Jamie 顾瑾俞

Isotope Geochemistry researcher and photographer based in Chengdu, China. Science, East-Asian history and spirituality. Averse to escalating sinophobia.

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

Absolutely hilarious for the FT to argue the West is losing to China because "liberal market democracies operate with greater accountability to voters."

Hilarious and, of course, absurdly wrong. China is winning precisely because it's obsessively focused on delivering for its people: infrastructure, improving living standards, reducing poverty, etc.

"Liberal market democracies" are losing precisely because they forgot who democracies are supposed to be accountable to.

Src: https://t.co/tQjkt6OSg4

[Assal Rad @AssalRad]

When community notes does journalism better than BBC.

[Mohamad Safa @mhdksafa]

I don't think people understand the gravity of the situation as the UN is preparing for possible nuclear weapon use in Iran.

This is a picture of Tehran. For you uneducated, untraveled, never-served, warhawks licking your chops at the thought of bombing it. It's not some low population desert. There are families, children, family pets. Regular working class people with dreams. You're sick to want war.

Tehran is a city of nearly 10,000,000 people. Imagine nuking Washington, Berlin, Paris, London, or beyond, bombed with nuclear weapons.

I gave up my diplomatic career to leak this information. I suspended my duties so as not to be part of or a witness to this crime against humanity, in an attempt to prevent a nuclear winter before it is too late.

Yesterday, nearly ten million people protested “No Kings” in the United States. The possibility of the use of nuclear weapons must be taken very seriously. It's dangerous. Act now. Spread this message worldwide. Take the streets. Protest for our humanity and future. Only the people can stop it. History will remember us.

[Steve Sweeney @SweeneySteve]

Today I$rael tried to kill me in a targeted airstrike in southern Lebanon as I was reporting on was the targeting of bridges and the forced displacement of 1 million people, an ethnic cleansing operation on a larger scale than the Nakba

I have absolutely no doubt that this was deliberate. Despite claims there were no warnings ahead of the strike and no notifications sent to the Lebanese Army who allowed us to film

As we have seen in Gaza they want to silence journalists who document and report their war crimes

It is the western powers who provide political and military support for I$rael, arming it to the teeth to carry out genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing here in Lebanon. They are not simply complicit, but active participants and should be held accountable for their actions.

But if I$rael thinks today’s strike will silence us and keep us out of the field they are very, very mistaken

[Dr. Luke in China @96Stats]

I just spent a day going through China's new law (the original in Mandarin) which the BBC and other media all completely misunderstood legally and linguistically. A total misdescription. Let me go through those mistakes ⬇️

[Ryan Grim @ryangrim]

An unarmed Iranian ship was invited, along with the U.S., to be part of an Indian Naval exercise, and its sailors paraded on land before the president.

The U.S. at the last minute pulled out of the exercise and instead attacked the Iranian ship with a torpedo.

Breaking with all norms of civilization and warfare, we then refused to rescue the drowning survivors. The Sri Lanka Navy was left to pull the dead bodies from the water.

I am hard pressed to think of any other nation throughout history that would do something so cowardly and despicable. We are genuinely in a league of our own, and American media — mostly shrugging off the bombing of a girls school and acting as if carpet bombing Tehran is a normal military tactic — is deeply complicit.

[Alan MacLeod @AlanRMacLeod]

Literally just posting pics of their war crimes on the TL now.

[Sharon Nadeem @SharonNadeem]

It’s pretty amazing to see the four statements from Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, and EU on US strikes on Iran side-by-side. The wording is pretty much verbatim, esp the first two paragraphs. They all have the same script.

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

This is batshit insane, no other way to call it.

We now have the first attempt by the White House—specifically by Steve Miran, the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers—to justify the tariffs based on economic "theory", and it's without a doubt the most dishonest piece of economic reading that's I've ever had the misfortune to lay my eyes upon.

The gist of Miran's argument is to reposition the global reserve currency status of the dollar not as an exorbitant privilege (as erstwhile French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing once characterized it), but as somehow a "burden" that the rest of the world needs to compensate the US for bearing.

As Miran explains it, having the dollar as a reserve currency "has caused persistent currency distortions and contributed, along with other countries’ unfair barriers to trade, to unsustainable trade deficits" which "have decimated our manufacturing sector."

So he wants to give up the reserve currency status of the dollar, right? Wrong. He wants to have it both ways.

He says that America's "financial dominance cannot be taken for granted; and the Trump Administration is determined to preserve [it]" but this same financial dominance "comes at a cost" and "other nations" need to pay for it.

And he means this literally. He made a list of what exactly he means by "burden sharing" and one of the forms it can take is countries "simply writ[ing] checks to Treasury that help us finance global public goods."

Let's pause a moment here to contemplate the sheer insanity of this: the U.S. is literally suggesting that countries should mail checks to the US Treasury as tribute for the 'privilege' of maintaining the dollar as a global reserve currency, when it is this very reserve status of the dollar that is the cornerstone of US power.

It's the equivalent of Samson asking everyone to pay him to keep his hair.

Because that's what Miran is conveniently not mentioning in his text. The reason Giscard d'Estaing called it an "exorbitant privilege" is that it allows the U.S. to quite literally have its way of life subsidized by the rest of the world.

Miran (and Trump) complain about the trade deficits, but they are the very manifestation of this subsidization: countries normally cannot run a permanent trade deficit because they'd one day face a balance of payments crisis.

It's like a private individual: you cannot indefinitely buy more from others than what you yourself earn. At some point you'll have to pay up. Unless, that is, you're the issuer of the currency everyone uses, in which case the normal rules of economic gravity are suspended.

While other nations must balance their books eventually, the dollar's reserve status gives America the unique ability to consume more than it produces perpetually, with the world eagerly accepting dollars that cost nothing to create in exchange for real goods and services. That's not a "burden", it very much is an "exorbitant privilege".

So yes, sure, because America can effectively buy most of what it needs from the rest of the world for "free" (by printing dollars), this situation doesn't exactly create incentives to do the hard work of manufacturing goods domestically. But framing this as other countries taking advantage of America rather than America taking advantage of its currency dominance is an astonishing inversion of reality.

And even more astonishing is Miran's ask that countries now compensate the U.S. for this. Some people mention that it's like asking vassals for tribute but it's actually even worse than this. The tribute is already embedded in the global reserve currency status of the dollar: other countries work hard for the U.S. while they can just issue IOUs that never come due.

What Miran is thus proposing is effectively demanding vassals make payments for the privilege of already making payments—a double tribute system where countries first subsidize American living standards by accepting dollars as reserves, and then must pay an additional fee for the 'burden' this supposedly places on the US.

Miran's piece is replete with other complete inversions of reality. For instance, he now blames China for the 2008 crash because "their holdings of U.S. mortgage debt helped fuel the housing bubble, forcing hundreds of billions of dollars of credit into the housing sector without regard as to whether the investments made sense."

Anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of the 2008 financial crisis would have their breath taken away by such brazen revisionism. Not only is the crisis universally known to have been caused by US regulatory failures and the reckless securitization of subprime mortgages by Wall Street firms, but China in this instance literally saved U.S. markets from complete meltdown after Hank Paulson personally appealed to Beijing to continue purchasing US Treasury bonds during the height of the crisis, which they did.

To now blame them for the very crisis they helped mitigate and played no part in creating is beyond dishonest—it's gaslighting on a geopolitical scale.

All in all, it's clear what the US is trying to achieve here, they effectively want to have their cake and eat it. They want to keep the privilege and want the rest of the world to pay for the downsides that come with it.

Which means we're truly at a crossroad in history where nations must make an immensely consequential choice: acquiesce to this insane double tribute system or stand against it. There are very few precedents in world history for such a nakedly exploitative power play, but history is very clear on two things: submitting to extortion only invites more of it, and collective resistance is the only effective response.

[Sony Thăng @nxt888]

Donald, you just gave the world another reason to never trust a deal with you.

One breath, it’s 125%. Next breath, it’s 10%.

Today it’s "effective immediately," tomorrow it’s "paused."

Who negotiates with a weather vane?

This isn’t strength—it’s instability.

No serious country bets its future on the mood swings of a man who treats global trade like a slot machine.

You talk about "lack of respect," but what exactly are you showing the world?

Discipline? Honor? Predictability?

You’ve reduced the U.S. position to a coin toss between tantrum and concession.

That’s not policy—it’s pathology.

Let’s be clear. China didn’t "rip off" the U.S.—you handed over your industrial base willingly.

You outsourced for profit, gutted your own working class, and blamed the mirror.

China built. You speculated.

China planned. You printed.

And now, because the empire can no longer compete, you threaten like a drunk gambler blaming the table.

Your "pause" isn’t mercy—it’s leverage gone limp.

You had leverage, once. But after years of burning bridges, tearing up treaties, bullying allies, and contradicting yourself every 48 hours, all you’ve proven is this:

You’re not a partner.

You’re not even a reliable enemy.

You’re an unstable liability in a collapsing system.

And the world sees it.

You say 75 countries called you.

But they didn’t call you because they trust you—they called because they’re trapped in a global system your empire built, and they’re trying to survive it.

They don’t retaliate because they don’t want the kind of instability you export.

Not respect—fear.

Not cooperation—hostage management.

So the real question is: who in their right mind would make a deal with someone who talks like this?

One minute it’s war, the next it’s "thank you for your attention."

You don’t sound like a leader. You sound like a warning.

History won’t remember this as strategy. It’ll remember it as the moment the empire started speaking in tongues—loud, erratic, and irrelevant.

China won’t bend to your incoherence.

No civilization that’s survived 5,000 years gets lectured by one that can’t even survive one election cycle without civil breakdown.

And when your 90 days run out and nothing moves, you’ll blame China again.

But deep down, you know what this is. You’re not punishing China. You’re projecting your own decay.

We see it.

The world sees it.

And you can't tariff your way out of decline.

@realDonaldTrump

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

You literally couldn't write better satire: For years, these organizations have been hysterically accusing anyone with a balanced view on China of being a "CCP agent".

ASPI, the organization linked to in her post, has even compiled numerous Orwellian reports listing people they accused of being paid CCP propagandists (like this one: https://t.co/5oc2M9wQaf). I actually personally know some of these people and they were just normal folks posting about their lives in China without any government ties whatsoever (same as me). ASPI's purpose was quite obviously intimidation: "if you dare show how things actually are in China, we'll destroy your reputation and brand you as a foreign agent." Which is sadly very effective and has the effect of silencing most people.

And now here they are, publicly begging for US government funding to continue their "independent" work, admitting they can't exist without the very state backing they were baselessly attacking others for.

The projection is almost comical and it confirms that those who scream the loudest about something are often exactly what they claim to be fighting against.

[Dominic Lee 李梓敬 @dominictsz]

The Legislative Council debated and voted on Article 23 (Safeguarding National Security Ordinance) today! To give people from around the world a better understanding of the necessity of our legislation, I made my Legco speech in English for the very first time!

It is my greatest honor to participate in today's debate and tell the world how Hong Kong really is! Ultimately, the legislation was passed unanimously!

As a Chinese patriot, being able to contribute to the work of legislating Article 23 as a member of the Legislative Council, and help safeguard our national security, is a privilege I hold in high regard!

In the future, we can focus our efforts on boosting our economy and improving the well-being of our people. With unified efforts, Hong Kong is sure to reach new heights!

[Jamie 顾瑾俞 @itsonlyjamie_]

@janam138 Safe travels!

[Hua Chunying 华春莹 @SpokespersonCHN]

Latest images of Mars taken by China’s Mars probe Tianwen-1.

[Lex Fridman @lexfridman]

It is becoming harder and harder to know what is true.

[nature @Nature]

‘I lost two years of my life’: US scientist falsely accused of hiding ties to China speaks out https://t.co/zaJeBtWVCv

[Jamie 顾瑾俞 @itsonlyjamie_]

@Patch_Thompson Its dropped!?! BRB

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

@CBCNews @DanielDumbrill @cbcsteve A war machine-funded think tanker appearing on a brazenly propagandistic show on western state media to explain the dark mechanics of Chinese propaganda is so twisted it's actually delicious.
https://t.co/9PWwEuUTBP

[Joe Emersberger @rosendo_joe]

In footage CBC did not use, Dumbrill told D'Souza that “citing think tanks funded by governments and the arms industry without telling your audience that that's what you're doing is journalistic malpractice…And they went and did exactly that anyway”

[David Fishman @pretentiouswhat]

Whole buncha western journos arriving in BJ after having limited/no access to China for the last two years and immediately tweeting the kind of petty crap that likely contributed to their visas being revoked in the first place.