I find no concurrence with your opinion, but that’s why it’s an opinion. “Under the Skin” was very popular in Edinburgh and Glasgow. The film probably is most offensive to men………..of any cultural background, but especially misogynists, but not at all to Scotland. Director Jonathan Glazer is an Englishman, so it is hardly surprising he filmed in Scotland. He has before. Sexy Beast and Under the Skin were both correctly lauded by film critics…in my opinion.
Yes, I am not here write a movie review for The Guardian or The Observer, but to comment on the stupidity of Malaysia and the wishful thinking regarding artificial intelligence, as most of the world has enough of that already. Yes, I have read Bacigalupi’s book. I did not care for it; it is eco-punk Sci Fi, not my particular thing.
Aside from the thread and not that you would care it is still interesting that at least Lutherans and posibly Mathodists are assumed to “apologise” in 500 year anniversary in 2017 to the mothership “catholic Church”.
And you still should be proud, one famous Chinese Bruce Lee also came out of catholic schooling.
“Ex-Machina” leads us by the hand into the wilderness. “Under the Skin” is offensive and patronising to Scotland. If you want something more thought provoking on the subject read “The Windup Girl” by Paolo Bacigalupi.
There are unfortunately several issues with this ‘analysis’, above all the rubbishing of the radical student movement asserting that young people are represented and manipulated for political ends, which in fact was the official line taken by the government. Even if that has a grain of truth in it, it also happens to be a task always being performed by the authorities – a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
The movement encompassed the majority of stakeholders in the world of education. Yet no evidence was provided for the bold assertion that the protests were not indicative of how the majority of young people felt about the education law. It’s like saying popular support for ASSK/NLD and contempt for the ruling generals and their Constitution is not how the majority of the Burmese feel about their country’s state of affairs. Educators such as Dr Thein Lwin and the parliamentarian Dr Nyo Nyo Thin are hardly radical or revolutionary elements, and they did have a calming influence on the young protesters besides taking part in the quadripartite talks reaching an agreement which the ministers reneged on during the protest march that ended in brutal state repression.
Whilst there always is a core of citizens ultimately unwilling to accept democratic solutions in any country such solutions are conspicuous by their absence in the Burmese political arena. Having a constitution, a parliament, the trappings of democracy does not necessarily mean we even have a work in progress. The dice are so loaded even ‘rule of law’ proves as malleable as ever in the regime’s hands. And since when are peaceful protests and marches not a feature of vibrant democracies?
ASSK has never organised or led any mass protest or action, only mass rallies by the grace of the generals. It wouldn’t however stop her from reaping the benefit of such ‘confrontation’ when the opportunity presents itself as in 1988.
Having said that, for all her faults she remains the only leader who continues to enjoy massive popular support and the only hope for “real change” (as her campaign slogan says) and genuine national reconciliation instead of the military elite going through the motions in order to prolong their misrule. People must rally round her and vote NLD. There is no alternative.
If to participate in the election meaningfully is less important than if they partake in liberalising moral standards and managing the entrance of foreign systems, they might as well not bother with even the minimum standards that a democratic system provides periodically (in this instance the first time for so many impassioned and educated young voters) and leave their future to the tender mercies of the ruling military elite and their foreign friends.
Sex on camels (one and two humps) was recently approved by the Mufti of Perak, Malaysia, so I don’t see why sex with robots should be an issue, though I note the Woodman’s old classic, “Sleeper”, has been banned in Malaysia for years. I guess the Orgasmatron…..
was simply too much for Prime Minister Mahathir’s profound ethical sensibilities. The Quran and the Hadith do not speak of robots, though men are instructed to save their “seed” for ensuring their lineage. That seems not have worked out that way, in Islam, for 1400 years, but the Hindus and Jews and Roman Catholics have the same general idea. I am afraid Mr. Levy who seems to know as much about robots as he does the Talmud, is in error..error…error…error.
Having recently watched “Ex-Machina”, which is a very well-made film and thought-provoking, as well as “Under the Skin’, an equally well-made and captivating film, I doubt we will be having sex with robots (or aliens) anymore than we would observe (as the Woodman would say) “that primate hand tactility does offer advantages over the fin or flipper”….the obvious answer is to abolish Shari’a Law, abolish the tudung, abolish archaic misogynistic practices, bring Orgasmatron factories to Malaysia, and play (just play) with your cats and dogs. Anal retentiveness and autocracy have done Malaysia no good; I am quite confident robots will not improve upon that. However, my tribe will still be around to blame, if the Orgasmatron breaks down, the robots start davening and putting on little black caps, or they start filching their owner’s pockets.
Doubt it. I believe she still carries a Burmese passport, and since the Burmese govt does not recognise dual citizenship, they’d have jumped at it and she’d have been deported pronto. Article 59(f) bars her from high political office on account of her sons. Her brother, a US citizen, is treated very differently.
Burma is more a feudal oligarchy than anything else since the days of the monarchy. Burmese society have a strong sense of hierarchy (suck up to the people above you and bully the people beneath you!) and is based on medieval notions of patronage and “appanage” (bribery and nepotism!). It would be very difficult for true democracy to take root in Burma, unless there is a “French Revolution” of sorts. It is true that the former generals and ethnic war-lords, their families, their cronies are becoming extremely rich in Burma (smuggling jade. timber, drugs, pangolins, tiger parts, etc.,etc.) with fat bank accounts in Singapore (where they also send their children to school and go for medical treatment). It’s all about the web of connections (guanxi in Chinese). A lot of smoke and mirrors, cloaks and daggers in Naypyitaw. In Burma people change names and clothes but the actors are the same playing Marionette-Theater (a classical Burmese pastime) A country without territorial or moral integrity (but rich in possible polisci Ph.D topics for academics in Western Universities!)
The Burmese military government is creating problems one after another. Cheating on every one around the world and try their best to divide the arm groups in Burma so that they can take control of the rebel areas. What NCA? just the fake ceasefire agreement. Burmese military never. . . never keep their promise. Yes, the top leaders may agree and signed many agree but the soldiers and the commander at front battle will do what they desire, even when they cannot win the ethnic army, they use strategic ways by burning the villages around the ethnic areas, rape the women, and torture the people who they believe have links with the ethnic army. I think the conflict will still going on unless the military government gave up their power and transform true democracy. It had been almost 70 years of civil war in Burma. It is the longest civil war ever in the world. Just because the ethnic minority denied their rights and under depressed by the majority Burmese military. The Burmese military is very smart to cheat on the people and they have systematic to do the ethnic cleansing to the ethnic minority. Million of people fled to the borders to China, Thailand.
So was Tunku initially. Several MPs in Malaysia were born in Singapore. What matters (to paraphrase MLK Jr) is neither the colour of your skin, or where you may hold nationality, but the content of your character. As DASSK is prevented by fiat from being Leader of Myanmar, even Thein Sein has not prevented her from campaigning, simply because she retains British nationality. I suspect the new Myanmar Nationality Law might exclude many NLD activists currently in exile in the UK, US, Australia, Thailand and Singapore from running for Parliament. Even with a mostly Malaysian Parliament, how well has it performed ? I would say on the same scale as Zimbabwe’s “Parliament”.
Better that Burmese study at the University of Yangon, formerly a top university (in 1960), which is about as educational as three weeks of Sesame Street re-runs (actually worse). As she’s not proletarian enough, DASSK must be an outsider and traitor, with her clipped English tongue. Fine, then vote for President Thein Sein or other military men who are barely literate, most of whom were educated by fighting. Oh, I forgot, they are autocratic. What we need is a homegrown no-too-posh Democratic Burmese….emmm……like U Nu, but Peter Cohen, the non-Burmese, likes him, so no emulation of him in Myanmar must be permitted. So, I guess a Muslim has to be elected, which has as much chance as a non-Muslim in Malaysia. The three Burmese amigos here on NM are so confused, the only thing they probably would agree to, is their own election (but, no, they are too humble for that).
Suu Kyi is way too old and stodgy to understand Burma’s millennials. Her popularity in Burma is mostly based on the memory of her iconic father Aung San (real birth name was Htein Lin), who started his political career as a University student in his early twenties. Suu Kyi studied at poshy Oxford (no revolutions allowed there!) but she did admit publicly that she is neither a human rights icon nor a democracy idol, just a regular selfish opportunistic politician like all the others in Burma now lusting for the Peacock Throne in Naypyitaw.
You’re right. The ra-rit is the ra-kauk written around another consonant and the ya-pint is originally ya-pelek written underneath and pulled up at the end.
Any way mrauk means north and myauk means monkey, pronounced the same in Burmese nowadays, but written differently.
Given Indonesian’s inability to deal with the 1965, it is even less likely they can deal with the overt collaboration between Japanese Occupation forces and Indonesian nationalists in the 1940s that led to thousands dying from malnutrition and torture in Japanese POW camps. While the Japanese have acknowledged, barely, their role in ravaging Southeast Asia, Indonesians (and Malay nationalists) engage in historical revisionism, pretending that all “good” indigenous Muslims were also victims. NO, many, including the top tier of nationalists who, in Indonesia, when on to become leaders (Soekarno, Soeharto, Malik, Hatta, etc.), were active Japanese collaborators, and the sooner this discussion takes place (what, when, where, why and how), Mr McDonald and others may yet live to see “that a really strong nation can confront its own past”. At the moment, neither Japan (in totality) nor Indonesia and Malaysia (at all) seem to be taking the correct cue from Germany; if anything, they seem to be taking the wrong cue.
The politics of fear and censorship does not reflect a confident leadership. Many countries pass through these firewalls on the way to a free society, acknowledging its past.
Brylcreem was very popular in Burma, and my late father would try nothing else, thank you very much (not made in China either… yet, I think). Not so Myanmar’s dynamic, media-savvy, young population but why do you think they have an ‘enduring affection for Western institutions, practices and culture’? It was the USIS hand in hand with the British Council replete with anti-communist propaganda aimed at the previous postwar generations, and latterly it’s the hitech gadgets (which japan and South Korea now lead the way) and still the media and entertainment industry led by Hollywood, but Korean soaps hold sway for better or for worse… bleached hair, short skirts, drinking.
True there still appears far less demand for Chinese language classes than for English language lessons, but the point is whereas English had a monopoly before Mandarin is now being taken up by many as in the West. To the Burmese in purely linguistic terms of grammar, syntax and pronunciation, Hindi, Japanese and French roll off the tongue more easily though there’s little demand for them.
Totally unsurprising is when the current rulers, despite decades of anti-British and anti-American bombast, have stated that Myanmar enjoys common cause with the West if you don’t overlook the historical fact that the military elite has always been staunchly anti-communist, their most deadly enemy (forget the rest above or underground, armed or unarmed) the Communist Party of Burma which is now the oldest extant political party in Burma and remains beyond the pale, almost certain never to feature in their ‘national reconciliation’, ‘peace process’ or ‘democratic transformation’. Would the West mind very much about the exclusion?
Understandably China desires stability on its long porous border with Burma, a current and intractable flash point in the latter’s long running civil war, not least because it’s already in too deep in the economy of its neighbour including cross border trade.
With the West poised to join in the feeding frenzy it has been missing out on for so long, now that the generals are happily ‘reconciled’ with the ‘Washington Consensus’ after having hit the buffers with the ‘Beijing Consensus’ which they had ideally wanted to pursue, China may no longer enjoy even ‘first refusal’ in future projects.
it may simply be left to protect its billion dollar investments unless it can undercut its business rivals east and west.
If very few people have forgotten how poorly ethnic Chinese fared in recent periods of change in Indonesia, it would be well nigh impossible to erase the memory of the violent anti-Chinese riots in Ne Win’s Burma of 1967. It could still become a recurring nightmare given the likely imminent crisis of a mandate for the generals to maintain their grip on power.
Yes, pragmatic China will sit it out hedging its bets after its belated overture to ASSK who was naturally obliging (albeit historically and clearly closer to the West and Japan), and unlike the West (perhaps leave the UK govt for now) China’s human rights abuses probably the last thing on her mind so no need to steer her away from the subject.
I guess pragmatism goes both ways. And China knows it would do well to back the winning horse once the dust settles down enough to see it on the home stretch.
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Sex robots and the sex trade
I find no concurrence with your opinion, but that’s why it’s an opinion. “Under the Skin” was very popular in Edinburgh and Glasgow. The film probably is most offensive to men………..of any cultural background, but especially misogynists, but not at all to Scotland. Director Jonathan Glazer is an Englishman, so it is hardly surprising he filmed in Scotland. He has before. Sexy Beast and Under the Skin were both correctly lauded by film critics…in my opinion.
Yes, I am not here write a movie review for The Guardian or The Observer, but to comment on the stupidity of Malaysia and the wishful thinking regarding artificial intelligence, as most of the world has enough of that already. Yes, I have read Bacigalupi’s book. I did not care for it; it is eco-punk Sci Fi, not my particular thing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Windup_Girl
China and the vote
“Catholic schooling”
Aside from the thread and not that you would care it is still interesting that at least Lutherans and posibly Mathodists are assumed to “apologise” in 500 year anniversary in 2017 to the mothership “catholic Church”.
And you still should be proud, one famous Chinese Bruce Lee also came out of catholic schooling.
Sex robots and the sex trade
“Ex-Machina” leads us by the hand into the wilderness. “Under the Skin” is offensive and patronising to Scotland. If you want something more thought provoking on the subject read “The Windup Girl” by Paolo Bacigalupi.
Youth and the vote
There are unfortunately several issues with this ‘analysis’, above all the rubbishing of the radical student movement asserting that young people are represented and manipulated for political ends, which in fact was the official line taken by the government. Even if that has a grain of truth in it, it also happens to be a task always being performed by the authorities – a case of the pot calling the kettle black.
The movement encompassed the majority of stakeholders in the world of education. Yet no evidence was provided for the bold assertion that the protests were not indicative of how the majority of young people felt about the education law. It’s like saying popular support for ASSK/NLD and contempt for the ruling generals and their Constitution is not how the majority of the Burmese feel about their country’s state of affairs. Educators such as Dr Thein Lwin and the parliamentarian Dr Nyo Nyo Thin are hardly radical or revolutionary elements, and they did have a calming influence on the young protesters besides taking part in the quadripartite talks reaching an agreement which the ministers reneged on during the protest march that ended in brutal state repression.
Whilst there always is a core of citizens ultimately unwilling to accept democratic solutions in any country such solutions are conspicuous by their absence in the Burmese political arena. Having a constitution, a parliament, the trappings of democracy does not necessarily mean we even have a work in progress. The dice are so loaded even ‘rule of law’ proves as malleable as ever in the regime’s hands. And since when are peaceful protests and marches not a feature of vibrant democracies?
ASSK has never organised or led any mass protest or action, only mass rallies by the grace of the generals. It wouldn’t however stop her from reaping the benefit of such ‘confrontation’ when the opportunity presents itself as in 1988.
Having said that, for all her faults she remains the only leader who continues to enjoy massive popular support and the only hope for “real change” (as her campaign slogan says) and genuine national reconciliation instead of the military elite going through the motions in order to prolong their misrule. People must rally round her and vote NLD. There is no alternative.
If to participate in the election meaningfully is less important than if they partake in liberalising moral standards and managing the entrance of foreign systems, they might as well not bother with even the minimum standards that a democratic system provides periodically (in this instance the first time for so many impassioned and educated young voters) and leave their future to the tender mercies of the ruling military elite and their foreign friends.
Sex robots and the sex trade
Sex on camels (one and two humps) was recently approved by the Mufti of Perak, Malaysia, so I don’t see why sex with robots should be an issue, though I note the Woodman’s old classic, “Sleeper”, has been banned in Malaysia for years. I guess the Orgasmatron…..
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orgasmatron)
was simply too much for Prime Minister Mahathir’s profound ethical sensibilities. The Quran and the Hadith do not speak of robots, though men are instructed to save their “seed” for ensuring their lineage. That seems not have worked out that way, in Islam, for 1400 years, but the Hindus and Jews and Roman Catholics have the same general idea. I am afraid Mr. Levy who seems to know as much about robots as he does the Talmud, is in error..error…error…error.
Having recently watched “Ex-Machina”, which is a very well-made film and thought-provoking, as well as “Under the Skin’, an equally well-made and captivating film, I doubt we will be having sex with robots (or aliens) anymore than we would observe (as the Woodman would say) “that primate hand tactility does offer advantages over the fin or flipper”….the obvious answer is to abolish Shari’a Law, abolish the tudung, abolish archaic misogynistic practices, bring Orgasmatron factories to Malaysia, and play (just play) with your cats and dogs. Anal retentiveness and autocracy have done Malaysia no good; I am quite confident robots will not improve upon that. However, my tribe will still be around to blame, if the Orgasmatron breaks down, the robots start davening and putting on little black caps, or they start filching their owner’s pockets.
Youth and the vote
Doubt it. I believe she still carries a Burmese passport, and since the Burmese govt does not recognise dual citizenship, they’d have jumped at it and she’d have been deported pronto. Article 59(f) bars her from high political office on account of her sons. Her brother, a US citizen, is treated very differently.
China and the vote
I guess attending the various Catholic School while in Myanmar, and teaching in the west has not taught you the basic of
“What goes in must come out”.
The Chinese from the government to individuals put in tangible assets so much more than the West high horse ridding approach.
Quite sure the Chinese benefited the Kala as well.
The USDP faces the people
Burma is more a feudal oligarchy than anything else since the days of the monarchy. Burmese society have a strong sense of hierarchy (suck up to the people above you and bully the people beneath you!) and is based on medieval notions of patronage and “appanage” (bribery and nepotism!). It would be very difficult for true democracy to take root in Burma, unless there is a “French Revolution” of sorts. It is true that the former generals and ethnic war-lords, their families, their cronies are becoming extremely rich in Burma (smuggling jade. timber, drugs, pangolins, tiger parts, etc.,etc.) with fat bank accounts in Singapore (where they also send their children to school and go for medical treatment). It’s all about the web of connections (guanxi in Chinese). A lot of smoke and mirrors, cloaks and daggers in Naypyitaw. In Burma people change names and clothes but the actors are the same playing Marionette-Theater (a classical Burmese pastime) A country without territorial or moral integrity (but rich in possible polisci Ph.D topics for academics in Western Universities!)
A separate peace
The Burmese military government is creating problems one after another. Cheating on every one around the world and try their best to divide the arm groups in Burma so that they can take control of the rebel areas. What NCA? just the fake ceasefire agreement. Burmese military never. . . never keep their promise. Yes, the top leaders may agree and signed many agree but the soldiers and the commander at front battle will do what they desire, even when they cannot win the ethnic army, they use strategic ways by burning the villages around the ethnic areas, rape the women, and torture the people who they believe have links with the ethnic army. I think the conflict will still going on unless the military government gave up their power and transform true democracy. It had been almost 70 years of civil war in Burma. It is the longest civil war ever in the world. Just because the ethnic minority denied their rights and under depressed by the majority Burmese military. The Burmese military is very smart to cheat on the people and they have systematic to do the ethnic cleansing to the ethnic minority. Million of people fled to the borders to China, Thailand.
Youth and the vote
So was Tunku initially. Several MPs in Malaysia were born in Singapore. What matters (to paraphrase MLK Jr) is neither the colour of your skin, or where you may hold nationality, but the content of your character. As DASSK is prevented by fiat from being Leader of Myanmar, even Thein Sein has not prevented her from campaigning, simply because she retains British nationality. I suspect the new Myanmar Nationality Law might exclude many NLD activists currently in exile in the UK, US, Australia, Thailand and Singapore from running for Parliament. Even with a mostly Malaysian Parliament, how well has it performed ? I would say on the same scale as Zimbabwe’s “Parliament”.
Youth and the vote
Suu Kyi is a British citizen . … need I say more
A tribute to Nicholas Tapp
Thank you for posting this informative and heartfelt review.
Consolidating control in cyberspace
[…] This article is originally published in the Asia-Pacific Policy Forum and New Mandala […]
China and the vote
China would never ever interfere in the internal politics of a sovereign country EXCEPT
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/15/myanmar-election-china-idUSL3N1293EQ20151015
(Kyaukphru is not spelled correctly!)
Youth and the vote
Better that Burmese study at the University of Yangon, formerly a top university (in 1960), which is about as educational as three weeks of Sesame Street re-runs (actually worse). As she’s not proletarian enough, DASSK must be an outsider and traitor, with her clipped English tongue. Fine, then vote for President Thein Sein or other military men who are barely literate, most of whom were educated by fighting. Oh, I forgot, they are autocratic. What we need is a homegrown no-too-posh Democratic Burmese….emmm……like U Nu, but Peter Cohen, the non-Burmese, likes him, so no emulation of him in Myanmar must be permitted. So, I guess a Muslim has to be elected, which has as much chance as a non-Muslim in Malaysia. The three Burmese amigos here on NM are so confused, the only thing they probably would agree to, is their own election (but, no, they are too humble for that).
Youth and the vote
Suu Kyi is way too old and stodgy to understand Burma’s millennials. Her popularity in Burma is mostly based on the memory of her iconic father Aung San (real birth name was Htein Lin), who started his political career as a University student in his early twenties. Suu Kyi studied at poshy Oxford (no revolutions allowed there!) but she did admit publicly that she is neither a human rights icon nor a democracy idol, just a regular selfish opportunistic politician like all the others in Burma now lusting for the Peacock Throne in Naypyitaw.
Review of The Wheel-Turner and His House
You’re right. The ra-rit is the ra-kauk written around another consonant and the ya-pint is originally ya-pelek written underneath and pulled up at the end.
Any way mrauk means north and myauk means monkey, pronounced the same in Burmese nowadays, but written differently.
Censorship and the forbidden past
Given Indonesian’s inability to deal with the 1965, it is even less likely they can deal with the overt collaboration between Japanese Occupation forces and Indonesian nationalists in the 1940s that led to thousands dying from malnutrition and torture in Japanese POW camps. While the Japanese have acknowledged, barely, their role in ravaging Southeast Asia, Indonesians (and Malay nationalists) engage in historical revisionism, pretending that all “good” indigenous Muslims were also victims. NO, many, including the top tier of nationalists who, in Indonesia, when on to become leaders (Soekarno, Soeharto, Malik, Hatta, etc.), were active Japanese collaborators, and the sooner this discussion takes place (what, when, where, why and how), Mr McDonald and others may yet live to see “that a really strong nation can confront its own past”. At the moment, neither Japan (in totality) nor Indonesia and Malaysia (at all) seem to be taking the correct cue from Germany; if anything, they seem to be taking the wrong cue.
Censorship and the forbidden past
The politics of fear and censorship does not reflect a confident leadership. Many countries pass through these firewalls on the way to a free society, acknowledging its past.
China and the vote
Brylcreem was very popular in Burma, and my late father would try nothing else, thank you very much (not made in China either… yet, I think). Not so Myanmar’s dynamic, media-savvy, young population but why do you think they have an ‘enduring affection for Western institutions, practices and culture’? It was the USIS hand in hand with the British Council replete with anti-communist propaganda aimed at the previous postwar generations, and latterly it’s the hitech gadgets (which japan and South Korea now lead the way) and still the media and entertainment industry led by Hollywood, but Korean soaps hold sway for better or for worse… bleached hair, short skirts, drinking.
True there still appears far less demand for Chinese language classes than for English language lessons, but the point is whereas English had a monopoly before Mandarin is now being taken up by many as in the West. To the Burmese in purely linguistic terms of grammar, syntax and pronunciation, Hindi, Japanese and French roll off the tongue more easily though there’s little demand for them.
Totally unsurprising is when the current rulers, despite decades of anti-British and anti-American bombast, have stated that Myanmar enjoys common cause with the West if you don’t overlook the historical fact that the military elite has always been staunchly anti-communist, their most deadly enemy (forget the rest above or underground, armed or unarmed) the Communist Party of Burma which is now the oldest extant political party in Burma and remains beyond the pale, almost certain never to feature in their ‘national reconciliation’, ‘peace process’ or ‘democratic transformation’. Would the West mind very much about the exclusion?
Understandably China desires stability on its long porous border with Burma, a current and intractable flash point in the latter’s long running civil war, not least because it’s already in too deep in the economy of its neighbour including cross border trade.
With the West poised to join in the feeding frenzy it has been missing out on for so long, now that the generals are happily ‘reconciled’ with the ‘Washington Consensus’ after having hit the buffers with the ‘Beijing Consensus’ which they had ideally wanted to pursue, China may no longer enjoy even ‘first refusal’ in future projects.
it may simply be left to protect its billion dollar investments unless it can undercut its business rivals east and west.
If very few people have forgotten how poorly ethnic Chinese fared in recent periods of change in Indonesia, it would be well nigh impossible to erase the memory of the violent anti-Chinese riots in Ne Win’s Burma of 1967. It could still become a recurring nightmare given the likely imminent crisis of a mandate for the generals to maintain their grip on power.
Yes, pragmatic China will sit it out hedging its bets after its belated overture to ASSK who was naturally obliging (albeit historically and clearly closer to the West and Japan), and unlike the West (perhaps leave the UK govt for now) China’s human rights abuses probably the last thing on her mind so no need to steer her away from the subject.
I guess pragmatism goes both ways. And China knows it would do well to back the winning horse once the dust settles down enough to see it on the home stretch.