I've said it once before on Holla Forums and I'll say it again:
China got royally fucked by Confucianism, arguably the single most dangerous ideology outside of Communism (which it was subsequently fucked by). The whole point of Confucianism is stability at all costs. There is a rigid hierarchy in which everyone has a clearly and thoroughly defined role, and is totally submissive to their superiors. Over thousands of years this actually wiped out the individual will as well as the individual survival instinct, since it did not need to be developed. And no, the national examination system did not promote scholarship or the spreading of high IQ genes. That's propaganda. The national examination system was always a propaganda course on the dominant ideology with a wee bit of actual knowledge thrown in to keep the empire running. That's all the Chinese education system has been and will be. Logic, reasoning and creative thought have not been taught in China since the warring states period.
So China stagnated technologically and imperialistically because they genuinely gave no fucks. Their system had protected and isolated the upper classes for so long they thought they were actually invincible.
Communism came along later with it's (((patrons))) and finished the job. China was cleansed of anyone left capable of independent thought, self-sacrifice and the motivation to improve themselves (make money). Some of them escaped to Taiwan. However, the mainland had it way worse than Russia. Read "China in Ten Words" to get an idea about just how thorough the Mao regime was in engineering a subservient slave population. Some of the upper class Party members are aware of this history, but they themselves are now slaves to the system and it's owners since they know they'd be the first to hang if it collapsed. North Korea embarrasses China not because they like to stage the occasional geo-political temper tantrum, but because familiarity breeds contempt. North Korean culture is uncomfortably close to mainland Chinese culture. Most expats experience the never-fully-conquered (again see: (((bankers))) Shanghai, or tourist-only areas, so the deeply-rooted cultural problems on the mainland go mostly unobserved except by the bold or stupid who go really deep.
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And that is why you saw this shift. The (((masters of the universe))) are moving shop. Perhaps in reaction to major moves from the right-wing deep state in this last election cycle. If you buy into the Philippines / BIS gold conspiracy (and there are plenty of good reasons why you should) this represents an open shift in (((banker))) patronage. China is where (((they))) are looking to take refuge and possibly issue new currency from. There have been lots of rumors of Chinese gold buying recently, and up until this point I didn't take them very seriously. But if all of this is true, it could be setting China up as the global reserve currency holder and (((banking capital))) after a collapse in the Euro and Petrodollar.
The Yuan would have to go first, since it's pegged, but that appears to already be taking off. It may really accelerate after the election, using that as †he "Black Swan" excuse to fully crash and then restart the global economy.
As to why the Philippines shifted the way they did? China has looked poised to invade the Philippines for some time now, and has been actively making threats. However the US Navy really ramped up its swing to the Pacific theater this year. An invasion must have seemed unworkable or could potentially open the door to military intervention, so an alternative channel was used. Relying on a combination of a compromised (see: 7th floor group) and neglected State Department and Duterte's ego (although given the stakes other forms of coercion may have taken place) sufficient pressure caused the Philippines to capitulate. But since they basically just made off with the Fed's gold reserves (again: BIS tinfoil), I'm not sure this state of affairs will last. If Trump wins and does audit the Fed, he may be in for an even bigger and nastier surprise than he anticipated.
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