Over 600,000 in Hong Kong cast 'protest' vote against new security laws
Category: News & Politics
Via: perrie-halpern • 4 years ago • 89 commentsBy: NBC News/Source: Reuters By Reuters
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
HONG KONG — Hong Kong's opposition camp said on Sunday that over 600,000 citizens in the Chinese-ruled city cast ballots over the weekend in primaries it cast as a symbolic protest vote against tough national security laws imposed by Beijing.
The unofficial poll will decide the strongest pro-democracy candidates to contest elections in September to Hong Kong's Legislative Council. Then, they aim to seize majority control for the first time from pro-Beijing rivals by riding a wave of anti-China sentiment stirred by the law, which critics say has gravely undermined Hong Kong's freedoms.
While the primaries are only for the opposition camp, the level of participation is seen as a guide to popular opinion in the city of 7.5 million people, a major financial hub.
"A high turnout will send a very strong signal to the international community, that we Hong Kongers never give up," said Sunny Cheung, 24, one of a batch of aspiring young democrats out lobbying and giving stump speeches.
"And that we still stand with the democratic camp, we still support democracy and freedom."
Defying warnings from a senior Hong Kong official that the vote might fall foul of the national security law, residents young and old flocked to over 250 polling stations across the city, manned by thousands of volunteers.
Long queues formed, with people voting via their mobile phones after having their identities verified.
Organizers said 592,000 people had voted online, and 21,000 had cast paper ballots at the end of two full days of polling, - more than expected, and representing around a third of voters who backed the democrats in an election last year.
"Even under the shadow of the national security law, there were still 600,000 people coming out," said an organiser, Au Nok-hin. "You can see the courage of the Hong Kong people in this ... Hong Kongers have created another miracle."
The new law punishes what China describes broadly as secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison and allows mainland security agents to operate officially in Hong Kong for the first time.
Officials in Beijing and Hong Kong have said the law will not erode the city's high degree of autonomy, insisting it will only target a minority of "troublemakers" who pose a threat to national security.
Despite this tactical vote to maximize their chances, some pro-democracy activists fear authorities may yet try to stop some candidates from running in September's election.
"They can arrest or disqualify any candidate they don't like under the national security law without a proper reason," said Owen Chow, a young democratic "localist" candidate.
At a time when Hong Kong authorities have barred public marches and rallies for months on end amid coronavirus social restrictions, and arrested individuals for shouting slogans and holding up blank sheets of paper, the vote was seen as a crucial and rare window for populist expression.
"I can really feel that young people haven't given up yet, even though we are facing a very depressing future," said Prince Wong, 22, a candidate in the New Territories West district.
"It helps me become more determined to fight."
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CCP will just use that as a pretext to come down even harder and blood will spill and the CCP will not care.
It will Steele the resolve of the people and government of the Republic of China to never give in. Besides with issues in Southeast Asia , Korea, Japan, Russia, and India going on, China won’t be able to mass an overwhelming force in one spot without leaving vulnerabilities elsewhere.
Wonder how long it will be, before the tanks roll in again upon people striving to live free?
The History of Presidents Using Military to Restore Order ...
...
President Dwight D. Eisenhower used the ... Los Angeles in 1992 to restore order in the city after the riots that erupted after a jury acquitted police officers who were ... which included tanks .
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It doesn't solve problems to point fingers and blame - for example, it isn't going to get Trump reelected.
Prague 1956 and Budapest 1968 all over again. That is the commie way.
Well, I just posted a comment proving that it's the American way as well. So people in glass houses....etc.
Did that pic hit a sore spot?
Buzz....there is no comparison at all between what happened once in the US and what has happened multiple times in China over the decades, and what appears to be happening yet again in Hong Kong, which has lived free for decades. Anyone with a room temperature IQ knows where this is heading.
Your pathetic arguments in favor of the Chinese communist government are weak and lack any relevant substance.
I don't argue in favour of the Chinese government - all I do is point out and try to correct mistaken and/or vicious comments made by others who do so in the desperate hope of shifting attention away from their demi-god Trump's incompetence and mishandling his responsibilities. Maybe, especially with the chaos and sickness these days in the USA, Americans should mind their own fucking business and pay more attention to the faults of their own present government, and try to fix the disaster that is there rather than devoting their attention to what other countries are doing. Isn't it enough to proselytize religion where it isn't wanted? It really isn't necessary to create all the rest of the world in America's image as if America was God.
Check out the Washington Post article about 5G and Chinese telecoms. Between trade issues, Wuhan flu, the cover up, Chinese actions globally since then and the five eyes USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada have all excluded communist front companies from participating in 5G in their countries and the English speaking democracies have persuaded western and Eastern European democracies as well as India and Israel to exclude high tech Chinese products relating to 5G from their markets. It’s great to see all the worlds democracies working together in unison against our common enemy regime. And now those companies can no longer use Taiwan as a source for American intellectual property chips for cell phones.
Because the CCP is scared of it's citizens seeing decadent Western material!
I will tell you the same thing I was told when I posted that I was aghast when Americans kneel during the national anthem, or burn the Stars and Stripes, because I felt they are representative not of your temporary government and what it does, but representative of your magnificent country. I was told that you have the freedom to spit on the flag if you want, and to show disrespect to the anthem the anthem.
Well, I don't have the same feelings that Americans do. I would not only stand for O Canada, but I would stand for the American anthem, and I would stand for the Chinese one as well, and I would respect all of their flags because they represent the countries and their peoples and not for a temporary government.
I said that "Americans" should redirect their attention towards their own country ESPECIALLY when America needs to focus on the chaos that is happening there these days to try to get back to normal. I should not have said "Americans" in a way to mean Americans generally, or just the people of America, but I was thinking more about the American government and others like those who posted shots at me here and all who are following the O'Donnell Republican playbook as if it were their bible (like Tom Cotton) and whose criticism has the purpose of supporting their demi-god Trump. As for the criticisms that I post on NT, I am a full-fledged member of NT, and I have as much right to SPEAK MY MIND as you or any other member. Say China delayed and covered up the Covid information and I will agree with you, and have done so MANY times already on NT. But spout false propaganda and I am free to post my comments about it.
The replies you got about YouTube were correct, because YouTube shows a lot more than just movies and music videos, yet I've been watching movies here on 8 TV stations that play 24/7 mostly foreign movies that are mostly English language ones, or how else could I possible create movie quizzes.
To prove what I said about my being critical only of comments that are propaganda and false, I AGREE with you and Ed-NavyDoc that my not having access to YouTube is because of Communist Chinese Censorship because the CCP does not want its citizens watching decadent Western material, but mostly because of all the other garbage that YouTube presents. There are eight 24/7 cable TV stations here that show lots of American and other English language movies, and lots of foreign music videos are available here on other channels and web sites.
Be my guest. I know that you had posted "I beg to differ." But you have not "spoken your mind" with the intention of posting wrongful opinions particularly in order to bolster their demi-god who can do no wrong, and if I challenge them, they try to make me uncomfortable by calling me "Comrade" or saying I support the CCP. So I get back at them and show how hypocritical they are and provide truths that do not comply with their O'Donnell Republican playbook.
Oh, Humvees? So they're not military vehicles normally used against an enemy?
How about your telling me how many murders there have been, including "legal" executions, in America in those 70 years (and calculate that China has 4.4 times the population of the USA.). Not as many? Well, maybe ONE is too many.
Must be because of all those Youtube videos!
Buzz, next time you have access to real information, look up the cultural revolution and how many were killed by mao.
Then come back and tell us if you want to try and compare American “murders” To those carried out by the Chinese government.
The "Cultural Revolution" caused many deaths, including millions due to starvation because of governmental mismanagement - I believe that governmental mismanagement is something that these days Americans are becoming familiar with, and hopefully aware of who did the mismanagement.
History is history, China is not the only country in the world where governments may have caused IN THE PAST many deaths, but maybe we don't have to go back there when things change. Right now Americans seem to be trying to clean up its own history that it's not proud of but apparently glorified for centuries.
. There have been about 1,500 people executed by the US in the last 45 years. Mao's Great Leap Forward (another murderous rampage he went on) resulted in at least 20 million deaths over a four year period. Wrap your head around a government killing 20 million of its own citizens! Honestly, Americans can't conceive of that type of brutality. It's not something we can't process because it's so foreign to our experience. But a million bodies here and a million bodies there is pretty routine in Chinese history. I guess simply not having your town wiped out by a mad dictator counts as good government for some.
So, you still want to compare numbers?
At this point I wonder if anything can get trump re-elected?
Florida Sets Coronavirus Death Record , Hours After Gov. DeSantis Said State Had ‘Stabilized’
And yes-- that's the state our Dear Leader has selected for the Republican Convention!
You didn't include murders, nor make a point of the difference in population, and besides history is history - maybe our concerns should be more in the present, like how many Americans Trump's negligent mismanagement has led to - i.e. 133,000 deaths SO FAR.
But what are numbers anyway, when even ONE is TOO MANY?
About 1.1. million murders by private citizens over 70 years. China has had approximately 900,000 murders over that time period (if you trust "official numbers")
China (to the extent we can say, since China hides its numbers) makes up for that by executing about as many people each year as the US has in the last 50. Then there are the millions,upon millions upon millions of people either executed or starved to death by Chinese government policy.
Still think population matters? Has the US government wiped out the population of New England for giggles like the CCP did?
Only on NT can you have this argument. Although I suppose on Stormfront they probably argue that Hitler wasn't that bad, because look at Kent State
You know something, Sean. I really don't give a damn. I may have established here on this site that I often take the opposite position of others - after all, I was trained to be a devil's advocate. The very first lecture we had on our first day in law school was given by the dean, and he said that if we are not smart enough to comprehend and be able to argue our opposition's case every bit as well as our own, we might as well quit law school today.
Maybe this is why the crackdown on Hong Kong. https://www.foxnews.com/media/li-meng-yan-virologist-china-coronavirus-coverup
The problem with a lot of NT members these days is that they are only capable of, or only allow themselves the ability of, seeing and comprehending only ONE side of the story. Where is Paul Harvey when we really need his example?
???? Banned from NT? Perrie has already made it quite clear that it would take a hell of a lot to be banned from NT.
No, America is not God. And if the truth be known, I truly don't think God would want to be America at this point. America has become anything but a Christian country, and those who claim to be oh so righteous Christians are merely CINO's <Christians In Name Only>, who loudly talk the talk, but, who prefer not to walk the walk.
The more boisterous they talk the talk, the more certain one can be they are nothing but CINOs.
Yes.....and you do that quite well.
How in hell is he responsible for all those deaths?
The answer is he isn't. If he was, you could and would provide chapter and verse about what he did or didn't do, or what was done wrong.
"Chapter and verse" has already been posted on NT several times, however I realize that there are members here who become blind when something negative about Trump has been posted. They certainly would NEVER admit that he may have done something wrong or bad.
I think it's 136,000 +/- deaths now.
At one time I was not anti-Trump. He was the most supportive POTUS that Israel had ever known. Then he started doing things that harmed me financially, but I still tolerated him. Then he started on a xenophobic campaign that endangered Chinese people not just in the USA but everywhere in the world. I have been treated well by Chinese people back in Toronto (I had Chinese clients) and here in China, respected, even liked, and my wife is Chinese, and her family treat me as one of their own, so I think I'm entitled to be somewhat defensive. So yes, I CHANGED, because I have DAMN GOOD REASONS for despising your lord and master.
As for America, I love America, but I hate its present government. However, I'm not alone. I think about half the American population hates their present government as well, so you're saying I'm not allowed to?
That was the little twist to this particular article, wasn't it? Of all the reasons the people of Hong Kong have been protesting, we finally see an article here on NT and it's about "national security laws!!!" Tomorrow we might see another article on the US not meeting it's old Native American treaty obligations, but not a single word about China blatantly violating the deal it made concerning Hong Kong.
How easy it was to infect the world with a pandemic, destroy their economies and move against Hong Kong. The Secretary of State vows there will be consequences and I ask when?
Buzz- great link:
"Page not found"
That's strange, it worked when I originally posted it, and now it doesn't. There is a whole page of articles that are on Ecosia (similar to google) when you search with this phrase:
"The HIstory of Presidents Using Military to Restore Order"
For example this one:
Or this one:
I'm sure you'll find more on google.
Hong Kong's population is 7.5 million +/-. Those referred to in the article were only pro-democracy voters, but I assume from the total population there are more pro-China voters - time will tell.
In any event, it was not an official procedure.
The people of Hong Kong should be in open and willful defiance of those new laws that break the treaty deal made in 1997.
The people of Hong Kong should be in open and willful defiance of those new laws that break the treaty deal made in 1997.
But remember-- they will be unarmed civilians facing off against armed forces....
(And the protestors are bringing . . . flimsy picket signs to a gun fight!)
You don't need to spread exaggerated propaganda, Krishna. Have you seen CREDIBLE news that guns have been fired or even carried by those trying to control the rioting in HK?
Buzz,
I do know that England will be offering up to 8 million visas to Hong Kong, if things continue like this. They feel responsible for the trusting that the treaty would be upheld. The Engish citizens support this measure, too.
Are you trying to tell us the Hong Kong police which are controlled by mainland China, are not armed?
And from what we have seen, the protests in HK have been peaceful.
PEACEFUL?
I have seen the videos they are NOT showing in the USA, and they make the riots and public and private destruction being caused make the BLM riots look like toddler play. And these were not Hollywood-made movies.
They were smashing windows, throwing molotov cocktails and lighting fires, smashing subway ticket machines and even smashing traffic lights. They were vicioius, but then, I really don't give a damn what you WANT to believe.
Officials in Beijing and Hong Kong have said the law will not erode the city's high degree of autonomy, insisting it will only target a minority of "troublemakers" who pose a threat to national security.
So, in some peoples eyes, all these Hong Kong citizens desiring to retain a semblance of a democracy in a communist nation are considered to be "trouble makers"
The problem for them is that the Chinese Communist government can label any group or gathering as subversive and a threat to national security, with no proof or reason to do so.
[Deleted.]
That’s why those in Hong Kong who have citizenship also in or a passport of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Republic of China, Singapore, the UK or USA should make preparation to get out of there sooner rather than later.
I have no doubt that the HKSAR Government would help them pack their bags if they're not happy living there, and I wonder if the countries like the UK, Australia, etc that offered visas have room for 600,000.
Well, what is "freedom" anyway? I have the freedom to do everything and anything I want to do and everything I need to do. So why am I not just as well off as you are? As I implied in the comment you just responded to - hey, don't let the door slap your ass when you leave.
I obey the laws of where I am, which is why I don't get into any trouble. So if you go next door and kill your neighbour and rape his wife, I'll go out and hold up the sign you suggest.
ell, what is "freedom" anyway?
Can you watch YouTube buzz?
Can you publicly compare the leader of your Country to Winnie the Pooh? I can criticize the leaders of my country without fear of governmental punishment, can you? Can you speak out on behalf of the persecuted, if you were the type of person persecution bothers? I can.
[deleted]
But I don't have the freedom to criticize the Chinese government.
Buzz, if you spend half as much time criticizing the Chinese government as you do the American government you would disappear within a week
If you rock the boat it's bye-bye Buzzy.
I'm a member of NT same as you, and for a lot longer than you. It seems that there are a lot more articles about America than there are about China so why am I not entitled to comment on ALL of them?
As I've said a NUMBER of times, and as I have done a NUMBER of times, which most members here who have brains that are not made up of sawdust have already seen, I have posted here my personal criticism of things that the CCP has done wrong or screwed up, even pointing out that millions of Chinese people have texted the same. Nobody has come after me or detained me.
Other than that, what do I have to criticize the CCP or Xi Jinping for? I and my family and friends here are happy, more comfortable than I could possibly afford to be in North America, and I live where the people are smart enough to have carefully followed the guidelines including SERIOUSLY locking down, to contain the virus and everything, including the schools, are back to normal, just as they were a year ago.
How are things going where YOU are, MonsterMash? Am I allowed to comment on that?
Why? Personally I'm happy those people have not made a terrorist attack killing innocent people including children for the past 3 years. How many terrorist attacks have there been in America in those past 3 years? Besides your media would never show the good results arising from the reeducation and vocational guidance the good people there are now starting to achieve for the eradication of their poverty, because it doesn't fit America's agenda.
The problem for them is that the Chinese Communist government can label any group or gathering as subversive and a threat to national security, with no proof or reason to do so.
Who cares what "label" the government uses?
Remember, the protestors have flimsy signs...its the Chinese authorities who have the guns.
And the tear gas...and if necessary armoured vehicles, helicopters, etc.
should make preparation to get out of there sooner rather than later.
Many already have....
For a very long time the wealthier ones haver opened bank accounts abroad,,,and over time adding large sums of money to them.
And many have purchased apartments in several major cities abroad, and/or houses.
How about if they enter the China or Hong Kong illegally-- and the government apprehends them at the border and imprisons them (without a trial)..and if they have kids those kids are separated from their mothers by force--puts them in cages-- in most cases never to be seen again?
Like we do with Mexicans?
I remember when they were negotiating the deal between China and the UK over Hong Kong a large number were setting up homes bank accounts, passports etc in Vancouver. There’s a sizable China Town in Vancouver so a good number who have been prepared from day one will go to Canada
Yes you may, I wouldn't put it past China sending agents to the states with vials of the COVID-19 Virus to release it in our cities and towns
Wow!!! Trump has REALLY succeeded in formenting such hatred of China, its government and the Chiinese people in America and around the world that you would pose that as a possibility.
It's more than just a possibility, it's likely. The Chinese people aren't too blame, it's the fucking Chinese Communist government.
The Chinese Communist government is taking Khrushchev's words literally: "WE WILL BURY YOU."
Laughable. You should try writing fiction, or screenplays.
A/noon Buzz...China is very snakey with so many countries at the moment I am surprised they can keep track of them all...Not sure what you see and hear etc but a brief run down as it stands at the moment. Those in the firing line, Australia (big time), India, Hong Kong, UK, Canada, USA...Now as for us we were the first to ask for an Independent inquiry into how the virus started in China. The Chinese Governments response "how dare you" so slapped an 80% tariff on all our Barley imports...Stopped 4 Australian companies exporting beef into China "see we will show you"..Ripper cheaper steaks for us. Next issued warnings to their citizens we are "all racist" and don't come to Australia as some Chinese people experienced a few incidents re the virus. Note: no mention over there on the articles about people of colour being blamed and evicted over the virus by the Chinese Government as I sent you the other week...Said Australia is spying in China?? Hell ASIO would not know their left hand from their right and are a standing joke here...The Chinese Governments proof money, passports and a compass that is what they presented?? Have held an Aussie for 7 years without trial, for drug smuggling..He is going to be shot...Yep agree and happy for the Chinese to shoot him. But he got trotted out as a "veiled threat" and the timing of all this was "impeccable" after 7 years??.."You interfere we shoot him". Well get on with it. The latest the Chinese Government is now sooking as of yesterday, we are confiscating goods off its citizens when coming into Australia. Yep if they stopped bringing in illegal food and other items would not be a problem...It is called "Customs" same as what the Chinese Government has over there. So the Chinese Government have now issued warnings "do not come to Australia full stop". We said to our citizens get out of Hong Kong as you "maybe detained". I back the Hong Kongers 100% by the way. Now I am not going to lose any sleep over what China says or does, but there is a lot of sabre rattling going on at the moment. Geez if they think Australia is a "threat" to the Chinese Government then they are in bigger trouble than we ever thought..All this comes under the "you are interfering in our countries affairs" by the Chinese Government..We find it all rather amusing and wondering what they will come up with next...But we watch with great interest to see what happens with the next stoush between China and India on the border..Have the Chinese government ever said how many soldiers they lost the other month up in the Himalayas??? India did, 20 and just stony silence from the Chinese Government. So as I have said before Buzz we see and hear things that you unfortunately miss out on and by the sounds of things it is more and more these days...Do you have access to any Western news and I don't mean the USA news..BBC, our ABC or even NZ news etc??? I am pleased you enjoy life there and are well settled, but at the end of the day it is each to their own...
I have access to the news from many sources - America, Canada, Australia, the UK, Israel, etc. Do you have access to news and CGTN from China (although I assume you will consider none of it to be true).
Notwithstanding the fact that these days China is everyone's favourite target, in lockstep with whatever Emperor Trump declares it to be, so as long as it isn't him, I'm pretty sure it will weather the storm.
And yes, as you said, "Chacun a son gout".
Yes and I read all sorts of news from everywhere and you assume wrong.. I tend to make up my own mind about what I read. Was not sure what you could get access to that was all. We have always had good relations with China and best of trading partners..But annoys me when they play the "racist" card and start doing stupid retaliatory crap...Really is something that should have been left in the school yard years ago..See the floods etc over there at the moment and my first thought is the people and the losses...as we only know to well here with disasters. As for Trump not our problem...Enjoy you arvo...
"retaliatory crap"? What was China retaliating for?
Yes, the floods this year are a horror - fortunately they are not anywhere near us.
It is all over us requesting an independent inquiry to how the virus started..It must have really got up the Chinese Governments nose..Tariffs, banning our beef, telling their citizens we are all racist, telling their students not to come here to study, telling their citizens to go back home it is not safe here, the Hong Kong situation etc etc...As I said we are in the firing line at the moment...that is why I was wondering if anything had been said over there about it and perceiving we are a "threat" to China..Oh and we are ordering some new missiles and China stated "that is not in our interests"....As Morrison said "the Chinese Government will get over it one day"..Glad you are safe from the floods..do you get earthquakes???
When I was teaching at a school in the Zhengzhou area, which is up close to the Yellow River, I was sitting at my computer and my apartment building started to sway - it was I believe about 1,000 miles north of the epicentre in Sichuan, and yet we felt the mighty 2008 earthquake. It caused cracks in the wall of the school (which was pretty old). And while we were living in Chengdu about 4 years ago in Sichuan, our apartment building swayed a couple of times, but that's about all.
I've noted that Australia is still having virus problems - hope you and yours are okay - follow the guidelines.
Yes an out break down Melbourne...I live 350kms away all clear here so far. Was meant to go to Melbourne yesterday for some treatment etc but was cancelled..So all well and good here...thank you...
Stay safe my friend.
Spoke to soon. Just been a confirmed case here in my town of the virus. We maybe lucky a visitor from Melbourne, felt unwell and went and got tested and went into self isolation straight away. So we now wait and watch. You keep safe to see Florida is in dire straits at the moment...
Yes, Florida is getting hit very very hard with the virus. We are keeping our heads down and staying out of public places altogether.
Both of you take care. You can't be too careful with the virus.
Oh, and don't forget the water cannon and cattle prods.
In fact, am I allowed to comment on the camouflaged FEDERAL special agents in Portland, Oregon, with their unmarked black vans that they shove protesters into?
Go right ahead. Those "protesters" don't disappear. In fact here is an interview from one.
Since the Democratic governor and mayor have hamstrung the Portland police; and are unwilling to protect federal property- it is up to the federal government to do something. Sorry, US tax payers don't want to pay for damages due to Democratic incompetence in leadership.
"Thou protests too much", doesn't even come close to covering it.
Not only is there no YouTube in China, there is no Google as I remember from our trip there 3 years ago.
They do have large banners hanging over the freeway overpasses. We had private tour guides, and I asked a couple of times what the banners said. One tour guide told me the sign said something about following the answers provided by the Communist Party. She then told me "We know what goes on in the outside world" from which I understood her to mean that they don't think the Party does provide the answers. Another day I asked a different guide what a banner said. She apparently repeated my question to our driver. They both giggled and she gave me a similar answer about following the Party. I mentioned that with all of the private business going on China seemed to be a capitalist country, not communist. Her response was "We call it socialism with Chinese characteristics." That was the new Party slogan I found out later.
I had a lot of skepticism about the supposed strength of the Chinese economy. There were many large construction projects with half-finished residential and commercial towers all over, but no one was working on them. Anywhere.
I've travelled a lot over 14 years, been on many freeways and elsewhere, but I've never seen banners like that. I'm not saying it's your imagination, but obviously it's not a universal situation. As for google, as I've said elsewhere on this site, I don't need google because I can use Bing, Ecosia, Baidu and a few other sites to do research. There are always alternatives, Gsquared, so I'm not exactly deprived, nor are the Chinese people.
As for China's economy, naturally it was hit by the virus, but it is the number 2 economy in the world. The government is striving to complete, as scheduled, the total nationwide eradication of extreme poverty by the end of this year and is working on poverty at the same time in its aim to soon be a moderately prosperous society. China is becoming a consumer-driven economy as the numbers of well-off increase. The vacancies you see are caused by intentionally keeping construction workers employed, and due to the increasing automation and mechanized farming more and more people are moving away from farms and farm country, so those vacancies will not be vacant very long.
My wife has an older brother and a younger one. Their father died almost a decade ago and their mother is quite elderly, infirm, and being looked after, so her older brother has moved into and is taking care of the family farm (my wife grew up there) while her younger brother has an executive position in an industry while his wife is CFO of a large corporation - and they have two cars, one of which is a fairly new BMW SUV, and live in a small mansion in an upscale community surrounded by a golf course, and will next year be sending their son to the University of Toronto. None of them have any reason to bitch about Xi Jinping and the CCP. As you have already seen, the Chinese people are not a society of peasants.
It certainly wasn't my imagination. The banners were yellow with red writing, or possibly vice versa. There were many in Beijing hanging above the freeways. Some were also hanging on walls alongside the freeway. My memory is starting to fade as to whether they were also in the other cities we visited.
There were lots of luxury cars, mostly Mercedes and BMWs.
In Shanghai, where my wife's cousin was working, we spent a week with his family at their home in a gated ex-pat community. It was nice.
We were there 3 year ago, pre-virus. I obviously don't know what it has been like more recently. It was just very curious that we saw so many large half-finished construction projects, but we never saw any actual construction work going on. In fact, there were no people at any of them. No workers, none of the cranes were moving, no trucks delivering supplies to the sites. Nothing. Just half-finished towers. Lots of them. It was very strange.
It was definitely not a society of peasants although we did see some people (not many) working farms while we were traveling between cities. We took the bullet trains. They were great.
The PLA guys (I'm assuming they were PLA) standing guard in some locations were a bit intimidating, on purpose I would imagine. One of our guides told me: "the PLA are the most loyal to the Party".
Visiting China was a very interesting experience.
Those banners puzzle me. I've been to Beijing twice, the last time was 4 years ago, and I don't recall seeing any banners. It could have been a special campaign. In China, most of the banners are red with white lettering.
I, too, have found living in China to be not only an interesting experience, but the adventure of my life. Check out my photo essays on the Discovery Group and the Creative Arts groups. I've not been taking photos now for quite a long time, but I have taken thousands over the years.
It is possible that they were red with white lettering. As I said, since it's been 3 years and a few months since we were there my memory is fading a bit. When I asked my wife last night, she thought there may have been white color involved. I'm pretty certain that I did not get a photo of one of the banners, but I will check my photo gallery. I think that one of the guides mentioned an up-coming Party Congress or something of that nature. They were, of course, all Party slogans from what I understood.
It was quite an adventure. Unfortunately, the air pollution was ubiquitous and harsh. Most people were very nice, although there were some very sharp-elbowed older women trying to get to the front of things in the Forbidden City. Our guide told us they were mostly tourists from the provinces. I will check for your photos essays.
And 2.7 million citizens of Hong Kong posted ballots in a symbolic vote to say they were happy with the public security law because then Hong Kong would be peaceful and they could get back to living happy productive lives.
2.7 million people so scared of the Chinese government that they are willing to do anything to try and hold onto a little of what they have now.
2.7 million people so scared that they don't realize that everything they once had is already gone.
I'll bet the propaganda that the Americans must be enduring does not show the eradication of absolute poverty, the prime intention of the eradication of poverty with the aim of a moderately prosperous society, the wealth that a huge number of Chinese people are enjoying and the contentedness of most of the Chinese people with the increasing betterment of their lives. How many times must I describe what my brother-in-law has? He "has an executive position in an industry while his wife is CFO of a large corporation - and they have two cars, one of which is a fairly new BMW SUV, and live in a small mansion in an upscale community surrounded by a golf course, and will next year be sending their son to the University of Toronto." Is he unhappy with his lot? Guess. I have known so many people here, in all walks of life, from millionaires to dirt farmers, and not one person has bitched about their life or lifestyle. Why would decent peaceful people in Hong Kong be different? Do you actually think the CCP is goiing to throw them out of their homes, take away their jobs and steal their businesses? Does doing such a thing make any common sense at all?
So believe all the bullshit you've been snowed with. My response is that of Rhett Butler at the end of Gone With the Wind.