Authoritarianism in China: City Emblems and Time Zone Politics

Central Hong Kong on Jan. 4, 2022 Sung Pi-lung/The Epoch Times

Commentary

“Whole-process democracy,” a term derived by the Chinese Communist Party to promote its self-acclaimed “well-deserved democracy,” contrasts sharply against reality. Hong Kong, an exception in China that used to enjoy limited democracy, met its fate and had its last election return a legislative council in which the pro-establishment bloc swept nearly all seats. This ex-British colony joined China’s “whole-process authoritarianism.”

Some may say that the communists’ one-party rule was similarly found during the Kuomintang era before 1949, and the former may not be worse off than the latter. This is not true. At least the KMT’s Three People’s Principles had an elaborate design of constitutional rule, contrasting the communists’ attempts to exert dictatorship in all aspects of life.

An example comes from their perseverance in suppressing identities other than Chinese.

Before 1949, quite some cities in China had their own emblems. My favorite is that of Dalian (literally “big combination,” also known as Port Arthur) in Manchuria during the Japanese rule—a trefoil formed by combining’ three stylized Chinese characters for big. After the founding of the PRC, the city/provincial emblem, a symbol of regionalism deemed to violate the principle of “democratic centralism,” was categorically banned.

The advent of the reform and opening up after the Cultural Revolution made the Chinese think otherwise, as they felt embarrassed being presented emblems by foreign cities when they formed friendship cities. Hence came a wave of designing city emblems in China, with Taiyuan being the first, featuring its landmark twin pagodas, a red torch representing its energy and chemical industry, and a black field symbolizing its rich coal resources.

However, in the eyes of the communist party, this was a sign of surging local identities, constituting ‘endangerment of national security,“ and in November 1997, it finally ordered party committees and governments at all levels that only the national flag and emblem be used, and local flags and emblems were to be prohibited so to avoid all ’possible negative effects.”

In other words, Hong Kong and Macau are the only local Chinese governments that enjoy the privilege of lawfully using their own flags and emblems. After the passing of the national security law, Hongkongers may suspect that this is one of the few benefits left for ‘one country, two systems.’

With this in mind, it will not be difficult to understand the following phenomenon: the Chinese territory covers five time zones, but only one time—the Beijing time—is used for the whole country. Those who have lived in countries like the United States, Canada, and Australia know that it needs more than one time zone for countries spreading over wide longitudes so that people can live in a normal day and night cycle. This commonsense approach was followed during the Republican period that was resolved in 1912, the very year the Republic was founded, to have five time zones, a national policy until the communist takeover in 1949.

The communists decided to adopt a single time zone policy and use the Beijing time for this vast country to symbolize national unity. As a result, western provinces such as Tibet and Xinjiang, three time zones away from Beijing, are still in the small hours when the sun rises in Beijing. It is not rare to have dinner served at midnight and exams held at night.

Unofficially, Uyghurs adopted the Urumqi time (two hours slower than Beijing time) in Xinjiang, whereas Han Chinese there mostly insist on using Beijing time, causing frequent confusion. Blatantly promoting national unity at the cost of ignoring the livelihood of the ‘brother nationalities” adds momentum to independence movements there.

Definitely, China is not the only player in time zone politics. To distance themselves from China, some Taiwanese suggested giving up Beijing time and following the clock of Japan and Korea, that is, one hour faster. The debate ended with no avail, but the experience of Taiwan and Xinjiang is important in that Beijing time, once embraced by the red guards as a symbol of Chairman Mao’s unitary command of the country, may be perceived as a sign of political suppression. Breaking Beijing time symbolizes political liberation.