GenZedong

I was a captive audience to someone talking about how some countries only had access to China's vaccine. They said the vaccine was terrible and people took it and still got COVID.

But like.... I took American vaccines and still got COVID...

...and over a million people in the US died of COVID, some of whom where vaccinated with US subsidized, corporate vaccines.

It was brought up because others were talking about global inequality during the pandemic. So having to take the subpar sinovac was apparently all part of global inequalities.

I hate talking about COVID and I feel like it's so distracting and people try to make everything about COVID because it's so easy to do. Maybe that is just a hot take but this argument that sinovac sucks because people still contracted COVID is at best a really lazy way to try to say US vaccines are better.

Also the same person implied masking prevents people from contracting the virus... instead of preventing you from spreading it to others like was repeated ad nasium by medical representatives for 2 years straight.

The Sanaa Ministry of Oil and Minerals signed Saturday a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with China's Antonoil oil company and a representative of the Chinese government to invest in oil exploration in Yemen.

The MoU was signed "after many negotiations and coordination with several foreign companies to convince them to invest in this field in light of the available investment opportunities and the advantages and facilities that investment companies will enjoy in this vital and important sector," the SABA news agency reported.

China-Central Asia Summit is held in Xi'an, China from May 18 to 19.

Earlier on Wednesday afternoon, Xi wished visiting Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev a happy birthday and vowed to further strengthen China-Kazakhstan ties during their talks. Tokayev, who turned 70 on this very day, expressed his will to bring the long-lasting friendship between the two countries to a new level.

While holding talks with visiting Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, Xi Thursday said China stands ready to work with Tajikistan to build a China-Tajikistan community with a shared future featuring everlasting friendship, sharing weal and woe, and mutual benefit. Rahmon said the “development of bilateral relations featuring good-neighborliness, sincere friendship, and concerted efforts to maintain regional peace and stability”.

On Thursday afternoon, Xi recalled his state visit to Uzbekistan last September and the hospitality of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. President Xi reiterated the vision of a community with a shared future at the bilateral level. Mirziyoyev believed the meeting today is a follow up of “candid exchanges in Samarkand” and spoke highly of President Xi’s leadership.

As China and Kyrgyzstan met twice last year, Xi reiterated China-Kyrgyzstan relationship of 31 years, and said China is willing to build a China-Kyrgyzstan community with a shared future.

Japarov expressed his pleasure to meet President Xi in Xi'an and high expectation for the upcoming summit.

During his meet with Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov, Xi recalled Berdimuhamedov's successful state visit to China in January this year. President Xi said bilateral relationship will be elevated to a comprehensive strategic partnership.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday delivered a keynote address at the China-Central Asia Summit held in the city of Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

The summit, which runs from Thursday to Friday, was attended by Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

China and Central Asian countries have joined hands over the past decade to usher in a new era of their relations, Xi noted.

Xinhua News Agency: We noted a report titled “America’s Coercive Diplomacy and Its Harm” published by the Xinhua News Agency yesterday, which has been reposted on the website of the Foreign Ministry. On the same day, a senior US government official said that concerns would be expressed over what they call China’s “economic coercion” in the joint statement to be released by the G7. Do you have any comment?

Wang Wenbin: The US often accuses other countries of using great power status, coercive policies and economic coercion to pressure other countries into submission and engage in coercive diplomacy. This is how the US projects its own poor track record onto others. The fact is, the US is the very origin of coercive diplomacy. It is the US and the US alone who owns the copyrights of coercive diplomacy. Coercive diplomacy has now become an essential part of the US foreign policy toolbox. The US would resort to all kinds of political, economic, military, cultural or other types of measures as tools for coercive diplomacy to curb and bludgeon countries around the world for selfish interest. Victims to US coercive diplomacy are found across the world, with developing countries bearing the brunt of it.

By enacting the “CHIPS and Science Act”, the US government forbids semiconductor companies that receive federal financial aid from making substantive expansion in China,forces allies into imposing export restrictions on China and seeks to split up the global chips industrial and supply chains. The US uses state power to suppress China’s high-tech enterprises and even intimidates countries into not cooperating with Chinese 5G suppliers.

Not even US allies have been spared from such ruthless coercion. Companies such as Toshiba from Japan, Siemens from Germany and Alstom from France, are all its victims. If the G7 Summit is to discuss response to economic coercion, perhaps it should first discuss what the US has done to the other members of the group.

The report issued by Xinhua News Agency contains abundant facts and data that reveal the deplorable US record of coercive diplomacy on the world. It shows the world the hegemonic, domineering and bullying nature of US coercive diplomacy, and the serious damage it does to countries’ independence and development, to regional stability and to world peace. The report is worth a good read.

China has no taste for coercion and bullying. We have always taken a clear-cut stand against hegemony, unilateralism and coercive diplomacy. We urge the G7 to adapt to the prevailing trend of openness and inclusiveness in today’s world and stop carrying out coercive diplomacy or building small, exclusive circles. 

A massive protest erupted in South Korea's capital Seoul on Saturday against Japan's push for its controversial nuclear-contaminated water ocean discharge plan from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant despite intense international outcry.

10 years ago, the revealed NSA documents from Edward Snowden shocked the world. From PRISM to recent leaked Pentagon documents, US espionage activities continue to threaten global peace and stability. In this Z-Talk show, Yang Sheng will tell you what the US did and how it threatens world peace.

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad in his speech at the Arab League summit covered various topics reaffirming Syria's Arab belonging and the Arab League's anticipated role as an outlet for its members in the face of siege.

The US military arms and trains foreign fighters as "proxies" to wage "irregular warfare" against adversaries, and the Pentagon does not vet them to see if they have committed atrocities, according to documents obtained by the New York Times.

Two thousand years ago, silk merchants made Kashgar in southern Xinjiang a major hub on the trade route between Central Asia and Europe. Other than silk, one of the most popular products traded along what became known as the Silk Road was tea. Still today in the old city of Kashgar, teahouses are popular meeting places. It's common for the elderly locals to bring their own naan bread, buy a three-yuan pot of tea, and stay for many hours. An old man named Ubul is a daily visitor to his local teahouse, where chatting with people is a way of escaping his loneliness.

Chinese President Xi Jinping chaired the first China-Central Asia Summit and delivered a keynote speech themed "Working Together for a China-Central Asia Community with a Shared Future Featuring Mutual Assistance, Common Development, Universal Security, and Everlasting Friendship" in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, on Friday.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday delivered a keynote address at the China-Central Asia Summit held in the city of Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, and set out an eight-point proposal for China's cooperation with Central Asian countries.

The U.S. State Department released its annual International Religious Freedom Report on May 15, criticizing China on religious issues with biased summaries and unverifiable data. What's the real intention of the U.S.? Why does the country keep playing the old tricks of crying “wolf” while eating the sheep? In today's Reality Check, Einar Tangen, current affairs commentator, shares his views.

The Dũng sĩ diệt Mỹ was awarded to Vietnamese units and individuals that killed/wounded American forces, destroyed American vehicles, brought down American aircraft etc. during the Vietnam War.

During WWII, tens of thousands of European Jews, mainly Austrian and German, fled to Shanghai to escape the Nazis and seek refuge. They were welcomed and helped by the Chinese people who were themselves suffering from Japanese aggression.

Decades on, some of the descendants of Jewish refugees returned to Shanghai, the city that once warmed their hearts, to reminisce about the good old days in Shanghai and cherish the memories with their Chinese friends, who helped them during those difficult times.

South Africa excoriated Biden's ambassador for suggesting Pretoria was supplying arms to Russia. This comes as South Africa is set to host the next BRICS Summit in August where an alternative to the US dollar will be debated and introduced.

Welcome back everyone to our weekly tradition! Please take a seat, though not that seat that you are about to sit in that one is mine, and enjoy the discussion thread.

Matrix homeserver at genzedong.xyz. See this thread for information about our Matrix space.

Short reading list for new MLs here. To find theory, try z-lib, libgen, or Sci-Hub (for scientific articles). If an article is unavailable, try the Wayback Machine.

A number of posts have 50+ downvotes, what is happening again, didn't we solve this?

Hello everyone! I'm here to start an interesting theoretical debate, as the title states, how can we avoid the degeneration (not in the moral sense) of the worker's state and avoid capitalist restoration.

As we know, after Stalin's death, the Soviet Union went downhill. Starting with Khrushchev's opportunistic policies, such as the reform of the economic system, the bureaucratization through the nomenklatura and eventually the downfall of the union.

While I already knew about this, I didn't know that Stalin tried to prevent this, here I quote the work of Grover Furr, which I highly recommend reading:

To summarize, the evidence suggests that Stalin intended the new electoral system to accomplish the following goals: Make sure that only technically trained people led, in production and in Soviet society at large; Stop the degeneration of the Bolshevik Party, and return Party members, especially leaders, to their primary function: giving political and moral leadership, by example and persuasion, to the rest of society; Strengthen the Party's mass work; Win the support of the country's citizens behind the government; Create the basis for a classless, communist society.

Stalin wanted to achieve this through universal, direct, multipartyism, secret elections and removing the party's control over the economy of the union. Which would make the party useless for anything other than agitation and propaganda purposes.

I found this very interesting, the article from Grover Furr I mentioned earlier goes way more in depth, which again, I highly recommend reading.

Syria's reinstation to the Arab League (AL) will help the country strengthen its diplomatic voice while its return will also help Arab countries play a more important role in key regional affairs, especially in resolving the Syrian crisis, said Syrian analyst Kinan Yousef. Arab foreign ministers decided at an AL extraordinary meeting held in Cairo on Sunday to restore Syria's membership in the league after 12 years of suspension.

First it was the China-brokered Iran-Saudi Arabia detente, then came Syria's return to the Arab League. Are we entering "the Age of Great Detente" in the Middle East? The current reconciliation trend not only brings regional rivals closer together, but brings hope of a greater regional unity. Behind all this was also Chinese diplomacy at its finest.