标签：politics

“It Must Be Rectification of Names” — Politics, History, and Science

Chinese Civilization & the Way of Chinese2016.04.20
“It Must Be Rectification of Names” — Politics, History, and Science
Recently, the issue of the extension of property rights on Chinese real estate has come to light, and many people have only then discovered that the so-called “automatic renewal” in the Property Law as they had understood it was merely a misunderstanding; “automatic,” it turns out, does not include the meaning of “free,” and moreover there is no fixed amount for how much one must pay to renew. Wenzhou said one would have to pay 30 percent of the housing price to renew, and then issued a clarification saying the matter was still under study. But the problem is: if the rules were already established long ago, why must the…
China culture commentary tradition
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2016年4月20日
Stock Market Musings: Freedom and Stability

Culture & Public Commentary2015.07.26
Stock Market Musings: Freedom and Stability
Recently China’s stock market has been wildly up and down. After an unprecedented “stock-market crash,” the central authorities have again stepped in with unprecedented force to maintain stability. The reason I thought of writing this article is not to play the prophet and predict market movements. On the one hand, I want to gather together some of my previous statements and thoughts; on the other hand, the stock market also has relations to political philosophy and natural philosophy. Besides, I believe this stock-market crash will have very far-reaching historical significance; in any case, it will become a landmark event. Although I have all along been promoting Bitcoin, and have always…
China culture freedom commentary
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2015年7月26日
Bitcoin: The Age of Exploration

Web3 & Cypherpunks2013.06.09
Bitcoin: The Age of Exploration
Recently Bitcoin has been plunging in succession into a bear market, and its current price has already fallen below my own average purchase price (while I was writing this piece it dropped 10%!). But I figure it still has another stretch of decline ahead of it, so lately probably isn’t a good time for newcomers to enter. Of course, Bitcoin’s rhythm is the rhythm of the Internet age; a so-called bear market can’t possibly last for years the way it did after the bursting of the Nasdaq or Chinese A-share bubbles. At worst it may take ten days or half a month, at most a year or so, and it…
China freedom Web3 Bitcoin
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2013年6月9日
Bitcoin: The Disappearance of the State

Web3 & Bitcoin2013.05.09
Bitcoin: The Disappearance of the State
I’ve now written the third consecutive article about Bitcoin, and after this one I’ll more or less be wrapping things up for the time being. My spare cash has basically all been invested already, and I’ve now bid farewell to the infuriating Bitcoin China trading platform. I put one bitcoin into Mt.gox and started groping my way through the game of selling high and buying low; a few days later, one coin had become 0.98 coins… It’s a bit discouraging, really… Of course I’ll keep trying my hand at it, but I no longer dare to make any big moves. For now, the main thing is just to hold the…
media Web3 Bitcoin internet
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2013年5月9日
Bitcoin: The Nature of Money

Web3 & Bitcoin2013.04.19
Bitcoin: The Nature of Money
Recently Bitcoin has risen and fallen wildly, and a great deal of discussion has sprung up as well. Of course there are those who strongly support it and those who predict its doom; in any case, this peculiar electronic currency has officially entered public view. In fact, I heard about this thing a few years ago, and at the time I also thought about joining the ranks of the “miners.” Unfortunately I was still too wary of trouble to pursue it in depth. More crucially, my insights in media philosophy were not yet mature enough then, so I failed to seize the opportunity. And these past few days, gritting my…
media Web3 Bitcoin internet
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2013年4月19日
Settling Accounts After the Fall and Talking About Shoes

Life & Notes2013.03.27
Settling Accounts After the Fall and Talking About Shoes
A few days ago I reposted and mocked Xi’s “shoe theory” on Weibo, and my dad got unsettled. He immediately called to warn me to be careful with what I said, so as to avoid settling accounts after the autumn harvest. Generally speaking, it is rather awkward when the blogs and Weibo accounts of people born in the 1980s and 1990s come under the gaze of their parents, and I am no exception. Although my writing is addressed to anyone, and even if it is watched by parents and relatives it will not place any real pressure on me, it would be a lie to say that it causes no…
China freedom history tradition
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2013年3月27日
Equality or Freedom: On the Question of Attending School Outside One’s Hometown

Culture & Public Commentary2012.12.17
Equality or Freedom: On the Question of Attending School Outside One’s Hometown
Recently, the case of the non-Shanghai girl Zhan Haiter has drawn a lot of attention, especially because it happened in Shanghai, so I can’t help but offer a few comments as well. Of course, I support Zhan Haiter’s struggle, and I support every citizen’s open expression of his or her demands; but as for the content of those demands, I do not support it. This matter involves too many questions, all tangled together, making an already complicated issue even more complicated. So first we need to break down the questions involved. There are two big issues: one is education, the other is regionality. It should be noted that the problem…
China culture freedom commentary
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2012年12月17日
Solving Problems and Institutional Reform

Culture & Public Commentary2012.07.28
Solving Problems and Institutional Reform
The previous article mentioned that a despotic system constantly needs imminent crises to overcome, with hatred and struggle as its basic posture. Of course, a democratic system too must keep solving immediate problems; “solving problems” is the normal state of governance. However, the basic paradigms for solving problems differ under different systems. This is not merely a matter of keeping pace with the times or adapting measures to local conditions—for example, Chinese people solving China’s special problems, Americans solving America’s problems, and so on. The difference in paradigms is not limited to that kind of distinction; it also includes differences in standards of judgment, such as what counts as a…
philosophy China culture history of science
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2012年7月28日
Disasters and Despotism

Culture & Public Commentary2012.07.26
Disasters and Despotism
A few days ago Beijing was hit by torrential rain. Unfortunately, I had just returned to Shanghai and missed this rare spectacle. Once a rainstorm turns into a disaster, there is inevitably all sorts of praise for skillful command and unity of purpose, and then a call for donations appears, something we have long since grown accustomed to. Calls for donations are of course met with a flood of abuse online, but the reality is that they will still work. Setting aside the many uninformed people who are only too happy to donate, just think of how much can be wrung out by those “progressive” Party-state organs, enterprises, and schools…
China culture politics democracy
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2012年7月26日
Youth and Politics

Culture & Public Commentary2012.07.06
Youth and Politics
Today Huanqiu Times published a good commentary, “Young Students Should Not Be Encouraged to Rush to the Front Line of Conflict,” which says: Middle school students are minors. Their minds are not yet mature enough, but they are full of enthusiasm and highly sensitive. They have few worries and little social pressure, so they fear nothing and have strong explosive force and impact. They have no clear political interests to demand, nor any stable beliefs, so they are easily pushed along by adults, either becoming an expression of the correct social psychology or being led in the wrong direction. Since the founding of New China, the most striking eruption of…
China culture commentary education
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2012年7月6日