Pronoun: 那; Support independence for Scotland; oppose independence for Tibet. Read me if you want to know why.
Beijing and Edinburgh
Joined July 2011
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Pinned Tweet
1/ Thank you to Fizbo the Clown (aka @DrewPavlou) for drawing my attention to the fact that I’ve never got round to pinning a Tweet to explain my opposition to independence for Tibet. So let me put that right…
David Ferguson retweeted
A Chinese story I can't stop thinking about.
Cai Lei was a vice president at JD.com — a workaholic who helped take the company public. In 2019, he was diagnosed with ALS and given two to five years to live.
He didn't retreat. He called it his "final startup."
He went on to build the world's largest grassroots ALS research platform: a patient database of over 20,000 people, hundreds of scientists working together, nearly 300 drug pathways pursued, more than 30 now in clinical trials. His wife Duan Rui left her partnership at an accounting firm to fund the research through livestreaming — over 100 million yuan invested, and she has never taken a cent in salary.
This year, RAG-17, a homegrown drug he helped advance, completed Phase II trials. The findings, published in Nature Medicine: disease-causing proteins in patients' cerebrospinal fluid fell by nearly 60%, and the disease's progression was held back.
Here's the part that stays with me. Cai Lei has sporadic ALS — the drug targets genetic mutations he doesn't have. The medicine he fought so hard for may never save him.
His answer: I'm not trying to save myself. I'm trying to save others. Even if I fall in the darkness before dawn, I'll make sure the path is ready — so those who come after me can stand on my shoulders and step into the sunlight.
Today, only his eyes can move. With an eye-tracking device he types around 60 words a minute and works ten-hour days.
One detail worth noting: after his diagnosis, JD.com introduced a policy to cover the education and living expenses of any employee’s children if the employee suffers a serious tragedy while in service, continuing until the children turn 22. That policy exists because of Cai.
Video: [credit @长歌人物志] | English subtitles auto-generated by AI
Now I'm retired I'm going to join one of these groups in the Purple Bamboo Park... ✊
A good friend's mum sent me this video of her team dancing at an event in their compound here in Shanghai.
This is a really interesting phenomenon in China.
Many retired women (and men) will join dancing groups as a hobby after retiring. That's something most people know already.
But an interesting aspect I guess a lot of people don't know about is just how early women can retire in China, as opposed to many Western nations.
In China today, women in standard jobs can retire at 50 years of age: that's right, 50! (Although it is slowly changing to 55).
The age for some other female workers at the moment, like female managers and other leaders, is 55.
Let's compare that to female retirement age in some Western nations, shall we?
The age in New Zealand is 65; Australia is 67; the USA is also 67. So basically, in the West we are worked to the bone, and get just a few years of retirement.
And get this: the average life expectancy in China is the same as the United States: 79 years of age. So in China, that's nearly 30 years of retirement and leisure. In the US, just 12!
In China, therefore, hobbies are extremely important! One of the popular ones is dancing groups.
My friend's mum has led this group for years, and is extremely proud of their performances and achievements.
I mean, look at the dance routines. Could you remember all those moves? I couldn't!
And then there's the outfits, which are all custom made by members of the team.
They meet weekly to come up with new routines, find new songs, think up new outfits to make, and check which events are coming up that they might be able to take part in.
The event they were taking part in in the video below is one organized by the community.
And like I mentioned, the age for female retirement is 50. That's not old by any means, so it is really important that women coming out of busy work lives still have things to do once they are out of the work force.
Another big one is travel groups. My same friend's mum has traveled a lot and, especially before COVID, that included overseas trips. Italy, Japan, Russia. All with other retirees.
Their last trip was a cruise if I remember correctly.
So next time you hear people talking repeating anti-China propaganda about hUmAn RiGhTs when it comes to work and time off blah blah blah, ask them to compare China's retirement age with theirs.
I reckon they'll be shocked!
Rockin' it @Magnus_Fiskesjo ...
😅🤣😂🤪🤡🤥
The way I look at it is this @Magnus_Fiskesjo :
Prior to the founding of the PRC, how many Uygurs and Tibetans under the age of 30 could read and write in their own language?
Almost none of them.
Today, how many Uygurs and Tibetans under the age of 30 can read and write in their own language?
Almost all of them.
From almost zero percent literacy to almost 100% literacy in about three generations.
It's a catastrophe I tell you. The total destruction of the culture, heritage and language of the Uygurs and Tibetans...
“They have zero idea of what work civil servants do…”
You are spot on @jroar9. I have absolutely no idea what the Edinburgh city Council Tax staff do. The reason being that none of them ever bother going into the office.
You have a complex problem with your council tax so you go into the council offices and ask to talk to someone.
“There’s nobody here” you’re told.
“ Can I make an appointment to speak to someone?”
“No. There’s no schedule. The staff only come in at times of their own choosing.”
If Council Tax staff aren’t in the office dealing with customer problems then what exactly are the lazy fuckers doing for eight hours a day five days a week?
Fools might think that Zelensky is nothing more than a pathetic wee clown who used to earn a living pretending to play the piano with his cock.
Wiser heads understand that he is truly a warrior hero in the mould of Alexander the Great, hewn from the same mighty oak as Churchill himself… ✊👊🏽
The obvious solution is to keep sending Billions to the Cocaine addicted little Dictator in Kiev. You know, the Nazi celebrating one who banned 11 opposotion parties, refuses to hold elections, jails journalists and abducts his own people?
Keep helping him bomb refieries in Russia. Its the solution. Get it?
The worst thing about the UK is being trapped in a union with belting morons like @UKScotBrit
Why are cringing Jockanese lickspittles like @afneil so desperate to curry favour with these imbeciles?
David Ferguson retweeted
Well done ratio against Fox. But look how even Fox is stabbing Trump in the back when he tries to make good on China. Insane
Looks like you got yourselves a bit of a ratio, @FoxNews...
You have to love the dumbo with his "LEARNING TIBETAN IS NOT A CRIME" placard.
Here's how I see it:
Questions: How many Tibetans (and Uygurs) today under the age of 30 can read and write in their own language?
Answer: Almost all of them.
Question: How many Tibetans (and Uygurs) under the age of 30 could read and write in their own language prior to the creation of the PRC in 1949?
(Bear in mind that would have been pretty much all of them, since life expectancy wasn't much more than 30)
Answer: Almost none of them.
What kind of a brainwashed bovine cuck do you have to be to think that moving from 0% literacy to 100% literacy in three generations is a form of "cultural genocide"?
"Here's an essay on why being dirt poor is better than being penniless and starving..."
You stupid, stupid little person.
1. Being "dirt poor" is, by any objective and sensible analysis, better than being "penniless and starving". Don't you think all these hungry beggars trapped in their cardboard slumdog shanty towns around India's major cities would welcome a rise from being penniless and starving to being dirt poor?
2. There is no magic wand up your magic arse that you can wave to transform people who are penniless and starving into people with a comfy middle-class existence. You can only do it step-by-step. And that is what China has been doing, very successfully, for the last fifteen years.
3. In any case, someone who has a solid roof over their heads, good food on the table, decent clothes on their back, enough money to take care of their most important needs, a good school for their kids, safe streets, improving infrastructure, a clean environment, and healthcare and pension provision, is no longer "dirt poor". They are substantially above that. And that is now universally the case in China.
4. Most important of all is to have prospects of a better future, and if China can outmanoeuvre the deranged warmongering psychopaths who rule the Western world, then everyone in China can indeed look forward to a better future
You stupid, stupid little person.
You have to love the dumbo with his "LEARNING TIBETAN IS NOT A CRIME" placard.
Here's how I see it:
Questions: How many Tibetans (and Uygurs) today under the age of 30 can read and write in their own language?
Answer: Almost all of them.
Question: How many Tibetans (and Uygurs) under the age of 30 could read and write in their own language prior to the creation of the PRC in 1949?
(Bear in mind that would have been pretty much all of them, since life expectancy wasn't much more than 30)
Answer: Almost none of them.
What kind of a brainwashed bovine cuck do you have to be to think that moving from 0% literacy to 100% literacy in three generations is a form of "cultural genocide"?
WATCH: Uyghur activists take to the streets of Washington as President Trump hosts Chinese President Xi Jinping for a closely watched summit.
The demonstrators are protesting Beijing's human rights record and are urging Trump to press Xi over the treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
The demonstration comes as Xi makes his first Washington visit in more than a decade, with trade, AI, and other major tensions on the agenda.
Download the FOX News app for the latest details and live updates on this historic summit: foxnews.onelink.me/xLDS/z2jy…
Poor old @DrewPavlou
It must be an endless source of rage and frustration to him that a rabble of cowardly peasants who spent World War II hiding in the mountains were then able to emerge and thrash an army twice their size, full of battle hardened KMT veterans, that was supported by massive injections of US weapons and cash.
HOW could that happen! HOOOOW!
One day @DrewPavlou will provide us with some of his priceless insights explaining how it happened. One day...
Only not today... 😔
Come on you China-haters! Don’t be feardies! Gird your loins and rise to the “Criticize Xi Jinping Challenge”! Give it your best shot!
✨OPEN FORMAL INVITATION FROM MARIO CAVOLO
I want to criticize Xi Jin Ping in public. So I need your help.
Lots of people are complaining that I don't criticize China and its because I "can't" criticize China because if I do, I'll get put in jail and have my organs harvested or whatever.
So help me out. Please tell me below specifically what bad thing China's President Xi JinPing did that we can criticize.
Good luck. Let's see what happens next.
Remember you need to tell me specifically the bad thing that Xi Jin Ping did or does that can be criticized.
For example, he started a war he shouldn't have started, he killed innocent people he shouldn't have killed, he allows slave labor, he oppresses religion, you know, nasty stuff that some countries tend to do. Be specific.
Please don't waste anyone's time with general rhetorical accusations, be specific.
That's three times I've told you to be specific. So by now, I'm sure you've thought of something.
Thanks, Mario
#China #Xijinping #CounterPointGlobal
David Ferguson retweeted
A single Russian missile hitting Berlin, London or Washington would trigger a response so overwhelming that humanity would be lucky to emerge from it at all. And yet munitions manufactured and guided by NATO powers are now routinely hitting Moscow. With no democratic legitimacy — they hold favourability ratings of 15-40% in countries that have no real say on questions of war and peace — Europe’s ruling elites openly state their aim of dismembering Russia. To give their intentions teeth, they have embarked on an armament drive that now exceeds the annualised increases in military spending in the years immediately preceding the First World War. Even the tensest moments of the Cold War, which we now know put us seconds away from annihilation, provide no precedent for the scale of the folly unfolding today. Since there is no meaningful anti-war movement in Europe, we have reached the incredible point where our main barrier to nuclear annihilation is the thinning patience of the leadership in the Kremlin. I don’t think we have ever faced a situation so brittle and been so deeply unprepared to confront it.
Hey @McFaul
How does it feel to have a second arsehole reamed in you?
Would you like a third buttock to go with it?
Do not follow this advice, unless you want to be wrong.
Chinese officials concurrently hold positions within both the Party and the PRC government. If you don't know the difference, you aren't qualified to comment.
Xi's proper top title within the Party is the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. There is no "Chairman of the Communist Party" (this role was abolished in the 1980s). In Chinese, it would be 习总书记, i.e. "General Secretary Xi" although you'd typically only see this used in readouts or summaries of Party affairs specifically.
If we're being precise, Xi could be correctly referred to as "Chairman" in his capacity as leader of either the Central Military Commission or National Military Commissions (i.e., the Party one or the State one; he is Chairman of both) but we know that is not the intention here.
Because Chinese leaders almost always travel abroad in their capacity as PRC state leaders, and not Party officials, it's correct on his visit to the US to refer to him by his state leader title, which is President of the PRC, 国家主席 or just President Xi.
Typically the only time he would travel abroad with his title of General Secretary (and not just as the PRC President) is for explicit Party business, for example party-to-party exchanges in Vietnam.
If you wanna be a pedantic twit, don't half-ass it. You'd think a former diplomat would be more sensitive to the precision of diplomatic protocol.