7 ms·

This is the classic "what breaks you only make you stronger" but in a very aggressive way. Throughout history those who were oppressed and then made it to the t

This is the classic "what breaks you only make you stronger" but in a very aggressive way. Throughout history those who were oppressed and then made it to the top would usually end up wanting to seize full control and more oppressive than their oppressors. Xi looks friendly to the people, but there is a Chinese saying: 笑裡藏刀 (xiào lǐ cáng dāo)or "smile in hiding knife.” He is the alpha male of the entire Party. On one hand I like Xi's effort to clean up the corrupted senior officials. It was about time, but now he has the absolute power (military, justice, and executive) under the chair of the Party's control is alarming. I know a lot of Chinese natives (for what it is worth, I was born and raised in HK until I was 12) who refuse to believe in all the bad things happening in China, and refuse to recognize tragedy such as Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. They also become very emotional when it comes to Taiwan's relationship with China. But China isn't the only country in the world censoring and rewriting history. Japan tried to cover up its war crime during WW2. Other Western countries tried too. [1] I hate the fact today we still have governments and citizens who refuse to recognize the wrongdoings in their country's history, and fail to work toward a peaceful resolution once and for all. All the fights for territories and borders, all the ethic group fighting over historical hates and war crimes (e.g. Myanmar vs Rohingya). Time to wake THE FUCK UP... If we let go of our pasts, and our irrational prides, especially those we inherited from generations before us, then this world would finally have peace. Of course, the sad reality is we won't and will never be able to. Money prints off blood, and power is measured by the number of coffins and the fall of oppositions. Make no mistake, we can't compromise human values in exchange for stability. But this is how Xi and every leader in the world thinks of governance. Forgive, and be more compassionate. What is more important than saving lives and make people feel they are humans again, and not a war machine? [1]: http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v06/v06p--9_Bennett.html http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v06/v06p--9_Bennett.html

dmoy 9y ago
You're not wrong about some mainland Chinese refusing to believe (or never learning in the first place) anything about 6/4. My wife is among them, or used to be at least. Then again if you ask the average US freshman if the US military shot and killed a bunch of student protestors, you'd find a number who wouldn't believe you. Difference is in the US a trivial we search answers that question for you, while in China all record of 6/4 is scrubbed, and even acronyms that you use to mention it get scrubbed, etc.
- mslate 9y ago
  For everyone else who doesn't know what "6/4" refers to, it refers to the date of the Tiananmen Square protests: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1...
  - simongray 9y ago
    To be exact, it refers to the massacre. The protests lasted for a long time before the crackdown.
  - swang 9y ago
    A Day To Remember. A short video where they ask Chinese University students, "what day is today." Filmed in 2005... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCPkkGArVy4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCPkkGArVy4 I watch this clip a lot around the 6/4 anniversary. This is not the original copy, that's somewhere on Vimeo I think.
    - mslate 9y ago
      Wow, the discomfort is intense. How much is that from being video recorded w/o consent?
    - rqs 9y ago
      That's in 2005. CCP's online control only got worst these years. Today if you ask average young people on the street in China about 4 Jun, some (If not many) of them may even don't understand what you're talking about.
- seanmcdirmid 9y ago
  It isn't 6/4, but May 35th (5/35). It isn't completely scrubbed, many know it happened, they just don't talk about it because (a) they don't care and (b) they aren't allowed to (in that order). Historical reflection is where the Chinese gov really clamps down, and even the cultural revolution is taboo even if everyone knows just about what happened. Kent state happened so long ago that most American students just don't know, or anything much that happened during Vietnam, which our history classes don't seem to have time to cover. In china, its a bit worse, as they have the siege of Changchun (the communists basically starved out a few hundred thousand civilians), or the 1938 yellow river flood, where the nationalists killed millions of civilians to thwart the Japanese. In those contexts, Tiananmen is just a blip.
chaostheory 9y ago
A better translation for 笑裡藏刀 is "Hide a knife behind a smile". I'm not being critical, just making it easier to understand for others. > This is the classic "what breaks you only make you stronger" but in a very aggressive way. imo This is just continuing effects from the trauma of Cultural Revolution, with fear & self preservation being the primary motivation of the China's red nobility. I remember reading that one of Deng Xiaoping's major reasons to crush the Democracy rallies was because he feared an uprising and being under house arrest again. It makes you wonder what China will be like if you have leadership who didn't experience the bad end of the Cultural Revolution firsthand
LiweiZ 9y ago
If you are aware of the movements(运动) in the ruling party's history, the effort to cleanse is nothing new. But we did not see that for a while. Today is tomorrow's history. Compared with yesterday, today is not that different from yesterday. But history does not simply repeat itself, either.
skrebbel 9y ago
> Other Western countries tried too. [1] > [1]: http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v06/v06p--9_Bennett.html http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v06/v06p--9_Bennett.html I read 2/3 of that article with some interest and occasional surprise until I ran into the part where the holocaust is flat out denied and the bombing of German cities called the greatest war crime of WWII. Judging by the fact that you share that link as if it's well-researched truth I wonder what your agenda is. Do you believe that, and I quote, "there was no plan to exterminate Jews in World War II"? If not, why do you quote that article as if it has merit? The weird thing is that the article does not support your argument. Your argument is against nationalism, and I passionately agree with you there. The article you quote is all about, and I quote again, "the fallacious belief that multi-racial societies are viable".

dmoy 9y ago

You're not wrong about some mainland Chinese refusing to believe (or never learning in the first place) anything about 6/4. My wife is among them, or used to be at least. Then again if you ask the average US freshman if the US military shot and killed a bunch of student protestors, you'd find a number who wouldn't believe you. Difference is in the US a trivial we search answers that question for you, while in China all record of 6/4 is scrubbed, and even acronyms that you use to mention it get scrubbed, etc.

mslate 9y ago
For everyone else who doesn't know what "6/4" refers to, it refers to the date of the Tiananmen Square protests: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1...
- simongray 9y ago
  To be exact, it refers to the massacre. The protests lasted for a long time before the crackdown.
- swang 9y ago
  A Day To Remember. A short video where they ask Chinese University students, "what day is today." Filmed in 2005... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCPkkGArVy4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCPkkGArVy4 I watch this clip a lot around the 6/4 anniversary. This is not the original copy, that's somewhere on Vimeo I think.
  - mslate 9y ago
    Wow, the discomfort is intense. How much is that from being video recorded w/o consent?
  - rqs 9y ago
    That's in 2005. CCP's online control only got worst these years. Today if you ask average young people on the street in China about 4 Jun, some (If not many) of them may even don't understand what you're talking about.
seanmcdirmid 9y ago
It isn't 6/4, but May 35th (5/35). It isn't completely scrubbed, many know it happened, they just don't talk about it because (a) they don't care and (b) they aren't allowed to (in that order). Historical reflection is where the Chinese gov really clamps down, and even the cultural revolution is taboo even if everyone knows just about what happened. Kent state happened so long ago that most American students just don't know, or anything much that happened during Vietnam, which our history classes don't seem to have time to cover. In china, its a bit worse, as they have the siege of Changchun (the communists basically starved out a few hundred thousand civilians), or the 1938 yellow river flood, where the nationalists killed millions of civilians to thwart the Japanese. In those contexts, Tiananmen is just a blip.

chaostheory 9y ago

A better translation for 笑裡藏刀 is "Hide a knife behind a smile". I'm not being critical, just making it easier to understand for others. > This is the classic "what breaks you only make you stronger" but in a very aggressive way. imo This is just continuing effects from the trauma of Cultural Revolution, with fear & self preservation being the primary motivation of the China's red nobility. I remember reading that one of Deng Xiaoping's major reasons to crush the Democracy rallies was because he feared an uprising and being under house arrest again. It makes you wonder what China will be like if you have leadership who didn't experience the bad end of the Cultural Revolution firsthand

LiweiZ 9y ago

If you are aware of the movements(运动) in the ruling party's history, the effort to cleanse is nothing new. But we did not see that for a while. Today is tomorrow's history. Compared with yesterday, today is not that different from yesterday. But history does not simply repeat itself, either.

skrebbel 9y ago

> Other Western countries tried too. [1] > [1]: http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v06/v06p--9_Bennett.html http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v06/v06p--9_Bennett.html I read 2/3 of that article with some interest and occasional surprise until I ran into the part where the holocaust is flat out denied and the bombing of German cities called the greatest war crime of WWII. Judging by the fact that you share that link as if it's well-researched truth I wonder what your agenda is. Do you believe that, and I quote, "there was no plan to exterminate Jews in World War II"? If not, why do you quote that article as if it has merit? The weird thing is that the article does not support your argument. Your argument is against nationalism, and I passionately agree with you there. The article you quote is all about, and I quote again, "the fallacious belief that multi-racial societies are viable".