itrulyknowchina Profile picture
no, i don't.
高大伟 David Cowhig Profile picture 1 subscribed
Feb 11, 2023 5 tweets 4 min read
The in-house news producers at @TencentGlobal have been actively platforming pro-Russia, pro-Putin, pro-invasion content in Chinese.

@TencentGlobal made an editorial decision to actively seek pro-Putin content.

Dutch-listed South African @Naspers owns 29% of @TencentGlobal Image "At the beginning of 2023, Tencent Finance launched "Wen See Russia", a series of seven video interviews with Wang Wen, which was broadcast on the Tencent News app and received a great response, causing millions of netizens to admire it." Image
Feb 11, 2023 4 tweets 2 min read
Wang Wen, head of the Chongyang Institute of Renmin University, has been promoting his Russian trip everywhere.
@TencentGlobal 's inhouse news team has been platforming his wild praise of Putin: "Putin is very good at diplomacy...he conquered the provocative Western scholars." ImageImage Why is 腾讯新闻, the inhouse news team of @TencentGlobal , platforming wild praise of Putin and Russian invasion of Ukraine?
Journalists should go ask @TencentGlobal.
mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Lr4pu7Z7ROuu… Image
Feb 11, 2023 6 tweets 2 min read
"Shen Yi, a prominent professor of international relations at Fudan University in Shanghai, said in a column."

The column is on the nationalist Guancha site.

And Shen Yi is notorious, NOT prominent.

His elevation to the professorship was a big Q.
nytimes.com/2023/02/10/wor… It is well known among the more open-minded observers that Shen Yi is a conservative nationalist, but most importantly, he does little serious research or scholarship these days.
He is a so-called 网红 that sends Weibo posts and online videos all the time .
Jan 18, 2023 6 tweets 1 min read
No need to worry about this specific platform. It's bound to fail - no state entity will ever be able to compete with Didi in the consumer market.
The problem that will haunt all Chinese tech companies and more broadly private companies is the govt policy and mindest like this. In Beijing's eyes, a targeted investigation into a tech company may be a crackdown, which it has now halted.

But the Chinese government today doesn't realize or care that other measures that broadly hurt the private sector or poison the atmosphere is the deeper problem.
Jan 18, 2023 14 tweets 5 min read
Yu Liang, Deputy Director of China Institute, Fudan University (headed by Zhang Weiwei & believed to be funded by Eric X. Li), attacked respected @SixthTone on Weibo, accusing it of reporting on China similar to @nytimes @CNN @BBCWorld.
Could cause serious problems for @SixthTone ImageImage @SixthTone is an English-language media outlet under Shanghai United Media Group, a state-owned media group in the city of Shanghai.
Having delivered the best possible English journalism by a Chinese outlet, @SixthTone is respected internationally and has been honored by @sopasia
Jan 3, 2023 13 tweets 6 min read
The vicious, despicable, and notorious Bu Yi Dao WeChat blog, operated by some Chinese-language staff of the Global Times, once again launched personal attacks against female journalists with Chinese heritage, this time @GraceL129 @ZhouMarrian @cissy_chow
mp.weixin.qq.com/s/sfR1CsakYuV7… The vicious, despicable, and notorious operators of the Global Times' Bu Yi Dao WeChat blog, however, have always shamelessly hidden behind pen names.
The latest piece was written by two persons calling themselves 李小飞刀 and 渣渣刀 respectively.
Dec 28, 2022 4 tweets 2 min read
Contradictory from the Politburo meeting yesterday: on the one hand, officials are asked to 请示报告 request approvals from the highest echelons of power before making decisions; on the other hand, they are asked to 愿担当、敢担当、善担当 be bold and take responsibility. In another example, they are asked to toe the Party line and refrain from "individualism," "decentralism," and "liberalism," all codes for taking decisions into their own hands.
However, they are asked to facilitate an environment where everyone is encouraged to "tell the truth."
Dec 14, 2022 6 tweets 2 min read
Constantly blaming China watchers and foreign media for "misunderstanding" China ignores the simple fact that the biggest obstacle for the world to understand China is China itself.

The responsibility first and foremost lies in China itself, not foreigners.

Two latest examples: China just published this 《扩大内需战略规划纲要(2022-2035年)》 plan to expand domestic demand between 2022 and 2035.
The problem? Even the published plan isn't the full text - only the main content "主要内容如下."
What has been omitted? Why are they omitted? No explanation.
Dec 5, 2022 16 tweets 12 min read
Self-identified @nyuniversity graduate student 戴雨潇 Yu-Xiao DAI viciously namechecked & attacked female journos of Chinese heritage @LiYuan6 @amyyqin @vwang3 @aliceysu @xu_xiuzhong @EmilyZFeng @Tracy_Wen_Liu @Nectar_Gan @selinawangtv (& @StevenCNN) on nationalist site Guancha In typical nationalist tropes, self-identified @nyuniversity graduate student 戴雨潇 Yu-Xiao DAI wrote the female journalists are "female Chinese with Chinese faces, Chinese blood, and Chinese language but make a living by smearing China."
user.guancha.cn/main/content?i…
Nov 30, 2022 8 tweets 3 min read
Torigian is very good but my problem is in his tweets he never shares the source. That may be his right, but it's not the best practice b/c it makes third-party verification almost impossible in the rare case he makes a mistake.
His source in this thread chinanews.com.cn/gn/2013/10-17/… source: chinanews.com.cn/gn/2013/10-17/…

regarding:
Nov 30, 2022 4 tweets 1 min read
Victor Shih's comments on contemporary Chinese politics are a far cry from his scholarly work.
What is strange about this? Have you thought of comparing it with Deng Xiaoping's obit since both were the top leader? There was a similar para in Deng's orbit.
Nothing strange. This one as well.
Yes, by Western standards, this is effusive, but presumably, Victor isn't commenting in that context. So if he checks all the obits of Chinese leaders, especially Deng's (since Deng and Jiang were the top leaders) this is just standard.
Nov 29, 2022 11 tweets 2 min read
PRC is facing almost imminent, widespread chaos due to COVID spreading at a scale unprecedented in the PRC.

THREAD We are at the beginning but COVID spread is already spiraling out of the PRC government's control. The government has two options.
One is to re-impose massive, strict lockdowns, which may or may not stop COVID spread. (leaning towards may NOT.) That in itself creates chaos.
Nov 25, 2022 4 tweets 1 min read
The 1 that trumps the other 19 in the "20 measures":

"Strictly conduct early detection, early reporting, early quarantine, and early treatment to avoid the spread of the infections or the delay in response. Everyone must not “wait and see” or deviate from the national policy." Every lockdown can be explained by citing that one out of the 20 measures.

We are still at the "early" stage, so we are implementing the "four early".

Beijing has 20 mln people. It is now reporting 1k cases per day. That's not "early"? We are of course at the early stage.
Nov 5, 2022 19 tweets 4 min read
Beijing has a history of delaying badly-needed *reversal* of its policy stance (family planning, retirement age, rural land entering the market, Hukou, et al), due to largely structural reasons until it's almost too late.
I don't see why that won't be the case in COVID control. China's reforms, perhaps unlike elsewhere, mostly started because the previous policy has been proven too costly and cannot be sustained. They almost always come at the last minute - far later than the wiser guys have already come on top in reasoned discussions.
Oct 30, 2022 14 tweets 5 min read
Diplomats, China reporters, and researchers should be reading the books published by Li Shulei, the new Director of the Department of Propaganda of the Chinese Community Party
By CC's standards today, Li was no doubt a liberal in the closet.
Here he rebukes a known nationalist Li Xiguang (no relation), a current senior leader of Tsinghua University's journalism school.
Li Shulei's title - 斥李希光 Rebuke Li Xiguang - says it all.

Li Shulei wrote that Li Xiguang could only see the mistakes of the United States but not those of PRC - and wait for it -
Oct 23, 2022 9 tweets 3 min read
I'm correcting my prior assessment of the situation to reflect that I believe in this official explanation, for the following reasons:

Thread
1) The actions of Hu Jintao and the response from people near him are most likely in alignment with an old person with some sort of medical conditions such as the Alzheimer's disease, meaning that Hu's actions could be understood as showing confusion and the people near him responding in such manner.

2)On Sept. 3, 2015, when Beijing held the live-broadcasted military parade, Hu was seen as shaking
Oct 7, 2022 14 tweets 3 min read
"common prosperity" has been ringing hollow from the very start.
Why?
Because it is a Political Slogan, rather than a "policy pronouncement."
Everyone must read the book by Jinghan Zeng
Slogan Politics: Understanding Chinese Foreign Policy Concepts
amazon.com/Slogan-Politic… yeah we have to come back to the Xinhua guy's substack again but this is gold
pekingnology.com/p/slogan-polit…
Oct 7, 2022 13 tweets 4 min read
KATSUJI NAKAZAWA's China Up Close column hosted on Nikkei Asia has been one misunderstanding after another. Just wrong, wrong, and wrong.

The fuss over Song Ping's videotaped message to a school is just ridiculous. "Blunt"? Are you kidding me?
asia.nikkei.com/Editor-s-Picks… Li Keqiang used exactly the same phrase in the nationally televised press conference in March. (see below)
What's the fuss with his repeating the phrase a few months later in a much more informal setting?
asia.nikkei.com/Editor-s-Picks…
Aug 30, 2022 30 tweets 10 min read
This thread of MINE is worth reading for anyone following elite Chinese politics because the quoted thread is dead wrong and serves as a stellar example of China Hands getting Chinese state media reports & elite politics wrong.
Every tweet in the quoted thread is wrong.

THREAD The clip

a) sheds ZERO light on Xi's power BECAUSE it is routine and doesn't deviate from anything that's unknown

b) DOES NOT suggest who may be raised up to the Standing Committee in October, again BECAUSE of the reason stated above