@Blue Republic
in its entirety it is only fair game for me to do likewise in response.

'Why do you stand up for China in the way you do?'
By Jerry Grey Published: Sep 15, 2021

A very simple question was put to me recently by a friend who happens to be a journalist. It wasn't part of an interview. It was just a question posed by a curious person to a foreign friend who seems to be pro-China. My answer is just as simple as the question: I don't really stand up for China, but what I do is I stand up for the truth in reporting. I see something that's wrong and I attempt to correct it with information that's right.

Recent articles by BBC, Reuters and even from "think tanks" such as The Institute for Strategic Dialogue, all seem to point at what they call "Western influencers" and use words like: "pro-CCP narrative" (Western media constantly refers to the CPC (the Communist Party of China), as "the CCP"), to describe the things we blog or vlog about. However, they all seem to be missing one very important point. Unlike them, we usually live inside of China, we are actively living in, observing and taking part in the very policies they call the "CCP narrative" and, generally speaking, we like them.

I sent messages to several of my seemingly "pro-China" friends to ask why they feel as they do. Some, like myself, are writers, some are vloggers with very large followings, indicating that there are a lot of people in the world who understand enough of what we say to believe we might have some credibility. We don't have millions of readers or viewers like mainstream media. We aren't a coordinated team. We don't have a network of huge numbers of supporters reposting for us, and we certainly don't have marketing budgets or government support for the things we write and say and do. What we do have on our side is very easy to understand, it's called truth.

The feedback I got from my group of friends varied and was interesting. One is very afraid that the rhetoric is leading China toward an unwanted and unnecessary war. He sees the possibility that not only himself and his family, but millions of others will be killed in this war, and it wouldn't be the first war based on lies and deception. He went on to make an additional point that China's contributions to the world are not only exemplary, but very much deserving of promotion.

Another felt that, had he not come to China, he would be one of the believers of the "China bad" rhetoric. However, having been here through the pandemic restrictions, a business slump and back into better times, he now views the country differently. He frequently debates with family and friends back home about the differences between their perception, and his reality. He does what he does in order to give voice to Chinese people so that others, outside of China, will at least question the narratives. Another well-known vlogger, similarly, made the comment that he's annoyed by the number of people commenting on China based on reports they've read, rather than visiting the country and seeing for themselves. Like most of us, he feels the governments and media of some countries are deliberately misleading their public into a belief that all is not what it seems in China.

One very interesting comment came back from a vlogger who is not based in China; he's not even particularly aware of what happens in China since he's only visited the country one time and that was many years ago. But still, he is acutely aware that toxic propaganda, corrosive sanctions and economic sabotage are all going on and this leads to senseless destruction. Right now, for want of a better enemy, some Western governments as well as many media outlets are targeting China and, in his words, "this needs to be defeated."

For 1.4 billion people, China is home, it's a place they are, quite justifiably, proud of. It's a country that has landed machinery on Mars and Moon, sent men to its own space station, developed the most advanced generation of mobile communications, installed infrastructure to accommodate more sustainable energy and leads the world with more EVs than the next six countries combined. It recently handled the pandemic with a minimal loss of life and recovered well. Are these scientific and technical achievements CPC narratives? No, they are cold hard facts.

The rate of murder and rape in the entire country of China is lower than that of some individual American states: is this as a result of oppression? No, it's as a result of an acceptable degree of surveillance, which is no higher than any developed country, as well as an efficient police service that rarely kills an individual and a society that generally believes in rule of law. CPC Narratives? No, once again these are easily identifiable and verifiable facts.

At least 850 million people have been lifted out of poverty. Curbs have been placed on excessive income generated by IT and education industry IPOs. The benefits of this are for the 1.39 billion people who live and work normal lives, not the 1 percent of CEOs and billionaires. These same billionaires are taxed their fair share and most rich companies put money back into society. Are these CPC narratives? No, once again they are easily established as being true and the vloggers and writers are happy to repeat them. We repeat them not because, as is often alleged, the CPC asks us, coerces us, threatens our families or our visas or even rewards us for doing it. We amplify them to our followers because they are true and because they should be lauded.

Standing up for this truth creates problems for us. Our home country's media will often lambast and ridicule us. For example, despite being a GM in a multinational corporation in the security industry and despite having cycled several times across China (more than 20,000 kilometers and counting) and helped to raise several million yuan for charities in my adopted home city of Zhongshan, South China's Guangdong Province, I'm described by Australia's ABC as a "retired security officer who rides a bike in China." Recent articles by the BBC and others, accuse us of being paid simply because our narrative aligns with the CPC's narrative, are ridiculous.

There's a very simple reason why our narratives align with the CPC narratives and it's not hard to understand - we're here, we see it, we know what's happening and we report truthfully about it. It's hardly a coincidence that the CPC narrative happens to be the same as ours - they're the architects of it!

I'm fine with America getting out of the empire business. But I don't see any point in enabling China's imperial ambitions either.

But it is painfully obvious that the US is NOT getting out of the empire business anytime soon. In point of fact they're doubling down and creating severe financial problems for the country.

China is not going to allow an increasingly aggressive US to take military control of Taiwan as they have done in Korea and Japan to kneecap it. We don't see China provocatively sailing military vessels between Cuba and the US mainland in the Gulf of Mexico.

Take a look at the following map and tell us that China should not be concerned with American aggressive behaviour in the South China Sea.

China has only one foreign military base - in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa - located just a few miles from Camp Lemonnier. China has 2,000 to the US's 4,500 military stationed there.

CCP have constructed the most pervasively intrusive and authoritarian system in history - is that how you want to live?

How I want to live has no fucking bearing on the matter. Historically China has never forced their trading partners to change their political beliefs. You can witness this right now all over the world.

90% of the Chinese people support their CPC government and this is with good reason. 900 million people out of a population of 1.4 billion have been pulled out of poverty in the last 50 years. China doesn't have untold millions of it's citizens living without decent shelter, basic needs, medical care and quality education.

Besides, what damn business is it of yours to determine what political system the Chinese people wish to live under? You don't see them asking for assistance. Actually they want the US war mongers to mind their own business and tend to their own considerable problems. China wouldn't have to spend so much money defending themselves if the US would not be so aggressive for 'regime change' in every fucking corner of this earth.

Speaking of education: current enrolment in STEM studies does not bode well for America's high tech future.

#4.1

"These people have it together! Does anyone really think this culture can be
thwarted by murican military prowess?"

Although if things are that together how is it that the CCP clearly regards the existence of a free, democratic and prosperous Taiwan to be an existential threat?

The idea that Taiwan, Japan and the US somehow constitute an offensive threat to China is somewhere between absurd and insane - yet that is exactly the rationale that China is citing as justification for their increasingly aggressive actions against Taiwan.

OPINION / EDITORIAL
PLA jets will eventually patrol over Taiwan: Global Times editorial
By Global Times
Published: Sep 13, 2021 10:58 PM

The Taiwan question has been kept brewing. More than half of China's diplomatic troubles are related to it. In the long run, the cost of maintaining the current peace in the Taiwan Straits will only increase for the Chinese mainland. The US and Japan have countless levers to collude with the island of Taiwan, which will constantly consume the Chinese mainland's diplomatic resources and energy.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authority is determined to latch onto the US and Japan to gang up against the Chinese mainland, and has increasingly kidnapped public opinion on the island, while the US is making more and more frequently strategic manipulations over the Taiwan question. Given these facts the Chinese mainland has to take fundamental measures, engaging in a resolute struggle so that to stop the situation across the Taiwan Straits from deteriorating, deter the DPP authority and its supporters, and firmly seize the strategic initiative of the regional situation.

Sending PLA fighter jets over the island of Taiwan is a step we must take. The move will pose a fundamental warning to the Taiwan authorities and bring about reconstruction of the situation across the Taiwan Straits. It will be a clear declaration of China's sovereignty over Taiwan island, and create unprecedented conditions for us to further implement this sovereignty.

The "airspace" over the Taiwan island belongs to the airspace of China. The so-called middle line of the Taiwan Straits has never been recognized by the Chinese mainland. Therefore, there is sufficient legal basis for the PLA fighter jets to fly over the island. Previously, PLA fighter jets did not fly over Taiwan. That was out of consideration for taking care of the emotions and feelings of Taiwan residents and out of the goodwill to maintain stability across the Straits. Now that the DPP authority has gone completely hostile toward the mainland and is willing to play a role as a pawn of the US in strategically containing the Chinese mainland, it is time for us to take back the favor we granted to the island in the past and prepare to exercise the sovereignty of sending fighter jets to patrol the Taiwan island.

Will the military on the Taiwan island dare to prevent PLA fighters from flying over the island and fire? Our answer is that: As long as the mainland's determination to conduct such a patrol is unwavering, if Taiwan fires, it would mean that the Chinese mainland will launch a destructive retaliation. Even a war to liberate the Taiwan island will start. In this context, the Taiwan military will never dare to fire at a PLA aircraft on such a mission.

The mainland fighter jets' flight over the Taiwan island must be backed by large-scale and overwhelming military preparedness. Fighters flying over the Taiwan Straits is only a part of the Chinese mainland's determination to reset the situation across the Straits. This will be a showdown that gives the DPP authority two choices: either accept the patrol and refrain from the extreme anti-mainland line of colluding with the US and Japan, or start a war by firing at military aircraft of the Chinese mainland and face the consequence of being destroyed and eliminated by the PLA.

It is a very important event for the fighter jets of the Chinese mainland to fly over the island. The US and its allies will make a fuss in the international community to further discredit the Chinese mainland and attack us for "unilaterally altering the status quo across the Taiwan Straits." We should show our contempt for such irresponsible claims. Tsai Ing-wen and the DPP authority have abandoned the 1992 Consensus and already changed the political status across the Taiwan Straits since they took office. The flyover of a mainland military plane is a reckoning of their salami-slicing tactics and a fundamental correction of their efforts to change the status quo across the Taiwan Straits.

There will be a long sequence of escalations in the cross-Straits game between the Chinese mainland and the US and the island of Taiwan, but the flyover of a mainland fighter jet will be the most critical step. The PLA has already been thoroughly preparing for the military struggle with the island of Taiwan. The mainland's fighter aircraft have frequently flown in the airspace near the island, crossing the so-called middle line of the Taiwan Straits many times. In fact, the Taiwan authorities have become more and more psychologically prepared for a flyover from the PLA.

Of course, that move will break the situation in the Straits, so it needs to be carried out at the most appropriate time. The mainland should make constant statements that its fighters are ready to fly over the island. This way, when Taiwan authorities seriously provoke the mainland, it will be in their expectation that fighter jets will definitely come from the other side of the Straits. It will be the safest when PLA fighter jets fly over Taiwan amid media reports about the mainland's wrath.

Let us be fully prepared that there will be a showdown in the Taiwan Straits. Let us crush the will of the DPP authority with our strong will to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as our real ability. Let us send our first PLA fighter jet over the island of Taiwan at the most accurate time. That will be a milestone on China's path to reunification.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202109/1234177.shtml

Well, I guess you could call that refreshing candor. Which is more than we get out of certain CCP fans in this forum.

I'm fine with America getting out of the empire business. But I don't see any point in enabling China's imperial ambitions either. CCP have constructed the most pervasively intrusive and authoritarian system in history - is that how you want to live?

The elite of the CCP - maybe 1,000 families controlling 1.4 billion people - are the ideological and in many cases literal descendants of the greatest mass murderers in history. Anyone here who seriously thinks the apple has fallen far from the tree and that those people would have any compunction about killing *you* if they thought it would advance their goals - and not cost them unduly - is well and truly delusional, IMHO.

However, any such people should feel free to contact me for a free prospectus about lucrative investment opportunities in Alaska North Slope banana plantations.