The political tectonic plates have shifted, Mar 24, 2023
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* citaat Heilmann * : According to reports by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China, since the beginning of this decade state authorities and security forces have been exerting increasing pressures on Chinese sources and on Chinese employees of foreign correspondents. Officially, on the one hand, Chinese employees are only allowed to be recruited from licensed “personnel service corporations for diplomatic missions” ( 外 交人员人事服务公司 ) and are required to report to these corporations on a regular basis about the activities of their foreign employers. Chinese journalists, on the other hand, are not allowed to work for foreign media, nor are they permitted to share any work-related information.
Allegations by government departments of one-sided, “negative,” or “biased,” media coverage of China are commonly made against foreign correspondents reporting on Chinese affairs. Foreign company representatives working in China and selected academic studies also point to the fact that external media coverage of China is mainly critical or imbalanced, focusing on the negative aspects of Chinese developments and failing to emphasize the more positive progress. Media coverage of China thus has a polarizing effect. Those who advocate more “positive coverage” argue that by increasing intercultural understanding, more favorable reporting helps to support and expand existing exchanges and to promote international trade and scientific cooperation. However, opponents point out that a central function of journalism, not only in democratic systems but also in China, is its remit to be critical of the regime and to expose problems so as to facilitate the formation of public and political opinions. At the same time, there are a number of media representatives who find it problematic that reports about China by foreign correspondents only focus on “conflicts, crises, and catastrophes.” * *
Sebastian Heilman, editor (2017/2016: 31-32) China’s Political System ISBN: 978-1-4422-7734-2
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* citaat Weiwei Zang * : The history of modernization seems to be marked by change in speed, which is often a symbol of progress in modernization and rising living standards. Western historians often describe the period from 1848 to 1875 as the times of “economic revolution”, when speed was increasingly accelerated. During that period, iron and steel output increased sharply; railways spanned Europe and North America; the Suez Canal was opened; many new cities emerged; millions of migrants moved everywhere; the Industrial Revolution peaked in Britain and waves of industrial revolutions swept the US, France and Germany; and the West established its leadership in the world.
Today, Chinese high-speed rail is driving the largest scale of urbanization in human history, with planned high-speed railways linking China’s three world-class economic rings and reducing the traveling time between Beijing and Shanghai from over ten hours to less than five hours and uniting half of China’s 1.3 billion population through the world’s largest high-speed grid composed of four north-south corridor lines and four east-west corridor lines. It is not only changing the speed of rail travel but also transforming people’s concept of time and space. It is creating the world’s largest unified market, which also signifies the rise of the Chinese standards in modernization.
What is more interesting, to this author, is the Chinese approach towards developing the Chinese standards in high-speed rail, which can be summarized as follows: China attracts foreign investors with its huge domestic market, and negotiates with them to transfer part of their technologies. China then organizes more than 100,000 researchers and engineers to study and digest the imported technologies, and works on this basis to innovate and then develop China’s own technological standards which are higher than the imported ones. In a broader context, this approach also reflects the overall strategic thinking behind the Chinamodel of development, i.e. to learn from the strengths of others, while also giving play to China’s own strengths, and it is on this basis that China strives to go beyond the Western standards and shape its ownstandards.
Zhang, Weiwei (2012:105,106-107) China Wave, The: Rise of a Civilizational State / ISBN-13: 978-1-938134-00-5 (het citaat is geredigeerd; vet toegevoegd)
www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2023/03/24/de-eu-kan-nu-best-assertiever-zijn-tegen-xi-a4160401
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* citaat Alasdair Macleod: A Tale of two Worlds / Feb 2, 2023 * ‘ In the war between the western alliance and the Asian axis, the media focus is on the Ukrainian battlefield. The real war is in currencies, with Russia capable of destroying the dollar.
So far, Putin’s actions have been relatively passive. But already, both Russia and China have accumulated enough gold to implement gold standards. It is now overwhelmingly in their interests to do so.
To understand the consequences, in this article the comparison is made between the western alliance’s fiat currency and deficit spending regime and the Russian-Chinese axis’s planned industrial revolution for some 3.8 billion people in the SCO family. China has a remarkable savings rate, which will underscore the investment capital for a rapid increase in Asian industrialisation, without inflationary consequences. ‘ *** (vet toegevoegd) www.goldmoney.com/research/a-tale-of-two-worlds