China's 'Xivilizing' Mission
"Xi said “the Chinese Communist Party is committed to promoting the progress of human civilization,” and called Chinese-Style Modernization — another Xi neologism — “a new form of human civilization.” Chinese-Style Modernization, a piece in the Party’s flagship theoretical journal gushed, “represents the developmental direction for [all] human civilization.”"
--- Human civilisation is doomed.
"Xi Jinping is no longer considered merely an inheritor or even protector of a great civilization, but the creator of one"
--- Being a demigod, that's only appropriate.
"Like the Chinese for “telephone” or “constitution,” the word for “civilization” in Chinese, wenming (文明), acquired its current meaning through the Japanese translations of European texts made during the island nation’s drive to learn from West during the Meiji-era (1868-1912)."
--- Now, that hurts the feelings of all Chinese. China would never ever adopt terminology coined by barbarians transmitted through other barbarians. That would be ... barbarian.
"Every nation has culture — only a few have civilization."
--- Well, that depends on the definition of civilisation. The one I learned (& largely agree with) is simplified that a stratified society with division of labour & specialisation represents civilisation.
"Soon “civilization” was everywhere, at no time more ubiquitous nationwide than in the lead-up to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. Up and down the country, propaganda posters lined the streets extolling “civilized cities,” “civilized districts,” “civilized work units,” and “civilized households.”"
--- The funny thing is that in most cases, these civilisations are very short-lived. As soon as a contest or inspection is over, everything is back to its pre-civilisational normal.
China's top financial data provider restricts offshore access due to new rules-sources
"Shanghai-based Wind has made part of its data such as home sale numbers, which used to be updated regularly, inaccessible for users based outside mainland China since September last year, one of the sources said.
A Wind salesperson told the source in September the company had made the changes as per instructions from the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), which asked it to stop providing offshore users with certain data.
[...] The restrictions on offshore users' access to certain Wind data have expanded since last September, said the first source. It is unknown whether the CAC stepped up access tightening requirements since the same month.
So far, offshore users' access to Wind information that has been blocked includes business registry details such as a company shareholding structure and its ultimate controller, as well as economic data such as home and land sales in certain cities
[...] Besides Wind, China's main academic database China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) has limited access to overseas subscribers from April 1, according to users notified of the suspension. The access restrictions imposed on the database apply to dissertations and conference papers as well as legal and statistical data, the National University of Singapore said in March in a notice on its website about the disruption."
--- Not sure this is news. Looks awfully familiar, so I probably already posted a similar article a while ago. But, since nothing's going on today, no harm in linking it again.
Government study recommends China build second capital in Xinjiang
"Published in the Chinese-language journal “Social Sciences in Xinjiang” on April 21, the report proposes that the purpose-built capital be close to Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, or to Kashgar, one of the westernmost cities of China near the border with Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Pakistan.
[...] For China to establish a secondary capital in East Turkistan, it must first Sinicize the region"
--- Actually, in my opinion, a new capital would not depend on previous sinicisation, but it would be a major driver. More Han-Chinese than ever would have to move to Xinjiang.
Canada summons Chinese ambassador over allegations of political interference
"Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly disclosed the news during a heated exchange in Ottawa with opposition lawmaker Michael Chong, now at the center of the accusations against China.
Chong was allegedly targeted for harassment by Beijing, and has fiercely criticized the slow response of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government.
Joly also told members of parliament during a foreign affairs committee session that Canada is considering taking retaliatory action against China and that “all options are on the table” – including diplomatic expulsions.
However, she admitted Canada’s government was carefully weighing the possibility of retaliation by China, which denies interfering in Canadian political affairs. "
--- Trudeau is still afraid of angering emperor Xi, it seems.
--- Bloomberg: "China Restricts Overseas Access to Corporate Information"
Die Angst vor China beim Thema Chipfabriken-Übernahmen ist absurd
"Es ist falsch, reife Produktionstechnologien genauso schützen zu wollen wie die modernsten Chipmaschinen von ASML, Europas wertvollstem Tech-Konzern. Dass die Niederländer ihre Anlagen nicht nach China verkaufen dürfen, ist angesichts des gewaltigen technologischen Vorsprungs nachvollziehbar – und schadet vor allem der Volksrepublik, nicht aber Europa. Bei den Chipwerken von Nexperia und Elmos ist das anders, da schadet Europa sich mit seinem Konfrontationskurs vor allem selbst."
--- Quark. Wenn chinesische Firmen diese angeblich veralteten Werke gewinnbringend betreiben können, sollte das auch mit europäischen Firmen funktionieren. Für China kann übrigens auch der Zugriff auf 'veraltete' Technik ein Fortschritt sein.
Konjunkturerholung in China weiter uneinheitlich
--- Spiegel: "Spannungen zwischen China und Taiwan: »Auf jedes Szenario vorbereitet«"
---ZDFInfo: "Überwacht und eingesperrt: Wie China systematisch Uiguren unterdrückt"
