So it’s really a “messy situation.” Israel was artificially established after World War II, which is like a gang giving away your living room to someone else. You would definitely feel that this person is infringing on your home, but you can’t fight them. Now they are occupying your bedroom, and soon your own bed will belong to them. The two-state solution only limits others from taking over your bedroom, but they still occupy your living room, and you have to pass through the living room to leave the house. For the resident, it’s originally their own house; for the person living in the living room, they fought and bled for it, and now they are being asked to give back the hallway and bathroom. Doesn’t that mean they bled in vain?

So it’s really a messy situation. Sometimes, it can only be suppressed by a powerful intermediary who has no core interest in this house. This is not a complete solution but a temporary truce. If enough time passes, we might see a full reconciliation, just like in ancient China where various ethnic groups had wars and blood feuds, but from the perspective of modern China, they are just words recorded in books.

Indeed, I don’t know how to stop it either. If saving the Palestinians leads to another massacre of Jews, then as a proverb says, “An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind.” “冤冤相报何时了。”It will only result in more bloodshed and cries of anguish. The Chinese government has consistently supported the 1967 two-state solution; I have seen this mentioned many times in official news. Perhaps what we need is an “Israeli-Palestinian Mandela.” 😢

It seems that the saying “the moon is brighter abroad” applies to many countries. China’s situation might be a bit more unique, so let me explain in more detail. Since you are American, some of the descriptions below might sound offensive to you. I apologize for that and will try to stick to factual statements, which might help explain why many Chinese people illegally immigrate to the United States.

From the 1990s until the US-China trade war (which most people consider starting with the US sanctions on ZTE in 2018), foreign countries (especially developed countries like those in Europe and the US) were seen as paradises on Earth. Online, phrases like “Reincarnate as an American in the next life” were blessings (perhaps similar to saying “God bless you and may you go to heaven”), while “Eternally being Chinese” was considered a curse (similar to saying “I curse you to be eternally tormented in hell by Satan”). Due to online propaganda, such as “You can buy a big piece of fried chicken for one dollar in the US,” “You can easily live in a 500-square-meter mansion in the US,” or “Washing dishes in the US can earn you $3000 a month,” many Chinese people were very attracted to these ideas and believed them to be true. Even from my perspective now, I couldn’t buy 3000 pieces of chicken with a month’s salary.

When the US-China trade war started, the idea of “surrendering to the US for leniency” gained traction in China. How could a developing country possibly compete with the world’s leading superpower? Many supporters of China online can only believed that, in terms of military power, the US couldn’t completely destroy China. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019. Initially, the Chinese government’s poor performance further fueled this mindset. However, as the pandemic became global, several things changed the online narrative:

1. China managed to control the pandemic fairly well.
2. The performance of Western developed countries in controlling the pandemic was poor in comparison.
3. Some people began sharing their lives abroad without filters, showing both the good and bad aspects of foreign countries (of course, some people only highlighted the bad parts for attention).
4. At that time, some American politicians called for a coalition to make China pay for the pandemic, and there was talk of a new G8, which directly triggered online anger at the prospect of a “new Eight-Nation Alliance.” Simultaneously, the Hong Kong riots intensified this idea: Western powers led by the US were again attempting to carve up China.

You could see this as a struggle between “pro-American” and “self-reliant” factions in China. The pro-American faction had been cultivating their views for years, while the self-reliant faction garnered more support from ordinary people. The two sides fought fiercely online. However, as I mentioned, the pro-American faction’s exaggerated claims about foreign countries often needed only a photo to be debunked, leading them to frequently resort to personal attacks, further diminishing their influence.

By 2022, with the onset of the Russia-Ukraine war, Chinese public opinion split between supporting Russia and Ukraine. Due to differences in transliterations of the Russian president’s name between Taiwan (“Puding”) and mainland China (“Putin”), people suspected that Taiwan was engaging in cognitive warfare against the mainland, leading to broader suspicions that developed countries were also waging cognitive wars against China, especially Japan. The phrase “700 million yen from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs” is often used sarcastically to mock supporters of Japan.

Currently, on the Chinese internet, those who advocate for Ukraine and Israel are generally assumed to be bots or paid shills, as they can’t explain their support logically. Support for Ukraine and Palestine is based on opposition to invasion, while support for Russia and Palestine aligns with China’s interests. Supporting Russia and Israel suggests a belief in the power of might, but supporting both Ukraine and Israel? Chinese people wouldn’t think like that.

This is why 30,000 to 40,000 Chinese people have illegally crossed from Mexico into the US. They come with suitcases, bringing their families, and often carrying tens of thousands of dollars in cash. When asked by journalists why they came to the US, they repeatedly say, “For freedom and democracy.” I am not at all surprised that Trump thinks these people are spies. If foreigners illegally crossed into China just to “build communism,” most people would think they were crazy and wonder why they didn’t just submit a migration application. The truth is that, in their eyes, the US is a “land flowing with milk and honey,” similar to how Marco Polo described “China being paved with gold” (history doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes🤣 ).They are actually coming to the US for a better life. Most of these people are of no use to the US and can only compete for low-threshold basic jobs, which is why they can’t immigrate legally and resort to illegal entry.

This is a difference between China and foreign countries. Let me explain:

I was born in 2001. When I started school, it was around 2008 in elementary school until 2019 when I finished high school. Many students didn’t have mobile phones, and the internet was often seen by parents as something that affected our studies. The limited computer time we had was almost entirely used for playing video games. Apart from learning about pre-2000 foreign history in school, my main sources of external information were from newsstands outside the school and magazines bought by my parents. In these magazines, the images of foreigners were constructed: I believed Americans were innovative, Germans were rigorous, British were gentlemanly, French were romantic, Russians were bold, and Jews were wise. Due to the actions of parents and schools, education in China before high school was quite closed off. It wasn’t until 2015, when I had to memorize Xi Jinping’s new thoughts on green development in politics class, that I realized the current leader of China was no longer Hu Jintao. For those of us who had only study on our minds before entering college, there is a specific term in China: “small-town exam-takers.”

When I got to college and had my own mobile phone, being able to browse the internet without a very purposeful mindset, it coincided with a “major upheaval.” The rhetoric in those magazines that deliberately praised foreigners was heavily criticized in 2019. It was seen as deliberately arguing for the inferiority of Chinese people. Let me give you a few examples so you can understand what I saw as a child:

The sewage system in the former German-leased area of Qingdao had been operating efficiently for over a century. When some parts needed replacement, the original company no longer existed. A German company sent an email saying that, according to their construction standards, there should be a small storage room within three meters of the worn-out parts where spare parts could be found. The urban construction company found the small storage room in the sewer, and inside, the spare parts were still shiny and new, wrapped in oilcloth.

During a summer camp between Japanese and Chinese children, each child had to carry a 20kg backpack for a 50km hike. The Chinese children soon gave up, but the Japanese children persevered. The Chinese children couldn’t endure the hardship and were not as tough as the Japanese children (my teacher even told us to learn from the Japanese children).

Once in America, a sparrow got tangled in an exposed high-voltage wire by the roadside. Its distressing cries caught the attention of passersby, who immediately called for help. After multiple levels of authorization, the rescue workers eventually got approval from the President within half an hour to send a special plane to cut the national power line in Washington, causing a temporary blackout across the U.S. to save the sparrow.

I learned all three of these from books. Of course, you might say, what kind of nonsense is this, it’s completely fabricated. This rhetoric wasn’t meant for foreigners; it was actually used as internal propaganda within China. Afterward, it was tied together with the “toxic textbooks” incident (where illustrations in elementary school textbooks deliberately depicted Chinese children as ugly and foreigners as attractive), which was believed to be a deliberate attempt by some foreign enemies and domestic traitors to prove that Chinese people couldn’t achieve the same accomplishments as foreigners, thereby belittling Chinese people. This is why I mentioned that Jews indeed have a “promotional image” in China.

In 2019, the Chinese internet was like a chaotic battlefield with all sorts of ideas, from the most peaceful to the most extreme, from the far left to the far right. I once received very hurtful insults for expressing left-wing views on a Chinese platform called Zhihu (similar to Quora). Mutual personal attacks are not uncommon.Now the Chinese internet is still influenced by this, which is why I find Lemmy to be a great environment. At least here, we are having discussions instead of cursing each other with voodoo dolls. 😆

Indeed, I did not intend to equate Israel with all Jewish people or make it representative of Judaism as a whole. If it came across that way, I apologize. Labeling all peace-loving individuals with the actions of those who engage in war due to their ethnicity is similar to the wrongdoings of Germany in the past. Such thinking is almost nonexistent in China. As Mao once said, “Make as many friends as possible and as few enemies as possible.” 😆

I apologize if I caused you any discomfort. About a month ago, I learned about Lemmy, and I was quietly observing, like a crab blowing bubbles in the water. Then, a few days ago, I saw a post asking, “Is Lemmy banned in China?” That sparked a thought in me: “Hey, why not register and communicate with everyone to share some real information about China?” So, I submitted an application to the admins and joined the Lemmy community. It’s like a little crab suddenly swimming up from the riverbed to the surface, announcing its presence to every passing fish. This might indeed annoy the fish. As time goes by, I might become like one of the small fish, blowing bubbles together with you all in a friendly way on some issues. Or perhaps, I will return to the riverbed, continuing to be a quiet crab blowing bubbles. 😂

As a Chinese person, when I was very young, I learned from books that “the Jewish people are a wise people; they put honey on books to let children know that knowledge is sweet.” Before I went to university at 18, I believed that Jews were very smart, like Einstein. All my knowledge came from books. After I started university, I got my first mobile phone, and then I started accessing the internet. This led to a collapse of my worldview, as some things I had firmly believed in began to be questioned by myself. My perception of Jews was just one of many aspects that changed.

Chinese people do not discriminate against Jews. As I experienced, due to widespread propaganda, Jews have a generally positive and subtle reputation in China. The situation is more like a backlash caused by a mismatch between the promotional image and the actual product. Previously, Jews were portrayed as very wise and polite, but when the reality turned out to be different, people felt deceived, which led to what the article calls “anti-Semitism.” However, in fact, on the Chinese internet, people are just bringing up the wrongdoings that some Jews have done.

Among Jews, there are both good and bad people. I support Jewish Voice for Peace and believe that a wandering people should not be discriminated against anywhere. However, Zionists want to hijack all Jews, using the concentration camps from World War II as an emotional card to coerce everyone onto their bandwagon. When the actions of Israel in Gaza reach China, almost all Chinese people are reminded of the atrocities committed by Japanese fascists in China, treating Chinese people like livestock for slaughter. The suffering of the Palestinians makes us empathize deeply. When their homes are destroyed and their relatives killed, it is reminiscent of our past. I saw a group of Israelis holding hands and dancing in front of UN emergency relief supplies to block the aid. It tore my heart apart. I don’t know what to say, I can only say that the Palestinians are incredibly enduring. If it were me and most Chinese people, we simply couldn’t endure it.

China has never oppressed or persecuted Jews. China even sheltered Jews in Shanghai, and the current Prime Minister of Israel has praised this. But ironically, it seems that now China still does not compare to Germany in the eyes of Israel.

I’m sorry that I didn’t realize the difference between CPC and CCP at first. Now I understand that CPC is the official term used by China, while CCP is more commonly used in Western countries. Since my English proficiency is limited to reading, I used ChatGPT to help with the translation, which caused some errors. In China, the CPC has a more down-to-earth nickname among the people: “土共” (Tugong), which translates to “Dirt Communists” or “Local Communists.” This nickname is widely used because of the CPC’s extensive and profound grassroots foundation, and its pragmatic, farmer-like image.

I have never seen a “social credit score” system. People are more concerned about the household registration (hukou) system. What you refer to as the “social credit card” is actually the social security card. In China, there is a credit rating system called Zhima Credit (Sesame Credit). If you owe a lot of money to the bank, your credit rating will be blacklisted, restricting your ability to make high-end purchases. It seems like you are very good at propaganda. Are there bad things in China? Yes, but Western media often focus their reports on what they consider taboo topics, creating a stereotypical image of China that makes Chinese people look strange. I believe Western media can’t come up with other accusations, so they project their own wrongdoings onto China. Take the example of Xinjiang cotton: Chinese people can’t even conceive of forced labor because we believe that human labor is more expensive than machines, which are faster and more efficient. However, the US had cotton slave plantations in the past, so you hype up this issue.

Oh my, sweet and soft virgin Trump, I can’t even imagine. 🤣
Is China socialist? In China, we usually don’t say it that way. We say “socialism with Chinese characteristics,” which is a system more “suitable for China’s conditions.” We believe China is in the primary stage of socialism, where the key focus is on liberating and developing productive forces. You might think China isn’t socialist because it has wealth gaps, labor-capital conflicts, and materialistic marriages (currently, the “Fat Cat Incident” is a hot topic in China). However, China is also working on poverty alleviation (not just distributing food like relief, but arranging jobs and creating positions for poor households) and promoting “common prosperity” (when the government wants companies to help advance “common prosperity,” if they refuse, the government makes things difficult for them).When a country has nothing, how can it redistribute wealth? The current situation in China can be summarized by a statement from the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China: “The principal contradiction in Chinese society is that between the people’s ever-growing needs for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development.” This contradiction exists between the eastern and western regions, urban and rural areas, and high-end high-salary and low-end low-salary jobs, among other aspects.

If I could get paid every time I said something good about the CCP, I would be rich by now. However, on the Chinese internet, there are people who offer 3 RMB per post to delete comments that praise the CCP. 🤣

Hydrogen can cause “hydrogen embrittlement,” which makes the storage and transportation of hydrogen inconvenient. “Hydrogen embrittlement” refers to a phenomenon where metal materials become brittle and prone to fracture after absorbing hydrogen. This phenomenon poses significant challenges for the storage and transportation of hydrogen.

I think the current situation of the Philippines with China is similar to Vietnam’s situation with China in the 1970s. Vietnam signed an agreement with the Soviet Union, and the Philippines has received guarantees from the United States. If the Philippines keeps pushing China’s bottom line, then we can watch the script unfold.

As a Chinese person, I want to say: She may be innocent, but she deserves it.

Let’s think of China as a computer with numerous programs running on it. The programs represent people and activities (normal work and life). The governing bodies are the operating system, while the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the programmer sitting in front of the computer. Sometimes, when programs want to change something beyond their scope of action (like street protests or large-scale online denunciations—complaining in a personal capacity is considered within normal scope), the operating system often first acts to prevent these overreaching actions (many times this doesn’t involve persecution, but rather a phone call or a visit to tell you to stop. In common terms within the country, this is called “cooling down the heat”). The primary goal of the operating system is to maintain the stable operation of the computer. The more stable and efficient it runs, the more likely it is to be promoted. When the programmer notices that a program is running unstably, the operating system will be modified to ensure greater stability and efficiency. This means the political careers of incompetent or unfit officials will end. This is why you sometimes see the government silencing people, but eventually, the situation still moves towards a relatively good outcome. For instance, in the “Tangshan BBQ beating incident,” initially the local government tried to cool down the heat, but when higher-level authorities and the CCP intervened, the local government’s protectors were removed, and the perpetrators were sentenced to 24 years. The pandemic situation was similar: at first, the Wuhan local government tried to cool down the heat, but when the whole country focused on Wuhan, several responsible officials there were held accountable by the central government and their political careers ended.

However, if the change in the program’s scope of action is due to the influence of external virus programs, even if the program’s actions seem right to you, the program must be terminated. Since the pandemic began in 2019, Zhang’s rhetoric has closely resembled that used by many foreign institutions, such as: calling for freedom, democracy, and denouncing CCP rule. The Chinese people do not care about this; we are more concerned with making money and improving our quality of life. It’s similar with the “Tank Man” incident: when foreign forces intervene, an internal conflict among the Chinese people becomes an external conflict between us and them. The economic conflicts of the 1990s, under the influence of Western powers, became an attempt to cause internal chaos in China through a “color revolution,” akin to a virus trying to turn the computer into a “zombie.” What do you think the programmer would do?

Foreign intervention in China is a very sensitive topic, reminding people of the history from 1840 to 1949, a period of human-on-human predation. Those who collaborated with Western countries lived very well, but ordinary people suffered immensely; small-scale farming economies were crushed by industrial machines, and proxy wars among foreign agents caused widespread chaos. Have you ever thought about why the CCP was able to unify the entire country? Why do the Chinese people support the CCP? Understand these questions before discussing China. I am tired of hearing you talk about snippets about China from Western media. It’s time to read history books, starting from 1840 to the present, paying attention to the global situation outside China. Then you will understand why China has become what it is today.