Thread: The View, from China

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Oh so they're going to invade Brazil, India, China, Russia, etc. are they?

Only if the CIA covert operation fails.

I wonder how chinky men take the news that chinky women would rather date ChatGPT than them.



The Chinese women turning to ChatGPT for AI boyfriends - BBC Website

Who can blame them when the horrible bastards can do this?

A prominent female #MeToo activist in China has been handed a five-year jail sentence for "subversion against the state".
Sophia Huang Xueqin was convicted and sentenced on Friday, nearly 10 months after she went on trial.
Labour activist Wang Jianbing, who stood trial with Ms Huang, was sentenced to three years and six months in prison.
Ms Huang, 36, had been one of the most prominent voices in China's #MeToo space, reporting ground-breaking stories about sexual abuse victims.
She had also spoken out about the misogyny and sexism she faced in Chinese newsrooms.
Chinese authorities have not made it clear how the two stood accused of subversion. The trial was a closed-door hearing.
But their supporters say they were detained because they hosted regular meetings and forums for young people to discuss social issues.
Ms Huang had been on her way to take up a UK-government sponsored masters scholarship at the University of Sussex when she was detained at the airport in the city of Guangzhou in 2021.
Mr Wang, 40, was with her at that time.
Supporters say both have endured months of solitary confinement during their pre-detention custody, which lasted for nearly 1,000 days. Their trial only began in September 2023.
A BBC Eye investigation in 2022 found that both were being held in solitary confinement, detained in secret locations known as 'black jails'.
In 2021, amid Covid lockdowns and growing public anger, Chinese authorities launched a crackdown on several activists working across different fields.
"Their efforts and dedication to labour, women's rights, and the broader civil society won't be negated by this unjust trial, nor will society forget their contributions," said the campaign group Free Huang Xueqin and Wang Jianbing.
"On the contrary, as oppression persists and injustice grows, more activists like them will continue to rise."
Amnesty International on Friday called the convictions "malicious and totally groundless".
"[They] show just how terrified the Chinese government is of the emerging wave of activists who dare to speak out to protect the rights of others," said Amnesty International’s China Director Sarah Brooks.

Huang Xueqin: Chinese #MeToo journalist jailed for five years

Another perspective from Americans residing in China.

Is this another chinky arsekisser video?

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Is this another chinky arsekisser video?

Of course, it is.

Damn Chinks.
They're everywhere.
Sneaky cunts.

Originally Posted by OhOh

Climate change, energy and environment, including through recommencing bilateral climate change and energy dialogues, holding the Eighth China-Australia Ministerial Dialogue on Climate Change in 2024 in Australia and commencing technical cooperation on soil carbon testing and climate-smart agriculture practices;

Now

There's another thread going regarding...humour.

Australia is up there with the best.

If I may....and a bit on topic:

Is another global war, à la Ukraine, coming up?

Taiwan Continues Toward US-Engineered “Ukraine-ization”

27.05.2024

Author: Brian Berletic

"The Chinese Island province of Taiwan continues to be targeted by the US and its political proxies through efforts to further consolidate political control over it and transform it into a geopolitical “battering ram” against the rest of China.

Considering the catastrophic consequences the Eastern European nation of Ukraine is suffering from a similar US-engineered strategy, understanding what Washington is doing to Taiwan and why there is essential in exposing and possibly avoiding similar consequences of unfolding in the Asia-Pacific region.

New “President,” Same Policy of Separatism

The US-backed Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Lai Ching-te took office as the local administration’s “president,” doubling down on a policy of integrating Taiwan further with the United States which includes military, political, and economic subordination.

Lai Ching-te’s predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen oversaw the expansion of a US troop presence, which according to the Wall Street Journal, includes outer islands claimed by the Taipei-based administration, as well as growing tensions with the rest of China. Taiwan’s local economy has suffered consistently as the island’s administration attempts to reduce its “dependency” on the rest of China, which represents the largest market (nearly half) for all exports from local industries.

Taiwan is Not a Country

The Guardian in its article, “China warns of reprisals against Taiwan after president’s inauguration speech,” attempts to portray China as bullying a “sovereign” Taiwan.

The article claims:

Beijing has warned of undefined reprisals against Taiwan after the inauguration speech of new president Lai Ching-te in which he maintained his government’s position on sovereignty, and did not concede to Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is a province of China.

However, the fact that Taiwan is a province of China is not merely “Beijing’s claim.” It is recognized as such by the United Nations, the “One China” policy of nations around the globe, including the United States and most European states, as well as the constitution of the Taiwan-based “Republic of China” itself.

The Guardian along with much of the collective West’s media deliberately misinforms the general public regarding the status of Taiwan to help enable US efforts to transform the island province into a proxy against the rest of China much in the same way Ukraine has been transformed into a proxy against Russia.

The Guardian also noted:

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) called Lai’s speech “a downright confession of Taiwan independence”, and again labeled Lai a “dangerous separatist”.

“No one hopes to achieve the reunification of the motherland through peaceful means more than we do,” the statement attributed to TAO spokesperson Chen Binhua said. “However, we must counterattack and punish the DPP authorities in colluding with external forces to pursue ‘independence’ provocations.”

The external forces being referred to of course are Washington and its allies. The DPP, and both Tsai Ing-wen and Lai Ching-te specifically, have a long history of consorting with the US government through the Taiwan-based “American Institute in Taiwan” (AIT).

The AIT serves as a de facto US embassy, since the US does not officially recognize Taiwan as a nation. In fact, on the US State Department’s official website, regarding the status of Taiwan, it specifically says, “we do not support Taiwan independence,” while admitting the AIT is “a non-governmental organization mandated by the Taiwan Relations Act to carry out the United States’ unofficial relations with Taiwan.”

Washington’s Political Capture of Taiwan

Originally, Taiwan served as the refuge of the fleeing Kuomintang (KMT), the US-backed losers of China’s civil war following the end of World War 2. To prevent China from sweeping away the remnants of Washington’s proxies, the US stationed thousands of troops on the island of Taiwan and invested heavily in maintaining what was then considered a pseudo-government-in-exile.

In the 1970s, the objective of reinstalling the KMT into power over the rest of China was no longer practical. Washington, along with the rest of the world, officially recognized the Beijing-based People’s Republic of China as the sole legitimate government of China, including Taiwan. The US also agreed to withdraw its military forces and eventually end the sale of weapons to Taiwan.

Despite these initial steps and the US to this day officially denouncing Taiwanese independence, its policy in recent years has been exclusively focused on promoting separatism, including through the return of US troops on the island, building up the military forces of the island’s administration, building up the DPP, maneuvering it into power, and aiding it in consolidating political control over the island to then pivot the population toward an anti-China, pro-separatist footing.

Taiwan: A Disposable Proxy

While the ultimate goal has for decades been to transform Taiwan into a US client regime, fully independent of China, and use it as an “unsinkable aircraft carrier” against the rest of China, the likelihood of this happening now is low. A much more measured objective is to use Taiwan as a means of complicating China’s rise, contributing to a larger US strategy of encirclement and containment, and raising the cost significantly for the eventual, full reunification of Taiwan with the rest of China.

More recent think tank papers, including a January 2023 Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) report titled, “The First Battle of the Next War: War gaming a Chinese Invasion of Taiwan,” discusses a possible Chinese “invasion” of its own island province, and admits that while it believes the US can ultimately frustrate such a military operation, it comes at the price of “extensive damage done to the Taiwanese infrastructure and economy.”

Obviously, scouring the physical surface of Taiwan of all industry and infrastructure, rendering its economy destroyed, equates to the destruction of Taiwan’s administration itself. Just like with Ukraine, which US policymakers in 2019 suggested aiding in a military build-up meant to provoke, rather than deter a Russian military intervention, the goal is not to deter conflict or save either Ukraine or Taiwan, but instead provoke conflict that can incur steep costs for both Russia and China, hopefully “extending” either or both nations to the point of a Soviet Union-style collapse.

Ukraine is already paying the cost of this policy vis-à-vis Russia, the policy having categorically failed in “extending” Russia or precipitating a collapse of either its government or economy. The use of Taiwan in a similar manner is unlikely to be any more successful for US policymakers, but Taiwan itself is just as likely to suffer catastrophically in the event of a future conflict as Ukraine is suffering now amid the current, ongoing conflict. Just as the rest of Europe is suffering from Washington’s proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, Washington’s use of Taiwan to provoke Beijing is having a destabilizing effect on the entire Asia-Pacific region.

The US-backed DPP remaining in office in Taipei ensures the danger of Taiwan becoming the next “Ukraine” remains a high likelihood. In the meantime, Taiwan’s local economy will continue to suffer as the current administration irrationally pivots away from the rest of China and further subordinates itself to US foreign policy objectives.

Only time will tell if Beijing’s own policy toward full reunification can outpace Washington’s policy of destroying the island before this happens. China’s approach involves a combination of military power to confront the growing US militarization of the island and a growing number of economic incentives to share with Taiwan the peace, stability, and prosperity the rest of China has increasingly enjoyed since the turn of the century."

Taiwan Continues Toward US-Engineered “Ukraine-ization”

You can bet on the chinkies trying to defend Putin at the same time as trying to justify waging war on Taiwan.

And some silly chinky puppet inventing words like "Ukraineization".

What a pile of shit.

Chinky bastards at it again.

QUITO, Ecuador--Ecuador on Tuesday announced the suspension of an agreement with China that had waived visas for Chinese citizens traveling to the South American country, citing a “worrying” increase in irregular migration.
Ecuador's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the suspension of the bilateral agreement is temporary and would start on July 1. It added that the measure was taken after authorities saw that around 50% of Chinese nationals entering Ecuador didn't leave the country “through regular routes” nor within the permitted 90 days they were allowed to stay under the waiver agreement.

Ecuador stops waiving visas for Chinese nationals because of an increase in irregular migration | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis

And based on that you have to worry about all the chinky crooks pouring into Australia.

Chinese officials appear to have blocked a formerly imprisoned journalist from the view of cameras at an event between Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Canberra.
Cheng Lei, who was imprisoned by Beijing for three years, later said she believed two embassy officials had stood in front of her to prevent her from "saying” or “doing something” that they thought “would be a bad look”.
Mr Li's visit - the first by a Chinese premier since 2017 - has been seen as another step in the thawing of tensions between the two nations after a string of disputes.
Both he and Mr Albanese said bilateral discussions so far had been constructive.
When asked about whether he saw Ms Cheng being blocked on Monday, Mr Albanese said he “wasn’t aware” there had been an issue, but that “it’s important people be allowed to participate fully”.
“That’s what should happen in this building and anywhere else in Australia,” he added.
Ms Cheng, who is now working as a journalist for Sky News Australia, said she had been sitting in an area assigned for media representatives when the two officials “went to great lengths to block me from the cameras and to flank me”.
Footage showed Australian officials then trying to intervene while Ms Cheng took photographs of the incident on her phone.
The 49-year-old was working as a business reporter for China's state-run English language TV station CGTN when she was arrested in August 2020 and accused of "illegally supplying state secrets overseas".
She was tried in secret and her charges were never made public, before her surprise release in October last year.
Her detention and that of a fellow Australian who remains imprisoned, democracy blogger Yang Hengjun, strained ties between Beijing and Canberra.
When Mr Albanese took office in 2022, he vowed to improve relations and end a diplomatic hiatus that had been triggered by several prickly incidents during the pandemic. These included back-and-forth accusations of foreign interference and Chinese sanctions on a range of Australian goods.
On Monday, Mr Li said he hoped to help build a "more mature, stable, and fruitful comprehensive strategic partnership".
Mr Albanese said the two had made progress on key issues such as “improving military to military communication so as to avoid incidents”.
Several other co-operation documents related to business, education and climate change were also signed.
China will now add Australia to its visa waiver programme to increase trade and tourism between the two nations.
Last year, Mr Albanese became the first Australian leader to visit China since 2016, hailing "significant progress" in relations after talks with President Xi Jinping.

Cheng Lei: Chinese officials appear to block freed Australian journalist from view

Chinky bastards at it again.

China has changed the names of hundreds of villages in Xinjiang region in a move aimed at erasing Uyghur Muslim culture, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says.

According to a report by the group, hundreds of villages in Xinjiang with names related to the religion, history or culture of Uyghurs were replaced between 2009 and 2023.

Words such as "sultan" and "shrine" are disappearing from place names - to be replaced with terms such as "harmony" and "happiness", according to the research, which is based on China's own published data.

The BBC contacted China's embassy in London about the allegations.

In recent years, Chinese authorities have been radically overhauling society in Xinjiang in an attempt to assimilate its minority Uyghur population into mainstream Chinese culture.

Researchers from HRW and Norway-based organisation Uyghur Hjelp studied the names of villages in Xinjiang from the website of the National Bureau of Statistics of China over the 14-year period.

They found the names of 3,600 of the 25,000 villages in Xinjiang were changed during this time.

While the majority of these name changes "appear mundane", HRW said, around one fifth - or 630 changes - remove references to Uyghur religion, culture or history.

Words freighted with meaning for China's Uyghur population - including Hoja, a title for a Sufi religious teacher, and political or honorific titles such as Sultan and beg - have been replaced with words HRW claims reflect "recent Chinese Communist Party ideology", including "harmony" and "happiness".

In one example highlighted by the report, Aq Meschit (“white mosque”) in Akto County, a village in the southwest of Xinjiang, was renamed Unity village in 2018.

A growing body of evidence points to systematic human rights abuses against the country's Uyghur Muslim population. Beijing denies the accusations.

Xinjiang: China accused of renaming hundreds of Uyghur villages

China-Malaysia ties ‘exemplary for region’

Two sides agree S.China Sea issue should be independently, properly handled

By Chen Qingqing

Published: Jun 20, 2024 12:03 AM

"China-Malaysia ties are at the forefront among relations between regional countries, and have set a benchmark and an example, and China hopes to take the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties as an opportunity to accelerate the building of a China-Malaysia community with a shared future, Chinese Premier Li Qiang said during his meeting on Wednesday with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim as he took his first official visit to the Southeast Asian country.

The leaders also agreed that China and relevant ASEAN countries should independently and properly handle the South China Sea issue, manage disputes and differences, promote dialogue and cooperation, and stick to the general direction of bilateral settlement, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Li also met Malaysia's King, Sultan Ibrahim, and attended a ground-breaking ceremony at a construction site for the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL), part of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), on Wednesday, according to media reports.

China-Malaysia relations have been playing a pioneering and exemplary role for other ASEAN countries, and the deepening bilateral cooperation is primarily characterized by strong political mutual trust, some Chinese experts said.

Over the past 50 years, the overall development of China-Malaysia relations achieved significant accomplishments in political, economic and cultural aspects, which has had a leading effect on regional countries, experts noted.

Li's visit also comes as tensions have been exacerbated in the South China Sea recently due to the continued provocations by the Philippines with the US' backing. As one of the claimant countries the South China Sea disputes, Malaysia is focused on properly managing the situation and controlling disputes, experts said, noting that this consensus, agreed by some other ASEAN countries and China, is clear.

We place more hope on bilateral efforts by engaging in dialogue and peaceful means, and based on relevant international laws, we aim to handle these existing disputes, experts said, noting that we particularly do not want external forces, especially militarized factors from outside the region, to be drawn into the South China Sea issue.

New momentum

China and Malaysia signed a range of agreements on Wednesday, renewing a five-year economic cooperation pact and allowing the export of fresh durians, Reuters reported. The new five-year pact provides for strategic collaboration in areas such as trade and investment, agriculture, manufacturing, infrastructure and financial services.

The bilateral economic interactions are already very significant and close-knit, Ei Sun OH, a senior fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs and principal adviser to the Pacific Research Center of Malaysia, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

"[Under the new pact], perhaps more collaborations in high-tech and sustainable industries will be explored, together with even bigger trade in services, such as tourism and education," the Malaysian expert said.

The renewed pact also reflects that the two countries are adapting to some major changes in supply chains, Ge Hongliang, vice dean of the ASEAN College at the Guangxi Minzu University, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

"In particular, Malaysia's Penang has been emerging as a new investment hub for semiconductor sector since last year. Compared to Vietnam, Malaysia has many advantages, like in talent pool," Ge said, noting that cooperation between China and Malaysia in high-tech fields such as semiconductor could be more suitable than that between China and Vietnam.

China has been Malaysia's largest trading partner for 15 consecutive years. In 2023, the bilateral trade volume between China and Malaysia reached 450.84 billion ringgit ($98.9 billion), accounting for 17.1 percent of Malaysia's total trade, according to China's Ministry of Commerce. China is Malaysia's largest source of imports, making up 21.3 percent of Malaysia's total imports.

Also on Wednesday, Li and Anwar appeared together in a significant display of bilateral cooperation to officiate the groundbreaking ceremony for the ECRL Gombak Integrated Terminal station, local Malaysian news outlet The Star reported.

The ceremony paved the way for the scheduled completion of the ECRL alignment from Kota Baru, Kelantan to the Gombak Integrated Terminal in Selangor in December 2026.

The Malaysian ministry of transport is also exploring the possibility of extending the ECRL alignment to tap into Thailand's rail network, paving the way for the ECRL to be part of the Pan-Asian rail network that can link Malaysia with China, realizing the vision of the BRI, the media report said.

Refuting Western hype

As China and Malaysia inked new cooperation deals during Li's visit, some Western media have been defaming cooperation between the two countries, particularly, seeking to attack flagship infrastructure projects such as the ECRL.

A Financial Times report said on Tuesday that some earlier Malaysian bets on BRI projects have stalled indefinitely or been cancelled. The ECRL has been halved from its initial $13 billion price tag and with much lower technical specifications following a corruption scandal that toppled a former prime minister, the report noted.

"The so-called debt trap linked with BRI projects is a topic hyped by the Western media," Ge said. "While the China-Malaysia relations had never experienced significant disruptions due to political transition in Malaysia, the individual BRI project has been going through technical adjustments," the expert said.

"Such adjustments are based on agreements and contracts, which is a matter of commercial activity," Ge added.

In an exclusive interview with the Global Times in October 2023, Malaysian Transport Minister Anthony Loke Siew Fook refuted the Western media's distortion of BRI projects by saying that "we definitely do not look at it as a trap."

Overall, cooperation between China and Malaysia has been somewhat affected by the political changes in Malaysia over the years, but the progress is now relatively smooth, Xu Liping, director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences told the Global Times on Wednesday.

"The completion of this railway in the future will be of great significance, further highlighting the sustainable and high-quality development of the BRI," Xu said.

Some experts also noted that the achievement of the China-Laos railway and the advancement of China-Thailand railway have demonstrated the Southeast Asian countries the value and importance of these infrastructure projects for the local connectively, which also serve as the best rebuttal to the Western hype."

China-Malaysia ties ‘exemplary for region’ - Global Times

China's commercial 'artificial sun' achieves first discharge

By Global Times

Published: Jun 19, 2024 10:21 PM

"The world's first fully high-temperature superconducting tokamak device, Honghuang 70 (HH70), has recently successfully achieved first plasma, marking a significant leap of China in the development and application of fusion technology for clean energy, the device's developer Shanghai-based fusion energy company Energy Singularity announced on Wednesday.

The completion and operation of HH70 took the lead in the world in completing the engineering feasibility verification of high-temperature superconducting tokamak, marking that China has gained a first-mover advantage in the key field of high-temperature superconducting magnetic confinement fusion, the company said.

According to Yang Zhao, Energy Singularity's Chief Executive Officer, HH70 has independent intellectual property rights, with a domestication rate of over 96 percent, and all its magnet systems are constructed using high-temperature superconducting materials.

"The design work of the device began in March 2022, and the overall installation was completed by the end of February this year, setting the fastest record for the research and construction of superconducting tokamak devices worldwide," Yang noted.

The successful discharge of HH70 marks Energy Singularity as the world's first and currently the only team to build and operate an all high-temperature superconducting tokamak, as well as the world's first and currently the only commercial company to build and operate an all superconducting tokamak.

Regarding the company's future plans, Yang Zhao said the company plans to complete the next generation high magnetic field high-temperature superconducting tokamak device, HH170, by 2027 with the goal of achieving a deuterium-tritium equivalent energy gain (Q) greater than 10.

For fusion devices, the Q value is a crucial indicator. It directly reflects the energy efficiency of the fusion reactor, that is, the ratio of the energy generated by the device to the energy input required to sustain the fusion reaction. Q>1 represents that the output energy is greater than the energy input required to sustain the reaction. Currently the maximum Q value achieved by humans is 1.53.

Yang stressed that using high-temperature superconducting materials can reduce the volume of a device to about 2 percent of that of traditional low-temperature superconducting devices, and the construction period of the device will be shortened from the original 30 years to 3-4 years if a tokamak device with a Q>10 is to be built.

Amid growing concerns over energy crisis facing the whole world, confinement nuclear fusion is viewed by many experts and industry insiders as one of the most potential options to provide humanity with an almost infinite, clean, and cheap source of energy, and is considered the ultimate energy solution.

ChatGPT creator OpenAI is also reportedly seeking a deal with next-generation energy firm to buy "vast quantities" of nuclear fusion to create superhuman artificial intelligence.

As the only magnetic confinement fusion technology route that has completed scientific feasibility verification, the tokamak device, dubbed artificial sun, has always been the focus of global controlled nuclear fusion research and development.

High-temperature superconducting tokamak combines robust physics with engineering innovation, which is expected to greatly improve the cost-effectiveness of the device and accelerate the commercialization of fusion energy, and has become the direction of fusion energy research and development that attracts the most market-oriented funding worldwide.

In 2018, the US company Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) became the first in the world to propose to build a small high-temperature superconducting tokamak device SPARC with Q≥10. The construction of SPARC kicked off in 2022 with plans to complete it in 2025.

Energy Singularity co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Ye Yuming said the magnetic field strength of HH170 will be 110 percent of SPARC, the diameter will be 90 percent of SPARC, and the volume will be about 70 percent of SPARC, enabling further cost reduction. Once completed, the HH170 device will be the world's smallest and lowest-cost tokamak device capable of achieving a 10-fold energy gain.

To support the research and development of HH170, Energy Point is also developing high-temperature superconducting D-shaped magnets. The goal of these magnets is to achieve a magnetic field strength of 25 Tesla, with manufacturing and testing planned to be completed by the end of this year. The magnetic field strength of the already completed HH70 is 2.5 Tesla.

According to Ye, engineering design of the HH170 device is expected to begin early next year. After 2030, Energy Singularity will also start the construction of HH380, with the goal of building a tokamak device that can be used for a demonstration fusion power plant.

Energy Singularity was established in Shanghai in June 2021, mainly focusing on researching commercially viable high-temperature superconducting tokamak devices and their operational control software systems. The company's shareholders include miHoYo, developer of Chinese-made open-world roleplaying game Genshin Impact, and Chinese electric carmaker NIO."

China's commercial 'artificial sun' achieves first discharge - Global Times

Two sides agree S.China Sea issue should be independently, properly handled

Except the chinkies who seem to think they should.

China-Malaysia ties ‘exemplary for region’

Yes, Hooho, couldn't agree more. They should set an example to the rest of region who should also cancel all those parasitic "Belt and Owed" projects.

Malaysia has axed $22 billion of Chinese-backed projects, in a blow to China's grand plan to dominate world trade

Originally Posted by HuangLao

Damn Chinks.
They're everywhere.
Sneaky cunts.

Stickman in his June 16 column was asking his readers about the Chinese eye candy in Bangkok:

Whenever I have stayed on Sukhumvit in recent years, I can’t help but notice the increase in women wearing sexy clothes. I don’t mean the late afternoon / early evening stream of ladies walking from the Nana BTS station to the plaza. The ladies I am talking about tend to be taller, fair-skinned and don’t smile at every passing guy who pays them attention, despite their sexy attire. Many of these ladies aren’t Thai. They’re visitors from China. They are very attractive and some really know how to dress sexy. Is this the norm in China? I suspect not but as I have never been there, I wouldn’t know. And I also wonder if any readers have got to know any of these Chinese ladies? The feeling I get is that they love to dolly themselves up and look super sexy, but as for actually going wild on holiday, I have my doubts. Managed to hit a home run with Miss China? Anything to report, Stickman readers?