曾錚的世界

前兩天第一次在現實世界中見到一位臉書朋友，他熱情洋溢地向我宣講他的計劃和理想，我一直在聽，基本什麼也沒說。

兩三天後，他突然對我說，這次見到我真人，我的形像在他心目中比原來更加「高大」了起來。我問：爲什麼？

他說，原以爲我會像其他法輪功學員一樣，見了面就滔滔不絕地向他宣講法輪功，拉他「入夥」，哪些多次交談後，我一字未提法輪功，讓他覺得我修爲境界不一般，心很靜……

咦，是這樣啊？

法輪功朋友們，你們聽見了嗎？

我爲何一字未提呢？因爲我知道對於法輪功，他的了解已經比許多人深入多了，那我還有啥可提的？

講話要察言觀色，另外，桃李無言，下自成蹊，有些東西，不是靠講的。就算講，也要看何時何地怎樣講。

呵呵，我記者出身，最擅長傾聽，並不斷提問……

7/7/2021*

By Sean Lin

(Jennifer’ note: Sean Lin is a microbiologist and a former lab director of the viral disease branch of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. Below are his comments when I asked him to comment on the Xenotransplants from pigs, which I discussed in my latest show. )

Porcine industry often suffers from waves of economic loss from death or diseases caused by various pathogen infections. The diseases associated with swine often include ringworm, erysipelas, leptospirosis, streptococcosis, campylobacterosis, salmonellosis, cryptosporidiosis, giardiasis, balantidiasis, infection with pathogenic E. coli, brucellosis, as well as diseases caused many viral pathogens such as swine influenza virus, swine fever virus, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), etc. So, one of the major risks associated with xenotransplantation with pig organs is whether the recipients would become more susceptible to various infections, or whether the recipients would carry swine-related pathogens that are with pig organs prior to the xenotransplant.

In addition, scientists do not always know the full spectrum of the consequences of genetic editing. For example, PRRSV is a nasty infection that causes huge economic losses across Europe, Asia, and North America. PRRSV uses CD163 receptor, which is the receptor for the hemoglobin-haptoglobin complex or hemoglobin alone. Scientists have used genetic editing tools to knock down or alter CD163 in pig embryos and the pig offspring becomes resistant to PRRSV infection. However, one potential consequence is that the genetically edited pig might become more vulnerable for other bacteria infection since CD163 functions as an innate immune sensor for some gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria.

The scary part of the work done by scientists at Qihan Biotech and eGenesis is the extensive genetic editing (13 genes and 42 alleles) without comprehensive knowledge on the multifaceted consequence of the edits. The porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs) genes were inactivated in this experiment, but it is not known whether this would lead to any aberrant expression of partial viral genes or host genes. This experiment used a combination of CRISPR–Cas9 and transposon technologies to eliminate three xenoantigens and to express nine human transgenes that enhance the pigs’ immunological compatibility and blood-coagulation compatibility with humans. Although the engineered pigs exhibit normal physiology and fertility, it is not clear whether the engineered pigs can lead to unexpected cell or organ damages and pathogenesis associated with dysregulated coagulation.

The Chinese government has invested heavily to drive forward the gene editing experiments, just as they carried out the political “Great-Leap forward” movement in history. Xenotransplants from pigs to primates are subject to vigorous immunologic rejection involving both innate and adaptive immune responses. It is unavoidable that more extensive genetic editing will need to be engineered down this road. And since the bioethics review process is nearly nonexistent in national priority projects driven by Chinese regime, the paramount risk is that xenotransplantation to humans could be prematurely conducted, based on limited knowledge on xenotransplant of pig organs to non-human primates.

7/6/2021*

(Jennifer’s note: Someone asked me to give a summary of what the Chinese media are saying regarding why ride-hailing giant Didi was cracked down by the Chinese regime. So the following are 6 possible reasons. )

1. Didi decided on its IPO in the US AGAINST Beijing’s advice.

2. The CCP fears about the Data safety amid US-China confrontation. Rumor has it that Didi submitted very detailed info of Chinese maps and user data to the US before its IPO. The data of the maps is not otherwise available to the public, and not the same with the maps everybody is using. Info of some sensitive locations, such as military buildings are also on the maps. Some Chinese netizens are calling Didi “traitor” because of this.

   Didi has come out and denied this allegation. I personally don’t believe the US would require Didi to submit this kind of info.

3. While Xi Jinping vowed to have the West “break their heads and shed blood”, Didi is embracing the US capital. This doesn’t look good for Xi.

4. The US authorities are now having stricter audit requirements on Chinese companies. As a result, the huge networks behind the listed Chinese companies could be exposed, and those networks involve all the top CCP figures. The CCP doesn’t want to see that.

5. Power struggle inside the CCP, especially between Jiang Zeming and Xi Jinping. It was said that Liu Qing (or Jean Liu) , the president of Didi, is the daughter of Liu Chuanzhi, founder of Lenovo. Lenovo has strong military background. Liu Chuanzhi has good relationship with Alibaba’s Jack Ma, and was also one of the founders of Hupan University, which was forced to change its name a while ago when Alibaba was cracked down and Ant Group’s IPO was hauled.

   Didi’s shareholders include many national level giants, such as Bank of Communications, China Merchants Bank, Poly Capital, China Life, CICC Capital, CITIC Capital and Ping An, each of which has one or more powerful red families behind it.

   In addition, Didi also has investment from Boyu Capital, Sequoia Capital, Hill House and Softbank, all of which are private equity giants, especially Softbank, which is the largest shareholder of Didi.

   In other words, Didi is basically a huge platform supported by the CCP’s heavyweight princeling families in conjunction with international capital giants, with Liu Qing as a front person. What’s more, these princelings, whether they belong to the Jiang Zemin faction, Hu Jintao or Zhu Rongji factions, do not seem to be in the same boat as Xi Jinping.

   So, some people are saying the Didi will face severer crackdown compared to Alibaba.

6. Battle over who controls the data has been going on for a while. The CCP doesn’t want the internet giants to control the data, as the CCP itself wants absolute control. Anti-monopoly, protecting customer privacy is just an excuse for the CCP.

   7/6/2021 *

Hello, everyone, welcome to “Inconvenient Truths”. I am your host Jennifer Zeng.

 For those who have been following the news about the CCP virus, or COVID19 pandemic, you must have heard about the dangerous gain of function experiments conducted in the Wuhan lab. You might have also wondered, what other crazy things the CCP has done? Well, today I will tell you one of them, that is, raising genetically modified pigs, harvesting their organs and transplanting them into human beings. 

Sounds crazy? The truth is, a huge site, as large as nearly 17 acres, has been built in Sichuan province to produce such pigs on a large scale, and some of them have already been sent to a certain hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences to be used for heart transplant research. 

Before I move on, I’d like to announce that from now on, I will try to take some questions after I finish talking about what I plan to talk about. So if you want to ask questions, please type them in the chat box toward the end of my talk and I will see if I have an answer for you. Please also subscribe to and share my channel if you haven’t. 

An “Organ Factory” of  “Medical Purpose Pigs” 

 Now, let’s move on to our topic today. 

Let’s see a picture of the site I just mentioned. The red Chinese characters say “Clonorgan Biotechnology Site for Medical Purpose Pigs”.  I guess the word “Clonorgan” is the combination of “clone” and “organ”. They clone pig cells to produce pigs for organ harvesting. 

Clonorgan Biotechnology Site for Medical Purpose Pigs

Clonorgan Biotechnology is a company in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province in China. Its website’s home page has this sentence on it: “Building the organ factory of the future, xenotransplantation changes the future”. 

If you don’t know what xenotransplantation is, please look at the screen. It is a medical procedure, whereby animal organs are transplanted into humans.

Anyway, the site of Clonorgan Biotechnology has a variety of functional areas of pig breeding and operating rooms, labs, etc. It is also “a high standard test base for pigs for medical purposes, as well as an organ factory. ” 

A report of Sichuan Daily said this base now has more than 200 pigs with more than 10 kinds of genetic modifications.

A report of Sichuan Daily said this base now has more than 200 pigs with more than 10 kinds of genetic modifications.

The report also said that, “A few days ago, a batch of pigs for medical purposes were shipped from the base to a certain hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences to be used for heart transplant research.”

Pan Dengke, the founder of Clonorgan Biotechnology, said that this kind of scale and factory production of genetically modified pigs could ensure sufficient supply for xenotransplantation, and the price is cheaper than human organs.

He said, “Human organ transplants cost 300,000-400,000 yuan ($47,000-62,000), while the pricing for xenotransplantation is definitely going to be lower than that.” 

Pig Organs Cheaper Than Human Organs? 

 What do you think when you hear him saying that? Why do human organ transplants cost more? Do they buy human organs? If not, why would human organs cost more than pig organs, if human organs are donated free of charge?

The answer is, actually, in CCP’s China, organ transplantation has become a billion dollar industry. You can get an organ in two weeks, even on the same day if you pay enough money. They kill human beings, mainly prisoners of conscience, such as Falun Gong practitioners and Uighurs, and sell their organs. 

While hospitals make huge money by selling organs, I guess they have to buy the organs, as the “raw materials”, from somewhere else, such as the prison system. That’s why Pan Dengke said “human organ transplants cost more than xenotransplantation”, that’s why the idea of raising pigs for medical purposes is so amazing and attractive to these so-called scientists.

Experiments on Monkeys

 This picture from Sichuan Daily explains how they do it: first, abstract pig cells from the pigs, next, knockout Gal antigens from the pig cells, then knockout pig cells from the Gal antigens, then insert some human genes to it, then clone this cell to produce genetically modified pigs. The whole idea is about knocking out elements in the pig cells that will be rejected by the human’s immune system.

Another important aspect was to knock out some kind of endogenous retroviruses to eliminate the risk of virus transmission from pigs to humans. That has been achieved in 2017 already. 

In 2019, Pan Dengke’s team transplanted the kidneys of genetically engineered pigs into monkeys and kept the monkeys alive for 32 days while using human clinical immunosuppressants, which are types of drugs used to suppress the rejection of the immune system.  

Pan said this had set a global record for the longest survival of an allogeneic kidney transplant under the same conditions. “Allogeneic transplant” means transplant between different species. 

Why Pigs? 

 According to Pan, pigs were chosen as the source of human organ transplants instead of monkeys because pigs’ organs are similar in size and function to those of humans, and pigs have a short breeding cycle and high reproduction rate.

Another reason is that compared to more intelligent monkeys and orangutans, pigs have fewer ethical issues such as animal rights, and there are no endangered animal protection issues, etc.

Also, for Chinese people, because pork is a main part of their daily meat, they are more tolerant of the practice of killing pigs, and using pigs’ organs than people in Western countries. 

However, Pan may have overlooked the fact that Chinese culture has a lot to say about the spirituality of human beings, so what a transplanted pig heart can bring to a human being may not be as simple as avoiding the transfer of a virus to the human body.

What do you think about this? Feel free to type in a comment.

Yang Luhan and Her Harvard Mentor

 Another team that has been vigorously pursuing this technology is Yang Luhan and her mentor at Harvard Medical School, Professor George Church. 

Let’s see a picture of Yang and a report about her research.  So this is Yang Luhan. 

Now let’s show Picture 8. This is a picture of George Church and a report about his research. 

The CCP mouthpiece Xinhua published a special feature in last September, saying that Chinese scientists had made another breakthrough in xenotransplantation technology in genetically edited pigs, and this report mainly features Yang Luhan.

The report said that the team of Yang Luhan, founder of  Qihan Biotech in Hanzhou city, China, and cofounder and chief scientist of gene-editing company eGenesis in Boston, had created a xenograft with clinical potential, successfully solving two major safety challenges: removing some sort of retroviruses from pigs and enhancing its immunocompatibility.

Yang’s research was also published in Nature Biomedical Engineering last September. Co-authors of this paper include Qihan Biotech, Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital, eGenesis in Boston, and Yunnan Agricultural University in China.

 Prior to this, there had been several technological breakthroughs in genetically modifying pigs to make their organs more suitable for human transplantation, several of which resulted from the work of Professor George Church.

In 2015, Yang, along with Church, founded eGenesis in Boston, which received $38 million and $100 million in two rounds of funding in 2017 and 2019, and another $125 million in March this year in a third investment round.

In 2017, eGenesis announced that it had produced the world’s first genetically modified pigs that do not carry endogenous retroviruses, eliminating the risk of virus transmission from pigs to humans; and in 2018, eGenesis produced the first engineered pig, reducing the immune rejection of pig organ transplants.

In addition to the above two issues, there was another technical challenge of functional compatibility: It was not yet known whether the pig organ could perform the hormonal and metabolic balance functions of the original human organ after transplantation.

After resolving these problems, the next step was to conduct a large number of clinical trials. First, pig organs would be transplanted onto monkeys; next, clinical trials would need to be done on human transplants.

Ethical and Regulatory Challenges of Xenotransplantation

 However, the commercialization of pig xenotransplantation faced ethical and regulatory challenges, such as the privacy of transplant recipients, allocation of resources, animal rights, distributive justice, the potential public health risk to humans due to the retrovirus in pigs, and the public and religious acceptance of transplanting animal organs to humans.

The first few items can be resolved through specific improvements and strict regulation, but xenotransplantation seriously increases the risk to public health via diseases. Public acceptance of transplanting animal organs into humans varies widely given cultural and religious backgrounds.

China Can Be the Test Site

 When these challenges became too difficult to resolve, China provided an opportunity, because in China, ethical and legal regulations significantly lag behind technological development. Relevant researches were then moved to China to continue the work.

In 2017, Yang Luhan and Church co-founded Qihan Biotech in China, “with the mission to leverage CRISPR technology to make xenotransplantation a routine medical procedure for the delivery of safe and effective human transplantable cells, tissues and organs.”  

The timing was exactly when clinical trials needed to begin—a stage where ethical review was generally more strict than in the research phase.

Yang Luhan said to Xinhua in 2019, “Technological advances are often ahead of regulation, ethical norms and public acceptance…All technological advances, whether they can be applied to certain scenarios and under what circumstances they can be applied to those scenarios, must be explored on an ongoing basis in order to develop a useful framework that will truly drive technology to change society.”

So did you get her message? Basically she was saying that because technological advances are often ahead of regulations, it is OK to just go ahead with whatever technological advances that she believes are useful and can change society. 

It is indeed the case that the global ethical regulation of new biotechnology, such as xenotransplantation, is generally lagging behind technological development.

However, compared to China’s virtually non-existent and opaque ethical review, the corresponding legal regulations and ethical supervision in the United States are relatively strict. In areas where regulations have not yet caught up, Western research and development generally try not to touch on the more ethically controversial topics.

 And you know what? Unlike the U.S. regulations on genetic modification, which come from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the CCP’s ethical biomedical review is adopted and implemented by the CCP’s National Health and Family Planning Commission—the same agency that has killed hundreds of millions of unborn babies in China over the past 40 years through its controversial one-child policy.

So don’t you think it is a joke to have such an agency to regulate the ethical issues of genetic modification? 

CCP Support

 Despite the numerous controversies surrounding xenotransplantation, the CCP has shown strong support.

For example, in addition to the financial support and the publicity of CCP media, Yang Luhan was selected as one of the World Economic Forum’s 2017 Young Global Leaders, and was added to Fortune’s “China’s Most Influential Women in Business 2020.” 

Meanwhile, the projects that Pan Dengke has been involved in are all funded by the CCP’s key official funds, including the National Key Basic Research and Development Plan, the National High Technology Research and Development Program, and the Beijing Natural Science Foundation, etc. 

Qihan Biotech in Hanzhou is a sister company of eGenesis. On March 29 this year, the company raised an additional $67 million in Series A++ financing with the participation of its strategic investors including Lilly Asia Ventures and Matrix Partners China, as well as its existing shareholders Sequoia Capital and China Merchants Bank. Altogether, it has received more than $100 million investments. 

Also,  according to Chinese media, in 2020, gene editing-related startups in China alone received about 2 billion yuan ($310 million) in funding. 

The Role of the West 

 So what are you thinking after learning all of this? For many things, especially controversial studies, such as the xenotransplantation, gene-editing we talk about, there seems to be a certain pattern: Chinese scientists learn technology from the West, or do the research together with western scientists. When there are things they cannot do in Western countries, they take the  technology back to China and continue to do the research there. 

Sometimes the West even directly gives money to Chinese scientists for them to do some dangerous and  controversial studies. 

We now all know that the US National Institutes of Health  gave $600,000 to Wuhan lab to study whether bat coronaviruses could be transmitted to humans, and (P16)  “bat woman” Shi Zhengli once worked with the University of North Carolina to study the ability of a bat coronavirus surviving and evolving to thrive in a human cell.

Also, for the billion dollar, forced organ harvesting business in China, almost all the Chinese doctors, who may have killed hundreds of thousands, or even millions of people in the past 22 years, all learned their skills from the West. And some western companies keep selling drugs to China and make huge money, as these drugs are needed after the organ transplant.

So, what I want to say to the world is, with the CCP’s evil nature, it doesn’t have respect for human life, or any kind of lives, it dares to do anything. The West is also guilty if it still doesn’t recognize the CCP’s evil and continues to work with the CCP. 

Why is the entire world suffering now?  Everything has its consequences, including appeasing and aiding the CCP.

Well, that’s all what I plan to say for today. Now, let me see if any of you have any questions.

7/5/2021 *

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當晚，吳兵再次敲開我們的房門。我知道他肯定「無事不登三寶殿」，一定跟對法輪功定性的「升級」有關。 一見吳兵又上門，婆母忙將孩子拉到另一間屋，自己也避開。 吳兵又恢復訓斥犯人的口氣，皺著眉凶神惡煞地問：「還煉著功嗎？」

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7/1/2021*

Hello, everyone, welcome to “Inconvenient Truths”. I am your host Jennifer Zeng.

 Today is the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, the CCP.  A few days ago I received an interview request from a journalist in Poland, asking me “What does the CCP’s rule mean for Chinese people?” So today I’d like to talk about this, as well as some highlights of this morning’s celebration at Tiananmen Square, and another very important question: “How much longer can the CCP still exist?” 

 Before we move on, please make sure you subscribe to my channel and turn on the notification bell if you haven’t. Also please share my channel and videos with your friends and families, as well as on your social media platforms so that more people can learn the “Inconvenient Truths”.

 Highlights of the Centennial Celebration

 Now, let’s move on to our topics today.

 First of all, let me give you a few highlights from the CCP’s celebrations.

 （1）A One-Man Show of Xi Jinping

 First of all, it is a one-man show of Xi Jinping.

 Let’s watch the screenshot of today’s headline flashes at Xinhua’s website. We are playing  it 4 times faster just to let you get an idea how everything is about Xi Jinping.

Everything is arranged to achieve this purpose too, even including the outfits. Let’s see a few pictures. While everyone else wears a suit, or Western style suit, only Xi Jinping wears something called Chinese tunic suit , which is also called the Zhongshan suit, or Mao Suit.  It remained the standard formal dress for the first and second generations of CCP leaders, and is a symbol of  national sovereignty. 

Only Xi wears Mao Suit.

Only Xi wears Mao Suit.

Only Xi wears Mao Suit.

（2）Warning Messages to “Foreign Powers”

 The second highlight is Xi Jinping’s warning messages to “foreign powers”. In his more than an hour long speech, apart from repeating how the CCP was the choice of history and the Chinese people, and shouting out loudly “Long live the great, glorious and always correct CCP” at the end, Xi Jinping sends clear warning messages to “foreign powers”.

Let’s watch a short clip of his speech. 

Xi Jinping: “ The Chinese people will not allow any foreign power to bully, oppress, or enslave us. Anyone who tries to do so will have their heads smashed and shed blood in front of the Great Wall of Steel built with the flesh & blood of more than 1.4B Chinese people.

 

(3) Blood Hunger, Cultural Revolution 2.0 and North Korea

 The third highlight is the overall visual design of the celebrations. Let’s see a few pictures.

 From the visual impressions, we can see the blood hunger of the CCP, as well as the fact that China is having a Cultural Revolution 2.0; China is more and more like North Korea. 

When I saw thousands upon thousands of people waving the CCP’s red flags, I really thought I was watching something from the Cultural Revolution, or North Korea. 

 (4) Jiang Zemin, Zhu Rongji and Many Other Important Figures Absent

 The fourth highlight is, as many as 8 former CCP members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau were absent from the art performance held at the National Stadium in Beijing. 

Another strange thing is, the CCP suddenly changed the date of the performance from June 29 to June 28, without explaining why. 

And again, at today’s ceremony at Tiananmen Square, CCP’s third generation head Jiang Zemin, as well as former premier Zhu Rongji were absent.  This is very unusual given this is such an important event for the CCP. 

Therefore, people have been speculating that the internal power struggle within the CCP must still be very fierce, to the point that many former leaders chose to boycott Xi Jinping’s one-man show. 

 (5) 70,000 People Required to Take Off Their Masks

 The fifth highlight is, 70,000 people who attended the celebration, including media workers, were required to TAKE OFF their masks so that they looked better.  So do you think the CCP really cares about people’s lives? 

 Tight Security Ahead of Centennial Celebration

 Well, the above are a few highlights from today’s event. 

Now,  let’s see how ridiculously tight the security has been in Beijing and China before the ceremony.  

The following are just some of the measures:

(1) Kitchen Knives Under Control

 In Beijing, even kitchen knives are under restrictions until tomorrow (July 2). 

A knife store associate told the Epoch Times that restrictions are imposed on the purchase of knives, you must bring your ID card to the store to buy a knife, and the sales need to be registered; and the registration information will be handed over to the police department for the record. And this applies to all stores in Beijing. 

Also, even if the purchase is registered and approved, you cannot take the knives away. They will be mailed to you, but only after July 2 .

 (2) Ban on All Flying Objects

 Also, the Beijing Government issued a flying ban from June 13 to today (July 1). Nine districts,  a very large area, were designated as “restricted flying zones.” All flying objects, including doves,  drones, model airplanes, kites and balloons, are all prohibited. 

And you know what? When I wrote about this for the Epoch Times a while ago, an editor asked me, “Seriously? How would they control birds?”

And I replied, “Yes, in Beijing, doves are all raised and kept by human beings. If their masters don’t release them, they stay in their cages.”

 (3) An Off-the-Track Story

 This actually reminds me of another similar story. Many years ago, after I submitted my memoir to my publisher, Allen & Unwin, a leading publisher in Australia, they asked an editor to edit it. When the editor saw such a sentence in my memoir, “In 1981, I moved to Mianyang with my father”, she immediately crossed out “my father”, and changed it to “my parents”. 

She thought, if a family moved from one city to another, of course the entire family moved together. So she took it for granted that I made a mistake with my word selection, as I was a Chinese.

I had to tell her, no, I moved with my father. My mother and sister didn’t move together with us, as in China, everything needed permission. My mother didn’t have permission to move. So she stayed. It took her more than 4 years to get permission to join my father. And when she finally moved to my father’s city too, I had already left my hometown for university. 

Actually, in my childhood and youth period, there were only a very few years when my entire family lived together. 

 So you see, that’s how life and things are different in CCP’s China. For people in the West, many things can be taken for granted. But for people in CCP’s China, they may never dare to imagine those things, or they may even die before they can get these things. Or they don’t know at all that they don’t have those things, such as the freedom to move within your own country.

 Sorry, this is a little bit off the track. Anyway, I’ve written a short article about this experience. I will put the link to that article in the transcript that I am going to publish on my website at jenniferzengblog.com. If you are interested, please go to my website later to find that article. 

 (4) Shops Closed

 Now, let’s go back to the tight control on Beijing.

Not only that doves cannot fly, but shops near Tiananmen Square were forced to close down on June 30 and July 1, for two days for the celebration. 

One shop associate said that government people locked the gate of their shop directly and took away the key.

Even in a county called Xianghe (香河县),  which is more than 30 miles away, street vendors were not allowed to do their businesses during the celebration. 

 (5) Natural Gas Supply Cut Off

 Netizens also revealed that even natural gas supply was cut off in Donghuamen area, which is very close to Tiananmen. The CCP fears that natural gas could cause fires. 

So how can people cook without natural gas supply? 

Don’t worry, the CCP has you covered. The community will deliver ready food to residents in this area until July 4, when the natural gas supply is resumed. 

In another area called Hepingmen, the authorities are giving food vouchers to people who are affected by the cut of the gas supply. 

 (6) Manhole Covers Welded

 Now let’s see a picture. Can you figure out what this is? Well, this is a manhole cover near Tiananmen, which is welded with small pieces of some kind of material. The two Chinese characters on the pieces say “Security Inspection”. 

Manhole cover welded.

Why did they weld the manhole covers? Well, I guess to prevent people from getting to the Tiananmen Square area, where the celebration was to be held, through the sewage system. Sometimes we see that sort of scene from movies, right? People escape or enter somewhere through the sewage system. So the manhole covers had to be welded.

 (7) Metals Banned in Posted Packages

 Posted packages are under tight control too. Let’s see a picture.This is a message saying that as the 100th anniversary of the CCP was approaching, all packages delivered to Beijing would be strictly controlled. Extra checking would be conducted. Any metal martial in books, including staples in magazines need to be removed. 

The message says, we are sorry for this, but you’ll need to re-bind your books and magazines after you receive them. 

Well, these are just some of the crazy security measures in Beijing

(8) Soldiers & Military Dogs On Duty

 Let’s watch a short clip shot in Beijing a few days ago. I had lived in Beijing for 17 years. I  had never seen so many police and military dogs on the street, actually, never any dogs at all when I lived there in the 1980s and 1990s. 

 (9) Dissidents Arrested

 As a matter of fact, before the anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre this year, which was June 4, the CCP already started cracking down on dissidents. Quite a few got arrested, such as  Zhang Wuzhou and Wang Aizhong in Guangzhou city, Chen Siming  in Hunan Province, and Yang Shaozheng in Guizhou.

  “Historical Nihilism” Condemned 

 So this is what has been happening in the real world. In academic and theoretical circles, or maybe we should say the propaganda circle, the CCP has been trying very hard to convince people how great it is, and to attack anyone who wants to criticize it. 

And they have come up with a term called “historical nihilism”. 2 million online posts were deleted for being “historical nihilism”. 

The CCP’s logic is, if you don’t recognize that the CCP is the great savior of China and Chinese people, you are practicing “historical nihilism”, and you are wrong and should be condemned. 

 The CCP’s Biggest Fear

 As far as I can see, both what happened in the real world and the propaganda circle reflect the same issue, the CCP’s biggest fear is its own legitimacy. After 100 years, the CCP is still trying very hard to convince people that it is the “choice” of history and the people.

It says it is the choice of history and the people, but it never dares to allow people to vote. Without a referendum, how can you say you are chosen by the people?

How Much Longer Can the CCP Still Exist?

 Now, let’s move to our next topic: How long can the CCP still exist?

Recently quite a few overseas Chinese dissidents are showing optimism that the CCP won’t last long. Former CCP navy commander Yao Cheng, whom we quoted before, even said that he wouldn’t buy a property in the US, as the CCP would collapse within several years, and that he would be able to go back to China soon.

We must say that the international environment for the CCP is worsening now.  More and more countries are talking about holding the CCP accountable for the pandemic, and the global anti-CCP sentiment is still rising. 

In a sense, the CCP’s international environment has never been as bad as it is now. Before the CCP took power, it had the support of the former Soviet Union and had some allies in the international communist camp. 

Then, during the 10 years after the CCP’s relationship with the Soviet Union turned sour around 1963, its environment was quite severe. But at that time, it could still try to find a space to survive when the US and the Soviet Union were fighting against each other. 

Later on, US president Nixon extended an olive branch to the CCP. At that time, the West viewed the CCP as a force that could assist the fight against the Soviet Union.

Because of this, the CCP was able to survive even though it had brought the nation’s economy to the very verge of collapse. That was also the reason why the CCP could survive until now. 

So, the international environment is very important for the CCP. Some people argue that the CCP can choose to cut ties and close its doors to the outside world again, and just have the so-called “internal circulation”, like what Mao Zedong did in the 1950s and 1960s. 

However, time has changed. The CCP couldn’t do what it had done before. In 1949, when the CCP established its regime, there was only about a 10% urban population. Right now, the urban population has exceeded 60%. Once China decouples from the world’s industrial chain, unemployment and the associated crises would be many times more severe than in the Mao era. 

Even Mao’s “internal circulation” was unable to last for more than 10 years. Only 7 or 8 years after the CCP cut ties with Soviet Union, Mao Zedong was forced to turn to the US, which the CCP had been attacking for over 20 years. 

Today Xi Jinping’s ability to carry on alone without the world wouldn’t be higher than that of Mao Zedong.

So how long can the CCP still exist?

In terms of the external environment, this year and the next year,  more and more countries will continue to try to hold the CCP accountable for the pandemic, and seek compensation. Something dramatic could happen during this process.

In terms of the CCP’s internal environment, 2021-2023 will be the peak for China’s local governments to repay their debts. The real estate industry will also meet its peak for debt repayments during the same period of time. So the CCP could face both financial and fiscal crises. And that could cause a lot of uncertainty for the CCP too. 

Also, Xi Jinping might seek to become the chairman of the CCP and stay in power forever in the 20th National Congress of the CCP, which will be held next year. And the new CCP leadership will officially take office in March 2023.

Also in 2023,  several major U.S. arms sales to Taiwan will begin to be delivered. With this, the military power gap between Taiwan and the CCP’s China will narrow. 

So,  will Xi Jinping try to grasp the narrow window between now and then to invade Taiwan?  Whether he intends to do so or not, he did vow that the CCP would “unify” Taiwan” in his speech this morning. So this will also bring some uncertainty to the situation. 

So, with the combination of the several factors we just mentioned, the peak of pressure on the CCP will occur in the period from now to 2023.

And among all the factors, the most unpredictable one is the pandemic. It could also be the most overwhelming one. 

The CCP virus is still spreading and mutating, while the Chinese vaccines are not very effective. 

If China is hit again by some new mutations, it can become a catastrophic black swan event, and things can also go out of control very quickly.

 What Does the Rule of the CCP Mean for Chinese People?

 Now, in conclusion, “What does the CCP’s rule mean for Chinese people?”

My reply is, “For Chinese people, the rule of CCP means mass killing, endless ‘class struggles’, deprivation of wealth, human dignity, souls and freedom, and destruction of moral values, as well as the natural, cultural and human environment suitable for human beings’ existence. No other regime has killed so many lives, and destroyed its own culture and environment to such an extent. The nation and people are doomed if the CCP cannot be ended.”

Well, that’s all for today’s “Inconvenient Truths”. Thank you very much for watching.  Again, please remember to subscribe to my channel, like and share my videos, and leave us some comments.

See you on Monday!

7/1/2021

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Jennifer’s Photo Stories(31) 曾錚的圖片故事（31）

Yesterday, someone sent me a 5-minute video of a “magnificent “ poem recited by four beautiful and energetic girls and boys leading a large group of students in the Tiananmen Square to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). They shouted, “Please stay ensured, my dear Party, I’m here for a strong country!” That person said he wanted me to translate the video into English so that he could spread it to the Western audience, because “the speech was exactly like Hitler’s, the West really can’t appease the CCP any longer!”

昨天有人給我發來一個5分鍾的視頻，是四個朝氣蓬勃的俊男美女，帶領N多學生們一起在天安門广場上給中共慶「百年」，高喊「請黨放心、強國有我」的那段聲情併茂的詩朗誦，並說，想讓我把這段翻譯成英文，因爲「那演講詞跟希特勒一模一樣，西方不能再綏靖了！

I watched that video. It was do disgusting, and I couldn’t find any corresponding English expressions for those disgusting lines. So I didn’t translate it.

However, this video reminds me of my own experience of also celebrating the CCP’s China’s 35th “birthday” in Tiananmen Square.

我看了下那個視頻，那種肉麻的東西，聽得我只想起雞皮疙瘩，英文中很難找到對應的，不知道該怎麼翻譯，所以我就沒翻譯，但它倒是讓我一下子想起自己的相似經歷。

That was in 1984. I was admitted to Peking University as a 17-year-old girl. I traveled for thousands of kilometers from my hometown Sichuan Province to Beijing to attend it.

October 1, 1984 was the 35th anniversary of the founding of the CCP’s People’s Republic of China, and a grand celebration was to be held in Tiananmen Square. Many students were recruited from universities to dance and perform at the ceremony.

我是1984年9月入北大的，那年正趕上中共建政35週年大慶，也是要在天安門广場搞個大慶典，要從很多大學裏找大學生到广場上去跳舞表演。

Before I joined the university, other students had already been selected to practice overtime to rehearse the dance for several months, my classmates and I had just entered the university, it was too late for us to rehearse, so there would not be any chance for us to participate in normal circumstance.

在我們入校前，人已經選定了，加班加點排練舞蹈已經好幾個月了，我們剛剛入校的，已經來不及排練，本來是沒機會參加的。

However, in my department, which was geology department, there were very few girl students. Many dances needed equal number of boys and girls, so a few new girl students, including me, were selected to join those who had been practicing for months.

但是呢，我所在的地質系，因爲女生人數很少，很多舞蹈是男女配對的，所以沒辦法，只好從新生中選，就這樣，我和同班的幾位女生也就入選了。

We were so excited and felt so lucky. We just started school in time for such a big event, and also get an extra opportunity to go to Tiananmen Square, which we had longed for since childhood!

我們好激動啊，覺得自己真幸運。剛入學就趕上這麼大事，還得到額外的機會能去從小就嚮往的天安門！

So, we rehearsed day and night to participate in this “big celebration”. These pictures were taken that day. One was before we left, before we got on the bus. I was so nervous and excited that I didn’t know what to do, and my mouth was pursed tight.

就這樣，我們日夜排練，參加了這個「重大慶典」。這幾張照片，就是那天照的。一張是出發前，要上車之前。大家看我緊張、激動得不知怎麼好了，嘴巴抿得緊緊的。

Before we boarded the bus to Tiananmen on Oct. 1, 1984 上公共汽車之前，攝於1984年10月1日

The other two pictures were taken in Tiananmen Square before the event officially started.

另兩張是活動正式開始前，在天安門广場照的。

At Tiananmen Square, before the celebration began, on Oct. 1, 1984. The Chinese characters on the photo were written by me. They are “My Motherland” and “Long Live My Motherland!” 活動開始之前，攝於1984年10月1日。

Please note that on one of the photos, I wrote the words “My Motherland” and underneath that photo, I wrote four Chinese characters, “Long Live My motherland!”

大家請注意看，我在其中一張照片上，寫下了「我的祖國」四個字，在那個照片的下面，還寫上了「祖國萬歲」呢。

The other photo also has four words written on it, but I can’t make out what they are. I have forgotten what I wrote.

另一張照片上也寫了四個字，已經看不清是什麼了，有點像「同心慶賀」之類的。

Did you notice? We all wore our own clothes, unlike the students in Tiananmen yesterday, who had a uniform.

大家注意到沒有？我們都穿的是自己的服裝，並沒有像昨天天安門的學生那樣，有統一的服裝。

That is to say, in comparison, back then, 37 years ago, there was no need for the “grand” rituals of yesterday’s, and there was no need for such a neat procession, so we just danced and enjoyed ourselves as if we were playing.

就是說，比較而言，那時，也就是37年前，還不需要昨天中共那樣「隆重的」儀式感，隊伍也沒有必要那麼整齊，我們混在裏面，就當是玩一樣，也就那麼過去了。

What I want to say is, what is the use of the CCP to deceive the young people? I once was also in Tiananmen Square celebrating the “birthday” of the CCP’s China, I once was also so brainwashed that I sincerely wrote “Long live the motherland” on the photo. But look at me today: I’m exposing the CCP’s evil all day long, right?

我想說的是，共產黨騙年輕人有什麼用呢？那時候的我，在照片上激動的寫下「祖國萬歲」的我，現在不是在成天揭露中共嗎？

So, it’s useless to fool the children, they will wake up one day.

所以吧，騙小孩子沒有用的，終有一天會覺醒。

Also: that day, I was not yet 18 years old.

又：那一天，我還沒滿十八歲呢。

Read all 閱讀《曾錚的圖片故事》全系列

7/2/2021 *

Hello, everyone, welcome to “Inconvenient Truths”. I am your host Jennifer Zeng.

Today I will first of all give you another update about the possible defection of CCP’s top counterintelligence chief Dong Jingwei, some exclusive information from his acquaintance. Then I will talk about how, in just a few decades, the “Great Escape to Hong Kong” has become the “Great Escape from Hong Kong”, what does it mean by “we can only show you once”, and what the world can learn from this. I will show you some rare and precious historical footage that you might have never seen before. 

A Big “Thank You” to All My Donors, Supporters and Viewers

 Before we move to our topics, I’d like to give a big Thank You to all my supporters and viewers. 

Although YouTube has been suppressing me, the donations I’ve been receiving are growing, as you can see in this photo that shows the pledge growth at my Patrons account. Sometimes I feel very guilty that I don’t have much time to express my gratitude, or create some exclusive content for my donors. 

However, it is my understanding that people are supporting me, not to get some exclusive content from me, but to enable me to continue to create free content for everybody, so that more people get to know the “Inconvenient Truths”. Am I right? If you are one of my great donors, please feel free to share with us what you think. 

 Acquaintance Says Dong Jingwei’s Defection Is Possible 

Now, let’s move to our first topic today. 

An acquaintance of Dong Jingwei said to Chinese language media Vision Times that from what he knew about Dong, there does exist a possibility that Dong would choose to defect.

He said, Dong Jingwei used to work at the Hebei Branch of the People’s Bank of China after graduating from university and was transferred to the Hebei Provincial Government’s General Office around 1990.

He said that Dong has very white skin and is clean-looking, medium-sized, and didn’t talk much.

Dong Jingwei’s wife is Du Jinmei(杜金梅), who is the sister of a classmate of Dong Jingwei. She once worked as a nurse at the Hebei Provincial Hospital, and then with Dong’s promotion, she was transferred to the provincial Environmental Protection Department. 

Dong Jingwei has a daughter named Dong Bo(董勃). She was born in 1989,  and is 32 years old.  She looks exactly like Dong Jingwei. 

People have been circulating a photo of a woman on the internet, saying that she is Dong Jingwei’s daughter. Actually, she is not. She is another woman called Dong Huahau(董花花). Dong Jingwei’s family is very low-key and never posts their photos online. 

The acquaintance said that Dong Jingwei is very good at writing, that’s why he was transferred from the People’s Bank to the Hebei Provincial Government to be a secretary. 

Later he was transferred to the Public Security Department in Hebei Province.

The reason why he was later transferred to Beijing was because of his connections with Xi Jinping’s buddy Li Zhanshu.

Li Zhanshu is currently the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress,  head of the de facto legislative body of China. He is a No.3 member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the CCP, China’s top decision-making body. 

So to give a not that accurate analogy, Li Zhanshu’s position is somewhat similar to Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the United States House of Representatives. 

Anyway, Li Zhanshu’s father in law was the head of the Hebei Branch of the People’s Bank of China. So Dong Jingwei was his employee. Because of this, Dong Jingwei had a very good relationship with Li Zhanshu’s family. That’s why he got promoted very fast, and became the vice minister of State Security. 

By the way, Xi Jinping came to know Li Zhanshu when he worked in Zhengding County as a party secretary in the early 1980s’. 

So you see, in China, having some sort of relationship is very important.

The acquaintance said that from what he knew about Dong Jingwei, his defection is possible. Dong doesn’t have any family background within the CCP’s inner circle, his mother is a very simple housewife, his nature is not bad, etc. But once somebody enters the CCP’s system, good people can also become bad.

The acquaintance said that given Dong Jingwei’s position within the system, he must have learned many of the CCP’s top secrets, and he knows all the bad things that the CCP has done. So he must be very disappointed with the CCP. 

On the one hand, he may have been involved in some sensitive cases, and his own safety was at stake; on the other hand, he may have wanted to expose the truth to make up for his mistakes, so that the world could control the pandemic as soon as possible. So it is very likely that he chose to defect to the United States.

So, the above is what this source said to Vision Times in Chinese. I think it is worthwhile reporting this as it offers us some more information about Dong Jingwei and his family.

The Escape of Five Young Hong Kong Protesters

Now, let’s move to our next topic today: From the “Great Escape to Hong Kong” to the “Great Escape from Hong Kong.”

An inflatable speedboat, iPhones and a compass… five young men from Hong Kong, aged 18 to 26, risked their lives to escape to Taiwan by sea in July last year with simple equipment, and more than 10 hours’ steering in fear. These are some of the details that three of them recently shared with The Wall Street Journal.

The three young men are Ray, a 25-year-old warehouse employee, Tommy, a 22-year-old art student, and Kenny, a 26-year-old civil engineer. They said that at the time of their escape from Hong Kong, all three were in hiding from Hong Kong authorities, and two of them have been charged and might face years in prison for their involvement in pro-democracy protests in 2019.

Ray, Tommy and Kenny all decided to flee Hong Kong after they thought that they were unfairly persecuted. They spent about $1,300 each on an inflatable speed boat with twin engines. Before that,  they had already each spent thousands of dollars trying to escape from Hong Kong without success. 

To avoid reprisals from the Hong Kong government, they did not disclose who organized the escape.

 One day in mid-July last year, they set out to sea.  They took turns steering while the others kept watch. For more than five hours, the GPS on their phones showed that they were still in Chinese waters.

Whenever they saw vessels they couldn’t identify, they were scared to death. 

Only after reaching international waters, did they dare to slow down and eat their stores of chips, candy and canned corn.

After more than 10 hours on the water, they shut down the engine, and purposely damaged one of them. They figured that with only one engine left and not enough fuel, the people who found them would have to take them ashore.

In the darkness, they sent SOS signals with a flashlight, and about an hour later, the Taiwan Coast Guard took them to a secret location, and the authorities provided them with living supplies.

Some of them had hoped to stay in Taiwan, but were told they had to leave. Taiwan’s national security officials were concerned that if they helped them, the CCP might use it as an excuse to invade Taiwan.

It took six months for them to finally come to the US to seek asylum. When they talked to their families back in Hong Kong after they arrived in New York, Tommy’s parents, brother and sister broke down sobbing. Ray’s mother told him she was surprised to learn he was still alive.

Kenny now lives in Washington, D.C., in an apartment with other Hong Kong refugees. He co-founded an organization to help protesters from Hong Kong.

Ray and Tommy stayed in New York and rented a basement apartment together. Both of them want to attend college and join the U.S. military.

Big Prices of Escaping

So that’s the story of the 5 brave young men. 

However, not all of those who wanted to escape were as lucky. 

On August 23 last year, another 12 Hong Kong residents fled by sea, but were intercepted by CCP’s Guangdong Marine Police. They were arrested and detained.

Two months later, eight of them were sentenced to seven months in prison.

The CCP police took 2 months intensively monitoring and intercepting information about their escape attempt.

Then, on October 10 last year, nine Hong Kong people were arrested for assisting the above-mentioned 12 Hong Kong people’s escape attempts. They had spent over a million HK dollars to try to help, but ended up being arrested. The youngest one is only 26 years old, the eldest one 72. 

On January 14, 11 more people were arrested for the same reason, including lawyer and District Councilor Daniel Wong Kwok-tung(黃國桐), and mother of Willis Ho, deputy secretary-general of the student organization the Hong Kong Federation of Students. 

Wong had set up an “Umbrella” restaurant in Taiwan to provide help to Hong Kong activists living in exile in Taiwan.

“New Operation Yellowbird”

 The risks associated with escape attempts are high. But for many Hong Kongers who are facing long sentences for participating in the anti-extradition bill protests, they still choose to flee.

In February, a group of pro-democracy activists in the U.S. launched “New Operation Yellowbird” to rescue Hong Kong people facing arrest and sentencing.

Zheng Cunzhu, vice chairman of the United Headquarters of China Democratic Party, said to The Epoch Times that “New Operation Yellowbird” was launched to help the Hong Kong people who have been forced to flee.

So far, four Hong Kong residents who participated in the anti-extradition bill protests have been granted asylum in the United States through “New Operation Yellowbird”, and many more are awaiting interviews or court appearances.

One of them,  a 21-year-old Hong Kong man was granted asylum in immigration court in mid-June. He still bears the scars left by Hong Kong police.

The name “New Operation Yellowbird” originates from “Operation Yellowbird” , a program that assisted Chinese people to flee from China after the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989. The operation has helped over 400 people to escape from China.

The name “Operation Yellowbird” comes from the poem “The Yellow Bird in the Wild Field” by Cao Zhi, a prince of the state of  Wei in the Three Kingdoms period of China(from 220 to 280 AD). He was also an accomplished poet of nearly two thousand years ago.

So several lines of his poem goes like this: 

“While the snare is glad to catch the yellow bird,

The young man feels sorry for it.

“When he draws the sword and cut the snare,

The yellow bird is set free to cut the air. ”

At that time, Cao Zhi was unable to rescue his close friends, so he expressed his distress with this poem, which has been loved and spread widely in China ever since.

I am pretty much sure that he had never expected that after nearly two thousand years, people would use his poem to name an operation that rescues persecuted people. 

“The Great Escape to Hong Kong”

Actually, apart from “Operation Yellowbird”, people of Hong Kong also offered tremendous help to people who escaped from China from the 1950s to 1980s, especially after the great famine in early the 1960s. So this is called “The Great Escape to Hong Kong.” 

Let’s play a video. So this was in 1962, at Luohu port in Hong Kong. On the trucks were people from China who just escaped. Hong Kong authorities wanted to send them back, but local Hongkongers gathered around, throwing food and medicine to the people on the trucks. 

During that period of time, on average, there were 5000 people escaping to Hong Kong every day. And within one month, 150,000 arrived. In some villages in Guangdong, all the villagers escaped, without a single one leaving behind. 

Before this peak of new arrivals, the British government, which was ruling Hong Kong then, had always accepted refugees from China. However, in 1962, as too many people were arriving, the British government decided to catch those people and send them back. 

At that time, around 30,000 refugees gathered at a Hong Kong district called Huashan, for their relatives to come and take them home. They were hungry and exhausted. 

At such a difficult time, people of Hong Kong offered great help. They called for the government to save these people. A newspaper called Mirror became a center for supplies for these people. Religious organizations, media companies and ordinary citizens sent clothes, food and water to Huashan more than 100,000 times. 

Some citizens took some of the refugees home and hid them inside their homes. 

When the police planned to send these refugees back with trucks,  thousands of Hong Kong citizens gathered outside the refugee camp in the night to try to stop the police. 

On the following day, more than 10,000 people showed up with food, and threw them into the trucks. 

Also, hundreds of Hongkongers lay down on the street to stop the trucks, so that people on the truck could have the chance to jump out and escape. 

Later, it was estimated that as many as 10,000 refugees managed to escape and run back to the city. The police didn’t really push too hard to try to catch those people, either. 

Unfortunately, this part of the story was not captured by the camera. So we can’t see it now.

So altogether, from the 1950s to late 1970s, over half a million Chinese people escaped to Hong Kong. I guess that is really a “Great Escape”. 

And in Guangdong, more than 300,000 people were arrested and imprisoned for trying to escape to Hong Kong.

So that’s a little bit of the history of the Great Escape to Hong Kong. It always moves my heart to think how the great people of Hong Kong have bravely and selflessly helped those Chinese refugees. 

“We Can Only Show You Once”

Sadly, this “Great Escape to Hong Kong” has now become the “Great Escape from Hong Kong”. Who would have thought that those great Hongkongers, and their children or grandchildren would one day also have to escape like those they had helped?

So what is the lesson to learn here? The world once believed that the CCP would keep its promise to let Hong Kong enjoy freedom, and continue its way of life through the so-called “One Country, Two System”.

But the sad reality is, believing in the CCP’s words has ruined Hong Kong. 

Another lesson is, wherever the CCP goes, disasters follow.  In just 24 years, the CCP completely destroyed Hong Kong’s freedom. 

Now let’s show a photo that I can never get over with. This is a young woman from Hong Kong going to Taiwan on Taiwan’s voting day last year. She stood at a railway station with such a sign: “I am a Hongkonger. Please cherish your votes. We can only show you once.”

A young woman from Hong Kong on Taiwan’s voting day last year stood at a railway station with a sign that says: “I am a Hongkonger. Please cherish your votes. We can only show you once.”

Someone posted this photo on her Facebook Page, and said she was moved to tears.

So what does “We can only show you once” mean? Because everyone can only die once, as you have only one life. This young woman means that she hopes Taiwanese can learn the lessons from Hong Kong’s death, and will not trust the CCP’s lies and beautiful promises whatsoever.  She hopes that Hong Kong people’s sacrifice and sufferings can wake up Taiwan and the world. 

No More Free Press

A few days ago, Hong Kong’s Apple Daily , one of the very few still independent media outlets in Hong Kong, was forced to close. And yesterday, Fung Wai-kong(馮偉光)  a former senior journalist with the Apple Daily was arrested at the airport when he tried to leave for UK. He thus became the seventh Apple Daily figure to be arrested in two weeks. 

Another media outlet called Stand News is now deleting all commentary articles that were published before June this year. It will also stop fundraising efforts out of concern that they could be targeted by the National Security Law like Apple Daily if they don’t. 

Several other media such as Winandmac and Post 852 have also announced that they would move out of Hong Kong, and cancel their Hong Kong registration, or take off all their online content. 

So that’s how bad the situation is in Hong Kong now. 

A while ago I did a program about my friend Sarah Liang, a journalist with the Hong Kong Edition of the Epoch Times, who was attacked by a CCP thug. 

This morning she posted such a post on her Facebook:

“How is Hong Kong now?”

“Friends  are meeting for dinner, each meal may be the last one. When we say ‘take care’ to one another, we feel that we may never see one another again. There are countless send-offs and immigrations. Countless have been sent to prison, and friends suddenly lose contact. We do not know where they have gone, it is not even convenient to ask.”

Screenshot of Sarah Liang’s Facebook post.

So, that’s a direct quote from Sarah Liang, a friend and a journalist still living in  and reporting from Hong Kong

 A Test for G7 Countries? 

Many of my Chinese friends say that the CCP’s crackdown on Apple Daily and Hong Kong is a test for the world, especially for the G7 countries, which have just released a joint statement about the CCP’s threat. 

The CCP was of course very upset about the joint statement of G7 countries. So it accelerated the crackdown on Hong Kong, to test the G7 countries, to see how serious these countries are when they talk about tackling the CCP’s threat.

Well, I hope we can all remember that young woman’s sign, “We can only show you once.” We have only one Hong Kong to be killed by the CCP. Do we really need more examples to be awakened?

 Well, that’s all for today’s “Inconvenient Truths”. Thank you very much for watching. Please don’t forget to subscribe to my channel, and share my videos as widely as you can. 

Thank you. See you on Thursday!

6/28/2021 *

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（曾錚注：以下爲《看中國》獨家報導的英文摘要翻譯。中文原文在此。）

An acquaintance of Dong Jingwei recently told the Chinese language media Vision Times exclusively that from what he knew about Dong, there does exist a possibility that Dong would choose to defect.

He said, Dong Jingwei used to work at the People’s Bank of China’s Hebei Branch after graduating from university and was transferred to the Hebei Provincial Government’s General Office around 1990.

He said that Dong has white skin and is clean-looking and medium-sized, and that he doesn’t talk much.

Dong Jingwei’s wife is Du Jinmei(杜金梅), who is the sister of a classmate of Dong Jingwei. She once worked as a nurse at the Hebei Provincial Hospital, and then with Dong’s promotion, she was transferred to the provincial Environmental Protection Department. 

Dong Jingwei has a daughter named Dong Bo(董勃). She was born in 1989,  and is 32 years old.  She looks exactly like Dong Jingwei. People have been circulating a photo of a woman on the internet, saying she is Dong Jingwei’s daughter. Actually, she is not. She is another woman called Dong Huahau (董花花). Dong Jingwei’s family is very low-key and never posts their photos on line. 

The acquaintance said that Dong Jingwei is very good at writing, that’s why he was transferred from the People’s Bank to the Hebei Provincial Government to be a secretary. 

Later he was transferred to the Public Security Department in Hebei.

The reason why he was later transferred to Beijing was because of his connections with Li Zhanshu. 

Li Zhanshu is currently the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress,  head of the de facto legislative body of the People’s Republic of China. He is a No.3 member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, China’s top decision-making body. 

Li Zhanshu’s father in law was the head of People’s Bank of China’s Hebei Branch. So Dong Jingwei was his employee when he worked there. Because of this, Dong Jingwei had very good relationship with Li Zhanshu’s family. That’s why he got promoted very fast, and became the vice minister of State Security. 

The CCP’s head Xi Jinping came to know Li Zhanshu when he worked in Zhengding County, Hebei Province as a party secretary in the early 1980s’. 

The acquaintance said that from what he knew about Dong Jingwei, his defection is possible. Dong doesn’t have any family background with the CCP’s inner circle, his mother is a very simple housewife, his nature is not bad.  But once somebody enters the CCP’s system, good people can also become bad.

The acquaintance said that given Dong Jingwei’s position within the system, he must have learned many of the CCP’s top secrets, and he knows all the bad things that the CCP has done. So he must be very disappointed with the CCP. 

On the one hand, he may have been involved in some sensitive cases, and his own safety was at stake; on the other hand, he may have wanted to expose the truth to make up for his mistakes, so that the world could control the pandemic as soon as possible. So it is very likely that he chose to defect to the United States.

Original Chinese report available at: https://www.secretchina.com/news/gb/2021/06/28/976414.html

6/28/2021*

Screenshot from a CCTV（China Central TV) report at https://politics.cntv.cn/special/gwyvideo/zhaokezhi/202106/2021062301/index.shtml showing Dong Jingwei(R) attending the 16th meeting of the Security Councils Secretaries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states on June 23, 2021.

十幾年前初到澳洲時，正趕上早春季節，到處都是盛開的鮮花。親戚拉著我們到什麼企鵝島、大洋路等「著名」景點一一逛過去。照理，面對南太平洋那一望無際的深深堪藍，以及危岩邊「亂石穿空，驚濤拍岸」的波瀾壯闊，我這個來自內陸的很少見過海的「土包子」，應該激動不已才是。但不知為什麼，我對這一切很麻木。

第一次感到澳洲與中國有所不同，是在坐公共汽車時。那是在墨爾本的一個小站，我上車後，很快到了下一站，有那麼十幾個人排隊等候上車，多數是老太太。這些人慢悠悠的排著隊，一個一個慢悠悠的買票，買票時還跟兼當售票員的司機慢悠悠的說話。

我無比詫異的看著這一切：這麼慢！司機居然也跟他們有說有笑，後面等候的，和車上的坐著的乘客居然也沒有一個人催：「快點！」想當年咱在北京時，追趕公共汽車時的百米衝刺那叫一個快啊，奮不顧身往車上擠時，身手那叫一個敏捷啊，就是這樣，還時常有眼看就快上車了，卻被「啪」一下關在門外、眼睜睜看著車絕塵而去的事情呢。

這時候，看著慢騰騰的澳洲公共汽車，和慢悠悠的澳洲人，腦子中不知怎麼突然閃出這麼一句話來：「這麼慢！『四個現代化』何時能實現啊？」

這句話閃過之後，自己轉念又啞然了：「什麼呀，人家澳洲，不是早已進入發達國家之列了嗎？」這麼一想，才突然驚覺：「唉喲，原來實不實現現代化，並不取決於是否人人都在拼了命似的往前趕呀！」

可以說，這是我到澳洲後受到的第一次思想衝擊，而且是來自於這麼一件不起眼的小事。後來，類似的情況經歷多了，慢慢也就「見慣不驚」起來。也聽過別的華人朋友感慨：在澳洲，人是被當作人對待的。就像那公共汽車司機，他非得把每一個人都服務好之後，才去招呼下一個人。也許，這才是「四個現代化」的一部分？

第二次心靈大衝擊，發生在幾年後的高速公路上。那天我駕著車，以近百公里的速度在悉尼的一條高速路上奔馳著，要去趕一個重要約會。當開過一個出口時，我突然驚覺：「糟糕！應該從剛才那個口出去！」

我一直很怕上高速，就是因為一旦錯過一個出口，下一個出口不知有多遠，更不知何時才能掉頭。在擔心遲到的恐慌中，我猛一腳踩住剎車，然後猛一打方向盤，硬行停到旁邊的一條支線上，拿出地圖準備查看是否真是錯過了我事前看好的那個出口。

這時，我後面一輛車也帶著刺耳的剎車聲，「嗖」的一個弧線從我車邊劃過，在我前面十多米的地方才停了下來。

一個中年西人男子打開車門，朝我走來。

我的汗一下子流了下來，想起出國前在北京開車的一次恐怖經歷。那是一個大雪的早上，路上積雪很厚，開在上面感覺跟平時完全不一樣，覺得很害怕，因為隨時都有可能打滑或失去控制。

路上的車很少，我前面是一輛白色麵包車。大家都小心翼翼的開著。不知何時，一輛小車從我後面超過來，又超過前面那輛麵包車，並很快的「平移」到麵包車前面，在我還沒反應過來是怎麼回事時，那輛小車突然一個急剎車，後面的麵包車猝不及防，也只能急踩剎車，結果一下失去控制，「嗖」的一下橫了過來，在馬路中間團團打轉，眼看就要翻車；而我呢，如果不是天幸跟面包車保持了比平時更遠的距離，絕對也只能一頭撞上去了。而前面那輛小車，在成功的完成這一高難度「雜技」動作後，一踩油門開跑了。

我當時嚇得魂都沒有了，完全不知後來那輛麵包車怎樣了，而我又是怎樣越過那輛橫在馬路中間的麵包車，繼續前行的。晚上回到家定下心來，我才開始猜想：一定是之前麵包車車主惹著那輛小車了，因此小車司機才刻意報復，險些釀成一場連環車禍。

回想起這次經歷，我忘了迷路後的恐慌，開始意識到：自己剛才那一腳剎車一踩，肯定讓後面的車險些撞上。如果車主要找我打架，或臭罵我一頓，沒得說，只能忍了，誰讓自己理虧呢？

正思忖間，那名男子已經走到我車前。他一臉笑容的蹲下來，以便跟坐著的我一樣高，然後把頭伸到車門玻璃邊，和藹可親的問：「請問你是迷路了嗎？你要去哪裡？把地圖給我，我告訴你怎麼走。」

那一刻，我的眼淚都要掉下來了。我自認已經是一個道德水準很高的人了，但如果我和他互換位置的話，我頂多不去罵他就是了，我絕對不會去想：他為什麼這樣急踩剎車？是不是因為迷了路才如此？我更不會跟著他停到支線上，冒著回不到高速路上的「危險」，去問他是否需要幫助。

感動中，我把地圖遞給他，告訴他自己需要去哪裡哪裡。他說，哦，你是應該從剛才的出口出去。不過沒關係，看見前面那個鐵路橋了嗎？你上到那個鐵路橋上就可以掉頭回來了，不會遲到的。祝你好運！

寫到這裡，我已經又一次熱淚漣漣了。後來時間長了，慢慢「適應」了澳洲人的善良和好心眼，也慢慢開始向他們學習。比如，有一次在朋友家聚會，正玩得開心，突然聽到外面有敲門聲。原來是一個路人來問：外面有一輛車的車燈忘關了，是誰的？

我跑出去一看，正是我的車。還好有他提醒，否則玩到夜深回家時，電耗沒了打不著車，豈不糟糕？

從那以後，我如果在路上看見沒關燈的車，也會去敲人家的門，提醒他們。原來，好心眼，和「多管閒事」的「毛病」，也是可以「傳染」的。

有不少澳洲人問過我：澳洲跟中國最大的不同是什麼？

我總是說：「在我看來，最大的不同是，在澳洲，你可以信任一個陌生的人；而在中國，你絕對不能信任陌生人。」

聽到這樣的回答，許多澳洲人會「恍然大悟」似的看著我直點頭。然而，我心裡卻真不知道，他們到底能不能理解、能不能體會活在一個不能信任陌生人的社會，是什麼滋味。比如，我在中國時就有這樣的經歷，問路時，有人問你要錢，不給錢不告訴你，也有人故意給你指錯路，讓你黑燈瞎火的在山裡多轉幾百公里還上不了正道；還有騎三輪的老頭，在很窄的小路上故意擋在馬路中間不給你讓路，讓你只能一路悶著離合器，以烏龜爬行的速度乖乖做他的「跟屁蟲」，直到你小腿因踩離合時間太長而開始抽筋，心中惱得直想開車撞翻了他……這樣的經歷多了，心情真是很難陽光起來。「四個現代化」就算實現了，又有什麼用？

幾年前在網上開一個博客時，有一個預設的關於自己的問題必須回答：「最喜歡的地方」，我毫不猶豫便填上：「好人多的地方」。

而澳洲，正是一個「好人多的地方」。

(注：此文寫於2011年，获悉尼《看中国》时报「美丽澳洲行，情系《看中国》 」五周年报庆征文三等奖，发表时笔名为蒋悦。）

澳洲墨爾本一農場