Patriotism

Zaobao journalist Tai Hing Shing analyses the Election Committee’s expanded role in deciding who becomes the chief executive and gets to sit on the Legislative Council. Will these adjustments help Beijing reduce the influence of the pro-democracy camp as well as the business sector?

Given the current highlight on issues of racism in the US and patriotism in China, it seems that Chinese Americans serving in the US army are in a unique situation. Hong Kong commentator Chip Tsao wonders: if a conflict breaks out between China and the US over Taiwan or the South China Sea, how would these military persons be viewed?

Chinese consumers’ boycott of Western fashion brands for their position on cotton sourced from Xinjiang is a sequel to a long-running series of actions against foreign companies. Southeast Asian firms should take note, and act accordingly.

Analysts have their doubts on whether the latest wave of patriotism-inspired consumerism following a boycott of foreign brands that had spurned Xinjiang cotton will last. Going by the rise of "guochao", the use of traditional Chinese motifs in modern designs, a young generation of Chinese digital natives seem prepared to put their money where their mouths are. However, can the quality and range of China-made goods satisfy the desires of the Chinese while competing internationally?

In itself, a subversive artwork by Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei to be shown at Hong Kong’s new M+ museum may not have drawn such attention. But under the shadow of the national security law in Hong Kong and the looming chief executive election, everything is magnified a hundredfold.

Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office director Xia Baolong has said that Hong Kong should only be governed by “patriots”. Zaobao journalist Tai Hing Shing asks: How do we tell apart the patriots and the pseudo-patriots?

While Nazism and socialism fall on opposite ends of the spectrum, they are more alike than they seem. Hong Kong commentator Chip Tsao points out that both ideologies began with similar intentions, but took divergent paths to meet their objectives and garnered different reactions from the West.

Angry netizens suggest that Wuhan party secretary Wang Zhonglin’s call for gratitude for the CCP shows where officials’ allegiance truly lies. The testy mood of the public portends the zero tolerance of further grandstanding behaviour.

In sensitive Covid-19 times, any hint of propaganda elicits a potentially virulent backlash, Chinese authorities learn.