Perspectives with Neilo

☘️ Legend says St Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland. But what happens when one quietly returns — this time to the Oireachtas? In this episode we explore the “Anaconda in the Chandelier” metaphor and how fear of offending Beijing has shaped Irish policy for decades. 🎧 Listen: below👇 #StPatricksDay #Ireland #China #Geopolitics

Seoul to remove 'China (Taiwan)' label from e-arrival system after Taipei's protest share.google/tMiUZYrNwUC3Py…

Most people think Hitler. They are wrong. The deadliest dictator in modern history is Mao Zedong, and most of the world has never been held accountable for looking away. Scholars estimate Mao's policies caused between 45 and 65 million deaths across his rule. The Great Leap Forward alone, a forced industrialization campaign from 1958 to 1962, killed an estimated 30 to 45 million people, mostly through famine. The Black Book of Communism puts the total death toll across Mao's entire tenure at approximately 65 million. By comparison, Hitler's Holocaust killed approximately 6 million Jews and 11 million total. Stalin killed an estimated 6 to 20 million. Mao dwarfs them both. The Great Chinese Famine was not a natural disaster. It was a man-made catastrophe. Peasants were forced off farms to smelt steel in backyard furnaces. Grain was exported while people starved. Officials who reported food shortages were punished. People died at the doors of grain warehouses. And today? Mao's portrait, measuring 6 by 4.5 meters and weighing 1.5 metric tons, still hangs over Tiananmen Square and is repainted and rehung every single year before National Day. His mausoleum sits in the center of the square. His image hangs inside official government buildings across China. The CCP calls him "70% right, 30% wrong." Imagine Germany still hanging Hitler's portrait over the Brandenburg Gate. That is exactly what China does with Mao, and the world barely flinches. When the deadliest dictator in history is still celebrated as a national founding father, what does that tell you about the system he built and the one that replaced him? #Mao #CCP #China #History #GreatLeapForward #CulturalRevolution #Genocide #Tiananmen #Communism #NeverForget

In case you missed it, here's our recent podcast release ⏯️

@jambuki888 Isn't it funny how only certain people are susceptible to brainwashing and others are not.

Being brainwashed about China is something Canadians and Taiwanese have in common. It's not your fault. There is massive interest to make you think about China in a certain way. Especially from America. Even Bloomberg had to admit there is no debt trap in Africa from China. ​How many headlines have you seen claiming China is exploiting Africa in the last ten years from "reputable" outfits? ​I bet you have seen at least three.

@UNWatch @RushanAbbas China despises and suppresses all religions. The only religion allowed in China is worship of the CCP. Cardinal Zen and Rising Religious Persecution in China | The Heritage Foundation share.google/BcLBAcrXIMJFl5…

CHINA TELLS U.N.: “The belief and religious sentiments of everyone, including Muslims, should be respected.” FORGOT TO MENTION: China has forcibly detained more than a million Uyghur Muslims in so-called “re-education camps.”

Local police said initial findings suggested a "system malfunction" caused multiple vehicles to stop in the middle of the road on Tuesday. bbc.com/news/articles/…

@jambuki888 And another report here youtu.be/n4X4EArEW00?si…

@jambuki888 This is what happens when foreigners visit Xinjiang youtu.be/ncqLV-RGaXA?si…

Xinjiang is beautiful. It is absolutely worth a visit while you go see for yourself if there is any evidence of human rights abuse. Go see how the Uyghur people live. See how the Uyghur culture blends in with the Chinese culture.

This begs the question, where will Irish and EU data be stored if local capacity is exceeded? share.google/rZQYMtHygeOYdv…

中共真是奇怪，中共高官的亲属们都做了美国人、德国人、澳大利亚人加拿大人……非要台湾人必须去做中国人

@fbermingham He's also said that China's economic slowdown is a significant issue and has argued that the next major global financial crisis could emanate from there.

Kenneth Rogoff says the Chinese yuan will become a global reserve currency within five years "It will happen in the next five years. Investors are starved for ways to diversify away from the US dollar." Expects a "managed float" of yuan vs dollar. scmp.com/economy/china-…

【香港紙報道】北京の市場にブルドーザー突入してセルフ天安門、複数人死亡　中国当局は公表せず削除開始 crx7601.com/archives/63108…

Chinese tech companies finally catch onto Google's TurboQuant techinformed.com/google-publish…

@wccftech Has China finally become aware of Google's discovery - aka TurboQuant - for saving memory in AI applications ? techinformed.com/google-publish…

Memory prices in China have plunged by over 30%, with mainland retailers describing the situation as a "price collapse." 🔗 wccf.tech/1k4vj

@rtenews As part of this inquiry can we also make sure questions about the origin of this virus also get asked to the appropriate countries and institutions? Surely this is still important to understand for future prevention and management.

The independent review into Ireland's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic will broadcast for the first time a live roundtable debate today, involving Irish and international experts rte.ie/news/health/20…

@rtenews As part of this inquiry can we also make sure questions about the origin of this virus also get asked to the appropriate countries and institutions? Surely this is still important to understand for future prevention and management.

Irish and international health experts discuss Ireland's response to Covid-19 pandemic | Follow and watch live rte.ie/news/health/20…

This report highlights the fact that @deepseek_ai's "breakthrough" wasn't due to technological efficiency, but instead thanks to extraction from U.S. AI models. U.S. companies like @Google, @OpenAI, and @AnthropicAI have reported large-scale extraction campaigns aimed at distilling and replicating advanced U.S. capabilities without paying any development costs. China continues to work around U.S. restrictions and prohibitions through illicit chip smuggling and front companies. The U.S. must use its regulatory and enforcement capabilities including @CommerceGov's entity list restrictions, and sanctions under IEEPA, to stop China's extraction of U.S. technology. justsecurity.org/134124/costs-c…

@LNBDublin The juxtaposition is your lack of support for Ukraine and your silence on Aughinish Alumina!

Quite the juxtaposition

@grok @jambuki888 Why then do people who question the CCP disappear?

Yes, regulations requiring approved channels with logging and potential government access can discourage unrestricted free speech for some, as they reduce anonymity for external discussions and may foster self-censorship on sensitive topics. China's framework prioritizes "orderly" expression under national security laws, viewing unmonitored tools as risks for foreign influence or unrest—while allowing broad domestic debate within bounds on platforms like Weibo. Enforcement focuses more on providers than casual users.

I made a 20 minute video talking about the current Taiwan situation. People are losing their minds again. KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun of Taiwan will meet in person with Xi in April, ahead of Trump. Taiwan is showing signs that they are becoming more open to China. We are starting to say we are Chinese people again on the streets. Last time I was in Taiwan, May 2025, I saw a revival of respect towards our Chinese roots online and offline. People often understand Taiwan through the lens of Western media and from the mouths of the diaspora, who are often unaware of what’s really going on in Taiwan because they’re busy trying to survive in a new land. It’s not easy to immigrate, and it’s not easy even after you become a naturalized citizen. Even people in the West who support China and want China to take Taiwan don’t understand Taiwan. They think China should move on Taiwan right now and do a blockade during the Iran conflict, but really it’s not in China’s interest to forcefully take back Taiwan. The pros do not outweigh the cons. It is a possibility, but my bet is they won’t move given the current circumstances. This is zero-sum binary thinking, which is something the Chinese are trying to move away from. The quantum revolution continues in all areas of human life. A friend from highschool sent me a private message and said, “Hey, how come you don’t want Taiwan to be independent? Is it because you are afraid to fight? Is it because Taiwan is afraid to fight this war?” I went hard on him, sure, call me a coward, but realistically Taiwan cannot win a battle, let alone a war with China. Serious analysts including American think tanks know going to war in the Pacific with China is way too risky. "A ship is a fool to fight a fortress." Taiwan has spent a lot of money on military gear from the USA, but most of it remains undelivered. If you want to see the details, please see this post by Cheng-Wei Lai x.com/chengweilai2/s… More importantly, Taiwan’s high population density and mountainous regions mean that all of our people live in very concentrated areas. In the event of a kinetic war, there would be massive civilian casualties and massive destruction to society. Taiwan would be ruined afterward. Taiwan has been stagnating for a long time. I am confident when I say most Taiwanese want better infrastructure. The only time Taiwan makes any effort to improve infrastructure is when a foreigner in Taiwan gets hit by a car trying to cross the street. Taiwan has been called a “pedestrian death trap”. taipeitimes.com/News/feat/arch… Under KMT, Taiwan's mandatory military service time went down to as low as 4 months. During the time of the one China consensus between both Chinese governments, ROC and PRC. Howard Lutnick told Taiwan to keep America happy and intensely encouraged Taiwan to transfer TSMC technology to Arizona. All Taiwanese political parties have to kowtow to AIT (American Institute of Technology) in Taiwan and American politicians. At this point, TSMC’s semiconductors are more important to America than they are to China. China is catching up with its own semiconductor industry. It’s also not that meaningful to make semiconductors smaller past 5 or 7 nm as far as I know. Currently in Taiwan, it is considered risky to speak against the current ruling party, the DPP. Google, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter no longer have the same shine as they used to. Some people see that free speech without guardrails can lead to chaos or worse. A popular line appearing in Taiwan is that we insult the politicians in Taiwan all day everyday but nothing changes. Taiwanese people share stories among themselves of Chinese officials on the Mainland being yelled at in person by civilians x.com/sugrskllangeli…. But I thought people get jailed in China very easily? People in Taiwan are starting to understand why China made their own internet apps and why China had to create its own internet sovereignty. The silly lies we believed.

@grok @jambuki888 @grok doesn't this discourage free speech also?

Not exactly. External communication by PRC citizens isn't banned, but regulations (Cybersecurity Law, MIIT VPN rules) require it to use approved channels that log data and permit government access on request. Unauthorized tools designed to keep it invisible (e.g., unapproved VPNs bypassing the firewall) violate admin rules, though individual penalties for casual users are rare and typically just fines—not criminal for most. Approved options prioritize compliance over secrecy.