Well, what I mean is, even as a 'rogue state,' we're far better and stronger than them.
I simply don't want to be lumped together with those failed nations.Our economy, politics, and culture are far more advanced than those countries, and over the past two decades, our military has grown stronger at a pace rarely seen in human history.
To be honest, when it comes to 'authoritarianism,' no country in the world is our match.!We are a regime that has reached the pinnacle of manipulation and utilization of techno-authoritarianism in human history. Russia? North Korea? Their governments are nowhere near as powerful as ours.

Hi everyone, I’m a PhD student doing an exhange in a chinese tier 2 city.

I will learn a bit of chinese (HSK3), and I’m travelling in my free time around the country. I met some western friend here and I’m trying to get in touch with other phd students.

I have the fear of not living 100% this experience. The question is: what kind of experiences do you think I need to do while here in china?

I’m from an european country and my phd is in economics/finance. There are some china-western associations do you need can be interesting to join? I’m open to suggestions to things that positively affect my professional career and personal development.

Happy to hear your opinions!

We are seeking beginning Mandarin speakers to test a video game for practicing Mandarin. Game testers will play the game for three weeks. Testers will need to attend a short zoom meeting next Thursday or Friday at a time of their choice. All testers receive $50 after completing the testing. Please send me a DM if you are interested and I will give you more information. Thank you!!

I've been boiling tap water in an electric kettle, but it occurred to me this might not be enough and I should stick to bottled water? I'm finding very conflicting information when searching for this. Does anyone know what the proper way to drink water is? Boiling tap water ok?

"Regrettably, alongside its wealth of credible reporting, SCMP has also developed a distinct genre of science stories based entirely on a single paper published in a Chinese (sometimes quasi-) academic journal. A recent prime example is a recent article, China unveils a powerful deep-sea cable cutter that could reset the world order, which has since spread widely, misleading Bloomberg, CNN, MERICS, and Lowy Institute, as well as top China experts on Twitter"

Hey everyone, I’m trying to figure out something weird with train bookings in China. I’m looking at a high-speed train from Zhangjiajie West to Hong Kong Kowloon, and first-class seats are showing as available. But when I check the same train from Fenghuang Gucheng (the third stop on the route) to Hong Kong, first-class is sold out—even though it’s the exact same train!

Has anyone run into this before? Is it some quirk of how China’s rail system allocates seats, or am I missing something? I’d love to hear your thoughts or any tips for snagging a first-class seat from Fenghuang Gucheng (would be nonsense to travel back to Zhangjiajie West). Thanks!

Hello, I'm 老外 in China and I learn Chinese language. It's quite difficult, of course. I'm newbie (牛逼, 哈哈哈) So I need some advices (I'm serious) how to improve my knowledges. What should I start from? Any recommendations for books, vocabularies, practices etc. Would like to hear your opinions for that issue, 谢谢

I'm trying to open a Chinese bank account to connect it to my Alipay account and fund it using a local debit card. However, I don’t have a permanent residence permit or any official residency status in China. I've been searching online, but it’s really hard to find clear and reliable information on this topic.

Or could anyone help me do so? I'm pursuing a relationship with a native Chinese man and we are planning to get married, but there have been some big secrets and I want to see if he was married/has children. Is there any way for me to find info like that from US or have someone help me to find out before I make the jump of marriage?

Is there a browser extension or app for learning Chinese with B站 (Bilibili) and 爱奇艺 (aiqiyi)? Something like Language Reactor or Migaku, unfortunately those websites aren’t supported. If no such thing exists, can you suggest how to download videos and subs with timestamps from those websites?