For 26 years, the pro-democracy tabloid Apple Daily was a thorn in Beijing’s side. This week, the paper closed for good. What its death means for Hong Kong — and for us all.
Interesting. Sounds a lot like the Dems in the US. How it indoctrinates its people with censorship (Big Tech platforms) and propaganda (Main Stream Media). About how it disappears people (1,500 locked in cells 22 hours per day over the insurrection. No Parole). About how it uses cutting edge technology to spy on its own (Sounds like the NSA). (And kills its own citizens, Ashli Babbitt.)
The greatest threat to democracy in the US is the ongoing putsch by the trumpista party to disenfranchise as many people who oppose them as they possibly can.
This is, brave, brilliant, and makes me cry. I never thought I would see the day in which we would be in such dire straits with regard to our own democracy, that I would understand why we let Hong Kong down. Because we have our own democracy to save. This is all so shitty.
Thanks, Bari, for bringing needed attention to the sad fate of Apple Daily. I'm a lifelong non-party independent, but I've often wondered why progressives who espouse human rights and decry police abuses give China a complete pass on the treatment of its Uyghers. Then I wonder why progressives who value indigenous cultures, languages and traditional ways of life looked the other way as China ran roughshod over Tibet over the last several decades. Today progressives decry the "disenfranchisement" of voters (horrors - you might need an ID to vote, like in Europe) but merely shrug when asked about the totalitarian coup in Hong Kong, with the forced closure of Apple Daily being a major chapter. My parting question is for those who are concerned about climate change, which is a lot of people: Since China is far and away the world's biggest polluter, where is the outrage? Global warming is, ah, global, and tinkering with bike lanes while China opens 45 coal plants in a year makes a mockery of my pious climate activist friends' sincerity. China is, by all measures, the anti-ESG, but I don't remember seeing protestors outside the Chinese embassy in Washington. I don't see "Don't Buy China" campaigns. Can someone explain how progressives reconcile this to me?
Bari, do not you see the bigger picture here in which you are living in such a state? What China does to end the Western systems of imperial-colonist origin, that in our lifetimes, and in the generations preceding, have demonstrated themselves to be purposed for maintaining a global Anglo-American hegemony, and ultimately a White Supremest system of institutions to govern the world in maintaining this status-quo.
China is simply playing our game. They tried to be confucian about things, even having their Emperor write a letter to the British monarchy asking why a nation would choose to cause suffering through opium addiction, simply because they would only accept silver in exchange for tea.
So now they act like us, sending tons of fentanyl and other analogues to the centers of all American and European heartlands. Confusion, no? But a sweet revenge by simply following Western examples.
Do you ever read the trade deals we protest against, or threaten "partners" for signing-onto?
Bari Weiss, you are living in the world of common sense, that is a construct of people who look like you, and not world of common sense.
Very sad indeed. Hopefully we can keep our press relatively free here in the US. I suppose a reading of this article begs the question as to whether China is influencing our (US) current decisions to self-censor due to woke reasons?
We shouldn’t and cannot settle for “relatively” free. We need to push back, and we need to accept that we will each have to make individual, personal sacrifices to do so. What made any of us think that we would be the generation to get off so easy, that we wouldn’t have to sacrifice? Like every single generation before us, for these freedoms? I’m talking about jobs, friends, even family members, for these principles. And god forbid, like every generation before us, possibly our lives? I would respect my mother or father far more for walking away from a job, or being fired, for a principle that matters far more, than one measly job, in the context of the history of the world’s most successful democracy. Maybe a family, and a child specifically, has a better shot in life, and to be a contributor to society, observing a parent, who is willing to make sacrifices for their principles, pulling together as a family to fight through the hard times that may come as a result, and what THIS gives to that child, for a lifetime, as well as the kind of adult this creates, for society, is of far more value, than the nonsense people spew about “feeding their families” as some justification for remaining silent. It’s cowardly. And so very inconvenient, I know, as we weren’t planning for this; and we don’t like the intrusion. We are idiots if we accept this from ourselves. Sorry, time to drop everything, get off our truly privileged butts, and fight back..
I suspect China is doing far more than merely influencing Americans to self censor. I suspect China is orchestrating the whole damned CRT woke program.
N2001, In China 'wokeness' is denounced as Baizou. From Wikipedia, Baizou is described as "a sarcastic reference to those whose political opinions are perceived as being guided by emotions or a hypocritical show of selflessness and empathy". Given the deep Chinese hostility towards "wokeness" I rather doubt that they are responsible for 'wokeness' in the West. This is a self-inflicted wound.
They not-so-covertly boss around the NBA. Nike is in thrall to them. Hollywood. Apple is too cozy. The whole of the West is in its last phase, and there is nothing we can do about it if our institutions, our government, our corporations, and a large percentage of our citizenry are either supporters or in denial. China is far from world domination, but they don't need to dominate the world independently. For now and maybe for a while, they only need to dominate us.
Thank you Bari for this excellent description of what is happening. As you say, if it can happen there, it can happen here, it is the new Cold War as Jimmy Lai says, who now is sentenced to possibly years in jail for simply publishing a major newspaper. With good investigative reporting like you do here, and the rest of us showing our leaders that we know what is happening, then we can prevent this Cold War that is enabled by the Big Tech/CCP/Globalist Money alliance.
Hi, Bari. I’m curious what you know, and think, about the state of the younger population of communist China as a result of the 1 child rule imposed a generation ago and the subsequent preference in most families for that child to be a boy. If there was ever a seed planted for revolution in that evil empire, fucking with the availability of viable mates in which to start a family could be it, it seems to me. 🤷🏼
When we consider U.S. companies that do business in China and take advantage of its repressive policies for the sake of profit, there is an aspect that I haven't seen much reported. These companies are mainly publicly traded. Who, for instance, owns Nike? About 83% of its shares are held by institutional investors such as Vanguard, Morgan Stanley, Fidelity, T Rowe Price, etc. Those investors manage funds in which many individuals, myself included, have invested retirement monies in 401(k) and 403(b) plans, IRAs, pension plans, etc. We expect these investments to grow at a sufficient rate to provide a decent income when we retire. The fund managers knows this, and compete against each other for this business. Companies such as Nike in turn know this from institutional investors who want their expectations met. What better way to ensure profitability than to cut deals with a government that can keep productivity high and wages low? Perhaps it's time to summon the ghost of Adam Smith and tell him that, under modern capitalism, communism is economically efficient?
You started off fine but then drove off the cliff with your efficiency argument. Communism in its supposed "true form," would not allow for capitalism. The gang in Beijing are simply a mafia of purported "communists" who run a massive protection scam. Nothing more.
I don’t think we’ll ever see communism, capitalism, or any other “ism” in its truest form because we don’t live in a world that allows such things. And I don’t believe that communism is an economically efficient or wise system aside from its many atrocities. Communism fails at innovation (where are its great contributions?) but the PRC version of it seems to be good at taking the ideas of others and using them to its advantage. And capitalists like Nike and Apple are more than happy to sell them the rope.
The steady creep of cancel culture, CRT and lockdowns are creating the kind of muscle memory that will allow this to happen here. We must not forget what happened in Hong Kong is a slow drip that can happen here. It comes in different forms but Marxism and Communism are the end result. Thank God we have journalists in the fight at substack and a few other places because our old stalwarts in the media are if not compromised, completely taken over.
Interesting. Sounds a lot like the Dems in the US. How it indoctrinates its people with censorship (Big Tech platforms) and propaganda (Main Stream Media). About how it disappears people (1,500 locked in cells 22 hours per day over the insurrection. No Parole). About how it uses cutting edge technology to spy on its own (Sounds like the NSA). (And kills its own citizens, Ashli Babbitt.)
The greatest threat to democracy in the US is the ongoing putsch by the trumpista party to disenfranchise as many people who oppose them as they possibly can.
Are you going to write about that one, Bari?
Okay, Bari - I'm waiting for the follow-up interview with Mark Cuban...
This is, brave, brilliant, and makes me cry. I never thought I would see the day in which we would be in such dire straits with regard to our own democracy, that I would understand why we let Hong Kong down. Because we have our own democracy to save. This is all so shitty.
Thanks, Bari, for bringing needed attention to the sad fate of Apple Daily. I'm a lifelong non-party independent, but I've often wondered why progressives who espouse human rights and decry police abuses give China a complete pass on the treatment of its Uyghers. Then I wonder why progressives who value indigenous cultures, languages and traditional ways of life looked the other way as China ran roughshod over Tibet over the last several decades. Today progressives decry the "disenfranchisement" of voters (horrors - you might need an ID to vote, like in Europe) but merely shrug when asked about the totalitarian coup in Hong Kong, with the forced closure of Apple Daily being a major chapter. My parting question is for those who are concerned about climate change, which is a lot of people: Since China is far and away the world's biggest polluter, where is the outrage? Global warming is, ah, global, and tinkering with bike lanes while China opens 45 coal plants in a year makes a mockery of my pious climate activist friends' sincerity. China is, by all measures, the anti-ESG, but I don't remember seeing protestors outside the Chinese embassy in Washington. I don't see "Don't Buy China" campaigns. Can someone explain how progressives reconcile this to me?
Bari, do not you see the bigger picture here in which you are living in such a state? What China does to end the Western systems of imperial-colonist origin, that in our lifetimes, and in the generations preceding, have demonstrated themselves to be purposed for maintaining a global Anglo-American hegemony, and ultimately a White Supremest system of institutions to govern the world in maintaining this status-quo.
China is simply playing our game. They tried to be confucian about things, even having their Emperor write a letter to the British monarchy asking why a nation would choose to cause suffering through opium addiction, simply because they would only accept silver in exchange for tea.
So now they act like us, sending tons of fentanyl and other analogues to the centers of all American and European heartlands. Confusion, no? But a sweet revenge by simply following Western examples.
Do you ever read the trade deals we protest against, or threaten "partners" for signing-onto?
Bari Weiss, you are living in the world of common sense, that is a construct of people who look like you, and not world of common sense.
Very sad indeed. Hopefully we can keep our press relatively free here in the US. I suppose a reading of this article begs the question as to whether China is influencing our (US) current decisions to self-censor due to woke reasons?
We shouldn’t and cannot settle for “relatively” free. We need to push back, and we need to accept that we will each have to make individual, personal sacrifices to do so. What made any of us think that we would be the generation to get off so easy, that we wouldn’t have to sacrifice? Like every single generation before us, for these freedoms? I’m talking about jobs, friends, even family members, for these principles. And god forbid, like every generation before us, possibly our lives? I would respect my mother or father far more for walking away from a job, or being fired, for a principle that matters far more, than one measly job, in the context of the history of the world’s most successful democracy. Maybe a family, and a child specifically, has a better shot in life, and to be a contributor to society, observing a parent, who is willing to make sacrifices for their principles, pulling together as a family to fight through the hard times that may come as a result, and what THIS gives to that child, for a lifetime, as well as the kind of adult this creates, for society, is of far more value, than the nonsense people spew about “feeding their families” as some justification for remaining silent. It’s cowardly. And so very inconvenient, I know, as we weren’t planning for this; and we don’t like the intrusion. We are idiots if we accept this from ourselves. Sorry, time to drop everything, get off our truly privileged butts, and fight back..
I suspect China is doing far more than merely influencing Americans to self censor. I suspect China is orchestrating the whole damned CRT woke program.
N2001, In China 'wokeness' is denounced as Baizou. From Wikipedia, Baizou is described as "a sarcastic reference to those whose political opinions are perceived as being guided by emotions or a hypocritical show of selflessness and empathy". Given the deep Chinese hostility towards "wokeness" I rather doubt that they are responsible for 'wokeness' in the West. This is a self-inflicted wound.
They not-so-covertly boss around the NBA. Nike is in thrall to them. Hollywood. Apple is too cozy. The whole of the West is in its last phase, and there is nothing we can do about it if our institutions, our government, our corporations, and a large percentage of our citizenry are either supporters or in denial. China is far from world domination, but they don't need to dominate the world independently. For now and maybe for a while, they only need to dominate us.
Thank you Bari for this excellent description of what is happening. As you say, if it can happen there, it can happen here, it is the new Cold War as Jimmy Lai says, who now is sentenced to possibly years in jail for simply publishing a major newspaper. With good investigative reporting like you do here, and the rest of us showing our leaders that we know what is happening, then we can prevent this Cold War that is enabled by the Big Tech/CCP/Globalist Money alliance.
The ChiComs—
Forced Abortions
Harvesting organs from political prisoners
Persecuting Christians
I’ll stop now—The US democrat socialists get aroused.
That lady would never make it as a journalist in the USA—too much character and courage.
Hi, Bari. I’m curious what you know, and think, about the state of the younger population of communist China as a result of the 1 child rule imposed a generation ago and the subsequent preference in most families for that child to be a boy. If there was ever a seed planted for revolution in that evil empire, fucking with the availability of viable mates in which to start a family could be it, it seems to me. 🤷🏼
So what do we do?
Thank you for your clarity, honestly and courage. Keep going, we are reading.
When we consider U.S. companies that do business in China and take advantage of its repressive policies for the sake of profit, there is an aspect that I haven't seen much reported. These companies are mainly publicly traded. Who, for instance, owns Nike? About 83% of its shares are held by institutional investors such as Vanguard, Morgan Stanley, Fidelity, T Rowe Price, etc. Those investors manage funds in which many individuals, myself included, have invested retirement monies in 401(k) and 403(b) plans, IRAs, pension plans, etc. We expect these investments to grow at a sufficient rate to provide a decent income when we retire. The fund managers knows this, and compete against each other for this business. Companies such as Nike in turn know this from institutional investors who want their expectations met. What better way to ensure profitability than to cut deals with a government that can keep productivity high and wages low? Perhaps it's time to summon the ghost of Adam Smith and tell him that, under modern capitalism, communism is economically efficient?
You started off fine but then drove off the cliff with your efficiency argument. Communism in its supposed "true form," would not allow for capitalism. The gang in Beijing are simply a mafia of purported "communists" who run a massive protection scam. Nothing more.
I don’t think we’ll ever see communism, capitalism, or any other “ism” in its truest form because we don’t live in a world that allows such things. And I don’t believe that communism is an economically efficient or wise system aside from its many atrocities. Communism fails at innovation (where are its great contributions?) but the PRC version of it seems to be good at taking the ideas of others and using them to its advantage. And capitalists like Nike and Apple are more than happy to sell them the rope.
The steady creep of cancel culture, CRT and lockdowns are creating the kind of muscle memory that will allow this to happen here. We must not forget what happened in Hong Kong is a slow drip that can happen here. It comes in different forms but Marxism and Communism are the end result. Thank God we have journalists in the fight at substack and a few other places because our old stalwarts in the media are if not compromised, completely taken over.