The problem is, modern Chinese food rely too much on MSG(or its alternatives, along with chilies), it has its justification that Chinese are only relative rich recently, that people needed a way to make cabbages and other non-meat stuff tasty, in this sense, Chinese food is defined by it, unfortunately. I honestly can't imagine how they tasted way back then, coz it must be awful.
But the thing is MSG is like drugs, you seemingly need ever more of it. That's why I don't really like modern Chinese eateries, they might taste fantastic, but I know they are constantly search for the next MSG-derivative that can "wow" people(in fact MSG is realy outdated, it's mowhere to been seen in China now, there are countless stronger synthetic flavor "essence" in the market.)
I actively avoid it myself, dishes just taste fake, only add it when like I'm doing a seaweed soup.
Is it "recruiting"? If so it starts at higher education, "good" students can apply for party membership, which is a prerequisite for lush and comfy gov jobs.
And any org that employs 3+ party members shall set up a party chamber, host party sessions and even appoint a sectary.
This executive very likely is a party member, but that doesn't necessarily make this act party related, more and more Chinese have come to defend the 1989 event(if they know it ofc), as China is now on a peak, what the party did back then is gaining legitimacy and praises.
I won't be surprised if he had done this out of his own volition, and probably most of the people in his position would have done the same.
The HK protests were overwhelmingly disapproved and regared as "abject-lowlife riots", in some way, it reflects the public sentiment toward that 1989 event.
Any person with Chinese lineage is considered "our guy" obligated to do good to the homeland, or else they are traitors even if they never touch on Chinese soil. This sentiment is not limited to lineage and nationality but also surnames, birthing place and ethnicity.
Recent examples：
>Mike Pompeo’s China adviser has name chiselled off school monument
>removed his name from the genealogical chart of the “Yu Clan.”
I think the difference here is that is this of "everyday people" or just high-earners, Costco only has several stores in China and remains a high-end exotic market, drones are still expensive "toys" here, new iphones often cost a month's salary or more.
The drone makers have a reason to be amused at how much Americans love their products.
I recently learned that Etsy actively terminates sellers based in China, seemingly indiscriminately, the message is quite clear that they just don't want to do this kind of business, unlike Amazon.
You simply can't do that, Yuan is nowhere near a freely convertible currency, it's a fundamental difference.
Once foreign money enters China, it's very hard to get it out, the CCP has a ministry dedicated to the control of it. Most of the people don't have the need for it.
What you are saying is irrelevant to Ant and banks in general. Ant doesn't care about foreign markets or your dollars, it's a Yuan-only payment tool operates inside mainland China for Chinese people, simple as that.
It's not uncommon, there are various scams esp around e-commerce review boosting gigs that trick you into paying upfront but into different accounts/scan alternate QR codes, once the money is transfered, it's very hard to get it back if not impossible.
The police don't really pursue these cases as the debit card money is all instant and already gone and often small in amount (won't even register it as a case if the money is less than 450 USD), occasionally they will do a blanket operation and arrest some unlucky scammers to make an example, simmilar to irl thefts.
If your are talking about account hacking, SIM swap is quite difficult in China as basically anything is tied to national ID nowadays (even posting comments online, this does provide security to their business model, not to mention they are aggressively pushing facial recognition on the app level, I have to install a local police station app to unlock front door that regularly scans my face and tied to my WeChat, they are conducting census through WeChat BTW), but there are methods such as basestation jamming to force phones back into 2G and intercept text messages, these are fairly uncommon.
As I've said, many of the hard work has already been done by the state or isn't required at all, it's realy a paradise environment for these payment tools, probably only in China.
You don't have to, it's just the way banking is done in China, sounds ridiculous?
Well, having banks blocking you transaction, and asking what it's for is it legitmate, or Paypal terminating accounts at will is ridiculous in China too, "it's my money none of your business". Also part of the reason why mobile games and micro-transation are so huge, there's no bank asking why are you spending repeatedly on Genshin Impact and do you want to take it back.
It's tied to your national ID for sure, but it stops there.
It's actually good for the CCP, coz corruption is lubricant and everybody is in it, you don't want to track who's behind this money, they don't even disclose how many dozen condos every official owns.
The big diffrence is debit card-based and credit card-based, Ant and Chinese banks take no responsibility of these one-off domestic transations and offer no consumer protection, while western banks need to worry about money-laundering and terrorism and risk management. WeChat Pay don't even offer customer support.
It's this special gated environment enabled payment tools, they just process this money and be done with it. Alipay & Wechat and Chinese banks don't care about what is your business doing are they shady or not, unlike Paypal.
It's not, the banks lend their excessive cash to a big tech company, Ant then use that money to make small/short-term loans with "big data" credit ratings to individuals unqualified for low-interest bank loans.
Americans markets have been booming for the past 10 years, relatively robust and "policed", it also has something to do with the dollar dominance, so they kind of can take these bets?
But it's not the case for Chinese domestic markets.
Its gigantic valuation most likely will face a harsh test, one that the fragile domestic market can hardly afford, a risk that worries the administration who has been desperately propping it up that also hopes it can fund China's tech self-reliance. Such listings didn't bode well in the past, with SMIC being the lastest example.
At its core, Ant is more of a lending company, re-distributing money it got from banks at much higher interest rates (typically 15%, some banks offer personal credit loans at around 4%) and leverage. Tho it insists on it's high-tech, in order to boost valuation and avoid financial regulation, but how many more debt can the population pile on itself?
Sidenote: Its business model profits from people that traditional banks snubed, mostly from lower social classes.
IPO at its relative late stage with a gigantic valuation, leaving little for retail investors to gain from. And its whole IPO process is preferential treatment at its finest, almost looked like Jack Ma can do whatever he wanted.
Ant and Ma's condescending posture did draw a fairly big backlash, it's certain pratices border on non-compliance, and Ma's beneficiaries are mostly from the last leadership, these probably helped put a brake on it.
Form my experience, mostly government and state-owned companies, which account for a big part of China's paid software market. Even some Shanghai government systems support only IE6 to 8, some only love IE11.
Most state-owned banks too, popular browsers are all duel-engine. There's little to no incentive to change what's working, and customers experiences don't really matter.
Foreign Chinese, usually rich and connected, are more often than not considered "traitors" by the masses, increasingly viewed with disdain, they are not even welcomed to visit China.
>Trapped Abroad, China’s ‘Little Pinks’ Rethink Their Country
>Young and patriotic, overseas students often defend their nation against its critics. But when many tried to return home during the pandemic, they became targets themselves.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/24/business/china-nationalis...
But the thing is MSG is like drugs, you seemingly need ever more of it. That's why I don't really like modern Chinese eateries, they might taste fantastic, but I know they are constantly search for the next MSG-derivative that can "wow" people(in fact MSG is realy outdated, it's mowhere to been seen in China now, there are countless stronger synthetic flavor "essence" in the market.)
I actively avoid it myself, dishes just taste fake, only add it when like I'm doing a seaweed soup.