by WorldTribune Staff, December 29, 2017
China is set to unveil a website that allows citizens to tip off authorities to anyone who criticizes Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership or smears the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
The website will be launched on Jan. 1 by the Central Military Commission (CMC), which is chaired by President Xi Jinping.
The nation’s netizens, of which there are over 750 million, will be encouraged to report anyone suspected of inciting animosity between the military and civilians.
Other behaviors that could be reported include falsifying a military unit or membership; publishing information that is harmful or insulting to the military; and using online accounts without approval or revealing a soldier’s personal identity, according to the PLA Daily.
Meanwhile, the government may have no worries when it comes to one emerging segment of Chinese society. Millennials known as “Buddhist Youth” are said to be happily resigned to being ordinary and not rocking the boat.
The trend has even caught the attention of the People’s Daily, the official paper of the CCP, which published two articles on Buddhist Youth last week.
“This may just be a way for young people to explore their position in society,” the daily said, acknowledging that the identity was a reaction to “life’s quick rhythms.”
The assessment is positive compared to the government’s reaction to “sang” culture, another Chinese millennial attitude that has cropped up in recent years.
In contrast to Buddhist Youths, who pledge to maintain a neutral outlook, the “sang” lifestyle is characterized by unrelenting, sardonic despondency – an approach the People’s Daily called “pessimistic and hopeless.”
Buddhist Youth are also a contrast to Xi’s call for millennials to embrace the “China Dream.”
Xi has encouraged young people to work harder and dream big, saying in 2013 that “A nation will be prosperous if its young generation is ambitious and reliable.”
Buddhist Youth, however, prefer chilling out to dreaming big.
“Life is quite tiring,” 23-year-old Guo Jia told AFP. Guo believes being a Buddhist Youth means “accepting the things you cannot change and going with the flow.”
In a social media post that went viral earlier this month, Buddhist Youth were said to be content with eating the same food every day and being devoid of strong feelings about virtually everything.
Buddhist Youth want nothing because they expect nothing, accepting in stride good fortune or adversity.
“I am just average in everything I do,” Wang Zhaoyue, a 24-year-old master’s graduate, told AFP.
Wang works for an architectural urban planning firm in Beijing, and thinks she could achieve more if it were not for her Buddhist Youth philosophies.
“I always did okay in school, but never great. If I underperformed on an exam, I would just tell myself it was because I didn’t care enough to give more than half my effort, which was fine in itself,” she said.
“I can’t really relate when my friends tell me about their goals and ambitions. As for me, I don’t have any dreams.”
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