The current controversy at The Australian Open over the suppression of freedom of speech in the form of the ‘Where is Peng Shuai?’ t-shirts has got me and other people thinking.
Peng Shuai is only one of many possible topics which would offend the authorities in the PRC, and which they would like to keep from the attention of the Chinese public.
The creators of this slogan are particularly clever in that they picked a tennis related topic to raise when making their statement at the Open.
But there are other topics which might be less relevant to the tennis world, but even more unpalatable.
The following easily come to mind:
. Free Tibet
. Falun Gong is harmless
. End Uighur Genocide
. Mao murdered sixty million
. Remember Tiananmen Square
Just thinking about the context behind the above five bullet points is quite sobering. Communist China is and has been over the 70 plus years of its regime a menace to its own people in particular, as well as conquering a near neighbour. It is a tyrannical dictatorship, whose idea of soft power is to get controllable Chinese corporations to sprinkle millions of dollars on sporting sponsorships as a form of sports washing.
Queensland student activist Drew Pavlou has been an articulate critic of the PRC regime and its influence on our nation. Here is a link to his page on this topic:
https://www.drewpavlou.com/stand_up_to_china_and_protect_human_rights
For the sake of balance, I will include a link to a piece recently republished by the CCP mouthpiece the Global Times, which was written by a retired Australian diplomat with definite opinions on our China relationship:
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202201/1246609.shtml
I leave it to you to judge for yourself as to whether that piece is a voice of reason or an apologist for tyranny.
Lost For Words! 