SX

Amateur investor, former academic & Shanghainese, avid traveler, liberal developing-world nationalist, University of Chicago & UC Berkeley alumnus.

[Alice Evans @_alice_evans]

Reading on Brazilian slavery, it’s so shocking one must constantly fact check

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

The burner under a Chinese restaurant wok puts out 100,000 to 150,000 BTUs of heat. The strongest burner on your home stove tops out near 12,000. Some restaurant jet burners run past 200,000. Roughly ten times your kitchen, sometimes twenty.

At that heat an empty steel wok can climb past 800 degrees Fahrenheit, and food sears the instant it touches the metal. The Cantonese call the result wok hei, the breath of the wok, the smoky charred taste you can almost never pull off at home. It comes from a few things happening at once in seconds: the browning reaction that crusts a steak, the sugars in the sauce caramelizing, and tiny droplets of oil catching fire in the air as the cook throws everything around. One dish off the fire takes about ninety seconds.

That speed is also why a giant order lands in ten minutes. Nothing sits in an oven waiting. Every ingredient is washed, cut, and portioned before you ever call, so once the ticket prints the cook is assembling, not prepping. Each dish hits the flame, gets tossed together, and slides into the box still steaming.

The wok's whole design traces back to one problem: saving fuel. Wood and charcoal ran expensive across much of old China, and a thin round metal bowl dropped into the flame heats faster and wastes less than a flat pan sitting on top of one. Cooks chopped everything small, because more surface area meant less time over the fire, and they learned to work in fast bursts of high heat.

For most of Chinese history, stir-frying wasn't even the common way to cook. Boiling and steaming came first, partly because the oil stir-frying needs was costly. The technique took off in the late Ming dynasty, the 1500s and 1600s, when firewood near the growing cities got expensive enough that cooking fast and cheap really mattered. Less fuel burned per meal, and busy city trade rewarded the speed. A money-saving trick slowly became the signature of an entire cuisine.

Steel melts around 2,500 degrees, so the food never gets remotely close. But the instinct behind that tweet is right. The reason your takeout shows up in ten minutes, scorching, is a four-hundred-year-old fix for an energy problem, still roaring under a wok tonight.

[SX @panlune]

@AngelicaOung Poetic!

[Angelica 🌐⚛️🇹🇼🇨🇳🇺🇸 @AngelicaOung]

I just realized that this post is the perfect encapsulation of everything that’s wrong with the « China hand » community. They spend so much time and energy creating and consuming all this esoteric narrative about China. But instead of enlightening and elucidating, it becomes a dense wall that literally blocks the light.

The more time you spent reading most of those books, the more you’re gonna be misled and end up missing the the big story on China. You become like a kind of sad anti-expert. Toiling not to build up but to draw down on the sum total of human knowledge.

China didn’t block out the light Benedict…you did it to yourself.

[Angelo Giuliano 🇨🇭🇮🇹 @angeloinchina]

Defense spending in percent of GDP 2026

China 1.7%
Japan 1.9%
USA 3.5%

Don’t fall for misleading graphs/datas.

Be informed/not entertained.

[SX @panlune]

@Krm2OilEP7dYI3p if many of the “massive amounts” of bad China videos you’ve seen are like that. Fake ones, or wrongly attributed to China, or taken out of context, etc. It’s just so pitiable so many Japanese need to take this stuff like drugs to numb themselves of their miserable lives.

[SX @panlune]

@Krm2OilEP7dYI3p My comments are for people who’re watching, not for you. I just came across a bad China videos. Even though to any normal person it’s clearly a fake one (like a skit), it was posted by a Japanese as real, and all the Japanese comments took it as real. I wouldn’t be surprised 1/

[SX @panlune]

@Scholars_Stage Countries often go along with US policies not because there’s no wedge between them.

[人民中国雑誌社 @PeopleChina]

「大声を上げ、全身の力を込めて、その中国の男の胸めがけて突き刺した。彼は雪の上に倒れ、積雪が舞い上がり、私の頭に血が上った。今振り返れば、この突き刺し訓練こそが、私が『鬼へと堕ち』『日本鬼子』になる始まりだった」――これは元日本軍憲兵・土屋芳雄氏が自分の著書の中で記した彼の初めての罪の記憶である。1931年の応召から1945年の日本の敗戦まで、土屋芳雄氏の手は多くの中国民衆や抗日志士の血で染まった。戦後は、生涯をかけて悔恨と贖罪にささげた。土屋氏のような元侵略日本軍兵士たちの人生は、日本軍国主義がいかにして人間を「鬼」に変えたかを赤裸々にさ��け出し、今日の世界に警鐘を鳴らしている。
https://t.co/CCPfUDxWdl

[SX @panlune]

@fenseanna @X_SUZQ 也许越是孤陋寡闻的人越容易精日，因为去过的地方太少了。发达国家都这样（不过这个明显是摆拍)，虽然不像日那么死板和形式主义。原因很简单，人越来越少，同时人均的价值越来越高，对个体的保护也越好。中国虽然还没到这步，但毫无疑问也在这趋势上发展，近来的进步也很快。

[SX @panlune]

@fenseanna 明显摆拍。

[Nury Vittachi @NuryVittachi]

BREAKING NEWS: A JOURNALIST WHO WORKED for decades in East Asia is being painted as a “spy” sending reports to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Thomas Pauken has been arrested in the US and is due in court on Friday this week.

But there are many odd aspects of the case which suggest a different story—some of which are comical.

.

BIG IN TEXAS

First, the individual: Pauken is painted as working for China state media, but he also reported for other media, reports indicate, and set up a page on Medium, a US website.

The former US citizen used the pen name “Tom McGregor” to avoid complications for his father, who shared the same name, and had been a Reagan administration official. The family were clearly pro-USA, and were based in Texas.

Over more than 20 years, the younger Thomas Pauken became trusted by his journalistic colleagues in Asia—although one contact in China asked him to take a lie detector test to show that he did not work for the CIA, a court document says.

.

FBI WERE WATCHING

But because Pauken worked in China, US agents started watching him. In January last year (2025), when he made a trip to the US, he was temporarily detained and questioned.

He learned that the FBI had been studying his activities for months, and were interested in reports he was writing for a particular client, Cathy. In the FBI version of the story, “Cathy explained to PAUKEN that all his reports were read by Xi Jinping.”

The FBI told Pauken “to continue his plans as if nothing had changed”. He should in effect act as a double agent. “The FBI further instructed PAUKEN to continue about his business with the ‘cast of characters’ in the PRC,” the FBI said, in an affidavit.

But the FBI told him not to actually provide any classified material to anyone (not that he had been doing so).

.

PAUKEN MAKES A CONTACT

In the US, Pauken made contact with a job seeker who was seeking a particular role in a US government agency. He asked the man to send regular reports to Cathy in China, giving him some cash, a laptop and a SIM card to connect with WeChat.

The contact, perhaps not realizing how small a SIM card was, accidentally threw it away with the brown paper bag it came in, and had to be given a second one. (We’re not talking Mission Impossible levels of spy tradecraft here—more Johnny English.)

The FBI interviewed the contact as well, and then let him go.

.

AN ODD PUZZLE

What was really happening? Was Pauken just an Asia-based journalist who made a useful contact to generate material to fulfil a freelance contact—or a Chinese government agent cultivating an “intelligence asset” to share top secret material, in CIA style?

This was not clear—and the identity of the contact is redacted in the files.

Also, the authorities interviewed both Pauken and the writing contact, so both knew they were being watched.

.

WRITER ARRESTED

On a more recent trip to the US, in February this year, Pauken was arrested, and will appear in court on May 29, this Friday.

Details were released this week, and some write-ups are presenting the story as a sensational case in which [cue dramatic music] A CHINA-BASED SPY placed a HIGH LEVEL ESPIONAGE “ASSET” in the Trump administration. Ooooh!

Yet a look at the court paperwork makes this narrative look very shaky.

.

NOT ADDING UP

First, both Pauken and the contact were questioned by US authorities more than a year ago, so would have been very circumspect in their activities.

Second, the FBI admits that the contact never got the targeted placing. He “was not hired for the exact job he wanted in the administration but currently works for a U.S. government agency,” the agency said.

Since there are three million people working for the US government, the odds are that he will be an entry-level functionary, rather than someone at the top of the tree.

Third, the FBI has not named or detained the contact. That indicates they do not consider him a danger. He could literally be a trainee park ranger.

.

SLEEPING ELEPHANTS

Fourth, the allegation that his reports were being sent to Xi Jinping sounds ridiculous. As “Tom McGregor”, Pauken wrote a range of general reports, including one about a viral video clip of a family of sleeping elephants.

To suggest that McGregor’s writings were a personal priority for the President of China is far-fetched to say the least (but par for the course).

.

ONLY ONE CHARGE

Fifth, at the hearing scheduled for Friday, there is only one charge being levelled at Pauken: missed paperwork.

It accuses him of doing some work for a foreign body while failing to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

That’s all. Not a word about spies or secrets or espionage.

The FARA is a politicized law used in an arbitrary and inconsistent way. It is ridiculously tough on anyone with a China connection, while seemingly failing to even recognize Israel as a foreign country.

.

OVERLY SUSPICIOUS

The overly suspicious US has a bad record of accusing academics and journalists of being spies for China, with many cases ending up with mild charges or no charges at all.

The way this case is turning out suggests that this one is already heading in that direction.

[Friday news project]

[SX @panlune]

@Scholars_Stage broke out. In any case, as the country most devastated by Japanese aggression, China doesn’t need anyone’s approval to feel this way. As it becomes more influential, I also see its view of Japan getting more sympathy.

[SX @panlune]

@Scholars_Stage Speak for yourself. I don’t know about all of SE Asia, but Singapore talks about Japanese atrocities pretty regularly. TW is a special case. The DPP & supporters glorify Japanese colonial rule 1) to deny anything coming from the mainland was good 2) hoping Japan’d help if war 1/

[SX @panlune]

@mimach_riben In fact, given Yen’s dramatic depreciation and high prices in Japan, real living standards in many places in China have exceeded Japan.

[yanguoliusheng @szygls]

为什么湖南是日军最难攻克

的省份？

冈村宁次曾说过，想要灭亡

中国，首先要平定湖南。

1938年日军攻入湖南，一直

打到1945年日本投降，整整

七年时间，湖南始终没有被

日军完全占领。日军为此付

出了几十万人伤亡的惨重代

价，却没取得几场真正的胜

利，就算偶尔赢了，也都是

惨胜。

湖南从古至今都是兵家必争

之地，守住湖南，对保卫重

庆、四川有着至关重要的作

用。整个抗日战争中，中日

双方一共打了22次大型会

战，其中有7次都发生在湖

南。

当时湖南的总人口约3000

万，抗战期间累计派出230万

兵���参军，这个兵源比例在

当时的全国各省中能排进前

三。

四次长沙会战，是整个十四

年全国抗战中，中日双方出

动兵力最多、战役规模最

大、持续时间最长的大会

战。这场系列会战里，日军

先后投入66万人次的兵力，

中国军队则投入了100余万人

次。

其中第三次长沙会战，薛岳

将军制定了天炉战法，让第

十军作为诱饵镇守长沙城，

日军出动十万兵力猛攻长

沙。

最后薛岳集结第九战区的主

力部队，对日军形成反包

围，日军伤亡6万余人后全线

溃败，前三次长沙会战，中

国军队都取得了大胜。

衡阳保卫战期间，方先觉将

军率领第十军1.7万将士死守

衡阳城，奋力抵挡11万日军

的进攻，最终日军伤亡超过7

万人。

衡阳保卫战虽然最后我方战

败，但日军的损失远比我们

更大，这场战役也是日本战

史中记载的，唯一一次日军

伤亡人数超过中国军队的战

役。

1945年，第四方面军司令长

���王耀武将军，指挥74军、

18军、新六军等多支美械装

备的王牌部队，接连阻击日

军的进攻，最后把湘西会战

从最初的防守战打成了歼灭

战，一举歼灭3万日军，中国

军队还趁机收复了湘西地区

的大片城镇。

整个抗日战争期间，中日两

军在湖南打了七年，湖南的

大小城市都被战火烧成了一

片废墟。也正因如此，冈村

宁次才会由衷感叹：欲灭华

夏，先平湖南。1945年8月

15日日本宣布无条件投降

后，湖南芷江被确定为日军

的受降地。

[yanguoliusheng @szygls]

日军的暴行令人发指，他们

曾诱骗一名中国小男孩到解

剖室，孩子天真以为只是玩

闹，毫无防备被抱上手术

台。

日军用药物将他麻痹，在孩

子昏迷后，残忍割开他的肚

皮摘取各类器官，放进准备

好的容器里。看着男孩跳动

的心脏，他们毫无愧疚，反

而兴奋大喊，还约定晚上吃

饭庆祝。

原本活泼的男孩最后只剩血

淋淋的躯干，像废品一样被

扔进垃圾车，送去焚尸炉。

在哈尔滨的日军占领区，他

们随意抓捕中国人做活人冰

冻实验。一名女人被绑在零

下40度的环境中，此前日军

为逼她服从，早已强行夺走

并活活踩死了她三个月大的

孩子。

日军不断往女人手臂浇冰

水，直到手臂被冻住，敲碎

冰块后又继续浇，整整冻了

15个小时，女人的手臂彻底

坏死。日军还把她的手臂放

进15度温水中融化，随后直

接扯下她手臂上冻坏死的皮

肉，场面惨不忍睹。

日军还做过鼠疫病菌实验，

将两毫升鼠疫病菌注入西

瓜，强迫中国人吞下，还计

时测试病菌杀伤力。很快，

这名男子就因病菌发作，面

部扭曲、七窍流血，在日军

的注视下痛苦死去。这样的

人体实验，在当时成了日军

的家常便饭。

他们还将一对母女关进毒气

室，任凭女人苦苦哀求，依

旧转动阀门释放毒气，母女

俩在浓烟中挣扎，最终绝望

丧命。还有一名中国女人被

日军绑在木桩上，日军本想

开枪处决，却被大佐叫停，

称用子弹太浪费。

这名女人不惧死亡，拼尽全

力喊出“中国人民会站起来

的”，日军大佐拔出军刀，狠

狠插进她的下体，鲜血喷涌

而出。日军还借着这个场面

警告其他女孩，必须乖乖伺

候日本人，反抗就当场枪

决。

一个个鲜活的生命，就这样

惨死在日军手中。这段历史

或许会被岁月风尘掩盖，但

永远不会被掩埋、被扭曲，

后人必须铭记历史、勿忘国

耻。

[SX @panlune]

*bonded*

[SX @panlune]

While skiing in Stowe, Vermont we met a Serbian uber driver. Although I left China as a teenager, enough of that Marxist/Soviet education/life style was left in me we bounded effortlessly to my total surprise. The ride ended with me trying to hum Bella Ciao from depths of memory

[Nik Stankovic @nikstankovic_]

@MacroJason Serbia/Yugoslavia - China connection goes many years before 1999 bombing of the Chinese embassy. You are too young. That would be a compliment but in this case it just means you are ignorant.

[Warfare Analysis @warfareanalysis]

Israel tied up children and babies, KILLED them, then buried them in mass graves.

A French aid worker: “We found a mass grave in Gaza containing 300 bodies. Small children were killed with their hands tied behind their backs

EuroMedHR: Inside the mass graves, they found children & babies with their hands bound with zip ties

This photo is from 2 mass graves discovered at Nasser Hospital, southern Gaza, in April During the genocide, the EuroMedHR documented over 130 mass graves of victims of the Israeli genocide