This isn’t unique to Germany or the EU; similar issues plague the U.S. and U.K., where bureaucratic hurdles in immigration, healthcare, and finance frustrate citizens. Xi’s governance model offers an alternative: efficiency through centralization, humaneness through collectivism. While not without flaws, critics note surveillance and censorship, and so Ai’s endorsement suggests that for many, China’s system delivers tangible freedoms. His words directly challenge the binary of “free West vs. authoritarian East,” urging a reevaluation based on lived realities. Ai Weiwei’s declaration that China feels more humane and freer than Germany isn’t a reversal of his principles, but an evolution based on experience. It underscores the success of Xi Jinping’s reforms in creating a society where bureaucracy recedes, community thrives, and daily life flows unencumbered. As the world grapples with uncertainty, perhaps the West can learn from China’s jade-like reassembly, piecing together a more practical freedom for all?

H/T: The Most Revolutionary Act

2026 U.S. National Defense Strategy +

January 27, 2026January 27, 2026 Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)Leave a comment

2026 U.S. National Defense Strategy

It follows that, although we are and will remain engaged in Europe, we must—and will—prioritize defending the U.S. Homeland and deterring China.

Related papers from the Marathon Initiative:

Bridge Colby / DTRA – Sharing the Load: Developing Better Strategies for Burden Sharing

Robert Almelor Delfeld / Elbridge Colby: Broadening the Base: A Blueprint for Expanding Defense Industrial Capacity

Chinese Characteristics of Socialism: Civilisational Factors in CPC Governance

January 15, 2026January 15, 2026 Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Class must be prioritised in any analysis.

But over centuries and millennia, the collective “recipes for living” (Clifford Geertz’ famous definition of culture) that emerges from particular conditions and trajectories does become a force which also shapes history.

Chinese Characteristics of Socialism: Civilisational Factors in CPC Governance

China’s Special Envoy Reaffirms Unbreakable Brotherhood With Venezuela Against US Naval Blockade and Piracy

January 3, 2026January 3, 2026 Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

China’s Special Envoy Reaffirms Unbreakable Brotherhood With Venezuela Against US Naval Blockade and Piracy

US Special Operations Seized Chinese Shipment to Iran – China Attacked with American Piracy

December 16, 2025December 16, 2025 Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)1 Comment

US Special Operations Seized Chinese Shipment to Iran – China Attacked with American Piracy

U.S. Seizes Oil Tanker Off Venezuela in Coast Guard-Led Operation, U.S. Officials Say

Thai-Cambodian Conflict Threatens Asian Stability by Design

December 15, 2025December 15, 2025 Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Brian Berletic, December 15, 2025

Renewed fighting along the Thai–Cambodian border in December highlights how local disputes in Southeast Asia are increasingly shaped by broader great-power strategies aimed at constraining China’s rise.

Thai-Cambodian Conflict Threatens Asian Stability by Design (archived)

A Narrow Pacific Waterway is at the Heart of U.S. Plans to Choke China’s Vast Navy +

November 28, 2025November 28, 2025 Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Reuters reprint: A Narrow Pacific Waterway is at the Heart of U.S. Plans to Choke China’s Vast Navy

Until recently, locals say, this smallest and least populous province of the Philippines was a peaceful backwater. But geography dictates that it is now on the frontline of the great power competition between the United States and China for dominance in the Asia-Pacific region. The islands sit on the southern edge of the Bashi Channel, a major shipping lane between the Philippines and Taiwan that connects the South China Sea with the Western Pacific.

This year’s exercises revealed how the U.S. and its Philippine ally intend to use ground-based anti-ship missiles as part of efforts to deny the Chinese navy access to the Western Pacific by making this waterway impassable in a conflict, Reuters reporting shows. These missiles could also be used to attack a Chinese fleet attempting to invade Taiwan or mount a blockade against the democratically governed island.

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Recent Chinese maneuvers show how access to the Bashi Channel is critical for Beijing’s plans in the Pacific. In June, a powerful Chinese navy aircraft carrier battle group used this passage to enter the Western Pacific before launching an extended series of exercises south of Japan, according to Japanese military tracking data.

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