… but her central point is undeniable. The selective championing of oppressed groups, when it fits their aim of aggressive full spectrum dominance, is easily exposed when you remember that what the Empire is really aggrieved about is countries that won’t damn well do as they are told.
I genuinely have no idea what is going on in Xinjiang, am open to a schooling, but it looks like the same “deep concern” proffered to the Rohingya, the poor ickle trust fund brats of Hong Kong, etc etc etc.
Knowing what’s really happening in China, and what the common Chinese citizens really think about it all, is a perennial problem for Westerners. It really is like “…that undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller returns…” Godfree Roberts’ ‘Here Comes China!’ blogging seems to help a bit - though always to be taken with salt, of course, since Godfree lives there and is obviously committed.
Hi @Kieran_Telo , I like the title of your post , I nicked the moniker some time ago and was slightly disappointed I had to add the 1 on this site.
This was my favourite:
cj
“I didn’t get where I am today by thinking”
clearly Caitline has done a lot of thinking on this one, the Pom pose on genocide was ridiculous.
cheers
Great. Super. Such a marvellous series, and deadly serious underneath the laffs, like all the best comedy. The books are highly recommended too, most of David Nobbs is very worthwhile.
Leonard Rossiter as Brecht’s ‘Arturo Ui’, in the Nottingham Playhouse production by Michael Blakemore, was one of the absolutely most indelible theatrical experiences of my life. He - and Michael, and the whole cast - had real genius there. Unforgettable!
“If we could learn to look instead of gawking,
We’d see the horror in the heart of farce,
If only we could act instead of talking,
We wouldn’t always end up on our arse.
This was the thing that nearly had us mastered;
Don’t yet rejoice in his defeat, you men!
Although the world stood up and stopped the bastard,
The bitch that bore him is on heat again.”
― Bertolt Brecht, [The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui]
Oh dear, I hope this stray memory isn’t getting off the point of this thread… 
Happily we don’t appear to have any scope ninnies patrolling what is and what is not on-topic.
There doesn’t appear to be a decent biography of Rossiter, which is a shame. A tricky sort, I gather, which makes me suspect I’d’ve liked him a lot.
Getting back to the CJ I was originally referring to, I find her blog quite perplexing. The overall tone is faux breathless ‘how can anyone believe these liars’ but it’s all framed within a reformist schtick: ‘if only there was a softer kinder mafia…’