Young Marxists are going missing in China after protesting for workers

CNN ^ | 1:28 AM ET, Wed November 14, 2018 | Ben Westcott and Yong Xiong

[Zhang Fei]

Hong Kong (CNN) Fear is sweeping through the campuses of China's elite universities following a nationwide government crackdown aimed at silencing left-wing student activists, who had been campaigning for greater rights and protections for ordinary workers.

Since August at least nine young Chinese labor advocates have been forcibly detained in major cities across the country, a sharp escalation in Beijing's campaign against student activism on university campuses.

"The whole of Peking University is like under the white terror now, (the security guards) will come after you even if you were just at the scene where the student activists were distributing leaflets," a student at the prestigious Peking University told CNN Tuesday.

On Friday, one graduate, Zhang Shengye, was attacked and dragged into a car at the Beijing university by several people in black jackets, according to a widely circulated open letter.

"Someone used his arm to put me in a headlock and pushed me forward ... My glasses were missing in the chaos, and I was pressed to the ground," the letter writer and fellow activist, Yu Tianfu, said.

"I struggled to say, 'Who are you? Why can you do such a thing?' A man pointed to my head before I could finish and said ferociously, 'Stop shouting otherwise I will beat you again.'"

A grassroots student movement, led by activists labeling themselves Marxists and calling for greater workers' rights, has become a growing problem for the Chinese government in recent years.

Under Chinese President Xi Jinping, Beijing has increasingly cracked down on all forms of dissent, including human rights activists, labor groups and religious organizations.

Activists and analysts have pointed out the irony of the socialist Chinese government, led by the theoretically pro-worker Communist Party, cracking down on young Marxists.

[MAGAthon]

yes, it is hilarious having CNN concerned for young Chinese Marxists.

[csvset]

Well, what did they expect? It’s still Communist China after all.

[poconopundit]

Good perspective, dangus. As I read the story, I didn’t realized this bias, but you’re right.

Perhaps this story was posted to draw a parallel with the Leftist heroes of the world like Jim AccostHer who cheapen and usurp real public discourse, and turn it into a shouting match in the name of free speech.

Seems to me there were plenty of those Party Faithful who operated in Pol Pot’s and Mao’s murderous regimes.

CNN (and AT&T its see-no-evil parent) are enemies of We the People.

[DownInFlames]

They have been enrolled in re-education camps. Class of 2050.

[vpintheak]

Getting a firsthand education in real communism vs. the rosy view their educators give them.

[Zhang Fei]

[Getting a firsthand education in real communism vs. the rosy view their educators give them.]

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Communism, as practiced in dictatorships, is basically a totalitarian version of absolute monarchy. It was always understood that in an absolute monarchy, the individual had private property rights, but these were subject to change in a time of national emergency, and individuals who revolted against the crown ran the risk of losing their lands, in addition to their lives. Even in a reformed (from an economic standpoint) communist dictatorship like China, private property can be seized by the state (in practical terms, the party leader and his minions in the party, an aristocracy in all but name) for any or no reason whatsoever. It is basically an absolute monarchy where the party leader owns the entire country, making him both wealthier and more powerful than the emperors of yore.

[SunkenCiv]

Hey, at least they live in a country with gun control.