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When delivering a keynote speech in an international conference on energy held in Taiwan, an American professor made some witty comments on Trump's policy including the recent decision to exit from the Paris Accord, and joked about the process of his country's presidential election. In his speech, the professor made himself clear that he wasn't fond of Trump's government and told the audience that many Americans (like himself) disliked Trump. Though absolutely normal in the US and Taiwan, such open criticisms of the President by a citizen might strike a chord in the hearts of a few members of the audience who came from the Chinese mainland, as no Chinese would be expected to openly speak ill of their own government and President without consequence. In China, either you genuinely (are educated to) love your country and believe in everything you are told about how great the country is, or you find the cost too high to express an opposing view.
Taiwanese people are enjoying the same freedom of speech. The local audience in the convention hall naturally find nothing unusual in the professor's remarks, and perhaps just a sense of humor adding to the rather technical keynote speech. In Taiwan, hash criticisms against their government and President fly around everyday in the media and in the uncensored Internet. When I look at my own city, however, I begin to worry. We are losing this freedom bit by bit and day by day. We used to be able to tell our own view on any topic, but now our young people are told there are topics that they cannot even talk about. So, why allowing people to "talk" (pure expression of views) about certain topics can mean such a big deal to our government? Why have we become so vulnerable?
Unarguably, Hong Kong people still enjoy a super lot of freedom in expressing our views. But the tendency of narrowing of this freedom seems to amplify in recent years, especially on specific politically sensitive topics. Media is being regulated through commercial patronage or more precisely de-patronage. We can now count the remaining days when we are still allowed to express views on issues that may wrack Beijing's nerve. We are all realistic people, and know what pure idealism is and certainly won't attempt to do anything knowingly unachievable. But we treasure our own set of values including the freedom of speech. It is up to our government to uphold this set of values and to maintain our unique status of an SAR under one-country-two-system which, if undistortedly implemented, should promise to bring considerable benefit to our country!
June 7, 2017
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