Perry Link:"I am as eager as anyone to follow world’s virologists as they try to determine how C19 emerged in Wuhan.But as longtime student of Chinese Communist political language,I will nd considerable persuading that disease came from bats or wet market."wsj.com/articles/beiji…
"The linguistic evidence is overwhelming that Chinese leaders believe the Wuhan Institute of Virology was the source."
"Many yrs ago distinguished Chinese writer, Wu Zuxiang, explained to me that there is truth in Communist Party pronouncements,but u hv to read them “upside down.” If a newspaper says “Party has made great strides against corruption in Henan,” then u know that corruption has...
"recently been especially bad in Henan. If u read about the heroic rescue of 8 miners somewhere,u can guess that a mine collapse might hv killed hundreds who aren’t mentioned. Read upside-down, there is a sense in which the official press never lies. It cannot lie."
"It has to tell you what the party wants you to believe, and if you can figure out the party’s motive—which always exists—then you have a sense of the truth.
"A few yrs ago another outstanding Chinese writer, Su Xiaokang, brought me 1 step deeper.U Westerners, he explained,are too hung up on Q of whether propaganda is true or not. For the regime, truth & falsity are beside the point. A statement might be true, false or partly true."
"What matters is only whether it works. Does it advance the interests of the party? The top leaders hand out words and phrases for their minions to use, like trowels in a garden. The minions dig with them."
"The book “Wuhan Diary,” consists of plain truth-telling. It is unadorned, simple language that stood out in Wuhan only because no one else was daring to write anything. But the regime’s response was to attack Fang Fang more ferociously than any Chinese writer has been attacked..
..."since Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s. In his day, Mao had made 'struggle' a transitive verb: to struggle someone was to surround him or her, in the street or on a stage,& hurl taunts, insults, threats & demands for confessions;...
"no bystander would dare speak for the struggled for fear of becoming the next target. Verbal abuse often led to physical beatings, sometimes even to death."
"Xi Jinping has revived struggle in a form that might be called 'cyberstruggle.' The young zealots of Mao’s era, called Red Guards, have been replaced by equally frenetic strugglers nicknamed “Little Pinks.” In spring of 2020, Little Pinks and others struggled Fang Fang:..."
“Down w/ the imperialist running dog and traitor to China, Fang Fang!” To them, the diary was a “pile of messed up garbage & fabricated rumors [that] should be called ‘Fang Fang’s Sexual Fantasies’!” She received death threats. A witch hunt identified her supporters & began to...
struggle them, too. Mr. Berry,her translator,wasn’t spared.Hundreds of text messages arrived on his cell phone:“You ugly white devil,feasting on flesh of man & drinking human blood,18 realms of hell were created especially for u!”;“If you ever set foot in🇨🇳 again I will kill you”
"The invective may tell us something about origins of C19. 2 facts are worth noting.First,attacks are coordinated,not a random explosion of vitriol.Second, they are much stronger—orders of magnitude stronger—than other verbal attacks on individuals in China recently have been."
"These two facts, taken together, make it all but certain that the campaign against Fang Fang came from the top."
"Borrowing Wu Zuxiang’s technique of reading “upside down,” what the Fang Fang campaign tells us is that Xi Jinping is extremely worried that the world will hold his regime responsible for the pandemic. The most radioactive question has been where the virus originated."
"Fang Fang made no mention of whether the virus originated in a wet market or a lab; she merely documented all of the suffering that began in Wuhan. The regime’s focus on the origins question alone all but screams a truth."
"CCP's official account of the virus is that it 'jumped' from bats to humans at a wet market not far from the Wuhan lab.The city govt was quick to close down that market, seal it off & provide the world w/ photos showing that the sealing had been done. Why were the authorities...
...so swift & conspicuous?Bcuz they suspected wet market or bcuz they wanted world to?If they were certain that Mother Nature was culprit,why silence their scientists & seal laboratory records?& why begin vicious cyberstruggl against someone who records daily life as she sees it?

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More from @TheresaAFallon

18 Apr
"For all its hard #propaganda work,post-Mao Communist Party has struggled to win eyeballs away from commercial TV & film, whether domestic or foreign.Evn w/ power to compel country’s top directors & biggest stars to participate...wsj.com/articles/china…
..."officials had to juice box-office numbers for films about party history by requiring state-owned companies to buy tickets for their employees.

That frustrates Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who has repeatedly exhorted his propaganda officials to “tell China’s story well.”
In a speech published last month by the party’s main theoretical journal, Mr. Xi said it was imperative to “encourage the creation of artistic content about party history, especially film and TV.”
Read 5 tweets
7 Apr
“Chinese TV stations have been blurring out Western brand logos in their programmes, in a show of support for China's Xinjiang cotton campaign.” bbc.co.uk/news/world-asi…
Chinese censors blurred Western brand logos on over 50 t-shirts in this footage.
CCP's relentless censorship leads to some amusing effects: "Episodes of popular variety shows such as Sisters Who Make Waves now feature singers and actors who look like they are floating on clouds, thanks to their blurred out shoes."
Read 6 tweets
7 Apr
"Turkish official said that shortages had not yet impacted relations between the 2 countries. But 'if China overpromises, in the future they may be more cautious,' added the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic ties.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_e…
"Turkey has maintained delicate balance w/🇨🇳over past few yrs,toning down its criticism of Beijing’s crackdown on Muslim Uyghurs as Ankara seeks Chinese investment for its hobbled economy — and more recently, vaccine."
China is only slightly behind India,which last month announcd it was temporarily banning exports amid politicl criticism of vaccination efforts at home...Citing govt reports,China sent 60% of its productn of Sinovac & Sinopharm vaccine as aid to 53 countries & paid exports to 27.
Read 5 tweets
6 Apr
Digitized money looks like potential macroeconomic dream tool for issuing govt,usable to track ppl’s spending in real time,speed relief to disastr victms or flag criminal activityW/ it,Beijing stands to gain vast new powrs to tightn Xi’s authoritarian rule.wsj.com/articles/china…
"The digital yuan could give those the U.S. seeks to penalize a way to exchange money without U.S. knowledge. Exchanges wouldn’t need to use SWIFT, the messaging network that is used in money transfers between commercial banks and that can be monitored by the U.S. government."
🇨🇳’s marketing for digital yuan kicks into high gear,an Englsh-language animatn circulatd online by CGTN shows man in US-flag shirt knockd out by digital yuan.“This is one of buildng blocks of🇨🇳’s move towrd world markt status & greatr involvmnt in settng framework of globl econ"
Read 5 tweets
5 Apr
Corporate risk calculus re🇨🇳is being turned on its head. After decades in which cos most feared being locked out of one of world’s largst markts,Wstrn firms are starting to realize that even faintest link to Xinjiang’s “re-education camps” can be toxic...politico.eu/article/wester…
"...to their reputation (remember Volkswagen’s China CEO’s cringeworthy interview with the BBC?). As companies weigh the risk of doing business with Beijing, it’s a safe bet that many more will discreetly do a Stora Enso and leave."
"Beijing’s belligerence isn’t helping its cause — as orchestrated boycotts against even its mildest critics present yet another unpredictable risk to the bottom line.Campaign calling for H&M 2B boycotted erupted on Chinese social media.
Read 8 tweets
6 Aug 20
.@PENamerica publishd explosive report that may put Hollywood on defensive.Titled "Made in Hollywood, Censored by Beijing," 94pg study details how mjr studios & directors increasingly make dcsns "based on an effort to avoid antagonizing Chinese officials."hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywood…
When was the last time you saw a movie about Tibet, human rights in China or even a film with a slightly negative Chinese character?
Paramount told producers of 2013's World War Z to remove scene in which characters speculate that a virus, which triggered zombie apocalypse, may hv originated in China. Film grossed $540mln globally, nvr received release in China, likely bcuz govt frowns upon themes of undead...
Read 6 tweets

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