The world's moved on - America's June riots shocked everyone, and the 'Harvard New Girl' saga has become yesterday's news. Yet the BBC has only just gotten around to tackling this spectacular PR disaster. Yesterday, BBC's Chinese service dropped a mammoth 6,000-word piece titled "I Felt Reality – The Full Story Behind Jiang Yurong's Harvard Speech Controversy" to explain the whole mess.
When Starbucks Gets a Reality Check
Let me pivot to another bit of news that's rather telling. Deutsche Welle reported that coffee giant Starbucks, facing brutal price competition in the Chinese market, announced cuts on dozens of drinks. But here's the kicker - facing Starbucks China's latest discount moves, Chinese netizens weren't impressed, saying "the price cut isn't enough" and "still terrible value for money." Starbucks, standing there looking rather forlorn, posted on WeChat: "Taking large cups as an example, the average price reduction is around 5 yuan. Customers only need a minimum of 23 yuan to enjoy a high-quality summer specialty drink in a comfortable and pleasant store environment." That phrase "minimum of only 23 yuan" particularly wound up netizens - and rightfully so.
China's Coffee Revolution vs. Western Arrogance
The reality is undeniable: China is becoming a coffee powerhouse. The report noted that domestic competitors like Luckin Coffee and Cotti are flogging drinks for as low as 9.9 yuan or even 8.8 yuan. Well-funded internet giants JD.com and Alibaba have also jumped into the delivery game, ramping up competition. Through promotions and coupons, Chinese coffee consumers can grab drinks for as low as 2.9 yuan. As Chinese consumers, the most obvious takeaway is just how obscene foreign coffee profit margins really are - we don't need to ask about anything else.
This brings us back to Jiang Yurong's tone-deaf performance. Her speech included this particularly polished bit of parallel structure: "If there’s a woman anywhere in the world who cannot afford a period pad, it makes me poor; if a girl skipped school out of fear of harassment, that threatens my dignity." These words were absolutely slammed on the mainland as hollow virtue-signaling, revealing that classic "let them eat cake" arrogance. You could say this, along with Starbucks' "minimum of only 23 yuan," represents the same kind of PR-gone-preachy disaster.
Here's what really gets me: Western media shouldn't lazily attribute China's competitive advantages to "state subsidies" or "unfair corporate competition." China has genuine innovation - not just in tech, but take Luckin's brilliant "Moutai Latte" collaboration with Guizhou Moutai. That was a masterclass in marketing creativity that no amount of subsidies could have dreamed up.
America's Systemic Breakdown Exposed
America's problems can't be papered over with 6,000 words of text - the country is in a state of "systemic failure." Problem one: the American government is bankrolled by capitalists, so it only chases profits. Problem two: politicians only care about elections, excelling at emotional manipulation to bag votes and grab power. None of them actually serve the people. During America's glory days, these flaws weren't obvious - or perhaps they were manageable - but now it's far too late for any meaningful recovery.
California Governor Gavin Newsom perfectly embodies the "American smart guy" archetype. Facing the Los Angeles riots, he struck his righteous pose, grandstanding against the federal government with his "Come at me!" routine. He pretends to have compassion for illegal immigrants - good grief, how can a governor possibly sidestep the basic legal framework of immigration?
What's more, Newsom typically just focuses on looking the part. During this year's Los Angeles fires, disaster victims demanded answers: Why were the fire hydrants in that area bone dry? Reporters pressed: Did that $17.6 million cut to California's fire department cause these problems? Newsom couldn't answer and simply turned around and walked away. Classic.
Honestly, I'm starting to question the caliber of American university education. While Newsom isn't a Harvard grad, I'm beginning to think Trump's plan to redirect funding toward vocational training might actually have some merit.
Finally, still not satisfied, let me borrow the closing line from Stephen Chow's "Hail the Judge": "What are these people?" "Democracy and freedom." "Wow, democracy and freedom - how bloody impressive indeed!"
Deep Blue
** 博客文章文責自負,不代表本公司立場 **
Everyone's been seeing those viral videos online - an Australian 9NEWS reporter getting shot with rubber bullets by the National Guard while she's literally just doing her job, live on air. Down she goes. Before that, we had a Xinhua reporter taking a tear gas canister to the arm, and a photojournalist copping a rubber bullet to the leg. When America's reached the point of "shooting without borders," you've got to wonder what happened to all that high-minded rhetoric about press freedom.
When 'Press Freedom' Meets Rubber Bullets
This whole mess really puts the lie to that New York Times piece from early last year - "Only America Can Save the Future" - that all the usual suspects were trumpeting. You know, the one by Ross Douthat where he basically argues America's still got it, despite all the obvious problems. Here's what he claimed:
"For all its inflationary challenges, our economy has surged since the pandemic, growing rapidly while China and Europe have been stagnant. In the last five years, long-term demographic decline has accelerated in many developed countries, but our own demographic trends, while not ideal, are more stable than those in, say, Scandinavia or South Korea."
He went even further, painting this picture where:
"The richer parts of Europe and the Pacific Rim are senescent walled cities; instability and authoritarian decay predominate across much of Eurasia; and real dynamism is sustained mostly in the parts of America that are growing and building at the moment."
The whole piece was basically America patting itself on the back, claiming its AI dominance would let it keep running the world, like some kind of digital manifest destiny.
California Burns While Politicians Point Fingers
America saving the world? Give me a break. Right now, America's problems can be summed up in three neat little phrases: military unrest, man-made disasters, and Trump. Let's break that down, shall we?
Remember that cringeworthy scene earlier this year when Trump was tearing into California Governor Newsom before heading back to the White House? This was right after those massive fires ripped through Southern California in early January - we're talking nearly 7,000 hectares gone, absolutely an unprecedented scale of destruction. Los Angeles had to evacuate nearly 180,000 people, and here's the kicker - word is, most of the burned-out homes belonged to wealthy folks who won't be getting a penny from insurance companies.
For the first time in American history, we're seeing "homelessness among the wealthy" happening on a massive, collective scale. The system that America loves to call “the end of history" - this perfect democratic model - has basically devolved into two parties just tearing each other apart while everything burns around them, and inevitably leading to a national failure.
Troops on American Streets: The New Normal?
The Democrats and Republicans have delivered us "man-made disasters," and now, following those brutal June fires, we've got full-blown "military unrest." Deutsche Welle reported that on June 8, Trump signed a presidential memo deploying 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles, claiming he needed to "restore order and suppress riots." He bypassed California Governor Newsom, which has local governments and civil society groups absolutely livid.
What kicked this off was a massive ICE raid in Los Angeles the previous Friday that rounded up large numbers of undocumented immigrants. The optics were terrible - ICE officers in full tactical gear and face masks, rolling around in unmarked military vehicles like some kind of occupation force. People were genuinely terrified, and that fear quickly turned to anger.
The response was swift and fierce. Crowds surrounded ICE offices, Department of Homeland Security buildings, and other federal facilities, burning American flags, setting up roadblocks, hurling rocks and fireworks at federal vehicles. The National Guard's answer? Tear gas and stun grenades to scatter the crowds.
This kind of military unrest is doing serious damage to America's national morale and whatever's left of global faith in the "beacon of democracy."
What This Mess Means for the Rest of Us
In just six months, Trump's managed to stir up a hornet's nest of historic proportions. But here's the thing - this isn't just about "Trump being Trump." There's something deeper going on here, what Singaporean scholar Zheng Yongnian calls "national idiocracy”. But it doesn’t refer to China, but the current reality for most Americans.
Who's enabling Trump to act with such reckless abandon, both at home and abroad? Who's taught America to be this divided against itself? The writing's on the wall, and it's not pretty.
So what's the takeaway for China? Simple really - we absolutely cannot be naive enough to buy into the fantasy that America can save the world. That's a lesson too important to ignore, and frankly, too obvious to miss at this point.
