I’m sure all of you are aware of the dramatic power play pulled off over the weekend by China’s Communist Party to eliminate term limits for both the president and vice president. Prior to the move, Chinese leaders have stuck to two five-year terms since the presidency of Jiang Zemin (1993-2003), but that’s about to change as wannabe emperor Xi Jinping positions himself as indefinite ruler of the increasingly totalitarian superstate.
While the weekend announcement was illuminating enough, I found the panicked reactions by Chinese authorities in the immediate aftermath far more telling. The country’s propagandists took censorship to such an embarrassing level in attempts to portray the decision as widely popular amongst the masses, it merely served to betray that opposite might be true.
China Digital Times compiled a fascinating list of words and terms banned from being posted or searched on Weibo. Here’s just a sample of some I found particularly interesting.
- The Emperor’s Dream (皇帝梦) — The title of a 1947 animated puppet film.
- Disney (迪士尼) — See also “Winnie the Pooh,” below.
- personality cult (个人崇拜) — Read more about the image-crafting campaign that has been steadily cultivated by state media over Xi’s first term.
- Brave New World (美丽新世界) — See also “1984,” below.
- my emperor (吾皇)
- Yuan Shikai (袁世凯) — Influential warlord during the late Qing Dynasty, Yuan became the first formal president of the newly established Republic of China in 1912. In 1915, he briefly re-established China as a Confucian monarchy.
- Hongxian (洪憲) — Reign title of the short-lived, re-established monarchy led by Yuan Shikai, who declared himself the Hongxian Emperor. After much popular disapproval and rebellion, Yuan formally abandoned the empire after 83 days as emperor.
- Animal Farm (动物庄园)
- N — While the letter “N” was temporarily blocked from being posted, as of 14:27 PST on February 26, it was no longer banned. At Language Log, Victor Mair speculates that this term was blocked “probably out of fear on the part of the government that “N” = “n terms in office”, where possibly n > 2.”
- emigrate (移民) — Following the news, Baidu searches for the word reportedly saw a massive spike.
- disagree (不同意)
- Xi Zedong (习泽东)
- incapable ruler (昏君)
- 1984
- Winnie the Pooh (小熊维尼) — Images of Winnie the Pooh have been used to mock Xi Jinpingsince as early as 2013. The animated bear continues to be sensitive in China. Weibo users shared a post from Disney’s official account that showed Pooh hugging a large pot of honey along with the caption “find the thing you love and stick with it.”
- I oppose (我反对)
- long live the emperor (吾皇万岁)
The full list is far more extensive and ridiculous, but the key point is that such a pathetic and panicked response from government censors highlights government insecurity, not strength.
I fully agree with a recent observation made by Charlie Smith, co-founder of GreatFire.org:
Smith said he believed Beijing had underestimated the outrage its decision would cause. “The response from Chinese netizens indicates that Xi may have miscalculated how this would be received by the general public. Hence, he has asked the censors to put in overtime and things like the letter ‘N’ end up as collateral damage.”
The internet response to the Communist Party’s move to abolish term limits was not what leadership expected or desired, which prompted a panicky and desperate attempt to immediately clean up internet discourse.
It’s pretty sad when a government in charge of the lives of over a billion people is terrified of Winnie the Pooh memes.
The huge tell that China was about to take a major totalitarian turn occurred last year with the draconian government response to Bitcoin and crypto currency exchanges generally. The people of China were embracing the technology as much as anyone else and were in a perfect position to be global leaders in this paradigm changing new ecosystem. Xi responded to this by shutting the whole thing down.
Not only did he dash the enthusiasm, drive and talent of some of his country’s smartest technologists and entrepreneurs, but he also made it clear to the world that the Chinese model will continue to be one of command and control, rigid hierarchy and centralization. This is a tragic and historic mistake, and I think the coming brain drain out of China could be massive. This provides an opportunity for more open nations to scoop up some serious talent as they look to leave. As noted previously, Chinese authorities banned the word “emigrate” earlier this week, which should certainly tell you something.
As someone who’s watched his own government turn increasingly opaque, corrupt, authoritarian and unconstitutional, I feel empathy for the tens, if not hundreds of millions, of Chinese horrified that their hopes of a more free society appear dashed for the foreseeable future. Making matters worse, the surveillance state that’s been installed across the country is science fiction level scary.
In case you missed the following video clip of the China’s all-seeing spy camera network, take a watch.
If that’s not wild enough, Chinese police are now starting to become equipped with fascial recognition eyeglasses.
From Verge:
China’s police have a new weapon in their surveillance arsenal: sunglasses with built-in facial recognition. According to reports from local media, the glasses are being tested at train stations in the “emerging megacity” of Zhengzhou, where they’ll be used to scan travelers during the upcoming Lunar New Year migration. This is a period of extremely busy holiday travel, often described as the largest human migration event on Earth, and police say the sunglasses have already been used to capture seven suspects wanted in major cases, as well as 26 individuals traveling under false identities.
The sunglasses are the latest component in China’s burgeoning tech-surveillance state. In recent years, the country has poured resources into various advanced tracking technologies, developing artificial intelligence to identify individuals and digitally tail them around cities. One estimate suggests the country will have more than 600 million CCTV cameras by 2020, with Chinese tech startups outfitting them with advanced features like gait recognition.
Let this be a lesson to U.S. citizens, as well as citizens across the world. Never, ever allow a massive, unaccountable surveillance system to be constructed and implemented in your society for any reason. It will always ultimately be abused by a power hungry despot to seize and then maintain power.
Finally, one major reason I’m so concerned about what’s happening in China is because it adds a huge element of geopolitical risk to the global equation and greatly increases the likelihood of worldwide conflict.
Tomorrow’s piece will focus on this angle.
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In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
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This is certainly bad. I was thinking that on the economic liberty side they made a lot of progress. But they did not budge on civil liberties. And now they are going further backward .
Just wait in America till the next Democrat becomes the president. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he or she sees this and thinks that that this is a great idea and wouldn’t it also be great if we just rid of all of the pesky non-democrats were stripped of their voting rights since the left only wants to help people. Yea, right.
Xi Jinping is Chairman Mao Part II.
That was his goal as soon as he was old enough to become an ardent Maoist. But he’s far more dangerous to the rest of the world because of the huge technological advancements in warfare over the past 50 years.
But the true tell in the NYTimes article was Jinping immediately blaming Trump for this supposedly sudden decision to become Emperor for life and announce a new impending cold war with the US.
Anyone who believes that is a 1st level Chump.
Who cares what China does? What people in the US better worry about is the lack of freedom and transparency in this country. This country is on a crap slide.
NAILED IT!
We should look into our own countries destruction of freedoms here. Besides, all a POTUS has to do is declare a false flag attack based martial law and have the same outcome.
The moves in China will have major geopolitical implications, which will likely affect the U.S. in major ways over the next few years. I will discuss this in Part 2.
Of course, I understand the seriousness surrounding all of the issues in the U.S. This is why I quit a very high paying job nearly a decade ago to focus on and discuss the disastrous ramifications of loss of freedom in American and the oligarchic takeover. I’ve written thousands of articles on such topics.
This is a load of propagandist nonsense.
It was not the government censors but a company (Sina Corporation) similar to Facebook or Google.
There is no evidence that the decision to extend terms is unpopular.
His comments on ‘Bitco(i)n’ display his silliness. Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme which will redistribute millions of dollars from ‘suckers’ to criminals. It is the fact that it is untraceable that makes it popular except with governments (such as the US) and which causes the banks to ban transactions concerning Bitcoin. It is as valuable as the Zimbabwe Dollar.
” Chinese model will continue to be one of command and control, rigid hierarchy and centralisation. This is a tragic and historic mistake,” his opinion is ridiculous in light of the fact that China has gone from an Agrarian economy to the largest (excluding financial stupidity) in the world in a matter of two decades. It is the world leader in research and electronics and soon will overtake not just USA but the combined economies of US, EU, Africa and both Americas.
Another hit piece on the Russia-China-Iran-NK axis.
Sad, really sad.
How much are they paying you, PJ? The same as Nailed it and Realist?
Do you like working for Winnie the Pooh? Does he pay you in honey or money?
“PJ London,” despite the obvious steaming pile of bullshit you wrote, I decided nonetheless to give you the benefit of the doubt. After watching you engage with others I am convinced without a shadow of a doubt that you are an intentionally dishonest and bad actor. What your specific motives are and why you’ve decided to play this role, I can’t be certain, but I am certain that is what you are.
Nevertheless, I will prove the utter nonsense of your initial comment before dismissing you back into the 100 acre woods.
1) You make a preposterous claim that the companies did the censorship and not the government, as if such a distinction exists in China. Even my toddler son knows that’s ridiculous, and it’s an insult to everyone’s intelligence here that you actually went with that.
2) “Bitcoin is a ponzi scheme.” Once again you resort to the most easily disproven but superficially smart sounding discredited talking point about Bitcoin. Bitcoin can be fairly criticized in all sorts of ways, and many smart people do that every day, but calling an entirely voluntary, open source, global, alternative monetary system a “ponzi scheme” is simply a lie, and I can tell you’re not an idiot, so you’re lying on purpose. Even Bitcoin skeptics were forced to admit the technology is revolutionary, and JP Morgan’s CEO was forced to walk back his ignorant comments calling it a fraud after people who know better corrected him. They even called it a threat in their latest SEC filings. Strange that Bank of America and JP Morgan would call a ponzi scheme a threat in their SEC filings.
3) China probably was on a trajectory to being a world leader, but becoming a one-man dictatorship will hurt this cause, and more importantly, it will hurt the Chinese people. You know this of course, and the only people who deny it are usually ones who stand to benefit from authoritarianism.
4) “Another hit piece on the Russia-China-Iran-NK axis.” Actually what that line is, is just another lie. From you. Your entire post was either intentionally deceptive or outright lies. As others have noted, the entire purpose of this site has been to criticize my own government, the U.S. government. I have written 1,000 pieces critiquing the U.S. for every one calling out another nation.
Bottom line, you’re a proven liar. No amount of money could ever make me live as deceptively as you do.
Bye bye Pooh Bear.
How does it increase the likelihood of a worldwide conflict? Has China ever used overseas military intervention, or colonization (Tibet and SE Asia are on their borders)? Has there ever been a benevolent dictatorship ? (I’m thinking maybe the Castros… any others?) Muzzling opposition (often foreign agents… see Ukraine, Venezuela, et al) is often necessary to maintain power …. but look at how easy it is to ‘muzzle the opposition’ in our good ole democracy… and neutralize legitimate democratic governments (Iran, et al). ‘Freedom’ & ‘democracy’ give plutos the easiest road to government control – many Chinese might prefer social security to a ‘free democratic’ government manipulated by the plutos.
As I noted in Part 1, that’s what Part 2 will discuss.
The rest of your comment is nearly incomprehensible. Are you actually arguing against “freedom?”
Personally, I think anyone who thinks it’s ok for a government to decide what you can and cannot say is a danger and disgrace to the species.
“Has China ever used overseas military intervention, or colonization ?
Who do you think we fought in the Korean War along with the North Koreans?
Just at the battle of the Chosin Reservoir alone, 10,000 Marines had to fight 120,000 Chinese soldiers for 17 days.
Then there was Vietnam. Plus the fact that mainland China would have invaded and conquered Taiwan years ago were it not for them being blocked by the UN, and their fear of US and European reprisals.
So have you always been a fan of Totalitarianism, Nancy?
I think we all need to be pragmatic when assessing this, and not make judgements. In the U.S., the political and corporate class have become incapable of making reasonable decisions for the common good, and of doing so in a cost effective manner. I give you a 700 billion dollar Pentagon budget, and the abusive, and subjugating American health care system as examples.
In both Russia and China, they spend proportional sums on defense, and half of that money does not go to defense contractors like McDonnel Douglas, and Raytheon. Both Russia and China have nationalized health care, and care is easily accessible. Recently, I was seen by a Chinese physician group, for a lesion on my arm on the same day I made the call to them. This does not happen in America, unless your head is about to fall off.
Folk make a big deal out of the fact, that in America, you can say whatever you want. Is this such a big deal? The public is ignored in the U.S. 90% of Americans favor universal background checks for firearms, yet it hasn’t happened.
While I am not moving to China or Russia, lets not overlook the things that both countries do “well”, and the U.S. does not.
Yes, the first amendment is a huge deal, and if you can’t see why, I’m not going to spend my time trying to convince you.
I had no idea so many readers of this site think freedom of speech is overrated. Very concerning.
China’s economy is a debt fueled bubble just like the U.S. economy. That’ll be clear soon enough.
“Folk make a big deal out of the fact, that in America, you can say whatever you want. Is this such a big deal?”
Not only is it a GIGANTIC “deal”, it’s the very 1st “deal”.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Because without that “deal”, there is no freedom or liberty.
“China’s economy is a debt fueled bubble just like the U.S. economy. That’ll be clear soon enough.”
Which is why Jinping is raising the ante right after Mnuchin and Trump re-floated the idea of the US joining the TPP.
I recognize the value of communication and “free speech”. But my point to both Genaro and Michael is that the first amendment has been largely eviscerated by the U.S. government – you or I can say what we want, and perhaps not fear an arrest at midnight, what we say matters little to corporate America or the U.S. Senate – but the press is muzzled, peaceful assembly without a permit, or designated areas happens where? And you just try to petition this government for a redress of grievances. We live in a violent, racist culture that does believe the U.S. is a Christian nation. Look who the culture elected president.
There’s some truth in what you say, but major political change when we have allowed ourselves to fall so much as a society takes time.
Free speech gives us a chance, although it may take a long time. Without free speech you have no chance at all.
“what we say matters little to corporate America or the U.S. Senate”
It matters a lot to both, actually.
“Look who the culture elected president.”
Look at the choice. It was pick your poison. Or none of the above.
I went with the latter myself. As to the culture that produced the poison.
Here’s some very sage advice:
“You simply have to turn your back on a culture that has gone sterile and dead and get with the program of a living world and the imagination.”
– Terence McKenna
We still have the freedom here to turn our back on this culture as it currently exists.
Good luck with that, in mainland China. Even more so now that the Pooh Bear has made himself Supreme Ruler of the Hundred Acre Wood.
I saw that video and it is horrible. I would be scared to take a pee behind a tree when on a bike ride. I am diabetic and when I gotta go, I gotta go and sometimes there isn’t a bathroom for many miles.
You have to be careful shaking hands with a stranger for fear it may put you on a watch list if the stranger belongs to the wrong political group. What is this world coming too? My god this is just super bad news.
“It was not the government censors but a company (Sina Corporation) similar to Facebook or Google. There is no evidence that the decision to extend terms is unpopular.”
You honestly believe that Weibo (Sina Corporation) just decided to ban those terms on their own and it had no linkage to the government? I mean let’s be honest and reasonable here, I know you’re smarter than to actually believe that. And there is definitely evidence that the move was unpopular, as cited in this article and in many places – there was a massive amount of posted discontent that had to be blocked by the government because they can’t take criticism, won’t allow people to express their opinions, and because the government knows that what they did was unjust and would never be supported in a real vote of the people.
Why must there be such an imbalance of power? It is self-evident that if you are not allowed to express even the slightest bit of discontent that then, yes, the people don’t even have a chance to be free, make decisions for themselves, and live with dignity.
If this move was so popular, then why not let people vote on it? Or vote on anything for that matter. And mind you all those advances you mentioned came after Mao, when Deng made reforms including the two-term limits. So those have clearly shown to work much better than absolute life-long rule by one person.
Look, China is powerful, beautiful, innovative, and an overall amazing country – the land, it’s history, and its people (particular its people) are wonderful in many respects. But this is the case not because of the overly autocratic moves that a small group of high-level government officials make, but in spite of them. I mean really, people should be given the basic human decency to have some say in who controls their nation at the highest level, at the very least to decide that the same person should not reign for life. These amazing 1.3 billion Chinese people who have taken their country so far over the last two decades deserve better than this.
Are there no mirrors at all in the USA?
Has any American actually looked into one and asked ‘What am I seeing?’
The hypocrisy is stunning.
‘You honestly believe that Weibo (Sina Corporation) just decided to ban those terms on their own and it had no linkage to the government?’ you mean like Google and Facebook?
‘And there is definitely evidence that the move was unpopular, as cited in this article and in many places – there was a massive amount of posted discontent that had to be blocked by the government because they can’t take criticism, won’t allow people to express their opinions, and because the government knows that what they did was unjust and would never be supported in a real vote of the people.’ The irony of an American saying things like this is mindboggling. Of course, citing this one article as evidence of widespread discontent is beyond condemnation, didn’t they teach you anything in school?
It was a great American who said ;
“If voting made any difference they wouldn’t let us do it.”
― Mark Twain
Your wonderful ‘elected government’ ;
Bill Clinton once reportedly told senior White House reporter Sarah McClendon,“Sarah, there’s a government inside the government, and I don’t control it.”
People who have never been out of Podunk, having views on the rest of the world’s cultures would be hilarious, if only they did not have thousands of nuclear weapons and the IQs of chipmunks.
PS. Genaro, you have been outed.
‘Their mission has nothing to do with national security, fighting terrorism, and catching criminals. Their mission is to distort public opinion and spread propaganda in order to generate a ‘consensus reality’ – and they are responsible for polluting the internet with much of the garbage in comment sections, Facebook groups, forums and bogus blog posts.
They jump into productive online discussions and civil debates, and undermine them, ruin them, with uninvited insulting, racist and inflammatory comments. If only it stopped there.’
Sad really sad.
I don’t need to reply to most of this because what you write speaks for itself – you don’t believe in the premise of voting or democracy at all and think that a small group of people in a room should decide who leads countries, whether they have 1 million people or 320 million or 1.3 billion people. So we’ll just have to agree to strongly disagree on whether there is a purpose to have any voting at all in government and society and in trying to preserve something close to a true liberal democracy.
Also you switched your argument there – first you claimed that Sina Corp was unlinked to the government, and then you implied that it was linked but that it was similar to how Google and FB are linked to the U.S. government…which way is it??
If you are looking for someone to defend Google, Facebook, and their links to authorities in the U.S., your talking to the wrong person – they have links too, and I am not defending them, now or before.
And your reference to Clinton and the deep state is actually something this blog and ones similar to it write about a lot. You should realize that this particular blog and website has written thousands of articles vehemently criticizing the U.S. government and U.S. elites – that’s what this blog does. This is actually the first article I have ever even seen on it talking so much about China, because the news was so extreme and historic. So this blog, as well as myself, have plenty of mirrors and see that the U.S. has got major problems of authoritarianism and deep state elements. But that does not mean China doesn’t as well.
I criticize the U.S. 20 times for every 1 time I criticize China. And for this blog it’s about 1,000 to 1. You should actually read this blog regularly as you may in fact like it for how critical it is of the U.S. government and monetary powers (seriously, you really might). However I will say, it is nice how in the U.S. a blog like this that so vehemently criticizes it’s own government can actually exist – at least that is some semblance of freedom. If everywhere in the world we were to one day lose even that semblance, then we would have truly entered dystopia.
But honestly I have no real interest in defending the U.S. govt over China’s – my only real interest regarding these topics is for all the people around the world to have freedom to the extent of gaining and maintaining their inalienable rights – human rights – that all people should have, and to have a voice. I would hope that we could at least both agree that, with respect to allowing people to live fairly and freely, the current U.S. and Chinese governments are too much a part of the problem rather than being more part of the solution.
“PS. Genaro, you have been outed.”
I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean.
But if what I have written here has made you and your paymaster so upset that you have singled me out, then I must have hit the bullseye. So you and your paymasters can count on more of the same from me.
By the way, PJ. You accidentally left a quotation mark after “there” at the end of your cut and paste:
“They jump into productive online discussions and civil debates, and undermine them, ruin them, with uninvited insulting, racist and inflammatory comments. If only it stopped there.’ ”
I was wondering when the Winnie the Pooh internet PR troll gang would get around to using the race card. It didn’t take long.
Here is mainland China’s biggest problem out in the western world. You’re renowned as lying, cheating, thieves, with absolutely no ethics or morals, who cannot be trusted.
The reason for that is simple. That is how the majority (not all) of the mainland Chinese do business. It’s a reflection of their leadership at the top of the peoples republic. A fish always rots from the head down.
As to the Mark Twain quote your handlers instructed you to use, here’s another one:
“In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.”
–Mark Twain
I hope to see you in the field, PJ. But I doubt that I will, because the field is not for timid immoral cowards who try to sell tyranny for pay from behind their keyboards.
As your paymaster Jinping will eventually find out, the Law of Karma is as immutable as the Law of Gravity. Just because he doesn’t believe that Karma exists, doesn’t mean that he is somehow exempt from that Law.
Geopolitical implications for US? But of course! This is the worst thing that could happen to the US. With a strong leader Putin in Russia and now another strong leader Xi in China, the US as a declining power will decompose faster. American leaders have been praying to God to move China towards democracy. That will make China an easy target to destabilise. They can start with Xinjiang and Tibet. Then the protests in Hongkong can be replicated in every city in China. Soon China will be in a terrible mess just like it was 200 years ago.