Frans Vandenbosch— Elections in Western Europe have become theatrical performances rather than mechanisms of genuine representation. Politicians craft narratives, not policies. They engage in image management, not governance. The primary skill of the modern Western politician is not statesmanship or problem-solving, but marketing and the ability to dominate a news cycle.
• Why does a distorted image of China prevail, even in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence? The answer lies in power and profit.
Sinophobia is a lucrative genre. Books like The Coming Collapse of China by Gordon Chang (published in 2001) continue to sell despite being repeatedly disproven. Academic careers are built on hostility towards China. Grants, media appearances, and institutional influence reward those who comply with the anti-China consensus.
Structural bias within Western media prevents balance. Journalists who attempt nuanced reporting (such as those who once worked for South China Morning Post or Xinhua) are stigmatised. As Professor Hàn Dōngpíng has shown in his work, ideological orthodoxy dictates what may or may not be said about China
F. VANDENBOSCH—Standardised IQ studies show significant regional variations in cognitive testing performance. A 2022 meta-analysis ¹⁶ reported average IQ scores in East Asia (including China, Japan, and South Korea) ranging between 105–109 on the Wechsler scale, compared to Western averages of 97–101. These figures derive from culturally adapted tests administered by the International Society for Intelligence Research. ¹⁷ Notably, China’s 2021 national education budget reached ¥5.67 trillion (€730 billion), funding 12.3 million STEM graduates annually, ¹⁸ while the OECD’s PISA 2022 rankings placed Shanghai students 1st in mathematics. ¹⁹
FRANS VANDENBOSCH—The European Union has decided to block RT.com and Sputnik on 27/02/2022 with Council Regulation (EU) 2022/350. The blocking came into effect on 02/03/2022. Most, but not all of the 27 member countries have implemented the EU law, so in some EU countries it is still possible to access RT.com without VPN.
Again, these are my own findings. The research reports of various institutes confirm my concerns.
FRANS VANDENBOSCH—ack in 2015, living in Suzhou, working in Wuxi, I noticed an overwhelming wave of investments in automation and robotisation. In the automotive industry, automation was already very common. But in small manufacturing enterprises, there were assembly lines with dozens of mostly female workers. These were the young sons and daughters, born in Western China who moved to the more developed cities at the East coast of China. At that time, salaries were moderate, and the quality of the products was not top level. Competition was based on price, not on quality.
But then, almost all of a sudden, I noticed an explosive growth of Chinese automation companies.
