Unsurprisingly, the first fire of 2026 was lit up by the USA. On the third of January, I believe, most people’s attention worldwide was given to Venezuela, since their dictator-president Nicolas Madura was snatched up by the the US task force from pentagon and transferred to New York City over night. It is a huge slap in the face to China indeed because on the same day in the afternoon, before Maduro was kidnapped to the US, he just met Chinese special envoy. We common Chinese don’t know what they were talking about, but we do realize that Chinese government lost on this game. And the oil deal between the Chinese government and Venezuela was unsurprisingly over. But personally, I’m happy for Venezuela people, and I assure you a lot of Chinese people feel this way. What else can you do when a dictator is down, celebrate of course. The sun will continue to rise and fall, the earth will continue spinning. Nobody is irreplaceable. Especially we don’t give a single fuck to a dictator.

A week later, people’s attention switched to manifestation in Iran, another country of oil and dictator. The world paused to see if Trump would really take his words into action under his smug vibe from Venezuela. But it turned out just bluffing in the end. What Trump really fooled is the Iranian people who summoned up courage to stand up to their vicious government and lost their life. Till this moment I write, Iranian people are still fighting and suffering. But the media spotlight has already moved on to Greenland on 16th January when Trump threatened to use force to invade Greenland and tried to back down the Europe by his beloved tarif. And the European Union finally realized that if you continue to ignore this retard in order to keep your dignity, then this stupid head with the most power in the world would take your decent silence as an agreement. So the lesson is that if you know you fight with a pig, you should be ready to smear your body with shit, any hesitation is stupid. France got this lesson hard, but finally it jumped into the battlefield.

If you know anything about Chinese YinYangBaGua, you’d know that the year of 2026 is a year of Fire, which usually means violence and war. So when I saw the PLA (People’s Liberation Army)’s action on Taiwan the day before the New Year’s Eve, I took it seriously. Immediately I messaged my Taiwanese friend to think about a plan B. She asked me in return, why don’t you mainlanders resist, I told her that people who resisted had been in jail. The work of propaganda over 5 years has shown its effect now on the net, you can only see nationalists’ feverish support. And what’s worse, I can tell you this, if the war breaks out tomorrow, most mainlanders won’t be surprised at all, which means, sadly, people are mentally prepared, or in another word, accept it.

I’ve always been thinking about the question since I entered university : what’s wrong with China ? I read a lot of peoples viewpoints, Chinese and foreigners, dead and alive, and I also asked some in person. But I’ve never got a clear answer on it. At least not clear enough for me. Because a clearly defined problem comes up with a clear solution trajectory, which I haven’t seen in any of them. But one thing that I’m sure is that this problem of China can only be solved by local Chinese people who still count China as their home.

Chinese people who’s thinking about this question like me are pretty aware of the current image of China, such as the outrage burst out towards Shein’s first permanent physical store opened up in Paris on November fifth. Unlike other fast fashion, Shein was unanimously viewed as the lowest brand, a lot of French I know never hide their disdain on Shein, and on the same kind of brand like Temu. Me, as a Chinese studying in Paris, I totally get why they think like that, and I don’t want defend Shein and Temu at all even though they break into the world market for the first time as Chinese brands from mainland. I don’t feel proud of them, neither do I feel shame. As a foreigner living in Paris over two years, I’m impressed by the eco-fever here in the Europe which I believe is out of good initiative, a sense of mission. But I have to say, they don’t see the real problem which divides them. The gap between the rich and the poor goes to extreme after the Covid. Why can’t you simply see it. People lining up to the opening of Shein in Paris, being accused of buying Shein trash could only feel the hypocrisy of their accusers on the other side of the streets, mainly from bourgeoise class, with good education or good family background, manifesting for the ecology. Both of the sides is the victim of this capitalism whose outcomes are predicted long time ago. I don’t have a solution for you because China’s mode is definitely not the answer. But I hope you can understand why some Chinese business feel the hypocrisy of Europeans’ reactions towards Shein or Temu. They would simply say it’s not them who create so many poor without choice in your country. Just be aware. Understanding is the first step for solution.