They speak the truth…
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This is amazing
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Didn’t know Serbia was part of the democratic bloc.
I guess I can learn something new from Xinhua every day! 
Guy
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Are you serious? Serbia is a Parliamentary Republic, at roughly the same development level as the rest of Europe, which is no mean achievement considering the historical brutality of the Yugoslav wars. They’re on track to join the EU sometime in the next few years, and it’s a moderately-popular tourist destination for Europeans. It’s not the greatest democracy in the world - the main problems there are petty corruption and organised crime - but it’s definitely not a dictatorship, and they’re doing reasonably well on most fronts. Vaccines are mandatory for travellers, so I guess that proves that they’re a full-fledged democracy in afterspivak land.
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Serbia is a very nice country. Went to a Jazz festival in a fort there Redirecting...
Excellent beer.
Super close to Beijing though
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They are not.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/sustainability/lithium-mining-serbia-unrest-dump-rio-tinto-2371886
And Idk what you mean by “same level of development as the rest of Europe”. Europe where? Serbia is one of the poorest countries in Europe. A country roughly at the same development level as the rest of Europe, meaning roughly EU average, would be Taiwan and Korea.
They’re not what? That’s a very old article.
Anyway, it seems (like most countries) their COVID rules are in a continual state of flux and don’t have any coherence. Last I heard they had announced they were going to drop all restrictions. And then - apparently - they didn’t.
Given the Orwellian redefinition of “democracy” these days to mean “rule by fiat”, I’d still say they’re on par with most of the rest of Europe.
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What is a very old article? They are all from 2021 or 2020.
OK, you added some new ones. I was referring to the protests article.
Most countries in Europe have demolished huge swaths of their democratic principles in the last 12 months. Serbia is - as far as I can tell - no better or worse. The fact that they are being considered for EU membership suggests either that they meet the benchmark for “democracy”, or that the EU no longer cares very much. It could well be the latter, of course.
The lithium article is interesting. This obsession with electric cars is going to cause an ecological meltdown and could well result in democratic institutions being undermined (haha).
You mean the ongoing protests? It is still happening. You can google “Serbia protest” and there would be a ton of search results. Now it’s mostly for the pollution as the country’s air quality is horrific. The reading is constantly red or purple.
Serbia is also never joining the EU. All candidates’ paths are completely hopeless. Even if they are democratic enough, they are still too poor and the frugal rich countries like the Netherlands will always block new members. Turkey has been a candidate for almost two decades and look where they are now.
The only potential new EU state is Iceland which applied for membership during the 2008 crisis. If another crisis knocks it over again it might want to join again.
Well, that’s a bit of a thing everywhere these days, innit? There are very few nations these days that could be genuinely described as functioning democracies. If protests aren’t viciously put down, it suggests that some semblance of democracy remains.
Corruption is a big problem there, I agree. Romania joined the EU though, and people laughed at the possibility of that - for much the same reasons that you mention in connection with Serbia. The country went through some serious shit in the 1990s. It wasn’t even a country before that. I’m not making excuses for them, but the positive indicators are as prominent as the negative ones.
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It’s been ongoing since 2020. I would say that’s much worse than normal protests happening in functioning democracies. Serbia has been pointed out one of the worst cases of democratic backsliding in the past decade by multiple NGOs.
Romania and Bulgaria joined when the EU was very open to new members. That has since changed. Rich countries are not keen on new members at all.
It actually isn’t about democracy at all. Balkans are not welcomed because they are poor. Romania and Bulgaria had a lucky window.
This Tweet is in response to this article from NYT about the foreign shills who shill for China and make all those shitty videos about nothing happening in Xinjiang
For those who dont read Chinese, the production company who makes these videos is a media firm called 歪果仁研究協會, which means basically ‘Stupid Foreigner Research Association’. 歪果仁 is a pejorative term for foreigners and a play on how our Chinese pronunciation is bad(should be 外國人). 歪 means devious or ‘not straight’.
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I wonder how many generations it will take to undo the thought damage (or “re-engineering,” if you prefer a more neutral term) being promulgated now in the PRC.
It’s hard to see how this will end well. 
Guy
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what a great name
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Sorry if it has been mentioned before, but I read on our favourite news site an article saying that elementary school children in Hong Kong have been forced to watch graphic footage of the Nanking Massacre, including children being beaten and people being buried alive. Perhaps wack is not the right word here. Feel free to move this elsewhere if this is not light hearted enough. Maybe I should be in another thread. I figured the other thread is more focused on Japan’s role and admission of wrongdoing, but I will check later.
Don’t worry about it. (edited)
devious, indeed. one would have to be of pretty low character to think they could get away with that (and enjoy it). sadly, without people like you people like me would be none the wiser!
ahem