Hong Kong leader says public libraries must ensure books don't violate laws

"These books are accessible by people in private book shops. If they want to buy, they can buy,"

Probably not for long though. They will be the next to be targetted and booksellers will be dragged off to jail for subversion. Totalitarianism cannot tolerate the truth because it's composed of lies.

Hong Kong as we knew it has ceased to exist.

Real shame.

Maybe this is where Rock-star Ronnie learned "the courage to be free"?

Banning books does seem like his thing.

And it is not off-topic. This is chapter one page one (assuming one can even get access to the book) to the authoritarian's play book. Cut off access to the free flow of information so that only the regime's narrative is heard.

Here we see it in HK and until a few years ago assumed it could never happen in a democracy. Well, we have it here and we have it in the "great" state of Florida.

meanwhile, in 'the west'.... re-writing history and censoring kids' books and others to remove 'offensive' material.....

At least we restrict that barbaric behavior to school libraries. For China it is all libraries.

"These books are accessible by people in private book shops. If they want to buy, they can buy,"

Are these the same book shops whose owners are being shuttled off to the mainland?

No ideology as repulsive and anti-human as communism, simply unbeatable.

Chinese authorities, however, say the security law has brought stability after mass pro-democracy protests in 2019.

I don't think it's about stability. It's more about fear and who is gonna dob in on you for saying the wrong thing.

I loved Hong Kong. It seems the good old days of Hong Kong are gone!!

Will be there for 3 days next month for business, it's been 3 years after COVID emerged.

I'm curious to see physically how much the atmosphere has changed. Hong Kongers are well-known for their directness when they speak, which is the opposite of the gentle-mannered Japanese.

I wonder if my Hong Kong colleagues will open up after a few drinks.

Anyone who loves to bang on about how dreadful the British Empire was should look at all those pictures of Hong Kongers bravely flying the Union Jack in defiance of their commie masters.

Always love to visit Hong Kong but it’s changing for the worse

Maybe you should have a public book burning

Throughout the sorry history of humanity autocrats of every stripe have always been afraid of the printed word that does not conform to the transparent gaslighting they call "reality" and the lies they brazenly call "truth". Orwell had their number in "1984", but it's pathetic how the majority of mankind still, even in 2023, cannot find a way to put an end to the brutal antics of these vampiric "boss monkeys" that live in self-entitled luxury on the backs of toiling millions. Time for another revolution in China (and elsewhere): people have nothing to lose but their mind-forged manacles.

With the obsessive control the CCP has over the information that damage their image books will disappear from bookstores as well in no time flat. Getting away with this kind of censorship will only make them do it more.

They turned a thriving community into one oppressed and living in fear. It’s terribly sad isn’t it.

No ideology as repulsive and anti-human as communism, simply unbeatable.

I think communism isn't necessarily bad, for very small groups. Families do it all the time. It is just when used in larger organizations, say over 50 people, that it festers and becomes dangerous. The larger the number of people involved, the more evil it becomes. After all, we all take care of our parents when they get older and need that help. That's a form a communism.

Restricting access to books isn't something for a state to decide. I don't mind if parents want to restrict access to their children, but all books should be available to any adult. The state shouldn't get in the middle, regardless of the subject ... even forbidden subjects. Well, except I'd restrict access to religious books - those have cause so much harm throughout the world - they need to be restricted.

Dictatorships censor. It is a defining characteristic. The more books , websites or apps your government bans, the more of a dictatorship it is.

You can do one of three things when the dictators take over. Submit, flee, or pretend to submit whilst undermining their authority on the sly. Protest and other public forms of martyrdom are an idiotic waste of time - mostly your own, rotting in a cell. If you want to get rid of those in charge, progressively or in one go, do it quietly, whilst avoiding capture. Or just do what the Chinese do, and find a way to bend the rules whenever necessary.

You want to have a go? There are an unlimited number of ways to damage a dictatorship. Pick whichever you feel you can get away with.

Digitise these books and circulate them on memory cards. But watch out for state spyware that may be built into firmware, operating systems, virus checkers and apps, examining your files. Ostensibly to look for dodgy images or protect you from viruses. It's easy to get it to search for any text string in any file on your system. ISPs also record your online activity. Keep stuff that your government bans on a system that remains offline and circulate it encrypted or on physical media. And remember that when anonymity is banned from social media - a prime target for Western governments as well as the norm for China and Chinese occupied territories - your past posts will all be linked to you.

Protest and other public forms of martyrdom are an idiotic waste of time - mostly your own, rotting in a cell.

I wouldn't call it idiotic. If you are a high profile figure, the fact that you refuse to run away or submit can be a powerful motivator for the people not currently in jail. As for quietly undermining the authority, I'm not sure that works as well as we would like. The Chinese have been reduced to graffiting bathrooms because everywhere else has a camera. Not saying it isn't worth doing as well, but results may be very limited when the people have been completely brainwashed. Probably the best thing you can do is keep yourself informed so that when you do take some action, you can protect yourself and simultaneously penetrate the brainwashing as effectively as possible.

Hong Kong is becoming an authoritarian, oppressive dystopia like Florida.

What libraries need to do is to ensure that there's no breach of any laws in Hong Kong

What governments everywhere, including Florida, need to do is leave libraries alone.

I am astonished at the "down-votes" on this topic. Who can support totalitarian censorship of well-known historical events? Tiananmen ( June 4, 1989) was the intentional murder and wounding of thousands.

Florida isn't a dictatorship. People are free to have any ideals they like and to discuss them in public and protest when the current leaders disagree or agree.

Public libraries have never been a free-for-all place anywhere today or throughout history. They get public/govt money to be run, so compromises are part of the game. With that said, books which are already purchased and are not "worn out" through normal use, should remain in any library. If the library staff doesn't want to buy replacements and the number of readers for those books have dropped, I can't say that a library should be forced to buy replacements.

Libraries should always have local newspapers and periodicals of general events available. If not on paper, microfiche/microfilm, then in computer scans. The history of the city/region is important to never remove nor hide.

Dictatorships censor. It is a defining characteristic. The more books , websites or apps your government bans, the more of a dictatorship it is.

Websites? Oh, you mean limiting access to other websites.

I run a number of websites and have to say that I am 100% a dictator towards comments posted on my sites. In general, I don't need to censor anything, but every once in a while, some will post something truly nasty which will be moderated. I don't moderate anything like they do here, but it is THEIR website and they get to set the tone for the content presented.

If a govt were to block this website, I'd consider that censorship. We all have a different level of what we are willing to allow. At my $day_job, we block most social networks, most cloud storage, most adult-centric websites at the network level. Employees are free to use their cellular data to connect to those things, but not our network. I do the same in my household.

Some of my websites have been blocked in unexpected countries. I found this odd when traveling to find websites that have nothing to do with anything in those countries, but a website was blocked by the national, democratically elected, govt. I was able to easily get around those blocks and didn't have any fear that I'd be arrested in doing it. Two democratic Asian countries had blocks that I experienced. One in the middle east did as well. None in the Americas or Europe were blocking.

Many country's have some censorship, usually to protect children and specific minorities, but some have specific censorship laws of certain topics. France has mandated censorship due to WW2/Nazis. Germany has censorship over holocaust denial. Neither have political censorship.