Jiangxi Witnesses Sudden Bamboo Blossoms: What Disaster Befalls the Chinese People Next?

Bamboo suddenly blossoms in Jiangxi. What disaster is next in line to befall the Chinese people? Ten days, five tigers struck. The CCP's political arena will be blood. Rumors circulate over 60% of China's unfinished 450-meter skyscraper halts construction. South Dakota governor warns of very real daily threat China poses to U.S. agriculture. It's all covered in today's China Truths. Bamboo suddenly blossoms in Jiangxi. What disaster is next in line to befall the Chinese people? There's an old saying in the Chinese countryside, when bamboo blooms, you'd better move fast. It's something many might not see in their entire lives. But lately, there's been a widespread bamboo blooming event in Jiangxi that's caught everyone's attention and fear. Videos all over the internet are showing vast stretches of bamboo in Ganzhou, Jiangxi, bursting into bloom. The flowers of the bamboo look like thin, purple strips, similar to rice, and the locals call them bamboo rice. One man in a video says, here in the mountainous countryside of Ganzhou, Jiangxi, bamboos of all sizes are flowering, and it's really bizarre. The older folks in the village are pretty worried. You'd expect the ancient bamboos, the ones around 50 or 60 years old, to bloom, but what's really strange is seeing all these newly sprouted young bamboos flowering, too. A science article from the Chinese Academy of Sciences website explains that bamboo flowers once every 60 years and then die. This blooming event can trigger major ecological impacts, affecting not just pandas and other wildlife that depend on bamboo, but also hitting the bamboo industry hard. In local lore, there's a saying, when bamboo blooms, you'd better move fast. When it starts fruiting, there's no place to hide. Piecing together various articles online, bamboo flowering is considered a bad omen in Chinese folk beliefs. The stories go that when bamboo flowers spread across an area, it's a warning sign that disasters like droughts or famine might be on their way. Some experts have noticed that bamboo flowers often coincide with years of drought. Take 1953, for example, when Zhejiang faced a major drought and the bamboo forests in Tianmu Mountain bloomed all over. However, on the flip side, some believe that bamboo blooming is actually a good sign. Sure, the flowering leads to a lot of bamboo dying off, but the seeds that fall and scatter promise new growth. It's seen as a symbol of overcoming hardship and represents the natural cycle of ending and beginning anew. Ten days, five tigers struck. The CCP's political arena will be blood. Just ten days after the CCP's big meetings wrapped up, five top officials have been taken down one after another. Some political analysts say that the head of the CCP is using this tactic to keep party officials in line, making sure they don't start questioning things, and it's clear the CCP political arena will surely usher in a bloody storm. The first person is Dou Wangui, the vice chairman of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region's Political Consultative Conference. On March 20, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and National Supervision Commission's website reported that he is now under investigation, making him the fifth high-level official to be ousted following this year's CCP meetings. Then, on March 18, news came out about Liu Yijin. For years, after stepping down as the first deputy-level counterterrorism commissioner for the CCP's Ministry of Public Security, he's being investigated, marking the first bigwig from the public security sector to be hit with allegations after the 2024 sessions. After Guo Xunquan became the minister of public security for the CCP in 2012, Liu Yijin got the job of assistant minister of public security in November 2014, making him one of Guo's guys. Guo is one of the big names associated with the Jiang faction, which was led by the late former CCP head Jiang Zemin and ex-Politburo Standing Committee members in Qinghong. The third person is Li Xianggang, vice chairman of the Heilongjiang Provincial People's Congress Standing Committee. On March 17, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and National Supervision Commission's website broke the news that he was being investigated while still holding office. The fourth person is Li Yong, who had just retired three months prior as the general manager of China National Offshore Oil Corporation. On March 15, he found himself under the microscope. The last person is Li Jiping, the former deputy governor of the China Development Bank who had been retired for over eight years. On March 13, it came out that he was under investigation, marking him as the first tiger caught post the CCP's two sessions close. Since the CCP's 18th National Congress in 2012, the China Development Bank has seen six of its top brass taken down. Analysis A bloody storm looms over CCP political arena. Wang Huntao, the head of the China Democracy Party's National Committee, thinks the CCP's current crackdown on officials is intense. He sees Xi Jinping's actions as a strategic move to shake things up and keep officials from doubting him or plotting against him. During an interview with The Epoch Times on March 21, Wang mentioned that actually, he had this prediction two years back, right after the 20th National Congress of the CCP, that the party's political climate would be bloody. Xi Jinping's goal is to completely weed out these individuals from their roles. Wang pointed out that while dictators might think purging strengthens their hold, it actually speeds up their fall. I'm convinced that Xi Jinping is steering the Communist Party straight towards its downfall. He's clearing out officials on a massive scale, signaling that the end of the Communist Party might just be around the corner. He added, really, part of this purge is about pulling the wool over the eyes of the ordinary folks, trying to win over public sentiment. But for those in the bureaucracy, merely getting rid of them could leave them feeling bitter towards Xi. He needs to instill a deep-seated fear in them, which is why he's stirring the pot, bringing these takedowns into the open to signal to warn the party cadres not to have any different intentions. Rumors circulate over 60% of China's unfinished 450-meter skyscraper halts construction. Recently, a list revealing the status of China's unfinished skyscrapers, all towering over 450 meters, went viral online, showing that more than half of them have been left derelict. Out of the 31 skyscrapers listed, 19 are abandoned or close to it, accounting for over 60%. Almost all of these buildings are in the early stages of construction, with some barely breaking ground. In Sichuan Chengdu, the Shufeng 468 project by Greenland Group, kicked off in July 2012 with a whopping 12 billion yuan investment, about 1.66 billion U.S. dollars, was supposed to wrap up in 2019 but didn't come through. Despite denying rumors of a halt, the construction is now paused, with the building just 20 meters shy of completion. In Hubei Wuhan, four mega skyscrapers were on the books, the Chow Tai Fook Financial Center, Chuxiang Building, Fosun Bund Center, and Guohua Financial Center, all ambitious projects starting in 2018 and valued in the tens of billions. The Chuxiang Building was a collaborative effort from several of Wuhan's big-name private firms, with major Chu business entities like Taikang Life Insurance and China Chengxin hopping on board. But work stopped shortly after it started, and now the project is pretty much dropped. The other three have remained in limbo, not even making it above ground. Over in Zhejiang Ningbo, the ever-grand city of light, which began in 2011 with an investment of about 13 billion yuan, about 1.8 billion U.S. dollars, was once famed for its planned 450-meter stature and a 2026 completion date. But post-evergrand crisis, its pit is now a pond. Guangdong Shenzhen's Hubei Tower got its height slashed from 838 meters to 499 meters, and since 2022, it's only grown a few tens of meters. The Shenzhen-Hong Kong International Center went from a planned 700 meters down to 600 and was abandoned as soon as it started to rise. Guangzhou's Twin Towers is the only one on the list that's been completed, though its final height was cut down from 530 meters to 230 meters. Located in the most valuable spots of their cities, the fallout from these skyscrapers being abandoned is massive. Discussing China's escalating problem of abandoned skyscraper projects, Wang Yi, an expert on Chinese issues, noted these projects started during the country's real estate boom but have since been left unfinished, mirroring the real estate bubble's burst. This phenomenon was a symptom of the rush to build towering symbols of progress during a period of rapid growth, now standing as relics of a bygone frenzy. The collapse of the real estate bubble marks a major shift in the era. Li Hengqing, a Chinese-American economist, highlighted that in China, where officials wield significant influence, these skyscrapers are less about utility and more about showcasing authority and accomplishments. He criticized CCP leaders for their penchant for grandiosity, using these projects as personal monuments which are essentially just draining resources and harming the public. The crisis began with the Evergrande meltdown in 2021, leading to a wave of bankruptcies among major real estate firms. By August 24, 2023, over 30 prominent companies had failed. Currently, Evergrande real estate is buried under 2.4 trillion yuan, about US$332.5 billion, of debt, with Country Garden, Vank Real Estate, Greenland Holdings, Poly Development, Sunac China, China Resources Land, and Longfu Group also deep in the red. The debt crisis has led to a sharp downturn in the housing market, exacerbating the economic impact with banks saddled with bad debt, idle lands, plummeting land prices, and many people left with properties worth less than their loans. Li Hengqing views the skyscraper debacle as a self-inflicted disaster by the CCP, now beyond repair. Wang Yi concurred, suggesting there's little hope for reviving these abandoned giants, destined only for further neglect. South Dakota governor warns of very real daily threat China poses to U.S. agriculture. Over 2,500 years ago, a renowned Chinese strategist utilized trade wars, specifically, food wars, to subjugate other states. Today, U.S. lawmakers aim to prevent a scenario where communist China could dominate globally through control over food security. This concern prompted a Wednesday hearing on the danger China poses to American agriculture. South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem highlighted to lawmakers, the threat to us is very real, every single day. She recounted how Chinese nationals attempted to engage with South Dakota's Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources last summer, seeking meetings to discuss food production processes. Her team declined these requests, and they were later informed by the State Department that these individuals were spies aiming to steal intellectual property and crop genetics. Food warfare a form of asymmetric warfare. The article by the Grain and Material Reserves Bureau of Hebei refers to the Chinese strategist's acts as the earliest historical food war lessons. For example, the Duke of Qi set off the trend of wearing cotton. Citizens of Qi began to buy cotton from two neighboring states, Lu and Liang, elevating cotton prices. As a result, those states abandoned agriculture and focused on producing cotton for profit. However, a year later, Qi stopped buying cotton and cut off its trade with Lu and Liang, which couldn't feed their own citizens. Many people in Lu and Liang migrated to Qi. Three years later, Lu and Liang folded under Qi without a war. Calling food warfare a form of asymmetric warfare, the article published by Hebei's Grain and Material Reserves Bureau says, food warfare is an alternative form of war, mainly characterized by long-term siege and starvation. The initiator uses the form of cutting off food sources, restricting food trade, destroying food storage, and forcibly expropriating people's rations to achieve the goals by creating man-made famine, chaos, and unrest. Governor Noem voiced concerns over the U.S.'s agricultural dependency on China. At the hearing, she alerted lawmakers to the CCP's efforts to buy up our entire food supply chain, citing Chinese acquisitions of fertilizer and food processing companies, as well as farmland. She emphasized, when America can't feed itself and relies on another country for food, it becomes a national security issue, adding, the country that feeds us will control us. Members of the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture expressed bipartisan consensus on the threat Beijing poses. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle said repeatedly throughout the hearing, food security is national security. Josh Gackel, president of the American Soybean Association, shared with lawmakers China's dominance as an export destination for U.S. soybean farmers. Mr. Gackel said, describing the current level of dependency on China, the sheer scale of China's demand for soybeans, more than 60 percent of global soy imports, cannot be replaced. One in three rows of soybeans grown in the U.S. is destined for China. 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