Xi proclaimed that he will lay the foundation (something to that effect) for another hundred years of CCP. Chinese history taught me that this regime will collapse eventually. I may not live long enough to see it, but it will happen.
7
Australians are increasingly concerned about China’s growing influence in the country. Chinese money is being funneled to politicians. Beijing-run media outlets buy ads in Australian newspapers to promote the Communist Party view on local and regional issues. Chinese companies are buying Australian farms and natural resources. The push extends to Australia’s universities. Chinese students at Australian universities keep an eye on their compatriots and keep the Chinese embassy informed about planned activities such as protests. Monitoring Chinese students and report on those who fail to toe the Communist Party line. And in another troubling trend, many of the 150,000 visiting Chinese students are importing a pro-Beijing approach to the classroom that is stifling debate and openness.
13
A very agitative article, suceed much more in portraying a oppressive atmosphere than actual influential information.
Personally I think it's important to have a basic level of understanding even towards the ones you don't agree with: ‘‘Even by the standards of an authoritarian government, the rules are strict...bans on flying kites, drones, balloons and captive pigeons...‘‘ First, Beijing banned drones not just now but years ago; second, is it really an ‘‘authoritarian‘‘ thing to ban artificial flying objects when planes and helicopters are about to fly across the city? Or is it just basic safety operation？
But as a Beijing local, what aches the most about this article is I generally don't feel the author have ANY empathy towards his local ''friends''. I absolutely respect your right to have negative feelings about the city, the country, the government, even the people, and you don't enjoy your stay in Beijing, that's OK, trust me. But from what I see here I feel like when it comes to political opinions, what your local friends think don't matter, at all. None of the locals you mentioned have a negative opinion about the parade, but the author just used that to sarcastically emphasize his own antipathy towards the —— whatever that is. But how come the locals feel that way? How do they view the ‘‘parade-inconvenience‘‘？Who cares, my antiauthoritarian standpoint is absolutely solid. save and send.
12
@Shi Jiaqi I don't know why the Times won't approve this simple message, but for anyone seeing this: I'm awfully awfully sorry for the inconvenience of seeing 5 similar comments in a roll. Wish you have a lovely day.
2
@Shi Jiaqi
I understand your sentiment Jiaqi. But being angry won't help getting your ideas and genuine experiences across. It never does. Your truth is never the whole truth. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
2
“China now ranks top in the world,” said Wang Wanting, 22, a university student in Beijing. “China will get stronger and stronger and surpass the United States.”
It very well might, Wanting. But you'll still be a slave.
47
They are not slaves! The Chinese live life very much like the US. They have VPN’s to get around the internet firewalls, travel more than Americans & have the right to change jobs anytime they want. Xi May want total control but he does not have it.
3
I completely understand the author's justified indignation because of the disruption to his daily life.
On the other hand, my Chinese friends in Beijing are anticipating in great excitement for the grand ceremony. They shared on the social media the other day that they are not allowed to drive their cars into the city in recent days due to the preparation for the celebration. But they don't mind it a bit at all. They started sharing moped rides to commute and saying it's the least they can do to contribute. Just offering a snippet of the whole picture.
47
@Michael
I wonder if this is a propaganda comment posted for the Chinese government., sounds rather contrite and too simple.
20
@Michael
Speaking as a once upon a time Hong Kong resident:
I have been back to Hong Kong and China, including big cities as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen in recent past. I had witnessed a young man being brutalized in the street in Beijing. I did not see any violence exhibited by the slight in built young man. The violence came from two police officers. Some Chinese especially in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai had seen their living standard gone up by leaps and bounds in recent decades. They do not want to rock the boat by seeing "no evil, speak no evil, and hear no evil." Whereas Hong Kong's are seen as foreigners. less Chinese, deserving to be treated differently. The snippet you presented does not include the Muslims in Xianjiang province, being discriminated with many by the thousands held in detention secretly by the Chinese government. The future of Hong Kong youths is grim even now, before 2040 when China will take back Hong Kong government administration. Besides, rich Chinese from mainland will be buying up more and more HK properties, and their commercial enterprise. Hong Kong'ers will be treated as lower class Chinese. It would not be a peaceful transfer, but with blood shed by Hong Kong'ers, while the rich would have moved to Western countries for having the money to "invest", as in Australia, Canada, America. There will be blood and tears then to be shed for these youths.
19
American media seem to be keen on painting China as the new Nazi Germany, as this piece indicates, and an enemy of the freedom loving nations like us. But China hasn't invaded and/or occupied any
nations, or started any war against another country as far as
I can remember. Chinese just seems to want to run their nation in their own way, and to that I think they have the perfect right to do so. The only "invasions" they perpetrate, as any Trumper would say, are with their commercial products, which are often of better qualities and cheaper than we can produce, I would hate to admit. Yes, China is different. They have had over 4000 years of history, so they have used to their own way of governance. And the Chinese are not buying in to our way. All of this is perfectly understandable. But making China as our enemy, doesn't seem to be based on reality but a necessity on our part. We need an enemy, probably now more than ever, so we can justify keeping over 1000 military bases and installations across the globe , and spending over 700B a year on Pentagon. We need to feed our beast.
52
@Bill Whitehead please open your eyes. You say that China just wants to run their nation in their own way, yet Hong Kong is not 100% China. Did you watch the video? This is not supportable on any human level. This rises above the equivalency fallback that many people use to avoid looking something evil in the eye.
18
@Bill Whitehead The Tibetans might disagree
22
@Bill Whitehead
Ask the Russians if China invaded them in 1969
Ask the South Koreans if China invaded them 1950
Ask the Tibetans if China invaded them in 1950
Ask Philipines and Vietnam about Chinese navy boats in their area.
Ask the Uigurs too while you're at it.
China may have 4000 years of history, PRC is approaching 70.
53
ISOLATE China. nothing from the AhSos is needed by the rest of the world
3
The people in China and Hong Kong don't enjoy the right to keep and bear arms. Therefore, they can only protest peacefully.
I suspect the Chinese government will only put up with this for so long. Step one, imprison any of the would be leaders. Then, anyone that steps up to take their place. And, any that look guilty. So?
My point is, if you do not like the Second Amendment in the US, you must find it reasonable for other nations to refuse their citizens to be armed.
240 years ago, the Founding Fathers, having access to
"modern weapons of the day", prevented the British from arresting the leaders of the revolution and stopping the growing resistance. The rest is history.
As long as the citizens of China and Hong Kong remain unarmed, there will only be peaceful protests. The obvious question is, how can the side with all of the power, be persuaded to surrender the power? That's harder than arithmetic in a language that doesn't use Arabic numerals.
4
This year’s 70th anniversary of the proclamation of the People's Republic of China won't be joyous. Celebrations come amid a protracted trade war with the US, and Hong Kong has been rocked by more than three months of pro-democracy, anti-Beijing protests.
Xi Jinping doesn’t want the occasion be spoiled, and police officers in Beijing have stepped up security measures near the venue, chasing residents, including the NYT reporter, who live near Tiananmen Square, out of their appartments, and occupying the space days before the parade. They knock on doors, demanding residents to switch off the power and close the curtains etc.
This is certainly a sign of nervousness and paranoia, highlighting the challenge facing President Xi Jinping and his colleagues, and their efforts to counter the rising worries, or perhaps even creeping pessimism about the Communist Party's future.
Would the Party survive until 2049 when China will mark the centennial of the Communist regime’s founding? Overshaowed by the tensions, the celebrations will most likely be heavy on symobolism but light in substance.
21
Would we care if what was happening to Javier was taking place in Hanoi, or Moscow, or Riyadh? Yes, we get it-- the People's Republic of China is not a liberal democracy. We also get that ordinary Chinese are both proud and reticent about their new place in the world that combines economic and military brawn with political and social fragility. With all this change comes glaring contradictions and ham-handed ways of exercising power--we get that too. As is, Javier's piece seems to be another pointless hit piece: what we see every day around the world is noteworthy only because it's happening in China. Lord help us if the police go to foreigners-not to mention foreign journalists-to tell them to close the curtain or give them access to their building during a national parade. Nevermind that in cities such as Riyadh there is no such thing as foreign journalists who live outside the kingdom's expat bubble. These hit pieces trigger an utterly predictable response from some readers who are sympathetic to the Chinese government. There are so many real and pressing issues confronting China, the Chinese government, and the Chinese people. Stick to those.
3
Patriotism is all too often a sickness and weapon of conservatives, nationalists and dictators. One has to look no further than the US.
4
Xi Jinping is not, as this article claims, China's most powerful leader since Mao Zedong. He is, in fact, China's most power leader since Deng Xiaoping.
3
@Larry Hedrick Mao is long dead on 1976 way before Deng. Mao was the one that got rid of the Pro America National party doing the Japanese invasion and got China into the current mess at the first place. Please if we all want to spit at China, have some decency to get the history right please!
1
I was in Moscow for their May Day or Victory Day parade.
Of course, I was in a hotel right in Tverskaya Blvd at a Marriott.
The parade is nowhere near but front doors of hotel were locked shut.
Most roads to the Red Square were all closed off for traffic, pedestrians.
As a matter of fact - the only time you, as a mere mortal get to see any part of parade is rehearsal - but that too from across Moscow river.
None of the Muscovites seemed to complain.
It's what they expect. And many leave Moscow till all this hoopla is over.
Now, nothing compared to Beijing and Moscow in terms of closing drapes etc , but DC is not any different for an Inauguration - especially after 9/11.
I had flown in from Jakarta for W inauguration - the second time.
The Secret Service checks along Pennsylvania Ave were so onerous - I ended up watching in a bar.
For his father, and Mr. Reagan - I walked all the way to Capitol Hill.
And was admitted to the grass area for standing.
By the way, try Baku for their parades. They close drapes two blocks from the parade route
Times have changed the world over
4
I was in Moscow for their May Day or Victory Day parade.
Of course, I was in a hotel right in Tverskaya Blvd at a Marriott.
The parade is nowhere near but front doors of hotel were locked shut.
Most roads to the Red Square were all closed off for traffic, pedestrians.
As a matter of fact - the only time you, as a mere mortal get to see any part of parade is rehearsal - but that too from across Moscow river.
None of the Muscovites seemed to complain.
It's what they expect. And many leave Moscow till all this hoopla is over.
Now, nothing compared to Beijing and Moscow in terms of closing drapes etc , but DC is not any different for an Inauguration - especially after 9/11.
I had flown in from Jakarta for W inauguration - the second time.
The Secret Service checks along Pennsylvania Ave were so onerous - I ended up watching in a bar.
For his father, and Mr. Reagan - I walked all the way to Capitol Hill.
And was admitted to the grass area for standing.
By the way, try Baku for their parades. They close drapes two blocks from the parade route
Times have changed the world over
1
I was in Moscow for their May Day or Victory Day parade.
Of course, I was in a hotel right in Tverskaya Blvd at a Marriott.
The parade is nowhere near but front doors of hotel were locked shut.
Most roads to the Red Square were all closed off for traffic, pedestrians.
As a matter of fact - the only time you, as a mere mortal get to see any part of parade is rehearsal - but that too from across Moscow river.
None of the Muscovites seemed to complain.
It's what they expect. And many leave Moscow till all this hoopla is over.
Now, nothing compared to Beijing and Moscow in terms of closing drapes etc , but DC is not any different for an Inauguration - especially after 9/11.
I had flown in from Jakarta for W inauguration - the second time.
The Secret Service checks along Pennsylvania Ave were so onerous - I ended up watching in a bar.
For his father, and Mr. Reagan - I walked all the way to Capitol Hill.
And was admitted to the grass area for standing.
By the way, try Baku for their parades. They close drapes two blocks from the parade route
Times have changed the world over
We can thank George Herbert Walker Bush for this great dictatorship that is now threatening our global position. When the pro-democracy movement was quashed at Tiananmen square, instead of slapping sanctions on China, he gave them "most favored nation" trade status. American companies seeing a cheap labor market shipped masive numbers of jobs to China causing an economic miracle for them, and shoring up the reining "Communist" party (a funny name for one of the most capitalistic nations on Earth). With the democracy movement and any subsequent liberalizations now suppressed, Mr. Xi has consolidated his power to that of an absolute dictator and instituted true Orwellian control over the country. GHW Bush did some good things during his presidency, but China was a blunder that just keeps on giving.
2
China has long been unparalleled at doublespeak. ‘Let a hundred flowers bloom’ drew out well-intentioned criticism that led to unprecedented catastrophe for the utterer. Banners proclaiming ‘Civilized and Harmonious Society’ while rampant corruption and uncivil behaviors rage on. We have yet to see what Xi’s ‘Chinese Dream’ will lead to.
This is a show that reminds one of Hitler’s and of North Korea. China is behind Greek Athens by 2,500 years. It bullies Taiwan and Hong Kong, the only and remaining hope for an ideal Chinese society. It’s time for the world to stand up to it. Trump is not going to do it.
10
@Dora
I lot of peoples from other countries probably have the same sentiments toward the U.S.. Your biggest export are over-printed US dollars and fast food that kills. Maybe the rest of the world should stand up to the U.S.?
1
The Great Leap Forward of Mao took, what, 25 to 45 million lives?
Please, before they take over the world, as they have long planned for, and fully intend to, can we please disentangle ourselves from this infinitely dangerous dictatorship?
6
@Dora We can all just drive around the block and check out how your Native American neighbors are being bullied, actually still, right now. Do you even care that they don't have healthcare? Do you even know that?
Human rights in China? Only communist party and its leaders have rights there. Yet those same people talk about human rights violation in other democracies, like Kashmir in India where China blindly support Islamic Pakistan while cracking down on Muslims in China.
The world is facing a very serious threat with the rise of Communist China and Putin's Russia. And worse, both are permanent members in UN Security Council.
4
Letting China and Putin’s Russia have any say in how the world is ruled is a brutal mistake.
1
Party!!!
I’d prefer my iPhone and Mac to be made in USA.
8
Me too, having lived in Asia for a few years, and hearing firsthand how they think and talk about us...
::shudder shudder::
4
@Letter G The Chinese help made your iPhone affordable and then they turned around also became the biggest buyer of the phone paying the same price, which produced massive profit for the biggest company in your economy that invests in R&D and payed a lot of tax into the U.S. economy and employs a lot of people. It is not rocky science really which country is acutely the winner here if we just try to use our brain sometimes.
Orwell and Wells would both grimace knowingly.
Sounds positively awful and terrifying to be anywhere in that country.
5
China intends to become the sole superpower of the world.
They won’t stay or attempt to rule only in China, if they can get away with it, much longer.
4
the nyt does its best to frame this as another sad step in the road to tyranny.
yet at every turn the author is confronted by the uncomfortable reality of chinese people who like their government, support their leader, and aren’t bothered much by the police’s organizational tactics in this parade. it’s pretty funny.
as an american who has lived in mainland china i can say that’s pretty typical.
we may dislike it, but who are we to tell them how to run their government. the founding principle of democracy is that the majority gets to make decisions, correct? we as supporters of democracy should honor that principle and stop criticizing their desire for a different organizational model.
7
@donald
What you said would have been valid if there had been no information control. The extent of suffering in the past to hundreds of millions prior to the late seventies when one did not convincingly demonstrate loyalty to the CCP you could not imagine. Nowadays it can be more subtle, via Wechat and AI....
3
@donald When has the Chinese population been allowed to make a choice? Easy to like something when you have never been presented with an alternative...
5
@Donald I do sometimes doubt how many Americans fully understand what democracy truly means? Do we really have democracy here even? Do you have any idea how your tax dollar vanishes into thin air? Do you actually have much say in how America should be governed? I am not so sure.
3
What a name, but what is the significance of such a bombastic title as "The people's republic of China", when there aren't even basic human rights in actual practice? Xi's regime is an autocratic government where the few enjoy societal riches, whereas the majority has no voice nor vote in what is being done. A shame really. And a waste of the potential 'good', and imagination, of it's own people. China, as it stands, is so insecure in spite of it's might, that it seems afraid of it's own shadow...by curtailing the freedom of any and all of it's subjects to think, say and act as they please, to make sense of themselves and their country as an example to follow, a society proud of itself, and seeing justice flourish, so peace may, finally, see some light. Life on Earth being so fragile and short, why are we so obtuse in trying to make it unlivable, and deprived of joy?
2
@manfred marcus
I agree that the label 'People's Republic of China' is pure propaganda.
Then again, what about 'United States of America'?
Let us correct People's Republic of China to Autocratic Republic of China and United States of America to Divided States of America.
Because we can't begin to address our problems in all their severity until we are willing to assign appropriate names to political entities.
2
@Larry Hedrick Couldn't agree more with the title of "The divided States of America". as long as we have a troglodyte (brutus ignoramus by design, if not by choice) intent in misgoverning 'us' under the mantra of 'fear, hate and division'. All to satisfy his sick ego and self-enrichment, at our expense...and as if to our shame, with a third of the population corralled into subservience, no doubt a tribute to Trump's expert emotional demagoguery. Trump is a proto-fascist, ably converting this democracy into a klepto-plutocracy. This is what happens when we humans get hold of power...without adequate supervision and lax regulation (and when the McConnell's of this world prostitute themselves).
2
The U.S. caused the financial crisis due to greed and recklessness, which led to great suffering of the world economy especially the developing countries who depend on US dollars for trade. Now this wave of trade war aiming to kill. If you are Xi or simply an ordinary Chinese working hard to earn a living without much spare time to even think about politics, maybe you will be very angry at the U.S. too? It is hard to see faults of your own country especially with a superiority complex. In fact, we should be surprised how demure has been the Chinese government's reaction to this kind of bullying. If things happened the other way around, China probably would have already gotten a missile from the U.S.
5
I echo quite a bit of what other commenters have said. The Chinese regime is certainly oppressive. As a lifelong American, thank God, I have zero experience of the dangers, fears and lack of opportunity in living in such a land. But I also think that Chinese nationalism isn't all due to propaganda. It's weird to say this about an ancient people, but I think that modern China reminds me of the sports team that is up and coming. They have momentum on their side and they see an opportunity to surpass the first place team (the U.S.) that's become complacent and unwilling to work together towards a common goal.
13
@A woman Excellent analogy
1
Perhaps a single Chinese patriot will stand in front of the tank line and bring rememberance to days gone by.
9
This is an amazing but sad report. I felt that that the warning before the video started about the violence is too fleeting. The video is extremely disturbing. I do want to make a comment about the last victim's frequent nose bleeds. He most likely has developed a dissecting pseudo aneurysm of a major blood vessel following his trauma. Can the reporter warn him to have him evaluated? He needs intervention.
2
China was doing great until Xi came along. He has dreams of being remembered as the one who United China. He is taking China backwards unfortunately.
15
“We are all chasing the dream,” proclaims a third.
Dear China,
If 70 years = 3 generations were not enough to catch that unspecified dream then, maybe, it is time to find another dream to chase, preferably one that could be reached within one generation unless, after 3000 years, you are tired of reaching your dreams so fast, just like Americans are tired of winning or the Brits are tired of exiting Europe after only 3 years.
3
This is a good example of how peaceful a country, with a large population, can be. The Chinese do not get up every day and wonder, if their kids will be gunned down in school. Or, they may be targeted where they work.
My guess is, per capita, the Chinese have the same level of people with mental health issues that are found every where, but none of them are armed with weapons of war.
No doubt, that is why there are only peaceful protests in Hong Kong.
10
None of them have freedom either.
11
@Mike
No, they wonder if their children will be killed when an earthquake collapses their shoddily built school. Tens of thousands were.
Or if they will be massacred when engaging in peaceful protest. Remember June 4.
19
@Mike ... yes quite peaceful, the political and religious dissidents are in detention camps.
9
In America they check your driver's license when you buy alcohol. Even when you are 70 years old and look like it. To make sure you are above 18.
In America people call the police if you are a different skin color walking on the sidewalk. And the police respond in a way that makes you ask "what are they afraid of?" Mr. Sureshbhai Patel in Alabama a particular notorious case.
Remember, in China the "onerous" rules are for a national level event that's special this year because its the 70th anniversary. Your rules are for everybody, everyday, everywhere, forever. No exceptions for poor Mr. Patel who is partially paralyzed because he was walking in his own neighborhood.
In America police can kill people and rape people (Anna Chambers) and never be found guilty. Even with video evidence (check youtube). In your so-called independent judiciary.
China is erecting these security measures because its their National Day anniversary. This is a ripe target for people and organizations that want to do harm, especially in the current context of a full-front western geopolitical containment. It's absurd for Americans to criticize; or maybe not, because considering the quantity of mass shootings maybe the American in China is shaking and sweating wondering why their next high hasn't come yet.
11
@Auxley
You’re right to point out the many faults that the US has and we sure have a lot of work to do but we acknowledge these shortcomings and have room in our culture for the political and social dialogue to take place. There was no such dialogue during the years millions of Chinese women had to “give up” their children as part of the one child policy. There is no such dialogue in China today when only version of history exists perhaps that is why the fig leaf of nationalism and propaganda keeps getting bigger and bigger?
2
@NL2061DC
I'm not talking about a discussion. I could care less if you are proud of what happens in the US, you want to cover it up, or you don't care. I'm just pointing out what actually physically happened and how strange it is that such a country can claim to care about human rights. That's it. You surely cannot be saying because in China everything is censored that justifies these human rights violations in the United States?
And this is one of the reasons why I avoid buying Chinese stuff, not to mention that much of it is based upon stolen designs and is essentially defective junk.
47
@MIKEinNYC
Yes, look who is talking.
Have you checked with native Indians about their ancestors killed, their lands taken? Have you checked with mid-easterners whose country invaded, family butchered and lives taken?
What a strong sense of morality. I truly admire sometimes.
My wife and I watch the 60th celebration near the Avenue of the Stars in Hong Kong. It was amazing to watch six to eight areal fireworks explode in time with music all along the harbor.
4
A very agitative article, suceed much more in portraying a oppressive atmosphere than actual influential information.
Personally I think it's important to have a basic level of understanding even towards the ones you don't agree with: ‘‘Even by the standards of an authoritarian government, the rules are strict...bans on flying kites, drones, balloons and captive pigeons...‘‘ First, Beijing banned drones not just now but years ago; second, is it really an ‘‘authoritarian‘‘ thing to ban artificial flying objects when planes and helicopters are about to fly across the city? Or is it just basic safety operation？
But as a Beijing local, what aches the most about this article is I generally don't feel the author have ANY empathy towards his local ''friends''. I absolutely respect your right to have negative feelings about the city, the country, the government, even the people, and you don't enjoy your stay in Beijing, that's OK, trust me. But from what I see here I feel like when it comes to political opinions, what your local friends think don't matter, at all. None of the locals you mentioned have a negative opinion about the parade, but the author just used that to sarcastically emphasize his own antipathy towards the —— whatever that is. But how come the locals feel that way? How do they view the ‘‘parade-inconvenience‘‘？Who cares, my antiauthoritarian standpoint is absolutely solid. save and send.
5
@Dean SJQ
Wow, the bots aren't even trying to disguise that they're simply clones of one troll typing furiously at the farm.
Thanks for exposing the strategy, anyway. Makes y'all easier to ignore.
50
@Jane If that's true than I did a terrible job didn't I?
The name "sjq" is an abbreviation of my Chinese name, "Shi Jiaqi", which is the other account name posting the same comments.
To give you more detail, I had trouble posting the first few with a account sign-in by Facebook, so I changed to my email account. As it turned out it's just network jams, those comments got published at the same time.
But please go on, keep calling me a bot, that would save you from the pain of comprehending different opinions.
13
@Shi Jiaqi
Fine; your opinion is an amazing piece of distraction and what-aboutism. You focus on the writer's lack of care for the local's feelings, when his point is that the feelings of locals can hardly be expressed inside of a totalitarian propaganda system that constantly monitors those local individuals, locks them down, and throws out visiting journalist so there are no witnesses to even potential local dissent (if a local would even dare voice it in light of what the author describes). So your comment gestures completely away from the main point of the article toward a "neglect" of what the writer implies is an impossibility; your comment effectively sets up a straw man argument to discount the critique of China's oppressive, jingoistic power arrangement on display over individual voices.
And you wonder why I don't credit a comment that instead takes exception to a minutae in the detail concerning drone policy? The comment is effectively designed to distract from the piece's overall point. You may not be a bot, but you are effectively attempting to undermine an important critique of repressive authoritarian propaganda that comprises the rise of authoritarian governments around the world right now.
29
Personally I think it's important to have a basic level of understanding even towards the ones you don't agree with: ‘‘Even by the standards of an authoritarian government, the rules are strict...bans on flying kites, drones, balloons and captive pigeons...‘‘ First, Beijing banned drones not just now but years ago; second, is it really an ‘‘authoritarian‘‘ thing to ban artificial flying objects when planes and helicopters are about to fly across the city? Or is it just basic safety operation？
But as a Beijing local, what aches the most about this article is I generally don't feel the author have ANY empathy towards his local ''friends''. I absolutely respect your right to have negative feelings about the city, the country, the government, even the people, and you don't enjoy your stay in Beijing, that's OK, trust me. But from what I see here I feel like when it comes to political opinions, what your local friends think don't matter, at all. None of the locals you mentioned have a negative opinion about the parade, but the author just used that to sarcastically emphasize his own antipathy towards the —— whatever that is. But how come the locals feel that way? How do they view the ‘‘parade-inconvenience‘‘？Who cares, my antiauthoritarian standpoint is absolutely solid. save and send.
2
I don't know why the Times won't approve this simple message, but for anyone seeing this: I'm awfully awfully sorry for the inconvenience of seeing 5 similar comments in a roll. Wish you have a lovely day.
@Shi Jiaqi
Comments are approved when comments are approved. I’ve seen my first comment approved hours after my second comment.
Best just put on your zen hat and relax about it. (Or have a glass of wine if you don’t have a zen hat.)
It's funny how when you talk to an actual Chinese person from China, they tell you a picture that contradicts everything American news paints China to be. I suspect people from China know a lot more about China than some American journalist working with an agenda.
5
As a formal journalist from Beijing, I have seen all the changes since the current leader took the position: it has getting so much worse.... but I am still shocked by this news: the world needs to see this to understand what kind of country China is becoming
5
XI is out of options. He has hit the limit of what he can pull off on his ambitious path toward China's parity with the West. This is because completing the rest of his super power agenda would require unfettered internet access and social integration with western nations. That's not going to happen in a police state, so he is stuck as a pretender to the world's great nations. It's essentially the reason for all the tank parades and South China Sea saber rattling --sign of a nervous despot.
4
What is the solution to police brutality? When one thinks through the possible administrative and judicial paths to obtain justice for the victims, they all lead to dead ends. It seems the only way to obtain some modicum of justice is for Hong Kong citizens to retaliate in kind and hit back harder to the point where the HK police themselves must fear the wrath of the HK citizens whom they are betraying.
It is unfortunate but telling that the Chinese government has short circuited the development of democracy in their country, and instead relied on the sad old method of a 'supreme leader' who tells the 'masses' what to think and that the outside world is to be feared and opposed. Some commenters seem to be overly impressed with the long history of China, without noting the fact that they have had a servile and controlled populace for thousands of years, and it is a historical fact that there was vicious suppression of dissent during all those years. In a strong country you can criticize the leaders if you wish, in a weak country they send police to grab you if you criticize your leaders.
6
In1958 Chairman Mao initiated his Great Leap Forward agricultural policies upon the Chinese People. It began with high hopes and parades. Patriots waved flags and followed their leader blindly. Ultimately tens of millions died from starvation from the famine which ensued. In the 1960s the patriots marched in more parades celebrating the beginning of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Again tens of millions perished on the account of misguided patriotic fervor. As the great country of China prepares for its 70th National Day the same misguided patriots are out in full force again. Believing in and never questioning state issued propaganda, lies, and misinformation. Worshipping the cult of country. And revering their new Emperor for life Xi Jinping.
5
Every time I read an article like this I thank the good Lord that I don't have to live in China.
2
My country is great! Look how they control me!
5
@RAB
The people the author mentioned clearly don't feel that way. Just because a group of people don't value democracy and subjective freedom (both of which appear on a spectrum) as much as you, their feelings and beliefs are just as valid as yours or anyone who have the same values as you.
2
Bearing in mind how desperately poor the population was only 25 years ago, some of this 'devil's bargain' tolerance with governmental actions might be less shocking I directed Gallup's household polling throughout the entire nation of China from 1994 through 2004. In our first survey 25 years ago the average rural family's annual income was just 4,900 renminbi, or $590. That's per YEAR. Even in urban areas respondents typically told us their family took home just $1,075 annually. When asked to tell us in their own words their greatest hope for the future, the most common response was "that my children can have a better life than I have". Just tossing that into the discussion here.
9
This is the country that makes all of the...stuff we buy!
Doesn't that warm your heart!
6
Take a totalitarian government, add a large nuclear arsenal, sprinkle in an inferiority complex vis-vis America and the West, and then finally throw in a heaping portion of nationalism.
What could go wrong?
15
@Michael Brian Burchette
The U.S. caused the financial crisis due to greed and recklessness, which led to great suffering of the world economy especially the developing countries who depend on US dollars for trade. Now this wave of trade war aiming to kill. If you are Xi and an ordinary Chinese simply working hard to earn a living, maybe you will be very angry at the U.S. too? It must be hard to see faults of your own country with a chronic superiority complex.
1
What are they afraid of? The kites might hurt a tank?
2
I am not pro Chinese government, but I believe in telling the truth through different facets. Xi's government had done many positive things to improve living standards in China especially for the elderlies. He reformed the national well-fare/insurance system. Now most people are insured and almost everyone can afford to see a doctor and have access to decent healthcare, also all public transits are free for people over 70 or younger. It is amazing to me that in the U.S., not one report about China has ever covered those reforms and changes. In order to truly understand a country, you need to go beyond skin deep with a historic view point and an open mind. Interview the elders, they have been through it all, ask them: what kind of positive change had Xi made to your life? They don't need to be brave. If they are not happy at all. They can simply say " I don't know." But you might be surprised what they will tell you. You might have a problem telling them to stop. Why no one think of doing that? Or maybe simply because their answers do not make sensational headlines for U.S. readers who already made up their minds?
11
Human beings have always been sheepish i.e. follow the leader. Feudalism and Communism are two words with different meanings and the same result. China hasn't changed in 3000 years. Then again 3000 years is blip on the human evolution ruler.
2
This happened to me once in this country where I was born and raised. President Clinton was visiting and I was asked to leave my home because the secret service was to occupy my home for the duration of President Clinton's visit.
7
What about China's aggressively trying to block fishing & sea lanes from its neighbors, or the bogus mfg. of islands into military bases against U.N. mandates?
5
@Lee
That's also part of the larger military parade. China is demonstrating that it can throw its weight around now. Apparently ivory tower visions of China becoming a cuddly panda bear didn't work out...
3
I lived and worked in Beijing for 6 years from 2008-14. At that time, although the police state was ever present, China was an exciting place to be and it felt like the country was slowly moving closer to the rest of the world. These days friends who remain there paint a very different picture: foreigners are treated with hostility and suspicion, fiery nationalist propaganda is pervasive and stoked by state media, news and culture much more heavily censored, the bureaucracy interferes more in the running of businesses and randomly shuts them down, the security apparatus is emboldened, surveillance is pervasive, and police are much more aggressive. More worryingly, the economy is now undergoing a noticeable downturn, which will only reinforce all the above. This won’t end well.
138
@Saul Well, it's partly a reaction to the ever more belligerent stance on the trade war from the Trump administration. When I visited Beijing last year this time, people in Beijing were mostly unaware of an ongoing trade war. At that time, Beijing used the term trade dispute between China and the US on the media instead, carefully not to incite public anger. Until the negotiation fell apart this May, Chinese leadership naturally blamed the US for the collapse of the talk. Now Chinese are very suspicious of the true motive of the trade war, viewing it not as an effort to balance the trade but a new geopolitical strategy to thwart the ascension of China. Things like the sanctions against Chinese high tech companies like Huawei and ZTE, the arrest of Huawei CEO's daughter Ms. Meng in Canada, waiting to be extradited to the US, shocked a lot of Chinese. They wonder if the west is trying to isolate China and start a new Cold War.
Economic slowing down is inevitable, no country can maintain double digits growth forever. Trade war at this time only exacerbated the situation. In the time when a nation thinks an outside threat is looming large, reactions would naturally occur.
14
The U.S. caused the financial crisis due to greed and recklessness, which led to great suffering of the world economy especially the developing countries who depend on US dollars for trade. Now this wave of trade war aiming to kill. If you are Xi and an ordinary Chinese simply working hard to earn a living, maybe you will be very angry at the U.S. too? It must be hard to see faults of your own country with a chronic superiority complex.
1
@Saul
This is an incorrect description of China, but a very accurate description of the US over the 4 years.
4
I lived in China for 20 years (88-92, 95-96 and 2003-16), mostly in Beijing. Our family lived at SOHO New Town and our side street was used as a staging area for heavy armor during a prior Xi Jinping parade (celebrating victory over Japan). My kids gawked with excitement at the dozens of tanks, APCs, and mobile artillery parked outside our apartment. When they warmed up the engines, our windows shook. We had a coveted rooftop courtyard and loved watching the jets and helicopters flying overhead. Yes, the police did visit all the residents and told us politely to not open the windows, but they never told us to keep the curtains closed, let alone "move out." The former would be an almost impossible requirement to enforce in China and the latter sounds more like standard harassment targeted at pesky a NYT reporter in Beijing. I am not doubting Mr. Hernandez's account (keep it up!). The article brought back great memories. And I am deeply concerned about Xi Jinping's approach to ruling China, including increased authoritarianism and what I call neo-Maoist, hyper-nationalism. And this article captures that. But, I also think some parts of his account may reflect a uniquely American-journalist-in-China experience.
8
With a few modifications, this story could have been about preparations for a grand event in the US featuring Donald Trump.
9
@blgreenie
I had the same thoughts. I also remember couple of years ago, when Obama was still president, a professor from Penn was trying to attend a meeting at Treasury and took a wrong turn and ended up by the parking lot for the White House. He was arrested ( probably by gun toting security personnel), and released several hours later. In any case, his ordeal created a minor mayhem, and on top of that, got reported in both WAPO and the NYT.
How many parades can people watch. China realizes that people know that this is all a sham, they just dont know how to get out of it. Chinese people travel the world and they know that Chinese reeducation camps are concentration camps, that schools are a tool of the government for miseducation. It is a matter of time before the president for life, is overseeing real people revolutions that will not go away. Hong Kong is just the beginning.
4
Wow. This truly is frightening.
3
Great dispatch. My NYT subscription money well spent on insightful journalism like this.
2
Life in a dictatorship.
Don't visit.
Boycott, divest from and sanction China.
5
I lived in Beijing from 2010 to 2012, during which time there was a National Party Congress meeting, when you could notice the increased security. But it wasn't that bad. The internet frequently slowed to a crawl and in taxis the doors were locked from the inside and you couldn't roll the windows down. I lived fairly close to Tiananmen but I was never directed to close my curtains. I certainly didn't have any one visit me, but of course I wasn't a journalist.
One thing that always gave me pause was that one time, I forgot to take my laundry with me after I paid for it. The next day, someone showed up at my door with the laundry even though the only information I had given them was my phone number.
All foreigners are required to register with the police when they arrive and each time they leave and re-enter the country, so I always assumed the authorities kept tabs on me--maybe even monitoring my email and phone calls.
But it sounds like it's gotten a good bit worse.
11
@Keith Bernard Looking back even father, evidently MUCH worse. I was working there in 1999 during the 50th. Chaoyangmenmai was closed off while tanks did their practice runs, but the idea of security forces forcing to leave your home and occupy it themselves was unthinkable. I simply bought a cheap bike and commuted to work via secondary roads. And of course of no internet "security" then.
1
This piece makes me imagine a time not long from now in a Trumpian future in the US. Donald Trump and his GOP and SCOTUS enablers have succeeded in voiding presidential term limits and the customary balance of powers. Donald Trump is president for life and rules with an iron fist and police are everywhere. 42% of the population are just like the Chinese who are happy about their great-again "amazing country", how mighty and unified it appears. They don't mind the diminution of liberty because they perceive that this was needed to suppress the "other", the dissidents, the malcontents who aren't cheering. They enjoy the relative prosperity without noticing or minding the environmental degradation that makes it possible.
I'd like to think that we in the US are too well-educated, too accustomed to liberty to let this happen, but people are people. They can be fooled by a propaganda apparatus that works with fear, resentment, and "patriotism".
11
People are people? THAT is your rationale for predicting a totalitarian USA? Good grief!!
2
Trump is everything. Everything is Trump. No escape.
1
"'My country is amazing.'"
Doublespeak in a land of doublespeak? Assertions of loyalty and allegiance may make one a suspect of harboring the opposite. Yet to say or post little or nothing of one's loyalty may do the same. So all are suspect all the time. The Chinese are living through an interesting time.
5
I was in mainland China for the very first time earlier this year.
I couldn’t wait to leave and will likely never return. Half of China would leave if they could.
14
Straight out of THX 1138. " "You are a true believer, blessings of the State, blessings of the masses. Work hard, increase production, prevent accidents and be happy".
19
Oppressive regimes breed terrorism. That is why they have to confiscate kites and shampoo bottles. Chinese are at least rallying behind Mr. Xi, though that probably has more to do with Mr. Trump waging war on China than anything else. As for China Dream, I have no problem as long as it remains in China, not an Almighty's gift to shove down other peoples' throat across the ocean.
15
American insatiable greed supported China by providing them unchecked with money and all our technology. Now it backfired in our faces and no one knows where it leads.
19
The Chinese started to produce silk and using compass navigating the ocean in well-made ships when the western civilization was in caves and wearing animal skins. Please don't be arrogant if you can help it.
6
More people are reading George Orwell as we are all surely now living through one of the most dangerous & unstable times of our lives. Big brother is watching. And big brother doesn’t care about you or me.
14
Trump can only envy the complete domination of Xi and his control of The People.
6
"“You need to leave,” Officer Wang said. “Armed police will be stationed inside for four days.”"
I remember some old parchments that fell into disuse that had rules like, "No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law." Maybe some world leader will brush off their dust and try those rules, someday.
8
The real hard core Trumpers in this country are just as brain washed as the Chinese hard core.
Many of the Chinese come to their mindless dogma by way of fear.
Our mindless are just plain gullible!
Unlike the Chinese, they have access to all the facts but prefer to be fooled.
Choosing to be a rube in a nation that allows the freedom to be informed is pretty bad.
8
1.4 billion Chinese cannot care less about your opinion of China.
7
@Jason
Absolutely so; I am so grateful for this comment after reading such an article.
3
@Jason
Actually, most of them share Mr. Hernandez's opinion. Only they are not free to say so.
4
@Jason That is because they will never ever be allowed to read, view or talk about this article. Such is life behind the Great Firewall
3
We clearly made a mistake in trading with and investing in China. It provides short term gains but also long term instability.
This must end. We will need to take some short term pain for long term stability by minimizing our trading with and investment in China. It’ll hurt. And it’ll hurt a lot. But while we can we should try to turn China into the USSR ca. 1989.
Alas, this requires a bipartisan effort from our politicians and a competent administration in DC. And I fear neither are plausible right now, in part because the Chinese have helped render us asunder.
14
I visited China in 1978 including Canton on the Pearl river and Hong Kong.
There was a tense vibe of paranoia and mistrust from most officials except the young tour guide from the mainland China Travel Service. The Service elected me leader of the tour group probably because I was a government worker and not a capitalist.
The guide zeroed in on me to attempt to get information about the west and America. His personality was the opposite of everyone else, open rather than guarded and not afraid of his government.
He wanted to know why Nixon left office and assumed the official explanation from China was not correct. I confirmed that he was right and told him what really happened to Nixon.
He took me to the pharmacist for medication after drinking bad water and I came away with Peragoric. This resulted in my dreaming away the entire trip back to Hong Kong on the train.
6
Whenever I see the pomp and circumstance on display in military parades, the pride of country embodied in military might, a chill goes up my spine.
Soldiers marching in goose step, heads snapping to acknowledge the great leader, I think of what lengths they will go to honor that allegiance and remember where that fervor leads us. To greater glory of God or country? I doubt it and have always doubted it.
President Trump would like nothing better than to hold his own military parade, envying Putin and Xi theirs, to revel in the adulation of cheering people stretching as far as the eye can see, wishing he could dictate the way they do.
I see too many similarities between Trump and his heroes, between his followers and theirs. Why the willful lockstep, the deliberate blindness to an abuse of power that ultimately leads only to war or revolution?
Military fervor in service to pride of nation subsumes all else and justifies whatever cost there might be. I remember Shock and Awe in the same way I remember Tiananmen Square, the same way I remember what my own people did goose stepping their way to greater glory.
Meanwhile the earth burns. The children of the world are the only ones who care enough to fill the streets and public squares in service to a future they hope to rescue. What do we do? We double down, build walls, and buy more and bigger guns.
23
It's unfortunate that because Mr. Hernandez only reported one side of the story -- the repression of current Chinese regime on Chinese people, for which he was correct, he left the impression that Chinese people somehow enjoyed "being repressed". If he were an astute reporter, he should not have left out another side of the story, that is, a lot of Chinese people are very unhappy with the current situation in China -- the reversed trend of liberty and freedom in the last several years. Despite a couple of readers here defended the current Chinese situation, the resentment in China was wide-spread and it should not take much effort for the reporter to uncover it. Most Chinese people love freedom and liberty just like other peoples, but under the current repressed regime armed with advanced technology, people are just afraid. Yes, if you, as a foreign reporter, randomly interview people on Beijing streets, they will not tell you how they feel.
The China's long term prospect is a mess, and it will take Chinese people's own will, courage and wisdom to sort it out. US has a positive role to play by providing a clarity in moral support for Chinese freedom and democracy and by setting up a good example as a democratic country.
73
@RM - Setting a good example requires a change of our leadership.
11
@RM I would be surprised if anyone would go on the record as being opposed to the repressive measures. Maybe he is followed around and the authorities are listening to everything people say to him and he doesn't want them to get arrested or worse? I don't know we can ever know we have the whole story when it comes to China.
2
@RM Ah yes. Nobody understands China as well as an American. Chinese people are either the evil CCP or its brainwashed masses, or mainly the repressed wanting American-like liberty and freedom - the Pearl S. Buckian dichotomy.
5
Thank you for that for this very illuminating account. All brought to us by the only world leader who is terrified of images of Winnie the Pooh.
22
@David H
Your comment written from a country where your leader believes wind farms cause cancer and that he is above the law.
In the end what’s the difference?
"If you want a vision of China's future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever."
Adapted from George Orwell, "1984"
24
Fascinating indeed. The whole dog and pony show reminds me of the inferiority complex exhibited by the Third Reich in the years before the war (say, 1936-37) when it was the British Empire and, to a lesser extent, the United States that had to be confronted and surpassed. That show did not have a happy ending.
17
Odd piece. This reads more like creative non-fiction than journalism. I guess that’s the intention?
Without placing a value judgment on the celebration itself, Inconvenience is par for the course during major events in big cities. We were in near total lockdown here a few years ago during a visit by the Pope. I could point out the row-house on top of which a machine gun nest was situated. There were all kinds of police and military with their various hardware and accoutrements including dogs. And that was just the stuff I could see. We were essentially occupied, cars towed, major avenues closed and heavily barricaded.
I’m with commenter ‘stan continople’ below who quotes Schopenhauer. It’s no surprise; patriotism isn’t unique to any particular ideology.
10
@itsmildeyes We had volunteered to work at the World Meeting of Families and were in town for the entire week. We have also traveled in Mainland China. There is absolutely no comparison between the 2 situations. There were barriers in Center City but the soldiers and police were all relaxed, friendly and chatty; there were numerous protesters all over the place inside the secured zone and once you were inside the zone there was complete freedom of movement. People at the Pope's Mass on the Parkway were ordering pizzas on their phones and having them passed over the security fencing without any interference from the security forces or the snipers on the rooftops. People were busy taking pictures of the rooftop snipers and the military vehicles on the Ben Franklin Bridge and no one confiscated their phones or tried to stop them. There were bikers in Speedos and Papal mitres riding around downtown Philadelphia and Rittenhouse Square was as crowded as it always is. The only true limits were on vehicular traffic which actually made Center City feel relaxed and calm. Were you even there?
10
Connie,
You missed my statement about not placing a value judgment on it. It looks like you’re coming in from the suburbs.
I live in the neighborhood. I’m a pedestrian. I had a friend’s mom staying with me for the Pope’s visit. Barricades obstructing some of the curb cuts made it difficult for her to get around because she used a wheelchair. Still, she was thrilled to have partaken communion at the Papal Mass.
I’m not complaining. It was exciting having the Pope here, and I’m not even Catholic.
Why do we have to fight about everything? Lol. Jay-Z’s annual Made in America concert is a major inconvenience, too. As is the Fourth of July and the Eagles Superbowl victory party.
But it’s also really fun to live in the city. I only wish the Phillies would inconvenience me with a World Series parade.
Again, my comment was about disruption of normal activity in urban areas during large events. You wouldn’t have gotten your pizza delivered if you lived in my building.
1
in repressive countries always have great public support of there governments; because not showing support can get you put in jail.
8
I lived for a time in Greece when it was ruled by a fascist dictator. No crime on the island where I lived, also few cars, but there were police everywhere. Why? to spy on everyone. We had been warned never to trust anyone who spoke English. Anything we did that they didn't like meant being hauled to the police station. We had to report in every month. We said nothing detrimental about the government and the loss of freedom of speech. It was a hard and scary place to be despite the history and beauty of the island. Americans who have never been in a similar situation just don't get it for it is hard to imagine being constrained. The Chinese have been constrained all their lives so they know nothing about freedom and just 'go with the flow'. Think it won't happen here? Just take a look at the Trump administration.
14
Err, Americans were in a similar situation, we fought the Revolutionary War for independence from the British, try googling that. @amp
@Matthew John Now that is a real stretch in the land of false equivalency. I don't think the British were hauling in anyone that slightly strayed from praise for the current regime for beatings and imprisonment.
3
China will replace the United States as - what?
Can you imagine the cost of running that police state where most of the people in the country will never cash in on the corruption-fueled billions this 'communist' government bestows on its insiders.
It's so creepy.
I hope this reporter has already got out after filing this great piece. Xi is going to be unhappy.
26
@John Harrington As an innovator for one. As an economy for two. As a world power for three.
This is being accelerated by our willful and stupid trade war.
I have lived and worked in China on and off for 15 years and while there is a lot to not like from a western perspective and even a Chinese one, the economic lives and the opportunities they have to have good lives continues to expand and grow.
You can’t say the same for the US which as policy is pushing coal instead of green energy, a border wall, instead of smart technologies, and tariffs that only we pay the price for.
4
"If you want a vision of China's future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever."
Adapted from George Orwell, "1984"
7
I guess I don't understand what the Chinese authorities are so afraid of, since this is a celebration for the whole country. But that these kinds of Orwellian measures are seen as necessary by them is a very good reason for the IOC to cancel the 2022 Winter Olympics scheduled for Beijing. What kind of security measures will they come up with for that? Yes, it is a pet peeve of mine that they were awarded these games in the first place, but China has successively shown in the years since that award in 2015 that it is no place for a joyous celebration of winter athletics, particularly in the capital city. This article is an ominous forecast of what the atmosphere will be for what should be nicknamed the authoritarian games.
16
Outwardly, Mr. Hernandez seems to be suggesting that all the people of China are backing Xi's rule. But I kept wondering if any of those people felt differently inside their outward displays of loyalty to the Xi cult.
And since the report ends rather abruptly, I am still yet wondering if some hints of dissension had been truncated.
8
"As an American journalist based in Beijing for the past four years, I am accustomed to onerous visa rules, hassles at the airport and arbitrary detentions in the countryside."
Seems like being an American journalist based in Berlin, in 1935
12
Officer Wang in the middle of your living room telling you what to do with your curtains - I admire the writer's fortitude in sticking around Beijing. An excellent article capturing the gloominess and what sounds like sheer misery of 21st century totalitarianism.
36
XI is terrified that his population of 1.5 BILLION citizens will rise up against his dystopian regime. That is why there will be 4 BILLION cameras around the country, so he can keep tabs on every individual, give them each a "social score," and avert a possible bloody revolution. I hope the citizens wake up before he succeeds.
36
@ChesBay Masybe when we get a Democrat in the White House, we can have a similar social score. Needless to say, those with a supply of assault guns won't score very high.
There's no other nation on earth whose leaders are so terrified of their own citizens.
20
@stu freeman
It might be worse in North Korea.
9
stu freeman,
Coming soon to a theater near you.
(A Republicans Production starring heartthrob Donald Trump. A must-see.)
8
@stu freeman Imagine the fear, if every Chinese had the right to keep and bear arms?
2
Trump has called Xi Jinping a "brilliant leader" and "great man." This is the kind of man Trump respects, and I'm convinced Trump would rule like Xi, if he could.
30
@Ms. Pea- yea, but recently it was the liberals and former Obama officials who posted an editorial in the NY Times with the title: China is not the enemy. So perhaps Trump is right?
5
@Nomoremaos No, context is everything. we can walk and chew gum at the same time, so let's work on rooting out the forces of lies and inequity at home first, while still taking note of how much worse it is in China.
3
This is a helpful article, and shows just how bad it is in China.
I live in Thailand. In general, the Thai people have not bought into the charade of a government that they have here. They know they are being oppressed and have no voice. I get the feeling this is the norm across the region. The people are neither naive nor stupid.
And then there's China.
The Chinese people (in general), who are comparatively much more oppressed and controlled by their government, don't seem to get it. They seem to rejoice in their government's approach and "successes", seem to be unable to comprehend or discuss any reasonable analysis of the role of China in the world, and in general buy their government's "line" on any one of a number of issues?
Chinese people! Why the fawning subservience to a dictatorial autocracy? Why are you unable to open your eyes, as many others in neighboring countries can?
Can somebody please explain to me what is going on with the Chinese people?
35
@Frank: Money buys loyalty, and cracking down on internet use certainly doesn't hurt.
5
@Frank In short, ordinary Chinese people are just nowhere near as oppressed and controlled by the government than the Western media make you believe it to be.
6
I think that is too big a generalization. Most of the Chinese there probably don't like what is going go but is resigned to the fact they cannot do anything about it in the present time.
4
Man, the truth hurts. Fine reporting, Mr. Hernandez, and yet more reasons to stick with your current smartphone, laptop, tablet, and household goods for another two or three years. At least.
11
“A tremendously big, beautiful parade like the world has never seen before.” Yet, dictator Xi is afraid the spectacle may be “interrupted” by protests. That the free press may report the oppression. Hong Kong looms big on his parade.
13
@Ted
Sounds like what Trump wanted - "big beautiful parade like the world has never seen before."
3
Happy 70th, PRC. Success always draws haters.
5
No, oppressive dictatorships always draw haters.
62
@Saul
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
2
@Tom so you’re saying we shouldn’t criticize an oppressive authoritarian regime because at least they’re trying? An odd argument to put forward. I lived in Beijing for several years and have a masters from one of China’s top universities. I’m speaking from some experience here. The Chinese communist party is not a benign force or worthy cause. It is a bad actor and China would be better off reforming it out of existence.
4
“The cheapest sort of pride is national pride; for if a man is proud of his own nation, it argues that he has no qualities of his own of which he can be proud; otherwise he would not have recourse to those which he shares with so many millions of his fellowmen. The man who is endowed with important personal qualities will be only too ready to see clearly in what respects his own nation falls short, since their failings will be constantly before his eyes. But every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud adopts, as a last resource, pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and glad to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.” - Arthur Schopenhauer
No country is lacking in just the sort of "intellects" that Xi and Trump count on for their support. So what if their leaders are tyrants, liars, thieves, and thugs, they get to wave a flag!
53
@stan continople--Nationalism and Jingoism. Nasty, and dangerous.
5
@ChesBay
Nasty, dangerous, and perennial, because “every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud” in fact describes MOST men who flee to mass movement to escape their own sense of inferiority and insignificance. Per Camus, Hoffer, and May, it is an inevitable disease of modern industrial civilization and it’s failure to meet men’s spiritual and psychological needs. May was more optimistic but his optimism lay in his Marxism and in that he was deluding him self by the same process that he saw more dispassionately in other.
China must secure control of Catholicism, Falun Gong, Buddhism etc for the very reason that people turn to these movements to meet the human need that communism claims to have made obsolete.
1
While living in Singapore during 1996-2000, we visited Beijing a couple of times. We walked the neighborhoods, visited the flea market, viewed snow at the Forbidden City, drove out to the Great Wall. The only police we noticed was those directing traffic. People were friendly to foreigners and more interested in improving their economic status and travelling for new experiences than being paranoid. Sad to see this happening and sad to see Trump's ill conceived policies. I am afraid this won't end well.
13
@Robert- ill conceived policies? He’s the only one who recognizes the threat a dictatorship the size of china poses to the world and democracies.
13
@Robert: Try vising Tibet or Xinjiang next time you're there...
6
@Nomoremaos
The"only one" who recognizes the threat of a dictatorship? Hardly. Many Americans see the same threat in their country. Can you say, "Above the law, can't be charged"?
8
You had me at Officer Wang.
“Freedom” is used pretty loosely and conveniently in this country.
Let’s keep it free and make it truly so.
7
Celebrating all their freedoms and progressiveness.
2
If the parade is a show of strength and power... I'm not sure the West is really watching. He has no one convinced as much as the government has tried to increase China's cultural status. Korea is doing well with K-pop as a global cultural export - people everywhere enjoy Japanese anime and manga with conventions around the world celebrating it. With China I think Huawei, human rights abuses, the belt and road initiative as a form of recolonizing countries who need money, a repressive government... China rules out of fear, not respect from the people. Of course in its long and rich history China has given us so much - but in its current state there is much to be desired. Parades will not change that.
71
And some wonder why the younger set in Hong Kong are opposed to that nation's forced gravitation to Beijing....
64
China is sounding more and more like North Korea. Brainwashed masses.
We abetted this horror. We said trade was good. We said China is peaceful. Wrong on both counts.
70
@Justin Koenig Agreed. I had a high schooler tell me China was a socialist country when I was teaching Animal Farm.
6
@Justin Koenig
The US is sounding more and more like North Korea when the President cannot be indicted for crimes, when the Senate is too meek to honor any Impeachment by the House of Representatives, and where the Courts are being stacked with unqualified judges from the extreme end of the minority party (who squeaked into power through deception). We in the US have nothing to be proud of right now.
3
Forget the tanks, flyovers. That floral display is what impresses me; especially the horses. My best memory of Chinese ‘progress’ were those older pictures of wide highways full of bicycles- no doubt now filled with cars.
Two things I wonder about on this Chinese anniversary. It is good to see citizens proud of their nation’s strength, global ascendancy; but I’d like to hear what they say their country stands for in the world. Should stand for.
And somewhere in all the military hardware on parade, all the flags, the national pride, will there be maybe just a small float, small banner, thanking the tens of thousands of American soldiers who died to defeat a then-common enemy; Japan. Paving the way for China’s self-determination afterwards.
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@Jo Williams
You have a warped understanding of what happened after the Japanese were defeated in WWII. Chiang Kai Shek and the Nationists government of China was the ally of America during WWII and were always grateful to America.
But America refused to help Chiang Kai Shek rebuild a country ravaged by the war that was fought on that soil, to rebuild the infrastructure destroyed by the Japanese. He pleaded for America to understand what Mao Tse Tung would do to that country.
But General George Marshall, who from December 15, 1945 to January 1947 served as a special envoy to China, was unsuccessful in his effort to negotiate a coalition government between the Nationalists of Chiang Kai-shek and Communists under Mao Zedong.
Instead, he advised Truman to abandon China to its civil war. While Chiang's troops were decimated from fighting Japan, Mao's troops were fresh and finally succeeded in Chiang fleeing to Taiwan.
That was the October 1st, 70 year anniversary that this celebration is all about, the founding of Mao's PRC. So you're not going to get gratitude from the Communist Party because they were not America's ally against Japan.
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I find it humorous that Americans are supposed to be incredulous over Chinese citizens’ strong support and pride for their totalitarian government. We forget that we Americans for decades were fed propaganda that we lived in the greatest country in the world, a place that could do no wrong. Even today, as our democratic institutions are eroded daily, we sit on our couches, look at our cellphones ands simply accept this.
So the Chinese are supposed to rise up against their current evil regime, but we Americans are not? Interesting.
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I agree with your thoughts.
I might change “were fed” propaganda to “are fed”.
The truly effective propaganda is much harder to see.
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@LiChef
Of course. Unwinding a lifetime of propaganda begun early in grade school is a lifetime process.
So easy to see the clouds in the eyes of others, even as we look through our own veiled eyes.
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@LIChef We dont?
trump would so much like to have such a glorious parade that shows to all our citizens how godlike he thinks we think he is. He's probably green with envy right now, and trying to figure out how to block us from joining in with the Chinese people in worshiping the greatest Leader the world has ever seen.
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The correspondent writes “Officer Wang Yong, a veteran of the Beijing security bureau with nervous eyes and amber teeth, came to my door one recent Saturday morning to deliver the news.”
Amber teeth?
In what way does such description help us understand the story better? Would the officer’s actions be viewed differently if he had gleaming white teeth? If he was handsome?
Such description is gratuitous.
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@Vasu Srinivasan Smoking is mentioned repeatedly in the story. Having smoked heavily in the past I am aware of the amber hue.
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Actually, having lived in Beijing and dealt with police there, I found that small detail incredibly evocative of the kind of tobacco stained security thugs who would randomly knock on your door.
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I had the opportunity to visit China several years ago on riverboat tour. It was grand and the people were nice. We were told by our guide how Deng Tso Ping (spelling?) had the "black cat-white cat theory". It was that the government should exist for the benefit of the people, not the other way around. Having everything run by the government was not working, so some private enterprise was allowed and flourished. Like catching mice, the theory went, it doesn't matter if you have a black cat or a white cat; catching the mouse is what is important.
By chance, our trip in this same period of national celebration. We went to the zoo in Beijing where, it seemed, everybody went. a sea of people. My pocket was picked but the loss was noticed right away and reported to the police. Late that night our guide called and said the police had the wallet at the station on the other side of town. We went there and except for credit card and the limited cash, it was all there. A woman saw the discarded wallet, realized it was stolen and brought it in. She thought it her duty. A lot of people were redeemed in my eyes with than.
Today, this reversal of political loosening is reversing the goals of Deng. Everyone's small pocket of liberty is being picked.
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In 1984, for the 35th anniversary of New China, the government bussed in every foreigner (me included) it could find and gave them front row seats for the parade, which was a spectacle beyond anything I had ever seen. I’m sorry things have changed for you.
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Very glad we have actual examples of large countries and leaders that do behave like dictators and fascists. It should be a good reminder to people who have a tendency to use the term facist and Nazi without a clue of what that behaviour actually looks like on the ground.
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@Adib
To the contrary, this is a powerful reminder of what our country stands to fall to if oligarchal and crony capitalist forces continue to strangle the democracy we have left.
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Great article. My only concern is that a certain someone will read it like an instruction manual for his next parade.
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@Midwest. Do I like Trump no. Do I obsess about him? Also no.
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@Midwest Trump doesn’t read so we should be okay.
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@Greg I guess the difference between "Democratic Socialism" and "Communism" is just too subtle for you to take in.....
In regard to Bernie, I don't see him advocating for a repressive police state; that is more in line with a large proportion of the Republican party.
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China has been great when it opened itself to the world. Form instance, in the Tang Dynasty the Chinese welcomed many peoples and religions (including Muslims) from along the Silk Road. And the Tang is usually considered China's Golden Age.
In the late 20th Century, China was again opening itself to new ideas and it has prospered for that. However, Xi got power has renewed another Chinese tendency to isolate itself and repress the people.
The lesson from Chinese history is that the repression doe not end well for anybody.
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And we continue to trade with this raging dictatorship, why? Cease all trade and nonessential cooperation immediately. And make it clear Taiwan is Taiwan, not Chinese Taipei or Taiwan, China as some airlines now do.
The world has fueled this problem for far too long.
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@Brian in FL- the West and the Left in particular, is too ignorant to this fact.
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@Brian in FL As I recall it was Western Capitalists who fell all over themselves in a rush to establish trade and invest in factories in China in order to find cheap labor and to produce cheap goods that ended up squeezing small Western businesses out. Here in the USA no one was forcing consumers to large box stores full of Chinese products -- no the consumers rushed to save their nickels and the Capitalists wallowed in their profits. That is why we trade with China. It was a cooperative decision fueled by greed among the very mindful plutocrats and mindless.
consumers
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@Nomoremaos The right is quite ignorant of the process that opened up trade with China. You are too focused on saving your pennies at Walmart for the last 40 years to realize that in doing so, you reinforced our trade association with China.
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