Back in August, when posting "China to require patriotism education for intellectuals " (and the rise of "Xi thought") I asked my favorite Chinese translator if there was a way to make money off this.
He said he was sure there was and he'd talk to his wife who has some first rate Beijing connections.
I didn't think any more about the idea until a couple weeks later with "The Little Red Book vs. the Big White Book (Mao v. Xi)" I asked again what his thinking was and he responded that the fam wasn't sure there would be a market for Xi Thought.
Then in November while posting "In Xi We Trust: Inwardly Directed Chinese Propaganda (now with more elephants)" I asked again about maybe making a bucko or two off Xi Thought.
It was then that my interlocutor told me about the time his wife talked him out of buying a pretty nice chunk of Hainan island, which over the last couple decades has been developing nicely and is now poised to take on Shenzhen as a tech hotspot* and I asked "What the Hell? "Why didn't you tell me this earlier?"
And he said that out of a desire for marital harmony he didn't mention it any more, especially after Hainan Airways started running direct flights from Beijing to San Jose International a few years ago.
And now this.
From the South China Morning Post:
- The Xuexi Qiangguo app is now the most downloaded item on Apple’s App Store in China
- Released by China’s Communist Party, the app is helping cadres learn more about its political doctrine
A slick tool for teaching “Xi Jinping Thought” has become the most popular smartphone app in China, as the country’s ruling Communist Party launched a new campaign that calls on its cadres to immerse themselves in the political doctrine every day.
Xuexi Qiangguo, which translates to “Study powerful country”, is now the most downloaded item on Apple’s domestic App Store, surpassing in demand social media apps such as WeChat and TikTok – known as Weixin and Douyin, respectively, in mainland China.
Released by the party’s publicity department in January, Xuexi Qiangguo mostly serves as a news aggregation platform for articles, short video clips and documentaries about President Xi Jinping’s political philosophy.
I was thinking about how much money Hitler's publisher must have made off Mein Kampf but then looked it up and it was a press the Nazis bought back in 1920. Eher-Verlag, so the money either went to the party or to Hitler himself.Officially called “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era”, this political theory was presented by Xi, 65, at the Communist Party Congress in 2017. It has since been enshrined as part of the state and party constitutions.Xuexi Qiangguo requires users to sign up with their mobile numbers and real names. “Study points” are earned by users who log on the app, read articles, make comments every day and participate in multiple-choice tests about the party’s policies....MUCH MORE
And not being a cruel sort I didn't mention my hope that Hainan Air would start a direct flight from San Jose to Haikou International on Hainan so folks wouldn't have to change planes in Beijing when traveling Silicon Valley to Sino-Silicon Valley.
*See China Speakers Bureau, Jan. 14 "Can Hainan become China’s Silicon Valley? – Jim Rogers".
