To: SirWalterRalegh who wrote (72573 ) 11/16/2017 11:09:10 AM From: FJB Respond to The Not-So-Magic Kingdom MARTHA BAYLES Disney is hardly alone in groveling before the gates of the Middle Kingdom. $5.5 billion, 943-acre Shanghai Disneyland Park and Resort as a “happy place . . . created for everyone,” a world “of fantasy, romance and adventure,” a land of “magical dreams,” and “a source of joy, inspiration, and memories for generations to come.”Of the park’s 11,000 full-time employees, 300 are active members of the Communist Party. They adorn their work sites with hammer-and-sickle insignia and spend several hours a week attending lectures and study sessions in the park’s “party activity center.” Not only that, but in the wake of the 19th Party Congress, these employees are now under added pressure to bring their colleagues into line with “Xi Jinping Thought.” Walt Disney Company, which for almost a century has symbolized the United States and its ideals, is kowtowing to the world’s most powerful autocrat. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg donned a jacket and tie to appear before Xi—and applauded a speech in which Xi stated that the purpose of education was to “train the builders and successors of socialism with Chinese characteristics, not bystanders and opponents.” Clapping along was Apple CEO Tim Cook, apparently in the same state of shock as other Silicon Valley wizards who, having been warmly welcomed to the PRC just a few years ago, are now being shown the exit. Because by paying close attention (a.k.a. intellectual property rights theft), the Chinese have developed their own sophisticated digital technology, which the security services are now deploying to censor, propagandize, and surveil all those bystanders and opponents not in lockstep with what Xi calls “the glorious tradition of listening to the party’s words and following the party’s path.” different story is playing out between China and the magicians of Hollywood. Dazzled by visions of vast new audiences flocking to shiny new theaters across China, the six major media conglomerates—National Amusements, Disney, Time Warner, Comcast, News Corp, Sony—have all gone through the same five-step process. the-american-interest.com
