The Chinese Colonisation of Shanghai 《中國對上海的殖民統治》英文版
By Shanghai Democratic Party
Nguyuit (Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou and nearby cities), has been imposed on a brutal internal-colonialism, by the Empire of the Ming (1368–1644), along with the Manchurian Empire of the Qing (1644-1912), the Republic of China (1912 to present) and the current political regime controlled by the People’s Republic of China (1949 to present) . The relationship between Shanghai and all the Chinese regimes listed above is contended to be the colonised and the colonisers.
Internal colonialism is defined as the central government’s subjugation by physical and psychological force, which leads to structural political and economic inequalities between regions within a nation state (McMichael, 2012). The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has absorbed this ideology and utilised it as a mechanism to exploit the resources of the internally colonised regions (i.e. south eastern provinces: Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Fujian and Guangdong) for the benefits of the colonisers (e.g. Beijing-based senior CCP officials) who are on the top of the hierarchy with excessive power in hands and are widely known as ‘the red nobility’. The CCP’s central government has been using various approaches to manipulate economic policies to enslave and exploit the colonised regions in order to accomplish its economic plunder. Western Colonialism versus Chinese Colonialism:
Shanghai had been colonialized by the Ming Dynasty, the Manchurian Qing Dynasty, the British Empire, France, the United States of America, Japan and the CCP. However, through the intercourses with the Western civilisation, Shanghai was actually freed from the Manchurian government’s brutal dictatorship and barbarous internal colonialism and thus embraced greater freedom. During the French concession era (1849 to 1943), Shanghainese citizens acquired advanced knowledge, values, beliefs and social norms. More importantly, their freedom of speech and expression was guaranteed.
Shanghai’s Prosperity during the French Concession Era (1854-1943): Shanghai used to be a brilliant place where people could enjoy the freedom of speech, the freedom of press, the freedom of religion, the freedom of trade and commerce, as well as the freedom of communication with the world. Under the control of the Shanghai Municipal Council (1854 to 1943), a great number of well-known and highly-admired authors and socialists such as Lu Hsün, Eileen Chang, Ch'ien Chung-shu and Fu Lei were given the freedom of speech and hence were able to spread their values and notions. Back to that time, Shanghai also embraced a great level of academic freedom. Those years witnessed the establishment and development of many top universities in Shanghai such as St. John's University, National Chiao Tung University, Tongji University, University of Shanghai, Fudan University, The Great China University and Kwang Hua University which enjoyed good academic reputation across Asia and even the globe. The open-minded Shanghai welcomed millions of migrants including people from neighbouring cities, foreigners from the west and Jewish refugees. The combination and interaction of these different cultures laid the solid foundation for our unique Shanghainese culture which incorporates the locally-derived classic and elegant Nguyuitnese culture and the advanced and dynamic culture brought by the Westerners.
Shanghai’s Meltdown (post 1949):
Unfortunately, Shanghai has been forced to stay under the CCP’s brutal and dictatorial colonialism and has been detrimentally affected by the CCP’s Closed Door Policy. Today’s Shanghai, has become a frustratingly mediocre city suffering from a wide range of social issues such as human rights violations, undemocratic political systems, social media censorship (foreign websites banned such as Facebook and Twitter), restrictions on publications, suppression of religions and the central government’s interference on trade and commerce, which collectively have made the distance from Shanghai to the rest of the world as far as the distance between Chinese netizens and their access to Facebook and Twitter. Shanghai has been detrimentally persecuted in terms of economy, political system, culture, social norms and legislation since the CCP illegally usurped the political authority and imposed communism and internal-colonialism on Shanghai in 1949.
Shanghainese Suffering China’s Exploitation and Dictatorship:
1. Shanghainese citizens stripped of autonomous rights
- Shanghainese citizens are stripped of the rights to vote, which indicates that the ‘Shanghainese government’ cannot represent Shanghainese people. The colonisers from China (the senior CCP officials in Zhongnanhai, Beijing) appoint and send an excessive amount of non-Shanghainese officials to Shanghai and form a so-called ‘Shanghainese government’ which fails to protect Shanghainese citizens’ basic rights. For instance, only 16 out of the total 64 officials who represented Shanghai to attend the 11th National People’s Congress held in 2008 were born in Shanghai.
2. The plunder of fortunes
- Short after the CCP conquered Shanghai, they initiated the socialist transformation movement to loot assets and fortunes from Shanghainese industrialists and businessmen. Subsequently, through the implementation of the national "a board of chess" policy to support the Communist China’s economy, Shanghai paid 7/8 of its annual taxation revenue to the central Government as a tribute.
3. The extinction of Shanghainese culture and language
- Prior to the establishment of the PRC, Shanghainese is the lingua franca used in all walks of life. However, for the sake of the reinforcement and stabilisation of the CCP’s regime and dictatorship, the CCP has been devoting to eliminate cultural diversity and especially Shanghainese culture and language which are distinctive from the Northern culture and Mandarin spoken by the Northern people. Consequently, the CCP has enforced the ‘pro-Mandarin’ policy and banned Shanghainese people from using Shanghainese language. More ridiculously, the central government has been trying to educate people to perceive that speaking local Shanghainese language is a vulgar habit by promoting this idea in schools and on TV and other media. Hong Kong and European countries can well preserve their indigenous cultures and languages and at the meanwhile strive to develop their economies and improve living standards. The ‘pro-Mandarin’ policy is unreasonable and its essence is a tool manipulated by the CCP to eliminate diversity and oppress indigenousness in order to reinforce its power.
4. The rapid decrease of population
- The Chinese government’s ‘one-child family’ policy came into effect in 1979. This inhumane policy has been strictly enforced in Shanghai. It made Shanghai’s fertility rate hit the trough and drop dramatically to 0.7, which means that Shanghai’s population will decrease by 1/3 each generation. Since the 1980’s, Shanghai’s fertility rate has been constantly declining. In 2015, the number of new-borns who were born in Shanghai but whose parents are non-Shanghainese exceeded the number of new-borns whose parents have Shanghainese citizenship. More incredibly, the CCP government demanded Shanghainese citizens to rigorously comply with the ‘one-child family’ policy to offer more space and opportunity to non-Shanghainese people.
5. The despoilment of Shanghainese elites
- Since Shanghai was occupied by the CCP in 1949, a vast amount of well-educated Shanghainese elites were forced to move to the inland due to the so-called ‘support the inland’ movement. They confronted brutal physical persecution and ruthless personal abuse and insult. They were banned from returning to Shanghai and if they tried to flee but failed, what was there waiting for them was merciless assaults by the guards.
6. The slander of Shanghai’s reputation
- Post 1949, Shanghai lost its decent reputation as an international metropolis during the ROC era (1912 to 1949). Despite the fact that Shanghai paid incredibly huge amount of taxation revenue to the CCP’s central government, Shanghainese people have been the victim of CCP’s state-controlled media’s exaggerative and distorted slander. Like how Hong Kong people and the ‘occupy central’ movement as well as Taiwanese citizens, government and their democratic politics have been defamed by the CCP’s state-owned media, they also intentionally denigrate Shanghainese people and mislead Chinese people to trigger hatred towards Shanghainese so as to undermine Shanghai’s reputation and oppress Shanghai’s indigenousness.
So, facing such a seemingly strong colonial regime, how can we strive to make a change? Our fellow HongKongners who have been fighting against the CCP’s internal-colonialism are already wary of the fact that their basic human rights are likely to be stripped of by the CCP. Hence, they gather together and endeavour to fight against this brutal regime through internet and social media propaganda, demonstrations and even ‘Civil Disobedience’ movement to guarantee their rights to vote. The civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King once said ‘Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.’ The hope relies on the people, the change begins from the struggle. It is our Shanghainese people’s duty to solidarize and protect our motherland, to restore our violated rights and interests that we should be entitled to, to defend our autonomous rights and to establish a Shanghainese government which genuinely stands for Shanghainese people.
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