@CBankingEditor You appear to know not much about CCP and how it works. For CCP, particularly Xi, power of control over its people is everything.
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bjpz77
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I hate to toss a bale of hay onto a blaze, and believe that both Brad Setser and Glenn Luk work extremely hard as pundits and purveyors of opinion on China's economy.
It should be pointed out, however, that when it comes to "clinging stubbornly to inaccurate arguments," Setser was for a long time adamant that Xi Jinping was opposed to boosting household consumption for ideological reasons, just because he read this opinion in the WSJ.
If memory serves correctly, this was after Beijing launched a campaign to subsidise purchases of consumer durables in 2024.
At the end of 2024 after Trump's election victoy, Beijing's Central Economic Work Conference also stated explicitly that boosting domestic demand - and consumption in particular, would be one of China's top priorities moving ahead.
When an interlocutor on X begged to differ with Setser's opinion on the matter, the response he received ran along the lines of "just trust me on this." "I know what I'm talking about!"
It's during such moments you realise the keen difference between economics as a social science, and empirical sciences that are rooted in reality.
Brad Setser@Brad_Setser
Glenn's arrogance is incredible given his long history of clinging stubbornly to inaccurate arguments (no overcapacity in China's exports, China doesn't "really" have a trade surplus, SAFE produces accurate BoP that no one outside China should challenge ....) 1/
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@CBankingEditor "....Xi Jinping was opposed to boosting household consumption for ideological reasons" -- of course he does - he does not want to lose any power of control, while giving people more consuming abilities reduce party power.
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Glenn's arrogance is incredible given his long history of clinging stubbornly to inaccurate arguments (no overcapacity in China's exports, China doesn't "really" have a trade surplus, SAFE produces accurate BoP that no one outside China should challenge ....)
1/
Glenn@GlennLuk
Brad makes an explicit claim that Chinese carmakers are unprofitable on domestic sales. When challenged to provide evidence of this claim, this thread is his response.
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This scoop from @Lingling_Wei says the US and China are considering an AI dialogue or crisis hotline.
Here's what I told her, drawing from past experience.
Dialogue is absolutely essential, but we need to level-set expectations based on the track record:
1) We negotiated an AI dialogue in 2023, but the PRC tried to extract concessions on unrelated issues to even hold it; when we held the dialogue, they didn't send the right folks.
2) We do have crisis comms lines, but the PRC has not picked up the phone during crises (from EP-3 to the balloon). An AI crisis line may face similar challenges.
In short, the PRC has for decades been less serious about risk reduction and crisis communications than the Soviet Union was. What we do have, they rarely use and frequently pull down when they are upset (we don't do this).
That needs to change. But that only happens if the world collectively pushes for a different outcome.
The Wall Street Journal@WSJ
Exclusive: The U.S. and China are considering AI talks to manage risks and prevent crises as competition intensifies in a new tech era on.wsj.com/4wk96ew
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1/3
Another very interesting Caixin article, this time on migrant workers: "China’s migrant workforce is aging as more workers move into lower-paying service jobs, putting pressure on income growth amid a shifting economic landscape."
caixinglobal.com/2026-05-05/chi…
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NEW from @nytimes: Democratic lawmakers have sent Rubio a letter asking about the sway of a conservative group, the Ben Franklin Fellows, inside the State Dept. The group boosts career diplomats with Trumpian ideas — despite the non-partisan culture of the foreign service.
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An apparent suicide note written in 2019 by the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was released Wednesday.
A U.S. district judge ordered the release of the document at the request of The New York Times.
The note had been submitted to the court in May 2021 as part of the criminal murder case for Nicholas Tartaglione, a former cellmate of Epstein.
The scrawled note appears to read: "They investigated me for month — found nothing!!! So 15 year old charges resulted."
cbsn.ws/4tdWimV
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My latest in the @NewYorker, on what China gains in the shadow of Trump's war of choice in the Middle East
@JulianGewirtz: “For decades we thought of Chinese foreign policy as mainly seeking stability to facilitate economic development, but Xi is projecting confidence in the face of the more volatile, violent world of the second Trump term."
@yuenyuenang: “For China, the Iran conflict brings no economic upside, but it creates diplomatic space. It allows China to step out of a previously isolating alignment and reposition itself more broadly, not just in the Middle East but globally.”
@Ali_Wyne: . “The more that U.S. allies and partners undertake to de-risk from Washington, the less diplomatic capital Beijing has to expend on assuaging their misgivings about its own conduct."
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New for The Guardian: Under China’s forceful integration policies, after just weeks in preschool, Tibetan children “completely stopped speaking” their mother tongue, took on a Chinese identity, disconnecting ties that were passed down generations.
theguardian.com/global-develop…
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Chinese firms are becoming increasingly brazen in shipping components that can be used in drones to Russia and Iran on.wsj.com/4d7ISmz
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Former U.N. rights chief Louise Arbour received a $1.6 million prize funded by billionaire Yin Yen-liang, whose business empire is deeply tied to China, just weeks after she visited Beijing and made no statement on the regime's gross abuses and crackdown on human rights lawyers.
Hillel Neuer@HillelNeuer
7/ Louise Arbour accepted USD $1.6 Million from the Tang Prize — funded by billionaire Yin Yen-liang, whose business is deeply tied to China (including Alibaba) and who chairs the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University. Were any due diligence or disclosures ever made?
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.@MarkJCarney Prime Minister, why did you appoint a Governor-General who admitted herself that as U.N. human rights chief she gave a free pass to the worst tyrannies, saying she was “constrained by the reality of the organization's power centers, including China and Russia”?
Mark Carney@MarkJCarney
I am very pleased to announce that, on my recommendation, His Majesty has approved the appointment of the Honourable Louise Arbour as the 31st Governor General of Canada. Across more than five decades, she gave voice to those whose dignity was denied, held institutions to account, and changed lives through her service. As Canada’s next Governor General, Louise Arbour will represent the best of Canada to our citizens and to the world — a Canada clear-eyed about the challenges we face, and steadfast in the values we uphold.
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A brief history of how the Chinese Communist Party infiltrated Canadian politics and worked to influence policymaking. The creator of this chart, who lives in Canada, chose to remain anonymous out of fear of transnational repression.
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A white male New York ‘Times’ employee filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging the paper had discriminated against him by not giving him a promotion because he is a white male. On Tuesday, the EEOC, now controlled by a Trump appointee who has vowed to help wage the president’s war against DEI culture, filed a civil-rights lawsuit against the ‘Times’ arguing that the paper’s efforts to satisfy its diversity goals amounted to “unlawful employment practices.”
The paper itself was first to break the news of the suit but did not name the employee who made the complaint. Reporters at the paper have been scrambling to figure out the employee’s identity, driven in part by bafflement that one of their own colleagues would sell out the paper to the administration, which has used tools of the federal government to attack the press.
“This has been kind of a shitshow behind the scenes — people trying to figure out who the aggrieved person is,” said another ‘Times’ staffer. The release of the complaint on Tuesday narrowed the speculation to Bryant Rousseau, a senior editor and producer on the ‘Times’’s international desk who has been with the paper for more than a decade.
Read more details from the suit: nymag.visitlink.me/_5PHs2
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I left China after eight years. Here's what I experienced as a Japanese person reporting for an American outlet, at a time when a distrust of foreigners has come to permeate everyday life in China. wsj.com/world/china/im… via @WSJ
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Switzerland looks unreal in places.
Glacier lakes, cliffside villages, medieval towns, waterfalls, castles, and mountains that make you wonder how one small country holds this much beauty.
Let’s travel through 20 of its most iconic and scenic places. 🧵
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近日，公众号《常识传达室》：《半月谈》有篇文章流传甚广。
贵州毕节市大方县2023年在职正式编制人员的工资总支出为20亿元，临聘人员的工资支出为4.6亿元，还有离退休人员工资支出1.7亿元，共计26.3亿元。
而2022年的该县税收总收入仅仅只有4.14亿元！大方县常住人口不过60余万，相当于每14个当地人里，就有1个吃财政饭。
2022年大方县上级补助收入高达42.28亿元，是本地税收的10倍还多。换句话说，大方县的运转，本质是“东部买单、中部统筹、西部消费”
大方县是个孤例吗？不是。全国欠发达县城比比皆是。
云南永善、彝良，贵州威宁、赫章等县，无一不是“税收微薄、养人庞大”。这些县深处大山，交通闭塞，土地贫瘠，工业基础为零，农业附加值极低，全年税收能过2亿已属不易，可财政供养人员动辄两三万，工资支出常年是税收的5倍、8倍甚至10倍。
西南财经大学2025年报告更直白：全国2774个县级地区，平均财政自给率仅38%，意味着县里每花100元，就有62元靠上级输血。其中，中西部欠发达县自给率普遍低于20%，“吃饭财政”成了唯一底色——财政的核心功能不是发展经济、改善民生，而是“养人”，保住体制内人员的工资发放。
更值得警惕的是，“正式编+临聘”的双重供养模式，在全国县城广泛复制：正式编人员稳拿高薪，临聘人员数量是正式编的1.5-2倍，拿着微薄工资，干着基层琐事。这种“臃肿化”供养结构，让本就薄弱的县级财政雪上加霜，陷入“越穷越养人、越养人越穷”的死循环。
截至2025年，全国县级债务总额突破40万亿元，平均每个县城负债22亿元，很多县债务率远超警戒线，靠借新还旧维持运转。而工资、债务利息是刚性支出，占了财政的90%以上，剩下的钱，连修路、治水、教育配套、医疗改善的基本民生需求都满足不了，“民生欠账”越积越多。
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此前， 港媒报道：一内地游客乱扔垃圾后，态度不屑、嚣张地表示 “我交钱不就行了嘛”。
而后此段采访火遍全球，该游客也一举成名。
5月4日，香港的Now新闻的此篇报道被审查、该片段被全面下架。
旧闻重提：香港的新闻自由指数排名全球140，与北韩同级。
李老师不是你老师@whyyoutouzhele
五一长假期，大批游客在香港麦理浩径的沙滩湾露营，有游客把吃剩的食物残渣倒在地上，被渔护署发现，因乱抛垃圾被票控3000元。 他的朋友表示：“我觉得很可笑，我交钱不就行了吗？他有没有权利不带走垃圾，有吗？有没有？你可以叫警察来给他抓走。” 内地和香港民众怒批：“他的意思是，我就是缺德，不文明怎么了？” “要不把垃圾到在你家门口，然后给你点钱？” “太嚣张了，逻辑就是交了罚款就可以为所欲为”
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ip德国的女孩扒出的以张大鹏为首的强奸犯罪集团中每个男性罪犯的照片/中文名
以及维基百科中对“德国老司机驾校” Telegram群组大规模迷奸案的介绍、和每个强奸犯的案件介绍：
李老师不是你老师@whyyoutouzhele
近日，小红书上一位在德国生活的博主，利用领英扒出了以张大鹏为首的强奸犯罪集团中的每名男性罪犯的照片/中文名。据悉这群人都是在德国的“精英华人男性”，有企业高管，有名校留学生，有医生，他们在telegram群组里交流如何对女性下药、偷拍，还把失去意识的受害女性称为“死猪”，他们的受害人也全部都是华人女性。 下周一要在柏林开庭的，是团伙中的一名北大医学硕士，在德国念博士，名叫邵之霆，他给予同伙大量“药物指导”，德国警方掌握的证据表明此人在中国时也多次犯案。
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