News (1) to (8) / Reporter : Chen Han / Editor : Li Qian / https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2021/07/04/a103157993.html / Translation, editing : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA
News (1)
Carrying the coffins and playing sorrowful music
On the day of the CCP’s Centennial Party Celebration, many Chinese and ethnic groups from different parts of the world went to the CCP embassies and consulates to protest, accusing the CCP for harming China and the world for one hundred years. It has been too long. The people carried coffins, played sorrowful music, and sacrificed coins to bring to an end the tyranny of the CCP.
News (2)
Chinese and ethnic group demonstrations against the CCP in the U.S.
Burn CCP flags to express contempt for this evil regime
In Washington, the capital of the United States, people held up the CCP’s slogan "A hundred years of disaster to the country and the people, and anger and people complain for a century", chanting slogans such as "Down with the Communist Party" and "Free China", and put on photos of the CCP. People also projected the words "Vicious Communist Party of China", "CCP Virus", "Liberation", and Nazi marks on the walls of the embassy. There were also demonstrators who burned the CCP flag on the spot.
Yili Shati, Director of the Chinese Affairs Department of the World Uyghur Congress: "Burn the flag and party flag of the CCP to express our protest and contempt for this evil regime. This is an evil political party, and its 100 years have been a bloody one. The year is the 100th year of the massacre. The square (Tiananmen Square) where it' celebrated' the 100th year was the square where the unarmed students were massacred 32 years ago."
Yili Shati, director of the China Affairs Department of the World Uyghur Congress, stated that the CCP’s slaughter of Tibetans, Uyghurs, Falun Gong, Hong Kong people, and threats to occupy Taiwan are countless crimes, and this tyranny should be over long ago.
Yili Shati: "This one hundred years is already too long. It can't be given for another year, two, or even six months. We must all come together to overthrow this evil regime and liquidate this evil Communist Party."
News (4)
China Democracy Party, among others, demonstrate in New York
News (5)
Denounce CCP's crimes, send CCP to an end
Zhou Fengsuo, Chairman of Humane China: "This is a shameful day, a sad day, and an angry day. The CCP has harmed the Chinese people and the world for a hundred years, which is too long."
Some people from mainland China expressed their hope that people would realize that the CCP is not China, and everyone is responsible for resisting the CCP.
Participant Jason said, "I think it's just like what I just said, it's like riding a bicycle in Tiananmen Square, the video that many people have watched. This is my responsibility."
Protests also continued in front of the Chinese Consulate in Los Angeles. The China Democracy Party and the China Democracy Platform jointly organized the “Photo Exhibition of CCP’s Centuries of Atrocities”. The Los Angeles Hong Kong Forum held a funeral for the CCP. Participants dressed in black and put on "Apples" to speak for Hong Kong.
CCP virus: Slaughtering humanity
The Shandong human rights activist Jie Lijian, who fled to the United States, said: "It is a hundred years, and our slogan is life. It still has a face to celebrate. Now because of this (CCP, COVID-19) virus, the world understands: It is a hundred years. It is a century full of slaughter and bloody rule plus genocide, stormy and terror for a hundred years."
News (7)
Posters: Heaven destroys CCP, Walk with God
The truth convoy spontaneously formed by Falun Gong practitioners also appeared on the scene of the Chinese consulate. Large-scale posters such as "Heaven Destroys CCP, Walk with God" on the truck body attracted the attention of pedestrians and passing vehicles.
Jie Lijian: "Many foreigners (here is an office building) saw such giant posters, whether there were vehicles or pedestrians on both sides of the road, they were very shocked. It was particularly shocking. A large part of the world has awakened. It can be said that (and) Dafa friends (Falungong practitioners) persist in speaking out for the truth and persisting in exposing the evil nature of the CCP is inseparable."
In San Francisco, the Chinese in the Bay Area also held an event for the CCP. People put up exhibition boards on the spot, denounced the CCP's crimes and shouted "Down with the CCP."
News (8)
Demonstrations against the CCP in Canada and other countries
Disintegrate the CCP as soon as possible
Reporter : Changchun / Editor : Wang Ziqi / https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2021/07/04/a103157921.html / Direct translation
July 1 was called "Party Founding Day" by the CCP. This day is also the "Global Day for Quitting the Evil CCP" initiated by the Global Quitting Party Service Center. Yi Rong, chairman of the CCP Resignation Center, called on more Chinese compatriots to seize the opportunity to withdraw from the CCP’s party, league, and corps organization, so that this Red devil, which has been a disaster for a hundred years, can be peacefully dismantled as soon as possible.
Tiananmen Square is the place where the June 4th Massacre occurs in 1989.
The Centennial Party Celebration of the Communist Party of China is held here.
The uniform movements and the red flags on each side made mainland reporters unable to help but call it like a "horror movie"!
Yi Rong, chairman of the Global Service Center for Quitting the CCP, said that the so-called centennial celebration of the CCP treats the funeral as a happy event.
Yi Rong, Chairman of the Global Quit Party Center: "It's just a funeral! Then we are on July 1st. The Quit Party Center uses it as a'Global Quit Party Day' to call on everyone to quit the party more and persuade them to quit three times. Day. Because this day reminds us of the CCP’s tyranny and the CCP’s harm to Chinese people."
In November 2004, after the publication of the Epoch Times editorial "Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party", the Center for Quitting the Party proposed to designate July 1 as the "Global Quitting Party Day", and every July as the "Quit Party Month." Since then, the global Chinese have set off a huge wave of quitting the party.
In August 2011, the number of "three withdrawals" from the CCP, regiment and team reached 100 million.
In April 2015, the number of three withdrawals exceeded 200 million.
In March 2018, more than 300 million people declared three withdrawals.
Today, the number of people with three withdrawals is close to 380 million.
The mainland citizens who withdrew from the regiment and team declared: "(I) am not a party member, not a party member, I am anti-Party! The house is sacked, people are beaten, and I won’t win after six years! The high officials are corrupt, the petty officials are small. No officials are not greedy."
People from mainland China who have resigned from the party: "The Communist Party is too bad. Really, these people living in the mainland are very anti-Communist. But there is no way, right? I am a party member. (Then you remember this pseudonym gang just now You quit and keep yourself safe, okay?) Well, okay, okay, ok ok!"
Li Dianqin, a New York retiring volunteer, told more than 20 Chinese college students the truth about how the CCP destroyed China a few months ago in front of the Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, and helped them withdraw three times.
Li Dianqin, a volunteer withdrawing from the party in New York: "(I said) we Chinese people are the most industrious. We China is big and rich in material resources, and no country can match it. But no, let the corrupt people get rid of it. I said, kids, hurry up. Quickly withdraw from the CCP and move into the future. Our motherland, I think so in the future, when morality rises, no country in the world can compare (China), richer, more prosperous, and more prosperous. We will fight for that day."
These college students asked Li Dianqin to help with three withdrawals. Only one girl said she would not withdraw and also expressed opposition.
Li Dianqin: "Then those students, he said you won't retire, don't say these things, what's so good about the Communist Party? These students finally took her down. After that, she also quit."
News (10)
More than 370 million Chinese withdrew from CCP
At the time when the Chinese Communist Party celebrated the "100th Anniversary" on a large scale, India’s main news channel, CNN News 18, specifically reported on the Chinese people’s quitting the party movement. Venus Upadhyaya, an English-language Epoch Times correspondent in India, introduced in the program: “Currently, more than 370 million Chinese have declared that they have withdrawn from the CCP’s organization.” And “the essence of the CCP is fundamental .The above is to eliminate and replace humanity."
News (11)
End CCP initiative: More than 1 million people quit CCP
At the same time, the “End CCP” initiative initiated by the Center for Quitting the CCP (End CCP) has signed more than one million people worldwide.
The truth convoy formed by Falun Gong practitioners spontaneously also appeared in front of the CCP consulate in Los Angeles. The slogan "Heaven Destroys CCP, Walk with God" attracted passersby.
Yi Rong said that the awakening of more Chinese compatriots is the best way to peacefully disintegrate the CCP.
Yi Rong: "Especially at this dangerous moment when the world is facing a life-or-death decision, it is very dangerous for everyone. Because the plague is raging, I think this withdrawal from the CCP is the best antidote."
Yi Rong hopes that in this turbulent moment of the transition between the old and the new, more Chinese friends can withdraw from the CCP, and that more CCP officials can publicly quit the CCP, so that this red devil, who has harmed the world for a hundred years and killed 80 million Chinese children, will be removed from the world and disappeared.
News (11)
"I'm worried about some of the things that are being taught in our schools," Pompeo told Sunday's "The Cat Roundtable" on WABC 770 AM-N.Y. "If we teach that the founding of the United States of America was somehow flawed. It was corrupt. It was racist. That's really dangerous. It strikes at the very foundations of our country. I certainly worry about that.
"It's called critical race theory, the 1619 Project. But in the end, they're attacking the central understandings that we have shared together for 245 years. It's an attempt to divide the country. If that continues. If that is allowed to flourish and prosper, then we could lose this thing that is so special. We can't let that happen."
Critical race theory is defined by the Encyclopedia Britannica as the concept in which race is a socially constructed category ingrained in American law intended to maintain social, economic, and political inequalities between whites and nonwhites. It holds that the U.S. society is inherently or systemically racist.
"If we lose faith in our constitutional principles," Pompeo added to host John Catsimatidis, "some adversary, like the Chinese Communist Party will come and undermine what has made our country so special."
Pompeo points to China's communist influence over Hong Kong and ultimately Taiwan as reasons to be wary.
"We made lots of effort to help the people of Hong Kong," he said. "Sadly, it didn't prove to be enough. Hong Kong now is just another communist city.
"They had all that freedom, all that prosperity, all the good things look to be just about over," he continued. "The Chinese Communist Party is intent on doing the same kind of thing to Taiwan, to deny them their capacity to be a democratic country."
Chinese President Xi Jinping has made his intentions "clear," according to Pompeo.
"Xi Jinping, the leader of the CCP, has made clear his intention: He calls it reunification," Pompeo concluded. "Of course, it's no such thing. [Taiwan] was never part of China. He wants to bring them inside the communist-Marxist-Leninist views that he has for China and his party. We can do a lot to deter that. We must."
News (32)
150 Myanmar policemen counted among Myanmar's latest covid patients
Source : The Irrawaddy
Amid a sharp rise in coronavirus cases and increasing lockdowns to contain it, Myanmar’s police are among the latest COVID-19 patients.
About 150 police commanders training for promotion at Yangon’s police promotion training center at the Central Investigation Department in Insein tested COVID-19 positive since late June, after an instructor tested positive, according to a police source.
Since late May the military regime has locked down 26 townships in Sagaing, Mandalay, Bago and Ayeyarwady regions and Chin and Shan states.
By July 3, Myanmar had reported 163,087 COVID-19 positive cases with 3,384 deaths. On Saturday, Myanmar reported 1,877 new cases after 9,054 swab tests were conducted, according to the junta-controlled Ministry of Health and Sports.
“There are 120 police lieutenants from around the country who are receiving training to become captains. Around 114 of them tested positive for COVID-19 and if added to the instructors, there are at least 150 people,” said a police officer in Yangon.
A doctor reportedly gave a sick police captain a COVID-19 test in late June. He said: “Others training with him at the academy and the CID [Criminal Investigation Department] also tested positive. Only six tested negative, out of 120.”
The captain and his team also visited the Shwe Pyithar interrogation center last month. Testing at the center proved negative. It is unknown where the first infection came from.
A total of 96 border guards in Maungdaw near Bangladesh in Rakhine State also reportedly tested positive on July 1.
The ministry announced last month that the new, more virulent coronavirus variants, including the Delta variant first identified in India, have been detected in Myanmar, warning that this will increase hospital admissions and deaths.
On Sunday, the regime locked down Pathein, Myaungmya and Thabaung townships in Ayeyarwady Region. On Saturday it enforced stay-at-home orders on Homalin Township in Sagaing Region, Pyin Oo Lwin Township in Mandalay Region and Nawnghkio Township in Shan State.
On Friday, the regime locked down seven townships in Mandalay City and Thayawady and Minhla townships in Bago.
News (33)
Taiwan reports 28 new covid cases and 1 death on 5 July 2021
The Taiwan epidemic has gradually slowed down, and the cumulative number of confirmed cases in China has exceeded 15,000. The Central Epidemic Command Centre announced on 5 July that there were 28 newly confirmed local cases and 1 death, of which 15 were in Taipei. The national three-level alert has been extended to 12 July 2021.
Ref: news.tvbs.com.tw/life/1539953?from=Copy_content
News (34)
Rasmussen Poll: Just 1 in 3 would say Founders would approve of U.S.
Reporter : Eric Mack / Publisher : Newsmax
Anti-American sentiment is growing under President Joe Biden, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports poll revealed each Fourth of July.
Just 34% of American adults believe America's Founding Fathers would consider the country they founded to be a success if they were to come back today, 245 years later. In fact, a plurality of adults (41%) surveyed would consider this America a failure.
Equally disconcerting this July 4, one-quarter of American adults were unsure or unable to choose between a success or failure when asked: "If the Founding Fathers came back today, would they consider the United States a success or a failure?"
The results are a marked drop from just a year ago under former President Donald Trump. The past July 4, the success response was 6 points higher at 40%, and that was in an election year, amid anti-America social unrest after the death of George Floyd, and a coronavirus pandemic that left most of America shut down, sheltered, and dying from or fearing COVID-19 infection.
The highest total of failure responses came in 2013, when a shocking 49% selected "failure" during the first year of the second term of former President Barack Obama, according to the poll.
There is still a sizable portion of the United States unaware of what the Fourth of July holiday celebrates. Both those "unsure" and those who believed it was the ratification of the Constitution came in at 13% apiece. The remaining 74% understood correctly the Fourth of July celebrates the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
The Rasmussen Reports poll was conducted June 28-29 among 1,000 American adults and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
News (35) to (38) / Reporter : Fan Yu / Publisher : The Epoch Times PREMIUM
News (35)
China courts US consumers through a familiar storefront in Amazon
“Made in China” is a phrase all U.S. consumers are intimately familiar with.
In past decades, that term referred to a major branded product sold at U.S. stores manufactured by factories located in China. For example, a Matchbox car bought from Toys ‘R Us and made in China by Mattel. Today, U.S. consumers are increasingly purchasing Chinese-branded products from Chinese stores directly over the internet, and both Beijing and the world’s biggest online retailer—Amazon.com—have been facilitating that trend.
News (36)
Half of Amazon sellers based in China
On Amazon, 50 percent of all global sellers are based in China, according to data from Marketplace Pulse, a website that provides e-commerce market data. They warehouse their goods and products in the United States, at Amazon’s warehouses, so the items are shipped domestically and qualify for fast “Prime” shipping (also dubbed as the “Fulfillment by Amazon” program).
Chinese sellers make up the highest percentage of all sellers on Amazon.es, the company’s Spanish retail website, at 64 percent. More than 50 percent of Amazon’s French, Canadian, and Italian sites are Chinese sellers, highlighting a dearth of domestic e-commerce companies within those countries. Amazon’s U.S. website consists of 44 percent Chinese sellers, meaning the majority of sellers on the U.S. website—for now—are based in the United States.
But the U.S. trend is also shifting. More than 60 percent of new sellers on Amazon’s U.S. website in January 2021 are from China, compared to less than 40 percent in January 2020, according to Marketplace Pulse data. Globally, China’s share of new sellers is even higher, at 75 percent, for Amazon’s websites as a whole.
While these raw numbers could be skewed because some sellers maintain multiple selling accounts, the directional trend is clear: Amazon is the biggest and most efficient direct-to-consumer vehicle for Chinese brands to target U.S. and European consumers. And China is the world’s biggest factory and arguably has the highest e-commerce adoption. On paper, it shouldn’t be shocking that many products on Amazon are from China.
But there is a transparency concern. Since the sellers all market their products on Amazon’s local e-commerce websites, consumers may be unaware that they are purchasing their products directly from Chinese stores.
News (37)
E-Commerce expansion a key initiative for Beijing
This trend has been years in the making.
In China, the “Made in China, sold on Amazon” motto is a critical business model for Chinese e-commerce merchants. Merchants selling products on Amazon have formed a hub in the southern city of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, a region dubbed as China’s “Silicon Valley.” Many well-known brands on Amazon are headquartered there, including Aukey, Mpow, RAVPower and Taotronics, which all make popular tech accessories sold on Amazon.
This strategy has the blessing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at the highest levels.
On July 1 China’s customs began implementing a new, faster clearance system for outbound business-to-business e-commerce in an effort “to promote healthy and orderly development of cross-border e-commerce and to help the expansion of Chinese companies in international markets,” according to a South China Morning Post report.
This effort has cabinet-level support. Premier Li Keqiang said at a late June meeting of the State Council that cross-border e-commerce is a key strategic initiative for Beijing, and signaled for Chinese merchants to build up their inventories abroad and increase logistical capabilities.
While the biggest merchants have had an advantage before, the new rules should allow smaller Chinese merchants to clear customs faster.
There’s a Chinese cottage industry to support this as well. A website called Yuguo Platform provides training courses for Chinese sellers to establish themselves on Amazon, AliExpress, TikTok, eBay, and a number of foreign e-commerce websites.
It’s important to note that Amazon currently does not operate an e-commerce site in China, having shut down Amazon.cn in 2019 citing domestic competition from the likes of Alibaba and JD.com. However, Amazon maintains operations in China for its non-e-commerce business lines.
News (38)
Tumultuous relationships between Chinese sellers and Amazon
Amazon has also actively courted Chinese sellers.
Amazon has built a Chinese-language website specifically catering to Chinese sellers, offering tutorials and guidance on setting up storefronts. Amazon also holds “seller conferences” in several cities across China to gather current and potential sellers for education and networking sessions.
The Seattle-based giant does not disclose the amount of gross sales made by third-parties (i.e. non-Amazon sales) or the amount of sales made by Chinese third-party sellers, so the magnitude of China-originated sales is unknown. As of press time, Amazon has not responded to an email inquiry from The Epoch Times.
Founder and Chairman Jeff Bezos’s mantra is putting customers first, which includes offering products at the lowest prices (often sourced from China).
“How in the world can a company in China make, ship, and pay Amazon fees and commissions and sell an item for $3 when it costs more than an American seller can even buy it for wholesale?” A U.S.-based seller wrote in a post on Amazon’s seller forums. “We have an item manufactured for us in China and we sell it at $10 and make only a couple of bucks after all the costs. The same company that makes our product sells it on Amazon 5 for $10 ($2 a piece). How is that possible?”
Amazon has also battled integrity issues with its Chinese sellers. Several China-based storefronts on Amazon were temporarily suspended in May 2021, including those of popular sellers Mpower and Aukey.
While Amazon did not disclose the reasons for the suspensions, the enforcement actions were related to fake product reviews, according to a letter Amazon sent to its third-party seller base.
Amid the competitive environment, some vendors have resorted to paying customers for product reviews. This author has received e-mails from certain China-based vendors to post reviews on Amazon in exchange for an Amazon gift card, which is a violation of Amazon’s seller agreement.
“I admit that I pay for some reviews, but that’s because my competitors are doing the same. I have to do it, too,” a seller wrote in a discussion forum of an online merchant community about Amazon’s fake review crackdown, according to a South China Morning Post report.
“If there’s a healthy environment for competition, who would want all these deceptions?”
News (39)
Trump promises to restore free speech in America
Reporter : Melanie Sun / Publisher : The Epoch Times PREMIUM
Former President Donald Trump warned at his second “Save America” rally on Saturday night that Americans no longer have free speech, describing a powerful system “for media and online censorship” that only presents the Democratic Party’s view of politics, including that Trump is attacking democracy by discussing potential election fraud.
“We have a truly sick election system, it’s got to be changed,” the 45th president told thousands of supporters gathered in Robarts Arena in Sarasota, Florida.
“Remember this, I am not the one trying to undermine American democracy,” he said in response to the legacy media and Democrat claims. “I am the one trying to save American democracy.”
Democrats and Republicans have exchanged barbs since the chaotic 2020 election, which Trump maintains he will not concede, awaiting the results of a complete audit for Arizona’s Maricopa County that has been run independent of the secretary of state’s office. Additional audits are expected to follow in other jurisdictions.
“We can’t let them take away our free speech so we can[‘t] talk about corrupt elections. Otherwise you’ll have … that’s communism. That’s what they do in these communist countries, you have no voice,” Trump warned.
Communist and socialist states like Cuba and Venezuela remain embroiled in repeating cycles of contested elections, with their populations split between recognizing two heads of state, and both sides of politics accusing the other of election fraud.
“Democrats used COVID to cheat. They illegally changed the rules in key states. They stole the votes,” Trump continued. “They abolished signature verification requirements, created a powerful system for media and the online censorship of their opponents, and did everything possible to facilitate fraud just like you would do in a third world country. That’s what happened with this election.”
Trump gave special mention to the Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN), which was suspended by YouTube from live-streaming to their channel for a week just hours ahead of the rally. RSBN has carried feeds of Trump’s public appearances since July 2015. Following the suspension, the company migrated to the video platform Rumble to stream Trump’s speech.
The former president also mentioned how left-wing billionaires had allegedly funded unsecured drop boxes in the 2020 election. He named Facebook as an example, referring to reports that Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, partly funded a nonprofit that irregularly distributed $350 million to nearly 2,500 election officials in 48 states and the District of Columbia, which could have helped increased voter turnout for Democrats.
Trump, true to the stated mission of his “Save America” campaign office, said he will continue working to help secure support for “Republicans or MAGA” in the upcoming 2022 elections, with the goal of retaking the House and the Senate.
But in order to do so, the 75-year-old said that actions are needed to restore trust and transparency for all Americans in the nation’s election systems.
“We got them by surprise in 2016. And then they work for four years to make sure it didn’t happen again,” Trump said of the Democrats, accusing them of election fraud.
He again questioned President Joe Biden’s vote count, saying that he found it hard to believe that Biden got more votes from black people than President Barack Obama. Trump said that, like many other things including the Wuhan virus lab leak theory and his border policies, he believes his claims about a “rigged election” will be proven right.
“I wonder what I will be proved right about next. Perhaps it will be the election, perhaps,” he said.
Trump said that Republicans around the nation are uniting around efforts to secure future elections, by progressing legislation to demand voter ID, universal signature signature verification, citizenship confirmation, chain of custody integrity controls, and updated voter rolls.
“That’s before the elections, not after the elections,” Trump added, amid his criticism of Democrat actions passed ahead of the 2020 election to expand voter access that he said in effect reduced voter security in the name of needing to allow people to vote from home during the pandemic.
He said that Republicans “will restore the right to free speech in America again, which we don’t have.”
Hundreds of Trump’s supporters had lined up for the event overnight, with a large crowd staying until past 8 p.m. for Trump’s speech despite a thunderstorm ahead of Tropical Storm Elsa.
Trump remarked that if American voters had faith in the integrity of the 2020 election, he wouldn’t have so many people still attending his rallies.
“If we lost the election … I wouldn’t have a crowd that goes beyond what the eye can see, that stays in a thunderstorm,” he said of the crowd.
He then joked that some of the women in attendance were “a mess” from the pouring rain, adding “but the truth is, you look more beautiful now than you did when you went to the beauty parlor … You’re real, it’s great.”
He also dismissed legal efforts launched by New York prosecutors to bring charges against his company, the Trump Organization, and its chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg over “fringe benefits.”
“It’s really called prosecutorial misconduct. It’s a terrible, terrible thing,” Trump said of the legal efforts, contrasting them against cases of murder and human trafficking that he said were not pursued to the full extent by prosecutors. Weisselberg has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis did not join Trump at the rally after both decided the state leader would remain in South Florida to oversee recovery efforts for the condominium collapse at Surfside and preparations for Elsa, according to state GOP Chairman Sen. Joe Gruters, local media reported.
Trump’s speech was followed by a fireworks display in celebration of Independence Day, when “56 brave patriots at Philadelphia proudly declared our independence and boldly proclaimed the eternal truth that we are all made equal by the almighty hand of our creator,” Trump said.
“With the spirit of July 4, 1776 stirring in our souls … We will make our elections free and safe again, we will make America powerful again, we will make America wealthy again, we will make America strong again, we will make America proud again, we will make America safe again, and we will make America great again,” he said in his closing remarks.
After an anti-China stabbing of a Hong Kong policeman late on July 1, the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and the 24th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong to China, Hongkongers and the world are in need of a little positive energy. The stabbing caused debate between nonviolence and violence advocates on how Hong Kong should respond to China’s increasing repression in the city. After taking part in that debate, I believe that some Hongkongers need a little nonviolent inspiration.
Such inspiration could come from the “lying flat” movement in China. Chinese citizens have been dealing with the CCP longer than have the rest of us, and what they evolved can form part (not all) of our collective response. Lying flat seems to be the biggest internal threat to the CCP these days, it could do wonders in other autocracies as well, and so it deserves a moment of our attention.
Mr. Luo Huazhong, the original “Master of Lying Down,” started the movement by posting a photo of himself lying somewhat flat in his modest Sichuan Province bed, along with a revolutionary idea for China. Mr. Luo wants out of the rat race and he believes that “lying flat is justice.” Mr. Luo called the action of lying down his “sophistic movement,” in reference to the Greek philosopher Diogenes, who lived in a barrel and begged for his food, while reputedly thumbing his nose at Alexander the Great.
The movement was therefore explicitly political and philosophical from the beginning, which likely explains its popularity. Other young people in China quickly followed Mr. Luo’s lead, with 9,000 members joining within a few weeks and spawning a Chinese “tangping” (躺平) counterculture that now includes music videos, the sale of “lying flat” accessories, and numerous photos of cats and seals who are—you guessed it—lying flat.
Tangpingers rebel by avoiding anything that requires a lot of time or money, including marriage, children, and house purchases. They live at their parents’ houses, and bicycle instead of drive. They refuse overtime at work, or quit their jobs altogether. They’re against “996,” which is shorthand for working 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week. That’s standard practice in China.
Tangping is a good way to resist the CCP in a society where any other type of resistance is difficult. Every yuan that tangpingers don’t earn is a yuan that the regime can’t tax. The less money the regime has, the less it can spend on the military.
“Some compare [tangpingers] to the 1950s Beat Generation in the United States. Others call their behavior a form of nonviolent resistance or ‘ideological emancipation’ from consumerism. Supporters portray it as a rejection of struggle and endless striving,” according to Lily Kuo at the Washington Post. One tangpinger quoted in the Post said the movement is “an expression of our demands from society. We want systems to be better and for workers to get more protection.”
Critics call tangpingers “shameful” and “defeatist.” The regime is catching on to tangping’s subtle form of resistance, censoring any mention of it, and shuttering its social media groups. If the movement spreads to a greater degree, leading tangpingers will doubtless be arrested. They don’t care about their jobs, so threatening to fire them is of little use in deterring the movement.
Who knew that lying down could be so revolutionary?
Tangping is an inspiring and innovative example of nonviolent resistance, and a “weapon of the weak” as described by Yale professor James Scott. It is a worthy Chinese form of the kind of resistance detailed by nonviolence theorists like Mohandas Gandhi, Gene Sharp, and Martin Luther King. They, along with tangpingers, should be required reading for anyone living under a dictatorship today.
Anders Corr has a bachelor’s/master’s in political science from Yale University (2001) and a doctorate in government from Harvard University (2008). He’s a principal at Corr Analytics Inc., publisher of the Journal of Political Risk, and has conducted extensive research in North America, Europe, and Asia. He authored “The Concentration of Power” (forthcoming in 2021) and “No Trespassing,” and edited “Great Powers, Grand Strategies.”
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
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