Category: Uncategorized

A noted expert on China says he sees signs that the Asian behemoth is making preparations to go to war — possibly over Taiwan — and very soon.

Gordon Chang, writing on the 1945 blog, said Communist Party cadres are ordering businesses and entrepreneurs to convert their production over to manufacturing equipment, a sure sign that Beijing is stocking up for war.

“Last month, a Chinese entrepreneur making medical equipment for consumers told me that local officials had demanded he convert his production lines in China so that they could turn out items for the military. Communist Party cadres, he said, were issuing similar orders to other manufacturers,” Chang wrote. “Moreover, Chinese academics privately say the ongoing expulsion of foreign colleagues from China’s universities appears to be a preparation for hostilities.”

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Meanwhile, the Anbound Research Center, a Chinese think tank based in Beijing, published a report pointing out that “China’s economy is at risk of stalling” due to the “impact of epidemic prevention and control policies.”

It called on the Chinese regime to change its “zero-COVID” policies that have caused the shutdown of cities and disruption of trade, to prevent an “economic stall” in the second half of the year.

The report was published on Anbound’s official accounts on Chinese social media WeChat and Sina Weibo on Aug. 28 but was deleted from both platforms the day after.

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The world largest electronics market—the Huaqiangbei business district, which is located in Futian District—has also been closed off, bring trade for electronic parts to a halt.

Local authorities announced the market will be closed until Sept. 2. The market has thousands of booths selling microchips, phone parts, and other components to manufacturers.

The CCP’s extreme COVID-19 control measures—which have now put 6.70 million people in three Shenzhen districts under lockdown over 11 reported cases—have caused wide complaint.

A Shenzhen resident surnamed Yang told NTDTV on Aug. 30, “I can’t go out, I can’t buy vegetables. It’s been escalating. First, they say lockdown for three days. Then it was extended, and it will be extended again and again.”

Another Shenzhen resident, who did not give her name for safety reasons, told NTD, “In the past few years, everyone in Shenzhen hasn’t been able to make money. Either their salary has been reduced or they have been laid off. Many companies have closed down, and many children have not been attending school [because of the lockdowns]. I don’t even know what’s in Shenzhen now that’s worth staying for.”

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China’s ruling communist party (CCP) has locked down the world’s largest electronics market and the urban districts in its megacity Shenzhen, which is China’s economic center. Meanwhile, a Chinese think tank warned of major risks to China’s economy, calling on the authorities to change the “zero-COVID” policy to help economy.

After 11 local COVID-19 cases of the Omicron variant were officially reported by authorities in Shenzhen on Aug. 29, three of the city’s ten districts; Futian, Longgang, and Luohu, were locked down.

Futian was ranked second in its contribution to Shenzhen’s GDP in 2021, Longgang ranked third, and Luohu ranked sixth. Together, the three districts make up for more than 40 percent of Shenzhen’s GDP.

According to 2020 China census, Futian’s population is 1.55 million, Longgang district 4 million, and Luohuo district 1.14 million.

None of the 11 infected patients live in or have visited Longgang district. However, the district is still being shut down.

Production and business activities have been suspended, and all residents in the districts have been asked to get PCR testing each day for the next four days. Six subway lines and 24 subway stations have also been shut down in the city of 18 million people.

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China’s water crisis is nothing new, but it’s gotten worse – and is now on the ‘brink of catastrophe‘ and could trigger a global catastrophe, according to Foreign Affairs.

Given the country’s overriding importance to the global economy, potential water-driven disruptions beginning in China would rapidly reverberate through food, energy, and materials markets around the world and create economic and political turbulence for years to come. -Foreign Affairs

For starters, there’s no substitute for water – which is essential for food production, electricity generation and sustaining all life on earth.

In China, which consumes ten billion barrels of water per day (approximately 700x its daily oil consumption), decades of economic and population growth have pushed northern China’s water system to unsustainable levels.

According to the report, the per-capita water supply around the North China Plain at the end of 2020 was nearly 50% below the UN’s definition of acute water scarcity at 253 cubic meters. Other major cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, are at similar (or lower) levels. 

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