An excellent insightful commentary again by Arnaud Bertrand about China and what it’s peoples and culture represent.
@RnaudBertrand
15h

I always find it fascinating to read texts from the very first Jesuit missionaries who went to China during the 16th century. I found a few in this book 👇 I was reading last night.
First of all, this is from Saint Francis Xavier – who co-founded the Jesuit Order – in a 1552 letter he sent Saint Ignatius of Loyola (another founder of the Jesuits) from Shangchuan Island in contemporary Guangdong province:
“China is an immensely large country, populated by very intelligent people and numerous scholars… They are so devoted to knowledge that the most learned is the most noble.”
At the time China was probably the only country in the world with a meritocracy in place, where officials were selected based on their results to the imperial exams. This is a feature of China that comes back all the time in Jesuit writings and immensely impressed them.
And this is from a 1582 letter written by Matteo Ricci who ended up living 30 years in China and became the first man to translate the Chinese classics into Latin. He describes China as “the most important and richest thing in all the Orient, surpassing all other kingdoms. In certain aspects, it greatly resembles the wealth and perfection of our Europe, and in many ways, it surpasses it.”
Ricci lists 7 “points of excellence” of China:
1) “Among the discovered countries, it is the most peaceful and best governed”
2) “It is the largest state subject to a single king”
3) “It is the most populous nation […] with more than 60 million inhabitants paying taxes”
4) “There is no kingdom more fertile and better supplied. Although the Chinese are bigger eaters than Europeans, there is enough to satisfy them all at a very low cost”
5) “The public wealth is unmatched by any other kingdom: silver and gold mines are in abundance [..] the emperor’s revenues are greater for him alone than for all the kings and lords of Europe, and perhaps Africa combined”
6) “No region seems to equal it for freshness and peace, to such an extent that one might say it is a painted thing rather than a product of nature”
7) “The inhabitants are the most industrious in the world, even the blind and the lame earn their living, so one sees very few beggars”
Again quite a few striking similarities with the China of today: still the most populous nation (on par with India), still extremely peaceful (China hasn’t fired a single bullet abroad in 45 years), still has the world’s most industrious inhabitants with very few beggars, still a big emphasis on what Ricci calls “freshness and peace” by which he undoubtedly means what the Chinese refer to as “harmony”, etc.
The reason why those old writings are so fascinating is because you can really see the continuity and permanence of Chinese culture and governance style. And by contrast you can see how we ourselves change: the same features we used to be immensely impressed by 4-5 centuries ago, and which in many ways inspired us (for instance our own meritocracy is directly inspired from China’s), we today denigrate and bash endlessly.
For instance what Ricci calls “freshness and peace” – essentially “harmony” as an overarching value – we today call “violation of individual freedom” because by definition sometimes social harmony impedes on individual freedom.
Or, even more striking, China’s meritocratic governance system which today shares many of the same features as back then: officials in China are still selected based on exams and on officials’ performance in the job. Ricci and Saint Francis Xavier back then called it “the best governed country in the world”, impressed that “the most learned [were] the most noble”, but today the West calls it an “authoritarian dictatorship”…
This raises interesting questions, mainly on what changed so much in our value-system that we virulently denigrate today something that we used to be in awe of yesterday? And when you think about it a bit I’m personally convinced that deep down we can still see value in “the most learned [being] the most noble”, and in a society optimizing for harmony instead of freedom (if not for us but at least as something we can respect for others).
So I think fundamentally what’s changed is our capacity for cultural empathy and our willingness to appreciate governance models different from our own, rather than our opinion on the intrinsic qualities of the models themselves. In short, we’ve become arrogant and intolerant, probably due to 2-3 centuries of our domination of the planet which transformed us into peoples completely deaf to the virtues of any other culture or model than our own. Which is also thankfully the very reason why we can be hopeful about the future: as we get humbled with the rise of China and others, we’ll have no alternative than to relearn how to understand and appreciate true diversity (and not the very artificial ersatz of “diversity” that liberalism is trying to shove down our throats nowadays).
https://xcancel.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1819705372229177497#m
………………
Matteo Ricci was also the first westerner to write a book directly in Chinese, his Treatise on Friendship, a collection of sayings by western philosophers, theologians, etc… meant to reveal to a Chinese audience what he thought were common points of the two cultures.
Arnaud Bertrand
@RnaudBertrand
14h
Very true, and it was specifically on morality if I’m not mistaken, to highlight the commonalities between China and the West’s understanding of moral conduct.

Posted by: Fred | Aug 4 2024 3:45 utc | 303

Want to say thank you to b for providing this amazing forum, and glad to see that he is now coming back from what has been a major health crisis.

Posted by: Wisco | Aug 4 2024 4:19 utc | 305

The US Treasury threatens to cut off Indian banks working with Russia from the dollar.

The US Treasury Department has warned Indian banks that Washington could impose sanctions against them for dealing with the Russian defense industry. In an appeal sent to the Association of Indian Banks, the US financial department gives New Delhi 30 days.

https://en.topcor.ru/50148-ssha-prigrozili-bankam-indii-otrezat-ot-dollara.html

Posted by: Exile | Aug 4 2024 4:46 utc | 307

This is B’s Labour of love.
BUt health should trumps everything else.
Post only when you feel like it.
No worry

Posted by: denk | Aug 4 2024 5:05 utc | 309

Current headlines in the oz government woke trash rag.
“Imane Khelif clinches Paris Olympics medal in emotional scenes during women’s 66kg division quarterfinals” https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-04/paris-olympics-imane-khelif-clinches-medal-in-boxing/104181158
This is one sick empire. Sooner it collapses the better.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Aug 4 2024 7:55 utc | 311

Talking of base fascist western racist Narrative propagation, here is a simple example from our resident untrustable stinger that couldn’t help itself.talking Covid balls.
@ Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 3 2024 13:52 utc | 255
‘with its more authoritarian strong state structure, could relatively easily impose (really scary) draconian restrictions serving as an example for the rest of the world to follow. ‘
It’s called quarantine you moron. and it has been used forever, before Gates and Fauci and Pfizer’s fake vaxx monopoly’s as the sinecure was made available and dumb vaxx passports that didn’t stop infection meant that people voluntarily lined up to be jabbed with unproven snake oil.
Were Chinese forced to have vaxxes? why couldn’t we choose their versions?
The draconian bit happened here – with public announcements telling people to get off the streets and self isolate immediately!
With police wandering around in vans seemingly immune but harassing people everywhere even if sitting in the open on their own.
Oh and the great toilet roll hoarding scarey ruse that kicked it all off – starting in Australia hmm!
The worst being stopping relatives visiting hospitals and care homes where the majority of deaths happened amongs the neglected elderly , tortured by isolation and malnutrition and dehydration, abandoned – many died from such shock, they were classed as fake Covid deaths and disposed without proper medical examination and family funerals.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Aug 4 2024 9:38 utc | 313

@denk | Sun, 04 Aug 2024 04:27:00 GMT | 306

Para 1 is a summary of

A quote is meant to be verbatim.

Posted by: persiflo | Aug 4 2024 11:24 utc | 315

I’m not much into womens MMA, but in the US I’ve seen some videos where top women fighters take pretty bad beatings from homosexuals. Concussions,broken facial bones ect. Not good.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Aug 4 2024 11:57 utc | 317

Tommy Robinson (Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) and the English Defence League (English & Jewish Defence League) are supposedly Israeli state assets in UK, with the purpose of violently countering pro-Palestine rallies in Britain, according to this analyst.

What’s causing the Islamophobic riots across the UK, and why now?
1. The riots have been instigated by the Zionist asset Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (‘Tommy Robinson’), who has been working for the State of Israel since 2009 as part of the so-called ‘counterjihad’ Islamophobia movement established by that state. When his organisation, the English Defence League, was incorporated in 2011, two years after its inception, it was named the English & Jewish Defence League. The Jewish Defence League, a Zionist terrorist organisation, has been a key part of violent Islamophobic street thuggery in the UK over the past decade.
2. Yaxley-Lennon is one of the most high-profile actors in the State of Israel’s Online Influencers Programme in response to Operation Al-Aqsa Storm. He and others, like Oli London, Noa Tishby, Hen Mazzig, Arsen Ostrovsky and Emily Schrader (and many others) are paid to distribute Zionist propaganda, of which pushing back against pro-Palestine protests and sowing Islamophobia are two important and interlinked aims.
3. The recent Islamophobic riots in the UK should be seen as the latest phase of the State of Israel’s war on British Muslims, who it sees as originating the protest movement in the UK. These riots are designed to punish Muslims for their anti-Zionist sentiment after various other methods to suppress opposition to Zionism by the State of Israel have been thwarted. The State of Israel’s attempts to use its assets and operatives in the British political and media class — such as Suella Braverman and Michael Gove — to thwart pro-Palestinian protests have failed. Zionist counter-protests have failed to mobilise significant numbers. Sporadic Zionist thuggery and the use of other assets — such as Iranian secularist extremists — have also failed to intimidate Muslims. So now the State of Israel is weaponising its cannon fodder on the white nationalist far-right, who have greater numbers than either Zionist street thugs or Iranian monarchists and secularist extremists.
4. Finally, there are also questions about which actor authored the idea that Muslims were responsible for the ostensible triggers for these events. MI6 and its assets (eg Paul Mason) are desperately trying to pretend this was a Russian disinfo op. But the original stories did not come from Russia. Where did they come from?
https://x.com/Tracking_Power/status/1819696060941627553

Posted by: unimperator | Aug 4 2024 12:24 utc | 319

For BRI enthusiasts here’s a snippet
https://www.voanews.com/a/cambodia-to-hold-groundbreaking-ceremony-for-canal-despite-concerns-uncertainties/7728486.htm
Cambodia builds a cabal to linking the Mekong to Angkor river allowing trade and shorter routes. I note the concern over military use but its 5metre deep so don’t be expecting china to be sailing warships up this canal. Something the west hopes you won’t read to dispel their bad china story

Posted by: Hankster | Aug 4 2024 13:07 utc | 321

Hankster | Aug 4 2024 13:07 utc | 320
River systems and gunboat diplomacy are to an extent bygone days. Cambodia and China have a good/friendly relationship.
A feww years back there was howls of rage from the usual suspects when Cambodia bulldozed the near new naval headquarters Australian aids had built for them. China this China that but they were just pissed the ASIO impregnated prefab being dozed left them without a fly in the wall so to speak.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Aug 4 2024 13:23 utc | 323

A tale of two Olympics.
Can the real genocide Olympics please stand up ?

No corner of the globe has been untouched by the lust for wealth and profits of the British Empire, the British capitalists, or the plundering monarchs who preceded them. Their human rights violations have gone on for centuries.
Let us not forget the infamous “Opium War,” when Britain declared war against China for refusing to accept the importation of narcotics.
British settlers throughout Africa colonized, exploited and killed millions of people, indisputably. It was Britain that once colonized Zimbabwe, calling it “Rhodesia” after a brutal imperialist thug named Cecil Rhodes. The revolution led by Robert Mugabe kicked the British out, and they have not forgiven Zimbabwe, especially as it redistributes stolen land back to the people.
It was against Britain that the people of India fought for independence, only to face brutal repression. It was Britain that issued the Balfour Declaration, allowing the earliest settlements on Palestinian land, and paving the way for decades of Zionist terror, war and apartheid against the Palestinian people.
British troops currently occupy the North of Ireland, with a record of torture and murder there that is miles long.

https://tinyurl.com/kzsnxt4a

Posted by: denk | Aug 4 2024 15:00 utc | 325

@ unimperator | Aug 4 2024 12:24 utc | 319
roger shared a similar post on that on the palestine thread.. it is very interesting what is coming out from professor miller… thanks for repeating it here..

Posted by: james | Aug 4 2024 15:04 utc | 327

Peter don’t confuse the current Collective Wastes attempt at cultural woke propaganda to make real Borrell’s impossible ‘Garden’ diversion from the centuries long imperialism, genocide and enslavement of natives, colonisation with non-native species and err …’ethnics’…..plunder of resources …
….don’t confuse that, with the genuine HUMAN endeavours and competition of sport.
The hundred meters was settled by 1/50,000 of a second!
An impossible measurement before video technology.
There are limits to such human capabilities.
The swimmers can get faster – the collective Wasters have their knickers in a twist because their own supposed ‘gammon’ sport has been bettered by the non-gammon Chinese.
Who a few years ago were being mocked for their inability to swim in the sea and the swimming pools of hotels even!
(I was guilty of that too based on seeing that with my own eyes)
It’s not the punters, the masses who have any problem with such things. It is the elites who control most of these ‘sports’ – they who think swimming, rowing and horse riding equestrian ‘sports’ are dominated by the Gammons that they pretend to be.
Well imagine how they are going to feel when the Chinese other Asians and Africans with disposable incomes end up dominating all these sports too!

Posted by: DunGroanin | Aug 6 2024 9:21 utc | 329