It’s that time of year again. While Americans celebrate independence on July 4, Chinese mourn one month before on June 4, to remember the 1989 Tienanmen massacre. Chinese aren’t allowed to gather. People in Communist China are tightly controlled by programmed groupthink. Like robots, they parrot negativity about Westerners whom they have rarely met and never heard out. Hong Kongers and Taiwanese are a different story. They know. And, they remember.
As if China doesn’t have enough regional enemies, Malaysia says China entered its airspace “flying in tactical formation”. Sixteen Chinese jets were intercepted by Malaysia. China’s Global Times called it a training exercise that did not breech Malaysia’s airspace, then said people only object because of “Western hype”. It’s too bad so many people from so many countries interpret China’s actions as hostile. Regional sentiment against China only grows.
Of course, China showed its level of dedication to its 1984 treaty with Britain through the ban on any Tienanmen vigils. The treaty allows Hong Kong to be under China at all. Britain, the US, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia consider that treaty “permanently shredded“, which means they don’t consider Hong Kong under China and only need a military scuffle to enforce that decision. That is the military action they are actively looking for, the military action which China is helping them to find.
Worst of all for China is yet another increase in support from the global public. Because Microsoft Bing censored the famous photo of “tank man” from its search results—not only in China, but around the world. By playing to China’s apparent tune, Microsoft got to chalk up the blame to “human error” and the world saw China for the history re-writing addict it is. Microsoft would have done China a favor by not censoring “tank man”, even if instructed by China. But, with the Chinese appetite for respect, they’ll never figure out that Microsoft probably meant to do them dirty by going along. This was a test from the West on how far China would overreach unto its own undoing.
