Also CKS, and KMT as a whole for that matter, always maintained that their goal is democracy and advancement of China. The fact that he was a dictator is another matter.
CCP doesn’t even pretend to believe that. In their view China can exclusively function under an authoritarian regime and the number 1 goal is advancement of the party.
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exactly. this is nothing to show off about when you realise they would have been out of poverty 30 years earlier if it wasn’t for chairman ‘i dont brush my teeth because neither do tigers’ mao oh and they would have also had 50 million people who didn’t die of starvation so theres that. they would have kept their 5000 year old culture too instead of razing it to the ground because chairman ‘bring me more underage girls’ mao needed to do something crazy because he was losing his grip on power.
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It’s interesting does anybody even know what is their official goal now ?
I don’t understand the argument “you never had democracy so why do you want it now?”. Nobody had democracy until they did.
It’s a bit unfair to single out the British for not giving HK democracy. The Chinese government has repeated threatened to invade HK since the 1950s if Britain introduced full democracy or tried to make HK independent. Similar to how Taiwan faces similar threats for attempting any changes to the status quo relationship they have with China.
I think this is the main concern. The rule of law was fairly strong under the British, especially since the 1970s or so, and freedom of expression, the press, etc. as well. Even if HK cannot go forward to actual democracy, they certainly don’t want to go backwards and lose what freedoms they did (still kinda do) have.
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Interesting… very interesting.
It seems most social media posts from
Chinese stars backing the HK police are almost identical, despite not being reposts or retweets of one another. I just finished watching ‘Chernobyl’ in which prominent public figures had to toe the party line or risk losing their careers or even their lives. It’s 2019 and not much has changed…
(On another note, Liu Yifei is 32. Why is she even playing a teenage character in the first place?)
Thats not what I said.
Saying that Taiwan can do it therefore China can too, while not entirely invalid, does require a couple of leaps. All these things happen in context. Taiwan reached very high development, and high level of democracy and civil liberties in a context that was largely defined by its relationship with other states.
Try imagining that for a Taiwan that is fifty something times more populous. Could it follow the exact same path? There are a couple of obvious limitations that pop up straight away when you start imagining.
(Disclaimer: Not saying that any country needs communism or dictatorships.)
Imagine this: Russia has a small territory bordering the US that unlike Russia has always been administered democratically. Russia and the US negotiate and it is decided to hand sovereignty of the territory to the US. As they step out the door the Russians declare something along the lines of: “OK you guys are going to achieve a communist utopia now thanks to the amazing deal we negotiated for you with the Americans.” Unfortunately once the US has controlled the state for several years it starts to become apparent that the state is not moving towards communism. Not only that, it is sliding away from the ideals of communism. What a massive surprise?
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The reality is that the CCP is the vanguard of the Chinese idea of a strong unified China with all its interpreted territories of “China”. It’s hard to imagine such a goal not be done under a strong totalitarian state. I think it’s far more important for them this is reached than democratizing the country. China and Chinese people have been obsessed with this idea of completing the Middle Kingdom under one unified country for thousands of years.
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And China is also recruiting Taiwanese successful over there, like this boy band fellow:
Divide and conquer.
So the Mulan actress has US passport and still feels unsafe enough to push the party line? Is this part of a campaign by CCP, as wumao can’t be more effective than a celebrity in giving this «HK police is right» a legitimacy push? It means this is a serious threat…To the CCP.
My wife, who is a fervent supporter of the HK protests, actually feels some sympathy for this Yifei character as she believes she’s being forced into it by China. She thinks they would destroy her career if she didn’t issue a stance. Maybe she really is this stupid or this pro-China or maybe she’s being coerced. Who knows what really happens behind the scenes when China is involved…?
The thing is like, she has US passport and an international career, why is she not free to express what she thinks…or not? Why does she make a statement at all? Most actors are apolitical, but for Chinese thespians that is not a choice.
Like the clashes between Chinese against HK and HK supporters in Australia. Aside from having Chinese people telling HK pro to go back where they came from, they will harass and accuse - and probably deduct social points- from Chineses people who do not harass HKers enthusiastically. It is the Cultural revolution part 6.
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Because China recognises ethnic Chinese as Chinese and nothing else. There is certainly advantages and disadvantages to it. Disadvantages become prominent when you cross The CCP
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Maybe they threatened her family who is still in China? I’m reminded of the case of Fan Bingbing, who had appeared in Hollywood blockbusters like the X-Men franchise, but was still detained by China under trumped up (and possibly fabricated) tax evasion charges. No one even knew where she was for almost two weeks, and she was a global super star. Insidious stuff. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_Bingbing
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Not recognize Chinese as Chinese. There is nothing Chinese about being manipulated as a party tool. Recognizing them as Chinese would imply they see them as human beings.
The so called irony that all major actors and politicians in China have a second passport is actually becoming a dangerous national security issue for all countries involved.
I wrote about the Fan BingBing case. Why was she selected when the practice of double bills/accounting is customary in their movie business? Interestingly, she was allegedly saved by the intervention of a big politician…And her engagement was broken off. One can think many ugly things…
We can’t let this happen just because they may be coerced into it or the CCP will do it for every small thing that happens.
The artists have to understand there is a price to pay for backing a repressive regime. They want Disney money they better stop associating with China. Is that too much to ask? Aren’t there enough Chinese born American actors to fill all the roles?
I don’t disagree.
Problem is Disney as well as any major studio wants China money. Local biz won’t cut it anymore.
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Whole social media is a joke in China. Weibo post against protesters gets 500 billion hits. While they have about 500 million active users? Every users has hit that post 1000 times? Maybe they had set their bots a bit on overdrive…
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