Kerim's Triptych ❧ Electrostate, Transnational Repression, Thermoses

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1️⃣ Electrostate

One of my favorite newsletters is Chartbook, by Adam Tooze, an economic historian. As part of a long post on China's green economy, he discusses the ways in which China's electrostate is based on spacial planning and the desire to "integrate the far flung territories of the Chinese nation state." As he points out, "an electrostate is by definition one with a network power."

What is also clear is that wherever it takes place, whether in the West of China, or elsewhere, whether in China or abroad, China’s green energy projects are fully part of an extractivist system of development. Indeed, Chinese energy policy in general over the last half century ought to be understood as the culmination (to date) of that entire historic drama.

2️⃣ Transnational Repression

Human Rights Watch has an important story about how China is managing to censor free speech abroad by threatening the relatives and friends in China.

Chinese authorities harassed several dozen Chinese film directors and producers, as well as their families in China, causing them to pull films from the inaugural IndieChina Film Festival in New York City, Human Rights Watch said today.

This is not a new pattern, but it does seem like it has ramped up lately. When I was running a film festival in Taiwan, a Chinese director we had invited was scared into returning home early by the presence of someone who was clearly a China-affiliated gang member in the audience, but at least we were able to screen his film first.

Something similar is happening with universities as well. Sheffield Hallam University recently shut down human rights research on China after "university staff in China had been threatened," (according to the BBC). Even though funding was restored later, the process had the desired chilling effect.

3️⃣ Thermoses

This image, of glass-blown thermoses being manufactured in China in the early 1980s, is from Angela Zito's wonderful photo essay in Positions Politics. Anyone who lived or travelled in China around then will remember the ubiquitous Chinese thermoses with their floral patterns. Every hotel room would have had one, filled with clean water. Nowadays they are replaced by electric water kettles, or (unfortunately) bottled water.

These photos document a bygone stage in China’s industrialization. China still leads the world in thermos-making: one out of every three glass thermoses is produced in China, and 70% of these come from the city of Yongkang, ten hours by car east of the Shashi City of these photos.

Endnote

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