blinded, poked, plucked and jabbed:
20 Nov: Hong Kong: ‘Five Eyes could be blinded,’ China warns West
China has strongly rebuked the UK, the US, Australia, New Zealand and Canada after being accused of a concerted effort to silence critics in Hong Kong.
The countries, which form the Five Eyes alliance, criticised China’s imposition of new rules to disqualify elected legislators in Hong Kong.
They urged Beijing to reverse course.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman responded that if countries “dared harm China’s sovereignty, they should beware that their eyes could be blinded”.
“The Chinese never stir trouble , but they aren’t afraid of trouble either,” Zhao Lijian told journalists in Beijing on Thursday, saying it did not “matter if they had five or 10 eyes”...
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-54995227
20 Nov: Sydney Morning Herald: China threatens to ‘poke the eyes’ of Five Eyes nations over HK
By Eryk Bagshaw
While Australia has been singled out for economic punishment this year over its calls for a coronavirus inquiry, India, Japan and Europe are now running their China policies through multilateral forums.
The inflammatory remarks from the foreign ministry came hours after China’s President Xi Jinping called for global co-operation at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit...
The comments follow months of heightened tensions with Canberra, which culminated in the Chinese embassy issuing a list of 14 grievances with the Morrison (Australian) government through the media while explicitly demanding Australia change course on its national security, foreign investment and human rights positions...
“China is angry. If you make China the enemy, China will be the enemy,” a Chinese embassy official said in a briefing in Canberra on Tuesday...
https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/china-threatens-to-poke-the-eyes-of-five-eyes-nations-over-hk-20201120-p56gep.html
19 Nov: UK Sun: WHAT THE PLUCK China warns UK and US ‘eyes will be plucked out’ after demanding end to Hong Kong crackdown
by Chris Bradford
“No matter [if] they have five eyes or 10 eyes, as long as they dare to harm China’s sovereignty, security and development interests, [they should be] careful not to get their eyes jabbed and blinded.”...
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13242109/china-warns-uk-allies-eyes-jabbed-hong-kong/
ungrateful lot. while we self-destruct:
17 Nov: news.com.au: Chinese economy recovering thanks to billions in Australian (covid) stimulus packages
by Tarric Brooker
Back in January, factories and workshops across China fell eerily silent as Beijing sent most of its nation into what was then the most stringent and widespread lockdown in modern history...
Now, almost nine months later, China’s economy has seemingly undergone a miraculous recovery. On paper the Chinese economy is booming, even as other parts of the Northern Hemisphere face an economic battle that, based on current forecasts from the European Union, may take four or five years.
While there is a great deal of ongoing controversy over the accuracy of the Chinese government’s economic statistics, the enormous volume of container ships filled to the brim with Chinese made consumer goods, heading across the Pacific to the United States cannot be denied.
In fact, as a result of the record demand for trans-Pacific shipping, there is actually a global shortage of shipping containers, leading to container manufacturers facing order backlogs that run well into 2021...
Essentially, the miraculous recovery of the Chinese economy is being heavily supported by Western consumer spending, driven by government stimulus.
Much like during the GFC when Aussies buying flat screen TVs and other consumer goods with their stimulus payments helped support Chinese manufacturers, this time that is occurring on a far larger scale...
With much of Europe in varying degrees of lockdown as coronavirus case numbers continue to surge, there are rising risks there could be long term damage to European consumer demand.
Looking at the existing forecasts from the European Union, it’s clear that several of the world’s largest economies face very long roads to recovery...
https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/world-economy/chinese-economy-recovering-thanks-to-billions-in-australian-stimulus-packages/news-story/37522a1dde461aef19dd84c1e6bdc3a