‘A Form of Brainwashing’: China Remakes Hong Kong

I realize this isn't a high value comment, but I lived in Hong Kong for a couple years during the handover. The socio-political turmoil over the past few years has been painful to observe.

This is exactly the same playbook China used to Han-ify (Sinicize) Tibet and Xinjiang. I feel very sad that the people of all these areas are powerless to stop their culture, way of life, and right to self-determination disappear. To a lesser extent, I also see elements of the same - attempts to to police culture, thought, speech, and dissent - appearing elsewhere in the world. While the approaches may be softer and more decentralized (like deplatforming), they are nevertheless problematic. I also see increasing parallels to the loyalty pledges mentioned in the article - for example diversity pledges or corporate trainings that force people to admit their racial guilt, like a struggle session from Mao's cultural revolution (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struggle_session) but without the physical violence.

We need to value individual freedoms and protect them at every turn to retain free societies. As for China, protecting and returning self-governance to Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Tibet, and Taiwan is an important human rights battle that the rest of the world needs to more actively engage on. Right now, it seems like everyone is on the sidelines letting all of it happen.

China's ability to completely control the domestic narrative is really really underappreciated in my point of view.

Not that it is positive from a personal liberties standpoint, but in that sense that it is an incredible strategic asset. Imagine if the second world war had been fought today in the era of entertainment journalism, twitter reactionism, and professional punditry. It would be laughable. The war effort would stall before it began.

My grandfather talks to me about how he would enthusiastically walk the streets with his friends after school looking for chewing gum and cigarette wrappers in order to pull the aluminum foil out of the discarded packaging and send the resulting accumulated metal scraps to recycling centers to be made into fighter planes. Things like that would never happen today.

25% the country would insist that Hitler doesn't actually exist, 25% would say the Axis powers are actually doing the right thing and that Pearl Harbor was deserved, 25% would maintain that all calls for intervention are propaganda from the military industrial complex looking to line their pockets at the expense of the public purse, and the remaining 25% would be branded war-mongerers by everyone else.

China does not have that problem. Whatever the government in Beijing wants, ~1.4 billion humans also genuinely want.

I live in Hong Kong. Arrived here right when the second wave of protests started, in 2018. The speed with which China is changing the face of the city since then has been incredible, if disheartening. In a mere three years, we went from having a free press, district council elections, a vibrant online community, a combative but reasonably effective LegCo.

All that is gone.

Head over to the South China Morning Post and see the comments in the articles. All dominated by mainland Chinese, possibly working for the central government. Companies are leaving in droves, taking valuable people with them. Schools are being told to teach National Security Law to kids as young as 5. Even international schools are facing the challenge of allowing discussion in the classroom, under the risk of breaking the NSL.

Last week, HK won a medal in fencing at the Olympics. During the medal ceremony, at a packed shopping mall, many people booed the Chinese anthem. They were deemed to be breaking the NSL and were arrested. FOR BOOING THE ANTHEM.

https://apnews.com/article/2020-tokyo-olympics-sports-arrest...

The National Security Law also prohibits any kind of chants during (now non-existent) protests. People then found a creative way to protest by holding out empty signs in the streets - turns out they're outlawed now too. Yes, empty signs break the National Security Law.

This city has been destroyed in the span of months. It's depressing and heart-breaking. I am moving out with my family next summer.

This is correct. If you live in America and you say something that suggests Hong Kong should be independent or that the CPG shouldn't have authority here, you can get arrested when transiting via Hong Kong.