Candle Vigil for Urumqi Victims Against CCP will be in DC 12/5 5pm on Freedom Plaza

Submitted by zjr1130 t3_z5vd3n in washingtondc

Covid as their pretext, Red China sent Urumqi on lockdown for five months. They put steel bars in front of apartment doors to keep people in.

This week crap hit the fan. A building caught on fire. 10 died, unable to escape. More are wounded. Local officials blamed the victims’ “weak survival capabilities”.

The Chinese People is irate with the Communists. Let we the good people of DC show our solidarity against authoritarianism. Candlelight vigil is as title.

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Dennis_Duffy_Denim t1_ixzp5ig wrote

Don’t start with “Red China” if you want this post to be taken seriously. Sounds like some 1950s McCarthy language, completely lacking nuance and painting the entire country with a broad brush. Say the Chinese government, the Chinese Communist Party, or something else that actually names those at fault.

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starwars92 t1_iy0ghu1 wrote

What makes you guys jump on an event like this to show solidarity as opposed to something that your own country does locally or abroad?

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zjr1130 OP t1_iy0gokh wrote

My own country is literally under Chinese rule. That’s why

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starwars92 t1_iy0iuhk wrote

What country?

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zjr1130 OP t1_iy0k2gt wrote

Manchuria

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dragoaus t1_iybi2pt wrote

You forgot to mention how Manchuria got to be part of China or better to say how China became part of Manchuria.

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Frndlylndlrd t1_iy0hyie wrote

It’s a good question but some people find political freedoms and fighting authoritarianism to be a very high priority. China’s government is more censorious than America’s even if in other respects China’s government is better. So people who care a lot about political freedom and fighting against censorship will find this a particularly worthy cause.

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the_victorian640 t1_iy0b6cq wrote

>red china

Lmfao. Okay McCarthy. CCP sucks but not because they're socialist. Watch out for the Falun Gong/Epoch Times crowd, they're evil and always show up at these events

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zjr1130 OP t1_iy0be1r wrote

CCP is nominally red and sucks so so much. Bring them down and the world is better off

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supercoffee1025 t1_iy0gq0d wrote

Any post with “CCP” in the text sounds immediately sus tbh

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zjr1130 OP t1_iy0kgak wrote

Yes! Covid testing every day. The whole apartment complex is on lockdown if one person tests positive. And it just so happens that East Turkestan and Tibet get hit heavy with lockdowns. Sus enough if you ask me.

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SevenHadedas t1_iy0l06v wrote

No offense intended, but what is the ultimate goal of something like this? It’s purely performative.

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zjr1130 OP t1_iy0l7p7 wrote

Let the CCP step down. Let Xi step down. We won’t stop until China is free.

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ch36u3v4r4 t1_ixzltjb wrote

Didn't they end the lockdown yesterday?

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Derpolitik23 t1_iy17ijt wrote

Well the Chinese Communist Party is THE government of China much the way that the Communist Party controlled the Soviet Union or the Nazi’s controlled Germany from 1933-1945.

They are the government. The official representation of China that most other countries don’t have a parallel too.

So interesting that all the liberals in this area are quick and eager to tie Trump to Putin and the Saudi’s while waving their Ukrainian flags but yet give China a pass on everything.

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ProdigiousNewt07 t1_ixz6ado wrote

There are studies out there showing that the Chinese people are generally satisfied with their governance, so I'd like to know where you got the idea that they're "irate". Do you enjoy feeling aggrieved on behalf of other people or something? Also, it's officially the "Communist Party of China (CPC)", not CCP.

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iamnotjohnstathis t1_ixzgg6f wrote

There are protests everywhere in China right now, and people are holding vigils for the people who died in the fire. The fire was just the last straw. There was the riot by factory workers who were forced to lock down in the factory, people committing suicide because they just couldn’t survive mentally or financially, pregnant women bleeding out outside the hospital because they were denied treatment. There were protests in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Wuhan. It might be hard to believe that not all Chinese people are part of a hive mind, and there are people who are willing to stand up and protest even though they know they might end up dead. Please at least show a bit of empathy for the people who died in the fire.

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/shanghai-hit-by-covid-protests-anger-spreads-across-china-2022-11-27/

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ProdigiousNewt07 t1_ixzmc1a wrote

I'm aware of the terrible news. From what I can gather, the protests are largely about the continued covid lockdowns. Excuse me if I express skepticism when most of the English language news sources rely on "unverified videos on social media", full of conveniently translated quotes that just so happen to parrot American foreign policy interests. The articles I've read can't seem to decide if Urumqi was on lockdown for 3 or 5 months and the only evidence I've found that "local officials blamed the victims’ “weak survival capabilities” was a single statement by Li Wensheng, head of the Urumqi City Fire Rescue department, that said "some residents’ ability to rescue themselves was too weak and they failed to escape in time".

I don't need to be lectured about empathy when you're using people's deaths as a political cudgel. If it were American conservatives doing this, you'd be making fun of them. Repeatedly we've seen the US tell half-truths and outright lies to shift the narrative against countries it considers adversaries and stoke hostility to push for regime change. It never works out in the people's favor. We don't need more war and conflict. All this anti-CPC rhetoric does is make things less safe for Asian Americans.

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[deleted] t1_ixzq8i4 wrote

[deleted]

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ProdigiousNewt07 t1_iy1jr3s wrote

I view most news media with skepticism, especially when it's from English language outlets about countries the US considers enemies. They have a well-documented history of lying. And that's not a just a poll, it's a long-term survey (that you clearly didn't bother to actually read) conducted by the Ash Center at Harvard University. Is Harvard "authoritarian" now too?

If you're worried about bias, it even says "compared to the relatively high satisfaction rates with Beijing, respondents held considerably less favorable views toward local government. At the township level, the lowest level of government surveyed, only 11.3 percent of respondents reported that they were “very satisfied.” The research gets pretty granular and makes note of differences in responses from urban/rural, rich/poor, and what challenges the CPC might face maintaining support in the future.

I included a link to that study because, as the authors importantly emphasize, "although state censorship and propaganda are widespread in China, these findings highlight that citizen perceptions of governmental performance respond most to real, measurable changes in individuals’ material well-being." The CPC took China from a war-torn, rural backwater to a highly advanced world superpower in a matter of decades. Global poverty would have increased in that same time frame were it not for China. But you don't really care about that, you're more concerned about imposing your ineffectual political beliefs on people you don't know halfway around the world because you're an idealistic "democracy" fetishist.

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iamnotjohnstathis t1_ixzqahi wrote

I’m not using people’s death as political cudgel. I’m Chinese and I have friends who attended these protests and I’m genuinely scared for their life. The news articles have to use “unverified videos on social media” because no “official” news outlet in China would ever publish any real story about the protests. My friends and I who have been sharing the videos taken by people who were at the protest are getting shadow banned, some got their entire profiles wiped out, and we’ve lost contact with two. The US government might be using this all as political ploy, but how does this make Chinese people’s demand for freedom and end of authoritarian rule any less valid?? Sure, for some people they just want their lives to go back to pre-Covid, but for others they are finally opening their eyes to the atrocities that the Communist Party has committed and finally had enough to be not afraid and speak for themselves. I realize how Covid has negatively impacted Asian Americans, but this is a separate fight. The Chinese people is finally rising up and calling for change, and I genuinely hope the call for freedom and rights could be supported.

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ProdigiousNewt07 t1_iy1lucw wrote

> The US government might be using this all as political ploy, but how does this make Chinese people’s demand for freedom and end of authoritarian rule any less valid??

It doesn't make it any less valid, but you should be exceedingly cautious about soliciting American "support". What often results from US involvement in power struggles abroad is a government that is friendlier to US business interests, but retains all the negative aspects of the former regime. I hope your friends are safe and that their calls for change and justice are answered.

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zjr1130 OP t1_ixzuyli wrote

My personal friends from Urumqi vouched for the length of that lockdown

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MMoskovitz_II t1_ixzpyd8 wrote

Supporting the Chinese people against an oppressive Chinese government is making it less safe for Asian-Americans.

Ok.

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ProdigiousNewt07 t1_iy1la2l wrote

Don't twist my words, I specifically said "this anti-CPC rhetoric". You might be able to "hate the government, not the people", but there have been plenty of instances where violent actors are unable to distinguish the two.

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[deleted] t1_ixzmdit wrote

[deleted]

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KuzanAokijii t1_ixzwoz7 wrote

I mean it was a harvard study. Its a western study, not like its funded by the chinese govt

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ProdigiousNewt07 t1_ixzmyq6 wrote

Mhm, lets instead chauvinistically tell the Chinese people that we know what's best for them, because our own country and government is such a stellar example of a functional liberal democracy and shining bastion of democratic principles.

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[deleted] t1_ixzny3t wrote

[deleted]

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KuzanAokijii t1_ixzwzvj wrote

If criticizing the government is illegal then how are all these protests against the zero covid policy happening??

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Frndlylndlrd t1_iy0hh9g wrote

People are getting arrested and please remember that several decades ago people were shot to death for protesting at Tienamen square (sorry for the spelling). In China, you aren’t allowed to even mention or memorialize that event while in America you are free to memorialize the shootings at Kent State.

Many of the people criticizing China’s government on this thread also find plenty of fault with Americas. However, there are greater political freedoms in America than in China, where you can’t even search the internet freely and you aren’t allowed even to criticize the government.

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zjr1130 OP t1_ixzqxys wrote

This protest is run by college students from China who are trying to effect change. Maybe I was less than clear—

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zjr1130 OP t1_ixzvcdl wrote

2016 poll biases aside, you should really try to see what’s changed after the pretextual covid policy tortured the country for three years. What on earth is quarantining entire buildings going to do when one person tests positive? A lot of those positive tests are bogus btw

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KuzanAokijii t1_ixzxp2n wrote

You are right but reddit hive mind will never accept the fact that chinese people are supportive of their govt

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MMoskovitz_II t1_iy02bth wrote

Have you been to China or are you just talking as a 20 year old kid that speaks without any knowledge?

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IcyWillow1193 t1_iy39njq wrote

The pro-Chinese authoritarianism leftists in this city are so ridiculous I'd think it was a made up thing if I hadn't encountered them myself. Let me guess, you also believe the Tiennamen Square massacre was Western propaganda.

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ProdigiousNewt07 t1_iy3duub wrote

I'd describe myself as "anti-American" more than "pro-Chinese authoritarian". Have you ever heard of critical support?

> you also believe the Tiennamen Square massacre was Western propaganda

I don't, but I do know how to spell "Tiananmen". Keep stereotyping everybody who thinks differently than you if it makes you feel better though. I'm sure the country that literally has military bases all over the world and regularly sticks its grubby fingers where they don't belong is the real good guy and just wants to "spread democracy".

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IcyWillow1193 t1_iy4csvy wrote

>I'd describe myself as "anti-American"

That's really all you need to say.

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AaronASL t1_ixynocw wrote

Communism and Authoritarianism are two different things 😂

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zjr1130 OP t1_ixyvc5e wrote

Yes! The CCP calls themselves communist and are authoritarian

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AvatarTHW t1_ixz49yn wrote

Amazing how everyone is history who is the first is also the second.

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AaronASL t1_ixynppa wrote

Not synonyms.

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zjr1130 OP t1_ixyvqf4 wrote

Definitely not! What the Chinese Communist Party is doing in 2022 is nominally Communist and actually authoritarian

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