What the Leftist SJW Culture Have in Common with Communist Chinese Culture

A Comparative Analysis of how Marxist Culture is Trampling On the Freedoms of Hong Kong and America

S.G. Cheah
10 min readSep 3, 2019
KIN CHEUNG / AP

The American Far-Left and Communist China.

Some might say “Do you really need an essay to state the obvious?” Part of me would even agree that is unfair to compare the American Left to Communist China’s culture because the Communist Chinese society is still far worse than anything that most of us in the free West can understand.

But America (and everyone in the free world) must be vigilant and pay attention to the movement that is currently unfolding in Hong Kong. Their protest against Beijing’s tyranny will set the course for the future of freedom.

The Hong Kongers’ fight against Beijing’s tyranny is a symbolic parallel of our own struggle to protect our own freedom and liberty here in America.

Putting aside China’s thirst of usurping America as the global superpower, we should also take note of the similarities that the Chinese Communist culture share with the American Social Justice Left.

Listed below are some of the resemblance the American Far-Left shares with today’s Chinese Communist culture.

No room for dissent or differing opinions

The American Left is notorious for their intolerance concerning differences of opinions. The same trend is observed in China today.

Chinese citizens, brainwashed by the communist government, demonstrates utter intolerance to the Hong Kongers right to protest. Threats of violence and force are called upon to secure the complete crackdown on the people of Hong Kongers.

Pro Beijing Nationalist counter-protesting against Hong Kong

It is hard not to be reminded of how eerily similar this situation in China is to how the intolerant left operates in America. Conservative voices and opinions are often silenced with threats of violence. Dissenting voices and opinions are not tolerated because it opposes their political hegemony.

The Chinese government does not trust its own citizens to make their own judgment, just like the Socialist Left in America.

This is not Hong Kong, but rather, at a Ben Shapiro talk at UC Berkeley. She was knocked to the ground during a scuffle with protesters following a speech by Shapiro on

Communist China is obsessed with scrubbing and rewriting history — just like the American Far-left

It is obvious to everyone how the Tiananmen Square Massacre was perhaps one of the most egregious acts of human brutality in our modern history. Unfortunately, your average Chinese citizens are left in the dark about the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

The Chinese government had scrubbed the Tiananmen Square Massacre from the Chinese peoples’ consciousness. Their sordid history has to be rewritten, even if it meant going to the extreme. They’d go so far as to pressure Leica Brazil from removing an ad they made about the Tiananmen Square Massacre. This Leica ad was created to be shown domestically in Brazil. But the backlash from China was so strong that Leica Brazil not only had to take it down, but also apologize for making it.

You can watch this brilliantly well-made ad if you’re interested. It looks like Leica Brazil has caved to the CCP’s pressure and is scrubbing this powerful ad from the internet.

I highly recommend watching this

The same case plays out in the American Far-left. From the removal of historical statues to the revoking and renaming of Columbus Day; we can observe countless efforts of historical revisionism of American history. It’s their blatant attempt to wipe out historical truth and rewrite history in their favor.

Paraphrasing a statement I once heard by Burgess Owens - “Notice how it is the Democrats tearing down the statues of Democrats? It is because these statues are a reminder to us that the Democrats were the party of slavery. It’s done so we’ll forget that part of their history”.

Confederate statues are a reminder that the Democratic Party was the Party of slavery

China has a cancel culture — the SJW left is the same

If you keep up with Chinese news, there’s an interesting story about the Chinese government’s effort to “cancel” the online history of a Chinese MMA fighter. Why? Well, because he consistently challenges and successfully defeats Kung Fu and Tai Chi masters with his MMA style of combat. For this sin against the “Chinese national morale”, he is to be erased from the internet.

The irony of this is how Xu Xiaodong (the MMA fighter in question), is a patriotic Chinese citizen who loves China and supports the Communist Party. However, none of that mattered to the Chinese Government because he is merely a tool in the CCP’s grand scheme of tyranny.

Xu Xiaodong, #canceled by the Chinese Government because his Western MMA style of combat keeps beating Traditional Chinese Martial Arts

Wiping out history and rewriting it is part and parcel of an authoritarian regime — that much is apparent. But it is disturbing when people living in a free society becomes complicit to this “cancel culture” through their own effort. Just observe how the SJW left is rife with “cancel culture”. From #cancelwhitemen to #cancelTaylorSwift, the left is ceaseless when it comes to destroying the reputation of those they disagree with.

Ultimately, we can see how the left is moving to cannibalize their own (just like what China did to Xu Xiaodong). Take Sarah Silverman’s case for example. She herself was recently targetted by the outrage mob’s cancel culture for donning “blackface” over a decade ago. Dave Chappelle is set to be their next target unless the American public says enough is enough.

The Mobilization of children for propaganda purposes

Xu Xiaodong was “canceled” by the Chinese authorities because he was deemed to be a bad influence on the youth in China. This is unsurprising since the Chinese regime must monopolize and control the thoughts of their subjects, especially the young.

The Communist Party view the young as nothing more than tools they can use to implement the regime’s agenda. Children are constantly used as a resource to brainwash the masses.

Take for example last year’s arrest of Huawei’s CFO in Canada. Chinese state media released a video of children singing praises for Huawei in retaliation as an effort to garner public support for Huawei.

Unlike the Leica Brazil ad, I don’t recommend watching this

It’s hard to ignore how this mobilization of children by the Chinese Communist Party is eerily similar to how the left utilizes Greta Thunberg to push their climate change agenda….

Communist are great at exploiting children for propaganda purposes

China is obsessed with class — as is the left

While we are on the topic of children, take note on another aspect of how the American SJW Left and their Chinese Communist comrades share a kinship when it comes to the matter of offsprings.

Despite Mao’s initiative to eliminate all class distinction during his Cultural Revolution, Chinese society is still obsessed with judging people based on their personal wealth.

We love peace (1951) (© Michael Wolf)

Children in China tend to be judged based on their parent’s economic stature. A child from a wealthy family (likely connected to the Communist Party) is generally treated with more respect than a child from a poor, provincial family.

Notice how the left also judges' children by their parent’s status. Children with successful parents are labeled as being guilty of “privilege” while children from the lower socio-economic rungs are thought to be doomed for a life of oppression.

The SJW view of children’s destiny. The rest of this comic strip is here.

The fundamental similarity here is how the SJW Left and Chinese Communist do not view people as individuals. Rather, the class a person is born into determines their identity. “Intersectionality” is quite simply the Millenial Era re-branding of Marxist class theory.

The left doesn’t understand the sanctity of ideas — and neither does the brainwashed Chinese masses

The ongoing protest in Hong Kong against China’s Extradition Bill has inspired a sense of renewed pride for the ideas of liberty in just about everybody in the free world.

Everybody, that is, besides the American far-Left and the brainwashed Chinese citizens. An article from The Guardian helps illustrates this; when interviewed about the Hong Kong Protest, a Chinese citizen said — “I think what they are doing to Hong Kong, they are fighting for nothing, they are fighting for no reason,” he said. “I used to go to Hong Kong a lot, but lately I’ve not been going. I don’t want to get hurt for some stupid ideas.”

“Some stupid ideas”

Ideas hold no sanctity to the concrete bound materialist. The fundamental principles of freedom and liberty are thought of as an impractical hindrance because their intellect can’t comprehend why being principled is universally beneficial in the long run.

Pro-Beijing counter-protestors called the anti-extradition HK protesters “senseless”.

Their materialistic pragmatism is more concerned with doing what is expediently easy for the immediate present. Hence, the thought of fighting for freedom and liberty is an absurdity to those who are unprincipled.

For example — when asked to uphold the agreement made between China and Britain regarding Hong Kong’s 50 years of independent governance, Chinese officials dismissed the Declaration as a “historical document that no longer has any realistic meaning”.

Deng Xiaoping and Margaret Thatcher, before she signed the joint declaration in 1984. A “historical document that no longer has any realistic meaning” according to Chinese officials.

We can observe the same problem with the SJW Left in America. Consider how often you’ll hear the Left proclaim The Constitution of the United States to be just an “outdated document written by dead white men”.

The SJW Left will eagerly discard the American Constitution in favor of socialism because they can easily visualize socialism as providing them with things that are tangible — healthcare, education, welfare.

Peak irony is when the very Constitution you hate protects your right to burn the American flag

But they’re incapable of comprehending how the Constitution protects their rights to freedom and liberty. They are so concrete bound to the point where you’ll read something like this written in the Huffington Post

“Understand that “founding fathers” is just a romanticized term. Thomas Jefferson was not your actual father. He didn’t take you to baseball games.”

That line in the Huffington Post is about as dumb as the person who condemned the Hong Kong protestors by stating “what they are doing to Hong Kong, they are fighting for nothing”. Critical abstraction is not a strong point for these sorts of people.

The greatest political achievement (The American Constitution) holds no significance to the Far-left because the Founders were “rich, privileged, white men”.

The Left is obsessed with the Nazis, just like how the Communist Chinese are still obsessed with Imperial Japan

Is it also interesting to note how the SJW Left and their Communist Chinese comrade’s inability to think critically is manifested in their ongoing mutual hatred of the Axis powers till today.

The world has moved on from World War 2. Imperialist Japan and Nazi Germany were completely defeated and had been eliminated into the ashes of history.

Yet the SJW Left still vilify their opposition as Nazis. The Antifa movement is driven to take to the streets so they can “punch a Nazi”.

Antifa fighting a Nazi, obviously.

The same irrational hatred against Imperial is also seen in today’s Communist Chinese society. The antagonism against Imperial Japan is still encouraged in China. Children are constantly fed with hatred for the Japanese.

There are even theme parks in China where you can live-action role play your own assault on the Japanese Army. Even kindergarten recitals have reenactments Japanese war atrocities. with the happy ending of the Japanese defeat at the hands of the Communist Party.

A boy dressed as an Eighth Route Army soldier aims down the sights of his toy gun during a live-action role-playing game. (Jason Lee/Reuters)

I’m not discounting the evils of Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany — my own Chinese family was part of the Communist resistance against Imperialist Japan in Malaya. But this is exactly why it is even more mind-boggling to me that China would still hold on to their hatred of the Japanese when I (and my Malaysian Chinese family) had moved on and is quite fond of Japanese culture today.

Why Hong Kong Matters — A Heroic Defense of Freedom in the Face of Overwhelming Tyranny

The people of Hong Kong is facing down one of the most authoritarian dictatorships in the world stage today. Yet they will not budge, they will not compromise, they will not give up —not even under the threat of violence.

They understand why it is critical that China’s Extradition Bill has to be completely withdrawn because it is a matter of principle. Every small compromise will an authoritarian dictatorship will slowly chip away at their freedom in the future.

Their fight for freedom is important because life and liberty is one and the same. It is the conception of freedom as the condition for life. All men have a right to freedom, as all men have a right to life.

When the scope of tyranny increases, the breadth of life dwindles. The tyrant is an owner of slaves because slaves have no right to life.

Whenever you see the phrase “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death”, keep in mind that it announced not as a requested permission (“Can I please be given liberty?”) but rather, it is a personal declaration you are making about a fundamental principle of truth (“Live Free or Die”).

As Ayn Rand brilliantly stated — “This is why a principle is an absolute, permitting no exceptions. You cannot, out of charity, sympathy or any other reason, introduce an evil principle into society and impose it on people by governmental force.”

This is why the people of Hong Kong will not break and compromise with evil.

“Tyranny must die” written in Chinese characters (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

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S.G. Cheah

I write for pleasure and I write because writing helps me think critically.