The FT asks whether Beijing can find a way to flatter/cajole Trump into doing its bidding…
“They were scrambling around Washington and New York to find connections to Trump. They were asking Democratic analysts how to manage the Trump team,” said [Evan] Medeiros, a Georgetown professor, who met Xie before the election.
“They essentially have one play: persuade business leaders around Trump to go soft on China.”
All ambassadors in Washington are trying to meet people who may join the new Trump administration. But Beijing faces a particular disadvantage because Republicans have been unwilling to engage Chinese officials in recent years as Washington has become far more hawkish on China.
…Christopher Johnson, a former top CIA China analyst, said Chinese officials were laser-focused on economic policy. “Their top three priorities are tariffs, tariffs, and tariffs,” said Johnson, who heads the consultancy China Strategies Group.
Johnson said there was debate in Beijing between less economic literate members of the politburo and technocrats over Trump’s threat to slap 60 per cent tariffs on imports from China.
“The former take the view that, ‘We beat them before and will do so again as we know how to eat bitterness and the spoiled Americans do not.’ The technocrats . . . realise that 60 per cent tariffs — or perhaps even smaller additional levies — could prove devastating for an already strained and deeply vulnerable economy,” he said.
Matt Gaetz pulls out from the Attorney General nomination (‘to spend more time with under-age girls’, as some wits have put it). That still leaves a range of shockingly/hilariously unqualified would-be appointees: Putin/Assad supporter Tulsi Gabbard to oversee intelligence; Fox TV host Pete Hegseth at the Defense Dept; vaccine-denier RFK Jnr for Health and Human Services; and hydroxychloroquine-for-Covid TV quack Dr Oz for Medicare. Among others.
Many commentators say such borderline-absurd nominations are unprecedented. They forget their Chinese history. Mao Zedong, launching his Cultural Revolution in the early/mid-60s, purged officials and ordered that they be replaced by loyal, ideologically correct bumkins. Chairman Trump is not the first to decree ‘Better Red than Expert’.
“Bumpkins”, not bumkins, please.
Hmm. There is a Big Lychee on Bluesky but somehow I don’t think it’s you…
I tried signing up for Bluesky but they kept telling me that my email address was “wrong” (regular gmail account). So I gave up.
In the Am I Missing Something slot, surely these accomplished high earners are what the Top Talent Scheme has promised to attract????
https://www.thestar.com.my/aseanplus/aseanplus-news/2024/11/22/japanese-porn-stars-charging-hk150000-for-sex-arrested-in-hong-kong-operation
O look who comes here
O look who comes here. I cannot see their faces,
They have no shoes on their feet;
The knobs of their ankles catch the lights
As they pass down the flashy street,
As they pass the deserted places
Of the ailing town.
Each has a chain round his neck. I wonder
Who let them step down –
Down to the pier and the fragrant harbour.
Not speaking, they stand against a wall.
Below the neon tower
They take their masks and let them fall.
We see their faces, each as grim as the other.
Men and women, each like a closed door,
But something about them is familiar;
Where have we seen them before?
What is this – a joke? – an illusion? –
A comedian’s tale?
Are all the best people we knew
Really in jail?
I hesitate to ask: what crime
Did they commit?
It must have been something dreadful.
Better not think about it.
after ‘Autumn Journal’ XV by Louis Macneice
way to keep it up for the side Knownot
@Mary Melville
The HKSARG likely gave up developing this source of revenue after they found out the phrase “pornhub” was trademarked. Mind you, you’d think they could at least put their much-beloved “cum” to good use here.
Anything deemed a NatSec infraction is dreadful.
Unfortunately the degree of the “crime”, to be decided by a handful of enforcers, will truly determine the severity of dreadful and how miserable they’ll make life for the accused, regardless of age, position, physical condition, and how their act affected society. Even though we know it’s not about “society”.
A random throw of the dice on sentencing day could portend a lot: Did the enforcer just get a nice happy ending after his massage? Or did the enforcer finish having a violent argument with his mistress because she needed more allowance and claimed pregnancy???
Legalizing and taxing the prolific sex trade here would provide a reliable revenue stream that could replace dependency on land sales.
@Pedantic cnut
Well, bumkins woks too – Kindred of the Bum?