re: As Coronavirus Fades in China, Nationalism and Xenophobia Flare

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Chinese people deemed insufficiently admiring of the government

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This is the truest sign that real, significant, generational-defining problems are in the horizon for China.

Things like fear of outsiders, while unfortunate, pop up all the time in virtually every country in the world. As public sentiment constantly ebbs and flows, all countries go through periods where they are less trusting of outsiders and quicker to otherize those with different characteristics. It’s not ideal, but it happens. And most countries grow out of it without anything dangerous boiling over to the surface.

THE EXCEPTION to that is when the hate is government directed and enforced. And that is exactly what the citizen score system is being designed to do; to diminish the validity of anyone who does not perfectly toe the party line. With this new system in place, we are going to see a new generation of full blown, unabashed, hardcore CCP zealots. And they will be the people who will not tolerate non-conformity.


I know the “cool” thing to do for US youths is to attack the perceived rising tide of authoritarianism in our country. I get it, we’re not perfect, and rebelling against the norms of the previous generation can be fun. It happens, fine. But the simple truth is that there is no other way to rationalize this behavior other than acknowledging it as the absolute epitome of US privilege. Anyone with an ounce of perspective can see that China is the global epicenter of authoritarian uprising; that’s where we need to be concerned. Because 20 years from now, you can be damn sure the red dragon is going to rear it’s ugly head.