Today a Tajik local here in Taxkorgan, Xinjiang told me: "this is my home, and it's your home too. It's the westernmost part of our country, just like Taiwan is way out there in the east. One day I hope to visit your home, because it's my home too. We're all Chinese." Feelz.

I rarely have reasons to be proud of France these days, but this is definitely one. France's parliament just voted - unanimously, 170 votes to 0 - a law that institutionalizes the restitution of cultural artifacts looted during the colonial era (the law covers a massive 157-year period). It's going absolutely viral in Chinese social media because of this speech 👇 by MP @JPatrierLeitus who noted in Parliament that it included items stolen to China during the joint British-French sack of the Summer Palace in 1860. Patrier-Leitus cites Victor Hugo's famous 1861 letter to Captain Butler, the British officer who wrote to him seeking his endorsement of the expedition - and got the exact opposite. Hugo wrote (whole letter here: yuanmingyuan.eu/en/the-looti…): "One day two bandits entered the Summer Palace. One plundered, the other burned. Victory can be a thieving woman, or so it seems. The devastation of the Summer Palace was accomplished by the two victors acting jointly. Mixed up in all this is the name of Elgin, which inevitably calls to mind the Parthenon. What was done to the Parthenon was done to the Summer Palace, more thoroughly and better, so that nothing of it should be left. All the treasures of all our cathedrals put together could not equal this formidable and splendid museum of the Orient. It contained not only masterpieces of art, but masses of jewelry. What a great exploit, what a windfall! One of the two victors filled his pockets; when the other saw this he filled his coffers. And back they came to Europe, arm in arm, laughing away. Such is the story of the two bandits. We Europeans are the civilized ones, and for us the Chinese are the barbarians. This is what civilization has done to barbarism. Before history, one of the two bandits will be called France; the other will be called England. But I protest, and I thank you for giving me the opportunity! the crimes of those who lead are not the fault of those who are led; Governments are sometimes bandits, peoples never. The French empire has pocketed half of this victory, and today with a kind of proprietorial naivety it displays the splendid bric-a-brac of the Summer Palace. I hope that a day will come when France, delivered and cleansed, will return this booty to despoiled China. Meanwhile, there is a theft and two thieves. I take note. This, Sir, is how much approval I give to the China expedition." Hugo's letter is so revered in China that a bronze bust of him stands today at the Summer Palace ruins - I believe the only instance of a Westerner honored in China at the site of his own country's crime. A powerful testament of how much a single act of intellectual honesty can redeem, if not a nation, then at least a name. Hugo was also prescient: as Patrier-Leitus notes, that day "when France, delivered and cleansed, will return this booty to despoiled China" has indeed come (even though the "delivered and cleansed" part is, overall, pretty questionable in the current context). This new law doesn't only concern China and the Summer Palace: it concerns ALL stolen artifacts by France during the period ranging between November 1815 and April 1972 - corresponding to the start of the second French colonial empire to the entry into force of the UNESCO convention on cultural property. It's a massive scope: 157 years, thousands of objects and dozens of nations with potential claims. It's France reckoning with its colonial past in an unprecedented way and the fact ALL of France's MPs voted in favor of the law, without a single exception, is also pretty remarkable. Hopefully this will also serve as a signal to other countries, especially the UK - the other "bandit" in Hugo's letter. There is this Chinese saying from the Zuo Zhuan (左传), one of the foundational Confucian classics: "To err and be able to correct it - there is no greater virtue." ("过而能改，善莫大焉", "guò ér néng gǎi, shàn mò dà yān"). France, with this law, proved its virtue.

🇨🇳🇫🇷China Executed a French National for Drug Trafficking: Here’s the Real Context China executed a 62-year-old French national, Chan Thao Phoumy, for drug trafficking. Sentenced to death in 2010 after a major meth ring was busted in Guangdong, over fifteen years on death row before the sentence was carried out. France is predictably “deeply concerned.” The usual statements came out, rights violations, anti-death penalty rhetoric, calls for clemency. Beijing’s response was short and to the point: drug crime is everyone’s problem, foreigners are treated exactly the same as locals and the law applies equally to everyone. Now, before the usual outrage cycles kick in, it’s worth understanding why China holds this position so firmly. This isn’t some arbitrary authoritarian quirk, it’s national memory that runs incredibly deep. The Opium Wars (1839–1860) weren’t ancient history here. They were the original Western lesson. British gunboats forced opium into Chinese ports, turned millions into addicts, hollowed out the economy and kicked off a century of humiliation. That scar tissue runs deep. Beijing remembers exactly what happens when you let narcotics flood in: social collapse, lost sovereignty, generational damage. Fast-forward to today and the CPC’s zero-tolerance stance is pure realpolitik, protect public order, keep the streets functional, stop the cartels before they metastasise. They execute for large-scale trafficking because the alternative is the fentanyl-ravaged mess you see elsewhere. And let’s be honest about one thing: it works. Walk around any Chinese city at night and you don’t see the open-air overdose scenes, needle parks, or cartel turf wars that scar parts of the West. Compare that to America’s opioid crisis, hundreds of thousands dead, entire towns hollowed out, or Europe’s creeping cocaine and meth problems. China’s strict laws, swift enforcement and cultural memory aren’t “barbaric.” They’re the reason you don’t have those problems here. Moral of the story, loud and clear: If you’re a foreigner in China, respect the damn laws. Especially on drugs. Traffic, smuggle, or deal and the consequences are final. You’re a guest in someone else’s house, play by their rules or accept the outcome. Sovereignty isn’t optional. Neither is deterrence.

BREAKING : Italian 🇮🇹 Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has given shock to US & Israel "Italy will withdraw the army from US led adventure in Middle East and will not participate in the war against Iran" 🔥 Leaders with spine and courage are standing for humanity. Mad Respect 🫡

Trump on Iran - "They're just bad... Their genetics are not exactly your genetic. It's a terrible thing" They started with "Amalek." They moved to insults. Now they're attacking Iranian "genetics". This is how you prepare a population for mass murder.

Erika Kirk: “Don’t let anyone disenfranchise you because you’re a young man—especially a young, white male man.”