What do you think of Xi’s visit to Putin on March 20-22?
Putin was just indicted by the ICC court and an arrest warrant was issued on him for the war crime he conducted in Ukraine. Yet, Xi went to Moscow to have photo ops with a war criminal. Upon departure, a video by BBC caught Xi saying: “This is truly part of a change of one hundred years. Let’s make it happen together.”
Yes, in my view, they are two criminals conspiring for more crimes against humanity.
Meanwhile, Fumio Kishida, prime minister of Japan, visited Ukraine on a secret trip and met Zelensky. When the news came out, a Chinese Twitter user commented:
Do you ever remember? In my grandparents’ generation, Japan was considered an aggressor, and it was only natural for China to defend its territory.
Now Fumio Kishida visited Ukraine to speak out for democratic justice; on the same day Xi Jinping visited Russia to stand on the side of the invading war criminals.
A hundred years of changes, the sea has been turned over. Sigh!
Meanwhile, Xi, boosted by his recent “diplomatic success” (mending the relation between Saudi Arabia and Iran) and his rising power over Russia, is launching a Central Asia summit. One take summarizes the dynamics in the region:
This tracks with what we’re seeing come out of Xi’s recent sit-down with Putin. The PRC is taking the role of the senior member in that relationship and moving to reorient former soviet satellites in central Asia towards Beijing.
While in Moscow, massive order of KFC were spotted outside Xi Jinping’s hotel in Moscow .
Program Think is the internet name of a Chinese programmer who started writing blog articles on program-think.blogspot.com since 2009. He claimed to be a computer programmer; at the beginning he mainly wrote articles related to computer technology. Soon, he started writing political articles. He shared techniques to escape surveillance online, how to use VPN to get out of the great firewall, and criticism of the Chinese political system. He also wrote about psychology, sociology, and history. Up to May 2021, he has written and published 712 blog articles, according to the Wikipedia entry on him (in Chinese).
Over the years, the blog has influenced and helped many people inside China, not just by opening their minds on Chinese politics, but also by gaining technical skills to evade censorship. As a result, the website has sustained various cyber attacks. But the blog stood firm and gained the admiration of many followers.
Until May 9th 2021, the last day a blog was posted.
Days later, Program Think’s follower realized that he has not updated for 14 days, which means he was gone, because, in the past, he has told the public, he will always post something within 14 days, if not, he is gone. The only possible causes for his disappearance on the internet would be: severe personal harm or loss of freedom, he claimed.
Because no one knew his identity, no one could reach his family or offer any help. In July 2021, some pinkie organization in China announced that after months of human flesh search engine (the Chinese version of doxxing), they found him and handed over the information to the government. They celebrated the arrest of Program Think. But many doubted it. For almost two years, no one knows what happened to Program Think.
Until this March 21st, a Weixin screenshot (likely from his wife) was spread on Twitter, revealing that Program Think is a 46 years old man named Ruan Xuanhuan, a former IT executive. His most notable position was Chief Engineer for the 2008 Olympic Games information security. He was arrested on May 10th, 2021. He was trialed in Feb. 2023, and sentenced to seven years of prison on charge of “conspiring to overthrow the government”. The reason the wife came forward is that she is being harassed by public security officers in her neighbourhood. She was writing to her neighbours asking for help, and then, she found a way to make this plead for help appear on Twitter.
Many commented that Program Think has impeccable techniques to protect himself from being detected. What made him vulnerable is a post he made before 2009 that linked him to his real identity.
If you can read Chinese and are curious about his recent work, here is a blog post from March 2021, titled “Weekly Share: Xinjiang cotton - from “human rights controversy” to “diplomatic confrontation” (more than 30 foreign media reports).
He also created and updated a document on the most powerful political group in China and their family members (aka the Princelings) on Github.
In an early newsletter, we reported that Winnie the Pooh is an internet meme for Xi Jinping and he did not really like it. South Park has made fun of it. China has banned the cartoon character on social media.
So, it is not surprising that the new horror movie “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey” can never be shown in China.
But Hong Kong and Macau have scheduled to show the movie from March 23rd.
Then, the censorship woke up. Holy Xi, the movie can not exist! So the movie was called off in all the cinemas in Hong Kong and Macau:
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, written and directed by British filmmaker Rhys Frake-Waterfield, has become something of an internet sensation, exceeding all expectations with releases across Latin America and Asia. It was scheduled to start screening at more than 30 cinemas in Hong Kong and Macau on Thursday, but the distributor said all showings have been called off.
From NPR: “Why a horror film starring Winnie the Pooh has run into trouble in Hong Kong”. It is a fun read. And maybe I will see the movie.