China wants us to shut up.
Chinais fighting a war against the Truth. When the Chinese communist regime is criticised for committing genocide of Uighurs, it tells its critics and the researchers that exposed it, to shut up. When we criticise the Chinese communist regimes for clamping down on Hong Kong’s democracy activists, it tells us to shut up. When we criticise the Chinese communist regime for violating Taiwan’s airspace and waters, it tells to shut up. And so on.
The Chinese regime’s attacks against people who tell the truth is appalling and often absurd. But it is nothing new. The Chinese communist regime has waged a propaganda and disinformation war against us and its own citizens for many years. The Chinese communist regime lies more frequent than we change shirts.
The international community has finally begun to stand up against Communist China. The communist regime’s violations of human rights in Hong Kong, the genocide of Uighurs, and aggressions against the democratic Taiwan, have become impossible to ignore even for those that put business before human rights.
China tried to shut up Australia.
China often retaliates when criticised. Australia found themselves in a trade war with China following Australian justified requests for inquiries about how China managed the outbreak of Covid-19. And the Chinese communist regime’s contempt of human rights has also caused diplomatic relations with Sweden to deteriorate.
China tried to shut up Sweden
The Swedish publisher Gua Minhai was kidnapped by Chinese police in Thailand. As if the kidnapping of a Swedish citizen wasn’t bad enough, the communist regime has attacked Swedish media, well-known authors, the Swedish branch of the international organisation for free speech, and members of the Swedish government who awarded Gua Minhai this year’s Tucholsky prize.
China tries to shut up academics and MEP: s
And now, following EU sanctions against murders, the Communist regime exceeds itself in absurdity.
"The European Union (EU) imposed unilateral sanctions on relevant Chinese individuals and entity on March 22, citing the so-called human rights issues in Xinjiang. This move, based on nothing but lies and disinformation, disregards and distorts facts, grossly interferes in China's internal affairs, flagrantly breaches international law and basic norms governing international relations, and severely undermines China-EU relations."
But the absurdity doesn’t stop there. In a farcical attempt to criticise the EU, China blames the EU for the holocaust, and criticises the EU for having no Freedom of speech! c.f. Figure 1.
Figure 1. Communist China kills satire.
The claim that the EU sanctions are based on lies is, to put it mildly, interesting since the Chinese regime is one of the autocratic regimes that most frequently use lies to influence both the domestic and foreign audiences, c.f. Figure 2.
Figure 2. Government dissemination of false information to domestic vs foreign audiences.
Source: Varieties of Democracy, https://www.v-dem.net/en/ Note: TheGovernment dissemination of false information domestic indicator ranges from 0 to 4 where 0 indicates that the governments and its agents frequently use social media to spread false information to its own population and 4 never. The Government dissemination of false information abroad indicator ranges from 0 to 4 where 0 indicates that the governments and its agents frequently use social media to spread false information to citizens in other countries and 4 never.
The most frequent liars are found at the bottom left of the figure. Zooming in on the observations that are below one for both indicators above, yields the following countries, c.f. Table 1.
Table 1. The most frequent liars.
Source: Varieties of Democracy, https://www.v-dem.net/en/ Note: TheGovernment dissemination of false information domestic indicator ranges from 0 to 4 where 0 indicates that the governments and its agents frequently use social media to spread false information to its own population and 4 never. The Government dissemination of false information abroad indicator ranges from 0 to 4 where 0 indicates that the governments and its agents frequently use social media to spread false information to citizens in other countries and 4 never.
The table is sorted ascendingly according to how frequent the regimes lie to their own population.
And should the Communist regime really criticise the EU w.r.t. Freedom of Speech? I don’t think so, c.f. Figure 3.
Figure 3. Freedom of Expression in China and the EU in 2020.
Source: Varieties of Democracy, https://www.v-dem.net/en/ Note: The indicator Freedom of expression index, (v2x_freexp), shows to what extent the governments respect press and media freedom, the freedom of ordinary people to discuss political matters at home and in the public sphere, as well as the freedom of academic and cultural expression.
The V-Dem (https://www.v-dem.net/en/) indicator above also gauges the extent of Academic Freedom, which is defined as “the right of academics, without constriction by prescribed doctrine, to freedom of teaching and discussion, freedom in carrying out research and disseminating and publishing the results thereof, freedom to express freely their opinion about the institution or system in which they work, freedom from institutional censorship and freedom to participate in professional or representative academic bodies.”
When the EU sanctions murderers, China sanctions researchers....
As noted above, China reacts harshly when its crimes and violations are exposed. China and other countries that have something to hide, hates the truth. China therefore attacks those that expose the truth about China. Several academics and research institutes were therefore targeted. Below is part of the statement of those that were attacked:
“The March 21st EU Sanctions were aimed at Chinese government officials accused of being involved in human rights abuses in Xinjiang. However, the Chinese sanctions in response covered not just European officials and political figures, but academics and academic and policy institutions which have a central role in undertaking research in Europe on China. These include researchers from Sweden and Germany, and the largest European China-focused think tank, the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS).
We are directors of diverse European research institutions committed to strengthening knowledge, mutual understanding and exchange between China and Europe. We are deeply concerned that targeting independent researchers and civil society institutions undermines practical and constructive engagement by people who are striving to contribute positively to policy debates. This will be damaging not only for our ability to provide well-informed analysis but also for relations more broadly between China and Europe in the future.
We believe that mutual dialogue is crucial, especially at difficult times, and deeply regret the inclusion of academic researchers and civil society institutions in the current tensions. We will stand by our colleagues who have been targeted this way.”
…and attack private companies that respect human rights.
The Swedish firm H&M with many outlets in China, is attacked. The reason is that representatives of the firm have expressed concern that their suppliers have used forced labour to produce clothes. The H&M app has now been removed from smartphones in China .
And H&M is not the only private firm that has been targeted by the regime. Also, Adidas, Nike, and Burberry have been targeted for expressing concerns about forced labour in Xinjiang.
China will of course continue to abuse human rights as long as the CCP is in power. The Communist regime will continue to try to fight the truth and make us shut up. . But they can’t silence us and they can’t prevent us from sharing this picture which is forbidden in China.