THE NEWS coming out of Red China gets curiouser and curiouser. For months now, dispatches have secreted the news out of the middle kingdom, exposing how the ChiComs are cracking down on Muslims in the province called Xinjiang. And how mosques and churches are being shuttered across the land. Communism can't abide religion. "Give unto Caesar" implies there's something else besides Caesar.
Pictures are now coming to the West, showing what rights groups call "concentration camps." Although the spokesmen for Beijing say all that's just Western propaganda. These are just former hospitals used as "re-education facilities," they say. And the people inside? They're "students" in the government's efforts to combat terrorism. Of course, the students can be kept there indefinitely. You can't get too much education in Red China. Call it lifelong learning.
And what can get you sent to one of these re-education camps? Belonging to a church is top of the list. Or being Muslim. Or not looking sufficiently Chinese. We're not even kidding. The British newspaper The Sun quoted a source saying, "If you are not looking Chinese on the outside, then you are a terrorist on the [inside]. They can put you to death without any reason."
Nothing new, that. Amnesty International says the Chinese government puts to death more people than the rest of the governments on the planet combined.
Another reason to get sent to the concentration camps/re-education facilities/one flew over the cuckoo's nest? Having a Facebook account.
Cops have been photographed lining up civilians and going through their phones, checking for any Western app that might prove that said citizen has contact with the outside world. Police don't have to have a reason to stop a body in the People's Republic of China, which is neither the people's, a republic, or the only Chinese government. (Taiwan is the real Chinese republic.)
Police check mobile phones for media applications such as Twitter or WhatsApp or Facebook. They also install spyware on citizens' phones to make sure they're doing it right. (Which reminds us of the old story of the young ChiCom who tried to explain to the Westerner how his country had the only free elections. "How can your elections be truly free," he noted, "if the wrong side wins?")
According to The Sun's source: "Almost every police [officer] has handheld equipment they connect to your phone with a USB where they can scan everything on your phone, all your photos, everyone you've ever spoken to. They transfer everything to their own system. iPhones only take about three minutes to scan--other phones can take hours."
It gets curiouser.
Beijing has now ordered its citizens to download an app of its own: It's called the Study the Great Nation app, and it's mainly news stories, such as they are, championing the government of President Xi Jinping. The propaganda app was launched earlier this year, and folks who know what's good for them will make sure the police find it on their searches.
Chairman Mao had his Little Red Book, Chairman Xi has his Little Red Study. The New York Times calls the Study app the "hottest" app in China. And it damned well better be.
In schools, students who haven't spent enough time on the Study site have been shamed by teachers and fellow students. Government agency heads hold study sessions, and force workers who haven't been as dedicated to the app to write reports criticizing themselves. Private employers in China require their employees to give them daily screenshots of their time on the app, documenting the points acquired.
The app also selects certain "golden sentences" from Comrade Xi's speeches, and sends them out to the end users. Which might remind some folks of the little booklet of quotes that Mao had his subjects memorize. The more things change, the more they remain the same in authoritarian countries.
There's an old Chinese maxim: Guan men da gou. Close the door to beat the dog. These days, with social media on every phone, the Red Chinese are trying their best to close that door. Curiouser still, they seem to be doing it.
Editorial on 04/11/2019