Xi Jinping heralds 'new era' of Chinese power at Communist party congress

[amw]

Xi Jinping has heralded the dawn of a “new era” of Chinese politics and power at the start of a historic Communist party congress celebrating the end of his first term in office.

Speaking in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, at the start of the week-long 19th party congress, Xi told delegates that thanks to decades of “tireless struggle” China

Comments

[amw]

I think i mentioned this on the Catalonia posts either here or on werebel, but i am reluctant to come out too strongly as pro-independence on a lot of this stuff because a lot of the subtleties may not be clear from the outside. For example, before i came here, the western press had me believing that the Hong Kong democracy movement was some huge Arab Spring like revolution that was violently crushed by the mainland, but in reality plenty of Hongkongers are thoroughly uninterested in and even annoyed by the campaign.

There is no question non-Han ethnic groups are being oppressed in Xinjiang, but i am not sure if siding with Isis-aligned seperatists is the right move here. Xi and the conservative wing use similar arguments that Bush and the Republicans did after 9/11 - mass surveillance, illegal detention, torture etc is all just meant for the safety of the people. Of course given China is an authoritarian regime to start with they can turn it up to 11. But just like in America, the government can get away with pushing the envelope because the vast majority of people aren't affected by ethnic profiling. I think encouraging Han to care more about the lives of their non-Han countrymen may be the best way to affect Party policy on this.

[mhfromnh]

yeah, those tied up with Daesh aren't terribly sympathetic. just kinda wonder why the hell some regions (Xinjiang, Tibet) are even part of China. I always laugh at Beijing trying to act like Tibet didn't have it's own empire.

[amw]

This is one aspect of China i don't really understand - why they care about keeping their flag raised over the empty deserts on their borders. That said, having spent a bit more time here has opened my eyes to how linguistically and culturally diverse the country is, even within the Han ethnic group. Compared to India, Indonesia or many African nations it's not a particularly diverse country, but I do think it is far more diverse than many European states. So, Tibet and Xinjiang being a part of China shouldn't seem any more odd than Inner Mongolia or Hong Kong or even Shanghai.

On a more general note, i am not sure if the European approach of many tiny states participating in a weak union is better or whether the idea of a centralized state with autonomous regions is better. My sympathy to anarchism has me leaning toward the former, but how then do you solve poverty and inequality? The EU hasn't been very successful at lifting up its poorer regions, whereas China has made an effort on that front. Skeptics would say China has only done this to increase their grip, but still. I am really wrestling with these topics lately and I am not sure how to resolve my emotions. (See comments on Catalonia, Brexit etc.)

On a side note, do you know if the mods here have retired? I made another post on the CPC congress which hasn't been approved or rejected, and it seems a lot of posts here have slowed down since our sister comm opened up. I don't mind if we all move there, though i find the conversation and thought here more to my pace usually :)

[mhfromnh]

I don't know.

[moonshaz]

I don't know what's going on, but we haven't had a Shenanigans post in over a month, so if we do still have mods, they don't seem to be terribly active.

I really wouldn't blame them if they got burnt out after all the dumpster fires they had to put out prior to the election. It was pretty brutal around here for a while, but now that we're almost a year out from that, I think it would be really nice if the community could make a fresh start. I'd be glad to help, but the last time this place all but died, I emailed and posted but got no response.

Mods, are you out there? ☺

[amw]

Yep, i would also completely understand if the mods were done with policing all the trashfires. It is odd that there hasn't been a retirement modpost, though. None of us know one another IRL so i guess there could just be other things going on in their personal lives. I hope it's nothing bad! 💛 to all.

[eveofrevolution]

[amw]

Thanks for the reply! I am glad you are well and still out and about.

I am not too bothered about the shenanigans posts tbh because i am in such a different timezone, but i do miss the long reads on here like soleiltropique's work and so on. I also found the incessant argument and trolling during the election exhausting and am not surprised a lot of mothership people peaced out. I am glad werebel seems to be succeeding in covering that sort of America/Trump-centric stuff without getting too heated. But i hope _p survives too! 💕

[moonshaz]

P.S. What sister com do you mean? I must have missed that memo!

[amw]

It wasn't publicized very loud over here; i heard about it on the mothership. Basically certain VIPs at ONTD decided to crack down on the daily politics posts organized by dbil and a few other users, so they broke off and started werebel. It's a lot more light-hearted than over here - lots of fun GIFs, sarcasm and hot takes. I think it's a fun place, and a good way to keep up on American breaking news, though it doesn't tend to get as deep or international as _p.

[eveofrevolution]