11 min read

China Tweets #7

A weekly curated collection of tweets on Chinese current affairs.

A Shenzhen resident loses the rag with the Shenzhen Healthcare Commission, writing, "To what ends are you tormenting us parents? It's been three years, children can't start school like normal, parents can't work as they used to, whatever the problem is, it is schools, children, and parents that are first to receive the onslaught. One might well ask, who would dare to have more children? Do you have the guts to publicly share my message?"

When Xi revised the constitution in 2018 to remove term limits, Teng Biao told us: "Judging from the historical situation faced by the CCP, individual dictatorship is probably the collective choice of the CCP as an authoritarian party to deal with the crisis of its rule."

"Do you remember we said this thing would happen when no one else thought so? Well, it's happening, and we were right all along."

Michael Pettis dives deeper into this same piece on China's property market crisis:

Future demand in the property sector won't be enough to keep it intact:

Will local governments need to dispose of state-owned assets to keep afloat?

China's development model worked "under one set of underlying conditions", but when those conditions changed in the mid-2000s a new set of imbalances emerged.


On Taiwan

Is India Taiwan's fairweather friend?

The US military moved through the Taiwan Strait last week:

The Germans say they will be in the vicinity a lot more:

Some Taiwanese journalists to follow:

Taiwan shoots down a drone above Kinmen island, just off the coast of Xiamen, Fujian province, China.

There's a slight difference there alright:

Japanese coastguards have been in the Taiwan Strait.


UN Human Rights Chief Michele Bachelet's report on Xinjiang

How relations between China and the OHCHR used to be:

Bachelet's report on human rights in Xinjiang was released ten minutes before midnight, which was ten minutes before her role officially ended as UN human rights chief.

An Uyghur worker speaks out about being paid less than his Han coworkers:

Take a look at these pictures of the family members of those who were detained in camps in Xinjiang:

The report doesn't exist!

Oh wait, it does. Bachelet's Xinjiang report is a concoction of anti-China forces according to Chinese state media.


Beijing's view on the demonstrations, general strikes, as well as the occupation of universities and factories in France during the summer of 1968.

On Chinese poetry:

On Taiwan's "silicon shield":

A trip to the ER in China:

Sofia Horta e Costa's weekly Bloomberg round-up:

Xi getting absolutely rinsed here:

Spreading accurate rumours:

On the utopian promise of a surveillance state:


On the death of Gorbachev

Joseph Torigian on China's reaction to the death of Gorbachev:

Xi was not a fan of Gorbachev.

In fact, what Gorbachev did to the Soviet Communist Party is the stuff of nightmares for Xi:

In response: "the blithe dismissal there of the - entirely reasonable - official Chinese perspective on the end of the USSR deserves attention".

This is actually funny:

Gorbachev visited China during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests:

The propaganda department of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee released an article saying that Gorbachev "had a unshirkable responsibility" for the collapse of the Soviet Union. Quoting Xi: "under the leadership of Gorbachev, the denial of the history of the Soviet Union, the history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, the denial of Lenin, and the denial of Stalin have become the norm. The thinking of the Soviet Party and people were messed up, which also provided an opportunity for foreign hostile forces to westernise and divide the Soviet Union".


Those born in China today are likely to live longer than those born in the US:

The tech crackdown continues on Tencent:

On Sino-Ukraine ties:

Sinophrenia: the simultaneous belief that China is about to collapse and about to take over the world.

More on Fuzhou Police overseas service stations. Perhaps run the Italian article through a translator.

There's something fishy about Tesla cars in China:

Sometimes the system just doesn't work so well...

Ideology in China:

If Liz Truss becomes Britain's next Prime Minister things are likely to get hairy between the UK and China:

Weibo is not able to censor all posts in Cantonese:

Lockdowns are still widespread in China:


Meme of the week

Students having to pay for food at a university canteen in China is mind-boggling to some:

Q: "How would one assertively translate 'I'm not in danger, I'm the danger'?"

A: "I'm not a close contact, I'm a positive case."


Compiled by Alex Davey