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Arnaud Bertrand

@RnaudBertrand

Nov 9

This is hugely important and no-one is paying attention.

Philippines President Marcos Jr. just signed 2 new bills (the "Maritime Zones Act" and the "Philippine Archipelagic Sea Lanes Act"), backed by the U.S. State Department (via a press release by the infamous Matthew Miller: state.gov/on-the-philipp…), that claim to implement "international law" but actually are a direct violation of international law in that they attempt to legitimize expansionist claims at the expense of virtually all its neighbors.

Let me explain 🧵

First, some context.

The Philippines exist as an independent country since 1946 when they gained their independence from the United States. They had never existed as a country before.

The establishment of the Philippines was officialized by the Treaty of Manilla.

Crucially, the Treaty of Manilla also defined Filipino territory as based on the earlier Treaty of Paris, when Spain ceded the Philippines to the US at the end of the Spanish-American War of 1898.

You can see these boundaries as defined in the treaty of Paris illustrated here 👇

Read 30 tweets

Arnaud Bertrand

@RnaudBertrand

Nov 8

This is crazy: Israeli police arrests 2 French military personnel ("gendarmes") with diplomatic status in a Christian church (the Eleona Church) that has officially belonged to France for 160 years and is protected by diplomatic immunity: x.com/sambklf/status…

To make things worse the church is located in occupied East Jerusalem - theoretically Palestinian territory - and the arrests occured as the French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot was due to visit it. He cancelled his visit due to the presence of Israeli police on site and the breach of diplomatic immunity.

Yet another unarguable proof that Israel respects absolutely zero rule.

Live reaction by France's foreign minister, who looks very shaken: "I will not enter the Eleona domain today because Israeli security forces entered it armed without first obtaining authorization from France and without agreeing to leave today."
x.com/sambklf/status…

In normal language, given this is officially French territory, it's called an armed invasion of sovereign territory...

In this other video you can see the French side asking the Israeli police: "Are you sure you want to arrest French military personnel, in France, on French territory?"

Their reply: "Yes".

Read 6 tweets

Arnaud Bertrand

@RnaudBertrand

Nov 4

As our 2-week road-trip in China's Sichuan came to an end, time to do a small retrospective to summarize what we've done in case anyone wants to do a similar trip one day, or just needs inspiration for when they travel to China.

A small 🧵 of what we did and saw, day by day.

But before I start, a few practical observations.

I did this trip visa-free, as French nationals don't need visas anymore for stays in China of less than 15 days. Check for yourself if you need a visa.

Anyone can do this trip, we did it ourselves with 2 young kids, but I'll admit we're definitely not the relaxed type of travelers who like to tan on a beach somewhere. We like to actually visit stuff 😊

You do need a Chinese driving license to drive in China (I have one). It's really easy to procure one nowadays, in some places like Beijing you can even convert your foreign driving license into a Chinese one upon landing at the airport. Otherwise you have myriads of other ways to get around in China.

Yes, it immensely help to speak Chinese or travel with someone who does to get around in China, very few people speak English. Although I can imagine you can manage to get around with instant translation apps (never tried it myself). Most people are typically very friendly and helpful to foreign tourists.

For the most popular attractions in China make sure to think about booking tickets in advance (or ask a travel agency to do it for you) as places are limited. Typically attractions release tickets a week ahead of time, although it depends.

Lastly, if you travel to China for the first time (not at all my case, I've been coming to China for 16 years and lived during 8 years in the country) you need to be prepared to a dramatically different tech and payment ecosystems from the rest of the world. At the very least set-up WeChat before you depart on your journey and connect your debit/credit card to it, as WeChat is the ubiquitous payment method in China. Also be sure to download a VPN that works in China, or alternatively roam on your foreign sim card so the great firewall won't apply to you, and so you'll keep being able to use all your usual apps.

With that out of the way, here's what we did 👇

DAY 1 (21st of Oct)

We started our trip with 4 days in Chongqing.

What we did that day
1) Our very first visit in Chongqing was a place called "French Charity Hall" (Ren Ai Tang) because it seemed fitting as a French citizen but also because it's a great introduction to Chongqing, on top of a hill with views over the city and with charming small streets full of F&B options.
2) We then headed to a really cool Chongqing shopping district called Shibati (literally "18 stairs"), that mixes traditional architecture with modern shops and restaurants.
3) For our first dinner in Chongqing, we obviously had to try world-famous Chongqing hotpot, and not just any Chongqing hotpot, we went to a Chongqing institution called 周师兄 (zhou shi xiong), which is famous for having one of the best hotpots in the city.

My posts of the day
- On Ren Ai Tang: x.com/RnaudBertrand/…
- On Shibati: x.com/RnaudBertrand/…
- On our dinner: x.com/RnaudBertrand/…

Read 17 tweets

Arnaud Bertrand

@RnaudBertrand

Nov 3

I'm genuinely amazed that some places like this still exist in China.

On our drive to Chongqing airport back from SanXingDui we decided to check midway a spot called "Qian Fo Zhai" ("Thousand Buddhas village") in an area named Anyui. And it turns out to be an entire hill with some amazing Tang and Song dynasty grotto carvings that are completely free to access, with virtually no tourists.

I thought that at this stage most of those had been organized in touristic attractions, similar to Dazu, Mogao or Longmen grottoes but no, turns out you obviously have a number of those which are still unorganized, which is quite an amazing experience. Probably won't remain the case for long, if only for purposes of protecting the artifacts.

And at the bottom of the hill we just stumbled upon a Buddhist monastery and listened to the monks singing a beautiful prayer 🙏

Genuinely incredible song actually, although I'll admit I have a soft spot for liturgical music, not everyone enjoys it.

Read 6 tweets

Arnaud Bertrand

@RnaudBertrand

Nov 2

Last full day of our 2-week Sichuan road-trip and we end it on a high point: a visit of SanXinDui, one of the greatest archeological discoveries of all times, anywhere in the world.

Unfortunately SanXinDui is bizarrely unknown in the West, even though it ranks on par with things like the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb or the Terracotta army in Xi'an.

SanXinDui used to be the capital of China's ancient Shu kingdom which ruled here between 1,700BC and 1,200BC so everything in the museum is 3,000 to 4,000 years old.
The artifacts found here - and they uncovered an incredible 17,000 objects already - are beyond extraordinary, almost otherworldly, revealing a unique culture unlike anything that had been found in China before. And a culture much more advanced for that time period of Chinese history than had been assumed before.

Here you can see 4 pieces we just saw in the museum:
- A monumental bronze mask in pure SanXinDui style, with protruding eyes that archeologists believe symbolizes a far-sighted leader or shaman
- A typical SanXinDui mask with a gold plated mask on top of it
- A monumental 4m tall bronze "tree" with dragons for its roots and birds with 9 fruits and birds on its branches
- A wheel with 5 beams thought to represent the sun

More artefacts we saw in the museum in the 🧵 below 👇

You can see many, many bronze masks, all with similar features but all unique

You also have more complete statues like this guy who looks like a 4,000 years old weightlifter 😊

Read 16 tweets

Arnaud Bertrand

@RnaudBertrand

Oct 30

Genuinely incredible experience in China today, straight out of a movie.
So we're in E Mei Shan in Sichuan, one of the 4 sacred Buddhist mountains in China, and I was told by my friend @ZhaiXiang5 of this temple called "Sacred Water Temple" that's hidden from tourists and especially beautiful.

We had high expectations but we still were blown away, this place is truly the hidden gem of E Mei Shan, incredibly charming!

This is us arriving at the place 👇 (the rest in the 🧵)