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Early Onset Hatred

There exists almost no space for any form of political commentary in the People's Republic of China (PRC). The CCP have a vice-like grip on all political messaging through an all encompassing and uniform propaganda machine. There are no independent news outlets within the PRC.

This means there is no diversity of broadcasted opinion nor independent debate for 20% of the world's population. 20% of the people on our planet are being selectively fed misinformation to align with the viewpoint of a handful of unelected men. Unelected men that have given the green light to various crimes against humanity. Their propaganda machine extends to a "patriotic" system of education that often conflicts with reality. This instills a hatred for the Free World from the moment a child in the PRC is capable of understanding these concepts at school. This hatred is reinforced throughout their lives through the propaganda machine.

Skynet surveils the CCP's subjects.

Censoring the Sensitive

When any independent political commentary gains an audience in the PRC (usually through social media), it is brutally shut down. Repeat offenders are arrested, tortured and their families are threatened by CCP-led domestic security.

Even nuance and satire are quickly rooted out by a million+ personnel censorship effort. The modern day equivalents of the court jester or the bard are simply thrown into the meat grinder with all the other dissidents.

Debunking Harmony

The result of fearing to speak one's mind in public is best exemplified by the 2023 "A4 protests" or the "White Paper Revolution". Peaceful protesters in the PRC simply hold up a blank, white piece of A4 paper to indicate that they are speaking for the speechless (that includes themselves).

For the CCP, a decline in protests means their brutal methods are working and they are able to communicate this to the outside world as "harmony". The A4 protests debunk this myth. The blank sheet demonstrates a meaningfulness without being explicit and (currently) circumvents a known reason for domestic security to crack down. The concept of ideas has not yet been extinguished.

A Human Ear on a Mouse's Back

If you happen to follow the news in the country that you reside there will likely be alternate sources of information and knowledge. Alternate news channels that may or may not align with your views, independent think tanks, NGOs, wikipedia, international/overseas media outlets, youtubers, popular figures on twitter or the generic bigot from your local bar. Irrespective of our viewpoints of these sources, it is a privilege (most of the time!) that they all exist and continue to exist. What once were luxuries have become necessities.

As much as we may disagree with others about the trivial to the profound, we are all able to agree that we should all have the right to disagree. On this particular point, I'll never disagree with you either. You're right and you always will be.

Now, imagine all those alternate sources had never existed throughout your lifetime and all that filled the void was information that the government wanted/did not want you to know. 24/7. For the duration of your life. Pro-party political broadcasts that happened to have the news of the day tacked on. And that political party was neither elected, relevant, needed or wanted. It is that experiment where scientists successfully grew a human ear on a mouse's back. An evidenced possibility, yet horrifying and unnecessary.

The Tyranny of the Majority

With a homogenous input of information and education that is curated by the government, therein exists a silent superpower. A superpower in that absolute control of the past, present and future narrative solely belongs to the CCP. If the intents of the CCP were utilitarian or their choices aimed to ethically achieve the greatest good for the greatest number of people that would be great. The caveat being that this race for the greater good may risk the tyranny of the minority. But, utilitarian CCP intents are not the case here. There is no democracy in the CCP. What exists is "power first, people last". It is a tyranny of the majority (the people) and the greatest good is reserved for a considerably lesser number of people (CCP members).

The very existence of freedom of expression and ongoing access to independent information (that some privileged citizens of the world enjoy), delegitimises CCP rule. If the subjects of the CCP know that there is a better way of life, then the society that the CCP have built for its subjects is, by definition, worse. If there remains any credible alternative to CCP rule, there will always exist a credible reason to challenge their power.

The long-term strategic objectives of the CCP is to not allow their subjects these privileges and the demolition of all those liberal democracies where those privileges exist. There will then exist no peer comparison and credible reason to challenge the power of the CCP. This decades long goal is slowly being achieved through normalisation creep. Stealthy and slow.

Many individuals in liberal democracies rightfully focus on the plight of individual rights to remedy any tyranny of the minority in those societies. Those individuals are mostly unaware that a greater force is at work (the CCP) eroding the systems that make this possible. Think of liberal democracies and those associated privileges as an artistic yet delicate anomaly. A beautiful home that has been passed down for generations with the blueprint of the house drawn out just after the French Revolution in the late 18th century.

Overall, (democratic slide is a possibility), that beautiful home is made more beautiful over time through the virtuous input of a willing society. The house is not perfect but it as good as it gets. Since the Free World defeated the Soviet Union, we have assumed that the house will always be there. Fukuyama's "The End of History and the Last Man" publicised this misconception in 1992. The Free World, in their hubris, ignored/were deceived by the shadowy rise of CCP totalitarianism.

Now, ignore the breast feeding and think of that CCP totalitarianism as a tank that will bulldoze the beautiful house that is liberal democracy. We may liken the beautiful interior of that house as an extension of the modern pop culture that liberal democracies continue to produce. Music, comedy, art and film amongst so much more.

Hardcore censorship, surveillance and constrained access to knowledge and culture does not produce Neil Youngs, Joan Rivers', Shigeru Miyamatos, Chuck Ds or Christopher Nolans.

If the house is bulldozed by the CCP, in its place will be a grey and uninteresting structure, barren inside. We will never be allowed an opinion on the interiors of the house.

There will be no rainbow in your jail cell.

With knowledge that the bulldozer now exists, do we focus our time and efforts on the refinement of the fanciness of the interiors of the house (the domestic focussed debate on minimising the tyranny of the minority in society) and enjoy the house while it still stands?

Or, do we create alliances with others that we may normally disagree with and collectively combine our time and effort into destroying the bulldozer (and preventing the tyranny of the majority) so that we are able to go back to beautifying the house?

And thereafter, to be allowed to disagree once more about how the house is made more beautiful. A disunited people will simply be carrion as the predatory "divide and conquer" methods of the CCP continue.

Everyone deserves to have a shot at living in that beautiful house though the people of the PRC are taught that not even the blueprint to building the beautiful house exists.

Irrespective of the strength of mental constitution or even stubbornness, a life filled with government curated information and education is going to have an effect on your psyche and outlook. How are we supposed to want what we are not allowed to know?

Yet in the PRC, this does not stop a brave, few individuals from speaking and acting out with their talents. Badiucao is one such brave soul that also wants us to know the bulldozer exists so that we can destroy it together. And through his art, he risks being thrown into the meat grinder too .

(Some images taken from www.badiucao.com)

Badiucao is a popular and prolific political artist from China, and he confronts a variety of social and political issues head on in his work. He uses his art to challenge the censorship and dictatorship in China via his Twitter account @badiucao. His work was used by Amnesty International, Freedom House, BBC, CNN and China Digital Times and exhibited in Australia, America and Italy.

He believes history is constantly being unified and tampered with, and even forgotten, when free speech and democracy are absent. His art is a record of his personal perspective on social issues to confront the official record. He believes art and internet has the power to deconstruct the arrogance and authority of dictatorship as a building block of individual awakening and free independence. He has used his pen name to protect his family from surveillance and mistreatment. Badiucao has since escaped from Shanghai to Melbourne, Australia.