Today is October 10th—National Day, where people come together to celebrate the founding of the Republic of China - which, despite its sometimes rocky history, is now a free and democratic society, with elected leaders and rule of law. And that’s because the Republic of China is the one that governs Taiwan.
The big China is the People’s Republic of China. The one founded by Mao Zedong, the dictator who killed more people than Hitler and Stalin combined. People celebrated that Chinese National Day on October 1st, the anniversary of the Communist Party’s um, “liberation” of China.
Anyway, the mainland Chinese National Day wasn’t just celebrated inside mainland China this year. It was also celebrated...in Taiwan. A China Uncensored viewer sent us some photos he took in downtown Taipei during the October 1st celebrations. He says mainland Chinese were raising the flag of the People’s Republic of China, and blaring communist propaganda songs from loudspeakers. Taiwan locals on the street could hardly believe what they were seeing.
But on the other hand, it’s not so hard to believe. The Chinese Communist Party considers Taiwan to be just another province of China. Maybe if they say it enough, it will become true. Well, if they say it enough and also keep sixteen hundred missiles pointed at Taiwan.
As you may know, the Communist Party has threatened to take Taiwan by military force if it ever officially declares independence. So it’s little wonder Taiwan people were upset by having all those mainland Chinese flags waving around.
But you know who welcomed the Chinese Communist Party’s National Day celebrations? Officials from Vancouver, Canada. According to another China Uncensored viewer there who works near City Hall, there were dozens of Chinese flags being flown outside, and security guards blocked off a whole area for a Chinese National Day event.
This photo from the local Richmond News shows the ceremony.
The guy in the center wearing a red scarf is Vancouver’s acting mayor Kerry Jang, a third-generation Chinese-Canadian.
A huge backlash erupted over the flag-raising ceremony, and especially over the fact that Canadian officials in the photo were wearing those red scarves. Mayor Jang dismissed the backlash as racist, and he also defended wearing the scarves because, “Red is the Chinese colour for luck and good fortune.”
Okay, what Jang said about the color red is true. And some of the backlash against the flag raising might be prejudiced. There is growing resentment in Vancouver over hordes of rich mainland Chinese coming over and buying up real estate with cash, driving average housing prices into the millions.
But that’s not why people are upset about the red scarves. You see, those red scarves have a specific meaning. And it isn’t from traditional Chinese culture. Those scarves represent the blood of communist revolutionary martyrs. They’re generally worn by schoolchildren who are members of the Young Pioneers. The Young Pioneers official slogan is: “Be prepared, to struggle for the cause of Communism! Always be prepared!” They’re just like the Boy Scouts! Except their theme song is called “We are the Heirs of Communism,” which talks about cleanly annihilating their enemies.
I have never been so afraid of a six-year-old before.
The point is, the red scarf is a widely used symbol in different communist countries.
Here is it on a Soviet postage stamp...
...and being worn by Vietnamese Young Pioneers.
But some of us don’t read Wikipedia. Like that awkward-looking guy on the left, also wearing a red scarf. That’s Canadian Member of Parliament Joe Peschisolido. In his defense, though, he regretted it more than the girl who wore this to her wedding.
Afterwards, Peschisolido told the Richmond News that when the Chinese organizers told him to wear the scarf, he “didn’t realize it had the [connotations of] the Cultural Revolution and persecution that it did.”
What persecution? Let’s ask former Vancouver mayoral candidate Meena Wong, who wrote on Facebook: “During the infamous Chinese Cultural Revolution, the red guards wearing red scarves came to our home and took everything valuable. They abused my aging grandmother and threatened my parents.”
So that’s why there’s now a Change.org petition asking acting mayor Kerry Jang to apologize, and then resign.
And it wasn’t just some patriotic Chinese Canadians who organized the Vancouver event. It was the Canadian Alliance of Chinese Associations—the same group that helped organize a “Praising Mao” event in 2013, celebrating the birthday of the most successful mass murder in human history. Successful not only because Mao killed like 100 million people without getting punished, but because hipsters still wear him on their t-shirts.
But while we'd all love to blame Canada—and we do—it’s not just Canada. In San Francisco, Chinese American Mayor Ed Lee also enthusiastically threw his support behind Chinese National Day.
In this footage from China Daily’s Twitter account, we can see Mayor Lee during the Chinese national anthem, and then speaking, at the National Day Event organized by—wait for it—the Chinese consul-general.
Here he is being praised by Chinese state-run media for it.
But strangely, Mayor Lee forgot to mention it on his official webpage. As if perhaps the people he represents in San Francisco might be upset by him cozying up to a regime that’s killed more people in the last decade than... the entire population of San Francisco. This is not the first time, either. In fact, Lee was criticized two years ago for raising the Chinese flag while pro-democracy protests were happening in Hong Kong.
Look, I’m not trying to pick on ethnically Chinese government officials. I mean, last year, California governor Jerry Brown also joined the CCP’s National Day Ceremony.
And I know that both Vancouver and San Francisco routinely raise flags for different countries’ national day holidays, as a way of celebrating the diversity of their cities. I think that’s a good thing. But the People’s Republic of China is different. It’s worth noting that the loudest protests against these national day celebrations come from Chinese people.
The Communist Party, besides being responsible for atrocities like the Cultural Revolution and the Tiananmen Square Massacre during the last 67 years of its rule, still kills its own citizens on a regular basis. The Party uses events like these national day ceremonies to make itself seem like a totally legit, normal government, hiding what it’s done, not only from its own people, but also the from rest of the world. And it really helps when foreign officials raise the flag for them.
So what do you think of foreign countries celebrating Chinese National Day? Leave your comments below.
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