China is often held up to us Indians as an example to emulate: a country that is developing, growing richer, more powerful and commanding greater clout on the world stage than ever before. I submit that to you that China is not a shining example to emulate. So many of the freedoms that we take for granted in India are simply absent in China. Take the recent instance of Chinese TV blurring out earlobes or the viral video of employees being made to crawl… these are not the only reasons I am happy not to be living in China.
On a popular Chinese streaming service iQiyi, one show had the earlobes of the actor Wang Linkai blurred. I can understand cleavage or butt-cracks, but earlobes seem to be a completely innocuous thing to blur out. Turns out they are blurring out earrings. Men can’t – or at least shouldn’t – wear earrings. So the #MaleTVStarsCantWearEarrings hashtag gained traction when users expressed their displeasure on social media.
While the rest of the world is trying to shrug off and overcome gender stereotypes, the Chinese want to protect "traditional" gender roles. LGBT symbols, tattoos and other marks of hip-hop culture are all often censored in Chinese TV programmes.
This video has over 83K views on Twitter from people horrified at employees being ‘punished’ for not reaching year-end targets. They are seen crawling on the street on all fours with another employee holding the company flag.
This apparently is not unusual. Last year another video – this time of employees being slapped across the cheek for failing to meet targets – had gone viral. In the video there is slapping, followed by crawling. Being made to crawl seems to be the favourite way for the Chinese to humiliate employees. The rights of employees; even simple human rights don’t seem to mean a lot here. The profit motive is prime; all else being subordinate it would seem.
Everything people do or say makes them more or less desirable citizens in the eyes of the state. Habits such as smoking, driving habits, the amount of video games a person buys and online activities could all impact a person's social credit score. Those with low scores may have difficulties buying travel tickets, suffer lower internet speeds and their kids may be barred admission into the best schools. Those who refuse to perform military service can suffer consequences such as being refused admission into institutions for higher learning.
The Chinese authorities want to know about and control all aspects of the lives of citizens. They arrest people for saying things against the government; even getting people to spy on others in group chats and report back to the authorities. The Chinese authorities require citizens to download certain apps on to their phones. These apps would then monitor their actions, movements, photos, and videos. The authorities keep tabs on what you buy online and how much of it you buy. Facial recognition technology is used on the general populace for various reasons. Pedestrians can be stopped randomly and their phones may be subjected to checks without due process. Anyone considered ‘threatening’ is flagged and proceeded against if required.
So while China may be prosperous, disciplined, orderly it isn’t exactly the land of the free. This teaches us to be vigilant citizens. It teaches us to zealously guard the rights and freedoms that we enjoy under our constitution; to question authorities and hold them accountable and to refuse access when they trespass into our personal lives and our choices.
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