"Even if Communist Party leaders want to unleash more spending, formidable obstacles stand in the way, including..."

"... a work force increasingly trapped in insecure, low-wage employment, a rapidly aging and shrinking population and a weak social safety net that encourages people to save for emergencies. China’s people, perhaps more than at any time in the last few decades, are in no mood to go out and splurge. Many have been airing growing anxiety online, posting about falling incomes and scarce jobs. The average income was just over $500 a month in 2025. Unemployment is high.... An estimated 200 million people, or at least one-quarter of China’s work force, are now engaged in insecure 'gig' employment — delivering meals or packages, driving ride-hailing cars, selling goods online or doing other short-term work.... Adding to worker insecurity is China’s household registration system, which restricts access to social services like schooling and health care outside one’s hometown. This effectively ensures that people from China’s vast countryside serve as cheap migrant labor for megacities like Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.... These are hardly a foundation for a vibrant consumer economy...."

Writes Anne Stevenson-Yang, author of 'Wild Ride: A Short History of the Opening and Closing of the Chinese Economy,' in "China’s Long-Promised Consumer Boom Is a Mirage" (NYT).

"People out there tweeting that this is destabilizing China may be wishing that were the case, but tweets are not reality. This is a shock China can absorb. It will end up in a stronger position on the other side."

Said Josh Freed, "head of climate and energy at Third Way, a center-left think tank."

"this" = the disruption of the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz.

Freed is quoted in "Why China could emerge a winner from Trump’s global energy shock/China’s evolution into an 'electrostate' may help insulate it from spiking oil prices" (WaPo)(gift link, so you can see the whole analysis).

The photo at the top of this article shows wind turbines in China, but China's plan has more to do with huge stockpiles of oil and the burning the abundant domestic coal.

Roughly one-third of China’s total energy consumption now comes from electricity, according to the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, 50 percent higher than the global average. More than a third of that electricity comes from solar, wind and hydropower....

So a third of a third of the energy — one ninth — comes from solar, wind and hydropower. I wonder how much comes from just solar and wind. Seems like hydropower is thrown in for more obfuscation. You can do your own research, but I think if you work it out you'll find that solar and wind amount to something like 7% of China's energy consumption. That's not much! They've been trying very hard for a long time and have a powerful incentive. 

"Nearly 48 hours since being appointed as the third supreme leader of the Islamic Republic in Iran’s history, Mojtaba Khamenei is nowhere to be seen."

I'm reading "Iran's new supreme leader is still nowhere to be seen" (CNN).

No video message has been put out from him addressing the crowds of supporters that have gone onto the streets across Iran to pledge their allegiance to him, nor has a written statement been issued by him or his office. State media has relied on archive footage to introduce him to the audience, and state propaganda networks have heavily relied on AI video and stills to create an image of an all-wise leader who rightly inherits the mantle of leadership.... But even as the leader remains hidden from sight, it seems the wider body politic is still functioning with little suggestion of a change in the war posture....

I wonder when, in human history, has the news of the death of a leader been suppressed so that people would believe that he was continuing to govern?

I haven't studied this question in great depth, but I have formed the opinion that the best story — the story to beat — is that of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China. As Wikipedia tells it:

"If you use chopsticks to pick up apple slices, begin the day with hot water and goji berries before meandering down to a nearby park for a dose of t’ai chi..."

"... there’s a chance that this is a 'very Chinese' time in your life. If you’re under 30, you won’t be the only one. One of the more unusual cultural trends to sweep Gen Z recently has been among TikTok users who share wellness tips typically associated with China.... Chinamaxxing, as the social media trend is known, is all the rage in the US...."

From "I taught America how to be Chinese, says 23-year-old TikTok star/Gen Z is mastering chopsticks and t’ai chi, thanks to Sherry Zhu from New Jersey" (London Times).

You can sample the TikToks of Sherry Zhu here. I'll embed 2 of them:

1. "You didn't know it, but you are Chinese."

"President Trump Gaggles with Press on Air Force One En Route Palm Beach, FL, Jan. 31, 2026."

I'm going to pick through the transcript and will update in about an hour. Meantime, you can pick over the text and pull out your favorite highlights

ADDED: From the YouTube transcript:

"At a mushroom hot pot restaurant there, the server set a timer for 15 minutes and warned us, 'Don't eat it until the timer goes off or you might see little people."

"It seems like very common knowledge in the culture there."

The quote is from Colin Domnauer, "a doctoral candidate in biology at the University of Utah and the Natural History Museum of Utah, who is studying L. asiatica," quoted in "'They saw them on their dishes when eating': The mushroom making people hallucinate dozens of tiny humans" (BBC).

Every year, doctors at a hospital in the Yunnan Province of China brace themselves for an influx of people with an unusual complaint. The patients come with a strikingly odd symptom: visions of pint-sized, elf-like figures – marching under doors, crawling up walls and clinging to furniture.... 

In a 1991 paper, two researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences described cases of people in Yunnan Province who had eaten a certain mushroom and experienced "lilliputian hallucinations" – the psychiatric term for the perception of tiny human, animal or fantasy figures....

[O]ther known psychedelic compounds also usually produce idiosyncratic trips that vary not only from person to person but also from one experience to the next within the same individual. With L. asiatica, though, "the perception of little people is very reliably and repeatedly reported", Domnauer says. "I don't know of anything else that produces such consistent hallucinations."

Do rats see little rats? 

Are there other substances that produce such specific hallucinations?

"China today is a country where many young people have no siblings. Because the one-child policy lasted so long, their parents also have no siblings..."

"... so they have no aunts, uncles, or cousins, either. That is complicating China’s war-planning efforts because the massive casualties required to invade Taiwan would mean many families lose their only child, who they’re counting on to take care of them in old age. Decades of sex-selective abortions have resulted in severe gender imbalances. Because there are tens of millions more men than women, dating or marriage — let alone procreation — is impossible for many. Intense pressure on the children who are born, plus child-raising costs that are among the highest in the world when adjusted for income, make the prospect of family life unattractive, even as loneliness eternally grates on the soul...."

From "China embraced population control. The damage may be irreversible. Despite the communist government’s efforts, women won’t have more children" by the Editorial Board of The Washington Post.

1. Taiwan has an even lower birth rate than China.

2. "loneliness eternally grates on the soul" — That was not a phrase I expected from the Editorial Board of The Washington Post.

3. I've seen so much social media touting the joy of a single life for women. There's a viral TikTok audio that begins with an ominous sounding warning of women about what will happen if they don't marry and continuing with a list of good things like having a clean, well-decorated house, peace and quiet, and the company of music, books, friends, and pets. And here are the WaPo editors anguishing over the solitude of the Chinese. Hmm.

4. I'm also surprised WaPo editors didn't try harder to align their language with the belief in the right to have abortions. These 2 sentences (not quoted above) jumped out at me: "Forced abortions and sterilizations, combined with fines and propaganda, snuffed out many millions of lives. Unborn girls were particularly victimized because of sex-selective abortions." 

"Does he think westerners are softer? 'Much, much! And getting weaker and weaker. We say in China it’s hard for three generations of a family to be wealthy.'"

"'Because the third, they don’t even know what money means. It’s automatically in their accounts. So people become … a designer.' He laughs. 'China became strong because people work hard with no holidays. Not just eight hours, but ten, twelve hours. That’s how they bring their children to your British schools, Cambridge and Oxford.' The West, he says, cannot take tuition fees from China and then moan when it tries to restrict academic freedom or complain about Chinese spying 'because you’ve become the underdog. You cannot compete with China, so you blame it.'"

From "Ai Weiwei: ‘You in the West can’t compete with China’/The dissident artist Ai Weiwei became a global icon when he was forced into exile by China. So how come the 68-year-old is defending the autocratic regime’s stance on Taiwan, censorship and global politics?" (London Times).

Shopping completely alone.

It is possible —  apparently — but you will need to be in China and, presumably, sacrifice your privacy for safety and convenience? And wouldn't most Americans sacrifice privacy for safety and convenience? I'll say, no, we won't, because we wouldn't believe that we'd get the promised safety and convenience. We'd just be giving up our privacy for not much of anything.

Midday napping — at work — in China.

It's all TikTok, so I'll put it below the fold:

"One possibility of what we get out of it is basically a spheres of influence kind of organization of the world..."

"... something we haven't really seen since the late 1800s. This is a world in which the United States dominates its own territory, that China dominates the Pacific, and that the Europeans dominate Europe — but if they don't get their act together, maybe Vladimir Putin dominates Europe.... I think this is where we see the America First doctrine becoming something closer to Americas First — Americas with an S — that he views the region as basically the subsidiary of the United States. And you know, I've traveled with President Trump. I've covered 5 American Presidents since I got back to Washington... and my takeaway is that Trump is really not an isolationist. He never has been. He's actually more of a unilateralist.... He wants the total freedom of action. He knows that he is not really interested in democracy promotion. He knows that he wants to prioritize economics and economic development over everything, even if those economics don't necessarily come with security benefits to the us.... [E]ach region of the world — and even our allies — are going to have to learn to depend on themselves.... I think the fundamental trust in the US as the defender of a certain set of concepts of the West has been shattered for some time...."

Says David Sanger in today's excellent episode of the NYT "Daily" podcast, "Trump’s Plan to Reorder the World."

AND: Here's the "National Security Strategy" document Sanger is discussing.

ADDED: There's some discussion of the Monroe Doctrine in that podcast, so

2 vertical panoramas of today's sunrise — one made by panning from low to high and the other from high to low.

First, look at the one where I began at the top, so that the iPhone sensed the light from a high spot in the sky:

That's the second shot I took, after I could see that beginning to pan from the bottom made everything too bright. So here's the first shot, which I've tinkered with a little to try to improve. I'm not happy about the rendering of the light and colors of the sunrise, but what's cool about it is that I discovered something that I had not seen at the time and that is not visible in the top-to-bottom panorama:

"At the level below the car deck, there is a glass sightseeing walkway. On top of one of the bridge towers there is a specialty coffeehouse...."

"... with panoramic views. The bridge has facilities for extreme sports such as bungee jumping and paragliding integrated by design..."

From the Wikipedia article for the Huajiang Canyon Bridge, the world's highest bridge, which just opened last August.

I remember the hoopla. Blogged it here. I remember a commenter saying the height is not impressive because it's measured from the bottom of a deep gorge.

I'm reading about the Huajiang Canyon Bridge today because — as Reuters reports — the a bridge has collapsed. Spectacular video:

CORRECTION: The bridge that collapsed was the Hongqi Bridge, which had no Wikipedia page. When searched for, the other bridge, Huajiang Canyon Bridge, showed up in the search. Sorry for assuming these were the same bridge!

I'm surprised at the NYT headline "U.S. and Chinese Officials Reach Framework of a Trade Deal."

The front page teaser under the headline on the home page is "Negotiators announced they had preliminarily agreed on several issues ahead of an expected meeting between President Trump and Xi Jinping this week."

So they say they've done something. Have they? And it's only "preliminary" and "on several issues." Is the headline supported? It got me excited, but then I felt a little conned. 

Anyway... I hope things go well.

"The authorities have punished two bloggers who advocated for a life of less work and less pressure; an influencer who said..."

"... that it made financial sense not to marry and have children; and a commentator known for bluntly observing that China still lags behind Western countries in terms of quality of life. These supposed cynics and skeptics, two of whom had tens of millions of followers, have had their accounts suspended or banned in recent weeks as China’s internet regulator conducts a new cleanup of Chinese social media.... 'In reality, we all experience fatigue and anxiety as a result of work and life, but these real emotions deserve respect and should not be deliberately amplified for traffic. The internet is not a dumping ground for negativity,' China’s state broadcaster CCTV said in an editorial about the campaign...."

From "Cheer Up, or Else: China Cracks Down on the Haters and Cynics/As China struggles with economic discontent, internet censors are silencing those who voice doubts about work, marriage, or simply sigh too loudly online" (NYT).

"[China's crackdown] demonstrates the concern among its leadership about the spread of malaise.... In recent years, some young people have opted out of the rat race in favor of a minimal life of 'lying flat' or given up on goals altogether and 'letting it rot.' The accounts of two bloggers known for promoting a minimal 'lying flat' lifestyle were blocked from adding followers late last month...."

"The blizzard struck on Friday evening, coinciding with China’s eight-day National Day holiday, a peak season for hiking and tourism in the area."

"Trekkers had flocked to the Karma Valley, a high-altitude trail at over 4,900 metres (16,000 feet) that leads to the Kangshung Face, Everest’s eastern approach, making rescue efforts particularly challenging."

From "Blizzard traps nearly 1,000 hikers on slopes of Mount Everest/Rescue effort under way for trekkers stranded on mountain following sudden snowstorm" (The Telegraph).

I read this headline out loud to Meade whose response exemplified what human minds can do that A.I. will never do. He said that Hillary Clinton should get herself in shape and climb Mount Everest. I knew where that came from and said we need to write a political satire in which Hillary Clinton, returning to her "Politics of Meaning" roots, gets in touch with the spirit of Sir Edmund Hillary, her (supposed) namesake, and trains to climb Mount Everest.

Normally, I would give this post my "unwritten books" tag and move on, ever onward and upward, but I yielded to the temptation to prompt Grok to outline the book.

"The Communist Party believes in building enormous projects to boost the economy and burnish political prestige."

Dan Wang, author of "Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future," quoted in "China set to open world’s tallest bridge, expanding infrastructure push The Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge can fit almost two Eiffel Towers under it and will be touted as evidence of China’s engineering prowess when it opens this month" (WaPo).

Last month, Premier Li Qiang stressed the need to “harness the exemplary and galvanizing role of megaprojects”....

Poor and inland provinces... have been the target of this effort as the central government has pushed a “strategic hinterland” strategy. Despite its isolation and relative poverty, Guizhou — roughly the size of Missouri — boasts an extensive infrastructure network, with 11 airports, tall bridges and new roads.

These megaprojects are “not bridges to nowhere,” [said Li Mingshui, a civil engineering professor at Southwest Jiaotong University in Chengdu]....

ADDED: Why is the unusual word "hinterland" used? It's a word I sometimes use but only jocosely. I call my own location (in Wisconsin) a "remote outpost" and l sometimes say things like "here in the hinterland." It's funny to me to see it in the bureaucratic, leadenly serious context. I know it's translation from Chinese, so that might explain the oddness of this usage.

I invited ChatGPT to engage with my observation, and it said:

"I make a mistake. I’m so sorry. It’s a culture thing. I don’t know. I don’t understand. I’m so sorry. I feel so bad right now. I’m so sorry, honey."

Said Winnie Greco, quoted in "Eric Adams Advisor Winnie Greco Handed a CITY Reporter Cash Stuffed in a Bag of Potato Chips/THE CITY reported the incident to law enforcement and was promptly contacted by the Brooklyn U.S. attorney’s office" (The City).

Greco's lawyer, Steven Brill, doubled down on the "culture thing" excuse: "I can see how this looks strange. But I assure you that Winnie’s intent was purely innocent. In the Chinese culture, money is often given to others in a gesture of friendship and gratitude. Winnie is apologetic and embarrassed by any negative impression or confusion this may have caused."

Is it Chinese culture to deliver money inside bags of potato chips?!

I understand there is a tradition in China of giving money in red envelopes, and, to be fair, in this case, there was a red envelope that contained the money inside the potato chip bag. Go to that link to see the nature of that tradition — who does it, when, how do they behave — and compare that to what Winnie Greco did. I'm sympathetic to serious arguments about cultural differences and genuine misunderstanding, but come on.

"The sculptures were meant to be provocative: 'Miss Mao' shows Mao as a topless woman with distorted, babyish features..."

"... while 'the execution of Christ' depicted a firing squad of life-size Mao statues aiming rifles at Jesus. But Gao denies they were defamatory.... Gao is accused of breaking a law that wasn’t even enacted until nearly a decade after these artworks were first exhibited. In 2018, China criminalized acts that 'distort, smear, desecrate' or otherwise 'damage the reputation and honor of heroes and martyrs.'... Gao, who is a Christian, maintains that his artwork was not intended to defame Mao but rather to explore, through cartoonish depictions of a symbolic figure, the concepts of original sin and repentance.... For [his wife] Zhao, who was not married to Gao when he made the statues, it makes no sense for authorities to claim her leaving with her child would 'endanger state security,' as officials claimed...."

From "Seven-year-old New Yorker stuck in China over father’s political art/Gao Jia, the American-born son of a well-known Chinese dissident artist, has missed first grade because his parents have been stopped from leaving China" (WaPo).

Your Saturday morning "authenticity" update.

1. "A Little League coach went viral for his dad joke on the mound. It taught a bigger lesson" (NYT) quotes Jake Riordan, a Little League coach in Kentucky: "I don’t really take anything in life too seriously. It’s like, it’s Little League baseball. But I think consistency when you’re a coach is pretty important. So I’m consistently loose and goofy, and they play that way. I think that one of the best things we can do as a coach or leader is just to be authentic — to be yourself. I think, believe it or not, kids or players of any age can see through the bull crap."

2. "Jeff Probst Reflects on ‘Survivor’s’ Resurgence After 2025 Emmy Nominations" (Entertainment Now): "While Probst has been open about his friendly rivalry with the other competition series hosts in the past, he argues that [Alan] Cumming and RuPaul 'take on a more performative role' for their respective shows. 'It’s not their true selves,' said Probst, referring to Cumming’s 'dandy Scottish laird' persona on 'The Traitors' and RuPaul’s extravagant drag transformation on 'Drag Race.' Alternatively, Probst said that the man viewers see on each and every episode of 'Survivor' is his authentic self. 'That’s me,' he said. 'The vulnerability is that I’m exposed and vulnerable in the same way that the players are because I don’t do do-overs.... '"

3. "Ding Yuxi’s Tear‑Filled Gaze Goes Viral, Highlighting Authenticity and Shifting Masculinity in Chinese Reality TV" (Trending on Weibo): "Actor Ding Yuxi – known to his growing legion of fans for his curly hair, gentle demeanor and the boy‑ish charm that has anchored his rise in dramas such as “十年一品温如言” – was caught on screen with what Chinese netizens have affectionately called “酒汪汪的大眼睛”, literally 'wine‑soaked big eyes'... a playful twist on the more common “水汪汪的大眼睛” (big watery eyes).... Fans celebrated the moment as a rare sign of authenticity in an industry often accused of presenting polished, pre‑packaged personas.... viewers reposted the clip with captions praising his 'authentic vulnerability,' while others dissected the scene, wondering whether the tear was spontaneous...."

4. TO COME! I SAID I'D DO 4. DO YOU DOUBT MY SINCERITY?