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Or maybe many companies were moving out of (or had plans to move out of) China even before the trade war. The war was a good convenient excuse, exacerbating a preexisting trend.
https://twitter.com/kevinkfya...93124576473088
https://twitter.com/kevinkfya...93127269208064
Again, the reality is that all you then get are platitudes about China is still developing, it knows it needs to get better, people need to give China time to change. But PRC officialdom has been saying things like this for decades in without anything changing. (6)
Nonetheless, because the lines in (2) and (3) above sound so nuanced and reasonable, it can be easily accepted by sections of the unwitting public and even elites. The United Front knows this, and I have seen them peddle these kinds of lines in #HongKong over the years. (7)
Good thread from Kevin Yam why apologists and practitioners of self-censorship may be well-meaning but wrong. In short, decades of this approach has not worked. Free speech, civil society and other concerns affecting the welfare of the Chinese people have gone backwards, not forwards.
Who doesn’t want to be reasonable? The CCP has taken advantage of people wanting to be fair for years.
Last edited by East_coast; 27-02-2020 at 12:28 AM.