tiffer24
Senior Member
China responds to virus with cultural practices snitch lines and threats of execution.
Authorities across China have created snitch lines and promised cash rewards for information on visitors from virus-stricken locations — and even tips on people playing mahjong in defiance of bans on gatherings — as the country’s efforts to constrain an epidemic veer into harsher territory.
The widening use of coercive measures, some broadcast to the public by volunteers in red arm bands, came as China’s President Xi Jinping called for an all-out effort to combat the virus. But it also carried echoes of government mobilization campaigns that marked some of the ugliest moments under Communist Party rule.
“The government has adopted a mass-movement style tactic to deal with the epidemic,” said Wu Qiang, a former Tsinghua University scholar who is an expert in Chinese social movements. He pointed to historical precedents under Chairman Mao Zedong, including the Struggle against the Three Evils and Five Evils and famous Cultural Revolution.
“Encouraging the public to report on each other to achieve the goals of central government rule is nothing new, and this time it’s the same. This is something the Communist Party is good at when it comes to social control — it’s like creating class enemies of all people in China.”
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/wor...pid=rss&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Authorities across China have created snitch lines and promised cash rewards for information on visitors from virus-stricken locations — and even tips on people playing mahjong in defiance of bans on gatherings — as the country’s efforts to constrain an epidemic veer into harsher territory.
The widening use of coercive measures, some broadcast to the public by volunteers in red arm bands, came as China’s President Xi Jinping called for an all-out effort to combat the virus. But it also carried echoes of government mobilization campaigns that marked some of the ugliest moments under Communist Party rule.
“The government has adopted a mass-movement style tactic to deal with the epidemic,” said Wu Qiang, a former Tsinghua University scholar who is an expert in Chinese social movements. He pointed to historical precedents under Chairman Mao Zedong, including the Struggle against the Three Evils and Five Evils and famous Cultural Revolution.
“Encouraging the public to report on each other to achieve the goals of central government rule is nothing new, and this time it’s the same. This is something the Communist Party is good at when it comes to social control — it’s like creating class enemies of all people in China.”
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/wor...pid=rss&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
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