What praise do I give to this oppression (China's influence over HK) where people, even a single person out of many thousands, are terrified of revealing their identity in a protest?
It seems unpopular on HN, but there is something that westerners are missing that makes the phrase "Boycott China" sound racist, ignorant and preposterous. Why is it so "wrong" to properly, sternly and unapologetically criticizing China? Even saying things like "I don't support buying Chinese goods" sound insane on HN. WHY!? Why should people praise Chinese economic progress, lifting middle class and giving a middle finger to IP, Shenzhen philosophy of quick business, etc. at the cost of loss of liberty and freedom, and democracy?
It's similar to our love hate relationship with advertising. Almost all employed readers work for companies who are at varying degrees dependant on advertising and almost all have adblock enabled. We are compromised and conflicted.
The hundreds of thousands of peaceful protesters had no masks. The small group who vandalized the Legislative Council wore masks because they knew they were breaking HK laws. Indeed, they would be arrested and charged for such actions in any country, including colonial HK, UK, or US.
While there are plenty of reasons you may dislike the behavior of the Chinese government, I don't think this is one of them.
On another note, I'm not sure why you would admire one of the very few violent extremists who embarrassed the otherwise peaceful HK democracy movement. Just because an extremist is willing to risk jail sentence by revealing his face, he becomes a hero?
It seems unpopular on HN, but there is something that westerners are missing that makes the phrase "Boycott China" sound racist, ignorant and preposterous. Why is it so "wrong" to properly, sternly and unapologetically criticizing China? Even saying things like "I don't support buying Chinese goods" sound insane on HN. WHY!? Why should people praise Chinese economic progress, lifting middle class and giving a middle finger to IP, Shenzhen philosophy of quick business, etc. at the cost of loss of liberty and freedom, and democracy?