6 years ago
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Disrespecting China's anthem can now cost 3 years jail
China has passed legislation to punish anyone who disrespects the national anthem with up to three years in prison, state media reported Saturday. The changes to China's criminal law were approved during a committee meeting of the country's rubberstamp parliament, the National People's Congress (NPC), according to the official Xinhua news agency. "Serious cases of disrespecting the country's national anthem in public would get punishments including deprivation of political rights, criminal detention, and imprisonment of up to three years," it said.
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I'm a bit ambivalent about this. One the one hand, this looks like an authoritarian abuse of power to foster nationalism. On the other hand, if your will to protest only goes as far as disrespecting a song, I think you need to ponder whether you got the government you deserve.
Well...its not exactly an elected government....and China's thought POLICE have real teeth for dissenters.
Elected governments are not necessarily better. But setting that aside, if the real issue is oppression by the government, not standing up for the anthem or the like is a very cheap, easy form of subversion. It's like farting when you boss walks around. If you really want change you need to be smarter than that.
https://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2016/08/1...lls-why-china-is-playing-up-dissident-trials/
There is a growing fear within the Party over dissenters....and especially with the proliferation of smartphones. The Party has a consistent streak of paranoia , always has, but the regime in charge today is consolidating, has consolidated power like no one since Mao. It is the most unchecked surveillance society on earth. All payments go through the central banking system. They are beginning to create citizen scores based on your purchasing, tax payments, and yes, your social media sites. If you've been following the tech fairs over here, you'll notice a huge interest in facial recognition technology. That's not so they don't forget to send you a birthday card.
In the US, you don't stand for the Anthem, the most you get are some bombastic tweets, or maybe something more horrible, like losing your Papa John's sponsorship. In today's China, and into the future, it could mean much, much more to a dissenter.