4 ms·

Here is a perspective on China's current aggressiveness: those in power are from the culture-revolution age(1966-1976), which means they did not get good educat

Here is a perspective on China's current aggressiveness: those in power are from the culture-revolution age(1966-1976), which means they did not get good education(if anything at all). Most of them are not even middle-school graduates. Their youth time are filled with beating those well educated ones based on ideologies accusations. Xi himself did not even finish middle school, his professional skill is the worst comparing to his past peers, he could not even read correctly many times in public since he came in power.

deusum 5y ago
I couldn't imagine country run by a middle school bully. Now I can.
- picture 5y ago
  As someone who have spent 13 or so years of their life in China, I absolutely agree with this perspective. The culture of modern China seem to support a strangely "macho" image particularly for men: it's acceptable and maybe even encouraged, for men to be overtaken by rage, and thrash and kick around while yelling things. [1] It looks like this mentality is reflected by the politics of china as a whole. [1]: This is actually very accurate to how people get angry in China, I've seen teachers, businessmen, even customers, rage in this characteristic weirdly macho way. https://youtu.be/aCdFec3uu_g https://youtu.be/aCdFec3uu_g
  - whimsicalism 5y ago
    ? I honestly don't see anything in this video that I wouldn't see in expressions of anger in the US, except that they are speaking a mix of chinese and english.
  - mads 5y ago
    This is also my experience. Except I have seen it a lot with females also. Maybe because my family in law is Chinese I am more exposed to it. China sure has a lot of empty very loud barrels.
  - 5e92cb50239222b 5y ago
    > https://youtu.be/aCdFec3uu_g https://youtu.be/aCdFec3uu_g In what culture is this considered "macho"? He's acting like a little spoiled brat.
    - LAC-Tech 5y ago
      And now you understand PRC diplomacy - closing an embassy because an unofficial trade office used 'taiwan' instead of 'taipei'.
  - whodunnit 5y ago
    Emotional regulation issues are generally caused by childhood abuse. Mainland China is a society suffering from untreated PTSD and inter generational abuse.
  - nowherebeen 5y ago
    This is ridiculously and demeaning to the Chinese people. Losing your temper is universal and I have seen plenty of white friends that lash out. To say that only Chinese people behave this way and not white people is well at best a sign of superiority complex and at worst a subtle _______ remark.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - synergy20 5y ago
      People of all color lost temper all the time, that normally gets improved when they age. The "Red Guards" (i.e. culture revolution) generation from China indeed stood out as a group that acts very differently. They are always ready to _fight_ with anyone just because of different opinions, thus the aggressiveness. It's a life long disease that keeps getting worse with no cure.
      - nowherebeen 5y ago
        I agree there are many in China that feel ready to fight. But I don’t judge all Chinese people like so. Just like I don’t judge all Americans act like their Republican politicians either. Imagine if someone called all Americans are loud, obnoxious, fat, and dumb. Something that is frequently claimed by most Europeans about Americans. This wouldn’t be fair to regular Americans, would it? What OP is doing is pre-labeling an entire country’s population. And it is wrong. If readers here can’t see how this is problematic, then I am simply disappointed how low HN has fallen over the years.
        synergy20 5y ago
        Where did you see someone targeting _all_ Chinese? I did not see that. The point here is the red-guard generation in general is a bit unique, that's about it. All or nothing argument is dead on arrival, we all know that.
  - dang 5y ago
    Please don't take HN threads into nationalistic/ethnic flamewar, regardless of how many years you spent in a place. Nothing good can come of this sort of provocation. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
riffraff 5y ago
Wikipedia mentions Xi studied chemical engineering at the University.
- synergy20 5y ago
  Don't believe that, he got special treatment and he does not understand a thing while studying there, that department in that university was full of people like him(youth who had powerful parents need a diploma quick after culture-revolution gap) for political assignments. Xi himself even claimed he got a PhD degree for that matter, it's so embarrassing that he eventually pulled that claim off after internet was full of his PhD jokes a few years back.
viktorcode 5y ago
It should be noted that Xi is a son of a victim of Culture Revolution.
- synergy20 5y ago
  Stockholm syndrome? Based on what he has done so far, he actually forced most things his father hated, which is, illogical and ironic.
  - qwytw 5y ago
    At least nothing in his Wikipedia page seems to suggest that he would had particularly hated any of Winnie Pooh's policies.
- wetpaws 5y ago
  Bullied grow up to become bullies
LambdaTrain 5y ago
He completed BE in Chemical Engineering from Tsinghua University [1]. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi_Jinping https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi_Jinping
- synergy20 5y ago
  Read my comments below. It's hard to know the real truth these days.
- baybal2 5y ago
  Hsi Chinping bought his degree paper from a ghostwriter, and barely showed for classes. A practice deemed "almost" acceptable in the mainland among elites. People tell "for somebody already so high rank, merely buying a university degree is not really cheating" I once had an argument over this 9 years ago with Chinese peers. The conversation came to "Maybe, if he was given a degree, and job even without a ghostwriter, then it may have been said he jumped the line." It's problem with these people who genuinely believe that rank, and status is a license to violate things, and that is the reason to get it. Out of all Westernised mainlanders exposed to overseas, or even out of the few who spent some years abroad, almost nobody gets past the superficial in understanding the world outside China. They are really a minority, among the minority.
  - trasz 5y ago
    So your claim is that Xi is only barely better educated than every republican US president since the nineties?
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - qwytw 5y ago
      TIL that George Bush is "the only U.S. president to have earned an MBA", I'm not sure if that's better or worse than purchasing a BSc in Chemistry, though.
k_sze 5y ago
Stop spreading nonsense. Xi Jinping studied chemical engineering. Zhu Rongji studied electrical engineering.
- synergy20 5y ago
  Zhu took the tests and get admitted, like the rest of his peers(Jiang, Hu, Wen, Li,etc) they're all true graduates from the best universities in China then, which explains why China made leaps and bounds under their leadership. Xi is the only exception among them. Xi got in college without _any_ tests, purely because he has a powerful father then. It's said he could not understand a thing taught and there is no way he could graduate(or admitted). Indeed it's unimaginable for a 6th grader to take calculus in the top universities all of a sudden. Xi even said he has a PhD degree, it's so laughable he had to remove that claim himself.
  - ceejayoz 5y ago
    > Indeed it's unimaginable for a 6th grader to take calculus in the top universities all of a sudden. Top notch private tutoring and some work ethic can work wonders in fairly short periods of time. Corruption is certainly possible, but not the only conceivable possibility.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
  - eunos 5y ago
    >he has a powerful father then His powerful father made him a target during cultural revolution
  - k_sze 5y ago
    He was at least studying for PhD in Law, according to Xinhua News Agency. I’m not entirely sure whether he ended up getting the PhD. The wording in Chinese is a bit ambiguous.
tacon 5y ago
It would help if the West stopped fooling itself about the abilities of the Chinese government. The Chinese government is awash in people that have been selected, filtered, and tested as very well educated. Their average government bureaucrat would put our average government bureaucrat to shame in raw ability to get things done. We may be ahead in creative, rule breaking ideas, but do not underestimate the raw intelligence available in the Chinese government.
- whimsicalism 5y ago
  The West has been desperately trying to keep the wool pulled over its own eyes for the better part of a decade. It's only become more obvious in the covid environment.

deusum 5y ago

I couldn't imagine country run by a middle school bully. Now I can.

picture 5y ago
As someone who have spent 13 or so years of their life in China, I absolutely agree with this perspective. The culture of modern China seem to support a strangely "macho" image particularly for men: it's acceptable and maybe even encouraged, for men to be overtaken by rage, and thrash and kick around while yelling things. [1] It looks like this mentality is reflected by the politics of china as a whole. [1]: This is actually very accurate to how people get angry in China, I've seen teachers, businessmen, even customers, rage in this characteristic weirdly macho way. https://youtu.be/aCdFec3uu_g https://youtu.be/aCdFec3uu_g
- whimsicalism 5y ago
  ? I honestly don't see anything in this video that I wouldn't see in expressions of anger in the US, except that they are speaking a mix of chinese and english.
- mads 5y ago
  This is also my experience. Except I have seen it a lot with females also. Maybe because my family in law is Chinese I am more exposed to it. China sure has a lot of empty very loud barrels.
- 5e92cb50239222b 5y ago
  > https://youtu.be/aCdFec3uu_g https://youtu.be/aCdFec3uu_g In what culture is this considered "macho"? He's acting like a little spoiled brat.
  - LAC-Tech 5y ago
    And now you understand PRC diplomacy - closing an embassy because an unofficial trade office used 'taiwan' instead of 'taipei'.
- whodunnit 5y ago
  Emotional regulation issues are generally caused by childhood abuse. Mainland China is a society suffering from untreated PTSD and inter generational abuse.
- nowherebeen 5y ago
  This is ridiculously and demeaning to the Chinese people. Losing your temper is universal and I have seen plenty of white friends that lash out. To say that only Chinese people behave this way and not white people is well at best a sign of superiority complex and at worst a subtle _______ remark.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - synergy20 5y ago
    People of all color lost temper all the time, that normally gets improved when they age. The "Red Guards" (i.e. culture revolution) generation from China indeed stood out as a group that acts very differently. They are always ready to _fight_ with anyone just because of different opinions, thus the aggressiveness. It's a life long disease that keeps getting worse with no cure.
    - nowherebeen 5y ago
      I agree there are many in China that feel ready to fight. But I don’t judge all Chinese people like so. Just like I don’t judge all Americans act like their Republican politicians either. Imagine if someone called all Americans are loud, obnoxious, fat, and dumb. Something that is frequently claimed by most Europeans about Americans. This wouldn’t be fair to regular Americans, would it? What OP is doing is pre-labeling an entire country’s population. And it is wrong. If readers here can’t see how this is problematic, then I am simply disappointed how low HN has fallen over the years.
      - synergy20 5y ago
        Where did you see someone targeting _all_ Chinese? I did not see that. The point here is the red-guard generation in general is a bit unique, that's about it. All or nothing argument is dead on arrival, we all know that.
- dang 5y ago
  Please don't take HN threads into nationalistic/ethnic flamewar, regardless of how many years you spent in a place. Nothing good can come of this sort of provocation. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

riffraff 5y ago

Wikipedia mentions Xi studied chemical engineering at the University.

synergy20 5y ago
Don't believe that, he got special treatment and he does not understand a thing while studying there, that department in that university was full of people like him(youth who had powerful parents need a diploma quick after culture-revolution gap) for political assignments. Xi himself even claimed he got a PhD degree for that matter, it's so embarrassing that he eventually pulled that claim off after internet was full of his PhD jokes a few years back.

viktorcode 5y ago

It should be noted that Xi is a son of a victim of Culture Revolution.

synergy20 5y ago
Stockholm syndrome? Based on what he has done so far, he actually forced most things his father hated, which is, illogical and ironic.
- qwytw 5y ago
  At least nothing in his Wikipedia page seems to suggest that he would had particularly hated any of Winnie Pooh's policies.
wetpaws 5y ago
Bullied grow up to become bullies

LambdaTrain 5y ago

He completed BE in Chemical Engineering from Tsinghua University [1]. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi_Jinping https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi_Jinping

synergy20 5y ago
Read my comments below. It's hard to know the real truth these days.
baybal2 5y ago
Hsi Chinping bought his degree paper from a ghostwriter, and barely showed for classes. A practice deemed "almost" acceptable in the mainland among elites. People tell "for somebody already so high rank, merely buying a university degree is not really cheating" I once had an argument over this 9 years ago with Chinese peers. The conversation came to "Maybe, if he was given a degree, and job even without a ghostwriter, then it may have been said he jumped the line." It's problem with these people who genuinely believe that rank, and status is a license to violate things, and that is the reason to get it. Out of all Westernised mainlanders exposed to overseas, or even out of the few who spent some years abroad, almost nobody gets past the superficial in understanding the world outside China. They are really a minority, among the minority.
- trasz 5y ago
  So your claim is that Xi is only barely better educated than every republican US president since the nineties?
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - qwytw 5y ago
    TIL that George Bush is "the only U.S. president to have earned an MBA", I'm not sure if that's better or worse than purchasing a BSc in Chemistry, though.

k_sze 5y ago

Stop spreading nonsense. Xi Jinping studied chemical engineering. Zhu Rongji studied electrical engineering.

synergy20 5y ago
Zhu took the tests and get admitted, like the rest of his peers(Jiang, Hu, Wen, Li,etc) they're all true graduates from the best universities in China then, which explains why China made leaps and bounds under their leadership. Xi is the only exception among them. Xi got in college without _any_ tests, purely because he has a powerful father then. It's said he could not understand a thing taught and there is no way he could graduate(or admitted). Indeed it's unimaginable for a 6th grader to take calculus in the top universities all of a sudden. Xi even said he has a PhD degree, it's so laughable he had to remove that claim himself.
- ceejayoz 5y ago
  > Indeed it's unimaginable for a 6th grader to take calculus in the top universities all of a sudden. Top notch private tutoring and some work ethic can work wonders in fairly short periods of time. Corruption is certainly possible, but not the only conceivable possibility.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- eunos 5y ago
  >he has a powerful father then His powerful father made him a target during cultural revolution
- k_sze 5y ago
  He was at least studying for PhD in Law, according to Xinhua News Agency. I’m not entirely sure whether he ended up getting the PhD. The wording in Chinese is a bit ambiguous.

tacon 5y ago

It would help if the West stopped fooling itself about the abilities of the Chinese government. The Chinese government is awash in people that have been selected, filtered, and tested as very well educated. Their average government bureaucrat would put our average government bureaucrat to shame in raw ability to get things done. We may be ahead in creative, rule breaking ideas, but do not underestimate the raw intelligence available in the Chinese government.

whimsicalism 5y ago
The West has been desperately trying to keep the wool pulled over its own eyes for the better part of a decade. It's only become more obvious in the covid environment.