Daniel Dumbrill
@DanielDumbrill • 97,931 subscribers
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Haven't had as much time to post as I hoped during this 13,000 km road trip through China, probably should've anticipated that. A lot of you have been asking about the breakdowns and how we're handling things, so I'll brush over some of our stops and give you a more high level view of our journey. After the Yuanshangdu Ruins Scenic Area we headed north about 220 km to Xilinhot for the night. That's where the front cabin AC compressor gave out. With the heat building, it got uncomfortable fast. We waited until we reached Erenhot (another 360km west), right on the Mongolian border, to see if we could get it fixed properly. Nobody had the part in stock. The official replacement was going to run us around 1500 RMB (~$220) plus a couple days of waiting. Instead I jumped on Pinduoduo and ordered one for 650 RMB (~$96). I had it shipped to what I thought would be our next major stop, Turpan in Xinjiang. In hindsight I should've sent it to Hami, which we were hitting earlier and which is a bigger hub. Back east in Chongqing or any decent-sized city you're used to stuff arriving in 1-3 days. Out here in the far west it’s more like 5-6 days, even with China’s logistics. While we waited we bought a big household fan and used it to push the rear cabin AC air forward into the front. It helped, but it was still pretty rough. Traveling through Inner Mongolia I kept noticing the same thing I’ve seen with other ethnic groups across China, each has its own distinct energy and style that’s hard to describe but immediately noticeable. It’s one of those things that makes the country’s cultural diversity feel much deeper than most outsiders expect. The food was one of the highlights for me, I enjoyed it more than the rest of my family though. Some really solid dishes made with internal organs, and a blood sausage that tasted strikingly close to the yak blood sausage a Tibetan friend often sends me. In Erenhot we checked out the giant Buddha hand sculpture in the desert, wandered the night markets, and ended up talking with locals who were curious where we were from. The people in both Xilinhot and Erenhot were incredibly friendly.
Daniel Dumbrill11,926 görüntüleme • 4 gün önce
It's even funnier that in many countries, 'democracy' means a popularity contest in which you pick the candidate with the biggest marketing budget and catchiest (usually broken) promises. While in modern China, democracy means responding to the people's actual needs & demands.
Daniel Dumbrill159,702 görüntüleme • 4 ay önce
This is neat. Busses in Chongqing started rolling out displays that link up with the traffic lights. If you're stuck behind one, you'll know how long until the light turns green. If there's separate left/right turn lights, it'll show up as additional indicators on the sides.
Daniel Dumbrill561,163 görüntüleme • 1 yıl önce
One of the victims of these sexual harassment incidents within the US government-funded Uyghur groups was Julie Millsap. Julie worked directly with Rushan Abbas, the Uyghur “human rights” activist who also helped the US military interrogate Uyghur prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. I interviewed Rushan and exposed a number of her lies, including how she downplayed how long she had been involved with the NED. Julie came out attacking me right after that interview. You’d think this would win her enough favor with Rushan for her to come out in full support of Julie and loudly condemn the sexual harassment happening in the organizations she worked with. Especially since Rushan and the community she works with constantly invent stories about vulnerable women in China while pretending to care about them. Instead, Rushan remained quiet when the kind of thing she had been pretending to care about happened right under her own nose. Do you remember when Israel intercepted a humanitarian flotilla on its way to Gaza, detained roughly 180 people, and put them in humiliating conditions? There were two Uyghurs onboard who were also detained. Rushan didn’t speak up then either, nor did the other dedicated US-funded Uyghur organizations. Rushan’s own organization says they are about supporting “human rights and democratic freedoms for Uyghurs.” The World Uyghur Congress states that they “represent the collective interest of the Uyghur people both in East Turkistan and abroad.” Well apparently not when the US government doesn’t want them to. The truth is, these people and organizations invent imaginary tales about China on issues they don’t even actually care about. They are funded for one purpose and one purpose only: to push US government atrocity propaganda against their geopolitical targets. Watch the full geopolitical livestream with Carl Zha here:
Daniel Dumbrill52,658 görüntüleme • 1 ay önce
Follow Nury for the best reporting on Jimmy Lai. Jimmy lobbied the US for sanctions on China/HK, fueled xenophobia and local violence by branding mainlanders "locusts" in his paper, and colluded with foreign powers for hostile measures, even floating ideas like nuking China. The US wouldn't tolerate even a fraction of this behavior for one second, but they expect China to.
Daniel Dumbrill48,463 görüntüleme • 2 ay önce
Jimmy Lai was found guilty simply for engaging in journalism. Oh yeah, and lobbying the US for sanctions on China/HK, fueling xenophobia by branding mainlanders "locusts" in his paper, and colluding with foreign powers for hostile measures, even floating ideas like nuking China.
Daniel Dumbrill126,346 görüntüleme • 7 ay önce
Worlds Highest Bridge - From Above: Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge Full documentary:
Daniel Dumbrill99,776 görüntüleme • 9 ay önce
Over the past 7 years I've gotten used to being called a China agent for debunking propaganda against China. Now my American friends get to enjoy this opportunity too — and you don't even have to try as hard! All you need to do is question data centers going up in your neighbourhood. Question the electricity demands that spike bills and hammer the grid? You're a CCP agent. Call out the millions of gallons pulled from your water supply for cooling? You're a CCP agent. Mention the nonstop fan noise wrecking sleep? You're a CCP agent. Object to diesel exhaust from backup generators? You're a CCP agent. Worry your property values will take a hit? You're a CCP agent. China becomes the all-purpose scapegoat. Legitimate local concerns get waved away as a foreign plot because politicians and corporations refuse to admit regular people might actually care about their own communities. Watch full episode with Carl Zha here:
Daniel Dumbrill22,405 görüntüleme • 1 ay önce
Many of the most politically minded people I know here in China wanted Trump to win for exactly this reason. When Russia's foreign assets were frozen, it served as a stark wake-up call about the vulnerabilities in a U.S.-led unipolar world. This was true even for America's allies, who supported consequences for Russia but weren't yet in the crosshairs themselves, nor were they holding assets that Washington was keen on 'acquiring.' While this freeze happened under Biden, Democrats in general are slightly more skilled at crafting a somewhat convincing good-guy narrative when acting beyond their legal authority. Similarly, regardless of how governments worldwide feel about Maduro, what has just unfolded, in addition to the U.S. strikes on Venezuelan boats in "narco-terror" ops, including follow-ups on disabled vessels, act as an additional push toward multipolarity. This is helped along by Trump’s lack of ability or disinterest in any sort of good-guy branding efforts. The backlash from the Global South and even some U.S. allies underscores this. Even for those who pretend otherwise, this is obviously not about liberating Venezuelans or human rights, but about empire & exploitation. This is also a perfect exercise in exposing virtue-signaling defenders of empire who masquerade as human rights activists. Their hypocrisy is on clear display for everyone to see, yet again. I know a few Tibetans once employed by USAID quite well, who bought America's story, until the mask slipped, even before their funding dried up. They began to view America in a very different light and question their entire world view. While unfortunately there's a lot more pain to come before any gain, Trump remains the ultimate accelerator for multipolarity: His overreach doesn't just isolate America, it steers the world away from them and toward diversification. *video clip credit goes to Ben Norton
Daniel Dumbrill59,135 görüntüleme • 6 ay önce
Western China-watchers love calling China the climate villain while writing their complaints from devices that had their carbon footprint offshored to China. China is the factory of the world, it manufactures much of what the planet uses. Yet its per capita CO₂ emissions are still far lower than America’s (~9.1 t vs ~13.6 t per person). That’s an astonishing feat by itself. Even more impressive: China’s emissions have now been flat or falling for 21 straight months (since March 2024), with a slight decline in full-year 2025 — all while its economy and exports kept growing. How? By leading the planet in clean-energy deployment at a scale no one else comes close to: record solar + wind builds, massive nuclear expansion, and fusion breakthroughs. The same countries that powered their own industrial revolutions with dirty coal, and offshored their own pollution, now lecture China for cleaning up faster than they ever did. They wouldn’t have cared if China polluted even more than they do today, as long as it stayed in its place as a simple order-taker: quietly making whatever the West demanded and slapping Western brands on it. But the moment China started innovating on its own and building its own world-class brands in EVs, solar, batteries, high-speed rail, phones and more, that’s when the narrative flipped. Suddenly they couldn’t accept what China had become. It was never really about the climate. It was always about China out-competing and out-innovating them. And that’s something they absolutely cannot stand. Watch the full show with Carl Zha here:
Daniel Dumbrill20,591 görüntüleme • 1 ay önce
Chicken blood-drinking military-aged 5 year olds are currently invading America.
Daniel Dumbrill205,121 görüntüleme • 3 yıl önce
Belly of the World's Highest Bridge - From Inside: Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge Full documentary:
Daniel Dumbrill61,081 görüntüleme • 9 ay önce