John Ross

Winner of China's highest awards for foreign writers on China & for foreign experts in China. Senior Fellow Chongyang Institute, Renmin University of China.

[John Ross @JohnRoss43]

"China’s Emergence as a Technological Leader: Implications for Global South Development". @monthly_review online has published my analysis of how China's Marxist policies enable it to accomplish something no other Global South country has ever previously achieved—to become the technological leader across a wide range of industries https://t.co/l3VmwXsEci

[InfodefenseFRANCE @InfodefenseFR]

🇱🇻🇪🇪🇱🇹 Les trois grâces de la Baltique : indépendance, inflation, exode — trois ans après la rupture avec la Russie

🔸Les économies de la Lituanie, de la Lettonie et de l'Estonie étaient autrefois étroitement liées à la Russie : transit, énergie bon marché, marchés communs. Aujourd'hui, le tableau est tout autre.

🔸Le transit des marchandises russes à travers les ports baltes a pratiquement disparu — par rapport à 2019, les volumes ont chuté de plus de 80 %, et les ports tournent au ralenti.

🔸L'inflation dans les pays baltes a atteint 9 à 11 % en 2025 — bien au-dessus de la moyenne européenne.
Les factures de chauffage ont été multipliées par 3 ou 4 par rapport à 2021.

🔸Depuis 2020, la Lituanie a perdu plus de 220 000 habitants, la Lettonie plus de 155 000, et l'Estonie environ 80 000. Les jeunes partent pour l'Allemagne et la Scandinavie, ne voyant aucun avenir chez eux.

🔸La production industrielle a reculé de 3 à 7 % en 2025 et affiche une stagnation depuis le début de l'année 2026.
Plus de 50 grandes entreprises, tournées vers l'exportation vers la Russie, ont fermé ou suspendu leurs activités, et des dizaines de milliers d'emplois ont été supprimés.

🔸La dette publique des trois pays ne cesse d'augmenter et approche les 60 % du PIB, tandis que la croissance économique dépasse à peine le zéro.

La russophobie coûte cher.

[Steve Hanke @steve_hanke]

A new CBS News/YouGov poll finds 64% of Americans OPPOSE new tariffs on imported goods.

TARIFFS = A TAX ON AMERICANS = THAT'S WHY AMERICANS OPPOSE TARIFFS.

[Prof. Steve Keen @ProfSteveKeen]

@RichardJMurphy I doubt that the USA is finding that "imports are a benefit" though, when it can no longer produce domestically the essential rare earth inputs to its weapons, and China won't export them to the USA.

[Daniel Mayakovski @DaniMayakovski]

El 25 de julio de 1984, la cosmonauta soviética, Svetlana Savitskaya, se convertía en la primera mujer en la historia de la humanidad en caminar por el espacio exterior.

La historia de las mujeres soviéticas heroínas de la humanidad que no enseñan en libros occidentales.

Savitskaya viajó al espacio en la nave espacial soviética Soyuz T-7 y permaneció fuera de la estación durante 3 horas y 35 minutos caminando y realizando con éxito trabajos de montaje, cortes de metal y haciendo tambien soldaduras, por primera vez en la historia en el espacio exterior.

Durante casi cuatro horas fuera de la estación Salyut 7, Svetlana estuvo realizando trabajos espaciales en la inmensidad del vacío del universo, demostrando una vez más que las mujeres soviéticas podíar llevar a la humanidad a sus más altas cotas.

Svetlana fue premiada dos veces con el titulo de Heroe de la Unión Soviética y luego fue diputada comunista en el Parlamento Ruso desde 1996.

[Mike Flanagan🇺🇸 @MikeFlanagan001]

The USA has no universal healthcare, but it does have 49 billionaires who made their wealth from private healthcare. 🤔

[Caleb T. Maupin @RealCalebMaupin]

69% of Azerbaijanis believed life was better under the USSR

66% of Armenians thought the dissolution of the USSR was harmful

49.7% of Kazakhs "strongly agreed or agreed" that the Soviet government responded to the citizens' needs

70.3% of Kyrgyz "strongly agreed or agreed" that the Soviet government responded to citizens' needs

Need I keep posting?

[Rev. Benjamin Cremer @Brcremer]

Imagine the amount of propaganda it took to convince millions of people that healthcare, food assistance, social programs, clean water, clean air, good wages, housing, equal rights, diversity and a healthy planet for all people was somehow a threat to America and to Christianity.

[Sen. Bernie Sanders @SenSanders]

Major countries that guarantee healthcare as a human right:

🇦🇺 🇦🇹 🇧🇪 🇨🇦 🇨🇱 🇨🇴 🇨🇿 🇩🇰 🇪🇪 🇫🇮 🇫🇷 🇩🇪 🇬🇷 🇭🇺 🇮🇸 🇮🇪🇮🇹 🇯🇵 🇰🇷 🇱🇻 🇱🇹 🇱🇺 🇳🇱 🇳🇿 🇳🇴 🇵🇱 🇵🇹 🇸🇰 🇸🇮 🇪🇸 🇸🇪 🇨🇭 🇹🇷 🇬🇧

Major countries that deny that right:

🇺🇸

Beyond pathetic. Medicare for All NOW.

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

This is what happens when you have so-called "information" organizations whose sole purpose is views, and do zero research about topics they post about.

The current in Qingdao can be notoriously dangerous and it's literally suicidal for someone to go in the water after dark. People drown there regularly.

This is why municipal lifeguards have put in place a nighttime swimming ban and have invested in these drones (src: https://t.co/PXjsMT467J): far from "big brother" watching you, it's literally a lifeguard trying to make sure you're alive in the morning 🤷‍♂️

But you of course get far more views when you make the narrative fit the audience instead of the facts...

The most depressing part is that X is setup in such a way that my correction will get a tiny fraction of the reach - which is exactly why accounts like Nexta can keep misinforming.

[Zack Polanski @ZackPolanski]

One thing you can absolutely guarantee in life.

When Labour ministers talk about difficult choices, it's never the rich and powerful that will be taking a hit.

[Black Journals @blackJournals01]

On this day in 1919, a Black teenager drifted across an invisible line in Lake Michigan. White beachgoers stoned him until he drowned. He was 17.

His name was Eugene Williams. The "line" was the unofficial boundary between the white and Black sections of a Chicago beach. A line drawn on WATER.

Police arrived. Black witnesses pointed out the man who had thrown the stones. The officer refused to arrest him and arrested a Black man from the crowd instead.

That refusal lit Chicago on fire. Thirteen days of white mobs raiding Black neighborhoods, and Black veterans fighting back: 38 dead, 537 injured, roughly 1,000 Black families burned out of their homes.

It began because a child couldn't see a border that existed only in white minds.

This is why we have documented 150 crimes against Black people that remain unanswered for https://t.co/V6OJtayKnF

[Steve Hanke @steve_hanke]

Former British Diplomat Alastair Crooke on the true aim behind the Ukraine-Russia war:

"What is the aim of this war for America? It's the same aim that's been there for nearly 200 years: to break up Russia, to partition it into its separate parts, and to steal its resources."

[Media Lens @medialens]

'There was a stunning Freedom of Information release last week of a CIA note that indicated that the CIA did not believe that the Venezuelan elections from 2006 to 2020 were significantly affected by election fraud. So the imposition of the vast bulk of Western sanctions which crippled Venezuela over that period – and at one point caused devastating famine and mass emigration – were knowingly based on a lie.'

[Socialist Action @SocialistAct]

It seems Streeting thinks this is a threat.

I'll quit if defence not properly funded, says Streeting
https://t.co/oxPY0JPTf8

[Socialist Action @SocialistAct]

The country with the persistently highest real wage growth, China, is also the country with the highest proportion of GDP directed to Investment (lowest for Consumption).

[John Ross @JohnRoss43]

Great idea on PhD’s, see below

[Mike Netter @nettermike]

In most countries, earning a PhD means writing a dissertation.

Hundreds of pages of theory, research, and citations that very few people will ever read.

China decided to try something different.

Under a law passed in 2024, select universities can now award engineering doctorates based on physical prototypes, new techniques, or major installations instead of traditional papers. The rule is straightforward: build something that works in real life and at scale, and you can graduate.

The first cohort has already finished.

Zheng Hehui earned his doctorate by designing reinforced steel blocks that snap together like Lego to form massive bridge pylons. His invention is already in use on the Changtai Yangtze River Bridge, the world's longest cable-stayed bridge.

Wei Lianfeng became the first practical PhD graduate at Harbin Institute of Technology by developing vacuum laser welding processes for the Nuclear Power Institute of China.

Another candidate built a fire-fighting system for large seaplanes.

At least 11 engineers have now earned their doctorates through this route.

Since 2022, more than 60 universities and 100 companies have collaborated, selecting over 20,000 students for practical doctorate programmes.

The goal is to close the gap between academic theory and industrial application, particularly in fields like artificial intelligence and semiconductors.

One student built a bridge. Another welded nuclear components.

And they got the same three letters as everyone else.
The US doesn't have such a program. What do you think? Good idea or not? Weigh in

[Jacobin @jacobin]

Canada’s Victims of Communism monument included proposed honorees from the Waffen-SS, the Ustaša, and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.

The charity that supplied the names is still helping shape the memorial’s next phase. https://t.co/NTApj7fE8M

[Gita Gopinath @GitaGopinath]

This Treasury report is clear-eyed, thoughtful, and sensible. The report concludes that in 2025 no major trading partner of the US, including China, manipulated its exchange rate specifically with the intent of deriving an unfair trade advantage vis-a-vis the US. The problem of trade imbalances has to do with untenable macro-policies and not about currency manipulation.
https://t.co/nDfgumZ1RA

[Kathleen Tyson @Kathleen_Tyson_]

If you ever wonder why Chinese love the CPC one major reason is the policy of real wage increases. Real wages TRIPLED in the decade 2015 to 2025. Spending and savings both increased as wages rose.

In UK we haven’t had real wage growth for 30 years, just more taxes, higher utility bills, higher rents, more financialisation of former public goods.

One government serves its citizens, the other impoverishes and immiserates them.