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Subject: China Confronts Its Angry Ethnics
SYSOP    8/31/2014 8:49:17 AM
 
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vahitkanig       8/31/2014 1:55:10 PM
I dont  think that Beijin  has  a problem with  ethnic  minority as they  have  immnunity,exception  from  one  child  policy.Beijin  has  a problem  with  liberal  movements  especially from Taiwan even from  Hong Kong
 
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keffler25       8/31/2014 2:23:09 PM
Everyone has problems. Nice to see some of China's get reported. Those people are not giants... just pretend that they are.  
 
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TRAD    56 Minority Groups   9/1/2014 9:09:19 AM
China is the home to 56 minority groups. Twenty six are located in Yunnan province where my wife and I traveled earlier this year.  Had dinner with the Deputy police chief of Kunming just after the attack there, which took 29 innocent lives and wounded 143 in a machete and knife attack at the train station. Local news reports showed an officer in charge of a Swat Team personally dispatched 4 and wounded one of the attackers after firing a warning shot. He said they were not afraid and just kept coming at him.
 
Since China is an old civilization most minorities have traditional areas they call home. In China there is not affirmative action in the Western sense. They do not promote the need for businesses to have a distribution of workers based on background. In 2010 ate in a Muslim restaurant where all staff were of  Islamic faith and they discretely provided reading material extolling Islam with the meal. In earlier decades the group that lives near Kunming revolted. The killers in this latest instance were from North West China and not part of the local community.
 
 Schools in Yunnan teach all classes are taught in Mandarin, there is no special emphasis on coddling students in which Mandarin is not the first language as that would encompass the whole province where Southern Chinese dialects and other minority language is the childhood language.
 
In response to the attacks our bus trip was interrupted three times at various police stops along the route. These stops exist but the requirement to stop for inspection is not in full force. In this instance all passengers had to present identification, and on one occasion all had to claim luggage. As Americans we were shown exceptional courtesy and our bags were not searched.
 
There are many generalizations made about China which cannot realistically be made. The principle reason is that for even a Chinese person born there today they would need five life times to learn all of the culture. The second reason is different areas of China operate culturally different. The third reason is much of what is written is colored by our cultural and world view biases and is applied to a canvas which is not those.  Finally, there is a cultural imperative held by the vast majority of Chinese to be hospitable even at great cost, and to be indirect in their communications to not embarrass each other or others.
 
Lastly, internal reform is moving in China.  I noticed favorable programming which recognized the role of the role of the  Kuomintang in their struggle against the Japanese, pointing out that the Red's were called thieves, but pointing out the successful campaign during WWII to turn the common soldier to their side by pointing out they were fighting for their landlords. Today the most common card game in China is beat the landlord. Americans were highlighted as being good in the historical recounting of the war. The Japanese are seen as turtle eggs (bastards).
 
The reforms include fighting pollution and dealing with land usage.  They have made a huge rural investment in Chinese villages, increasing infrastructure and where achievable irrigation.  Farmers are moving away from water buffalo to large rototillers, and growing more pork as a result.  Change is moving rapidly, not sure Democracy will flow from that, but in many ways the local Chinese are subjected to a lot less governmental interference then the typical Californian.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
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keffler25       9/1/2014 1:59:05 PM
You got the two dollar tour. Try the dime tour. it will OPEN your eyes.  

 

The reforms include fighting pollution and dealing with land usage.  They have made a huge rural investment in Chinese villages, increasing infrastructure and where achievable irrigation.  Farmers are moving away from water buffalo to large rototillers, and growing more pork as a result.  Change is moving rapidly, not sure Democracy will flow from that, but in many ways the local Chinese are subjected to a lot less governmental interference then the typical Californian.  

 

 

 

 

 

 
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TRAD    Two Dollar Tour   9/1/2014 4:13:11 PM
I lived in a rural village for 7 weeks, what I am reporting I saw up close. There is major pollution, but it is not uniform in China. Yunnan is the place many Chinese go to get away from it all.
 
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keffler25       9/1/2014 9:09:13 PM
How you managed that tells ME a lot about you. Sorry. Ain't buying. Been there seen that game.
I lived in a rural village for 7 weeks, what I am reporting I saw up close. There is major pollution, but it is not uniform in China. Yunnan is the place many Chinese go to get away from it all.

 
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TRAD    I am not buying it   9/2/2014 7:41:49 AM
Not sure how my living in a village for 7 of the eight weeks in China tells you that you should not believe they use rototillers, that irrigation has been put in and that electrification has occurred. I also stayed there for several weeks of a 4 week visit in 2010 and none of those projects had been accomplished.  
 
Villages in this part of China are very close together and often a kilometer apart. I saw evidence of electric and indeed in these villages cement has replaced earthen pathways.  How I managed to stay in the village was to get an invitation to accompany my Visa.  The Chinese mirror much of what the State Department does, the invitation said that they would be responsible for my lodging and food.  I went through a Visa service and my Visa was approved.
 
While I was there I stayed in a house I had built in the village for my wife's family. Many of the 30 residences in the village remain mud brick.  While we were there several friends from Taiwan (originally) came to visit and were hosted. We also said prayers with my wife's mountain mother who converted to Christianity.  In China there is a long history in portions of it where people become "blood brothers and sisters".  By extension they seriously have a life long obligation to each other. The village in question is a minority village with two minorities represented and they do not speak Mandarin in their daily lives.
 
 Interestingly enough had a great conversation with a Russian national in the Beijing airport where he extolled the Chinese for systematically putting money into villages post 2008 crash and slashing taxes on small businesses. The farmers pay no taxes on what they produce so long as it is agriculturally related. They also have instituted a very modest rural pension of 50 RM per month for the elderly.  That buys about 2.2 pounds of pork.
 
Generalizing from the specific can be an error and there is no doubt much poverty in China to include right where I was at.  Implying that I am not credible because I was actually there, as it taints the story, may account for future errors in analysis. Implications about my character or loyalty to the USA are unwelcome and bear no relationship to the facts.    
 
 
 
  
 
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keffler25       9/2/2014 2:13:03 PM
Meaning I've seen the China you haven't.
 
 
 
 
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