Press freedoms are practically nonexistent in China. Instead, it's just another example of the Chinese government tossing aside concerns about its public image. Which brings us to this, which isn't the worst thing China has done. But it still struggles to control the narrative, despite constantly finding new ways to limit the spread of information it doesn't approve of and its rewriting of even very recent history to excise anything that might suggest the state is immoral, fallible, or dangerous to the citizens it oversees. And its vision for the future is the elimination of any roadblocks to complete power. The government likes things the way they are. Will China ever reach that starting point? The first step towards redemption is realizing you need to be redeemed.
Just ask the former USSR (which, unfortunately, is resembling its old self more and more every day.) But it is too big to care what anyone else thinks. The Chinese government isn't too big to fail. Sanctions and public condemnation haven't had any effect. Can China ever be anything than increasingly worse versions of itself? And China most likely believes people can be punished into contrition, which will "redeem" them while allowing the state to remain intact. China isn't a Christian nation, so that ends that part of the speculation. Our penal system, in a much more half-hearted way, conflates punishment with rehabilitation, as if the best way to turn your life around is to see it destroyed.
The underlying basis of Christianity is that no one is completely irredeemable (even if far too many Christians seem to believe certain people are). Is China irredeemable? I guess it all depends on what you think of redemption. It is engaged in the erasure of its Uighur Muslim population, utilizing concentration camps, disappearances, brutality, and a war of attrition designed to eliminate these "unwanteds" completely in the coming years. It has rolled out multiple layers of oppression to keep its citizens in line, starting with pervasive widespread surveillance that ties into "citizen scores" that limit opportunities for those the government believes aren't patriotic enough.
It refuses to acknowledge Taiwan's existence as a separate country and demands apologies from world leaders and professional athletes when they make the "mistake" of acknowledging yet another lucrative region China wishes to directly control. It sees even more opportunity in ultra-lucrative Hong Kong and has taken direct control of the region. Private companies and public entities alike have kowtowed and capitulated rather than face the ferocity of the easily angered government and/or risk losing access to a marketplace containing a few billion people.Ĭhina has embraced its own version of capitalism to create the leverage it now wields against those who offend it, no matter where else in the world they might be located. Anyone saying otherwise has something to sell (most likely to the Chinese people or their government). The Chinese government is truly, undeniably, utterly evil.