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David Fickling
@davidfickling
, 3 tweets, 1 min read Read on Twitter
If, miraculously, free and fair elections were held in China tomorrow, what share of the vote would the CCP win?
I have some Thoughts around the whole "representation of Chinese popular opinions on Tiananmen" debate that's been roiling Twitter this week, but I'm really interested to see what people's views are on this first.
I realize the question is a sort of absurdity.

If you prefer to think of it as "What if you could do a huge opinion poll on people's views of the CCP that produced genuine non-self-censored responses", then do that.

Guessing a more specific number? Stick it in the comments.
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David Fickling
@davidfickling
Can anyone point to a good piece of sociological-type writing on the Hong Kong Police Force and how/whether it's changed, especially since the 2014 Occupy protests?
This thread by @xinwenxiaojie touches on some if these issues.



I'm also reminded of this passage, from Graham Robb's "Parisians", about how the French CRS riot police became the bogeymen of the 1968 protests, and the class issues underlying much of that
There's been a lot of comment since 2014 about how the once-exalted status of the HKPF had diminished as they've ended up as "the tip of the sword" (to borrow a phrase from here: theatlantic.com/national/archi… ) in the battle over Hong Kong's status.
Read 9 tweets
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David Fickling
@davidfickling
Yes, I'm sure tariffs are the reason the French don't drink more American wine
Is "Ernest & Julio Gallo is dreck" technically a form of non-tariff barrier?
I do come from the land of Yellowtail so I realise I don't have huge moral standing here
Read 3 tweets
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David Fickling
@davidfickling
This gets to a key point that I think it badly underappreciated in discussions of China and IP:

Innovation isn't some fixed quantity of ideas, but a habit of work and thinking.

Without that habit, IP theft doesn't help much (thread):
To be clear, IP theft is BAD and should be prosecuted. I'm not contesting that.

What I'd like to argue is against the notion that IP theft is SCARY and some sort of fundamental threat.

If anything, it's a telling sign of weakness, and therefore IMO the opposite of scary.
We've had a lot of coverage of late of these cases where some Chinese company is accused of pilfering IP from some American company.

The multiple Huawei cases are the most prominent but the stories are widespread:

chicagotribune.com/business/ct-bi…
Read 15 tweets

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IndoPacific_SCS_Info
@IndoPac_Info
When #China Massacred Its Own People - “Lies written in ink cannot disguise facts written in blood.” nytimes.com/2019/06/01/opi…
Thirty years ago in the spring of 1989, as the world’s most populous country teetered on the edge of freedom, I received a late-night phone call in my apartment in Beijing: The Chinese Army was invading its own capital.
Students made roads impassable by setting up barricades to block the army, so I got on my bicycle & pedaled furiously toward the gunfire. I reached Tiananmen Square shortly before the army & I watched as soldiers fired their automatic weapons directly at the crowd that I was in.
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IndoPacific_SCS_Info
@IndoPac_Info
Twitter seems to be banning or suspending accounts belonging to critics of the Chinese government. It started yesterday May 31th. Here is one report - I noticed a sudden loss of followers yesterday, I checked, it was mainly China critics. Twitter❤️🇨🇳 Amazing! @mouse @1GigiSims
This is happening as an effort to silence #China critics ahead of the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, which is next Tuesday. Twitter is helping China do its dirty work to silence the legitimate opposition. Twitter has hit a new all time low! 👎👎👎
One other possibility that can't be discounted is that the #Chinese government is hacking into Twitter and is deleting the accounts of Chinese critics. I did hear reports in the past, that Chinese hackers were able to get into Twitter & do that.
Read 29 tweets
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IndoPacific_SCS_Info
@IndoPac_Info
#China backtracked on nearly all aspects of #US trade deal - All of us that follow & know China knew that this was never going to fly. You can't negotiate with a rogue, predatory state like China. This is for the better. mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/id…
The diplomatic cable from Beijing arrived in Washington late on Friday night, with systematic edits to a nearly 150-page draft trade agreement that would blow up months of negotiations. The document was riddled with reversals by China that undermined core US demands, sources said
In each of the 7 chapters of the draft trade deal, China deleted its commitments to change laws to resolve core complaints that caused the US to launch a trade war: theft of US IP & trade secrets; forced tech transfers; competition policy; access to financial services, etc, etc.
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IndoPacific_SCS_info
@IndoPac_Info
New Horrors: #China Harvesting Muslim Organs in Concentration Camps - China is removing live organs from executed Uyghur Muslims & markets them as “halal” & distributes them to a network to wealthy Saudi clients & others 👎🇨🇳👎 @UyghurCongress @AidUyghur medium.com/@cjwerleman/ne…
This week, UK lawmakers warned citizens desperate for transplant operations that they could be unknowingly “playing a role in the profiteering of atrocities against inmates in the Communist government’s network if prisons and detention camps.”
The authors also observe how “another medical witness described being forced to administer blood tests of Uyghur political prisoners on behalf of a handful of ageing, high-ranking, Chinese Communist Party officials who needed tissue-matching organs.”
Read 27 tweets
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Yascha Mounk
@Yascha_Mounk
A brief thread on some much-needed good news on the populism front: The crushing defeat of Narendra Modi in a string of important state elections.

[Thread.]
Yesterday, five Indian states went to the polls in what was widely considered an important bellwether before next year's vital national elections.
The most important elections took place in three states in which Modi's BJP has ruled for over ten years and Congress, the country's longtime ruling party, had once faced a fall into insignificance: Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

Amazingly, Modi's BJP went 0/3!
Read 11 tweets
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Michael Green
@andmichaelgreen
#VOTE like you remember family separation.

#Vote like you remember Kavanaugh.

#Vote like you remember “Fine people on both sides.”
#Vote like you remember Helsinki.

#Vote like you remember Khizr and Ghazala Khan.

#Vote like you remember the fake Blind Trust.

#Vote like you remember their vow to take away your health care.
#Vote like you remember “alternative Facts.”

#Vote like you remember his tax returns.

#Vote like you remember the dismantling of the EPA.

#Vote LIKE YOU REMEMBER EVERY MEMBER OF THE GOP CONGRESS WHO ALLOWED ALL OF THIS TO HAPPEN.
Read 33 tweets

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