The China Thread

[Josquius]

Whatever happened to those plans for ultra high tech modern clipper cargo ships?
That would help solve the major qualm I have in trading with Australia and NZ; you're paying to transport something right around the world that you can just as easy get from a country or two over.


Though nit pick - love that lady, so like a Sci fi character rather than someone you expect to see in real life. But I don't think she knows what the eye of the storm is.

[Jacob]

Yeah, China has made it clear that they can't be relied upon. It's prudent for New Zealand and New Zealanders to prepare for the day when China decides to dick them around.

[Sheilbh]

This strikes me as something some people may be interested in - translation of a new novel by a leading Xinjiang writer who has been disappeared:
https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-backstreets/9780231202916?fbclid=IwAR3bp-GFTwcz8GV5d_elaschV2ngAZB36q5xl1WT5x3K81Sq9I1ZBMAlja8

The Backstreets
A Novel from Xinjiang
Perhat Tursun. Translated by Darren Byler and Anonymous

Columbia University Press

The Backstreets is an astonishing novel by a preeminent contemporary Uyghur author who was disappeared by the Chinese state. It follows an unnamed Uyghur man who comes to the impenetrable Chinese capital of Xinjiang after finding a temporary job in a government office. Seeking to escape the pain and poverty of the countryside, he finds only cold stares and rejection. He wanders the streets, accompanied by the bitter fog of winter pollution, reciting a monologue of numbers and odors, lust and loathing, memories and madness.

Perhat Tursun's novel is a work of untrammeled literary creativity. His evocative prose recalls a vast array of canonical world writers—contemporary Chinese authors such as Mo Yan; the modernist images and rhythms of Camus, Dostoevsky, and Kafka; the serious yet absurdist dissection of the logic of racism in Ellison's Invisible Man—while drawing deeply on Uyghur literary traditions and Sufi poetics and combining all these disparate influences into a style that is distinctly Tursun's own. The Backstreets is a stark fable about urban isolation and social violence, dehumanization and the racialization of ethnicity. Yet its protagonist's vivid recollections of maternal tenderness and first love reveal how memory and imagination offer profound forms of resilience. A translator's introduction situates the novel in the political atmosphere that led to the disappearance of both the author and his work.

About the Author

Perhat Tursun is a leading Uyghur writer, poet, and social critic from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. He has published many short stories and poems as well as three novels, including the controversial 1999 novel The Art of Suicide, decried as anti-Islamic. In 2018, he was detained by the Chinese authorities and was reportedly given a sixteen-year prison sentence.

Darren Byler is assistant professor of international studies at Simon Fraser University and author of In the Camps: China's High-Tech Penal Colony (2021). His anonymous cotranslator, who disappeared in 2017, is presumed to be in the reeducation camp system in northwest China.

Edit: Oh so this is weird. Perhat Tursun is, for some reason, not listed as the author on Amazon. You need to search for Darren Byler the translator Won't be published until next spring but it seems important and, likely, enlightening.

[Syt]

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/senior-china-diplomat-says-eu-politicising-trade-not-acceptable-2021-05-25/

Senior China diplomat says EU politicising of trade 'not acceptable'

Chinese State Councillor Wang Yi said on Tuesday that attempts by some in the EU to politicise trade issues are "not acceptable and will lead nowhere," and that Beijing had been shocked when Brussels placed sanctions on Chinese officials.

Wang, who is also foreign minister, made the remarks less than a week after the EU halted ratification of an investment pact with China until Beijing lifts its own sanctions on EU politicians. read more

China's retaliatory sanctions came after Brussels in March blacklisted Chinese officials over alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang, which Beijing denies. read more

The investment pact was not a "one-sided favour" and stoking political confrontation and economic decoupling does not serve the EU's interests, Wang said at a talk hosted by the Munich Security Conference.

China remains ready to expand cooperation with Europe, based on mutual respect, he added.

"It has never come to our mind that the EU will put sanctions on us," Wang said, questioning how a strategic partner could take such action.

The sanctions reminded Chinese people "of the days when they were bullied by European imperialists," Wang said.

"And as the Chinese government, we have our sovereignty to uphold. We have our national dignity to uphold ... We have to push back falsehoods and disinformation," he added, explaining why China hit back.

"China is a trustworthy partner of all countries, not a systemic rival locked in confrontation," Wang said.

[Sheilbh]

[Sheilbh]

Yeah, China has made it clear that they can't be relied upon. It's prudent for New Zealand and New Zealanders to prepare for the day when China decides to dick them around.

FT actually had an interesting story on Australia's surprise adaptability in response to Chinese pressure. An example:


I wonder if the fear for democratic countries is maybe worse than the actual impact that you'd expect

[Berkut]

A fine example of the flaw in libertarian approaches to markets.

There is more to be considered then simple profits and losses.

[Sheilbh]

I can't remember who it was but it reminds me of the phrase someone used that to an extent doing business in China involves a "values tariff". It doesn't mean it's wrong but there is a cost away from the financials - see also John Cena/Hollywood/the NBA/Arsenal etc.

[Jacob]

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/senior-china-diplomat-says-eu-politicising-trade-not-acceptable-2021-05-25/

Senior China diplomat says EU politicising of trade 'not acceptable'

...

"China is a trustworthy partner of all countries, not a systemic rival locked in confrontation," Wang said.

Too fucking late. There was a period in time where China could've become a trustworthy partner of all countries, but at this point they've cemented their status as a systemic rival locked in confrontation.

Yours sincerely,

Xiacob

[Valmy]

China seems to be working very hard to burn all the goodwill they built up after 1989.

I don't get it. They were being very successful playing nice but then looked over at Russia and decided to be like them instead for some reason. The Chinese, in a very un-Mono way, are letting politics get in the way of money.

[Syt]

Too fucking late. There was a period in time where China could've become a trustworthy partner of all countries, but at this point they've cemented their status as a systemic rival locked in confrontation.

Yours sincerely,

Xiacob

If CdM was still with us he would say, "I TOLD YOU SO" wrapped in an amusing and weirdly positive insult.

[Jacob]

I wonder if the fear for democratic countries is maybe worse than the actual impact that you'd expect

That's encouraging. It'd be great if it holds across the board.

[Valmy]

Like Jesus and Arthur someday CdM will return.

[Sheilbh]

China seems to be working very hard to burn all the goodwill they built up after 1989.

I don't get it. They were being very successful playing nice but then looked over at Russia and decided to be like them instead for some reason.

Power. They are now clearly a rising power and want to assert their position and be treated like one and the unipolar moment of the 90s is on a far less sure footing.

I think there is something to the Thucydides trap/Wilhelmine Reich v Edwardian Britain analysis.

As a country, what is the point of accruing economic influence and power if it is not used to advance your political agenda?

I don't think the blame goes to China for doing what makes sense and every other country does, but perhaps to the West for thinking you can de-couple economics and trade from politics. That either Chinese politics and interests would somehow align to the West (Step 1 - build up massive trading dependencies to China; Step 2 - ????; Step 3 - Chinese democracy) or that China, uniquely in the world and in history, would not use its economic leverage to advance its political interests.

[Tonitrus]

What worries me is that they always include references to past humiliations/colonialism (even if true and justifiable) in their rhetoric.  Nations that do that, especially as a rising power, sooner or later seem to end up in a major war.