Protests Erupting Across China (cnn.com) 172
"Protesters clash with police as unrest rocks cities across China," reads CNN's headline. The Guardian calls it "the biggest wave of civil disobedience on the mainland since Xi Jinping assumed power a decade ago," noting one crowd numbered over 1,000 protesters. "Crowdsourced lists on social media claim protests have been documented at as many as 50 Chinese universities over the weekend."
Looking back over the last 10 years, CNN's correspondent in China calls it "an unprecedented level of public dissent". During lockdowns people struggled to get emergency care, food, and necessities, but CNN's correspondent warns now "what we're seeing is this tipping point across the country, after years of suffering and deaths." "What we're seeing is people past their breaking point — it's years of pent-up anger. This is three years of draconian lockdowns that have cost people's lives, their livelihoods — but the trigger for this wave of protests was a deadly fire at Xinjiang that killed at least 10 people. Videos of the scene indicated that Covid restrictions prevented victims from getting help.
"But these protesters — not just angry about Covid lockdowns. They're also targetting their anger towards the supreme leader himself."
[CNN shows what they call "extraordinary" footage of people in Shanghai calling on Jinping to step down.]
"Over and over again. Those chants go on for quite some time. They're also calling for the Communist party to step down. I can't overstate just how shocking it is to hear this, this crowd in Shanghai — China's wealthiest and most cosmopolitan city. And that chanting happening in a central, upscale part of the city, to be directly calling out for Xi Jinping to resign — I mean, this is virtually unheard of. In China it is extremely dangerous to publicly criticize the party, especially Xi himself. You risk prison time, or even worse.
"Some protesters also chanted they don't want dictatorship, they want freedom and democracy. Witnesses told CNN as well that rows of police officers were making arrests, forcefully pushing protesters into police cars — but the next day on Sunday, hundreds of Shanghai residents returned, to continue protesting, despite heavy police presence and roadblocks. Videos also showed some protesters violently dragged away, and now that area has been mostly cordoned off.
New videos now "showed hundreds of people at an intersection shouting 'Release the people!' in a demand for the police to free detained demonstrators," reports CNN, in an article shared by Slashdot reader LionKimbro: By Sunday evening, mass demonstrations had spread to Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou and Wuhan, where thousands of residents called for not only an end to Covid restrictions, but more remarkably, political freedoms. In Beijing, hundreds of mostly young people demonstrated in the commercial heart of the city well into the small hours of Monday.... People chanted slogans against zero-Covid, voiced support for the detained protesters in Shanghai, and called for greater civil liberties. "We want freedom! We want freedom!" the crowd chanted under an overpass. Speaking to CNN's Selina Wang at the protest, a demonstrator said he was shocked by the turnout....
In the southwestern metropolis of Chengdu, large crowds demonstrated along the bustling river banks in a popular food and shopping district, according to a protester interviewed by CNN and videos circulating online.... "Opposition to dictatorship!" the crowd chanted. "We don't want lifelong rulers. We don't want emperors!" they shouted in a thinly veiled reference to Xi, who last month began a norm-shattering third term in office.
In the southern city of Guangzhou, hundreds gathered on a public square in Haizhu district — the epicenter of the city's ongoing Covid outbreak that has been locked down for weeks. "We don't want lockdowns, we want freedom! Freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom of arts, freedom of movement, personal freedoms. Give me back my freedom!" The crowd shouted.
Across China, protests have also broken out on university campuses — which are particularly politically sensitive to the Communist Party, given the history of the student-led Tiananmen Square protests in 1989....
In one video, a university official could be heard warning the students: "You will pay for what you did today."
"You too, and so will the country," a student shouted in reply.
The campus protests continued on Sunday, CNN reports, with a crowd of hundreds of students at Tsinghua University, another top university in Beijing.
"Videos and images circulating on social media show students holding up sheets of white paper and shouting: 'Democracy and rule of law! Freedom of expression!'"
Looking back over the last 10 years, CNN's correspondent in China calls it "an unprecedented level of public dissent". During lockdowns people struggled to get emergency care, food, and necessities, but CNN's correspondent warns now "what we're seeing is this tipping point across the country, after years of suffering and deaths." "What we're seeing is people past their breaking point — it's years of pent-up anger. This is three years of draconian lockdowns that have cost people's lives, their livelihoods — but the trigger for this wave of protests was a deadly fire at Xinjiang that killed at least 10 people. Videos of the scene indicated that Covid restrictions prevented victims from getting help.
"But these protesters — not just angry about Covid lockdowns. They're also targetting their anger towards the supreme leader himself."
[CNN shows what they call "extraordinary" footage of people in Shanghai calling on Jinping to step down.]
"Over and over again. Those chants go on for quite some time. They're also calling for the Communist party to step down. I can't overstate just how shocking it is to hear this, this crowd in Shanghai — China's wealthiest and most cosmopolitan city. And that chanting happening in a central, upscale part of the city, to be directly calling out for Xi Jinping to resign — I mean, this is virtually unheard of. In China it is extremely dangerous to publicly criticize the party, especially Xi himself. You risk prison time, or even worse.
"Some protesters also chanted they don't want dictatorship, they want freedom and democracy. Witnesses told CNN as well that rows of police officers were making arrests, forcefully pushing protesters into police cars — but the next day on Sunday, hundreds of Shanghai residents returned, to continue protesting, despite heavy police presence and roadblocks. Videos also showed some protesters violently dragged away, and now that area has been mostly cordoned off.
New videos now "showed hundreds of people at an intersection shouting 'Release the people!' in a demand for the police to free detained demonstrators," reports CNN, in an article shared by Slashdot reader LionKimbro: By Sunday evening, mass demonstrations had spread to Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou and Wuhan, where thousands of residents called for not only an end to Covid restrictions, but more remarkably, political freedoms. In Beijing, hundreds of mostly young people demonstrated in the commercial heart of the city well into the small hours of Monday.... People chanted slogans against zero-Covid, voiced support for the detained protesters in Shanghai, and called for greater civil liberties. "We want freedom! We want freedom!" the crowd chanted under an overpass. Speaking to CNN's Selina Wang at the protest, a demonstrator said he was shocked by the turnout....
In the southwestern metropolis of Chengdu, large crowds demonstrated along the bustling river banks in a popular food and shopping district, according to a protester interviewed by CNN and videos circulating online.... "Opposition to dictatorship!" the crowd chanted. "We don't want lifelong rulers. We don't want emperors!" they shouted in a thinly veiled reference to Xi, who last month began a norm-shattering third term in office.
In the southern city of Guangzhou, hundreds gathered on a public square in Haizhu district — the epicenter of the city's ongoing Covid outbreak that has been locked down for weeks. "We don't want lockdowns, we want freedom! Freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom of arts, freedom of movement, personal freedoms. Give me back my freedom!" The crowd shouted.
Across China, protests have also broken out on university campuses — which are particularly politically sensitive to the Communist Party, given the history of the student-led Tiananmen Square protests in 1989....
In one video, a university official could be heard warning the students: "You will pay for what you did today."
"You too, and so will the country," a student shouted in reply.
The campus protests continued on Sunday, CNN reports, with a crowd of hundreds of students at Tsinghua University, another top university in Beijing.
"Videos and images circulating on social media show students holding up sheets of white paper and shouting: 'Democracy and rule of law! Freedom of expression!'"
Good for them (Score:5, Insightful)
This is incredibly brave of them - but it's unlikely to end well.
Re: Good for them (Score:5, Insightful)
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Apparently, students are holding up white sheets of paper as a symbol of the protests.
I'm dying to see how the Chinese government manages to censor blank white paper in the future.
Censor or punish? (Score:2)
Apparently, students are holding up white sheets of paper as a symbol of the protests.
I'm dying to see how the Chinese government manages to censor blank white paper in the future.
The Chinese government uses a two-pronged attack on the people. First is censorship, but if that doesn't work, then punishment. That is, simply the government will let it be widely know that anyone holding up a white sheet of paper with any intent will be harshly punished. End of problem. That's why any use of a seemingly cute brown bear is punished. The white sheets of paper will be squashed. Then the protesters will need to move on to some other form of protest.
Re: Good for them (Score:2)
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That was a hilarious WW2 era joke. It seems that it has fallen flat in this discussion. Better luck next time sir.
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They will color it read and sprinkle a few yellow stars on top. :-|
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*red.
Slashdot, that Edit feature, any day now...
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*red.
Slashdot, that Edit feature, any day now...
Weird. I can edit this comment as much as I want... until I hit submit. Use preview to avoid mistakes.
Think about it, if you could edit your comment after clicking 'submit' then not much interesting discussion can happen because the source of the discussion could be 'disappeared' through an edit.
I prefer the 'real-world' consequences of not being able to edit just like I prefer the real world consequences of falling after I step off of a cliff. No, I don't like falling off of cliffs, but that principle allo
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The protests will be blamed on the USA of course.
Not without merit, either. Our intelligence agencies regularly stoke protests in rival nations to keep rival governments on edge.
"Over and over again. Those chants go on for quite some time. They're also calling for the Communist party to step down."
Those people are going to die. Flat out. The Communist Party will lose not one wink of sleep mass purging these folks. Tienanmen taught them that they can do it, and basically erase any evidence that it ever happened, at least inside China itself. A generation from now, younger people won't know these revolts ever happened.
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Read my post again. You completely missed the point.
But also, the early alpha versions were certainly more deadly than flu.
Re:Good for them (Score:5, Insightful)
It is, but it's also logical. Until this point the most die-hard supporters of the regime have been able to say that if you just shut up and do as you're told nothing will happen to you.
That is now being proven false. If you do as you're told you die anyway. The reaction is to be expected; it's a cornered animal with nowhere to run that chooses to fight.
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The whole point about Zero COVID is that people haven't been dying, or getting disabled. At least not in anything like the numbers seen elsewhere.
The protests are because people are fed up with sudden, very restrictive lockdowns. China's policy is to lockdown early when an infection is detected, PCR test everyone every day, and spray disinfectant everywhere which has proven to be pointless. It does work, it contains outbreaks and the lockdowns are short, and there is support in place like food deliveries, b
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Yes they have, you just haven't been hearing about it because the Chinese government lies about it. Just like they lied about the severity of their outbreaks in the earliest stages of the pandemic, just like they lied about the virus' origins and disappeared the whistleblowers who tried to warn the world, just like academics and politicians on the CCP's payroll worldwide told a constantly revolving and often contradictory set of lies throughout the last 2 years.
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We've been over this. If their death rate was anything like Europe or the US it wouldn't be possible to cover up. Millions dead, including thousands of foreigners who would be getting consular assistance.
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They already got away with lying about the origins of the virus. They already got away with covering up their direct financial, political, and industry ties to multiple people heavily involved in the pandemic response as well as multiple people charged with espionage for smuggling related viral samples. They already got away with disappearing the whistleblowers. They already got away with lying about the severity of their domestic outbreak for the first several months of the pandemic.
China is already gettin
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I have thought of your .sig many times over the years.
A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
It is awesome. (sorry, no comment on your comment)
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The whole point about Zero COVID is that people haven't been dying, or getting disabled. At least not in anything like the numbers seen elsewhere.
This only held true at the start of the pandemic, when the variants were deadlier, we were still learning how to care for patients, and there were not vaccine alternatives in place.
This has not been true anymore, globally, for more than a year.
Zero-COVID protocols would have made sense at the start of the pandemic (see my preconditions above), particular in insular territories where it is easier to isolate an entire region or country.
With all social resources at its disposal (in particular contact-tr
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People are still getting long COVID when fully vaccinated. While zero COVID is probably impossible, there is so much more we could be doing. Stuff that would boost our economies.
Re:Good for them (Score:4, Interesting)
So far the response has been surprisingly muted. Countries not used to protests tend not to do well when they suddenly happen.
The CCP is probably aware of how fed up people are getting with the zero COVID stuff. They aren't exactly helping themselves though, they could be deploying technology and updating policies.
Dictators only survive as long as the population is mostly happy. Something like this could easily get out of hand and turn into a crackdown. Hopefully there is a change of policy instead.
It's good that more Chinese are thinking about freedom.
Re:Good for them (Score:5, Insightful)
China might not be as brutal as North Korea, but they could certainly turn it up a notch. The average Chinese citizen may not know about Tiananmen Square, but for those on the outside looking in we know that China has not historically shown much willingness to give in to its people.
Re:Good for them (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't think North Korea tactics would work in a country as large and developed as China. They doesn't really work in NK, it's just that China wants them there to act as a buffer state. NK rejoining with SK would put the US on China's doorstep.
Without that support NK would have collapsed long ago.
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China is large, yes.
Developed? Most of it is rice fields and tiny villages of farmers. Their per capita income is shit next to any western country. They are not a developed country. They are a broken country developing in certain ways and going nowhere in others which is doomed to failure from their own policies and bad leadership.
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China is large, yes.
Developed?
Not saying you're wrong, but be careful about using the term "developed nation" because:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
There is no established convention for the designation of "developed" and "developing" countries or areas in the United Nations system.[11]
So judging a country depending on that categorization is a bit of a misnomer. Like, I'm a Taiwanese whose grandfather literally ran from the cultural revolution so I definitely don't have a lot of love for China. But among all their BS complaints
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China is large, yes.
Developed? Most of it is rice fields and tiny villages of farmers.
This is true for 900 million rural Chinese people. For the remaining half a billion people, they are living in a middle-income country, with 300 million people (around the size of the US) with a foothold on actual economic development.
A good thing times 300 million is a pretty damned big number (and conversely, a bad thing times 900 millions is pretty damned bad, also.) Obviously, not all peaches, bunnies and unicorns. This level of inequality is untenable, and for the purposes of having rational discuss
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Their per capita income is shit next to any western country.
Hm. Amazon natives have zero per-capita income and yet they seem pretty happy with their lives. The only thing really missing in their lives is knowledge. Cars, telephones, televisions, etc are not that important. Knowledge is important; however, in the West, we pay for it by living on the edge of disaster with rent, food, etc constantly nagging at us month by month. It is a hellish life. Filled with parasites who only want to take, the legal systems allow them to continue doing so. I am beginning to wonder
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I don't think North Korea tactics would work in a country as large and developed as China.
Falun gong was pretty spread out through out China (or, at least, that's what the Chinese propaganda said when I was in China and the crackdowns happened). And saying that they don't do well with uprisings is also ignoring HK protests. Honestly, I don't know why this wasn't quashed immediately like so many other demonstrations. My best guess is because Shanghai has a lot of fairly wealthy people or they didn't want to mess up the city (the Chinese government seems to favor Shanghai for some reason.). But th
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I think the difference now is that it's not an organized anti-CCP movement, it's just a lot of people fed up with COVID measures. Plus it's hard to keep a lid on what is happening in a major city with a lot of foreigners like Shanghai.
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I think the difference now is that it's not an organized anti-CCP movement
That's the thing, neither was Falun gong. Neither was the Hong Kong protest (until they had to).
Plus it's hard to keep a lid on what is happening in a major city with a lot of foreigners like Shanghai.
1) There's no way Shanghai has more foreigners than in Hong Kong (My casual, subjective feeling. If you have stats, please feel free to prove me wrong). 2) They haven't really been able to keep lid on protests before. But remember that quashing a protest and keeping a lid on a protest are 2 different things. The rest of the world has seen them quash demonstrations before. Often, barely batting and eye. And they d
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North Korea isn't mostly happy or even slightly happy.
Eh, you might be surprised. The Norks are willing to put up with a lot because of how they see themselves vs. the rest of the world (Look up a book called "The Cleanest Race", by BR Myers). Also, the ruling family is basically their royalty now, and Norks see them in almost demigod-ish terms. That makes for strong base of loyalty.
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So far the response has been surprisingly muted. Countries not used to protests tend not to do well when they suddenly happen.
China is very used to protests. They just don't normally get publicity outside, because foreign correspondents are almost all in the cities. Every year the Chinese police handle thousands of peasant protests over one thing or another, many of them violent. These protests will fail, just like all the others and the Chinese Stalinist Party know that. It's more or less routine for them and there's no need from their PoV for anything more than a "muted" response.
Re: Good for them (Score:2)
Don't think they can go full on pavement pasting any more though, kids aren't commodities any more in China either.
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Now you know why the CCP is building those mass camps
Re: Good for them (Score:2)
Unfortunately, what they are doing is necessary for the outcome to be good. It may not turn out well, but the only way to make it better is to risk that.
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Who's to blame? (Score:3)
Re:Who's to blame? (Score:4, Interesting)
Why Biden’s Block on Chips to China Is a Big Deal
The new U.S. export controls on semiconductor technology will hurt Chinese industries. Xi Jinping has only himself to blame.
https://www.theatlantic.com/in... [theatlantic.com]
According to bought and paid for media rags, Biden's sanctions whose entire purpose is to disrupt Chinese industries, is Xi's fault.
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I'm unclear on how it's good when Biden does it but was the most horribly racist and stupid thing when Trump did similar.
obvious to everyone but ME (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: obvious to everyone but ME (Score:5, Insightful)
National pride. They spent a whole lot of propaganda time telling the Chinese population that western vaccines weren't compatible with eastern ethnicities.
Re:obvious to everyone but ME (Score:5, Informative)
Because Moderna refuses to give Beijing the IP it would need to make the vaccine itself, in China (source [reuters.com]). This isn't about *capacity*; the actual *amount* of vaccine you need to inoculate even 1.5 billion people isn't that much; most of each 300 microliter dose is adjuvants or inert. You'd need less than 100 kg of actual mRNA to fully vaccinate everyone in China. China wants Moderna's trade secrets.
They probably feel in a good position to put demands on Moderna because their vaccine is *supposed* to be pretty effective. And they're *supposed* to have fully inoculated something like 87% of the population -- way higher than the US inoculation rate of 69%.
The problem is you can't believe anything an authoritarian regime says; its first instinct is to suppress bad news and to exaggerate or even fabricate good news. This isn't just true of what they way to outsiders or their subjects, fake good news infects their own internal government bureaucracies. Look at Russia's misadventures in Ukraine, and imagine the same information brain rot applied to a country's COVID response.
Re:obvious to everyone but ME (Score:5, Interesting)
I suppose Moderna is not in a sharing mood after government-linked Chinese hacking groups targeted them with industrial espionage.
https://www.reuters.com/articl... [reuters.com]
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"Why don't they just buy some proven vaccines like Moderna? Cost can't be an issue, look what lockdowns do to the economy."
Because it's not Chinese. Can't admit that China is incapable of producing a vaccine as effective as what the West is making.
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Disclaimer: I am a doctor in Sweden.
Official statistics from Swedish nursing homes and hospitals show a clear benefit in survival and milder disease in the vaccinated as opposed to the unvaccinated. If you want to run it through google translate here's the latest report from FHM (Swedish Public Health Agency) https://www.folkhalsomyndighet... [folkhalsomyndigheten.se]
The only negative thing that can be said about vaccination against covid-19 is that the effect seems to be temporary a
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Yeah I saw an article and it was a small sample size, so definitely overstated. Looks like 46% vaccinated and boosted is the current figure. Definitely not a majority.
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The main negative thing about vaccination is that Covid can be transmitted by asymptomatic individuals. The vaccine increases asymptomatic infections, so greater chance of covert spread of the disease.
I assert that immunity from developmental acquisition of a relatively harmless (to that age category) disease will curtail the threat from Covid in decades and generations to come. That is if the vaccines are not having a knock on effect that is feeding back into increased virus diversity or preventing the n
Um...1000 protestor? (Score:3)
Protesting in China is gutsy. That said, a whopping 1000 nationwide? That is nothing. Won't even fill a regional jail.
Chinaâ(TM)s government may someday press the populace too far. They haven't yet, and a protest of this size is proof...
That's just one crowd (Score:4, Informative)
Here's details on just that one protest that the Guardian described as ("at least") a thousand people [theguardian.com]...
"In the early hours of Monday in Beijing, two groups of protesters totalling at least 1,000 people were gathered along the Chinese capital’s 3rd Ring Road near the Liangma River, refusing to disperse."
The CCP is Welding people into their homes (Score:5, Informative)
https://twitter.com/WallStreet... [twitter.com]
Wuhan protests
https://twitter.com/disclosetv... [twitter.com]
The problem with erasing history (Score:5, Interesting)
is that you also erase fear.
No one knows how many people were really killed during the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. Perhaps even the Chinese State itself doesn't know. And the people aren't allowed to know it even happened.
So now the new crop of would-be revolutionaries is walking happily into the meat grinder, believing perhaps that nothing bad could happen. Because after all, nothing bad *ever* happened.
One could flip that argument on its head completely and say that because the State itself has deliberately forgotten its history of mass violence against an agitated and agrieved population, it had no qualms or second thoughts about instituting policies that would rile up the masses, eventually.
Because after all, there have *never* been any mass protests. So why would there be any now?
This may yet fizzle. Or it may escalate. Or covid zero could just go down the memory hole tomorrow (though I doubt it). But the lesson for the outside observer is always the same:
Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
For the CCP that literally means erasure of historical records bringing about a direct repetition of the same exact circumstances.
For us in the West, forgetting can take subtler and more insidious forms: presentism, for instanct. The judging of historical figures against contemporary standards without any comprehension that the stuff between people's ears was just *different* back then, and blithely assuming that we're too smart and enlightened these days to fall prey to the same demons on our shoulders whispering pleasant sounds into our ears...because we never bothered to understand what forces animated the historical figures we merely write off as morally deficient and make little effort in understanding.
Re:The problem with erasing history (Score:4, Insightful)
For us in the West, forgetting can take subtler and more insidious forms: presentism, for instanct. The judging of historical figures against contemporary standards without any comprehension that the stuff between people's ears was just *different* back then, and blithely assuming that we're too smart and enlightened these days to fall prey to the same demons on our shoulders whispering pleasant sounds into our ears...because we never bothered to understand what forces animated the historical figures we merely write off as morally deficient and make little effort in understanding.
This. So much This. I studied History in College for my first Degree and it was such a very interesting degree. What so many people of today can't grasp is that one has to understand the context in the history that you read. History is very much a sliding scale, not a set of "right" or "wrong" actions. There are many people that we read about that today would be considered horrible people (due to their beliefs) but when viewed in the context of their times were quite progressive.
Re:The problem with erasing history (Score:5, Interesting)
Tearing down statues isn't forgetting your past. It's ceasing to worship traitors. Remembering your history and tearing down statues is not mutually exclusive.
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Tearing down statues isn't forgetting your past. It's ceasing to worship traitors. Remembering your history and tearing down statues is not mutually exclusive.
Even when they tore down Grant's statue [thehill.com]? What about the one of Francis Scott Key? I don't think you can argue that most of the folks tearing down statues knows much history.
Re: The problem with erasing history (Score:5, Interesting)
The problem with tearing down statues is that while it does get you the instant gratification up front of appearing meaningful, the long term result is that you are just erasing history for future generations. You might very well remember what that statue represented, but what about your childrenâ(TM)s grandchildren? Or their grandchildren?
That, to me, is why tearing down statues is counterproductive. Where you see them as objects that deify traitors, I see them as monuments to failure that should be preserved and publicly displayed as constant reminders to both current and future generations of the mistakes we have made.
Even if erasure of history is not the intended goal of tearing them down, it is still a side effect.
Re: The problem with erasing history (Score:2)
If you dismiss the traitor as a mere traitor, and the guy who put up the statue as a mere racist, you have failed to put in the effort to understand what motivated the extreme step of armed rebellion to such a degree that 15 million people tried to form their own country. With blackjack. And hookers.
And this takes a little mental calisthenics, but stay with me here...good statecraft and good citizenship entails understanding what forces animate your fellow citizens...so that you can studiously avoid pushing
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It gets harder to erase / forget things now, compared to the 1989 protests.
Pretty much everyone has a mobile phone with a camera now. And no matter how you censor, you can't stop people sharing info directly to others they meet.
Whatever happens next, the people of China will remember, even if the government officially "forgets".
Maybe the CPP ... (Score:4, Insightful)
will now remember why they had a 2 term limit for the general secretary: the point being to stop people like Xi Jinping becoming too powerful and ram rodding bad policies through: like these lock-downs.
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The paper he was looking at was a list of the new members of the central committee. The people Jintao favored had been retired from office. It's likely that's why he was upset.
Xi Jinping now Emperor (Score:3)
Absolutely Xi is more powerful than anyone since Mao, and Mao was a disaster for China.
The two term limit was introduced by Deng Xioping for a very good reason. To prevent future emperors. Removing it was a very big deal and demonstrated Xi's control of the party. Think of a US president removing the two term limit.
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Term limits aren't necessarily in a properly functioning democracy. Australia doesn't have any. Its compulsory, preferential system reduces the chances of nutters taking power, and in the event that it happens (ie, Scott Morrisson) makes it easier to kick them out.
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China is and was not a democracy. So the two term limit was very important there, and its removal is ominous. Xi has stacked the politburo with yes men, and now he rules unconstrained, surrounded by yes men. And he will crack down on the anti lock down activists which will further alienate him from the people. He may then look for a foreign adventure to distract, i.e. invade Taiwan.
Yes, US two term was because of FDR. Australian prime ministers are luck to survive one term, but we had a long phase of M
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Wasn't the two term limit in the US only because the Republicans didn't like FDR?
I'm not an expert on American history, but as I understand it the original two-term limit was a convention that all the presidents before FDR followed without it being an explicit rule. Even convention-breaking populists like Andrew Jackson retired after two terms. My impression is that, while the constitutional amendment was driven mostly by Republicans, there were a significant Democratic support for it in Congress and state legislatures.
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"Xi may end up the next putin."
Putin only wishes he had that kind of control. Xi's shooting for being the next Mao.
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Oh he's shooting for more than merely being the next Mao. He is aiming for full-on god emperor and absolute power. He not only has captured the CCP but a few years ago he also instituted indoctrination in the education system of children to instill worship and reverence in the children of Xi. Similar to how North Korea manipulates reverence of the dear leader (all the guys with notebooks writing down his every word as if it was wise), but on a larger scale. We do have people worshiping the god trump, bu
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I don't know if you care but you're referring to one person by surname (Xi Jinping) and the other by given name (Hu Jintao).
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Hahahahaha (Score:2)
I fear many of the demonstrators will be murdered by the state, but I guess that's the whole "give me liberty or give me death" thing. I think China has stolen too much liberty, so now people are choosing to risk death.
As far as the stability of the Chinese state is concerned? I have one word:
BURN.
Online discontent isn't a protesting (Score:2)
Racist patronizing by western commenters (Score:2)
Anyone who knows Chinese history knows that Chinese people and rebellion goes together like the US and school shootings. Why do you think the CCP censors so much, and jails people so much? If Chinese people were subservient and compliant, we wouldn't require censorship.
What you idiots don't realize is that there is an unwritten contract b
Re: Racist patronizing by western commenters (Score:2)
Such a magnificent strawman you just burned.
Where is Tank Man when we need him? (Score:2)
The heroic, unnamed man that stood up to the CCP tank is sorely needed right now.
This is what martial law looks like. Canada got a taste of it when Trudeau shut down the Trucker protests. Not quite the level of brutality that the Chinese government has shown but not far off.
For all of these idealists that want more government control of everything, this is how it ends up. Brutal authoritarian shutdowns of its own citizens.
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He meant to say 'perceived' republic where the establishment runs both sides of a dual party system. FTFY
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But the last midterm elections show that the super wealthy can only do so much. Democrats were very much not meant to win.
Say what? The Democrats have been involved in all sorts of propaganda in order to ensure a win. Look what that machine did to Trump. It is impossible to say one good thing about him even though there were at least two good things he did (maybe even three *shrug*). The Democrats game was spot on and they won because of it. 'Democrats not meant to win' what kind of garbage is that?
I gotta admit though; their propaganda ensured I would continue not voting for them. I will resist all attempts at manipulation. H
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I recommend looking up "democracy" in some dictionaries. Your definition is non-standard.
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Unless the definitions I have been reading are inaccurate, The United States of America is a democratic republic. Another way to put it is a Republic using Democratic methods.
So, is America a Democracy? Well, that depends on how you look at it. It is not a pure Democracy, that is for sure. Is it a pure Republic? Same, no.
So in the interests of expediency, let's just let it slide when someone calls the USA a democracy until they start confusing the actual expectations of a Republic vs a Democracy.
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No, it's a type of republic.
The representatives do not have to be chosen democratically. They can be chosen based on wealth, votes, age, random chance, anything.
Republic != democracy.
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You realize or maybe you don't that Senators were originally not elected by the people? So by your definition the US was not a constitutional republic at its founding which is a load of crap.
If you're going to call people DK, don't be DK. You are DK.
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You realize or maybe you don't that Senators were originally not elected by the people?
Of course I do. I just don't understand why you think this is relevant. You're not sending this to me via telegram in the 1800s. Try and join us in the correct century.
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Don’t you guys have a hard on for law enforcement? Or is that only when they beat up the “woke” crowd as you call them?
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Re:If you supported lockdowns, keep quiet (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah, Target asked me to wear a thin paper mask. It was rough.
Re: If you supported lockdowns, keep quiet (Score:2, Interesting)
To say nothing of the school closures, healthcare mandates or relatives dying alone in hospitals.
The masks were stupid, but I could wish that were the worst of it from the past three years.
Re: If you supported lockdowns, keep quiet (Score:4, Insightful)
Fuck your strawmen. 40 million people out of work in a matter of weeks, and all you do is make light of masks.
That's because Republicans whined ad infinitum [nbcnews.com] about wearing a mask [insider.com] for a few minutes [youtube.com] while shopping. They came up with fake cards [newsweek.com] and made up other excuses why they didn't have to wear a mask in a store.
They even tried to use the excuse it was their body, their choice [newsweek.com] whether to wear a mask. Which is kind of odd when you think about it. Apparently the government can force women to have a baby whether she wants it or not, even if it might kill her, but it can't force someone to wear a mask to prevent people from dying.
So nope, not a strawman. That was the hill Republicans were willing to die on: wearing a mask for a few minutes while shopping. And boy, did tens of thousands of them die on that hill.
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No.
Masks are the exceptional measure, therefore the onus is on the pro-mask crowd to provide real world data showing their efficacy.
This has been proven again and again for the last two years. But since you are asking, so shall you receive it.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.10... [pnas.org]
If you'd genuinely like to look at some real world data sets, look up Ian Miller. He has done a remarkable job correlating real world datasets showing how completely and totally useless masks are.
Oh, your source is a political hack. Ok. Now provide a medical study to support YOUR claim. Do it or STFU and GTFO.
Re: If you supported lockdowns, keep quiet (Score:4, Insightful)
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However, teeny tiny virus particles are carried by big old water droplets.
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I was out of work during the pandemic, and I did fine with the $3 trillion socialism package Trump signed. In fact my income has never been higher than while I was getting that sweet unemployment.
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I stopped getting unemployment before 2021, so all of mine was signed off by Trump.
What I should have done is pretended to be a business/businessman and taken out a PPP loan, that's where the big money was doled out.
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That aside, if you seriously think you and a few of your drinking buddies with your guns could out-gun heavily armed federal troops, that's just delusional. Citizens out-gunning the government hasn't been possible for a few hundred years when both sides had only muskets.