The State of Southeast Asia: 2021 Survey Report - "ASEAN’s Future: China or the US?
61.5% of the respondents choose the US, up from 53.6% last year whereas 38.5% choose China, down from 46.4% last year. Country-level data presents a more nuanced picture and ref lects shifts in positions. Where seven ASEAN member states chose China last year, this number dropped to three this year: Myanmar (51.9%), Brunei (69.7%) and Laos (80.0%). In comparison, the US enjoys stronger support this year from the Philippines (86.6%), Vietnam (84.0%), Singapore (65.8%), Indonesia (64.3%), Thailand (56.5%), Cambodia (53.8%) and Malaysia (53.0%). The “swing votes” this year are from Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. The region’s support for Washington may have increased as a result of the prospects of the new Biden Administration. The US presidential elections took place during the period of the conduct of this survey."
Damn CIA!
China Isn't Showing Certain Trading Data After a Record Bond Selloff - "After record net sales of sovereign debt, China's primary bond trading platform for foreign investors hasn't published transaction data in a week... Turmoil across Chinese markets has escalated due to COVID-19 lockdowns, and the lack of data reporting raises questions about China's transparency into its debt market... Those figures are typically published within one day, the sources said, and they aren't certain as to what the pause is exactly related to. Foreign investors sold a record $18 billion in Chinese debt in March, the Financial Times reported, as Chinese bonds have become less appealing for offshore investors as surging US bond yields offer more promising returns. Meanwhile, BlackRock last week downgraded Chinese stocks to neutral, and the world's largest asset manager forecasted a "rapidly worsening" outlook for the country's economy. Risks are rising for China over its ties to Russia amid war in Ukraine, the firm said, and lockdowns threaten to slow growth. Plus, the Chinese yuan doesn't look appealing to investors right now, thanks to the nation's stringent COVID-19 policies, a Morgan Stanley strategist previously told Insider."
Chinese depositors left in dark as three local banks freeze deposits - "Three banks in China's central Henan province have frozen at least $178 million of deposits, offering scant information on why or for how long, leaving firms unable to pay workers and individuals locked out of savings... Yu Zhou Xin Min Sheng Village Bank, Shangcai Huimin Country Bank and Zhecheng Huanghuai Community Bank froze all deposits on April 18, with all three telling customers they were upgrading internal systems. The banks have not issued any communication on the matter since, depositors said. None of the three banks responded to Reuters' emails or phone calls seeking comment... Depositors of the three banks told Reuters they had been communicating with each other via messaging app WeChat about how to retrieve funds. Some posted screenshots of frozen accounts and shared conversations with bank staff. Some posted videos of protests outside bank branches, while others said they had travelled to the banks' headquarters in search of an explanation only to be turned away by police. The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commision, which was cited in media reports on May 1 as saying it was looking into the matter, and the People's Bank of China, the central bank, did not respond to faxed requests for comment."
Of course, this is just made up by biased Western media, which is everyone refused to respond to Reuters
Flight data shows China Eastern jet deliberately crashed: Report - "China Eastern flight MU5375 was travelling from Kunming to Guangzhou on March 21 when it inexplicably plunged from an altitude of 29,000 feet into a mountainside, killing all 132 people on board. It was mainland China’s deadliest aviation disaster in 28 years... Screenshots of the Wall Street Journal story appeared to be censored both on China’s Twitter-like platform Weibo and messaging app Wechat on Wednesday morning. The hashtag topics “China Eastern” and “China Eastern black boxes” are banned on Weibo, which cited a breach of relevant laws, and users are unable to share the story in group chats on Wechat. The CAAC said on April 11 in response to rumours on the Internet of a deliberate crash that the speculation had “gravely misled the public” and “interfered with the accident investigation work.”"
TikTok caught spying on users thanks to new iPhone iOS 14 feature
TikTok Tracked User Data Using Tactic Banned by Google - WSJ - "TikTok, which said earlier this year that its app collects less personal data than U.S. companies such as Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, didn’t respond to detailed questions"
TikTok: Beneath Its Fun Exterior Lies A Sinister Purpose - "the US armed forces have forbidden personnel from using it and describes it as a threat to cybersecurity. Israeli cybersecurity company Check Point has investigated it and concludes it has backdoors and major vulnerabilities, as well as overall security issues. The US government is also investigating it. Meanwhile, Reddit CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman describes it as a “fundamentally parasitic app that is always listening” and warns against installing what he calls “spyware”. Several child advocacy groups say it poses a clear risk to children. Apple claims it has caught TikTok using clipboard capture mechanisms to spy on millions of users. Other investigations reveal that its content censorship standards are decided by the Chinese government and are clearly discriminatory. A cybersecurity expert who has reverse engineered the app warns people to stay away from it. In short, it’s not hard to find evidence of the problematic nature of TikTok"
Did China's Consulate in Houston Use TikTok to Stir Up Antifa/BLM Riots?
After sudden order to close Houston's Chinese consulate, a fire and accusation of Communist spies - "the occupants of the consulate were being evicted from the building at 3417 Montrose Blvd. around 4 p.m. Tuesday. Within hours, witnesses spotted workers inside the courtyard burning papers"
Chinese Christians tortured in 'brainwashing' camps: report - "Christians in China are being detained in secretive, mobile "transformation" facilities where they're subject to brainwashing, torture and beatings to force them to renounce their faith, a new report has revealed. Li Yuese, a member of an underground "house church" in the southwestern province of Sichuan, told Radio Free Asia he was held in a facility run by the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department for 10 months after a raid on his church in 2018... "They were using brainwashing methods on those of us who were on bail from the detention center," he said. "It was in a secret location, in a basement. There is no time limit for the brainwashing process. I don’t know the longest time anyone has been held there, but I was detained for eight or nine months. You can't see the sun, so you lose all no concept of time." The Christian said suicidal ideation and self-harm were not uncommon in the facility due to the continuous torture inmates endured. "I couldn't sleep; after you've been in there a week, death starts to look better than staying there," Li said. "I bashed myself against the wall to self-harm." "One time in there, I was groggy and was trying to open my eyes but I couldn't," he said. "Four or five of them grabbed me by the arms and legs and pinned me to the ground. They injected me with some drug, and brought me back to consciousness." When he was finally released, Li said he was in extremely poor health and remains haunted by the experience. Another Christian told RFA that similar facilities are being used across China, made specifically for Christians, members of the underground Catholic church, and of the Falun Gong spiritual movement... Boyd-MacMillan, director of Strategic Research at Christian charity Open Doors, recently told the Express UK that the CCP is becoming increasingly concerned about the Christian population's growth and is cracking down on religion as a result. "We think the evidence as to why the Chinese Church is so targeted, is that the leaders are scared of the size of the Church and the growth of the Church,” Boyd-MacMillan said. "And if it grows at the rate that it has done since 1980, and that's about between 7 [percent] and 8 percent a year, then you're looking at a group of people that will be 300 million strong, nearly by 2030. And, you know, the Chinese leadership, they really do long term planning, I mean, their economic plan goes to 2049, so this bothers them. Because I think if the Church continues to grow like that, then they'll have to share power.""
Damn CIA!
Chinese ‘death squads’ hunted down & slaughtered Indian troops in horror brawl - "Survivors said medieval-style battles raged as Chinese soldiers armed with spiked clubs, iron rods and batons wrapped in barbed wire attacked Indian troops... India and China have a pact that no guns are to be carried within a mile of the border, leading to the brutal makeshift weapons and bloody hand-to-hand combat... "Even unarmed men who fled into the hillsides were hunted down and killed," an Indian officer told News18. "The dead include men who jumped into the Galwan river in a desperate effort to escape." Other officials have previously branded the Chinese troops as "death squads"... Reportedly up to 500 soldiers in total were involved in the fighting, which began after Indian forces - led by Colonel Bikumalla Santosh Babu - dismantled a Chinese position in the Galwan Valley. It is claimed Chinese commanders had agreed to vacate the outpost, but then fighting broke out as Indian troops moved in. Hindustan Times reports Indian officials believe Chinese soldiers were "prepared for a face-off" as they armed themselves ahead of the brawl... It comes as reports also emerged yesterday of Indian soldiers' bodies being "mutilated" following the fighting which as left the region on a knife edge."
Facebook - "China notifies the Mekong River Commission of significant flow reduction from the Jinghong Dam 7/31-8/20. The stated reason is for power grid construction but seems too convenient. Looking back through the data, the first three weeks in August are typically when China’s major dams at Xiaowan and Nuozhadu fill the most. They are turning off the tap at a time when the Mekong downstream needs water."
Jamie Dimon Apologizes for Joke About JPMorgan Outlasting China’s Communist Party - WSJ - " Mr. Dimon said on Wednesday morning that he regretted remarks he made Tuesday during an event at Boston College, in response to an audience question about doing business in China. “I was just in Hong Kong and I made a joke that the Communist Party is celebrating its hundredth year. So is JPMorgan. I’d make you a bet we last longer,” Mr. Dimon said Tuesday, according to a video recording viewed by The Wall Street Journal. “I can’t say that in China. They probably are listening anyway,” the 65-year-old chief executive added, while laughing."
“Stability Maintenance” Gets a Major Boost at the National People’s Congress - "Since the mid-2010s, the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been preoccupied with ensuring a relatively high growth rate for China, even as the economy is facing serious downward pressures. This has emerged as a perennial theme in the annual springtime meetings of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and its counterpart, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). However, an even more striking theme this year is “stability maintenance” (weiwen, 维稳)—coded language for ensuring the CCP’s “perennial ruling status,” and President’s Xi Jinping’s quasi-permanent role as the “leadership core” of the world’s largest political organization... The most effective way for the CCP to keep social unrest—and challenges to the regime—at bay is to perfect China’s already formidable police-state apparatus (jingchaguojia jiqi, 警察国家机器). However, in an apparent effort to counter foreign criticisms of the Xi leadership’s suppression of the “five new black categories” (xin heiwulei, 新黑物类) (human rights attorneys, underground churches, dissidents, unapproved Internet commentators, and activists from disadvantaged sectors in society) and other potential sources of dissent (China Brief, February 20), the authorities have tried to keep this year’s weiwen budget under wraps. Assessing the real size of China’s public security expenditure (PSE) provides a valuable prism through which to analyze how the Xi administration is pulling out all the stops to suppress voices of dissent, and seeking thereby to uphold the CCP’s monopoly on power... in 2011, the last year in which both the military budget and the PSE were publicized, the weiwen outlay was set at 624.4 billion RMB, or 3.88 percent more than that of the defense forces... the Guangzhou-based 21st Century Economic Herald reported a detailed breakdown of the 2019 national budget of 23.52 trillion RMB, in which PSE took up 5.9 percent, or 1.39 trillion RMB. By contrast, medical expenditure, scientific research and development, and state subsidies for housing were earmarked respectively at 7 percent, 3.9 percent, and 2.9 percent of this total national budget. Moreover, the weiwen figure of 1.39 trillion RMB was 16.8 percent higher than official military expenditure (Radio Free Asia, March 14; 21st Century Economic Herald, March 7). This astronomical sum has been corroborated by reports in Hong Kong newspapers, based on interviews with NPC deputies who had access to internal budget figures (Ming Pao [Hong Kong], March 13)... It is evident, however, that the enormous sum of 1.39 trillion RMB is still insufficient to cover the increasingly burdensome and multitudinous efforts taken by weiwen units to nip destabilizing factors in the bud. Thus, the true stability maintenance budget could be much bigger than imagined. For example, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and large private firms also make considerable outlays for stability-maintenance personnel, equipment, and operations—which in many respects contribute to, and overlap with, the functions of the state apparatus. Furthermore, owing to security concerns, the CCP leadership has mandated that the information technology (IT) sector, which includes social media and e-commerce, be run either by SOEs or putatively private firms that enjoy sterling connections with the party elite. Almost all these quasi-monopolies have become multi-billion dollar businesses. In return for state patronage, these IT companies and e-platforms surrender without cost to state-security units sensitive information about dissidents and activists—in addition to providing data that feeds China’s controversial and labyrinthine social credit system (SCS). The SCS enables weiwen officers to not only pick up intelligence about “destabilizing agents” but also to track their movements and activities... Apart from high-tech surveillance, Beijing has revived Mao’s concept of “people’s warfare” in the domestic sphere, and is recruiting politically reliable sectors of the populace into service as citizen spies... Given President Xi’s perception that the CCP is being increasingly buffeted by challenges from both within and outside China, the workload—and the budget—for the weiwen apparatus is likely to continue to rise in the foreseeable future. One new avenue of renewed state repression is religion. In his Government Work Report presented to the NPC, Premier Li Keqiang highlighted Beijing’s responsibility for regulating and controlling religion: “We must fully implement the party’s basic goals regarding religious work… we must uphold the direction of the Sinicization of our country’s religions, and to manage religious affairs according to law” (Xinhua, March 5). It was the first time that Li had cited the imperative of “rendering religions Chinese” in his public statements. Apart from the emasculation of radical Islamists, members of China’s estimated 60 million Christians and Catholics have been subjected in the past year to tighter, AI-enabled supervision, including 24-hour surveillance by police who are stationed at venues of religious worship"
From 2019
Weird. We're told that the Chinese people love the Communist Party. Yet the CCP seem to terrified of them. Oh, it must be the damn CIA, as usual!
When you spend more on repressing your people than the armed forces, that suggests that you see your own people as more of a threat than foreign powers
Why China Is Cracking Down on Private Tutoring - "The measures are also part of growing xenophobia in China. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) spends a lot of time worrying about ideological education. Measures restricting the study of U.S. and world history, for example, were put in place years ago. As the CCP sees it, banning foreign curricula and foreign teachers could prevent the creeping influence of foreign ideas and discourage Chinese students from applying to overseas universities. The regulations are not going to stop the very rich, who often have Ivy League ambitions for their children, from seeking out foreign tutoring anyway through discreet personal contacts and U.S. bank accounts. At the high end, the going price for one-on-one tutoring is already $200 an hour, and it may go up after these measures...
During a contentious visit by U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman to Tianjin, China, on Monday, Beijing presented two sets of grievances with Washington. The first consisted of demands that the United States halt its sanctions programs, restrictions on CCP officials, and visa restrictions on Chinese students with military or state ties, and that it drop its extradition charge against Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou. The second list raised concerns about the targeting of Chinese businesses and anti-Asian racism. Past presentations of similar grievances with Western countries have not gone well for China. A 14-point list given to Australia last September attracted widespread mockery and anger in the Australian media and hardened attitudes toward Beijing among government officials. Cooler heads presumably understand the list is likely to produce a similar reaction from the U.S. government. But this kind of denunciation has been part of communist diplomacy since Soviet era. As Chinese President Xi Jinping’s rule deepens and the break with the West becomes more ingrained, it makes political sense within China even if it creates a diplomatic headache...
Xenophobia also resonates on the ground in China, as shown recently when foreign reporters attempting to cover the devastating floods in Zhengzhou faced angry mobs whipped up by local officials. The death toll in Zhengzhou, now at 71 and likely to rise, seems to have resulted in part from local businesses and public institutions ignoring flood warnings to keep staff at home. Chinese labor law is strict about working conditions and danger to workers in theory. In practice, it’s rarely enforced...
Sun Dawu, an agricultural entrepreneur and multimillionaire who became an outspoken critic of CCP policy, was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Wednesday. The sentence is identical that given to Ren Zhiqiang, a retired tycoon who criticized Xi, last year. Sun was a popular figure known for his local philanthropy; he had a sharp eye for the impact of policy on ordinary people, especially farmers. Targeting dissident businesspeople is a boon for officials: Not only do they remove a potential political threat, but the individual’s financial assets can also be divvied up as rewards for the faithful...
The Golden Dragon index, which tracks Chinese technology stocks, has fallen by 15 percent in the last couple of days amid the introduction of private education regulations and fears of further action against tech firms. Chinese stocks are now the worst-performing in Asia. It seems like Beijing may have finally crossed the red line for analysts such as economist Stephen Roach, a self-described “congenital optimist” on China who warned this week of “disturbing actions” and the start of a cold war. “China is going after the core of its new entrepreneurial driven economy, and it’s going after their business models”"
UK universities comply with China's internet restrictions - "It enables students in China to keep studying UK degrees online, despite China's limits on internet access. But it means students can only reach material on an "allowed" list."
Christine Choi calls for respect after students leave halfway during national security seminar - "Secretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin called for students’ respect after first-year students left halfway during a national security seminar on the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s orientation day earlier. The university inserted the seminar in the later parts of the orientation day staged recently, and over half of the first-year students left halfway while it was being delivered at the lecture hall. Speaking on the matter on Saturday, Choi said universities are responsible for arranging courses related to national security for students and recommended schools diversify the courses at the appropriate timing."
The New York Times - Posts | Facebook - "Students in Hong Kong will soon be given textbooks that say Hong Kong was never a British colony. The books are part of China’s effort to instill a historical narrative in a city where a pro-democracy movement was crushed."
Naturally, most of the comments are trying to use this to bash Republicans. Disgraceful.
Chinese CCTV cameras on our streets have hidden microphones that could be spying on you - "Chinese-made CCTV cameras on Britain’s streets contain hidden microphones that could be used to spy on the public... 63 per cent of schools and 73 per cent of local authorities use Chinese-made CCTV, as well as more than half of NHS trusts and 31 per cent of police forces. Most are made by Hikvision - the biggest CCTV manufacturer in the world - and Dahua, which is thought to be the second-biggest. The Big Brother Watch report also highlighted other capabilities built into many cameras, including facial recognition technology and even behavioural analysis."
Airbnb’s exit from vacation rentals in China amid Covid-19 lockdowns highlights the country’s isolation - "Airbnb announced it would close its China business and remove around 150,000 listings. “It’s such a pity,” the 33-year-old said. “The entire country is becoming more closed to the world.” Airbnb’s China exit, and the disappointment of hosts who used the platform, highlights the challenges of operating a foreign platform in the country –– and how those platforms provide a unique link to the outside world. The combination of a strict zero-Covid strategy, the government’s tightening control of the internet, and the rise of local monopolies has combined to create physical and digital barriers between China and the wider world. For younger people in the country who grew up feeling like global citizens, it’s been a difficult shift... Major tech companies and platforms have also been pulling back from the country. LinkedIn, the last global social network available in China at the time, pulled out last year. This month, Amazon announced it would stop selling Kindle e-readers this month and shut its e-book store next year. And Nike is shutting its popular Nike Run Club App. But even among those names, Airbnb stands out: as a travel site, it was one of the few global platforms that allowed Chinese users to interact directly with people from overseas, both online and offline. “Many good things are disappearing from this place,” said Hayami Wang, 26, another Shanghai-based Airbnb user... In addition to local competition, foreign tech companies also have to comply with tightening censorship, laws on data security, and, in Airbnb’s case, complicated rules around short-term rentals aimed at policing Chinese citizens. The company has faced criticism for sharing user data with the Chinese government and allowing discrimination against suppressed ethnic minorities. But Airbnb’s commercial failure has also given it a unique identity in the country, as loyal users view the platform as a niche space where they can meet other young, middle-class urbanites keen to share personal stories. While their Chinese competitors increasingly focus on professional guesthouse chains with hotel-style check-in and cleaning services, Airbnb’s users told Rest of World that they’ve made friends, shared emotional moments, and formed professional relationships with their hosts or guests."
Of course, they are only pulling out to make China look bad
China Seeks Advice on Hong Kong’s Revival From Foreign Business Leaders - Bloomberg - "China asked foreign business chambers in Hong Kong how to revive the isolated financial hub’s economy in unprecedented listening sessions weeks before new leader John Lee takes office, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. The Liaison Office, Beijing’s main body overseeing Hong Kong, sent invitations to commerce heads across the city in early June to seek their opinions on the challenges of operating in Hong Kong and mainland China, the people said. They said the chambers responded with one overriding message: End quarantine altogether as soon as possible. The people, who represent different chambers, said the meetings marked a major shift from previous exchanges in which officials spoke through translators, with the Chinese side appearing to show genuine interest in understanding the pain points of foreign businesses. The mainland officials present mainly listened while other staff took notes, the people said, making it unclear if Beijing will act on any of the suggestions... China’s strict Covid Zero policy employing mass testing drives and lockdowns has also punished the mainland’s economy. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang gave gave a stark warning at an emergency meeting last month that the country’s economic growth is moving further out of reach from the growth target of 5.5% amid severe strain from pandemic measures. While China shows no signs of deviating from its pandemic policy any time soon, Hong Kong has drifted from Covid Zero in recent months. Officials have reduced incoming hotel quarantine from 21 to seven days for vaccinated arrivals and resisted imposing harsh social curbs despite seeing a rebound in cases topping some 1,000 daily infections."
Damn CIA and biased Western Media!
The Post-Pandemic Paradigm and Why China Has Won - "When Canada arrested Huawei senior executive Meng Wanzhou—whose firm sells personal electronics to western consumers, while maintaining deeply suspicious ties with Chinese military and espionage sectors—it sparked a diplomatic spat involving the US, Canada and China, and led to the arrest of two uninvolved Canadians in Beijing. When the Canadian government called for their release, ambassador to Canada Lu Shaye wrote an op-ed accusing Canada of “white supremacy.” By focusing his opposition on racism, a pressure point of Canada’s multicultural society, Lu was effectively calling on the ethnic Chinese minority to support his government against their own country. Lu’s cynical stroke of genius shows that Chinese diplomats are now actively exploiting our taboos and manipulating our values as part of their political strategy—something that ought to be deeply worrying during a pandemic, when economies grind to a halt and societies can fall prey to internal strife. The west itself bears the responsibility for much of the current predicament. Rather than relying on China to provide information during the early days of the coronavirus outbreak, we could have turned to our intelligence agencies to obtain a second opinion on the true state of affairs within cities like Wuhan. But the CCP saw that coming, and has worked arduously to dismantle foreign operations at home, killing or jailing over a dozen CIA agents between 2010 and 2012 alone. Even had accurate information been available, it would have been difficult to implement in the crucial stages of late December and early January, as, at that time, WHO continued to insist on China’s behalf that no evidence of corona transmitting between humans even existed... If not an outright enemy, China is at the very least our most dangerous friend. “Know your enemy” is a proverb attributed to Sun Tzu’s Art of War. But, in its original form, the saying actually reads “Zhī bǐ zhī jǐ”—know your enemy and know yourself. Why did so many western countries cut back on producing essentials like medical supplies, and leave themselves helpless by outsourcing this to China? Why did the west blindly accept the authority of the WHO, an organization whose employees pretend that the Taiwanese state does not exist? Why was a Harvard nanoscience expert who received millions of dollars in research funding from the Department of Defense working in Wuhan illegally for the Chinese government? Why did western mass media continue to lie about the efficacy of masks and downplay their importance in preventing the spread of the virus at the same time as Chinese police were arresting citizens who left their houses without wearing them? Why do Chinese diplomats like Lu Shaye speak the language of the diversity agenda abroad, while praising their ethnically homogeneous country’s devotion to preserving its culture? More than anything else, we need to ask ourselves whether the western mode of governance needs to adapt to match China’s. In a recent article entitled “Is China preparing for war?” Maajid Nawaz characterizes western strategy toward China as one of “miserably failed economic appeasement.” But rethinking these strategic failures requires us to go beyond the limited domain of foreign policy. In domestic terms, the pandemic has delivered us a much needed reality check, and shown how policies founded on neoliberal ideals like open borders, free movement and free trade can be a source of weakness rather than strength."
With China stuck in zero Covid hell and the Chinese vaccines being lousy, this rings differently
Overseas Chinese are distancing themselves from the Communist mainland - "Taiwan’s response to the WHO has been, to put in simple words, “Taiwan is not China”, a stance repeated from its President to its energetic YouTubers. Hong Kongers and other overseas Chinese communities agree. Why does a Chinese-speaking country whose official name is the Republic of China so aggressively reject the label of being associated with China. Why is everyone in Hong Kong — and elsewhere — cheering them on? Long before the pandemic started, a revolutionary trend had already begun in Taiwan, Hong Kong and other overseas Chinese communities to stop identifying with China and forge a new common identity. This has accelerated in the past few years and will perhaps become permanent after this pandemic, as the world splits into two camps, pro- Chinese Communist Party and anti- Chinese Communist Party... the CCP has became very successful in winning the hearts and minds of ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia as well as Macau and to a less extent, Hong Kong. Mao, a fanatical supporter of worldwide revolution, aggressively targeted overseas Chinese communities and sent agents everywhere from Burma to Malaysia to start the violent struggle for power. The vast majority of Communists and Communist sympathisers in Southeast Asia were ethnic Chinese — which resulted in tragic anti-Chinese pogroms in Malaysia and Indonesia... The year 1989 was perhaps the high-water mark of Chinese identity amongst overseas Chinese communities. Everywhere from Taipei to Hong Kong to LA, ethnic Chinese rallied to the cause of a free, democratic China. Protest rallies, fundraisers and concerts were filled with patriotic messages and dreamy slogans. But 1989 was also the year when those dreams proved to be a bubble and changed overseas Chinese identity forever... Taiwan decided to stop being Free China and start being itself. It cut ties with overseas ethnic Chinese associations in the West. Slowly but surely overseas Chinese associations reconsidered their position of flying the ROC flag instead of the PRC flag. Mainland Chinese migrants became the majority of ethnic Chinese living in the West and PRC embassies actively cultivated overseas communities. Taiwan’s influence shrank to a minimum. As a result, simplified Chinese writing now dominates in Chinatowns around the world, with Taiwanese and Hong Kongers being marginalised. Perhaps the most radical change came in Hong Kong, where for decades pro-democratic Hong Kongers hoped to make China free and use Hong Kong as the source of change. In 2008, Hong Kongers’ Chinese pride reached a peak during the Beijing Olympics and the Wenchuan earthquake. Hong Kongers donated billions to the earthquake afflicted regions and cheered on for Team China in the Olympics – which would be absolutely unimaginable today. But after the Umbrella Revolution of 2014 failed and as cross-border tensions between Mainlanders and locals rise, Hong Kong has also done a complete U-turn and rapidly abandoned its Chinese identity. Most Hong Kong youths, with their worldview minted by the 2019 anti-extradition protests, have turned their backs on China. Anyone speaking Mandarin is subject to intense suspicion and discrimination. Calls for Hong Kong independence are growing louder and louder, as agitation against the folks “to the north” reached eruption point. What can we conclude from this wave of de-Sinification amongst ethnic Chinese communities? Perhaps the answer is that the CCP has permanently changed what it means to be Chinese. In today’s China, many are victims of the CCP regime, but many others are its accomplices. Chinese people suffer from the worst censorship, an inhumane birth policy and massive surveillance. But many of them, brainwashed for generations, are also cheerleaders for Communism and its version of nationalism. Nearly 100 million are members of the Communist Party. The CCP is like a snake that has deeply bound itself to a human body. It has hijacked and poisoned Chinese identity; one can only be a good Chinese if one supports the CCP. Over decades the CCP has reduced traditional Chinese culture to a shell of its former self. It has corrupted the language through its Simplified Chinese characters, exterminated local dialects and folk culture, and poisoned minds against scapegoats like religion, Japan and the West. And that is why Taiwan, Hong Kong and other overseas Chinese communities want to opt out. They can’t accept that being proudly Chinese means loving the CCP. Thus they are shedding the toxic label of Chinese identity altogether to avoid being infiltrated by Communism. This all started in Singapore and is now being completed in Hong Kong."
