A plug for the Caspian Report

One of the YouTube channels I follow is the Caspian Report. The posts are objective, well constructed, and seem to me to be very well based and researched.

Last night my notifications included one that the Caspian Report has posted an episode on China's "quest to catch up with the West". In the midst of the growing tensions over Hong Kong, including the major risk of some sort of repeat of the Tiananmen  Square  massacre, and the arguments in the Pacific over the climate crisis and whether Australia and China are doing enough, it is useful to get a reminder of the broader picture that China's leaders are facing.

I still am of the view that China's crackdown is a mistake, and that repression actually slows their attempt to catch up with the West (allowing freedom allows people to contribute their best, as well as motivating them to do so), but I can see the parallels between this and other situations of information overload when mistakes were made - such as the lead up to the Rwandan  genocide, when the UN and the USA were facing man other problems.

I may also watch an older Caspian episode on "the Chinese mindset", but will do so from my position of profound scepticism about communism (which is vastly different to socialism).