So the recent Mulan boycott is because the lead actress posted pro-HKPD comments on Weibo, therefore supporting the fascist police brutality and suppression of democracy movements in Hong Kong. I think this is a good thing: I think Mulan should be boycotted bc of many reasons 1/?

this being the major one. I think that it's a great platform for HK activists to get HK's situation back into the global spotlight again. I think that supporting the HKPD is fascist and anti-democracy. (2/?)

I also wasn't surprised about Liu Yifei's Weibo post at all, nor do I particularly care about them. Liu Yifei's Weibo post stating "I also support the Hong Kong police, you can beat me up now" is honestly pretty mild compared to a lot of the rhetoric that I've heard (3/?)

Blue (pro-China, pro-police, anti-protest) HKers spout, let alone some of the other vitriol on Weibo. Frankly, the address of "you can beat me up now" to an audience that presumably contains very few HKers on WEIBO strikes me as pretty performative, since she's not actually (4/?)

talking to any of the people who would presumably "beat [her] up". More importantly, the post itself says nothing about her actual thoughts or beliefs or literally anything- it only speaks to the intense formal and informal censorship of Chinese thought and expression. (5/?)

On Weibo, censorship and policing is intense, not just from the state or the website, but the users themselves. An anti-government post may not just be wiped off the site by censors, but bombarded with hate comments and threats about what unpatriotic scum they are. (6/?)

The latter shouldn't be surprising- this sort of harassment happens all the time on Twitter as well. But in an environment where social media is constantly monitored, where it's illegal to post "information that jeopardizes national security, public safety, and social order"(7/?)

mobs of netizens decrying your anti-patriotism obviously places a huge target on your back, to say nothing of the potential consequences if site and government authorities take the claims seriously. (8/?)

This is exacerbated by the fact that in some cases, when discussing sensitive and wide-spread topics such as Hong Kong's protests, the absence of pro-China pro-government expression can be interpreted as an anti-government stance. Under these circumstances, it's easy to (9/?)

see why Liu Yifei posted what she did, and why it essentially says nothing about her aside from the fact that she doesn't want to destroy her career, or worse. (10/?)

This isn't to say that Weibo has not and cannot be a place of genuine discussion and exchange of opinion. But from the Cyberspace Administration's regular investigations to the arrest and consequent "confessions" of government-critical internet personalities (11/?)

it's clear that Weibo cannot be the platform for free speech and thought that China so sorely needs. 

What I need overseas boycotters and bystanders to understand is that the Mulan boycott isn't just the matter of one celebrity's "bad opinion". (12/?)

This isn't something that would have been solved by removing her by the movie and hiring another actress. When I saw Liu Yifei's post, I thought, "well of course she did, because that's what any Chinese celebrity who enjoys life and living and wants to be able to step foot (13/?)

on the mainland again would do". It's facetious to act like many other not only Chinese but Hong Kong and Taiwanese celebs, from Jackie Chan to Jackson Wang, or even Donny Yen who is literally in the same Mulan film, haven't engaged in the same CCP bootlicking to show their(14/?)

"good Chinese cards" and preserve their lives and livelihoods.  

Some of these celebrities may believe in what they say, in the CCP's supremacy and that the HKPD's brutality isn't out of line. I don't doubt it. But whether they do or don't is nearly irrelevant in the (15/?)

face of the overwhelming government threat and censorship if they don’t. That's what makes every person, celebrity or not, who does speak out, who does protest, who does risk everything in the face of overwhelming online and offline suppression, so brave and so endangered. (16/?)

And while I see so much frustration and anger and anguish from my Hong Kong siblings, I also can't bring myself to blame those in the Mainland who have been long suffering under the CCP's yoke of oppression for being so tired and afraid and helpless as well. (17/?)

Liu Yifei's Weibo posts and the Mulan boycott are more than just a display of fascist beliefs, they're the late-stage symptom of an extensive and life-threatening policy of oppression, censorship, and thought-policing that attempts to stamp out any voice that does not toe (18/?)

the party line. This isn't about one movie, one celebrity, one weibo post. It's about the Chinese Communist Party, that's it. And while this boycott is a great publicity statement, the CCP sure as hell not gonna go down just because one movie's box office numbers do, and (19/?)

there's lots more fighting that needs to be done ahead.

That's what I need everyone looking at the Mulan boycotts to remember. (END)