Does it have a diamond inlay?

What was the cost per kilometre of the high-speed rail to Shenzhen? HK$2 billion? I guess this is a bargain in comparison. Still, the government somehow spends HK$450,000 widening a short stretch of sidewalk in order to accommodate photo-taking Mainland tourists. Meanwhile, Hong Kong residents elsewhere in the city have to put up with inadequate pedestrian space so a few Alphard owners can store their mobile living rooms wherever they want…

[Local driver] Wong told HKFP that he had seen police vehicles patrolling the street, but officers did not do much to stop tourists from standing on roads to take photos.

“The government is all about boosting tourism now, so [the tourists] can do whatever they want,” Wong said in Cantonese.

With the Trump administration disrupting the US’s H1-B visas for skilled workers, China launches its own, only to prompt fierce anti-migrant sentiment online from young people experiencing a 19% unemployment rate…

“Amidst a backdrop of some countries tightening borders and sidelining international talent, China has astutely seized this important opportunity and promptly enacted policies that will undoubtedly have a profound impact on our future development,” the [People’s Daily] editorial said.

“However, some people have misinterpreted and misunderstood the policy, spreading bizarre theories that mislead the public and create unnecessary anxiety.”

(Problem discussed by East Asia Forum – ‘Unofficial estimates put the true youth unemployment rate as high as 46.5 per cent’.)

China Media Project on Beijing’s latest attempt to make the social-media environment a haven of positive energy…

On September 22, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) announced its latest “Clear and Clean” (清朗) campaign—this time targeting the “malicious incitement of negative emotions” (恶意挑动负面情绪) across social media, short video, and livestreaming platforms. The two-month campaign promises to crack down on everything from “group antagonism” to “excessive rendering of pessimistic emotions.”

An American Enterprise Institute article on ‘Taco Don’ and China…

Although President Trump has been accused of “always chickening out,” he has not shied away from applying pressure on countries ranging from Iran to Venezuela. In recent months, however, Trump has consistently chickened out with one country: China. Since the late spring, Trump has made concession after concession to Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping and gotten little to nothing in return.

The switch to concessions was triggered by President Trump’s climb-down on his favorite economic tool: tariffs. Trump started his second term with a series of tariff escalations against China. By mid-spring, however, he had largely backed down in exchange for . . . nothing. Beijing merely lowered its tariffs to where they had been previously. Grand words from the US about opening the Chinese market have been revealed as nonsense. 

Instead, the US has turned dovish. With import tariffs and market access capped by Chinese resistance, Trump switched to trying to cut the trade deficit by giving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) what it wants: American technology. This is not a new attitude for the President. In his first term, he dismissed national security as an unacceptable “excuse” for blocking exports to the PRC.                                                                                                    

…Joe Biden once said “all politics is personal.” This certainly seems to describe Trump’s captivation by Xi. He noted, “Think of President Xi: central casting, a brilliant guy… he runs 1.4 billion people with an iron first. Smart, brilliant, everything perfect.” 

Back home, where China’s questionably managed economy and continued political purges raise doubts about his choices, Xi does not seem as smart as he does to Trump. When it comes to US-China relations, however, Trump is making Xi look brilliant.

A lengthy Boston Review of Books interview with Geremie Barmé on his ‘New Sinology’…

…judging from the past, Beijing is likely to be particularly interested in supporting and gatekeeping a kind of Chinese Studies that is, to use their loaded terms, “correct” 正確, “objective” 客觀 and “scientific” 科學. Those familiar with party parole, not to mention party-state practice, will readily appreciate the gloomy significance of such language for it mitigates against pluralism, healthy debate and enlivening differences of opinion.

…China’s “velvet prison” is now built out a well-funded cultural and arts scene that is au fait with the latest international fashions and technical achievements; an academic world that was long ago brought to heel and sated on official largesse; a publishing world that polices itself (with the help of tireless editors and alert readers); a boisterous online realm kept in line by 24/7 vigilance and vigilantes; and a cadre of cultural creators and online influencers, both Chinese and foreign, who have internalised China’s mature regime of self-censorship…

…Under what I call the Empire of Tedium of Xi Jinping (2013-), which in many ways is a kind of “restoration” within the Chinese system, and its harder-line surveillance socialism, I often feel that Soviet-era Russian dissidents are more of a touchstone … Under Xi, the soft dissent of the Eastern Bloc is easily corralled or crushed by a state that delights in mass cultural performance, is the enemy of civil society and pursues its obsession with wealth, power and global influence