ugh. When I read the line

Neo-liberal propaganda has orchestrated the public to blame its misfortune not on globalized market fundamentalism and US dollar hegemony

I started skimming; when I got to this:

Communists also treasure democracy.

I just stopped reading. The psychology is not unlike that of the American far left, which isn't galvanized by victims, but by victimizers, as Peter Beinart writes (link via Glenn Reynolds, whose reader Dennis Hollingsworth also has an important point).


Francesco Sisci's The trouble with Tung is more nuanced. Speaking of Glenn Reynolds, he wrote,

DICTATOR SUCK-UP WATCH (FoxNews subsection): A search of the FoxNews.com website still shows no stories on the massive Hong Kong protests.

Philip P. Pan's Hong Kong's Summer of Discontent says,

"Hong Kong is a small community of 7 million at the edge of the Chinese empire, but because it behaves differently, it is a catalyst for change," said Christine Loh, a former Hong Kong legislator who runs a group that promotes civil society here. "This is not to say Hong Kong will cause a revolution in China or push things very quickly, but the bigger system clearly has not overwhelmed the smaller one.


"Instead, we're seeing two different ideas about what society should be like, and when you talk about a tussle of ideas, size doesn't matter much. We all know ideas can start small and go a long way, and the Hong Kong idea, while dominant in only a small part of China, represents the dominant idea in the global community."...


"Hong Kong people protested" against the internal security bill "not just to protect themselves, but also because it would have limited activities that push forward democratic change in China," said Han Dongfang, an exiled labor activist in Hong Kong who broadcasts a radio show into the mainland on U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia.


But Han and other activists said it was unlikely the demonstrations in Hong Kong would spark similar protests across the mainland.


Participants in the July 1 Hong Kong demonstrations were primarily college-educated members of the middle class, and were united in their grievances. In a survey conducted by Hong Kong University, more than 90 percent of those polled opposed the anti-subversion bill and expressed disappointment with the Hong Kong government, while 80 percent called on Tung to step down.


By contrast, an urban middle class is only beginning to emerge in China, and while discontent with the party is widespread, Chinese society is more fragmented, with impoverished farmers making different demands of the government than laid-off workers, for example.


Han said people in China are angrier and more frustrated with the government than people in Hong Kong, but they are unable to stage large-scale demonstrations because the media cannot report protests and the police are quick to arrest organizers.


"The environment created by the state is the key difference," Han said. "In China, there is a lot of fear. . . . In Hong Kong, it's completely different."

So what's the solution for the Communists? I hope they don't decide to create "a lot of fear" in Hong Kong, too.