12 ms·

The Thoughts of Chairman Xi

175 points by princetman 9y ago

tristanj 9y ago
It's also worth reading the leaked 2009 US diplomatic cables about Xi published by Wikileaks. They're cited by the BBC story and give a lot of background. The source is from a former close friend of Xi who is currently a professor at a U.S. university. https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09BEIJING3128_a.html https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09BEIJING3128_a.html I found this section quite interesting. Familiarity with the West and Taiwan ------------------------------------ 25. (C) Based on personal experience, the professor noted, Xi is very familiar with the West, with a sister in Canada, an ex-wife in England, a brother in Hong Kong, many friends overseas, and prior travel to the United States. As far as the professor can discern, Xi's family and friends have had a good experience in the West. The professor contrasted Xi's experience and attitudes toward the West with those of people sent to the United States by their work units, such as the nationalist and sometime anti-U.S. Tsinghua University scholar Yan Xuetong. Xi was the only one of his immediate family to stay behind in China, the professor noted, speculating that Xi knew early on that he would "not be special" outside of China. 26. (C) Xi is favorably disposed toward the United States, the professor maintained, and would want to maintain good relations with Washington. The professor said Xi has "no ambition" to "confront" the United States. During Xi's visit to Washington, D.C., in 1987, he told the professor that he had no strong impressions of the United States. Although Xi was not particularly impressed by the United States, he had nothing bad to say about it either. Xi took a detached stance, as if observing from a distance, viewing what he saw as just a normal part of life, not strange, the professor said.
- germinalphrase 9y ago
  It's an aside - but is there a way to read quotes like this on a smartphone without constantly scrolling left and right?
  - mcny 9y ago
    25. (C) Based on personal experience, the professor noted, Xi is very familiar with the West, with a sister in Canada, an ex-wife in England, a brother in Hong Kong, many friends overseas, and prior travel to the United States. As far as the professor can discern, Xi's family and friends have had a good experience in the West. The professor contrasted Xi's experience and attitudes toward the West with those of people sent to the United States by their work units, such as the nationalist and sometime anti-U.S. Tsinghua University scholar Yan Xuetong. Xi was the only one of his immediate family to stay behind in China, the professor noted, speculating that Xi knew early on that he would "not be special" outside of China. 26. (C) Xi is favorably disposed toward the United States, the professor maintained, and would want to maintain good relations with Washington. The professor said Xi has "no ambition" to "confront" the United States. During Xi's visit to Washington, D.C., in 1987, he told the professor that he had no strong impressions of the United States. Although Xi was not particularly impressed by the United States, he had nothing bad to say about it either. Xi took a detached stance, as if observing from a distance, viewing what he saw as just a normal part of life, not strange, the professor said. I think the best thing is to just disable pre in mobile. :%le
    - yjftsjthsd-h 9y ago
      > I think the best thing is to just disable pre in mobile. That sounds great, do you know how to do this? I'm on Firefox mobile so user styles might be an option
      - mcny 9y ago
        I think it is best to fix this for everyone. Dang, looks like adding white-space: normal; in pre and pre:hover in the css can make things much better for mobile web users. Can we consider it? Demo on Firefox nightly https://i.imgur.com/j4qvqfo.png https://i.imgur.com/j4qvqfo.png Edit: https://stackoverflow.com/a/27126549 https://stackoverflow.com/a/27126549
      - EvilTerran 9y ago
        If you have uBlock Origin installed, you can tweak styles with its "My Filters". I have these in there: news.ycombinator.com##.comment code:style(white-space:pre-wrap) news.ycombinator.com##.comment pre:style(max-width:none!important) The first line makes code blocks in HN comments word-wrap (while still preserving whitespace otherwise); the second lets them expand to the width of their containing comment.
- hydrogen18 9y ago
  It's rather remarkable to read this about a current leader of a nation like China. I've always enjoyed reading autobiographies because figures often relate a personal evaluation of those they worked with. A sort of mini biography within an autobiography. I feel like these sort of evaluations often tell you much more than an "history" book can tell you about a person. For example, Albert Speer wrote that although Adolf Hitler had a very well established reputation of being impatient and intolerant of mistakes in the public sphere, he apparently was totally opposite in private. Speer wrote that even if a civil servant's work was completely inadequate Hitler would simply send it back until it was acceptable. If this failed he'd just move the person to another role and ask someone else to complete it.
  - crdb 9y ago
    You may enjoy Lee Kuan Yew's biography, The Singapore Story, and to a lesser extent his more recent Conversations with Tom Plate. There is a lot in common between Xi and Lee's thinking and way of doing things. Reading the BBC and Wikileaks texts, the events fit neatly in the "Singapore experiment with a billion citizen" narrative which the PRC has been doing since Deng Xiao Ping, ethnocentrism excepted.
- LiweiZ 9y ago
  Good to know. But I bet Xi is able to hide a lot of his real thoughts and feelings from many, esp. someone is in the US. I would suggest to read some information about his father's experience in those movements(运动). And you'll have a better idea why many of his family are outside of China. And how strong and capable he is to be able to reestablish everything from the bottom.
yeukhon 9y ago
This is the classic "what breaks you only make you stronger" but in a very aggressive way. Throughout history those who were oppressed and then made it to the top would usually end up wanting to seize full control and more oppressive than their oppressors. Xi looks friendly to the people, but there is a Chinese saying: 笑裡藏刀 (xiào lǐ cáng dāo)or "smile in hiding knife.” He is the alpha male of the entire Party. On one hand I like Xi's effort to clean up the corrupted senior officials. It was about time, but now he has the absolute power (military, justice, and executive) under the chair of the Party's control is alarming. I know a lot of Chinese natives (for what it is worth, I was born and raised in HK until I was 12) who refuse to believe in all the bad things happening in China, and refuse to recognize tragedy such as Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. They also become very emotional when it comes to Taiwan's relationship with China. But China isn't the only country in the world censoring and rewriting history. Japan tried to cover up its war crime during WW2. Other Western countries tried too. [1] I hate the fact today we still have governments and citizens who refuse to recognize the wrongdoings in their country's history, and fail to work toward a peaceful resolution once and for all. All the fights for territories and borders, all the ethic group fighting over historical hates and war crimes (e.g. Myanmar vs Rohingya). Time to wake THE FUCK UP... If we let go of our pasts, and our irrational prides, especially those we inherited from generations before us, then this world would finally have peace. Of course, the sad reality is we won't and will never be able to. Money prints off blood, and power is measured by the number of coffins and the fall of oppositions. Make no mistake, we can't compromise human values in exchange for stability. But this is how Xi and every leader in the world thinks of governance. Forgive, and be more compassionate. What is more important than saving lives and make people feel they are humans again, and not a war machine? [1]: http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v06/v06p--9_Bennett.html http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v06/v06p--9_Bennett.html
- dmoy 9y ago
  You're not wrong about some mainland Chinese refusing to believe (or never learning in the first place) anything about 6/4. My wife is among them, or used to be at least. Then again if you ask the average US freshman if the US military shot and killed a bunch of student protestors, you'd find a number who wouldn't believe you. Difference is in the US a trivial we search answers that question for you, while in China all record of 6/4 is scrubbed, and even acronyms that you use to mention it get scrubbed, etc.
brokendreams 9y ago
the last dictators the last world war against vile humanity waits
AnimalMuppet 9y ago
To me, this sounds a lot like "Make China Great Again". Temperamentally, of course, Xi is almost the exact opposite of Trump...
- kelukelugames 9y ago
  Haha, I wonder if the Chinese premier in Veep is based off of him.
- seanmcdirmid 9y ago
  Obama made Xi look like Winnie the Pooh. Xi must be much happier with Trump, as unhinged he is.
  - KGIII 9y ago
    Alright, I have to ask. How did he make him look like Pooh? When I think of Pooh, I think calm to the point of naive, not very smart but sometimes philosophical, friends with all, and very fond of honey. I'm well and truly confused. This is not entirely unusual.
    - DLay 9y ago
      It’s mostly appearance based, Xi Jinping looks like Winnie the Pooh and lanky Obama looks like Tigger, and it’s popularity as a meme soared after China censored them on Weibo. Examples: http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02590/TIGGER_2590531b.jpg http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02590/TIGGER_259... https://i.imgur.com/qouV61I.jpg https://i.imgur.com/qouV61I.jpg
      - KGIII 9y ago
        I found that greatly amusing, though I'm not sure that the comment was just concerning physical traits. After all, who doesn't like honey?
    - theWatcher37 9y ago
      I’d reply honestly to you but it would just get me banned. Like it or not you’ve contributed to a culture that people can’t reply to you honestly in. Think about how dangerous that is.
norswap 9y ago
I find the parallels between Xi and Putin fascinating: both had "modest" origins (or modest spells in the case of Xi) and much publicize them. Both were not really accounted for much, simply managing to rise through the ranks without making a wave, and always scrupulously deferring to authority. Both were nominated to the head of their respective party as a compromise or a strawman. That is until they took power, after which they both consolidated their grasp quickly, much to the surprise of everyone. Interesting that the leaders of two of the world's superpowers (and the two formerly communist ones at that) share such a similar journey.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- katastic 9y ago
  I honestly find it suspect that the media is full of "russia! russia! russia!", but nobody ever mentions China, which is in a far greater position for war (1.6 MILLION TROOPS) and accounts for like 28% of all known hack attempts. And speaking of influencing elections... there was this thing in the 90's called... Chinagate. [1] With millions directly found to influence an election. As well as leaked weapons and nuclear secrets as recently as >>2009<<. But I guess 6 years is forever ago and China has completely changed its ways. p.s. And I'm NOT saying "don't talk about Russia" I'm saying, why aren't we talking about BOTH? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_United_States_campaign_finance_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_United_States_campaign_fi...
  - theWatcher37 9y ago
    This is because our intelligence agencies currently view China as a tamed bitch and Russia as a wild threat. This view may or not be in tune with reality, but that is the view none the less
  - khuey 9y ago
    There was that whole annexation of Crimea thing.
  - dreamfactored 9y ago
partycoder 9y ago
Problem with leaders that consolidate power is that one successor will eventually be a weak link and things will go wrong.
68c12c16 9y ago
Another article on New Yorker (published in 2015), "Born Red", is quite interesting as well on this subject. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/06/born-red https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/06/born-red According to the article, Xi once said, "People who have little experience with power, those who have been far away from it, tend to regard these things as mysterious and novel. But I look past the superficial things: the power and the flowers and the glory and the applause. I see the detention houses, the fickleness of human relationships. I understand politics on a deeper level." I am sympathetic about Xi's early traumatic experience; but I also feel that if he considers that "human relationship" is essentially "fickle", it would be quite scary as well, especially for a decision maker at a country's top level, as he is. I don't know how much trust he has for any one who is not in his family (or even for his family members); but a society with a very low level of mutual trust is a horrible place to live -- not to mention its average interpersonal cooperation cost would be very high, people would even hurt and damage each other's interest just to obtain a bit more sense of security. The harsh censorship there is one such example; as well as that in China more and more people these days are being sent to prison, after some staged trial in a kangaroo court -- simply because they voiced something that the administration does not want to hear. Humanity itself is a quite complex matter. It's true that sometimes, certain people can be quite cruel, ruthless, or even cold-blooded; but this should not be a universal trait for the overall human beings -- or otherwise, it would have been a definition for the concept of "human" many centuries ago. There is a dynamic motley of benignity and malignity in any individual -- and the concept of "benignity" or "malignity" can be relative in certain cases. It's better for us all, if we construct a system that could inspire more benignity (-- or if possible, maximize ) out of us. But today, many dealings by the Chinese government seems to simply view its citizens as objects or even tools, with "fickling" worthiness that does not lie within themselves but is based on the external perspective of the ruling party, to perpetuate their ruling. Perhaps that is why Xi would raise the question to Biden in 2011/2, "why does the U.S. put so much emphasis on human rights." [1] Note: [1] see https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/06/born-red https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/06/born-red for the details about that episode...
- justicezyx 9y ago
  > Humanity itself is a quite complex matter I cannot help to remind you that Xi is the president of a country with 1.3 BB people. If you think he does not know this fact, you are plain ignorant. Chinese political sphere isn't any another-world strange thing. It's just like any such things: human-dealing and power-plays... Xi knows too well how to deal with people, and how complex they are, otherwise he would not reach his currnet power at all...
pmontra 9y ago
The story was formatted with Shorthand [1] Does anybody know an open source equivalent? Thanks. [1] https://shorthand.com/ https://shorthand.com/
- pimlottc 9y ago
  Unfortunately this article has an annoying habit of jumping position when changing scroll for me (iOS Chrome). Makes going back to re-read a paragraph tricky.
corford 9y ago
This is a fairly devastating passage: "And money talks. When Xi visited Seattle in 2015, America’s technology giants allowed themselves to be summoned The bosses of Apple, Microsoft, Cisco, IBM and Amazon all stood alongside Xi in the front row of a group photograph. All have since embarked on multiple partnerships with China despite its commitment to perfecting internet censorship. Also prominent in that photo was Mark Zuckerberg, but despite a charm offensive which included inviting the Chinese Communist leader to suggest a name for his baby, and praising Xi’s book on governance, Facebook is still barred from China. Google’s founders were not even invited to be in Xi’s photo. Xi has ambitious plans for control of the internet and that means leverage over foreign companies. Facebook’s messaging tool Whatsapp is increasingly blocked in China and Apple has now removed from its China App Store the VPNs which once gave Chinese users access to social media tools in the West, including the YouTube channel which gave the gleeful Guo Wengui such a devastating platform to discredit Xi’s rule. To fully control China’s cyberspace, Xi has had to take action against the world’s."
beautifulfreak 9y ago
This article mentioned China's debt as a problem, which I've seen before, so I finally looked it up. One article I found said China has added $24 trillion in debt in the last ten years alone, with a debt-to-GDP ratio of about 300%. With so much money appearing out of thin air to finance this or that program or development or expansion, it's easy to imagine opportunities for corruption. Add to that giant spigot all the smaller ones, as banks participate in the boom indirectly. It's no surprise then that Xi would have to address corruption overtly, given how it must be a daily temptation for party members to steer the wealth this way or that. Considering the scale of China's growth, it's remarkable how smoothly things are going. If there's any fractiousness within party ranks, it doesn't translate into churn we can see that slows things down. https://seekingalpha.com/article/4091155-update-china-debt?page=2 https://seekingalpha.com/article/4091155-update-china-debt?p...
ausjke 9y ago
Xi graduated from middle school and his leading style is more like culture-revolution-movement than anything else. he is probably the least capable but most ambitious leader there since Mao, thus the most dangerous, just wait and see.

175 points by princetman 9y ago

It's also worth reading the leaked 2009 US diplomatic cables about Xi published by Wikileaks. They're cited by the BBC story and give a lot of background. The source is from a former close friend of Xi who is currently a professor at a U.S. university. https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09BEIJING3128_a.html https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/09BEIJING3128_a.html I found this section quite interesting. Familiarity with the West and Taiwan ------------------------------------ 25. (C) Based on personal experience, the professor noted, Xi is very familiar with the West, with a sister in Canada, an ex-wife in England, a brother in Hong Kong, many friends overseas, and prior travel to the United States. As far as the professor can discern, Xi's family and friends have had a good experience in the West. The professor contrasted Xi's experience and attitudes toward the West with those of people sent to the United States by their work units, such as the nationalist and sometime anti-U.S. Tsinghua University scholar Yan Xuetong. Xi was the only one of his immediate family to stay behind in China, the professor noted, speculating that Xi knew early on that he would "not be special" outside of China. 26. (C) Xi is favorably disposed toward the United States, the professor maintained, and would want to maintain good relations with Washington. The professor said Xi has "no ambition" to "confront" the United States. During Xi's visit to Washington, D.C., in 1987, he told the professor that he had no strong impressions of the United States. Although Xi was not particularly impressed by the United States, he had nothing bad to say about it either. Xi took a detached stance, as if observing from a distance, viewing what he saw as just a normal part of life, not strange, the professor said.

germinalphrase 9y ago
It's an aside - but is there a way to read quotes like this on a smartphone without constantly scrolling left and right?
- mcny 9y ago
  25. (C) Based on personal experience, the professor noted, Xi is very familiar with the West, with a sister in Canada, an ex-wife in England, a brother in Hong Kong, many friends overseas, and prior travel to the United States. As far as the professor can discern, Xi's family and friends have had a good experience in the West. The professor contrasted Xi's experience and attitudes toward the West with those of people sent to the United States by their work units, such as the nationalist and sometime anti-U.S. Tsinghua University scholar Yan Xuetong. Xi was the only one of his immediate family to stay behind in China, the professor noted, speculating that Xi knew early on that he would "not be special" outside of China. 26. (C) Xi is favorably disposed toward the United States, the professor maintained, and would want to maintain good relations with Washington. The professor said Xi has "no ambition" to "confront" the United States. During Xi's visit to Washington, D.C., in 1987, he told the professor that he had no strong impressions of the United States. Although Xi was not particularly impressed by the United States, he had nothing bad to say about it either. Xi took a detached stance, as if observing from a distance, viewing what he saw as just a normal part of life, not strange, the professor said. I think the best thing is to just disable pre in mobile. :%le
  - yjftsjthsd-h 9y ago
    > I think the best thing is to just disable pre in mobile. That sounds great, do you know how to do this? I'm on Firefox mobile so user styles might be an option
    - mcny 9y ago
      I think it is best to fix this for everyone. Dang, looks like adding white-space: normal; in pre and pre:hover in the css can make things much better for mobile web users. Can we consider it? Demo on Firefox nightly https://i.imgur.com/j4qvqfo.png https://i.imgur.com/j4qvqfo.png Edit: https://stackoverflow.com/a/27126549 https://stackoverflow.com/a/27126549
    - EvilTerran 9y ago
      If you have uBlock Origin installed, you can tweak styles with its "My Filters". I have these in there: news.ycombinator.com##.comment code:style(white-space:pre-wrap) news.ycombinator.com##.comment pre:style(max-width:none!important) The first line makes code blocks in HN comments word-wrap (while still preserving whitespace otherwise); the second lets them expand to the width of their containing comment.
hydrogen18 9y ago
It's rather remarkable to read this about a current leader of a nation like China. I've always enjoyed reading autobiographies because figures often relate a personal evaluation of those they worked with. A sort of mini biography within an autobiography. I feel like these sort of evaluations often tell you much more than an "history" book can tell you about a person. For example, Albert Speer wrote that although Adolf Hitler had a very well established reputation of being impatient and intolerant of mistakes in the public sphere, he apparently was totally opposite in private. Speer wrote that even if a civil servant's work was completely inadequate Hitler would simply send it back until it was acceptable. If this failed he'd just move the person to another role and ask someone else to complete it.
- crdb 9y ago
  You may enjoy Lee Kuan Yew's biography, The Singapore Story, and to a lesser extent his more recent Conversations with Tom Plate. There is a lot in common between Xi and Lee's thinking and way of doing things. Reading the BBC and Wikileaks texts, the events fit neatly in the "Singapore experiment with a billion citizen" narrative which the PRC has been doing since Deng Xiao Ping, ethnocentrism excepted.
LiweiZ 9y ago
Good to know. But I bet Xi is able to hide a lot of his real thoughts and feelings from many, esp. someone is in the US. I would suggest to read some information about his father's experience in those movements(运动). And you'll have a better idea why many of his family are outside of China. And how strong and capable he is to be able to reestablish everything from the bottom.

yeukhon 9y ago

This is the classic "what breaks you only make you stronger" but in a very aggressive way. Throughout history those who were oppressed and then made it to the top would usually end up wanting to seize full control and more oppressive than their oppressors. Xi looks friendly to the people, but there is a Chinese saying: 笑裡藏刀 (xiào lǐ cáng dāo)or "smile in hiding knife.” He is the alpha male of the entire Party. On one hand I like Xi's effort to clean up the corrupted senior officials. It was about time, but now he has the absolute power (military, justice, and executive) under the chair of the Party's control is alarming. I know a lot of Chinese natives (for what it is worth, I was born and raised in HK until I was 12) who refuse to believe in all the bad things happening in China, and refuse to recognize tragedy such as Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. They also become very emotional when it comes to Taiwan's relationship with China. But China isn't the only country in the world censoring and rewriting history. Japan tried to cover up its war crime during WW2. Other Western countries tried too. [1] I hate the fact today we still have governments and citizens who refuse to recognize the wrongdoings in their country's history, and fail to work toward a peaceful resolution once and for all. All the fights for territories and borders, all the ethic group fighting over historical hates and war crimes (e.g. Myanmar vs Rohingya). Time to wake THE FUCK UP... If we let go of our pasts, and our irrational prides, especially those we inherited from generations before us, then this world would finally have peace. Of course, the sad reality is we won't and will never be able to. Money prints off blood, and power is measured by the number of coffins and the fall of oppositions. Make no mistake, we can't compromise human values in exchange for stability. But this is how Xi and every leader in the world thinks of governance. Forgive, and be more compassionate. What is more important than saving lives and make people feel they are humans again, and not a war machine? [1]: http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v06/v06p--9_Bennett.html http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v06/v06p--9_Bennett.html

dmoy 9y ago
You're not wrong about some mainland Chinese refusing to believe (or never learning in the first place) anything about 6/4. My wife is among them, or used to be at least. Then again if you ask the average US freshman if the US military shot and killed a bunch of student protestors, you'd find a number who wouldn't believe you. Difference is in the US a trivial we search answers that question for you, while in China all record of 6/4 is scrubbed, and even acronyms that you use to mention it get scrubbed, etc.

brokendreams 9y ago

the last dictators the last world war against vile humanity waits

AnimalMuppet 9y ago

To me, this sounds a lot like "Make China Great Again". Temperamentally, of course, Xi is almost the exact opposite of Trump...

kelukelugames 9y ago
Haha, I wonder if the Chinese premier in Veep is based off of him.
seanmcdirmid 9y ago
Obama made Xi look like Winnie the Pooh. Xi must be much happier with Trump, as unhinged he is.
- KGIII 9y ago
  Alright, I have to ask. How did he make him look like Pooh? When I think of Pooh, I think calm to the point of naive, not very smart but sometimes philosophical, friends with all, and very fond of honey. I'm well and truly confused. This is not entirely unusual.
  - DLay 9y ago
    It’s mostly appearance based, Xi Jinping looks like Winnie the Pooh and lanky Obama looks like Tigger, and it’s popularity as a meme soared after China censored them on Weibo. Examples: http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02590/TIGGER_2590531b.jpg http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02590/TIGGER_259... https://i.imgur.com/qouV61I.jpg https://i.imgur.com/qouV61I.jpg
    - KGIII 9y ago
      I found that greatly amusing, though I'm not sure that the comment was just concerning physical traits. After all, who doesn't like honey?
  - theWatcher37 9y ago
    I’d reply honestly to you but it would just get me banned. Like it or not you’ve contributed to a culture that people can’t reply to you honestly in. Think about how dangerous that is.

norswap 9y ago

I find the parallels between Xi and Putin fascinating: both had "modest" origins (or modest spells in the case of Xi) and much publicize them. Both were not really accounted for much, simply managing to rise through the ranks without making a wave, and always scrupulously deferring to authority. Both were nominated to the head of their respective party as a compromise or a strawman. That is until they took power, after which they both consolidated their grasp quickly, much to the surprise of everyone. Interesting that the leaders of two of the world's superpowers (and the two formerly communist ones at that) share such a similar journey.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
katastic 9y ago
I honestly find it suspect that the media is full of "russia! russia! russia!", but nobody ever mentions China, which is in a far greater position for war (1.6 MILLION TROOPS) and accounts for like 28% of all known hack attempts. And speaking of influencing elections... there was this thing in the 90's called... Chinagate. [1] With millions directly found to influence an election. As well as leaked weapons and nuclear secrets as recently as >>2009<<. But I guess 6 years is forever ago and China has completely changed its ways. p.s. And I'm NOT saying "don't talk about Russia" I'm saying, why aren't we talking about BOTH? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_United_States_campaign_finance_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_United_States_campaign_fi...
- theWatcher37 9y ago
  This is because our intelligence agencies currently view China as a tamed bitch and Russia as a wild threat. This view may or not be in tune with reality, but that is the view none the less
- khuey 9y ago
  There was that whole annexation of Crimea thing.
- dreamfactored 9y ago

partycoder 9y ago

Problem with leaders that consolidate power is that one successor will eventually be a weak link and things will go wrong.

68c12c16 9y ago

Another article on New Yorker (published in 2015), "Born Red", is quite interesting as well on this subject. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/06/born-red https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/06/born-red According to the article, Xi once said, "People who have little experience with power, those who have been far away from it, tend to regard these things as mysterious and novel. But I look past the superficial things: the power and the flowers and the glory and the applause. I see the detention houses, the fickleness of human relationships. I understand politics on a deeper level." I am sympathetic about Xi's early traumatic experience; but I also feel that if he considers that "human relationship" is essentially "fickle", it would be quite scary as well, especially for a decision maker at a country's top level, as he is. I don't know how much trust he has for any one who is not in his family (or even for his family members); but a society with a very low level of mutual trust is a horrible place to live -- not to mention its average interpersonal cooperation cost would be very high, people would even hurt and damage each other's interest just to obtain a bit more sense of security. The harsh censorship there is one such example; as well as that in China more and more people these days are being sent to prison, after some staged trial in a kangaroo court -- simply because they voiced something that the administration does not want to hear. Humanity itself is a quite complex matter. It's true that sometimes, certain people can be quite cruel, ruthless, or even cold-blooded; but this should not be a universal trait for the overall human beings -- or otherwise, it would have been a definition for the concept of "human" many centuries ago. There is a dynamic motley of benignity and malignity in any individual -- and the concept of "benignity" or "malignity" can be relative in certain cases. It's better for us all, if we construct a system that could inspire more benignity (-- or if possible, maximize ) out of us. But today, many dealings by the Chinese government seems to simply view its citizens as objects or even tools, with "fickling" worthiness that does not lie within themselves but is based on the external perspective of the ruling party, to perpetuate their ruling. Perhaps that is why Xi would raise the question to Biden in 2011/2, "why does the U.S. put so much emphasis on human rights." [1] Note: [1] see https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/06/born-red https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/06/born-red for the details about that episode...

justicezyx 9y ago
> Humanity itself is a quite complex matter I cannot help to remind you that Xi is the president of a country with 1.3 BB people. If you think he does not know this fact, you are plain ignorant. Chinese political sphere isn't any another-world strange thing. It's just like any such things: human-dealing and power-plays... Xi knows too well how to deal with people, and how complex they are, otherwise he would not reach his currnet power at all...

pmontra 9y ago

The story was formatted with Shorthand [1] Does anybody know an open source equivalent? Thanks. [1] https://shorthand.com/ https://shorthand.com/

pimlottc 9y ago
Unfortunately this article has an annoying habit of jumping position when changing scroll for me (iOS Chrome). Makes going back to re-read a paragraph tricky.

corford 9y ago

This is a fairly devastating passage: "And money talks. When Xi visited Seattle in 2015, America’s technology giants allowed themselves to be summoned The bosses of Apple, Microsoft, Cisco, IBM and Amazon all stood alongside Xi in the front row of a group photograph. All have since embarked on multiple partnerships with China despite its commitment to perfecting internet censorship. Also prominent in that photo was Mark Zuckerberg, but despite a charm offensive which included inviting the Chinese Communist leader to suggest a name for his baby, and praising Xi’s book on governance, Facebook is still barred from China. Google’s founders were not even invited to be in Xi’s photo. Xi has ambitious plans for control of the internet and that means leverage over foreign companies. Facebook’s messaging tool Whatsapp is increasingly blocked in China and Apple has now removed from its China App Store the VPNs which once gave Chinese users access to social media tools in the West, including the YouTube channel which gave the gleeful Guo Wengui such a devastating platform to discredit Xi’s rule. To fully control China’s cyberspace, Xi has had to take action against the world’s."

beautifulfreak 9y ago

This article mentioned China's debt as a problem, which I've seen before, so I finally looked it up. One article I found said China has added $24 trillion in debt in the last ten years alone, with a debt-to-GDP ratio of about 300%. With so much money appearing out of thin air to finance this or that program or development or expansion, it's easy to imagine opportunities for corruption. Add to that giant spigot all the smaller ones, as banks participate in the boom indirectly. It's no surprise then that Xi would have to address corruption overtly, given how it must be a daily temptation for party members to steer the wealth this way or that. Considering the scale of China's growth, it's remarkable how smoothly things are going. If there's any fractiousness within party ranks, it doesn't translate into churn we can see that slows things down. https://seekingalpha.com/article/4091155-update-china-debt?page=2 https://seekingalpha.com/article/4091155-update-china-debt?p...

ausjke 9y ago

Xi graduated from middle school and his leading style is more like culture-revolution-movement than anything else. he is probably the least capable but most ambitious leader there since Mao, thus the most dangerous, just wait and see.