What's happening in China?

[sdv]

Posted by ThePythonicCow (here)

Posted by Ravenlocke (here)
Children in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Inner Mongolia ALL speak their local languages, but if you grow up speaking ONLY your local language you become a minority in your own country. You can not move to another region or city in China because you simply can not communicate.

This is something Americans have no concept of. In the United States we only have English and you can travel to all 50 states and the English language is practically identical. Sure certain words and phrases are used in different regions, but 99.9% of the English words are the same.

That's not true everywhere in the United States.

Many of the people round me speak primarily, or in the case of many stay-at-home wives/mothers, only Spanish.

I sometimes watch a couple of YouTubers who travel in China. One is Chinese. They make extensive use of Google Translate on their phones. So, the Chinese person will travel to a neighbouring region and not know the language at all, but she gets along fine with Google Translate and spends a lot of time interacting with locals.

AI: 'China’s language policy in schools mandates Putonghua (Standard Mandarin) as the primary medium of instruction across all regions to foster national unity, ...'

My country handles multi-lingualism differently (ten official languages). You have to study at least two languages at school, and are required to pass both for a school-leaving certificate: one as a Home Language and one as a First Additional Language. Pupils are usually taught in their home language for the first four years of school, but then many switch to English as a Home Language (and they struggle!). Studies consistently show that children do better if they are taught in their home language for at least the first four years of schooling. There is still much debate about switching home language as primary language of instruction after four years, but shortage of teachers and availability of classrooms limits schools being able to offer education in all the official languages.

Switzerland has four official languages, and their policy is 'Students typically learn their region's primary language first, followed by a second Swiss national language and English during compulsory education.'

It is interesting how different countries deal with multi-lingualism in education. I wonder if China is responding to geopolitical threats, or if it is a continuation of the socialist project. From the experience of my country, it is an odd choice they have made, but they probably have the research and resources to navigate this choice wisely to minimize the negative effect on children. Americans would love it if China shot itself in the foot yet again like Mao's Great Leap Forward! It is much easier to win a race against a competitor you have chosen if that competitor shoots himself in the foot!

[onawah]

Xi Jinping is doing quite a good job now of shooting himself in the foot by copying Mao.

Posted by sdv (here)
Americans would love it if China shot itself in the foot yet again like Mao's Great Leap Forward! It is much easier to win a race against a competitor you have chosen if that competitor shoots himself in the foot!

[onawah]

Utter Trainwreck - Millions Watched the Summit - What Nobody Saw - Episode #315
The China Show
385K subscribers
Scheduled for May 15, 2026 4pm CST


"How did everyone miss this?"

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=7z4JvKAZUao

************

The Xi–Trump Summit Was Stranger Than It Looked
Lei's Real Talk
442K subscribers
Streamed live 5/15/26

(More news coming tomorrow from Lei, but some curious details are covered in this one, including observations that may indicate body doubles, and so possibly masks were in use for Trump and/or Xi, and apparently Xi was wearing lifts in his shoes to make him look taller.) Many comparisons are made between this visit and the 2017 visit. )

"President Trump returned to Beijing for one of the most closely watched U.S.–China summits in years. But beyond the red carpet and official speeches, strange details kept emerging: missing red scarves, a mysterious magpie omen, awkward Rubio optics, blocked reporters, shorter CCTV coverage, and a noticeably different Xi Jinping. In this video, we break down the unusual symbolism, tense media moments, and subtle signals surrounding the Xi–Trump summit — and why many observers felt something was off throughout the visit.

References:
Hot mic video: https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/20547...
Scene of intense conflict: https://x.com/ElvaMusclecat/status/20... "

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=R5AU1JCV8II

[Johnnycomelately]

OSINT stands for Open Source Intel. This was both a smart security move, and a public parting slap in the face to the CCP.

Open Source Intel
@Osint613
·
Follow
NYP Reporter: Prior to boarding Air Force One to depart Beijing, the entire U.S. delegation disposed of every item provided to them by their Chinese hosts. Gifts, badges, pins, and commemorative items were all dumped into a trash bin on site. The directive was absolute, no item of Chinese origin was permitted to board the aircraft. The precautions extended beyond the departure itself. Delegation members had left all personal electronic devices at home before traveling to China and operated exclusively on clean burner phones throughout the duration of the trip.

Vid is only of Trump and his security team walking a long red carpet to Airforce 1, past the Chinese Honour Guard. No footage of them tossing stuff in trash bins.

Am curious if this story is: #1 true?, and, #2 if true then what kind and amount of press this will generate going forward?

Edit: Look at how perfect the honour guard looks. Including that they are all very close to a same height, at least by line. That regime wants, that hard, to look good. Lol. Not looking good is called “losing face”, and face is a bedrock parameter in West Taiwan. Bet that slap hurt.

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
I Was Offered $10,000 to Attack ChinaCyrus Janssen

Posted by onawah (here)
I've been closely monitoring what's been ongoing in China for some years now ...
One thing that is incredibly blatant and obvious is how horrible conditions have become for the majority of people in China with filthy food, air, water and the overall "No Trust" society

I'm going to have to add three military grade gyroscopes, one in each dimension, to my washing machine to handle all the spin cycles needed to launder these reports .

Here are some points offered in Cyrus Janssen's video or the above interaction between Bill and onawah, and my take on these points.

===

China's AI is competitive with America's AI

I use both Chinese and American models. For more widely known topics, the Chinese AI is good too, and cheaper. For the more esoteric corners of technology that I have expertise in, the massive training of recent American AI models produces the best results, above all else. Being more pro-American biased than pro-China, I tend to use the Chinese models less frequently and for less "interesting" questions, so that I might not help those models become smarter.

China is spending way less money on AI than America

America and China fund their AI work differently. The massive "gold rush fever" of American financial markets adds a couple (or more) zero's to the reported and projected spending and valuations. The more covertly funded, centrally directed, efforts of China tend to hide a couple of zero's from the visible spending. Consequently, comparisons of what's publicly reported are useless.

China now uses its own hardware, not Nvidia's hardware

According to Steve Burke, of the Youtube channel Gamer's Nexus, this is false. See for example The Billion Dollar Decoy GPU Smuggling Scheme (Youtube). China has not stopped using Nvidia hardware; rather Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang has started hiding that market for his products, to avoid conflict with Trump's tariff's and export restrictions.

China focuses on practical applications of AI. American AI focuses on a vague "Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)" ideal.

This is a biased and superficial claim. According to my favorite analyst of the adoption of AI into corporate America, Nate B Jones, of the Youtube channel: AI News & Strategy Daily, the primary thrust of both the leading American AI corporations, Anthropic and OpenAI, is gaining practical, wide spread, use inside corporations, automating their business, sales, marketing, financial, manufacturing and supply chain tasks. See for example two of Nate's recent videos Anthropic And OpenAI Just Admitted The Model Isn't Enough. and The Trillion Dollar Agentic Workflow Opportunity Is Here

Cyrus Janssen's video informs us about "life in China"

As does onawah, so also do I rely on Lei's Real Talk for reporting on political, social, economic and other insights into what life is like inside China. I heard nothing in Cyrus Janssen's above AI video on such matters, other than a friendly "China good too vibe".

American AI (Andreesson and Horowitz) money is funding dark pro American AI propaganda.

If I had Mark Andreesson's money, I might too throw around some tens of thousands of dollars here and there, to promote my latest projects and investments. Since it would be my money, I could choose whether I wanted my name publicly associated with the product of such spending. That this is condemned as "dark money" tells me more the bias of the reporter than of Mark Andreesson.

Cyrus Janssen's sponsor Abacus.ai is a good AI assistant.

I prefer t3.chat, not abacus.ai, for my primary chat interface to the constantly evolving AI model market. According to my favorite "Google search replacement", Perplexity, the key distinction between t3.chat and abacus.ai is that t3.chat had the cleaner, smoother, chat interface, whereas abacus.ai had a more complex interface providing a variety of agents and tools.

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by ThePythonicCow (here)
Cyrus Janssen's video informs us about "life in China"

As does onawah, so also do I rely on Lei's Real Talk for reporting on political, social, economic and other insights into what life is like inside China. I heard nothing in Cyrus Janssen's above AI video on such matters, other than a friendly "China good too vibe".

What I wrote above is not entirely true.

There are a couple of other sources I rely on to understand China (an historically impossible challenge for us Anglo's).

One source is Promethean Updates Youtube channel, as in their analysis of Trump's latest visit to China: Trump Walked Into China and Killed Kissinger's Thucydides Trap (Youtube). Promethean's focus is more on America completing its move to independence from the British Empire, that it famously began, 250 years ago. That includes working with the other great powers of China and Russia over the last two or three centuries, and certainly China and Xi Jinping came to the forefront this week.

The other source is E.M.Burlingame, who has a deeper history with China and who interviews on various podcasts. This week, on Rich Does Politics, E.M.Burlingame goes into the history of China's entanglements with the British Empire and their current work, aligned with Trump's focus in America, to separate from that Empire and regain full national sovereignty: Trump Meets Xi To FINISH What Britain Started 130 Years Ago (Youtube).

Both Promethean Updates and E.M.Burlingame have a more "global and historical power" view of China and current world affairs than does Lei in her Real Talk. My mind has to be in a "flexible" place to accommodate all three perspectives in the same sitting.

Whereas both Lei regarding Xi Jinping, and many here on Avalon, including some former MAGA adherents, regarding Trump, find Xi and Trump to be fading egotistical power grabbers, on the other hand, both the Promethean analysts and E.M.Burlingame find both Xi and Trump to be at the top of their game, leading two of the world's most powerful nations out of a collapsing Empire.

I suspect that it is at least as difficult for a damn Yankee/Texan to know what is really going on with Xi and China, as it would be for anyone dependent on foreign news and social media to know what is really going on with Trump and America. I remain deeply optimistic and skeptical of most "main stream" narratives, regarding both China and America.

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by ThePythonicCow (here)
Cyrus Janssen's video informs us about "life in China"

As does onawah, so also do I rely on Lei's Real Talk for reporting on political, social, economic and other insights into what life is like inside China. I heard nothing in Cyrus Janssen's above AI video on such matters, other than a friendly "China good too vibe".

Posted by ThePythonicCow (here)
What I wrote above is not entirely true.

There are a couple of other sources I rely on to understand China (an historically impossible challenge for us Anglo's).

One source is Promethean Updates Youtube channel, as in their analysis of Trump's latest visit to China: Trump Walked Into China and Killed Kissinger's Thucydides Trap (Youtube). Promethean's focus is more on America completing its move to independence from the British Empire, that it famously began, 250 years ago. That includes working with the other great powers of China and Russia over the last two or three centuries, and certainly China and Xi Jinping came to the forefront this week.

The other source is E.M.Burlingame, who has a deeper history with China and who interviews on various podcasts. This week, on Rich Does Politics, E.M.Burlingame goes into the history of China's entanglements with the British Empire and their current work, aligned with Trump's focus in America, to separate from that Empire and regain full national sovereignty: Trump Meets Xi To FINISH What Britain Started 130 Years Ago (Youtube).

Both Promethean Updates and E.M.Burlingame have a more "global and historical power" view of China and current world affairs than does Lei in her Real Talk.

In the first 50 seconds of the following video, E.M.Burlingame spells it out in plain language. Xi Jinping, like Trump, is removing the excessive influence of the British Empire over their respective nations.

This puts the observations in "Lei's Real Talk" in an entirely different light.

Many of us in America now figure that Trump's administrations are not the cause of our trials and tribulations, such as the economic and social harms caused by various toxins and harms in our food, society, immigration, economy, medical, and political lives imposed on our nation from centers of power and wealth outside our nation and culture, via deeply infiltrated regimes and administrations of such as the Bushes, Clinton, Obama and Biden (or whomever were "behind the curtain" during Biden's administration).

Perhaps that is also what is happening in China. Perhaps, as E.M.Burlingame observes, the difficult times in China are not caused by a failing power hungry tyrant Xi Jingping. Perhaps rather China's problems arise from centers of power and wealth outside the Chinese nation, culture and heritage. Perhaps many of those removed by Xi have wealth in London banks extracted fraudulently from China, while they work to weaken that great nation.

The Roman/Dutch/British/EU Imperialists have spent centuries weakening, attacking, and stirring up great wars amongst and between other great powers, such as Russia, China and America.

Perhaps Lei is accurate in observing that life in China sucks, increasingly so in recent years. But perhaps she is wrong regarding whom to blame for China's difficulties, in much the same way as many Americans are regarding whom to blame for America's difficulties.

Listen to the clear words of E.M.Burlingame in the first 50 seconds of the following video:

• Xi SHATTERS 150 Years Of British Control Over China (Youtube; E.M.Burlingame)

If Trump works with Xi to continue to restore China for the Chinese, as he works to restore America for Americans, and as he works with Putin to restore Russia for the Russians, then I may well look back on this post as the moment when my take on this shifted substantially.

May the sun set on the British Empire, as it did many centuries ago on the Roman Empire.

[onawah]

China is in Big Trouble - Too much is Happening at Once - Episode #316
The China Show
386K subscribers
LIVE streaming 5/22/26

"Even we are shocked at what is happening in China."

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=lpb0QONiQSY

(Starting at 57:21 & going to 1 hour 17 minutes into the video, Matt and Winston explain in detail why it is that the population of China has declined drastically and how the CCP covers it up with false statistics or no reporting at all on ongoing, deadly disasters.
For example, currently there are 6 provinces that are experiencing severe flooding (it happens every year in China) with whole villages washed away, but the official report from the CCP is that there has only been 25 fatalities.
At the end of that segment, the guys explain how the CCP's "30 Death Rule" works. )

[onawah]

300% Debt? How Hidden Debt Broke China’s Economic Model
Lei's Real Talk
443K subscribers
Streamed live on May 21, 2026

"China’s debt problem may be far worse than Beijing officially admits. In this deep-dive analysis, we break down China’s hidden debt system — from LGFVs and local government borrowing to policy banks, pension liabilities, Central Huijin, and the collapse of the land-finance model. Why did local debt surpass central government debt? Why did Beijing’s “front door, back door” reforms fail? And could China’s real debt burden already exceed 170%–180% of GDP — or even far higher if the economy itself has been overstated? Let’s untangle the real size of China’s hidden debt problem."

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=-5WojpGIVEk

[Johnnycomelately]

Stupid propaganda.

They say they can erect a building way higher than this 26 floor claim, seemingly assuming that all that extra weight is accounted for. They are claiming strength of stainless steel, but no mention of buttressing the lower floors’ structure.

I have a good BARF meme down in the stacks, dumbass story is not worth that effort.


https://indiandefencereview.com/chin...ing-five-days/

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by Johnnycomelately (here)
They say they can erect a building way higher than this 26 floor claim, seemingly assuming that all that extra weight is accounted for. They are claiming strength of stainless steel, but no mention of buttressing the lower floors’ structure.

Apparently, B-Core slabs are (1) stronger than reinforced concrete, (2) much lighter than reinforced concrete, (3) using stainless steel rather than the usual carbon steel bends further w/o breaking for earthquake resistance, (4) last longer with less maintenance, and (5) can be adjusted in width and composition for required strength and weight capacity.

Also, given the difficulty Chinese construction firms have maintaining quality of materials and construction when using many crews in the field for critical work, I would trust living in such a "pre-fab B-Core" slab building, whose durability is single sourced at primary manufacturing site, using more automated and testable methods.

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by onawah (here)
China is in Big Trouble - Too much is Happening at Once - Episode #316

China is being destroyed by City of London funded and directed corruption, while at the same time some portion of the substantial Chinese immigration to the West that happens to be corruptible is getting the blame for what is likely UK/EU/... Empire destruction of America.

How to be the biggest bully on a planet of bullies: get the other bullies fighting each other.

(and then if one of the bullies starts to notice and come after your bully provocateurs, accuse that one of being a mean nasty bully)

[onawah]

I think much of China's current troubles can be traced back to Mao and the "Cultural Revolution" which the country has never really recovered from. Do you think the City of London was responsible for that as well?

Posted by ThePythonicCow (here)

Posted by onawah (here)
China is in Big Trouble - Too much is Happening at Once - Episode #316

China is being destroyed by City of London funded and directed corruption, while at the same time some portion of the substantial Chinese immigration to the West that happens to be corruptible is getting the blame for what is likely UK/EU/... Empire destruction of America.

How to be the biggest bully on a planet of bullies: get the other bullies fighting each other.

(and then if one of the bullies starts to notice and come after your bully provocateurs, accuse that one of being a mean nasty bully)

[ThePythonicCow]

Posted by onawah (here)
I think much of China's current troubles can be traced back to Mao and the "Cultural Revolution" which the country has never really recovered from. Do you think the City of London was responsible for that as well?

That would be my guess, yes, though I've not studied it closely. The three greatest powers threatening the European centered Empire were the US, Russia and China (should I not also include Tartaria?). All three had major civil wars or revolutions between the 1860's and 1970's. I'd blame the globalist powers, which have had a major headquarters in the City of London in recent centuries, for instigating these events, though there is a weakness in our human species and civilization that allows such catastrophes. Who, what families, or even whether or not they are human, behind and driving the globalist powers ... that I don't know.

[onawah]

China Floods LIVE: China DROWNING? Extreme Rains Trigger Deadly Disaster
WION
10.4M subscribers
May 19, 2026

(Flooding isn't news in China, but this year's floods have already broken some records, and the season is just beginning... The disasters are due both to the amount of rain frequently falling in a very short time, but also largely because the infrastructure is not built well enough to be effective. Official statistics of casualties coming from the CCP are ridiculously and unrealistically low, as always.)

"Torrential rain continued across southern and central China on Tuesday (May 19) with at least 18 people killed in widespread flooding that also closed schools and businesses, and disrupted transport and power supplies, authorities said.

China's weather agency said areas of Jiangxi, Anhui, Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou, Guangxi, Guangdong and Hainan faced a high risk of rain-related disasters, including landslides, flash floods and severe urban flooding and waterlogging.
Images shown on state broadcaster CCTV showed emergency personnel evacuating residents, collapsed roads, and military dispatched to clear rubble."

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=vdfRUUn2OyA

*******************

China Spends $7B on World’s Longest Undersea Tunnel, Flooded in Less Than 2 Years, Built Like Trash
China Observer
815K subscribers
May 24, 2026

"Recently, heavy rain has continued across southern China, causing river levels to rise sharply. Many towns and villages were quickly submerged, with houses flooded. From above, the once-busy city streets disappeared, replaced by muddy floodwaters carrying debris through buildings."

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=EX_L9Jx1TlA

**************

China's Rampaging Murders Just Peaked! Out of Control
serpentza
1.59M subscribers
May 24, 2026

"It got worse, and they're spending 10bn dollars to hide it..."

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=KcFK30x-nMY

[onawah]

Karma Just Hit China HARD - It's Finished - Episode #317
The China Show
5/29/26
386K subscribers

"Time to pay the piper... "

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=n53kpKHkJWk

[onawah]

The Statistic That Explains China's Economic Crisis
Lei's Real Talk
444K subscribers
Jun 1, 2026

"For years, China's economy appeared to be a miracle. GDP surged, skyscrapers rose, and property prices exploded. But according to economist Zhou Qiren, the real story was something else: the cost of operating inside China's system was rising even faster than the economy itself.
In this video, we'll examine how land finance, hidden business costs, and state-driven investment gradually distorted China's economic model. We'll also look at Beijing's recent crackdown on Tiger Brokers, Futu, and Longbridge, and why authorities are now moving aggressively to stop money from leaving the country.
Are these simply regulatory actions, or signs of a deeper problem? As confidence weakens, capital flows overseas, and growth slows, some analysts warn that China may be entering a prolonged period of economic deterioration—not a sudden collapse, but a slow-motion crisis unfolding in plain sight."

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=aJelYEb4LeU

*************


Four Unusual Signals From the PLA That We Can't Ignore
Lei's Real Talk
444K subscribers
6/1/26

"For years, Xi Jinping has emphasized absolute loyalty to the Party center and the principle that the Party commands the gun. But a series of recent developments inside the PLA suggest something unusual may be happening behind the scenes. From the sudden removal of a key Xi ally in Baoding, to transparency reforms inside the strategically important 82nd Group Army, to the reappearance of "collective leadership" in military messaging and the quiet disappearance of familiar Xi-era slogans, several signals are pointing in the same direction. Are these isolated events, or signs of a deeper power shift within China's military? Today, we examine four unusual developments from the PLA that we simply can't ignore."

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=4R9mHrazAgg