Bari, this democracy story in Hong Kong is not quite as one-sided as portrayed. Nor is are the Uighurs. Let's start with the Uighurs, a muslim ethnic group sharing a border with Afghanistan and Pakistan --- Pakistan currently driving millions of Afghans who are causing militant trouble out. The US has a history of weaponizing Al Qaeda an…
Bari, this democracy story in Hong Kong is not quite as one-sided as portrayed. Nor is are the Uighurs. Let's start with the Uighurs, a muslim ethnic group sharing a border with Afghanistan and Pakistan --- Pakistan currently driving millions of Afghans who are causing militant trouble out. The US has a history of weaponizing Al Qaeda and ISIS against Syria, and the USSR. Why would people think the same is not the story with the Uighurs? Most of the Uighurs are just fine. In fact, Israel could learn from China how to deal with Hamas and Hezbollah. China sees what is going on with muslims, and is making sure they don't have a problem.
There were long-time Hong Kongers, (most of them) who weren't building barricades, meeting with the American ambassador after Joe Biden declared he would "stop China" by any means necessary, and fighting with police. Many Hong Kongers went out and did what they could to clear the barricades. Yes, China cracks down heavy, it's what they do when pressed. But let's get real. If students at the Ivies met with the Chinese ambassador for advice, and built serious barricades obstructing Congress and Manhattan and battling with police, we wouldn't exactly be sitting back just letting it happen forever. China responded to the Hong Kong events with pretty accurate understanding of what it was---an op by the Biden administration in hopes of spreading riots and dissent in China proper.
Do I think China could handle it better? Sure. But this is a nation that has living memory of the dark years of the Cultural Revolution, when university professors were tortured to death by students, a principal was literally roasted alive and then slices eaten by student protesters. Student gangs seized military weapons and fought battles with each other. China's history with student uprisings is very different from ours. Read The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu. In the early chapters he takes you through a scene where a professor of physics of dies rather than renounce Albert Einstein's bourgeois anti-revolutionary physics. China's leadership will do anything it thinks it must do to stop a repeat of the Cultural Revolution.
So Bari, please educate yourself more before jumping on the "But it's obvious!" train. I'm about as far from Marxist as a person can get. But it is important to understand why other nations do things. History, Bari. It's a thing. Really.
Bari, this democracy story in Hong Kong is not quite as one-sided as portrayed. Nor is are the Uighurs. Let's start with the Uighurs, a muslim ethnic group sharing a border with Afghanistan and Pakistan --- Pakistan currently driving millions of Afghans who are causing militant trouble out. The US has a history of weaponizing Al Qaeda and ISIS against Syria, and the USSR. Why would people think the same is not the story with the Uighurs? Most of the Uighurs are just fine. In fact, Israel could learn from China how to deal with Hamas and Hezbollah. China sees what is going on with muslims, and is making sure they don't have a problem.
There were long-time Hong Kongers, (most of them) who weren't building barricades, meeting with the American ambassador after Joe Biden declared he would "stop China" by any means necessary, and fighting with police. Many Hong Kongers went out and did what they could to clear the barricades. Yes, China cracks down heavy, it's what they do when pressed. But let's get real. If students at the Ivies met with the Chinese ambassador for advice, and built serious barricades obstructing Congress and Manhattan and battling with police, we wouldn't exactly be sitting back just letting it happen forever. China responded to the Hong Kong events with pretty accurate understanding of what it was---an op by the Biden administration in hopes of spreading riots and dissent in China proper.
Do I think China could handle it better? Sure. But this is a nation that has living memory of the dark years of the Cultural Revolution, when university professors were tortured to death by students, a principal was literally roasted alive and then slices eaten by student protesters. Student gangs seized military weapons and fought battles with each other. China's history with student uprisings is very different from ours. Read The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu. In the early chapters he takes you through a scene where a professor of physics of dies rather than renounce Albert Einstein's bourgeois anti-revolutionary physics. China's leadership will do anything it thinks it must do to stop a repeat of the Cultural Revolution.
So Bari, please educate yourself more before jumping on the "But it's obvious!" train. I'm about as far from Marxist as a person can get. But it is important to understand why other nations do things. History, Bari. It's a thing. Really.