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The Coming Chinese Crackup

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Authored by David Shambaugh, originally posted at The Wall Street Journal,

On Thursday, the National People’s Congress convened in Beijing in what has become a familiar annual ritual. Some 3,000 “elected” delegates from all over the country—ranging from colorfully clad ethnic minorities to urbane billionaires—will meet for a week to discuss the state of the nation and to engage in the pretense of political participation.

Some see this impressive gathering as a sign of the strength of the Chinese political system—but it masks serious weaknesses. Chinese politics has always had a theatrical veneer, with staged events like the congress intended to project the power and stability of the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP. Officials and citizens alike know that they are supposed to conform to these rituals, participating cheerfully and parroting back official slogans. This behavior is known in Chinese as biaotai, “declaring where one stands,” but it is little more than an act of symbolic compliance.

Despite appearances, China’s political system is badly broken, and nobody knows it better than the Communist Party itself. China’s strongman leader, Xi Jinping, is hoping that a crackdown on dissent and corruption will shore up the party’s rule. He is determined to avoid becoming the Mikhail Gorbachev of China, presiding over the party’s collapse. But instead of being the antithesis of Mr. Gorbachev, Mr. Xi may well wind up having the same effect. His despotism is severely stressing China’s system and society—and bringing it closer to a breaking point.

Predicting the demise of authoritarian regimes is a risky business. Few Western experts forecast the collapse of the Soviet Union before it occurred in 1991; the CIA missed it entirely. The downfall of Eastern Europe’s communist states two years earlier was similarly scorned as the wishful thinking of anticommunists—until it happened. The post-Soviet “color revolutions” in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan from 2003 to 2005, as well as the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings, all burst forth unanticipated,

China-watchers have been on high alert for telltale signs of regime decay and decline ever since the regime’s near-death experience in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Since then, several seasoned Sinologists have risked their professional reputations by asserting that the collapse of CCP rule was inevitable. Others were more cautious—myself included. But times change in China, and so must our analyses.

The endgame of Chinese communist rule has now begun, I believe, and it has progressed further than many think. We don’t know what the pathway from now until the end will look like, of course. It will probably be highly unstable and unsettled. But until the system begins to unravel in some obvious way, those inside of it will play along—thus contributing to the facade of stability.

Communist rule in China is unlikely to end quietly. A single event is unlikely to trigger a peaceful implosion of the regime. Its demise is likely to be protracted, messy and violent. I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that Mr. Xi will be deposed in a power struggle or coup d’état. With his aggressive anticorruption campaign—a focus of this week’s National People’s Congress—he is overplaying a weak hand and deeply aggravating key party, state, military and commercial constituencies.

The Chinese have a proverb, waiying, neiruan—hard on the outside, soft on the inside. Mr. Xi is a genuinely tough ruler. He exudes conviction and personal confidence. But this hard personality belies a party and political system that is extremely fragile on the inside.

Consider five telling indications of the regime’s vulnerability and the party’s systemic weaknesses.

First, China’s economic elites have one foot out the door, and they are ready to flee en masse if the system really begins to crumble. In 2014, Shanghai’s Hurun Research Institute, which studies China’s wealthy, found that 64% of the “high net worth individuals” whom it polled—393 millionaires and billionaires—were either emigrating or planning to do so. Rich Chinese are sending their children to study abroad in record numbers (in itself, an indictment of the quality of the Chinese higher-education system).

 

Just this week, the Journal reported, federal agents searched several Southern California locations that U.S. authorities allege are linked to “multimillion-dollar birth-tourism businesses that enabled thousands of Chinese women to travel here and return home with infants born as U.S. citizens.” Wealthy Chinese are also buying property abroad at record levels and prices, and they are parking their financial assets overseas, often in well-shielded tax havens and shell companies.

 

Meanwhile, Beijing is trying to extradite back to China a large number of alleged financial fugitives living abroad. When a country’s elites—many of them party members—flee in such large numbers, it is a telling sign of lack of confidence in the regime and the country’s future.

 

Second, since taking office in 2012, Mr. Xi has greatly intensified the political repression that has blanketed China since 2009. The targets include the press, social media, film, arts and literature, religious groups, the Internet, intellectuals, Tibetans and Uighurs, dissidents, lawyers, NGOs, university students and textbooks. The Central Committee sent a draconian order known as Document No. 9 down through the party hierarchy in 2013, ordering all units to ferret out any seeming endorsement of the West’s “universal values”—including constitutional democracy, civil society, a free press and neoliberal economics.

 

A more secure and confident government would not institute such a severe crackdown. It is a symptom of the party leadership’s deep anxiety and insecurity.

 

Third, even many regime loyalists are just going through the motions. It is hard to miss the theater of false pretense that has permeated the Chinese body politic for the past few years. Last summer, I was one of a handful of foreigners (and the only American) who attended a conference about the “China Dream,” Mr. Xi’s signature concept, at a party-affiliated think tank in Beijing. We sat through two days of mind-numbing, nonstop presentations by two dozen party scholars—but their faces were frozen, their body language was wooden, and their boredom was palpable. They feigned compliance with the party and their leader’s latest mantra. But it was evident that the propaganda had lost its power, and the emperor had no clothes.

 

In December, I was back in Beijing for a conference at the Central Party School, the party’s highest institution of doctrinal instruction, and once again, the country’s top officials and foreign policy experts recited their stock slogans verbatim. During lunch one day, I went to the campus bookstore—always an important stop so that I can update myself on what China’s leading cadres are being taught. Tomes on the store’s shelves ranged from Lenin’s “Selected Works” to Condoleezza Rice’s memoirs, and a table at the entrance was piled high with copies of a pamphlet by Mr. Xi on his campaign to promote the “mass line”—that is, the party’s connection to the masses. “How is this selling?” I asked the clerk. “Oh, it’s not,” she replied. “We give it away.” The size of the stack suggested it was hardly a hot item.

 

Fourth, the corruption that riddles the party-state and the military also pervades Chinese society as a whole. Mr. Xi’s anticorruption campaign is more sustained and severe than any previous one, but no campaign can eliminate the problem. It is stubbornly rooted in the single-party system, patron-client networks, an economy utterly lacking in transparency, a state-controlled media and the absence of the rule of law.

 

Moreover, Mr. Xi’s campaign is turning out to be at least as much a selective purge as an antigraft campaign. Many of its targets to date have been political clients and allies of former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin. Now 88, Mr. Jiang is still the godfather figure of Chinese politics. Going after Mr. Jiang’s patronage network while he is still alive is highly risky for Mr. Xi, particularly since Mr. Xi doesn’t seem to have brought along his own coterie of loyal clients to promote into positions of power. Another problem: Mr. Xi, a child of China’s first-generation revolutionary elites, is one of the party’s “princelings,” and his political ties largely extend to other princelings. This silver-spoon generation is widely reviled in Chinese society at large.

 

Finally, China’s economy—for all the Western views of it as an unstoppable juggernaut—is stuck in a series of systemic traps from which there is no easy exit. In November 2013, Mr. Xi presided over the party’s Third Plenum, which unveiled a huge package of proposed economic reforms, but so far, they are sputtering on the launchpad. Yes, consumer spending has been rising, red tape has been reduced, and some fiscal reforms have been introduced, but overall, Mr. Xi’s ambitious goals have been stillborn. The reform package challenges powerful, deeply entrenched interest groups—such as state-owned enterprises and local party cadres—and they are plainly blocking its implementation.

These five increasingly evident cracks in the regime’s control can be fixed only through political reform. Until and unless China relaxes its draconian political controls, it will never become an innovative society and a “knowledge economy”—a main goal of the Third Plenum reforms. The political system has become the primary impediment to China’s needed social and economic reforms. If Mr. Xi and party leaders don’t relax their grip, they may be summoning precisely the fate they hope to avoid.

In the decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the upper reaches of China’s leadership have been obsessed with the fall of its fellow communist giant. Hundreds of Chinese postmortem analyses have dissected the causes of the Soviet disintegration.

Mr. Xi’s real “China Dream” has been to avoid the Soviet nightmare. Just a few months into his tenure, he gave a telling internal speech ruing the Soviet Union’s demise and bemoaning Mr. Gorbachev’s betrayals, arguing that Moscow had lacked a “real man” to stand up to its reformist last leader. Mr. Xi’s wave of repression today is meant to be the opposite of Mr. Gorbachev’s perestroika and glasnost. Instead of opening up, Mr. Xi is doubling down on controls over dissenters, the economy and even rivals within the party.

But reaction and repression aren’t Mr. Xi’s only option. His predecessors, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, drew very different lessons from the Soviet collapse. From 2000 to 2008, they instituted policies intended to open up the system with carefully limited political reforms.

They strengthened local party committees and experimented with voting for multicandidate party secretaries. They recruited more businesspeople and intellectuals into the party. They expanded party consultation with nonparty groups and made the Politburo’s proceedings more transparent. They improved feedback mechanisms within the party, implemented more meritocratic criteria for evaluation and promotion, and created a system of mandatory midcareer training for all 45 million state and party cadres. They enforced retirement requirements and rotated officials and military officers between job assignments every couple of years.

In effect, for a while Mr. Jiang and Mr. Hu sought to manage change, not to resist it. But Mr. Xi wants none of this. Since 2009 (when even the heretofore open-minded Mr. Hu changed course and started to clamp down), an increasingly anxious regime has rolled back every single one of these political reforms (with the exception of the cadre-training system). These reforms were masterminded by Mr. Jiang’s political acolyte and former vice president, Zeng Qinghong, who retired in 2008 and is now under suspicion in Mr. Xi’s anticorruption campaign—another symbol of Mr. Xi’s hostility to the measures that might ease the ills of a crumbling system.

Some experts think that Mr. Xi’s harsh tactics may actually presage a more open and reformist direction later in his term. I don’t buy it. This leader and regime see politics in zero-sum terms: Relaxing control, in their view, is a sure step toward the demise of the system and their own downfall. They also take the conspiratorial view that the U.S. is actively working to subvert Communist Party rule. None of this suggests that sweeping reforms are just around the corner.

We cannot predict when Chinese communism will collapse, but it is hard not to conclude that we are witnessing its final phase. The CCP is the world’s second-longest ruling regime (behind only North Korea), and no party can rule forever.

Looking ahead, China-watchers should keep their eyes on the regime’s instruments of control and on those assigned to use those instruments. Large numbers of citizens and party members alike are already voting with their feet and leaving the country or displaying their insincerity by pretending to comply with party dictates.

We should watch for the day when the regime’s propaganda agents and its internal security apparatus start becoming lax in enforcing the party’s writ—or when they begin to identify with dissidents, like the East German Stasi agent in the film “The Lives of Others” who came to sympathize with the targets of his spying. When human empathy starts to win out over ossified authority, the endgame of Chinese communism will really have begun.

 

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Fri, 03/13/2015 - 21:53 | 5887673 BaghdadBob
BaghdadBob's picture

I love toast. Such a satisfying comfort food.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 21:59 | 5887687 Millivanilli
Millivanilli's picture

murka' too.   The great depression is ON.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:25 | 5887765 Publicus
Publicus's picture

China existed long before the United States, and will continue to exist long after the United States is gone.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:32 | 5887787 tarabel
tarabel's picture

 

 

I suspect that America has been on the planet about as long as China. Okay, apart from geology, with that famed 5000 year head start, China sure hasn't got much of a lead, if you ask me.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:54 | 5887834 Publicus
Publicus's picture

People as uninformed and as gullible as Americans have no future. Americans are a dead people that history is about to run over. - Paul Craig Roberts

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 01:13 | 5888044 JLee2027
JLee2027's picture

The guy's in the business of controversal quotes to make money. He's sells columns, aka "news" to subscribers.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 01:38 | 5888073 garypaul
garypaul's picture

Yeah that guy's pretty flakey. I prefer to listen to David Stockman.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 07:40 | 5888342 negative rates
negative rates's picture

Oriely doin everything he can to keep his side stable, it still aint nearly enough, snowball, hill, coming down.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 10:00 | 5888506 Canary Paint
Canary Paint's picture

He is not flaky. He's angry and disillusioned. That may cloud his analysis, but his dissenting views tend to be a breath of fresh air IMO.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 17:22 | 5889521 iofera
iofera's picture

Paul Craig Roberts believe 9/11 was an inside job and there was no moon landing.

Next week he's coming out with a column that purports Barack Obama is actually the Hamburglar in disguise.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:55 | 5887836 Oracle of Kypseli
Oracle of Kypseli's picture

<<China sure hasn't got much of a lead, if you ask me.>>

The English Empire destroyed a few generations of Chinese exchanging opium for tea through East Indian Trading Co. That set them back to square one. 

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 23:00 | 5887847 TheFourthStooge-ing
TheFourthStooge-ing's picture

.

The English Empire destroyed a few generations of Chinese exchanging opium for tea through East Indian Trading Co. That set them back to square one.

Television, prescription drugs, and debt are performing the same function in the US.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 23:17 | 5887872 Ms. Erable
Ms. Erable's picture

Mao completed the job the English started, so, no, China has not been around for 5,000 years - save only in name. The only similarity between modern and ancient Chinese is that they still have a fuckload of dirt-poor, illiterate retards that shit by the side of the road.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 23:50 | 5887932 Government need...
Government needs you to pay taxes's picture

"a fuckload of dirt-poor, illiterate retards that shit by the side of the road."

Talkin' bout China or Detroit?

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 01:18 | 5888047 JLee2027
JLee2027's picture

No doubt the Chinese are smart and hard working. The difference is the hive mentality versus rugged American independance. America could be destroyed, nothing standing and we will rebuild. China? Not so much. They would wait and copy America once again.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 03:49 | 5888157 zhandax
zhandax's picture

Face facts, JL, the generation where "rugged American independence" was in the majority are dying off.  There are still plenty of younger examples around, but they are so outnumbered by the FSA, there is no chance of change until TSHTF.  I take no joy in this outlook, and encourage anyone who has facts to the contrary to refute it.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 09:34 | 5888456 TheReplacement
TheReplacement's picture

Can't dispute our observation but your point still validates his.  We do have rugged individualists where they do not.  Ours will rebuild.  There just aren't as many as there used to be so fewer will survive and rebuilding will take longer.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 10:03 | 5888511 Muh Raf
Muh Raf's picture

Actually the opium history is a bit more complex than described, it wasn't a barter for tea. The Chinks ended up with nearly all the British stock of silver through tea purchase. That's when Iraqi jew Sassoon came up with a cunning plan to get the silver back - sell them something addictive. He got permission from the British government to be their official agent in the deal, taking a commission on the heroin. The Chinese government was not keen on the idea of their countrymen becoming a nation of junkies and resisted the idea. Hence the opium wars where the Brits kicked the shit out of the Chinks until they took a deep draw on the pipes. There are docks named after Sassoon in Shanghai to this day, I've been there.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 15:01 | 5889162 Herd Redirectio...
Herd Redirection Committee's picture

(Boomer) Americans have let the younger generation down.  They haven't provided them with ANY experience (you know, work experience) or opportunity for leadership.  Thats a big part of the current problems.  (Young) people think getting a job at a big corporation is their meal ticket.   The rat race!  Now where did they get that idea? 

How come there aren't more (young people) involved in manufacturing and farming?  (insert long story about how jobs were outsourced and family farms squeezed and forced to sell)

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 06:45 | 5888286 The Wizard
The Wizard's picture

America has created a welfare state with open borders bringing in multiple cultures promoting an ideology of diversity being good for the country. America has destroyed its culture with multiculturalism and is paying for it. Multiculturalism = no culture. The Chinese on the other hand have not destroyed their culture but have allowed a bunch of NWO thugs take control over the country forcing them into a system of slavery. In both situations slavery is the outcome, In America it is voluntary, in China it is forced, though I see a forceful system of slavery evolving in the US. Traditional American independence was lost when its history was covered over in the educational sytem and media. Just observe the general population and electoratoral pool. The question remains whether a multicultural State can revive this sense of independence and, if so, under what conditions.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 09:35 | 5888458 TheReplacement
TheReplacement's picture

There are 1.3 Billion Chinese.  Their slavery is as voluntary as anyone else's.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 09:54 | 5888498 Grimaldus
Grimaldus's picture

Good post.

Grimaldus

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 06:43 | 5888277 ThirteenthFloor
ThirteenthFloor's picture

Mao was put into power by the elite over Chiang kai-shek when he refused to be imperialistic over south east Asia. Read the Tehran conferences, where Big boy Churchill wanted China to take charge in Indochina rage a war or two (elite had planned Vietnam and Korean by '45) and Kai-shek refused and Winston had his famous temper tantrum. Mao also brought in western cigarettes as a promise, which the American tobacco companies were every so grateful for, kept them in new Cadillacs for years and now Mercedes.

Americans with their red white blue underwear crack me up. The Chinese built the US's intercontinental railroad, less they forget EA Harriman was importing off shore labor back then, which he learned from Adam Smith and his invisible hand (dick). Keep playing the communists vs. capitalists game idiots ! The rich will LOVE you for it !

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 06:45 | 5888288 Apostate2
Apostate2's picture

You do know that Mao had opium traded for his addictive cigs. Read his physician's book-Li Zhisui. A real eye-opener. Best in Chinese, the English version is, um white-washed a bit.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 10:27 | 5888539 ThirteenthFloor
ThirteenthFloor's picture

Thanks. Was not defending any political pawn in post. I was pointing out that all countries have been pawns of the rich. Most Americans that think they have a better 'system' are simply ignorant. American industrialists funded Hitler. American industrialist were funded by the Rothschilds. It's a rich mans game.

TV Soong became one of the richest men in the world by stealing China central bank gold and investing in General Motors and DuPont at FDRs request to help America out of depression. He told TV Soong then that WW2 would come (he knew in advance WW2 would involve America) promising TV Soong he would be rich, since DuPont supplied the gun powder and GM the hardware. Look up TV Soong folks.

FDR's father was in shipping of some was China opium.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 08:10 | 5888361 winchester
winchester's picture

as n****** always made in whole africa from 1700 to 2015.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 08:47 | 5888379 RagnarRedux
RagnarRedux's picture
Haaretz: Global Trade Tycoon David Sassoon 

"Sassoon initially owned a counting house and a carpet warehouse, but soon began trading in everything he could, including, most profitably, opium."

"Sassoon established a triangle of trade, bringing Indian opium and cotton to China, where he received silver, tea and silk in exchange. He then carried these products to England for sale. Finished products from Britain, as well as cash, were then brought back to India where they were used to buy more opium."

"By the 1870s, David Sassoon had come to dominate the trade of opium to China, having pushed the British firm Jardine Matheson and the “Parsi” traders of Bombay out of the business."

"In Jewish history books, David Sassoon, an observant Jew, is remembered mostly for his philanthropy, which included the construction of “Baghdadi” synagogues in Bombay (Magen David) and Pune (Ohel David)..." 

http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/this-day-in-jewish-history/this-day...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRDvHm-wa68

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 15:12 | 5889188 Herd Redirectio...
Herd Redirection Committee's picture

Philanthropy, the classic tax dodge/PR move of the ultrarich...

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:58 | 5887840 Eirik Magnus Larssen
Eirik Magnus Larssen's picture

Forecasts of governments quickly losing legitimacy are usually wrong. It is a slow and visible process, like rivers eroding mountains.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 03:00 | 5888131 August
August's picture

As has been said before in these very pages, nobody circles the drain better than Amurica.

(though I must admit that the European elites lie with greater flair)

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 08:24 | 5888376 Your guess is a...
Your guess is as good as mine's picture

For centuries now, America has done everything it can to destroy, defile, and interfere with nature: clear-cutting forests, strip-mining mountains, poisoning the atmosphere, over-fishing the oceans, polluting the rivers and lakes, destroying wetlands and aquifers.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 01:19 | 5888040 Flatchestynerdette
Flatchestynerdette's picture

What happened to all the talk of China going with Russia to set up a new banking system to destroy America hegemony?

Guess American hegemony wins again and will continue to Dow 40,000 as it stays the worlds default currency.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 04:47 | 5888208 random999
random999's picture

usa and china, two huge cancers on this planet. what a perfect match! 

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 09:31 | 5888448 TheReplacement
TheReplacement's picture

For all the downvoters, how is this not a valid observation? 

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 04:10 | 5888089 Dubaibanker
Dubaibanker's picture

The death of China is greatly exaggerated!

An opinion is like an asshole, everyone has one!

To understand the growth of China, you have to see the combined statistics of the last 3 decades. the speed and volume both are more than anything that may be explained even by Physics. 

While we keep debating for the last decade that they will collapse, China keeps adding to itself one UK sized economy every 3 years and the economy the size of Saudi and Denmark combined every year!

More in my research from 2013 here:

http://www.slideshare.net/mnathani/understanding-the-coming-domination-o...

The Chinese currency keeps growing in global stature and now is also Top 5 in trade in 2014: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internationalization_of_the_renminbi

This is the report US Congress prepares and sees which is not promoted by MSM or US banks because how will the Western banks make money for themselves if they advised their clients to also enter China: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL33534.pdf

What also the MSM will not tell you is that China was the best performing stock market in the world amongst large nations in 2014.

If you remove Argentina which was technically No 1 but lost over 25% of its currency value in 2014 and its stock market was even better performing than China.

But despite the currency remaining flattish, depending on when and if you invested in China from Jan to Dec 2014, their stock markets rose solidly. Shenzen Stock exchange was even better performing than Shanghai and the Composite.

Here is CNBS: http://www.cnbc.com/id/102302943

For anyone who is open minded and willing to listen should see the 5 predictions for China in 2015: 

Jack Perkowski: Five Predictions For China In The Year Of The Goat

As I said, the Govts, banks, large corporations and research houses, including ZH, keep telling us that a collapse is coming, however, one example I provide is the Swiss who are investing billions and advising all Swiss companies to invest in China.  

         More than 78% of Swiss companies expect “higher” or “substantially higher” sales in Chi- na this year, while only less than 2% expect lower sales, according to the 2015 Swiss Business in China survey. The 2014 survey identified 13% of firms expecting lower sales

         For a third year in a row Swiss businesses expect to grow faster in China, despite slowing economic growth. 

 

If China was slowing down and foreigners were worried, well, they are not showing any signs of the same. Last year, China beat United States to become the No 1 FDI recepient in the world which shows that foreigners continue to invest heavily into China. And the speed is growing.....

 

China’s FDI grows fastest in 4 years 

Then we have the Germans all excited about China because all Chinese banks have entered Frankfurt.

Financial Centre of Frankfurt: Upwards with China - Helaba

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 09:40 | 5888465 TheReplacement
TheReplacement's picture

And it is all based on fiat debt - lies.  All they have done is front loaded a lot of nice(r) things than they had before.  Now comes the part where they have to pay for it all.  The existing system will not survive.

Sat, 03/21/2015 - 17:00 | 5889309 Max Steel
Max Steel's picture

 Namaste ;)

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 07:40 | 5888341 wildbad
wildbad's picture

IMO the USA is already 'gone'.  in fact in this article, one could replace the word "China" with %any_country%.  Itsa global race to the cliff edge.  its not like the cheap thrill of a china collapse will allow the US or the EU to declare some kind of moral supremacy.  these frigates are all chained together and will crash within minutes of each other.

 

but that's just "MyFatAss Opinion"

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 10:23 | 5888557 ich1baN
ich1baN's picture

China has only been around since 1949 October 1.... there is no similarity between current china and monarchist China... none at all. Indeed, Mao, tried to delete all of China's history out of the collective memory because he wanted to show how Communist China was different.

 

So in reality, that is a very terrible comparison you just made. 

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 12:10 | 5888793 Exponere Mendaces
Exponere Mendaces's picture

@Publicus, you hit it on the head.

There's a big difference between China and America.

Chinese people actually work hard. Americans just do just enough to "get by". It shows in all aspects of American society. Go to the brainless nine-to-five during the week, kill the braincells during the weekend watching TV and drinking beer.

 

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 12:39 | 5888856 froze25
froze25's picture

Hence the well made durability of Chinese goods...?

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 12:37 | 5888852 froze25
froze25's picture

That is factual but out of the context of the article.  I believe communism will fail the country may remain.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:29 | 5887775 Stuck on Zero
Stuck on Zero's picture

More leaders should learn Boyle's law.  The harder you clamp down on a system the higher the pressure and the greater the temperature.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:56 | 5887837 TheFourthStooge-ing
TheFourthStooge-ing's picture

Giving the boot to US NGOs like USAID, National Endowment for Democracy, Freedom House, Human Rights Watch, et al., would make an ideal pressure relief valve.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 06:41 | 5888282 Apostate2
Apostate2's picture

Obviously in your 4th-rate stooging you do not know that the Chinese gov.-i.e. the Party is cracking down on not just foreign NGOs ( not surprisingly, will be chucked out) but the Domestic NGOs with a new law that they will have to be registered, controlled and otherwise be put out of business. So civil society has put on the snuff-out list. That is why, for an example, the film on pollution has been censored.

Do you think that Domestic NGO's should be banned? If so, where do you stand on citizens in their own country expressing their view on the direction of their country?  

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 11:36 | 5888712 Augustus
Augustus's picture

The problem with the NGOs, from the Party view, is that all of them are alternatives to assistance and outside of Party control.  They also show that the Party is not able to do everything.  When assistance comes from outside the "network" of the incompetent government it breaks down the Lord and Vassel dependency.  Also important to remember is the Loss of Face component of offering the alternative.

Compare to US where no one in government is concerned about the actions and programs of Salvation Army.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 12:02 | 5888782 Apostate2
Apostate2's picture

Yes, indeed. I know and commented on this previously.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 11:49 | 5888750 lincolnsteffens
lincolnsteffens's picture

One could delete China and insert USA without changing much else and get a higher ZH approval ratio.

Just sayin'.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:05 | 5887699 one_hundred
one_hundred's picture

I'm making over $7k a month working part time. I kept hearing other people tell me how much money they can make online so I decided to look into it. Well, it was all true and has totally changed my life. This is what I do... www.globe-report.com

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:30 | 5887776 tarabel
tarabel's picture

 

 

I got that beat all to hell and back. All I had to do was move to China and go to work for StupidEarthlings.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:34 | 5887791 Taint Boil
Taint Boil's picture

 

 

Well smear my ears with jam and tie me to an ant hill; is it possible to send you a check directly and by-pass the middle man?

Thanks in advance.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 00:56 | 5888032 HolyfieldsOtherEar
HolyfieldsOtherEar's picture

Me too! The money should start rolling in any minute now. Visit me at www.fatguywithhisdickoutonawebcam.com.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 01:21 | 5888046 Flatchestynerdette
Flatchestynerdette's picture

double post - sorry

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 05:49 | 5888251 GCT
GCT's picture

Sounds like the same thing we are doing in the USA these days.  Re-read the article and insert the USA instead of China.  I am not saying China is any better but our politicians are doing the same shit to us. 

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:01 | 5887686 Creepy A. Cracker
Creepy A. Cracker's picture

Can a communist country really crack up?  I mean, communism is the ultimate crackup in and of itself.  They can un-crack up.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:26 | 5887767 bbq on whitehou...
bbq on whitehouse lawn's picture

Chinese arn't communist, they are the borg. China has been and will always be a dynastic tyrany. Its an east west thing. Built on vary old and vary rigid philosophy. Xi is just doing some house cleaning as every single other tyrant has done. Move other families out and his in.

This is how its done in China. Those who are kick out are lucky if they escape with their lives. Old Wall street can't seem to wrap their heads around killing your partners when they lose an election. To old walls street elections are just a game, but the chinese take games vary seriously.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 10:03 | 5888513 Grimaldus
Grimaldus's picture

Bingo--There it is. Good post.

Chinese tyrants can do tyranny like no other, they have murdered TENS of MILLIONS of their OWN people. And that is just in the last 100 years. ZH folks try to wrap your head around the huge scale of murder that involves and then tell me if you still respect the Chinese system in ANY way.

Grimaldus

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 11:12 | 5888673 STP
STP's picture

I read the book, "Three Swans", which was a real eye opener, to how ruthless a regime, like Mao's can be.  Add incredibly stupid decisions and the unwillingness to fix them, because doing that would cause "loss of face", a very powerful thing imin Oriental thinking and you have huge disasters.  A prime example was Mao's drive to convert every Chinese resource to making steel.  This was the cause of the Great Famine, because even agriculture was pushed aside, to meet the production of steel.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:44 | 5887815 Dead Canary
Dead Canary's picture

It will crackup-er.

"We cracked up some folks"

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:03 | 5887693 Condition 1SQ
Condition 1SQ's picture

If you thought US crack was tough on the body, just wait until you try Chinese crack.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:04 | 5887694 roddy6667
roddy6667's picture

I guess Americans didn't get the memo. China hasn't been commanunist since 1978. When you have free enterprise, private banking, private property, and the freedom to travel, you do not meet any description of communism.

Cina does capitalism better than America. It is easier to start a company and get rich in China than in America.

It really irks me when   people who have never spent any time in China write articles about it as if they knew something.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 23:29 | 5887883 The_Dude
The_Dude's picture

Someone forgot to tell the roughly 250 million peasant migrant workers with practically zero rights that they were part of a free capitalists society....

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hukou_system

Did people switch from beer to koolaide tonight?

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 06:35 | 5888279 roddy6667
roddy6667's picture

They live all around me in their barracks-like buildings. I watch them work every day. they are not like you imagine. You can only imagine because you have probably never seen one. 

The government is revising the hukou system right now. Huge amounts of housing are being built for them as we type. As new manufacturing jobs are brought on line and construction slows down, they will change from rural migrant worker to urban factory worker. Right now, they do  all the hard work and wire money back to their families. The average construction worker living in a temporary building makes as much as a recent college graduate.

It's not all gloom and doom here. Turn off Fox News and leave your trailer park now and then. Maybe get a passport and see how the rest of the world lives. Mmmmm kay?

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 10:05 | 5888517 Grimaldus
Grimaldus's picture

Modern Chinese slavery. Stay there if you like it so much.

Grimaldus

 

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 09:47 | 5888485 TheReplacement
TheReplacement's picture

Your definition of capitalism is broken.  Central bank debt fueled fiat is not the basis of capitalism.  It is the basis of, initially, very subtle control.  Capitalism cannot be controlled like that else it becomes something else entirely.  Neither we nor the Chinese have capitalistic systems.  We have some variation of socialist systems.

Pull your head out.

 

PS - Who are the 25 dumbshits who upvoted this nonsense?  This is Zerohedge FFS.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:05 | 5887697 Omega_Man
Omega_Man's picture

Current Chinese regime will prob outlast the US kabal dictatorship

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:30 | 5887709 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

 I'm no PBoC "fan boy", but you should focus on the the origination of the problem Tyler.

 Europe & U.S. are 100x more indebted.(derivatives)

 I believe in freedom. I believe in our forefathers description, definition, of freedom.

( The Constitution of The United States of America)

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:30 | 5887778 Anusocracy
Anusocracy's picture

And I believe that I should be free of your concept of freedom.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:39 | 5887803 Anusocracy
Anusocracy's picture

Down-voted by a meat-puppet control freak.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 09:50 | 5888491 TheReplacement
TheReplacement's picture

By the definition of his concept of freedom, you are.  Of course, if your definition involves coming and taking from me then your concept is gonna get one of us killed.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:10 | 5887711 FieldingMellish
FieldingMellish's picture

WSJ? Seriously?

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:15 | 5887729 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

 Give us a better source? I picked WSJ over (3) other options.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:30 | 5887722 Taint Boil
Taint Boil's picture

 

 

Propaganda ………. It’s what they* want you to think is happening.

*They = USA

 

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:14 | 5887726 Kilobar
Kilobar's picture

China is a capitalist country with a socialist ideology whereas America is a socialist country with a capitalist ideology. There is no way in hell China will politically implode.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:31 | 5887782 bbq on whitehou...
bbq on whitehouse lawn's picture

China is renewed with each implosion, and there have been many. Long history, they been there, done that and wrote a few books on the subject.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 23:14 | 5887865 jaxville
jaxville's picture

China has morphed into an almost picture perfect form of fascism.  Many companies there do quite well because of their relationship with government. 

  That has resulted in a huge amount of malinvestment but it has also developed infrastructure that will mitigate the coming economic slowdown.  I am not so sure the the Party will face a concerted effort for their removal by the public.

  Even the author of this piece notes that those who are unhappy can leave the nation and are doing so.  If the Soviet politburo allowed unhappy Russians to leave as suggested by Khrushchev, they might still be around.

   There will be discontent as prosperity declines but if the party handles things without giving the average citizen the impression of oppression,  they will be around for some years yet.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:18 | 5887739 Jack Burton
Jack Burton's picture

Few Western experts forecast the collapse of the Soviet Union before it occurred in 1991

Right! They did not forecast it, because they did not want it to happen and they feared it would happen. Western experts all served the military industrial complex. They all feed off of anti Soviet military spending and intelligence spending. IF the USSR collapsed, they saw a dim future for themselves and their unlimited budgets. The CIA never saw it coming, never informed the President it could happen. When it did happen, a major panic spread like wildfire across Washington DC. Many hundreds of thousands of high paid jobs, and millions of military jobs hung in the balance. No enemy, then why fund all this military industrial complex. The panic led to a desperate effort to invent enemies. 


Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:22 | 5887753 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

  1989?

 Keep up the good work Jack. I agree with your "inventing enemies" comment. ;-)

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:39 | 5887800 bbq on whitehou...
bbq on whitehouse lawn's picture

USSR didn't collapse, people just got up and left. Millions of people just packed their bags and left for the borders. Then the USSR stopped working.
The lession is, when the herd wants to move they move. Its the desison makers who are left behind wondering where the herd ran off to.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:52 | 5887827 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

 I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but a lot of'eastern european' undesireables appeared after the " supposed" wall went down. 1989-'90

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:21 | 5887751 RMolineaux
RMolineaux's picture

This piece is bald-faced propaganda.  The demise of the Soviet Union was forseen by many analysts but they were shouted out by the war-mongering neocons who wished to continue and expand their hostile activities for their own benefit in the neocon/zionist/pentagon cabal.  The various "color" revolutions were planned well ahead by this same gang.  They were certainly well anticipated by the perpetrators, although honest and loyal citizens may have been unaware.  Now this same gang is trying to reignite the cold war in a futile attempt to weaken Russia by installing a nazi regime on their doorstep.  There is no limit to their malevolence.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:28 | 5887770 Condition 1SQ
Condition 1SQ's picture

The Soviets had borrowed heavily from bankers and the "fall" of the Soviet Union was little more than a controlled transition to a system of government actually capable of repaying the bankers.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:27 | 5887760 StupidEarthlings
StupidEarthlings's picture

" i guess Americans didn't get the memo. China hasn't been commanunist since 1978. When you have free enterprise, private banking, private property, and the freedom to travel, you do not meet any description of communism.

 

China does capitalism better than America. It is easier to start a company and get rich in China than in America."

 

It really irks me when   people who have never spent any time in China"..

 

A FUCKIN MEN.

maybe nothing CAN last forever...BUT... china got to be the monster it was ONLY BY selling crap to all you losers.BUT.... Just like the US did 100+ years ago..china can do too. Selling its goods INSIDE its borders. 

China has ALLL the resources it needs to have its own revolution. 

God damn i dont have the patience to go into all the details. .but on zh, i shldnt need to for fucks sake.

 

Why the hell you think china is tanking os beyond me. Chinas shitty plastic toy sales across the globe may dwindle... but let me put it into perspective (for the retards).

 

1. People think china sells crappy plastic shit.

Well..they do. BUT ITS BECAUSE THIS CHEAP SHIT IS DESIGNED BY AMERICANS. Made according to the fuckin blueprints.

 

Look..i don't have time or patients for this tonight. .but.. I work with chinese companies that make aircraft engine components (for GE AND pratt)..and it AINT CHEAP PLASTIC SHIT. IT IS 100% According to spec.

 

Assholes..it aint china that fucked you..its your country. 

 

Send me a message if you want further information bout this shit. 

 

Fucktards

 

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:28 | 5887771 Taint Boil
Taint Boil's picture

Beautiful rant and spot on. Too funny and so true .....

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 23:08 | 5887859 Oracle of Kypseli
Oracle of Kypseli's picture

I once helped a friend wanting stuff from China and contacted the Chinese export offices. The way they work is: Tell us what you want, how much you want to pay for each piece and how many containers per year you guarantee. 

Quality will match your criteria.

Can you blame them?

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:49 | 5887821 g speed
g speed's picture

Think chinese aircraft carriers--gotta love those huh? 

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 23:42 | 5887920 The_Dude
The_Dude's picture

Just don't ask them to design it themselves....

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 02:53 | 5888125 SubjectivObject
SubjectivObject's picture

From the context of metallic piping components, the quality you inspect for is the quality you get.  Amerwreckan Co.s cut costs at every opportunity, and on-site second or third party QC is among the first to get cut.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:41 | 5887795 Kina
Kina's picture

mainland chinese people generally believe in authoritarian dictatorial rule.more than 2000 years of it. its local corruption that they hate. 

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 04:23 | 5888191 ebear
ebear's picture

The two tend to go together, don't they?

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:47 | 5887820 Joebloinvestor
Joebloinvestor's picture

Taiwan ver 2.0

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 22:52 | 5887830 YHC-FTSE
YHC-FTSE's picture

Sounds like one of those articles you see as a prelude to a colour revolution being cooked up in a corner office at Langley to get the public to accept that the chaos they create is real and spontaneous. Funny how these things pop up just after the Chinese deals with Russia, announcing to the world the future implementations of CIPS and the BRICS New Development Bank (Alternative to the IMF & World Bank).

I think the chinese already got the memo about Operation Gladio B and the shit the CIA sponsored Turks are pulling with the Uighurs. If they don't have contingency plans for a "spontaneous" colour revolution then they're all idiots. I thought the neo-cons would use Japan to start a pivot in the East, but I guess they are going to try the cheap and cheerful propaganda crap they used on HK first.

These days all you have to do is follow the US State Dept travel itinerary to predict where riots, wars, murders, and terrorists will strike in the next few months.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 23:00 | 5887849 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

 Why would any intelligent person junk that comment?

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 23:06 | 5887856 TheFourthStooge-ing
TheFourthStooge-ing's picture

An intelligent person wouldn't. A less than intelligent person might junk it simply for a potato.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 23:13 | 5887863 Yen Cross
Yen Cross's picture

  Let's discuss derivatives?

 TheFourthStooge-ing > Where's CDAD

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 23:52 | 5887937 Karaio
Karaio's picture

2 Ttolls (-)

5 Sensatos (+)

hehe

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 01:02 | 5888036 reader2010
reader2010's picture

From what I read online it seems the student protest in Hong Kong last year was financed and supported by a major foreign power.  The Chinese state-controlled media capped the casualty data of a numerous Islamic suicide attacks on civilians and police in Xijiang region (rumor mill saying about 400 people had died since the beginning of 2015). There are credible sources pointing to a major western power that is financing and training those Chinese Islamic militants in the nearby boarding countries. 

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 06:25 | 5888269 Apostate2
Apostate2's picture

Hmm, 'what you read online". Well perhaps you didn't read that the HK Federation of Students who funded the campaign have opened their books to show no foreign donations or influence. The internet is a dangerous and faulty source without due diligence. And the Xinjiang attacks and response have not been verified, though many reports in the Chinese press. If anyone is training those militants it is the Islamists not your so-called 'west'.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 09:21 | 5888432 YHC-FTSE
YHC-FTSE's picture

You might want to do a bit of due diligence yourself.

Leaders of the HK occupy movement have been busted. GW did a good expose of them here. The student leader Mr.Wong spent some time as a guest in Macau in 2011 at the invitation of the American Chamber of Commerce. Where did this meeting take place? Venetian Macao owned by the Sands Corp - yep the very one owned SHELDON ADELSON, the American oligarch behind Benjamin Netenyahu. Sometimes I seriously cannot believe these zionists popping up at the centre of every disgusting criminal plot to make this world even more unpleasant than it already is.

As for the Uighurs, you might want to google "Sibel Edmonds - Operation Gladio B" to verify beyond any doubt that there is a serious concerted effort to foster terrorism in NW China by the CIA. Although I don't share her views on Edward Snowden, her research is very thorough and verifiable on the subject of Gladio B.

Here's a youtube interview to get you started: Sibel Edmonds interview. It was a shocking revelation for me when I first saw it.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 11:55 | 5888762 Apostate2
Apostate2's picture

GW as a 'reliable source'? That article he wrote was riddled with falsehoods and unverifiable contentions. For that reason I stopped reading his posts on this site. Mr Wong is not a member of the HKFS that is comprised of over 51K students from the eight tertiary institutions of HK (who helped to fund the protests). No one cares about him. As for the attacks in Xinjiang (on-going) even the Chinese gov has stated that it is Islamist terrorists in the ME and in the region who are 'fostering' these attacks. Not your all-seeing, all-knowing CIA. They do not have that particular capability although I understand your wish that it be so. Your speculations based on these pathetic sources that  ' verify beyond any doubt' is risible. And feeble. 

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 16:22 | 5889342 Dearlydeparted
Dearlydeparted's picture

If anyone is training those militants it is the Islamists not your so-called 'west'.

That's a good one.Lol!



Sat, 03/14/2015 - 16:18 | 5889330 Dearlydeparted
Dearlydeparted's picture

@ YHC-FTSE

Very insightful comment on your part. The article above reeks of neocon agit trope .

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 23:01 | 5887850 Wolf in the Wilds
Wolf in the Wilds's picture

What a joke of an article.  Those who live in China surely do not think that is the case.  Unlike the rest of the western world, the Chinese actually want Xi to continue to clean house.  He enjoys the greatest domestic support. (http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/china-president-xi-most-supported-wor...)  So pardon me if I call the Wall Street Journal a whole load of crock.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 23:55 | 5887942 Casey Stengel
Casey Stengel's picture

Exactly. I live in China. Most folks like what he's doing. They know that it's largely a show but that is Chinese culture and indirect communication. People talk about this crackdown and tell me the story about the tiger and the monkey. I've heard this more than twenty times. It's comical to read stories of Xi's demise. I also suspect that all the talk of Chinese economic meltdown will be much like recession in the US in the 50"s. We had s slowdown but we didn't collaspe and kept right on living and growing. It's in the script. China is not going away.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 00:00 | 5887950 dag
dag's picture

Been in China since 1979.  Seen it all and still watching.

Critics of the writer are little sillies who do not know that change is coming.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 06:44 | 5888285 IronForge
IronForge's picture

Concur.

Doom Pr0n that shouldn't have made it into the WSJ - or Here.  Sorry, Yen Cross.

Many of us are all for the Cleanup.  It's looked upon positively in JPN Newsfeeds too.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 23:29 | 5887887 Dathedr
Dathedr's picture

WSJ is a Jew Murdoch's owned media, and, as we all well know, Jew Murdoch is an employee of Rothschild-Rockefeller syndicate like that notorious other Jew named Soros. What they are projecting here is their wishes. No doubt those Western oligarchs running the governments and owning the corporate media would like to see China turned into Japan or even worse (can't help but not to think those Anglozionists see over a billion of Chinese a nuisance they would rather not have around if they could, do you?). No doubt they would like to get their hands on China, to start again where those Opium wars of theirs have stopped. Only thing you wont hear on that Western oligarch's media is a ruined state of all Western countries which they run. +90% countries in so-called West are bankrupt. Only Germany, Lichenstein and Luxemburg still stand in a way of total bankrupcy of Anglozionist empire. America is running a trillion after trillion in deficits; government (federal and local) and household's debt is around 60 trillion plus a few hundred of trillions unaccounted derivatives designed to mask the real height of debt, yet what is it you hear on their airwaves of propaganda, hm? You hear how prosperous, growing and sound America is. Well, China, unlike America, is not bankrupt: not in financial, industrial or moral/spiritual sense. China produces pretty much everything she needs and has plenty for export too, whereas in the so-called West only Ponzi schemes, lies, propaganda, deceits, frauds, deceptions and degenerations are thoughtfully being tended and grown. I think we all know whose state of affairs are trustworthy and sound here. It's not the Anglozionist's.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 00:14 | 5887969 debunkit
debunkit's picture

Boo hoo hoo, blame the jew. Your opinion of China is insightful while your racism is reflective of your shallowness.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 00:40 | 5887999 Dathedr
Dathedr's picture

Fuck off! Jews are not some protected, divine specie above all the rest, scum!

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 12:53 | 5888888 debunkit
debunkit's picture

Blow me you fucktard chickenshit. You're the scum. Why don't you go ahead and act on your poisoned thoughts so somebody can take you out.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 00:37 | 5888012 Dathedr
Dathedr's picture

Seems like libtard filth here, a Jew himself most likely, is not happy about mentioning his fellow Jew's atrocities, crimes and misdeeds against the rest of the planet. Scum would be more pleased if Jewish element of the story would not be mentioned at all, right Jew?

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 13:03 | 5888912 debunkit
debunkit's picture

Hey, good news, Germany is republishing "Mein Kampf". You and your fellow nazi scum can celebrate in your daddy's basement!

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 23:26 | 5887889 Karaio
Karaio's picture

If Pepe Escobar said it I believe.

Coming from where it comes from (WST), forget, is the opposition intrigue, planted news.

hehe.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 23:47 | 5887925 Karaio
Karaio's picture

There are journalists today that are as gynecologist assistants.

Walk with a "duckbill" in hand, open a cunt, look and understand nothing of what they see!

hehe.

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 23:33 | 5887902 Dathedr
Dathedr's picture

The title should be: How Jew Murdoch's media dream about its owners owning China!

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 23:53 | 5887936 Renov8
Renov8's picture

China has been dying for 3000 years.  How long do you expect this to go on?

 

This is laughable!

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 00:17 | 5887941 WhyWait
WhyWait's picture

No doubt the Empire is cooking up a color revolution in China.  And we have to ask, what on earth were they doing letting a WSJ reporter into their inside conversations?

Yet, the elite moving themselves their money and their children out of China is certainly telling us something, and the story of officials and Party members speaking the party line without conviction is eerily familiar.

Missing from this article is the fact that this all is happening in the context of what is shaping up to be a global economic collapse of historic proportions, which China as a country that has jumped into capitalism with both feet is about to experience full force.

If China were about to experience a collapse like that of the Soviet Union, the elite would be preparing to inherit it, jockying for their place, looking forward to the great plundering of public resources and the remaining state-owned companies begins. But instead they're fleeing en masse. Evidently they're expecting something else.

Deng Jiao Peng proposed that China had to undergo capitalist accumulation first, then build socialism.  The coming collapse of the world and Chinese economies is just what Marx predicted - and Marx is part of China's state religion.  The hard-pressed over-worked and over-exploited millions in China's privately owned factories, and the Communist Party members among them, have that doctrine as part of their legacy.  They are by all acounts already in a state of pre-revolutionary ferment and anger, as witnessed by thousands of strikes and protests per year, and they are about to get thrown into a crisis of survival.

The resulting revolutionary upheaval may make the Cultural Revolution look like a dress rehearsal.

Foreseeably this will open huge opportunities for the US and Japan to engage in mischief, and will put Russia in a very difficult position with its new strategic partner incapacitated.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 11:03 | 5887992 WhyWait
WhyWait's picture

Elaborating a bit on how I'm framing this:

China and Russia have both already had profound anti-capitalist revolutions followed by a kind of counterrevolution and a partial restoration of capitalism.  In Russia this counterrevolution was marked by the collapse of Communist Party rule.  In China it involved a takeover of the leadership of the Communist Party by capitalist kleptocrats and oligarchs.  Thus the collapse of Communist Party rule in China, while inevitable, will be of an entirely different character.  Without the global collapse of the capitalist economic system it might have devolved into a liberal democratic system more like those of Western Europe.  In the present context that is not an option and what we will see instead is a counter-counter-revolution, i.e. a revolution. 

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 08:02 | 5888353 goldhedge
goldhedge's picture

"The elites getting their kidz out of China" is probably more to do with Chinese Expansionism.

These will be rich and therefore powerful ppl in their new found homes and still have "some" allegiance to their motherland.

Its all by design.

 

 

Fri, 03/13/2015 - 23:59 | 5887945 Kirk2NCC1701
Kirk2NCC1701's picture

"The Coming Chinese Crackup" -ZH

"Chinese woman who fly plane upside down, will have crackup" -Confucius

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 03:42 | 5888156 SubjectivObject
SubjectivObject's picture

ConfuseUS sae: It'sa crackup cuntry.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 00:09 | 5887965 q99x2
q99x2's picture

Few predicted the take over of the United States of America by the fascist NWO.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 03:02 | 5888133 fukidontknow
fukidontknow's picture

G. Edward Griffin did.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 03:45 | 5888158 SubjectivObject
SubjectivObject's picture

Notably, curiously, and characteristically, the SeeEyeEh missed it, too.

What's up with that?  WUWT!

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 00:21 | 5887981 silverlamb
silverlamb's picture

"A more secure and confident government would not institute such a severe crackdown. It is a symptom of the party leadership’s deep anxiety and insecurity"...
A government that feels safe should not militarize the police and try to control the Internet ... but USA is doing . There are not good countries, only good people and corrupt or weak governments ...

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 03:47 | 5888161 SubjectivObject
SubjectivObject's picture

BANG! on.

We the sheeple, in order to form a more perverted ...

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 00:26 | 5887994 thebigunit
thebigunit's picture

There will always be something called "China".

The question is, who will be occupying the chairs on the top of the pyramid, and what will they believe is social, economic, and political "reality".

A Taiwanese businessman once explained to me that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) is kind of a "state within a state" in China.  It the Communist Party were to collapse, and political uncertainty and chaos erupt, the PLA would endure and keep doing its thing.

In a way, the Chinese Communist Party is kind of a social fantasy for intellectuals.  The CCP may be an annoying and intrusive social fantasy, but when the PLA wants something, it gets its way.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 00:30 | 5888000 WhyWait
WhyWait's picture

Perhaps something like this happened in Russia also.  The Communist Party collapsed but the Red Army survived.  

But what (pr who) determines what the Army is loyal to?  Is it really just loyalty to itself?

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 09:18 | 5888429 shovelhead
shovelhead's picture

Norinco. The PLA's corporate face of the Chinese MIC. They own our West Coast port facilities under various shell co. names. 

I imagine, like any army, that political factions in Govt. can only purge dissident military leaders after carefully assessing that they have a majority in the clique of power that will remain loyal.

I also imagine that the political /miltary power structure is a fluid balance of interlocking sheres of influence and interests. When it becomes unbalanced in the US, you end up with dead Kennedys.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 04:00 | 5888170 bid the soldier...
bid the soldiers shoot's picture

also

 If the Communist Party were to collapse, and political uncertainty and chaos erupt, the PLA would endure and keep doing its thing.

 It the American economy were to collapse, and political uncertainty and chaos erupt, the US Military would endure and keep doing its thing.

No?

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 13:26 | 5888962 thebigunit
thebigunit's picture

My guess is, no.  The U.S. is different.

The U.S. defense establishment is funded by tax dollars approved by the political establishment (Congress, New York Times, federal bureaucracy, Federal Reserve, HUD, etc. etc.).

In China, the PLA is much more of it's own self-contained economy.  The PLA owns and operates "businesses" and trading companies (COSSCO) that include much more than just the military.

But, I'm just an armchair general, or perhaps, an armchair second lieutenant.

Sun, 03/15/2015 - 18:07 | 5892189 bid the soldier...
bid the soldiers shoot's picture

General or second lieutenant, you know you don't know what's really happening by reading the NYT. We have to read articles from various sources and extrapolate trends and behavior we've observed in the past.

Early in 2009 I thought about the recent destruction of the global economy and came to the following conclusion: the US Military through Alan Greenspan had contrived the worldwide 'recession' then and which we still have today. To husband as much oil as possible for future campaigns, the world economy would be sacrificed.

In 1956 Hubbert predicted peak oil for the US.  In 1973 he was proved right (shale and improved recovery have changed the equation, but shale and improved recovery are part of the moving 'peak oil' theory).

What kind of reception do you think the 'peak oil' theory got at the Pentagon as Vietnam was slipping away?  The notion that in 20, 40, 60 years, there would be a shortfall of crude for both the global economy with its burgeoning population and the global militaries, both friend and foe?

Around 1980 Hubbert predicted that global 'peak oil' could happen by 2000.

Suddenly, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Venezuela, South Sudan appeared on the calendar, if you assume that the CIA and NSA probably work closer with the Military than the do with the executive branch.  Etc. Etc.

A harsh scenario but by no means out of the realm of possibility 

 And then coincidental with Vietnam and 'peak oil', in 1978 came the unwelcome news:

For U.S. Children, Minorities Will Be The Majority By 2020, Census Says

 

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/03/04/390672196/for-u-s-childre...

 

So yes, BU, you are right; the US military is different, but by no means a less independent, powerful brute. 

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 00:39 | 5888014 reader2010
reader2010's picture

China embraced liberal market ideology right after the collapse of the Soviet Union thanks to the propaganda engineered by Wall Street. However,  in the Aftermath of 2008 financial meltdown,  China finally realized that was purely a bullshit. And particularly after the Pivotal to Asia led by Washington,  China was made to understand that Washington sees it as the "rogue state". So they started to engage the West in a different light completely. Getting rid of the 5th column (many of them came to study in the US in the 70s and early 80s) is what Xi has been doing in the name of anti-corruption.  That's what's happening in real time,  folks. 

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 00:41 | 5888016 Kina
Kina's picture

chinese have been subject to dictatorial rule for more than 2500 years, actually even before Ch'in.

Opium wars with UK absolutely nothing compared to Ghenghis Khan.

Old saying...China conquered from within conquers.

china has more than 2000 head start on USA

 

wonder why they are buying up gold and resources all around world.

 

China loves their chief who is cracking down on party corruption/enemies.

 

they hate local govt coruption.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 00:52 | 5888027 KuriousKat
KuriousKat's picture

 

Mr. Xi is a genuinely tough ruler

The only accurate  thing in the article the rest was propaganda.


Sat, 03/14/2015 - 05:22 | 5888235 napper
napper's picture

Not just tough, he's proved to be competent and respected.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 01:11 | 5888028 Md4
Md4's picture

We cannot predict when Chinese communism will collapse, but it is hard not to conclude that we are witnessing its final phase. The CCP is the world’s second-longest ruling regime (behind only North Korea), and no party can rule forever."

China is in the mess its in mostly because the west, having outsourced much the its middle class wealth producing jobs to the east, is mostly broke, and suffering a dramatic and on-going decline in income with which to consume. While life has never been easy for the mostly poor peasant class of Chinese, they were led to believe an insatiable appetite in the west for the goods once produced there would endlessly enable them to enjoy a rising (even if very modestly by western standards) standard of living.

When you come from rice paddy, rural and antiquated agrarian poverty for generations, even a shanty town life in the shadow of new and empty high rises and mega factories are a step up. At least you're working, making a steady wage and eating a little meat once in awhile. If this keeps up, you think, you might actually be able to have something for yourself one day...

But then, that's not how it's all turning out.

What the idiots, in a bonsai rush to outsource western manufacturing and middle class wealth-producing industries apparently never considered, is, what do workers in an emptied-out west do for income when the old jobs are gone, and how will western spending-dependent economies inheriting those former American industries survive without western spending?

Eventually, like the west, the east will implode, of course.

And that's what we're seeing. China is the most visible because it's the largest, most talked about of the beneficiaries of western outsourcing. But it is certainly not the only EM in trouble. What's worse are all of the commodity spin offs heavily dependent on supplying the giant manufacturing engine China became. They, too, are beginning to suck air, as China doesn't need production inputs if the outputs aren't selling much.

The outputs are seriously declining in demand because western incomes are in serious decline. We're witnessing a global train wreck, with each car beginning to slam into the one ahead of it. Eventually, and because of the state of affairs that bonsai outsourcing set into motion, these cars will derail.

The world has never been here before. It is clear to me it doesn't know what to do about what is a checkmate. All of the old easy monetary games aren't working because they can't work. If anything, they're making the inevitable collapse just that much tougher to overcome. This cannot be fixed, but it sure as hell can be screwed up more.

My gut tells me the world will likely fracture into smaller and smaller pieces when the calamity finally takes hold. Human nature more often circles wagons into tighter groups under extreme pressures of disintegration. That may ultimately look like the break up of the Warsaw Pact, or it may look more like the north and south of antebellum America. Much depends upon what any people feel is their best shot at some kind of peaceful prosperity while weathering an unprecedented storm.

But...the collapse HAS to happen first.

The world remains checkmated until it does, and there is no way back to before.

m

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 01:05 | 5888038 petkovplamen
petkovplamen's picture

just change every instance of "China" with "USA" and the article will still be as valid.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 16:08 | 5889322 thebigunit
thebigunit's picture

Too smart by half.

 

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 01:18 | 5888048 The central planners
The central planners's picture

If China collapses then what will be of USrael and their trading deficit. They need they slaves working hard.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 01:25 | 5888055 scatha
scatha's picture

What a crap. ZH could do better then re-posting WSJ excretions. Did author ever read anything about China’s history or US for that matter? The Chinese Xi guy’s just doing what his predecessors were doing for thousands of years namely purging old clique, replacing it with new clique who helped him to power.

This happens everywhere where there is any REAL change of power. Not in US where the same regime continues for almost 240 years without any change. Not one iota. Nothing, the same British imperial aristocrats with support by courtiers and domestic slaves from Britain colonies like Kenya.

China is much further from collapsing then these US where hordes of oligarchs escape US to Asia to find shelter for their money and their families before this whole shit collapses, joined there by tens of thousands of US expatriates looking for better life in Asia or even Russia or Europe.

 

Thanks to Japanese renewed militarism and fascist leaning government as well as US aggressive behavior vs. Russia average Chinese learn to stick to evil they know. The popularity of so-called communist party but actually nationalist party surged over last 10 years but not due to economics since it raised standard of living for only about 100 millions (8% of population) but because they learned a lesson that they cannot be divided by the West, never again, otherwise they know they’ll return to western slavery as it was for several centuries.

This is Chinese philosophy of life. It hard to believe but vast majority of Chinese are ready to put on gray uniform and jump on a bike dropping all those western useless gadgets at a whim. And if WSJ does not know about it, it does not know anything about China.

So we have to judge this piece for what it is, pure propaganda, unleashed to prep brain damaged Americans for dying for.. few rocks in the ocean or nothing.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 01:26 | 5888056 mijev
mijev's picture

I'm in Chongqing at the moment. I've been to china many times and I'm still not sure if I could live here but there are a few things I really like. Either way, it is really nice to be a single foreign man in a chinese city. It's tough to tell how the average person here feels about the government and the economy but I'm pretty sure there won't be a revolution unless people start starving. If that happens, all bets are off. I'm sure there is crime here but I've never witnessed it and in the taxi on the way to the bar last night I saw many single women hailing a cab or walking the streets alone at night. In a city of tens of millions I can't see that happening in the US.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 02:01 | 5888090 reader2010
reader2010's picture

I visited the place some years ago and it was a shit hole then but it was about $15 a pop for the top rate girls there. Very nice indeed.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 09:55 | 5888062 22winmag
22winmag's picture

What did you expect from a nation and a people who are the undisputed world heavyweight champions of shitting on the side of the road?

 

Just another sad, defeated nation of [slanty-eyed] people squatting on the ruins of a once great civilization.

 

Say all you want about America. We aren't a once great civilization just yet.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 03:07 | 5888137 Karaio
Karaio's picture

Agora é a hora de ter bom senso.

Nada de enviar e-mail para político ou dinheiro para ong's.

Nada de participar de passeatas ou reuniões.

Melhor cuidar de sua família e de sí!

É o que estou fazendo aqui no Brasil.

Sinceramente, estou com medo.

A merda radioativa pode começar e, não será como o Ebola (que matou muito mais gente que vocês imaginam).

Cavar um buraco e rezar para os céu!

hehe.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 06:59 | 5888302 Wahooo
Wahooo's picture

Dig a hole and pray to the sky? WTF?

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 08:12 | 5888366 shovelhead
shovelhead's picture

So he's as nutty in Portugese as he is in Google English?

I thought that might be the case.

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 04:10 | 5888180 Free_Spirit
Free_Spirit's picture

Unlikely, the instant catastrophic collapse vis USSR was caused by the leaders (drunk yeltsin) choosing to write the nation into history, and wasn't caused by the people.  Granted a spineless Gorbachev fataly weakened the system, but what really destroyed the soviet system was lack of reliable food and basic consumer goods supply. Teachers couldn't attend school because they had to queue for food all day. Nor factory workers, whose factories closed for lack of attending workers. Food rrotted in railway sidings because there were no reliable drivers and locos to keep the supply chain going. This above all else was the breakdown of the system.  So long as China avoids such a breakdown of supply and basic services, and retains focused leadership the CPP will survive.  I don't see any senior CCP leader who rivals Gorby for spinelessness or Yeltsin for drunken stupidity. If we ever do, then it'll be time to talk collapse. 

Sat, 03/14/2015 - 04:28 | 5888195 tonyhollow
tonyhollow's picture

China is corrupt you say? 


Didn't see that coming. 


Sat, 03/14/2015 - 04:28 | 5888196 tonyhollow
tonyhollow's picture

China is corrupt you say? 


Didn't see that coming. 


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