Political and Social Dissent in Red China
Posted: 17 Jul 2017 22:23
Far from being a harmonious, Confucian society, Red China is fractious, violent, repressive, with deep ethnic, linguistic and economic fault lines.
The state has begun to believe its own narrative of an orderly, cooperative social structure. The aim of this thread is to act as a repository of the reality that is Red China in terms of dissent.
Abductions of one of Red China's most powerful businessmen in Hong Kong https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protest_a ... t_in_China
Visitors from China’s mainland have repeatedly been the target of angry protests by Hong Kong natives who have sometimes denounced them with the kind of epithets more familiar in societies deeply divided by race – words such as “pestilence”, “vermin” and “hordes”. Many Hong Kong natives frown at the supposedly coarse behaviour of members of the newly minted Chinese middle class, who they accuse of spitting in public, jay-walking and letting infants relieve themselves in the street. But for these visiting Chinese, Hong Kong is no longer so much a place to marvel over as it is a confirmation of their own society’s arrival. More and more, in fact, it looks like the places they’ve come from.
“They have very complicated attitudes to Hong Kong people – a complex,” said a man in his late 20s who works in corporate relations for a small manufacturer, explaining his support for tighter restrictions on tourism from the mainland. “They say that Hong Kong people are really just Chinese people, and nothing special. Hong Kong people in the 70s and 80s invested a lot of money in places like Shenzhen, and behaved like tycoons. They say you bought prostitutes there. Now we are rich, and it is the Hong Kong people’s turn to be our slaves. When Chinese people come to Hong Kong now, they like to act like they are operating in their colony. They don’t care what you think and are very free, because they have the Chinese government behind them, and the Chinese government controls everything.”
Increasing repression in Hong Kong https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ ... high-price
Bound by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee’s decision on oath-taking etiquettes, the Hong Kong High Court ruled to unseat four democratically-elected opposition lawmakers, including Nathan Law, the youngest person ever to be elected to the legislature. The only infraction the four ever committed was straying from their oaths during the swearing-in ceremony to voice their desire for their city to democratise.
But Beijing’s tightening grip comes at a cost. In Hong Kong, Liu’s death has rekindled an anti-mainland sentiment that has been smouldering for years. To the seven million citizens who watched Liu’s slow death in equal parts horror and grief, any remaining pretence that modern China is a benevolent paternal state that has moved beyond a brutal response to political debate has been shattered once and for all. And all current and future attempts by Beijing to win over Hong Kong people, especially the younger generations, are doomed to fail. The indelible images of a skin-and-bone dissident on his deathbed or of that famous empty chair in the Oslo City Hall have been seared into their collective mind. China has lost Hong Kong forever.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ ... parliament
Law makers disqualified in Hong Kong
Thousands of supporters later gathered outside Hong Kong’s legislature, attending a hastily organised rally where pro-democracy MPs gave speeches.
“From today on we cannot continue with business as usual, we must fight!” said lawmaker Fernando Cheung, standing in solidarity with his disqualified colleagues.
The state has begun to believe its own narrative of an orderly, cooperative social structure. The aim of this thread is to act as a repository of the reality that is Red China in terms of dissent.
Abductions of one of Red China's most powerful businessmen in Hong Kong https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protest_a ... t_in_China
Visitors from China’s mainland have repeatedly been the target of angry protests by Hong Kong natives who have sometimes denounced them with the kind of epithets more familiar in societies deeply divided by race – words such as “pestilence”, “vermin” and “hordes”. Many Hong Kong natives frown at the supposedly coarse behaviour of members of the newly minted Chinese middle class, who they accuse of spitting in public, jay-walking and letting infants relieve themselves in the street. But for these visiting Chinese, Hong Kong is no longer so much a place to marvel over as it is a confirmation of their own society’s arrival. More and more, in fact, it looks like the places they’ve come from.
“They have very complicated attitudes to Hong Kong people – a complex,” said a man in his late 20s who works in corporate relations for a small manufacturer, explaining his support for tighter restrictions on tourism from the mainland. “They say that Hong Kong people are really just Chinese people, and nothing special. Hong Kong people in the 70s and 80s invested a lot of money in places like Shenzhen, and behaved like tycoons. They say you bought prostitutes there. Now we are rich, and it is the Hong Kong people’s turn to be our slaves. When Chinese people come to Hong Kong now, they like to act like they are operating in their colony. They don’t care what you think and are very free, because they have the Chinese government behind them, and the Chinese government controls everything.”
Increasing repression in Hong Kong https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ ... high-price
Bound by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee’s decision on oath-taking etiquettes, the Hong Kong High Court ruled to unseat four democratically-elected opposition lawmakers, including Nathan Law, the youngest person ever to be elected to the legislature. The only infraction the four ever committed was straying from their oaths during the swearing-in ceremony to voice their desire for their city to democratise.
But Beijing’s tightening grip comes at a cost. In Hong Kong, Liu’s death has rekindled an anti-mainland sentiment that has been smouldering for years. To the seven million citizens who watched Liu’s slow death in equal parts horror and grief, any remaining pretence that modern China is a benevolent paternal state that has moved beyond a brutal response to political debate has been shattered once and for all. And all current and future attempts by Beijing to win over Hong Kong people, especially the younger generations, are doomed to fail. The indelible images of a skin-and-bone dissident on his deathbed or of that famous empty chair in the Oslo City Hall have been seared into their collective mind. China has lost Hong Kong forever.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/ ... parliament
Law makers disqualified in Hong Kong
Thousands of supporters later gathered outside Hong Kong’s legislature, attending a hastily organised rally where pro-democracy MPs gave speeches.
“From today on we cannot continue with business as usual, we must fight!” said lawmaker Fernando Cheung, standing in solidarity with his disqualified colleagues.