Chenyu_Liang

Alum of @JMSCHKU, Xiamen University, Nanjing Foreign Language School. Views my own.

[Jen Zhu @jenzhuscott]

I've long argued the overly condescending narratives on China does public disservice. For those of us who get to see things on the ground regularly tried to tell the world the MSM is wrong often got labelled as ‘brainwashed’ or ‘propagandist’. Guess it's finally clear who's been brainwashed this whole time.

I love what my friend @gave_vincent said “there are 2 types of westerners: the type who visited China and saw the future and try to tell everyone as such, and the type who's never been but dismiss the first group as being brainwashed.”

None of this should be a shock yet people keep being surprised. Consistent surprise = consistent underestimation and you are operating your business/portfolio based on wrong information about what's truly happening in this world. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Bloomberg @business]

Germany's Social Democrats finished third with 16%, the party’s worst result since World War II. https://t.co/SujItmQgvq

[ONEREPUBLIC @OneRepublic]

Counting Stars into the Chinese New Year. 🇨🇳🐍⭐️

[Nikkei Asia @NikkeiAsia]

Chinese actor Wang Xing's disappearance turned an unwelcome spotlight on a long-simmering problem, and demonstrated the risk of criminality in Thailand's neighboring countries seeping into the tourism industry.
https://t.co/48d7k6qQHt

[Colum Murphy @Colum_M]

Chinese Vice President Han Zheng met billionaire Elon Musk and other US business figures, underscoring efforts to set a positive tone in ties with the US before Donald Trump returns to the White House https://t.co/XtlHlYO2RU via @bpolitics

[The Associated Press @AP]

BREAKING: Trump has asked tech companies "not to let TikTok stay dark" and says he'll sign an executive order Monday postponing the U.S. ban. https://t.co/HHO4GT4qth

[Yaling Jiang @yaling_jiang]

On how @xiaohongshu / Red Note saved me out of a obscure situation and the unprecedented regulatory problems that have never been dealt with by either China or the U.S.

[Jing Yang @jingyanghk]

RedNote will soon stop being a #Tiktokers shelter.
SCOOP: China's Internet Watchdog directs RedNote to beef up English-language content moderation and work on hiding #tiktokrefugees posts from Chinese users, by @QianerLiu @JuroOsawa via @theinformation

https://t.co/pR9sTvSZDC

[Chenyu_Liang @chenyuliang]

This #RedNote post humorously emphasizes that on the platform, users commonly address each other with sis rather than bro. It suggests a playful matriarchal culture among users, aligning with a friendly and female-centric community tone, to set the cultural norm for new users.

[Chenyu_Liang @chenyuliang]

Truly touched by these heartfelt comments about how #RedNote brings people together through shared hobbies and kindness, from snow scenes in Maine to Italians crocheting and Germans enjoying manicures.

[Duolingo @duolingo]

oh so NOW you’re learning mandarin

[Chenyu_Liang @chenyuliang]

Opened my go-to Chinese social media app, RedNote, and got hooked on the hashtag about “TikTok refugees”—non-Chinese TikTok users flocking to this app ahead of the anticipated TikTok ban.

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

This is a story that everyone is speaking about in China right now. A Chinese actor - Wang Xing 👇 - was lured to Thailand by a fake movie production company that told him they wanted him to star in a movie.

When he arrived in the airport in Bangkok he was greeted by a chauffeur, arranged by the so-called production team, who later drove him to Myawaddy – a city in Myanmar known for being a hub of scam operations.

He was of course being abducted by one of these numerous gangs that operate in largely lawless Myanmar. They have huge scam operations going on there, typically trying to scam Chinese nationals in various ways and often operated by various Chinese mafias. Which is why you're seeing the Chinese government being so involved in trying to ensure Myanmar gets its act together (they for instance notoriously managed to bring down the "Ming family" mafia gang who owned the notorious Crouching Tiger Villa scam centre in Kokang, near the Chinese border in Myanmar's Shan State: https://t.co/UPKWpIhpEb).

These scam operations are often staffed by people like Wang Xing who were abducted into it and are forced to work for free (i.e. slavery) until they scam enough money for the gangs. Sometimes, if they're rich enough, they are also held for ransom.

Luckily in Wang Xing's case, on the way there he managed to keep sending his location to his girlfriend in China, until his phone was taken away from him at the Myanmar border.

His girlfriend then created so much buzz about it in social media, shared by some of China's biggest celebrities (like singer Lay Zhang and actor Qin Lan), that it alerted the Chinese and Thai authorities. We don't know exactly how his rescue occurred, just that within less than 48 hours he'd been freed (apparently by the Thai army, although it's unclear).

The case shows how sophisticated these mafias have become in their targeting methods. They're specifically crafting schemes to trap entertainment industry professionals. And Wang Xing's case is far from isolated: the China Federation of Radio and Television Association revealed in a statement on Tuesday that "many actors" have fallen victim to these fake overseas film shoot promises, suffering "serious damage to their personal and financial security."

According to Wang Xing there were approximately 50 other Chinese nationals being held at the same facility as him. At this stage I don't believe we know if they were rescued alongside with him (I'm reading conflicting reports on this). All in all, victims are likely in the thousands: a group of Chinese families have started a petition urging the government to help find their missing relatives - the number of cases has already climbed to more than 600, and continues to rise. Some estimates - for instance by the UN - mention that as many as 120,000 people may "have been potentially trafficked into scam compounds [in Myanmar]" (https://t.co/LH17piB4Ai)

The case is also extremely embarrassing for Thailand which increasingly relies on Chinese tourism, which is probably why the Thai authorities were so quick to act. Thai officials, eager to contain potential damage ahead of Chinese New Year, have emphasized that no Thai nationals were involved in Wang's trafficking. But even as they dealt with his case, they were already investigating the disappearance of another Chinese model in the same border region.

Wang's case has brought unprecedented attention to these scam operations, but it also raises several uncomfortable questions: will the thousands of others victims be saved too, and how many more will be trafficked before these criminal networks are shut down?

[Zheping Huang @pingroma]

NEW: "Blossoms Shanghai" has tapped into growing nostalgia for the 90s, which in hindsight looks like a more optimistic time.

We talked to viewers, biz owners, linguists, and an actor in the TV series to show why this is about more than entertainment https://t.co/FOnBoM8Ofr

[Sixth Tone @SixthTone]

Harbin’s frosty winter has a source of warmth this winter: a wave of “little potatoes from the south.”

Read more: https://t.co/D7JGQnmeSp

[Bloomberg @business]

Chinese shadow banking giant Zhongzhi files for bankruptcy https://t.co/0exBTB59z5

[Austin Strange @AustinMStrange]

Chinese Global Infrastructure is out (OA)!

https://t.co/loXHVnG3jW

This short book tracks major Chinese int’l infrastructure projects from 1949 to now.

It uses historical data + context to shed light on a cornerstone of China’s foreign relations.

Brief 🧵on key themes:

[Chenyu_Liang @chenyuliang]

@yicaichina should be "Malaysia" rather than "Maldives"

[Chenyu_Liang @chenyuliang]

China announces visa-free travel for five European countries and Malaysia https://t.co/yX5UVdtqBk

[Bloomberg @business]

“They are the product, they are the company”: OpenAI engineers making $800,000 a year showed how rare skillsets can give workers sway over their firm https://t.co/wqZc0KS2Sh