Tuesday, December 22, 2020

‘People’s Union of America’: China artist’s eerie image of future goes viral

‘You will own nothing, and you will be happy’: Warnings of ‘Orwellian’ Great Reset Sky News


If I asked you, what was the bloodiest civil war in history, what would you answer? 

The American Civil War comes immediately to mind but it isn't even close.

As many as 750,000 Americans died between 1861 and 1865 in the conflict between northern and southern states.

But a decade earlier, a civil war in China left between 20 and 30 million people dead.

The Taiping Rebellion ranks among the worst conflicts in human history.

There is so much to learn about China and these books are a good start


An eerie image from a prominent Chinese artist showing a futuristic Communist Party controlled New York is going viral amid rising nationalism and widespread belief that the Asian superpower is on course to power past its Western rival.

It is one of a series of digital illustrations by artist Fan Wennan showing how the world may look in 2098 if the world turns its back on the United States.

It shows tourists wandering through Manhattan with buildings draped in the hammer-and-sickle flags of the “People’s Union of America”.


The World’s Most Important Body of Water The Atlantic


Competition With China Could Be Short and Sharp Foreign Affairs


China’s Military Actions Against Taiwan in 2021: What to Expect The Diplomat


Coronavirus: China to complete vaccination of high-risk workers by February, health official says South China Morning Post


And ore Reuters. Boo


The Emergence of Labor Unions from Within Hong Kong’s Protest Movement The Asia-Pacific Journal


Neolithic China Patrick Wyman, Perspectives


One retired Chinese general said in a recent lecture that the United States was now a “defeated power” in the “fight against the pandemic”.

“In this fight against the pandemic, there will be victorious powers and defeated ones,” said Wang Xiangsui, a retired Chinese senior Colonel who teaches at a university in Beijing. “We’re a victor power, while the United States is still mired and, I think, may well become a defeated power.”

Li Jianqiu, a businessman and online commentator, told the Times that China has gained the “psychological edge” over America over the course of the pandemic.


‘People’s Union of America’: China artist’s eerie image of future goes viral


Gizmodo - U.S. Schools Are Buying Phone-Hacking Tech That the FBI Uses to Investigate Terrorists: “In May 2016, a student enrolled in a high-school in Shelbyville, Texas, consented to having his phone searched by one of the district’s school resource officers. Looking for evidence of a romantic relationship between the student and a teacher, the officer plugged the phone into a Cellebrite UFED to recover deleted messages from the phone. According to the arrest affidavit, investigators discovered the student and teacher frequently messaged each other, “I love you.” Two days later, the teacher was booked into the county jail for sexual assault of a child. The Cellebrite used to gather evidence in that case was owned and operated by the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office. But these invasive phone-cracking tools are not only being purchased by police departments. Public documents reviewed by Gizmodo indicate that school districts have been quietly purchasing these surveillance tools of their own for years…


While companies like Cellebrite have partnered with federal and local police for years, that the controversial equipment is also available for school district employees to search students’ personal devices has gone relatively unnoticed—and serves as a frightening reminder of how technology originally developed for use by the military or intelligence services, ranging from blast-armored trucks designed for use in war zones to invasive surveillance tools, keeps trickling down to domestic police and even the institutions where our kids go to learn