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BeijingPalmer

@beijingpalmer.bsky.social

42K followers 720 following 25K posts

Deputy editor at Foreign Policy, China nerd, gaming nerd, reads a lot

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BeijingPalmer

@beijingpalmer.bsky.social

unfortunately right

December 5, 2025 at 3:47 PM

BeijingPalmer

@beijingpalmer.bsky.social

a lovely obituary but this in particular really got me

December 5, 2025 at 5:05 AM

BeijingPalmer

@beijingpalmer.bsky.social

(next to image of Al Pacino as Serpico)

You can't not play.

Being a clean official is riskier than being a dirty one.
Perceived by others as danger, not trustworthy.
Can’t participate in social bonding events.
Likely to be scapegoated due to lack of connections.
Can’t fulfill bosses’ needs or provide for underlings.

December 5, 2025 at 3:42 AM

BeijingPalmer

@beijingpalmer.bsky.social

The Big US Mistakes

“Guanxi is about friendship and long-term relationships”
“Guanxi is a Confucian idea”
“Guanxi is about mutual respect.”
“We have a personal relationship so we don’t need to get things in writing”

December 5, 2025 at 3:40 AM

BeijingPalmer

@beijingpalmer.bsky.social

had a very nice time guest teaching on Chinese organizational culture and how it affects foreign policy tonight. a couple more slides since people enjoyed the last one.

At a mid-size State-owned enterprise, there are specialist staff that work across multiple departments, and are necessary for the daily function of the business. When one of the staff is absent due to illness or vacation, the procedure to cover them is this: they tell their section chief, their section chief tells the boss, the boss tells another section chief to provide a specialist to cover them, the section chief tells that specialist.  A newcomer proposes a board hung in public where the names of people off that day can be written, and everyone can clearly see who is covering them. It is immediately rejected. Why?
The Detroit city government is attempting to build trade and business ties with Hebei. A key document must be stamped by three different officials at a single meeting. The officials work in the same building. Why does getting the meeting take months?
In 2014, the Sunflower Movement explodes in Taiwan, driving a wave of anti-mainland politics that continues to this day. Beijing has a Taiwan Affairs Office which maintains an extensive intelligence network in Taiwan, and Taiwan’s politics are open and widely covered. Why is Beijing blindsided by Sunflower?

December 5, 2025 at 3:37 AM

BeijingPalmer

@beijingpalmer.bsky.social

'The Book of my Enemy Has Been Remaindered'
The book of my enemy has been remaindered
And I am pleased.
In vast quantities it has been remaindered
Like a van-load of counterfeit that has been seized
And sits in piles in a police warehouse,
My enemy's much-prized effort sits in piles
In the kind of bookshop where remaindering occurs.
Great, square stacks of rejected books and, between them, aisles
One passes down reflecting on life's vanities,
Pausing to remember all those thoughtful reviews
Lavished to no avail upon one's enemy's book --
For behold, here is that book
Among these ranks and banks of duds,
These ponderous and seeminly irreducible cairns
Of complete stiffs.

The book of my enemy has been remaindered
And I rejoice.
It has gone with bowed head like a defeated legion
Beneath the yoke.
What avail him now his awards and prizes,
The praise expended upon his meticulous technique,
His individual new voice?
Knocked into the middle of next week
His brainchild now consorts with the bad buys
The sinker, clinkers, dogs and dregs,
The Edsels of the world of moveable type,
The bummers that no amount of hype could shift,
The unbudgeable turkeys.

December 4, 2025 at 4:25 AM

BeijingPalmer

@beijingpalmer.bsky.social

I am pleased to say that all signs look to the book being an utter flop anyway. This is the Amazon sales rank one day after launch.

December 4, 2025 at 4:09 AM

BeijingPalmer

@beijingpalmer.bsky.social

a fun thing from a class I'm guest teaching tomorrow: which of these will turn out OK for you, and which will be a disaster? (they're all from a single Chinese city between 2010 and 2022)

December 3, 2025 at 8:11 PM

BeijingPalmer

@beijingpalmer.bsky.social

also a good example of why AI summaries are not good for breaking news. it's hallucinating here based off the original november election, where Wilson was slightly ahead but which then prompted a runoff election since he didn't get over 50 percent.

December 3, 2025 at 3:14 AM

BeijingPalmer

@beijingpalmer.bsky.social

RETURN.

December 2, 2025 at 8:59 PM

BeijingPalmer

@beijingpalmer.bsky.social

i use it for its natural and good purpose: ridiculous rpg shit like the light novel cover for my Warhammer campaign "How A Group of Idiots Saved the Empire"