By Godfree Roberts – selected from his extensive weekly newsletter : Here Comes China plus editorial notes.

You can get it here:  https://www.herecomeschina.com/#subscribe


The Biggest News

Xi declares ‘complete victory’ in eradicating absolute poverty in China

The final 99 million poor rural Chinese are free of poverty, along with 832 impoverished counties and 128,000 villages. China met the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development  goal 10 years ahead of schedule.

(Ed…)  Xi Jingping took much credit for this and some internal commentators are already calling him a glory hog.  It was the complete Chinese nation that was involved and they say he should leave some of the joy to the rest of the Chinese society who all worked hard at this.

Read full article →

Of course, the empire cannot accept this as a truimph.  According to the Indian commentator, Maitreya Bhakal, empire is in the five stages of grief.

Western media’s five stages of grief at China’s poverty eradication success

Read full article →  


Editorial comment 1:  At the Saker Blog, we’ve noticed and have been discussing in various articles, Russia’s new hard line diplomacy vis a vis Europe, as well as the US.  We see the same trajectory from China, yet it is different.  Here are two examples of the discernable new language from China.  This seems to be a language that is changing on a basis of reciprocity.  If China is accused of human rights violations, they reciprocate exactly.  In example one, they are writing a report on US human rights violations.  In example two, they tweet examples of human rights violations.

Example 1 : China’s upcoming report on US human rights violations shows 2020 ‘a declining point’ of American democracy

Read full article →  

Example 2 –


Editorial comment 2 – The Taiwanese Pineapple Fight.

On this issue, we see an iron fist from China, very directly aimed at the western influenced Taiwanese agitators.  Taiwan grows pineapples, very many pineapples, tons of them.  And they of course sell them to China.  China quarantined Taiwanese pineapple imports into mainland China and gently told them to eat their own pineapples.  This is equal to what they did with Australian wines and now the South African winemakers have taken over this market niche.

These are small steps and in two tiny market segments, but it does look like the time that anyone could dismiss and insult China, may be brought to an end.

This is a early trend that we should take notice of, where countries and parties are going to have to take real responsibility for their very own words and actions.  Very similar to Russia’s latest stance, no?


Back to the Here Comes China Newsletter:

We have a fascinating article that is titled:  “Jack Ma is not the problem“, from the Qiau Collective.

Chinese blogger Li Xuran offers a compelling analysis of the role of capital in modern China. The halting of Ant’s bombshell IPO in November 2020, Li argues, must be seen in the context of the socialist state’s role in restraining the “wild beast” of capital for the sake of socialist development and the public good.

Read it here:  https://www.qiaocollective.com/en/articles/jack-ma-is-not-the-problem

More than taking note of this one very nuanced article, it is worth looking at the other writings on the Qiau Collective, which calls itself:  “Qiao Collective is a diaspora Chinese media collective challenging U.S. aggression on China.


From western questioners, the general view on China is that everyone is walking around in fear that their next words are going to put them at odds with the censor and that everyone is being controlled.   Take a look at this magazine, and the specific link is interesting.  Did you know that China has New Age Hippies?

https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1006694/in-chinas-new-age-communes%2C-burned-out-millennials-go-back-to-nature#


This is but a fraction of what I gleaned from the Here Comes China newsletter.  If you want to learn about the Chinese world, get Godfree’s newsletter here: https://www.herecomeschina.com/#subscribe