re: "China: Disrespecting anthem may bring jail" (BP, November 4)
Dear editor,
China clearly has much to teach the West as well as the East: fallen for a common theme through history, China confuses dissent with disrespect, repeating the common mistake of equating mindless adulation with respect. Like all such anti-democratic laws, the law that criminalizes what is deemed disrespect to it but confirms that the Chinese national anthem cannot attract respect on its own merits or on the merits of what it represents. Similar laws abound throughout the world wherever dictators or despotic oligarchies, including those operating under a sham of democracy, need a false image of social consensus to deceitfully paper over deep dissent from mythic ideologies religious, historical, social or political that reject truth and honesty as virtues. Laws against free speech, however sincerely motivated or genuinely popular, necessarily undermine the worth of the opinions they are needed to protect from reality and from good morals.Whilst perhaps strongly disagreeing, decent people respect dissent.
Felix Qui
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The above letter to the editor is the text as submitted by Felix Qui to the Bangkok Post.
The text as edited was published in PostBag on November 6, 2017, under the title "Can't force respect" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/1355267/cant-force-respect
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