How sorry for the dictators . It is increasingly difficult for them to rule through terror, force people to believe in their legitimacy and impose their unique ideology. Despite all the technology they have at their disposal—virtual espionage, social media censorship, facial recognition programs—people no longer believe in them.
In places where it is too dangerous to protest, people resort to irony. Even in the Soviet Union, popular humor has always been the people’s way of laughing at their despots and their tyrannical pretensions. Whatever the obstacles, the truth comes out – whether in yesterday’s Iron Curtain or today’s Great Firewall. As proof, I present the fact that the #MeToo movement came to China from Xi Jinping, a country that should have been hermetically sealed to Western influences.
The big issue mobilizing Chinese public opinion these days, through parallel networks and word-of-mouth that bypass the official press, is not Xi declaring herself her own successor, but Peng Shuai’s denunciation that Zhang Gaoli raped her. Who they are Peng Shuai and
Zhang Gaoli? Peng is a world famous tennis player – the best and most popular Chinese tennis player. Zhang is a former high-ranking member of the Communist Party and former deputy prime minister.
