Left’s blind spot on full display as dictator Xi shows off his toys

A high-level look at the crimes of the Chinese Communist Party would start with Beijing’s repression if not genocide of the Uyghur people in Xinjiang and finish off with the crushing of democracy in the once vibrant city of Hong Kong.

A high-level look at the crimes of the Chinese Communist Party would start with Beijing’s repression if not genocide of the Uyghur people in Xinjiang and abuse of the people of Tibet and perhaps finish off with the crushing of democracy in the once vibrant city of Hong Kong.

Along the way there would be credible accusations of forced labour (particularly from political prisoners), organ harvesting, and using an elaborate totalitarian censorship and surveillance regime to turn all of mainland China into an open air prison.

Which is why it is so telling that Xi Jinping, China’s president (but, let’s use the word, dictator), has not become more of a hate figure on the left.

After all, barely a week has gone by for nearly the past two years without a demonstration against Israel and its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, whom the left believes with all their heart is committing genocide in Gaza.

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, (front row L-R) Indonesia's President Prabowo Subianto, Russia's President Vladimir Putin, China's President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un pose for a photograph before a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan and the end of World War II. Picture: Sergey Bobylev / POOL / AFP

Say what you will about Israel’s conduct and lack of endgame in Gaza, the nation remains a vibrant Western-style parliamentary democracy.

China? Not so much.

Which perhaps explains the blind spot.

taken on June 17, 2019 shows Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong (R) speaking to the media after leaving Lai Chi Kok Correctional Institute in Hong Kong. Picture: ISAAC LAWRENCE / AFP

To take one example, the odds that former NSW premier Bob Carr might travel to Israel one day to attend the Jewish state’s independence day parade are about as long as my plus-sized cocker spaniel ever one day winning the Million Dollar Chase.

Yet Carr, a fierce critic of Israel, had no qualms about going to Beijing for Xi Jinping’s blustering military parade in celebration of China’s victory over imperial Japan in World War II.

Carr, to his credit, declined a place of honour on the reviewing stand – unlike his Victorian counterpart Dan Andrews – but the point remains.

Members of the Chinese military hold flags during a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan and the end of World War II. Picture: Greg Baker / AFP

Given the lens through which the left views politics, none of this surprising.

For that side of the political spectrum, everything is about power politics, oppressors and oppressed, and at the end of the day, what is more destabilizing to the foundations of the West.

China stands opposed to the Western, US-dominated order, and so gets a pass for its long laundry list of crimes against its own people.

Meanwhile, while Wednesday’s parade may be a grand display of what can only be called hypersonic nationalism, it has all been backed up by some pretty insane historical revisionism from Xi, who said the other day that the “principal victors” of World War II were Russia and China.

This undated handout image released by The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation on May 24, 2022, shows detainees guarded by police as they stand in line apparently reciting or singing at the Tekes County Detention Centre in the Xinjiang Region of western China.

If so Harry Truman, Douglas Macarthur, Winston Churchill and John Curtin might all like a word.

The modern Chinese communist state taking credit for this wasn’t even consolidated until 1949, four years after the end of hostilities, is also bizarre and ahistorical.

But it shows us where we are, and what the West is up against as China aims to be the dominant global power by 2049, 100 years after communist forces won out in their civil war.

Understanding this is fine, and good even.

Giving it a pass, as so much of the left does as they obsess over Israel instead, is another matter entirely.