Torsten Weller

Trade and Investment, Political Risk, Husband and Father, RTsare not endorsements, 'Likes' are mostly bookmarks

[Torsten Weller @TorstenWeller]

https://t.co/6KReJcciBi

[Torsten Weller @TorstenWeller]

https://t.co/4X4egLW2kM

[Torsten Weller @TorstenWeller]

„Solidarität mit der Ukraine: Manifest für Freiheit in Europa!” - Jetzt unterschreiben! https://t.co/JxZv1CbmSH via @ChangeGER

[Torsten Weller @TorstenWeller]

Whether spy balloons or police stations, the key problem for Chine seems to be that there are way too many independent actors doing their own foreign policy. Unless BJ gets this under control it will always struggle to conduct a stable and coherent FP.

[Torsten Weller @TorstenWeller]

The TCM lobby in Beijing is pretty strong and it's something to watch out for. It's not corruption in the classical sense, but could become a wider trend. CN currently doesn't have the mechanisms to deal with this type of rent seeking.

[Torsten Weller @TorstenWeller]

I see the temptation to do this. But it would still erode trust in the government and encourage further protests. So, not sure about it.

[Tony Lin @tony_zy]

Can totally see the official narrative spins the events like this: “China was going to relax control step by step but the protest pressures the country into hasty reopening.”

[Torsten Weller @TorstenWeller]

A good reminder that Xi is not Putin. Putin would have blamed the CIA for it.

[Finbarr Bermingham @fbermingham]

NEW: Xi Jinping told Charles Michel that people in China were protesting because they were frustrated after three years of Covid, per senior EU officials

Xi told them that Omicron is less deadly than Delta, which they sensed "opens the way for more openness of the restrictions"

[Torsten Weller @TorstenWeller]

My conclusion is that these protests are worrisome exactly because they are caused by Beijing’s inability to come up with a proper exit strategy for zero-Covid. And unless Chinese leaders find one, discontent will only grow./End

[Torsten Weller @TorstenWeller]

Two arguments are frequently made about the protest in China: 1) Local protest aren’t rare and are usually dealt with by making small concessions; 2) If protests become too widespread, Beijing will crack down. Both are plausible. BUT they miss some important features./1🧵

[Torsten Weller @TorstenWeller]

What's more, they are also China’s economic backbone. So, cracking down would hurt exactly those people China needs for an economic recovery. It could also backfire and turn a few sparks into a prairie fire./6

[Torsten Weller @TorstenWeller]

The big question now is not 'when' China will exit zero-Covid, but 'how'! We might well see a very different country once this is all over.

[Torsten Weller @TorstenWeller]

China thought that it could solve the trolley problem by simply stopping the trolley. And now the trolley is about to explode.

[Torsten Weller @TorstenWeller]

And it's very telling that this work was written nearly a hundred years ago.

[Torsten Weller @TorstenWeller]

I probably said it before, but Lao She is still the best author to understand Chinese soxciety.

[Torsten Weller @TorstenWeller]

Just reading Lao She's Rickshaw Boy and he literally described the very mindset that explains China's assertiveness and so much more.

[Torsten Weller @TorstenWeller]

@EditorBTB Y