Tihoyu

"When I used a word," Humpty Dumpty said... "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less." The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things." "The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master - that's all."

@maximusbillz @avidseries No, it greatly predates Chinese economic liberalization.

@avidseries Probably because they can plug in easily to the demographics of China and its economy

Only two of the 50 richest people in Malaysia are ethnic Malays. Not even anti-Chinese ethnic quotas can stop the Chinese from dominating in the most important areas of the Malaysian economy. forbes.com/lists/malaysia…

@ZaStocks But...but... buy the dip!

Here’s the Nasdaq at the peak of the dot com bubble. “You won’t be able to time the top.” Sure but there will be signs. People who act like the stock market cratered 80% overnight are just trying to get engagement and fear monger. Not only did the stock market not crash 80% overnight, but it was a drawn out process that took over two years to bottom. There were plenty of signs that something drastic changed. A few: - Key weekly moving average breaks in the Nasdaq - Big red candles on the major indices - Cycle leaders topping/weakening This chart shows a clear character change before the big crash that took place in late 2000 into 2001+. Even if you didn’t sell at the top and sold 15% lower you still missed a 70% drawdown. There will be signs when the top is in but you don’t need to exit at the exact top.

@rafiziramli Hilariously, BERSAMA was mistranslated (and mislabelled as from Indonesian) as BERSATU. I was forced to do a double take to see if you joined BERSATU instead. Honestly, some (esp older) people are going to get confused by the similarity.

Dari awal saya tidak percaya UMNO akan masuk PRU16 sebagai pemain kedua kepada PH. UMNO tidak wujud untuk jadi aksesori politik kepada orang lain. UMNO wujud untuk menguasai kerajaan. Selepas PRU15, UMNO kalah besar. Untuk survival, mereka masuk kerajaan bersama PH. Itu ialah susunan sementara untuk membentuk kerajaan dan menstabilkan negara. Tapi itu bukan perkahwinan politik sampai mati. Sebab itu strategi “rangkul semua” ada masalah asas kerana menganggap semua parti lain akan ikut skrip Putrajaya. Sedangkan setiap parti ada kepentingan, cita-cita dan survival masing-masing. Kalau UMNO mahu ikut arahan PH, baik masuk PKR saja. Hakikatnya, PRU16 makin jelas akan jadi "free-for-all". PH, BN, PN, parti-parti negeri dan parti baru semua akan kira jalan masing-masing. Bezanya, BERSAMA memang dibina untuk masuk gelanggang begitu. Tonton kupasan penuh isu ini di Podcast YBM Episod 49: youtu.be/BY82Rp0ShH4?si…

@rippinkitten18 @nikstankovic_ @simple_cajun @RnaudBertrand @UnderSecE Any country can make any law which applies extraterritorially. The difficulty lies in enforcement outside your country. But if you leave your country and go to theirs, or one of their vassal states with an extradition treaty, you expose yourself to such enforcement.

@nikstankovic_ @simple_cajun @RnaudBertrand @UnderSecE she didn't break any laws, as US laws don't apply in Hong Kong.

This is pretty insane: the U.S. just tried to literally re-colonize part of the Philippines. They did so under the so-called "Pax Silica" initiative, the brainchild of - surprise, surprise - an ex-Palantir guy named Jacob Helberg who now runs U.S. economic "diplomacy" from the State Department. It's causing a big outcry in the Philippines, which is quite a feat given this is by far the most US-friendly country in Southeast Asia. If you're the US and you're getting the Marcos administration - of all governments - to push back on sovereignty, you've really overplayed your hand. What is the "Pax Silica" initiative? In a nutshell it's about the US getting other countries to commit to restructuring their AI tech infrastructure around a US-led stack. It's basically vendor lock-in: you hand over your critical minerals, align your export controls with Washington's, regulate AI the way America wants, and in return you get to be a US "trusted partner," whatever that means these days. In essence, let's not kid ourselves, it's all about China: this is the US's initiative to "win the AI race" by getting other countries to contractually commit to keeping China out of their tech supply chains. When you can't preserve your lead through innovation, you seek to lock countries in contractually. For instance as a country, this would mean telling Huawei they can't sell you AI chips, and telling Chinese firms they can't invest in your data centers - even if they're better and cheaper. It's not about choosing the best technology, it's about choosing the right flag. But in this instance, the US went much further still: they literally tried to carve out 4,000 acres of Philippine territory (in New Clark City, 60 miles north of Manila) to be governed under US common law with diplomatic immunity - the first arrangement of its kind anywhere in the modern world. This is according to the WSJ who ran the story last month (wsj.com/world/asia/u-s…) as if it was a done deal (it wasn't). Heard about the "French concession" or "British concession" in China during the century of humiliation? Same thing: the US basically asked for an "American concession" in the Philippines. Unsurprisingly, there was quite a bit of backlash in the country with for instance the Peasant Movement of the Philippines (KMP) calling it a “massive sellout” of the country’s land, minerals, and sovereignty (punto.com.ph/us-led-pax-sil…). So much so that the Philippines' government - namely Joshua Bingcang, president and chief executive of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) - issued a statement saying that the Philippines had rejected US proposals that would place the project beyond local jurisdiction (asianews.network/philippines-re…). Note, by the way, this delicious irony: the BCDA is the government agency that was created in 1992 specifically to convert former US military bases at Clark and Subic Bay after the Philippines spent decades negotiating their closure. New Clark City - where the Pax Silica's hub would go - is built on the old Clark Air Base. So the agency whose entire reason for existing is to turn former American colonial territory (i.e. US military bases) into sovereign Philippine land is the one now being asked to hand part of that very same land back under US jurisdiction (and, apparently, declined). Of course though, blocking this specific jurisdiction grab doesn't change the bigger picture. The Philippines is still a Pax Silica signatory, and Pax Silica itself is structurally neocolonial: you supply the cheap labor and raw materials, align your export controls and regulations with Washington's, cut yourself off from the world's rising technological powerhouse - and in exchange you get assembly jobs and the privilege of getting a pat on the head and being called a "trusted partner." They dropped the most cartoonishly colonial demand - governing Philippine soil under US law - but the underlying architecture is the same: you serve America's supply chain, on America's terms, and you relinquish your sovereign right to trade with whoever offers the best deal.

@docjazzmusic Eh, agreed that (if accurately translated) it's psychotic and all, but the other side isn't better. In fact probably far worse, but with lower competence, lousier friends and lousier weapons.

No society in history has ever reached this level of mass psychosis. If you are unable to discern that, you yourself are in urgent need of psychiatric evaluation. An entire society dancing cheerfully to the beat of GENOCIDE.

@wilsonyimby I ordered my new PC from China because that's the only place I could get one with 32gb ram at a somewhat normal price. Now I know why.

Why would China sell cheaper if they already know customers would buy at inflated prices tho??????

@Case00585334 @AngelicaOung So you're in this gang. Boss died. You tried to be new Boss, lost, so you and your boys went to sulk in a spare gang hideout. All's fine since you're still in the gang. But if you create a new gang, in the spare hideout you stole, the new Boss who won succession will smash you.

@AngelicaOung I'd say the same thing if I wanted to extract something from someone I'm gonna smash you in the face If you want to save yourself just do what I say and yeild to me No... you're gay Angelica

To save Taiwan, the best way is to work with and not against the mainland. Nothing needs to be lost except our utility as a foreign policy tool for America.

@NavinaHeyden I think if you start with the premise that European industry is "sick", then having cancer with various options for "treatment" seems like a useful analogy. It's just a bit insulting to China.

Oh my god, she pushes politicians mental illness to an even higher level. Many of my fans even asked me to go politics because they are also sick of such European political comedies. My answer is I cannot because Im sick of having supervisors and colleagues who are unaware of their stupidity but keep insert authority over you.

@RnaudBertrand Afaik the economist has a practice in drafting an obituary partly from the deceased's worldview, not just their own. So if they were to write one for Genghis Khan, it'd focus a lot more on the unprecedented empire building rather than all the raping, beheading and impaling.

Yet another striking illustration of just how ideologically rigid the West has become compared to what we used to be. This was the obituary The Economist published for Mao in 1976 - at the height of the Cold War. Read this part: "In the final reckoning Mao must be accepted as one of history's great achievers: for devising a peasant-centred revolutionary strategy which enabled China's Communist party to seize power, against Marx's prescriptions, from bases in the countryside; for directing the transformation of China from a feudal society wracked by war and bled by corruption, into a unified egalitarian state where nobody starves; and for reviving national pride and confidence so that China could, in Mao's words, 'stand up' among the great power." Show this text to any Economist "journalists" today - without telling them it's from their own paper - and they'd reply: surely it's "CCP propaganda" 😏 Yes, incredible as it may sound, there used to be a time when Western journalists could assess a geopolitical rival honestly and respectfully without being accused of being a traitor. And this honesty was in no small part a key factor why the West won the Cold War. Today we call honest assessment "propaganda," and we harass, smear, and blacklist people for it. And we're puzzled why the West is in steep decline. Truth matters.

@Lifeinvestmoney Math. Damn you math!

Bonds are paying 5% What’s stopping you from investing $1million and living off $500k/yr?

@bin_salle39329 @DrMasIindaSis If we can't do that, we settle for the best deal our MPs can negotiate for. If they can't do that, then we replace them with like-minded but more competent MPs to get more. What we don't do, is reduce the number of like-minded MPs in parliament, resulting in a worse deal made.

@bin_salle39329 @DrMasIindaSis How I wish we can have a benevolent dictator who does exactly what we want. But we don't. We are a democracy. We don't get what we want, by getting one or a few MPs elected. We have to ensure that the majority of MPs elected are just like him or broadly agree with him.

For more than six decades, the Democratic Action Party (DAP) has carefully branded itself as a multiracial, progressive force in Malaysian politics. Its support base, however, remains heavily concentrated among urban Chinese voters, particularly in mixed and marginal constituencies where disciplined turnout and strong party machinery matter more than sheer numbers. DAP’s defenders argue that the party became strong because it consistently championed governance reform, anti-corruption narratives, meritocracy, and constitutional secularism at a time when many non-Malay voters felt politically cornered between UMNO’s Malay nationalism and PAS’ Islamist conservatism. To many middle-class urban Malaysians, DAP represented the safest available opposition vehicle against the old Barisan Nasional order. But critics increasingly question whether DAP’s political rise truly translated into structural empowerment for ordinary Malaysians or merely strengthened a new class of urban political and business elites. Despite repeated election victories under the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) and later Pakatan Harapan (PH) banners, many working-class Chinese voters still face the same pressures of stagnant wages, rising living costs, housing insecurity, and unequal access to opportunity. The rhetoric of reform often sounded more revolutionary during campaigns than in government. The uncomfortable reality is that many Chinese voters may not necessarily vote for DAP out of deep ideological loyalty, but because they perceive few viable alternatives. MCA is widely viewed by critics as subordinate to UMNO’s race-based political framework, while PAS remains deeply unpopular among many non-Muslim and moderate voters due to fears of religious conservatism. In that political vacuum, DAP benefited not only from support, but from the absence of credible competition. However, Malaysia’s political landscape is slowly changing. A growing number of progressive Malays, moderate Malays, non-Malays, and non-Muslim voters are beginning to feel that they may now have alternatives outside DAP. Younger voters in particular appear increasingly less emotionally attached to old party brands and more willing to evaluate parties based on credibility, economic competence, institutional reform, and leadership integrity rather than historical loyalty alone. This shift matters politically because DAP’s long-term strength was never built solely on hardcore Chinese nationalist sentiment or elite business support. It also depended heavily on a coalition of urban moderates, reform-minded malay and Malaysians, and voters who saw DAP as the only viable counterweight against racial extremism, corruption, and authoritarian politics. If that middle-ground voter bloc starts believing there are now other credible reform-oriented platforms available, DAP could face a new type of pressure it has rarely experienced before: competition within the reformist space itself. That is why some observers believe figures like Tony Pua long regarded as one of DAP’s key strategists and policy thinkers appear increasingly sensitive toward internal dissent, fragmentation, or the emergence of alternative political narratives within the broader reform movement. From this perspective, criticism directed at leaders such as Rafizi Ramli and Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad may reflect deeper anxieties inside parts of Pakatan Harapan especially DAP about maintaining unity, voter confidence, and political relevance in a far more fluid post-2018 political environment. For many Malaysians today, especially younger voters, Sabahans, Sarawakians, and politically exhausted centrists, the issue is no longer simply whether DAP was once an effective opposition party. The larger question is whether any political coalition that reaches Putrajaya can truly resist the entrenched culture of patronage, compromise, factionalism, and power consolidation that has shaped Malaysian politics for generations. Sang Kancil Politic analysis. 😉

@BeijingDai Lol Chinese in Singapore (or Malaysia) eating with hands is not a thing. A few anecdotes perhaps, but it's not normal. What's more interesting is that we like to eat rice with dishes on a plate with spoon and fork, and not chopsticks.

This movie is truly excellent. It tells the poignant story of Han Chinese from Chaoshan, Guangdong, who went to Southeast Asia to make a living in last century. Generation after generation, these Chinese people, even in the most difficult circumstances, never forgot to teach their children the Chinese language and culture. Although the story takes place in Thailand, it reminds me of the hardships and perseverance of Chinese education in Malaysia over the past hundred years. Today, the whole world is learning Chinese, traditional Chinese culture in Southeast Asia, however, faces another kind of danger—exemplified by the so-called "elite" Chinese in Singapore who have betrayed their own heritage. These people abandon their bloodline and traditions, embrace the decalying Western values, and even adopt the Indian backward practice of eating with their hands. And they think they are superior than others and they are "elite"? What a group of idiots! These people need to be swept into the garbage dump of history!

@Cait_Sith_co The government that documented and prosecuted the Imperial Japanese war crimes in China is the that was running China at the time, and is the current one running democratic Taiwan (same government, different political party). FYI

なぜか上手く翻訳されないけれど、なるほど！と思ったので共有 ↓ 中国政府の日本に対する敵意は、もともと歴史のせいでも、領土のせいでもありません。歴史や領土の恨みの物語は、ただ一般市民に聞かせるための理由に過ぎません。 本当の理由は、日本に民主制度が存在するというその事実そのものです。 中国語を話す地域が自分たちでリーダーを選べること——これは台湾と呼ばれます。 儒教文化の背景を持つ国家が成熟した民主法治を築けること——これは日本と呼ばれます。 この二つの地域で最も危険なものは、軍隊ではなく、制度そのものです。なぜなら、それらの存在が、長年広まってきた一つの嘘——“中国人は民主主義に向かない”——を暴くからです。 だから一般市民にそれらを憎ませなければなりません。歴史を使い、領土を使い、民族感情を使って。市民に永遠に傷と恨みに注目させ、傷の向こう側で人々がどのように平等な生活をしているのかを見ることができないようにするのです。 しかし、同じ専制国家である北朝鮮には敵意はありません。同じく腐敗したミャンマーも、中国人を騙す園区を隠していても、敵意はありません。なぜなら北朝鮮やミャンマーは鏡ではなく、同類だからです。鏡が危険なのです。鏡は自分と正常な人々との違いを映し出すことができます。 日本の国会は毎日見学が可能で、政府食堂は市民が自由に利用でき、公務員と市民が同じテーブルに座り、公務員は市民に対して謙虚で親しみやすい態度で接します。それこそが公僕の本来の姿です。 これは制度の風格であり、権力が人民に対して本来備えるべき態度です。 中国政府は貧しい国も、混乱した国も恐れません。ただ一つのことを恐れます——市民が目撃すること、つまり正常な国はこうであってもよいのだと知ることです。 日本や台湾に対する敵対の本質は、二国間の恨みにあるのではなく、専制制度が民主制度に抱く本能的な恐怖にあります。それは支配者が国民を搾取する権力を失うことへの恐怖です

@SilencerMuto @SyedJymalZahiid By definition you can't increase or decrease the number of B40 without increasing or decreasing the whole population.

@SyedJymalZahiid Kerajaan gagal bila B40 ramai. naik kan jadi m40 start contribute to country. baru la maju. org t20 x kesah pun B40 dapat apa. satu lagi ko kene ingat t20,m40,b40 ni satu isi rumah bukan Satu slip gaji. ramai tipu dia B40.

T20: Kami yang paling banyak bayar cukai jadi kami paling berhak dapat subsidi If that's the thinking then it should be the billionaires and multi-millionaires who deserve most of the subsidies (or state services even) since they pay the highest income tax rate, right? Morons.

@elonmusk And the DPRK is... Democratic?

True

@RnaudBertrand Ah, but what about the catharsis? Yelling into the aether still makes your happier, even if nobody's listening.

Another finding of the report that I found fascinating this year: there's now a higher perception of freedom of speech in China than in the immense majority of Western countries, including in the United States. Meaning that when you ask the Chinese people, a higher proportion of them feel they "can criticize the government without consequences" than in the US. I'm personally not surprised about this at all. I posted many times about the different initiatives taken by the Chinese government to encourage feedback and criticism, including the 12345 hotline, a 24/7 phone number you can call anywhere in China if you have any complaint that's related to the government (and which I myself called a few times). And anyone familiar with China will tell you (and this is one way the Chinese are actually spiritually quite similar to the French), Chinese people LOVE to complain, and are definitely not shy about it. Speak about government policies to anyone in China and get ready for an hours-long dizzying discussion about the myriads of ways in which China does NOT work. The notion that Chinese people can't complain is something only someone who's never shared a dinner table with a Chinese family could possibly believe... AND, most importantly, as this report's results indicate, the Chinese government - unlike many Western governments - actively listens to and acts upon people's feedback (a striking example I stumbled upon just today: x.com/i/status/20531…). Which - last I checked - is supposed to be what democracy is all about: having your policies guided by the will of the people. What's the freaking point of being allowed to complain or expose whatever government failure if nothing changes? 🤷‍♂️ That's not democracy, it's just theater.

Every year, this has to be the one report I look forward to the most: the Democracy Perception Index, compiled by the Alliance of Democracies Foundation (in partnership with Nita Data). In fact, my yearly thread on the report is apparently such a tradition that, this year, its lead researcher personally sent me the report with this message: "every year, I look forward to your thread about it!". That's how you start wondering whether you tweet too much 😅 Why do I like this report so much? A few reasons: 1) The Alliance of Democracies Foundation, the organization behind the report, cannot even remotely be suspected of being some sort of anti-West outlet: it was started by an ex-NATO Secretary General (Anders Fogh Rasmussen) and its stated purpose is "to unite world democracies" 2) It's surprisingly honest and the methodology is actually democratic. Unlike other reports on democracy the scoring isn't done by the report's authors (like the report by Freedom House or The Economist's "Democracy Index"). It simply asks people what they think and, when it comes to democracy, that's kind of the point 🤷‍♂️ 3) I love the expression "perception is reality" because, like it or not, what people believe about their system is what determines its legitimacy. A democracy that nobody actually experiences as one can't credibly claim to be one. And conversely, a so-called "autocracy" that its people overwhelmingly believe is actually a democracy might... actually be a democracy. Anyhow, this year's edition did not disappoint. The data is absolutely fascinating and frankly, a little terrifying. So here you go: my thread on the 2026 Democracy Perception Index 🧵

@davidpattersonx No, you're also extracting 1M from the economy, meaning you're relying more heavily on the pipelines that run the economy like the legal system, law enforcement, education system, infrastructure etc. Fair is subjective, as you can pick any criteria and weigh them as you wish.

If taxes were fair: You earn $100,000 per year and pay $30,000 in tax. Your neighbor earns $1,000,000 and pays $300,000 in tax. Your neighbor is paying 10X more than you. If taxes were fair, you should both pay $30,000, since you both receive the same government services.

@wilsonyimby @pakpakchicken Cos of Malaysian type weather. That's why we have so many cars per capita in Malaysia.

@pakpakchicken Why do you still have so many cars???

Hi rest of the world. In Singapore, we hate money. This picture is the cost of a car certificate that expires in 10 years. ON TOP OF: 9% GST $350 registration fee 320% of the Open Market Value 20% Excise Duty on the Open Market Value Money means nothing. We hate money.