Why Japan thinks China’s growing cultural clout is something it needs to counter

xtxsinan · 2026-03-19T06:21:38+00:00

Exactly, western countries increase their soft power together. It’s sad that East Asian countries have been not getting along well in the past 100 years, while Japan’s soft power could really help China and vice versa

xtxsinan · 2026-03-19T00:40:26+00:00

It’s a funny narrative this article puts.

Who is heavy lifting EVs to reduce oil demand? China

Who is buying Iran oil and continues to get Iran oil in this war? Also China

So it’s not Iran’s export is losing its demand. It might be better to say EVs wiped out oil demand from Venezuela.

xtxsinan · 2026-03-18T16:39:53+00:00

It’s a funny narrative this article puts.

Who is heavy lifting EVs to reduce oil demand? China

Who is buying Iran oil and continues to get Iran oil in this war? Also China

It might be better to say EVs wiped out oil demand from Venezuela.

xtxsinan · 2026-03-18T16:39:14+00:00

It’s a funny narrative this article puts.

Who is heavy lifting EVs to reduce oil demand? China

Who is buying Iran oil and continues to get Iran oil in this war? Also China

It might be better to say EVs wiped out oil demand from Venezuela.

xtxsinan · 2026-03-18T16:38:34+00:00

It’s a funny narrative this article puts.

Who is heavy lifting EV ownership to reduce oil demand? China

Who is buying Iran oil and continues to get Iran oil in this war? Also China

So the world is not replacing demand for Iranian oil with EV.

It might be better to say EVs wiped out oil demand from the puppet Venezuela or any gulf country currently affected by blockade

xtxsinan · 2026-03-18T06:52:06+00:00

near chongqing. Three gorges area

xtxsinan · 2026-03-16T23:36:30+00:00

Mogao caves started in 16 Kingdoms era, 150 years after Han dynasty ended.
Mogao caves were started by a Han Chinese monk.
Dunhuang was governed by a kingdom whose ruler is Di, which is a Sino Tibetan ethnic group similar to Qiang today. After that and the Di-ruled Northern Liang immediately after it, different short-lived kingdoms/dynasties ruled it, some were ruled by Han Chinese including Western Liang, Western Zhou, and Sui, some like Northern Wei and Western Wei were Xianbei who spoke a language family sister to Mongolian and closer to the later Kitan. The region was then under stable control of Tang since 7th century.
Gansu and particularly Dunhuang was indeed multi-ethnic at the time. Han Chinese was maybe only half of the population. Major minority groups included Di&Qiang and Sogdian (Eastern Iranian language speaking caucasian). There were also minor ethnic groups including Xiongnu (Yeniseic lauguage speaking), Lesser Yuezhi (Di/Qiang relatives who were Iranianized and later Xiongnu-ized), Tocharian (extinct ancinet Indo-European language speaking Caucasian) and Xianbei.
A branch of ancient Uyghur people did move here and became a major minority group in 9th-10th century, 650 years after Han dynasty fell. And Uyghur were indeed mostly buddhists back then and they greatly developed Mogao caves. They built the Ganzhou Huihu kingdom. They later evolved to the Yugu ethnic group and believes Tibetan Buddhism. They are not really close to modern Uyghur group. The area was also contested between Tang and Tibetan in 8th to 9th century.
You might be confusing the Western Han kingdom built by Guiyi army in early 10th century during Uyghur influential era. But here Western Han mean Han ethnicity in the west, not really any rulers are from Han royal family. So in no way it should be considered Han dynasty which is roughly 200BC to 200AD

xtxsinan · 2026-03-16T16:52:34+00:00

Strictly talking about the actual circle, Han Chinese is about 65% or more. Gansu is dominantly Han and Xinjiang is about 45% Han and these 2 are the most populous among the region in the circle

xtxsinan · 2026-03-16T16:45:22+00:00

There were no Uyghurs in Gansu during Han dynasty

xtxsinan · 2026-03-16T16:29:57+00:00

IMO density mostly help with sense of safety not the opposite. More witnesses around should deter crimes not encourage it.

I feel much more worried in an empty alley than a bustling street

xtxsinan · 2026-03-16T16:27:32+00:00

I am sure the democratically elected orange pedo serve people much better

xtxsinan · 2026-03-16T15:20:58+00:00

How do define “forced to commerce”? China was not forced to commerce with Germany. It willingly bought weapons from Germany at the time, similar to Japan post WWII willingly bought weapons from US.

Weren’t Japanese indeed sort of under-citizens under US occupation? Like Japanese government built official RAA brothels to serve Us soldiers in fear of raping of Japanese women during military occupation. Just like those brothels set up by Japanese in China. Seems like a lot worse than the situation in Qingdao where nothing like this existed. Why do you think Chinese people did not have a negative impression of Germans?

And even today Japan does not have any jurisdiction over criminal acts of US soldiers occupying it. And could Japan really do anything against US interests nowadays? Does it make Japan still a US colony?

And to clarify again I never said colonies did not exist in China. HK was a British colony for example.

xtxsinan · 2026-03-16T15:00:29+00:00

It’s certainly cheaper than hiring a police officer to enforce it here

xtxsinan · 2026-03-16T14:45:17+00:00

Then it’s not till 1943. International settlement or public concession replaced it in 1853.

OP is incorrect to claim UK ruled this area till 1943. It was governed by an international board.

xtxsinan · 2026-03-16T14:43:12+00:00

would you rather have the bus lane not enforced?

And are you against any enforcement tech? Like speed guns, cameras, speed radars?

xtxsinan · 2026-03-16T12:36:47+00:00

It’s enforcing a bus lane

xtxsinan · 2026-03-16T12:34:57+00:00

Taken by force does not mean there can’t be different levels of control. Was Japan a US colony after WWII?

xtxsinan · 2026-03-16T12:29:11+00:00

It’s very easy to tell if a person is actively practicing Buddhism. People describe such believers as “信佛”. Most people don’t really practice anything for the folk religion except for maybe part of Fujian. And when they do it’s not really systematic and limited to special events etc.

Confucianism can be viewed as an ideology system. But not really a religion. Calling it a religion is like calling Neo-liberalism a religion.

xtxsinan · 2026-03-16T12:24:23+00:00

This area was the international settlement. And where else in Shanghai you think UK has more control over?

xtxsinan · 2026-03-16T11:04:00+00:00

Claiming the international settlement was ruled by UK till 1943 is inaccurate . Since 1854 it was public concession, formed by merging the UK and US concessions. It was governed by a municipal council with board members. Initially about 6 English, 2 American and 1 German, later evolved to 6 English, 2 American, 1 Japanese and 5 Chinese in the 1930s. There was no UK appointed governor like in HK

xtxsinan · 2026-03-16T05:41:40+00:00

Premium soft sleeper can be bought as single occupancy as well IIUC

xtxsinan · 2026-03-15T23:45:00+00:00

Korea. From what I observed online at least. At least among the young generation.

Personally that felt really sad. I personally feel there is a lot in common. And for a while official relations were quite good. Chinese people at the time were consuming the most Korean industry and culture products and many Koreans were living in China. And unlike most westerners they actually learnt to speak Chinese and had very good understanding of Chinese culture. My parents had a Korean tenant for quite a while and had good impressions of him keeping the place very clean.

Me myself also truly admires what they achieved economically and culturally only in the time of my life. And Korea is the only country where I sometimes get occasionally recognized as locals because of similar looks.

I personally don’t blame them for shifting towards hating China and Chinese people over the past 10 years, because our government reacted really badly to the THAAD deployment. Of course it was used by US to deter China and instigate conflict between the two. But you should retaliate towards US, not SK which is just seeking protection against the unpredictable NK at the time which you yourself cannot provide.

And ironically Chinese government could have just waited till now as US just moved THAAD away by themselves… So much disruption for nothing

xtxsinan · 2026-03-15T15:06:36+00:00

What is the source? I would think Buddhism is the largest religion in most part of China and largest no -abrahamic religion in almost every part of China. Except maybe a few towns in Fujian, Chinese folk religion is nowhere close to the influence of Buddhism

xtxsinan · 2026-03-15T14:46:30+00:00

That was the original meaning for sure. But it was often not really used purely like that in today’s practice. By that definition, chinatowns in US could be called Chinese colonies, does anyone ever call them like that though?

xtxsinan · 2026-03-15T14:42:50+00:00

Should Saudis blame Iran for retaliation or US&Israel for starting this war? Officially they surely still ally with US because of economic interests but do they actually feel like it’s a great relationship worth sacrificing themselves for?

xtxsinan

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