The Last Communist We Hang Shall Be the One Who Sold Us the Rope

Jesse Walker | April 30, 2008

Globalization and nationalism, chapter CCXXXV:

Police in southern China have discovered a factory manufacturing Free Tibet flags, media reports say. The factory in Guangdong had been completing overseas orders for the flag of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

Workers said they thought they were just making colourful flags and did not realise their meaning. But then some of them saw TV images of protesters holding the emblem and they alerted the authorities, according to Hong Kong’s Ming Pao newspaper.

The factory owner reportedly told police the emblems had been ordered from outside China, and he did not know that they stood for an independent Tibet.

[Via Chris Hayes.]

Comments

Naga Sadow|4.30.08 @ 10:50AM|#

Oh globalization! Is there nothing you can't cause to be funny and ironic?

NeonCat|4.30.08 @ 10:50AM|#

When I saw this I laughed and laughed.

Naga Sadow|4.30.08 @ 10:51AM|#

Also, what numbskull ordered Free Tibet flags from Chinese factories? Its a nation of snitches.

Elemenope|4.30.08 @ 10:57AM|#

Also, what numbskull ordered Free Tibet flags from Chinese factories? Its a nation of snitches.

Someone with a really perverse sense of ironic humor?

ed|4.30.08 @ 11:01AM|#

colourful flags

And deadly if you suck on them.
Nobody makes accidental poisoning quite as entertaining as the Chinese.

BakedPenguin|4.30.08 @ 11:04AM|#

what numbskull ordered Free Tibet flags from Chinese factories?

A value-conscious numbskull!

|4.30.08 @ 11:08AM|#

poor birds, pecking away at the mill

|4.30.08 @ 11:15AM|#

what numbskull ordered Free Tibet flags from Chinese factories?

He was looking for the best price for Tibet flags.

What better price than Free?

ed|4.30.08 @ 11:22AM|#

I'm actually looking forward to the summer games for the first time in ages,
especially the 400 Meter Protester Chase and Head Bashing Relay.
The Barbed Wire High Jump should also be competitive.

Guy Montag|4.30.08 @ 11:25AM|#

Back several years ago at one of the "Free Tibet" gatherings in downtown DC, they had loads of stuff made in China. I think every one of those cute little skull caps and the knit "Free Tibet" caps had "Made in China" tags.

|4.30.08 @ 11:31AM|#

Workers said they thought they were just making colourful flags and did not realise their meaning.
.......
The factory owner reportedly told police the emblems had been ordered from outside China, and he did not know that they stood for an independent Tibet.

The irony isn't lost on me, but the above truly makes me sad. The Chinese don't seem to have a clue as to how clueless they are.

|4.30.08 @ 11:36AM|#

Minor quibble here. The PRC is no longer ruled by a communist government. It hasn't been for quite some time.

|4.30.08 @ 11:48AM|#

J sub, I thought the Communist Party was still the single party in their single party government. Have I lost track?

|4.30.08 @ 11:49AM|#

The PRC is no longer ruled by a communist government.

"Fascist" probably works better. State-controlled industries and all that.

Jesse Walker|4.30.08 @ 11:55AM|#

China's ruling party is still nominally Communist. I wouldn't call their actual system Communist, but it's close enough for me to have fun with a fake Lenin quote.

|4.30.08 @ 11:57AM|#

Ha ha!

|4.30.08 @ 12:00PM|#

Have I lost track?

Yes.

There has been a recent development, wherein politicians and movements have begun referring to themselves using terminology that reflects how they wish to be perceived, rather than their actual political ideology.

Perhaps Vladimir Zhirinofsky of the Russian Liberal Democratic Party can explain it to you, after he finishes up with one of his nationalist, anti-semitic speeches.

Taktix®|4.30.08 @ 12:02PM|#

But then some of them saw TV images of protesters holding the emblem and they alerted the authorities, according to Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper.

It's the Year of the Rat over there, right?

Taktix®|4.30.08 @ 12:05PM|#

Perhaps Vladimir Zhirinofsky of the Russian Liberal Democratic Party can explain it to you, after he finishes up with one of his nationalist, anti-semitic speeches.

Yeah, but... but... he was democratically elected. That's validation, right joe?

|4.30.08 @ 12:06PM|#

"Minor quibble here. The PRC is no longer ruled by a communist government. It hasn't been for quite some time."

Minor quibble to your minor quibble: I thought communism was a system of economics, not government. Their economy may no longer be communist (I don't know) but their government could never have been communist to begin with. Authoritarian, or even totalitarian perhaps, but not communist.

Or am I being pedantic?

Guy Montag|4.30.08 @ 12:06PM|#

It's the Year of the Rat over there, right?

Is the year of the Fork over already?

|4.30.08 @ 12:08PM|#

"There has been a recent development, wherein politicians and movements have begun referring to themselves using terminology that reflects how they wish to be perceived, rather than their actual political ideology."

Beginning with the term 'liberal'.

Guy Montag|4.30.08 @ 12:12PM|#

Beginning with the term 'liberal'.

Isn't that 'progressive' now, or did they switch to another one already?

Rhywun|4.30.08 @ 12:34PM|#

The PRC is no longer ruled by a communist government.

Please elaborate. The Communist Party *is* the government - a few economic liberalizations handed out to favored members hasn't changed that.

Mad Max|4.30.08 @ 12:44PM|#

"The factory owner reportedly told police the emblems had been ordered from outside China, and he did not know that they stood for an independent Tibet."

What else would *you* say to Officer Friendly of the People's Police, if you were caught manufacturing Tibetan flags?

|4.30.08 @ 12:47PM|#

It's sad how brainwashed people in the West are.

Communism died in China 30 years ago. China has been a nationalistic authoritairan state with the most capitalistic economic system in the world for some time now.

And why is it funny that some Chinese don't recognize the so called Tibetian flag? How many of you in the U.S. recogznize the state flag of Howaii for example?

Rhywun|4.30.08 @ 12:50PM|#

What else would *you* say to Officer Friendly of the People's Police, if you were caught manufacturing Tibetan flags?

My thoughts exactly. Whether they recognized it or not is immaterial.

Guy Montag|4.30.08 @ 12:56PM|#

China has been a nationalistic authoritairan state with the most capitalistic economic system in the world for some time now.

Amazing how, to some, ANY introduction of any appearance of free market to a Communistic system gets the label of most capitalistic economic system in the world. Happened in Russia, the Eastern Bloc and now China.

Amazing.

|4.30.08 @ 12:57PM|#

Li,

I wouldn't recognize the Hawaii flag, or the Free Tibet flag.

But if I was making either of them, I like to think I'd know.

|4.30.08 @ 1:00PM|#

So its still ruled by the Communist Party (as I thought), and they are running their economy on more of a mixed fascist/collectivist basis, is that about right?

Rhywun|4.30.08 @ 1:01PM|#

China has been a nationalistic

Correct.

authoritairan state

Correct.

with the most capitalistic economic system in the world for some time now.

Ha ha ha ha! When I stayed in Beijing I went to the hotel bar for a drink and there were five bartenders standing there, waiting for someone to serve. I was the only customer. I saw this sort of thing everywhere I went in China.

|4.30.08 @ 1:04PM|#

Can you have capitalism without freedom?

Or freedom without capitalism?

|4.30.08 @ 1:11PM|#

Rhywun,

That's not necessarily proof of anything. Without socialist minimum wage laws like the ones found in our system, having a bloated staff might not be a huge issue. At the seafood restaurant I used to work in as a kid we always seemed to order way more Oyster Crackers than we needed most weeks. I gather the reason was because it didn't pinch the owner's bottom line that much and he'd rather have more than he needed then ever run out. In a country of 3 billion, could it not be that labor is the Chinese Oyster Cracker?

|4.30.08 @ 1:11PM|#

When I went to China, the bricklayers all had cell phones and checked theirs stock at every work break.

The Chinese work hard and drink even harder. Gambay!

|4.30.08 @ 1:17PM|#

Minor quibble to your minor quibble: I thought communism was a system of economics, not government.

It's a floor wax and a desert topping.

|4.30.08 @ 1:19PM|#

In a country of 3 billion,

Was that becasuse of drunkenness or stupidity?
;-)

|4.30.08 @ 1:33PM|#

Not, Taktix. Zhirinofsky was not elected to anything.

Thinking in cheap one liners without knowing what you're talking about is a really bad idea.

Especially if you decide to try to take a whack at me.

Elemenope|4.30.08 @ 1:40PM|#

It's a floor wax and a desert topping.

That's a keeper.

Kalim Kassam|4.30.08 @ 1:47PM|#

Beginning with the term 'liberal'.

Isn't that 'progressive' now, or did they switch to another one already?

Guy Montag,

So right. First they despoil the term of its meaning, then shrink from it because they gave it a negative connotation. The same thing is happening even to the formerly unambiguous term "classical liberal", which has been adopted by everyone from Sen. Mike Gravel to the Conservative Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper. I've never shied away from the term libertarian, but it's just not one that many people understand - and I do see my type of thinking as deriving from Mill, Locke and the other liberals. Since "liberal" and "classical liberal" have hardly any meaning now, I've taken to using "market liberal" to describe my political beliefs.

|4.30.08 @ 1:48PM|#

Perhaps Hilary Clinton of the Democratic Party can explain it to you, after she finishes up with one of her nationalist speeches.

Fixed

Guy Montag|4.30.08 @ 1:53PM|#

Same thing happened with a bunch of unwieldly brats and the term Anarchist. That is why I had to lean toward libertarian.

kinnath|4.30.08 @ 2:07PM|#

The Chinese work hard and drink even harder. Gambay!

Karaoke and beer shots. Three against one on my last trip. My only saving grace was that I was at a different table for dinner and wasn't drinking at dinner. Otherwise, I would have been dead meat.

Scooby|4.30.08 @ 2:17PM|#

China has a "big C" Communist government that is no longer "little c" communist. Therefore, J sub D was correct in saying "The PRC is no longer ruled by a communist government" and R C Dean is correct in stating that "...the Communist Party [is] still the single party in their single party government."

"Communist" parties aren't always communist, just as "Democratic" parties don't always bow to the will of the people and "Republican" parties sometimes seem more like monarchists.

|4.30.08 @ 2:22PM|#

Is this an example of a triumph of capitalism?

http://www.muckraked.com/wordpress/2008/04/28/dyncorp-manager-used-armored-car-to-transport-hookers-in-iraq/

|4.30.08 @ 2:26PM|#

Nicely put scooby

Rhywun|4.30.08 @ 2:34PM|#

In a country of [embarrassingly inaccurate number omitted], could it not be that labor is the Chinese Oyster Cracker?

Fair enough. Perhaps I'm a bit off base because "totalitarianism" and "communism" have been inexorably linked throughout history. Plus the government itself claims to be backing off on the latter while clearly keeping a firm grip on the former, which makes me skeptical because, well, everything they say is a lie.

economist|4.30.08 @ 3:52PM|#

The Chinese government, like all communist or former communist governments (with the exception of Cuba) has realized Marxism can't work as an economic system and thus have backed off from it. That said, they still want to keep as much control over people's lives as possible, hence the retention of authoriatarian policies.

Windypundit|4.30.08 @ 4:32PM|#

"And why is it funny that some Chinese don't recognize the so called Tibetian flag?"

Because the Chinese government has been so successful at suppressing references to free Tibet that most people don't recognize them when they see them...which undermines the Chinese ability to suppress them.

It's like when Stalin tried to suppress Jazz music---It we still played openly in the eastern provinces because police had never heard Jazz and therefore didn't recognize it.

|4.30.08 @ 5:42PM|#

Mmmmmm. Tastes terrific!

And just LOOK at that shine!

kraoh|4.30.08 @ 9:22PM|#

Windypundit's right. There was another story here about a newspaper editor who got in trouble because she allowed a personal ad to run saying something like "Remember the mothers on June 4th." She apparently had no idea that was a reference to the Tiananmen Square massacre, in large part because people here in China don't know that it even happened. So keeping people ignorant of such things actually, perversely, makes it easier for things like that to slip through the censors if the censors themselves are kept in the dark.

Bob Goodman|4.30.08 @ 9:29PM|#

Also, what numbskull ordered Free Tibet flags from Chinese factories? Its a nation of snitches.

It's a nation of people who love to make money and are good at it. Their gov't is what it always was: friend to those who have money, enemy to those who make it an enemy.

Exham|4.30.08 @ 10:53PM|#

Li, the flag of Hawaii is the only one in the US to bear a Union jack, which is a dead tell, it also has a series of Red White and Blue stripes (though in honesty I have to admit I can't remember how many)