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The CCP is pushing for retired cadres (party workers/ government officials) and other retirees to return to their villages in the countryside to settle down. This is to ostensibly to bring up the quality of life in rural China. I think this is more to get the oldsters out of the cities to ease pressure on housing. The CCP also doesn't want the younger workers seeing what a tough time retirees have with the CCP not doing anything to help. The CCP can't have young people thinking, "If they don't care about retirees now then they aren't going to care about me when I retire. Hell, they probably don't care about me now." The last bit is true but the CCP can't having people think that way. This thinking causes large numbers of young people to get together and go on Long Marches together.
This next item is new to me. I am seeing reports that Chinese university students abroad are being targeted by Myanmar (Burma) human traffickers. They are lured to Singapore and/or Myanmar and are then held for ransom. It the meantime they are put to work manning phone scam banks in rural compounds. These phone scams do NOT just target Chinese. Those who refuse or try to escape are beaten badly. If they make enough trouble they are turned over for organ harvesting. These fraud rings are run by Chinese with Burmese involvement being limited to renting out the compounds.
My last item is that on Aug 22, Paul Krugman published an article in the New York Times that says that China is teetering on the brink but that the crash will not affect the US very much. I'm not sure I like having Paul Krugman confirm what I have been saying. He is so often wrong. I guess that a blind pig will occasionally find an acorn.
WWG1WGA
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
