{"id":16310,"date":"2017-11-18T18:08:47","date_gmt":"2017-11-18T10:08:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinaworker.info\/?p=16310"},"modified":"2017-11-19T03:19:02","modified_gmt":"2017-11-18T19:19:02","slug":"china-exporting-state-repression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2017\/11\/18\/16310\/","title":{"rendered":"China exporting state repression"},"content":{"rendered":"

Under Xi Jinping\u2019s rule repression, censorship, and \u2018Big Brother\u2019 surveillance have reached new levels, resembling and in some aspects surpassing Orwell\u2019s science fiction nightmare<\/strong><\/p>\n

chinaworker.info statement<\/p>\n

(3rd in our three-part series of articles on\u00a0October\u2019s 19th CCP Congress)<\/em><\/p>\n

This process has been helped by advanced cyber-technology, often developed and sold by Western \u2018democracies\u2019. China is investing massive sums in the development of advanced technologies for economic but also political purposes \u2013 to upgrade its repressive capabilities. It has more than half the world\u2019s video surveillance cameras, 176 million out of 245 million globally, and is leading the way in face and voice recognition technology.<\/p>\n

Google boss Eric Smidt also recently warned<\/a> that China is on course in the coming decade to overtake the US in Artificial Intelligence<\/a>, which Time magazine called \u201cthe space race of the 21st century\u201d. The Chinese regime has made no secret of its plans to incorporate AI capabilities into its \u2018stability maintenance\u2019 programmes.<\/p>\n

China has thus become the model for \u2018digital authoritarianism\u2019 around the world, emulated by countless other autocratic regimes including Russia, Iran and Ethiopia. More and more governments are copying China in the manipulation of the internet and social media for political purposes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe effects of these rapidly spreading techniques on democracy and civic activism are potentially devastating,\u201d warned the Freedom on the Net project<\/a> in a recent study of 65 countries.<\/p>\n

The Philippines government now reportedly employs a 10,000-strong \u201ckeyboard army\u201d<\/a> to drown out online opposition to president Duterte\u2019s policies. But this is nothing compared to the 10 million paid agents in China\u2019s \u201c50 cent party\u201d<\/a> who earn their living by bombarding social media with pro-regime \u2018news\u2019 and comments.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Cartoon by Chinese artist Badiucao.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Winnie the Pooh, seriously?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite this, the hypersensitivity of the CCP (so-called\u00a0\u2018Communist Party\u2019) regime is reflected in the blocking of Winnie the Pooh<\/a> on the internet after netizens pointed out the cartoon bear\u2019s uncanny resemblance to Xi Jinping. The popularity among youth of the nickname \u2018Xitler\u2019 for the president is another sign of incipient revolt against the dictatorship.<\/p>\n

Xi\u2019s crackdown on dissent has been widely criticised as the most serious since the crushing of the 1989 democracy movement<\/a>. In recent years as China\u2019s economic muscle has expanded so has its readiness to project police power overseas, through the abduction of regime critics in foreign jurisdictions<\/a> and the use of financial coercion to silence unfavourable publicity and political debate.<\/p>\n

In the latest of a series of similar cases an Australian publishing company under pressure from Beijing has cancelled publication of a book, \u2018Silent Invasion\u2019, by university professor Clive Hamilton<\/a>, which purportedly documents Chinese state interference in Australian politics.<\/p>\n

However, while the capitalist establishment ingratiates itself with the Chinese regime\u2019s authoritarian \u2018habits\u2019, these methods are beginning to provoke a growing backlash from the masses around the world. This is the orientation of the international campaign against repression in Hong Kong<\/a> and China initiated by Socialist Action<\/a> (CWI in Hong Kong), which places its confidence in working people internationally rather than governments and elites.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe perfect police state\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The worst repression practised by the CCP regime is reserved for Muslim-majority Xinjiang which resembles \u201cthe perfect police state\u201d according to the Guardian<\/a>. Xinjiang\u2019s capital Urumqi (population 3.5 million) now boasts 949 police stations<\/a> compared to 180 police stations in London (population 8.7 million) and 76 in New York (population 8.5 million).<\/p>\n

Most recently, the provincial CCP authorities have begun mass arrests of around 500 ethnic Kazakhs, who now join the largest Muslim minority, Uighurs, as the focus of state repression. The brutality of the crackdown is preparing an explosive backlash but also erects new obstacles to Beijing\u2019s economic expansion plans into Central Asia and other Muslim states.<\/p>\n

Two recent examples underline the realities of China\u2019s combination of unlimited hi-tech state security budget and hypersensitive regime. Shandong resident Wang Jiangfeng was given two years in prison earlier this year for using the nickname \u201cSteamed Bun\u201d<\/a> for Xi Jinping, which refers to a televised meet-the-people visit the Chinese leader made to a working class Beijing food vendor.<\/p>\n

Apart from the brutality of this sentence, the striking thing about Wang\u2019s \u201ccrime\u201d is that his remarks were made only to friends in a private WeChat group \u2013 they were not posted in public.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Uighur Muslims in far western Xinjiang face mounting repression.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The riddle of Guo Wengui<\/strong><\/p>\n

More recently, a farmer in Henan province was jailed for wearing a tee-shirt with the cryptic slogan \u201call of this is only the beginning\u201d. The slogan is a favourite phrase of exiled billionaire blogger Guo Wengui, who has gained notoriety and tens of millions of social media followers this year with a campaign of sensational but cryptic corruption allegations against the top leadership of the CCP.<\/p>\n

Guo has probably acted as a proxy for CCP factions seeking to undermine Xi\u2019s position in the run up to the 19th Congress. Alternatively, his twitter-war may just be desperate publicity-seeking in a bid to avoid deportation from the US. But the mass following his social media outbursts have assembled is a measure of the discontent building up against the regime.<\/p>\n

Beijing\u2019s ferocious counter campaign, which includes litigation in the US courts, measures against Guo\u2019s relatives and associates, and more recently enlisting the support of Interpol and even of Facebook (which shut down Guo\u2019s account) has for millions of people posed the question why is Xi\u2019s regime so desperate to silence him?<\/p>\n

While his motives and the veracity of his facts are far from established, Guo\u2019s central accusation, of a \u2018kleptocracy\u2019 running China<\/a> and looting billions, isn\u2019t so outlandish. New reports have emerged within the past few days of vast fortunes invested in Hong Kong property by the families of top CCP officials<\/a> including Xi Jinping\u2019s daughter. This is of course nothing new.<\/p>\n

Read more: Xi Jinping \u2013 How strong is China\u2019s new strongman?\u00a0\u27b5\u00a0<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Under Xi Jinping\u2019s rule repression, censorship, and \u2018Big Brother\u2019 surveillance have reached new levels, resembling and in some aspects surpassing Orwell\u2019s science fiction nightmare<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":16311,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[132,148,124],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16310","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-china","8":"category-international","9":"category-news"},"yoast_head":"\nChina exporting state repression - China Worker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2017\/11\/18\/16310\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"China exporting state repression - 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