ADRIAN CHAN WYLES—Zhang Zhan is a ‘Christian’ with links to the Western Churches which support predatory capitalism. Freedom of religion is guaranteed in China – but Zhang Zhan does not want to associate with the indigenous Chinese Churches – but is rather motivated to bring down the Socialist System of China through various acts of low intensity terrorism probably ordered and encouraged by her Western paymasters. It may well be the case that Covid19 did not start in China, or was brought to China by forces antagonistic to the Socialist System. In any case, Zhang Zhan arrived in Wuhan and started making videos uploaded onto the US-controlled YouTube rather than the Chinese-controlled ‘YouKu’. As YouTube is ‘banned’ in China – these videos made by Zhang Zhan were only for Western consumption and had nothing to do with educating the Chinese population – as she alleged during her trial.
2020
CAITLIN JOHNSTONE—The ability of the plutocratic class to manipulate public thought at mass scale is the single most overlooked and under-appreciated aspect of our society. It warps the entirety of our political spectrum, all our thinking, all our discourse, and what we perceive as normal. And you just don’t see people fighting it. The ACLU isn’t protecting people’s mental sovereignty from the manipulations of sociopathic government-aligned oligarchs. People aren’t taking the media-owning class to the Supreme Court for brazen election interference. People aren’t taking to the streets protesting it. But they could.
In terms of the effect it has on society, no control tool comes remotely close to advancing as many interests of the powerful against the interests of the people as domestic plutocrat-sponsored propaganda. Nothing will change until people start noticing and resisting this.
Turkey pivots to the center of The New Great Game
9 minutes readPEPE ESCOBAR—What’s fascinating is that Ankara under Erdogan always seems to be exhibiting a sort of “devil may care” attitude.
Take the seemingly insoluble situation in the Idlib cauldron in northwest Syria. Jabhat al-Nusra – a.k.a. al-Qaeda in Syria – honchos are now involved in “secret” negotiations with Turkish-backed armed gangs, such as Ahrar al-Sharqiya, right in front of Turkish officials. The objective: to boost the number of jihadis concentrated in certain key areas. The bottom line: a large number of these will come from Jabhat al-Nusra.
The ‘Mighty Wurlitzer’ – How U.S. Financed ‘Human Rights’ Organizations Create Anti-Chinese Headlines
28 minutes readMoA—ChinaAid, an anti-Chinese Evangelical lobby group which is also financed and awarded prices by the U.S. government’s National Endowment for Democracy, identifies Zhang Zhan as a ‘Christian lawyer’. That is of interest because Chinese authorities are concerned about U.S. financed underground Evangelical groups which defy the requirement to register as social organizations.
ChinaChange, which is another ‘human rights’ outlet in Washington DC, also took note of Zhang Zhan:
Zhang Zhan (张展), a lawyer who practiced in Shanghai, went to Wuhan in early February, determined to document the coronavirus outbreak in the city that was the epicenter of what would soon become a pandemic around the world. In the three months she stayed in the city, she made 122 posts on YouTube. It was not a coincidence that her first post was “My Claim for the Right of Free Speech.” Zhang Zhan was arrested in May, brought back to Shanghai, indicted in September on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” China’s all-in-one charge for suppressing dissent. She is being tried on Monday, December 28, in Shanghai.
Wuhan, where the first large outbreak of Covid-19 occurred, was put under lockdown on January 23. One wonders why a ‘former lawyer’ and ‘citizen journalist’ would go there despite official advice to not enter or leave the city.
The amazing (and gripping) aspect of this version is that here we see a huge audience of mostly young people, certainly no longer poor, clearly enjoying the fruits of socialism, singing and cheering the Internationale. While western kids drown in angst, nihilism and decadence, these people, who understand the meaning of this song, face the future in fraternal solidarity with vibrant optimism. How refreshing to see young faces who truly understand history!
