generalspeaking: Chinese Mind Control

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Chinese Mind Control

Pregnant school teacher Li Tiantian recently forced to check into a psychiatric hospital for challenging official accounts of historical events in China. Chinese Social Media Photo

"Physically and emotionally exhausted, I think only of escape!"
"Forgive me for not having the fortitude to go on -- I'm simply too battered and bruised."
Li Tiantian, pregnant school teacher

"Everything is moving toward a second Cultural Revolution."
"They [universities] are slowly being remodelled as thought-controlling machines."
"[Leader Xi Jinping was] basically getting rid of institutional rule, which has defined China for the past 30 years."
Jiang Xuegin, Chendu-based education consultant

"Xi has increased control over all aspects of society, and ideological control is an essential part of that."
"If you can control how people think, it then becomes easier to control how people behave."
Wang Yaqiu, senior China researcher, Human Rights Watch

A banner at Fudan University in Shanghai calls for institutions to adhere to the philosophy of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

A banner at Fudan University in Shanghai calls for institutions to adhere to the political philosophy of Chinese President Xi Jinping. (Hector Retamal / AFP/Getty Images)

Warnings are coming to the surface that China is on the cusp of another Cultural Revolution. The evidence rests in the fact that teachers and university professors are facing censorship, are being silenced, are detained and sent along to mental hospitals. Li Tiantian, a pregnant school teacher recently was forced to check in to a psychiatric hospital, the result of having challenged official accounts of historical events.

She posted an appeal on social media, for help. Claiming authorities were committing her to fix her "mental problems", a state tactic commonly referred to as being "mentally illed". She wrote of her concern for her unborn child, prompting an outpouring of online concern which in turn forced local government officials to insist she had been admitted for her own safety.

"As for her issuing inappropriate statements, after she leaves hospital, she will undergo education and counselling in line with the laws and regulations", government officials assured members of the public taken up with concern over the fate of the teacher.

Ms. Li taught in a rural part of Hunan province. She is an accomplished poet and essayist. Late last month she resurfaced and posted an essay which swiftly vanished from China's internet. In the essay she explained she had moved to another area of China. What has happened to Ms.Li has experts concerned, viewing it as a growing sign that academic inquiry and debate are being criminalized in China.

The issue appears clear enough to those who recall history and the late dictator Mao; a focus on Marxism and Socialism and a push to eradicate liberal concepts like constitutional checks on power along with an unfettered civil society. Part of a broader crackdown beginning with the stifling of academics and filtering down to everything, from the entertainment industry to businesses.

A law professor at Beijing's Tsinghua University was censored for posting an essay critiquing the state's draconian COVID restrictions and the increasingly wavering issue about what can and cannot be stated. "My confusion manifests itself first in that where any social issue is concerned, I no longer have any idea where the line for speech is", wrote Lao Dongyan on the WeChat social media app. In his essay Li's situation was mentioned, then removed hours after it appeared. Lao's fate remains unclear.