Read the whole thing. Corruption is still a major problem, but Xi is pushing the monolithic solution. And the Chinese cyberpirates are lauded, not arrested (which is why the obedient Obama administration didn't make a fuss when our OPM personnel files were hacked I guess: he knew it wasn't criminals but their gov't).
But what about the demographic problems of the future?
they also have stuff about North Korea in there.
and stuff about their big brother spying on everyone trends. Part of this is because their ethnic Muslims who fought with ISIS are due to return and cause problems, but it will extend to everyone eventually. And this article says China is helping Burma fight the Rohingya because that group has a small group of jihadi types spreading violence there.
Finally they bring us up.
South China Sea China appears to have succeeded in buying cooperation from the Philippines. The Filipino government is willing to accept all the legal gifts (aid, investment, loans) China offers in return for not resisting Chinese claims in the South China Sea. Filipino president Duterte pointed out earlier in 2017 that China threatened war if the Philippines went ahead with plans to drill for oil in offshore areas that international law recognizes as Filipino but that China claims actually belongs to them. Duterte openly criticizes other nations for not confronting China and sees no point in the Philippines trying to take on China by itself.
Again, Obama could have stopped them when they started digging up the sea floor to build artificial islands, but he didn't, and he pressured the Philippines not to do so. As a result, nothing short of a shooting war will get them out, and Duterte figures cynically to try to accept bribes and try to keep them happy.
a bit of history here:
that is the opinion of the average Filipino: The elite families managed to stay rich by helping the Spanish, the Americans, and the Japanese, whereas our area (and Lolo's family) fought all three invaders. The cooperation of the elite families here with the Japanese occupiers is hush hush, and rarely mentioned...
While the Chinese see this continued resistance by many Filipinos as something that can be fixed by increasing the goodies offered and threats made, most Filipinos see China as yet another conqueror, not much different from the Spanish or the Japanese. The Americans threw the Spanish out in 1898 but soon agreed to get out themselves and did so right after World War II, a year late because of the Japanese occupation. The Filipinos remember that and are certain that the Chinese would behave much like the Japanese (as in brutally and with no intention to leave voluntarily).
With all the "Russian" stuff in the news (especially the Uranium bribery via the Clinton Foundation), I wonder if China got away with stuff because of their economic power/threats, or because they too managed to
But a quick google shows that the gifts were from Wang, who is in trouble over corruption with Xi, so maybe not.
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