New podcast #40 and this week's China news brief
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Podcast
The latest episode of the podcast was released on Monday. It’s part 2 of 2 on the Sino-Soviet split. We finally made it guys…
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News
There was so much interesting news over the past week! This is the stuff that I caught that I felt was worthy of sharing.
'Our friendship will end here:' Duterte tells China he won't withdraw ships from West PH Sea: If you’re one of those people worrying about whether China is just going to strongarm the rest of the world into following their lead, don’t worry, Duterte is here to save the day. The President of the Philippines has refused to budge over the issue of fishing boats in disputed South China Sea territory, going as far as to state that China will “have to kill me” to get him to move.
School Death Stirs Rare Scandal in China: The death of a Chinese schoolboy has caused outrage online and protests in the local community as people accuse the authorities of covering up the truth. The lack of surveillance footage has caused some to question the nature of the surveillance state, and the death itself has sparked conversations about other mysterious deaths of schoolchildren, usually the left behind kids of migrant workers.
Family De-planning: The Coercive Campaign to Drive Down Indigenous Birth-rates in Xinjiang: Lots of news this week about Xinjiang. First, a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute on the Chinese government’s coercive “systematic efforts to reduce the size of the indigenous population of Xinjiang.” Another article discusses how the state has been surreptitiously closing or removing the decoration from mosques in Xinjiang since 2019. Finally, the BBC reports that 630 imams and other Muslim religious figures have been arrested or detained since 2014 as part of a crackdown against extremism in the region. Also, this informative Twitter thread:
China’s census shows its population is nearing its peak: The release of China’s latest census has drawn attention to the fact that the population is ageing faster than many had thought, and the birth rate is the lowest its been in decades. Economists are worried about the impact of China’s future demography on the economy and retirement ages. The government is now thinking of solutions to help it avert a demographic crisis (Hint: adding 14 million more people to the stats than the total reached by adding up the births for individual years is not it). According to the New York Times, the government wants to relax restrictions to help boost birth rates, but is ultimately worried about losing a very pervasive form of control over the population, one that they’ve had since the 1980s.
But I guess another problem people haven’t thought about is what will happen when no one wants those kids anymore:
Law Firm’s ‘How to Fire People Cheaply’ Seminar Meets Backlash: A Beijing law firm is in trouble online for teaching companies how to fire 'undesirable' employees who raise labour disputes.
Lèse-majesté With Mainland Chinese Characteristics - Man Jailed For Insulting Xi Jinping: And for those with time on their hands, you can read the case details of a man who is being taken to court for calling President Xi, among other things, a fat pig.
Have a great week everyone!
Edi