China is asshoe!

[JoeP]

Is blocked in China? Let's make it happen. Even if no one linked to us anyway.

Thrad title is a line from this protester: "China is asshoe" which is now a full-on meme. Disclaimers:

• The full line is "Donald Trump, don't trust China! China is asshoe!"
• Yes, he's saying asshole. This is not about mocking accents.
• Even though he addresses Donald Trump, it's not about Donald Trump. "Trump" isn't going to do anything.
• It's about the Chinese government not the Chinese people.
• Although some Chinese people may also be asshoes.

There is too much stuff to discuss about China so I'm not going to pretend to mention let alone cover everything. Obviously the main current thing is the forceful application of the one system, party=power, to Hong Kong despite the "one country two systems" line. But don't forget, Xinjiang is a highly advanced surveillance police state with something like a million Uighurs in re-education camps. Governments around the world are still capitulating to China's demands that they don't have diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Tibet is still an occupied territory with the Dalai Lama in exile. China is still building "facts on the ground sea" to try to expand its territorial claims in the South China Sea. Not even Macau is particularly happy.

In Hong Kong, the protesters are keeping going despite gatherings being made illegal (unless you're the police), wearing masks being made illegal (unless you're the police), singing anti-police protest songs being made illegal (no word on whether the police are allowed to sing). The original spark, a law on extradition to the mainland, has been dropped but too little too late: the protests now are about democracy and rights.

If Beijing does not budge, the struggle for Hong Kong will last decades | Louisa Lim and Ilaria Maria Sala | Opinion | The Guardian

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But meanwhile, we have the unrestrained tendency of China to threaten and bully countries, businesses and individuals anywhere in the world when they criticise China.

Tweet support for the HK protesters and China will block your organisation:
China denies it demanded NBA fire Daryl Morey over Hong Kong tweet | NBA | The Guardian

Protest in your own country and get family threats:
To suppress news of Xinjiang’s gulag, China threatens Uighurs abroad - Cutting the line

Kurban Niyaz, another Uighur exile in America, received a photo from his younger sister on WeChat, a Chinese social-media app. It showed two Chinese police officers sitting on her sofa (one of them smiled for the camera).

'Think of your family': China threatens European citizens over Xinjiang protests | Uighurs | The Guardian

Then the Chinese official took the phone again with a final warning.

“You’re living overseas, but you need to think of your family while you’re running around doing your activism work in Germany,” he said. “You need to think of their safety.”

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I'm reading "Upheaval" by Jared Diamond, in which he writes about various countries who've gone through national crises. In the chapter on Finland he discusses Finland's conscious policy of accommodating the Soviet Union after the Winter and Continuation Wars (WW2 for the rest of us) and comments

It could never happen in the U.S. or Germany that a presidential election would be postponed, a presidential candidate would withdraw his or her candidacy, a publisher would cancel a book, or the press would censor itself, just to avoid inflaming Soviet sensitivities. Such actions seem to violate a democracy's right to freedom of action.

And I thought - but that's happen right now - definitely parts of the press are self-censoring, businesses are self-censoring. Does China have the relative size and degree of threat to America and Europe as the 1950s Soviet Union did to Finland, 50 times smaller and still in the process of industrialising?

Asshoe.



Anyway just to make sure we get blocked:

show spoiler

[Crumb]

I'm reading "Upheaval" by Jared Diamond, in which he writes about various countries who've gone through national crises.

Oh, this book sounds interesting.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by Crumb

Oh, this book sounds interesting.

I'm on Meiji-restoration Japan now.

Note he explicitly excludes Trump and Brexit as these are national crises we have not finished going through yet!

[Kyuss Apollo]

Ooooh! NOW people are going to link to us!!

asshoes!!

[Ari]

There banned.

[Qingdai]

I don't get the Pooh reference, but YEAH. China has consolidated most of the rare metals and minerals used in manufacturing electronic devices. I'm not surprised that our Digitial Billionaire overlords will willingly and forever capitulate to whatever crazy ass demands those Asshoes make.

[JoeP]

Xi Jinping definitely does not look at all like Winnie the Pooh. Source - Xi Jinping

It's just one of many things blocked in China for offending the sensibilities of the Chinese state, but it's become iconic. If they hadn't made a fuss about it it would have fizzled out.

[Kyuss Apollo]

India's state TV channel has fired a news anchor for referring to Chinese President Xi Jinping as "Eleven" Jinping.

The presenter apparently confused Mr Xi's name with the Roman numerals XI.

Her name has been removed from the panel of newsreaders, Doordarshan news chief Archana Datta told BBC Hindi, describing the error as "grave"...

"Not many people are aware of the fact that 'Vi Guevara' was given the name 'Che Guevara' by a DD news anchor," tweeted Menongitis.

"Fired? She deserves own show," wrote Mosharraf Zaidi.

[JoeP]

Hong Kong 'protest' cake disqualified from UK competition - BBC News

"Oversized exhibits will be disqualified. This entry was not removed as a political statement," it said in a Facebook post.

Yeah right.

[JoeP]

Elsewhere in China, more global attention is being paid to the situation in Xinjiang:

'Allow no escapes': leak exposes reality of China's vast prison camp network | World news | The Guardian

Though not by governments.

[JoeP]

And I have not had the energy to post updates on the situation in Hong Kong but I think it may even be hitting the news in the US, despite the impeachment circus.

These are older:
Hong Kong protester shot in street confrontation with police | Hong Kong protests News | Al Jazeera
Imgur: The magic of the Internet (1m video)
'They seem so helpless': Hongkongers flock to aid besieged protesters | World news | The Guardian
The Guardian view on Hong Kong: a city on the brink | Editorial | Opinion | The Guardian

And last weekend:

Hong Kong voters deliver landslide victory for pro-democracy campaigners | World news | The Guardian

Which will not change anything inside China or Hong Kong, just means the Chinese govt can no longer pretend to the rest of the world that the protesters are an unrepresentative minority. Pretty sure however that mainland citizens don't even know there is protest.

[JoeP]

They think no one is paying attention.

US and UK condemn arrest of Hong Kong democracy activists | World news | The Guardian

Hong Kong using Covid-19 crisis as 'golden opportunity' for crackdown, says arrested leader | World news | The Guardian

14 reactions to Hong Kong's crackdown on democrats: 'This is not the rule of law,' says ex-governor Chris Patten | Hong Kong Free Press HKFP

[JoeP]

Just a reminder that China is still asshoe. More cracking down in Hong Kong. Xinjiang's not in the news but still well cracked down.

[Kyuss Apollo]

Raise your hand if you saw this coming in 1997 when Great Britain transferred sovereignty of Hong Kong back to China.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Today I asked the Executive Yuan to draw up a humanitarian assistance action plan for #HongKong citizens that lays out clear, complete plans for their residence, placement, employment, & life in #Taiwan as soon as possible. pic.twitter.com/XYBTe89WyD

— 蔡英文 Tsai Ing-wen (@iingwen) May 27, 2020

[Kyuss Apollo]

Tibet is China's ticket to hegemony - YouTube

[JoeP]

Xi Jinping is assh oe itler?

Xi-Tler? Xi Jinping Emulating Adolf Hitler! -...

The speaker is not that riveting, really just reading out a list of parallels, for 7m ... but it's quite a long and substantial list.

The only question I have is whether lots of dictators have taken comparable steps and not ended up in a World War.

[JoeP]

China's Xi Jinping facing widespread opposition in his own party, insider claims | World news | The Guardian

Exclusive: Cai Xia, who has been expelled from the elite Central Party School, says president’s ‘unchecked power’ has made China ‘the enemy of the world’

A former professor at China’s elite Central Party School has issued an unprecedented rebuke of the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, accusing him of “killing a country” and claiming that many more want out of the ruling Chinese Communist party.

Cai initially spoke to the Guardian in June after the recording was first released. On that occasion she went further in her denunciation of Xi, blaming him for making China “an enemy” of the world, in comments that will reverberate across the party and the country, where such public criticism from within the party establishment is extremely rare.

On Tuesday, Cai, who initially asked that her June interview not be published because of threats she and her family received, said she was now willing to speak out. “I have much more freedom now. My speech is free from any constraints. I am responsible only for my own conscience and principles,” she said.

[viscousmemories]

I have been learning a lot about how indoctrinated we in capitalist countries are, especially in the US, to be reflexively anti-communist, and it makes me extremely doubtful of everything I thought I knew about what is going on in China and skeptical of many of the stories in this thread. This is a paradox though, because I have no idea how to determine whether any particular story is factual or propaganda, and if the latter if it is Chinese or Capitalist propaganda. (Except most of the Hong Kong stories, because I believe we have a lot more visibility into what is happening in Hong Kong than we do into China proper.)

[JoeP]

It's a fair point - and even if it wasn't always good to question bias in sources.

I think the reflexive anti-communist attitudes are a lot stronger in the US of A than in Britain, but have no real way to evaluate that.

Plus ... I'm pretty sure The Guardian isn't fanatically anti-communist ...

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Originally Posted by JoeP

I think the reflexive anti-communist attitudes are a lot stronger in the US of A than in Britain, but have no real way to evaluate that.

The NHS is communism.

[JoeP]

general muttering about communism and socialism being different things

But since America is vehemently against socialism as well, vm's point applies just as much.

[SR71]

Originally Posted by Kyuss Apollo

India's state TV channel has fired a news anchor for referring to Chinese President Xi Jinping as "Eleven" Jinping.

Well this stepping right in a big pile of stereotype.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Originally Posted by JoeP

general muttering about communism and socialism being different things

But since America is vehemently against socialism as well, vm's point applies just as much.

Only communists do propaganda.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by Kamilah Hauptmann

Only communists do propaganda.

When socialists do it it's called FAKE NEWS!!!