The mainstream media is in hysterics today over news out of China.
Power Moves by President Xi
During the Chinese Communist Party – where Xi Jinping is expected to be announced Supreme Leader for life – former party leader Hu Jintao was dramatically removed from the event, sparking speculation about his fate.
There was no official comment about the occurrence, with friendly Chinese media suggesting he was ill, while more critical media painted this as a choreographed power move.
Another story out of communist China is the top story on CNN this morning: The Sitong Bridge Protest.
According to widespread reporting, on Friday October 14, a lone protester dressed as a construction worker unfurled two banners in protest of Xi and the CCP congress.
"Go on strike at school and work, remove dictator and national traitor Xi Jinping! We want to eat, we want freedom, we want to vote!"
The second banner:
“Life not zero-Covid policy, freedom not martial-lawish lockdown, dignity not lies, reform not cultural revolution, votes not dictatorship, citizens not slaves.”
The protester has disappeared, but Chinese college students around the world have taken up his banners, putting the slogans on message boards and around college campuses. These students hide their identities for fear of being reported to Chinese authorities where they or their families would face repercussions.
While these reports have spread through western media, they’ve been scrubbed from Chinese social media sites, keeping the 1.4 billion Chinese population in the dark.
Western media is outraged. How dare the Chinese suppress freedom of expression, assembly, speech?
The Uncomfortable Similarities
In reading about these stories, I was most struck by the western outrage. Here in the US, the centralized power of Xi and the CCP is admired by the authoritarians in our government, so it’s hard to square their outrage with their copycat domestic policies.
Biden notoriously, openly dismissed Xi’s egregious human rights violations – harvesting the organs of religious peoples and murdering second children, for example – by saying, “culturally there are different norms.”
Meanwhile, the US is allowing the CCP’s oppression into America. The NY Post is reporting that, “China has opened dozens of ‘overseas police service stations’ around the globe to monitor its citizens living abroad, including one location in New York City and three in Toronto.”
This is why Chinese foreign college students are afraid to protest outside of China – because the reach of Xi and the CCP is literally everywhere. They cover their faces and shake in fear as they post fliers on western bulletin boards. Our government has allowed this.
“‘These operations eschew official bilateral police and judicial cooperation and violate the international rule of law, and may violate the territorial integrity in third countries involved in setting up a parallel policing mechanism using illegal methods,’ reads a report by Safeguard Defenders, a human rights watchdog, released earlier this month.”
If you’re cheering on the Chinese protesters – and I most definitely am cheering them on – you cannot disassociate from the US policy towards Chinese monitoring here in the US.
Words matter much less than actions. The words of US politicians condemning the tyranny of the CCP matter much less than their actions – specifically, allowing that tyranny to spread to US cities and college campuses.
___________
Here is today’s letter to congress.
ATTENTION CONGRESS:
Have you realized yet that your hypocrisy is showing? You may condemn the CCP cracking down on protesters, but you’ve allowed the CCP to open police stations in the US.
The Sitong Bridge protest has taken the world by storm. According to widespread reporting, on Friday October 14, a lone protester dressed as a construction worker unfurled two banners in protest of Xi and the CCP congress.
"Go on strike at school and work, remove dictator and national traitor Xi Jinping! We want to eat, we want freedom, we want to vote!" AND “Life not zero-Covid policy, freedom not martial-lawish lockdown, dignity not lies, reform not cultural revolution, votes not dictatorship, citizens not slaves.”
The protester has disappeared, but Chinese college students around the world have taken up his banners, putting the slogans on message boards and around college campuses.
These students hide their identities – ON WESTERN COLLEGE CAMPUSES – for fear of being reported to Chinese authorities where they or their families would face repercussions.
Why are they so concerned? Because China has opened dozens of ‘overseas police service stations’ around the globe to monitor its citizens living abroad, including one location in New York City. This is why Chinese foreign college students are afraid to protest outside of China – because the reach of Xi and the CCP is literally everywhere.
“These operations eschew official bilateral police and judicial cooperation and violate the international rule of law, and may violate the territorial integrity in third countries involved in setting up a parallel policing mechanism using illegal methods.” Safeguard Defenders
You have allowed this.
Words matter much less than actions. The words of US politicians condemning the tyranny of the CCP matter much less than their actions – specifically, allowing that tyranny to spread to US cities and college campuses.
DEMAND FOR REMEDY: Eject the CCP from the US, close their police stations, and protecting the freedom of expression of Chinese nationals.