[Toukairin]

This text is extremely disturbing to say the least.

China’s Youth Are Trapped in the Cult of Nationalism

I know that some of us have already made apt comparisons between China and Imperial Japan in the way they build up their power and use whatever propaganda to say that xyz group is the enemy and so forth. However, this one is both deeper and much uglier when I read this.

Let me spell it out: This is the Chinese version of the alt-right, except it isn’t fringe. Instead of “Make America Great Again,” the Chinese students were chanting “Long Live China.” Instead of blasting racist speeches against the ethnic minorities clearly visible in the West, this time the discrimination was political and regional—targeting Hong Kongers and their supporters. But the rage, the aggression, and the pride on the streets are all too similar. And they have largely flown under the radar as abusive speeches get lost in translation and go unchecked.

Think for a second here. It shares similarities with the way the Nazis rose by first getting to power, then bending the rules to maintain their power, then passing laws/bills that pushes minorities into concentration camps like it happened for Jews, Gypsies, and other political opponents. Also we see the use of social media like the US alt-right except that it it the mainstream discourse rather than fringes. Last but not least, the crap about China being the nation where the Han ethnic group is the dominant one is fed to schoolchildren from an early age.

To be a modern-day Chinese nationalist is to unknowingly agree to all of that and to become a de facto Han supremacist. On these issues, which all boil down to territorial disputes, it is extremely difficult for a Chinese person living in the mainland to hear arguments against the government’s claims. An argument against any is an argument against the whole. The domestic media and internet are flush with material that accuses the West of meddling in Hong Kong and Uighurs of being extremists yearning for their own reeducation—and alternative voices are ruthlessly crushed.

Han supremacy is a term that really struck because it summed up a lot, and I think this is something that must be talked more in the future. When they say that any criticism of China is an attack on the master (Han) race, I feel vibes about Netanhyahu's Israel shouting that criticism of their country and policies is antisemitism against "all Jewish people". But that is how similar the spinning is in the talk on the world stage.

In short, the social context with Chinese people is one major clusterfuck that blends some of the worst things we have seen in history since the 20th century, and it could get far worse until things get any better.