Posted On: Thursday - December 8th 2022 5:59PM MST
In Topics: Pundits China Kung Flu Stupidity Totalitarianism
I was ready to write this post since last evening, after I'd read Segment 4* of the transcript of John Derbyshire's latest (December 2nd) podcast. Then, it so happened that E.H. Hail of this Hail to You blog published an article on the exact same thing - The World Cup caused the Chinese anti-Lockdown protests.
(I wouldn't know - I'm not a fan.)
Peak Stupidity reported on the fatal (27 killed) bus crash in Guizhou province in Thrown under the bus on the road to Covid~Zero back in September, and there's been that fatal fire due also to this latest Totalitarian stupidity in Xinjiang.
It wasn’t just the one bus crash and the fire though. The Chinese have been suffering these extreme indignities since early Spring of this year. The resuming of LOCKDOWNs started off in Shanghai due to politics (If you care about that part, the death of the big-finance Shanghai guy involved in the political strife with Mr. Xi is noted in Mr. D’s same segment.) There have likely been many of these “tragic” (if you would call something based on the stupidity of absolute power “tragic) accidents over these months. Not all get out into the mainstream in China, as the CCP has lots of control of the social media. It’s just not always prompt enough.
However, the Chinese being at least more interested n soccer than Americans, the World Cup has been viewed by 100's of millions of Chinese people during the time these protests against Covid~Zero cranked up. Both Mr. Derbyshire and Mr. Hail believe the views of un-masked un-panicked and un-regulated people packed together enjoying these games was the real impetus for these protests. From John Derbyshire:
Mrs. Derbyshire tells me the general level of dissent went up mightily during the soccer World Cup, which was at first widely televised in China. When Chinese viewers saw throngs of maskless people in the World Cup stadiums, they realized that the rest of the world had shrugged off what for them was still a crisis of the first magnitude, and blamed their government.Note that, per this post of ours, the Chinese have been told lies about Americans laying up in hospitals with Long Covid** and all sorts of BS.
Now ChiCom state TV is no longer showing the crowds in the stadiums, just keeping their cameras fixed on the field.
Mr. Hail has 10-20 x more on this subject, but I'll try to excerpt a decent blurb here:
The Communist Party graciously allowed the World Cup FIFA televised feed to be shown to its locked-down subjects.I would substitute "stupidly" for "graciously" there in the 1st paragraph, but yes, this was a glimpse for the Chinese people into the truth in the West or almost all the rest of the world. (For Mr. Hail, what about the Chinese team? Were they acting what you and I would call normally, with no masks one anywhere and nothing else special?)
Exactly how much did they see? I believe FIFA — a big-big-money operation — runs one single feed which they send out to all the world TV networks and streaming services. This feed is a many-camera, high-tech operation. Their camera-teams also give regular shots of the crowds of fans and spectators. Sometimes these are incidental shots of fans en masse shown at certain camera angles from the field/pitch, sometimes they are close-ups of particularly enthusiastic groups of fans to enliven the mood. Here is where the Communist Party of China met a little dilemma out of its control: No one has a mask at any of the games. There is no one “social distancing.” There are no masked masses of obedient locked-down losers. There are no capacity restrictions evident. None of it.
Also, note that a lot of young people (at the universities, for example) are involved in the protests – they must be heartbroken to see the outside as compared to how they’ve been forced to live this year. Doesn’t this sound very East Bloc/USSR-like to you?
Since the end of the Cold War, and before that in China, once Deng Xiaoping took over, then with the advent of the internet, I really thought there wouldn't be any more places quite like the old USSR and East Bloc. (OK, there's North Korea, but even there ...) I refer to populations who are told big lies about the outside world by their governments and have no idea exactly what the rest of the world is really like. We have the stories of the Russians who defected to America and looked at the stocked up shelves in the grocery stores and cried.
I can see some Chinese young people who have been under the not necessarily false impression that life will be like it's been for the 8 months for the rest of their lives. Random LOCKDOWNs are announced, and new testing protocols come and go. One's phone can just turn yellow and change all his immediate plans in an instant. Besides thinking about killing myself, I wouldn't know a way out of it all.
That glimpse into now-normalized life in the West was not just intolerable for someone with his whole Chinese miserable-seeming life ahead of him. It also showed many of them how much the CCP has been lying to them.
Regarding the USSR/East Bloc in that Cold War again, the big difference now is that the Chinese aren't hurting so much materially. Just their freedom, as in the old Communism, has been taken from them. Unlike the USSR which had been outspent toward bankruptcy, quite the opposite is going on between American and China. Also, there's no Ronald Reagan around to tell them "Tear down that Great Firewall, Mr. Xi!" I don't think this protesting will result in the end for the CCP and Chinese Totalitarianism. There will be no upbeat Jesus Jones songs.
PS: This is the 2nd week in a row that old China hand John Derbyshire has had something insightful to write about the Covid~Zero blowback going on lately in China. It was taken from a friend of his, but he speculated on a reason this huge Kung Flu stupidity revival may be happening. Regarding this latest of his, well, it helps to have a Chinese wifely source of info ...
* Normally, this link would get you scrolled to the proper place, the beginning of that section, but I think the # (anchor) tag is missing.
** My term for "Long Covid" is "Ran-out-of-my-paid-sick-bank-itis".
Comments:
Moderator
Friday - December 9th 2022 7:06AM MST
PS: Thanks, Mr. G. I am looking forward to reports and insight from your son if he and you are willing to give some.
As for individual sports, I've seen night skiing in China - Manchuria, January, cold as hell, and only about 1 in 3 people knew how to ski. They were all having a blast though!
As for individual sports, I've seen night skiing in China - Manchuria, January, cold as hell, and only about 1 in 3 people knew how to ski. They were all having a blast though!
Ganderson
Friday - December 9th 2022 6:56AM MST
PS
In theory my son who lives in China will be home Tuesday- he may have some insight into Derb’s theory ; or more likely may have watched some of the World Cup games.
As for China’s competitiveness, his theory is, that while the Chinese can be good at individual athletic endeavors; they suck at team sports. He has some expertise, as he coaches both hockey and lacrosse in China.
In theory my son who lives in China will be home Tuesday- he may have some insight into Derb’s theory ; or more likely may have watched some of the World Cup games.
As for China’s competitiveness, his theory is, that while the Chinese can be good at individual athletic endeavors; they suck at team sports. He has some expertise, as he coaches both hockey and lacrosse in China.
Moderator
Friday - December 9th 2022 5:49AM MST
PS: Interesting comment, Dieter. I did read Steve Sailer's post in which he mentioned Brian Eno's term Prop-agenda. That's pretty clever and meaningful too.
Thanks for the info on Bowie and Thatcher. I remember the story of Eric Clapton railing against the Kung Flu stupidiy - well, I blogged about it - but when it comes to race realism, and what David Bowie has to say, who but the guy Morrisey (VDare likes him) has the courage to speak up about anything now.
Thanks for the info on Bowie and Thatcher. I remember the story of Eric Clapton railing against the Kung Flu stupidiy - well, I blogged about it - but when it comes to race realism, and what David Bowie has to say, who but the guy Morrisey (VDare likes him) has the courage to speak up about anything now.
Moderator
Friday - December 9th 2022 5:45AM MST
PS: Mr. Hail, regarding your 2nd comment, I understand your question about the TV and control thereof. I guess you are very disciplined about not commenting on the Unz Review, but perhaps you could email Mr. Derbyshire about this. He may have a good explanation, or he may be wrong.
I'd say comment under one of his posts, but a) not many of his podcast transcript segments become UR posts and b) He hardly EVER writes back. Perhaps he's better with email, and he may even write a little bit about it on VDare afterwards.
I answered all I can about your question in your 3rd comment here (before I saw it). As for the following:
"By the way, China bullied FIFA into refusing to allow a Taiwan team; even Israel allows a "Palestine national team" to compete. I think Taiwan is allowed to compete under as Chinese Taipei with a white-flag neutralist banner."
Yeah, they are really pushing the West around on their "Taiwan IS China" story. I have 2 posts about the silly deal in which they Chinese Gov't forced (well, "forced" as in, the Americans replyin "how high, Sir?!) American-based airlines to put Taiwan in the same color as Mainland China and name it as part of China on their seat-back magazine route maps.
Well, bully for them, as there haven't been those magazines for 3 years due to: 1) The Flu Manchu! Surfaces! and 2) Everyone is one his electronics now, so those things have been a waste of money for a long while.
PS posts on this small, but telling, bit of coercion by the Chinese Gov't from Summer '18:
"Western airlines bow down to China Commies' petty whims."
https://www.peakstupidity.com/index.php?post=741
and
"Airline Taiwan-nomenclature brew-haha prequel"
https://www.peakstupidity.com/index.php?post=745
President Trump's Press Secratary at the time Sarah Huckabee said it was "Orwellian Nonsense", but the airline caved.
I'd say comment under one of his posts, but a) not many of his podcast transcript segments become UR posts and b) He hardly EVER writes back. Perhaps he's better with email, and he may even write a little bit about it on VDare afterwards.
I answered all I can about your question in your 3rd comment here (before I saw it). As for the following:
"By the way, China bullied FIFA into refusing to allow a Taiwan team; even Israel allows a "Palestine national team" to compete. I think Taiwan is allowed to compete under as Chinese Taipei with a white-flag neutralist banner."
Yeah, they are really pushing the West around on their "Taiwan IS China" story. I have 2 posts about the silly deal in which they Chinese Gov't forced (well, "forced" as in, the Americans replyin "how high, Sir?!) American-based airlines to put Taiwan in the same color as Mainland China and name it as part of China on their seat-back magazine route maps.
Well, bully for them, as there haven't been those magazines for 3 years due to: 1) The Flu Manchu! Surfaces! and 2) Everyone is one his electronics now, so those things have been a waste of money for a long while.
PS posts on this small, but telling, bit of coercion by the Chinese Gov't from Summer '18:
"Western airlines bow down to China Commies' petty whims."
https://www.peakstupidity.com/index.php?post=741
and
"Airline Taiwan-nomenclature brew-haha prequel"
https://www.peakstupidity.com/index.php?post=745
President Trump's Press Secratary at the time Sarah Huckabee said it was "Orwellian Nonsense", but the airline caved.
Moderator
Friday - December 9th 2022 5:31AM MST
PS: Mr. Hail, firstly, THANK YOU for looking something up (or just knowing it, I guess) that I neglected to. My boy asked how the cup works, and I told him that I'm not sure how many teams get to go to the thing to begin with. I had no idea and didn't really make an effort to find out.
OK, so the Chinese weren't even close to going there. Obviously, all this 8-month-long PanicFest Season II in China would have put a damper on practice even for a competitive team. What if they HAD had a great team this time around that would have qualified? What do you think the CCP/Chinese Gov't would have done, Mr. Hail?
I know that the Olympics is a venue for nations to show off how strong they are via sports, especially when it's on one's home territory, as in '08 for China. Maybe they don't care about the World Soccer Cup because Chinese people just don't put sports as a high priority in life. They care about family, food, and education (often the piece of paper is actually what they care about there).
OTOH, so do the Japanese and Koreans care about education greatly too, but they weren't the black hole of desolation that China was for many years under Mao's Communism. Perhaps that just took the spirit out of them.
OK, so the Chinese weren't even close to going there. Obviously, all this 8-month-long PanicFest Season II in China would have put a damper on practice even for a competitive team. What if they HAD had a great team this time around that would have qualified? What do you think the CCP/Chinese Gov't would have done, Mr. Hail?
I know that the Olympics is a venue for nations to show off how strong they are via sports, especially when it's on one's home territory, as in '08 for China. Maybe they don't care about the World Soccer Cup because Chinese people just don't put sports as a high priority in life. They care about family, food, and education (often the piece of paper is actually what they care about there).
OTOH, so do the Japanese and Koreans care about education greatly too, but they weren't the black hole of desolation that China was for many years under Mao's Communism. Perhaps that just took the spirit out of them.
Moderator
Friday - December 9th 2022 5:23AM MST
PS: MtCBwY: Yeah, I've heard of the riots and such, so maybe that would be enjoyable, watching the crowd. OK, fine, I'll set a reminder for Summer of '26. ;-}
My wife is worried about the shedding too.
Yes, I noted a TV set that had that story of this trade for the valuable women stinkweed-smuggling basketball player - the story went on for 10 minutes, from my glancing back at it. (No sound, thankfully) [Trump mode] "It's a terrible deal, a terrible, terrible deal" [/Trump mode]
My wife is worried about the shedding too.
Yes, I noted a TV set that had that story of this trade for the valuable women stinkweed-smuggling basketball player - the story went on for 10 minutes, from my glancing back at it. (No sound, thankfully) [Trump mode] "It's a terrible deal, a terrible, terrible deal" [/Trump mode]
Dieter Kief
Friday - December 9th 2022 1:31AM MST
PS PS
Mod. you wrote: "with the advent of the internet, I really thought there wouldn't be any more places quite like the old USSR and East Bloc".
It is different, but not necessarily with regard to power.
See also Steve Sailer's hint at Brian Eno's prop-aganda*** (then think of David Bowie, who - let me squeeze in: drugged up with cocaine and or heroin* for decades - came up with the statement that the rock-star is a fascist.
* prop-agenda as the tool of those in power in modern societies to set the agenda - to control the minds via controlling what's in the news/ what's up in the arts etc.
(Think also of Sunstein/Thaler's nudging (Ron Unz pointed out not long ago that nudging (= soft discourse control) is indeed a powerful modern tool.
See also the question Jürgen Habermas posed in his famous Hegel-price speech: Can complex modern societies develop a (sound) identity?*****
******the degree to which Chinese elite students adore Habermas - (and Goethe btw.) can be explained by the very fact that many of his questions do indeed touch the red hot center of the rather complex discourses about modern day (= large and multi-faceted) societies.
(It is no coincidence that Eno and David Bowie had an intense work-relationship and that Bowie (as did the Rolling Stones) thought a lot about the obvious fact how close the rock star is to the authoritarian leader (the prototypical big man - the feascist/ the autocrat (Hitler, and Xi Jinping and Joe Biden etc. - in this regard, they are very close - I think of Joe Bidens and Adolf Hitlers awkward publicly-young girls-kissing habit).
(These damn things hang all together . . . see also my Sailer comment about Eno and Bowie today)
And see this here: Bowie supports Margaret Thatcher in this a bit over the top way (star are - by definition - over the top) - by stating that n order to get rid of the constraints that a "foul liberalism" has brought about, fasiscm would England now undoubtedly do some good:
https://twitter.com/Carlos19001880/status/1598444071273615363?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Mod. you wrote: "with the advent of the internet, I really thought there wouldn't be any more places quite like the old USSR and East Bloc".
It is different, but not necessarily with regard to power.
See also Steve Sailer's hint at Brian Eno's prop-aganda*** (then think of David Bowie, who - let me squeeze in: drugged up with cocaine and or heroin* for decades - came up with the statement that the rock-star is a fascist.
* prop-agenda as the tool of those in power in modern societies to set the agenda - to control the minds via controlling what's in the news/ what's up in the arts etc.
(Think also of Sunstein/Thaler's nudging (Ron Unz pointed out not long ago that nudging (= soft discourse control) is indeed a powerful modern tool.
See also the question Jürgen Habermas posed in his famous Hegel-price speech: Can complex modern societies develop a (sound) identity?*****
******the degree to which Chinese elite students adore Habermas - (and Goethe btw.) can be explained by the very fact that many of his questions do indeed touch the red hot center of the rather complex discourses about modern day (= large and multi-faceted) societies.
(It is no coincidence that Eno and David Bowie had an intense work-relationship and that Bowie (as did the Rolling Stones) thought a lot about the obvious fact how close the rock star is to the authoritarian leader (the prototypical big man - the feascist/ the autocrat (Hitler, and Xi Jinping and Joe Biden etc. - in this regard, they are very close - I think of Joe Bidens and Adolf Hitlers awkward publicly-young girls-kissing habit).
(These damn things hang all together . . . see also my Sailer comment about Eno and Bowie today)
And see this here: Bowie supports Margaret Thatcher in this a bit over the top way (star are - by definition - over the top) - by stating that n order to get rid of the constraints that a "foul liberalism" has brought about, fasiscm would England now undoubtedly do some good:
https://twitter.com/Carlos19001880/status/1598444071273615363?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Hail
Thursday - December 8th 2022 11:28PM MST
PS
I said: "One can wonder why China punches so below its weight in international soccer. Any ideas?"
In that large block of text, I'd like to highlight this part
As you are a China Watcher with considerable experience with those people and their doings, what occurs to you as why Communist China would be so poor on this particular world-prestige stage of managing a soccer "national team" that can do better than hardly rates better than Kyrgyzstan and minor oil-statelets?
By the way, China bullied FIFA into refusing to allow a Taiwan team; even Israel allows a "Palestine national team" to compete. I think Taiwan is allowed to compete under as Chinese Taipei with a white-flag neutralist banner.
I said: "One can wonder why China punches so below its weight in international soccer. Any ideas?"
In that large block of text, I'd like to highlight this part
As you are a China Watcher with considerable experience with those people and their doings, what occurs to you as why Communist China would be so poor on this particular world-prestige stage of managing a soccer "national team" that can do better than hardly rates better than Kyrgyzstan and minor oil-statelets?
By the way, China bullied FIFA into refusing to allow a Taiwan team; even Israel allows a "Palestine national team" to compete. I think Taiwan is allowed to compete under as Chinese Taipei with a white-flag neutralist banner.
Hail
Thursday - December 8th 2022 11:22PM MST
PS
John Derbyshire says: "Now ChiCom state TV is no longer showing the crowds in the stadiums, just keeping their cameras fixed on the field."
I don't believe this can be true if the games are live and if the camera-feeds are all controlled by FIFA and distributed to world tv networks.
It could only be true if China blocks the live feeds and first has Communist Party loyalist video-editors do a clean-sweep edit to excise unmasked crowd scenes before the cleaned-up video is broadcast the the locked-down masses.
Note also that there are so many cameras on the players at all times now from so many angles that in the replays of big plays or goals, they toss in three or four angles, and inevitably one or two or three of those show portions of the crowd.
John Derbyshire says: "Now ChiCom state TV is no longer showing the crowds in the stadiums, just keeping their cameras fixed on the field."
I don't believe this can be true if the games are live and if the camera-feeds are all controlled by FIFA and distributed to world tv networks.
It could only be true if China blocks the live feeds and first has Communist Party loyalist video-editors do a clean-sweep edit to excise unmasked crowd scenes before the cleaned-up video is broadcast the the locked-down masses.
Note also that there are so many cameras on the players at all times now from so many angles that in the replays of big plays or goals, they toss in three or four angles, and inevitably one or two or three of those show portions of the crowd.
Hail
Thursday - December 8th 2022 11:15PM MST
PS
"What about the Chinese team? Were they acting what you and I would call normally, with no masks one anywhere and nothing else special?"
The China national soccer team has not come anywhere near ANY World Cup, as far as I know. They have never qualified. Is this a surprise? Based on population size and other factors it does seem to be a surprse.
The world soccer body that supervises all international play and competitions is called FIFA. But the world is further divided into regions and in practice those regional federations have a lot of say. Almost all the games played by the "national team" are going to be against others in that nation's own region, partly for practical reasons of travel (especially applicable to the past and especially important for smaller and poorer countries) but also because the leagues run their own tournaments and things.
For the World Cup, this normal regional segregation breaks down and random match-ups can happen, like Senegal vs Iran (1:1 draw), or Saudi Arabia vs Mexico (2:1 Mexico victory).
But in the long World Cup qualifying stage in the year run-up to the World Cup, you are entirely playing against others in your region and competing for 'slots' among the 32 national-teams of the world (next time to be 48 'slots').
The USA's region is called CONCACAF, which extends from Canada to Panama and encompasses the Caribbean. CONCACAF is historically considered a weak league. That the USA failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup against CONCACAF teams was considered a major embarrassment.
I think there are some tinkerings with the FIFA regions (semi-autonomous soccer federations), but the current "Asia" region/federation/league extends from Saudi Arabia, out to Japan, and down to Australia.
The FIFA ranking for this current Asia league -- based on performance in international play, a running average score with different weighted variables -- has this ranking right now:
FIFA Soccer Ranking of national-teams in Asia region Oct 2022
1st Iran
2nd Japan
3rd South Korea
4th Australia
5th Qatar (not sure how that happened)
6th Saudi Arabia
7th Iraq
8th United Arab Emirates
9th Oman
10th Uzbekistan
11th PRC China
12th Jordan
13th Bahrain
14th Syria (players exempt from civil war service)
15th Palestine (Israel allows them to compete)
16th Kyrgyztsan
17th Vietnam
18th Lebanon
19th India
20th Tajikistan
21st Thailand
22nd North Korea
23rd Philippines
24th Turkmenistan
...and it keeps going.
The worst team in the world among relatively large-population-size states is in the Asia region. It is Sri Lanka. The Sri Lanka national team may have done even more poorly than usual because their economy collapsed a while back. The players and managers may have been too distracted to do their usual soccering.
Iran, Japan, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia all qualified for World Cup 2022 in the qualifying regional tournament. Australia was on the brink, but won a play-off against another region's on-the-brink team and snuck in. Qatar was in automatically as the host. All these teams are now eliminated.
This exercise was to show just how low ranked is the big-'n-mighty, ccp-'n-cctv autocracy-'n-lockdowns nation, also known as China. There she is, in the middle of a number of minor Gulf oil states and Uzbekistan. China has never done well in international soccer, as far as I know. They are eleventh in the Asia league but 79th in the world rankings!
Your question was: "What about the Chinese team?" -- They were nowhere near qualifying. There was no Chinese team, and there no sign of any Chinese fans. There were Japanese and Korean fans in force but interestingly none were wearing masks, though the very same people if they were back home would still today usually be obediently wearing them much of the time. (Seeing US-news headlines now too about the need to revive mask wearing to combat flu; this mask thing must be defeated, there are huge negative externalities people don't seem to get.)
One can wonder why China punches so below its weight in international soccer. Any ideas? It's not like East Asian Man is so much inferior at the sport, for the Japanese team was very good and the South Korean team nearly as good.
Those willing to defend China's honor are still able to say they do better than India.
"What about the Chinese team? Were they acting what you and I would call normally, with no masks one anywhere and nothing else special?"
The China national soccer team has not come anywhere near ANY World Cup, as far as I know. They have never qualified. Is this a surprise? Based on population size and other factors it does seem to be a surprse.
The world soccer body that supervises all international play and competitions is called FIFA. But the world is further divided into regions and in practice those regional federations have a lot of say. Almost all the games played by the "national team" are going to be against others in that nation's own region, partly for practical reasons of travel (especially applicable to the past and especially important for smaller and poorer countries) but also because the leagues run their own tournaments and things.
For the World Cup, this normal regional segregation breaks down and random match-ups can happen, like Senegal vs Iran (1:1 draw), or Saudi Arabia vs Mexico (2:1 Mexico victory).
But in the long World Cup qualifying stage in the year run-up to the World Cup, you are entirely playing against others in your region and competing for 'slots' among the 32 national-teams of the world (next time to be 48 'slots').
The USA's region is called CONCACAF, which extends from Canada to Panama and encompasses the Caribbean. CONCACAF is historically considered a weak league. That the USA failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup against CONCACAF teams was considered a major embarrassment.
I think there are some tinkerings with the FIFA regions (semi-autonomous soccer federations), but the current "Asia" region/federation/league extends from Saudi Arabia, out to Japan, and down to Australia.
The FIFA ranking for this current Asia league -- based on performance in international play, a running average score with different weighted variables -- has this ranking right now:
FIFA Soccer Ranking of national-teams in Asia region Oct 2022
1st Iran
2nd Japan
3rd South Korea
4th Australia
5th Qatar (not sure how that happened)
6th Saudi Arabia
7th Iraq
8th United Arab Emirates
9th Oman
10th Uzbekistan
11th PRC China
12th Jordan
13th Bahrain
14th Syria (players exempt from civil war service)
15th Palestine (Israel allows them to compete)
16th Kyrgyztsan
17th Vietnam
18th Lebanon
19th India
20th Tajikistan
21st Thailand
22nd North Korea
23rd Philippines
24th Turkmenistan
...and it keeps going.
The worst team in the world among relatively large-population-size states is in the Asia region. It is Sri Lanka. The Sri Lanka national team may have done even more poorly than usual because their economy collapsed a while back. The players and managers may have been too distracted to do their usual soccering.
Iran, Japan, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia all qualified for World Cup 2022 in the qualifying regional tournament. Australia was on the brink, but won a play-off against another region's on-the-brink team and snuck in. Qatar was in automatically as the host. All these teams are now eliminated.
This exercise was to show just how low ranked is the big-'n-mighty, ccp-'n-cctv autocracy-'n-lockdowns nation, also known as China. There she is, in the middle of a number of minor Gulf oil states and Uzbekistan. China has never done well in international soccer, as far as I know. They are eleventh in the Asia league but 79th in the world rankings!
Your question was: "What about the Chinese team?" -- They were nowhere near qualifying. There was no Chinese team, and there no sign of any Chinese fans. There were Japanese and Korean fans in force but interestingly none were wearing masks, though the very same people if they were back home would still today usually be obediently wearing them much of the time. (Seeing US-news headlines now too about the need to revive mask wearing to combat flu; this mask thing must be defeated, there are huge negative externalities people don't seem to get.)
One can wonder why China punches so below its weight in international soccer. Any ideas? It's not like East Asian Man is so much inferior at the sport, for the Japanese team was very good and the South Korean team nearly as good.
Those willing to defend China's honor are still able to say they do better than India.
May The Clown Be With You
Thursday - December 8th 2022 9:13PM MST
PS The crowd is always more entertaining than the cure for insomnia known as communist kickball.
This shredding mRNA from those who voluntarily took the depopulationist shot is troubling.
Aldous Huxley was right about the 21st century being about the controllers and the serf slaves just loving it.
O/T-How bout that trade of a shemale basketballer for the greatest arms dealer ever.
Honk, honk!
This shredding mRNA from those who voluntarily took the depopulationist shot is troubling.
Aldous Huxley was right about the 21st century being about the controllers and the serf slaves just loving it.
O/T-How bout that trade of a shemale basketballer for the greatest arms dealer ever.
Honk, honk!
Time for a new drink: The Long COVID Ice Tea. After that, you won't even notice or care if you have COVID.