang camps as most of this post-dates my time in China, but it may be useful to add a little of what I know.

Firstly, Xinjiang is absolutely massive. When people discuss it as a region of China, I think it is often thought of as a small area. It's 1.6 million km squared, more than 4 times the size of Germany, and it has a population of over 22 million people.

Secondly, I know a little of how the general public, Han majority, view Xinjiang. One of my friends from Chongqing, Ting Ting, had a male university friend who had gone to Xinjiang to make his fortune. This male friend, let's call him Dan, had facial scarring that made it difficult for him to win a wife (any type of facial disfigurement severely hampers your marriage-ability). So his plan was to spend five years in Xinjiang getting rich, and then his wealth would counteract his scarring. Xinjiang was viewed as similar to the Wild West with mineral wealth for the taking. Way more men than women move there for jobs. And it's seen as a hardship to move there. The climate is generally hotter, drier, dustier, more desert-like than other regions. Employees who are asked to move there by their company get hazard pay.

Thirdly, the Han Chinese attitude to ethnic minorities. Officially there are 55 ethnic minorities in China. The Han majority often presents them as female and non-threatening. There are lots of colourful photographs of ethnic women in traditional embroidered dresses, and tourists can attend dinner dances where ethnic women give dance and singing displays. The narrative is that ethnic minorities are simple, happy, almost childlike, and their identity is reduced to clothing, songs and dances. There is also a narrative that these minorities are uncivilised and need to be educated. All minorities are obliged to learn Mandarin Chinese as part of their core education and the use of minority languages in educational establishments is strongly discouraged.

The Muslim inhabitants of Xinjiang are seen as threatening this narrative. There were some separatist movements. There were some terrorist acts. Uighers were talking abroad. There were news stories about Uigher men. The Han Chinese response is a wholesale clampdown on the entire region.

Partly, the Han Chinese will not see why a massive "re-education" programme like this is discriminatory, because they would be perfectly willing to do this to the majority population, if seen as necessary. In fact, that is what happened a lot during the Mao era, and all Han Chinese still have to attend propaganda meetings in school, and often in their workplaces. People don't really expect to wield individual human rights. They expect everyone to do what is best overall for the nation.

There is also the Han Chinese view of religion. Essentially, religion is viewed as tolerable as long as it doesn't rock the central narrative. It must be peripheral. I haven't visited Xinjiang, but I did visit some mosques in other regions of China. At the time, people were allowed to pray there, but the feel was very different from mosques I have been to in, for example, Turkey or Morocco. Firstly, all the mosques in China were open to tourists any time they were open at all. There was no option for a private service. Secondly, the mosques were not allowed to place restrictions on visitors, so no-one had to wear a head covering or take off their shoes. Similar rules applied for Buddhist temples or Christian churches. They are allowed to stay as decorative tourist attractions, but cannot be private.

If a religion ever threatens to become more important to a Chinese individual than their identity as Chinese, there is heavy retribution. This can be seen in the response to Falun Gong, where many of the adherents were Han Chinese. As soon as the movement was seen as in any way political, it was classed as a dangerous sect, and shut down in the most horrific way imaginable.

There is also the Chinese tendency to view everything as an engineering problem, including anything to do with humans. There are 22 million people who potentially view Islam as more central to their identity than being Chinese. How can this be rectified? The hundreds of internment camps is the engineering solution.

Also, Xinjiang is a border region. China is very aggressive in defending its borders, not allowing any incursions, physically or in terms of ideology.

I am not defending what is happening in Xinjiang at all. It is horrific. All I can add is a little information that might explain how and why it is happening.