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  1. The New York Review of BooksIan Johnson7 min
    2 reads3 comments
    5.5
    The New York Review of Books
    2 reads
    5.5
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    • caleb4 years ago

      this article is so deviously pro-dictator and is result of believing propaganda caused by a lack of conviction in life sustaining values. the author treats this topic like a game of Risk rather than recognizing that people's lives are at stake.

      suggesting that "the use of violence" by the protestors was a mistakenly played chess move, while the city is surrounded by tanks and its citizens threatened with elimination of all liberty, is ridiculous. it's not china's government's right to be allowed to take over people's lives, just because they're some kind of recognized group called a nation.

      absent the awful communist ideology and leadership enforcing it, there would be no violence to speak of. it's 100% the responsibility of china. chinese communism is truly evil.

      • bill
        Top reader this weekTop reader of all timeReading streakScoutScribe
        4 years ago

        Wow. Strong, smart words. Hit me like a burst of cold air. My reading wasn’t so blunt. But - Yes. You’re right.

        I’m thinking about this paradox: “Hearing both sides” versus tuning out propaganda.

        I have been trying to find English translations of reader-friendly first-hand accounts of the protests. My opinions aren’t baked yet, even after months of reading. Maybe thats the real story here.

    • bill
      Top reader this weekTop reader of all timeReading streakScoutScribe
      4 years ago

      The China/Hong Kong situation seems pretty black and white to me. So I obviously have some more to learn.

      Fun fact:

      [Hong Kong] has lost its global allure. Tourism is booming but only because of Chinese tourists, who now account for nearly 80 percent of arrivals. These aren’t savvy Chinese travelers—that rising class has long since written off Hong Kong as a backwater—but people for whom a visit is their first “foreign” experience.