Update on China's dictatorship

CONTEXT

“.... society not only controls our movements, but shapes our identity, our thought, and our emotions.” [Social institutions] are structures of our own consciousness. .... Sociologists speak of ‘ideology’ in discussing views that serve to rationalize the vested interests of some group. Very frequently, such views systematically distort social reality in much the same way that an individual may neurotically deny, deform or reinterpret aspects of his life that are inconvenient to him. .... the ideas by which men explain their actions are unmasked as self-deception, sales talk, the kind of ‘sincerity’ that David Riesman has aptly described as the state of mind of a man who habitually believes his own propaganda. .... The same process [of intentional identity change via propaganda] occurs whenever a whole group of individuals is to be ‘broken’ and made to accept a new definition of themselves. .... This view tells us that man plays dramatic parts in the grand play of society, and that, speaking sociologically, he is the masks he must wear to do so. .... Unlike puppets, we have the possibility of stopping in our movements, looking up and perceiving the machinery by which we have been moved. In this act lies the first step toward freedom.” --- Sociologist Peter Berger, Invitation to Sociology, 1963

In my opinion, China is the most important country to watch for a possible dark future of a perpetually enslaved mankind. It's pervasive, aggressive technology-based dictatorship is unsurpassed anywhere else on Earth. It is efficient and ruthless in its intelligent reliance on human cognitive biology and social behavior to control perceptions of reality and to literally control thoughts. In his book, Invitation to Sociology, Peter Berger discusses how society and social institutions can shape and control human perceptions of reality and thinking. That was known in 1963. It is still true today. Humans are social creatures. Demagogues and tyrants exploit that normal human trait to their own advantage, usually to the detriment of society and at least those civil liberties that present potential threats to tyrants.

Berger's short little book, a masterpiece in my opinion, is basically optimistic. That's probably due in no small part to the fact that he wrote in 1963. There were no cell phones, social media, AI face recognition software, or mass consumer electronic commerce that presented tools for demagogues to exploit. And, there was no demagogic neo-fascist Republican Party acting in open opposition to democracy, in large part by firmly rejecting inconvenient fact, truth and reasoning. In Berger's day, the flow of information in mainstream America was far less poisoned compared to the rot we get now, especially from the radical right. Facts and truths still commanded reasonable respect by most political leaders. There were good reasons to be optimistic.

China's tyrants are exploiting all of the new technology tools to build an impenetrable dictatorship. The tyrants' intent is crystal clear: They want a dictatorship that cannot be overthrown by the people. Maybe external forces could someday topple what the Chinese tyrants are doing, but it is increasingly hard to see how the Chinese people could ever do it on their own. One of the most brilliant tactics the tyrants use is subtle social pressure. That is used to get average Chinese citizens to voluntarily opt in to China's pervasive digital dictatorship. Once they are opted into the system via their cell phones, they are closely monitored for everything they do. If they do not opt in, their lives are derailed and they live in poverty and oppression. If they do opt in, they are socially graded for everything they do. They are punished for bad behavior, e.g., having friends with low social acceptability scores. Bad behavior derails lives and careers. The opted in bad people live in poverty and oppression, just like the bad people who do not opt in.

Chinese policewoman using facial-recognition sunglasses linked to artificial intelligence data analysis algorithms while patrolling a train station in Zhengzhou, the capital of central China's Henan province

The update

One way to keep people from, as Berger put it, looking up and perceiving the machinery by which we have been moved, is to remove inconvenient facts, truths and reasoning from public access. That is a classic demagogue tyrant tactic. The Chinese machinery of tyranny simply obliterates all inconvenience. The New York Times writes on a current instance of China simply rewriting history to protect its people from truth:

In These New Textbooks, Hong Kong Was Never a British Colony

The books are part of China’s effort to instill a particular historical narrative and to stress patriotic education in a city where a pro-democracy movement was crushed.

HONG KONG — Many schoolchildren around the world have long been taught that Hong Kong was once a colony of the British Empire. But students in Hong Kong will soon learn a different lesson: It wasn’t.

Beijing has steadfastly maintained that historical view of the city’s status, long before Britain returned the territory to China in 1997, and years before a sweeping crackdown crushed a thriving pro-democracy movement in the once-semiautonomous territory.

Now, as Hong Kong prepares to commemorate 25 years since its handover to China on July 1, 1997, that narrative — which rejects how the British saw their relationship to the city — will be explicitly taught to Hong Kong high school students through at least four new textbooks that will be rolled out in the fall.

The textbook material is still under review by principals, teachers, scholars and employees of Hong Kong’s Education Bureau, but it seems destined for classrooms. Local news websites published draft excerpts this week, and The New York Times viewed teachers’ proof copies. The material is part of a wider campaign by China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, to overhaul Hong Kong’s schools, “protect young minds” and raise loyal, patriotic citizens. 

Jeffrey Ngo, a Hong Kong pro-democracy activist and a doctoral candidate in history at Georgetown University, said that the government’s position “is a shorthand for saying, ‘Hong Kong was always a part of China, thus Hong Kongers never could claim a right of self-determination.’”  

“It’s about trying to make sure the next generation of young kids are going to be supportive or at least sympathetic to what the government is saying,” Mr. Ngo added. “This is part of the remake of Hong Kong in the national security era.”

The Chinese dictators really do understand human cognitive biology and social behavior. They are using that knowledge to build a deep surveillance state dictatorship that average Chinese people simply cannot escape from. Social monitoring and grading is everywhere. That is why China has pushed so hard to get people to buy everything using their cell phones. The more that daily life is conducted digitally, the more the government sees those people and becomes aware of possible threats long before they mature into a significant threat.

China appears to be in the end stages of building and perfecting its national dictatorship infrastructure. It should be built out and mostly perfected in the next ~6 years or thereabouts. Its international behavior is now openly supportive of dictators and demagoguery, while being increasingly hostile to democracies and inconvenient truth. In my opinion, China is transitioning from a national tyranny to a global totalitarian political movement, with China at the top. War with China is increasingly plausible, maybe unless the Republicans take control, kill democracy and make nice with the tyrants in China. 

China exports its dictatorship technology to authoritarians 

everywhere for "law enforcement" purposes

 

Intelligence agencies and state police 

wind up using it to find threats to dictators and 

to suppress civilian political activities

 

This is Ecuador’s system built by two

Chinese companies controlled by the Chinese government