Yes, the American Dream of freedom, prosperity and upward social mobility is alive in a country where protestors were turned into human pancakes. [1] A country where, as the author continually points out, you can have a clean, modern, and nice life as long as you,
- Don't talk about Winnie the Pooh
- Worship the wrong god
- Fall afoul of a powerful party official or princeling
- Disagree with the government on anything
- Weren't born with a uterus
- Shy away from saying how your overlords run things
- Don't want more than two children
- Avoid buying too many video games
- Don't want to ever consume works of arts that are critical of anything remotely significant to your life
- Keep in line when it comes to avoiding what the government deems "frivilous purchases"
- Permanently keep your dog on a leash whilst outside no matter what
- Avoid keeping a dog that barks at someone in public
- Aren't one of them pesky LGBT people Xi disapproves of
- Aren't an ethnic minority
- Love only the Pre-Approved Music endorsed by the Ministry of Culture
- Are cool with the companies censoring your private messages for words like Uber.
- Dislike movies, such as Avatar, that make more money than Chinese Cinema
- Have decided against "buying and selling officially forbidden Christian devotionals" aka the Bible
- Don't object to wrongful executions
- Don't want to further your aspirations by moving from a village to a city
- Desire to start a large company that won't eventually be taken over and controlled by the Party and the State
- Don't commit any of the other thousands of big and samll thought crimes that change on a continual basis
Other than that it's the personification of the American Dream. The promised land where princelings and wealthy émigrés can look upwards and reach better positions in state controlled industries and even greater heights amongst other Beijing royalty.
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 12.4 ms ] thread[1] https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/UK_cable_on_Tiananmen_Square_...