You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

You’ll never be Chineseby Mark Kitto / AUGUST 8, 2012 / 912 COMMENTS

Why I’m leaving the country I loved.

590

Mark Kitto and family; Photo: Eric Leleu

Death and taxes. You know how the saying goes. I’d like to add a third certainty: you’ll never becomeChinese, no matter how hard you try, or want to, or think you ought to. I wanted to be Chinese, once. I don’tmean I wanted to wear a silk jacket and cotton slippers, or a Mao suit and cap and dye my hair black andproclaim that blowing your nose in a handkerchief is disgusting. I wanted China to be the place where I madea career and lived my life. For the past 16 years it has been precisely that. But now I will be leaving.

I won’t be rushing back either. I have fallen out of love, woken from my China Dream. “But China is aneconomic miracle: record number of people lifted out of poverty in record time… year on year ten per centgrowth… exports… imports… infrastructure… investment…saved the world during the 2008 financial crisis…”The superlatives roll on. We all know them, roughly.

Don’t you think, with all the growth and infrastructure, the material wealth, let alone saving the world likesome kind of financial whizz James Bond, that China would be a happier and healthier country? At least betterthan the country emerging from decades of stultifying state control that I met and fell in love with in 1986when I first came here as a student? I don’t think it is.

When I arrived in Beijing for the second year of my Chinese degree course, from London University’s School

Share this

590

Blogs Politics Economics World Science Arts & Books Think Tanks Issue The ListSUBSCRIPTIONS

This site uses cookies Okay, thanks Find out more

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), China was communist. Compared to the west, it was backward.There were few cars on the streets, thousands of bicycles, scant streetlights, and countless donkey carts thatmoved at the ideal speed for students to clamber on board for a ride back to our dormitories. My “responsibleteacher” (a cross between a housemistress and a parole officer) was a fearsome former Red Guardnicknamed Dragon Hou. The basic necessities of daily life: food, drink, clothes and a bicycle, cost peanuts.We lived like kings—or we would have if there had been anything regal to spend our money on. But therewasn’t. One shop, the downtown Friendship Store, sold coffee in tins.

We had the time of our lives, as students do, but it isn’t the pranks and adventures I remember most fondly,not from my current viewpoint, the top of a mountain called Moganshan, 100 miles west of Shanghai, where Ihave lived for the past seven years.

If I had to choose one word to describe China in the mid-1980s it would be optimistic. A free market of sortswas in its early stages. With it came the first inflation China had experienced in 35 years. People wereactually excited by that. It was a sign of progress, and a promise of more to come. Underscoring the optimismwas a sense of social obligation for which communism was at least in part responsible, generating either thefantasy that one really could be a selfless socialist, or unity in the face of the reality that there was no suchthing.

In 1949 Mao had declared from the top of Tiananmen gate in Beijing: “The Chinese people have stood up.” Inthe mid-1980s, at long last, they were learning to walk and talk.

One night in January 1987 I watched them, chanting and singing as they marched along snow-coveredstreets from the university quarter towards Tiananmen Square. It was the first of many student demonstrationsthat would lead to the infamous “incident” in June 1989.

One man was largely responsible for the optimism of those heady days: Deng Xiaoping, rightly known as thearchitect of modern China. Deng made China what it is today. He also ordered the tanks into Beijing in 1989,of course, and there left a legacy that will haunt the Chinese Communist Party to its dying day. That“incident,” as the Chinese call it—when they have to, which is seldom since the Party has done such athorough job of deleting it from public memory—coincided with my final exams. My classmates and Iwondered if we had spent four years of our lives learning a language for nothing.

It did not take long for Deng to put his country back on the road he had chosen. He persuaded the world thatit would be beneficial to forgive him for the Tiananmen “incident” and engage with China, rather than treatingher like a pariah. He also came up with a plan to ensure nothing similar happened again, at least on hiswatch. The world obliged and the Chinese people took what he offered. Both have benefited financially.

When I returned to China in 1996, to begin the life and career I had long dreamed about, I found the familiarair of optimism, but there was a subtle difference: a distinct whiff of commerce in place of community. Theexcitement was more like the eager anticipation I felt once I had signed a deal (I began my China career asa metals trader), sure that I was going to bank a profit, rather than the thrill that something truly big was aboutto happen.

A deal had been struck. Deng had promised the Chinese people material wealth they hadn’t known forcenturies on the condition that they never again asked for political change. The Party said: “Trust us andeverything will be all right.”

Twenty years later, everything is not all right.

I must stress that this indictment has nothing to do with the trajectory of my own China career, which wentfrom metal trading to building a multi-million dollar magazine publishing business that was seized by thegovernment in 2004, followed by retreat to this mountain hideaway of Moganshan where my Chinese wife andI have built a small business centred on a coffee shop and three guesthouses, which in turn has given meenough anecdotes and gossip to fill half a page of Prospect every month for several years. That our currentbusiness could suffer the same fate as my magazines if the local government decides not to renew our short-term leases (for which we have to beg every three years) does, however, contribute to my decision not toremain in China.

During the course of my magazine business, my state-owned competitor (enemy is more accurate) told me inprivate that they studied every issue I produced so they could learn from me. They appreciated mycontribution to Chinese media. They proceeded to do everything in their power to destroy me. In Moganshanour local government masters send messages of private thanks for my contribution to the resurrection of thevillage as a tourist destination, but also clearly state that I am an exception to their unwritten rule thatforeigners (who originally built the village in the early 1900s) are not welcome back to live in it, and are onlyallowed to stay for weekends.

But this article is not personal. I want to give you my opinion of the state of China, based on my time livinghere, in the three biggest cities and one tiny rural community, and explain why I am leaving it.

24 hours This month Blogs

Stay up to date with the latest from Prospect with

our free email newsletter.

Name*

Email*

By signing up you accept our privacy policy.

Most Read

Related posts

China's new intelligentsia

Lot 800: the Bainbridge vase

Was the story of an antique Chinese vase, sold for£43m in a small auction room, too good to be true?

World Thinkers 2013 The results of Prospect'sworld thinkers poll

What can't you do with a criminal record? A lifesentence

Myths of British ancestry Everything you knowabout British and Irish ancestry is wron...

You'll never be Chinese Why I'm leaving thecountry I loved.

The cult of Donna Tartt Donna Tartt's thirdnovel, The Goldfinch, is already being g...

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

* * *Modern day mainland Chinese society is focused on one object: money and the acquisition thereof. Thepolitically correct term in China is “economic benefit.” The country and its people, on average, are far wealthierthan they were 25 years ago. Traditional family culture, thanks to 60 years of self-serving socialism followedby another 30 of the “one child policy,” has become a “me” culture. Except where there is economic benefit tobe had, communities do not act together, and when they do it is only to ensure equal financial compensationfor the pollution, or the government-sponsored illegal land grab, or the poisoned children. Social status, soimportant in Chinese culture and more so thanks to those 60 years of communism, is defined by the display ofwealth. Cars, apartments, personal jewellery, clothing, pets: all must be new and shiny, and carry a famousforeign brand name. In the small rural village where we live I am not asked about my health or that of myfamily, I am asked how much money our small business is making, how much our car cost, our dog.

The trouble with money of course, and showing off how much you have, is that you upset the people whohave very little. Hence the Party’s campaign to promote a “harmonious society,” its vast spending on urbanand rural beautification projects, and reliance on the sale of “land rights” more than personal taxes.

Once you’ve purchased the necessary baubles, you’ll want to invest the rest somewhere safe, preferably witha decent return—all the more important because one day you will have to pay your own medical bills andpension, besides overseas school and college fees. But there is nowhere to put it except into property orunder the mattress. The stock markets are rigged, the banks operate in a way that is non-commercial, andthe yuan is still strictly non-convertible. While the privileged, powerful and well-connected transfer their wealthoverseas via legally questionable channels, the remainder can only buy yet more apartments or thickermattresses. The result is the biggest property bubble in history, which when it pops will sound like a thousandfirework accidents.

In brief, Chinese property prices have rocketed; owning a home has become unaffordable for the young urbanworkers; and vast residential developments continue to be built across the country whose units are primarilysold as investments, not homes. If you own a property you are more than likely to own at least three. Many ofour friends do. If you don’t own a property, you are stuck.

When the bubble pops, or in the remote chance that it deflates gradually, the wealth the Party gave thepeople will deflate too. The promise will have been broken. And there’ll still be the medical bills, pensions andschool fees. The people will want their money back, or a say in their future, which amounts to a politicalvoice. If they are denied, they will cease to be harmonious.

Meanwhile, what of the ethnic minorities and the factory workers, the people on whom it is more convenientfor the government to dispense overwhelming force rather than largesse? If an outburst of ethnic or labourdiscontent coincides with the collapse of the property market, and you throw in a scandal like the melaminetainted milk of 2008, or a fatal train crash that shows up massive, high level corruption, as in Wenzhou in2011, and suddenly the harmonious society is likely to become a chorus of discontent.

How will the Party deal with that? How will it lead?

Unfortunately it has forgotten. The government is so scared of the people it prefers not to lead them.

In rural China, village level decisions that require higher authorisation are passed up the chain of command,sometimes all the way to Beijing, and returned with the note attached: “You decide.” The Party only steps tothe fore where its power or personal wealth is under direct threat. The country is ruled from behind closeddoors, a building without an address or a telephone number. The people in that building do not allow theleaders they appoint to actually lead. Witness Grandpa Wen, the nickname for the current, soon to beoutgoing, prime minister. He is either a puppet and a clever bluff, or a man who genuinely wants to do theright thing. His proposals for reform (aired in a 2010 interview on CNN, censored within China) are good, buthe will never be able to enact them, and he knows it.

To rise to the top you must be grey, with no strong views or ideas. Leadership contenders might think, andhere I hypothesise, that once they are in position they can show their “true colours.” Too late they realise thatwill never be possible. As a publisher I used to deal with officials who listened to the people in one of thewings of that building. They always spoke as if there was a monster in the next room, one that cannot benamed. It was “them” or “our leaders.” Once or twice they called it the “China Publishing Group.” No suchthing exists. I searched hard for it. It is a chimera.

In that building are the people who, according to pundits, will be in charge of what they call the ChineseCentury. “China is the next superpower,” we’re told. “Accept it. Deal with it.” How do you deal with a facelessleader, who when called upon to adjudicate in an international dispute sends the message: “You decide”?

The key to China

Read these short stories

Provocateur in heels

China's subversive film star

Dambisa Moyo: If I ruled the world

We need a global framework that follows China’slead

China diary

Moganshan, east China.

Raising Whales

China's new fiction

Unreal India

How do you write about a billion lives?

Letters

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

It is often argued that China led the world once before, so we have nothing to fear. As the Chinese like tosay, they only want to “regain their rightful position.” While there is no dispute that China was once the majorworld superpower, there are two fundamental problems with the idea that it should therefore regain that“rightful position.”

A key reason China achieved primacy was its size. As it is today, China was, and always will be, big. (Chinaloves “big.” “Big” is good. If a Chinese person ever asks you what you think of China, just say “It’s big,” andthey will be delighted.) If you are the biggest, and physical size matters as it did in the days beforemicrochips, you tend to dominate. Once in charge the Chinese sat back and accepted tribute from theirsuzerain and vassal states, such as Tibet. If trouble was brewing beyond its borders that might threaten thesecurity or interests of China itself, the troublemakers were set against each other or paid off.

The second reason the rightful position idea is misguided is that the world in which China was thesuperpower did not include the Americas, an enlightened Europe or a modern Africa. The world does notwant to live in a Chinese century, just as much of it doesn’t like living in an American one. China, politically,culturally and as a society, is inward looking. It does not welcome intruders—unless they happen to bemilitarily superior and invade from the north, as did two imperial dynasties, the Yuan (1271-1368) and theQing (1644-1911), who became more Chinese than the Chinese themselves. Moreover, the fates of theMongols, who became the Yuan, and Manchu, who became the Qing, provide the ultimate deterrent: “Invadeus and be consumed from the inside,” rather like the movie Alien. All non-Chinese are, to the Chinese, aliens,in a mildly derogatory sense. The polite word is “Outsider.” The Chinese are on “The Inside.” Like anyonewho does not like what is going on outside—the weather, a loud argument, a natural disaster—the Chinesecan shut the door on it. Maybe they’ll stick up a note: “Knock when you’ve decided how to deal with it.”

Leadership requires empathy, an ability to put yourself in your subordinate’s shoes. It also requiresdecisiveness and a willingness to accept responsibility. Believing themselves to be unique, the Chinese find italmost impossible to empathise. Controlled by people with conflicting interests, China’s government strugglesto be decisive in domestic issues, let alone foreign ones. Witness the postponement of the leadershiphandover thanks to the Bo Xilai scandal. And the system is designed to make avoidance of responsibility aprerequisite before any major decision is taken. (I know that sounds crazy. It is meant to. It is true.)

A leader must also offer something more than supremacy. The current “world leader” offers the world thechance to be American and democratic, usually if they want to be, sometimes by force. The British empireoffered freedom from slavery and a legal system, amongst other things. The Romans took grain from Egyptand redistributed it across Europe.

A China that leads the world will not offer the chance to be Chinese, because it is impossible to becomeChinese. Nor is the Chinese Communist Party entirely averse to condoning slavery. It has encouraged its ownpeople to work like slaves to produce goods for western companies, to earn the foreign currency that has fedits economic boom. (How ironic that the Party manifesto promised to kick the slave-driving foreigners out ofChina.) And the Party wouldn’t know a legal system if you swung the scales of justice under its metaphoricalnose. (I was once a plaintiff in the Beijing High Court. I was told, off the record, that I had won my case.While my lawyer was on his way to collect the decision the judge received a telephone call. The decision wasreversed.) As for resources extracted from Africa, they go to China.

There is one final reason why the world does not want to be led by China in the 21st century. The CommunistParty of China has, from its very inception, encouraged strong anti-foreign sentiment. Fevered nationalism isone of its cornerstones. The Party’s propaganda arm created the term “one hundred years of humiliation” todefine the period from the Opium Wars to the Liberation, when foreign powers did indeed abuse and coerce aweak imperial Qing government. The second world war is called the War of Resistance Against Japan. Tospeak ill of China in public, to award a Nobel prize to a Chinese intellectual, or for a public figure to have teawith the Dalai Lama, is to “interfere in China’s internal affairs” and “hurt the feelings of the Chinese people.”The Chinese are told on a regular basis to feel aggrieved at what foreigners have done to them, and the Partyvows to exact vengeance on their behalf.

The alternative scenario to a world dominated by an aggrieved China is hardly less bleak and illustrates howChina already dominates the world and its economy. That is the increasing likelihood that there will beupheaval in China within the next few years, sparked by that property crash. When it happens it will besudden, like all such events. Sun Yat Sen’s 1911 revolution began when someone set off a bomb byaccident. Some commentators say it will lead to revolution, or a collapse of the state. There are good grounds.Everything the Party does to fix things in the short term only makes matters worse in the long term by settingoff property prices again. Take the recent cut in interest rates, which was done to boost domesticconsumption, which won’t boost itself until the Party sorts out the healthcare system, which it hasn’t themoney for because it has been invested in American debt, which it can’t sell without hurting the dollar, whichwould raise the value of the yuan and harm exports, which will shut factories and put people out of work andthreaten social stability.

China: at war with its history

The Communist strangehold on the past

The errors of Edward Snowden and GlennGreenwald

The NSA disclosures are disturbing but they don’tportend a totalitarian state

Copycat China

Piracy or liberation?

The three Americas of the Chinese imagination

Yu Hua on how the Chinese view the US

Prospect Buzz

Prospect's masterful crossword setter Didymus getsa shout-out in the Guardian

The Telegraph reports on Nigel Farage's article onLords reform

Prospect writer Mark Kitto is profiled in the NewYork Times

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

I hope the upheaval, when it comes, is peaceful, that the Party does not try to distract people by launching anattack on Taiwan or the Philippines. Whatever form it takes, it will bring to an end China’s record-breaking runof economic growth that has supposedly driven the world’s economy and today is seen as our only hope ofsalvation from recession.

* * *

Fear of violent revolution or domestic upheaval, with a significant proportion of that violence sure to bedirected at foreigners, is not the main reason I am leaving China, though I shan’t deny it is one of them.

Apart from what I hope is a justifiable human desire to be part of a community and no longer be treated as anoutsider, to run my own business in a regulated environment and not live in fear of it being taken away fromme, and not to concern myself unduly that the air my family breathes and the food we eat is doing us physicalharm, there is one overriding reason I must leave China. I want to give my children a decent education.

The domestic Chinese lower education system does not educate. It is a test centre. The curriculum isdesigned to teach children how to pass them. In rural China, where we have lived for seven years, it is alsoan elevation system. Success in exams offers a passport to a better life in the big city. Schools do notproduce well-rounded, sociable, self-reliant young people with inquiring minds. They produce winners andlosers. Winners go on to college or university to take “business studies.” Losers go back to the farm or thelocal factory their parents were hoping they could escape.

There is little if any sport or extracurricular activity. Sporty children are extracted and sent to special schools tolearn how to win Olympic gold medals. Musically gifted children are rammed into the conservatories and haveall enthusiasm and joy in their talent drilled out of them. (My wife was one of the latter.)

And then there is the propaganda. Our daughter’s very first day at school was spent watching a movie called,roughly, “How the Chinese people, under the firm and correct leadership of the Party and with the help of theheroic People’s Liberation Army, successfully defeated the Beichuan Earthquake.” Moral guidance is providedby mythical heroes from communist China’s recent past, such as Lei Feng, the selfless soldier who achievedmore in his short lifetime than humanly possible, and managed to write it all down in a diary that wasmiraculously “discovered” on his death.

The pressure makes children sick. I speak from personal experience. To score under 95 per cent isconsidered failure. Bad performance is punished. Homework, which consists mostly of practice test papers,takes up at least one day of every weekend. Many children go to school to do it in the classroom. I have seenthem trooping in at 6am on Sundays. In the holidays they attend special schools for extra tuition, and must dotheir own school’s homework for at least a couple of hours every day to complete it before term starts again.Many of my local friends abhor the system as much as I do, but they have no choice. I do. I am lucky.

An option is to move back to a major Chinese city and send our children to an expensive international school—none of which offer boarding—but I would be worried about pollution, and have to get a proper job, mostlikely something to do with foreign business to China, which my conscience would find hard.

I pity the youth of China that cannot attend the international schools in the cities (which have to set limits onhow many Chinese children they accept) and whose parents cannot afford to send them to school overseas,or do not have access to the special schools for the Party privileged. China does not nurture and educate itsyouth in a way that will allow them to become the leaders, inventors and innovators of tomorrow, but that isthe intention. The Party does not want free thinkers who can solve its problems. It still believes it can solvethem itself, if it ever admits it has a problem in the first place. The only one it openly acknowledges, ironically,is its corruption. To deny that would be impossible.

The Party does include millions of enlightened officials who understand that something must be done to averta crisis. I have met some of them. If China is to avoid upheaval then it is up to them to change the Party fromwithin, but they face a long uphill struggle, and time is short.

I have also encountered hundreds of well-rounded, wise Chinese people with a modern world view, peoplewho could, and would willingly, help their motherland face the issues that are growing into state-shakingproblems. It is unlikely they will be given the chance. I fear for some of them who might ask for it, just as myclassmates and I feared for our Chinese friends while we took our final exams at SOAS in 1989.

I read about Ai Weiwei, Chen Guangchen and Liu Xiaobo on Weibo, the closely monitored Chinese equivalentof Twitter and Facebook, where a post only has to be up for a few minutes to go viral. My wife had neverheard of them until she started using the site. The censors will never completely master it. (The day my wifebegan reading Weibo was also the day she told me she had overcome her concerns about leaving China forthe UK.) There are tens, maybe hundreds, of thousands of mainland Chinese who “follow” such people too,and there must be countless more like them in person, trying in their small way to make China a better place.One day they will prevail. That’ll be a good time to become Chinese. It might even be possible.

Prospect Reads

Do China’s youth care about politics? asks AlecAsh

Joanna Biggs on Facebook and feminism

Boris Berezosky was a brilliant man, says KeithGessen—but he nearly destroyed Russia

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

Why I’m sticking with China: Marjorie Perry offers a contrary view of China in her response to Kitto’spiece

Criticising China: In a follow-up to this article, Mark Kitto discusses the reactions it elicited

Chairman who?: Most Chinese are indifferent to their new leaders, says Gabriel Corsetti

China’s new intelligentsia: Despite the global interest in the rise of China, no one is paying muchattention to its ideas and who produces them. Yet China has a surprisingly lively intellectual class whose ideasmay prove a serious challenge to western liberal hegemony, says Mark Leonard

The Key to China: To grasp the new spirit of this country, Julia Lovell recommends this fresh, contrarianshort fiction

China: at war with its history: The Chinese leadership refused to commemorate the centenary of theoverthrow of the last imperial dynasty. Obsessed with survival, will it allow challenges to its version of thepast? Isabel Hilton reports

590

June 11, 2013mico

“Nationalism is the measles of civilization.’” Einstein

REPLY

June 11, 2013Ric

China must have a very severe case of measles then.

REPLY

July 31, 2013Greet Big Ballz

Sounds like you have measles too …. but you don’t know it yet.

REPLY

November 3, 2013Ric

Oh, and what about you, sir? Since you seem to be suchan expert on judging other people based solely on a

single comment on an Internet forum.

June 15, 2013TomInShanghai

laowai is a laowai is a laowai – you’ll always be an outsider.

REPLY

June 15, 2013Carl

It would be great if you could actually read the article without all the Prospect stuffon the left covering a lot of the article.

REPLY

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

June 15, 2013Jimmy Li

Out of so many topics Kitto has mentioned in his long article which would lead toendless arguments, Education in China is something much clearer, I would say. It isnot education at all out there in China. It is a production line of winner and loser.The worst is it is a brain-washed factory where most of the common values forhuman being are twisted or even up-side down. The Party has even destroyedtotally the traditional Chinese cultures. The result is that Chinese from China-mainland do not behave like those people from Hongkong Taiwan who havemaintained the Chinese tradition. Run away from China, simply because out therethe air, the water, the food are polluted. The root reason for all these pollution isthe heart of the people who are totally twisted by The Party who ruled the countryand has shown to the people how to be bad to gain benefits! This is what a personwith normal senses would say and do, regardless his or her nationality !

REPLY

June 17, 2013Ann

agree. that is why majority of HK ppls are fighting so hard against ChinesePRC influence and why we hate Mainlanders so much.

I am born in HK during colonial days.

REPLY

June 16, 2013jimmy

Good Riddance.

REPLY

June 16, 2013bob

Yawn…..He considers himself an ‘expert’ on China, writing numerous articles… but seems tobe bitter that he failed to grasp the reality that is China……

So chalk up another foreigner who failed to negotiate the China ‘learning curve’ .who thinks because they have mastered the ability say ‘Ni Hao’ China somehowowes them a living…..

REPLY

June 17, 2013Dadong

Bob,

Since you seem to special insight, what contribution can you make to theconversation other than “…the reality that is China..”. Impressive phrase, butabsolutely no value! Content man – focus on content!

What does this mean? Can you elaborate or illustrate with one or two examplesthat clarify the “reality that is China” with respect to the topics presented in theoriginal article, or with respect to something else that has been posted here, or haveyou already blown your “intellectual load”?

Do not waste your time posting weak minded trite garbage, since it only proves theworld is filled with morons.

Dong

REPLY

June 16, 2013

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

Henry Law

Generally Agree. But few points I want to make:

1. The problem in today’s world is that nowhere is actually good enough to live in. Ifully agree what the author says, it is not much better here in Hong Kong, beingtotally overrun by mainland Chinese happily buying up and skyrocket prices ofthings from basic everyday needs to real estate all because of the CCP-generatedtroubles, while at the same time they see Hong Kong as an ideological rival and ananti-China bridgehead for having institutions that made Hong Kong unique.

2. Sadly however, I don’t seem to see expatriates relocating back to Europe or theUnited States as a good choice either, with enormous debts hanging over them thatcould descend their economies into another wave potential financial crisis at unseenmagnitude when no one trusts the USD/Euro anymore. (unless you’re a luckyCanadian/Australian) The deeper problem the West is facing, is the social contractnot just between classes, but through generations across the West has beenbreached seriously – a rightward shift is beginning among people at my age as Iobserve (1-2 years after being fresh uni graduates), quite many are upset of howtheir irresponsible seniors are leaving them huge debts for them to pay off, and ifthose old naïve liberals still don’t say goodbye to their radical visions, voices thatare still not taken seriously would just make young people ever more of radicalrights. God bless if 20th century history repeats.

3. We should not simply think that Western (or should I say universal) values cannever be fitted in mainland China, whether people say it for easily restoringWestern predominance or whatever reasons. It is the institutions that matter themost, if deep cultural traits did, then West Germany and East Germany should hadstayed the same economically and socially during the Cold War. If Communism wasan idea newer than universal suffrage could yield more successfully in most parts ofthe world (at least for a period), why not universal suffrage itself? Taiwan is alreadya full blown democracy. Elections still look childish to me time to time. People onthe mainland can certainly shout Taiwan is ‘fake democracy’, but it is improving andmaturing fast.

4. Nor did the Western world had much more optimism less than one or twocenturies ago, take a read of Charles Dickens’ ‘Bleak House’. Even by 1920′s,publications could still be banned in England, another example includes ‘LadyChatterley’s Lover’ by DH Lawrence. Democracy, free speech, human rights, privateproperty rights and other freedoms that are fundamental in addressing problems inChina today are luxuries people in the West and parts of Asia are entitled to, butthose could only be achieved by having a more effective legal establishment,something the West has always had an edge over China at any point in moderntime, also something that Hong Kongers must stand for if it is to remain civil andsuperior in institutional terms.

REPLY

April 25, 2014Antoine

wake up, foreigners are going back massively those days.

The last wave of immigration is the desperate ones.

I was from the last batch that had a chance ( before world expo )Now, we are all going back. The turn over is finished.China wants us outside, i guess it is not an issue.But China wants asw ell its rich people outside, and soon it will be an issue.

You should get that.

Money is not the way to conquer the world as it is just paper or zeros.Inflation can make it all fall. Offer and demand can make it all fall.

What if US / Europe relocate their factories, …, wait they are doing it !What if the brains go back home… wait we are doing it !

You really feel like China is ready for competition, REAL ONE ?

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

I lived here for many years, and I can assure you CHINA IS NOT.

and the main reason is mentioned in the article : its education.

REPLY

June 16, 2013Your children will be Chinese

Its true that you will never be Chinese no matter how hard you tried. But yourchildren will be Chinese forever. Their tiger mom will make sure they will get toOxCam and practice enough calligraphy. Their Chinese heritage will dominate theirlife for generations to come.

REPLY

October 13, 2013ChingChongshavelittleDongs

Ah, the hubris of the Chinese.

REPLY

June 16, 2013Eric

There’s a Russian saying “People deserve their government”.

REPLY

June 17, 2013Lee Deforest

Eric, I’ve heard that insightful saying before. I’m curious on your take onwhat aspects of Chinese history has transpired the current governance…

for example is it reflective of issues pertaining to unification, intellectualism, orironically a social conscience?

REPLY

June 17, 2013Lee Deforest

You’ll never be Chinese ironically elicits a “me culture” perspective… governmentresponse to cyclone Katrina shows that African Americans after so manygenerations are not equal… and they were enslaved by the Caucasian which is avery different history to the British Opium Wars and Japanese invasion. Seriouslywith the British Government paying in contraband, and Japanese Unit 731 torturingmillions of Chinese… I am mortified at the empathy demanded but hypocriticalcomplete lack of empathy demonstrated by this entrepreneur – a very poorambassador indeed

The criticisms of China are insightful but very unbalanced… as the GFC elicits theWestern democratic model is financially unstable, across all democracies, and 1%of the population own 50% of the wealth… democratic triumph is best elicited in theUSA has more homeless, more homicides, and less health care than you possiblyimage

The primary ingredient of any social system is integrity; the Aussies have moanedinfrastructure development of a new country hampered economic development(unlike Greece), the Aussies have moaned trade distances and isolation hamperedeconomic development (unlike Greece), the Aussies have moaned modest tourism(unlike Greece) but the quality of life consequent to low corruption made it aparadise… in view of the quasi-slavery wealth distribution in democracies I think theintelligentsia of China provides the world with best hope for a more equitablesociety

REPLY

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

June 17, 2013Dadong

Quote: “Globally legal justice is a government weapon for socialobedience… elusive justice for civilians was elicited in Australia recently

when Jill Meagher was murdered by a guy with 16 counts of violent rape… can youbelieve it, he was on parole!:

Comments:

Is what happened in the Jill Meagher case an example of how government wieldsjustice as a weapon for social obedience? If yes, can you elaborate on the causeand effect nature of the weapon and its specific use in this case?

I want to learn from you, since you seem to have an understanding that goesbeyond the obvious, which I do not get at this point. I am open minded, so pleaseelaborate with more detail, so we can as a community gain from your insight.

Dong

REPLY

June 17, 2013Lee Deforest

Dadong

TO ALL – My apologies for lack of clarity

What happened to Jill Meagher elicits the extreme difference in the lawregarding the government as opposed to individuals: apart from theproliferation of laws to generate revenue also be sure that owing thegovernment money will result in $100 sheriff property confiscation inweeks… however $100,000 civil case is uneconomic and will take yearsand be unenforceable, and crimes against individuals are routinelytrivialized with repeat offenders routinely put on good behavior bonds torepeat, and repeat, and repeat… this elicits the truth that in practice thelaws serve the government and not the people

REPLY

June 17, 2013Daniel

“government response to cyclone Katrina shows that African Americansafter so many generations are not equal”

You have to be one of the most ill-informed or most ignorant people I have heardspeak about Hurricane Katrina. You read 1 or 2 sino-centric articles and then youcome out with your charade of lambasted blather to defend your own idea thatChinese are somehow not racist.

You have never probably stepped foot in America, nor have you probably everspoken to someone from the ghettos of Louisiana. You probably consider it beneathyour level to speak to people of lower socio-economic background, but hey, you’renot a racist.

REPLY

June 17, 2013Daniel

“and 1% of the population own 50% of the wealth”

Where do you get this idea from ? Where do you draw your metrics from my friend?

You must stop using CPC.org to find your data. It is no where near thatconcentrated in the US. It is not like China where it is common for the upperechelons of the CPC party to have 100s of millions or billions of dollars.

That is why Xi banned Bloomberg in your country, because of the damage it would

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

have done to your party’s image. In fact, the wealth in China is far moreconcentrated in terms of what the top 1% have versus the relative increase inwealth of the rest. Some politicians in America have profited from insiderknowledge, but not to the degree your princelings and and tyrannistic dragons atthe top. We call it the revolving door, but China has perfected the art ofmercantilism and nepotism to the ‘T’.

REPLY

June 17, 2013Lee Deforest

Daniel

I disagree about what you say about the integrity of Western democracies,,,the constitution specifies gainful employment but the degree gainful hasbeen seriously undermined as evident with wealth distribution. The plethoraof pathologically indebted democracies is further testament to the systemicfailure. Presuming the moral high ground is delusional: referhttp://www.cnbc.com/id/100820239 (today) andhttp://www.cnbc.com/id/100819296 (today) andhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_9/11#Plot andhttp://www.cnbc.com/id/100783877

I agree about what you say about wealth distribution in China, however mypoint being that the scoreboard shows that whilst the USA government hasallowed indebtedness to grow to 100% of GDP the government of Chinahas brought prosperity to its people. There are countless retorts at yourdisposal but they will pale into significance when financial realities arereconciled.

More damning is the push for globalization of trade by capitalist countriesby Western countries: each company that offshores jobs may increaseprofitability for shareholders but collectively over the last 30 years hastransferred wealth offshore resulting in the decimation of the middle class,consequent subprime crisis, and quasi-slavery wealth distribution – thewealthy in business and government have both profited greatly.

Most importantly: clearly the current path of democracies is oblivion. Beingchallenged by China, and bloggers, may incite democracies like the USA toact in the interest of the citizens instead of the rich. Preventing furtheroffshoring of jobs will provide growth in government revenue, tax reform forApple and the rich, produce government surpluses, or… else

You will note my cited sources of information are Western web sites, notcpc.org as you suggest.

REPLY

June 18, 2013Daniel

Lee Deforest

“Your point regarding the IRS elicit the belated recognition of theproblem of government debt rather than negation of bigotry oregoism. Thank you for the crime statistics showing disproportionateincidence by ethnicity as it collaborates my both my assertion ofinequality and the Western quality of life for the less affluent. TheBritish once intentionally made life for the commoner untenablefinancially so that they could create convicts for export to Australia– heartless social engineering, just as your statistics prove thatafter so many generations opportunities remain very unequal.”

Thank you for showing me your assumptions and committing apost hoc ergo propter hoc logical fallacy.

First, on your view about the IRS. The groups the IRS weretargeting are already tax-exempt 501c3 organizations. If it is a

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

problem of government debt, why are they scrutinizingorganizations that do not have to pay taxes anyways? The groupsthe DOJ was targeting were also conservative. I wonder why in thesame breath we find that not only the IRS is targeting a non-profit501c political opponents that do not have to pay taxes, but alsothe DOJ, headed by Eric Holder (who is black), appointed byObama (who is also black), is targeting conservative reporters andhacking their private email and phone data. On a sidenote I amnot saying it is motivated by race, because the largest voting blockfor Barack Obama of course is white. If we are so unequal andunfair, how is this possible that a majority of whites vote forObama? I know this may not seem like big news to you, becauseit is commonplace on the mainland to be hacked, monitored, andwatched, but freedom of the press is the first constitutionalamendment for a reason. Without it, we could turn into atyrannistic PRC that is immensely afraid of every TiananmenSquare event that threatens to reform the power structure. I alsowant to ask you by the way; if blacks are just so exploited, thenwhy can they rise to the top of our nation and hold the mostpowerful office in the land? Why can they get elected to theSupreme Court? You seem to be holding on to your anachronistic19th century view of America. I wonder if a Uyghur or a TibetanMonk could ever attain General Secretary of the CPC?

On crime:I think we should examine our assumptions a little more thanassuming that crime happens as a result of being financially lessaffluent. Did you try comparing crime statistics of the less affluentwhites to the less affluent blacks?

Also, remember what I told you how our less affluent are muchwealthier than the poor in other countries (yes, even mainlandChina)? See Heritage Foundation on what the poor in America livelike (poor as defined by the government)

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/07/what-is-poverty

99.6% of poor in America have a refrigerator97.7% of poor in America have a television97.7% have a stove and oven81% have a microwave78% have air conditioning62% have clothes washer63% have cable or satellite television65% have at least 1 DVD player55% have a cell phone40% have a personal computer30% have internet service32% have more than 2 televisions

Most of these items are only things the poor in china could dreamof. Certainly there are less well off poor in America, but thisrepresents the average poor person who owns significantamenities. My point is that if the average poor in America are livingso comfortably, then why is there an overwhelming dichotomy instatistics? It points to some other influences and causes.

Instead, you want to assume that what causes crime such as crimenot related to financial matters, like murder, rape, and assault iscaused by their financial circumstances. This is probably the mostsignificant post hoc ergo propter hoc committed. You do notexamine what causes crime, considering that culture, moral valuesand beliefs being the largest factor of influence in how and whycrime, especially violent crime like rape and murder is committed.It is hard to understand the difference here unless one is toexperience what the different cultures are like, what morals theyteach, and how the government treats them as a victim, furthergiving them reasons to commit reverse discrimination, which ofcourse is an untenable position.

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

I also don’t accept your premise on Britain’s motives for sendingconvicts to Australia. Again, that is a complex and dynamic miledeep topic that can not simply be brushed over. You are assumingso much in that one line argument that they purposefully createdan environment to exploit the commoner. You are again committingpost hoc ergo propter hoc by assuming crime is caused byfinancial situation and not cultural influence or a million otherfactors.

“My example was to convey the moral destitution of the system asa whole, not to focus on the bigotries of ethnicity and politicalpersuasion. Once again I return to my primary point whereintegrity.”

But your example is flawed. I gave you evidence showing you thatit is a result of government bureaucracy and inefficiency andshowed you how Walmart (as well as other private companies notmentioned) was the first company on the scene to help out victims,giving food supplies, water, medical care, all for free. Youassumed that the government’s motive was that the majority ofpeople in New Orleans who did not flee from the hurricane wereblack and thus that was their reason for not helping.

My argument is that we don’t need government to send supplies orhelp out. The private sector already does it much more efficientlywithout wasting time or resources as in the Hurricane Katrinaevent, which was used for political exploit rather than what reallyhappened. What about the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake and howyour local government officials profited handsomely from cheapconstruction materials which ended up crumbling and killing about70,000 people because they were not built to specs? Must I bringup the 1989 Tiananmen Square protesters, which 1000s (yourgovernment only admits to 100s) of Chinese demonstrators werekilled? Show me the morality in the sort of system that allows forthis.

“Also thank you for the point about Christians and governmentswanting to garner more power as this too collaborates my point.”

That is a miscomprehension what I said. I never said Christiansare trying to garner more power. I said Christians are persecutedunfairly in both China and the US (moreso in China, because theCPC fears they could lose their power, by China moving to a moreequitable, freer society, not by Christians trying to take power ofthe government). This is the exact reason the 3Self PatrioticMovement church in China is compromised by the communistparty. There are asinine and strict rules for the church to adhere towhich strip away the true intentions of what Jesus wants us to dohere on earth. The 3self church is barred from preaching to peoplein public, barred from preaching to soldiers or CPC members,barred from feeding the poor and homeless, barred from receivingdonations (which is a critical part of any church), barred fromteaching certain doctrinal truths, and the list goes on and on.

During the cultural revolution chinese christians were beaten,killed, put to work in slave labor camps and jailed for not denyingtheir belief in Jesus. Even today, christians are still persecuted andimprisoned in China for merely their belief and attempting tospread the world of the Good News. The absolute worse place tobe a Christian is actually not the Middle East, but North Korea,which used to be a largely Christian country before Japan annexedit. This is where currently the worse atrocities are committed toChristians, but if you want to know something sadistic about mycountry, it is that they would never report it in the liberal leftmainstream media, because they are out to destroy what Americastands for and its Christian heritage.

“And slavery?… with about 50% of the wealth owned by 1% it

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

would be more like 70% if the money wasn’t expended onconsumption of leer jets etc. These is much to learn aboutdemocracy from Greece, the origin of the concept… Greece isawash with money, but the government and its people aredestitute…democracy has decayed into quasi-slavery”

I am not sure why you think wealth concentration is exclusive ofthe West. You fail to realize the immense disparity in China’smainland among the top 1% of China, which there are no reliablefigures posted for because much of it is hidden in offshore bankaccounts and not released publicly. However, the easternprovinces of China as compared to the western provinces wherepoor geographical conditions andthe lack of basic infrastructure have kept it mainly agricultural andgrossly underdeveloped. China Daily has cited statistics by of theGini coefficient which measures income disparity at shockingly highlevels in China. The latest reading found from SouthwesternUniversity of Finance and Economics in the Sichuan provincialcapital Chengdu was .61. That estimate would put China nearSouth Africa, which has the highest income inequality in the world.

By the way, America is not a democracy, neither was Solon’sGreece. The highest ideal is the Republic, formulated by aConstitution which recognizes the universal rights of all humans.

July 31, 2013DaDong

Lee,

I’ve looked through your posts – you roll-out different ideas andfactoids so fast that the meaning is frequently lost. The readershould not have to ask, at the end of half the sentences, “whatdoes this mean?” Stop being wordy and get to the point – it willreduce the pain of reading your posts.

There is power in concisely written ideas. If you are Chinese, youare granted a special exception to this rule – you will not beexpected to put your thoughts into tightly worded direct sentences,since this is counter to the Chinese norm.

A tip: write a topic sentence and support that sentence in a welldeveloped (and logical )paragraph that builds clearly to the topic.

I know, I know – you must be pissed! Hold your rage and askyourself these questions: Can I write with more clarity? Can I getto point more effectively?

You obviously have a lots of ideas, which is outstanding, but theyare getting lost in the verbosity of your posts. Let’s work on writingwell, so that we may be understood, otherwise it is simplymasturbation via keyboard.

I doubt anyone reading these posts cares whether you went toOxford or Harvard, so stop adding superfluous filler. Extreme careneeds to be used with language to make it work; if one doesn’thave the language gift it’s obvious… and yes, it is obvious.

What does not work is stringing together large numbers ofadjectives using a self-important tone. This is schoolboy “self-relief”. I will venture a guess; you are a fresh grad student who hasan academic command of English and enjoys posting contrarianfluff. You do not reason thoughts convincingly and there isabsolutely no conveyed sense of conviction in what you write – getwith the program – that’s an order!

Also, never ever ever ever cite wikipedia – it screams “I don’t

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

know what I’m talking about”. If you use it as a source, keep it toyourself, otherwise, you undermine your credibility with every newcitation.

DaDong

June 17, 2013Steven Ng

China is not suitable for ordinary citizens to live in. Posionous air, food, seriousmoral crisys. Lay an embargo on free speech, no people right. what’s the chinesedream?As a chinese, I give you answer: NIGHTMARE

REPLY

June 17, 2013Jackson

I am a native Chinese,and my english is not good,but i hope you can understand.

first, i understand how hard for Mr.Kitto to have been through these years in China,because the same with all the Chinese did. We dont live as good as you canimagine we are so that we would claim more for political demand. Life is so hard inChina,that is what the Party exactly wanted so that you have to earn your livinginstead of asking for political demands.

2nd, i have to admit Chinese elites have a non-saying pride that is we dont need tobelieve in God or anything about God’s, of cause the universalism with God. God isconflict to our culture.

3rd, Chinese are good at obey. i am not saying that we are servilism,not exactly.China has so many people, fiercely individual competition,we must protect ourselvesunder the circumstance without any law can protect us. Because we always believethat law would not punish people or crowd. So we follow but never be unique.Youmay say we are slaves, if you say so,we are and always will be without lawprotecting.

REPLY

June 17, 2013Lee Deforest

Globally legal justice is a government weapon for social obedience…elusive justice for civilians was elicited in Australia recently when Jill

Meagher was murdered by a guy with 16 counts of violent rape… can you believeit, he was on parole!

REPLY

June 17, 2013Dadong

Jackson,

Thanks for your comments – you actually give rational reasons that you believeunderlie behavior, which is refreshing.

REPLY

June 17, 2013Jamie

Jackson; instead of saying non saying say tacit. Yours English is very good.

Chinese police will punish the crowd. Like in Tiannamen Square.

REPLY

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

June 17, 2013Ray

Sorry to be a Chinese, I am born to be a Chinese, but not a slave of Marxism.Mark, you must be crazy to try to be a Chinese while almost every rich Chinesewants to get green card from US.

REPLY

June 17, 2013Lee Deforest

Daniel

The point being that racial divides are problematic that can persist for thousands ofyears so the expectation of not being treated like an outsider is unrealistic.Regarding cyclone Katrina referhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_government_response_to_Hurricane_Katrina#Ra

REPLY

June 17, 2013Daniel

Okay, I take your point on the wealth but the fact of the matter is that thewhole pie has grown over the last 50 years while in China the top 1% of

the pie has grown by stratospheric metrics due to their privileged position in thegovernment or their cozy relationship with the government.

The people who are considered poor in America are vastly wealthier than the poorin other countries. For example there was a precocious article written by the CATOinstitute about the bottom 10% in terms of wealth and their correspondingownership of computers, cars, refrigerators, computers, ovens, microwaves, andother various items associated with wealth in the rest of the world.

Versus the princelings and CPC members who have entered the revolving door ofpolitics and business for the last 50 years, capitalism, has benefited themdisproportionately than their poor when compared to the rich and poor in OECDcountries.

REPLY

June 18, 2013Lee Deforest

Daniel

I have already acknowledged wealth distribution in China, and I alsoacknowledge the alignment of this wealth with political position, howeverRome wasn’t built in a day and I responsible governance would notmandate advancement in all aspects of society concurrently… the pointbeing that the scoreboard should show a net gain and this is where allemerging economies consistently outperform Western countries wheremoral destitution has manifested by economic destitution.

My point focusses not on the last 50 years which include post warprosperity where democracies retained united nationalistic ambitions forgrowth but rather the last 30 years of egoism where telecommunicationsand computers have yielded dramatic offshoring of jobs, subsequentexporting of national wealth, and destruction of middle class as evidencedby the subprime crisis.

The GFC elicited the systemic failure of Western democracies – integrityneeds to be restored; political reform to ensure representation of theelectorate rather than wealthy interest groups by eliminating politicaldonations, transparency of public officials financial dealings, legislativeamendment for government debt, tax reform for Apple and the rich. Alsothe financial model of cost minimization for maximizing corporate profit for

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

social affluence has been broken… offshoring jobs results in socialdestitution of the government and the people. Labor reforms are urgentlyrequired with severe penalties for non-compliance. The accountabilitymodel is upside down where the least affluent are held accountable fortheir actions but the Wall St, the architects and executors of this messfinancial gain from it rather than be indicted…what would happen to you ifyou took just one home from somebody… a very real measure of the moraldestitution of the system and the urgency for remediation.

CATO misrepresents wealth by using possessions as a metric: it isincredibly easy to convince people of what they want to believe and nearimpossible to convince them of what they don’t want to believe. The truth isthat these possessions are funded by foreign debt and create a delusion ofwealth. Moreover focus not on the current wealth but wealth trends from anational perspective…. and that was my original point.

REPLY

July 31, 2013DaDong

Another another lame, self-absorbed and poorly reasonedrant!

Stop beating “your little red book knob” as you pound away at thekeyboard thinking you are brilliant – the presentation is awful andmanifests a soft head.

June 17, 2013Daniel

I agree about the racist tendencies born out of anachronistic worldviews,but my point is that basing one instance of inefficiency by government and

assuming that government is an entirely and unquestionably white interfacedesigned to target minorities in America is a false view. In fact, it is the minoritieswho get the largest benefit from government largess. If you have been reading thenews lately you will find how the IRS was used to target and discriminate againstconservative political groups and conservative news anchors (which conservativestend to be predominately white) on their tax returns and their tax audits. Where arethe calls for racism here?

If you really want me to delve into the statistics I can show you the disproportionateblack on white crime in America that is totally shuttered from the media. Blackmales are about 6% of the population but they commit the majority of violent crimesand murders on a per capita basis and over 85% of the interracial crimes arecommitted by blacks.

The reason I caution your link that you cite, is that it references the race baiter,Jesse Jackson, notorious for blowing situations out of proportion while profiting offthe misery of his own kind. Katrina is just not that great of an example to use,because it assumes that government is this largely unquestionably whiteorganization, when Christians regardless of race are the biggest targets ofgovernment discrimination programs. Government wants people to depend on themso they can garner more power. Katrina was one situation in which they could havegarnered more power, but failed to capitalize on. It is more a problem ofbureaucracy than racism in government. By the way, private enterprise was doingfar more than what government was doing on day 1 after the katrina disaster.

http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?a=727

The other issue I want to bring up on the topic of slavery is the thin veneereveryone seems to blindly follow about the last 300 years of slavery (especially inthe west). Not only do they forget that the stronger tribes of Africa rounding upweaker tribes for export, but they tend to forget the period in which over 1 millionwhite christians were taken from the Mediterranean by the Barbary Coast piratesand used as slavery.

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

My point is that although slavery has been ubiquitous, it is not a Western Christianinvention, and it took the Western Christians to abolish it, emanating out of thoselike William Wilberforce’s ideals.

The word slave comes from the slavic nation of peoples who were enslaved wellbefore the African nations were largely exploited by Europeans and the US. Theslavs are a white indo-European peoples.

But since the last few hundred years is vastly dominated by white on black slaveryin the mind’s eye of history, the further out atrocities tend to be forgotten and dulledwith time.

REPLY

June 17, 2013Lee Deforest

Daniel

I don’t remember where I read the OECD, Western, or whatever statistics…however in 2010 for the USA 1% of the citizens owned 37% of the wealth, and thisfigure rose dramatically with Quantitative Easing where much of the tripling ofcurrency ended up in the hands of the wealthy. Referhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distribution_of_wealth#In_the_United_States

Regardless, the point being that in Western economies the erosion of the middleclass by the upper class has resulted in quasi-slavery wealth distribution indemocracies

REPLY

June 18, 2013Lee Deforest

Daniel

Your point regarding the IRS elicit the belated recognition of the problem ofgovernment debt rather than negation of bigotry or egoism. Thank you for the crimestatistics showing disproportionate incidence by ethnicity as it collaborates my bothmy assertion of inequality and the Western quality of life for the less affluent. TheBritish once intentionally made life for the commoner untenable financially so thatthey could create convicts for export to Australia – heartless social engineering, justas your statistics prove that after so many generations opportunities remain veryunequal.

My example was to convey the moral destitution of the system as a whole, not tofocus on the bigotries of ethnicity and political persuasion. Once again I return tomy primary point where integrity.

Also thank you for the point about Christians and governments wanting to garnermore power as this too collaborates my point.

And slavery?… with about 50% of the wealth owned by 1% it would be more like70% if the money wasn’t expended on consumption of leer jets etc. These is muchto learn about democracy from Greece, the origin of the concept… Greece is awashwith money, but the government and its people are destitute…democracy hasdecayed into quasi-slavery

Look to activism in Europe as an indication of the urgency of the need for reform –the status quo of democracy is understandably creating grass roots disbelief. And Itake my hat off to Bernanke who by tripling currency has maximized economicactivity, however it is not creating prosperity as the long-term effect of triplingcurrency is to cut wages as a share of the economy to one third of the share whichis why you see corporate health at the moment. Quantitative Easing however has adiminishing return on investment and the benefits are tapering off regardless ofFederal Reserve policy. The American Dream has been extended with the help ofthe psychotic drugs of debt and QE, but the dream is about to end

REPLY

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

June 18, 2013Lee Deforest

Wealth distribution more pertinently: for wealth of the top 1% net wealth torapidly accumulate to about 50% means that annually the net income is

probably 70% to 80%… their unabated greed is killing the golden goose

REPLY

June 18, 2013Daniel

“And I take my hat off to Bernanke who by tripling currency has maximizedeconomic activity, however it is not creating prosperity as the long-term

effect of tripling currency is to cut wages as a share of the economy to one third ofthe share which is why you see corporate health at the moment. QuantitativeEasing however has a diminishing return on investment and the benefits aretapering off regardless of Federal Reserve policy. The American Dream has beenextended with the help of the psychotic drugs of debt and QE, but the dream isabout to end.”

I will respond to your other comments when I have time, but I want to respond tothis one first, while incorporating some of the same ideals of what I will be referringto in the other comments that you posted, since they are so similar.

Let’s talk quantitative easing. Uncle Ben’s intent in tripling the money supply is notto increase prosperity, but to bring stability, which for the most part is has. I don’tagree with QE policies, but these are just the current facts. Inflation is nil, the stockmarket has stabilized with lower than average volatility as measured by the VIX.

The long-term effect of QE is not wage reduction, but dollar weakening, highinflation, and a monetary paradigm shift into real money like Gold and Silver. Withhigh inflation, wages will also increase as well, see Weimar Germany. When thedollar weakens, the yuan will strengthen against the dollar and our currency will bemuch cheaper in relative terms. Exports will increase dramatically in price andAmericans will stop demanding most goods that need to be exported because ofthe sharp rise in price. The effect of inflation is beneficial to the governmentbecause it allows us to pay off fixed rate debt with cheaper dollars in the future.

Don’t get me wrong, America will suffer, but it will not suffer nearly as badly asChina will. $300 Billion in export to America from China will suddenly vanish, theyuan will rise in value, hurting local manufacturing and the ability for the chineseeconomy to overcome such vast movements of capital.

The American economy is the most advanced, developed, stable, and flexibleeconomy in the world. There is no such economy that can compare. The low endmanufacturing economies like China will suffer the worst in a coming dollar bubbleand US government debt bubble pop. High end manufacturing countries likeGermany and Japan will suffer because China will no longer demand the high endmanufacturing products these countries produce. There will be a large population ofChina that will migrate from the Eastern cities back into the rural areas of Westernareas where they came from. There will also be destructive famines because thereis no social safety net in China.

My friend, the US will suffer but China will suffer a severe depression when thedollar devalues, but it will rebound and again take center stage of economicdominance once the current dollar and US government debt bubbles pop. The 4major bubbles in the last 20 years in the US is real estate, discretionary spending,stocks, and the private debt bubble, which all popped in 2006-2008. These bubbleswere really the global multi-bubble economy that helped surge China’s and otheremerging market economic success stories of today. China also helped to boostresource economies like Brazil, Australia, and Venezuela. These economies willalso suffer worse than America in the coming collapse, because commodity demandwill taper severely with a shift in consumer demand.

But don’t forget, that China itself has been printing in massive quantities too. In thefirst quarter of 2009, China printed $690 Billion USD equivalent to help inflate itsbubble economy. The world central banks have been inflating the money supply tokeep these bubbles inflated, not just the US Fed.

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

Corporate Debt to GDP in China will reach 240% by the end of 2013. The bubble inChina is happening all around you. Some of the bubbles have popped in Chinasuch as the Chinese Stock market. The largest bubble currently though is definitelythe Chinese Real Estate bubble.

There are dozens and dozens of ghost cities in China.There are over 65 Million homes that are unoccupied in China because of the surgein massive real estate development that the government is dearly trying to prop up.However, the flaw in building so many homes for migrant workers relies on migrantworkers earning enough to buy these homes. China’s poor can not afford thehomes as the average home price in places like beijing is 60-65 times the averageannual salary, whereas in place like America’s biggest city, average home pricesare 3-5 times the average annual salary.

There is more to worry about than China’s lackluster stock market that does notreflect sub 8% GDP growth. Rather, all the money printing in China is beingshoveled into real estate, and eventually that bubble will pop along with the USdollar bubble, which will have extraordinary consequence for China’s economy.

China will experience a severe depression just like the US economy experiencedthrough its economic growth pains.

My suggestion to anyone trying to protect themselves from the coming collapse is tostart buying gold and silver at these prices and exit long term bond, stock, and realestate positions that will perform poorly under high inflation.

My point in all of this is that it is not a cause of democracy or capitalism. It is rathera cause of central bank policy. The irrationality of multi-bubble economies after theconvertibility of the dollar into Gold was permanently severed in 1971 has createdthe greatest bubble in the world, the dollar bubble. It will pop, but the consequencewill be far worse in resource economies like Australia, South Africa, Brazil,Venezuela, and economies that focus heavily on either low-end manufacture orhigh-end manufacturing. The Chinese dream that never was thanks to worldgovernment central bank policies. The surge in the chinese economy over the past20 years was impressive, but going from 10% GDP growth down to a more likely7% and further down to 3-5% in the coming years will be a major economicroadbumb.

REPLY

July 23, 2013Chien

All is not well on the Western front, nor on the Eastern front, andan argument as to whether the West is better off than the East

seems moot. The pendulum has swung to the East from the West, so wemust adjust the view to gain an unbiased perspective. No?

As Deng Xiao-ping has often being quoted as saying, it does not matter ifa cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice. And analogously, it doesnot matter if the Western system or Eastern system is better, as long asthe people become better off.

REPLY

October 13, 2013Western Front is better

If the Western front isn’t better off why does 4% of theworld population (America) have 42% of the world’s

millionaires?

Seems to me the Western front is better off by miles. In theEastern front women are beaten in Tibet by Chinese policebecause they speak out against the system.

Women are forced sterilized and forced to have abortions in ruralareas of China. Christians and Falong Gong are imprisoned, raped,beaten, and tortured to death.

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

There have been over 365 million abortions in China since theystarted the 1 child policy (this is from your own governmentfigures).

2 PLA Generals have threatened to send nuclear missiles intohundreds of cities in the US.

I believe the mind of your Communist Party overlords is stuck inthe 1500s, just where your arab neighbors are.

August 23, 2013Jiefu_kang

America has her fair share of problems, but we still try our best to keepthem out in the open with transparency. Take Snowden for example, we

American laobaixing are more than happy to debate the NSA and our issues, thereisn’t “??????” over here. Just because the common Chinese problem doesn’t havethe means to know about the problems in their country doesn’t mean they don’texist. I can’t tell you how many times in Beijing I’ve smiled off a snide remark aboutthat this summer, while in the same sentence that friend may ask for a copy of myweb proxy to get a Facebook account

REPLY

June 19, 2013Lee Deforest

Hi Daniel

I seek collaborative sharing of knowledge for mutual benefit, and subsequentlyprefer to read than to write as it is when I read that I learn.

You have written so much but I gained so little… like I said “it is incredibly easy toconvince people of what they want to believe and near impossible to convince themof what they don’t want to believe”.

The status quo of democracy is unworkable you’d have to be blind not to see that

Also, for your information my lineage is British and Texan… which is why I am soconcerned

REPLY

June 20, 2013Daniel

By the way China just printed a 48.3 PMI (prior month 49.1) after a wholequarter of printing massive money into the economy……The bubble is

starting to pop. Real Estate is next.

I’ve told you that China’s economy is based on low-end manufacturing and thatwhen the dollar bubble and US gov debt bubble pops it is going to be 10x worse inChina than in the US. China is no where near the advanced levels Europe or theUS economy are. The US has over $200 Trillion in assets alone, provided by theFed Z1 report. When the Yuan doubles and triples in value relative to the dollar, itwill be absolutely staggering to the Chinese Economy.

What you have been blind to is the fact that it is not democracy that is wrong butthe profligacy of governments (especially in Europe) and easy money policies ofcentral banks (which by the way are not a part of a truly free market). To fail to seethat China’s 1 party system that denies any notion of freedom will crash is asinine.

To ignore the history of all communistic, collectivist, or centrally planned economiesis pretty telling. You have jumped on the China bandwagon not realizing that allcountries go through depressions and recessions and China hasn’t had 1 the last40 years.

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

The crash will be severe, it will be far-reaching, and if you don’t heed my warningsnow, you will be sorry later.

REPLY

June 19, 2013Lee Deforest

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Annual_Trend_in_Euromoney_Country_Risk,_March_200_March_2011.svg

REPLY

June 20, 2013Daniel

Let me ask you this Lee, and we will see how free you are. Can you openthis link?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-20/china-manufacturing-contracts-at-faster-pace-as-slowdown-deepens.html

REPLY

June 21, 2013Lee Deforest

Yeah there are problem in China, just as there are everywhere else….

Risk Trend however elicits the final scoreboard

REPLY

June 21, 2013dryshrimp

Being Chinese and living in China are two different things. Chinese is a culture,there exists a large variety of Chinese. Wanting to leave China means Mark hasalready become one (major) variant of Chinese.

REPLY

June 22, 2013Paul Tsui

“special schools for the Party privileged”? That sounds to me like a thing of thepast. The kids of the party privileged may still have a better chance ending up ingood schools than the kids of the laborers but those schools are not “for the Partyprivileged”, it seems to me. Rather they are for the real smart kids(through entranceexams), the rich and those in power or with connections who can somehowsqueeze their kids in.

REPLY

June 23, 2013Robert in Shanghai

I have warned every Chinese I know who owns their properties to sell now, and rentfor a few years. That a crash is impending. None will lose face to put themselves ortheir parents in a rented apartment after already owning. The fear of losing face ismore then the fear of losing wealth.

REPLY

October 9, 2013yahyel

Hi Robert, been here since 2001 and funnily when I first arrived, everyonewas saying property was a bubble and about to burst. And if you recall in

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

those years, annual increase was like 20-25 %. The one constant has been the crythat property is a bubble, about to burst. I long ago grew weary and personallybelieve it is sustainable (in recent years increase are much more sustainable 3 – 10%), along with macro-management (bringing in prop taxes, increasing transactiontaxes, capital gains, etc). Remember there are a few hundred million rural residentsthat will be making their way to the cities over the next 10-20 years….

REPLY

June 24, 2013Lee Deforest

The phenomenal success of state capitalism in China has enabled outstanding GDPgrowth – trauma consequent to structural upheaval and growth pains however arelikely to be very severe, taint the “Miracle of China”, and cause enormous politicalstress…Can democracies overcome the systemic spending-taxing flaw to remaincompetitive in the face of Chinese reform to eliminate corruption and inefficiencies?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/opinion/why-chinas-political-model-is-superior.html?_r=0

REPLY

June 24, 2013Lee Deforest

“One dollar one vote” (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/20/opinion/sunday/kristof-occupy-the-agenda.html) is a primary contributor to the spending-taxing failingsymptom of the failing model of democracy as a viable enduring model ofgovernance

REPLY

July 2, 2013He shuqi

Hello, I am a Chinese ordinary university student, I’m sorry we Chinese is not goodenough, let you down. But I hope you can give me a chance to speak, thank you.First of all, as you describe that many phenomena in our country and some of yourpoint of view I agree, from the bottom of my heart is also very admire your keenawareness and critical ability.But I am not feel shame as I grew up in such a country . On the contrary, I thinkyou narrow-minded, thinking negative, short-sighted.Of course,I think I have myaccording to, otherwise there is accused of defamation.Sleeping for hundreds of years the Chinese nation, nowadays, our country eachdomain development speed. There is no doubt, we explore the development speedand direction control is difficult to manage .Therefore, social problems also isinevitable. People are selfish, of course including you. For my largely populatednation to xplorate our country system, there are some people because of the selfishand corruption is not a surprise. And you said you love China, but in addition to itshigh demand, require it to give you easy and comfortable material life, spiritualessence of drawing and enjoy, but that life be compelled helpless, if you hadalready left a sore back to China? Did you give her a little understanding, let alonetogether with our Chinese side by side, common to search better. In exhaust atjudging our at the same time reflect on whether do you also have? Love or not, noone try so hard, but please don’t in your love tired, or found themselves expect toomuch, just turned around and stormed out, also hurt the innocent.China’s rapid development, people’s life rhythm speeding up, the same as you, orso, especially the people who live in cities in order to comfortable life, their work, notime to flirt with feelings, inadvertently becomes “shallow”, but who don’t want to livein skin without the enemy? But, also don’t think we will have members of affinityChina, there is no where, don’t think that our Chinese nation five thousand years ofhistory culture and the spirit of the essence to brag yarn, if necessary, on the backof your backpack trip, go into China.Moreover, parsing, our Chinese intellectuals love gentle since ancient times, maybebecome your sham hypocrisy, but at least we have don’t want to hurt others’nature, yes, we to be perfect, however, since can’t accommodate also can’t wait, let

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

it be. But you know how much you now don’t hypocrisy patriotic heart hurt me?And, I believe that there will be thousands you hurt the heart, if they see you so notresponsible for anger.Finally, we Chinese will be better and better, our compatriots feelings will be moreunity mutually close, we will be more bright, the spirit of the Chinese nationcivilization we will make the world a better place. You also need not guilty, tocontinue your journey of other countries, your Lord can disappoint you less, lesshopelessness, of course, more welcome miss our great China.

REPLY

July 16, 2013Patricia

This reply is the reason why people do not want to stay in China. Stoppointing fingers to “foreigners”, this entire google-translated message is

finger pointing. To accuse the foreigners as being wrong, narrow-minded and short-sighted. Maybe because He is educated from the Chinese education system, thathe doesn’t have the capability to accept a different opinion.

REPLY

July 31, 2013DaDong

Your point is excellent and adds value – well done!

REPLY

July 3, 2013Flaure

maybe, but i can still learn a few Chinese lessonshttps://lovevonbeautyvonlove.wordpress.com/2013/05/17/my-chinese-lessons-by-gao-xingjian/

REPLY

July 23, 2013Chien

Some observations are valid, but some are not. China has gone through muchhardship in the past 150 years, much of own doing, and much due to Western andJapanese exploitation.

It has been hard to be a Chinese, and Chinese have lost their identity, and manyChinese don’t know what being a Chinese is anymore–so many become theChinese equivalent of Uncle Tom. as often applied to blacks in America, andworshipping anything that is foreign, and denying their own culture and heritage,which the Cultural Revolution sought to do.

For the past few decades, China has been stable and this has been something thatChinese society has not had for a long time, and China’s economic ascendancy isreflective of such. But it is still enslaved to foreigners, and yet to find a good andnoble Chinese Way. The Western yoke is internalized, and enslavement is of themindset.

The problem with many foreigners is that they are foreigners and do not have anunderlying love for Chinese people, China and the Chinese Culture and Heritage–and thus they remain foreigners. They only exploit Chinese, and hold to a Westernperspective, and view themselves as superior to Chinese. They take what they canand don’t give back–they exploit Chinese, and the sad thing is many Chinesewillingly agree to such exploitation, because they are used to it.

In a family, a parent loves a child unequivocally, for good or bad, even whencritical, but it is with basic underlying love and good will and interest in the well-being of the child. This is the type of love of a patriot of a country. Such is whatforeigners lack; they basically do not love Chinese, only exploit and take what theycan, and do not truly care about the Chinese, and that is why they “will never be

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

Chinese.” You are truly Chinese if you love Chinese and have their welfare in mind.By such, many Chinese are not Chinese either.

Think Lawrence of Arabia. Foreigners like to denigrate Chinese rather than to helpsolve the issues. The foreign missionaries in China of the past were more noble,although had a motive, but what we have now in China are not foreign missionariesbut foreign mercenaries, working along with corrupt parties for own profit.

REPLY

November 3, 2013Ric

Oh, sure, blame the foreigners again. And here I was thinking that theChinese modus operandi was to invite foreigners in, copy as much of their

technology and expertise as possible, and then once they were no longer useful,make sure that they were no longer welcome in China.

REPLY

July 30, 2013Eugenia Lieu

Other English website have been so rude to an American like me. They think acoarse-face like me is Plain, and not sophisticated. Number one, a coarse-face isonly sophisticated because it is a fusion of things. Secondly, it’s not somethingintricate, and hard to understand- It’s a cut-and-paste type of a thing.

REPLY

July 30, 2013Lee Deforest

You’re 100% Yankee doodle… with emphasis on the “Yank”

REPLY

July 31, 2013DaDong

Here, the low-life reveals the ugly truth of itself in its naturalhabitat hiding behind a glowing screen in the dark with its most

trusted friend in-hand.

REPLY

December 22, 2013Yank K. Doodle

Oopsy-daisy. That’s a humdinger. It’s all hunky-dory though.Cheers on bringing back the classics to the English language.

REPLY

August 19, 2013Dee

Pleasae transfer to Mr. & Mrs. Kitto, with many thanks!

Dear Mr. & Mrs. Kitto,

Read your story, may I propose you try go to the visit the other part of China –Taiwan (Republic of China),there keeps the most traditional Chinese curtual andmentality, I am Chinese Overseas who live in Switzerland and Europe nearly 40years, and I was born in Nanjing and educated in Taiwan, my main familyrelationship is in mainland China,I visited China 5-7 times yearly, believe me, I understand your feeling well, I knowyou love China, but ???,???. Wish you and your children and family have a goodhealth and happiness forever!

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

Sincerely yoursDeeSuisse

REPLY

September 8, 2013Tudo

Jeesh what a crybaby

REPLY

September 26, 2013intensive driving courses Epping

Thanks for ones marvelous posting! I truly enjoyed reading it, you could be a greatauthor.I will be sure to bookmark your blog and will come back in the foreseeable future.I want to encourage you to ultimately continue your great posts, have a niceafternoon!

REPLY

October 6, 2013Samui Newstar Resort

Hi to every body, it’s my first go to see of this webpage; this webpage consists ofawesome and in fact fine stuff insupport of readers.

REPLY

October 9, 2013DaDong

trite

adjective1.(of a remark, opinion, or idea) overused and consequently of little import; lackingoriginality or freshness.

REPLY

October 11, 2013Steve

thanks for your sincere sharing.

I agree your points.From a perspective of a Chinese who have a modern worldview,I think your experiences in China for years is fruitful and that makes this articleso understandable&insightful.

I would like to pay my sincere salute to you Sir!

Best regards,

REPLY

October 13, 2013DaDong

Chinese driv·el

noun1. silly nonsense.“don’t talk such drivel!”synonyms: nonsense, twaddle, claptrap, balderdash, gibberish, rubbish, mumbojumbo, garbage; More

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

verbverb: drivel;?3rd person present: drivels;?past tense: drivelled;?past participle:drivelled;?gerund or present participle: drivelling;?past tense: driveled;?pastparticiple: driveled;?gerund or present participle: driveling1. talk nonsense.“he was driveling on about the glory days”synonyms: talk nonsense, talk rubbish, babble, ramble, gibber, blather, prattle,gabble, waffle More2.archaiclet saliva or mucus flow from the mouth or nose; dribble.

REPLY

October 13, 2013DaDong

Wonderful creative effort for a simple mind!

Your long life is assured and your luck in money matter is assured (in bed).

REPLY

October 31, 2013Eugenia Lieu

Dear Prospect,As a Chinese with a coarse-jaw, a full-looking face, and a good looking smile: Itwas denied my jaw came from my Caucasian heritage. This was denied throughthe media, and its images. I know I am very different from Caucasian now. And Icannot be depicted, nor portrayed like them.

REPLY

November 7, 2013Chen Long (Ryan)

I am a fellow British guy living here in Changchun (Jilin province) and have done forthe past 9 years, will be 10 in February 2014. I love this country as if it was mineown and I don’t think different of it since day one when I arrived. Yes its changed,and yes its changed very quickly but so what, that is life and life as well as allaround us will always change and we have to live to accept that. I only wish thatChina could let me be a Chinese national! not because of benefits or perks etc, butbecause I would be proud to be known as a Chinese instead of a British guy. I willlive here until the day I die and love this country also until my final days. ????

REPLY

November 7, 2013Joseph

And you proudly display a Guy Fawkes avatar; the traitorous man whotried to blow up and murder innocent British nationals in parliament.

Explains your motives entirely.

Not really sure what lead to the disdain of your mother country, but it is sad indeedto see someone turn and embrace a country whose government murders, rapes,illegally imprisons, kills, and harvests organs of Falun Gong, has 2.9 million sexslaves, oppresses Tibet and Xinjiang (East Turkestan), and commits grave atrocitiesdaily.

Did I mention public execution is still a tactic used by the CCP to instill fear in itscitizenry? You are such a dolt, that I can only imagine you are a leftist progressivepostmodern relativist.

It must be embarrassing to even know you as you blatantly and arrogantly supportmurderers, tyranny, and all that is evil in this world with your crass and haughtystatement.

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

Just know that when you arrogantly display your nescient attitude that you will neverattain to become a Chinese national and you will be look at as the foolish man whohates his own country.

What an embarrassment.

REPLY

November 7, 2013Chien

Don’t forget the Opium Wars and subjugation of India.

REPLY

November 8, 2013Joseph

@Chien

My comments aren’t directed at your people, but your government. I actually lovechinese people. I dislike your government and the sycophants that are in the CCP.They don’t base anything on fundamental rights, not so different in Russia either.The collapse of the Soviet Union was a charade, only fooling most Westerners tothe intentions of the dark motives behind the iron curtain. Let’s be serious, a 2ndrate KGB agent is running Russia, there are stronger people behind the scenesthan some mid-level KGB agent that put this “reform is coming” and a notion of“freedom” while profiting off the elements of the free market that give themprosperity. It angers me, because the Western Media is complicit with this system.The naive “FREE TRADE” Westerners got their manufacturing jobs decimated withthe advent of the extremely low wages paid in Chinese factories. The globalistelement is strong in the West, and they seek to create a 1 world government, andthey depend upon the ignorance in the world to do it. (This includes China andRussia being apart of it; they have to create a war to do it, and “we the people” losebecause of it)

The Opium wars to be honest is so far in the past, but still not something weshould just forget; however, it is no reason to justify what the government in Chinagets away with on a grand scale. BTW, the arabs are the ones that first tradedOpium with the Chinese in the 1300s, they were addicted to the stuff well beforethe British arrived. There is a common analogy likened to a balloon; no matterwhere you pinch the balloon on the supply side, the demand will still be there. I’msure the illicit drug trade is still big in China, you just don’t hear about it. Iremember talking to Chinese High School students and they were pretty open aboutsmoking marijuana and they told me how many chinese high schoolers do itnowadays.

The vileness of the CCP really comes down to NWO elitist jingoist bigots in yourcountry who want to keep control over every aspect of Chinese society. War is theireasy and predictable tool. It doesn’t take that great of cognitive dissonance asdisplayed by posters above to fool a majority of your citizens to go along with theirxenophobic, corrupt, and evil plans.

REPLY

November 8, 2013Steve

Impressive undoubtedly it was,but IS it still?

I have a few questions I would like to look forward to your comments,if youdont mind.–Do you know how is the up-dated situation here in China?How is yoursource from?From a newspaper?The CCTVs? A magazine?Or a Chinesestudent/scholor?

–Do you know how much is trustworthy as for your ‘learning’ on the realChina?(Of course,you have every reason for your personal perspectives)

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

–Do you know what ordinary Chinese pursuit other than a bettergovernment as people in the West or people in other parts of the world?And is it the same as nearly every government would face in the matter ofcorrupt,xenophobic, corrupt, and evil plans?

–Do you really know aprat from material life,what is Chinese spiritual life asmost people need spiritually?Do you really know how is going on with thedemand for higher education as well as international education in China?(let alone some who ‘have earned’ their wealth by ‘their unspken means’)

You commented‘The globalist element is strong in the West, and they seek to create a 1world government, and they depend upon the ignorance in the world to doit. ‘–I cant agree you more.You are right!But who should be blamed for andcan it see it through who’s performing this STRATIGY upon now?Did youreally tell?

REPLY

November 8, 2013Chien

@Joseph:

“The naive “FREE TRADE” Westerners got their manufacturing jobs decimated withthe advent of the extremely low wages paid in Chinese factories.” Who is the culprithere–these “naive free trade Westerners’ went to China based upon greed, toexploit the lower labor costs to boost their own profits.

The Westerners partitioned China for their own interests, all except for the US. Andwhich country is creating wars and threats of war all over the world and usinggunboat diplomacy now but the US, and selling arms all over the world. What of theNSA disclosures? And the drone strikes?

You have such a holier than thou Westerner attitude, it seems; casting Westernersin positive light and the Chinese government in an evil light; excusing everything ofan evil nature that the Westerners did against the other peoples in the world in thepast.

I am not of the PRC, but ROC; and I deem what Mao did in the cultural revolutionas horrendous. But China has gone in a positive direction, and the welfare of manyhave advanced. True that the benefits have gone to the elite in the country, thosewho toe the party line, but is this not so in the West as well? The standard of livinghas been raised for many. There are injustices, but people are not being oppressed.

The illicit drug trade is not as prevalent in China as in the West. Drug dealers ifcaught are executed. In the US, there are 2 million in jail due to drug charges, 6million in jail in total.

Your view of China and the rest of the world seems out-dated and xenophobic. Ifyou keep up on the weapons that the US is developing, you will come tounderstand that world peace is not being undermined by China, but by the US andits allies and Japan.

REPLY

January 27, 2014Phil Richardson

You make a number of good points. I think that very few Westerners orChinese truly understand one another, or even their own governments for

that matter. Hav.ing lived in China for several years, I as a Canadian have a least apassing understanding of its people and its government. My general view is that thegovernments of China and the US are driven by a dark mixture of greed and fearwhen dealing with one another so any effort to illuminate their true underlying goalsfor the general public of each would be very helpful, I believe. However that is morelikely to happen in the West than in China given the information restrictions of thelatter. How would you suggest we promote the mutual education of each society

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

given this?

REPLY

November 8, 2013Chien

@Joseph: You quoted me for your quote, but the wrong quote.

I know a lot of Chinese, and am Chinese. Most of the Chinese in mainland Chinaonly pursue money now, not spiritual enlightenment, but there is a revival ofConfucius.

Awailability of education is not much the issue but mode and quality of education,but some really good schools and hundreds of thousands go to US for study, aswell as to other countries.

You should take a trip to China and see for yourself. Things are not perfect, andthere is a lot of pollution due to industrial growth, but things are not as bad as youperceive.

REPLY

December 2, 2013stevelaudig

A rather all-encompassing anti-China rant. Here’s a counterpoint, Africa is whatChina would look like if it hadn’t kicked out the imperial West. Consider the anti-West, or pro-nationalist, if you will, as merely a natural reaction to invasion,occupation, exploitation. China hasn’t sent troops to Africa. China has forced theimportation of opium against the will of the locals. Chinese ‘imperialism’ is ratherbenign [compared to the USG]. It builds roads in Africa rather than bombing them inBaghdad. . The West took Iraq from a second world country to a fourth worldcountry and did the same to Afghanistan. “Yankee go home.” is both a prayer and ademand. Every country has its problems and the Communist Party of China solvesfar more problems than the Capitalist Party [DemoRepub] in the US.

REPLY

January 31, 2014Personfromearth

I can’t tell if you are being serious or just playing contrarian, but if it’s theformer then your post has got to one of the stupidest things that’s been

posted on the Internet.

“Africa is what China would look like if it hadn’t kicked out the imperial West.”Consider the anti-West, or pro-nationalist, if you will, as merely a natural reaction toinvasion, occupation, exploitation.China hasn’t sent troops to Africa. China hasforced the importation of opium against the will of the locals. ”

Who is paying you to post this crap? “Hasn’t sent troops to Africa” Is that why theyhave military stations in Eastern Africa as part of their String of Pearls? China hasn’tforced the importation of opium against the will of the locals, but that doesn’t meanthey haven’t exploited the African continent (and people) in exactly the same waythe British did during its colonial rule over India.

“Chinese ‘imperialism’ is rather benign [compared to the USG]. It builds roads inAfrica rather than bombing them in Baghdad. . The West took Iraq from a secondworld country to a fourth world country and did the same to Afghanistan. “Yankeego home.” is both a prayer and a demand.”

I’m sure in your paranoid fantasies Chinese imperialism is benign to US imperialism(what about British imperialism?), as if it ever made sense to rank imperialism bycountries along a gradient of morality. But even by your own standards of how torank the morality of imperialism, then surely British imperialism was the best thingto happen to India in developing its infrastructure, and US imperialism inAfghanistan was the 3rd best form of imperialism in the world in 2012 based on thefact that Afghanistan was the 3rd fastest growing country in the world in 2012.

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

” Every country has its problems and the Communist Party of China solves far moreproblems than the Capitalist Party [DemoRepub] in the US.”

Your statement doesn’t make sense. If every country has its problems, then couldthe conclusion that the Communist Party of China solve more problems than theCapitalist Party [DemoRepub] (side note: there’s no such party as the CapitalistParty of America or the DemoRepub party in America either) in the U.S. be drawn?

REPLY

December 2, 2013Chien

Don’t forget what the Japanese did in Asia up to their defeat in WW2. They rapedand killed innocent villagers, massacred en masse, forced prisoners into slave labor,forced women to serve their troops, pillaged the natural resources of the lands theyoccupied, and conducted biological and chemical warfare experiments on Chinese.

Now they are trying to re-militarize and rewrite history to whitewash their evil deeds,and casting China as the evil empire to raise fear and advance their own agenda toonce again become facist and imperialistic. And US just plays along, motivated byits own fear of China eclipsing US as the dominant power, and redeploying 60% ofits military to Asia when it is not even an Asian country. Plays right into Japaneseagenda.

REPLY

January 24, 2014Your Death Awaits You

First, the country that is focused massively on a military buildup is China.You have to be blind to not see it. The country that is making double-digit

percentage growth gains in their military budget year after year is China (and that isonly what the ccp publicly releases). The country that has threatened to nuke theUS on 3 different occasions? I’ll give you a hint, starts with a C.

If Japan wanted to, they could have nuked your country decades ago. They couldand probably will start making nukes like they make Hondas and Toyotas.

If I were you and I were Chinese, I would have thrown off the CCP ol’ guard yearsago.

You will learn firsthand the hard way for being ignorant and a peasant to your slavemasters.

It is what you get afterall for being a servile dog. Just like the poster above whothinks because his little mind is somehow smarter than others, that he is better thanothers. People like him will be the first murdered in any sort of massiverenationalization effort like Pal Pot in Cambodia who murdered all intellectuals. TheBolshevik Revolution, the Great leap Forward, the Nazi takeover of Germany when42% of the Jews left, but 58% stayed because they didn’t see any impending signsof danger.

You have what’s coming to you because you chose to stay ignorant. When Japanwho is still 50 years ahead of you in technology sends trillions of Asimo robots toevery town and village, don’t hate them, hate your jingoist and xenophobic slavemasters. They caused your death.

REPLY

January 28, 2014Chien

Hey, no name, your death awaits you. Your hatred and venom isclouding your brain. LOL!

Every country is upping their military spending these days, and as a % ofGDP, Japan more so than others. And Japan seems intent on returning tomilitary imperialism.

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

The country that is threatening to nuke the US is Russia, stating that it willseek a nuclear response if attacked, not China. And it is upgrading allaspects of its military, including additional missile installations.

China has said it would never be the first to launch nuclear weapons, butwould do so in retaliation.

It is certain that Japan will build nuclear weapons and capable of doing so,and has the capacity to build more nuclear weapons than any other, and nodoubt will use such as a first strike, because Japanese are a vicious peoplethat are revengeful and think nothing of killing others, with total disregard ofthe sanctity of life. Remember Pearl Habor and the 35 million Chinese, andall the others they have killed. And Japan will nuke the US too in revengefor the two A-Bombs.

The fact that Japan launched their new carrier on August 6th, theanniversary of the US A-bomb drop, and christianed the ship for their WW2carrier is symbolic, and this symbolism should not be lost or ignored byAmericans and the rest of the world.

If Japan nukes China, China will nuke Japan also, and since China haslarger land mass, parts of China could/should survive an initial attack, butJapan would likely be wiped out. That may be good for mankind, if any ofus survive, that is–the scourge of humanity would be eliminated. Nazism inGermany has been revoked. Fascism in Japan has not; is that not thecase?

There can be no world peace until Japan changes its ways or is eliminated,it seems. What Japanese need to do is to remove Shinzo Abe and hiscronies if they want to avert an eventual disaster to their country andpeople, not necessary only from China, but the rest of the world, includingKorea, Russia and US.

A nuclear war is a scenario of mutual destruction—that is the deterrentaspect and the reality. No rational and humane country wants to be the firstto initiate such and got down in history being blamed as the one whostarted it. Of course US was the first one and only one to do so. We shouldlearn.

Capiche?

REPLY

January 28, 2014Your Death Awaits You

Hey Chien,

Your conscious is calling you, because you seem to left it in yourmother’s womb. The propaganda and indoctrination is clearly set inyour brain as cancer that metastasizes in a stage 3 terminally illpatient.

Not sure if there is any possible reconcilation possible withcompletely witless fools as yourself who describe Japan in termsof fascism and needing to be “eliminated”>>> Let’s be clear, all thevenom and spewing of “elimination” is constantly thrown from yourside of the ilk aisle.

The constant castigation and analogizing of Japan as returning toimperialistic posture is about as pomp as your current leader, XiJinping, telling the free world that he is really going to give yourcitizens freedom in an age of continued repression in China.

It seems that like most observers of Nagasaki and Hiroshima thathave diminutive intellects fail to breach the same wall of reasoningand commit the same fallacy being that conviction is a luxury ofthose on the sidelines.

In fact, we hit military installations in Naga and Hiro, not city

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

centers. It was also a crude and less technologically advanced warwhere laser guided missiles did not exist and carpet bombingswere a common theme. Had your country possessed any of thesetechnologies it is quite apparent you would have returned like kindretaliation to the main island of Japan and to deny so isincontrovertibly reckless.

It is interesting that you don’t even know of the fact that China haswith 3 separate Generals declared that it will engage in a firstnuclear strike against the US through unofficial channels.

I know you don’t have freedom of press in your intellectuallyoppressed nation, but to not know of this fact is glaringly obviousof the difference that exists between a free and unfree nation.

Your country destroys Japanese cars and businesses over anisland that you lost through war and claim to own without havingany obvious or logical reason of claiming such an island other thanfor the reason of blockading other nations from the South ChinaSea and imposing the CCP’s evil will on the rest of the world.

It is the CCP that has knocked out satellites in direct confrontationwith the US.

We could have made China a molten island 50 years ago, butdecided against it. We could still do so today without any majorharm to the United States because we still enjoy technologicallysuperior defensive capabilities when it comes to supersonic andinfrasonic weapons.

You know why we don’t make your nation an island of moltengloop? Because we honor the fact that as a TRUE Republicfounded on the mores of good morals, good actions, and goodwilltowards mankind, that we can’t consciously do that.

In fact Russia, is a closer ally both ethnically and historicallyspeaking than the CCP.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t hate China, I hate the CCP thatcontinues to keep you in perpetual ignorance.

Beware of what Japan does in response to your increasinglyimperialistic and jingoistic rhetoric.

Capiche?

December 14, 2013??? ??? ???

These are genuinely great ideas in on the topic of blogging.

You have touched some fastidious points here.Any way keep up wrinting.

REPLY

January 7, 2014Joe

Nicely written article – save the title. It’s seems obvious to me that a non-chineseperson will never become chinese. How many laowai in China honestly believethey’ll become Chinese someday?

That’s the fun of being in China in the first place. Not being Chinese!

REPLY

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

January 24, 2014Penney

Nice answer back in return of this issue with solid arguments and describingeverything concerning that.

REPLY

January 28, 2014Chien

“your death awaits you” is certainly a hateful ignoramous. No more comments arewarranted. Can’t respond to a ranting zero.

REPLY

January 29, 2014florida pharmacy association conference 2013

There are lots of reputable pet pharmacies offering pet medicationsonline. Survival rate didn’t differ with or without medication, butdelay in getting SRE was a sign of positiveresponse rate to medication geared towards accurately predicting onset andpreventing SRE.

The first couple of days were frightening, all I could think of was setting upa mistake and causing trouble for a patient.

REPLY

January 29, 2014Your death awaits you

It is a parody playing on the destructive theme of your government. I wouldn’texpect you to understand it, typical of chinese people who can’t fathomunderstanding irony because your brain has been inbred to only accept conformistnotions of acceptance.

Since Mao killed off all the intellectuals your society had bred for years, I didn’tparticularly expect people with brain cells to be able to comprehend logical lines ofreasoning since your whole society is built around the notion of passingstandardized tests that do nothing for the good of your society other than look goodon paper.

Is it no wonder your country can’t produce any meaningful scientific literature oradvances in technology despite having about 1/5 of the worlds’ population?

You have produced 1 Nobel Prize winner yet you are about 20% of the worlds’population.

Looks as if your system results in individuals with accolades acquiescing to thedesires and wishes of your slave masters who command you to do whatever theirwill expects of you.

The only hateful [sic] ignoramus is you. The synapses inside your weak patheticexcuse of a human being are excruciatingly below what would be considered normalthoughts. You are no different than Mao’s red guards who paraded around andpretended all was well. Continue to convince yourself in your weak and feeble mindthat you are right because one thing is for sure, you have absolutely zero ability tocomprehend and reason beyond your own self-ensuring destructive notions of pride.

You are as ugly as the thoughts masquerading inside the empty spaces of yourdome you call your mind.

Your whole society is sick and you are just a micro-reflection of the macro. Youwon’t understand that your government is leading you to the precipice of annihilationuntil it is too late and you are decrepit and old like the apologetic Song BinBing whowas personally responsible for murdering countless teachers as a part of being inMao’s Red Guard.

You are no different than Pre WWII Japan. The faster you can understand this, the

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

faster your society can change for the better.

REPLY

January 30, 2014Chien

Happy Chinese New Year, from all the dimwits in China that you denigrate!

REPLY

February 1, 2014Ric

Hey Chien, your relentless anti-Japanese ranting seems highly unusual. I thoughtthat Taiwanese were friendly to Japan? Are you sure you’re really Taiwanese?Seems that you’ve been drinking the mainland’s Kool-Aid.

Here’s some friendly advice: Maybe you shouldn’t go out of your way to defend acountry that has hundreds of missiles aimed at you and considers you to be nothingmore than a renegade province to be annexed, by force if necessary.

REPLY

February 1, 2014Chien

@Ric:

Nothing unusual. Chinese are not friendly to Japan, either on Mainland or Taiwan;we remember the horrible atrocities and insults by the Japanese.

I would not be anti-Japanese ranting, as you call it, if the Japanese were like theGermans, regretful and repentant about what they did in WW2 and embrace peace,not war, as the solution.

Contrast the posture of the Germans and the Japanese governments to thecountries they had violated, the apologies expressed by the German governmentand peoples on rememberance days, versus the Japanese government underShinzo Abe, paying homage to the shrine and glorifying their past.

Look at Shinzo Abe’s actions. Deliberately posing for picture of himself in thecockpit of a plane with the number 731 painting on it (#731 was the Japanesechemical/biological warfare unit in China responsible for conducting live experimentson Chinese–and others–to prepare such weapons for mass destruction). Picture inuniform on their new army tank. Launching and christianing of their carrier onAugust 6th. Revising textbook to whitewash their history. And all that rhetoric.Contrast that to Germany and attitude of Germans.

Japan under Shinzo Abe is reverting to military imperialism, which all but the blind,or those deliberately keeping blinders on can see. Abe and his cohorts are usingChinese military threat as an excuse to re-arm. Abe is leading Japan down adangerous path, he will destroy Japan.

As one political commentator has observed, which I think is quite insightful: Abe haspersonal issues concerning Japan’s past military imperialism, since his grandfatherand father were involved, and his is hijacking the entire country for his own personalagenda. He is not concerned about the ultimate welfare of the Japanese people,and certainly not peace.

–

Ric, I guess you are not up on current events with China and Taiwan, theapproachment and reconciliation, the one China and global Chinese concept. Theonly faction that in anti-reconciliation in Taiwan are the DDP members, the anti-everything opposition group/party–which itself it gaining less support and strugglingto remain relevant.

REPLY

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

February 2, 2014Bai Yiming

Chien, for your information:You are not up-to-date concerning Taiwan: Taiwanese love all Japanese, and themajority of 22 mil people here are very sceptical concerning the PRC. Most of thefree world watch Chinese expansionism with great displeasure!

REPLY

February 2, 2014Ric

Oh my, oh my. Looks like you’ve drunk even more of the CCP Kool-Aid than Ithought.

No, it really is unusual. Every source I’ve ever read suggests that Taiwanese don’thate Japan as much as the mainlanders do. If what you’re saying is true, then itmeans the Taiwanese are not to be trusted. In the coalition of nations formingagainst Chinese expansionism, you are the weak link.

If you and other Taiwanese like China so much, why don’t you go live there? It justseems a little dishonest that the most avid pro-China cheerleaders don’t even livein the country they claim to support, you know? Many pro-China trolls on theInternet are overseas Chinese. It’s just a pattern I’ve noticed. Do you think it’sbecause if they actually lived in China, they wouldn’t have such a rosy opinion of it?

Anyway, I somewhat suspect that talking to you any further will be a waste of time,since you may already be fully indoctrinated by CCP propaganda. Suffice it to saythat all your rants about Japan’s supposed lack of remorse have already beenrebutted and refuted countless times. It is a myth that Japan has not apologized.Japan has apologized many times.

In your delusions, you seem to think that Japan is using China’s military threat asan excuse to rearm. In fact it’s the other way around. The CCP is using Japan as aconvenient scapegoat, in order to focus the anger of the Chinese people on anexternal source (and therefore away from the CCP itself), and to keep the populaceeasy to control through nationalism. Judging by you, it seems to be working.

And the Chinese military threat is very real, by the way. As the previous postersaid, it is China whose military spending is increasing by double-digit percentagesevery year. Why is that, Chien? China is already the second-largest military spenderin the world, and will probably overtake the US in a couple of decades. “Peacefulnation”, my ass. Japan is merely doing what any sane nation would do, defendingitself from Chinese aggression.

You keep on going on about Shinzo Abe. He’s just one man. Japan is a nation of130 million people. And, despite the lies of the Chinese, the fact is that mostJapanese no longer have any appetite for war. True, the far-right exists in Japan,but it is a small minority. The Japanese have learned their lesson from their defeatin WW2, that militarism does not pay off. But have the Chinese learned thatlesson? It doesn’t look like it.

Lastly, about textbooks. What, you don’t think Chinese textbooks try to portrayChina’s invasion of Tibet as justified? Maybe those same textbooks even portrayChina’s occupation of Vietnam as a good thing. And while you’re at it, google“Northeast Project”. My, it seems you Chinese really angered some Koreans withyour revisionist bullcrap. Whitewashing history? You Chinese are doing the exactsame thing you accuse Japan of doing. Enough with the hypocrisy.

REPLY

February 2, 2014Chien

@Ric, I don’t know what you are reading.

There are about a million citizens of ROC Taiwan living in China most of the year,my cousin included, and going back and forth. Two way trade, and direct investmentare booming, and two-way tourism is booming and travel is now direct. You are

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

decades behind in your understanding of what is going on.

You just don’t understand what is going on, and don’t seem to follow the news. Justseems to be an uneducated China hater.

REPLY

February 2, 2014Ric

Chien, is that all you have to say to my lengthy comment? You have no rebuttal tomy arguments, that’s why.

That’s fine. I do not want to waste time with a brainwashed shill of the CCP such asyou. You say I “just don’t understand what’s going on, and don’t seem to follow thenews.” Actually, I read the news a lot, and I understand far more than you do.

You say, “I don’t know what you are reading”, because you are uneducated and youdon’t read anything. I read the news about China’s continued oppression of theTibetan and Uighur minorities, about China’s bullying in the South China Sea, aboutChina’s border incursions into Indian territory, about China’s aggressive new ADIZ inthe East China Sea, about Russia’s concern over growing Chinese migration intoSiberia.

Did you even google the Northeast Project? Of course you didn’t. Typical wumaotroll, just looking for the “facts” that suit your warped view of the world.

Anyway, the Japanese people I know, there is no militarism left in them. They aregentle and peaceful people. Whereas the Chinese…no offense, Chien, but theChinese are some of the most arrogant, ultranationalistic people I have ever hadthe misfortune to meet, full of hostility and an incredible superiority complex.

The Internet is full of nationalistic Chinese trolls like yourself, trumpeting your beliefin China’s superiority over everyone else. You know what’s ironic? China today isvery similar to Japan in WW2. Think about that for a moment.

Anyway, like I said, Japan learned their lesson in WW2. They attempted militarismand war, and they were beaten. But China has not learned that lesson yet. But ifyour people continue bullying weaker countries, if you continue to act like the entireworld belongs to you, you will learn it. Rest assured, Chien, you will learn it.

REPLY

February 2, 2014cyanos1

>Anyway, like I said, Japan learned their lesson in WW2. They attemptedmilitarism and war, and they were beaten. But China has not learned that

lesson yet.

Absolutely.Japanese Self defense force never killed foreigners for 70 years.How about Chinese military?

REPLY

February 10, 2014Kastus

” Whereas the Chinese…no offense, Chien, but the Chinese are some of the mostarrogant, ultranationalistic people I have ever had the misfortune to meet, full ofhostility and an incredible superiority complex.”

Havent you ever thought that you are arrogant, brainwashed and uneducatedhuman?That can explaine why you have such opinion about Chinese

REPLY

February 11, 2014

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

Ric

Shh, no insults, Kastus. Your insults are only the sign of your tiny pygmy brain.

The reason I have “such opinion” about the Chinese is that it is true. I’m sorry thatthe truth offends you, Chinaman.

Also, haha…are you aware that the very term “brainwash” originated in China?How’s that for irony?

REPLY

March 8, 2014Eugenia Lieu

What do you mean “You’ll Never Be Chinese?” As a coarse-face with Chineseparentage I certainly know I am a Chinese. You White People never the samehope.

REPLY

March 9, 2014Ric

Thanks for proving the author’s point, Eugenia.

REPLY

March 8, 2014Phil Richardson

Every now and again I return to read the new comments on this article, the purposeod which was to share the on the ground experiences of foreigners living in China.From what I read in the article, its a balanced and accurate portrayal of life in Chinaand the attitudes held by the great majority of its citizens. As to the comments, I’msaddened that an opportunity for greater understanding by all concerned, of thepositives and negatives of China’s culture and its people’s attitudes has beenbrushed aside by many who simply want to assert their own xenophobic points ofview.

I love the Chinese people, I do not love its government nor the negative effects ithas had on them. Through gross mismanagement in the past, recent as well as old,it has visited terrible suffering on its people. They have become survivalists, strivingto achieve prosperity for themselves and their families. While the opening of Chinato the world in 1988 onward was a dramatically good step to take, the impact onmany of the greed which has arisen has altered many people there for the worse.Who would have imagined only thirty years ago that regulations would be needed toensure that children visit and support their parents, for example? while affluencehas risen dramatically, it has been concentrated in the hands of the few, leaving thegreat majority to struggle. And struggle they do in order to accumulate savings tohelp insulate themselves from the new impositions on their rights that they senseare coming from their government. And often the frustrations that arise from thesestresses are displaced on foreigners who are conveniently blamed for them. Thisworks for a while, but it will never help the Chinese society to improve and moveforward if necessary change is resisted.

These internal pressures, many exacerbated by the government through suchpolicies as promoting China’s victimhood at the hands of the local competition suchas Korea and Japan, as well as the West, result in the nationalism that we see soevident today. It will not just harm Japan, it will harm China too. Does anyone stillnaively believe that Japan doesn’t already have nuclear weapons? Why else isthere an old and dangerous plutonium producing reactor in each power facility inJapan, as revealed through the Fukashima disaster?

To have such beliicose nations as China, Japan and Korea within minutes of oneanother as the missile flies is frightening, especially as they have such aninordinate investment in preserving face? What could be worse than having conflictpoints such as the Islands (I’ve given up on learing all the names each countrycalls them), where trigger happy pilots are flying within hundreds of metres of one

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

another?

Everyone seems to assume China would win such a conflict, but with the triggeringof the security agreements held by Japan, Taiwan and Korea with the US thatwould immediately follow, it would be facing a world of pain and subjugation. I say,show some sensible self control, lower the xenophobic tirades that each pitches outfrom time to time, and remember that governments are supposed to have the wellbeing of their citizens as their prime reason for existence. I pray that true leaderswill emerge in these countries to enable this. The present crop don’t look likethey’re up to it.

REPLY

March 9, 2014Chien

There are so many China and Chinese bashers here with prejudical viewpoints andsteeped in bigotry, with whom there is no sense in discussing anything rationally–such folks have hearts filled with hatred and little minds that cannot bode alternateperspectives, nor can they understand anything beyond their straight-jacketedbiases. The Chinese expression, “make a puddle and look at your own reflection” isall I can say.

REPLY

March 9, 2014Phil Richardson

Hi Chien and allYes it is initially discouraging but i realize that they don’t represent a

majority. I lived in Kunming and then Shenzhen for over two years recently and Ihave many wonderful friendships I made there which I treasure. I truly mean that Ilove the people of China…of course there are those who are a bit less lovable…justas there are among us here in Canada. I place the blame for that on isolation, pooreducation and downright racism. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be helped to seethe best in people, which I am glad to help with.Governments are all problematic to one degree or another and, especially whenthey are not elected, the chances that they will be disconnected from the peopleincrease. I pray for China as I do for the other good people in the region, that theywill be led forward by good leaders who love their people more than themselves.

REPLY

March 9, 2014Phil Richardson

Yes, it appears to be so from what we can see. Its difficult not to beskeptical however, our government is sometimes opaque too and difficult to

understand and trust at times. So we need to trust and hope and encourage them intheir efforts…but we must also watch them carefully too! LOL

Let’s all hope for the best…

REPLY

March 9, 2014Chien

@Phil Richardson

You are one of the few rational people commenting here. Kudos.

Things are changing in China, and the government has stated its intent and ismaking transformation a priority, with crack down on corruption, bureaucracy,addressing issues of polution, education and bunch of other stuff. Whether succeedor not is to be seen, but at least action is being undertaken.

REPLY

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

March 10, 2014Phil Richardson

I’m very sure that the majority of people are sensible, its just that theanonymity of the Web promotes those who are not to rail away on

whatever irritates them. Stats on Twitter for example show a large percentage of itsusers are misanthropes who displace their frustrations on people and groups whodon’t provoke the majority.

What’s the cure? Extinction! But not the more dramatic kind…I mean thepsychological technique that is based on simply ignoring them…don’t debate, don’tinteract…let them stew in their own juices and soon we’ll see a lot of them simplyooze away.

REPLY

March 10, 2014Phil Richardson

Glad to hear your optimism and I share it in a guarded fashion. Notbecause its China but rather because like all governments, they often lie to

their people and certainly don’t always act in their favour. I hope that the people’svoices are heard more in China by the government and the well deserved sharing ofthe economic dream espoused by Mr. Deng in the 1980′s and beyond finally arisesfor them.

Canada has always had a special relationship with China, beginning in the centuryof our formation and continuing to this day. Many of our citizens are of Chineseorigin and have contributed very positively to the growth of our country. As well, weare eager to participate in China’s healthy development in many ways so let’s allpromote that to happen, for everyone’s benefit.

REPLY

March 10, 2014Chien

Ho, Ho, Ho! Peace on Earth and Good Will to All Men.

REPLY

March 10, 2014Phil Richardson

????????????

REPLY

March 10, 2014Phil Richardson

Hi ChienI tried to reply with Simplified Chinese, but the system appears to have

misunderstood it! Some irony there, but suffice it to say that I share your sentimentsexactly!

REPLY

March 23, 2014Ric

It’s funny to see Chien pretending to be one of the balanced andreasonable posters, when in fact a look at his history of comments

on this article shows that he is nothing but another rabid Japan-bashingChinese.

Phil Richardson, I advise you not to take Chien seriously. Read hisprevious comments on this article. He himself is a Chinese ultranationalistand he himself is part of the problem that you pointed out in your highlyinsightful March 8 comment. He hypocritically whines about “China

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

bashers”, while he bashes Japan at the same time. No, I wouldn’t take himseriously.

REPLY

March 22, 2014G.U.YIsComingGaga

You can go back anytime you want, im sure they’ll welcome you

REPLY

April 16, 2014chloe

Even you get the ID national, normal people also treat you as a foreigner.Becauseof your looking your spoken accent. One solution,you must speak mandarin withoutaccent, or tell others you are the ethnic white Russia or other ethnic, or you shouldknow about the 5000 years history of China which is the source of all Chinese view,like why Chinese people do not keep their king as a symbol of power,what is thetable manner in detail which is just taught by parents,why Chinese do not likeanother country to control them even though it may be better than now,and whyChinese people treat friends better than their family members . China is never anation of immigrants like US or Canada. So it is hard and rare to get the IDnational.Even the one whose nation was China and who changed his nation willseldom have the ability to get the nation ID China back.They are regarded asChinese because of their parentage by normal people , while they are not protectedby the nation China.Reasons are complicated and numerous.Those who treatthemselves as Chinese even though their nation is not China, Chinese people treatthem as Chinese. Those who treat themselves not as Chinese even though theirparents are Chinese.Chinese people blame them that they forget the root ofethnic.Those who are half blood are regarded as what they feel what they are.It is apity that western people just know a little bit of other cultures, and can notunderstand as fairly as Chinese people do. Chinese understand western culturebecause they know about western language and can get the first hand documents,but they do not agree with all opinions. While seldom western can know Chineselanguage and can get the correct information by first hand. Some foreigners treattraditional Chinese and simplify Chinese as two different language to speak. It itvery very ridiculous.Do not you think it strange that 1/5 of the population of theworld are all Han Chinese?

REPLY

April 20, 2014alan lewis

By the way all of what I just wrote is true I see it everyday and to be honest Ibelieve that these people are either blind and can’t see it or don’t want to. Whichmakes them arrogant to think it is their culture and its good. At least westernershave the courage to question and then change things

REPLY

July 4, 2014Eugenia Lieu

Dear Reader,There are many Germans under this society that just won’t accept me. And I knoweven White Americans wants to kick me out of this society. They are rather Frenchoriented. They had always said I don’t speak better English than the French asthough French People still own this country. However, still some other Americansare only true Americans because they were the ones being accepted in this societyat first.

REPLY

« Older Comments

You’ll never be Chinese

http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/mark-kitto-youll-never-be-chinese-leaving-china/[7/8/2014 5:04:01 PM]

Leave a comment

Add Comment

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail

Sign me up to the Prospect newsletter

About | Advertising | Apps | Contact | FAQ | Staff | Subscriptions

Prospect Publishing © 2014 | 25 Sackville St London, W1S 3AX

Google+

Name *

Email *

Website

Comment