A video produced by VOA in which a businessman from Taiwan describes working in China got 400k+ views on Twitter. It is a window into China business world so I am translating most of it. And he calls our dear supreme leader the Emperor!
Since last year, there are many power cuts in China. They cut the power whenever they want. Often they would cut power for three or four days in a single week. It did not matter how the economy was going. They did not care if your factory could run. If they want to cut the power today, they will cut it. In the morning they inform you they will cut the power, and then, the power is cut.
That’s when I decided to leave China. The Shanghai lockdown this year made it clear that the CCP will do anything to keep stability. The entire economy of China is frozen all of a sudden. But they did not care: because this impacts you, the people. But it had nothing to do with the government. Xi Jinping wants to keep stability because he wanted to be the Emperor. He will become the Emperor at the 20th party congress.
I am 60 years old. My name is Liao Jinzhang. I have worked in China for 25 years. I used to work on the production of sports shoes. I also ran a chemical factory. I moved back to Taiwan in April this year.
I regret moving to China. In fact, since COVID started, business in China has been bad. During the first one or two years after COVID, business was not bad. Why? Because China’s competitors in South-Eat Asia had no production capacity. So lots of orders had to come back to China. It got worse since last year. There were power shortage. If they cut power whenever they want, how does the factory run?
Since March this year, they started lockdowns. Since the lockdowns, I feel that this government is beyond redemption. Because all industries have been in such bad shape, there is no way they can recover. It is like they stomped on the economy and broke it. How can you reassemble it? It was completely smashed by Xi Jinping.
Now, customers have moved their purchase to other factories in South-East Asia. No one dares to purchase in China. Because there are a lot of risks. First, the usual business risk. Second, the risk in the communist system. Third, there is risk with the fool. What is the risk with the fool? Xi Jinping, today he locks downs the city, tomorrow he cuts the power. This risk can not be controlled. Because you have no idea what this fool will do tomorrow. The future will be “Collapse”.
They are talking about hard landing vs soft landing. There is no landing. It is crashing. As far as I know, my Taiwanese friends has no more than 20% of business in Mainland. This time, the fall is very complete. Of course they will tell you that the second half of the year will be better. Let me tell you: no way.
Many people think that when Taiwanese businessman move their business to China, they surrendered to the CCP. Nonsense. Back then (in the mid 90s), the cost of hiring one worker in Taiwan can get you 50 workers. This huge difference would kill me if my competitors moved mainland and I did not. my competitors’ prices would be so much cheaper than mine. There was a popular saying: You go to China to look for death, you stay in Taiwan to wait for death.
It was not that we looked forward to China, it was either you followed the trend to move the factory to China or your factory in Taiwan was done.
I really know the CCP well now. I understood how this system harms its people. There is no way the CCP can be changed. The only thing they listen to is the fist. If your fist is bigger than theirs, they will listen to you. I want to warn all the countries in the world, appeasement is of no use when you deal with CCP.
In China, the smarter and the more clear-eyed you are, the more painful it is. Because you know everything the CCP does is only motivated by one thing: to stay longer in power. It never cared an ounce about the people. But CCP will tell you that they are serving the people. And 95% of the people believe it. So if you see through it, you will feel acute pain, because you are living in a big lie.
For ordinary folks outside China, if they do not care about politics, they do not see the situation. They think the same way as many Chineses. CCP is so good for the people, this is the best time of China. Lots of people are brainwashed.
Mr. Liao got invited for tea by the police in China four times. His Wechat account was closed many times. Once back in Taiwan, he became very active on Twitter and YouTube. He also got many threats. But he said he was not scared. For the future generation, he thinks he needs to speak up.
You can read a news report on the power cuts he referred to here: China’s growing electricity crisis : Scores of Chinese homes are in the dark and in just a fortnight coal reserves could run out. It’s proving to be a very dangerous problem for leader Xi Jinping..
Many people are worried that Cultural Revolution 2.0 has started. One example is this video of Loyalty Dance. This dance was performed everywhere during cultural revolution. The lyrics goes:
Sailing the Seas Depends on the Helmsman
Life and growth depends on the sun.
Rain and dewdrops nourish the crops,
Making revolution depends on Mao Zedong Thought.
Fish can’t leave the water,
Nor melons leave the vines.
The revolutionary masses can’t do without the Communist Party.
Mao Zedong Thought is the sun that forever shines.
Right now, it is not just people in western suits and high heels who are dancing it (some speculated that they are bank employees), school pupils are also dancing it.
My dear friends, this is where China is heading. I am the generation who was lucky enough to read novels when I was a teenager about the sufferings of young people during cultural revolution. I have to say, this is a nightmare for all the young people in China now.
YouTube has a lot of versions of ‘Sailing the Seas Depends on the Helmsman’, here is one or two to give you an idea of what it evokes.
Meanwhile, Golmud (格尔木)a town of 200k people in Qinghai province in China has been in lockdown for 50 days and people somehow just found out. People are stuck at home with no supplies and no income. If they dare to go onto Weibo to complain, the police will come and visit them. Still, some complaints got noticed.
Lhasa lockdown got reported by Bloomberg: COVID Zero Takes ‘Extreme’ Toll in 50-Day Lhasa Lockdown:
Lhasa is nearing 50th day of lockdown after virus outbreak
At least five people have died by suicide, rights group says