Propagandists for the Chinese Communist Party cultivate a manner of uttering nonsense with great confidence. It seems that the sillier the assertion, the more dogmatic the tone.
The task is to brazen it out, never faltering, never pausing to mull or reconsider, never daring to doubt. A single “Gee, the advocates of freedom and democracy may have a point there” would destroy the whole effect, and the People’s Republic of China would sink into the ocean, never to rise again.
Which of the following statements are false and which are true (South China Morning Post, March 1, 2026)?
● “China will always stay out of other people’s fights. Never get entangled, never get involved.”
● “Western warmongers actually want China to support Iran—and Russia—militarily so it can be discredited like the Soviets during the Cold War, but that’s the quiet part they can’t say out loud.”
● “For Netanyahu, war is an end in itself; the trick is to maintain a permanent state of tension and conflict in the Middle East.”
● “However the latest war turns out for Iran, it will further accelerate the loss of America’s global standing and credibility, low as they already are. It will especially accelerate the erosion of Israel’s moral standing and credibility with the American public.”
● “If the US and Israel rely increasingly on nothing but brute force abroad, and censorship and repression at home, China looks more like a safe bet to the rest of the world.”
● The People’s Liberation Army is “not an army for aggression and invasion, but defence and deterrence.”
● “China has learned never to engage in an arms race like the Soviets did. No war, no arms race—that is China’s wise statecraft.”
● “Venezuela and Iran today, your country tomorrow.”
● “The last time the United States went on a killing spree with its ‘war on terror’…China emerged as the world’s second-largest economy.”
It was a trick question.
