GODFREE ROBERTS—Why has the Chinese government failed to convince the American public that China is their friend or at least not their enemy? That is a damn good question, with a surprisingly simple answer. At present, 90% of Americans learn about China through Western media, so it’s hard for the Chinese Government to convince Americans of anything.
GODFREE ROBERTS—CNBC reports that China is testing electronic warfare assets at fortified outposts in the South China Sea. The move allows Beijing to further project its power in the hotly disputed waters. [MORE]. China News reports that several US Growler electronic warplanes went out of control for a few second over the South China Sea then withdrew. According to the pilots, their instruments became chaotic and the planes could not communicate with the outside world. The United States demanded that China dismantle the electronic equipment immediately, but was ignored
ERIC ZUESSE—Prior to May 11th, many commentators were arguing that Denmark’s measures were unnecessary because up till around May 1st both countries differed ONLY in their policy-approaches (and so those commentators were saying that Denmark would suffer economic harms for nothing, no health-gain). But the result turned out to be the exact opposite: Sweden’s placing the economy above the public’s health turned out to hurt both their public’s health and their economy. It was clear.
In just a few minutes Caleb provides a reliable chart to locate where true Marxist knowledge and practice reside. Not in the abstruse formulations of existentialists like Sartre or Camus, not to mention the impenetrable narcissistic nonsense of postmodernists, nor the angst-riddled whining and gyrations of liberals like Susan Sontag or Gloria Steinem, or in other voices of the fashionable (and comfortable) “New Left”, but among real people, some of them leaders, like Xi Jinping, who have lived in and struggled among those working extremely hard, often risking their lives, to build socialism, in this case “Socialism with Chinese characteristics,” which, like all socialisms as per Marxist theory, is only the bridge to a much better future society denominated communism.
PEPE ESCOBAR—It’s idle to discuss with simpletons. In the interest of an informed debate, what matters is to find the deeper roots of Beijing’s strategy – what the Chinese learned from their own rich history and how they are applying these lessons as a re-emerging major power in the young 21st century. Let’s start with how East and West used to position themselves at the center of the world. The first Chinese historic-geographic encyclopedia, the 2nd century B.C. Classic of the Mountains and the Seas, tells us the world was what was under the sun (tienhia). Composed of “mountains and seas” (shanhai), the world was laid out between “four seas” (shihai). There’s only one thing that does not change: the center. And its name is “Middle Kingdom” (Zhongguo), that is, China.