Tag Archives: journalism

OUTRAGE ABOUT NO OUTRAGE “How blatant lying is job description of NYT employee”

Original article being criticized here What Chinese Outrage Over ‘3 Body Problem’ Says About China  (short answer: whatever they want you to think. shorter answer: nothing)

Problem with this article starts at it’s very title, and many a problem come up in form of half-truths, omissions, non-obvious contradictions, exaggeration – the list could get worse, but umbrella term “intellectual dishonesty” covers them all.

Let’s do this one by one, starting from the title – “Chinese outraged”: no, a small subset of at maximum 20% of another subset – the people who watched the show – (and this is highly exaggerated guesstimation – certainly much less) of the Chinese population, and in that subset, of a certain age demographic and preferences, are outraged – simply put, more nationalistic and patriotic types. Those, as we all know, tend to be the loudest. Furthermore, generally speaking about “China” in singular, as the author/editor have done, is problematic (and dishonest, and wrong, and common journalistic practice), but that is for another essay. To get back on the sub-subset of people who actually watched the show, according to SCMP, BitTorrent downloads spiked at 90500 first day and waned after that – including other services, Baidu cloud and different ways of circumventing bootlegging, the total number is notoriously hard to estimate – for sake of brevity and because of shadowy nature of these methods, we will say it is just about couple million people, as a WAG (wild-ass-guess). This is one tenth of one percent of Chinese population. No further comment is needed.

Problem #1 – in a word: absolutely gross generalization to the point of mocking reader’s intelligence. In more words: clickbait horseshit pandering to sinophobic audiences, doing the job of both State Department and publication’s (NYT’s) self-interested “bottom line” at the same time, while disregarding, nay, actively spitting in the face of Plato’s ideal of the Good, the True, the Beautiful (being one and the same thing). Implying article is evil, deceitful and disgusting.

2. Ironically, even the comments author cites at the beginning of the text, e.g. the Weibo comment first mentioned, on the topic of Cultural revolution, have the same problem as we’ve already said previously. That is to say, Li Yuan (the author) is not commenting on this Weibo comment – but frames it in the last part of the passage to be interpreted by the reader, while she cunningly sets up a half-truth based narrative on perception of Cultural revolution in China in the first part of the very same passage. This manipulation tactics game gets worse: I should use 2.2 since next point is a subset of this one, but let’s not get technical.

Problem #2 in a word: half-truth. In more words: carefully crafted narrative that is mostly true, but untrue in the most important part.

3. The use of the term “heavily censored”, in the context of discussion of Cultural Revolution in China, is immediately contradicted by the examples of public discourse in China about that very topic, which the author cites. But here I need to add my own experience as an expat in China and a sinologist wannabe: subset of people who are interested in politics, ruling class, economy and everything (inter)related know exactly what and how happened during that destructive period. The author seems to understand it, but doesn’t say it explicitly, and although her point that showing a gruesome display of violence is too much to bear even for the mentioned subset of Chinese netizens, it doesn’t logically conflict with the fact that – although being censored when it reaches too many eyes on Weibo – there is a vibrant discussions of all political topics in China, especially Cultural Revolution in recent years (as she confirms herself). To add to this point, even Xi Jinping is known to be quoted as someone who considers Cultural Revolution a net benefit, since it created a generation of strong people – perhaps drawing from his own example. This is not censored – so again – where is this heavy censorship? Does it weigh 10 pounds or 100kg? How does one even quantify censorship? We shall never know, but maybe Li Yuan or her editor can explain this to us! And not to indulge in whataboutisms (tu quoe que). but isn’t omitting topics such as Seymour Hersh’s research on Nord Stream 2 sabotage, or Aaron Bushnell’s self-immolation worse kind of censorship; for illusion of freedom is worse than being aware one is lacking freedom? It should be noted, even the author (Mrs. Li) concedes that Liu Cixin’s novel had exact same depiction of violence during the Cultural Revolution, but he had to put it in the middle of the first book, not the beginning as in the TV show. If that is “heavily” censored, we would like to see mildly-censored version. Not the mention her wild guesses about this or that year in which the novels could have been published (2004 yes, 2007 no) she offers no explanation to these notions.

Problem #3 in a word: inconsistent. In more words: morally wrong, factually incorrect, logically unsound, most probably “heavily censored” by her editor. Talk about projection. Before next point, it needs to be added:

4. The arguments that the Chinese netizens make on racial diversity and political correctness (simply put: wokeism) are all solid and irrefutable, even more so, anyone familiar with Netflix’s track record understands all too well how ridiculous (to the level of being mocked in memes) their productions end up. Polarization that is happening in USA – country where no side will accept the next POTUS and is on the verge of civil strife; infected by the mind virus of wokeism, “subtly” controlled media that we already mentioned (getting less subtle as legacy media loses ground) – all of these things are something as foreign to a Chinese person as metric system is to an average American. Worse – this is something completely foreign to Chinese mentality, it is alien to them, unthinkable, as is in all other Confucian countries and territories. As for mentioned virus of wokeism: one example illustrates the unprecedented craziness of American society: back in 2020, prof. Greg Patton of USC’s Marshall’s School of Business used the common Mandarin Chinese filler word in his Communication class via Zoom (which is ironic in itself), and later became viral: the Chinese word sounds like the N-word (provided one has good imagination or psychotic disorder) and he earned himself a suspension and vitriol of the mob Justice Warriors of unearned moral grandeur. Even crazier: the parallel between intellectuals being canceled and ostracized in comparison to The Cultural Revolution would be terribly funny if it wasn’t so profoundly sad. This seems to have flown over Li Yuan’s head like the Chinese spy balloon, and it is about time to fire the missiles. In that spirit: there is a joke in China that vividly describes the American political situation and Chinese understanding of it, and goes as follows:

Chairman Mao arises from the grave and speaks to the contemporary Chinese populus:

Mao: Are the people able to eat their fill?

Us: They are overeating, even thinking about loosing weight!

Mao: Do capitalists still exist？

Us: They’ve taken all their businesses abroad.

Mao: Has steel production surpassed that of Britain and the USA?

Us: City of Tangshan alone exceeeds that of USA as a whole!

Mao: Have we won the political dispute against the Soviets?

Us: They collapsed by themselves!

Mao: Has imperialism been overthrown?

Us: We are the imperialists now!

Mao: And how about my Cultural Revolution?

Us: Oh…It has moved to America.

(For the sceptical reader，author (CaesarInChina) heard this joke about 10 years ago – Chinese are acutely aware of American situation, while American understanding of China amounts to less than nothing (it would take some to get to zero).

Problem #4 in a word; y’all fucked.

Here, for the next point, which might be wrong, but ’tis but a self-conscious speculation:

5. The author seems as if the last time she was in China was in her past life, that is to say: never. But she was. Nonetheless, it doesn’t seem she has any connection or understanding of Chinese people except in her name. All of this is obvious from every single previous point, while NYT editors are using the identity politics card i.e. her, to make the article more “credible”. Here we mean no harm, but as a rule, overseas Chinese who go to America are notorious in China for being sons and daughters of corrupt government officials, who in a creative manner of “capital flight”, flew over the Pacific to find safe haven in the capitalist oligarchy. It is merely rule of thumb or a very crude heuristic tool; we do not imply anything about the author whatsoever, but simply stating the fact of how thus described people are perceived in China. After all, the Chinese word for a “traitor” is maiguozui (sell-country-criminal, literally, character for character).

Problem #5 in a word: pure ignorance or intentional mallice. We do not know which one is worse, but we suspect both.

6. Desert should be served last: the fact that the author, overseas Chinese writing on “outrage” about Netflix adaptation of Liu Cixin’s novels (trilogy) never once mentioned original Chinese adaptation is at best mind-bogging and unfathomable, illogical to the point of being a true enigma, and at worst a calculated manipulation which if wasn’t done, would uproot the whole narrative of the article, point by point. Not to mention it doubles as a commercial for Netflix. It gets even worse: Chinese version has 30 episodes, elegantly, 10 per book, while it lacks the unnecessarily melodramatic and all too common moments of the Netflix version, which is, as if things are not bad enough, dumbed-down to the level of an 18 year old STEM freshman with developmental problems. In the US with all the incredible school system advantages (here we quote global PISA ratings. Later).

Problem #6 in a word: Chinese version does not exist, and yet it does.

Addendum: Authors Franjo Tuschek and Olle M. Gustafsson admit that we are set to destroy the whole publication (NYT), but not because we dislike it, as we don’t even care to read that shite, but because this particular article was abysmally dreadful to the very core of all that is holy and decent. (SLAPP lawsuits are more than welcome)

– We found out were notified by our MSS handlers that Li Yuan previously worked for Xinhua, which gives credence to our suspicion of government “federal family” connections, but also indicates her writing as a form of very personal vendetta against those who slighted her. This way of writing cannot be objective, rational or decent – no bloody wonder this article is the biggest shit since the publication of Protocols of Elders of Zion. And this is a good place to stop.

 

 

Steve Bannon i Ratko Knežević u pohodu na Kinu (ponovna objava & update) 

Since this text about Committee on Present Danger China had suddenly and inexplicably vanished from it's original Croatian news and opinion portal website wwww.seebiz.eu , and since once of the members of the aforementioned Committee is Ratko Knezevic, of whom I want to warn the general public about, I will post it here. All the editing is mine, while the text is wrriten by Branimir Vidmarovic, Croatian expert on International Relations, with special interest in Russian and Chinese diplomacies, political structures etc. English version of this text and other interesting details and updates will be avaiable soon both on this website and my Facebook. For now, the post is intended for Croatian, Serbian, Montenegrin and other ex-Yugoslav south slavic langugage speakers.      -  Franjo Tusek (Francis Tuschek)

The man who masters himself trough self discipline can never be mastered by others. Isn’t it? #sprezzatura #selfdiscipline #shibumi #washingtonian February 11 , 2020, Four Seasons Hotel, Washington DC.
The gigantic ironiy of this Facebook photo self-description will be revealed soon, as we learn that at the age of 57, Mr. Knezevic still didn't "master [himself] in self-discipine", as is examplified by his increasingly erratic behaviour, frequent intoxication etc. The text as is belongs wholly to Branimir Vidmarovic, except the editing and the square brackets at the end of it, including hyperlinks that were added

Steve Bannon i istomišljenici u križarskom pohodu protiv kineske prijetnje

Borac za dobru, svjetlu, nacionalno rascjepkanu, bedemima ograđenu, ali pri tome visokomoralnu budućnost svijeta po mjeri svojih frustracija, Steve Bannon, u svom arsenalu metoda i organizacija sada ima jednu neobičnu skupinu. 

Riječ je o Komitetu za tekuće prijetnje – skupini  konzervativnih lobista koji svojim rentgenskim okom pažljivo snimaju sve tekuće, prošle i buduće opasnosti koje vrebaju na SAD. Prva družina političkih dušebrižnika bila je osnovana 1950. tijekom administracije Eisenhowera. Nepomirljiva i neovisna organizacija je međutim postojala tri kratke godine, sve dok Eisenhower čelnicima nije ponudio radna mjesta u svojoj administraciji. Kako i priliči hrabrim i neovisnim lobistima koji osnivaju hrabre i neovisne organizacije u ime visokih ciljeva, poziv na državni posao nije mogao biti odbijen.

Četvrta iteracija Komiteta koji je svoj fizički i utjecajni vrhunac doživio tijekom Ronalda Reagana bavi se kineskom prijetnjom. Komitet je sastavljen od raznovrsnih bivših vojnih i obavještajnih dužnosnika, ali i nekih ljudi iz ozbiljnog poslovnog svijeta. Zavukao se u tu specifičnu družinu ljudi koji skrbe o sudbini SAD-a pred užasnim milijardama Kineza 5G mrežom kolektivno spojenih na Partijski razum i Ratko Knežević[1][2] iz Aion Grupe — nigerijske energetske kompanije. [?!?]

Impozantni vojno-obavještajno-poslovni Komitet pod idejnim vodstvom velikog kombinatora Ostapa Bendera Bannona već je na prvom zasjedanju pokazao svoju razornu moć. Neprijatelj će sigurno pasti. Na pod, od smijeha. 

Jer, skupština je bila pravi dragulj, jarka poput svjetlosti dvaju Valinorskih stabala koja su čuvala drevnu Ardu od Kineza, paukova i ostalih užasa mračnoga Istoka. Gospoda visoke životne dobi, nostalgijom snažno vezani za Ronalda Reagana, iz umova, rukava i skripti izvlačili su ideje i zaključke kakve nalazimo u domaćem Domazetlošinskom kanonu publicističkog i analitičkog izražaja. 

Da poštovanom čitatelju pobliže dočaram razinu sinologije, kineske ekspertize skupa, citirat ću jednog od govornika, stanovitog Stephena Prya, bivšeg zaposlenika CIA-e čije prezime u duhu Čehova odgovara njegovom zanimanju, ali nas isto tako podsjeća da ga od komičara dijeli samo jedno slovo tog prezimena. 

„Kina je totalitarna država koja je konstantno u ratu. Ideja mira je zapadni konstrukt“ [?!?], rekao je Pry okupljenima. „…U kineskim tekstovima postoje samo pobijeđeni i pobjednik“. 

Sve bi to zvučalo impozantno da kineska kultura, filozofija pa čak i državno upravljanje ne počivaju na konceptu mira kao uravnoteženog stanja između Neba (天) i Zemlje, stihija, vladara i ljudi, obitelji, pojedinca, vanjskog i unutarnjeg.

Yin i Yang? Za Prya nepoznato. Pobijeđeni i pobjednik, zero-sum kultura šahovskog razmišljanja je upravo zapadni dominantan koncept. Kina vrednuje izbjegavanje konflikta, strateško opkoljavanje i stvaranje taktičkih ali neočiglednih prednosti.

I ovo nije samo slučajnost, neka nelagodna devijacija. Neki su govorili o opasnostima kineske farmaceutske industrije. Kamo sreće da je bila riječ o problemima kvalitete, prekusora, čistoći supstanci i proizvodnje, patentima i pravima, odnosno svemu što brine normalni svijet. 

„Kineski Fentanil ubija Amerikance. To je kineski kemijski rat protiv naše mladeži!“ uskliknuo je govornik. [3]

Kako su se redali govornici, postalo je jasno da čitav skup balansira između Davida Ickea i babe Vange sa završenom politologijom na pučkom sveučilištu. Jedan etnički Kinez, religiozni izbjeglica, ponudio je općerazumljivo religiozno objašnjenje jezikom Georgea Busha mlađeg: „Kineska komunistička partija je zli kult“. U isti mah, Kinez je bio oprezan u svome znanju opasnih kultova i jasno razlikovao Komunističku partiju od Kine i Kineza. Ali takve nijanse su bile pretjerano istančane za percepciju okupljenih eksperata za kinesku prijetnju.  

Jedan od govornika je završio svoje predavanje porukom da voli kinesku hranu ali ne želi da je u budućnosti bude primoran jesti dok se drugi toliko zanio da je mrtav hladan i vrlo ozbiljan izjavio da se Kina snažno miješala u američke predsjedničke izbore 1996. godine!

“Kina će uskoro kontrolirati sustav Zemlja-Mjesec“ [?!?], proročio je fantastičnu distopiju treći govornik, pričajući o kineskim nuklearnim i tehnološkim poduhvatima. Četvrti se požalio da Kinezi „utječu na našu djecu kroz svoje crtane filmove“. Naravno, nitko na skupu vintažnih ratnika nije znao da su Pokemoni, Sailor Moon ili One Punch man produkt savezničkih animatora. Možda je mislio na pikantnije crtiće, ali i ti su proizašli iz mašte istih animatora. 

„Šire svoj utjecaj kroz Google“, nastavlja gospodin „i preko drugih tražilica te socijalnih mreža poput Facebooka. Što ti je đavolja dovitljivost, vjerojatno, uvaliti Zuckerbergu kinesku ženu i prodati to svijetu kao brak iz ljubavi. 

„To je direktno miješanje u naše osobne živote, zdravstvenu i genetsku informaciju“, dodao je gospodin.

Kao nepobitni dokaz kineskog zla, jedna gospođa je navela činjenicu da Kina otvara medijske kuće diljem svijeta. I to na lokalnim jezicima! 

„Kineski mediji mame ljude većim plaćama“, poentirala je gospođa. 

U turobnom i znakovitom muku, prisutni su razmišljali o sotonskoj ingenioznosti i aroganciji korištenja veće plaće u svrhu konkurentnosti. 

No, u moru bisernog niza, posebno je sjala izjava gore spomenutog gospodina Pryja. Svoje izlaganje Pry je završio tvrdnjom da je Kina kriva za propast malog američkog čovjeka-radnika. Zbog Kineske ekonomske maligne djelatnosti propale su tvornice i gradovi te porastao suicid i kriminal.

„Žrtve su stvarne. Kada bi netko napravio studiju, kladim se da je više Amerikanaca već poginulo u ovom ratu negoli u Vijetnamu ili od kraja Drugog svjetskog rata“

Upirući prstom u ploču na kojoj je pisalo ime Komiteta, završni gospodin znakovito je uzviknuo:

„Vidiš li ovo, Pekinže? Sada, ovdje, objavljujemo informacijski rat Narodnoj Republici Kini!“

Inspiracija i lajtmotiv skupa bila je često spominjana kineska knjiga „Unrestricted Warfare“ iz 1999. godine, u kojoj dva debelo umirovljena pukovnika, od kojih je jedan u trenutku publikacije knjige već dvadesetak godina bio u savezu pisaca Kine, slobodnim stilom teoretiziraju o tome kako mogu nerazvijene zemlje savladati SAD u neravnopravnom ratu.  Zanimljivu, iako opskurnu fikcijsku literaturu organizatori su tretirali kao kineski generalni plan, demonsku instrukciju nemoralnog ratovanja; dokaz da je Kina oduvijek kovala planove protiv Amerike. [4]

Poput Rusa koji dan danas Brzezinskom podmeću frazu koju nije napisao, o izgradnji novoga svijeta na pepelu Rusije i bez Rusije, ili poput vjere realnost Protokola Sionskih mudraca, ili poput vjere u autentičnost „Plana Dullesa“, članovi Komiteta su iskreno uvjereni da je to to. Look no further, rekli bi. Čak i ako nije istinito, principi i ideje imaju smisla, kažu ljudi koji žive s takvom literaturom. S takvom ekspertizom, energijom i dubinom životnog iskustva, Amerika može spavati mirno.

Ako Komitet poživi. Kineska prijetnja? Not on my nurse’s watch!

 

  1. [Already a notorious Nemesis of mine,  Ratko Knezevic is toroughly well described in this English language Serbian article. From what I have heard, all of the information from this article had been confirmed as 1:1 true by multiple intelligence agencies, while Ratko at a dinner with me refuted it all as a part of a smear campaign by Milo Dukanovic and his enemies. But this might just be a case of “he said… everybody else said?”]
  2. [Talking about smear campaigns, at the same time, he used an influental Croatian publisher and journalist Ivo Pukanic, who was later assasinated via car bomb because he knew too much, to lauch a smear campaign against Milo Dukanovic, at one point Stanko Subotic “Cane” and probably many others. So I guess he would know about smear campaigns. Luckly, my hands are clean. And his hands got other people’s blood (and money) all over them. So I guess this tactic would be futile here]
  3. [Ratko Knezevic claimed this on Facebook many times. He did not respond in any rational way to the argument that it was precisely neoliberal deregulation of the USA pharmaceutical industry, and their lobying power, that led to ten fold over prescription of opioids compared to other countries. Long story short, USA capitalists profited on legal drug peddling, and now the same people are appropriately blaming Chinese smugglers (who operate illegally in China anyway!) for the opioid crisis. Ratko’s / Bannon script, as a response to an irefutable argument: silence. Many people have noticed this behaviour. Sapienti sat.]
  4. [Interestingly enough, R.K. also pointed out this book in many of this public status updates that he wrote exactly during the time after he met with Bannon, right after his Winter skiing vacation. He documented it himself so well on Facebook that it would take any investigative journalist worth it’s salt 5 minutes to connects the dots. More on this later. But for now it is appropriate to mention that he is spreading entirely bogus quotes from this book to spread his Covid19 conspiracy theory, while no viruses or any means of biological warfare was ever mentioned in the book, as far as I can see from the Wikipedia, and while, for Certain, a 20 year old book by two retired PLA Colones did not influence Chinese strategic stance by one bit, as we see today with the new high-tech weapon systems, such as hypersonic glider missles DF-17, notorious carrier killers DF-21D,  and ICBMs DF-41, but also in the new PLA Navy build-up at a pace that the world has never seen before (citation avaiable as per request). The book is simply used as an appropriate “proof” of a giant Chinese conspiracy to take over the world, while it is in anybodies view clear, except white supremacist Bannon’s, of course, that China prospered precisely and only economically intertwined with other nations, in the times of peace and stability, bringing prosperity to Cambodia and other places that allowed her economic impact]
The text was originally published on 07.04.2019. - 22:00:26 or 7th of April, 2019. 10pm