Enjoy your rising China:
Not too long ago, China “taking your job” meant its wages were far lower than Western alternatives, thus allowing it to “steal” blue-jean and iPhone factories.
But what if it meant getting you fired for what you believe? That’s apparently what happened last week to Rebecca Sy, a long-serving flight attendant at a subsidiary of the Hong Kong–based airline Cathay Pacific. Her crime: supporting the pro-democracy protests engulfing Hong Kong on her Facebook page.
Sy’s dismissal is just the most glaring example of a new stage in Beijing’s clampdown on widespread protests in the former British colony—arm-twisting Hong Kong companies to do the dirty work to ensure that their staff don’t take part in the demonstrations that have gripped the city through the summer. By threatening shareholder returns and employees’ livelihoods, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leaders seem to believe that they can finally quell Hong Kong’s demands for civil liberties.
This is all part of China's global effort to restrict criticism of China and to compel a good portrayal of China. That includes those Confucius Institutes around the world and funding think tanks here.
Ratchet up your worry when your Starbucks barrista wants to have a conversation with you on respecting China.
Remember, China seriously worries accurate reports are a threat to CCP control of China.
UPDATE: China's missing millions:
Human rights groups estimate that between one and three million [Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities] are being detained right now in a dystopian network of “re-education” camps.
Sure, the estimates may be too high. But is it no less horrible if it is "just" 100,000?
Can China do the same in the heart of China to tens or hundreds of millions?
UPDATE: The Chinese are getting the ball rolling with just a few:
Activist Joshua Wong from the Demosisto party has been arrested in Hong Kong, along with fellow [protesters Agnes Chow and Andy Chan]. The arrests come ahead of a rally planned for this weekend.
What does this indicate?
UPDATE: Well, it seems to have worked:
The event organizer, the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF), accepted the decision and called off the demonstration, but said it would continue to apply for permits to hold rallies and marches.
Will a largely leaderless movement show up anyway?
At some point when you are protesting oppression, you can't let the lack of a permit get in the way of your protests.
UPDATE: The Hong Kong police may arrest even more people that China wants arrested.
UPDATE: The first American resistance to the British in 1775 was an effort by American colonists to claim their rights as Englishmen within the British empire. It took a year of escalating conflict for Americans to declare independence.
I wonder how far along that path Hong Kongers are after trying to assert their rights as Hong Hong citizens of China under the agreement that transferred Hong Kong from Britain to China?
Do Hong Kongers feel like mere subjects without real rights? Has the course of human events there reached this stage?
