I was watching a Youtube video by a France television station on forced labor in Xinjiang, China.  I wanted to see what new evidence they came up with.  The presentation was so bad that I wondered if this is a parody on Western media.  But I don't think it is and I think that most people in France who watched this will think that forced labor is real.

During the entire presentation from this "journalist" based in Beijing had a video in the background showing cotton being picked in Xinjiang with large machines.  The only humans were the drivers of these machines.  So are the drivers forced to drive?  Are the machines being forced to work?  There was not one single person bending over to pick cotton.  If they don't have videos of forced labor, then don't run anything in the background.  This just boost China's claim that they bought lots of machines from Deere and this was much more efficient than forcing people to pick cotton by hand.

The "journalist" also said he had no first hand information about forced labor but that from "reliable, independent sources" he said that more people than in the past working in the fields are Uyghurs from Xinjiang as opposed to people from other provinces.  Well, if there are people in California who needs jobs, would you bring in people from New York to pick strawberries?

By the way, there was only one "reliable and independent source" he quoted.  That was the Global Center for Cooperative Security.  It is easy to look up this organization and see how "independent" it is.  According its own site, 95% of funding are from governments.  The dozen or so governments listed are all Western countries except for Japan.  Ironically, France is not one of the nations mentioned although the European Union is.  If an organization is 95% funded by China and Russia, would you believe it is independent in reporting forced labor in the U.S.?

Despite these shortcomings, I think most people in France and elsewhere in the Western world will believe that this video is strong evidence of force labor in Xinjiang.  I would not be surprised that like articles in other Western media on this subject, it will be quoted elsewhere in the future as evidence.  It is like Trump retweet something absurd and next thing you know, millions believe it is true.  That is how propaganda works.

 On the Stephen Colbert show last night, it made fun of the Chicago Bulls running out of players due to COVID and had to bring people from the stands to fill in.  This reminds me of a dream I had a few years ago.

I dreamed that I was watching the Pistons play the Boston Celtics at the old Boston Garden.  Due to injuries and foul disqualifications, the Pistons were down to 4 players.  So this announcement was made:   Anyone from Detroit in the stands?  I rushed onto the court and was given an uniform.  

I realized that I could not possibly defend against any of the Celtics players.  So I would just wander on the periphery with my hands up.  As the shot went up, I didn't think about boxing out for the rebound, I just took off down court.  To my surprise, Bill Lambeer would frequently get the rebound and fired it down court where I was all alone.  I made several layups that way to keep the game close.

Then with a few seconds to go and the Pistons down by one, I got the pass and sprinted down the court with the ball.  As I drove to put up the layup that would win the game, I felt a severe cramp on one of my calf.  As a result of the pain, I was not able to jump and the shot came up short off the front of the rim.  I yelled in frustration.  Then I woke up.

As I woke up screaming, I realized that I actually did have a bad cramp on my calf.  It took several minutes for the cramp to ease for me to go back to sleep.  I vowed that I would start practicing so that I would be in better shape the next time I face Larry Bird and company.

So the parody on the Colbert Show last night confirms that dreams can come true.  I am going to start getting into shape, just in case the Pistons need me again!

 So the U.S.,  as expected, declared a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games.   The athletes will go but no politician will represent the U.S.  The main purpose of this boycott is to cement in the minds of Americans that China is evil.  So if we declare sanctions, blockades or even war against China in the future, it will seem justified to most Americans.  After all, most Americans will believe what the government and the media tell them and do not look to see what the truth is.  

Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang are the three areas the U.S. point to human rights abuses to such a degree that warrant the boycott.  I know the most about Hong Kong as I am from there.  I think there is at least as much if not more democracy in Hong Kong now than under British rule.  There was no democratic election for leader of Hong Kong under British rule.  There was no killing by the police during the recent riot.  China did not send in troops.  Contrast that with the riots in the 1960s when the police killed many Hong Kong people, the anti-British newspaper were shut down, and the British army was used in controlling the riots.  Why didn't the U.S. boycott the World Cup in 1966 when England hosted it?

Tibet has not been on the radar until now because it has been calm there.  The Dali Lama has said that he does not favor independence.   How many Americans know that he said that?  Most think that Tibet is still fighting China.  Well, the only time this was serious was in the 60s when the U.S. was training Tibet fighters in the U.S.  There may very well still be some who want to fight China but I don't think outside of the U.S., anybody believe that this is a serious topic.

Xinjiang is the new area of propaganda for the U.S.  But where is the evidence of genocide that the U.S. is claiming?  There are satellites showing 100,000 Russian troops on the border with Ukraine right away.  But there is no satellite showing a million Uyghurs are in interment camps.  If there is genocide, wouldn't there be refugees streaming out of Xinjiang?  Xinjiang borders 8 countries, 5 of them are Muslim majority.  Yet none of these countries report a single refugee all these years.  No Muslim country has agreed with the Western countries that there is genocide in Xinjiang.

China can careless about the U.S. and other Western countries not sending any politicians to the Games.  They don't need people coming from countries with high incident of COVID.  I think Biden should send Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley to represent the U.S.  After all, they were the ones who went to Hong Kong to cheer on the protesters.  Will see if they are brave enough to go to China.  If they are, Biden will get rid of them for three weeks at least due to the quarantine in China.

But seriously, if politicians in both parties are going with the narrative that China is evil in an attempt to get people behind them, it will be dangerous for Asian Americans in this country.  Remember what happened to the Japanese in WWII and during the auto war in 1970s and 80s?  Racism,  scapegoating and extreme nationalism are all alive and well in this country today.