Monkey business
by liberal japonicus Despite the title, this post has absolutely nothing to do with politics. Actually, nothing to do with anything but 2 monkeys and their connections.
China
China, redux
by liberal japonicus To return to my 白鲸 (White Whale), I post this interview with Yi-Ling Liu, author of the new book The Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet. At the beginning of the interview, Aaron Bastani notes that there is a whole cadre of author/analysts who are have a … Read more
That beacon of peace, China, errr, I mean Pakistan…
by liberal japonicus The Guardian reports the following: The US and Iran agreed to a two-week conditional ceasefire on Tuesday evening after a last-minute diplomatic intervention led by Pakistan, canceling an ultimatum from Donald Trump for Iran to surrender or face widespread destruction. Trump’s announcement of the ceasefire agreement came less than two hours before … Read more
Xi and China’s military: an off the wall theory
by liberal japonicus Just a quick post. Been reading a bit of Xi’s purge of the military. If it weren’t so deadly serious, would be pretty hilarious. For example, we have Xi’s Military Purge Makes War Over Taiwan More Likely in the same newsfeed as Xi’s military purges will make him wary of invading Taiwan. … Read more
Adam Tooze
by liberal japonicus I’ve mentioned my frustration with Klein a few times, but I was grateful to hear his talk with Adam Tooze. I think the title is rather misleading which continues to hang on to the idea that the US is central, because most of the podcast is about China. Here is the transcript … Read more
Chinese corruption
by liberal japonicus More China stuff. As you’ve probably noticed, I’m skeptical about narratives that argue that China is collapsing because [insert reason here]. One of those reasons has often been that China is corrupt from stem to stern. A few links to get an idea of the arguments, here, here and here There was … Read more