JohnRawls wrote:The HK protest has a good analogy though for communism/socialism. Back in the days of the Cold War, the USSR crushed the Czechoslovak reformist movement. A lot of historians nowadays consider this a moment when communism could have changed for the better in its own way but failed to do so by the hardliners. You know, Socialism/Communism with a human face that they later attempted but ultimately failed in the 80s. Also the crushing of this reformist movement was not necessary, as i have done some reading on the matter, most of the people were socialists/communists and wanted to change socialism/communism instead of transitioning to capitalism.
Same analogy is here, HK was not necessarily against China at the start of this all. HK was also not against the one state two systems approach. But as the Chinese continued to crush them more and more, so the protest became more hardlined in sense and now are a bit more anti-China compared to being just a general reform movement several years ago. Basically is this the CCPs Czechoslovakian moment? Is this the point where they refuse to reform and complicate things further for them in the end?
There is a network of concentration camps in Xinjiang holding perhaps a million people. There are houses with QR codes the government scans to monitor them. Some households have government minders staying with them. In Tibet, banners of Xi are often behind bulletproof glass. If people talk or demonstrate, they can be swept up and their families might only hear something months after a conviction for whatever charge they want.
The problem with China’s response to HK is Xi Jinping. People around him might be able to convince him to be more subtle with HK, but the CPC is not going to reform in any meaningful way.
@Patrickov I'm not a Chinese citizen so it’s not my business to play hipster activist for a pointless cause in HK. HK is slated to integrate into the PRC in a few decades. At most, the protests can pressure Beijing to back off the extradition law, but in 30 years it literally won’t matter because by then, people can be legally arrested for saying what you’re saying.
You need to be realistic about the future.
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Last year I moved into my first apartment in Shanghai and since I’m a foreigner I had to register with the police. Each area is served by a particular police station, so I waited around the neighborhood at the station until my apartment agent showed up to help me file the required paperwork. I wandered down the street a bit and noticed a few people standing around in front of a nearby building. More people started to gather. Someone pulled out a long banner with writing painted on it and a few people held it up. A bunch of them started bashing into the metal gate in front of the building, behind which a couple security guards tried to hold them off. The group of people broke in and the scene turned into one of a small crowd surrounding two or three security guards, all yelling and shouting with the broken gate behind them. I was snapping pictures, and then suddenly I thought about my situation: a white foreigner taking photos in front of a somewhat violent demonstration a block away from a police station, with Shanghai’s ever-present CCTV cameras everywhere watching, including that scene. The sense of panic was tremendous and I got the fuck away before any police showed up.
"I don't know if you're a detective or a pervert."
"Well, that's for me to know and you to find out."
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