June 18, 2019
2 Million
That's how many people need to march to get the Chinese government to pause and reflect.
I did not see this outcome, and I am happy to be wrong.
It's no doubt a short reprieve, but that the citizens of a city of 8million could achieve this in the face of a a totalitarian nation of 1 and a half billion is nothing short of amazing. Outnumbered about 180 to 1, they successfully staved off further erosion of their liberties. This should serve as both an inspiration and moment of humiliating self-reflection to those of us whose political movements have yielded liberties for generations in the face of similarly minded totalitarians, but at odds of roughly 1:1.
Cdr. Salamander has been following this shamefully under-reported story and, as always, his take on it is well worth your time to read the whole thing.
Finally, there's this....
I did not see this outcome, and I am happy to be wrong.
It's no doubt a short reprieve, but that the citizens of a city of 8million could achieve this in the face of a a totalitarian nation of 1 and a half billion is nothing short of amazing. Outnumbered about 180 to 1, they successfully staved off further erosion of their liberties. This should serve as both an inspiration and moment of humiliating self-reflection to those of us whose political movements have yielded liberties for generations in the face of similarly minded totalitarians, but at odds of roughly 1:1.
Cdr. Salamander has been following this shamefully under-reported story and, as always, his take on it is well worth your time to read the whole thing.
Finally, there's this....
Behold: The exact opposite of Antifa
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
01:22 PM
| Comments (6)
| Add Comment
Post contains 154 words, total size 2 kb.
1
Yes and no. I have little doubt that had this occurred in mainland China instead, some poor soul would be tasked with collecting the remains of all 2 million with a squeegee. Hong Kong has more leeway as China, in regaining control from the UK, accepted treaty obligations to maintain certain freedoms and a level of autonomy for 50 years. China acting like China to the Hong Kong protesters would almost certainly violate that agreement. I'm not sure what the treaty lays out as repercussions in that situation, but it would, at a minimum, provide the UK an opportunity to put a lot of egg on China's face internationally.
On the other hand, I certainly would not want to be in Hong Kong on 2-Jul-2047 as I suspect China's celebration of that 50 year anniversary of assuming control from the Brits will be quite memorable, at least what they allow to get out to foreign media.
On the other hand, I certainly would not want to be in Hong Kong on 2-Jul-2047 as I suspect China's celebration of that 50 year anniversary of assuming control from the Brits will be quite memorable, at least what they allow to get out to foreign media.
Posted by: StargazerA5 at Tue Jun 18 16:03:45 2019 (jl9eJ)
2
I seriously doubt that any mere treaty would have stopped the PRC from doing what they wanted, and the UK would have done nothing to safeguard business relations (Remember Tony Blair's shame, when he let the Pan Am 103 bombers go back to Libya, which just so coincided with UK firms getting contracts in sand country.). More to the point, there is little that the UK can do.
Rather, Hong Kong is very much a goose that lays golden eggs and clamping down on them with tanks will kill that - as well as insure the KMT loses in the next presidential elections in Taiwan. That the PRC was actually willing to alarm Taiwanese voters while trying to pull this move, does not say much about the wisdom of the current Red Commie leadership.
On a side note, I thought Ace of Spades actually had more posts about Americans who believe we should be more like the PRC, but aside from Tom Friedman, I have not been able to track down much on the site - I could have sworn that the head of AGSCME was on the record as saying great things about the PRC...
Rather, Hong Kong is very much a goose that lays golden eggs and clamping down on them with tanks will kill that - as well as insure the KMT loses in the next presidential elections in Taiwan. That the PRC was actually willing to alarm Taiwanese voters while trying to pull this move, does not say much about the wisdom of the current Red Commie leadership.
On a side note, I thought Ace of Spades actually had more posts about Americans who believe we should be more like the PRC, but aside from Tom Friedman, I have not been able to track down much on the site - I could have sworn that the head of AGSCME was on the record as saying great things about the PRC...
Posted by: cxt217 at Tue Jun 18 21:35:46 2019 (LMsTt)
3
The impression I've been forming the last few years about China is that they seem to believe they can continue with a "two hands" approach. That is to say, they promote Shenzen and Tianjin and allow (with great fear, apparently) a lot of foreign culture and foreigners in general to thrive, while keeping most of the country separated and tightly controlled.
Some of the "free" Chinese that I've read or follow when they're able to get videos out unmolested have mentioned that the level of oppression faced by the majority of the country is something the "free" people aren't supposed to even know about, let alone *talk* about.
That the Chinese government believes it can continue to control things like this is, IMO, the biggest example of a regime bound to fall within decades.
Some of the "free" Chinese that I've read or follow when they're able to get videos out unmolested have mentioned that the level of oppression faced by the majority of the country is something the "free" people aren't supposed to even know about, let alone *talk* about.
That the Chinese government believes it can continue to control things like this is, IMO, the biggest example of a regime bound to fall within decades.
Posted by: Ben at Wed Jun 19 10:18:28 2019 (osxtX)
4
I hear about the horror freak show that is the mainland Chinese culture and national character quite a bit from Russian travelers, who by necessity roam the country beyond Shenzen. The spitting in volleys from buses is just the most popular example. Growing veggies fertilized with human corpses is a thing too -- hello, prions, my old friends. Westerners love to make too much from them stealing everything that's not bolted down, and sometimes what is. In my view the cleptomania is one of their minor faults.
It should be noted, however, that Russians themselves were just as horrible 40 years ago. Yeltsin and Putin made the country civilized in just 25 years (well, made Moscow civilized). Sadly though, Deng Xiao-ping could not do it for China. The darkness of Chinese heart just too deep and has its own inertia.
It should be noted, however, that Russians themselves were just as horrible 40 years ago. Yeltsin and Putin made the country civilized in just 25 years (well, made Moscow civilized). Sadly though, Deng Xiao-ping could not do it for China. The darkness of Chinese heart just too deep and has its own inertia.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Thu Jun 20 13:09:02 2019 (LZ7Bg)
5
What is underreported is the attempt by the government, over the last several years, to stamp out not just minority languages, but majority ones, like Cantonese and the Hong Kong dialect, while having government officials from the Mandarin heartland constantly demonstrate that they themselves have trouble speaking and understanding Mandarin. (The officials currently on top were in school during the Cultural Revolution.) In the last year or so, the government officially banned the Mandarin word for your grandma on one side (tai-tai), because it is a loanword from Cantonese. Loaned several hundred years ago.
Victor Mair on Language Log covers a lot of this stuff. He often buries the lede behind a linguistics point or joke, but he does not hide the story. Hong Kong is fighting for its culture on every level, and has been for years.
But a lot of mainland Chinese are also fighting very cleverly, which is why China's Internet has new censorship every few days.
Victor Mair on Language Log covers a lot of this stuff. He often buries the lede behind a linguistics point or joke, but he does not hide the story. Hong Kong is fighting for its culture on every level, and has been for years.
But a lot of mainland Chinese are also fighting very cleverly, which is why China's Internet has new censorship every few days.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Mon Jun 24 06:52:31 2019 (sF8WE)
37kb generated in CPU 0.0163, elapsed 0.3497 seconds.
71 queries taking 0.3411 seconds, 362 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.
71 queries taking 0.3411 seconds, 362 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.
