Authorities across China are cracking down on thousands of college students who took part in mass night-cycling events that commentators said could be seen as a new form of protest against the ruling Chinese Communist Party.
The police department in Henan’s Zhengzhou city issued a warning to students on Nov. 9, following a mass “night ride to Kaifeng” by thousands of young people a day earlier, as a social media video about riding to the city in search of dumplings spawned dozens of copycat outings, eventually expanding to a mass cycle ride that some observers said left the authorities rattled, concerned that it could turn into a political protest like the “white paper” movement two years ago, or Halloween in Shanghai.
Edit: these events are widely reported by diverse news sources:
BBC | CNN | ABC (Australia) | Sky News
Even on Reddit people push back against radio free Asia “reporting”
If you haven’t seen them you should check out some of the crazy videos of literally tens of thousands of cyclists cycling down the streets together. It’s honestly so beautiful to see and the stories I’ve heard from participants meeting strangers from all over the place was touching. So of course it wouldn’t last, because that’s no longer a controlled environment the government can track properly. And sure it also looks a little dangerous because it’s just sooo many bicycles but come on, safety isn’t usually very high on the government’s priority list. But hey, it sure made history already.
Lame.
Wasn’t that also their issue with Falun Gong, which started out as an apolitical mass meditation/exercise movement, though committed the crime of challenging the Party’s monopoly on organising mass activities of any sort?
Falun Gong were never innocuous. They’re about as sane as Aum Shinrikyo or the Moonies. I despise the CCP, but those whackjobs are no better.
They did challenge the state and also are an insane cult. Go to a shenyun concert in america and youll see
It’s funny that, despite having zero idea what either of you are talking about, I knew you’d be a .ml account?
Right? The above commenter never said they were a fan of them, just that they eventually got into position to challenge the central government.
I linked the wikipedia article of the teachings of the weird cult to show they were never a non-political group, and its suppression is a good thing, rather than the evil ccp trying to crush benign movements because they hate freedom or whatever.
But why let reality get in the way of the china bad circlejerk?
There are plenty of real reasons to despise the CCP, but Falun Gong are about as much a pro-democracy opposition as the Manson Family was.
U see the purpose of freedom is to maximise oppertunity for people to excercise free will. U can choose to believe whatever u want which means u must also support other peoples decisions to believe what they want especially when u disagree with them. How can the suppression of peoples freedoms, ideas, and choice to do with their body as they wish be a good thing?
Enabling intolerance is itself intolerance.
A society that lets racists, homophobes, and child abusers organize is less free than one which breaks up such organizations and reeducates its members.
Those people are free to organise. They are not free to perform any awfull acts.
Are u trying to quote Karl Popper at me? Cos u would do well to read the whole quote not just the first half cos its convenient to ur narrative.
"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.
In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be unwise." - Karl Popper
They are indeed a weird cult, but is the problem (as specifically relates to the above comment) that they are weird (more than weird hah) or that they challenged the party? Imo addressing that is what the original comment was about.
They challenge the party the same way Heaven’s Gate, the Laroushites, or other weird right-wing cults challenge the US state; by encouraging destructive behavior like denying life-saving medicine to children, running a pyramid scheme, doing a bunch of crimes, financial and otherwise.
Since you liberals love trotting out juvenile analogies while clearly being the ones most in need of them:
Cracking down on a money laundering religious extremist violent and abusive cult used as an example of authoritarianism instantly renders your entire argument moot.
Nobody’s arguing that these “crackdowns”, if they even are happening outside the US State Dept., are bad. You’re literally throwing a fit about something that didn’t happen.
In fact, you are the ones arguing that the folks pointing out how evil Falun Gong is, something heavily documented even by Western press, are the ones that don’t know what they’re talking about.
You are the ones dismissing truth because of… reasons???
Isn’t it strange how everything out of liberals mouths is a projection?
Perfect little Americans, brainwashed to the core and you think you’re an independent thinker…
I’m American, very much not a liberal, and I agree that Falun Gong has as much rightful place in a civilized society as cholera does.
So don’t patronize me with your lectures about what Americans are like. You have no idea what we think.
You opening your mouth instantly renders your argument invalid.
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radio free asia
lmao. Students aren’t going on bikerides to show that they hate the government.
I can’t find any chinese sources about the ban, but I only searched english language chinese sources.
No traffic! god dammit! Commuting to work is protest.
“Fuk Yu ettas! No dum Leng dinna four Yao!” - Christopher Robin (I think)
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?? It was a social media craze about dumplings wtf are you talking about. If they actually “banned it” then it was because it was incredibly unorganized and people could have got hurt. It was not expected to be so dense.
Edit: Lmao its radio radio free asia 💀
