On this episode of China Uncensored,
learn how to be politically correct from the OG—
China!
Welcome back to China Uncensored,
I’m Chris Chappell.
You’ve probably heard of the term “politically correct.”
It became popular starting in the 1970s.
Like bell bottoms.
And mullets.
Political correctness originally meant saying things
that conformed to a specific political ideology.
But fashion trends evolve.
And nowadays in the West,
most people think of political correctness
as changing the way you say things,
to avoid offending people.
Like instead of saying “handicapped,”
saying “differently abled.”
Or instead of calling someone a “numbskull”,
calling them a
“person who lacks nerve endings on his head.”
But you may not know that political correctness,
in its original form,
has actually been part of Chinese territory
since ancient times.
By which I mean the 1950s.
And when the political ideology
you have to be correct about is communism,
it can be deadly.
Since the early days of Chairman Mao,
using the wrong words could get you punished,
or even killed.
For example,
in the 1960s during China’s Cultural Revolution,
scientists couldn’t do research on sunspots,
or even say “sunspots”.
Mao Zedong was China’s Red Sun,
so if your research suggested that the sun
has spots of darkness,
you were also implying that Mao did, too.
Extreme political correctness in China
is still important today.
Even something like calling the Diaoyu Islands
by their Japanese name—the Senkaku Islands—
is enough to get you branded as being anti-China.
Because how dare you use a Japanese word
to describe some uninhabited islands
that are definitely, 100%
part of China?!
And these politically correct protests
prove there’s there’s no controversy whatsoever.
So when it comes to territorial disputes,
I’m going to back off here and say political correctness
historically belongs to the Chinese...
Communist Party.
And lately, Chinese leader Xi Jinping
has been talking a lot about it.
In recent months, political correctness
has been, “appearing repeatedly
in President Xi Jinping’s speeches
and party documents.”
And what happens to those foolish foreigners
who are politically incorrect?
Well, this past week has seen a string of
Western companies accidentally stepping over
the Party line.
The first victim was the Marriott International hotel chain.
They sent out this survey to members
of their customer-loyalty program.
It asks “Which country are you currently living in?”
and proceeds to list not-countries,
Like Hong Kong;
And Taiwan;
And Tibet.
Marriott may have thought it was just collecting data.
But it was actually angering the beast.
This was China’s official reaction.
Shanghai police “opened an investigation
into the company for violating
cybersecurity and advertising laws
and questioned Marriott executives.
Angry Chinese called for a boycott of the hotel chain.”
And even worse, Marriott’s official Twitter account
“liked” a tweet from a group
called Friends of Tibet.
Don’t worry, that guy got fired.
After a huge amount of backlash,
Marriott’s Chinese website and mobile phone app
were temporarily shut down by the authorities.
Now, Marriott has been desperately trying to apologize.
They’ve issued “a series of apologies
and a bizarre clarification that it
does not support ‘separatism.’”
No, I totally get it.
Like if I had a survey and asked you
which country you’re from,
and I listed Texas as an answer—
you might wonder if I was making
some kind of statement.
Anyway, Marriott got nervous,
because it sees China as its biggest market.
Not just for hotels in China,
but also as a destination
for the growing number of Chinese tourists abroad.
Marriott is far from alone
in making politically incorrect statements
about Taiwan.
In fact in the same week,
“Chinese regulators rebuked fashion brand Zara,
Delta Air Lines,
and medical device maker Medtronic
for calling Taiwan a country on their websites.”
They have also profusely apologized.
The problem is,
this is a very easy mistake to make.
All it takes is a drop down menu that says “countries”
to put a Western company in politically hot water.
Like when you go to the British Airways website,
it has a pop-up asking you to select your country.
And you can choose Taiwan.
Or Macau.
Or Hong Kong.
Confusing?
Don’t worry,
British Airways fixed it last week.
Now it just says “From.”
So far, 24 airlines have gotten in trouble
for their drop-down menus.
Clearly, a serious crime.
But it’s more than just hotels and airlines
that have to worry.
Some celebrities have been
banned from entering China
for not being politically correct.
Like that time Katy Perry
held a concert in Taiwan,
where she wore the Taiwan flag
on top of a sunflower dress.
Little did she know:
Chinese provinces don’t have flags!
Her little mistake got her banned from China.
Which shows you just how ridiculous this whole thing is.
If any country is going to ban Katy Perry,
it should be Egypt.
Also Japan.
And frankly any country that has a beach.
Katy Perry did try to dance her way
out of the China ban
by apologizing profusely.
She sent this letter to authorities
promising not to “do or say anything religious or political,”
or “participate in any activities
that jeopardize China’s unity and integrity.”
The CCP still denied her entry.
Even American universities have been attacked
for not being politically correct.
Like how UC San Diego
wanted to host the Dalai Lama.
And the CCP responded by withdrawing state funding
for Chinese students wanting to go there to study.
And Maroon 5 may have had
their China concert canceled
because of a tweet wishing the Dalai Lama
a happy birthday.
And this video from Hong Kong’s Apple Daily
says that recently,
Customs officials in mainland China
have been destroying food imports
labeled as coming from Taiwan, China.
That term used to be politically correct.
But now it’s not politically correct enough.
Customs officials want them to say
“Taiwan District, China.”
But some companies are politically smart.
They try to project to the Chinese regime
just how politically correct they can be.
Like Apple.
In December,
as Chinese Internet censorship was
reaching terrifying new heights,
Apple CEO Tim Cook made a trip to China
and praised their open internet.
Yeah, he really said that.
Don’t believe me?
Google it...
just don’t try to Google it
from inside China.
So what do you think about
political correctness in China?
Leave your comments below,
or on our website.
Thanks for watching this episode of China Uncensored.
Once again, I’m your host Chris Chappell.
See you next time.
Hey, you know what’s always politically correct?
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