Chinese omens. (Insider Report).Hero, a new film by celebrated Chinese director Zhang Yimou, "has delighted Beijing's mandarins, who are submitting it as China's nominee for best foreign film at the Academy Awards," reported the January 2nd New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times. "And it has infuriated in·fu·ri·ate tr.v. in·fu·ri·at·ed, in·fu·ri·at·ing, in·fu·ri·ates To make furious; enrage. adj. Archaic Furious. some Chinese critics, who have panned Mr. Zhang's plot for promoting a philosophy of servitude servitude In property law, a right by which property owned by one person is subject to a specified use or enjoyment by another. Servitudes allow people to create stable long-term arrangements for a wide variety of purposes, including shared land uses; maintaining the ." The subject of Zhang's film is the court of Emperor Qin Shihuang, a ruthless monarch whose reign "has been compared to the actions of Napoleon and Stalin, and whose bloody legacy remains a raw wound in today's China." Best known as the builder of China's Great Wall 2,200 years ago, Qin absorbed six warring states into one centralized kingdom by pitilessly exercising total power. His methods included creating a totalitarian police state and summarily executing anyone suspected of disloyalty dis·loy·al·ty n. pl. dis·loy·al·ties 1. The quality of being disloyal; faithlessness. 2. A disloyal act. Noun 1. . "Modem artists approach the subject with caution, in part because Mao Zedong saw the founding emperor as an inspiration and the Communist Party still views the ancient leader as a pointed allegory," noted the Times. While China's government-controlled film industry is preaching the "virtues" of totalitarian power and civic submission, the regime is preparing to impose a draconian "anti-sedition" law on Hong Kong. "Five years after Hong Kong's handover n. 1. The act of relinquishing property or authority etc. to another; as, the handover of occupied territory to the original posssessors; the handover of power from the military back to the civilian authorities s>. , China's curtain is closing over our once free society," explained Martin Lee, founding chairman of the island's Democratic Party, in a December 31st Wall Street Journal column. "At Beijing's directive, Hong Kong's government has unveiled controversial new measures on 'treason, subversion, sedition sedition (sĭdĭ`shən), in law, acts or words tending to upset the authority of a government. The scope of the offense was broad in early common law, which even permitted prosecution for a remark insulting to the king. , and secession.' Such vague laws are used in mainland China to convict and imprison im·pris·on tr.v. im·pris·oned, im·pris·on·ing, im·pris·ons To put in or as if in prison; confine. [Middle English emprisonen, from Old French emprisoner : en- everyone from Internet entrepreneurs to journalists and academics." According to Martin, "any group that falls afoul of Beijing can easily be quashed under Hong Kong's new law. Life was already precarious for democratic politicians, journalists, labor and rights activists among others, and now has become more so." The law also "appears targeted at the Falun Gong [a vaguely Buddhist religious sect outlawed by China's Communist rulers] and could well end up stifling other religious groups." |
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