An explanation from China Digital Times of the ‘garbage time of history’…
When the result of a sporting match becomes a foregone conclusion and lesser players are subbed in to run out the clock, announcers often term it “garbage time.” The latest term to sweep the Chinese internet holds that nations, too, experience a similar phenomenon: the “garbage time of history” (历史的垃圾时间, lìshǐ de lājī shíjiān). Coined by the essayist Hu Wenhui in a 2023 WeChat post, “the garbage time of history” refers to the period when a nation or system is no longer viable—when it has ceased to progress, but has not yet collapsed. Hu defined it as the point at which “the die is cast and defeat is inevitable. Any attempt to struggle against it is futile.” Hu’s sweeping essay led with Soviet stagnation under Brezhnev and then jumped nimbly between the historiography of the collapse of the Ming Dynasty and Lu Xun’s opinions on Tang Dynasty poetry. Unasserted but implied in the essay is that China today finds itself in similar straits.
A partial translation of the essay follows.
At Bloomberg, Minxin Pei picks up on the Chinese people’s pessimism about the country’s prospects during the ‘garbage time’ …
On the surface, such pessimism is driven by economic woes. The collapse of the real estate sector has shrunk the net worth of the middle-class. The resulting negative wealth effect has curbed consumption, exacerbating the slump and threatening deflation.
The malaise, however, has deeper political roots. The country has gone through much worse economic times before without despairing. Tens of thousands of state-owned enterprises were liquidated and more than 30 million workers laid off at the end of the 1990s. Still, ordinary Chinese remained optimistic about the future.
The difference is that those citizens believed in the competence of the reformist then-premier Zhu Rongji…
…Now, Chinese are not only dissatisfied with government decisions. More importantly, they see no possibility of improvement because the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party has repeatedly signaled that it intends to maintain the same domestic and foreign policies that have led to economic stagnation at home and geopolitical tensions abroad.
…Under Xi, the party is ruled by a highly centralized, if not personalized, leadership. Changing or reversing policies is extremely hard, if not impossible, as evidenced by the absence of major shifts since China’s recent economic struggles began in mid-2023.
Which leads us to a post by former Mainland real-estate developer Desmond Shum on ‘the Key Characteristics of Xi Jinping’…
When Xi took power in 2013, he saw a China growing more diverse, which he perceived as a threat to the CCP’s dominance. To counter this, he dismantled his political rivals, reorganized the bureaucracy, and reasserted state control over key sectors—media, real estate, finance, and more.
Xi views this as trading short-term pain for long-term gain, but his failure to grasp the depth of the immediate consequences has drastically altered China’s trajectory. The country now finds itself on a path of decline, a result of Xi’s rigid policies and inability, maybe more unwillingness, to adapt.
In Hong Kong, the government is setting up a committee to name the two panda bears that will receive an elite police motorbike escort ‘in arrow formation’ on their arrival.
A perfect indictment of what a knuckle dragging moron Xi Jinping is.
Great, another committee *eyes glaze over*
@Lo Wu Vuitton all these useless way overpaid oxygen thieves that we call bureaucrats know how to do is setup committees and do everything possible to avoid taking risk and potentially getting exposed to blame. None of which is helpful in anyway in improving the sad state of this city.
I bet there are some tasty salaries for members of that naming committee.
What a grift!
@Mark Bradley: THIS is basically an apt description of Xi along with the scathing article (I want to say by Cai Xia but am not 100% sure) about how he failed upwards thanks to his mother’s meddling with CCP officials and using his father’s “revolutionary cred”.
https://qz.com/927277/psychologist-wu-zhihong-explains-why-chinese-people-only-have-the-mental-age-of-a-six-month-old-in-his-book-nation-of-giant-babies
(also probably explains why China CAN’T field a decent men’s team in any international level team sport! Unless maybe it’s badminton.)
Oh, nice twist! I was expecting the opening quote to end with a tedious indictment of the United States.
A welcome ceremony chaired by Chief Secretary Eric Chan will be held for the pandas at the airport.
Will a group of flag waving school kids present the pandas with bouquets when they descend the boarding stairs. Woops, forgot, they have to quarantine………
Only in a jurisdiction where the tax payer has been deprived of any say in how revenues are spent could such squandering of resources and official’s top dollar time be contemplated.
I notice that yesterday’s Standard editorial that focussed on the issue of One Horse Races appears to have been pulled from the website. As well as the Macau election it also mentioned the lack of information with regard to the CUHK OHR.
In Feb “The Council will set up a search committee to search for a new Vice-Chancellor for the University, as prescribed by Statute 6 of The Chinese University of Hong”, but no details provided as to the outcome of the ‘search’ like how many applicants, etc.
Instead, we get what appears to be a single anointed candidate. Media focus is on his achievements but these are in the research field, there is little about administrative ability.
There was also mention of him having acquired a mega buck pad at The Masterpiece.
Woops I have now managed to locate the article:
https://www.thestandard.com.hk/sections-news-print/266390/Renowned-molecular-biologist-poised-to-take-CUHK-helm
On the positive side Bill Tang, FTU and Council member – who had laid into Rocky Tuan – in his remarks came over as less than enthusiastic about the outcome but knows he has to toe the line.
Strictly speaking, “garbage time” is a neutral term applied to the phase of a basketball game when the outcome is beyond doubt, rather than applied to one team or the other.
I am sure it shows my naivette but how can an academic afford to buy a flat at hkd210million? Explanations please.
The names are in. To truly represent Hong Kong.
我们不会说英语
Wǒmen bù huì shuō yīngyǔ
Bu-hui for short.
And…
我的小费在哪里
Wǒ de xiǎofèi zài nǎlǐ
Xiaofei for short.
@Full Detail – I don’t know in this particular case, but I can think of several possibilities:
1. Win the lottery somewhere
2. Make some very smart investments that pay off
3. Invent something that pays off
4. Marry into money
5. Inherit the money
6. Steal the money
@Down Jones: Uber driver, perhaps?
@ Full Detail and Chinese Netizen
I’m sure he has the cash on-hand for a flat without any trickery or favours. One of the companies Dr. Lo co-founded was acquired for USD 8 billion.