DC Comics Deletes 'Batman' Image That China Complained Was Supporting Hong Kong Protesters (variety.com) 132
"DC Comics has yanked a poster for a new Batman title from its social media accounts after the image drew criticism from Chinese commenters who said it appeared to support the ongoing pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong," reports Variety:
The artwork depicts Batman throwing a Molotov cocktail against a backdrop of hot-pink words spelling out the new comic book's tagline, "the future is young." It was posted on DC Comics' Twitter and Instagram accounts; both platforms are blocked in mainland China... [T]he poster came under fire from Chinese internet users who contended that it contained coded messages in support of Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests. They said that the Molotov cocktail alluded to young Hong Kong protesters' more violent tactics, that the "dark knight's" choice of black attire referred to the black-clad Hong Kong protesters, and that the "golden child" of the book's title was a veiled reference to the color yellow, which was taken up by previous pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong five years ago...
DC Comics has since removed the poster from its social media. A Beijing-based representative of Warner Bros. declined to comment on the move. China is a critical market for Warner Bros., which owns DC Entertainment and DC Comics, its publishing subsidiary....
DC Comics' Instagram has been flooded with criticism from people who support the Hong Kong protests or are angry that the company appears to have given in to Chinese political pressure. "So now Batman loves money more than justice?" asked one commenter.
Another wrote: "Apparently China rules the world now. The future is young? No, the future is censorship."
Ironically, the Daily Wire notes that technically, the figure on the front cover might not even be Batman.
"It's actually Batwoman."
DC Comics has since removed the poster from its social media. A Beijing-based representative of Warner Bros. declined to comment on the move. China is a critical market for Warner Bros., which owns DC Entertainment and DC Comics, its publishing subsidiary....
DC Comics' Instagram has been flooded with criticism from people who support the Hong Kong protests or are angry that the company appears to have given in to Chinese political pressure. "So now Batman loves money more than justice?" asked one commenter.
Another wrote: "Apparently China rules the world now. The future is young? No, the future is censorship."
Ironically, the Daily Wire notes that technically, the figure on the front cover might not even be Batman.
"It's actually Batwoman."
HONGKONG1997 (Score:2, Interesting)
The image being censored (Score:5, Informative)
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The image being censored can be seen here: https://comicbook.com/dc/2019/... [comicbook.com]
Thanks. I was beginning to wonder how we could be linking to various articles on the subject but not one of them actually showing the image.
Seems like the USA is censoring the image at the same time they're calling the Chinese government evil for doing it. So it goes...
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Seems like the USA is censoring the image at the same time they're calling the Chinese government evil for doing it. So it goes...
How are you so wrong, but confident enough to post it on the internet for everyone to see? It's rather remarkable.
1) This isn't the USA doing anything. This is DC comics, a company doing something.
2) This isn't censorship. It's a voluntary action by a company interested in making more money in China.
3) The US Government hasn't had much to say about Chinese censorship for a while now, as far as I'm aware. At least a quick google search in the news didn't come up with anything.
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This isn't new though. Works in other counties have been changed or censored to suit the tastes of other big markets before. The US has some odd hang-ups too, like that time Disney decided that Aladdin couldn't have any nipples.
Not saying China isn't an awful country, but this isn't really about China. It's just what happens in capitalism, the biggest markets get to make these kinds of demands. It's hard to predict but China could become the world's largest by as soon as next year (2020), and it's very like
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Greed exists in china, disney land, russia, dc comics, even in you.
Decisions made in self interest then blamed on capitalism (apparently because you don't approve of the decision) look more like a personal bias than an analysis.
Don't mean to offend, I do stuff like that too, I think we are people first, not machines.
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You are correct. In capitalism, those with large amounts of capital have undue influence over society.
In healthy doses, capitalism is good for society.
Unfettered, unlimited capitalism has *always* been bad for society and often ends violently with civil disorder.
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The problem is, China is increasingly acting like some local Mafia toughguy running a protection racket.
"That Batman print? We don't like it. I'd hate to see something happen to your business in China. Maybe youz guyz should take that down. Wouldn't wanna see you get hurt".
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That's pretty much how the rest of us feel about the US. We don't like it when the US imposes things on us either.
Re:The image being censored (Score:5, Insightful)
2) This isn't censorship. It's a voluntary action by a company interested in making more money in China.
its effectively the same. china is a strong corporate 'funder', if you will, in the west. 'money talks' is a known phrase and it applies, here.
yes, the corps are free to ignore their strongest source of income. yeah, that's VERY realistic isn'it it? its really going to happen, yeah?
no. and so this is an indirect way of censoring things. you are correct that its not *direct*, but the end result is the same and its merely a work-around or end-run (if you like sports analogies) to get to the same result.
I don't know what the answer is, but the system is clearly broken, when a whole country gets to deny others NOT in their country, things that seem perfectly reasonable to the rest of us.
when the US tries that shit (telling the rest of the world what to do), no one likes it. the middle east goes ape-shit when the US does this and they continually use it as an excuse to fuck with the west.
why does china keep getting a free pass on this? no other country would get such treatment.
we need to find a way to fix this bug. and yes, its clearly a bug that needs fixing.
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its effectively the same.
No it isn't.
DC Comics can continue to be a profitable company and utterly ignore what China thinks. Hell, they could even put out a pro-Hong Kong comic complete with student anarchist heroes if they wanted.
Because they are not censored by China.
Not liking someone's response to what you publish isn't censorship. Censorship is not being allowed to publish certain things.
Now, if you don't like people's response to the extent that you change your behavior, that's self-censorship. And if the GP had called it tha
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Stop posting lies. This is censorship. It does not need to come from the government to be censorship.
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It's not *government* or *military* censorship.
It *is* "deleting parts of publications or correspondence or theatrical performances" i.e. censorship. In this case self-censorship under pressure from the government with the threat of being cut off to access to sell products to the market.
( And it's no different than when churches in the U.S. would ban books or movies from entire cities or even states only a few decades ago.)
Re: The image being censored (Score:1)
It's still censorship whether it's the iron boot of the State or the iron fist of Capital that's suppressing freedom of speech.
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This isn't censorship. It's a voluntary action by a company interested in making more money in China.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik... [wikipedia.org]
Self-censorship is the act of censoring or classifying one's own discourse. This is done out of fear of, or deference to, the sensibilities or preferences (actual or perceived) of others and without overt pressure from any specific party or institution of authority./quote:
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Seems like the USA is censoring the image at the same time they're calling the Chinese government evil for doing it. So it goes...
How are you so wrong, but confident enough to post it on the internet for everyone to see? It's rather remarkable.
1) This isn't the USA doing anything. This is DC comics, a company doing something.
2) This isn't censorship. It's a voluntary action by a company interested in making more money in China.
3) The US Government hasn't had much to say about Chinese censorship for a while now, as far as I'm aware. At least a quick google search in the news didn't come up with anything.
Ummm...
1) None of the links in the summary were to a DC comics web site.
2) None of the links in the summary showed the image in question.
3) All of the links were to USA web sites so what are they afraid of? The Chinese boogyman?
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The Irony is that the SJWs that infest Hollywood and will pillory anyone who crosses the PC line even one micrometer, are willingly submitting themselves to the dictates of a murderous Communist Dictatorship.
sycodon plays the "Misdirection" card :) (Score:1)
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They may or may not support the 'dictates of a murderous Communist Dictatorship', but Hollywood itself is ruthlessly capitalist.
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It's really a semantic game tho.
The chinese government has banned many businesses and products and so it's clear that their "complaint" is actually a threat that all of your products will be banned from the entire market unless you delete the items they find offending.
While it's literally voluntary "deleting parts of publications or correspondence or theatrical performances" (i.e. one of the definitions of censorship), in actuality- it's really government censorship. They just threaten to obtain voluntary
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While its true that the 1st protects free speech from non-military government censorship in the U.S., censorship exists in *all* countries. We both know that the romans had no 1st amendment but they did have "censors" who practiced censorship.
And the 1st only protects us from the combination of "government" and "censorship" together. It doesn't protect us from many other forms of censorship.
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It is not unconstitutional suppression of free speech because it isn't the government doing it. It is legal censorship. Go forth and be confused no more.
The government does not have to do it if others will do it under the expectation that it is expected of the government.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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When China takes over the U.S.A., it'll be accomplished as a velvet revolution. This will be so because the corporations that are ostensibly "American" will have revamped their operations to rely on Chinese laws, regulations, and practices instead of U.S. law, etc. And those same corporations will have already paid U.S. government officials to write laws to make the U.S. beholden to China or otherwise easily manipulated by Chinese agencies.
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CCP Frightened of Batman (Score:2)
Hey Jinping, he's a CARTOON character.
Re: CCP Frightened of Batman (Score:2)
Communists (Score:2, Insightful)
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Re: Communists (Score:2, Insightful)
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Re: Communists (Score:4, Interesting)
It's interesting that so many people cling to this idea that China is communist in any traditional meaning of the word.
China is what communism turns into after a communist revolution.
It is not communism, it is the end-state of communism.
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It's interesting that so many people cling to this idea that China is communist in any traditional meaning of the word.
China is what communism turns into after a communist revolution.
It is not communism, it is the end-state of communism.
Which weirdly enough, sort of resembles Capitalism.
Re: Communists (Score:3, Funny)
Except they have to run over people with tanks to get them to go along with it.
That's one minor difference between communism and capitalism.
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Except they have to run over people with tanks to get them to go along with it.
Kind of like the US does in the Middle East a whole lot more often than China does anywhere?
How about the CIA executing unfriendly governments to push capitalism?
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Butwhattabout!
Thanks, I was waiting for that.
It always arrives.
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All societies tend towards Oligarchy over time. Because each generation, the children of the "winners" start with an increasingly large edge on everyone else. And over time, they lose all empathy for everyone else too.
And it usually ends violently with property destruction and mass murder unless the country is flat out conquered.
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Here it is...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
"The iron law of oligarchy is a political theory, first developed by the German sociologist Robert Michels in his 1911 book, Political Parties.[1] It asserts that rule by an elite, or oligarchy, is inevitable as an "iron law" within any democratic organization as part of the "tactical and technical necessities" of organization.[1]
Michels's theory states that all complex organizations, regardless of how democratic they are when started, eventually develop into ol
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China is what communism turns into after a communist revolution.
China is what communism turns into after the economically incompetent hero of the revolution plunges the country into a decade of chaos (the Cultural Revolution) in order to rebuild his power after the first time he plunged the country into chaos (the Great Leap Forward) in a failed industrialization attempt, and the survivors of his purges decide after his death that, "It doesn't matter whether a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice."
It's different from what happened in the Soviet Union, in
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That works only at a very small scale.
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That always seemed to me to be an odd criticism, I've been hearing it all my life.
Nature abhors a vacuum... ok, comparing physics to politics, I get it, it's supposed to be a trite truism. So is it true? Well, you are basically saying that a system of government with no leaders does not work. Ok, point taken.
Is it a valid criticism that a communistic government needs.... government to work? Now the saying is sounding rather silly. Yes, government needs government to govern.
Anyway, not commenting on the
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Communism is the lie they fed to the people in order to gain power. Ultra-nationalism fed first by Mao's Little Red Book but now led by a complete domination of media in China. These days the Little Red Book is not only obsolete, but Mao's own views and plans for China are at odds with what the Party does today.
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Real communism is what communism looks like in the real world, such as China or the USSR. That's what the word "real" means.
Ideal communism is what communism looks like in your head, your ideas. That's what the word "ideal" means.
China is real communism. It is not ideal communism. By definition.
Google Uyghurs (Score:2, Insightful)
China reportedly has 2.5 Million Chinese Muslims ("Uyghurs") in concentration camps with their religion as an excuse. ("Never Again", eh?) They are sending agents of the State (official rapists) to impregnate the wives of the Uyghurs who "are being reeducated".
China is harvesting the organs of the independent Christians in China ("Falun Gong") for use among other Chinese and for sale on black markets.
China is the primary manufacturer of fentanyl to the Mexican drug cartels (who may be mixing it with the CI
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Seems unlikely. If this were true the UN and the people of the EU would stop it.
Re: Google Uyghurs (Score:2)
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Do you really believe this or are you being satirical? How would the EU or the UN stop anything? And, an even more basic question: why?
Right now, the UN is too busy trying to get us to eat insects.
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Do you really believe this or are you being satirical? How would the EU or the UN stop anything? And, an even more basic question: why?
Right now, the UN is too busy trying to get us to eat insects.
I forgot to add, ban plastic in the USA so that Africa and China somehow quit dumping their plastic into the oceans.
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Seems unlikely. If this were true the UN and the people of the EU would stop it.
No they wouldn't. The EU is even more integrated into China's manufacturing sector then the US, hell the last time there was systemic genocide in Africa it was Canada that led the way. Of course our current PM(Trudeau Jr) has shown he'd rather suck China's dick then actually put his money where his mouth is on their bullshit.
Google Falun Gong (Score:5, Informative)
China is harvesting the organs of the independent Christians in China ("Falun Gong") for use among other Chinese and for sale on black markets.
needs correction; Falun Gong [economist.com] is not Christian.
The name means " "Dharma Wheel Practice".
Waiit, so "gong" means "practice"? (Score:2)
Like, when a gong is hit, it is practice time?
Maan, all those kung fu films, and I never knew!
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They are sending agents of the State (official rapists) to impregnate the wives of the Uyghurs who "are being reeducated".
Complete BS.
Re:Google Uyghurs (Score:5, Informative)
Well, there is a program of sending male Han officials to sleep in the same bed as Uighur women [businessinsider.com] exists, and China describes the program as a "voluntary" way to bring officials closer, making them "like family", and suggests that no official has ever "heard of an official sexually abusing their new relatives" [independent.co.uk].
So, yes, China admits there is a program to force Uighur women to sleep with Han men [apnews.com], but totally not in a sexual manner. Of course, you may not believe China when they say that... and have the brains wonder why Uighur women are turning up pregnant when their husbands are in prisons having their organs extracted.
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“They stay with their paired relatives day and night,” said the officer, who oversees 70 to 80 families in Yengisar county and spoke on condition of anonymity.
“Normally one or two people sleep in one bed, and if the weather is cold, three people sleep together,” he added.
So yep, spies staying with families long-term. But not rapists - this is a pure BS fabrication.
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You are quoting the Chinese government's statements. They also claim this is voluntary, that the males are absent because they chose to attend re-schooling to become better citizens, and that all the videos of concentration camps are Western lies.
As I said, you may be one of those that believe China's statements... but if you have brains, you might wonder why so many Uighur women are turning up pregnant while their husbands have been in prisons. You've clearly shown which of those two categories you fall
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This is not to minimize the crimes of the Chinese, but simply to say that humans to horrible things and are hypocrit
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I thought the wives of the Uyghurs were being forcibly married, as opposed to impregnated and left. I assume it has a lot to do with the fact that there are tens of millions of Chinese men more than Chinese women
Wonder why variety didn't show it? (Score:2)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EK... [twimg.com]
Poster link— (Score:2)
https://www.tfaw.com/catalogse... [tfaw.com]
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Direct URL
https://www.tfaw.com/dark-knig... [tfaw.com]
Again? (Score:5, Insightful)
Keep buying DC stuff because your drooling addiction demands it over protecting freedom of speech. And shame on DC for not doing so when that's their bread and butter. Do they forget all the comic book battles against censorship in decades past?
If this bothers you, stop buying their stuff. Stop going to their movies! Let them only get profits from China, since that seems to be what they want. Had a western nation demanded changes or you will be denied publishing rights, how they would howl.
This is a failing of our politicians, who set up the policy of encouraging economic engagement with China. They must start twisting their arms in China to stop the export of censorship.
Foreign governments cannot speak in the US without letting people know it is them. I'd like to see mandatory disclaimers on speech-related products on companies that sell censored things in the US, to the effect of this product's statements have been altered under censorship demands of a foreign government.
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Keep buying DC stuff because your drooling addiction demands it over protecting freedom of speech.
Freedom of speech. You mean DC literally completely voluntarily withdrawing their own artwork due to association which in no way has ever actually suppressed the speech of the protesters?
Yeah I'll keep buying DC stuff because frankly even if I got a very big fucks loan I still wouldn't have enough fucks to give about what just happened here in your contorted relation to freedom of speech.
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What gets me is that they're ALREADY CENSORED IN CHINA.
they should just have tweeted back that "ooh so you're chinese and angry about this? - can you provide your social security number so we can report you for social credit deduction for being on twitter."
if someone gets angry from it, they shouldn't be on twitter in the first place. and by shouldn't I mean they could get penalized for being on twitter.
Riiight, China. Sure it is. (Score:2)
You sound like a SJW, implying evil bullying intentions of prejudice and discrimination that arenâ(TM)t there, so they can bully me and call me prejudiced and discriminating.
What's next?
Brazil demanding nobody shaves down there, because it is clearly mocking their destruction of the rainforest?
We all know you're a bunch of bullies. Your national symbol is a huge red flag.
Boycott? (Score:2)
China is Asshoe! (Score:3, Funny)
Literally worse than the Nazi Holocaust (Score:2)
Hong Kong phooey (Score:2)
New adventures. (Score:1)
Make Hong Kong Great Again (Score:1)
The pro-democray protesters in Hong Kong look to America and President Trump for inspiration. https://s.yimg.com/tr/i/b7bcba... [yimg.com]
However very little (or none) of this has been reported in Western mainstream media. That's because they hate Trump for existing and being in office, when they feel it should be one of their own leftists who should have power. They actually believe it's their right to appoint heads of state.
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It has been reported in the MSM. I know because that's where I saw the news.
It should also be noted that Trump has been saying for months that this is an internal matter for China.
In June, he said Hong Kong, as part of China, is an internal matter for those parties to resolve.
In August, he recognized that Hong Kong is also an international human rights concern and called on Xi Jinping to “do the right thing.” He said Beijing’s handling of it would affect progress on the trade talks if China “works humanely with Hong Kong first.”
Trump's monumental decision on Hong Kong [thehill.com]
Trump’s folly began with a phone call to China’s president, Xi Jinping, on June 18. According to the Financial Times and Politico, Trump told the Chinese leader that he would not condemn a crackdown in Hong Kong. The commitment was made on the fly, without prior consultation with his national-security team. On August 1, Trump made good on that secret promise when he told the press:
“Something is probably happening with Hong Kong, because when you look at, you know, what’s going on, they’ve had riots for a long period of time. And I don’t know what China’s attitude is. Somebody said that at some point they’re going to want to stop that. But that’s between Hong Kong and that’s between China, because Hong Kong is a part of China. They’ll have to deal with that themselves. They don’t need advice.”
Trump’s Foreign-Policy Crisis Arrives [theatlantic.com]
Marco Rubio sent Trump a letter [senate.gov] in August urging him to support the protesters in Hong Kong.
It wasn't until Congress passed 2 bills supporting Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters with only a single no vote that Trump got on board. It was veto-pro
That's ridiculous! (Score:5, Insightful)
who contended that it contained coded messages in support of Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests
That should not be acceptable. Support for the protests should be clear and unambiguous.
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who contended that it contained coded messages in support ...
... support ... should be clear and unambiguous.
But EVERYTHING's a coded message if you try hard enough.
And telling the truth? Why certainly -- as long as it's advantageous to me.
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But EVERYTHING's a coded message if you try hard enough.
Picture Batman corn-holing Winnie the Pooh, if only I could secure the licensing.
Add them to the list (Score:1)
I'm not going to complain. The list of businesses that kowtow to authoritarian China keeps getting longer, and I'm happy never buying or supporting any of them, ever again.
Humans have fought and died for liberty for all of history, and nothing is more important.
One commenter is clueless (Score:2)
Dude... Batman is Bruce Wayne. Forbes estimates Wayne's worth at $9.2 billion, and lists his company, Wayne Enterprises, as having an annual revenue of $31.3 billion.
Also, it's better to comply with an easy demand from China but keep the idea of Batman in the country.
“You can't kill an idea the way they try to. You can keep it down awhile, but sooner or later it'll come out." - John Wyndham
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And if you look closely at the flame of the molotov, it is shaped like a Charizard pokemon.
That, or maybe I messed up the dosage of my meds today.
So Unnecessary (Score:4, Insightful)
No problem in china- Big problem if all over (Score:1)
I respect China's national sovereignty and if they want to censor images, text, movies in their nation then fine.
But any company that censors products in all markets due to china's complaints is going to lose my business.
In other words (Score:2)
DC comics supports the oppressive regime in Beijing?
Re: DC Comics (Score:2)
What rule of aquisition was that again? (Score:2)
All of them. It is all of them!
Re:Chinese are not Europeans. (Score:5, Insightful)
One thing people like you don't understand (and people on Slashdot in general). NOT EVERYONE FROM A COUNTRY/RACE/SEX THINKS THE SAME. Amazingly, not every person supported unification, and the people who weren't adults at the time didn't even have any opinion at all. Not everyone in HK is protesting. We should be supporting the HK protests because anything that opposes the Chinese government should be supported. To abandon people just because of some ridiculous CNN poll number (CNN poll-really?) is completely idiotic.
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NOT EVERYONE ... THINKS THE SAME.
No. NO!!! HERETIC! *EVERY GROUP* must be homogeneous, else how can I maintain my simplistic view of the world?
That would be like thinking everyone has their own independent opinion, perhaps contrary to what the common truth currently is. How could you even THINK of such a thing? Then we'd have to occasionally listen instead of talking all of the time.
Hong Kong had no control [re: not Europeans.] (Score:5, Interesting)
For many decades before the handover of Hong Kong in 1997, the Hong Kongers had been aware of the atrocities committed by the mainland Chinese. Yet, the majority of Hong Kongers in 1997 still supported placing Hong Kong under the rule of Beijing. For most Hong Kongers, Chinese nationalism is more important than human rights or democracy.
I will challenge that statement. In 1997 the Hong Kong people were terrified of the impending transfer of control to communist China... but there was nothing they could do about it. The legal basis for the British control of Hong Kong was the 99 year lease [independent.co.uk] of the territory ot Britain that was granted by the Qing Dynasty in 1898. For most Hong Kongers, Chinese nationalism is more important than human rights or democracy.
No. For most Hong Kongers, Chinese control was something they had almost no control over. Britain did negotiate the "One country, two systems" [wikipedia.org] on their behalf; that was about the best they could get
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For many decades before the handover of Hong Kong in 1997, the Hong Kongers had been aware of the atrocities committed by the mainland Chinese. Yet, the majority of Hong Kongers in 1997 still supported placing Hong Kong under the rule of Beijing. For most Hong Kongers, Chinese nationalism is more important than human rights or democracy.
I will challenge that statement. In 1997 the Hong Kong people were terrified of the impending transfer of control to communist China... but there was nothing they could do about it. The legal basis for the British control of Hong Kong was the 99 year lease [independent.co.uk] of the territory ot Britain that was granted by the Qing Dynasty in 1898.
I'm sorry, but the first poster is right. I went to Hong Kong for the first time in April 1997 because I wanted to see it before the handover. I've been back a few times since and it's completely different since the handover. When I was there in 1997, English skills were pretty terrible all over unless you found high school or college aged young people. I stayed in downtown Kowloon in a hotel that had a reputation for catering to foreigner business people and they could barely speak enough English t
Re: Chinese are not Europeans. (Score:5, Insightful)
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Why would you favour a 1997 CNN poll for information over an actual election that happened last week that supported Hong Kong autonomy supporting candidates overwhelmingly?
Seems a rather odd thing to do. It's almost as if you're biased to the point of being a crackpot or something.
Wait, that's exactly what it is.
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Democracy at least has one thing in its favor compared to the other bullshit regimes: Because Crook A wants to rule instead of Crook B, they have to at least pretend to give a shit about you because they know if they don't, you will vote Crook B in.
To you, the difference ain't that big. They're both crooks. But they are at least moderated by knowing that you'll let the other crook fleece you if they overdo it.