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Hong Kong: books by pro-democracy activists disappear from library shelves

theguardian.com

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Re: Hong Kong: books by pro-democracy activists disappear from library shelves

#231

Post by eloff »

systemvoltage wrote: post #158
ttul wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one part of a several act drama that is playing out for the home audience. Reign in the disobedient teenager (Hong Kong) by taking his skateboard away. Act two is a military provocation, which is why the US has moved more hardware into the area.

US should equip Taiwan with nuclear weapons for deterrance. Should there be invasion en-masse, deep in the mountains of Taiwan there would be nuclear weapons ready to strike. Nuclear weapons are great to keep peace in the region.

Because that worked so well when the Russians tried it with Cuba?

What you makes you think China would tolerate that any better in their backyard?

Re: Hong Kong: books by pro-democracy activists disappear from library shelves

#232

Post by fomine3 »

systemvoltage wrote: post #158
ttul wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one part of a several act drama that is playing out for the home audience. Reign in the disobedient teenager (Hong Kong) by taking his skateboard away. Act two is a military provocation, which is why the US has moved more hardware into the area.

US should equip Taiwan with nuclear weapons for deterrance. Should there be invasion en-masse, deep in the mountains of Taiwan there would be nuclear weapons ready to strike. Nuclear weapons are great to keep peace in the region.

Won't ICBM work?

Re: Hong Kong: books by pro-democracy activists disappear from library shelves

#233

Post by DrJaws »

justicezyx wrote: post #121
chadcmulligan wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comments are interesting (in this and other threads), as others have mentioned - authoritarian societies are good for those in authority - less so for the others. If the authoritarian society is so good, why is it necessary to disallow conversation? Surely if everyone was doing well, conversation would be encouraged - because everyone would be saying how well things are going. The assumption of any reasonable pe…

> Surely if everyone was doing well, conversation would be encouraged CCP encourage very open discussion on anything except political issues. While presumably one day that won't work, because absolute power brings absolute corruption. How long until that happens and backfires, it's not clear.

everything is political

what are they going to encourage, talk about music?

Re: Hong Kong: books by pro-democracy activists disappear from library shelves

#234

Post by camillomiller »

moonchild wrote: post #213
camillomiller wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re applying the wrong Western categories to Chinese people. People think Chinese don’t have a religion, but they actually do and the God is China itself. First, they all believe China needs to step up to its role in the World stage. Second, the social pact in China is quite straightforward: you give up some useless rights that only weak westerners seem to be overly attached to, and you get in exchange growth, sta…

> they all believe ... Over-generalising, much? :) I went to school with a lot of chinese people. Some of them went to school in the US full-time, and some of them just transfer students for a single semester. The latter group was much more likely to express nationalistic ideals. One girl told me that she didn't want to visit her aunt, who lived in the US, because the aunt supported the HK protesters. The former grou…

Yes, of course it’s a generalization. And of course there’s plenty of exceptions like what you said. I also want to point out something that I wasn’t able to bring across. Chinese people are also generally able to criticize the party over many things, and they do. It’s just you don’t do that over overly-sensitive and controverse topics. Complaining about cultural decisions and mocking them? They do all the time, just be in Shenzhen for a couple of weeks and spend some time with locals... Criticizing the government over the HK situation? that’s a no no.

Re: Hong Kong: books by pro-democracy activists disappear from library shelves

#235

Post by njrc9 »

mrobot wrote: post #100

Important to note that the US Agency for Global Media was funding and supporting the Hong Kong protests [1]. China could never get away with doing the same thing in the US. The fact is that media bubbles are a powerful tool. There is a reason the US / CIA spend so much time/money on projects like Radio Free Asia. If you are on the same side as the CIA and US imperialism, you might want to think about why that is and…

Thank you for linking the article. I had never heard of the US Agency for Global Media before. I have not read that much about it yet but it sounds in line with some of the criticisms Chomsky levels at U.S. propaganda. I would be very interested in any other sources of information you might recommend on this topic or hearing more of your own thoughts (my email is in my profile).

Re: Hong Kong: books by pro-democracy activists disappear from library shelves

#236

Post by hajile »

magicsmoke wrote: post #112
chadcmulligan wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comments are interesting (in this and other threads), as others have mentioned - authoritarian societies are good for those in authority - less so for the others. If the authoritarian society is so good, why is it necessary to disallow conversation? Surely if everyone was doing well, conversation would be encouraged - because everyone would be saying how well things are going. The assumption of any reasonable pe…

The issue is that in China's case, authoritarianism has been good for both people in authority and the majority, as evidenced by increasing economic growth and standards of living. You could make a theoretical argument that if China was democratic, then everyone would be even better off. But people in China use India as a mirror since both countries had massive populations, were underdeveloped, and gained independenc…

Millions rounded up into concentration camps and butchered alive for organs would no doubt have a very different view of their plight than you do in this defense of Chinese nationalism and authoritarianism.

Re: Hong Kong: books by pro-democracy activists disappear from library shelves

#237

Post by cZGuJ7g7 »

loughnane wrote: post #224

Is there a list of some of these books?

https://news.mingpao.com/pns/%E8%A6%81%E8%81%9E/article/2020...

The newspaper searched the catalogue of the Hong Kong Public Library yesterday. At least 9 books were listed as "under review". The former assistant professor of the Chinese Department of Lingnan University, Chen Yun, had six books, Huang Zhifeng had two books, and Chen Shuzhuang had one. This (see picture). There are a total of 379 books in the collection of 9 books, of which the most is "Hong Kong City-State Theory II Restoration of the Native Land: Restoration of the Native Land, Fan Huaxia, is the only way out for Hong Kong. There are 76 books in 58 pavilions; in addition, "Hong Kong City-State Theory: One Country, Two Systems, City-State Autonomy" is a matter of life and death in Hong Kong. 》It also occupies 73 books, spread over 55 pavilions.

https://www.thenewslens.com/article/137304

According to the report of "Hong Kong 01", at least 9 books are temporarily unavailable, including "Hong Kong City-State Theory", "Hong Kong City-State Theory 2", "Body of the Earth" written by Chen Yun, a former assistant professor of the Chinese Department of Lingnan University, "Hong Kong Defence War", "City State Sovereignty" and "Hong Kong Adherents' Theory"; "I am not a hero" and "I am not a fine road: around 18" by Huang Zhifeng, former secretary general of "Hong Kong People's Comrades" Legislative Councillor Chen Shuzhuang's "Walk While Eating and Fight" The report said that the total number of nine books involved in the "review" in various libraries in Hong Kong is more than 400.

Re: Hong Kong: books by pro-democracy activists disappear from library shelves

#238

Post by untog »

briefcomment wrote: post #197
refurb wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? No, that’s not what I meant. Companies prefer to not be in the news. So what they do is seek out the mainstream and align itself to it. BLM was not mainstream 3 months ago, so companies remained quiet. Now, not showing support for BLM runs the risk of unfavorable PR. So they put out a low risk statement.

I'm not sure BLM support is "mainstream". Home Depot hasn't said anything official about BLM to my knowledge, and you hear loud pro BLM people saying they should be boycotted [1], but I think they're doing fine. Their stock price is as good as its ever been. I think what we're seeing is a case of "minority rule" [2]. [1] https://www.ccn.com/7-companies-you-should-renounce-if-you-s... [2] https://nassimtaleb.org/2016/…

> More than half of voters, 57 percent, have a favorable opinion of the Black Lives Matter movement, while 30 percent have an unfavorable one.

https://poll.qu.edu/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=3663

So it's not much of a minority anything.

Re: Hong Kong: books by pro-democracy activists disappear from library shelves

#239

Post by cvlasdkv »

hajile wrote: post #236
magicsmoke wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is that in China's case, authoritarianism has been good for both people in authority and the majority, as evidenced by increasing economic growth and standards of living. You could make a theoretical argument that if China was democratic, then everyone would be even better off. But people in China use India as a mirror since both countries had massive populations, were underdeveloped, and gained independenc…

Millions rounded up into concentration camps and butchered alive for organs would no doubt have a very different view of their plight than you do in this defense of Chinese nationalism and authoritarianism.

Citations very much needed for the absurd _millions_ of people in concentration camps being butchered alive for organs? I've done a lot of research into this topic and sans one far-right kook who extrapolated millions out of interviewing eight people, nobody suggests anything more than thousands of people in "re-education camps". Nothing about organ harvesting in said camps.

I'd urge you to investigate more yourself--and if you come up with a different answer please do update me.

Re: Hong Kong: books by pro-democracy activists disappear from library shelves

#240

Post by cvlasdkv »

njrc9 wrote: post #235
mrobot wrote: post #100

Important to note that the US Agency for Global Media was funding and supporting the Hong Kong protests [1]. China could never get away with doing the same thing in the US. The fact is that media bubbles are a powerful tool. There is a reason the US / CIA spend so much time/money on projects like Radio Free Asia. If you are on the same side as the CIA and US imperialism, you might want to think about why that is and…

Thank you for linking the article. I had never heard of the US Agency for Global Media before. I have not read that much about it yet but it sounds in line with some of the criticisms Chomsky levels at U.S. propaganda. I would be very interested in any other sources of information you might recommend on this topic or hearing more of your own thoughts (my email is in my profile).

I'd recommend reading: https://liberationschool.org/tiananmen-the-massacre-that-was... as well as the WikiLeaks documents and draw your own conclusions. CBS, NYT, and many other American sources all also do not report this "massacre" yet I recall it being in my textbooks and it being "common knowledge".

It's become impossible for me to trust the US on anything domestic much less China. I'd hoped for much better from HN but it seems the critical lens is not being applied as much as a xenophobic one. :(

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